It's Christmas Time Charlie Brown!

So it's that time of year again where they play holiday movies on every channel for about a month. I remember when I was little watching those old semi-claymation movies, Rudolph and Frosty and The Year Without a Santa Claus. But by far my favorite holiday movie is A Charlie Brown Christmas!

It's most definitely a classic. Take Charlie Brown the poor guy who no one loves and his dog Snoopy who is adored by all. Then you factor in Lucy the crazy girl, and Linus who can't be kept away from his blanket.

Then have these characters try and recreate the manger and explain to everyone the true meaning of Christmas. When Linus goes into that ever so famous monologue it's just one of those moments that you have to appreciate.

And I think Lucy's got it right, I'm waiting for January snow.

Vodka Martini, Shaken... not stirred

007 has been captivating the hearts of many in the movie world for decades. And now there's a new Bond on the block. Daniel Craig played the most recent James Bond and took the character to a different level than predecessors.

I had to go back and watch this movie after talking with one of my co-workers who said he was a huge fan of this version but said it was so completely different from the other ones.

I've only ever known Pierce Brosnan as Bond and his version of the Ian Flemming legend has always just been suave yet still deadly. This version by Craig was rugged and rough and ready to take a punch.

This character reminded me more of a Jack Bauer in a James Bond world. But unlike Jack Bauer, he still had the people's skills and manners.

I hope that this style of Bond movies can continue for another few years.

RottenTomatoes.com rating = 94%, and I would have to agree.

Van Wilder 2?

Seriously now, some movies definitely should NOT have a sequel... And Van Wilder was one of them...

The first movie is so hilariously epic and original, the guy who is the big man on campus and has been there for 7 years but still hasn't gotten a degree. This sequel, The Rise of Taj was a big mistake.

Taj was certainly a funny character in the first movie, he even stood out for being hilarious. But to focus the story on him was an idea gone wrong.

The storyline isn't horribly original except it just seems like a big competition between fraternity houses. You take the one house of loners and the house of the alpha dogs and then you match them up in an "epic" battle and of course who would come out on top?

RottenTomatoes.com gave it a rating of 8% and I would have to agree... Although in my opinion that might be 8% too much.

Trainspotting

I love IMDB because it always suggests movies that you might like based on the movies that you look up.. And this time it was Trainspotting

It takes place in Great Britain/Scotland and details the lives of a group of heroin addicts. It was interesting because I've never really seen a movie that talks about heroin except American Gangster and in that one it's a central thing but it's not really focused on.

Trainspotting was a little all over the place but I liked it. Ewan McGregor did a great job really playing a character that was outside of the box. I'm so used to him playing the pretty boy in stupid romantic comedies or the younger version of Obi Wan Kenobi... but this character seemed like a stretch for him.

The scene where he goes through withdrawl was really unique and interesting. I wonder if that's how someone who does those drugs actually feels when they don't get their fix.

Regardless, before I got it to watch I checked RottenTomatoes.com as always to see what the critic brigade had to say... Overall it's rated 88% and while I don't always agree with them, I definitely would in this case.

Live Free or Die Hard

Let me preface this by stating that I have never seen one of the Die Hard movies... so when I watched Live Free or Die Hard I had absolutely nothing to expect... except maybe that sweet scene where a car flies into a helicopter that I'd seen in the preview.

On the surface this is a very extreme concept... computer terrorists have hacked the government and will shut down everything that controls our life... and since computers do control just about everything - that means a country-wide blackout. It sounds so extreme, but it's a movie so I'm OK with it.

I've never been a huge fan of Bruce Willis - he always seems to play a rather large douche bag in films, but this role totally suits him. He was obnoxious and self-involved but the part called for it. And seeing Justin Long working on computers wasn't totally out of the ordinary. I mean he does appear in those totally creative ads for Apple.

Now take into consideration an extreme amount of high-volume action and out of the ordinary extreme-nature and you get this movie. After talking with one of my coworkers he told me that I wouldn't have liked the movie if I'd seen the others (he said this one is rather unconnected). But as a stand-alone movie I thought it was pretty cool.

