2014: Week 4: Labor Day

Labor Day

Genre: Drama

Main Players: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Gattlin Griffith

General Gist:  A fugitive takes up residence in the home of a mother, who is fighting with depression and her 13 year old son.  

Deb's Take:  
Another pre-screening!!  I do love free movies.  We also had company this week.  Glad Shelley and Lavon could be at this one with us.   Another cool thing, since this movie was based on a book, and the author was actually present during the movie, we got a free book.  Reading and movies..two of life's simple pleasures.

So.. the movie.  I like Kate Winslet.  She is such a great actress, and in this movie, she continued to be good old Kate.  I was more impressed with Gattlin Griffith.  He did a really good job.  Kid actors amaze me sometimes.  That being said, the movie was lacking.  I like to read books and then go to movies because the movie is able to capture a "real" person, and the book fills in all the empty spots.   The bad part about going to a movie without reading the book first...all the empty spots remain empty.  Now, a really good movie won't leave you feeling empty even if a book is involved.  This one just didn't do the trick.  I felt like the development of the relationship was non existent.  I didn't buy the whole 5 day love affair..yet a good movie can sell it.  There was no real build up to the climax of the movie, and the climax was sort of blah....Since I got a free copy of the book I might as well give it a read and see if maybe some of the empty spots will be filled in, as well as determining if the love affair was more believable.  As far as the movie standing alone, well, curl up on the couch and maybe fill a boring Friday night with a glass of wine and this movie.

Deb's Rate: Rent It

Tiff's Take:
Yes!  Movies and books.  Two of my favorite things.  This was a nice little surprise.  But reading a book after seeing a movie is not necessarily ideal.  So, not sure I'll actually make it around to reading this book but if I'm in a book drought I just might.   

I guess I'm a little more forgiving then Deb on this one.  You could definitely tell there was more to the story then what the movie showed.  The weekend love affair was a little stretch for me too.  But I thought it was an interesting story.  Even if you had to read into it a little.  I liked how it was from the perspective of the son too.  It gave a little different twist on things.  But yes, I wanted to know more about what Kate's character was thinking in trusting a stranger so quickly (and a fugitive at that) and what inner struggles the son was having throughout.  Okay. so maybe I will read the book.

The acting was great though.  I'm a huge fan of Kate Winslet since back in my Titanic obsession days.  Gattlin Griffith was fantastic as well.  Josh Brolin was good but the verdicts still out whether I'm a huge fan of his.  In short, great acting but the book to screen adaptation could have been more insightful.  

Tiff's Rate: Matinee

Preview:  With all the pre-screenings we aren't even sure what's really playing!

2012: Week 4: One for the Money

One for the Money

Genre: Action, Comedy

Main Players: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, Daniel Sunjata, Sherri Shepherd, Debbie Reynolds, John Leguizamo

General Gist: Story of a woman who is down on her luck, lack of job and money, so she goes to work for her cousin as a bounty hunter. No, she knows nothing about the job and has no experience. This is the first movie from a series of 18 books.

Deb's Take:

I will say, I love these books. Although I am currently behind by 2 books. I had to sit down and really think about the first book a little bit, after watching the movie. I mildly recall my mom and sister really being excited about this series and after reading the first one I thought is was okay, but didn't know what all they hype was about. I think it was about book 3 that I was totally hooked. So, I think this movie left me feeling sort of the same way, but it makes sense. The movie is sort of a "set-up" movie for more to come. The movie was short (took me back to the days of movies being MAYBE 90 minutes.) I was prepared to be underwhelmed with the acting because I am very sold on the book characters. I was bummed when I heard Katherine Heigl was playing Stephanie Plum. I was pleasantly surprised, she did well. Really all the characters did good, they fell into their parts pretty decently. I think my only true disappointment was Ranger. I just feel Ranger is a super "bad ass" kind of guy and Daniel Sunjata didn't make me feel that way. He was too "cute" with his dimple and he talked too much. I know, it sounds sort of weird, but read the books and you'll understand..I think. Overall, the movie was a good set-up movie, but I really am looking forward to what else they are going to do with the movies in the future. You have got to see Lula in her true light, and feel the Morelli, Ranger, Stephanie sexual tension. Read the books! (you may win them if you entered our give away) I guarantee you will be hooked with the books, the movie...the verdict is still out on that.

Tiff's Take:
I would say my thought of this movie was pretty similar to Deb.  The books are really easy, fun reads and I can totally see them being a movie or TV series.  (Actually TV more than movie but that's just my opinion)  So I wasn't too surprised to see this one come out. 

Like Deb, I was disappointed in the casting.  I really didn't think Katherine Heigl could pull it off.  And I totally had Morelli and Ranger's characters different in my head.  (Stephanie more Jersey, Morelli better looking, Ranger more muscular and Grandma Mazur a lot older) But I thought all of them did a pretty darn good job.

Don't get me wrong.  This was no award winning movie but it was a fun, thinkless type of movie.  It did a lot of setting up the characters but the books the same way too.  If they decide to do more movies (and I'm not convinced they will) I think they will get better with each one. 

Preview:

We'll be posting the winner to the giveaway next!

Week 4: No Strings Attached

So we're now on week 4 of our little "project". We saw No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. Another Natalie Portman movie in one month. Again, I can't say that she disappointed me. Both her and Ashton were really good and had great chemistry together. It was a light, fun movie. It was just your classic romantic comedy. It had funny moments, touching moments and lovey moments. It was pretty predictable but entertaining nonetheless.

As far as the story goes, like I said it was pretty predictable. Although, I wish they would have gone into a little more detail about why Natalie's character had such a commitment issue. But I guess the whole point in these kinds of movies is to keep it light. And it was.

I always forget how much I like Ashton Kutcher. In my mind I think he's an okay actor and a good looking guy but nothing special. When I see him in a movie I realize he's a really decent actor and really pretty hot. Because of a lot of sex scenes you get to see a lot of him too. So that's nice.

I really enjoyed the supporting actors too. Mindy Kaling (from The Office) and Jake Johnson (who played one of Ashton's friends) were really funny. There were really a lot of laugh out loud moments. It was a pretty vocal audience and you could tell everyone was enjoying it.

To sum it up: funny, predictable and plenty of eye candy.