spitfire grill

i dont exactly remember what drew me to this film in the first place, but i do love it! the story follows a woman, percy, recently out of prison, as she tries to rebuild her life. she asks to go to a small town and is put in the care of a woman who owns a local restaurant called 'the spitfire grill'. the crusty old woman, played by ellen burstyn, is willing to whip her into shape. as burstyn begins to let down her guard, percy begins to ask her about some strange things that have been taking place. since this is a small town, the locals have taken an interest in percy and her sorted history. you know how it is, the small town ladies will gossip... the town seems to be falling apart because of percy's arrival, and burstyn falls apart as well. percy must take care of the grill on her own and also finds out the truth behind the old woman's secret.

this is a great movie. the whole transition from inmate to grill owner is done with honesty and difficulty. percy's transition and her involvement in the workings of this small town are told with sincerity. this isnt a sappy movie or anything, but i found it to be deeply moving. as percy finds out about the old woman's secret, there is a scene in a field that chilled me with its beauty and truthful spirituality.

cloudy with a chance of meatballs

i watched this one with the kids and thought it was pretty cute. the story is about a man who invents stuff and one of his inventions is designed to make food. well, something goes horribly wrong and it starts making food that is really big. a news weather girl comes around to investigate and the two of them fall in love. its strange and kind of fun. (sorry, i dont remember the movie that well, but i found it rather enjoyable)

mission impossible: 2

after watching the twists and turns of the first one as it slowly builds to an exciting ending, this one was just too much. the second mission impossible movie seems to be trying to do the opposite of the last film. intrigue? nope, instead we get big loud stunts. subtle? nope, just big and loud. twists and turns? yes, but not necessarily in a good way. its a bit over the top with everything and the story line, a rouge agent from the past wants to bring down the whole group, was done in the first one, and better! i will admit one thing though: it looks amazing! this is director john woo at his best. beautiful explosions, dynamic action, and doves everywhere! its a fun crazy ride, but not nearly as good at the first one. but it does get bonus points for tom cruise's amazing hair!

mission: impossible

there's this guy i read online (scott mendelson, you can find him here) who talked about how the mission: impossible movies were a showcase for directors and that they were amazing examples of their work, so i figured i would check them out again to see what he saw.
i wasn't so sure about this myself, i remember when i first saw mission: impossible i kind of thought it sucked, so i guess it was worth revisiting. the story follows ethan hunt, played by tom cruise, as he's on a mission that goes bad. he tries to figure out what went wrong and has to go rouge to figure it out. there are a ton of twists and turns along the way, some of which i think i missed the first time out. to be honest, i'm really glad i gave this one a second chance because it is a really good movie! cruise is perfect as the cocky agent who is unwilling to accept that the perfectly planned mission went so horribly wrong. the technology and disguises are a lot of fun, reflecting back on the super cool tv show. also, the action is pitch perfect- there is a reason why the scene of tom cruise hanging from the ceiling is so iconic: because its so good! the tension and excitement are flawlessly executed making for some great action and fun twists. it was certainly better than i remembered it!

moulin rouge!

the first time i watched this movie i dismissed it because of the chaotic feel of everything that was going on. it gave me a spinning headache, so i tossed it aside as a jumbled mess of a movie. recently my wife convinced me to give it another try. turns out i was wrong- way wrong! the chaos that is going on is intentional and actually improves the whole movie. the story is all about love, the main character, played by ewan mcgregor, accidentally finds himself face to face with nicole kidman- who he instantly falls for. as the two of them fall further and further in love the chaos around them swells with over wrought joy and pandemonium! the songs, mostly taken from modern hits, meshed and changed to fit the story, are soaringly beautiful. even though the two leads do not have the greatest of voices, they more than make up for it with passion! i guess the first time i watched it i didnt see the beauty of the forest because i was too overwhelmed by all those trees! after giving it a second look, i now understand what all the fuss was about- this movie is fantastic! no wonder the movie has an exclamation point in its title...

unbreakable

back when 'the sixth sense' was still a fresh memory and the director m night shyamalan was heralded as the next big thing he released this gem. its an intimate story of a man who survives a train crash. when he returns home he and his estranged wife decide to take this as a sign and once again work on fixing their relationship. the fact that he survived the accident unharmed starts to raise questions in his mind and through the prodding of an art dealer, he begins to investigate his own past. why did he survive when no one else did? he starts to realize that he actually had never been injured. ever, in his whole life. through out the course of the film he begins to realize that he might very well be invincible. how this affects his wife and his son is played out with such delicate storytelling and honest searching is why this movie is so amazing. watching the story open up in slow folds, and the budding romance once again welling in he and his wife is what makes the characters and the little moments between them so moving. how bruce willis and robin wright didnt get oscars for this is a travesty. shyamalan is a master of his craft on this film, using color, silence, and long takes, he draws us in to these characters and their discoveries perfectly.

up in the air

a great film from the same guy who brought us 'juno'. this one follows a man who spends his life traveling around the country helping businesses fire and lay off their employees. well, it turns out that his own company is thinking of making some cutbacks and he might be the one who is let go! they have decided to try and do their job over the computer instead of in person, which makes traveling all around the country unnecessary. as they test out the system, clooney is followed by the new girl who is getting this computer plan into action. as they travel she is baffled by his ability to disconnect from everything and just breeze by knowing that he will be leaving that town soon. she begins to break this cool exterior as he falls for another jetset traveler. with great performances by everyone involved, this movie takes the standard romantic comedy and brings it to a higher level! clooney does a fantastic job playing the cool guy who starts to break. an impressive film that will surely be remembered come oscar time.

