green lantern

i hate to say it, because i really love ryan reynolds, but this movie was kind of a dud. i grew up loving comic books, but green lantern never interested me. i guess that should have been an indication for me when i saw this one, huh? the story follows hal jordan, an ace pilot in the air force, as he is called to wear the ring and take up the helm of a green lantern. the movie, though epic in scale, feels really disjointed. we get to see the unhappy pilot who struggles with his father's death years earlier in an airplane related accident, but it never feels like a real motivation. we see the grand scope of the green lantern corps and all the strange creatures through out the galaxy that also have taken up the ring, but they never play any sort of real part of this story. we see the all encompassing evil that is the bad guy parallax, but its threat is never really conveyed. they even fail to truly explain what it is that the ring does. we know its the physical manifestation of will and hope, but what exactly does that mean? with out any explanation or attempt to justify its power, hal jordan can make a race track appear out of nowhere to save a helicopter. um, what does that have to do with hope? we never really see hal struggle with this new position except in the most shallow of ways: showing off to a roommate, trying to figure out the oath of the green lanterns, etc. there was much potential, but very little of it is realized with this film. sure, the effects looked pretty cool, but to what end? it felt like much of it was designed to distract the audience from the lack of storytelling. things just kind of happen with little rhyme or reason. how does hal suddenly have the strength to go from worthless hack to galaxy saving lantern in the course of one day? and that last scene! really? there was no reason behind it other then maybe everyone involved knew they didnt stand a chance of getting to do a second one so they wanted to go for it. what ever the case, this movie was a disappointment. a shiny disappointment, but that didnt help much.

sorcerer's apprentice

i've never been a huge fan of nicolas cage.  i give him a pass from time to time when the movie is really good, 'adaptation' for example.  but those movies are few and far between.  this one is a bit of fun in spite of him.  we follow a young man as he is introduced to the world of sorcery, its strange and mysterious history, and how the bag guy is trying to reveal himself and take control over the rest of the world.  it fell victim to the trap so many big movies that are trying to start a franchise do: it keeps promising the great things that will happen next time while delivering very little in the first movie.  and like so many of those potential franchise starters, this one didn't start anything.

harry and the hendersons

i have some great memories of this one from back when it was released back in '87.  i remember watching this one over and over again with my cousins!  the problem is, sometimes things that were so amazing when you are a child dont really hold up as an adult.  this is an unfortunate example of that happening...  the story is just what you would expect: a family finds a bigfoot (actually, they accidentally hit it with their station wagon...) and takes it home.  the problem though is that the creature isnt actually dead.  many zany situations ensue, few of which are actually funny.

buying the cow

you know, this one is a lot better than i thought it was going to be! it follows jerry o'connell's character as he is given an ultimatum from his girlfriend: get married or get out. she leaves him for a month to give him time to think. over the course of that time he talks with friends about the big decision, being told by his best friend, ryan reynolds, that its foolish to take the plunge. as that month passes we see a big (and rather unexpected) change in his friend as he finds his soul mate. the story was a lot stronger than the title would suggest, doing a pretty good job of exploring the situation, not just for laughs but also go allow o'connell to really struggle with the issues in his life. it doesnt end at all as i would have expected which is another nice surprise. just a warning: there is a lot of naked ryan reynolds! (i never thought i could get enough ryan reynolds, but this isnt what i meant...)

father of the bride

i remember loving this movie as a kid, i'm not entirely sure why though. usually i was in to big action movies or comedies, but for some reason this little chick flick was on my list of movies i loved. after rewatching it recently with my wife (which, by the way, was the first time she had ever seen it! shocking!), i realize that my love for it was not so strange after all. this wholesome family comedy actually is pretty funny! the movie starts with steve martin and diane keaton having the perfect middle (ok, upper) class family. the daughter just arrived back from a semester abroad and returns home with the man she fell in love with while there. and the two of them announce that they are getting married! martin does not exactly take this well. the film plays up his hopelessness about affording the wedding of his daughter's dreams, but the real challenge for him is coming to terms with the fact that his little girl is all grown up. its touching, its playful, and whenever martin short is on screen, its way over the top! its pretty saccharin sweet, but i really enjoyed it! i'm sure the nostalgia factors into it pretty heavily too, but i'm ok with that...

a christmas carol

ugh. everyone knows this story, so why did they feel the need to remake it without changing anything or adding anything new? what a waste of time! not only does this movie follow every single version of 'a christmas carol' that came before it, it also looks terrible! the motion capture computer graphics are unbelievably fake! the faces either look really fake, or frightening- and not the kind of on-purpose frightening. its the same old story of scrooge with absolutely nothing new to add or to say, on top of that the animation looks horrible and sloppy- they certainly havent fixed the 'dead eye' problem, in fact it seems like they have taken a step back, this thing looks much worse than 'polar express', and that was five years earlier. i know that this thing originally came out in 3D, and every scene of the film makes sure you know that its supposed to be seen in 3D. it uses every 3D cheap trick in the book, but unfortunately i didnt watch it in 3D, so it just looks cheap. i watched it with my wife, and about 35 minutes in i had to stop the movie because it was just so bad! the story was lifeless, the scenes felt like exact recreations shot for shot of the george c. scott version from 25 years ago, which we have already seen. and that animation! i couldnt get over just how terrible everything looked! when they showed the ghost of christmas past (which is a candle with a face- again, really terrible looking) and it brought them to scrooge as a young child, the child version of scrooge was so embarrassingly detestable looking that i shut if off immediately. just for the sake of giving it a second chance, i did finish watching the movie, hoping for something new or interesting. turns out i shouldnt have wasted my time. and please, dont waste your time either- this thing is terrible!!!