Knocked Up

Finally made it back to the drive-in this week and saw Knocked Up starring Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl. I hadn't met anyone who has actually seen this movie, but when I mentioned what I was going to see that night, folks told me, "That's supposed to be really funny!" and "I heard that's great!"...well, it WAS funny and while it wasn't great, it was really, really good. It would have been better if the women in the film weren't so darn awful-- not their acting, but their personalities. It was hard to like any of the females in this film. Cranky, moody, selfish, arrogant-- ugh!

Most are probably familiar with the plot line- good-looking, smart career girl has one night stand with overweight slacker dude and become pregnant. There are some very funny lines in the film, mostly credited to Rogan and his fellow slackers. Definately worth seeing for a few laughs, if you can tolerate the miserable women characters! I would love to hear from any of you who saw this film-- did you feel as I did?

Happy Feet

Since I just reviewed Cars, I might as well review the movie that beat it for the Best Animated Oscar this year. Take a dancing penguin, Elijah Wood, and as many social/political issues that you can cram into a 2 hour movie, and you have Happy Feet. Those filmmakers were smart. They could've gotten plenty of other actors to voice Mumble, but they got Elijah Wood, which drew in the Elijah Wood fangirls. (I got dragged--erm, went along with a friend who went for that reason.) The dancing penguin factor brings the kids in, and the social/political issues keep the parents from falling asleep, and then it makes them want to buy it so their kids can watch it over and over and learn about enviornmental issues.
In the world of Happy Feet, all penguins sing with beautiful, professional quality voices and have a "heart song". When they find another penguin whose song fits with theirs, it means they're supposed to get married. Mumble (Elijah Wood) can't sing and doesn't have a song. Instead, he tap dances. So all the penguins pick on him. Except of course, for the most beautiful girl penguin, Gloria (Brittany Murphy). She likes him. (*cough*Pebble and the Penguin*cough*) Meanwhile, all the fish are dissapearing, so the old penguins decide to blame in on Mumble, who, by their logic, must be causing all the probelms since he's DIFFERENT! Also, Mumble's dad, voiced by Hugh Jackman, hates him.
One day, Mumble winds up meeting a bunch of adelie penguins, most of which are voiced by Robin Williams. He dances, and they like it, so he ditches his family and becomes friends with them. (can you tell that I don't like this movie?) More dancing, more singing, more Mumble trying to get the girl. Mumble finally DOES get the girl by dancing to her heart song, but then he tells her to leave because he's going off on a dangersous quest to find the fish. Another hour of enviornmental issues, Mumble comes back, we get to see thousands of tap-dancing penguins, and then everyone lives happily ever after.
The only reason this beat Cars is because the plot was different. The only reason the plot was different was because they couldn't pick just one issue to address. The only thing I really liked about the movie was the animation. I honestly don't know if they filmed real people or animated them. The landscapes of antartica made me think I it was a live-action movie at times. The penguins were animated very realistsically, except that they were tap-dancing and singing. It's one of the greatest animation jobs I've seen in an American movie. The only, and I mean ONLY animated thing I didn't like was Mumble. When emperor penguins are born, they have lots of fuzzy white feathers. When they're around a year old (I think...) they have completely lost their feathers. The ENTIRE movie, Mumble had his fledgling feathers. He spent weeks, if not months trying to get the fish back and talk to the people, and he still had feathers! I know that the filmmakers did this so we could tell Mumble apart, but if they made no attempt to give the other penguins special features, why only do it for Mumble? Maybe they thought it would be too stereotypical. They could be right, but to me, it just looked stupid.
Rating: 2 and half stars because that was some of the best animation I've seen since FF7: Advent Children.

