The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Continuing his streak from Layer Cake to Stardust to Kick-Ass and now X-Men: First Class, Matthew Vaughn has quickly become one of only a handful of filmmakers whom I trust implicitly.

I must admit, I have grown tired of the whole Hollywood machine lately, and most major releases don't really compel my interest anymore, especially what is passing as the big budget "tentpoles" these days. But please don't let the bitter taste in your mouth from Thor (unless you were lucky enough to not see it), or any other lackluster summer "blockbusters" steer you away from this completely compelling character study, which just happens to contain some badass special effect laden set pieces. Not to mention stars in the making Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne happen to be two of the most beautiful women on the planet, so there's that.

I tend to get all wrapped up in hyperbole after having a great experience at the movies, but it really is quite excellent, even if you are not a fanboy. If you are one of the lucky ones like me, perhaps you will even get to experience a trailer that is certainly one of the greatest trailers in the history of...um... all things that are... uh...things... in the world.

There I go again, sorry.

_________________
Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

X-Men First Class was an outstanding movie, far better than I dared hope it would be. Brilliant music, brilliant setting, and of course, brilliant actors.

Fassbender made a strong case to be a superstar, and I really hope Moira sneaks into more Vegas clubs in any potential sequel.

I think the smartest thing Fox did here was to let Vaughn and Singer pick a very select group of mutants, and not force another dozen cameos down their throats.

I didn't have much hope for X-MEN first class but it was showing at the Drive-in with Pirates 4 so i figured what the heck and I also was amazed at how great it was, plus I was equally amazed that Kevin Bacon was in it and did a great job as always.

Pirates 4 was also very good, I hate 2 and 3 because the story was lame and the CGI was used to in place of the story but in part 4 they went back to the what made the original so much fun, Johnny Depp running wild

_________________
Jaws3dfan®
Follow me on Twitter

Guess, I just saw a different film.

I'm not a huge X-MEN fan, but reading the early reviews* I had pretty solid hopes for this one. The X-MEN series has been just above average.

Something was just off in the execution. There were some decent ideas going on, and I give them props for placing the film in an era where much of its audience wasn't alive in to see (probably accounting for why this is the lowest grossing opening for an X-MEN movie yet). Still, for every well-played bit, there were more that just failed to come off. LOTS of exposition, some of it clever, but much too much of LET'S EXPLAIN EVERY BIT OF THIS TO A 15 YEAR OLD FANBOY. Scenes of wit and insight, grapple and fail against scenes of silly antics and dull philosophising.

Rose Byrne looks totally befuddled if not inept at times. Jennifer Lawrence coming off her terrific work in WINTER'S BONE (a film you all must see) manages to hit the right notes occasionally, but, at other times seems searching for direction. I've long liked Kevin Bacon, but here he just seems to be trying too hard to be "the bad guy", rather than just inhabiting the role.

Mediocre and disappointing. A definite "dinner break" movie if it ever wastes a slot at a marathon.

* A note on the reviews. Rotten Tomatoes was just bought by a movie studio and are now counting in far too many liteweight fanboy reviews in their totals, so the 87% Positive is misleading (their also inflated but less so 'Top Critics' count is 71%. By comparison, Metacritic has the score at a much more reasonable 60%)

_________________
Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

For those of you who like TWITTER you know the golden rule of tweeting, you are constantly answering ONE question "What am I doing right now" it's fast, it's easy and perfect in it simplicity.

I am the TWITTER of movie reviewers constantly answering ONE question "Did I had fun?"

So yes all of those thing you said may be true but I had fun watching it so to me it was a good movie and I just leave all that other stuff alone...it all makes my head hurt

A perfect example is SUPER 8, which is getting praised world wide yet I didn't enjoy it and I didn't have fun watching it. I did not feel like a kid again. I watch GOONIES Saturday night and INSTANTLY felt like a kid, SUPER 8 does not spark that feeling in me, it was depressing, dark and boring for the most part. SUPER 8 could have been a fun movie if they would have drop 3 of the useless subplots that runined the movie.

_________________
Jaws3dfan®
Follow me on Twitter