Review: Alpha and Omega 3D

This is the most recent movie I saw (literally hours ago) so I am finally caught up with all the movies I have seen. I didn't think this would actually happen. Hopefully sometime this week I can get back to My Favorite Movies of All Time-- I believe I am on number 16.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Honestly I wanted to give this movie higher of a rating because I was laughing out loud the entire time but I cannot overlook some major flaws.

The movie is about a pack of wolves who are made up of Alphas (the hunters) and Omegas (the fun loving ones). They can live and eat together but they cannot mate. Two packs are having a marriage to bring them together but people take two of the wolves away to mate in another state park. The wolves must find their way back to the packs before they fight to the death.

It was definitely not a fluff type movie and it has a lot of heavy political agenda in it (which I love). It is all about being able to marry the person you want to and it seems to be made with the whole gay marriage thing in mind (GOOD FOR IT!!!)!!!! The kids and probably most adults do not see this but if you pay attention it is there.

One of my favorite lines is from two hippy wolves who shout, "Stop the insanity, go organic!" Honestly this made me howl like a wolf because it was so hysterical and is something I believe strongly in too.

One of the major flaws of the movie is the predictability of the movie because you knew in the first five minutes how it was going to progress and how it would end. A great kids' movie is one that adults can love along with the kids-- this was created for kids and they tried to force humor too much to please the adults.

Another flaw is the howling-- honestly it did not sound like wolf howls instead it sounded like poetic music and every time they howled I laughed because it was very unrealistic. It was just a create big joke personally. One of the people I went with (a kid) actually started to howl because it was infectious!

I do recommend seeing this movie but DO NOT waste your money on 3D instead try to see it in plain 2D because the 3D effects were not that great. The people I were with and myself found ourselves getting dizzy. We had fun and were glad we saw it but see it in 2D if possible.

Let me know what you think of it!

Review: Easy A

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Easily one of the BEST movies I have seen all year and I have no doubt it will be in my top ten at the end of the year. It is a brilliant movie-- absolutely amazing high school satire up there with Mean Girls (another brilliant movie with amazing writing).

Unlike Mean Girls which was amazing because of Tina Fey's writing, this movie is brilliant because of the actress Emma Stone who plays the lead Olive. I honestly think she is the female version of me because I have been told I do sarcasm very well and she is able to deliver sarcastic lines better than any actress I have ever seen.

The movie is version of Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Olive is forced to tell a lie about losing her virginity and it starts to snowball out of control where guys pay her to say that she slept with them even though she did not. The movie becomes so unrealistic that it actually seems realistic. There is only one small part of the story that seems unrealistic and it involves Lisa Kudrow's character, the guidance counselor but because of how much fun I was having I can overlook that.

The parents of Olive are played by the amazing Stanley Tucci (in one of his FINEST comedic performances) and Patricia Clarkson. They have such great chemistry and they are so laid back but never once did I not believe they didn't care for their daughter.

I loved the concept of using a video blog to narrate the entire movie-- it brings a modern twist to the premise of the Scarlet Letter. I also love how they do not shy away from the act it is based on the book, it even talks about the two movies and how the original is amazing and the Demi Moore version is crap (which it is).

I recommend everyone reading this drop what they are doing and go to the theaters to see this. It is an amazing movie and you will not stop laughing the entire time you are watching.

Let me know what you think after you see this. Do you love it as much I do?!?!?!?! Or do you hate it (GASP)!!!!!

Review: Chungking Express

This is one of the movies I discovered through the book I read on the trip out west that inspired me to start this blog. The boy in the book loved this movie so much I just had to watch it.

Rating:

3 out of 5 stars

The movie consists of two stories that are told one after the other. The first story I did not like was much, it was slow and I did not understand it. A man is dumped by a girl and buys a can of pineapple each day that will expire on May 1st. If the girl does not come back to him by then he knows it is not meant to be. Over the course of the time he meets another girl who is not interested in him but he is still pursuing her.

The second story is of a woman who works at a restaurant and a man that comes to the restaurant each day. They gradually fall in love-- it was beautiful to watch happen over the course of the movie.

It is a foreign language film from Hong Kong from the 1990s but it was a very good movie. The director originally had three parts but felt that it was getting too long so he made the third part a stand alone movie that came out later. The part I really liked is how the two parts were connected-- the couple from the second part made a brief appearance in the first part.

