IT BEGINS TOMORROW

Tomorrow January 1st, 2011 will mark the date for my new and better laid out plan to watch as many movies as I can in one year. It will also mark the start of my forming a real-world movie watchers club, bringing together people that love movies and a better system for blogging my reviews. Everything will fall under what I'm calling 'Project: Cinema'. The websites main page will be the same focusing on movie reviews or personal blogs, the 'Project: Cinema' tag will take you to an on going listing of the movies I have watched during my year long challenge, the 'Project: Cinema Chat' tab will remain the same offering a virtual space to talk and discuss a movie or movies in general, the 'Movie Trailers' tab will be the same focusing on different movie previews and a new tab 'Club Project: Cinema' will take shape as I work out the details and specifics for starting the real club. Until tomorrow, I'll see you at the movies.

Hiatus

     Hey moviegoers, just wanted to give you a heads up that this will be the last posting of the new year as I get the blog ready for 2011. I'm revving it up and kicking it into high gear and hopefully you all will join me in 2011 to make movie watching into a giant year-long event with Project: Cinema.

Ice Quake
     This is one of those SYFY channel movies that at the end you start asking yourself...why did I just watch that? The story takes place in Alaska, around Christmas day. Michael Webster is a geologist with the Army Corps of Engineers under the leader ship of Colonel Bill Hughes (Victor Garber), Michaels family trip to go get a Christmas Tree on a secluded govenment controlled mountain top will get intreruppted by a series of ice quakes that have been occuring across the region caused by a massive amount of methane gas trying to break through the surface. Yup, it's a stretch for a plot, it gets even better when a quake in Alaska sends a shockwave to Russia and causes a majoy ice shelf to collpase, now the consiracy theories also play into the story. 'Ice quake' is your typical SYFY setup, tragic-apopcalyptic event occurs and only one person has the knowledge and ability to stop it.

Shrek the Third
     I re-watched this one, cause the first and only time I had ever seen it was in theaters after a day of work and kept nodding off most of the movie. Missed half the movie and I figured before I watch the fourth one that just hit DVD I should re-watch the third one. Three picks up where the second movie left off, Shrek (Michael Meyers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) not long after their marriage and are living in the castle in Far Far Away. Unfortunately, the king is deathly ill and is on his death bed, when shrek learns he will be the next heir to the throne. Last thing Shrek wants is to become king and never get to see his beloved swamp again, turns out that one more person exist that can be the king and that is a boy named Arthur. The story manly follows Shrek, Donkey (Eddie Murphy and Puss In Boot (Antonio Banderas) as the venture out to find and bring Arthur back to be king. Shrek has other things distracting him along the way though, one of which is right before he leaves he learns Fiona is pregnant and two, his friends are trying to convience him to be king, While they are away the fairytale villians have rised up and decided to no longer be number to and have over turned Far Far Away. When Shrek returns only the new King Arthur will be able to bring a piece across the land.

The Tale of Desperaux
     I know this was a big deal when it was in theaters and contained a huge cast of voice talents. It took me almost four days to watch this movie, I could not get into it and for some reason it kept putting me to sleep. It's based on the award winning kids book of the same name by Kate Dicamillo. The tale takes place in the kingdom of Dor, which is famous for soup, it's wierd I know, it's a fairytale though I guess. Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman) is a rat that has just arrived by ship and is drawn to the famous scent of the soup, through a set of events, will be the cause of the queens death. With her passing, the king now outlaws all soup and rats from the land. Desperaux (Matthew Broderick) is a outcast mouse because of his bravery and wanting to be more of a man than a mouse. It will be up to this tiny mouse with big ears in the end and a Roscuro that feels the need to fix what he broke, to save the princess from a rat horde and bring the king out of mourning. I never read the childrens book, but, the movie was very kinda chaotic and seemed like a choppy script to me. Almost as if they tried to fit in more than they should of into the movie from the book and in turn giving it a dis-jointed feel.

