New Release Shelf!

Hanna (ZZZZz)

What a fantastic movie!!! Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana score big time in this clever and realistic film about the government mutating genes to create super spies!  There are some great fight scenes and the story is great! One of my favorite things about this film is how Saoirse’s character is raised by her father in a remote cabin in the arctic. So she is extremely sheltered and has never even heard music before. During her journey she is brought to a sharp reality of modern culture and her shock and misunderstanding is very realistic and fascinating. Great movie!!!

Green Lantern (ZZZZ)

I really enjoyed Green Lantern. I had been waiting for this since they released the cast information in 2009. The acting, story, and action were all great! I wondered for a long time why this did not do so well in the box office. This superhero story is slightly more syfy then other superhero stories and I believe did not appeal to a larger audience as some of our recent superhero characters. The concepts of harnessing the power of Will and the Power of Fear for good and evil is what I think some people think is a little farfetched. I really enjoyed it!!!

X-Men First Class (ZZZ)

I was super excited for this movie when they announced James McAvoy would be playing the part of Professor X! I really enjoyed this movie as I have enjoyed all the x-men movies. Although I have felt all the x-men films besides Wolverine have been a little heavy on story and little short on action, but the thing I love about x-men is how easy your imagination runs wild with all the possibilities of what kind of super hero power I could have with my genetic mutation.

Captain America (ZZz)

I love Chris Evans!!! But I was disappointed in this movie. It was rather slow. I know they had to build up the story but come on already let’s see some action!! Also this film commits a cardinal movie sin in my book. It took several action scenes and compacted them into one slide show scene of action. I hate abbreviated or slide show action scenes!!! HATE IT!!!! Without Chris Evans this movie would probably have sucked…The one thing I really liked was the love interest that developed between Captain America and Peggy Carter. It was very real and genuine and very cute!

Quick Notes

Salt (ZZZZ)
Great movie! Very enjoyable, fast paced, good action and good acting! This move had a good plot and even though someone had spoiled a key twist in the plot I was stilled surprised! Very well done! One thing I do not like in these kinds of films starring a heroine is fight scenes. In many films like this there are many fight scenes with a 90 pound female operative taking out an equally trained 250 pound male operative. I think this is extremely unrealistic. Thankfully this film does not do this. Jolie plays the heroine and routinely wins her battles by surprise and cunning and I felt were very realistic. She has one, one on one battle, and she loses this battle but strategically. All in all a very enjoyable movie!

Air Force One (ZZZZ)
Great movie!!! Oh how I miss Harrison Ford in his heyday! Such a man’s man! Made almost every movie he was in enjoyable to watch and this film is no exception. Nothing in this movie is really fantastic except Harrison Ford and its great!!!!

Moneyball (ZZZ)
Wonderful movie. If you are a baseball lover you will love this movie! Brad Pitt and Jona Hill are fantastic! My wife (who is not a baseball lover) even enjoyed this movie. In her words it was great but kinda slow. I would give this film a higher rating because of my love for baseball because of its slightly lower review from a non baseball lover I will keep it at 3.

Wolfman (ZZz)
Very creepy and darker movie then I anticipated, Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins are fantastic in this creepy depiction of England’s age old wolfman legend! I did enjoy this movie although it was a bit gorier then I anticipated, one scene in particular were the wolfman is eating a man’s stomach…If you like horror movies then you will for sure enjoy this film.

Thor (ZZZz)
I Love superhero movies!!! And this movie is no disappointment! Marvell is quickly putting films together comprised of the heros making up the Avengers before the Avengers film is released in 2012. Some of these are not the greatest due to the short time in which they are being put together but I thought Thor was fantastic. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman were great! A movie and a very good warm up to get us excited for the new Avengers film in 2012!

Bridesmaids (Zz)
I was very disappointed in this movie. I had heard some rave reviews about how this was the funniest movie people had ever seen. Not the case for me. This film was very slow and although there were two or three laugh out loud moments this movie was very boring and at times extremely sad with how pathetic Kristin Wigs character’s life is…

Ping Pong Playa (Z)
This is a very stupid movie, but if you love ping pong there will be a small part of you that enjoys this movie!

Lincoln Lawyer (ZZZZz)
What a great movie!!!! Matthew MacConaughey and Ryan Philippe were great! This film was extremely well done with many twists! Fast paced and extremely enjoyable! I am not really a fan of lawyer films but this was fantastic! Great story with wonderfully believable characters! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!

