Tag Archives: Amanda Seyfried

Re-Watch: Mean Girls (2004)

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Mean Girls
Director: Mark Waters
Writer: Tina Fey
Based on: Rosalind Wiseman‘s book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence
Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Jonathan Bennett, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows
Seen on: 3.8.2016

Plot:
Cady (Lindsay Lohan) spent basically her entire childhood in Africa* with her zoologist parents (Ana Gasteyer, Neil Flynn), but now they have returned to the USA and Cady finds herself in a regular (USAmerican) high school for the first time in her life. She is understandably overwhelmed, but finds first alliances with outsiders Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese). But also the Plastics, the popular girls of the school led by Regina (Rachel McAdams) take an interest in Cady – and Cady will have to figure out where she fits in and who she is.

(*I am not sure anymore whether it’s specified where in Africa, or if this is yet another case of “Africa is a country”. But neither wikipedia nor imdb give any hint other than Africa, so I’m leaning towards the latter.)

I watched Mean Girls a few years ago and found it entertaining enough and on the better end of the teen movie spetrum, though not amazing. Since it has gained quite a cult following (on tumblr at least) in the meantime, I thought I’d give it another go. But it didn’t really change my first impression of the film.

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Fathers & Daughters (2015)

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Fathers & Daughters
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Writer: Brad Desch
Cast: Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, Diane Kruger, Quvenzhané Wallis, Bruce Greenwood, Janet McTeer, Kylie Rogers, Jane Fonda, Octavia Spencer
Seen on: 17.6.2016

Plot:
Jake Davis (Russell Crowe) is an award-winning writer with a lovely daughter, Katie (Kylie Rogers). But after his wife dies, he falls apart. While he tries to get better in a psychiatric facility, Katie goes to live with her aunt Elizabeth (Diane Kruger) and uncle William (Bruce Greenwood). Even after Jake returns, things are far from easy.
Many years later, Katie (Amanda Seyfried) works as a counselor for kids like Lucy (Quvenzhané Wallis), even though she obviously has many issues of her own. When she meets Cameron (Aaron Paul), those issues might destroy everything.

I had little to no expectations regarding Fathers & Daughters, but I was still taken aback by it. It is perfectly obvious why this move tanked as much as it did. It probably should have tanked more.

fathersanddaughters

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Love the Coopers (2015)

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Love the Coopers
Director: Jessie Nelson
Writer: Steven Rogers
Cast: Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Alex Borstein, Timothée Chalamet, Maxwell Simkins, Blake Baumgartner, Amanda Seyfried, Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei, Olivia Wilde, Jake Lacy, June Squibb, Anthony Mackie, Steve Martin
Seen on: 9.12.2015

Plot:
Christmas is just around the corner and Charlotte Cooper (Diane Keaton) is preparing for Christmas dinner with her family – her father Bucky (Alan Arkin), her sister Emma (Marisa Tomei), her husband Sam (John Goodman) and their children Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) and Hank (Ed Helms) including his currently-divorcing wife Angie (Alex Borstein) and their children Charlie (Timothée Chalamet), Bo (Maxwell Simkins) and Madison (Blake Baumgartner). But not all is well with the Coopers: Sam wants to separate from Charlotte but has promised one last Christmas without the family knowing. Emma gets caught shoplifting. Bucky’s closest relationship – with waitress Ruby (Amanda Seyfried) – is threatened when Ruby tells him she will leave town. Hank has lost his job in addition to the divorce and doesn’t want to let his family know. And Eleanor would rather spend the day at the airport than one minute longer than necessary with her family. There she meets soldier Joe (Jake Lacy) and hits it off with him.

Love the Coopers is exactly what you’d expect from an USAmerican Christmas family movie. It’s basically trivial, but rather nice to watch.

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While We’re Young (2014)

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While We’re Young
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writer: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ben Stiller, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Maria Dizzia, Adam Horovitz, Dree Hemingway, Charles Grodin, Peter Bogdanovich
Seen on: 11.8.2015

Plot:
Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) have been together for a while and are quite settled in their lives as their friends left and right start to have children. Josh gives lectures at uni and works on the same documentary he’s been working on for years, Cornelia works as a producer with her father Leslie (Charles Grodin), a famous documentary filmmaker. One day after class Josh is approached by Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried), a young hip couple. Josh is flattered by their admiration and they start to hang out together more, making both Josh and Cornelia painfully aware that they are not 20 anymore. But maybe they can change that.

While We’re Young wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I had fun for the most part, but the end did leave a weird taste in my mouth.

