WALL-E (2008)

Rating: 95%
This to me in the kind of film that I prefer to watch only once in a while to keep it enjoyable to watch every time. So here's my final Pixar review # 11: WALL-E.

Plot: 700 years ago, Earth was abandoned due to too much trash. a set of robots called WALL-Es to clean up. All but one have broken down. And this one WALL-E for all these 700 years has developed a curiosity for things from earth back before humanity left. One day a ship comes to Earth dropping off a female robot named EVE. WALL-E and EVE start to take a liking to each other. But when WALL-E shows EVE a plant that he found during his work, she suddenly stores the plant inside her and goes into a standby mode. A ship comes to pick her up and WALL-E stows away as the ship leads to the main ship Axiom where the human population is suffering from bone loss and has become very obese.

Now there's a fair amount of people who don't really care for this movie because it's preachy. Well...yes it's preachy but it gets away with it, with the story, characters and all that good stuff. I mean the story is very clever even if it's preachy, the characters are VERY lovable, and the romance between WALL-E and EVE is simply adorable. The animation is also very beautiful. It's just a wonderful film that should be remembered even if we do leave Earth just the same way humans did in that movie...which I don't think will ever happen.

Characters:
WALL-E: He was awesome. Simply adorable. His voice, his characteristics, his devotion for EVE, how can you not love this little guy?
EVE: EVE was a lot of fun too. How she was the smarter one, quick-tempered and yet had this really fun side of her that makes her relationship with WALL-E go really well together.
AUTO: I thought he was a cool villain just because of his voice and his movement and features.

Music: The score was excellent. You also can easily enjoy the songs in the movie from Hello Dolly, "La vie en Rose" from Louis Armstrong and while "Down to Earth" had no chance against "Jai Ho" at the oscars, it's still a good enough song that it earned being at least nominated.

And that's my review for WALL-E. It may be preachy, but it's still a very fun film with lovable characters, a nice story, and very well done animation. It easily is one of the complete best films that Pixar has made.

So that's the end of my Pixar Marathon. I hoped you enjoyed what I had to say for all of these mostly very good films that Pixar has given us for our families and even friends to enjoy. If you want to see my Toy Story 3 review since that was done long before this marathon even started, here's a link:  http://haksreviews.blogspot.com/2010/12/toy-story-3-2010.html

And here's to what's in store for Brave within the next within the next 22 days. Hope to see you then.

Dark Shadows (2012)

Rating: 30%
My boss - yes I mean the total ultimate trekkie for those of you who read my Horrible Bosses review - use to tell me a lot about the TV show. How while it was a over dramatic soap opera, it became awesome the moment they put Barnabas Collins in the show. I tried to watch it a little myself...didn't get far. By that I mean I couldn't watch the show at all without playing a video game or something to keep myself amused while watching it. But now we have come to the actual film made by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. So let's take a look at how that worked out.

Plot: in 1760, Barnabas Collins was a wealthy playboy to a fishing business who broke the heart of a servant who was a witch named Angelique. For revenge, she cast a spell on Barnabas' lover Josette making her jump off a cliff and then turns Barnabas into a vampire. She then reveals to the townspeople that he's a vampire and they lock him up in a coffin and bury him. He breaks out of his coffin later to the year 1972 where Angelique has made a fishing business that is rivaling the Collins' business. So Barnabas convinces the matriarch of the current generation of the Collins family that he is a vampire and to allow him to bring the Collins family back to their former glory.

This movie is mixed. They have there little bit of humor, some of the ideas they put at is awesome, and while I didn't expect much with the story, there were a couple of things that I didn't expect that were nice touches. But, the humor isn't spectacular, and while some of the unexpected stuff from the story was nice, to me they were hardly structured well. My main examples *WARNING SPOILERS* would firstly be that for a horror comedy that aims at family being the best thing in the world (which was cheesy, I mean seriously) , I don't think they gave us the family that Barnabas was fighting for very well. I especially mean how David's dad left and never came back. Now bear in mind that I barely touched the show, but I seriously doubt that fans were okay with him being that way. Not to mention I think him coming back would've been nicer touch to the whole family thing. Actually, they don't make the family too much of a priority. Oh sure it's because of family, Barnabas fights on against Angelique, but during the very end it's about the romance between him and Victoria, then the little twist over Dr. Hoffman, and then that's it. I just think that if they were making the whole deal about family so important, you'd think they'd end on something that has to do with it. You know, make it the final word. The second thing is the romance between Barnabas and Victoria. I think the way they started it was way to quick. I mean after Barnabas moves in, they have the moment where they read Love Story and then later in the film, he's asking Carolyn about woman in this current age. In fact, all the dialogue they have is just a brief talk about her past and then say that she has always known him and boom, there's your romantic moment that's actually built in just one scene after hardly doing anything outside of reading throughout the movie so far. I just thought it was poorly developed with that said. and finally, how there were parts in the movie that was just interesting but they didn't go too much on. My main example is Carolyn turning out to be a werewolf. I mean in the eyes of certain film geeks like me, we are talking about Hit-Girl being a werewolf...that's awesome. the problem is, she gets her butt kicked a little easily which is part of the other part of the problem which is that her moment as a werewolf is really short. It was just a really cool twist and I just wished we had more! really both that and the deal with the romance in this film leads to the all around problem that they only develop a little on a lot of things, and then just squish them together to be temporarily introduced, then go back to Barnabas' battle against Angelique. This somewhat falls in line to what I said about Bridesmaids. They hardly worked on the other characters, and in the end, it was more about the main character, Annie than all the other ones that we were interested in. Now it's not quite as bad in Dark Shadows because these characters are more developed and have an actual part in the climax, but at the end of it, it's just all about Barnabas just like it was all about Annie in Bridesmaids. Plus, we're getting these characters on a less than two hour long movie. So maybe there was no way they could've given us more than they did for all of these characters no matter how interesting they are. If that's the case, then maybe they should've made this longer or something because this didn't really do the job to give us these characters from fan and non-fans alike. *END OF SPOILERS* Now when it comes to the fact that they've taken a Gothic soap opera into a horror comedy, I don't think it really worked out that well. I mean I agree that maybe they needed to make it a little different from the show since the show was not exactly LOST and stuff like that. Heck, this movie probably works better for some people since we are given a Dark Shadows story in less than two hours rather then one that's 1,225 episodes long. But on a whole, it's very likely that they make it so off from the show that it'll work for very few fans. I mean when my boss saw the trailer for the film all he said was that it was a forsaken shame.

Acting/Characters:
Johnny Depp/Barnabas Collins: There was a critic who said, "How is it possible that a man who just a few years ago stood as one of our most exciting and unconventional actors has now become one of the most predictable?" -Matt Burnson. And I regrettably have to agree. Depp's performance was very predictable. In terms of how he speaks, or tries to be funny or dramatic, it looks like it's been done enough times already that we got the idea long before he was buried. What happened to all the different voices or the unpredictability and all that? This particularity hurts in terms of being Barnabas Collins. We mostly have Johnny Depp being Johnny Depp but we probably don't get enough of him as Barnabas the vampire. Sure he kills a few people but I didn't find those moments as serious as they could've been for something horror related. Because we have him killing people, which is confronted with the Johnny Depp who says stuff like, "I'm terrible sorry, but I'm quite thirsty."
Michelle Pfeiffer/Elizabeth Collins Stoddard: She was nice. The one thing I did like was how she was...well a determined matriarch. Because I didn't think she's be anything like that after seeing the trailers so it was nice to see that she was.
Gulliver McGrath/David Collins: This was another character I thought they should've developed on more. David was being viewed as this mysterious kid who thinks there's ghosts after his mother's death. They show that, but they don't go too far with it. they show it on a couple of scenes and then it's on to Barnabas' thing.

Music: If you like music from the 70's whether it's Alice Cooper or not, then you should have no problem with the songs in this film. As for the score, I didn't notice too much to have much of an opinion.

Editing: I thought it was nice.

And that's my review for Dark Shadows. It's a little okay, but there's so many things wrong with it that it really doesn't work too well with developing a lot of the stuff that's interesting or the characters you might like.


