The Review Thread!

[Dave]

I'll start the ball rolling here.... feel free to add your reviews here! I am going to start with a recent favorite....

The Blind Side

This is one of my favorite movies of recent. For those unfamiliar with the movie (which is based on a true story), is about a 16 year old African American boy that is taken in by a well to do family. The young man turns out to be a rather good football player who ends up being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft.

One of the things I liked most about this movie is that you don't have to be a football fan to enjoy it. I took the folks to see the movie about a month ago which in its self is a bit of a miracle since the last time they went to the movies was to go see "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" which I believe came out in the 90's. The acting is pretty decent and their is enough humor and drama in it to keep the movie flowing along pretty good. I've seen it a few times and will be buying the movie as soon as it hits DVD. Sandra Bullock did a wonderful job and has already been rewarded with several awards already and was nominated for a Academy Award.

So in other words, if you want to go see a good movie still playing in many theaters (although unfortunately not the local Ludington theater), good see this one!

I am going to give this movie a rating of 5 Torches! (5 Torches being the best rating)

[Dave]

To help get this area going some, i'm going to post some reviews I did at a different site a little while back. Most of the movies are probably going to be a few years old but it might still help some of ya out. Anyway, here we go.....

Step Brothers

If your not a Will Ferrel fan you'll most likely not like this movie. That being said, if you do enjoy Will's movies, you'll probably get a kick out of this one... although I can't say its his best one, it wasn't a bad one either. The humor is pretty sophomoric at times and plenty of foul language through out the movie.

The main premise is Will and John C. Riley's characters become step brothers due to their single parents getting married. As it turns out, both of the boys are basically a couple of guys that are near middle aged and have really never left home for any length of time. As it is with some step family's, the boys do not get along. One of the lines exchanged between the 2 boys is as follows:

I'm going to take a pillowcase and fill it full of bars of soap and beat the s**t out of you!

Anyway, there are some pretty funny scenes and crazy things that the boys do. The movie isn't as good as probably my favorite Ferrel movie "Old School", its worth watching.

I will give this movie 4 Torches out of 5

[Dave]

The Dark Knight

Finally, a movie that lives up to the hype! As so many other people around the world, I waiting patiently for this movie to come out. I think there was a nice big collective sigh of relief when over and had lived up to most people expectations.

Christian Bale again gave an great portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Basically all of the returning characters did pretty decent jobs. The star of this movie though was Heath Ledger with his excellent portrayal of The Joker. Other actors have done The Joker and all for the most part have done good portayals of him. Jack Nicholson's version was great as well but in alot of ways wasn't all that creepy. Heaths' Joker is creepy. I think he gave the character more depth then anyone has before which to me helps make his Joker stand out from the others. Aaron Eckhart did a pretty good Two Face... can't take nothing away from him. The make up effects were done pretty well too... almost a little to well. I'm sure a few people have gotten a little squeamish after seeing whats left of his face.

Its amazing how well the movie has done so far, surpassing the $400 million mark in only 18 days... beating the next movie on the list by almost a week. At the rate its going, it could make a serious run at Titanic for the all time biggest movie (in recent times.... adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind would of made over a billion).

I am giving this movie 5 Torches

[Dave]

The Mummy III.

The basic plot of the movie is the son of Brendan Fraser and his wife finds the long lost tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Brendan and his wife have retired from their adventures and had settled into their seemingly ordinary and boring lives. An opportunity comes up for them to take a museum piece to China which of course is where her brother is and also where the son is. To make a long story short the Dragon Emperor is brought back to life and they have to try and reach Shangra La before he does.

The movie wasn't bad, but I don't know if I could say it was great either. I will say it wasn't as good as the first 2 in the series was. If ya want some action and just to sit and watch a popcorn movie then this movie will probably work for ya. Otherwise you might want to wait for the DVD on this one.

I give this movie 3 Torches

[Dave]

Iron Man

First let me say that this was an awesome flick. I really enjoyed it and glad that it has done so well. Fans of the comic book movies will love this movie, assuming you haven't seen it already. A brief synopsis of the movie is Tony Stark (played excellently by Robert Downey Jr.) is kidnapped by a group of foreign terrorist and will only be released.. or at least told he will be released.. if he will build a weapon for the terrorist. At first Tony refuses but eventually he relents and agrees to build the weapon.... or at least he tells them he's going to build it. Instead of building the weapon they want, he build's a suit of iron to try and make a escape in. Only to late do the terrorist realize he's not building the weapon. From there Tony makes his way out of his cell, destroys the ammo and weapons that the terrorist have around their camp and makes his escape.

