Pacific Rim

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!

The Heat

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!

Tammy

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!

Ted 2

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!

Fast & Furious

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!

2 Guns

This is a movie I've wanted to see for a while but never really had the opportunity to. I mean it has Mark Wahlberg, it has Denzel Washington, two A list movie stars who I enjoy immensely, in an action comedy that actually looks really fun. Even though the title makes it seem like the movie is a sequel, this movie has a lot going for it right off the bat.

2 Guns follows the story of two criminals Robert Trench (played by Denzel Washington) and Michael Stigman (played by Mark Wahlberg. They are doing business with a Mexican cartel kingpin and are trying to score big.

Unknown to Stigman however, Trench is a DEA agent in deep with the cartel trying to get to the top echelons and take it down. Unknown to Trench, Stigman is with Naval intelligence. The plan they hatch to get prosecute the cartel leader is to rob a bank with the cartel's money in it and screw the other one over so the money can be traced back to the cartel and they can be sent to prison. Of course, since both of them are law enforcement without the other ones knowing, they unwittingly outsmart each other and end up robbing the cartel as well as money from the CIA.

That's a brief summary of an actually pretty complicated movie. This movie has it all, DEA, Mexican Cartels, the CIA, Naval Special forces, everything. Around every corner is a new threat, and in the center of it all is Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.

The thing I like about this movie is that it doesn't feel like a straight up comedy. The problem I have with movies like Rush Hour and the reason I never got into a movie like that was because it felt too comedic and it was going for the laughs rather than giving a good action film.

This movie seems to give more of an action film vibe to it with a lot of comedic quips in there. Wahlberg is hilarious in this film. He's this hot tempered badass and the things he says are hilarious. They don't feel like jokes, they feel like something someone who is really funny would say. On top of that, the chemistry between him and Washington is fantastic. These two work off one another really well. You are never really sure whether or not these two are friends or whether or not they're going to shoot one another and its great.

One of the issues I have with this movie is the progression of the story. It starts out like an actually really fun and interesting crime action film.

You've got Edward James Olmos as the Mexican Druglord, you've got Bill Paxton as an intimidating CIA agent. You've got James Marsden as a Naval intelligence guy. And then you've got Paula Patton as Trench's partner in the DEA and former girlfriend.

The story just gets larger and larger and more and more crazy and they do a good job at that progression.

The problem is how ridiculous it actually gets.

Like I said before, this movie doesn't feel like an comedy action film, it feels like an action film first with a lot of smart quips. Its not until the end that things get really ridiculous and the action becomes more comedic than it does "action-y". There's a better way of putting that but instead of saying, "that was awesome" I ended up saying, that's really ridiculous.

Also because it gets so ridiculous, the plot gets a little bit convoluted and eventually I kind of lost track of who had what money and who wanted to kill who because eventually, everyone wanted to kill one another and it all kind of gets crazy.

2 Guns is definitely not a bad movie. Its actually a lot of fun. Again, I love Washington and Wahlberg in this movie. I'm kind of wondering why these two haven't worked together before. If they have let me know because I want to see that movie. But these two are a lot of fun and its not Denzel being cheesy with his comedic roles like I feel he has before, he's being smart and entertaining.

Is it a perfect movie? Absolutely not. Its a little bit complicated and it loses a little bit of the perfect tone it creates in the beginning, but I really did like this movie. I think its worth a rental or worth watching if it comes on on TV (which is what happened to me) Check it out.

But those are my thoughts on 2 Guns. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also Follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts on the film and requests for films I can review in the future.

I'll leave you with this. I'm going to see Ted 2 tonight, this movie has Mark Wahlberg in it, I'm putting the Restricted trailer for Ted 2 on this, just so you can get a flavor for what I'll be reviewing. Enjoy!

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I've never been a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise. I haven't seen the original, nor the Tim Burton movie, though I am aware of the pop culture references in it. For example, I love this reference.

Now I've heard good thing about the new Planet of the Apes franchise. I heard the Rise of the Planet of the Apes was actually a better movie than people expected and The Dawn was actually a pretty great movie.

I never actually got around to watching the first one but the trailers from this one (the second one) made me interested. With all the hype of the movie and the interest I already had, I decided to forgo the first one and watch the second one. I mean, it was on TV and that's kind of where I'm getting all these new movies, but still, I wanted to check it out sooner or later.