And if you want to see my video review. here's my links for both parts for them.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Ygiqszrk4&list=PL29674ED22E57C355&index=3&feature=plpp_video

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orKCKl4c3hc&feature=relmfu
   

A Bug's Life (1998)

Rating: 85%
Oh man, I remember only too well how this use to be one of  my favorite movies and the video game was my all around favorite when I was in elementary school. So here's Pixar review # 10: A Bug's Life.

Plot: In a place called Ant Island, a colony of ants are made to pick food for a gang of grasshoppers head by their leader Hooper for protection. But one day an ant named Flik accidentally knocks the offering off into the stream, Hooper demands that they ants make another offering with twice the food. Flik then comes up with the idea to find other bigger bugs to come and fight Hooper and his gang. He finds a group of bugs to come and fight, but eventually when they come to Ant Island, they revealed to Flik that they actually are circus bugs. So Flik has to make the colony still think they're going to fight the grasshoppers while he tries to still use the bugs to help.

Like I said, I loved this movie to death when I was a kid. And why not? The characters are lovable, the world is creative and some of the comedy were just awesome when I was a kid. But I think for me, what really got me into completely loving this movie was just the story and primarily the all around adventure. Throughout most of my elementary school days, this movie was one of the kid movies that were a super lot of fun because of the exciting adventure that I just loved to death and still do with some of the other films like Hook, The Prince and the Pauper and The Rescuers Down Under. Now I am older to be aware of how it's similar to The Seven Samurai. And I admit that the all around lying to everybody bit is not that swell. But it gets away with it by still giving us an exciting and fun movie to enjoy.

Actors/Characters:
Flik: I loved Flik. He was clever with all of his creative inventions, he kept thinking of ideas to help things work out, and the was all around a very clever hero in the end.
Hooper: I think I viewed Hooper as one of the biggest villains when I was a kid. Now yes, I know better now with being familiar with villains like Venom, The Joker, Norman Osborn, Hannibal Lecter, Voldemort, Skynet, the San Diego Chargers, the Boston Red Sox, Shakespeare in Love, etc. But he's still a pretty menacing villain when it comes to his all around look and his desire for power. Plus it's interesting to watch him now, now that I know he was voiced by Kevin Spacy.


Music: The music was awesome. I really liked the music from the theme score to that song that ant band was playing when the circus ants came to Ant Island, and I personally really liked the music during Hooper and his gang coming back to Ant Island. I think with that last one I just thought it was an awesome music to give us an exciting yet sort of villainous - mostly just because it's played as we see the villains - song to build the suspense of the grasshoppers coming back.

And that's my review for A Bug's Life. It's funny, it's adventurous, and if you grew up loving it, I hope you still do in at least a certain way and if you haven't seen it, maybe you should check it out.

Up (2009)

Rating: 80%
Well here's supposedly the big one. The one that practically everyone loves. The first animated film to be nominated for best picture since Beauty and the Beast. I am of coarse talking about the movie that's my Pixar review #9: Up.

Plot: Carl and his wife Ellie were fans of an adventurer named Charles Muntz who was last seen re-exploring a place in South Africa called Paradise Falls. They tried to good there themselves but budget cuts and ultimately Ellie's death kept them from going. Then as he gets older, Carl gets evicted from his out after attacking a construction worker and is ordered to a retirement home. Instead, he inflates a large number of balloons tied up to his house to use it as an airship to fly to Paradise Falls. But along the way, a young boy named Russell accidentally stows away in his house and joins for the trip.


Now there's one thing that nobody who's anybody should deny: this movie is original as frick! I mean a guy using his house as an airship, plus the stuff that joins that like dogs having translator collars, it's just one film that really succeeds in giving us something entirely different. Most of the characters were a lot of fun and some of the comedy is very memorable from Alpha's broken translator to Muntz's reaction to Russell smearing the window as he's floating by. And the first ten minutes of the movie are completely awesome. Just incredibly well done.But is it altogether as wonderful as everyone says it is? To me, no. I mean please don't misunderstand me, it deserves a lot of the praise that it's been getting. But I feel that the whole journey on Carl's part mostly was just not original *WARNING SPOILERS* You know he's going to avoid Russel, Kevin and Dug throughout the journey, you can tell they'll start to grow on him and it's clear that in the end he's going to let go of his dream to help them. *END OF SPOILERS* So the movie is very good when it comes to its originality and it's all around usual family humor and fun Pixar style. But since Carl's part as far as I care is no better than McQueen's  in the first Cars movie, it just doesn't do it for me.

Characters:
Carl: Well my main opinion has already been said in the spoilers so yeah.
Russell: I thought Russell was okay. He wasn't horrible but I didn't find too much in him that I found interesting.
Dug: Dug I easily loved. I mean he's a dog for one thing and the things he said are cute and can probably be mostly what most dogs are thinking at certain times. He's a very lovable character and pretty much my favorite in this film.

Music: It was very nice. the theme music was nice.

And that's my review for Up. It's funny and also original an heck, but Carl's personal goal and the change throughout the journey just was unoriginal enough that it didn't work for me.      

Drive (2011)

Rating: 90%
I remember how some of my friends from film school talked about how this film is totally awesome when it was in theaters. Sadly I didn't find the time to take a look myself when it was out. But tonight I just watched it with my brothers and my dad using Netflix on Xbox Live and here's what I think about it.

Plot: An unnamed driver lives in L.A. as a mechanic, stuntman, and a getaway driver. He befriends his neighbor Irene and her son Benicio who before long gets his father back, Standard, from prison. But Standard owed some people from prison money so they get him to rob a pawn shop to pay his due and have the Driver give him a ride there and back. But the job results in Standard gets shot and The Driver finds out that the people who Standard owed the money to planned to double-cross. So he goes out to get back at them.

This was a very interesting and altogether different movie. The tone was very quite, the story was interesting and the way it turned out was creative. Though the tone may have been done too well when it came to there not being to many reactions from the characters. For example when a mafia guy was getting beat up by the driver at a strip club, the strippers' didn't really have a reaction. They just watched. But that was just one thing and it wasn't that big of a deal. It is surprising though that it was a very gory film. I mean that's not a big deal to me but I didn't expect that to happen at all.

Actors/Characters:
Ryan Glosling/The Driver: He was very interesting. I mean he hardly raised his voice or made any big facial expressions. It was just fascinating. Altogether he was a very unique character with how he was caring for Irene and Benicio and not really trying any big between him and Irene and even willing to help Standard, he's just a cool character. 

Music: I really liked the eletrical-pop music that was playing. I think my favorite song that they played was "A Real Hero" by College and I thought the timing in playing Oh My Love by Rix Ortolani was just weird.

Editing: It was pretty enjoyable. I admit that I liked how there where scenes where they cut between something that happens and the dialogue that happens before that certain action happens.

And that's my review for Drive. It's unique, it's interesting, and I would recommend it if you want to see a movie that's just totally different from what you'd normally see.

Finding Nemo (2003)

Rating: 90%
Ah yes. I still remember the second time especially for when i saw this in theaters. Anyway, let's move on to Pixar review #8: Finding Nemo.

Plot: After his wife and all of his eggs except for one are eaten by a barracuda, Merlin becomes overprotective of his son from the surviving egg, Nemo. On Nemo's first day of school, he is captured by a scuba diver who is also a dentist. Merlin swims to find his son and rescue him with a fish named Dory who suffers from short term memory loss.

It is not uncommon to know just like most of the Pixar films that this is a very good movie. It's funny, clever, whole family to enjoy, the whole nine yards. I think my favorite moments especially when I was a kid was when they were in the East Australian Current because that looked like fun to ride, and of coarse the seagulls because they were hilarious. You may get sick of them keep saying "mine! mine! mine! mine! mine! mine! mine!" but they still are fun to watch. The animation you also have to appreciate with animating the sea and all that with 3D animation. The characters are also very lovable and they story was well told.

Characters:
Marlin: Now Marlin too me isn't too original considering what he was throughout the film and how he changed by the end of the film. But he's still a nice character.
Dory: Yeah she was a lot of fun. She had really funny lines, her character was interesting with what she goes through and what happens to her throughout the journey, just an enjoyable character all around.
Bruce: I think I liked Bruce the most when I was a kid. He was a unique character with his different view about fish and how crazy he got after smelling Dory's blood. Not to mention the Shinning reference was nice.

Music: The score was very nice. Was it a match for Return of the King for Original Score? Frick no!

