Iron Man 2 (2010)

3/5

Iron Man 2 is not quite as good as Iron Man, mostly because it copied the first one and therefore lost the refreshing originality that distinguished that movie from all the other superhero movies. The plot is fairly simplistic (evil Russian physicist Ivan Vanko has a bone to pick with Tony Stark and creates a suit with electric whips to kill him) but it suffices for the genre. There are a number of dumb/inconsistent plot points that make the movie more preposterous and less believable than it already is (e.g., creating a new element by changing how protons, neutrons, and electrons interact; flashing a warning light 30 seconds before the evil drones are set to explode so that the hero can escape). And the tension during the action sequences was completely deflated because the movie basically turned into a straight-up comedy. Instead of caring that the explosions didn't kill the characters we got attached to, it felt like we were watching a CGI demonstration for July 4.

All that being said, the movie is quite enjoyable. It is far funnier than I remember the first one being. (That swinging doohickey was comic genius!) The jokes are well-timed and delivered with aplomb. The acting by all parties met my expectations, although Robert Downey Jr.'s smugness is now starting to get on my nerves a little bit. If you liked the first one, you'll surely like this one, but I'm not envisioning it blowing anyone's socks off. Don't be afraid to wait for it on DVD. Btw, don't bother watching the 5 second snippet at the end. Let me save you the trouble. He finds Thor's hammer. Now you can leave 10 minutes earlier without having to sit through the 9 minute 55 second-long credits. You're welcome.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/

Letters to Juliet (2010)

3/5

Letters to Juliet is the prototypical romantic comedy, from the awkward meet-cute to the conflict between two loves to the cheesy finale. And quite frankly, the formula works. It was a light, enjoyable flick with charismatic characters and playful hearstring-tugging. The story follows Sophie (Seyfried) with her fiancé Victor (García Bernal) in Verona on a pre-wedding honeymoon in preparation for the opening of his new restaurant. Instead of spending time with Sophie, Victor ends up trying all the foods and wines from Italy on his own, while she begins to get involved with the "secretaries of Juliet." Strangers write letters to Juliet and attach them to a wall, and the secretaries collect them all and write back. Sophie finds one letter that had been lost for 50 years and writes back, only to have the original writer Claire (Redgrave) show up with her grandson Charlie (Egan) on a quest for her long-lost love.

As you can imagine (and visibly see in the trailer), the old woman finds her long lost love and the young girl starts to get close to the young boy. I'm sure you can guess how the movie will end, but the point of the movie is precisely that you get exactly what you want out of watching it. I could complain about minor details like the slow pacing, sloppy writing, and confusing camerawork time after time, but the technical details simply don't matter for this movie. The movie's charm is in its inhabitants, and their relationships with each other, and that is really something to cherish about this film. The people are friendly and funny (how Claire treats her grandson, how Victor talks about food) and their connections--while far from unique--are precisely what we want our own connections to be. And that is where this film succeeds; it gives us exactly what we want, and it does so in the beautiful country of Italy.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892318/

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

2/5

Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a mesmerizing acid-trip of a film, but little more. The plot follows the centuries-old Dr. Parnassus (Plummer) and his troupe of storytellers (Garfield, Troyer, Ledger) as they attempt to free the minds and save the souls of modern-day Londoners through his imaginarium. He must win over 5 souls before the devilish Mr. Nick (Waits) wins over 5 souls as part of a wager to save his daughter (Cole) before she turns 16. Yes, it's fairly convoluted and entirely fantastical, but it is precisely this freedom from rules and expectations that make this movie so exhilarating and captivating. Because it is so bizarre, you never know what happens next or how it will end--you are continually drawn along its winding trail until the very end.

But that is also one of the film's flaws. Sometimes it feels drawn out or scatterbrained. And while it keeps stringing you along, you get the sense that most of the questions you have about what exactly is going on will never be answered. As for the other technical aspects, this film is a mixed bag. The acting is competent (as far as I could tell), but the characters are all so unorthodox and otherworldly that it's hard to appreciate the acting that they're doing. Some aspects of the writing and story are fascinating, but the plot overall is unnecessarily tortuous and confusing. The movie as a whole feels like the work of a mad genius, someone so far ahead of everyone else's reality and so far ahead of modern technology that frustratingly incomplete ideas obscure the underlying brilliance. Either that or Gilliam is just crazy. Gilliam has made much better movies; this is nowhere near his best.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

4/5

Because of some middling comments I had overheard about the movie, I was not expecting to love Disney's classically animated The Princess and the Frog as much as I did, but it is an extraordinary film and a pleasure to watch. The plot follows a young girl in New Orleans named Tiana who wants to turn her dream of running her own restaurant into a reality. Prince Naveen, who was recently cut off from his rich parents, visits New Orleans and is intoxicated by the voodoo doctor's fortunes of wealth. He accepts the shadow man's offer of a future of "green," only later realizing that it meant he would be turned into a frog. He hops on over to Tiana, mistakes her for a princess, and kisses her. Unfortunately, it causes her to turn into a frog as well, instead of turning him back into a prince. The rest of the movie details their quest to turn human again and stop the witch doctor from taking over the town and sucking out everyone's souls.

