The game's afoot.

Took in Guy Ritchie's treatment of Sherlock Holmes this evening and what fun it was. There was a lot of this movie that flew over my head, but I think a good Holmes story is supposed to do that, isn't it? I didn't get left too far behind so that I didn't enjoy every moment of it, however. This is a very visceral version of Holmes, maybe taken with a few too many liberties from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work, but I thought the spirit of the character was there. And what can I say about the setting? How can old, damp, and dingy look so wonderful? I found myself wanting to jump in and live in "Jolly Old." Now wouldn't that be a trip?

Pure escapism.

It's been a while since I've been to the movies, but tonight I partook of the film called Avatar. I liked the the movie, it was an adventure, and it made me smile. Yes there were a lot of special effects that were special, but there was a bit more to the whole thing that just clicked with me as well. All in all it was a fun ride.

Posts have been lagging around here because a) who reads these things anyway? and b) I haven't really been watching as many new movies. So here is a basic breakdown of what I've neglected to mention over the past month and half.

Inglorius Basterds: Liked it, but I need to see it again with someone who enjoys Tarentino movies for what they are, not just the commercials of them on TV.

The Perfect Getaway: Liked it, not what I was expecting.

Surrogates: Iffy, liked the premise, just hated the fact that I knew what was going to happen within the first five minutes of the show. I also have a negative reaction on this movie because it was children (and by that I mean moronic teenager) movie night. Whoever thinks it's cool to talk aloud during movies should be drug out into the street and shot.

As I said, not a lot of movies to review. I want see the new movie Zombieland, but I don't want to like it. Zombies are the new vampires, and I'm getting rather sick of everyone thinking how cool they are. What's next? A movie about a sensitive yet misunderstood zombie who just wants to love and be loved? Wait a minute, just watched the new Reverent trailer. Doh!

Latest greatest toy movie.

So it could be said that most of the movies I've seen over the past couple of months haven't been too noteworthy. They've been entertaining, I'll grant them that, but inspiring...not so much. However: the recent film G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra had some interesting moments, and while I'm the first to admit that it wasn't the kind of G.I. Joe movie I would have made (Cobra would have killed more Joes) I still had fun watching it. Can I recommend it? If you're in the mood for something to you don't have to think about too much and want to watch things get blow up (without all the annoying crap they stuffed into Transformers) give it a go. Now you know...

A bit of escapism.

I've been in a bit of a classical gangster type of mood lately, so perhaps that tainted how much I enjoyed watching Public Enemies last night. I'm not all that familiar with John Dillinger, but I have heard the name, so I don't know how close this movie gets to his true character. Depp did play a good part though, but I wasn't all that surprised by that. Bale on the other hand played a toned down part I thought, not his best though. I liked him more in the recent Terminator flick. Anyway, I liked Public Enemies, with lots of period-esque gangsters running around with Tommy-Guns and and such, it's a good time.

I still hate Vegas.

You know, for not being much of a comedy fan, I have to admit the film, The Hangover, was rather amusing. Now don't get me wrong, there were some sick and wrong sequences in the movie that had me cringing and looking away, but I was laughing while doing so. Basically it's movie about a bachelor party gone awry in Los Vegas. It was a little cliche, and I thought they could have made things end up a little more strange, but overall I enjoyed the movie. If you're just looking for some mindless stupid humor, that doesn't fall into the inane adolescent schlock category, this movie fits the bill.

Light and the dark.

I have two distinctly different movies to report on tonight. I'll get the horror movie out of the way first. Drag Me To Hell is a movie about not pissing off gypsies. Don't do it, they'll send you to hell if you piss 'em off! I know this is labeled as a horror movie but I found myself laughing more than I did cringing in terror. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.
The other movie is Up, Pixar's latest. You know I liked this movie, but it wasn't for any of the obvious kid-type reasons that I should have. Growing old sucks, this movie illustrates that, but it doesn't mean you should stop living your life. I liked that. The dogs were funny too.

No fate but what we make.

And so after many years of wishing they would just set a Terminator movie in the future, they finally did it with Terminator: Salvation. Was it everything I hoped for, not 100%, but I'll give it a very strong 99%. Hot damn! This movie grabbed me from the get go, because even though I thought I knew the story well enough, this introduced elements that were all new, and even a couple of surprises. Now what should have been the biggest surprise was ruined by the stupid trailer for the movie, but all the rest were moments where I kept thinking; No way! I don't know if this movie is every one's cup of tea, but for this odd Sandman out, it was a whole lot of fun.

. . .of a demon in my view.

Tonight I took in Angels and Demons, I was satisfied. As with the novels themselves, I thought this movie was better than DaVinci Code. As for all the other little nitpicky things people seem to get all worked up about. . .blah, whatever. Hanks portrays a decent Langdon, not how I saw him, but what's so special about that? Changing aspects of the story to fit it all in the movie was fine with me too. And of course I always enjoy watching Ewan McGregor. ever since Trainspotting, the dude's just a fun actor. My only gripe with this movie was my main group with DaVinci Code, not enough of the back story on the art. (sigh) However, I felt they put a little more of that in this movie, but still. . .give me a two hour art history lesson, I'm game. Either way go see this one.
As for other recent movies, I've seen them but can't think of anything good or bad to say about them. Wolverine was alright. Star Trek was alright. Not much more I can say about them than that.

To watch or not to watch.

This evening I sat in on the Watchmen film and I feel a little drained. This movie had so much going on, that I think I must have missed half of it. While it might not have been your typical family friendly superhero movie, and Dr. Manhattan really needed to put on a pair of drawls for most of his time spent in the movie, I wasn't disappointed. However, I don't think it was out of the park spectacular either. I think I'll agree with others I've talked too it about, and say that Rorschach and his story was the most enjoyable part of the movie.

Pull

A few nights back I took in the movie Push, which all in all wasn't too bad. I have to admit that the story kind of lost me after a while though, but that might have been because I was tired . . .or stupid. Favorite parts were the gun battles, I know it's not too original, but a telekinetic gun fight could get all sorts of cool if done right. In this movie it was a little low key, but still kind of fun and it stirred the imagination. Always a good thing.

Inky

A few nights back I took up my sister's invitation to go see the film Inkheart. I thought it was a nice little movie that stirred up the imagination. The end, however, had a couple of problems for me. I won't go into what they all were, it just seemed like a little too much formula and not enough punch. Of course I'm sure the book was better than the movie, but as movies go it worked for me.

Blood and bones.

Yesterday I caught latest in Vampire and Werewolf wackiness, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. These movies have been entertaining, if nothing else, but the story in the other two seemed a bit too . . .rushed maybe, I don't know. "Oh lookie lookie the most dangerous vampire in the world. KILL IT!!!" Five minutes later. "Oh lookie the most dangerous Vampire and Werewolf in the world, quick turn into a cross-breed proto vamp-wolf chick and chop them up with helicopters." Yeah, little silly, but hey I enjoyed them. With this third instalment we go back to beginning of the war between the vamps and the wolves. It explained all of this in the first movie, but I guess it just didn't explain it enough. And when it comes right down too it, I think I prefer the story of this prequel movie over the other two. Things were a little simpler back then.

Egg all over the place.

Last night I sat in on The Spirit, or as I like to think of it, The Sam Jackson as a Nazi movie. Awesome flick, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, and I thought I was going to like it a lot. On a whole it kind of felt like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow crossed over with Sin City, with Sam Jackson and other people. Yeah cool show, I can't say much more about it. . .OK maybe that it was "damn weird."