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Reviews
New Year's Eve (2011)
Just don't watch it.
I'm going to be honest. I liked Valentine's Day. Sure, it was as predictable as the UK Christmas No. 1, but it was cute and cheesy and sweet and your typical fluffy Valentine's Day movie. But first of all. What is a New Year's Eve movie? Seriously, who came up with the idea of a movie about New Year's Eve? New Year's Eve is pretty much a night where teenagers and young adults go to parties and make out, families go to awkward parties at Aunt Pamela's, there's a big countdown, but it's not that big a deal. New Year's Eve is a celebration of the upcoming year, and apart from a speech by Hilary Swank's character, they don't even touch on that. So the story is about ten or fifteen people who are somehow linked together. We don't know how or why, and by half way, I just wanted it to end. They all play the most ridiculous, under-developed, bland characters, who lead into a story but then stop to make room for another half-hearted character. The actors- most of them past their sell-by date, like Kutcher, Biel, Heigl- just prove why they're in this attention-seeking, made purely for money movie instead of something with depth. To be honest, I'm disappointed in Abigail Breslin and Jake T. Austin, who actually show promise. They're also incredibly annoying, especially Sarah Jessica Parker's character. I don't even know her name, do they even mention it? And Heigl's character manages another scene stuffing her face, you just want to punch Bon Jovi for being so annoying, and Sofia Vegara, who is hilarious in Modern Family, seems to be the only hum-our there, and even those jokes are straight out of her Modern Family character, Gloria. It's an hour and a half of awkward kisses, guys getting off with fifty year old women, stories being abandoned half way and celebrities who have, now, hit rock bottom. This probably was the worst movie I have ever watched.
Defiance (2008)
Beautiful movie, one of the best Holocaust ones out there
Defiance really defeats the stereotype of the weak, intellectual Jews not putting up a fight in Europe during the Holocaust. The brothers come from a humble background, and yet they're responsible for over 1,000 people's lives, they become leaders, and, well, defy the Nazis. Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell and Mia Wasikowska really portray their characters in this movie, and it can't be easy acting out characters in a situation as complex as that. Especially Wasikowska; I don't think she and Bell get enough recognition for this movie. The scenery and the music is beautiful, and so are the speeches and phrases said throughout the movie. And it gets extra stars for the fact that this is a story about real people, not some Hollywood idea. Sure, they glamorized it quite a bit, but at the end of the movie you really feel a sense of humanity and happiness towards the characters.
Lemonade Mouth (2011)
Disney Has Got it Again!
I was always a true Disney kid- I grew up with Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven, Kim Possible, etc. But it all went down-hill when Disney Channel brought in Hannah, WIzards, HSM, Camp Rock- and the rest of the corny, cheesy, to sweet and somehow everyone can sing buzz that children lap up. Lemonade Mouth is- if you pardon the pun- a sip of icy lemonade on a hot day. It's got a good moral, the music is more rock'n'roll and indie then the kiddie pop they normally generate, the actors are amazing and there are some good twists. Mendler and Hicks have incredible on-screen chemistry; flirty, innocent and cute without being all annoying. The up-and-rising Disney stars show how unlike others, they can act and sing in this romantic comedy more aimed at teenagers then eight-years. Think a sweeter, organic Glee.
Abduction (2011)
It's like a bad action movie
It starts off like this; Nathan (Launter) riding the bonnet of his friend's car to a house party, obviously appearing very popular and OBVIOUSLY very fit, yet he still gets tongue-tied around his crush Karen (Collins). His two best friends and him are always together like they're the SITC girls; very cliché, but hey, it's a teenage thriller, good for it's genre. Then it goes down. They get partners for sociology, and surprise surprise Nathan gets Karen as a partner. She goes to his house and they start researching their topic, which is missing children, or children, or missing people; we have no idea and apparently this isn't crucial enough to add in a little line from one of them. They stumble across a website for little children that have gone missing and they find a child just like him, in a tee- shirt that he has, identical with the same stains. (Which leads to questions, why does cool guy Nathan still have a tee- shirt from when he was seven?) So then Nathan and Karen start going 'wow it's you' yada yada yada. He acts really moody around his parents without asking them, and when he does, his mum goes 'I'll go get your dad and we'll explain together'... And then she opens the door to these spies who are CIA agents or something, ohmygod we had no idea, at the end of the day all the spies looked the same. The mum, who also ends up being a spy, starts knocks out the trained assassins and it ends the house blowing up and he and Karen run away. That's basically the synopsis of the movie. Karen (for some reason decides to get involved) and Nathan run away from everyone, the good guys, the bad guys. It's awkward because- and I'm not blaming Lily Collins, but the lousy stylists and scripts- Karen tries so hard to act like the cool, popular and witty popular girl, Nathan's side-kick, but she just comes out as being the damsel he has to save, with the silly eyebrows and the pathetic everything. The online chemistry is terrible, it's so cringey for the whole audience, especially in the make-out scene. At first it's quite good, when they're kissing, but when it gets all weird and Nathan hitches her up on his hips and it's so forced. Nathan's character is so wooden, he never smiles and we don't know anything about his personality apart from he's good at boxing. Lautner really can't act- sorry. It is literally a movie full of car-chases, Lautner's abs, confusing tech hacking and good guys that are bad and bad guys that are good. It tries to keep us in suspense throughout the whole movie but it really doesn't work. There are too many loopholes- it's like a bad action manga comic. (For example, they have a pool, a motorbike, two Ferrari's, two Macs for Nathan- yet not a dishwasher? Seriously.) Should be four stars, but an extra two for, well I'm feeling bad for Lautner. First Twilight, now this. Should have stuck to the modeling, mate.