I think one of the best parts of the film is the fact that it really didn't matter that I hadn't seen the first one. I could really jump into the plot of the second movie and understand what was going on. Besides the fact that I know James Franco is in the first one and he raises apes, I don't know anything about the first movie.

The movie is set in a future where an epidemic has destroyed the majority of the human race. On the other hand, genetically enhanced apes have built a civilization of their own in what was once San Fransisco. This Ape civilization is headed by Caesar (motion captured and played by Andy Serkis). From what I understand, Caesar was the ape in the first movie but again, not a huge deal whether you know that or not.

Caesar is the leader of his clan of Apes and he's a good leader. Other apes trust him and from the beginning, you see that Caesar is a fair leader. He's not ruthless but he's also not a wimp. He's a smart leader.

When there's an unfortunate incident between some of the Apes in Caesar's clan and a small group of humans that ends in an Ape being shot. While the Ape survives there is a tension between the apes and the humans led by Gary Oldman (honestly, I never actually picked up his name). But again, Caesar is fair and says the humans stay in their area, the apes stay in theirs. Any more interactions between the two will mean all out war.

The majority of the movie is the tensions and interactions between Caesar and a small family of humans who want to work with the Apes to bring a power source to the human area and stay away from the ape area. This family is headed by Malcom (played by Jason Clarke). He and his family end up working closely with the apes and there is actually a great relationship that forms between them and the Apes.

What's really interesting is the dynamic of power Caesar holds in his own kingdom of sorts. This movie isn't so much an action science fiction film as it is a film about politics, Ape Politics. Which I find really interesting. There is conspiracies the same way there were conspiracies in Rome with the real Caesar.

Another great thing about this movie is the motion capture.

I mean first off, you have Andy Serkis, the king of motion capture. His facial expressions just make the interactions between the apes and the humans just fantastic.

Now that being said, there were sometimes that I felt the apes were a little too animated. Now they were a great animation and I really have to applaud the motion capture for this film, but I could definitely tell the apes were animated.

Its kind of a mixed reaction because I did like the motion capture, I just wasn't always convinced that it was an ape in front of these humans.

I'm just gonna say that the motion capture was great and leave it at that.

The other thing that is not quite a complaint but still worth mentioning is the story. I feel like I've seen this story before. Its the political drama of a ticking time bomb. From the very beginning, you should know that someone is going to mess up and piss off one of the groups. One of the groups are going to piss off the other one and its going to end up in a physical confrontation. I'm not gonna say that it was bad, it was just predictable. As much as the apes and the humans try and get along, them living happily ever after doesn't really work in this scenario.

Individual performance-wise, I've already talked about Andy Serkis. The guy is the man. I'm looking forward to him in The Force Awakens, I love him in every role he's in whether its motion capture or not.

The human cast was also really good. I don't think I've reviewed (or even seen) a full movie with Jason Clarke and I've wanted to. I like him as an actor, I think he does a good job.

Keri Russel was good, she's not a huge part but she was good. I enjoy Kirk Acevedo.

Gary Oldman I think was in an absolute perfect role as the leader of the human survivors who is very much on the "they are animals" side of things. I feel like he was a little bit under developed and his character wasn't exactly given a lot of development for me to totally say that he was a good "antagonist"/ complicated authority figure.

While I've talked a lot about Andy Serkis, I loved all the actors who did the motion capture and I loved their work int his movie.

Overall, the apes looked great. I got invested in a story where Apes and humans were fighting against one another and after writing that sentence, I realize that that was probably a hard thing to do.

The movie did what it set out to do and it did it really well. so much that I'm interested in seeing the first movie. Furthermore, I'm looking forward to the next movie because there's a war coming and I love it!

And oddly enough, I want to see this situation happen with a franchise like Jurassic World. I think this might be where the franchise might be headed. I'm not wild about the ideas of sequels for Jurassic World but I'm sure that it will happen and if it does and something like this happened, i would be very happy.

But those are my thoughts on Dawn of The Planet of The Apes. What are your thoughts on the movie? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts and give me your requests for movies to review in the future.

I'll leave you with this. Let's make it easy and just give you an honest trailer. Enjoy!

