One Fine Day

Obviously, on a day where I have nothing to do, movie watching is my little getaway. Sitting in my truck until my delivery for tomorrow, I broke out the laptop and started throwing movies in. Here is what I thought about One Fine Day.

THE GOOD: This was a real sweet movie! Michelle Pfeiffer is great as a single-working mother who, unfortunatly, puts her job ahead of her son. George Clooney is great as a newspaper writer who gets his daughter thrown into his lap as his ex-wife is off for her honeymoon. To watch these two come together and deal with their jobs and babysitting all in one day, while falling for each other, was real sweet. At the end of the movie, you end up rooting for these two to get together.

THE BAD: There's not a whole lot of bad I can add to this movie. For some people, when the movie ends, you want to know what happens to these two, but in my opinion, the movie is called One Fine Day, so tomorrow is left wide open.

THE VERDICT: Every now and then, Hollywood can take a concept, not spend a whole lot of money on it, and come out with a nice little movie. That's what One Fine Day was.

The Dark Knight

The dark knight returns in....The Dark Knight, and the movie killed it at the box office. Granted, everyone wanted to see Heath Ledger's performance, and they were in for a treat. His portrayal of The Joker was rivating. He mind The Joker a mindless killer, mixed in with Joker mannerisms. He was deserving of the Academy Award he won, although he wasn't alive to recieve it. As for Christian Bale, while I like his verison of Batman better than George Clooney, Val Kilmer, and even Michael Keation, he obviously isn't the main attraction in the movie. The Dark Knight is more about the villian in the movie, which worked for other superhero moves. After all, Gene Hackman got top billing over Christopher Reeve in Superman and it worked. The Dark Knight is a knockout, and it will be interesting to see how the third one plays out.

Live Free or Die Hard

Very rarely does a sequel out do the original. In the case of the Die Hard movies, the movies get bigger and better everytime. I was sitting in Canton, OH this weekend and going through my movie collection on the truck. I picked out this movie, and was blown away!

THE GOOD: Even though this movie is all about explosions and fighting, you have to hand it to the writers of this movie. Bruce Willis can throw out one-liners in this one and the laughter doesn't feel forced. The one thing that the Die Hard franchise has always done is made the villians cool. Plus, I liked how they incorporated computer hackers and the dangers of the internet as a form of terrorism.

THE BAD: Not that this was bad but I thought Justin Long's character ran his course with me after the first hour. I know that McClane had to carry him around for the whole movie, but I was ready for a terrorist to kill him off. Other than that, it's hard to find a bad thing about this movie.

THE VERDICT: In the last five years, we have seen Hollywood heavyweights from the 80's bring back their signature characters. We saw Stallone brought Rocky out of retirement and Rambo back into a war. We saw Harrison Ford, unsuccessfully in my opinion, bring back Indiana Jones. We even saw Arnold Schwarzenegger bring back the Terminator in an underrated sequel to the Terminator series. I think Live Free or Die Hard puts everyone to shame.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystral Skull

After 19 years, and countless times we heard Spielberg, Ford, and Lucas say that Indiana Jones IV was coming out, this is what we get. I thought George Lucas kinda lost his edge with the latest Star Wars movies, but after watching this movie, I question if he really had any kind of edge at all.

THE GOOD: I had to really watch this film close enough to find any GOOD in it. The action scenes were nice! The special effects were good. I was wondering how they were going to answer for Sean Connery and Denholm Elliot not being in the movie, and they answered it nicely by seting the story in the 50's, letting them pass on naturally. After that, there's not much else.

THE BAD: Where do I begin? Whoever wrote the dialogue for this movie should of been fired! The lines came out campy and forced! One of my biggest problems I had with National Treasure and the earlier Indiana Jones movies is that Indiana Jones is a big know-it-all. You would think that through all the things that we have seen him go through, you would think that he could afford to forget a few things. But no, he knows the story to every carving on a wall, different languages in diaries, and so on. I felt that bringing back Karen Allen as Indy's love interest from the first movie was a bit forced. Tying them together with Shia Labeoff of Transformers was a bit much. Then there's Harrison Ford! I am a hig Harrison Ford fan, but he is too old to be Indiana Jones. His punches were very telegraphed. His quick comebacks aren't so quick! I just didn't buy it anymore from him. It reminded my of Stallone in Rocky Balboa. During the fight scene, Stallone just looked too old!

