What Dreams May Come



“After dying in a car crash a widowed man searches the afterlife for his wife.” www.imdb.com

 An absolutely beautiful heart-warming, heart-breaking story about love, dedication and soul mates and the strength of the heart told through death and loss and being divided by worlds. This is an intense story that grips you from the beginning and you want to know how it ends.

Visually stunning, every scene is amazing. The afterlife is beyond magical and mystical and anything imagined before. It makes you start to think about how you visualize death and the afterlife and where you would want to spend your eternity.

The acting is amazing. One of my favorite Robin Williams movies. From beginning to end the cast delivers an intense, flawless, gripping, real performance.

This doesn’t experience like a regular movie. Such emotional intensities take you on a rollercoaster ride through Heaven and Hell. Starting and ending in Love

If you believe in true love and soul mates then this is a movie you must see.



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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

"Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them." www.imdb.com

***WARNING SPOILER ALERT *** WARNING SPOILER ALERT****
There are spoilers throughout this review, but nothing that should ruin the viewing experience. So read at your own risk.

This kind of movie is why I am obsessed with the "reality" of movies. The reality of this movie is vampires do exist and are destroying the forming of this nation. So it is an interesting twist on history. However because it is suppose to be based on history it is incredibly unbelievable because, while there is evidence of most of what happens in terms of Lincoln working towards forming this country and ending slavery, there is no evidence of vampires being involved. So the reality of the movie falls short because it contradicts actual reality and history. So it is basically just lazy writing. It is the same problem that X Men First Class had. Unless you are a big fan of the idea of government cover-up conspiracies and the supernatural. Then these two movies are perfect for you.

The twist to reality is interesting for one major point. I did like how they used the connection between the slaves and the vampires to fuel Lincoln's desire to free them and lead this country to a better future. That was a good idea. It was really the only story point that worked for me.

The acting was good. Casting was acceptable. The computer generation wasn't good. There was one scene with horses that was just completely ridiculous and very poorly made.

The other big issue with this movie is the fact that they allowed the vampires to walk in the sunlight. That is just completely unacceptable! The essential fact about vampires is that they can only exist in the night. I'm not going to get into that issue now though.

So I feel slightly conflicted about this movie. Although it conflicts with actual reality I enjoyed it because vampires are awesome so it had its cool points. So I would probably own this movie, but just not watch it very often.

Rise of the Guardians

"When the evil spirit Pitch launches an assault on Earth, the Immortal Guardians team up to protect the innocence of children all around the world." www.imdb.com

There is a lot more to this movie then I thought there would be. I figured it would just be a cute movie about the Holidays coming together to fight a villain. This movie is really about finding out who we are and where we belong in this world. It has the message that we all have something unique and special inside of us that makes us who we are. We just have to figure out what that is and we will be able to find our place in the world. Of course that journey isn't easy and we may need some help along the way. But it is worth it because when we find our place we will feel at peace and home.

This is a great family movie because the characters, while having a somewhat serious story, are still cute a funny in their own ways. Each Holiday character is very thought out and really nothing like they've been portrayed before.

L.A. Story

"With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a "wacky weatherman" tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early-90s Los Angeles." www.imdb.com

This is always an enjoyable movie. There isn't a lot to it but it is always a great experience. A simple story of finding love in this crazy world we live in. The humor is so off the wall that it is almost believable. The acting is excellent. Steve Martin is his usual quirky self but in a more relatable way.

It's hard to describe this story. It really emphasizes this human condtion of feeling alone and lost in this world but wanting to find someone to spend our lives with but never knowing how to do it without totally emarrassing ourselves in front of another person.

This movie makes me believe in the spontaneous nature of finding love.

The Man with Two Brains

"Steve Martin comedy about brain transplantation." www.imdb.com

If you like Steve Martin or Kathleen Turner than this is a must see movie for you. The plot is hilarious and the comedy is classic Steve Martin. Even the physical comedy can't be beat.

Steve Martin is a brain surgeon who gets seduced by Kathleen Turner's character once she finds out he's a doctor. She seductively teases and taunts her way into a marriage with him. But he eventually finds out she wanted more than his love and affection. He then falls in love with another. But this relationship has definite complications. He soon discovers a solution though that can be considered quite unconventional. 

Steve Martin and Kathleen Turner deliver amazing performances from beginning to end. This is not a movie to pass up.

