Midnight in Paris

"You can fool me, but you cannot fool Ernest Hemingway!"



Woody Allen seems to put out a movie every six months. I never see them not because I don't want to, but more because of their ratings and the fact that they are never played in local theater. When I hear about this one, I knew I would have to see it.

Midnight in Paris is about a screenwriter from LA who goes with his Fiance and her parents to Paris to shop and plan for their wedding. Late one night Owen Wilson goes for a walk and gets lost. He sits down on a step and at midnight a car pulls up and whisks him away to Paris in 1920's. He meets famous writers and painters and a beautiful Marion Cotillard. He begins to question his own life and his relationship to his fiance.

Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard. There is also a great supporting cast in Cathy Bates plays the great Gertrude Stein, Adrian Brody is an amusing Salvador Dali. My favorite had to be Corey Stoll who played Ernest Hemingway. He was so serious all the time and when he would talk it was like he was reading a paragraph from a novel. I had to laugh.

I thought this was a great date movie. It had all the elements that my wife would like and also enough humor for a guy to like. This was just another good movie to add on to the ever growing list of good movies of 2011.

7 out of 10

Soul Surfer

"I don't need easy. I just need possible."




I wanted this movie to be good. I really did. It did have it's good moments. I liked the surfing. I liked the settings. It was even full of great actors like Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and starred AnnaSophia Robb. A movie about a shark attack survivor and her struggle to get back into surfing. If I could change one thing to make this film a much, much better film it would have to cast Mandy Moore in place of Carrie Underwood, or better yet just leave her character out of the movie altogether.

The movie is a true story about Betheny Hamilton a teenage girl who lives and surfs in Hawaii. One day as she is surfing with friend she is attacked by a shark. She loses her left arm. This may seem like a gruesome scene to show in a family film, but they don't show much. The attack lasts all of two seconds. Her recovery process was pretty good. I'm sure that hearing about it from the real Betheny would be better, This movie became a bit too Born-again for me. I'm glad they had a deep faith and that it helped them through it, but most scenes that had her church group were pretty annoying. The story was good enough on its own.

It is a good story overall. I like the tender moments and the scary moments. Unfortunately I liked the idea of this movie more than the actual movie. It is a good family film though. The morals it teaches are great. The support of a family, friends, and a whole community. It teaches kids that all things are possible with determination, support and a little faith. Betheny went on to be a National champion surfer with only one arm. She is an inspiration to many and continues to serve others.

5 out of 10

Cowboys & Aliens

"Here Jake, don't ferget yer gun. I always liked you best."



The day I saw the trailer for Cowboys and Aliens I thought..Yes!!!
I was not disappointed. Many critics said that this did not work for them. I don't see how. I sat in the theater with my friends John, Jon and Jonathan (I could find any more people named John)and all seemed to enjoy it. How could you not there was something for everyone. For girls there was Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. For the kids there was the kid who played the Avatar in The Last Airbender (still rubbish by the way, but a little better.) and for the guys there were cowboys, aliens and... Olivia Wilde.

The story is about a cowboy named Jake(good name by the way) who wakes up in the desert. He doesn't now how he got there or what his name is. I wondered where his boots were. He has a metal bracelet on him that he can't get off. We have to wait all but two minutes before he beats the junk out of three bandits and there is action from there until the end. Jake heads into a nearby town to get some clothes and clean up a bit. Like all westerns he ends up in a bar. A beautiful Olivia Wilde walks up to him and looks at him as if she knows him better than he does. Then the usual western bar scene fight. Jake gets cross ways with the rich kid in town played fantastically by Paul Dano. He is amazing at playing a creepy, dirt bag. When his father finds out that his son is in jail he comes to get him out and then the action really starts.

The aliens show in in theirs ships and start to blow the town up. People get roped and hauled away. Jake's bracelet comes to life and he is able to shoot down a ship releasing one of the aliens. The rest of the movie is them chasing after the aliens as they try to get their loved ones back.

The area that the film was shot in New Mexico were beautiful. Some of the shots through the canyons were some of the best I've seen. The aliens looked a lot like the one from super eight. These things were fast and violent. There was humor in the film also. I mean... come on it is a movie about cowboys and aliens. There has to be a little humor involved.

I was not disappointed with this movie. I was enjoyable, a few scares and some thrills too. No a bad way to spend two hours.

8 out of 10

Winnie the Pooh

"Silly old bear"

I was watching a movie at home with my boys when a trailer for the new Winnie the Pooh movie came on. I immediately thought it was a trailer for a direct to DVD release of the old series of films, but I was very surprised and happy when I realised it was for a new movie that was going to be put in theatres. Disney was going to make a new movies based on the old series. The trailer is great set to the song by Keane. It was going to be a hand drawn not computer animated. I must say it looked great. The colors were bright but not so different as to distract from the original.

The story is a typical Pooh film. This one has two stories. in the first Eeyore has lost his tail and they hold a contest to find him a new one. It is funny to watch what ideas the come up with; a clock, an anchor or a balloon. The second is that they misread a note from Christopher Robin and assume he has been kidnapped by the Backsun (should have been read Back Soon.) The group the develops a plan to get him back. What follows is a series of mistakes and cute lines. It was fun and full of nostalgia. It remained true to the originals and the voices were great.

