The Bucket List

The Bucket List was finally available at the Red Box in our Vons store, so we picked it up. I am a fan of both Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, so I had some pretty high hopes. While I don't think this is anywhere near one of my favorite movies, it didn't disappoint.

The movie starts out with a brief introduction of the characters. Morgan Freeman is Carter Chambers, a lifelong auto mechanic with a fairly solid family structure, a love of trivia (Jeopardy in particular), and is an all-around good guy. Edward Cole, played by Jack Nicholson, is introduced in the monologue as a man full of life, who died with a smile on his face. When you meet Edward Cole for the first time, you can tell where the movie is going to go. He is a very worldly man, out only for himself. You know he is bound to meet Carter, and you don't have to wait long.

Both characters end up in the hospital fairly quickly. Through an interesting turn of events, Cole ends up a patient in his own hospital, one that he proudly advertises has "two beds to a room, no exceptions." He runs "hospitals, not health spas". This is the reason he doesn't have his own room. His assistant insists that it will be bad PR to break the rule for himself.

Eventually both men get the prognosis of less than one year to live. Just before learning this news, Carter begins reconstructing something he wrote without taking seriously some time before. It is called the "bucket list". What things do you want to accomplish before you "kick the bucket"? Once he finds out the news of his impending death, he decides it is worthless and trashes it. Cole finds the list and convinces Carter to go on a trip. This is where the fun begins.

As they travel from place to place, you see the friendship developing between these two strangers. They start opening up about their lives, and then both contribute to a rift by trying to fix the other one. I will leave the details and the ending for you to watch for yourself.

This movie is directed by Rob Reiner. I didn't know this until the closing credits. I am not a fan of Reiner by any stretch of the word. I think he is a liberal political crony, who is usually on the wrong side of any issue. It appears that his directing is somewhat detached from his personality, though. I don't think his left-wing agenda played too big a part in this movie, and for that I am glad. I will probably watch this movie again, but I don't think it is one for my personal collection.

I recommend this one for a rental.

RATING:

The Dark Knight

The first thing I can say about The Dark Knight is, WOW! This is one intense movie. I have not been so exhausted after a movie since The Passion of the Christ. I am surprised this movie got away with a PG-13 rating. Sure there was no sex or nudity, no language that I remember, and while there was some gore there wasn't too much blood if any. I think this movie is way too intense for children however. On that note, let's get into this.

I have been a fan of Heath Ledger for years. I haven't been terribly fond of his last couple of movies, so I had high hopes for this one. He certainly delivered. It was not just Heath Ledger though. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, and Gary Oldman all did a terrific job.

I am attempting to stay away from spoilers here, so you should be safe in reading this if you don't like surprises. That being said, I will cover some of the basic scenes of interest.

The movie begins with a bank heist, as super hero movies often can. Unlike most super hero movies though, the action only accelerates from there. From the moment the Joker is introduced, there is a heavy psychological element. Think along the lines of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. This guy is crazy in a scary way.

Batman himself is no saint in this movie. He reveals the darker side that Michael Keaton only hinted at. This Batman is grittier than the first version Bale played. He still learns through the school of hard knocks, which is part of why we like Batman. He is a regular guy, with regular weaknesses. Sure he is really smart, but he has no super powers.

The action sequences are really intense. You get to see how crazy the Joker really is. He has no goal but pure mayhem. He wants to watch everything burn. How do you stop someone who has no goal but chaos? Batman must answer this question. He has to decide how far he is willing to go to stop this guy. For those of you afraid I will give something away, I will leave the point here.

As I said before, this movie isn't terribly gory. There are some murders here and there, but those aren't nearly as scary as the scenes where someone isn't killed. Watching the Joker go on a rant, and wondering where he will stop is pretty intense. It is the potential for violence and not the violence itself that is so staggering. Will he or won't he? Will he really follow through on his threat, or is he bluffing? Every scene with the Joker will keep you glued to your seat.

As great as the acting is, and as intense and thrilling this movie is, I am not sure how to rank it. I plan on owning this movie, just as I own the previous versions of Batman. This will be more of a once or twice a year viewing for me though. I don't know if I can watch this as often as Spider-Man or X-Men. I think this is definitely a movie worth seeing in the theater. I reiterate the point that this movie is not for kids. I am sure the headlines are coming about how many nightmares this movie has caused.

