Starring: Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Russell Brand
Plot withSPOILERS!: A sequel to the 2010 “Despicable Me” which featured the exploits of villain Gru and how he came to adopt 3 little girls. In the sequel Gru is no longer a villain – solely committing himself to being a family man and dealing with eldest daughter Margo’s impending trip through puberty and dating. A villain is causing problems for the Anti-Villain League, so they ask Gru to work with an agent named Lucy to find the villain and bring him down. The film follows them as they fumble through the investigation, eventually realize they love each other, and save the day!
My opinion/rating:Super cute and fun! I don’t think it was as good as the first movie, but my expectations were REALLY high because I love the first one so much. Still a really good film, not just for kids – there were people of all ages at the theater for this movie. Overall rating – B.
Starring: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Bonnie Hunt, Nathan Fillion, John Krasinski
Plot: A prequel to Monster’s Inc, another Disney/Pixar creation. This story tells how Mike and Sulley meet at college, overcome a bunch of obstacles and eventually work at Monster’s Inc as part of the Scare Team.
My opinion/rating: I was dragged to this by my Disney nerd roommates, not to say that I’m NOT a Disney nerd, just not for this film. I can’t even remember the story of Monster’s Inc, so I would’ve liked to watch that first before seeing the prequel. Some of the references may go over your head, but you don’t have to see Monster’s Inc to completely understand MU. This movie is just cute, not a lot of substance. There weren’t many adult/pop culture references, mostly the jokes were based on clever word play or college stereotypes. I think a middle school to high school aged person would be bored with this movie because they’d be in that middle age, too young to just blindly laugh, but not old enough to understand some of the adult humor. The story is, of course, heart warming, lots of life lessons, but I just didn’t really connect to it. If you aren’t in love with Disney/Pixar, or Monster’s Inc – wait for Netflix. Overall rating – C.
Starring: Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood
Plot: To fully spoil the plot would take an endless amount of space, and this is already an obnoxiously long post so bottom line – this is the prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The Hobbit tells the tale of how Bilbo Baggins came to be in possession of THE RING and adventures he went on before Frodo ever came into the picture.
My opinon/rating: My fellow nerds are going to be very disappointed but, I fell asleep during this movie. LOTR is not my thing, I’m much more a Potter nut, so The Hobbit wasn’t really my first choice to see (again, this was Aaron’s pick) just because I don’t really know the story that well and the movie is QUITE LONG. In my defense, I’d just gotten off work when we went to see this, so I was really tired, but I really would’ve rather watched it at home…with lights on. What I remember of the movie was good, I’d definitely watch it again, especially for the parts with Gollum – he’s my favorite! If you’re a fan of LOTR or you WANT to be, you’ll enjoy it. If not – definitely skip this. It’s very long and full of LOTR/Hobbit lore that you will not find the least bit entertaining. Overall rating – B.
Starring: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling
Plot: I do not remember. Basic storyline…Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling are bad ass cops trying to bring down a mob boss played by Sean Penn in old time Los Angeles. Emma Stone is Sean Penn’s girlfriend but she starts fooling around with Ryan Gosling. It’s probably not a good sign that I don’t remember any of the character’s names. JB & RG get together a rag tag team of other bad ass cops and eventually take down the mob boss. A bunch of the team dies, except for JB & RG who ride off into the sunset with their ladies.
My opinion/rating: Again, as you can probably tell by my thrilling plot description, I was totally enamored with this film…or not. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Reminded me a lot of the video game “L.A. Noir”, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s a really romanticized era for L.A, and it’s fun because I live close to the area they’re referencing, so I understand the references for the most part. This was a very violent movie, pretty sad too, not really my type of movie, this was obviously Aaron’s pick. I’d watch this movie again, but I wouldn’t be thrilled with it. Overall rating – C.
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, talented newcomers like Eddie Redmayne & Aaron Tveit, and several Broadway vets.
Plot WITH SPOILERS!:Valjean (Jackman) is on parole, Javert (Crowe) is the police inspector dedicated to finding Valjean and putting him back in prison. Valjean becomes the mayor of a town and helps out Fantine (Hathaway) a single mother to Cosette (Seyfried), who sells ALL her body parts to earn money to raise her. Fantine ends up dying & Valjean becomes Cosette’s guardian. Cosette grows up, meets Marius (Redmayne), a revolutionary student planning to rebel against the French monarchy with his friends, they fall in love, which is really too bad because his best lady friend Eponine is already in love with him, but oh well. The fight against the French monarchy doesn’t go so well and all of Marius’ friends die, including Eponine. Marius almost dies, but is saved by Valjean, who also has a chance to kill Javert, who has been hunting him this whole time, but doesn’t. Javert doesn’t know how to deal with the split in his moral compass, he wants to keep hunting Valjean because it’s the “right thing to do”, but now he owes him a solid because he let him live. In order to escape this confusion, he decides to kill himself. Marius and Cosette get married. Valjean dies. There is singing. The End.
