Movie Reviews: Crazy Captain Pooh with Benefits

Winnie the Pooh, image property of Disney.
Friends with Benefits, image property of Screen Gems.
Captain America: The First Avenger, image property of Paramount and Marvel.
Crazy, Stupid, Love, image property of Warner Brothers.

Sometimes I see a lot more movies than I have time to write about!  It’s a problem I’m sure many of you are familiar with.  Or not.  I read somewhere that the average person only goes to a movie theater three times a year.  That’s so little!  I’ve seen three this week alone!  Did you know that including the four I’m about to review now, I’ve seen forty movies this year?

Winnie the Pooh ADMIRABLE

There’s something about simplicity that can be so magical.  Based on the A.A. Milne books, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh is as charming and uncluttered as you can get.  The storyline is fairly shallow on plot, but it’s brimming with happiness—even if Eeyore is characteristically glum.  Pooh is hungry, Piglet is scared, Tigger is energetic, Owl is full of himself and Rabbit is as bossy as ever.  The story loosely revolves around Eeyore’s lost tail and a creature called a “Backson” that may or may not have captured Christopher Robin.  I particularly enjoyed a segment of animation done in a chalkboard style and the music which features actress/singer Zooey Deschanel.

Friends with Benefits AWESOME!

I was incredibly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie!  Mila Kunis plays Jamie, a headhunter from New York City who convinces Dylan (Justin Timberlake) to leave the website he works for and take an art director job for GQ Magazine.  The two become friends and swear that they can have sex together without it becoming complicated.  This leads to some sexy, funny love scenes between the two, and if you were not in love with Justin Timberlake before, you will be after.  SO HOT!  The movie playfully makes fun of all the rom-com clichés while following the formulaic rules anyway.  However, it does it with some really funny dialogue and a chemistry between the two leads that cannot be denied.

Captain America: The First Avenger ADMIRABLE

In many ways Marvel’s Captain America is the best superhero movie to come out this year.  Chris Evans plays our hero, Steve Rogers, who begins as a short, scrawny kid from Brooklyn.  He wants nothing more than to join the army, but he can’t.  He meets Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who gets him into the army where he meets Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who quickly becomes the pin-up girl of his dreams.  Dr. Erskine recognizes Steve’s courage, and with the power of science turns him into the tall and hunky Captain America!  Hugo Weaving plays the villain Red Skull, who is unfortunately more goofy-looking than menacing.  I enjoyed this movie for its 1940’s nostalgia and action, but only wish there was more to Peggy and Steve’s relationship.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. AWESOME!

I have a feeling that a lot of people won’t like this movie as much as I did, but I loved it.  It wasn’t quite the comedy that the trailers made it out to be, but for me, the movie had a lot of heart and feeling and wasn’t afraid to explore all the messiness of love—even unconventional love like the kind a teenage girl secretly harbors for the father of the kids she babysits.  It covers a lot of ground while staying quirky, screwball, and optimistically hopeful that soul mates exist and that love is worth fighting for.  Steve Carell stars as Cal, who’s wife (Julianne Moore) announces she’s slept with someone and she wants a divorce.  Rejected and depressed, he goes to a trendy bar where he meets the ladies’ man Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who shows him a few tricks of the trade… that is until he meets Hannah (Emma Stone) who is a “game changer.”  Carell, Gosling, Moore and Stone deliver some remarkable performances and Marissa Tomei is always a delight to see onscreen, even in her small role here.

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