'Toy' Trilogy

Toy Story
Director: John Lasseter
Voice talent: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, Wallace Shawn, Jim Varney
Released in theaters: 11/22/95
Viewed in theaters: 12/??/95

Oscar nominations:
Best Original Song - Randy Newman for "You've Got a Friend in Me" (Lost to Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas)
Best Music from a Comedy or Musical - Randy Newman (lost to Menken and Schwartz for Pocahontas)

Toy Story 2
Director: John Lasseter
Voice talent: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammar, Wayne Knight
Released: 11/24/99
Viewed in theaters: 12/04/99 and 12/25/99

Oscar nominations:
Best Song - Randy Newman for "When She Loved Me" (lost to Phil Collins for "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan)

Toy Story 3
Director: Lee Unkrich
Voice talent: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton
Released: 6/18/10
Viewed in theaters: 6/23/10

Future Oscar nominations: We all know this is gonna win Best Animated Picture. C'mon.

With the recently released Toy Story 3, I've decided to revisit the first two films and review them along with the third installment, a movie I'm been eagerly anticipating since last winter. It had been quite a few years since I've seen the first two, so it was a joy to re-watch them and it almost felt like I was watching them for the first time again. The computer animation has obviously gotten consistently better in the fifteen years since the first Toy Story was released, but that doesn't diminish the film one bit. The script (which was co-written by Buffy creator Joss Whedon) is still sharp and funny with heart and I can't imagine anyone else doing the voices for the already iconic characters of Woody and Buzz Lightyear than Hanks and Allen.

BTF: Best Toys Forever

In the first movie we're introduced to a slew of toy characters who belong to young Andy. Besides our cowboy sheriff and space ranger heroes, there's Mr. Potato Head (Rickles), a piggy bank (Ratzenberger), a neurotic plastic T-Rex (Shawn), a slinky dog (Varney), a remote control car, plastic green army soldiers, and Little Bo Peep (Potts) who belongs to Andy's little sister.

Woody has always been Andy's favorite toy, but once Buzz is given to the young boy at his birthday party as a surprise present from his mother, Woody knows his days are numbered. Not only has Buzz taken the coveted spot on the bed while Woody has been demoted to the toy chest, but Buzz is a more modern toy with lots of buttons and gadgets and even has a laser (although Woody will argue it's just a little light bulb) whereas the old-fashioned cowboy utters his favorite sayings with a pull string. Also, all of Andy's cowboy paraphernalia has been replaced with an outerspace theme.

With jealousy taking over, Woody tries to get Buzz stuck behind the desk so Andy can't find him, but ends up tossing him out the window. Feeling guilty, Woody tries to make it right, but both toys have now become lost and are now in the possession of Sid, the mean kid next door who likes to torture his toys by blowing them up or taking them apart and rebuilding them with different parts. The two feuding toys have to find a way to work together to return to their owner, but the clock is ticking because Andy and his family are moving the next day.

There's so many great moments, but my favorite part would have to be when Woody comes alive in front of Sid and he screams and runs into the house where his sister starts tormenting him with her doll.

In Toy Story 2 we have the same characters, but we're introduced to new ones. Woody discovers he's part of a collection called Woody's Roundup Gang that also includes his horse, Bull's Eye; Jessie, the cowgirl (Cusack); and Stinky Pete the prospector (Grammar). Mrs. Potato Head and Barbie are also new additions to the toy family. The plot of the second film is a bit more elaborate than the first and while I know toys coming to life isn't very realistic (okay, it's not realistic at all!), it seemed plausible within the context of the story. After Woody is mistakenly taken by a toy collector (Knight) at a yard sale, the other toys try to devise a plan to rescue him. This involves them making a long trek to Al's Toy Barn, driving a car to the airport, and Woody and Jessie escaping from an airplane that has just started to take off while Buzz is galloping right beside the plane on Bull's Eye. Don't get me wrong - Toy Story 2 is a great movie with a funny script and endearing new characters, but I preferred the simplicity of the first one.

I talk about a scene from Toy Story 2 that made me cry:

The latest installment of the franchise has Andy going off to college and he's not sure what he's going to do with his old toys, who haven't been played with in a long time. The toys are worried they're going to be thrown out, but they wouldn't mind being sent to the attic and brought back down when Andy has kids of his own.

There's a bit of a mix-up at the beginning (don't want to give too much away!) and the toys end up at Sunnyside Day Care, which at first seems like a nice retirement home for toys. There they meet new toys including Lot-so, a bear that smells like strawberries (Beatty); Ken (Keaton); a rubber octopus (Whoopi Goldberg); a baby doll; and Chatterbox phone (I remember those!) However, while the veteran toys are in the Butterfly Room where the older kids play and treat their toys with respect, the new recruits are placed in the Caterpillar Room aka Toy Hell. They're abused by screaming toddlers who smash them against the floor, paint on them, sit on them, etc. Woody manages to escape, but wants to find a way to help his friends get back to Andy too. He learns that the day care is like a prison and it's impossible to escape because the toys are kept in cages at night and there are lookouts at each post. It kind of reminded me of Watership Down for toys.

The tone is definitely darker than the previous two movies and there was one moment in the film that I was really afraid something horrible was going to happen to the toys and they seemed to have realized their fate and were all holding hands. Thank goodness I had a handkerchief in my purse because I needed it for pretty much the entire third act! I have yet to read/hear a review where nobody cried!

