Movie Review: The Grey

Movie: The Grey

Starring: Liam Neeson

Released: January 27, 2012

Hoot Rating: I don't give a Hoot.  Now, you may notice that this is not on the Hoot scale.  That is because it is special just for this movie.  It was so awful that I had to come up with something lower than Hoot-less.

Summary sans Spoilers:  So, basically, Liam Neeson and a bunch of other people in an Alaskan oil drilling team board a plane.  The weather is bad and the plane crashes leaving them stranded where wolves begin to pick them off one by one.  Liam Neeson takes on the role of the leader as they try to make it to safety.  Oh, and also there is a post-credits scene.  I hate when they do that.  I missed it because I didn't know.

The Critical Eye (Spoiler Alert):  In this case, this will be more of a rant than an educated analysis.  Basically, all that happens in this is a plane crashes and there are only seven survivors.  These survivors, most of them anyway, put their lives in Liam Neeson's hands and they are, each night, slowly picked off by wolves who are offended by their being there.  Literally, the movie's plot (or lack of plot) works like this: They walk in the bitter cold snow, it gets dark, they camp, the wolves eat one of the guys, the others sleep.  They walk a little more in the bitter cold snow, it gets dark, they camp, the wolves eat one of the guys, the others sleep.  And so on.  There really is not much there.  Other reviews of this film I have read have said that it is a character driven story.  Well, that's all fine and dandy.  I love character driven movies and stories.  I'm all about character.  But this was not character driven.  You don't really learn anything about any of the characters until the very end when Liam Neeson's character is opening the wallets of the dead men and looking through their personal photographs (they had been collecting the wallets as the men died, so that they could give them to their families if there was a survivor).  Other than that part at the end, you don't learn anything about these men except for the fact that they do not want to be killed by the wolves.  You don't even learn most of their first names.  There is a bit of a focus on the main character, Ottway played by Liam Neeson, but they keep it so jumbled that you really just don't know what is going on.  I mean *major spoiler alert* at the beginning of the movie he is writing a suicide note to his wife and is going to kill himself, but he sees a wolf and, rather than shooting himself, he shoots it.  Then he spends some time feeling the wolf's side as the life slowly goes out of him.  Throughout the film, Ottway keeps having visions of his wife and he has a strange understanding of death.  Finally, when he is the only one left alive, he realizes he has traveled right into the wolf's den, there is one last vision of his wife that leads you to believe she is dead.  Then he plans to fight the Alpha wolf as he is reciting his father's poem, which is not even all that deep.  It is transparent.  He stares the wolf down and the credits role.  There is a post-credit scene, that I didn't see or know about, where it seems Ottway has defeated the Alpha wolf.  But it is not clear.

The Bottom Line:  Basically, you will leave this movie feeling robed of understanding and substance.  There is nothing there.  It feels like an incomplete screenplay.  As a writer, I feel the need to say to other writers: Finish your stories all the way!  I mean, you owe it to your characters and to your audience.  Don't go see this movie.  Unless you like incomplete movies.

Movie Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love

Movie: Crazy Stupid Love
Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone
Released: July 29, 20011



Hoot Rating: I give this movie a One Hoot rating.

Summary sans Spoilers:  Steve Carell plays Cal, your average married man who is comfortable with his marriage to wife Emily, played by Julian Moore. He is comfortable, she is bored and asks for a divorce. Brokenhearted, Cal starts to spend his evenings at a bar where night, after night he watches the handsome, ladies man Jacob, played by Ryan Gosling, take home girl, after girl. Tired of seeing Cal's pathetic self every night, Jacob tells him that he can teach him his tricks to getting women in bed. Cal goes along with it and gets completely transformed, wardrobe wise at least, and starts having his own sexual conquests. While Cal turns into Jacob, Jacob turns into Cal when he falls in love with Hannah, played by Emma Stone. Over time, and with the help of his son, Cal discovers that he has only ever loved his wife and wants her back. What ensues is just a representation of the complications on love and the difficulties of relationships. Basically, people do crazy and stupid things when they are in love.

