Triple Feature

I know it's been a while since out last post. I blame Liz, her movie selection has been a bit off. So, here is my attempt to make it up to you. A chick-flick triple feature of sorts.  Not my genre of choice, but these movies were so good that I had to tell you about them.  

 What do a step-ford wife, a stripper and a nine year old orphan have in common?

 Butter.  
 In small-town Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town's annual contest. from imdb.com

Butter is perfection. Amazing story. Great cast - who knew Olivia Wilde could work a pole like that? Excellent mixture of comedy and drama. Something for any group who can't make up their mind.

Girl in Progress is a movie that I would totally watch with my mom.

As single mom Grace juggles work, bills, and her affair with a married doctor, her daughter, Ansiedad, plots a shortcut to adulthood after finding inspiration in the coming-of-age stories she's reading for school. from imdb.com

It's kind of like Juno without the pregnant teen. It drags a bit in the beginning but Eva Mendes will make you thank the lord that she isn't your mom. This is the best role I've ever seen her in.

And I have definitely saved the best for last. For all of you that loved The Hangover, Bridesmaids and Horrible bosses this movie is for you.

BACHELORETTE

Three friends are asked to be bridesmaids at a wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school. From imdb.com

This is not the Disney Princess version of a bachelorette party. These girls are insanely damaged/flawed/messed up in the head and it's impossible to take your eyes off them.


They're more like people you know than characters in a wedding movie. So get some girlfriends together and watch this. ASAP!

30 Days of Night

Since Halloween is getting closer, I thought I'd post this review again because 30 Days is my all time favorite vampire movie!

  (just don't watch the sequel)

The Story: A small Alaskan town goes dark one month out of every year. With daylight gone, a vampire clan moves in to wreck havoc on the town.

I love horror movies, but I’m also a big chicken.  I’m talking bed full of stuffed animals, room half lit with night lights kind of scaredy cat. I blame most of my chicken-ness on my older sisters allowing me to watch Interview with the Vampire when I was young. It freaked me out, and since then so has every other vampire movie that I have ever watched.  Especially 30 Days of Night.

The Vamps in this movie are louder, scarier, and more violent than any other vamps I’ve ever seen.  Not only do these things just look freaky, but the sound they make when they cry will chill you to the bone. 

Another plus for 30 Days, is that there is a descent story here. Not just vamps running around eating people. Just make sure you're not eating when you watch it.

If you liked: Underworld, Trick R Treat, I am Legend, Daybreakers

The Incredibles

The Story: Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible, tries to cope as a normal civilian after he and the rest of the world's superheros are forced into retirement. When an opportunity for a some hero moonlighting turns out to be more than Bob can handle alone, his 'super' family goes on a mission to rescue him from an new evil villan.

The Incredibles is one of the best things to ever come out of Pixar Animation Studios. (Second only to Toy Story, maybe) It has action and adventure mixed perfectly with an incredibly funny wit. Its story is universal, and its characters are just so darn lovable!

Not buying it? Well, neither was Allie. She use to get really furious when ABC Family played The Incredibles because she knew it meant 2 hours of cartoon watching, and if it's not Disney, Allie doesn't want it. But then, one fateful day, that is so vividly pressed in my memory, we caught TI from the very beginning. Allie watched, at first only because she had no choice. Then something happened...a laugh. Followed by another laugh and another. Pretty soon Allie realized something that I had known for years. The Incredibles is TOTALLY WICKED! Don't believe us? Try it out for yourself, if you dare.

If You Liked: Toy Story, Monsters Inc., WALL-E, A Bug's Life

The Uninvited

The Story: After several months in a mental institution, Anna still cannot remember what happened the night her mother died. Her therapist sends her home, hoping that the past is behind her, but home is not the same. Her mother's nurse is now her stepmother to be, and this new mommy dearest has a past of her own.

Neither Liz nor I have ever been into the supernatural thriller sub-genre of horror movies. You know, the ones about ghosts and demons and freaky little kids. I mean, a demon possessed girl who's stuck in a well simply cannot crawl out of your TV. She's STUCK IN A WELL!!! When the ghost/monster is too outrageous to be believable, we just don't buy it. Horror movies need to be based in reality for them to truly scare us.


That's why we both hesitated to watch The Uninvited. It seemed to fall into that supernatural horror category. We watched it anyway. We were running out of decent horror movies to recommend to customers at the Buster, and we both like Elizabeth Banks. Anyway, I'm glad we watched it because The Uninvited is one of the best scary movies I've seen in a long time. The freaky-things-jumping-out-at-you parts are subtle but very freaky. The entire movie gives you that whole, bad things are about to happen vibe and just then when the tension builds to the point of exploding...

