I'm just a guy who loves stories, whether they be past, present, future, movies, TV Shows, video games, whatever. If you came to get an average guys thoughts on film, you've come to the right place.
Liam Neeson is just a gem. Whether its in Taken, or a cameo in Ted 2, or just anything. Anytime Liam Neeson is on screen, I love it. What I love about the guy is that he's got a wide variety of achievements. He's done incredibly serious movies like Schindler's List. He's done incredibly ridiculous movies like Taken. He's done silly movies like A Million Ways to Die in the West, the list goes on.
And what's more is that he's an action hero icon. Yeah A Walk Among The Tombstones was just a grittier and dark Taken, but it was a good film nonetheless because Liam Neeson is amazing. And now we have Taken... on a plane with Non-Stop.
Non-Stop is the story of a US Air Marshal by the name of Bill Marks. Marks is an alcoholic, he's depressed. He's your pretty typical hero with a dark past storyline. He's complex, but hey, its Liam Neeson so its okay.
Marks boards a plane going from New York to London. While in the air, Marks gets a text message on a Federal network saying that unless Marks transfers 150 million dollars to an unknown account, every twenty minutes someone on the plane will die.
And so begins the game of cat and mouse of Marks trying to figure out who on his plane is playing this game with him and who he can trust.
And that's basically the movie.
Marks is trying to unravel this mystery before any more people die and he runs across a series of suspects. From the mysterious woman sitting next to him (played by Julianne Moore) to the NYPD officer (played by Corey Stoll) to the flight attendants (played by Michelle Dockery and Lupita Nyong'o).
I really wish I could say more about this film but the honest truth is that that's it!
The things that I love about recent Liam Neeson films is that there isn't too much else to them. They're just simple and to the point. I really don't think that this movie is setting up for any kind of franchise or sequel. In this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised if they did do a sequel but I think this movie is entertaining on its own.
Now, is this movie a brilliant movie? No. Like I said, its pretty simple. There's a few twists and turns but its pretty standard.
I really liked the paranoia and the games the villain of the movie plays with Marks in this film. Its a really creative idea but I can't say it lends itself to anything beyond a one shot film.
Are the physics in the movie ridiculous? Of course they are. Is the movie ridiculous itself, of course it is. But its just a down right fun ride. The performances in the movie are entertaining and the twists and turns are a lot of fun.
The fact of the matter is that you really don't need to think about Non-Stop that much. Sure its not exactly the best written but its not meant to be an Oscar winning.
Liam Neeson knows how to entertain and he's a great action star. There's really not that much else to say about Non-Stop. Its a movie you can turn on and just have fun with whether its the beginning, middle, end. Just strap in for a fun ride.
I know its a short review but I obviously can't say anything bad about this movie. That's not that there aren't bad things in this movie. Its really kind of a mediocre film. But anything bad in this film is not really worth mentioning because the movie knows what it is. Its an action film that you just need to turn your brain off during and just have fun with.
I feel bad but there's not much else to say, but what did you think of Non-Stop? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on movie news and reviews. There you can also send me your thoughts on this movie and give me your requests for future reviews.
I'll leave you with this. I would not want to ever run into Liam Neeson in a dark alley. I definitely wouldn't want to face him in an arm wrestle. Jimmy Fallon tried. Enjoy!
You know... I consider myself a good sport. I've watched some bad movies in my day. Usually, I can sit through a movie, stand up and say, yeah that movie was bad, yeah there's probably not anything really redeeming about it, but I can laugh at how bad it was. At least when I went to the midnight premiere of The Last Airbender, I came out of it laughing saying, wow, that was so bad it was funny. Lots of times, I can find a movie so bad that its almost entertaining how bad it is.
Terminator Genisys has created a new category in bad movies. Like there are bad movies, and then there is Terminator: Genisys.
I've had a troubled history with the Terminator movies. I'll be one hundred percent honest, I fell asleep during the first one. Maybe its how popular the movie is, maybe its how well known the story is, but I knew exactly what happened and honestly the first movie put me to sleep. I have yet to watch the second one. I mean I've heard that its one of the best science fiction movies of all time, but with my experience with Terminator movies, you'll understand if I have a hard time believing that. I didn't bother with Terminator 3. I saw bits a pieces of Salvation but I never could get into it.
