The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour

Rating 6.5 out of 10

Christmas Day.  All the presents have been opened.  Food has been eaten.  Raining outside.  The cat goes to her sisters house to watch The Help again.  What are the mice to do?   Zip off to the movie theater to see that Christmas classic, the Darkest Hour!

Why in the world this movie was released on Christmas Day I have no idea.  It's not the normal type Christmas Day release.  No big stars.  The only actor you have probably heard of is Emile Hirch.  Maybe not heard of him but when you see is face you will probably give an oh yeah.

Here a couple software developers fly into Moscow for a big meeting.  At a club they meet a two American hotties about the time all the power goes off.  When they go outside they see these glow in the dark things parachuting from the sky.  When they touch you it turns you to dust.   They are in a foreign land, can't speak the language and these barely visible aliens are blowing people up.

The acting is pretty decent.  Mostly Russian actors.  The effects are not bad.  It's a fun movie.  Probably more of a rental or early show viewing on a rainy day.  I would say if you watch this preview and find it interesting you will probably enjoy the movie.  If not then maybe this movie is not for you.

I liked it.

Good movie rentals...

With the holiday season upon us and cold stay at home weather ahead (someday!) here are a few suggestions for movie rentals




Warrior

Folks, I tried  to tell you when it was in the theaters.  If you didn't see it and you probably didn't because it left the theaters in a hurry, you need to rent this movie.  Even if you are like Jill Daniels and disagree with every review I do you will like this movie.  Trust me.

It's not a fighting movie.  It's a good family movie with a story that happens to have some fighting in it.  If the fighting makes you squeamish you can easily look the other way for a the short time it's on screen.





Friends with Benefits

This movie suffered greatly by coming out a few months after what seemed to be similar No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman.  From the trailers it seemed to be the same movie with different less famous actors.  That is not the case.  I'm not a big fan of Justin Timberlake.  I think he can act sometimes but for the life of me can't figure out what females find so sexy about him.  Never really cared for Mila Kunis either.  Yet I liked this movie alot.  It was far better than No Strings Attached. Kunis shows she can be very funny.  The movie has some good lines and flows right along.

I found it well worth the price of a rental.



Win Win

I'm guessing most of you have not even heard of this movie.  Or you saw the goofy picture above and saw some goofy middle aged man sitting beside a kid in a wrestling outfit and thought there was no way that was for me.  I thought the same thing.  I had read good reviews and think Paul Giamatti is a great actor.  But look at it.  How interesting can a movie with high school wrestling be???  Turns out, pretty darn good.

I'm not even going to give you details on what it is about.  If you have nothing else to rent give this a try and say you are going to blame Royce if this sucks.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  I was.




Larry Crowne

When previews for this movie came out I thought it looked interesting but could go either way.  Then the brutal reviews followed.  Maybe not.  I rented and it was better than I expected.  I admit a movie with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts should be GREAT.  This one is just good.  Well worth the rental fee.

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Rating 8 out of 10

This is the forth of the Mission: Impossible movies.  I would say it's the best of the bunch.  By far.  Good cast.  Tom Cruise is back as the man with all the answers, Ethan Hunt.  He can climb the tallest buildings as he does in this movie.  He has to save the day.

In this movie like the others there is a REALLY bad guy about to do REALLY bad things to many people.  There is virtually no way anyone can stop him.  Lucky for us the MI gang are not just anyone.  These movies are not for hard to allow plots.  It's the action.  The stunts are incredible.

Where this one improves on the others is the comic touch added by Simon Pegg.  He is the agent and computer expert that adds a little funny to the bullets and bombs.  Jeremy Renner is also a nice add to the group.  Paula Patton adds the beauty and we are ready to roll.

This is one of the better movies of the year for me.  I'd be surprised if it does not make my top ten.  I wouldn't mind seeing it again at an IMAX.  Good movie.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Rating 8 out of 10

This is a movie most of you know was based on a best selling novel by Stieg Larsson.  I read this book (part of a trilogy) and finally enjoyed it.  The book is hard to get into in the start.  I put it down several times before reaching that ah-ha moment where I was glad I finished it.  An interesting fact about the trilogy and author... Larsson was a fledgling author in Sweden when he wrote the trilogy of books.  No one would publish the book.  He finally found a small publisher who would release the books.  Their office was in the 7th floor of a building with no working elevator.  Larsson was a heavy smoker and before the books were released died at age 50 of a heart attack from climbing the stairs.  The books were released after his death and are world wide best sellers in many different languages.  In 2009 a Swedish version of the movie was made that was actually pretty good when watched on dvd and dubbed in English.

One last piece of trivia.  The woman that played the Tattoo girl in the Swedish version, Noomi Rapace, plays the gypsy woman in the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

On to this movie...

I liked this movie alot.  Casting for the most part was perfect.  In the beginning of this movie we see Mikael Blomkvist (played perfectly by Daniel Craig) is a reporter/owner of a smaller newspaper.  He ran a big story on a very bad man. When the story is contested in court witness's "disappear" leaving Blomkvist holding the bad and a huge liable lawsuit.  He has to leave town with his tail between his legs. Aging millionaire Henrick Vanger (again played perfectly by Christopher Plummer) hires Blomkvist to come to his small community and write a book about his very dysfunctional rich family and while he is at it figure out what happened to his favorite niece who disappeared 40 years earlier at the age of 14.

The Tattoo'd girl is Lisbeth Salander. She is played by Rooney Mara.  She has tattoos all over, nasty piercings and the worst haircut since Jim Carrey in Dumber and Dumber. She has a bad attitude brought on from the death of her parents when she was young and being raised in the system.  She has a photographic memory and is an incredible investigator.  When Blomkvist makes headway in the niece's disappearance he brings in the tattoo'd wonder.

The movie does a good job in tying the stories together.  It runs 2 hours 50 minutes but did not seem long to me at all.  They make a few changes in the ending compared to the book.  I don't understand why the did it but won't effect most viewers.

Good movie.  Definitely worth seeing.

Sherlock Holmes II

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

I'm not going to rate this movie.  I admit I thought the first Sherlock was okay.  Didn't like it nearly as well as many others did.  I am not sure why I rushed out to see it opening night. I wanted to see Mission Impossible.  For some reason the only theater near here showing MI is the IMAX.  I'll catch it some other time.

While I don't think this Sherlock Holmes is as good as the first movie I will say I think if you really liked the first one you will like this one also.  Most of the same cast is back from Sherlock I.  The action is much the same also.  It is filmed in either super high speed shaky cam or super slow motion.

What the story is about I'm not really sure.  Something about the evil Professor Moriarty trying to start a war between Germany and France so he can make alot of money selling weapons to both.

Of course Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are back as what seems like a bickering old married couple rather than partners.  As I said if you liked the first one you should plunk down the money for this one too.  To me it was too slow and had me checking my watch to see when it would be over.

The Descendants

The Descendants

Rating 5 out of 10

Do you feel you are enjoying the holiday season a little too much?  Spreading more joy than one person should be allowed?  You can go see this new George Clooney movie that I'm calling the feel bad movie of the season.  At one hour fifty minutes the movie seems much longer.  By watching the trailers you'd think you are going to see comedy.  Some are even selling it that way.  While there are a few funny parts (very few) it is mostly a sad movie of people coping with sad situations.

