Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson star in a sci-fi action adventure about clones that don’t know they are clones.
I didn’t expect too much from this movie since it was directed by Michael Bay and I have not been a big fan of his movies in general (The Rock, Armageddon). This movie was better than I expected. The first third of the movie was very interesting with the backstory about the clones not knowing what they are and what the island was really all about. It isn’t too big of a secret and very easy to figure out. It is still an interesting concept though.
Ewan McGregor and Steve Buscemi are very cool in the movie and get into their characters. Scarlett Johansson isn’t given much to do besides look like a lost little kid most of the movie. She’s just window dressing, which is a shame since they could have played up her character more in the movie.
Once Ewan McGregor’s character figures out what is going on, then it’s run run run, drive drive drive, shoot shoot shoot, and other such nonsense. It was tense to watch, but if I ever see the movie again, I could easily skip all of those parts to get back to the plot. When Ewan McGregor comes face to face with his original person that he’s the clone of, it’s hilarious. I wish more time had been spent on this part of the movie than all the running and shooting and general, boring action stuff. It was too short and then I thought the movie was going to end. It wasn’t over yet so we have some more stuff going on too. It had a little wrap-up that was predictable and expected, but still nice.
Dijimon Hounsou was also another wasted role. He was the big bad ass guy that was sent out to retrieve the clones that have run away. He doesn’t get to do much and why his character does certain things in the movie aren’t really explained all that well. They are explained, but it wasn’t very convincing. I wouldn’t blame it on him as an actor, but that the scenes have to be finished up so quickly so we can get back to more running and shooting. I blame the director.
Overall, I think the movie was a very fun movie to watch. If you just go with the flow and watch it as a popcorn, action movie flick then you will have a good time. It could have been a lot better though if it had a different director, I think.
Rating: B-
Bill Murray is a lifelong bachelor and ladies man who receives an anonymous letter from a former girlfriend that he has a 19-year-old son that is probably trying to find him.
The movie is directed by Jim Jarmusch, which I didn’t realize before watching it. I didn’t know much about this movie before I watched it. He’s an indie director who has made straight-forward feature films before, but I have never seen any of them. I have seen Night on Earth, which is five stories taking place in taxi cabs in five cities all over the world in one night. I have also seen Smoke and Blue In the Face, which were mostly just talking movies. They didn’t really have plots. Finally, I’ve seen Coffee and Cigarettes, which was tons of 5-15 minute clips with people talking over coffee and cigarettes. I really didn’t know what to expect after I saw Jarmusch’s name on the screen.
I really enjoyed the movie. There was minimal dialogue and many scenes of Bill Murray thinking or driving that could be slow in parts. It fit with the movie, but those ADD folks might have a hard time watching this movie. Bill Murray is great. He seems sad and you find it hard to believe he was this ladies man, until he comes in contact with his past gilfriends. Then he lights up a little bit, and most of them light up a bunch around him. He has great chemistry with everyone. He’s also hilarious in a deadpan kind of way. There’s a scene where he’s scared to eat the food in front of him, but finally decides to eat the carrots. Just the way he eats the carrots is hilarious, but it has to be seen to understand. Explaining it wouldn’t be funny.
I loved Jeffrey Wright who plays Winston, the Ethiopian wanna-be detective neighbor that sends him on the wild goose chase to find out who sent the letter. He’s awesome. He isn’t in the movie enough.
Finally, for those that enjoy those things, there is a full frontal nudity scene with a young girl. This leads to the best line in the movie by Bill Murray, “That was an excellent outfit you weren’t wearing earlier.”
Rating: A-
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as billionaire aviator that turned into complete recluse Howard Hughes.
I didn’t know much about Howard Hughes so this movie didn’t seem all that interesting to me, but it was up for Best Picture so I thought I should see it.
I was very impressed. I knew it was going to be a long movie, but I was ready for it to keep going when it ended. It made sense where it did end, but I thought he was a fascinating person and it was a good story. I didn’t know he did so much innovation with airplanes and what we now know as commercial airplanes and jets. I also didn’t know he dated so many famous actresses.
Leondardo DiCaprio did a great job with all his weirdness. Howard Hughes’ mom made him paranoid of germs and other things. He had a lot of tics that got worse with age. He could control them sometimes while other times he couldn’t. He was very, very weird. It would have been interesting to see him when he did turn into a complete recluse, but I think the movie ended right before that happened.
Cate Blanchett was great as Katherine Hepburn. I don’t know how Kate Beckinsale did as Ava Gardner since I don’t know if I ever saw her talk outside of a movie. Jude Law had a bit part as Errol Flynn. That was pretty funny. I loved the Senate hearing towards the end of the movie. It was good stuff.
It was a good, entertaining movie that actually made me want to know more about the man.
Rating: A
After living in seclusion for years, Clive Owen comes back to the rest of the world to find out how his brother died.
This movie was boring and dumb. The entire movie was a set up for some big finale that never happened. When it was over, I was thinking “Is that it? Is that what we were waiting for?”
