Up

Up is a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 9-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.

There are few things in life that you can count on. One of those things is that Pixar doesn't do bad movies. This is their tenth movie and if I was to rank all ten movies in order (I believe I smell a self-challenge there) the last place one would still have been one of the best movies to come out that particular year. Up is no different. In fact, Up might be the most touching of all the stories that Pixar have brought to life so far. Only Pixar could pull off a movie about a 78 year old man having to let go of his lost love that keeps the audience going back and forth between being about to cry and then laughing out loud all while being amazed by the beautiful animation. This is easily the best movie of the year so far. As for the 3D part of the movie, it wasn't a necessity whatsoever. I'm sure the movie would be just as amazing in 2D.

I don't just recommend that everyone check this out. I stamp it as a must see by all. Just be warned that it is incredibly sad at times.

Dance Flick

In Dance Flick, a young street dancer, Thomas Uncles (Damon Wayans, Jr.), from the wrong side of the tracks and a beautiful young woman, Megan White (Shoshana Bush), are brought together by their passion for dancing and put to the test in the mother of all dance battles.

This movie was horrible. Its not like I went in there with high expectations. I went in to this thinking it would be horrible and it actually ended up being worse. I only laughed twice. Once was a musical number by the Zac Efron-ish guying singing Gay instead of Fame and the other one was a tremendously fat guy singing You're Gonna Feed Me instead of You're Gonna Love Me from Dreamgirls. If I wanted to hear funny song parodies though I would listen to Weird Al. This movie was a humongous pile of dung.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. Ever. Not even people I hate. Its just plain crap.

Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian

It's a new night and museum for Ben Stiller, who is joined by several other stars from the original film, as well as new characters from history -- including Amy Adams as famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart, Hank Azaria as villainous Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah, Christopher Guest as Russian tyrant Ivan the Terrible and Alain Chabat as Napoleon. Owen Wilson is back as cowboy Jedediah, and Robin Williams again rides into history as Teddy Roosevelt. The centerpiece of the film will be bringing to life the Smithsonian Institution.

This movie was essentially just a redo of the first one. More museum things come to life. They argue over something that really doesn't matter. There's some big laughs. There are some cool characters involved. Ben Stiller plays himself yet again. And it ends happy. The only real stand out part of this movie was Hank Azaria as Kamunrah. He (and his accent) were hilarious. Outside of that, it was just your basic, run of the mill, simple minded summer movie entertainment.

I'd would lukewarmly recommend this movie to everyone. Like I said - its entertaining but has pretty much no substance at all. If you have kids they will love it but if you are out to see a "good" movie, this really isn't it.

Terminator: Salvation

John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future that Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

This is another tough summer movie to review. Is it entertaining. Absolutely. Is it a good movie. Not really. The special effects were awesome. They really went all out with trying to make new variations of the terminators. The water snake ones literally had my mouth hanging open with awe at how they did that. The motorcycle ones were pretty bad ass too. Sam Worthington was great, but Christian Bale was pretty much completely wasted in this movie. The preview didn't do the movie any favors by pretty much giving away the only story of the movie. If they wouldn't have given away that Sam Worthington was actually a terminator, the first half of the movie would have been a lot more intriguing as they led towards the big reveal that again was shown in the trailer for the movie for the last 3 months. Outside of the build up to Sam Worthington being a terminator and not knowing it, there really wasn't any susbtance to the story whatsoever Its just more of man fighting against machine. This was completely not a stand alone movie. It was just another add on full of special effects to the other Terminator movies. And there was no attention paid to continuity at all. About half way through the movie, I started asking myself how the hell the machines knew about John Connor. I know that we know about his prophecy but how do the machines know? Kind of lost on that. All of those negatives being said, the biggest problem I had with the movie was the editing. There were scenes where I actually though I must have blinked for really long because it was as if chunks of the movie were left out. At one point, two characters are alone in the rain and the woman tells the guy to get firewood. The next second, the rain is over, the ground has dried up and the woman is about to get assaulted by three other guys. Something like this happened a couple more times throughout the movie and was very annoying.

Even with all the knocks on the movie, it still is watchable and entertaining as a thoughtless summer popcorn movie because of the effects and Sam Worthington. As long as you go in to it letting go of any hopes for continuity and/or quality - I would recommend watching it. If you are looking for a great movie - don't waste your time with this though.

Angels & Demons

When Langdon (Tom Hanks) discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history - he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization's most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican's only hope for survival.

Every review of this movie will ultimately involve it being compared to The DaVinci Code. There's simply no way around it. So, I might as well start by saying that this movie was better than The DaVinci Code. I read both books and also enjoyed this book a thousand times better. However, it ran in to the same problem as its predecessor in that all of the "suspense" in both books came from intense conversations. Unless you are Quentin Tarantino it is impossible to convey that kind of dramatic dialogue to film. Ron Howard is a phenomenal director. Tom Hanks is the greatest actor of our generation. I still think that neither one of them should be associated with the stories of Robert Langdon. This movie was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too talky just like the first one and it ends up making the movie too smart for its own good. They definitely did a much better job of unfolding the story in this one but there were too many scenes where I could have taken a nap simply because I barely understood what they were talking about and wasn't made to care too much either.

I would somewhat recommend this movie to people. Its not a great movie. Its definitely not a bad movie. I want to say its good but then I feel like I'm rewarding it more than it should be. Its somewhere between OK and good.

Next Day Air

When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it triggers a series of events that forever changes the lives of ten people in Next Day Air.

