True Grit

Rooster Cogburn: Why, by God, girl, that’s a Colt’s Dragoon! You’re no bigger than a corn nubbin, what’re you doing with all this pistol?
Mattie Ross: It belonged to my father, he carried it bravely in the war, and I intend to kill Tom Chaney with it if the law fails to do so.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, this’ll sure get the job done if you can find a fence post to rest it on while you take aim.

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

2010

Date Viewed: Sunday December 26, 2010

True Grit is about 14 year old Mattie Ross who hired U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn to help track down her father's killer. She tags along to make sure the job is done right. They are also accompanied by Texas Ranger LaBoef. This has probably taken the top spot as my favorite Coen Bros. movie. There's plenty of action and a lot of sharp, witty dialogue. Jeff Bridges is quickly becoming my favorite actor. He's a lot of fun to watch as Rooster Cogburn. I'm not usually a huge Matt Damon fan, but he was great in this as well. The same can be said for Hailee Steinfeld who holds her own against the seasoned actors she works with. This is definitely a must see! A

When In Rome

"You could get your heart broken or... you could have the greatest love affair the world has ever known. But you're never gonna know unless you try" 

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

2010

Date Viewed: Sunday December 26, 2010

Beth is a career oriented go-getter who wants to find love, but can't find a man she loves more than her job. Her younger sister meets an Italian man and a few weeks later gets married in Rome where Beth meets Nick (the best man). The two flirt, but then eventually Beth sees him hanging out with another girl and assumes that he's a player so she goes and gets drunk and starts stealing coins out of the Fountain Of Love. The men who threw those coins in become obsessed with Beth and start stalking her and trying to woo her. They're all kind of creepy and gross.... Nick also starts calling and stopping by and Beth just assumes that he's under the spell of the stolen coins as well. This is a cute but pretty generic romantic comedy. There are some goofy parts, but most of the funny stuff was in the previews. I did really enjoy Kristin Bell and Josh Duhamel though. C+

Tron: Legacy

"The Grid. A digital frontier. I tried to picture clusters of information as they traveled through the computer. Ships, motorcycles. With the circuits like freeways. I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see. And then, one day... i got in."

Directed by Joseph Kosinski

2010

Date Viewed: Thursday December 23, 2010

Tron: Legacy starts off with a young Kevin Flynn telling his 7 year old son, Sam all about The Grid and his adventures there. He tells him about Tron and Clu (from the original Tron movie) and about the discoveries he's making while inside. Then he promises Sam that he'll be by to see him in a few days and then off he goes... never to return... Fast forward 20 years and Sam is a super hacker who ends up getting transported to The Grid by accident. There he ends up being forced to play in the games and has an awesome light cycle battle and then ends up finding his father. Together, with the help of Kevin's apprentice Quorra, they race Clu to the portal to get back home. I highly enjoyed the Imax 3D experience of this movie. The games and the light cycle battles were super cool to watch and The Grid was neat to look at. This movie also used a mixture of 2D and 3D which I thought was kind of cool, and the 3D was actually pretty good (it wasn't cut outs walking around over a background). The story was a little predictable at times, but it kept a pretty good pace and was exciting. The only thing I really didn't like was the digitization used on Jeff Bridges' face to make him look younger. It just looked way fake and I felt like they could have done a way better job using make up. B+

How To Train Your Dragon

"We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues."

Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

2010

I admit, I thought this movie looked pretty lame from the previews and I had very little desire to see it. I eventually did sit down to watch it (obviously) and I found that I loved it! Hiccup is a Viking who lives in a village overrun by dragons. He's definitely not a warrior and he's definitely very clumsy... He ends up catching a very elusive species of dragon and intends to kill it to prove his Vikingness. The poor dragon looks at him with such a sadness in his eye that Hiccup can't bring him to do the deed. Instead he lets him go only to find him later stuck in a small oasis with rock walls surrounding it. The dragon is missing part of his tail so he can't steer or become fully airborne. Hiccup ends up inventing a contraption to help the dragon and ends up training him. There are many other adventures, but I don't want to give them all away. I loved how creative this movie was. It came up with several different species of dragons that all had different mannerisms and characteristics. I loved the diversity of the characters and how completely adorable Hiccup's dragon (Toothless) was. There is plenty of witty dialogue as well. A

