The Last Station

After almost fifty years of marriage, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer) devoted wife, passionate lover, muse and secretary—she’s copied out War and Peace six times...by hand!—suddenly finds her entire world turned upside down. In the name of his newly created religion, the great Russian novelist has renounced his noble title, his property and even his family in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and even celibacy. After she's born him thirteen children! When Sofya then discovers that Tolstoy's trusted disciple, Chertkov (Paul Giamatti)—whom she despises—may have secretly convinced her husband to sign a new will, leaving the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his very own family, she is consumed by righteous outrage. This is the last straw. Using every bit of cunning, every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, she fights fiercely for what she believes is rightfully hers. A tale of two romances, one beginning, one near its end, The Last Station is a story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it.

I gave this movie the 30 minute lithmus test the other day. The movie did not remotely catch my interest at all. I will probably not be bothering to watch the rest of it. This is one of those movies that you know is "well done" and they were smart enough to cast Helen Mirren in it for the buzz that would come. At this point, she is like Judi Dench and by simply appearing in a movie will basically get nominated for lots of awards. There just wasn't anything that really hooked me in the part that I watched and I could kind of guess where things would end up just from the fraction of the movie that I had watched.

Since I didn't see the whole movie, I don't really think its my place to recommend or not. Just know that I have given this my stamp of "well done" movie that wasn't interesting enough for me to finish.

Shutter Island

From Martin Scorcese, two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the cost of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

I loved this movie. I am absolutely shocked at how much I loved this movie. For the record, I called the big surprise twist 6 months ago when I first saw the trailer. I won't say what it is becuase if you don't expect it or have guessed it already it is one hell of a twist. However, I figured that knowing what was going to come would completely desensitize me towards giving a crap about the movie. I was dead wrong. Scorcese's film style in this movie made me unable to look away. I was so into watching the story unfold even though I knew where it was going to take me. That's awesome filmmaking, people! And even though it wasn't a scary movie there are 1 to 2 times in this movie where even the strongest minded of people will jump out of their chairs. This movie is one of the biggest rarities in Hollywood. Its a "psychological thriller" that sucks you in psychologically and is actually thrilling to watch.

I very strongly recommend that people check this movie out. Its the best movie to come out this year as far as I'm concerned.

The Wolfman

Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself... one he never imagined existed.

The best thing you can do regarding this movie is keep your expectations as low as I did. It ends up being a decent watch by doing that. This movie got pushed back over and over and every time that a big release like this gets pushed around like that you should always have bottom of the barrel expectations. The four main actors all put forth decent performances. And the Wolfman attack scenes were a lot more violent and gory than I expected. However, you would think that they could do a better job on the makeup in today's day and age. I was definitely disappointed by how Del Toro looked once he was the Wolfman although the transformation effects were pretty good. Weird way to screw the pooch there.

I would lukewarmly recommend people checking this movie out. Again, its not bad. Its not great though either. Its a middle of the road movie that can be somewhat enjoyable as long as you don't have high expectations.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day follows the intertwining storylines of a group of Los Angelinos as they find their way through romance over the course of one Valentine's Day.

This is a somewhat watchable movie, but there is simply way too much going on. Too many characters. Too many stories. Too many pairings to tie up. And the movie is just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. If this could have been a tighter 90 minutes movie, I probably would have enjoyed it much more. To be honest, looking at the poster to the left, at least half of those faces are completely uneccesary in the movie. Again - its not horrible. There were 2 or 3 really funny scenes and there were some storylines that panned out in a way that you really do enjoy. I just think that ultimately it took too long to get there and ends up desensitizing you and what not. The other thing that I have to say is that having a young "teenage" daughter who is dying to see this - the teen stars in this movie that the younger kids want to see are tied in to a storyline of whether or not to have sex so be warned about placating the youngsters by taking them to see this. Probably not a fun ride home. Really glad I saw this first before accidentally taking that plunge.

I would very lukewarmly recommend this movie to people. Its not a horrible watch by any means but not nearly as good as it could have been because of way too many ingredients.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

It's the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they're not happy: Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy's mother. As Percy adapts to his newly discovered status as a demi-god (his father is Poseidon), he finds himself caught between the battling titans of Mt. Olympus. He and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy's mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.

