I need a local link for this.....
Adventureland (2009)
So was this supposed to be a movie for teenagers or college kids? I'm still unsure of the target audience. The main character (Jesse Eisenberg from The Village and Roger Dodger) finished his undergrad and is preparing for graduate school. He is still a virgin and acts like he...
Frida (2002)
Salma Hayek plays Frida Kahlo a famous Mexican painter. The film starts with Frida as a teenager and follows her entire life. The entire film is in English, which was a big surprise to me as I was preparing for a Spanish film. Also, Hayek is the only actress to play Frida in...
The Lookout (2007)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Chris, a high school hockey player born to a wealthy family. He has a beautiful girlfriend and is daring. The opening scene sets the pace for the entire film, and we catch up with Chris some years later working in a bank. His roommate is Jeff Daniels...
Hoop Dreams (1994)
A fantastic film about the realities of wanting to become a professional athlete. This documentary follows the lives of two high school basketball players from the summer before their freshman year to starting college.One player has an easier path, better family life, made varsity...
The Freshman (1925)
Harold Lloyd plays "The Freshman," a nerdy kid who just wants to be popular at college. Lloyd is one of the lesser known comedians from the early ages of cinema. He has a famous scene when he is hanging from a clock in Safety Last!. This is probably his only other well known...
Gamer (2009)
Gerard Butler (better known as King Leonidas from 300) is on death row, but there is technology now allowing these people to be part of a video game. If they die, they die, if they can survive 30 rounds then they get pardoned. No one has done it.The concept isn't too bad but...
Ghost World (2001)
It can be hard to decide whether to give a film a 2, 3, or 4 and I usually spend the majority of the review bashing a film to justify how it got there.First off, the plot is horrible, it is boring, and the only part that makes you think is what some would consider a "twist"...
Broadcast News (1987)
I debated whether this was a romantic comedy or just a comedy and I'll explain why. The central focus of this film is the relationships between Jane (Holly Hunter) and the two men in the newsroom Aaron (Albert Brooks) and Tom (William Hurt). This is a battle of handsome vs....
Invictus (2009)
I need to be clear from the start, this is a sports movie, not a Biography of Nelson Mandela. If you happen to be someone that knows very little about South Africa you will learn something from this film other than their rugby team.So the film's focus is on a time frame where...
Bullitt (1968)
Make no mistake Steve McQueen was the man. I remember him best in his role as Capt. Hilts "The Cooler King" in The Great Escape where he jumped a fence with a motorcycle to escape a WWII POW camp. This film he performed his own stunts including a high speed chase with Robert...
Before Night Falls (2000)
This is a film that follows the life of Reinaldo Arenas played by Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) who was born in 1943 in Cuba to a very poor family. It goes through his childhood quickly and focuses on his life as a writer.He is an openly gay individual and if you though...
Land of the Lost (2009)
If you are like me and think that Will Ferrell is hit-or-miss, then you will think this one is a miss. With sidekicks Anna Friel (basically unknown) and Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Drillbit Taylor, and Superbad), this is a silly remake of a once popular children's tv...
Dogville (2003)
This was by far the worst film I have seen in quite some time. The concept of the film is that it is all filmed on a sound stage. So what does this mean? Well you get the feel of a real movie from the sounds and music, but it is like you are watching a play with chalk outlines...
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954)
This musical will make you laugh at how cheesy it is. The story starts with the oldest brother going to town to get some supplies... oh yeah, and a wife. He manages to find a beautiful wife and get married that day!She returns home with him to find he has six rude and crude...
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
I was really excited about watching this film. My mom read this to me as a little boy, and the 40-year-old classic book had a lot of potential for being a great movie.However, Spike Jonze did not impress me here. The story is about Max, a wild imaginative boy who acts up and...
Duplicity (2009)
Let me start by saying that, personally, I strongly dislike movies that have you confused from start to finish. It is one thing to leave you clues and make the viewer put things together, but over complicating things is incredibly annoying to me.For example, I loved Heist and...
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
The last movie from my AFI 10 Top 10 Fantasy category. This one I have been saving for the holidays, not getting a chance last year to watch it. This year I was able to sit down and get through it while visiting family.The story is about a little girl who doesn't believe in...
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Written by H.G. Wells, Directed by Byron Haskin, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. As an inclusion on the 501 Must-See movies I have been wanting to see this movie for a while. Older Science Fiction movies tend to be very creative in their use of props and special effects...
Whale Rider (2002)
One of my movie projects has been to watch movies that were once on the imdb top 250 and have since fallen off. If any readers are aware of how this list works, it highly favors new releases due in part to how votes count in the formual and due in part to initial viewers tending...
The Blind Side (2009)
This is based on the true story of Michael Oher, a current player for the Baltimore Ravens and former college All-American. Michael had a very difficult life growing up and this heartwarming [and tear-jerking] story is about how he came to love football and find a family. This...
The Station Agent (2003)
This film was on both Richard Roeper's Top 10 of 2003 and on the IMDB Top 250 up until 2005. It is a film about phase of a little person's life. Finbar (played by Peter Dinklage, Elf & The Chronicles of Narnia) is a train enthusiast who repairs model trains alongside his...
