400 And Counting: Week 11 (I May Not Always Love You)
January 8, 2015
So I only watched four films this week. Rather pitiful to be honest. This week has been exhausting with work. It turns out that people like seeing movies while on holidays. Who would of imagined that!?
It was also the week that I started on one of my christmas gifts, Bioshock Infinite. It was our editor Don’s Game of 2013, so I’m sure he doesn’t mind that this article is late and is a few reviews short…right Don? (Editor’s note: Only if you watch Orphan Black)
It’s been a while since a game has kept me from watching a movie or TV show or reading a comic — it’s nice.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)
Director: Shawn Levy
1:38:00 (completed)
This is the third Night at the Museum film; to be honest I’ve never bothered to see the first film. As you’d guess from the title, there’s a museum and at night the exhibits come to life. So get ready for a number of cameos of famous actors playing historic figures. The only thing I remember from the second one was that Amy Adams was in it.
Despite that, this was actually a reasonable film — a hard thing to say about a Ben Stiller comedy. There’s a few awfully specific jokes, including a reference to The Cove; I doubt many in the audience have seen this documentary about the dolphin slaughter in Japan, but I laughed at the joke. There’s one great cameo towards the end of the film that I found most amusing, but in the end, this was a rather run of the mill family comedy with a few extra famous faces.
Red Tails (2012)
Director: Anthony Hemingway
2:05:00 (Completed)
George Lucas was the Executive Producer; since it’s post-1989, this should have been a red light.
Red Tails is about a squadron of African American fighter pilots during World War II who battle racism to fly combat missions for their country. It’s an interesting story, but a terrible film. The same true story inspired a 1995 TV movie with Laurence Fishburne that looks far superior to this one.
What makes Red Tails so bad? Terrible, terrible dialog delivered so poorly by rubbish actors, with the exceptions of Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. The editing and pacing felt flat, and most of the action and actual dogfights were bland and boring. I just didn’t care about the characters at all.
The Eternal Zero is a far better example of a WWII fighter pilot film. That’s a movie you should actually watch. Please, just don’t bother with Red Tails.
Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics (2010)
Directed by: Mac Carter
1:30:00 (Completed)
Just like documentaries about movies, I’m generally going to enjoy docos about comics, and this film about the history of DC Comics was no exception.
It tells the story of one of the ‘big two’ publishers, from its early days to the creation of it’s major characters (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman), through the different ‘comic ages,’ to the creation of the Vertigo imprint. Ryan Reynolds narrates, just one year before he starred in the terrible Green Lantern film (of which no footage is shown).
It glossed over a few things, such as the fact that it took Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster almost thirty years to receive proper compensation and credit for the creation of Superman. The film also tracked the spread of comics into the mainstream via radio and television movies.
It was a talking heads doco, but it kept me interested.
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Directors: Don Hall and Chris Williams
1:42:00 (Completed)
Disney has finally topped The Incredibles.
Big Hero 6 stars Hiro (Ryan Potter), a 13 year old genius who’d rather fight with robots than go to college, until his big brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) shows him all the cool science being done. Soon afterwards, story stuff happens and we’re treated to one of the better superhero origin films out there.
This film had quite the emotional heart while still remaining a family film with lots of laughs. Baymax (Scott Adsit), the big soft white robot you see in the posters, is the standout.
The film sets itself up for a sequel and to be honest, I don’t mind. I’d definitely watch Big Hero 7 Big Hero Six2 Big Hero 6: Electric Boogaloo whatever they call the sequel.
I found myself sick of watching films on computer, despite hardly doing so over the last few weeks. So I’ve been neglecting the SBS site. I guess we’ll find out next week if I can push past it and just watch some damn films.
Film of the week: Big Hero 6
Movies watched this week: 4
Did Not Finish (DNF) this week: 0
Time spent this week: 6:55:00
Total movies watched: 57/400
Total DNF: 2
Total time: 107:44:32
