Crazy, Stupid, Love - Movie Review

There's a saying that trailers lie. That's pretty much happens with Crazy, Stupid, Love. What you see in the trailer isn't the whole movie, but it would have been much better if it had been.

This is a tough movie to review. I actually enjoyed Crazy, Stupid, Love, but for everything there is to like about it, there's something that's off about it.

Steve Carell and Julianne Moore are a couple that have clearly lost their spark. The movie starts with Julianne Moore's character admitting she had an affair and she wants a divorce.

Steve Carell moves out and then starts hanging out at a local bar. He's a sad sack at this point, blabbing to anyone and everyone at the bar that he's going through a divorce and that his wife cheated on him. A young, ladykiller-type, played by Ryan Gosling, takes pity on him and decides to help him get his manhood back.

Their time together is what works best in the movie. However, my complaint is that the trailer advertises this aspect the most. There were long stretches of the movie where they weren't together or where Gosling isn't in the movie at all. I would have preferred the majority of the movie to be about the two of them.

Oh and please tell me where in the hell this magical bar they were hanging out is? It appears to be a local bar as you see many of the same people there over and over, but it's super hip and just filled with hot people. You see a montage of both of them picking up girl after girl in the same bar night after night. You'd think after a while, you'd have a bit of a reputation and have to hit up a different bar from time to time. It just seems like I never see places like this in reality. At least not out here in the burbs.

Anyway, back to the movie. There were too many subplots that could have just been eliminated. As much as I liked the actors, you could have taken these sequences out of this movie and it would have been a much better film. For example there's a whole subplot with the babysitter and her family that could have been removed. It wasn't that Analeigh Tipton's performance was bad, it just wasn't central enough to the main plot.

It seems like this movie wasn't edited very well. It would spend a bunch of time on one aspect of the story and then move to another, when you had just gotten invested in that part. They'd come back to threads later in the movie that you had almost completely forgotten about or just didn't care about.

I really liked the cast. The kid that plays Steve Carell's son, Jonah Bobo, was pretty good in parts. Julianne Moore was fine, as was Kevin Bacon. I actually thought Emma Stone's character felt a little underwritten. They tried to give her own subplot and that just kind of felt tacked on. She didn't really need it for you to like her character. In fact, the way she handled herself in one of the scenes, I thought she was a little nutty. It was just unnecessary.

There's something that happens towards the end that while I found it funny, it really seemed forced. You'll see what I'm talking about when you get around to watching this. Then, the ultimate end was just kind of sappy and felt cliched.

Overall, I still enjoyed Crazy, Stupid, Love, but again, all of these random subplots could have been removed and it would have been a much tighter film. It also could have allowed them to focus on the main characters more.

It's not a bad thing to see as a matinee, but if you rented this you'd probably be happier with the rental.

Cowboys & Aliens - Movie Review

As the previews have shown, Cowboys & Aliens stars Daniel Craig as a man who awakens in the desert with no memory of who is or how he got there. He's wearing a mysterious metal bracelet on his wrist that he cannot remove. When a few random thugs find him, he quickly dispatches them, so you understand that he's a badass. However, once he reaches a local town, it becomes clear that he's a wanted man. Harrison Ford's character originally arrives in town to either collect the gold that Craig's stolen from him or collect on the reward that has been offered.

As Ford's character is preparing to take Craig away, lights appear out of nowhere, and open fire on the town. They kidnap several people. The attack stops when Daniel Craig's mysterious wrist bracelet activates and they find it's a weapon that actually can harm the ships.

A group of the remaining town members leave to track down the aliens and find their kidnapped friends and family.

Cowboys & Aliens took a little too long to get going. Initially, I was actually digging this because it very much felt like a standard western, and I still like a good western. However, once the aliens get involved, it actually became less interesting to me. It's all very nice looking, but there just wasn't a lot going on. They really seemed to stretch this out needlessly. The movie is two hours long, but it felt like a good 20 minutes could have been cut from it.

I thought Daniel Craig was really great. Harrison Ford was just kind of cantankerous and old. It kind of felt like he was phoning it in. Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine and Paul Dano were good, but underused. Olivia Wilde was okay, but I thought her character wasn't written all that well. It's just a waste of a great cast.

I think they missed the mark by not going for camp and trying to treat this seriously. It's not as funny as it should have been. The movie was just way too serious.