The Dark Knight is an incredible roller coaster. It grabs hold of you and jerks you all over the place. If you are a fan of the real Batman, not the 60's spoof Batman, then you want to see this movie. Be prepared for the ride of your life.

RATING:

Disney - The Jungle Book

I know this movie has been out for a long time, since 1967 in fact. I was watching the special features and decided it was worth a brief review. The Jungle Bookhas long been one of my favorite Disney movies.

This movie, as most of you know, is based on Rudyard Kipling's story of the same name. It tells the story of a boy named Mowgli. In Disney's version, the animals all talk and sing and dance, which makes it a hit with kids.

The music is what makes it a hit with adults too. Most of the songs are catchy, and I have seen adults get excited about the songs when they come on, myself included. Knowing that the music is one of the reasons this is among my favorite Disney cartoons, I watched the special feature about deleted songs. Let me tell you, I was pretty surprised.

Some of these songs were plain awful. The original demo of "The Bare Necessities" sounds like it belongs in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. The original version of "That's What Friends Are For" involved a Beatle's/British Invasion inspired tune and included a character that was also deleted. It was okay as far as copying the Beatle's style, but that character that was axed was awful to.

I can't imagine what would have happened if these songs stayed in the movie. I certainly would not have enjoyed it as much as I do. I was glad to see Rocky the Rhino didn't make it to the final version. I was glad "The Bare Necessities" was transformed into its current version. I am glad the vultures sing a barbershop "That's What Friends Are For" and not the Beatle's-based version. I am glad that Disney had the wisdom to cut the bad parts and leave in the good. If only George Lucas had used the same level of discernment.

I liked this movie a lot before, and I like it even more now. It could have been much worse, as the special features can attest. I highly recommend this for your family's movie collection.

RATING:

Vantage Point

We picked up Vantage Pointfrom the Red Box at the grocery store last night.

The movie stars Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, and William Hurt. It starts into the action fairly quickly. There are a couple of gun shots, a couple of explosions, and then the scene rewinds itself. The scene starts again from the point of view of the next character.

This process repeats a few times. Scene happens, rewinds, and starts again with the next character. I didn't mind this, since I knew from the previews it would happen. My wife got bored and left the room after the second rewind.

I liked the different perspectives presented. I thought some of the scenes were better than others, but for the most part I was enjoying the movie. Near the end there is a pretty cool car chase. One of the best car chases in recent memory.

Unfortunately the car chase was the climax. The final scene went really fast and was over before I expected. I could have done with something a little more exciting, especially since most of the movie was a repeat of the same scene.

Overall, I still think this was a pretty good movie. I would recommend a rental definitely. I don't think I will be adding this to my collection, though.

RATING:

Wall-E

My son is a HUGE Pixar fan. My wife and I don't often get to see movies in the theater because our son is too young. We didn't think he would sit through anything that has come out recently until now. My son knows "Toy Story" backwards and forwards. He loves "Monsters, Inc." He has seen "Cars" a hundred times, and "Ratatouille" is catching up. Again, he LOVES Pixar. With this in mind, we took him to see Wall-E today.

I knew coming into this that there would be minimal dialog. Being a huge Star Wars fan, I am used to robots communicating through beeps and whistles, so I didn't think I would mind.

The movie starts by introducing Wall-E, whose name comes is an acronym of Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class. Humans have all left the Earth 700 years prior, and he is the only robot left still functioning in his capacity as a global janitor. He has created lots of trash skyscrapers, and it is obvious that he is making slow progress.

Wall-E collects certain things that interest him. He found a tape of a Musical, and he has learned at least one song from it. This song continues to play throughout the film.

Eventually he is introduced to EVE. She turns out to be one of the better characters in this movie. Her first few scenes have her blasting anything that startles her with a high-powered laser. The explosions are pretty cool.

The movie progresses from there, and Wall-E ends up following EVE to space when she gets whisked away. Wall-E meets some other robots along the way, some nice, some not so nice. He also makes friends with a couple of humans.

