Movie Reviews: Up in the Air

Reviews Up in the Air

George Clooney with a new movie theater like we been met.

Review Up in the Air

Up in the Air has got genuine movie star wattage working on all cylinders. George Clooney plays a carefree, commitment-free corporate downsizer whose career, lived mostly on the road, is threatened when his company plans to replace his unique skills with an online program. Director and co-writer Jason Reitman follows up his Oscar-nominated work on Juno with this sharp, funny, perceptive comedy that represents his most mature and personal work to date. Commercial prospects for the winning holiday release are stellar, particularly for adult audiences looking for the kind of Class-A entertainment Up In The Air represents. For Clooney fans, it’s pure nirvana.
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Review: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon movie review take. Taken from many different sources The Twilight Saga: New Moon movie review you’ll find in this article. That ranks The Twilight Saga: New Moon movie review.

Review 1: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Should you go see New Moon? Does it matter what we say? You’re going to see New Moon. But if you have any lingering doubts about the second film in The Twilight Saga, we’re here to help. Below is a handy clip ‘n’ save chart matching your own personality with a customized review of the most hyped film of the year.

Find the category that best matches you, and the truth about New Moon will follow:

You’re a Superfan! You collapsed into a jellylike mass when R.Pattz first appeared in Twilight—or you are Ted Casablanca:

This film will not disappoint. But then again, as long as Robert Pattinson is present, it’d be hard for any film to let you down. You won’t get a ton of Rob, though, as his chaste vampire Edward Cullen appears mostly as a wispy cloud of distant romance, whining little more than “pleeeease” while his dear heartbroken Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) mopes and experiments with leather-jacketed danger.

That said, the climax does involve Pattz going shirtless. And the very end of the movie will likely make you collapse into a jellylike mass all over again. If you’re a drooling Rob fan, that should keep you atremble through the debut of the third film, Eclipse, next summer.

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Reviews Movie: 2012

If, as is believed in certain fringe circles, the world will come to an end in 2012, at least there will be no more movies like this one made. Perhaps the strangest thing about 2012 is that the bad parts of the film are among the most enjoyable, because they’re so over-the-top ridiculous that it’s impossible not to break out laughing. It’s the mediocre sections that bring the production down, and there are far too many of them. Despite having only enough content to adequately fill a 60-minute slot, 2012 turns into an epic slog of more than 2 1/2 hours. It seems a lot longer. Load up on strong coffee beforehand. Not only will that be needed to keep you awake, but it will provide a bathroom break excuse to escape the theater once or twice. Of course, once free of the auditorium, you may find the lure of the exit door too sweet to pass up.

The idea that the apocalypse is set for December 21, 2012 isn’t a new one. Doomsayers, always looking for the next possible date for the planet’s destruction, have latched onto this one because it represents the end of the Mayan calendar. I’m sure Nostradamus predicted it as well, because the poor guy gets credit for predicting everything. Count me among the skeptics, and not just because there’s no credible scientific evidence to support a 2012 lights-out, but because the true believers preach it with a religious fervor that’s a little scary. I won’t lose any sleep over it and feel confident that the world will be pretty much the same when I wake up on December 22, 2012 as it will be the day before. I won’t be postponing shopping for Christmas presents in the hope that the end of the world will save me the agony.

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Review: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol review

My feelings towards Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol have always been of two minds. I love the tale from the wit and greed-filled banter to the ghostly apparitions to the grand redemption at the end. The same goes for the multiple film and TV versions of the story. I’m partial to the George C. Scott version from the eighties, but Scrooged and The Muppet Christmas Carol tie for a close second. The problem I have with the story though is that very same magnificent redemption I mentioned as loving not three sentences ago. I’ve just never been convinced that Scrooge honestly changes for any reason other than selfish self-preservation. Sure he seems concerned about Tiny Tim’s imminent demise, but it’s his own untended gravestone that really pushes him towards turning over a new leaf isn’t it? Now thanks to Robert Zemeckis’ continuing desire to avoid telling original stories in favor of digitally manipulated versions of older ones, yet another adaptation of Dickens’ tale is hitting the screen… but can 3D animation make it any more convincing?

I shouldn’t have to summarize the story of A Christmas Carol for you heathens, but in the interest of proper film review format I will anyway. Ebenezer Scrooge is a cranky, miserly, and rudely practical old man living and working in Victorian-era London. His view on the Christmas holiday can be summed up in his sentiment that those who celebrate the day with merry and cheer should be boiled in their own pudding and “buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” He’s visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, who was equally as cheap and unlikable in life as Scrooge and who in death must drag around the chains he forged while still alive. Marley warns Scrooge of three more spirits coming to haunt him and advises the old man to heed their warnings lest he end up with an eternal fate like Marley’s.

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Review: Robbie Williams – Reality Killed the Video Star

Robbie Williams

This album is a crucial release for “Robbie Williams“, his record company and even, gulp, the entire British music industry.

Robbie Williams – Reality Killed the Video Star Track Listing

1. “Morning Sun” – 4:05
2. “Bodies” – 4:04
3. “You Know Me” – 4:27
4. “Blasphemy” – 4:18
5. “Do You Mind?” – 4:06
6. “Last Days of Disco” – 4:50
7. “Somewhere” – 1:01
8. “Deceptacon” – 5:01
9. “Starstruck” – 5:21
10. “Difficult for Weirdos” – 4:29
11. “Won’t Do That” – 3:38
12. “Superblind” – 4:46
13. “Morning Sun (Reprise) – 1:19
14. “Arizona” (Digital download bonus only / Japanese bonus track) – 5:38

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Review: Michael Jackson’s This Is It

Michael Jackson

Review in a Hurry: The legions of fans who have bought their tickets to experience Michael Jackson’s last performance need only know that thankfully, This Is It is just that.

