This blog covers Movies, TV, and other Geeky things...... Movie Reviews (over 3,400 movies rated so far) Countdowns of my top movies by year.... and much more.
After catching the remake of Walter Mitty I decided to re watch the original, which I hadn't seen since probably before any thoughts of a remake even happened. The original was a fun and entertaining film starring the legendary Danny Kaye and the gorgeous Virginia Mayo. Walter Mitty is a day dreamer that drifts off in daydreams and fantasies in the middle of everyday conversations. His day dreams are much more exciting than his everyday life, until he ends up caught in an exciting real life adventure that involves a beautiful girl, murder and spies (just like the publication company he works for). It is a perfect mix of comedy and adventure as it places this day dreamer (played to perfection by Danny Kaye as Mitty) that is dashing and super confident in his day dreams and a fumbling dork in real life. Danny Kaye pulls off both roles with great ease (also see this in his classic The Court Jester 1956.) His dream adventures let him live out aerial dog fights against the Germans and surgery as a cocky doctor among other adventures. Once the real life adventure crashes into his ordinary life the film really hits its stride as he tries to avoid getting killed by the infamous Boris Karloff. By the end the viewer starts to question whether this whole adventure isn't just another one of his fantasies. I'll let you watch it to sort that out for yourself.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 2013 5 out of 10
The Remake
The remake was on the drawing board for literally over a decade. Jim Carrey was first eyed for the role as early the mid 1990's
( A Jim Carrey version would have been great ) . Rumors of a remake would resurface ever once in awhile with names like Owen Wilson and Mike Myers being eyed to star in it, but it was Ben Stiller that finally got it made. The plot of Walter Mitty made it ripe for a remake and it is shocking that it took as long as it did to get done in a remake and reboot happy Hollywood. Unfortunately the remake just didn't get it right as far as I'm concerned and the problem lies completely in the much different tone and plot of the remake. This modern day Walter Mitty as played by Ben Stiller wasn't as fun and the reason was the plot. The story centers around Walter working for Life magazine that is going out of business and readying for its final issue. The picture that is supposed to be on the cover is missing and Walter goes on an adventure to find it. The movie follows the same general story about a day dreamer thrust into a real life adventure like the ones he dreams about, but that real life adventure isn't as fun or exciting as the original Witty's. Instead of the murder and spy adventure -we get a dull story about trying to track down Sean Penn the photographer that took the missing picture. Some of Walter's day dreams were still interesting --but the real life adventure that includes him falling for Kristen Wig's character (one of his co-workers) just didn't live up to the original adventure and left me wondering if the film should have been remade in the first place. The answer it should have --but just maybe 15 years ago, with a different plot and tone and starring Jim Carrey.
This Scooby Doo mystery was one of the more average efforts in the series of Scooby Doo animated movies. The gang ends up traveling to WWE City after Shaggy and Scooby win a contest on a WWE video game. When they get there the town is of course being haunted by a Ghost Bear that is threatening to ruin the show. The typical adventure ensues as the gang meet up with a bunch of actual wrestlers. There was nothing special about this adventure which felt more like an average episode instead of a movie worthy story. Still a 6 out of 10....Because even average Scooby Doo is entertaining.
The story followa a Viking King Erick that is living in exile -being tasked with a quest to defeat the Almighty Thor. Thor is angered by the fact that the gods are being forgotten in a time where Christianity is spreading the globe. Thor has lead a group of Viking to gather some anicent relics in order to open a bridge between heaven, hell and earth. Erick gathers some Viking warriors and goes an a low budget (light on the special effects) quest to put a stop to it. The movie was surprisingly good. It was like a poor man's 300, that actually had some really good action sequences and stunt fighting. Dominic Purcell did and excellent job in the main rule as Erick the Viking. I've seen very mixed reviews online for this film - but I disagree with the reviewers that didn't find it entertaining. Sure there were some really cheesy looking scenes like when our hero in mythic story fashion descends into hell, that seems like it was straight out of The Beastmaster or the original Clash of the Titans. Rather than finding those scenes bad -- It brought back memories of scenes from some of those 80's movies like Conan the Destroyer or Krull ---(films that I loved). He even has to avoid a creature in hell that looks like the beast from Holy Grail in the cave of Ahhhhhhhh!. It may not be the Viking adventure for everyone -- but I enjoyed this film. The battle scenes were exciting and the finale was satisfying. This movie was made by the same people that made Big Ass Spider --which I also liked ---so I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with next. Zombeavers and Killer Mermaid....Sound good to me.
