2012: Week 42: Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas

Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi

Main Players: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent

General Gist: A story about how individual lives affect one another in the past, present and future.

Deb's Take:  
This movie was another one of those “thinker” type of movies.  There is a lot going on with so many characters and so many time lines, the movie can get confusing.  I was a little lost most of the time.  I felt like I needed to watch the movie a couple times in order to really figure out who was who and what was what.  The movie followed the lives of so many different people/past, present and future.  I tried to find the connection in each but know I missed some of it. 

The most amazing part of this movie was how many characters each actor played.  Tom Hanks played 7 different characters, Halle Berry did 6, and most of the others had 5-6 as well.  Not until the credits were running did I see who was who as some of them were so unrecognizable.  There definitely is outstanding acting.  I sort of felt like I was watching a play vs a movie because the actors “acted” so well.

The movie was a little to long and drawn out for me.  I found myself wondering if there was really a point, luckily, things did  have closure..which I like of course.  Wonderful acting, but a little too much bouncing back and forth for my taste. 

Deb's Rate: Matinee

Tiff's Take:
Yeah, this definitely was a thinker.  I too, like Deb, was confused for a lot of it.  I wasn't sure how it was all going to tie together.  I don't think it was until the last 20 minutes of the movie that I had a little ah ha moment.  But I'll be quite honest.  That ah ha moment wasn't a real clear one.  There's still a lot I missed. 

It sounds like I enjoyed the whole journey of it a little more than Deb. I liked the bouncing back and forth between stories and times.  And I liked how some of the stories were more serious then others.  The present day story was especially entertaining and gave a little comic relief. 

The acting was great but more importantly, the makeup was wonderful.  I imagine it was fun for the actors to play all those different parts and be a completely different person for each story.

And yes it was long but it didn't feel too long for me.  The only beef I have is, again, what's up with these bleak futures?   

Tiff's Rate: Friday Night 

Preview: A few more pre-screenings in the works.

 

Week 50: New Years Eve

The pickins' are slim this holiday season! With only a few movies left I was hoping to go out with a BANG! However, it is kind of just fizzling away.

This week we say New Years Eve. This movie was basically the interconnection between about 20 different people and what they do on New Years Eve in New York. There were a ton of well known actors in this film, (look at Tiff's post, it will save me the typing!) Really there was only one story line that kind of "touched" me, and amazingly enough it was the scenes with Halle Berry and Robert De Niro. I guess saying, "amazingly enough" doesn't sound nice, really they both are great actors, I was more amazed that with all the different actors in this film there were only two that impressed me much.

The movie was pretty light hearted, with some laughs and some touching moments, but nothing of real depth that captures your soul. Kind of like watching a T.V. show as the relationships were not really developed too much, and there really was no plot. Just watching the lives of many on a Holiday.

I will say that my 14 year old daughter really did like this film, so maybe it's geared more towards the teenage female audience. Honestly, I was confused why it didn't come out on New Years, or something like that..I think the movie industry is just dying to find something to feed to us Movie Junkies because there isn't much out there right now, they were just throwing us a bone.

All in all, a decent movie, but nothing too special. I would say it is a good mother/teenage daughter show. Zac Efron and Ashton Kutcher may appeal to those tween types and it's a clean show :)

See you soon!

Week 50: New Year's Eve

For week 50 we went and saw New Year's Eve. This is from the same writer as Valentine's Day.  I didn't see Valentine's Day but I imagine they are very similar.  It's about a bunch of characters and what's going on in their life around New Year's Eve.  All the characters are intertwined in some way and you find all the connections at the end of the movie.

Of course this movie was packed full of actors:  Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Hilary Swank, Josh Duhamel, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers (SNL), Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergara, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele (Glee), Sarah Jessica Parker and Abigail Breslin.  Whew.  I think I got the main players.

I don't think this movie is intended to have a lot of meat to it.  Because it doesn't.  It's fun and a little humorous and a little touching but that's about it.  If you want a similar type of concept that's done a lot better check out Crazy, Stupid, Love or Love Actually.  Way better done.

I felt like through most of the movie I was missing out on back stories that would have made the relationships more meaningful.  Again, I don't think this was meant to be really in depth but come on.  I think I could have looked past the relationship aspect if it was funnier and just generally more entertaining.  And with all the great actors in this movie none of them really stood out.  The only thing I can really say about any of them is that Zac Efron makes me feel like a 15 year old girl again.  Or maybe that I want to be a 15 year old girl again.  Take that how you will.

To Sum it up: Only mildly entertaining and a lot of good actors with not a lot of good acting.