THE VERDICT: I'm sure you've heard the old saying that sometimes you just can't go home! That's I felt during this movie. If you have an Indiana Jones craze one night, just remember the three other masterpieces he made in the 80's. Those would blow you away before this one would.

Hollywoodland

My travels took me up to Canton, OH last night. After I got settled in, I picked out a few movies I was going to watch that evening. I picked out two completely different movies and got started. The first one on the list is Hollywoodland. It was the story about the mystery of the death of George Reeves, the 1950's Superman.

THE GOOD: This movie should of been considered one of the best movies of 2006. I liked how they played up the many ways George Reeves died. Adrian Brody's character, while being fictitious, takes us through the hell that George Reeves went through, trying to become a major actor. I liked how they showed how George Reeves hated playing Superman for fear that he would by typecasted and not well received in other projects. One example was when he sat in a movie theater while they were previewing From Here to Eternity, a movie that George Reeves was in. When the crowd saw that Superman was in the movie, the laughter started and Reeves was cut out of the movie. The movie did remind me of the movie Wired, the movie that had Bob Woodward trace the steps of John Belushi before his death. Unlike Wired, however, this movie was thought provokiing, interesting, and kept you on the edge of your seat. Diane Lane has a great performance as Toni Mannix, the wife of the head of MGM, who is George Reeves' girlfriend. She, alone, should of been nominated for an Academy Award for her role.

THE BAD: They focused a little too much on the Louis Simo's (Adrian Brody) life. They were trying to compare both lives of Simo and Reeves and, quite frankly, I don't think it was needed. The movie does drag a bit, but they could of cut down some of Simo's story and focus on the investigation of the Reeve's death,

THE VERDICT

This is a must see! While the ending of the movie won't be resolved (after all, this is one of the biggest mysterys in Hollywood), it will take you on a trip into the showbusiness hell that most actors go through.

Superman Returns

For those who don't know or have been living under a rock for the last 20 years, I am a huge Superman fan. I loved the original Christopher Reeve Superman movies (well, at least the first one). I am glued to Smallville when it airs during the fall season. I even own the Lois and Clark TV shows on DVD. In 2005, I heard that they had cast the new Superman movie, I was intrigued! When the movie came out, I took Dakota to see it when she was 3 and a half. I remember defending the movie against the Spiderman fans, saying that the love story between Superman and Lois was no different than the love story with Spiderman and Mary Jane. Now, after further review, I have changed my stance on the movie.

THE GOOD: I thought that casting an unknown (Brandon Routh) as the Man of Steel was great. I thought Brandon played the role of Clark Kent to perfection. He still needs to work on the Superman character, but I don't think he was given much help with that. Plus, he was replacing Christopher Reeve. That's kinda like Danny White replacing Roger Staubach or Quincy Carter replacing Troy Aikman. I feel he did as good of a job as Danny White and no where near of a job as Quincy Carter. I thought casting Kevin Spacey as Lex Luther was genius. While he wasn't as funny as Gene Hackman was in the original, he made me feel like Lex Luther could be a viable enemy for Superman. I loved how CGI has come so far from the original. I thought the flying sequences were great! The scene that sticks out in my mind is when Superman stopped the airplane from crashing into a baseball stadium.

THE BAD: This story sucked! They kept the same storylines from the original. Lex Luther was in search of land. Superman and Lois have already been together (the kid didn't help either). After watching Spiderman's 1 and 2, Batman's storying beginning, and the X-Men taking shape, you would think that we could see The Man of Steel throw ONE punch! I thought that Lois Lane was miscast. Kate Bosworth didn't have the flair that Lois Lane for getting stories. I felt like the entire movie was trying not to step on the toes of the Donner films. I even thought the Superman outfit was too dark. I know that Marvel and DC Comics like to have dark superheroes, but Superman is red, blue, and yellow, not marroon, dark blue, and gold.

THE VERDICT: Here we are, 2009, and we have seen a Batman sequel win an oscar. We have seen Iron Man become a bankable hero. We even saw a re-boot of The Incredible Hulk that made the first one look like a bad made for TV movie. You would think that Superman would of been up there with these movies. Honestly, I don't see how a movie can make $280 million and be considered a failure. However, when you spend $300 million to make the movie, it is not a commerical success. The movie is watchable, but if you want to see a great superhero movie, stay away from this one.

Transformers (2007)

After seeing the sequel to the 2007 spectagular, I wanted to revisit the first movie to compare both movies. Before I got back in my truck, I loaded my truck up with a few movies, Transformers being one of them.

