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.