Appaloosa
     I'm not a fan of westerns at all, this movie though however I did very much enjoy. This one unlike the last western I watched '3:10 to Yuma', captured that old west feel and look much better. The movie, Based on the novel of the same name by Robert B. Parker, is really a story of two men and the working relationship they share, Marshall Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy Everett Hitch (Vigo Mortensen). The pair move around from town to town taking over and helping the town officials get rid of outlaws. They have taken control of the small town of Appaloosa that is constantly being terrorized by a rancher, Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and after a witness to a murder comes forward. Together the two marshalls will need to protect the town and at the same town get their prisoner to his hanging. Except Allison French (Renee Zellweger) has just arrived in town and has caught the eye of Virgil Cole and will now cause problems as his feelings for her develop, while trying to maintain his bond with Everett. There's not a lot of action in this western, it's alot more of a drama about the characters and their relationships with one other that give depth to the movie. I think this is probably the best of these four movies hand down, i'm always up for a good storyline and well developed character over CGI and visual candy.

Well, that was those in a nutshell, Sorry they were so short in the reviews, got a lot happening with working retail in the holidays, another reason for going into a hiatus. Once the holidays are passed it will be a lot easier and will have a lot more time to dedicate to the blog.

Discovered new TV show

Recently discovered  a new TV show which is in its second season on NBC. Never knew there was a first season of it. 'The Sing Off' which is kinda like a cross between American Idol and Glee, its a reality show pitting real life acapella groups against each other. I think its really neat especially for being all acapella, which is a form I really like (a small tear for Four For A Dollar since they got kicked out of Beauty and the Beast awhile ago). Show makes me want to head to Epcot and see Voices of Liberty.

Burlesque

     Welcome to Iowa, home of waitress Ali (Christina Aguilera) and the last few minutes of her miserable life here. In a job that doesn't pay her wages on time and feeling stuck and going no where she's off to L.A. to make something of her song and dance abilities. Going from job to job she can't find something she wants until she stumbles upon a club on the Sunset Strip called Burlesque Lounge. Burlesque run by Tess (Cher) and her assistant Sean (Stanley Tucci) is a club with scantily clad dancers lip singing to famous tunes. Ali really wants to be one of those dancers, Tess is not one for taking in new people easily, Ali then settles for second best and gets hired on as drink server.
     After her hotel / apartment gets robbed, she moves in with her now bartender friend Jack (Cam Gigandet). The only problem with Burlesque...they are months behind on their mortgage and are trying to be bought out by Marcus (Eric Dane). Burlesque need something fresh and new to bring in more customers and worth higher admission fees. Ali might just be what the club needs and when a dancer gets pregnant its her entry way onto the stage. Jealousy ensues though when fellow dancer Nikki (Kristen Bell) tries to get rid of the newest girl on the team. Only her plan to embarass her back fires when Ali also lets it known she can sing, and now Tess has her a singing and dancing star to build a new show around. Unfortunately even Ali can't bring in all the seats needed to pull out of this giant debt. It will take some clever thinking and some team work to hatch a plan to save their home away from home. Facing obstacles along the way including finding her new romance Jack is engaged to having to prove herself as the new girl in dance line.
     Storyline is kinda basic, country girl moves to big city to become a star. Full package of the movie is really good though, some really good acting on everyones part. There's a few good songs to be had and the return of Cher into the movie spotlight. The movie keeps its pace pretty through and through and never really lags in any areas. You've got characters that you'll really care about what happens to them and a storyline you'll want to see how everything turns out in the end. After the last musical flop 'Nine' this is a much needed and welcome addition into the world of movie musicals. This is one of those movies you feel you really got your moneys worth at then end in plot and visually. Definitely a must see for any movie musical fan.

Burlesque (dictionary)- a humorous and provocative stage show featuring slapstick humor, comic skits, bawdy songs, striptease acts, and a scantily clad female chorus.

Good Luck Chuck (2007)

    

    Welcome to 1985 and a kids party that will forever change the life of Charlie Logan, after upsetting a girl at the party that had a crush on him, she puts a hex on him that he'll never be in love. This sets up the next scene, modern day, in which he's on a beach making out with a girl and won't say I love you back to her causing her to run off. We then see the two of them at one of his past flings weddings and she being the one to catch the bouquet (symbolizing her marriage to come). But, while at the wedding Charlie (Dane Cook) meets Cam (Jessica Alba), a klutzy penguin keeper at the local aquarium and the girl he will eventually end up chasing through the movie.

