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Affiliated Companies:
Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment
Executive Producer:
Ken Daurio, Audrey Geisel, Cinco Paul
Director: Chris
Renaud, Kyle Balda
Writer: Dr.
Seuss, Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio
Actors: Danny
DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Rob Riggle, Jenny
Slate, Nasim Pedrad, Elmarie Endel, Danny Cooksey, Stephen Tobolowsky
Living in a town made completely out of plastic, where fresh
air only comes from a delivery man, is all the rage. Ted sees no problem with
it, until the girl he has a crush on admits that all she really wants is a tree
growing in her backyard. Curious as to why anyone would care about some weird,
dirty thing that serves no purpose, Ted seeks out the only one who can give him
the answer.
I love Dr. Seuss. When I was a little girl, I made my mom
read me One Fish, Two Fish so many
times she STILL has it memorized – word for word. She’s none too shy about
reminding me, either. There may be other Dr. Seuss books she can recite from
memory, but that’s the one she’ll pull out on me whenever it’s convenient to embarrass
me. It’s kind of amusing, but I will never tell her that (and she’s a technophobe,
so there’s no way she’ll read this).
Love of Dr. Seuss aside, this movie wasn’t as great as I
hoped it would be. There was nothing wrong with the voices or the animation.
Parts of the script were frightening, but considering the social commentary,
that was kind of the point. I guess the music wasn’t bad, nothing all too
memorable, though.
That’s the issue. Dr. Seuss is memorable. You won’t find
work like his anywhere. So to honor his one-of-a-kind author with a relatively
forgettable movie, it’s almost offensive.
In the end, it wasn’t bad. It’s better for kids 12 and under
than adults, but I probably wouldn’t groan if a kid made me watch it. Just don’t
expect to be blown away.
Actors: Nicolas
Cage, Danny Glover, Rachel Nichols, Aubrey Peeples, Peter Stormare
Genre: Action
Rated: Unrated
Rage looks like it’s
going to be a nice, strong action movie. It will likely have lots of
explosions, lots of illegal activity, lots of guns and over-exaggerated deaths;
and, since Nicolas Cage is in it, it should be about three steps away from a
B-movie.
Do I know if the story line will be good? Well, to be honest,
it looks a little bit like Taken
without Liam Neeson.
Most of the above is negative, I know. Strangely, I still
really want to see it. This is how I am with Nicolas Cage, though. No matter
how bland his tone gets, how remade the movie is he’s in is, I always wind up
staring at the trailer with my eyes narrowed and thinking, “I bet that’s gonna
be cool.”
I have no excuse. It’s terrible.
9 – Magic in the
Moonlight (July 25)
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody
Allen
Actors: Eileen
Atkins, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney, Emma
Stone, Jacki Weaver, Erica Leerhsen, Catherine McCormack, Paul Ritter, Jeremy
Shamos
Genre: Comedy
Rated: PG-13
I’m going to say the one thing I could say to prove I write
these reviews from the point of view of the lay-man and not a film-geek: I’m
not a fan of Woody Allen. I can’t quote a single Woody Allen movie and I couldn’t
even give you a favorite if I tried. In fact, I can’t even NAME five Woody
Allen movies without peeking at IMDB.
I’m not saying he sucks, I’m saying his work just isn’t for
me. It feels overly pretentious and dull.
However, Magic in the
Moonlight looks like it could be a sweet and honest look at differing perspectives
where romance is concerned. Even more than the story line, my greater reasoning
would be Emma Stone.
Watch the trailer. It looks like Emma Stone was made for
this part. I’ve never seen her look as natural in anything else she’s done. I
love seeing actors in their element.
It will take some doing for me to get over the Woody Allen
dialog format, but I really think that it wouldn’t be impossible in this case.
Fuck Woody Allen. This movie is all about Emma Stone.
8 – Wish I Was
Here (July 18)
Director: Zach
Braff
Writer: Zach
Braff, Adam Braff
Actors: Zach
Braff, Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon, Jim
Parsons, James Avery
Genre: Drama
Rated: R
It looks like Wish I
Was Here isn’t doing so well with critics. I’ve seen it called shallow and
self-indulgent. Is it possible that the critics are right? Of course. It’s just
as likely that they’re wrong, though.
I like Zach Braff as an actor and I like Kate Hudson, most
of the time, but it’s not the cast that got it on the list.
In my opinion, July is going to be a week month for movies,
so it was difficult to pick a full ten that I really wanted to see. This one
likely wouldn’t have made the list at all if it had come out in June or May.
This month, it made the list solely on my curiosity.
I want to see how Zach Braff is as writing/directing a
drama. There’s no other reason. It’s my understanding that he’s directed one
before, but I haven’t seen it. So… I’m curious.
7 – Dawn of the
Planet of the Apes (July 11)
Director: Matt
Reeves
Writer: Scott Z.
Burns, Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, Mark Bomback
Actors: Andy
Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, Kodi
Smit-McPhee, Enrique Murciano, Kirk Acevedo, Judy Greer
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13
I have less interest in this entire series than I should. I
have yet to even see the first one. However, as I mentioned, it’s not a great
month for movies that interest me and the critics love the hell out of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It’s got
something like an 80% on RottenTomatoes.
