March Movies

Heeeeeyyyy!!!

Guess what? It finally happened. I missed one movie to review last month! LOL. Totally slipped from my mind! So i'm gonna feature that forgotten movie here!

Free Birds 

Went to watch this with Baby Boy, not expecting anything much but to entertain him a bit-yet another movie that exceed my (almost non-exist) expectation by being truly entertained! I guess the fact that the always hilarious Owen Wilson was cast as the "lead actor" (his voice at least) helped :).

Reggie is an ordinary farm turkey that's just totally different than his family and friends, he's always insightful, thoughtful (although can be pretty shallow too) and in general.. not stupid like the others. He was one day picked as "The Pardoned Turkey" and lived a fabulous life with the president's daughter (who picked him) until he was dragged by a fanatical turkey (Jake) who has this crazy idea to go back in time to make sure turkey was not in the menu for the first Thanksgiving. They managed to do so and found themselves in 1621 at the Plymouth Colony, smacked in the middle of a turkey's clan struggle to survive.

I think it's nothing VERY special or anything, but it's very entertaining, hilarious, silly and totally enjoyable for the whole family (again, with Owen Wilson at the helm you can expect smart retorts that would tickle adults, so it wouldn't be boring for adults as well). I'd recommend this for a family day movie for some bonding time!

Now moving on to the actual movies that we watched in March.. In general (except for Divergent which is my new obsession :p) the movies were very so so and not very exciting at all. I'd say February movies were better as a whole than March's.

1. 3 Days To Kill

Ethan (the handsome grandpa, Kevin Costner) is a veteran international spy with an impressive resume that left him estranged from his wife and daughter. He was diagnosed with a terminal disease and won't have much time left in this world, was released from the agency and tried to get closer to his family before he dies. A hot young CIA agent, Vivi (played by Amber Heard. I never heard about her before but she's really cute, and apparently dating Johnny Depp?) offered him an experimental drug that might safe his life with an exchange of helping her to finish one final mission. He had to juggle his crazy CIA thing with taking care of his teenage daughter (whom he last seen years ago) while his wife went on a business trip out of town.

I expect this movie to be yet another tough guy action movie formula, but it was slightly better than that. It was hilarous! Of course, it's doesn't have the most believable storyline out there, in fact it's totally fantastical and exaggerated, but that's actually why this movie's slightly more special than your regular Jason Statham, Mark Wahlberg, Vin Diesel kind of movie. The humor.

Even though i wouldn't say this is a must watch movie, i'd also say that watching it wouldn't be a total waste of your time. It's good enough to watch if you have some time to pass :).

2. Non-Stop

For me this movie is one of the more special ones this month, one that i would actually recommend you to watch because it's good enough. We watched this before we heard about the devastating news of MH-370 flight (which was deemed missing at that time) and remember thinking with horror how true the saying about arts imitating real life seems to be lately. People were buzzing about how Pompeii was playing around the same time frame as the Kelud eruption, and now this : a movie airplane hijacking (which is also one of the theory thrown out there as the reason why MH-370 went missing). I hope that doesn't sound insensitive, i don't mean it to be (because i definitely sympathized with the victims' family and praying for them).

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson, hey it's the season of the handsome grandpas! They still rock as hard as the young blood! Makes me feel better about growing old hahaha) is a former cop turned air marshal with a sad family life (he's drinking his problems away as well), his young daughter passed away and his marriage ended afterward. On a flight to London he received a text message with a threat that someone in the flight will be killed every 20 minutes unless 150 million dollars' transferred to an off shore account. He tried telling the other air marshal on board but he didn't believe him. Later on the bad guy pinned the blame on Bill so not only Bill has to try to find the bad guy while keeping the passengers alive, but he also had to find a way to clean his own name.

