Let Them Fight!: Our Review of "Godzilla" (2014)

Director: Gareth Edwards (Monsters) 

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of destruction, mayhew and creature violence

Run Time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Synopsis: In 1999, a Japanese nuclear power plant run by Joe Brody (Cranston) is destroyed by an unseen force of nature, killing his wife in the process. 15 years later, Brody's son Ford (Taylor-Johnson) returns from his deployment in the Navy to his wife (Olsen) and son in San Francisco only to be called to Japan when his father is arrested in Japan for investigating the meltdown. The pair discover scientists led by Dr. Serizawa (Watanabe) covering up a giant monster that breaks free and heads across the Pacific, waking up another long-dormant monster called Godzilla in the process. Giant monster battles ensue!

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Last night Sarah and I were able to catch an early showing of this weekend's new blockbuster release, Godzilla. It's just the 2nd directorial effort of Gareth Edwards, a director that I for one am very excited to watch from this point forward, and it stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Elizabeth Olsen (Oldboy) and Ken Watanabe (Inception). Oh, and it's stars a giant freaking monster or two (or three).

Sarah, this was our #5 most anticipated movie of the year. Did it live up to our levels of anticipation?

Sarah: Ok, first of all I want to say that when the trailer for this movie came out, I thought it was just going to be another giant-lizard-destroys-city movie. Then the international trailer came out and we got our first look at a couple of other giant creatures. Then things got interesting because I realized it was a kaiju movie. So now let me say...I LOVED this movie!!! It was everything I hoped for and more. It was epic and beautifully realized. 

But I have to say, while I loved all the action and adventure, I really didn't care for the actual actors in this movie. What did you think?

Affleck Proves He's One of Today's Best Directors With a Great Political Thriller: Our Review of "Argo" (2012)

Directed By: Ben Affleck (The Town) 

Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman

Rating: R for language and some violent images

Run Time: 2 hours

Synopsis: On November 4, 1979, Iranian revolutionaries took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 hostages – but 6 American diplomats were able to escape and took refuge with a Canadian ambassador. As tensions reached a tipping point, C.I.A. “exfiltrator” Tony Mendez (Affleck) hatches a plan, with the help of Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers (Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Arkin), to fly in to Tehran, pose with the “Houseguests” as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a sci-fi film called “Argo,” and fly out together.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Yesterday Sarah and I caught a morning showing of Ben Affleck’s new drama, Argo, which is based on the true story of CIA “exfiltration” expert Tony Mendez’s mission to get six American embassy workers out of Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage situation.

Argo is Affleck’s third directorial effort and his second in a row where he’s pulling double-duty behind and in front of the camera. It’s a film we’ve talked about at length now, Sarah, what with our appearance on the As Your Watch podcast where we talked about it and we previewed it a bit on Thursday, too.

It’s one that we’ve been hearing a lot of good things about including plenty of Oscar buzz. So now that we’ve seen Argo, what did you think of it, Sarah?

Sarah: I was thoroughly impressed! I thought that the storyline was good, but how Affleck execute the plot was amazing. The movie is based on a true story of a classified CIA operation and the general public didn’t know about it until President Clinton declassified it in 1997. (Editor’s note: Until then all the praise had been given to the Canadian government because if Iran knew the U.S. had successfully gotten embassy workers out from under them, the hostages would be in trouble.)

So the strength of the movie was that even though we knew how the story would end, the execution of presenting the story and keeping it as intense as it was was incredibly. Another strength of the movie was the cast. I really enjoyed this movie and can see why Oscar buzz is already surrounding it.

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, October 12th)

Andrew: Hello readers! It's been a busy week for us here at Two Tickets For... both from a standpoint of trying to crank out more fresh content but also balancing that with out day jobs. It's also going to be a busy weekend what with FOUR brand-spanking new wide releases hitting theatres plus Sarah starts a new job this weekend. So while we may not be able to see all of the movies we'll talk about in this post by this weekend, don't fret - we'll try to find time somewhere.

Sarah, as I just mentioned we see the release of four new films in theatres that cover a fairly broad spectrum of genres. The most prominent film coming out this weekend is the latest directorial effort from Ben Affleck, Argo, but we also have a new horror movie in Sinister, a new family comedy in Here Comes The Boom starring Kevin James, and a wackier, R-rated action/comedy in Seven Psychopaths. 

