Inception (2010)

Inception is a very complex film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, an "extractor". Dom enters the dreams of others and extracts information from them that those that he works for could not otherwise obtain.

Dom is unable to return to the U.S. or his children as he ran after being accused of killing his wife. His wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) often shows up in his dreams, and those of the people whose dreams that he is in, and tries to get him to stay. The only way that he can return home is to do a job for a man called Saito (Ken Watanabe)that would require him to enter the dreams of the son of one of Saito's rivals and instead of extracting information, plant it. The victim, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) is the son of the Saito's newly deceased rival. Dom must implant the idea that Robert's father would want him to break apart his fathers company so that Saito would have the upper hand. In return, Saito would arrange for Dom to be able to return to the U.S. Does he accomplish is goal? I'll never tell!

I won't get into the how this feat is attempted, I will just say that it kept me interested. This is a complicated film that you must pay attention to understand. Don't nap, don't go to the bathroom, don't get that refill of super sized popcorn with extra fake butter. The photography is excellent and there is a fight scene that has Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character rolling around on the walls and ceilings. This film also includes Ellen Page as a "dream architect" and Michael Caine as Dom's father.

Overall I would say that this is a good movie, it made you concentrate. If you are looking for "summer fluff", this isn't it.

148 Minutes. Rated PG-13. I GIVE THIS MOVIE THREE AND THREE QUARTER STARS.

Salt (2010)

The film begins as Evelyn Salt (Jolie), a CIA agent, is being exchanged with another political prisoner. She is accompanied by her friend and colleague Ted Winter (Liev Schrieber). The reason that she ended up in prison is never explained.

Back at the office, Salt is brought in to interrogate a Russian spy named Orlov (Daniel Olbrycski) that wants to defect. While talking to him, he says that a Russian spy named Evelyn Salt is to assassinate the Russian president when he arrives to attend the funeral of the vice-president of the United States. Salt of course denies this and, worried about her husband, tries to call him without success. When She tries to leave, she is barred by her employer and escapes the facility as does Orlov. Now the CIA really believes that Salt is indeed a Russian sleeper spy. Salt runs home to find that her husband is missing and it looks like he was taken against his will and fast. Salt goes to New York City and infiltrates the Cathedral, shoots the Russian president, and gets away.

We see flashbacks to when she was a child in Russia and Orlov teaching the children to obey him and how to infiltrate the American government and respond on "Day X" when he would command them to do his bidding. After shooting the president, Salt goes to Orlov's boat where her husband is killed in front of her. She acts as though it doesn't matter as the marriage would have been part of her cover. Orlov, now convinced of her loyalty, tells Salt that the second part of Day X is to take the U.S. stock of Nuclear weapons. Salt then kills all aboard the ship and goes to meat up with a mole in the government that Orlov told her about.

The mole and Salt (in disguise as a man) get inside the White House. The mole sets off a bomb and the president is rushed to a bunker where he is convinced by Ted Winter that the Russians are preparing a nuclear strike. The President begins to transmit the codes into the computer right before Winter shoots everyone except the President who he knocks out cold. Winter explains to Salt that this was Orlov's plan all along and tries to start the sequence for launching missiles at the Middle East.

This movie wasn't bad. It definitely had a lot of action, albeit action that there is no way that a woman who weighs 95 pounds soaking wet could ever accomplish in real life. However, this is the movies and I have to keep that in mind. Her arms are so skinny it doesn't look like they could even hold up a gun. There are several twists which always keeps it interesting. they also left it wide open for a sequel... what a surprise! Overall I liked "Wanted" better although I hate a movie where Morgan Freeman plays a bad guy.

Rated PG-13. 99 Minutes. I GIVE THIS MOVIE THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

This film is adapted from the book of the same name written by children's author Ronald Dahl. He is also the author of another famous book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

This animated film (stop motion) begins as Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney), a newspaper columnist, has decided that he is going to start chasing chickens again. He had promised his wife (voiced by Meryl Streep) a long time ago that he would not do that any more. The three farmers that he steals from decide to band together and get rid of him once and for all. They try to kill him, but only succeed in shooting his tail off. They then decide to dig him out which forces his family to dig further into the ground.

After a few days of no food, he decides to tunnel into one of the farmers homes and steals more chickens among other things. Mr. Fox runs into other animals that are suffering from starvation because of the farmers digging. Mr. Fox feels bad and they decide to make a city underground where they will be safe.

Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Willem Dafoe also voice characters in this movie.
While the movie is mostly aimed at adults, kids would like it also.

87 Minutes. Rated PG. I GIVE THIS FILM THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell (2009)

This film, very loosely based on the book of the same name by Tucker Max, is pretty bad.

I had read the book several years ago and despite the sophomoric and fraternal debauchery, I found myself laughing. This book is not for the faint of heart. Tucker Max is a complete, self described, jerk. He uses women (although it seemed that quite often they were using him as well) and treats them pretty bad. It is full of drinking, insults and his sexual exploits. I would not recommend this book for 98% of the population...the guys at work, maybe. In the book, Tucker catalogs most of his "adventures" with the dates that they occurred and when they were recorded. The film seems to center on one event.

Tucker (Matt Czuchry) decides to take his friend Dan (Geoff Stults) away for his pre-wedding get together. Their friend Drew (Jesse Bradford), a woman hater whose girlfriend recently left him for a rapper, goes along for the ride. Tucker lies to Dan's fiance about where they are going (a strip club, original). The usual strip club stuff occurs with a few other things thrown in. Dan gets so mad after certain events happen that he uninvites Tucker from his wedding and Tucker must redeem himself.

The real Tucker Max was actually going to be a lawyer when he discovered his talent for writing. He actually worked at one of the firms in Palo Alto for part of a summer before being fired (of course) because of his behavior. I had read that when asked why he didn't play himself in the movie that he stated that the "movie would have sucked if he had played himself". Sorry Tucker, it still sucked!

You might know Matt Czuchry from the T.V. show "Gilmore Girls" as Rory's boyfriend Logan.

105 Minutes. Rated R. I give this "film" ONE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Toy Story 3 (2010)

The toys are back. Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Mr. and Mrs. Potato head, Barbie and Rex are joined by their friends for some new adventures.

Andy is getting ready to leave for college and the toys are afraid of what will happen to them. Afraid that they may be thrown away, they sneak into a box of toys that Andy's Mom is taking to the Sunnyside Day Car Center for donation. The toys are excited because they are looking forward to being played with again.

When the toys get to Sunnyside, they are welcomed by the toys that live at the Center. The existing toys are led by a pink bear named "Lots-O-Huggin Bear". Other prominent toys include the fashionable Ken doll who refuses to acknowledge that he is a girl's toy and a very creepy doll called "Big Baby". The new toys are sent to the "Caterpillar" room where they are abused by the very young children. The toys can see through the window that the "Butterfly" room toys are treated much better by the older children and send Buzz to the other room to request a transfer.

Buzz is captured and turned into his old serious ranger self by the Sunnyside toys and turns against his friends. Woody decides that he has to escape and hides in a little girl's (Bonnie) backpack and goes home with her. He finds out from her other toys the real story about the Sunnyside toys, especially Lotso.

Woody goes back to the day care center to try and help his friends leave, but find that Lotso basically runs a prison like atmosphere and that leaving will be tough as they have a really scary cymbal monkey that watches their every move on camera. The toys manage to corral Buzz and try to turn him back to his old self and instead push his language button which makes him speak Spanish. The toys almost get out of the center when they are caught by Lotso. Lotso and Woody end up in a dumpster and the toys must follow them to save Woody. All works out in the end.

