ROBOCOP (2014 Remake) and D-Box

Geeky Seats hits the D-Box Seats

A movie I haven't been excited about and went to see mostly for lack of other options is now in the books.  Robocop has hit theaters and is very different than the other mushy Valentine's weekend movies that came out along side it.  As I do not have anyone to see a mushy movie with (although I am currently taking applications and reviewing candidates), Robocop seemed to be the one to pick.  

"Dead or Alive... You're watching my movie."

D-Box Experience:

As I was planning my day and checking the theaters, I noticed there were times listed for something called "D-Box Seating."  They lined up with the other shows, but I remembered seeing a display last week before The LEGO Movie about D-Box.  It was very vague to look at.  2 movie theater seats in front of a screen.  The head rests said "Reserved for D-Box" but there was a big red button that said "Play" next to the screen.  Since I wasn't as early as I usually am, I bypassed it and saw my movie.

This week, I tried to do a little more research about it.  I dare you to go to their website and get any real idea what D-Box actually is.  Seriously go.  Fine, I'll just tell you.  Once I did some digging and watched a YouTube video on it, I learned what was so special about D-Box Seating.

Taking another step forward from where some theaters have taken the movie-going experience by adding soft, leather seating that costs a bit more to sit in, D-Box tries to make the movie experience more immersive.    It takes a slightly more comfortable seat, adds some hydraulics, and a roll-cage.

Thought I was kidding about the roll-cage, didn't you?

The D-Box seats move with a choreography set to the movie.  At times this was really cool.  Flying with a drone over a small town, it gently glides you left and right with the drone as though you were following it.  When bullets were fired (and there were a lot of bullets fired), you feel the pop of the gun.  Even an emphasized heart beat you can feel through your seat.  You pick your seat when you buy your ticket and MUST sit in that seat.  You can also pick your overall intensity for how much of the action you want to feel once you sit down.

At times I thought this was great.  The first time it happened, though, I thought someone kicked the back of my chair.  I hate that so much. So it took some time to adapt.  This is new, so I would expect it to get better.  At an $8 up-charge it is somewhat cost-prohibitive to see a lot of movies this way.  It was neat, but I didn't think $8 neat.  

There are movies I think would be worth that.  Picture watching Jurassic Park.  When the power first goes out and the cars are stuck outside of the T-Rex pen: That iconic scene where the the footsteps make ripples in the glass of water and you hear the increasing boom with each step as it gets closer.  Now imagine that you could feel that instead of just watching it.  In a moment like that it's a great idea.  To watch a whole movie that way, however, is another story.  I would recommend giving it a try, but be prepared for some movement that makes no sense with what you are watching and at times you will want to punch someone for kicking your seat.

"Kick my seat again and I'll EAT YOU!!!" - me

Spoiler-Free:

That's D-Box, so on to Robocop.  As I mentioned, I was not particularly excited about this movie in the first place.  I actually thought it would be a great candidate to be my first bad to terrible review since I started this blog.  At first, it was on it's way there.  Watching a remake of any movie, it is nearly impossible not to compare it to the original- a movie I've seen many times from the time I was a kid.  

Overall, I didn't think it was bad.  It holds true to the original story for the most part while giving it a more modern look.  That being said, there were overarching things that bothered me the whole time that you can see right in the trailer.  Speaking of the trailer:

If you couldn't guess, it's the human hand and the black paint-job.  I understand the more modern, sleeker look to the body, but changing the color?  It was hard to identify as the character from watching the original so much.  The human hand just didn't fit for me.  It took away the symmetry and you have to assume that it wouldn't be as strong as a fully mechanical hand, ya know, like the one he has on his other side.

Overall, before going into more details with some spoilers, I actually enjoyed the movie.  You do have to detach from the original some and give it a chance, but it was an interesting introspective into free-will and consciousness as well as the idea of control.  Are we in control or do we have an illusion of control?  Anyway, time for some spoilers, so if you don't want to know skip down to the bottom.

--Caution: Spoilers Ahead--

Robocop takes place in the near future.  It's a world where the mega-company OCP makes a line of humanoid combat drones for use oversees.  They also have the mech-warrior looking giant tank mechs that are almost ripped right out of the original.  There is a standing law forbidding the use of these drones on U.S. soil which has overwhelming public support.  OCP needs to find a way to gain public trust to open the market in the U.S. to accept drones in law enforcement in order to earn ALL the money.

