The Expendables – You know, I’ll never understand today’s movie rating system. Some people would think I must be a terrible person and an even more terrible Mom because I took one of my boys with me to see this Sylvestor Stallone movie which is rated R. Yes, the movie was violent, but it wasn’t gruesome. Yes, Bruce Willis said the F-word, but he said it so many times in a single minute of screen time that it became comical rather than offensive. What should have been gore was more video-game-like in intensity. So, in comparison to
Vampires Suck or
Dinner with Schmucks, which I reviewed last time,
The Expendables really wasn’t a bad movie at all. At least it didn’t have gratuitous sexual content, vulgar references or language interspersed throughout, and honestly, the story was great! Guy movie or not, I though this was a well-done, interesting, and exciting movie. I liked the way Stallone brought the entire story to a full resolution in a way that was satisfying to the viewer. The subtle humor helped me connect to the characters, and feel like I wanted to see yet another film with these same guys back again. Overall,
The Expendables reminded me of
The A-Team, another action movie from earlier in the summer which I also loved.
Nanny McPhee Returns – Although sometimes the situational humor tries a little too hard, I’ll admit I laughed pretty hard at most of this movie. I took my ten-year-old with me, despite his protests, but he liked it well enough that when we went back to the theater for another movie, he pooped over into Nanny McPhee to watch a few minutes of it before the new movie started. Emma Thompson is brilliant—as always! Oh, there were the typical kid jokes about poop, but the story has a great message. The lessons the children learn are not overplayed, and the ending is not as sad as one might think it would be. Overall, a very nice film, well worth the price of admission.
Vampires Suck – I admire Stephenie Meyer, and as a writer, of course I am jealous of her financial success, but sometimes that wicked little devil in my loves watching the entire
Twlight saga being made fun of, and this film does exactly that. For the most part, the movie was hysterically funny. The girl who played the Bella-like character had Kristen Stewart’s every move down pat. Despite his bad wig, Edward was much better looking than Robert Patterson, and my boys thought the kid who played Jacob was also better looking than Taylor Lautner. I used to think he was totally cute, until I saw him as
Sharkboy, but that’s another movie! The problem with
Vampires Suck is that despite a great and very funny premise, the director in charge let the film sink into teen stupidity, using explicit sex scenes and graphic, bloody violence to tell the story, instead of sticking with the highbrow, and much more satisfying humor, of the premise. When it comes to this one, watch the trailers and know you’ve seen enough. The rest wasn’t really worth seeing anyway.
That's it for my movie-filled summer, but you can bet I'll be back with more movie reviews in the weeks to come.
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