The movie was extremely intense, griping, and enthralling. I bet you'd keep on guessing who the bad guy is throughout the movie (and it's very unexpected) like me! #Undecided told me she loved it too (as well as my hunny) but her husband fell asleep (because while this movie has its share of action scenes, it also has a lengthy dialogs-making it not his cup of tea. But i personally couldn't find any scene that drags on to make this movie boring!) *LOL*. If i can only recommend two movies out of all of the movies i've watched on March, it'd be this and Divergent!

3. Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Remember when i told you that Arman and i have different opinions in movies in March? This is one of them (other than Divergent). He didn't like Mr. Peabody & Sherman (read his review here) while i absolutely loved it! Hunny and Baby Boy enjoyed it very much as well, three of us couldn't stop laughing from start to finish-and i teared up pretty badly towards the end :D.

Mr. Peabody is genius with tons of titles to add to his name, he also happens to be a dog. Like Reggie from Free Birds, he was always different and never got picked to be adopted because he's way too smart for a dog (or even human) to be fun to play with. When he's all grown up, he found an abandoned human baby (Sherman) and decided to adopt him. Fast forward to Sherman's first day at school, he is bullied by this girl (Penny) because Sherman's dad is a dog. Sherman fought back and both him and Mr. Peabody's got a stern warning from the headmaster that a child protection agent will investigate if Mr. Peabody's fit to be a human kid's parent or Sherman will be taken away from him. Trying to make a better impression, he invited Penny and his parents for dinner. Sherman showed her the WABAC (a time machine) to impress her and they were thrown to a crazy adventure in time.

Where Arman found the movie to be erratic, overwhelming and weird, i found it to be exciting, entertaining and downright hilarious. I have no idea if the fact that i have a very childish brain (part. I can be very mature too, mind you) is part of the reason why i found the movie flows really nicely. It is very fast, colorful, and maybe quite unsual, but that's where the beauty of this movie lies.

I know (and agree) that trying to teach kids history lessons through comedic animation can be a total boomerang (because of the crazy changes they made to make sure the movie's entertaining), i think this can be avoided by telling your kid to take this movie with a pinch of salt. That while the historical events really took place in the past, nothing that happened in the movie actually happened that way. I guess when your kid's big enough to understand, they'd get what you mean, and when they're not... well, there's no need to tell them that the movie has snippets of history slipped into it :p. 

And maybe i see things in different eyes, but from the beginning i didn't even pause to think of how weird it is for a dog to to adopt a human son *LOL*. You know i am anything but normal, right? Haha.. I also feel like there's this deeper meaning this movie's teaching, that no matter how unusual or ugly your parents are (in this case, represented by a dog), they're still your parents who loves you unconditionally and you should love and respect them no matter what. And that it's never okay to bully anyone, however weird their circumstances are.

This movie's actually in the top 3 of my fave movie this month (with Divergent and Non-Stop) and i'd recommend it for you who have as crazy imagination (enough to not even question the weird story plot) as me, i absolutely loved in and told #Undecided (the dog lover, and who recently had to deal with a very horrible situation regarding one of her dog) to watch it :).

4. 300 : Rise of an Empire

The sequel of the mega hit 300 movie (that sealed Gerard Butler as SPARTA! LOL) continues (back and forth with lots of flash backs) with Persian Army under the command of Xerxes (who actually went from cute looking to downright creepy) towards the major Greek city gates. Admiral Themistocles led the Athens to fight them and tried to form an ally with other cities of Greeks in order to be able to win against the Persians, including Sparta (which just been recently left by their King and now led by their Queen, Gorgo). He must also face a vengeful Persian navy commander (who was Greek by blood) who's totally ruthless and would destroy anything that comes in her way.

Well... It's... not my kind of movie. LOL. I mean... Yeah, it's more of a guy's movie, i guess? I did enjoy the first 300 movie though, perhaps because of Gerard Butler? I dunno *LOL*. While the battle scenes in this sequel's quite epic, Eva Green also showed a gold class acting as the villain and the story line's not horrible, i just don't feel like it's half as good as its predecessor. For me it lacks the though pull that Gerard Butler brought to the first movie, Sullivan Stapleton (who i've never heard of before) is just not in the same league as Gerard Butler as a leading actor. I can tell that even my hunny's not loving it very much.