The alien design was cool, but I didn't think there was enough to them as far as their motivation went. You just don't care all that much or feel the menace here. When you find out why the aliens are there, you just kind of go, "Um, okay."

One of the things that really bugged me was then when the final battle starts, the humans are just getting slaughtered , but the battle seemed to drag on. The aliens had superior weapons, and were faster and stronger. You wonder how the humans could have stood any chance at all, especially with how few of them there were and how quickly they seemed to die. Plus, it's annoying in a movie when weapons only seemed to have any effect when it was used for dramatic purposes, like when the script called for it. They are either vulnerable to our weapons, or not.

I'll say this, at least Favreau tried to do something a little different. When the Summer movie seasons are now filled with sequels and superhero movies, it was nice to see an attempt at something different. However, I'm such a big Favreau fan that I was expecting this to be a bit funnier and faster paced.

Cowboys & Aliens is not bad, but it's just not something I'd recommend rushing out to see. After I saw the movie with my friends, nobody really had anything to say about the movie one way or another. Just a few observations, but that's about it.

I don't see me buying this on Blu-Ray anytime soon. I don't even think I'd bother renting this again unless they came out with an extended, Director's cut. It's a matinee at best, but I think most of you can save this for a rental.

Last week in DVD through July 25th.

Man, I'm dragging my butt posting my DVD reviews. I probably didn't help that the reviews I posted for Captain America and Friends With Benefits needed to be edited heavily the day after. I really need to not post reviews when I am up late...and have been drinking heavily.

Anyway, on to the DVDs...

The Lincoln Lawyer

I'm always afraid of watching any movie with Matthew McConaughey, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. This movie, and character, is based on a series of books by Michael Connelly. I would suspect that based on the reception of this movie, they might make more of these.

Basically, McConaughey plays kind of a douchey defense lawyer named Mickey Haller (the book series is known as the Mickey Haller series). He's asked to defend a rich, privileged kid, played by Ryan Phillippe, who's accused of assaulting a prostitute. Phillippe maintains his innocence and says that this is a setup by the girl to cash in on his family's fortune. He does a good job of convincing Haller, but...oh yes...there's more going on here than meets the eye.

I don't want to tell too much of the plot, because I don't want to spoil the movie for you. I really enjoyed this and I don't like to spoil a movie when I really think it's worth watching.

I thought the cast overall was great and it's a good story. There are some kind of standard courtroom movie elements here, and you can see the twists coming, but nothing felt too forced to me. It was still satisfying.

This was directed by Brad Furman, who's only other movie I can remember was The Take, which I thought was just okay. We'll see if Furman can direct some other good films in the future.

I give this one a strong rental recommendation.


Insidious

Wow! A movie that I actually found kind of scary.

This starts out as what appears to be a haunted house story. Insidious stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as a couple that have just moved into a new house with their young son. Apparently, there were some issues with the previous house they had lived in, but now weird things seemed to have followed them here. Their son mysteriously falls into a coma and after it cannot be medically explained why this has happened, they start to look at other possible causes.

Unfortunately, this is kind of where the movie takes a turn for the worse. Once they start trying to give a 'real' explanation for what is happening to their son, it just kind loses it's edge and I thought the ending wasn't a very good payoff at all. I won't spoil it for you, but it's a shame cause the movie starts out with such a good setup and then just isn't effective in the second half.

It doesn't have any cheap, jump scares, nor is it gory. I actually got the chills a few times when watching this and I rarely get that kind of reaction to scary movies. It has a good overall, creepy vibe to it. If you have a good surround sound system, it'll help with the scares.

I think this was better and scarier than Paranormal Activity, which I'm sure this will draw some comparisons too.

Kuduos to everyone involved here though. This movie was made under the microbudget model and was made for just $1.5 million. They went for normal, practical effects, instead of overblown CG or anything like that. I think that's why it was more effective as far as being creepy. I hope they continue to make movies like this though. I would like everyone to keep supporting smaller budget films if they are even halfway decent.

This was directed by James Wan, who also directed the first Saw movie and has been involved with most of that series as a producer. It's nice to see that he can do more than just torture porn movies.

I really wish I had seen this one in the theater just so I could have heard everyone's reactions to this.

I've love to give this a higher recommendation, but the second half just drops it down a few pegs for me. Overall, I still give a rental recommendation.