The movie was like a set up yet it didn’t really introduce you to anyone. There was a guy that seemed to be a friend of the family, but I couldn’t tell if he was related or just a friend. There seemed to be a couple different groups of bad guys but not sure why we had to care who they were and why they were after Clive Owen or his brother. There was a mother who didn’t seem overly concerned that her son was dead and not too pleased to see her other son back in town. You were given the sense that Clive Owen was some badass before he went to hide in the woods of England, but never really told what made him decide to go out there.
There wasn’t really a good reason why his brother was attacked. The way Clive Owen found all this information out wasn’t too exciting and it didn’t take much effort. He would pretty much barely start talking to someone or threaten them and they would give up information. Nothing really tense going on.
Then there was the scene that you knew was coming, but I’m not sure why it was in the last 10 minutes of the movie. It was when Clive Owen cleaned himself up, shaved, brought out his Bentley to wash it and then take care of business. I’m not sure why he had to get his suit pressed before he went after the big bad guy who wasn’t really that big of a bad guy anyway. He could have done that when he started gathering information or just not at all. Why at the very end? What a waste.
I was about to fall asleep from boredom when the movie was finally over. I was really hoping there would be something cool in it, yet there was not.
Rating: D
It’s an old-style 40’s sci fi movie. The only thing that is real in the movie are the actors: Angelina Jolie, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Jude Law. Everything else is computer generated.
Everything about the movie is like the movies in the 40’s. It is a screwball comedy/adventure movie. Gwenyth Paltrow talks really fast like women did in the movies back then and there is sexual innuendo all over the place between her and Jude Law. Their characters used to date so they have that love/hate relationship.
I’m not sure why Angelina Jolie is even mentioned in the credits since she shows up in the last fourth of the movie and still isn’t in it for very long.
I spent the first half of the movie laughing at it being completely cheesy and cornball. I was also very bored with it. It was pretty to look at, but I wanted something to happen. I liked the second half of the movie more, since it seemed like more things were happening and I was finally getting into the rhythm of the movie.
I know Gwenyth Paltrow’s character really bugged Jer since he kept yelling at her to shut up for the first half of the movie. He finally quit doing it for the second half so maybe she grew on him or he was just numb to it all.
If you watch it on DVD, I recommend watching the bloopers. They are pretty funny.
Rating: C+
Bill Murray is a Jacque Cousteau-type character that meets his grown son for the first time and they go out on an adventure to kill a shark for revenge because it ate his friend. Directed by Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums).
I love Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums is pretty good too. This movie I liked least out of the three, but I still thought it was pretty funny. It was disjointed and some jokes just fell flat. It had a weird pace to it. It was fun to watch, but I don’t think I ever need to see it again. It was a fun, little movie, but a tad too weird. It is what you would call quirky!
Rating: B-
Two guys get stoned and go on an adventure in search of a White Castle burger. Directed by the guy who did Dude, Where’s My Car? so you know it’s high class.
I kept hearing that this movie was funny from various people, so I thought I’d watch it. I was expecting stupid humor along the lines of American Pie or Road Trip. I didn’t think it was as funny as those movies. There were some parts that I chuckled, but I wasn’t laughing as much as I thought I would have. I was in the mood for stupid humor too, so it wasn’t that.
I think I might have been scarred from seeing Kumar’s naked behind in the beginning of the movie. That was not attractive and it stuck in my brain for the rest of the movie. It was quite disturbing. 
One good thing about the movie was it wasn’t predictable. I couldn’t have forseen the parts with Doogie Howser or the cheetah. Those were just bizarre. The “extreme” guys were funny and I’m glad they got what was coming to them at the end.
Rating: C
Tim Burton does his version of the Roald Dahl children’s book with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
I loved this movie. I have never read the book, but I did see the original movie. I loved that too, but I thought this was better. Maybe it was because Gene Wilder freaks me out a little bit and Johnny Depp is just freakishly weird but in a good way. In the beginning, you are a bit weirded out by Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka, but then it just fits and you go with it.
Johnny Depp is awesome in the movie. His voice is so different in this film, but fits the character so well. It is higher pitched like someone that didn’t fully grow up from his childhood. He isn’t creepy like I thought he would be. He doesn’t necessarily like children so he has some hilarious comments about that.
There is an entire back story about Willy Wonka’s father that was cut from the original film, but explains a lot more about his character in this movie. It is also great when he starts to have a flashback. Depp makes a great face when that happens.
The oompas loompas are awesome. Some people that I saw the movie with didn’t like them. They wanted them just like they were in the original. I did like them in the original and I did miss their song, but they had new songs in this movie. I’m guessing Danny Elfman wrote them all for this one, so they are all catchy little tunes. The oompa loompas are all played by one guy, but he isn’t computer simulated over and over again. It looked like he was filmed multiple times doing the same song and dance step so it looks like it is just a bunch of guys that look alike.
Also, the scene with the squirrels is great. I had heard that they were actually trained squirrels since Tim Burton didn’t want to use computer animation for them. They looked real to me and they were super cute.
I watched the movie on an IMAX screen, which I was a tad concerned about. For most of the movie, it was fine and awesome seeing something so huge in front of me. Whenever there was a close-up though, it was quite alarming. I could see all the pores on Johnny Depp’s face. That was freaky.
Rating: A