And that's my review for Finding Nemo. It's a fun, lovable movie, with funny character and clever animation.

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Rating: 90%
Alright now let's take a look at the one that has a sequel coming up next year. Here's Pixar review #7: Monsters, Inc.

Plot: In the world of monsters, the scariest monsters work in a company called Monsters Incorporated, where they use doors to go through the human world and scare children in order to create power for the monster world using their screams. The monsters believe that children are toxic to the point where a single touch can kill a monster. But when a child gets into the Monster world by scarer Sully and with the company and the monster world in chaos, it's up to him and his best friend Mike to bring the kid back to the human world before they're caught.

Straight forward, this is a very clever movie. Takes the idea about monsters in kid's closets to a totally different idea and point of view. The one issue I have is the whole scare record thing. I fee like they didn't elaborate too much about that. is it a record for most scream throughout a monsters life? or most screams in a month? year? how does it work? But anyway, that's just one little issue throughout the entire film. The rest is just a clever idea with some fun characters, cute moments when it comes to Boo, and some pretty good comedy. It's easily another one of Pixar's enjoyable film.

Characters:
Sully: Sometimes I think of sully as the kind version of The Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Because as we saw when we was scaring a kid, he can be a heck of a...well...monster, and I do think of The Beast practically every time I see his horns because they're probably exactly the same. But anyway, Sully was a kind hearted, friendly monster who didn't give, up. Easily a lovable character.
Mike: I heard it said that Billy Crystal (the actor who did the voice for Mike) was one his favorite characters if not his all time favorite that he has ever done. I don't know if he did say that, but it's understandable if he did. Mike was very funny with all those ways making Boo laugh and how he doesn't notice stuff like being covered or something when he's on TV or on a cover of a magazine. All around one character that was a lot of fun for families to watch.

Music: I admit that "If I didn't have you" is a very nice song. Did it deserve winning best original song? maybe. I admit I would've personally liked "May it be" winning, but that's the Lord of the Rings fan in me.

And that's my review for Monsters, Inc. It's a clever film with a lot of fun for families to enjoy. What the upcoming prequel will bring? We'll just have to wait and see.




 

Batman & Robin (1997)

Rating: 5%
Well here's the last of the original movie franchise. The worst one. The terrifyingly horrible one. One of the very worst movies ever known to mankind. The one and thankfully only, Batman and Robin.

Plot: Batman and Robin continue their partnership after the events of Batman Forever. They now face three new villains. One is named Mr. Freeze who is stealing diamond in attempt to get more research in finding a cure for his wife who has a rare disease and has been frozen by Mr. Freeze until he can cure her. The second and third villains are Poison Ivy, a woman with the intentions to take over the world with her plants, and her bodyguard, Bane who has super strength due to the drug Venom. But while this is happening, Alfred is dying of the same disease that Mr. Freeze's wife has, and his niece from England, Barbra has come to visit.

Blood-Frick is this movie awful!!!! Remember when I said how Batman Forever is bad because it was too big of a change and too much for kids? They were being polite there - you know what, polite doesn't even cover it. Sure none of the villains were overacting and acting like total Saturday cartoon villains, (except for probably Bane), but we still get lots of pretty lights unnecessarily - this time instead of being in a lot of the props, there's some on the Batmobile, Mr. Freeze's costume - and while it's brief we still have criminals with glow in the dark make-up. Then it gets worse. For the kids, we get countless cliches such as villains who want to take over the world, cartoon sound effects and terrible puns, usually ones that have to do with ice. And then there's plot holes that don't make sense such as *WARNING SPOILER...NOT THAT ANYONE REALLY CARES* 1) why didn't Batman use the heater ray thingy to cripple Mr. Freeze so that he'll have enough time to rescue Robin. 2) why did Freeze spare Batman instead of killing him while he was escaping earlier in the film? 3) Why did Robin reveal to Poison Ivy that he had rubber lips and 4) how exactly was ivy defeated by being knocked back into her plant that's suppose to be her throne or whatever.*END OF SPOILERS* Also, the action was poorly done and not that exciting. And finally, if there's one thing that's absolutely stupid, is how when Robin rammed through a wall, he made the Robin signal out of the hole on the wall, which I'm just like...what?

Actors/Characters:
George Clooney/Batman: Is he the worst batman so far? Sadly, yes. He just wasn't into it. Although to be fair, this movie wasn't exactly the kind where he could no matter how much he tried. But for me, I just can't take the idea seriously. Because similar to how I partly feel about Anne Hathaway being Catwoman for Dark Knight Rises, I've seen a lot of Cooney's movies from O Brother Were Art Thou to The Descendants. And...I'm not sure if this is the right way to explain it, but knowing him from those films, just makes the idea of him being someone like Batman just seems off.
Chris O'Donnell/Robin: He was annoying. I mean he was right at some points when it came to how stubborn Batman can be, but the way he displayed was just less than amusing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger/Mr. Freeze: In fairness, the majority of his lines where really stupid. But still, his all around performance was not amusing at all...and now that I think about it, his helmet sort of make him look like Megatron from Transformers.
Michael Gough/Alfred: Now The one thing I did like were the little dramatic moments concerning Alfred and his sickness. In fact, there's plenty of reasons to say otherwise, but for the most part, I thought the one dramatic moment between Bruce and Alfred was a little nice.

Music: The theme is still just okay. The rest I couldn't care less about.

Editing: Yeah the editing was not particularly special, as there were a couple of edits that I thought were dump. For instance, I think there could've been a better way to bring Bane into the scene when Poison Ivy appear rather than just cut to a clip of him as a way of showing that Ivy has noticed him. Also when Robin was being dragged underwater by Ivy's plants, there was a shot where he was suppose to get out from underwater then dragged back in. But how did they do that? They just played that part of the clip then played it in reverse. On top of that, the shot that they used for that, is the shot that was used for him actually getting fully out of the water.

And that's my review for Batman and Robin. It's way to kid-friendly, has way to many cliches, terrible acting, and...well you get the idea. But we should be thankful that Joel Schumacher has made an apology for anyone who was highly disappointed in this film. It is nice to know that at least someone among the people who have made disappointing film have done something like that. So points for Schumacher, but still a horrid film.

Batman Forever (1995)

Rating: 40%

thank the lord almighty i wasn't some teenage nerd when this movie came out. i would have been totally disappointed.

Plot: Gotham City is currently being threatened by former district attorney Harvey Dent who is now super villain Two-Face. During his reign of terror, he kills a family of acrobats save for the youngest son, Dick whom Bruce takes under his wing. Meanwhile, Wayne Enterprise employee Edward Nygma become furious with Bruce Wayne because he shuts down the research for his invention. So while in attempt to have his revenge, he forms an alliance against Batman with Two-Face as the new villain, The Riddler.  

 Now I admit that adding more of the story of what happens to Bruce after his parents died was a nice dramatic touch. Some of the design such as Robin's costume and the new Batmobile were pretty cool. And It was nice with how loyal they were to the original story of Robin. Now...where the frick to begin with the downs... well for one thing, it's made probably way too much for kids. I mean we have Jim Carrey and Jones with their acting being all cartoon like. And then there's lights. there are lights on practically almost every. single. fricking. prop. we have lights on the rounds on the machine guns, we have lights on the musical instruments on the party scene, we have lights on the batarang and the Bat-Tazer. There's no reason to do that at all! The way they were trying to be dark (or at least I think this is how they were trying to still be dark) was silly. I mean you have 'spooky' music that seems to be the theme or something for The Riddler, criminals acted like they were crazy natives with glow-in-the-dark makeup and costumes. And the setting is probably too different from what we remember. Because with Batman and Batman Returns we have Gotham a place where it's kind of the modern world back then mixed in a comic book world. But now we have a city that's modern back when the movie came out, but with crazy stuff going on like gangs dressed like crazy natives with glow-in-the-dark make-up. On the whole, I can understand that maybe Batman needed to be a little lighter to the general public back then after Batman Returns. But the change is so bad that it may still be fun in the action and story kind of way, but as a Batman film, it just flops to give us the fun yet dark adventure that we enjoy from the Dark Knight.