A short rant:

The next two movies both claimed to be based on true stories or real events. Both movies also tell you this in the first 30 seconds as the opening credits start. This is starting to become a pet peeve of mine.

If it's based on a true story, doesn't telling me that up front kind of kill any suspense for the film and even sometimes eliminates the need to even watch it? If it's a survival-type film, which both of these are, the obviously someone survived or there'd be nobody left to tell the story.

Then, you read up on the real story and find that it's VERY loosely based on a true story or the details are sketchy at best. A different person survived, it was a different kind of shark, it was in a different location, etc. If they change everything about the supposedly 'true' story, then why even say it's a true story?

Wouldn't it make more sense to save telling me it's based on a true story for just before the end credits roll? I think that would be more effective. Well, here are the two reviews:


The Way Back

They tell you up front that 3 men survived an escape from a Siberian prison and walking 4000 miles to India. So, when like seven or eight people are part of the group, you already know half are going to die. See what I mean about that killing the suspense?

Anyway, so these guys all escape from prison and then it's just it's just people walking through snow and desert and then watching most of them die. It's not pretty to watch them, and it's not fun. Most of the time you don't even know who just died. Since they are all bundled up (in the snow) or chapped, sunburnt and bearded when they reach the desert, it's hard to know who is who.

This felt like watching Lord of the Rings, except there were no Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs or anything else of interest happening around them.

I felt like I was enduring this movie as much as these guys were enduring this walk. At least the scenery was nice and the movie was shot well.

It's not that it's acted poorly. In fact, the cast features several actors I like, and I didn't think any of the performances were bad. Ed Harris was great, Jim Sturgess was good (who normally I haven't cared for) as was Saoirse Ronan. Colin Farrell gave a nice performance as well, but he actually goes his own way about halfway through the movie, never to be seen again.

The Way Back is just not a very interesting story. This movie kind of bums me out. I really wanted to like it. I like the director and most of the cast, but this just isn't anything I see people watching and enjoying on any level. I don't think it's a terrible movie, it's just not one worth recommending to anyone unless you want to torture yourself watching people struggle against the elements.

It's directed by Peter Weir. I think he really tried here, but given the subject matter, there was only so much he could do. Plus, when reading up on the 'true' story, you'll find that the entire guy's story has been debunked and now even the director now admits this is a work of fiction. That kind of kills any of the emotion you might have had towards the characters.

This is a pass for me.


The Reef

The second in my 'based on real events' double feature. This one is a bit more believable though. A group of friends pile in a boat and set sail for Indonesia, but shortly after the trip starts, the boat runs up on a reef and capsizes. The group decides that it's better to make a swim for it as the current is taking them further out to sea and they think the boat will sink before anyone is able to find them. One guy stays behind as he knows what is in the water and would rather take his chances staying with the boat.

The rest of the group swims for an island they think is a few miles away. I'm sure you can guess what happens next.

This is probably the most effective shark film I've seen since Jaws. One smart thing they did is not use a CG shark. What they did was film their own footage of a Great White, and then composite that in with the actors. It works surprisingly well here. I knew about this going in and there were many times where I felt like they actors really were swimming just a few feet away from a huge shark.

As someone that has both a pretty strong fear of deep water, being stranded at sea AND sharks, this movie was pretty terrifying at times.

It's only just about 88 minutes, so The Reef doesn't drag on, but can feel like it at times since they are just swimming for most of the film. However, I think that's what helps contribute to the helplessness and the eventual paranoia the characters feel.

The Reef is a little closer to the real story this was based on. It appears that two people really were killed by a shark as they were swimming back. Another difference was that it was a Tiger shark instead of a Great White, but those are the kind of changes they do for dramatic effect.

I actually recommend this one.


Arthur

I did not like this. I'm not even going to get into the lack of need for a remake of the original Arthur. This is a remake nobody asked for or even cared about.

The first 15 minutes of this movie are just awful. Russell Brand's Arthur is just so annoying that I almost turned the movie off. Fortunately, he tones his act down a bit,but then the movie just becomes what felt like a run of the mill romantic comedy. I'd get more into the plot, but it's just not interesting enough to talk about.

I'm sorry, but I don't find Russell Brand funny. He has that high pitched voice that just grates on you. I don't really think there's a lot of talent there. What exactly does he do? Act annoying? I do think he works in a small doses and in supporting roles, like in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A little of him goes a long way. Give him a full movie and there's not enough there to keep your interest.

