Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Andy, an overextended broker who lures his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke) into a larcenous scheme. The pair will rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be an easy target. The problem is, the store owners are Andy and Hank's actual mom and pop and, when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry, the damage lands right at their doorstep.

The acting in this movie was so top notch. Philip Seymour Hoffman continues to cement himself as one of the best in Hollywood. Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney were also great. I don't really think that Marisa Tomei's character was necessary to the overall scope of the movie. They could have cut her out and saved 20 minutes of running time to make this movie even tighter. The intensity of it all was what really made this one of those movies that keeps your eyes glued to the screen the whole time. The storytelling of going back and forth between past and present was a little bit frustrating at first but then ended up being the movies best quality. All around - this was a really great film.

I would fully recommend everyone checking this bad boy out. It is definitely worth the rental.

Lars And The Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl is a heartfelt comedy starring Ryan Gosling as Lars Lindstrom, a loveable introvert whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life. After years of what is almost solitude, he invites Bianca, a friend he met on the internet to visit him. He introduces Bianca to his Brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and his wife Karen (Emily Mortimer) and they are stunned. They don't know what to say to Lars or Bianca because she is a life-size doll, not a real person and he is treating her as though she is alive. They consult the family doctor Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) who explains this is a delusion he's created – for what reason she doesn't yet know but they should all go along with it. What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the people around him.

This movie was amazing. Ryan Gosling continued his ascent toward acting excellency. I was so torn between laughing my ass off and feeling genuine compassion for what his character was going through. On the one hand you have this guy walking around with a doll pretending its a real person. How can that not be laughed at!?! On the other hand, you feel so bad for this guy who was so scarred that he has to explain how's he hurting by projecting it on to the doll. The brother and sister in law were the picture perfect performances to display both ways of looking at what Lars was going through. The brother's facial reactions to what was going on and one liners were priceless while the sister-in-law getting everyone to go through with it to help Lars work through his issues was beautiful. They walked the line of laughter/crying exceptionally well and truly made an excellent movie.

I am giving this bad boy the stamp of must see, people! You should go and rent it right now. What are you still reading this for? GO!

The Final Season

In the small town of Norway, Iowa, everyone comes together for high school baseball. But life throws curve balls; and the passionate young players, rookie coach Kent Stock (Sean Astin), and the hometown fans find that life's greatest challenges strike off the diamond. The Final Season is the true story of a coach who inspired his team and brought hope to a town when they needed it most.

This movie is a textbook small town sports movie. It had every possible cliche. It had great heart to hear moments. It had the occasional humorous moments. It had the whole underdog aura thing going on. Hell, it even had "Rudy" being a coach of a bunch of . . . . . . Rudies. Regardless, I enjoyed it. I don't know that I'll ever not enjoy one of these movies because I have always had such a soft spot for them. I thought that Sean Astin was great and so were the kids on the baseball team.

I'd recommend anyone who enjoys sports movie go ahead and check this one out. Its not a must see by any means, but is pretty worth the watch.

In The Name Of The King

A simple family man (Jason Statham) is forced to take up arms after an evil sorcerer (Ray Liotta) unleashes an army of bloodthirsty beasts that destroy his small village and capture his wife (Claire Forlani). As the marauding forces overrun the land in an effort to overthrow the king (Burt Reynolds) and his loyal magus (John Rhys-Davies), the once peace-loving peasant and his two companions (Ron Perlman and Will Sanderson) venture on a daring rescue mission.

Let me just blatantly say that this is a low budget knock off of Lord Of The Rings. The characters, the battles and the journey are all carbon copies. Why a studio would give Uwe Boll the chance to direct such a blatant rip off after his horrid resume of House Of The Dead, Bloodrayne and Alone In The Dark is completely beyond me. The only thing more shocking than that is how all these people decided to play a part in this movie. Its not that the movie is the worst thing I've ever seen. Mine eyes have taken in much worse pieces of garbage than this, but the movie is very weak in all areas.

I really wouldn't recommend anyone checking this out. Its basically a cable watch when you are laying in bed on a weekend morning and there isn't anything else on.

Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem

In this follow-up to Alien vs. Predator, the monsters from two of the scariest film franchises ever, wage war in an American Midwestern town – with the residents caught in the middle.


Aliens and Predator were two of my favorite movies growing up. I was so psyched to see the original Alien Vs. Predator movie because I was a huge fan of the comic books. Ultimately, I ended up being pretty disappointed because of where it took place and what not and because the movie was rated PG-13. When I saw that they were making this one with it taking place in a town and that it was rated R, I thought I was finally going to get to see the version I wanted. OH MY GOD! I can't remember the last time that I was so disappointed in a movie. This movie was horrid! The script was one of the worst things ever written. The acting was so bad that I was rooting for all of them to get killed asap. Then there was how bad the interaction between the Aliens and the Predator was. They filmed every fight sequence in the dark so you basically had no clue what was actually going on. As for the desired gore that necessitated a R rating - there was no limit to the lengths that they went in this movie. The face hugger aliens attacking a little boy? The lead alien making pregnant women ingest the alien babies so they can then blow out their pregnant stomachs? How can they screw up such a simple concept so badly!?!


I wouldn't recommend that anyone check this piece of turd out. And that is coming from a huge Aliens and Predator fan.

Juno

Juno stars Ellen Page as the title character, a wiseass teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Cera). With the help of her friend Leah (Thirlby), Juno finds her unborn child a "perfect" set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa (Bateman and Garner), longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents (Simmons and Janney) as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs.


This movie is a perfect example of what happens when you hear too much about a movie before seeing it. I found myself uncontrollably thinking that this movie wasn't as great as everyone had said it was the entire time. I thought that Ellen Page was great and some of her one-liners were hysterical, but that this was nowhere near top ten status like most critics said. It was cute. It was really funny for a while but then spiralled in to a big drama for a while and that sort of killed it for me.


I don't really know whether or not to recommend this movie because my opinion was definitely effected by all the rave reviews I had heard. It's quirky. It's cute at times. I just didn't think it was that great.

P2

It's Christmas Eve. Angela Bridges (Rachel Nichols), an ambitious young executive, works late before she leaves for her family's holiday party. When she gets down to the parking garage, she discovers that her car won't start. The garage is deserted and her cell phone doesn't get a signal underground. When Thomas (Wes Bentley), a friendly security guard, comes along and offers to help, Angela nervously accepts his gesture of good will. Soon after a failed attempt to start her car, he invites her to stay and share a small Christmas dinner he's preparing in the parking office, but she laughs it off. Angela doesn't realize this is no laughing matter – Thomas has been watching her closely...for months. His dinner invitation is not optional. If Angela wants to live to see Christmas morning, she must find a way to escape from level P2 of the parking garage.

This movie is yet another of those movies that could be good if they stick to the creepiness level but they move towards the goofy/excess gore level instead. The premise was great because lets be honest - how scary can parking garages be, people. Those things freak me out. Not on a bird attack/crazy squirrel level, but pretty close. Unfortunately, both of the actors stunk. The gore was really nasty at times but then totally non-existent at others so they couldn't even rest their hat on that. I stopped caring all together about 30 minutes in to the movie.

I wouldn't recommend anyone checking this out. Not even horror fans like WW. She disliked it as much as I did. Its pretty much poop.

Reservation Road

A tale of anger, revenge, and great courage, Reservation Road follows two fathers as their families and lives converge. On a warm September evening, college professor Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix), his wife Grace (Jennifer Connelly), and their daughter Emma (Elle Fanning) are attending a recital. Their 10-year-old son Josh (Sean Curley) is playing cello – beautifully, as usual. His younger sister looks up to him, and his parents are proud of their son. On the way home, they all stop at a gas station on Reservation Road. There, in one terrible instant, he is taken from them forever. On that same, warm September evening, law associate Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his 11-year-old son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) are attending a Red Sox game. Dwight cherishes his time spent with Lucas. Driving his son back to his ex-wife, Lucas' mother Ruth Wheldon (Mira Sorvino), Dwight heads towards his fateful encounter at Reservation Road. The accident happens so fast that Lucas is all but unaware, while Ethan – the only witness – is all too aware, as a panicked Dwight speeds away. The police are called, and an investigation begins. Haunted by the tragedy, both fathers react in unexpected ways, as do Grace and Emma. As a reckoning looms, the two fathers are forced to make the hardest choices of their lives.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. It was an excellently done character drama. You find yourself almost immediately attached to all the characters and all of the emotions that they go through. It was so well crafted that I found myself feeling bad for Mark Ruffalo even though he ran a kid down and took off. It really makes you wonder how you would feel if put in their different points of view.