George plays Matt King.  He is a married father of two girls living in Hawaii.  In the first scenes of the movie we see Matts wife in a horrible speed boat accident where she goes into a coma that she will not recover.  Matt has been a workaholic who didn't spend enough time with his daughters or pay enough attention to his wife.  Turns out his wife was not a saint and his two daughters are foul mouth brats that talk back more to dad than help him thru this tough time.

There is a couple other sub-plots.  One has Matt as the head of a family trust that controls prime Hawaiian real estate that must be sold soon making himself and lots of cousins multi-millionaires.  Does he sell out his heritage for million$?

There is lots of Oscar talk for Clooney.  This is the type slow paced emotional movie that usually gets nominations.  It's not a bad movie.  Just a slow, boring and depressing movie.  Even if it's mostly well made.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

Rating 7 out of 10

There are movies I go to for different reasons and expectations.  Sometimes want a good kick buns action movie.  Sometimes a funny movie to make me laugh.  Then there are movies like New Year's Eve.  You go in not expecting a movie classic.  Just a fun movie.  These I call cotton candy movies.  It's like when you take a big wad of cotton candy and put it in your mouth.  Seems like alot at first then turns into a little sugar on your tongue.  Deep, I know. : >

New Year's Eve is similar to and made by the same people that made Valentines Day.  If you saw and liked Valentines Day you will like this one too.  This movie stars, well it would be easier for me to list who is not in it.  Seems every actor with a SAG card is in it.  It's fun to see named actors taking small quickie roles.

New Year's circles around a group of people in NYC about to celebrate what else?  New Years Eve.  There is the mom trying to enjoy the ball drop with her teenage daughter who only wants to be with her friends.  A woman in charge of the ball dropping when it has mechanical problems. Two couples trying to have the first baby of 2012 to win the cash prize.  The man dying alone in his hospital bed wanting to see the ball drop one last time.

Director Garry Marshall does a good job tying all the stories together.  I thought it was a fun movie that won't win any awards, but I'm glad I went.

Hugo

Hugo

Rating 3 out of 10

When I first saw the trailers for this movie I thought this was not for me.  Maybe a rental later, but not something I'd want to see.  Then I saw the great reviews and had a cold rainy day with nothing to do.  Thought I'd give it a chance.  Should have listened to my first thoughts.

This is a VERY slow moving movie that takes forever to get to the point.  I don't like movies where you have to wait more than an hour in before you find out what in the heck is going on.  This is like being trapped in a lecture on the early days of silent movies.  I know director Martin Scorsese has made some good movies in the past.  I just don't feel this is one of them.  The scenery was incredible.

The story is of a small boy who loses his father in early 1900's Paris.  He has only a sleazy uncle keeping him from going to the orphanage.  He lives in a clock tower in a busy train station.  He keeps the clocks running smoothly and takes food from the shops to get by.  There is a mean station officer who walks around with a doberman trying to catch him or any other orphan stealing.

His keepsake is a robot looking thing his father brought home from a museum. They worked on it together and he feels if he can get it working he will have a link to a father he misses greatly.  When he does get it working it ties him to a shop owner in the station.  The movie is two hours long and you are pushing ninety minutes in before you finally find out what the movie is about.

My fourteen year old HATED this movie.  Said it was the worst he has seen in years.  I'm not that strong against it, but did find it very dull.  If anyone see's this movie and likes it PLEASE email me.  I'd like to see if I'm missing something.  

The Muppets

The Muppets

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I have been a Muppet fan for a long time.  Back in my high school days (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) in rural Louisiana we got two tv stations on our barely color television.  NBC and NBC.  So pickin's were slim on what we wanted to watch that night.  The Muppets Show was a weekly treat.  Yes, I have Rainbow Connection on my iPod.  If you are not a Muppets fan you can take my review with a grain of salt.

The movie takes place (amazingly enough) in 2011.  The once famous Muppet Theater in Hollywood has fallen in disrepair and the Muppets have gone different directions.  An evil oil barren has plans to take over the theater and drill for oil (in downtown Hollywood?).  The Muppets have two weeks to raise $10 million to save the theater.

Yeah, I know plots are not big on Muppet movies.  It's the characters.  Kermit and the gang are back.  Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Animal and the whole gang.  Is it strange that I found the blond singer in the Electric Mayhem band appealing?  Probably.

While Jason Segel and Amy Adams do a good job as the main humans in the film what is always the most entertaining in Muppets shows are the short cameos of well known stars.  We get plenty here.  From Jack Black to Emily Blunt to that lead singer guy in Foo Fighters and everyone in between.

If you ever enjoyed a Muppets Show you will like this movie.  I couldn't get the wife or fourteen year old son to go with me.  Their loss.  I had a great time.

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I

Rating 7 out of 10

I started reading the Twilight books when my daughters and wife insisted.  I thought they were a little slow at times but fun.  Had enough fighting to keep my interest.  I thought the first movie was okay.  A little low budget looking.  Second movie was a little better and the third was better yet.  I would say Breaking Dawn Part 1 is the best of the bunch.

I don't guess you have to have seen the first three movies to enjoy Breaking Dawn.  It would definitely help though. In this movie the still human Bella is getting married to the girls favorite vampire, Edward.  As a man I think a tad more of the movie was spent on the wedding.  My daughter thought maybe not enough.  Bella and Ed go to a romantic Brazilian island for their honeymoon and do what people do on their honeymoon.

This produces a baby kicking around in Bella's belly.  Turns out while getting pregnant on your honeymoon is rarely a good thing when the daddy is a vampire it's a very bad thing.  The baby is killing the mom day by day.  To make it worse the local werewolves are upset with the vampires for breaking their treaty and feel all bloodsuckers must die.  Luckily the one werewolf that loves Bella is out to protect them.  Of course he had to take his shirt off and flex his pecs mostly every time on screen.

The wolf scenes and action is pretty good.  As I said maybe too much wedding but nothing this man couldn't handle.  I left the theater looking forward to Part II.

Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots

Rating 6.5 out of 10

I liked the first two Shrek movies alot.  I liked the way they mixed in plenty of adult humor so us big boys would enjoy it as much as kids.  I thought the addition of Puss the sword swinging cat was funny.  The trailers for Puss in Boots looked funny to me.

Puss is once again voiced by Antonio Banderas who is perfect for this feline.  His partner in crime is Kitty Soutpaws voiced by the always hot Salma Hayek and Humpty Dumpty voiced by Zach Galiflanakis.  The animation is first rate.

I would have seen this earlier but I had to find a small child to go with me so I didn't look like the creepy old guy in the cartoon theater by myself.  My beautiful two year old granddaughter Delilah to the rescue.  I believe it was her first movie ever and both parents and myself were uncertain how she would react.  Just in case I bought a medium popcorn and a bag of Reese's Pieces.  It was a huge success!

For me Puss in Boots is a cute kids movie.  For me though it lacked the humor and wit needed to keep my interest.  It does not have all the characters of the Shrek movies or even much of a plot line.  Puss and Humpty are buddies until Humpty decides to rip off the local town and frame Puss.  There is another plot where they are trying to steal Jacks magic beans to climb the beanstalk to steal the goose that lays golden eggs.  Get all that.

