Mini Review Of In-Theaters Now: Sucker Punch, Madea's Big Happy Family, The Lincoln Lawyer, Insidious, The Green Hornet

I decided to combine all these reviews into to one being as I don't really have too much to say about these films and I watched them awhile ago in theaters but I never did a post on them. Anyway, here they are nice and wrapped in a pretty little red and yellow tie.


Sucker Punch (2011): When I first sat down and the movie started playing I was like okay, this is going to get good. I mean nice Sweet Dreams music playing, etc... and then Baby Doll (the main character) is out of a mental hospital and into a whore house. WTF.I looked down at the family with the two small kids and I thought about how much they wished they would have read the full plot summary before taking their four and five year olds to this movie. Once the shock of being lied to by the film trailers (I know movie trailers don't ever lie... wink wink)  was over I sat and watched the film with a open mind. The action was decent and so was the acting and story line. Let me just say there is a little surprise at the ending. P.S. This is more of a guy's film with female favor tossed into it.
Rating: 4/5

Madea's Big Happy Family (2011): Funny as hell! A lot of people say that they did not like the movie but I personally believe that those people just do not know how to laugh. The plot is the basic Tyler Perry plot of girl being raped, redemption, etc.. etc.. but I just watch for Madea and trust me she was bigger and better than ever in this film. If you do not like Christian drama or Tyler Perry films just go for Madea. " Big girls you are beautiful"
Rating: 3.5/5

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011): Good plot with twists. I love the slower sarcastic vintage feeling that you get from watching the movie. I've never really been a big Matthew McConaughey fan but his acting was superb.
4.5/5

Insidious (2010): Not very scary and over done plot (not including the ending). If you watch A Haunting on Discovery channel than who have basically seen 1/3 of this film. Terrible acting on Rose Byrne's part. She was such a little cry baby and she bitched and all these other nonsenses. Before everyone attacks me with "OMG I loved Rose..." let me explain. There is a part in the middle of the film where the family is being attacked by the demons. They are everywhere and everyone is fighting them off. Now in the corner you see this little "word I don't wanna use" crying and screaming help at the top of her lugs while a demon is nearly on top of her. The husband is fighting demons off himself! How the hell can he help you Rose when he can barely help himself! Grow a backbone and start helping yourself! If you have read any of my other post you may know that I love a strong woman who can kick some ass so to me she sent us back into the stone age with this like act. Okay, Okay, maybe she was frozen in fear but come on she wasn't so frozen that she could just stand there and yell for help now was she.
Rating: 2.5/5


The Green Hornet (2011): Funny and overall good performances by Seth Rogen and Jay Chou.
Rating: 4/5

Mother (Madeo)

Year : 2009
Runtime : 126 Min.
Genre : Crime, Thriller, Mystery
Director : Bong Joon-ho
Movie Stars :  Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin
Country: South Korea
Language : Korean
Watch Online: StageVu
Quality: Good-Great
Subtitles: English

Another great film for the super hit director Bong Joon-Ho. It explores the intense relationship between a single mother and her son as she attempts to solve a murder and prove her son innocence. The film did not blow my mind or anything but it was any interesting watch and I would recommend this to anyone.

The film opens up to a woman, the mother, dancing and waving her hands in the air in a care free manner. That made me say okay and wonder what I've gotten myself into this time, but the film quickly set in motion the murder. Yoon Do-joon's mother treats him as her baby and prize as she watches over her shy and somewhat mentally disabled son who hangs with Jin-Tae, a local 'bad seed'. Do- Joon is quiet and calm but reacts violently when called 'retard'. Wondering drunkenly in the dead of night he walks across Yoon Je-Moon, a high school girl with a secret. He calls out to her aimlessly till she turns a corner and tosses a rock at him. Do-Joon wonders away to his house. Later he is arrested by the police after Moon's body is discovered on the top of a roof. I was utterly annoyed by the 80s style police methods that were used on Do-Joon. It was quite clear that Do-Joon is not the brightest crayon in the box. Any educated person could have guessed that he was mental disabled so his confession and lack of memory should have been disregardful. I'm not saying that he should have been treated like an angel but the everyday criminal was a bit harsh.

After being charged with the crime Do-Joon is sent to jail. The mother, who remains nameless, is sure that her son is innocent and sets out to find the real murderer and free her son. In various attempts to get her son to remember the events of that faithful night The Mother finds herself in a world that she simply can't handle and forced to the breaking point of their mother-son relationship.

Plot
A mother must free her son and discover the real murderer after her mental disabled son is sent to jail.

