Movie Review Wednesday - Goon

Let me start by telling you this movie slipped under my radar. I never seen a trailer for it, never seen it advertised on TV or at the theater. However, with this week’s releases being Mirror Mirror and Wrath of the Titans, I checked out the other movies at our local AMC and found Goon.



So I read the movie info listed on Rotten Tomatoes:


Not content with his job as a bouncer at a local Beantown bar and a bit of an embarrassment to his accomplished family, Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) dreams of the kind of success enjoyed by minor league hockey goon Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber). When a chance encounter with an on-ice thug leads to a bloody fist fight that Doug easily wins, the coach of the Halifax Highlanders sees potential in this mammoth sized man who is only hampered by his lack of any hockey playing ability and his brother's old figure skates. Standing up to the taunts of the other players, Doug manages to join the team, and with the encouragement of his hockey obsessed best friend (Jay Baruchel) quickly becomes a rising star. Soon he'll have the opportunity to face off against Ross "The Boss" Rhea and perhaps finally land a girlfriend. Now - all he needs is to learn how to skate.

 I, too everyone’s shock, picked this as our Tuesday Movie Night viewing. I am so glad I did!


Goon is the type of movie that meets all of the criteria I love:


• It made me laugh A LOT! (like crying laughing)

• It has a love story

• It has action (VERY VERY graphic fight scenes – so be warned)• It made me forget about everything else going on in my life for 1-1/2 hours


Seann William Scott was perfect as the rough and tough Doug. He really bulked up for this movie. His character is beyond lovable. 

Jay Baruchel was the shining star of the movie. He really had most of the best laugh-lines of the movie and pulls off the crazy best friend well.

Some other well-known faces round out the cast:

• Eugene Levy (American Pie fame)

 • Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy)

 • Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)

• Marc-Andre Grondin (He's a new face - but one I wouldn't mind seeing again....)

The movie is based on a true story and really tugs on you to root for dumb-as-rocks Doug as he tries to become a “hockey” player.


Ladies, this is one that the BF/Hubs will enjoy. You will score lots of points if you suggest this one – and I promise – you will like it too!


It doesn’t look like it has a very wide release – but I found it at 3 theaters within a 20 mile radius to me. And, if you can’t find it – it’s slated for DVD release May 29, 2012.

I'm not sure if I'm just being crazy - but I have to give this a TO DIE FOR rating!  I enjoyed it that much.  It's definitely the biggest under-rated movie so far this year.

Review Wednesday - This Means War

I want to start by letting you all know that I did not want to see this movie.  I had seen the preview for it numerous times, and although Chris Pine and Tom Hardy obviously are eye candy, the movie looked borderline ridiculous to me.   

I like Reese Witherspoon, but let’s face it, most of the comedies she’s in fall flat (i.e., How Do You Know, Four Christmases).  Since we had already seen Safe House, which BTW is a good movie if you like shoot em up, ass kicking movies, and oh yeah, Ryan Reynolds is in it, so This Means War was really our only option this week. I was hoping for something much better than The Vow.  Remember how much I was disappointed in that?

This Means Wars goes something like this:

FDR (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy) are CIA agents and best friends.  They are pretty much each other’s ONLY friend.  They discover they are dating the same woman, Lauren (Witherspoon).  They agree to let Lauren decide who she wants to be with:

Tuck: "Let's just let her decide."
FDR: "Sure."
Tuck: "And while we're at it, why don't we put some ground rules in as well."
FDR: "I think we should."
Tuck: "Number one: I don't think we should tell her that we know each other."
FDR: "Number two: Let's stay out of each others way."
Tuck: "Number three: No hanky panky."
FDR: "God, you have not dated in a long time, have you?"
Tuck: "And if this ever starts to affect our friendship...
FDR: "Which it won't..."
Tuck: "Then we walk away."
FDR: "Done."
Tuck: "So then we have, we have..."
FDR: "We have a gentleman's agreement. May the best man win."
Lauren struggles with her decision to pick between the two guys.  She thinks both men have very different personalities and really enjoys dating both of them. She spends a lot of time talking to her bff Trish (Handler) trying to decide which boy she fancies more.

The entire time, FDR and Tuck, with the help of each of their own CIA teams, use all means necessary and at their disposal to sabotage the other's dates, gather  intel on Lauren, and plan perfect dates to take her on. This is where the real funny happens.

Obviously a lot of over-the-top spy-type stuff happens, but I’m telling you there are so many laugh out loud moments in this film.  Chelsea Handler basically plays herself, and has so many witty one liners, I was always cracking up. Just when you think she has nothing more to give to the movie than some lewd laughs, she throws out the most real line of the movie:

Trish:  Don't go with the better guy; go with the guy who makes you better.

FDR and Tuck have awesome chemistry...with each other.  You fall in love with them both.  I was so torn - you end up rooting for them both to “win” the girl. 

This is a funny, action-packed, romantic movie.  It has enough chick stuff to keep the ladies happy and just the right amount of CIA agent/boy stuff to keep the boys interested too!  And hey, doesn't everyone like funny?

GurleeGirrl's Rating:       Loved It

It's really a MUST see!

Let me know what YOU think!  If you've seen it - did you Love It? 

Review Wednesday (Thursday Edition)

I haven’t written a movie review in quite some time, and as much as it pains me to do so, I’m letting you all know what I thought of The Vow.

Now I must let you know that I had very high expectations for this movie.  I anxiously awaited it’s release, positive that it was going to rock my socks off, or at least make me shed some tears.  I am sad to say – it didn’t do either. 

