End of Summer Movie Bottom Lines

With summer wrapping up, I'd like to present the second half of my summer movie bottom lines.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

This was by far the best of the Harry Potter movies.  The action and special effects were outstanding, and Daniel Radcliffe's performance didn't upset me too much (unlike a certain Broadway show).

Kudos:  Alan Rickman.  I loved him before the HP films, but he honestly brought Snape to life (considering my vision of Snape before the movies looked something like this).

Monkus:  Since when did Voldemort travel to the Island, fall down the cave of glowing light and transform into the smoke monster from Lost?

Winnie the Pooh

This was a great movie (if you can call it that).  It evoked all the fun and enjoyment of the original animated Pooh stories.  I laughed out loud multiple times, despite being over the age of five.

Kudos:  Bobby Lopez!  He wrote a song about Pooh's rumbly tummy and the song Hasa Diga Eebowai from The Book of Mormon.  I can't believe the versatility of this guy.

Monkus:  I paid full price for this ticket and the movie ran an hour and fifteen minutes from start to end including previews.  That's like 17 cents a minute.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Another so-so super hero movie.  I found myself getting bored mid-way through.  Here's hoping Joss Whedon can fix this with the Avengers movie.

Kudos:  Stanley Tucci was enjoyable and entertaining as the German scientist.

Monkus:  I'm not sure what sort of weird CG effects they used to put Chris Evans head onto a skinny guy body, but it just looked weird and unnatural (setting the something's slightly off tone for the whole movie).

Friends with Benefits

I was hoping this would be a better version of No Strings Attached.  Instead it was less funny, and the characters were less relatable (and NSA had Natalie Portman).

Kudos: After ten years of waiting, the teenaged Nsync lover in me secretly smiled upon seeing Justin Timberlake's ass.

Monkus: Justin Timberlake will always be Justin Timberlake.  I can't see him as any other character.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

For the longest time I thought the sub-title was "Dark Side of the Moon."  And considering the number of times they reference it in the film, I still don't understand why it wasn't called that.  The action was good and all that, but alien robot machines as characters just don't cut it for me.  I still don't understand why the autobots would want to stay on Earth and help humans when they are clearly so much more awesome than us.

Kudos: Shia LaBeouf is an entertaining actor to watch, even though he always kinda ends up playing the same character in all his movies (sort of like Michael Cera, except less annoying and more talented).

Monkus: I'm probably the only person for whom this is an issue, but I hate that they didn't resolve Sam's personal issues.  Does he get his shit together and get a job?  Or does he just financially rely on the hot chick for the rest of his life?

The Change-Up

This movie is advertised as an R-rated Freaky Friday (yeah I link to the Jodie Foster version, what?), and as far as that goes, it was pretty funny.

Kudos: I really like Jason Bateman.  He's clearly the best part of this movie.  But let's be honest, isn't it kind of funny how Bateman playing an irresponsible drugged-up man child is now considered playing against type (giving his own admissions about past drug use)?

Monkus: This movie takes itself too seriously.  From the corny ending to the overly dramatic background score.  Do we have to learn a lesson at the end?  Can't it just be funny (I mean with the body-swap plot it's not like we're restricting ourselves to the realm of realism?

Cowboys and Aliens
I wanted this movie to be awesome (I would even accept awesomely bad), but it came across as just plain stupid.  I seriously believe Harrison Ford is damaging his awesome man reputation with roles in movies with alien antagonists (Indy 4...).

Kudos: The concept was creative enough.  I mean for all the aliens attacking Earth scenarios out there, why wouldn't aliens have attacked during the frontier, wild west days?

Monkus: These kinds of movies are generally plagued with plot holes, but this one takes the cake.  Aliens who want gold, but are awesome enough to have strap-on laser guns? Does not really compute.

Crazy, Stupid, Love
I loved this movie.  This is the way romantic comedies should be done.  The story feels surprisingly grounded in reality, with generally realistic characters (except for Marissa Tomei).  Even though the story succumbs to a few "shoulda seen it coming" twists and a hokey, heartfelt conclusion, it still came across as fresh.
Kudos:  Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gosling.
Monkus:  Plot lines that depend heavily on child actors generally make me cringe.  Sadly, this movie's weak point is also the child story line, (developed around Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore's tween son being in love with his babysitter).

The Help
Kind of sappy, a bit long, but overall an enjoyable movie.  Civil rights centered plots tend to involve some righteously open-minded and forward thinking white character who believes segregation is wrong.  This character, while likable, always comes across as slightly disingenuous to me (disingenuous with regard to history I guess), and Emma Stone's Skeeter is no exception.  Although this disingenuousness is more an issue with the genre in general, not this specific film.
Kudos:  Viola Davis provides a great performance as Abeline.
Monkus:  "You is kind.  You is smart.  You is important."  The grammar police in me suffered every time this line was uttered.  Ultimately, it's the lack of grammatical correctness that will prevent this saying from becoming  one of those memorable movie quotes we like to use in reference to real life (you know like "Life is like a box of chocolates.").

My movie attendence kind of fell off toward the end there, but sadly it seems so did the quality of movies.  So much so that I wasn't even tempted.

Daily Monku:  Last week Netflix announced that it would soon lose its access to Starz catalog of movies.  To which I can say that totally blows.  Without Starz movies in the Netflix streaming catalog, you're basically left with B and C level films.  So if you're not in the mood to watch an "It's So Bad It's Good" movie, you're out of luck (you'll have to wait for it to arrive in the mail on DVD).  Considering Netflix recently raised its prices (splitting streaming and at-home DVD services) with the justification that it needed the funds for renegotiating contracts with streaming content providers, I'm quite miffed.