Pixar did something interesting in this movie. They inserted live-action acting into a cartoon. It was a huge deal a while back when the opposite happened. Think back to "Mary Poppins" or "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", where cartoons were added to a live-action film.

The film started slowly and didn't do much to pick up speed. It felt like a very long version of the short films that usually proceed the features. The story didn't really hold our interest. There were a few laughs, but otherwise I shold have saved it for Netflix like I originally planned. My son seemed to like it a lot more than we did, which was the point of our going. Since he liked it, I will give it a little boost in my ranking. I say save it for a rental. It isn't worth a theater viewing.

RATING:

Fool's Gold

Fool's Gold: Flopped. My wife and I rented Fool's Gold from Netflix and we were pretty disappointed. The movie starts off with a pretty cool boat explosion scene, but it went downhill from there.

I am normally a fan of Donald Sutherland's movies, and he was indeed one of the best characters in this movie. Matthew McConaughey keeps making the same movie with different titles, and this time it didn't pan out. Sahara was much better in my opinion. Kate Hudson is usually more interesting to watch as well. Perhaps the most annoying character was Gemma Honeycutt, played by Alexis Dziena. I have never seen her acting before, so I am giving her the benefit of the doubt here. She played a ditzy girl apparently modeled in look and voice after That 70's Show's character Jackie.

The whole movie I was trying to figure out if this was a romantic comedy or an action adventure. There were some funny scenes, I will admit. Kate Hudson beating all the bad guys with a shovel was definitely funny. The movie just didn't really go anywhere.

I will give the movie credit for some decent stunts. There were explions, a boat launching off a wave, a cliff-top motorcycle accident, and more. This is part of the reason I couldn't tell what genre the movie was supposed to be in.

The effects and Donald Sutherland contribute almost all of the points on this one. I don't recommend this movie. 1.5 out of 5.

RATING:

The Incredible Hulk

Which Hulk was better - Ang Lee's or Louis Leterrier's? I think everyone was dreading a repeat of the Ang Lee disaster from a few years ago. I was hopeful coming into this version. Iron Man exceeded my expectations, as high as they already were. I figured if Marvel could knock Iron Man out of the ballpark, the Hulk stood a pretty good chance. I was right.

Instead of doing an origin story the movie starts in on Bruce Banner trying to cure himself of his gamma radiation. This is a throwback to the Hulk TV series from the 70s. They did throw in some origin stuff, which necessarily ignored the Ang Lee version. This movie showed Bruce trying to work on his anger management, including training in martial arts. This allowed for one of the few action scenes Bruce Banner was in, rather than the Hulk.

The acting took a little getting used to, as I had to forget about the previous characters. There was a hint of the annoying Star Wars prequel dialog during a scene in Betty Ross's house. This did not last long, and the movie recovered from there.

The action sequences were pretty cool, and we got to see some more of the Hulk's moves, including the sonic clap. The battle with Abomination was fun to watch, even if it didn't last long. These action scenes were far better than the mutated dogs or whatever Bruce's dad became in the Ang Lee version.

The Hulk is not my favorite character from the Marvel universe, but I like him enough to be interested in how the movie treated him. I was very happy with this version. The cameo by Tony Stark in the end was cool, as it introduced the coming Avengers movie. Considering how much I liked Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers movie is going to be great.

Decent acting, great directing and writing, and some pretty cool explosions give this summer movie a 3.5 out of 5. I recommend you see this movie if you like action films, regardless of your like or dislike of comic book movies.

RATING:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tonight. I am going to have to disagree with a lot of the critics on this one. This was definitely an Indiana Jones movie. While I could have done without a few of the scenes, I think it still came out well in the end.

The movie begins in Roswell, New Mexico, which is an indication of where the rest of the movie is going. Meet Indy's new brother-in-arms, who has an irritating habit of calling Indiana by the nickname "Jonesy". "Jonesy." Really? What about "Indy", or "Indiana", or even "Junior?" This was one of my few gripes.

For the first 20 minutes or so, it was hard for me to get behind the fact that it was really Indiana Jones, with the exception of the escape from the warehouse. He wasn't wearing his trademark jacket, and the hat seemed to morph from the trademark, to some bleached out, white-ish hat, and then finally back to the one we know and love. Once he gets to Peru with Mutt, things get back on track.

