Good, Bad & Ugly Review: A Million Ways To Die In The West

Crustula

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 33% (Critics) / 52% (Audience)
Directed By: Seth MacFarlane
Written By: Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris and Liam Neeson
Studio: Universal Pictures

Synopsis:Seth MacFarlane directs, produces, co-writes and plays the role of the cowardly sheep farmer Albert in A Million Ways to Die in the West. After Albert backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man. When a mysterious and beautiful woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband, a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test. – (Source)

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Classic shlock: ‘Incredibly Strange Creatures’

keithroysdon

I’ve written about the 1964 low-budget classic, “The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies” before, notably my memories of seeing it at a drive-in with an older relative.

I didn’t touch on the movie all that much, though.

Ray Dennis Steckler directed and stars – under his pseudonym Cash Flagg – and I guess you could argue he’s a forerunner to the director/stars we’re familiar with from today. His performance isn’t horrible but he’s undercut by the low, low-budget of his own movie.

The movie follows a group of friends who visit a carnival and stumble upon bad guys who hypnotize, disfigure and enslave people, turning them into, in effect, zombie slaves.

The movie has the telltale leisurely pace of a low-budget flick. For what seems like forever, characters wander around, gazing at stuff, talking about nothing. There seem to be endless scenes of arty dance…

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Spoil-Free Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Next Time On...

So here is where I find myself, having just seen X-Men: Days of Future Past—twice—and I am asking myself an eerily familiar set of questions.  Where does this rank in the Marvel movie canon?  Where does this rank among X-Men movies?  Was this a good movie or is the nerd in me (it does make up about 97% of my body mass after all) just really excited about this comic book god-mode?  Is there any more perfect casting in the history of film than Patrick Stewart across Sir Ian McKellen as ex best friends now rivals?

To answer my own rhetorical questions in order:

• High pretty damn high, easily top five.  Yeah I said it ya bish.
• Days of Future Past edges out First Class, which dominates The Wolverine, which was better than all the other X-Men movies, and then all the way down past the bottom…

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Film Reviews

On A Hiding To Something

Given my less than stellar track record at updating I figured I’d broaden the spectrum to include more things. More things = more posts = yay?

Anyway this (half term) week I had the delight of seeing three new releases at Cineworld so I thought I’d give my humble and spoiler free opinion on them. Here goes nothing.

First up is Maleficent. I won’t lie about the high expectations I had for this film. I had very high hopes for this reinterpretation of a childhood classic. I saw this film in 2D (3D isn’t really for me)

The Good: Angelina was flawless and gave a great performance, one of many brilliant casting choices of the film. The CGI was very well done so you didn’t feel overwhelmed by it. I loved the scenes between young Aurora (Angelina’s daughter) and Maleficent, so beautiful to watch. Although I will go on to…

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Million Dollar Arm

Kyle Loves Movies

Million Dollar Arm is the latest in the inspirational sports management movie genre, ostensibly revolving around baseball.

The Short Version

Jon Hamm is well cast, Alan Arkin is Alan Arkin in the best way, the boys from India are engaging. I just wish the movie centered around them.

If you go, you’ll be entertained. Just don’t expect much India or baseball.

Already seen it? Or at least not averse to a discussion with some spoilers? Scroll on down a bit to see how I really felt. Here we go…

Smaller spoiler gap.

I mean, it’s based on a true story, so there won’t be any surprises.

Last chance to turn back.

Meat and Potatoes
I don’t have much to say on this one. The trailers are a touch misleading, but then when aren’t they?

The movie is entirely about Jon Hamm as a plucky underdog sports agent, who has a…

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Cabin in the Woods: The next Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Scruffy-Looking Nerd Herder

Eep!  Overdue on that second post already?  You’ll be happy to know that in the meantime, I’ve been keeping up quite well with all procrastinating I have on the go…

When Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods came out back in 2012, I remember being surprised by one strange thing.  Everyone who saw the movie in the theatre would ask me, “Have you seen Cabin in the Woods yet?” as the opening to a very excited conversation.  When I replied, “No.  Not yet,” they would all stop and change directions and say, “just go see it.”  Seriously, going into it over a year after its theatrical release, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.  Now, that being said, we don’t have cable, so I also hadn’t seen any commercials for it.  So really all I had going into it were these halted bits of excitement from my friends.  Having seen…

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Movie buff

randomaedchen

Some directors that I like –

• Wes Anderson
• Christopher Nolan

A space movie. Hmm. Not too sure how to react to that, since I’m not so much of a sci-fi fan. What I do react to is Michael Caine’s narration that gives me goosebumps and – waitwhatwasthatAnneHathawayisinthistoo ?!?!? (Mini Batman reunion, I see.)

• Baz Lurhmann
• Hayao Miyazaki

–

Other than my usual fix of Hollywood blockbusters and other Western offerings, there have been quite a few Asian flicks released this year that piqued my interest. Here’s a list that fellow movie buffs like me would probably enjoy (and it just happens they are all from different countries):

1. Shield of Straw (JP)

The trailer’s pretty bloody, but the actual violence in the show has probably been saved for the cinemas. Anyhow, this story is about a bunch of cops escorting a murderer, who has a million-dollar price tag on his head…

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Maleficent: The beautiful and the damned