The premise of the movie was good, a couple (Paige & Leo) get in an accident, she is in a medical induced coma, wakes up and doesn’t know her husband, as her memory returns to pre-Leo (like 5 years).  We see some flashbacks and Leo talks about their first meeting, them dating and their wedding to get us up-to-date.    They are hipsters living in Chicago, he working as the owner of recording studio and she as an in-demand artist.

When she awakes, she remembers nothing from her life with Leo, and only remembers the life she was living, with her parents, her fiance and being in law school.  Leo tries to explain to her that her life then is much different than the life they were living, she being an artist (sculptor), having no relationship with her family and that she had long broke it off with her then fiance.    The distance from her family is revealed, and that is really when you see a change in Paige. 

Up until this point most of the movie is Leo trying to “woo” his non-interested wife into loving him again.  The entire time Paige is a bitch.  Although she “suffers” through a few dates with him, most of the time she is obviously not trying when it comes to re-connecting with her husband.  She moves in with her parents, she even tries to connect with her previous fiance.  You spend so much time rooting for Leo, and hating Paige, but as the story unfolds, you start to feel sorry for her too.

I never really connected with them as a couple, which is probably why I didn’t get emotionally involved.   It’s very rare that I do not shed a tear – hey I even cried during the preview for Titanic 3D before the movie – and I know how that story ends.  I guess I was just hoping for more.

I can only give the movie an OK rating.  It was good, but not even near Loved It status.  I should have listened to GTuck and let this one be a rental.  

If you seen it, let me know what you thought?   

Review Wednesday - Haywire

We began the night at Mongolian BBQ.  For those of you who are not familiar with Mongo, you basically get to create your own "feast" from a variety of meats and seafood, fresh veggies & flavor-packed sauces, freshly cooked before your eyes (Mongolian-style) on a large, flat grill!  It's totally on the top of my favorite restaurant list. 

It's also become a slight obsession to create the largest bowl possible - without losing any of my "fixings" before I can get it to the grill. 

Mongo would prefer to start your bowl with your meat choice, then add your veggies - this would be because you really can't pack a whole lot of veggies on top of a pile of meat - so you won't use as much meat.  Well for YEARS this is how I would create my masterpiece.  I was happy.

Then, one fine day, I happened to notice a bunch of guys waiting for their bowls to be placed on the grill.  And these were not just your normal size/type of bowls - these geniuses had the biggest bowls I had ever seen.  How you ask?  Because they figured out that you could pack a TON of fresh veggies in a bowl, then secure them in with a TON of meat that acts like a glue to keep everything in place!!! 

Well since that day, I have been a "backwards bowler".  That's right.  I try to cram as much as I can, to the point where I feel I border ridiculousness.  However, I am not wasteful.  I plan for a "take-home" container to get an extra lunch or dinner out of it.  And for $12.99 for one bowl at dinner - I really don't think I am ripping them off.  How do you think I did?  Now keep in mind - this is AFTER the grilling process.  I am way too embarrassed to show you the crazy-tall uncooked bowl - I'll save that one for another time.

Being the "good dieter" that I am, I chose to use lettuce wraps versus their incredibly awesome tortillas.  Also - they offer brown or white rice - which I skipped too.  I might have overdone it with the garlic and cayenne pepper - because it was pretty firey - but it was delish!

Now on to the movie.  The movie of the week was Haywire.  This was not my particular pick - but after a quick view of the trailer - I discovered that Channing Tatum was in it - so I figured why not? - at least there will be some eye candy....

In case you have no idea what Haywire is about:

According to IMDb -

Beautiful freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can't authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

Movie begins at the ending (presumably) of the story, then begins piecing the past together scene by scene.  It is FULL of crazy fighting scenes.  Yes, Miss Mallory Kane can kick some serious ass!  The fights are totally choreographed - sometimes to the point it looked super fake to me.  The score of the movie played a heavy role - it was almost a character in my opinion.  It was kinda like a jazzy Pink Panther-like song was playing during a lot of the scenes.  I think some of  The Posse liked it, while Chrissy and I found it quite distracting.

The Posse

On to my rating - I would say Haywire was OK (Good).  It didn't blow me away.  I did cringe a few times (during the fight scenes) and there were some surprise moments that made me jump in my seat.  It wasn't over-the-top gruesome or anything - although it could have been with all the crazy fighting scenes.  I definitely think that for the $7.50 I paid, I was entertained.

Before I wrap this up, I just wanted to note that I am BEYOND excited that The Hunger Games will be released in about 2 more months!! 

Movie Poster at AMC Livonia.

Something else I discovered - did you all realize that Troy Bolton Zac Efron is all grown up?!?!?!?  Holy Cow!  His High School Musical days are far behind him!   He will be the lead hottie in the upcoming movie The Lucky One. 

 

Oh, did I mention it just happens to be another movie taken from a Nicholas Sparks book?  So you know it's gonna be a great love story.  I for one, can not wait!

And let me just say, during the trailer for that movie, most of the ladies felt like they were the "Lucky Ones".  This trailer played before the viewing of Joyful Noise, which I just happened to take my 10-year old daughter to see.  Talk about awkward.  At one point we see him in his underpants and then we see her hand go - well you can see for yourself!  My eyes bugged out and shot to my daughter to see her reaction.  Luckily she was much more interested in her bag of popcorn, frozen Coke and box of Whoppers to even pay attention.  Phew!  Bullet dodged this  time. 

Is it me being the overly protective momma that I am, or are movie trailers getting more and more risque?