Super 8

J.J. Abrhams, who is the director, is one of the best sci-fy screenwriters today. And being produced by Stephen Speilberg, it has an odd similarity to E.T. Now there is a lot of over done action scenes, CGF or whatever it is called. That did not necessarily ruin the feel of the action, but after a while you just wanted that scene to end. This is one of the ongoing flaws of Hollywood productions today, so I will not criticize it harshly.

While filming a scene for a homade zombie movie, a group of friends witness a bizzare train wreck. Set in the summer of 1979, things start happening in their small town of Lilian, Ohio. Joe Lamb's (Joel Courtney) father, Jack Lamb (Kyle Chandler, is the deputy of the town and quickly becomes overwhelmed by the numerous strange incidents. So Joe and his gang of friends, head out to investigate for themselves.

When I refer to gang I mean, Joe (Joel Courtney), the focus of the story. Charles (Riley Griffiths), the bossy, and a little overweight, director, and a trust-worthy friend. Cary (Ryan Lee), a kid obsessed with fire and blowing things up, a typical imature boy. One of those boys you suspect has some type of hyperactive disorder, but you are not really sure. Martin (Gabriel Brasso), the dork. And Preston (Zach Mills), a wimp who thinks over every situation until he finds some way that it might go wrong. It is an amazingly realistic portrayle of middle-school imaturity and spot on everyday interaction with eachother. I knew every one of those boys in my middle-school. To the inth degree J.J. Abrhams has made those characters at point that they were no longer characters but people. Boys who could be sitting next to you at the theater.

Joel Courtney is incredible for a child actor of his generation. I can say the same about his costar, Riley Griffiths, who plays Charles. I type this with shaking hands, because I would have never known this if I had not looked it up. This is the first time acting, for both of them. For most of the boys in fact. Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning's little sister, who obviously takes after her in the way of talent, plays Alice Dainard. Her act does not go unnoticed. Even though Alice is for the most part important to the film and storyline, I found myself wanting to see more of Joe's character. Of course a major film can not get produced with out some sort of romance, so figure it out yourselves.

I think that this movie could have been split. One plot, a family drama, and the other, a sci-fi comedy. But the plots do come together very easily towards the end, although I do not think it neccesary. This ease is not very common which is also a way this movie works.

Something that bothers me though is the rating. It is rated PG-13. To me it seems like it should be rated R. There is a lot of blood and cussing. Thank god I did not take my little sister to see it, which I was going to. 10 and up is my recommended age.

I have seen this movie three times. You should at least see it once.

The Tourist

As I was walking out of the theater after the movie the thought that came into my head was, "Why? Why and how was this movie even considered for a Golden Globe nomination?" What did they see in this movie? Was it the twist at the end that was supposed to be surprising.
Johnny Depp plays a terrible sexy math teacher, Frank Tupelo. He is so self conscience about his fame, that it makes him seem ignorant and that effects his acting and character. It makes his character awkward when he is supposed to be charming, and makes his character seem stupid when he is supposed to be comedic. Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, is always sexy. But this role is nothing new for her. Elise Clifton-Ward slowly struting around in designer dresses in a foreign country doing something important. Not any characters that you have not seen before.
Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) is a high school math teacher visiting Italy. Something about his love life fell apart, blah, blah, blah... Elise Clifton-Ward is some sort of spy or something, it wasn't really clear what kind. They first meet on a train (thats an unusual place to meet a love interest in a mystery movie). Elise is trying to protect the man she loves (guess who), he did something bad and now the FBI is after him (original). She trys to distract the agents with Frank, complicating things.
Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes said it best. "It was a big year for 3D movies, Toy Story, Despicable Me, Tron. Seems like everything this year was 3-dimensional. Except the characters in The Tourist. Um, I feel bad about that joke. I, no I’ll tell you what. I’m jumping on the bandwagon cause I haven’t even seen The Tourist. Who has? But no, it must be good cause its nominated so shut up, okay. And I’d like to crush this ridiculous rumor going around that the only reason The Tourist was nominated was so that the Hollywood foreign press could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. That is, that is rubbish. That is not the only reason, they also accepted bribes."

The Hurt Locker

Wow! This film is amazing! Everything about it is amazing! The cinematography, acting, art direction, and directing! You truly feel like you are there, standing in front of a bomb about to explode! It gets your heart racing!
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, this movie is a bit of everything. Sergeant First Class William James (played by the talented Jeremy Renner) is addicted to war. As the leader of an Army bomb squad, he will put everything below the addrenaline rush. Even if it means endangering his team, Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldiridge (Brian Geraghty). They struggle with their emotions as they are on a journey where every one is a potential enemy.
It fully deserved the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. Like I said before, amazing!

9

Visually, pretty cool (most likely if you have an HD TV). Too bad the movie is lame...
9 is about the future, a future of machines that have destroyed humanity. The thirst for technology that they have created has turned against them. All that is left to stop them are the numbered dolls, created by a mastermind. The characters all have different personalities (if you could call them that) and purposes. It sounds like it could have been a good si-fi movie, but the flatness of the 'dolls' 'personalities ruines it.
No emotion, no matter how hard they actors tried, which obviously was not very much. Almost NONE of the voices seemed to fit their characters. There were stabs at comedy here and there, I guess to show that they were some what human, but it did NOT work...at all.
The only character that seemed to do anything for the movie was #5, voiced by John C. Reilly. He had a voice that fit his character. He was the only one who had any emotion in his voice.
This movie is not worth seeing, unless you have a 3D Imax theatre in your home. To sum up this movie in one word it would be flat...just flat.