     Along with Charlie is his buddy that we also met back in 1985, Stu (Dan Fogler) who is obsessed with women and sex. Both are doctors operating out of the same building and next door to each other, Charlie is a dentist and Stu is a plastic surgeon specializing in breast augmentation. The main focus of the story is Charlie learns of a urban legend surrounding him that after he sleeps with a woman, that woman will then find true love in the next man she meets and marry them. Most of the movie we find Charlie sleeping with different women from his office secretary to random women trying to see if this curse of his actually is real. While Charlie finds it to be a curse and evil, the women are chasing after him considering him good luck because they are gonna get the man of their dreams the next day. Charlie has mean while been wooing after Cam and has fallen head over heels for her, but, knowing of his curse he's reluctant to take their relationship to the next level for the fear of losing her to another man. Stu comes up with the clever idea of finding the most unattractive girl imaginable and having Charlie sleep with her and then asking her to marry him the next day. Unfortunately... Stu lies about this girl turning down his marriage proposal and now having this information Charlie decides to sleep with Cam, once he learns he's been lied to he starts to go over the top to smother Cam and keep her from finding another man, only succeeding in scaring her off further. Ready to do anything to be with Cam, Charlie looks up and confronts the girl from the party that put the hex on him, only to learn there was nothing to it that it was a childish out burst and best advice is the old let her go and see if she comes back. Charlie decides to do the one thing he knows will make Cam happy and that's meeting the penguin expert of her dreams Howard. Stu comes in at the end as that buddy that screwed up and feels the need to make things right, and convinces Charlie to run after and catch Cam before she and Howard fly off to Antarctica to do penguin research together. Which of course he does, finds out there's nothing going on personally with Howard and they end up together.

     It's a really basic plot and there's some good laughs and fun to be had if you can get over the excessive amount of sex, nudity and foul language. The bad thing about trying to review and describe a comedy is doing it in a way without spoiling any of the jokes or situation presented in the movie. Which usually ends up in a pretty hacked up / choppy retelling.'Good Luck Chuck' is definitely not a family movie at all and will probably best be enjoyed by those younger couples looking for some laughs.

3:10 to Yuma

     A 2007 remake of the original 1957 film of the same name. I've never seen the original, but, from watching the making of it and listening to the director and designer it sounds like they've changed a lot around, as to try and add to the storyline. The main story of the movie revolves around Dan Evans (Christian Bale) having to help haul a prisoner named Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), to get money to pay off railroad from taking his land. Their destination is Contention and putting Wade on the 3:10 prison train to Yuma. Following them along their journey is Wade's second-in-command Charlie Prince (Ben Foster), which will finally catch up to them for the final showdown in Contention.
     Their journey will take them through shoot-out with Indians to people that have grudges with Wade from the past. I've never been a real fan of Westerns, but, something that I noticed about Westerns being made nowadays is that they don't have the same feel as the old ones. Just something about the old color and graininess of the old time westerns gives it that dirty west feel. I think Bale and Crowe's performances were alright, but, I think its Ben Foster and Logan Lerman (Who plays Dan Evans' son that follows them) are the ones that stand out in this film. It's a really simple story, but sometimes simpler is better as you can enjoy the film and not have to worry about being lost in the storyline.

     The movie overall was alright, but, it felt like it was more of a modern day action movie trying to hide itself as a western. That being said it is nice to see a western, as its not a genre that doesn't get a lot of attention now a days. Watching the extras was almost more interesting than the movie, watching them having to build an old west town from scratch and learning about how few places provide trains for movies and what went through to get the train to the filming location. Also watching them bring in truckloads of dirt to cover up the massive snow fall that happened before filming ended, was pretty impressive. For such a simple story and being a western it was a decent movie to watch and did its job and entertained me.

