The Raid: Redemption MOVIE REVIEW

The Raid ("Redemption" was added for the US release) is a martial arts movie from Indonesia that has been getting a lot of buzz lately, with some critics touting it as one of the best action films in years.  The story is really simple; basically there is this SWAT team (or whatever the Indonesian equivalent of our SWAT team is) and they are tasked with killing a ruthless drug lord named Tama.  He's situated in a [I want to say 15-floor] apartment building which he uses as his criminal drug headquarters.  The whole movie is pretty much the SWAT team going floor by floor fighting bad guys and there is a ton of bloodshed and amazing action.  Gareth Evans, the director in love with the Indonesian martial art known as Silat, gives the fighting style its full impact in The Raid.  This movie is a ridiculously over-the-top violent adrenaline rush.  What it lacks in story it makes up for in balls-to-the-wall fight sequences.  I can't think of a movie that has done this better since The Matrix (and maybe The Matrix Reloaded, which love-it or hate-it, did have some spectacular fights).

The pace is so quick you'll forget about the bland plot.  The constantly pulsing musical score really helps with that, arranged by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.  The score really helps to add shape to the fights, which can sometimes take a long time.  There are a lot of talented ass-kickers on showcase here, but my favorite had to be this guy named Yayan Ruhian.  He plays this guy called Mad Dog and he has two major fight scenes that were impossible to look away from.  He, along with the lead actor (played by Iko Uwais, a go-to actor for Evans), kick way too much ass for one movie.  I sat in a packed theater and people were audibly reacting with ow's and fuck's on a regular basis.  Some viewers might be repulsed by the amount of hitting, punching, kicking, neck-twisting, and blood-splattering, but for those certain fucked up individuals (like me) this is the cinematic equivalent of crack.  The story is completely stripped down to the most basic action plot and the rest is just relentless insanity.  If you like these kinds of flicks, try to see this film!

Rating: B (but the action gets an A)

Double Review: Televised Child Killings and Two Bumbling Cops

Hey guys, sorry if my reviews have been dwindling in quality lately, I've just been rushing through them to get my initial thoughts out there.  If anybody reads these, tell me if you'd rather see longer, more thought out reviews or summarized, quick reviews.  Or if they are perfect as is.  Or if you don't give a shit and want me to stop making them.  Or if you just want to sit back and not comment.  Whatever you want.  


The Hunger Games:

For those who don't know, originally The Hunger Games was the first of three books written by Suzanne Collins.  Essentially the story is a sanitized, teen-friendly version of Battle Royale, where a number of children are randomly picked out of 12 districts to fight to the death in an annual nation-wide televised event called "The Hunger Games" (duh).  I read the first two books (and gave up partway through the third) so obviously my opinions would not be the same as those going in fresh, but in terms of an adaptation I thought it was very well handled.

While certain, not ultra-significant things were changed from the book, most of the main plot has stayed intact.  I was worried going in that the proper back story would be rushed through in order to get to the actual games but the pacing was just right and had the same exact "flow" I remember from reading it.  Jennifer Lawrence, playing the bow and arrow-wielding Katniss Everdeen of District 12, was great in her role, displaying the right level of intensity and emotion that the character deserved.  I also loved the many recognizable faces of the adults "behind" the game; I was happy the role of the drunkard coach Haymitch went to Woody Harrelson, and Stanley Tucci was pretty spot on as the TV host/audience guide Caesar Flickermann.  Elizabeth Banks was inappropriately funny as Effie Trinket, Donald Sutherland and Wes Bentley (aka the American Beauty bag-in-the-wind kid) were appropriately sinister, and Lenny Kravitz was doing the same kind of supporting figure thing we saw him do in Precious.  I wasn't a huge fan of the two main male characters, Peeta and Gale, but they were still better than I expected because based on the way they looked in the stills that were released before the film, I was honestly expecting Twilight-level buffoons.

