If one trailer in 2013 left you thinking, “That movie could either be good or terrible,” it was the trailer of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This movie stars Ben Stiller, more or less, outside of his usual comedy genre. This movie is certainly not There’s Something About Mary or Meet the Parents. This isn’t the equivalent of Ed Helms in Jeff Who Lives at Home, Jim Carey in The Truman Show, or Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go. Those movies, each starring a comedic actor outside of their comfort zone, were more dramas, whereas this movie is both a drama and an adventure. In many regards, I appreciate the effort of Stiller venturing into something new. I think there is a place for a character of his ability in similar films. Unfortunately, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is not this movie. The movie is rated PG, and I’m not entirely sure why. This isn’t Night at the Museum. I don’t feel like the younger audiences had/would have much interest in this movie. And even if it did appeal to this group, I’m not sure Stiller is the star to lead it. Maybe, but I’m not convinced. With that said, I appreciate a movie that aims for the PG rating when it seems it could easily drift towards the PG-13 rating
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Category Archives: Year of Release
School Ties (1992)
In many ways, Robert Mandel’s (F/X, The Substitute) School Ties is a timeless movie. Released in 1992, this movie, set around a prep school in the 1950s, is just as entertaining and essential 20 years after it was release date as it would have been if it had been, had it been released 20 years before. It revolves around a school’s honor code which has been, is, and always will be a topic that strikes at our inner core. We all view an honor code differently. We always have and will always continue to. For some of us, it’s a governing body that is more important than any criminal law. For others, it is something we sweep under the rug and forget about as quickly as we are informed about it. For most of us, it is something in between and can cause our thoughts to vary about it, to some degree, depending on time, place, and circumstance.
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G.I.Joe: Retaliation (2013)
G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the sequel to 2009’s cash cow G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, is one of those “so bad that it’s good” movies. However, I’ll take it even a step forward. This movie was so awful that it was awesome. It won’t get reflected in my rating, and this is the type of movie that I usually would rip to shreds (aka White House Down, The Day After Tomorrow, and numerous others), but this was a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed while, at the same, chastising it throughout my entire viewing. Perhaps I was kinder to this film because of how much G.I. Joe was part of my childhood. At the same time, that should also be the reason I should be ripping it the most. If I’m willing to give another franchise a chance to ruin some of my childhood memories, then I would hope that the movie is a success at the box office and with critics so that the franchise will continue. Before getting into the specifics of what I liked and didn’t like about this movie, I will say first that they probably had hundreds, if not thousands, of potential scripts that they could have pulled for both this movie and The Rise of Cobra. I don’t remember The Rise of Cobra enough to comment on it right now, but the script for Retaliation was utterly insane. Continue reading G.I.Joe: Retaliation (2013)
Closer (2004)
What a depressing movie Mike Nichols’s Closer was. And this is coming from a guy who loves this genre. But I’m not a fan of movies where all of the lead characters intentionally hurt other people just so they can feel better about themselves, just like I’m not a fan of people hurting other people intentionally in real life. But this movie was all of that and a bag of chips. I THINK I knew that was going on. I remember seeing previews for this way back in 2004 and thinking that this was not a movie that I had any interest in seeing. It made me think of the Woody Harrelson/Demi Moore movie Indecent Proposal for some reason, a film that I saw in theater at age 17 that I had no business seeing as a 17-year-old. Talk about a couple of movies that destroy the sanctity of marriage. So while this movie held my interest, primarily because of the actors involved, it’s a movie I’ll remember for a while that I wish I could forget instantly.
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Sinister (2012)
Sinister is easily the creepiest movie of 2012, a year that did not feature much in terms of great horror movies. It was a movie that I thought I would easily pass on when I first saw the previews. I knew for sure I would not be seeing it in the theater. Ethan Hawke is a good actor who can sometimes be incredible (Training Day, Before Sunset) but also lay some serious duds (Brooklyn’s Finest, The Getaway). Seeing him in a horror film was a change for him and one I didn’t think he would be good at. I’ll be the first to say that I was wrong. He did well in this movie.