Brave Review
My expectations were pretty high for Brave. They were made higher by the fact that Cars 2 was so awful. But the problem with high expectations, is that they are easy to fall short of.
My expectations were pretty high for Brave. They were made higher by the fact that Cars 2 was so awful. But the problem with high expectations, is that they are easy to fall short of.
A movie, based on a musical, based on a bunch of rock songs from the 80’s. Add Tom Cruise as a creepy, messed-up rock diety and an opening scene of a bus-load of people singing “Sister Christian”, and you’ve got a reason to get drunk for two hours so you can get throught it.
Dead Man’s Burden is a fine western full of mood with emotionally complex story and I’d be game for more new film makers to take a stab at the genre.
My family is a big fan of this franchise. We fell in love with the characters in the first Madagascar. My 4-year-old loves Marty the Zebra, “Because he’s black and white.” My 7-year-old loves Alex the Lion “Because he’s funny and because I know four Alexes in my class.” My 42-year-old husband will laugh out loud at anything uttered by big-eyed, King Julien sidekick, Mort. And me? Melman the Giraffe’s neurosis makes me giggle but I LOVE me some Motto Motto the Hippo. In fact, his song “I like ‘em big, I like ‘em chunky…” sung in Madagascar 2 is my ringtone when my husband calls me. (Eh-hem.) But I digress…
Expectations. Sometimes expectations has much to do with how we feel about a film. And Prometheus, oh, how we have been given expectations about you. But if that were all that troubled us, one could perhaps wrestle our way past it. But to be given such a visually beautiful film, one that asks grand questions, one with all the elements needed for brilliance, and still come out with that empty feeling? Well, there’s more going on here than mere expectation.
Any sane person would probably ask me why on Earth I would subject myself to What to Expect When You’re Expecting on a beautiful Saturday morning.
Well, there are two reasons.
Firstly, before noon all movies at the local AMC are half-price. Secondly, ever since Reno 911!, I’ve had this theory about Thomas Lennon. That theory is simply that I would watch Thomas Lennon do just about anything, and he would make it at least 56% better just for being involved. So, it was a personal challenge of sorts for me. A testing of my faith, if you will. Could even Thomas Lennon, my personal comedy hero, save this movie?
Much can be said about Piranha 3 DD in one statement: In the first one, the secret big star in the opening scene was Richard Dreyfuss. In this sequel, the big star in the opening scene is …Gary Busey. Yeah, just not the same, is it?
Even before I became a Mom, I would fantasize about taking my kids to see movies. In this fantasy, we were laughing so hard, our popcorn was flying all over the place, I didn’t have to cover their eyes OR their ears and tickets cost $2.50.
I realize how high I’ve set the bar but this is the water mark for all movies I attend or purchase with my family.
If you haven’t heard of this movie, it’s one that people will pass along to you like it’s a hip new indie band. That’s how this movie was brought to my attention, and more often than not when anything is built up in that way it doesn’t live up to it. Natural Selection, however, is different. It wasn’t built up as the greatest movie ever. Just a cool movie. And that’s exactly what it is.
I’m a Disney-a-holic, so this is hard for me to admit and even harder to write. I grew up in Florida, so I’ve been immersed in Disney from an early age. I LOVE Disney and everything it embodies: Magic, memories, family, and especially their movies. I own about half of them. I would own all of them, but I’m a mom to two boys and princesses are a hard sell. I usually have to trick them into seeing a princess movie by pitching the super cool prince, the evil nemesis, or the wacky sidekick. That technique is exactly how I got them to see Beauty and the Beast. “Mom, isn’t that a story about a princess?” “Nope. It’s a story about a girl who likes to read and has to join forces with a talking candle to tame a Beast!” “Whoa. OK, Mom…push ‘play’. “