Shmee.Me

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015

In Search For The Theory Of Everything!

The 2014 film The Theory of Everything directed by James Marsh is a sweet look in the to the lives of Jane and Stephen Hawking. The sweet part I was expecting, but the fact they didn’t gloss over the troubles of their lives is what made this movie special. Instead of showing the Hawkings as some sort of gods among men, beyond reproach. It just showed them as people, flaws and all.

The Theory of Everything starts when the couple met in college at Cambridge, and then follows them through Stephen’s (Eddie Redmayne) diagnosis, and of course his scientific discoveries. It also shows how Jane (Felicity Jones) had to work hard and sacrifice everything to keep Stephen alive and give him the family they wanted. However, if you are expecting a fairytale ending, you will disappointed.

While I was watching The Theory of Everything, I almost wanted it to end like thirty minutes earlier just so everyone would live happily ever after, but this move shows us the warts of Stephen and Jane’s relationship as well as the joys. While I am not sure how much they changed of the real story to pretty it up for theater going audiences, at least they didn’t fall in the trap of making the characters perfect. Biographies always work better if the people on screen seem like people. AKA flawed.

Of course a good story is important for biographies, but actors are key. We need to see those figures we know come to life on screen, and Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones played their parts brilliantly. Especially Eddie (I guess he did win the Oscar for a reason). To watch him slowly succumb to ALS was an amazing transformation. Though Jones playing the dutiful, but exhausted wife was also perfectly on point.

After recently watching this film and Birdman, I was surprised that The Theory of Everything wasn’t more in the running for the Oscar for Film of the Year. I guess people like their films a little jazzier than I do. The Theory of Everything is a movie that is well worth your time, and if you watch The Theory of Everything, you may learn a little something about time as well. Actually you won’t. You will need to read Steven Hawking’s book for that.

July 2, 2015July 2, 2015

Do You Want To Know How To Train Your Dragon 2?

I wonder if DreamWorks knew they had a hit on their hands when the first How to Train Your Dragon came out? I am guessing since it took four years to make a sequel, probably not, but after the success of How to Train Your Dragon 2 they are making up for that now with a weekly cartoon show, and sequels planned out until the end of time. Luckily for us at least the movies are pretty good.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 picks up a few years after the first, and life is just about prefect on Berk. The dragons love their new masters, and they help the people of Berk do just about everything. Think the dinosaurs from the Flintstones, or at least that is where my mind went to when I saw it. Though Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is still restless and wants to explore with his dragon Toothless, and to see what is beyond their little island. On his adventures he learns there are people that may want to do his people and his dragons harm.

The story was a good follow up to the first one, and it flowed well. However, even though the dragons were bigger and badder this time around, the stakes seemed to feel smaller. Like the threat wasn’t as real. They really pushed the family aspect of this film too, which was nice, but I think it kept the movie from feeling as epic as they wanted it to be.

The voice acting talent all returned for How to Train Your Dragon 2, so it continued to be good. No odd sounding Berkians here. The new additions, Kit Harington and Cate Blanchett, were great, and they will be good to have in the series from now on. Though honestly when is having Cate Blanchett in your movie not a good idea? Never. She should be in everything.

DreamWorks has been looking for a cartoon series to replace Shrek for quite some time now, and I think they finally have it with How to Train Your Dragon. Two just proved that the formula will continue to work for more sequels. I am not sure that I think How to Train Your Dragon 2 was better than the first one like by friend Daniel did, but it was a worthy follow up that has me feeling okay about this becoming a long term series.

June 29, 2015June 29, 2015

The Risks Of A Deadly Adoption!

Well you have to hand it to Lifetime, at least they were smart enough to be in on the joke. A Deadly Adoption makes fun of their cheesy melodramatic movies perfectly. Had Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig went full on farce, this movie never would have worked, but instead Ferrell and Wiig played it straight. Proving that in the right context Lifetime Original movies are funny enough on their own.

A Deadly Adoption is about a rich couple, (Ferrell and Wiig) that after a tragic dock accident at their diabetic daughter’s one year birthday party are no longer able to have kids, so when a seemingly nice young pregnant woman (Jessica Lowndes) arrives from the adoption agency they invite her in to their home for her last trimester (it is the only logical thing to do). Things get deadly, as the title promises, after that as you can assume.

This story was perfect for a spoof of Lifetime movies. The tragic accident was nothing more then a slip in to the lake, Jessica Lowndes character’s motivations didn’t make a lick of sense, and they talked about the daughter’s diabetes non-stop just in case you somehow misted it. Plus they assure you that it is all based on a true story. I assume they took it on faith that at some point a pregnant woman has fallen in a lake. I don’t know who green-lit A Deadly Adoption, but they deserve a hug.

