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

Ramona and Beezus

"Guts...Guts, Guts, Guts!!!"

It is getting to the end of the year and I would like to do a blog about my favorite movies of 2010, but I still have to catch up on a few. One of those was this film Ramona and Beezus. I, like most products of the 80's, have fond memories of the Ramona Q. Quimby books by Bevery Cleary. They went hand in hand with my Superfudge series. I saw a preview for this this summer and was excited to see it. My wife saw it first and liked it a lot. She said that the girl that played Ramona, Joey King, was beyond adorable. I must agree. With those bright blue eyes and wonderful facial expressions made this movie.

Ramona and Beezus is the story of Ramona and her family dealing with the loss of her fathers job, a big hole in their house, the neighbor who loves the aunt and mischief happening at every turn. Beezus is played by Selena Gomez, of Disney fame, mom and dad by John Corbet and Bridget Moyanahan. I have always like John Corbet especially his eccentric character, Lars, in Serendipity. The neighbor, Hobart played by Josh Duhamel (who every woman I know likes to watch)and the Aunt Bea played by Ginnifer Goodwin, were fun to watch as they teased about their past romance.

I like watching movies like this. It had a strong family message, it showed that it takes all types to make a family and that all the members of that family are important. I would hope to see another of the Ramona books made into a movie like this. I thought it was well done. The colors were bright, the characters were enjoyable and the message a good one. This a great movie to watch for a family movie night. I hope to see more movies like this made in the future.

7 out of 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

"You just headbutted my boyfriend so hard he burst."

I like Michael Cera movies just as much as the next. I rally like the dry humor of the kind of awkward, quick witted, quiet after thought comments. I did not know what to expect from this movie with the exception that it was a movie made to be like a video game. I really love he fact that the names would fit perfectly into any video game: Wallace Wells, Knives Chau, Gideon Graves, and Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera, is in a band and has just got a new girlfriend, Knives Chau. He Soon there after meets his dream girl Ramona. He quickly falls in love and dreads telling Knives that they need to break up. She continues to stalk him throughout the movie. Soon after meeting Ramona Scott find they if he want to be with her that he was going to have to take care her dirty past. Ramona has baggage in the for of 7 Evil Exes. It is up to Scott to defeat them.

What follow there after are a series of battles that will peak the interest of anyone who is a fan of 1990 video games of the Street Fighter sort. The movie actually is a cross between a video game and a comic book. There are fast shots that are boxed like a comic, including the written out sound effects. As he fights the bad guys there are points that pop up. I thought that it would get annoying, but I actually liked it. The written words did get a bit annoying, but they were never totally in your face, like an old Batman episode.

I was very happy to see some good actors in this film. Chris Evans plays one of the Exes Lucas Lee. Ramona is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead who was Royal Pain of Sky High. My favorite was Jason Scharztman playing Gideon Graves, the head of the Evil Exes.

I was not to happy with some of the sexual themes in this movie. I found myself torn between liking it and wondering if I should be liking it. I don't think I would let my kids watch it until they were older. It was rated PG-13 for a reason. I do like the whole idea that they brought out. It made me laugh when they would nail the video game ideas, like the coins for defeating the bad guys, and the 1 ups.

6 out of 10

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

"The Imaginarium does not cost a thing. We're not here for money."

I have a friend that I went to High School with who loves Terry Gilliam. I had never heard of him. He sent me a message with a link to this trailer and I was very interested. After seeing this this I can see why he is a fan. He is very creative and a bit off the wall.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus was Heath Ledgers final movie. He sadly died during the filming of this movie, That set back left the door open for even more of Mr. Gilliam's madness to make a movie great. All of the Scenes in which Ledgers character, Tony, goes into the Imaginarium he is played by a different person. Sometimes Jude Law, sometimes Johnny Depp or Collin Farrel.

The story is of a group of gypsies who roam around putting on "shows" for people. Little do they know that they are all a part of a bet between Dr. Parnassus, played by Chrstopher Plummer and Mr. Nick(Satan) played by Tom Waits. They have made a pact that when Valentina turns 16 that she will become property of Mr. Nick. When they come across tony hanging under a bridge he joins the traveling show and finds he has the power to create worlds of his own behind the looking glass. He discovers what is going on and tries to put a stop to it.

I must say how much I enjoyed the character Anton played by Andrew Garfield. I thought he was great. I have never seen him in any of his other movies. I guess he play a role in this years hit The Social Network. In this movie he is great. He plays such an enjoyable role.

This film made me realize a few things. First off Terry Gilliam is awesome. Second He is a genius. Third that he is Crazy, and finally that Tom Waits should play (and usually does) Satan in every movie. The scenes in this film were great. Many CGI scenes made me think of a dark Dr. Seuss Book. Dr. Seuss crossed with the touch of a modern day Tim Burton. I need to revisit this movie and watch it in one sitting. I unfortunately watched it over the course of a few days. That never helps in the continuity of a film.

I did like this one. It is a film that you can get something from each time you watch it. The color was fantastic, the ides were amazing. The characters were well played and the theories/theology well thought out.

6.5 out of 10

Smoke Signals

"The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV."

In College I took an intro to film class. We had a list of movie we were going to watch throughout the year. Smoke signals was one of them. Like many of the films on the list we did not get to see it. After many recommendations from my cousin I checked it out. That was 5 years ago. I have watched it 4 times since then. After another viewing last night I realized how much I like this film. It was the first film to be written, directed and filmed by Native Americans.

The story is of two friends, Victor and Thomas, and their struggle to deal with life. This movie is essentially a "road movie" where a character goes on a road trip and find themselves and face down their demons.

Victor Joseph is played by Adam Beach. You may have seen him playing the Native American in many other films such as Windtalkers, Flags of Our Fathers and one of my favorites...Joe Dirt. He does a great job playing an Indian with a chip on his shoulder, who lives on a Rez in Couer d'Alene in Northern Idaho. His friend Thomas Builds-a-Fire played by Evan Adams is a nerdy boy who wears big glasses and a suit at all times. When Victor is suddenly called away Thomas goes with him on a road trip. There the two deal with issues in their lives and struggle with the past.

In Arizona they meet Suzy Song who was a friend of Victors father. She is played by the beautiful Irene Bedard, who was the voice of Pocahontas in the Disney cartoon. Suzy help Victor realize it is time to change and offers him a new perspective that will help change his point of view.

The shots of Idaho and Arizona are beautiful. The rolling hills of Idaho make me feel a bit home sick for that part of the country. My Mother-In-Law watched the movie with me and she said that the film made her think of Napoleon Dynamite. I think part in due to the film location and also the independent feel to the movie.
The film was at Sundance back in 1998 where it won the Filmmakers: Dramatic award and the Audience: Dramatic award.

Smoke signals brings up the issues of racism, anger, acceptance and forgiveness. The final thought by Thomas sums up the movie as it questions forgiving their fathers.

"How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"

8 out of 10