Category: 3 stars
Must Love Dogs
Rating: 
Sarah (Diane Lane) is recently divorced and has a huge family who is always trying to set her up with someone. In fact, her sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) sets up a profile for Sarah on perfect-match.com including the qualification, “Must love dogs,” as it pertained to an earlier conversation they had joking about personals ads.
Sarah goes out with a number of losers, but two candidates seem to be coming back to her mind over and over again.
Bob (Dermot Mulroney) is a recently separated father of one of Sarah’s preschool students. Sarah knows going out with him will only complicate matters between the student-teacher relationship, but Bob seems very interested in her and he’s really cute.
Jake (John Cusack) is also recently divorced. He builds boats and has an egotistical friend. Other than that, we don’t know much about him. In fact, for a movie costarring John Cusack, there’s really way too little of him in it. Cusack’s character is quirky, funny and poetic (sort of like every other character Cusack ever plays) and it would have been nice to see more scenes with him and Sarah together, or really even him alone.
This was a good movie, but it was just missing something. The movie’s focus was apparently trying to make Sarah and Jake’s relationship work out, but everything sort of fizzled. There were few scenes with Lane and Cusack together and far too much focus on Mulroney’s character. Of course there was conflict when Jake found out about Bob, however it was as anticlimactic as the movie’s ending.
It was funny, there were some cute dogs and I really wish I could give it a higher rating, but the plot just wasn’t fleshed out very well. This is definitely worth seeing if you’re a Cusack fan or enjoy a light hearted romantic comedy. Wait for this on cable, don’t bother paying to rent it.
Bulletproof Monk
Rating: Basic premise: Every 60 years a new guardian must be chosen to protect a scroll with unlimited power. This person is not ordinary and must be able to defend the scroll against any who seek it. Chow Yun-Fat is a Tibetan Monk with the most recent shift of scroll protecting and he’s looking for his replacement. He seems to think he’ll find it in New York City and indeed, Sean William-Scott’s character seems like a good candidate.
The story was a little tired, but the fight scenes weren’t all recycled from Crouching Tiger and both Sean and Chow know how to bring the funny. This movie is probably not worth spending your hard earned cashed on unless you really like fight scenes. But it’s definitely worth catching on HBO or TBS on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Rating: The movie was… okay. They left out a lot. In fact, the people who were screaming last year that the plot in Prisoner of Azkaban was excessively stripped should have held their breath until viewing this installment. They left out the entire Rita Skeeter sub-plot, although they did show her nosing in on the students a few times and the actress seemed to have her personality down. I think that was the most important detail to overlook. This movie, much more so than the others, was almost unwatchable without having read the book first. I don’t know how I feel about the director, but I do know I’d take Alfonso Cuarón back any day of the week.
I think what bugged me most was that it constantly cut from one five minute scene to the next. There was no real dialog, no sense of close-knit friends. I understand you can only do so much when you have to cram a book as large as this into a two and a half hour movie. I understand this is why plots were left out. Still, couldn’t they have done it Lord of the Rings style and filmed a long, 5 hour movie which was able to get in more of the plot, and then break them into two movies, showing them a couple months apart? I guess that’s too much to ask.
I don’t know how they’re going to do the next movie at all. It’ll just be a series of 30 second clips going from one scene to the next.
The cinematography and special effects were amazing. This bathtub scene (probably one of the longest in the whole film) provided much needed comic relief. I was disappointed with how little Ron and Hermione were in this. I think the twins may have been in it more than them, not that I’m complaining about their amount of screen time.
I guess overall I was just a little disappointed. It was still worth seeing (even worth paying $25 for tickets and fees) but this is undoubtedly my least favorite of the movies so far. Then again, the Goblet of Fire was my least favorite book as well.
Miss Congeniality 2
Rating: This definitely wasn’t as good as the first one, which I absolutely adore, but it had its moments. I’m disappointed that the DVD doesn’t have a commentary with Sandra Bullock and the director as the first one did. (The commentary for Miss Congeniality is one of the best I’ve ever listened to - if you have the DVD, watch it with the commentary!) If the second one did have the commentary with Bullock and the director, I would have probably purchased the DVD.
