Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Movie Reviews: Aliens of 2011


            In an effort to keep myself funny I am going to try to write a movie review a day for the next 30 days.  This will be exhausting but I have done it before, so when I fail this time I really won't have the excuse of going beyond my means.  For the sake of simplicity I will just review all of the movies that came out in 2011 that I saw.  (Really today I just fail at being funny... or in depth... or involved in the project).

            Today I will try to stack things up a bit, in fact I may just do that more and more because it's my blog and I will do what I please, not like I have readers to cater toward.  So what is my topic for today?  ALIENS!

            I saw three movies of 2011 that featured them prominently, "Paul", "Super 8", and "Attack the Block".  Each was above average in their own way and had pitfalls here and there that kept them from being truly great, but overall I would recommend watching all of them (though I would recommend that when you watch "Attack" you turn the subtitles on as they speak in heavy London East side slang with mush-mouth pronunciation).

            "Paul" is a road trip movie that glorifies nerd culture with a modern comedy power couple, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  It is in many ways "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" but with an Alien instead of a monkey.  It has a lot of references, a good red herring character switch, and strong acting from the core cast.  It only falls short in that it can be a bit vulgar for the sake of vulgar and that doesn't always mean funny.  I could say the word penis numerous times very loudly, but that isn't necessarily a joke in and of itself.  Really that isn't its worst problem, if I had to put a finger on the movie's issue it would be a slower pace, it takes its time more than I think it should and could get a faster move on.  Penis, penis, penis.

On an unrelated note is a picture from when I went to Turkey, those Stones in the distance are called Fairy Chimneys.
             "Super8" I imagine most have already seen, a mysterious creature is set loose on a town after a government train crashes, a group of kids catch it on film and in the midst of growing up and making movies they have an adventure with aliens.  I describe this movie as a not boring "E.T."  It has a cool distinctive look, cool mystery, great young actors, it is funny, well paced and heartfelt.  I like it more as I am writing about it now.  If I had a complaint it is that the movies resolution happens mostly out of the control of the main characters, they have their own story that is going on in tandem, but overall those kids do nothing to change the order of events.  It is a disaster movie, so I guess the disconnect between character actions and the resolution of the film is understandable.  I don't know.  Boobs.

On a separate note, this is a statue of a fertility goddess I took while in Turkey.
             "Attack the Block" has the most pant shittingly awesome monsters to appear in a movie in a while fighting a bunch of teenage thugs and a hot nurse, sounds like the set up to a joke.  And considering that Nick Frost is also in this movie playing a funny weed dealer it might in fact be the set up to one elaborate joke which ends with a badass chase scene and explosion.  My only complaint is the human antagonist who acts very weird, and the previously mentioned accents which I found nearly impenetrable, and this is coming from a guy who people mistake for being British and is known for talking nonsense of his own variety.  Boobs-boobs.
A haunted wedding dress in Kensington Palace, took it while I was in London.

            So if you like alien invasion movies (3), monster movies (2 and 3), funny movies (1 and kind of 3), or coming of age movies (2 and 3), then you should watch these.  Penis.

The City of "Batman" located in Turkey.

Scores
"Paul": 7/10
"Super 8": 8/10
"Attack": 7/10

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