Movies I Saw In 2005

YES! YES YES YES YES! Oh gosh I loved this movie. *grin* I'm a sucker for movies that make me cry... there aren't very many of them, but the few there are, I love. This movie is horribly sad and so very well-done that I was bawling through nearly the whole thing. I cried even more than during Savannah Smiles. Haley Joel Osment is amazing in this movie and was probably one of the most talented child actors EVER out there. (I'm intrigued to see if he stays interesting should he act in more things as a teen/adult.) Simply put, this is QUITE possibly my favorite movie I saw this year, although it horribly depressed both my parents. That scene where he's in the submarine has to be the saddest thing I have EVER seen in a movie. *deep contented sigh* Yes, I loved this movie mucho.

Oh, goodness, I liked this movie. It's one of those movies that just manages to tap so nicely into human nature and had so many sweet and touching moments, but none of it was saccharine sweet or unrealistic in the way it portrayed these teens. Even the bit at the end where they realize that probably they're just going back to their normal lives after this works perfectly. I was completely drawn into the story and the characters. Ayup. I liked this movie quite a lot.

Wow. What an intriguing movie! This is one intricate chick flick. That's what, eight different plotlines going on here? And yet I came to genuinely care about all of them by the end of the film. Sheesh, most chick flicks can't even get me to care about the main two, let alone a group of twenty. I have to give this movie intense applause just for that. The dialogue was also superbly entertaining. I honestly can't remember the last time I've gotten THIS caught up in a chick flick. Dang. As I think about it more, I really REALLY liked this movie.

Aww, aww, awwwww!! :-D Now THIS is a quality romance movie. Forget the fluffy stuff that ends with sappy happy endings. (Note all the marvelous rhyming in that last sentence.) This was such an amazing movie, in all seriousness. I was intrigued with the story from the beginning and stayed interested all the way through the end. The characters were fascinating just in themselves. Man. I don't know how many more good things I can say about this movie. Everyone go watch it. It's marvelous.

Oooh. This was actually a very interesting movie. I knew next to nothing about it when I rented it except that Anna had recommended it, and as I watched it I realized it was actually quite fascinating to watch. I never got bored with it and just sat there enjoying it all the way through. That's quite an accomplishment for a movie, to keep me watching all the way through without getting bored. Probably my second-favorite Anna-recommended movie, after Benny and Joon.

Yesssss!!! My dad informed me that this movie was hilarious, and so I put it on CleanFilms, and finally got the chance to see it. When it opened in documentary format I was a bit wary, but as the story unfolded and the auditions for the show began, I found myself warming to it. By the time it got to the point of the story where the show was ready to go on, I was completely enthralled with this quirky cast of characters and couldn't wait to see the show. I think it hit a special vein in me too, because of my work with my youth group drama team. No, we're not nearly as bad as the people in this movie. :-D But I found myself going, "Hmm. Okay. Yeah. That's a wee little bit familiar." This is also one of those movies that was made even better by running through all the funny parts afterwards with my family. "Remember when...?" "Oh, yeah, and how about...?" "Yeah, that was hilarious!" Definitely a worthwhile watch.

Oh, wow. This was a really good movie. In fact it's definitely my favorite of all the Anna-recommended movies so far. I was amazed by the . . . hmm. How to put it? The casualness of the movie. It was sweet without being saccharine, and funny without being over-the-top, and serious without being depressing. It tackled all of this and managed to remain very believable, despite the quirky characters. The ending was also very well-done - 'twas a nice resolution that left me happy but didn't at any point make me go, "Oh, puh-LEASE." Many cool points to this movie.

Mostly I got this movie so I could say I'd seen it before Sarah L. I'm such a nice person, non? But I was quite pleasantly surprised on watching this movie to find that it wasn't half bad as far as romantic comedies go. In fact, it was actually pretty good. I even laughed out loud at a few bits. The characters were likeable, the plot not too stupid/sappy, and the dialogue delightful. Rather great for a chick flick.

May I start off by saying that that rabbit is the SINGLE SCARIEST IMAGE I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. I think I'm going to have nightmares forever from that thing. *shudder* Okay. On to the actual movie. Talk about confusing. I had sort of a vague idea of what was going on but then weird stuff happened and I was like, "Hmm, oh, okay, on second thought, I think this is happening," and then weirder stuff happened and I was like, "Um. Okay. Now I have no clue at all." At the end my dad told me what the official website says happened and, honestly, I have NO IDEA how I was supposed to get that from the movie. However... just because I didn't understand it doesn't mean at all that it wasn't a good movie. I really really liked it. It was entertaining all the way through and I did have fun trying to figure it out even though I didn't come anywhere near it. But let mejust state one more time.... that rabbit is HORRIFYING!!!!!!! Aaaahhhhhh! (My dad pointed out that actually this was the second movie we'd watched this week involving a scary rabbit. The other was Monty Python and the Holy Grail.)

I read the book on my dad's recommendation a few months ago and absolutely loved it. It felt so wonderfully real. So when I noticed this sitting in our local video store I decided I should see it. To my delight it had been only slightly Hollywoodized and only slightly shortened. (It's a good 2 1/2 hour movie.) The atmosphere of the book was kept as was, well, nearly everything else about it. It's a fascinating look into the basic in-and-outs of how a lawyer might defend a guy who HAD committed a murder and probably belonged in jail. No real moral judgments or anything here, just the telling of this case and how it was plotted out. This was a pretty darn great movie.

I think this is my favorite of all the Marx Brothers. It was filled with goofiness from beginning to end, and had several bits that just made me giggle out loud. One of those very rare movies that are just solidly funny all the way trhough. Now *that* is tough to pull off. I'm not sure what else to say about this, except... everyone go watch it. It rocks.

As I've stated before, I have a fascination with stories about personality disorders... and Howard Hughes was certainly abounding with them! However this film wasn't primarily about his struggle with germaphobia or agoraphobia or paranoia. It was mostly just about.. HIM. And while I normally don't like biographic epics (which is, yeah, pretty much what this was) it was an interesting enough story that I stayed intrigued all the way through. Plus I'm intrigued by watching actors tackle the formidable task of portraying real people in show business, and I must say they all did a fabulous job. Cate and Kate both were marvelous in their roles - they managed to capture the spirit of the people they were portraying. So... yes. This movie was worth seeing. It's long and it's rather dark but it's every bit as good as people are saying it is.

Wow. I can very much see why all the hype about this movie. It was pretty phenomenal. Russell Crowe turned in a great performance, his character was very believable. I felt like I was gaining great insight into the mind of someone who deals with a problem like this. Halfway through I felt that horror realizing that... er, well, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet and somehow knows nothing about it, I shan't give away the main plot element. I shall simply conclude by saying it was a truly fascinating movie and had a somewhat very satisfactory ending. And also was a bit creepy at times, which can often be a plus. :-)

I saw this movie not knowing what to expect. I honestly didn't even have any idea what it was about, except that my father saw it and liked it, which means I'd probably at least enjoy it. And I did. Tom Cruise is FAR more interesting as a villain that he's ever been as a hero. The plot was intelligent. The characters were all intelligent. This made for a good solid thriller which, while not the best of its genre, was still great fun to sit down and watch for an evening.

Heh... good fluff is . . . well, good. (Hmm. There's something wrong with the simplicity of that statement.) This was an entirely fluffy movie but it was well done and had several moments that made me chuckle. The outright absurdity of it was rather delightful. I particularly liked the shot in the bus station at the beginning where the creepy guy keeps grinning at Brenda and showing her he's got a gun. I just started giggling at that point. It was a little over the top in places, but it didn't get too annoying at all. And besides . . . IT'S ANTHONY RAPP! That's him as that obnoxious Darryl kid. Yup, 'at's one of my Voices right there. Honestly, that was why I got this movie. Because I'm obsessed with seeing all my Voices in as many movies as I can. (See also A Beautiful Mind and School of Rock, two other movies I got for the express purpose of seeing a Voice in there.)

I can see why this is a classic movie. The entire cast turns in fantastic performances, the script is intriguing, the story is compelling... And yet with all that I can't find a *whole* lot to say about it. It was quite generally good, but I can't think of anything specific to say about it. No clue what that means about the movie, or about me. Maybe after another viewing I'd be able to come back and add a few more thoughts.

Sports movies are SO not my thing, but I'd much rather watch a soccer movie than a football movie or a baseball movie. (Hmm, that might be confusing, as this is a British film and in Britain football IS soccer. But whatever.) And as far as teenage sports movies goes, this one is intriguing. The extra element of the Indian culture is interesting. The fact that it's modern-day English instead of, say, 1960's American is interesting. The fact that it's about a teenage girl instead of a teenage guy is interesting. The fact that it's about soccer instead of, well, almost any other sport is interesting. And the fact that it's not ALL about the game, a lot of it is just about her relationship with her parents and friends, is interesting. Hmm. I wonder what word I'd use to best describe this? Eh, let's go with "interesting". :-) Not sure I'd ever want to own it, but I did enjoy my one viewing of it. Kudos for getting parent-child relationships wrapped up at the end, too.

Ah, HERE I was in the mood to watch film noir! (See my review for Double Indemnity.) And therefore I loved this movie. I can't believe I'd never seen it before. The rest of my family had, where was I? Well, now I've seen it, anyway, and it is one of the best hardboiled detective films ever.

Wow, this was very graphic for a black-and-white movie. Very verbally graphic about the sexual violence. It wouldn't be at all shocking in a movie made in the 1990's, but it really caught me off-guard in a 1961 black-and-white film. And perhaps that made it just that much more sinister, because I really liked this movie a LOT. It's one of the best, most truly scary thriller classics. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes old movies in general and thrillers in particular. Good slow buildup of psychological tension.

Ya know, every once in awhile you need to sit down and watch one of these incredibly fluffy, pointless, everyone-ends-up-happy-for-no-good-reason movies, as long as it's one that is truly entertaining and not just stupid. This one . . . truly entertaining. The characters were fun, the story was engaging, and while it was utterly fluffy and silly, I did come away from it feeling actually rather cheered. Not bad.

(Written, obviously before January '06.)
Teehee. What a fun movie. I got it primarily because I hope to see the Broadway show in January of '06 and thought maybe I'd find out what the actual story is. It was quite amusing, because as I watched it I kept seeing the Broadway cast in the roles. (Talk about perfect casting. *shakes head*) This movie definitely had several moments that made me grin, and although nothing made me laugh out loud and roll on the floor giggling uncontrollably, it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch all the way through - quite an accomplishment! I'd definitely recommend this for a goofy movie.

