Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules

Finally a Sequel that Surpasses the Original!

 

Likes

1) Like the original the sequel has humor that is intergenerationally hilarious!

2) The 2-D animation mixed with the live action is a nice change of pace from pure CGI or CGI mixed with live action.

3) Adults will like it just as much as children, maybe more so, because the child rivalry and parent-child interaction is a flashback for many who watch it, it just makes you laugh at fond (or maybe not so fond) memories of embarrassment as a middle school kid.

4) Greg's friends are hilarious and evolving to even more awkward!

Dislikes

1) Overly predictable plot, but that is to be expected of a child's book turned to movie.

2) The fact that the high school kids were drinking soda at a party where the parents were out of town....really? Really? REALLY?!!! We all know better than that! Again child friendly film...

Favorite Scene

Red Riding Hood

Twilight, But No Vampires

Strengths

1) Imagery- One thing that Catherine Hardwicke films excel at is their imagery... Red Riding Hood is no exception to that rule...Looking solely at the poster you can see the beautiful color contrasts

2) Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried are the only reasons people saw this movie and should see this movie...their acting is well rounded with the given script

3) Always keeps you guessing who the real werewolf is.

Weaknesses

1) Catherine Hardwicke as a director!

2) Historical inaccuracies... even though it is a fairy tale the movie could have still held strong to some cultural and historical truths...often times non-fiction is much scarier than fiction, e.g. the use of the Brazen Bull, well elephant in this case, upsetting but effect and historically sound to use

3) The hair! WTF what poverty stricken village pre-17th century used hair product? If you are going to make it modern keep it all modern if you are going to keep it historical then keep it historical! No one should have a fo-hawk in this movie but there are like 5!

4) CGI problems, the wolf was way too CGI obvious... There have been successful creations of CGI werewolves before, i.e. Wolfman... but I think that they made it obviously fake looking to allow younger audiences to come in who liked Twilight.

Most Offensive Hair-Do in the Film

Really? Really! This it totally historically accurate!

Battle: Los Angeles

Independence Day Meets Cloverfield

Strengths

1) Fast-paced film that does not really have a boring moment

2) Dry comedy throughout the film that makes you laugh in times that you really shouldn't be laughing

3) Graphics...terrific graphics when they are in view...they left the images of the aliens blurry at first but it turned out well 

4) Michelle Rodriguez, need I say more...often times I find myself watching a film that I have never heard of for the simple reason that she is in it....Michelle you are such a bad ass mother!

5) Aaron Eckhart is getting outside of his bubble and I like it a lot!

Weaknesses

1) Overly Mariney...if you know a Marine you know how they can get sometimes with their egos...but they made up for it by accepting Michelle into their squad who was actually Air Force and she kicked more ass then most of the men...

2) Preachy undertone... Aliens wanted to take our water and killed to get it... Essentially what we are doing all over the world with oil and water...Most viewers won't get that though...

3) A toned down form of hyper-violence..by that I mean that the movie was obviously intended as a recruitment ploy for younger viewers, who cannot see too much violence yet...but they still managed to make it look cool...Military getting their hands into Hollywood Again?

4) Navy and Army were not trashed per say...but they were thrown to the wolves and the first ones to be wiped out...sends a negative message that Marines are #1 and everyone else is there to give them support or reload their guns when they need them to...
5) Shameless Advertisements, if I can remember whose advertising in the movie then it is too Blatant!

Favorite Line

Anyone know how to hot wire a bus?

He does he is from Jersey!

(Not Exact But Overall Theme of Quote)

X-Men: First Class

Essentially Brokeback Mountain with Superpowers...

Strengths

1) The use of actual historical events was well orchestrated... For example the cast was pulled inside to see the President address the nation and they used actual footage of Kennedy addressing the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
2) The relationship between Charles and Erik was further developed... interestingly enough beyond a bro-mance they managed to turn the relationship almost into something more...
3) The graphics were exceedingly better than that of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" which looked so cheesy that it looked almost D-List... This one followed through with graphics similar to that of the original trilogy.
4) Cameo Appearances.

Weaknesses

1) Some of the superheroes were rather lackluster, Angel in particular...she is a pixie who literally spits fire balls like chewing gum, maybe that is a flob of Stan Lee's but she was rather pathetic foe...
2) Very predictable, but most viewers enjoy X-Men just to see the superpowers
3) Again I am not sure as to whose bad concept this was, Lee's or the Director's, but there was a few racist plot points thrown into the mix... I don't wanna give too much away...but it involves Darwin.... tell me what you think if you have seen it
4) Inaccurate in terms of Comic Book Series to Big Screen

Favorite Superpower

Magneto's Power Over Metal... Very Cool!