Movie Night - Admit Two #1

You dont have to watch the movie in the theatre. It can be at home and it doesn't have to be a recent movie.

So, we just review one movie and tag both of our partners? Or do we do different movies for each partner?

@ user2637. One movie, don't have to be recent either. Sorry, I was out of town. Just returned.

@ thebragal & sksavestheday ) Movie Night - Admit 2 #1

I'm not really a movie lover but got pissed about "After Earth" with Will Smith. Anyway the movie I am talking about now is "Whitehouse Down"
1. What drew you to this movie (e.g. cuts, reviews, friends)?

A friend invited me. But from the trailers it looked exciting.

1. How much excitement did you build before seeing the movie? A good set of excitement. After all Jamie Foxx was in it. I love him (as an actor)!!!

2. Did it meet your expectations. Why or why not? Thought I was able to follow like I wrote the scenes. I thought it was a good movie. Edgy, comedic, entertaining, non-sexual content (YEA!!!)

3. Was the previous works of any actors important. Did any character carry over from a previous movie (e.g., Will Smith's Fresh Prince Character carried over to Independence day)? Of course the works of Jamie Foxx drew me in. Though his previous character from the Jamie Foxx Show carried over a little it lightened the tragedy

4. What would you change about the movie? Still trying to figure that out. I'm sure there are some scene that could be left out but I'd have to see it again.

5. Thumbs up or thumbs down... Was the movie overpriced? My goodness thumbs up. My friend paid for me though.

6. Was this movie out of the norm that you would watch. Why or why not? It's hard these days to say what's the norm for me. If the trailers look good. I'm in.

7. Is there anything interesting about the lighting, the camera angles, the sound, the timing which would reinforce a particular theme? Being able to predict next step in the story line was interesting. Most of the scenes were predictable.

8. Where there certain scenes you had envisioned differently? Explain I had envisioned the father and daughter having a better relationship than portrayed.

9. Would you recommend this movie even if it was free. Why or why not? Yes. It was creepy how the security head could pull off such a tragedy. The story line was believable, and it took me back to 9/11. Maybe I'm a wust???

Review of World War Z for @capi and @ montanaw

1. What drew you to this movie (e.g. cuts, reviews, friends)? I saw the trailers and wanted to see it but at first I didn't know what the 'Z' stood for. But I like movies with dark themes and I was curious to find out what these crazy, creatures were who everyone was running from. Then my hubby came home and asked me if I knew what it was about. When he filled me in that 'Z' stood for zombie, my jaw dropped. Yea! As an supreme fan of The Walking Dead, something pretty extreme would have had to happen to keep me from seeing it in the theatre.

2. How much excitement did you build before seeing the movie? Uh, see above. :) Made worse by not having a babysitter for the first three weeks the movie was out. My son is autistic so we can't get just any babysitter. :(

3. Did it meet your expectations. Why or why not? Absolutely. I wanted to be scared and I totally was. I stopped eating my popcorn part-way through because I was too anxious to eat!

4. Was the previous work of any actors important? Did any character carry over from a previous movie? Not that I know of. The character might be similar to ones he's played before but not so similar I could name a specific movie.

5. What would you change about the movie? There was one close up zombie scene I didn't like, especially the sounds the zombie made. He sounded like a strangled chicken with reverb (a music sound effect). The scene was too long and too weird. And, I can't give too much away but I thought the main character's friend should have fought harder for his family. And seriously, everyone knows when you work around zombies you put your phone on vibrate!! (If you watch it, you'll know what I mean!)

6. Thumbs up or thumbs down... Was the movie overpriced? Thumbs up! 4 1/2 (out of 5) stars! Aren't they always overpriced? I'd have been happy to see this in regular rather than 3-D so in that way it was overpriced but here in Canada every movie is the same price so if you mean was it worth seeing in the theatre then yes, for sure! Many scenes will not translate well to the smaller screen.

   1. Was this movie out of the norm that you would watch. Why or why not? Right up my alley. But to be honest, I don't usually watch horror in the theatre to make sure no one in my church finds out. Though its my choice what I watch and everyone knows that, I don't want to offend anyone.

7. Is there anything interesting about the lighting, the camera angles, the sound, the timing which would reinforce a particular theme? As I noted above, the sound effects were interesting. And I can't imagine how they shot or CG'd some scenes. They were just so intense and insane! Amazing! Some included many hundreds of extras and tens of thousands more computer gen zombies. And the stunts teams had to be extraordinary. I do remember noting a couple of cool camera angles which were more typical of stills than video but I'm afraid I don't remember exactly what they were now. Everything reinforced either they anxiety, fear and panic of the zombie scenes or the worried stillness of the rare times when they weren't fighting for their lives for a few moments. The music also reinforced that and was also a cue to what was about to happen. When the music got spooky, you knew to swallow your drink and not grab any popcorn while you waited to see what happened next. And you could relax when the music toned down. Like any good action movie, but the highs were more intense than almost any movie I've seen.

8. Where there certain scenes you had envisioned differently? Explain. There was one scene where zombies are climbing a massive wall around a city. The zombies look like ants climbing on each other to get out of water or fire (saw on a nature show). From the trailer, I could never have imagined how scary it would be to actually watch the scene and understand what was going on and the context involved for the humans on the other side of that wall and what it meant for the main character. I felt similarly about a scene in a plane with the side torn open. The emotion surrounding the scene is missing in the trailer. When seeing it in context, I was so rooting for the character and really felt for him and also for the other passengers suffering in various ways.

9. Would you recommend this movie even if it was free. Why or why not? For sure! As long as you can handle scary, intense and violent scenes. If you like happy, happy, joy, joy movies with feel good endings this is NOT for you.