The Critical Eye: To be honest, I have to say I had really high hopes for this film. I am sad to say that I was most unfortunately disappointed. I expected it to be sweet with some sad moments, but  that it would end happily and reinforce my belief in true love, even if just for a little bit once it was over. Instead, I sat through a movie that was very slow to start and poorly constructed plot-wise. It felt much longer than the two hours it actually is because of how slow the beginning was. It is clear that Crazy, Stupid, Love was trying to accomplish the very same seamless story transitions of an ensemble cast that the film Love Actually was able to do quite successfully. Crazy, Stupid, Love, however failed in this effort just like another similar and disappointing movie, Valentine's Day. Perhaps Crazy, Stupid, Love feels so slow in the beginning because it focuses too much on the "picking up a girl at a bar" scenes. I felt we needed to see more scenes between Cal & Emily and Jacob & Hannah. There was really only one good scene with Jacob & Hannah and I think it would have done the movie good to show their relationship develop a little more. As for scenes with Cal and Emily, we just needed more scenes that show how well they know each other. Emily is much too cold in the scenes they do have together. I also found myself quite disturbed by the story-lines of the babysitter and the son. They were just somewhat inappropriate and added to the slow pace. The movie does gain strength in the end, however with a hilarious twist. As for the acting, Steve Carell does a marvelous job, as always, at playing pathetically funny. He has the perfect face for it. Julianne Moore was...well, Julianne Moore. There just wasn't much there. Ryan Gosling definitely gave this movie delightful sex appeal and he had wonderful chemistry with Emma Stone, who was as wonderful as ever with her clumsy sarcasm and intelligent strength.

The Bottom Line: There were, maybe, three really good scenes. For the most part it focused a little bit too much on lust rather than love for a PG-13 movie. It does attempt to send a sweet message but I do not really feel that was accomplished. Basically, if you want a Steve Carell comedy, pick something else. This is more of a Dan in Real Life kind of thing. If you want an achingly beautiful love story like The Notebook, pick something else. If you want a cliche romantic comedy with brilliant wit and sarcasm like Easy A, pick something else. If you just want to see Ryan Gosling shirtless and sexy, this is the movie for you.

More than Bridesmaids

Movie Title: Bridesmaides
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Released: May 13, 2011


Hoot Rating: I give this movie the rating A Heck of a Hoot. The movie follows Annie (played by the talented Kristen Wiig), a failed baker whose bakery business went under, as she tries to be a supportive Maid of Honor for her best friend, Lillian. All the while, Annie's own life is falling apart. At first, she is overjoyed by her best friend since childhood's good news and is ready to be there for Lillian, even though she is stuck in a sex-only relationship with her jerk of an ex-boyfriend. All seems to be going well with the wedding until Annie meets Whitney, who turns out to be a new best friend of Lillian. An immature I'm-a-better-friend-than-you competition ensues with each trying to outdo the other and prove that they know Lillian best. Annie takes the blows a little harder than Whitney because her life keeps getting worse and worse due to her financial situation--a struggle Whitney doesn't have in her perfect, rich life. As the plot develops, slowly a gap emerges between Annie and Lillian's friendship. Her relationship with Lillian is not the only one to suffer. She snuffs a potentially successful relationship with a police officer, Rhodes, that she meets when he pulls her over because her break lights being out. He brings some happiness to her life until he tries to encourage her to start baking again--a sensitive subject for her. She pushes him away, hurting him as a result. Annie's problems seem to be numerous and unfair, but just maybe she has the power to make her life better--something she starts to believe that after a pep talk from a dynamic character in the film and fellow bride's maid.

The Critical Eye: I have to say, I was delightfully surprised by this movie. When I first saw the previews for this movie, I was torn. I love Kristen Wiig on SNL, but it looked like just another romantic comedy about a wedding and the humor looked like it would just be gross. I finally decided to see it when I looked up some information on it and found that Kristen Wiig co-wrote the screenplay. I feel this movie further shows just how talented Kristen Wiig is. Whoever said that women cannot write comedy has obviously not read or seen anything by the women that come out of SNL. This movie is proof that women can write comedy and write good comedy. I do feel like the movie starts out a little unsettling. It shows Annie having sex with her jerky ex-boyfriend. Yeah, it successfully shows that the couple are not a match, and there is actually not a lot of nudity in this scene but I think it was a bit of a crutch. It seems like something a writer writes into a script when they want to break people's preconceptions of it. With this it seems that she knew people would assume that a woman would do something more tame, but I think the movie could have stood on it's own without opening that way and it still could have broken those preconceptions. But, that is just me being picky. The rest of the film is wonderful. It has the right balance of humor and character development. I found myself relating to Annie. The situation is something that I am sure many people have struggled with. I know sometimes I have felt like I was losing my friends to other friends. It also carries a good message in the end that we cannot blame our lousy lives on others. We have control over our choices and can fight for what we want. This movie is also different from other wedding romantic comedies because it focuses mostly on Annie and her struggles. The wedding is just one small, humorous part of it.

The Bottom Line: If you do not like romantic comedies, do not see this, because no matter how much I think this movie is worth seeing, it is a romantic comedy. If you do not like movies with bathroom humor, I would say you probably will not like this movie, but you could just look away during that scene (it is in the preview). Overall, this was full of laughs and really develops the relationships. I think it is very worth seeing.