Category: Movie Review (Page 9 of 9)

No, I’m not…but it would be pretty darn cool if I were. Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. is the coolest movie I’ve seen in a long time. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is funny, he’s cool, and he learns from his mistakes. What more could you ask from a superhero? Iron Man features a pretty all-star cast (Downey Jr., Terrance Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltro, and of course Stan Lee…), good acting from that cast, great special effects, and another comic book movie that you can take home to your mom.

The three things that made this movie one of my favorites are its (1) humor, (2) explosions/fighting, and (3) substantive plot. That’s right, a movie with humor and explosions CAN have a plot.

Iron Man runs 126 minutes and is rated PG-13. It isn’t too bad, I wouldn’t mind bringing my 12 year old brother to it.

I give it 9 ramheads out of 10. (A.K.A. WATCH THIS MOVIE!)

When I decided to watch Sweeney Todd, I knew it was a musical. I knew it had an all-star cast (Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Sasha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall). I knew it won an Oscar and was based on the Broadway musical. What I didn’t know is how gorey it would be. It was GOREY. It was purposefully fake looking, but still very effective. (For me it was so gorey it was actually quite humorous.) Johnny Depp does an excellent job as the Demon Barber, Sweeney Todd who is trying to strike revenge on the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Depp also surprised (me at least) with an excellent singing voice. His great voice combined with excellent acting really got me into the movie; I was feeling for him. It got to the point where I was almost happy he was killing, because to me, he was the good guy and the people deserved it.

The music was very well written, well sung, and sometimes quite humorous. Tim Burton, not surprisingly, gave us his trademark all-the-good-guys-have-pale-skin routine and also makes London very gray.

The film is a musical, but don’t fret: I’m not very fond of musicals, but it this one really was good. To be honest, this film would be nothing if it wasn’t a musical.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street runs 116 minutes and is rated R (for graphic bloody violence). This means that this is NOT a child friendly film. Unless of course, the kid is SO desensitized from all the bloody video games, TV, and movies you’ve let him/her watch. If that is the case, by all means, show this to your younger counterpart.

I give this movie 8 ramheads out of 10.

I recently watch Juno for the second time, and I figured I’d write a review. After all, it did win an Oscar and was nominated for 3 more along with winning many miscellaneous other awards…

Anyway, Juno is an unorthodox girl with an unorthodox story. She was named after Zeus’ wife. She had sex and got pregnant at 16. After the baby they (Juno and the father) started dating. Yeah. Juno is 16 and is in high school, so we get a glimpse of the typical high school attitude toward some who’s “preggo” (as Rainn Wilson calls her).

This movie is definitely a comedy, but it still makes meaningful points here and there. It offers commentary on some of the problems of American society in respect to marriage, sex, and love. It really makes some good points. (I’m not going to tell you what they are, you’ll have to watch it yourself to see.)

It features Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office), co-stars the guy who played J.J. Jameson in the Spiderman Trilogy, and also co-stars Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman (Alias, Daredevil, more…; Arrested Developement).

This film runs 96 minutes and is rated PG-13. It has a little language and one suggestive scene (it is right at the beginning) so it is up to the parent as to let their kids watch it. I wouldn’t suggest it because they would probably be bored because they wouldn’t get the jokes…

I give it a solid 7 ramheads out of 10.

Going in to see Wall·E, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d seen the previews (about a million times…) and was hoping it would be better that they advertised it. I was actually quite annoyed with the previews, but was pleasantly surprised with the film.

The CG in the film was flawless. It seems that they (Disney/Pixar especially) are perfecting the art of the computer animated film. [Although Disney vowed that the 2D animated cartoons were dead after 2004, I heard that they were developing another classic cartoon :)]

Here’s a quick (not detailed) summary of the movie. People don’t recycle. The earth gets too garbaged up. The movie’s equivilant of Wal-Mart builds a space home for everyone on earth. They ship the people to space and give them technology that makes everyone fat, while robots clean the garbage. The robot die off. One robot survives. His name is Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class). He meets EVE (a new robot). They go to space. Mishaps happen. Happily ever after. Moral of story is recycle or get fat in space. The end.

This movie (rated G) is obviously a family film. Don’t expect a lot of swearing, sex, violence…but you can expect to enjoy yourself. It runs 97 minutes.

8 ramheads out of 10

Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer (that guy from Top Gun), George Clooney, and now Christian Bale. Batman live-action TV and movies have graced this pleasant world for decades. If you haven’t heard, this summer the newest installment of the Batman series, The Dark Knight was released. It was greatly hyped, it shattered its expectations and it STILL remains #1 in the box office.

Heath Ledger produced the performance of a lifetime (then he died…) as the infamous Joker. Christian Bale did a fine job as Bruce Wayne/Batman: he gave Wayne more depth. In Batman Begins, I was impressed with the background and depth they gave us with Bruce’s life and feelings and thoughts as a young man. The Dark Knight gives us a glimpse of Bruce’s emotions toward Rachel as well as how he reacts to the the choice between love and duty. Once again, Ledger’s performance was phenomenal: the Joker is everything you want and need him to be. He is funny. Really funny. Oh yeah, and he is also dangerous, resourceful, intelligent and a SUPER supervillian.

Special effects in The Dark Knight were excellent. No noticeable glitches or anything. Music was good, pretty unnoticed, so it does its job. It enhances the film without taking over the scenes.

The film is rated PG-13, so you probably shouldn’t bring young children to see it (unless they are desensitized already…). It runs 152 minutes of awesomeness.

Overall The Dark Knight is a must-see:

9 ramheads out of 10