My wife & I were suppose to see The Hobbit this past weekend, but our plans didn't fall through. I saw many of these movies. I enjoyed most of them. Olympus Has Fallen was a bit too stupid. It was fun, but my friends & I just laughed at all the dumb stuff that happens.
The Wolf of Wall Street and 13 Films From 2013
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 On 01/02/2014 at 02:03 AM by Super Step See More From This User » |
So I rang in the New Year last night with a party, where I drank alcohol, threw darts in an area people were walking through after drinking that alcohol, and had good times with old friends. Today, I continued the festivities by going with my mom and dad to see The Wolf of Wall Street and eating a steak dinner with them and my brother afterwards. I have not slept since roughly 8PM, December 31st.
As luck would have it, I saw exactly 13 movies on some form of silver screen in 2013, so here's quick impressions of The Wolf of Wall Street, which came out on Christmas, but I saw today, and the 13 movies I saw in 2013, in order of when I saw them last year.
The Wolf of Wall Street reminded me quite a bit of Goodfellas, in that it follows a criminal narrating his own life, is based on a true story, is directed by Martin Scorsese, depicts excess in the extreme, and arguably endears you to characters you probably shouldn't like as much as you do at times.
The difference here is where Goodfellas was mostly dark and serious, this movie manages to be a hilarious celebration of debauchery, while also being a biting critique of it. Characters are endearing and charismatic, yet absolutely despicable, somehow simultaneously. It left me with conflicted emotions in the best way, and from a technical standpoint, all of the acting and directing is top-notch, as expected.
I will say that it felt a bit long. I thought it was ending multiple times, but it kept going. Plus, some physical comedy scenes just missed the mark on overstaying their welcome, with pretty much the same gag being played out over long periods of time. But, where other movies might feel like a chore after the second or third time you get faked out by a non-ending, this kept my attention throughout, and I was always interested in where it was going next. While we've all seen the Family Guy jokes that go on way too long, the physical humor seen here keeps its gags mostly fresh before cutting right about when I was getting tired of them.
If you have roughly three hours to spare and aren't easily offended or faint of heart; seriously, I could see someone passing out from the sheer amount of coke and tits on screen; I highly recommend it.
If you want more on the real life person it's based on, look up Jordan Belfort.
Olympus Has Fallen is one of the dumbest, corniest, and predictable action movies I've seen in a long time, and I loved it. If you're a fan of Saints Row-esque zaniness, or ridiculous-but-ridiculously-fun action movies a la 90s Stallone/Van Damme flicks, check it out. Just go in knowing this movie is the farthest thing away from Oscar masturbation a movie can get. Think 'splosion masturbation instead. Some of the CGI and green screen effects were poorly done, but in a way, that added to the stupid fun I had with this movie. Mileage may vary.
42 was also corny and predictable, but very enjoyable. It's definitely a by-the-numbers sports movie with a saccharine, manipulative score to match, but it does what it's trying to do very well. You really do feel for and root for Jackie Robinson as he faces intense racism, and in my opinion, the movie is worth seeing for Harrison Ford's scenery chewing as the Brooklyn Dodgers' GM alone. Favorite line, spoken by Harrison Ford's character when explaining his controversial decision to hire Robinson: "I'm a Methodist, Jackie's a Methodist, God's a Methodist. He's in good company."
Iron Man 3 (SPOILERS-ISH?)was a bit of a letdown, honestly. I was given high hopes by reviews, and I did like RDJ's interactions with the child actor as well as the action sequences and humor, but the overall plot felt weak to me. I've grown to not like stories that revolve around some form of Super Soldier Serum, cause I feel it's been done to death, and nothing about this movie changed the formula up enough for me to care that much about it. Sure, the surprise caught me off guard, and I was genuinely amused by it at first, but then I realized it also meant they really were going with the boring Super Soldier plot.
There's nothing technically wrong with it, and it does have good laughs and an awesome end credits sequence, but the type of story it wound up being just wasn't all that interesting to me. Plus, Tony/Iron Man was getting pretty stupidly reckless for such a genuis billionaire. I liked that they addressed issues Stark was having post-Avengers, but I honestly didn't find those scenes all that compelling, either. I have similar issues based on much less than he went through, so I'm not judging the character, but certain scenes felt less to me like heart-wrenching drama, and more like times to check my watch to see how long this one will last.
Most of you probably did or would like this more than me, but I just thought it was ok.
Star Trek Into Darkness was great, in my opinion. It probably had a billion plot holes, but I enjoy the characters and action enough to not really care. Sure, it's mostly a retread of a previous Trek movie with some 9/11 conspiracy theory metaphors sprinkled in, but damn was it fun to watch. This was by far my favorite summer blockbuster of the year, Future Spock's pussyfooting and probably plotholes I didn't notice be damned.
