Simple Randomness

I Am Legend Review

So over the weekend my wife and I rented the movie I Am Legend staring Will Smith.  I must say that Will Smith really is an awesome actor. It’s actually funny to go back and see him in Fresh Prince and then see some of the things he’s done the last couple of years.  Who would have ever expected him to go from that to an action movie star?

Anyway, this movie was ok.  His acting was great, but the story itself was pretty weak.  I think it had a lot of potential, but it seemed like the just sort of ended it at the end.  That was very disappointing.  In fact, at the end my wife and I just looked at each other with a puzzled look on our face saying, “That’s the end?”

I read a synopsis of the book, and I think it sounds like the book would be quite a bit better.  But, isn’t that how it normally is with movies?

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets Review

So last night my wife and I watched National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets for the first time. I’ve been interested in seeing this one for awhile, so here’s my take on it.

I thought that overall it was what I expected: just a fun, family friendly, history filled movie. Nothing too spectacular, and in my opinion it fit pretty well what I expected. It was fun, a little cheesy at times. I don’t think it’s a movie that I would watch over and over again, but I enjoyed it.

I also have to mention here that I think the first National Treasure movie was much better than this one. I know sometimes that happens because the with the first one you really don’t know what to expect. But it seems like in so many situations the first one of a series really is just a better movie. This isn’t always the case (for example, I think Return of the Jedi was way better than A New Hope, and it was the 3rd movie to come out!), but seems to be all too often. I’m hoping that The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie that comes out soon, won’t follow this trend, but I guess we’ll just have to see.

The Ultimate Gift Movie Review

Over the weekend my wife and I saw the movie The Ultimate Gift.  I thought it was a really good show and would recommend it to anyone!

Granted, although I might recommend it to everyone I know that not everyone is going to like it.  It’s one of those movies that actually makes you think about what you’re doing with your life and after watching it I felt motivated to make some changes.  Good thing is I’ve been motivated to make changes already and so it mainly just confirmed what I’ve already been thinking.

I really don’t want to give away the plot or anything, but the basic idea is that this wealthy man dies and his family comes to the law firm handling his will to learn about their inheritance.  They are all a bunch of rich snobs/jerks that don’t even care that he died, they just want their money.  And, they are all upset with what he left them.  Then the one lone, most punk looking person there is told that he will be given a special gift.  So the movie goes through what he has to go through to get his ‘gift.’

Anyway, great movie, if you haven’t seen it you should!

“The Forbidden Kingdom” Review

Over the weekend my wife and I finally went on a date just by ourselves!  This is the first time we’ve done this since before the baby was born, so it’s been about 3 months.  So for our date we went and saw the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie “The Forbidden Kingdom.”

I really liked this movie!  It’s just a fun martial arts film that never takes itself too seriously.  In fact, it’s really quite funny when you listen to some of the things that they say.  And, there are some really great fight sequences.  The once between Chan and Li is really good.  It amazes me how well those guys can move, especially when you think about how old they’re getting!

The other really cool thing about this show is that in the end I think that Jet Li was funnier than Jackie Chan, which is something that I never would have expected.  I haven’t seen a lot of Jet Li movies, but I’ve never seen him laugh like he does in this movie.

Anyway, I would recommend seeing this film if you’re looking for just a fun movie to go see.  Great choreography in the fights, and its funny.

WALL-E: Another Great Pixar Movie?

I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer for this, but I think it looks like it’s going to be another great Pixar movie!  Rather than explaining what the story is about, I’ll say just watch the trailer.  But it looks like a fun robot love story / adventure.

One thing I think is great about Pixar is that they seriously make some of the most creative movies.  Think about the idea behind stories like Monsters Inc., the super heroes being sued in The Incredibles, a fish adventure like Finding Nemo… all very original, very great ideas!  And now they’re doing a robot love story…  I’m excited to see it.

So check out the trailer and let me know what you think!

Iron Man - Looks to be Pretty Cool!

I don’t know if you’ve seen the previews for one of the up and coming Marvel movies, Iron Man, but it’s looking to be pretty cool! I’ve never followed Iron Man (I used to watch the cartoons for X-Men, Spider-Man, and Batman, but never was introduced to Iron Man), but after seeing the previews and reading up on him a little bit I think it could be a pretty cool movie.

I’m just really glad that these superhero movies are getting better. There have been some real duds, but in the last couple of years I would say they have been improving significantly. I think the best so far has been Batman Begins (my favorite movie right now), followed by Spider-Man 1 & 2. I don’t think that Spider-Man 3 was half as good as the other 2, so we’ll see what happens there.

As for duds, did anyone really like Dare Devil? I thought it was pretty lame personally. Elektra followed suit in the lame category. The Fantastic Four movies have been ok, but nothing special.

