Saturday, July 28, 2007

Movie: The Simpsons

The Simpsons Movie
Studios:20th Century Fox Animation
Release:July 27, 2007
Genre:Comedy, Animation and Adaptation
MPAA Rating:PG-13 for irreverent humor throughout.

My Yahoo! Movies Rating:
Overall Grade:B-
Story:C-
ActingB-
Direction:B-
Visuals:B-

This movie is just like one of those Simpsons TV specials ... only this time, they brought it to the big screen instead of just showing it on TV.

There were a lot of gags but this movie earned its PG-13 rating. It isn't something for very young minds.

My favorite part here is when Bart had to skateboard across town naked. Really hilarious.

Movie: Ratatouille

Ratatouille
Studio:Walt Disney Pictures
Release:June 29, 2007
Genre:Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family and Animation
MPAA Rating:G

My Yahoo! Movies Rating:
Overall Grade:A-
Story:B
ActingA-
Direction:A-
Visuals:A

I've heard some adults say this is too much of a kids movie. They probably thought this was like Shrek where kids laugh at the slapstick while parents laugh at the double meanings in the dialogue.

This is a real, clean fun family movie where parents don't have to worry about having to explain "innuendos" or gross jokes to their kids.

That doesn't mean the comedy here is like something out of Teletubbies or Barney's. The leads after all is a grown up man and an adult rat.

These two have to navigate a plot where they learn about having confidence, responsibility, friendship, and not pre-judging others just because they are different. This is stuff any young adult has to face when starting on their own.

This movie has a good story plus at least one moral lesson at the end.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Harry Potter Series, Book 7
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author:J. K. Rowling
Genre:Wizards/ Fiction
Publisher:Scholastic
Year Published:2007


Dumbledore is dead, and war has come to Hogwarts. Harry realizes that survival hinges not only on finding all the horcruxes, but also in finding the deathly hallows.

Although Harry would rather face the danger alone, his friends are determined to stand by him. For this he would eventually be thankful, for Voldemort's defeat would not have been possible without their help.

The last chapter takes the reader forward in time to find out how the characters have transitioned into adulthood. This chapter opens the probability of starting another series based on the characters, probably not written by Rowling, but with her permission.

This book is a better than expected end to the series. I was dreading it was a bad one since the last 2 to 3 books weren't as good as the first three in my opinion.

I wonder ... once discussion over this book is finished in a year or less, would the forums and fanfictions dedicated to Harry Potter slowly die a natural death with the waning of interest? Especially after the 7th movie has been made and shown? That was what happened with a number of LOTR forums.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

DVD Movie: The Producers

The Producers
Studio:Universal Pictures
Release:December 16, 2005
Genre:Comedy
MPAA Rating:PG-13 for sexual humor and references.

My Yahoo! Movies Rating:
Overall Grade:B+
Story:B
ActingB+
Direction:B
Visuals:A

I bought the DVD since watching this movie is the closest I'll ever get to watching the hit musical.

The story, although it has a good premise, isn't that outstanding. The characters are hilarious. Since I already knew about Natan Lane and Matthew Broderick's competency in pulling off singing, dancing and acting, it was Will Ferrell's participation in the movie that was a revelation to me. Not only was he uber funny, he actually sings a song that easily got stuck in my head even hours after watching the movie.

I have to admit, watching the movie after the outtakes, deleted scenes and the commentary made the movie much more funnier than watching the movie alone. This is one of those cases where the bonus materials in the DVD made watching the movie more satisfying.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

DVD Movie: Love Actually

Love Actually
Studio:Universal Pictures
Release:November 7, 2003
Genre:Comedy and Romance
MPAA Rating:R for sexuality, nudity and language.

My Yahoo! Movies Rating:
Overall Grade:B
Story:B+
ActingB
Direction:B
Visuals:B-

If you think about it, this movie is a small term paper on the different kinds of "love" one could find around us.

There is puppy love, love between parent and child (doesn't matter if it's a foster parent), love between siblings, lust that is mistaken for love, unrequited love, love being tested in a marriage, romantic love, and love between two aging friends who decide to stick by each other.

The movie takes us on a field trip to discover or get re-acquainted with these forms of love and the emotions that go with it: exhiliration, confusion, joy, anxiety and even pain.

Most of my favorite scenes here include Bill Nighy. I had hoped that the DVD would have a music video of the full version of "Christmas is All Around" that is separate from the movie. Sadly, it does not.

Technorati

Added this blog to Technorati today.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketStudios:Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release:July 11, 2007
Genre:Action/Adventure, Kids/Family, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Adaptation and Sequel
MPAA Rating:PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.

All Harry Potter movies look pretty. However, as Rowling's books kept getting thicker and the movies should not be more than 2.5 hours if they want to keep the attention of the audience, we find less and less of the books in the movies as we go along the series. Once more, we find characters taking over the function of minor characters to keep the time and cost short: It is Neville who discovers the Room of Requirement, it is Filch who spies on the secret meetings, and it is Cho who betrays Dumbledore's Army. I find it funny that the movie even bothered to show the inquisitorial squad when it was Filch who got air time doing the spying.

Nothing drives this movie internally. It is the events in the book that dictate what scenes come next ... and after watching this movie, I rather think that in good movies, the scenes themselves should move the movie forward to what will happen next. I find it rather crazy that to explain what happens in between scenes, the movie uses too much of the Daily Prophet. If there is an extended DVD version that amends this editing job, I would like to see that movie.

The dynamics between the characters have been maintained, and the adolescent child actors have grown into their roles. Rupert Grint's Ron Weasley is more of a wuss in the movie than in the books, and still resorts to funny facial expressions (those faces are getting to be tiring - and annoying since Ron Weasley in my favorite character in the books), and we see that the focus on female characters is shifting from Hermione Granger to Ginny Weasley.

Cho Chang is not forgotten. There are those eye-to-eye contact moments and the requisite kissing scene between Harry and Cho. The latter should have come across as a tender, awkward moment but struck me as plain awkward. The scenes between Harry and Luna Lovegood actually had more heart. The "Ron Weasley is our King" angle was totally taken out of this movie. The quidditch chapters would probably be enough to make another movie.

Quidditch wasn't needed to put action in this movie. The battle at the Ministry of Magic was great. We finally see more of the other actors in the movie apart from the kids and Dolores Umbridge.

Since Dolores Umbridge is the new character here, Imelda Staunton gets more screen time while the other actors are underutilized. We see little of Helena Bonham Carter's Bellatrix Lestrange except in the Ministry of Magic. There is a very short scene that shows her being freed from Azkaban, but it was so short, it took a while before I realized what it was about. Sirius Black does get a few but good scenes, after all, this is the last we shall see of him in the series. I think I would enjoy seeing more of Emma Thompson's portrayal of Sybil Trelawney's breakdown. Dame Maggie Smith appears as Prof. McGonagall in only 2 or 3 scenes. Anyway, as Harry Potter movies are part of British pop culture, I don't think those actors mind having little screen time. I think they're just glad their characters are still included in the movie version.

The movie is not lacking in talent, or computer graphics, and it does have good moments of action, comedy and drama. It suffers from the editing needed to trim the story to just above two hours of screen time. The abrupt change from one scene to another dissolves any momentum a scene might have built up, leaving little to tug at the viewers emotionally. The film had little time to delve into the numerous personalities populating it, that the movie comes across as merely a visual companion to the book, when it should be able to stand on its own.

Current Top Five (Movies)