Thoughts and musings of Peter Kupfer

+menu-


  • Category Archives Movies

  • Movie Review: No Strings Attached

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer Comment

    The movie starts showing how the paths of Portman and Kutcher’s characters crossed paths over the years. Starting at summer camp, followed by Portman’s dad’s funeral, and then a chance meeting in New York between the two. Finally after Kutcher’s dad starts dating his ex-girlfriend he goes on a drinking binge and ends up on Portman’s couch. From there the two decide to be “friends with benefits” but only until one of them started to feel more. The two continue on the path until one of them does end up starting to fall in love with the other and that is where I leave off with the plot so as not to ruin the ending.

    I came into this movie with extremely low expectations of this being another predictable, formulaic, romantic comedy. However, due to some very funny writing, and excellent comedic timing of the actors involved, this movie ended up being a very good laugh with a nice story behind it.

    From the opening scene in the frat house, I could tell that Portman was going to steal the show. Every time I see her in a movie and I am increasingly impressed at her range and skill as an actress. In this film she handles the comedy element well (though probably not as well Kutcher) and the romantic/dramatic elements extremely well. She doesn’t try to over act the part, but she understands the character and fits into the role well. I would imagine there is some autobiographical touches for her being successful, strong woman who wants to make it on her own.

    Kutcher also serves up a good performance in a role that suits him well. And even though this is a role that fits in with his persona as Michael Kelso, he is really starting to show some depth and skill and acting when it comes emotional scenes. On top of that, his comedic timing is spot in several parts of this film. There are times when he pauses uncomfortably long before a joke and there are times where he hits it right away and every time it works.

    Ultimately what makes this movie for me was the way the humor was delivered in the film. As I mentioned they are several times in the movie when the timing was just so right that it either caught you off guard or it had you so anxious for the joke, that it made it even funnier. There is point where Kutcher’s father delivers some new he doesn’t like and within a half of a second Kutcher bangs his own head right into the table. The quickness of the reaction was priceless. At another point when Kutcher and Portman go on their first date, Portman told him not to bring flowers, but as she is approaching his car, he is holding something behind his back. You have a good feeling it is not flowers, but you don’t know what it is and he keeps waiting and waiting to show her and your mind has time to run through a full range of possibilities until he still pulls out something I never expected.

    There are other parts early in the movie where the awkward pauses work just right during some of the exchanges to make the jokes funnier. When Kutcher first wakes up in Portman’s apartment, each one of her roomates makes it seem like he slept with them the night before and scene is as funny as it is because of the pregnant pauses between lines.

    Overall, No Strings Attached was a good romantic comedy that will make you laugh and will promise an enjoyable evening.

    This entry was posted in General Movies Reviews Share and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Thoughts on District 9: How would Earth handle Aliens?

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer Comment

    District 9 was a well put together film. Going in I wasn’t sure what it was about, but the themes were very interesting and the visuals were quite stunning. I was impressed by the scale of the movie and the realism of the aliens, but then I saw that Peter Jackson was a producer and it all made sense. With the exception of a few over the top scenes at the end of the film involving alien weaponry and fights, the plot of the film seemed fairly realistic. What intrigued me the most about the film was the overall premise of how the Earth would react if aliens were to contact us.

    In the movie, an alien vessel somehow breaks down and parks over Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months, the humans break into the ship and extract the aliens. Unsure what to do with them, the aliens are confined to an area called District 9 where they are put into shacks and not treated particularly well. Nigerian gang lords begin to start a drug trade in canned cat food and start trying to acquire alien weaponry (which they can’t use). After a period of time, it is decided that District 9 is too close to the city and that all of the aliens are to be evicted and moved to a new compound further from the city. This eviction process is where the problems begin.