Just Friends

This might be a trend in the near future, me just finding seemingly random movies playing and watching them so I can crank out a review for your all. Hopefully they're good... from here on out.

I saw Just Friends a long time ago. I wasn't allowed to watch all of it because of the crude language and sexual content because I was quite young. To me, this movie seemed more like a movie my sisters would watch because, hey! Ryan Reynolds is hot.

And let's talk about that. Ryan Reynolds, when did he become a thing? According to his wikipedia page, Reynolds was involved with Canadian movies and TV and starred mainly in Van Wilder, a film I never actually saw. To me, this was always my first exposure to Ryan Reynolds and honestly... its a rocky start.

Just Friends stars Reynolds as Chris Brander, an unpopular fat kid who is graduating high school. He's of course friends with the most popular girl in school, Jamie Palamino (played by Amy Smart) she sees him like a brother because they're such good friends. He of course is in love with her and wants to be more than friends but she never really gives him that option.

After an embarrassing incident with his graduate class, he leaves home and becomes an agent in charge of music artists. He loses a shit load of weight and becomes the Ryan Reynolds we all know. Honestly, he's a little bit of a douche. He claims to know all about relationships, letting everyone know what exactly he's gone through as he knows all about the friend zone.

One of the clients he has is an obnoxious talentless woman he went on a date with (played by Anna Faris). They have plans to go to Paris so he can sign her onto his music industry but their plans change when their plane is grounded in New Jersey, the very city Chris is from.

He returns home to figure out that Jamie is living in their home town. Chris decides that its now time to try and get with her like he always wanted to.

Chris of course runs into some difficulties as Jamie still kind of sees him as a friend. Furthermore, she's not totally into him and his Los Angeles douchbagery.

Furthermore, Chris has some competition in another guy who wants to win over Jamie's heart. (played by Chris Klein). All the while he's trying to manage Anna Faris's character Samantha James, ward off the antics of his brother (played by Christopher Marquette), and just dealing with not being in his comfortable Los Angeles lifestyle anymore.

There's a couple things about this movie worth discussing. The fact of the matter is, this isn't your typical romantic comedy. Its kind of a raunchy comedy.

And let's talk about Ryan Reynolds as a comedic actor. I mean, I've seen movies where he's been a decently funny guy. But in this movie he's just...

Weird...

I mean Ryan Reynolds in a fat suit is kind of weird by itself because... my god, its weird. But he's got this weird Pedo voice going on that I guess was funny for a moment, but quickly became the same thing over and over again. It was really kind of creepy and just because Reynolds makes his eyes really big, does not mean he's funny. 

Also Reynolds is not exactly at his peak yet, even when he's suppose to look attractive, he's still got those kind of pedo eyes that freak me out a little. 

Furthermore, the romance, while comedic in nature and not suppose to necessarily make a whole lot

of sense, doesn't make sense a lot of the times. Like Chris comes back and he assumes that Jamie would like a guy who is confident and kind of douchey, the same kind of guy Chris has become. And then he changes his strategy based on what he sees from his interactions with Jamie. And Jamie herself is confusing because I wasn't totally clear of when her feelings towards Chris changed until the point where they're in bed with one another and she wants him to make a move. I kind of saw that coming out of no where.

The relationship is so ridiculous because its trying to be this weird, kind of gross out, kind of charming comedy, that I can no longer belief it as a believable relationship. And finally, I'm not totally sold on Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart. Nuff said.

And then you have Anna Faris

Dear... god...

And I get it, Faris is suppose to be this sex symbol who is really obnoxious, and she was funny to begin with, but I think they eventually ran out of options for her and had to just figure out ways to get rid of her so she wasn't bothering the main story. And then even when she does, it has absolutely no effect on the way Jamie feels about Chris. There's no question of who the hell this crazy woman is, nope, the next scene Jamie wants to get with Chris.

Overall, Just Friends is a funny movie... sort of. I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't have ANY fun with it. I mean even a man in jail can smile a little bit. But there was too much in this movie that kind of made me uncomfortable and was just weird.

Its not the worst movie ever made but it definitely has its problems and for me personally, gave me a headache while watching. I think Ryan Reynolds has come a long way since this movie but this one is definitely not one of his best.

But what do you think? Have you seen Just Friends? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24  to get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also shoot me your thoughts on Twitter and and give me some requests for future reviews.

