I caught Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd, Juno, No Country For Old Men (again) recently and I gotta say most impressive were Juno and Sweeney Todd. Sweeney Todd was an unexpected gem. My early prediction for Oscar accolaides.
I really want to see The Savages but I can't seem to find a local theater showing it. Phillip Seymour Hoffman rules... and he steals the movie in Charlie Wilson's War.

I saw The Savages today. Very good, kind of intense in a very, very black comedy way. Phillip Seymour Hoffman does indeed rule but the entire cast was excellent.

Tomorrow, Charlie Wilson's War and Walk Hard. Unfortunately There Will Be Blood (speaking of actors who rule) and Persepolis will not have opened in these parts so I might be done for the year.

Just wanted to throw this in here. Watched the HD-DVD of Transformers the other night with my son. Wow! The movie looks spectacular in HD. I'm glad I picked up my Toshiba A2 for $98 bucks at Walmart last November.

HD-DVDs really do blow away DVDs.

The movie was ok as a popcorn flick. Just a fun turn your brain off movie with plenty of eye candy (see Megan Fox...yum!).

Right now there's only three movies coming out in 2008 that I know I want to see (Indy 4, Narnia 2, and Harry Potter 6), so who knows if I'll be able to find something else coming out at the same time those ones do for me to try it out but I'll wait and see what happens. I know last year I only managed to go out 4 times to the theatre with me renting everything else, but really since 2007 was a pretty dry year for movies anyway I thought there weren't a whole heck of a lot more I wish I could have caught on the big screen instead. Maybe Ratatouille or Reign Over Me or even The Last Sin Eater might have been nice but at the time I wasn't entirely sure I even wanted to see those films. I guess for me there are certain movies I know I wanna see and others I'm just not sure of and instead of staying in the theatre and trying something out I'm not sure of I'll just wait until later to see it. I know I've rented my fair share of stinkers but every time I at least felt good about the fact that I was watching it at home and not at the theatre. I guess what I'm trying to say is I hate wasting time in the theatre watching a movie I don't like but don't mind doing it at home lol. I hope 2008 ends up being better for movies but you never know.

Jeez that National Treasure sequel sure packed them in this past weekend. $55M+!!!

Guess Nic Cage is still a very bankable star.

All I know is the first one gave me a headache when I tried to watch it.

I saw it this past weekend, I didn't think it was great but I enjoyed it well enough. It was fun.

I didn't like the new National Treasure any better than the first one (Cage tops my "least favorite" actors list), but the cartoon that preceded it was a blast. Goofy gets a home-entertainment system--couldn't help thinking of my friend JohnG!

Finally got around to seeing tonight one of the definite highlights from last year--Amazing Grace. I had heard nothing but good things about it all last year and now I know why. It's a joyously uplifting film about the power of the human spirit and how one man can literally change the world for those around him even when his odds are definitely not in his favor. William's never give up attitude in the film was truly inspiring and every time he was in the movie Albert Finney's John Newton character practically stole the show away from him. Amazing Grace truly was amazing and inspirational and I give it the highest recommendation. With movies like Ratatouille, Amazing Grace, The Last Sin Eater and Reign Over Me coming out in 2007 (not to mention Evan Almighty and the latest Spiderman and Harry Potter movies) I guess I can't really say that last year was a disappointing movie year after all. It may not have had as many highlights as 2001-2006 had but at least it did have a handful of truly great ones after all.

Catching up with some sure Oscar contenders, here are a couple reviews from yesterday's (very long) double feature:

Atonement. Basically a chick flick. I'm usually a sucker for historic costume dramas, but I found this largely uninvolving. Not quite the overbloated turkey that the similarly-themed Cold Mountain was, but not in the league of Remains of the Day or Howard's End either. (Maybe it needed Emma Thompson or Judi Dench to lend it some--dare I say it?--gravitas.) For all the Oscar talk surrounding Keira Knightley, the young Saoirse Ronan steals the show as the younger sister. Very odd ending too.

There Will Be Blood. One of the best 2 or 3 movies of 2007. The style and look of the movie is really an homage to Kubrick, and it works brilliantly. Daniel Day-Lewis is riveting, and Paul Dano (who played the brother in LIttle Miss Sunshine) is Oscar-worthy as a young preacher. There are several scenes featuring both of them that are just a delight to watch. Two and a half hours sped right by. Go see this movie on a big screen.

I decided to skip Atonement. I tried to read the book and I couldn't get past the first two chapters. I never quit in the middle of a book and I just couldn't do it.

There Will Be Blood tomorrow.

My wife is itching to see Atonement since its a chick flick. Guess I'll need a few stiff drinks to get thru the movie.

Saw Atonement tonight and yes it was a slow go. And would you know it, my wife fell asleep half way through!

I wish I could do that. Anyway, Keira looks great in her green dress.

Yep, when it comes to Oscar pools next month, bet on Atonement for costume design, just for that green dress!

The last chick flick I saw (Waitress) I had to watch twice because the first time I fell asleep about halfway through and by the time I woke up the movie had already ended, so a few days later I tried again and still had trouble staying awake during it but at least it did get better towards the end. I've seen my fair share of chick flicks and in my opinion there are both good and bad ones. My favorites would easily be You've Got Mail, My Best Friend's Wedding, Runaway Bride, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Pretty Woman, My Girl, 13 Going on 30, 50 First Dates, A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, Forget Paris, and both Princess Diaries movies. On the other hand Erin Brockovich, Mona Lisa Smile, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, The Notebook, both Miss Congeniality movies, and the bits and pieces I've seen of Beaches thoroughly bored me to tears. I suppose to be fair Waitress wasn't nearly as bad as the ones I've hated but it certainly wasn't as good as my favorites either.

