Shmee.Me

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014

Shmee Captures The Muppets Most Wanted!

I am a huge Muppets fan, so obviously I went to see the new film Muppets Most Wanted over the weekend, and while it was good, I couldn’t help feel a little disappointed. It had all the songs and celebrity cameos that I could want, but it seemed that it was lacking the love that Jason Segel brought to the table.

The movie starts directly after the first movie with the Muppets realizing that the cameras are still on, so that the studio must want a sequel. They then go directly in to the funniest song of the show about how they are making a sequel. It that contains the unfortunately true joke that sequels are sometimes are not as good as the first movie. For their next movie they decide that they are off on a world tour, but the world’s most dangerous frog Constantine is going to use it as a cover for his heists.

Whoever wrote this movie must have just thought that the Muppets are just about music and cameos because this movie is loaded with both, and they are both used quite well. The problem is that the pacing of this movie is off. The movie will feel like it is flying along with songs and jokes one minute, and then it comes to screeching halt the next. They just couldn’t quite make the movie engaging when they were telling the actual story.

The main human characters, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, and Ty Burrell, all know how to ham it up, and they were fun to watch. I was quite pleased that this movie was indeed all about the Muppets, so that it was a “Muppet” movie, and not just a movie that seemed to have some Muppets in it. I just think that they needed someone around that knew how a Muppet story should work.

This movie was fine, and it is not the worst Muppet movie that has been made. It is just a shame that they couldn’t keep the movie from dragging in places. I just have to hope that enough people will watch this movie, so that Disney will want to put the Muppets on screen again.

March 21, 2014July 7, 2015

I Cast Jem and The Holograms!

I was going to review another comic book today, but yesterday The Hollywood Reporter dropped the bomb that a Jem and The Holograms movie was being fast tracked with Jon M. Chu (G.I Joe: Retaliation) to direct. Well what could I do but to cast this movie for them, so they can get right to work! I have little cousins that need to see this work of art! This was the hardest movie I have cast due to the fact I know of almost no actors in the right age group for this, but here it goes:

Rio Pacheco:

At first I was thinking James Franco because he is up for anything, but he is a little old for this flick, so I went with family! Dave Franco. The kid can act, and much like his brother, he is in all sorts of random ~~crap~~ movies.

Aja Leith:

I had no idea on this one, and searching for “Young Talented Asian Actresses” is not something that anyone should try. Unless you like feeling like a creep and getting viruses. To each their own I suppose, so I went with the only one I could think of: Brenda Song. She has done good work on movies like The Social Network, and it would be good to get her away from Dads.

Carmen ‘Raya’ Alonso:

I was in a similar situation as with Aja, so again I went with someone I know, and why not have a Disney Channel reunion movie while we are at it. I went with superstar Selena Gomez. Boom! This movie just made a billion dollars. Seriously I am the best casting director ever!

Shana Elmsford:

This choice was surprisingly easy. I was just watching an interview about the new movie Divergent, and it was with the charming Zoë Kravitz. She can sing, and she can act! Man I am good at my fake job.

Kimber Benton:

So we need someone young and spunky that we can believe is a song writer? I am going to go with Elle Fanning. Put her in a red wig and we are good to go.

Jem – Jerrica Benton:

Well Elle kind of gave this one away, but if you are going to have sisters in the movie, and you have two talented sisters anyway, why not use them? Dakota Fanning. The Fanning sisters, and Selena Gomez?! Man. Best movie, EVER!

I am never going to cast a little girls’ movie ever again. I was way out of depth, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I hope you enjoyed my choices.

March 17, 2014

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Blu-Ray Update!

I have already done a Catching Fire review, and my opinion of the film hasn’t changed, so you can find the film portion of the review here, but I thought I would give my impressions of the Blu-Ray release.

The movie holds up to repeat viewings, so there is no reason to worry about having this movie in your collection, and its transfer is excellent. They shot it with real film, so there is a little grain in movie, but that just adds to the feel, and gives it a more gritty look. Though you may want to pick a different movie if you really want to show off what your TV can do (I can suggest a couple of flicks for that purpose if you like).

The film is a little light on features. There is a preview for Lionsgate’s new YA movie Divergent, an interesting hour long “making of”, a couple of deleted scenes, and an audio commentary. The “making of” is the best one, but it doesn’t go supper in depth, so it is something you may watch once, and the deleted scenes don’t add anything, so it is easy to see why they were cut.

