Movie Review: Bucket List (2007)

Gosh, I really enjoyed this film.  Stars are great – Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.  With those names alone, I was drawn to it without even knowing the plot.  But the plot was interesting too (2 men diagnosed with terminal cancer, draw up a ‘bucket list’ of things they would like to accomplish before they die).  And the 2 characters – of course near opposite personality types – set each other off well.  Morgan plays the more conservative, middle class guy, while Nicholson (of course) plays the rich, obnoxious, eccentric one.

Okay, and I gotta find a weak moment to the film.  I always find something to pick at, the critic that I am (of myself too).  It was the scene where Freeman’s character gets picked up by a very attractive woman, who apparently is a call girl hired by his friend, played by Nicholson.  It was too obvious.

But we really enjoyed this one.  Gave it an 8 out of 10.

Movie Review: Doomsday (2008)

This film is about a deadly virus that breaks out in the UK and it’s controlled by containing everyone within.  There is another outbreak decades later, so they break into the original contaminated zone to find a cure as there are apparently survivors (thus those that are immune).  It’s sort of a cross between Mad Max, Andromeda Strain, and those action movies with the really tough, serious lead female. 

This film is supposed to be set in the future, but it doesn’t FEEL like it.  In fact there was next to no interesting technology in it.  I mean, I don’t HAVE to have it full with all kinds of gizmos, but everything was so basic that it could’ve been set TODAY. 

A weak film, disappointing for scifi / action genre – there are in fact few good ones unfortunately.  Gets a 5 out of 10.

Movie review: Hancock (2008)

Well, it was okay.  Will Smith has superpowers (flying, super strength, immortality, you name it) but he is basically a jerk.  In fact, most of the film is him getting called ‘as*hole’.  So to get himself out of it, he is conviced by a nice-guy PR guy, Ray (Justin Batemen), to change his image by following a certain action plan.

It was actually kind of different than your typical nice-guy super hero type, which made it pretty interesting.  But then the plot was ruined when we discover that Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), is guess what….?  ALSO a super-hero!  Yippee!  He’s found a friend.  How super-duper coincidental.  We literally started laughing when this happened.  It was just too stupid.  Oh, there was obviously something going on between them with these looks she’d give him all the time.  Turns out they have a whole history together and are even married for chrissake.  There is obviously something going on between the 2 of them, and you’d think, okay maybe they are attracted to each other.  Big deal.  They try to make it more plausible by saying they are naturally drawn together…  But it was just too late.

Gets a 6 out of 10.

Wanted (2008)

What an awesome movie!  We absolutely LOVED this.  In some ways it reminds me of Fight Club, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Matrix all in one.  It is quite violent though, to the point where even I was sometimes squirming and wanting to cover my eyes with some scenes.  So you have to have a stomach for that.  But it’s also got a good sense of humor, this film.  Fast-paced, edgy, high-energy music.  It was just what I needed after a long day with the kids.  It wasn’t perfect, but I would like to see this one again, which is a rare thing for me.

Story is about Wesley Allan Gibson (James McAvoy) who discovers that he has supernatural assassin capabilities.  An assassin group seeks him out, a group led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman).  His main mentor is Fox (Angelina Jolie).  But the magic loom thing I found kind of dumb.  I did laugh at that.

This one gets a 9 out of 10.

Grace Is Gone (2007)

John Cusack is in this one, so we thought, okay 80/20 odds it was a good one.  And it was good.  I wasn’t so sure in the beginning, but then it started to pick up.  In the beginning, it seemed like it was going to be a very dry film with only extremely humourless behaviour.  But it picked up and you could really begin to warm up to the characters.

This film is about a Home Store manager (is that a real store?), Stanley Philipps, who learns his wife passes away in the war in Iraq.  They are meant to represent real middle-America.  The average family.  But with a twist in that it is the wife who is the soldier, not the father.  I kept wondering if he was going to go totally wacko and do something really stupid.  But he keeps it together and ends up proving himself a great father to his 2 daughters.  It was funny (but also painful to see him going through the humiliation) seeing him at a support group of people with spouses fighing in Iraq.  He, of course, was the only man. 