At times Atonement reminded my of a perfume ad "Come back to me....". In fact I think Keira does perfume ads.

About the only thing I liked about the movie was the long take during the Dunkirk scene. Very arty. The kind of scene where the camera follows our heroe's without a cut, it just follows along like you are also there walking along side them.

This is a movie though that you need 3 cups of coffee before you go in but then you'll be running for the bathroom as its over 2 hours long.

Was disappointed over the holidays to discover that so many films had already passed out of the theaters... it's getting to the point where if you want to see something on the big screen you'd better plan on doing so within the first couple of weeks. In particular, was hoping to catch American Gangster, but I guess I'll have to wait for video now.

Rented for myself a typical guys movie the other day, the latest American Pie film the Beta House, but unfortunately this was the first time in all my years of watching the American Pie films where I couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed in it. I guess one could say it had all the typical Pie ingredients in it with this one being the raunchiest most over the top one yet. Sadly at times I felt like the film overdid it in the raunch department with certain scenes being even too gross and nasty for them. But really the one thing I felt was sorely lacking this time around was any sort of love relationship between the characters. Call me crazy but in all previous films I could clearly see moments of genuine affection and sweet loving scenes that made me realize not everyone was in it just to have sex. Even Steve Stifler in the third film showed some growth and maturity towards Michelle's sister, and of course in the end Jim realized that sex wasn't everything and he found the woman of his dreams in Michelle. Plus Matt Stifler in Band Camp learned to be nice to that one woman he had always been mean to, and in the Naked Mile I thought it was extremely sweet that the two main characters both realized they loved each other so when they did it for the first time it was truly something special for them. Unfortunately even that movie got tainted somewhat for me in this one when I found out she had cheated on him during the summer. Anyway to be fair the movie was still quite funny and I admit I had a good time watching it. Plus Eugene Levy as usual was fantastic in every single scene he was in. I just wish that sex hadn't been the main goal in everyone's minds in the Beta House and that love had somehow managed to get squeezed in there amongst all the raunch, because honestly it's those sweet loving moments that in my mind raised all the previous Pie films to something more than just your typical teen sex comedy. It was sad to see all the love being drained in this one but yet at the same time I can't really say I hated watching it. Was grossed out at times and felt slightly disappointed in the end, but definitely did not hate it. Talk about being torn, huh?

Watched Sunshine tonight on DVD. Not bad at all. Well done space sci-fi movie. It just gets a bit wacky in the finale.

Saw Juno last night and it is a sweet small film. Nice use of mood, music and folly.

Ellen Page is a force of nature. Movie would have never worked without her.

One thing I found strange is her family never broaches the subject of just keeping the baby and raising it themselves as they seem pretty comfortable. But it does play out satisfactorily for audiences in the end.

I liked the debate on which era of music was the best.....80's or 1977?

Planning on seeing Cloverhill this weekend, really looking forward to that.

Saw Cloverfield last night. It was good but not great. I give the film-makers a lot of points for trying something a little new and it certainly had some exciting moments. There were some parts of the story that were manufactured just to extend the story but over-all it was lean and mean. Cloverfield certainly follows in the tradition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other movies that had their generations' fears as a subtext. Even without the footage of Manhattan being destroyed the underlying theme was unmistakeably terrorism.

Saw trailers for a ton of movies but the two that stood out were Hellboy and Iron Man. Hellboy has a lot of Pan's Labyrinth in it this time around (for obvious reasons), looks like just as much fun as the first one. I have no idea what our kin upstairs think about the Iron Man movie but I am really looking forward to it. I didn't think the flying Iron Man effect was so good but the rest of the trailer made up for it. The Star Trek trailer was less a trailer than a tease.

I thought Cloverfield was amazing, and I'm a lifelong Godzilla fan who was thinking, how could they possibly do anything new with the genre. They did. It was fun, intense and quite fightening at times, as though you were right there with the people and that this was actually happening.
I loved every second of it-it was exactly what I was hoping for. I needed no explanation as to why the monster was there or who knew what about it (i.e. the government, which was briefly alluded to). There were definitely parallels to 9/11, such as the fact that it was New York, that it happened out of nowhere, that perhaps the government knew all along, the dust on people in the streets, etc.
Of course, there's no way the camera would've lasted through everything, but who cares? I thought it was one of the most intense movie-going experiences I've ever had. The camera was indeed tough to get used to, but a great effect. I also thought the cast was very good. The audience wanted a Hollywood ending and groaned, but they're usually clueless. I also think hardly anyone realized that this was someone (most likely from the military) watching the whole thing unfold on video. Anyway, I thought Cloverfield kicked ass!
As for the trailers, Iron Man looked really cheesy with the typical CGI (at least they used the Sabbath song in the trailer), but with Robert Downey Jr. involved, I'll probably see it and then forget about it like Spider-Man, X-Men and every other comic adaptation.
The Ruins looked pretty cool-the book was interesting, and it's not what you think. Hellboy 2 looks as bad the first one. I love Del Toro, but I hated the first one. Semi-Pro looked abysmal, which is a shame because that could be funny-I read the book about the ABA "Loose Balls" which was hilarious, but this trailer looked hideous-will Will Ferrell ever be funny again???