Time travel is awesome, futuristic super soldiers, and dogs that can talk? This is the second episode of "Movie Night."
*theme song plays*
Hello, and welcome to "Movie Night", YouTube's only interactive weekly movie review show. Think of it as a book club but for the cinema!
Hello, I'm your host, Jonathan Paula. Our first review today is the movie "Back to the Future," part I. Released in the summer of 1985, "Back to the Future" went on to become the number-one movie that year, grossing over $380 million worldwide.
Now, for the five of you who haven't seen this movie yet, here's a quick plot synopsis: It stars Michael J. Fox as the lead character of Marty McFly, a teenager who is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, where he meets his parents in high school.
He inadvertently attracts the affection of his 17-year-old mother, causing his parents not to fall in love. He has to repair their relationship and find a way to get himself back to the future.
I mean, this movie is fantastic, absolute perfection across every phase of the film. You know you've got a great film on your hands when people are still referring to the characters by name over 20 years later.
Although, I suppose the two sequels, the theme park ride, animated series, and four Oscar nominations are pretty telling that you've got a great movie on your hands.
I mean, what's not to love about this film? Likeable and attestable characters, an awesome storyline, endlessly quotable dialogue, great music, impressive special effects, and a climax that, to this day, still impresses.
I mean, there's not much more I can really say about this film that hasn't already been said, so let's see what you guys had to say about "Back to the Future."
Jon: CharlieMunroe113 wrote... (reads CharlieMunroe113's comment)
Jon: WalkingOnWisdom wrote... (reads WalkingOnWisdom's comment)
Jon: 1RHero wrote... (reads 1RHero's comment)
Well, now that that's out of the way, let's go ahead and rate "Back to the Future." Let's bring in the newly designed Rate-o-Matic to my left here and see how "Back to the Future" did, based on your and my votes.
Not too surprisingly, this film gets a perfect "10", an amazing film, and there's really no question about it. This is the kind of film that you can watch over and over and over and OVER again and still be endlessly entertained.
And although never designed as a trilogy, the success of the original spawned two sequels, the second of which, part III, happens to be my favorite.
Now, I know I might get a little bit of flack for that opinion, but I happen to be a fan of the movie's in-jokes and of the Old West.
From the tight-knit and lovable cast of "Back to the Future", we go to a movie that has more characters in it than a Gosselin family reunion and enough explosions to even make Germany surrender. I'm talking about "GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra."
Released three months ago on August 5th, 2009, "GI Joe" is yet another big-budget entry in the ever-diminishing category of comic book character/children's toy movies.
To put it simply, this movie's about a crazy Scottish dude who almost blows up the world and about the super-secret soldiers based out of Egypt, known as the GI Joes, who try to stop him.
This movie is all over the place, with numerous stoppages in the action to take time to develop any number of the nearly 20 character origin stories. I mean, I don't give a damn why Snake Eyes doesn't talk, or that Breaker likes bubble gum!
The movie really suffered from these scenes that did not advance the plot in any way. I mean, yes, you could argue that it's all in the name of character development, but, I mean, who are we kidding?
No one's seeing "GI Joe" for characters or expertly written dialogue! We're watching for explosions and great action sequences. Luckily for "GI Joe", it came through in spades here.
I felt that the second-act chase sequence through the streets of Paris, with the GI Joes donning their supersuits, running around like park whore guys on crack, was very well-done, incredibly entertaining...
...And it was edited in such a way that was fast, upbeat, and kept me interested, but not so much that I didn't understand what was going on. Enough about what I think. Let's see what you guys thought about "GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra."
Jon: TigerKing2 wrote... (reads TigerKing2's comment)
Jon: CrazyNoahLoks13 wrote... (reads CrazyNoahLoks13's comment)
Jon: Hararaldur wrote... (reads Hararaldur's comment)
Well, that's what you guys thought. Let's take a look at the Rate-o-Matic. Okay, let's give "GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra" a rating.
A "5"! I think it was an "alright" movie. I mean, nothing special here, but it was certainly entertaining enough to keep me occupied for 118 minutes. Too many characters and poor acting really hurt this film.
But I did feel that the action sequences and the special effects made up for it a bit. So, I give it a 5/10.
Our next movie tonight is Disney-Pixar's "Up." Brand-new to DVD this week, it was originally released on May 29th of this year. It went on to gross over $650 million worldwide, making it Pixar's second-most successful film, behind "Finding Nemo."
The heartwarming, computer-generated family film is about an old man, Carl Fredericksen, voiced by Ed Asner, who heeds the dying wish of his late wife to travel to South America in a floating house suspended by thousands of helium balloons.
Along the journey, he teams up with an over-eager wilderness explorer scout named Russell, who is just trying to get his "Helping the Elderly" merit badge.
They run into some strange and curious creatures along the way and, of course, a villain or two. Really, though, this movie isn't about any of that. The real focus of this movie is the emotional development of the two main characters, Carl and Russell.
In the opening minutes of the film, we're presented with a very moving, almost tearjerking montage of Carl's life with his wife, Ellie, from when they first meet to their wedding to her eventual passing.
This is, undeniably, the strongest part of the entire film, and sadly, the movie does tend to go down from here. It was the middle of this film that I wasn't particularly crazy about.
After the sobering and touching opening 20 minutes, the film starts to get a bit silly, introducing talking animals, crazy landscapes, and villains who just seem misplaced and overambitious.
And I felt the label of "family comedy" was very poorly chosen, as this movie dealt with some very serious non-family issues, like infertility and abandonment.
And in terms of "comedy", besides the talking dogs, this movie wasn't really that funny. Now, granted, had you just gone ahead and labeled it what it is, a computer-generated drama...
...I would have had a much better time accepting this movie for what it was, which was very good.
That's what I thought about "Up." Let's see what you had to say.
Jon: 13Dragon000 wrote... (reads 13Dragon000's comment)
Jon: TJechi wrote... (reads TJechi's comment)
Jon: Bobaheej wrote... (reads Bobaheej's comment)
Well, that's what you thought about "Up." Let's see what the Rate-o-Matic says. I'm going to go ahead and rate "Up", based on what you and I thought about it.
An "8"! And despite its inconsistent tone and some goofy characters, I felt the development between Carl and Russell really saved this movie and made it very worthwhile. I give it a "great."
That about does it for this week's show, but let's take a look at the two movies that we're going to watch for next episode.
Both movies are brand-new on DVD this week, so I hope you get a chance to check them out for next week's episode. Once again, my name is Jonathan Paula. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next time on "Movie Night."
*end credits play*
Marty: Hey, Doc, we've gotta back up. We don't have enough road to get up to 88!
Doc: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!