Coffee Talk #295: Airplane Movie Review (x6)!!!

On Friday afternoon I accepted a quickie weekend contract job that had me in the air longer than on the ground. Thanks to my handy United upgrades, I spent the air hours in business class and caught up on a ton of movies. Most of them were what I expected, but a few of them surprised me. Here are some random thoughts on the movies I saw over the weekend.

Date Night: I thought this would be a total comedic farce, so the action surprised me. The comedy was decent, while the action was surprisingly good. Steve Carell and Tina Fey were expectedly funny, but the supporting cast really made the movie for me. I loved the brief roles Mark Wahlberg, JB Smoove, James Franco, Mila Kunis, and William Fichtner played. I was expecting an okay comedy going in and was surprised by an above-average action/comedy flick.

Megamind: It’s completely unfair, but whenever I go into a DreamWorks movie, I’m always thinking, “Yeah, no way this is as good as a Pixar film.” That’s almost always true, but that doesn’t mean that DreamWorks movies are bad. Megamind was way better than I thought it would be. The voice acting was strong and the movie had more heart than I was expecting. It was a cute blend of comedy, action, and romance. Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, David Cross, Jonah Hill, and Brad Pitt were fantastic in their roles. Megamind definitely exceeded my expectations. Good stuff.

Due Date: I was expecting a very uneven movie and that’s exactly what I got. Some of the lines and scenes were hilarious, simply because Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis are great comedians. That said, a lot of the script was just poor and couldn’t be saved by the actors. This was the perfect airplane movie for me — something I was curious to see, but not curious enough to pay for in the theaters or as a rental. I’m glad I got to see it, but I’m even happier I didn’t pay money for it.

Red: I really dislike Bruce Willis. I’ve just heard too many stories from LA friends about what an absolute dick he is. He’s also getting harder and harder to accept as an action lead due to his age. Even Bruce Willis’ dickishness wasn’t enough to defeat an excellent cast and great choreography. Plus, Mary-Louise Parker is a total milf. Helen Mirren was her usual charming self, but it was hard to buy her mowing down baddies with a machine gun. While it’s easy to be dazzled by all the star power in the movie, it would be a mistake to ignore Karl Urban (Agent William Cooper). He’s fantastic in his role. Plus, geeks should give him props for his performances in Star Trek (Bones) and The Lord of the Rings (Eomer). I enjoyed this movie in spite of Bruce Willis’ sheer dickishness.

Morning Glory: This was a random selection on my part. I figured that Rachel McAdams is cute and Harrison Ford is awesome, ergo it should be somewhat entertaining. It wasn’t a great movie, but it had some moments. Diane Keaton was very good and I like seeing Patrick Wilson (Owlman from Watchmen) get work. There were some moments that I found funny, but left me wondering, “Would this be as funny to someone that didn’t know a little bit about video production?” I’m looking forward to seeing this movie again when it’s on cable, but I wouldn’t spend money to rent it. Also, I felt guilty for thinking that Rachel McAdams is like a poor man’s version of what Neve Campbell used to be.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story: I didn’t get to finish this movie on my trip back and I really want to see how it plays out. A little over an hour into it, I was very much charmed with its smart and subtle comedy. Zach Galifianakis is more restrained than usual and it totally worked. I was very impressed with Keir Gilchrist. Zoe Kravitz is hard to take your eyes off of — you can totally see that she’s the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. From what I saw so far, the movie seemed like a nice blend of a smart script and strong acting. I never heard of the movie before, but I’m super glad that it was on the menu.

Anyway, that was my wacky international movie experience. Let me know if you caught any of these movies and what you think of them (please).

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

49 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #295: Airplane Movie Review (x6)!!!”

  1. When we saw Kevin Smith he had a 30-40 minute rant on how he idolized Bruce Willis up until he did Cop Out. KS said BW is a dick and difficult to work with. It was so damn funny.

  2. ive only seen megamind, i really enjoyed that one…that cast was just too good…ben stiller also had a role in that one

    1. @Thundercracker

      LOL. I wonder if the difficulty will include "you are able to trip and fall randomly and can critically injure if not kill your character with head trauma?"

      So many times I've killed myself strafing and just walking off of a ledge.

      Good news though

    2. I'm still on the fence about Demon's Souls. I've actually tried to rent it several times but I never found it at any Blockbuster Video in my area.

      1. @RROD

        try their mailer service. I rented it from there. i didn't really like it. They have a free two week trial and you can rent 3 video games at one time if you want. I just wish you could get new releases now instead of 3 months from now.

      3. @rrod

        if you play that game, start off as royalty class..makes the game a hell of a lot more manageable

  4. Checked the weather today and between now and tomorrow night its going to snow 14"-20".

    Hows the weather in your hood?

    1. the weather in Chicago is going to be the same as yours BB. You're getting the storm that's sweeping the nation right now.

    4. Classes are finally cancelled at Ball State, not like I was going out today anyways. It is pure ice everywhere and there is no way I am trusting the bus system on the roads right now or my own car. It doesn't feel that cold (I just took out my dog in shorts and a t-shirt) but it's literally like walking on ice everywhere you can go outside.

    5. 76 degrees and partly cloudy.

