Review: The Prestige

Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Bolden (Christian Bale) are two rival magicians in 19th century London.

Great mystery. Slightly confusing. The movie goes back and forth in time quite frequently, often without an obvious transition. Nevertheless, the plot twists and turns are wonderful. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes figuring out where the plot of a movie is going to go next.

It reunites Batman Begins' stars Christian Bale and Michael Caine with director, Christopher Nolan. Plus, no movie would be complete without David Bowie, remember Labyrinth. (He's a trained mime. That explains so much.)

My favorite parts of the movie:

The secrets
The cast
Especially Andy Serkis, what a great character actor, got to give it up for Gollum

5 out of 5 stars.

Lauren's Tidbits

The Goldblums

There is a new professor in the Geography Department at NIU, David Goldblum, who is related to Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, The Fly, Jurassic Park). I believe they are cousins. Jeff was coincidentally in the last movie I reviewed, Man of the Year. They even kind of look alike, in a nerdy scientist kind of way.

Review: Man of the Year

Comedian Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) decides to run for president after an audience member of his talk show makes a flip comment that he should.

Very funny, especially if you enjoy Robin Williams and/or political humor. Besides the comedy extending from his underground run for president, the movie also tackles the more serious vein of the fraudulent electronic voting system employed in the election. The humor and seriousness came in bursts with the movie taking itself a litte too serious. I mean in a comedy I should not almost have a heart attack from fright. Seriously.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Robin Williams
His candidness with the press

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: The Guardian

Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is reassigned after losing his crew to teach A-school for Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers which includes swim champ Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher).

A good movie about the unheralded Coast Guard. The rescue scenes were exciting but the movie was a little too long at 2 hrs and 19 mins.

My favorite parts of the movie:
The second trip to the Navy bar
The old Coast Guard pictures in the credits

3 out of 5 stars.

Lauren's Tidbits

Actress Isabella Rossellini's (Death Becomes Her, Wyatt Earp) mother was Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca). Her first movie was with her mother, A Matter of Time.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow's (Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors) mother is Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents). Her first movie was Hook.

Isabella was on Ross' (David Schwimmer) "LIST" on Friends and starred with Gwyneth in The Pallbearer.