Review: Four Christmases

Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) reluctantly have four Christmases with each of their divorced parents.

Fun, silly comedy. Nothing too serious here. In fact, the whole climax at the end was kind of anti-climatic. It felt slightly unbelievable and very rushed. But really it wasn't about the end, it was about all the crazy stuff that happened getting there. Great supporting cast including Kristen Chenoweth, Jon Favreau, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, and Jon Voight.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Opening scene confusion
Baby stuff (you know, current lifestyle humor)
Brad's brothers
Nativity Play

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Quantum of Solace

James Bond (Daniel Craig) delves deeper into Mr. White's secret organization in search for answers to Vesper's betrayal.

Lots of action in this one. I love Danial Craig as James Bond. Casino Royale was definately better, but this one was still fun. It was also a lot shorter at 1 hour and 45 minutes. I did find it odd that they made such a big deal about Gemma Arterton being a Bond girl and her part was relatively small compared to Olga Kurylenko's part who I didn't hear as much about. But of course she probably didn't have 6 fingers on each hand. Creepy...

My favorite parts:

the opera stakeout
Judi Dench as M
Lot of different locales

4 our of 5 stars.

Star Trek (2009) Pictures

The new cast, from left: Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Kirk (Chris Pine), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho), and Uhura (Zoe Saldana). The one that cracks me up is Dr. McCoy is played by Karl Urban, also known as Eomer son of Eomund from Lord of the Rings. HI-larious. It doesn't even look like him.



Of course, the first picture left out Spock (Zachary Quinto, everyone's favorite Hero to hate, Sylar). He looks a litte emotional in this picture, must be showing off his human side.



The bridge looks a little different from the old school cardboard set.

Review: Wall-e

Wall-e, the last robot left on Earth cleaning up trash, and Eve, a robot sent to discern Earth's livability, embark on a adventure across the galaxy.

This was another hard one to summarize, not that my summaries are ever very good. This was a very cute movie. Very creative, especially since there was very little dialogue. I enjoyed how they combined some live action with the animation. Another knock out for Pixar. I especially loved the short before the movie. Hilarious.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Hello Dolly dance
pizza plants
Sigourney Weaver as the Ship's computer
crazy robots
too many others to list

5 our of 5 stars.

Review:The Dark Knight

Batman (Christian Bale) is winning the fight against the mob in Gotham when a new upredictable villian, The Joker (Heath Ledger), appears.

WOW. This was a great movie. Superhero, action, drama, comedy... Heath was amazing as the Joker. Truely astounding. Oscar potential? Hmm, I don't know. I really can't see the Academy giving him a pothumus Oscar, especially for this film. We'll see though.

This movies had some definate twists and turns. The deaths and non deaths completely suprised me. The story was great, pretty deep for a comic book movie, but I guess that's what we've come to expect from Christopher Nolan's Batman. I hope the next movie can continue and not dive bomb like Spiderman 3. Coincedentally, this movie beat that movie's opening weekend record with $158 mil.

Lost connections: Lost's Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), aka the guy that doesn't age, plays Gotham's Mayor in The Dark Knight.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Subtle bat sounds during the opening Warner Brothers logo
Joker's magic trick with a pencil
story

5 out of 5 stars.

Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy (Ron Pearlman) and his band of freaks attempt to save the world from an evil otherworldly prince and his aspirations to control the golden army.

That discription is vague and doesn't do the movie justice but it's really hard to summarize this movie. It was awesome though. Director Guillermo del Toro's vision is exquisite. I enjoyed "Pan's Labyrinth" for it's visual qualities. So I am super excited that he is directing "The Hobbit" and that other LOTR movie. He should do it justice.

This sequel to 2004's Hellboy does an even better job all around I would say. The story makes slightly more sense than the first. Visually, it's much better. The action was pumped up and the story has more weight. Plus, given the extreme oddness of the movie, a superhero called Hellboy and other weird creatures in an otherwise normal world, it's deals with some deep issues but also doesn't take itself too seriously.

I remember going to see the first one in the theater and really I have no idea why. I wasn't quite as crazy into movies then. I knew virtually nothing about it. Maybe I wanted to be rebelious and see a movie called "Hellboy." Then again, maybe Tom wanted to see it. He chooses weird movies. ;)

My favorite parts of the movie:

drunken love song singing (seriously hilarious)
all the different visuals
trilogy potential
John Hurt made a cameo as Dr. Broom
Hellboy as a boy

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: Hancock

Hancock (Will Smith) is a drunk, unruly superhero that almost everyone despises. After saving PR executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), Hancock takes his advice and tries to overhaul his image.

