Thursday, February 26, 2015

Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

 
Cowboys & Aliens
 
Holy cow, I could barely muster enough enthusiasm to write this review.


A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take all of our gold.  A group of locals is all that stands in their way.
 
Jake Lonnergan (Daniel Craig, Casino Royale) wakes up in the desert with a strange wristband on his arm and no memories.  After some typical wild-west hazards, he stumbles into the nearest town.  There's a town bully, the local preacher, a lawman, and the rest of your Western stereotypes.

Really, I don't want to describe the movie any more.  For it to make sense, I would have to go into way too much detail for such a blah movie.

Imagine the driest, most boring western you've ever watched.  Imagine watching that for an hour before apparently even the writer got bored and started throwing in the aliens.  It picks up for a while, gets boring again, then picks up at the climax before falling back into blahs-ville.

Not even Craig, Harrison Ford, Clancy Brown, or Sam Rockwell could save this thing.  Even Thirteen from "House" and Cletus Van Damme from "The Shield" were in it.  You'd think with all of these proven actors, it would resemble at least something partially interesting.  It did not.

There was definitely nothing to laugh at in this movie.  It was very, very Serious Business.  Capital S, Capital B.  I did drop my needlework twice... once during the very first fight, and once right at the end in the gold smelting room.

The rest of the time I worked right through it and barely listened at all.  So in that sense it's a great movie for crafting.  You definitely won't get distracted.

As a piece of entertainment, though, I give it a two out of five.  It just took too long to get down to the sci-fi.  Catch it on Netflix if you need background noise.  If you're looking for a cheap gift for someone, the Blu-ray is under $10 bucks.  I just don't know if I want it in my collection.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot Tub Time Machine was a freebie rental from Microsoft video in preparation for the theater release of Hot Tub Time Machine 2 later this week, but you can also catch it on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.  I caught it this time on the XboxOne, but it was a little glitchy.  The subtitles actually started during the previews so it was like they were predicting the future.... don't let them try to tell you it was on purpose.

Adam (John Cusack, "The Frozen Ground"), his nephew and two high-school buddies are all having a rough time of it, and decide to recapture their youth up at a ski resort where they spent the best times of their lives.  When they arrive, it's

Monday, February 16, 2015

I Hate Valentine's Day (2010) PG-13

 I Hate Valentine's Day

Available on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, "I Hate Valentine's Day" is a romantic comedy filled with awkward.

Genevieve (Nia Vardalos) is a 30-something florist who has a simple policy:  Five dates and move on.  Then she meets former-lawyer-turned-Tapas-bar-owner Greg (John Corbett) and her policy doesn't work for her anymore.

This pair of actors, previously seen together in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding",

TV Tuesday: Plur1bus (2025) TV-MA

 TV Tuesday: Plur1bus (2025) TV-MA     The research organization SETI makes a discovery that changes humanity forever, leaving only specula...