The Reel Rhino Continues to Exist

Yep, I do.

First Off...Happy 200th...post, that is!  Yeah, I'm persistent, but I have been a stranger!

I have been really, really busy and I have succumb to the curse that befalls most folks that write for any reason, be it professionally or casually...no time.

Yeah, that's right, I've been pretty busy living. 

I do live to write...in 5th grade I won the regional writing award for poetry...I even remember the first few lines:

A look to the future,

A glance to the past,

From cavemen to dinosaurs,

Astronauts to cats.

Yes, that was the AMAZING first stanza that won me a $50 savings bond and also the chance to read said poem at the Millcreek Township school board meeting.  In fifth grade, that was on par with national publicity.

So I really do love to write and I would love to write on a more professional level (maybe someday), but for now, this is my venue.

That is the upside...it is my venue and I can write once a month, or once a day, and its all good.  Just know that if I had my way, it would be more often than less.  I love you guys, I do!  Yeah, its getting misty in here!

So, seen any good movies lately?

Here's a short and partial list of what I have seen since I last wrote:

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Men In Black III: Real-D 3-D

The Chernobyl Diaries

The Sound of My Voice

Snow White and the Huntsman

Bernie

Prometheus: The 3-D IMAX Experience

Madagascar 3-D

Snow White and the Huntsman

Rock of Ages

The Avengers 3-D

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter 3-D

The Amazing Spiderman: The 3-D IMAX Experience

Ted

Safety Not Guaranteed

Moonrise Kingdom

Singin' In The Rain

Savages

Your Sister's Sister

Ice Age: Continental Drift

The Dark Knight Rises: The IMAX Experience

The Watch

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story

Yeah, I've seen a bunch!  In fact my count for the year as of this moment: 194 movies, theater and home viewing included!  If you remember back in January, I made the statement that I would make a run at 365 in 365....well as of today, the 29th of July -- 211 days into the year...I'm still in this thing!!  I was well ahead of schedule until around the end of April.  I will be back!  I will make 365!

As for what I have seen, I wanted to give you a list of must-sees from my list above...

Your Sister's Sister - 4.5 Horns - An indie flick starring Rosemarie Dewitt, Emily Blunt, and Mark Duplass -- DUPLASS IS A GENIUS actor (and director) - see also Safety Not Guaranteed, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, and THE LEAGUE!

Safety Not Guaranteed - 4 Horns - Awesome indie comedy drama that made it to the mainstream theaters for two weeks...starring Duplass and AUBREY PLAZA...everyone loves April from Parks and Rec, and she is channels in Plaza's performance here as well!  This flick is an indie dramedy that by the end, becomes an indie dramedy SCIFI flick!

Rock of Ages - 4.5 Horns - 80's Rock Musical that defied by uncertain expectations to be absolutely effing AWESOME!

The Sound of My Voice - 4.5 Horns - Creepy indie drama...the second larger release after Another Earlth, from Brit Marling...she has writing chops and in the lead role of Maggie, the leader of the cult at the center of this film, this indie drama is also indie sci-fi, that delivers a twist that is well worth the price of admission!

Jeff, Who Lives at Home - 4.5 Horns - I was a quivering mess by the end of this MARK DUPLASS directed flick...yes it was co-directed with his brother Jay, but this is the third entry for Duplass in my must-see list.  Mark Duplass is phenomenal in general, and he and his bro deliver here in a well told, tightly woven story that seems to be all over the place while managing never to lose you!  And holy S, RAE DOWN CHONG is in this thing!  Where has she been!

Prometheus - 4.5 Horns - Sir Ridley Scott demands to be seen.  His touch is golden and his flicks rock, consistently!  

The Amazing Spider-Man - 4 Horns - A story I didn't know needed to be told, actually was told quite well. I think for his delivery, Andrew Garfield is a superior Spidey, but Spider-Man 2 remains my favorite of the Spider-Man flicks!

The Dark Knight Rises - 4.5 Horns - Just a phenomenol end to Nolan's run!  This flick was awesome!  Much more story-centric than the previous two, it will be my #2 in the series, but only a close second to The Dark Knight.  Ledger and Eckhart delivered in a way that may never be matched again in comic book fare, but Tom Hardy did a damn fine job as well.  Bravo to everyone involved in this flick.

I was dissappointed by: Ted, The Watch, and Savages.  That is all I will say about the negative...

Well...its good to see you all...check out some of the flicks I mention above...you will not be disappointed!!

Until later, take care!

Reel Rhino

BURNED FILMS returns to school us on TED

WASSUP AMERICA?  Yep, I said Wassup....that just happened.  

My delinquency continues and I yield the floor again to Burned Films, whose writing continues to wow and amaze...we are lucky that he chose to opt out of Magic Mike...although, Tanning Chatum is actually pretty bearable and Magic Mike looks decent...yeah, I said it.  I may see it tomorrow if only to see it in a theater packed with ladies, for the ambiance.

TED

Family Guy’s creator Seth McFarlane first feature film Ted is a story of a little boys Teddy Bear that comes to life because of his wish.