Meanwhile, Alex Murphy, is a Detroit detective. Tell me if you've heard this part before.  Yadda yadda, crooked cops, investigation, arms dealer, killed for his trouble.  The attempted murder was a little different than the original.  I loved how the original did it.  He knew who killed him.  Surrounded by shotgun-wielding bad guys he was blown to pieces one shot at a time.  In this movie he is also blown to pieces, but by a car-bomb intended to stop his investigation into the arms dealer which could lead him to the crooked cops.

Artist's interpretation.

OCP is reviewing candidates to put a man inside a machine.  The idea being to give the people a drone with a conscience, not a cold killing machine.  They see Alex Murphy and talk his wife into allowing the procedure.  We get a gruesome view of what is left of him after the surgery when they take all of his limbs away and all that is left is his head, throat, and his lungs in transparent containers breathing away.  I missed a lot of what was said at that point because I was just looking at the lungs.  Unfortunately, the seat didn't rise and fall with each breath.

In true origins-film style, we go through the different steps into him becoming the Robocop that we remember.  Contrasted from how the original had Murphy hardwired and emotionless right off the bat, the remake actually starts with the real Murphy learning about his differently-abledness and dealing with his new reality.  He even meets his wife and kid again early.  

We do know, however, that he is wired so that in combat, the AI takes over.  Alex thinks he is in control, but he really isn't.  The problem comes in while they are uploading police records and CCTV footage into his brain when he sees the footage of his own murder and is unable to cope.  The doctor (played by the great Gary Oldman) lowers his dopamine levels to almost nothing so he doesn't feel anything about his murder.  He is now the emotionless robot from the original film.  His sole focus is on making arrests and upholding the law.  This part is pretty bad-ass.

After his wife stops him for a brief second and pleads with him, Robocop begins to unravel his programming and proceeds to solve his own murder.  Again, not quite as dramatic as the original film.  In that one, he electrocutes himself to fry the programming that is keeping him under OCP control.  In this one, it appears to be his feelings for his family that undo his programming.  Once he is free, he is able to take down the arms dealer and find evidence on the crooked cops, including his own police chief who it turns out helped facilitate his murder.

This isn't good for OCP.  Realizing Alex is no longer completely under their control, they want to terminate him. They can't risk that he would go to the press and jeopardize getting all drone-use legal in the country. Alex fights through a blockade of the large mechs and gets pretty beat up to get to Michael Keaton and to save his wife and kid.

In a somewhat anti-climactic finale to the action, Michael Keaton is wearing a bracelet that indicates to Robocop's programming that he can't be harmed. Again, sound familiar?  Alex has to fight that programming in order to kill him and get his "life" back.  Obviously he succeeds and, with the help of Gary Oldman, gets fixed up and his original silver-blue coloring back.

It really brings out his eyes.

In Summary:

I liked the movie.  Would I see it again?  Eh, not sure.  Once was probably enough, even when it is on DVD.  I will say if they make a sequel, it might be decent and I'd probably see that.

My thoughts on the new Robocop are mainly that it was interesting, but not great.  Like I mentioned up top, making his body black to be more "tactical" really took away some of the cool-factor.  It would have been interesting for a scene or 2, but it was that way for the majority of the movie.  

So a pretty decent story with lots of action and, of course, my seat getting me a little more into it at points were definitely high marks for the movie.  As for low points really, just the things I mentioned already.  The only other thing I can say on that is that it failed to out-do the original.  I don't necessarily expect that it be better than the first, but at least out-do it.  Make it more epic and somewhat memorable.  The best way I could illustrate this is to say look at Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight.  There was a great previous performance of this character by Jack Nicholson but they were able to really make a mark with it.  That's a performance that is going to stick with us, but I think Robocop will be overshadowed by the original forever and eventually forgotten.

Also, that human hand just always gave me the feeling that he was just wearing a suit, not that he WAS the suit no matter how much they beat it into us. I don't get that decision at all.

Wait... Why???

Trailer Tuesday-- Amazing Spider-Man 2

Wall-Crawlin' Action

It's that time of the week again where we Take a Seat and look at a trailer for something coming up on the horizon.  I considered posting about the Robocop remake that comes out this week, but I might end up going to see that so I'll save it just in case.  I'm chomping at the bit for a bad review, and that one just. might. do it.

