Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants is a chick flick originally written as a novel by Sara Gruen.  This story is very similar to some of the books written by Nicholas Sparks (i.e. The Notebook).  While this is by no means my favorite genre, I know I can appreciate a good one when I see it.

Water for Elephants stars Robert Pattison, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz.  The actors really do a terrific job in this movie, particularly Pattison and Waltz which really have to carry the dramatic load of the film.  I really have never thought much of Pattison, because I think the Twilight series is horrible, but he really does a fantastic job this time.  Witherspoon is also very good but just isn't asked to do as much as the men in the film.  Many of the characters with smaller roles do a fantastic job carrying them out.  In my opinion the reason the story is so successful is because of the extremely colorful characters that Gruen paints.

The focus of the story is a love triangle between the three characters.  The setting is a traveling circus during the 1930's.  The entire story is told through a flashback sequence similar to that in the aforementioned The Notebook.  While I originally thought this would be a pretty lame story because of the setting it didn't turn out to be that way.  Also, seeing all of the animals in the circus was pretty cool as well, particularly Rosie!

Water for Elephants was a pretty darn good movie.  It's a romantic chick flick but assuming that's what you're looking for you'll enjoy this one.  I liked The Notebook, (as you can probably already tell) and while this wasn't on that level, it was pretty darn close. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part I & II)

Alright well as you know if you normally read my blog, I'll give you a glimpse into my perspective on the movie before I saw it.  I've seen all the movies prior to this one and have read the Deathly Hallows book.  Needless to say, I knew what I was getting into.  I was a little bit skeptical when I saw this in the theatre because they broke one book up into two movies but I knew it couldn't matter that much.  I do also want to add, if you haven't seen the first six in this series please don't even try to check this one out.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh part in the series.  The story revolves around Harry and the character Voldemort trying to destroy one another and their quest of good vs evil.  One of the nice things about this film is that you can view it on a surface level and just enjoy the main plot but if you are like many other and are a junkie then you can dive into much deeper levels of detail.  The story finishes the series quite nicely.  The pacing is very good and throws you a few twists here and there. I was however confused by a few minute story parts that were left unanswered (i.e. Ms. Norris), but I suppose that's probably unavoidable for a series so deep though.

As with all of the Harry Potter movies the music is excellent.  The theme song, by John Williams, is a perfect fit for the series.  The rest of the score fits the movie very well and keeps rhythm with the story arc.

Normally I get into who the actors are, I'm not going to do that this time.  If you want to know please go to this link to check out all of the fantastic cast and crew to the finale in the Harry Potter series.  There are simply just too many people to name but they all do a really nice job.  My only complaint is one character changed actors, because he got arrested. They ended up swapping out a fat white kid for a skinny black kid and called it the same character, it made no sense at all!

This really is a fantastic series to watch for any age from about 10 and up.  If you haven't seen it before I would highly recommend it.  I'm not a "Potter maniac" but I did enjoy watching all the films.  I would put this one up there with Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.  Anyone with some time on their hands might want to try a weekend marathon!

Sucker Punch

Most of the time I generally know some about the movie I'm going to see from trailers, news articles, etc.  With Sucker Punch I had seen trailers but I had no real idea how in the world this movie was going to be.  I like Zack Snyder films though so I thought this one could be pretty good.

The movie stars a bunch of lesser named actors and actresses which include Emily Browning, Abby Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jenna Malone.  They do an acceptable job but there isn't a terrible much that's asked of them.  The star of the movie, Emma Browning, doesn't even have a line until about 15 minutes in the movie.  The standout in my opinion was probably Jenna Malone, but that's probably just because she has the most experience of all these ladies.  Jon Hamm also has a little cameo in here but doesn't do too much.

Sucker Punch is about a girl, Babydoll (Abby Cornish), who has a traumatic childhood which leads to her ending up in a mental institution.  While in the looney bin she meets the other girls and they begin their adventure of trying to escape.  The movie takes you into a series of alternate realities that the star has to put herself in to escape the horrible reality, and that is where the movie really shines in terms of action.  The story is a combination of some heavy drama and video game like action.  It is similar to Snyder's other movies when the action is going.

This film has very impressive CG throughout the alternate reality sequences and the drama in the "real world" is also smart and well done.  Sucker Punch is a pretty good movie but the story is kind of disjointed and has some action sequences which drag on far too long.  I probably wouldn't recommend people check this one out unless they're into other Zack Synder films such as Watchmen.

I want to be very forthright with my reviews.  I feel very conflicted about whether I like this movie or not.  I enjoyed watching it but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.  I also don't believe that many others would really enjoy this one. 

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a drama/comedy and I knew it when I got it in the mail.  It does have a pretty impressive cast, so I thought this one might just be worth checking out.

This movie stars Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone.  The cast is very impressive and really hits a home run.  There are also some key roles played by Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon.  

