The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D

Movie: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D

Cast: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes. Ben Barnes, Will Poulter

Genre: Fantasy, adventure

I saw it on: December 14 & 30, 2010

Synopsis: This is the third book of the C.S. Lewis series. Peter and Susan - the older two of the four Pevensie siblings are out of the picture completely.  They have gone with their mother and father to the United States during the war.  The younger two – Lucy and Edmund have been left behind to stay with their aunt and uncle – and their annoying cousin Eustace.

During a typical altercation between Lucy and Edmund and their cousin, they are sucked back into Narnia, along with their Eustace.  Once there, they join up with Prince Caspian on a ship (The Dawn Treader) on a trip east across the sea.  Along the way they encounter invisible one-legged men, an island that sends boat-loads of people into the ocean to be sacrificed to a green mist, slave traders, sea monsters . . . and of course Aslan..

My two cents: I liked this movie much more than I did the first two.  It would be useful to see the other two movies first, but not really necessary.  I think with multi-movie series like this, they should take five minutes in the beginning to do a quick recap . . . but again, this movie can stand on its own. 

I think my favorite character was the battling swashbuckling mouse – Reepicheep.  Not only was this mouse the most fun character to watch, he was most compassionate critter in the movie and had the most depth of character.

The new major character is the cousin – Eustace.  Although he is not quite as bad as Harry Potter’s cousin, he gives Dudley Dursley a run for his money.  For much of the movie, I just wanted someone to shoot him and put me out of my misery –  so I guess the character was well written and well-acted.

Bottom line – a pretty decent movie.  I don’t think I would bother with the 3D version unless you really like wearing the glasses.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Movie: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Gemma Jones, Antonio Banderas

Director: Woody Allen

Genre: romantic comedy

I saw it on: October 5, 2010

Synopsis: Helena (Gemma Jones) and Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) are married with a grown daughter, Sally (Naomi Watts).  Sally is married to Roy (Josh Brolin).  Alfie leaves Helena for a young hooker.  Helena goes off the deep end with a psychic – she lives her life by what her psychic tells her.  Roy is a very depressed writer with a bad case of writers-block. While trying to write, Roy spends a lot of time gazing out his apartment window at a woman in an apartment across from his.  Roy becomes infatuated with this woman and eventually starts seeing her.  Meantime he also finds an innovative solution to his writer’s block – while developing a crush on.  Sally has the hots for her art gallery boss, Antonio Banderas.   And then things get complicated.

My two cents: Kind of a typical Woody Allen movie.  Lots of quirky off-beat humor.  The people are definitely marching to the beat of a different drummer.  I had a great time with this movie.

The Social Network

Movie: The Social Network

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Rooney Mara, Justin Timberlake

Genre: biography

I saw it on: October 11, 2010

Synopsis: The story of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and how he created Facebook.  It follows him from his time in college when he honed his computer skills through the infancy of Facebook to where it took the world by storm.

My two cents: A fabulous movie.  Jesse Eisenberg was great as Zuckerberg.  I think this is by far the best acting I have seen from Eisenberg.  He usually plays a bit of a clown – but not in this film.  The scene where he is being deposed by lawyers of the Winklevoss twins he is mesmerizing when he intellectually eviscerates the twin’s claim.  The background we learn is fascinating.  I can’t say enough about this movie.  This is a chance to see a Bill Gates-type become a Bill Gates-type.

You must see this movie.

My Soul to Take

Movie: My Soul to Take

Cast: Max Thieriot, Denzel Whitaker, John Magaro

Genre: horror, slasher

I saw it on: October 12, 2010

Synopsis: Sixteen years ago, a serial killer was on the loose in Riverton.  The Riverton Ripper is finally killed, or so everyone thought, since his body was never recovered.  It so happens that the night he was killed, seven children were born in Riverton’s hospital.

Now, sixteen years later, these children are being killed off one by one.  The suspicion is that on the night he died, the evil soul of the serial killer took possession of one of the seven children born that night.

My two cents: Crap - a gigantic waste of time.  I kept waiting for things to pick up – but they never did.  It just seemed to me that someone wanted a movie that involved a lot of gruesome teenage killings – and just made up some crappy storyline to go with it.  There were a couple of scenes that had some suspense, but nowhere near enough to save the film.  I was sooooo bored.

I would not waste my time on this movie, even if it is on network TV.