Snow White and the Huntsman

"In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen."  www.imdb.com

This is actually a pretty good movie. Decent storyline. It would be better if it wasn't a Snow White story though. It just has too much to be Snow White. Granted we are use to simple fairytale stories. We like the characters introduced, told what the problem is, and then get right to the happily ever after. This film draws it out a bit and gives more emphasis to the conflict then the happily ever after. So it's good and bad. This could be the start of a new form of fairytale story telling.

Charlize Theron is amazing as always and gives an outstanding performance. The other actors really could have been anyone and done just as good of a job.

They did steal a scene from the anime movie Princess Mononoke. It was a good scene to take. But sucks they stole a scene.

Eat Pray Love

"A married woman realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey to "find herself". " www.imdb.com

I think EVERYONE can relate to this movie. Who hasn't ever felt lost and like they need to find themselves. Of course we can't all go around the world looking for ourselves. We have to figure out our own paths to enlightenment. This is a beautiful movie, powerful story, beautiful scenery. Strong messages we can all learn from. Such a real, honest story.

I first saw this movie during a depressing, lost time in my life. It inspired me to try to find myself again and to figure out what made me who I am. I had to find a source of strength within myself. This movie is truly inspiring. Definately a movie to watch more then once.

America's Sweethearts

"A movie publicist deals with the messy public split of his movie's co-stars while keeping reporters at bay while a reclusive director holds the film's print hostage." www.imdb.com

If you really like incredibly corny romantic comedies than this is the movie for you. It's funny. It's sweet. It's a surprisingly simple story, complicated only by the characters involved. The performances make this story almost believable and makes you wonder if Hollywood actually does stuff like this to fool the public. You hope for a happy ending but you just aren't sure what that means and for who. The cast is amazing and if you have no other reason to watch it than them then it is still worth it.

Cloverfield

"Revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people." www.imdb.com

Think Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project.

If you want to make a movie but save on production cost, just give the camera to the actors and them then shoot it for you.

Not much to say about this movie. Since you can't really see what going on you can't really tell what's happening. I suppose the acting was good because they were all acting about the same, so apparently the actors understood what was going on. The premise could be more interesting if more of the story was shared.

Chocolat

"A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community." www.imdb.com

It's the simple things in life that give it meaning and make it enjoyable. Family, friends, chocolate. Indulgence is not a sin, but rather a way of making the routines we must go through more bearable. Indulgence is an adventure. We must allow indulgence, but not give in to gluttony. Allowing indulgence makes life sweeter.

This is a beautiful movie. A simple story but very well told. The acting is amazing. A very small town with a very big story to tell.

Think Mary Poppins with chocolate.

Legend

 

"A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from both destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves." www.imdb.com

This movie has been one of my favorites ever since I first saw it. I still watch it at least once a month.

Through the movie young Jack must discover the dark side (I know you just thought of Star Wars when I said that, wrong movie!) that is in each of us. Realizing that even though we want to be pure and good and part of the Light, there is more inside us. And he uses that dark part to save the Light from being driven out of existence. This illustrates the balance of Good and Evil. Evil becomes necessary. Evil becomes seductive. But it is how we use it and who we are as a person that determines if we are good or evil.

 An epic story of the battle and balance of Good and Evil, Light and Dark. Amazing story. Beautiful imagery.

The Possession

"A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child." www.imdb.com

This movie was interesting but a bit disappointing. With all the hype it got and the radio interviews with the guys who wrote it and their personal stories related to "the box" depicted in the movie. There is so much more that could have been done to add to the story and the thriller aspect of this movie. It definitely doesn't fall into the Horror category, it barely passes for creepy. Pretty much just another Exorcist style movie.

However, the little girl in this movie who gets the box is very good. It is strange that children are so good in scary movies, especially when they are the ones possessed or attacked. It is kind of frightening how good children are at accessing that dark side and portraying it in a movie. Sometimes they are more believable then adults in Thriller, Horror, Sci Fi movies. The rest of the cast in the movie was fine.

Lockout



"A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates." www.imdb.com

Escape from New York storyline with Die Hard action in space. This movie is surpisingly entertaining. The good thing about this movie, while being in the future and in space, it doesn't have any outrageous special effects to ruin it. The casting was fine, no outstanding performances(well one inmate was a bit over the top but still tolerable) but that actually helped the believability of the movie.

Battleship

"A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals." www.imdb.com

Making a movie based on a board game is only slightly more tolerable then remaking a movie that already exists because it actually takes effort to walk around Toys R Us looking for inspiration. Some movies are annoying because they only reference something in the title and not in the story, others are annoying because they are too literal in their reference. This movie is literal. You wonder how they are going to make it seem like the game but then once you find out how you wish you hadn't because there is no real thought behind it. And to hide that fact there is a second part of the story that takes place on land that is meant to distract you and convince you this is an actual original idea.