Doesn't matter.  It is cute enough and holds a two year olds attention.  The popcorn was good and I admit I ate more of the Reese's Pieces than Delilah did.

Steve Jobs- book

Steve Jobs

Rating 9 out of 10

In 1985 my little Lubbock, Texas roofing company went nuts when a huge hail storm wiped out 80% of the cities roofs.  I was getting 75-100 calls a day.  I needed some sort of computer to keep track of everything.  I had heard about these little Apple Iic computers and how easy they were to operate.  I had always been amazed by computers so I took the plunge.  I was nothing short of amazed at what this little thing would do.  It came with a Scribe printer that printed in COLOR!  Well, it did have colors.  You could print these (now) cheesy cards on the reel type paper and make the font one color and the graphic another.  At first people were impressed with my cheesy holiday cards.  Soon they figured out I was just being cheap!

I was hooked from the time I took the cool looking computer out of the box.  No internal hard drives.  Everything kept on the little 512k floppy disk!  Later I upgraded to the Apple IIgs that was even more amazing.  I paid $500 for a used 20 MEG external hard drive.  I was so excited my hands were shaking when I connected it to my computer!  I think I have owned just about every type of computer they have put out since that little Iic.  Been a fan and was always amazed.  I have been to MacWorld in San Francisco twice and was like a kid in a candy store.

Oh yeah, the book.  I tend to like biographies as a whole when I read (listen) books.  This was one I was looking forward to.  Jobs went to the author Walter Isaacson and asked him to do the book.  He told him to talk to whoever he wanted and Jobs would do nothing to censor the book before it was released.  This gives us an unvarnished look at Jobs warts and all.  We see that Jobs was a bit of a goof ball in his younger years.  Given up for adoption by his birth parents he never really gets over the abandonment feeling.  After high school he gets into dropping acid and spends a year in India studying the Zen religion.

The book outlines his being dumped by the Apple board and his successful return few years later.  With his many one on one interviews we learn some of the background on how the iPod, iPhone and iPads came to be.  He talks about how Bill Gates stole their idea for Windows.  He thinks Gates is a good guy who "got rich selling crap".

I think someone who knows little about Jobs and Apple's history would enjoy this book even more than I did.

Dolphins Tale

Dolphins Tale

Rating 6 out of 10

The Dolphins Tale is a nice movie based on a true story that you can feel good taking the whole family to and have that warm and fuzzy feeling when you leave the theater.  It has a nice cast and some pretty Florida background.

When a troubled young boy finds an injured beached dolphin he dives in the effort to save it.  When the dolphins tail has to be severed they turn to a prosthetics doctor to come up with an artificial limb.  There are side plots of a favorite cousin injured at war and the marine hospital running out of money.

No big surprises here.  Still a fun travel to get there.  The movie tugs on the heart strings a few times along the way.

This will be a good rental for everyone.

Immortals

Immortals

Rating 7 out of 10

I will start by saying the movie 300 is one of my all time favorite movies.  Knocked Braveheart out of my top spot. Immortals is made by the same guys that made 300 and is in the same general style.  Immortals is no 300 yet still a fun action movie to see if you are in the mood for some crunching bones and body parts being chopped.  The easy way to know if you'd like this movie or not is to watch the trailer.  If it looks cool to you then yes you'll most likely enjoy the movie.  If the action is a bit much then you may want to skip.

I liked it.  My boys loved it.  This Immortals has nothing to do with the immortals in 300.  It is a movie based on Greek Mythology.  The Immortals here are the Greek gods as they watch over the humans. The brutal King Hyperion (played very well by Mickey Rourke) goes looking for a magic Bow of Epirus to become invincible and overthrow the Gods and be master of the universe.  He is a very bad guy.  Kills everyone in his path including the mother of our hero, Theseus.  Bad move there King.  Theseus is play by the hunky Henry Cavill.  Cavill was in the HBO series Tudors and is pegged to be the next Man of Steel in next summers Superman.  There is an Oracle that can see the future the King is after to tell him where the magic bow is.  She is played by the always lovely Freida Pinto.

This is not a movie you go to for an intricate plot or crazy twist at the end.  You got for the action and on that front Immortals delivers just fine.  I am a manly man that enjoys this type of movie (Yes, the Muppets are coming back next week!!!) and on that level I recommend it.  Be warned it has plenty of graphic violence.

In Time

In Time

Rating 4 out of 10

There are times you have to give a movie an E for Effort, but not necessarily an A for the final product.  That is the case with In Time.  The concept is in the future or maybe some other planet (they never really say) everyone has some sort of digital readout on their left arm.  On your 25th birthday the readout starts a countdown.  When it hits zero so do you.  You can buy/earn extra minutes by working jobs for the MAN.    The good part is how you look at twenty five is how you look for the rest of your life.  I'd hate to think I'd be stuck with my bushy head haircut for eternity, but thats another story.  The crazy thing about this system is people can steal your minutes just by holding their arm against yours.  Anything you want from food to rent to a bus ride costs minutes off your arm.

The "rich" are basically stealing the minutes from the poor so they can live forever and the poor die young.  When a rich guy tired of living shows up in the slums where our hero Will lives (Justin Timberlake) ready to end it all he gives away his more than hundred years of minutes.  The timekeepers think Will killed the rich guy for his time.  Off to the races we go.  Soon he hooks up with the MAN's daughter (Amanda Seyfried) and they are on a Bonnie and Clyde mission robbing the Time Banks and giving the minutes to the poor.

I think this could have been a decent movie.  The story just seems like it was a few drafts away from being better.  I don't think Mr Timberlake has the chops yet to carry a movie like this.  I usually like Amanda Seyfried alot.  Here she looked goofy in her bob wig and acted more confused than anything else.  The movie could have used a bigger budget.  It looks like a low budget campy movie.

If you are a big Justin Timberlake fan I would suggest waiting to rent it.

Tower Heist

Tower Heist

Rating 5 out of 10

I had high hopes for this movie.  Was in the mood for a good laugh or two.  This movie has some funny parts.  The problem for me is almost all of them are in the circle of previews pushing the movie.  It is a fun movie for a simple night out but not one you'll remember six months from now.

Tower Heist has an incredible cast.  Starting with Alan Alda playing the bad guy.  He plays a Wall Street con artist who bilks million$ from clients including the whole retirement fund of the Central Park Condo building he lived in.  That building is run by Josh (Ben Stiller) and his band of likable employees.  Several of the ruined employees decide to break into his heavily guarded top floor condo and steal their money back.  Eddie Murphy plays Slide the small time criminal Josh enlists to help.

This movie is on the goofy side.  If you can suspend logic for a couple hours you'll have a good time.  I thought it was okay.  I guess I set the bar too high going in.  I was hoping for better.

The Thing

The Thing

Rating 5 out of 10

I saw the original movie back in the 80s.  Actually that movie was a remake of another The Thing back in the 60s.  I liked the 80s version with Kurt Russell.  This Thing is actually a prequel.

