World War Z is, hands down, the best movie for the first half of 2013. For the longest time, the film was being compared to a movie like Waterworld, which had grand ideas but was hampered by extensive reshoots, long delays, and a ballooning budget. Reports have swirled that the movie cost over $170 million to make. If the movie had not been good, it would have been considered a colossal failure by all accounts. But with the film, at last count, grossing over $535 million worldwide, Paramount Pictures is getting the last laugh. I am disappointed that this movie only earned a 67% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I recently watched Aliens, a great movie. But the fact that Aliens gets a 98% positive rating and World War Z gets only a 67% positive rating is a bit of a joke.
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Category Archives: Action
Elysium (2013)
The best summer movie of 2013? I’m divided between World War Z and Elysium. Let me preface this by saying I have seen fewer movies in the theater this summer than in any summer in recent memory, but that was by choice, not the options for movies. I’ve been concentrating on other writing avenues and have taken a break from my blog. I’ve seen a few movies this summer that I probably will not review, but I’m committed to reviewing movies that will end up in my end-of-year top 10. Even with all the amazing movies this fall, I don’t see a scenario where Elysium or World War Z finish outside the top 10. I’ll venture to say they will finish in the top five.
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Iron Man 3 (2013)
So continues other comic book franchise on the big screen. The norm these days is if a movie can make $150 million domestically, sequel after sequel will continue to be made. I understand that. It makes sense. However, it doesn’t mean I have to continue supporting the franchise even if I consider the first movie in the series awesome. I usually give the series the benefit of the doubt if I like the first one. While I loved Iron Man, Iron Man 2 could have been better. There wasn’t the same kind of wow factor. It was still an ok superhero movie, but I never felt like what I watched was anything special. Such is the case with Iron Man 3. It is a very entertaining movie, but as will be the case with the almost certain Iron Man 4, Iron Man 5, etc., that unique originality feature that comes with every first movie in a series will be eliminated. So while I appreciate that attempts to make Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, etc., entertaining movies, I won’t have much feeling other than been there/done that. I expect I will like each new film in the series a little less than the preview. That has certainly been the case thus far.
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21 Jump Street (2012)
The odds that a movie comedy remake of a television drama that, while critically acclaimed, ran for just five full seasons could be a blockbuster movie you think would be rare. I would think the same thing. And when I first saw the preview of Chris Miller’s (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Shrek the Third) 21 Jump Street, my first thought was why. After finishing the preview, I thought this would be a disaster. I was wrong. While I hadn’t heard a single person say this movie was bad, it still sat next to my DVD player for over two weeks after its Netflix envelope arrived. Channing Tatum (Stop Loss, Public Enemies) and Jonah Hill (Moneyball, Superbad) are decent actors. I’m certainly not going to go out of my way to watch a movie because one of these two is the star of it. As a duo, I thought they wouldn’t work. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this movie.The Other Guys (2010)
It’s not going to get on many Top 10 lists (especially when released in 2010, the best year for movie releases in my lifetime), but The Other Guys is fun. One of my only complaints about the great year for movies that was 2010 was that it lacked a great horror film and a great comedy. Though I have not seen it, I thought Get Him To The Greek might be the comedy movie I was looking for. While that is a movie I will still watch, it no longer has the potential to be the top comedy of 2010. I believe that ranking belongs to The Other Guys.
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