And then the trailer came out. Now, I was one of the many who saw the trailer above and said, wow that basically shows a huge spoiler in the movie (John Connor becoming a terminator), doesn't that seem like the entire movie?
But a part of me thought that perhaps we were all wrong. Maybe, just maybe, this movie could be really good. I mean James Cameron himself said that this movie was going back to the roots of Terminator and making it better. The whole rewriting the timeline has worked with other franchises like Star Trek, why wouldn't it work here?
Let's just say James Cameron has lost all his credibility in my mind and if you've watched the trailer above, you have seen the movie.
Terminator: Genisys starts out telling the story that has been told a hundred times over. John Connor (played by John Clarke) is the savior of the human resistance in a world where machines called SkyNet have taken over the world, enslaved humanity, and have brought about the apocalypse.
Connor and his right hand man Kyle Reese (played by Jai Courtney) have led a successful resistance and are about to destroy SkyNet. Right before their campaign is successful, the machines send back a Terminator (played by horrible CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger) to kill John Connor's mother, Sarah Connor (played by Emilia Clarke). Kyle Reese volunteers to go back in time after the Terminator and stop him from doing anything to Sarah Connor and saving his friend's existence.
Now the beginning of this film is basically the plot of Terminator 1 but from the side of Kyle Reese and John Connor. He shows up in 1984, he's looking for the Terminator and more importantly, a weak and vulnerable Sarah Connor, but twist! Sarah Connor rides up saving Kyle. She's not the vulnerable woman he thought she was going to be.
Sarah Connor has actually be protected by Old Arnold who was sent back to protect her back in 1973. Since then they've been training for her to be the mother of the savior of humanity.
Sarah knows everything, from SkyNet to the fact that she has to "mate" with Kyle Reese to bear John Connor. (really, that was a joke they were really pushing in this movie).
Because Old Arnold and Sarah Connor are a new team, their mission is to destroy SkyNet from every existing and like most of the other films, save humanity from ever falling into the machine apocalypse that it just seems to always fall into.
The movie takes a couple turns and because the trailer didn't give a shit about not spoiling the movie, I'm not going to give a shit either.
Basically, instead of going to 1997 and stopping whatever happened in past movies, they decide to go to 2017 where a new operating system called Genisys is being announced and turns out to be the precursor to SkyNet.
On top of all of that, suddenly John Connor comes out of no where and turns out he is a Terminator now.
And yeah, that was pretty dumb.
I'm not gonna say it was the worst thing to ever happen as it does create something different in the story than what we're used to and it does create for a villain that is a little more personal for the protagonists.
The thing that is so disappointing is that this could have actually made for an interesting twist... if I didn't know it was going to happen.
Like for some reason this movie decided tell everything about John Connor becoming a terminator and nothing about the real... villain? in Matt Smith's character. He's basically SkyNet and in essence is the Genisys program. And for the most part, I actually really liked Matt Smith in this movie. I thought he was really good. Why wouldn't they reveal him and leave the whole John Connor is a terminator thing as a secret?
Anyways, John Connor is a Terminator and he wants to release Genisys and make Judgement Day happen.
And Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and Old Arnold need to stop that from happening.
Like I said before, there are bad movies, and then there's Terminator Genisys. I can only hope that this movie is the nail in the coffin of the Terminator movies because this movie was just god awful.
And the weird thing is, I like the majority of this cast. I like Jason Clarke, I loved him in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. I love Emilia Clarke, I love her stuff in Game of Thrones. I love Matt Smith, I hope he gets better work because he was great in Doctor Who and I actually kind of enjoyed him in this film. And yeah, I kind of like Arnold as well. These are all people I hope get more work because I like them all.
Jai Courtney... I'm just not totally sure how he keeps getting work. I thought he was okay in Divergent and Insurgent but he was better as the asshole bad guy. There's no way he can hold his own movie like he tried to in this. And while Divergent gave him some rope for Suicide Squad, this movie pulls it right on back.