The movie is visually breathtaking. The 2D animation is sharp and smooth--and quite a refreshing departure from the typical animated film of the late 2000's. The story is captivating from beginning to end. There are scares and triumphs, thrills and laughs, in the perfected proportions that can only come from years of cartooning experience. Granted, there are a few unnecessary scenes/side plots (e.g., the three frog hunters), but they add in some fun, excitement, and drama. The characters are intriguing and charismatic; they draw you close with their friendliness, warmth, and emotion. And the story unfolds like a puzzle that gets slowly put together into an awesome tapestry. The plot is not without a few predictabilities and the music is not without some repetitive or forced dynamics, but on the whole this movie has all the elements you remembered and loved about the best Disney movies of the 1990's.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780521/

Kick-Ass (2010)

3/5

Kick-Ass tells the story of a normal high schooler (Johnson) who reads comic books and wonders why no insane prepubescent kid has ever tried being a superhero like in the comics. So he decides to try it. And gets his ass kicked. So bad, in fact, that most of his body is replaced by metal plates and his nerve endings are destroyed. But he gets videotaped defending a stranger and becomes famous via YouTube and MySpace, which attracts the attention of two real life superheros: Big Daddy (Cage) and Hit-Girl (Moretz). Things spin wildly out of control and what started as an experiment quickly turns deadly.

The movie has graphic violence and language. Their presence in and of itself does not concern me. What bugs me is that they use it repetitively for comic effect and, quite frankly, it gets old. Hearing an 11-year-old girl swear is only (potentially) funny the first time. As is seeing her disembowel someone; seeing it more than once makes it seem like she has a weird fetish or something. The piece's writing was fairly solid. The jokes were great (although some were quite predictable) and Cage's intonation and prosody were absolutely hilarious. The acting was surprisingly good. However, Kick-Ass's real life relationship just didn't strike me as very compelling or original. I just didn't care about what was going on in his personal life. All in all, however, this movie is engaging and exciting. It takes a relatively old genre and spins it in a new direction. And it does so with humor and no sense of boundary. And for that it deserves at least some credit.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/

New Moon (2009)

1/5

New Moon is a bad movie. This is the extent to which I know the plot: the vampire (Pattinson) makes up some reason to leave the town, which of course makes the pale girl (Stewart) depressed. She starts getting closer with her werewolf neighbor (Lautner) and then has to choose between them. There's little else in the 2+ hour movie, although I did learn a few things during the course of watching it. First, Kristen Stewart is ugly when she cries. I think she's ugly all the time, but apparently that sentiment is not as universally shared as I thought. Second, Taylor Lautner has a fairly fit physique. I know this because EVERY SINGLE SCENE with him in it had him shirtless. Kyle thinks his back muscles make him look like a camel or something. Third, Robert Pattinson has kind of a grotesque, gargoylish, sickly frame that makes me think he should see a doctor for anorexia or heroin addiction. Fourth, the CGI werewolves looked like they have really fat necks. It was weird. Oh, and I presume the director had a call for extra pauses, and asked the male pauses to have sex with the female pauses, because there are a bajillion pregnant pauses in this movie intended to simulate fierce thinking and emo angst. Nearly half an hour is wasted on long, drawn out dialogue where the teenagers cannot find the words they want to say. The movie has a lot of forced writing, forced acting, and forced action. It's a round peg of a book being forced into a square hole of a movie. I can't wait for the third one!

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259571/

3 Ninjas (1992)

3/5

3 Ninjas is a movie I loved as a kid. I would watch and rewatch it--much like I would Austin Powers--and reenact scenes with my brother. Watching it again, I was amazed to realize how many sequences and jokes I remembered. (The boingy sound effects add so much replay value, especially with alcohol.) The plot follows three young kids (Treanor, Slade, Power) who are trained by their grandfather (Wong) in ninja martial arts. Their father (McRae) is an FBI agent who is trying to catch a nuclear weapons transporter (Kingsley). The bad guy has three surfer doofuses try to kidnap them, but they fight back like a cooler version of Home Alone. This is a movie with plot holes, shallow characters, and ridiculous improbabilities. But it's a fun, silly movie that's worth a quick 90 minutes if you used to watch it and wanted to reminisce on your childhood.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103596/

