Movie Reviews 2012 Part 1

With the introduction to 2012 I have liked what I’ve seen so far… Directing my attention to the movies I have seen (for this blog post) this year.

I’ve seen the following movies so far:

1. Tower Heist
2. The Descendants
3. Chronicle
4. A Few Best Men

Now the tricky bit is writing up a movie review for them… with a small twist. My objective is to keep these reviews at  8 lines maximum. Something interesting – bit to the point of what to expect / thoughts about it etc. I must say this would be challenging too – trying illustrate the main point of the story plus thoughts.

1. Tower Heist

Tower Heist is based upon people that work for Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) at the Luxury Central Park condominium. The twist about this film is that the Shaw has stolen the workers retirement money which sets in motion for Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) who teams up with Slide (Eddie Murphy) to plot a heist to reclaim what was taken. There are recruits from the hotel to assist Kovacs and Slide in the heist adventure. I would probably say the storyline isn’t bad, something new to kick start the movie season. One of the characters that stood out was Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe) – watch it to find out. I wasn’t bored throughout this movie and would probably watch it again – as this storyline didn’t drag out to be boring.

Rating for Tower Heist: 3/5 points (if you haven’t seen it at the movies, don’t worry, there is always the DVD release of it)

2. The Descendants

The Descendants is about Matt King (George Clooney) examining his life both past and present as his wife suffered a boat accident off Waikiki. Maybe this was the twist of this movie where King has adopt a business approach to work out the best way to handle his family’s land which has been handed down from generations. I must admit, when I walked into this movie I should have walked out after seeing people more age experience – haha dislike like saying year old. Expected something very different than this movie – I was literally bored out of my skin! Only liked a couple of things which I thought was funny: seeing Clooney running, Clooney slap on his daughter (misbehaving etc). I wouldn’t see this movie ever again… Only if I maybe get paid to watch it. It might suit others but not me. This movie should have had a demographic target audience rating on this.  This movie is like having a bad piece of tim tam if you don’t like them at all!

Movie Rating: 1/5 (the acting was great, this is not my type of movie to watch – expected something way different than what was shown on screen)

3. Chronicle

Chronicle is based upon three high school students who venture out and make a discovery… They acquired powers! So Andrew (Dane DeHaan), Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordan) to experience there powers and build a “bond friendship” over this. However, the saying is with great power comes great responsibility right? In this documentary like movie story experience, we see the spark of good vs. evil – getting back to basics hey? You’ll see how their lives spin out of control, obsession and nose bleeds? This was an interesting experience watching this movie – kinda felt like I was back watching District 9 movie in a way. I’m not sure if I would see this movie again though. It might be one of those things where you see it once and you may watch it again later down the track. It might be due to the fact that something might have been missing out of the movie? Who knows. If you have good mates, keep them, they are priceless possessions.

Movie Rating: 3/5 (Was good to watch with the good vs. evil… Not sure if its something I would watch again straight away after a week seeing it).

 

4. A Few Best Men

 

 

A Few Best Movie is a comedy based wedding  story about David Locking (Xavier Samual) who falls in love with Mia Ramme (Laura Brent) ends up proposing. The wedding takes place in Australia which sets up an adventure for David and his three best men. When things go wrong, it turns out to be funny! Always handy to have a video camera recording what happened the night before – my opinion it shows how awesome it was!  I thought this would be dry up story but however it was a fresh story – with no boring bits. Both Barbara (Olivia Newton-John) and Daphne (Rebel Wilson) Ramme played their parts well.  I won’t give away too much about this movie as its currently out at the moment but I would definitely say its a movie worth watching. It might be one of those movies where it surprises you in a good way!

 

Movie Rating: 3.5/5 (this movie was good – worth tossing up the idea to see it or not)

which ends up proposing to travels to Australia. David alongside with his three best men set out for the Australian adventure

 

and decide to travel to Australia for the wedding as Mia lives in Australia. So David travels with his three best men to Australia for a

 

 

 

 

Hope you all liked (hopefully) my movie reviews and ratings! One good way to test out what movies suit you is go out and watch a movie you don’t think you’ll actually watch yourself. I did that with the Descendants… Definitely not a good game of angry birds is it now? Sometimes doing something out of your comfort zone is a great thing… This would test yourself in different environments of movies in order to find out what works out well for you and what doesn’t work out well for you!

Have an awesome Thursday!

Australian Open 2012: Bit of Social Media plus Grunting Players – do they exist?

Hey all,

Probably a late post about the Australian Open 2012 for this year but hey, having capped internet for a bit its not nifty at all. I must say I enjoyed watching the Australian Open 2012 this year! I tuned into watching the Open from Day 1 right through to the men’s and women’s final matches – congrates to the winners! What was really great about the Open this year, well one great thing was the Australian Open utilizing Social Media.

The team responsible for the Social Media strategy did a fantastic job. The channels were via Facebook, Twitter and Fango. I never used Fango before but what I noticed a good strategy in relation towards using this service. It gave an opportunity for the fans of tennis to post a direct question for the commentators to ask the winner of each match. I have experienced the Social Media wrap about what sites are good to utilise and providing an insight towards what may be overused or not necessarily at all. In my opinion these Social Media channels utilised well – they didn’t over use them and each played a significant part in the overall experience of Australian Open.

 

 

Sooo, I have heard that they are going to outlaw future (if I read / heard this correctly) tennis players grunting in matches.  One of my favourite tennis players Maria Sharapova (see above) does what some call “grunting” but I call it a tennis war cry. In my opinion calling it a “tennis war cry” is awesome and sounds better than “grunting”. From playing tennis I know that when players grunt they disguise how the ball is hit – as it could be hit flat, with some top spin etc. Its a strategy for players to utilise to throw their opponents off side. However if their opponents are well trained and skilled they could predict how the ball is hit and try to block out the “tennis war cry” once the ball is struck on the tennis racquet.

I did hear about how some fans in the audience didn’t like the sound of tennis player’s “war cry”. For me, it doesn’t both me at all! My question is, why don’t you block out the noise? Replace that sound with a word perhaps? You could turn it into a game.

 

Tennis all up is one game I like to watch and play. I am determined to see it live hopefully in 2013 or 2014 at the Australian Open or the US open – depends where I am at the time. Definitely going to keep watching it as its exciting to watch, the matches are great and the players put on a good performance in matches to keep us entertained throughout the minutes or hours!

What annoys you?

Hey all,

Thought I write a blog opening up this topic about what annoys you? Could be what annoys you the most or what annoys you while on holidays etc. It could be endless…

For example:

1. When your talking to people and the impression they give via their facial expressions annoys you as you could question whether or not they are taking you seriously or not.
2. Sending a text or calling someone and they don’t pick up… after several attempts they do
3. Gives off the impression that they are really reaaaallllyyyy better than you
4. Don’t engage in a conversation
5. People treating your mates badly behind your back…
6. The baked cake doesn’t turn out as awesome

These are some examples what may annoy some people. This is not a rant piece but this could be a strategic thing that people can come up with to fight back or block out annoying traits that people have or cooking experiences.

What do you think? Do you know of any strategies that you utilise to block out annoying things and or people? Post them here and hopefully it would help others out!

Have a nice Monday!