But the main factor that made me think that this movie was one of the worst pieces of garbage I've seen all year is the fact that 10 minutes in, I was falling asleep. Falling asleep at a Terminator movie! I don't mean that in a way of saying like the Terminator franchise has always been a thinking man's franchise, but a movie that had so many explosions, so many scenes of Arnold fighting like the soulless robot that he is, and I was falling asleep. This movie was not just bad, it was boring.
I'm not the first one to say this, and I won't be the last. Its time for the Terminator franchise to die.
When you get more out of a movie in its trailer than you do in the movie itself, its time to let the T-800 finally go out of commission and to let John Connor... do something, I'm not totally sure what, not exist or have a happy life, whatever.
And the thing is, lots of times with these movies I can say, if they had changed this, or if they had done this, I would have enjoyed it a little bit more or it would have been passable. But in this movie, there is really not a whole lot I think could have changed.
Maybe if the movie hadn't been spoiled in the trailers I would have been a little bit more interested but that's it, I'm here to tell you that you don't need to waste your money. Just scroll up, watch the trailer and figure out some kind of ending to what they're laying down in front of you. Chances are, it will be 10 times better of an ending as this movie did.
I didn't even stick around long enough to see the Post-credit scene because this movie was so boring.
I mean I might say that this movie had an interesting idea, changing up the timeline so you can reboot the franchise while paying homage to the first movies but just all the choices with this new set up were awful and the movie just suffers.
I really cannot believe that this movie bored me so much that I fell asleep but its true. This is what happens when people don't care about their story and just put up big name stars, a franchise name, and a lot of action sequences and say, "TA DA! Its a movie!"
Terminator: Genisys luckily is a negative outlier in a series of reboots (because we have a lot of those these days) that for the most part, have been homages rather than what this movie did which was not give a shit.
While I don't think Jurassic World is better than the first movie and is even an incredible movie, while I did enjoy it, it seemed like Colin Trevorrow and everyone involved with that project loved the source material and wanted to make the best next part of the series possible.
In this film is just seemed lazy and exhausted. Maybe the story is exhausted, maybe there is only two movies worth of material about a robot apocalypse and time traveling Terminators that made Terminator 1 and 2 good. I don't know, I'll have to go back and watch both of them and the subsequent sequels to really tell, but after this movie, I don't imagine that happening for a long time.
In short, this movie just left the Terminator franchise leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth and I don't want to think about this movie anymore. My advice, watch the trailer above and figure out your own ending, it will probably be a better movie that this pile of dogshit.
But if I'm totally wrong, please let me know. What did you think of Terminator: Genisys? Is there anything redeeming about this film? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on future movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts on Terminator Genisys and give me ideas for future reviews.
I'll leave you with this. Its an Epic Rap battle of history. Enjoy!
So this day has been a weird combination of a lot of movies. Lots of them I won't get done reviewing today but I will by tomorrow... probably. Long story short, I went from Tammy, to The Heat, and while the day was not over with Pacific Rim, it was definitely one of the weirdest parts.
Pacific Rim is kind of difficult to explain because... the truth is its very easy to explain.
The short answer to the question: what is Pacific Rim about? is actually quite simple. Its a movie about giant robots... fighting giant alien monsters... And that's it.
I could tell you its this ground breaking original sci-fi story about alien monsters coming through an interdimensional rift at the bottom of the ocean and essentially bringing the apocalypse to humanity unless a group of humans, piloting giant robots go and kill the giant monsters. And while that's true, I'm not sure if it gives too much credit or not enough credit at all to this movie.
I'll no doubt put the honest trailer of this film at the end of this review, but the best line from it is that Pacific Rim is either the most awesome dumb movie ever made or its the dumbest most awesome movie ever made.
Because...
I mean for god's sake, its giant robots fighting giant alien monsters. There's really not that much to explain.
But I'll at least try for you guys.
Basically, these giant alien monsters come from a rift in the earth's crust. They attack humanity and we suffer a lot of losses. But then humanity comes together and creates giant robots to fight these giant monsters. These robots are piloted by two pilots who share a mind link, or something like that, and are able to control the robot.
