Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Rating:4.5/5

And so 2011 brings another billion-dollar franchise to an end. This time however it's Harry Potter, which has lasted longer and made more money than most other series. Harry Potter is also a great franchise that I hope to share with my kids and their kids for a very long time. That said, let's look at the final chapter of this saga.

The war is here and both sides are back for the final battle. Snape (Alan Rickman) is head of Hogwarts, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is armed with the Elder Wand, and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are ready for action. With the help of basically the entire cast of the series, everybody's favorite wizards have to end the fight, and the story, once and for all.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is the perfect way to end the franchise. By that I mean that it takes the entire scope of the series and brings it into one epic conclusion. It reminds us why we love these movies. Harry Potter 8 is done so well that it's honesty sad because I'll miss the characters so much.

As to comparing this to the other films, I still like the Prisoner of Azkaban best, but this might be the next-best in the series. This conclusion is so good that it forgives the Twilight cash in 6th movie and the overly long setup in HP7. The acting, the special effects, the action, direction, dialog, I can't think of anything bad. Sure there are nitpicks, but I don't want to say them.

Harry Potter started for me when my mom got me the first book and I couldn't stop reading it. Now after ten years with the same actors playing characters in eight films from seven books and over two billion dollars worldwide, I'm realizing how much I'll miss this franchise. Goodbye Harry, and to everyone else, see this movie.

Horrible Bosses Review

Rating: 4/5

For this review, I'm not going to quantify this movie. I'm not to say "even though it's not as good as ____" or anything like that. I'm just going to prove that not all films have to be compared to other movies. Horrible Bosses is a very smart and very funny movie, and here is why.

Nick, Kurt, and Dale (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day respectively) are three friends with one thing in common: they hate their bosses. Nick's boss (Kevin Spacey) is a manipulative sadist, Kurt's (Colin Farrell) is a cocaine addict sleazeball, and Dale is constantly sexually harassed by his boss Julia (Jennifer Aniston). Because of the economy, none of the three can quit, and decide to murder their bosses. And, of course, hijinks ensue.

What makes a comedy is the performances of the actors. Because as evidenced by Tropic Thunder, the worst written films can be funny with good performances. Horrible Bosses is one of the best acted comedies I've seen all year. The protagonists are well rounded and lovable, the bosses are evil, and they're all funny. From Colin Farrell's amazing turn with a bald cap and beer belly to Charlie Day's cocaine rampage, I laughed all the way through.

Now, that isn't to say that the writing isn't outstanding. I literally could not find one joke I didn't like, either immediately or in retrospect. I didn't favor any characters over others, I just liked all of them and all the jokes. Horrible Bosses is overall COMPLETELY worth the money. Go see it.

TrollHunter Review

Rating: 4/5


Mythology is the go-to subject matter for pop culture creators who are out of ideas. If you want to get attention, rewrite David & Goliath as a gritty war drama with lots of symbolism and get Terrence Malick to direct it. These movies are a dime a dozen, so it's cool when a movie like TrollHunter comes along an does something unique.

Three Norwegian film students (Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, and Thomas Alf Larsen) are on vacation in the north and think they've caught a poacher. When the three confront their suspect Hans (Otto Jesperen), and follow him into the woods, they learn that he's in fact Norway's only Troll Hunter, and he has to eliminate the various types of trolls (mountain, bridge, woodland, etc) who break their boundaries. Hans allows the students to follow and film his operations because he's tired of the job, which has no overtime and terrible benefits.

TrollHunter is a found footage movie that feels real. The dialog is natural and well written, as is the acting. The special effects are amazing, portraying realistic trolls that actually feel intimidating. It really never gets old watching Hans burn trolls, turn them to stone, and even blow them up on his adventures. The aforementioned mythology of the trolls is also really cool, because I didn't know anything about the things until after I saw TrollHunter.

Overall, TrollHunter isn't gonna win any Oscars or golden globes, but it is worth watching. It takes insane mythology and then inserts the idea of an overworked civil servant, and blends the two very well. I recommend it, it's a good fun time at the movies.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

Rating: .5/5

This is it. The final battle. Autobots versus Decepticons, Shia Labeouf vs Acting, and Michael Bay versus my intelligence. When I went in trying to like this movie, I thought once it started that I would be as angry as I was at Transformers 2. But I was just weary of the whole damn thing. Let's just get this over with shall we?

Sam Witwicky (Shia Labeouf) is back and looking for a job in Washington while living with his new girlfriend Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whitely). Meanwhile, an ancient Autobot ship is found on the moon, and both sides of the war want it. So, Sam has to be as quirky as possible while fighting evil.

First of all, no, this Transformers movie isn't as bad as the last one, but that's kind of like saying one Nazi is slightly less evil than another because he only killed 50 Jews instead of 60. Don't get me wrong, I like stupid movies where robots beat the hell out of each other. I just hate sitting through two hours of Shia Labeouf and his parents.

The character of Sam is whiny, obnoxious, selfish, and quite frankly mean spirited overall. All he does is scream at his girlfriend and Bumblebee and demand that he get recognition for running around screaming in the last two movies. It's infuriating how horrible he is, especially because the audience is supposed to relate to him.

Rosie Huntington-Whitely is better than Megan Fox, but that still doesn't matter. She has no real point of existence and just provides another excuse for Michael Bay to be an objectifying chauvinist. Let's address that actually. The racism, homophobia, and sexism are still all there, especially towards the end, and the plot still doesn't make any goddamn sense, the robots are impossible to tell one from another, the dialogue is hair tearingly awful, and the humor is so stupid I lost brain cells.

