Escape from Planet Earth (2013)

I think I might now be through watching animated movies. Well, I should qualify that - mass market films aimed at kids and made by Americans, oh, and computer animated that is supposed to look computer animated. The exception to this rule is if they ever actually make that sequel to the Incredibles - I'll watch that. But really, I am through with this genre. I think I've been feeling this way for a while, but have kept watching them in hopes of finding another Incredibles. I haven't. But, to be fair, these movies aren't aimed at me, I just watch them because I'm on familiar terms with my library and watch a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise.
This film has the requisite slimming and close up on the computer animated hair/fur. It also has the requisite list of big name stars doing the voices, though I have got to say that this was voiced particularly well - likely the best work that William Shatner has ever done. There are the standard characters: hero who doesn't believe in him/herself at the beginning, cowardly wise-cracking sidekick, super-strong/tough sidekick with a heart-of-gold, brawny characters who are dimwitted and brainy characters who are scrawny in comparison.
Look, I'll be as objective as I can - this is on par with Despicable Me or Aliens Vs Monsters. If that is a good thing to you, or you're watching this with younger children, then go for it; but if my comparison is a bad thing to you, then pass on this one.

Escape from Planet Earth on IMDb

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

I can't figure out if I'm supposed to be happy or sad right now. I do know that I liked this film and that I did get all emotional at the end. This movie certainly has its funny bits, but it has an equal number of touching, sentimental moments as well, which I guess is the best way to handle a movie about the end of life on earth.
Steve Carell does an excellent job as Dodge. He really plays it down, letting the absurdity of the various situations and the other actors deal with the comedic aspect. This isn't like his role in the 40 year old virgin where he is playing a straight man to the rest of the cast, he plays Dodge as this low-key nice guy who is willing to admit that he has wasted his life but still maintains enough personal integrity to do right by people and dogs.
Keira Knightley plays Penny, the opposite to Dodge. Her character is fr ought with absurdities, but not ones that were brought on by the end of days, but rather ones that she has always had. While more chaotic, Penny turns out to be a good soul, too. Knightley handles the role with the panache you would expect from her. She does a job that I put on par with Natalie Portman in Garden State - quirky but adorable, and completely believable.
I found this film really interesting for the way it showed how different people would react to the news that the world was coming to an end. Some people go wild, some handle it with grace. Most seem to not know what to do with themselves. I think this is a pretty good representation. I do think that there would be more lawlessness. There wouldn't just be rioting in the major cities with some people getting killed by the angry mobs, I think there would be a lot of people that were just, "fuck it" and would grab their guns and set out to see how many they could kill before someone got them. You kind of get a hint of this with Grissom's character, I mean, William Peterson's character. He found out that he had inoperable cancer and six months to live right before the world found out that it only had three weeks left to go, so he hires an assassin to take himself out. Actually, I'm not sure if hiring is the right term as much as just asking someone to provide a service. It does make you think about how you would handle the situation.
Of course the setting and premise of this movie is an allegory for how unpredictable and short our lives can be and often are. The message is that if you want something, you should try now, else you might die unfulfilled, unhappy and very alone. In the case of this film, that was going to quite literally going to happen.
One thing about this movie that really amuses me - at the very beginning of the movie when Dodge and his wife, Linda, hear about the impending  doom, she just gets out of the car and runs away and Dodge never sees her again. That is not what's funny, that's actually kind of heart-breaking. What is funny is that Linda is played by Steve Carell's real-life wife, Nancy. That is funny stuff, and I guess being a producer of the film as well as a star does have it's moments.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World on IMDb

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Is this movie predictable? Yup. Does that really matter? Nope.
I forget exactly the conversation that led to me putting this movie on hold. It was something high-falutin' about the intricacies of time travel and the philosophical paradoxes that this can create. Something about timelines and knowing one timeline but living in another. Something. But, my friend failed to mention to me that this was a stupid, dorky, geeky comedy that was as much an homage to the 80s as anything else, not just the era, but the music and films of that era. And since it stars John Cusack, a lot of this is self-referential.
In short, this is an awesome movie. Maybe not for everyone, or maybe even not for me at another time, but tonight - yeah, it was good.
You know how it is, sometimes you find yourself in a particular state of mind and through the twists of fate you end up seeing or hearing exactly what you need to get through it. I was having this amazing day, actually like two days in a row, which is very rare for me. For once all the various computer things were going great. Working on the rewrite of my book has been going well, for actually a couple of weeks now, I was having good conversations with my usual crew online. And even most surprisingly I was doing okay in real life. But this afternoon, I somehow worked myself up into...something. I just went to a dark place. I took off instead of staying until the end of the day, where I knew I would get a ride and a chance to talk with my friend. By the time I was home, I was all convinced how I needed to stop doing everything I was doing because there was no point in anything. I put on some music which I hoped would be soothing, but really it probably just fed the whatever, and then I curled up on the couch, turned off the light and tried to keep from bawling my eyes out and mostly succeeded. Somehow I got the energy to eat some dinner. I say that like I often miss dinner, but anyone who has ever seen me knows that I have missed very few meals in my life, and in fact has taken on some extra ones just in case one gets missed in the future. The important thing here is that instead of eating my soup in the dark, I put in this movie. It did it for me.
And then, you couldn't possible know anything about this, but it's October 13, 2012 and I'm listening to the broadcast of the radio show, Live Wire. I turned it on just in time to hear author Daniel Smith talk about his new book, Monkey Mind which is his memoir about dealing with a life of anxiety and how he has mastered it.
I don't believe in coincidence. I really don't. I get what's going on right now. I might not remember it later. It's kind of like one of those epiphanies you get when you're high, that later seems like gobbledy-gook. Except I'm not high. I will admit that maybe my brain chemistry is out of whack. But, I can read everything I wrote and recall the thoughts, so there you have it.
You probably think, all three of you who have ever read this blog, that I have strayed farther afield than normal from this movie, but other than half a dozen allusions to oral sex, I really haven't. Don't believe me? Watch the movie then re-read this.

Hot Tub Time Machine at IMDb