Cars

The only reasons I wanted to see Cars were: 1, John Lasseter, the director, is friends with Hayao Miyazaki-sensei and 2, Pixar usually has the best animated movies in the US. The only Pixar movies that weren't nominated for Academy Awards were the ones that were made before the Best Animated Film award was created, and until now, only one lost, and that was to Shrek. So I fully expected Cars to take the Oscar home this year. To my surprise, Happy Feet, not Cars, got the prize. I now know why.
The only thing original about Cars is... well, the cars. It had the standard plot of a hotshot young rookie, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) who thinks only about himself and has no friends. One night, on the way to the tiebraker for the coveted Piston Cup, Lightning falls off of his truck, gets chased by a cop, and destroys the road in a little town in the middle of nowhere. The citizens of the town punish him by forcing him to fix the road he destroyed, a job that, according to the town leader, Doc Hudson (voiced by Paul Newman) will take 5 days. But Lighting must get to California in... atually, I don't remember them saying how long he had to get to California. Just that he really had to get there, and apparently didn't have 5 days. To make a long story short, Lighting learns lots of life lessons, becomes friends with a tow truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy, falls in love with a cute porcshe named Sally (Bonnie Hunt), and helps the little town of Radiator Springs. It's everything the previews made it out to be, and nothing more. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the film, but I did expect a little better from Pixar. The animation was very well-done, but in Pixar's style, which isn't the most realistic I've seen. That may also be a reason Happy Feet won over Cars. Still, overall it was cute and worth the 116 minutes I spent to watch it.
Rating: 2 and a half stars. The plot was just too predictable. Sorry, Pixar.
If you like this: A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo

Hannibal Rising

I have always been a fan of creepy things but only recently have been turned on formally to "Horror Fiction". Sure I read one or two Stephen King novels in my high school days, but it wasn't until last August when I spotted a issue of the literary magazine Cemetery Dance at a bookstore that I really discovered the horror genre. I read my first issue of CD in one sitting and I was hooked. Reading as much Jack Ketchum, Al Sarrantonio, Ramsey Campbell, etc. as I could. I also found a terrific podcast called Pod of Horror which features what's new in the genre, author interview and horror book reviews.

A few episodes ago, on Pod of Horror, fiction reviewer, Scott Bradley reviewed the book Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. Harris introduced the serial killer Hannibal Lecter in his 1981 novel, Red Dragon. (The film adaptation of Red Dragon came out in '02). The sequel novel, Silence of the Lambs came out in 1988 and became hugely popular when the film, starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins was released in 1991. I read Lambs when it first came out in the late 80s and couldn't put the book down. The film never lived up to the novel for me. In 1999 Harris published the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, simply titled, Hannibal. It was made into a film of the same name in 2001.

In December of 2006 Harris published the novel Hannibal Rising, which is essentially the "making of a serial killer"- the reason why Hannibal became a cannibal. Scott Bradley gave Hannibal Rising- the book- a horrible review and said that Harris seemed to have sold out, wrote the book just for the purpose of making money.

The movie, Hannibal Rising was released last month and after hearing the book review and seeing the movie reviews I had no strong desire to see the movie. Especially since I hadn't seen or heard anything about Lecter since watching Silence of the Lambs in the early 90s; however, Friday night found me with nothing to do and it was a warm night and the drive in was open, as usual so I went.

And I am really glad I did. This is not a slasher/jump-in-your-seat movie, but rather an interesting drama with a lot of suspence. We meet Hannibal Lecter at age 8. He and his family are hiding from the Nazis in the Luthianian country side. Hannibal witnesses the deaths of his parents and the death and devouring of his little sister at the hands of Lithuanian militiamen. Hannibal eventually is taken in at a Soviet orphange where he lives for eight years and eventually escapes, in search of remaning family members. He finds an aunt who teaches him the ways of the Japanese warriors and he sets out to avenge the cannibalistic death of his little sister. Hannibal tracks down the Lithuanian militiamen and makes quick work of them in very nasty ways.

There are a few plot holes and some scenes are a bit unbelievable, but overall this movie is worth the rent, even if you haven't seen all of the Hannibal films.