The story mainly focuses on Raleigh Becket (played by Charlie Hunnam). He was a pilot for these robots until his brother was killed. Five years later, he gets recruited by Stacker Pentecost (played by Idris Elba) to perform a mission to destroy the rift and save humanity from these giant monsters they call Kaijus. He is paired up with a woman by the name of Mako Mori (played by Rinko Kikuchi) and they must work to be the best giant robot operators and stop the monsters.
For a little bit, I got a slight flair of Top Gun in this movie, like the robot operators were competing to be the best. Which would have been fun. But then you kind of throw that out the window when you realize there are giant monsters that need to be punched by giant robots.
I really wish I could describe this movie a little bit better but the truth is, there's not much more besides, Giant Robots v Giant Monsters. That's probably what this movie should have been called to be honest.
There is a little bit more to the movie. It does have a little bit of a back story on Mako and the technology that goes into the operation of the robots is kind of interesting, although overly complicated.
And then, I think the biggest surprise for a lot of people in this movie was actually the performance and character that was portrayed by Charlie Day.
Now I love Charlie Day. This wasn't always the case, but it took me binge watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for me to just say that Charlie Day is awesome. And what's better is that while Day is very much the same character he plays in a lot of movies, the kind of quirky crazy guy who has this really high voice when he's flustered, Charlie Day is actually one of the more interesting parts of the movie. I actually wanted the movie to stop centering on the pilots of the robots and focus more on him. His part of the movie actually focuses on the kind of monsters they are facing and he gives a lot of direction to the film.
Unfortunately, there's a sci-fi element of this movie including him and (I never thought I'd say this) Ron Perlman that was incredibly underutilized in my opinion.
The world is definitely not the one we're used to and we see that in Day's interactions with Perlman. Unfortunately, all that background of what the world is like now is put aside to a giant robot picking up a fuel tanker and using it like baseball bat to hit a giant monster.
Is it cool? Of course its cool. My inner child was freaking out when I watched the havoc of a giant robot fighting a giant monster.
The point is, I this Guillermo Del Toro knew exactly what he was doing when he made this film. I think the writers knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote this film. This is a ridiculous, over the top film that is a weird crossover with Independence Day, Transformers, and Starship Trooper, and its really kind of a fun ride.
Again, it rides that line being so stupid its awesome or trying to be so awesome its dumb. But its worth a watch, especially if you have nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon.
But those are my thoughts on Pacific Rim. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of the blog. You can also send me your thoughts on Pacific Rim there as well as send me requests for future movies to review.
I'll leave you with this. You saw it coming. Here is the honest trailer for Pacific Rim. Enjoy!
I have heard a lot of good things about this film. I don't think people thought it was the greatest movie ever made, but looking back at a lot of the movies that I've watched in the past few months, I'm realizing that I'm saying that a lot. A lot of the movie I review are not the greatest movies ever but they're still a fun time. The Heat is one of those movies.
If luck would have it, The Heat actually came on TV the same day that I had watched Tammy. And I will tell you the truth, I considered turning it off. I thought to myself that I didn't want anymore of Melissa McCarthy and I was ready to turn it off.
Luckily, McCarthy is not the first thing you see in this movie, the first person you see is Sandra Bullock. And that saved the movie for me from the start.
The Heat is your pretty standard, run of the mill buddy cop comedy. The difference, you've got Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. Two women as cops, the cycle has been completed, I guess we have now done everything.
Bullock plays Sarah Ashburn. Ashburn is the straight laced FBI agent who does everything by the books and is very good at what she does. Of course because she does everything correctly, she gets on the nerves of the people she works with because she's a little bit too perfect.
On the other hand, of course, you have her opposite in Shannon Mullins (played by Melissa McCarthy), a detective with the Boston Police Department. Where Ashburn is tall, Mullins is short. Where Ashburn is skinny and well kept, Mullins is fat and kinda shaggy. Where Ashburn plays by the rules, Mullins takes the law into her own hands. So enters the buddy comedy.
The basic storyline is your generic buddy cop story of taking down the mobster. There's betrayal, there's tension between the two leads, and of course there's a few laughs.
And the truth is, there are a few laughs in this movie. These two oddly enough work very well together. I liked the way these two were polar opposites and played off one another.
