Princess and the Frog
Disney didn't manage to go to back to the glory days of things like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, or Aladdin, but they've done pretty well here. It's so cute and enjoyable and it's a lot of fun. If you watch closely there is a bit of racism, but I doubt Disney was intentionally putting it in there. The whole frog catcher bit-with the backwards hicks, I think that was more of a they needed the classic dumb three villains (see the hyenas in Lion King) over portraying bayou people in that light. Plus if you think about it, it's a little off that the white girl is rich and gets everything she wants while the main black character has to work her ass off. But it's DISNEY. You don't go see a Disney movie to think very hard and it's fun and lovely and I would add it to my movie collection in a heartbeat. It's nice to see another Princess with a little ethnicity.
The Lovely Bones
I can't remember much about it from when I read the book. I remember she was raped and murdered and she lived in limbo with her friend for a long time and then he dies by way of icicle. That's literally all I remember from the book but I did remember enjoying it for the most part. The movie is cinematographically beautiful. There are all these really neat images, and the limbo land is a great mesh of the living world and the heavenly afterlife. And yet you can tell it's not heaven, that there is something better. I was glad they didn't make the rape something graphic. The murder isn't even graphic. It was handled really well. There is some blood though. And what the murderer has done with her body is obvious after a while. I really liked this movie though. Saorise Roaon (may be misspelling her name) is a wonderful actress and very real. I wished they had left off the one bit that took the movie out of the real world for a moment. There is all this nice stuff about her family and the world moving on even though she is dead and having her come into another's body for a bit made the movie more fantastical then I would have liked. I know it's in the book-I was told, but it didn't fit with them movie I felt. Also I wish they developed the icicle more. They talk about it in limbo for so long about it being the perfect weapon so it feels like a nice sort of karmatic vengence when he is killed by one and it just seemed silly in the movie.
Nine
Let me start by saying that this is one of my favorite musicals and I know it really well. I've also seen it live. I know it inside and out and there is a way I expect it to be done. Someone who does not know the musical as well as I have may watch it and feel completely differently about the movie.
Overall, I was disappointed. It is not the Nine I know. I feel as if the director thought, well this worked on Chicago so it will work on Nine. But Chicago and Nine are VERY different kind of musicals and while that approach would work on a few of the songs in Nine-and was quite successful in a few of them it didn't work overall. I'm just going to take this song by song. It will probably cover all the issues I had.
Overture: This bit worked quite nicely. The women are a big problem in Guido's life so having them all come in like that was beautiful and set up storylines quite nicely.
Not Since Charlie Chaplin: Omitted
Guido's Song: For the most part this worked. The reporters are causing him great stress and anxiety since he doesn't have a script or anything yet. But they should have kept him nearing forty rather than fifty, since forty is the "over the hill" age and the actor doesn't look fifty.
My Husband Makes Movies: Moved until later in the movie. I almost thought they left it out and was mentally screaming. This was one of the most successful of the pull backs, make the song into the characters thoughts cinematographic bits. That's what the song is, her thoughts about her marriage and it was lovely to see it portrayed in that way. This was gorgeous and Marion Cotillard is an AMAZING actress. I wish they kept the bridge in though, Guido Contini-Luisa defono actress with dreams and a life of her own. The original lyrics were better in the areas they changed as well.
A Call From the Vatican: This was also a great moment of that because it is phone sex so having Penelope Cruz dolled up and being sexy worked wonders. It's better when Luisa is in the room with him though, far more awkward for Guido.
Only With You: Omitted. I wish they would have left this in because it shows how messed up Guido is. He is promising to love only his wife and then professing his love to his mistress and then telling Claudia she is the only one. It sets up the problems later on so much better then words can and I feel like you missed out on the nuances in his marriage. Luisa knows he is having an affair and she KNOWS he is in love with Claudia and she's putting up with it because at the end of the day, it's her. And I didn't get that until MUCH MUCH later.
Folies Bergeres: Number one, Lillian Le Fluer is supposed to be his producer not his costumer and I was so disappointed to see they took away the fact she is a strong professional woman and replaced her role with a man. It's more meaningful when she's an annoyed producer promised a musical rather than she's randomly designing a folies costume. It didn't really make sense in that context and it took away the character that was replaced by Kate Hudson's Stephanie, which REALLY didn't make sense. In the musical, there is a girl that Lillian has brought in that doesn't like Guido at all. Her job is to make him more appealing to the public since his last films have flopped and she seems to be a rabid feminist lesbian and it's hysterical. They replaced her with a character in love with Guido, almost sleeps with him that has a pointless useless song praising him? It takes away from the dynamic. Would have made this number better.
