Simply Millennial

At my mom’s house I get every single television channel imaginable in the world. My brain is over-stimulated and my thumb is calloused.

That being said, I woke up this morning and watched the documentary “My Date with Drew.” It’s the story of this guy who wins $1,100 from a game show, and decides to take the money to make a movie about his 30 day quest to get a date with Drew Barrymore. 

I LOVED IT! It was smart and funny and totally inspiring. My heart now feels all warm and fuzzy. So of course I decided to log on here and share. 

Watch it!

Tonight I went to the movies with my brother and his roommate to see “Wanted.” Instead of going to a regular theater, we hit up Cinebarre. We walked into the building, and in the center was a round, beautiful bar. Inside the theater, every other row of chairs were taken out and replaced with bars and tables. Waitresses were running back and forth taking and bringing orders. Everything on the menu was named after a movie, i.e. Lord of the Onion Rings, Children of the Popcorn, and Soylent Greens Salad. I ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes sandwich. I hadn’t had fried green tomatoes in a long time and it was soooooo good! 

I’d heard of this concept many times before, and I’d gone to a theater sort of like it in Virginia Beach when I was in high school. This chain, however, was definitely more upscale. There are only three in the nation: the one I went to tonight in Charleston, one in Asheville, NC and one in Thornton, CO.  See more at www.cinebarre.com

The movie was fantastic by the way. I’m fixin’ to do a review of it soon, so stay tuned. 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more inconsistent artist than M. Night Shyamalan. His movies are either incredible, or fantastically anticlimactic. “The Happening” falls into the latter category. 

I had high hopes for this film simply because of the cast. Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, and Zooey Deshanel are all faves of mine. Wahlberg in particular has a history of casting a slight spell on me-not just because of how much he reminds me of an ex-boyfriend, but also because he’s pretty darn talented. In this flick, however, not so much. Leguizamo is usually the comic relief in his movies, and here he is everything but. Perhaps it was his attempt to be taken more seriously. To be honest, the best actor in the whole thing was Deschanel. She still brought her brand of quirkiness, but somehow ended up being the “rock” of the entire film.

In this movie, Shymalan takes a stab at teaching us a lesson about how we treat our planet. It’s a good message, but there never really was a “hey, check this amazing scene out,” moment. The whole movie was as stable and linear as ten Tibetan monks chanting for an hour and a half. The only difference? The movie had no spiritual enlightenment. 

Shymalan gets two out of five popcorn tubs from me on this one. One for having a good idea, and the other for Zooey Deschanel holding the whole thing together. I would say it’s still worth renting, but on the Shymalan scale, this was truly a disappointing use of his potential. 

 [Image courtesy of slashfilm.com] 

If you like a movie that spends a lot of camera time shooting its lead actor’s pretty face, all while lacking in quality dialogue and acting, then this is your movie.

I have to admit that I was most disappointed with Shia LeBeouf in this film. He has a history of making movies with some sort of meaningful content involved, but this time around it was obvious he was in it for the Benjamins. While there’s no doubt that he’s a cute kid, this role didn’t help him expose his talent at all! 

The premise involves a kid on house arrest who suspects his neighbor is a murderer. Most of his summer is spent following this alleged killer, and also drooling after his new next door neighbor girlfriend. There is a harshly obvious attempt by the producers to have an ethnically diverse cast, so we are introduced to an Asian goof ball friend, and a Mexican cop who’s got it in for our hot lead guy. 

YAWN!

The only good thing about the film is that it FINALLY picks up some speed and gets you interested, and possibly even engrossed, for like 10 minutes. It’s just too bad that those 10 minutes are at the end of the movie.  

Bleck! Don’t bother!

I give it one popcorn tub.

[movie poster courtesy of wildaboutmovies.com]  

 I just came back from seeing Beowulf in 3D and was totally blown away!  At first I sort of felt silly sitting in the theater eating popcorn while wearing my goofy 3D glasses. But as soon as we were told to put them on, the glasses immersed me into movie magic. I’ve never seen 3D quite like this before – I really thought I was in the movie. I love these epic treats, full of their fantasy and heroism themes. The storytelling is brilliant, the animation is unbelievable, and the action was gripping.  I think I jumped out of my seat 3-4 times from genuine shock or surprise. The only real complaint I have is that the acting is a little too cheesy at times.  (And Angelina Jolie certainly does not have THAT much meat on her hips.) I wouldn’t take anyone under the age of 16 to see it either-one of the opening fight scenes made me cringe. But overall, this movie is nothing but pure entertainment. You don’t have to think when you watch it, and you’ll experience loads of sugary eye candy. 

I give it 4 out of 5 popcorn tubs! 

     “The Dead Girl” is very much alive.

[Image courtesy of hdaddicts.com] 

In the style of movies like Go, Traffic, and Babel, The Dead Girl is made up of multiple story lines that interwine into one unfolding drama. From the moment the movie started, I was hooked.

I’ve followed Toni Collette since she did Muriel’s Wedding, and I just can’t get enough of her. She’s so versatile, and her image has come a long way.  In this film, her character is an introverted rural woman who starts the plot rolling by happening upon the body of a dead girl. The story unfolds from there-each scenario bringing in stellar cast members, including: Giovanni  Ribisi, James Franco, Mary Steenburgeon, Marcia Gay Harden and Kerry Washington-just to name a few. It all leads up to the discovery of who the dead girl actually is and how her fate came to pass.

What stands out about this film is how the depth of each character is revealed without explaining too much or taking up too much of our time on back story. Though there are many of them, each character’s multi-dimensional parts are intricately revealed in an hour and a half. This is writing at its most brilliant.

And the casting is brilliant as well. Kerry Washington plays a knockout role, all while being a knockout herself. And Marcia Gay Harden makes us really believe she is the grieving mother of the dead girl, who is played by Brittany Murphy.

This movie is grim-definetely not for someone looking for a light-hearted feature. But if you’re into well-crafted indie types, then you have to rent this.

I give it 4 out of 5 popcorn tubs!