Wknd Box Office: Green Lantern, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Art of Getting By

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/  reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post some of the movies from last week and  THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed!  This all  follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!


Wknd Box Office: Green Lantern, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Art of Getting By

By Debbie Schlussel



I wasn’t all that excited by the new movies, this weekend, but the best–and it’s all relative–is the superhero flick.



* “Green Lantern“: I like Ryan Reynolds as an actor. I even like him as a superhero, though he was less charismatic and assertive than I like in my superheroes. But I wasn’t all that impressed by this movie, which was kind of messy and had a weak story. It was okay and better than some of the other recent superhero movies I’ve seen recently. But it wasn’t great.



I liked certain scenes, like the scene in which Reynolds–pre-superhero induction–is a fighter pilot fighting it out in the skies against two computer-operated jets. That was a rush. But other parts were just silly, like a scene of animated, old crone “wise men” (and women) who sit atop columns with five-hundred foot long robes on. That was laughable, though not intentionally. I laughed out loud. I also didn’t buy Peter Sarsgaard as the son of Tim Robbins.



And parts of the story were non-sensical and silly. In the beginning scenes, some intergalactic battle between several green lantern men and some sort of giant villain who looks like an evil version of Sesame Street’s Snuffalupagus. Then, the screen switches to Reynolds as a pilot, and how he loses control of his plane, losing his company and the entire town an important contract for planes.



Soon, though Reynolds is selected by the green ring of a dying alien who has crashed onto earth. The ring selected him for some courage that neither he nor anyone can see. He goes to another planet to train with the other Green Lanterns (over 3,000 of them) from around the galaxy, so they can prepare to fight the evil Snufallupagus. But Reynolds gives up and goes back to earth, where he must contend with the evil Hector (Sarsgaard), who has turned into a villain with superpowers after coming into contact with the dead aliens body. In the meantime, there’s also his budding romance with Blake Lively, a fellow pilot whose father owns the copmany and is grooming her to run it.



Like I said, the plot is a little ho-hum and messy. It’s not a tight story. And there wasn’t a lot of 3-D in it, even though we saw the movie in 3-D. But there was nothing objectionable, and there wasn’t any sex in it (other than Reynolds waking up next to a woman and running off). So, it’s family friendly, if a little violent and graphic for kids. I just thought parts of the movie were dull and slow, while others seemed disconnected and thrown in.



Still it wasn’t a bad movie. Again, just not a great one.



ONE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS




* “Mr. Popper’s Penguins“: Jim Carrey stars in this movie squarely aimed at kids. For adults, it is formulaic, somewhat boring and long, and a little silly. But it’s fine to take your kids to it. It isn’t your normal Carrey level of funniness, either. I laughed, but only less than a handful of times. Also, what kind of kids’ movie talks about Viagra? Huh?



The story: as a kid, Carrey’s father is never home. He’s away exploring around the world, always chasing after the next big opportunity and communicating with his son via radio. But he never comes home. All grown up, Carrey is a slick real estate developer who uses psychology to trick people into retiring and selling their choice property to him, with the help of his secretary who mostly uses words that start with the letter, “P.”



Carrey is divorced with a son and daughter who aren’t all that into him. But, one day, he inherits a penguin from his recently departed father. Soon he has six of them. They mess up his fancy penthouse apartment, but they bring him and his kids–as well as his ex-wife–back together again. And they help bring him the last piece of the real-estate puzzle he’s been seeking.



Good to take your kids to see, but for adults, not the greatest kids movie. Not even close. This is paint-by-number baby-sitting stuff. And a little hokey.



ONE HALF REAGAN



* “The Art of Getting By“: You’ve seen far better versions of this story a gazillion times. Nerdy loser/loner who hasn’t found his way in the world of high school goes for beautiful popular girl who befriends him and eventually, after lots of angst and drama, they fall in love and sleep together. The end. That’s this movie with a whole lotta pretentiousness and fake, overwrought melodrama added for good (er . . . bad) measure. Per usual, all the high school kids in this movie are geniuses and very mature adults. And their parents are all irresponsible sluts, morons, or dolts.



One night, the guy falls asleep on the trundle bed on the girl’s room and wakes up to her merciless laughter at his erection. Later, at a restaurant, the girl (Emma Roberts–Julia’s niece), asks the boy if he wants to sleep with her, then mocks and embarrasses him. Yup, classy movie, and exactly what you want your teens seeing on the big screen. NOT.



As a kid, I never liked “The Breakfast Club “and thought it was highly overrated. But that’s Shakespeare stuff, compared to this low-class, pretentious bore I’ve seen done far better a million times before.



FOUR MARXES