(Let's take a second right now to mention that we were fortunate enough to be invited on the As You Watch podcast the other day and we talked about all four of these movies with Nick from The Cinematic Katzenjammer, Joe from Two Dude Review and Vern from Vern's Video Vangaurd. We posted about it the other day HERE and we wrote down the different time codes for the different segments of the podcast in case you'd just like to listen to the part where we discuss these films.)

So Sarah, let's talk about the big movie this weekend, Affleck's Argo, which has been garnering a LOT of Oscar buzz already. It's based on the true story of the 1979 Iran hostage situation in which supporters of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini stormed the American embassy in Tehran and took 52 hostages. Six embassy workers were able to escape and take refuge with a Canadian ambassador but were still in danger, so CIA "extractor" Tony Mendez (played by Affleck) concocts a scheme to fly to Tehran, have the six hideaways pose a Canadian film crew for a fake sci-fi film called “Argo” and get them out alive. Sounds heavy, and the trailer makes this look amazing. What are your impressions of Argo?

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, August 3rd)

Andrew: Hello readers! It’s time once again for our weekly preview, but this one promises to be a short one. There are only two wide releases this week – Len Wiseman’s remake of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall, and a third installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Sarah, let’s start with the bigger of the two, Total Recall. For those unfamiliar with the original film, the remake appears to be pretty similar.

It stars Colin Farrell as a workingman named Doug Quaid (previously played by AH-nuld). He’s unhappy with his blue-collar job and yearns for a more exciting life. Going against the advice of his co-workers he goes to a business called Rekall who offer to implant false memories in you for a recreational experience. From there all hell breaks loose as he can’t tell if he’s truly the spy it appears he is, or if it’s all just the memory given to him by Rekall. (Check out the trailer below.)

Official Trailer for Total Recall

Sarah, you’ve never seen the original so what are your thoughts on the premise of this film?

Ain't Nothin' But a Good Time!: Our Review of "Rock of Ages" (2012)

Directed By: Adam Shankman

Starring: Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, suggestive dancing, some heavy drinking and language

Synopsis: Set in 1987, Sherrie (Hough) is a bright-eyed young singer who leaves Oklahoma for the bright lights of Hollywood. When she arrives she meets Drew, a bartender at the popular nightclub The Bourbon Room, who's also an aspiring rocker. When the wife of LA's mayor (Zeta-Jones) makes it her mission to shut down The Bourbon Room, it comes down to a big show my the famous but temperamental rocker Stacee Jaxx (Cruise) to save the place. Instead he ends up turning everyone's lives upside down.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Sarah and I just got out of seeing this weekend’s new musical, the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Rock of Ages starring Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), Julianne Hough (Footloose) and many more famous actors with various ranges of singing prowess that we’ll touch on later.

Sarah, first things first, what are your immediate thoughts on Rock of Ages?

Sarah: It was AWESOME. I mean it was pure rock and roll. This is a Broadway musical that has been adapted to film, something that’s been done many times before and will be done many times in the future, but this movie ROCKED. I was really nervous about how good it would be, but it kicked ass.

A: I could not agree more with you. And I’ll say this: it’s not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it is just a FUN movie. I can’t even articulate how much I enjoyed this film. I love 80s music to begin with, but every aspect of this film related to the 80s, I’d have to imagine they made it perfectly. This was obviously a passion project by those who made it because it LOOKED and SOUNDED perfect. I had a smile on my face, literally, from beginning to end.

S: Yeah, it was awesome. Now let’s get into how the actors fared. I was a little concerned that this had such a huge cast with so many big names.

A: But they fared well, right? So let’s pick out a couple of the songs and actors and talk about the best, and then the worst if there were any.

First and foremost, the best performance, hands down, was Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx.

S: Oh, he hit this one out of the park.

A: I can’t even pick which song I think he did best. I think if I had to choose I would say it was his rendition of “Wanted Dead or Alive.”

Tom Cruise gives 110% in his performance as the rock star Stacee Jaxx, and he alone makes this movie worth seeing

S: Yes! What was crazy for me was that when he sang that song, as a woman, I felt what it would be like to have been around when rockers were considered gods by women. When women would just throw their bras and underwear on stage at these guys, cuz they were SEX ICONS. He OOZED sex in this film!

A: And he slinked around so perfectly and he just embodied a man who’s seen a million faces and rocked them all. I think it helpful that he actually went through all that crap he went through when he had his downfall, and now he’s resurrected his career because you could see that experience in his performance.

S: What’s crazy is it was like watching Steven Tyler, Brett Michaels or Axl Rose, just these guys that were considered icons of their age. And yeah, I would have to say that not only was Tom Cruise perfect in this role, but he can make no wrong decisions in his career right now. I don’t know who is managing him but he cannot make a wrong decision.