And so the most profitable (and worst) franchise in the last decade comes to an end. Is there really a point to me reviewing this? No, it already made $100 million at the box office. Can I still kvetch about it? Of course. If you haven't seen it, don't, all one of you.

Midnight in Paris Review

Rating: 5/5

Culture is a beautiful thing. Without great books, films, videogames, plays, music, opera, etc, humanity would just be a bunch of monkeys with the tendency to shoot each other. However, getting too sucked into culture can be dangerous in the sense that someone can forget the wonders of their world by becoming taken with the world created by Hemingway or McCarthy. All of this is adressed magnificently in Midnight in Paris.

Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is a writer on vacation in Paris with his bitchy fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her equally bitchy parents. Gil is taken with the city, and wishes that he were in the roaring 20's, an era he endlessly praises in his as-yet-unfinished novel. Inez will, in true Woody Allen fashion, have none of it, and is happier admiring the pretentious and pedantic Paul (Michael Sheen). One night, Gil gets into an old fashioned car and is transported to 20's Paris, where he meets his idols and learns about himself.

Midnight in Paris has a feel to it that only Woody Allen could have produced, and he did. When Gil runs into Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, and Picasso among others, Allen captures the characters in such a way that is both hilarious and amazing. The acting is perfect, from Owen Wilson (easily his best non Wes Anderson performance) to Adrien Brody (hilarious as Salvador Dali), everyone plays their part very well.

This is of course complemented by the ingenious writing and direction, and the cinematography. I don't know how he does it, but Woody Allen has an amazing way of capturing places. Not just people, but the cities that his characters are in. In the old days it was New York and here it's Paris. The way Allen takes us through this amazing city, whether in modern day or the 20's, made me fall in love with Paris, and I've never even been there.

Midnight in Paris isn't better than 13 Assassins in my book, but not everything has to be a contest. It's funny, touching, beautiful, amazingly well made, and pretty perfect. Easily Allen's best movie in years, Midnight in Paris is totally worth your time.

Super 8 Review

Rating: 4.5/5

Nostalgia is a funny thing. On one hand, I still play my old Nintendo and buy vinyl records. On the other hand, I can't stand the notion that because certain pop culture nic-nacs are old that makes them better than new stuff. In simpler terms, I will play Super Mario 64 all weekend with my brother, but I don't that it's better than Mario Sunshine. Luckily, Super 8 doesn't portray the obnoxious kind of nostalgia. In fact, it's the best movie I've seen so far this summer.

Joe (Cara Bailey) is a preteen living in Lillian, Ohio in 1979. He just lost his mom, and is sort of at-odds with his dad (Kyle Chandler), a cop in the town. The summer has arrived, and Joe is helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) shoot a zombie movie with the other kids in town. One night while shooting a scene with Joe's crush Alice (Elle Fanning), the boys and girl barely survive a catastrophic train crash, during which something punches it's way out of the train. Suddenly, the air force is taking over the town and people are disappearing, and it's up to Joe and crew to solve the mystery.

If you couldn't tell based on the trailer or my plot description, or that Steven Spielberg produced the thing, Super 8 is made to look and feel like a kids movie from the 80's. And it succeeds magnificently. Everything from the amazing direction and composition to the wonderful child actors makes Super 8 feel like The Goonies or ET. It's seriously uncanny how well JJ Abrams pulls it off. The story is unique, the dialogue is super well written, and the special effects are a perfect mix of real and CGI.

Honestly, I don't know what else to say. Super 8 is just the first movie this summer that's really enthralled me and brought me into the world of the film. I remember making bad monster movies with my friends with a VHS camera and some ketchup, and when I could have secret hangouts with my friends. This film was nostalgic to me in a beautiful way, not a way that exploited my childhood like Transformers. It's just a really, really good movie that is absolutely worth seeing more that once.

Green Lantern Review

Rating: 3/5

I think I found the problem with most modern superhero movies: they can't accept what they are. The Dark Knight and the Spider-Man movies took the fact that their main characters are grown men in vinyl tights beating people up and dove into the psychology of what makes a superhero do what they do. Movies like those, and even Thor understand that audiences can accept the silliness of superheroes as long as the plot is engaging and the characters fun. Green Lantern does just that.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a cocky pilot who gets fired for proving that drones aren't as good as real pilots. One night, Hal encounters Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), a dying alien and member of the Green Lantern Corps, a universe-wide team of space cops who wield rings powered by willpower. Abin's ring chooses Hal as his successor, and Hal must train up fast and defeat Parallax, the living body of fear, antithesis of will, and his minion Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard).

This is one of those movies I went in hating. I hated the trailer, the choice of Ryan Reynolds, the CGI, the use of Sinestro, etc. However, I was pleasantly surprised with most of those. Ryan Reynolds brings his usual egotism and lovable-goofball atitude, but also portrays a man who is dutiful and loyal to those he cares about. Blake Lively also does pretty well, and Michael Clark Duncan and Geoffrey Rush are great as Kilowog and Tomar-Re respectively.

A lot of critics had a problem with this movie's script, but I didn't mind it. While there are some silly lines and convoluted story elements, the film has a beginning, middle, and end, with epic setpieces and amazing battles. However, though the character of Sinestro is set up and well portrayed by Mark Strong, he's barely in the movie, which is disappointing because he's so interesting. Overall, the movie doesn't try to reach too high like X-Men or too low like Megamind, and works well.

Even though I try not to think about the comics when reviewing movies, Green Lantern has several clever references that I couldn't ignore. Overall, Green Lantern isn't great, but it could've been SO much worse that I couldn't help but enjoy it. The characters are well rounded, the plot is epic and fun, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Though I still had some problems with the meat-strip look of the costumes, I got over it. Green Lantern is a true summer blockbuster, and it doesn't suck, so go try it out.