High strung, nail-biting, intense competition of spelling bees! No really, it’s true!
A documentary that follows eight 8th graders as they go to compete in the 1999 National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. I can’t find the information anywhere now, but I thought I read when this movie came out that they picked randomly the kids to follow, so they may or may not have even made the cut to the National Spelling Bee. I don’t know how much that is true, or if they only show ones that actually make it to the finals. After they make it there though, you don’t know who, or if any, of the eight will actually win.
At first, I found the back story on the kids interesting since it is the only way you are going to be invested in them going to the spelling bee. Also, it was interesting to see the various backgrounds of the kids. By the time, we were learning about the 8th kid, I was getting tired of it and just wanted to watch the spelling bee part of it. I couldn’t remember how many kids we had seen at that point, so I’m glad he was the last one and it finally moved onto the competition.
The competition was the best part and boy did I feel dumb. I had no idea what some of the words were and the questions the kids asked, like origin of the word, and so forth amazed me. While watching it, I was wondering what some of the kids would look like today since it was 1999 and one kid was so incredibly spazzy. On the DVD, it had a “Where Are They Now?” section that showed more current pictures (from 2003) and a bit about each of them. Thankfully spazzy kid grew up to look normal.
I really thought it was going to be parents pushing their kids to do the spelling bees, but it looked like it was the kids’ idea for the most part. Some of them looked relieved that it would end after this last one, but most of them were just super competitive on their own. I think I would have liked it better, if it didn’t drag so much in the beginning, but enjoyed the second half of it more. It is still only 95 minutes so it goes by quickly either way.
Rating: B
Will Ferrell does not exactly fit in with the rest of the normal-sized elves at the North Pole. He is sent to New York to reunite with his biological father.
I was disappointed with this movie. I knew it was a kid’s movie, but I thought it would be more entertaining and funny. It had all the makings of being funny, but in all the spots that should have been funny, just fell flat.
Continue reading “Elf”
Holly Hunter is mother to a young girl who starts using drugs, having sex, and doing all sorts of other bad things cuz of her new cool, bad friend. The friend was also the co-screenwriter of this movie, at the ripe old age of 14.
I expected this movie to be as horrifying to watch as Kids was. It is nowhere near as bad. I’m not sure what one would think of this movie if they had never seen Kids. It might scare parents about what thirteen-year-old girls can be like.
Continue reading “2″
Katie Holmes is the girl that couldn’t wait to get out of the suburbs. She is determined to make Thanksgiving dinner for her estranged parents in her tiny Lower East Side New York apartment where everything that could go wrong does.
Katie Holmes is good in this movie. She doesn’t make that weird ass grin that she has. She’s pretty depressed most of the movie or just fed up with everything that’s going wrong and the fact that her family is coming to visit.
She’s making them Thanksgiving dinner in her very tiny, sleazy apartment. Her family live out somewhere else in either upper New York or New Jersey or someplace where they have to drive a few hours to get there. None of them seem to want to come. Well, her dad and her brother do, but her mom or sister would rather forget she ever existed.
We learn why the dinner is taking place and what the issues are between Katie Holmes and her mom. It comes out slowly in the movie, so I don’t want to give the entire plot away. I didn’t really buy that Katie Holmes’ character was so awful growing up that her family made her out to be since she doesn’t seem so awful now. Either she did a lot of growing up or she just doesn’t have the range as an actress to show someone that has a hint of meanness in her. Her boyfriend in the movie is awesome. He’s just very cute with her and wanting everything to be perfect for her parents because he knows how much it means to her.
Finally, Jack from Will & Grace is in the movie as a creepy guy with a funny Pug dog.
Rating: B-
Tommy Lee Jones comes back to New Mexico to make amends with his daughter, Cate Blanchett. Then her daughter, Evan Rachel Wood is kidnapped in this 19th-century drama directed by Ron Howard.
The acting in this movie was really good. The story wasn’t all that interesting. It could have been, but it just dragged in places and seemed disjointed in others. It was overall very weird.
It might have been the direction. It seemed like the characters were going in various directions and didn’t seem like the actors were able to stay in their characters in various scenes. It didn’t seem like it was an actor problem, but more of a directing one.
Rating: C+
Coen Brothers movie starring George Clooney has a divorce lawyer and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the gold-digging wife of his client. Can they make a romantic comedy?
I liked this movie a lot more than I thought it would. George Clooney and the Coen brothers make a good combo. This movie was a very odd romantic comedy because they made it and I liked it. You knew who was going to get screwed, yet you still hoped it would work out in the end. That didn’t stop you from laughing when everything went very wrong.
George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones had really good chemistry and I didn’t find her annoying in this movie at all, like I did in Ocean’s Twelve.
I’d recommend this movie for those that like romantic comedies that are just a bit off. It’s fluff, but weird fluff.
Rating: B+
Don Cheadle is a psychologist at a mental health center for young adults. Joseph Gordan-Levitt is the lead angry guy.
I had a feeling that this movie would have a good premise, but be too predictable. I actually really enjoyed it. Don Cheadle, Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel were all excellent.
Almost everyone in the center is very, very angry and you get to learn why each one has problems. Some get better and some don’t. It isn’t happy endings for a lot of people. The main guy thinks he doesn’t need to be there and you get to watch him resist it while others accept that they need to be there. I liked that you were able to see Cheadle’s character get frustrated and wonder if he’s actually making a difference in these kids’ lives.
The ending you could see coming a bit, but I’m glad it ended that way or it would make the movie seem like it had no point.
Rating: B+
Haley Joel Osment is a quiet kid that is sent to spend the summer with his eccentric uncles, Michael Caine and Robert Duvall.
This was a nice little movie. It was overly cute in parts, but it didn’t go over the top because of Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. It could have been way too sweet, but they gave it a nice edge.
Haley Joel Osment is going through that weird awkward stage that some kid actors go through. He just doesn’t look right. I kept wishing that someone else was in the movie because I found it distracting.
I did like the ending though. It was funny and when we saw crazy low flying planes on our recent road trip, it reminded us of those two crazy uncles.
Rating: B-
John Grisham movie starring John Cusack as a juror and Rachel Weisz who isn’t on the jury and they are both trying to manipulate a court trial being run by Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman.
It was better in parts than I expected because I did like the twist and I figured it out right before it happened. I didn’t like the heavy-handedness of the themes though, which is what I worried I wouldn’t like before I watched this movie. If John Cusack wasn’t in the movie, it could have been incredibly stupid. He made it much better.
Rating: C+
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-