I was interested in this movie the moment I hear about it. It sounded absolutely fascinating, and it was. I wasn't disappointed at all. It was an intriguing concept and, although a little hard to follow chronologically, it worked out well. Oh, and one more "however" - it had a semi-happy ending but I still came away feeling like it was a pretty bleak movie. Hmm. Weird. Oh, well. Of coures that wouldn't stop me from liking it. *Grin*

As far as silly chick flicks go, this one isn't bad. Yes, this theme has been done before. Yes, it's utterly predictable (but, hello, it's a chick flick, it HAS to be). But it was enjoyable to watch... the cast was all great... A lot of people really panned this movie but I thought it was a lot better than some of the other chick flicks that came out 2004... *Cough*Theprinceandme*coughcough*. Probably won't ever watch it again, but, hey, I've seen it once. That's all that's necessary.

I read a lot of reviews that didn't like this movie, but I'm not sure why. Even if the story itself is semisilly, the characters are fascinating. I have to say I enjoyed this movie far more for the characters than for the actual mystery. I also discovered as I watched this movie that it was the second movie I'd watched in a week that involved Denzel Washington biting the antagonist. (The first was The Manchurian Candidate.) Odd, eh?

Oh, boy, was this fun. Light, fluffy, random musical numbers with really lame lyrics . . . what more could one ask for? :-) Seriously, this was THE perfect light and fluffy romantic comedy. Definitely didn't work as a musical, but part of the fun was the sappiness and ridiculousness of the musical numbers and their overacted choreography. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of watching this. Nice contrast to Bend It Like Beckham, which was a teen sports movie with a bit of substance to it. This has no substance at all. But if you loved the original Pride and Prejudice story, you're bound to love this one, which follows the original story much, much closer than, say, Bridget Jones's Diary. Good stuff.

Oooh. The previews made it look good... and it WAS good. My two other thrillers I wanted to see (Godsend and The Forgotten) were both horribly panned, and I couldn't remember if this one was or not. So I persuaded my parents to get it so we could watch it. Turned out to be a nice intelligent movie. W00t w00t for intelligent thrillers!! Nobody in this was stupid and making me go, "YOU IDIOTS! THINK ABOUT IT!" It kept me interested in what was going on... nothing was lagging throughout the movie. And it even threw in an occasional sense of humor as a change of pace.

O for the olden days of comedy, where one got puns, wordplay, and random song and dance sequences instead of tired jokes about bodily functions! I think the Marx Brothers' movies are some of te best comedies of all time. They're so incredibly zany and so unpredictable and so marvelously plotless that they're quite simply a pleasure to watch. They quite often have laugh-out-loud moments -- for me, the shirt-stealing scene has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my history of movie-watching.

This was an interesting movie, although it was also very odd because it switched tones halfway through. The first half was more like Rope, another movie inspired by the real-life Leopold-Loebe murder case. The second half became a courtroom drama. It was still interesting to watch all the way through, it just felt like two separate movies rolled into one. Rather odd. And I must say Dean Stockwell reminds me far too much of Robert Sean Leonard.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started watching this. At first it looked like an action prison break movie. Then it looked like a racial tension movie. Then it looked like a racial tension movie plus a self-discovery movie. I'm still not sure I can actually classify what category this would go into, but I do know I liked it pretty well. The ending was very touching and went in a different direction than I would have predicted.

Classic film noir, which, when I'm in the mood for it, is quite fun. Unfortunately I wasn't in the mood for it when I watched this flick so I didn't really care for it all that much. I'm sure on another day I would have been far more interested in it. It probably was quite good, I just didn't want to watch it.

I got this because of its overabundance of musical theater people. (FIVE of 'em!!) And... I have almost no idea what I thought of it. All the musical theater people put in tremendous performances. Kathy Bates was the oddest Miss Hannigan I've ever seen. You got the feeling that deep down inside she was really a very nice person. That is DEFINITELY not supposed to happen. I suppose this is as good as any production of Annie is ever likely to get. *shrug*

Musical Theater People Sighting: WHEE!!! This movie includes in its cast... *deep breath* Audra McDonald, Victor Garber, Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, and Andrea McArdle. How cool is THAT? ;-)

I'd never actually seen this movie, and I decided it was high time I did. So . . . I rented it and watched it. My feelings on it are mixed. While it had some fun moments, it overall felt like an adult movie that was trying to be for kids and pretty much failed. (DreamWorks movies actually nearly all have that feel actually, except for the Shrek movies, which are far more charming than anything else DreamWorks has done.) I appreciate the movie's shortness - if there had been more of this I would have much less pleased with it. As it was, it was just enough for me to enjoy the viewing but definitely not want any more of it.

Hmm. This truly is a romantic drama, not a romantic comedy. That's unusual. I'm still not sure I was truly crazy about it. I utterly don't get it in movies when both people keep secrets from each other and then when they're revealed, one of them is angry, not because of what they were lying about, but because of the FACT of the lie ("You lied to me!!") when, hello! They did the same thing! *sigh* But aside from that, it was a decent movie. Very well-done. Just not the type of movie I really care for.

This one was pretty interesting... I liked it a lot. And I think I accidentally just tried to burn a CD. Oops. But anyway. Both the hero and the villain were interesting. Also, there was a lot of humor along the way, which really makes a thriller/action flick interesting. I honestly think that was one of the things I didn't like about The Bourne Identity - it took itself so seriously that there was no room for humor at all.

I was nervous sitting down to watch this movie. I was terribly afraid it would turn out to be one of those "obnoxious rich dude from the city finds his heart and soul among the country people and decides to move there" movies which depress me horribly. Turned out to be nothing like that, though. He does go back to the city at the end and is very happy about it. It actually was a pretty fun movie, with several moments that made me chuckle. Not a bad viewing, all in all.

Oooh, courtroom movies! Although this was less about the actual courtroom scenes than it was the struggle to actually GET the case to court in the first place. It was a pretty interesting movie, though, with a very nice ending that didn't work out the way courtroom movies usually do. Also I find as I sit down to write this review, I'm not sure what else to say about it. It was a very solid drama that I enjoyed watching, but nothing that popped out at me. Oh well.

*grin* Oh, how I do love silly movies about psychotics. Erm. That sounded much odder than I thought it would. Oh, well. This movie had a thoroughly strange premise and had the potential to be either really stupid or really fantastic. It fell close-ish to the fantastic side but didn't QUITE make it all the way there. Definitely had some great moments. (Actually, when I rented it my mom and dad had a very long discussion trying to remember whether Nicolas Cage or John Travolta was the bad guy. When the movie began and it was revealed to be Nicolas Cage, I said, "Oh, good, I haven't seen him in an evil psychotic role yet," only to find twenty minutes later that ACTUALLY John Travolta will be playing the villain for most of this flick. Dang. I hoped to see more Psycho Cage. *shrug*) And goodness, that was a very long review considering that 3/4 of it was just rambling not on whether or not I LIKED the movie but... other things. Oh well. I'm writing these reviews at 4:39 a.m. because I can't sleep and have just read a 315-page book about a gorilla in my efforts to try and fall asleep.

I'm not really into the custody battle movies. They tend to bug the heck out of me. Didn't mind Kramer vs. Kramer, but that was mostly because I'm a Dustin Hoffman fan in general. Pierce Brosnan is much less interesting. However the little girl in this was quite good -- not at all annoying for a child star. And the accents were fun. So while I wouldn't ever watch this again, it was tolerable for one view.

I'm not sure I entirely understood this movie. Usually I thoroughly enjoy Tracy and Hepburn. I loved them in the goofy comedy Desk Set as well as in a serious drama like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. But this movie didn't manage to be either one. It was too goofy to be a drama but far too serious to be a comedy. I spent the entire movie unsure whether I was supposed to be feeling sad or happy. So . . . I didn't enjoy it. I was too confused by the time the credits rolled. Yeah, it had a few moments I enjoyed, but the overall movie felt too oddly mixed.

I got this expecting it to be much more interesting than it was. Which I guess always happens with these comedies where the selfish person from the big city is stranded in the country and finds peace and contentment and a soul there. I always go in to the movies thinking I'll enjoy them and come away with a sense of "Now they're trapped there forever, and people are going to set plates on their head, and they'll never get to run through the fresh-cut grass or feel the ocean breeze in their hair etc. etc. etc." So while there were some funny bits in here, most of it made me too depressed to truly enjoy it.

This is one of those movies that everyone loves and I find pretty boring. But it's a classic so I suppose I'm glad I saw it. Maybe I'll appreciate it some day, I just obviously can't right now. It just felt... lacking in... something. I never really cared about most of the characters, and just found myself going, "Um... okay. This is it?" Ah well.

I had the privilege to see this at a film festival at our community college - "classic sci-fi". This week was a double feature, Attack of the Crab Monsters and Plan 9 From Outer Space.We watched this one first and I have to say, I had a great audience to watch it with. People were yelling out comments left and right. This is a classic bad movie... The monsters don't move their legs when they walk. One monster is destroyed, the people still have no way off the island, and they all cheer like it's the end. A man's greed for oil leads him to be eaten by the crabs. The crabs swallow people's brains whole so they can now think and talk like those people. A few sailors play poker using sticks of dynamite as chips. Goodness. What else can I say about this movie? If you ever get a chance to watch it with a group of loud-mouthed mocking people, DO SO. It should be one of the most entertaining afternoons/evenings/mornings/whatever of your lifetime.

This movie was THAT hyped up? I will admit I mildly enjoyed the movie, it wasn't horrendous or anything, but people were proclaiming it as the best action movie ever. But then I'm not much for straight action movies either. Matt Damon's character was strangely deadpan... very little sense of humor, which immediately made me dislike him. None of the plot twists were too unexpected, and there was a lot of violent stuff in there that made me go, "Eeeeh!" So it rates pretty low on my scale. Sorry to tell that to all you Matt Damon fans.

When I went to rent this, I said, "I want to see something light and fluffy." Yup, this is about as light and fluffy as you can get. The goofy overdone slapstick humor, the stereotypical obnoxious cheerleaders, the hot guy who really isn't all that bad, the good guy friend who I always hope she'll end up getting together with since I never like the bland lead guys in these movies... It's all there. I must say, I AM getting sick of this "Be true to yourself" theme. People who ARE true to themselves... are getting way sick of it. And if you're not true to yourself, watching 80,000 teen movies on it isn't necessarily going to help. But ah well. We shall ignore that and not mind the movie for what it is... a light-hearted "I don't want to think about life" bit of fluff. One other mention though... I don't know that our Cinderella is too badly treated. She has a computer with Internet access in her bedroom! She has her own car! She has her own cell phone! But *shrug*

I think I missed the point of this movie. It got all these rave reviews and is on all these "greatest movies of all time" lists . . . and I simply didn't understand it. It seemed to me it introduced all the characters . . . and ended. That's it. As those words "The End" appeared on the screen, I just kept staring, thinking, "Wait. That can't be it. Nothing was resolved." It must be one of those sort of 24-hours-in-the-life-of-these-people movies, but even as one of those it didn't make any sense to me. Maybe it's one of those movies I'll understand when I'm 50.

