A Star Studded Weekend Filled with Faulty Writing

VS

Well to be perfectly honest, I wasn't going to go out and see The Smurfs this weekend to make this blog review totally complete. However, I have been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time. I thought it was going to be the cherry on top of the summer, the solid 2-movie weekend that was going to be ever so enjoyable.

So I maybe got a little carried away. If there's ever such a good great movie weekend, it would be heaven, but not in this movie climate. However, little blue people aside, this weekend wasn't all too bad.

This big curse that harmed this weekend was poor, patchy writing. Each of these movies could have been great, but sadly the writers must have forgotten to let someone look over their scripts, because there were plot holes galore in Cowboys and it was most definitely a very bumpy up and down ride in Crazy. The real super saver of both these movies were the unbelievably fabulous casts that really help the movies' less than glamorous plots.

With Cowboys and Aliens I had one huge character complaint, however. Ella Swenson (played by Olivia Wilde) is just such a let down. She walks around like a robot for the most part, and the only words that ever come out of her mouth seem to be, "Do you remember?" Not only is she super annoying, but he character contains the most plot holes in the movie. I was also very disappointed with the amount of screen time Paul Dano had. I love Paul Dano. I think he's a pretty great actor, and it makes me really sad that he's not too often in films for longer than 30 minutes. I figured after There Will Be Blood a lot of people would like to hire him, but negative. Or maybe Dano just doesn't like being in movies. Maybe, maybe. Either way, I should have known from the trailers that he wasn't going to be a big character in this particular movie, even though his name was dropped in the early credits.

Other than annoying characters and disappointing credited actors, the thing that made this movie fun was definitely the alien design. It was really interesting, and I'm a sucker for aliens and all that :). And Indiana Jones and Jame Bond didn't hurt the funness of this movie either :)

Regarding Crazy, Stupid, Love, I found it a little bit too long. The story arc was very slowly paced. There were a few mini-climaxes throughout, which all led up to the biggest plot twist of them all, and I found this formula super hard to pay attention to. The trailers and posters promised me equal Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell time, but the first half of the film was definitely more Carell, and all the Gosling parts were actually in the trailer. Disappointment. He's The Notebook guy, why should he get shoved aside in a romance film?? Psh, there's no reason. In all honesty, the film's character are what drives the movie, not the story. The story has an interesting plot twist, but it's the same old same old really. I learned nothing new, and I felt nothing new. No tears in this one and no super fast heartbeat. I would maybe see it once more if asked, but after that I don't plan on really watching it ever again.

So this weekend was a little bit of a let down, but I guess I shouldn't have let my hopes run free!

And at last, my scores:

Cowboys & Aliens: 3/5

Crazy, Stupid, Love: 3/5