How To Train Your Dragon

How To Train Your Dragon

DreamWorks has produced many good animation movies in the past like Monsters Vs. Aliens, Kung Fu Panda, Shark Tales, and the Shrek series. I would say Pixar is king in the animation movie department. Especially considering they’ve won the Oscar for best animation movie the last 3 years. Pixar movies usually have the best stories, rich characters, and emotional impact than any other animation. I will say though DreamWorks animation is very good in using visual effects and music in their movies and How to Train Your Dragon is probably the best example of that.

How to Train Your Dragon is about a Viking village that has a major dragon problem. The main character is Hiccup who longs to be a Viking warrior. To prove himself he needs to kill one of the many dragons that attack his village. The problem is he doesn’t have the muscle mass or ferociousness it takes to be a dragon killer. Everything changes when he happens to capture the much-feared Night Fury.

As the movie goes on Hiccup becomes friends with the dragon, Toothless, which causes conflict with him and his father; and with pretty much the rest of the Viking village. His father (voiced wonderfully by Gerard Butler) is the biggest and toughest of the Vikings and is blood thirsty in killing the dragon race. He loves his son but can’t get over being disappointed in the way he turned out. Hiccup needs to prove to everyone that dragons are ok before it’s too late.

The movie deals with issues of the relationship problems between father and son; and also the issues of being at war with an enemy you don’t understand. The father/son relationship has been done many times before but it still brings the satisfied emotions it needs. The Vikings see the dragons as just monsters seeking nothing but blood and destruction. I like the idea that if only they would try to understand the dragons they could have peace.

It’s not one of the funniest or cleverest of animation movies but has one of the best flying and action sequences ever. The last 20 minutes was very awe-inspiring. I don’t know what it would look like on TV in 2D, but watching it in 3D on the big screen was mind blowing. The story, voice work, and special effects make this a worthwhile movie to see.

Directors: Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

Starring: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J Miller, and Kristen Wiig.

Rated PG for sequences of intense action and some scary images, and brief mild language

Grade: B

Brief Movie Reviews- 4/7/10

Brief Movie Reviews- 4/7/10

Adams Rib (1949)

- This movie was known as one of the great Tracy/Hepburn comedies. Why, I have no idea. The movie is about a married couple that also happens to be lawyers. They both end up taking the same case but on opposite sides. The case deals with a woman who attempts to kill her husband. Tracy is defending the husband while Hepburn is defending the wife. As the case goes so does the marriage. Which is to say not very well. Now you might be asking yourself, how does one defend a woman for attempted murder when she shot her husband? The answer is simple, women’s rights. Yes according to this movie women should have the right to attempt to murder their husband if they are cheating on them. I don’t have a law degree but that just doesn’t seem legal to me. Besides having one of the worst plots in movie history it wasn’t funny at all, the acting quite frankly wasn’t that good, and the title of the movie makes no sense.

- Director: George Cukor

- Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, and Judy Holiday

- Grade: F

Spellbound (2002)

- This documentary follows 8 kids as they make their way to the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. The first half of the movie spends time getting to know each individual and their families. The second half of the movie shows highlights from the National Spelling Bee of that year. I learned a lot about what the spelling bee is, what all goes into preparing for the spelling bee, and the different personalities of the contestants. I found it very interesting overall. The movie was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary in 2002.

- Director: Jeffrey Blitz

- Grade: B

Iraq In Fragments (2006)

- This documentary shows the lives of different Iraqis soon after Saddam is taken out of power by America. There isn’t much to say about the movie but that there is a lot of chaos and anti-American sentiment. The movie has no narrative, which makes it really hard to follow. I really found no point to this movie at all. What was it trying to say? You should be able to make an interesting documentary on Iraq, but this is not the one. This movie was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary for 2006.

