$5 Movie Review

I went out last night and had my usual Tuesday night $5 movie experience at my local Cinebarre and as is the the norm, I enjoyed myself. I usually do and to be honest for $5 it is really going to have to be a bad experience and a horrible film for me not too. I know the Cinebarre experience is not for everybody but I have found that for me it works great and is a pretty inexpensive night out. Now if you buy a bunch of beer and eat and do not look at the price then, yes, you will soon lose all of the savings that you gained by going to the $5 movie in the first place. But that is on you and I not be held accountable for your choices!! I just won't be!!

So last night I went to see 'The Expendables 2' (Trailer below)

For me, the bottom line, and pretty much the litmus that I now measure all of my movie going experiences by at this point. I ENJOYED MYSELF. It was fun and I suspect that I may have even enjoyed it for $10 or more. Now, that being said, lets say I had gone in expecting some different kind of material maybe a darker grittier take on international relations and gun trafficking with perhaps an insightful look at the dangerous nuclear stockpiles laying dormant in some of the old Soviet Union countries. Two things. 1 I would have been foolish to have expected such a thing from this film and it would have been my fault for not paying attention to the trailer or having read anything about the film. 2. I would have been really disappointed because this was not that kind of film at all.

It was a film that really was made for fans of action adventure films and for anyone who had grown up in the 80's since it starred a majority of that decades top action stars. In this case being Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger and some other lesser lights as well. If you are a Merchant & Ivory fan this is not the film for you and you have wondered into the wrong theater. This is not a film for everyone but it does not need to be. It does exactly what it is supposed to do which is to blow stuff up and let you as the viewer blow off steam. It is just great popcorn movie fun. So if you are looking for a little escapist fun. Do yourself a favor and take next Tuesday evening and go watch this movie. 

Film Friday

So I went to see "Thor" on Tuesday night for the $5 showings at Cinebarre. I would highly recommend seeing all of your films there on Tuesday nights. Not only is every show $5 they also serve some tasty food and the onscreen presentation is always top notch as well. They show first run movies and other then it not being stadium seating I have never had a bad experience there. Also paying just $5 for a movie makes it a lot more tolerable for me and I am for sure more forgiving in my reviews of them.

Which brings me to my topic at hand. I went to see Thor and I enjoyed it but I am not sure if I was enjoying it because I had only paid $5 or if it was actually a good quality movie. I have mentioned before that I like Kenneth Branagh as a director and he did a fine job in this as he always does. There were some absolutely beautiful shots of space and some amazing CGI work as well. So both his directing and the cinematographer did excellent work. But the script. Oh, the script. When I checked the credits I noticed that the writing credits for the movie had 8 names on it. That is right you heard me. EIGHT NAMES!! IT TOOK EIGHT PEOPLE TO TELL THIS STORY!!! I am incredulous. This is a 115 minute movie. I suppose I should be glad that it was over 90 minutes but I mean seriously eight people. These elite eight are as follows Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, and Don Payne with a screenplay credit. Then J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich with a story credit followed up by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby with a Comic Book credit. Now I am not sure how much of these peoples work even made it to the screen or even if this film was based on a graphic novel or was some sort of movie stand alone story. (I know who is who in the comic book world so please do not give me comments citing the importance of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.)

I just think it odd that any film needs to have this many screen writers. It has kind of been an unwritten rule for me that if a film has a lot of screenwriters it is usually not a good film. But that is a discussion best left for another time.

This is a picture of Thor in one of the Marvel Comics

This is a picture of Thor from the movie.

As you can see they used the comic as a guideline for the costume which is pretty cool. I really did like the visuals of the movie but there were times that the dialogue really seemed awkward to me and a little forced. I thought there were some really good actors in the film and a good if not great director so the flaws really had to be with the script itself. That being said it seemed to rise above it script limitations and when Thor left Asgard and came to earth it really took off for me. Do not get me wrong. I enjoyed some of the stuff in Asgard but what went on when he came to earth was just far more interesting to me.

So I think if I had paid full price for this film it would only get 2 out of 4 for me. But seeing it for so cheap makes it be a 3 and a half easy. It is just a plain fun movie. You might not enjoy it as much if you are not a comic nerd but if you are it is a fun time. I say take next Tuesday and check it out.