Something about this movie just never caught on for me. It had the potential to be a silly-and-utterly-typical-but-well-made action flick. But it was only the first two attributes. I kept waiting for it to get better or more interesting, or even to involve a chain reaction, but it never did. This was two hours not completely wasted, however. I now know not to watch this movie again, and that I'd hardly recommend it to anyone.

Well, Jake Gyllenhaal is cool, but that's the only reason to see this movie. Or, wait. The one tornado scene is cool too.

HATE FOR THIS MOVIE CONSUMES MY SOUL!

Gosh darn it. How can we mess up this book? Let me count the ways. The original book was charming, the story of five children who find a sand fairy and then get themselves in trouble by accidentally wishing for things they don't really want - like when one of them says in frustration about their baby brother, "Oh, I WISH he'd grow up!" and suddenly find themselves having to follow their 20-year-old "baby brother" around. Now that kind of stuff was fun. It is not nearly so fun when people are just stupid and wish for idiotic things. Or when those who grant the wishes deliberately skew them. Add in some random troubled-child-misses-his-father bits, a cast of mostly superfluous characters, and a sappy ending that also just doesn't make SENSE... and you've got something that rather deserves to die.

Weeeeellll... okay, Anna recommended this, and thus far I've not minded all her recommendations and I even liked a few pretty well. But this one had only one thing going for it (well, two maybe - Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, both of which I like) and a couple major strikes against it. First, it had enough theological holes in it to make me a bit uneasy, the basic message being along the lines of "love is more important than everything, even obedience to God, and everyone out there should understand and respect that". Which... yeah, as I said, made me uneasy and it made this difficult for me to watch. Secondly, it followed two romantic formulas that I really don't care for: the Love Conquers All formula and the Well, At Least We Had One Beautiful Night Together formula. (Although the second is slightly better than the first.) Pah, pah, and triple pah. Although I have to say my mom came up with a significant way of improving the movie... in that next-to-the-last scene when he eats a pear, Mom suddenly says, "Wouldn't it be terribly sad if after all this, he really, really hated pears?" which made me crack up laughing because it would put such a markedly cynical spin on it. Gah. I'm not REALLY this cynical, just as far as movies go. :-) So . . . sorry, Anna. This wasn't my type of movie.

I think I've seen this movie before, only I can't remember where. Or maybe I've just seen several just like it. Mom thought it was along the lines of It's a Wonderful Life, but I know that's not it. Ah well. It was... fine. For one viewing, sure. I'll never watch it again. Nothing fantastic, though. A gentle romantic comedy with a sappy ending, but, hey, what romantic comedies DON'T have sappy endings? (Wait. I take that back. Sleepless In Seattle wasn't sappy at the end. Nor was Crossing Delancy.)

Talk about a light fluffy comedy. Actually, I've been watching a lot of those lately. Hmm. Anyway, this one was a BLAST. Twenty minutes into it, my dad turned to me and said, "This is actually a lot funnier than I thought it would be." At one point it depressed me a bit, but that's a long story I shan't get into. This movie was thoroughly enjoyable and is one of the better irresponsible-teen comedies out there. Not that I can think of any others off the top of my head that I've seen. But whatever.

Just days after seeing Shawshank, here comes my OTHER favorite movie I've seen thus far this year. This movie is pretty amazing. I'd heard it was good, figured I'd watch it and be all, "Eh... it's a biographical story, not that fascinating." I had forgotten a few things. One: That's Johnny Depp in the movie. He does a brilliant job even in not-so-brilliant movies. Secondly: It's the story of PETER PAN! One of my favorite stories of all time! And third: It involves theater, which will nearly always guarantee a good story for me. I have to admit I almost cried in this movie... no, not any of those heartfelt talks between Peter and James. No, I cried when the orphans were being led in to the theater to see Peter Pan. This truly is a magical story (much more so than that tragedy of a Peter Pan story they did in 2003). I've never liked a biographical "real life" movie so much.

From the very beginning I was interested in this movie . . . primarily because it started off as sounding way too much like something I'd do. Not the breaking and entering bit . . . but following people just to see where they went, what they did. Except hopefully it wouldn't lead to this if I did it. :-) While this wasn't as amazing as Memento, it still felt Memento-like enough that I thoroughly enjoyed the style and was just able to sit back and enjoy. It's a short little movie, just slightly over an hour, but everything fits together neatly and perfectly. Quite fun.

Whee! Another heist movie! Okay, heist movies can be long and elaborate and only mildly interesting, or they can be fun and silly and a blast to watch. This was the latter. Sure, it was long and elaborate, but it never took itself too seriously, and you know how much I love that. For some reason this movie really bombed. People kept saying it was "trying to be Ocean's Eleven". *Rolls eyes* Come on. This was FAR more FUN than Ocean's Eleven. ...Well, I think, anyway.

Man. This movie would have been so much more interesting if they hadn't GIVEN EVERYTHING AWAY in the trailers. I mean, seriously, all the "surprise twists" for the first 45 minutes were revealed in the trailers and on the back of the box. *shakes head* This movie would never have been a brilliant flick, yes, the ending is moderately lame, but it was enjoyable to watch how they got to the ending. "It's not about whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game," or something equally goofy sounding. So if you know nothing about this movie... go ahead and go see it. If you've already seen the trailers... eh... might be worth it for some reason that I can't think of just now.

Heh. Well, this one is closer to the book than the newer one was, but it definitely has that Old Disney Movie feel. You know, where you have to suspend disbelief more than you ever had to before . . . where everything has a moral . . . where outlandish, crazy action feats are done by fourteen-year-old girls. Once you get used to that, it's actually a fairly entertaining movie, with quite a few fun moments.

When this first came out, several of my friends saw it and loved it, but for some reason I missed it. So now I've tracked it down and finally watched it and... er... I'm not quite sure why it was such a raved-about movie (among my acquaintances, anyway), although it was a pretty decent movie. Plot holes kept jumping out at me making me go, "Wait... wait... what?!" And I've never really been a fan of Dennis Quaid. HOWEVER... it was pretty entertaining for one viewing. I'll never watch it again, though, mostly so I can avoid that unpleasant image of the hand shriveling up. Yech.

This movie is based on the same play His Girl Friday is based on, and was also the first Lemmon-Matthau movie I'd ever seen. I didn't like His Girl Friday much the first time I watched it three years ago but this wasn't at all bad, so I now wonder if I'd like the first movie better. Desafortunademente, I have not much to say about this movie except that it was a fairly decent comedy, neither brilliant nor horrendous.

Action movies are not my favorites. In general, I end up being mildly entertained by them but forget them immediately afterwards. And, erm, apparently that's what happened with this movie, because although I remember I didn't mind it, I have no earthly idea what else I thought of it. *shrug* So unfortunately this review isn't going to be a lot of help to anyone. If you enjoy action flicks you'll probably enjoy this one. If you don't you'll probably have the same reaction I did.

I'd been waiting for this movie for AGES on CleanFilms and it finally got here! And it really was quite a fun movie. Well, I'm not sure if "fun" is exactly the right word, as it had rather a somber mood, but it was definitely interesting to watch. I did figure out the ending, although I suppose it wasn't meant to be immensely twisty. Suspending disbelief is pretty essential to enjoying this movie, though. Be willing to let weird things happen ;-)

Hmm. This had to have been a Jay Ward cartoon. It's got the Jay Ward mark on it. Not as much as I'm sure the actual cartoon had (I only saw one episode once, a loooong time ago in a galaxy far, far away, i.e. North Dakota). And I have to confess I DO love that style of humor. Things got a bit too zany here at times for me and left me going, "Okay, THAT was just dumb..." and because of those many "That was just dumb" moments I couldn't put it on any type of "Great movies" list. However it was fun for the one viewing, picking out the good bits throughout and savoring those and ignoring the rest.

I'm not a big fan of war movies. The minute you choose a cute guy to root for, he dies. JUST KIDDING. That's not my approach, more like Sarah or Naomi L.'s ;-) But no, war movies aren't my thing. But as far as they go, this one wasn't bad. It was rather more touching at the end than I expected it to be, and even the actual combat scenes were somewhat interesting to watch. It's an intriguing story as well. Overall, quite a decent movie and much better than I thought it would be.

I heard about four people proclaim this to be "the best movie ever". Well, now I've seen it and I have to say - I like Casablanca better. In fact, I like a whole lot of movies better. (My movie tastes are odd and eclectic so that's not too surprising.) However it was fairly decent. Not an unenjoyable movie at all, which is quite a feat for a movie about a bunch of kids. It ran just slightly too long for me too. But hey, if you've never seen this, go ahead and watch it - if only to hear Dave Grusin's score.

While I love the old-fashioned 1930's-40's British murder mysteries (i.e. Agatha Christie), this just wasn't nearly as interesting as I had thought it was going to be. It ended up being far less about the mystery and much more about just all the characters and their connections. However, as THAT it was quite interesting and quite well-done. My family and I guessed every single plot twist though, no matter how minor.

Wow, this was . . . different. Dark, but hilarious. Romantic, but not sappy. It managed a near balance between the zany and the macabre and achieved an all-around "fun to watch"ness that most comedies do NOT have. I enjoyed myself all the way through this. Kudos to everyone involved with this project. (Heh, makes it sound like they're reading this. Whatever.)

I've seen a plethora of pretty-darn-decent chick flicks in the past year. Either I'm going soft'n'mushy (please, not that!) or I just happen to be seeing all the good ones. This one actually managed to be good-natured and funny and I count absolutely NO obnoxious bits. I wouldn't classify this as the best chick flick of all time (hmm... what movie WOULD get that title? *thinks*), but would I recommend it to people? Sure! And since it's new, people are more likely to see it. Because people are kooky and only see movies made in the last ten years or so. I SCOFF at you people!! :-P Anyway. Enough of that.

