It's Kind of a Funny Story

I came into this movie with some mixed feelings. Some people I know loved it while others hated it and this film really fell off the radar after being the theaters for a little while in 2010. For me, It's Kind of a Funny Story is not perfect but it does what it needs and I found it to be a a sweet and accurate story.

Based on a novel, the film follows a stressed teen named Craig (Keir Gilchrist) who checks into a hospital to get away from life and along the way, finds love and meets a another patient named Bobby (Zach Galifianakis) who teaches him about the world and also himself.


This has a similar feel to that of the film "Terri" with Jacob Wysocki and John Reilly playing similar roles. Zach Galifianakis and Keir Gilchrist have the same feel playing in this movie. They both have a "down to earth" feel to them combined with fine acting and without them, the film would really be nothing.

Along with two good leads, the other characters are good. They can be very hard to take at times because of  the many unrealistic things they do and also the parents of the characters aren't very helpful either but even with that, you can find a good personality to all them and they provide entertainment even considering their flaws.

Being a teenager myself, the story here is really something I could relate to. It is something that feels right at home and even the parts I couldn't relate to, I still could relate somewhat due to knowing other people involved in similar scenarios. Along with that, this movie is original and told with a lot of insight and that helps the film even more.

In end, the It's Kind of a Funny Story is really about what we want out of this world. It's message to it's teen audience is to keep fighting and do whatever you need to do, and to me that's a brilliant thing.

3.5/5

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Life of Pi

Life of Pi is an Ang Lee film. I remember when Lee made one of the early Hulk films which while flawed is a film I liked as a kid, and still do. Ang Lee is now a famous director and unfortunately I have missed most his films because I was too young to see them. His new film, Life of Pi is a bit unlike the Hulk movie in that there is really nothing not to like here. It is a film that I believe everyone would like and one of the most interesting films of 2012.

Based on a novel, Life of Pi follows Piscine Molitor (Irfan Khan), who later changed his name to Pi (Irhan Khan) who tells a story to a writer (Rafe Spall) about his younger self and a journey that had him shipwrecked and stranded at sea with a tiger as his only friend and as his enemy.

The opening act is really the most interesting part of this film and but also contains the film's main flaws. The film tells us a interesting story about Pie's childhood that provides some laughs, but also a sad side to the characters while also adding a lot of depth to the film. The problem with the opening is all these plot elements seem to drag along the film with too many things going on, and the film is not stylized to it's time period so it is a little hard to follow. During this portion of the movie, I was wondering where this film was going.

Later on, there are some flaws including some unrealistic rafts used in the water that seems way too complicated for the circumstances. During this part of the film, there are parts where the film drags before it really ends up taking off and becomes a solid film. The latter part of the movie is entirely set in water and Lee depicts this very well.

What is really consistent and done well in this film is the acting and the use of the animals. I have never seen a film that uses a tiger so realistically while including a lot other good animals though the others were depicted in zoo scenes. In addition, the acting here is first-rate. The character of Pi is told through many actors as he ages through the story and all the various Pi characters are well played with intelligence and likability. Lee seems to easily convey some difficult parts of this story that other directors may not have handled so well.

Life of Pi also stands out due to it's style and beauty. There are many beautiful dark (night) shots and also action shots in the water that feel surreal and unlike anything I've ever seen before. Ang Lee has done an excellent job with this. Here are some examples of this beautiful imagery,

 

 

                                       
Once we reach the end, Life of Pi come across as a kind of a strange whole. It is a film that is hard to figure as a whole and I am not seeing that is really has a point or a greater meaning. That said, so much here stands out and the film is as memorable as they come.

Life of Pi is a film that some people might not like as it might be too "out there"and not their type of film, but to me this is a movie can't be not missed. It is also one that separates the good directors from truly great which Ang Lee now has become in my book.

4/5

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Favorite Thanksgiving films

To me the holiday of Thanksgiving has always seemed different for a holiday. Not much happens for me anyway, but I get a day off and spend time with my family. Well anyway, here are my favorite Thanksgiving films.

A top Thanksgiving movie list really would not be complete without the classic Trains, Planes and Automobiles. One of the more realistic road trips of all-time and another great film from John Hughes.

I don't remember too much about the 2009 Judd Apatow film Funny People but it did have some good Thanksgiving plot elements to it and I do remember that it was a decent film overall.

It really should be on a  tv list but Charlie Brown's A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is really fun film to watch ever year at this time even if it's not really a film. This got me into Peanuts when I was young.


It is a little hard to put together a Thanksgiving movie list because there are not that many of them I probably missed some but for now this is my list and maybe it will change as the years go by..

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Christine

                                                                          
As a Stephen King fan, I have high expectations for every one of the films inspired by his books. Christine is no exception and overall I think it is a good movie but also one that is missing some stuff.

Christine is the story of a nerd named Arine (Keith Gordon) who buys a car which he names Christine that as it turns out has a mind of it's own and goes on a killing spree. Christine even starts to take over and begins affecting Arine who is mysteriously attached to the car.