Nine: Omitted in favor of a lullaby. Sophia Loren was awesome to have for the mother, but I really liked the song Nine and it plays in to how Guido is feeling and how he wishes he could go back to when life was simpler, when he was nine. And it was a much better set up for the next song then. I thought the idea was nice, an Italian Lullaby, but it wasn't executed well and I felt like I was missing something in the long run.
Te Voglio Bene/Be Italian: LISTEN UP ROB MARSHALL, YOU IDIOT, THIS SONG IS NOT CELL BLOCK TANGO. He literally tried to remake cell block tango with this song with a bunch of scantily dressed women singing and dancing. Guess what? It didn't work, it didn't make sense and it pulled you out of the story for a good five minutes. The flashback idea was PERFECT. Should have stuck with that and kept it like that rather to the bizarre cuts over to the line of girls dancing on chairs. The whole song is about this prostitute teaching these boys about sex at an early age. You took all that out of the final cut, leaving us with random ass shit. I hate you. Needless to say I was not pleased.
Bells of St. Sebastien: Not really there. SHould have been kept in it's entirety. I understand why it was cut as it's hard to make sense of in the musical but the whole flashback would have worked better with it. And given you a chance to do the whole- this is inside his mind thing.
Unusual Way: OMG OMG OMG YOU FUCK UP. This is one of the most gorgeous songs in the musical. It's one of the most well developed and by throwing it away like that you made the whole Claudia bit not even make sense. Plus then she left now rather than leaving later which also made no sense. It was like the director was all, this song is pretty but what do I do with it. And why did you take it down 18000 octaves? It was thrown away and it's so much character development. But then most of the stuff that had great character development and helped the arch of the story as thrown out the window...
The Grand Canal medley: Omitted. Okay this would have made the most sense in the world to keep rather than that silly screen test. The screen test didn't make sense. The moment between Luisa and Guido leading up to it didn't build into her song. This medley is Guido romanticizing his life while the girls involved see themselves as he sees them. It's crucial. WHHYYYYYYY is it missing. WHYYYYYYYY?
Simple: Omitted. Again, this is a great character arc/development song. It shows how far the two women in his life who he thought he loved but he doesn't really love have come. Both Claudia and Carla give him up in this song and it makes Guido so alone which builds to the moment when he loses Luisa and is REALLY alone. You never took everything from him. Having Carla take pills was stupid and melodramatic. Better to have her see that Guido sees her as silly in the above song and have her get up the gumption to say, I'm done Ciao. grrrr.
Be On Your Own: Omitted, replaced with a song that was burlesque. I understand that women dressed in their underwear sells but Be On Your Own strips Guido. It strips Luisa bare, as she leaves him and it strips Guido. Luisa has been his rock and she finally says NO MORE. You take me for granted no more. She sees herself in the Grand Canal Medley and leaves and then comes back with this tour de force. He needs her because the other two have left him but it is too little to late. The other song didn't have all those layers and it was that stupid -inside your head- crap. This needed to be sung right at Guido. He needs to know. SHE IS DONE.
I Can't Make This Movie: I honestly can't remember if they kept it in it's entirety or if it was omitted for something very similar or shortened. There is the type of moment in there that is this but THIS is much more poignant. In the stage version I saw he almost killed himself. It's rock bottom for him and I never felt he hit rock bottom.
Growing Tall: Understandably Omitted because it's child guido singing to adult guido but hinted at with the child in the last bit. This would have been a great -inside your head- moment of Guido looking back and little Guido giving him strength. I did like the little Guido in the end so it would have also tied in nicely with that. Little Guido gives him strength to continue after he loses it all and he is a changed, more honest man.
Finale: I would have liked to see him know Luisa returned to him. Rather then her in the back.
The movie was a rather mediocre version of the musical despite it's cast of very talented stars. There were amazing moments but it wasn't cohesive. I think too much altering of the original plot. Or not enough directorial understanding of it. But then, I KNOW the musical really well. Someone who has no knowledge of it, or considerably less then me wouldn't know all this going in. I tried to distance myself the way I normally do in movies but it kept being WRONG.
Sherlock Holmes
Fun action movie, bears little to no resemblance to any Holmes you might think of. Would have been disappointed if I had paid for it. There is a lot of things blowing up, it's a lot of action. Hard to figure out Holmes train of thought, he pulls it out of thin air more than I cared for. It's set up for a sequel and looks like it has done well enough in the box office in order to get one.
Up In The Air
This was good. This was very good. It's thoughtful, imaginative, real. It gets at you. And there is a bit of a surprise at the end. If you haven't seen it yet, I don't want to spoil because it was far better then I thought it would be. It's a little slow at times. It sort of has an Independent movie feel to it, but it's got big stars. It makes you think. I'm still thinking about it.
