ModestGeniusXL

Y? Because we LIKED Her!

You'd have to be up there in years a bit to get that title.  Or at least be up on your Mickey Mouse Club knowledge.  But trust me...it could have not be more appropriate for this latest bit of sad news.  Anyone who knows anything about the Mikey Mouse Club will quickly tell you she was the best of the bunch.

Original Mousekateer Annette Funicello passed away Monday due to complications from multiple sclerosis.  She was 70-years-young.

I have to make sure to make this one of my best tribute posts for selfish reasons.  For one, Mom instructed me to do so.  Annette was her favorite Mousekateer out of the whole bunch.  For more than just her stint on that show though. Also for the several beach party movies she made in later years.  But another reason being that I rather dug Annette myself.  She was a class act that remained true to an unblemished image for years and years.  Not many stars, especially those that were former child actors, can make that same claim.

My first real exposure to Annette was when I was just a shorty.  Not even in junior high yet.  Teandra and I would summer at Popoo and Grandma's place.  Every daily afternoon, channel 41 would show reruns of a the original Mickey Mouse Club.  This was before cable so we had to watch it on a 13-inch grainy tv.  Annette immediately caught my eye.  She easily had that certain something that all the others lacked.  And to this day, I couldn't remember the name of any of the others except for her.  Okay...well maybe Jimmie too because he just looked disturbingly older than all of the other kids on the show. 

It would be much later that I would grow to appreciate the whole beach party craze that Annette created in conjunction with Frankie Avalon.  But it wasn't because of the movies they did when they were in their 20s or so.  I wasn't even born when those hit back the 60s.  It was when they did a reunion movie of sorts with the 1987 flick "Back to the Beach".  Here was a cheesy 80s flick that was reincarnating the cheesy fun they originated in the 60s.  And what stood out to me was how well Annette had kept herself up after all those years.  She was in her mid-40s by that time looking better than most of the 20-somethings that were cast alongside her.

The thing about those beach movies is even though Annette was in a bikini they were still tastefully done.  This is he 60s we're talking about.  AND she was a former Disney icon.  No way were they going to have her disgracing the Disney brand.  But more importantly, there was no way she was going to have it either.  That's the difference between the Mousekateers of that time and the ones that would star in the later incarnations of the show.  Hard to believe that the likes of Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera came from the same television background that brought us Annette.  Her wholesome image that remains consistent throughout the years is one that only comes around once a lifetime.

Unfortunately, that 1987 film would end up being Annette's last major starring role.  We would eventually finding out that's the same year she had been diagnosed with MS.  It wasn't actually made public until 1992.  That made it all the more special when she made a cameo in the made-for-TV movie about her life called "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes".  

It's pretty amazing that Funicello was able to live with MS for 25 years.  There's no doubt that's why she had been out of the public eye for the past several recent years.  We know MS weakens a person as it makes them a shell of their former self.  Annette most likely wanted us all to remember her for the smile that lit up the screen with that matching personality that exuded joy.  Mission accomplished.  We thank you for the memories. 

Toodles.

Rest in peace, Annette.

Goodbye Iron Lady

This is pretty said, but I didn't even know she had that nickname.  Which goes to show you exactly how much I knew about this important historical icon.  Nevertheless, she was significant enough that I clearly remember her being a prominent staple in the news from my childhood years.  That's enough for her to get her own spot here.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away today after suffering a stroke.  She was 87-years-old.

Here's how clueless I was about British politics back in the 80s:  I had no idea that Thatcher was the first woman to become the British Prime Minister.  And if you want to be technical, so far she's the ONLY woman to hold that position.  I just figured that with the Queen being the most powerful figurehead in England that she would have some pull to get a woman in that position. 

Here's how clueless I STILL am about British politics:  I don't even know what purpose the office of prime minister serves.  No clue where they are in the whole hierarchy of power over there.  I'm guessing it's pretty high up, but if I were to get quizzed on what all their duties entailed, I would fail miserably. 