    [adsense]

    The course of action followed in District 9, sadly, is what quite probably would happen if aliens contacted Earth. Human kind has a history of confining undesirables into small, controlled colonies to make society “safer.” This includes the Japanese internment in America during WWII, the prison colony of Australia, and terrorists in Guantanamo Bay. This would especially be true if the contacting aliens looked like those in District 9. Humans have a tendency to be Xenophobic and this feeds into our fears and prejudices.  Earth would probably react differently if the first species to contact us were Vulcans (or some species that closely resembling humans) as in Star Trek: First Contact.

    vulcan look human

    If I were in charge, I am not sure how I would handle the situation. I think I would try to assimilate the aliens in to our society. In the film they made references to trying to get the aliens jobs, but it seemed that it wasn’t going well. In that case, admittedly I don’t know if I have a better answer. If we have learned anything from our history, it is that treating people with respect and care is the best way to engender friendship and peace. Hostility and anger leads to more hostility and anger, very rarely has a group been successfully contained against their will by brute force.

    What I really wonder is if the United Nations or someone has a plan in place for when this happens. It seems like the kind of thing that a think tank would be good for planning. I also wonder if what happens in Star Trek: First Contact is what would happen. Not the details of how the aliens come, but more so the whole idea of the Earth coming together in harmony and peace once we realize that we are not alone in the universe. It may be the only thing that saves us as a people and creates a world where money is no longer used and our main goal as humans is just to better ourselves and Captain Picard says so many times.

    This entry was posted in General Movies Reviews Share and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Exploitative or Poignant: A review of Remember Me

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer Comment

    Spoiler Alert: This review will expose the twist at the end of the movie. This may not ruin the movie for you, but it may make it less compelling.

    We finished watching Remember Me the 2010 film starring Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame and Emilie de Ravin from LOST. The movie is substantially a normal romantic comedy focused on the two main characters falling in love and connecting over the prior tragedies in their lives. They begin dating because of a bet that is mean spirited but fall in love and then the whole thing blows up. But then they reconnect and things start to look up. This movie definitely exceeded my expectations and the love story itself would have been enough for me to call this a good movie, but the ending left me a little divided.

    At the end of the movie, Pattinson is in his father’s office while the father (who was estranged from his daughter most of the movie) was taking his daughter to school. We find out that this day happens to be September 11th, 2001 and that the father’s office is actually in the World Trade Center. The screen cuts to black and then we see several post attack scenes. I hadn’t really thought about it, but the whole movie was based in 2001. This fact wasn’t thrown in your face, but there were several hints. In one dinner scene there is a Yankees/Mets debate were several 2001 Yankees are named and there is another scene where the characters are watching American Pie 2 (which was released in August 2001) in the theater.

    My reaction to this ending was mixed. At first I thought the ending was kind of a neat twist on the incident. However, after that I started to wonder if the movie was just exploiting the events in order to cause a controversy and draw a crowd. This seemed to be the case, because the whole movie had nothing to do with the attacks and then all of sudden it becomes the central point of the plot. After reflecting longer, I came to realize that that is the point of the 9/11 attacks, no one was thinking about terrorism that day, it just showed up and changed everything. The end of the film has the same sense of unexpected and irrevocable change that many of us felt that day. So, all in all, the ending was very poignant. The movie treated the tragedy in a similar was as did Titanic. It took a horrific event that is so overwhelming it is difficult at times to imagine what it was like if you weren’t there and gave it a personal connection and a sense of what it might have been like to be one of the unlucky that was affected directly that day.

    This entry was posted in Movies Share and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Movie Review: Toy Story 3

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer Comment

    Live Blog review of Toy Story 3 at the McHenry outdoor. Probably will have spoilers. If you haven’t seen it, don’t read.

    Day & Night
    This short was very clever. I like the background and how it filled the shaped (which was obviously the point.) This was not my favorite of the Pixar shorts (I just watched the short before Up last month with the storks and that was much funnier), but the animation and creativity of this short was stellar. My favorite scene was when the day blob was over the waterfall and he relieved himself. I also enjoyed the Las Vegas at night and during the day scenes.

    I thought the end was a little heavy handed and didn’t really have much to with the rest of the short. I didn’t really get a xenophobic feel for the film. It just seemed like the two were competing, not avoiding each other. But I guess the Pixar folks wanted to teach the kids a good lesson and they did that in their normal humorous way.

    Movie
    The opening train robbery sequence was very cool. I like how they incorporated all of the toys.

    A lot of critics said the first 15 minutes dragged and I guess I would agree. After the opening sequence it was just a lot of necessary story setup. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it was not particularly exciting.

