We Bought a Zoo

Movie: We Bought a Zoo

Genre: family-drama

Synopsis: Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) is the recently widowed father of the 7-year-old Rosie (Magee Elizabeth Jones) and 14-year-old Dylan (Colin Ford).  Benjamin decides his family needs a major change, so he quits his job and buys a new house – that happens to come with a 17-acre zoo.  The head zoo-keeper is Kelly (Scarlett Johansson).  The zoo is in bad physical shape and in dire financial straits, but Benjamin is determined to make a go of it.  The goal is to get everything fixed up so that the zoo can pass inspection and re-open.

My two cents: I was not too enthusiastic about seeing this movie. But . . . Matt Damon has never let me down and I am fans of both Scarlett Johansson and Elle Fanning, so I decided to give it shot.  Good decision.  The phrase that keeps coming to mind when I think of this movie is “heart warming”.  Benjamin is good person and a good father who is trying his best to raise his children following the loss of his beloved wife.  His son was a little over-the-top with his self-pity; but his sister more than made up for his character.  I cannot wait to see more of Magee Elizabeth Jones.  She is only seven, but pretty much stole every scene she was in.

If you like a feel-good movie, give this a shot.

It turns out the whole movie is based on fact. While the movie is set in Southern California, the zoo it portrays is actually in England.

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The Adventures of Tintin in 3D IMAX

Movie: The Adventures of Tintin in 3D IMAX

Genre: animated adventure

Synopsis: Based on the wildly popular Belgian books, this is a stop motion movie – the same style as “Polar Express”.  Tintin (Jamie Bell) is a hot-shot reporter in Belgium.  When he buys a model of the Unicorn – a famous sailing ship that sank in the 1600’s - things start happening.  Two different men try to buy it from him – one of them gets shot.  Someone steals the ship.  It turns out the ship has a clue to a fabulous treasure from the 1600’s.  Tintin teams up with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), a descendent of the captain of the Unicorn, to track down the two other clues and ultimately find the missing treasure.

My two cents: I had never heard of Tintin until this movie came out.  While the animation and 3D effects were decent, the movie as a whole was pretty disappointing.  Perhaps if I had read the Tintin stories I might have enjoyed it more.  Instead, I found myself taking frequent looks at my watch to see how much longer I was going to have to sit through it.

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Young Adult

Movie: Young Adult

Genre: Comedy-drama

Synopsis: In a small Minnesota town high school, Mavis (Charlize Theron) was at the top of the food chain.  She was homecoming queen and the envy of everyone.  Her boyfriend was Buddy (Patrick Wilson).  The classic loser-geek was Matt (Patton Oswalt) who had the locker below Mavis’ all through high school.  Fast forward to the present – Mavis is a 37-year-old ghost writer who is miserably unhappy.  She gets it into her head that she is going to return to her hometown and rescue Buddy from his wife and new-born child.  Things do not go as planned.  The only one who really will have anything to do with her Matt – the geeky nerd.  The movie follows her repeated attempts to reclaim Buddy – who does not want to be reclaimed- and her increasing friendship with Matt.

My two cents: I enjoyed this movie – but it was a bit on the dark side.  There are things that make you laugh, but then feel guilty because it is so dark.  An example is the story of how Matt was brutally beaten and maimed when he was in high school.  Doesn’t sound funny – but I found I was chuckling in spite of myself.  Mavis is so unhappy and seems so unable to do anything other than dig herself even deep into her pit of misery. The best scenes are those with Mavis and Patton Oswald’s Matt.  I thought I knew what direction the ending was heading . . . but it took a left turn that left me surprised.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Genre: spy drama

Synopsis: This takes place during the 1970’s at the height of the cold war. The movie opens with a botched operation in Prague.  The fallout results in Control (William Hurt) being removed as head of MI-6.  A senior operative, George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is also forced into retirement.  It turns out that Control had been convinced that there was a mole in MI-6.  Smiley is brought back in to try and if there is a mole – and to uncover him if there is.  Control had narrowed the list of suspects to three operatives, code named Tinker, Tailor and Soldier (played by Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds and Colin Firth – not necessarily respectively).  Now Smiley has to devise a way to verify the existence of the mole – and find him.

My two cents: I loved this movie.  It was suspenseful and riveting – without a lot of action.  It was more like watching a chess game.  Gary Oldman was great as George Smiley.  He often said little – but it was clear his brain was working a mile a minute.  Just looking at him, you knew he had a formidable intellect.  If you like spy movies – especially the cerebral type – don’t pass up this movie.

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The Darkest Hour 3D

Movie: The Darkest Hour 3D

Genre: sci-fi horror

Synopsis: Two young men are in Moscow, trying to close an Internet-based business idea.  They meet a couple of young American girls in a nightclub.  While they are there, mysterious glowing “things” start falling from the sky.  These “things” are virtually invisible and pursue and annihilate any living creature that they find.  They also have managed to totally the electrical grid.  These four Americans are among the few in Moscow to survive the first night’s attack.  The movie follows them as they try to find either some place safe and ultmately a way out of Moscow.