I've been thinking all day what to review.  Since I am still just getting started reviewing and there are so many movies and trailers out there I need to catch up on (plus TV show reviews I'd like to get to), there are quite a few choices.  To pluck some more low-hanging fruit, I decided to look at another comic-book movie: Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Pictured:  Low-hanging fruit

Obviously, I never reviewed the first Amazing Spider-Man so first we should talk a little about that movie.  The first time I heard it announced that a new Spider-Man was being made I wasn't into it at all.  We just turned off Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire and suddenly there was another movie with a new actor and the word "Amazing" in the title in the pipeline.  Granted, this was actually several years later, but you get my point.  It felt so soon.  I'm not saying I loved or even liked the Maguire trilogy but, without giving too many seperate reviews all at once, I liked the first one and thought they went downhill from there.

With the fresh memory of another Spider-Man and rumors that this new one was made due to not wanting to lose the Copyright, it seemed like a recipe for disaster.  Leading up to the movie, through trailers and all, I was reluctant to give it a chance.  Once it finally made it to the dollar theater (Rest in Peace, Carmike Maxi-Saver), I decided to give it a try one day after I got out of the gym.  Yes, I showered first, I'm not insane.

I prefer eccentric.

I was pleasantly surprised.  I liked the casting choices.  Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Denis Leary as her cop dad, Sally field as Aunt May, Martin Sheen (not the crazy one, his dad) as Uncle Ben, and Rhys Ifans as the villain: The Lizard were all solid.  It took watching the movie to realize that Andrew Garfield was going to be a good Spidey.  It also took watching the movie to realize that he once before saved New York from the Daleks with The Doctor on Doctor Who.

From Left to Right:  Jones, Martha; Doctor, The; Man, Spider

Anyway, it changed my tune and I was like, "Tobey Macguire who?" Although at that point most people had seen Sea Biscuit and were thinking that already.  Anyway, now that we have the background out of the way, it's time for the main attraction!  Here's the trailer:

Holy villain overload, Spider-Man!  I'm not saying that as a bad thing.  In this movie, we finally meet Harry Osborn.  We also see him using Oscorp tech to turn himself into the Hobgoblin.  No cheesy Green Goblin mask in this one.  This looks like a gritty Gobby and I really like the casting.  The actor first showed up on my radar when I watched Chronicle, a movie I wasn't expecting much from but surprised me largely because of him.  

Other glimpses we get are of Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, and Rhino played by Paul Giamatti.  Foxx was an interesting choice, but he might turn out to be really good.  Especially if he is mostly CG like he appears to be in the trailer.  Giamatti is great and I can't wait to see more of him and this updated version of Rhino.  

That's a lot of villains for one movie.  That pretty much leaves Doc Oc and/or Venom for the bad guy in the inevitable 3rd movie in the series.  At least as headlining villains, that is.  They don't appear to be wasting Doc Oc in the second movie like that other trilogy.  

So that's it, right?  Just one trailer?  A little over 2 and a half minutes of foreplay?  NOPE!  Last week during the Superb Owl, an extended trailer dropped.  I didn't watch it until after, but I imagine it was another where they directed you to go watch it online.  Otherwise, the commercial would have cost as much as a small movie itself.  Here's the extended trailer:

There may be another trailer floating out there, but I don't care.  This extended look is all I need to see before going to this movie.  It starts with Peter being really bad about hiding his alter-ego from his Aunt May. (It looks like it ends that way too, and quite hilariously.) The biggest thing we get is a view of non-CG Jamie Foxx.  We get a little bit of the story as to how he becomes a villain.  He was an introvert and looked up to Spider-Man. He has a kind of cliche industrial accident that gives him super powers over electricity. He wants to be more like Spider-Man but is not accepted as such and when Spider-Man doesn't recall his name he flies off the handlebars.  Is it just me or did he fall into a vat of electric eels?  

Even a little fresher and more 'ZAP'-y

Other than Electro, we see slightly more of Rhino and a little more of Harry.  With this trailer, I think we can safely say that the story should be a good one.  Uniting all three of these villains against Spider-Man should provide a very entertaining couple of hours.  I just hope that it's not some cheesy twist that enables Spider-Man to win out.  Because he will.  There is still money to be made.  Things don't look so good for New York as it appears another movie is hell-bent on leveling as many buildings as possible.  Should be something to see and I can't wait until I can see it and how Spider Man handles it all.

"Oh.. Shit."