The toys find their way back to Andy's house and Woody writes a note to Andy suggesting that he give his toys to Bonnie.

The voices of the characters are still the same, including Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, Joan Cusack as Jessie, Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head and John Ratzenberger as Hammy. Michael Keaton is also in this installment as Ken.

This movie was great! I even paid full price to see it which I never do. I would definitely recommend this movie to everyone, even Brian liked it. Pixar also included one of their movie shorts just before the start of the movie. Beware, I got choked up in a couple of parts, but not in a bad way.

109 Minutes. Rated G. I give this movie FOUR AND ONE HALF STARS.

The A-Team (2010)

This film is a remake of the original t.v. show starring George Peppard as "Hannibal" , Dirk Benedict as "Face" and Mr. T as B.A. (Bad Attitude) Baracus.

Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) and "Faceman" aka "Face" Peck are in Mexico and are finding themselves in trouble with a very corrupt General. He manages to free himself and along with B.A (Quinton "Rampage" Jackson) whom he meets on a road in the middle of nowhere, manages to rescue Face who has gotten himself into trouble by sleeping with the wife of of said corrupt General. They get out of their situation and find themselves at a hospital and needing to find a way out. Enter their pilot, H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (Sharlto Copley), a certifiable nut case that they find kept as a patient at the hospital.

They get themselves back to the states and proceed complete many missions for the government over the next few years. They are approached while in Iraq by an agent that wants them to recover some money plates that are going to be used to manufacture counterfeit currency. Their superior officer General Morrison (Gerald McRaney) advises against this covert operation, but they do it anyway. They find that they have competition in this quest by a security company called "Black Forest" which is a Blackwater type of operation led by Brock Pike (Brian Bloom). The members of the A-Team are framed and are given a military trial where they are given dishonorable discharges and sent to prison.

They break out of their separate prisons so that they can redeem themselves and prove their innocence.

This is your typical action flick. It had funny parts, action and a lot of things being blown up. It was pretty good as long as your expectations weren't too high. Pure entertainment value. Jessica Biel's character wasn't even needed here and was obviously just to have a good looking girl in the film.

The characters were basically the same as the t.v. show down to the fact that B.A. is afraid to fly. I pity the fool!!! Hannibal still loves it "when a plan comes together". If you were a big A-Team fan, stick around after the credits (the most credits that I have ever seen) for some cute footage that includes cameo's from the original Face and Murdock.

117 Minutes. Rated PG-13. I give this film THREE STARS.

Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009)

The movie takes place in the 80's and Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is living in Harlem with her horribly abusive mother (Mo'Nique). She gets asked to leave school because she is pregnant. she has a daughter already that lives with her grandmother, the result of sexual abuse from her father. Her mother is more concerned that Precious might steal her man than the abuse that he has inflicted on her. When Precious is experiencing abuse, sexual, physical or mental, she often retreats into a fantasy world where she is the star and is walking down the red carpet and all of the attention is on her.

The principal from her school points her in the direction of an alternative school so that she can continue her education. Her teacher, Blu Rain (Paula Patton) teaches her to read. The girls in her class eventually become just like family, even spending time with her in the hospital after she has her baby. Along the way she meets some people who want to help her including a social worker (Mariah Carey) and a nurse (Lenny Kravitz).

After the birth of her son, her mother abuses the newborn and Precious finds the strength to leave the house. Her teacher helps her find shelter and she begins to look toward improving her life. She later finds out that her father died of AIDS. She sees her mother for the last time at the welfare office while her mother is trying to hold on to benefits. Through all of this, Precious continues to move forward with her life.

This was a very good movie albeit rather depressing. There was a lot of abuse portrayed here so it might be difficult for some to watch although the acting was excellent. Mo'Nique, who won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for her role here, deserved it. Even though she was an evil person, she still seemed to invoke some sympathy, especially at the end when she is at the welfare office. It is a powerful performance. Gabourey Sidibe was also nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Precious. I didn't see what all the hoopla was about Mariah Carey. Her performance was O.K., but nothing to get excited about. I guess any improvement is good, anyone remember "Glitter", oh yeah, no one saw that.

109 Minutes. Rated R. I give this movie FOUR STARS.

Letters To Juliet (2010)

Sophie Hall (Amanda Seyfried) is a fact checker at the "New Yorker" magazine and wants to be a writer. Her boss Bobby thinks that she should stay a fact checker. She is engaged to Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is opening a new Italian restaurant in the next few weeks. The two decide to go on a "pre-honeymoon" since things will get crazy when they get back and the restaurant will be opening.

When they get there, all Victor wants to do is tour wineries and the inventories of his suppliers. Sophie goes along with this for a while, but soon can't take it any more. While Victor goes on one of his tours, Sophie explores the town of Verona where they are staying. Verona is also the town where Romeo and Juliet lived. She locates the house that Juliet supposedly lived and finds people writing letters about their love lives and sticking them to the wall of the house. At the end of the day, a woman comes and removes all of the letters. Sophie follows and finds that there is a group of women that respond to the letters and send them back to the writers. They are known as "Juliet's Secretaries".

Sophie befriends these women and finds a letter written by a woman way back in 1957 when she was studying art in Italy. Sophie responds and is surprised when this woman's grandson shows up asking her what the heck she is doing writing to his Grandmother. She meets Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), the writer of the letter who decides that she wants to try to find her old love, Lorenzo Bartolini (Franco Nero), that she left waiting for her when she went back to England.

Sophie decides to join them, much to the chagrin of Claire's grandson Charlie (Chris Egan). They find that there are many Lorenzo's and decide to check out as many of them as possible.

I won't reveal the outcome. Let's just say that this movie is an enjoyable chick flick. I left the theater feeling happy. Yay! It's not great, but entertaining. Isn't that the point? Hey, I just watched the trailer and it made me smile!

The shots in Italy were incredible, it is definitely on my list of places to go! Vanessa Redgrave is married in real life to Franco Nero, her Lorenzo in the movie. She met him while filming "Camelot" in 1967 and had a son with him, but did not marry him until 2006. She had a long relationship with Timothy Dalton in between.

105 Minutes. Rated PG. I give this movie THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Crazy Heart (2009)

Jeff Bridges plays Otis "Bad" Blake, an alcoholic has-been country singer who plays a series of one night sets to scratch out a living. He was once a star, but those days seem gone along with his many marriages. He had a son 28 years ago, but has not seen him since he was small.

The film opens as Bad is getting ready to play at a bowling alley. He meets a journalist named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who wants to write a story about him. They begin a relationship and he becomes attached to her young son Buddy. Bad gets a call from his agent that country star Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) wants Bad to open for him at a concert. Bad doesn't want to do this as Tommy was once HIS protege, but he needs the money. After the concert Tommy asks him to write him some songs. Bad thinks that the songs would be duets for the both of them, but Tommy just wants him to write them and he would sing them.

This kind of puts Bad over the edge and he begins drinking. He crashes his car and ends up in the hospital. The relationship with Jean makes him rethink his life and he calls his son asking about him and his mother and finds out that his mother had died and his son hangs up on him. After Bad loses Buddy while drinking, Jean breaks it off with him.

He gets help with his drinking from his old friend Wayne (Robert Duval) and cleans up his act. He goes to Jean's to try to patch things up, but she thinks that it isn't a good idea. He moves on and writes a song for Tommy that becomes a big hit and he runs into Jean at one of Tommy's concerts and sees that she is wearing a ring. The last scene is of her interviewing Bad.

This movie is just like a lot of others that I have seen. The difference, I think, is the acting of Jeff Bridges. He was nominated for almost every award out there for this role and won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar. Check him out in "The Big Lebowski".