- Director: James Longley

- Grade: F

Casablanca (1942)

- I consider myself a movie buff even though I have to admit I hadn’t seen this iconic movie until last week. I know sad right? This movie, if you don’t know, takes place in Casablanca, Africa during Nazi occupation in World War II. Humphrey Bogart plays Rick, an American who defected to Casablanca working as a bar owner. Ingrid Bergman plays Ilsa, his long lost love that just happens to show up at Rick’s bar on a political mission. Conflicted by the past Rick is forced to make a tough choice between what’s best for him or what’s best for his ex-lover. The movie is considered a classic, which makes it hard for me to review it. I wouldn’t say it’s quite as good as the hype but it’s not a bad movie either. It’s overly dramatic throughout and drags quite a bit towards the end. The movie is somewhat complicated and I really didn’t understand what was going on most of the time. The performances were quite good, especially Claude Rains as a Nazi Captain who is also a friend of Ricks. I think they did a great job portraying what it’s like to be bitter about someone you loved dearly and who left you (believe me I come from experience). In flash backs Rick and Ilsa are shown doing different activities in Paris being totally in love. Rick looks so happy, cherry, and optimistic in these scenes. Throughout the rest of the movie Rick never smiles, is cynical, and is overall a miserable character. It just goes to show what the power of love can do to a person. Won Oscars for best picture, best director, and best screenplay.

- Director: Michael Curtiz

- Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains

- Grade: C

The Nun’s Story (1959)

- This movie stars Audrey Hepburn as Gabriella, a young lady who inspires to be a nun. The movie follows her as she first enters the convent all the way to her mission field as a nurse in the Congo. We see the struggles a nun has to go through to be totally submitted to God’s will. Many times the character has to sacrifice her own wants to follow the orders of her superiors. Peter Finch is great as a doctor in the Congo who believes Gabriella is too independent to be a nun and encourages her to leave the convent. Her greatest struggle is within herself, does she have what it takes to be a good nun, or is she cheating herself and her faith by pretending to be something she is not. The movie would have been very good if it just wasn’t so long (running at 2 hours and 45 minutes). A movie solely based on what it’s like being a nun isn’t the most interesting story line but Audrey Hepburn gives a good enough performance to keep me interested. This movie asks oneself who makes a hotter nun: Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, or Whoopie Goldberg? I’m going for Audrey Hepburn on this one. This movie was nominated for an Oscar for best picture in 1959.

- Director: Fred Zinnemann

- Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, and Peggy Ashcroft

- Grade: C

Movie Review- Clash of the Titans

Movie Review- Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans is a remake of the 1981 original and follows the same basic premise with way better special effects. Zeus is upset at the current human population because they no longer want to worship him. So against his better judgment he lets his sleazy brother Hades take charge of teaching human kind a lesson. Hades plan is to release the much-dreaded monster The Kraken in 10 days on a city unless they sacrifice their princess. Perseus just happens to be there while this all happens.

An enraged Hades tragically kills Perseus’s family at the beginning of the movie. So Perseus is more than happy to lead a group of soldiers and mercenaries to go find a way to kill The Kraken. Before he leaves he finds out that Zeus actually knocked up his mom so he’s somewhat God-like. Though I’m not exactly sure what that means except he seems to be pretty good with a sword all of a sudden, more on that later. Most of the movie follows Perseus and his group as they fight huge Scorpions, scary witches, Medusa, his mom’s former husband turned bad guy, and The Kraken.

It takes about 30 long minutes before we get our first action scene and the movie picks up a little. Still the movie never took me anywhere amazing. The special effects, make up, costumes, art direction, and cinematography were all great but have been done just as good in much better films (Lord of the Rings anybody). The creatures looked like they stepped out of a Guillermo del Toro movie, which was cool. The action scenes are ok but very short (it takes about 5 minutes for The Kraken to come out of the water and like one minute to kill it) while the dialogue scenes were long and boring.

The only interesting characters to me were Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes). They don’t have many scenes but I enjoyed every scene they had together. The romantic subplot (how little there was) is very weak. Someone tell me why Perseus didn’t have a romantic relationship with the princess Andromeda. That would have made much more sense and would have made me care more about the plot which revolves around saving the princess. Also someone tell me how once given a sword Perseus turns into an action star when he’s spent his whole life as a fisher man. I guess part of being a Demi God means you can do cool flips and fight in slow motion. I would skip this film and watch either the animation movie Hercules or the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence, scary images, and brief sensuality

Director: Louis Leterrier

Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes

Grade: D

Brief Movie Reviews- 4/1/10

Brief Movie Reviews- 4/2/10

The Box (2009)