Actors/Characters:
Val Kilmer/Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman: I thought he gave a sort of average performance in being Bruce Wayne and Batman. With Batman, he gave a good voice in terms of trying to disguise his voice at least a little bit to hide his identity. But I think the main issue was being Bruce Wayne. He wasn't horrible, in fact he probably did the best acting among the leading cast. But it's hard to accept the super big change between him and Michael Keaton.
Jim Carrey/The Riddler: Jim Carrey does his thing. Moves like he's a cartoon and everything. Which is fine if you just want to enjoy Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey. But long before I became for familiar with the villain, I knew that The Riddler is not so super crazy Jim Carrey Style. Now sure he's the way he's suppose to be with still giving riddles and stuff. If you were looking at the script or maybe just the outline for it for all we know. But what comes out of it, maybe fun for kids and Jim Carrey fans, but for everyone else...it's just not right.
Tommy Lee Jones/Two-Face: What, I repeat, WHAT THE FRICK IS WITH JONES MAKING A JOKER OUT OF TWO-FACE!?!?! I mean if you think about it, his movement, energy, even his laugh in a certain way was just a little more like Joker. Really, Jones did some serious overacting in this film. Really that's the whole problem with both him and Carrey. They totally overacted (which is expected of Carrey but not so much with Jones) and that from a point of view of the script or just the general outline of this movie, they would be the way they were suppose to be. But what comes afterwords in terms of acting and also costume and makeup in Jones' case, just gave us completely different characters then what is wanted out of those villain being in a movie as far as a lot of us are concerned.

Music: While prefer the Danny Elfman score always when it comes to the original movie series. But the score for this movie is not that bad. But again, the 'spooky' music that seemed to be the theme for The Riddler, just didn't work with that kind of villain.

And that's my review for Batman Forever. You may still gets some adventure and fun out of it. But the way that it's made probably too much for kids, the overacting from Carry and Jones giving us different characters, and just some of the changes all around from the criminals to the setting of Gotham City all around is just too much.

17 again (2009)

Rating: 65%
Okay. So a couple of months ago, a few people from this Facebook film group that I'm in made a claim that Zac Efron has grown as an actor since the end of his High School Musical days. So I asked that they tell me which of his movies I should see that are post-HSM to prove it. So I just watched one of the films they told me to watch: 17 Again.


Plot: 17 year old Mike O'Donnell abandons his dreams of basketball when he learns that his girlfriend Scarlett is pregnant. 20 years later, he and Scarlett are separated due to his ongoing regrets about his choice of leaving his dreams behind. They have two kids who don't want anything to do with him and he is scheduled to be divorced. One night, Mike spots a janitor looking like he's about to jump off a bridge. He tries to stop him but the janitor disappears and he falls off the bridge into a whirlpool that turns him back into his 17 year old self. So with the help of his best friend, he applies to the same high school he went - where his kids are also going - and try to relive his high school life while trying to help his kids with their high school experience.

There's a good logical part of me that can't believe I'm saying this, but for what it's worth...it's not that bad of a film. I mean let's get one thing perfectly clear: it's not a very original story, nor was it structured original. But the concept...I admit I liked. I mean being 17 has only been almost five years for me rather than 20, but even then, it's a nice film where as you watch it, you might pause it and just think what would you do if you got to be 17...heck, experience your whole high school career all over again. And while the whole relationship between Mike and his family is not incredibly fresh, I can still appreciate what Mike is doing throughout the film, especially when it comes to helping his kids. What gets me I would say is just how it gives you the nice way of relating to people from high school. So many of us either experiences high school as the best or the worst of times. How teenagers can face hell when it comes to bullies, try to become popular, and even think that how you feel about somebody is going to last forever. I may not have been shoved into a locker, been captain of a sports team, or heck, had one wonderful girlfriend that I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. But still, I'm a man who had a life as a high schooler, and there's plenty of things I'd think or view differently or tell people I knew about stuff differently if I went back in time to relive so much as one particular year in high school. So I liked it when it came to how Mike too the opportunity to try to point that out. Now that's not entirely accurate since he mostly did that to his kids, but he did try briefly to do the same to the other kids which has to count for something. Now as for how he became 17 again, I'll give some credit that the whirlpool is a different take. But I think it was done when it was shown again during the end. also, *WARNING SPOILERS* I really didn't like how they ended the movie. It was very abrupt to me. I really felt like they should've shown more then just Scarlett and Mike getting back, Ned and Jane being together and Mike being the new coach. I mean I'm sure Scarlett and Mike live happily ever after with their kids, but I would've liked to have seen stuff to see the kid's happy ending. Like...maybe a pic of Maggie dating a better guy when she's in college and Alex dating that girl he liked and getting the scholarship. Maybe not that stuff per say, but it felt dumb leaving them out of the ending. *END OF SPOILERS* But I will also admit some of the comedy is cute. Even the Star Wars jokes managed to be a bit amusing.
 
Acting/Characters:
Zac Efron/Mike O'Donnell (17 years old): *sigh* I hate do admit that the guy who took part in making an ultimate moron of a character like Troy Bolton actually did a nice job but...he did. I mean in the beginning he was being Troy Bolton with the dancing and the basketball, but luckily, by the time he held a basketball again, he gave us a different character...not by too much, but enough. He managed to be fun, caring, had some decent emotional moments, and had a nice mature side to him. Plus if I recall correctly, he doesn't sing at all which I'm sure is a score for people who hate High School Musical SOOOOO much more than I do.
Matthew Perry/Mike O'Donnell: The one big issue...HE WASN'T THERE LONG ENOUGH!!!! Granted, this is the Friends fan in me, but still, for what it was worth, he was fun to watch. He had his cute moments and he had his one funny getting pissed off at someone moment, I mean Efron was fine, but there's the part of me that wished that somehow Perry was there the whole time...man I'm such a biased Friends fan.

Music: Don't care about the score, but some of the songs were awesome. I mean "Danger Zone" was on it and...I don't remember the rest, but they were still fun.

Editing: It was mostly fine, but when Mike went to his first day of school, there were a lot of shots were they show an action, and then just play it again in a different shot during that scene. Then later during the end there were to transactions where it was fade to black and then an add dissolve into the next scene. Both of which I thought were unneeded and were a little dumb.

And that's my review for 17 Again. In terms of both how it's structured and the story all around, it's not original, but the concept about reliving high school and the not that bad acting for Efron made it work out to be an okay film.
   

Batman (1989)

My Rating: 80%

I remember the very first time I saw this film. It was probably around 1997 and the only thing I especially remembered since then was the final battle. I saw a fair bit once in a while later on, but it wasn't until mid 2009 that I finally fully saw the film. And it was fun to see this Joker again but the Batman was hard to get through my head concerning how I started to become familiar with the actor before seeing this again, but despite that and one or two other things, that doesn't stop me from having fun from fully seeing this film after so long.

Plot: Gotham is a city that's corrupted by crime. The only person who is trying to fight crime is a mysterious vigilante dressed like a bat. Reporter Alexander Knox is trying to find out who this mysterious person is along with photographer Vicki Vale. Meanwhile, crime boos, Carl Grissom sends his second in command Jack Napier to raid a chemical company only to be ratted out by his boss and the police attempt to arrest him. but in amidst of the cross-fire, the mysterious batman comes in and tries to take out Napier only to accidentally send him toppling into a large vat of chemicals which turns him into the insane and evil Joker.


Originally in my first version for the review for this film, I said I liked it but I completely preferred Dark Knight. That may still be true, I don't know for sure because with changing my view of Batman anew over the past year or so with going through the animated show and reading more and more of the comics and playing both Arkham games, in a sense I'm making a fresh new look in a way with some of the Batman films as I go through them for Dark Knight rises. Which is especially possible since it's been a while I've seen any of the movies up until now with plenty of stuff going on since then. But whatever the case when I see Dark Knight again, I do agree that this is better in the sense of it feels more like the world of a comic book while having an excellent amount of darkness and mystery concerning the actual character, Batman. In fact, probably also every time I see this film in particular, I get a feeling of curiosity of wanting to know what it must've been like as a fan or better yet, as a kid back in the days when this was in theaters. How the comic book world of Batman came to life in this film and the excitement that was filled all the way to the final battle between him and The Joker. From a kind of nostalgic point of view, the climax in the film especially can me fascinating to watch when it comes to how the audience would get excited for their hero much like we do today with movies like Dark Knight and The Avengers.