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Oh how I dislike Woody Allen films... with so many to watch I try to get over how much he annoys me but it can be hard sometimes. This is basically two stories running parallel through the entire movie cutting back and forth between the two. One follows Cliff (Woody Allen)...
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
It is very clear to me that Quentin Tarantino works on a completely different level than most directors of our time [e.g. Michael Bay]. 50 years from now some of his films will still be revered by critics. He has a very unique editing style where he mixes animated title freezes...
Monsters vs Aliens (2009)
Doing voice work in animated films [that bank] must be really profitable for actors because there are some good actors and actresses working for this film. Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson (Dwight from "The Office"), Ed Helms (Andy from "The Office),...
Swing Vote (2008)
Kevin Costner used to make some really good movies: Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and JFK. Something went terribly wrong in this man's career in the mid-90's with awful movies: Waterworld, The Postman, and 3000 Miles to Graceland.However,...
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
This is now the 4th film by Hayao Miyazaki that I have seen. The other three being Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away], Hauru no ugoku shiro [Howl's Moving Castle], and Mononoke-hime [Princess Mononoke]. This is the oldest of the four and I plan on watching Gake no...
The Lion in Winter (1968)
I like to think that I am not an argumentative person, and I strongly dislike watching movies about people just arguing. If you are a fan of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a film where Elizabeth Taylor and her husband argue the entire time then you might like this film.This...
The Hours (2002)
Trying to write a review on this film has given me writers block. I just don't know how to summarize a film that I was not looking forward to, didn't like, and don't want to write about. So this may contain spoilers since I just want to get through it and onto the 4-6 movie...
Nine Lives (2005)
This is basically nine short films with minor interconnections between a central theme and characters. It is told in 9 different 12 minute [approx.] stories that focus on a single woman each and the issues she is dealing with in her life.Personally, I am a big fan of short films...
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
"Tradition!" This is a wonderful musical about the a changing world in pre-revolution Russia. The story revolves around a Jewish community and a father struggles to see his traditions broken by his daughters.The beauty of this film is that if you extract the song and dance it...
White Heat (1949)
Voted #4 in the American Top 10 Gangster list right behind Godfather Pt.1, Pt.2 and Goodfellas. A very high rank for an older film. Having seen James Cagney in The Public Enemy just a few short weeks ago I was hoping for and expecting a lot more out of this one.This is not the...
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
This is a musical about the final night of the American Radio Show "A Prairie Home Companion." I actually remember hearing this show once or twice growing up, it is an interesting idea. A radio show that you can actually attend live, there is a host who narrates stories and...
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
To think I just about skipped this film... it gave me what Up could not. The great think about this movie is that you understand that it is fantasy right off the bat. Maybe that sounds silly when talking about an animated film, but I think in the age of CGI and Pixar films...
Reds (1981)
Movies that break the 3 hour mark tend to distract me to wonder how I am going to find the time to finish them. They also suffer from having to be broken up by most viewers, and stopping at exactly the intermission can be hard.This film simply put is about the rise of Communism...
Gomorrah (2008)
There are some bold claims made by the marketing team for this film. "The Greatest Mafia Movie Ever Made" at the top of the movie poster. Other posters claim it to be a "Modern Classic" and the "Best Since City of God." It wasn't that I saw these claims before watching this...
Little Caesar (1931)
If I would have watched this film first than I would have rated The Public Enemy even lower. Both of these came out in 1931 and this is by far the better film. If you want to see an old fashioned gangster film with matching lingo, this is a easy watch and pretty short an only...
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Starring Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde) and Julie Christie (Don't Look Now), this film was voted by the American Film Institute as the #8 American Western of all-time. The story is about the growth of a small mining town which centers around the dichotomy of the brothel and...
Taken (2008)
Wow! I loved this movie. I watched it for the first time this summer and watched it again after a trip to Blockbuster with the family.The plot is simple, his daughter has been kidnapped and he has to get her back before it is too late. Pierre Morel does a great job directing...
Julie & Julia (2009)
I expect this will be on next years Golden Globe nomination list. Meryl Streep plays Julia Child, and Amy Adams plays Julie Powell in a story intertwining the life of Julia Child and the project of Julie Powell.Julia Child and her husband Paul Child, played by Stanley Tucci...
Four Christmases (2008)
As a kid christmas was easy, the entire family came to our house, all I had to do was to the church and be patient for the present openings. There was very little travel, usually just a 20 minute drive across town every other year. Now that I live 5 hours from my family and...
Cat Ballou (1965)
The #10 American Western as listed by the American Film Institute on last years 10Top10 list. This is the type of western movie that as a kid made me ask, "why does anybody like westerns?" There is a barn dance, over-the-top bad acting, silly fights and some awful country singing...
The Public Enemy (1931)
One of the first James Cagney gangster films and voted the #8 American Gangster film by the American Film Institute in 2008, and based on the novel Beer and Blood by John Bright, this gangster film in prohibition era Chicago features the famous grapefruit scene in the pre-Hays...
The Barbarian Invasions: Les invasions barbares (2003)
The foreign film Oscar winner from 2003, this is a film about the final days of a dying father. The father is in an over populated hospital in Canada with four people to a room and people lining the walls in the hall, meanwhile the floor below is empty. The son is a millionaire...