Greta Gerwig plays Arthur's love interest. I didn't think she was bad, but she kind of came across to me as a poor-man's Zooey Deschanel. I actually think some of the date scenes between her and Arthur were cute and a little charming. If they had gotten rid of a lot of the ridiculousness of this movie, it might have worked better as just a Rom-Com between these two.

I like Helen Mirren, but she felt totally out of place. I can't imagine why an actress of her caliber would have even agreed to be in this. It's like she lost a bet or the director must have naked pictures of her stashed away for blackmail.

Speaking of, this was directed by Jason Winer. This is actually a shock to me as he has directed many episodes of Modern Family, which is one of the funniest shows on TV. You'd think he would have known this wasn't a funny movie.

This movie is bad, but it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting. That's still not saying much or a compliment. Saying a movie isn't as bad you were expecting it still saying it's bad. I just didn't think it was funny at all and I don't think this movie does anything to prove why Russell Brand should be in starring in movies. Overall, I can't find any reason why you need to watch it.

Ugh, don't watch this.


Thumbsucker

I rented this as this was written and directed by Mike Mills, who recently did Beginners, which I liked a lot. I wanted to see what else he had to offer. Thumbsucker isn't bad, but it wasn't as enjoyable as Beginners.

This is one of those quirky movies where every character is flawed in some way or seems to be a little off. The main character Justin, played by Lou Taylor Pucci, is a high school student that still has issues with sucking his thumb. He struggles in school and doesn't seem to be able to focus on anything. He has a unusual relationship with his parents, whom he both addresses by their first names. This actually at their request, because saying 'mom' or 'dad' makes them feel old. His Father, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, is a former jock that seems to be a little bugged by his son's awkwardness. His Mother, played by Tilda Swinton, is a nurse that doesn't seem to be happy in her marriage and has a weird crush on a TV-actor, played by Benjamin Bratt.

As a thumb sucker, Justin sees an orthodontist played by Keanu Reeves. He attempts to council Justin on his thumb sucking and tries a few methods of getting him to quit.

Justin eventually is diagnosed as ADHD and is given Ritalin, which actually allows him to start focusing on school. The debate team, which he originally only joined to get close to a girl he had a crush on, he is now excelling at. However, his new confidence and success has made him a bit arrogant, and this leads to a bit of a conflict with his debate coach, played by Vince Vaughn. He becomes confrontational with others as well and eventually quits taking the Ritalin.

It has a very good cast and they all perform well here. Even Keanu Reeves was interesting in his role and you see Vince Vaughn play a much different role than what you're used to seeing.

As I said earlier, it's on the quirky side and I thought it was a little uneven. It just felt a little slow and awkward, but the awkwardness is partially due to the subject matter and the flaws of the characters.

I thought it was worth the rental and if you like films on the awkward side, then you might enjoy this one as well.


Take Me Home Tonight

It's kind of tough to do an 80's nostalgia comedy when you already have The Wedding Singer, and more recently, Hot Tub Time Machine beating you to the punch. It's even tougher when both of those movies are far funnier than this.

Take Me Home Tonight isn't the worst movie, it just isn't very funny or all that original. It also suffers from some bad writing. There are a bunch of things that happen that don't make sense at all. Normally, you can forgive stuff like that in a comedy, but only of it's really funny. Plus, I really hate when the main character lies to a girl when there just isn't any reason to. It's the same issue I had with Just Go With It.

Topher Grace's character, is a recent MIT graduate who's back home and trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. In an effort to impress a girl he's had a crush on since high school, tells her he has a job at Goldman Sachs, when he really works at a Suncoast Video. The girl is played by Teresa Palmer, appears to be the only actor in the movie playing her age. Anyway, as far as the lie goes, he just got out of college. It wouldn't have been a stretch to say, "I just moved back from college and I'm working here until I can get a job in my field." Granted, it's easier to say that now with the economy the way it is, but I still don't see any reason to lie like this. When the lie eventually gets revealed, you will look terrible. I'll give you one guess as to whether or not that happens here.

Plus, it's not even a well thought out lie. Several people in the movie immediately challenge him on the fact that Goldman Sachs doesn't have an office that's local. If you're gonna lie like that, at least do you homework first. You're supposed to be a math whiz, but I guess you didn't take Lying 101 at college. I guess MIT doesn't offer that as part of the curriculum.

