MOVIE RATING THREAD 2012

[Wolfe]

THE AVENGERS
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
AMERICAN REUNION
21 JUMP STREET
THE RAID: REDEMPTION
THAT’S MY BOY NEW
THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT
JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME
CHRONICLE
THE DICTATOR
MEN IN BLACK 3 NEW
WANDERLUST
HAYWIRE
PROJECT X
THE THREE STOOGES
BATTLESHIP
DARK SHADOWS
GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE
CASA DE MI PADRE
FRIENDS WITH KIDS
THE DEVIL INSIDE
TOTAL RECALL
THE HUNGER GAMES
A THOUSAND WORDS
THE GREY
THIS MEANS WAR
THE RAVEN

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Astonishingly, THAT’S MY BOY is really funny. I hadn’t prepared myself for that possibility. It might actually be both the funniest Sandler movie and performance since HAPPY GILMORE. You probably don’t believe me, and I don’t blame you because I’ve seen it and I don’t quite believe me, but I laughed a lot, all the way through. I want other people to see it and tell me if I’m off my rocker. It’s not completely devoid of Sandler-movie terribleness, but it doesn’t really contain all that much of it (for instance, Nick Swardson is in it and is horribly unfunny as always, but his cumulative screen time is maybe two minutes, tops). Vanilla Ice has a supporting role as himself, and that should by all rights be terrible, but somehow isn’t. He’s actually pretty good. Maybe Sandler correctly identified JACK AND JILL as hitting comedy rock-bottom and had some kind of “be funny again” epiphany.

One thing that bugged me was that, in the beginning, there’s a flashback to 1984 where a kid is holding an ALF lunchbox, which is a pretty egregious error. But if that’s one of my bigger complaints with a modern-day Sandler movie, then we’re in pretty good shape.

MIB3 is definitely an improvement over MIIB. It actually has some nifty ideas, where MIIB didn’t have one. It’s still pretty weightless, though that’s been the case with all of these movies, even the first one. But the first one had a ton of cleverness to offset that feeling, where this one only has a handful of decent jokes (I liked the ‘60s cops pulling J over and a throwaway thing with the Apollo 11 astronauts). And there’s a big emotional beat at the end that’s so random and odd. Still, it’s fine overall. Brolin does a good job.

One thing that bugged me about the time travel stuff was that the movie says that J would have been a Man in Black even in a world without K, which was strange since he only became MIB due to a chance encounter with K, who even then had to push for him. I guess it was fated or whatever.

[Donnacha]

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
THE AVENGERS
THE RAID: REDEMPTION
21 JUMP STREET
GAME CHANGE
THE GREY
DARK SHADOWS
THE MOTH DIARIES new
THE HUNGER GAMES
THE RAVEN
AMERICAN REUNION

The Moth Diaries is a film for 13-year-old girls. That, in itself, is not really a criticism; rather, it might make a good "first horror" flick for young ladies, who might relate better to the girls in the boarding school and the difficulties with friendship and tragedy. Apart from little girls though, I can't see who else would find it interesting - it demands that the audience be largely ignorant, which is a problem for anyone else watching that might have expected the director of American Psycho to do something unique or clever with a pile of cliches. She doesn't. The Moth Diaries is every spook story you've seen or read, and if you haven't read many, that's probably better. It references Dracula and Carmilla, really hoping that you haven't read either one so it can plunder parts of both liberally. The whole thing's been written like an ABC family ghost story, without any sort of tension or surprise, with characters talking long after you've filled in how the scene is going to end up in your head. To make matters worse, our heroine (played by In America's Sarah Bolger, pulling off an American accent with ease) often spells out the point of everything happening in the narration, at times saying things out loud for no-one's benefit; when all her friends have died or left the school, she has to say "all my friends are gone", as if we should be grateful we didn't ask for a diagram. It plods along, then stops, lacking any sort of drama. Nevertheless, it looks very nice and I liked just about all the cast.

[ExpendablesFan]

Moonrise Kingdom NEW
The Avengers
This is 40
The Raid: Redemption
Looper
Five-Year Engagement
21 Jump Street
Wanderlust
The Cabin in the Woods
Safety Not Guaranteed
Lockout
Safe House
American Reunion
John Carter
Contraband
The Lorax
The Vow
The Hunger Games
Project X
Jeff, Who Lives At Home
The Dictator
Good Deeds
The Secret World Of Arrietty
Man On A Ledge
Chronicle
Red Dawn
The Guilt Trip
This Means War
Gone
Haywire
Dark Shadows
The Grey
Goon
Rock of Ages
Wrath of the Titans
Ghost Rider 2: Spirit Of Vengeance
Seeking Justice
Fun Size
Act Of Valor
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Casa De Mi Padre
Mirror, Mirror
Detention
A Thousand Words
ATM
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Moonrise is probably going to top of my list this year. I think Django is the only thing that has a chance of unseating it, but it's going to be a tall order. This has already a great movie year and it's not even half over.