A Little Thing Called Love (สิ่งเล็กๆ ที่เรียกว่า...รัก)

Year : 2010
Runtime : 118 Min.
Genre : Drama, Romance, Comedy
Director : Puttipong Pormsaka Na-Sakonnakorn
Movie Stars : Mario Maurer, Pimchanok Lerwisetpibol, Sudarat Budtporm, Peerawat Herapath, Pijitra Siriwerapan, Acharanat Ariyaritwikol, Kachamat Pormsaka Na-Sakonnakorn  
Country: Thailand
Language : Thai

OMG this was so cute. It's the average high school love story thats been in the works for years- ugly duck met cool sexy guy and various stories, but the actors were so charming and the comedy just right that it makes the movie stand out. This isn't the type of movie to change your life or anything but I'll turn an ugly rainy day into a sunny cloud free one. I'll definitely want to watch this again and again.

Plot
Nam an uncool and unattractive girl is in love with Chon the "it" guy on campus. With the help of a book called 9 Ways To Get A Guy, Nam and her uncool friends try to make Nam stand out in a positive way in hopes of impressing Chon. She does everything from bleaching her skin, dying her hair, and being the lead in the school play Snow White.  As the school years go by Nam grows from an ugly duck to the hottest gal at school and has everything- but Chon. Will Nam ever get her dream guy?

The Devil's Backbone

Year : 2001
Runtime : 106 Min.
Genre : Drama, Horror, Thriller
Director : Guillermo del Toro
Movie Stars : Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi, Íñigo Garcés, Fernando Tielve, Irene Visedo, Berta Ojea
Production : Guillermo del Toro
Country: Spain
Language : Spanish
Watch Online: StageVu
Quality: Medium-Good
Subtitles: English

Such an interesting tale of orphans in war filled Spain. The lines between antagonist and protagonist are clearly drawn and illustrate the boys joining together to destroy their oppressor and give an old friend justice for his murder. This film is a  literature motif, the old good vs. evil, making it a classic. The whole film lead up to Jacinto becoming this force of evil and therefore the need for him to be destroyed.  Jacinto being the antagonist, drowns because of his greed in the form of gold weighing down his body. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes basically movies. This movie is for everyone and a instant Spanish classic to watch over and over again.

Plot
Unaware of his fathers' death Carlos is left at an orphanage with a dark secret of a murdered boy that will leave the orphanage in pieces.

Y Tu Mama Tambien

Year : 2001
Runtime : 106 Min.
Genre : Comedy, Adventure, Drama
Director : Alfonso Cuarón
Movie Stars : Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna
Production : 20th Century Fox
Country: Mexico
Language : Spanish
Watch Online: StageVu
Quality: Medium-Good
Subtitles: English

What can I say, this was surely interesting and a little fun adventure between two best friends and a woman they befriended at a wedding. It's a bit sexual... well, extremely sexual in content so if you have a problem with adult content such as that than this is not the movie for you.  I enjoyed the drive through Mexico with the characters and the narrator's footnotes after each major event. I hate with movies leave you with questions so the footnotes helps tons. After the trip to Heaven's Mouth it's quite obvious that Julio and Tenoch's relationship as best buddies is over, but I still found it to be depressing in a few ways. The reason I feel this way is personal reasons. I'm at that age when friends start to change and you begin to accept that you may never see them again, so when I watch movies about it I feel...I don't know how I feel, maybe impending doom. A little birdie tells me that statement is a little harsh. Anyway, let's get out of my personal life and back to the film. This is a favorite of mine because the characters grow as people and have a little fun on the way. Please watch it if you have time. Spoiler! I was surprised when Lucia died from terminal cancer after showing no signs during the whole film. Julio explained that it had spread all over her body and she died about a week after they left for home
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Plot
Julio and Tenoch's girlfriends go off to Italy for the summer. Left to themselves, they met Lucia at a wedding and invite her to a invented beach called Heavens Mouth to impress her. She immediately declines but accepts the offer after a drunken call from her husband stating that he has cheated. The three go on an adventure though Mexico looking for an invented beach and discover their own relationships and secrets buried between the friends.     

Pan's Labyrinth

Year : 2006
Runtime : 112 Min.
Genre : Fantasy
Director : Guillermo del Toro
Movie Stars : Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo
Production : Warner Bros.
Country: Spain
Language : Spanish

Freaking awesome film! It's not your everyday run of the mill type film, but a fairy tale for children with a twist for adults.  It has blood, violence, war, tradgeis, and a soft warm fantasy for a girl wanting to leave her world for a better one. The characters were not as developed  as I would have liked, as in the emotions and history were not there.

