Category: Movies
Zathura
Rating: 
Zathura is a kid’s adventure movie, almost identical in concept to Jumanji. Danny finds an old board game called Zathura in the basement of his father’s brand new house. He’s bored and wants his brother to play with him, so he unknowingly starts the game. A card is spit out when it’s your turn and whatever the card indicates happens in real life. Danny and his brother find themselves in the middle of space, travelling to Zathura and unable to stop the game in progress.
I would have loved this movie as a kid. Unfortunately I can no longer classify myself in such a manner, however, so a few things about this movie left a bad taste in my mouth. The plot twist they tried to throw with The Astronaut was extremely transparent. The children were at times so stupid their hesitation to do relatively easy things had to be written into the script as a way to draw out the length of the film. Finally, the 6 year old playing Danny was extremely annoying. I’m not sure if his character was intentionally supposed to be annoying, but I could barely listen to him argue with his brother with his huge bulging eyes.
Overall, this was much better than I expected. I’d happily watch it again.
Elektra
Rating: I’m not big on comic books, though I do enjoy a good comic book movie, as long as the plot and characters are explained enough that I don’t need to know the comic itself. It’d been a long time since I’d seen Daredevil, which I felt was a sub-par movie to begin with, so I really didn’t remember this Elektra chick or what her deal was. That was my biggest problem throughout the movie. I didn’t really know what was going on with the main character. Aside from a few flashbacks which only spawn more questions than resolutions, the movie didn’t do a good job of informing me of her backstory, either.
I get the fact that Elektra is some ninja killing machine. She’s sent on a mission and told she’ll be contacted in a few days with her targets. While she has down time, she happens to get close to a man and his daughter, who live next door. And of course, she finds out that they are her targets.
It was a cool movie despite the fact that I couldn’t really follow what was going on. I have no inclination or care to find out more about the world of Elektra, but if I did, I’m sure I would have enjoyed this a lot more. This movie got an exceptionally high rating for me considering I could only barely follow along with the plot.
Corpse Bride
Rating: Victor and Victoria are part of an arranged marriage and their wedding is approaching. At the rehearsal, Victor can’t nail his lines, so the priest sends him away to learn them. Strolling through the woods at night, he practices his vows, recites them perfectly, and places the ring on a twig. Except, of course, it isn’t a twig, it’s the finger of a dead bride-to-be. Victor finds himself married to a corpse and is drawn into her world of the dead, which is far livelier and more colorful than the drab world of the living he comes from.
This was a beautiful movie. The world of the living is very drab, with few colors and nothing fun going on. The world of the dead is filled with fun characters, gorgeous colors, and lots of great music. The story itself is no surprise, but there are several unexpected and funny moments. This one may not be worth renting for the plot, but the claymation, colors and music more than make up for its other shortcomings.
Saving Grace
Rating: 
My husband and I had friends over Saturday night who own three quarters of all the movies you’ll ever want to see in your life. They recently condensed their collection into three small black suitcases rimmed with shiny chrome-like metal. It’s very classy looking and they seem to be very proud of their ability to take their collection everywhere they go. They pulled out Saving Grace and explained it was a movie about a woman who lost her husband and starts growing pot to sell to make ends meet. Sounded similar to Showtime’s Weeds which I like, so I couldn’t wait to see it.
Unfortunately the problem with seeing movies with a group of friends is that they’ll invariably want to talk. All through the movie.
Craig Ferguson, of The Late Late Show, wrote, produced and starred in this movie. The ending seemed kind of lame, but they tied it up together nicely with a cute closing montage, so I’ll forgive them.
TV shows and movies about pot are usually wildly entertaining, and this one’s no different. It may not be the best out there, but Saving Grace has its moments. And its moments are true, even if the ideas surrounding them are a little ridiculous. It’s funny and heartening and you’ll see some of the prettiest weeds you’ll ever lay eyes on.
I didn’t catch too much of the plot the first time around, but this is a movie going back on my “to watch” list as soon as possible.
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.
Stealth
Rating: 
This was the dumbest, most confusing movie I’ve ever seen. Or at least one of the worst. The only reason this got such a high rating (of 1.5) is because of a few cool explosions. It’s all a shame because the idea isn’t a bad one, but it was executed so poorly. Three fighter pilots get paired up with a new aircraft which can think for itself and will hopefully replace humans one day. Of course, something goes haywire and the aircraft takes on a mind of its own.
