Monday's At The Movies - Hotel for Dogs & Nancy Drew

We ended up having a family movie weekend watching dvds.

Hotel for Dogs
Starring: Emma Roberts, Lisa Kudrow, Don Cheadle, Jake T. Austin
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Genre: Comedy, Family
Year: 2009
Summary from Netflix
Placed in a foster home that doesn't allow pets, 16-year-old Andi (Emma Roberts) and her younger brother, Bruce (Jake T. Austin), turn an abandoned hotel into a home for their dog. Soon other strays arrive, and the hotel becomes a haven for every orphaned canine in town. But they have to do some quick thinking to keep the cops off their tails. Based on a novel by Lois Duncan.

This was delightful fun family movie. It opens with a little terrier type dog walking the streets in search of food. I mention this sequence as it is told from the point of view of the dog, which was a fun way to introduce the movie. Food is what eventually lands Friday into trouble with the law and he is taken to the pound. Andi and Bruce realise that looking after Friday is going to be much more difficult in an inner city apartment building then previously. They discover the abandoned hotel that is occupied with two other dogs and the siblings decide to look after the dogs there.

There is something here for young and old. The inventions that Bruce creates are fantastic and ingenous. Most provide a big chunk of the comedy as you watch the dogs interact with the inventions. The dogs naturally steal the show with Georgia in particular being our comdey favorite.

Emma Roberts has the potential to be a really interesting actress and I'll be interested to see which way her career goes.

Rating 4 out of 5 popcorns

Nancy Drew
Starring: Emma Roberts, Rachael Leigh Cook, Tate Donovan
Director: Andrew Fleming
Genre: Children & Family
Year: 2007
Summary from Netflix
Intrepid teen private eye Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) investigates a Tinseltown murder in this mystery based on Carolyn Keene's popular book series. Nancy heads to Los Angeles with her father (Tate Donovan), where she uncovers new clues to the unsolved murder of a movie star. Can the small-town girl cut through the Hollywood hype to solve the case?

I have never read the Nancy Drew books so can not compare with the beloved book series. However for what I could see they seemed to keep the character Nancy close to the book. How can I say that? well when Nancy was going through her slueth kit she says she has a fountain pen. How many modern kids would even know what a fountain pen is let alone have one. Also Nancy has tinned home made cakes to give everyone, again even if a modern child thought to carry around food to give people I am sure it would be a pre-packed store bought something. The director tied this old world view and values Nancy has in that she just really likes old things.

Anyway on to the story Nancy and her father movie in the old abandonded house of a 70's movie star who had died mysteriously. Nancy though has vowed not to do any more sluething while they are in L.A. However soon Nancy is discovering clues (as her father exclaims "mysteries just find you") that point to solving the mysterious death of the actress.

This was cute fun movie that the whole family can enjoy. You will recognise a lot of the supporting adult cast faces (Bruce Willis is even in there) and they all turn in pretty good efforts acting wise. I was suprised by this film and really enjoyed it. There is a sequel slated that, if the same actors are in it, I will give a chance.

Rating 3.5 out of 5 popcorns

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Monday's Movie Meme 15 June 09

Watched a mixed bag of DVDs this week.

Push
A group of psychics band together to bring down a dark Government agency that is conducting secret experiments.

The movie was a little too slow for my liking. While the plot was good it just got bogged down with scenes of people sitting around staring into space.

The fight scene right the end and the few scattered through out are impressive and almost make the slow parts worth watching. Also the movie is set in Hong Kong and is visually interesting with the locations.

This could have been so much better but was an ok movie.

1/2

Coraline
Is the story of Coraline Jones a young girl who moves to Ashland Oregon with her family. She soon discovers an alternate world through a small door in the living room wall. Coraline quickly learns the perfect world beyond the small done is anything but, and she must unravel the secrets of this world to rescue her family.

This is based on Neil Gaimans book of the same name. I have to point out straight away I have not read the book so could not compare the two. The story though seems to have kept true to Neil Gaimans writing style which is dark, funny and off the wall.

This is not a Disney movie though. Everything is not cute with a dose of warm and fuzzy thrown in. It is dark with a smidgen of humor and strong message, appreciate what you have.

