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.