A Los Angeles Times reporter writes, "That this implausible stew works as well as it does is in part a tribute to the unlikely but enjoyable rapport that forms between old school McClane and his youthful computer-savvy companion." I'm glad that he referred to it as implausible stew and I totally agree it worked well... The combination of brawn and brains always seems to prove entertaining.

And this movie was no exception. This is one of the few franchise sequels that actually worked this summer and I'd definitely watch it again.

He's not Italian, he's black.

It's hard to make time to get away from being in class, being at work, and trying to manage seeing people to keep my sanity... But every now and then I get to go to the movies. And when I do, I always make sure that I'm not just blowing it on some movie that will probably be horribly lame.

Ever since my roommates and I saw the previews for American Gangster we knew it would be good, but I wasn't totally positive what it was about. But the epic looking commercials and the buzz around it made it look like a movie I wouldn't regret seeing.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writes, "Call it the black "Scarface" or "the Harlem Godfather" or just one hell of an exciting movie, but the fact-based, 1970s-era American Gangster is already looking like a major awards contender." After seeing it I could do nothing but agree.

The movie was suspenseful, action-packed, and believable. I'm never surprised when Denzel Washington has a great performance in a movie because he's so consistent... but this character was so far outside of any that I've seen him play before. But he did it with conviction and made it completely realistic.

Even Russell Crow who I am not particularly fond of had a great performance. He's completely transformed from his gladiator physique into an almost middle aged New Jersey cop.

It was really interesting to see a mobster that wasn't an Italian gangster but instead a black man. And then to find out that this is based on a true story. Shocking to realize that this man had so much money and all from selling drugs.

I've never seen The Godfather but I've always heard how much of an epic movie it is and how it is THE MOVIE to see... And after seeing this one I think I might even splurge and visit Blockbuster.

Spoofs

Today there are so many movies that simply take cracks at other movies and compile them into what they call a full length feature film... In my opinion many of these should just be straight to DVD or not even created at all.

Last night I watched Not Another Teen Movie which was one of the original of these spoof-like movies... It follows the stories of Never Been Kissed, Ten Things I Hate About You, Varsity Blues, She's All That, Cruel Intentions etc. I'll admit I do think it's pretty funny and those are the movies that were huge hits while my generation were high school kids.

But the continuation of these spoofs just makes them worse and worse. Recently I saw Epic Movie, a movie that in it's preview vowed to be more epic than all the other spoofs out there. But I'm pretty sure the 45 minute nap that I took in the middle was more epic than the movie itself.

A comment on IMDB's page should have tipped me off... "a movie so funny you'll forget to laugh" and the fact that it received 2% rating at RottenTomatoes.com should have been a clear indicator... This movie is a grade A crap!

But since I don't like to just go along with the critics and what others tell me, I like to still watch movies for myself. What did I discover? Maybe in some cases everyone else is right.

Now don't get me wrong, I love South Park, Family Guy and some of the original spoof movies... But Epic Movie is just an epic disaster!

Disturbingly True...

I had no idea what to expect from the movie Alpha Dog going into it, and when I heard that Justin Timberlake was in it, I thought this could be horrible… however, after watching it, I really liked it.

The story takes place in California and I had no idea that it was based on a true story. So when there kept being subtitles that said witness I was confused. It follows the story of a drug dealer who can’t pay his dues so a rival dealer kidnaps his kid brother. Along the way they befriend the kid brother and eventually the movie takes a drastic change of mood.

Ben Foster and Justin Timberlake have come a long way from their early Disney days to becoming believable California drug dealers. Even Richard Roeper agrees that Timberlake “has what it takes to be a genuine movie star.”

While the movie does lull at times, it never made me want to turn it off. In fact, especially since I had no idea of the true story, when things went sour I couldn’t stop watching. Once you’ve started it seems like you become connected to this entire cast of characters and you see what each and every one of them is going through and why they make the choices they do.

Regardless, like the true story, the movie does have a heart-wrenching ending including a stellar final scene from Sharon Stone who proves that she still has something up her sleeves. She manages to transform her character from concerned mother to borderline psycho by the end and the first time I watched, I thought it was the actual mother who was speaking at the end and not Stone.

Robert Denerstein from the Denver Rocky Mountain News writes, "There's a feel of authenticity about Alpha Dog, primarily because of the performances of the young actors." And, by the end of this movie I forgot that I was watching a movie and felt like I had been watching a crime reenactment on some crime documentary. Overall, I’d rate the movie a B.