Acting/Characters:
Michael Keaton/Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman: If there's anything I found out before seeing the movie that simply did not make sense, it was Keaton being Batman. I mean it's not like I've seen all of his other movies, but I particularly knew him from his performances in Beetlejuice and Much Ado About Nothing. And based on seeing those films, it made more sense that he would be the Joker, or that we would actually audition for The Joker at the least. Actually, if you do a little research about the casting, there were a lot of people who completely questioned the casting. Luckily, he turned out to be just fine. He was mysterious, cool, and heroic through and through.
Jack Nicholson/Jack Napier a.k.a. The Joker: What can I say? He really was The Joker. He had the make-up and the costume, he would dance around or do what sorts of other moves and would altogether be insane as heck. I also kinda liked how when it came to the uniforms of The Joker's men and that helicopter had a picture of him from the comics at that time. He was just plain old well done to the end.
Kim Basinger/Vicki Vale: She was...nice. I think the thing is, is that I already knew what as going to happen and I couldn't view her otherwise with her part. Plus when you really think about it, she kinda was a little too much like Lois Lane from Superman. I mean it turns out that's who she was suppose to be in the comics: Lois Lane for Batman, camera and all. I"m sure that's fine for some people but that's nothing special about her to me aside from her nice charm and that, to be fair, isn't quite so devout on her job like Lois (then again, I'm not too much on Superman)

Music: I like the music. The music score is memorable and as far as songs, I especially liked the Prince songs "Trust" and "Party Man"


And that's my review for Batman. No matter what I'll discover or rediscover in the Dark Knight trilogy in time for Dark Knight Rises, it is a lot of fun and action, and an extremely well done movie all around to introduce many people to Batman.

Batman Returns (1992)

Rating: 70%
Well with Dark Knight Rises coming in roughly 53 days, 22 hours and 27 minutes by the time I have written this part of the intro, it's high time that I get ready to having all of the movies (except for the Adam West) seen and reviewed (or updated for some that have been done already.) So that I'm well set and ready to go for the conclusion to the so far brilliant trilogy. Now I do have the first Batman movie review to update, but let's take care of this guy first since I just saw it.

Plot: Thirty-three years ago, a baby named Oswald Cobblepot is thrown into the river by his parents because of being born deformed. Over the years, Oswald has grown up in the sewers with the help of some penguins under a zoo and has taken the name, The Penguin. Now it's Christmas time in Gotham, where Penguin has a circus gang and is black mailing a business man named Max Shreck to help him leave the sewers to become accepted in Gotham and to find out about his parents. Meanwhile, Max's lonely secretary, Selina Kyle, discovers documents about his power plant which result in him pushing her out of a window where she survives but has a breakdown that results in her making a costume and becoming the Catwoman as a way to get her revenge against Max. It is left up to Batman to try to stop both The Penguin and Catwoman while he also falls in love with Selina as Bruce Wayne.

Now the most common issue people have with this movie is that it's too dark. And it's true. While it's dark in the normal sense when it comes to Batman, it's too dark when it especially comes to the Penguin and his minions. The Minions especially fall in line to that because oh how they're these former circus performers with big skeleton heads and a bunch of other weird and scary looking stuff just popping at you with dark circus music playing and all of that jazz. Now how Penguin fell in line, I'll say when I get the the Actors/Characters section. But I liked how had some things that kids could also enjoy like defeating enemies in ways that could be considered funny in a Loony Tunes- ish sort of way like planting the bomb on that blown or setting that devil guy on fire with the Batmobile. But it's still a fun film with how we get to explore more of the world of batman with new villains, different adventure, and a couple of new tricks up his sleeve with the Batmobile or even having the Bat-Sub.


Actors/Characters:
Michael Keaton/Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman: Well I'll say right now that I am over the fact that it's Bettlejuice being Batman. But anyway, Keaton once again did a very good job portraying Batman. What I especially liked about him is how we were more focused in him as a main character. I mean the first batman is awesome, but no Alex Knox or Vicky Vale does help us focus on him more both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne.
Danny Devito/The Penguin: Now before I started watching the movies again I went through the original Batman animated show. And the show portrays him and a sort of "gentleman of crime" which is what he generally is for move versions of Batman. They did touch that, but on the whole he was being the monster that could be the soul reason to some people as to why the movie's too dark. Because he was very creepy and  he did have evil plans like killing babies and stuff like that.
Michelle Pfeiffer/Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman: Now even Anne Hathaway has been concerned about her being Catwoman for Dark Knight Rises because Pfeiffer's is suppose to be such a classic. That, I do agree on. Because Pfeiffer gave this lonely woman who all of the sudden becomes a crazy woman wanting revenge as Catwoman, which throughout the film was really fun. *WARNING SPOILER* Personally, I really don't like that Catwoman's part in the series does go any farther, cause I would've liked to have seen more of her and the romance between her and Batman. *END OF SPOILER* Does Hathaway have what it takes to give us a Catwoman that is just as memorable? we'll have to see. 

Music: Now the dark circus music was good in terms of it being dark in general (even if it's too dark). I liked the song that was played while Bruce and Selina were dancing. Just sounded like a nice song I suppose. The music that was more to the Batman theme was very good, no questions.

Editing: my one issue with the editing was how when Penguin's minions were blowing up stores, they kept showing different shots of the explosion which I thought were necessary.

And that's my review for Batman Returns. It may be a little too dark, but it's still a fun movie with more development in term of giving us the world of Batman, lovable characters, and a different adventure to enjoy all around.

Alien Resurrection (1997)

Rating: 30%
Okay I've taken the time to see this again, now all that's left is to review it so that I'm all set watching and reviewing wise for Prometheus. Now let's finally get this over with.

Plot: 200 years after Ripley committed suicide, military scientists clone her in order to surgically take out the alien queen that's inside her. The military then uses some pirates to capture a few people to use as hosts to make more Aliens. One of the pirates, Call, knows about the aliens and tries to kill Ripley because she thinks she can be used to make more. But before long, the Aliens break out of their cells leaving Ripley and the pirates to try to escape.

If the movie can be summed up in just one word, that word would be...weird. I mean some of the characters are weird, the design for some of the things in the movie are weird, and above all, the way they carry out the really creative and interesting ideas for this movie is just. plain. weird. For example, *WARNING SPOILER* 1) We have the moment where Elgyn and Hillard are having...something of a romantic moment that has to do with him just rubbing her feet. I mean I'm sure it's normal for couples to do that, but... I don't know, just they way they did it just...was odd to me. 2) Ripley being half human half alien and yet having powers neither posses like being able to shoot a hoop without looking or having a psychic link...at least I don't think so with the last part. 3) There's the most obvious one which is the Aliens using Ripley's DNA so that the Alien queen would have a baby that's a human/alien hybrid which is just one of the creepiest things you've ever seen. That thing was creepy in a scary way, I mean if all this happened to me in real life, I'd be scared to practically worse then death if that's even possible, about that thing being anywhere close to me. Like, comparing to that, I'd have no emotion Twilight style if a normal Alien/army of Aliens were all around me. Now even then, there are a couple of plot holes in the film. for instance 1) when the Aliens, got out, the military people ran away. Which is smart for them, but it's still not what military are suppose to do when the creatures they are guarding escape. 2) How did Christie die when he just fell into the water? 3) When Call got shot and fell into the water, how did she find herself all the way to the other side of the door that Ripley and the pirates where trying to open. 4) the sip crashed on Earth and made a big explosion which I found a little dumb that it was because it looked like they just killed countless people by crashing it. But even then I have to admit the creativity to some of the ideas: 1) the concept of Ripley being clones half human, half alien. 2) Call turning out to be a robot. 3) While it's still creepy as frick, I still like the human/alien hybrid when it comes to the idea of it. And while the design is really creepy, I also find it a little bit interesting. *END OF SPOILERS* One thing I also didn't like was how it was really made just science fiction and didn't really try the horror part of the Alien franchise at all. I mean that's one thing to give Alien 3 credit for. But it also helps that for the most part, we are back to having more than just one Alien that's trying to kill everybody. And for what it's worth, which the characters are weird, I thought they were way more interesting than the prisoners from the third movie. Now here's the sad thing, this was written by Joss Whedon, who we all now know as the guy who did The Avengers. Apparently, he planned that the final battle would be on Earth and the newborn would have a couple of features that sound much cooler. But the studio turned down all of his ideas and gave us this that Whedon claims he didn't write anything like. So as a result we get this movie that really is messed up. I mean I can see the Whedon side in the story with all these really interesting and creative ideas that they had in this movie, but what came out of it is mixed, but mostly just didn't work. Really it's just those ideas and the fact that we get more actual Aliens and stuff that makes this movie at least better than the third.

