1) This Is 40 - C+
2) Easy A - A-
3) The Bounty Hunter - B+
4) Crazy, Stupid, Love. - B-
5) What To Expect When You're Expecting - B+
6) Contagion - C
7) Identity Thief - A
8) We Bought A Zoo - A-
9) The Ides of March - B+
10) Top Gun - C+
11) It Could Happen To You - B+
12) Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close - A+
13) Mirror, Mirror - A
14) Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World - A
15) Inglorious Basterds - B+
16) Independence Day - B+
17) Star Trek – Into Darkness (B+)
It was a decent movie, but where it fails in its construction. It felt like a series of short snippets to make the story seem cohesive. Peter Weller’s storyline seemed like a way to bring Benedict Cumberbatch’s character into the limelight. Even then, the character Cumberbatch is supposed to be (trying to avoid spoilers here) while I don’t have any problem with him appearing, seemed shoehorned in there. I was also really turned off by the blatant copies of scenes and iconic lines out of another particular movie. It really didn’t need to happen and it pulled me out of the story as it was going. The look of the Klingons was horrid, with pierced ridges? Seriously? It’s really the work of Pine, Quinto, and Cumberbatch, and to a lesser extent, Pegg, that make this movie what it is, There are given some horrible lines by the script writers, but they make the most of it. Abrams has reduced his vomit inducing lens flares and whipping the camera all over the place, but he really needs to work on a better story. You can still have a better action story with better dialogue (see the aforementioned movie they tried to copy)
18) Kick-Ass (B)
I just couldn’t get into this one. It’s a fun premise and I may be jaded, but in real life, the movie would be over after he got stabbed by those carjackers. The kid is so lost in his own fantasy that coming within a hair of death is not enough to deter him. The whole “hot girl is his friend because she thinks he’s gay” storyline also falls flat on its face. As my girlfriend said “What girl suddenly gets naked in front of a guy (in the spray tan scene) just because she thinks he’s gay.” There’s no way she puts her guard down that much. And why was it so different from the comic, where Katie doesn’t become his girlfriend at all? Did it need a Hollywood love story? The fight scenes, however sometimes implausible, were well staged and shot. I was glad to read on Wikipedia that Cage based his character around Adam West because I thought he was doing a bad William Shatner routine. I understand there was controversy about the language Hit-Girl uses and really in this day and age are we shocked? While I don’t think it’s the greatest thing in the world, people wouldn’t pay for it if they were genuinely offended. I won’t be lining up to see Kick-Ass 2; I’ll wait for it to be in the five dollar bin at Wal-Mart, like Kick-Ass was.
