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Movie Review: The Hunger Games


26 Apr

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Finally saw The Hunger Games. Jennifer Lawrence has gotten so much hype since that movie, I was not certain if I would like her in it, but I thought it was very well done. I thought they did a great job making you uncertain if the feelings between Katniss and Peeta were real or part of the show they were putting on.

I do think I may need to read the books, though, to understand the world better. I found it hard to believe that the districts were still paying tribute after all these years. Why hadn’t they already rebelled?

Movie Review: Fast Five


04 Mar

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I enjoyed the original The Fast and the Furious. I’m pretty certain I even saw the second installment in the theater. And I think Tokyo Drift was the 3rd movie, but I have no memory of the 4th movie existing. In fact, the only reason I even think there was a 4th movie is because the last one released was called Fast Five (and I have now seen ads for number 6).

I liked Fast Five. I knew going in that plausibility was not going to be high, so I was just able to ignore that and enjoy the ride.

Movie Review: X-Men First Class


12 Feb

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I loved the first X-Men movie and enjoyed the next two. Wolverine was a different story, but I found myself watching X-Men First Class with the same wonder as the first movie.

I did have one major quibble though. You know from the earlier movies that Professor X and Magneto are friends, despite their different views of the world. What you never see in those movies is a relationship between Professor X and Mystique. And yet, according to First Class, they grew up thinking of themselves as brother and sister. There aren’t even hints of this in the earlier movies.

Movie Review: The King’s Speech


11 Feb

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I had a speech impediment as a child. Throughout first grade, I met with a speech therapist weekly to help me get rid of my lisp. It was very much about muscle training. Even now, if I am very tired, or on the rare occasions I have too much to drink, my lisp will return.

This is the personal background I brought to watching The King’s Speech. I not only enjoyed the movie very much (I do love Colin Firth), but I also found the scenes of actual speech therapy feeling very familiar, despite the differences between lisps and stutters.

Trailer Review: Star Trek- Into Darkness


24 Jan

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I am so ridiculously excited for Star Trek: Into Darkness to come out. Because we did not go see The Hobbit in 3D, I missed the really long trailer played in front of it, but I did get to see a theatrical trailer before Les Mis (and I’ve watched the Japanese trailer online). I’m ready for it to be May 17 already (I’ve scheduled to take the day off). While it does not appear the villain will be Khan, it does look like the movie will be doing some version of the death of Spock at the end of Khan.

Movie Review: Les Miserables


23 Jan

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No, Russell Crowe was not great as Javert, and yes, that  is kind of sad because with a good Javert, his two solos, Stars and Javert’s Suicide, are the most powerful songs in the show. And no, Amanda Seyfried also wasn’t great, but Cosette’s songs have always been my least favorite. However, Hugh Jackman was a fine Jean Valjean, and Marius and Eponine were well cast. The movie was not ruined by the so-so singing, and it did allow other performances to shine. I won’t buy the movie on DVD, but I’m not sad I saw it in the theater.

Movie Review: The Hobbit


22 Jan

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Geek confession time- I’ve never read Tolkien. I did tremendously enjoy Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and looked forward to seeing The Hobbit. I am amused that he was able to keep three really long books to a movie each but has decided to turn the shortest of the books into three movies of its own.

I enjoyed The Hobbit tremendously. Martin Freeman is the perfect Bilbo, and the dwarves were differentiated well enough to keep track of who was who. The action was very well done, though I am happy we did not see it in 3D.

The Voice s3 Final Performances


18 Dec

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The opening tribute to the Newtown victims brought me close to tears. It was done beautifully.

I love Nicholas but did not like his opening number. Terry’s voice seemed weak (and when is Terry’s voice weak) on Broken Wings. Cassadee ended with Cry, but that meant two of her final three performances were country ballads. Does she want to be a country singer?

Blake once again showed why he is my favorite coach by making the duets about his contestants. I thought Play that Funky Music was a great song choice for Nicholas, but Cee Lo never let him shine.

Movie Review: Rock of Ages


17 Dec

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Rock of Ages was a lot of fun. Know in advance that I like musicals, and I love 80s hair band music, so on some level, this was a movie made for me. The leads were appropriately cute and innocent. Tom Cruise excels at playing the random crazy guy (though I’m not positive that’s acting), and Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand were a very cute coupleI didn’t even find Russell Brand very annoying, which is saying something.

Mary J Blige’s character should have been explored more. She seemed awfully tangential for how important I think she was supposed to be.

Movie Review: The Lorax


13 Dec

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What can you really expect when they make a 90 minute movie out of a children’s book, right? In most cases, I would give the movie a pass, except when it is based on a Dr. Suess book. Seuss packed a lot of punch in his books. I expect that if you are making a movie out of a Dr. Suess book, you will pack the same kind of child friendly punch.

This is not to say The Lorax was bad, just that I was hoping for something more meaningful than an extended 3D scene of woodland creatures eating marshmallows.

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