My two cents: This seemed more suitable to a made-for-TV movie.  The special effects were decent, but the story line was a little too implausible and inconsistent.

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Movie: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Genre: drama

Synopsis: This is the sequel to Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. back as Sherlock and Jude Law as Watson.  This brings us Jared Harris as Professor James Moriarty, the arch enemy of Sherlock Holmes in the original books.  Throughout the movie, it seems that Moriarty is one or two steps ahead of Holmes as Holmes pursues Moriarty through Europe..  The climax is a battle between the two high in the Swiss Alps.

My two cents: A decent sequel.  I would like to have seen more or Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler), but you can’t have everything.  I thought the middle of the movie dragged a little, but the final 30 or 40 minutes were well worth waiting for.

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The Women on the 6th Floor

Movie: The Women on the 6^th Floor

Genre: drama

Synopsis:  This is a French film set in Paris with English subtitles.  Jean-Louis Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) is the wealthy head of an investment firm founded by his father (or perhaps it was his grandfather).  His wife, Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a bit of a socialite who ‘exhausts’ herself with social funcitons, charities and managing the family maid.  Jean-Louis owns the six-story apartment building in which they live.  The sixth floor consists of a bunch of small rooms and a single bathroom.  This is a floor occupied by a large number of maids from Spain.  They are all poor and live in pretty lousy conditions.  Jean-Louis has a comfortable life, but not a happy life.  The new family maid lives on this floor.  One day he has his eyes opened to the squalor the maids on the sixth floor live in.  A simple, for him, act of kindness brings great relief to one of them. Jean-Louis discovers that hanging out with the maids brings him happiness.  The maids discover that, although rich, Jean-Louis is a very decent fellow.  When his wife decides that Jean-Louis must be fooling around – she makes him move out – so he moves into a room on the sixth floor and finds happiness.

My two cents: I loved this movie.  You have this rich fellow who should have been on top of the world, but is actually quite unhappy with his life.  He discovers that the poor maids on the 6^th floor are much happier in their lives than he is.  I really enjoyed watching how he became a part of the maids’ lives and found such happiness living in a single room among them.

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Shame

Movie: Shame

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Brandon (Michale Fassbender) has a successful and well-paying career in Manhatten.  His seemingly perfect life has a dark side.  He is a sex addict.  He feels the need to “release” multiple times a day.  If the urge hits him at work, he is liable to pull up some porn on his computer, find someone for a quicky or simply retire to the privacy of a bathroom stall.  The problem is that none of this even remotely makes him happy.  His very orderly life is disrupted when his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), unexpectedly moves in for an extended stay following a breakup. It is as if this disruption is a tipping point and Brandon’s life starts spiraling out of control.

My two cents: This was one dark movie.  Great performances by Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.  I became a fan of Carey with her performance in “An Education”.  In “”Shame” she plays a durg-user who has made multiple attempts at suicide.  I can’t really decide if I liked this movie or not.  The acting was good, but the story was so dark and depressing that I left the theatre emotionally drained.

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New Year’s Eve

Movie: New Year’s Eve  

Genre: romantic comedy

Synopsis: This multi-story ensemble movie had an impressive cast that included Halle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Cary Elwes, Alyssa Milano, Jessica Biel, Seth Myers, Sarah Paulson, Carla Guigino, Katherine Heigl, Joh Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergra, Ashon Kutcher, Lea Michelle, Sarah Jessica Parker, James Belushi, Hilary Swank, Ludicris and Josh Duhamel.  It consisted of 5 or 6 different stories that followed captured the trials and tribulations of different sets of people in New York City, leading up to the ball dropping in Times Square on New Years.

My two cents: I was a bit disappointed.  I guess with a cast like that, I just expected more.  It was entertaining – just not up to the level I had hoped for.

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Movie: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Genre: horror-romance

Synopsis: This is the fourth installment of the Twilight series,  At last, Bella and Edward are going to be married.  The problem is that the Cullen family is supposed to “turn” Bella somewhere along the line.  According to the treaty between the Cullens and the werewolves, this act will break the treaty – leading to an all-out war between the vampires and werewolves.

My two cents: I am losing patience with this series.  The only thing that keeps me going are the werewolves and the occasional vampire battle.  I am soooooo tired of longing looks exchanged between Bella and Edward.  If you eliminated these looks and the accompanying sighs, the movie would last about half an hour. My problem is that I keep hoping for the movies to go more to the horror side of things, while they are definitely leaning ot the romance side.  Oh well.

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The Way

Movie: The Way

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Tom (Martin Sheen) is a successful ophthalmologist.  He has had a troubled relationship with his son Daniel (Emelio Estevez), who abandoned his doctoral studies to go trekking around the world.  Tom learns that Daniel was killed in a freak storm as he was beginning a 700+ kilometer pilgrimage along the “Camino de Santiago” – which starts in France and ends up in Spain.  When Tom flies to France to claim the body, on the spur of the moment he decides to have the remains cremated and to take the pilgrimage with his son’s ashes.  Along the journey, Tom gradually loses the pent-up anger he has and bonds with three other “pilgrims” who are each making the pilgrimage for their own reasons.

