Category: Movies

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Follow Friday Fun Movies

Follow Friday – Kevin Carr

As I look back on 2020 (official lookback post coming soon), one of the things I miss is being able to go to movie theaters. My family and I were able to catch Onward right before theaters shut down in March so we did get the theater experience in 2020 but for anyone who knows me, they know I LOVE going to movies. Being an introvert, there would be times when I was single where on a Friday night I would go to the theater and buy 2 or 3 tickets and just go to back-to-back movies. I love watching movies.

Back when I got my first iPod (do you even remember those?) and first started listening to podcasts, one of the first podcasts I found was Fat Guys at the Movies among other podcasts related to movies. What I loved about these guys though was they weren’t snobby movie critics (at the time there were two guys on the podcast, thus the name). I have always disagreed with a lot of movie critics in that my goal in watching a movie has nothing to do with cinematography and the more technical aspects of a movie (as long as it’s not so bad it detracts from watching the movie), my main question is whether or not I was entertained while I was watching the movie. I put very little stock in the critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes (I usually pay more attention to the audience score if I look at it at all). What I liked about Kevin in particular was that even though he was a critic, he “got” what the typical moviegoer wanted in a movie. Plus he liked a lot of the same movies I did which helped though I don’t share his fascination with horror movies, but that’s ok.

Last year, when I started listening to podcasts again, Fat Guys at the Movies was the first podcast I added back and have loved hearing from Kevin again and have even been able to engage him and get a response around his thoughts on Inception because he does have a very strong opinion on Inception and Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker.

If you love movies like I do and are looking for a good way to keep up to date on what’s going on in the movie world, I would definitely recommend following Kevin and listening to Fat Guys at the Movies.

Follow Kevin Carr: Facebook | Twitter | Website | Podcast

Follow Friday posts are posts where I highlight someone I follow as a way to promote and encourage other people.

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Fun Movies Reviews

Movie Review – Iron Man 3

First things first, I love comic book movies. So before you read my review, realize that. The other thing to realize about my movie reviews is that I am a pretty easy critic, if you can make me forget what is going on and keep me entertained for a few hours and tell a cohesive story I am probably going to like your movie. I usually know enough about a movie before I go see it that I typically don’t go to a movie unless I am pretty sure I am going to like it (especially comic book movies).

Iron Man 3 follows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shortly after the events of The Avengers. We find Tony haunted by what he has experienced, unable to sleep, and nervously creating Iron Man mark after mark. When we last saw him in The Avengers the suit was at Mark 8, by the time we catch up with Tony here he is already on Mark 42. Tony’s relationship has also become strained with Pepper Potter (Gweneth Paltrow) who is struggling to understand what is going on with Tony. Add to the mix 2 figures from Tony’s past and you have a recipe for conflict.

This Iron Man features more of Tony than previous movies, which I think was a smart move because the Iron Man movies set the tone for the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so if Iron Man sets the tone of going bigger by blowing more stuff up then the rest of the movies get pigeonholed into that mold. In this movie they do a really good job focusing on what drives people to do what they do. Is it fear? Is it love? Is it loyalty to a friend? Is it the desire for power? One interesting thing that drew my attention was how someone can make a ridiculously bad decision, a terrible decision, because they love someone so much and want a better life for them.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action for all the action fans out there. One of my favorite action scenes (I’m not spoiling anything because this is in the trailers) is the final battle where all the suits are involved in fighting the Extremis soldiers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the twist, don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it. A lot of the fanboys were really disappointed with the twist and with the information that they were given I can understand that. However, after seeing the movie and the motivation behind the different characters, the twist really does make sense. Because the key method of operation for one particular character was to operate in anonymity and that is why things were set up the way they were.

One review that I read said that Iron Man 3 was better than The Avengers, but I would have to disagree. I was one of the many people who said that The Avengers was a 5 star out of 5. I think Iron Man 3 is a great movie, just not a 5 star movie. Overall, I would give Iron Man 3 3.5 stars out of 5.

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Movies

Miles Family Easter 2011

Things have finally slowed down around the Miles household. A major project I was working on as part of my business Two Miles Solutions, LLC finished up this week and now we are able to scale back the amount of time that I work which means that I have more time to do things I like such as spending time with my family and blog.

For my first blog post, I want to post about my family since it has been so long since I have done so.

