TwittReview: Into the Woods is a Crash-like adventure blending the Brother’s Grimm versions of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Red Ridding Hood, and Rapunzel into a musical adventure tied together by an original story plot narrative. Flat story, slow pacing, distracting songs takes away any positives from the casting. Grade: 2 out of 5
Movie Review: “The Five Year Engagement”
Written by Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, who also directed the movie, The Five Year Engagement should be the movie that makes you want to laugh so loud that your body will breakdown from all the shaking going on. Between the two of them we’ve seen plenty of brilliantly written movies over the years – Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Muppetts, Fun with Dick and Jane. Add to that long time Segel fan and friend Judd Apatow as the Producer behind this and other movies such as Bridesmaids, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40-Year Old Virgin, and Pineapple Express and you’d think that this would be the recipe for another hit. Yet The Five Year Engagement falls flat and can’t really seem to shake itself out to become the movie we want it to be.
The plot is relatively simple. Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) have been dating for a year after meeting on News Year’s Eve. On that very night a year later, Tom and Violet get engaged. However the twist is that they don’t have any plans for their wedding and thus have ups and downs over a five year stretch on their way to the “big day.”
So what could go wrong with this premise? Answer: A lot!
Movie Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Salmon fishing. Yemen. Seriously?
Yep. And if you’ve turned your nose up at the title figuring it’s most likely the dullest documentary ever filmed, you’ll be missing out. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a wonderful feel good film, a fascinating indie flick that also happens to have one of the sweetest old-school romances I’ve seen in ages.
Sheikh Muhammed is in love with fly fishing. Does it every time he heads up to Scotland. But he has a dream; to have a salmon stream in his homeland. So he asks his consultant Harriet to find out if that could be a reality, and when the fisheries expert Dr. Alfred Jones tosses out a financial outlay that seems impossible, things start to snowball. Because the Sheikh isn’t about to let a thing like money get in the way of his passion.
