transformers: revenge of the fallen

wow, what a load of crap this movie is. i had heard terrible things about it, but for some reason i still wanted to see for myself. sometimes when people talk about a movie being bad, i still want to see it because it might just be a fun kind of bad. well, this one wasnt. it was a bad kind of bad. the story (if you can call it that) is set a few years after the first one and our hero is heading off to college. turns out that the transformers arent done with him yet, and the action begins. and then it never stops. the problems with this film are many, here are just a couple: first, all the transformers look alike, when they are in battle (which happens to be all the time) it is so hard to make any sense of what is going on because they all look the same!!! another problem comes from the characterizations of the robots, there are a couple of them that are really really terrible stereotypes that every time they were on screen i would cringe with disgust! another problem with the film is that it seems like everything has to be over the top. not just over the top, but over the top of the top! let me give you an example: not only does the main character have to have a barking dog, but that dog has to be humping another barking dog, not only that, but they have to be humping on the couch, and again later on a bird feeder?!? that doesnt even make sense! and that example is in the first 5 minutes of the movie- it gets much worse from there!
i guess that will teach me to buy into the advertising hype...

where the wild things are

this movie is stunning. i dont really have any sort of fond memories of the book its self, but the commercials for this one drew me in. its a children's story, but the movie is not really geared toward them, its a very dark and depressing film that mines the depths of sorrow and sadness. not really the stuff of children's fair. there isnt anything offensive in it and would be perfectly appropriate for children, but much of it would be over theyre heads and they might consider it 'boring'. that is not the case at all for me. i found this film to be enchanting and very moving. the story follows a boy named max as he deals with normal life. he lives with his mom and big sister. max is a bit strange and seems to be antisocial. he has a great time building a snow fort and throwing snowballs at his sister and her friends, but once one of the friends comes over and destroys his fort he gets very mad. he takes out his anger on his mother and is sent to his room. from there he escapes and somehow winds up in this magical land filled with creatures and beasts. the movie follows his time with the beasts, who are pretty somber wild things, to say the least. there is fun at first, but it quickly deteriorates into more sadness and the realization that life is not all fun and games. some times things can hurt.
the film deals with this sadness in a way that really shows what it can be like to feel depressed. by the end, nothing is solved, but thats like life, nothing gets solved, we just learn to deal with it. a moving lesson for max to learn, and a moving film for us to learn it too.

forgetting sarah marshall

finally got around to seeing this and it is pretty funny! i really like jason segal, and he does a great job in this one. his lazy sad-sack roll here was played perfectly and the contrived story of him going on vacation alone to the same place that his ex is actually played pretty well. it was almost believable that they would happen to be in the same resort accidentally- just because its one of those things that is so ridiculous that it becomes believable.
we follow him as he tries to come to terms with his break up and as he begins to fall for one of the girls at the resort. we also get a look into the relationship his ex is having now, which is where we meet up with russell brandt- who is hilarious!
the movie is a lot of fun- hey, its worth watching just for the muppet vampire song!

meet the robinsons

this was on tv the other day and diana wanted to watch it, so we gave it a shot. the story follows a young orphan boy who loves to invent, he tries to get ready for his school's science fair, but while there he meets another boy who says he's trying to save him from the man with the bowler hat. the orphan goes with him and is shown a time machine where they go into the future, where the second boy is from. while there he meets the family and they all work together to defeat the bowler hat guy. if that sounds strange, it aint the half of it! this movie is very random and startlingly unusual! turns out, the bad guy isnt the guy, its the bowler hat! there are also a bunch of singing frogs! and a t. rex. huh?!? i dont know who this movie was intended for, but i'm sure it gave most people a pretty good headache. there are some really fun moments through out the movie, especially when we first meet the future family- there is a really great bit with tom selleck! after watching the whole movie, i'm pretty sure the writers were smoking some pretty strong stuff...

joseph: king of dreams

i watch this movie at least twice a year. not necessarily because its so good, which it actually is pretty good, but because i show it to my sixth graders every hear as we go over the story of joseph. this animated movie was a straight to video release from dreamworks a year or two after their first foray into biblical animated movies with 'the prince of egypt'. this one follows the story of jacob's favorite son, joseph. the animation style is the same as prince of egypt and fits perfectly with the story being told. the style actually varies a lot during the dreams joseph has or interprets. each of the dreams have a unique style from the rest of the film and are done mostly with computer images instead of hand drawn images like the rest of the movie. in fact, one of the dreams actually looks like a moving van gogh painting- very cool! the story strays from scripture quite a bit, but the ideas and basics of the tale are still there. the original songs are good too, there arent any musical number that get everyone on screen singing and dancing, rather, most of the songs are sung as if it were a commentary on the story, used over top of a montage. ben affleck does a good job as the speaking voice of joseph, with this kind of vocal talent, its obvious that dreamworks had high hope for a continued bible themed video franchise. its too bad they didnt make any more, if this one is any indication, there would have been quite a few more good ones to come!

failure to launch

ugh. remember when matthew mcconaughey had so much potential? when he first burst onto the scene in 'a time to kill' he was heralded as the next great actor. so why does he keep making such trite crap as this?!? i'm guessing its one of those situations where he had to decide 'should i work hard and make great movies, or should i just take it easy and cash in the big checks?' with movies like this, 'how to loose a guy in 10 days', 'fools gold', 'ghosts of girlfriends past', and others, i think we know exactly which choice he made...
this movie is like so many other cookie cutter romantic comedies that its not really even necessary to talk about the plot. the movie is lame, its only saving grace is the best friends of the two generic leads. zooey daschanel plays the strange best friend and gets all the best lines, mcconaughey's buddies are played with comedic success by justin bartha and bradley cooper (who later worked together again, with much success, in 'the hangover'). the two leading characters are worthless and bland, but the best friends pull the movie from a one star to a two star rating.

p.s. why do the men in these movies always end up getting together with the woman who was a total jerk to them? seriously? sarah jessica parker's character was hired to pretend she likes him so that he would move out of the house. how could he possibly forgive her for that?!? the whole relationship was built on a lie! she manipulated him for money, and then planned to break up with him once her requirements had been met. thats just plain evil! i'm sorry, but i don't think any chemistry in the world is going to overcome that terrible reality. and to top it all off, we as the audience are supposed to root for this terrible woman? thats messed up! in the real world, he would have yelled at her and never spoken to her again. also, those are some pretty messed up parents to hire her in the first place! they seem like such a nice family, why didn't they just talk about it with him? argh, these contrived premises are so ridiculous!