A: Ever since his cameo in Tropic Thunder…

S: He’s been on fire! Untouchable. Ok, so the other songs…

A: There were so many good songs. And it’s tough to pick only a few out, cuz off the top of my head they did “Jukebox Hero”, “Sister Christian”, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”…

S: “Paradise City”, “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “I Want to Know What Love Is”… but let’s be honest, the “We Built This City” and “We’re Not Going to Take It” mash-up was the pinnacle of the movie. Everything had built up to this part.

A: I think it was a good part, but everything actually built up to the final song. I don’t even want to say what it is so as not to spoil it, I thought it was so perfect.

S: I was surprised! Were you surprised by the song choice for the finale?

A: A little bit but I’m glad they did because it’s one of our all-time favorite songs.

S: It’s one of the most ICONIC songs in all of music history.

A: Exactly, and that’s why I think it’s perfect. I like that they ended it the way they did. But let’s go back to the actors - Julianne Hough did a great job…

S: Diego Boneta, which was a breakout role for him, did really well.

A: His look kind of bothered me a bit, like he looks really too fresh faced for me. But any scene that he was singing in and really rocking out he was perfect. Russell Brand’s (Get Him to the Greek) not bad, not great but not bad; Malin Akerman (The Proposal) was pretty good in the song she did with Cruise.

Sherrie (Hough) and Drew (Boneta) meet cute as soon as she arrives in LA via Oklahoma. Both actors do great job singing the classic songs they're given in Rock of Ages

S: Mary J. Blige was great obviously, but she didn’t have much to do.

A: And they did do a really cool rendition of “Any Way You Want It” by Journey. Just in general, this film is exactly what I thought it should be. It was a straight-up musical and it made me smile from start to finish. But I also enjoyed it because, and I’ve said this many times before to my friends, I think it would be awesome if people actually did just burst into song in real life situations.

S: Oh I tweeted as soon as we left that I wish life was a musical.

A: Because that’s what they did well with this one, they didn’t just stage songs but they told the story through the songs. That was the strength of the film. Like if we were going to grade this on a normal scale, it’s not a 5 out of 5, it’s not perfect. It’s a little long…

S: But it is a musical. There were definite acts, there was an intermission type feel to it with a first act and a second act. It was adapted well from the stage to the screen and I think the music had a lot to do with that. There were times where it got really slow, but again that’s a show. That’s a Broadway show for you. I would have to say that they’ve gotten a lot better transitioning theatre shows to the screen. They’re not cutting things out, they’re not making it tighter, and they’re staying true to the story.

A: I was okay with the two hour run time because I feel like that’s what the actual show is. And you have to get all the songs in there.

S: And they did have to end up cutting some songs out!

A: The director, Adam Shankman, who directed Hairspray a few years back, did a great job and I think this is actually better.

S: Oh gosh yes.

A: But a lot like Hairspray, everyone gave it 110% - the hair, the sets, the costumes…

S: Everyone just had fun! We hope it does well this weekend because it was awesome. I would have to say that if you’re a fan of the musical genre, if you’re a fan of the 80s, this is definitely one you have to see in theatres. And not because it’s any better in theatres than it would be on your TV, but just the sheer spectacle of it. You gotta rock out to it. I wish it had been louder.

A: And again, I can’t stress this enough, see this because of Tom Cruise. Yeah he’s crazy, but you can’t deny that the man gives it his all. From being on the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol to just giving it his all as a rock star in this.

What’s our final grade for Rock of Ages?

S: It’s not a five out of five, but we’re buying this. We’ll own it. And I think it’s one of the few that we’ve given that level to!

(Out of Five Clapboards)

Photo Courtesies: Geek Tyrant, Art and Seek, USA Today

When the Zoo Animals Met the Circus Animals: Our Review of "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" (2012)

Directed By: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon

Starring: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Frances McDormand, Martin Short, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston

Synopsis: The gang’s all back – Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Gloria the Hippo (Smith) and Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer) – and they’re headed to Monte Carlo to find the Penguins and go back to New York City. After scaring a casino full of humans, Animal Control Captain DuBois (McDormand) makes it her quest to capture Alex so she can mount his head on her wall. The gang joins a European circus in an attempt to evade DuBois and get home, becoming friends with Gia the Jaguar (Chastain), Vitaly the Tiger (Cranston) and Stefano the Sea Lion (Short).

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! This afternoon Sarah and I made our usual excursion to the movie theatre down the street and caught a matinee showing of Madagascar 3: Europe’s MostWanted.

