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.