The casting was nothing special. No standout performances at all. Liam Neeson was only used to help sell the movie.

If you like alien invasion movies then you might not mind this one. Think Independance Day on water.

How to Eat Fried Worms

"During the first day of his new school year, a fifth grade boy squares off against a bully and winds up accepting a dare that could change the balance of power within the class." www.imdb.com



Slimy yet satisfying entertainment for the whole family. I've heard about this book my entire life, but never had the guts to read it because it sounded so disgusting. But I thought I'd give the movie a try. I admit there are a few scenes I had to look away. If you have a VERY sensitive stomach this might not be the best choice for you. But definately give it a try. Lessons for all ages to learn from. I laughed most of the movie. The casting is perfect, adults and children alike. I think this is one I am going to add to my collection.

Wrath of the Titans

"Perseus braves the treacherous underworld to rescue his father, Zeus, captured by his son, Ares, and brother Hades who unleash the ancient Titans upon the world." www.imdb.com

It's interesting when a movie gets remade and then it is decided to give it a sequel that never existed. However, Wrath of the Titans follows Clash of the Titans effortlessly. Done with the same style of story telling and special effects that gives it the feeling that it was waiting to be made and I wouldn't be surprised for more. I love when sequels keep the same actors, it makes the story easier to get into and follow when it has the same actors from the beginning. Although it is amusing that Perseus grew his hair longer for this movie, partly to show time had passed and to look more like the Perseus from the original version (he had it short out of respect for the look of the character in the original and to imply it wasn't a direct remake, which it really wasn't).

However because it was done with the same style of effects it had the same one big flaw that the main monster/villain took way too long to be shown. Just like the Kraken in Clash of the Titans, Kronos took too long to appear and it was hard to tell exactly what he looked like because there was too much going on around him. You get the general idea though.

I do find both titles, Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans, to be a bit misleading. The titles suggest multiple Titans causing havoc on the world. But both movies really only have one or two Titans, they do have little minions though, but not so much the Titans. A bit misleading, but still very entertaining.

Zero Dark Thirty & SEAL Team 6

Both of these movies are about the HUNT and MURDER of Osama bin Laden.

The only thing I can say about the idea of these movies is that I am offended. I am offended because of how these movie portray Americans. I can't even sit through a whole commercial for these because they annoy me so much. First we HUNTED down bin Laden and MURDERED him. The word "justice" gets thrown around a lot, however Justice is suppose to be a trial by your peers and two sides of the story and a judgment based on the evidence presented. Someone decided to skip right to sentencing and execution. This wasn't Justice, this was REVENGE pure and simple.

And after all that was said and done, someone has decided that this could be sold as ENTERTAINMENT. Really? REALLY?!? I can't imagine anyone actually grabbing a bag a popcorn, popping these movies in and sitting back for a night of fun entertainment watching a man being killed because we felt we had the right to get revenge on someone who we felt had no right to attack the US first. The logic must be lost on me, but I am totally ok with feeling it is inappropriate to make entertainment out of the death of someone else just to make back the money that was put towards his murder.

The only logical end to "an eye for an eye" is everyone ends up blind. Just like the "Justice" that was delivered.

Planet of the Apes : Evolution vs Creationism

Growing up Planet of the Apes was one of my favorite movies and I still enjoy the original now. It had so many layers to the story that intrigued me even at a young age.

The first one was about taking care of our pets and making sure they stay healthy and safe, otherwise a plague may take them all away. So I was very concerned about the pets I had and wanted to keep them safe. But once all the "regular" types of pets died humans still felt the need to own an animal and have a pet. I thought this was kind of strange to be honest. Why was man so obsessed with owning another living creature?

So man decided to take primates as pets. But they could be more then pets. Because primates were closely related to humans and exhibited similar skill abilities it was decided that a good idea would be to teach the primates to do daily tasks so they can be more useful and more then just a pet. So the primates were clothed to appear more like humans as well, and were taught to go to the store and buy groceries, housecleaning, how to make a cocktail, how to cook. Later they were used as manual labor in the workforce. Given a variety of jobs. But all these tasks and all the training was slowly making them evolve into being more human.