Norbit

When I went on the IMDB to get the link for Norbit, I was really surprised to see that it has gotten a much lower rating than Wild Hogs. As I write in the previous post, Wild Hogs was the worst excuse for a comedy I've seen in a long, long time. Norbit was the second feature at the drive-in this past weekend. After nearly falling asleep during Hogs (or maybe it was hypothermia, it was freezing) I thought that Norbit would be even worse, given the bad ratings it has received. This is the story of Norbit, a meek, not-so-bright, kind man who marries a loud and downright nasty woman named Rasputia. What a clever name! The choice alone of Rasputia as the name of this wicked, cheating woman was funnier than anything in Hogs. This is definately not high-brow comedy. I have been asked how I could like this movie being that it makes fun of heavy people and I am definately heavy, but I really wasn't offended at all. The movie makes fun of everyone! This is a good movie to rent, or see at the cheap movies, or the second feature at a drive-in! Definately worth a laugh or two or three or four.

Wild Hogs

Oh my, oh my, oh my. Just when I thought that Because I Said So was going to be the worst movie of the first quarter of the year, I went to see Wild Hogs. So hopeful was I that I went to see it at the drive-in during a snow squall to see it. I kept hearing from unnamed sources that it was going to AWESOME! It was truly awful. Looking back I can't remember where I heard Wild Hogs was any good. I hadn't read any reviews and I didn't know anyone who actually saw the movie prior to my treck out to the Dependable Drive-in. Maybe everyone, myself included, just figured that anything with William H. Macy was worth watching. I can't recall one clever moment in this movie. Not one. It is filled with jokes about middle aged men needing to go to the bathroom more often than they did when they were young. It contains a scene were the EVIL bikers threaten to burn down the cafe owned by the girlfriend of the GOOD bikers. This movie was so unfunny, it was sad. The only consolation was that, having seen it at the drive-in, it only cost me three dollars. What a disappointment. Oh yeah, it is the story of group of four middle-aged friends who decide to get away from their boring lives and take a road trip on their bikes. Sorry the summary wasn't more colorful, neither was the movie. Blah! Snooze!

The Number 23

"The main character in this movie, Walter Sparrow, played by Jim Carrey, becomes obsessed with the number 23. After his wife gives him a copy of a strange book that introduces him to the theory that all things add up to the number 23, Sparrow sees the number everywhere. Watching this film today I, too became convinced that the number 23 is everywhere, specifically regarding how many hours I felt I had been in the theater. The Number 23 is 23 hours long. I am sure of it." - That is what I wrote about The Number 23 last Tuesday, right after I left the theater. Now almost a week later I feel exactly the same.

Little Miss Sunshine

What a terrific movie! Quirky, brilliant, understated, heart-warming, thought-provoking, dark, delightful-- a simply wonderful film! It tells the story of a disfunctional family that is determined to get their young daughter to the finals of Little Miss Sunshine pageant across country. Richard (Greg Kinnear) and Sheryl (Toni Collette) star as the parents of Olive (Abigail Breslin) the young, bespectacled, unexpected beauty queen. Paul Dano is Dwayne, the teenage Nietzsche-reading brother of Olive. Steve Carrell plays Frank, Sheryl's sucidal brother and Alan Arkin is Grandpa. I thought that beauty pageants as a whole were deserving of more mocking, but other than that, this movie was truly awesome.

Babel

As I watched Babel at the bargain cinema this weekend, I had a strange sense of deja vu. Make no mistake-- I enjoyed Babel. I even found myself tearing up at the end of the movie, which rarely happens, but as many reviews (reviews far more skilled than I) have said, Babel is Crash on an international scale. Babel begins in Morocco. We meet a family of goat herders who purchase a rifle to help defend their herd from jackals. The rifle becomes the weapon that critically wounds an American tourist (Cate Blanchett), traveling with her husband (Brad Pitt) on a tour bus. Blanchett and Pitt have two children, living in San Deigo, who are being cared for by their nanny, Amelia (Adriana Barraza). Naturally because of the incident, Pitt and Blanchett will not be returning to San Deigo as expected. Amelia however, wants to return to her native Mexico to attend her son's wedding and decides to take the children across the boarder with her, for the celebration. The movie then takes us to Japan and a young teenage girl, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi). Chieko lives with her father (Kôji Yakusho) and is still grieving the loss of her mother who committed suicide. Needless to say this is a complex movie! Not only does it skip around the world, but it skips back and forth in time as well. It is a bit preachy, but I still found it definately worth the watch.