In the frozen arctic an expedition has found a frozen alien and they bring in lovely Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as a paleontologist to figure out what it really is.  Problem is when it is thawed from the ice it comes back to life and bad things happen. To make things worse they are in the middle of nowhere and of course that big snow storm is coming in to ground helicopters and communications are down.

The movie builds suspense and makes you care about the stars even if you can't remember what other movies that have been in.  Action is pretty good.  This will make a good rental at some point in the near future.

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers

Rating 7 out of 10

When I saw the trailers for this movie my first thought was wasn't there a Three Musketeer movie not that long ago?  Do we really need another one?  After seeing the movie I would say the answer is yes.  The movie has several good actors yet none that would raise your eyebrows.  Milla Jovovich is good in all those bad Resident Evil movies I keep going to see. Orlando Bloom who can't seem to figure out what he wants to do after Lord of the Rings and Pirates. Oscar winner Christoph Waltz.  These are not even the main stars.

The movie begins with the Musketeers falling on hard times as the klutzy King of France phasing them out as unneeded.  They are pressed back into service to foil a plot by the evil Catholic Cardinal to cause war between France and England.  A young son of a past Musketeer joins force in his desire to some day been a Musketeer himself.

I know, they didn't rush out and buy their tux for the Oscars.  But you don't go to a movie like this for deep plots.  The action is very good.  The acting is mostly good.  I was impressed with the way it was filmed and liked the way they captured that era of London and Paris.

If you are looking for an entertaining action movie this is a good one to start with.

The Ides of March

The Ides of March 

Rating 4 out of 10

Sadly politics bore the pants off the average person.  Movies about politics no matter how many pretty boys you put in it are boring too.  That sums up Ides of March.  I keep up with politics alot.  Frequent a couple bbs's to debate the latest.  This movie was written and directed by George Clooney.  I'll be nice and say Mr. Clooney while being dreamy to look at is on the other side of the scale politically from my beliefs.  While this movie isn't an all out Republican bashing Clooney get's in his jabs.

Ides of March has an incredible cast.  Clooney is a central character, but not the main one.  Ryan Gosling, who seems like he is in half of movies released in 2011,  plays the silver tongued and idealistic campaign manager for Gov. Mike Morris (Clooney).  He really believes the Governor is a great man that will do great things for the country.  The whole race to the White House is boiling down to the Ohio primary in a close race with another Democrat.  Whoever wins Ohio wins the nomination and what is figured to be an easy walk to the President since the Republican is so evil.  The always great Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Goslings boss who doesn't mind playing dirty if needed.  Paul Giamatti plays the press secretary for the challenger.  Marisa Tomei is thrown in as a snoopy reporter.

If you love politics and if it shocks you to find out it can be a dirty game you may like this movie.  Mostly it is like watching a rerun of 60 Minutes. It's a well made, well acted movie that happens to be very boring.  Rent it if you must.

Footloose

Footloose

Rating 7 out of 10


Most of the time I like remakes of older movies.  Some work while others (Arthur) do not.  When I heard they were remaking Footloose it sounded like a bad idea.  The original was such an iconic movie I didn't see why they would want to try.  The original Footloose is what led me to be such a great dancer.  Okay, I can't dance, but don't tell my teenager!  Back to the movie...  I did think it was cool this movie was filmed in my home town of Acworth, GA.  I know people who were in it as extras.

Being such a fan of the original and the poor reviews I went to this movie with low expectations.  Happy to say I liked the movie alot.  This time Ren McCormick is played by hunky Kenny Wormald who was born the year the original came out, 1984.  He has been a backup dancer in the past and gets a shot at the lead.  The wild preachers daughter is played very well by the lovely Dancing with the Stars gal Julianne Hough.

The city boy (Ren) moves to the small Georgia town where he learns dancing is against the law and he sets out to change things.  He butts heads with the main preacher man who seems to run the town.  This is played by Dennis Quaid.  I am a big fan of Quaid, but I think he was miscast here.

Not alot more you can say about this movie.  I doubt they will remake it 27 years but if you want to see a fun movie that will make you tap your toe a few times this is a good place to start.  If you live in the area it's fun picking out local spots they filmed in.  The Cowboys dance hall was the place of my first date with Cassie.  Must have been my dancing skills that hooked her?   Probably not.

Fall Tv Report Card

Fall Tv Report Cards

Every September there are many new shows hitting the airwaves with so much promise.  These shows are there to replace last years shows that had so much promise.  2011 is pretty much the same.

For my returning favorites...

Modern Family, Big Bang Theory and Mike and Molly are still very funny

I'm not crazy about the new Two and a Half Men.  I just don't think Ashton's dumb guy routine is very funny.

House so far is better than last year.  I had given up on House last year.  I'm liking the direction it is going this season.

Nikita is a kicking good time also!

New Shows...

I think Two Broke Girls is the funniest new show.  It has some very funny parts.  It has potential.

Whitney- Not as funny as I thought it was going to be but still has it's moments.

Terra Nova- A family goes from a time in the future when pollution is killing the planet thru a portal back in time when dinosaurs roam.  Interesting show with likable actors.

Last Man Standing-  Tim Allen's come back show and he is back.  If you liked Tool Time you will like this one too.  He is still funny.

X-Factor-  I was afraid this was going to be an American Idol knock off.  It is...

Person of Interest- Better than I thought it would be.  Could see how it could go South but for now it keeps me interested. Get it? Point of Interest.  Sorry...

Unforgettable- This show has promise too.  Good cast.  Not sure how far they can take it.

Pan Am-  The wife likes this one.  I couldn't get into flight attendants doubling as spies in the 1960s.

Never bothered with Charlie's Angels.  It looked stupid from the commercials.  Tried to watch Playboy Club.  Only made it 30 minutes.  Both were canceled after a couple episodes.

Up All Night-  I guess the Dad in me finds it irritating when tv shows act like a man changing a diaper is harder than cracking a safe.  Not for me.

Real Steel

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I think they started playing the previews for this movie last Christmas.  Drives me nuts when they start pushing a movie a year before it comes out.  Turns out this movie was worth the wait.  I liked this movie alot.

This movie does not break new ground plot wise.  It's just a fun movie to watch.  In the not so distant future boxing has gone from humans duking it out to huge 2000 pound robots that look like they came off my rock 'em sock'em robot game I played with as a kid.

Hugh Jackman plays the down and out guy who in his younger days was a decent boxer with heart, but maybe not talent.  Now he runs the robots with less success than he had as a boxer.  He finds a woman he had a fling with many years before and had a son he gave up on has passed away.  Now the son he has never known is spending the summer with him.  Together they find a broken down robot on a trash heap. You can guess the rest.

Doesn't matter.  You will want to stand and cheer as the robot goes from fight to fight and Father and son start to bond.  This is just a fun movie that you can take the whole family to.  I recommend it.

Killer Elite

Killer Elite

Rating 5 out of 10

This movie has been getting hammered in the reviews.  My young son I were wanting to see a movie and this was the only one fitting our schedule.  I probably should have listened to the reviews.  This is not a bad movie, but with the cast involved it should have been much better.

Jason Statham is a special ops agent that is just tired o f killing.  When he tries to retire he is drawn back in when his ex-partner and kind of father figure (Robert De Niro) is taken hostage by a sheik who wants to avenge the killing of his three sons.  To do this Statham must take out some evil British operatives (Clive Owen with a 70's porn star mustache).

