Eclipse

"Let's face it I'm hotter than you."

I will be the first to tell you that Twilight was pretty much one of the worst movies ever made. I thought the book was terrible too. I finally watched the second movie in the saga, New Moon, last week. It was better than the first, but still not that good. My wife kept telling me that the third was the best of all. I was sure of that. How could it have been any worse? Well she was right it was much better. I'm not sure if it was the great fight scenes or the character development of the rest of the crew, but it was much more endurable.

I enjoyed the scenery of this film as I did the other two. I like the Seattle outskirts. Even though this (like almost every other film)was filmed in BC Canada. I really like the fight scene between the new borns and the Cullens and wolves. I am confused about then shattering though. Maybe they explain that in the book. I really enjoyed how they finally explained the character of the cullen family. Now I can hate them less now that I know why they are the way they are. The story of Jasper being a civil war Colonel was very interesting.

Over all this was a much more entertaining movie and I would even venture watching it a second time.

Oh, and for the females keeping score I was team Jacob, just for name sake, but after the fighting scenes, sorry, I'm switching teams.

6.85 out of 10

My Favorites of 2010

Nice work 2010! Way to step up to the plate.

It is time for me to rank the movies of 2010....well at least the ones I've seen thus far. My ranking of the bottom five are not in set order, so my number six could be my number 10 on any given day. but my top five should be able to whip the last five.


#10 Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Tade and I watch this movie a lot this year. It was much funnier than we expected and we really liked it. Now my youngest boy runs around saying "Tade. You've got the cheese touch." This was a fun family film and had a good message about being a good person and not caring about what others think.





#9 Charlie St. Cloud
I was expecting this movie to be pretty bad considering how much it was panned by critics. I did not doubt that Zack Efron could pull it off though. It was much better than expected. The story was good, a bit predictable, but still good.





#8 Ramona and Beezus
The little girl who played Ramona is probably the cutest thing ever. My wife really like this movie as did I. It was a great family movie about overcoming difficulties and the importance of each member of the family, and she says "Guts" really loud.





#7 The Karate Kid
Being a product of the 80's, and a boy, I grew up loving Ralph Machio in the original Karate Kid. I was a bid timid about the remake, but was excited to Jackie Chan in the Mr. Miagi role. I took Tade to this and we both loved it. There were many parts that connected to the original and a few new parts that made this film really stand on it's own.





#6 Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
My number six favorite of this year was the documentary about the rock band Rush. I have been playing drums since middle school and have followed, in awe, the career of Neil Peart, the drummer for Rush. I saw this documentary on TV and had to get a copy on Blu Ray. It was a great doc. about the formation of the band up to where they are today.





#5 Inception
I think this is on everybody's best of 2010 list. I unfortunately saw this over a 6 hour period split up here and there so I think some of it might have been lost in translation. I still did really like this film. The dream building scenes were great. It made me thing of Hayao Miyazaki's movies. Not the movie itself , but the way you watch them. Some movies are like a dream. They only make sense in that setting; like a Miyazaki film. I really need to watch it gain and I might find that it moves up higher on my list.





#4 Letters to Juliet
I love this movie. I don't know if it is the fact that I had three sister growing up or that Amanda Seyfried is gorgeous, but I really did like this movie. I saw it on vacation and told my wife that she needed to go get it for me. She agreed. I loved the scenery in this movie. I have always like movies from Italy. The best part is the comic relief between the the grandmother and her grandson. Highly recommended.





#3 Toy Story 3
What else do I need to say besides it's Pixar. All of their movies will be making a top ten list of some sort. This final instalment of the trilogy put a great ending on it and sealed it's spot as one of the greatest trilogies of all time. How many other trilogies have had all three movies be equally great. Andy summed it up best at the end of the film, "Thanks guys."




#2 The Sorcerer's Apprentice
I'm not the biggest fan of Nicholas Cage, but I don't hate him as much as others do.
I don't think he is to credit or blame for this film. I would say the credit goes to Jay Bruchel. His scenes were so much fun. I was really torn between my #2. It could have easily been Toy Story 3, but Jay's humor tilted the scales for me. You might as well keep him in mind because he is also a part of my #1 film...




#1 How to Train Your Dragon

If you have seen this movie, then I don't need to say any more. This was my favorite film of 2010. The humour, the characters, the ideas and the final product. This was a great family film. It teaches us not to take people, or anything, at face value, but rather that we should take time to really understand something. We get so caught up in what is pre-labeled for us by media that we may miss a real opportunity. It killed me that I had to wait for aver half a year to get my own copy of this movie. he second that the movie was over my oldest son turned to me and said "Dad, when this comes on DVD can we get it?" I said Absolutely!


Well, I guess that's about it. There are a few films that I did not get a chance to see this year that I am positive would have made my top five. (The Social Network, True Grit.) Unfortunately rules are rules and I did not see them in 2010. So look for them to be reviewed soon.

Charlie St. Cloud

"Nobody ever gets to see what could have been."

My wife has been waiting for Charlie St. Cloud to come on dvd. When she said she wanted to see the new Zach Efron movie, I tuned her out. Later, when I saw a trailer for it and realized it was about a guy who plays catch with his dead brother every night I was a bit intrigued.

The location for this film was Vancouver, BC. The scenery was beautiful. I though most of it was a painting or CGI. The scenes with the sailboats where great. The landscape shot were great.

Charlie St. Cloud, played by Zach Efron, loses his younger brother in a car accident and gets a second chance at life. His dead brother keep the promise made in life to show up each night at sunset to practice baseball. He later meets (re meets) a girl named Tess, and Charlie is faced with the decision to continue to live in the past or to move on.

This movie was much better than imagined. Probably because it got panned by every critic, which usually means it was not that bad. I like the storyline. It is a very short and probably very obvious story, but it was good. I liked that fact that it was only 90 mins. long. I found the roles enjoyable. I liked the small role of the British friend. The younger brother was pretty good. He had his good moments. I found the love interest, Tess played by Amanda Crew, was very easy to watch. Very easy on the eyes. The acting by here was okay. A little forced, but I will overlook that.


You can tell this was adapted from a book because some of the lines were a bit too good. There would be a normal conversation then some great line would pop up. The best line was said by charlie's brother at the end of the film.
"I'm okay Charlie. I'd give anything for you to see me. What I've become, but no one could forget what it could have been."

7 out of 10