C

Casino Royale

Crash

Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Hairspray

Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, The

Hitch

Monster House

Sideways

Sky High

Superman Returns

Thank you for Smoking

X-men III

One word...IMAX.  While looking up the listing for this movie I saw that it was going to be showing on the IMAX theatre in 3D in Pissburgh.  (That is what the folks in Ohio call Pittsburgh).

We decided to drive over to Pissburgh and make a day trip out of it.  It was worth the trip to see the movie in IMAX with about the last 20 minutes are so in the most amazingly realistic 3D effects I've ever seen.  Now I wish I would have driven over to Pissburgh to see Spiderman 3 in 3D.

Since there are basically two kinds of people when it comes to Harry Potter there really isn't much to say.  Either you have already seen the movie or you won't see it all.

As usual the movie stuck to the storyline of the book.  It is interesting how the characters have grown up over the years of the movie. The movies keep getting better and better as the characters mature just as they do in the books.  The movies are becoming more adult movies than kiddy movies even though the whole family can enjoy them.  There are some images that may be to scary for the younger kids.

Now the waiting begins for the next movie, an I need to read the 6th book still.

My recommendation:
Like I said, if you are a fan you saw it already or you won't see it all.  It is a really good movie and a good date movie and/or a family movie.

One word...ACTION!  My son and I went to see this movie and the word for this flick is ACTION, ACTION and more ACTION!  This is the type of movie that when it was made they must have realized unlike a lot of these type of movies you really don't want to wait until it's halfway through the movie until you see the Transformers in action.  They action starts pretty quickly.  The special effects are beyond belief!

While typical of these types of movies you have to take the plot with a big grain of salt but with most action movies that isn't why you go to them.  You go to be entertained and watch stuff blow up! 

My recommendation:
Great guy movie, took my ten year old and he loved it also.  There is a lot of action but nothing bloody are scary so the kids will love it also.

Now this was one of those weird situations.  I wanted to see this  movie because the previews of John Travolta in drag looked pretty funny.  The scheme was to find a way to see this movie without looking gay.  So, I played it off as it was a movie my wife really wanted to see and I was forced to go.  That is my story and I'm sticking to it in a very macho like way.

If you don't know what the movie is really about, like I didn't, it probably made a few people sitting next to us feel weird when not to long into the movie they are talking about Thursday will be "Negro Day" on the Corny Collins show. Of course I was busting out laughing.  It's a really hilarious movie actually not only about acceptance to people that are overweight but about integration in the early 60's.

The best thing is the movie pulls off the social issue of integration in the 60's but at the same time never being preachy or getting to deep.  The movie always stays lighthearted and funny. 

For the brothers out there you can go see this movie also, there are a lot of talented performances by the black actors on the cast which includes a remarkable singing performance by Queen Latifah.  She has come a long way since her early beginnings as just a rapper.

My Recommendation:
This is a great date movie for the guys to take your women to.  They will like it and you won't be stuck watching a 'chick flick'.  It's a good movie if you are in the mood for a lighthearted affair.  Plus it's worth the price of admission just to see John Travolta dancing in a fat suit.

There is one portion towards the end of the movie that is reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings.  You keep thinking "this is the end" but there's a little bit more.  Once you get past that part the movie gets pretty good again.

I'd rate this as an overall good movie that should have been a little shorter.  Guys will love this movie.

Jackass 2

If you have seen Jackass 1 then you will love Jackass 2.  It does take a certain mindset to see this movie.  The mindset is "I want to leave my brain at home and have some fun."

Also you need to have a strong stomach.  Some of the stunts are silly slapstick like you would see in a cartoon.  Some of them are just plain out gross.  It's worth seeing just for the 'terrorist beard prank'.  This is definitely a guys only movie.

My recommendation:

If you want to hang out with your fellas and do something stupid check out Jackass 2.  If you are dating a girl that you want to get rid of but don't know how to do it, take her to see Jackass 2.  When she finds out this is the type of movie you like she will probably dump you.

Monster House

I'm going to have to figure out sooner or later what to do when my son gets to old for these kind of movies.  Right now he is the excuse my wife and I use to go catch some good kid flicks.

I think this movie would have been better served to be released around Halloween.  It would have had a better chance of becoming this years The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Even though I'll bet you a dollar this will come out on DVD right around Halloween.

This movie may be a little scary for the younger kids.  However after the beginning the movie isn't as scary and becomes quite a fun ride.  The characters are quite hilarious and the movie isn't one of those 2 hour jobs you have to keep your kids quiet through.

This is a movie that is one you can take the whole family to and both the kids and adults will enjoy.  However it may be kind of scary for kids under 8 or so.

My recommendation
Go see this movie even if you don't have kids!

