The Bad plus the Good

So I saw some bad movies and some good. Let's start with the bad:

First up was "House at the End of the Street" with Oscar Winner Jennifer Lawrence and Oscar Nominee Elisabeth Shue. Jennifer plays high schooler Elissa whom moves to the perfect house which is situated next door to a house that a double murder took place 4 years prior. There's a discovery that a college age boy lives there by himself as his sister killed their parents. Sounds interesting enough? The uninteresting part is why she did it and the entire backstory. It's as though some writer didn't like the original way the story was going and changed it but then had to commit to it. SO BAD. Out of 5 stars it gets 2 for the amazing acting alone. 

Second bad movie was "Brave" where in the animated world you feed your mother food and she becomes a bear. The whole point of the story is this Irish Princess doesn't want an arranged marriage. The mom turning into a bear via trickery from a witch yeah I don't get the connection to this girl. I understand it won the Oscar for Animated Feature, but I'm thinking there was nothing else worthy out that year cuz I didn't get it. It turned a profit at the box office, but not like Pixar's other movies. Maybe it's called Brave because Pixar was Brave enough to release this mess. 2 stars out of 5 for animation and acting.

And the final bad movie I saw was "Justice League: Doom." The usual voices that were popular to the animated series were present. Especially the iconic Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne (He is the actor to first decide to use two distinctive voices for Batman and Bruce Wayne on the 90's Emmy Winning cartoon). The story starts off with a bank robbery that involves all the Justice League, but has nothing to do with the rest of the story. Then the story of how villains band together against the Justice League is just soo thin; it even repeats itself by using the image of multiple villains. This movie was so bad I kept falling asleep through it. Had to watch it 3 times to finally finish it. There's even this weird "Kill Bill Vol 2" moment in the movie for Batman (that's all I will give away). The villains are laughable not dangerous. 2 stars out of 5 again due to the animation being amazing, but the plot being atrocious.

Now onto the good:

First up is "Batman: Under the Red Hood." I DID NOT like the voices. Although I am partial to Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne I was not put off by it. The only voice that threw me way off was John DiMaggio as The Joker. The plot is that prior to becoming the Joker Jack Napier wore a Red Hood, but chased by Batman and fell into a vat of acid changing his face into what we see as the Joker today. Someone has picked up Joker's Red Hood and is infiltrating the streets of Gotham as the new Crime Boss. This movie is very much in the vein of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. I'd give it 5 out of 5 stars. The twists and turns were amazing along with the animation.

And finishing my Batman obsession would be "Batman: Year One" based on Frank Miller's comic. This starts from the beginning as Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham and tries cleaning up the streets. It details how he came up with Batman, how he found the Batcaves, how he got his gadgets, and how he becomes a beacon of hope. It's DARK though; even darker than Nolan's movies (for example we see James Gordon in boxers and nearly naked; as well as Selina Kyle being a short haired prostitute). I loved it and cannot wait for Year Two. 4 out of 5 stars as it wasn't perfect for me but it was damn close.

Next up "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" thru Netflix.