The Boys Are Back

The Boys Are Back available 01/26/2010
PG-13 // 104 Minutes

I just have to say that I adore Clive Owen. I think he's a very talented actor and I just love listening to his English accent. And he definitely didn't disappoint me in this film.

Joe (Clive Owen) is a sports writer who is forced to become a single parent after tragic circumstances. Based on a true events, this story takes place in the Australian outback. This story of fatherhood is set in South Australia. When Joe's wife dies of cancer, he takes on the responsibility of raising their 6-year-old son, and his teenage son from a previous marriage. Joe refuses to listen to the advice of his mother-in-law and fellow parents and goes about raising his children in his own manner.

Because this movie is based on a true story, I found it especially sad. Clive Owen's performance in this movie was amazing! I've seen him in several action/guy movies, so watching him in this movie was a pleasant contrast. I truly wished this movie had gotten a nomination at the Oscar's, but no such luck.

Whiteout

Whiteout
R // 101 Minutes

Finally, a movie that I really enjoyed. With an actress that I find so talented, Kate Beckinsale.

US Marshal Stetko (Beckinsale) is tracking the first murderer in the Antarctica. Everyone is getting ready to leave, as there are only a few days left before the sun sets for six months.

Now, what's interesting is most of the reviews I have read about this movie haven't been good ones. But I felt the movie was great. It's suspenseful and kept me intrigued and always guessing about who did what and how it was going to end. It was interesting to see a "whiteout" and also kinda scary. At one point, Marshal Stetko loses a couple fingers to frostbite, after touching some metal outside, with now gloves. Now, that part was gross.

Upon further research of the movie, I found that it was based of a comic book with the same name. How interesting.

I always think Beckinsale does an excellent job, and she definitely didn't disappoint me in this film. The roles of Dr. Fury and Delfy were great characters and the actors (Tom Skerritt and Columbus Short) did a good job portraying them.

I really think this one is worth the rent, or placing it in your Netflix queue, as most of you probably do.

According to Greta

According to Greta
PG-13

This movie stars yet another Disney hatched actress, Hilary Duff.

A young suicidal and rebellious teen gets sent to her Grandparents for the summer where life takes an unexpected turn. Hilary Duff plays the title role of Greta, a waitress, who falls for an cook at the restaurant where they work. She's always threatening suicide, doesn't listen to what her grandparents tell and just pretty much does what she wants.

I had actually saved this movie to my Netflix queue a while back, thinking it had the potential to be really good and I was really looking forward to what I hoped would be Hilary Duff's breakthrough performance. I am so glad that I don't have to pay for my rentals at work, because I would have been fairly upset had I paid $4.00 and change for this movie.

I felt it was a typical, coming of age type of teen movie. Rebellious teenager gets sent away. Rebellious teenager keeps acting out. Rebellious teenager gets a second chance. Rebellious teenager becomes not quite so rebellious. Happily ever after. It was predictable and I thought the acting was seriously lacking.

Now, I've seen several of Hilary Duff's movies. Most of the were cute and she usually sang in them. But during the whole movie, as I listened to her talking , all I could think of was little Lizzie McGuire...Duff's voice hasn't changed at all since she was a kid, and I found that rather annoying. Her character is always talking about ways to kill herself and I just don't enjoy the whole acting out, teenage thing.

Everyone who rented it this week or has asked about during the last couple of weeks has been teenage girls. Those who saw it say it's awesome and they just love Hilary Duff. So that right there should explain what type of movie you would be renting.

I personally, don't think this movie is worth the rental.

Pandorum

Pandorum available Now
R // 108 Minutes

Pandorum is a Sci Fi horror film and oh so creepy. It has strong horror violence and quite a bit of language in it.

Taking place in the year 3097, Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) and Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) walk up in a hyper sleep chamber, disoriented, with no memory of how they got there. It's pitch black and they are on an abandoned ship 500 miles from earth and a terrifying vision of terror is about to be released.

I thought the acting was great. I'm a big fan of Dennis Quaid. I felt this was a very different role then what I am used to seeing him in. He has done a lot of nice, clean movies, like Parent Trap, Yours, Mine and Ours, The Rookie etc. His character has...well, he has some problems. Quaid's performance was excellent. Ben Foster, who got his start way back in 1997 in a Disney Channel show, Flash Forward, did an outstanding job. I'm glad he didn't stick with Disney like so many young actors do. I don't think he'd be able to pull off this performance if he had stayed.

The movie is fairly graphic and violent. There are creatures, for lack of a better term, that are among the few passengers remaining. These creatures were created very well, making them super creepy to watch. There were a few times when I was trying to figure out exactly what was going on and I got a bit confused near the end. Even now, there are a few things I'm questioning and am still confused on. But overall, I think it's a good movie. I'm very much into the sci fi genre. I definitely want to watch this movie again, as a second viewing may help me clear up any confusion I may have.