The animation on this was amazing. K & I spent most of the film trying to decide what sort of animation was being used (it is a stop-motion animation for those who are technical).

A family movie everyone can enjoy.




12 Rounds
New Orleans Police Detective Danny Fisher manges to capture an international arms dealer, Mike Jackson, after an FBI sting operation goes wrong. In the process Mike's girlfriend is killed. One year later Mike has escaped from prision and kidnapped Danny Fisher's fiance in revenge. Danny is put through 12 rounds of challenges that he must complete in order to gt his fiance back alive.

What a fun action film. There are lots of things going bang, lots of things that go vroom, and witty one liners. The main actor who plays Danny Fisher is a former wrestler and he does a fairly decent job.

Dont expect any fantastic acting or story telling. But if you want just a good brainless flick for a Sunday arvo then this is not a bad one to watch.




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Monday's At The Movies

Went and saw two new block busters this week.

X-men Origins: Wolverine
This is the tale of Wolverine and how he came to be. I really enjoyed this movie. However I do not know much about the whole X-men stories so am unsure how closely it follows the comic books.

It had lots of action packed scenes that were well choreographed. There was some good doses of humor,which made the slower scenes not so slow.

You also get to see Hugh Jackman naked which is a bonus for the women in the audience. But acting wise a good job was done by all even the rapper Will.I.Am was a surprise, he wasn't half bad.

There are a lot of different characters here and some characters from the X-men trilogy but in their younger form. I wish though the character who can do card tricks (name alludes me) was in the other three movies as he was pretty cool.

The ending to me was a little strange, it just kind of fizzled. It wasn't awful but for me it didn't go bang. Also I briefly struggled with the time line not sure where Wolverine was ultimately set. I guessed it was 80's but the hair/clothes/makeup did not match in fact I would swear it was current. Which is when I thought the trilogy was set. Doesn't matter, perhaps I was not paying attention to the original X-men movies time line. However those two things did now kill the film for me and I suspect the ending was written the way it was for a squeal.

Star Trek
We are not big Star Trek fans but the trailer had seemed interesting enough for us to give it a try. This turned out to be a great film. I thought JJ Abrams did a great job.

There is a good balance between action and story development. I thought the plot was believable to explain how everything was slightly different and new. The Enterprise looks great and is really shiny and sparkly.

There was great humor infused through out, one of the funniest being when Kirk is given an inoculation shot. As I never really watched the original series I could not compare the old and new styles of characters. Spock seems to be pretty spot on from what I have picked up over the years. Zachery Quinto does a really good job as Spock. In fact all of the actors were cast well and did great jobs in their roles.

Also some of the classic sayings slipped in (even I know a lot of them). Which was a nice touch.

Set aside the whole Star Trek brand and you have a good science fiction movie. Non-trekky fans will get a kick out of this film. I would be extremely surprised if there is not a squeal to this.

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Monday's At The Movies

This week we saw a cheapie movie at the cinemas and lots of DVDs. We also started watching Paul Blart Mall Cop and it was so bad we gave up after 15 minutes.

Fast and Furious (4)
It is what you would expect it to be. An action packed, testosterone filled ,car chasy movie. There are no Oscar award winning performances here and thats fine it doesn't pretend to be anything else. I actually enjoyed this film probably because I was expecting it to be pretty awful (it is the 4th movie in the franchise). Not a lot more to say about the movie really other then Paul Walker and Vin Diesel do not get their tops off at all and lets face it they are the only reason girls go to see this film.

Valkeyrie

In short boring. Which disappointed me because this is such an interesting story about the only really major coordinated attempt to assassinate Hitler during his reign. There are also some really good actors in the film like Terrance Stamp and Kenneth Brennagh (some might argue Tom Cruise but I wont put him in that category).

So I am not really sure why I didn't engage in this film, we watched most of it but then got bored and went and saw Fast and Furious 4. I suppose one thing was the other actors I felt did not get enough screen time, it was hard to work up any real empathy when they only got 5 minutes screen time (not quite that bad but near enough) and the actors I dont think were really utilized fully. As for the plot I never got the sense how precarious the situation was for the conspirators.

In the end I didnt really care what happened to them which is probably what killed it for me as I do know what a fascinating story the actual event was.

