Thursday, May 19, 2011

Unknown


We saw this movie at the theater while we were in Mexico. It was still in English, but had Spanish subtitles.

The story is about a doctor who has just arrived in Germany with his wife for a conference. He realizes that he left his briefcase at the airport, so he hails and cab to get it while his wife checks into the hotel. He's in an accident on the way to the airport, and ends up hospitalized. When he tracks his wife down, she doesn't recognize him, and someone else is posing as him. He sets out to find the truth with the help of the cab driver.

The movie was pretty interesting, but I was distracted by the way Liam Neeson speaks. It worked well in "The A Team", but not such much in this movie.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader


This third movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series was well done as far as acting, special effects, etc., but I was almost bored. There just didn't seem to be a lot happening. The two oldest siblings didn't have much of a part in this one. I'm not sure if that played a part in my feelings about the movie or not, but since I liked the other two more than this one, I'm guessing it played at least a small role.

The Tourist


The critics (and many other people) didn't like "The Tourist", but I enjoyed it. Angelina Jolie plays a woman with connections to a wanted criminal (his crime was stealing A LOT of money). She's being tracked in an effort to find Alexander Pierce. She receives a note from Alexander telling her to find someone on a certain train of his height and build so the police will be thrown off track. Johnny Depp's character is who she picks. He's a tourist, and gets into all sorts of trouble because people think he is Alexander.

It had a lot of humor, and some suspense. I think I liked it because I figured it out. It's not that it was totally predictable though, so I felt sort of good for getting it (I'm usually very slow to catch on to these things).

Monday, May 16, 2011

Megamind


Such a cute kids' show about a supervillian (Megamind) that doesn't know what to do when he actually defeats his rival, Metro Man. He ends up creating another hero so his life can have meaning again, but this new hero turns out to be a bad guy.

Overall it was very fun. I thought the Lord's name may have been taken in vain, and there is one part when the hero gone bad says something about there being no Easter Bunny or Toothfairy. He followed that up by saying their was no Queen of England, but it seems like for a little kids' movie, that should have been avoided all together.

Zoie and I loved the show, and I ended up buying it.

Morning Glory


Rachel McAdams plays a TV producer that gets hired to produce a failing network morning show. The job is what she's been wanting for ages (other than the failing show part of it), and she has to work very hard to try to get the ratings up.

Some parts of the show were pretty entertaining, but it's wasn't great.

Temple Grandin


This movie was based on the real story of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who was brilliant and did work that improved businesses that work with animals.

It was somewhat hard to watch though. Autism was very misunderstood as Temple was growing up, and she wasn't treated very well in many situations.

Waiting for Superman


This was a very interesting documentary about the many children that are in the lottery system for better educations, and how many public schools are failing. It was a bit heartbreaking following some of these kids, only to see that they weren't able to get into a school that could make a huge difference in their lives.

The Switch


I'm embarrassed to admit that I watched this one. It was sort of cute (at times), but the whole story is just kind of crazy when I have to write it down.

Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who is getting older and really wants to have a child, but doesn't have a husband, or even the prospect of one. So, she decides to get pregnant via a sperm donor. Her best friend, played by Jason Bateman, is torn up by the whole idea, and he replaces the donor sperm with his own.

It was pretty predictable, and had awkward moments here and there. There are a lot better ways to spend your time than on this movie.

Fair Game


This film was about CIA agent Valerie Plame whose identity was leaked by the government when her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote articles about how the government had mislead the public about the reasons for invading Iraq.

It was very interesting. It would have been better with less profanity though.

How Do You Know


This film focuses on three characters that each wonder how they know when they are in love. It looked better in the trailers than it actually was. And, there were several uses of the F word.

I'd recommend skipping this one.

Hereafter


This was a pretty sad movie about death. Matt Damon's character can communicate with the dead. This "gift" has made his life very difficult, as he learns things about the living that they might not want him to know. Or, they can't get past his ability and they use him to communicate with loved ones.

The movie also focuses on a few other people that have dealt with death. Once you saw these characters, you knew they were going to have to face death in some way. It was a pretty emotional movie.

X2: X-Men United


I haven't seen the first X-Men movie, but we had some time to kill on a recent vacation, so we decided to watch this. Maybe watching it without having seen the first movie was a mistake, but I really didn't like X2. It wasn't bad enough that I turned it off, but it was just silly. And Wolverine's hair was totally distracting.

Ondine



Colin Farrell plays a down and out fisherman in Ireland. One day he catches a woman in his net. She was nearly dead, but refused to go to the hospital. She said she didn't remember her name, and said to call her Ondine (meaning of the sea). Her singing brings Colin luck. Colin's daughter (who lives with his alcoholic ex-wife) believes that the woman is really a selkie (a mythical lady of the sea).