This movie is based on the novel by Thomas Cobb. The main character is rumored to have been based on a number of real country singers. You do not have to like country music to like this movie.

111 Minutes. Rated R. I give this movie THREE AND THREE QUARTER STARS.

Splice (2009)

Clive Nicoli (Adrian Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) are genetic engineers and a couple working for a pharmaceutical company that is splicing together different kinds of animal DNA to create new kinds of animals.

Their last experiment seemed to work o.k. so they would like to splice together human DNA with animal DNA to see what the results are. The pharmaceutical company rejects their proposal and they decide to proceed anyway to see what happens.

A creature that they agreed would be elimated once it got to a certain stage is created, but Elsa can't bring herself to kill it. She becomes attached to it and it grows and learns at a very fast rate. She names it Dren (nerd spelled backward) and they move Dren to an old farmhouse when they realize that the lab that they work in is going to be remodeled and they can't keep her there. During the course of the movie, the couple who were once so close become divided.

This movie is not really my genre, so it wasn't my favorite. It wasn't an awful movie until the last half hour which I found to be disturbing. I don't know if I didn't like the movie because it deals with mixing DNA's and I find that scary (it is probably already being done but I don't want to know about it), or if the movie was bad. Other critics seemed to like it.

104 Minutes. Rated R. I give this movie TWO AND ONE HALF STARS.

Sex And The City 2 (2010)

This follow up to the first movie was not as good as the first, but not as bad as the critics said it was.

It is a couple of years after Big (Chris Noth) and Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) got married and Carrie is finding that her marriage has begun to be more Ho Hum that she would like (Duh!). Miranda is unhappy with her job, Charlotte is overwhelmed as a Mom and Samantha has been struggling with menopause and is trying to get her mojo back.

Samantha has a client from Abu Dhabi that has offered to fly her there for a business venture and she decides to take her friends.

Most of the movie takes place in the middle east and their adventures in the desert. The opulence is extraordinary as are the over the top fashions, although there is none of the concentration on fashion as a subject as there was in the first movie. There were a few funny parts, although I did not like some of the parts when they were in the middle east markets.

I thought that the movie was just o.k. Let's put it this way, to this day if I am flipping through channels and I see the first movie, I stop (much to Brian's chagrin). If I am flipping and I see THIS film, I won't feel the need to stop. Don't get me wrong, as I said earlier it is not as horribly awful as most of the critics said it was (they hacked it to death) but it isn't nearly as good as the first one and I certainly didn't laugh as hard as I did when Charlotte "poughkeepsied" in her pants! It was also much too long and the plot much too thin. Also, Anthony and Stanford's wedding made me want to vomit swan feathers. Liza Minelli's "Single Ladies" rendition just went on and on.

The movie was actually filmed mostly in Morocco as they couldn't get permission in Abu Dhabi because of the film's content. This movie also has plenty of great cameo's by celebrities like Liza Minelli, Penelope Cruz and Miley Cyrus.

146 Minutes. Rated R. I give this film TWO STARS.

The Messenger (2009)

This independent film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, gave Woody Harrelson an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor this year.

This film follows Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) as he is assigned to the Casualty Notification Department upon his return to the U.S. from Iraq after almost being killed himself by a bomb. He is not pleased with the assignment, but takes it on. His superior officer is Captain Tony Stone (Harrelson) who is his partner and shows him the ropes. Will finds it hard to be as emotionless as the job requires.

He finds it especially hard when the duo must notify Olivia (Samantha Morton) that her husband is killed. Will finds himself drawn to the woman despite the advice given by Tony.

This is a good film. I can't say that I enjoyed it as it's subject matter is difficult. However, all performances are quite good, especially Harrelson's which resulted in an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor this year. This movie did not get the play in the theaters that it should have, probably due to the subject, but hopefully more people will see it on video. Ben Foster was also good. You can see him in a number of films including his villainous performance in "3:10 to Yuma" with Christian Bale.

113 Minutes. Rated R. I give this film THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Kick Ass (2010)

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson)is a nerdy kid who decides to become a real life super hero after being mugged and sees a bystander who does nothing to help. He buys a funky scuba suit for his costume and decides to call himself "Kick Ass".

Kick Ass goes out on patrol and gets beat up badly by the very same guys that mugged him earlier. He ends up in the hospital where most of his bones have been fixed with metal plates. He also has damaged most of his nerve endings and this has made him unable to feel most pain.

When he goes back to school, he finds that a girl, Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca), that he is in love with thinks that he is gay since he is so nice and sensitive. He goes along with it to be around her and they spend a lot of time together having sleepovers and applying self tanner.

Dave gets back into his super hero mode and beats up some guys that are chasing after someone. The incident is caught on tape and put on YouTube and becomes an instant sensation. All of a sudden Kick Ass is a hot merchandise property complete with his own MySpace page. When Dave finds out that Katie is being bothered by a drug dealer when she volunteers at the needle exchange. Kick Ass goes over to the dealers house and finds himself in a precarious situation until "Hit Girl" (Chloe Grace Moretz) appears. This 11 year old kills everyone in interesting ways (It kind of has a "Kill Bill" flavor) then leaves with her father "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage). Big Daddy is a former cop named Damon Macready that was framed for drugs by a kingpin named Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). While he was in prison his wife died while having his daughter Mindy who was then taken care of by his former police partner. When Macready got out of prison he began training his little girl all things lethal.

D'Amico thinks that Kick Ass is the one messing up his business by killing off his men when it is actually Big Daddy. They find this out when D'Amico's son Chris(Christopher Mintz-Plasse) decides to become "Red Mist" to try to flush out Kick Ass. When Red Mist takes Kick Ass to the lumberyard where the bad guys hang out, they find that it is on fire and all of the men are dead. Thanks to a nanny cam from Chris' baby days, they also see that it is Big Daddy, dressed a bit like Batman, that is the one doing the killing.

Dave decides to quit being Kick Ass because of the danger. However, checking his My Space he finds that Red Mist is trying to get a hold of him in a bid to flush out big Daddy. Kick Ass notifies Big Daddy that he needs help and they go to a safe house where the bad guys shoot Hit Girl and take Big Daddy and Kick Ass. Hit Girl saves the day, but not before big Daddy sustains lethal burns. Dave tries to get Hit Girl to stop, but she must avenge her fathers death and finish what he started.

This film is based on a comic of the same name and the movie rights were sold even before the first issue was published. Brad Pitt is a producer of this movie.

The most amusing parts of this movie were the parts with "Hit Girl" and her father. While it seems strange to find an 11 year old participating in such violence and some profanity it was still pretty funny. The rest of the movie was pretty good, but not what I would call great. While much was made of Hit Girls language, she dropped a couple of F words a C word and a couple of other small ones, they made it seem like there was an endless stream of profanity. I don't see what the big deal was about. However, I would like to applaud (sarcastically), the parental skills of the parents that brought their what looked like 5 and 6 year old kids to this R rated violent movie. What is wrong with people?

Chloe Grace Moretz and Nicolas Cage both did a good job.

Rated R. I give this movie THREE STARS.

Armored (2009)

This movie begins as Ty Hackett (Columbus Short) is just finishing up his probationary period as a member of an armored car team that also includes Ty's godfather Mike (Matt Dillon), Baines (Laurence Fishburne), Quinn (Jean Reno), Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich) and Palmer (Amaury Nolasco).

Ty is a veteran and Silver Star recipient whose parents both recently died and now is responsible for his teenage brother Jimmy (Andre Kinner) who is quickly approaching delinquent status. To top it off, he is about to lose the family home due to two mortgages and the medical bills from his parents.

