Deadpool (2016)

This is exactly the movie I, and many Deadpool fans, wanted. After the awful, awful depiction of him in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, (merc with a mouth without a mouth, thanks) it’s so refreshing to finally share this character properly with moviegoers.

The tone of this movie is perfect. Absolutely perfect. I loved every second of it. From the quick jokes to the serious moments, to the dumb but entertaining montages. Every fourth wall break in this movie felt like Deadpool, and none of them, surprisingly, felt forced.

There was maybe one joke in this movie that I feel fell flat, which is phenomenal for any comedy movie, especially one which is so niche. This is a very particular brand of comedy, I feel, but one I can’t describe. All I have to say is that it is hilarious and entertaining on all fronts.

I only hope they get a great budget for the sequel to allow them to do whatever they want. You could argue that one of the charms of this movie was how it took advantage of its limits, but I would trade that for them being able to do whatever storylines or jokes that they wanted.

Ryan Reynolds, you are a god.

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

Now please read this review free of judgement. Yes, I watched Pitch Perfect 2. Yes, I watched and enjoyed Pitch Perfect 1 when it was released. No, I’m not the target demographic, but that’s what the first movie did very well – appealed to a larger audience with clever humour.

The sequel does a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, I have no idea where to start. If you’re looking for my opinion on the movie in a short summary, here it is: it’s a good addition to the first movie, which is flawed but entertaining.

I’m going to try to start with positives, but I have a tendency to go on tangents and also a tendency to not edit my work. Sorry.

Firstly, this movie does a good job at not falling into the trap that many comedy sequels do: Making the same jokes. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at the small amount of callbacks to the first movie.

The chemistry of the cast is still solid and feels real. The jokes are clever and still have subtlety, and the comedic timing has not lost its charm.

The final performance is good and luckily not as underwhelming as I was expecting.

Anna Kendrick is still very attractive. I would say more so than the first movie. I know it’s not really something you should judge the movie on, but her attractiveness did make the movie more enjoyable for me.

The commentators are still great, and I’m pretty sure every scene they were in I at least chuckled at. David Cross has a good character, and Key from Key & Peele plays one of my favourite characters in this movie.

On the negative side, the following are all small things that only slightly detracted from the movie.

Most of the songs/mash-ups have sections which sound quite awkward or sound like they have too much going on. None of them really have the catchy effect that the first movie did so well.

I don’t like comparing movies to their sequels, but I have to point out that the editing in this movie took a downgrade. Not that it is bad in this movie. It’s actually slightly above average. But in the first movie, the editing was stellar. I don’t have Internet to look it up right now, but I want to guess that it’s a different director than the first movie.

While Rebel Wilson is great and has a great character, she almost had too many joke lines in this movie. Almost. If the movie was 10 minutes longer, I probably would have disliked her character a little.

There are many forgettable characters who are there but are not explored. Which is good and bad, but it just seems like they’re without personality.

The minority girl (I call her that because she calls herself a minority in the movie, I don’t know her name, and I am terrible with races) seems to have the same sort of shtick as the Asian girl (again don’t know her name) in the first movie, saying disturbing things about her past to no reactions. Seems strange to add her in since the Asian girl is still in the movie.

Also, this movie had a bit too much going on at once. It could have cut down on some of it and been a bit better. A conflict in the middle was brought up and then resolved immediately for almost no reason at all.

I could keep listing small positives and negatives, but I feel like this is the longest review I’ve written thus far and that doesn’t feel right. If someone wants me to talk more about it, they can ask me directly.

Overall, however, I enjoyed the movie and it did not fail as a sequel. In fact, I think it did its job quite well. Anna Kendrick is crazy attractive to me, so that adds points to the final score, and the humour in this movie is still solid. Hey, for a movie that’s not aimed at my demographic, I would say it did a pretty good job.

(Especially at casting Anna Kendrick, good job.)