The LEGO Movie

*♫*Thiiis Movie is Awesoooome!*♫*

I just got back from seeing The LEGO Movie at one of my favorite theaters and if you want a quick opinion, just read the subtitle ahead.  But you aren't here for a quick opinion, are you?  That would be boring and I don't think you're boring.  Alright, Take a Seat!

Spoiler Free:

When I first saw that a movie about LEGO characters was coming out, I wasn't very pumped about it.  With all of the LEGO video games like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Marvel Super Heroes, and so many more I was kind of sick of looking at LEGOs.  And I'm a guy that was SUPER into LEGOs as a kid.  Really, you should have seen my room.  

Not my actual room. But... you get the point.

Then I saw a trailer for it before another movie I was seeing.  This completely turned me around on this one.  Just hearing some of the voices that i recognized told me some serious work was going into this movie.  Stars like Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, and Will Arnett stuck out right away.  In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the trailer:

I was juiced up about seeing it.  The animation was great and smooth, but more importantly it looked like it had a good story that was interesting and actually warranted being set in a universe of LEGO people.  It set it's own rules and building with the LEGOs of this universe was a big part of it.  

 

Now is where Spoilers are going to start flying, so if you don't want to know too much, skip down to the bottom for my general overview!

--Caution: Possible Spoilers Ahead--

Good, now we can talk shit on all the people who haven't seen it yet who skipped below. Eh, they're probably alright and I'm sure they'll join us soon enough. Anyway, here we go!

The movie opens with Will Ferrell (President Business) stealing an important item from Morgan Freeman (God maybe? Isn't he always?) and blinding him in the process.  President Business intends to use the object, The Kragle, to end the universe. Freeman gives a prophecy about the "Piece of Resistance" which would render the Kragle useless to Ferrell and that the Piece would be found by one called The Special.

Enter our main character, Emmet Brickowski.  He's a typical LEGO guy doing typical LEGO things.  Like a good LEGO person, he always follows his instructions.  He has instructions for everything, from brushing his teeth and showering, to putting on clothes, buying overpriced coffee, to doing his job.  He's a construction worker.  Everything is planned and all he has to do is follow the instructions.  Everyone is happy and everyone's favorite song is "Everything is Awesome" and everyone's favorite TV Show is "Where Are My Pants."  The show is literally a LEGO guy bearing his yellow legs asking "Where are my pants?"  Everyone gets a kick out of it.

  "Where are my pants?"  Yes, that's the whole show.

Emmet is also lonely.  He's trying to make friends at work and his instructions tell him to enjoy eating breakfast with the people closest to him.  That ends up being a plant.  One night after work, he sees someone snooping around the construction site when he goes to retrieve his instructions.  He's about to call for help, like his instructions tell him to do in that situation, when she lowers her hood and he sees it's a girl (Wyldstyle/Elizabeth Banks).  He is clearly struck by her and ultimately tries to follow her.  He falls down a a cavernous hole and ultimately lands near an interesting looking object.  When he touches it, he sees a mixed up vision of Morgan Freeman and the prophecy and passes out.  When he wakes up, the mysterious object is attached to his back.  This, as we learn, is the Piece of Resistance.

As you can guess, this makes him a target of President Business who relentlessly tries to get the piece from him.  Much of the movie is comprised of Emmet and his ever growing party of Master Builders (the LEGO people with a brand name, like Batman) evading Bad Cop, voiced by Liam Neeson.  The Master Builders don't need instructions to build.  They can make the instructions in their head and build what they need from whatever is around.  There are some cameo appearances such as Han Solo, Lando, and C-3PO, all voiced by their respective stars.  That really got the Geek in me going.

Humans exist somehow in this world, however, the President has several "relics" in his office.  There is a Band Aid (referred to as the Cloak of Band Ayeed) and later in the movie an X Acto Knife (The Sword of Exact Zero) among other things.  We come to learn that the Kragle is a bottle of super glue.  KRAzy GluE with some of the letters covered up, similar to VGER being the VoyaGER probe in Star Trek The Motion Picture.  

The plan to end the universe is to cover it in glue so nothing changes.  President Business doesn't like "chaos" or things changing. He has an army of things called Micro-Managers that can place people and tings right where he wants them. He wants things to remain the same all the time.  So much so, that there are different sections of the LEGO Universe for different types of LEGOs.  There is a Pirate area for the Pirate series, an Old West, and even an area called Middle Zealand which bears a striking resemblance to Lord of the Rings.  Gandalf makes an appearance at a couple of points.  The President buildt walls between these areas to keep things where they are supposed to be.