It was not horrible, but it was nothing spectacular either. I found myself getting bored a few times during the movie (and sleepy *snooze...*), also i found it to be disturbing to see so many shirtless men on screen *LOLOLOL*. While in the 300 movie they kept on fighting so it didn't disturb me as much, in this movie they talk a lot more, and still half naked. HAHAHAHA, sorry, even if Theo James' in the movie i'd rather him wear pants (don't attack me, maybe ancient Greek's army really dress like that, but it still bothers me!). 

Testosterone filled guys might feel the need to watch this, anyone else... You can skip it and won't miss much.


5. Need For Speed

Okay, so i must admit that i'm pretty surprised to see this movie's rated 7.3 (that is a pretty darn high score!) in IMDb (which is known to rate 4 to some of my fave movies *LOL*) because it's ugh... Kinda boring for me. LOL. It's not like, HORRIBLE, but definitely nothing excited. For me. #Undecided found her new imaginary boyfriend (Aaron Paul) in this movie so she'd re-watch it any time just to ogle at him (i will not make fun of her since i'd do it in a heartbeat for Divergent).

Tobey Marshall is a street racer who's been framed by a wealthy business associate (who also has the fast bug) slash rival (Dino) in love got thrown into jail for a few years. He emerges, with revenge on his mind, and joined a cross country race. Dino learned about his plan and placed a major bounty for his head as the race begins.

Yeah... No. The story line's not for me, the racing part... also didn't do much for me. I actually enjoy race movies too, but maybe i am too used to Fast and Furious franchise (Paul Walker, you will forever be missed...) and it set the bar for me when it comes to race movies. I know that Fast and Furious is totally unrealistic and almost comic bookish/animation-ish, but i can't help but enjoy that type better than this rougher around the edges, more realistic one. 

Not to mention i didn't see a single eye candy for me in this movie *sigh*, i had to ask hunny for coffee even though it was 7 PM (i avoid coffee like a plague after 4) to keep my eyes open. Imogen Poots' pretty endearing though. 

Just give me Fast and Furious any day...


6. The Monuments Men

I know from the beginning that this movie will not blow my hat off or whatever, being a movie about people who went on a mission to rescue art (i am not much of an art person, as you might already notice) during World War II, but the fact that it's based on true story and with star studded cast (i do love Matt Damon), hunny and i decided to watch it anyway.

Based on the true story of what's known as the biggest treasure hunt in history, an unlikely platoon was formed (by people who has expertise in arts ranging from museum directors, curators and art historian) to go to Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces that's been stolen by Nazis and return it to their rightful owners. It was almost a mission impossible, with the arts trapped behind the enemy line and received almost no backup from their side (whose generals rightfully refused to jeopardize the lives of their soldiers to protect arts) but still they went forward, risking their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements, to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of achievements. All the while posing the question, is it worth losing their lives for a piece of art?

It's a drama action movie, but for a fan of blockbuster movies like me and hunny it'd need a little bit more action to keep us plastered to our seat *LOL*. It is a good movie with a good heart, i am also a total sucker for based on true stories/events kind of movie, but maybe i was asking too much from a movie that from the beginning already stated what it's all about. I do find it very interesting, the casting was brilliant and they all act brilliantly here, so maybe it's a case of "it's not them, it's me" that is the problem hahaha.

I would only recommend this for history buffs (but then again, i am a history buff! Still didn't make me excited for this movie though *LOL*) who's into drama and arts maybe? Hahaha... And George Clooney's fans (i know there are  a lot out there even though i may never understand his charms haha). It's a no go for those who are expecting a Hollywood style full blown war movie (i'd say the action part's not a quarter of the movie, compared to the drama part).

And that's all i got for now! Of course, we also watched Divergent, which i wrote a full review of, you can read it here if you haven't already :). 

What movies did you watch last month? What was your favorite?

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