TRAILERS

As summer keeps progressing and camp continues, I keep getting busier and busier.  Luckily I do have a little bit of a break right now and so I'll de-stress by doing a little bit of catch up.  I still have reviews of 'Fault In Our Stars', 'How To Train Your Dragon 2', '22 Jump Street' and 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' to write up, but since those take a little bit more time to do today I'll be talking about various trailers I've seen in theaters or online.  I try to talk about these when I write up a review, but with reviews getting delayed I just kinda forgot about which ones I got for a specific movie.  So this will have to do for now. 

• 'Annabelle' - Remember the creepy, life-size porcelain doll from the opening of 'The Conjuring'?  Well, that creepy doll is getting the spin-off treatment which will allegedly take place before the events of 'The Conjuring'.  The doll scene in the opening of 'The Conjuring' was honestly one of the creepier moments in that movie and this teaser trailer does show some promise.  Since I liked 'The Conjuring' a lot I probably will check this one out.  It could either be a scary good time like 'The Conjuring' or end up being ridiculously dumb and pointless.
  
  
• 'Dumb and Dumber To' - Twenty years after the original movie came out, Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels and the Farrelly Brothers are at it again with Harry and Lloyd teaming up to search for Harry's long lost daughter.  Once again, we have a trailer that shows promise.  I wasn't a huge fan of the original movie but I did laugh and was grossed out while watching this trailer.  So.....it succeeded with it's goals I guess.  It could potentially be funny and gross or just gross and painfully unfunny.
  
   
• 'Fifty Shades of Grey' - Oh yes.  The rather infamous novel that started off life as "Twilight" fan fiction and is more famous for it's..........controversial subject matter than it's critical reviews is getting a film adaptation set for Valentine's Day 2015.  The only person I could recognize from the trailer was Dakota Johnson as reporter Anastasia Steele, who I've only ever seen in a brief five-minute appearance in 'The Social Network'.  As far as how this trailer looked.....um.....well I've seen worse.  Just a LOT of creepy undertones and heavily implied.......activities.  All done to a rather strange version of Beyonce's "Crazy In Love".  Like I said, I've seen worse trailers for movies.  After watching it I just kinda felt "Well.....that happened". 
  

• 'The Hobbit:  The Battle of the Five Armies' - The third and final 'Hobbit' movie.  I didn't care much for 'Unexpected Journey', but I thought 'Desolation of Smaug' was a lot of fun and made me actually look forward to this movie.  And judging from the trailer....it looks like it'll be one epic finale.  I will still complain about 'The Hobbit' being split into three movies until I fall over and die, but this third installment actually does look pretty good.
  

• 'Horrible Bosses 2' - Yes, 'Horrible Bosses' is getting a sequel with most of the main cast returning, this time adding Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine to the cast and revolving around a kidnapping.  I thought the first movie was hilarious, and while this was only a two-minute teaser trailer I was still laughing out loud a lot.  Can't wait until November.
  

• 'The Interview' - Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's directorial follow-up to 'This Is The End' has James Franco and Seth Rogen as journalists who get an interview with Kim Jong-Un, who are then recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.  Looks to be a bit more satirical than laugh out loud funny, but I usually like Seth Rogen's movies so I'll probably check this out at some point.
  

• 'The Judge' - Robert Downey Jr. as a hotshot lawyer who comes home for his mother's funeral and ends up having to defend his estranged father (Robert Duvall), the town's judge who is accused of murder.  I remembered getting this trailer in front of 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' and it actually does look good.  With those two in the main cast you usually can't go wrong......usually.
  

• 'The Penguins of Madagascar' - Oh yes.  The scene-stealing penguins from the 'Madagascar' movies are finally getting a spin-off movie of their own.  Since they honestly are the best things about the 'Madagascar' movies (the less said about the TV show the better), you can bet that I'll be in the theater for this opening weekend. 
  

• 'This Is Where I Leave You' - Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver, and Corey Stoll (from "House of Cards") are four siblings brought back together due to the death of their father.  Jane Fonda, Rose Byrne, Kathryn Hahn and Timothy Olyphant co-star.  I chuckled a few times during the trailer and the cast is likable enough that it might be worth checking out.
  
  
  
  Well, that's it for now.  Time to get back to work.
  

REVIEWS - 'Tammy', 'Jersey Boys', 'Transformers 4'

Well....camp has kept me a bit busy and I've got a bit of catching up to do as far as this blog goes before I get too too far behind.  In addition to these three movies I also have to play catch-up with 'Fault In Our Stars', '22 Jump Street' and 'How To Train Your Dragon 2'.  And I'll be seeing 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' soon as well.  But enough about that for now, let's get back to talking about Melissa McCarthy's latest comedy, Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort, and the return of Optimus Prime and company. 

