Category Archives: movies

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World movie review

Posted on by

I’ve only seen the first of the Spy Kids movies and that was a decent enough kids flick. Nothing special, but not horrible. Somehow this weekend, I got tricked into going to see the new one Spy Kids: All the Time in the World. And…it was not good. It wasn’t bad enough to make me walk out, but it didn’t make me want to see it again, or recommend it to anyone. This is a movie that only a six-year old could like. And even then, the smell card will be the best part. So, let’s see what’s caused this disaster.

Continue reading →

Captain America movie review

Posted on by

I finally made it to a Marvel superhero movie in the theater. I think the last time that happened was in the first Spider-Man movie. I saw Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the other Spiderman movies on DVD (but did see DC movies in the theater…it just worked out that way). And, truthfully, I really wasn’t interested in seeing most of them in the theater. But, when my friend said he wanted to go see it, a movie night was on. And I will admit that Captain America is now one of my favorite superhero movies, however it really isn’t fair to call it a superhero movie. So, let’s head back to WWII and meet the Captain.

Continue reading →

New Ghibli movie in 2012

Posted on by

The new Studio Ghibli movie Arriety (shortened from The Borrower Arriety) will be released in the US in February 2012. The movie is written by Miyazaki, but not directed by him:

The voice cast for the dubbing will include Bridgit Mendler, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, David Henrie and Carol Burnett (Mendler and Henrie both poached from Disney’s own Wizards of Waverly Place).

 I urge everyone to go see this movie in the theater. Not just because it’s promising to be a great flick, but because it could be the end of Studio Ghibli:

This from founder Hayao Miyazaki himself, who says that if the adaptation of Mary Norton’s Borrowers series of children’s fantasy novels doesn’t do well at box offices in the West, Ghibli could close up shop as a production studio and live on with a skeleton crew as a mere copyright management company. The film opened in Japan this past July.

Cars 2 movie review

Posted on by

I found myself at the movies for a second week in a row. Normally I’m not this big a movie goer (well, not any more) and usually see “new” movies on cable. Sometimes they’re movies I want to see (such as Inception) and sometimes they’re just on (such as watching Sex Drive Saturday night which is a poorly made remake of The Sure Thing). But this time, for the first time in a couple years, I went to a movie on opening weekend and saw Cars 2. The original Cars was one of my least favorite Pixar movies, along with A Bugs Life, so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the sequel. And, while it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, it wasn’t anywhere near Pixar’s usual standards. Let’s see why.

Continue reading →

Inception movie review

Posted on by

I’m a bit behind on my movies, so I didn’t see Inception until it showed up on HBO this weekend. I was a little wary of it since it had such great reviews and I was worried that it couldn’t live up to the hype. Now, I”ve been a Christopher Nolan fan since Memento. I enjoyed The Dark Knight, but was disappointed by Batman Begins*. So I jumped head first into Inception and was somewhat surprised.


*Why did everyone seem to like Batman Begins? It’s a cut rate poorly made Batman: Year One and, for some idiotic reason, Nolan kept up the stupid tradition of Batman pulling his mask off for every cute girl that wandered by. Half of Gotham City probably knows his identity now.

Continue reading →

Super 8 movie review

Posted on by

I haven’t seen many movies in the last year. It’s partially a busy life and partially that there’s not too much out there that interests me. But this weekend, I got to see a couple science fiction movies that intereste me, one from this year and one from last year. So, we’ll start off with Super 8. I generally enjoy JJ Abrams movies (and even some of his TV shows), so I was looking forward to Super 8. I can’t say that I was disappointed, because I did enjoy it, but it wasn’t quite as good as I was expecting. Let’s continue on and see why.

Continue reading →

Big Trouble movie review

Posted on by

There are some movies that aren’t appreciated when they come out. Maybe they didn’t catch the public’s fancy or they were up against a movie that was better advertised. Or, in some cases, it’s dumped after events out of everyone’s control make it impossible to release at a better time. That’s the situation that the movie Big Trouble found itself in. Based on a Dave Barry book with an all-star cast, it was scheduled to be released September 21, 2011, but with an ending that involved a bomb in a plane, it was decided to push it back and then it was dumped. But this movie deserves much more. Read on to see who is in Big Trouble.

Continue reading →

Miyazaki Week: Brief Reviews of Other Miyazaki Films

Posted on by

Having seen a few other Miyazaki films, but not finding any of them as compelling as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away or Kiki’s Delivery Service, I decided to just do brief reviews of the one’s I’ve seen. For tomorrow’s finale of Miyazaki Week, I’m planning on something a little different. So read the reviews and come back tomorrow.

Continue reading →

Miyazaki Week: Spirited Away movie review

Posted on by

Spirited Away was the first Miyazaki movie that I loved. I got it for my kids (the usual excuse for getting animated movies I want to see, but I think my wife is catching on) and was surprised how much they loved it as well. It’s an exciting and scary movie about a young girl and is filled with monsters and ghosts. But, at it’s heart, it’s about a young girl trying to find her way in the world without her parents. So, let’s go follow Chihiro/Sen and her adventures.

Continue reading →