MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

[Update 08/24/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

I think I smiled the entire movie.

I don't want to tell you too much since the most exciting part of the film is having the wonderfully delicious story unfold, so I'll just say that Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is a successful but unhappy Hollywood screenwriter. He's on a vacation in Paris with his self-centered fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her constantly belittling parents. He believes that if they move to Paris the beauty and cultural history of the city will inspire him to write the great novel that he feels is inside him. Rachel doesn't want to hear any of this and thinks that he's being stupid. As bad luck would have it they run into some friends of Inez's and this one dude, Paul, is a complete pseudo-intellectual asshole. He believes that he's an expert on fucking everything! He even gets in an argument with a tour guide at a museum! Gil senses that Inez sees Paul as vastly intellectually superior to Gil, like when Gil tries to interrupt Paul Inez shushes him and says "Gil, just pay attention. You might learn something.". Anyway, after yet another torturous evening of listening to Paul drone on and on about how brilliant he is, a very frustrated Gil goes for a walk. He's so deep in thought he ends up getting lost...and then at the stroke of midnight something magical happens.

I loved this movie and it was such a delight to see Woody back in his old form. I enjoyed it so much that I watched it twice!  As of right now MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is the best movie that I've seen from 2011. Highly recommended.

PREDATORS (2010)

Twenty years from now people will still be talking about how badass the original PREDATOR was. Twenty weeks from now nobody will remember PREDATORS was even made.

Eight dangerous people from Earth are kidnapped and dropped off in a huge rain forest planet where three Predators hunt them. The End. That's about it. Whatever you're imagining happened during the hunt is probably better than what actually happened. And I'm completely serious about that too because I've read fan fiction online that had a better story than this film.  The first 30 minutes or so were interesting, with the people getting to know each other and feeling out the situation (along with the audience doing the same), but then everything started dragged down slower and slower and characters started dying...until all we're left with is a couple of dull, unlikable bores rolling around in the mud.  Even the Predators are somehow lifeless and not even scary.

I had high hopes for this movie, since I love the original so much, but after awhile I found myself just daydreaming and bored.  By the end the entire thing is so soulless and bland that I couldn't bring myself to give a shit about any of it.

I also found all the little winks to the original film (minigun, "ugly motherfucker", Little Richard song) to be distracting and irritating. How about skip trying to be clever and shoehorn in all of that junk and instead concentrate on making a movie with some actual tension?  Adding depth to the characters, so the audience might actually give a fuck if they die or not, would have been nice also.

Overall, PREDATORS would have be better if it was just a stand alone film not even connected to the Predator Universe at all.  Watchable, but lifeless.

Part 1 – Predator (1987)
Part 2 – Predator 2 (1990)
Part 4 – The Predator (2018)
Prequel - Prey (2022)
Alien crossover 1 - Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Alien crossover 2 - Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)