"YOUUU. SHALL NOT. PASSS!"

Guess what The Piece of Resistance is.  Go ahead guess.  Fine, I'll tell you.  It's the cap for the bottle of glue.  It was stuck to Emmet's back because there was some glue still on the it when he landed.  As Emmet was the one who found the Piece, he was The Special as the prophecy foretold DAYS before.

So Emmet is expected to be a Master Builder who can lead the other Master Builders to take the Piece of Resistance to The Kragle and stop President Business before he can freeze the LEGO universe.  Emmet is far from being a Master Builder.  The twist is that Emmet is able to lead the Master Builders by having them follow instructions, the one thing that President Business wouldn't expect them to do.

I don't follow anyone's instructions.  Not even my own.

It turns out that Morgan Freeman made up the prophecy.  He knew that if Emmet believed he was The Special, he could become The Special.  And ultimately, this was true about everyone.  All you have to do is believe in yourself and Freeman knew this.  When the plan to cap the Kragle fails and everyone is captured, Emmet sacrifices himself by jumping out the window with the battery that was going to electrocute him and the Master Builders.  He falls into some type of swirling vortex where it is believed nothing returns from.

While President Business believes he has beaten the Master Builders and is free to carry out his plan, Wyldchild goes on TV where all the other LEGO people can see her to spread the word that they can all build things to stop the President.  The uprising begins as the people fight back.

Now for the real twist.  I gave one before, but this is the real one.  This whole story is really happening in the mind of a kid that is playing with his dad's (Will Ferrel's) LEGO collection.  His dad is very particular with his LEGOs and has everything built exactly as he wants it.  There are "Do Not Touch" signs all over the place.  The kid just wants to play and is sad the his dad is going to commit a LEGO crime by gluing what he has build together so they won't be disturbed or broken.  

After seeing what the kid did to his LEGOs and gluing some down in anger, he realizes what his son built and stops.  After the kid tells him the story he was playing out, Will Ferrell realizes that the story is about him.  He sees that the kid just wants to play with the LEGOs as they were intended to be played with, not just leave them in perfectly built and set scenes.  Side-by-side we see how the kid and his dad repair their relationship and how Emmet stops the President from continuing to use the Kragle. 

In Summary:

There were hints of The Matrix and slashes of.. well Batman. This was a heartwarming story that was funny and interesting the whole way through.  It was imaginative and gave plenty of screen time to lots of different characters.  Everyone had their quirks which made it fun to watch.  There were surprising things and even some things for the adults watching.  This seems like a good movie for everyone, young and old.  Especially if you were into LEGOs like I was, there are parts that are just going to take you right back to playing with them.  

Darn, I'm running out of flat pieces....

If there was a moral to this story, it's to do your own thing.  Yes, there are instructions to help you along the way, but being yourself and building what you want is important.  Adapt to change, don't glue things down.  It's more fun to be able to change things than to be stuck permanently.

Trailer Tuesday-- Captain America 2

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I just sat down to watch Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and since I would like to start reviewing movie trailers in a segment called "Trailer Tuesday" (which kind of requires doing it on a Tuesday), this would be a good time to take a better look at this Coming Attraction.

There is bound to be at least one more trailer to drop before its April release, but my excitement is already off the charts. Let's take a look at the first trailer that came out a couple of months ago:

This is a very good trailer.  I just gives you enough to get you excited without giving away too much story.  Leave it to IMDB to do that.  Word of advice, don't look up who the guy with the mask is unless you want a HUGE spoiler.  I am still kicking myself for being too curious and getting more than I wanted to know.  Anyway, back to the trailer.

Right off the bat, we can notice two things.  The first is that ScarJo is back as Agent Romanoff, A.K.A Black Widow, A.K.A. Hottie McHotface.  I mean, she's alright.  (Don't judge me.)  The second is the new outfit for Cap.  As much as I liked his outfit from The First Avenger, I might like this more.  It's simple, but with a real modern tactical touch.  I wasn't so much a fan of the uniform from Avengers.  Here's a look at the outfit and Chris Evans filling it out nicely.

I can still feel you judging me.