Was it generic? Yeah... pretty much. But if its done well, it can be done.
Now, does the plot make a lot of sense, well not really. If a case like this came up and Bullock's character wanted jurisdiction, she probably would get it and tell Mullins to go piss off. That however does make for a great buddy cop comedy and therefore must be forgotten in order for this movie to work.
And for the most part, the movie does work. Yes, it is your pretty generic buddy cop storyline of them investigating the bad guys, but it really does bank on Bullock and McCarthy working well together and that's a horse worth betting on.
And this is an example of a role given to Melissa McCarthy that really does play into the type casting that she's usually put into, but it works really well.
Mullins is not a loser who needs to prove herself like she was in Tammy, she's just a badass who doesn't give a shit about what you say about her. Yeah there's the thick skin element to it. Yeah there are some heart felt moments, especially when her family gets involved. But for the most part, it was done A LOT better than it was done in Tammy.
I know what you're saying, this movie and Tammy have nothing alike and the direction was different in Tammy. All I will say is, they are the same character. This version of Melissa McCarthy works, Tammy version does not.
Sandra Bullock. I mean, she's still hot as hell. That's not nearly the only thing she has going for her in this movie, but its worth mentioning because the woman is 50 years old and she looks like she's barely in her thirties. I don't know how she does it but she is like a fine wine, she only gets better with age.
But the other, more important things worth mentioning are her juxtaposition to McCarthy. I love it when actors and actresses who are usually known for dramatic roles or romantic comedy roles come over to a genre that is a little bit different than what they've usually done, and this movie is definitely different than anything I've seen Bullock in. I love it.
The other cast in this movie is pretty good. Dan Bakkedahl from Legit plays an albino that gives off some good laughs. Taran Killam is in this movie and I enjoy most of what he's done.
I could say a few other things about this movie but the truth is, they're all pretty small up against the true spectacle of this movie and that's Bullock and McCarthy. They're just a good team.
I don't think they're the best buddy cop team up that's ever happened, but they follow doctrine (if there is one for buddy cop movies), and they are entertaining. This movie definitely gave me a little bit of hope for Melissa McCarthy's career, hope that was incredibly lacking after watching Tammy. The movie had very much of a feel of 21 or 22 Jump Street. Obviously not to the level that I would have liked, but again, if you can work the formula without it seeming stale, why not do it?
But those are my thoughts on The Heat. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and get updates on future movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts on The Heat there and give me requests for future reviews.
I'll leave you with this. This is kind of random, but apparently if there was a zombie apocalypse, Channing Tatum would run to Sandra Bullock's house... fun fact. Enjoy!
Dear God. I had heard this movie bad but I didn't know EXACTLY how bad.
Honestly, I don't know how best to describe Tammy because it really is just a movie about Melissa McCarthy and Susan Serandon going on a road trip. Oddly enough, today has been day where I've watched a bad Melissa McCarthy movie (this one) and another movie of hers which was actually kind of fun. (The Heat). Hopefully between these two movies, I can give you a good explanation of what circumstances make Melissa McCarthy good, and which ones make her bad.
Tammy (played by McCarthy) in short, has a really bad day. She wrecks her car, she gets fired from her job, and she figures out her husband is cheating on her. To start off, Tammy is pretty much the same character that Melissa McCarthy always plays.
Now prior to today, I didn't necessarily believe that McCarthy wasn't that one note. I thought I'd give her a little bit more credit. But its these movies that I realize, that is true, she does really do the same thing over and over again.
She's the thick skinned large woman who is provocative with the things she says and its only because she's putting up a defense because everyone picks on her. And that is definitely true in Tammy.
Nobody really likes Tammy, and honestly, I understand why. She's kind of annoying. She's whiny, she's not very likable and she's not very intelligent.
But anyway, after her bad day, her and her grandmother (played by Susan Serandon) go on a road trip. To where, I'm not totally sure.
Like I think they are going to Niagara Falls but honestly, I'm not totally sure. I know road trip movies aren't totally about the destinations, they're more about the journey, but the reason Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is good is because they have an objective. They're trying to get somewhere. In this movie, its kind a journey Susan Serandon is taking Tammy on to make her less of a loser or something, I was never really sure.