I just just JUST finished reading the third book in the series about three hours ago. I saw this movie two days ago. Where was I going with this? Oh, yes. This was a very, very ambitious move. Dramatizing Hitchhiker's is like dramatizing...well, I can't think what, because there hasn't really BEEN anything quite like Hitchhiker's. But this movie managed to keep the zaniness of it - and the zaniness in the exact spirit of the book, which means we're not treated to an hour and a half of bodily function jokes or sex jokes. We're treated to an hour and a half of completely random things happening for no particular reason. The bit about the whale and the petunias was one of my favorite things in the book and I was utterly delighted to find it in the movie. I have a feeling I'm about to go on and on about this in detail. This mood doesn't come upon me often, so here I go.

Marvin looked not at all how I expected but after a moment or two I found it WORKED. Marvelously. He was cast quite well, too. Alan Rickman always sounds quite depressed to me so it makes sense to cast him as the Paranoid Android. Arthur and Zaphod were both cast brilliantly, while Trillian reminded me uncannily of someone I know who I somewhat fear/dislike so I found it difficult to enjoy her character. Ford just . . . erm. Wasn't Ford. But there's nothing I can really do about that. And I so wish I knew who the black-haired chick was. She's certainly not in the first three books. Hmm. I think I'm done. On to my other reviews now.

What was up with everyone panning this movie the way they did? I happened to think it was pretty good! I didn't think so at the beginning - it took me a bit to warm up to the characters. (Especially because Josh Hartnett looks like Ashton Kutcher and sounds like Keanu Reeves, two stars of whose acting talents I am not yet convinced. Kind of prejudiced me against his character from the start.) But once it got going I thoroughly enjoyed this goofy little film. A few moments even had me laughing out loud. Good solid fluffy entertainment.

People kept telling me this was like the funniest movie ever. Fifteen minutes in, I was seriously doubting it. Nothing had yet popped up to make me smile, I was too busy being disgusted at all the characters' lack of... anything redeeming. However it DID perk up. Once the kid was on his own he became much less obnoxious, and since all the obnoxious characters were on a plane trip to France we saw very little of them, and all was well. I most definitely wouldn't classify it as one of the great comedies of the century or anything, but I suppose I'm glad I saw it this once. No, I do not intend to see the sequels. I didn't like it that much.

The box classified it as "Die Hard meets Panic Room". I haven't seen Die Hard yet, but I can say I liked it significantly less than Panic Room. HOWEVER. This by no means means (ooh, "means means") it was a bad movie. It was just less interesting than Panic Room. It still made for fun mindless action viewing. I also was able to amuse myself by predicting how things would work out. (It wasn't entirely formula, I assure you. I couldn't predict everything right. However I did predict the deaths of two of the villains, as well as ranking them in order of evilness.)

Yay for Oscar Wilde. Honestly. His plays are so delightfully witty. Or, at least this and Earnest are. I've never read any of his others. They might be horribly boring...but somehow I doubt it. While the storyline of this is much more serious and less outrageously funny than Earnest, it was still - really, the only word for it is "delightful" - viewing and one that I'll probably watch again in the future. Thank you, Sarah L., for recommending it to me. I'm eternally in your debt. Or something.

Most definitely the best thriller/suspense/mystery/whatever you want to call it, that I've seen so far this year. This is one brilliant movie. Although, I must warn you . . . It's not at first. At first I was watching and was all, "Erm....okayyy....this is typical slasher killer-on-the-loose movie." Except it totally isn't! I don't even know what else to say about it. It's definitely got some creepiness to it - I'm surprised my mom watched it - but is so definitely worth watching, as long as you make it all the way through.

I could see why people wouldn't like this, but I thought it was great. As I read the reviews for this, people compared it to Napoleon Dynamite in terms of "weirdness", I guess. But as Napoleon Dynamite was a weird comedy for the non-thinker, I Heart Huckabees is a weird comedy for the thinker. Of course, if you're like me and are just plain weird, then you should like them both. Huckabees remained light even in the midst of all its insane philosophical whatever-the-heck-that-was... and quotes like "You can't deal with my infinite nature, can you?" "That is so not true. Wait, what does that even mean?" keep it from looking like it's taking itself too seriously. Wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I would recommend it to... um. I'm not sure who. But I'll think about that.

This is another one of those rare cases where the remake of a movie is far funnier than the original. And, okay, the movies are based on a PLAY, not each other, but still... Where the 2001 version was lighthearted and cheery and had a sense of quirkiness to it, this one was played pretty much straight-faced and wasn't nearly as funny as the other. Too bad, considering it's such a fantastic story. Plus the girl playing Gwendolyn had a very very weird voice.

I think Monsters Inc still triumphs over this as my favorite Pixar film of all time, but this one came darn close. Despite being the longest animated film ever, it managed to hold my attention all the way through (and that isn't easy!). Although nothing made me actually laugh out loud, it did manage to keep a smile on my face, which is also a nice accomplishment. In a sense it really is more suited for adults than for kids... I don't know that my siblings would be as enchanted with it as they were with some of the other Pixar films. It's got such a slow build-up and not nearly as much action. However, one of my little brothers' former favorite movies was The Sound of Music, so you never know.

My father first saw this right after Memento, and therefore had some rather high expectations, and therefore didn't like it very much. This time around, though, not expecting it to be as brilliant as Memento was, he rather liked it. This was my first viewing of it and I have to say it was pretty darn good. It wasn't a typical thriller, it seemed to have some hidden depth. Nice. Although I also have to say it made me tired watching it. I'm an insomniac myself and it just felt a little TOO close to home at points there. Watching him toss and turn I kept going, "GAH! I KNOW THE FEELING!"

Hmm. You know, this really wasn't anything like the trailer (or the back of the box) claimed it was. I was definitely expecting something more along the lines of a psychological thriller, but it was primarily a relational drama with a slight mystery linked in along with it. Still, it was a well-done movie, even if it was misadvertised. I liked it fairly well. It was also the first movie I'd ever seen Nicole Kidman in. Heh.

I am not much for straight action movies. However, straight action movies with a psychopath involved get a little bit more interesting. So what did I think of this movie? Eh... it was just that little bit more interesting. I wouldn't ever watch it again. Plus I was a little icked out by the romantic sideplot. I mean the guy LOOKS old. *shakes head* Yech. Oh well. Action fans will probably enjoy this a heck of a lot more than I did.

This is such a strange movie. But, hey, it's the Coen brothers, what else could I expect? My parents had seen this and weren't impressed, but this second time around, knowing what to expect, both of them enjoyed it tons more. As for me, I found myself giggling all throughout the movie. It's got such an odd sense of humor that at times I wasn't sure whether to laugh or just go *blink*. I most DEFINITELY enjoyed it, and it's one of only a few movies to rank TWO spots on the "Funniest Movie Moments" list. Definitely worth seeing.

This was SUCH an odd movie. Like... REALLY odd. So unrelentingly bleak at the beginning and so patently absurd at the end. It was certainly an enjoyable watch, and certainly wasn't something I'd ever seen before...but I can't decide if I actually LIKED it or not. Hmm.

This movie was just about as good as it could possibly be. I don't think there could be a way to tell the story they're trying to tell and make the point they're trying to make without getting sappy and preachy in spots - which this did. That being said, it was done well. Denzel Washington's performance was great, and the story was interesting even through all the semisappiness. A very decent viewing.

I figured it was about time I actually sat down and watched this one. It is rather a modern classic, after all. For some reason I wasn't expecting this to actually be entertaining, but when I was done watching it, I thought, "Hmm, that wasn't at all bad." I wouldn't put it on my top 10 movies of all time list or anything, but it was definitely an enjoyable action flick, albeit a little long.

This was much more interesting than Along Came a Spider. That had a plot twist I could see coming miles away. This one was a little bit trickier to figure out. Erm, okay, well, not for me, because I cheated... and the movie cheated... and I don't wanna give away who it is in case someone who doesn't think like me watches it and missed the nasty little hint I picked up on... but I was able to figure out who it was about a third of the way through. AND that heroine kept doing rather stupid things, like running into places where the killer was. And she knew he was there. And she went anyway. *shakes head* Pah. Still, it was an intriguing view. I would recommend it.

Movies with little kids as key characters always have the potential to be really, really, really annoying. This wasn't. In fact it was pretty good. The kid felt real, the situation felt real, and the ending was neither too much of a downer nor too ridiculously contrived. It was an overall good movie with solid performances from everyone in it, even if it was a bit more of an emotional bonding-with-kids movie than I usually get into.

This was cute. Okay, not "cute", but... hmm. I'm trying to think of a way to phrase this. Okay, for lack of a better word, it was "fun". A silly fun. The kind where all the way through you're going, "Oh, that is goofy... but rather funny." And I do have to say they do a marvelous job poking fun at Ahnold all the way through. The kid in this is mildly annoying but ah well.

Gah. Okay, the whole point of the first one was that although Elle was fluffy, perky, emotional, and slightly shallow, she was NOT an idiot. So where did all her brain cells go here? She gest through this case by being cute and fluffy, not by doing anything actually intelligent. Definitely not funny anymore. Even the one moment when she "solves the case" is a rerun of the EXACT SAME GAG from the first one! Gah, gah, gah. So much for decent sequels.

NEW and updated review:

Just rewatched this after having read all the books. I'm still not sure what everyone's complaints were. It was still incredibly close to the book, despite having some of the events switched around. It still kept the tone of the book, and it only ended as happily as most of the books did - Baudelaires onto a new home, Count Olaf on the loose. Sure, the books were better, but this movie was quite a good adaptation of the series, even if there was a moment here or there that was a little off.

*Original Review*
This movie is NOT for everyone. I've never read any of the books, but now I'm inspired to. When I was describing it to my father, he said it sounded a lot like Roald Dahl. And that really *is* what it feels like, except where Roald Dahl always creeped me out a little bit, this has enough over-the-top zaniness that it doesn't feel that dark anymore. I thought the over-the-topness was great fun and not nearly as stupid as I thought it was going to be. Also, the main guy (what's his name? Klaus?) is the little kid from Stepmom. He was awfully cute as a little kid and looks vaguely familiar as a teen. Hmm. I'll have to think further about that.

Wow. This was one crazy movie. But I loved it. As far as buddy cop movies, this is definitely one of the better ones out there. Plus, how can one object all that much to Mel Gibson, eh? ;-) But, no, seriously, this movie kept me solidly entertained, not only in its comedy moments, but even in its action sequences, which is quite an accomplishment for an action flick. Nice.

I read the play a ways back and was simply fascinated by it, so I looked forward greatly to finally getting to see the movie. I wasn't disappointed. This is a marvelously interesting movie acted by a marvelously talented cast. I didn't come out of it "feeling good" or anything, but it was just interesting to watch all the way through. Definitely good movie.

