Holiday Weekend Movie Review

hey guys!  hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing holiday weekend 🙂  we had a great time with my family out here, and now back to reality.  but before getting back to work, i wanted to do a quick review of the movies we saw this weekend!

movies are a huge thing in my family.  most people think we’re strange, but i grew up going to the movies just about every weekend.  we would even do double features a lot of the time.  and about 12 years ago, when we stopped doing Christmas with my mom’s family on the 25th, we started a new tradition of the Christmas day movie run…after opening presents, we would all get ready and head to the theater, seeing 2 or 3 movies back to back.

some years have been more memorable, with movies like The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Catch Me If You Can…and some not so much, with films such as How Do You Know? and Children of Men. this year, we not only saw a couple of movies in the theater, but we also watched a few Academy screeners my dad received.  it was a movie weekend for sure, and here are my brief reviews of each one we saw…

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – In my opinion, a must-see movie of 2011! The kid (Thomas Horn) did an amazing job carrying this film.  It’s hard to believe this is his first credit.  I thought the story was so unique and captivating, and there were a couple of great twists along the way 🙂  I’m not sure why the critics were so harsh with this one, but I have to say I haven’t been agreeing with the critics on quite a few movies lately.  It appears there are more “political” reviews than genuine ones as of late.  Anyway, even though the story is centered around 9/11 and some people think it’s a touchy subject, I think they did a great job of telling a beautiful character story built around the event, not about the event.

We Bought A Zoo – Adorable!  Great family film with a lot of heart, and even some good laughs.  If you can be forgiving of some cheesy moments and the blahness that is Scarlett Johansson, than I think you will love it.  Matt Damon is so endearing as a dad who recently lost his wife and is trying to do what is best for his family during this sensitive time.  You will fall in love with the daughter, Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), and the son did a fantastic job as well.  I was even more intrigued when I learned that it was based on a true story 🙂

War Horse – Skip it!  Unless you are desperately looking to spend $12 to watch a mediocre TV movie, I recommend you pass on this one.  This is a perfect example of a film that the critics are raving about that does not deserve the attention it received.  Steven Spielberg has obviously done some amazing movies in his time, but I think his time may be coming to an end.  The beautiful war scenes you see in the trailer are the only part of the film that actually look decent.  The rest is comprised of bad sets and hideous lighting.  The writing is awful.  The acting is poor.  I couldn’t even make it through the entire film.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – This was probably one of my biggest disappointments of the year.  Again, the critics raved about it, and I don’t know why.  The trailer advertised the film as this fast-paced espionage thriller, and in reality it was one of the most slow, boring, and confusing films I’ve ever seen.  I felt like the movie wasted some of the big names it boasted, such as Gary Oldman & Colin Firth.  And the big reveal at the end was neither big nor a reveal…it was exactly what you were expecting.  I will say that the film looked beautiful, but I think my compliments would have to stop there.

Like Crazy – Again, not sure what the critics were thinking here? I felt like I was watching One Day all over again, with all of the back and forth and montage after montage.  I thought Felicity Jones did a good job as Anna, but Anton Yelchin was kind of annoying at times.  I was still intrigued enough to keep watching all the way through, but then horribly disappointed at the resolution, or lack thereof.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily need every movie to be wrapped up all pretty at the end with a little bow, but when there is no resolution to the tension then that bothers me.

if you saw any of the films, feel free to share your thoughts!  i’d love to hear 🙂

i hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week…i’m hoping to do my “2011 Faves” post by the end of this week!

xoxo

jess