Sabbatical???

It may seem like Movie Man has been on a sabbatical but actually my family and I are moving. So we have been packing and cleaning and all kinds of not fun stuff! I have been able to squeeze in a few movies during all the mayhem so here come the reviews!

Proof of life - 2000  ( ZZz )

Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan Star in this film about corporate kidnapping and the rescue plan that ensues. This was an enjoyable film to watch, I always enjoy Russell Crowe, although there are key elements in this film that don’t make sense. Russell Crowe is a special forces mercenary helping Meg Ryan find her kidnapped husband. They eventually do rescue him and bring him home but near the end Russell kisses Meg and apparently they have fallen in love through the whole process but the writers forgot to fill you in on the process. So it comes as a surprise and an unbelievable one at that, leaving this at only 2.5 Z’s out of five.

Just Go With It – 2011 ( ZZZZz )

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston star in this delightful film about a man discovering true love! This is an extremely funny and entertaining film! There are a number of touching moments in this film, not only the love story between Adam and Jennifer but also how Adam begins to fall in love with Jennifer’s two children! He even begins to fill a fatherly void for children that is absolutely adorable! There are also several surprise cameo appearances in this movie which end up being extremely hilarious! I would recommend this movie to anyone!

Transformers 3 – 2011 ( ZZZz )

Great Movie!!! There is really not much to say about this movie, one, two, and three kind of blend together, but I never get tired of seeing robots duke it out!!! Rosie Huntington-Whiteley takes the place of Meghan Fox. I liked the switch; Rosie is far less slutty than Meghan is, so it didn’t put a damper on the movie. Unfortunately, there is nothing really original in this installment of Transformers but still enjoyable to watch!!!  

The Pacific – 2010 HBO Series ( Zz )

Some of the writers of the HBO Series “Band of Brothers” teamed up to create the Pacific, telling the story of Marines fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. I did not like this series. It is rather slow and very depressing! War is always depressing, but this series lacks any kind of redemptive quality. In Band of Brothers there is focus not only on the horrors of war, but also on the heroes within the war. This series just focuses on the horrors and the men lost within the horror, with no one overcoming any of it and no real joy of any victory. Band of Brothers I would recommend to anyone, The Pacific I would not…

Source Code – 2011 ( ZZZZ )

This is a great film where Jake Gyllenhaal plays an Air Force Captain trying to stop a bomber in Chicago from detonating a dirty bomb and killing thousands. There are a number of twists & Turns so I cannot really talk too much about the details but it is well acted, lots of action and a very enjoyable movie!

(Spoiler) Below is for people who have seen this film!

I loved how this film is not too long. Some movies where you are continually going back to one scene, with the main character, to discover something new can sometimes drag on and on but this film is a perfect blend of action, suspense, and character depth to overshadow the repetitive nature. I also enjoyed the ending of the film and the questions left over. Does he change the future? Or does he create an alternate universe? And in this alternate universe is he taking over the teacher’s life? Interesting and fun to think about!!!

Have a great day and go enjoy a movie!!!!!

WAR MOVIES

I love a good war movie!!! There are so many great war movies out there! There are also some duds as well! In my opinion a great war movie is one that picks a couple different emotions and war situations as the backbone of the film. A dud, in my opinion, is one that picks one emotion and drives it so hard during the film that they forget to continue character building as well as forgetting to keep you up on the battle that they are emphasizing! I watched "Thin Red Line" the other day and what big dull dud!!! It is a great example of only choosing one emotion and forgetting to keep you abreast of the battle and the significance of it!

The best war film in my opinion is technically not a movie. The HBO series "Band of Brothers" is by far, in my opinion, one of the greatest war films ever made. It captures so many emotions from a number of different characters.  And since it’s a long series (nearly 12 hours), the character development is so deep it’s like you are actually related to the soldiers!!!

Another incredible war movie that received the Oscar in 2010, and was the first war film to win best picture since "Platoon" in 1986, is "The Hurt Locker!" This is such a fantastic movie!!! Jeremy Renner's character is so intriguing and just continues to draw you into the film and the emotions involved in his team and how the affects of war influence and affect the men around him. There is an almost perfectly balanced amount of character development, action, war detail, and emotional transparency!!! This film definitely deserved the Oscar!

Quick list of some war films!!!!

