Brief Movie Reviews- 3/30/10

Brief Movie Reviews- 3/30/10

Here are some movies that I’ve seen recently and instead of doing a big movie review of each I decided to write a brief movie review of each and give it a grade.

Precious

- To say that this was a hard movie to sit through would be an understatement. The movie deals with physical and emotional abuse, and incest of the main character. I will guarantee after watching this movie you will feel better about your own life. If you can make it through all the hard scenes though you will be rewarded by a very emotional story with a ray of hope at the end. I really enjoyed this movie although I don’t think I could watch it again. The movie was full of great performances and great scenes that I will not forget any time soon. Precious was nominated for best picture of 2009. Won Oscars for best supporting actress (Mo’Nique), and adapted screenplay.

- Grade: B

A Serious Man

- This Coen brothers movie deals with a Jewish man going through a bit of a mid life crisis. His wife wants a divorce so that she can marry his colleague, his brother is a lonely person who sleeps on his couch and has trouble with the law, his son smokes pot, his daughter steals from him, and he’s not sure if he will get his tenure at the college he teachers for. Through out the movie he is meeting with different Rabbis to try to figure out why this is all happening to him. The answer seems to be there is no answer and you should just do good to others in any and every situation. Though this is accurate to life it doesn’t make for an interesting movie. This movie was nominated for best picture in 2009.

- Grade: D

Coraline

- This is a stop action motion movie that follows a girl named Coraline who finds a portal, in her new house, to an alternative world. In this alternative world everyone seems more interesting, especially her parents, than the people in the real world. She finds herself wanting to spend more time in this new world then in her own. Only this new world soon turns into a nightmare and she must defeat the evil presence there to save everyone she loves. The animation can be quite beautiful and haunting at times but also is very bizarre and creepy. I wasn’t crazy about the story line and it was a bit too bizarre for my taste. It was nominated for best animation movie in 2009.

- Grade: C

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

- Another stop motion animation that stars a fox aptly named Mr. Fox who longs for the good old years when he made a living catching chickens. He’s settled down with a wife and son and itches for more excitement. So he steals some chickens from some farmers and brings their wrath upon him and the animal community he lives in. To redeem himself he has to come up with a plan to save everyone. If you like Wes Anderson movies then I think you will like this one. It has the usual actors and the usual quirky humor of other Wes Anderson movies. I thought it was funny with an interesting story and characters. It was nominated for best animation movie in 2009.

- Grade: B

The Princess and the Frog

- Disney animation goes old school with a 2D musical animation movie in this one. It stars a woman in New Orleans who works hard as a waitress saving up to own her own restaurant. An evil voodoo man turns her into a frog, along with a prince. They meet some funny characters on the way to finding a witch on the bayou to turn them back to human. The two frogs, or I mean characters, of course fall in love and they both learn a valuable lesson in life. It was an ok story with some funny characters but not enough for me to really recommend. Also none of the songs really worked for me like past Disney movies. It was also nominated for best animation movie of 2009.

- Grade: C

The Informant

- This movie is based on a true story of a man who gets involved with the FBI against the company he works for. He wears a wire to meetings and basically spies on his co-workers to bring down the corruption of the company. The movie gets more and more complicated as the FBI and you the viewer start wondering if this guy is trust worthy at all. A somewhat comical performance by Matt Damon in the lead. Matt Damon fills it with the most random narration in a movie that I’ve ever seen. The narration doesn’t really push the plot along but gives you insight on how nerdy and random the main character is. It’s an interesting gimmick at first that gets annoying the farther into the movie you get.

Grade: C