Good summertime movie, with a twist. I think that's what has so many people up in arms, it's not your standard action movie. Shockingly, it has a plot and some drama. I enjoyed it. I tend to like most Will Smith movies though, and from his box office takes, who doesn't really?

My favorite parts of the movie:

Unexpected twist
the moon
"Wolverine" comment

4 out of 5 stars.

Trailer: James Bond: Quantum of Solace

Trailer: The Tale of Despereaux

Very interesting book. One that I was not sure I like once I finished reading it. I think I will have to give it a second change. It's a cute enough little fairytale.

Review: Kung Fu Panda

Po (Jack Black) is a huge fan of Kung Fu and the Furious Five. The time has come for the Kung Fu Master Ooway to chose the Dragon Warrior and in what seems like an accident chooses Po.

Cute movie overall, funny, visually awesome looking (wish I could have seen it better), and it had a good message. Fun family fare.

We saw this at a drive in so we could haul junior along. He slept the entire time which was wonderful. But I don't know if it was the movie or just the way the drive in projects but it was a dark movie color wise and really hard to see on the screen sometimes. So I feel like I missed a lot of the cool action visuals. There was a nice bright sweeping shot at the beginning that you don't really see in animation. I guess I will just have to catch it again on dvd.

Unfortunately, my husband fell asleep during it. Take that to mean what you will. But I did enjoy the drive in. Their consessions were reasonably priced and they showed Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons before the show. I was mad that it said the movie would start at approx. 8:30 and then didn't start until after 9. Can you be a little closer please?

My favorite parts of the movie:

voice casting
"skadoosh"
visuals

4 out of 5 stars.

Tropic Thunder Promo

This is quite witty and hilarious until the parts with the crotch bashing. I just don't ever find that funny, plus it's extremely overdone anyways. So if you can get past those parts, it's still pretty darn funny.

Trailer: City of Ember

Great book. The sequel "The People of Sparks" is good as well. The third book in the series, "The Prophet of Yonwood" was actually a prequel and didn't really fit into the series too well in my opinion.

Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, and Martin Landau star in the film, as well as, Mackenzie Crook, the one-eyed pirate in "Pirates of the Carribean" and Liz Smith, who plays Laticia Cropley in the "Vicar of Dibley!"

Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdon of the Crystal Skull

Everyone's favorite whip weilding archeologist is back after 19 years in an all new adventure.

A fun, fun, fun movie. Not as great as Raiders or Last Crusade, but still good Indiana Jones. It's hard to write any sort of review without spoiling everything in the plot, so I won't even try.

Harrison Ford slips easily back into the role. Shia LaBouf's Mutt Williams is a neat sidekick. Sadly, Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood is totally underused and Cate Blanchett's russian accent is quite laughable.

The hero in this story is my mom who watched my two week old for three hours so I could go out and see this movie. YEAH!!!

My favorite parts of the movie:

Warehouse Box
Atomic Bomb
Motorcycle chase through Princeton
"Part-time" teacher
Reference to storyline in "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" tv show

5 out of 5 stars.

Review: Iron Man

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) builds a super suit while prisoner in Afghanistan. Once he escapes, he perfects his design back home to become Iron Man.

This was a great movie. Action, humor, drama, romantic tension. Downey Jr. is perfect as the bad boy Stark, very dry wit. Gweneth Paltrow is charming. Jeff Bridges is kind of odd in his character.

I admit to knowing nothing about the comic book series which is probably a good thing for this movie. Iron Man is not the most popular character but his movie franchise is in excellent hands. Director Jon Favreau did an amazing job and even gets a cameo in as one of Stark's bodyguards. The next installment is due out in 2010, only two years, pretty ambitious.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Casting
Stark's robots' personalities
Storyline
Flying in the suit

5 our of 5 stars.

Feb-March-April

In those three months, I only saw two movies and they were both mediocre at best, Jumper and Fool's Gold. Movie pickins were rather slim those months.

Jumper was cool visually, the rest just ok. The plot was kind of confusing.

Fool's Gold was enjoyable because I saw it with two of my friends and I like Matthew McConaughy and Kate Hudson. The story behind the treasure was super confusing to me and the rest of the plot was so-so.

I would say these are ok to rent but probably not worth my money to see it in the theater.

3 out of 5 stars to both.