I do have to say though, this isn't even close to the same level as the other hugely popular young adult book-to-movie series, Harry Potter.  The lower budget really shows through here; whenever extensive CGI was needed it was kind of painful to watch (especially when there was fire - which is featured throughout the film).  The Capitol was also a bit underwhelming - it kind of looked to me like a scrapped idea for a planet in The Phantom Menace or something - not at all like the wondrous first look we got as we entered Hogwarts for the first time in The Sorcerer's Stone.  Also, sometimes the camera was doing the annoying nausea-inducing shaky-cam thing during the action scenes; it's hard to blame them though because for one thing you can't really show some of the stuff that's happening and get away with a PG-13.  For the age bracket I actually think this was a little bit on the edge, pushing into R territory.

The intensity of the games and the character stuff was all good (and that's ultimately more important), but in the end I think the budget might have gotten in the way of its scope.  I don't want to make the review too long and I could delve into a whole bunch of other topics, but the movie was really good; it's filled with political undertones and will appeal to a wide age group, both genders will get something out of it, there's action, romance, drama, and maybe a sprinkle or two of humor (not too much of that though).  Just see it, everyone else already has.

Rating: B+


21 Jump Street:

21 Jump Street: a property that nobody even remotely cared to see remade into a mainstream comedy, even less one starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.  The cards were stacked against this film going into it, but it actually turned out to be a great comedy.  Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the writer/directors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and written by the screenwriter for Scott Pilgrim vs the World, 21 Jump Street benefits from some great talent behind the scenes. But wait - there are some great performances in front of the lens too.  I'm no Channing Tatum expert, but from what I've seen of his work he's never been better (which is not that difficult seeing as his acting prowess doesn't exceed that of a block of wood) and Jonah Hill hasn't lost his funniness along with his weight.  Plus there are guest stars and cameos galore, of which I will not spoil at all.

I don't laugh too often at comedies nowadays but this one regularly had me chuckling.  It has some great gags and surprisingly I actually cared about the characters.  The script may not be an amazing breakthrough in screenwriting, but the basic building blocks of what makes a good story were there.  With plenty of gags throughout, if you think this movie may fall under your brand of comedy (aka anyone who enjoyed The Hangover or Bridesmaids) I guarantee at least one titter out of you by the time it's over.  It satirizes both buddy cop movies and high school flicks really well (I'll go out on a limb and say nearly as well as Hot Fuzz), and if you're "with it" at all and get the in-jokes, you'll probably get your money's worth.

Rating: B+

John Carter MOVIE REVIEW

John Carter (originally supposed to be titled 'John Carter of Mars') is the first live-action film from one of my favorite names at Pixar: Andrew Stanton.  Stanton directed both Finding Nemo and WALL-E, which are not only two of the best all-time animated movies, but I'd consider them among the all-around best movies (at least in the past 10-15 years).  So when I first heard about this project I was super-excited to see what this guy was going to do with a live-action adaptation of a classic Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi story that was the original inspiration for movies like Star Wars and Avatar... and then the trailers came out.  The acting looked totally lifeless, the CGI seemed dull and uninspired, and there wasn't really anything to latch any hopes onto.  It looked like garbage and despite Disney's overhaul of advertisements I don't think anybody was hugely interested.  I still believed in Stanton though, and I was still trying to reassure myself that the man who prides himself on delivering quality stories over anything else would deliver in the end.  But I was wrong.

John Carter may not be the worst movie of all time, but as the trailers foretold, it was just sadly lacking.  I kept trying to grasp onto anything positive, but I just could not connect with this movie at all.  The plot is confusing, the characters really don't have much personality (except maybe for this weird dog/dinosaur thing), and it just seemed totally muddled and cheesy on a level that stands toe-to-toe with Clash of the Titans.  The story is basically about this military captain from the late 1800's who by chance is transported to Mars (which is called "Barsoom" by the natives).  He learns that due to gravity differences that he has a Superman-like ability to jump really high and has increased strength.  He is captured by tall green martians with big horns protruding from their face and eventually John finds himself in the middle of a war where there are a lot of shitty side characters that I didn't really care about.  There was also a sexy love interest played by Lynn Collins who plays the Princess of Mars.

