Currently browsing the "Chick Flick" category.

Joyful Noise

Joyful Noise is full of, well, joyful noise – at least when the music is playin’. Unfortunately, the movie slows down quite a bit between numbers. In other words, you have to be willing to forgive a heaping spoonful of preachy dialogue and contrived plot to truly enjoy the show. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a sweet, warm-hearted flick that should satisfy fans of the music competition genre (i.e. Gleeks). It’s just not as good as I hoped or expected it to be. I blame the trailer, which gives up all the best lines and high notes.

Young Adult

Young Adult has been out for a little while now, but it’s definitely worth seeing if it’s still in a theater near you or renting when it becomes available. Just be forewarned it is a dark comedy, emphasis on dark. Seriously, from the trailers, I expected this movie to be funnier. They’re totally marketing this one as a comedy. But it’s much deeper and more cynical than the trailer suggests. Not that it’s a bad thing. It just wasn’t what I thought I was going to see.

War Horse

A boy and his horse are at the center of this Steven Spielberg family drama, adapted from the Tony winning stage play, which was an adaptation of a children’s book. It is a typical Spielberg film, tugging on your heartstrings to the emotive strains of John Williams. Set in the beautiful English countryside, a strapping young lad, Albert, witnesses the birth of an amazing horse and watches as he matures into a gorgeous thoroughbred. Then in a stroke of luck, when he comes up for sale, Albert’s father is crazy enough to buy him, instead of a plough horse, which is what they really need. But unfortunately, World War One soon separates the young man from his beloved steed named Joey, and the film follows this incredible animal’s odyssey through the war and finally (and miraculously) back to his favorite human.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Three of the most popular books of 2008-2010 were Stieg Larssen’s Millennium Trilogy. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book and there is already one great movie of it in the original Swedish. (Here is my review of that one.) But now we have the David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network) prettied-up American version. I could just about recycle my first review for the new one, but there are a few differences. It is in English. Daniel Craig is hotter than Michael Nyqvist. And Rooney Mara’s Lisbeth is a great deal less insular and a lot more one-dimensional than Noomi Rapace’s.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

They’re baaack! Holmes and Watson (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) pick up slightly after we last saw them in the first Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Watson is about to be married, and Holmes is still not entirely happy about it. And meanwhile, bombs are going off all over Europe, and while everyone else is blaming it on anarchists, Sherlock knows that it has something to do with his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). He just has to put the pieces together, and he is willing to play Moriarty’s extreme body-count cat and mouse game if necessary, even if it means ruining Watson’s honeymoon.

New Year’s Eve

I just re-read my review of Garry Marshall’s easy breezy chick flick of last year, Valentine’s Day, and guess what? I could easily just change out the holiday – and some of the names from the lengthy A-list cast – and present the exact same review. In fact, just for fun, that’s what I’m gonna do! So here goes, with only slight [modifications]:

Garry Marshall is brilliant. He made a mildly entertaining movie with an A-List cast and a name that virtually guarantees it a place in holiday rerun history. [New Year’s Eve] is like Crash-light. Really, really, really light. It follows a bunch of folks whose lives intersect in various ways as they [embrace, reject, and reflect on all that is New Year’s Eve as the ball is about to drop in New York City].

The Artist

I have my favorite movie of the year now, and I expect that The Artist will be at the top of a lot of other reviewers’ lists, too. I’ve been told I gush about it. And I do not gush often. Considering that it is in black & white and is a silent film, you might wonder why.

The Descendants

If you’re looking for an adult movie that can appeal to the mainstream, adventurous and arty crowd this holiday weekend, then I highly encourage you to seek out The Descendants. It’s got George Clooney. Need I say more? Actually, I do need to say more – because this is Clooney at his best. He delivers a powerfully low-key performance as a fairly regular guy named Matt King who is forced to step it up as a father when his wife suffers catastrophic injuries in a boating accident. As she lies comatose in a hospital bed, Matt is left to process her impending death, comfort and support his rebellious and rambunctious daughters, and oversee the difficult sale of a large piece of pristine land that his Hawaiian ancestors left in a family trust (thus the title, The Descendants). On top of that, he learns his wife had been having an affair.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Yes, I was indeed among the masses who helped Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part One reap nearly $140 Million at the box office in its opening weekend. And I make no apologies. I read the books and liked them (for the most part). I saw the first three movies in the series. The first one was quite bad; the second one was better; the third one was quite good. And now, the fourth – well, it’s definitely weak. But it doesn’t really matter. Once you’re sucked into the franchise, you have no choice but to see it through (thus the boffo box office numbers for this penultimate installment of the franchise). My only hope is that Part Two somehow manages to provide a more satisfying conclusion than the book itself, which was my least favorite of the bunch.

The Lie

Sometimes you just need to see a movie that is not all flashy and star-filled. There is a strange joy in watching actors you’ve never seen before since you bring no expectations to their performances. The Lie is one of those little indie treats. It is based on a short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle about a 30-something guy who wakes up to his going nowhere life and concocts a lie to get out of work, which then spirals out of control.