Mike's Mega Media Recap - Pt. 1 (MOVIES!)

I watched this as a downpayment on the next movie on this list, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I shouldn't have been surprised because Kristin Wiig was the writer and star, but still..  a movie about Bridesmaids?  Hilarious and heart-warming, that initial scene at the restaurant between Wiig and Rudolph "making faces" was worth the price of admission.

When the trailer for this first came out I was seriously stoked.  Then I forgot about it.  Then I saw it on an airplane and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was pretty dry for an animated film, but that's why I loved it.  Rango's eyes were pretty gross to look at, but you got used to it.  Charming movie that sits on the same shelf as The Fantastic Mr. Fox -- animated movies that might bore children to tears.



Next on my list of movies I would only watch on an airplane!  But again, the magic of altitude, fatigue and boredom saved the day!  A pretty understated movie that mostly succeeds due to McConaughey's charm and whatever affection you had for him in A Time to Kill.  It's been a while since I enjoyed a lawyer movie this much though.  Kinda reminded me of another "under the radar" lawyer movie, The Rainmaker.



Min was definitely more excited about this one than me, mainly due to her crush on JJ Abrams and the fact that this movie was about kids.  It was aight.  Growing up in the '80s with movies like The Goonies, ET, Stand by Me, The Karate Kid etc, it's pretty hard to re-create the magic of being a kid watching a movie about kids getting into adventures and then wanting to get into your own adventures.  The home movie they play during the credits is pretty classic though.



Okay, first totally random "non-summer" movie.  While on a bus from DC to NYC, this was the movie they played on the trip.  Luckily I was prepared, having seen Diary of an Angry Black Woman a few months earlier.  Tyler Perry movies are a genre unto themselves.



Like the other comic book movies on this list, I possess an irrational loyalty for movies made from source material from my youth.  All I can say about Transformers 3 is, "it was better than Transformers 2" -- oh, and it was really, really, really, really long.  It could have been 1.5 hours shorter.



Airplane movie, what.. number 4 on my list?  On Min's recommendation I watched this one, knowing full well that it was one of those unabashedly family/faith friendly movies that appeal to Evangelical Christian audiences.  And you know what?  It was pretty good.  Inspirational and not overly preachy, I genuinely enjoyed myself.  Carrie Underwood as the cliche spouting youth pastor I could have done without.



I was also pretty excited when I saw the trailer for this one.  I was even more in awe when I discovered how long Mark Wahlberg stayed in training while this movie lingered in limbo.  Any time I feel like giving up on exercise and healthy eating I think of Marky Mark and The Fighter.... I think about the Fighter a lot.



I'm half relieved that it's over and only half thrilled with how the whole thing turned out.  Though The Prisoner of Azkaban was both my favorite book and movie, the Deathly Hallows was also a pretty great read/watch.  I felt like the conclusion was more emotional and powerful in the book (as it usually is), but I was sad to see these actors whom I saw age before me on screen move on to other things.  I am glad, however, that it actually did end.  I was afraid that the 7th movie would keep dividing endlessly and never reach a conclusion.



Okay - the second I walked out of the theater, I was kinda on the fence with regard to how I felt about this movie.  But the more days that went by, the more affection I felt for this movie.  It was great!  Not overly special-effect-y, it's basically the story of a weakling with a good heart who gets a chance to beat up on bad guys because his weakness enables him to appreciate his strength.  Now, if only the real America thought this way.



Surprisingly good.  You are cheering for the apes by the end of the movie.  The only distraction was when Draco Malfoy showed up as the evil ape-prison-guard.  Also, this movie kinda revived this whole universe which I gave up on after the severe disappointment I suffered under the Tim Burton/Mark Wahlberg fiasco.  How did that movie suck?



Meh.  Again, it was entertaining but didn't really break any ground in either genre, Cowboy or Alien.

Aside from Superman and Batman, I was kind of an anti-DC snob growing up as a kid reading comic books.  So I never read Green Lantern or really knew anything about the character or universe.  The movie seemed intriguing to me because I think Ryan Reynolds is actually kinda funny and thought he could pull this off.  The cheesy green special effects mostly reminded me of Jim Carrey's The Mask, though and any scene with Blake Lively was sheer torture.  Cameron Diaz she is not.

Tomorrow -- TV SHOWS, MOVIES and MUSIC!