Bedtime Stories
I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I thought this was just going to be another Adam Sandler movie being well Adam Sandler. But I think combining with Disney and making more of a family film (plus not having Sandler direct or write the screenplay) actually made this a pretty decent film.

The story is about a man who babysits his niece and nephew and to entertain them he tells them stories. However he soon relaises that the fun friendly stories told at bedtime are coming true.

There are no suprises here its Disney, enough said really. There are all the cliches and the compulsory happy ending but it was the humour that sold it. Actually to be honest Bugsy the Guinea Pig was the favorite. For an animated rodent that couldn't speak it stole the show.

Defiance
Set in the eastern regions of German Nazi-occupied Poland (now western Belarus) during World War II, it is the tale of four brothers from Poland who escaped Nazi persecution by living in a nearby large forrest. Eventually they fought back and rescued fellow Jews.

This film is based on the adaptation of Nechama Tec's Defiance: The Bielski Partisans which is the brothers story.

What a fantasic film. This was evertyhing Valkeryie should have been. It had action, heart ache, happiness, humour, and sorrow. Great script writing and directing and extremely well cast actors. We were cheering for the brothers right up to the end. I was rivited by the story and would now like to get my hands on the book.

What I think this movie did best was show just what human nature is like in trying conditions. Even the good guys have bad moments. I could not even begin to comprehend what they had to go through and the decisions the brothers had to make as leaders of the forrest village.

I would really recomened this film to anyone.

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Monday's At The Movies

This week there were no movies at the cinema I wanted to fork out dollars for. We did however gets some DVDs of movies we haven't seen.

Twilight
I finally caved and decided to see what the fuss was all about. Strangely I was actually hoping to like this movie and then it would give me an excuse to read the book. But that did not happen. This movie was boring.

Firstly the directing was not fantastic. Some scenes felt like they still needed to be edited, they just lacked oomph of any kind. The swirly choppy camera work in the forest (when Bella tells Edward she knows what he is) made me feel ill from dizziness.

The characters were awkward and the interaction was not particularly engaging. I did not like Bella much she was to gloomy and boring. The vampires were the most interesting but the least explored. The actors were quite well cast though, and they all did a decent job.

But what was with Bella being so pale? is she like that in the book? we thought she was a vampire as well at first or dying of some nasty illness.

I guess put simply I was bored by this movie. It didn’t really inspire anything in me and I was glad to hear a couple of work mates say they thought the movie was boring too (and one said not much like the book. Will take his word on that).

Marley & Me

I thought there was little hope for this movie. I loved the book and I am not a fan of movies based on books (especially when I have already read said book). A lot of the time they end up nothing like the book and leave me massively disappointed.

Marley & Me I thought did a pretty good job of balancing the need to follow the book and the need to keep audiences watching. There were some things added and some things taken out, and other parts lightly skimmed over (like the miscarriage and the post natal depression) but I can understand why the directors did what they did. Also one of the biggest pluses for me was despite noticing the differences I didn’t care I could enjoy the movie for what it was.

It was funny and sad and captured the essence of the book. The focus was more on Marley’s interaction with the Grogans rather than John Grogans inputs on life. And even though I KNEW what was going to happen I was still a blubbery quivering mess by the end of the film.

Slumdog Millionaire
Wow is all I can say about this movie. It was recommended by the other half’s mother and it was there so we got it. I was engrossed almost from word go.

Slumdog Millionaire is an amazingly clever film that tells its story in a unique and fascinating way.I loved how it wove the story of a boy growing up in the slums to the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. If you haven’t seen the film I won’t say more than that so I don’t ruin it.

The actors are really well cast and the script for the movie is intricate without being to clever. The director also did a good job with this film. The cinematography was also brilliant and beautiful. Everything about this movie just clicked for me.

I have not read the book so can not compare the two. But if it is anything like the movie I imagine it would be an amazing book.

This movie certainly deserved the 8 oscars it won including best movie. I loved it.

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Monday's At The Movies

Well I am back to watching movies at the cinema on cheapie Tuesdays. The local cinemas deal of $9 movies when you book online ended at the end of March. Oh well it was good while it lasted and saw a tone of films at the cinemas I might have otherwised passed on.