First Look: Quantum of Solace

Trailer: Star Trek

Review: Rambo

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is living in Northern Thailand when he is hired to transport missionaires to war-torn Burma. After the villiage they are aiding is attacked, he returns hired mercenaries to the same location, tags along, and does his thing.

Bleck, what an awful violent movie with barely any plot. I will say Tom enjoyed it and I have never seen the first three. So maybe my opinion doesn't matter, but anyway... I tried to convince Tom to let me see Juno while he saw this, but no dice.

My favorite parts of the movie:

None really, although seeing this movie allowed me to find out that my crappy movie theater put in those nifty digital projectors in all their theaters, yay!

1 out of 5 stars.

Heath Ledger dies at 28

This shocked me so much that I actually cried when I heard about it. Now, that could just be pregnancy hormones and such, but still, I couldn't believe it. I had a huge poster of him up on my wall through out college. I loved him in A Knight's Tale and even more so when I found out he was the guy in 10 Things I hate about you. I've seen 6 of his 15 released movies and plan on seeing A Dark Knight, his last finished film.

Review: 27 Dresses

Jane (Katherine Heigl) likes to please everyone, loves weddings and has a secret love for her boss. Imagine the problems that arise when her helpless sister gets quickly engaged to her boss.

I loved, loved, loved this RomCom*!!! I told Tom I wanted to see it again in the theater. I don't think I can get him to see it twice though. ;)

Nothing spectacular here, just hilarious and cute. I think I was just really in the mood for that type of film so I am probably overplugging it, but oh well.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Showing off the 27 bridesmaid dresses
Arguing with Kevin (James Marsden)
Her sarcastic best friend Casey (Judy Greer)

5 out of 5 stars.

(*** RomCom = Romantic Comedy, it took me ages to figure that out because I saw it in reviews and such all the time).

Review: Cloverfield

Mysterious monster attacks New York City the night 5 New Yorkers are attending a going away party and film their experiences.

I was so pumped about seeing this movie ever since the crazy trailer in front of Transformers. For me, it did not disappoint. I have read very conflicting reviews of people who loved it and people who hated it. I loved it. It was unique with its camera work, marketing, and story, but still very traditional in the monster movie sense.

I was sad when my plans changed and I had to see it at our crappy local theater. However, I was slightly placated when they showed at the beginning that it was being projected with a new digital movie projector and surround sound. (Wow, I thought the 17 commercials and trailers at the front of the film looked remarkably crisp). (Yay, for the awesome Star Trek teaser, more on that later).

I knew going into it, as most people should have, that it was all done with hand held cameras, a la Blair Witch Project. So we sat more towards the back than the front. I had no problems with the shaky camera. It also wasn't too too scary for me. I only remember wanting to look away once. It also shocked the crap out of me at a couple points, which I loved.

I know the people behind us hated the ending as did some others I've seen online, but I thought the ending was very appropriate given the entire story arc. Oh, and it's a monster movie, people die during the movie, ok, didn't you see that coming??? Crazy complainers.

I know J.J. Abrams only produced the movie, but is was another reason I wanted to see it. I suppose I am just interested in anything his name is attached to. Plus, check this out. A scene from the very beginning of the film, I think, anyone recognize the symbol in the corner?



That's right, a Dharma logo, CRAZY easter eggs. I love it!

My favortie parts of the movie:

Hard to define, I enjoyed it immensely!

5 out of 5 stars.

Short Reviews

The following two reviews are rather short because I saw the movies back in December and it's much harder to remember what I thought about a movie I saw that long ago. Hey, at least I am finally updating things.

Review: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Benjamin Gates (Nicolas Cage) is back on the hunt for proof that his ancestor was not involved in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln which of course leads to... Treasure!

Pretty much more of the same here. So since I greatly enjoyed the first one, I also enjoyed the second one. I think the critics bashed it because it was more of the same, but isn't that really what fans are looking for in a sequel?

My favorite parts of the movie:

New characters played by Ed Harris and especially Helen Mirren, as Ben's Mom
Arguments between Ben's Mom and Dad
What's on page 47 (or whatever the number was)?
I love Riley Poole!

4 out of 5 stars.

Review: I am Legend

Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the last human survivor in New York of a worldwide plague.

I greatly enjoyed this story. It was a bit more scary than I thought it was going to be, but I still enjoyed it. It did move slowly in some places but I mean it is mostly just Will Smith by himself.

My favorite parts of the movie:

video store visits
quoting Shrek

4 out of 5 stars.