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Epic (2013)

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Epic
Director: Chris Wedge
Writer: Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember, James V. Hart, William Joyce, Daniel Shere
Based on: William Joyce‘s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Aziz Ansari, Chris O’Dowd, Christoph Waltz, Beyoncé Knowles, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Judah Friedlander, Steven Tyler

Plot:
M.K.’s (Amanda Seyfried) mother just died so he moves back in with her father Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), a very confused professor who is convinced that there are tiny people living in the woods and taking care of it. A theory that got him laughed out of every scientific community. But then M.K. discovers that he was right and finds herself caught in the middle of a struggle between the Leafmen who let the things in the forest grow and the Boggans who let them rot.

Epic was funny, totally sweet and very entertaining. I was very pleasantly surprised by the entire thing.

Epic

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Les Misérables (2012)

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Les Misérables
Director: Tom Hooper
Writer: William Nicholson, Herbert Kretzmer
Based on: Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg‘s musical which is in turn based on Victor Hugo‘s novel
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, Daniel Huttlestone, Isabelle Allen, Colm Wilkinson

Plot:
Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) has just been released on parole after years in the galleys for stealing some bread. Police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) doesn’t really want to see him go as he doesn’t trust in his rehabilitation. And he almost seems to be right – as Valjean takes the frist chance he gets to steal from a priest (Colm Wilkinson). But when said priest shows him mercy, Valjean takes the chance to build a life for himself, though skipping parole. Years later, he is a successful factory owner and mayor, when Javert comes to his town. At the same time, Valejan gets drawn into the life of one of his factory employees, Fantine (Anne Hathaway) and her little daughter Cosette (Isabelle Allen/Amanda Seyfried) and decides to help her.

Les Misérables is pretty epic, as can only be expected from a musical based on a Hugo novel. And while the cast mostly does very well with the epicness, neither Tom Hooper nor cinematographer Danny Cohen were up for the task.

les-miserables

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Chloe (2009)

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Chloe
Director: Atom Egoyan
Writer: Erin Cressida Wilson
Remake of: Nathalie…
Cast: Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, Max Thieriot, Nina Dobrev

Plot:
Catherine (Julianne Moore) and David (Liam Neeson) have been married for quite a while and they’ve grown rather distant. And then Catherine starts to suspect that David is having an affair. When by chance she meets the young prostitute Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), she asks her to try to seduce David to test his loyalty. Which can’t really end well.

Chloe is a good thriller with interesting dynamics between its main characters, especially Catherine and Chloe. But the ending did not convince me. I just thought that it went a bit over the top.

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Jennifer’s Body (2009)

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Jennifer’s Body
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Diablo Cody
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Megan Fox, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, J. K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Cynthia Stevenson, Chris Pratt

Plot:
Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried) have been best friends since about forever, even though by now Jennifer is the school’s most popular girl and Needy is kind of a geek. But everything changes when the two of them head to a concert by the up and coming band Low Shoulder. The band plans to insure their success by sacrificing a virgin – a plan that horribly backfires when they mistakenly think that Jennifer was one. Suddenly Needy finds herself with a pretty evil best friend.

I was one of the few people who were not utterly enchanted by Juno and also Jennifer’s Body didn’t convince me of Diablo Cody’s writing in general. That being said I did like this movie much better than I thought I would. Especially every time it got out its sense of humor.

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Gone (2012)

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Gone
Director: Heitor Dhalia
Writer: Allison Burnett
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley, Emily Wickersham

Plot:
Jill (Amanda Seyfried) just got back on her feet after being kidnapped, not being believed by the police and having a psychotic break, when her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham) disappears from their house. Jill is convinced that her kidnapper is back and that he took Molly, but the police won’t believe her (again). So Jill sets out to find Molly on her own.

I hadn’t really heard good things about this film but I decided to see it anyway. Boy, do I ever regret that now. Rarely have I seen worse acting or a worse script. And they weren’t even funny with their badness.

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In Time (2011)

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In Time
Director: Andrew Niccol
 Writer: Andrew Niccol
Cast: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, John Galecki, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer

Plot:
In a future where everyone stops aging at the age of 25, but dies when the clock in their arm hits zero, time has become an actual currency, much sought after by the poor. Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is one of them, struggling everyday to find the next 24 hours to survive. After the death of his mother (Olivia Wilde) and a chance encounter with the suicidal Henry (Matt Bomer), who has over a century, Will finds himself with more time on his hands than he had ever seen before – and the police and time keeper Raymond (Cillian Murphy) on his tail, suspecting him of murdering Henry. So he decides to make a run for it and hit it big in the rich center of the country. But he soon finds that he has increasing doubts about the entire system.

I was more than willing to give In Time the benefit of the doubt. “Yes, all the reviews I read say that this film is incredibly stupid,” I thought. “But maybe they were all wrong? And even if they aren’t, maybe it’s still enjoyable?” Sadly, neither was the case.

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