Monsters vs Aliens

When a meteorite from outer space hits a young California girl named Susan Murphy and turns her into a giant monster, she is taken to a secret government compound where she meets a ragtag group of monsters also rounded up over the years. As a last resort, under the guidance of General W.R. Monger, on a desperate order from The President, the motley crew of Monsters is called into action to combat the aliens and save the world from imminent destruction!

Well before I get started I should make it known I love animated films. If it is animated I am there with bells on, so not sure how balanced my review will be.

Now on to the review, put simply I LOVED this film. It was so much fun. The animation is awesome, the voice actors are well cast, the script is kinda standard to these family films but still good, and finally it is funny. I was able to pick the voices of Hugh Laurie and Reece Witherspoon but completely missed Kiefer Sutherland. Fun Fact for the Aussies reading this, David Koch lent his voice to an Aussie Newsreader.

My partner and I were not the only ones who liked the film either. When we saw the film there were a lot of kiddies in the audience (school holidays and we went to a day session) and they were absolutely laughing themselves stupid.

Blob and Missing Link were my favorite characters who had me laughing myself stupid too.

If you have the opportunity to see this film in 3D which I believe is only in selected IMAX cinemas, I recommend seeing it in 3D. There were a couple of scenes in the normal movie you could tell were done specifically for the 3D audience and would have looked amazing. This did not ruin the film for the normal cinemas but when those scenes occoured I thought "that would have been really cool in 3D".

Anyone with kids should definately see this at the cinemas or if your an animated movie nut like me just go anyway.

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Monday's At The Movies

I have been following this meme through Musings of a Bookish Kitty for awhile now and decided its high time I participated. Especially as lately I have been seeing quite a few movies and there are a lot of new ones coming I wish to watch (do not get me started on my excitement for Monsters vs Aliens).

Confessions of a Shopaholic
This is a fun light hearted movie with not one shred of originality. If you love shopping for clothes and shoes you will probably be one step off an orgasm with the plethora of designer wear advertised here.

Its a shame the script was pretty poor and the support cast was not fantastic. Everything was horribly predicable even the jokes. Isla Fisher to give her credit saved this film. She pulled goofy off really well and was believable in the role.

As long as you don’t expect much you should get a few chuckles out of this movie. It is barely recognisable as the book it is based on. Perhaps wait till it is on DVD or go with a big group of girls to get the most out of this film.

Knowing
I am not sure what to make of this movie as the more I think about it the more it annoys me. But while watching it I did like it.

What I didn’t like: Well the ending for starters. It was one of those endings that kept on going and should have been 10 minutes shorter. There was a good ending and if it had stopped there I think that would have been a strong if not powerful ending, but then it just kept going and ruined the moment. The extended bit which I guess is the true ending to me was just a waste of time and could have been easily cut.

My second gripe was the weird religious references. I am not talking about the fact there was religious references, I am talking about the fact that when they happened they really were weird and left you sitting there thinking “what the heck was that?”

Also it was all rather depressing which is off putting to me. I figure if I want to be depressed I can watch the news. I go to the movies for fun and excitement.

What I did like: The graphics were pretty awesome. The cinematographer did a really good job. I have heard this movie was shot in Melbourne and that is evident in some scenes that unfortunately no cinematographer or graphics computer guru can hide (such as the scene when they are sitting in a cafe at the museum). But for the most part they worked well with what they had.

Also the action scenes were really well done and jaw dropping. There were more than a few occasions where I was completely stunned in horror by what I was watching. The scenes aren’t gory but they really freaked me out. But then I am easily freaked so maybe I am not the best judge on this. I do note that I was not the only one who jumped out of her seat in one scene though.

Nicholas Cage was mostly great in this movie and Rose Byrne did a reasonable jobs (she seemed a little on the flat side not as good as she is in Damages).

I suspect my biggest issue about this film is it just falls short of being really good. Something I cant put my finger on holds it back. The story I thought was clever, there were great actors, and a wonderful director. All the makings of what should be a kick ass awesome film. Yet like I mentioned at the start, the more I think about it the less I like the film and I walked out feeling quite depressed about everything really.

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