      Damn, I hate Miami and all of this extremely moderate weather we're having (*snicker*)

      I hope you guys have fun digging yourselves out of your icy graves. I'll have a Mojito waiting for you if you can manage to survive until April.

      -M

  5. I've seen Date Night, which i did enjoy. I dont know what's wrong with people or what they expect but i thought this movie was pretty funny, a little long but funny. I've also seen RED and loved the movie and i agree with you Rpad, Helen Mirren did seem the oddball out of this bunch but i thought the movie was pretty good and no one probably watched it because it was comic serial that no one ever heard of.

  6. The only flick I had interest in was Red. Good to know it will be worth the time.

    The way you felt about Date Night was the same feelings I had towards The Other Guys. I was kinda 50/50 on the outcome of it being good or not. It was surprisingly one of the best comedies I saw last year.

    1. I thought the Other Guys was awesome as well. Totally surprised me too. I'm not really a Will Ferrell fan, but I thought it was his best movie yet (just ahead of Anchorman).

  7. it was hailing this morning in houston and the high was 68 earlier and the low will be 24. Houston has the worse weather

  8. I've seen Date Night, Megamind, Due Date, & RED. I had a godd time with all of them.

    Last night I watched True Grit and 127 Hours.True Grit was pretty cool. After all, it is a western movie made by the Coen Brothers with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin in it. It kind of stacks the odds for the cool factor.

    127 Hours… Honestly, out of all the movies I've seen so far that are up for Best Picture, I think this one was the most well done. If you don't know what it's about, it's about that hiker in Utah back in 2003 who fell into a small ravine/crack in the ground with his arm pinned under a boulder for just over 5 days. You know, the dude who drank his own pee and ended up cutting his own arm off to survive? It was huge news.

    Anyway, the film was done VERY well and James Franco kicked ass. Franco is now my top contender for Best Actor, but I don't think he'll get it nor will the film win Best Picture because 1) Franco is co-hosting the Oscars this year with the awesome Anne Hathaway, and 2) Castaway and I Am Legend didn't get any awards and they too were 2 hour films with one guy on screen for just about the whole movie.

    I have Kids Are Alright, King's Speech, and Winter's Bone left on my list.

    By the way, I share movies with a couple people on Dropbox here already, and am willing to expand. I'm thinking about making one folder in dropbox called "movies" and adding all the people who want in to it. The rules will be,

    1) If you see the movie in there, COPY AND PASTE IT onto your HDD (don't drag and drop) before you watch it.

    and 2) Whoever puts in the movie will erase it after a week, maybe 2. Clear room this way.

      1. If you mean the Coen Bros., I didn't mean the odds are in their favor for winning (though they've won and been nominated alot) I meant the odds are in their favor for the flick being cool.

        They've done:

        The Big Lebowski

        No Country For Old Men

        Barton Fink

        Fargo

        Raising Arizona

        O Brother Where Art Thou?

        Hudsucker Proxy

        Those are just off the top of my head.

      2. I seem to not be a fan of theirs then.

        I think they did Burn After Reading. I watched that cause it had Pitt and Malkovich in it. Love those two guys but the movie was kinda bad in my opinion.

        Raising Arizona was good though. Always enjoyed that one.

    2. @n8

      i'd love to be able to join ur dropbox group, right now i just share Big Bang theory episodes with a friend who works during the week and doesnt have time to watch them when she's at work.

    3. @n8

      Also i've watched True Grit as well and i don't like it as much as the original with John Wayne. After awhile i found it kind of hard to understand what Jeff Bridges was saying.

      2. I really think the Fighter should win picture of the year but i think i should see the Kings Speech before i make that my final answer.

      3. I have 3 more left to see before I can totally be fair in what I think.

        Have you seen 127 Hours yet?

      4. no i was going to acquire it later today. my gf loves James Franco and i figure id surprise her with it.

      8. Okay… here's a new option.

        Get her what ever you deem appropriate…

        and have HER get you DCU!!!!

      9. i wish she would do something like that. she tricked me at xmas. she hounded me for an xmas list and didn't get me one thing on there.

    1. Tokz started the folder and I've invited 3 of you thus far.

      @ Thundercracker

      Get on this. We know you got good flicks.

  11. I think I like the NBA again. Players like Allen Iverson turned me off to the league for a long time. The Pistons championships made me a casual viewer again. Players like Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, and Rajon Rondo got me more interested.

    Blake Griffin has REALLY made me enjoy the NBA. It's so much fun watching him play with that crazy abandon. Doesn't he know that he's not supposed to go all-out for 48 minutes? Shouldn't someone tell him that he'll shorten his career if he keeps diving for balls and crashing the boards like that? It's fun watching someone that has you thinking that he'll hurt himself every other time he jumps.

  14. In my jet-lagged haze, I completely forgot about one of the movies I saw on my return flight. It was a good one too! I'll write a quickie post about it tomorrow. I actually feel bad about the omission; it's a good movie that's worth discussing.

  15. @n8r and anyone else involved in this dropbox deal

    i started my own file folder, in it ive put my ridiculous list of movies, please give me your email address if you want access to it–

    ray, you are gonna wanna be part of it…ive got hunk!! (lol)

  16. Pingback: Airplane Movie Review Addendum: The Town | RPad.TV -- Raymond Padilla & friends talk games and geek culture

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