The movie is based on a true story as disputed as it might be. The action is good at times.  It has a feel of a straight to dvd movie.  That is where you should view this movie.  On dvd.

The Debt

The Debt

Rating 6 out of 10

Wow, I've been seeing alot of movies this month.  It's crazy especially since not long ago I was whining about all the crappy movies that were coming out and nothing I wanted to see in the near future.   Most of the movies I have seen lately have been pretty good.  As is this one.

This movie is most definitely a hard sell.  They did try as I saw several commercials for the previews the month before it came out.  Back in 1966 a trio of Mossad agents go on a mission in East Berlin to capture a very nasty Nazi war criminal.  They catch him and get him back to the hide out.  Problems arise in getting him/them out of the country.  That is where the problems really begin.  Some want to put a bullet in his head and flee.  Others demand he stand trial for what he did.  Decisions have to be made.

Flash forward to 1997 and the three are national heros for the mission even if the story is not completely true. They wrestle with what they have done.

The movie has some very good actors.  The always wonderful Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington (from Avatar), Tom Wilkinson and a new actress I think will be popular soon Jessica Chastain.  Not big names that will send people running for the theater but actors that know what they are doing.

This is a well made movie.  I would have rated it higher.  I just don't agree with some of the directions they went.  Not the choices I would have made.  This will make a good rental.

Moneyball

Rating 7 out of 10

This is a movie based on a true story.  Not way back in time true story.  This happened in 2002 and I remembered most of it.  Billy Beane was a can't miss five tool baseball prospect that missed.  When the baseball career ends he becomes the general manager of the Oakland Athletics.  They find life hard as a small market team with very little money for payroll playing against the ultra rich dreaded Yankees.

Billy decides to bypass normal baseball thinking and go with his computer guys new ideas on how to run the team.  Everyone thinks he is crazy.  Somehow he makes it work.

You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this movie.  Amazingly enough I saw many females in the audience that did not appear to be baseball fans.  Maybe it was that pretty boy Brad Pitt.  He is in his pretty boy finest.  Combed his hair and shaved his grungy beard.  Even did a good acting job.

This is a fun movie that I enjoyed.

I Don't Know How She Does It

Rating 5 out of 10

When you are married you learn early on there is a thing called "compromise".  For you young males that means when you have date night with the wife you go see the move she wants to see.  Proof of this is we never see the new Action movie on date night.  Often I am the only male in the theater.  The things you do for a wonderful wife!

While this is not a movie I would have picked it wasn't horrible.  Never been a big Sarah Jessica Parker fan, but she does a decent job here.  She plays a working mother of two small children and a successful husband (Greg Kinnear).  Her position at a high profile banking firm takes off and she gets to deal with the pressures of being a good mom and a businesswoman.  The movie has all the cliches.  Feeling guilty for missing childrens functions, the good looking male she has to work with, other stay at home moms looking down on her because she works...

This is a paint by the numbers movie that works for what it is.  The cast is surprisingly good.  It tugs heartstrings when it's supposed to.  Chick flick from A to Z.

Drive

Drive

Rating 6.5 out of 10

I have found myself becoming a fan of Ryan Gosling.  He was very good in Crazy, Stupid,
Love and is good here.  This is not a big budget shoot 'em up as the trailer would lead you to believe.
This is more of a lower budget thinking movie where the characters don't really talk that much.

It was my friend Jim's birthday and I was taking him to a movie.  We took a test and our testosterone
levels were way too high to see The Help so Drive it was.

Gosling plays a young man working in an auto repair shop with some movie stunt driving on the side.
To pick up some extra bucks on the side he drives the getaway car on heists.  He is very good at
driving and has nerves of steel.  He meets the cute neighbor lady and her young son.  Starts having
feelings for them about the time her ex-husband returns from jail. Trying to help he gets mixed up
in a bad situation.

As I said this is a bit of a slow paced movie considering it's named Drive.  There is surprisingly little
Driving in the movie.  There is some good action scenes and a few gory fight scenes.  The supporting
cast is very good with Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, the lovely Christina Hendricks and the always
good Ron Perlman.  For me a down side was Carey Mulligan playing the cute neighbor.  I just don't
care for her.  She is too mousey looking and not a very good actress.

If you like a movie that slowly simmers to a boil this is one for you.  I liked it.

Warrior

Warrior 

Rating 8.5 out of 10

Usually when a movie gets a rating on rottentomatoes.com of 80% or better it throws up all kinds of red flags for me.  Movie reviewers are a strange bunch (I'm proof enough of that) and usually when that many agree on a movie there is something wrong with it.  Try to follow my logic?  With the 83% rating I was in no hurry to see this.

My movie buddy Ted and son Danny both gave it a hearty thumbs up so off to the NCG theater I went.  Rottentomatoes.com absolutely got it right this time!  This is a great movie.  Definite top ten on my list.

I do understand this movie can be a hard sell.  I can tell you this is not a movie about MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting.  This is a movie with a good story that happens to have MMA in it.  The acting overall is very good.  The movie gets close to the line of hokey sports cliches yet never crosses.

Two brothers are separated by divorce in their teen years.  The divorce is mostly caused by the drunken father played by Nick Nolte.  Nolte hasn't been in a good movie in a while but I feel he should get an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.  Both brothers are very bitter toward the father even though he has given up drinking and is making an attempt to clean up his life.  One brother goes into the Marines.  The other becomes a school teacher that has fallen on hard times with a sick daughter.

Both brothers end up in a big MMA tournament that has a $5 million winner take all purse.  If you have seen the trailer you know they fight each other in the finals.  Don't let the violence scare you away from this movie.  There is some action but for the most part it's done tastefully.

This is a very good movie folks.  Go see it.

Devil- Rental

Devil

Rental

After the bazillion movies I have seen in my many years one genre I have become tired of is the scary/horror type.  There seems to be two or three prototypes where they insert different actors and change the dialog a bit.  All the slasher movies where the heroine stabs the bad guy, drops the knife right beside him and slowly walks away.  Amazingly enough 110% of the time the bad guy gets up and comes at her again.  The funny part of this story is I LOVE Halloween.  My favorite holiday by far.  My scary decorations have sent more neighbor kids into therapy than Charlie Sheen has had STD's.

I rented Devil mostly because I have the Blockbuster deal where you can have two movies out at a time and there was nothing else.  Expectations were very low.

I won't say this is a great movie but I was pleasantly surprised.  Why they named it Devil is the big question.  By the end of movie you know why but it's not a name that get people flocking to the theater.
I guess they could have named it people stuck on an elevator with a demon but that probably wouldn't help either.

The movie is just that.  A mixed group of people get stuck in an elevator.  Every now and then the lights go out and when they come back on something bad has happened to one.  It plays better than it sounds.  Attempts to get them out gets delayed time after time.  No big name actors but several good character actors you will remember from this movie or that.

It's not a slasher movie or a scary from start to finish.  It has some scares and a good bit of suspense.  Overall I'd say it was well worth the price of the rental.

Fall Tv starts!

