This Is Where I Leave You

Expectations:
The last time that I went an entire month without going to the movie theater was probably sometime in 2010, before I was even blogging. That said, I could not wait to get to the theater! Honestly, I would have paid to watch Liam Neeson have one of his dramatic phone conversations. But, thankfully, I didn't have to, all because of This Is Where I Leave You. If you know my taste in movies, you know that I love a good dramedy, and this film was sure to become the new definition of dramedy. Featuring an awesome cast and a promising storyline, I had very high hopes for This Is Where I Leave You, regardless of its low score on the Tomatometer.

Plot:
This story has been done before. Dan in Real Life and The Family Stone are both great examples of almost identical stories that have been done in the past ten years or so. Considering how lacking I am in creativity, let's call this type of film "The Big Chill: Family Edition." And, for those of you who harp on the fact that originality is lacking, be sure to check yourself before you go watch Captain America 37 in 2019. As much as the film was lacking in originality, it made up for it by being a dramatic comedy, which is basically an easy sell to Tanner Jones. Do I like all dramedies?... No. But, the odds are ever in their favor! My judgement on this type of film is partial, but I absolutely love them. Add my love for the genre to a great cast, and you can guess the outcome...

Characters:
With such a large cast, I will not have time to pick apart each and every character, but I will say that I was pleased with the cast, for the most part. Typically, when dealing with such a large cast, there are at least one or two blatantly poor characters, but This Is Where I Leave You was able to avoid such fate.

Negatives:
I'm not sure if the performance or the direction is to blame, but Rose Byrne's Penny Moore was one of the most inconsistent characters that I have ever seen. She was peppy at times. She was serious at times. She was ditsy at times. She was logical at times. Unfortunately, she was so inconsistent! It just frustrated the crap out of me, because I wanted to like her character. Connie Britton's Tracy Sullivan was much more consistent, but I didn't like her presence in the film. In my opinion, she was completely unnecessary. And, to complete my destruction of the poor women of this film, Tina Fey's Wendy was the least interesting sibling of the Altman crew, which really disappointed me. Fey's humor usually works for me, but I just didn't connect.

Positives:
After hating on most of the female cast, I shall now take a moment to praise the lovely Jane Fonda, whose role as mother of the house, Hillary Altman, was the first hilarious female performance that I have witnessed all year long. In my opinion, her character was not only one of the funniest of the film but easily the most interesting. The absolute funniest character was Phillip Altman, played brilliantly by the always hilarious Adam Driver. Last year, I was introduced to Driver in both Frances Ha and Inside Llewyn Davis, and I do believe that he has an extremely bright future ahead of him, in either drama or comedy. While Driver and Fonda were able to steal the show, I must show some love for Jason Bateman, who was quite perfect for the role of Judd Altman. As I've said before, Bateman is not the funniest man in the world, but he does a great job of picking roles that fit his one dimensional humor.

Conclusion:
With a great cast and a storyline that I could watch 1,000 times, This Is Where I Leave You was pleasantly enjoyable. After my long movie drought, it was good to come back to my happy place and discover the fun that was waiting for me. Oscar season is fast-approaching, and I can't wait to continually write about (hopefully) great films! The fun part about being so well-versed in the film world is being able to recognize films that I will love and hate. Sometimes my thoughts and predictions hit the nail on the head, which was the case with This Is Where I Leave You. If you like films like The Big Chill, Dan in Real Life, or The Family Stone, this film is just for you! I give This Is Where I Leave You 3.23 out of 5 stars.

Neighbors

Expectations:
While I do love Seth Rogen and the premise behind Neighbors, I just couldn't get excited about this film. The trailer is funny. The cast is great. Still... no excitement. Either way, when it comes to R-rated comedies, I'm a sucker of the grandest kind. If you haven't figured that out by now, then you probably haven't read many of my reviews. Honestly, I didn't expect much out of this one, in a positive or negative way. I just always knew I would watch it. After such a long review of Spider-Man, this review may fly by (for you, the reader)...

Plot:
The most surprisingly awesome thing about Neighbors wasn't the humor but, instead, the clever nature of the plot, particularly the way that both groups of neighbors poked fun and got back at the other. The plot of this film was really well thought out, and, while there were ridiculous extremities, the heart of the film was built on the redeeming and destructive qualities of fraternities. Now, I'm not in a fraternity, so I can't speak to each and every aspect. Also, I do know that each fraternity is different. However, when you put a large number of guys in that sort of situation, there is no doubt that hilarity is destined to ensue. Kudos to the filmmakers for not stretching the storyline or going too far over the top. I really enjoyed the story, although Zac Efron's Teddy was a bit bipolar. If that character had been better, the film would have been perfect.

