Stealing Harvard (2002)

Number Rolled: 66

Movie Name/Year: Stealing Harvard (2002)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 85 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Director: Bruce McCulloch

Writer: Martin Hynes, Peter Tolan

Actors: Jason Lee, Tom Green, Leslie Mann, Megan Mullally, Dennis Farina, Tammy Blanchard, Richard Jenkins, Chris Penn, John C. McGinley, Seymour Cassel, Mary Gillis, Bruce McCulloch,

John is in a bind. He finally saved up enough money to get a house with his fiancé. That would be a good thing except he already promised his father-less niece money for college. With his niece accepted into Harvard, he’s expected to pay a rather large sum. With no way to get the money and finding it difficult to turn to his soon-to-be wife, John goes to desperate lengths in order to keep the promise he made.

I don’t know how I sat through this movie. I didn’t so much as giggle throughout the entire thing. In fact the only part worth watching was the bloopers after the credits. Bad acting. Bad script. Bad plot. Every stereotype ever created for this kind of comedy.

I can’t. It was too bad. I think I lost 60 points of my IQ to this movie.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 2.7/5

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 9%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 41%

Trust-the-Dice Score – 1/5

P.S. Bloopers after the credits are over.

Movie Trailer: 

Losing Control (2011)

Number Rolled: 97

Movie Name/Year: Losing Control (2011)

Genre: Romance

Length: 90 minutes

Rating: R

Director: Valerie Weiss

Writer: Valerie Weiss

Actors: Miranda Kent, Reid Scott, Kathleen Robertson, Theo Alexander, Bitsie Tulloch, John Billingsley, Lin Shaye, Steve Howey, Ben Weber, Sam Ball, Barry Gordon, Neil Hopkins, Jamison Yang, Alanna Ubach, Elise Jackson, Robert A Johnson

Samantha is a doctoral candidate just trying to replicate the parameters of her experiment in order to graduate. It’s been four years and, even though she managed to get it to work once, she just can seem to create the results again. It’s making her rethink her entire, very planned out, life. When her boyfriend, Ben, asks her to marry him, she’s simply too confused to agree.

This movie had a lot of basic rom-com features; however, there was a lot to the script that made me reconsider whether or not I can actually label it a recipe plot. In fact, I think the majority of “Losing Control” was very clever. For a romantic comedy, I felt this movie went a little more in depth than I expected it to. For those reasons, I wound up finding the film to be refreshing and almost more honest than a lot of the romantic comedies today.

Critics trashed this movie. No, that’s not a strong enough word. As you will see below, in the new segments, I’ve posted the score from Rotten Tomatoes (a site that takes an average of many critic and audience reviews in order to better represent the movies listed). Critics demolished this movie. Normally, I’m able to figure out why; this time I’m having trouble. None of the actors are going to win an award for “Losing Control,” but they were still believable. The script was witty and interesting. The plot was clever. There’s not one thing that I can think of that anyone dealing with this movie screwed up beyond excuse. However, one critic even compared “Losing Control” to “The Nutty Professor” and made me want to reach through my computer screen and shake him.

I’d watch this again. Critics be damned.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 2.9/5

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 7%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 56%

Trust-the-Dice Score – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer: 

Doghouse (2009)

Number Rolled: 92

Movie Name/Year: Doghouse (2009)

Genre: Horror

Length: 88 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: Jake West

Writer: Dan Schaffer

Actors: Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Emil Marwa, Lee Ingleby, Keith-Lee Castle, Christina Cole, Terry Stone, Neil Maskell, Stephen Graham

Vince is going through a divorce. He’s not taking it too well, so his mates decide to confiscate him and bring him to another town for a fun and wild time. Although the town is said to be inhabited by a lot of hot women, they find it practically deserted upon arrival.

This wasn’t exact the least predictable movie I’ve ever seen. The majority of the parts that were supposed to make me jump didn’t even make me blink. In a full-on horror movie that would make me roll my eyes and fight to stay awake, but “Doghouse” had such a comedic core to it that I spent most of the time rolling. This movie is what happens when you mix “Shaun of the Dead” and the original “Evil Dead.” Both of those are movies that I love, so it should come as no shock that I loved this one, too.

The script was hilarious and there was a part of me that kept viewing Noel Clarke in this film as his part from Doctor Who. The characters were pretty similar and even their names made it difficult not to think back (Mikey vs. Mickey). As much as I loved it, though, there was a certain undertone of misogyny. Ok, it wasn’t an undertone. It was so in my face that I feel guilty for loving it.

“Doghouse” was trashy, sexist, horrible and so funny that my sides hurt.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.7/5

Overall Opinion – 3.5/5

The Random Rating: R – for strong violence

Movie Trailer: