Part 1 of The 4 Part Review of My Trip to Cape Town - The 5 Movies I Watched on My Trip

Maybe about 3 weeks ago, I decided to take a fairly spontaneous trip to Cape Town, South Africa. When I say fairly spontaneous, I just mean that I wasn’t planning on it but I just went with it. So, anyway, the lack of posts in the past couple of weeks just meant that I was travelling. Anyway, to compensate for the lack of posts, here is a 4 part review of my trip to Cape Town.

Cape Town from the Cable Car to Table Mountain

The 4 parts 

1. The 5 movies I Watched on My Trip to Cape Town

2. Table Mountain and the Cape of Good Hope

3. The Pros and Cons of Solo Travel

4. The Places for Future Retirement

Anyway, since this is the first post, here is Part 1 – The 5 Movies I watched on My Trip

Just to break from tradition a bit, I’m going to do this in alphabetical order. There’s a second reason for this but I’ll get to that later.

American Reunion (Rating: 6.5/10)

As you guys know, I have been looking forward to this link for some time. In all fairness, this was never going to be a great movie or even a really good one. This was for nostalgia’s sake. It was fun to see the old gang all back together – Jim, Kevin, Oz, Finch and, of course, the Stifmeister – for their class of 1999 reunion. We even got to see Michelle, Vicky, Heather (played by a still pretty Mena Suvari), the 2 MILF dudes, Jim’s dad, Stifler’s mom, Nadia, Jessica and the Shermanator.

This movie isn’t for everyone, and certainly not those who didn’t watch the first 3 movies (I know there are spinoffs, but any spinoff that doesn’t include any of the 5 main characters doesn’t count for me) but for those who have followed these guys over the years, it’s a good watch. You’ll find yourself laughing at the crazy eff-ed up crap these guys get into as well as the banter between the group.

Yes, the plot hasn’t changed at all. Yes, the characters pretty much haven’t evolved. Yes, it’s still high-school American jokes. But isn’t that the whole point of nostalgia? Plus, it made me super keen on my year’s 10 year reunion next year.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (8.5/10)

I am a fan of movies where the main character is a kid who embarks on adventures which aren’t completely cheesy. This is such a movie set a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks. In essence, this is a movie about a boy, potentially suffering from Asperger’s, who is seeking a hidden message he believes his dad hides for him after the death of his dad. It’s quite a touching movie, particularly at the end. I think the evolution of the relationships the main character, Oskar, has with the other characters in the movie makes this movie a really good one.

That said, I’m not so sure I would wholeheartedly recommend this movie to everyone the way I would the next movie. There’s no action, there’s no romance, which makes this not a movie for everyone. But for those of you who like drama, or coming-of-age movies, I would definitely recommend this one.

Hugo (Rating: 8.8/10)

If you haven’t watched this movie, you’re missing out. This is a classic adventure-imagination movie with fantastic characters. I become more and more of a fan of Chloe Moretz as time goes on. Anyway, again, I’m quite a sucker for movies that have kids who embark on adventures which aren’t completely cheesy (not really a fan of Spy Kids type movies or that sort of thing). This one takes us to a railway station in Paris in the 1930s.

In general, I found the movie to be very engaging, very though-provoking and very elegant. The line that goes something like, “This is the place where your dreams are made,” is quite deep. If you think about it, our dreams, our nightmares, our daydreams are shaped by the things we see, sometimes the things we hear. If you’ve never watched It, a killer clown probably wouldn’t be something you dream of. If you’ve never watched The Lord of the Rings, you probably wouldn’t dream of carrying Frodo to Mount Doom. Not that, y’know, I dreamed of that or anything…

Mirror Mirror (Rating: 6.0/10)

It’s campy fun! A take on the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarves fairytale. This movie is certainly meant for kids and is full of goofball slapstick. That said, I think it’s a fine way to kill an hour and a half – it’s entertaining, it’s funny at times and some of the lines are quite witty. Plus, the Dwarves are pretty badass. Also, Lily Collins is really pretty.

The Avengers (Rating: 7.0/10)

This is the second reason I wanted to list the movies alphabetically. Yes, I know I’m kind of cheating by using “The” as the main reference rather than “Avengers”. But anyway. I wanted to rank this last just because of its hype. Speaking with my friends who have watched it, here are some comments from them:-

“I don’t think it’s that great…It’s good but not great. Everyone blends in nicely but that’s it.”

“Awesome!”

“…Maybe too much hype and expectations already.”

“Entertaining with rubbish plot, weak villain, audio visual gasm only…definitely good blockbuster movie though.”

In fairness, I generally agree with the first 3 quotes, but I absolutely agree with the last quote. It’s a really good blockbuster movie – set to generate huge amounts of revenue. There’s excellent action, big names, cool heroes who interact well together – it’s pretty impossible not to make tons of dough.

BUT the story. Man. It’s the very definition of generic. Like, every single step of the plot was hackneyed. Maybe it’s a function of having too many heroes to work with but I was quite let down by the plot. Also, the villain! Loki was hugely disappointing. I didn’t get the feeling, at any point, that he was threatening or potentially victorious. And the bit where Hulk is smashing Loki just feels like super cheap slapstick to me, which is really weak for a movie like this. Plus, I really can’t take Robin Scherbatsky seriously as Nick Fury’s right hand woman.

That said, there are things I enjoyed about the movie. Firstly, Captain America – I liked the part where everyone deferred to Captain America in the end. Plus, Captain America, like Superman, is the very definition of a “lawful good” character, to use Dungeons and Dragons speak. He’s not going to be that interesting because he’s not morally ambiguous but for a collection of superheroes, I think “lawful good” is probably the best pick to be a leader of a group of superheroes. Secondly, Hulk – good stuff making him the most badass of the characters. He is the X-Factor of that group, if he does well, the team wins. If he doesn’t, the team loses. I’m glad it came across that way. Thirdly, Scarlett Johansson. As my buddy CCW says, a “movie can just show her walking around and I’ll watch that.”

Yes, sir.