Prometheus

As the lights dimmed I felt a wave of excitement come over me. I had seen very limited previews for this and new very little about the movie. It felt like one of those epic movie going experiences. Ridley Scott is the master mind behind this movie in which he denies in a prequel to Alien, even though we all know that is a false statement.. This film  has a decent cast of characters. As in the last movie I reviewed Snow White and the Huntsman, we also see Charlize Theron who plays Meredith Vickers who is sort of the manger of the Prometheus ship. Michael Fassbender playing David, the non human droid type character, who can't die and can't feel human emotion. Lastly you have Noomi Rapace who plays the main character Shaw (Elizabeth Shaw) These characters as well as most of the supporting such as Janek (Idris Elba) and Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) and Charlie Halloway (Logan Marshall-Green) all help set the tone for the film. Not only were the characters good. But the production design and visuals were fantastic. I saw this is 2-D but I can only imagine what 3-D IMAX would have looked like.

The story is basically a journey to another planet in another galaxy with its own sun, to find out about the beginning of human life. Now I don't like to fill in these reviews with a ton of plot. Especially when its already sort of spelled out for you in the previews, or is just a side bar to the action and special effects. This movie follows that line. You don't even really have to know what the story is. I barely paid attention to what they were doing or why. But I think this movie could have come across a lot better in the script was better written. There were a lot of positives in this movie...The actors, the characters, the visuals and action scenes and the mystery. But there were a few bad CGI moments and the writing was great and the end sort of fell apart. This is a semi spoiler alert, but when Shaw is talking to Fassbenders head detached from his body, is really when I felt cheated. It seemed so cartoonish and unbelievable.

The movie was set up to be great but fell short. To sum up my thoughts, it was better than OK but not quite good. Although it was fun to watch for about 80% of the movie. This is a really tough film for me to review because I loved so many scenes and hated so many. This belongs on a list of good movies with bad endings. I'd still recommend seeing it though, as long as you can make it to the theater to see it, some movies hold up on DVD. This one might but I'd say its more affective on the big screen.

Rotten Tomates: 73%
IMDB: 7.7
Man Vs Film Rating: B

Snow White & The Huntsman Review

Mirror Mirror on the wall...ok you know the premiss, I don't really have to set it you for you do I? Ok, now that thats over we can get right now to what makes this movie a must to run out and see this week. #1 The fact that you have a ton of blockbusters coming out soon and once Prometheus, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Seeking A Friend for the End of the World, Thats My Boy and Rock of Ages come out this one might get lost in the shuffle, when in actuality, it might just hold up to most of those movies. #2 The casting was amazing here. Chris Hemsworth finally breaks out of his ridiculous hammer throwing Thor persona. He's a drunkard, widower who has been forced to track Snow White after she has escaped the stone walls of the castle prison. Speaking of Snow White, she was played by Kristen Stewart who catches a lot of flack from being involved in the Twilight saga, gave a tremendous performance in this film as the lead character. Well maybe she happened to be the co-lead. I say that because Charlize Theron really helped carry this film over the top, but not by too much. She played the wicked step mother to a tee, and truly plays evil quite well. #3 The cinematography was excellent, you really felt like you were watching a piece of live action artwork. The snow mixed with the blood to the flying controlled debris warrior. From the beginning to the end you'll find captivating beauty in this movie. Not counting Stewart or Theron.

You pretty much get everything you looking for in this movie, and pretty much get to avoid everything you don't want. At least thats how I felt. I am not a big fantasy guy, so usually I don't dig on movies which involve, wizards, fairies, dwarfs, magic etc...and as a HUGE fan of good dialog, they skip a lot of the cheesy english accented dialog that I actually hate. When it's just so boring and you don't much care for what their talking about and you can't even find the story they are trying to tell. You don't have to suffer through all of that. You get right to the goods here. They set up the story quick. Introduce all the characters in a timely fashion, and get right to the point. Snow White breaking away and the chase begins. Snow White vs The Huntsman, Snow White and The Huntsman teaming up, Snow White and The Huntsman vs The Queens Soldiers which includes William, one of Snow Whotes childhood friends, then William joins team Snow White, then we meet the 8 Dwarfs. I thought there were only 7?....Well at one point in time there were 8. Speaking of the dwarfs, we go back to the casting. A few well known names like Toby Jones from The Hunger Games, The Mist and Captain America. Also Bob Hoskins who plays defective Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

There was a point for about 5 minutes where I thought to myself, "this is getting a bit whimsical for my taste I hope it doesn't last too long" But just then an arrow enters the scene and breaks all that up, and soon after we find ourselves at the climax of the movie, in which Snow White dawns a coat of armor and has turned from the hunter into the hunter.

Recap

Positives: Characters, Casting and Cinematography. The running time was almost perfect clocking in at 127 minutes, which actually feels a lot quicker than it is, because first time feature film director Rupert Sanders keep you engaged through probably 90% of the movie. At times it seemed like there were 2 different "princes" vying for Snow Whites heart and you couldn't tell which one would prevail, so that keeps you guessing. Lastly there is plenty of action scenes to go around, you never get too bored. Oh and the morrior is a badass too.