julie and julia

half of this movie is very good, and the other half isnt. the story follows a woman who is at her wits end and decides to go through in one year the entire cookbook that julia child wrote. on the flip side, we follow julia child as she goes through the struggles of getting the cook book written in the first place all those years ago. meryl streep plays julia child as a larger than life woman who loved life and loved food so much that her passion for it exploded at any given moment! amy adams, on the other hand, has to play the part of a whiney self centered woman that we, the audience, can barely tolerate. if this movie would have been all about here, it would have been almost completely unwatchable. meryl streep turns this from terrible to passable.

man on wire

this was an interesting little find, its a documentary about a french man who loves to walk the tight rope. it seems that back when the world trade center buildings were being built there was a guy who actually walked from the top of one tower over to the other tower! he didnt exactly have permission to do it, but that was part of the fun. the film interviews him and others who were involved in this great prank. the tight rope walker, philippe petit, saw the towers and really wanted to walk them. he had done many other stunts over the years leading up to this one, which we hear him talk about, but this was the one that brought him to the states and gained him a lot of notoriety. having never known about this event, the whole movie was pretty interesting. its mostly filled with footage of his different stunts, interviews, a recreation of how they did it, and some of the actual footage of the walk itself. to listen to him talk about it you gain a huge sense of how he thought this was such an important thing. its very fascinating, to say the least. we also get to see what the result of this event was, showing news footage from his subsequent arrest and infamy. a pretty interesting story.

twilight: new moon

ok, i will admit, this one is better than the first. granted, thats not saying much, considering that the first twilight movie was crippled by an incompetent director. this time around we actually get a strong director who knows how to tell a story that can be understood! the story is this: the girl loves the aloof vampire boy, but he left, so she starts to fall for kind werewolf boy. thats about all you need to know. the story was set up in the last film and it doesnt have any sort of resolution in this film. this is to be expected, due to this uninteresting love triangle needs to last through five movies, so there is no way they would actually have anything of significance in the second film, right? so why did we have to watch it then? i dont know... one thing i will say for this movie, though, taylor lautner does a great job as jacob. when he is on screen the film works, it pulls together and gets moving. when he is gone it is reduced to mopey dark teenage angst. i dont know what 'it' is, but he has got 'it'!

sherlock holmes

this one was pretty good, but there was a lot that was also pretty bad. this reimagining of the shirlock holmes series does a good job of taking what we know of holmes and changing it enough to make it fresh again. the relationship between the detective and watson is by far the best part of the film, law and downey have great chemistry and are a riot to watch play off of each other. its interesting to see holmes as the imbalanced neurotic and watson as the rock he relies on. as for the case featured in this movie? well, its pretty lame. what has been causing these strange things to happen around london? turns out its just a bunch of smoke, mirrors, and the freemasons. or something like that. my biggest problem with the film was the way they tried to shoehorn in a bunch of unnecessary special effects and action where none belonged. for example, all the stuff that happened at the shipyard was fun to look at, but played absolutely no part in furthering the story- they went there after a fight scene where the bag guys got away, after the action at the shipyard, they get away again. serves no purpose at all. also, the finale where they are on the unfinished london bridge. why would the bad guy go there to kill the girl? because it looked cool. otherwise it is complete nonsense that they would even be up there at all. great characters (well, actually, great casting), but not that great of a movie.

mixed nuts

ugh. the less said about this one the better...
jon steward, who is in this movie, recently refered to it when interviewing liev schreiber, who is also in this movie. jon said 'you know what surprised me about that movie? so here is this movie, its norah ephron, steve martin, gary shandling, rob reiner, adam sandler, parker posey. and you go into it thinking 'this is going to be amazing!', and i remember seeing it thinking 'oh my god! this sucks! i dont understand!'

avatar

truly an incredible film.  the 3D and effects are second to none, totally worth seeing just to be immersed into this amazing world.  granted, the story leaves a bit to be desired, its basically a mix of 'dances with wolves' and 'ferngully'.  but the reality of storytelling is that there are no new stories, its about how you tell the story.  and this one tells it with such beautiful imagery that the story's shortcomings aren't even noticed until you walk out of the theater.

men who stare at goats

a pretty strange movie, but a fun one. this movie follows our hero, ewan mcgregor, a journalist, as he tries to make sense of the strange things he discovers. he finds himself caught up with an unusual branch of the military, lead by jeff bridges (who seems to be channeling 'the dude' if he were a hippie... and in the military) that investigates and tests psychics. the story is strange, and everyone in it seems to be having a blast, much of which comes off on screen. one of the best parts is when mcgregor, who played obi wan in the prequel star wars trilogy, makes a reference to feeling like a jedi with all this psychic stuff going on. this one is strange, but a bunch of fun.

the box

this is one of those films that has a great premise, but doesnt have any follow through. the set up is this: a young family finds themselves in a really difficult financial situation, there is no way they can make ends meet. well, one day a box arrives at their front door. a man arrives to explain what the box is: its a button that the couple can press. if they press it, they will receive a bundle of money with no stipulations. the catch is this: when they press the button someone will die. sounds great, doesnt it? filled with moral ambiguity and some real deep implications: would you be willing to kill someone in order to gain financially?
well, the problem is that this film soon falls apart and doent really deal with the question itself. it is tossed off soon after the decision is made. instead we get some random stuff about the wife's foot and the husband's desire to be an astronaut. it comes together in the last minute or two with another interesting concept, but when the great ideas are not dealt with all through out the movie, the introduction of a new interesting twist at the end doesnt save this one from being very disappointing. it plays like an episode of the twilight zone. but not a very good episode.