On the last day of his probationary period, his fellow employees play a "joke" on him by making like they are being robbed by some men in a van. Well, it turns out that the "robbery" was basically a dry run for a robbery that they themselves want to pull off. It turns out that they will be getting new trucks that will be tracked by GPS and if they are going to pull this job, they need to do it now. Amazingly this coincides with a huge shipment of 42 million dollars from the federal reserve.

At first Ty wants nothing to do with this when Mike tells him about it, but when he goes home a child welfare person is there talking about putting Jimmy in foster care. Ty decides to do it as long as no one gets hurt. Famous last words.

When the guys pick up the money from the federal reserve, they have an hour to check back in with the armored security company. They drive the trucks to an abandoned mill, unload the money and hide it. Just as they are about to leave, they spot a homeless man who saw everything and chase him down. Baines shoots him and when Ty tries to help the man, Mike kills the man. Now the guys begin to argue about what to do. Ty runs to one of the trucks and tries to get away, but has no luck. He hides in the truck which also has 21 Million still in it. The other guys decide to try to take the hinges off the truck to get to the money and Ty. The truck alarm goes off alerting a local deputy (Milo Ventimiglia) that there might be something going on at the abandoned mill. He goes over to take a look and gets shot. while the guys are arguing about what to do, Ty grabs the deputy and drags him into the truck.

The guys continue to try to get the hinges off the truck. Ty convinces Dobbs to help him and when Dobbs gets caught by the others, he pays for it. Ty finds that there is a removable floor plate in the truck and takes the deputies radio up to the roof to see if he can get reception. When he comes back, he finds that the guys have grabbed his brother from home to try to get Ty out of the truck. It works. However, when the remaining guys try to get the money, it explodes thanks to the booby trap that Ty set. Ty tries to run away and is chased by Mike in one of the trucks. It doesn not end well for Mike.

In the end the deputy tells how Ty helped him out and the boss at Eagle (Fred Ward) mentions that there is talk of a reward.

This has got to be one of the most predictable movies that I have seen in a long time. Super thin plot, kind of boring actually. There is a lot of star power here, but it wasn't used.

Rated PG-13. 85 Minutes. I give this movie TWO AND ONE QUARTER STARS.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

In 2010 three high school friends, Adam (John Cusack)newly divorced, Nick (Craig Robinson) a guy in a dead end job with a cheating wife and Lou (Rob Corddry) a partier way past his expiration date, get together and decide to go to a resort that holds some of their best memories when one of them tries to commit suicide. Destination...The Kodiak Valley Ski Resort. Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), who lives in Adams basement, goes along for the ride.

The ski resort has fallen apart and after an evening of drunken socializing in the outdoor hot tub, awaken to find themselves transported back to "Winterfest 86" at the resort. At first they think that it is some sort of retro weekend as everyone is wearing 80's clothes and Poison (remember Ron, Every rose has it's thorn!) is playing in town, but soon find that they have indeed gone back in time. They discover that while they all look the same, when they look in the mirror, they look like their young selves except for Jacob who hadn't been born yet.

To get back to 2010 they decide that they must do everything in the exact same way thit it occurred in 1986. This means that Adam must break up with his girlfriend, his sister conceived Jacob here, Lou was beat up several times by the local ski patrol jerk, Nick had a really bad performance with his band at an open mic event and Phil the bellop (Crispin Glover) lost his arm in some kind of accident.

They go along with trying to keep everything the same, but then think it might be good to change a few things her and there. However, when Jacob begins to flicker in and out, they realize that he was conceived while they were there and need to stick to the plan. They do end up changing a few things and find out who Jacob's father is.

Back at the hot tub, one of the guys decides to stay in 1986 to set a few things straight as well as make some money because he knows the outcome of future events.

I won't tell what happens when the guys re-appear in 2010.

This film was pretty good. Compared to the same genre of movies (sophmoric humor) I liked it better than most (I really liked "The Hangover"). The rest of the movie audience was howling at everything, so they seemed to think that it was a great movie! Watch for Chevy Chase as a hot tub repairman. I still love John Cusack.

Rated R. 100 Minutes. I give this movie THREE STARS.

The Fourth Kind (2009)

This movie is supposed to be about actual events that occurred in Nome Alaska in October of 2000.

Dr. Abigail Tyler (the real one), a psychologist, is being interviewed about these events and the movie mixes in actual footage with the film often using a split screen with the actual footage along with the filmed footage.

Dr. Tyler's husband was recently murdered and she is seeing another therapist, Dr. Campos (Elias Koteas), to help her deal with it. Her daughter Ashley (around 6) has become blind from the trauma, she also has a son that is about 12.

Dr. Tyler (Milla Jovovich) returns to Nome and gets back to work interviewing her own patients. She finds that she is hearing the same stories over and over. Her patients seem to be having difficulty sleeping and they see a white owl outside their window with some of them remembering a white owl from their childhoods. She decides to put one of her patients under hypnosis to ask them about it. The patient, Tommy, gets all upset about something he has seen and jumps off the couch. Dr. Tyler wakes him up and he won't tell her what he saw. Later that night, he holds his family hostage and wants to talk to Dr. Tyler. He says that he must shoot his family because of what he had seen and begins to talk in a strange language then proceeds to murder his family as well as kill himself. The sheriff (Will Patton) thinks that something that Dr. Tyler did when she hypnotized Tommy is what caused this.

Dr. Campos flies to Nome from Anchorage to see Dr. Tyler and sits in while she hypnotizes Scott, another patient. Scott goes under, freaks out, wakes up then throws up. After Scott leaves, Dr. Tyler tries to talk to Dr. Campos about alien abduction, the supposed "Fourth Kind" of contact with aliens. As they are about to leave the office, her secretary gives her a tape that she was transcribing. On the tape is Dr. Tyler screaming and a strange voice talking in another language. Dr. Tyler goes home to try and remember what happened. She contacts a man, Dr. Odsumani (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) that specializes in old languages and he says that it is an ancient language called Sumerian. He listens to the tapes and recognizes the words "examine" and "destroy". Dr. Tyler gets a call from Scott's wife saying that Scott wants to be hypnotized again. He begins levitating off the bed and screaming in Sumerian. Scott's neck is broken at the end of the session and the sheriff again blames Dr. Tyler and wants to arrest her, but she talks him out of it and he places a deputy outside of her house. While he is there, he sees a large bright light over the Tyler home and when the police go into the house, Dr. Tyler's daughter Ashley is missing. The sheriff thinks that there is something wrong with Dr. Tyler and takes her son out of her custody.

Dr. Tyler gets hypnotized by Dr. Campos and Dr. Odusami in the hopes that she may be able to find out what happened to her daughter. When she goes under, she freaks out and begins speaking in Sumerian. Something happens in the room and all three people are gone. Dr. Tyler wakes up in the hospital with a neck brace on and she tells Sheriff August that they were all abducted. Sheriff August says that her husband was not murdered, that he committed suicide and Dr. Tyler says that there was no way that he would have done that but decides that she must have suppressed the memory of the event.

The interview ends and it shows that Dr. Tyler is in a wheelchair. Ashley is never found and she has no contact with her son who still blames her for Ashley's disappearance.

This was pretty bad. The supposed "real" footage looked like it was filmed by bad actors. The split screen thing was annoying.

Rated PG-13. 98 Minutes. I give this movie ONE AND ONE HALF STARS.

The Birds (1963)

This review is in honor of my cockatiel "Bird" who recently went to that huge flock in the sky. He used to love MTV and Guns N Roses, He especially enjoyed "Welcome to the Jungle". He was with me for almost 30 years and his screeching will be missed.