Negatives: A Slight bit of over the top acting by Charlize Theron, but nothing compared to Eva Greens over the top character in Dark Shadows, but she does get a bit screechy. Although she is balanced out by Kristen Stewarts slightly drier character scene, which some people may not enjoy, like the two 60 year old ladies coming out of the theater at the same time as me when I heard them talk about how bad Kristen Stewart was. And again lastly, it's a bit whimsical when you see some of the woodland characters come out like the white deer with the tree horns, and the mini white creepy fairies.

Rotten Tomatoes: 46%
IMDB: 6.8
Kris' Man vs Film Rating B+

Top 3 Movie Sequels

This week on the Man vs Film podcast we discussed out favorite Movie Sequels and each gave our top 3 list. Check it out and comment, tell us how bad we did and correct us with your Top 3 list. (Remember our lists are based on our favorite films, and movies that are fun to discuss and are movies that we want to talk about for any certain reason. We may leave off any movie that we actually consider to be in our Top 3 list based on any factors. These lists are subject to change at any time.)


http://louisvillepod.podomatic.com/entry/2012-05-15T15_12_48-07_00 Click  This MAN VS FILM LINK to go directly to the podcast and listen for yourself. On this weeks podcast we talk The Avengers, We forget to talk Dark Shadows, but we also give our top 3 lists which are SPOILED below. Also here the latest movie news on Anchorman 2 and Django Unchained.

Kris
3) Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
2) Terminator 2 Judgement Day
1) Back 2 The Future part II

















Josh
3) Blade 2
2) X-Men 2
1) Aliens















BK
3) The Dark Knight
2) Terminator 2 Judgement Day
1) Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

BATTLE of the RomComs

Early summer produced two romantic comedies which seemed like they were both worth seeing. One a Judd Apatow produced film starring a go to comedic actor Jason Siegel. The other a "black" comedy starring the hottest stand up comedian on the planet right now, Kevin Hart. Now even though they have both their differences as just mentioned, they also have a few similarities. Such that Kevin Hart is actually in both of these movies. Starring in one and just being back up comedy relief in the other...though still, in both. You'll also find a charter in both movies both happen to open up a food truck in the end...UGH OH, I forgot to say SPOILER ALERT. TO be totally honest these movies are totally opposite in so many ways. Find out how in this summers BATTLE OF THE ROM COMS...

Tom and Violet the two main characters in 5YE are dull from the get go. They actually develop pretty well as far as who they are, but this is a comedy. We don't need to get to know the characters that well just to laugh. Chris Pratt from Parks and Rec plays the "comedy" wing man to Siegel yet fell flat on his face in the role. There was just nothing there, though I also don't find him very funny in Parks and Rec either. Alison Brie I liked in her role, but it was pretty small and couldn't save the film. If there was any positives about this movie it was some of the back up roles. Again Kevin Hart appears in the movie along with Brian Posehn. They both added just enough laughs to keep me in my seat through most of the movie. But through out most of the film it seemed like they weren't trying at all or were trying too hard. Such as when Tom had embraced his new life in Michigan and grew out the massive, tangly beard and was hunting and eating wild game and drinking dear spit. It was pretty pathetic.

Now even though Think Like A Man wasn't a fantastic film, it is a good watch. It does focus a lot of relationships, but you see the side of both the man and the woman. The battle, the struggle, the games played on both sides. Romany Malco always delivers, weather in Weeds, 40 Year Old Virgin etc... Seeing Jerry Ferrara in this movie was the perfect insert for the "token white guy" in the mix. What I really enjoyed was even though this movie was about relationships for the most part. It was kept light. It resembled a RomCom and a buddy movie. It was about relationships between men, women, friends and family. You got big laughs and sentimental moments. Kevin Hart was the only character not really involved in a relationship. So he was free to be the guy who could just focus on being the comic relief in the movie even when the tone was a bit on the serious side. It could snap quickly from one direction to another seamlessly.

In the end it's not hard to see that Think Like a Man wins the early summer Battle of the Rom Coms.

Recommendations & Ratings

5 Year Engagement: A Few laughs but nothing to really hold on to. I would recommend skipping this movie all together. For me it's not worth the money or your time spent even watching it on DVD. If you need to compromise with your girlfriend on a Redbox rental it might be worth the dollar to skip watching The Vow or The Lucky One. Other than that...STAY AWAY.
D+

Think Like A Man: It's a good theater watch, especially if you get the right people in the theater with you. Although I would say maybe wait until DVD or at least until it hits the $2 theater. A good date movie.
C+

Welcome to Man vs Film

Man vs Film is a movie and TV podcast . We are in correspondence with Louisvillepod.com but are more of a national based podcast, even though we operate from Louisville. Our commitment to movies and TV is purely based on the love of the industry, using our own money to see the biggest and smallest films and to produce this podcast so we can bring them to your front door, or your laptop, or your iPod....or whatever.

check out our podcast released every Wednesday. We have a topic of the weeks in which we do a Top 3 list, bring you the latest box office news, and hollywood and TV rumors. Not like who is F---ing who like TMZ, but the news any and all film junkies want to know. We also do a Netflix Pix of the week based on what we are watching or have seen on the most popular movie and TV show streaming site going today (Netflix)

Thanks for checking us out and we hope to be your stop for all your movie news and info.

Check out past episodes of Man vs Film