Every once in a while the movie presented a cool idea, like when John first learns how to use his "power," but between the really campy costumes and dialog, and the uninteresting and boring action, this film was a huge disappointment.  Considering how well fellow animator Brad Bird made his transition to live-action with the very entertaining Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, it's a bummer that for whatever reason Stanton just dropped the ball on this one.  It may depend on how much money this makes, but I think this may be the last time we see him work on a non-animated feature, at least for a good amount of time.

Rating: D

Silent House MOVIE REVIEW

Silent House, the latest horror remake to hit the big screen, stars Martha Marcy May Marlene star (and Oscar-snub) Elizabeth Olsen as a girl moving into a summer house (or something like that) and finds herself trapped inside with a killer.  That's kind of it. The film takes the same route as Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and is supposedly shot using one take (there are some cuts, that is the desired effect at least).  I haven't yet seen the original, but I thought the premise was really interesting and I loved Olsen in that other movie, so I went in expecting a nice scary time.  Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.  This was a big pile of crap, even bigger than The Woman in Black.

Nothing about this film is good except for Olsen's performance and the technical skill it must have taken to employ the long takes.  Other than that the story is awful, all the secondary characters are terribly acted, the story makes no sense, and worst of all: it's boring!  At least with most horror movies I can manage to keep myself in the moment but man, this was a real slog.  Maybe it was the fact that I was in a shitty theater and I could clearly hear the musical numbers from The Lorax playing on the other side of the wall, or maybe it was the fact that people all around me were muttering to their friends 'this is awful.'  I tried to give this a chance but I have to agree with the audience, this was just terrible, and also has one of the more perplexing, strangely off-putting endings I've seen in a while.  The only redeeming value this film has is Elizabeth Olsen's rack, which in an obvious way always seems to be a prominent element on the screen at all times (I don't think that was incidental).

Rating: D-

Wanderlust MOVIE REVIEW

Wanderlust is the latest film from director David Wain, known for his cult-favorite comedies like Wet Hot American Summer and the TV show Stella.  The movie follows a New York couple, played by Paul Rudd and Jennifer Anniston, who buys their first apartment.  Unfortunately both of them lose their jobs right after they buy it and are forced to resell - but there's no interest in the market for a studio apartment (or as the realtor is insistent on calling it a 'micro-loft').  While they are making the trip to crash at his brother's house due to their recent homelessness, they find the closest motel through their GPS and shack up at a hippie commune.  Once living at his brother's house becomes unbearable, Rudd and Anniston decide to give the tree-huggers another go, and the rest of the film boils down to a series of hippie-related gags.

I really wish more of the jokes landed in this film because the few that work really work.  Paul Rudd's mirror scene is totally hilarious and the strong cast of familiar comic faces help to make this thinly plotted film enjoyable.  In a comedy like this I don't even really care that much about plot, as long as something resembling one is there to move the jokes forward; Wanderlust does have that at least.  The problem is that the good jokes are too few and far between - they really needed an Airplane! style, rapid fire joke assembly line.  I appreciate Aniston's recent foray into R-Rated comedies (she was also funny in Horrible Bosses) and there are some scattered moments of inspired material, but I doubt this film will live a life beyond playing in the background on Comedy Central for the next 10 years.

Rating: C

Predicting the 84th Academy Awards (EVERY CATEGORY) [UPDATED]

The biggest movie awards show is about to celebrate its 84th year on February 26; it's sure to be a night of celebrity ass-kissing and Hollywood back-deals, but it's still fun to speculate (for me anyway) and to get to  "root" for a particular favorite film or films.  For kicks, I'll post my predictions EVEN if I haven't seen any of the nominees, and maybe I'll go into who I want to win - but this is strictly business.  These are my bets, not my tastes or opinions of who or what should win (really, most of the movies/people I want to win aren't even nominated).

