Review: The Good Shepherd

Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) is recruited into a secret society and joins in at the birth of the CIA.

A fair movie with decent performances. Although, Edward Wilson has to be the most boring character/real person imaginable and with 2 and a half hours of movie that's a lot of boring. However, the twists and turns of his life were interesting and the spy action was very intriguing, double agents, friends who were enemies, enemies who were friends. Be prepared to really concentrate on the plot as it jumps backward and forward through his life and can be confusing with all the people switching sides. Don't expect any laughs either. I think I remember one joke, hmm maybe not. But who expects laughs from this kind of movie anyway. Definitely not a movie I want to see over and over again, but an interesting story about the CIA.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Spy stuff

3 out of 5 stars.

Trailer: Shrek the Third

Review: The Pursuit of Happyness

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) struggles to support and shelter himself and his son as he pursues an unpaid intership at a brokerage firm.

An inspirational movie with striking performances. Not really much to say since it is based on a true story.

Chris Gardner's son Christopher is played by Will Smith's actual son, Jadon Smith. I also noticed during the opening credits the name Dan Castellaneta, a name I reconized but could not place since there were many actors I recognized in the movie who's names I did not know. Then this evening I randomly visited The Simpsons Movie Yahoo page and it hit me. It's Homer Simpson. He plays the supervisor of the internship program. He also happens to have graduated from my alma mater NIU. You know me and my connections.

My favorite parts of the movie:

the perfomances
randomly reappearing bone density scanners
Christopher's jokes

5 out of 5 stars.

Trailer: Epic Movie

It might of been the mood I was in when I first saw this, but I found it hilarious. Hmm.

Review: Eragon

Eragon (Ed Speelers) finds a dragon egg and when it hatches for him, he discovers he has become a dragon rider.

Disappointing, for one who has read the book at least. My husband enjoyed it but hasn't read the book. I for one understand that movies can not follow the book completely, but this version went so far as to change major parts of the plot and leave out characters who come into play in the continuing story.

First, the good news. It was visually very pleasing. The scenes with the dragon flying were great. Even the sound effects were very cool. Jeremy Irons did do justice to the character of Brom.

But beyond that there was precious little character development and at least six or seven important characters were left out. Ok, leave out a couple but six or seven. And I can appreciate leaving out some of the locations they visit along their journey so they moved some characters, fine. But when they get to their destination, there is no explanation of the new people they meet or what's going on, it's like battle and done. You don't even learn that one of the characters you meet is a dwarf and what his name even is. Plus they completely change the way the battle is played out. They change the way the evil guys dies (no spoiler there, come on you know an evil guy dies). And they tell you things you're not supposed to find out about until the second book.

I had such high hopes for this movie. But can 106 minutes of movie (less than two hours) do justice to a 497 page book? No!!

Please read the book, it's excellent. Wait to watch the movie.

My favorite parts of the movie:

visually pleasing
sound effects
Brom
Rachel Weisz as the voice of Saphira

3 out of 5 stars.

Lauren's Tidbits

Johnny Depp and pirates like peas and carrots. Besides being in the Pirates of Caribbean franchise. He starred in Finding Neverland about J.M Barrie writing Peter Pan. Of course there's Captain Hook but he also plays pirates with the four boys he befriends in the movie. The movie is excellent but don't look into their lives beyond the movie. Mr. Barrie, plus I think two of the boys, end up committing suicide. How depressing. Anyway, my tidbit is that not one but two other actors from Pirates of the Caribbean star with Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland, Mackenzie Crook and Angus Barnett. What great names. Mackenzie plays Ragetti in Pirates, the humorous lunk who always losing his eye and Mr. Jaspers in Neverland, the usher trying desperately to answer Mr. Barrie's questions about whether the audience likes his plays. Angus plays Mullroy in Pirates the portly British officer who first meets Jack Sparrow trying to commandeer a ship and doesn't believe there is a actual Black Pearl and Mr. Reilly in Neverland, the actor who ends up playing Nana the dog in Peter Pan.

Review: The Holiday

Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) are alone and depressed at Christmas. They decide to switch houses to escape their lives. Iris heads to L.A. and Amanda to England and the general meeting of their perfect guys ensues.

This movie was not quite what I expected, a lot more intelligent dialogue and far less comedy than imagined. Still cute though, but kind of boring. Despite the boringness, there were some things I enjoyed. I love the character of Iris. All the actors are great in this movie. Watch out for Dustin Hoffman's cameo.

I also love the fact the Amanda's profession is as a editor for movie trailers and throughout the movie "the movie guy" narrates her life like a trailer. Lots of fun.

My favorite parts of the movie:

Jack Black's singing
Jude Law's crying
cameos
general chick-flickyness
life trailers

4 out of 5 stars.

December Movies

Here's a list of the movies I want to see in December. It's going to be a long month...

Definite must sees
The Nativity Story
Apocalypto
The Holiday
Charlotte's Web
Eragon
Night at the Museum
We are Marshall
Children of Men

Husband wants to see
The Good Shepherd
Rocky Balboa

Will possibly see, but probably not given all the other movies coming out
Pursuit of Happyness
Arthur and the Invisibles
Miss Potter
The Good German
Pan's Labyrinth

Review: Happy Feet

Mumble sets off to discover what has happened to all the fish after being shunned from the penguin colony for his lightness of foot.

Cute movie with a message. Great music, awesome animation. At one point I was confused as to whether the people in the movie were real or animated. I definitely know at one point they were real but there were also points where they seemed animated too. Crazy.

My favorite parts of the movie:

The Music
The Animation
Robin Williams, always great

4 out of 5 stars.

Trailer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Review: Casino Royale

James Bond (Danial Craig) recieves double-o status and enters a high-stakes poker game to stop a financer of world terrorism.

Excellent movie all around. (As long as you don't mind a blond Bond, which I don't). I appreciate that the series has abadoned the cheesy-type movies they made with Pierce Brosnan, except for Goldeneye. I enjoyed Goldeneye. It reminds me of where the Batman series went before Batman Begins. The only slightly cheesy part in this movie is the unbelievable action, especially the crane sequence. However, I will give them the fact that it is a movie after all and action in general keeps getting bigger and crazier.

The dialogue between Vesper Lyd (Eva Green) and Bond is wonderful, especially during their first meeting on the bullet train. This movie also has the funniest torture scene. Probably the only funny torture seen ever.

Also, crashing Aston Martins, ouch. My dream car...

My favorite parts of the movie:

Refreshing humor
the poker game
the opening credits
Dame Judi Dench (M) is always wonderful
Aston Martins

And I must say Bond in his swim trunks, ow ;)

5 out of 5 stars.

Lauren's Tidbits

I just finished watching Full Metal Jacket starring Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Adam Baldwin. What a messed up movie. I must say that Vincent D'Onofrio is one of my least favorite actors, right under Steven Segal and Chuck Norris. He is a good actor (unlinke the other two) but all of his characters irritate me. He gained 70 pound for his role in the movie. A record just broken by Christian Bale (100 pounds from The Machinist to Batman Begins). R. Lee Emery, the drill instructor, also irritates me. He was hired to train the actor playing the drill instructor and won the role with his demostrations. (Spoiler alert: Thankfully they both bite the big one in this movie).

Trailer: Evan Almighty

Trailer: Bridge to Terabithia

I remember really enjoying this book as a 6th/7th grader.

Trailer: The Simpsons Movie

Trailer: Spiderman 3

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.