Please believe me when I say, the coolest parts of this movie were in the trailer. There is no need to see this one for yourself.
40 Year Old Virgin, The
Rating: I thought this was going to be a stupid and immature guy flick. Instead, this movie was hilarious and surprisingly heart warming! Steve Carell stars as Andy, the 40 Year Old Virgin. He works as a stock boy at a Best Buy sort of place, rides a bike instead of a car, has an apartment filled with action figures sealed in their original packaging and thinks the most exciting thing he’s done all weekend is making an egg salad sandwich. It’s really no wonder he’s never gotten laid. One day his coworkers are down a person for their poker game that night, so they reluctantly invite Andy and subsequently find out he’s a virgin. From that point, his coworkers’ mission is getting Andy laid. They do nothing more than guide him in the right direction, leading him to talk to women instead of shying away from them. To their shock, he’s really pretty good at it!
Andy falls in love with a woman who works across from him as the owner of a “We Sell Your Stuff On eBay” store and starts dating her. He’s nervous about telling her he’s a virgin and she’s just nervous to be in a relationship again, so they agree to no sex for 20 dates! Everything goes very well for both of them, but you know there’s gotta be some conflict, otherwise it would just be a perfect movie. (Personally I don’t see what would be wrong with that, but they tell me without conflict, the movie will flop.)
If you liked Office Space, chances are you’ll like this movie. If you’ve been avoiding this one because it looked too stupid, give it a try! It has more substance than you’d think!
March of the Penguins
Rating: 
An informative, beautiful and touching movie about Antarctica’s Emperor penguins’ mysterious breeding ritual. It will warm your heart and make you cry. In fact, I had a hard time stomaching some parts, not knowing when a cute moment would fade away and natural selection would rear its ugly, but necessary head. Never fear, the sad parts are never very long. If you have no interest in penguins, there’s little of interest for you here. Otherwise, you need to see this one!
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.
Dukes of Hazzard, The
Rating: Don’t kid yourself, this movie was about two things: Boobs and Car Chases. I find both wildly entertaining, but somehow even combined together, they didn’t do much for me in this movie. The stunt driving was phenomenal. These are not the Dukes we grew to love in the 80s, however they’re quite probably more accurate versions of these fictional characters if they actually existed. The film had its funny moments, most of which revolved around the insanely perverted and filthy mouthed Uncle Jessie, played by Willie Nelson. Other laughs came from the constant poking fun of the TV show’s ridiculous plots.
All in all, I’d say go ahead and watch it, but don’t go out of your way to do so.
In America
Rating: Illegal Irish immigrants move to America to provide a better life for their two daughters after losing their only son. I am not sure, but this seems very much like a true story. Nothing particularly exciting happened and it was a lot about the daily struggle this family goes through. They move into an apartment building filled with junkies and questionable characters.
I’m not good at summarizing movies (in case you couldn’t tell) but this was a pretty good one. It nearly had me in tears a few times. The children were beautiful. Definitely worth watching!
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.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The
Rating: 
I guess I was expecting more from this movie. I’ve never read the book and didn’t know a whole lot about the story. It was very… teenage girlish. Not that there’s anything bad about that, but it’s more appropriate for teenage girls than it is for adults. I couldn’t identify with much of anything in the movie although it left me teary at times. The best part was the beautiful views in Greece.
Bewitched
Rating: This movie didn’t do so well in the theatres, but I thought it was pretty funny. It isn’t so much a remake of the TV show Bewitched as it is a movie about a remake of the TV show Bewitched. I think this may have confused the audience going into the movie, which may be why no one liked it. Otherwise, it was cute, funny and fluffy. It’s no more than I expected it to be. If you have no interest in the TV show Bewitched, you’ll probably have no interest in this movie.
Next Stop Wonderland
Rating: I haven’t written a movie review in months despite having seen many. My apologies, mostly to myself because I’m really, really anal about keeping track of things such as this.
This is a Miramax film with an independent sort of feel to it. There also didn’t appear to be much point to it. Two people’s lives intersect over and over again without them ever meeting. It had a Sliding Doors / Sleepless in Seattle sort of feel to it. It was funny and smart and definitely worth seeing if you have a Sunday afternoon to waste, but I completely understand why I’d never heard of this movie before.
