w.

i was very surprised by this movie. i went in expecting some hack job, tearing apart bush and totally making fun of him. it is directed by oliver stone, after all. but i was shocked to see a moving portrait of a man who struggled with his place in an aristocratic family, an ivy league school, and huge expectations placed on him. it shows him constantly failing and disappointing his father. after he tries to get life under control he finds God. another situation i would have thought that they would mock him about, but the movie never looks down on him for his faith, it just explains how that faith drove him forward. a portrait is painted of a man struggling with his family and himself trying to do right by God. he finds himself in over his head, mostly through bad advice and good intentions. bush is portrayed as a modest man of modest dreams who is called to reach for the stars, but just cant quite reach high enough. everyone in the film does an amazing job, josh brolin is pitch perfect as bush, as are the rest of the cast. the actors dont so much do impressions as try and convey the spirit of each person through their performance. well, except for thandie newton as condie rice which almost ruins the whole movie! everyone was going for subtle, but she seems to be going for SNL...

wall-e

i had been wanting to see this one all summer. it finally came to the dollar theater, and i knew i couldnt pass that up!
this is the latest in the long line of great pixar movies. sure, all the pixar movies are great, but i must say, this one is probably their best! set in the future, its about a cute little robot who is still doing his job even though all the humans have left earth hundreds of years ago. he keeps himself busy cleaning up all the trash left by mankind, his only friend a cockroach. one day a ship lands and a sleek new robot, eve, comes on a mission. for some reason that robot leaves again and wall-e is heartbroken (as much as robots can be, i guess). thus starts the adventure to find her back. the story is cute and fun, mostly because of the personality of wall-e. that little robot is so emotive- i bet he could even do shakespeare! there are some great laughs as wall-e finds everyday objects laying around and tries to figure out what to do with them. also, its surprisingly emotional. at one point wall-e has some problems and it seems all is lost for eve. this is a great film on par with 'finding nemo', which is saying a lot!
oh, and i always love the animated short pixar puts before their movies- this ones about a magician, a rabbit, and a pesky portal. good fun!

step brothers

diana and i went to go see this one at the dollar theater. it was pretty funny, but not nearly as good as the last time these two guys got together in 'telledega nights'. the story is about how the two guys still live with their parent, and their parents get married. they are too immature to grow up and move out, so they have to share a bedroom in their parents house. they hate each other at first, but they soon become best buddies. there are quite a few funny bits, especially when the two of them are at odds, but the problem is that it is so unexpectedly crass. the film is rated R, so they can get away with just about anything (and they do), but i think these guys are better when they are reigned it a bit more than this.

how to lose friends and alienate people

just went to go see this with the guys. rex was really excited to see it, he really loves simon pegg. i didnt really know anything about it, i had only seen one commercial for it, so i wasnt too sure what to expect.
i liked it. simon pegg is certainly funny and there were some really great laughs to be had, but over all this movie is a total mess. its about a guy who gets hired by a magazine to write for them and moves from england to new york city. hes kind of a jerk, but we are supposed to like him anyway. as time goes on he sells out and then we are not supposed to like him. until we are supposed to like him again. the storyline and events that take place are very poorly constructed and the story just kind of sits there and meanders about. we never really get a good sense of if this guy is supposed to be good or bad. the directing is terrible throughout the film, the visual jokes are over explained, there are random scene setting shots that are completely unnecessary, and many opportunities for visual clarification are missed. and the title seems like such a great opportunity to create a structure of one of those self help books, but it is never even explored. certainly a missed opportunity. over all this film is a big mess, but simon pegg is able to keep the film afloat through shear determination.

mamma mia!

im not much of a fan of live action musicals, but diana wanted to see this one, so we did. the storyline is simple, a girl is getting married but doesnt know who her father is. she finds her moms old diary and sees that there are three men who could be her dad, so she invites them all to the wedding to see if she can find her real dad. basic enough, but what makes this movie different is that its completely filled with the music of abba. now, ive never really been a fan of abba, not because i dont like them, but because ive never been interested enough to listen to their music. i am completely oblivious to most of their stuff, all i knew was the song 'dancing queen', and thats about it, so almost all the music here was new to me. over all the film wasnt too bad, my one complaint was that they tried to keep the energy level too high through out the film- in any given scene there are at least three girls giggling uproariously, and usually it is meryl streep, which is quite disconcerting...

the film takes quite a few unexpected twists along the way that are really done well. i didnt see them coming, but was quite pleased when they did. over all its not as bad as i was fearing. well, except for pierce prosnans singing- that was exactly as bad as i was fearing...

nightmare before christmas

i have seen this movie many times, it is a perennial favorite of mine. i remember going to see it in the theater when it first came out and really loving it. it has been rereleased the past couple of years into the theater in 3-D, and i saw it both years- i truly love this movie!

recently a two disc version was released on dvd, so i figured it was time to see it again! i saw it in the library and figured i couldnt pass up a free rental to check out the dvd extras, so i picked it up. having seen the movie dozens of times, i got it just to watch all the extra stuff they threw into this release.