Superman Returns

Like quite a few people I was quite anxious to see if this movie would live up to the hype.  One sign of a movie being a good movie is when it clocks in at just about 3 hours but you don't feel like you've been sitting through a three hour movie.  Brandon Routh did an excellent performance as the Man of Steel, but I think he did an even better performance as Clark Kent.  This movie was as much about Clark Kent as it was a Superman movie. Unlike the other Superman movies in this one you get more of a feel of who Clark Kent really is. 

I had did some reading where people were making some parallels between Jesus and Superman, as stupid as it may have sounded there are several lines in the movie that point out that parallel.

This movie has enough action for the men and kids and enough of a story line for the women.

My redommendation:

If you haven't seen this yet, go see it.  It's also an excellent date movie.

X-men III

After seeing this installment I need to go back and watch the first two to see if this was the best one!  As far as action I believe this may have been the best in the series.  Well, except for that scene with Nightcrawler attacking the President in X-II, that is still my favorite scene.

If you haven't seen this move, don't do like I did.  STAY UNTIL AFTER THE CREDITS!

It's hard to picture after the events of this movie that there will be another X-men movie.  If there is it would be hard to top this one after some of the events that happened in this one.  There are a few things that happen in this story that will be sure to catch you by surprise.

This is one of those rare movies I can actually see myself going to see again.  I would rank this as a great 'guy' type of flick.  Don't know if women will get into the way they can with the Spiderman movies. There really isn't much of a 'love interest' story line in this movie.  I think this movie was based on the notion that you had seen the first two movies so there really wasn't a need to develop the characters and explain who they are.

I was also pleasantly surprised with job that Kelsey Grammer did as The Beast.

My recommendation:

Definitely a guy flick. Under 30 male or a 'nerd' then this is a must see movie!

Thank you For Smoking

Another excellent movie!  This was another one of those rare occasions where my wife and I got to see a rated R movie.  Usually with a nine year old soon we are held to seeing family movies.

This was an impressive comedy about a lobbyist for the tobacco industry.  I'm about the biggest non-smoker there is and I walked out of this movie wanting to smoke a cigarette.

One of the funniest scenes in this movie is the scene where the lobbyist for the gun industry and the alcohol industry are arguing with the tobacco lobbyist over which of their products kill the most people.

William Macy plays his typical goofy character role as a Vermont Senator.  In my opinion he always does a good job in those types of roles.

This is one of those rare movies where you know the main character is technically the bad guy, but you like him so much you want him to come out as the winner.

My recommendation:

The over 30 crowd will really like this movie.  Since it's an independent film it's not playing in a lot of the main stream theatres.  If you can't see it definitely rent it when it comes out on video. (Damn, caught myself saying video, I mean, catch it when it comes out on DVD.

The Pink Panther

This was one of the movies that you can really enjoy if you go to see 'this' movie and aren't just going to compare it to the original Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers.  For one, you'll never here politically incorrect lines like Inspector Clouseau referring to his Asian sidekick Cato as "My little yellow friend."   (Watch the originals if you don't know what I'm talking about)

So, once you get over that this was a very enjoyable laugh out loud movie that my wife, son and I went to see.  There is nothing in this movie that you couldn't take the young ones to see.  The closest things are a few jokes that parents  laugh at and your kids may ask you, "What's so funny?"   At that point you just ignore them and say "Nothing."

Steve Martin was perfect in the role as the bumbling, but lucky, idiot Inspector Clouseau.  The comedy in this movie isn't the intelligent kind of humor.  It's basically Three Stooges type slapstick, but I'm one of those people that also think the Three Stooges rock!

The movie technically takes place before the other Pink Panther movies and we learn how Inspector Clouseau actually got the job as Inspector and formed the animosity with Chief Dreyfuss.  My only beef is I really did miss the character of Cato.  I know the character would have been considered offensive in this day and age but if they do another hopefully they will find some way to fit him in.  He doesn't have to be stereotypical, but in the originals Cato's surprise attacks were some classic scenes.

This is definitely a movie I would recommend for the whole family. I'm looking forward to this one coming out on video and hoping that Steve Martin will make this a recurring role.

The Matador

The other day was one of those rare evenings where my wife and I actually went out to see a movie sans son.  It's rare we get to see a movie that doesn't seem to be a Disney movie.

We had wanted to see Munich but it wasn't playing near us so we went to see The Matador. The Matador stars ex James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan as a hitman going through basically a mid life crisis and burnout.

A random meeting between him and a down on his luck business man meeting in a Mexican bar leads to a strange friendship between these two.

However, don't think this is some sappy male bonding story, it's a pretty good laugh out loud, well acted movie.

I would definitely recommend this as a good date movie or husband and wife movie for the over 30 set.  My wife and I laughed out loud numerous times throughout this movie.

Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

I started reading this series and did a review of the first book here.  This was an excellent movie which more than lived up to the hype.  A lot of times after you read a book, and then go see a movie based on the book you notice all the missing elements.   This is one of those exceptions where the story did a very good job of sticking to the storyline in the book.  Liam Neesen portrays the strong voice of Aslan and was a perfect match.  However the movie was stolen by Tilda Swinton who plays the White Witch. She plays the witch role the best I've seen since the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

So far everyone I've known that has seen this movie has enjoyed it.  There may be a few scenes kind of scary for the very young, but besides that this movie is suitable for everyone. 

 They also did an excellent job on making the battle scenes intense but at the same time keeping them bloodless.

I recommend this as a must see movie.

Sky High

I actually saw this movie several months back while it was in the theatres.  My wife bought the movie the other night and we, along with my son, my daughter and her boyfriend all ended up watching the movie.   

This is actually a really good 'family' movie.  It's funny enough that there were plenty of scenes where the adults are laughing and enough action to keep my 8 year old interested, and just enough of a love story for the teenage set.  It's kind of hard to get all those elements in one movie.

Kurt Russell plays "The Commander" and does an excellent job.  For fans of the old show "The Kids in the Hall" two of the members from that cast are quite funny in this movie.  One plays the kind of goofy forgotten 'side kick' character while the other one is the 'mad scientist'.  

Quite a funny movie and one I would definitely recommend for families or just anyone wanting to watch a goofy movie. 

First off I will admit I had seen the original Wallace and Gromit shorts somewhere a long time ago and enjoyed them.  So I was looking forward to this movie coming out. (I don't know what I'll do when my son gets to old for these types of movies)

This is a really funny G rated movie.  It's nice to know there are some movies that you can take your kids to, not have to worry about what you hear, AND enjoy the movie yourself.  

The movie has enough humor for the adults to keep you entertained and enough burping to keep the kids happy.

This is one I'll get on video when it comes out.  If it's still playing in your area take your grandkids, kids, nieces or nephews.  You'll all enjoy it.  There were a few grandparent age folks behind us that were laughing just as much as the kids were.

My wife and I finally had a chance to see this movie.  We've had it for a while but with a kid around it's always hard to find time to watch and adult movie.  We both thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  I think it had a lot to do with the actors were closer to our age than most movies.  We also both like movies that aren't the typical movie that two minutes in you know that the boy is going to get the girl and there will be the obligatory happy ending.

What made this movie even more enjoyable for me is that the two guys in the movie remind me so much of two guys I know that that just made it all the funnier.  (Will, I'm not talking about you and Dave in case you are wondering)

I would say if you are 35 or over you would enjoy this movie, 34 and under it may not be your cup of tea.

One night a few weeks back my wife decided to rent Hitch and Guess Who since she was in the mood for a few comedies.  Well, you know all those funny scenes you saw in the previews for Hitch?  That's right, those were ALL the funny scenes that were in the movie.  How bad was this flick?  At one point my wife was on the phone talking to a friend, my daughter who was watching it with us was in the kitchen eating something, and I was e-mailing a friend about how bad the movie was.  I'm a big Will Smith fan but you have to admit he's laid quite a few eggs lately.  Hopefully he will get a good script soon before he gets labeled as the next Kevin Costner

I think I may be a little harder on the Comic Book Super Hero movies because I compare them all to Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 which have been my favorite of this genre.

This movie was more of a movie of the relationships of the family members and love interest of the members of the Fantastic Four.  

I felt the actual fight scenes were O.K. but were kind of anti-climatic and didn't come close to the fight scenes between the ones like Spider-Man and The Green Goblin or the fight scenes for example of Wolverine and Deathstrike in X2.  One of my favorite superhero fight scenes is still the opening scene of X2 with Nightcrawler.  

My Recommendation:  Not a must see but a if there isn't anything else you want to see at the time it's worth seeing. 

This  is one of the summer 2005 movies that was on my 'must see' list as the Original War of the Worlds is one of my favorite movies.

This was an excellent remake.  However, I think you have never seen the original version the ending may be kind of a let down. My daughter saw this with me and I had to explain the ending.  Then she understood better.

Dakota Fanning as Tom Cruise's daughter did and excellent job as she always does.  While the ending of the movie was true to the original there is one part of the family at the end is kind of hokey.  However, if you have seen the original I think I can understand to a degree the 'hokey' family ending.  Kind of the same ending of the original but with two different characters.

I give Spielberg a lot of credit on keeping the alien ships close enough to the original to give the movie the feel of the classic War of the Worlds.  I also like the way he kept the way the alien ships shoot their rays close to the original.  There is even one scene where an alien probe is inspecting a house which is a great homage to the original movie.