My opinon/rating: Eh. As you can probably tell by my overly enthused description of the plot, I don’t care a whole heck of a lot for the story of Les Mis. I enjoy the music, but the story itself doesn’t really have a special place in my heart. I thought this was a well done version, I just don’t have a personal connection to it, so it’s not one of my favorite movies. If you’re not really into musicals, I’d probably skip this one since there’s little to no dialogue, it’s JUST singing. All in all, this movie gets a B rating.
I’m such a slacker! I have a list of SEVEN movies that I last saw at a movie theater & I’m probably forgetting a couple, but I’m gonna post them ASAP hopefully in the order I saw them in. I wrote these reviews exactly how I’d explain these movies to a friend, key points are highlighted. Without further ado…
Labor Day – I don’t believe this has been released…?
Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and Tobey Maguire
Back story: Aaron and I went to see a movie that I can’t remember the name of now and there were promoters for Labor Day standing outside asking if we’d like to see a free show in two weeks, we just had to stay after and answer questions – the stars of the movie MIGHT stop by! Of course we said yes, of course they didn’t, but oh well – free movie!!
Plot: I signed a non disclosure agreement when I went to the sneak preview that said I couldn’t really discuss anything about the film until it actually came out in theaters because the version we saw is not the final version so they don’t want people judging the movie based on things that might be different in the end. Basically the movie is about a lonely woman & her son taking in a mysterious man & all the drama that unfolds around them.
My opinion/rating: Just a weird, strange movie. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really like it. The story is predictable, but heart warming in a bizarre way. I wouldn’t recommend anyone pay to see this movie, mostly because I haven’t seen the final version, so I don’t really know what you’ll be getting yourself into. Based on what I saw though, I’d give this a D rating & recommend you wait for Netflix.
Hi everyone,
Sorry I’ve been gone for so long, I was just in the process of moving from the Bay Area down to Southern California & I’m still somewhat adjusting & settling down so I’ve been REALLY busy. It’s taken me over four days to get this post up because I keep stopping & starting. I’m not sure I want to reveal exactly why I moved down to SoCal for privacy reasons, but I’m sure as time passes I’ll end up talking about some stuff.
Anyways, I’m a HUGE fan of Beauty & the Beast, so any type of re-telling or story that’s vaguely associated with it, is going to grab my attention. That’s exactly what Beastly is! Also, they’ve made this book into a movie that’s yet to be released, although from the previews, it looks a LOT different from the book so that’s going to be annoying. I’ll still probably see the movie anyway just for comparisons sake.
Available for $8.99 at Borders. Pic Credit goes to: lafemmereaders.blogspot.com
Beastly is a modern day re-telling of Beauty & the Beast told from the Beast’s point of view. This book is a Young Adult novel so it’s geared mostly towards pre-teens and teenagers. Despite the fact that, in my opinion, it’s not really meant for someone my age to read – I’m 20 – for the most part I enjoyed this book for a bit of light reading. Haha, saying that makes me feel like Hermione, & if you understand what I’m talking about you totally ROCK! I’m not going to talk about the plot because probably everyone knows the story of Beauty & the Beast & if I get too detailed about the way the book retells the events of the stories then we’ll get into spoiler territory!
Pros/Cons: I liked the way Flinn wrote Kyle (the Beast). I felt like his voice was really honest & typical of a teenage boy. Unfortunately, I felt the complete opposite about the way Linda (Beauty…I liked the use of this symbolic name. Linda in Spanish means beautiful!) was written. Her voice felt very fake & forced. This is ironic to me because the book was written by a woman & usually women are better at tapping into their own gender. I liked how the story was sort of a mix of the original tale, plus the Disney version, & many other aspects from transformation stories. I feel like the author really did her homework when researching fairy tales. Another thing I really liked was the chat room sessions. I thought they were SO clever and a great way to incorporate other transformation tales & subtly encourage readers to read those other stories. I did think the ending of the book was kind of just thrown together/rushed. The rest of the book is paced very well so you aren’t getting too much information all at one time, but for some reason the ending felt like WHAM! BAM! LET’S TIE THIS ALL UP, GOTTA GET THIS BOOK FINISHED!! & yes, the twists are somewhat predictable, but that’s kind of hard to escape with a book that’s retelling an already popular story.