Anyway, the plot of this all hinges around everyone meeting up at the big party. You've seen this a million times, and done much better in other films. Like I said, there's just nothing new or original here.

Having said that, I actually didn't mind it that much. It's harmless enough and the cast is likeable. It's just kind of meh. I like Anna Farris, but I felt like she was underused. Also, it seemed kind of weird to cast her as Topher's twin sister when that wasn't used for any comic effect. Why not just have her be his older sister by a year or two or just a good friend even?

Another interesting thing was that this movie was actually made in 2007, but was shelved until this year. I wonder if this movie might have been received better if it had been released a few years ago. It was directed by Michael Dowse, who really hasn't directed anything of note. I can only imagine if they had gotten a better comedy director and punched up the script a bit, this would have came off much better.

As you would guess by the title of the movie, it has a lot of 80's songs and references, so if you like that, then you'll at least get a kick out of some of that.

It wouldn't be the worse thing to rent this, just don't expect much.


Tekken

I have nothing to say about this other than it's just another bad film based on a video game. I was hoping that it would at least deliver on the martial arts action.

There's just no reason at all to watch this. I didn't think the fight scenes were all that good and the whole story is ridiculous. It's a shame because there are actually some good people in this movie, they are just all wasted here.

Pass.

Captain America - Movie Review

Captain America! F-Yeah, coming along to save the mother-effing Summer!

Okay, it's not that good, but it's still pretty damn good. Honestly, I think Captain America's biggest flaw is that it didn't come out sooner. They really messed up not bringing this out on 4th of July. So what if it was competing against Transformers 3. Transformers 3 sucked, and is anyone talking about that movie anymore. Nope!

I'm never been a Captain America comic reader. I always thought he was the cheesiest of the comic book characters. He just seemed goofy. Does he even have a super power? They actually explain that here, along with his motivation and character.

It starts with showing a sickly looking person, Steve Rogers, played by a I-don't-know-how-they-did-it Chris Evans. He shows, through his actions, that while he's not a physical guy at all, he's got all the heart in the world. It's this heart that gets him chosen to be the guinea pig for the original Super Solider serum.

However, after he's given the serum and transformed into a more physical presence, instead of just launching him into the role of hero, they put him into a war propaganda role that he actually wants nothing do with. He just wants to fight. That's Steve Rogers character in a nutshell; he's always just wanted a shot to do his part.

What the movie shows you is not that Captain America is the best superhero. It shows you that he's the best team player.  He doesn't want the all the credit or the glory.  He just wants to do his job.  It's like a star quarterback never taking credit for the victory, even though he threw for 600 yards, 5 TDs (with 2 more rushing) and no INTs.  Then he says after the game that it was 'a total team effort.'  If you combined Peyton Manning. Joe Montana and Tom Brady and then gave him super powers, he'd be Captain America. Something like that.

There's really not a lot I can say about the movie without spoiling anything. Hugo Weaving is great as he always is, but a bit underused. Tommy Lee Jones has a short, but good role. Hayley Atwell is capable, but I didn't think she was anything special as far has her performance. I think she could have been interchanged with just about any other actress and it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.

It has plenty of great action sequences and I felt like it was paced pretty well. I liked the whole retro vibe of it and I think that really helped sell the movie.

Oh, this has the best post-credits sequence of all of the Marvel movies! Stay until the end and you'll get The Avengers teaser trailer and you don't even need to go to ComicCon.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Captain America this is a total full price movie for me. I didn't see this one in 3D, but this is something that might have worked in 3D. Once again, the 3D was done it post, which usually looks bad, but there were a few times he throws his shield around that probably would have looked pretty cool in 3D.

Otherwise, just go see this. If you liked Thor or X-Men: First Class, you'll like this just as much, if not more.

Friends With Benefits - Movie Review

If you know me, you know that it takes a lot to make me like a romantic comedy. I usually go in with the bias that they are going to be the same old hackneyed bullshit and suck hard. So, if you can make a romantic comedy that I actually enjoy, then that's saying something.

Friends With Benefits, is actually my favorite romantic comedy of the year. Yeah, I said it. They did it!

