"Beastly" B
With the movie Twilight, it sparked a new phenomenon in movies: a love story, but with a twist. Let's have a movie about a normal woman who falls in love with an abnormal man. After Twilight and the two sequels, it showed the world a vampire love story. Then, there is love stories between an alien and a woman, such as the show on ABC Family "Kyle XY", and the recent action movie that came out in February "I Am Number Four". In this particular love story, it is as if it is based on an old disney classic story "Beauty and the Beast". The movie is appropriately titled "Beastly". I was surprised at this movie. With the long delays that took place (they showed a preview of this movie last summer and was scheduled to be released in July 2010), I was thinking to myself that this movie has been shelved a long time. That is not a good sign. But I actually thought it was a good story with a very good message, that beauty is on the inside too. There are not many well known actors in this movie, with the main cast being Alex Pettyfer as the cocky, shallow popular student council president and Vanessa Hudgens as his love interest (of High School Musical fame). The movie also has appearances from Neal Patrick Harris (How I Met your Mother) giving some comic relief, and Mary-Kate Olsen (one of the Olsen twins, most well known as Michelle Tanner in Full House). She is far from that character in this one as the witch who hexes the student council president with scary looks, which sadly causes his father to disown him. The lesson is he must find someone to truly love him in a year, otherwise he will look "beastly" forever. The message here is clearly defined: don't be shallow, beauty is on the inside. The transformation here is good and it is very realistic. It was a pretty good movie with some interesting nods to poetry and classic love stories. A good rendition of the beauty and the beast story for the Twilight crowd.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Rango
"Rango" A
It has been quite some time since we have been to the movies. According to my last post, it has been exactly two months. Once again, we got some free passes to a movie and this one, while it was not on top of my list, was actually a really awesome movie. The movie we saw was Rango, starring Johnny Depp as the lizard wanting to be a hero and belong somewhere. Gore Verbinski, director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, has reteamed with Johnny Depp to create an exciting and funny animated adventure movie. It starts out with Rango role playing adventure scenarios in his little aquarium, until he lands on the road and is forced to go his own way. He travels the desert for a while, meets some singing owls, and then gets chased frantically by a giant bird. After some surreal scenes and some introduction of our heroic lizard, he ends up in a town called Dirt. They have a water problem there, so he assumes the role of sheriff by telling everyone he shot some dangerous criminals with one bullet, and took on Jake the Snake, one of the most ferocious villains in the old west. Along the way, there is adventure and Johnny Depp's usual comic talent. He does a really good job in this movie. Johnny Depp is definitely in Jack Sparrow mode here and this is pretty much his movie. Gore Verbinski does a good job keeping things at a fast pace but at the same time, allowing us to care about the characters and the dilemma of the town. And Rango is a very likable lizard. Gore Verbinski also gives us a couple of scenes resemblant to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, involving a flying giant gold fish and a group of bugs. We also have an interesting scene with the "man with no name", which seemed to be an homage of the old Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. However, there is a warning. While there are some cool adventure scenes and funny parts, there are a few scenes that might be scary for kids, especially with Jake the Snake. Other than that, it was a good time at the movies! I am thinking this one is going to be an early blockbuster for the spring.
It has been quite some time since we have been to the movies. According to my last post, it has been exactly two months. Once again, we got some free passes to a movie and this one, while it was not on top of my list, was actually a really awesome movie. The movie we saw was Rango, starring Johnny Depp as the lizard wanting to be a hero and belong somewhere. Gore Verbinski, director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, has reteamed with Johnny Depp to create an exciting and funny animated adventure movie. It starts out with Rango role playing adventure scenarios in his little aquarium, until he lands on the road and is forced to go his own way. He travels the desert for a while, meets some singing owls, and then gets chased frantically by a giant bird. After some surreal scenes and some introduction of our heroic lizard, he ends up in a town called Dirt. They have a water problem there, so he assumes the role of sheriff by telling everyone he shot some dangerous criminals with one bullet, and took on Jake the Snake, one of the most ferocious villains in the old west. Along the way, there is adventure and Johnny Depp's usual comic talent. He does a really good job in this movie. Johnny Depp is definitely in Jack Sparrow mode here and this is pretty much his movie. Gore Verbinski does a good job keeping things at a fast pace but at the same time, allowing us to care about the characters and the dilemma of the town. And Rango is a very likable lizard. Gore Verbinski also gives us a couple of scenes resemblant to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, involving a flying giant gold fish and a group of bugs. We also have an interesting scene with the "man with no name", which seemed to be an homage of the old Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. However, there is a warning. While there are some cool adventure scenes and funny parts, there are a few scenes that might be scary for kids, especially with Jake the Snake. Other than that, it was a good time at the movies! I am thinking this one is going to be an early blockbuster for the spring.
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