My two cents: The movie was interesting. Much of the movie was like a travelogue of Camino de Santiago. What I could not get past was the idea of a man in his fifties with no hiking experience (at least not mentioned) just up and deciding to go on a hike of over 700 kilometers with absolutely no preparation.  In hindsight, I would have been satisfied with waiting for to watch this movie on TV.

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London Boulevard

Movie: London Boulevard

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Mitchel (Colin Farrell) is newly released from prison.  He is doing his best to go straight, but is being pressured to join a London mob – led by mob boss Gant (Ray Winstone).  Mitchel gets a job as a body guard for  a world famous actress, Charlotte (Keira Knightley), who is being mercilessly by paparazzi.  The movie follows Mitchel as he resists the not-so-subtle efforts of Grant to pull him into the mob, he searches for the teenage boys who killed a homeless friend of his, he tries to keep his week-willed sister out of trouble, and as he seems to fall in love with Charlotte.

My two cents: A pretty decent movie.  Colin Farrell excels at playing the tough guy who is normally calm, but can erupt into violence at the spur of a moment.  Ray Winstone plays just about as menacing gangster as I have seen.

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Another Happy Day

Movie: Another Happy Day

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Lynn (Ellen Barkin) has two children from a marriage to Paul (Thomas Haden Church): Alice (Kate Bosworth) and Dylan (Michael Nardelli).  She also has two children from her current husband, Lee (Jeffrey DeMunn): Ben (Daniel Yelsky) and Elliot (Ezra Miller).  Alice has had a history of self-mutilation (by cutting herself with knives) and has had a lot of therapy. Lee is autistic. Elliot is only 17 but has already had 3 or 4 stints in drug rehab.  The movie opens with Lynn driving Lee and Elliot to her parent’s house (father played by George Kennedy and mother played by Ellen Burstyn) for Dylan’s wedding.  To say that Lynn’s family is dysfunctional is to grossly understate the situation.  From the moment she arrives, Lynn faces a non-stop battle with Ben (the druggy son), her two terrible sisters, her mother, her ex-husband – and most of all with her mother and with her ex’s current wife (played Demi Moore). This family makes “Mama’s Family” (from Carol Burnett) look like the Cleaver family.

My two cents: This was a painful movie to watch. For the first part of the movie, I thought Lynn was just an insecure whiny woman.  Then you see how her druggy son baits her in the car with really cruel words and you start thinking that maybe she has something to be upset about.  And then you met her mother and sisters.  This poor woman gets it from every side, when all she is trying to do is protect her daughter who is still in a rather fragile state of mind.  There was some great acting in this movie.  Demi Moore was great at playing a hateful shrewish woman who would stab you in the back while smiling sweetly at you. Ellen Burstyn’s character was really well acted.  She was usually just a tightly wrapped bitch – but occasionally you could see the chinks in the self-protective armor she was wearing.  Kate Bosworth absolutely nailed the fragile unstable girl who looked like she was ready to break again.  But the Oscar nomination should go to Ellen Barkin.  For the entire movie she made her character look as if just one more straw would break her back – yet she still managed to keep enough grit to get done what she needed to do.  She seemed like she was made of glass that was ready to just fall apart – but never quite went over the edge.  I just felt so sorry for her.  It seemed that everybody that should support her – like her mother – was doing their best to make her feel like crap. By the end of the movie I was trying to figure out how she had managed to not just commit suicide to get away from everyone.

Bottom line: a really interesting movie with great acting, but it will emotionally drain you.

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Arthur Christmas 3D

Movie: Arthur Christmas 3D

Genre: animated fantasy

Synopsis: In this version of Christmas, Santa Claus normally keeps his job for 70 Christmases and then turns over the job to his son.  Santa (Jim Broadbent) is embarking on number 70.  His older son, Steve (Hugh Laurie), is the mission control person for the high tech operation that the delivery of Christmas presents has become.  He is primed and ready take over the duties of Santa. The younger of Santa’s two sons is Arthur (James McAvoy).  Arthur is the embodiment of the Christmas spirit, but has not shown himself to of much practical use at Christmas HQ.  When a present is accidentally not delivered, it comes down to Arthur (and Grandsanta and an elf) to get it delivered.

My two cents: This was the best new Christmas movie I have seen since Elf.  The whole idea of the Santa duties being passed from generation to generation was a new one for me.  There was a curmudgeonly “Grandsanta” who hated the new high tech way things were done.  The very scope of the task to deliver presents on Christmas was pretty impressive.  You could not help but like Arthur – a bit of a bumbler, but with such a great heart and willing to do anything to make sure the last present gets delivered.  There was plenty of humor and “warm and fuzzy” moments to make me happy.

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