Jul 01, 2009 -
The reason to see Public Enemies is the same as the reason to see any Johnny Depp movie: Johnny Depp. The story is engaging enough — there's plenty of sputtering machine gun shoot-outs and exciting escape plans and dashes of romance — but the actual enjoyment of watching this movie comes from Johnny Depp in a role he's naturally gifted at playing: the dark, mysterious rebel.
Depp plays John Dillinger, a bank robber who has gained a certain celebrity status with the public.
- 11 Comments
Jun 26, 2009 -
In My Sister's Keeper, young Anna knows that she was genetically engineered and brought into this world in order to serve as a donor for her ailing sister, Kate. Well, My Sister's Keeper was engineered to make people cry — over and over and over again, for two hours. Anna sues her parents for medical emancipation, and by the end of this movie I wanted to file for emotional emancipation.
- 18 Comments
Jun 24, 2009 -
The truth is, no matter what I or anyone else says about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, audiences around the globe will flock to see it. I mean, duh — it's big, it's shiny, it goes boom, and it has boobs. It's just what the doctor ordered for audiences looking for some good old-fashioned Hollywood escapism just when it's getting too hot to use our brains.
- 26 Comments
Jun 22, 2009 -
With the amount of food recalls seeming to grown annually, it is easy to feel that our food system in the US is broken, and after watching the 94 minute documentary Food, Inc., you learn that it truly is.
From the opening shots of the supermarket, we begin to learn how corn and the fast food industry have changed the way Americans both grow and eat food. While the movie repeats many of the facts from Michael Pollan's informative book, In Defense of Food, the facts are just as interesting the second time around.
- 11 Comments
Jun 19, 2009 -
The trailer for the new movie from director Harold Ramis, Year One, kind of confused me. How were two cavemen types (Michael Cera and Jack Black) bumping into Romans? What?
- 7 Comments
Jun 19, 2009 -
The story in The Proposal is relatively predictable at every turn, and the basic plotline is tired at best: two people who dislike each other are forced together and feelings blossom between them (to their surprise but not ours). Even just from the previews for this movie we know where the story is going from the very beginning, but before we reach the inevitable conclusion, The Proposal offers up some cute/funny/surprising things along the way.
The story follows ice-queen publishing executive Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) who is a demanding and sometimes cruel boss to her handsome, hard-working assistant, Andrew (Ryan Reynolds).
- 13 Comments
Jun 12, 2009 -
Away We Go starts with a sex scene. There's no nudity, it's not overtly graphic, but it's unexpected and a bit jarring. It's certainly not the overture I was predicting.
- 6 Comments
Jun 12, 2009 -
I wanted The Taking of Pelham 123 to be great, or at least kinda fun — full of thrills and interesting characters with a few little one-liners tossed in. Expecting too much? Maybe.
- 7 Comments
Jun 05, 2009 -
One of the most satisfying things about The Hangover is that what you've seen in the trailer is what you get. Not in the sense that there are no surprises (oh, holy cow there are surprises) but in the sense that if the movie looks good to you when you watch the trailer, it's highly likely you'll love the movie (and the opposite is true as well). I found it to be funny and crude and perfectly cast.
- 15 Comments
May 29, 2009 -
From the press notes handed out at my screening of Up, I learned that Walt Disney believed that for every laugh there should be a tear, a sort of Newton's third law of entertainment. If he were around to see this movie, which upholds that "law" to a T, I have a feeling Mr. Disney's head would swell with pride — and perhaps take him up into the air like one of the many colorful balloons in the movie. See?
- 20 Comments
