Saturday, December 25, 2010

True Grit

A 14-year-old girl sets out to bring her father's killer to justice.  She enlists the help of an aging US Marshall and a Texas Ranger to track him down.

I love this movie!  I do.  I have seen it twice already and would gladly see it again.  There is absolutely nothing spectacular about it but it totally sucks you in.

The dialogue, a lot of which is verbatim from the original, is so clever and sharp.  Take notice that they don't use conjugations, very cool.

The casting was really amazing too. I was shocked that Jeff Bridges was able to take on the John Wayne role and make it his own and, strike me down for saying so, but I think even better. He is much more unkempt and unsympathetic which as a character makes him more believable.

**** Oscar Worthy


Rated PG-13 (violence)

Sunday, December 19, 2010

How do you know

How do you know when a movie is just a complete and total waste of time?

You do now.


* Not-A- Chance


Rated PG-13 (sexual content and language)

Friday, December 17, 2010

Tangled

The legendary tale of Rapunzel is told with the touch of the fairytale masters hand; Disney. You all know the story; Rapunzel and all of her flowing, golden locks is kept in a tower by her evil step-mother until a prince, or outlaw, comes along and shows her the world outside.

Solid addition to the Disney princess movie lineup (although I liked Princess and the Frog better). I think it's kind of dumb they changed the name of the movie from Rapunzel to Tangled in order to attract more boys. But that aside this was a very well done and very fun movie. I thought they went just a little too far on the adult humor side and a little too far away from the classic princess tale, but not a huge complaint. The music is made for Broadway, so don't be surprised to see it there soon (the song on the water at the mid point of the movie is very good). The characters are likable, although I thought the villain wasn't quite evil enough. The look of the movie is beautiful, it's what I always imagined the classic hand-drawn Disney movies to look like in CG and 3D. Fun time at the movies and well worth a visit to the theater.

*** out of 4 - See it

Mega Mind

Metro Man; superhero with super powers. Mega Mind; super villain with super intelligence. The two have been rivals since birth, continuously battling for control of Metro City. As one of their routine scuffles is coming to an end, something unexpected happens...Mega Mind wins, giving the bad guy all he ever wanted, or so he thought.

This was a fun yet average addition to the DreamWorks library of animated films, about at the Monsters VS Aliens level. As with the aforementioned movie, it has a very fun idea with a lot of potential but fails to give in to the moments that could have given it the heart it needed to be solid. It seems like it didn't take itself quite serious enough, maybe in an attempt to keep more Will Ferrel type humor. The visuals are amazing, especially in 3D, and there's some fun and endearing moments. But overall it's pretty forgettable. I also thought Brad Pitt's character was a little under-used. I think it's out of theaters by now, but worth a rental when it shows up at RedBox.

**1/2 out of 4 - Rentable

Tron: Legacy

A young man looking for his missing father is sucked into the same world of vigilante programing and gaming.  His father has been there for the past 25 years and now they must make the journey home.

I do NOT remember anything about the first movie other than the guy got sucked into a video game. Yeah that is it.  I probably should have watched it before I went and saw this but just never got around to it and figured they would bridge the gaps in the sequel.

Soooo..... yeah. Ummmm.... this was dumb.


* Not-A-Chance


Rated PG (for mild language)

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The Tourist

Frank, an American tourist traveling around Italy is deliberately singled out by Elise, a mysterious woman that seems to have put him in a great deal of danger.

So I went into this movie expecting the Bourne Identity and got Miss Congeniality.  Ok maybe it wasn't that extreme but it was such a huge disappointment.  It was as though someone forgot to inform Johnny Depp that this was an action flick.

It is extremely slow and as an audience member I felt that I was always ten steps ahead of the story waiting for it to catch up.

* 1/2 Rentable I guess


Rated PG-13 (for violence and language)