Rating: B+. For me, this book was just okay. You can’t really mess with the perfection that is the original story, so I didn’t anticipate this book being outstanding, but it was fairly decent. I can appreciate the author’s version of the story & the obvious hard work she put into it, but this book isn’t making it on my bookshelf. My bookshelf is home to the “A” grade books such as Wicked by Gregory Maguire, Home, a memoir of Julie Andrews’ early years & Spencerville by Nelson DeMille, just to name a few. I’m glad I read it & I may even go pick up some other books by Flinn, she has several other fairy tale remakes, just to see how she interprets/modernizes those stories. Also, at the end of the book there’s a little author’s note in which she talks about some of the books she read to help research for Beastly & they all sounded pretty interesting, so I’ll probably add those to my list of books to read. All in all, if you’re into fairy tales, go pick up this book & give it a try. It never hurts to read more literature, unless it’s Twilight. In all seriousness, it never hurts to add more literature into your life & we’re all entitled to our likes & dislikes 🙂
Let me know if you’ve read this book, plan on reading it, plan on NEVER reading it & your opinions. Tell me if there’s other books you’d think I’d like based on this review. Thanks for reading, stick around!
I’ll generally try to keep these posts short & to the point but seeing as how this is my first one, I’ll do some extra explaining. I’m going to start out with only reviewing movies I see in theaters, but if people start asking for it, I’ll review any movie I watch – I’m a big movie buff & my family watches at least one movie every night so you guys could end up with a movie review post every night! We’ll see..but for now..here’s Gulliver’s Travels 3D!
The movie: Gulliver’s Travels 3D
Movie rating: PG
Date released: 12/25/10
Date seen: 1/1/11
Audience: My mom, my boyfriend, myself & literally one other couple.
My rating system: I give this movie a B. I’ll explain my rating system in this post so you guys can kinda understand my point of view, but from here on out I’ll just give a rating. Of course this is just my preference & some movies, I can understand how OTHERS would like it, but it’s just not for me & that’s what my rating is based on. For example, my boyfriend LOVES Star Wars as do millions of others, but I’m just not drawn to them, so for me they’re a C movie. Yes, I understand it’s a good story, & the technology behind it is impressive especially for when the first set was made, but they’re just not for me.
A = AMAZING! Favorite movie that I MUST own so I can watch it over & over! (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Goonies)
B = Pretty good! I’d recommend this, but not sure if I’d run right out & buy it. (TRON:Legacy, Bandslam)
C = Average, typical. Meh. Not really a movie I care about. Don’t necessarily have to own it. (Megamind, What Happens in Vegas)
D/F = NOT excellent. I generally would not want to see this movie again..ever. (Valentine’s Day, The Love Guru)
Notable Cast: Jack Black (School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda), Amanda Peet (A Lot Like Love, 2012), Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You, Man), Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Sunshine Cleaning) & Billy Connolly (Known mostly for his comedy routines, but can be seen in The Last Samurai & The Boondock Saints).
Trailer: *This movie is based off the book by Jonathan Swift written in 1726. The book is divided into four parts, & the movie only deals with two sections, & one of the two only VERY briefly. I haven’t read the children’s version in a really long time, but I’m going to go out on a limb & say it’s VERY different, other than the general basic story line. The trailer does give a lot of the story away, but there’s still some key plot points it doesn’t talk about.
My opinion: I thought this was a really cute funny feel good movie – I’m happy I went to see it. Obviously this is not a serious art film, it’s a kid’s movie, so it’s supposed to be a little ridiculous. There’s a few musical numbers, good music, a good message (although I’m not sure young kids will really understand it), & just enough mix of robots & princesses to appeal to boys AND girls. One thing I didn’t think was done very well sometimes was the mix of adult & kid humor. For example in Shrek, the humor is more layered. There’s one situation, & the adults see a couple things that make it funny, but kids only see the G-rated thing. In Gulliver’s Travels I felt like the humor was more transitional. There would be a scene of adult humor, not TOO adult, but just like, certain pop culture references that a child might not understand & then there would be a scene of kid humor, like stupid wedgie jokes. So it was like a tug of war between the different types of jokes. Also, keep in mind that the Lilliputians are supposed to be a parody/satire of the British government in 1726 so the acting is supposed to be hyper-pompous/dramatic with elevated speaking. At first I was surprised & thought the acting was just really bad, but then I thought about it in context with the book and it made more sense lol. All in all, I say, if you can/want to stop taking yourself so seriously for a few hours, you’re a child at heart, or you have some kids to entertain, go see this movie!
Leave a comment & let me know what you thought of this movie or if there are any other movies you’d like me to review – even older ones that have already come out on DVD/VHS (VHS..what’s that!?! lol)
I’m not sure I want to reveal exactly why I moved down to SoCal for privacy reasons, but I’m sure as time passes I’ll end up talking about some stuff.
Miss Al-Leigh 