I was satisfied with the ending and I think Pixar did a great job of ending the Toy Story trilogy. (Of course, there could always be a fourth, but I don't know if they're going to continue with the franchise as I think they ended on a good note). While the first movie remains my favorite of the three, all of the movies are very solid and it's very rare when you see all three movies in a trilogy that are great. Usually, the first movie is good and the other two are just awful or don't measure up to the first one. (Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Spider-Man just to name a few).

I would definitely recommend watching the first two movies again to refresh your memory as there are some callbacks to them in Toy Story 3!

Oh and it amused me that there were many kids in the theater who weren't even born yet when the second movie came out! I feel very privileged to have seen all three in the theaters!

Chamber - Made

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Director: Chris Columbus
Cast: The same people who were in the first movie, plus Jason Isaacs and Kenneth Branagh
Released: 11/15/02
Viewed in theaters: 11/16/02

My Harry Potter reviews continues with the second installment of Harry's adventures at Hogwarts! Chamber of Secrets is the second shortest novel (the first has the least amount of pages), but the longest movie, clocking in at about two hours and forty minutes. Now that's not counting the final chapter, which of course will be the longest since they're dividing it into two films and the other movies aren't that far behind in length. My reaction to this movie is about the same as the first one: loved it the first time I ever saw it; however, the next few times I viewed it, it grew tiresome and the magic was lost.

I'm not going to bother going over the plot since everyone already knows what happens in all the books, so it would be redundant. If you're one of the five people in the world who have never read/seen Harry Potter, well, I'm sure you're not reading this anyway!

Of the two Potter movies Columbus directed, I liked this one a little bit more, but that's not saying much. He should stick to his American comedies - I still love watching Adventures in Baby-Sitting and Home Alone, two movies I grew up with. One of the things I like better about CoS than SS is that we've already been introduced to the (main) characters, so we can just jump into the story without all the introductions.

Though we are introduced to new characters: Dobby the House Elf (a character who I have always hated, even though .....SPOILER ALERT!.....I did perhaps shed one single tear when he died in the last book), who perhaps would have been more groundbreaking if The Two Tower's Gollum hadn't been featured that very same year; Branagh as Professor Lockhart, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (but let's face it: the DADA teachers didn't get interesting until the third year, the first two are just filler); and Isaacs in a blond wig as Draco Malfoy's father. Oh, and there's Colin Creevy, but nobody cares about him since this is the only movie he was in as he seemed to be replaced by non-book character Nigel in the fourth movie. I'm sure they won't show his....SPOILER ALERT!.....death in the last movie. (Or they'll just have Nigel die).

Our three young actors seem to be more comfortable in front of the camera, but there are still some inconsistencies with their acting. They're still cute, of course, and Harry's and Ron's voices have both changed over the summer. Daniel Radcliffe is much better this time around; Rupert Grint sometimes overdid it with the mugging faces, especially during the spider scene, but the one time when I believed him as scared was when he found out his sister was in the Chamber; and Emma Watson wasn't as snobby as she was in the first movie, but the scene in the Herbology class made me cringe because it sounded like she was reading her lines from a cue card.

Like I mentioned in my review of the first movie, I am a huge HeRmiONe shipper, so I loved the scene at the end when Hermione has returned from the hospital after being petrified for the last third of the movie and while she hugs Harry, she only shakes Ron's hand after a bit of an awkward pause. The H/Hr shippers seemed to think this meant that Hermione liked Harry better than Ron. Uh, no! I mean, it was so  obvious that Rowling was setting up Ron and Hermione to get together. And I would like to add, when I first saw the movie, everyone in my audience "aaw"-ed during that scene. What made it even funnier (and awesome) was that there was no reaction at all when she hugs Harry.

The ending of the movie made me roll my eyes just like the first one did. For some reason, the ending becomes a big Hagrid love-fest where all the students are cheering for him while in a mob and trying to touch his hands like young girls at a Jonas Brothers' concert.

Empire State of Mind

Sex and the City
Director: Michael Patrick King
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis
Released: 5/30/08

Sex and the City 2
Released: 5/27/10
Viewed in theaters: 5/28/10

Spoiler in the review!

The first SATC movie is better than its sequel, but I would recommend the HBO series over the movies. The first movie stays true to the TV show and feels like a two and a half hour special. New York serves as a strong background, there's plenty of sex scenes (although our main protagonist seems to be too busy with shopping, writing, redecorating her apartment, and attending fashion shows to get any action), and an abundance of designer clothes, shoes, and handbags. Also, the four characters get their own storylines: Carrie is going to be married to Big in a lavish ceremony at the New York Public Library (perfect place for a writer!) in an intricate Vivienne Westwood gown. Samantha has been flying back and forth between New York and L.A. where she's managing Smith Jerrod, her actor boyfriend of five years (a LONG time for Samantha Jones to be with one person!) and is having second thoughts about their relationship. Miranda and Steve separate after Steve tells her he cheated on her and Charlotte, with the weakest plot line, is pregnant and is afraid to run in fear of she'll hurt the baby. I guess they had to give her something to do.

Of course the main story revolves around Carrie and her dream wedding to Big (aka John Preston). Everything is set: they have the dress, the location, the invitations have been set out, they have a big rehearsal dinner, etc. Of course Big decides to bail on the big day - like right when the wedding is supposed to start! Unsurprisingly, this pisses off Carrie a great deal and she ends up smacking Big with her bouquet of flowers while wearing her princess wedding gown. Now I never saw this movie in the theaters so I have no idea what everyone else's reaction to it was and I'm not sure if it was supposed to be intentionally funny or not, but I laughed. I thought it was really funny, though I guess what had happened to Carrie wasn't. The cast of How I Met Your Mother re-created the scene for EW.