Because of that, this movie is seemingly incredibly random.
They go to a lake and crash a jet ski. Then they go to a lesbian colony or something. Then Tammy robs a restaurant or something, that scene that you saw in all the trailers, yeah that's not really the most important scene of the movie. Honestly, I just want to forget what happened because I was so bored in this movie.
And remember how I said Tammy was an awful person. Well guess who she learned that from.
Yeah, the grandma in this film is just a down right awful person. I just down right hated this character and I think we were actually suppose to like her. I think we were actually suppose to like these two characters and I just hated them. Tammy's was just dumb, her grandma was just an asshole. And then at the end of the movie they try and play it off like they should just let the old grandma do her thing because she's old and an alcoholic.
But what's more is that the movie never really gave itself the opportunity to be taken seriously. There were a couple moments where I feel like the movie could have had a genuine serious moment. A moment to actually show off Melissa McCarthy not just as a physical fat woman comic, but an actual actress. But the movie never gave itself the opportunity to be serious and have a heart felt moment.
But instead we get a lot of the same BS that tried to cash in on Melissa McCarthy's character from Bridesmaids.
I'd really like to say that this movie got more crap that it deserves but I really can't think of anything that is good about this movie. This is probably going to be a short review because of that. All I can say is that this movie was painful watching.
I actually just realized that this movie is almost exactly the same as Identity Thief. I haven't watched that in A LONG time and I was about to forget about it, but then this movie reminded me! I warn you, this was one of my first posts, so its really a stretch back.
But have you seen Tammy? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on future movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts on Tammy and send requests for future reviews.
I'll leave you with this. One of the things that I've loved from Melissa McCarthy is her appearance on SNL. Here's a segment that. Enjoy!
I probably was gonna like this movie no matter what. I am a sucker for anything Seth Macfarlane. Ted continues to be one of my favorite comedies of all time. While most people didn't love A Million Ways to Die in the West, I actually really loved it. Its definitely a Seth MacFarlane thing. If you like Family Guy, if you like that kind of humor, chances are you're going to like all those movies and chances are you are going to like Ted 2.
The beginning of Ted starts with Ted and his girlfriend Tami-Lynn (played by Jessica Barth) getting married. Now to start off, I'm not wild that Ted 2 focused more on Ted than it did on John (played by Mark Wahlberg). Personally, I kind of thought that Tami-Lynn and Ted's relationship was more of a joke than a relationship I was suppose to take seriously. I mean yeah its funny that they got married, but the movie mainly focuses on them and their relationship is a big part of the movie.
It also was a little weird right off the bat that Lori (Mila Kunis's character from the first movie) was not in this film. There's an explanation as to why, but she's just gone and honestly, it kind of negates all of the first movie. The way I understand it, the reason to cut Kunis out was Macfarlane's creative thought process and the fact that Mila Kunis was pregnant but its a choice that I had to disagree with from the get go.
A year passes and Ted and Tami-Lynn's marriage isn't too great. They're fighting and throwing shit at one another, overall, it was hilarious. They exemplify the horrible stereotypes of people from Boston. Ted's wearing a wife beater, they're cussing one another out, it was great. But soon after that they decide to have a child.
So the first part of the movie is basically Ted and John trying to find a sperm donor because obviously Ted doesn't have a penis... cause he's a Teddy Bear. But through the process of finding a way to get a baby, its revealed that in the eyes of the law, Ted is not seen as a person.
This not only bars Ted and Tami-Lynn from getting a child but a lot of other services, especially the annulment of his and Tami-Lynn's marriage.
Then the movie takes another shift. It goes away from Ted and Tami-Lynn trying to get a baby, to John and Ted suing the state of Massachusetts for his civil rights.
Ted and John go and hire a lawyer by the name of Samantha Jackson (Sam L Jackson HA. HA.) (played by Amanda Seyfried) And the three of them open up a case to sue the government.
Now the structure of this movie was not exactly out of the blue. If you've watched anything from Seth MacFarlane, especially Family Guy, you know that lots of the time those stories will start with one thing, then move onto the next thing and the final product of the movie will not be how it started.
