13 Going on 30 (2004)

“I wanna be thirty.”

            When we are younger all we want is to be older. We think by the time we hit about twenty-five we will be successful, be living out on our own in a great apartment somewhere in New York City working a job that we love. Well, that was my dream anyway. I had hoped that by the time I was twenty-seven, which I am now, that I would at least have a full time job somewhere and living out on my own and be comfortable. Instead I am twenty-seven working two shit part time jobs and living at home. I blame that dream on the movies and society. 13 Going on 30 takes a look at what our dreams are when we are younger of being older and shows that being an adult is not really all it is cracked up to be.

            Jenna Rink is thirteen years old which would put her in probably middle school. Middle school and being thirteen is tough especially when all you want is to be popular and look unrealistically perfect and pretty all the time. Jenna has a friend named Matt. They are neighbors and are best friends. But Jenna desperately wants to be friends with a girl called Tom-Tom and her group the Six Chicks. For her thirteenth birthday she invites the group over and also some of the football players that Tom-Tom said she could bring. Tom-Tom manipulates Jenna into doing a homework assignment for her so she will go to the party.

            Before the party starts Matt comes over with his cute gift to Jenna. He made her a Jenna Dream House, similar to a Barbie Dream House. In this house are all the best records and snacks and Rick Springfield. Matt also sprinkles wishing dust on the house. Their moment is broken when the doorbell rings and the Six Chicks arrive along with the football players. Everyone stares at Matt being a dork dancing to a Talking Heads song. Tom-Tom says something nasty to Matt and when Matt tells Jenna he is going to get his keyboard she says the same thing Tom-Tom said to him. Tom-Tom has Jenna go into a closet to play seven minutes in heaven with one of the football players. She is evil and makes it a joke. She blindfolds Jenna, puts her in the closet and grabs some snacks and all the popular kids head out. Matt comes back just as everyone is leaving and Tom-Tom tells him that Jenna is in the closet waiting for him. When Matt holds Jenna’s hands to lift her up she is still blindfolded and thinks it is the popular football player lifting her. Matt gets pissed and Jenna gets upset. She slams the door, sits down, down and starts crying. She rocks against the shelf the dream house is on and wishing dust falls down as she says she wants to be “I wish I thirty, flirty, and thriving.”

            Next thing Jenna (now played by Jennifer Garner) really is thirty. She wakes up in a strange apartment with a strange naked man in her shower! Mentally she is still thirteen years old living in 1987, physically she is tall and pretty with great clothes. Jenna is picked up by her co-worker Lucy (Judy Greer) and they are driven to their job at Poise Magazine. Jenna cannot believe that she is working for her favorite magazine. In her office she sees how successful she has become, she is floored when she sees that she is friends with Madonna.

            As the story progresses Jenna finds that she did not grow up into a very nice person. She and Matt (now played by Mark Ruffalo) have not been friends since her thirteenth birthday party, she has stepped on a lot of toes to get where she is, she is having an affair with a married man, and she was working to bring down her favorite magazine. All of Jenna’s efforts to right the wrongs she did backfires.

            But of course this being a romantic comedy and a chick flick there is a happy ending where Jenna and Matt wind up together.

            I remember clear as day seeing 13 Going on 30 twice opening weekend. I was sixteen. I actually remember my mom dropping me and my friends off at the movie theater the first night it played. When I was sixteen I was massively over the top obsessed with Jennifer Garner and her TV show Alias. I still love and adore Jennifer Garner to no end and even Alias but when I say obsessed I mean obsessed (watch my video review for the movie. There is part where you will see my full blown Alias/Jennifer Garner obsession). I remember the first time I saw the movie and I saw how sweet and adorable Garner was and thinking I am so not used to seeing her be all cute and sweet I am used to seeing her tough and serious and kicking ass. Then after seeing the movie a second time I thought how the hell am I going to watch Alias (when it was on Sunday nights) now I am used to seeing her be all sweet and adorable! If I were to ramble on about my admiration for Jennifer Garner you would be reading about four more pages of this review (as I said watch my video review) so I will just stop here. Actually let me just say that Garner was brilliant she was so fantastic as Jenna.