Now obviously we know Carrie and Big reconcile and do get married, but do you know how Big asks for forgiveness? By copying and pasting a bunch of love letters written by famous men from history and e-mailing them to her! Like that's romantic! I mean, he could have at least attempted to write (write, not type) his OWN letter to her and send it to her via post mail. That would at least have shown a little bit of an effort on his part, you know?

There's plenty of throw away scenes that should have stayed in the editing room like when they attend the fashion show or when they're modeling Carrie's clothes when she's cleaning out her closet, but they're part of the fun and fashion that is Sex and the City.

I saw the sequel with my friend Cameron (hi, Cameron, if you are reading this!) and it was a full audience and probably 99.9% of the audience was female. After the movie ended, I joked that they should have renamed the sequel Fashion and the Desert because Samantha is the only character in the movie who has sex (of course - it is Samantha after all) and the majority of the movie takes place in Abu Dhabi (New York is only featured in about the first half hour). The fashion in this one seems to be a hit miss: you either love it or hate it. The fashion was a lot better in the first movie; there were some pretty fugly clothes in the sequel.

Carrie is the only one who is given a story line and it involves her meeting Aidan (who I've always preferred to over Big) when she's in the U.A.E. and they...wait for it...kiss for, like, five seconds. Oh no! Ripped with guilt, she's not sure if she should tell Big, who she's been having marital problems with lately (he bought her a Plasm TV for their anniversary and she got pissed). The other characters are shoved aside for barely-there sides stories. Charlotte is worried that her husband might be eyeing their new younger and bra-less Irish nanny, Miranda is tired of her misogynist boss and quits her job, and Samantha is going through menopause and has to spend her vacation in the scalding heat without her pills and creams.

Thank goodness for Samantha; she is by far the best part of the movie. Without her the film wouldn't have a life. She has the best zingers and the funniest scenes involves her, although I'm sure if she had done and said those things in Abu Dhabi, she (along with her friends) would have been stoned in real life, but since SATC isn't exactly reality-based (and because that's not the tone they're known for), they manage to leave the country with barely a slap on their wrist.

There's still plenty of fun in the sequel ( Liza Minelli singing Single Ladies is an added bonus), but it doesn't measure up to the first movie, which doesn't measure up to the HBO series. However, if they do make a third movie, you can bet I'll be seeing it!

I say 'Sorcerer', you say 'Philosopher'

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Director: Chris Columbus
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith
Released: 11/16/01
Viewed in theaters: 11/22/01


Oscar nominations:
Best Art Direction - Set Decoration (lost to Moulin Rouge!)
Best Costume Design (lost to Moulin Rouge!)
Best Original Score - John Williams (lost to Howard Shore for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)

Since the final Harry Potter movie is coming out later this year, I thought I would go back and revisit the previous six films, so expect to see more HP reviews within the coming months.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan - I love the books. The movies, I'm not too crazy about. In fact, there have only been two Potter movies (so far!) that I've really liked and you'll find out which ones those are when I review them. It's not like I'm one of those hardcore Potterheads who freak out about the Gryffindors and Slytherins being in a class together when it was clearly stated in the books that they did NOT share that class (well, I'm not like that anymore!), but the movies definitely don't hold a candle to the books. 

Ironically, I started reading the books in the summer of '01 because I knew the first movie was coming out that fall and wanted to see it, so I bought the first four books to prepare for it. Well, that and the fact that the books had become a worldwide phenomena by then. 

With The Lord of the Rings, it's completely the opposite for me: I love the films, but it took me forever to read the books because I found them so dull. Of course, what I think helped with that was that they made the movies back to back many years after the books were published and Peter Jackson directed all of them. I always wondered how the Harry Potter films would have been different if they had all been filmed after the last book was published and if they all had one director. Of course that would mean Harry, Ron, and Hermione would all be played by different actors and I can't imagine anyone other than Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson playing them (even though it drives me crazy that Hermione has blonde hair - um, Hermione is NOT blonde! Geeze, can't they dye Emma's hair?!)

As cute as they are, the three young actors (I call them Team RED) are pretty terrible in this. Their reactions to certain situations, their delivery of lines, etc., just terrible. (The way Emma says "THAT'S what's under the door. THAT'S what the dog is guarding" or whatever she says; the over-exaggerated expressions Rupert gives; the passive way Daniel says "I'm a wizard?" like he's saying "It's raining outside?"). I can forgive them, though. After all, they were only around eleven and this was their first movie for all of them.

                                             Ickle Harry and Ron

                                                  
I'm a huge Ron/Hermione (HeRmiONe!) shipper so I absolutely love the scene where they meet on the train for the first time. It is just so adorable. I love when Hermione tells Ron in her snooty voice, "You have dirt on your nose, did you know?" and the way Ron gives Harry a look that says "who IS that chick?" And to think they would eventually end up together, awwwwwwwww!

I've only seen the first movie maybe four or five times and I tend to like it less with each viewing. The first time I saw it, I really liked it, despite its flaws. The second time, I still liked it, but not as much as the first time. The other times, I was pretty much bored with it because it lacked (excuse the pun) magic. I can read the first book over and over again and still love it, but I don't think I'll need to see the first movie ever again.

I remember thinking how exciting and cool the Quidditich scene was the first (and perhaps second time) I saw it, but now it just bores the ever-living snot out of me. It goes on WAY too long and it's so stupid when Harry surfs on the broom at the end. No. Just no.

