Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Watchmen
Here is our very romantic choice for Valentine’s Evening entertainment that we had along with a heart shaped pizza from Papa John’s. My dream date 
There is one of these new Blockbuster boxes in our local Duane Reade. Unfortunately it has a very limited number of films available to rent.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
I had seen the trailer to this movie which left me cold. When I heard that it received a Golden Globe I was a little more intrigued but little did I know how much I would enjoy watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It is utterly hilarious!
Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) wanted to become an inventor since childhood but his inventions never really worked and he wasn’t well respected, not even by his own dad. But things are changing for him when his newest invention, a machine that turns water into food, takes off. Literally: it accidentally flies into the sky where it turns the clouds humidity into food which then rains onto the earth. Pretty neat! What’s even better is that Flint can type in any food that he would like the machine to produce. Right around that time Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), a young weather broadcast intern, steps into Flint’s life and bewitches him with her nerdy charms. Naturally, disaster is waiting right around the corner. The food machine gets out of control and starts to produce giant food that it now a danger to Flint’s town. He has to stop it!
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs has so many quirky little ideas that make it a lot of fun to watch. I haven’t laughed this much in a long time.
Watchmen
Superhero movies are somewhat blending together in my mind. A lot of them are so much alike. Whatchmen is clearly not one of the better comic book adaptations that I have seen though.
Yes, she is wearing latex suspenders...
I won’t write a synopsis of this movie, mainly because I didn’t really get the story. It felt more like an introduction of the comic book characters then a story-line. And I didn’t care about the characters at all. None of the character managed to touch me in any way, not even really engage my interest. Malin Akerman (Laurie Jupiter) gave a such a terrible performance that I had to think of my teacher, George Loros, who always says that it’s a pity that we can’t sue actors for bad acting (he is hilarious, I wish I could tape him!). I usually really like Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup and Patrick Wilson but this movie brought out the worst in them.
The special effects, fight scenes and all that were fine but overall I don’t think you are going to miss out on anything if you never see Watchmen.
Tags: Ana Faris, Bill Hader, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Matthew goode, Patrick Wilson
February 15th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
To be fair, I didn’t think WATCHMEN was adapted all that well either – I don’t think it can be adapted – but might I suggest that you read the graphic novel it was based on?
You might like it, it’s actually one of the best comics out there…one that’s focused more on human emotion and inner conflict than on feats of daring-do.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Not being much of a graphic novel reader, I didn’t know much of the backstory going into “Watchmen,” and I’m kind of glad I didn’t — it probably would have made me dislike the movie even more. The main problem for me is that some of the characters are dynamite (Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian) while others were boring (sorry, Patrick Wilson, but you stink as a superhero). And, yes, I’ll admit that the giant blue penis was … um … a little distracting.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:59 am
@ M.Cater – I too noticed its blue giantness
@ Mad Hatter – I am not much of a graphic novel reader. The movie tried to show that it was all about emotion and inner thoughts but failed. Especially with the blue guy where I could see that he could be an interesting character…
February 16th, 2010 at 3:50 am
I agree with your praise on “Cloudy” – in the words of a reviewer: if David Lynch mande animations, it would be very close to this… it lacks a proper target group, though, as children will most certainly not be entertained by it and the share of adults going to see animation without the excuse of a kid to drag in is slim. (my take: http://www.information-society.de/Cine-Blog/2009/12/cloudy-with-chance-of-meatballs-phil.html).
As for Watchmen: how boring can live be when you are an impotent superhero without superpowers, but only have a ridiculously blown-up self-esteem. While the comic book was kind of an interesting effort at the time (yet very crude narration and creaking under the burden of its MESSAGE), the movie completely fails at conveying anything but the desire to be full of itself. I have rarely been so annoyed by the clumsiness of what pretended to be “narration” or “characterization”. (my take: http://www.information-society.de/Cine-Blog/2009/07/watchmen-zack-snyder-2009.html).
February 16th, 2010 at 7:09 am
@ ThoHa – Even though I don’t have any children and actually don’t really know any children I would think that they would enjoy watching “Cloudy”. Its a fun movie with food falling out of the sky. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be entertaining for them. They might not get all the jokes and the “political” side of it but its still hilarious…
February 16th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Watchmen was really a movie that I tried (still trying) to like but it really did not do much for me and I thought it was rather bland and unlikable. I will be giving it another shot some day because there is some potential in it…
February 16th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
@ Castor – It seems like we are all pretty much on the same page when it comes to Watchmen. Although I’m not sure that its worth rewatching a film because somewhere in there might be some sort of potential for a great movie. Lol…
February 18th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I really didn’t like Cloudy. In fact, I almost hate. But Watchmen…I acquiesce to your grade. Fully.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
@Encore – Really? What didn’t you like about it? Do you not like animations in general?
February 18th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
I really can’t be certain. The voicework, though competent felt bland for most of the time, it felt predictable and for such an exciting premise it was all so…blah. [Shrugs]
February 19th, 2010 at 5:34 am
@Encore- I was laughing all the way through. I don’t care that much about predictability when it comes to children’s movies. But its so interesting that you have the exact opposite opinion on this movie!