I went in wanting to hate this. Seriously, from the previews how were they going to sell me on two hot people having a hard time finding someone to have sex with them? Really, people that look like Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake are having a hard time finding someone to hook up with them? Cry me a frigging river. Thankfully, that's not the actual plot of this movie, but that's what the previews made it look like.

I know this will draw comparisons to No Strings Attached, but let me stop that now. Friends With Benefits, is better in almost every way. Apparently, both of these movies were actually made at the same time, but they decided to release Friends With Benefits later in the year. Smart decision, as this is clearly the better movie.

If you can make me laugh out loud when I'm not expecting to, then you've already won me. Friends With Benefits did that here. I was surprised at how funny this was. It's actually kind of raunchy in parts, which I just wasn't expecting, but it was a welcome surprise.

There's not a helluva lot to the plot, so I'm not even going to get into that here. It's pretty standard romantic comedy stuff. In fact, I'll give you one guess as to how it ends...

(...do you need a hint?)

I'll just talk about what I like. Here it is:

One of the things I really liked here is that neither of the main characters had that stereotypical group of friends that follows them around, like you saw in No Strings Attached or Going the Distance. This made the movie much easier for me to relate to. When it comes to my dating life, I feel like I'm flying solo most of the time. I don't have a quirky group of friends always willing to be my wingmen. As much as I'd like that, it's not the case. Anyway...

Woody Harrelson is great as an over-the-top gay sports writer. He's probably the only thing close to the bullshit friends from other romantic comedies. He's used well here though, so it didn't feel like it was too much.

Richard Jenkins as Justin's Dad is also good here. He usually good in any movie he's in. Here he teeters the line between funny and emotional. That's all I'll say.

Even Jenna Elfman has a nice role here, which I found kind of a shock cause they take a shot at Scientology in the movie and she's a known worshiper of Xenu. Maybe that changed.

Sure, this is a little cliched at points. Actually, this movie pokes fun of the whole genre in a very meta-sense, which makes me forgive that (at one point Kunis' character even gives a f-you to Katherine Heigl. Bravo!). In a way, it's a total setup, because you know what's coming at the end. Still, you don't mind and actually would have been mad if it ended any other way.

This movie gets by on it's charm and the chemistry of Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. Oh man, does the chemistry pop between those two. If they had cast this differently, it just wouldn't have worked. You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I think Timberlake really does have a future in acting. Even after The Social Network, I thought he was a flash in the pan, but he pretty good. While there are scenes where he sings, it's only done for laughs. I was actually expecting them to run that into the ground and make it annoying, (like say...Jack Black) but again, they used that without making you roll your eyes at it.

I credit this to Will Gluck who also directed Easy A, which was my surprise fun movie of last Summer. It seems he has really figured out a formula that works and hopefully he can keep this up.

Anyway, I highly recommend seeing this. It's a great date movie.

Beginners - Movie Review

Time for another semi-alcohol-fueled review!

I've said this before, but I LOVE The Vine in Livermore. I got to the theater, paid just $9 for a non-matinee. Ordered a Racer 5 and Arrogant Bastard beer (double fisting) and a burger, and had it delivered to my chair in the theater. You can't beat this!

Anyway, Beginners is a movie starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. The movie is narrated by Ewan's character, who most of the time uses a photo-essay form of giving you snippets about his family and life. Ewan is a late-30's bachelor, and he starts by telling you that his mother died a a few years back and after that, his father, at the age of 75, came out of the closet as a gay man.

He then tells you that his Father has already died as well. This is told to you in the first five minutes of the movie, so this is no spoiler. Despite all the death mentioned in the first few minutes of the film, the tone of the movie isn't of sadness.

Ewan has taken on the ownership of his Father's dog, who he can understand as the dog speaks to him through subtitles. I found this to be one of the funniest elements of the movie and fortunately it's not used too much. He meets a girl at a party, played my Melanie Laurent, and begins to date her.

In the movie, 'Beginners' refers to both the beginning of a new relationship for Ewan and for his father beginning his new life as a gay man and discovering that aspect of his life.

The movie cycles between flashbacks of Ewan taking care of his Father before he died, his relationship with his mother when he was a child; and of him in the present-tense dealing with the death of his Father and being in a new relationship.

There are points where this is a quirky and clever comedy, but at other times this felt like more like a serious drama. With there being a lot about new relationships in the movie, you could say this is a romantic comedy. It never really felt like one to me though, but that's not a bad thing. I just think the tone of the movie kind of shifted around a bit.

