At the end of the American Cival War, Jude Law journeys home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with Nicold Kidman. Renee Zellweger is in there somewhere too.
I thought this movie looked pretty boring, but thought I should watch it anyway. It was much better than I expected. It was very long, but then I knew it would be.
Jude Law and Nicole Kidman both play very, very shy people that are starting to flirt with each other without being indecent. They finally admit their feelings for one another when he is called off to fight in the Civil War. The war takes everyone that isn't too old to fight or isn't able to fight due to some disability. They promise each other that they will be together again after the war. Of course, the war lasts three years before he is injured and is on his way home. He can't come home normally since being injured during the civil war doesn't mean you are out of it, like nowadays. You are in it until you die or the war is over. Anyone that tries to leave while injured will be killed so he has to be sneaky while making his way back to Cold Mountain. He can't tell her this is what is happening so she just prays he has read her letters, but has no idea if he is still alive.
It might seem odd that she was actually waiting for him all that time since they barely knew each other. It wasn't like she could really move on though since who would she move on to? All the men were in the war.
Renee Zellweger plays a woman that is sent to help Nicole Kidman learn how to live on her own since she has a farm that is falling apart and doesn't know how to run a farm or clean a house or make any food. Renee is awesome. I liked her character a lot.
Renee is the best part of the movie, but Jude Law and Nicole Kidman might be the prettiest people in the world. When they finally get together at the end, it's quite sexy. I didn't like the very end. It was realistic, but bleah! That last sentence will only make sense if you see it.
Rating: A-
A family lives in the middle of nowhere New Mexico where they live on their own away from society and end up being audited.
The main part of this movie that isn’t given away in the trailers at all is that Sam Elliot (the dad in the family) is majorly depressed. I don’t know if they were trying to trick people into seeing an offbeat movie without adding in something serious, but I had no idea he was depressed until the first line in the movie narrated by the daughter.
That didn’t make the movie horrible or anything. It was a very slow, offbeat movie. You really have to be in the right mood to watch it. I thought it might be that way so I enjoyed it. It meanders along for a year that he is depressed until he finally isn’t anymore. All the characters are pretty interesting and you get to learn a little bit about them here and there. Then the movie ends. There is no big climatic moment. it’s a slice-of-life type of picture.
I can see someone not expecting the movie to be so slow and end up hating it, but if you are in the right frame of mind, then it’s a nice little movie.
Grade: B
Based on the comic books by Frank Miller. It is three stories that take place in Sin City with some of the characters being interrelated, but all of it is very violoent yet pretty looking.
I loved this movie! It was a lot of fun. I thought it was going to be super violent and I guess it was, but it wasn’t graphic since the entire movie is in black and white. Then there are bits of color thown in here and there for super cool effect. Blood and other gross stuff doesn’t seem so bad when it is in black and white instead of actual color.
Mickey Rourke was really good and you couldn’t tell it was him at all. I also liked Benicio del Toro. To explain the parts that were really cool would give away parts of the story, but when he’s in the car with Clive Owen it is too funny. Elijah Wood is just very, very freaky.
Nick Stahl is the lead in Carnivale, but plays a bad guy in this movie. At one point, he doesn’t look like himself, but hearing his voice come out of him was very odd. I have also never seen him play a character that was so angry so that was a change in his acting. It was all very good but I’m used to him in Carnivale so it was just jarring. 
Bruce Willis was just typical Bruce Willis. I noticed that everyone tried to look like their character in the comic book with fake noses (Mickey Rourke and Benicio del Toro) or something else. Bruce Willis looked nothing like his character. They showed the characters next to the actor names in the credits. I guess he didn’t want to mess up his face too bad. What a dork.
The movie is also pretty cool in how it is filmed. They used the comic book as the storyboard so there are scenes that look like they came out of a comic book. It’s a pretty neat effect.
Finally, Frank Miller must have some sort of penis issues. As Chuck said when he saw it with us “Ow! Three major groin injuries in the first 15 minutes of this movie!” There was another one at the end too. Ow!
Grade: A
In 859, rebel armies are forming to combat the corrupt government during the Tang Dynasty in China.