    I’m a little surprised at this point by Woody’s attitude towards Andy going to college. I would have thought that Woody would have been all for going to a day care to give a lot of kids happiness seeing as how Andy has moved on. I can see him being loyal too, but to call Jesse “selfish” seemed out of character.

    The introduction to the day care was fun, seeing all the toys and the massage was a nice touch. Woody with the tea party friends was also fun, “I’m staying in character!”

    The day care being taken over by Lotso (You can see the same sort of story as Jesse had in the last film causing his bitterness. I found Lotso’s story more touching and compelling than Jesse’s though I am not sure why) is classic along with the roulette game in the top of the vending machine. Very appropriate, junk food and gambling just seem to go together. And using the demo switch on Buzz Lightyear is genius. (Why all of the Buzz’s in Al’s Toy Barn were so “confused” now makes sense.) Just when you think they’ve used up all of the gags for a character they still think of one more. And, as several reviews have suggested, one the funniest gags in the movie is when Buzz goes into Spanish mode. He starts to tango and woo the ladies as you expect of a sexy Spaniard.

    The whole security of the day care center is so elaborate and funny especially with monkey alarm, I’m consistently amazed at how these people think of new toys and how to incorporate them. And the box, being a sand box with “Lincoln Logs,” the Pixar folks really think of everything.

    [adsense]

    Conclusion

    I got wrapped up in this movie, so I stopped posting but this movie has everything you expect from the great Pixar movies we are used to. (Really, have they made a bad one?) The humor is fresh and relevant and the story works on multiple levels. The kids like the toy’s playing and the silly slap stick humor and teens and adults can appreciate the moving on and growing up story line. I would agree with Dan that even the jokes and themes that reused are not reused do to a lack of creativity, but feel more like intentional links than lack of creativity. One complaint I have, and I guess I would have to have the same complaint regarding Stinky Pete, is that Lotso still was bad even after Woody saved him. I was hoping they would have a little lesson about redemption. Of course, then you wouldn’t have the funny “claw” gag from the three aliens, so maybe that was a necessary trade off.

    I don’t think I can say enough about the the ending is perfect. I had heard several people say that the ending is perfect, but I wasn’t sure what that was to be even until it happened. The choice to end with Andy showing his love of all of his toys and passing them on to Bonnie was inspired. When he says, “Thanks guys,” wow, great that was great writing. It said a lot without saying too much and teaches us all about how to appreciate the past but move on to the future. When Andy is going through and giving the description of each character it made me want to go find my old toys in mom’s basement and start playing.

    I would not say this was the best of the three Toy Story movies because  Toy Story 2 was so good but, overall this may be the best original movie trilogy ever (which means you don’t compare it to Lord of the Rings). The only other original trilogy I can think of that would even compare would be Star Wars. I’m not sure which I would put on top of that list, but they would easily go 1 and 2. All in all, Toy Story has been a great ride. I don’t know if there is any thought of making a fourth, but I hope not. Anything else they do could only bring the series down. Having said that, Pixar has not disappointed so far, so maybe a fourth movie would be in order.

    This entry was posted in Movies Reviews Share and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer 1 Comment

    Tonight we saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into as I am not a big Sherlock Holmes fan. I read The Hound of the Baskervilles in high school and just remember that it involved a moor. So, I can’t really comment on how true the movie is to the character. In terms of the movie itself, I thought it was a pretty good movie. The story was well crafted and followed a logical track in the way that Holmes was able to deduce the clues. The story seems to make sense in terms of what I would expect from Sherlock Holmes. The main antagonist is a practitioner of dark magic and is trying to bring the British Empire back to its full glory. Holmes works through a way to explain all of the magic tricks to explain how they actually happened.  I was intrigued to see how most of the Holmes’s deductions were based on chemistry and all made sense and were probably true. I was happy to see Holmes use the flame test I learned about in chemistry.

    The way the film was shot was also very interesting. I did not realize that Holmes was quite the fighter and I enjoyed the fight sequences they setup where they walked you through Holmes’s thought process before the fight takes place. The slow motion choppy animation during the fights was a little weird, but I guess it added to the intensity of the scene. The sound was very nice in the film. There were periods of quiet where they would highlight the noise of one of the objects coming at the screen. This gave a slight impression of 3D that I really liked.