Unplanned pregnancies or “pleasant surprises” are not uncommon in the U.S. So obviously taking the concept and turning it into a comedy was inevitable… And the recent movie, Knocked Up takes this example and creates an excellent example.

It starts out like every other typical storyline, the guy is a burnout who creates a website that tells people which movies and at what times in those movies they can find naked actresses… and the girl is an up and coming worker at E! TV. Guy goes to the bar and girl gets drunk with sister, sister leaves girl at the bar with guy, guy and girl hook up, and eight weeks later… “Shit, I’m pregnant!”

The movie does a great job showing the truth of beer goggles. Katherine Heigl is a beautiful blonde bombshell and Seth Rogen is a large chubby man with a Jewish fro. While poking fun at the idea of a hookup gone it portrays a great example of what happens in real life, especially in college. Many people wake up the next morning and would like to believe “if I don’t remember it, it never happened.” But pregnancy is not exactly one of those things that can happen.

Judd Apatow is the mastermind behind the movie. He is infamous for these indie-style comedies that take actors who actually emulate real people and make the stories more believable. Apatow created the TV sleeper hits Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared, as well as the box-office hits, 40-Year-Old Virgin and Superbad. According to Newsweek movie critic, Apatow is “making the freshest, most honest mainstream comedies in Hollywood.”

Rottentomatoes.com rates this movie at 91% and I would have to completely agree. I remember seeing the movie in the theaters and not even knowing about it before, but after leaving everyone I talked to enjoy it. And now that it just came out on DVD I would still say that I completely enjoy it. It takes a subject that is somewhat controversial and turns it into a two-hour laugh-fest. Overall if I had to give the movie a grade I’d give it an A.

Nothing's gonna change my world...

Across the Universe at face-value is an ambitious project… Taking songs that were popular in the 1960s and making them hits today is not uncommon. But taking songs that defined a generation and turning them into a story that does the same certainly is. And at the same time, this has to be something fresh and original.

I remember seeing the preview back in March for Across the Universe and immediately thought that it would be something I would have to see. I would definitely consider myself a fan of the Beatles music and think that a lot of their stuff is timeless. So when it finally came time for the movie to be out in the theatres I grabbed my two biggest Beatle-fanatic friends and dragged them along for the show.

According to RottenTomatoes.com, the movie has been considered a hit by 51% of reviewers from periodicals across the country. However, other similar movie sites like moviefone.com and imdb.com show a different view from people that have seen the movie. The majority appeared to enjoy their experience.

From my own experience I would most certainly agree… From opening to end the movie was both visually and musically appealing. The special effects used were definitely visually stimulating and added to the idea that the characters in the movie are living in the 1960s during a time of peace, love, and experimentation… it was a real-life fantasia.

The entire cast of characters were likeable in the film, even the ones who had only minor roles and the best part being that they’re for the most part unknown. There was a character to represent every kind of person from that era and they were easy to relate with. On top of it, they were talented, and knowing that they did 90% of their musical performances live is quite impressive.

Overall, the movie not only captured a generation in the sense that it showed how people thought and believed but it also had countless historical references. I remember watching Forrest Gump in my high school US History class and our assignment was to write down the cultural references for each decade. I feel like a teacher talking about the 1960s could do something similar with Across the Universe.

Infamous film critic Roger Ebert posts on his website that one reason why he likes the movie is that it isn’t dated. He points out, “Most miraculous of all, it's not dated; the stories could be happening now, and in fact, they are.” It’s interesting to see a movie that deals with college, immigration, racial tension, war, and coming of age all wrapped into one. It might be set in the 1960s but there are definitely college students still coming to terms with their situation, immigration issues with people trying to get in and stay in, racial tension especially with the most recent “Jena-6”, war with the “war” on terror, and people are still coming of age and realizing that becoming an adult is completely different than they had previously thought.

Overall, I was impressed with the filmmaker’s ability to make a movie that kept my attention for an entire two hours without thinking, “oh when is this going to end?” And I could tell from the other people in the theater that they enjoyed it too… almost everyone stuck around through the entire credits.