Year One

   This isn't the best comedy I've seen, nor even the best one I have seen this year, but I spent the whole time laughing or smiling. Michael Cera as always, was amazing even though he's starting to seem typecast. I just finished watching it, so its much too fresh in my mind. I loved Oliver Platt in this. David Cross was also great in this. This movie even has a moral tone, as well as the contemplation of ordinary things, ie. the most basic of philosophical inquiry. There is a lot going on in this film. At times it almost seems to much, but the jokes distract the viewer that the story just keeps climaxing until you start thinking when the hell is the final conflict so that Zed and Oh can finish their journey. It is a good summer comedy and is good for what it was. 

The Proposal

   This was a great romantic comedy. Its slightly ironic that an American is playing a Canadian and a Canadian playing an American. I'd have to say that the weaker part of the film was Betty White's character. She was cheesy. Now for the good parts; Bullock and Reynolds have amazing chemistry on screen. I also loved Reynolds' character's quick wit and Reynolds' pained face, especially in the office. Its a chick flick, predictable, but it is probably one of the better ones I have seen recently.

My Life in Ruins

The title is a cute play on words. Though Vardalos didn't write it, it has the same type of narrative and character as My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Some jokes were dripping of cheese, but it worked in the movie ie. Poupi Cacas. Thinking of it now "you mean moose caca" comes to mind. I like Richard Dreyfus in this, playing the jokester who is lonely who plays both moderator and giving advice. Vardalos' character struggles with the tourists who have no interest in the history behind the ruins, but shopping, beaches and having fun, but then realizes what its all about. I personally love IHOP and I enjoyed all the pancake references. Its a feel good movie with lots of laughs.

Fired Up

As much as I liked this movie, its not as good as everyone had made it out to be. It is a spin of the male perspective of a cheerleading movie. It was obscene, chauvinstic and stereotypical. It was gratuitous of male fantasies such as hot lesbian cheerleaders, girls making out with each other, girls not much clothes, all the girls being hot and so on blah blah blah. A lot of the jokes are funny. The girl's boyfriend is super lame. Probably one of my favourite things was him and hos friends singing popular late 90's songs like Chumbawamba and I forget who else, which was super funny. I'm almost positive the movie was making fun of the music, the guys who still listen to the music and an ode to when Bring It On first came out and the music of that time. I also enjoyed the scene where all the cheerleaders are sitting outside and watching Bring It On and all the girls are saying the lines word for word. Hilarious. Also hilarious was the montage they added closer to the end of the movie as Eric Christian Olsen flashes back to Downey and the things that happened. It was funny, just not that funny.

The Ramen Girl

I loved this cute little movie. Yes it was B movie quality, but the story was great and so was Brittany Murphy. I'm hoping that she will get to do big budget films that end up on screen again in the future. I've seen her in all this low budget straight to DVD movies, but I've enjoyed them all. This movie is about a girl who goes to Tokyo to live with her boyfriend and ends up being dumped. Out of some cosmic fate she gets drawn to a Ramen restaurant down the street from her apartment. She becomes enchanted by the place and wants to be taught how to make Ramen, which is more difficult than either her or the viewer thinks it will be. Along the way Abby discovers herself and her faults. This is a wonderful movie. You should give it a chance.

Drag Me to Hell

Oh em gee. This movie was brilliant. It was gross, funny, scary and full of surprises. I thought the acting was great in this. The story was awesome. The ending was even better. Not to give too much away since I know I will if I talk about it too much, is the graveyard scene, the kitten, the parking lot scene, these are my most favourite parts, but it was f "star star"king awesome. Watch it. This is how scary movies should be made. Not that pornographic gorey shit people keep making. I'm supposed to be scared and laugh after, not want tol throw up because of the insane realistic detail of what it looks like to disembowel a person or what it looks like when you cut off an arm with a butter knife. The style of the movie is exactly why it took the Raimi brother's so long to finish writing it. So awesome! You should definitetly watch it.