So you'll have to forgive me but this post will be rather short.  I just don't know a lot about her.  Other than the fact that she seemed to be the most important person in England during my childhood.  Besides the Queen.  And besides Princess Diana.  And that guy that Princess Diana married.  However, the simple fact that Thatcher was able to get such a coveted position that had always been dominated by men (and apparently is once again) made her alright in my book.

Rest in peace, Ms. Thatcher.

Evil Dead

This cult classic made it quite a while before they ultimately decide to do a remake.  22 years was a nice little run.  But no way was it going to escape the remake bug eventually.  Especially since horror movies are starting to become increasingly popular in recent years.  And thanks to trailers that teased the fact that this version would actually be scary, this one was poised to be a DEFINITE-see.

They stuck pretty close to the original storyline with the 2013 version of "Evil Dead".  Five twenty-something friends purposely hole themselves up in a cabin in an effort to help one of their own quit drugs cold turkey.  Seems like a good enough idea until they discover a Book of the Dead.  Once one of them stupidly opens it up, reads it (even though it warns clearly not to do it if you don't want to unleash hell) and summons up dormant demons residing in the nearby woods.  It's just a matter of time before they are fighting for their lives and their souls.

I didn't recognize a single actor or actress in this flick.  You would think that would be a bad thing.  However, when it comes to horror movies it is usually a good thing.  It lets you know right off the bat that there is no big name star who will monopolize the screen.  It also means that anyone is fair game as far as who will bite the dust first, how and how often.  For those of us that can appreciate a good slasher flick, that's definitely a good thing. Hollywood needs more of that in order for scary movies to gain more authenticity.

What I was most looking forward to was how a non-funny version of "Evil Dead" would be.  I have fond memories of watching the original with about a dozen of my cousins over at Earl's house back in junior high.  We thought for sure we had rented a scary movie with a name and the box cover art that it had.  We found ourselves cracking up thru most of the movie.  Turns out that we weren't the only ones.  Sure, there was blood galore, buit it was filled with so much unintentional AND intentional humore that I'm still not sure how much of it was really supposed to be scary.

The problem they ran into with sicking so close to the original was they carried over some of that unintentional humor.  Don't get me wrong...I definitely appreciated them keeping the original story intact.  I'm sure many of the fans of the 1981 classic film did.  But by the same token, there were some things I thought they would avoid so there was no chance of humor slipping in.  Like the possessed girl's voice.  Did they not know it sounded funny?

However, in keeping so true to the original, they caused some of the best horror movie cliches ever to happen.  Who stays in a cabin in the middle of nowhere after finding dead animal carcasses in the basement?  Who goes through the hassle of opening a book that someone went thru the trouble of securing with barb wire to make sure it doesn't get opened?  And then once open and seeing SEVERAL messages telling you to not do something with pictures referring to demons, who would do those things anyway?  But see, these kids live in a vacuum where scary movies don't exist so they didn't know any better.  It doesn't stop us from talking to the screen anyway as we remark on their ignorance.

One thing "Evil Dead" did not skimp on at all was the blood and gore.  Tarantino at his best has nothing on how much they put in here.  And just think, they actually had to tame it down to avoid the NC-17 rating.  I can only imagine what the unrated version will be like when they hold nothing back.  They made sure to make it gory, violent AND grotesque.  If you are the least bit squeamish then this one definitely is not for you.

I initially thought from the trailers that "Evil Dead" would end up freaking me out a bit.  Maybe being one of the of the scarier gory movies I've seen in quite a while.  That would not happen.  It's safe to say that I'm a the point where I no longer associate violence and gore with being scary.  Not that I've been desensitized, it's just that when depicted ina  movie, I see them more as special effects more han anything else.  Nevertheless, this was one of the better remakes I've seen. 


My rating:  B+

Others that Left Us

Whenever a celebrity death occurs, CNN always does a little recap of the other celebrities that have already passed this year.  I checked it out this last time when Roger Ebert died.  I was surprised at the others I had missed and we're only in April.  Although I don't know why I said "only" when that technically means the year is already 1/4 of the way over.  At any rate, here's a quick blurb of some other significant ones I somehow missed...

