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sevenyearhawk
Reviews
Ramona and Beezus (2010)
My daughter loved it, but ...
... this movie tries to cram a whole lot onto the screen.
We took our young daughter to see this movie today, she enjoyed it and now wants to read all of the Ramona books.
Her mom (a teacher) is very familiar with this series and said that there are elements from some of the various books.
I was less familiar, and it seemed to me that the movie wasn't quite sure what to do with itself. (I've since learned that there is also a stage adaptation)
The trailers make it seem like a kids' movie - which it is, but a subplot with the characters' aunt seems to dominate more of the movie that one would expect.
The actress playing Ramona is superb, and Selena Gomez does well with her limited amount of screen time.
Children and their parents alike will enjoy it, but while laughs are aplenty, there are quite a few "more serious" moments ...
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)
Wow ... how bad was it?
Here's an idea of how bad this movie was ...
we checked it out from the library and watched it in the early evening, and the first thing my young daughter said upon waking up the next morning was "let's take it back!" It was barely funny, and at times disturbing.
As others have mentioned, the Quentin Tarrantino cameo was absolutely worthless!!! *spoilers, spoilers, spoilers* The idea of having Miss Piggy play all the witches was vastly underused ... a nice flashback of all of them "singing as a group" might have been somewhat interesting.
There was a weird mishmash of having the Flying Monkeys being a biker group (The Wiz) yet controlled by a "magical biker cap" (the original story) Queen Latifah was sorely underused, did she even sing? That might have been nice at the very end during the reunion ...
And the Toto/prawn idea ... wow, how lame.
My favorite part was probably the appearance of Dr. Teeth and Electric Mayhem in the Poppy bar.
And I had no idea that you could rhyme "Kansas" with "chances" ...
Transformers (2007)
Not half bad
I have to admit that I didn't have high expectations for this movie when I first heard about it ... then the trailer shown before Shrek 3 intrigued me. My boss got to see a sneak preview the night before full release and he talked me into going with him tonight (it was good enough for him to go see again!) Are the special effect believable? ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY!!!!!!!
I caught myself driving home, looking at every vehicle, wondering what if ... The effects folks did an incredible job of making this look authentic and completely feasible! They should be nominated for, if not win an Oscar! As for the plot - there were some glaring holes, a few real leaps of faith in terms of suspension of disbelief, a few too obvious product plugs, but all in all, I would definitely say it was a WHOLE LOT FUNNIER than I expected, many moments when the whole crowd laughed out loud!
Some couple brought their 6-8 year old son, that boy is going to be SCARRED FOR LIFE! There are some INTENSE moments in this film, folks, in terms of combat ... and some dialog which is going to take those parents months to explain, and it has nothing to do with robots, more along human anatomy and physiology.
You'll need to see it more than once, there is so much going on, that I felt like my eyes hurt trying to take everything in ... I plan on seeing it at least once more in the theaters!
Shrek the Third (2007)
not great, but not awful ...
well, most of the national critics panned it, but those here locally were pretty favorable ...
some good moments, just a few really awful.
*** minor spoiler: I'd heard that the song at the Frog King's funeral was in poor taste, I thought it was handled fairly well - however his "conveyence" to the Underworld was *definitely* in poor taste, an ill-timed joke, I believe. I also didn't care for Artie's lil' "scene" with Merlin, but that was the absolute worst for me! END SPOILER ***
I would have loved to have seen the "princesses" developed a further, but all in all, we'll probably wind up adding it to our DVD collection, and I could possibly handle another go at the theater ...
One note, the trailers before were highly inappropriate, we went with our pre-school daughter, and another couple and their daughter, who is the same age. Some of the trailers (Transformers - scary, Simpsons - a tad vulgar, Hot Rod - too Jackass-ish) might give pause to parents' of younger children!!!
But this was by far the BEST Transformers' trailer, and almost cemented the fact that I'll go see it in the theater!
Notes from the Underbelly (2007)
full of clichés - but not horrible
as new parents (we have a 4 year old and an 8 month old) and friends of a couple who JUST got pregnant, there are definitely a lot of moments that resonate with us ... my wife probably enjoys this a bit more than I do.
i can't help but finding myself comparing this to a "grown up" version of Friends (of which i was not a big fan) - maybe it is the three couple format (only two official, i know - if this thing plays out long enough, Cooper and the scruffy guy will hook up, count on it!) The main gal reminds me of Rachel, the very pregnant one Monica (think high school, fatsuit Monica) the scruffy guy is like Joey, and the main guy is Ross-like. Even the lawyer gal has Phoebe elements ...
anyway, there are some funny moments, a lot of annoying ones ... we'll probably tune in as long as it's on, but won't cry if it gets canceled.
Rocky Balboa (2006)
Pleasantly surprised
I am not a big fan of Sly Stallone, I can't recall having seen even one Rocky movie in its entirety. This said, the previews and early reviews of this movie intrigued me. In particular the father/son elements in this movie. I've never had a particularly strong bond with my father, but he IS a big Stallone/ Rocky/Rambo fan, and being the Holidays, I figured what the heck! Because I am not fluent in the Rocky mythology, I definitely came into this with fresh eyes ... The movie pacing was great, I enjoyed the flashbacks, Rocky's reminiscing didn't bore me, in fact it was essential for my understanding.
All in all, my dad and I shared shed tears, and this film made me want watch the previous installments (as well as try to run some stairs and drink raw eggs, yuk!)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Pleasantly surprised!
When I first heard about T3, I thought "my God, why?" when I heard the TX was a woman, again, I wondered, "WHY?" ...
But the mostly positive reviews on this site and from critics motivated me to plunk down my dough, and I was pleasantly surprised!
Lemme also add, I think that "Episode I" so LOWERED expectations for prequel/sequels that most things succeed in a franchise.
That said, T3 was AWESOME, and I sincerely hope that it ends here ... one of the best things about the franchise is that we're given just a taste of the future world, and the rest is left to our imaginations!!!