The Hurt Locker   ZZZZz

Saving Private Ryan    ZZZZ

Blackhawk Down   ZZZz

Pearl Harbor   ZZ

Enemy at the Gates   ZZz

U571   ZZZZ

The Thin Red Line   Zz

Inglorious Bastards   Z

Master and Commander   ZZZZ

The Great Escape   ZZZZ

Where Eagles Dare   ZZZZ

Dirty Dozen   ZZZz

Three Kings   Zz

Force 10 from Navarone   ZZZ

Green Zone   Z

Movie Trivia!!!

Mission Impossible 4 is set to come out December of 2011. Starring Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner!!! I am extremely excited about this, I cannot wait. So in honor of this comes my first trivia question. Tom Cruise has died in only one of his films that he has starred in. That is a lot of movies, begging in 1982 until today he has only died in one, you ask????? Yes it is true! So:

What is the only Film Starring Tom Cruise, where his character dies?

There will be a small prize for the first to answer correctly!!!

Also check out and vote on the new transformers movie coming out July 1st!!!

MM

Mini Reviews

It’s like the Lightning Round.

Tron
(Two Z's out of Five.) ZZ

Well Acted. Well made, with great effects! Although sometimes moviemakers take 2 hours to tell a story and they forget to put enough action to keep the viewer entertained. So this film comes off a little boring.

Street Kings
(Three and a Half Z's out of Five.) ZZZz

This is a very under rated cop movie. Dark and Gritty with a star studded cast! Some people don’t think Keanu Reeves can act to save his life, but one role that he is great at is a cop! A good plot with lots of notable actors makes this a great movie when you are in the mood for a ball busting cop movie!

Green Hornet
(Two Z's out of Five) ZZ

Great comic, good plot, and some great fight scenes does not make up for the cheesy fashion in which they made this movie. This could have been a very good film if it was slightly more realistic. Fun to watch but also slightly stupid and boring.

My First Review!!!!!!!!!

The Switch

Starring

Jennifer Aniston

Jason Bateman

Patrick Wilson

Rating 3 1/2 Z's out of 5!!!

(Instead of stars, I am using Z's as my ratings)

Premise

An unmarried 40-year-old woman turns to a turkey baster in order to become pregnant. Seven years later, she reunites with her best friend, who has been living with a secret: he replaced her preferred sperm sample with his own.

Me:

My first thought when I sat down to watch this movie was how excited I was to watch this comedy I had been waiting all year to see! I came to realize in the first 10 minutes that this is not a comedy. So after overcoming this, my wife and I continued watching and were wonderfully surprised! This drama is well made, very well acted and has a very warm heart. It is a little slow since it is a drama, but is a very realistic look at this type of experience in life, which I always appreciate in films. Realism!

Jason Bateman's character in this film later begins to connect and realize that Jennifer Aniston's son is also his son as well and not the sperm donors. I will not go into how, but while he is connecting and discovering his son, he starts to realize how much the boy is exactly like him in so many adorable ways. This part of the movie really captured my heart because there is an amazing connection and chemistry between Jason Bateman and Patrick Wilson that is seldom captured in film these days. Every time they are together it is absolutely adorable and heartwarming.

The reason this film captured my heart so much is because I am a father. My daughter is 16 months old. I love her so much more then I could ever have imagined I would love her before I became a dad. There are so many times throughout the day that I will watch my little girl do something and I immediately say in my head, "OMG she got that from me"! And it is the most amazing and terrifying feeling that I cannot explain. Jason Bateman's character has several moments like this in the movie and it captures exactly how I feel in those moments. What is also amazing that I love in this movie is that the son (Patrick Wilson) grows up becoming just like his father without his dad being around. His father’s characteristics were imbedded in him from birth! Which is just mind boggling for me to think and worry about as a father!!! There is such joy, excitement, and undiscovered adventures with becoming a parent that makes this movie such a joy to watch and reminds me so much of how my life is right now! This film also has so many things for people in all different situations in their lives to identify with, (for example; an older lady who has not been able to settle down and has longed for children since she was younger). 

So if you are in the mood for a warm, realistic, heartfelt film about a father discovering and falling in love with his son and a family being born.... This is for you. 

I love how realistic this movie is and not cheesy. I would definitely recommend this movie!

Now it’s your turn!!! I want to hear what you thought about this movie! Even if you didn’t like it! Tell me why!