This movie, directed by the amazing Alfred Hitchcock, was based on a short novel by Daphne du Maurier.

Melanie Daniels(Tippi Hedren) meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in San Francisco while picking up a bird for her aunt at a pet shop. Melanie pretends to work at the shop and Mitch pretends to think that she does until he lets her know that he sees through her ruse. I think that the expensive dress gave her away as her father owns a large local newspaper. Mitch is there to order some lovebirds for his sister Cathy who is having a birthday. Melanie and Mitch part, but Melanie knows what she wants and finds out what his address is and decides to deliver the lovebirds herself.

Mitch lives in a town north of San Francisco called Bodega Bay where the movie was actually filmed. When she gets into town, she decides to take a motorboat across the harbor to surprise Mitch. She looked really good doing it in her fancy coat, hair and pumps. She leaves the birds at the house and drives across the harbor again although Mitch sees her and drives around the harbor to meet her in his car. While she is crossing the harbor in the boat, a seagull dive bombs her leaving her with a bit of a bloody forehead.

Over the next few days, Melanie meets some of the other people in Mitch's life including Mitch's slightly controlling mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his 11 year old sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) and his former girlfriend and Cathy's teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette).

The bird attacks escalate beginning with a bird killing itself by slamming into Annie's front door where Melanie is spending the night (how weird is that, not the bird dying but her staying at her crush's old girlfriend house. What, no hotel?). The birds then attack a group of children that attend Cathy's birthday party at Mitch's house. The famous schoolyard scene then occurs with the attack of crows on the schoolchildren. After that attack, Melanie goes to a bar to call her father and finds that several other attacks have happened. People are starting to become hysterical with a woman accusing Melanie of being the catalyst since this didn't start happening until Melanie showed up. Some people run outside and the birds begin a huge attack that includes the famous phone booth scene where Melanie is trapped inside the booth.

Mitch comes and picks up Melanie and they go to pick up Cathy from Annie's house and find Annie dead with Cathy crying inside. They go to Mitch's house and barricade themselves inside. There is another attack as the birds fly in through the fireplace. Things calm down and everyone goes to sleep. They later hear something upstairs and find that the birds have broken through the roof. Melanie is attacked and they manage to get her out of the room, but must take her to the hospital. Everyone calmly goes out to the car as they are surrounded by birds everywhere...just watching them.

This movie is awesome and way ahead of it's time.

Rated PG-13. 120 Minutes. I give this film FOUR AND ONE HALF STARS.

There was an instance in Capitola where some strange bird activity occurred. Apparently Hitchcock used to have a home in Scotts Valley and he requested a copy of the article from the Santa Cruz Sentinal be sent to him as "research material for his latest thriller". Read about it here www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/183/

Brian and I went to Bodega Bay years ago and it was fun to drive along the exact routes that you see in the movie. We even sat in front of the schoolyard where the crow attacks occurred. I hate crows. We also saw this movie screened at the Stanford Theater a few years back and got to see Tippi Hedren who did a Q & A in between movies. She was lovely! She is also the mother of Melanie Griffith and runs a refuge for big cats (lions and tigers).

Keep an eye out for a quick appearance of Hitchcock when Melanie goes into the pet shop at the beginning of the movie. Alfie liked to make small cameo appearances in his films. Here is his cameo in "The Birds".

An Education (2008)

This film was actually released at Sundance in 2008 but was not released into theaters until 2009. It was nominated for best picture in 2010.

This film is based in 1961 London and stars newcomer Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a girl with aspirations of attending Oxford.

Jenny meets David (Peter Sarsgaard) after concert practice (she plays the cello) and he offers her a ride home as it is raining. He runs into her in town and asks her to a concert that her strict father (Alfred Molina) somehow allows her to attend. Here Jenny meets David's business partner Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike) at the classical music concert. They have a late supper at a jazz club and Jenny is mesmerized by the life they lead. Before you know it, Jenny's parents allow her to take an overnight trip with David under the guise of meeting the author C.S. Lewis.

It is here that Jenny learns that David makes his money by stealing and cons. He and Danny go into homes for sale and steal art. David also moves a black family into neighborhoods to scare old ladies into selling their homes to him cheaply then re-selling them. At first Jenny is angry, but has become so used to their life of nice restaurants and jazz clubs that she chooses to overlook the bad stuff, she even goes to Paris with him. David soon proposes, Jenny accepts then drops out of school figuring that she would not need school anymore. One of her teachers, Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) as well as the headmistress of the school (Emma Thompson) try to speak to her about her choices, but to no avail.

On the way to dinner with her parents and David, Jenny comes across some mail in the car that shows that David is actually married. She demands that he take her home and tell her parents that he is married. He drives away like the coward he is.

It is now too late to take the exams necessary to get in to Oxford and the headmistress of her old school will not allow her to take the year over. she turns to her old teacher Miss Stubbs who helps her study for her exams and she is accepted.

Carey Mulligan is currently filming the new "Wall Street" movie with Shia LeBeouf who is also rumored to be her boyfriend. You can see Rosamund Pike in "Pride and Prejudice" with Keira Knightley, one of my favorite romantical type movies.

I thought this movie was good, not boring like I though it would be, although I think that it is more of a girl movie. Oscar worthy? Maybe.

Rated PG-13. 95 Minutes. I give this movie FOUR STARS.

The Hurt Locker (2009)

The title "Hurt Locker" comes from the phrase "they sent him to the hurt locker" meaning someone that has been injured in an explosion.

Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) has just been sent to take over a team that deactivates Improvised Explosive Devices or IED's. He has taken over for someone that has just been killed trying to deactivate another bomb. The other members of his team are Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anothony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). From their first mission with James, the Sergeant and Specialist, who provide cover for James while his is working, look at James as sort of a loose cannon. James takes unbelievable chances with his life while trying to deactivate bombs. Is he really that reckless or is he that good and professional? They have only 38 days left on their tour, will they make it?

While trying to chase down some insurgents (that his colleagues thought would best be left to the infantry) one of them suffers a bullet wound and blames James.

James goes home to his wife and child and the boring drabness of everyday life. The last shots of James are those of him going back to Iraq for another tour, this is his life.

This was a great movie. However it was hard to watch in parts.

This movie was based on accounts by Mark Boal a journalist who in 2004 followed a United States bomb squad in Iraq. He would often go out on 10 missions a day to observe the squad. The movie was shot in Jordan and Kuwait and won 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman director to win the award. This movie was made for 15 million dollars and is the lowest grossing movie to win the Academy Award. Since it's win, it has been re-released in theaters, although it is now on video. Netflix it!

Many veterans do not seem to care for the movie claiming that some of what they show is not like it is in real life.

Rated R. 131 Minutes. I give this movie FOUR AND ONE QUARTER STARS.

She's Out Of My League (2010)

Kirk (Jay Baruchel) lives in Pittsburgh and works at the airport as a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Officer. His biggest goal lately is to get back together with his old girlfriend Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) who broke up with him two years ago and still has a better relationship with his parents than he does. Her current boyfriend is even included in family activities.

While at work one day, a super hot girl named Molly (Alice Eve) leaves her cell phone at security and calls him on her phone and asks him if he can drop it off the following evening at an event that she is a planner for at the Andy Warhol museum with her fellow party planner best friend Wendy (Jasika Nicole who reminds me of...me!).

Molly, wanting to find a "nice guy" asks Kirk out and finds that she really does like him. No one can understand why she is going out with him. This includes her friends and family as well as his friends (T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel and Nate Torrance) and family who all seem to want to sabotage Kirk.

Things work out in the end.

I thought that this movie was actually more entertaining than the critics rated it. it is not a great movie, but if you want to get a few laughs and go to the cheap show, it's worth it just to see the goofy, skinny guy get the girl against all odds.