It was very short at just over 1 hour. I was surprised that it was so short, but think it was very appropriate that they were that short. Most kids have a hard time watching a movie much over that. I was glad to be able to share this with my kids

7.85 out of 10

Cars 2

"Do not try the free pistachio ice cream! It done turn!"

Pixar Studios has put out one amazing film after another. They can do no wrong in many people eyes. I am one of those people. I have been waiting for Cars 2, like many, for the past year. Many people said it was very different from the first because Mater seems to be he main character not Lightning McQueen. I did not think that it was as distracting as some made it out to be. I felt that McQueen was in it enough.

In this second instalment We find the Cars gang shipped across the world to Europe to help McQueen race in the World Grand Prix. It is a series of Three race spread out in Tokyo, Italy and London. Little to any ones knowledge there is a foul plot afoot. Someone is trying to sabotage the race in order to further their own agenda. Mater the tow truck is mistaken by British Intelligence agents named Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell. Both are voiced fantastically by Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer. Mater is thrown in as an unexpected target for the evil Lemons. As usual it takes half the movie for each party to realize that they are/have the wrong person. Lessons are learned as McQueen is embarasses to have the backwoods Mater making a fool of himself in front of all the cameras and must learn to appreciate him.

The jokes are pretty good as long as you have a basic knowledge of the James Bond series. My 7 yr old kept asking why we were laughing at so many parts. He did not understand why we laughed at the name Shiftwell and why the wasabi scene was so funny. I had to tell him that most of the jokes were based off of other movies he had not seen and he was a bit frustrated.

It was fun to see the gang in new places and the new cast of friends and villains were enjoyable. I loved the fact the the bad guys, known as the lemons, were a group of pacers and gremlins. Perfect. I enjoyed the race scenes with the new cars also. McQueens new rival, Francesco Bernoulli was a hoot. Each time he was on the screen he would taunt McQueen many times making a fool of himself in the process. You could never hate him, but actually loved him.

I was happy with the movie. I don't think it was as good as the first, but still good. I had heard so many people saying that it was not good that I was surprised by how much I liked it. I am a car guy so maybe I'm a bit biased. I think Pixar steak is still flawless. It was still one of the best movies of the year.

8 out of 10.

Super 8

"Production value!"


When I heard that Super 8 was a homage, of sorts, to Steven Spielberg's earlier movies like Goonies, Close Encounters and E.T. I was instantly ready to see it. When I hear all of the good reviews I was even more excited. So I talked my wife into seeing it with me instead of watching her swoon over Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern (which I'm sure will happen soon.) I got pretty excited to see the Amblin stamp at the front of the film. It seemed to set the stage.

The movie itself was great. It had a early eighties feel to it (I know it was set in 1979, but close enough.) One of the first thing I noticed was that J.J. Abrams use lighting as if it were from one of those earlier movies. I noticed the glare from lights across the screen, even in the underground scenes which was odd.

The kids in the movie were great. Much like E.T. the leads were played by new comers. Well, all except Elle Fanning who has been in plenty of movies. The lead boy, Joe was played by Joel Courtney. He was really good. Kind of gave me the same feeling as watching Elliot from E.T. The scenes with the kids are great. A typical 70'80's feel to them. The foul mouthed fat kid, the girl, the small kid with attitude, the tall awkward kid scared of everything. Made me think of Goonies.

The story is about a bunch of kids who are making a zombie movie using a Super 8 camera, hence the name Super 8. While filming the movie late one night a train wrecks and they are witness to all of it.The kids realize over the next few days that the Air Force was not moving plane parts like they claim, but something else. Something is causing strange things to happen across the town. They decide to keep filming their movie using the current situation to add "production value." They use the army vehicles littered around the town as backdrops for their movie.

It is a fun film. It is smart and although you have seen the basic premise of this film many times it never gets old. The story of the kids and how their families are connected to the past we'll keep you enthralled throughout the film. It has been one of the best movie I have seen so far this year. It is going to be a great summer. Well done 2011 way to step up to the plate.

9.5 out of 10

Kung Fu Panda 2

Thanks for carrying me up those last flights of stairs. I threw up on the third floor. You may want to have some one mop that up... an evil janitor maybe.

I was looking forward to seeing the sequel to the first film. I do like Jack Black and am a fan of his movies. My boys were also very excited to see this. We brought "Uncle" John along with us so he would enjoy a theater full of crazy kids along with us. I think I liked this one as well, if not more than the first. There is more action in this and more one-liner jokes. I have heard that it is better and worse than the first, so I guess it is a matter of opinion.

I thought this film was great. It is one film that I would be happy to go see for a second time in the theatre. I was very impressed with the difference between the first film and this. The first film was based mainly in the village and the second was in the village and the city. There were some scenes, Long shots, of the city where the "bad guy" was that were magnificent. I caught myself actually saying
"wow" and "what a great shot" even though I guess it is technically not a shot.

I think that this summer is shaping up o be a good one. Much better than last year. This will be the summer of sequels and if they are all as good as this one we'll be set.

8.9 out of 10