I definitely recommend renting this movie, it was a lot of fun to watch and the music in it brings back a lot of memories and was fun to listen to.

Let me know what you think.

Review--- Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D

I want to just say I am a HUGE fan of the Resident Evil series, a good friend from college got me hooked on them and I have seen every single one at least 3 times but this was my first one in theater.

Review:

3 out of 5

I must say I was disappointed, not by the movie but by the 3D effects-- I really wish I would have just went to the regular movie instead of the 3D version. It was not like the other movies I saw in 3D-- it didn't jump out at me and scare me like I expected.

It basically followed the same formula as the other 4 movies--- a team of survivors tries to battle the Umbrella Corporation in some way along with A LOT of zombies. The zombies were created by the T-Virus the Umbrella Corporation created and released by accident.

It is by no means a great movie but it is a lot of fun to watch because you always know how it will end-- the endings are happy but always leave room for a sequel (like the SAW franchise)-- I honestly do not see an end point because you can never get rid of all the zombies- haha.

I recommend it if you are a fan of the Resident Evil series (movie or video game) or enjoy the genre that has been created of zombies that were formed by a virus. Honestly these movies are a lot of fun-- but do not waste your money on the 3D effects (not worth it).

Let me know what you think if you have seen it! Also if you have specific questions-- comment on the blog and I will try to respond.

Review: Revanche

This is a Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee from two years ago-- it took me until now to be able to rent it. My lovely Blockbuster store does not carry it (surprise surprise) so I had to get it online.

Review:

4 out of 5 stars

After the first thirty minutes I thought I was going to give this a terrible rating but as the movie progressed I fell in love with it. I still think the best movie that year one (Departures-- truly amazing movie) but this definitely deserved to be nominated.

The movie is about a couple who rob a bank and in the process one of them is killed. The survivor goes home to his father to help out around the house and without meaning too has an affair with the wife of the guy that shot the other. Going through all the dynamics shows how different people handle grief and eventually overcome it.

Reading the subtitles allowed me to become invested in the movie which I loved. It made me concentrate and truly enjoy the movie. The acting is what made this movie great-- it was subtle but well done. The directing and writing were ok (I did have some problems with some of the script and writing but it some of that might have been lost in translation).

I definitely recommend this foreign language film. It will be worth all of the effort you need to put into reading the subtitles but I think you will enjoy it. (Granted the only foreign language films I watch are Oscar nominated ones which means they are usually good or they are horror films- haha-- amazing ones.)

Let me know what you think!

Review: When in Rome

Review:

3 out of 5 stars

This is just a plain old fun romantic comedy. It is not one I would go see in theaters unless someone invited me but it is a very fun movie. Romantic comedies can be a lot of fun but you need to be in the right state of mind to go to them because you have to throw away a lot of beliefs in order to enjoy it.

In order to enjoy this movie you have to believe in true love, magic and fate. I believe in all three to a point (probably magic more than the other two) but even this movie asked a lot of me as a watched.

The premise is a woman who is so fed up with love that she takes coins out of a fountain in Rome. By doing this those men who threw their coins into the fountain have fallen in love with her. My first problem with the movie--- men usually do not throw coins into fountains, women do so why didn't any women fall in love with her?!?! Men have a tendency of not believing in true love's magic or the Greek Goddess of love who watches over people. So I found that weird that those men did that (even though they were VERY weird men).

During this time of them falling in love with her she falls in love with a guy she met at the wedding, which is the reason she was in Rome. She became worried that he might be under the spell they others are so she tries to fix her problem.

It was fun to watch and I am a fan of Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. Both were very good! Josh Duhamel is made for two things-- romantic comedies and TV (he has done both), I do not see him as a serious actor in serious roles. Maybe he will surprise me someday but I hope he sticks with romantic comedies.

I do recommend watching this one-- with someone or alone, it doesn't matter.

Let me know what you think!

Review: White Heat

In trying to keep with the tradition of my blog and reviewing movies from all genres and all decades, here is White Heat from 1949.

Review:

3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a gangster type movie staring the GREAT James Cagney (if you don't know who this is SHAME on you-- highly recommend his great Yankee Doodle Dandy). The movie is about a gangster man who is sent to jail and has to deal with the consequences of his actions while also realizing he does not have any control over what happens on the outside.