The Great Gatsby was a book I was supposed to read in high school. I remembered Old Egg and New Egg, and that was about it. The movie was a bit bloated, but I really liked the bombast and style it was directed with. I thought the mix of older jazz and newer music worked well enough, and I actually got pretty caught up in the story. It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed the symbolism, characters, story, and visual spectacle quite a bit, even if I thought it could have been a bit shorter.
Man of Steel was a huge letdown for me. I was excited to see what Snyder, Goyer, and Nolan would do to rejuvinate the superhero after Superman Returns and ... well, the action was definitely adrenaline-pumping, and it certainly got me to remember IHOP is open 24/7 and that there's a 7-11 near me. Look, the criticisms of this movie have been all over the place, and I largely tend to agree with many of those, and not the rebuttals to them. If you want more specifics, just ask, but I really didn't like this one. Except Michael Shannon as Zod. That haminess was pretty great.
Despicable Me 2 was about on par with the first one for me. I like that these movies are just fun for fun's sake, and don't feel the need to branch too far outside of just being comedies. That's often all I really want from cartoons like these: laughter and zany antics. This movie delivers what it promises, and it's a lot of fun.
Pacific Rim is another movie that just embraces the goofiness that it is. My favorite fight scene was the one on the streets of Tokyo, but just in general, the theme music and special weapon usage on big monsters brought back the feeling of being a kid and rooting for the Zords in Power Rangers to kick some giant robot/monster ass while a kick-ass rock soundtrack played in the background.
Beyond all that, though, I think my favorite part was probably Ron Perlman's gold-studded pimp-daddy character. I just loved any time he was on screen. The outfits he wore made me laugh.
The Wolverine was a bit slower than I expected, but I loved what felt like a noir escape movie set in a beautifully shot Japan. The shots of Japanese houses in the snow were amazing on their own, and the action and serious tone of the movie worked well, in my opinion. Hell, I even liked that Viper chick everyone else seemed to hate.
It did get boring at times, but if it comes on FX or you find it on DVD, it's definitely worth watching in my opinion.
The World's End is one I saw with friends just before my first semester of grad school was starting. I fell asleep early on, but it looked pretty funny. I did at least get to where the robots show up, and a bit past that scene.
Now You See Me came out last summer, I think, but I saw it last November when my college had a drive-in screening of it. My friend and I had a good time getting free drinks and popcorn and making fun of the movie's non-existent logic. I wouldn't say it was a good movie, but I had a good time watching it.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire might be my least favorite book in the trilogy. I say "might" because I have yet to finish reading Mockingjay, so while it's seeming much better right now, there's still potential for it to go south.
The movie fixed a lot of problems I had with the book, though. I ultimately felt more sympathy for Katniss when I saw her trying to figure out what people were trying to tell her with just hints and looks. In the book, I felt it was incredibly obvious what was going to happen, and all of my predictions from the second half of the book on were correct. I also felt like Katniss was a bit of a dolt for not putting 2+2 together, but in the movie, I can relate more with her struggle to pick up on social cues, whether it be the translation to a visual medium without her internal monologue spelling things out for her without her realizing, or maybe just the fact Jennifer Lawrence is pretty clouded my judgment.
I feel like the books are pretty much made to be turned into movies anyway, given the plot and character-driven focus and action scenes. I also feel strongly that they were made to be turned into movies that use tripods. Thankfully, they keep the camera still in this one, and it effectively captures many of the emotions of the people in the Districts and members of the Capitol without making me want to vomit like Haymitch after a pub crawl, so that's nice.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was the best movie I saw in 2013, in my opinion. Unlike its more slow-paced predecessor, which I also liked, this one picked up early on and just kept going. This movie contains possibly the best action scene I have ever witnessed, taking place down the river of a forest outside of an elf kingdom, featuring amazingly fluid track shots and editing, as well as brutally inventive orc murders. Smaug and CGI spiders look awesome as well, and add greatly to believability of the balls-out fantasy action taking place.
It also has a funny cameo by Stephen Fry, an incredibly hot, ass-kicking she-elf, and great characters, humor, and pacing in general.
I'm honestly not the biggest fan of LotR movies. I'm usually not that interested in the story or overlarge cast of characters, and just want to see some impeccably choreographed killing, hear the epic score, and maybe take in the beautiful New Zealand landscapes. This movie, however, had me hooked and invested in everything that was going on. It is by far my favorite of the Peter Jackson LotR films. Of course, Hobbit is the only Tolkien book I ever actually finished, so perhaps I'm biased. I love how these movies fill you in on what Gandalf is doing while he's away, too.
Next blogs: Games I've bought during the Steam sale, books I've read, TV shows I've watched.
Is TWE your favorite of the trilogy?
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