Currently browsing the "Mainstream Chick" category.

We Bought a Zoo

It’s a good thing Matt Damon didn’t succumb to warnings about working with children and animals. Because without Matt Damon, We Bought a Zoo could have been really lame. Instead, it’s a heartwarming family film that manages to tackle some pretty big issues without getting too sappy or sad.

Damon plays Benjamin Mee, a young widower struggling to raise his two kids, Dylan, 14, and Rosie, 7, in the months following his wife’s death. Desperate for a change of scenery and a fresh start, Mee moves the family out of the city and into a fixer-upper in the country that happens to be situated in the middle of a zoo that also needs some major fixer-uppin’.

The Adventures of Tintin

Isn’t Tintin supposed to be a dog? C’mon, I can’t be the only one who thought The Adventures of Tintin might be some new animated twist on the tales of a certain German Shepherd named Rin. My bad. The movie is actually based on a popular European series of comics created in 1929 by a Belgian artist known as Herge’. Tintin is not a german shepherd. He’s actually a curious young reporter-detective-adventurer who, along with his dog Snowy (a fox terrier), gets caught up in the wild and wacky world of criminals, villains, artifacts and treasure. He’s part “Brenda Starr”, part “Indiana Jones”.

From a purely visual standpoint, The Adventures of Tintin is rather stunning with its use of motion-capture technology. But the story itself falls a bit flat, even at the direction of the almighty Steven Spielberg.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Mission Implausible is more like it. But no matter – this movie isn’t really about plot or plausibility. It’s about cool stunts and stunning imagery. So if you’re into the action stuff, go see it (in IMAX) and enjoy the adrenaline rush through Budapest, Moscow, Dubai and Mumbai.

For those actually counting, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the fourth installment in the franchise starring Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt. He leads a black ops team known as the IMF – the Impossible Mission Force (not the International Monetary Fund, though both are equally mysterious to me).

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 Sitter

The Sitter is basically an R-rated re-interpretation of the 1987 classic Adventures in Babysitting. The original featured a reluctant babysitter taking her charges on an adventure through the streets of Chicago in an attempt to help a friend in need. The Sitter features Jonah Hill as Noah Griffith, a lazy college dropout who takes his three troubled charges on an adventure through the streets of New York – in an attempt to score some drugs and get laid. It actually sounds worse than it is. Noah is a total shlub but he generally means well. And by movie’s end, valuable lessons are learned by all.

Shame

Oh my! I’m not really sure who – if anyone- you can actually see this movie with. Suffice it to say, it’s not a date movie. Or a family movie. Or a fun fantasy flick. It’s dark and disturbing – and provocative – in a Black Swan sort of way. I didn’t particularly like Black Swan, despite the Oscar-worthy performance of Natalie Portman. Same goes for Shame. It’s not my cup of tea (at all), but the performances – especially from Michael Fassbender and Carrie Mulligan – are quite superb. So should you see it? Maybe – in the privacy of your own home when it comes out on DVD! But in a theater??? That’s a tough call. Here’s 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.

J. Edgar

What a strange man, that J. Edgar Hoover! And yet – for nearly 50 years – he managed to wield tremendous power and influence as the controversial head of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. This biopic seeks to show us how, and why.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

It seems way too early for a “Christmas” movie, but to release A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas any later would be like re-releasing Bambi on opening day of deer hunting season.