The widow of Muppets creator Jim Henson, Jane Nebel Henson passed away on April 2nd after losing her battle with cancer.  She was 78-years-old.

This one wasn't that long ago so it's not like it was a huge oversight on my part.  I probably wouldn't have mentioned it anyway had I not read a little about her.  I didn't realize that she met Jim in a puppetry class in Maryland and the two of them collaborated to come up with the entire Muppets idea.  Not sure how much of the Muppets were his idea and how much was hers, but if she was in on it then she deserves mentioning.  Also never realized there was such a thing as Puppetry class.  Who knew?

Famed Spinners singer Bobbie Smith passed away on March 16th from complications of pneumonia.  He was 76-years-old.

If you don't know who the Spinners are then you really don't know your R&B music at all.   Smith sang lead on two of my all-time favorite Spinners' songs:  "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" and "I'll Be Around".  Both of those cuts are STILL the jam to this day.  Since we're still hard-pressed to fine R&B groups anymore, the Spinners music is more relevant now than ever before.

Speaking of Motown-era greats, famed Miracles singer Bobby Rogers passed away March 3rd.  He was 73-years-old.

Okay...maybe I can forgive you if you don't recognize the Spinners.  MAYBE.  But if you don't know who the  Miracles are then you know you need to go on somewhere with yourself.  Rogers was one of the original members.  I honestly can't say that I knew any of the actual Miracles names. I just knew Smokey.  But just the fact that he was part of a group that was a very integral part of Motown's history was good enough for me.

Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop passed away on February 25th peacefully at his home in New Hampshire.  He was 96-years-old.

Now I'm really surprised I missed this one.  This cat was a pretty prominent figure from my 80s childhood.  Not many of us in high school knew what purpose the U.S Surgeon General served.  Or that the position even existed.  We did know about his anti-smoking campaigns that were everywhere.  Plus, he had a pretty distinguishable appearance with Amish facial hair he was rocking.  Dude may have even been Amish for all I know. 

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch passed away February 1st from congestive heart failure.  He was 88-years-old.

I'm really slipping on my 80s icons because I definitely should have caught this one too.  Even those of us that have never lived in New York (or in my case even visited the city) knew who Mayor Koch was.  He had a larger than life personality and his brash demeanor added to that.  The one thing that always comes to mind for me when I think of him is the references to him in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing". 

Now keep in mind this was by no means a total list of all the famous people that have passed away this year to date.  You will note that I didn't mention ones like country singer Mindy McCready, baseball legend Stan Musial, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez or even "Snakes on a Plane" director David Ellis.  I only pinpointed those folks that I had somewhat of a connection to in one way or the other.  None of those others qualified.  Okay..maybe I could have squeezed in Ellis because "Snakes on a Plane" is one of my guilty pleasure movies.  So there's his blurb. 

Rest in peace all.

 

Temptation : Confessions of a Marriage Counselor

I feel a little schmucky (yes..just made up that word) doing this review now after just doing a tribute to Roger Ebert.  And I really shouldn't.  It's just that he was a cat who was legendary with his reviews then I follow that up with my attempt at one.  Like I am really somebody.  Like my viewpoint is going to make an impact with the dozen people that read my stuff.  Regardless..I had a lot to say about this one so here we are.

In "Temptation", Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) is an ambitious young woman working a thankless job as she strives towards her goal of having her own marriage counselor business.  Her pharmacist husband Brice (Lance Gross) is trying to be financially realistic about their dreams while the two attempt to make ends meet.  When billionaire internet entrepreneur Harley (Robbie Jones) visits Judith's workplace looking for a potential business venture, Judith finds herself addressing temptation for the first time.  Harley threatens to not only disrupt her marriage but also alter her life forever.