I'll admit the TV-Nerd in me gets a little excited this time of year.  My old favorites from last year are back after a several month layover.  Also I am hopeful that when I throw all the new tv shows that appear to have promise a couple of them stick.  All I can say is thank God for my DVR.  It will get plenty of use in the coming months.  

Returning tv shows.  I really like Modern Family and Big Bang Theory.  They both never fail to make me laugh out loud. Most of the time I think Mike and Molly is very funny too.  Curious to see how Two and a Half Men does without Charlie.  Ashton could be a breath of fresh air or a nail in the coffin.  I'm looking forward to NCIS even though I think last season (after it became a top five show) was the weakest of the bunch.  I'm letting House sucker me in with the big changes (Huddy is gone) even though last year was mostly dreadful.  Always look forward to The Amazing Race!  I watch Survivor mostly out of habit.  Have watched it since the first episode and figure I'll try again this year.  Rocky and I watch Nikita mostly because we'd love to have Maggie Q kick us in the head!  I'm going to give CSI another try with Ted Danson joining the group.  I became bored last year and took it off my record list.  Also, I'll admit it.  I look forward to Glee starting back up.  I like the Mentalist alot too.  It probably had the best cliffhanger of them all last season.  

New shows I think have promise. 

Comedies Two Broke Girls and Whitney both look pretty funny.  They are both written or created by the star of the second show (Whitney Cummings).  Reviews are much better on Two Broke Girls.

Terra Nova looks interesting with the families moving to some place with T-Rex's running around eating people.  It has a decent cast but this looks like a hard one to keep the plot moving over time. 

I'll give Last Man Standing some time until Tim Allen proves he can't be funny.  Fingers crossed on this one.  For a show with a big star like Allen it's getting surprisingly little pushing from the network.  

Unforgettable looks interesting.  The blonde lady from Without a Trace now is the redhead that has a photographic memory that somehow helps her solve crimes.  I'll give it a shot. 

X-Factor is getting alot of press.  I have never been an American Idol fan but I'll give this one a try.  

Person of Interest looks like it has potential mostly because of the great cast.  Same with the show Grimm. 

Shows that don't do a thing for me...

All the Retro shows.  Pan Am, Charlie's Angels and the Playboy Club.  How could I not like a show about the Playboy club?  It just looks cheesy.  

Up All Night has some funny commercials running ALOT and I do like Christina Applegate.  I just don't see how they can keep the story going more than a couple episodes much less a couple years.  

I Hate my Teenage Daughter.  What a stupid name for a tv show.  This rates up there with @#*& My Dad Says.  

Did I miss anything???

Comments?

I'm glad someone has found this blog mildly entertaining.  I'm having fun putting my thoughts down on paper (cyber-paper).

I would love to have some interaction with who ever is reading this.  Agree with my reviews?  Think I'm crazy?  Both?  Leave a comment here.

I know it can be a little confusing at times leaving a message.  If you have a yahoo or google email it's very easy.  If you don't you can sign in as Anonymous and then please sign the bottom.

If you have questions or problems leaving a comment you can email me at royce@royceshome.com

Columbiana

Columbiana

Rating 5 out of 10

This is an action movie that many have probably never heard of.  No real big name actors in it.
If you like the revenge type movies you will enjoy this one.  Instead of a musclebound man
doing the killing this time we have a slender attractive female.  Zoe Saldana (the main blue
woman in Avatar) while a nine year old girl sees her mom and dad gunned down by a bad
mafia type in Columbia.  She escapes and finds her way to the US where her Uncle teaches
her the art of being a hit woman.

As she grows up her only goal is to make the guy pay that killed her parents.  All the while
the FBI is on her tail for all the bad guys she has been killing.  When the action starts it
keeps coming.  Zoe does a good job and overall acting is better than you would expect
in a movie like this.

You know what you are getting when you walk in the door.  If you like this type of movie
you will be entertained.  We enjoyed it.

Where have all the good movies gone?

I have been thinking of writing a blog on how crappy the Summer movies have been when I ran across this article in USA Today.  I agree with most all of the article.

Summer is supposed to be the time most of the big blockbuster movies come out.  This year there were far more duds that movies I'd want to see again.  That is how I rate a VERY good movie.  If I come out of the theater thinking I'd pay money to see that again in a theater it stands a good chance of making my top ten list.

For me Summer movies start in May.  It started with a bang with Fast Five.  I think at this point Fast Five is my favorite movie of the year.   Thor came next.  It was a good super hero movie but not great.  Lots of duds and very average movies followed.  I liked Crazy, Stupid, Love alot.   Horrible Bosses had some funny parts.  I thought Bridesmaids was funnier than my wife did.  Priest, Xmen, Captain America, Super 8 and Conan were average.  Really didn't like Hangover II.  It's not meant for old farts like me.  I hope Bad Teacher is the worst movie of 2011 for me as I really don't want to sit thru anything worse than that!  Can not believe that movie nearly grossed $100 Million!  Zookeeper and Kung Fu Panda II were also pretty bad even for kiddy movies.

Sadly September looks to be even worse.  Here is a list of movies set to be released in September 2011 and Billy Ball with Brad Pitt is the only movie I have any interest in seeing.  Even October isn't looking gangbuster at this point.  Ugh.

Anyone agree?  Disagree?  Feel free to post your comments below!

Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens

Rating 6.5 out of 10

This movie opened to yawning reviews that were mostly repeated by people I know that saw it.  It is very rare that I see a movie in theaters that has been out for more than a couple weeks.  I just like to see them when they come out or wait to rent.  I had written Cowboys and Aliens off to the Blockbuster line.  Rocky and I were in the movie mood and mean Mom had a problem with her teenager seeing Friends with Benefits so we strapped on our boots and jumped on our horse.

You have to give this crew an E for Effort on the movie.  They mixed the Cowboy movie genre with Aliens from outer space and somehow signed an very A-list cast.  The movie starts with our star Jake (Daniel Craig putting down his Bond martini for a cowboy hat) waking up in the desert with no memory of who he is or where he is at.  Bad guys show up and he quickly takes them out showing us he is one bad dude.  He has this cool looking bracelet hooked to his arm.  No idea what it is for.

When he goes into town he finds out what the bracelet is for.  Alien ships attack the town zipping towns people up right and left and flying off with them.  The bracelet turns into a cool gun that can shoot the ships down. The towns men assemble a posse to hunt down the aliens and get their people back.

The cast is incredible in this movie.  Harrison Ford must be pushing 90 but can still ride a horse and shoot bad guys.  Olivia Wilde seems to be in every movie this summer.  Sam Rockwell and a who's who of character actors.

The movie was much better than I expected.  The effects are not out of this world but work just fine.  The movie takes itself just serious enough.  I still say with a cast like this the movie should have been better.  This will make a good rental in a month or two when it comes out on dvd.

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

Rating 6 out of 10

You don't go to see Conan for complicated plot lines or mushy love stories.  This is pure testosterone from start to finish.  Slice, dice and repeat.  A movie like this rests on the muscular shoulders of it's star.  Especially when it's a remake of a movie Arnold Schwarzenegger made famous back in the 80's.  This is where I think this movie falls short.   Conan is played by Jason Momoa.  I see alot of movies and tv and I had never hear of him.  He handles the fight scenes well enough but not quite enough beefcake for a role like this.  I'm thinking someone like the Rock would have been a better choice.