Hmmm. Sports movies have never really been my thing, but this isn't quite a sports movie. It's mostly a prison movie. Which I generally don't like either. But it's not quite a prison movie either. It's a . . . sports prison comedy. Intriguing. It managed to be pretty good at that. Er, on second thought, it's not quite a comedy either, it's seriously dark in a few places. Bah. Why bother categorizing? Just watch it if you want. No, I don't plan on watching the remake.

I'm not very big on biographies, or even historical movies, really, so it's not such a surprise that I wasn't hugely thrilled by this. Apparently this movie was fairly accurate in its depiction of Luther, and I do appreciate that. I suppose that's the correct word for most of this, I appreciated it, but didn't particularly like it. I do recommend it in general for people interested in the history of this... but if you're not into history, don't bother.

Heh. Talk about a far-fetched plot! And yet in spite of being so over the top and silly, it was a really fun movie. Or maybe that's *why* it was so fun. Even had a few rather chilling (though not unexpected) moments. Sure, I'd recommend this to people - it was goofy but made for a nice popcorn fluff evening.

I got this movie primarily because I was making my way through the unseen Hitchcocks, but from the back of the box didn't think I'd be too interested in it. But I was definitely proven wrong. As I started watching this, I thought, "Whoa, this movie is actually quite intriguing," and found myself wrapped up in it. Psychological drama is more interesting to me than I thought. :-) That scene at the end was a wee bit freaky, too. Not like Psycho freaky or anything, but good solid Hitchcock tension. Applause for this all round!

About fifteen minutes into this movie, I turned to my mom and said, "It's Monk!" And, yes, that Nicolas Cage character felt an awful lot like Adrian Monk from the TV series "Monk"... except this guy's on the opposite side of the law. I came out of this unsure what genre it was, actually... At first it looks like a caper movie with an unlikely hero, then suddenly it's a relationship movie, and then it goes back to caper at the end. It's also got a dark-ish ending, although optimistically dark if that's possible. Okay, let me take that back. It's sad, but not that dark. However my mom liked it so obviously it couldn't have been all that sad. Erm, I was about to conclude this review except I realized I hadn't actually said what I *thought* about the movie. Heh... Okay, I'll say this. Having seen it, I don't have any strong feelings for it... but I do remember it being fairly enjoyable all the way through. Therefore... It must be a fun, but not utterly fantastic, movie.

I got this for the same reason I got the Annie TV movie - because of musical theater people. Between Matthew Broderick, Kristin Chenoweth, Debra Monk and Victor Garber I figured we couldn't go too far wrong. And it DIDN'T go too far wrong. While Matthew Broderick was NO Robert Preston (what was up with "Trouble"? Talk about seeming unconcerned), he was decent enough, and Kristin Chenoweth was heaps better than the ridiculously blah and silly-voiced (how culturally sophisticated is THAT analysis?) Shirley Jones. Victor Garber played a completely different character than the original movie's Mayor Shinn, and while it was good, it was still quite different. I think my mom hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that the original movie made all the characters caricatures, while this movie tried much harder to make them into real people. What happened was . . . well, it was a pleasant viewing experience, just a completely different one than I was expecting. (Last minute edit: Another thing I noticed... this remake, at least for the first half of the movie, gave me that odd sensation of just rushing from song to song with as little in-between time as possible. Not that I minded much, the songs are fantastic, but just wanted to point that out.)

This is the third movie by the team of people who did Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show (the first I saw and loved, the second I haven't seen). This was not nearly as funny or as interesting as Guffman, although it had its good moments. This felt more...subdued, I suppose. While the first was "typical" people acting crazy, this was famous people (who would have license to act crazy anyway) acting just a little odd. Not a worthless movie, by any means, just not as great as it could have been.

Actually, I rented this because I was under the impression it was the one with the scene where all these people are crowded into one room. I was mistaken. Actually this is the least interesting of the four Marx Brothers movies I've seen thus far. Although it had more Marx Brothers antics and less plot, the antics themselves weren't as marvelous as they have been in other movies. Still, you can't go too far wrong with ANY Marx Brothers movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed the random dance/guitar solo and Harpo's apparently removable limbs.

My father proclaimed this to be one of the most depressing movies he'd ever seen. I'm not sure I'd go to quite that extent, but I will say it didn't impress me. It was all so cheesy and silly and growing-up-in-the-south-ish even though it wasn't technically a growing-up-in-the-south movie. And you all know I don't like those. That whole signing-the-song-to-the-kid bit? Puh-leeze. My mom enjoyed it... but she likes sentimental mush a WHOLE lot more than me So if you like sentimental mush... check this movie out. It's a bit like Dead Poets Society except much mushier.

Anna recommended this to me and, while she is much more of a Robin Williams fan than I am, I have to admit this was pretty entertaining! (As well as being the second guy-dressing-up-as-girl movie I'd seen in that week, the other being Some Like It Hot. This movie had long stretches of not-so-interesting bits, suddenly interspersed by comedic brilliance that had me having to pause the movie so I could laugh. Definitely worth watching.

Heh. Good ol' horror movies. I will say this was gobs scarier than, say, Frankenstein, which just made me laugh a lot. This one actually had several good shots (that opening sequence actually freaked me out a bit) and the plot in general, while confusing in places, wasn't bad at all for a 1930's horror movie. Quite a fun addition to my old horror movies I've seen collection.

This is definitely one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. I can't even begin to understand how so MANY people like it. I did, but I don't understand why everyone else does. You'd think there would be more people saying, "This is the stupidest movie I've ever seen." It was far funnier the second time through, actually, watching other people watch it. Gradually their expressions went from, "Er... what just happened?" to "Hey, that was pretty funny!" I definitely got way into it... I only wish I'd recorded all the quotes that made me laugh. But so many of them... you had to be there. They just aren't funny sans that deadpan delivery.

Everyone horribly panned this movie. My question is... why? Granted, it isn't the most intelligent thriller. Granted, you have to be able to suspend disbelief. Granted, the lines are cheesy. But is that all? One of the reviews I read of this movie summed it up quite nicely, saying something along the lines of: "It may be dumb, but it's still pure fun." I, for one, enjoyed watching them run along from clue to clue. I don't know that I'd watch it again any time soon - it DOES run a little long - but hey, it was fully worth the $2.50 I paid to see it.

These stories disgust me. I wrote a long diatribe on the depressing stories where the hot guys/girls get the girl/guy and the non-perfect ones die. Other than that... this movie dragged on pretty darn long. I'm not ready to watch this again any time soon. But it was fine for one short viewing. I enjoy seeing my two musical theater people in their prospective roles.

After a huge parade of Marx Brothers movies, I got this reluctantly, wondering, "Will these movie antics now be really old?" The answer, to quote John Adams of 1776: "NEVER! NEVER!" This is probably my second favorite, after Animal Crackers. Two of the most utterly classic and utterly hilarious scenes in movie history come from here - the scene where everyone's packed into Groucho's barely-big-enough-for-him-and-his-trunk room, and the scene where all the furniture between two rooms is switched around for no apparent reason. Come on. How can you not love that? I laughed long and hard all the way through this movie. May these films "be a beacon of hope to all who tread these grassy hills" (erm... this time quoting Alfred from Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed).

We sat down to watch it, me and my family. After 45 minutes, I found myself still not impressed. This was supposed to be a comedy? It wasn't too funny thus far... And then, suddenly, things began to pick up. There was a sudden occurrence that made me start laughing... and it went from there. After those first 45 minutes, it got quite hilarious and very interesting. Not to mention the very, very satisfying ending. I was wondering how in the world this would all work out... but it did! Rather nice.

I must say I was not overly impressed with this movie. The book wasn't impressive until the very end and that beautiful twist. Here, the twist was revealed about twenty minutes in, the movie continued boring and mediocre, and then a needlessly melodramatic ending ruined it all. This movie made me sad for the same reason the Princess Diaries movie did - because it could (and should) have been so much better.

Coen brothers movies pretty much always rub me the right way. Or, at least the comedies do. I loved both Intolerable Cruelty and The Hudsucker Proxy, and now I can add this to my list. I'm not sure I loved it as much as many of my friends did, but I did enjoy it and would probably be willing to sit down and watch it again someday. However... for those of you who were wondering... yes, the soundtrack did rather drive me nuts. Bluegrass just isn't my style ;-)

Ocean's 11 was one of the slickest heist movies I've ever seen. It's so difficult to come up with anything original when one is doing a heist movie. Everything's been done! So Ocean's 11 people apparently decided, "Okay, okay, we'll do a typical heist movie then.... but we'll do it with oodles of style." And it worked. Ocean's 12 is, pretty much, exactly the same as Ocean's 11. Maybe slightly less slick and a bit more comedic - the section toward the end with Tess must have been great fun for Julie Roberts to poke a little bit of fun at herself - but overall, more of the same. Except "the same" is pretty high quality stuff. Very satisfying sequel.

Oh, goodness, this was fun! I just finished rereading the play and just loved Neil Simon's snappy back-and-forth dialogue and zany characters. The movie followed the play very closely - some of the scenes were taken word-for-word. All the characters were portrayed so perfectly, even the less "vital" characters of the friends in the poker game. Lots of genuine laugh-out-loud moments in this. I can't wait until I get to see it on stage now!

Hmm. An intriguing movie. It definitely held my interest for the entire two hours (not an easy task with me *grin*). I also enjoyed seeing Jack Nicholson for the first time in a serious role (i.e. not Batman). I think this is one of those movies I'm going to have to sit on and digest a bit longer before I decide what I really thought of it. I'm not sure about the ending, it kind of came as a shock to me, although I suppose I should have expected it. Hmm. I'll just have to stew on this some more until I come to some kind of a decision about it, and then maybe I'll come back here and update this review. Or maybe not. :-)

I had really mixed feelings about this when I finished it. My dad had seen it when it first came out, and liked it. I saw it and thought it was horribly dark. It just left me feeling very bleak at the end. After a lot of discussion with my dad trying to figure out why this movie seemed so dark to me and a movie like The Butterfly Effect didn't, I think I decided that this is what happened. I went into this movie fully expecting a creepy stalker movie and... er... it didn't quite happen. Nothing really felt resolved for me by the end. It built me up to a giant exciting all-out fight with the bad guy, or at least chase scene, and... everything kind of fell flat. So... no, I don't think I liked it. But if anyone else wants to know if they'd like it... I have no idea. Heh.