His mother is one of the highlights of the movie because she is so deliciously evil and realize how the character became so corrupt. James Cagney's character is so evil that you love to hate him and even begin to route for him. The middle of the movie goes a little slow but whenever he breaks out it begins to get interesting. Especially when he finds out his mother was murdered (the murderer is a brilliant twist in the movie).

The movie is famous for the last scene and honestly made the entire movie for me. It gives new meaning of a character going down in a blaze of glory!! It is as happy ending as a gangster movie can give you but it was very very poetic!!

I highly recommend renting it but be warned, it is black and white but I do not think that should stop you from getting it. It is heavy on the violence but it is fun to watch how the characters turn on each other and try to gain more power!!

Let me know what you think if you rent it! Do you love it? hate it?

Review: The Backup Plan

This is a movie I desperately wanted to see in theaters but did not have the opportunity to see. It looked like my type of chick flick and it had Jennifer Lopez!!

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this movie because it was well written with lots of jokes and it had Jennifer Lopez. This is an actress who knows the type of movie she does well in--- romantic comedies!! Maid in Manhattan is one of my favorite movies to watch when I am upset because it gives me hope there is love out there for me. She is a wonderful actress but she doesn't stray too far from romantic comedies which I love!!

The premise of the movie is a woman cannot wait any longer to have a baby so she goes and gets a doctor to help her out. After she had the procedure done she meets her soul mate played by the amazingly good looking Alex O'Loughlin. Honestly why is that guy not any more famous than he is. He is one of the best looking men in Hollywood (if you don't know who is he SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!). They fall in love and then he realizes she is pregnant. The rest of the movie deals with the hysterics of what happens after he realizes.

The reason the rating is not higher for this movie is the ending and other parts are very unrealistic. The reason I love romantic comedies is they seem like they could really happen. A great romantic comedy makes you believe that it could happen to you, even if it is totally unrealistic. Look at Maid in Manhattan--- how many women out there honestly thought they could find a rich good looking man and fall in love!! How about Enchanted!! I for one was looking down sewer drains trying to find a portal to another world, because it seemed to realistic!!

This movie did not seem realistic AFTER the guy found out she was pregnant. Everything before that totally seemed like it could happen (and probably did happen) at some point in the world.

But I definitely think you should rent this for a good date night with your lover or by yourself (like me). Guys will find it hysterical and girls will love to watch the male lead!!

Let me know what you think!

Review: A Prophet

Review:

4 out of 5 stars

This is a foreign language film from France from last year. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film alongside another film I reviewed earlier: The White Ribbon. It was considered a front runner to win but ended up losing.

I loved this film compared to The White Ribbon--- but then again I tend to like action films and this was definitely an action movie but it was also very symbolic if you know what is happening in France right now with immigration (like in the United States).

The movie is about a Muslim man who is sent to jail and is guarded by the Italian type people in jail because he does their dirty work and is like a servant. He does not hang around his own people so the other Muslims look at him like dirt. Throughout the film you see what French prisons are like and how people take advantage of the guards by bribing them. The man is eventually sent out on work release and does drug runs. He eventually makes a Muslim friend and becomes like a part of his family. It all comes together for a climatic end where a few surprising twists take place.

The acting is brilliant, it is definitely rated R because of the violence but it is definitely worth the money to rent it. It is one of the best foreign language films I saw from last year. Before you know it the two hours is up and you are wanting more.

I highly recommend renting this movie-- very worth the time it will take to read the subtitles.

Let me know what you think if you rent it or have seen it!

Review: The Box

Still trying to get caught up on movie reviews, I am finding that I can only write reviews over the weekend. During the week I am just too busy, it is something I hope to work on because I enjoy writing them so much. The problem is I watch entirely too many movies- haha.

Review:

1.5 out of 5 stars

Honestly, this movie was just plain stupid. I am huge Cameron Diaz and James Marsden fans but why in the world did they attach themselves to a movie like this.

The premise of the movie is that different couples are offered a chance for 1 million dollars by pressing a button in a box. But if they press it someone they do not know will die. It is a very interesting premise but the rest of the movie starts to get into the supernatural and brings NASA into it. That is where I got very confused, which is VERY hard for a movie to do.

The beginning and the ending were very good but the middle is the part of the movie that I hated and honestly it lost me half way through it. By the time the movie finally caught my attention again, it was almost over. The ending helped the tie up all the lose ends of the movie and it was actually quite brilliant.

