Max Payne

Coming together to solve a series of murders in New York City are a DEA agent whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.

Saw this on Saturday instead of HSM3. YES!!!!!!! I was very relived.

I loved the cinematography of the movie, it was all carefully planned out and glossy and detailed. Very grungy, very dark, like the pages of a graphic novel, almost, which makes sense since the movie is based on a video game.

Having never played the game, I thought the story was engaging. The trailer is mysterious: I wasn't quite sure what was going on for the first half-hour, which is a good thing.

Acting not great, but they didn't pretend they were. They played their parts well enough, it really wasn't about them anyway.

A good movie to burn a Saturday night with. Better than wasting money on a Disney flick, that's for sure.

Kung Fu Panda

It's the story about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, named Po, who is the biggest fan of Kung Fu around...which doesn't exactly come in handy while working every day in his family's noodle shop. Unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Po's dreams become reality when he joins the world of Kung Fu and studies alongside his idols, the legendary Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. But before they know it, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung is headed their way, and it's up to Po to defend everyone from the oncoming threat. - Anthony Pereyra (imdb.com)

So I've seen this twice now, and I have to be honest, it's not a bad movie. Sure, it's not brilliant, it's not hilariously funny, but it's one of those animated flicks built on the power of one-liners and good voice work. I don't like Jack Black, but I like him in Kung Fu Panda. His casual, conversational style works well in animated movies. The other voices are decent - Seth Rogen was probably one of the better supporting parts just 'cause he has a very distinct sound. I have no idea why Angelina Jolie was even in the movie.

Usually movies made of one-liners don't work for me, but at least Kung Fu Panda was consistent. There's nothing that disappoints me more than a movie that starts out great, and then crams all the good lines in the first 40 minutes and has nothing left for the end. It kinda slips away into nothingness. In general, Panda relied on subtle-funny lines combined with the animation so it wasn't hard to distribute equally through the whole movie.

I thought the plot was good. It's a classic message (everyone has power, everyone has strength, yadda yadda) but delivered in a relatively un-cliche way. There's some background to characters, some depth, which is always refreshing. All around, a solid story.

In a nutshell, it's a fine movie. It's entertaining, positive, not stupid (most of the time)...a movie to see and walk away feeling pleased. Sure, in a week, one won't really remember it, but that's okay. You can always see it again.

Wall-E

In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

This movie has a lot of buzz. Teasers came out months ago, critics gushed over it, it's been called the next Pixar masterpiece, blah blah blah. I feel weird saying this, but I really wasn't loving it. First of all, it dragged on and on and on. It felt like that flexible lamp short gone horribly awry. Wall-E is cute, yes, the animators did a great job of giving such an ugly little robot personality, yes, I liked that, but we get it already. Let's just make the movie a clean 80 minutes. It just confused me. A lot. I couldn't figure out if it was for children or adults. It moved really slow, generally a trait of movies for more mature viewers, but the story was very simplistic, like a traditional kid's flick. Gah! WHAT ARE YOU, "WALL-E"!!?? The lack of humans was definitely a problem for me; I know the robots were supposed to replace the human qualities, but the robots were just so darn cute ALL THE TIME. And the actual humans were so depressing, I felt like I wanted to die. The end had hope for humanity, but STILL. They were just saaaaaad. Other Pixar movies are so much better. No robot with a two-word vocabulary can replace the voice work of Ellen Degeneres in "Finding Nemo," or the character of Mike in "Monsters Inc."

The Dark Knight

Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker. Written by Peteagassi (imdb.com)

I watched The Dark Knight this week. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I got to watch it in IMAX, so it was even more incredible. The movie was beautifully complex and used every moment to deepen the layers. This new Batman series seems to pride itself on character development (remember how long it took the first movie to even introduce Bruce Wayne's "Batman"?), and so this time around the focus fell on Heath Ledger's "Joker." I hate to sound like a cliche of essentially everyone in the world, but he was brilliant. It's not easy to follow Jack Nicholson's Joker (who I never liked) since he defined the character for so long, but Ledger managed to craft a unique villain steeped in evil. There was no trace of Heath Ledger, he WAS the Joker. Every actor was very good. They were all intense. Christian Bale stood strong even when paired with the scene-stealing Joker. I wouldn't call Batman a superhero, but he is a hero in every sense of the word - strength, bravery and sacrifice. He is a solid symbol.

I love the new Batman series. There's a trueness to it that the old franchises lacked. No more cartoonish characters and cinematography; Batman is now dark and gritty and real. The whole movie is shrouded in the blackness of Gotham City, but characters like Gordon and Batman stand out as fully good. It's kinda like our world: there's so much evil and corruption, and so many people fail and fall, but there are those who don't. There are those who never will.

In a nutshell, this movie is perfect. It's dark and painful and victorious. It shows the deepest, darkest places in humanity, but also the brilliance. One of my favorite scenes takes place on two ferryboats. If you see it, you'll understand why.

*Note
Seeing it the second time, it was too long. Could've edited a few fight sequences.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pljIBkl56I

Mamma Mia!

20 year old Sophie (Seyfried) is preparing to marry her boyfriend Sky (Cooper) at her mother's hotel on an island in Greece. She seemingly has it all; a carefree life, loving boyfriend and happy friends but one thing has been missing all her life; a father.

Her only wish now is to be given away by her dad at her wedding. By reading her mother's diary she discovers that she has three possible fathers. Sophie then secretly invites all three men in a desperate bid to discover which of them is her father before the wedding bells start to chime!

But not all goes to plan, old loves are re-kindled, new loves are formed and Sophie risks everything to discover the true identity of her father.

Featuring the songs of ABBA and based on the worlds number one musical comedy which has people dancing in the aisles every night, this movie is sure to be the hit of Summer 2008! - from imdb.com

I saw Mamma Mia! this week. Apparently it got good reviews in a lot of papers. I think I just didn't buy into it.

The movie was painful to me. There was just too much glam and glitter. All the music is ABBA, so it's very disco, and I don't understand that music. I'm into modern rock, y'know, some emo and punk, I don't mind an occasional scream. ABBA really misses the boat for me.

It was just too sexy for my taste, too. There isn't any actual CONTENT as far as I remember, but references abound, eye winks and elbow nudges...'kay, I don't mind a little spice in my cinema, but this was just too much too consistently. Not appealing.

It's not all bad. The singing is good, the acting is good, the location is beautiful...Meryl Streep has a pretty impressive solo sequence where she really shows off her singing and acting skills...but then it's back to disco-land. I wasn't relaxed. The story seemed incomplete, I didn't really get to know the characters that well. The deepness of this movie really only extended to the lyrics in the songs, and I don't know if ABBA was known for its deepness.

In a nutshell, I think I'm too young to appreciate this movie. I'm not really into the hyper-happy musical song-and-dance deal anyway, and Mamma Mia! is built on that kind of energy. If those kinds of movies are your thing, go for it.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKx_14vJNZg