Harder then I expected...

Okay, so keeping up with movie reviews is actually harder then I would have ever thought. Sure, watching the movies is easy. It's the writing down what I thought about them that becomes difficult. Well, I watched five movies this weekend and I have reviewed two of them. I will hopefully get the other ones done tonight when I get off work.

It has been requested that I add a list of my personal favorite movies to my blog, so this has been done. You can check it out on the side of my blog. These are the movies that I personally recommend everyone watches at some point. Some are old, some are new, but they are the best!

I hope everyone is enjoying my blog, thank you so much!

Gamer

Gamer available 01/19/2010
R // 95 Minutes

Okay, so I really like action movies and I was really looking forward to this movie for a few reasons. Reason number one: Gerard Butler. I think he's a fantastic actor. Reason number two: what a great concept. Reason number three: Michael C Hall. I've only ever seen him in the tv show Dexter so I was excited to see him play something different. Now, violence and swearing doesn't bother me too much in a movie and I don't get easily offended. But this one is rated R for good reason. To get specific, it's rated R for frequent sequences of strong brutal violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and language.

Basically, the movie is about death row convicts who get the option to take a chance at being fully pardoned. All they have to do is have a cell implanted into their brain. This cell starts turning other cells and eventually it allows someone to take control of them, virtually. Then they have to make through 30 battles alive. It's a video game called Slayers, created for pure entertainment. We also see another virtual game, Society, being played where people volunteer to have other take control of them, and it's anything goes.

The movie is nearly non-stop action. Within the first 10 minutes, I counted the f-bomb being dropped about 7 or 8 times. And I definitely could have done without the nudity. On top of the movie just being bad in general, the way it was filmed was very frustrating. The action sequences were a bit hard to follow. It was like someone had a hand-held camera and was just running around with it. Very hard to see what was going on.

I don't think this movie was as good as it could have been and I was very disappointed in it. I'm glad I didn't go see this in the theater like I had originally planned. I know a lot of guys who would really enjoy this movie...the girls, not so much. I used to really enjoy all the junk this movie is full of, but I'm geared more towards the light-hearted movies now.

No Greater Love

No Greater Love available 01/19/2010
PG // 109 Minutes

First love, second chance. That's what this movie is about. Jeff and Heather were high school sweethearts and married young. After the birth of their first child, Heather goes over the deep end and just up and leaves her family behind. Forced to move on, Jeff raises their son on his own. After 10 years, Jeff is finally moving on, about to ask his girlfriend to marry him. When Jeff's son attends a week long church camp with a friend, Jeff finds someone he never thought he would see again. Heather. She is now part of a ministry at church, turned her life around and became a believer in God. Find out what happens when a believer and non-believer try to make things work after 10 years of being apart.

This movie is definitely family friendly. I did enjoy the movie, but there seemed to be something lacking in it. The acting and the way the movie was made reminded me of similar films like Fireproof and the Left Behind movies. Now, I still don't know the Bible that well, so I don't know if what was said in the movie about marriage and divorce is true, but it certainly made me think about what I want to be looking for in my future husband. It's a touching movie, that leaves behind a feeling of hope. That second chances really are possible.

If desired, you can go to their website http://www.nogreaterlovethemovie.com to follow along with a bible study that goes with the movie. I didn't get a chance to check out the study, so I don't know how good it is.

Overall, it was good to watch a clean movie. Free from swearing, violence and sex. Which is not what I can say that about the other four movies I watched this weekend!

A story about two strangers....

...One a little stranger than the other.

Adam available now.
99 Minutes // PG-13

Adam is one of the most touching movies I have ever seen. It's been a long time since a movie has fully captured my attention from beginning to end. Since I watch a lot of my movies on my computer, I'm always pausing to check my facebook or look something up that I suddenly thought about. However, I could not and did not look away from my monitor for even a second while the movie played.

Adam is a 29-year-old who has recently lost his father. That in itself is a difficult thing to go through, but even more so is the fact that Adam is affected by Asperger's syndrome. It is a condition which often means that he cannot tell what other people are thinking simply by reading their faces, body language or figurative words. Instead Adam relies on honesty and literal meaning. He's rather blunt with his questions in order to find out what a person is really thinking, which can be construed as rude. When Adam meets Beth, he begins to have new feelings and struggles with containing his disability and showing his affections.

The part of Adam is played by Hugh Dancy, who I have only ever seen in Confessions of a Shopoholic. He was outstanding. Anyone who can play a part of a character with any type of disability that is both physically and emotionally difficult, I tip my hats to them. I compared this role to that of Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, where he played a young boy with a severe mental disability. When I saw the movie at the time, I thought he was actually like that. I felt the same way about Dancy in this film. It was like he, himself, had this syndrome.