This movie blew me away with everything! First off, you can't say enough about how real the robots looked in this picture. They have come a long way from the cartoon animated version, and with CGI, the magic of Spielberg's movie, or whatever you call it, this movie was fantastic on all fronts. I thought it was brilliant to bring in the cartoon voice of Optimus Prime to the live action Optimus Prime. While some of the Autobots and Decepticons weren't the same as they were in the cartoon, I feel that they did a remarkable job establishing who's who in this movie. While Bumblebee was the breakout robot in the movie, Optimus Prime still dominated the movie. I found Shia LaBeouf's character brought some believablity to the movie. While I was upset that Megatron's character was under utillized, all in all, the good outwieghts the dissappointments. Just like in the sequel, John Turtorro steals the show in this one.

While the sequel was very good about advancing the storyline for the Transformer's franchise, the first one still stands head and shoulders above it. While the violence and language in this movie might be a bit much for kids, it carrys well for those who grew up on the cartoon.

Robots

Last night, it was Cadence's turn to pick a movie of her choice. She chose Robots, the animated movie with Robin Williams, Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, and Mel Brooks. I hadn't seen the movie in a while, so the four of us (actually three, Melissa was on the computer) sat around watched the movie.

I found the movie as enjoyable this time as I did when Dakota and I saw it in the theater. I thought the story about a young robot wanting to meet his hero was good. When Rodney's (McGregor) folks were going to make a baby, I laughed out loud on how that meant actually making a baby (from a box). I found other little moments that made me laugh. When on robot puts a voice box in his system and comes out sounding like Darth Vader for Star Wars, I told Dakota that Rodney's voice is done by Obi Wan Kenobi, and she laughed. The story itself is pretty basic, but the dialogue and humor helps the movie along.

The comic relief from Robin Williams' character added to the movie. I'm almost convinced that I prefer an animated version of him than the real person. Greg Kinnear is funny as the villian who wants to replace old parts with new parts. The fact that he is so power hungry, yet a mama's boy was hillarious. Other voices included are Drew Carey, Jennifer Coolidge (Stiffler's mom from American Pie fame), and Paul Giamatti.

The movie is kid friendly with a positive message for kids. While animation movies are starting to run together for me, this one stands out in for me.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The day finally came. Dakota and I went off to go see the sequel to Transformers. Going into this, I had an idea that this movie would be non-stop action and very little storyline. Being a fan of the original cartoon and movie, plus the first live action movie, I was skeptical about this one. After the first 15 minutes of this movie, I had nothing to worry about.

While the movie is over two hours long, the movie keeps a nice flow of both story and action. Like the first movie, I always thought it was pretty cool that they kept the same voice actor (Peter Cullen) to do the voice of Optimus Prime in the movie as he did in the cartoon. Sometimes, as a movie goer, it's nice to have that familiarity with the characters, even if it's just the voice. Shia LaBeouf is great as Sam Whitwicky, the human who the Autobots trust. Dakota told me after the movie that Bumblebee is still her favorite, but she agreed that there were a few other robots that stole the show. As for Megan Fox, she does what brought her to the dance: look hot! Of course, John Turtorro is excellent as Agent Simmons. I found it to be nice that they introduced the Matrix of Leadership to the storyline. For those that saw the cartoon movie back in the 80's, the Matrix was the device that dominated the movie and new episodes that followed it.

It looks like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will give Star Trek a run for it's money at the box office. As for me, while the movie isn't as strong as Star Trek, it is right up there as far as one of the best movies of 2009.

The Bucket List

I saw this movie when it was in the movie theater back in January of 2007. I was staying in a hotel room in Memphis, recovering from a broken arm I suffered from falling out of my truck. While I was up there, I was doing workman's comp stuff and had the company car on the weekends. I decided to get out of the hotel room and go catch a few movies. I remember liking the movie then. A year and a half years later, I finally see it again!

Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson are great in this movie. Both men are dying in the movie, and decide to close out their life on their terms. I found that the story dragged a little bit in between different tasks, but made up for it by excellent writing. I liked that as both men were trying to complete each task, both knew that the end was near. I think Morgan Freeman is on of the finest actors to ever come down the pike. I thought Sean Hayes was really good in the movie as Nicholson's assistant.

I think that The Bucket List is a good movie, with two of the best actors in the business, with an accomplished director (Rob Reiner) at the helm. Go check it out!