Oh, I can't tell you, but it's good. The Uninvited is a horror movie with good scary parts and a good story. Who knew they could co-exist so peacefully?

If You Liked: The Others, What Lies Beneath, The Ring, A Perfect Getaway

The Losers

                           The Story: A CIA black ops team is betrayed and left for dead, so they set out to find the man responsible.


 Hollywood has been putting comic books on the big screen for almost as long as it’s been around. When they stick to the classics, it’s great. Where would supper blockbusters be without the Superman and Batman franchises? In recent years, however, they’ve been going over comics that we normal people have never heard of. Liz and I are not so into this. Watchmen was weird and long. Sin City was depressing and gimmicky. Don’t even get me started on The Sprit. For these reasons, and others, Liz and I tend to stay away from anything based on the graphic novel. Lucky for us, we had no idea that The Losers started out as one.

The Losers has everything you want in a big action flick. The tough, yet wounded hero and his cool posse, a super-evil, super slime-ball villain, and thirty minutes of explosions. It’s good on the story front as well. It held our attention the whole way through. It’s also very believable when you put it up against other graphic-novel-to-feature films. Plus, The Losers has some decent one-liners and a hot chick, for those of you who are into that sort of thing.

We also love The Losers for its characters. They’re interesting and memorable without the whole I crush cans on my forehead for no reason vide you can sometimes get from action flick characters. It helps that the actors playing these characters are pretty decent. They have a good onscreen chemistry too. Chris Evens and Columbus Short bring some welcomed comedy to their characters. Zoe Saldana and Idris Elba pull off a fight scene with some awesome stunts. Altogether, The Losers is the best action movie I’ve seen in years.

If You Liked: The A-Team, S.W.A.T., The Fast & Furious, GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra

Totally Wicked GASP List

What is the GASP list?

GASP list - (noun)  A list of the best movies ever made.

Last semester I was discussing time travel with a few fellow computer geeks when one of them  mentioned that she'd never seen Groundhog Day. I literally gasped. “What do you mean, you’ve never seen Groundhog Day!?”

It still bothers me. How could she have survived twenty-five years on this earth without ever witnessing one of Bill Murray’s greatest comedies? Inconceivable.

That’s what we mean we talk about the GASP list, the unofficial list of movies that every living being on this earth should see because they are so great and so deeply ingrained into popular culture that the rest of us cannot fathom the idea that other people haven’t seen them.

There is no official list, but here are two really good ones: Julie Grey’s GASP list and the Tulsa International Film Festival’s GASP list. Both lists cover the classics, and if there are movies on either list that you’ve never seen, you shouldn’t admit it.

While the more traditional GASP list is perfectly fine, it doesn’t quite do it for us. Too many of our favorites are left off, perhaps because they’re not exactly Academy Award material, so A and I put finger to keyboard and came up with our own GASP list.

We simply cannot be your friend unless you’ve seen all of these movies. ALL of them.

Adventures in Babysitting
Back to the Future
Beauty and the Beast
Big
Braveheart
The Breakfast Club
By By Love
Can’t Hardly Wait
A Christmas Story
Cinderella
Clue
Clueless
Death Race
Die Hard
Disturbing Behavior
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
Empire Records
The Faculty
The Fast and the Furious
The First Wives Club
Four Brothers
Groundhog Day
Gone in 60 Seconds
The Goonies
Halloween
Hocus Pocus
Home Alone
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Inception
Identity
The Incredibles
The Inside Man
Jaws
Kiss the Girls
A League of Their Own
The Little Mermaid
Little Rascals
The Lion King
Lone Star State of Mind
Memento
Monsters, Inc.
Mr. Brooks
My Best Friend’s Wedding
The Notebook
Now and Then
Office Space
Overnight Delivery
Point Break
Primal Fear
Remember the Titans
Role Models
Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion
The Sandlot
Saving Private Ryan
Scream
Seven
Shag: The Movie
The Shawshank Redemption
The Silence of the Lambs
Sixteen Candles
Shooter
Sleeping Beauty
Spice World
St. Elmo’s Fire
S.W.A.T
Taken
To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar
Toy Story
The Usual Suspects
Underworld
Waiting
Walk the Line
Wedding Crashers
The Wedding Planner
The Wizard of Oz
Zombieland
Zoolander

Empire Records

  The Story: Empire Records captures a day in the life of a record store that doubles as a meeting place for young slackers, dreamers and doers. When a clerk (Rory Cochrane) gambles away the store's cash, the boss (Anthony LaPaglia) tries to recoup his losses. Meanwhile, flirty Gina (Renee Zellweger) provides a counterpoint to love-struck Corey (Liv Tyler), who's crushing on a co-worker. from Netflix.com

On this, the day that my Blockbuster closes for good, I bring you my favorite movie of all times. I know, some of you think that Four Brothers holds this title. Don't get me wrong, I love that movie, but Empire rocks my world. 