I'll leave you with this. While I realize I'm not exactly the most impressed with Ryan Reynold's filmography, there is a movie that I want to see him him and Sir Ben Kingsley, its called Self/Less. Here's the trailer. Enjoy!

Walk of Shame

Its actually kind of amazing that this movie got made. It took me about an hour into this movie to realize that all this movie was was exactly what it said it was, a "walk of shame"... and that's it.

Sure they tried to do something a little more, but in the end, this movie just gave me a headache. This may have been due to the nature of the work I was doing while I was watching the movie but damn this movie was awful. I think I needed to review a shitty movie as I was on a pretty good streak with Gone Girl and Inside Out, its time for a bad one.

Now this movie started out like a pretty standard chick flick. I was channel surfing, I needed to find something worth watching, I thought, I like Elizabeth Banks, this opening (a bunch of news anchor blunders) could give way to a kind of funny movie, maybe its a movie about a news anchor trying to get away from her news blunder that they show in the beginning. That's really what they build it up to be.

Well like I said, the beginning seems like a pretty typical comedy/ romantic comedy. Elizabeth Banks (don't really remember, or care what her name was in the movie) is a news anchor for a local news station and is up for a job with a bigger news station. But when it seems like she won't get the job and her boyfriend movies out, her friends (played by Gillian Jacobs and Sarah Wright) make it their job to give her the time of life, get her drunk and have a good time.

Banks seems to be having a good time until she's locked out of the club. She then meets James Marsden (again, don't remember/ care about his character's name. Before she goes with him however, she is informed that she is actually going to get the promotion as long as her next news broadcast goes well.

Well she goes home with James Marsden, they have a fun time, hook up. She then decides, I have to ditch him and go home. Not a totally unwarranted, but she leaves at a very early time in the morning.

Of course the minute she goes outside, she sees her car get towed and she left her phone... somewhere. I guess she left it in Marsden's place... for some reason. And her purse was in her car... for some reason. And she has no way to communicate with anybody. So she starts her "walk of shame" to get out of the neighborhood she was in and get to the career making broadcast in time.

Again, I'm not totally sure how this movie got made. Because again, half way through the movie, I realized that the entire movie was her spending THE ENTIRE DAY trying to get home. Without a cell phone, without any money, etc.

Now the joke here is that the signature yellow dress she's wearing isn't her's. Its her friend's and they say in the beginning that it kind of makes her look like a slut. I'm not totally sure why her friends are horrible people like that, but okay.

But while it was kind of funny to have some banter between Banks and her friends, EVERYONE ELSE thought she was a hooker. EVERYONE!

Like, I can understand the taxi driver thinking she's a hooker. Sure. I can understand some other people thinking she's a hooker because she's on the streets looking great. But holy crap. EVERYONE thought that she was a hooker. EVERYONE. Cops, Bus Drivers, EVERYONE!

And that jokes just continues on and on and on.

And she just never finds a way to get home. I mean for god's sake. Call a cab that isn't that fat guy from Borat, call the actual cops, not the dumbasses thinking your a hooker. Talk to anybody on the street, let them know who you are, cause apparently she's this well known news anchor, and just ask them for a ride. Its not like she's dressed like a hobo, there are actually people who recognize her, she could be like, I need your help!

Like I wish I could tell you what happened in this movie. Like apparently she wonders into the set of The Wire at one point, gets some crack. I guess this movie could be considered a modern retelling of some kind of hero's journey but my god, this movie was bad.

It had no structure, the characters were just Elizabeth Banks running around in a yellow dress and James Marsden looking for her.

And the unfortunate part is, I like a lot of these actors. I like Elizabeth Banks, I like Gillian Jacobs. I like James Marsden. I like a lot of the people involved with this movie. But my god this movie was awful.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT see this movie. If you've read my reviews, I try and be as honest as I can, but I also try to be positive. There is nothing positive about this movie. Its just down right awful.

But those are my thoughts on Walk of Shame. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and get updates on movie news and reviews. You can also send me your thoughts on movies I review and give me requests for future reviews.

I'll leave you with this. Probably my favorite part of this movie was the fact that Gillian Jacobs is getting a paycheck. I love her in Community, I want to see her in more... I mean more stuff that is better that is. Here's her talking about her name. Enjoy!