The Expendables

     It's a whos-who of action stars past and present with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis. Unfortunately the movie really sucked, Stallone leads a band of mercenaries that takes on jobs the actual military won't do. This mission, an ex-CIA agent has taken control of a small island off the coast of South America along with a local five star general for drug growing. When they get to the island they realize they are in to more than they signed up for. I think there was more to the plot, but, good luck trying to figure out what that is actually suppose to be. You can tell that what Sly was going for was a very old school action movie but with a modern feel, swing it and miss though.
     The bad thing about all these action guys are half of them either have foreign accents or talk so low you can't understand half the dialogue in the movie. Between poor dialogue and plot that doesn't deliver this movie just will not hold your interest beginning to end. It's a lot of shooting people, blowing things up, and hacking off limbs, that's about the only reason you'd watch this movie. Those that don't like movies, but like the explosions and blood are the ones that will enjoy this movie. Even at that some of the special effects shots do have a little hokey-ness to them. I really did want this to be a good movie with all these big name action stars, though I spent half the movie wanting to do something else other than watch it.
     Stallone needs to just give in the towel, I know he keeps looking to create a hit movie before he retires, but, I don't think that is gonna happen for him. I have to say the best thing about this movie is Arnold Schwarzenegger's cameo. Also the cinematography was so dark in this film, half the time you had to squint to try and see what is happening on screen. The movie leaves off for one and if rumors are true a sequel is already in the works, which is already gonna bed bad, unless Sylvester hands over the directing and finds a better script writer. Bottom-line is no matter how many big names you put in a movie does not mean it is going to do well.

Tangled

 Disney has done it yet again and hit a home run for their animation studio. This was the second movie, I saw today and I'm very glad I actually saw it in theaters. Disney is still leading the pack with 3-D using it as a storytelling tool to add depth to the art and the story, not using gimmicks and cheap 3-D conversions. It was a great film to be the 50th animated Disney animated film.
     The story is a twist on the Rapunzel fairytale, where as a child she was stolen from the castle because of her magical hair. Locked away in a tower, where an evil woman used her hair to keep her forever young and filling Rapunzel's head full of fearful images of the outside world. Until a crook looking for a hideout stumbles upon our princess and helps take her on a  fun filled and sometimes danger filled adventure and while roaming about discovering who she really is.
     Disney has really pushed their CGI over its borders, especially with the character facial expressions in this film. You can tell Disney took and borrowed a little bit of past animation films and added it into their bag of tricks with this one. Alan Menkin as always did a wonderful and catchy soundtrack for Disney. This is definitely going to bring Disney animation back to the foreground against its competitors and set a bar to reach for the next few years.
    
     Once again I am sorry for how short this and Potter's reviews were, but, I just had to let it out that these are both two good films that deserve some attention. Lately, the last couple movies I watched, I had to point out the flaws, but, with films such as these with the entertainment value and quality they bring, its hard to even start to look at the bad points on the first viewing.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

     Well, today has been a long day, it was a two parter at the movies. It started off this morning with Harry Potter, and it was lengthy just over 2 1/2 hours, however it did not drag and kept its pace the whole time. So, because of the long day, out and about, these reviews will be pretty short and to the point. Lots to do tomorrow and I've got Netflix movies piling up, so I'm gonna have to make up some time trying to review two theatrical movies with short reviews. But, for both these movies long reviews aren't necessary, they are two really good films and both have had lots of media attention and I feel most will know what these two are really about story wise.
     The first part of movie eight of the Harry Potter series takes off where 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' left off. Voldemort and his Death Eaters are stronger than ever and with Dumbledore out of the picture our three hero's must now flee for there lives, evading capture, and destroying the remaining horcruxes and stop the dark lord once and for all or so we hope.
     The story is definitely darker than it has ever been and we are starting to loose more and more characters as the saga is coming to a close. What's good is Harry is finally starting to come into his own and take control of situation and Ron is still reliable for the subtle humor breaking up the intensity of some of the scenes. It's also amazing how far the CGI and locations have advanced since the original movie, however, you can pick out a couple of the scenes that were added in for the 3-D conversion that never happened. Which I'm glad it wasn't 3-D, the last seven movies did just fine with out why did we need it now. Basically, if you haven't been hiding under a rock and have been following Harry and his friends for the past decade, why stop now, when the story is reaching its climax and pulling you ever deeper into this fantasy world J.K. Rowling has created. The only down fall to this movie is having to wait till next year for part 2 to come out.

Splice

Quick summary:
Two scientists create a genetic creature based on human DNA, let the experiment go farther than planned and must find away to keep it a secret, while debating the questions of right and wrong of genetic experimentation.