I very strongly recommend people checking this one out. Its not exactly the easiest watch because at times its so gut wrenching, but it is one of the better movies out there.

The Water Horse

In The Water Horse, Angus, a young Scottish boy, finds an enchanted egg. Taking it home, he soon finds himself face-to-face with an amazing creature: the mythical "water horse" of Scottish lore. Angus begins a journey of discovery, facing his greatest fears and risking his life to protect a secret that would give birth to a legend.

This movie was watchable, but not overly entertaining by any means. It reminded me a lot of Free Willy but without that same great, emotional attachment to the story. The underwater scenes were really great but outside of that there wasn't much excitement whatsoever. The beginning with the hiding of the baby horse would have been great if I hadn't seen it a couple hundred times in the commercials.

I would lukewarmly recommend this movie to people. Its one of those you saw the preview - you saw the movie type deals and its not an automatic great view for the kiddies because it drags at times and has a coinciding war time story going on.

Lions For Lambs

Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise star in Lions for Lambs, a story that digs behind the news, the politics and a nation divided to explore the human consequences of a complicated war. The story begins after two determined students at a West Coast University, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Pena), follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley (Redford), and attempt to do something important with their lives. But when the two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan, Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field, they become the string that binds together two disparate stories on opposite sides of America. In California, an anguished Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student (Andrew Garfield) who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. the charismatic Presidential hopeful, Senator Jasper Irving (Cruise), is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist (Streep) that may affect Arian and Ernest’s fates. As arguments, memories and bullets fly, the three stories are woven ever more tightly together, revealing how each of these Americans has a profound impact.


I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. I'm not remtoely a news/politics follower. I actually found myself feeling a lot like the student that Robert Redford was talking to during this movie because I tend to choose ignorance over having to deal with whats going on in the world and the propoganda that goes with it. I'm not one of those morons that hangs on to the latest happenings of Brittny Spears or the "tragic" death of Anna Nicole, but it simply depresses me to much to really follow all of the happenings that I tend to feel are in vain. Anywho - that's enough personal commentary. Let's get back to the movie. This movie was essentially two seperate converstaions going on while two troops are stuck under attack. I loved the back and forth of the conversations/stranded soldiers and it came together tighter as the movie went on. Even though I kind of felt like this movie was more of a public service announcement than a movie, I thought that it was very well done, written, and acted.


I would recommend people checking this out. It might not be a lot of peoples cup of tea, but it wasn't really mine either and I ended up liking it a lot.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

America loves Cox! But behind the music is the up-and-down-and-up-again story of a musician whose songs would change a nation. On his rock 'n roll spiral, Cox sleeps with 411 women, marries three times, has 22 kids and 14 stepkids, stars in his own 70s TV show, collects friends ranging from Elvis to the Beatles to a chimp, and gets addicted to -- and then kicks -- every drug known to man... but despite it all, Cox grows into a national icon and eventually earns the love of a good woman -- longtime backup singer Darlene (Jenna Fischer).


Overall, this movie was incredibly silly. There were some really big laughs thoughout the movie though. The way that they satirize music from the 50s to the 70s is great. I especially enjoyed it because of how it mocked the fact that in every musician biographical movie, the superstar had to go on the drug ride. The scenes where Tim Meadows from SNL describes drugs to Dewey Cox were so funny I had tears rolling down my face from laughing. John Reilly has always done a phenomenal job in supporting performances in some really good comedies and it was nice to finally see him have a starring vehicle.


I'd recommend people check this movie out. There is no rush and its not a must see, but it has enough laughs to make your viewing of it worthwhile.

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood is set on the frontier of California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there's a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value – love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son – is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil.