Man on Fire
Rating: Mexico City is apparently a kidnapping capital of the world. Parents need to take out kidnapping insurance and seem to need a bodyguard for their children in order to get it. So this guy (names… they allude me) needs to renew his insurance, but can’t really afford a bodyguard. He decides to hire a cheap ass bodyguard and plans to dump him after the insurance is renewed. He gets Denzel Washington as Creasy, an alcoholic with a secret and sordid past. Of course the child he’s hired to protect, Pita (Dakota Fanning) quickly warms his heart, gets him to stop drinking and start enjoying life.
This is all disrupted when Pita is kidnapped and we find out more about what Creasy did in his past than I cared to know.
I liked the first half of the movie - the happier parts with Dakota Fanning in them. The rest of the movie just left me a little too disturbed.
Starting From Square Two
Posted on 07.14.05 | (0) Comment | 836 views
Rating: I wanted to read this book because I really enjoyed her first novel, Carrie Pilby. Right from the get-go though, this novel really irritated me in all its chick-lit stereotypical glory.
Gert is recently widowed and hangs around her two single friends, Hallie and Erika. Both are jaded to the world of dating, Hallie never having had a successful relationship and Erika constantly obsessing over her ex-boyfriend Ben. Gert seems like she’ll be the one to keep this book together. She even has the potential to be a strong, single woman. But no, right from the start she’s in a bar meeting guys because no woman can be complete without a man.
The only reason I didn’t chuck this book out of my second story window to be shred into a million pieces by the air conditioner unit below is because of the guy Gert ended up meeting at the bar. His name is Todd, he works as some sort of railroadenginieer and he’s about the greatest guy who’s ever graced the pages of a chick-lit novel. He’s kind, thoughtful and considerate and does just about everything right.
Gert doesn’t treat him as well as she should and both her and her friends agree that Todd does some things which are insensitive and warrant an apology. These things are SO SMALL I don’t understand how the woman was successfully married before. Maybe that husband of hers really killed himself to be rid of her and her childish expectations of men.
If you want a light and fluffy read, please by my guest and dive into this book. You’ll fall in love with Todd and the (honest to God) most serious problem in this book is that Todd is working long hours and is too tired to give Gert 100% of his attention.
Wow.
Todd, I salute you! You’re a great guy and don’t deserve to be picked apart so much by Gert, Hallie and Erika. Better luck next time.
Prince and Me, The
Rating: Movies about royalty seem to be the trend these days and this movie was very similar to The Princess Diaries in that respect.
I don’t want to give too much away becuase I went into this movie knowing nothing about its plot and I think that’s one of the major reasons I liked it so much. Needless to say, it’s easy to guess that Julia Stiles plays a commoner named Paige who falls in love with the prince of Denmark named Eddie, played by Luke Mably.
The movie, for me, was broken up into three parts. The first part is where Eddie and Paige meet on Paige’s home turf and they develop feelings for one another. I loved this part. There were several funny characters and moments. The second part is where Paige is introduced to Eddie’s world and she must get used to living a royal life, which isn’t as easy as you’d think. This part was frustrating and dragged. It was filled with too much back-and-forth emotions. The last part is the ending, which I won’t give away. With such a bloody long movie though (110 minutes) I would have expected more resolution!
If you like any of the various teen/young adult movies on royalty out there right now, you might as well rent The Prince and Me to see what it has to offer. If you’re not into sappy romantiic love stories involving stuffy, proper people rejecting love affairs based on class, this movie likely isn’t for you.
By the end of the movie, I definitely wasn’t happy with it. That being said though, if they do a sequel, I’ll be all over it.
Shawn of the Dead
Rating: I’ve been hearing about Shawn of the Dead since the Oscars. People keep saying what a lovely romantic comedy -slash- horror movie combo it is. I’m not one for horror movies and the title alone make this a movie I would normally avoid. I’m a sucker for romantic comedies though, so why not give it a shot?
This is definitely more comedic than horrific, although in my opinion SotD is exceedingly gory and realistic. There’s one scene where a man is literally pulled apart by zombies. The very thought of witnessing such a scene in real life makes me want to cry. I can’t get the scene out of my head although I didn’t feel frightened while watching it.
Shawn is one of those men who haven’t grown up yet. He holds onto his childhood and is only slightly more mature than his best friend, an unemployed moocher who even goes out on Shawn’s dates with him. Shawn’s girlfriend is about to dump him and the first half of the movie he spends completely oblivious to the zombie outbreak in his midst.
As far as romance stories go, this was no where near as romantic as people led me to believe. In fact, I didn’t see any romance at all. It made up for that in the funny though. This was a very well done comic zombie movie. I’d highly recommend it if you enjoy both comedies and gory blood fests.
