Friday, January 18, 2013

Weekend Movie Discussion: Broken City, The Last Stand, and Mama




Fair warning, I wrote this post way too early with way too little sleep, and with no time to edit. Reader discretion is advised. 

There are three new options this week for those considering taking in a talkie at the local nickelodeon. Little humor there. You like that? No? Alright fine, we'll move on. What's that? Yes, I know nickelodeons were for short films. Geez you're in a humorless mood today aren't you?

Broken City employed an interesting marketing strategy. Instead of using the quotes of critics who had seen the film, they splashed quotes from twitter users who expressed their interest through a chosen hashtag. While it suggests trying to be more personal with the marketing, I'm kinda turned off by it. I know, you'd think that'd be right up my alley considering the nature of this site. But even though TNR started off as a parody of review sites, it's really evolved into a place where we talk about films. And also where I still make fun of them... Yeah, I can live with this hypocrisy. 

Seriously though, when it comes time to decide if you're going to plonk down your money for a film, is some random guy's tweet saying 'Mark Wahlberg is a badass' really going to sway you? I thinketh not...eth.

On the other hand, some films don't need to mess around with words. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, in an action film... The Last Stand is going to be bad, but you know what kind of bad it'll be. The only question is if it'll be fun at the same time it's stupid. With Knoxville and Whitaker, I'm optimistic. I do have to wonder though if Schwarzenegger will realize he's in 60's before he enter his 70's and we find ourselves watching him do the same thing he's always done, but with a swig of Metamucil? Oh who am I kidding? Sylvester Stalone is still doing his roided thing and he's a year older.

Lastly we have the new Guillermo del Toro produced horror film, Mama. Creepy feral children... Wraith mothers... All the good stuff nightmares are made of. Even sitting in the background, del Toro has a good track record, with the exception of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark which I found to be disappointing. There's been mixed reviews so far, leaning towards positive. It hasn't really grabbed me though. I think it's a good watch, just not in theaters. 

So what are your plans this weekend? Do you like the twitter marketing? Is Arnold too old for action films or is he immortal?



7 comments:

  1. The Last Stand has gotten good reviews - cheesy but a lot of fun. I'll probably catch it Monday.

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  2. Like Stallone movies...I'll watch an Ahnold flick anytime. Not sure why though. No need for Mama. And I will see Broken City, maybe even in a theatre.

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  3. I saw this the other night in an advanced screening. Cheesy fun is definitely how I will describe it. But one thing REALLY annoyed me. The whole Chevy product placement in this movie was just WAY over the top… I mean, I understand product placement, I really do, but whent hey start talking about the car, giving stats on it, showing digital 360 views of the car like you’re on their website reading about it, it’s a little annoying…

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  4. Broken City had the potential to become a great suspense thriller. Instead it becomes a run of the mill movie. Two powerful actors Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones have been completely wasted in the movie. The movie moves around too many things instead of concentrating to remain a suspense thriller and director loses the plot completely.

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  5. Ahnold and Knoxville? Sounds like Last Action Hero bad, which is of course awesome.

    And I can't wait to see Mama. I hope it's as scary as it looks.

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  6. Mama... This is the only one of that group that I'll watch. But, I WILL only watch it in the theater. It looks like a scary one and I don't want my neighbors hearing me shrieking like a school girl...

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  7. Maybe Schwarz and Stallone will one day be in some sort of blended fiction/documentary movie about them slowly having their body parts replaced by machines.

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