That said this movie has plenty of action and fighting for any action movie fan.  It starts when Conan is a small boy.  Bad guys roll into town and do evil things to his dad (the only name in the movie, Ron Perlman- from Hellboy) and his people.  Conan vows revenge and we soon find out you don't want Conan mad at you.  Only ten bad guys?  This won't take long.  No guns back then so lots of limbs get chopped and body parts sliced.  If you don't like blood this movie is not for you.

There has to be a babe to be saved and that babe is the lovely Rachel Nichols. She was in the tv show Alias and was in the 2009 movie GI Joe.

I would say this movie delivers what is expected and no more.  I'm not sorry I paid to see it but probably would not recommend it either.  Good rental.

Fright Night

Fright Night

Rating 5 out of 10

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of horror movies like I was in my younger days.  Too easy to see the scares coming long down the road.  This is a remake from a movie made in 1985.  I saw the original but darned if I can remember it.

This movie is not intended to scare you every step.  It gives you gore from vampire attacks along with some tongue in cheek chuckles.  Colin Farrell has gone back to the pretty boy look after several movies looking grungy.  He plays the hunky vampire that moved in next door in a neighborhood outside Las Vegas.  A high school student and his single mom live next door and notice strange goings on.  People turning up missing and weird things happening late in the night.

Farrell does a good job mixing charm and fear.  Toni Collette was the mom in the wonderful Sixth Sense.  She is a mom here too.  Mother of the teenage boy who snoops into the vampire next door.

This is a harmless popcorn movie you will most likely get a kick out of.  Not real scary but has some scary parts in it.  Some of the vampire attacks are gory but only in quick spurts.  Like most movies released this summer it's not bad but not real good either.  See it on the early show.  Do not waste your money on the 3D.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I had heard this was a good date movie.  I would say that is correct.  I liked this movie alot.  I think Steve Carell is made for a part like this.  Very funny in parts and touching in others.

Carell plays Cal Weaver.  A man in his mid-forties who thinks he is happily married until his wife tells him at dinner that she has cheated and want's a divorce.  He is blown away.  Trying to move on he starts to hang out in a local bar.  There he meets a younger smooth talking ladies man (Ryan Gosling) Jacob.  Jacob takes him under his wing and shows him how to pick up women.  He is a good teacher.  Except he falls for Hannah (the lovely Emma Stone) who is immune to his lines. The two men become friends and bond.

Acting is pretty good with Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei and the actors playing the kids are good. There are some funny parts.  I was laughing so loud a couple times Cassie tried to shush me.  I wouldn't call the movie a comedy as there are alot of serious parts too.

I wouldn't call this a great movie but compared with most of the junk that has been released this Summer this is a classic.  A good date movie.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rating 5.5 out of 10

I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this movie.  Probably alot more action.  I wouldn't say this is a bad movie.  Just not a real good one either.

If you have seen the previews or know anything of the original Apes movies you have a good idea what this movie is about.  In the original Planet of the Apes movie of 1968 with movie legend Charlton Heston an astronaut lands on a strange planet that is run by Apes and humans are treated as pets.  At the end we find that strange planet is actually Earth in the future.  Sorry for the spoiler but the movie is 33 years old and a classic.  You should have seen it by now.

In this movie you learn how the Apes took over the planet.  James Franco (from last years very good 127 Hours) plays scientist Will Rodman who is working hard on a new drug that will stimulate brain cells in hopes of saving his dad (John Lithgow).  They are testing the drug on chimps when things go terribly wrong.  Because they need a babe in the movie we get the lovely Frieda Pinto (from Slumdog Millionaire) as the monkey doctor.

The movie has to establish how the apes go from A to Z and takes it's time.  The CGI is okay at times and others it is obvious it's a CGI monkey.  When the action starts it brings more questions than it answers. Where did all those monkeys come from?  It does answer the main question though.

Catch this on an early show or wait for DVD.

Moving... no time for movies

I have been moving the past couple weeks.  It has left no time for movie watching. : <

Several I want to see. I want to see Cowboys and Aliens even with all the very so-so reviews.  Wife wants to see Crazy, Stupid, Love so that means I'll see it too.  It does look like it has potential.  I like the cast.  Friends with Benefits looks like it has some funny parts.  If anyone has seen it please email me and let me know if it's any good or not.

This weekend Rise of the Planet of the Apes opens.  I'm sure I'll be seeing that.  The Change-up also opens.  Not sure on this one.  Previews look funny but also have the feel that could be all the funny parts in the movie.  Only so many directions they can go with the body switching stories.

Captain America : The First Avenger

Captain America : The First Avenger

Rating 7 out of 10

When I first saw the previews for this movie I thought it looked kinda lame.  A superhero that shoots guns?   I thought this would make a good rental.  Rocky's birthday came along and that was the movie people wanted to see so I was in.  I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.  This is no movie of the year or best superhero movie of the year as some have claimed.  But it is an entertaining action packed well acted movie.

Steve Rogers is the sickly skinny young man with the heart of a racehorse.  Want's to sign up with the Army and fight the Nazi's, but his body won't let him in.  Rogers (played by Chris Evans who also played superhero Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four) gets into a "special" experimental program that injects him with a blue goo that turns him into a chiseled hard body that can leap tanks with a single bound.

His special forces go against the evil Red Skull who is such a bad guy he makes Hitler seem okay.  Red Skull is played well by Hugo Weaving (from Matrix and Lord of Rings movies).  Always good to see Tommy Lee Jones.

This is a fun movie that's not going to blow you away.  The superhero still shoots a gun at bad guys although he does have a cool shield he can throw.  It's a good summer movie.

Zookeeper

Zookeeper

Rating 5 out of 10

Kevin James is a funny guy.  Of that there is no doubt.  I have seen his standup and he kills.  He was funny in the tv show.  With his movies though he tends to aim at the grade school humor.  This follows that line.  The movie is harmless and mildly entertaining and from young teenagers on down will find it hilarious!  If you liked Paul Blart: Mall Cop you will love this movie.

James plays zookeeper Griffin Keyes in NYC who is jilted by his long time girlfriend five years before.  She was clearly out of his league.  Now she has resurfaced and he still has feelings for her.  He talks of leaving the zoo for a high paying job that would impress her.  He is loved by all the animals who decide to now show him they can talk to help him out.  Also helping is lovely Kate (Rosario Dawson) from the Zoo.  She also has a thing for Griffin.  You can guess the rest.

The animation on the talking animals was first rate.  Some good voices.  Sylvester Stalone, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler and Cher.

This is a cute enough movie that has some pretty good laughs.  Rocky rated it an 8.5 and thought it was one of the funniest movies he has seen in a while.  He loved Paul Blart too.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Rating 5 out of 10

There are movies I don't care for, but can see how others would like it.  This is one of those movies.  Not sure why I went to see this movie at all.  I didn't really like the first two much either.

This is a typical Michael Bay directed movie.  Lot's of special effects and things that go boom.  Not much in the way of plot.  Let's be honest though, you don't go to a movie like this for an intricate plot.