Acting/Characters:
Sigourney Weaver/Ripley: Yeah her performance was just like the film itself. The characters was an interesting idea, but the way they carried it turned out to be weird. I mean we go from the real Ripley who kick rear. And then we have her in the third movie where's she's like an android version programmed to just tell people their stupid and trying to kill an Alien. Finally we have the clone of her where she's awesome with the powers whether it's because of the Alien side of her or just was put in the movie, but then we have her just claiming to just look after herself, act like she's half on the good side, half treat the Alien cause like it's a religion or something, and then having her odd relationship with Call that that kind of seems like she's about to be a lesbian. Again, the idea is nice but...yeah frick it, I miss the real Ripley.
Winona Ryder/Call: Now I don't entirely like this actress because she was Abigail Williams in The Crucible who is one character that was a total evil whore. I know that's the character and not the person herself, but I guess she was so good displaying that character that it worked a little too much on me a tiny bit. Now before I wrote this review, I watched the Nostalgia Critic review to this movie, where he says that her facial expression looks like she's an angry 5 year old. I wouldn't go that far, but she did have a sort of...signature expression if you will throughout the movie. But even that aside, her acting in this movie wasn't all that swell. I mean voice acting she was fine, but she didn't have an awful lot of facial expressions. She mostly just had some...odd, look...maybe it is like she's an angry 5 year old, I don't know. But whatever that look is, she showed too much of it.

Music: It was okay. I really didn't pay very much attention to the music, but nothing was noticed in particular either good or bad, so it's just okay.

Editing: I thought the editing was alright. I did like that before the ship crashed, we did have a sort of last look at the Alien before it crashed.

And that's my review for Alien Resurrection. It has some creative ideas that I liked, but because they were changed and that some of them were done in a certain way, while you could appreciate it, it's just too weird to enjoy. Even then there's a lot of plot holes and other stuff that just took part in the movie crumbling. It's better than Alien 3 in my opinion, but at least that movie doesn't have all of this to offer. So there's my reviews to the whole Alien franchise. I hope you enjoyed what I had to say and look forward to what I think about Prometheus when it comes out. Until then, I'm watching 17 Again, which may suck, but may ease my mind after this film.

Alien 3 (1992)

Rating: 20%
*sigh* I hate that I made myself watch this movie again. But I have my intention to watch and review the whole series in time for Prometheus. So let's just get this over with.

Plot: During the trip back to Earth after the events from Aliens a mysterious fire starts that causes the ship to eject its escape pod which end up crashing on a prison planet which kills Newt, Hicks and the damaged Bishop android in the process. Ripley survived that crash but she is a little sick and is scheduled to be rescued for the sake of her and the prisoners. But a facehugger seems to have been on her ship and attacks the prison dog. This leads to a new Alien coming out of the dog and is starting to attack the prisoners.

Now what's wrong with this movie? Well first off, it feels disconnected from the first two movies on so many levels. I mean killing off Bishop, Hicks and especially Newt is just plain wrong. And this movie doesn't really feel very horror like. Which is easily the case because we are use to what happens and I doubt anyone was fine with their being just one Alien to worry about after facing and army in the last film. Plus hardly any of the supporting cast were entertaining unlike the characters from the first two films. They were just freaky which doesn't make them interesting unlike the Nostromo who were likable because we are all worried over if any of them were going to die, and also unlike the Marines who were very likable because of how bad-a a lot of them where. So it was really just the same situation, just that it's laid out for us on a platter rather than being developed enough to have characters or enough different things with the plot to keep things interesting. Though I did think the ending was a little passable considering what it was originally meant to be.


Actors/Characters:
Sigourney Weaver/Ripley: She in a way was just a totally different person. I mean while she did have the whole determination to kill the Alien bit, she does it like she's just programed to. Like she's an android or something.
Charles Dance/Clemens: The one guy that I found most interesting throughout the whole thing was Clemens. *WARNING SPOILER* But the sad thing is that he doesn't survive for long. I mean it seemed like he was going to be in the film a little longer, but instead he was killed long before the final attempt to kill the Alien. I thought that was just lame straight off the bat. *END OF SPOILERS*


Music: Eh, mostly nothing special. I did like it a little during the very end, but that was it.

Editing: My main disagreement with the editing was that I think the ending should've gone differently, it should've been computer revealing what happened and then the part where we hear Ripley's last lines from the first movie.

And that's my review for Alien 3. While the ending is okay, the movie as a whole falls completely short from the first two movies.

Aliens (1986)

Rating: 100%
Well after seeing Alien, I didn't waste too much time to see the awesome film that follows. So here is my 250th review: Aliens!

Plot: After the events of the first film, Ripley drifts off in space for 57 years before she is finally found and sent back to Earth. The company she works for doesn't believe her, but when a colony that has settled in the planet where they found the eggs and the colonists find them and end up losing contact with Earth, Ripley is offered to go back with a unit of marines to investigate. She refuses at first, but when the representative of the company, Carter Burke assures here that they are going to eliminate any Aliens that they find, she agrees. So with Burke and the unit of marines, Ripley goes back to face her fears and eliminate the new Alien threat.

This may well be one of my favorite films. Because while I did enjoy Alien even though I'm not too big on horror movies, this was better because of how they took the idea and made it much bigger. Because now it's an army of Aliens, we now know who is the real main character to the movie, and the even though that is the case, a lot of the supporting cast where awesome. Plus the setting was nicer. I mean I still liked what they did with Alien, but here they made it more futuristic and interesting, which is for the best considering that you'd think technology would advance at least a little bit during the 5 years gap between Alien and Aliens. I also loved how it was more of an action film rather than horror. I mean it did have horror, but in the end it came out more as an action film. And I won't spoil anything about the main villain for those of you who haven't seen it but that character is awesome.

Actors/Characters:
Michael Biehn/Corporal Hicks: I really liked Hicks. He was cool, he was smart and just that he was the much more understanding person to Ripley then the rest of the marines.
Jenette Goldstein/Private Vasquez: In terms of action and being a total bad-a, Vasquez was easily my favorite marine. She didn't take crap from anyone, she was tough, and I thought her gun was totally awesome...which is also a point for the people who designed it and also the people who did the sound effects for it.   
Paul Reiser/Carter Drake: He was pretty annoying. I mean he lied to Ripley and was hardly any help and he was all around one of those characters that you just have to hate.
Carrie Henn/Newt: I really liked Newt. She really gave us this lovable, smart girl who relates to Ripley and all around may have given us some of the best child acting performances there is.
Sigourney Weaver/Ripley: Like Linda Hamilton being Sarah Conner, Weaver gave us Ripley as a woman who went from someone who just had a really traumatic moment to an ultimate bad-a. How that turns out as she goes through the events of the film was just beautifully done. I mean it sucks that she didn't win Best Actress in a leading role that year, but that doesn't change that fact over brilliant Weaver was at giving us this awesome hero.

Music: very well done. There was more of it this time, but still not too often.

Editing: I thought it was very well done.

And that's my review for Aliens. It's an awesome action movie with wonderful characters and a story that gave us a heck of a way to take the idea from the first movie and go so much bigger. 

Alien (1979)

Rating: 90%
By the time I am typing the intro to this review, we will have around 15 days, 8 hours, and 40 minutes until Prometheus. So it is high time that around the next couple of days that I get it over with, with watching the Aliens series to that I'm all set and pumped for Prometheus. Now let's start with the one sci-fi horror film that started it all: Alien.

Plot: The spaceship Nostromo, is on its way home to earth from collecting mineral ore with it's seven crew members in stasis. But along the way, the ship receives a transmission from a nearby planet which causes the computer, "Mother" to awaken the crew to go check it out. When three of the members head out on the planet's surface, they discover an alien spacecraft and take a look inside it. But when they get deeper inside it, one of the crew members comes across a room full of eggs, and one of them opens and a creature attaches itself to his face.

