90 - Hot Tub Time Machine

Connection To ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO - Craig Robinson

I'm a sucker for time travels movies - whether there going backwards or forwards - I like The Butterfly Effect, despite some wonky acting from Ashton Kutcher - but for some reason the first time I watched Hot Tub Time Machine it did nothing for me.

Which is weird because another thing I'm a sucker for his the 80's - which is the exact time period they go back to. So I ended up watching this again, just out of everything's packed away and there is nothing else on the television, and I wouldn't go as far to say my opinion changed to love, but I ended up liking it.

The film literally sees our main characters go through time via a hot tub to the 80's which is when the ski-resort there are at now was booming - John Cusack, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry even look like there 80's self to other people, the fourth member of the group played by Clark Duke who's Cusack's nephew in this gets to look like himself having not been born then.

To be honest it does shock me even after upgrading to like that this film is getting a sequel, it feels like the films story was told and there is no need for a further adventure in my opinion.

The main 4 do make a good team and there's some faces familiar to 80's movies fans (William Zabka, Crispin Glover, Chevy Chase - yeah I'm aware these had careers before and after that decade). Lizzy Caplan as the love interest for Cusack doesn't particularly have that much to do.

Overall, not my favourite time travel movie at all, there's bits that are at least funny and more stuff clicked for me the second time I saw. Watch like I did if there is nothing else on.

83 - A Thousand Words

Connection To A.C.O.D. - Clark Duke

A Thousand Words was made in 2008 but didn't see a release in 2012, and even skipped cinemas over here in the U.K. altogether (though it got advertised at one point), I actually don't think quality was the reason is what kept it from release for so long but rather to do with studio separation and all that.

As a film I felt there was elements I actually liked of this movie and I think film most reminded me of was Click - high concept which starts as a comedy but then gradually becomes more of a drama in a lesson to get a man to change his ways for the better. A Thousand Words as a tree grow in Eddie Murphy's garden that leaves fall off every time Murphy speaks and he'll die once the last one has fallen...

Now I'm not holding up Click as a classic but I think that movie did it better then this did, you don't quite feel Eddie Murphy is selfish enough to be the one forced to go through this journey, sure he could spend more time with his wife (Kerry Washington) and kid and should listen more but the path he was heading down was not drawn clearer like in other films.

As the wife, Washington is mostly wasted just getting to stand there being annoyed or upset at Murphy, though there is a scene where she dresses sexy to try and rekindle their relationship, though some of his male co-stars such as Cliff Curtis and Clark Duke have more to do, Curtis particularly stands out to me from the bunch.

In the end though it's a weird choice to have Eddie Murphy where his voice is one of the key elements of his success forced to be quiet for big parts of the movie

Overall not bad, doesn't have anything in it though (I guess sans Washington dressing sexy) that I'd want to revisit, this is a watch once movie and that's it.

15 - Kick-Ass 2

Connection To PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED - Jim Carrey

I really enjoyed the first Kick-Ass movie, for me it was a great mix of comedy and bloody violence with some very enjoyable characters with a great performance from the often entertaining Nicolas Cage and an argument could be made for a little star being born in Chloé Grace Moretz and though the film wasn't a huge success at the box-office, the film did well enough (including things like DVD sales) to earn a sequel.

Kick-Ass 2 was a film I had been waiting to see for a while just based off of how much I enjoyed the first, sadly Cage's Big Daddy was no more we will at least have another famous over-actor in Jim Carrey - who ended up refusing to publicize the film after the Sandy Hook massacre - and we got the return of at least a few of these characters.

To be honest in this sequel, there is a lot evident that is both good and bad - it's a film of stengths and weaknesses that come together only sort of well - I wouldn't call it a bad movie nor would I call it great, the best way I would describe it for me is a film that at times can be good.

Aaron Taylor Johnson in the lead role is as good as he was in the first one as in not awful but not spectacular (there is pattern here in how I'm describing things), and it's the supporting cast who are much more fun - Christopher Mintz-Plasse who is now going by name of Motherfucker rather then Red Mist and is a wannabe supervillian who early on accidentally kills his mother in a sunbed accident making him the sole heir in the family fortune with the only loyal company of John Leguizamo (who I really enjoyed in this movie). Anyway Kick-Ass is attempting to have a normal life but convinces Mindy to train him to be a real superhero, but that becomes at odds when her guardian convinces her to be more like a normal girl, which she really does try and be

Kick Ass ends up joining up with a band of superheroes including the enjoyable Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars and Stripes - whose not in it as much as you would think, speaking of not in it as much as you think Lyndsy Fonseca as the girlfriend from the last movie is little more then a cameo meanwhile Motherfucker as put together his own group of villains.

For me the negative of the movie is the violence doesn't really mesh as well with the humour, at times stuff just seems mean-spirited, while at other times just a touch too dark and is just ultimately not sure what tone it is going for. The film has some memorable moments but none quite match up to Hit-Girl trying to save Big Daddy and Kick-Ass in the first movie but we do get a girl thanks to Hit Girl both vomiting and shitting at the time (makes sense in the context of the movie)

Which brings us to the ace in the hole of the movie, which was true of the first one and that is Moretz, she's so enjoyable that I wouldn't be opposed to spin-off movie sans Kick-Ass - it's possible I would have done without the Mean Girls style scenes but the pay-off (mentioned above) is memorable like I said and it sort of cool how they played up the biological aspect of her and Kick-Ass's relationship (I know there Dave and Mindy but I just didn't want to keep changing between names)

Overall an enjoyable if occasionally uneven movie. I would certainly go for a third (which there are some clues of that happening) but I would want them to study more the first one then this one.