I was rooting for Adam all through the movie, to get the girl, tackle his disability and show everyone that he can live on his own. I thought the ending of this movie was absolutely perfect!

I'm Gonna Live Forever

Fame available 01-12-2010
107 Minutes // PG

The new faces of Fame.

Okay, so I really liked the original Fame made back in 1980, so I was iffy on how this one was going to turn out. How great would it have been to go to a high school of the performing arts? I would have loved that when I was in school. Fame follows several teenagers through their ups and downs at Performing Arts High School, starting with auditions and going through graduation day. Some become stars and some do not. This school had a great cast teaching the students, including Kelsey Grammer, Bebe Neuwirth and Megan Mullally. Not to mention a group of young actors all still fairly new to the acting business.

Being a huge So You Think You Can Dance fan, I was looking forward to watching Kherrington Payne, one of the SYTYCD Season 4 contestants, perform. However, she had hardly any lines, and those she did have, were brought across the screen terribly. Since she's an amazing dancer, she should stick with that and only that. The character of Kevin, played by Paul McGill, was very touching. I thought the actor did a great job and put so much emotion into his character, that I felt it too.

The rating of PG is quite appropriate for this movie. There is brief strong language on a couple occasions and a scene with teen drinking.

Overall, I thought the movie was great.

Whoa!

So, I had quite an ambitious weekend planned for myself. We had nine new titles come in for Tuesday. Nine! So, knowing that I had plans last night and I'm working tonight and tomorrow, I had to pick and choose which ones to watch. Not an entirely great selection.

Let's start with Post Grad. Available 01/12/2010
88 Minutes // PG-13

First of all, Alexis Bledel is only good in Gilmore Girls, in my opinion. I didn't like her the Traveling Pants and I don't like her in this movie.

Post Grad is about a 22 year old girl, Ryden, just graduated from college and, while trying to find a job, is forced to move back in with her parents, who are quite eccentric.

I found the movie to be very boring and VERY predictable. I thought that the acting wasn't up to par, even by veteran comedy actors who played the small parts. I'm pretty sure this movie will only be enjoyable by young girls in their teens and maybe even early twenties. Thankfully, I only had to wait a whopping 88 minutes until the last line of the movie, which I thought was the only funny line.

How does one get married on accident?

The Accidental Husband available now
90 Minutes // PG-13

Host of radio show Real Love, Emma, is about to get married...to the perfect man. Only when filing for her marriage license, finds she's already married...to a soccer playing fireman. He's loud, rude and yet somehow charming. A great romantic comedy with one f-bomb dropped, that I can recall.

I think we only got three of these at work and I'd been staring at the title everyday, trying to decide if it was worth the rent. It was. I thought this movie was very cute...something that isn't actually likely to happen, but still cute. It definitely made me laugh out loud, which is always a plus in my book. There's a great scene involving Emma and her 'accidental husband' and cake tasting that just had me giggling. And in the end, a wonderful scene that made me all mushy. But, I'm a sap! Overall, it was a great romantic comedy, a chick flick. It has a great cast between Uma Thurman and Colin Firth. And there's Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I, personally, can watch anything with him in it. Few know who he is, but those who do know he is very talented.

And the weather calls for...pancakes??

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs available 01-05-2010
90 Minutes // PG

Now, I don't normally watch the kids movies that come up for rent, being as I don't have any kids, but this one caught my eye. An odd kid with a knack for inventing things that don't quite work properly. So when the town begins to run out of food, what does he do? Invents a machine that turns water into food, of course. Imagine what happens when said machine gets sucked up into the sky! Mother nature takes course.

I found it very entertaining...with a few out loud chuckles. It definitely kept my attention and I didn't just have it running in the background. I think it's a good family film that'll keep both the kids and adults rolling.

Starring.....

So, I've been wanting to start a blog for sometime now. But I didn't want to bore anyone with my hopeless life. Instead, I wanted to do something that would keep my family and friends entertained, something they would look forward to reading and really enjoy.

I don't much like going to the theater to watch movies, it's just too expensive and i always seem to have that one person behind me who laughs at all the serious moments or the 15 year old girl next to me with the constant night-light of her cell phone. Not a good experience, in my opinion. I prefer the comfort of my own couch or bed.

Movies are my thing...I watch at least one a day (sometimes two!). I have the privilege of watching the new releases the weekend before they come out and there's countless movies I have yet to see. I thought this would be a great project to start off the new year. Something to keep me distracted from the disaster that is my life sometimes.

I know my customers rely on my opinion and review of a movie and hopefully you'll enjoy my reviews as well.