Aside from having awesome music (*grin* okay, so I'm slightly addicted to Dave Grusin's movie music) it was just an all-around good movie. The acting in this is pretty phenomenal - not even the kid is annoying. Well, not any more annoying than he's supposed to be at first. I also came about THIS CLOSE to crying at the end of this one. This definitely deserves to be the classic it is.

This is such a great movie! This was my second viewing of it but I didn't remember it at all. Then it going going... This is a screwball comedy, but without any panicky characters. It has to be one of the zaniest movies I've ever seen that is played completely straight. The two leading actors were both fabulous in their roles. I wish I had had my notebook while watching so I could have recorded all the awesome quotes. If you ever get a chance to see this movie, do!

Plague movies. SCARY STUFF! I'm already creeped out a bit by germs, but after viewing this, I told Mom, "Okay, that officially rendered me germophobic." The thought of this plague spreading this fast... ick. However... it was a really good movie, aside from me being weird and goofy about it. :-) I haven't seen enough plague movies to be able to compare this to them. For all I know it's horribly cliche. But Dustin Hoffman is always pretty good, and what can I say? I liked it.

All in all, this was a pretty interesting movie... There have been movies before where people have been trying to clear their names and solve a crime at the same time, but this was the one with the looniest switches back and forth. I will say I definitely saw the end coming, but, hey, it was fun watching it all along the way. The little touches of humor along the way were nice, too.

Wow. Now this was a problematic movie. There have been movies along this formula before (Kindergarten Cop is the first that comes to mind) and this movie, if it had done the formula well, could have been quite fun. Instead, it felt...sloppy. It felt like someone said, "Hey, I wrote this screenplay in an hour and a half yesterday, do you think we could make it into a movie?" It felt sloppily *written*, not necessarily a problem with the acting or directing. The movie left no room for character development but then expected you to know the characters by the end of the movie... so there were moments that were probably significant but didn't quite make sense. The dialogue felt choppy. Things were done with no logical explanation. And honestly... I think I've seen about enough movies where men were disgusted/horrified/etc. at changing a baby's diaper. The only time I was ever really amused by that was in that one episode of Monk. *That* was funny. But other than that... nah. And, in closing, this movie was overall a waste of my time. I vow never to see it again.

Mmm. A good, solid thriller, although not particularly scary. Really, it was almost more of an action flick, in that it focused on the actual action of fighting the bad guys instead of playing up the claustrophobia angle like I thought they were going to. The characters were intelligent (which is always pretty refreshing) and it made for a really fun evening viewing. My dad compared it to Wait Until Dark, and I think he's right, it's got sort of the same overall feel. Much applause.

Heh... well... okay. I rented this. I've read the original book and play. I've seen the Disney movie. I've seen the Mary Martin film version. I LOVE the Peter Pan story and the character of Peter Pan itself. And this movie was doing fabulous up until about the last twenty minutes. Then it took the story, de-Peter-Pan-icized it and totally de-Peter-Pan-ed the character itself, making me go, "UH!? WHAT?! WHAT JUST HAPPENED???" Grr. However, I did really like whoever played Peter Pan. He did a great job of capturing the innocent arrogance of the character. 'Tisn't his fault he had such a horrid twist at the end. *makes face*

I saw this once when I was seven, and then my parents never let me see it again during my childhood. :-) Last week my sister and I watched it (me for the first time in eleven years), and... I can see why. Not only is it full of rather (although cartoonishly) violent songs, but it's STUPID. This is NOT one of Disney's live action treasures. They've done some good live action movies, but this certainly doesn't belong in that category.

Apparently the idea for his film was pitched to Hitchcock back during his movie-making era. He liked it, but they couldn't figure how to do it, so the idea was pushed aside for awhile. I'm not too surprised. It sounds like a movie Hitchcock would have made. And while Joel Schumacher is NO Alfred Hitchcock, he does do a pretty great job of turning this movie into a good thriller. Or, well, if not a *thriller*, at least a fascinating movie. Colin Farrell's movie thus far had not impressed me - The Recruit was fun but not stellar, Minority Report left him with a pretty blah role, and Hart's War I barely remember other than that the dude was half-frozen all the time. But that changed in this movie. He manages to pull off what is almost a one-man show. Yeah, Kiefer Sutherland is fantastic as the creepy voice... but you never SEE him, and a creepy voice isn't nearly as creepy if the person he's talking to isn't convincingly scared by it. Kudos to both these actors for their amazing performances. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

This movie has been called the worst movie ever made. I have to say....... while it may not be the worst ever made, *I* certainly have never seen one worse. Erm. Well, "worse" in a good bad movie sense. Urgh. I'm getting mixed up. Let me try this again. This is one of the most poorly-made movies I have EVER seen, and gave some awesome bad movie laughs. I mean... goodness. How can one accurately describe that image of three people simultaneously leaning out of a car to point at a UFO in the sky? Or the tombstones in the cemetary that wobble as people walk by them? Or the funeral service held inside a crypt, which, by the way, looks like it could only hold about three people, but five or six are seen walking out of it? The dialogue... OHHH the dialogue!! This one doesn't HAVE to be seen with a bunch of loud movie mockers. This one can be laughed at crazily all by yourself.

Holy chicken. Now this is confusing. My dad watched it three times and still didn't understand the whole thing. This is a crazy science math mindbending indie film which definitely left you going at the end, "Um... okay....?" (A lot of reviewers compared it to Memento, which I can see. Erm... I can see why they'd compare it to Memento, I'm just saying I can literally see Memento. Although both are true.) It wasn't surreal or anything, it definitely had some sort of plot going, but the twists came so fast that it left you unsure of what *exactly* was happening. I had a general idea at the end but wasn't completely positive, so my family and I all discussed it trying to come to a conclusion on what we had just seen. Heh. Definitely a fun one to watch, but probably only worth it if you're willing to sit there trying to figure it out afterwards. Otherwise... eh... probably isn't for you.

I figured it was about time I sat down and watched this one, since I faithfully watched most of the other Hitchcocks I could get my hands on. I'm not sure why I never watched it before this, considering I liked this very much. Even if his movies weren't scary, he always managed to tell a good story and make it an intriguing view. However . . . yeah, this one did freak me out a little bit. That last scene in the courthouse (not the explaining, but afterwards) made me go, "Eeeeh! Creeeepy!" And I must say if you're one of the few people on the planet who don't know the ending for this . . . GO WATCH IT! :-D Er, wait. Even if you DO know the ending but haven't seen it, go watch it. This is one darn good movie.

Wow. This movie was very, very impressive. Even my father liked this movie, and this is normally the kind of movie he definitely would NOT like. Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman are both fantastic in their perspective roles. It's a movie that's got just the right mix of sadness and . . . well, for lack of a better word, I'll call it "lightheartedness". Overall it was a very touching movie. Definitely one of the best movies I've seen this year. (Although I've said that about, I think, four other movies already. I'd better start reserving that statement, otherwise I'll get to the end of the year and have WAY too many movies on my "Best of the Year" list.)

I honestly had no clue what was coming here. All I knew was Tom Hanks was in it and it was dark and had something about revenge in there, which doesn't give you a WHOLE lot to go on. I must say I was quite impressed with it, though. I'm not sure it's the kind of movie I could say I "liked", but I was definitely impressed with it. The scene where . . . well, I shan't give away any spoilers, just in case. The "I'm glad it's you" scene has to be one of the most amazingly directed/filmed scenes ever. I was just completely blown away by it, which does NOT happen very often in movies, I must say. Fantastic job on that. An all-around well-done movie. Kudos.

I rented this from the library because I knew Sarah L. would murder me if she knew I had the opportunity to see it and didn't. Sooooo I watched it. It took me three sittings to get through it. And no, I am not any more impressed with it than I was before. And I honestly went in hoping for something good and trying not to let my previous prejudices for the show and its star get in the way... but no. I still can't see what Sarah SEES in either the show or her precious HJ. Neither of them are anything special. The first, in fact, is pretty awful. If you're a fan of the show or of Hugh Jackman, you'll enjoy this. Otherwise, don't bother.

I found five Hitchcock movies I haven't seen at my local video rental store so now I intend to go through and see them all. This is the first. It felt very much like Dial M For Murder in its tone. Actually, it nearly WAS Dial M For Murder, except the murder was committed for a less . . . practical reason, and there were two villains to be ousted instead of one. And actually it was nearly as good as Dial M For Murder, too. All the characters in it were very interesting to watch, although a few points made me actually quite sad at the fact and finality of the death and what it would mean to those he was close to ... I think I lost my verb. Oh, no, I didn't. Anyway. Twas a good movie.

This is pretty much the definitive summer popcorn flick. Fun action, decent plot (but not one that requires you to think at all), lots of good-natured wisecracking, even a heroine who gets stripped down to just a low-cut tank top by the end. *roll of eyes* But, really, it was quite a lot of fun - much more than I thought it was going to be from the trailers and plotline. Quite a nifty movie for an action flick.

Hmm. This movie couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It was sort of a combination of: a relationship movie, a racial movie, a dance movie, an angst-teen's-parent-dies-and-the-teen-is-traumatized movie, a girl-and-her-father movie, or a girl-fights-off-chick-who-wants-girl's-guy movie. HOWEVER! Despite all this disjointedness, it certainly made for a tolerable viewing. Lots of fun dance sequences. Nothing spectacular, but not painful either.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I watched this one day after watching Luther, another film about a man instrumental to the Christian faith. Well, maybe C. S. Lewis isn't exactly INSTRUMENTAL to the Christian faith, but I know his books were very much a help to my dad's faith, as well as many, many other Christians. However, this movie succeeded where Luther failed. True, this was more of a relational movie, not so much a "quest-for-Christ" movie. But in this, the characters felt warmer, the people felt realer... Everything just FELT good. Even the sad ending felt good. The scene where Lewis and Douglas sit in the attic sobbing felt like one of the most real portrayals of pain that I've seen in a long time. This movie also has a fantastic sense of humor to it (Luther doesn't). In many ways it felt to me like Finding Neverland, one of my favorites of the year - a list, by the way, which this movie will definitely be added to.

This was one of a string of three or four Hitchcocks in a row that I saw, and it was definitely the least interesting of the bunch. I'd heard a radio version of it and thought it was kind of fun, but watching the movie . . . I don't know, something didn't sit right with me. The dialogue felt stilted, the characters felt unrealistic, the plot felt silly . . . Apparently this was one of Hitchcock's personal favorites, but I have no idea why. It's probably the least interesting Hitchcock movie I have EVER seen.