* = Haven't seen it...yet

[UPDATE: The actual winners will be highlighted under the nominations]


BEST PICTURE

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

I Predict:  The Artist

Let's get this out of the way: 2011 was a pretty lackluster year for movies.  Sure in terms of technology and boundary-breaking techniques (sometimes literally with the addition of a third dimension) it was a notable year, but there just weren't many "powerhouse" releases like we've seen the past few years. Anyway, enough with that rant, based on what pretty much everyone is thinking, The Artist is going to take it home this year.  Especially considering the majority of the Academy is packed with old white guys that probably remember being there during the silent age, the current-era ode to 1920's American silent comedies has been the clear frontrunner for Best Picture.  If anything else wins it'll be a shocking evening.

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

I Predict:  Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

As it typically goes the Academy hands this award to the Best Picture winner, so I'm going to say it'll be a very Artist evening.  This is a strong list of directors, but really what chance do Allen or Malick have?  There's a 99% probability that neither of them will even be in attendance so I was surprised to see them nominated at all.    Scorsese and Payne are solid runners up, but again, I'm imagining this will go hand-in-hand with Best Picture.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners*
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I Predict: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

This is a tough category.  Unlike the past few years, there no "that's the one" performance on the list (like in 2010 with Christoph Waltz).  I feel guilty even guessing seeing as I haven't seen 2 of the 5 films, but I think Christopher Plummer may take home the prize.  He's been in the biz a long time and has yet to get himself on Oscar, so I think he might win.  I loved Jonah Hill in Moneyball but there's no way in hell he will win.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Mellisa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Knobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help

I Predict:  Octavia Spencer, The Help

This seems like kind of an obvious one to me (but as always there's no telling what could happen).  Why Viola Davis isn't in this category but instead is nominated as a lead actress confuses me, and it's a shame because I think she would have beaten out her co-star.  I'm very happy that Mellisa McCarthy is nominated (even though she, like Jonah Hill, has no chance of winning), especially because comedic roles like that tend to get lost in the awards season shuffle.  

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Demian Bechir, A Better Life*
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

I Predict:  Jean Dujardin, The Artist

This is an incredibly difficult category to predict, as there are quite a few heavy hitters here.  I think Pitt doesn't stand a chance, and I have yet to experience A Better Life, but The Artist relied so heavily on Dujardin's performance and it's through his energy and silent film pinashe that even modern audiences don't get lost or bored with this dialogue-less movie.  But crap, then there's Gary Oldman, who could earn an Oscar similarly to Plummer in a "they've been in the business a long time and they deserve a trophy" fashion.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Glenn Close, Albert Knobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady*
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

I Predict:  Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

This is another strong category this year, but I think the Academy will fall for The Iron Actress, Meryl Streep.  I personally want Michelle Williams to win, who is slowly becoming one of my favorite actresses working today.  She might have a chance considering the relatable era to the Academy voters (aka old dudes), but Streep is a award-sucking machine, and with Harvey Weinstein Oscar-campaigning extraordinaire behind her I think she'll have to make even more room on her mantlepiece.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

A Cat in Paris*
Chico and Rita*
Kung Fu Panda 2*
Puss in Boots*
Rango

I Predict:  Chico and Rita

This one's a little more difficult since I haven't seen most of the nominees (yet), and A Cat in Paris and Chico and Rita seem to be in a much different, more "indie" zone of animation.  Depending of the mood of the voters I think Rango is the frontrunner of the mainstream titles, but Chico and Rita, the more I hear about it, is supposed to be artistic and very well-made.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Artist, Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo, Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse, Janusz Kaminski

I Predict:  Hugo, Robert Richardson

Damn, 2011 was a year of amazing cinematography.  All 5 of these flicks deserve an award, this is a damn near impossible category to predict - but I'm still going to place my bet.  Why not Hugo?  It's beautifully shot AND it's the first 3D film from the legendary Martin Scorsese.  The movie blends the old with the new, which is right up the Academy's alley.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Bullhead*, Belgium
Monsieur Lazhar*, Canada
A Separation, Iran
Footnote*, Israel
In Darkness*, Poland

I Predict:  A Separation, Iran

A totally blind speculation but this one seems to be getting the most attention (plus it's nominated for Best Original Screenplay).  A Separation is the only foreign film on this list that I've seen; from what I hear Bullhead is supposed to be a "wild card" pick that likely won't win.

