Thelma & Louise
"An Arkansas waitress and a housewife shoot a rapist and take off in a '66 Thunderbird."
I thought IMDB would have more of a description than the above, but I couldn't find one anywhere.
Anyway, I think Thelma & Louise is a movie most people can point out for the ending alone. Two women on the run going over the edge of what I always thought might have been the Grand Canyon in a green '66 Thunderbird ending a high-speed police chase in a fiery inferno.
Harvey Keitel plays an Arkansas State Police officer trying to find them and bring them in for questioning. Brad Pitt, rather young in this movie, plays a hitchhiking burglar who eventually runs off with all of the ladies's cash. When he's caught by the authorities, he's only spent $100 of the amount he stole from them.
I never understood why some women drool over someone like Brad Pitt. I only really liked him with long hair, but even then I wondered what other women saw in him. He's so arrogant!
I gave this movie 4 stars because Geena Davis, and Susan Sarandon kick a$$!
The Note
"After a tragic plane crash, a local journalist discovers a note that she believes was written by one of the passengers. She seeks the note's intended receiver, but the journey is more revealing of her own past."
The Note touches everyone who comes into contact with it, and offers them all second chances in their own way. There are bread crumbs throughout the entire movie that gives the observant movie watcher clues as to who the intended recipient of The Note truly turns out to be. A very touching Christian novel turned movie. Watch it with a box of tissues! What more would you expect from a Hallmark movie?
I really enjoy Ted McGinley in the role of King, a Pulitzer Prize winning sports journalist turned love interest for Genie Francis's character Peyton MacGruder, fellow co-worker and finder of The Note. He supports her throughout her journey, and is essential in helping her find her potential as a columnist.
I gave this movie 5 stars!
The Lincoln Lawyer
"A sleazy defense attorney (Matthew McConaughey) has a crisis of conscience when he represents a wealthy client (Ryan Phillippe) who has a foolproof plan to beat the system."
I never liked Ryan Philippe much as an actor, and didn't even realize he was in The Lincoln Lawyer until I put the DVD in my player for the first time. His character in the movie is so arrogant and just drove me up the wall to watch because he spends the movie thinking he is untouchable because of daddy's money. I'm glad he didn't get away with what he did, and everything that he threatened his lawyer with.
I'm not afraid to admit that I bought the movie for Matthew McConaughey, and I was intrigued by his "office" being mostly in a Lincoln Town Car. Being a lawyer of course he has an actual office in a building, but he's rarely there because his clients always keep him on the go. I also liked the chemistry between him and his love interest played by Marisa Tomei and finally getting to see the "daddy" side of him with the child they produce.
I gave this movie 4 stars!
The Informant
"The U.S. government decides to go after an agri-business giant with a price-fixing accusation, based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president turned informant Mark Whitacre."
Why Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) thought he could do what he did in this movie, and get away with it is something I will never understand. The fact that this movie is based on a true story astounds me. Sure the real Mark Whitacre is now out of prison, but what makes the Feds think he won't try to do it again?
I gave this movie 3 stars!
The Bourne Identity
"A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and without memory, then races to elude assassins and recover from amnesia."
The Bourne Supremacy
"When Jason Bourne is framed for a botched CIA operation he is forced to take up his former life as a trained assassin to survive."
My brother and I were trying to have a movie night where we played the entire Bourne trilogy, but only had enough time to watch the first two. One of my favorite series of movies to watch, but I haven't read the books yet.
I did read one of the Bourne books, but I can't recall which one it is right now. The newest Bourne book to be made into a movie is "The Bourne Legacy," but it doesn't star Matt Damon as Jason Bourne this time. I think they hired a new actor because the character is still supposed to be known as David Webb and not officially Jason Bourne yet.
I gave both of these movies 5 stars!
The Devil Wears Prada
"A naive young woman comes to New York and scores a job as the assistant to one of the city's biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly."
Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt are great in this movie. I can relate a lot to Anne Hathaway's character in the first part of the movie because I don't obsess over fashion like some women do, and I don't wear high heels with anything. The one and only time I tried to wear high heels, I ended up taking them off and walking barefoot the rest of the way home after twisting my ankle in them.
I do like the trip to Paris for the fashion shows, and Anne Hathaway's love interest as well as the cute freelance journalist trying to steal her away from her character's live-in boyfriend.
I gave this movie 5 stars!
Catch & Release
"A woman struggles to accept the death of her fiancé and the secrets he kept from her as she rebuilds her life."
I really like Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, and Kevin Smith in this movie. The chemistry between the three of them is so great which is probably why Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Smith were reunited onscreen in "Live Free or Die Hard" along with Bruce Willis.
Jennifer Garner plays a woman who found out her newly-dead fiance might've fathered a child by another woman while visiting his friend (Timothy Olyphant) on his business trips to Los Angeles. Jennifer Garner becomes roommates with Sam Jaeger and Kevin Smith after her fiance's funeral because she could no longer afford the rent on a house that they were set to move into after they were married.
I got a kick out of Kevin Smith's character working for the Celestial Seasonings Tea Company in Boulder, Colorado. His job was to file the paperwork to put famous quotes on the tea boxes (for example, Lemon Zinger.)
I gave this movie 5 stars!
The Wedding Planner
"Mary Fiore (Jennifer Lopez) is the wedding planner. She's ambitious, hard-working, extremely organized, and she knows exactly what to do and say to make any wedding a spectacular event. But when Mary falls (literally) for a handsome doctor (Matthew McConaughey) her busy yet uncomplicated life is turned upside down - he's the groom in the biggest wedding of her career! Will she help him walk down the aisle with his internet tycoon girlfriend, or will Mary finally get to be the bride herself? When it comes to love, you can never plan what's going to happen."
I watch this movie a lot when I need a dose of Matthew McConaughey or Jennifer Lopez as love interests. I do feel bad that Bridget Wilson-Sampras and Justin Chambers didn't end up with anybody in the end. Justin Chambers's character had such a great dynamic with Jennifer Lopez's character, but deep down I was glad they didn't work out. Joanna Gleason and Charles Kimbrough were a perfect match for playing Bridget's parents, and the few scenes with them had me laughing my butt off.
I gave this movie 5 stars!
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song
"Cyrano De Bergerac meets Cinderella. Over-worked, harried and terrified of being put back in foster care, 17 year old Katie (Lucy Hale) does her stepmother and step-siblings' bidding without complaining. Vocally gifted, Katie feels particularly upset when forced to lay down singing tracks so that her untalented stepsister, Bev Van Ravensway, can hopefully win a recording contract from Massive Records - who's company President, Guy Morgan, is scouting for new spectacular talent at a talent showcase for the Performing Arts Department at a prestigious private school."
Every time I watch this movie, I kind of like it better. There are still characters I can't stand, but that means the actors that play those roles are doing something right. I, as a viewer, am not supposed to like them. On the other hand, there are other characters that I like so much they keep me coming back over and over again. Someday I may be able to give this movie 5 stars, but it's still lacking for now.
I give this movie 3 stars!
Black Swan
"Portman delivers 'the performance of her career' (Vanity Fair) as Nina, a stunningly talented but dangerously unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her driven artistic director (Vincent Cassel) and the threat posed by a seductive rival dancer (Mila Kunis), Nina's tenuous grip on reality starts to slip away--plunging her into a waking nightmare."
I wasn't sure about watching this movie at first because the previews frightened me a little bit. I bought it on the off-chance I might like it with the "I might like it if I try it" mentality, and Natalie Portman was in it. I've liked her roles up until now. Well, I was scratching my head for a few days after watching this.