The movie was interesting, although a bit strange.

Deja Vu


Deja Vu opens with a tragic ferry explosion. Denzel Washington's character works for ATF and is involved in the investigation. A group working for the government has developed some technology that allows them to bend time (kind of) and they can look back on things 4 days before. They follow some leads Denzel has and are able to use the technology to help solve the crime, with the hope that they might be able to prevent it.

So, it's a bit strange, and some parts are just gross, but the acting was good and it kept my attention (although I was looking away a time or two).

Unstoppable


"Unstoppable" stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. Both work for the railroad. There is a runaway freight train that is headed into very populated area. Its freight is quite dangerous, and many lives are at stake. Denzel and Chris come up with a plan to try to stop the train.

Overall the movie was pretty enjoyable. Matt was put off by some of the seemingly casual conversation during the moments that should have been only tense. I didn't care for some of the railroad language.

Jane Eyre



I recently listened to the "Jane Eyre" audiobook, and LOVED the story. It was quite long, but such an interesting story (especially considering that it was written in the mid-1800s). I immediately Googled what movies were available, and found that a new version was just coming out. I was so excited to see it! Then I found out that it was a limited release. But, after a month or so, it came to a local theater and I got some friends together to watch it with me.

Although the movie starts in the middle of the story and uses flashbacks to cover Jane's early life, I thought it was well done. I think almost everything important was included. Unfortunately, the end was HORRIBLE! So short, and Mr. Rochester was gagable in his unkempt appearance.

My friends and I decided we need to have another girls' night to watch the 2006 BBC version.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

You Again



One word can describe this movie pretty well . . . PAINFUL!

Again, another show that the trailer makers did a great job; however, it bit, and it bit hard.

The acting was ok, but . . . the overall movie was just bad.

Marni was a major nerd in high school, and was teased mercilessly by Joanna (beautiful cheerleader). But, she's become successful in her job and life is going well. She comes home for her brother's wedding, and it turns out he's marrying Joanna. Things get awkward.

Marni's mom tries to get her to focus on the present instead of the past, and gets her past thrown in her face when her ex-best friend ends up being Joanna's aunt. More awkwardness.

Revenge, awkwardness. Attempted revenge, more awkwardness. Funky wedding planner that has a thing for singing and dancing, more awkwardness.

AVOID THIS MOVIE!

The Dilemma



This show isn't worth watching. I caved due to a free baby-sitter (thanks Ash) and Kevin James (Hitch, King of Queens). However, the movie was just one awkward situation after another. I did know going into it that Vince Vaughn's character sees his best friend (Keven James' character)'s wife with another guy, and he's torn about telling his friend. But, the trailer made it look like a good show. Those trailer makers sure do a good job getting people in seats, even when the movie really bites.

Channing Tatum is in this too. I'd only seen him in "Dear John", and I thought his character in that show was a pretty good guy (withstood Amanda Seyfried's blatant temptations when she was married to someone else). "Dear John" ruined Amanda Seyfried for me, and "The Dilemma" ruined Channing Tatum for me. I'm not sure why I continue to watch anything with Vince Vaughn though. His movies seem to be all sorts of awkward situations. Kevin James isn't totally ruined for me yet. I may just have to stick to watching King of Queen's reruns though.

True Grit



Matt took me to see this on my birthday. True, it's more of a Matt-film than and Andrea-film, but it was very well done.

The acting was great. Although, Matt Damon with a mustache and a funky Texas Ranger accent didn't do anything for me.

The non-use of contractions was odd. It took a little bit to figure out what was so squirly about how they were talking, but once you noticed,
it was distracting. I imagine that this was done based on people really not using contractions back in the day. I'm quite a fan of contractions.

Some of the scenes were a bit violent for my taste (ie. I closed by eyes, but not soon enough-dang knife and fingers part).

I'm not sure that I'd recommend it, because of a few graphic violence scenes, but it was well done.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tangled



I took the kids to see this over Zoie's Christmas break. Zoie and I really liked it, and Jonas kept asking to leave.

I would definitely see it again, and we will probably own it at some point. It was probably a little more enjoyable for me because the actor who does the voice for Flynn (the main male character) is the guy who plays Chuck in the TV show Chuck.

Extraordinary Measures



This is a touching story about a father who fights to help find a cure for Pompe disease, which two of his children have. Their bodies are shutting down, and they don't have much longer to live.

It was a good story. I think it was well done, although you do have to see Harrison Ford running at one point and that's disturbing. ;)

I'm not sure that I loved it, but it was a good story.
 

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