A Movie That Stings

It's rare that I get a Friday off from work. A lot of times, it isn't really that big a deal. I mean, I don't have anyone that I regularly hang out with outside of work hours, and there's never anything going on in this neck of the woods. But today was a little bit different. Today I was off from work and actually had something to do: go see The Green Hornet.

I didn't expect a lot from it, since I'm incredibly unfamiliar with the property. I've never heard the Green Hornet radio show, never seen the TV show or film serials, never read the comics. But I dig Seth Rogan, so I had to see the movie. And the verdict is that I liked it a lot. It isn't a perfect movie, and the whole 3D thing is just there to drum up an extra $2.50 a ticket, but I thought the movie turned out really well.

The movie is pretty funny a lot of the time, and the action sequences are very well done. Seriously, the scenes where Jay Chou fights groups of thugs remind me a lot of the slow-motion fights from Jet Li's The One. And considering that I love The One, I'm calling that a compliment. They're really, really cool, no doubt about it.

The only bad thing about the movie is that I just don't see the point of it being in 3D. There's no need for it, especially since the 3D doesn't add anything to the movie eat all. It doesn't add any substantial depth to the visuals, and it doesn't make anything beyond some of the fight scenes look any cooler. The Green Hornet could have worked just as well in 2D, to be truthful.

But regardless, I still thought the movie was pretty good. I don't know if it will hold up as well after multiple viewings, but right now, I'm calling it something worth seeing. So The Green Hornet gets three and a half stars and a thumbs-up. I just hope, though, that Green Hornet 2 will just stick with 2D. There's nothing wrong with 2D movies.

Rocking In The New Year

I said in my previous post that 2011 was treating me pretty well thus far. The reason why that is: I got to see my first Rocky Horror screening of the year last night. And I don't know how, but I even roped my dad into going with me.

I was fully expecting to have fun just based on seeing how my dad would react. But the "shadowcast" made the entire show totally worth the money. It turns out that the majority of the cast were either gone for the holidays or still drunk from their New Year's parties, so only three of them showed up (one of whom was late and didn't have his costume). They even pulled somebody out of the crowd to perform with them. So four people playing multiple characters with no props made for a screening that was way too much fun to watch. The only bad part was I had nothing to throw up in the air, but then most of the people who were there didn't either.

I'm sure I'm not doing it justice, but I guess it was one of those things where you just had to be there. It was a unique experience, to say the least. They're not all going to be that way, but I just wonder what they'll do at the next one.

The "Sutton At The Movies" Achievement Awards

Hey, everybody, welcome back to the MSX. I hope you're having a great 2011 so far. Me, I can't complain. But I'll get into the details of why I can't complain later. Right now, we're here to celebrate the MSX's annual tradition, the "Sutton at the Movies" Achievement Awards, where I run down the best and worst of the movies I saw this year. Keep in mind that I usually don't end up seeing "Oscar bait" or most critically-lauded movies, nor do I end up seeing every bad movie released during the year either. So if you're expecting to see stuff like Inception or The Last Airbender to dominate my best and worst lists, all I can say is "sorry."

• Best Movie: Toy Story 3
• Best Actor: Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man 2 and Due Date
• Best Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
• Best Supporting Actor: Nicolas Cage, Kick-Ass
• Best Supporting Actress: Chloe Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass
• Best Hero: Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man 2
• Best Villain: Jackie Earle Haley, A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Best Antihero: Jeff Bridges, True Grit
• Best On-Screen Team: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quentin "Rampage" Jackson, and Sharlto Copley, The A-Team
• Best Comedy: Due Date
• Best Animated Movie: Toy Story 3
• Best Action Movie: The Expendables
• Best Horror Movie: The Last Exorcism
• Best Science Fiction Movie: Daybreakers
• Best Movie Based on a Television Show: The A-Team
• Best Movie Based on a Comic Book: Kick-Ass
• Best Movie Based on a Video Game: Resident Evil: Afterlife
• Best Movie Based on a Fake Trailer: Machete
• Best Fight: Jet Li vs. Dolph Lundgren, The Expendables
• Best Sequel: Toy Story 3
• Best Remake: True Grit
• Best Franchise Revival: Tron: Legacy
• Best Use of 3D as a Gimmick: Piranha 3D and Jackass 3D
• Biggest Badass: Danny Trejo, Machete
• Most Bothersome Concept: The Human Centipede (First Sequence)
• Crappiest Ending: Remember Me using the 9/11 attacks for no reason other than cheap melodrama
• Most Curious Phenomenon: Jennifer Aniston still having an acting career despite making nothing but bad romantic comedies
• Worst Movie: Clash of the Titans

And that's it for the 2010 S@TM Achievement Awards. There were a few movies during 2010 that probably would have been represented here had I actually seen them (like Let Me In, for example). But I'll just have to wait until I see them on DVD, then I'll probably edit this post accordingly. Until then, we'll have to settle for this. And I'm okay with that for now. So with that out of the way, let's see what 2011 has in store for us, okay? Alright.