My recommendation:  You will enjoy this movie if you are a fan of the original War of the Worlds movie.  If you haven't seen the original then it may be like when you see a movie based on a book if you haven't read the book.

This may be one of the best movies you may not have heard of.  The cast includes several people in unfamiliar roles.  It was strange to see people like Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock playing more serious roles instead of the goofball rolls we are familiar with.  I was highly impressed with Don Chedale.  I was also really impressed with the acting skills of Ludacris.  He could easily become the next Ice Cube or Will Smith to make the jump from rapping to acting.

The story behind crash is actually several stories of racism and how they all intertwine.  The story though is one of the first to look at racism also from the side of the racist and why he/she may be that way.  

It's also not just about black and whites.  The story covers the stereotypes of just about every race.

My recommendation:  If you don't get to see this before it leaves the theatres make sure you rent it on video when it hits the video stores.   I would say this is a "Must See" movie.

This episode of Star Wars is probably the best of the series.  However I feel like I need to see the original series again to be sure of that.  Of this series of 3 episodes this is this first one that didn't feel like it was made for the kids.  I would not recommend this one for small children.  There is no blood but there are some pretty graphic scenes in the movie.

The only thing I was a little disappointed with was it almost seemed like while the build up for Annakins switch to the dark side was building up and we all know it had to happen it seemed like once it happened it was as quick as switching on a light bulb and his switch to the dark side was done in one fell swoop.

With that aside the movie has a long running time clocking in at 2 hours and 26 minutes.  Ad in the previews and be prepared for about a 3 hour sitting.  However, this is one of the ways I can tell a movie is good is when a 3 hour movie doesn't make me feel like I was sitting for three hours.

My 18 year old daughter saw this with me and she enjoyed the movie but thought parts of it were kind of long.  I think this may be to the fact that she hasn't seen the original Star Wars series so maybe did not quite understand all the background character development that was going on.

The fight scene between Annakin and Obi-Wan will rank as a classic fight scene.

My recommendation:  A must see, definitely a big screen movie that you need to see in the theatre to get the full effect.

I must say I wasn't overly pleased with this movie. It was kind a really dark movie for it to be a kids movie.  Jim Carrey was typical over the top goofball Jim Carrey and carried off his character really well.  Meryl Streep was also excellent in her role as the paranoid Aunt Josephine.  Maybe I would have enjoyed the movie more if I would have read the book first.  

My recommendation:  If you are looking for the typical over the top funny of Jim Carrey ala Me, Myself and Irene than this movie is not for you.  I didn't find the movie had to many laugh out loud scenes and it's actually a kind of 'dark' movie. 

While TRIGUN isn't actually a movie it's an anime feature you can catch late night on the Cartoon Network.  This is a series I came upon accidentally a while back and got really wrapped up into it.  I enjoyed it so much I actually bought the DVD box set.  I'm not one of those that normally watches this kind of Anime (except Dragonball Z/GT) but this is a very adult series and not one for the kids.   

If you ever watch it give yourself time to make it through the first several issues.  TRIGUN starts off more like a goofy comedy but really develops into a pretty serious story with major character development.  

The main character, Vash the Stampede, is one that alot of people will be able to relate too.  He tries his hardest to just be a good guy but trouble and pain seems to follow him no matter what he does. 

I don't want to give away to much but there will be some scenes in this series that will bring a few tears to your eyes.  

My recommendation:  A must see series, watch it on Cartoon Network or buy the DVD box set.

I actually saw this movie about a week or so ago.

There was something kind of weird about watching a comedy with subtitles.  There were still several 'Laugh Out Loud' scenes.  The Landlady character is the highlight of the movie.  The ultimate mean old codger with the hidden sweet side.  The added touch of her always having a cigarette hanging out of her mouth made the character.

The fight scenes were top notch.  

This is the type of movie that you don't want to see with the type of person that goes to a movie and says, "Like that could really happen!".  It's a movie, not reality.  (Sorry, one of my pet peeves)

This is definetly a 'guy flick'.  I don't think there is to much here for the women to enjoy

I think this movie will be more enjoyable if you see it on the big screen instead of on video.

My recommendation:  Don't bring a date, this a movie to go see with 'the guys'.

Yes, I'm a nerd.  Now that we have that out of the way.   

This movie was "O.K."   A lot of changes were made from the book yet a lot of the elements from the book were in the movie.  I guess even the British version of Hollywood feels that EVERY movie must have a love interest.

Marvin the Robot and Zaphod Breeblebrox steal the show. 

If you haven't read the book then this movie will probably be pretty confusing to you.
If you a fan of Monty Python type of over the top silly humor than you may enjoy this movie.

My recommendation.  Not a must see, you can wait for the video.