Crazy, Stupid, Love is about a family that is fractured by an affair and all of the consequences that occur related to the hardship the entire family faces.  The film really paints a pretty interesting story with the highlight, for me at least, being the relationship that Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling share throughout the movie.  There are some very fascinating twists and turns over the course of the movie that keep you interested.  The only knock I really had was that the movie looked like it was going to end horribly at one point but then it just keeps on going.  The feeling that left wasn't great and the movie did drag towards the end.

After sitting through this one I was a little conflicted about how I felt in the end but I think I'd recommend this one to someone looking for a comedy infused with some real serious issues.  If you're looking for a sappy rom-com this isn't it.  Crazy, Stupid, Love is a very well made movie worth checking out especially if you're missing an Y chromosome.

30 Minutes or Less

So I was running short on movies on my Netflix list.  Due to this error, and lack of decent movies, I decided to see 30 Minutes or Less.  My expectations were pretty low but I thought the comedy would be pretty good and have a smart story.  I thought this because Jesse Eisenberg is usually pretty good and I like Danny McBride.  My expectations should have been lower.

The movie is about a guy who wants to get rich quick and he decides killing someone is the best way to do that.  The plot is very weak for the first 3/4 of the movie but does come on strong at the end, just not strong enough.  This was an area where I thought this movie would excel but it really disappointed until it was way too late.  Also, I'm not against vulgar language at all, in fact I enjoy it in some movies (Pineapple Express, The Big Lebowski, etc) but this movie takes it to the extreme and it really just doesn't make any sense.

The stars of this movie include Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, and Nick Swardson.  These are all faces you'll probably recognize but not huge names.  None of them particularly stands and out and that includes Eisenberg, who is normally pretty impressive, but really comes up short in 30 Minutes or Less.

30 Minutes or Less is really a pretty horrible movie.  I honestly considered turning it off entirely when I was about half way through the movie.  I'm glad I stuck it out so I could write this review but in retrospect I wish I had gotten something else to watch.  Skip this one!

The Siege

 
Hanging out around the house on a nice boring Sunday, I found some time to go scrolling through Netflix instant play on my blu-ray player.  Eventually I found something that intrigued me, The Siege.  I wasn't sure whether I had seen this movie before but for some reason I had given it four stars (out of five).  Either way I decided to check it out!

The Siege is a film about terrorism and the effects it can have on a populous.  The movie was made in 1998 so if you can remember the way things were almost 14 years ago, things were very different.  It does play out some interesting scenes that are almost foreshadowing into how America would react after 9/11.  The story was really pretty interesting and has some nice twists and turns but nothing that blew my mind.

The Siege stars Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, and Annette Benning.  The three main characters basically carry the movie but there are some nice supporting actors like Tony Shalhoub and even a cameo by Aasif Mandvi (Daily Show).  The acting by Denzel and Bruce Willis was really pretty good but Annette Benning was really weak.  I'm not sure I've ever been really impressed by her, but this movie in particular I thought she was awful as a CIA handler, yep you read that right.

I decided to keep this review short because I just don't think there is a tremendous amount to say about The Siege.  The movie isn't bad if you're just bored and looking for some decent action movie to watch but this movie really doesn't impress at all.  If you're into the espionage genre it would help to enjoy this one.  As I said Annette Benning is pretty awful and it hurts the overall movie. I'll probably go back and lower this one a three.

Super 8

I wasn't really sure what to think of Super 8when I added it to my Netflix list.  I knew it was Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams and that it was a science fiction movie.  I heard some pretty good things from people who had seen it in movie theatres.  I knew some things but I didn't really know what to make of the actual plot of the movie. 

Well after seeing Super 8 I discovered it is a campy sci-fi movie based in the late 80's about a bunch of kids trying to shoot a movie.  While filming the movie on their 8mm camera, which is of course where the name comes from, an awful accident occurs which is filmed by their camera.  As the story unfolds you learn about the cause of the accident and the people behind it.  The story is well conceived and enjoyable, but campy, except that I think I've seen this one before.

The movie stars a bunch of no name kids including Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, and Dakota Fanning's younger sister Elle Fanning.  Supporting cast also includes some character actors such as Kyle Chandler and Noah Emmerich.  The cast of the movie is pretty underwhelming but it fits the sleepy town the movie takes place in.

The soundtrack for Super 8 was pretty good but nothing spectacular like some of Spielberg's other films.  Not too much to say about it except the music fit well but nothing you'll remember or make you say "wow."

Super 8 was a really fun movie I would highly recommend checking out.  There are a few things you should know going into seeing this movie though.  First, it's campy, really really campy.  Second, don't expect any wild surprises our you'll be disappointed.  Finally, and this is what I have the biggest problem with, the story is basically ET all over again.  Yep, I said it.  I know it's not an exact replica but it's very similar and it loses some points in my book for that.