I don't remember when I discovered Empire, but I am always in the mood to watch it. It never fails to lift my spirits and make me smile. So I demand that you give it a shot. You can thank me later.


More reasons to love this movie, it has the best soundtrack ever. It has an amazing cast (best Renee Zellweger movie) and it's totally quoteable.


                                     DAMN THE MAN! SAVE THE EMPIRE!!

Role Models

The Story: Danny hates everything and everyone. After a really bad day at work, on top of being dumped by his girlfriend, Danny and his friend, Wheeler, get arrested for destroying property. Sentenced to 150 hours of community services, they’re stuck mentoring two kids who make jail look like fun.

 If you haven’t seen Role Models yet¸ we have just one question for you.

What are you doing with your life?

Get off the couch. Drive to Blockbuster and rent it. Now. Seriously, you will not be sorry.

RM is one of those movies that use crude humor in all the best ways. It’s obscene without being repulsive. . There’s also some pretty great physical comedy, but they don’t take it so far that it becomes ridiculous.

We also have to give a shout out to Paul Rude, one of our favorite comedic leads. We loved him in Overnight Delivery, Clueless, and Forgetting Sarah Marshal. He really can do no harm in a good comedy. We can't wait to see Our Idiot Brother, but RM allowed him to bring something new to the table, which is his writing. Albeit, a majority of the lines for the film were improvised due to the writers’ strike, we would definitely like to see pen some more screenplays.

Two more reasons to love Role Models, it introduced us to Jane Lynch, if you love her in Glee she will rock your world in RM. Secondly, Bobbie J Thompson. This little kid is freaking amazing. He steals every scene he’s in. I can’t believe that they got away with some of the things he said, but I loved every minute of it.

                                          !WARNING!
There are some definite potty mouths in this movie, so be prepared

If You Liked...
The Hangover, Superbad, Fired Up!, Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Armored

The Story: Ty is the new guard for an armored truck company. When his veteran co-workers try to involve him in an inside heist, Ty has to make a hard decision. Will he go along with them and take the money, or will he risk his life to stop them?

   
Money can turn best friends into worst enemies. At least it does in Armored.

This is not your typical heist movie for two reasons. First, the line between the good guys and bad guys is thinner than Sarah Jessica Parker. Secondly, the audience follows the heist in real time, which builds some intense tension throughout the film.

Armored is by far, my favorite heist movie, mainly for its simplicity. The writer follows the most important screenwriting rule: don't waste the audience's time. This movie will grab your attention in the first ten minute and won't let it go until the big finale.

If You Liked...
Taking of Pellum 123, John Q, The Inside Man, Assault On Precinct 13, Four Brothers

A Perfect Getaway

   
The Story: Newlyweds Cliff and Cydney are honeymooning in beautiful Hawaii, where a pair of murderous psychopaths happen to be on the lose. Suspicious of everyone they meet, they'll have to watch each other's back if they want to make it off the island alive. 

"You gotta get the details right or else all you’re making is one big crap-tastic movie." This quote from A Perfect Getaway couldn’t be more right. APG hinges on the details. It’s a great who-done-it story that will leave you guessing until the end.

 While it’s not exactly an edge of your seat thriller, stick with this movie until the end. APG does an excellent job of building some major tension in the first hour, and then letting it all explode into some awesome action sequences towards the end.

We give APG a big fat A for casting. The three main actors featured in the movie all play roles that are outside of their norm, which makes for a nice change. This is by far the best role we’ve ever seen Steve Zahn in.

Another plus, you can check out Chris Hemsworth before he was Thor

If You Liked...
The River Wild, Joy Ride, The Hitcher, Unknown, Identity, The Uninvited, Law Abiding Citizen

Princess Diaries 2

 While I am a fan of the first Princess Diaries, this one is my favorite. I watch it every Sunday at work, seriously, EVERY Sunday. I have a problem.