Rated R. 104 Minutes. I give this movie TWO AND THREE QUARTER STARS.

The Crazies (2010)

The residents of a small mid western town are suddenly going insane. What's going on?

Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) spots a resident that everyone knows coming onto the field of a high school baseball game in progress. He walks right through the middle of the game, so the sheriff figures he's just drunk and goes out to the field to confront him. The resident takes out a gun and David is forced to shoot him.

David and his Deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) go out to investigate a dead soldier that has been found out in the woods and discover that a plane had crashed in a body of water, the water that the towns drinking water comes from. They come to the conclusion that the ever increasing amount of people doing nutty things is caused by something on the plane that has seeped into the drinking water.

All of a sudden the town is overrun by soldiers who take everyone that might be infected, including David's doctor wife Judy (Radha Mitchell). David escapes from a group of people being "released" and tries to save Judy and her employee Becca (Danielle Panabaker) from being killed by an infected man who is systematically killing people with a pitchfork while they are strapped to gurneys.

David and Russell are able to rescue them and the four of them try to get out of town by hiding from infected people and soldiers alike. Unfortunately Becca and Russell don't make it. I won't tell you how, but one of them is involved in an unfortunate car wash altercation.

David and Judy end up at a truck stop and realize that the soldiers are killing everyone, not just the infected when they spot a huge pile of bodies. This is probably so that word did not get out to the rest of the population.

The last scene is the two of them running toward a large city as a satellite shows the computer saying "initiate containment protocol" about the town they are heading towards. Ouchie!!

This movie wasn't actually that bad for this kind of genre. It is a remake of a movie made in 1973. The photo on the right is from the 1973 version.

Rated R. 101 Minutes. I give this movie TWO AND THREE QUARTERS STARS. (ALMOST THREE STARS)

Legion (2010)

God has lost faith in Mankind and sends his legion of angels to kill all. Human survival seems to depend on an Archangel named Michael (Paul Bettany) and the unborn baby of a diner waitress named Charlie (Adrianne Palicki who you might have seen in "Friday Night Lights" on T.V.).

When God commands the angels to take out mankind, the archangel Michael goes against God and decides to try to protect Charlie's baby who seems to be the savior of Mankind. Charlie works at a diner in the middle of nowhere. Some patrons begin to show up as the diner opens and a couple are stranded because of car trouble. They begin to sense that something is wrong when an old woman takes a bite out of someone and climbs the wall and ceiling. Possessed people begin to show up to try to kill the people in the diner.

The angels themselves begin to show up including one of the most famous Archangels, Gabriel. Michael and Gabriel hash it out and you can guess the outcome, it's a movie remember?

Crap, Crappy, Crappee', lots of blood,guts, guns and bullets. Bad script, not great acting in spite of the famous cast of Paul Bettany, Adrienne Palicki, Tyrese, Kate Walsh, Jon Tenney and Dennis Quaid just to name a few. Spotty, boring plot. Plus I don't like the idea that God would give up on Mankind. One half of the stars are for the really cool tattoos that Paul Bettany was sportin'!

Rated R. 100 Minutes. I give this movie ONE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Shutter Island (2010)

In 1954 Edward (Teddy) Daniels is a widower and U.S. Marshall, who, along with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) is going by boat to Shutter Island home of The Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane to investigate the disappearance of a murderous patient that has escaped her room despite being under tight supervision. The doctor in charge, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) is not very helpful at all with regard to the investigation.

Teddy has another motive for going to the hospital, his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams) died there while being incarcerated for killing their three children. Teddy also seems to believe that government experiments are performed at the facility just as they were performed on the prisoners kept at concentration camps during WWII where Teddy helped to liberate the victims.

As they begin their investigation, Teddy hears that there is a 67th patient that isn't shown on the records kept by the hospital. A hurricane occurs and the Marshall's can't leave the facility and stay overnight. Teddy and Chuck check out the infamous Ward C which is where the most dangerous patients are kept. There, Chuck finds a patient that he had dealt with as a cop. The patient tells him not to trust Chuck. When Chuck and Teddy separate, Teddy finds an ex-psychiatrist hiding in a cave in a cliff. She said that she too escaped and that he can trust no one on the island.

Teddy is told that Chuck does not exist and he runs to a lighthouse on the island where he is certain that they are running the tests on the patients to find that the tests are not happening. He finds that he is actually a man named Andrew Laeddis (Using the same letters to make up Edward Daniels) who is at the hospital because he actually murdered his wife after she murdered their three children. Dr. Cawley and Chuck, who is actually Andrew's psychiatrist Dr. Sheehan, came up with a plan to get Andrew to act out a scenario in the hopes that he would confront the truth and have a breakthrough and regain his sanity so that he can avoid getting a lobotomy.

Later, it seems as though Andrew has fallen back into his Teddy persona...or has he.

I found this movie to be better than some of the critics thought that it was. As I have said before, I am finding that Dicaprio is becoming a fine actor.

Rated R. I give this movie THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Avatar (2009)

This movie is set in 2154 and centers around the mining of a precious mineral called Unobtanium that is located on a moon, called Pandora, of a planet called Polyphemus located in another star system. Pandora is inhabited by a people called Na'vi who are 10 feet tall, blue skinned and worship a goddess called Eywa. Humans must wear oxygen masks as they can't breathe on Pandora.

Scientists have created a way to pair a humans mental awareness with an Avatar (sort of a hybrid body) that they have created. The human lies down into a pod and their mind is transferred by mental link into the Avatar body. This way they can interact with the Na'vi.

Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) leads the mining operation for the mineral assisted by a security company headed by Colonel Quaritich (Stephen Lang) whose sole purpose seems to be getting the Na'vi off the land so they can mine their mineral.

Jack Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic former Marine whose twin brother is killed unexpectedly and they need him because as he has the same DNA as his brother, he can use the same Avatar. Scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) helps him with this. On his first trip on Pandora with another scientist to collect samples in the forest, Jake and the scientist are separated when an animal attacks. He is rescued by a Na'vi from the Omaticaya tribe or clan named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Neytiri takes Jake back to her village and her father tells her to teach him their ways.

Colonel Quaritich sees this as an excellent opportunity to get intel on the Na'vi and promises Jake that he will fix his legs in return for information that may help them get rid of the Omaticaya's. Jake begins bringing in information and Grace does not like this. She takes Jake and another scientist to a remote station away from the security team. Jake continues his instruction from Neytiri and becomes very close to the tribe. After a few months, he becomes one of their tribe and accepts Neytiri as his mate.

When Jake tells Selfridge that the Omaticaya will never move from their spot on Pandora, Selfridge orders that the area be destroyed. He tells Jake that they have one hour to move. When Jake tells the Omaticaya of the plans, he is accused of betrayal and his and Grace's Avatars are taken captive. The security forces destroy their village and the area killing many including Neytiri's father.

Soon afterward Jake and Grace are imprisoned for defying the security forces, but escape with the help of a security member (Michelle Rodriguez) that doesn't like the security teams methods. While escaping, Grace is shot and Jake begs the remaining Omaticaya, who have gathered at the "Tree of souls" to heal Grace. Unfortunately, Grace dies before she is able to be transferred into her unconscious Avatar.

Jake and Neytiri unite warriors from the other tribes to fight the humans. The security forces attack and many Na'vi are killed, but they prevail in the end. The security forces and mining people are expelled from Pandora, but the scientists are allowed to remain.