So what else did we learn in this trailer?  Samuel L Jackson is back as the badass Nick Fury, and there is that weird looking dude with long hair wearing a mask.  More about him after we watch the second trailer.  Another interesting add was The Falcon being played by Anthony Mackie.  Maybe this is another character being added to show up in Avengers: Age of Ultron.  I'll take all the characters I can get, and I think this is a cool take on Falcon.

As far as story, the trailer gives the impression that there is tension growing between Cap and S.H.I.E.L.D.  When Fury is showing him what appears to be a weapons factory where more flying aircraft carriers and other military-style equipment are being build, Cap makes the idealistic statement that he "thought the punishment uaually came after the crime."  We start to see that divide in philosophy right there.  Combine that with the elevator scene where he takes out several apparent S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents who are trying to subdue him and it appears that mask guy is not the only thing Captain America will be fighting.

The second trailer just came out during the Game on Sunday, and viewers were treated to this short teaser Trailer OF THE TRAILER!

This little trailer of a trailer was only 30 seconds long, but that was probably because it was during the Super Bowl.  It would have been WAY too expensive to play the entire real trailer instead of just directing people to where they could see it.  Now on to the full second trailer:

This trailer wasn't much longer than the first, but gives us much more as far as what's going on.  It doesn't change my thoughts on anything we saw in the first trailer, but does add to it.  

Right from the get-go, we get more information on our mask-wearing friend in need of a haircut.  He is The Winter Soldier.  At least that's his code name.  Again, do not look him up or look too closely at his unmasked face unless you want a spoiler.  I am only being secretive because I know how I reacted when I saw it and it mades me feel like I know too much going in.  Like if somehow I would have known Vader was Luke's father going into Empire Strikes Back (Spoilers from Star Wars, btw).  Probably not that epic, but if you don't want to lose the big reveal that is certainly coming in the movie, just let this one go.  

The feud with S.H.I.E.L.D. still looks like a plot point and if Cap does indeed go rogue, it appears Falcon as well as Black Widow go right next to him.  I would not, tho, be surprised to see all of the good guys make up by the end to take on The Winter Soldier.

So, am I exited about this movie?  Absolutely.  Heck, I'm excited for another trailer to drop for it.  I think it will be interesting how this movie plays out. There looks to be plenty of action and at least one flying aircraft carrier crashing into a fiery heap. Tension between Cap and S.H.I.E.L.D., The Winter Solder and who he really is, how well they match up, and ultimately the final showdown between the two should be fun to watch.  Also, as with all of the Marvel movies, there has got to be a nice short after the credits with a little taste of what to expect with Age of Ultron.  That has the geek in me pretty happy.  To make him even more happy, I leave you with this:

I don't even care anymore that you're judging me.

Bad Grandpa

Good Bad Gramps

I just finished watching Bad Grampa which is now out on video.  For those of you that don't know, Bad Grandpa is a Jackass Films flick.  If you are anything like me, this was something of a red flag.  I've never been a big fan of the Jackass line of movies or their various TV shows.  There's only so much physical abuse you can watch a group of people take before you stop watching unless it's on the news.  Especially when it is in such silly and downright stupid ways as in those movies.  Don't get me wrong, there are some hilarious things to watch in them, but in the end I won't pay to see any more of them.  But I digress, as this is not supposed to be a review of Jackass.  I just thought it might be important to mention where I'm coming from going into this movie. 

Who bought this? ...And where are we?

Spoiler Free:

With that said, Bad Gramdpa is kind of a unique movie.  I can't think of any films off the top of my head to compare it to.  It's s a mix of hidden camera stunts designed to get real reactions from non-actor everyday people and a fictional story that sets the stage for the stunts.  That was actually a little confusing at first.  It just felt like we were watching reactions and it was surprising when a real story was being introduced. Now, that does not mean every stunt makes any sense in the story at all and Johnny Knoxville obviously gets a few of his typical "how is he still alive?" stunts in there as well.  

To give an overall impression before going into some Spoilers, I liked this movie.  Yes, there were parts where I kind of tuned out and times where what was going on wasn't terribly interesting.  The make-up was incredible, tho.  They really transformed Johnny Knoxville into an old man.  This one got the people-watcher in me interested as some of the reactions by the unknowing bystanders were absolutely priceless.  You couldn't script some of this, and in fact, most of it wasn't.

--Caution: Possible Spoilers Ahead--

Ok, so now only the cool kids who have seen the movie should be reading this far.  Or you have no interest in watching it.  Either way, welcome!  I'm not going to give a summary of the whole movie, but want to hit the beginning and some of the high and low points.