Yesss! This was a very satisfying movie to watch. I had already decided that Tom Stoppard's dialogue was brilliant, having read his plays "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and "The Real Inspector Hound". So when I found this on CleanFilms, I snatched it up so I could watch it. Sarah L. complains it's too cliched, and, okay, it is a bit. I mean, you've got the Feminist Girl, the Evil Guy She's Doomed To Be Married Off To, the Person Everyone Respects, the Poet Who Is Doomed To Be Rejected... but even with all these cliches it was still a heck of a lot of fun to WATCH. Seeing the events at the end unfold just left me going, "Ah! Yes! That was good."

I think I expected this to be a lot better than it was. Oh well. It was still fun. A sweet movie with lots of dancing... and dancing is cool! Plus plus PLUS it has "Moon River" in it! W00t w00t! ...Um... what else to say about this movie? Not much, really. Sweet-but-non-spectacular.

After hearing how badly panned this movie was, I said, "What the heck, I'll watch it anyway and prepare to be disappointed!" Well... since I'd prepared to be disappointed, I was actually pleasantly surprised at how decent the movie was. Of course it wasn't as good as "the Disney fish movie" but it was fairly entertaining, even funny at some points. Pah on the sappy way they wrapped it up, though. Come on, there has to be SOME villain in there... oh, wait. Lola can be the villain. There.

This is probably one of my favorite movies that I've seen so far this year. (Okay, it's only April, but still!) And the weirdest part is I can't even pinpoint why I liked it so much. It moved slowly, had gobs of foul language (we read half the movie off the bottom of the TV screen), no really *funny* moments... So I'm not sure exactly what hit home about it for me. It wouldn't be a movie I'd buy or even rent very often... but when I finished seeing it I sat back and thought to myself, "Now THERE was a good movie." Plus it has probably one of the saddest moments I've seen on screen in awhile. *sniffle*

This was one of the least stellar movies I've ever seen. And no, that doesn't mean it was all BAD. Just totally un-stellar in any way whatsoever. The soundtrack made me giggle a lot, too - so way 80's. I wasn't too impressed by any of the actors or the robot, but there were enough almost-funny moments to keep me watching.

Hmm. I really wasn't that interested in this movie, initially, but I figured since it was one of the big Academy Award nominees this past year, I should probably look into it. It turned out to be not nearly as uninteresting as I thought it was going to be. It meandered all over the place and didn't ever really seem to resolve anything, but it was somehow interesting to watch and satisfying at the end. That's pretty impressive, to have an unresolved meandering story that's still interesting and satisfying. (Note how I took up more room in this review by just like repeating my entire last sentence.) I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to because I'm not sure who would enjoy it, but if you're into sort of meandering dramas, you'll probably really like this.

This is about the chickiest teen chick flick ever created. I can't believe my brother sat through the whole thing. That being said though, it was possibly the most well-done teen chick flick ever created. Most teen chick flicks have a tendency to make it all chery and happy, and this wasn't. This was far more realistic than nearly anything else. Now the books are a different story, I did NOT think those were the best teen chick books out there, but that's simply because many teen chick books do NOT have a tendency to make things sappy, and so there are more options. So - liked the movie, disliked the books. One of the few times it's gone that way for me.

The first thing I've ever seen Angelina Jolie or Jude Law in, and wasn't that impressed. The cinematography, which was what most people complained about, was what I complained about the least. I thought it was very fitting for the B-movie it was. This really was one of those Hollywood B-movies of the '50's where evil scientists decided to end humanity on their own and the World War II pilots get rid of 'em. I was hoping this movie would be fun and crazy, but it was just... long and... not that crazy. Did have some great quotes, though, which I managed to copy down.

Well . . . no way should this have become the AFI's #1 comedy. Many other movies are much, much funnier. (Arsenic and Old Lace and A Night At the Opera, just to name two.) However this definitely had its moments and was an overall enjoyable view. And now I've officially seen it and can cross it off my list of... whatever lists I had it on.

I'm not really into anime, but I got this movie because it got rave reviews. So I'd have to say... I'm still not into anime. But this movie in itself isn't too bad. It's not really a kids' movie, I sent my li'l brother out of the room because bits of it were creeping ME out, not to mention some slightly icky images... like the one dude vomiting all the black sludge up... ew. But it was a cute story. Oh, erm... one other thing, though. Whoever played Chihiro sounded way too much like my next door neighbor Alex when she yelled - loud and annoying.

Teehee. I went out and rented a Star Trek movie. How sad. Actually, although I'm not a Trekkie of any kind, I do like these from time to time. (And all that nearly rhymes. Erm.... thrice-ish.) This was pretty much as solidly entertaining as an episode of the old Star Trek shows - which means yeah, pretty entertaining. Even had a moment at the end that was nearly deep and meaningful... except it's completely blown in the next movie. Oops. And Mum spent the entire first half of the movie (that is, all the time she was awake) making fun of the weird costuming choices. For example, when McCoy goes to visit Kirk and give him his birthday glasses, he (McCoy that is) appears to be wearing tights and a leotard. Later on, Kirk unbuttons one of the buttons on his jacket so a small square of it falls open, revealing a white shirt underneath. However this now looks like he's got a bib fastened around his neck - as in one of those things you put on babies to ensure that when they spill their food it doesn't spoil their nice new clothes. He proceeds to wear it like this for about half the movie. Sheesh. How can you take people seriously when they're wearing baby bibs, leotards, and tights?!

Teehee. Star Trek movies are such fluff, but they're such fun fluff. This one was pure entertainment, with the same old comfortable characters that so many people have come to know and love, a plot that's bizarre but mostly just a fun excuse to play with time travel and modern day people having trouble in the past and all that. I thoroughly enjoyed my viewing of this - far more than The Wrath of Khan, actually, maybe because this was far less serious. Which seems to imply I don't like serious movies, which makes me giggle because it's totally untrue. But anyway. Yes, this was a fun one. Go watch and enjoy.

These movies are always so silly and fun. However, that being said, this is probably the least interesting of the five I've seen. It seemed to have lost a lot of the fun and joy of the series and dissolved into straight action whatsit. It's probably a good thing this was the end of this movie series, they definitely degenerated (and I've only seen "the good ones"). Still not really BAD, just poor compared to some of the others.

Gah. Chick flicks. The melodramatic weepiness of movie chicks. Okay, that's probably realistic, seeing how weepy we chicks are in real life. But I've never been fond of these Southern chick flicks... "the bond between these women" and "see how they struggle through hardships". *shrug* I suppose I'm glad I watched this so I can say I've seen it. And it was an awfully good group of actresses. It was just so far from being my type of movie.

Okay, while I came nowhere near the gut-wrenching sob noises my mom made during this movie, it was pretty good. Many good moments... and that little kid was absolutely adorable. He reminds me of someone, I just can't put my finger on who. This movie was so generally good without being at all great that it's difficult to think of anything else to say about it, so I'll try to hammer out my thoughts on this later.

Tennessee Williams wrote a bunch of plays that are considered true classics of American drama, and maybe they are, but most of them just leave me going, "Uh?" I watched this movie in hopes that I'd like the movie more than the play, and although I must say it was very well done, I could never really get involved in the story. It seems to meander all over the place. Just when I think it's about one thing, it goes, "Oops, sorry, nope, it's about THIS!" and sends me off toward a different sideplot. Maybe that's what makes it good. I don't know. All I know is that it made ME confused -- so confused that I really felt very indifferent at the end of the movie, despite the very good acting by the entire cast. Probably someone else would get an entirely different feeling about this.

Hmm. I seldom dislike Cary Grant or his movies, but something about this movie just didn't sit right with me. I kept expecting it to be better than it was, and then it... wasn't. And the Jean Arthur character irritated me immensely, with all sorts of bizarre quirks and lines that just didn't make much sense. I guess to sum it up, the movie felt sloppy. It was a good idea for what could have been an incredibly engaging film but the dialogue was shoddy and the characters poorly slapped-together. Too bad.

My dad and I both saw the trailers for this. I didn't want to see it, my dad did. When my dad rented it, I was hesitant, but watched it anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. There were quite a few moments that made me smile, and very few moments that made me cringe. The stars were good - funny without being over the top. Overall, not a bad movie. Not a great one by any stretch of the imagination, but a LOT better than I expected it to be.

I have to admit I came at this with very low expectations, having heard many people say it was hardly fantastic, except it did seem to be one of the teenybopper's favorite shows . . . and while it was silly and melodramatic and cheesy and hardly something I'd consider a favorite, it did make me smile a few times. The songs are certainly nothing spectacular - mediocre tunes and lyrics that seem to be trying a bit too hard to be Cole Porter's (also, most of the songs I knew from the show weren't even IN the movie). Overall an okay viewing for an evening of not-thinking.

As far as thrillers go... not a bad one. I was still a bit confused at the end about what's going on, but so what else is new? I'm always confused. I was kept consistently interested all the way through, and-- hey! Another plus! The music's by Dave Grusin, who I have recently come to recognize as a marvelous musical genius who wrote some wonderfully awesome stuff.

I've always been intrigued by mental disorders and stories about them - obsessive compulsive disorder, multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, paranoia . . . So it's no surprise that I enjoyed this movie. It was simply fascinating. I found myself caught up in the story without even meaning to be. Joanne Woodward did a superb job in this role. That would have been a TOUGH one to pull off. Yet she managed to even LOOK different with each one of the personalities. Tons of kudos to her for this... and to everyone who decided this movie was a good idea.

I thought this was a straightforward war movie, but it was really hardly that. It was about one third war movie, one third heist movie, one third . . . something else I can't quite pinpoint. The lighting and filming of it was (were?) quite fascinating, actually, although it hurt my eyes in some places. This is one of those movies that honestly I'm not sure exactly what I thought about it. I have very few thoughts on it that I can put into words. I neither liked nor disliked it. So I'm going to abandon this review, rewatch it in a few years, and see if I can give this another shot then.

Who in their right mind sat down and said, "Okay, let's remake Strangers on a Train, but let's make it a comedy this time"? And yet, surprisingly, it sort of works. It's still semimorbid in spots but manages to be fairly amusing. Not perfect by any means, but it made for rather an enjoyable movie. One moment in particular made both me and my dad crack up laughing. ("You lied to me!") This isn't an amazing movie, but it's certainly a fun one to sit down and watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon or whatever.

Yikes, this was sloppy. Plot points were suddenly explained away, others suddenly disappeared. From the books I've read by Michael Crichton, I can't imagine that the original book was nearly this disconnected and disjointed. My guess is that in trimming it down and movie-izing it they lost a lot of the actual science and made it a bit more confusing. Aside from the sloppiness, it wasn't a BAD movie. My siblings and I just found way too many things to make fun of in it. Which probably isn't a good sign.