The Darkest Hour gets off to a great start. The movie follows several young Americans that are in Russia after a business deal goes wrong, when all of a sudden these mysterious jellyfish like objects start descending from the sky.
It turns out these objects are alien beings that start striking and disintegrating people. The concept for these aliens was orginal as the aliens remain mainly unseen until they approach and lights flicker before they strike as beams of light. The interesting concept quickly turned into a dull end of the world type movie with only a few cast members wandering around empty streets. A big problem with the plot was the timeline --as the characters try and make there way across the city they encounter other survivors that seem like they have been around and battling the creatures for months. It is just sad because the movie seemed like it had a lot of potential and as the movie went along that potential fell apart with dull scenes and a meandering storyline. It almost felt like the movie started out with a decent budget and they ran out of money halfway through the film and started cutting corners.
The plot for Darklight sounded interesting enough to record it on the DVR. The movie had several Sci-Fi names in it like John De Lancie (Q from Star Trek-: Next Generation) and David Hewlett (Stargate & Stargate Atlantis) and the story centered on a secret society teaming up with a demon that doesn't know her past to fight another demon that is out to destroy humanity. The girl (Shiri Appleby) teams up with an agent (Richard Burgi) from this secret group called the Faith and starts to learn about her past and trains to use an ability called Darklight. The movie had a definite made for TV movie feel to it and very well could have been a pilot of a sci-fi TV show. The special effects are totally goofy (2004 Bad CGI) as the two demons battle. The acting talents of John De Lancie were wasted by an underwhelming story and lackluster action sequences.
Rio follows the adventures of Blu, one of the last of his kind) . A Cerulean Parrot that is stolen from the jungle as a baby bird and exported out of the country as an exotic pet. He ends up falling off a truck in Minnesota and being raised as a domestic pet by young girl. Years later a researcher drops by the shop and convinces his owner to take him to Rio so that hopefully he can breed with the last female of his kind. Well Blu and Jewel (the female bird) end up getting kidnapped--by some smugglers and their angry White Bird (the main villain of the film). They escape which is made more difficult by the fact Blu never learned to fly and along the way of trying to get back to his owner they have a bunch of colorful adventures along his several other birds and a slobbering Bulldog. The film was definitely colorful...Made by the same folks that did the Ice Age movies...this film for me lacked the level of humor of those movies with the exception of the cool Birds vs Monkeys fight scene. The action sequences were good especially through the Carnival parade near the end and the flying scenes. The film captured a lot of what you hear about Rio including its darker aspects such as pickpocketing and the slums outside of the beach hotels. I'm surprised that it didn't get a backlash for being so honest about the city in this politically correct world we live in. The kids loved this picture...I felt it was missing that extra something that all the Pixar movies have--but still found it enjoyable.
Rio 2 2014 6 out of 10
In Rio 2 Blu and Jewel now have a family. Blu is still the neurotic mess of a bird he was in the first film which comes out even more once they discover on TV that they aren't the last of their kind. Jewel convinces Blu to take the entire family in search of their kind. They are followed by the old white bird from the first film (thought to be dead) that is out for revenge. They find their fellow birds, which happens to be Jewels family she hasn't seen since she was a child. Blu has difficulty fitting in and adjusting to this new situation, since he still has too much of a domesticated bird in him. There is also a handsome and daring bird from Jewel's childhood that he has to worry about and a plot about human deforestation that is shoehorned into the movie as well.
The animation is once again very colorful and the visuals are excellent as well. The movie once again has several really good action sequences and several big musical numbers that look like they are directly patterned after someone that watched the Circle of Life segment from the Lion King. There was also a really cool action piece involving a mid air soccer match between the Blue and Red Parrots of the jungle. Once again the story and humor just didn't really capture me. I liked the first one a little better, because I felt the action sequences were more exciting and the story was a little stronger. That being said if you and the kids liked Rio --you will probably like Rio 2 as well -