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

The Descendants
Hugo
Ides of March*
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*

I Predict:  Moneyball

Aaron Sorkin is a writing god.  He's practically a character in Moneyball and totally deserves an award for it.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call*
Midnight in Paris
A Separation

I Predict:  A Separation

Maybe I'm crazy, but why should The Artist win for Best Original Screenplay?  There's no dialogue in the entire thing, and most of the magic came from the actors and the style.  The story was pretty much a carbon-copy of other silent films.  If you ask me, A Separation should and could win because the whole thing works because of its script.  Not knowing a word of Farsi, I still felt the impact of the words the characters spoke through the subtitles.  It might be a stretch to think the Academy would hand this off to a foreign picture, but I'll stick with it.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

"Man or Muppet," from The Muppets
"Real in Rio," from Rio*

I Predict:  "Man or Muppet," The Muppets

This is like a joke category.  We all know The Muppets will win; it's kind of sad that there are only two songs "good enough" to be nominated.

ART DIRECTION

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
War Horse

I Predict:  Hugo

Even though the "leading" film this year is The Artist, Hugo is still nominated in the most categories this year.  Clearly the Academy took a liking to the first kid-friendly Scorsese film, and I think it'll be in these smaller categories where it will win.

COSTUME DESIGN

Anonymous*
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre*
W.E.*

I Predict:  Jane Eyre

Every nominee in this category is a period piece - so what now?  I'll give it to Jane Eyre, it just seems like it's the type of thing aristocratic costume-people would faun over.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Hell and Back Again*
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front 1/2* (I never finished it on Netflix)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory*
Pina*
Undefeated*

I Predict:  Pina

Don't know anything about most of these movies, so I'm going to go with the one I've heard of the most!  Clearly you're reading the words of a true authority figure on this.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

The Barber of Birmingham*
God is the Bigger Elvis*
Incident in New Baghdad*
Saving Face*
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom*

I Predict:  Incident in New Baghdad

I literally know nothing nor have heard one thing about any of these, but clearly the one about Baghdad is going to win.

FILM EDITING

The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 
Hugo
Moneyball

I Predict:  The Artist

I really am not an expert when it comes to these highly technical aspects of film, but The Artist really did have some pretty clever uses of editing (especially towards the end of the film).

MAKEUP

Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Iron Lady*

I Predict: Albert Nobbs

I don't agree with this at all, but I do think Albert Nobbs will win.  Glen Close never looked more like a woman than when she was dressing up as a man in this film.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams
The Artist, Ludovic Bource
Hugo, Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*, Alberto Iglesias
War Horse, John Williams

I Predict:  The Artist, Ludovic Bource

The score is the only thing we hear the whole damn movie; it's hard to look past something like that.  I did find myself surprisingly enjoying Tintin's soundtrack, but I'm disappointed that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was not nominated.  Damn Academy.


SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Dimache/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

I Predict:  La Luna

I actually have seen all of these shorts, and none of them were particularly spectacular.  La Luna was Pixar's entry and accordingly it was cute and clever as always.  A close contender might be The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, but despite high quality animation, I thought it was not at all good.  Wild Life is the most "artsy" (with each frame being an actual painting) and probably would win if this were a different awards show.

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

I Predict:  Raju

I've also seen all of these shorts as well; the live action shorts were so much better than the animated ones.  I personally enjoyed Time Freak the best, but it seemed too light and more likely to live a life on College Humor than to be awarded an Oscar.

SOUND EDITING

Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon*
War Horse 

I Predict:  Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I'm not going to pretend like I know the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, but I do know that those big robots sound cool.  I'm probably stupid for not going with Hugo for the two sound categories...