The greatest truth I can give about why to look out for this
movie is because people far and wide loved the first one and are looking
forward to the next installment.
6 – Deliver Us
From Evil (July 2)
Director: Scott
Derrickson
Writer: Scott
Derrickson, Paul Harris Boardman
Actors: Eric
Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn, Sean Harris, Joel McHale
Genre: Thriller
Rated: R
Here’s where we start getting into the movies that I’m truly
looking forward to.
I think this movie looks creepy and awesome. I suspect I’ll
be jumping left and right. That damn doll that rolls forward and makes that
weird sound is ridiculous. I have been hearing that sound since I first saw the
trailer.
I expect there will be some basic recipe, Exorcism-style,
aspects to it. None-the-less, I’m still interested because I like that style.
If Deliver Us From
Evil is as good as the trailer suggests, it could wind up becoming one of
my favorite supernatural thrillers.
5 – Heatstroke (July
4)
Director: Evelyn
Purcell
Writer: Evelyn
Purcell
Actors: Stephen
Dorff, Svetlana Metkina, Maisie Williams, Peter Stormare
Genre: Action
Rated: Unrated
Admittedly, Heatstroke
feels like a movie that comes out of left field. Most people have never heard
of it or never even knew it was in production.
When I get together this list of the top 10 movies to look
out for I collect a complete list of movies that are coming out that month.
From there, I watch every single trailer. I don’t give preferential treatment
to “popular” movies and I don’t care who’s directing or writing. I judge each
movie on the merit of its trailer. Once I’ve decided that I’m interested in a
movie then I do deeper research.
That’s how I found Heatstroke.
Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) plays a troubled kid who is
sent on a trip with her dad and his girlfriend. They catch a rhino poacher in
the act and are pursued when they try to get away. After that, I’m not exactly
sure what the specifics are. I’m not sure whether the father dies or gets
taken. Quite frankly, I love that about this trailer. It didn’t give away too
much.
Williams is an amazing actress. Joined by Stephen Dorff, I
expect some amazing things with whatever the story line is.
4 – Earth to Echo
(July 2)
Director: Dave
Green
Writer: Henry
Gayden
Actors: Teo Halm,
Brian "Astro" Bradley, Reese Hartwig, Ella Linnea Wahlestedt
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rated: PG
I squeed. This is the most adorable trailer with substance
that I think I’ve ever seen. It looks like a twist of The Goonies and Wall-E,
both amazing movies on their own.
I can’t wait to see this. I don’t even care if I’m supposed
to be too old for this shit.
3 – Hercules (July
25)
Director: Brett
Ratner
Writer: Ryan
Condal, Evan Spiliotopoulos
Actors: Dwayne
Johnson, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan, John Hurt,
Rebecca Ferguson, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Aksel Hennie, Reece Ritchie
Genre: Fantasy
Rated: Unrated
When I first heard about this movie, I was skeptical.
Hollywood has white washed the Hercules part so much that I wasn’t aware Dwayne
Johnson is actually much, MUCH closer to what a real Hercules would look like.
The movie looks dark, geared toward adult viewers, and has a
cast that just makes me happy. Yeah, I include Dwayne Johnson in that
statement. A lot of critics put him down because of where he started but I
really do enjoy his acting style, regardless of the kind of movie he’s in. I
think he’s going to do his part justice and make the script believable.
I get shivers in the beginning of the trailer when Hercules
is walking over the bodies.
2 – Lucy (July 25)
Director: Luc
Besson
Writer: Luc
Besson
Actors: Scarlett
Johansson, Morgan Freeman
Genre: Thriller
Rated: R
The story line of Lucy
is mind-blowing. It’s as if The Matrix
were to be applied to a single woman. In fact, now that I think about it, it’s
kind of like The Matrix meets Limitless with the added bonus of
Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman – both insanely good actors.
There are nuances in the trailer that made me hold my
breath, such as subtle references to string theory. The writer of this movie
did his research, and it looks like something amazing came from it.
I have to know what happens when she reaches 100% use of her
brain. I just… do.
Boyhood doesn’t
have the kind of story line that interests me. In fact, the same story line in
a different movie with the same cast would have me bored to tears. Why then is
this movie not only on my list, but #1?
Boyhood has made
cinematic history, that’s why.
Going through school, you likely were introduced to all
kinds of epic poems by Shakespeare or Ovid or whomever else you might have
studied. Boyhood is the movie
version. It’s an epic film, and I mean the phrase literally not as part of a
slang attempt.
Filming for this movie began in 2002 and follows a young boy
as he grows into adulthood, but it’s not a documentary. There’s a legitimate
story line that takes place and every actor in Boyhood started on the film twelve years ago. The actor playing the
boy in the movie started filming at 7-years-old and finished at 18.
Everyone who worked on Boyhood
has put in a huge amount of effort over many, many years. Anyone could have
made a movie, but these people went above and beyond.
The only way to reward that amount of originality and effort
is by paying attention.