And another opinion piece about the stuff I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks.

Film

Stoker

Interesting psychological thriller. The first act is a bit slow but then it grows into a dark tale with a very distinct visual appearence.

Identity Thief

Pretty bland mainstream Hollywood “comedy” (that’s actually a minsnomer, if not even an insult to every other real comedy out there); do not waste your time on it.

Iron Man 3

Another sequel that looks like it was more driven to be made by the producers and accounting clerks than by the need to tell a good story. Sir Ben Kingsley is great (in both roles *cough*), Rebecca Hall’s arc is superfluous, RDJ shows again that he’s got the role down — but despite this: Story’s all over the place, a lot of WTF?! scenes (not in a good way) and a laughable showdown.

Lovelace

Looks and feels like a made-(very cheaply)-for-TV biopic. Yes, you can gaze at Amanda Seyfried (who I felt was miscast for this role, she was better in Chloe, but everything else is generic, below average drama without any impact on the viewer.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

First off, I’m a Trekker, not as hardcore as I used to be, but still. Second, I really like well made popcorn-action movies. Third, other than the TV shows, the ‘Star Trek’ films were almost never anything to write home about. That all being said, it boils down to this: I didn’t like the previous instance of J. J. Abrams’s version much, it didn’t have much relation to the show I grew up admiring; it was just a more or less acceptable time waster, nothing memorable.
And this one is more of the same, just worse. By now I have the opinion that Star Trek doesn’t fit well on the big screen — a snooze fest like The Motion Picture or explosions-before-logic like Into Darkness being the worst variants one can expect.

Kick-Ass 2

The first one was a welcome and entertaining alternative to the recent surge in superhero movies, this second part feels unnecessary.

Hell Baby

Saw the trailer, liked it. Saw the film, didn’t like it. It had a couple of cheap laughs, but that’s all. (And man, what was the budget on this thing, $10?!)

Hello I Must Be Going

I honestly can’t explain to me what draws me to these kind of US-american indie films time and time again, especially since they very seldom pay off emotionally. Like in this case: The premise sounded interesting, but the result wasn’t.

R.I.P.D.

*Yuck!* I like the actors, but this one was so much crap (and that’s not even taking into account the horrible visual effects). Skip it — better yet: Kill it with fire!

11:14 (Elevenfourteen)

Rewatched the DVD, it’s still an interesting little flick.