[BrianLynch]

The Raid: Redemption
Marvel's The Avengers
Men in Black 3
First Position
The Hunger Games
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The Cabin in the Woods
21 Jump Street
The Dictator
John Carter
Red Tails
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
The Three Stooges
American Reunion
Wanderlust
Dark Shadows
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Chronicle
Friends with Kids

MEN IN BLACK 3 was not only way better than I thought it was going to be, it was actually pretty great.  First ten minutes or so are bumpy, but the movie comes together.  Really funny, with a pretty stellar and emotional ending.

[DerickA]

Regarding the ending:

SPOILERS

Even though they lay some track in the beginning with the math, but the ending with the dad and Jay being around at that age kind of took a bit out of it for me. I'm reading Smith was born in 1968 and conceivably, this can be doable but I thought them meeting at that point was very Star Wars prequel-esque.

[Wolfe]

Yeah, it was nice that J and K shared a moment like that in the past, but they had to randomly make some Cape Canaveral security guy turn out to be J's dad to make it happen. It seemed like too much of stretch.

[BrianLynch]

Let's take it to the MEN IN BLACK III spoiler thread!

[Matt]

The Avengers
Moonrise Kingdom New!
Bernie
Dark Shadows
Jeff Who Lives At Home
God Bless America

Tough call.

[Dobbin]

I was shocked to find that I liked THE DICTATOR as much as I did.

[BrianLynch]

The Raid: Redemption
Marvel's The Avengers
Moonrise Kingdom
Men in Black 3
First Position
The Hunger Games
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The Cabin in the Woods
21 Jump Street
The Dictator
John Carter
Red Tails
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
The Three Stooges
American Reunion
Wanderlust
Dark Shadows
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Chronicle
Friends with Kids

Great movie.  Everyone had wonderful moments.  The kids were stellar.

[Brandon]

Moonrise Kingdom - New
The Avengers
Cabin in the Woods
Jeff, Who Lives At Home
Wanderlust
Casa De Mi Padre
The Dictator - New
21 Jump Street
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

Moonrise Kingdom - It was a VERY tough call putting this above Avengers, and I think if I could I'd just do a / and rank them equally. Wonderful, wonderful movie. Ed Norton was great, as were the two kids. There were a couple moments where Willis seemed to struggle a bit with the Wes Anderson cadences, as I get the feeling that in most cases you can write the lines however you want but they're going to come out the way that Bruce wants to say them, but for the most part he was great as the sad ol' policeman. This reminded me more of Fantastic Mr Fox than any other Wes Anderson movie, and beyond that a kids story book come to life, especially with stuff like the kinda obvious green screen. Granted, it also turned around to look like an Italian movie from the 60s at certain points, so what do I know?

The Dictator - I liked that a lot more than I thought I would. Montzoukas stole the show, and it's been awesome over the last couple years seeing a guy I'd seen at UCB for years keep getting bigger and bigger parts in things (See also: his batshit crazy character Raffi on The League). Some parts fell really flat, but I was surprised by how sharp it was.

[Dobbin]

The Dictator - I liked that a lot more than I thought I would. Montzoukas stole the show, and it's been awesome over the last couple years seeing a guy I'd seen at UCB for years keep getting bigger and bigger parts in things (See also: his batshit crazy character Raffi on The League). Some parts fell really flat, but I was surprised by how sharp it was.

It reminded me, at times, of a Monty Python movie. I was surprised at how much better of a movie it was being an actual movie-movie, with no "these people think he's REAL!" bits; I was pretty sure that that's all he could do.

[BrianLynch]

The Raid: Redemption
Marvel's The Avengers
Moonrise Kingdom
Men in Black 3
First Position
The Hunger Games
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The Cabin in the Woods
21 Jump Street
The Dictator
John Carter
Red Tails
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope
The Three Stooges
American Reunion
Wanderlust
Battleship
Dark Shadows
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Chronicle
Friends with Kids

I saw BATTLESHIP. 

[DerickA]

You must have hated Dark Shadows.

[BrianLynch]

BATTLESHIP's stupid spectacle didn't bother me as much as a bunch of people flittering around trying to be funny and failing.  If DARK SHADOWS paid off anything it set up, it would rank much higher.

BATTLESHIP was dumb and I doubt I'll watch it again, but there were some cool visuals.