            The rest of the cast was great. This was the first time I had ever seen Mark Ruffalo in a movie! I never knew who he was before this. Judy Greer was a good not-so-nice character. This was also the first time I had ever seen Andy Serkis outside of hearing his voice for Golem in Lord of the Rings. He was funny I cracked up when he danced to Thriller.

            I have three favorite scenes from this movie that I must mention. The first is when thirteen year old Jenna is reading an article in Poise called Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving and she tells her mom that she wants to be like the models she sees. Her mom responds “Those aren’t people, honey, those are models.” I like this because later on in the movie Jenna makes a campaign for the magazine and says something along the lines that she wants to put models and take photos of people that she would recognize in real life, they would be real people. Those two lines and scenes have stuck with me ever since because that is what I look for whenever I read a magazine. The next scene that I absolutely love is when everyone dances to Thriller. Jennifer Garner just kills it in the adorable department and now when I hear Thriller I immediately yell out “Matty it’s Thriller!” ha ha.

            I know I have written in the past about how much I hate rom coms and chick flicks but 13 Going on 30 will forever be one of only three rom coms and chick flicks I will willingly watch (along with How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and 27 Dresses). I have such great memories of seeing it when it was released and being totally obsessed with Alias. Even though it put the awful idea in my head that I must be “thriving” and “successful” by age thirty and so far I am not on that path, I still love it and everything it has to say about being an adult. 13 Going on 30 is a chick flick and I will only suggest watching it to those who like chick flicks or who may really, really like Jennifer Garner.

            PS: if you have never watched Alias WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! If you like Agent Carter as both a show and character watch Alias. If you like tough ass female characters you idolize Sydney Britstow. 

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

“If you step out that door, you're an Avenger.”

            Marvel’s newest Avengers movie Age of Ultron is an MCU fan’s dream come true. All the superheroes are given a great amount of screen time and character development and two new really awesome heroes are introduced.

            The latest bad guy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe actually comes from within the Avengers team. At the beginning of the movie the team has found Loki’s staff that holds one of four extremely powerful stones in a small remote European country. Back at Avengers headquarters in Stark Tower, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) figure out they can use the power of the stone to protect the world from invasion from different realms. Tony wants to do create this protective barrier after New York City was attacked by these alien things and prevent more from coming through. Bruce does not like the idea of using the stone as a way to protect the world but he goes along with Tony.

            That night there is a party at the headquarters. Since nothing is happening with the stone and what Tony and Bruce want to do with it, Tony has Jarvis scan for things that will make the stone work the way he wants it to. Well during the party Jarvis helps to bring to life Ultron (voiced by James Spader). Unfortunately and very quickly Ultron is not kind like Jarvis. He immediately hates Tony and everything that humans have done in the world. Ultron attacks Jarvis and shuts him down. He transfers his information to one of Tony’s droids and physically attacks the Avengers after their party.

            Now Ultron is a major threat to the world. He wants to bring down mankind and create a new world with machines. He takes the form of an imposing mechanical figure and recruits twin brother and sister Pietro and Wanda Maximoff with great super powers.

            The Avengers have to stop Ultron from destroying the world and deal with each other.

            I can only say so much about the cast without getting redundant. They are all amazing in their roles. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda/Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor- Johnson as Pietro/Quicksilver were awesome additions to the Avengers. I liked their characters and I really liked how they played their characters. I cannot wait to see more of them in future Marvel movies and how they interact with the rest of the team.

            I am going to give a minor spoiler away here and I am sorry but I need to fan girl over it so bad. If you have read the credits list on IMDB or have read any article lately pertaining to Agent Carter or Hayley Atwell you will know that both character and actress make an appearance in the movie. I thought Atwell’s appearance was going to be through a flashback but it was not. How Peggy Carter is brought back very quickly for Captain America I will not say but I will tell you that it broke my damn heart. Seriously, Steggy is like one of the most heartbreaking and horrible ships to ship. But I cannot help myself I love them as characters and as a sort-of couple way too much. And Steve makes a mention at the end how his job now is just be a soldier he does not know any other life and his chance for a family and a normal life passed seventy-five years ago. COME THE HELL ON MARVEL!!!! YOU’RE KILLING MY FEELS!!!! (Good lord I am such a such a raging fan girl. I apologize. I'll get myself together one of these days into a normal twenty-seven year old I promise).