The problem I have with that is that that structure works a lot better with Family Guy, on TV. I don't think it works as well with a feature film. In an episode of Family Guy, it doesn't need to make sense, it just has to be funny. As a feature film, it just feels convoluted.
Furthermore, what made the first Ted so good was how much it had the flair of MacFarlane but didn't feel like an episode of Family Guy. This movie felt a little bit more like Family Guy which I wasn't exactly satisfied with. There were actual cut aways in this movie. Were they good? I mean... sorta? Some of them I enjoyed but some of them were not as good.
Another thing worth mentioning about this movie is the endless cameos in it. In the first Ted and even in A Million Ways to Die in the West, there were cameos but they were a little bit subtle. Like Ewan McGregor in A Million Ways to Die, or else they were pretty limited, like Ryan Reynolds... well in both.
But in this one, its like they weren't even trying for subtlety, its like Seth MacFarlane sat down and called all his famous friends and said, do you want to be in my movie? I'll write you in.
Now, I will say, some of the cameos were hilarious. If you've seen the movie, you'll know what I mean when I say Liam Neeson is fucking hilarious in this movie. I lost my mind when his cameo came up. So its not the worst thing to have these cameos, I jus thought there were a lot of them.
Then you've got all the pop culture references, which again, if you're a Seth MacFarlane fan, you'll know, this isn't out of line of work. Pop culture references are littered all of his work. But this kind of ties into the idea that I was talking about what works for films and what works for Family Guy.
The first Ted was good because it was working off the idea of a talking teddy bear and the guy who wished him alive. It was an original idea and it was hilarious.
This is still working off that original idea but it throws in a lot more pop culture references than it needed to.
Another thing that was a little bit unfortunate for me in this movie was the fact that a lot of the jokes from the trailer were just copy and pasted from the movie. Lots of times, the jokes are edited to either censor them (if its a green band trailer) or not give away the entire joke. And while there were a lot of jokes in the movie that I didn't see in the trailer, I had a lot of moments where I could really predict what was happening based on what I had seen in the trailer. Its a problem with the industry today where the trailers give A LOT away. I'm just sad that that was the case with this film.
And finally, there's the ending. I won't get into spoilers but all I'm going to say is that the ending of the movie is EXACTLY the same as the first movie. I'm not sure if they ran over budget, I'm not sure if MacFarlane just ran out of ideas, I don't know if they thought it would be hilarious and it just didn't work out the way they wanted to, or if they were just lazy, but this was the exact same ending to the movie that came out prior to this one.
Now I've been shitting on this movie with a lot of the things I didn't like. And frankly its because I was holding this movie to high standards. While I didn't think A Million Ways to Die in the West was a great movie, I still thought it was a creative idea. The first Ted is a hilarious original idea. This movie is not original...
But that doesn't make it a bad movie.
As I've said before, the cameo of Liam Neeson and some of the other ones were really funny. This movie has a lot of moments where I laughed my ass off. I laughed HARD. Short of its, there were cameos I liked and cameos I thought were there just for the sake of being there.
I thought while it was strange that Mila Kunis was not in this movie and I thought they really missed out not bringing her back, I thought Amanda Seyfried was a funny addition to the movie. I think it worked for the movie.
Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane continue, as always, to be comedic powerhouses.
While I thought the story got a little convoluted and tried to do too many things, I thought it was still fun. Putting Ted in a court room is a great location for a sequel and with the exception of the last ten minutes of the film being the same ending from the first Ted, I really do think Ted 2 is its own movie.
I think in a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the first Ted, 5 being A Million Ways to Die in the West, and 1 being The Cleveland Show, Ted 2 definitely falls between the first Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West.
I'm really hoping that Ted 2 is one of those movies that I will see a couple times and enjoy the more times I see it. Again, its by no means a bad movie. I really enjoyed it. I just would have liked to see better because I know MacFarlane can do better than this movie.
Now the question is, do I want there to be a Ted 3...
I personally don't think they really need a Ted 3. Hell, I wasn't totally sure they needed a Ted 2, but I was optimistic about what MacFarlane could do. I was pretty optimistic that Ted would not turn into a The Hangover franchise if it got a sequel... Now I'm not too sure. If I was the one running the movies that MacFarlane is going to do in the future, I would say he'd do better to redeem himself with a new original property. That being said, if he does the work, I'm not oppose to another Ted movie.