Continue reading “Miles Family Easter 2011”
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Movies

Movie Review: Avatar – Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, & Giovanni Ribisi

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You may or may not have already read a review of Avatar, but if you are one of the 3 people in the country who hasn’t seen Avatar, you need to go see it.

Warning: you probably need to get your tickets at least a few hours in advance, then arrive at the theater at least an hour early to stand in line to get a good seat.  I wouldn’t have thought that was the case with a movie that has already been in the theater for a couple weeks with a bunch of other really good movies at the same time, but it is so.

Normally I would save my rating for the end of the review, but due to the nature of my rating, I will go ahead and give it.

Plot: 2 out of 5
Visual Effects/Experience: 5 out of 5

Review – Plot (spoilers – skip to next section after the first sentence if you don’t want to know what happens):
If you have seen Dances with Wolves (amazon affiliate link) you have seen Avatar from a plot perspective.  The movie takes place on a planet called Pandora.  You soon learn that Jake Scully is not the original man for the job, but due to his twin brother being shot while being mugged, he is the only man for the job.  Jake is an ex-Marine who has been paralyzed from the waist down.  Since Jake is an identical twin and the Avatars (genetically created human/Nav’i hybrids) are created for a specific person Jake is the only human available to connect with the Avatar.  Jake is tasked with infiltrating the Nav’i and learning their ways so that the corporation can displace them to gain access to the largest deposit of unobtainium on the planet.  Just like in Dances with Wolves Jake “goes native” as he realizes the horrible intentions that the humans have.

Review – Visual Effects/Experience:
WOW is the best way to describe the visual masterpiece that James Cameron

has created.  Cameron has also partnered with James Horner for the soundtrack as well so the combination of visuals and soundtrack is just amazing.  I watched the movie in digital 3D and while I wasn’t really impressed with the 3D experience I thought the movie was amazing and will probably buy this movie when it comes out on DVD.

What are your thoughts on Avatar?

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Movies

Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will i Am, Dominic Monaghan, Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Reynolds

X-Men Origins: WolverineAs most of the people who know me are aware, I love comic book movies.  I was never really collected comics as a kid, my brother did, but I loved watching the cartoons and always loved the super hero stories.  I remember the day when I went to see the original X-Men in Des Moines with my dad and brother and how stoked I was to see the movie.  I have faithfully watched all three of the previous X-Men movies as well as just about every other comic book movie that has come out.  The fact that Marvel Studios was created is just icing on the cake.  The movies they have put out so far have been great.  Add to that the fact that Disney bought Marvel Studios and now you have the mouse funding great movies.

Anyway, off my soap box.  X-Men Origins: Wolverine begins with a young boy learning he has bone like claws that come out of his hands which he uses to kill the man he learns is his father.  At this point his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber) and he take of running and they don’t stop until William Stryker (Danny Huston) finds them after they were supposed to have been killed by firing squad.  They join an elite unit that also includes Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds, here he is again) and other mutants.  I won’t give too much away, but the movie follows the story that eventually leads to Logan (Hugh Jackman) becoming the metal boned mutant that we know and love.  Including his memory loss.

One thing to note, if you saw it in the theater you may need to see it again, or at least the scene after the credits.  According to Unrealitymag.com there were multiple alternate scenes after the credits.  I’ve seen 2 different endings, one in the theater and one on DVD.

To break it down simply, I loved the movie.  I know I can be biased when it comes to comic book movies, but I thought this movie was really well done.  It is at least worth a rental if not a buy.  I’m planning on buying it this weekend.  I thought the special effects were tastefully done and there was actually a story line.  They even paid attention to the small details, like how much Logan would weigh after having his skeleton coated with adamantium (something before the movie I hadn’t even considered).  I thought how he lost his memory was a little shady, but it wasn’t too bad so I’ll let it pass.

Rating: 5 out of 5

If you want to buy it, head on over to Amazon.com.

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Movies

Movie Review: Love Happens – Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Judy Greer & Dan Fogler

love-happens_poster-337x500In Love Happens Burke (Aaron Eckhart) has made lemonade out of lemons by writing a book about how to cope with losing a loved one after his wife dies in a car accident.  The movie picks up roughly 3 years after the loss of his wife.  He is on a seminar tour that brings him back to his old home town of Seattle, Washington (a place where he does not want to be I might add) where he meets Eloise (Jennifer Aniston) a flower shop owner who leaves random large words behind the hotel art that brushes him off by pretending to be deaf.  Throughout the course of the movie Eloise forces Burke to come to grips with his lemons and a romance blooms.