Never Let Me Go

Movie: Never Let Me Go

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Charlotte Rampling

Genre: horror, sci-fi

I saw it on: October 17, 2010

Synopsis: Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley) are three children being raised in a seemingly exclusive English boarding school.  We observe them over a period of years.  Eventually we learn that they are being raised for a very specific purpose.  When you finally realize what this purpose is, you will be horrified.  The three form a love triangle.  Kathy loves Tommy, but Tommy ends up wth Ruth. Eventually they all graduate.  The three end up together in a cluster of cottages where they pretty much just hang around, waiting for them to be called upon to fulfill their purpose.

My two cents: This storyline was a new one for me.  I a big fan of both Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, so I was confident I would like the movie.  I must say that when I learned to what end these children were being raised, I kept thinking that I must be missing something – it is that horrific.  I also enjoyed seeing Charlotte Rampling, even though her characters are usually so unlikeable – and this was no exception.

If you don’t mind things being a bit on the dark side – give this movie a chance.

Nowhere Boy

Movie: Nowhere Boy

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff

Genre: biography

I saw it on: October 17, 2010

Synopsis: When he is very young, John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) left him to be raised by his aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas).  The movie has a few flashbacks, but deals mostly with John in his late teen years.  He looks up his mother after about ten years and starts hanging out with her – to the horror of his aunt.  The movie also tracks his musical beginnings as he tries to form a band.

My two cents: First thing – I took an almost immediate dislike to the teen-age Lennon.  He was a bit of a thug and a definite trouble-maker.  I understand that he had some difficulties growing up in is aunt and uncles home – but I still found him to be really annoying.  That said, I found this movie to be fascinating.  All of this movie occurs before the Beatles was formed – although we do meet a 14 or 15-year old Paul McCartney.

From an acting stand-point, I thought that Kristin Scott Thomas was a standout.  She is the perfect actress to play the uptight, stiff-upper lip British snob.  I loved seeing her let her character eventually show some human emotions by the end of the film.

If you are a big Beatles fan – or are just curious about how John Lennon was before he was a Beatle – you will probably enjoy this movie.  But – don’t see it expecting to hear any Beatles music, because there is none in the movie.

Life As We Know It

Movie: Life As We Know It

Cast: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel

Genre: romantic comedy

I saw it on: October 19, 2010

Synopsis: Holly (Heigl) and Eric (Duhamel) cannot stand each other.  Unfortunately, they are the best friends of a married couple with an infant daughter.  Even more unfortunately, the married couple is killed in a car accident.  It seems that in their will, without haven discussed it with them, they assigned custodianship of their now-orphaned daughter to Holly and Eric.

Holly and Eric try to make a go of it – living in the house together with the baby, but things just don’t work out – and least not until the end of the movie..

My two cents: I found the Eric character to be just too unlikeable.  Granted, he was thrown into a horrible situation, but I still feel he acted like way too big of a jerk.  This movie had its moments, but not enough to save it, in my opinion.  If it comes around on HOB or Showtime, you might give it a try – but I would not spend money buying or renting it.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Movie: It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Cast: Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts, Lauren Graham, Jim Gaffigan, Zach Galifianakis.

Genre: Comedy

I saw it on: October 19, 2010

Synopsis: This was an unusual movie.  Craig (Gilchrist) is depressed teenager and has been having suicidal dreams.  He decides to check himself into a psych ward.  When he sees how seriously disturbed some of the people are, he changes his mind.  That is when he learns you can’t just decide to leave.  So now he is stuck in the psych ward for a fixed number of days for evaluation.  One his fellow patients is Bobby, played by Zach Galifianakis.  During his stay, Craig learns that his fellow patients are not just a lot of crazy people.  He forms some real attachments to them and is able to actually help some them.

My two cents:  This was a quirky little movie.  It was interesting to see the range of acting Zach Galifianakis was capable of.  His character was initially what you would expect from Galifianakis – but he brought a lot of depth to it.  I found it impressive.  It was also interesting to see Jim Gaffigan (Craig’s father) playing a pretty straight non-comedic role. I had a lot of fun watching Craig as he went from a “get me out of here” attitude to forming bonds with the patients and coming to appreciate the reasons for many of them being there.

The one-on-one scenes between Craig and Bobby were the best parts of this movie for me.

Definitely worth seeing.