REVIEW: ‘Julie and Julia’

Director:
Nora Ephron
Cast:
Meryl Streep
Amy Adams
Stanley Tucci
Chris Messina

One biopic isn’t enough? How about two.

“Julie and Julia” follows the lives of titular characters, both famous for their cooking. The film explores Julia Child (Streep) and her adventure in publishing a book on French cuisine as well as Julie Powell (Adams) who cooked all of Child’s recipes and wrote about the experience in a blog.

Both stories, while relatively unrelated, are interwoven by exploring similar issues, challenges and joys as their adventures go on.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Julie and Julia’”

REVIEW: ‘Land of the Lost

Cast:
Will Ferrell
Anna Friel
Danny McBride
Jorma Taccone
Rated: PG-13

You know a movie is bad when it makes you want to stare at the ceiling rather than the screen.

In “Land of the Lost,” a re-imagining of the original 70s TV show, audiences follow the story of Rick Marshall (Ferrell). Rick is a sort of crack scientist who’s discovered another dimension and is trying to make a way to get to it. Eventually one of his fans, another scientist named Holly (Friel) helps him find a portal and the two, along with another man named Will (McBride) get transported to the other world.

However, the dimension they go to immediately shows itself as dangerous and they have to find out a way to return home.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Land of the Lost”

REVIEW: ‘Transformers Revenge of the Fallen’

Cast:
Shia LaBeouf
Megan Fox
Josh Duhamel
Tyrese Gibson
John Turturro
Rated: PG-13

As a fan of the first film, I was rather excited for this. What a disappointment.

In this sequel to the 2007 flick, we continue with the character Sam (Labeouf), as he’s about to enter college while remaining in contact with his girlfriend Mikaela (Fox). Meanwhile, the Autobots are secretly fighting alongside only American humans to eliminate any remaining Decepticons.

While the movie shows both story threads going relatively well for the heroes, things soon take a turn for the worse when the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, is resurrected and returns to ruin the lives of Optimus Prime and Sam.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Transformers Revenge of the Fallen’”

REVIEW: ‘The Proposal’

Cast:
Sandra Bullock
Ryan Reynolds
Mary Steenburgen
Craig T. Nelson
Betty White
Rated: PG-13

Ah romcoms, the genre that keeps on giving.

“The Proposal” follows the character Margaret (Bullock), a no-nonsense boss and her assistant Andrew (Reynolds). In the office setting, Margaret is harsh 24/7 and Andrew is the only one who can put up with her.

However, Margaret’s world begins to crash down when she finds she will lose her job because of an issue with her visa and could have to move back to Canada. To keep her in the States, she fakes an engagement with Andrew. Through the predicament, they end up having to go to Alaska to meet Andrew’s family.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘The Proposal’”

REVIEW: ‘The Hangover’

Cast:
Bradley Cooper
Ed Helms
Zach Galifianakis
Justin Bartha
Rated: R

This is likely the best comedy in years.

The film follows a group of four guys who are headed to Vegas for a Bachelor’s Party before one of them gets married. Three of the guys, Stu (Helms), Phil (Cooper) and Doug (Bartha) are best friends and they end up bringing Doug’s future brother-in-law Alan (Galifianakis).

Despite Alan’s awkwardness, the four eventually get together for a fun night in the town, but the story starts with the morning after. Stu, Phil and Alan wake up and find that Doug is missing, with few clues about where he is.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘The Hangover’”

REVIEW: ‘Up’ by Pixar

Cast:
Edward Asner
Christopher Plummer
Jordan Nagai
Bob Peterson
Rated: PG

“Up” is an absolutely perfect film… For 10 minutes.

The latest picture from Pixar studios tells the story of Carl (Asner), a man whose biggest dream is to travel to South America. That dream was one he shared with his deceased wife Ellie. One day, Carl decides to set out for South American in an unorthodox fashion, by flying his entire house there using balloons.

The problem, though, is that a young boy scout named Russell (Nagai) manages to get ‘on board’ and is taken with to South America. Additionally, the new continent is more difficult than first imagined.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Up’ by Pixar”

REVIEW: ‘Terminator Salvation’

Cast:
Christian Bale
Sam Worthington
Moon Bloodgood
Helena Bonham Carter
Anton Yelchin
Rated: PG-13

“Terminator Salvation” is a pretty good action movie, just not the best “Terminator” movie.

The film follows a grown up John Conner (Bale), now a military officer in the human resistance against the machine army controlled by the Skynet program. Because Skynet is constructing new terminators, the battle for humans is even more uphill.

Meanwhile, there’s another character named Marcus (Worthington) who wakes up with no memory of the entire war and is trying to survive.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Terminator Salvation’”

REVIEW: ‘Star Trek’

Cast:
Chris Pine
Zachary Quinto
Leonard Nimoy
Eric Bana
Rated: PG-13

What a great way to kick off the summer movie season.

This reboot of the original “Star Trek” premise opens with the death of James T. Kirk’s (Pine) father at the hands of an unknown enemy. As a result, Kirk has grown up rather rebellious. Meanwhile on Vulcan, a young Spock (Quinto) is also finding a rebellious path in life.

The movie follows both characters’ journey to joining the Federation Star Fleet and how they become stationed on the USS Enterprise. Along for the ride are other members of the classic crew.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Star Trek’”

REVIEW: ‘X-Men Origins Wolverine’

Cast:
Hugh Jackman
Liev Schreiber
Danny Huston
Will i Am
Lynn Collins
Rated: PG-13

Well, it was better than “Last Stand.”

Rather than another sequel, “Origins” serves as a prequel to the first three movies, displaying the backstory of Logan, also known as Wolverine (Jackman). The movie begins with Logan’s youth in Canada where he discovers his powers and runs away from his family with his brother Sabertooth (Schreiber).

After running away, the film follows their lives through various wars before being recruited by the U.S. government for special missions with other mutants.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘X-Men Origins Wolverine’”

REVIEW: ’17 Again’

Cast:
Zac Efron
Leslie Mann
Thomas Lennon
Matthew Perry
Sterling Knight
Michelle Trachtenberg
Rated: PG-13

Not bad Zac Efron, not too bad.

In this twist on a high school comedy, the story centers around Mike (played by Perry and Efron), once a popular basketball star in high school who missed out on a chance to go to college. The film picks up as his life is hitting a rocky point, as he’s in a dead end job, facing divorce and has a bad relationship with his kids.

This changes, though, when he falls into some sort of whirlpool and is suddenly 17 years old again. For this reason, he gets another look at life and a chance to fix his relationships with his family from another angle.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ’17 Again’”