Howl's Moving Castle

Hello fellow moviegoers! My name is Alexis, and I'm the newest addition to the Bethel Park movie library blog! Today I will be reviewing Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, (Japanese: Hauru no ugoku shiro) based on the book by Diana Wynne Jones. Howl was nominated for Best Animated Feature in the 2006 Academy Awards along with Corpse Bride and Wallace and Grommit: The Cure of the Were-Rabbit. Unfortunately, it lost to Wallace and Grommit. In any other year, though, it would have won. (For that matter, so would Corpse Bride.)
Howl's Moving Castle is Miyazaki-sensei's most recent film. Other movies he dircted include Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and the 2002 Oscar winner for Best Animated, Spirited Away. I HIGHLY reccommend all of those movies. The library owns all of them, and you can even have them shipped to you! catalog.einetwork.net. All you need is your library card.
Anyway, on with the review! Howl's Moving Castle is the story of 18-year old Sophie (voiced by Emily Mortimer) who gets cursed by the Witch of the Waste (Laruen Bacall). The curse turns Sophie into a 90-year old woman. (now voiced by Jean Simmons) Sophie goes out in search of the Wizard Howl (Christian Bale) to help her break the curse. She goes to Howl's "castle", which is actually just a magic pile of junk that moves, where we meet Calcifer (Billy Crystal) a fire demon that moves the castle, Markl (Josh Hutcherson) Howl's apprentice, and a scarecrow with a turnip for a head that Sophie aptly names "Turnip-head".
If you've read the book, you're going to spend the whole movie going "That never happened!" and "Markl is supposed to be 10 years older!" and "wasn't Suliman a man?" . What you need to do is forget everything from after page 20 of the book, THEN watch the movie. I guarentee you will love it. Miyzaki-sensei is literally the greatest animated movie dirctor in the world. This movie has some of the most beautiful animation that I've ever seen. Seemlessly combinging 2D with 3D effects (the castle) , and a 3D program that makes things look handrawn when they're really not (the blob-men), this movie is visually perfect. Also, it has one of the greatest composers in the movie industry, Joe Hisaishi. (Who also scored almost all of the Studio Ghibli movies)
Rating: 3 and a half stars. It's good, but Miyazaki has better.
If you like this: Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Whisper of the Heart.

Epic Movie

I wanted to see Epic Movie so much once I heard that Jennifer Coolidge was in it, as I love her in the Christopher Guest movies. I also loved most of the Scary Movie series. But man, this was truly bad. Not the worst movie I've ever seen but it was not very funny at all. The film spoofs (or attempts to spoof) Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Nacho Libre, Punk'd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and more. It spoofs none of them very well, but there are handful of funny lines. The best parts, not surprisingly where when Jennifer Coolidge was on screen. I had no idea that Fred Willard was in the film and so that was great fun, seeing him as Aslo (Aslan) in the Land of Gnarnia. This is worth renting if there is nothing else at the video store.