The Story: Princess Mia has one month to get married or she forfeits her crown to someone else.

Don't worry, you don't have to have seen the first one to understand this movie. They do a very nice re-cap. in the opening seen.

What I love about this movie is the concept.

WARNING HERE BE SPOILERS!

Girl falls for boy while planning her wedding to someone else.

I've seen several attempts at this concept, but no one does is as good as PD2. Another plus, I don't feel like I'm watching a kids movie when this one is one. This movie has it all, great story, beautiful set, and  an awesome cast. 

So watch PD2 and see Ann Hathaway and Chris Pine before they were big stars.

Battle:Los Angeles

Its Here! FINALLY!!!! I feel like I've been waiting to see this movie for years.

It was totally worth the wait. I laughed, I cried (freaking kids man, they always get me) and I saw some awesome alien killing action.

If you've been living under a rock, here's the story. The world is being invaded by aliens. They've struck several major cities simultaneously. We get to follow a unit of Marine's as they attempt to save civilians and kill some aliens in LA.

Favorite part, the Marines rip apart one of the aliens and play where does it hurt, so they can figure out how to kill these things.

So walk, don't run, down to the Malco and see this movie! Go, now.

SWAT

A suspended SWAT officer gets another chance when an old school commander puts together a elite special weapons and tactics unit.

I get a lot of hate for liking this movie. I just don't get it. I mean, this is the quintessential cop drama. You've got actors who I'm pretty sure were born in some sort of uniform. Then you've got the evil bad guy who is begging to be killed by the most violent means imaginable. Add in some witty banter, cool car chases and the double-cross you see coming and you've got an action lover's dream.

So to all of you haters out there, suck it. I knew that Jeremy Renner was capable of greatness before any of you saw the Hurt Locker

BTW this movie has one of the coolest (and biggest) shoot outs that I've seen in an action movie. Enjoy



If You Liked...
Armored, Live Free or Die Hard, Four Brothers, The Fast and the Furious, Hostage

Our Favorite Movies of 2010

A and I composed a list of our 30 favorite movies from last year. If you haven't seen them all, you should.

1. Devil - 5 people are trapped in an elevator and one of them is the devil.

2. The Next Three Days - Russel Crow attempts to break is wife out of prison.

3. Charlie St. Cloud - Zack Efron is pretty.

4. The Losers - A CIA black ops team is betrayed and left for dead, so they set out to find the man responsible.

5. Easy A - The Scarlet Letter in a California high school. aka best comedy of the year!

6. The Jonses - Demi More and David Duchovny pretend to be married so they can convince their friends to buy expensive crap.

7. Date Night - Tina Fey & Steve Carell. That should be an easy sell.

8. Shutter Island - Leo (DiCaprio) investigates the disappearance of a patient in a spooky insane asylum.

9. Edge of Darkness - Mel Gibson goes on a crusade to find the men who murdered his daughter.

10. Life As We Know It - Two single adults become caregivers to an orphaned girl when their mutual best friends die in an accident.

11. Inception - I have no idea how to explain this.

12. Unstoppable - A veteran engineer and a rookie conductor race against time to stop an unmanned train.

13. RED - A group of retired spies are targeted for assassination.

14. The Bounty Hunter - An excop is offered five thousand dollars to arrest his ex-wife.

15. Salt - Angelina Jolie does cool spy stuff and beats up a lot of people.

16. Toy Story 3 - Your favorite toys are back and looking for a new home.

17. Paranormal Activity 2 - Almost better than the first. (Almost)

18. Daybrakers - Humans are forced into hiding after vampires have taken over the world.

19. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I - It's Harry Potter.

20. Alice in Wonderland - I will never watch the cartoon again.

21. You Again - Awkward, embarrassing and highly entertaining.

22. How To Train Your Dragon - It's a cartoon about training dragons.

23. The Book of Eli - A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

24. Valentine's Day - It's like Love Actually, on Valentine's Day.

25. Burlesque - Allie is a sucker for musicals.

26. The Town - Ben Affleck robs banks in random costumes.

27. Predators - A group of tough guys (and girl) get dropped off on an alien planet where they are hunted for sport.

28. Going the Distance - Romantic comedy about long distance relationships.

29. Despicable Me - Our 4 year old cousin does the whole "to the moon" speech. It's the most awesome thing in the world.

30. City Island - Didn't see. Allie says it's good. Her exact words, "dysfunctional family at it's finest."