That was what I felt was the main point of the Planet of the Apes movies, and if you watch all the originals in order it actually makes a full cycle of their evolution. The problem with evolution though is that sometimes there are unexpected outcomes. After so many years of being oppressed and used like slaves the primates become self-aware of their abilities and the fact that they could be used against their human owners. That is one inevitable outcome of evolution, revolution. The primates revolted and took the rights and freedoms they realized the humans had. They fought back and because this was unexpected they defeated the humans and therefore created the planet of the apes.

But this evolution was key to the story. Even the remake kept the idea of evolution. It gave the primates a bit more attitude though. It also created a more action-packed, aggressive militant-state movie which was contrary to the civil, mild-mannered, science and politically led society of the original movie. This could however be one direction the revolt of the original movie could have taken, but it really doesn't lend well to a storyline. The original movie really captured the idea of the human thirst for knowledge and the constant need to question the world around them. All animals have aggression and an ability to attack another species, or their own. But it seems that to be human is to question. And the original movies emphasized the evolution towards human by making science the leading force of society.

i am clearly against remakes. Most of my blogs will probably repeat this statement. But one thing that is even more annoying then simply remaking a movie is to pretend that you're not. The 2011 version tries to get away with this. And I do understand that because technically it has a different title it therefore doesn’t have to be the same movie. But I doubt anyone believes it isn't a remake.

***WARNING: SPOILERS***

Rise of the Planet of the Apes completely throws the concept of evolution out the window and replaces it with a science experiment that backfires. Instead of the slow process of the primates learning to be more human and adapting to their surrounding slowly and through changing, they are simply made smart. And this sudden intelligence means they have all the skills and abilities of a human. They don't have the time to learn to appreciate this change and what it means for their species. This story is all about aggression and fighting oppression. This one is more like the 2001 version. The primates create a militant state because all they do is smash and break and harm and run away. There is no evolution to understand their place in the world. They just want to take it over.

The premise if this movie falls into a category that is basically an entire genre of movies from the 80's and early 90's of animals who are smarter then they should be and what they do with that. There are many movies about primates who are smart and do what humans do: primates playing baseball, primates going into space, etc. There is even a whole collection of other smart animal movies. This is not new. So in addition to completely changing the premise of a movie it is clearly remaking it is also copying ideas that have already been repeatedly done. Where is the vision?

Probably the biggest part of the original 1968, and even the 2001 version of the movie is that you don't really see the big picture until the big reveal at the end. And you don't even have much time to adjust before the credits begin to roll. You're suppose to be following along and accepting this reality and what's going on and then suddenly the reveal makes you think about what you just saw. You are forced to suddenly question everything that just happened and how you felt about it and what it could possibly really mean. There is no question or reveal in the 2011 version. All that is revealed is new special effects to make you believe something is actually happening. I really can't think of anything else to say about it.

Friday the 13th: Bad Luck Strikes Twice



I've always been interested in the realities of movies. I liked movies that I could accept the reality of and believe it might actually be able to happen. All movies have some kind of a reality that can be grasped and accepted. Well, almost all movies. The one movie that, even as a child, never fully created a reality for me was Friday the 13th. I was forced to only watch that movie for entertainment purposes, which it was but there was always something lacking.

***WARNING: SPOILERS***

The reason I could never grasp or accept the reality of Friday the 13th was because there is too big of an unexplained hole in the premise. According to the original 1980 version Jason Voorhees drowned in 1957 (appearing to be around 10 or 11 years old, so for the sake of this blog I will assume he is that age), his mother avenged his death in 1958. This is where we fall into the hole in the plot. Twenty years later Mrs. Voorhees must avenge Jason's death again. This time she comes up against a camp counselor who puts up a fight. Mrs. Voorhees doesn't survive the night. Jason seems to have witnessed the death of his mother, therefore triggering the thirst for psychotic vengeance that he inherited from his mother. If that confused you at all then it means you are actually paying attention. Jason now must avenge his mother who died while avenging his death.

The only way that this is "explained" is that she developed a split personality and one of them is Jason at the age she assumed he died. Therefore she abandoned him to Crystal Lake and the woods surrounding it. But since he later kills a bunch of people he clearly did not die. He somehow took care of himself, later it is shown that he built himself a cozy little shack out in the woods. So he does grow up and is about 30 when he starts killing people. If Jason had in fact drowned and came back to life to kill he would have stayed the same age and would be a child running around Crystal Lake wielding all sorts of sharp objects.

This gap in time and space makes the story of Friday the 13th an impossible reality to accept beyond entertainment purposes. And I do admit that I find it very entertaining.

