Henry's blog

Following suit, and due to what we in the business call “lack of motivation,” I’ve decided to do short reviews of four movies I’ve seen recently. In fact, I like this idea so much, I may keep up with it.

Ocean’s Thirteen ☆☆☆☆☆ (3.5 / 5)

Very fun flick with big-name talent, moments of hilarity, and some very cool heist, and heist preparation, scenes. I’m not sure how it stacks up in comparison to the last two, as I’ve not seen them, but I quite enjoyed this one. Definitely worth seeing in theaters.

Shrek The Third ☆☆☆☆☆ (1 / 5)
Went from a cute series laden with jokes adults and kids could each get, respectively, to trashy, unfunny and low-quality animation at its worst.

Reservoir Dogs ☆☆☆☆☆ (4 / 5)

Though completely violent, at a certain point, the violence in its very excess becomes comical — there sure is nothing like watching someone’s ear get cut off to the tune of the “Sounds of 70’s” on the radio, playing in the background.

Knocked Up ☆☆☆☆☆ (5 / 5)

I laughed from the minute the movie started to the minute it ended. As Judd Appatow — writer and director of the film — mentioned in an article for what I believe was Time, unlike last year’s large production, Talladega Nights, there was less effort put into getting high profile actors for the movie (though these were hilarious, several hailing from the Freaks and Geeks cast) as it was directing efforts towards what ended up a hysterical script.

I just watched the biographic Man on the Moon, which portrays the life and times of the zany comedian who wasn’t a comedian, Andy Kaufman. For those not familiar with him, he was an eccentric performance artist active in the 70s and early 80s, characterized by his unpredictability when it came to distinguishing the boundary between his life and his work. In fact, he himself didn’t see his work as that of a comic, he thought himself to be a “song and dance man”. Often his acts consisted of that exactly — It was only somewhat later in his career that these strange acts began to be seen as comedy, though, still, only by the audience.

What made Kaufman such a quirky person is that life for him almost entirely meant being in character. Much of what he did in life was in jest, but only for him. Invoking uncertainty and confusion in people when it came to his acts and, really, publicity stunts, was almost a way of life for Kaufman, from assuming different characters to assuming entirely different personalities.

I have seen a number of videos of the actual Andy Kaufman, and Jim Carrey, who portrays him in Man on the Moon, does a dead-on recreation of him in his mannerisms, the inflections in his speech, even his body language. This, combined with spot-on, near exact recreations of events in this captivating man’s life, made this movie really enjoyable for me.

I saw The Pursuit of Happyness yesterday (and no, they “y” in happiness isn’t a typo, and is explained in the movie ) and really enjoyed it. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• What I knew: it was based on the true story of a father trying to better his already unstable and difficult life while still trying to keep his son and himself afloat.
• What I expected: it to be ok, sort of sappy.
• Bottom line: very good, sincere, and interestingly, a lot of it was actually true, as far as locations and events are concerend, versus most films said to be based on a true stories.

Overall: - certainly worth checking out if in need of the kind of movie that really makes you feel for the characters.

I saw Rocky Balboa yesterday. I’ve never seen any of the other Rocky movies, so I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but knowing the general idea of the series, I thought it was pretty good. Come on, the classic training montage with the instantly-recognizable theme song, and the slow-motion fight scenes? Priceless!

Even though some of the dialogue was fairly cliché, and the story was pretty basic, it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in need of a fun, mindless action flick.