    I also liked that the movie was very true to the times without seeming dated. The costumes and scenes in the movie never seemed out of place and for the most part the technology was accurate as well. There was one device that electrocuted people that didn’t seem particularly realistic (even now). The rest of the science seemed pretty solid throughout.

    What was really eye opening to me in the this film is how much House and Wilson (from the TV Show House) and Holmes and Watson are alike. I have to assume that the character of Greg House was based on Holmes to some extent. The way that Holmes uses little random clues to make deductions is just the same way the Holmes does. Particularly the scene where Holmes deduces everything about Watson’s fiance from small clues is exactly something House would do (and has done). Also, the way that Holmes keeps sucking Watson back into his life and sabotaging his relationship is akin to House and Wilson.

    In all, I liked the movie and it kind of makes me want to go read some of the books. This movie fits in well right now in terms of what is popular on TV. It fits in with all of the CSIs and other crime dramas out there. The introduction of Moriarty clearly sets the ground for a sequel and I look forward to that.

    This entry was posted in Movies Reviews Share and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Movie Review — Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer 1 Comment

    ***Spoilers Below***

    There is an old saying attributed to William Shakespeare, “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.” Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) Harry Potter fits all three of these categories. Harry was born the chosen one, we learned that in The Order of the Phoenix. Harry has been achieving greatness ever since he arrive at Hogwarts, but he has always been the reluctant hero. Now, in The Half Blood Prince, Harry finally has no choice but to fulfill his destiny with the death of Dumbledore.

    In short, I found the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to be everything I could have wanted from the film. The movie covers the major plot points and is enjoyable to watch as well. The scenery is beautiful and the acting is, for the most part, very good. This movie is more light hearted than the first five which I thought was an good choice. Order of the Phoenix was very intense and The Ghastly Hollows will also be very intense, so this movie being a little lighter is good.

    On some levels I don’t know that you can fully appreciate this film unless you are surrounded by and used to high school teenager antics. The awkward moments between Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermione are really amusing. The way that Cormack goes after Hermione in his overblown jockey way and the way Lavender fawns over Ron is equally amusing. One of my favorite scenes early in the movie is when Harry and Hermione are commiserating with each other in a corridor after Ron snogs with Lavender for the first time. Harry asks Hermione  what is wrong and she asks Harry, “How does it feel when you see Ginny kiss Dean?” Hermione then launches several charmed birds at Ron and Pavarti who come wandering by and Harry says, “about like that.” The movie shows them growing closer as friends more than any other two.

    Jim Broadbent plays Professor Slughorn and does a good job playing the part. He captures the egotistical side of the character as well as the flawed side of the character.

    There are many decision that have to be made regarding what scenes to take from the book and put in the movie and whether or not the story can be changed for time. Some of the plot the movie makers and stuck with because of the book, but in other cases, they had to make conscious choices and, while I can appreciate how difficult that is, I don’t understand or agree with some of them. One, for example, is the scene in the Burrow. The scene doesn’t happen in the book and it doesn’t really advance the plot at all. Yeah, you see Tonks and Lupin in the Burrow which is fun, but the scene could have been cut in favor some time between Ron and Hermione or Ginny and Harry.

    The movie really focuses on Harry’s story and you are left to fill in a lot of the other relationship gaps on your own. The Ron & Hermione relationship is kind of developed, but again you are supposed to put together a lot of those pieces on your own. I think they could have cut out a few other scenes and spent some more time developing that relationship and possible the Ginny & Harry relationship. A friend pointed out, and I agree, that the movie spends more time focusing on Ron and Lavender than it does on Ron and Hermione. I can’t say I fully understand that choice.

    Unlike the first five movies, I did not re-read the book before I saw Half-Blood Prince. I think this let me appreciate the movie more as a movie rather than as an adaptation. Usually I sit through a Harry Potter movie and think about all of the scenes they had to cut. During this one, I was little more at ease. My only real disappointment was the end of the movie. After Harry and Dumbledore go for the horcrux in the cave, they return to Hogwarts and Dumbledore basically sacrifices himself to Malfoy. Somehow Malfoy knew right where to find Dumbledore and he just waits. I also was disapointed that they didn’t have the big showdown fight in the castle. I think leaving out the big fight scene leads to two flaws in the movie.

