Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants

Rating 5 out of 10

I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this movie.  I guess I was mostly hoping it wouldn't put me to sleep.  Several friends have recommended the book so I thought the movie would be good.  I can't say this movie was bad.  It was just slow.  In my opinion the movie was terribly miscast.

The movie is about a young man (Jacob) close to graduating college in 1931 when his parents die leaving him no money to finish.  He goes on the road and by accident stumbles into a traveling circus.  In a time when there are no jobs Jacob becomes the Vet in charge of taking care of the animals.  He promptly falls in love with the wife of the evil man that runs the circus (and his wife) with an iron fist.  Eventually an elephant is added to the circus.  Not sure why this is so important it goes with the title of the book and film nor do I know what the water has to do with anything.  Maybe someone that read the book can shed some light on that.

As I said before the biggest problem I found with the movie was the casting.  I know there are alot of females that are team Edward from Twilight (my daughter Stacy heads the list) and think Robert Pattinson is a hunky dude.  To me he has a dopey stare in his acting that makes me wonder what it would be like to pop him upside the head. I generally like Reese Witherspoon, but here she came across as dull and didn't fit the era she was playing.

Unfortunately you can watch the trailer and guess how the rest of the movie is going to go and you will most likely be right on.  Not a bad movie just slow.

Red by Sammy Hagar- Book

Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock

I have never been a Sammy Hagar fan.  Not that I didn't like him.  Just didn't listen to his music.  Before this book "I Can't Drive 55" was the only Hagar song I could name.  Not even a big Van Halen fan.  I knew the 80s songs like Jump, Hot for Teacher and Panama.  Didn't know any of the songs when Hagar was lead.  I saw him on Leno pushing the book and it sounded interesting.   It was.

Hagar was raised poor.  Very poor.  His father was the town drunk and would beat on Sammy and his mom.  He got into music at an early age.  Partly to keep from having to get a real job.  One thing led to another.  I was impressed that Hagar was not your typical dope head rock star.  He is a pretty smart guy that made millions with business outside the music industry.

This is most definitely a tell all book.  He tells of his insane first wife. His early drug use.  We hear about  a sex room at concerts below the stage where roadies would bring groupies for their pleasure during concerts.  He dishes big time on the Van Halen brothers.  Especially Eddie.  He tells of Eddie's drug and alcohol problems.

Considering I barely knew who he was I thought the book was very good.  If you are a Hagar fan you would probably like it even more.

Source Code

Source Code

Rating 7 out of 10

When I saw the trailer for this movie it didn't look like anything I'd want to see.  Looked to me like a guy on a train that falls in love with a stranger in eight minutes while trying to figure out who the bomber is.  Turned out that's not what it is about and it was better than I thought it would be.

Never been a big Jake Gyllenhaal fan either. Loved him in October Sky (great movie to rent!), but to me it seems like I watching someone who is acting.  In Source Code he does an okay job.  The cast is not the big deal. It's the story.

There is a secret government group that has figured out how to somehow put a military pilot into the body of a man that died when a terrorist puts a bomb in a moving train.  It's something about when you die your brain still holds the last eight minutes of your life and they figured out how to replay it.  Don't get too hung up on that.  The goal is to find out who the terrorist is as they can't stop this explosion but they know he is going to set off a dirty bomb in downtown Chicago later that day.  Time is short.

If Groundhog Day drove you crazy with them replaying the same day over and over you might want to skip this one (that would be you Gilbert Gonzales).  They put in on the train with him trying to figure out who the bad guy is.  After eight minutes they reload and put him back in to look somewhere else.  He can only go back a few times.

You have to applaud the effort even if not all of it makes sense.  The very ending had me scratching my head.  Overall it was an entertaining couple hours for a guy that is king of picking a movie apart.   Not great but good one to see on an early show of a rainy day as I did.

Hanna

Hanna

Rating 2 out of 10

A couple times a year I will see a movie that is totally dreadful and yet the critics give it wonderful reviews like it's the movie of the year.  I wonder if I saw the same film they did.  Hanna is that movie.  The previews looked like a good edge of your seat action movie.  Instead you get a very dull art house film with just enough action to fill a 30 second clip.

The movie starts interesting.  A teenage girl is somewhere in the arctic with her father (played by the always good Eric Bana) who is training her like a Navy Seal.  Teaching her to hunt, fight and survive.  Then everything goes downhill.  For some mostly unexplained reason they flip a button letting the bad guys know where they are.  Dad then hits the road leaving Hanna there to be captured.  She must be captured so she can show off her fighting skills in escaping from the fortress in Morocco. I guess a blonde white girl in an orange prison jumpsuit is a common thing in the nearby city as she walks around the city freely.  She takes in a local concert and we get to enjoy ten full minutes of singing from someone I'm sure is a rock star in Morocco.

You get the point.  The movie is a mess.  For having so many good actors (Saoirse Ronan was nominated for an Oscar from the movie The Lovely Bones that no one saw.  Cate Blanchett seems to be nominated every year) the acting is bad. The director is like a kid with a new toy.  Every fight scene we get blasted with some bad rock music.  Some shots he zooms in close then flips the camera upside down where the actors are on the ceiling.

Save your money folks.  Don't even rent this one.

No interesting movies out there?

This is the time of the year when the movie makers throw out the movies they have low expectations on.  It's not the summer blockbusters or later in the year when they are pushing their Oscar hopefuls.

There are a few movies out there that I want to give a shot.

I kept flip flopping on whether I wanted to see Source Code or not.  It just looks too far fetched.  Cassie saw it and didn't care for it.  Makes it a rental.

I am a big fan of the original Arthur.  While the remake has a couple laughs in the commercials but Russell Brand gets on my nerves in a hurry and how are you going to make me believe anyone is going to pass on Jennifer Garner?   Another rental.

Your Highness... I don't think so.

Soul Surfer is the true story of a girl that gets an arm taken off by a shark while surfing in Hawaii and then returns to compete again.  It looks interesting.  It's getting bad reviews, but the movie has a Christian tilt and that for whatever reason turns off many movie reviewers.  I may have to see this one.

Hanna.  A teenage girl has to go ultra violent and kill bad guys to protect herself and save her dad.  I'm in on this one!