Tag: movie review

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Kick-Ass

    As I sit down to write this review, I realize that I don’t seem to know much about these movies before I sit down to watch them… it’s really been a recurring theme in all my reviews. Hopefully my New In Theaters section of Saturday Shenanigans will help me to better understand what these movies are about on a week to week basis!

    The only thing I really knew about Kick-Ass was that it was about a kid that dresses up like a superhero and fights crime, it was based on a graphic novel, and that it received pretty good reviews. I didn’t even realize Nicolas Cage was in this movie, that alone is typically a deal breaker (as was the case with , Knowing, Bangkok Dangerous, Next, I could go on but is that really necessary?) unless there’s something else that really draws me to the movie, like National Treasure 2 (I enjoyed the 1st one) or Eva Mendes in Ghost Rider. That’s another terrible movie and I can’t stand Nic Cage in it, but Mendes just looks so good in that movie…

    *Clearing my throat* Wow, sorry for that rabbit trail there. We’re here to talk about Kick-Ass, not Nic Cage (but I have to say, he wasn’t too bad in this movie!) Released on April 16, 2010 and on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 3, 2010, Kick-Ass is based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and the film was directed by Matthew Vaughn. I’ll get into my reason for listing these details after the break. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Date Night

    I honestly never really knew anything about Date Night prior to watching it, the only thing I knew was Steve Carell and Tina Fey were starring in a movie together, that alone was enough to make me want to see it. I was of the impression that the movie was about two single people going on the worst date ever, that’s not at all what the movie is about.

    Date Night was released in theaters on April 9, 2010 and on DVD and Blu-ray August 10, 2010. While it definitely isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, I think it’s the quality of the actors in the movie helped to make it a fun ride, from the 2 stars down to appearances by Mark Wahlberg and James Franco in a couple of hilarious scenes, Date Night does a good job of delivering the laughs. We’ll get into the movie a bit more after the jump. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: (500) Days Of Summer

    Seems like many of the movies I’ve watched lately have had this ‘movie crush’ theme, and  (500) Days Of Summer fits squarely into that category. My entire interest in this movie revolved around the fact that Zooey Deschanel was in it, not sure any other actress would have even made me curious about the movie. I just really enjoy her characters, they are quirky, off the wall, awkward, and usually just perfect.

    I really went back and forth on this movie, there were a number of scenes and lines that made me laugh, but there were almost an equal number of scenes that just frustrated me. More after the break. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Green Zone

    I first heard about Green Zone during it’s release week, which was March 12, 2010. It was wrapped in a fancy package:

    Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for the electrifying thriller Green Zone.

    So of course, I saw the first 10 words or so, combined with the description of ‘electrifying thriller’ and I thought, “Sweet! It’s going to be like a Bourne movie!” Well, it wasn’t exactly like a Bourne movie.

    Released on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 22, 2010, I had to wait until late July to get it because of the stupid limitations and delays Netflix gets. I finally got around to watching it the other night and it was very different from what I expected. Matt Damon is another of my ‘movie crushes’, I’ll often watch a movie simply because his name is in the credits. Stuck on You is a good example of another Damon movie I watched just because he was in it (coincidentally, Damon’s co-star Greg Kinnear was also in that one, and I kept teasing my wife asking her how long after Stuck on You this movie took place because they didn’t even seem to recognize each other anymore since they were separated.)

    Stupid jokes aside, we’ll get into what Green Zone was, the good and the bad, after the jump. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: The Ten

    I remember hearing about The Ten when it came out in 2007, and I was interested in it purely based on all the names in it, but I withheld some of my enthusiasm as the entire movie is basically comprised of making fun of the Ten Commandments. I really like Paul Rudd, even in the movies I disliked, I typically enjoyed the scenes he was in. You might say I have a ‘movie crush’ on him, sometimes I’ll watch a movie only because he’s in it. I’m looking at you Wet Hot American Summer, although to be fair, I also watched that one because Elizabeth Banks is in it. I’ve also got a ‘movie crush’ on her and watch some of her movies simply because she was in them. Hmm… ‘movie crushes’, sounds like a possible upcoming post!

    Alright, time to find my way back from that rabbit trail… so my wife had a girls night, and I stumbled across Cinematicals Free Flick of the Day and it featured The Ten. So I headed over and found it on Hulu, put it on the big screen (connected to my Media PC custom made by Nelsen Technologies) and found out what this movie was about.

    (more…)