    The first, and perhaps it won’t be a problem in the next movie, is that because Harry wasn’t immobile & invisible during Dumbledore’s death (as he was in the book) and was able to chase Snape and Bellatrix out of the castle. Snape or Bellatrix then have a chance to kill or capture him, but don’t. I would think they will have to explain this to Voldemort later on.

    The other exception I take with the ending is that it seems to take the two main characters completely out of character. In every other case we see Dumbledore he always fights until the end. In Order of the Phoenix when they try to arrest him he does not go easily and now, in the end, we are expected to believe that he is just going to let himself be killed. I suppose there is a chance that he is offering himself up as a martyr in order to inspire others, but I don’t think that is in his character. Maybe he does it because he knows that Snape has to kill him in order to maintain Snape’s cover. This I could possibly buy, but I don’t think so. In the book he is killed more suddenly in the middle of battle which is a scenario I find much more plausible.

    By the same token, I find it hard to beleive that Harry would just stand there silently and watch this happen. Harry has consistenly shown himself as an impulsive hot head in these types of situations. Early in the movie they show an out of place scene at the Burrow which could only exist to remind us that Harry is a hot head. Belatrix just shows up at the Burrow, and Harry starts running after her before she even does anything. But when Harry watches Snape kill Dumbledore he just stands there? I don’t think that is a proper display of his character.

    All in all, this is another great addition to the Harry Potter tradition and I am anxiously awaiting the first half of the next book’s movie. Hopefully with the expanded format, they will be able to fully develop some more of the relationships as well as the plot.

    This entry was posted in Movies Reviews Share and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Movie Review: Happy Feet

    Posted on by Peter Kupfer Comment

    I just finished watching Happy Feet and I really enjoyed it. The movie seems to be a cross between The Ugly Duckling and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Mumble is a duck whose egg is dropped during incubation. The most important thing in the life of a penguin we learn is to be able to sing in order to find a mate. Mumbles, we learn, lacks the ability to sing well, but he can really cut a rug (this is an old term for dance.) Well, Mumble is shunned from the penguin community all of his life because of his “happy feet” and isn’t allowed to officially graudate from penguin school.

    While this is all happening the penguins and other antarctic creatures are going through a fish famine. The leaders of the penguins say that the great “guin” is angered by Mumble slacker ways and his dancing and is punishing them with no fish. Mumbles learns from a large bird and a treachorous encouter with a walrus (or possible a large otter) that “the aliens” (humans) are causing the problem.

    After being exiled from the emperor penguins, Mumbles sets off with 5 penguins of a different breed to find the source of the problem and exhonerate his name. The travel a long way until they eventually find a large fleet of fishing boats that are taking the fish.  Mumbles companions are content to turn back now because they have proven the Mumbles is not to blame, but Mumbles actually wants to help fix the problem. So, he jumps into the ocean and starts following one of the boats. He is briefly successly but ultimately ends up trying to chase the boat until he ends up in, what I assume is, Australia.

    Here he ends up in a zoo and interacts with aliens. He tries to reason with the aliens, but they don’t seem to understand anything he says. He ends up becoming depressed and hullicinating about his family back home. Eventually one little girl comes up to glass and starts tapping a dancing beat and Mumbles starts to dance. This gets the attention of the whole crowd and Mumbles is ultimately sent back to his home, but he marked with a homing beacon. I’ll leave the rest for you to watch.

    The animation in this movie is really good and they weave music and dance into the movie in a really fun way. The voice acting is good especially the role of Noah, the patriarch of the penguins, who is portrayed by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from The Matrix.) I would reccomend this movie for anyone who enjoys animated films. Towards the end the movie gets very emotional as Mumbles is temporarily separated from his family and we are not sure what is going to happen. The movie also tells a good story that could open a dialog for parents and children.

    This entry was posted in Movies Reviews and tagged Bookmark the permalink