Review: The Lego Movie, or Five Reasons Even Adults Will Enjoy This

Chud

The Lego Movie isn't really the very first Lego movie. There's Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers. There's also Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite. Those two, however, converted the cute appeal of the Lego Minifigures into computer-generated characters. Which means in those movies, the Minifigures bend, and I mean in curves.

Ninjago Wikia

Bendy legs: great but unrealistic.

What makes The Lego Movie different from those other Lego movies is that this one tries – and succeeds – in achieving the look of the stop-motion fan-made videos on YouTube. The characters don't bend at the knees, and everything is made of Lego pieces – from waves to smoke to clouds to flames.

Some people may prefer the streamlined look of Ninjago or Chyma, so the stiff animation style may not appeal to them. But there are still several reasons why you should go watch this flick. Here are five.

1. "Everything is Awesome"
Yes. That annoying but damn catchy theme song.

Tumblr

The Lonely Island: annoying but damn catchy.

2. The Schizophrenic Good Cop/Bad Cop
Of course we'll hear Liam Neeson's trademark Irish drawl. But we'll also hear him in a high-pitched goody-goody voice.

hdnux.com

"Release the Kraken. The boy is the chosen one, you must see it."

3. Super Heroes
By which I mean "DC heroes", specifically Batman, Superman, and the Green Lantern. Three guesses why there aren't any Marvel heroes in here.

Business Insider

Everyone is happy in this movie. Even Gotham's Dark Knight.

4. The Wizard Vitruvius being voiced by God
By which I mean "Morgan Freeman". I also love how they just dangle him on a string to simulate being a ghost.

Brick Animation

"My voice acting talent fee is quite expensive." -Morgan Freeman

And finally…

5. The Millenium Falcon
Yes, that's Anthony Daniels and THE Billy Dee Williams as C-3PO and Lando Calrissian.

Collider

No photo of the Millenium Falcon available, so here's Abraham Lincoln and Superman instead.

The Lego Movie. USA. 2014.



Original rating: 8.0 / 10
Chris Pratt's genuinely happy voice: + 0.05
Charlie Day's trademark scream: + 0.05
The meta-ness of the entire thing: + 0.05
Will Arnett's Batman performance: + 0.05
Channing Tatum as Superman: + 0.05
Jonah Hill as the Green Lantern: - 0.05
Live action bit at the end: - 0.05
President Business not being Will Ferrell-y enough: - 0.05
Final rating: 8.10 / 10





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Magic Mike

"It's not really a feel-good movie but you really feel good after watching it," a friend overheard someone saying on our way out of the theater. I'd have to agree. For the following reasons:

1. Channing Tatum

I actually wonder how it is to see him dance in the flesh—literally—in front of me. And he has credible actual experience to fulfill the fantasy. So if you went to see this movie to feel Mike's beat, "Honey, dance for me and feel free to lead."

Don't mind the ooohh's and the aaahh's, it simply cannot be helped.

21 Reasons to Watch 21 Jump Street

Columbia

For those of you who are too young to remember, 21 Jump Street was a television show in the 80s. It was mostly my mother and my aunt who watched it; children love their cartoons, and are not interested in anything adults like.

Anyway, this here is the movie version. Hollywood showed us that making movie versions of old TV shows is quite lucrative, and since they've basically cleared the 70s with Charlie's Angels and Starsky and Hutch, they now move on to the 80s.

Anyway, here are 21 reasons to watch this. Thank heavens the street address wasn't in triple digits. If it were called 101 Jump Street, I'd have to write 101 reasons to watch this.

1. Channing Tatum's first attempt at comedy

Columbia

I mean, look at him.

2. A lean, mean, Jonah Hill

Columbia

"Uh..."

Dear John

Well, what can I say? Channing Tatum is a hunk. He can dance (and you know what they say about good dancers, harhar!), he can make you swoon, and even punch someone in the face for you. At least for the last part, his character in the movie can. Hehe.

Dear John is a story about a Special Forces Army Sergeant John (Channing Tatum) and a college student Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) falling in love during spring break. They carried on their relationship writing letters to each other, while she's at school and he's in Germany to finish his 12-month enlistment in the army. Surprisingly, unlike most long-distance relationships, it worked. Until 9/11 happened and John had to go back to war again.

