lion king 1 1/2

i recently rewatched this with my nieces and nephew and was reminded of how much fun the film is. the set up for this direct to video sequel of the original lion king film is that it starts off with timon and pumba sitting down to watch lion king. they get a little bored and instead want to watch what they were up to during the story of the first film. its a pretty clever concept: we get to see the events from the first film played out through the eyes of timon and pumba! now, in the original film they dont show up until about half way through, so there is a lot of story about simba and his family before we see timon and pumba doing their thing. this movie shows us what the were up to during that time, and we get their perspective of all the events of the original film. when all the animals are bowing to the new lion cub simba when he is born, timon and pumba were just traveling through to find a place for themselves to live, when simba is singing at the watering hole, timon and pumba were just trying to have a nice quiet day at the beach and are rather annoyed by all the singing and dancing. the interweaving of this original story and the events of the first lion king movie is very fun to see, and we still get a good story of timon and pumba making a place for themselves in the world and growing up themselves.
this movie is definitely a fun one to watch right after the original lion king.

time machine

i cant really explain why, but i really like this movie! individually the pieces are all below average. the story is weak, it spends too much time on things we dont care about, and not enough on the interesting ideas it develops. the make-up for the morlocks is terrible and the finally is laughable. the people he meets in the far future are bland and uninteresting, and the bit with the library hologram is just plain stupid. but for some reason it still works! i think mostly it has to do with guy pierce as the lead, he brings emotion to a film that has very little to say. the first ten minutes of the movie are by far the best, when pierce looses the woman he loves and tries to get her back is the real core of the movie, all the stuff set in the far future is completely meaningless to the core mission of the character, therefore we never really invest in that part of the story. i will give it one thing- that time machine and the traveling through time effect are just plain amazing!

annie

i didnt grow up with this one, so i think a lot of its magic is lost on me. many people who loved this movie look at it with the nostalgia of when they first saw it. since this was the first time i saw it, i dont have any sort of love for what it was. looking at what it is now, though, is not really very good at all. i'm sure that it also might have to do with the fact that i am a 30 year old man, and this movie is not meant for me. the story follows the little orphan annie as she tries to deal with a head mistress who exploits her and the other orphans. when someone comes by to adopt annie, it turns out to be the richest man around, daddy warbucks. he tries to adopt her, but she is holding out hope for her real parents to come back and get her. little does she know that they were actually killed in a fire. the unscrupulous head mistress, though, sees a money making opportunity now that daddy warbucks is involved, so she sets up a plan to have a couple pretend to be her parents. there is much confusion and all of it is coated with a thick helping of song. its nice enough, but i dont think its meant for me. and it has not aged well, either...

taken

this one is just a good old fashioned revenge thriller. the story is simple, the main character's daughter gets kidnapped and he must try and get her back. the twist comes from the fact that the man who's daughter was taken is a man who does this for a living. the previews said it all when they show the conversation between the kidnappers and the main character. this is where we get the amazing line from liam neeson while he's on the phone with them:
I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
right there, that hooked me and perfectly explains the film. i think that that line alone sold the movie and brought it over 145 million dollars! now thats what i call good marketing!

spy game

i really like this film! i'm not entirely sure why, but i like this one. the story is about a young undercover agent who has been caught and thrown into a chinese prison and the u.s. government doesnt want to do anything about it. the veteran agent who trained him tries to pull as many strings as possible to get him released. as the thrilling story unfolds, we are given flashbacks to when the two of them were working together. there are some really cool scenes where we see redford first training pitt to be a spy- the movie is worth seeing just for that part alone! the way redford tries to make an escape mission come together all the while not letting on to the people he is being investigated by, create some great thrilling moments of tension. i've said it before, but robert redford is just one of those actors who you cant take your eyes off of him! and pitt is no different in this film. watching the movie is like taking a masters class in acting- and its got a bunch of explosions too! hurrah!

harry potter and the half blood prince

recently my wife and i rewatched the last three harry potter movies on dvd. i was not all that impressed. for some reason i just havent been able to care about any of these characters, and none of the past five movies have changed that. till now. the latest installment of the franchise takes a pretty substantial turn, no longer is it so much about the cheesy little magic effects, which i always thought were an annoying distraction. instead, there is a focus on real character development and relationships growing and changing. this film finds harry potter living with his godfather and unsure about returning to hogwarts. the head wizard shows up and we get to see some character moments between the two of them as they track down an old teacher who knew voldemort when he was a student and sheds light on who the bad guy is. along the way we get to see some real development between the kids who we have followed for the past five films- they are actually turning into adults! the little moments between the kids are what really make this movie work. also, the directing on this film is magnificent! finally, the series is shifted from the basics to being a real work of art. the shots and the angles that the director chooses for the scenes really help tell the story and further immerse us in the world of the story. this director is doing the next two films as well, which means i eagerly await them! finally i am on board the harry potter express!