The movie is based off of a short story called "The Button" and I would love to read it to see how the writer and director of the movie might have taken it in a different way.

I recommend renting a different movie instead of this one, it is just too far fetched and confusion to truly enjoy and there are so many other movies out there to rent and love.

Let me know what you think if you have seen it!

Review: Wolfman

Rating:

2.5 out of 5 stars

This was not your typical thriller/horror movie but it definitely was. There was more than enough gore to go around and when the wolf was released it would go tearing through people like a tiger tears through its prey.

Honestly I expected so much more from this movie considering it had three amazing actors Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt. Two have Oscars and the third will one day, I know it (especially after her AMAZING turn in The Devil Wear's Prada-- highly highly highly recommend that movie).

My issue with this movie is they tried to make it into a stupid love story. A horror movie has no place for a love story. Now if they had marketed it and made it as a love story it could have worked but instead they marketed it as a thriller and wondered why no one went to the movie.

These three amazing actors could not save the movie and as a result it was horrible. But if you do want to see it, go see it for the special effects-- AMAZING!! Watching the man turn into a wolf was the only reason this was not 1 out of 5 stars (I am serious). I would watch it again but fast forward to the scenes when he changes because they are so much fun to watch.

Overall do not rent this movie!! Watch the original 1941 version instead!! Let me know what you think!

Review: Swing Time

I rent all types of movies and this movie from 1936 is one I had been wanting to see (not just because it involves music and dance) but couldn't because my Queue on blockbuster showed it was always out.

Rating:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Honestly loved this movie, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers should be national treasures more than they are. Their movies together are masterpieces and so much fun to watch. Their chemistry describes what modern day actors and actresses should want. It is so much fun to watch them on screen together.

The dance sequences, from the first one in the dance studio, are masterfully created and they just glide on the dance floor. The song numbers are brilliant. Honestly I felt a little bad for anyone who is against Fred Astaire because you know they will lose.

Victor Moore and Helen Broderick got some of the biggest laughs for playing idiots of a character- haha. But they did it brilliantly. The ending is amazing and is definitely a true love story-- worth every penny to rent it.

Even if you are not a fan of musicals or dance I recommend this movie because you should be a fan of love!!

Let me know what you think!

Review: Jennifer's Body

So I am slowly catching up on a lot of the DVD's I rented before my internet decided to play funny games. Luckily I was compiling a list of movies I was watching that I wanted to review. Most of them came out onto DVD within the last 6 months.

Review:

3 out of 5 stars

Everyone should know by now I love a good horror movie-- they are just so much fun because you know that everyone will likely die by the end. This was rare because you knew the twist going into the movie because of the title-- something is in Jennifer's body.

The movie is about a girl Jennifer that becomes possessed and starts to eat boys during a sexual act--- honestly LOVED the concept but did not enjoy the movie as much as I wanted.

I think it came down to the writing (can you believe I am not blaming Megan Fox's acting- haha). I am not a fan of the writer, Diablo Cody (she wrote Juno-- I hated that movie). I just thought the writing skipped around so much and actually gave away much of the big scenes before she needed to. The movie had so much potential to be the next Exorcist but instead it fell flat on its face.

Personally I recommend skipping this movie unless you like horror type movies-- if you do this will be a fun movie then. Otherwise rent something else.

Let me know what you think!

Review: Going the Distance

Last weekend I saw this movie with a friend because we were both in the mood for a funny romantic comedy and we were hoping this would give us our fix.

Review:

2.5 out of 5 stars

This got a good 50% score from me. It was hysterical and if you are looking for a good laugh you will thoroughly enjoy this movie. My problem with the movie is that the laughs sometimes tried too hard and went past the point of being truly funny.

The one great part about this is, I actually believe it could all happen. People really do have long distance relationships and not having jobs do get in the way of love sometimes. I loved that the leads did not have these glamorous lives-- instead they were normal human beings.

Justin Long was hysterical but it was hard to believe he was the male lead responsible for carrying the movie. He was good but I was just surprised at how well he carried the movie. Drew Barrymore was a lot of fun, as always but after seeing her in Grey Gardens I just felt disappointed she lowered herself to this type of movie. She has so much promise and could win an Oscar if she went for a different type of movie that used her talents.

But the MVP of the movie was Christina Applegate. She got the BIGGEST laughs as the OCD type sister. It is a shame she does not get the opportunity to carry her own movie because I know she could knock it out of the park. She got her own series on ABC, Samantha Who and she was amazing!!