Here is another scene that I find a bit ridiculous:


If you are one of the five people left on this earth that has never read about or watched Harry's adventures, I would advise you to read the books, then watch the movies if you choose to do so. Don't bother watching the movies if you're not going to read the books.

Stayed tuned for my review of Chamber of Secrets!

Watch with tissues handy!

Hachiko: A Dog's Story
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Cast: Richard Gere and Joan Allen

Spoilers!

This movie (which did not have a theatrical release) should only be viewed in private if you are embarrassed about other people seeing you cry, because you will bawl your eyes out while watching this.  If you don't, then your heart is made of stone. It's based on a true story that took place in Japan in the 1920s, but for this version they had it take place in a small American town during the '90s. I remember reading or hearing about the story, so I was somewhat familiar with it.

During its transfer to a new home, an Akita puppy's cage is knocked over at a train station and the dog escapes. Now if I had moved and somebody had lost my pet, I would be pissed, but that doesn't seem to be an issue in this movie as nobody claims the dog as their own, which is a little surprising because this is a pure-bred dog. And totally adorable!

Gere plays Parker, a college music professor who discovers the puppy (or does the dog discover him?) at the train station and takes him home with him thinking he'll put up fliers the next day and eventually the owner will call and claim the dog. Allen plays his wife and is not thrilled about having a dog in the house and tells her husband they are not keeping it, so he better hope the dog finds a home soon. She has a change of mind and heart after nobody claims the dog and she sees how the dog and Parker are bonding.

Parker names the dog Hachi because it means "to bring good fortune" in Japanese and the puppy goes from little and cute to a gorgeous adult dog with an air of nobility. Every morning Parker walks to the train station to get to work and he lives in a small enough town that Hachi can walk with him, then return home after Parker leaves. Everyone in town knows Hachi and greet him with a pat on the head (or, in the butcher's case, a piece of meat). Everyday at five o'clock, Hachi is always at the train station waiting loyally for his master to come home and greet him.

One day Parker has a fatal heart attack while at work and Hachi is waiting for him for hours with a forlorn expression on his face until Parker's son--in-law comes to get him. This is about the time in the film where I start crying and my tears didn't let up until the end. Hachi keeps waiting for his master for the next ten years and becomes the town's pet as they feed him whenever they see him.  IT IS SO SAD!

Will the real Anastasia please stand up?

Anastasia (1956)
Director: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes
Released: 12/13/56

Oscar nominations:
Best Actress - Ingrid Bergman (won)
Best Score - Alfred Newman (lost to Victor Young for Around the World in 80 Days)

Anastasia (1997)
Directors: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Voice Talent: Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Angela Lansbury, Kelsey Grammar, Christopher Lloyd
Released: 11/21/97

Oscar nominations:
Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (lost to The Full Monty) Do they even still have this category?
Best Song - "Journey to the Past" (lost to "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic)

I have to admit, even though I did see the animated Anastasia film in the theaters, I was not very familiar with the story of the Romanovs until I recently listened to a Podcast about them, found their story quite fascinating and put these two movies in my Netflix queue.

If you're not familiar with Anastasia's story, here is a quick overview of it with help from the Podcast, Wikipedia, and notes I scribbled down while watching her Biography. She was born in 1901, the youngest daughter of Nicholas II, the Russian Tsar.  Her official title was  Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Being born into a royal family, she resided in a palace with over a thousand rooms. (Dang, can you imagine if you had to be the interior designer for that place??)  In 1914 her father declared war on Germany and Austria and during his reign, Imperial Russia went from being a great world power to an economic and miliatry failure - 80% of his subjects were in poverty. The country became corrupt and Nicholas was blamed for everything wrong with Russia.  Let's just say he wasn't one of the best world rulers from history. The Romanovs fell completely out of power and Nicholas abdicated the throne in 1917 and his family and their loyal servants (eleven people in all) were placed under house arrest at the Alexadner Palace during the Russian Revolution. The Bolsheviks were now in power of Russia and they had to choose between murdering or exiling the family and wanting to take no chances of the Romanovs ever becoming in power again, they choose the former and murder the entire family in a small room in the palace in 1918.

However, it's leaked in the papers that not everyone died that fateful night and many people believe that there may be some survivors, especially that of Anastasia. In 1920 a woman who is about to commit suicide by throwing herself in a river in Berlin in rescued. She is mentally unstable and doesn't speak for weeks and has no identity. Coincidentally she has the same eye color, identical ears, and foot disorder the real Anastasia had and recognized people in photos that only Anastasia would know. However, despite all that, she failed to prove she really was the Grand Duchess by the German courts. The woman went by the name Anna Anderson and her claim to be Anastasia became known around the world and there was still speculation about was she or wasn't she? Turns out she was just a mentally disturbed woman who spent most of her life in asylums. Her DNA did not match that of the real Anastasia and in 1991 Nicholas and his three oldest daughters were exhumed from where they were believed to be burned and buried. In 2007 the body of Anastasia and her little brother were found quickly putting any claims that Anna Anderson really was Anastasia to rest.

Okay, I guess that wasn't that quick!

