Movies Opening This Week: Bring Awesome Back

After a few uneventful weeks, Edgar Wright’s much anticipated new movie gets out and brings awesome back to the cinema.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Adapted from a series of comic books, Scott Pilgrim is essentially about a boy who’s in a band and is in love with a girl named Ramona Flowers. But before they can even do anything in solitude, Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera, has to fight off her seven evil ex-boyfriends, all of which have some very different character quirks… which reminds me a lot of the video game No More Heroes.

The movie’s soundtrack sounds great, the visual style distinctively mind-blowing and the fight scenes seemingly epic, but what gets me bothered is the fact that the movie, in the end, just seems very hollow for some reason. I mean, what plot is there other than the seven evil ex-boyfriends? Granted, I’m excited for this movie but I don’t think the actual story in terms of depth will really get me to love it. I have yet to see it for myself, but so far the movie has been getting some really positive feedback, so maybe I’ll change my mind when I actually get to see it.

Also slightly less awesome in the creative sense is the traditionally macho all-star cast of:

The Expendables

When have we honestly last seen Arnold Schwarzenegger in an honest-to-goodness real movie? Well, it’s kind of nostalgic to see him coming back with less of a badass stature and more of an old guy vibe… but this time he’s with forces like Stallone, Statham, and even Jet Li. A lot of big names that scream macho and badass can be found in this one, but the premise is just a conglomeration of ideas we’ve all seen before, but done much better. I mean, the trailers only bank on explosions for heaven’s sake.

This doesn’t really excite me at the least, but it seems to offer enough testosterone to warrant a rent when it comes on home video. For me, at least. I know there will be a guaranteed audience for this, especially considering the huge names attached to the project, but if this happened when each were at the prime of their careers, then will this movie be something truly special.

But the girls still have some cinematic room though:

Eat, Pray, Love

If you tire of the intense nature of explosive blockbusters, there’s this calmer romantic adaptation of the novel of the same name. It’s pretty much a girl travelling around to “let herself go” and “find herself” to “get over a relationship”.

I’m not sure whether the book is any good, but I don’t there’s anything to marvel at except for… India, Bali and Italy, I guess.

Looking at it cynically, it’s pretty much a woman wanting a ego boost, and everyone loves that, because it has the potential to spur inspiration, but aside from the times when Julia Roberts is on the screen, everything feels quite phony. I don’t know why, it just feels too artificial and devoid of any emotion. Kind of like what I feel for Scott Pilgrim, but it' doesn’t even have the distinct visual spectacle (aside from the exotic locales) nor the adequately distracting fight sequences. Maybe it’s just a matter of wrong timing, I mean, a movie like this during the summer blockbuster season, are you kidding?

Movies Opening This Week: The Internet is for Porn

The Other Guys

When Samuel Jackson and Dwayne Johnson can’t do the job, Will Ferell and Mark Wahlberg are on the case. And it’s kind of not funny for me.

 

 

 

 

I admit, the trailer has its moments especially with the explosion thing, but for the large part, I’m not entirely sure how this movie isn’t so much different as, say, Cop-Out.

Step Up 3D

Modern movies are usually retreads of the same ol’ formula. Heck, even Inception, one of the most original movies I’ve seen in years, kind of adheres to the heist film formula. The rules have been laid out years prior, and most of what we see now has been done before. But the key thing to most of the movies we still enjoy today is that they still manage to be fresh, but the Step Up series? Well, let’s just say you could mash that series together and you could still come up with the same damn movie; it’s one of the most blatant retreads ever to exist. But this time, it’s in, like, three dimensions, you know?

Aside from the same flashy dance sequences, what else is there to enjoy to this? It’s like mindless action movies, but the action here comes in the form of dance. Shouldn’t be anything wrong, but come on, this is Step Up. This is just the same thing over and over again. Why can’t it just end?

Heck, the sad part is that this won’t be the last we see of the franchise, because a ton of people will still watch it anyway.

Flipped

A new Rob Reiner film about two childhood friends who seem destined for each other, Flipped is a coming-of-age story that seems kind of whimsical as it involves a girl whose intuition tells her that boy is the one for her, but boy is too hesitant and wants to push her away due to peer pressure. When boy realizes that girl may also be the one for him, girl starts contemplating other men, and so the story goes.