Terminator Salvation

I really liked this movie. Yes it was extremely loud, full of shooting, fires and explosions, but it was still good. I was terrified of the sound of the robots. They were really scary. Sam Worthington is so hot. I really enjoyed the epistemology of this. The soul lies in the human brain and a mechanical heart does not have the strength to beat and keep the human soul alive. Like a dork, and making conclusions that aren't really there is like Crank 2. The fake heart can keep Chelios alive for awhile but not indefinitely. It really makes a profound statement on what a human being is in this film. It was gratifying to see that other people think the same thing, because I saw a book in the bookstore that explores the topic of the philosophy of Terminator. I'm not being rediculous. If you really think about what the movie is actually saying, its not as bad as everyone says it is.

The Reader

This was fantastic. I'm all about Kate Hudson winning an award, but I felt like it was the character and not her acting that really won the award. Which is really sad that I feel that way about it. The boy they picked did not look like he was 15, so it threw off the story for me just a little bit when I found out how old he was when the affair started. This is a beautiful story. For once a hollocaust movie that looks at the after effects and not the actual WWII part. I'm a big fan of this movie. It was beautiful. To go on about it would ruin it. This is a must see, but not for everyone.

Crank 2

I'm almost embarrassed to do a review on this. Probably because this was a terrible movie, though I loved every moment of it. Is it just me or is Ling Bai the most annoying actress? I had seen her in a small budget movie while I was at my workshop and no matter how many people who know her, she makes a movie worse rather than good. What's up with her bad hair? The cinematography is much different in this film than in the first one. It is almost like a video game because of the angles. It took me awhile to get used to or somewhere in the movie they abandoned it. I really can't remember. I also liked the caricature fighting scene. Strangely enough, David Carradine was in this. For some reason this just doesn't seem like a role for Amy Smart. I can't imagine why she was picked for these movies. It was a simply gratuitous male movie. Sometimes you just want to be entertained regardless of how good the movie really is.

Bride Wars

I watched this one when it came out on DVD. I liked it. It was cute. I probably liked it as much as I did because I have a thing for wedding comedies. I liked the subtle story of the two women who in the middle of their conflict realize who they are and except it. Had the conflict not happened, then they would have not learned or grew up. I think some things were more noteably funny, which coincidently were in the preview. Like the orange skin, Kristen Johnston and the aisle fight. I also enjoyed Emma fattening Liv and doing it as her fiance to get away with ruining her figure to fit the dress. If you like wedding comedies then you'll like it.

Wrestler

I only watched this because a friend dropped off a copy at my house. I honestly don't see how Rourke was nominated for an Oscar. I guess if you look at his past works this would seem like a major improvement. I liked the story though. It was well written. Why I think this was not a hit for me was probably because he quit when he tried too change his life. Even after he slipped he could have picked himself back up, but instead he didn't. He was weak. It didn't have to have a happy ending, but it had no ending at all. It wasn't a clever ending either. Its like it had one, and when it came to the editing room, they decided to drop what they had. Another thing was Wood's accent was terrible! I love her work, but this was just bad. There was a lot of holes in her character. Maybe if Randy had not said something about her sexuality, this wouldn't be a comment I would be making. This film didn't win anything for a reason. It was almost there, but not quite. Which is exactly how I felt about the movie.

17 Again

Cliche, but wonderful. I think they should have cast Matthew Perry with someone else. As if he looked like Efron at 17. Around the same time I watched this I saw him on SNL and all I can think of is "Zac Efron? It is more like what the ef is wrong with him". He was great in this, he stole the show. I thought his awkwardness was awesome. Especially his reactions/actions towards his soon ot be ex-wife played by Leslie Mann -who was also fantastic in this. Thomas Lennon is also awesome, especially in this. I love dork jabs, because I can relate. Though not to this extreme... honestly. It is not for everyone, but I want to recommend it anyways. I also appreciated the shameless montage of Zac Efron walking by himself to some song looking sexy as hell... even if he did start off at Disney. Now if only he would dump his Disney company whom is going no where in the non-disney world of movies ie. movies that are directed for adult and mature audiences. Although, she probably would stoop to making those other "mature" films.