In many ways, this is kind of a hard film to put together but John Carpenter does a good job with it. Maybe he could put more a bit more detail into this but for the most part he offers up a quite convincing killer car that feels real through some of the characters are a little unrealistic and for example you see some of them walk away unhurt from what should be major injures in incidents with Christine. In short, Chrsitine is really a unique killer and Carpenter develops and presents Christine very well.

Some of the plot elements are a bit difficult. Also some of the characters really seem to run on a lot of emotions while working with Christine but at the same time, they are still good scenes. There are some great actors including Harry Dean Stanton, Keith Gordon and John Stockwell and Carpenter uses them well to develop some very fine characters.

Christine is not the best Stephen King book adaptation out there nor is it Carpenter's best work, but it is still a well-made 80's horror film that I enjoyed and would recommend.

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Red Riding Hood

Back in 2009, I do remember when the film Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke came out and thought it was pretty decent when I saw it at the theater. With Hardwicke's new film, Red Red Hood I was hoping it would be turn out the same but when it reached it's end, the film really turned out to be the exact opposite of the high hopes I had for it. Not only is it not very good but it feels like too much like Twilight and in the end it is a film that just doesn't work at all.

Red Riding Hood is centered around a character named Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) and is set in the distant past in a village where people are dying due to a killer wolf. Valerie becomes involved in this conflict and at the same time must choose between two men, one which she is in love with and the other whom she is being forced to marry by her parents.

I have liked Amanda Seyfrield in just about everything I have seen her in but here I found her performance weak. She seems to project a vibe that she really did not want to be there and with her being in the lead role, this does takes down the film quite a bit.

I think, the whole Red Riding tale is very interesting and also daring but this version really fails in some key aspects. The wolf idea is interesting but the wolf looks uneven and not at all realistic. The "two lovers" motif is a sour idea that make the film feels more romantic then it should be. The characters and actors (Max Irons and Shiloh Fernandez) are really uninteresting and these characters do not feel very real especially with the movie being set in a different time frame and both feel like Jacob and Edward from Twilight. These flaws take down the movie to the point where at times you just don't care at all about this film and that was last thing I was expecting from this work.

Along with the plot idea, I think one highlight to the film is the sets which are pretty cool to look at and they fit into the time period pretty well. That said, the sets should not be the main highlight of a film.

I liked Red Riding Hood more than some others I know and it not one the worst films of 2011, but it is a very disappointing film that should have been much better than it is.

2/5

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The Roommate

                                           

Going into the film, I knew that it was not going to be the greatest movie ever and that there would be some flaws but I had some hope for it. While the film tries somewhat and there might be a few minor highlights, The Roommate is  really a mess of a film that in the end falls flat completely.

The Roommate is pretty much an unofficial remake of the 1992 film, Single White Female. It is the story of a lady named Rebecca (Leighton Meester) who lives with Sara (Minka Kelly) and as times goes on, Sara learns that Rebecca is more than we might think and also not the innocent person we might think she is.

One main problem with this film is the acting of Leighton Meester. She is certainly attractive but her acting here needs a lot of work. She is not scary as she should be in this role and the character often moves the film in the absolute wrong direction at the wrong time.

There is a lot of talk of fashion in this movie for some reason. I am not much into fashion and maybe I am not the one to judge it's role here but this movie really needed more plot. I am also not sure what audience the director Christian E. Christiansen was looking to appeal to here. The last time I checked, people that are into fashion are usually not much into horror films.

Along with the bad lead, overall the movie has a terrible cast. All of them are uninteresting and frankly slow down the film. Rebecca's parents are terrible and at times don't see to know anything about the world.

Even through I think this was one of the worst movies of 2011, I guess I give give it some credit for trying. Even if a remake, it is kind of an interesting idea and the only action scene in the film is pretty good so that is something. Not much though.

In the end, The Roommate is a poorly structured film that does not have a lot going for it and is a movie that I think will be long forgotten years down the road.

1.5/5

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Presidential movies

I am not a real big political guy and a frankly I find politics to be more annoying than anything. As time goes by though, I do find more political stuff that I can relate to and I have started to lean towards one party over the last year. As always though, I am more interested in the movie side of politics and as Election Day approaches, here are my top Presidential movies.

Long forgotten and no doubt not a perfect film but Dave has a different and interesting take on the Presidency. It also has a nice love story to it.

Of these films, Dick is no doubt the funniest. It tells the story of the Watergate scandal in a really cool way and is a good early performance by Kirsten Dunst.

Not a lot of people liked this film but I did. Vantage Point is a political action thriller about the attempted assassination of a President seen in of lot of different and interesting ways (vantage points). This is a very original film and again I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Obviously Independence Day is a pretty good sc-fi film but the Presidential angle of this film is really good too. I think it stood out more than maybe it should have and the movie made me like Bill Pullman even more than before.

While this is not a real big list of Presidential films, all of them depict the Presidency in unique and different ways and all of them are quite watchable. Check some of these out instead of election returns Tuesday if you want.

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