Top Ten: Christmas Edition

10. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
This little misfit knocked off "It's A Wonderful Life" to squeak in at number 10.

9. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jack Skellington is pretty cool. And I love dark humor.

8. A Muppet Christmas
A fun variation on the Scrooge story.

7. A Christmas Carrol
This is the quintessential Christmas movie.

6. Miracle on 34th Street
The original. Although you could get the remake, but its not as good.

5. Joyeux Noel
War movie based on a true story during World War I.

4. Elf
I have never known anyone to stay in character better then Will Ferrell. And Deschanel is a great mellow touch to counteract Ferrell's childlike enthusiasm.

3. Love Actually
My favorite Christmas movie, but I'm a sucker for a sappy love story. This movie has like 6 of them.

2. The Snowman
I wish I could make this number one but I can't justify it since its only half an our. It's short and sweet and can't be beat. Except by...

1. A Christmas Story
It's hard to compete with the soft glow of electric sex from the leg lamp, the gleam of a Red Rider BB gun, and Fa Ra Ra Ra Raaa Ra Ra Ra.

You'll shoot your eye out.

The Visitor

Coming soon.

The Visitor Webpage

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

One and a Half Stars

Meh. It was ok.

This isn't the best Indy ever, and in the series ranks just above the Temple of Doom, (damn you Short Round!). Anyway, some familiar faces (and artifacts!) make a reappearance, and the laughs are good enough to make it worth seeing. Definitely go see it if you have seen the first three, but that doesn't mean you have to be an Indy fan to get the movie. I took a friend and she got everything except the obvious Indy only references.

The main qualm I had with this movie was Lucasfilm. I think George got a little too many of his fingerprints on the movie. Over reliance on Computer Graphics for one thing. And oh yeah, a giant space ship. WTF? Thats not Indy.

Also, this only matters if you know anything about the crystal skulls, but they actually exist. So they are real, yet none of the skulls that make an appearance in this movie bear any resemblance to the real skulls. This lack of "actual" crystal skulls could have been easily explained away by explaining the significance of the fact that there were thirteen skulls. That may just be being picky about facts though but the two best Indiana Jones movies (Last Crusade and Raiders of the Lost Arch) were both based on very well known legends and both had realistic relics.

Thats about all that can be said against the movie really. Ford delivers a great performance, slipping on the old role like an old favorite hat (haha, get it?). Blanchet is a decent enough villain, Allen returns with her same happy-go-lucky outlook, and even LaBeouf does a good job as a headstrong greaser with something to prove, and more to learn.

Last thoughts: Worth seeing in theaters, but not a must see film of the year.

Indiana Jones Webpage

Iron Man

Four Stars

Simply put this is one of the best movies made from a comic book. I saw this movie three times.

Tony Stark, weapons producer, discovers just who is receiving his weapons shipments, and finds himself at the receiving end of his creations. Escaping captivity in the suit he dubs Mark I, Stark begins taking justice into his own, metallic hands.

The comedy, action, and character development are smart, well paced, and cater to all audiences.

I was rolling on my chair with laughter from Stark's witty remarks and comebacks. The interaction between the jokes and the storyline is perfect since it didn't overshadow the movie. The jokes meant for the younger viewers are funny no matter what age you are, and the comments slipped in for the older viewers blend in seamlessly to the movie.

The action starts minutes into the movie and climbs throughout. Explosions, guns, and iron... well gold alloy... machines are a constant throughout the movie, but the violence is by no means over stated. In a few instances the action is softened with humor as well.

Despite Tony Stark's... questionable moral choices, there are lines he will not cross. Giving weapons to the other guy is one of them. After his terrorist capture, Stark's change from pretentious playboy to vigilantly hero is believable and complete.

The animation in this film is spectacular and with the exception of one or two scenes is undetectable as computer generated.

The bottom line here is, go see this movie, you won't be disappointed. And one more thing, if you know anything about the comic book, or you just like little easter eggs, stay until after the credits. Better yet, since the credits are long enough, go relieve your bladder from the 48oz coke you just downed and then come back. There's a 15 second clip at the end that will make the next Iron Man, (oh yes, there will be more) make more sense.

Iron Man Webpage

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

One and A Half Stars

Okay. I wish I had a better movie to kick things off, but this is just the last movie I saw.

Prince Caspian kicks off with the four same children from the Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe getting called back to Narnia by distressed Prince Caspian. Narnia is in trouble again, under the rule of yet another tyrant. The prince must avenge his father and claim his crown. The children must put aside their pride and do everything they can to bring peace back to Narnia.

This movie is cute. Thats about it. I finished my review thinking the whole time that the movie was rated PG-13. I realize now that my first instinct is far too harsh. Like I said, this movie is cute. I read these Chronicles when I was young, so I have a personal attachment to them. Not to overuse the word, but I kind of wanted to see them turn into something more than "a cute movie".

So I didn't like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, obviously, since its made for kids. To recap my thoughts on the first movie, which far too many people keep saying was a great movie, I would have given it only two stars. The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe was good, it wasn't great. The acting was sub-par, especially by Peter who should probably learn how to hold a sword, since he is in a fantasy movie... just a thought. The movie stayed pretty true to the books, one of its only good points, but the script adaptation was done poorly. Prince Caspian had the same flaws.

The acting had not improved, and the cute factor of the little girl wasn't enough to make up for it this time. The movie follows the same basic story-line as the book, but because of its jarring cadence its hard to completely immerse yourself in the movie. The begging doesn't draw the viewer in at all, it just jumps right in assuming the viewer knows everything already and very disjointedly throws our heros into their quest.

The veiled Christian undertones aren't so veiled in the second movie. All that is needed is belief in the one that sacrificed himself for you and all your troubles will be over. In case you were worried that a main character would learn some self reliance for once, don't worry, the Deus Ex Machina makes sure that everything is taken care of, regardless of any effort by the main characters. The character struggles don't even lead to a situation that facilitates the ending.

All in all the movie is predictable and though it stays decently close to the book, it does so in a jolted, unsatisfying way. That being said, the kids will love it. The Chronicles of Narnia movies aren't anything award winning, they are simply created to entertain.

I want to say more, but I also don't want to give any spoilers. One thing I need to learn is the fine line between enough information and not destroying the movie.

Prince Caspian Webpage

First Post

First things first... a blog description.

Next January I will be in Utah getting my fill of independent films at the Sundance and Slamdance film festival. We are keeping journals on the trip, so because of this I am going to have to get used to putting down all my thoughts about movies into words.

This blog is me getting used to that.