Overall, Ted is a really, REALLY funny movie. Unfortunately, its not an overly original really, REALLY funny movie. It has a lot of work to do and I wish it could have been better. But I still enjoyed it and it was a fun ride.
But what did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on future movie news and reviews. You can also give me your thoughts on this movie there and send me your requests for future reviews.
I'll leave you with this. Here's Seth MacFarlane singing karaoke in his Family Guy voices. Enjoy!
Yeah! I skipped Tokyo Drift! What about it? I'll skip any damn movie I please. I mean in the chronological order of the franchise this movie comes next anyway so yeah, I skipped Tokyo Drift.
Its been a while since I've watched 2 Fast 2 Furious but honestly it doesn't really seem like that's much of a problem. As long as you remember the characters from the first movie, The Fast and The Furious, you should be pretty good with this movie.
Fast & Furious (not The Fast and the Furious, there's a difference) starts a few years after the first movie, I think its five.
Dom (played by Vin Diesel) is in the Dominican Republic with his new crew, including his girlfriend Letty (played by Michelle Rodriguez).
Shortly after his crew disbands and Dom leaves Letty to save her from harm, he gets a call from his sister Mia (played by Jordana Brewster) saying that Letty was murdered. Dom quickly returns to Los Angeles to find out who murdered her.
Also in Los Angeles, Brian O'Conner (played by Paul Walker) is now an agent with the FBI. How he became an agent with the FBI is beyond me as the end of 2 Fast 2 Furious didn't really open up that career field for him, but whatever. Anyways, O'Conner is investigating a drug lord named Arturo Braga. And if you've seen the last films you probably know what happens, he goes undercover in an organization full of crimes some how including fast cars and undercover work.
Of course, Dom does some investigating of his own and figures out that the person responsible for killing Letty is in Braga's organization. And of course, if you've seen the other movies, you can probably guess that this required Dom and Brian to put aside their differences, keep one another's secret and take down Braga from the inside.
You can definitely tell that this was the point where the Fast and Furious Franchise was losing steam. I haven't seen Tokyo Drift, so I can't really say if they did the similar story in that one, but this has been the story for the past two movies at the very least. There's only so many stories about criminal organizations using street racing to compete criminal activity you can do before the story gets a little bit stale.
What I will say is that this movie had the beginnings of what the franchise would be known from this movie on, and that's taking the cool stunts they did in the first few movies and putting those stunts on steroids. Now there's not a lot of those in this movie, but there are enough to make you feel like the movie is just ridiculous, but a fun ridiculous.
Unfortunately, the movie is still in the limbo it found itself in after the 3rd movie and its still trying to be a sort of crime action film but still trying to up the ante on stunts, but not enough to make it the ridiculous popcorn fun. The movie does get a little bit convoluted.
This is also the first movie where the films become less about Paul Walker's character and more about Vin Diesel. And that they actually do a decent job with.
Unfortunately overall, the movie is just kind of a mess. Its the same story they've done at least twice by now and besides some kind of cool stunts in the beginning, the racing is still oddly animated and looks weird and its just not that interesting of a movie. I think this movie is universally claimed as the worst of the Fast and Furious franchise and I understand why. (Again, I skipped Tokyo Drift, deal with it).
I'm looking forward to watching 5 and 6 to see where the franchise actually heads and Furious 7 again with the context of this movie and its predecessors prior to it. But in the end, this movie turned me off of the franchise for a long time and to be honest, if I didn't know where the franchise goes, I would say it has turned me off of the franchise.
But those are my thoughts on Fast & Furious. What did you think? Is it the worst of the franchise? Should I go back and watch Tokyo Drift (I probably will just in the chronological order its suppose to be in). Comment and Discuss below! Also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 in order to get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts on this movie and send me requests for future reviews there.
I'll leave you with this. This is a video on the mechanics of the Fast and Furious movies. I hope you enjoy it, I actually haven't watched it prior to posting this post, I think it should be good. Enjoy!