We saw this movie in 3D at an IMAX theater. I highly recommend seeing this in at least 3D. The 3D effects were amazing. I have seen t.v articles on how this movie was made and it is incredible. The movie itself was o.k., but the effects made this a must see, so do yourself a favor and see it in a theater.

This film was directed by James Cameron who has also directed "Titanic", "The Abyss", "Aliens", "True Lies" and "Terminator I and II" to name a few. His efforts have generated 5.7 billion dollars worldwide. He was also married to director Kathryn Bigelow that recently won the Oscar for her movie "The Hurt Locker".

Rated PG-13. I give this movie FOUR AND A QUARTER STARS.

When In Rome (2010)

Beth (Kristen Bell), a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, must run to Italy for her sisters wedding. Her sister has only know her fiance for two weeks and Beth herself has had no luck in love. Her boss (Angelica Huston) is not happy about it and only lets her go as long as Beth gets her work done. Beth's plan is to go to Italy, turn around and come right back.

When she gets to the wedding (late of course) she finds that the best man Nick (Josh Duhamel) is also late. They hit it off at the wedding and just when Beth thinks that something might come of it, she sees Nick kissing another girl. Feeling rotten, she jumps into a fountain and removes three of the coins. All of a sudden, three men consisting of an artist (Will Arnett), a magician (Jon Heder) and a sausage company owner (Danny Devito) all fall in love with her and stalk her back to New York. Nick also goes to New York and any dating that they are doing is messed up by her "suitors". She decides that she is cursed and that she has to go back to Italy and replace the coins.

This movie was pretty bad and so far the worst I have seen in 2010 besides "Land Of The Lost". I can't believe that I spent money on this. If I saw it on HBO I wouldn't have felt so bad. I really liked Kristen Bell in "Veronica Mars" and Josh Duhamel in "Las Vegas".

Rated PG-13. 91 Minutes. I give this movie ONE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Up In The Air (2009)

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a corporate down sizer. He lays off people who's bosses are too cowardly to do it themselves. He flies all over the country and has almost amassed his goal of 10,000 frequent flyer miles. Apparently only about 6 people have done this before.

He is also a motivational speaker who's speech "What's in your backpack" is all about how great life is without things or relationships. He himself is only "home" about 43 days out of the year which is the way that he likes it. He has almost nothing in his apartment (a hotel room has more stuff in it) and he has only casual relationships. He also doesn't have a great relationship with his family.

While on a business trip, he meets a woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga) who is just like him. In fact, when they meet, they spend time comparing frequent flyer cards for everything from hotels to rent-a-cars. They begin a relationship based on when they are in the same town.

Ryan is called home to Omaha by his boss (Jason Bateman) and is told that they are going to be trying something new, firing people over the computer. Whoa Nellie, this would change his whole life. The new employee suggesting this new approach is a confident woman named Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) and Ryan must take her on the road for training. He is not happy.

Natalie goes along with Ryan and begins to see that detaching yourself from these firings is not as easy as it looks. When Natalie is dumped by text by the boyfriend that she moved to Omaha for, Ryan and Alex take her to a party that they are crashing that is given by some electronics company. She has a good time.

Ryan invites Alex to go with him to his sisters wedding and she accepts. When they arrive it is obvious that there is tension between siblings. The day of the wedding finds that his future brother in law is having second thoughts. Ryan is able to convince him to marry his sister and all have a good time at the wedding.

Ryan and Natalie are informed that they are to do a trial run using the computer to fire someone while they are in the next room. This is disastrous. They go back to Omaha to find that one of the people that they had fired earlier had killed themselves and that leads Natalie to quit and Ryan to go find Alex. We soon find that Alex is not who she led Ryan to believe that she was and he is dumped.

When he finally reaches his 10,000 frequent flyer miles, it certainly didn't feel as good as he thought it would.

This was a great movie and I would recommend it. Clooney was great here, not best actor great, but great. Farmiga and Kendrick are also good, but not Oscar good. You might have seen Farmiga in "The Departed" and Kendrick in the "Twilight" Series.

Rated R. 109 Minutes. I give this movie FOUR STARS.

A Perfect Getaway (2009)

Cliff and Cyndey (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) are a freshly married couple spending their honeymoon in Hawaii. They decide to backpack to a hidden beach that they had heard about that has to be accessed by hiking in.

They pick up a couple of hitchhikers named Cleo and Kale (Marley Shelton and Chris Hemsworth) along the way to the trail and think that they are strange and drop them off at the side of the road.

Along the trail on their hike, they run into some hikers talking about the recent murders of a couple in the islands. Cliff and Sydney question whether to go on, but decide to continue. They run into Nick (Timothy Olyphant) along the trail and decide to hike together and meet up with Nick's girlfriend Gina (Kiele Sanchez) at a water hole. While at the water hole they bump into Cleo and Kale and freak out but figure they are o.k. since they are with Nick and Gina.

The couple continue to bond with Nick and Gina until one of the ladies finds out something about the others that leads to the truth. I won't tell you what happens, that wouldn't be fair.

This movie is o.k. for a cheesy and mildly entertaining way to pass the time.

Rated R. 120 Minutes. I give this movie TWO AND ONE HALF STARS.

Things We Lost In The Fire (2007)

I had not heard of this movie starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro until it was recommended by Mike (Thanks Mike).

Audrey and Brian Burke (Halle Berry and David Duchovny) are a happily married, well off couple with two children, daughter Harper 10 (Alexis Llewellyn) and son Dory 6 (Micah Berry). Audrey gets the devastating news one evening that Brian has been killed trying to intervene in a domestic dispute. She realizes the day of the funeral that she has not informed Brian's best childhood friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) about Brian's death. She send her brother to give him the news and take him to the funeral.

Audrey has issues with Jerry as he is a heroin addict and has sometimes come between her and Brian.

After the funeral, Audrey asks Jerry to move in to help him out while he works on his recovery and he becomes close to her children and has an effect on her as well. She becomes upset at him after a while and asks him to leave the house. He relapses and she finds him and brings him back. He goes through heavy withdrawals and finally agrees to go into a treatment program.

The film flashes back often to events including David Duchovny's character Brian and Jerry.

I am not a big Benicio Del Toro fan, but I feel that he did a great job here especially during the withdrawal scenes. This movie kept me interested and moved along smoothly.

Rated R. 119 Minutes. I give this film THREE STARS.

The September Issue (2009)

This film is a documentary that follows Vogue Magazine's editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, through the making and publication of the magazines September 2007 issue.

The September issue of the magazine is their largest for the year as it introduces the fall fashions and is filled with advertisements. This particular issue was their largest ever. It weighed five pounds and had 840 pages. I recently flipped through the latest Vogue magazine and had a hard time finding anything other than advertisements for the first quarter of the issue. For those who know me well, fashion isn't exactly my forte considering that some of my favorite pairs of shoes are still Vans.

There is much speculation that Meryl Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada" is based on Wintour and I was all set to see this. She is definitely a strong and aggressive personality and I found that most of her staff would back down in an instant and not try to push their opinions. One of her creative directors, Grace Coddington, a former model, has dealt with Wintour for around 20 years and they seem to have a wary working relationship as Grace is able to stand up to Wintour. Wintour apparently recognizes Grace's creative genius and even brings it up at the end of the film.

With the success of this documentary, sales of this particular issue of Vogue has sold from a high of $80-$115.

I found this film to be an interesting overview of how an issue of a magazine is prepared.

Not Rated. 90 Minutes. I give this film THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.

The Ugly Truth (2009)

Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl star in this he against she film.

Abby Richter (Heigl) is the producer on a morning show that has falling ratings. She happens to see a show called "the ugly truth" hosted by Mike Chadway (Butler) that highlights his ideas on male/female relationships and they are not good. Abby calls the show and argues with Mike on the air.