there are many extras this time out, and they are really quite interesting. it features a half hour behind the scenes feature that i had seen before on the older version of the dvd, but i figured id watch it again, and was reminded just how much work went into this film- they said that on an average day, an animator would be able to create 14 seconds of finished film! talk about painstakingly slow work! they also included some of the screen tests for the different characters showing different ways that they would walk and talk which was very interesting. it even included some cut scenes, which is especially rare for this type of animation! other extras included a walk through of the haunted mansion at disney world when they transform the ride each year from october to january with a 'nightmare before christmas' theme. you can choose the option to just view the ride, or have it intercut with breaks of behind the scene looks at how they designed and build the changes. i watched them both! they also included tim burtons original poem which was the inspiration for the film itself. they created new animation to go along with it. its really cool to see how they took that ten minute poem and stretched it into a full lenght film- it seems like the only changes that were made was the inclusion of sally, oogie boogie, and the scientist. it also includes a commentary by the director, tim burton, and the songwriter danny elfman. the commentary was surprisingly informative, usually tim burton has a hard time being coherent during these things (see 'planet of the apes'). the dvd also includes burtons original short 'vincent' and a half hour movie called 'frankenweenie', which burton informs us he is currently in production turning it into his next stop frame animated movie! cant wait!

babylon a. d.

why do i keep doing this to myself? why do i keep agreeing to watch movies that i know are going to suck hard? will i never learn?
this is a movie set in a dystopic near future where the hero has to do his best to save the world. vin diesel is a man hired to transport a girl from a secluded monastery to new york city. hes a tough guy with little to say because hes so macho (we dont really get a better reason than that). as he takes her and her kung fu nun caretaker around the world we find out that she has some sort of psychic powers and shes pregnant. some religious group wants her for some reason that is never made very clear, and some criminals want her for some reason that is made even less clear. all the while vin diesel is busy being macho, which takes a lot of effort to do. they arrive, after the inevitable snowmobile stunt show and a battle with the always popular unnecessary attack drones. at one point he dies, then comes back with robot parts (which plays absolutely no part in the story what so ever), she has her baby, and diesel continues to be macho.
at least thats as much as i got out of it. the story doesnt make much sense, and i dont think the writers understood it either. in truth, i was waiting for some one to call out 'archers- switch to night arrows!' it would have made about as much sense...

kung fu panda

this is one of the few summer movies that slipped past me unseen. until now! i had wanted to take my little nephew to go and see it, but it just never worked out while i was visiting grand rapids.it finally came to the dollar theater, so i figured this was my chance!
i wasnt expecting a whole lot, the commercials didnt make it look good enough to race out and see, but i still wanted to check it out. and i am glad i did- this movie is hilarious!!! it is like most animated movies, enough action and fun for the kids, and some wit thrown in to keep the adults awake. except that this one does it amazingly well! the story is one we have seen before: the main character wants to live his dreams, but no one believes in him until he first believes in himself. standard fare, except that it is done with so much humor and great storytelling, that this old premise comes alive again! the panda, po, wants to become a kung fu warrior, but the problem is he is fat and a nobody. by an unexpected chain of events he finds himself in a position where he must train with the greatest fighters alive. they dont believe that he is the great warrior told of in legend, so he must prove himself to them. the best part of this movie is the fact that it does not fall into the lame 'shrek' formula: tired pop culture references and knowingly winking at its own sincerity. this one is genuine all the way through and all the humor comes from within its own story, not from hip one liners meant to prove how hip it really is. this one is sweet, genuine, and genuinely funny! jack black does a perfect job as the oblivious panda trying to be the best he can be.
oh, and when he uses his silly word- skadoosh- its one of the best laughs ive had at the theater in months!

the bank job

as a jason statham fan, i've been wanting to see this one since it first came out in theaters. i finally had the chance to watch it, and i was quite impressed. the plot is easy to guess: its a bank heist. a very simple plot, simply done. this film does a great job of just telling the story, silly plot twists or a director trying to be sneaky, its a straight forward story done very well. statham and his gang are trying to rob a bank. there are a couple twists as far as the peoples loyalty, but over all its a strong story told well. one small note: if you want to watch it, make sure you put the subtitles on- the english accents are very thick!

tropic thunder

jeffry lee, aaron, and i went to go see this. we couldnt decide if we should see this one, or 'pineapple express'. we figured the other one would have better dvd stuff, so we could wait. this one won out by default. this is a bit of a metaphor about the movie itself, as it turns out...
the film is about a bunch of actors making a movie about a war, and then they accidentally find themselves in a war in the jungle for real. there was a lot of possibilities for this movie, but it kind of felt like it went nowhere. every character and every joke setup was ripe with humor and ridiculous antics, but the execution was way off. an actor known for fart jokes just makes more fart jokes, an actor known for action just does action, and an actor known for his roles just plays a role. it didnt go anywhere. it seemed like a lot of noise and explosions with no substance. a banana peel, with no bananas. there were a couple good jokes, mostly during the fake previews before the story even started, but not enough to keep it going. i like all three of the main actors, but they just werent able to keep this clunker afloat.