Warning, contains spoilers.
This is just a random little point but somewhere in the movie the faun says 'what reason would you have to not trust a little ole faun like me?' and then points to himself. No one innocent  would  say something like that and then precede to point to themselves with a look of shock on their faces. From then on, I was thinking that the tasks were tricks and the faun was evil . Imagine my surprise  when the faun turns out to be a good guy.

Plot
The story takes place in post-Civil War Spain in 1944. Ofelia, our main character, is forced to move to the country-side with her pregnant mother Carmen  to be with her tyrant step-father Captain Vidal.  Ofelia is the reincarnated princess Moanna of the Underground Realm who curiously escaped to Earth and died. Ofelia is told by the Faun that she must complete three task before the full moon in order to return to her world. Meanwhile, Carmen is having extreme pregnancy complications and is bedridden. Mercedes, the kind housekeeper, is secretly helping the Maquis guerrillas against Captain Vidal and the Franco regime. Ofelia becomes trapped between her hope of a new world and the world she lives in.

 

The Orphanage

The movie started out very slow for me, well most movies do according to me. I'm not very into movies that revolve around children (The Unborn, etc.) so this movie was a long shot for me. It wasn't perfect but there it was full of twists and turns that would make your tongue wrap around your head. I didn't expect much from this movie after all it's about an orphanage and nothing horror related that isn't a documentary can relate to a horror movie. I was was pleasantly surprised. There wasn't any cheap screams, like most horror movies. You know, face popping up in the mirror when the girl bends down to do or get something.  It's something that everyone will enjoy, whether you like horror or not.

The film opens to the main character Laura in the orphanage of her childhood. Shes has returned after many years in hopes of reopening. Laura, and her husband Carlos have an adapted son, Simon who is HIV positive. He is unaware of either facts. Simon has a friend named Thomas that is a ghost. His parents chalk it up to Simon just being lonely.

An elderly lady by the name of Benigna Escobeda shows up claiming that she is a social worker there to check in on Simon. Laura tells her to leave, which she does, but she is later seen sneaking around the yard near the coal shed.

During a party Laura and Simon have a fight that leads to Simon hiding from Laura. While searching she is trapped in the bathroom by Thomas. When she escapes she finds that Simon is missing. Laura believes that Benigna has taken him. 

Six months, Laura sees Benigna out shopping. Benigna is hit by a bus and dies almost immediately. Laura finds a doll of the ghost boy, Thomas on the scene of the accident. The police search her home and find evdents that she worked at the orphanage and had a son named Thomas. Thomas was disfigured and so he hide his face under a shack. The children of the orphanage played a trick on him that resulted in his accidentally death.

Distressed, Laura seeks the help of a medium named Aurora. Aurora's clues lead Laura to discovering the remains of the orphanage children Laura grew up with. Benigna murdered them for revenge of her son's death.

(I can't really explain the ending in full detail so here's the one from wikipedia) 
Unable to cope with the situation, Carlos leaves the orphanage as Laura promises him she will be done in two days. Laura recreates the original orphanage layout and attempts to contact the ghost children. She soon begins to see them around her when she initiates a game of "Uno, Dos, Tres, Toca la Pared" [One, Two, Three, Knock on the Wall; similar to Red Light, Green Light in America], which she used to play while growing up at the orphanage. The ghosts lead her to a hidden door within a cupboard under the stairs (La Casita de Tomas; Tomás' "little house" which Simón referred to just before his disappearance). This door leads to a hidden basement room. In the room, she sees (in her head) Simón alive and hugs him in a blanket.

As the ghost children vanish, Laura finds that the blanket is empty and the body of the deceased Simón, wearing Tomás' mask, lies behind her. She realizes that she had inadvertently caused Simón's death (she had accidentally blocked the hidden door to the basement where he was playing, trapping him inside), and that the unexplained noises she had heard were Simón trying to get out. At one point Laura had heard a loud crash which had been Simon falling through the stair railing, and onto the ground below, breaking his neck. Laura carries Simón's body upstairs and swallows many handfuls of Trankimazin capsules, begging to be with Simón again. Laura's wish is granted as the ghosts of the dead children appear and Simón returns to life in Laura's arms. Simón then tells Laura that his wish was for her to stay and take care of all the orphans.

Later, Carlos walks alone over to the memorial for Laura, Simón, and the orphans which stand outside the orphanage. Carlos returns to the orphans' old bedroom and finds on the floor a medallion of St. Anthony, the seeker of lost articles, that he had given to Laura some time earlier. He hears the sound of the bedroom door opening; as he looks up he slowly smiles.