Oh man I remember the first time I saw this movie. It was freaking suspenseful. I mean for those of you who haven't seen the film I won't say anything except that its one of those horror films that just builds up suspense more and more as the move goes on. It's also very creative considering the design of the mysterious creature, the ship, and the technology that they had for the movie. The visual effects and stuff are not spectacular, but they are very impressive considering the time that this movie was made. What's really nice about the movie is *WARNING SPOILER* how when you are watching it the first, time you don't necessarily have someone to particularly root for. The characters are all in it together and we don't get an actual main character until the very end. I think that especially was very interesting when it came to character and with what to make the audience think about the characters. *END OF SPOILER*

Actors/Characters:
Veronica Cartwright/Lambert: Yeah she was not much of an interesting character considering with how she was so super scared the whole time. So she may not have been that way the entire time, but most of us who have seen this movie remember her being the annoying scared one.
Ian Holm/Ash: I think this was the first movie I saw of Ian Holm outside of him being ol' Bilbo Baggins. So considering how he was this distant guy who just follows orders guy, plus what happens to him during the rest of the film can be messed up considering how he's so different from big a not-so-simple Hobbit.
Sigourney Weaver/Ripley: She was a cool character, tough, realistic, determined, and a much better leader than Dallas.   

Music: The music was very well done. While there wasn't a lot, they did make some of the scary moments more suspenseful.

Editing: The editing was very good. The cuts may have been quick whenever the aline was killing someone, but then again, there probably was not a lot of people were into blood and guts.

And that's my review for Alien. It's an awesome, creative, suspenseful film that was structured well in terms of character development and with the story. easily one of the best movies in terms of both sci-fi and horror ever made.

The Incredibles (2004)

Rating: 90%
Okay so right after I saw Ratatouille last night I watched this. So here's Pixar review #6: The Incredibles.


Plot: 15 years ago, the super heroes use to protect society. But after causing numerous damages in the process of defeating super villains or protecting people, the government passes a program where the super heroes are forced to live as civilians and to never use their superpowers again. Now former super hero, Mr. Incredible, is now Bob Parr and is married to former super hero Elastigirl and has three kids with her. Bob missed his former days as a hero while he's stuck in a job in an insurance company. But when a mysterious organization asks for his help, he seizes the chance to try to relive his old days as a super hero.

The story is nice considering how it give us a different view about super heroes. Part of it is a little similar to Watchmen, but that mostly has to do with the beginning. But the story is still pretty good all around despite that. The characters where very good, the action was well done, the comedy was cute, and I am fascinated about the animation. Mostly with how they did the zero-point energy with Syndrome and with Violet becoming invisible. I just wish I knew how exactly they did the animation with both of those things.

Characters:
Mr. Incredible: Now part of me doesn't like him too much with how he is having this whole secret from his family and things like that. But the rest of me likes him because of how he did change and how he was an okay bad-a as a super even if his power is nothing original.
Syndrome: While he's not the darkest villain, he was a little cool. He didn't care about other people's lives and his weapons were pretty handy. I mean I wouldn't mind having those kinds of weapons if I was to fight crime or join crime without actual superpowers...as long as they are part of an Iron Man suit. (duh.)


Music: I enjoyed a lot of the music. The theme is memorable...at least it is for me since I use to watch this movie a bunch of times when it was out on DVD. But it's still good even if that's the case.  


And that's my review for The Incredibles. it's a fairly clever story with nice characters, good action and comedy, and some interesting use of animation.

Ratatouille (2007)

Rating: 95%
Well after seeing Midnight in Paris, this movie seemed like a good idea since they both take place form Paris and all that. So here's Pixar review #5: Ratatouille.

Plot: Remy is a rat with a talent for detecting good food. His father who is the leader of the rat clan is against his interest in cooking and with humans. One day Remy is caught by the human whose house the clan is living at. After trying to escape getting killed by the human, he is separated from the clan and ends up in Paris. As he explores, he ends up at the restaurant of his favorite chef. After a mix up, he ends up using the garbage boy at the restaurant to cook.

Now first off, the plot is very creative and it's pretty clever too. They display very well the two different world of cooking and being a rat. You have some lovable characters, the voice acting is very well done, you have your comedy, you have your drama, you have things that are for both kids and adults to enjoy just like a Pixar film is suppose to be.

Actors/Characters:
Remy: He was an interesting character. I heard how people really liked how the voice actor for the character, Patton Oswalt did a especially good job when it came to saying "Change is nature and it all starts when we decide" or somewhere around that. hey really liked how he said it, and I have to admit, while the line isn't the most swell big of writing, he did seem to have portrayed it very well.
Chef Skinner: He was particularly fun. Some of his lines and how he kept getting a little crazy over Remy were pretty funny. Plus he's voiced by Ian Holm which is awesome.
Anton Ego: So this was the first character I really saw from Peter O'Toole. And his voice acting particularly was awesome. It was so menacing and he really displayed that well with the character and it was brilliantly done.

Music: The music was very nice.

And that's my review for Ratatouille. It's a fun, creative movie with some very good voice acting, and some comedy for both kids and adults to enjoy.

Wings (1927)

Rating: 95%
Well it's about time probably. The very first winner for best picture at the Academy Awards, and the first out of the two silent films to win (second one being The Artist). Now I have finally seen it, which leads to this review for Wings.

Plot: Jack and David are both rivals for the affection of a pretty girl named Sylvia. Unknown to Jack, Sylvia loves David and that the girl next door to him, Mary, is completely in love with him. The two men join the Air Service to fight World War I where they go from enemies to friends. Mary also joins the war to become an ambulance driver.

Now I know what I'm saying is very straight forward, and for the most part it is. If you've seen enough movies by the time you have seen this film, you may get a good idea what is going to happen in the end and chances are, that you'll be right. But it's not too terrible predictable, and even if it is for you, the movie is very entertaining anyway. It has comedy, it has suspense, it has excitement, and some action that while it was mostly just a lot of planes just flying around at first, during the end, you get some battle scenes that are especially pretty good considering its time. So at the end of the day, I for one recommend that you see this particular Best Picture winner for all those reasons rather than just because it was the first to win.

Acting/Characters:
Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen/Jack and David: I know they're separate characters, but it seemed to make a little more sense to mention both of them at once considering how often they were together in the film. They both did excellent jobs giving us two characters to enjoy. Rogers probably had most of the more emotional moments, but that doesn't necessarily make Arlen's performance any less good.
Clara Bow/Mary: She also did an excellent job. She kept making me think of Berenice Bejo as Peppy Miller in The Artist because she was also this female character who had a fun charm. She didn't show as much as Bejo did in the slightest, but whatever charm she did have was fun and did made me keep thinking of Bejo when it comes to having that in a silent film.


Music: I enjoyed the score, they put it together very well. And the main theme was very nice giving a very light happy tune.

Editing: One issue I did have a real problem with was how sometimes when they are going from a medium shot to a close-up of someone, the use cross-dissolve to get there rather then just cutting from one to the other. But other than that, I thought the editing was just fine.

And that's my review for Wings, the plot could be predictable for you and the editing had a couple of issues, but regardless, it's an awesome, and very entertaining silent film that I would recommend.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Rating: 70%
Well at long last I have gotten my hands on this film. I remember very well how interested I was to see it just because of how different the poster was. Sadly I didn't find much time to see it in theaters, so I had to wait until it was on DVD, and at long last I have it and just finished watching it about eight minutes ago or so. So here is my review of Midnight in Paris. 

Plot: Gil Pender is a writer who is currently engaged and is in vacation with his fiancee and her parents. Gil is in love with Paris and he wants to live there unlike his fiancee. This leads to Gil taking a lot of walks around Paris at night. One night a car from the 20's comes up and the group of people dressed in 20's clothing take him to a party where he meets famous writers and artists from the 20's. This leads Gil to realize that while he's in the present by day, when he comes to the same spot and meets the same car at night, he is being taken back to the 1920s.