doomsday

i guess i should admit my bias right up front: i have no love for post-apocalyptic mad max movies. and this is one of them. this film is by the same director/writer as 'descent', which was a really good and scary cave diving movie. it seems that he ran out of ideas after that one and instead just decided to copy a bunch of other movies. this one feels like a combination of so many other movies, that there is really no real new idea in it. it steals liberally from movies like '28 days later', 'mad max: escape from thunderdome', 'waterworld', 'reign of fire', 'resident evil: apocalypse', 'robin hood: prince of thieves', 'devil's rejects', and about a dozen others. its lame, its tired, and ive seen it done better. way better. often.

rent

diana has been obsessed with this one lately. shes had it saved on her tivo for a while (with movies she keeps then on there even after she watches it). about a month ago i surprised her with the soundtrack, which she loved. i reluctantly listened to it while we were on a drive a couple weeks ago, and it turns out its not that bad. she would try and explain the story as we would listen to each song so that it would make sense. it sounded mildly interesting, so i told her i wouldnt mind watching it some time. dang, i should have known that she would take me up on that... oops!
most of the original broadway cast is in this movie, which is great in that we get to see the story with its original vision, but also a bit strange because these actors are 10 to 15 years too old for their parts. instead of it being college age kids trying to live out their dreams, we see 35 to 40 year olds desperately clinging on to a past life and they should know better. the music is definitely the best part of the film, but im not crazy about musicals, so even that took a bit to get past. these being broadway actors, they have a very distinctive singing style, and it really annoys me. they over pronounciate everything. granted, its good to understand what they are singing, but they take it a bit too far with their exacting word use. at times the story was quite engaging, and when a character dies, it is actually very moving. there are a ton of main characters to follow, which isnt too hard, but it does lead to another big problem with the movie- id didnt quite know when to stop. the pacing is a bit off, and it feels like the movie ends at three different points, yet it keeps going. this could have been done a bit better. by the final ending i didnt really care because i would have turned it off after the first ending.

x-files: i want to believe

as a fan of the television show, i was quite excited for this movie. i remember when i first heard that it was announced i couldnt wait to see it! i really liked the show, and watched it as often as i could. i was really into it around the time that the first movie came out, and i loved it! it was a culmination of all the story lines of the show coming together and we finally got some answers about the whole thing. it had all the complicated story lines from the show and all the shadowy characters, and all the mythology and noir that had been building up for five or six years. this new movie has none of that. which sucks.
in all the interviews and everything the actors and director have been very adamant that you dont need to be familiar with the series to enjoy the movie, there is no mythology from the show in this film. that is true, unfortunately thats what makes the movie lame. with so much to draw from, they decide to ignore all of it? how does that make sense? this movie is pretty much just a straight forward detective movie. with about two minutes of editing, this could have just as easily been a generic thriller, thats how loosely it sticks to the x-files history. i guess if it had been just another generic thriller i would have enjoyed it more, but to put the x-files name on it i expected a whole lot more.

return to me

i must admit, there are chick flicks that i like. i dont usually care for them because they are typically very predictable and always involve characters doing things and reacting in ways that dont make any sense.
but some i like. and then theres 'return to me', which is one i absolutely love! its got so much going for it: david duchovny is a great actor, and a totally underutilized funny man, and minnie driver is very cute. not just good looking, but cute in the sense that she seems very playful and someone youd like to hang out with. plus, its got an amazing suporting cast: david allen greer, bonnie hunt, jim belushi, and carrol o'conner.
yes, it is one of those predictable chick flick movies, but it is done so well that all is forgiven. the premise is pretty rediculous, duchovny is happily married when his wife suddenly dies. she is an organ donor and her heart is transplanted into a needy patient, minnie driver. a year or two later they meet cute and fall for each other. she finds out that she has his wife's heart, but is scared to tell him. he eventually finds out and they have to deal with the consiquences. a lame plot, but the actors involved turn this from generic to heartwarming. give it a try, it really is a great film!

charlie bartlett

this past weekend jeffry lee and i watched this movie. i didnt really have any interest in it, the commercials for it looked kind of lame, but he had watched it earlier, and said i should give it a try. so i did.
this movie falls into the very narrow category of 'confident high school kid' movies, along the same lines as 'ferris beuler' and 'parker lewis cant loose' (i know that was a tv show, but i needed two examples...). charlie starts at a new school and trys to find his place among the students. he starts by befriending the bully and making him a business proposition. as things start to unfold his business changes into a role of psychiatrist for all the students. the nice thing about the movie is that it doesnt really fall into the high school stereotypes of nerds vs. jocks type stuff. characters may belong to those groups, but are much more than the label. robert downey jr. does a great job as the principle of the school who tries to crush charlie, but ends up crushing himself. anton yelchin, who plays charlie, does a great job here. his calm demeanor and matter of fact style really makes charlie an interesting character. in the end much of the film works, but the answers it arrives at are too easy and wrap up a bit too nicely, kind of like an 80s sitcom life lesson.