First off, you may have noticed (or not) that I intentionally left off the whole "Tyler Perry's" at the beginning of the title.  I am quite frankly tired of seeing that.  Is it really necessary for him to do that with every movie that he makes?  We all know it's him.  There's no need to infuse his name in every single title.  It just seems a little self-gratuitous to me.  Especially for someone who's supposed to be so God-fearing.  Yes, I know that will open up a whole other bottle of worms when dealing Tyler and his contradictions with Christianity so I have no intentions in going there with this review. 

I liked how they didn't just jump right into Judith's character being a cheating wife right off the bat.  We could see the gradual progression as she went from total uninterest to utter obsession.  There were little things along the way that got her to that point.  That's how you would expect it to be with someone so strong-willed.  However, not all the things that caused her to eventually take that forbidden step made perfect sense.  Like the most controversial one for instance.

*SPOILER ALERT* Judith goes on a business trip with Harley on his private jet.  By this time, it's obvious she's attracted to him but she's still being faithful.  At least physically.  But Harley knows he just needs to make the right move.  So he forces himself on her.  She says "no" a few times before eventually acquiescing.  The scenario itself sounds like rape, huh?  Yeah...it looked like it too.  Especially when she storms off when he drops her off.  What I didn't get is what she then gets mad when he ignores her.  Like she tells him to. It DEFINITELY sends the wrong message to women out there.  It's like Tyler is saying women are too weak-minded to disregard when they've been violated if they were attracted to the man.  Or at least that's how this woman was. 

The acting was surprisingly good throughout the entire flick.  Even from Jones since this appears to be his first major motion picture release.  I really enjoyed Jurnee though.  She always had the perfect emotions conveyed through her eyes and face without having to say anything at all.  I wasn't particularly feeling Ella Joyce in her minister role, but it was good just seeing her on screen again.  I miss that show "Roc".  And as for Kim Kardashian?  Well what do you expect?  She served her eye candy purpose.

The story of "Temptation" itself was very predictable.  It certainly didn't help that the trailers pretty much gave up the entire storyline.  The best parts even.  The only thing they didn't reveal was the twist at the end.  And of course I should have picked up on it but wasn't paying attention.  I'm sure most of you will.  As usual, Tyler gives us another formulaic story with a few good chuckles here and there as well as a good "Girl...I heard that!" moments.

If you're not already a Tyler Perry fan, "Temptation" certainly isn't going to win you over.  If you are, then he can do no wrong and you will think this is his greatest movie ever.  If you're like me and would just wish he would use some of his big money clout to bring up other aspiring Black directors/writers to promote their own work, then this movie is the prime example of why he needs to get off his butt and make it happen.


My rating:  C+

 

 

Everyone's a Critic, But There Was Only One Roger

The kids today don't know how good they got it.  There's some yahoo on every website (yours truly included), cable channel, podcast, you name it spouting off to give their review of some movie.  All of them profess to know what they're talking about.  But in our day, there two cats that set the standard for movie reviews:  Siskel and Ebert.  First Siskel passed years ago leaving just one of the legendary duo.  But no more.

Renown film critic Roger Ebert passed away today just two days after announcing his cancer had returned.  He was 70-years-old.

I will never forget that Saturday night line-up that prominently featured the "Siskel & Ebert at the Movies" followed promptly by "The Muppet Show".  I probably started watching it just because it was the lead-in to "The Muppets".  But then I started watching it more when I realized that they were talking about hot movies coming out that I wanted to see.  It didn't matter that I had no clue who these older cats were.

Naturally, I always didn't see eye-to-eye with Siskel on some of his reviews.  He seemed to have a penchant for classic Hollywood.  Didn't seem to care too much for the popcorn fluff that kids my age wanted to see.  That was to be expected though.  Nevertheless, I always appreciated his honest approach towards every review.  More than that, even though I may not have appreciated some of the flicks he revered back then, I learned to as I grew older.

Siskel & Ebert quickly became the standard for movie reviews.  Anyone could do it, but no one would ever have the same pop culture impact that those two did.  Name one famous film critic that's around now?  You can't.  If you can, it's someone that only a select few have heard of.  Not with Siskel & Ebert.  Millions new them by their name only.  We knew them better than we knew most of the movies that were out.  And they definitely had a much more lasting impression.

