Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Like any other Transformers movie, you can’t go into this thinking it’s going to be the best movie you’ve ever seen.  If you do, you’ll be disappointed.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is like the last two Transformers movies – sans Megan Fox.  A bunch of giant robots, a bunch of action, some mediocre acting, and transforming.  What this third installment has less of is annoying stuff – Megan Fox and Sam’s annoying and whiney parents are two prime examples.

At over two and a half hours long, this film could definitely have been cut down by at least 45 minutes to an hour.  There were times when I literally thought “C’mon, it has to end soon, right?” and it just kept going and going and going.  My buddy that I saw it with said that the last battle scene felt “infinite”.  I didn’t time it, but the climactic scene was easily over half an hour.

In typical Michael Bay fashion there are lots of camera cuts.  But not so much that it’s distracting from the film.  You’re pretty focused on the giant robots that are doing cool things on screen.  Said robots look even more realistic in 3D.  Industrial Light & Magic does an amazing job in making these things look real, almost too real.

Speaking of 3D, this film uses it quite nicely.  I’ve seen 3D movies before, but never ones that were quite like this.  Instead of using 3D as a gimmick to make more cash from movie goers, Transformers: Dark of the Moon actually uses it to enhance fight scenes.  When I think of 3D, I think of movies that were specifically built for it – throwing things at the camera, flying through tunnels, etc.  This film has quite a few moments where the 3D is used quite well. In addition to providing depth to what’s on the screen, there are many times when there’s that “it’s gonna hit me!” moment, which is cool.  The extra few bucks for the 3D version was really worth it, and I’ll likely grab the 3D blu-ray disc when it becomes available.

There was a story somewhere in the film too, but I wasn’t really all that invested in it. I said it back when the first in the trilogy came out, and I stick by it – I don’t care what the story’s about, as long as robots are mashing each other’s faces in.  Whether or not the story was any good is debateable.  I just left the theater not long ago, and I’m having a hard time remembering all the fine details of what the story was.  That’s how important it was to my enjoying the movie.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the movie.  Despite its complete cheesiness factor, somewhat non-existent acting, and some of the more absurd robots. (A robot named Q that makes gadgets for them, really? I’m pretty sure the James Bond franchise will be filing a lawsuit shortly.)  And while I maintain that this third installment is far too long, I still had a good time.  Watching 3D robots destroy each other, and a lot of their surroundings is pretty epic.

If you liked the first two movies even a little bit, you’ll most likely enjoy the third movie as well.  While not the greatest movie ever made, it’s a good 2.5 hours of mindless fun where you can just turn off your brain, enjoy the CGI, and drink your 5000 ounce soda.

Have you ever thought “I would go to the movies every single day if it wasn’t so expensive?”  I know! Me too!  Have you ever thought “I wish there was a Netflix like service but for movie theaters?”  Me too!

We’re all in luck, coming soon to a mobile device near you – MoviePass is a new service that is “coming soon”.  For $50 a month you can go to unlimited movies at participating theaters, just by opening the app and “buying” a ticket to the movie. Then your phone acts as your ticket to get you entry.

What’s the catch?  $50 a month is quite a bit, unless you plan on going to at least one movie per week.  The other catch is that IMAX and 3D movies are $3 additional to the theater.  Not a huge deal, but still a catch.

MoviePass is currently in development and is only slated to initially be released in the San Francisco area.  I, for one, am hopeful that they’ll do extremely well there and expand out to the East coast as quickly as possible.  I’d go to two movies a day if Christine would let me.

Apparently I have a sudden interest in MovieSnobs again.  Whether or not you find that to be good news, I do.

I’ve been doing some updates to the site behind the scenes, making things faster and easier from a management standpoint.

One of the public facing changes we’ve made is to our RSS URL.  As of right now, the RSS feed address has changed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/moviesnobs, due to some changes on Feedburner’s end. If you want to see how long we keep updating the site (this time), be sure to grab the RSS feed in your favorite reader.

Pixar’s got a new movie in the works, and it’s scheduled to hit theaters in just about a year.

The first teaser trailer for Brave hit the internet recently, check it out below.

In case you’re wondering what Pixar’s next movie is about

Scottish princess, Merida, defies her parents by persuing an interest in archery, but inadvertently jeopardizes her father’s kingdom in the process.