oceans 12

the first time i saw this movie i thought 'well, that was fun', but as i watch it again i start to think that maybe i thought it was fun because i loved 'oceans 11' so much and really wanted this one to be good too. but there's one problem: it isnt. in the first one the twelve guys assemble to pull the ultimate heist in las vegas, they succeed with style and its a really fun romp. this one isnt quite so much fun. the set up feels really forced, we left the guys on a high note, but now we see that most of them didn't use the money very well and now they are being blackmailed to get the money back to the guy they stole from. (spoiler warning) they then have to do it all over again, but there is this strange contest thrown in by some french guy who wants to prove that he is better than them. okay... the first heist goes bad, then the second heist goes bad, only to find out that they had already stolen the object weeks earlier. lame. when the twist ending shows that none of the stuff before it really mattered, then its a crappy twist ending. sorry guys, i looked like you were having fun making it, but by the end i wasnt having fun watching it.

g. i. joe

going to see this was not my choice, i like to believe that i have better taste then that. the guys came down for the weekend and were all really excited (for reasons i cant imagine) to see this movie. so we went. and boy, did it suck hard!
i would try to summarize the movie first, but i'm not entirely convinced that there was a storyline to begin with. it really just felt like they had some ideas for action scenes and filled in some random talky bits in between just to fill the time requirement. was the movie good? oh, by no means could i say it was anywhere near good. so, what was wrong with it? everything. its done by the same guy who directed 'the mummy' and its sequel, and 'van helsing', so you know the whole point of the film is just to 'look cool' and sell some toys (the film was co-produced by a hasbro, a toy company after all...). the problem is that nothing in it looked good! even the free gimme of the black ninja 'snake eyes' was screwed up- they gave him lips?!? what the?!? ok, do you really want me to give you an example of how stupid the movie is? well here goes: at one point they are in an underwater base under the arctic circle (dont ask) and are afraid that some bombs are going to go off and blow up the surface and it will all come raining down on them and destroy the base. there is just one problem: the surface of the arctic circle is pure ice, they can bomb it all they want because ice doesnt sink! the base would not be affected by this in the slightest- the base is under water!!! they then proceed to blow the bombs and the ice, defying the laws of physics, sink to the bottom and destroy the base. wow. to say nothing of the random background guys who are busy burning the walls in the hallways of the base...
i guess what i'm trying to say is this: dont bother. i went to see it so you don't have to. who's the 'real american hero' now, joe?

g-force

this one was a turd. i knew it was going to suck going in, i mean, look at the premise: its a group of gerbils who can talk working for the government as secret agents. there really is no way for this thing to be good. at least it was in 3D, so i could at least sit back and enjoy the visuals. i got so bored during the film that i was actually focusing on the 3D element exclusively. i watched with the glasses, and also checked it out for a couple minutes without the glasses. when i did this, i made a little discovery. i figured out how they make it look like things are coming off the screen! turns out that the image itself is smaller than what is projected. that means that they are projecting black borders around the picture. this is important because when something looks like its coming off the screen, its actually breaking into the black borders that are being projected on the screen. kind of cool!
well, i guess it shows you how bad the film was if all i have to say about it is the 3D effect, huh?

about a boy

i'll admit it, i'm a sucker for hugh grant. i know his charms are supposed to work on the ladies, but i fall for it as well (not entirely sure what that says about me...). this film is a romantic comedy, except that it isnt. hugh grant plays a millionaire bachelor with nothing but time on his hands but no interest in sharing that time with others. no man is an island, but he sure is trying to be one! he doesnt mind one night stand visitors though... through a strange connection, he meets a 13 year old boy who latches on to him. the boy has no father at home and a suicidal mother, and is terribly gawky and awkward. all he wants is a place to feel safe and he finds that with grant. through the course of the movie the two of them form a bond that changes both of them for the better.
the main draw of this movie is obviously grant, but another aspect that i really liked is that this is a romantic comedy for guys. there doesnt end up bring any sort of cheesy romance, instead it focuses on a guy who learns its time to grow up. when i first saw the movie i related very closely with the hugh grant character (not the millionaire part, but the island part). seeing it again i relate even closer with him, but the him he becomes at the end of the movie. all in all, a great chick flick for guys!