This is essentially another one of those spiraling out of control comedies. A bunch of characters are introduced and then involved in a storyline that just keeps getting sillier and sillier and they are all ultimately involved in the big conclusion. The only reason that I even bothered watching this is that I love Donald Faison from Scrubs - one of the funniest shows ever, people! Let's have a moment of silence in case the show is now done for good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Now back to the movie. There were a couple of times where I laughed, but definitely not enough. The running time of the movie was very short which I appreciated greatly and helped to make the movie minimally watchable.

I wouldn't really recommend that anyone rush to check this out. Its nowhere worth the time and money. You can just wait for rental or cable.

Star Trek

The greatest adventure of all time begins with Star Trek, the incredible story of a young crew's maiden voyage onboard the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind.The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock (Zachary Quinto), was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before!

At no point was I ever anywhere near being a "Trekkie". I have always been a huge fan of science fiction but always found Star Trek to be too much. I was also a die hard Star Wars fan. I loved the characters and chemistry of Star Wars along with the science fiction. I always found Star Trek too be too nerdy and silly. This movie changed all of that for me. It was awesome! The special effects kicked ass. The young up and coming cast filled with "the guy from that movie" or "the girl from that show" was so well cast and played off of each other exceptionally well. And the story managed to tame down the nerdiness. It was heavy science fiction but done in such an action packed way that you don't have to have a PhD in order to understand what's going on. It was also written in that sarcastic kind of a way that you find yourself laughing thoughout the movie and the references to catch phrases from Star Treks past was priceless.

I couldn't possibly recommend this movie more. I loved it and as I said I've never been a big fan of Star Trek, but I definitely will be moving forward with this cast and director.

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past

Celebrity photographer Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) loves freedom, fun and women...in that order. A committed bachelor with a no-strings policy, he thinks nothing of breaking up with multiple women on a conference call while prepping his next date.Connor's brother Paul is more the romantic type. In fact, he's about to be married. Unfortunately, on the eve of the big event, Connor's mockery of romance proves a real buzz-kill for Paul, the wedding party and a houseful of well wishers--including Connor's childhood friend Jenny (Jennifer Garner), the one woman in his life who has always seemed immune to his considerable charm.Just when it looks like Connor may single-handedly ruin the wedding, he gets a wake-up call from the ghost of his late Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), the hard-partying, legendary ladies man upon whose exploits Connor has modeled his lifestyle. Uncle Wayne has an urgent message for his protege, which he delivers through the ghosts of Connor's jilted girlfriends--past, present and future--who take him on a revealing and hilarious odyssey through a lifetime of failed relationships. Together, they will discover what turned Connor into such a shameless player and whether he has a second chance to find - and this time, keep - the love of his life.

This is your textbook romantic comedy where you know damn well everything that is going to happen before the house lights even dim in the theater. Its just a rehash of A Christmas Carol with McConaughey and Garner playing the same role they play in every movie. There are the over the top/cheesy supporting characters. There is the obligatory happy ending and if you think that I ruined that for you now you are an idiot for not knowing how this would turn out in the first place. All of that being said - I still enjoyed the movie. Sometimes you're just able to "enjoy" a movie regardless of how formula/predictable it is. This is one of those movies.

I would recoomend anyone who was interested in checking this movie out go ahead and do so. Its an enjoyable watch and would make a pretty good date movie.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar - as the fierce fighting machine who possesses amazing healing powers, retractable claws and a primal fury. Leading up to the events of X-Men, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" tells the story of Wolverine's epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe whose appearances in the film series have long been anticipated.

This is a tough movie to review. Let me just state for the record that I was able to simply watch and enjoy the movie. I kept my expectations rock bottom and was 110% sure that there was no way this movie would be anywhere near the level of quality shown with some of the recent comic book movies. I figured it would be more on par with X-Men: The Last Stand and the two Fantastic Four movies and thats what I got. Its not a great movie in terms of quality, but I felt it was a good movie in terms of summer popcorn movie watchability. Now that I have gotten that out of the way . . . . . Most of the other mutants in the movie were just there for filler which is pretty mind blowing considering that the movie was only barely over an hour and half WITH THE FILLER. The special effects were really lame considering the high profile standing of the movie. The weird thing was that they were the lamest when you didn't really need the special effects. There is a part towards the end with kids running towards a helicopter that is honestly the worst green screen effect I've ever seen. I don't know if the lameness of the effects was because of the fact that the movie leaked online through the special effects company and 20th Century Fox had to scramble to finish the movie or not, but they were cheesy regardless. The biggest problem that I have with the movie is actually an extension of the only problem I had with the original X-Men movie. The character of Sabretooth was always Wolverine's arch nemesis in the comics. I felt that they screwed the pooch with Sabretooth in the original by making him this big, dumb, overly hairy guy that doesn't even speak. This movie did an awesome job explaining Sabretooth and his rivalry with Wolverine. This movie also did a great job in terms of "continuity" considering its a prequel . . . . . except with Sabretooth. You can watch this movie and then go watch the X-Men trilogy and the story jells except we'll never know how Sabretooth went from being a pretty bad ass villain/arch-nemesis played by Liev Schreiber to the aforementioned big, hairy dumb speechless lackey for Magneto.

Now that my ranting has been put down there. I would still recommend this movie. Its simple fun at the movies and is what going to the movies in summer is all about. Just be sure to keep your expectations super low because this is not remotely a comic book movie on the level of The Dark Knight, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, or the first two X-Men movies.