2014: Week 26: Begin Again

Begin Again

Genre: Drama, 

Main Players:  Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine

General Gist:  A music executive down on his luck discovers a musician who is ready to leave the country after she is jilted by her pop star boyfriend.

Tiff's Take:
Oh boy.  Another movie with music.  This is becoming a common theme.  Going into this one, I didn't realize how much music was actually going to be in the movie.  If I had known I may have been less enthusiastic to go.  But I didn't and I was really looking forward to it.  

Even though Adam Levine, who is pretty darn mainstream, was in this, I wouldn't say this was a mainstream kind of movie.  I like that.  This movie was a tad on the quirky side.  Just a little.  And I like that as well.  It was based in NYC which I love.  It had interesting, unpredictable characters which is always refreshing.  I mostly love Keira Knightley in anything she's in a I like Mark Ruffalo as well.  They were both great in this.  Adam Levine was okay but honestly he didn't have a huge part so it was hard to say whether he was bad or good.  I can't say I'm a huge fan of Adam like my dear sister so he was just sort of neutral for me.  Actually, his character was on the annoying side but I think that was intentional.      

Despite all the singing (which if I'm being honest, I liked in this one), I really enjoyed the characters and the less conventional story.  It seems like the bad movie streak has finally ended.

Tiff's Rate: Friday Night


Deb's Take: 
I love movies with music.  This one was different because it wasn't a musical per se, it was more a movie, about music with music.  Totally different but perfectly conducted.  

Adam Lavine's movie debut, that in itself was enough for me.  He is quite a man, not to mention I like his music A LOT.   Ok, that being said, Adam was amazingly good in this movie.  Maybe because he is a singer/star playing one was pretty much like being himself, but he was extremely natural and never once did I feel like he was struggling to pull off the acting gig.  This was especially important because he was playing opposite Kiera, who was phenomenal.  Ok, her singing was decent, by no means was I floored, but the music fit her.   Mark Ruffalo did great as well.  Really not one person was disappointing in this movie.  The chemistry between all the characters was spot on.  

This movie had everything I love, relationships with deep meaning, conflict, heart, emotion, heartbreak, love...you get it.  I pretty much just melted into my seat and got lost in the story.  I liked that it wasn't a cookie cutter story, I loved the music, and I appreciated the emotions.  What a great film.   I will be going again!  Something I rarely do.  

Deb's Rate:  Opening Night

Preview: Travel might get in the way of both of us being able to go to the movie next week.  But you never know.  We have a way of making it work.  We shall see.

2012: Week 19: The Avengers

The Avengers

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Main Players: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston

General Gist:  A team of super heroes is pulled together in order to save the earth from an attack by an unearthly enemy.

Deb's Take: 

I am not a super fan of the Super Hero movies.  Yet, after seeing this film that brings a team of super heroes together I realized I had seen almost every movie about each individual character that preceded The Avengers.  I think it might have something to do with my husband really liking these kinds of films.

 As far as Super Heroes go, this movie was good.  Sometimes the Sci-Fi stuff ends up being so ridiculous that I just can't get into the movie.  This movie...not to shabby in the Sci-Fi area.  I will say, see "Thor" before you see this movie, there are some pivotal points that may be lost otherwise.  This movie gives you good action, decent acting, a lot more comedy than I would have expected, and some Sci-Fi thrills.   Although it wasn't my type of movie, it really was a good movie and I have to say if this type of movie is your thing, you will love it.

Deb's Rate: Opening night for all you Super Hero Fans, personally I could have taken it as a Matinee

Tiff's Take:
Last year when all these Marvel movies were coming out I thought it was weird.  Why all the super heroes?  It wasn't until this movie came out that I realized it was on purpose and leading up to this one final movie.  I know, I'm pretty quick.  Good idea.  It seems right up my alley even though I'm not a big super hero fanatic.

Going to this movie made me feel a little bit like I did when I went to see Moneyball.  I felt like I was doing the movie a disservice by not knowing all there is to know about these super hero characters.  I mean, there were some of the movies that I didn't even see like The Hulk and the first Iron Man.  I sorta wish I had now.  Even though I hadn't seen them all I felt like I still knew what was going on mainly from seeing Thor since the main bad guy is from that movie.  So, like Deb said, you might want to see Thor first if you haven't.

As far as liking the movie...I'll be honest.  The first part was a little slow.  I felt like they could have reintroduced all the characters a little better.  It seemed like a hodge podge of activity at first.  It didn't start getting really good until about halfway through.  I did love the characters/actors in this movie though.  I love almost anything Robert Downey Jr. plays and I love Chris Hemsworth's Thor character.  He's probably my favorite.  Ruffalo's Hulk character was surprisingly funny too.

So what I'm saying here is if you're into this stuff you'll probably love the movie.  If you're not, you'll probably like it okay but maybe not think it's worth the hype.

Tiff's Rate: Borderline Matinee/Friday Night

Preview: We will post the winner of our "Footloose" giveaway tonight.  Next review...What to Expect When You're Expecting.