So while the real Anastasia perished along with her family and did not escape and live her life under the alias Anna Anderson, Hollywood still found her story fascinating and thought it made a great movie, which it does. Imagine not knowing where you came from and learn someday that you are from royal descent! Both movies follow the same plotline, beginning with Anastasia not knowing who she is or where she came from and wanting to have a sense of belonging. Both versions meet a man (who she'll eventually fall in love with...spoiler alert! ) who is trying to find someone they can teach to learn everything about Anastasia because her grandmother is offering anyone who finds her granddaughter a hefty cash prize. He is pleased when he finds this woman who could physically pass for the real Grand Duchess and teachers her everything she needs to know...while she begins to remember things on her own, because she really IS Anastasia and everything is coming back to her. She proves herself to her grandmother and a tearful reunion ensues and both movies end on a happy note. The animated film has musical numbers (I have the soundtrack and I LOVE "At the Beginning" and "Journey to the Past") and a villain with a campy sidetrick who is trying to kill Anastasia because he thought he had murdered all of the Romanovs. I loved the set decoration of the '56 version with all the antique European-style furniture.

The movies may have been based on something that happened in Russian history, but have been deemed fictitious, but nevertheless still a good story to tell even though it was only a fairy tale.

Bad Night

Date Night
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey,  Taraji P. Henson, Mark Wahlberg
Date release: 4/09/10
Viewed in theaters: 4/28/10

If not for Carell and Fey, I would have passed this movie up, but because of the comedic pairing and fresh (though a low fresh) rating at Rotten Tomatoes, I decided to see Date Night. Carell and Fey play Phil and Claire Foster, a married couple with two young kids who live in New Jersey. They've realized they've become very boring, always having the same routine, so to spice things up a little, Phil takes Claire to a new fancy restaurant in New York. Of course they can't get a table because they don't have reservations, so they take the reservation for a couple by the name of Tripplehorn who don't respond when the hostess is calling for them. These two goons show up and demand that they give them the flash drive they stole from their boss or else they're going to kill them. The Fosters try to explain the little mix-up, but the goons don't believe them. After escaping from them, they go to the police, but find out the goons are also police, so with a little help from Walhberg's character, who's some high tech specialist, they try to find the real Tripplehorns so they can get the flash drive from them and return it to the two guys who are trying to get it.

As you can probably imagine, the movie is filled with plenty of crazy hi-jinx, and as crazy as some of them were, I felt they weren't crazy enough, as, say, the shenanigans they get into in Adventures in Baby-Sitting. I also didn't understand the whole deal with the flash drive. It had damaging evidence that had to do with the mayor (I think), but I didn't understand what the Tripplehornes and the two goons had to do with it. They probably explained it when I was checking my Facebook on my phone, lol.

I wouldn't say this was an awful movie, it did have some laughs, but it could have been a lot better. Carell and Fey have been in better movies. I would recommend waiting for it to come out on DVD if you do want to see it.

What would Brian Boitano do?

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Director: Trey Parker

Cast: Kyle Broflowski, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kenny McCormick

Released: 6/30/99

Viewed in theaters: 7/9/99

Oscar nominations:

Best Original Song - "Blame Canada" (lost to "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan)

What do you get when you put four foul-mouthed young boys who are trying to save their Canadian idols, Terrance and Phillip, from being executed; the United States and Canada at war with each other; and Satan and Saddam Hussein (who voices himself according to the credits!) as lovers rising from Hell to take over the world? Just possibly one of the funniest movies and one of the best musicals (yes, it's also a musical!) you will ever see.

You know, South Park has been on so long (they recently had their 200th episode during their 14th season), that it's almost weird to think the movie came out only after two and a half seasons. And what made me really notice how old the movie is was when they announced a special announcement from the POTUS and it was Bill Clinton telling his fellow Americans that the U.S. was now at war with Canada after they had bombed the Baldwins! It's been awhile since I've seen any of the earlier episodes, so I can't remember if the boys were cussing like Russell Crowe on any given day of the week like they do now or if the R-rated Canadian foreign film Asses of Fire was their first introduction to the f-bomb. Or perhaps continuity doesn't really matter in a cartoon.

The best part about the SP movie is that it's a satire of itself. The film starts off with the four main characters (and the adorable Ike - seriously, how can an animated kid with an egg-shaped flapping head and two beady eyes be so gosh darn cute? "Ky-wul! Ice cweem! Choc-wet!" Awww!) going to see T&P's flick, but since it's been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, they have to bribe a homeless man to pretend to be their guardian. Of course with lines like, "Terrance, you're a pig %!#*er!" and the oh-so-catchy song, "Shut Your #*%(ing Face, Uncle #*(!a!" ("You're an uncle #*!#er I must say! Well, you #(%*ed your uncle yesterday!") the boys come out of the theater swearing left and right. Now I'm sure when this movie came out, there were probably some dumb parents out there who thought it was all right to take their kids to see it since it was a cartoon and didn't notice it was Rated R. (Hey, there are a lot of stupid people out there!) and I'm sure those people left the theater just as the residents of South Park left during Asses of Fire.

Kyle's mom is outraged when she finds out the movie is the source of the boys' foul language (just as I'm sure many parents were outraged by this movie!) and blames Canada for releasing the movie and has Terrence and Phillip arrested when they appear on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Oh, and can I just say I love how you can differentiate the Canadians from the Americans with their flapping heads and beady eyes and the way they say "aboot!" Actually, the way the show makes fun of Canada is always hilarious - "You're watching the Canadian channel - the only channel in Canada!" or "There's only one road in Canada!" Or how about when Ike's Canadian birth parents gave him up because they couldn't handle the Cola Wars? LMAO!

