Simple Randomness

The Dark Knight - Just Plain Awesome

So over the weekend my wife and I and her friends in Idaho went to a showing of The Dark Knight.  Now, if you’ve been reading this blog you know that I’ve been excited to go see this one for some time now, and I was extra excited when we had the chance to see it opening weekend!

This movie rocks.  It’s everything that you would want to see in the Joker vs. Batman saga.  I know when I first heard that Heath Ledger was going to be the Joker I wasn’t too thrilled about it, in fact I thought it was going to kill the movie.  And I know that I’m not the only person that thought that.  In fact, this morning on a radio show the main guy said he felt the same thing.

But man….Heath Ledger plays one creepy creepy Joker.  He played it perfectly if you ask me!  So he definitely proved a lot of us out there wrong!

One thing that I really appreciated about this movie is that it really could have been a whole lot more graphic.  But they didn’t take it that way.  They didn’t put in all the extra gore that a lot of movies would.  We knew when the joker would have cut a smile on someone’s face, but they didn’t show it.  They didn’t need to.  And that is one of the things that made this movie great.  They focused on the story of what was going on, not the stupid gore.

Anyway, great movie.  I’ll need to go see it again sometime, and if you haven’t seen it yet you should highly consider it!

Review of Hancock

Well, I know that my reviews are really never all that deep.  Mainly because I’d hate to give the whole movie away.  Well, this one is going to be no exception.

I know that a lot of people have thought that this movie was really lame for one reason or another.  My wife and I actually liked it!  I liked it mainly because it was a different take on super heroes.  It wasn’t just the standard ‘I got (fill in the blank) by some radioactive (fill in the blank) and now I can (fill in the blank)” that so many other super hero movies fall into.  (Batman being the wonderful exception of course to this formula ).

Well, I don’t want to give anything away, but I liked that way that the back story in this one worked out.  I think that it could have been developed a little further, and it is by no means a great movie, but I still liked it.

P.S. I Love You Review

One of the other movies that we watched on Monday was P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates, and Harry Connick, Jr.

Definitely a chick flick.  No question about it, this was a chick flick.  But then again, I knew that just be reading the title.  But as far as chick flicks go, this one wasn’t bad.  It wasn’t all that sappy, and there were some parts that were genuinely funny.  Harry Connick, Jr. was really funny as a really blunt character who claims that he’s supposed to be on pills that will keep him from being rude.  Most of the other characters were also really good as well, but I’m not going to go over all of them.

Funny quotes:
Holly Kennedy: Oh, stop being all *bilingual*!
Gerry Kennedy: Kiss me arse!
Holly Kennedy: Kiss mine! In English!

Leprechaun: Are you Holly Kennedy?
Holly Kennedy: If I am will you sing at me?
Leprechaun: Yes.
Holly Kennedy: No, I’m not.
Leprechaun: Please don’t make this an issue. I gotta sing and deliver a letter.
Holly Kennedy: A letter? What’s the song?
Leprechaun: Ya I’m ‘gon be there.
Holly Kennedy: Oh please don’t, just give me the letter.
Leprechaun: I could get reported!
Holly Kennedy: By who? The leprechaun union?
Leprechaun: You know, I was in an off-Broadway play with Al $%@*! Pacino I don’t need this shit. Want the balloons?
Holly Kennedy: No.
Leprechaun: Fine!

Holly Kennedy: I don’t want to make any mistakes.
Gerry Kennedy: Then you’re in the wrong species, love. Be a duck.

Any way, pretty good chick flick. Go watch it for a good date night!

The Bucket List Review

With my wife being sick on Monday we decided to have a movie day.  I had the day off anyway, so we figured it was a good way to have a relaxing day.

The first movie we watched was The Bucket List starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.  It’s a pretty funny movie about 2 guys that are told that they have 6-12 months to live, so they decide to make a list of all the things they would like to do before they “kick the bucket.”  Some of the things on the list include skydiving, driving a Shelby Mustang, etc.

Overall I thought it was a good movie.  I have to admit that Jack Nicholson still kinda freaks me out, but it was fun to see the way that he and Morgan Freeman interacted.

I was thinking of coming up with an overall moral for the story, but there are really several.  So rather than trying to state the obvious or be extra philosophical, I’ll let you go watch the movie and figure one out for yourself!

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!