The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

I don’t know that I can even do this movie justice with my words.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the previews I’d seen – maybe a little goofy and quirky and different than a normal movie.  And it was!  For such a simple story, it just felt like such a breathtaking, powerful work of art.  Ben Stiller plays an anonymous photo negative archiver at LIFE Magazine and is always finding himself zoning out and daydreaming about things instead of actually doing them.  When his job is threatened, he finally takes a chance in the real world when he needs to travel to Greenland to try to track down a legendary photographer, played by Sean Penn.  After being there and following the trail to Iceland (in any manner he can) and climbing the Himalayas, he finally realizes how much of “life” he has been missing out on.  It was like some “magical” transformation, but in reality, he just started actually doing things instead of daydreaming and wishing he had.  It seems so simple.  It's funny, it’s thought provoking, it’s touching, and dare I say “life-changing." 

Delivery Man

Wow – this movie was NOT what I expected!  With Vince Vaughn, I was thinking I’d just get a bunch of one-liners and crude humor and not much story.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  It was funny in parts, but actually felt more like a serious movie or drama than a comedy.  The story is that David Wozniak learns he’s the biological father of 533 children through sperm donations he made twenty years earlier and now 142 of them are suing to find out his identity.  He’s also just found out that his girlfriend is pregnant and doesn’t think he has what it takes to be a father.  This could have gone a number of different ways, but it became a very emotional, heartwarming movie where he cared about EVERY single one of his children.  He wanted to know them and help them – to be the dad he’s never been to them, even though he wasn't sure if he could tell them who he really was.  It also wasn’t full of unnecessary swearing, sex, and shock humor, which was a nice change from most movies these days.  Vince Vaughn gives a very heartfelt performance and I’m glad I watched it!

Ride Along

I wanted to like this movie.  I really did.  Watching it, I just felt like I’d already seen all of the funny parts in previews I’d seen.  There were only a couple parts that even seemed halfway humorous that were new to me.  Ice Cube plays a cop that takes a security guard, played by Kevin Hart, on a ride along to prove he has what it takes to be with his sister.  Ice Cube is trying to seem “tough” and Kevin Hart is just a scaredy-cat that would rather escape into the world of video games than be a man and face life – and neither really worked for me!  Hart is usually so funny, I was pretty disappointed with him in this one.  It was OK and passed the time, but it just wasn’t that funny.  It could and should have been MUCH better!

Grudge Match

I liked this movie, even though it wasn’t really what I was expecting.  Grudge Match is the story of two old boxing rivals (played by Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro) who haven’t been in the ring for 30 years and come out of retirement for one final fight.  At their age, most people view it as more of a joke than a serious rematch, but to them it means everything!  I was expecting a lot more comedy, but it went more into them trying to get over their past and resolving family and relationship issues and things like that.  I’m not saying it wasn’t funny – it was – and I loved Alan Arkin in his role as the old trainer – it just wasn’t as funny as I was expecting from all of the previews I’d seen.  Even with as old as they are, their fighting was still better than a lot of real fights are anymore.  They definitely showed that after all these years, they’ve still got it in the ring!  Overall, I’d say it was just alright – it had humor and was entertaining, but not a classic, either