We watched this movie with Kaile and Stacy. They are always fun to watch a movie with because we make fun of every movie we watch, even when it is a good one. This was a good one, but it was great to make fun of it at the same time. The beginning gave an explanation of what was going on with the rebels against the corrupt government. I said it sounded like Star Wars.
There are betrayals, love and all sorts of fighting. The fight scenes are very pretty to watch, like they were in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but it wasn't so much running in the air. A bit of it was not realistic, but it was closer to reality than that other movie. The movie takes place for the most part in autumn so all the scenes in the forest are very pretty with orange and yellow leaves. We had a whole conversation about what all the different colors of the movie meant since they were so vivid.
The movie was going along and everything was good. Even the ending was okay with me, but then it left something hanging, so that's why I have to give it an A-. What happened to the House of Flying Daggers? We'll never know.
Rating: A-
Retired superheroes are called out for a new assignment.
I love Pixar movies. I did enjoy this one, but I did not like it as much as the Toy Story movies. I wanted it to be funnier.
It was a good action picture though. When the fight scenes are coming non-stop at the end of the movie, they were really intense and I kept reminding myself it was an animated film. I also thought that Samuel L. Jackson’s character would be in the movie more, but he was hardly there.
I thought the movie was really good, but I think I had the wrong expectations for it. It looked awesome though. It was so lifelike so many times. It also had no lame songs like other Disney movies do.
Grade: A-
Tracks the rise and fall of Factory Records in Manchester, England from the late 70's until the 90's.
I love bands from Manchester, like New Order, Stone Roses, Charlatans, and Happy Mondays. I wanted to see this movie since I love the city and it was going to talk about the guy that started the record label for New Order and Happy Mondays. He also started the Hacienda club, which I read about in Rolling Stone in 1989. It's where the rave culture started before it got over to the U.S. It wasn't dumb kids wearing pacifiers and listening to techno though. They still did lots of drugs over there, but they listened to better music. I wanted to go over there and check it out, but I was only a freshman in high school.
This movie started out really good with the future record label guy seeing the Sex Pistols for one of their first shows. It interspersed real footage with the movie so that was kinda neat. It showed him discovering Joy Division and signing them to his record label that he was starting. It dealt with the death of Ian Curtis and how that ended Joy Division. Then the movie just shifted. After that New Order was pretty much ignored. A little mention was made here and there. I wanted to hear more about them, but nope!
Then the rest of the movie was pretty much devoted to the Happy Mondays. I enjoyed them, but they weren't the best group of the bunch from that city. Not according to the record label guy. He loved them. It was funny how the band kept screwing him over since he loved them so, but they were a bunch of drugged out fuck-ups. I was surprised he made no mention how they were never able to tour the U.S. since they couldn't get their visas due to their drug problems. I know this because I had tickets to see them once and it was canceled due to that reason. Nothing about that at all.
The movie did talk about the Hacidenda a good amount. I wished that more of the movie spent time on the other Manchester bands, or at the very least New Order that were also on the label rather than spending so much time on Happy Mondays. I was a tad disappointed by that. Also, the movie spent too much time on record label guy's life, even though he kept mentioning the movie wasn't about him, but his love of Manchester. That was hard to tell when it was him, him, and Happy Mondays.
Rating: C+
A young British boy lives in an imaginary world most of the time and can’t believe it when he really finds a bag filled with millions that has fallen from the sky.
This movie is directed by Danny Boyle that also directed Trainspotting and 28 Days. There is nothing gross or scary about this movie though.
It is a nice PG movie about a boy finding tons of money that he believes came from God. He’s an odd little boy that is dealing with the death of his mother almost a year ago. His father has just moved him (9 years old) and his older brother (11 years old) into a new house in the suburbs to really start over after her death. He’s obsessed with saints and can list off any saint, the years they lived and what they did to become a saint.
The movie’s main plot is about what he does with the money with his brother while trying to hide it from their father so it doesn’t get taxed. There are also bits about him dealing with his mother’s death and moving on with life. And, of course, there are greater things than money.
None of that is too surprising and really nothing new, but the movie was still very sweet to watch. Also, the child actor playing the main character was awesome. He made the movie. There were also little funny bits thrown here and there in the movie that made it move along nicely.
It was a nice, sweet fun movie.
Grade: B+