The movie has plenty of action and the plot is pretty decent too. The special effects are pretty well done as well. I liked the movie so much that I ended up seeing it 5 times so far and might go one more time before its out of the theater. I guess that in itself is a pretty positive review eh? lol

I give this 5 Torches

[Dave]

The Incredible Hulk

I'm glad to say that the most recent version of the Hulk was a big improvement over the previous version of a few years ago. The last version had a lot of things against it, story was way to deep, not enough action and the movie was just way to long. This time around the movie is a bit less on story and more on action and comes in at under 2 hours. I'm sure most of you that are familiar with the Hulk and that would go see a movie like it pretty much know about the movie already.

I thought Edward Norton did a pretty good job with the character, gave the role something that it had lacked a little bit in the last film, not that Eric Bana did a bad job in that one. The supporting cast is decent with Liv Tyler being the love interest this time around. At the end it was cool having a cameo from Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark and talking about a problem that the General in the movie was having in regards to the Hulk.

I give this movie 4 Torches

[Dave]

Here's a recent movie....

Avatar

By now most everyone has heard about this movie, specially now that its the all time highest grossing film. Basically the movie is about a character named Jake Sulley who's brother had been a part of what is called the Avatar program. The Avatar program takes a human's DNA and blends it with the native aliens of the world of Pandora. People from Earth had found the moon of a large gas planet and its large lode of a very sought after mineral and been mining there. Problem though is that the native people don't like the humans there. Jake's brother meets an unfortunate end so Jake is asked to take his brothers place being that he has the same DNA as his brother. Jake is a basic Marine grunt except he is confined to a wheel chair due to his service in the military. Being a part of the Avatar program allows him to walk again, albeit not in his own body but in his avatar body. The owner of the mining corparation wants the native people moved being that their home sits on top of a particularly large ore lode. Of course the natives don't want to move. Jake is given orders to get them to move in 3 months or the military/security forces will make them move. Needless to say things get worse and battles ensues.

Visually, this one of the most visual movies you'll probably ever see... specially if you watch it in 3D. While there is a little bit of a tree hugger feel to the movie because of the little man going against the big mean corparation, its done in a way that I don't mind because its obvious the big corp in the movie is wrong for doing what they are doing. The acting is decent as well. Other then being a touch long at over 2 1/2 hours long, there is nothing I can really complain about with this movie.

I give this movie 4 1/2 Torches

[XLFD]

Sounds interesting, would it be a good 'date' movie?

[Dave]

Hmmm... yeah, I think it would be acceptable as a date movie as long as the date doesn't mind sci-fi oriented stuff. There is a little bit of romance in the movie too so she would probably like that part of it.

[Dave]

The Hangover

The story revolves around a group of 4 guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party. After arriving and having a shot of liquor up on the roof of their hotel, things go awry. Imagine waking up the next day to find your $4000+ a night hotel room totally trashed, a live tiger in your bathroom and worse of all, your friend the groom missing. They spend their time for there trying to figure out what exactly happened with a few guest appearances including one by Mike Tyson.

This was probably the best comedy of last year and really one of the better comedies of the last several years. While some of the humor is a little crude it was still a fun movie. The crazy situations that they find themselves in while trying to figure out what happened to Doug were pretty crazy in a few of the scenes. I can definitely recommend this one if ya like good, not so clean funny movies.

I give this film 5 Torches

[Mary A.]

Today I saw "Up in the Air" starring heart throb George Clooney. It was a poignant portrayal of the business of firing people from their jobs. I felt a connection to the film because 1,000 people have been fired in the past year from the large company that I work for. Those of us left behind can't help but wonder who is next, especially we baby boomers. I highly recommend the movie. You won't be disappointed, especially with the ending, which has a surprise twist. You will appreciate it more if you are older or have ever faced the firing line.

[Dave]

I saw it a few weeks ago. Not a huge Clooney fan.. of course i'm not female either.. lol... it was alright. It is a heck of a business to be in though, to go around and basically fire people but to try and make them feel better about being fired.. not a job I want. I was a little surprised with the ending. If I was going to rate it, i'd give it 3 Torches :-)

[AQUAMAN]

I'm interested in hearing more about the recent Hulk film. The other one back a few years ago, I felt, was too animated, not like the series on TV at all. I like the metamorphises right before my eyes, with another real human, not an animated cartoon character. The storylines were also heartfelt, while action packed. And always left the pursuers in the dust, with confusion as to the exit strategy, Kinda like the old fugitive series with David Jansen, but, that's way before any of this groups time. HAR.