When I first heard about this idea about a little boys bear coming to life I thought it might be funny.  I am a huge fan of Family Guy so I hoped there would be some damn good comedy involved. I saw the Red Band trailer in front of that stupid ass movie “The Dictator”; by the way the “Ted” trailer was the best part of the film. I lost count at how many times he said the F-WORD. I was laughing so hard just from the trailer that I had tears in my eyes. So I knew I would be seeing this film.

So the film starts out, with little 8 year old John Bennett asking the suburban Christian kids who celebrate Christmas by beating up the neighborhood Jew, if he can beat the Jew up too.  But lo and behold, the Jewish kid who is getting his butt kicked by all the other kids won't let little ol' John in on the action.

Christmas morning John opens his present from Santa to reveal a cute Teddy Bear. He names him Ted. They are best of friends, and thunder buddies for life. Given the disappointments John has experienced in the lack of friends department, John wishes upon a star that his best pal would be real.  Yep, he comes to life, and almost makes John's parents have a heart attack. 

Ted is a worldwide star...even appearing with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. But even a talking bear becomes old hat after a while and, a quarter-century later, Ted suffers the fate of many other child stars, indulging in major substance abuse while living in the past and mooching off others. 

Now almost 30 years later Ted (Seth McFarlane) is a raucously funny goof, boozing, pot-smoking, foul-mouthed, horn dog, who by the way still manages to get the ladies with no penis, and he has talked to Hasbro about that issue. Ted is a teddy bear who would be instant new best friends with The Hangover guys. He is living with a now 35 year old John (Mark Wahlberg) and his girlfriend Lori Collins (Mila Kunis). John works for a car rental company, and is very happy with his low paying job.  The plot thickens when Lori wants John to ask Ted to move out, and John is forced to choose between the love of his life, or his life-long Thunder buddy. 

The CGI done on TED was awesome. No complaints. I feel like this was a live version of an episode of “Family guy”, and loved every minute of it.

I thought the acting in this film was good enough. Not great, but they got the job done. A lot of surprise cameos in this one.  I was very surprised that this movie had heart and good character development, with an all around good story. This film will keep you laughing all night. They have jokes in there that made my jaw drop. I literally choked on my drink on one particular joke.  You will laugh.  Not too many films serve up laughs that just keep coming from beginning to end (SEE ALSO: THE HANGOVER). The interesting aspect of some of the humor...Ted says things that really would only be funny coming from a little teddy bear.

The bottom line if you love Family Guy or American Dad then you are going to love this film. I highly recommend you go see this movie and just enjoy the hell out of it.  Sure it has some flaws, but honestly the film is a whole lot of laughs, and crude sexual humor. Leave your thoughts at the door and laugh your ass off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Burned!  Good to have you again...be good broheim and to all of you out there in film land, head out to the theater soon....until later, take care!

Reel Rhino

Hello from RHINO and BRAVE with Special Guest "BURNED FILMS"

Hey Everyone!!  Long time no talk!

I feel like to catch up, I may have to break into a Billy Joel, We Didn't Start the Fire custom jam to bring you up to speed on my last month.  You know, like Liz Lemon was going to do for Avery on 30 Rock.   Love that show!

I have been "micro-blogging" a bit through the MISO "what I've been watching site."  It is quite addictive and you can follow me here: http://www.gomiso.com/ and of course I am flying under the handle: ReelRhino  If we are friends on facebook, this is the source of all those...Ryan is watching... posts.


Be careful, it is an addictive site!

I have also been selling lots of stuff...on eBay under the handle Rhinoterp and posting much of my wares on http://isellcoolstuff.blogspot.com - feel free to stop by and brows my goods!


So I have been to loads of flicks since May 20th, when I last said hello.  Speaking of hellos, how about a goodbye?  Last Wednesday night, myself, with The Kid, The Kid-ess, and Papa, we forayed out to the AMC Mainstreet, for the last time it would be open under that banner.  The Mainstreet is an iconic theater in Kansas City and while it was a great flagship for AMC, but the tenant-to-be is not too shabby...

http://drafthouse.com/kansas_city/mainstreet

This can only mean good things, but still, the Mainstreet was a pretty great AMC property, with my peeps at Barrywoods of course taking home my top prize for "The Place to Be."

The first photo was from a year or so ago and the one at left is from the front of the theater, sans the AMC logo.  Apparently, it is being turned over, turnkey to Alamo, including some of the staff.  It's a happy sad kind of thing!


Speaking of the place to be, it is ReelRhino.com - even though I've been gone, I have managed to find a pinch-writer to share some wisdom with you...I didn't see any of the new openings this weekend, so I had to look to the cadre of film geeks and buffs that I know, to give you..."BURNED FILMS" - Burned is the latest entry into ReelRhino.com "staffers" and he had the chance to bring us up to speed on Pixar's Brave...