Meanwhile, in typical South Park fashion, Kenny dies after a George Clooney-voiced doctor tells him, "Son, we've got some bad news for you. We accidentally replaced your heart with a baked potato and you have three seconds to live." Poor Kenny ends up in Hell where Saddam Hussein has taken residence after he was attacked by a pack of wild dogs. Saddam and Satan are lovers, but while Satan is the sensitive one and wants to have heartfelt chats, all Saddam cares about is sex. It's pretty funny (and surprising!) when you feel sorry for the devil. All he wants to do is visit the world "up there where babies burp and flowers bloom."

Like I've mentioned before, I haven't seen the earlier episodes in a very long time, but I think the movie is the first (and probably only) time we ever see Kenny's face and hear him unmuffled when he says, "Goodbye, you guys." (My friends and I "awwwed" at that scene!) Oh, and I did some research (on Wikipedia) and had no idea Kyle had a curly red 'fro. Hmm, a redhead and a Jew! No wonder Cartman hates Kyle so much! It's always so weird when they show the boys without their hats (well, except Cartman).

I've already mentioned this is a musical and the songs (though dirty) are quite catchy! "Blame Canada" was nominated for an Oscar, but I think it should have been "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" just because it's my favorite. ("What would Brian Boitano do if he were here today? I'm sure he'd kick an ass or two, that's what Brian Boitano do!") My other favorite songs include "Mountain Town" (which is ripped off from the song Belle sings in Beauty and the Beast; I love it!) ("Thank God we live in a quiet, little, redneck, podunk, white-trash, kick-ass USA!"): "Uncle F*#%a"; "It's Easy, Mmmkay" ("You don't have to spend your life addicted to smack; homeless on the street giving handjobs for crack!"); "Up There" (which is ripped off from the song Ariel sings in The Little Mermaid); "Blame Canada" ("It seems that everything's gone wrong since Canada came along - they're not even a real country anyway!"); "I'm Super, Thanks for Asking" ("Bombs are flying, people are dying, babies are crying, politicians are lying too. Cancer is killing, Texaco's spilling, the whole world's gone to hell, but how are you? I'm SUPER! Thanks for asking!"); and "La Resistance" ("You see the distance flames; they bellow in the night. You fight in all your names for what we know is right.")

I share my viewing experience of seeing South Park at the theaters:

This movie came out two years before they started giving out Oscars for animated films and while I doubt it would have won had they started giving them out in 2000, do you think it would have been nominated? Toy Story 2 and Tarzan would have been nominated for sure, but would South Park made the third spot? That would have been sweet - super sweet!

I absolutely love this movie, but you have to have the right kind of sense of humor to like it because they make fun of everybody. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the show, but please, if you're a kid or you have a kid or know a kid, don't let them see this movie because it is definitely not appropriate for kids! Hehe, I read somewhere that it has the most cussing in an animated movie. Well, DUH! LOVE this movie! One of my ten favorites from 1999.

Defending Julia

Erin Brockovich

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Julia Roberts, Albery Finney, Aaron Eckhart

Released: 3/17/00

Viewed in theaters: 3/21/00

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (lost to Gladiator)

Best Director - Steven Soderbergh (lost to....himself for Traffic - heh)

Best Actress - Julia Roberts (won)

Best Supporting Actor - Albert Finney (lost to Benicio Del Toro for Traffic)

Best Original Screenplay - Susannah Grant (lost to Cameron Crowe for Almost Famous)

I know it's a popular opinion to hate on Julia Robert's Oscar win for this film and I know she induces a lot of eye rolling when she makes it all about herself at awards shows (hey, I was rolling my eyes right along with all of you when she proclaimed "I LOVE MY LIFE!!!" right before presenting Denzel with his second Oscar, (but I did laugh when she told the conductor to put his stick down during her own speech)) and while I don't think she's done anything great or memorable since Erin Brockovich, I do think she deserved to win the Oscar that year. Yes, it was totally predictable she was going to win (even EW said her probability of winning was 100%) and her superstar status also probably helped, but I don't think you can deny that this is her best role to date.

What I think makes it a great performance is that she plays a real, everyday woman. Yes, obviously Erin Brockovich is a real person (who is actually from Lawrence, Kansas, not Wichita like the movie says!) but Roberts tends to play characters with cool, glamorous jobs who wear beautiful clothes and who are super intelligent - basically characters nobody can relate to. However, with Erin, she's playing a single mother with barely any money in her bank account, struggling to find work. Now maybe not everybody has it that bad, but I'm sure more people can relate to that type of character than the other ones Julia plays.

As you probably know, since I'm assuming most people have already seen the movie, Erin Brockovich exposed a plant that had contaminated a neighborhood's water supply and won her clients beacoup d'argent. Her story is pretty amazing considering she had no real job skills and acquired the job at the law firm by demanding her lawyer give her one for after he lost the case against the doctor who ran into her car and injured her neck and he agrees because he feels guilty they lost the case and she has three children to feed. There's a bit of a clash between them at the beginning because she has no sense of style for the workplace and says whatever is on her mind (many things which would have gotten her fired in the real world!).

Finney plays her boss, Ed Masry and Eckhart plays her new next door neighbor love interest. He's kind of a prick because he makes Erin choose between her job and him since she's so busy with the case and doesn't have time to be with him. His character wasn't very fleshed out, so I'm assuming this was a character they put in just for the movie. Even though they break up they seem to be friendly at the end.

Julia Roberts plays Erin Brockovich with humor and passion and you believe she really cares about the cause and people she's fighting for. I will tell you right now I'm not a huge Julia Roberts fan, but I will always agree with her Oscar win for this role.