 'Tammy' (R) ***
After having been fired from her job and discovering that her husband was cheating on her, the titular character (Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy, who also co-produced and co-wrote) hits the road with her alcoholic Grandma Pearl (Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon) and shenanigans ensue.  With Academy Award nominee Kathy Bates as Pearl's pyromaniac lesbian cousin, Mark Duplass as Tammy's potential love interest, Gary Cole as Pearl's equally as drunk love interest, and Sandra Oh, Allison Janney, and Academy Award winner Nat Faxon in small roles.

This one has been a bit divisive.  I know some people who liked the movie, others who thought it was just okay, and a few others who just thought it was plain dumb with no real consensus being made about the movie.  Usually I like Melissa McCarthy.  I loved both 'Bridesmaids' and 'The Heat', although I didn't care for 'Identity Thief' all that much.  As far as 'Tammy' goes, well....overall I liked it, although I will admit that as far as comedies go there are better ones out there.  I laughed out loud once or twice and had some occasional chuckles throughout, but 'Tammy' largely succeeds due to three factors:  The overall likability of Melissa McCarthy, and the crazy performances by both Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates.  If you're a diehard Melissa McCarthy fan I recommend seeing it.  If you're a bit mixed about her I'd say just rent this or just skip it entirely.   





'Jersey Boys' (R) ***
Clint Eastwood's latest movie since 2011's 'J. Edgar' is an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical of the same name which centers on the rise and fall of the band The Four Seasons:  Frankie Valli (John Michael Lloyd), Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), Nicki Massi (Michael Lomenda) and Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza).  With Christopher Walken as Angelo 'Gyp' DeCarlo, a local mob boss whom Tommy and Frankie are involved with.

I had never seen the musical on which this was based, but I still wanted to see this for a few different reasons:

1.  Clint Eastwood directed it and I'll watch anything that he directs.
2. For a little while when I was younger my siblings and I were only allowed to listen to the local Oldies station, so I remember hearing certain Four Seasons songs on the radio.

Overall, this was a fun movie and it's the only Clint Eastwood directed movie I've liked since 'Gran Torino'....and it has been a LONG five years ('Invictus', 'Hereafter', 'J. Edgar'......yeah).  It's incredibly well shot, in the same kind of dark, gray-ish way that's similar to 'J. Edgar'.  The music is great, and it's interesting to hear someone be able to match Frankie Valli's rather...interesting singing voice.  The acting is also great, particularly from John Michael Lloyd and Vincent Piazza.  Could've used more Christopher Walken, but then again every movie could use more Christopher Walken.  Even movies that he isn't in at all still need more Christopher Walken.  If you like The Four Seasons, music from the 1960s in general, or the actual stage musical, I recommend this movie.






'Transformers:  Age of Extinction' (PG-13) **1/2
Taking place four years after the events of 'Dark of the Moon', 'Age of Extinction' follows a mechanic (Mark Wahlberg) and his daughter (Nicola Peltz) as they end up joining the Autobots as they are targeted by a bounty hunter from another world.  With Kelsey Grammar as a mysterious C.I.A. agent, Stanley Tucci as a mysterious businessman, T.J. Miller as Mark Wahlberg's business partner, Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime, and John Goodman, Ken Watanabe and Frank Welker voicing various Autobots and Decepticons.

Look:  The cast (apart from Nicola Peltz) is indeed a huge improvement from the original trilogy.  The special effects are still amazing.  And it's awesome seeing giant robots fight each other.  But my main problem with this movie is that this movie is WAY TOO LONG and DRAGS A LOT.  After a while I was gradually losing my interest and just kinda wanted it to end.  The acting from Nicola Peltz is also kinda bad and T.J. Miller provides the dumb "humor" that has plagued the last few 'Transformers' movies.  Although I will admit the dumb "humor" is toned down a lot from those movies and is actually limited to pretty much the first 45 minutes.  Pacing issues, some bad acting and the dumb humor aside, that pretty much is all I have to say about 'Transformers 4'.  In comparison to the other 'Transformers' movies....well, it's better than 'Revenge of the Fallen', but then again most movies are.  It's a smidge lower than 'Dark of the Moon', but still doesn't quite hold a candle to the first movie.



Usually I talk about trailers but quite frankly since it's taken me a while to write up a review for some of these I just kinda forgot what the trailers.  Might just do a separate post just about various trailers but we'll see.