First of all - let's just say that There Will Be Blood could have easily been called There Will Be Numb Asses. The movie is a little bit longer than 2 1/2 hours. Luckily, it doesn't feel it at all for the first hour and half but then it does kind of slow down a bit before turning really good again. Daniel Day-Lewis is phenomenal. Then again, when is that man not? Think about it. Have you ever see him in a less than stellar role? Anywho - he's awesome and his presence is so commanding that you find yourself not realizing that there isn't even any dialogue for the first 20 minutes of the movie. You're just watching him doing whatever he is doing. It was to the point that by the time he did speak I jumped a little out of shock. This cinematography of this movie is also great. The area where they are drilling is just as much of a character as the actors themselves and it was well caught. The weirdest thing about this movie was the non-stop over the top sound. It was like an orchestra was playing the whole time that they were filming. In any other movie - this would have probably driven me nuts. However, it was great in this movie and you end up liking it. This movie was awesome. I wouldn't go so far as to say the best movie of 2007 like many critics did, but it was definitely up there.


I would strongly recommend people checking this one out. It isn't necessarily mainstream fair, but for those of you in to the somewhat artsy movies - this is a must see.

Resurrecting The Champ

When up-and-coming sports writer Erik Kernan saves a homeless man from a scrape with a group of rowdy college kids, he unwittingly finds himself face to face with no ordinary bum, but Champ, the one-time boxing great Bob Satterfield. What begins as a story resurrecting a once-great man turns into an incredible journey, and an opportunity for Erik to reexamine his own life, his relationship with his young son and his recently separated wife.

This was actually a pretty decent character drama with a fathers/sons storyline. I don't have any faith in Josh Hartnett's acting ability whatsoever but he ended up being somewhat tolerable in this movie. This was probably the best performance by Samuel Jackson in a couple of years. Unfortunately, I can't decide if that was because of his role in this movie or because of the horrendous casting choices he's been making. Anywho, the movie was definitely watchable and the whole how fathers are seen through the eyes of their sons seem pretty accurate.

I would somewhat recommend people checking this out. Its not a must see by any means whatsoever, but its kind of worth the rental if you had interest in checking it out.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to prison who vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who "shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again." Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney's amorous accomplice, who creates diabolical meat pies. The cast also includes Alan Rickman, who portrays the evil Judge Turpin, who sends Sweeney to prison and Timothy Spall as the Judge's wicked associate Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen is a rival barber, the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

I know of the Sweeney Todd story, but never really saw the original movie or the broadway show. I still went in to this movie with really big expectations because there is no combination that I enjoy more in Hollywood than Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. These guys really can't do anything wrong when they work together. Their combined quirkiness gave this movie such a great, unexplainable feel to it. I was a little bit skeptical about it being a musical though. Musicals are like foreign movies with subtitles in that you can tell how good they are by how phased or non-phased you are by the subtitles. If you find yourself struggling to read and watch at the same time - the movie isn't that good. In a musical - if you find yourself following the movie along even though they are singing instead of talking, then its all good. This movie was able to do that perfectly. And at the risk of sounding like a total movie nerd - the cinematography and overall sound of this movie were phenomenal. There were definite points in the movie where the gore gets to you so be warned.

I would fully recommend everyone checking this out, especially if you are a Tim Burton fan. I truly enjoyed it and thinks its one of the best movies to come out last year.

Alvin & The Chipmunks

Jason Lee stars as David Seville in the CG/live-action hybrid film, based on the 1950s cartoon series about chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore, who lay waste to Seville's surroundings and sing in three-part harmony.

This movie was pretty much exactly what you would have expected from the commercial. Its a cutesy family movie with the adults being somewhat entertained while the kids love it. The chipmunks are pretty cute and Jason Lee is perfect casting as Dave Seville, even if he has much more acting ability than he gets to put forth in this role. The only thing that is upsetting about this movie is that all children think that this is all some new/original idea and that it hasn't been around for 50 plus years. They keep talking about it like we don't know who Alvin & The Chimpmunks are. Come on now!

I would recommend anyone with kids checking this out. The kids will love it and it isn't too painful for the adults either.