The Runaways

The Runaways

Released:
March 19th (limited)
April 9th (everywhere)

Starring:
Kristen Stewart
Dakota Fanning

Directed:
Floria Sigismondi









Plot Summary:

The movie chronicles THE RUNAWAYS from 1975 - 1977; formed by teenage girls living near Hollywood, CA., and heavily manipulated by their manager Kim Fowley as 'jailbait rock' (all the girls were 16 or younger when the band recorded their first album). The band ultimately succeeds on their own merits as musicians, becoming the first all-girl rock-band to ever break into the world of arena-filling hard rock acts. (imdb.com)

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I was definitely looking forward to see this movie when I saw the trailer for it. I admit I am a hardcore punk rock fan and even more so when its an all girl band so I was being a total fangirl for this movie.

Since it was made by an independent production company, Apparition, they tried to do a lot of promoting for it. They sent t-shirts, mini one sheets, pins, guitar picks, and static clings to my theater to promote it but the bad thing is that they sent it a day before the movie was supposed to come out. BAD! You are supposed to promote months in advance, if not earlier.

Look at Alice in Wonderland and Eclipse, they have been promoting their movies forever.

That should have been a sign to rethink my fangirl status but nope, I was still excited to go see it. It was a big disappointment, I remember sitting in the theater after it was over and thought to myself, "What was that?"

Going into the movie, I knew I was going to deal with the typical "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll" but this was way over the top. Every other scene was alcohol, jailbait, drugs, and lesbianism. The make up on Kristen Stewart made her look like a lesbian from the beginning and watching lesbian sex scenes with Dakota Fanning just doesn't sit right.

The movie was over the top but the plot was on point. It was very informative when it came to the band itself but the story was really one sided. I know it was about Cherie since she wrote the book but maybe the writers could have researched better and put the input of the other band members other than Joan Jett and Cherie.

I'm trying to pin point a specific part of the movie that I really liked but I honestly can't think of one. Well, the music was good.

The biggest disappointment was that in the trailers it emphasized the hardship of breaking into the industry because they are girls but in the movie, it was instant success and the only hardship they had was that

SPOILER! (highlight to reveal)
"Cherie ended up getting a diva complex and leaving the band."

Rate this movie:

Meh. It's not worth it.

Repo Men

Repo Man

Released: March 19th, 2010

Starring:
Jude Law
Forest Whitaker

Directed: Miguel Sapochnik









Plot Summary:

In the future humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called "The Union". The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don't pay your bill, "The Union" sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property... with no concern for your comfort or survival. Former soldier Remy is one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company's top-of-the-line heart-replacement... as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart's no longer in the job. When he can't make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy's former partner Jake, to track him down. (imdb.com)

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I was definitely looking forward for this movie to come out. Even though they're were long email arguments between myself and the marketing representative of Universal Studios about the official release date, I am glad that they decided to release it March 19th rather than April 2nd. I believe they only have one sheets (movie posters) that say April 2nd but that is something completely different.

The movie itself was one of those movies that are not necessarily good but is fun to watch. The movie was more plot driven than most movies that come out today. Most movies that come out are more focus on box office success they are willing to pay extra for special affects rather than a strong plot (i.e. Avatar) But with Repo Men, the plot is strong and they actually stay consistent with it.

My biggest pet peeve when in comes to movies, is when they don't stay consistent to the plot. The definition of plot is:

1- Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.
2- a list, timetable, or scheme dealing with any of the various arrangements for the production of a play, motion picture, etc.: According to the property plot, there should be a lamp stage left. (dictionary.com)

The whole purpose is to create a storyline and when you change the plot just for box office success, it cheapens the overall product. (i.e. Disturbia)

Repo Men successfully, in my opinion, kept a constant plot and interacted with the audience, with is a BIG PLUS!

The biggest tool a screenwriter or a director can use in making a movie is to interact with audience within the movie, but in a subtle fashion.

The most successful example of this within the movie is when Remy counts and explains each time in his life when he gets knocked unconscious. By the 2nd and 3rd time you find yourself counting along with Remy.

The only real issue I have with this movie is the lack of character development. There are many instances where people seem to act out of character.

SPOILER: (highlight the phrase inside of the quotation marks to reveal the spoiler)
"Remy goes into cardiac arrest in the first place because of a faulty machine but later on in the movie, you find out that Jake rigged the machine so Remy would gets hurt and not go into sales."

This is really strange because Jake is supposed to be Remy's best friend and by behaving in this manner is kind of obsessive over Remy. Before this scene there isn't any sign of this type of behavior.

One final part of this movie that I absolutely loved was the fact that the end is such a twist, that it reveals things earlier on in the movie that you did not see before.

SPOILER: (highlight the phrase inside of the quotation marks to reveal the spoiler)
"Like when Remy get's knocked out for the last time, after that he no longer narrates the story. You don't really realize this until you find out that Remy is in fact brain dead, so he can't even think for himself anymore."

Rate this movie:

Must see if you love wonderfully terrible movies, Jude Law, and lots and lots of blood.