2000 was a great year for Steven Soderbergh: two of his movies were nominated for Best Picture, he was twice nominated for Best Director (a feat that's only been done once before - correct me if I'm wrong, please!) and won and one of his movies acquired the Best Actress statue while the other acquired the Best Supporting Actor award.

A solid movie that's still enjoyable after multiple viewings.

Learning to Fly

How To Train Your Dragon

Directors: Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders

Voice Talent: Jay Baruchel, Gerald Butler, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson

Released: 3/26/10

Viewed in theaters: 3/31/10

*Small spoilers in review!*

When it comes to Pixar vs. DreamWorks, I am always on Team Pixar, but this is easily DreamWork's best work in years. I thought the trailers for it looked really cute and that made me want to see it, but what actually got me motivated to go to the theaters was the 98% fresh rating it received on Rotten Tomatoes. I went to a screening at nine in the evening so I could avoid all the little kiddies kicking my seat or crying. Because I saw it so late and because I saw it in 3-D, I had to shell out a bit more money, but that was okay. It was definitely worth it. (Although, honestly, the movie would have been just as great in 2-D.)

The plot is simple: Hiccup is a scrawny young viking lad who only wants to please his father by killing a dragon which is a sort of a rite of passage in the town where they live. He builds a contraption to take down a rare breed of dragon (I can't remember the name) NIGHT FURY! that nobody has ever taken down and is deemed to be very dangerous. He does manage to capture it, but he can't bring himself to kill it. While Hiccup is taking dragon-slaying classes with the other kids in the village, he's also slowing building a bond with the black dragon who he dubs Toothless and learns that dragons are just like pets (in fact Toothless's facial features reminded me of a cat's) who like to be scratched and petted and are playful. Toothless was so adorable too.

There's a reason why dragons are misunderstood, but I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say it involves one giant ass dragon! I mean, this thing was so massive, I have no idea how it could even fly!

The flying scenes were pretty incredible, but they would have been really amazing on an IMAX screen! This was my second 3-D movie (the first, of course, was Avatar) and while the 3-D was cool, I'm not really a huge fan of it. Honestly, I think the 3-D phenomenon is just a phase and it will pass in a few years. At least I hope so. I was more impressed with the actual animation than I was with the 3-D aspect of it: the ocean and the fur on the Vikings' vests looked like real water and fur.

I knew I would cry while watching this film and I did. Actually, I cried more than I thought I would. I cried when (spoiler alert!) Hiccup's dad saves Toothless and tells Hiccup that he's proud to call him his son when just in a previous scene he was ashamed of him. Yeah, that got the waterworks going. Thank goodness the lobby of the movie theater was empty when I left because it's always embarrassing when my eyes are red from crying (especially from watching a cartoon!).

How To Train Your Dragon has a great chance of being nominated for a Best Animated Picture Oscar next year, but I'm pretty sure Toy Story 3 has that one locked up. I saw the trailer for that and I can't wait to see it. (I also got a little teary-eyed during it; yes, I am very sensitive!) Giving Oscars to animated films started in 2002 and here's how I would rank the nine movies that have won Oscars:

1. Up

2. Finding Nemo

3. Wall-E

4. Ratatouille

5. The Incredibles

6. Spirited Away

7. Shrek

8. Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

9. Happy Feet

I love 1-4, I like 5-7, I barely remember 8, and I hated 9. If I were to incorporate HTTYD, it would be #3 or 4 on that list. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy this movie!

Dream On

Dreamgirls

Director: Bill Condon

Cast: Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx

Released: 12/25/06

Viewed in theaters: 1/04/07

Oscar nominations:

Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson (won)

Best Supporting Actor - Eddie Murphy (lost to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine)

Best Art Direction (lost to Pan's Labyrinth)

Best Costume Design (lost to Marie Antoinette)

Best Sound Mixing (won)

Best Original Songs - "Listen", "Patience", and "Love You I Do" (lost to "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth)

Dreamgirls could probably be best described as a music biopic musical. This was my second viewing of it and I had the same reaction to it as my first: I loved the first half, but after Jennifer Hudson's Effie belts out And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, the film seems to lose its steam and drag on a bit. While the first half focuses more on Effie, the second half focuses more on Beyonce's Deena. I found Effie to be more interesting to watch and I felt for her character more than I did with Deena. Also, I realize it's a musical, but the second half just seemed to be song after song after song...like they never came up for air from all the singing!

With the three young women who play the Dreamettes, you have the Broadway star, the ex-American Idol contestant who's known for her larger than life voice, and the R&B megastar, three people who probably wouldn't start a group together because all their sounds are so different. They work together well, though, and you believe them as a group (and understand why Effie is the lead singer at first!) Of course, once the group blows up and becomes more popular, their manager (Foxx) wants to make Deena the lead singer because she has the more commercial look and this does not make Effie happy.

