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.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010)

Twenty-two year-old George-Michael Bluth is dating a hot girl who's 17. For some unknown reason, his cockblocking hipster friends constantly badger the living shit out of him over this. Then, one night at a party he sees a really cute girl (his age) with pink hair. He dumps the younger girl, hooks up with this new girl and now must "battle" her seven "evil" ex's.  He does, he wins and he gets the girl. The End.

I liked this movie for what it was (at least it tried to be somewhat original), but I was still disappointed. I'm not sure what I expected, but I was really wanting to be blown away and taken for a wild ride. Instead, it's just a bunch of hipsters sitting around talking like they're way down on Quaaludes. Finally, we get to the fight scenes and they're just ehhhh. I never got any since of danger from them. All kinds of violent shit would happen to George-Michael, but none of it ever hurt him. He'd get slammed through a wall or bashed in the face repeatedly and he's still be standing there with those intellectually disabled puppy dog eyes and adorable stroke victim mumble-stutter talk that he always does.

What would have been cool is if, instead of being just one step above "The Power Rangers", SPVTW would have gone for an dark R-rating and thrown in some gritty, blood soaked violence. But, I guess, that's not what the filmmakers were looking for. Oh well.

Mildly interesting watch, but with absolutely zero tension and terrible music I felt disconnected from the entire thing. Worth a watch, but that's about it.