the hangover

all that hype? worth it! this movie is a great display of some new and fresh comedic voices getting a chance to take center stage. it is certainly the freshest comedy since '40 year old virgin'. the story is pretty basic, four guys head out for a bachelor party in vegas, things go horribly wrong and they have to try and figure out the next day what exactly happened. the premise is told as if it were a mystery story and the guys go around trying to piece together clues. the three of the guys, bradley cooper who plays the smooth operator, ed helms, the uptight guy in a bad relationship, and zach galifinakis is the uncomfortable little brother of the bride who they invite reluctantly. all three of them are given real moments to shine as they try and figure out what went down the night before. the mystery takes some really strange twists, but all of them play out so perfectly! i was genuinely laughing so hard that my stomach hurt after the movie was over! pure hilarity!

matrix revolutions

though its the worst of the three, that is still high praise. the second and third movies were made at the same time, but the feel quite disjointed. even watching them back to back, the third one is lacking. the main reason this one isnt as good as the second is because many of the interesting ideas presented in the second one are dropped in favor of resolution and action. the merovingian and the architect show up again, but this time it just seems like a rehash and watered down version of what we saw in the last film. where 'reloaded' soared with ideas, this one brings those ideas crashing down on their heads. even the shocking realization that neo can use his powers outside of the matrix is never dealt with and never explained. the action is great, but it all looses its deep roots in favor of billowy shade.
one bit that i did really like in this third film was the direct metaphor of the new testament. in the story neo is the christ figure who must give his life for everyone else's salvation, even to the point where the resolution is that anyone can have freedom from the machines if they ask for it- very christ like. in this metaphor, we also see morpheus as peter, the strongest supporter of neo through out the films. at the critical moment though, we see morpheus doubt neo and turn from him just as the machine crows. when it is all said and done, we also see that morpheus will become the rock that neo's church will be built on, his faith once again restored. a very touching allegory that cements the depth of neo's importance and his message. though the machines are still around, satan smith has been defeated and now those who believe are made free.

matrix reloaded

it might be an unpopular stance, but this is actually my favorite of the three movies. the first one was amazing and mindblowing, it shows us a new world and takes us 'down the rabbit hole' into these new ideas. but i feel that this second film delivers more. it follows our intrepid hero as the humans prepare for the machine war ahead, but it takes what was set up in the first one and amps it up. the action is amazing, from the highway chase to the burly man fight, and everything in between it is breathtaking. but even with all that amazing action, the best parts of the film come from the quieter moments, the times when they dig deeper and explore the depth of layers to this world. the dinner with the merovingian, where he talks about causality, and the architect who discusses the structure and design of the matrix. all the ideas and explanations they give are so interesting that it takes the film to another level, its not just an action-fest, but it is a challenging philosophy and theology as well. this film is all about sharing the possibilities of this world, giving glimpses of the breadth and scope of what movies can be, challenging the mind and also racing the pulse.

the matrix

this one was a game changer. the depth of the ideas in the film along with the mind blowing visuals changed the entire history of movies. from here on out, 'the matrix' became the benchmark of films. everything before this is now outdated, and everything after it has been trying to catch up. this is at its heart an updated adaptation of alice in wonderland. as neo goes down the rabbit hole he finds a new world and discovers his place in it. the creation of 'bullet time' and the depth of its philosophy showed that there can be such a thing as a thought provoking action movie. all of this, along with style in spades, makes this a landmark film. though the story was continued in the two sequels, this one stands alone as a complete story and a look at a turn-of-the-millennium culture at its best.

40 year old virgin

this movie is absolutely hilarious! comedies dont get much better than this. this movie hearkened in a new style of comedy that focus on emotionally immature men trying to grow up, but had a strong heart. in fact, this style of comedy has become known as an apatow style movie, named after the director of this movie. that says a lot about how great this one is. the movie follows carell's character as he befriends some of the guys he works with, the discover that he is still a virgin, and go about trying to get him a girl to deflower him. the guys all give different advice, all of which fails horribly (but allows for some of the best humor in the movie!). carell is perfect as the optimistic man-child who never really grew up, but had a heart of gold. the rolls of the bad advice giving friends are filled by such big names as seth rogan and paul rudd. their turns here are directly responsible for their success since- one of the funniest parts of the movie is where these two guys are playing video games and talking, going back and fourth saying 'you know how i know you are gay? because...'. but what is so wonderful about the movie is that carell's character really is a great guy. he knows what's right and does his best to stick by that, he's just been a bit unlucky in love. the heart warming undertones are what make this movie shine, allowing it to be so much more than just a simple gross-out comedy (well, its that too...).