Movie Reviews & More
Minority Report (2002)
Who’s in it
Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, Steve McDonough
Should you see this movie?
Hell yeah! I loved this movie for the staples, innovative ideas for what the future may be like, technology, action, a troubled Tom Cruise character that does a lot of shouting and running, and a twist. I remember being pleasantly surprised when I first saw this movie in the theaters back in the day, and it is a really entertaining movie for me now. Cruise is believable as a troubled man, but not as a former dad. He pulls off the emotional scenes well, and Farrell is ok in a role just when he was starting to get huge. My favorite parts are definitely with the spiders, and the reverb guns. You have to check it out, total guy movie, but it has the cute girl from Cold Case before you knew her.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Who’s in it
Will Ferrell, John C. Riley
Should you see this movie?
Yes. I turned it down on two seperate occasions, only to see it on the plane back home from Australia. Unlike most movies like this, not all the funny parts are in the commercials, and in fact, most of the stuff in the commercials was the stuff I didn’t find funny. If you don’t like Will Ferrell at times because he is too over the top, then take heart. His crazy scene is only about 20 mintues or so, and then it is funny again. The best parts are the dinner scene, any scene with the French driver and Ferrell, and any scene where there is talk between the drivers. I laughed a ton, and if you have liked him in the past, this may be one of his better ones in my mind.
Trust The Man (2005)
Who’s in it
Julianne Moore, David Duchovny
Should you see this movie?
Holy Baby Mushrooms no! It’s a veiled love story that tries too hard, the guys are supposedly outspoken and sarcastically funny (not), and they both mess up their relationships because they are unsure for a while about love. They’re scared. Their traites are fairly quirky and different but the base is the same as everything else, and no one in this movie is notable. No one buys Duchovny’s part, he still hasn’t found a role that anyone thinks of him as anything else than Scully. Don’t waste your time, even if it is free.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Who’s Voice is in it
Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci
Should you see this movie?
I think so. It was funny, heartwarming, bitter, and surprising all in one. I think there may be a lot of different cliches wrapped up in a different setting in this movie, but I think both Hathaway and Streep did an awesome job, and it was an entertaining movie. It’s like one big long cat fight, but with wounds a little more deep, and with fashion men. None of the stars are first rate so you may not go to just see one of them, but it is fun for the guys to see Hathaway go from a regular girl next door to a real hottie by the end of the movie.
Beerfest (2006)
Who’s in it
No one you know and directed by this guy, Jay Chandrasekhar, you don’t know him either by name
Should you see this movie?
Maybe, especially if you liked Super Troopers. The director was part of Broken Lizard, Club Dread and all that silly stuff with Bill Paxton and he also directed Dukes of Hazzard and of course, Troopers.
This movie starts out pretty funny and has a lot of promise. A whole movie on drinking beer and beerfest and all of the craziness that naturally would go with a festival like that. Two brothers are taking the ashes of their drunken father to Germany to scatter at beerfest. Only then do they learn that beerfest is a secret competition that only the worthy are allowed to partake. Not only that, but their father and mother are not what they seem to be, stable boy and hooker, and this all lays a great foundwork for a fun story. But then, they start to train for beerfest and although that sounds funny, the rest of the movie really wasn’t. It was slow and the characters really didn’t keep you engaged, you just keep waiting for them to get back to the competition and “Da Boot”.
So, this may or may not be for most people, but this director’s humor does have a small following now, so if you’re one of them this will be great for you.
Cars (2006)
Who’s Voice is in it
Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy
What was good
As you can tell from the rating everything. But what really struck me was how realistic things were. The reflections on the surfaces and the backdrops, it is all just so breaktaking. They take the best pieces of the characters and animate them in such a way to give them more depth, and giving just enough human qualities to non human objects. I feel like a broken record, but it was one of the most amazing things
I have ever seen, and I think that had to do because they chose cars as subject matter.
What sucked
I honestly can’t think of anything.
Who should go see this
Everyone. I think that Pixar keeps raising the bar, and that is exactly the way it should be. There is more adult humor, not quite like Shrek, but there is something there for everyone. Romance, some animated action, humor, a great story, and visuals. Having seen it twice now, I really know that kids think it is funny, which is expected but good to know.
Elizabethtown (2005)
Who’s in it
Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Biel
What was good
The first half hour to forty five minutes of the movie. It was intriguing, quirky, and seemed to be engaging. Bloom created this terrible shoe that bombed and lost his company an astounding 972 million dollars. Then, on the same day, his dad died. There were even funny parts in his interactions with his boss (Baldwin).
What sucked
Pretty much everything else. He gets on a plane to go get his dad, who is in Kentucky somewhere, and the movie gets derailed. I think it tries to give the viewer a first hand sense of what it is like to start from scratch in getting to know your roots, but it also tried to throw in there the mixed emotions that he is dealing with from his failure, which is strange and uncommon. He meets Kirsten Dunst who is a flight attendant for about 10 minutes in the good first part of the movie. She is fun and quirky, and her part isn’t bad, nor their relationship. The movie just doesn’t seem to know when to end, and wanders all over the place trying to get there.
Who should go see this
I don’t think I’d recommend this to anyone. I like Bloom, and even more so Dunst. I was glad I watched it with her, but not glad enough for the two plus hours long this movie is. I guess if you like strange movies, see this. The director also did Almost Famous, and Vanilla Sky. This is more like Almost Famous, but that movie was more focused, you just don’t leave with any sort of fuzzy feeling, and dammit, you rent a movie for entertainment, not to think too hard.
