The Big Year review

Director:
David Frankel
Cast:
Jack Black
Owen Wilson
Steve Martin
Rosamund Pike
Rated: PG

Birding as it’s called seems nice enough sometimes in this movie, if it didn’t involve spending thousands of dollars to travel all over the world.

The film is told from the character Brad’s (Black) perspective, but it follows the story of him as well as two other men, Stu (Martin) and Kevin (Wilson). The three characters are all going after what is known in Bird enthusiast terms as “A Big Year” where people seek out to see the most species of birds they can in one year.

The movie follows the characters through their year as they not only travel the world, but deal with new friendships, romance, births and other personal experiences. It also features problems that arise with having such a commitment to this hobby when other things are happening with their family.

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The Ides of March Review

Director:
George Clooney
Cast:
Ryan Gosling
George Clooney
Philip Symour Hoffman
Paul Giamatti
Marisa Tomei
Evan Rachel Wood
Rated: R

The candidate that Clooney plays in this film is very similar to another one that ran a few years back.

The Ides of March follows a young man named Stephen Myers (Gosling), working on the campaign trail for presidential hopeful Governor Morris (Clooney). The campaign season is right in the middle of a heated Democratic primary with both candidates setting their sites on Ohio to deliver the knockout.

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Real Steel review

Director:
Shawn Levy
Cast:
Hugh Jackman
Dakota Goyo
Evangeline Lilly
Hope Davis
Rated: PG-13

Insert your “Rock’em Sock’em Robots” joke here!

Real Steal follows the story of Charlie Kenton (Jackman) who living in a future world where the big fighting sport is actually robot boxing instead of human boxing.

Kenton at one time was a great boxer himself and a contender for the title however once the fight game changed he started to go into a bit of a spiral downwards and now has any robot he can get, fight in any match up he can get.

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September 2011 Mini-Reviews

Shark Night 3D – 1 out of 5
This film had one mistake that made it trip over itself at every level. It advertised itself as the next Piranha 3D, but unlike that film, it was only rated PG-13. This hindered it. Without the over the top sex and violence which made the other film actually enjoyable, it fell flat.

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50/50 review

Director:
Jonathan Levine
Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Seth Rogen
Anna Kendrick
Bryce Dallas Howard
Rated R

50/50 follows the story of Adam (Levitt), a 20-something who has a steady job, a girlfriend, a house and keeps himself in shape. However, his life is completely thrown upside down when he goes to the doctor for back pains and discovers he has a rare form of cancer on his spine. After researching about it he discovers his chances are 50/50.

The rest of the film follows his personal journey through his treatment, meetings with a psychologist (Kendrick), dealing with a relationship with his girlfriend Rachel (Howard) and spending time with his friend Kyle (Rogen).

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One Day review

Director:
Lone Scherfig
Cast:
Anne Hathaway
Jim Sturgess
Rafe Spall
Rated: PG-13

At one point the film felt like it was going to go on all day.

One Day follows two good friends through 20 years of their lives together. The characters are Dexter (Sturgess) and Emma (Hathaway). Every day in the film comprises of one to four scenes before moving onto the next year.

As the film goes on we see the ups and downs of both their lives and their continuing friendship with each other.

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The Help review

Director:
Tate Taylor
Cast:
Emma Stone
Viola Davis
Octavia Spencer
Bryce Dallas Howard
Jessica Chastain
Rated: PG-13

Wow, Bryce Dallas Howard can really play one mean bitch.

The Help is about black maids working in a Mississippi town in the 1960s. The people they work for usually don’t treat them very well and the film delves into their plight. The two main maid characters were Aibileen (Davis) and Minny (Spencer), and after we find out their lives, we meet Skeeter (Stone), a young woman who has just finished going to school at Ole Miss and is now looking for a job in journalism.

As Skeeter gets to know Aibileen and Minny, she soon sees the difficulty they go through and decides to tell their story by writing a book and getting it published by a New York company. While this goes on, Minny begins working for a new person named Cecilia (Chastain), who is ecstatic to have a maid. And it just so happens that both Cecilia and Skeeter are starting to get under Hilly’s (Howard) skin.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes review

Director:
Rupert Wyatt
Cast:
James Franco
Freida Pinto
John Lithgow
David Oyelowo
Andy Serkis
Rated: PG-13

Move over Burton, somebody got it right.

The latest installment with Planet of the Apes in the title is a prequel about the ape Caesar, and his rise as a leader. The film begins by following Will Rodman (Franco), a scientist who is working on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease at a genetic research facility. His reasons go deeper than just exploring things scientifically, as his father (Lithgow) has the disease as well. The genetic lab tests the experimental cure on apes however after one test goes wrong the lab is shut down and the apes are killed.

However, one ape was pregnant and gave birth to a baby before she died, Rodman is soon forced to take the young ape home. He soon learns, though, that the ape, named Caesar, had the experimental cure passed down genetically from the mother and that the cure actually dramatically increased intelligence. As the ape gets older more complications begin to pop up and he is soon forced to go to an animal control center. It is here that Caesar begins to get fed up with the life he and his fellow apes are leading and decides to revolt for freedom.

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Crazy Stupid Love review

Director:
Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Cast:
Steve Carell
Ryan Gosling
Julianne Moore
Emma Stone
Analeigh Tipton
Jonah Bobo
Kevin Bacon
Rated: PG-13

Predictable? At times yes, but boy does it work.

Crazy, Stupid, Love follows the character Cal Weaver (Carell), a man who immediately finds out that his wife Emily (Moore) wants a divorce and informs him that she cheated on him with a man named David Lindhagen (Bacon). After finding out, the two split up and Cal lives on his own in an apartment. However, he becomes bored and heads to a local night club and tries to drink his problems away.

While there a young man named Jacob (Gosling), who is a smooth talking ladies man, takes pity on Cal and decides to help him out by getting him into some new clothes and meeting new women. However one woman, Hannah (Stone), a law graduate becomes one girl that Jacob can’t seem to seal the deal on. As the film goes on Cal enjoys his new life of being single a bit, but it eventually leads to things becoming more complicated.

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