            Steve Rogers is emerging as the leader of the Avengers. He is the perfect choice because despite everything he has seen in mankind since he was unfrozen he is still has the same morals and values as the skinny kid from Brooklyn. He is the good, wavering man out of all the superheroes. There is not a vain bone in Steve’s body he is all about helping others.

            Natasha and Bruce are an item now. When the hell did that happen? I understand that maybe the writers were looking for a way to dig deeper into Bruce and Natasha as characters and show character development but I did not that like that all. To me showing how they are getting closer to each other was just unnecessary to the story. There are probably countless numbers of ways to develop the characters rather than having them become a couple. I applauded the writers of The Winter Soldier for not making Steve and Natasha a couple and developing them as friends and now I am going to give them a jeer for their turn around.

            While I did like Age of Ultron and where it brought all the characters for future movies I did find it a little boring. There were some parts I felt were just too dragged out and some of the scenes and story lines were just totally unnecessary. Like all of the Marvel movies there is a message. I cannot put my finger on a solid message I will say that the message was about technology. We praise technology but there are certain areas in life that technology has its limits. And then of course there is always a moral message in Marvel movies and there is one here. Age of Ultron is great to experience in theaters on a big screen but if you have trouble sitting for long periods of time in a theater like I do (thanks ADHD) than wait for the movie to be out 

Now You See Me (2013)

“The closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see.”

            I think magic is very interesting. It is cool how the magician fools the minds of the audience. Now You See Me shows modern magic fooling the eyes and minds of modern audiences both in the movie itself and the ones watching.

            J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) are all magicians of some sort. Atlas is an actual magician, Henley does illusions like pretending to be killed by piranhas in a tank but in reality she is alright standing outside the tank, Merritt is a mentalist, and Jack is a pickpocket. They all get a tarot card as an invitation to an apartment in New York City. When they enter the apartment it is empty until they come to a room. When they hit a switch in the room digital plans for a magic show appear.

            A year later, Daniel, Henley, Merritt, and Jack are known as the Four Horsemen and have their own show in Las Vegas.  At the show is a man named Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman) who makes it mission to debunk all the tricks magicians use. He has had TV specials and DVDs all on the subject. At the show the Four Horsemen pick a Frenchman out of the audience and tell him that they are going to rob his bank. Through some sort of machine on stage they “transport” the man to his bank in Paris. They make it look like the money has been sucked into a vent and it shows up at the show in Vegas.

            After this trick the FBI is put on the case. Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is assigned to investigate along with Interpol Agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). The Four Horsemen drag Dylan and Alma and the FBI on a wild goose chase from Vegas, to New Orleans, and finally to New York City using magic, illusion, and mentalism.

            The ending is huge WTF and really poorly explained and thought out. To me it made no sense whatsoever.

            The cast was good. Jesse Eisenberg I am not too much of a fan of, he is not bad but there is something I cannot like about him. Isla Fisher and Dave Franco are barely in the movie which is a total shame. Fisher is a good actress and her character seemed very interesting and she was almost completely cut out of the movie. The same goes for Franco. Melanie Laurent was wasted in this movie. Throughout the movie much kept being made that her character had never been out in the field before and she was working desk when she got the job but there was no explanation of why she was chosen. But she was wonderful with what she was given and how her character was developed. Laurent is a great actress I would like to see her in better movies than this. Mark Ruffalo I felt was wasted too. Michael Cain was only in the movie for like five minutes. Morgan Freeman’s character did too much when he should only been used for the purpose of revealing magicians’ tricks. I wish the cast could be put into a better movie they all worked well together and it was just a waste for all of them to be in.

            Now You See Me had too much going on and not too many things were explained either at all or properly. There were too many big name actors and most of them got tossed to the side. The story did not seem to be thought through too well. The big problem there is no focus. It felt like the writers wanted to show too much and they made the story feel schizophrenic. At the beginning it was all about the characters and their magic and then less than half way through it focused too much about all the magicians being a few steps ahead of the FBI and about how Dylan began to fall for Alma. The ending sucked it did not explain anything and it ended on characters that should have been in the background. Now You See Me has too much going on to be a good movie. Let me just say I spared you almost two hours of your life by watching and reviewing this.