Shawshank Redemption

I started watching this movie because it was IMDB's top movie of their top 250 movies. I have decided to watch them all, as best as I am able. As the top movie of all time, I had built up a lot of hopes around this movie. I was not disappointed. The movie starts watching Andy (Tim Robbins) take the blame for a crime he didn't commit. He then moves to prison where he eventually makes friends with both the criminals and the wardens as he steals money for them.

The piece clearly follows the friendship of Andy and Red (Morgan Freeman) as they go from prison to freedom, and remain the best of friends. It was beautifully done, and I deeply cared for both characters before the movie was over. One of the best scenes was when they murdered the man who knew that Andy had not committed the crime. You could see how dishonest the judicial system really is in just that one moment.

One thing that bothered me was why the law would not follow through and look into the city on the postcard that Red got, though. That was their best lead, and they acted as if it did not exist.

The movie also provided a look at institutionalization, a psychiatric condition that exists in prisons and mental institutes. Two of the characters, Red and the librarian have this condition. The librarian kills himself, but we see hope that Red will overcome it in the end. It was also interesting because it took place from the 1940s to 1960s, and there was an interracial cast of characters, and the two men who become closest of friends are interracial. This was an interesting choice, and I wonder if it was done on purpose in 1994 when the movie was made to make a point about the time it was about, or whether in the 90s they just didn't think about that much anymore.

Overall, I give the movie an A.

American Ultra

My husband likes spy movies, so he wanted to see this. I thought the premise sounded interesting until about 30 seconds into the movie. When he sold me on the movie, he didn't mention that the main characters were stoners. I knew from the moment I saw them pass the bong that this was not going to be a good movie. Nonetheless, I was surprised at just how bad it got.

I think you were supposed to be stoned while watching this movie, in order to not notice that the scenes didn't flow, and there was no logical progression from one thought to the next. I mean, really you end up with the guy you thought was the head of the CIA being murdered in the woods by the real head of the CIA, a character you haven't seen at all yet. It's ridiculous.

At some point you realize that Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) is former CIA herself, and quit her entire real life to be with this stoner guy she's supposed to be handling. Then she becomes a stoner herself, and falls in love with him. Even though she's lying to him not only about who she is but about who he is. But then you have to realize the whole Hawaii trip is her fault.

She knew he couldn't leave the town without violent panic attacks but she took him to the airport to go to Hawaii and then got mad at him because he couldn't leave. But she was the only one who knew why he couldn't leave! Also, the CIA is trying to kill him for trying to leave town, so clearly his handler should know that he's not allowed to leave town, and maybe, just maybe, she would try to encourage him not to leave town instead of trying to encourage him to leave town.

Overall, I give the movie an F for not thinking itself through and not having a plausible plot.

Fantastic 4

Unlike many geeks, I've really enjoyed the X-Men movies, put out by Fox. Therefore, I wasn't expecting Fantastic 4 to be terrible. I wasn't going to see it opening night, but my husband really wanted to go, so we went. You guys, this was the first time I've ever seen an audience actively booing at the end of the movie. Now admittedly, the booing might have had more to do with the fact that there was no stinger at the end of a comic book movie, since we all waited through all of the credits for one. But still, if people had enjoyed the movie I don't think they'd boo it that soon afterwards.

Through most of the film I was bored. I mean, origin stories, right? It was just these kids building something, and there was no suspense because you knew the thing had to work for them to get their powers. Building this thing took up literally 1/2 of the movie. Then they build it, and an accident gives them powers, and they spend the next 1/3rd of the movie either running from the government or working for the government. Finally, the writers realized we might like to see the team fight and become a team, so that comes out of nowhere.

Now let me take a moment and be a geek on you, but, this is Dr Doom's costume:

This really doesn't do justice to how bad it was. I mean by the time he showed up it was torn to shreds and looked like it was barely sticking to him. For those who don't know, this is Dr Doom in the comic books:

Kind of bad-ass right? 

I don't understand why Fox decided to get rid of pretty much the one awesome thing about this franchise. Then, I guess because they needed some kind of drama, Ben (Jamie Bell) blames Reed (Miles Teller) for his having become ugly. This never happens in the comic books. Ben always accepts his own responsibility for what happened to him, even though Reed blames himself. It was mischaracterizations such as this that really angered my husband, and caused him to hate the movie. 

For myself, I was never a Fantastic 4 fan. I didn't read the comics. The movie did an adequate job of explaining who each of the characters was, even if that was because they were so dramatically changing the story line that they had to do so. But the thing is I wasn't really entertained by the movie. I was bored through most of it. Even the final battle wasn't very exciting. 

Overall I give it a D.