Apparently, it's based on a Nicolas Sparks book, whose narrative I hear the movie was not very true to. Hell, when are you people going to get it? The book is never the same as the movie. They are two different mediums; what worked for the book might not work for the movie, so get over it. They can be both wonderful in their own way.

What struck me the most is the scene where John totally breaks down reading his letter to his father (Richard Jenkins) at his father's bedside in the hospital. It's probably the first time he opened up to his father after drifting apart for years. Tear-jerker. I felt both their pain—the pain of a father wanting to console his son, and the pain of a broken heart—right through the screen. And what's ironic about it is, "Two weeks together, that's all it took, two weeks for me to fall for you," Savannah said, before they went on with their long distance thing.

It takes a moment to fall in love, probably a second to break someone's heart, and exponentially more to feel the pain.


Dear John gets six out of ten for all of the above, especially for Tatum’s hot bod (Sorry!).


Postscript: Acting-wise, Jenkins did really great playing a man with autism. Tatum could be getting better. Seyfried needs to play more diverse roles or she’ll be stuck in rom-coms, and that would be a waste of talent and a pretty face.


*photo from allmoviephoto.com

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Because I am a sucker for girls with glasses...

I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness. I ♥ Baroness.

Sienna Miller as the Baroness scores a ten. But first, what did they do with her accent? She's supposed to be Eastern European, but they made her an American here. She gets a half-point deduction for that. And why did she turn good all of a sudden? Her accent and her evilness are what makes her hot. So another point-five deduction for that. Which brings the Baroness's score to a nine out of ten.

Okay, let's start with the characters, since we're already discussing it.

• Dennis Quaid as General Hawk: It was okay, I guess. At least he was a believable general.
• Christopher Eccleston as Destro: Christopher Eccleston is a win. It doesn't matter if they made Destro a Highlander. He pulled off a good Destro, even if he can only speak like a Scotsman.
• Joseph Gordon Levitt as the future Cobra Commander: Excellent. He even did his own voice. And all the time I was thinking, "Isn't he that kid actor?"
• Channing Tatum as Duke: Ho-hum. His role could've been played by any Hollywood pretty boy.
• Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow: Who are you? And I don't like your face.
• Ray Park as Snake Eyes: Cool, as usual. Except for the mouth. Snake Eyes has no mouth! At least not outside the mask.
• Marlon Wayans as Ripcord: Typical comic relief. But at least he was the funniest in the film, and in the end, he gets a kiss from Scarlett.
• Rachel Nichols as Scarlett: Yes, she is also hot.

And because I am also a sucker for redheads...

I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett. I ♥ Scarlett.

What I didn't like about the film:

• The impossibility of mostly everything here. But of course, this is Hollywood.
• Losing Baroness's accent (which I already discussed above).
• Baroness's turncoating (is turncoating a word?).
• The Baroness-Duke love angle. They were exes? Come on. I'm sure that's just one of the writers' childhood kinks brought to life. Maybe when they were kids, they tried to have their Baroness and Duke action figures try to kiss and make out.

And now on to the film's good points:

• The chase sequence with the accelerator suits is the best. Like "I-was-shouting-like-a-kid-in-my-seat" best. The only other chase sequence I've seen that can rival this one would be the freeway scene from The Matrix Reloaded.
• There are a lot of references from Star Wars. Just keep your eyes open. And you have to be a Star Wars fan to get it.
  
• The film succeeded in doing what it was created to do: that is, play like a movie based on a toy. Because the entire movie is like a Toys for the Big Boys catalogue. I want to have everything they have there, from the accelerator suits, to the chameleon suit, to their jets. Everything.
• The Snake Eyes-Storm Shadow fight scenes were great, but what was even better was the fight scene between the young Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.
  
• And of course, I also loved the catfight between Baroness and Scarlett. For more girl to girl action. (Is it "girl to girl" or "girl on girl"?)
  

And because I am a sucker for girls with glasses and redheads...

I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett. I ♥ Baroness and Scarlett.

But I ♥ Baroness more.


*some info from IMDb
pic from geektyrant.com


G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. USA. 2009.


Rating: Seven out of ten.
Scarlett: Eight point eight out of ten.
Baroness: Nine out of ten (see breakdown above).