The Fighter

Directed by David O. Russell

2010

Date Viewed: Friday December 17, 2010

The Fighter is based on the true story of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his journey to the World Welterweight Title. He was trained by his brother Dicky who was also a boxer until crack started to take over his life. This movie was pretty good, but I felt like Mark Wahlberg wasn't that great. I'm not sure if it's just that he didn't really have anything to do, or that that's just the way Micky really was. Just sort of deadpan... My guess is that it's just Mark Wahlberg since that's sort of how he always is (say hi to your mother for me)... The supporting cast was fantastic however. I always love Amy Adams in everything she's in, so that's sort of a given. Melissa Leo was horribly good as Micky's overbearing mother but the one who stole the show was Christian Bale. He completely transformed into Dicky Eklund. In the end of the movie they have footage of the actual people the movie is based on and Christian Bale was totally and completely Dicky. The Fighter has totally been set up as an Oscar contender, do I hear a nomination for Christian Bale??? A-

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Lucy: "Aslan, will we ever meet you in our world?"

Aslan: "You shall."

Lucy: "How?"

Aslan: "Because there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, That knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

Directed by Michael Apted

2010

Date Viewed: Saturday, December 11 2010

This is by far my favorite of the Narnia movies. It's probably my favorite of the books too, even though I always say that The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is because it holds a special place in my heart. Edmund and Lucy end up in Narnia with their obnoxious cousin Eustace. They are transported there via a painting. While there they have many adventures with Prince Caspian aboard the Dawn Treader. The children help Prince Caspian in his search for seven lost lords of Narnia. They have many adventures including dragons, Deathwater Island (that has a pool that turns anything it touches to gold... including people), the Island Where Dreams Come True (including nightmares) and the Edge of the World. There are so many great characters and adventures in this story. I love it. A

Christmas Movies

So I've watched a lot of Christmas movies in the last couple of weekends. I LOVE Christmas movies! They're so festive and special since I only watch them at this time of year. Here's what I've been watching:

Elf: This has definitely been on the top of my list since it came out. It's goofy and I love the innocent way that Buddy the Elf sees the world. This year however, I got bored with it. The whole ManChild thing is getting so over done and I'm sort of burnt out on Will Ferrell doing the same role over and over again. So now I'm torn as to how I feel about this movie... C

Christmas Story: Now this is a classic. There are so many iconic moments in this movie. The tongue stuck to the metal pole in the middle of winter, the little brother bundled up so much that he can't put his arms down, "You'll shoot your eye out", The bunny suit, the lamp ("It's a major award!"), The Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant... I love it. A

Home Alone: I had never seen this movie until the Saturday after Thanksgiving when Bobby made me sit down and watch it. It's cute. Nothing super special. I'm not super into the whole laughing at people when they get hurt thing. It's not really that funny for me and I hated that the kids whole family (adults included) called him a jerk all the time. Pretty ridiculous. B-

The Santa Clause: I hadn't seen this movie since it was in the theaters when I was in elementary school. It's actually a pretty good movie. It's definitely got a lot of heartwarming moments and it's pretty funny. A-

Christmas Vacation: Talk about your ManChild. Clark Griswald is a prime example of one... This is definitely Bobby's favorite Christmas movie, and I guess I can stand watching it every year. It does have quite a few funny lines. B+

Jingle All The Way: I was actually surprised by how good this movie was! Plus it was filmed in the Twin Cities so it made me think of home. B+

Fred Claus: Another movie that surprised me. This movie made me realize that I really really disagree with Santa. Fred is Santa's older and sort of disgruntled brother, but he pointed out that there is no such thing as a bad child, much less a child that's so bad that they don't deserve presents. He pointed out that Santa only saw a snippet in the lives of these kids (only the "bad" behaviors) and he didn't see what happened before or after the situation and he knew nothing of the kids' home life or where they came from etc. and therefore Santa should not be judging based on these split seconds glimpses. This silly movie definitely made me think more deeply about Santa and his crazy B.S. rules...A

So those are the Christmas movies I've been watching... What are your favorites?