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

4/5

How To Train Your Dragon by DreamWorks is a phenomenal animated film on the same level as most Pixar movies. The plot follows the young Viking Hiccup (Baruchel) and his great warrior father Stoick (Butler) on an island plagued by dragon attacks. Hiccup isn't like the other Vikings--he's scrawny and uses his brain to invent weapons instead of wielding giant hammers and axes--and his father lets him know how disappointed he is in him because of it. Wanting to kill a dragon and prove to his father that he's a manly Viking, he tests out a new weapon on an elusive dragon species called the Night Fury. He strikes the dragon down, injuring the tail so that he can no longer escape. He has the opportunity to kill the dragon but discovers that he can't. He sees the dragons with the same fear that he felt and realizes that they're just like him, instead of the evil creatures he's been taught must be killed on sight. But that is just the beginning of this epic tale.

This movie is an exhilarating and memorable ride. Despite a few bad puns, the writing is exceptional. I was a huge fan of the repetition of certain phrases that, when placed in different contexts, showed new meaning. I liked the play on words with the concept of "dragon training," and how it did a complete reversal from what it was in the beginning of the movie. To me, the writers clearly treated this film with care, intellect, and a faith and respect in their audience that is a rarity in "kids" movies these days. That kind of attention to detail was present in their incredible graphics as well, even though I didn't see it in 3D (I think they give me more headaches than they're worth). Without going for the cuteness of Pixar or the realism of Beowulf, they managed a charismatic and charming style that feels appropriate for the subject matter and wholly original.

There were a few things I didn't like about the movie, however. First, Baruchel's voicing of Hiccup was irritating. By about 10 minutes in, I just got annoyed at his whiny, monotonous tenor and wished he was played by anybody else, even Michael Cera. Second, the fight and reunion with his father felt written and didn't quite ring true, although it nonetheless contained some tearjerking ability. Third, there were some aspects of the plot I didn't (and still don't) get, but they're relatively minor and don't really hinder your enjoyment of the film. This movie goes wholly recommended by me, because it has just about everything you could ask for in a film, including the all-important entertainment value.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892769/

Date Night (2010)

4/5

Date Night is an incredibly fun movie that delivered non-stop laughs with an action twist. The plot follows Phil and Claire Foster (Carell, Fey) as two parents whose marriage is slowly becoming routine and whose children occupy the little free time they have after work. When their friends decide to get a divorce, Phil realizes that he has something special with Claire that he doesn't want to lose and decides to take her out to a special night in Manhattan at an upscale seafood restaurant. After arriving without a reservation, they take another couple's table and are believed to be the couple that stole a flash drive from gangster Joey Miletto (Liotta). They are chased around the city for about an hour and a half and finally end up happy together with their marriage secure. (Whoops, I just ruined the ending.)

The writing in this movie is perfect and the two NBC Thursday night stars pull it off with aplomb. Carell and Fey together are a dream come true; they are my ideal comedy duo and they do not disappoint. They should do everything together. The dialogue is 30 Rock gone mainstream and it flies. The humor was quick and the editing kept pace. There are too many funny scenes to even recount and there is absolutely no dead space in the 90 minute movie. It is literally laugh after laugh after laugh. The movie also has a little bit of heart thrown in there for good measure and, while it's not quite the tearjerker it intended to be, it's certainly got a little sap to separate it from the straight-up comedies we see all the time. I probably would've given this movie a higher rating had some unnecessary scenes been deleted and had the emotional aspect hit home harder. All in all, this is a terrific movie for anyone who loves Steve Carell or Tina Fey. Go watch it as soon as you can.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1279935/

Serendipity (2001)

4/5

Serendipity is a surprisingly tender and gripping romantic comedy. The plot follows two people in two separate, seemingly happy relationships. They find each other serendipitously when shopping at Bloomingdale's and enjoy a wonderful night together over coffee and ice skating in downtown New York City. Sara (Beckinsale) believes that if they are meant to be together then fate will bring them back together. So she asks John (Cusack) to write his name and phone number on a $5 bill; then uses it to pay for a pack of gum. She writes her name and number on the inside cover of her favorite book, Love in the Time of Cholera, and sells it to a used bookstore. Will they find each others' names and numbers or were they never destined to be together?

The premise of the story is very compelling. There is something utterly romantic about fate pulling two people together, something entirely desirable about having a soul mate that was meant just for you. And this movie uses that to its full advantage to suck you in and keep you under its spell. Every time they are pulled apart, you just want to yell out, "NOOO!" and push them together. The acting by the leads (and by Shannon and Piven as their best friends) are convincing, heartfelt, and memorable. The writing, the cinematography, and the editing are all fairly predictable and bland, but they don't detract from the overall experience. All in all, this is one of the better romantic comedies I've seen and it definitely gets a recommendation from me.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/