Most of the same gang from the first two return.  The lead is again Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) who has saved the world twice and has a medal from the President but can't find a job.  The new cast member is Sam's new girlfriend Carly Miller (played by supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) who replaced Megan Fox who thumbed her nose at the series and was sent packing.  Okay, I'll believe bright yellow Camero's can turn itself into a huge robot but there is not way a dufus like Sam would have one hot girlfriend like that much less two!

Not even going to try to describe the storyline.  I am frustrated in these movies where I can not tell the good robots from the bad robots.  I also get frustrated by the complete lack of logic in some of the decisions made.  Yeah I know, I shouldn't worry about plot.  Just watch things blow up.

If you liked the other Transformers movie's I feel sure you will like this one too.  All two and half hours of it.  For me it was not my cup of tea.

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses

Rating 6 out of 10

Having date night with the wife and the Daniels.  The wives were being hard to deal with in not wanting to see Transformers.  This movie is funny in parts but not hold your side from laughing so hard.  It suffers from the same problem many movies do in that most of the funny parts of the whole movie fit into a couple 30 second trailers.

The movie is easy to describe. Three good best friends all have horrible bosses in different ways.  With the bad economy they don't feel like they can quit.  So after several drinks it makes more sense to kill the bad bosses. Simple as that.

The film has a great cast.  Jason Bateman does a good job as the friend most trying to talk sense into the trio. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day are the other two buds.  Both have some very funny parts and seem like I should know who they are.

The real star power comes from the three nasty bosses.  Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrel are good as the rude and mean bosses.  Jennifer Aniston is crazy as the sexual harassing dentist.  The movie also has small parts for big stars like Donald Sutherland, Jamie Foxx and Julie Bowen (from my favorite tv show Modern Family).

The movie is definitely hot and cold. Not many directions you can take this story.  It's good for an early show or a rainy weekend.  The movie has a moderate amount of F-bombs and much of the humor is very crude.

New tv shows--

I have been a big fan of The Amazing Race for years.  Love it.  Look forward to the new season every year.  Would give one of my kids to participate in it.  Maybe two.  So I was looking forward to the new show on ABC called Expedition Impossible.  It clearly was a rip off of the Amazing Race, but hopefully that would be a good thing.  It wasn't.  This is a low rent rip off of Amazing.  Instead of teams of tow there are teams of three.  Instead of traveling around the world they travel across the country of Morocco. Instead of winning a million dollars they win $150,000 and a new car.  Instead of interesting likable teams I found these to be bland.  After watching two shows I couldn't care less who wins and took it off my dvr to record list.




Another tv show that takes from the Amazing Race idea is Love in the Wild on NBC on Wednesdays at 10p.  This is kind of a mix of Amazing Race and Love Connection.  It sounded very hokey but in the end I liked it. They took ten Babes and ten hunky guys and put them on what looks like an island.  Without meeting them the ladies pick their partners one by one just like picking kickball teams in grade school.  The new teams then go thru a series of challenges  (making a raft, finding hidden items...) to see who comes in first.  The next day the men then get to chose if they want to stay with their mate or switch to another one.  The last two are eliminated.  Yes it is hokey but no one gets a rose at the end and it was fun.

Bad movie rental weekend

Usually the 4th of July weekend is a good movie time for me.  There are usually a couple good movies I want to see.  This year nothing high on my list.

The big release this year is the new Transformers movie.  I like the action and special effects.  I missed out on the Transformers cartoon.  So I get frustrated not knowing which are the good robots and which are the bad robots.  Who do I root for?

I want to see the new Tom Hanks/ Julia Roberts movie Larry Crowne.  Sadly it's getting hammered in the reviews and the only person I know that has seen it said it wasn't very good.  I could see where this could be a sleeper.  Or a rental.

I decided to rent some movies and spend some quality time with the wife.  The wife time was good.  The movie rentals were not.



Just Go with It

Rating- really bad.

Can anyone remember the last very good movie Adam Sandler made?  It takes some thinking.  This one won't make the list.  The movie is based on the absurd notion that young hot babes are drawn to married men. Hot single women see the wedding ring and want to rip his clothes off.  I have never found this to be the case.  Sandler plays Danny.  For years he has played the game of pretending to be married just to get women to sleep with him and having no attachment.  He meets an amazing blonde (Brooklyn Decker) whom he tells he is married but getting a divorce.  She want's to meet the ex. Danny talks his assistant (Jennifer Aniston) into pretending to be his ex wife.  The movie just gets worse as it goes along.



Cedar Rapids

When I saw the trailer for this movie long ago it looked to be funny.  Great reviews.  Yet the movie never came to a theater near me.  Surprising with the reviews and a decent cast.  Ed Helms from the Hangover movies, Anne Heche and the usually likable John C. Reilly.  Helms plays a naive insurance salesman who gets to go to the big city of Cedar Rapids for a convention when the lead salesman dies.  The movie has spots of humor and is not overly offensive (especially compared to Hangover).  The problem is the spots of humor are too seldom.  Most of the movie is just dull or stupid.  Not even worth a rental.



How Do You Know

This movie was so bland I saw it two days ago and for the life of me couldn't remember what it was or who was in it.  The story is bad on so many levels I am amazed they got a decent cast.  Reese Witherspoon plays a lady cut from the US Softball team and somehow feels her only options are a full of himself pro baseball player that treats her like crap (Owen Wilson) or a slightly more likable lawyer that is under federal investigation for a crime he probably didn't commit (Paul Rudd).  I have never under stood the popularity of Rudd or Wilson.  This movie seems to prove my point. Why would she pick either?  Jack Nicholson is thrown in to the mix I guess because the films budget wasn't high enough?   Waste of time. : <

Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher

Rating 2 out of 10

I was very leery about going to see this movie.  Had not seen any good reviews, but movies like this don't usually get great reviews.  The trailers looked kinda funny.  After seeing the movie I was very surprised to see that on www.rottentomatoes.com out of 141 reviews 79 were rotten.  What surprised me was that 62 reviewers gave this piece of crap a thumbs up.  This movie is horrible from start to finish.  I put the bar low when I went in the theater and it fell far below.

Cameron Diaz plays an airhead school teacher that has skated by in life on her good looks and likes it that way.  She chooses being a teacher because she thinks it's easy.  Never says how she made it through college to get a degree.  Her goal in life is to find a rich husband that can give her the finer things in life.  Loving or even liking the guy means nothing.  Money is all that counts.

When she is dumped by her rich boyfriend for being a gold digger she sets her sights on a sub teacher when it becomes clear he has family money (why is he teaching?).  She feels she stands a better chance landing a money man if she has bigger boobs but does not have the ten grand it costs to get them.  She then steals money from the kids car wash, bribes parents and any other way legal or not to get the bigger rack.

Justin Timberlake plays the sub teacher.  He should fire his agent and anyone else that got him involved in the project.  Jason Segel plays the dopy gym teacher who has the hots for teacher yet she wants nothing to do with a lowly gym teacher.  Even one that invites her to smoke pot with her in the gym during school hours.

The acting is bad and over the top as a campy SNL skit.  I don't mind a raunch movie every now and then.  Even the use of the F-word was not overused like I thought it would be.  This movie just wasn't funny.  I have to thank my buddy Ted for dragging me to see this!  : >