As the internet started getting more and more momentum, things begin to shift drastically.  Siskel ended up getting  brain tumor and dying in 1999.  Some guy tried to replace him on the show but didn't have near the same chemistry with Roger. Not to mention that by that time there were so many more channels and viewing options that their show wasn't as effective as it used to be.  It was clear the writing was on the wall for Ebert.  It's a good thing he always had his writing to fall back on though.

I still remember when I first saw how different Ebert looked after he lost his voice and even his jaw from battling thyroid and salivary gland cancer.  I didn't think he would have much longer after that. But he managed to hang on.  All the time remaining in good spirits.  Still, we all knew that it was only a matter of time.  Cancer is just a little punk like that.  It took his voice and took him, but it will never take away the memories that we have of Roger and his entertaining movie reviews.  He will always be thumbs up with me.

Rest in peace, Mr. Ebert.

G.I. Joe : Retaliation

Has it really been 4 years since the first "G.I. Joe" movie came out?  I guess so.  Apparently they were waiting that long to make sure they got the second one right.  Pretty smart move since they did NOT get off to a good start with that first one.  Yes, I know I gave it a B- in my review of it, but that may have been more inspired by the fact that there was that sentimental attachment to the G.I. Joe brand.  I would be more objective this time around.

In "G.I. Joe: Retaliation", the Joe forces find themselves facing a Cobra organization that has stepped up its efforts to be a world threat.  Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) may have been captured but Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) is still on the loose.  Thanks to his impersonation of the President, he has framed the Joes and doomed them for extinction.  It's up to Roadblock (The Rock) and a few remaining Joes to thwart Cobra's most diabolical world domination plan to date.

My best guess is that apparently Navy SEALs don't exist in the world where G.I. Joes do.  Or maybe the Joes are supposed to be an even more advanced fighting force than them.  Whatever the case, after seeing "Zero Dark Thirty" all I could think about when watching the Joes in their first assault is how ridiculous it all looked.  Not a single one of them had on protective head gear.  They were able to land an entire force of Joes on the roof of an enemy base without any detection whatsoever.  They repel down from the ceiling into a swarm of hostile enemies and not one Joe gets wounded.  Needless to say, things just didn't start off good for me.

Then there was the whole issue with the President getting impersonated.  It's never explained to us how it happened.  The movie opens and Zartan's already there.  How in the world would that even be possible?  Because in order for it to occur, not only would he have the problem of getting that close to the President to do it, but he would have to successfully infiltrate the Secret Service to make it happen.  Maybe I was just being too overly critical after "Olympus Has Fallen" had clearly made a more succesful attempt to make a White House infiltration look more convincing.

My favorite scene in the movie wasn't even action-oriented.  Well..at least not entirely.  It's when Roadblock and Duke (Channing Tatum) are playing one of those Call of Duty video games and Duke can't operate the controls worth a dang.  The irony behind the fact that his character is a beast doing the real thing but can't effectively play the video game doing the same thing was pretty funny.  I know exactly how he feels since I can't play those games to save my life.  Of course, I can't do the combat skills in real life either, but still.

**SPOILER ALERT** One of the biggest problems I had was how easy they made Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) switch sides to help the Joes.  Dude had JUST freed Cobra Commander and just like that he's going to work with the Joes to get revenge?  Umm..how about if you didn't help him get free in the first place you wouldn't have that problem?  Only two G.I. Joe movies and they have a bad guy switching sides in both of them.  That's really the best writing they could come up with?

I was looking forward to seeing how Bruce Willis's role would play out in this one.  Supposedly, he was the very first Joe.  The one who was the inspiration behind the entire fighting force getting started.  True to form, Willis was his normal "Die Hard" self.  Because let's face it...isn't he pretty much Joe McClane in every action movie?  At least he was a little better in this one than he was in the latest "Die Hard" installment though.  And that wasn't an easy task given the material he had to work with.