This movie was full of improbable fights, action sequences, and escapes, which is why we all watch Indy movies. Again, parting ways with the critics, these things are why we watch summer hits. We don't want excellent dialog, or well-manicured lines. We want to see stuff blow up. George Lucas has a habit of ruining dialog, so none of us expected anything good in that department anyway.

If I could change something, I would have Indy use his whip more. He gets it out a couple times, but it seemed like he forgot he had it for a while. Another element missing was the name "Indiana Jones". He went by Henry for most of the movie, only referring to himself as Indiana once, but then catches himself and goes with Henry. I think the point was to honor his dad or something, but I thought it was a little lame.

The above gripes notwithstanding, this is a MUST SEE, though I doubt I needed to tell you that. This installment definitely was more appealing to me than "Temple of Doom", so I would rank this one 3rd place of the 4 movies. As far as comparing to other movies, 4 out of 5. I loved it.

RATING:

Iron Man

originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings

This is a bit overdue, but I have been wanting to write about this for a couple of weeks. If you have not seen Iron Man yet, I would highly recommend that you do so. I am assuming all the comic book fans out there have seen it by now, but this movie isn't just for them. Normal people should like it too.

Iron Man is not as well known as some of the other Marvel, or even D.C. superheroes. He is one of the rare ones who doesn't have a super power. He is just an everyday guy with everyday problems. He is easier to relate to in some ways than even Spider-Man. Marvel Comics itself was showing a vulnerability this time around, as this was their baby all the way. Marvel is now in the movie business in a big way.

All comic book movies have been adapted for the big screen, and this one is no exception. There are some minor changes here, but for an Origin story, I thought this worked out pretty well. Tony Stark is a wealthy playboy who drives fast cars and dates beautiful women. He makes his money selling high-tech weapons to the military. One day his own weapon nearly kills him, and he ends up creating a device to keep shrapnel out of his heart. He then goes on a crusade to undo the damage he has done with his weapons.

The acting was particularly good in this film, especially in comparison to Elektra, Daredevil, the Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man 3. Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect Tony Stark. All the weaknesses Downey has been famous for are shared with the character Tony Stark. I am not a Gwyneth Paltrow fan, but I thought she did well in her roll. Jeff Bridges was great. A lot of people didn't even recognize him with the bald head and thick goatee.

While the movie was somewhat predictable, I expected it and was looking forward to it. I don't know where Entertainment Weekly and all the other reviewers get the idea that fans don't like the same old routine. We flock to the same old movies every year, in spite of the critics. I think it is time some of them looked for work elsewhere. I go to a comic book movie to see explosions, to laugh, to be excited as the hero saves the day. I don't care that it has been done a hundred times. A blockbuster is just that...a blockbuster. The critics should leave it at that.

The special effects were particularly good in this film. When Iron Man was flying, it looked like he was flying, not some computer animation. The jet battle was a pretty good example of the realistic look and feel of the movie.

Good acting, good writing, and a good director make this movie a must see. This was a great Marvel debut. I am even looking forward to the Incredible Hulk, in spite of Ang Lee's attempt to mess up the franchise. Summer movie season has begun. I give Iron Man an 4.5 out of 5.

RATING:

Juno - Finally A Movie Worth Watching

Originally posted on SurfJedi's Musings.

My wife and I have been consistently disappointed with the quality of the movies that Hollywood keeps hyping as "Must See" and "The Best Film of the Year". The Academy Awards were full of movies that we couldn't believe made it. The 2 year old pretty much guarantees we don't see many movies in theaters, so we have to rent them usually. This is fortunate due to the high price of movies these days. We suffered through "No Country for Old Men" and "Michael Clayton" among other lame movies.

"Juno" is the latest movie Netflix has delivered. The acting is pretty good. I didn't hear too much hype about it, which probably helped. There are some pretty funny parts, and I was not bored watching it. It has a lot of folk music that really fits the movie.

There are a lot of themes that would probably require further discussion, but that is for another blog.

I think Juno turned out far better than most of the garbage that made its way across the stage on Oscar night. At least it won for writing. Good music, good writing, and good acting. I would recommend this movie.

RATING: