Catching Up

Captain Phillips **** One of the more engaging and intense films I've seen in the past few years. Amazing performance by Tom Hanks.

Thor: The Dark World **1/2 The pacing seemed a little off and I didn't care for the climax of the movie.  However, the dynamic and comedy between Thor and his evil brother, Loki is quite fun and entertaining.  Lots of fun action and special FX as well.  Fun after credits scene that teases Marvel's upcoming attempt at taking super heroes into space with Guardians of the Galaxy.

Gravity *** Very intense, impressively executed and solid acting by Bullock and Clooney.  Amazing special FX that you probably won't notice or necessarily think about.  For example, apparently a French reporter asked the director "What was it like filming in space?".  Spoiler alert, not a second was filmed in space.

Frozen ***1/2  Well done Disney Animation.  I had reservations coming into this.  The previews looked too much like Tangled, with snow.  I was pleasantly surprised. Great catchy music (made for Broadway), beautiful animation and a fun story with heart that has a nice, unexpected ending.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues **1/2 I didn't love the first Anchorman after seeing it for the first time.  I didn't know the Will Ferrell movie formula, I was expecting more. After several more viewings, with Will Ferrell fans, I began to appreciate it for what it is; silly, quotable, fun.  It became one of those movie that gets funnier every time you watch it.  Knowing that for part 2 helped me enjoy it much more.  I laughed quite a bit and wasn't really phased by the outrageously wacky climax, which is quite wacky.  It can get a tad raunchy in parts, but overall it's funny, mindless and quotable for teenagers.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug **1/2 I got free tickets to a midnight showing of this movie.  Mistake.  I was totally engaged and into it...until a little after the halfway point when I started to doze off.  Sleep and I battled for the rest of the movie, and come to think of it, the elves and dragon battled for the last 45 minutes as well.  Entertaining, great effects, too long and like it's predecessor it just feels less important than The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Walking With Dinosaurs *1/2 I have a tendency to get myself really excited for some movies, and I'm usually really let down by those ones.  The Star Wars prequels, the Jurassic Park sequels, Indiana Jones 4 to name a few. That said, I've never been more upset than I was while and after seeing Walking With Dinosaurs, and that's saying something considering I knew this movie had screwed up before I even saw it, thanks to the latest trailer.

Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time, it made me want to become an animator. I am to this day a dinosaur, special FX and animation nerd, so when you combine them...I'm all in.  I have always wanted to see a documentary style film about dinosaurs that uses the amazing special FX of today to realize the dinosaurs on screen.  No talking dinosaurs, just the most realistic depiction of dinosaurs in a dramatically engaging story, with the occasional narrator...maybe one of the Attenborough brothers, Richard and David?  The BBC and The Discovery Channel did this to a degree with the TV show Walking With Dinosaurs, back in 1999. It was basically a nature program, as if they went back in time and filmed real dinosaurs.  It was a huge hit and even spawned a very impressive live arena show with life-size animatronic dinosaurs.  I was hoping for something along the lines of the TV show, but with better, updated effects and a better story.  To some degree I got that, but it was all completely ruined by adding voice overs for each of the dinosaurs.  The animals mouths don't move while they talk, it's as if they communicate telepathically, but only some of the dinosaurs do.  It's as if they completed the film and a studio executive came in later and said "We need to put annoying, juvenile voice overs on all the characters or else kids won't understand what's happening". It's a shame.  The animation is absolutely beautiful and and the movie had a lot of potential for almost silent storytelling, a la the island sequences of The Black Stallion or the first 30 minutes of WALLE.  Disney's computer animated Dinosaur in 2000 was originally planned to have non-speaking dinosaurs, but alas, the studio got cold feet and made the dinosaurs speak.  An opportunity missed and a dinosaur nerd disappointed...again.