"Nina's" sole purpose in this movie is to get the lead role of the Swan Queen in the ballet Swan Lake. The director thinks she has the White Swan role down pat, but needs to work more on her evil counterpart, the Black Swan. He gives her a chance, and everything goes downhill from there. The previous Swan Queen ballerina, Beth McIntyre (played by Winona Ryder), is being let go because she's at that age where she could retire without serious injury. The night that Nina is announced as the Swan Queen to the Theater people, Beth is walking home and gets hit by a car. She spends most of the movie in the hospital with Nina showing up once or twice to visit. That's awkward because they hardly know each other, and Nina spent most of her time stealing Beth's makeup from her dressing room. The closer and closer Nina gets to opening night, the worst things get. She starts getting really paranoid about Mila Kunis's character trying to take her spot, and it doesn't help matters any when she shows up at the Theater after her mother told them she was "sick" to find Mila Kunis rehearsing her part as a backup. One thing you find out about Nina is she used to scratch herself until she bled. Her mother starts worrying about her when she finds marks on her back that Nina had been trying to cover up.
I give this movie 2 stars.
Checked out from the library:
Saving Private Ryan
"Following the Normandy Landings, a group of US soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action."
At the time I checked out this movie from the library, I was watching a lot of Clint Eastwood-related movies. Clint Eastwood directed Hereafter with Matt Damon, so naturally my thought processes took me to other Matt Damon movies I had never seen and Saving Private Ryan was one of them. I was also pleasantly surprised to see some other familiar faces besides Tom Hanks and Matt Damon: Nathan Fillion (drool, drool) as the Other Private Ryan, Vin Diesel (drool, drool) as Private Caparzo, Ted Danson as Captain Hamill, Paul Giamatti as Sergeant Hill, and Giovanni Ribisi as the medic.
SPOILER ALERT!
They kind of lost me when Private Caparzo was killed. I wanted Vin to be one of the few to make it to the end. When they mistook Nathan Fillion for Matt Damon's character, I sure thought Fillion blubbered a lot. That's a side of his acting I've never seen before, and I thought he really was over acting. That was another turn-off for me. Yet, I couldn't stop laughing as I was watching the scene with Fillion because it was so stupid and poorly done. I also laughed when Giovanni Ribisi died because he was a Medic that couldn't work on himself. The irony! The way the platoon reacted when their only Medic died also made me laugh because they were telling each other not to do anything that would get them killed or wounded IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR.
I gave this movie 3 stars!
Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan
"This movie is an epic story of a young Genghis Khan and how events in his early life lead him to become a legendary conqueror. The 9-year-old Temüjin is taken on a trip by his father to select a girl as his future wife. He meets Börte, who says she would like to be chosen, which he does. He promises to return after five years to marry her. Temüjin's father is poisoned on the trip, and dies. As a boy Temüjin passes through starvation, humiliations and even slavery, but later with the help of Börte he overcomes all of his childhood hardships to become one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known."
I had an insane urge one day to want to watch a movie that mentioned Genghis Khan, so one Tuesday while I was helping out at the local library I decided to check out Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan. I really had no clue what to expect from this movie when I entered it into my DVD player, and the only thing I knew about the real Genghis Khan aside from that he was a Mongol who nearly conquered the world when he was alive was that his real name was Temudjin. I only know his real name because it was mentioned in a scene at a museum in The Shadow. In the movie The Shadow, one of the characters was a descendant of Genghis Khan.
Tadanobu Asano is great at humanizing Temudjin in the role of Genghis Khan. I went from not knowing whether I'd like GK or not to routing for him in his travels, and many successful attempts to save his wife and children and uniting the Mongol people as their leader along the way.
I gave this movie 5 stars!
Borrowed from a friend:
Happy Feet
"Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce!"
After all the different movies I've been watching, it was nice to see Happy Feet for once. I felt like a child again while watching it, and I feel like the movie is starting to grow on me. When it was first released and I watched it, I hated it. Now, I don't hate it as much. Sometimes it takes me watching a movie several times before I like it at all.
I gave this movie 3 stars!
