Up in the Air- Jan. 26.10

I was excited to see this movie, given all the buzz surrounding the film, but i was really left wondering what all the rave was about? Nothing unique or out of the ordinary in terms of a story line or acting... just a simple film about a certain life style and realizing the flaws in out choices. yipeeee!*/

Motherhood- Jan.26.10

interesting movie and probably very relatable for mothers out there.

Tell Tale- Jan. 25.10

Interested story about how a man is able to feel the emotions/thoughts of his heart organ downer, making him avenge his death. The movie has an interesting twist at the end... Definitely, worth watching!

Legion- Jan. 25.10

Great adventure thriller. Although I was surprised that the "action" scenes were of set with what seemed to be awkward long dragged out scenes filled with the reason humanity had fallen to their current fate. None the less, I was entertained.

The Forth Kind- Jan. 21.10

WOW, talk about a roller coaster ride from start to finish! I never thought I would even consider the notion of extraterrestrial life forms but this goes to show that if crafted correctly and supported with pretty convincing evidence, anyone can doubt what they thought they had a firm grasp of. I thoroughly enjoyed the execution of the actual video and the movie footage, unique and at the same time added to the impact of the film. All around awesome movie, watch it for sure! ****/

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas- Jan. 20.10

To be honest, I am not very fond of war movies, regardless of the story line, but luckily I give every movie to every movie to prove me wrong. This was a touching tale about a German boy set in the days of Hitler's rule who's father happens to be a high ranking solider in the military. The boy and the family move since the father is promoted and through the boys adventurous spirit, stumbles upon the concentration camp his father is in charge of. There he meets a Jewish boy and with time forms a friendship. The movie portrays the ideology of the German people at that time who supported Hitler's views to think of Jewish people as "not human". This was the first time I had seen the portray of what was believed at that time to stretch to that extent. But the already eerie setting of the movie, is no match to the movie's ending. Literally I found myself speechless. ****

Stepfather - Jan. 18.10

I was just frustrated that there was no background given to why this creep was the way he is? So many questions, yet clearly the movie was intended to be more main stream and didn't really focus on character development by any means. Overall: decent.

The Lovely Bones- Jan. 18.10

This was a great movie! Although the movie deals with a pretty heavy topic, it sheds light on the issue without all the excessive drama most other directors would probably have attached to the movie. I also wasn't overly impressed with the acting of the main character Suzy, but was blown away by Stanley Tucci's performance as eerie as it was. The story itself was enticing and I especially enjoyed the visually connection the director Peter Jackson made between the after life and life on earth. Overall, great movie to watch.

The Road- Jan. 17. 10

So this was a nice change from the typical "the world has come to an end" type movie, in that they are living in the after affects of that. A boy and his father struggle to stay alive against the struggle to stay warm in a dying world and find food when there is no animals or plants left. The movie really tried to portray that even in the most unbearable situations in life we can still pull through if we have something to live for... and as long as we look, we will always find something to hold on to.

It's Compicated - Jan. 11-10

I love Meryl Streep, her versatility is unmatched no question. More so I loved how all of a sudden Alec Buldwin is this amazing actor who has been able to strip from the typical leading male character and transform in to this lovable funny actor. Clearly we have to credit a huge part in that to 30 Rock, and talk about a smart move. Another great surprise for me was Steve Martin. It was honestly refreshing to see him outside of his typical, trying to hard at comedy, roles. The subtlety in his role in this movie was great. I was expecting some crazy outburst at any moment, but even in the scene where he was high, it was great top watch him act in a way an adult would in that situation rather than like a 14 year old trapped in a 50 year old man's body.

All in all a great movie showing the dynamic of the challenges couples in our day in age face with divorces being a more common occurrence. Thanks for the reminder that relationships are truly complicated.

Universal Soilder - Regeneration - Jan. 09.10

I don't really know how it came that i watched this movie, all i know is I hadn't seen JCVD since the movie JCVD which i don't really count as one of his typical movies, but i remember the original universal solider movie and I loved JVCD and Dolph Lundgren... the good old days when he actually did fighting scenes and not gun firing scenes. This movie is a testament to what happens to actors when they get old. Know when to quit already.