Except for the ending, which I hardly find just, this was a fairly decent movie - well-acted, melodramatic in all the right ways. I will say I groaned through most of the summation speech, thinking, "What kind of thing is that to do to a jury?" but then there was that final statement that I found very powerful. It honestly made it worth all the previous sap. This movie is also really, really long. But still . . . pretty good.

This movie turned out to be far more interesting and intelligent than I was predicting it would be. Even a few twists instead of just mindless action and gore. But, boy, am I glad I saw this on CleanFilms. That looked lik ean awfully large amount of gruesome deaths. And that main mutant creature was pretty darn disgusting. I don't think I could recommend it to anyone outside of CleanFilms because of all that gore that apparently got cut out. The movie may be decent but it's not worth wading through gobs of uck for.

M. Night Shyamalan is a fascinating writer and director. I've enjoyed all three of his movies that I've seen. (No, that actually does not include The Sixth Sense.) I heard someone compare him to Alfred Hitchcock and I find that I have the same reaction to his movies that I do to Hitchcock's. Both known as directors of "scary" movies, I've found that even the movies that aren't particularly scary are still INTERESTING. In this case, the movie wasn't a thriller at all, but just a solidly interesting movie about the characters and the situations and the possibilities. I wouldn't class this as being as good as The Village, but I *might* have liked it better than Signs - I'd have to see Signs again to remember.

Wow. Although I have to confess that the style of this movie is nowhere near mine (neither western stories nor revenge stories interest me) this was incredibly well done. I found myself interested in it despite myself, and at the very end found myself taken aback by how goshdarn SAD it was, but sad in a different way than I'd ever have expected. The acting was good, the writing was good . . . basically everything in this movie was done very well. I can see why this was critically acclaimed. Although I don't know that I'd ever watch it again - it's not the kind of movie you ENJOY - I'm glad I saw it once.

I watched this late at night when I was incredibly tired, and therefore I had a little bit of trouble following it. I struggled to keep up mentally as I watched it and was not that impressed with it it until the very last minute, when suddenly I sat up and went, "WHOA! I GET IT! I LIKE IT!" And that last minute made the whole movie worth watching. Maybe if I watched it again I'd enjoy it better, but like I said, the ending made it pretty darn cool.

This movie was grossly misunderstood and therefore grossly underrated. People kept expecting it to be another horror movie like The Sixth Sense, or even a partial horror movie like Signs. But that wasn't what it was at all. It wasn't intended to be. It was a view into the lives of these people, much more than a horror story about "things in the woods". I thought it was a very good movie that people didn't like because it didn't meet their expectations. It kept me intrigued all the way through and is easily one of the best movies I've seen this year.

I actually saw this like a month ago and for some reason forgot to actually write up the review. How brilliant is THAT? Anyway. This movie was completely unlike anything I've ever seen. The animation was apparently done by filming the actual scenes and the animating over them. Backgrounds shift and rock, people's movements are very fluid and odd and yet somehow very lifelike. There are moments when it doesn't look like pictures anymore. But not only was the animation unique, but the story itself. It was basically a long series of philosophical discussions with a little bit of plot intertwined. Actually, while the philosophy was intriguing, the plot bits creeped me out beyond belief. There are very few people I can think of who would actually enjoy this movie, aside from . . . well, my dad. Heh. I'm not even sure *I* enjoyed it. It didn't feel like a movie. It certainly didn't feel like entertainment. I'm not sure WHAT it was, but I'm sure it was . . . something.

A re-viewing (not to be confused with "reviewing") of this movie revealed it to be less interesting this time around... Ally Sheedy (that is her name, right?) really, really gets on my nerves. However it was still fun to watch. I knew everything that was going on, but, surprisingly enough, it was still interesting watching it. Isn't anywhere near the awesome movie I thought it was when I first saw it, though.

My mom got this movie, proclaiming it to be one of the funniest movies she's ever seen. The back of the box honestly didn't intrigue me, but as I started watching I discovered that this was actually quite an amusing film. The characters are fun, the dark streak in the comedy toward the end was pretty marvelous, the dialogue is witty and interesting to listen to - it's just an all-around good movie. If you ever want some light entertainment, check this out!

Mmmm... creepy. But then I always find movies like this a little creepy. And even if it WASN'T creepy, it was still a fascinating movie. Very Norma Desmond. Mom said that Bette Davis was nominated for an Oscar for this role. She deserved it, too. This must have been an incredibly tough role to pull off, but she did it!

Another in a series of fluffy comedies I watched this week that turned out to be a lot better than I expected them to. This was quite a funny movie, without nearly as much stupidity as I expected from it. As far as romantic comedies go, this one stays in the highish middle of the list. And that's about as coherent as I'm going to get right now.

Oh, man. This was gobs of fun. Every member of the cast was hysterical and it was just overall a ton of fun. I found myself reacting in the same way I reacted to Grosse Pointe Blank - alternatively laughing and gaping at the macabre humor. Great stuff.

Mindless action flicks are so not my thing, but at least this one had an intelligent hero and not too annoying a rest-of-the-cast, nor too stupid a plot. My brother and dad (the action movie watchers) loved it. It was fluffy but fun if you like that sort of thing. I could have done without it but I haven't wasted much of my life in watching it.

Dang. This movie was a BLAST. Why have more people not heard of it? Dad compared it at first to Monk, which I can see, although this guy has more confidence and less neatness (heh... definitely less neatness). They're both about brilliant-but-slightly-crazy private detectives and their sidekicks who put up with a lot of scary stuff. ("You made me fly out here so you could call me to tell me to fly back there and get the information for you?!") This movie was definitely great fun to watch, both Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman were great in their roles, and... what else can I say? This movie ruled. Probably one of my favorite movies I saw this year.

In the morning, I found out Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake. In the evening, I went to the video store and found the original, which I'd never even heard of before. Up until the very end of the movie, I was liking it significantly better than the remade version, but then . . . it ended and there was no big twist. Darn it, I liked the twist! It worked so well! So the movie lost coolness points for that. However, the rest of the time it was actually much funnier. (For example, the entire segment with Ruprecht was much funnier and much less . . . well, disgusting than the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels version.) Kudos the movie in general for being a blast to watch . . . I only wish that twist was still there. Ah, well.

This was exactly the mood I was in the night I watched it. A good ol' cheesy, contrived, let's-burst-into-song-and-dance-while-we're-walking-down-the-street, walk-off-into-the-sunset-at-the-end 1950's movie musical. And that's exactly what it was and therefore it was very satisfying. As far as said GOCCL-B-I-S-A-D-W-W-W-D-T-SW-O-I-T-S-A-T-E-1MMs go (gah, that was ridiculous) it wasn't nearly as good as Singin' in the Rain, but it was a heck of a lot better than, say, There's No Business Like Show Business. Most of the songs were enjoyable, while not memorable, and there were actually quite a few dance scenes that made us go, "Whoa. That would be....rather hard." Pretty decent entertainment.

People are lauding this as like the best Veggie movie ever. I have to say, I still liked King George and A Snoodle's Tale better. This was quite a fun Indiana Jones spoof, but it didn't ever really completely gel with me. The Silly Song With Larry, although amusing, wasn't nearly as ruling as some of the ones in the past, and the opening short with Junior actually bored me somewhat. (*gasp* WHAT?! A Veggie video boring? THIS CANNOT BE!) I still would probably recommend this because the Minnesota Cuke part IS great fun (if you get the DVD, make sure and watch the veggie commentary, it rox0rs). 1

My siblings and I had never seen a Martin and Lewis flick. We'd seen Martin and Lewis separately, in other films, but never together. So I figured it was about time we saw one. (It was coincidence that we ended up with this - their first.) With most of the comedy teams of the old movies (well, okay, and the comedy teams of the new movies too) you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. This is probably the case with these too... but hey, it was pretty good entertainment while you were watching! It did have a moment or two that made me laugh out loud, and those alone made the movie worth seeing.

This movie was a lot of fun for being a war movie. It had a great setup, great characters (the one Italian guy was hysterical), and even a happy ending. And yet with all that I can't actually remember that much about it. But I do seem to remember it was quite good. And I guess I'm going to have to leave it at that.

This might be one of my favorite VeggieTales movies to date. Wait. Scratch that. This IS one of my favorites. Whether it surpasses King George and the Ducky, I'm not sure, but it's awfully close. It's the first Veggie movie in quite a while to use the ol' on-the-counter formula... Nice to see Qwerty again, not to mention hearing the theme song!

It's also the first time in awhile that a Veggie movie has had two different stories separated by the Silly Song. The first story, "Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly" was only so-so as far as the actual message, but had some hilarious bits... My personal favorite was a series of jokes that started when there was a close-up of Scooter opening Dr. Jiggle's door... but you see a hand turning the knob. Scooter jumps back and screams. When Larry asks him what's wrong, he replies, "THE HAND!" This happens a few more times and kept making me giggle.

The Silly Song With Larry (guest starring The Maybe-Scallion Who Sang the Puppy Song in Esther) is hilarious... Definitely one of the best ever!

And the Snoodle's tale? I have to admit, it almost made me cry. I'm not kidding. It was such a touching story and resonated so deeply with me that I found a lump in my throat and had to sniffle hard a few times to keep back the tears. This has to be one of the coolest stories the Veggies have ever made. I just might have to buy this video, it's so good. Note, this is also my longest review to date. Hmm. Way to go, Big Idea, for making a movie I could write this much about!

I saw a portion of this on TV when I was about eight, back when we had TV reception. Ever since then I've wondered from time to time about "that movie where the airplane stewardess had three guys named Mike who all wanted to marry her". So when I was at my grandfather's house and was browsing through channels for something to watch and saw this... I shrieked, "OH MAN! I saw this when I was little and always wanted to know how it ended!" So I jumped over to that station and watched it from beginning to end. The story behind this being told, on to the review. It was... eh, okay. I didn't much care for the heroine, she seemed pretty oblivious/naive/something. She doesn't even seem to have an inkling that the guys like her, even though they're asking her out on dates and stuff. I will say, however, that the ending surprised me. She didn't go for the guy I thought she would. Now that's a plus on a romantic comedy. Surprise "No I think I'll marry this guy" twists always are fun. 1

As far as Marx Brothers movies go, this was rather not-marvelous. Note: that's only in comparison to their other movies, it's still pretty darn entertaining. But certainly not one of the best. Glad I saw it but I wouldn't run out and buy it any time soon.