Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

• In this sequel to 2010's surprise hit, Greg Heffley, the kid who made "wimpy" cool is back in an all-new family comedy based on the best-selling follow-up novel by Jeff Kinney. As he begins seventh grade, Greg and his older brother - and chief tormentor - Rodrick must deal with their parents' misguided attempts to have them bond.


• I loved this movie just as much as the first one and all of the books. This is a throwback to those awesome fun family movies from back in the day. Very simple lesson (get along with your siblings) . . . . . very funny situations . . . . . . enjoyable side characters . . . . . . . morals . . . . . . I really wish that there were more of these kinds of movies instead of millions of awkward moments with your kid sitting next to you at a "family" film. This is just basic enjoyment on a very simple level and I look forward to the rest of the books being turned in to movies.


• I would definitely recommend people checking this out. Its short, simple, fun, and awesome for all families.

Sucker Punch

• Sucker Punch is an action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what's real and what is imaginary.


• This is one of the biggest train wrecks I've ever sat through from beginning to end. Seriously. I saw this with WW and one of my best friends (that's right - I said it, guy) and we were about 30 minutes in where we all turned to each other and said "what the hell is going on". From that point on we did nothing but laugh at the absurdity of this movie. Apprantly, Baby Doll has magical dancing powers that when she dances it puts everyone in a trance and her and her overly makeup faced, tight clothes wearing posse can go to battle in some weird ass worlds to obtain the things necessary to escape. Following me? It gets better. To get advice from Scott Glenn (who I never noticed how much he looks like a short haired David Carradine) on how to get out she had to do battle with three Kung Fu Pandas in Pinnochio formIn order to get the map, they have to battle a squad of zombie nazis led by Freddy Krueger. In order to get fire they had to battle the orcs from Lord Of The Rings. I'm pretty sure I saw Legolas and Gimli in there. Seriously. This all happened. It was great visually like all of Zack Snyder's movies are, but that was really about it. Correction, I have to admit I was enjoying the covers of a bunch of songs throughout the movie. But now that's really it.


• I would definitely not recommend people checking this out. Again, I would have bailed if it wasn't for the three of us laughing so hard at the movie. Its just a bunch of brain farts thrown up on the screen for 14 year old boys. No substance at all.

Limitless

Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro star in Limitless, a paranoia-fueled action thriller about an unsuccessful writer whose life is transformed by a top-secret smart drug that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.

This movie had a great premise and a good start . . . . . even if it was annoying as hell looking at Bradley Cooper's strung out appearance. Unfortunately, I really lost interest about an hour in and the movie just kind of slowly starting circling the drain. It was still watchable overall but the sluggish pace kind of ruined the movie. I was more interested in seeing the credits start than actually seeing what happened in order to wrap up the movie.

I would lukewarmly recommend this movie to people. Or maybe I should just say to lower your expectations because mine were probably higher than they should have been ruining the movie for me.

Red Riding Hood

Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is a young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a brooding outsider Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry (Max Irons). Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. For years, the people have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast, offering the creature a monthly animal sacrifice. But under a blood red moon, the wolf has upped the stakes by taking a human life. Hungry for revenge, the people call on famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), to help them kill the wolf. But Solomon's arrival brings unintended consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them. As the death toll rises with each moon, Valerie begins to suspect that the werewolf could be someone she loves. Panic grips the town as Valerie discovers that she has a unique connection to the beast--one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect...and bait.

This was literally Twilight inside the Red Riding Hood story. Same acting. Same cinematography. Same storyline. The guy that played Bella's dad in Twilight also plays Red Riding Hood's father. It felt like a spinoff. I was actually expecting a vampire to show up and fight the werewolf for Red Riding Hood's love. I get it. It is what it is. There's a built in core audience for this so why not make it. The one thing I can't figure out for the life of me is why in the blue hell Gary Oldman was in this. Is there really nothing else out there for this phenomenal actor? So sad.

I would only recommend this movie to the Twilight crowd. Honestly, anyone else will see it as a total fluff piece not worth your time.

Battle: Los Angeles

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world's great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It's up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they've ever encountered before.

The action invasion part of this movie was awesome. Even though it seems like they always kept the aliens kind of blurry because I guess that would have cost too much money to enhance, the fight scenes were intense and kept you totally into what was going on. Unfortunately, the spots with no action were just plain brutal. There really was no story. The movie stared off mid battle and then went back 24 hours so they could say how they got to that point. They tried to develop a bunch of characters that you just don't care about and beat the living hell out of a ridiculously lame plotline that the staff seargant apparantly got soldiers killed on a previous mission. They should have just kept the movie down to a random alien invasion with as little talking as possible and a 90 minute running time. Instead it's 2 hours 15 minutes of decent action and pointless fluff that really takes away from it.

I would lukewarmly recommend people checking this out. Again - the action is bada$$ but the rest of the movie is incredibly lame.

Mars Needs Moms

Take out the trash, eat your broccoli—who needs moms, anyway? Nine-year-old Milo (Seth Green) finds out just how much he needs his mom (Joan Cusack) when she's nabbed by Martians who plan to steal her mom-ness for their own young.

I'm not sure how to fairly review this movie. I liked it while watching it. It was great visually. It was paced super fast and had a simple enough storyline. That being said, it kind of wazhed away from my mind after watching it. Enjoyable but forgettable? Weird, right?

I would lukewarmly reccomend this movie. Its not that it was bad. Its just not good enough to stick on the senses enough to really matter.