Burnt (2015)

About halfway through this movie I was about to write the review because I predicted the movie was going to do exactly what I thought it was going to do and end up being nothing more than an okay film. And it kind of did, but while the events were as I suspected, the execution brought it from an ‘okay’ movie to a good movie.

This movie was filed under comedy/drama and while I understand how it is a drama, I don’t quite see how it’s a comedy. Luckily it doesn’t have any jokes that fall flat, but it doesn’t really seem to have any jokes in general. It basically has as many jokes as any decent drama would have. I think ‘comedy’ mis-categorises this film.

The writing and directing were both effective, but nothing more. Some sections of the film were particularly well-done, but it wasn’t kept consistent.

Bradley Cooper stood out. He is an actor who has consistently given good performances in his roles, and I have a lot of respect for him.

This movie kind of hits it’s best moments about 3/4 through the movie and the rest, while necessary, didn’t hit that quality again in my opinion.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend not watching this, but it is by no means perfect. This sounds like a negative review but I definitely enjoyed the entire movie. It was solid, and that’s it.

Absolutely Anything (2015)

Simon Pegg is rarely not-enjoyable. Monty Python are rarely not-enjoyable. Robin Williams is rarely not-enjoyable. This movie should be a masterpiece.

It’s pretty good.

This is a really good movie if you don’t really want to think much, similar to some other Simon Pegg movies like Run Fatboy Run. The premise is a huge Deus Ex Machina, but they handle it well.

Simon Pegg’s character is given the power to do absolutely anything. What he doesn’t know is that if he doesn’t use it for good, Earth will be destroyed. (That’s not a spoiler, that’s the premise of the movie.)

In a movie like this, cinematography and framing and intention aren’t really needed. It’s a goofy comedy and that’s all it claims to be. The CGI is pretty awful, but that didn’t really bother me because the whole movie feels very cartoonish anyway.

Simon Pegg is solid and funny as always. Robin Williams, playing a dog, is cute and funny. Monty Python do well but honestly, anyone could have played those aliens. I’m glad it was them because I like hearing their voices, but the characters were mostly to move the plot along anyway. The exception to that would be the funny counting scene towards the end. (Although the joke could have been done a little better.)

The movie has a strange climax in the middle which is resolved and then the movie continues, which is quite odd. I think the script of this movie was a little over the place, which could have been improved a little.

For the most part, however, most of the jokes landed pretty well and I enjoyed the entire movie without being bored once. Simon Pegg’s performance in the final scene is subtle and well-done in my opinion, which leaves a good final impression. I would say this is a good movie to watch if you like easygoing comedies.

People, Places, Things (2015)

It’s often exciting when you hear nothing about a movie that has an actor you love in it. Going into that kind of movie fresh is a feeling better than… well, better than not doing that.

As a big Flight Of The Conchords fan, the prospect of Jemaine Clement being in a movie is always all kinds of exciting. From What We Do In The Shadows to Men In Black 3, I always love his performances.

So on a flight to Singapore, my sister pointed this movie out to me and immediately both of us were keen to watch it.

Essentially, the movie is about an artist who is dealing with a breakup. At its core, it sounds bland and generic, and some of the events that transpire are admittedly just that: generic.

Execution, however, is everything to a movie. Transformers 2 is about robots fighting each other, Boyhood is about a kid growing up. Concept and events do not necessarily correlate with quality.

This movie is a good example of that. The quality of this movie comes from the chemistry between the actors, particularly Jemaine’s character and his two daughters. It is one of those movies that you look forward to their interactions because they feel so cute and real.

Every actor in this movie did their role well, and all the dialogue was well-written.

The movie was not laugh-out-loud funny with an exception of the punch-scene and I am quite tired of movies explaining the whole “This is not a pipe” phenomenon with the exact same dialogue. It’s not really the fault of the movie, but I swear I’ve seen about 6 different movies or TV Shows explain it in the exact same way.

That aside, this movie is quite heartwarming at times and is a great movie to watch if you want something light. This is the definition of a solid light movie.