Ferrell and Wiig play the leads with the perfect amount of over the top serious cheese. If you didn’t know who they were you may even get through A Deadly Adoption thinking it was just another Lifetime Original with some even odder than normal moments. However, just their presences in this movie makes it hysterical. It is like them being in it gives you the freedom to laugh at the craziness of this movie, and the Lifetime movie formula in general.

I am sure this movie will be replayed a lot by Lifetime, so if you missed it, do yourself a favor and watch it next time it is on, or rent it when it comes out to DVD or VOD. It is not often people are intelligent enough to make fun of themselves, but Lifetime really went for it by getting Ferrell and Co to do A Deadly Adoption for them. They actual made a Lifetime Original must watch TV by making fun of Lifetime Originals. I can only hope someone over at Hallmark was watching!

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015

Shmee Hangs Out With Birdman!

Birdman by Alejandro González Iñárritu is the most recent winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, so when my buddy asked if I wanted to watch it I almost had to say yes. Though I was not prepared for what I saw. This was the craziest movie I have watched in some time. I thought it was fitting that the soundtrack for this film was jazzy because Birdman is the film equivalent to free jazz. You are just never sure where it is going to go.

Birdman is about an actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) towards the end of his career, and he is banking everything he has on a Broadway play he is writing, directing, and staring in based on Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. This is his last big chance at proving his worth as an actor after walking away from the mega-blockbuster superhero movie series the titular Birdman. Oh, by the way Thomson is mentally ill and the voice of Birdman taunts him and speaks to him everywhere he goes.

As you can imagine putting on a stage play is probably not the best thing for a person with mental health issues to be doing, and the people around him are not doing him any favors. They are all just nuts, and their zaniness is pushing Thomson further and further down the rabbit hole. The whole thing makes me very wary of stage productions. If this movie is to believed, it is just full of nothing but wigged out jerks. Though it makes for an ~~entertaining~~ unique movie watching experience.

The actors in Birdman were all fantastic. Edward Norton plays the egotistical method actor perfectly, Zach Galifianakis gives his most muted part in recent memory as the manager/everything else for the play with a talent I didn’t know he had, and Emma Stone as Thomson’s daughter continues her trip to the top of the Hollywood ‘A’ list with another great performance. Though it is all anchored by Michael Keaton who breaths life in to the barely sane Riggan Thomson.

The acting and the story were good, but where this movie really differentiates itself is how it was shot, or how they made it look like it was shot anyway. The movie looked like it was one long take. With the camera always zooming and panning from one scene to the next. With no clear ‘cuts’ Birdman never lets you take a moment to breath. It just keeps going. Which adds to the perceived mania of the lead character. This was quite an achievement of filming and editing by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

While I was watching Birdman the crazy just kept washing over me, and when I had finished watching it I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. Because of the one lone shot style the film it never let me take it all in. Though now that I have had time to decompress, I have to say I think I liked Birdman quite a lot, and it was good to see something different for once. Maybe I should listen to more jazz? (nope)

June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

Sign Up With The Kingsman: The Secret Service!

So lets say you are Matthew Vaughn, and that you just saved the X-Men franchise with First Class, but since Singer has returned to X-Men for Days of Future Past what do you do? Work on a new comic book franchise of course, and the more British the better! That is how we got Kingsman: The Secret Service. A fun spy move from a guy that you can tell loves fun spy movies.

The story is about young man, Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), who is given the chance to join the Kingsman. An elite private spy organization started by a bunch of wealthy English men with no heirs thanks to World War I with the desire to stop large scale warfare from happening again. This new recruit will have to prove that despite his lower class upbringing he is just as good as the upper crust of British society, and maybe, just maybe, save the world.

Even though the poor kid from the streets that proves he as just as good if not better than everyone else story has been done to death, Vaughn managed to keep this light, and delightfully over the top. Vaughn made sure to cram everything he loves in to this movie. Crazy action, in your face violence, and silly characters. His excesses also keep this movie from being great. While it is good fun, it is hard to get too emotionally or thoughtfully invested. It is just Vaughn showing you stuff he likes. Luckily he likes cool stuff.

Colin Firth deserves a lot of credit for making this film enjoyable as well.. He is able to play “Galahad”, one of Kingsman’s best spies, with so much British charm that the movie lights up every time he is on screen, so with him guiding the young main character, there is no way this couldn’t have been good. New talent Taron Egerton does a good job, but pretty much he just has to do his best to be amazed all the time, and then react to the stuff going on around him. With the next movie he will have to do more.

The fight coordinators deserve a special shout-out as well. There are some great fights in the film. They are well captured, and filmed in a way that you can see what is going on. Really good work. I can’t wait to see how they up the ante next time around.

I enjoyed my time with Kingsman: The Secret Service. It kept me entertained the whole way through. It managed to be light hearted and hyper violent all at the same time. It never quite gets to that upper level of amazing films, but that doesn’t mean you will not have a good time. Though if blood offends you, you may need to get your spy fix somewhere else.