I was amazed at this movie. The quality of the animation was such a jump from any CGI movie and it made the scenery so lush and rich. That’s about the only good thing I am about to tell you about this film. As much as it pains me to say it, this is my least favorite Pixar film. I was alternately bored and frustrated by it. I think it was a great idea that ultimately went off in the wrong direction. A woman (Brenda Chapman) directed the beginning of the film, and then they fired her and brought a guy (Mark Andrews) in to finish it. I feel that the filmed lost its womanly touch. Some points to make...there are surprisingly a lot of bare asses in this movie...surprisingly for a rated-PG flick!  This film reminds me too much of the movie "Brother Bear". 


The crux of the story has to do with the heroine (Merida) getting into an argument with her mother (Elinor) and then seeking help from a witch to make things right.  Of course the witch has skewed motives, and Elinor gets turns to a bear.  First of all, it was so dumb to have her still act human. Think of how much more challenging things would have been for Merida if Elinor literally became a bear.  Also, being a movie set in Scotland, I think they should have gone with a ghost or something of that nature, and not a bear. When you think of Scotland you don’t think of bears. You think of monsters (ex. Loch Ness), or ghosts... Castles have ghosts.  They don't have bears (right?). Some kind of change in the core of this character That would of given the film a little better edge to it. The 3-D was also lacking, but even if you strip away all of my previously mentioned problems with "Brave," there's still one big problem – it's predictable. Every single step of the plot, from the point of the transformation on, plays out exactly how you would expect. There are no surprises in "Brave" and that makes it rather dull. 


This is even worst than last summers snooze fest "Cars 2". I will not buy this in Blu-ray when it comes out. Hopefully they can restore my faith with "Monster University" next year....


Now you listen here Burned...I have a two-and-a-half year old who is quite convinced that Cars 2 may be the greatest movie ever put to film!  If you don't believe me, just watch him watch it and its like he is seeing The Matrix for the first time.  I will be giving Brave a try, even with your problems with the film, because I am compulsed to do it for one, and for two, I need to find out more about this Dolby Atmos.  When we spoke on Saturday, you referred to it as the closest thing in a theater to true real-life sound.

That, I need to see....err hear!  See also, the press release here.

Sad to hear otherwise that the film is lacking.

BURNED FILMS, thanks for kicking in!  An air pound fist to you for the effort and you are always welcome in my hood!

Until next time all, take care....I'll try and pipe in soon with more film babble....
Reel Rhino

Ready for a Short Post? Giant Mechanical Man, Dark Shadows, Avengers, and Battleship

Sorry I have been checked out for a while folks...I have been busy with other stuff.  Not necessarily more important stuff, but when you get to a couple flicks a week, work a full-time job, and try to have a full life outside of all that, well just a little stuff can easily keep you from the keyboard!

I have been to some flicks, though, and for what I normally do, I will give you a word or two on each.

BATTLESHIP

I just saw it on Saturday.  It is 10X better than the critics are giving it credit for and I had a very good time watching it.  Peter Berg is a completely capable director and the effects team made their bones long ago on the Transformers trilogy.  The movie popped as far as summer blockbusters go, and it really was an enjoyable watch.  There were some great patriotic moments and I will be honest...I got some waterworks going at one point.  Battleship is everything we look for in a summer movie and I say give it a try.  4 of 5 Horns for this totally acceptable entry into the summer movie genre.

THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN

This is a great little romantic dramedy, starring Jenna Fischer, you know, Pam from The Office, and Chris Messina, a lesser known, but handsome and extremely affable actor.  The film is written and directed by Lee Kirk (who is also Fischer's husband and baby's Daddy).  Kirk has managed to craft an immensely likable film and for my money, I could watch Jenna Fischer in just about anything.  She is cute, easy to enjoy, and easy to relate to in the "everyperson" role.  Messina has charisma and he plays the titular role with passion.  The two of them together are extremely likable as an on-screen pair.  This is a Tribeca Film Festival selection and I had the chance to see it on Time Warner On-Demand...it is out there.  If you can find it, please give it a try.  At just over 90 minutes, it is a fast watch and really easy to digest.  4.5 of 5 Horns for this really sweet film.

DARK SHADOWS

A truly dark film, Dark Shadows has been undervalued for as good as it is.  I say that it is good, comparing it to nothing and thinking about the film on its own merit.  The people involved are all talented, without a doubt, but this film is really unique and an entertaining story.  I am not the biggest Johnny Depp fan, not that crazy for Tim Burton's filmography...I mean I like most of it, but may not love it.  But Shadows was well crafted and well made and for my money, a great time in the theater!  4 of 5 Horns

AVENGERS

Someday, I think I will compose an ode to the Avengers.  For now, I will just say that this is clearly in my top ten film of all-time...Marvel, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Joe Johnston, Louis Leterrier, and Kenneth Branagh, to name just the helmers of this great run, have pulled off the unthinkable.  This is something that I hope DC learns from and gets moving on a just as impressive run at the Justice League of America.  AVENGERS was a ridiculously awesome flick.  Let me say, re-donk-a-donk.  5 of 5 Horns

So there you have it...a mini-round-up.  I miss writing, but not at the expense of the amount of "stuff" I am getting done in the meantime.  As Arnie says it best, "I'll be back."  And for now, please enjoy my more brief writings.  Until later, take care!

Reel Rhino