Sarah, we previewed this film on Thursday along with Prometheus, and we were both excited to see it, you probably a little more so because you have a special love for one of the Madagascar films, correct?

Sarah: Yes, the first one is 100% my favorite of the series. I screened it for my younger sister before she could watch it back when it first came out, and I remember sitting in my basement all by myself laughing my head off. So it will always be my favorite.

But I have to say, this new entry in the series is pretty darn funny and the 3D is amazing!

A: I would say I like the first two movies, but of the three I think I like this one the most. I found myself laughing more during this one for a variety of reasons, but I think the addition of Martin Short as the Italian circus sea lion, Stefano, is one of the biggest reasons. He was pretty hysterical – and not just in making me laugh, but literally his character is hysterical a number of times. The penguins, per usual, were also great. I love me the penguins especially Skipper.

The gang's all back! Gloria the Hippo, Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra and Melman the Giraffe are trying to get back to NYC in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

And yes, the 3D was absolutely fantastic. Along with Prometheus, the strength of both movies this weekend has been that they’ve been incredible examples of what GOOD 3D can do for a movie.

S: Agreed. You know, what I think makes these movies so funny is that you not only have your slapstick humor for the kids, but you also have adult humor for the parents

A: Let’s be honest, it’s funny but it’s a silly funny.

S: Yes. The penguins, yet again, were humorous and are really the cherry on top of this movie. Their quick little remarks you have to pay attention to because otherwise you’ll miss the humor in them are really some of my favorite parts. I think the ensemble cast, especially with the addition of Martin Short, Jessica Chastain and Bryan Cranston really were good additions for people whom you don’t normally see as voice actors. They did a good job.

A: It’s not like these are intellectually humorous, you don’t have to think about it much. It’s a lot of slapstick, a lot of physical humor, which is fine. It makes us laugh, which is par for the course. But I think what a good animated film has to do is have heart and all three Madagascar films have really had their own heart.

Vitaly the Tiger (Cranston), Gia the Jaguar (Chastain) and Stefano the Sea Lion (Short) are the stars of the circus the gang joins to get back to America.

This was a good one because it shows that the characters wanted to go home to NYC, but maybe home wasn’t exactly what they thought it was now that they’ve seen the rest of the world. Plus they have other people that they care about or care about them, these circus animals that they become a part of, so it’s harder to just go back to the Central Park Zoo.

S: Yeah, in the second one they kind of go back to their roots, get to see where they come from, but it’s still not quite them because they’re used to performing in front of people. And the circus in this one allows them to do that again.

Overall, Madagascar 3 Is funny and I really did enjoy it. Seriously, the 3D is amazing. If you’re going to see this in theatres, see it in 3D because there’s a circus scene that just blew my mind. It was like a Cirque de Soleil on the screen. It was really cool.

A: This movie is a visual feast. It’s really worth the extra dollars to see it in 3D. I’m sure it’s fine in 2D and is just as funny, but it won’t LOOK as stunning. Ok, real quick, I was also a fan of the little English dogs that turn out to be like English gangsters. They were funny. But I was not a big fan of Frances McDormand’s character, Captain Chantel DuBois. It’s not her fault, I thought she did fine voice acting but…

S: She didn’t add a ton to the story.

A: Exactly. Obviously she was the conflict that the film needed, but it wasn’t much. She made me laugh a few times, or the people that encountered her made me laugh I should say.

The Penguins are back, led by Skipper (front), and are Andrew's favorite part of the film (again). They'll also track you down if you don't see this film in 3D.

I also liked the music, I was a big fan of the French music they use, including one song by Edith Piaf that DuBois actually sings. I recognized it as the song the characters in Christopher Nolan’s Inception use as the kick to wake them up from the dreams, and using Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” was kind of random but I love Journey so I was okay with it.

S: Yeah, I loved Katy Perry’s “Firework” for the circus scene. The music was fun and kept the movie upbeat.

Madagascar 3 is definitely one to take the kids to see, or maybe for a light date. Whereas Prometheus was the dark, adult movie to come out this weekend, this one is just pure fun and I definitely think they’ve hit the nail on the head yet again.

A: Will we own this one? We don’t own any of the others.

S: We don’t, but it will definitely be one that family members will own it and we’ll watch it.

A: And of course, as we said earlier, definitely see it on the big screen and see it in 3D! As always, thanks for reading!

(Out of Five Clapboards)

Photo Courtesies: Movie Carpet, Time, About.com, New Raleigh