So when the movie opened, the kid and his Grandpa weren't together yet.  Grandpa was in a hospital waiting room getting the news that his wife had passed away.  To show just what an ass he really was, he was happy that she died so he could be free to go after other women. He did this a lot... the whole movie... every few scenes.  The kid was in a law office waiting room where it looks like his mom was meeting with a lawyer about her going back to jail for "drugs."  Yes.  Just "drugs."  Story isn't the important thing in this film.  It was watching the Grandpa try to pick up some women who overheard that his wife just died. And while the kid was waiting for his mom, he opens up a little too much to the ladies around him about his mom's legal troubles ("drugs").  These were the first reactions we got to see.  

Moving into the next scene was where it felt confusing.  It was like an actual story was happening, but you just got used to simply people-watching.  There was a scene where Grandpa was buying a suit and he was hitting on the girl measuring him when he suddenly tries to bolt out the door.  An angry manager had him sit down and went to call the cops.  We watched his wife's funeral where his daughter and the kid showed up.  They argue outside the door while he is still holding the microphone so everyone can hear the details of the situation.  She needs Grandpa to take the kid because she is going to jail ("drugs"). After going back inside, the daughter tried to steal jewelry out of the casket causing a struggle where she and Grandpa knocked over the casket.  With no one else knowing what was going on, there was genuine surprise and no one knew what to do.  Grandpa gets everyone singing, because THAT is exactly what you do in that situation.

This series of events set up the whole movie.  Grandpa took the kid and immediately tried to unload him.  Calling the kid's dad from an internet cafe where terse words were exchanged while we watched the poor souls around listen.  They started driving to South Carolina to drop the kid off with his reluctant dad who only wanted him for the government assistance.  

A great scene was when they were trying to sell some of Grandpa's things that he wouldn't need now that his wife was dead.  The best one was the bed.  This was the first really premeditated prank. Random strangers were walking around the house shopping and Grandpa was going to show the bed's reclining features to a potential buyer.  He handed her the controller and laid down.  When she hit the button, the bed folded Grandpa in half repeatedly.  Everyone panicked and tried to disable the bed.  After everything settled down, I really got the feeling that the woman might faint.  She was shaking and visibly terrified.  Alfred Hitchcock couldn't have gotten that kind of reaction from an actress.  In true Grandpa fashion, he continued to be a dick to her all the way to the end of the scene.

From here, it was just a series of pranks while they were on their road trip.  They stop at a convenience store and Grandpa started shoplifting and making a sandwich.  After getting caught by the manager, they tried to make a run for it only to be caught by what appeared to be the owner.  She was pissed and keeps them out of the car while the cops are called.  The police were called often in this movie, but that doesn't slow down our boys at all.

There were some not-so-great moments too.  There is a flashback about fishing that Grandpa had which was just a cut to a prank where he caught a large fake fish with a big dildo attached to the bottom.  That's really all I have for that one.  Wasn't a big fan.  Also, there was a gag that lasted waaaay too long (you'll see what I did there in a sec) where he had "old man balls" that hung down to his shins falling out of his underwear (see?  long).  It was funny when you first see it, but he continues to dance so they shake and it got old quick.  There were quite a few overplayed dick jokes scattered throughout the movie.

Anyway, throughout this trip, Grandpa and the kid bonded.  They reached their destination to meet up with his dad.  This happened to be a bar where a biker group called Guardians of the Children were having a party.  The dad endeared himself poorly to the tough biker gang very quickly by just being a douche.  Grandpa left the kid but went to get him back after reconsidering.  This is where I give this movie a lot of credit.  Grandpa goes in and tells the kid they are going fishing, prompting the kids dad to fight back to protect his meal ticket.  I give it credit because a BIKER GANG about GUARDING CHILDREN was there and had no idea this was just a show.  One of the bikers has the dad in a head lock and the dad's face turned a little red while he forfeited the fight.  He was committed right until the end in getting the scene shot.

I forget if this was next, but we get to see the best scene in the movie, which didn't fit AT ALL.  It was just there.  If you saw the trailer, you know what I'm talking about.  It's where they entered the kid in a Toddlers & Tiaras-type pageant and the kid goes fully Honey Boo Boo.  You never go full Honey Boo Boo...

Can you tell which one is which?

