Movie Roundup
Just got back from the movies and seeing as I'm behind on my movie reviews I figured I'd update...
Star Trek* - Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Leonard Nimoy (May 9) 5 out of 5
First off, most awesome cast of the summer by far! I knew Zachary Quinto would be great but Chris Pine was a revelation as Captain Kirk. I was actually surprised at how ingrained the Star Trek verse was in me because despite never being a fan I got all of the references. The great thing about the film is that you don't have to be a fan to enjoy it... J.J. Abrams figured out how to make the movie fun for us newbies without negating the rest of the films in the least. It moved at a fast clip, was action packed and had a lot of humor... it didn't take itself seriously!
Up* - Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai (May 30) 5 out 5
Pixar bats it out of the park again! There have been a lot of good computer animated movies lately (Coraline in particular) but nothing comes quite as close to a Pixar movie. They simply know how to make smart, heartfelt stories that make you laugh and cry without dumbing things down for the kids. If the beautiful opening sequence that tells the love story of Carl and Ellie doesn't get to you then nothing will... you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger cynic than me and I was blubbering by the end of it.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson (May 30) 3 out of 5
We snuck into this one and I enjoyed it despite never having seen the first one. It was cute but nothing I have the desire to ever watch again... I bumped it up to 3 stars because I thought Amy Adams was absolutely adorable throughout!
The Hangover - Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis (June 6) 4 out of 5
Foul, obscene and absolutely hysterical! First-rate cast kept the laughs rolling and I actually thought the script was great. I like that's it's sort of a mystery as the three lovable losers attempt to retrace their steps and find the missing groom in time for the wedding. Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis bring most of the laughs while Bradley Cooper brings some major eye candy... he's FINE!!! Special props to Mike Tyson and Ken Jeong who nearly had me peeing in my pants!
Public Enemies - Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard (July 4) 2 out of 5
What a disappointment! I love Johnny Depp to pieces but not even he can save this snoozefest! The movie looks gorgeous (as does Depp) and it features a great cast of character actors but unfortunately the script goes nowhere. To top it all off the movie is a good hour too long (does Michael Mann even know the term editing?) so by the halfway point we were just heckling the film. It's one thing for a movie to be bad, it's another for it to just bore you to tears despite all the great potential. To be frank it felt like a bad retread of another Michael Mann's Heat only this time in costume. At least both Pacino and DeNiro got to ham it up in that one, poor Christian Bale is stuck in the mire here. As for Marion Cotillard, I actually thought she was woefully miscast here.
The movie did look great though and like I mentioned before it features a lot of wonderful character actors throughout. We spent most of the movie picking them out (think of it as a game of Where's Waldo?)... look there's Emilie de Ravin (Claire!), Billy Crudup (what happened to his neck!?), Stephen Dorff (he's still around?), David Wenham (Australia's fly killer!), John Ortiz (what's with the Hitler mustache?), Giovanni Ribisi (he will forever be Phoebe's brother to me), Rory Cochrane (Slater got fat!), holy shit it's Lili Taylor... LeeLee!!! Brotherhood's Jason Clarke had a nice turn and it was also fun seeing The Wire's Peter Gerety and Domenick Lombardozzi as well as a blink or you'll miss her turn from Carey Mulligan.
Star Trek* - Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Leonard Nimoy (May 9) 5 out of 5
First off, most awesome cast of the summer by far! I knew Zachary Quinto would be great but Chris Pine was a revelation as Captain Kirk. I was actually surprised at how ingrained the Star Trek verse was in me because despite never being a fan I got all of the references. The great thing about the film is that you don't have to be a fan to enjoy it... J.J. Abrams figured out how to make the movie fun for us newbies without negating the rest of the films in the least. It moved at a fast clip, was action packed and had a lot of humor... it didn't take itself seriously!
Up* - Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai (May 30) 5 out 5
Pixar bats it out of the park again! There have been a lot of good computer animated movies lately (Coraline in particular) but nothing comes quite as close to a Pixar movie. They simply know how to make smart, heartfelt stories that make you laugh and cry without dumbing things down for the kids. If the beautiful opening sequence that tells the love story of Carl and Ellie doesn't get to you then nothing will... you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger cynic than me and I was blubbering by the end of it.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson (May 30) 3 out of 5
We snuck into this one and I enjoyed it despite never having seen the first one. It was cute but nothing I have the desire to ever watch again... I bumped it up to 3 stars because I thought Amy Adams was absolutely adorable throughout!
The Hangover - Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis (June 6) 4 out of 5
Foul, obscene and absolutely hysterical! First-rate cast kept the laughs rolling and I actually thought the script was great. I like that's it's sort of a mystery as the three lovable losers attempt to retrace their steps and find the missing groom in time for the wedding. Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis bring most of the laughs while Bradley Cooper brings some major eye candy... he's FINE!!! Special props to Mike Tyson and Ken Jeong who nearly had me peeing in my pants!
Public Enemies - Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard (July 4) 2 out of 5
What a disappointment! I love Johnny Depp to pieces but not even he can save this snoozefest! The movie looks gorgeous (as does Depp) and it features a great cast of character actors but unfortunately the script goes nowhere. To top it all off the movie is a good hour too long (does Michael Mann even know the term editing?) so by the halfway point we were just heckling the film. It's one thing for a movie to be bad, it's another for it to just bore you to tears despite all the great potential. To be frank it felt like a bad retread of another Michael Mann's Heat only this time in costume. At least both Pacino and DeNiro got to ham it up in that one, poor Christian Bale is stuck in the mire here. As for Marion Cotillard, I actually thought she was woefully miscast here.
The movie did look great though and like I mentioned before it features a lot of wonderful character actors throughout. We spent most of the movie picking them out (think of it as a game of Where's Waldo?)... look there's Emilie de Ravin (Claire!), Billy Crudup (what happened to his neck!?), Stephen Dorff (he's still around?), David Wenham (Australia's fly killer!), John Ortiz (what's with the Hitler mustache?), Giovanni Ribisi (he will forever be Phoebe's brother to me), Rory Cochrane (Slater got fat!), holy shit it's Lili Taylor... LeeLee!!! Brotherhood's Jason Clarke had a nice turn and it was also fun seeing The Wire's Peter Gerety and Domenick Lombardozzi as well as a blink or you'll miss her turn from Carey Mulligan.