Full Summary (Warning: May contain spoilers):
     From the beginning of the title sequence, to seeing the cast names as veins, sets up that this movie is about experimentation and medical science. We're being born into the world at the beginning of the movie into the arms of our two characters of the movie, Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley). Only we are not human, we are a genetically spliced together creature, actually the second of two. Once pulled away from the point-of-view of the character, we are introduced to Fred and Ginger, two new life forms grown and designed to harvest proteins to later be used to fight disease in livestock. They are part of a larger on going genetic experiment with the goal of one day being able to splice it with human DNA and be able to solve human based diseases. The board of pharmaceutical representatives the duo report to, of course will not greenlight a human trial till more can be found out about the current critters.
     Going behind the backs of their colleagues and against guidelines, they implant and generate an embryo based on Human DNA. What's unexpected is how fast the fetus will develop putting them in the position of questioning their choice of doing the experiment. The re-occurring questions of the movie right and wrong, moral and ethical are now being asked. Elsa cannot find it in herself to kill this creature, where Clive is hands on the button to gas it from the moment he sees it. Hidden away in the research lab they work in, Elsa has started to raise the creature (now given the name Dren) as if she was a child. Not able to keep her a secret any longer after Clive's brother Galvin comes upon their secret, they must move Dren down to a basement lab farther away from others. During the move Dren has developed a fever and Clive now sees his chance at an attempt to kill the experiment, only to find its gonna be a lot harder to kill Dren then he thinks.
     Now, the objects of a huge presentation about genetics and the possibilities of their existence, Fred and Ginger make their first public appearance. Except Fred and Ginger instead of playing nice decide to annihilate each other. Discovering the reason for this sudden sign of aggression as a result of Ginger changing sex into a male, creates even more questions of what Dren may one day become. With this new result and aftermath of presentation, Dren is hidden away at an abandoned barn. All the time, Dren has been developing and becoming more and more aware of herself and her surroundings. She's tired of being locked away from the world and is shifting her feelings from Elsa as a mother figure to Clive as a love interest. Clive is not stupid, seeing the advances of Dren, knows that there is more to Dren than just generic DNA. Elsa has used herself as part of the experiment. Dren is getting slowly more and more violent in her behavior, especially towards Elsa as she finds her as competition for Clive. After attempting an attack on Elsa's life, Dren now finds herself strapped down and Elsa cutting out her defense mechanisms. Coming home to find a scared and defenseless Dren, Clive gives in to his urges, decides to have sex with Dren, only to have Elsa walk in on the two mid session. Chasing Elsa down after see runs off after catching them (I mean can you blame her, if you walked in on your boyfriend/girlfriend having sex with your science experiment), the argument of right and wrong once again is played out.
     All their worries and concerns are about to be over though as Dren has developed another bad bout of a similar fever she had before. Only this time it ends with the two burying their experiment behind the barn and laying to rest the experiment gone too far. Until suddenly Dren is back, male and a lot more aggressive. The showdown will pit makers versus creature, resulting in the death of one of our leads and the final end of the experiment. Well...the end until we are set up for the premise for another movie.

Review:
     If you saw the trailer for 'Splice', you probably like me, expected a science based horror film. You get that, but, only in the last five minutes of the movie. The rest of the movie is less about horror and creatures and more about a moral and ethical debate on the use of human DNA in science experimentation. Most of the movie is more focused on the two main characters and each of them debating the moral and ethical repercussions of their experiment. Leaving most of the movie feeling lackluster until the final showdown, where we finally get some creature feature horror. Having such a great creature, with such a broad range of abilities, its unfortunate the movie does not take advantage of it full horror potential. While it was not a horribly bad movie, I do feel like it was a waste of a great plot and good actors. With producers Guillermo Del Toro and Joel Silver on board you can't help wonder how it wandered off its horror path. Guillermo Del Toro's involvement does show through with its creature design bearing similarities with creatures from his 'Pan's Labyrinth' film. The end also should of been reserved for a Syfy Channel movie as its predictable and seen coming as a setup for a sequel (I'm betting a direct to DVD release). If this movie sounds and bears resemblance to 'Species' your not the only one thinking it. It's a shame this movie did not reach its full potential instead of getting side tracked on the morality of it all, it could of been a really good horror film.