"Bitch, I'll show you crazy!"
Wouldn't that be hilarious if Beyonce actually said that in this movie too? Like that could be her trademark quote or something, haha! Now as far as performances go, I usually give B a hard time because everyone knows she wants an Oscar. Oh, yes, she wants one. It's so obvious. Seriously, B, stop trying so hard and go home to your eighty thousand Grammys. However, having said that, I don't think she was bad in Dreamgirls like she was in, as say, Obsessed (but she was so bad it was so awesome in that movie). For her first movie, I thought Hudson did a good job. Do I think it warranted her the Oscar? Hmmm.. probably not. Let's face it: she only won it because of And I Am Telling You... (and she does sing the hell out of that song), but I feel as though that's like giving Penelope Cruz an Oscar because she spoke perfect Spanish in a film when that's her first language anyway, you know?
I thought Eddie Murphy was really good when his character was performing, then I remembered he had already had some singing experience with the one hit wonder from the '80s, Party All the Time, LOL. The best songs in the film are, of course, And I Am Telling You... and Listen, the single Beyonce sings in the second half of the film. That song was nominated for an Oscar and it would have been my choice to win, but I think having three songs in that category hurt the movie's chances because they all probably ended up canceling each other out. It is a beautiful song, though.
I was amused when I saw John Lithgow in a cameo; I'd never think I'd see him and Beyonce in the same scene together!

Tough Ain't Enough

Million Dollar Baby

Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman

Released: 12/15/04

Viewed in theaters: 2/11/05

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (won)

Best Director - Clint Eastwood (won)

Best Actor - Clint Eastwood (lost to Jamie Foxx for Ray)

Best Actress - Hilary Swank (won)

Best Supporting Actor - Morgan Freeman (won)

Best Adapted Screenplay - Paul Haggis (lost to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for Sideways)

Best Editing (lost to The Aviator)

Spoilers in my review! You've been warned!

I have to be honest with you: 2004 was a year I was not very excited about the Oscars. It's not that I despised any of the movies and performances that were nominated and/or won, but I just couldn't muster up any excitement over any of them. Usually there's a Best Picture nominee I'm rooting for (or at least an alternative one I wouldn't mind winning), but in the case of the '04 Oscars, I was more along the lines of "Meh, I really don't care who wins." I had a hell of a time trying to put together my top ten list for that year too! Most of the movies I liked that year were that of the popcorn flick variety.

I almost kind of wish that M$B and Mystic River had swapped years because I loved River, but it obviously wasn't going to win that year because that was the year of Hobbits, Middle Earth, and Peter Jackson. I think a major reason M$B and Eastwood won a year later was because the Academy knew he didn't have a chance the year prior and were now giving it to him. (Otherwise if Lord of the Rings didn't exist, then River would have won in '03 and probably The Aviator and Scorsese would have won in '04 - hmm, I would who would have won in '06?)

Obviously, this film is about boxing, which is something that doesn't excite me. I was bored during Ali and I didn't get what the big deal about Rocky was (and I can't believe they made so many sequels!) I just don't understand why people would want to be beat to a pulp! Frank (Eastwood) is an aging boxing coach who is losing his best boxers due to them going to other trainers, so he agrees to train his first female boxer, Maggie (Swank) even though she's almost 32 and it can take up to five years to train a boxer. The most intense part of the film doesn't come until the very last fight and what happens after it. While I remember what happened to Maggie (who could forget something like that!), I thought it had happened to her during the fight. I had forgotten she had already won the match and was celebrating when her opponent hit her when she wasn't paying attention.

Despite it being an Oscar-baity performance and despite Swank being very good in these tomboy from a poor hick town roles, I was a little surprised the Academy gave her another Oscar so soon after her win for Boys Don't Cry. (I'm beginning to think Annette Bening is her good luck charm: Bening was also nominated both times Swank won). I don't think Eastwood should have been nominated; all he did was growl (though I did think he should've been nominated for Gran Torino) and as much as I love Morgan Freeman, his Oscar was more of a lifetime achievement award. His performance in The Shawshank Redemption was better and more memorable and had he been in the supporting category instead of lead like he should have been (after all he was supporting to Tim Robbins' lead) he would have won for that movie! Oh, well. I'm glad he has an Oscar, though.

The Reader

The Reader

Director: Stephen Daldry

Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross

Released: 12/10/08

Oscar nominations:

Best Picture (lost to Slumdog Millionaire)

Best Director - Stephen Daldry (lost to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actress - Kate Winslet (won)

Best Adapted Screenplay - David Hare (lost to Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire)

Best Cinematography (lost to Slumdog Millionaire)

I was expecting this film to be dry, boring, dull, etc., but actually liked it more than I thought I would. It starts off with a young German boy (Kross) who is walking home in the rain and becomes sick and a woman (Winslet) helps him home. It turns out the boy has scarlet fever and has to stay in bed for three months. When he recovers, he takes flowers to the woman who helped him. A strong attraction develops between Hanna, who is in her mid-30s and Michael, who is only sixteen and their relationship becomes strictly sexual; they don't even know each other's names until their third encounter.

During one of his visits, Michael brings a book he is reading for a class and Hanna asks him to read it to her and soon begins a reading montage and thus we have an explanation for the title.

The affair only lasts a summer because there is too much angst as one would expect with a 30-something woman and an underage boy. They don't cross paths until several years later when Michael is attending university as a law student. In one of his classes, the students' assignment is to sit in on a trial for Nazi war crimes and he is shocked when he discovers Hanna is a former Nazi guard being tried. She admits to something that will put her away for a long time, but Michael (and the audience) know that this isn't true, but Michael feels helpless and is too scared to talk to her.

Fiennes plays the grown-up Michael who can't free Hanna from his mind and records himself reading books and sends stacks of tapes to her while she is in prison for twenty years. He is the only person in her life and hearing those stories is the only bright spot of her days.

While I do think this being Winslet's sixth (SIXTH people; the woman is only 34) and her playing an ex-Nazi (the Oscar eats up anything Holocaust related) helped her win the Oscar, I do think she gave a strong performance. She felt like a real person who did terrible things in her life, but I also felt sympathetic towards her too.