SOUND MIXING

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon*
War Horse

I Predict:  Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Just look at that guy in the picture.  Looks like he knows what he's doing, look at his beard.

VISUAL EFFECTS

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel*
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon*

I Predict:  Rise of the Planet of the Apes

This movie really paves a step forward for legitimizing motion-capture technology.  Andy Serkis's performance is captured perfectly onto a big CGI monkey and transforms this cheese-territory b-movie into a grade-A summer blockbuster.

Well that's it.  Feel free to comment or whatever about who/what you think will win, and we can see how ridiculously off I was in every category!


[UPDATE: Yeah, ok.  I got 11 out of 24 right...I'm sorry - but I did at least get all the major categories right.  If I'm still blogging by this time next year, I promise I'll do better.]

Triple Review: Little People, Ghosts, and Nic Cage

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance:

I was very excited to see this movie.  Sure the first Ghost Rider sucked, and sure Nic Cage has recently been a harbinger for trash, but with the guys behind the Crank movies as the directors and with a script from David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Dark Knight), I was expecting a totally awesome current-era Grindhouse adrenaline rush.  Although there are a few sequences in this film that do deliver on its promise of fiery demonic action, most of the acting is completely awful and the story is such a nonsensical waste of time that it ruins the fun.

Nic Cage may not be the most respected actor working today, but there's a certain subculture that has learned to harness his over-the-topness for their own entertainment.  I've recently jumped on this bandwagon, and it's only in Cage's few moments of "Cageiness" that work - everyone else either is bad at acting or has one of the worst roles of their career.  I don't even know if I can describe the story; I know it had something to do with Cage having to find a kid who has the potential to become a demon or something, so he has to stop him from being killed off by this bad guy (played by Ciaran Hinds).  I don't know, you shouldn't care about the plot anyway.

The overall style and handful of action scenes are solid enough for a film like this (I particularly liked the frenetic camera-work during the chase sequences), but the story isn't just bad or dumb, it doesn't even make sense.  Seriously, how hard is it to come up with an excuse for Ghost Rider to go around disintegrating bad guys?  Spirit of Vengeance could have been one of the best Marvel movies had it a solid story, but this is just frustratingly bad because unlike the first Ghost Rider, this has those few nuggets of awesomeness (most of which were shown in the trailer) that show this could have been something special.

Rating: C-

The Secret World of Arriety:

Studio Ghibli is the world renowned Japanese animation studio that has brought us films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.  I tend to enjoy their more "epic" efforts like Princess Monoke and Ponyo, but I decided to check this one out anyway despite knowing going in that this leaned more towards the kiddish, "Totoro" side of things.  The story, based off of The Borrowers, follows a tiny family that lives within the walls of a house unbeknownst to the owners.

I really enjoyed this film; I liked how everything in the "borrowers" world was in its proper perspective.  For instance, when they pour water or cry the water droplets are larger than what we would perceive them as.  The animation, although less detailed than the mega-budgeted 3D animated tales we normally see in theaters, was still as always beautiful to look at.  If you're into this kind of thing it's worth admission price for the animation alone.  I also liked that the film plays with some really dark, complex themes (including death and loss) despite only being rated G.

The problems I have with this film are the same ones I have with a lot of the other Ghibli films.  At times the characters can be too "cutesy" and sometimes due to the light plot sections of the film drag on a little too long.  I think if you've seen and enjoyed Ghibli's other movies you'll enjoy this one though, even if it's not their best.

Rating: B

The Woman in Black:

The latest in Hammer's "revival" period, also the first Post-Potter film for Daniel Radcliffe, The Woman in Black is complete crap.  Really, the entire thing exists for a few jump scares and almost nothing else.  I liked the costumes, the period details, and the set pieces, but there was no substance.  Nothing.  Check out Paranormal Activity or Insidious if you want a good ghost story, this is garbage!

Rating: D