There are some emotional moments toward the end. I'm generally not brought to tears by a movie, but even I had to fight back some tears towards the end of this movie. I don't cry though. I'm wearing a Superman shirt. I only cry when I accidentally cause the death of Lois Lane when I'm not fast enough to stop the rocket from crashing into a California fault line. Anyway, the relationship between the Ewan and his Father should relate to anyone.

The movie features some very strong performances from Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. They really made the movie for me and you walk away from Beginners wishing you had known both of their characters.

This was written and directed by Mike Mills, who also did Thumbsucker. I haven't seen Thumbsucker, but now I feel compelled to see that. I like when a movie makes me want to see other movies written by or starring other people from the same movie. I think that's the mark of a good movie.

Ultimately, I really liked Beginners. I felt it was a little uneven as far as the tone of movie, but overall I enjoyed it.

Most of you don't access to an art house theater near you, so I give this a rental for most people. If you happen to live close to a theater that is playing this, I recommend checking it out. Otherwise, I recommend you rent this once it comes out on DVD.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Review

Okay, this is this big one. All the hype has lead up to this. Does Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (that's a mouthful) live up to the hype? Well, sort of...

I start this review by stating that I watching this movie with D-BOX. You can learn more about it here:

http://www.d-box.com/en/movie-theatre/

Basically, it's like watching a movie on a roller coaster, where the seats will rumble and move with the action on screen. Actually, it's probably more like being on Star Tours. I thought it really worked in the scenes they used it in. It wasn't constant through the movie, so you aren't just getting thrown around the entire time. There was a part of the movie towards the end where I have to say I almost felt asleep, only to be awoken by the D-BOX, so I have to say that it helped me keep me in the movie. You pay an extra $8 for the D-BOX ticket, but you get a reserved seat. I thought it was fun and recommend checking it out.

Anyway, back to the movie. I did like Harry Potter. This is a pretty good conclusion to the series and story. It makes up for the action that was missing from Part 1, which I liked to call Harry Potter and the Boring-Ass Camping Trip. Part 2 doesn't waste much time getting to the action, which I liked. I didn't feel like there was a ton of story here, as most of the build up was in the Part I. As a result, this movie had more a thrill ride feel to me. It was definitely more entertaining.

However, I did have a few problems. The climax seemed a little too easy. The final fight between Harry and Voldemort just didn't seem all that epic. In fact, it felt like just a replay of their fight from The Goblet of Fire. I was a little disappointed in that.

At one point during the main battle, there was a bit of a deus ex machina to me. Maybe this was more of a cop out than a pure deus ex machina, but there was a point at the climax that made me go, "Where'd that come from?"

While they seemed to make a point to give a villain a good death, they didn't have the same respect for some of the heroes. You don't even see them die on-screen. This started in Part 1 with Mad-Eye Moody. They just causally mention he's dead and you're just like, "Okay. That just happened. We don't get to see it, I guess. That's kind of BS."

Then, in Part 2, there's two more significant deaths that also happen off-screen and you just see them lying dead on the ground after. What the hell?! I really don't like it when movies treat their side characters as fodder. These were important characters that had been in previous movies and you give them deaths that carry no emotional weight or impact. This is one of the things that bugged me about the Transformers movies.

I will say that I've never read a Harry Potter book. I'm suspecting that some of details and emotional weight of the events are explained better there than on-screen. I'm hoping that we get a director's cut that maybe explains this stuff a little better. Therein lies a problem I have with movies based off books; if you're requiring your audience to get details about the events on-screen from another source, then you really aren't going a great job of storytelling. I'm not saying this is a bad movie, but I shouldn't have to read a book to get more details about what happens in the movie. It's the whole 'show me, don't just tell me' thing.

On another note, what the hell happened to Neville Longbottom? All of a sudden, he's turned into a young Clive Owen. Seriously, talk about a awkward looking kid growing into a man. I find it kind of funny that this guy may end up being the guy that might have more of a film career as an adult.

Look, if you're a Potter fan, there's nothing I'm going to say that's going to stop you from seeing this. You probably already have by now.

If you're a casual fan, or not a book reader, save this for a matinee or rental (especially if they come out with a director's cut). If you have an opportunity to see it in D-BOX, I would recommend checking that out, but the cost might not be worth it if you're just a casual fan.