Anchorman
Rating: I ended up enjoying this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Normally I can’t stand SNL based comedies, but Will Ferrell was so into his character that I had no choice but to laugh and laugh.
De-Lovely
Rating: I’ve been listening to the De-Lovely soundtrack for months now so I was excited when this one finally came in from our Blockbuster queue. This is a musical about Cole Porter‘s life. Porter is a famous composer and pianist from the early-to-mid 1900s. Going into the movie, I was only familiar with his music and knew absolutely nothing about the man he was.
He was an amazing man who had an odd relationship or arrangement with his wife. They are portrayed as best friends, but Cole isn’t really in love with her, preferring the company of males. The movie focuses on their relationship and struggles with his music as the backdrop.
Overall, I thought it was really sad and a little emotionally draining. Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline gave amazing, energetic performances. I think if any other couple starred in this film it just wouldn’t have been the same.
Welcome to Mooseport
Rating: I got the general impression from the box office and the reviews this movie got that it was just awful, so I went into it with very low expectations. The former president moves to the small town of Mooseport around the same time that its mayor dies. He agrees to take over the role of the town’s mayor since he thinks he’s unopposed, but it turns out another resident of Mooseport filed to run for Mayor as well.
I thought the movie was funny and sweet. It certainly wasn’t the best movie, but it was a lot better than most of the comedies I’ve seen lately.
Spacecamp
Rating: Mark and I both remember watching and loving this movie when we were children. Many childhood movies don’t age well (Labyrinth for example) so we were worried that we’d be disappointed with this and it’d ruin some good childhood memories. Such is the risk you take when you try to revisit youthful recollections.
I was surprised by how many ‘famous’ people were in it. Lea Thompson, Kelly Preston, Joaquin Phoenix (aka Leaf), Tom Skerritt and Kate Capshaw star in SpaceCamp.
I was pleasantly surprised by how good the movie was and how well it held up over the past nineteen years. There were cute parts and funny parts along with some fairly good drama and tense moments. This movie should have stood the test of time. This movie should have done a lot better than it did. Unfortunately it was poorly timed. Of course it was finished before the Challenger accident in 1986, however was set for release afterwards. After the accident it was pushed back even more, but that didn’t really help it. Since the movie is about a pretty big accident itself (and eerily, similar to the accident that happened with Challenger), I’m sure that didn’t help it in the public’s eye.
I prefer not to tie the movie together with the accident. If you didn’t see this movie because of its release timing and you enjoy lighthearted 80s teen films, you should give SpaceCamp a try.
Good Bye, Lenin!
Rating: The meat of this story starts in East Germany shortly before the fall of communism and the Berlin Wall. Alex’s mother (I’m not actually sure she’s ever given a name) is a strong supporter of the idea of communism and doesn’t want to see it fall in her country. She has a heart attack and goes into a coma and a few months later, down comes the Berlin Wall and East Germany is infiltrated with commercialism and products from the West. When Alex’s mother comes out of her coma, the doctors are very specific that she cannot survive another heart attack. She’s very fragile and anything upsetting to her might end up killing her.
Alex does the best he can to keep the changes in the East from his mother. This is the meat of the story. I thought it was a good movie, but I was expecting it to be funnier from the trailers I’d seen.
Porn Star - The Legend of Ron Jeremy
Rating: Aside from a few mainstream appearances by Ron Jeremy, I’d never seen any of his work. Almost everyone knows his name and knows why they know his name though. We were flipping through On-Demand with little else to watch, so Mark and I decided to see what this documentary was about.
I was pleasantly surprised. This documentary basically follows Ron Jeremy around a little bit, fiddles with the reasons behind his fame and includes interviews with a few of his famous friends. It was light and upbeat, certainly not something I’d want to watch on a Sunday afternoon with mother, but I enjoyed it and would probably watch it again if it happened to be on.
Comedian
Rating: When Seinfeld ended, Jerry Seinfeld retired his entire library of jokes. What took him over twenty years to build, he neatly folded away in a closet. Although his close comedian friends thought he was crazy, he started over building brand new material, never relying on any of his old jokes.
This film tracks Jerry’s trials and tribulations as he’s building his material and starting over again in the stand up circuit. If you liked Last Comic Standing, you’ll probably like this documentary. It only has bits and pieces of stand up acts, but Jerry Seinfeld hanging around with a bunch of famous comedians is generally funny.