The Bigger Picture: Two very distinct title cards open the much talked about This Is It. The first is a simple statement informing audiences that from March through June 2009, Michael Jackson had a crew shoot his tour rehearsals for his sold out London extravaganza. In very small print, the title This is It.

The second title card is a grand and colorful marquee, the words This Is It bursting off the screen. Most likely, had Michael lived long enough to complete his comeback, only the bold and bright marquee would have made final cut.

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Review: Astro Boy

Review in a Hurry: One of the original icons of Japanese anime—the robot boy with the atomic heart—gets a Hollywood upgrade in this sporadically entertaining but somewhat muddled all-star CG animated feature.

The Bigger Picture: Astro Boy begins with a shocker that belies the flippant tone which follows: A scientist’s young son (Freddie Highmore) is obliterated in a nuclear flash by a heavily armed war-bot. Said scientist, Dr. Tenma, who has the hair and soul patch of a hipster and the voice of Nicolas Cage, decides to put things right by making a robot boy who has all the memories of his son.

But memories aren’t all that make the man. When the new kid turns out to have a supercharged intellect—not to mention the ability to fly and turn his arms into giant cannons—Tenma realizes that the robot, who will ultimately name himself Astro, is not a perfect replacement (why he didn’t think of this when installing the rocket-launchers into the boy’s body is beyond us; some folks just grieve in odd ways, it seems).

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Review: Where the Wild Things Are

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

First of all, this one is VERY different from the other WILD THINGS movies, and with virtually no nudity. But easily one of the best of the series. Second, I don’t usually go around reviewing movies made for kids, and I got a reputation to uphold and what not. But this is a movie of ferocious artistic purity. Whether you like it or not you’d have to be a numbnuts not to recognize it as a unique achievement.

This is the movie Spike Jonze has been working on for years, based on the famous Maurice Sendak picture book. You probly read about how Sendak asked him to do it, at first he turned it down, then he thought of an idea for it, they started making it, one studio dropped them, they moved to a different studio, continued making it, that studio freaked out when they started snooping around and found out there was no farting or Smash Mouth songs in it. Rumors circulated that they were gonna fire Jonze and start over or redo some of his scenes with CGI or who knows what. But he kept on going and they must’ve either got distracted by something on TV or decided he knew what he was doing. Somehow he got to the end and looked down and in his hands he was holding the movie he set out to make at the beginning. Except transferred into Imax. Nobody knows how it got there.

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Review: Couples Retreat

Couples Retreat

“Couples Retreat“ tells the story of four troubled couples and how they’re healed by sitcom formulas. Why are they troubled? Because the script says so. It contains little comedy, except for free-standing one-liners, and no suspense, except for the timing of the obligatory reconciliation. It doesn’t even make you think you’d like to visit its island paradise.

The couples are apparently all from Buffalo Grove, which supplies nothing visual except for a T-shirt. Three of them think they’re reasonably happy, but their friends Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) beg them to join them for a week at a resort devoted to healing relationships (if four couples go, it’s half price).

Jason and Cynthia are anguished because they haven’t had a child. The other couples are Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman); Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis), and Shane (Faizon Love) and Trudy (Kali Hawk). Their troubles: (1) Parenting duties distract from romance; (2) Joey’s wandering eye; (3) Shane has split from wife and is dating a 20-year-old bimbo.

They fly to the Eden resort, which uses locations on Bora Bora, a truly enchanted place that’s reduced to the beach-party level. Eden is run by Monsieur Marcel (Jean Reno), a martial-arts mystic, and managed by Cstanley (Peter Serafinowicz), who explains his name is spelled with a “C.” Other staff include Salvadore (Latin pop singer Carlos Ponce), doubling for a model on the cover of a lesser romance novel.

The formula itself might have supported hilarity, but the story lacks character specifics. Each couple behaves relentlessly as an illustration of their problem. The movie depends for excitement on a shark attack during a scuba-diving exercise, featuring clueless sharks and an enormous pool of blood apparently leaked from a tiny superficial scratch. Salvadore charms the wives somewhat ambiguously with his oiled pecs and bottles of pineapple-rum drinks. The men don’t bond as much as stand together onscreen and exchange bonding dialogue.

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Review: Fame

Fame Review

Like so many old classics, it was inevitable that “Fame” would be picked from the shelf for a moneymaking revamp. Designed to appeal to the High School Musical tweens, director Kevin Tancharoen’s remake is bright and sparkly. But sadly, the inspirational realism, which made its 1980’s predecessor a hit, is missing in this adaptation.

The glamorous sets and modern dance numbers will be the first noticeable difference that will divide fans of the old Fame from the new one. The bustle of the auditions has been amped to epic proportions, with the halls and classrooms of the Performing Arts school filled with student hopefuls. While the pace is fast and viewers will not see many of the auditions in full but this exciting opening is one of the few scenes of the movie which outshines its predecessor.

Allison Burnett’s script stays true to the original plot, following a group of students through their years attending the exclusive New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Endeavoring to turn their interest in dance, music or drama into a professional careers, the students are marred by their quest for fame and fortune.

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