Inside Out

So... this was quite a shift. I go from really dark murder mystery to Pixar...

But very similar to Gone Girl, the minute I saw this trailer I was in love with the idea of this movie. I loved the idea of it, I loved the people involved. Everything about this movie I thought I was going to enjoy.

And also similar to Gone Girl, I ended up loving it.

Inside Out all focuses on the inner working of the mind. According to the film, we have five primary emotions, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. These emotions work in the headquarters of our brains and shape our memories and our reactions to them. Sometimes these memories are core memories and they shape who we are.

That's all I'm going to say because I've only given a smidgen of what this movie is all about and just the greatness that it is.

The movie mostly takes place in the mind of a young girl named Riley. Riley was born and raised in Minnesota until her parents moved to San Fransisco.

Riley, for the most part, is a very happy girl. In her mind, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) makes it her goal to make sure Riley is incredibly happy and continues to have happy memories. Up in the control room, she is joined by Fear (voiced by Bill Hader) Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling) Anger (voiced by Lewis Black) and Sadness (voiced by Phyilis Smith).

However, Joy's quest to keep Riley happy becomes more and more difficult as she begins facing so many difficulties, like her parents being busy with work and the move, moving into a new school, a new hockey team, getting new friends, etc.

The majority of the movie is Joy's quest through the corridors and macinations of the mind of an 11 year old girl.

And in short, its phenomenal.

To start off, I could not get enough of the interactions between these characters in the control room. Amy Poehler is great, obviously. She has the power to carry a movie like this.

Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black are all fantastic emotions to add to the mix and they fit perfectly into their designated emotions.

The one thing I was worried about was Phyllis Smith.

I mean how do you make a character out of someone who is systemically sad? If you've watched the Office, Phyllis is just a downer. And at a certain point, I got kind of sick of her in the office. I was worried I would get sick of her in this movie.

However, Sadness is actually one of the better characters in the film. First off, this character is hilarious. I did not expect that. I thought Sadness was going to be just that, a sad character. And she is, but at the same time, her sadness is not overbearing, its not annoying, and there are jokes that just hit the perfect mark. I was laughing my ass off with a lot of the debbie downer lines that came from Sadness. But along with that, Phyllis Smith gives this kind performance and the animation just makes you love Sadness just like all of the characters. Its just done incredibly well with Sadness and Joy.

Its one thing to say that this movie is cute. Its another thing to say this movie is entertaining. But what this movie really is is smart.

This movie is so smart that I had moments in the film that I was wondering if young kids would actually get this. Yeah the colors and animation is very kid friendly, but the subject matter is actually really adult. Its the inner workings of the human mind. Yeah they break it down to a tangible conclusion but its also incredibly brilliant.

This is mainly a story about growing up. This movie shows what is going on in the mind of a young girl as she deals with what is going on around her. Because of that, the movie is subject to make you feel. I'm not saying you're absolutely going to cry at this film because, hey, you may not have a soul. But this film just proves that Disney knows how to make their audience feel. This obviously isn't new. Its happened in multiple Pixar films, it happened in Big Hero 6. Its going to happen again, I have no doubt.

This movie is smart because its not just about the emotions in this girl's head, its not just about the girl, its how they connect in such a brilliant way.

Riley is such a great character! She's half the reason you'll be feeling the feelz in this movie. And everything that Joy experiences in her adventure makes up Riley's mind, her personality, her imagination.

I feel like I'm being really vague but its because I want you to see this movie and see exactly how brilliant Pixar is in this film.

I heard a review on this film that praised Pixar for having the ability to make great films that happen to be kid friendly. They aren't necessarily kid films, they are more than that.

I'm not totally sure what more I can say about this movie. Its so smart, so entertaining, so funny. So many sos that its hard to point them all out. I'll have to give it a second watch to know exactly where it stands on my top list of Pixar films but its a damn good one.

But what did you think of Inside Out? Comment and Discuss below! Follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 in order to get updates on new movie news and reviews. You can also shoot me your thoughts on films there and give me requests for future films.

I'll leave you with this. This isn't totally related but since Ted 2 is coming out soon and Inside Out is full of voice actors, I thought I'd shed some light on a funny video Seth MacFarlane did on Fallon with his voice. Enjoy!