So I guess in the end my hope is that this new Iron Man film turns out to be really good. The previews look interesting enough, so I’m excited to see how it really turns out!

Movie Review - Becoming Jane

Becoming Jane is one of those movies that could have been really good, but the dummies in Hollywood messed it up. Anne Hathaway did a really good job, and overall the story line was really good.

So what is it about the movie that I found annoying? It was all of the obvious sex talk and innuendos that were not so much innuendo-ish… The reason it bugged me so bad in this movie is because it was rated PG! Now, if you wanted to make it PG-13 then I would have expected that, but when you throw all of that in (there’s a big one in the first 5 minutes of the film) on a PG film, it really makes me worry about what the G and PG films are going to be like when my kids start being old enough to watch them. I guess it just goes to show that I’m really going to have to be careful what my kids see.

So would I recommend seeing this movie? It was ok. Not something I’d ever want to own or anything like that. It could have been so much better….but that’s the way with a lot of movies these days it seems…

Movie Review - Dan in Real Life

Over the weekend I saw a couple of movies on video so I figured I’d give my opinion on them. The first one that we saw was Dan in Real Life. I thought this movie was great!

It’s funny because I think the movie was very realistic. You could really for for the guy, and honestly feel sorry for what he’s going through for the whole movie. The other really funny (and really realistic) part was the the love-struck teenage daughter.  My wife and I kept mentioning how it reminded us of her sisters when they were around that age.

Without giving the whole plot away, the movie is about a guy that is raising 3 daughters on his own after his wife has died.  They go to a family get together and while he’s at the bookstore taking a breather Dan meets the woman of his dreams.  He returns to the family talking about the girl he met at the bookstore, only to find out that she’s the girlfriend of his brother that was coming to the same get together.  That’s all I’ll say for now, but it’s quite the funny story.

If you haven’t seen Dan in Real Life I would highly recommend it.  It’s a really clean movie too and I think it’s one of the better movies that Steve Carell has done.

Movie Review: Enchanted

Ok, I know that I’m a little behind the times on this one, but I saw the movie Enchanted for the first time last night. And I must say, that was a pretty funny movie. Granted, I think that the cheesiness of it got a little out of hand at some points, but I think it’s great that Disney made fun of their own musical fairy tale movies!

Here’s what I thought were some great quotes from the movie:

Robert: Don’t sing. It’s OK, you know. Let’s just walk. Can we walk?

Prince Edward: [threatening Robert with his sword] Have you any last words before I dispatch you?
Robert: You have got to be kidding me!
Prince Edward: Strange words!

Well, those are a few highlights. Overall this was a pretty funny movie. Especially Prince Edward. They also took scenes from a bunch of the Disney movies and put them in scattered places, so make sure to watch for that if you see this movie. I give it a thumbs up!

My Favorite Pixar Movies!

I did a post about a week ago about my favorite animated Disney flicks, so I figured it was time to do one about the Pixar movies.  I must say that the Pixar movies are some of the best animated movies ever, so here is my list of favorites:

#3 - Toy Story

I liked the first Toy Story a lot better than the second one, although they are both really really good.  I know that a lot of you are probably already saying, “How could he put Toy Story third?!”  Well just remember that this is my opinion on this blog!

Ok, all joking aside, Toy Story is a great movie and will always be a classic.  It’s creative, funny, and just a good time.

#2 - Monsters, Inc.

I think this movie took Pixar’s creativity to a new level.  I mean c’mon, they made a whole movie about monsters in the closet, and it came out hilarious!  Boo is one cute animated kid, too!  At this point this movie is still a little too scary for my two-year-old, but I’m thinking that he’ll love it once he’s old enough not to freak out.  I guess he’s a little sensitive .

For a long time I probably would have put this as the #1 Pixar movie, but then the REAL #1 came out…

#1 - The Incredibles

I LOVE this movie!  It’s just so funny to think about it, because the whole lawsuit against the ‘Supers’ idea is so believable with the way things are today.  I just love the line where the ‘jumper’ responds back to Mr. Incredible “You didn’t save my life, you ruined my death!”  I could totally see someone doing that today.  Just a great great movie!

Honorable Mentions

I still believe that all of the Pixar movies would deserve mention as great movies, but only so many can make the top 3.  With that being said, there are a few that came close.  Here they are:

A Bug’s Life

Another great Pixar film.  Very creative, very well done, and almost made #3.  But I figured too many people would be upset if Toy Story wasn’t at least in the top 3.

Cars

I’ve only seen this a few times, but I think its a pretty good movie.  I’ll have to watch it a few more times to really get a full review for it, but I would still give it an honorable mention.

Now I know a lot of you may be saying, “What about Finding Nemo!?!?”  Well, it’s a good movie too, but I’ve seen it too many times with my kid.  So I’m a little sick of it.  Sorry!