The 2009 version of the movie completely disregards the existence of any movie having been previously made. The reality has been completely rewritten. This "reality" claims that Mrs. Voorhees was killed while Jason was still a child and he watched it and then waited 20 years to start killing. Oddly enough this time shift isn't any more believable than the original. The reason for this is because the mother still went crazy and doesn't realize her son is alive and she should take care of him instead of avenging some fictional death. Although this version doesn't play it out quite as thoroughly as the original.

The newer version also has Jason more active then he ever was before. Although I guess technically there was no "before" so he could do whatever he wanted. So it is fine that he runs more then before, chasing people more then before. And now he seems to enjoy kidnapping people who resemble his mother. There really is no logic in that one.

This retelling, reality altering version didn't take the story anywhere. Didn't improve it. Didn't exactly make it worse. It still had the same hole in it, they just stitched a new story around it.

Remaking a movie like Friday the 13^th isn’t an easy task because everyone wants to get right to Jason and his killing spree. However the first movie has a different story and is the set up for Jason, so it is required. So this is technically a remake of Friday the 13^th II.

Friday the 13th is one of my top three favorite horror movie series. I just have to jump over the hole in the story and dive into the horror of Crystal Lake.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Continued

I forgot to point out another big difference between the two versions of the movie. The Freddy Krueger characters in each movie are so very drastically different that it is hard to believe it is based on the same character.

The Freddy Krueger in the original version had such "life" to him. He greatly enjoyed the game of cat and mouse with his victims. He thrived on the chase and building the fear in his victim. The slash was the inevitiable end, but the torment and torutre that led up to it was Freddy's real joy.The scare was more satifying then the kill.

Freddy looked evil too. He looked like being burned had transformed him into something more then a traditional villain. He was more than a man with an agenda, he was Evil. There was a demonic presence to him.

The new Freddy Krueger was just an angry vengeful psycho. He just wanted the kids dead, the scare was a bonus for him.

This Freddy just looked like a burn victim. There was nothing unique about him. His voice was more gruff and angry. He was just a mad man, not a madman.

The worn old hat and the red and green sweater, and of course the glove, were not enough to make the new character as believable as the old one. Anyone can put on the costume, but there is only one "real" Freddy Krueger.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy Vs. Freddy



When I was a kid A Nightmare on Elm Street would always scare me, but i just couldn't stop watching it. I would have terrible nightmares of Freddy Krueger coming after me and my friends and having to try to survive. I'd often wake up in sweat and tears and scared of closing my eyes again. I still watch them with excitement, thankfully though the fear and nightmares no longer accompany the movie viewing.

When I saw they were remaking the movie I was very skeptical. My skepticism was completely justified after seeing it. I understand that in order to put your own mark on a movie you have to change it a little so it is updated and has a unique spin. However I feel those that chose to remake A Nightmare on Elm Street did a horrible job and totally offended the movie franchise with their new storyline.

In the original story of A Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger liked killing children, that's all. He simply killed children. In number 6, Freddy's Dead, they kind of explain why. He killed children, the parents of those children pressed charges and he ended up getting away with it. So the parents did what any protective parent in the movies do, they hunted him down and burned him alive. To get his revenge he started killing their children again but in their dreams now. However, this time he waited until they were in high school to get his revenge (that never made much sense to me, but I let it slide because the movie would be truly horrifying if all those slashings and slicing-and-dicings scenes actually had children in them).

The new version ((WARNING-Spoiler if you haven't seen it)) turned Freddy into a child-molester who got caught and was getting revenge on the children who told on him. This is a totally unacceptable storyline. It takes away the phsychotic nature of the original Freddy Krueger. He had knives on his fingers!! How was he suppose to be able to molest anyone? It just doesn't work.

The new version aslo implies he preferred to molest and kill little girls. I'm assuming this is because of all the scenes that had the little girls in white dresses singing the Freddy Krueger song throughout all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. However the combined victims in all the orginal movies adds up to at least 25 male victims and 9 female victims. The assumptions of preferring little girls is invalid. Plus if he enjoyed killing girls so much I doubt it would be girls who always defeated him in every movie.

This is my idea regarding the little girls in white dresses in the original movies. What is the most common image of an angel? Typically a beautiful blonde female in a white robe/dress. Now translate that into an angel for children: a little blonde girl in a white dress. Those girls were guardian angels, appearing only to the ones who would end up defeating Krueger in the end. That's why there were always little girls in the movies. It was a warning to the hero that something bad was going to happen soon and to warn them about Freddy Krueger. The little girls weren't his victims.

Remakes on principle are inferior then the originals because they are trying to be a copy of something that was already made. And any changes to the story are going to effect how it is recieved by the audience.