This is a very nice movie but I don't think it was really worthy to be nominated for best picture per say. I mean it had some nice characters, awesome cast members from Owen Wilson, to Kathy Bates, to Tom Hiddleston, and a some of cinematography were just awesome. But I have mixed views when it comes to the plot. I mean it's partly like Narnia mixed with this one movie that I don't remember the name of where a guy that was engaged was sending letters to a woman who was form the time of the civil war that he falls in love with. So it's not super creative. But at the same time I like it anyway because it was interesting to see Gil go back in time and meet all these people from that certain time, and how it gives us this interesting view about the life of people who think they are in the wrong era. But while some of the characters that were writers and artists from the 20's were very good, I feel like they could've given the audience more to know what is it about them that makes them so wonderful to so many people of our time. I mean you do have all the poetic talk with Ernest Hemingway and you have a look of one of the paintings of Pablo Picasso. But the rest of them you mostly just guess that they are famous because the only development you get is Owen Wilson going "Oh my gosh! It's this guy! I love you work!" I mean they didn't say much about the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who I know because I read his book, The Great Gatsby in my junior English class back in high school. But not everyone knows him or his work so I'm sure people who didn't would've loved to know what is so famous about this guy that he is being portrayed in this movie by Loki from Thor and The Avengers. So I would've liked to have seen more development in those kinds of characters so that we would all know or get an idea of why they are so awesome and remarkable to people like Gil.

Actors/Characters:
Owen Wilson/Gil Pender: I really liked how Wilson had a little more drama. I mean I know that it's a romantic comedy, but the way it was set up gave us an Owen Wilson that was not just all comedy like he is on the Night at the Museum movies or anything like that. So I liked that. The one thing I didn't get was that he seemed to have taken it too well that he was going back in time. Like he never really to time to be in denial or get beyond super excited over what was happening. Sure he'll say it dialogue wise, but on a whole he seemed to be into it almost right away.


Music: The music was very nice. I mean I'm not to big on Paris music, but it was enjoyable to listen to while watching Gil experience the things that happen in the film.

Editing: There were a couple of times where the film stays on a shot of one person, and they stick to that shot even while that characters is talking to someone. That may not be a big deal, but it seemed weird to see only one of the two people that are dialoguing during a large portion of their conversation.

And that's my review for Midnight in Paris. It's an entertaining film that just doesn't have a completely original plot but otherwise only needed a couple adjustments with some of the characters development. 

Cars 2 (2011)

Rating: 45%
Alright so last night I saw this movie after watching and writing my review for the first movie. But I waited until this morning to start writing it. So here is Pixar review # 4: Cars 2.


Plot: After winning his fourth Piston Cup, McQueen is challenged to race at the first Grand World Prix. Sally suggests that he takes Mater to the trip since he has never taken him to any of his races. But while preparing for the first race, a secret agent secretly plants information onto Mater at a bathroom before he is about to be captured by an evil oil corporation that is trying to sabotage the race. This leads two other secret agents, Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell are lead to believe that Mater is the secret agent that they were suppose to meet.

Now while the plot is not original and was fairly predictable, it sure as heck was much more original and interesting then what the first movie had to offer. I mean I'd take main character mistaken for a secret agent over a guy that has it all until he meets a bunch people that he eventually likes any day. The action was alright, at the very least a little clever with how they come up with it in the world of Cars. But altogether, while the plot is better and not as predictable, just doesn't really...I want to say shine as much as the first movie did, or any other Pixar film for that matter.

Characters:
Mater: He was still a fun character. He has his annoying parts or stuff that you know he's going to do so you - or at least I - have to roll my eyes over. But the still had his nice moments.
Finn McMissile: Now this guy I easily liked. I mean why not? He would transform from car to submarine, he would totally beat the crap out of a lot of bad guys, and there's of coarse the main attraction which was that he was voice by Michael Cain.


Music: the music was okay, it was mostly just secret agent music, nothing spectacular.

And that's my review for Cars 2. It has its nice points, but it falls hard enough to definitely be the worst that Pixar has done. This is were we definitely must hope that Brave does a much better job than that.

Cars (2006)

Rating: 60%
Alright so I just got this movie and its sequel from the Library. I just finished watching it for the first time since like...thanksgiving 2007 when we rented it. So here's Pixar review # 3: Cars.


Plot: Lightning McQueen is a racecar rookie who is trying to be the first rookie to win the Piston Cup. But after making a few mistakes, McQueen ties the race with two other cars and his pit crew quits for his arrogance. On the way to California to break the tie, he makes his big rig truck, Mack, not let him rest on the way to California which leads Mack to accidentally and unknowingly make McQueen fall out of his trailer which leads McQueen to panic and accidentally destroy the road to a small town called Radiator Springs. as punishment, the people there make him fix their road before they let him go back to California to win the race.

Okay what makes this movie not as swell and most of the Pixar films is just that the plot is really freaking far from original. You know exactly what is going to happen. It's pretty much one of those movies where the main character thinks he has it all until a group of people come in and all of the sudden they're his/her family. Now when it comes to the concept of the world of Cars, it was decent. I mean it's pleasant but it's far from the first time anyone's made something where all the characters are vehicles or some kind...*coughs* Thomas The Tank Engine! Theodore Tugboat! But aside from all that, some of the characters were a little cute, and some of the stuff mostly between Mater and McQueen were fun to watch.

Characters:
Lightning McQueen: I didn't really care for him. Because since the plot revolved a lot around him, that made him just like the plot: predictable. The only likable thing was that he was voiced by Owen Wilson.
Mater: I didn't think much of him when I first saw him. But watching him again, I admit he was pretty fun. He was this silly, goofy tow truck that was being totally friendly to McQueen. He may not be one of my total favorite characters, but he still was really fun.
Doc Hudson: Doc gets a part in this section not just because he was a decent character, but because he was voiced by Paul Newman which automatically makes him awesome. 

Music: I liked a lot of the music. I particularly liked the song, I think it was "Real Gone" that was at the very beginning. But what really did the trick was "Live is a Highway" I admit that I watched the scene that has that song four or five times just to listen to that song when I was watching it again. And why not? that song is awesome. the song that was nominated for best original song "Our Town," I didn't think was anything special, but that was just me.

And that's my review for Cars. The plot is terrible but it had some nice characters, fun scenes and a couple of awesome songs for the soundtrack. Now I am moving on to Cars 2. See you there.       

The Simpsons Movie

Rating: 80%
FINALLY!!! years ago I made a plan to never see this movie again until I was caught up with The Simpsons up to season 18 where shortly afterwords came this movie! It's been a long process, but after starting about three-ish years ago, I finally got through all of the first 400 episodes. So I have finished seeing the movie again for the first time in years about fifteen minutes ago or so, and at long last here is my review for it.


Plot: Lisa with the help a new love interest named Colin, convinces Springfield to stop polluting the lake. But Homer doesn't listen, so he dumps all the waste from his new pet pig into the lake which leads the Environmental Protection Agency to seal a big dome all over Springfield. The town finds out what Homer does and attempts to kill him which leads the Simpsons to escape the dome and be on the run from the law.

Now one or two episodes aside, this was the first Simpsons thing that I ever fully watched, and I freaking loved it! If I loved it for just one reason, it would be just because of how funny it is. There were so many things that I found to be hilarious. A lot of the jokes to me just kept coming out the blue and it was awesome. Now the one problem with this movie is that you don’t get to see a lot of the characters that you love in the series. But it goes without saying that it’s expected, especially since the numbers of characters on this show are countless.  But when it comes to the suspenseful parts of the movie, especially during the beginning, I thought they over did it a little. I mean yes that’s the idea, but with the music, the dramatic close ups, and even little bits of the dialogue, I feel like they over did it a little too much. But the story was nice, the characters are even so lovable, and the comedy was pretty spot on.

Characters:

The Simpsons: Well what’s to say? It’s the freaking Simpsons. They were just the way they were supposed to be. Homer getting into complete trouble, Lisa being the logical one, Bart getting into mischief, Marge being just the protective mom and ever having such a temper whenever Homer does something stupid. And then Maggie acting innocent but not having a problem ready to defend herself or her family. It was just the Simpsons just the way we loved them all the way.

Music: theme song is awesome.  But the drama music is just like the drama itself. It seemed a bit overdone. Which sucks considering that it’s done by Hans Zimmer. Which is giving me the official thought that he’s a guy that is mostly a hit and miss kind of composer when it comes to his work. I don’t know, we’ll have to see. We still have Dark Knight Rises soon, so let’s hope he gives us some excellent pieces there.

And that’s my review of The Simpsons Movie. The drama may be over dome and some fans may not to get a good look at some of the other characters that aren’t the Simpsons that they really love, but it’s still an awesome film with awesome comedy for everyone to love.