Street Fighter- The Legend Of Chun Li

Ok, so this was a nice flash back to some old video game memories... street fighter happen to be one of my favs, other than that a typical action movie.

The Invention Of Lying - Jan. 06.10

A unique concept where everyone lives in a world where no one can tell a lie. At first it seemed odd because for some reason not being able to lie also meant volunteering unnecessary information. Aside from that, the movie made a great attempt to show a world where we didn't possess the ability to lie. Human interactions were completely based on face value. The movie eventually shows that the world isn't actually any better or worse as a result of it, but that our decisions are really what have true consequences. It was also interesting that the movie presented the argument that without lying there would be no religion in the sense that we know it today, and that without the concept of God we would not be distracted with what we would consider to be our traditional values of today. Almost scientific and a factual process of elimination. Luckily, good old fashion love conquers as it expected in our Hollywood films.

Brothers - Jan 06.10

If you are looking to see a movie with some amazing acting, this is it. Although the first hour of the film was nothing more than then a diary of events, the last 30min. of the movie was worth the wait. Starting from the scene where the older daughter lashes out at her dad at the birthday table, literally caused me to gasp. From then it seemed like an on going roller coaster of drama that I really didn't want to end. A great movie showing the turmoil a solider faces in the after affects of killing a fellow solider. The movie shows that although men of war are trained to be killers, no amount of trained can jade our forgotten fragile natures. In the end, our greed as a society is in turn the very same reason for our deterioration. Although we live in a time were the concept of a "soul" is considered medieval, our every day struggles and the state of the world today in proof that the soul or perhaps what is also known as our consciousness is perhaps the only constant and perhaps the only pure compass we should follow.

A Clockwork Orange - Jan. 03. 10

Having watched Eyes Wide Shut and The Shinning as a few of Stanley Kubrick's previous movies, I knew that this movie would not be easily understood and I was not mistaken. One thing to keep in mind when watching his movies it to not take everything shown in face value. There are usually multi-faceted layers of issues he is trying to make the audience aware of. At first there seems to be abrupt and lose fitting connections between the various events in the plot. However, after re-analyzing the story and doing some research regarding the movie, I have come to see that this is part allegory, part dark comedy and part drama set in a futuristic political satire.

The movie addresses various topics one of which being the dehumanization of people, and mainly understanding the dependency we have towards a sense of security within society. Alex who is played by Malcolm McDowell is a character which would be perceived as a gangster today, has no remorse towards anything or anyone along with his 3 other gang members bring destruction to the city by anything from random beatings to raping woman of houses robe to murder.

The city is ramped with violence and immorality, and the jails are overflowing with criminals politicians propose to restore the security of the city by "brainwashing" those who have lost their compass to morality. And so Alex is chosen as a subject for their test trial and is shown images of violence and rape along with medication that bring on uncontrollable nausea is "programed" against acts of indecency and in turn allowed to return to society as a "productive" zombie. There is obvious opposition proclaiming that men are "no longer capable of [making] a moral choice"

The movie questions what we are willing to sacrifice in order to live in a seemingly safe environment. Is being human mean only doing what is right and moral? Is it better to control one's actions rather than sentence them to the death penalty? These are a few of the questions the movie seems to ask its audience.

A Clockwork Orange is not a comfortable experience. It does not cater to please the audience but rather through visual demonstration is able to deliver a message which although no one would like to hear, its a message we need to hear. Its a movie that demands thought, compels the attention, and refuses to be dismissed.

Land of the Lost- Jan. 02. 10

Sadly, this movie was the movie to kick off my 2010 movie exploration. The movie itself can be summarized by a nice abbreviation of the movie's title: LOL. LOL indeed, as for most of the movie I was laughing at what a wonderful job the production team did in putting together the trailer for this movie. I was given a sense that the movie would include an actual adventure plot with a nice dose of comedic relief. However, I was left a mediocre adept at comedy which I gather was meant to cater to both children and adult audiences but ended up being cheesy multiplied buy infinity. Why were the costume's worn by the "ailen" people in the movie of such poor quality? I can honestly say I have seen Halloween costumes that are better. All in all I was left feeling that children's animations these days are far better developed and include humor which is tasteful enough for children but amusing enough to speak to adult audiences.