Category Archives: Movie

The moving picture industry has had a profound effect on me.

Brave – AMC 12 at DownTown Disney, Anaheim, CA

Beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous and a heck of a good time. If your two year old can handle Finding Nemo, we think they could handle this movie. Angus (Merida’s horse) was GORGEOUS!!!!! I loved the story and am thrilled that a good Pixar movie can be made by more than the original founders. Beautiful Celtic music by Patrick Doyle (Harry Potter, and etc). Elinor’s character arc is very interesting. I find myself wondering about her backstory. When she had to marry Fergus to keep the peace between the clans I was also amused by our second viewing which occurred after rewatching the Nanny McPhee movies (both Merida/Kelly MacDonald and Elinor/Emma Thompson are in the first one and the second one’s just as cute and lovely) and then to hear Elinor mention collywobbles cracked me up. 🙂 Fergus cracks me up (loves me some Billy Connelly – ever since Muppet Treasure Island). … Continue reading →

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted – Cinemark 20 at Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

Absolutely delightful!!!! The price of admission is worth Martin Short’s incredible performance as an Italian sea lion and the Fur Power circus performance in London. Mind blowing beautiful, it puts Cirque to shame in my opinion. But I’m not a Cirque groupie, so I could be way off base. 😉

Men In Black 3 (2012)

Men In Black 3 – Ultraluxe Cinema 14 at Gardenwalk, Anaheim, CA

An excellently crafted third outing with the MIB. Josh Brolin was amazing as a young Agent K. Just absolutely, 100% nailed it. Wait, time travel makes sense to me, but the film’s climactic battle doesn’t. *Wifey fix* Oh, so traveling back in time less than 10 minutes or so doesn’t create a major paradox where you occupy the same physical space as yourself 10 minutes ago, but functions more like the Omega-13 device in Galaxy Quest where you basically hit the Undo button, but only the person pushing the button on the device remembers what’s going on, regardless of who else travels. And I’m desperate to understand why Agent K was so cold to Agent J in the original normal timeline. Is it really as simple as the fact that Boris lives and justice wasn’t really served? Wifey seems to think so and I’m inclined to accept it after watching … Continue reading →

The Ultimate Marvel Movie Marathon – AMC 12 @ DownTown Disney, Anaheim, CA

$40, 6 movies, 14 hours. Special intro segments for each film (part of our “training package” for the Avengers Initiative) by SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson. An absolutely amazing and incredible experience. Not only to be packed in a theatre for 6 movies with a like-minded crowd of enthusiasts, but to experience, in it’s entirety, the subtle weaving and artistry that Marvel Studios has been constructing since they first gambled on taking control of their own movie properties in 2005, “after Marvel Enterprises declared independence by pacting with Merrill Lynch to produce a slate of films that would be distributed by Paramount Pictures” (PickMyVideo Review of Avengers). I can’t actually think of any other property in recent history that could result in this kind of amazing … “ness”. I mean maybe a Star Wars marathon would count, but nothing even really comes close. Marvel took a gamble, played their cards right, … Continue reading →

The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

The Pirates: Band Of Misfits – Century 20 At Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! IT’S BASED ON PIRATES IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS!!!! AND THE AUTHOR WROTE THE SCREENPLAY!!!! Hugh Grant does an amazing accent and gives an amazing performance as The Pirate Captain. David Tennant is charmingly buffoonish as Charles Darwin. Brendan Gleesan and Martin Freeman sneak in there too. An all-around amazing film from Aardman, whom I think I’m going to start calling the British Pixar But With Puppets.

Mirror, Mirror – AMC 12 at Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA

Nice cameo by Sean Bean. Armie Hammer is a fascinating cross between Ryan Gosling and Ewan McGregor. And his wardrobe was AMAZING!!!! If I could turn off my not-medically-diagnosed-OCD I would love to wear the jacket with the long, flowing cloak. Lily Collins was delightful and super cute. I especially liked her costume in the second half of the film (although her ball gown was nice too). When the credits started, the musical number struck me as odd until I saw the director’s name and then I stereotypically deduced that this was the huge Bollywood ending. My bias for Bollywood not withstanding, it was a very lavish and well put together piece that made reading the credits very difficult. 😉 Alan Menken did the music?!?! Well even the Sherman brothers got to do Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 😉 Yay Nathan Lane! A very wonderful performance as always. Do I have … Continue reading →

The Hunger Games – AMC 30 at The Outlets

An excellent adaptation! I loved getting to actually see the behind the scenes of how The Arena and the broadcasting of the games worked. By the end it made sense that it was basically a holodeck with the safety’s off. 😉 Interesting having District 11 rioting after Rue’s death. And having her and Thresh be black….kind of an obvious commentary? Donald Sutherland as President Snow was brilliant! Very happy to see the author take such an interest in her intellectual property by executive producing and helping with the screenplay.

John Carter Of Mars – UltraLuxe Cinema, GardenWalk, Anaheim, CA

AN AMAZING FILM!!!! GO SEE IT NOW!!!! IGNORE THE STUPID AS HELL MARKETING!!!! The marketing for this film makes it seem like it’s just a guy fighting aliens film, but there is so much more beautiful stuff than that. Funny thing is, you can see a lot of similar elements to Tarzan (at least at the very core of the story) which really makes me want to go read all of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Oh…didn’t the marketing tell you? This story is based on a 100 year old book! Of COURSE they didn’t mention it….they didn’t believe in it. That’s why they released it in March. NO faith. Which is so sad since Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) directed expertly and Michael Giacchino composed amazingly epic themes (as always – you know: Up!, Star Trek, Space Mountain, etc). But enough out of me. Go buy the Blu-Ray and show Disney … Continue reading →

Beauty And The Beast 3-D – AMC 12 At Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA

Wow. Stunning, beautiful, extravagant…I’d need a thesaurus to better describe how incredible this film looked in 3-D. This film in particular is a great example of how beautiful 3-D can be, and it’s all thanks to a little thing Walt pioneered in 1937 called the multi-plane camera. I think Disney’s next big push should be for Snow White And The Seven Dwarves in 3-D. I would pay money to see that. But the film was only stunning up until the last 15 minutes or so. I’ve never had problems with 3-D before (although several of my friends have mentioned not being capable of watching a film with the glasses without developing a migraine), but the last 15 minutes were ruined for me because I can’t see the gorram sailboat. And it wasn’t just me! Recent conversations have revealed the same problem with Lion King 3-D and the grass. And it … Continue reading →

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows – AMC 12 at Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA

Absolutely beautiful. I wish I could talk more about how beautiful this film was, but I have to be really careful and not spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie(s). Sufficeth to say, if you’ve been waiting for somebody to encourage you to go see it, this is that moment (or it would be if you respected my opinions at all). 😉 The film picks up about 6 months or so after the first one ended and it does so perfectly. It immediately finds it’s groove again and just runs with it. It’s so beautiful to see Holmes face off against his greatest opponent yet! The acting is top notch! So great to see Stephen Fry as Holmes’ brother, Mycroft (unparalleled brilliance). Hans Zimmer delivers another amazing score. While listening, I at first made the mistake of trying to compare his work for this one with his work … Continue reading →