Characters:
The success of this film was heavily built on the relationship and personality of young couple Mac and Kelly Radner, played wonderfully by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne. Because of the situation, I expected the couple to be a bit uptight, judging, and fairytale-esque. However, in the first ten minutes we see Seth Rogen's good-guy character smoking a joint at work, implying that he isn't as goodie-goodie as the trailer made him out to be. Soon after, it was evident that the couple was going through some kind of early-life crisis, which brought an entirely different element to the film. We were able to see the couple re-live their younger days, in an attempt to befriend/influence their younger neighbors, and it was just a whole lot of fun.

Negatives:
As I previously said, Zac Efron's Teddy was just a very confused character, and it really took away from the ultimate success of the film. In the beginning, Teddy had it all together and was the epitome of success, with a bright future ahead of him. I mean, most fraternity presidents aren't idiots! But, as the story went on, he became whatever the film needed him to be, whether that was smart, dumb, successful, or incompetent. Aside from that issue (it was a large, glaring one), the cast was great!

Positives:
On top of the perfectly created "family next door," there were many great and hilarious performances in Neighbors. My favorite frat guy, by far, was Dave Franco's Pete, who was an absolutely perfect example of a true frat guy (opinion). Normally, I don't care for Franco, whose range is quite small, but he was great in this film. My final note of praise goes to Ike Barinholtz's Jimmy, who "snuck" his was into quite a few memorable moments. Looking back, the scenes in which Barinholtz was the focal point really were the most memorable of the entire film, and his character could have been an absolute disaster, considering he was fairly pointless.

Conclusion:
Considering the current state of the R-rated comedy, I welcome Neighbors with open arms! There have been so, so many stupid comedies, over the past two years, which makes me a lot easier to please, at this point. Neighbors wasn't as good as This Is the End or 21 Jump Street, but it was much better than I expected, which is always quite a nice feeling. With many more exciting comedies still to come in 2014, I can only hope that everything else is as good as or better than Neighbors. If you want a good laugh, Neighbors is good bet. I give Neighbors 3.57 our of 5 stars.

X-Men: First Class

This is my first ever blog post, so everyone should be extremely excited to have the opportunity to read it! I tried not to spoil anything so you should be able to read without ruining the movie.

Expectations:
As a huge fan of the original three X-Men movies, I was certainly setting my expectations high for the prequel. The Wolverine origins movie was a disappointment to me, and I was scared that this would be too much like Wolverine. I am not a comic book buff so I did not know what the true storyline was supposed to be, leaving the movie as one big unbiased surprise for me. The biggest question for me was can they match the storyline up with the first three movies.

Plot:
The feel of the movie overall stayed very true to that of the original X-Men movies. The opening scene was the exact scene from the beginning of the first X-Men movie, which surprised me a bit. Because of this scene, I really felt like the movie was connected to the first three films right off the bat. As you learned more and more about the main characters (Professor X and Magneto), the rest of the story began to unfold. There is an intriguing connection between the Professor and Mystique that I believe should have shown up in the other three movies if this were to be accurate. There are many other cool characters, but the true storyline is always kept as the most important: the relationship between Magneto and the Professor. The bad guy, played by Kevin Bacon, was a bit boring at times. I could care less about him. I just wanted them to get back to the X-Men. There were two things that I noticed that did not line up with the original films. In X2, Hank McCoy is not yet blue, and, in The Last Stand, the Professor and Magneto visit Jean Grey together, each walking quite well. Overall, I was interested the entire time but was not surprised enough. I wanted to see something awesome that had a result in the first movies, but I was never amazed.

Characters:
James McAvoy was brilliant as the Professor. I felt the connection between him and Patrick Stewart immediately and was very satisfied with the choice. With Magneto on the other hand, I did not feel that connection. I don't know what it was, but Michael Fassbender just did not satisfy me. Jennifer Lawrence did a great job as Mystique, while Kevin Bacon just wasn't frightening enough as Sebastian Shaw. The best character award definitely goes to James McAvoy as Professor X. The worst character award goes to Rose Byrne, who played a CIA agent who somehow turned out to have a love connection. I just did not understand why she was at all necessary.

Conclusion:
Not bad at all, considering they had to match this film with three others. Yes, there were some problems, but there were way fewer than I expected. The cast was good, not great. Certainly better than Wolverine, but not as good as the original trilogy. The best scene award goes to the director for having the guts to open with the same exact scene as the first X-Men movie. The worst scene was how the professor became paralyzed. It just wasn't exciting enough for me. Finally, I give the movie 3 out of 5 stars and will be buying it to add to my X-Men collection in the fall.