Going off into the sunset to go fishing (and completing the secondary story of burying Grandpa's wife by throwing her body off of a bridge) the movie ended.  

During the credits, we got a glimpse into how the movie was made.  Some after-the-scene footage where they explained to frightened/pissed off/disgusted/confused people that they were in a movie.  We even saw a hidden camera woman when they lifted the lid off her disguised hiding place.  

The Low Down:

So, my overall opinion on Bad Grandpa was that I liked it.  It was a little uneven, but you can expect that in a movie where only 4 of the people you see were in on the joke and everyone else was raw reaction.  It was crude, it was very not PC, and I really thought that one woman with the bed was going to die of a heart attack.  If you aren't looking for a serious movie and want some cheap laughs, check this movie out.  

300: Rise of an Empire Trailers

Epic Sequel in the Making

Time for my first review!  I thought of starting with a movie, but I'm too excited to watch a whole one right now to review and want to share my thoughts on the 3 trailers that are out for 300: Rise of an Empire.  If you weren't living under a rock a few years ago, you would have seen 300.  Yes, there were criticisms of using too much slo-mo and historical inaccuracy, but in the end it was just a great movie.  It was visually striking, action packed, and of course had a wonderful and powerful story. You were so pumped after, you wanted to go right to the gym and get started on the Spartan body to get those abs. You then failed, but hey, at least we tried.  If you haven't seen it, go watch it right now.   I'll wait....   well go on!  

There.

When I first saw a new 300 was coming out I though to myself, "But didn't they all die in the end?"

Here's the first trailer that was released:

Lena Heady returns as Gorgo and there are some new, totally ripped Spartans (damn those abs...), but Eva Green looks incredible.  Her character, Artemisia, looks absolutely chilling. Random thought: At about the 1:00 mark a Spartan jumps off a cliff onto a Persian boat.  While on the way down, his kilt/skirt/thing flies up.  

Not sure if they had underwear back then, but I think the last thing that Persian saw before being brutally killed by a Ninja-Greek was his Loukininko. (Google it if you can't guess.) 

Anyway,  On to the next!  

If the first one didn't make you really want to see more of Eva Green, maybe this one did.  In this trailer we see more of her character.  Does it look like she's behind creating the god-king persona for Xerxes to rally the Persian Army against the Greeks?  I kind of get the impression we will see some flash backs to before the first movie and see how this all got started.  Either way, she looks like a total bad-ass.

3rd trailer already?  Alright then:

Frankly, I like the second trailer the best.  The third has a lot of the same things, but doesn't quite do it for me like the second one.  One part I really liked about it, tho, was the change in music at the halfway mark.  Mixing in War Pigs kind of fits perfectly. Makes me want to play Guitar Hero (or is it Rock Band? No one cares, it's one of them). Am I the only one who noticed that it looks like Eva Green and Themistocles get it on at one point?  That should be an interesting plot point, but it looks like a bad breakup towards the end.

So, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? Really, if after watching those you don't at least have a half-chub you don't have a pulse. I can't wait for this movie to come out.  I was originally skeptical about another 300, but if it's possible this looks to be more epic than the first one.  And again, Eva Green might be poised to steal the show from what we can see of her character here.

First Post! Why are we here?

Welcome to Geek Seats!  

This is my first post so I want to kind of explain what I'm doing here.  I'm sick of reading critic reviews that praise or trash a movie only to have the complete opposite experience when I finally see it myself.  People seem to have lost focus that while Film is indeed an art, it is so much more.  The best movies I see are ones that suck me in and immerse me in the story.  Others make me think, pick me up, or can completely tear me down.

I see a lot of movies (Yay, matinee pricing!), watch a lot of TV Shows (Couldn't live without DVR and HULU), and try to keep up with as many trailers as possible.  A good trailer will get me really excited about some upcoming movies, show me some lesser-known titles I should check out, and and keep me away from some real terrible movies.  And believe me, I will let you know when a movie is Trailer Trashed, meaning all the good parts were already in the trailer and it wasn't worth the watch.

My goal here is to provide an every-man review of things I watch.  Does that mean that everyone is going to agree with my review?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Different things strike different people in different ways.  I am, though, going to try and give the best answer to the question: "Did I enjoy it?"  In the end, I think that is the most important thing.  After all, I am watching to be entertained.

Hope you enjoy the blog and it helps guide you to better movie experiences!