Now that we know all of that, the only thing left to ask is whether they stick together or go their separate ways (or, well, go their separate ways and stick together when they suddenly bump into each other again). Whatever the case, don’t expect Rob Reiner to pull another dinner scene here, I mean, they’re kids, obviously. So it probably won’t be much of an iconic film, but I guess it’ll be watchable?

Middle Men

This last one is pretty much the story of the conception of porn on the internet. Huh, sounds like something you’d do as a last resort because you didn’t get Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay of The Accidental Billionaires. Now known as the much-hyped The Social Network by David Fincher.

Whatever the case, it’s still kind of interesting to see how from dudes living in a basement in 1995, they would be able to build an empire that’s just huge.

It probably won’t be as Oscar-y looking as The Social Network, but I’m pretty much guessing it won’t be the worst damn movie either. That said, I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed if I didn’t see this film anyways.

Inception: The Thinking Man's Action Film

Inception
Starring Leonardo de Caprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Directed and written by Christopher Nolan

Hot on the heels of a multi-million dollar Batman movie, Nolan follows it up with an all-new original story that takes place in a land where dreams can be intercepted and corporate information could be extracted by a group of experts operating under a company. Unfortunately, due to the death of his wife, Dominic Cobb (Leo de Caprio) fails to pull off a job but finds out that rich businessman Saido (Ken Watanabe) is willing to give anything to Cobb under one condition: Cobb needs to do the opposite of his day job and actually implant an idea to a rival company's heir instead of extract it (thus the title) so that Saido's company will win in the end.

What follows is a series of events set into motion that, if you don't follow closely, will continue on regardless of whether you like it or not, whether you can understand or not. But that doesn't exactly mean that the story is extremely convoluted; in fact, the story and its several threads are handled so well that each of them is a uniquely worthy point of discussion.

Nolan doesn't feel the need to pander to his audience and treats them with the respect they deserve, but I think the thing that's getting a lot of positive feedback is the entire second half of the movie, which for all intents and purposes, is awesome. You will care for all its characters and you will know the gravity of the situation, and this is the part where Inception appeals to a lot of people. It's where the thrills come, where all the subplots of the subplots of the subplots in the subplot of the main plot get tied together, resulting in a handsome pay-off.

The key thing in watching Inception is that it isn't necessarily a thriller that discusses the concept of "dreams" in as much detail as you'd think a pretentious movie would, but it's more of a heist movie that involves a cast of endearing characters doing "one last job" so that Cobb's character won't be a wanted man in America anymore. You can screw up a lot of these kinds of films, but the cast Nolan's assembled here is just excellent and pitch-perfect.

Of note is Ellen Page's character Ariadne is basically in almost the same position as us- the unknowing audience, except for the part where she is a gifted architect- and she does an exemplary job at being hesitant, curious and oblivious at first, even though she becomes the voice of reason in later events. Props also go to Joseph Gordon Levitt for being such a badass and Marion Cotillard for turning in what I think is her best performance since La Vie En Rose.

Oh and Leonardo... is a given. He's pretty much the glue that makes us care for everyone in the first place.

At this point it would be hard to talk about the movie without spoiling it and its intricacies. If anything else is of note, then it may well be the cinematography, the sensationally realistic special effects, the emotional depth, the simultaneous visceral and cerebral satisfaction (which has become atypical of Nolan movies), or the bombastic but less than memorable score. Whatever the case, Inception is a movie you must see to believe, with its trailers barely even justifying the amount of epic contained within its package.

Still, don't go in expecting an overly exhaustive breakdown of dreams and excessive philosophical whimsy, just expect a highly intelligent action film that requires you to be glued to its details at all times. Either way, it's a great movie to watch and talk about for days afterwards.

True, Nolan doesn't achieve levels of "masterpiece", but what he does in Inception, he does very well. And we're all the better for it. In fact, its box office performance may well be an inception all its own. The simple idea that an original and highly cerebral film can be profitable is an appealing proposition, and we must expect no less from the studios and the filmmakers.

Rating: 9/10