The one saving grace "Retaliation" had was the action.  They managed to stay away from the hokey stuff that plagued the first "Joe" movie like those ridiculous acceleration suits.  The fighting sequences were handled much better.  Even in spite of how far-fetched some of them were.  Like the mountain fighting sequence.  Or how the Rock is able to avoid larger tank fire in a much smaller assault vehicle.  But hey...the cartoon was all about over-the-top unrealistic action so I wouldn't expect anything less in the movie.  I'm just glad they improved their efforts since the first one 4 years ago.


My rating:  C+

 

 

Likable

Normally, I would do a Random XL-Images Pic of the Day here by just posting the pic and calling it a day.  No backstory at all.  Which is ironic because in all actuality, every single of of my shoots have a backstory.  Some of them are actually quite interesting.  I just don't want to bore you all with them.  Most of them would probably only be interesting to me.  And possibly the photo subject.  But this one was a little different.

I had done this shoot with RayVynn quite a while ago.  I want to say it was almost a year ago in Ames.  It was at a park there that is known for it's great landscaping and flowers.  Something that I knew that would be the perfect backdrop for a spring-like look with the right bright clothes.  She brought the ideal gear for it and the shoot turned out great.  I posted a few of my favorites on Facebook.  Folks liked some of them.  Folks commented on some.  That was that.

However, recently this particular photo really caught fire on The Book.  For those of you who don't know how it works...when someone "likes" a photo on The Book, it puts it back in circulation in the current news feed of anyone who is friends with that person who liked it.  In this case, Ray recently changed her profile to this picture which recirculated it.  More people started seeing it who missed it before and it was bombarded with a frenzy of "likes".

I'm not quite sure what caused this particular one to gain such popularity so quick.  I'm thinking it was just the perfect storm.  The entire state of Iowa (as with most of the midwest) is still experiencing one of their longest winters ever.  They've been inundated with cold dreary weather and snow for so long that it seemed like Spring would never come.  Then along comes this colorful picture right around the time of their Spring Break.  It provided a visual sign of hope that those summer temps were just around the corner.  That's my theory anyway.

So what ended it up happening is this picture became the most liked photo of any picture I have ever done.  And it wasn't even close.  The next closest photo to it has around 210 likes.  As of the posting of this entry, it's currently at 328 likes and growing.  All it takes is one comment and/or like for it to start increasing even more.  Now if only my photo business could reap some of the benefits from the huge exposure that pic is getting...

Olympus Has Fallen

This one snuck up on me a little bit.  I hadn't heard anything about it until I went to the movie and saw a trailer for it a month ago.  I guess that's what I get for failing to keep up with the Hollywood scene like I used to.  But it only took that one trailer for me to know that it was my kind of flick.  Mainly because I wanted to see how in the world it was possible for terrorists to take over and nearly destroy the White House.

In "Olympus Has Fallen", Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is a disgraced Secret Service agent who finds himself doing crap details ever since his efforts to save the President (Aaron Eckhart) cost the First Lady (Ashley Judd) her life.  He finds himself with an opportunity for redemption 18 months later when terrorists launch an all out assault on the White House.  As our national security team scrambles to respond, Banning is the one person on the inside with the knowledge and skills to retake the White House and save the kidnapped President.

Let me get these critiques out the way first.  Because honestly, they are trivial and there was very little not to like about this one.  But they were bugging me nonetheless.  The first being (SPOILER ALERT) the first phase of the attack with the bomber that was used.  We all know that the White House has a no-fly zone, so of course fighter jets were right there warning the bomber to leave the air space.  First of all, why would there even be need for a warning?  It's a freaking bomber flying to DC.  Obviously something is wrong.  Secondly, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be flying right alongside it which would not allow them to get a good shot if and when they had to shoot it down.