Book of Eli
If I hadn't seen it for free I would have asked for my money back. It was not good. Fifteen minutes into the movie I stopped identifying with the main character and the twist at the end never made up for it. I couldn't care about his struggles or his journey because I no longer liked him. I don't need to like all characters, generally I don't like villains. But Denzel Washington's character is supposed to be chosen by God. God has protected him all this way and knowing that made me dislike him when he didn't stop to help a man and woman who suffered at the hands of these men. It was set up so you could tell the woman was going to be raped and he walked away and at that moment I lost all respect for his character and I couldn't care about it. At the end it reveals that he is blind, the bible he is carrying is in braille, but I didn't care. He had shown himself to be able to defend himself against multiple attackers with the help of god and he could have saved that woman from harm and he chose not to. I was unimpressed. Personally I'd like to think if there is only one copy of the bible on earth and it's being carried to a place where it can be duplicated, god would bother to leave it in the hands of a good man. Not someone like that.
Wolfman
Kinda a funny story about this. I went to take my sister to Avatar and the show was sold out. The only thing playing on Valentine's day at the time we needed to see it was Wolfman. So we saw it. LOL.
It wasn't very good. It wasn't very bad either. It was a mediocre movie and it was really gruesome. Far too gruesome I think. Lots of blood and decapitation of people's heads and limbs and things in general. The twist was good but I saw it coming and I'm a girl who tries to not see it coming, so I think it ends up being painfully obvious to some. If you don't like blood and guts don't bother to see it ever. It's also fairly long.
When In Rome
I know a lot of people who weren't particularly impressed with it but I found it fun. It's not the best plot in the entire world and it's a little over the top at times. But if you are looking for lighthearted entertainment that doesn't take itself very seriously, this is it. Kristen Bell is cute and funny, the situations he gets herself into is pretty implausible but it makes for a good time and makes for some good laughs. It's not too gross or immature, there isn't a bunch of potty humor. There are a few things that wouldn't be appropriate for young children but mostly I bet it will go over their heads. I saw it twice. It was enjoyable both times. That's what I go to the movies for, for entertainment and it entertained me. I was satisfied. But it's not any great movie for the ages.
Avatar
It's Long. That's my biggest and probably my only complaint. It's fucking LONG. Cameron needs to learn to cut down on some stuff. I'm sure there were probably a few things he could have found to cut and gotten the movie closer to 2 hours. But the movie is epic. Seriously Epic. Pandora is beautiful and I would live there if I could. I felt like it wasn't just a sci fi movie. It's sci fi-fantasy which opens it up to so many more people. But I loved it. I sat through it three times. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but it's amazing. It's more than just sci fi. It's go romance and social commentary and it's gorgeous. GORGEOUS. I would move to Pandora in a heartbeat even if everything there can eat me. I like Pochanatas Stories and most plots are recycled anyway. At least the epic ones and this is epic. It's going to be a cultural phenon, so if you haven't seen it suck it up and do so. And see it in 3D, because it was created for that. But generally I have no complaints about it. I'd see it again. It was well thought through and the world was created nicely, things have similar looks and it's all interconnected. They did a really good job of putting it all together and the storyline is meaningful. It's not typical sci fi though and I don't really think it should be billed as such. It's really only sci fi in the manner that it's taking place in the future on a different planet and he's been in a cyrogenic state for years? (I kinda miss the beginning) in order to be like this. But it's NOT REALLY a sci fi movie. It has some roots there but I wouldn't classify it as that.
Dear John
One of those epic romances that Nicholas Sparks writes. It's moving, it will make you cry. And for those of us who were old enough to REALLY feel the impact of the twin towers falling...it emphasizes how much a life can change. I can't believe that this year will be the ninth anniversary of that. There are children who don't remember it, who have never seen the new york skyline with those towers. Digressing...
If you don't like romance don't see it, because that's what it's about and it's not easy clean romance. It's gritty, it's messy. It's how real romance and love is. But it isn't all about that either. It's about father son relationships and what's it like to be different, and sacrifice. It's really moving. I was expecting a slightly different ending but it kept you on your toes and kept you guessing. It's not exactly a feel good movie, it's much like The Notebook in that way.It will show you love but it won't gloss over things and you won't come out of it feeling like a million dollars.
The Crazies
I was frankly expecting this to suck hardcore. I only went to see it because my sister showed up to the movie theatre too late to see Valentine's Day. Judging from the previews I thought it would be about some neighbors who decide they want revenge on their community and they aren't quite right in the head or something but it's SO NOT. It's far more terrifying then that for good reason. I didn't walk out of it feeling scared and I managed to not scream and make the entire theatre nervous. There are a few good startle spots but generally it's not that kind of movie. There isn't too much blood and gore either. It's scary in a different way and since it just opened it I won't be giving away plot points. It didn't suck hardcore though. I'm quite glad I saw it.
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