The Departed

When I see a movie like this it makes me wonder: Are there REALLY people out there like this? It completely freaks me out! The Departed is an indepth look at corruption in the Massachusettes State Police and the Irish Mob. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Billy Costigan, a statie assigned to infiltrate a crime syndicate run by Frank Costello (Jack Nicolson). Matt Damon is the darling of the Massachusettes State Police, however he has close ties to Costello is always tipping off the mob boss to police investigations. Damon is assigned the task of smoking out the rat in Costello's group and DiCaprio must discover the leak in the State Police Department. Sound confusing? It isn't, really, it is just hard for me to describe well! This is definately a gritty film. Lots of rough language and more violence than Black Xmas, but it is a good movie. It is 2 1/2 hours long, which was way too long for me. The suspense was so great that halfway through I ended up googling the film on my cell phone to find out ahead of time who would live and who would die. Definately good for a rental or a trip to the bargin movies, where I saw it. I am not a fan of Jack Nicolson, even though the world loves him, I think he plays the same character in every movie. Maybe I would have liked The Departed more if he wasn't in it. However, as much as I think Nicolson is over-rated, I think Leonardo DiCaprio is under-rated. His perfomance was excellent. Unlike Nicolson, I think he really acts. Matt Damon was excellent also as were Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg in supporting roles.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Two things drew me to this movie...Will and Jayden Smith, who appeared on "Oprah" before I saw this movie and were such a joy to watch! This real-life father/son duo were even more of a joy to watch on the big screen, as the true love of Will toward his son was so evident it brought tears to everyone's eyes, especially the scene in the public restroom. This movie has a PG rating, but my entire family saw it, and there is no sex, language or violence, so it's a great movie for everyone. The movie also brings us back to center and helps us appreciate all the blessings in our lives that we may take for granted. This movie is based on a true story and centers around a bone density scanner salesman (Chris Gardner) who can never make enough money to make ends meet for his family and eventually gains custody of his son after his wife leaves him. Together they embark on a journey to remember, through homelessness, jail time and tax seisure, as he tries to complete a 6-month unpaid stockbroker internship that will hopefully land him a job that will lead them to "happyness" (when you see the movie you will find out why the word is misspelled!). I would definitely recommend this movie! Also, a bit of trivia regarding the movie: the homeless people working as extras in the movie were paid a full day's minimum wage ($8.62/hr in SF) and were given free catered meals as compensation for appearing in the film.
See Pursuit of Happyness at the Internet Movie Database

The Hitcher 2007

I love a good horror movie and this is a GREAT one! This has to be one of the best I have ever seen. This story of a psycho hitch-hiker who stalks a couple of college kids on spring break is definately gory and definately not for kids! I haven't seen the 1986 version but I can't imagine it being any better than this. The Hitcher is more of a slasher film than a suspense movie, so if you are looking for strong character development or insight into why The Hitcher does what he does, you won't find it here. If you are looking for lots of opportunities to jump out of your seat and scream, this is the film for you. My friend and I saw this at the drive in and we didn't even notice the 20 degree temps, as the movie moves very quickly and is short to begin with- only 83 minutes. It really made me rethink my tendency to pick up hitch-hikers. That at the fact that my passenger side door no longer opens.

Stranger than Fiction

So many people told me not to miss this movie and now I am telling you. You can now get it on DVD so there is no excuse. I happened to see it at a bargain movie house for a buck and a half, but I would have been happy to pay full price. Stranger than Fiction stars Will Farrell, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman. If that group of folks isn't enough to send you to the Family Video, the Dollar Movies or at least to the "PLAY" button on your Pay-Per-View, I don't know what is. Will Farrell stars as Harold Crick, an IRS agent who discovers that he is actually the main character in a book that Kay Eiffel (Thompson) is writing. His discovery comes when he hears Thompson narrating his actions as he performs them. In time he discovers that Thompson is planning to kill off his character and so he must find her and try to change her mind. There is a lot to think about in this movie and it is a wonderful story! See this movie today!

Please, SKIP THIS MOVIE and not just Because I Said So

As fan of pretty much everything Diane Keaton has ever done, with the exception of The Family Stone, I really wanted to like Because I Said So, starring Keaton and Mandy Moore. It was a cold, miserable Friday evening before Valentine's Day and I thought a nice, light romantic comedy would be the perfect entertainment for the evening. The previews looked really good! Half way through this movie about a meddling mother (Keaton) who tries to find a mate for her youngest daughter (Moore) by posting an ad on the internet, I found myself wondering if perhaps the best parts of the film were already shown in the trailer and the previews. My friend and I sat in the theater in silent disbelief as all around us, women were laughing hysterically. Some were even SLAPPING THEIR KNEES! I turned to my friend and said that surely they were laughing at something else...sharing a joke on cell phone screen, or listening to the radio or laughing in their sleep. My friend and I didn't find one amusing thing in this movie at all. Admittedly though, the rest of the theater seemed to enjoy it, but if you ask me, this one isn't even worth renting.