This was a fun watch. Is it a "great" movie or a well done movie? Not necessarily. Its a simple, fun watch. You can tell that it was the same director as the first Harry Potter movie because I felt the same way watching this as I did watching that. Another appropriate comparison would be Night At The Museum. Its the same kind of effects with historical (Greek mythology) references throughout the movie that actually make it educational at certain points. I had read the book and although they changed a lot of stuff, it was still lots of fun to watch. Are you getting my emphasis on its level of fun? Good. Just don't overanalyze it and enjoy it for what it is instead.

I would recommend this movie for people to check out. Its got good action, good character development, an easily followable story line even though its somewhat complicated material and kids and adults are sure to have fun watching it.

Dear John

Dear John tells story of John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John's increasingly dangerous deployments. While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas--correspondence that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

I'm not really sure what to make of this movie. Its not as traumatic as most of the other Nicolas Sparks books turned in to movies. And I think thats pretty much because there was just too much going on with this story. For the first 3/4 of the movie its going one way and then all of a sudden takes a really strange turn that kind of throws away what they spent so much time building up for the first 1/4 of the movie. I really can't say too much more without giving it away. But I definitely think that they kind of dropped the date movie/romantic story ball as the movie progressed and decided to just pull as many "disease" heart strings instead. Its not that the movie was bad - it just kind of shot off in a completely different direction. and left me confused about liking it or not.

Like I said - can't really say whether to recommend it or not. Just be warned that the formula portion of what to expect from this movie based on the commercial ends up not being true.

From Paris With Love

A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All James wants is to become a bona fide agent and see some real action. So when he's offered his first senior-level assignment, he can't believe his good luck - until he meets his new partner, special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta). A trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon who's been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack, Wax leads James on a white-knuckle shooting spree through the Parisian underworld that has James praying for his desk job. But when James discovers he's a target of the same crime ring they're trying to bust, he realizes there's no turning back...and that Wax himself might be his only hope for making it through the next forty-eight hours alive.

This is one of those movies where its as if they someone were able to transfer testosterone to film and then shoot it up there on the screen. This is literally a shoot em up movie. They basically go to one place, shoot the crap out of it, go somewhere else, shoot the crap out of that place, go somehwere else . . . . . and you pretty much get the drift. John Travolta is funny as the bad ass and there is a little bit of a story line thrown in there for you to follow but its essentially 90 minutes of shooting stuff.

I would recommend this movie to action junkies. I am sure that you would love it. Its not quality across the board by any means but is 90 minutes of satisfactory action.

Frozen

A typical day on the slopes turns into a chilling nightmare for three snowboarders when they get stranded on the chairlift before their last run. As the ski patrol switches off the night lights, they realize with growing panic that they've been left behind dangling high off the ground with no way down. With the resort closed until the following weekend and frostbite and hypothermia already setting in, the trio is forced to take desperate measures to escape off the mountain before they freeze to death. Once they make their move, they discover with horror that they have much more to fear than just the frigid cold. As they combat unexpected obstacles, they start to question if their will to survive is strong enough to overcome the worst ways to die?

Is this one of the silliest inner thoughts during skiing being turned in to an absurd movie? Or course it is. Is the acting atrocious and the set up of the story lame as hell? Of course it is. I actually think that the writers sat around just coming up with things the audience might ask out loud as to why they couldn't do things while stuck in the chairlift and went out of their way to explain them prior to them getting stuck in said chairlift. All of this being said - there are some points of these movie where the tension is creepy as hell. Most of my favorite teenage memories are of going skiing with my father. I loved to ski. I was awesome at it. However, I was petrified of the ski lift. I would get the week in the knees feeling getting on and getting off and when it would stop because someone would have trouble getting on I would come as close to $hitting my pants as humanly possible. There were many a time where I would wonder what it would be like to be stuck up there so this movie made sense to that crazy fear I used to get while going on the ski lift.

I wouldn't really recommend anyone rushing to see this movie. It is cheesy as hell even if there are some really creepy parts.

Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges stars as the comic, semi-tragic, romantic, anti-hero Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can't help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man's crazy heart.

This was a really great movie. I usually find biopic like movies like this to be a bore. I was shocked at how in to this movie I was. Jeff Bridges was amazingly believable in this role. Magge Gyllenhaal was equally great. My father has always been in to country music but I've stayed away from it for the most part. However, this movie has pretty much changed all of that. I can't wait to download the whole soundtrack. The way that this movie went in to how songs are written was great.

I absolutely recommend that everyone check out this movie. It is a phenomenal character drama and Jeff Bridges should definitely be taking home the academy award for Best Actor.