Movie Marathon Review

                So it has been a few long painful weeks since I’ve went to the movies.  Yes it’s hard when you love to watch movies to have to wait but waiting for my friend to do a movie marathon day was well worth it.  We saw 5 movies yesterday, yes effectively spending our entire day at the theater especially when you account for getting to the first one an hour early…I forgot to set my watch back an hr my mistake.  But overall the day was great, we weren’t hugely disappointed with any of them but read on and see.

                Reviewing in the order we saw them.  First we have the newest telling of The Three Musketeers.  I enjoyed it a lot.  I also admit to being a sucker for these three musketeer tales, the 90’s Disney one being my all time favorite, The Musketeer, and of course The Man in the Iron Mask, all great tales.  Now onto the real part this new tale.  Dose it stack up?  I loved it.  I give it 5 stars.  Musketeers must stop the plot set in place by the Cardinal and save France.

                Diving deeper it’s not as believable as the others with flying war ships and all but visually it was spectacular.  The sword fights and action scenes were beautifully shot and they had me both cringing and laughing.  Yes like my 90’s fav this one also has wonderful bits of comedy embedded.  I love the snarky and witty comments that fly from their mouths even in the heat of battle.  But back to the visuals for a moment, wow.  I love period costumes, even if they make me giggle (as the kings did many many times) they were great. 

                Now onto characters.  I love the cast.  Christoph Waltz plays a great Cardinal who you can just hate easily and let’s face it that’s what his character is for.  He’s a bad guy and no that’s not a spoiler should you have seen any trailer or know anything about Musketeer movies.  He is deliciously evil as is his right hand man and leader of his guard with one eye played this time by Mads Mikkelsen.  Most importantly though you have the Musketeers, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Aramis (Luke Evans), Porthos (Ray Stevenson), and young D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman).  They play so well together, and the viewer can see the easy with which they fit and balance one another out.  One of my favorite things about this story is that unlike some it flushes out more of the story of Milard De Winter (Milla Jovoich) and Buckingham (Orlando Bloom). 

                The story was straightforward and easy to follow along with and yes I admit easy to predict at times but still worth the watch.  I can’t wait to see it again.  I highly recommend this for anyone who is a fan of the musketeer tales and who likes a good action comedy.

Rating: 5 Stars

                Now we move to my least favorite movie of the day, The Rum Diary.  Okay I admit I wanted to see it mostly for one reason…Johnny Depp.  What can I say he is great.  Sure he has some strange movies at times but Capt. Jack Sparrow hehe wow.  Anyways I went in expecting from the trailer a comedy of sorts.  I don’t have too much to say about it really.  There were really good parts that made you laugh your ass off but other parts that left you wondering why?

                As I couldn’t write a fitting summary of the movie here is one curtsey of imdb.com.  Paul Kemp (Depp) is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction

               

                This movie also made me cringe but anyone who knows me knows I have an aversion to eyeballs them being messed with or looking strange makes mine water.  Also my issues with chickens my partner in crime laughed when there was part of the movie with cock fighting.  No I’m not scared of chickens on the screen, I’m not that neurotic but still when I see it I think ‘uh huh no way evil things’.  Moving on Johnny Depp did a good job with the role as did the supporting cast Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli, Amber Heard and Richard Jenkins.  They were all pretty good and the story was okay for a while but about halfway through you lose it.  It goes from having a semi-understandable plot to really diving off the deep end and just sorta leaving you hanging.  It wasn’t horrid but I give it 2.5 stars simply for the comedy.

Rating: 2.5 Stars

                Movie #3 of our marathon was In Time.  I admit this tied with Three Musketeers as my favorite movie of the day.  It was different which is seemingly harder and harder to do these days.  It had tons of things to enjoy.  This is a story of the future where people don’t age past the age of 25.  There is no money, time is the currency.  At 25 you have 1 year on your clock (which is displayed on your arm) and if you don’t want to die you have to work, cheat or steal to keep more time.  The rich can live forever and the poor die young.  Timekeepers keep the balance and make sure the balance is kept.  Interesting right?

                Well Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is a simple man who lives day by day working hard with his mom (Olivia Wilde).  Then one day he’s at the bar to get his friend and he sees a man not from their time zone (the world is divided into different zones by income basically).  The man is flashing around over 100 years which in an area where people work hard for each day is dangerous.  Salas saves the man from the towns Minuteman (time thief played by Alex Pettyfer)and explains the system to him.  He’s old and he’s tired of living but can live forever, he then gives his time to Will and tells him not to waste it.  The story goes from there and basically he decides to help people, wanting to make sure everyone has a chance to live.  He ends up with Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) and on the run from the Timekeepers (leader is played by Cillian Murphy).

                I enjoyed this movie a lot and really want to see it again.  The cast to me was spectacular as was the acting.  I can’t give too much more away without giving away the story.  Basically it’s a Robin Hood story of the future.  There is a lot of chasing, crashing, action which was a good change.  It keep me entertained.  I give it 5 stars.

Rating: 5 Stars

                Now we have our animated movie of the day Puss in Boots.  I admit this hadn’t been on my list of movies I really wanted to see never really watching Shrek movies past #1 but my friend wanted to see it and it fit our time frame so I figured why not.  Basically this was a cutesy movie. 

               

                Puss is an outlaw.  You learn the history of how he became Puss in Boots and why he is an outlaw.  You also meet his brother (orphanage) Humpty Dumpty and another feline Kitty.  Together they embark on a quest for the magic beans to grow the beanstalk and get the gold eggs.  It’s a kids movie but there is surprisingly quite a bit of adult humor stuffed in there which made me laugh harder as being in a kids movie I wasn’t expecting it.  Overall it was a good time, Antonio Banderas, Selma Hayek, and Zach Galifianakis are the voices of the 3 main characters.  It was good and yet another laugh as there is a giant Goose at one point and my friend laughed at the trend in movies and ‘evil demon birds’ for me.  Side story I was attacked by geese when I was like 7 or 8 which I think the start of my phobia.  This movie was cute and I’d watch it again if it came on, it did make me want to give my bebe Keira some attention (fyi she’s a cat lol).  I give this movie 4 stars.

Rating: 4 Stars

                Finally to round out our movie day and my reviews we have A Very Harold & Kumar3D Christmas.  There isn’t really much to say for this one.  If you’ve seen and enjoyed the other Harold & Kumar movies then you will enjoy this one.  It is so explicit and way out there but it’s good for a laugh and honestly I think my favorite 3D movie yet.  Yeah they have weed (of course it wouldn’t be a H&K movie without it) and although I’ve never tried the stuff it was hilarious to see the smoke coming out in 3D.  Was it cheesy?  Yes.  Was it full of stupid and raunchy comedy?  Yes.  I knew that going in and my expectations were set accordingly and I wasn’t disappointed.  It gave you just what you’d expect from a Harold & Kumar movie with some wicked 3D action, and as usual some celeb cameos like Neil Patrick Harris.  So I’m giving this movie a 4.

Rating: 4 Stars

                So there you have it my long…long blog full of my movie reviews for a movie Marathon.  I hope you liked them and enjoy.  Let me know what you thought of the movies or my reviews.