Despite the slightly disappointing features, the movie is still great, one of the best movies from last year in fact, and it is well worth adding to any collection. Though I would understand if you wanted to hold off a couple of years for the eventual “The Hunger Games: Complete Box Set”, but I am impatient, so I am happy that it is in my collection now.

March 10, 2014March 10, 2014

Don’t Bother To See Now You See Me!

Now You See Me was a surprise hit for Summit Entertainment in 2013, but I think people got too caught up in the cool premise and excellent cast to care that movie itself was lacking in substance. Though it could be that due to its success I went in with high expectations, while other people were just happy it was watchable.

It is about four talented street magicians, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), that are brought together by a mysterious man to complete a series of increasingly difficult heists. The FBI lead by Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is powerless to stop them.

With this setup it seems like it should be a magical Ocean’s 11, but it is never as clever as any of the Oceans’ movies. Instead of filling you with awe and wonder, they flash a bunch of pretty stuff in front of you and then end up with a ton of cash, and instead of letting you try and figure out how they did it, they have Morgan Freeman’s character tell you like two minutes later. They clearly think you are too dumb to understand what is going on without them holding your hand.

Since Freeman is always giving away how the magic is done it never feels like the magicians are doing any magic. It just makes them all seem like hustlers trying to pull a very large fast one on everybody. It is hard to root for a bunch of smarmy jerks, but that is kind of what they are asking you to do.

They do have a great cast in this film, but they all play their standard characters. Jesse Eisenberg is smart but neurotic, Harrelson is odd, Fisher is sassy and self confident, and Franco is a cool hustler. All these actors can do more then play their usual type, but the writers were too lazy for that. Well maybe not Franco, but if he keeps playing in movies like this we will never know. It is such as shame.

I wanted to like this movie, but I just couldn’t. It is pretty and has a fun cast, but it feels like they had a cool idea but didn’t think the audience was smart enough for it, so they dumbed it way down. It might have been a good movie at some point, but it is not worth watching in its current state.

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014

Who Should Play The Justice League Dark?

Guillermo Del Toro has been in talks with DC/Warner Brothers to do a Justice League Dark (The Justice League that deals with what goes bump in the night) movie, and if anyone is going to take Vertigo’s characters and make movie out of them it would be him. I, being the ever helpful person that I am, thought I would cast the big five for him.

John Constantine

John is probably the most recognizable JLD character, since his book has been running for what seems like forever, and he is the center of the JLD. I am going to pick Aaron Echkart.

He has got the look, and we saw in the Dark Knight he has no problem bringing comic book characters to life. I think he will also do a good job of mixing the serious with the humor that Constantine needs. Since they are going another way with Batman now, he should be free.

Madame Xanadu

The mystic of the JLD is a good opportunity to work in some young blood. My professional selection is Kerry Washington.

She is such a good actor, so it is time to get her away from Scandal and on to bigger things. I think she would have a lot of fun with this role.

Deadman

Deadman is an interesting one since he would have to be computer animated the whole time, and if you are going to do computer animation there is only one actor you need to call: Andy Serkis.

Andy is a the best at bringing life to CG characters, and he could let his creativity run wild with the poor undead Deadman.

Shade, the Changing Man

Shade would be a good time to use an unknown actor, since he can look like just about anyone, and the public would have no pre-conceived ideas on how he should look, but my job is to cast him, so I went with Cillian Murphy.

I probably should have shied away from another Dark Knight actor, but he is so good at being moody that I couldn’t help myself. He has proven in all his work that he would do a good job, and it would let him be the hero for once.

Zatanna

AKA The other JLD character people might know (but still probably not). Since she is the one that will probably save the day in this flick, I went with someone with a lot of acting experience, and I think she looks a lot like Zatanna as well. Jennifer Connelly.

My friends will probably just think I am picking her because of my long standing crush on her, but no, I think she has what it takes to play the master magician, and would provide a good anchor for this group.

This is my cast for the JLD. I would love to hear your take on the JLD, or even what other characters you would throw in and who you would like to play them. Like who would be Swamp Thing, or Frankenstein’s monster? Leave a comment if you have an idea! Shmee out.