Her Movie Reviews

I saw it in 3D, if that makes any difference…

There was a lot of hype surrounding this film. I heard it left people speechless. People said it would change my life (don’t deny it Mom, I have witnesses that will back me up). So naturally, I had really high expectations. It was okay. Keep in mind, I’ve already stated that I like my movies to take place on the planet earth…

The plot really isn’t anything new. It’s your typical story of a man sent into a new culture who must become one of the locals, and then ends up falling in love with one of the natives and inevitably takes their side against his own kind. You’ve probably seen this once or twice. That’s exactly what happens. But these locals just happen to be 9 feet tall, and blue. There are also blatant political undertones, trust me, you can’t miss them. They are just that obvious (unobtainium, really?).

The one thing that I kept hearing about over and over again was the technology. Yes, the look of the film was very impressive. I don’t know what technology he developed, although I do know the budget of the film, and honestly, this could just be me, but it wasn’t 500 million dollars worth of “cool”.  The image was crisper then if it had been CGI, but you could also equate that to the fact that you were wearing 3D glasses. On that note, I do have to admit I am incredibly grateful to James Cameron for not putting in 3D gimmicks like rocks coming at the audience. Thanks for that!

It’s good movie, and I really did enjoy myself. And if you’re going to see it, make sure it’s in 3D.  I have my doubts about 3D dvds….

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So I know it’s been a while since this movie has been out, but I never got around to actually watching it.  Well, that’s not true,  I tried watching it at a pre-screener, but I got halfway through before the reel messed up and I never was able to finish it.  So before diving into Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I suppose it was time to finally get around to watching this movie.  For those that don’t know, Transformers is a movie based on a Hasbro toy line of cars that turn into robots.  The movie I guess tries to expand on a story for these toys saying they are aliens come here searching for the ‘All-spark’ that has inconceivable power.  Of course there are good aliens and bad ones and they decide to use our planet as their playground to wreck havoc on their quest to acquire said power.  It kind of makes me laugh saying it’s a movie that was originally conceived as a toy. I imagine some corporate big-wigs sitting in an office somewhere seeing that their transformers are dipping in sales and strum up this crazy marketing campaign to make a movie about them so they can squeeze out just one more little piece of the toy’s plastic soul.  Maybe that’s a little over reacting, but then I do find it funny that throughout the movie most of the toys use pretty much all of GM’s line-up of products including their concepts  (at which time this was the big premiere of GM’s re-introduction of the Camaro). But whomsoever big budget commercial this was, all they had to do was throw Michael Bay at it and it instantly becomes an intense action packed summer blockbuster right?  Well that is exactly what happens.  Don’t except some great plot or storyline.  Don’t even expect that great of acting.  Just expect: Big explosion, big explosion, robot, hot chick, robot, robot, explosion, explosion, fight, fight fight, really big explosion, another shot of hot chick for good measure, and roll credits.  Sorry if I ruined the movie in the last sentence, but what did you really expect?  I was entertained with the film, I mean you get to see huge ass robots fight it out for the fate of man and robot-kind alike.  The actual 3D animation of said robots is un-believable – I heard that pretty much every piece of them moved and “worked.”  So, I give props to the CG department on that one.  If you are looking for a mind-less action movie or about to rent the second one, check it out.  It will get you caught up on whatever sort of story the series has.  And if you really really like it, you are probably already cruisin’ in your Transformer-edition Camaro with your Optimus Prime happy-meal toy buckled up in shotgun.  Autobots, rollout!

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For all intents and purpose, I really enjoyed this movie. It took a while to get into the plot and understand what they were talking about, but after about 10 minutes of introducing the characters and setting, it is a fun film. It is about an American girl who marries a young Englishman from a seemingly wealthy family. You can guess the general plot line from there: girl versus overbearing mother-in-law. They both hold their own quite well, and watching the battle is fun for both the on screen characters as well as the off screen viewers.

The actors are all very well cast. Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian: Chronicles of Narnia) plays the young husband, John. Jessica Biel plays the young bride, Larita. Colin Firth, always brilliant, is the reserved and very distant father in contrast to Kristin Scott Thomas’ overbearing and tightly wound mother in law, Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker. There is an assortment of other characters in the film, such as the nagging spinster sisters and the nosey neighbors, but the true highlight has got to be the family butler, Furber. Kris Marshall is the actor, who might be best known as “Colin, god of sex” in Love, Actually. He is full of wry one liners and subtly hysterical facial expressions.

Like I said earlier, the battle between the mother and daughter-in-law is the driving force of the film. They continually trump each other in the effort to convince John (Barnes) what to do with the couples future. Larita (Biel) wishes to move to the city, while the mother wants him to stay at the family home and take over its care. One of the most clever scenes is during the annual fox hunt. Mrs. Whitaker (Scott-Thomas) insists that Larita ride, and she agrees, but what she doesn’t tell her is that she chooses to ride a horse of a different kind: a motorcycle. The scenes are charming and full of quick humor.

My only complaint about this film is the relationship between Larita and her father-in-law (Firth). It seems innocent and kind, but at the end they share a dance that leads the viewer to believe it is something more. The end, which I do not want to give away, certainly makes us feel as though we’ve been missing something the entire time. But all in all, I thought it was a fun film, which doesn’t require too much thought, just perhaps turn on the subtitles.

Strolling the shelves of Blockbuster, we saw last week that Easy Virtue is now on DVD. I remember seeing the trailer for the film a while back and so we decided to pick it up and give it a whirl. Set in the 1920s, Easy Virtue, is a light film about the son of an upper class British family that marries and brings home a sassy American wife to meet his parents. And of course, conflict quickly arises as the mother and the wife become mortal enemies – let the battles begin. Overall, the film was a little simple and the plot wavered at times, but the light humor and duel of wits with the mother-in-law keeps you entertained to the end. This is definitely a movie that should be rented or caught on TV rather then paying the eights dollars to see it in the theaters – which is probably why I don’t recall it ever making to the theaters.  It is just sort of one of those movies that if you watch, that’s good, otherwise you won’t be missing much. Its not to say that the film was necessarily bad, I actually rather enjoyed it.  It just seems like sometimes the plot falls flat and is only made up by a clever line here and there.  And most of these lines were delivered by the highlight of the film, Colin Firth, who plays the father-in-law to Biel.  He is a man who cares nothing for the dull boring life of the English countryside and the upper class. His lack of respect for English tradition plus his cool one-liners provides for wonderful humor and a great ally for Biel in place where she surely lacks friends. Even her husband, Ben Barnes, never really stands up for her and instead plays a child that never really grew up to take responsibility. Throughout the film he stays completely oblivious to the outright war that wages between his wife and mother.   I was sort of waiting for him to redeem himself, yet, it never really happens.

The real charm this movie has is in its subtle humor.  This isn’t an over the top, laugh out loud type of movie, but rather a few chuckles here and there.  I appreciate the movie for that as it seems like comedy films these days seem to follow the same damn suit.  But not everyone needs to be the next Superbad, and sometimes a light little comedy is just what you need.  This film manages never to get too serious and detract you from the movie itself. Or too stupid for that matter either. So, if you manage to catch it on TV and looking for a little light comedy, check it out.  Or perhaps, if  you’re into films about 1920s British upper class, then I guess this film is definitely for you. 

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