Voices include Emma Thompson, Kelly MacDonald, Kevin McKidd, Robbie Coltrane, Billy Connolly, and Craig Ferguson.  Clearly this will take place in a land with accents!

Unknown

After seeing the trailing for Unknown, my first thought was “It’s just like Taken!”.  And in case you forgot, I loved Taken (review here).

Sadly, Liam Neeson doesn’t punch nearly enough people in Unknown.  There is some punching, but not enough to make me want to sit and watch this every time it’s on HBO like I do with Taken.

Unknown follows Liam Neeson’s character (Dr. Martin Harris) to Germany, where he’s headed to present at a big biotechnology summit.  He forgets his briefcase at the airport and in rushing back in a cab to retrieve it, gets into an accident.  When he awakes four days later in the hospital, he realizes parts of his memory have gone missing.  He goes to find his wife, played by January Jones (more on her later), and she doesn’t know him.  Moreover, her husband (Dr. Martin Harris) comes over and insists that Liam Neeson’s Dr. Harris be arrested.

So on top of not remembering everything that happened, someone else has taken over his life.  But why?

We spend the next hour or so trying to find out.  There’s some twists, some turns, some gun fights, some car chases, and some punching.  It’s interesting enough, and the “twist” (can Hollywood even make a movie without a twist these days?) is one you may not necessarily see coming.  I liked most of the movie.

Except for January Jones.  I’ll admit that I picked up “Mad Men” at Target when the blu-rays were $15 per season. It hasn’t been watched yet.  With that said, I’ve never seen January Jones act before.  And after watching this movie, of which she’s one of the main characters, I can still honestly say I haven’t seen her act.  Unless her idea of “acting” is as terrible as what she did when she was onscreen during Unknown. I can’t recall anyone in a big Hollywood product that was as terrible as she was. And, to boot, she barely spoke throughout the entire movie, and she was still terrible.

I liked the movie just fine.  It wasn’t my favorite movie I’ve seen recently, but it certainly wasn’t terrible (sans Jones).  The scenes where Neeson is kicking ass are pretty great, I just wish there were more of them.

This week’s new DVD releases include an action, a romantic comedy, a Michael Cera flick, and a movie I’ve never heard of. You should be able to find something that meets your needs, if not, you need new needs.

Book of Eli – Blu-ray

When In Rome – Blu-ray

Youth In Revolt – Blu-ray

Unthinkable – Blu-ray

The Hurt Locker

Remember the first time you watched Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down?  Remember watching war movies and thinking “Yea! Blow that up! Woohoo!” and acting like an excited person?

Well, don’t expect that from this snorefest that it The Hurt Locker.  I know it won Best Picture, and everyone’s ranted and raved about it, but I was so bored I could barely finish the movie.  It just kept going on and on and on and on and on. It felt like forever.

And it didn’t get any better the further it went. I kept watching because it felt like it had to get better. Sadly, it did not.

Aside from being boring, the story’s not nearly as compelling as I’d expect from a war movie.  Sure, they’re focusing on the people and not the story, but I don’t care about the people.  I barely got invested in them, which is amazing, because the movie’s over two hours long.  I can’t imagine why the movie needed to be this long.  There were so many things that could have been cut to make it less sucky, but sadly none of them were.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying I hated The Hurt Locker, but I’d come pretty close. And if you told me you loved it, I’d probably stop being your friend all together.  I can’t think of a single redeeming quality of the movie. Boring all around.  That’s probably why it won Best Picture.  The “Academy” usually gets it wrong.

Are you still out there reading this?  It’s evident that we’re not still in here writing it, that’s for sure.

Thanks for keeping coming back, even though we haven’t written anything in almost a year. We’re terrible people, we know.

I’ve got some renewed inspiration here, and feel like getting back into the swing of things.  I’ll be updating the site more frequently in the upcoming weeks, and hope to get some of you involved in things at MovieSnobs.  It’ll take a while to get back into the swing of things, but hopefully we can get back to where we used to be.

Thanks again for visiting.  If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for the RSS feed, so you’ll know when we update things. If you don’t use an RSS reader, you can use the E-mail signup box on the right of any page to get daily e-mail updates, powered by FeedBurner.