Drive Angry

Drive Angry 3D stars Nicolas Cage as Milton, a hardened felon who has broken out for one last chance at redemption. Hell bent on stopping a vicious cult of fanatics who murdered his daughter, he has three days to stop them before they sacrifice his infant granddaughter beneath a full moon. Milton must use his anger to go beyond all human limits in order to save his last connection with humanity. He's joined by Piper, a young waitress who liberates her ex-boyfriend's cherry red muscle car in order to help Milton. Now, the two of them are hot on the trail of the charismatic Jonah King and his murderous followers. King will throw every one of them faithful under the wheels of Milton's turbo-charged Black '71 Challenger, to fulfill hist destiny and unleash hell on earth.

This movie is a lock for one of the worst of the year. I made it exactly 7 minutes in before I stopped paying attention and 18 minutes in before I didn't even want it as background noise while doing things around the house. Imagine one of those atrocious schlocky Grindhouse type movies . . . . . .with Nicolas Cage. This movie makes blind and deaf people blessed.

No - nobody should ever see this. The fact that people paid 3D prices to do so makes me want to slap every one of them upside the head.

Take Me Home Tonight

As the summer of 1988 winds down, three friends on the verge of adulthood attend an out-of-control party in celebration of their last night of unbridled youth. Starring Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Dan Fogler and Teresa Palmer, Take Me Home Tonight is a raunchy, romantic and ultimately touching blast from the past set to an awesome soundtrack of timeless rock and hip-hop hits. Recent MIT grad Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) should be working for a Fortune 500 company and starting his upward climb to full-fledged yuppie-hood. Instead, the directionless 23-year-old confounds family and friends by taking a part-time job behind the counter of a video store at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. But Matt's silent protest against maturity comes to a screeching halt once his unrequited high school crush, Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer), walks into the store. When she invites him to an epic, end-of-summer party, Matt thinks he finally might have a chance with the girl of his dreams. With his cynical twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris) and best friend Barry (Dan Fogler), Matt embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime evening. From stealing a car to a marriage proposal to an indescribable, no-holds-barred dance-off, these friends share experiences that will change the course of their lives on one unforgettable night in the Go-Go '80s.

I enjoyed this movie but can honestly say its because I grew up through this time. This is a fun movie for anyone who went through this era. If you didn't - this movie is totally pointless and you won't get at least 1/2 of the jokes. For me . . . . . The music is great. The laughs are pretty good. Unfortunately, they don't carry throughout the movie as it tries a little too hard to become John Hughes-ish. I still found myself able to not think I wasted my time.

I would lukewarmly recommend this movie. It is not a must see by any means of the imagination but is a fun watch for those of us that lived through stuff like this.

Rango

A chameleon that aspires to be a swashbuckling hero finds himself in a Western town plagued by bandits and is forced to literally play the role in order to protect it.

I enjoyed this movie. I liked how quirky it was. I liked how random many of the scenes and lines were. I enjoyed the different characters and the old western setting. That being said, I could see this movie not being enjoyed by everyone. A lot of the script is high brow humor that will get lost on most of the audience. Also, this movie is so NOT for kids. It has a cast made of lizards and snakes. Younger kids are going to run out of the theater crying and have nightmares for days. The movie is also waaaaaaaay too long. This one came in at 2 hours. For an animated movie!?! That's just plain silly.

I would lukewarmly recommend this movie I guess. The comedy wasn't really mainstream and it's too long but I did still really enjoy it.

Beastly

Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer) has it all - looks, intelligence, wealth and opportunity - and a wicked cruel streak. Prone to mocking and humiliating "aggressively unattractive" classmates, he zeroes in on Goth classmate Kendra, inviting her to the school's extravagant environmental bash. Kendra accepts, and, true to form, Kyle blows her off in a particularly savage fashion. She retaliates by casting a spell that physically transforms him into everything he despises. Enraged by his horrible and unrecognizable appearance he confronts Kendra and learns that the only solution to the curse is to find someone that will love him as he is - a task he considers impossible. Repulsed by his appearance, Kyle's callous father banishes him to Brooklyn with a sympathetic housekeeper and blind tutor. As Kyle ponders how to overcome the curse and get his old life back, he chances upon a drug addict in the act of killing a threatening dealer. Seizing the opportunity, Kyle promises the addict freedom and safety for his daughter, Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) if she will consent to live in Kyle's Brooklyn home.

This is really lame retelling of Beauty & The Beast. The acting is just as atrocious as you would expect. Whoever took the time to actually "write" this should be shot. The movie is super short but feels long as hell. The only reason I was remotely able to enjoy this is how hard we were all laughing at how bad the movie was.

I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting their time with this. It's not worth your time at all . . . . . unless you and a group of friends get the same level of enjoyment out of laughing at garbage like we did.

The Adjustment Bureau

On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris (Damon) meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt)--a woman like none he's ever known. But just as he realizes he's falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart. David learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself--the men of The Adjustment Bureau--who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept a predetermined path...or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her.

I really liked this movie. It's more of a love story than the conspiracy/action stuff they advertised, but the love story has a big enough hook to keep you interested. The actual adjustment bureau part of the story is great and the thought of us all being watched so we stay on the right track is beyond intriguing. Really makes you think . . . . . . and kind of makes me want to kick the guy's ass that has been pulling my strings for the the last year or so.

I would definitely recommend people checking this one out. Again - don't expect a whole lot of action and what not. It really does end up being a love story with faith undertones.