Up

While in Ottawa in one of the free daily newspapers I had read a review saying this has got to be Pixar's best films yet. I beg to differ. All the Pixar movies view life in its many forms. This one tends to draw on the end of life, childhood and childhood fantasies that in old age people tend to cling to their childhood dreams more strongly. It was a hilarious movie which made me cry -twice. I think it was more entertaining for me, than it was at making my mind think to hard about the background story which I would normally draw out philosophically. I think the most I can draw on is clinging to life when death is near and realizing how to live again. the boy was funny. Great acting if you asked. The old man reminded me of Picasso's cubist figures with there square fingers. I loved the bird, and I especially loved Dug the dog. "I just met you, but I love you." Slightly anthropomorphic, but its probably what dogs do think. I recommend you watch this. This is a must see film. It is defintitely one of Pixar's better films, but Pete Docter does make some pretty amazing films.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I had read somewhere that the least ineteresting part of life is middle age and that's why it was barely focused on. I think they focused the least on his old age as a child. I thought that would have been interesting. i liked the idea of a child, teenager and young adult figuring out life in the opposite context since they all thought he was an old man. I was reluctant to watch this. I had slept through 2/3 of this the first time, but I was determined to finish it and I was suprised by how good it was. Oscar nominations for acting in this... I don't think so. As usual, Tilda Swinton was fabulous. I thought Cate Blanchett seemed a little off in this. Like she wasn't fully committed to her character. She was very stand-offish rather than engaging. I never once felt sorry for her/her character in this film. Pitt was great. Charming and sweetly funny, yet curious at the same time. A girl from my phil club had made note about the hummingbird and the importance of it. Had I have blogged about it sooner I would have talked about it much more indepth. The short version, it has something to do with how they should be dead, but they aren't because they have this incredibly strong heeart. if you can't figure it out, maybe you should read something on how to interpret symbols used in stories, especially in literature. This was a charmingg film, but it's not for everyone. Not by any means. be prepared to sit through a very long movie. I've been told that you should watch it more than once to really get it all. I'm going to have to say I think I got most of it. I don't think I need to rewatch it to pick out what I missed. I have an eye for those kind of details.

Star Trek

What can I say other than this movie was f*cking awesome. Chris Pine surprised me. I'd watch some of the new episodes, yet I thought my huge lack of Trekkie knowledge was highly unimportant since this was the beginning and not something picking up somewhere else. the special effects were great. The acting was great. the guy who plays Harold in Harold in Kumar or the MILF dude seemed out of place in this role. Also that Russian who played Charlie Bartlett was also an odd choice for this movie. There was just too much awesomeness and about a month that has passed by that is makingg me foggy on pointing out some details I found interesting or worth noting. It did take me awhile to figure out that Eric Bana was in this. He totally looked like he would have been on the more recent episodes. Live Long and Prosper.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

I read some harsh criticism about this film saying it was bad, which made me not want to see it until its DVD release. Well I caved. I read something about Garner's and McConaughey having no chemistry, but it was more like neither of them in real life would actually be attracted to each other personality wise and physically. For that reason it felt like there was nothing going on between them then scritped banter which masked their true feelings for each other. Any person making jabs about someone's extreme personal behaviour is still bitter and not over you. Retard never seemed to catch on. It was funny. I thought that Michael Douglas was great in this. I personally don't think he's sexy at all, but the casting director must have thought so or was trying to pull in a star cast. Its a chick flick. Men really shouldn't be reviewing these types of movies. I don't think they like any of them, yet they go to them anyway just to bitch and moan. Enough about talking about howw McConaughey takes his shirt off. I think its the men that wish they had his body that complain about it. Though Justin Long does do a great impersonation of him on the Superbad Cab Confessionals. Yes it was cliche, yes it was unoriginal with an original plot twist, but was entertaining for what it is. Stop comparing evey movie to oscar standards. Some movies are not made to be considered for Oscars, but pure entertainment and obviously for the producers... tons of cash.