2 Guns, The Heat, Man of Steel, The Oranges, Red 2, This Is the End. Nothing hateable, nothing Oscar-worthy, just good, dirty fun with lots of violence and explosions (except in The Oranges).
Of the six, Red 2 is my favorite (unfortunately Jack couldn't join Jody and me). A light-hearted sequel to Red featuring the strong personalities from the first one (Red is an acronym for Retired Extremely Dangerous), we once again have Bruce Willis (last blogged in Looper), John Malkovich (last in Red), Helen Mirren (last in Hitchcock), and even Mary-Louise Parker (last in Howl) happily blowing up stuff and people. Anthony Hopkins (last starred with Mirren in Hitchcock) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (before Side Effects she was in Rock of Ages) are in this one and Morgan Freeman is not. The body count is high, violence is cartoonish, the costumes imaginative, the locations exotic, and most of their drinks are red. Directed by Dean Parisot. One reviewer said the laughs come as fast as the gunshots. Rottentomatoes' uptight critics give it 41%, audiences 71%.
The Heat comes a close second and Jack and I liked it a lot. Silly and profane (countless F-bombs), this farce about a female law enforcement odd couple has few surprises and plenty of laughs for a summer movie outing. Sandra Bullock (last in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) and Melissa McCarthy (last in This is 40) have good chemistry representing the Felix and Oscar characters, respectively. Every time I saw the clip at the end of the trailer about the spanx I cracked up, and did so again when watching the movie. Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) keeps the pace fast for the most part. Music is original score by Michael Andrews (Jeff, Who Lives at Home) and a long list of songs. My Rule #5 is firmly in place. Rottentomatoes 66/79.
We had read bad things about 2 Guns but went yesterday on John's recommendation and had a great time. Mark Wahlberg (last in Ted) and Denzel Washington (last in Flight) hold the guns in this bro-mance with hot cars, big weapons, senseless violence, games of chicken (literally and figuratively), sequential explosions (boom boom boom boom), and bad-assery (thank Jack for coming up with the last two). Also with Paula Patton (last in Disconnect), Edward James Olmos (my favorites include his Oscar-nominated role in Stand and Deliver (1988), as well as Zoot Suit (1981), Blade Runner (1982), Selena (1997), and 10 episodes of Dexter in 2011), and Bill Paxton (covered in Haywire) as a particularly sadistic villain. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (new to me) and adapted by Blake Masters, a new-ish TV writer, from a graphic novel. The music (here's one sample and another) by Clinton Shorter (District 9) is wonderful. I'm considering buying the soundtrack. Number one at the box office last weekend, it's at 61% critics and 75% audiences on rottentomatoes.
Man of Steel may be a bit serious for its own good but it's redeemed by the scripting and performances of Russell Crowe (last in Les Misérables) as Superman's biological father Jor-El, Kevin Costner (last in The Company Men) as his adoptive father Jonathan Kent, and Henry Cavill's (I don't remember him in Whatever Works and didn't see any of his other roles) smoldering good looks as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman. With Amy Adams (last in On the Road) as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne (profiled in Contagion) as Perry White with a diamond earring in a tribute to newsman Ed Bradley, and no Jimmy Olson. Written by David S. Goyer (covered in The Dark Knight Rises) and directed by Zack Snyder (of his work I've seen only 300 (2006), which was based on a graphic novel). It's 21 at the box office after eight weeks of release and its rottentomatoes averages are 56% critics and 77% audiences. Although I love many of the Marvel Comics movies, as a child I read DC Comics, including the Superman ones.
We laughed a lot for the first half of This Is the End and then got tired of it. Big stars play insecure, degenerate versions of themselves, including James Franco (last in Spring Breakers), Jonah Hill (last in Moneyball, and he talks about that Oscar nomination many, many times), Seth Rogen (last in The Guilt Trip), Jay Baruchel (covered in How To Train Your Dragon), Danny McBride (last in 30 Minutes or Less), Craig Robinson (last in Hot Tub Time Machine), and Emma Watson (last in The Bling Ring), with dozens of other stars in this puerile apocalypse with cheesy special effects. Michael Cera's (last in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) bit is especially funny. Co-written and co-directed by Evan Goldberg and Rogen (co-wrote Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express, The Green Hornet, and more) in their directorial debut. Inexplicably this has the highest rottentomatoes rating of the six in this post: 84% critics, 81% audiences, and after nine weeks is number 22.
And now for something completely different. The Oranges could be a Lifetime Channel movie but for the star power: Hugh Laurie (lots of work in his native England, including comedy with Stephen Fry and Bertie Wooster to Fry's Jeeves in the early 1990s, one of the friends in Fry's Peter's Friends (1992), and then, of course, 176 episodes as Dr. Gregory House) and much-younger Leighton Meester (last in Country Strong) are suburban New Jersey folks behaving badly, but not badly enough for it to be a comedy, by having an affair. And Oliver Platt (last in Ginger & Rosa), Catherine Keener (last in A Late Quartet), Allison Janney (last in The Way Way Back), and Alia Shawkat (last in Cedar Rapids) suffer in their wake. As I said at the beginning: not hateable, but not all that good, either. 33% all around on rottentomatoes. A 2011 release, we watched it On Demand when we couldn't find Behind the Candelabra on U-Verse.
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