Brief Movie Reviews

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, mainly due to the fact that we upgraded our TV at home from a crappy outdated thing to a 40″ flat screen. I figured I’d go ahead and write brief reviews/my thoughts on them.

Wall-E
I had heard rave reviews about this movie, and was a bit disappointed. It was enjoyable and cute and I would watch it again at a later point, but I felt like it was lacking plot wise. Part of this could be that I’m jaded by Pixar since my “UP” review, but I think that overall the plot seemed kind of transparent and not very strong. Overall, I’d probably give it a 6/10.

Funny People
This movie was also a disappointment to me. I generally like Apatow’s work–LOVED Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin, and Knocked Up. I rented this thinking it would be a comedy and was sorely disappointed. Maybe this has to do with the fact that I’m one of the only people who doesn’t seem to think Adam Sandler is a gift to mankind. I’d say this was more of a drama that had funny aspects. At the end of the movie, I felt like I’d wasted two and a half hours of my life. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really that enjoyable. I’d liken it to watching Spanish soap operas on TV because nothing else is on–sure, they’re entertaining for the moment, but you’re only watching it because you have nothing better to do. Honestly, probably the most excited I got during this movie was when I saw Bo Burnham in the background and yelled out HEY MOM IT’S BO BURNHAM!! I give this movie a 3.5/10–really, don’t bother seeing this movie unless you want to gargle Adam Sandler’s balls in your mouth… in which case you’ve probably already seen this movie and are preparing to write me a strongly worded comment on how wrong I am.

Relative Strangers
I picked up this movie two or three years ago based on the fact that I basically want to be Kathy Bates when I grow up, and the story behind it. Since this one isn’t one that I’d heard of previous to picking up the box, here’s its IMDB page, and here is a trailer for the movie:

My mom and I really enjoyed this and laughed a lot. We enjoyed it so much we watched it again the next night. It’s essentially every adopted child’s worst fear, played to an extreme. Danny DeVito and Kathy Bates are fantastic. I’d give this movie a 7.5/10.

James Cameron’s Avatar
Why yes, I’m aware that I’m basically one of the last people to see Avatar, thank you for informing me. Anyways, I saw Avatar last week in 3D and was really impressed… but not with the 3D. The movie was two and a half hours long–maybe ten minutes of that were cool in 3D. Aside from that, the plot was solid, and the visuals were outstanding. As a former film nerd, I can say that I was awe struck at the amount of work that went into making this movie. I did spend a lot of the movie thinking “Wow, this is just like Fern Gully!” Essentially, if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen it yet, it’s worth sitting through two and a half hours. I also wish I was ten feet tall and blue now. 8/10.

Movie review: Disney/Pixar’s “UP”

Tonight my mother and I were bored and decided to look through our TV’s On Demand menu. I had continually heard good things about Disney/Pixar’s “UP,” and we decided to watch it.

Let me tell you, readers: this was an absolutely fantastic movie. It was funny, sad, and touching. Here’s a summary without giving too much away:

Carl Frederickson met his true love, Ellie, when he was a young boy who wanted adventure. They were married for many years. Now Carl is old and Ellie has passed away, and he decides to go on an adventure by inflating a bunch of balloons and using his house to go to South America like he and Ellie always wanted. Unfortunately, he accidentally brought along a young Wilderness Explorer who isn’t exactly the perfect scout. They make it to South America, where they meet Carl and Ellie’s childhood idol, who is in search of a rare bird. A talking dog named Dug is involved. Awesomeness ensues.

An aside: I really am a nerd and have several children’s movies in my DVD collection. Some of my favorites (that I will admit are also some of my favorite movies ever) include Babe, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Matilda, The Great Mouse Detective, My Neighbor Totoro, and literally everything Wallace and Gromit. As you can tell, I do have a thing for GOOD kids’ movies, so watching this wasn’t too far outside what I would consider watching. At the same time, you can probably see that most of these movies are older–I haven’t been too much of a fan of most of the more recent kids’ movies.

Even though this is a newer kids’ movie, I greatly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it to anyone, but I do warn: I was crying in the first ten minutes, and apparently this is not an uncommon reaction to the first part of the movie. It’s absolutely fantastic, though. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that great. Overall, I’d give it a 9.2/10.