Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows November 21, 2010

I am a big Harry Potter fan. I've read all the books and have seen all the movies multiple times. I've appreciated the change in film style as we've gone from the magical, bright beginnings to the dark tales that have unfolded in the present. So it was with great anticipation that I saw the new Harry Potter movie this past weekend. I'm glad that, for me, it did not disappoint.

If you have read any of my reviews you probably noticed I don't like to go into great detail about the stories. Too many reviews give too much away and I hate that. So, I will say the film stays true to the tone of the book. Unfortunately, even divided into 2 parts there were scenes that I missed and others I felt unnecessary. As with the book I felt that the middle section needed to be edited more as it tends to drag a bit. There were several scenes of suspense and poignancy. The young actors are excellent and Rupert Grint truly seems to stand out here. Once again, I can't wait to see the next and (oh no!) final film.

Have a good one.

Roger

Unstoppable/Skyline November 14 2010

I love the fall season around Thanksgiving. It means all the good fall/winter movies will start coming out. Too many at once unfortunately but I get to catch a few. So glad my kids are older so that I don't have to wait for everything to come out on video. The first two I went to see were PG13 and action-based so my son came with me to see them anyways so it didn't really matter.

Today I saw the movie Unstoppable. The plot is pretty simple. Runaway train. It's pretty straight forward with very little extraneous material. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine star. They are both very charismatic performers and get the viewer invested in their characters with very little effort. The movie gets going very quickly and doesn't really let up. Glad I got the big bucket of popcorn because this really is a popcorn movie. The action is almost nonstop and very suspenseful! The plot is pretty unrealistic but hey, they don't talk about the suspension of disbelief for nothing! Elijah, Sharon, and I really enjoyed this one and would definitely put it on our must see list.


The other movie I was was Skyline. This one wasn't quite as successful. The movie deals with a group of visitors trapped in a high rise apartment building when alien visitors attack the Earth. Despite some really horrendous reviews, I actually liked most of this movie. Of course this will come as no surprise to anyone since I love these kind of "end of the world" movies. But it hooked me and kept me curious as to what was going to happen next. On a reported budget of $10-20 million dollars the special effects are really quite good. I liked the lead actor Eric Balfour very much and he created his character of a young guy caught in turmoil pretty well. He was in turns heroic and vulnerable. I didn't really care for most of the other characters. Through most of this movie I thought it was worthy of a DVD purchase. Then came the ending. I won't hint as to where the movie goes but it really is bizarre and doesn't seem to fit the rest of the movie. It really is so bad though that it is no longer on my purchase list.

For an early movie Skyline was really crowded! The overall feeling was that most people liked it but I did hear a couple say the ending killed it for them. Oh, well, 2 movies down and tons to go. Yay, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is next!

Take care

Roger

Alpha and Omega November 7, 2010

Got a sort of bonus this weekend. Sharon and Brenna needed a break so I took the boy child out to see the movie Alpha and Omega. He's been wanting to see this for a while (and I've been desperately trying to avoid it). Well, in Elijah's estimation it was worth the wait. He enjoyed it thoroughly, thought it funny and liked the romance. He wouldn't compare it for me to Megamind because they were two completely different movies. So he got my money's worth.

On the other hand, from my perspective, this was a passable but not very good movie. Unlike Megamind, I didn't care for the characters, the story was slow, predictable and uninvolving. The movie ran about 86 minutes but seemed much longer. The story involves two wolves at the end of the social order. She is the Alpha destined to lead the pack while he is the Omega, lowest of the social order. Geez, wonder how this will turn out? While many of these movies travel familiar territory, the journey to the inevitable conclusion has to be entertaining, maybe with some unexpected twists or something to keep one invested in the story. Nothing like that here. So, I didn't really get my money's worth but my wife and daughter at least got a couple hours of quiet.

Roger

Megamind-November, 6 2010

Elijah and I attended an early morning showing of Megamind, the new Dreamworks 3-D animated action/comedy. First of all, we threw out the 3-D and went 2-D. Elijah and Brenna both like to save their 3-D experiences for movies they hear are truly extraordinary in the use of that medium. They also hope that the extra money we save can be used on them at a later point.

First Elijah's review since this is a film geared toward kids. He was very happy with the movie. It lived up to the preview, in his opinion. It was pretty funny yet also kind of sad in parts. He also thought the previews of coming attractions were really good.

As for me, I enjoyed Megamind. It had a great deal of humor and adult references and inside jokes. The storyline kept me interested even though there weren't a great deal of surprises. But if the presentation is good, that's ok. And the presentation was good. The film created characters that I cared about and there was an interesting question addressed of what makes a hero and what makes a villain.

It was not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning. I'm excited, though, that there are so many good movies coming in the week ahead!