- The Box is about a married couple that gets a mysterious box in the mail. A mysterious man drops by and explains that there is a button on the box and if you push it someone you do not know will die and you will receive a million dollars. Well of course the couple push the button or else the movie would only be 20 minutes long. What happens next is a bunch of creepy scenes that turn their choice in an ever-growing nightmare. The story runs like a 2-hour Twilight Zone episode and is a very dark, sci-fi movie. The movie was much better than I anticipated coming from the same director who made Donnie Darko and Southland Tales. The plot was actually very interesting and the end scene was intense and thought provoking. Frank Langella was great as the man with the mysterious past who provides the box. A couple of things keeping this from being a great movie is it was too long, too slow at parts, bad acting by minor characters, and plot reveals that made no sense to me.

- Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some violence and disturbing images

- Director: Richard Kelley

- Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella

- Grade: C

The Awful Truth (1937)

- The awful truth about this movie is it’s quite awful to watch. See what I did there…I made a joke playing on…oh well never mind. The movie is about a guy who suspects his wife of cheating so files for divorce. Does he have evidence, no he doesn’t, but that’s ok because as we all know divorce is always a funny premise. For the rest of the movie they keep bumping into each other messing up their relationships with other people. I guess in the end they realize that they were meant for each other. I say guess because I don’t really get the end of the movie. In fact it’s one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen that just ends the movie very abruptly with no real resolution. This movie was known as one of the great screwball comedies of the 30’s. I didn’t find it funny at all and thought it was quite slow and boring. The movie won an Oscar for best director.

- Director: Leo McCarey

- Starring: Cary Grant and Irene Dunne

- Grade: F

Cimarron (1931)

- This was one of the first big western epics back in the day when talking pictures was still new. The movie takes place in the late 1800’s during the great Oklahoma Land Rush and spans about 40 years. The main character wanting more adventure decides to move his family from Kansas to a new town in Oklahoma. While there he basically becomes the leader of the town becoming the town newspaperman, lawyer, preacher, and sheriff. That’s quite the job resume to say the least. He helps to rid the town of the bad outlaws and restore peace. One of my favorite scenes has to be while he is in the middle of a sermon he pulls out a gun and shoots the bad guy right in church. Now that’s a preacher you don’t want to mess with. Halfway through the movie he ends up leaving the town and his family for more adventure. The second half of the movie focuses on the wife taking care of the kids and becoming a leader in the town. The movie is long and the sound quality isn’t great but not bad for an old 30’s movie. It won the Oscar for best picture.

- Starring: Richard Dix and Irene Dunne

- Grade: C

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? (1966)

- In this movie a middle-aged couple invite a younger married couple over and they spend the whole movie yelling and arguing with each other. As the movie goes on you find that the younger couple isn’t perfect either. It’s really hard to describe the movie more than that. The plot is hard to follow as all the characters take turns playing mind games and tearing the others down emotionally. It’s almost like a sick game being played between some very drunk and dysfunctional people. It was a controversial movie for it’s time but mild compared to today’s standards. The acting is very intense but not enjoyable at all. It was a very hard movie to sit through for me. It was Oscar nominated for best picture and won Oscars for best actress (Elizabeth Taylor), best supporting actress (Sandy Dennis), and best director.

- Director: Mike Nichols

- Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis

- Grade: F

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

- This movie follows the Miniver family in England at the beginning of WW II. The war has a major effect on this family as they either help fight the Germans or help support the cause. This movie has everything from romance, to comedy, to uplifting, to intense and thrilling. It’s interesting that this movie was made during the war as it obviously was made to make the war effort look courageous and the Germans to look very bad. There is some great scenes that made me a little teary eyed so have some Kleenex ready. Great shot at the end of the movie as the community is having a church service in a bombed out church. All performances were great and I dare any man to watch this and not fall in love with Teresa Wright. It won Oscars for best picture, best director, best actress (Greer Garson), best supporting actress (Teresa Wright), and best screenplay.

- Director: William Wyler

- Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pigeon, Teresa Wright, Richard Ney, Henry Travers, and Dame May Whitty

Grade: A