Tag Archives: movie review

Movie Reviews (Backlog)

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Morning Glory – Niagara Square Cinemas, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada Very cute. Bernie Pollack provided Harrison’s clothes (and presumably socks) – costume designer from Indy 4!!! Rachel McAdams is adorable as always. Harry Potter 7.1 – Niagara Square Cinemas, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada AMAZING! Loved the sneaking into the ministry scene and the dance in the tent. Unstoppable – Walden Galleria Cinemas, Cheektowaga, NY Very intriguing film. Yay Captain Kirk (was that a vague reference to Kirk hanging off of stuff?)! Yay Ethan Suplee! Tangled – AMC Rolling Hills 20, Torrance, CA & ArcLight Beach Cities Cinemas, El Segundo, CA So cute and beautiful and perfect! John Lasseter obliterates the 3D/2D line by declaring Tangled to be Walt Disney’s 50th full length feature animation. Zack Levi and Mandy Moore are perfect as the prince and princess. Intriguing to hear Jeffrey Tambor in “I’ve Got A Dream” – the timbre of … Continue reading →

Nanny McPhee Returns – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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You don’t need to see the first one in order for this film to make any kind of sense! Laura had seen the first one so she got the solitary reference, but it’s not truly necessary for any major portion of this film. Emma Thompson is incredibly talented (produces, writes and stars in both films). The film also has a really amazing ensemble cast including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ewan McGregor, Maggie Smith, Rhys Ifans, Bill Bailey and Ralph Fiennes! And the kids aren’t bad either! Well I mean, they are “bad” but they’re not bad actors. You know what I mean. Recently noticed an article/cover story from some magazine talking about Maggie and Emma being best friends so I think it’s really cute/quaint that they’re in this movie together.

Despicable Me – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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Look at that fluffy unicorn! He’s so fluffy I’m gonna die! It’s so fluffy!!! Absolutely delightful film. Great heart, great story, really enjoyable experience. The 3-D was a little much for me…about half the time I couldn’t stop thinking about recent articles about 3-D TV’s and how 3-D is a cheap approximation of what our eye’s already do. The other half of the time I kind of felt like I was watching the trailers…they kind of put a lot of the movie in the trailers and I got a little bored of it at some point. There were better original gags, so it wasn’t best-stuff-is-in-the-trailer syndrome, but there were just parts that kind of dragged because I’d already seen the trailers like twice.

The A-Team – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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A very well done remake. I wasn’t too impressed with the trailers (well ok, I was cuz stuff blew up, but still), but the film is absolutely phenomenal – a real hoot and it pays respect in all the right places to what came before and especially to those who came before (that’s right…keep an eye out for the original Face and the original Murdock!). Favorite quote: Sgt. Bosco ‘B.A.’ Baracus: [justifying his newly adopted non-violent attitude, he quotes Gandhi] “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.” Col. John ‘Hannibal’ Smith: [answers with his own Gandhi quote] “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” — IMDb Quotes: The A-Team (2010)

Toy Story 3 – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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Pizza Planet truck!!! A113 license plate!!! Pizza Planet driver!!! My Neighbor Totoro!!! Bud Luckey (Rick Ricker from The Incredibles)!!! Lee Unkrich did an absolutely incredible job tying together everything the Toy Story universe has meant to a generation of fans. This film is absolutely phenomenal. And there’s really awesome promotional materials all over the place! At the Century 20 theatres… At Disney’s California Adventure… And I’m sure much more. Way to go Disney-Pixar! 😀

Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time – Premiere Cinema 11, Galveston, TX

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Directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter 5), music by Harry Gregson-Williams (Chronicles of Narnia). Very enjoyable. Little kid free running + big kid free running. I never played Prince of Persia (preferred Assassins Creed), but story looks like fun (if adaptation is loyal).

Iron Man 2 – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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Freaking amazing. The entire cast and crew do a fantastic job. Does Disney even exist in the Marvel universe? Was that an awkward moment at the Disney-buys-Marvel-negotiations? “Um yeah…Howard Stark replaces Walt Disney in our universe” RICHARD SHERMAN WROTE THE JINGLE USED IN THE ARCHIVED STARK EXPO FOOTAGE (it’s called “Make Way for Tomorrow Today”). EEEEE! Jon Favreau must really love AC/DC as he features them very prominently in both Iron Man movies so far. Sam Rockwell ALWAYS seems so sleazy to me. I know the strawberry vendor! He was in Torrance Cultural Arts Center’s summer production South Pacific (circa 2002) as Stewpot! Ha! It’s always fun to pick him out in movies. He was in one of the Fast and The Furious trailers as the truck driver who’s rig is being dismantled while he’s driving it. Having read some reviews, my language/opinions have been slightly tainted/biased, but there are … Continue reading →

How To Train Your Dragon (In 2D)

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Laura and I elected to not pay a surcharge for fancy 3D. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois?!?!?! That’s what you get, Disney! Well, then again Disney couldn’t make a movie like this one, but my point is somehow still valid! Not really, I’m just stubborn. Anyways – as I understand it, Chris and Dean were key players at Disney’s Florida animation studio (located inside Disney’s MGM Studios before the name change and before they shut it down) and were partially responsible for Mulan (1998) and almost wholly responsible for Lilo and Stitch (2002), which are two of my favorite post-Frank Wells animated feature films (Chris was also prominantly featured along with other crew members of Mulan in Drawn to Animation at Disney’s California Adventure until it was replaced with The Animation Academy). To the best of my understanding, Chris Sanders left or was fired after which Disney turned … Continue reading →