Additionally, would our military intelligence suck that bad that no one had knowledge that that many anti-American professionally trained commandos were ALL mobilized in the nation's capital at the same time?  It could be feasible that maybe a few could have slipped through the cracks, but an entire battalion's worth?  And all you Obama-haters can save your venom.  Movies about fictional terrorist attacks on our soil have been around before he was in office.  Anyway, this is an action flick so you have to have some reality oversight in order to appreciate the entirety of the film.

I have always thought that Rick Yune would make the perfect villain ever since his small part in "The Fast and the Furious".  I'm glad someone else finally saw the same thing and allowed him to have the starring role as a lead villian.  He straight owned the role as Kang.  He brings a suave ultra-cool demeanor that the classic bad guy should have.  He's got the charismatic personality that you would expect from a hero but the killer mentality that everyone is expendable that the ultimate villain should have.  

Butler was another surprise altogether.  Ever since "300" I have been waiting for him to come back with a movie that could be just as legendary.  Something where his character could be one just as bad-arse as Leonidas.  I would venture to say that he may have even topped it here.  Only because Banning is a more realistic character that makes him somewhat more relatable.  I don't know about any of you, but I've had a job where I was more or less demoted (okay...terminated) and had to learn to reacclimate.  Of course, mine wasn't because I saved the President, killing the First Lady in the process.  But still more relatable than having to fight off thousands of Persians.

What I liked most about "Olympus" was that it seriously keeps you on the edge of your seat.  The action was so intense that I was sitting up in that theater sweating.  It was as if the fate of the nation really did depend on Banning and I was getting nervous watching everything transpire hoping that he would come through.  Let's face it...you KNOW he's going to come through, but the anxiety comes from seeing how he's going to make it happen.

I had totally forgotten until the closing credits that "Olympus Has Fallen" was directed by Antoine Fuqua.  The same guy that brought us the genius of "Training Day".  I should have known.  This brotha more than knocked it out of the park with this one.  He went and gave us a flick that has become the forerunner for the best film of 2013.


My rating:  A

 

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Somehow I knew this one was going to get terrible reviews the minute I saw the first trailer.  Steve Carell's movies usually get lukewarm reviews at best.  But it was Carell, Jim Carrey AND Steve Buscemi.  There was no WAY I was not going to see this movie.  I just had to make sure to keep my expectations at a somewhat moderate level.

In "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone", Wonderstone (Carell) and his partner Anton Marvelton (Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas strip for years with their illusions.  But lately, Wonderstone's ego has gotten the better of him and puts a strain on their friendship.  It doesn't help matters that a younger up and coming illusionist Steve Gray (Carrey) is beginning to steal their thunder with his guerilla street magic.  Burt and Anton have one last chance to salvage their career and their friendship if Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.

One has to understand that when you're going to see a Carell movie there's a good chance there will be a  corniness aplenty.  That's what he has made his living on.  And let us not forget that Carrey has too.  So of course I was going in expecting to see an abundance of it here.  That's exactly what I got.  It didn't always hit.  Mainly the parts that the trailers already gave away, but that parts that did were golden.  Simple things like that little dance that Wonderstone and Marvelton did to open their show every night.

My favorite scene was the one when Burt tried to do their Vegas act on his own when it clearly had to be a two person show.  And to top it all off, he was drunk.  Easily the best laugh out loud moment in the whole flick.  Granted, there weren't many like that, but there were still enough chuckles here and there to be had throughout "Wonderstone".  Again, it really helps if you appreciate that type of humor.

There was actually a nice little message the movie was conveying too.  Something that several actors and actresses need to be paying attention to.  At some point, a lot of these folks have been in the game so long that they start going thru the motions.  They don't put their all into their performances because they feel they can rest on their laurels.  But when they do that, the fans suffer.  I'm sure that message will go overlooked since so many critics panned this one.

Occasionally I will come across a movie that is widely criticized by the professional critics and I end up loving it.  I wouldn't go as far as to say that "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" falls in that category.  However, it did have me laughing.  There have been plenty of so-called comedies that have failed to accomplish that.  It probably could have waited for a Redbox release for me, but it wasn't near as bad as folks have made it out to be.


My rating:  C+