Tuesday, January 31, 2012

2012 King of the Hill Movie Challenge


Hanna v One For the Money

Clutch battle! Can Stephanie Plum topple the undefeated Hanna in the 2012 King of the Hill Movie Challenge? I can assure you, this will be the LAST movie of January. The only thing that I'll be watching from now until February is tonight's episode of New Girl. There will be no movies for me until February.  The winner of this battle will be going to the brackets.  Let's get this battle started!

For those who do not know, the 2012 King of the Hill Movie Challenge is my system for determining the best movie of year that I saw. One movie from each month will be selected and, at the end of the year, I will do a tournament style showdown where they will take each other on until the final movie has been selected.  Bracket placement will be determined by the number of movies the monthly movie faced and won.  

Challenger: One for the Money
Director: Julie Anne Robinson

Writer: Stacy Sherman, Karen Ray, Liz Brixius. Based on the novel by Janet Evanovich

Starring: Katherine Heigl

One for the Money is the story of Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl), a former lingerie store manager who is need of money. She picks up a job, working for her cousin as a bails bondsman. Her first target happens to be a cop on the run, Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara). Stephanie and Joe have a bit of history, and Stephanie is very eager to bring him in for her reward of fifty grand.

The movie certainly wasn't bad. It definitely deserves better recognition than the ratings I've been hearing about online. The story was impressive and fast paced. Stephanie's character is clearly over her head at the start of the film. As the story progresses, you see her develop. This sort of character growth was a great addition to the film. The movie also deserves props for the humor. There were some absolutely hysterical scenes. The movie also did a good job of blending the humor, action, and suspense together.

Before I get into the problem areas of the film, allow me to take a moment to rip apart the opening credits. Those opening credits were horrible. I'm sorry, I was rolling on my sides laughing about how horrible those credits were. I could not believe that they were associated with the film. It struck me as more of a “lipstick James Bond” opening. Maybe that was the point and I missed it. It really set a bad precedent for the movie. You do not want me snarking at a movie before the opening credits have finished.

While I liked the movie, it wasn't a perfect film. Although the plot was impressive, Stephanie had a lot of information fall into her lap. I wanted to see her find more of these leads in the movie. That just wasn't the case. For example, Stephanie goes to have dinner with her family only to find out they have invited over a blind date. This blind date happens to drop a piece of critical piece of information into Stephanie's lap. I'd have liked to see less of the plot bus coming to her and more of her hunting down that very bus. This was, really, the most negative I could get. The problem with this film is that while it had a good story and good character development, it wasn't anything special. No part of this movie jumped out and made it exciting. And, that isn't going to be enough to topple Hanna.

Winner: Hanna

January King of the Hill Movie Summary:

January King of the Hill Winner: Hanna

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