I recommend waiting until this movie comes to DVD and rent it! Do not waste your money for the theaters.

Let me know what you think-- did you love it, hate it??

Favorite Movies of All Time-- Number 17

Well no one seems to have guessed number 17 of my FAVORITE movies of all time- haha. It was actually a very simple one.

CRASH

For the Oscar race that year it was between Crash and Brokeback Mountain. I saw both and LOVED both. Brokeback Mountain was an amazing love story and one that is rarely told-- one between a man and another man. Do not get it wrong it was a great movie and Ang Lee deserved the Best Director Oscar but Crash was the far better movie.

It did more than make me cry, it made me reflect on my own prejudices. It made me look in myself and see what I need to change and then it made me look into the world and see things I can change.

It helped me to become a better teacher.

The one scene that still HAUNTS me is the scene where a Muslim man confronts a man he feels wronged him. He takes a gun and it goes off at the man. But before bullet hits the man, his 4-5 year old daughter runs out and jumps in front of him.

Literally the entire theater gasped (including myself). I was crying so hard I could not see the next portion of the movie right away. But then I realized nothing happened, the gun was filled with blanks. The little girl jumped because daddy had given her his invisible cape to wear.

I almost started to laugh but if you think about that scene. It was brought together not by great acting but by the amazing storytelling. Do not get me wrong-- the acting is amazing. Sandra Bullock does her BEST acting in this movie (not The Blind Side). Other countless actors do amazing acting.

The problem when it came time for acting Oscars is this is an ensemble piece-- there are too many actors doing great work in it for any one person to get noticed. All of their performances live off those of other people in the movie. Every character in the movie is connected to two to three other people.

It is simple an amazing movie that I recommend HIGHLY for anyone that loves a great character driven drama with a meaning and soul behind it.

*** clue for Number 16--- One of Julia Robert's first movies but one of my personal favorite. It is her second on my countdown but not her last one on it. She stars with Richard Gere and has one amazing surprised scene in it. Hopefully I will get to post about it sometime next week.

Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Well it has definitely been a rough few weeks. The internet in my apartment went down for a bit until my dad came and fixed it last weekend. So I have been unable to post for a while. I have been going through withdrawal of posting about movies lately and have been watching quite a few. Since it is virtually impossible to retrace the last two-three weeks of movies I am just going to post about the three I saw in theaters since the last post.

Review:

4 out of 5 stars

About two weeks ago a friend and I traveled up to Harrisburg to use a gift card I had. We went to see Eat, Pray, Love because I am a Julia Roberts fan (like major-- in anything). After seeing it we had to totally different reactions. I was moved by it, moved to try to live a happier life. I was moved to travel more. I was moved to go do things that make me happy and not try and car so much about other people. She was moved to thank God I paid for the movies and she didn't waste her money.

This does not mean she hated the movie, it just means she would not pay $9.00 to go see the movie. I on the other hand would have paid $9.00 to go see it again. We both agree the first part was the best part-- Italy. But I am getting ahead of myself. The movie is about a woman who feels unsatisfied in her marriage and life. So she gets a divorce and takes a year off to travel to three places-- Italy, India, and Indonesia.

I would love to go to Italy and it made me want to go to Italy. It also made me want to cook which I went home and did for the next week and there went the diet temporally. It had some of the best quotes to live by and some of the best quotes about why Americans cannot relax or how American's version of relaxing is getting blacked out drunk. It made me really think about how the rest of the world views relaxation--- something to do often and to live life to the fullest.

The India portion was too long but it was the real heart of the movie (Italy was the stomach), it is where the woman started to work through her issues and ironically it helped me work through a lot of my issues.

The Indonesia portion was the .... portion-- just go see it because it is a part of the body I cannot mention. But it is totally worth it to see.

Honestly each part of the movie could be its own individual movie. I realize each part is not necessarily on everyone's must see in world travel and the movie just showed this one portion of each. Two of them are much more dangerous but a movie is a gateway to viewing the world.

This movie made me want to go travel the world and LIVE more than I am doing in Hanover, Pennsylvania. It helped me to work through issues, it spoke to me.

It might not speak to you but the acting is amazing!! Julia was great along with love interest in the third portion. I do not think you will hate the movie but it might be hard for you to love it as much as I did!!