One weak point in the plot was about the older daughter, who is 12.  She and her younger sister of 8 are constantaly worried about their mother.  They know she is in the far and that people are dying there.  And she knows something is wrong when her father starts to act irratically.  And she’s not a dumb girl.  So why doesn’t she ask her father if something is wrong and if it has something to do with their mother?  If I were a girl of 12 that is what I would do!

Yes, yet another Hollywood anti-war/anti-government statement, but more than that.  It was about a man’s/father’s struggle in a time of great loss and crisis and how he deals with it.  This one gets 8 out of 10.

Prism (2007)

After reading a fairly positive review on IMDB.com on this thought it sounded interesting.  Well, was that review ever off the mark.  We were 10 minutes into this film and decided to stop watching altogether. Don’t see it.  It’s low budget and horrible.  Yes, it really does involve an actual prism.  But apparently a sort of evil one… Stupid.  We didn’t bother to find out the details.

Give this a 0 out of 10.  Well, maybe that’s too harsh.  Let’s say a 2.

Then She Found Me (2007)

Helen Hunt’s directorial debut was, well, okay, not great though. In a nutshell the plot is about April’s (Helen Hunt) life falling apart, with a quick succession of personal crises.

Hunt as April looked quite unhealthy to me…. Or was that the idea? To make her look like a tired, worn out woman going through a midlife crisis? If so, she succeeded.

But I was drawn to her story personally as I could relate to the desire to get pregnant and the difficulties associated with it. I was fortunate however (2 times blessed), and she was not. But don’t worry there is actually a happy ending to this film.

I’m having a hard time describing this film. I liked it but didn’t like it at the same time. The main character was somewhat flat, harsh even. Not very likeable in many ways. But still interesting to watch. Hunt was able to carry it off somehow. In general, I’m not a huge fan of her (can’t stand the TV show she did for years, what’s it called again? Mad About You, I think?) but I liked her here for some reason.

Anyway, I give this a 7 out of 10. Feeling generous since we didn’t get bored watching it.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Well, another dark and depressing film, but a great one. Thoughout this film we were fully engaged -waiting for what would happen next. This film is based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina who, as a hotel manager, struggles to save a group of Tutsi refugees in the hotel during the outbreak of the civil war with the Hutu military. Yes, a little bit of Hollywood melodrama to critise the government(s) again, but the story and their struggles were compelling. One reporter, played by Joaquin Phoenix, says how shamed he is by the world not coming to help the Tutsi in the time of this horrible massacre. How the world just sat back and analysed it from a distance. Can you imagine things getting so bad, that you would ask your spouse to jump off the roof with their children rather than fall slaughter to the military? Horrible.

Give this one an 8 out of 10.

Cassandra’s Dream (2007)

A film, written by and directed by Woody Allen.  Big actors like Colin Farrill and Ewan McGregor, drew us to this film.  Thought with them in it, it should be exciting.  But no, just depressing.  And very very predictable. 

I don’t know, it sort of feels like you can tell Woody Allen has become an old man here because it just feels sort of ‘antique’ in terms of corniness/predictability of plot, some of the shots (like silent zooming in on the boat which they have called Cassandra’s Dream – come on, give me a break!).  The story fell short for me when the brothers go to Uncle Howard to borrow money and then he suddenly tells him they need to kill someone as a favor in return.  It was right out of nowhere and just didn’t click.  It was forced to get to the real part of the plot which is their personal moral struggles in deciding whether or not to do this in order to get all the money they need to make their dreams come true.

I was never a huge fan of Woody Allen and this one confirmed it still.  If you like his stuff, it may appeal to you, I guess.  You have to be in the mood for a black, depressing tragetdy to get into this one.  I got too much stress in life for this.  Should’ve given it a pass!

Sorry I give this one a 5 out of 10.

Death Defying Acts (2007)

A story of Houdini near the end of his career/life and his quest to communicate with this dead mother.  Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta Jones are the main stars.  Guy is of course Houdini and Catherine a con artist psychic trying to win prize money of USD10k from Houdini to get them out of a poverty-stricken existence.  As you can predict, Houdini falls in love with this beautiful psychic and ‘finds’ himself.  Kind of sappy, pretty predictable story, but very lovely to watch.