I really liked this movie.  Aaron Eckhart & Jennifer Aniston had really good on screen chemistry and the storyline was put together very well.  There were points in the movie that I thought conversation would have gone quite different in real life, but the raw emotion displayed by Eckhart is refreshingly good.  I was also pleasantly surprised that for a romance there was no skin shown.  Dan Fogler provides a great supporting role as Burke’s agent (Lane) and makes things light when necessary but you can tell from the way Burke and Lane interact that they have a lot of history and Lane really is looking out for Burke and wants the best for him as evidenced by a last minute meeting before the executive meeting that he has been trying to setup for Burke.  Judy Greer brings a solid performance in her usual role as second chair.  In Love Happens I would like to see Judy Greer in a leading role, she is funny enough and a solid enough actress that I think she would be able to pull off a leading role.  Time will tell though, if she does though, you heard it here first.  Finally, Martin Sheen plays the ex-Marine father of Burke’s deceased wife and he knocks it out of the park.  I don’t want to give too much story away otherwise I would tell you how, I can say that there is a reason he has been in the business as long as he has.

Grade: B+

Notable Movies for each actor/actress: (I’m going to try listing movies I think are worth seeing, please let me know if you find it useful)

Aaron Eckhart:

Jennifer Aniston:

Dan Fogler:

Judy Greer:

Martin Sheen (as of this writing he has 218 movies and tv appearances on imdb.com but I haven’t seen a lot of the movies, I have mostly seen him on TV):

  • The American President
  • Spawn – kind of a dark movie, but a comic book movie nonetheless, not sure I should recommend it because they only list the unrated director’s cut which I can only imagine is very dark.

Please let me know by adding a comment if you found this review helpful or if you would like me to change the way I do reviews.  Also, if you did like the review, please use the share links below to share this blog entry on Facebook, Twitter, etc…

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Movies

Movie Review: Julie & Julia – Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, & Chris Messina

julie_and_julia_ver2_xlgDo you like to cook?  So do Julie Powell (Amy Adams) and Julia Child (Meryl Streep).  Julie & Julia is “based on two true stories” and follows the lives of two women who as Julia Child “love to eat”.  In parallel it follows the lives of Julia Child who is forced to find something to do while her diplomat husband is posted in Paris and Julie Powell who is a cubicle dwelling phone operator in New York who by day answers phone calls in the aftermath of 9/11 that feels her life is going nowhere and she needs to do something to add meaning.  As part of following the two women and their adventures the movie chronicles the lives shared with their husbands and really shows a parallel between the husbands as well played by Stanley Tucci & Chris Messina.

There are several laugh out loud moments in this movie which was exactly what my wife and I needed as we watched it.  One of the best things about the movie for me was the interaction with the husbands and how they were just great guys.  In this movie they also explore the inevitable “make it or break it point” that comes with doing anything of value and how anything worth doing is worth pushing through that point and persevering.

Grade: B+

Notable Movies: (I’m going to try listing movies I think are worth seeing, please let me know if you find it useful)

Meryl Streep:

Amy Adams:

Stanley Tucci:

Chris Messina:

Please let me know by adding a comment if you found this review helpful or if you would like me to change the way I do reviews.  Also, if you did like the review, please use the share links below to share this blog entry on Facebook, Twitter, etc…

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Movies

Iron Man

Iron Man

For those few of you that haven’t seen it (Iron Man made over $100 Million opening weekend so there can’t be that many of you out there), go see the movie now.

At jeffmilessays you know we are movie buffs, so I had to post about it even though there really isn’t much to the site yet. An ulterior motive of mine is to test the image capabilities of the new WordPress as well as the theme I am using (eventually I will build my own theme for the site, but to get the site up and running I downloaded a theme).

As I stated below, I will build the site as I have time. The next few months are going to be pretty crazy for us, but I will update the site as much as I can. Including a new tool that will bring the blog back under my control and not make it just a photo gallery for Caleb…I can’t give you all of the details yet, but stay tuned.