She goes into work and finds that the station owner has hired Mike to help boost ratings. Needless to say, the two do not get along.

Abby begins to date a man from her building and agrees to let Mike help her with the relationship. If it doesn't work, he will quit the station. You can guess what the outcome is, everyone can guess. Not original or good. Someone should tell Gerard Butler that being a hot Scottish guy (the accent is half the hotness) does not a romantic comedy actor make (he wasn't bad in P.S. I love you though). I am hearing bad things about his new movie coming out with Jennifer Aniston called "The Bounty Hunter".

Rumor has it that the Mike Chadway character was based on Adam Corolla on the Adam Corolla show.

Not entertaining for me, I lost interest within the first half hour.

Rated R. 96 Minutes. I give this film TWO STARS.

Land Of The Lost (2009)

This film, a parody of the Saturday morning show by Sid and Marty Krofft, is one of the worst films that I have seen in the last year.

It stars Will Ferrell (who I usually like)as Dr. Rick Marshall a paleantologist, Anna Friel as Holly, and Danny McBride as Will. None of the characters are as they were in the original show. They fall into a space/time vortex and find themselves in a quasi desert, jungle situation with evidence that there have been others there before them.

Most of this movie varies from the original although Chaka, the Sleestak and the T-Rex are still there but that is about it. This was made for adults and therefore has the usual sex and adult jokes. At least the older one had the excuse that it was from the 70's and the cheesy effects were funny.

It sucks, nuff said.

Rated PG-13. 102 Minutes. I GIVE THIS MOVIE ONE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Here is the lead in for the old Saturday morning show. Memories people?

Herb And Dorothy (2009)

This documentary profiles Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a regular couple who managed to amass one of the most important modern art collections in history.

The Vogels live in a very small one bedroom apartment in Manhattan and have been married since the 60's. He was a postal worker and she was a librarian and they would spend his salary on art and live on her salary. Their commitment to their art is astounding and it proves that you don't have to be rich to acquire art.

They seem to concentrate on up and coming artists and their only requirements are that the art be affordable and that it be able to fit into their apartment. They eventually filled up their small apartment with more than 4000 works of art worth millions and in 1992 they had their collection moved to the National Gallery of Art. They have since refilled the apartment.

I am not much on contemporary art, but I found this documentary to be interesting and have much admiration for this couple.

Not Rated. 87 Minutes. I give this film THREE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

It is late 19th century London and Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) are trying to stop a human sacrifice occult ritual that is being performed by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). They are able to stop the murder and Lord Blackwood is sent to prison.

Poor Holmes has no new cases and Watson is about to marry his sweetheart Mary (Kelly Reilly) and move out of their shared residence at the famous 221B Baker Street. At the same time, the soon to be hung Lord Blackwood requests to see Holmes before his execution. Blackwood tries to mess with Homes' head (a la Silence of the Lambs) and is soon hung and declared dead by Dr. Watson who checks to see that there is no pulse.

Holmes is offered money by an old adversary and paramour, Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) to find a red haired man by the name of Reardon. Holmes and Watson try to find out who is employing Irene, but have no luck. Days after Blackwood's execution, a gravedigger says that he saw Blackwood walking away from the site. When the coffin is dug up, they find the red haired man inside. They search Reardon's house and find evidence of all kinds of science and chemistry experiments. They are attacked in the house by some men and are arrested after causing all kinds of damage trying to get away from the villains. Watson is sprung by his fiance, but Holmes is brought before the occult society, "The Temple of The Four Orders" who fear Lord Blackwood. Holmes and Watson continue to investigate and soon a couple of the high members of the Order are killed, supposedly by unexplained means. Blackwood then takes over the Order and wants to take over the world, especially America.

Holmes hides out as he finds that he is wanted by the police. He and Watson figure out what Blackwood's next move is and they find that Blackwood wants to kill Parliament members by using a machine devised by Reardon that will release poison gas into the chambers. Holmes, Watson and Adler foil the plan and Blackwood goes after them, losing in a major way. It is left wide open for the next Sherlock Holmes installment.

I will not reveal how Blackwood survived, try to figure it out for yourself. This film is adapted by the stories written by Sir Conan Doyle and was directed by Guy Ritchie. I have not been thrilled by most of the last movies directed by Ritchie, but "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" is quite good. Not for the children though. The movie set reminded me of the Johnny Depp movie "From Hell" about Jack the Ripper. Speaking of, if you go to London, do the Jack the Ripper Tour. For about ten dollars, they take a group of people on a walking tour that lasts about an hour or so around the area where the murders occured. They talk about what happened and the knowledgeable guides answer questions, very interesting!

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are great together as Holmes and Watson. They remind me of a bickering married couple. It seems that Holmes would be devastated by Watson marrying and moving away, not unlike today's "bromances". I found the movie to be very entertaining. Lord Blackwood looked amazingly like Andy Garcia only taller. Rachel McAdams part could have been played by anyone, her performance was not very significant.

Rated PG-13. 134 Minutes. I GIVE THIS MOVIE THREE AND THREE QUARTER STARS.

It's Complicated (2009)

This film opens as divorced couple Jane Adler (Meryl Streep) and Jake Adler (Alec Baldwin) are at an anniversary party for another couple. We are introduced to Jake's wife Agnes (Lake Bell), the woman that Jake left Jane for. After ten years, Jane and Jake are able to finally get along. Jane leaves the party and drives home where her youngest daughter is packing up the car to leave for college. Her other two children, Lauren (Caitlin Fitzgerald) who is marrying Harley (John Krasinski of "The Office") and Luke (Hunter Parish of "Weeds") who is graduating from college are making Jane feel like her home is an empty nest. Jane also has a group of women that she confides in that includes Mary Kay Place, Alexandra Wentworth and Rita Wilson.

Everyone meets in New York for Luke's graduation and Jane is left to fend for herself for dinner as the kids go to a party. Jake sees her in the restaurant as Agnes did not attend, and they proceed to get drunk and sleep together. When they get home, Jake wants to continue, but Jane resists...briefly. Their children know nothing about their mother being their father's mistress except Harley who spots them checking into a hotel during lunch when he is meeting with Lauren and the wedding coordinator. Agnes realizes that Jake still loves Jane at a party at Lauren and Harley's and kicks Jake out of the house.

Jane is also interested in the architect who is designing her new kitchen addition, Adam (Steve Martin). Adam is sweet and newly divorced for a couple of years himself and is still having a hard time coming to terms with it.

Adam finds out that the person that Jane had sort of been seeing was her ex-husband Jake and stops seeing her when he sees a naked Jake on her bed while the computer is on (thanks Skype). The kids run into the bedroom when Jane screams after finding Jake on her bed and are upset as they are still recovering from the decade long divorce themselves.

Jane tells everyone that she is not with their father anymore. In the end, the remodel starts on Jane's house and Adam is there and they walk into her house with smiles.

The director, Nancy Meyers, has directed many romantic comedies such as "The Parent Trap", "Something's Gotta Give", and "The Holiday". She has been involved in several films that have had Diane Keaton in them including "Somethings Gotta Give", "Baby Boom" and both of the "Father of the Bride" movies.

I thought that this movie was entertaining and really funny in a couple of parts. Alec Baldwin can be quite funny. Everyone in this movie seemed to have quite a bit of money, never seemed to work and had loads of free time to do what they wanted. Why can't that be me?

Rumor has it that Meryl Streep may be nominated for best actress for this. I hope not since she was much better in "Julie and Julia".

Rated R. 120 Minutes. I give this movie THREE AND ONE QUARTER STARS.