Tuesday's With Movies: 4/12/11

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part I: One of the few films I was able to see in the theater last year. Still not my favorite of the films, but perhaps combined with the final film it might. I will be owning this as soon as the mood strikes me - considering I own the rest.







Country Strong: Doesn't really look like my cup of tea, but I have been wrong on the musical fronts before. This is a film my wife wants to see, so I will check it out with her - and hopefully like Moulin Rouge and Chicago before it, it may work for me.







The Incredibles: Sort of a re-release for Blu-Ray, since I already own the film on DVD. I will not be purchasing this film, but for those of you that do not own it I suggest that you go out and grab it.








Cars: Just like The Incredibles, Cars is getting a Blu-Ray release. Sort of the step-sister of the Pixar clan for many people, but I absolutely adore the film. I say for everyone to give it another chance, especially with Cars 2 getting released this summer.







Summer in Genoa: A film with Colin Firth, and appears to be a film that Colin Firth does over and over again. Nothing about this really stuck out to me, so I am staying away from this one - at least for now. Who knows what the future will hold?

Who? What? Where? #18

I am sorry that I missed last week's posting. Usually I have them ready to go and I just forgot about it. I was going to put it up either Thursday or Friday, but that that really wouldn't have been fair since I try to do this at the same time each week. I will do my best to stay on top of this from now on.

Anyway, congrats to Matt who retook first place from Jess - and apparently some smack talking has also begun, that is what I like to see: take pride in your movie knowledge. Matt correctly said that the person to the left was Jena Malone as Mary in Saved!

Congratulations, Matt! Good luck to everyone again this week. Let's keep those guesses coming.

The concept is simple: each week I will place a photograph of a character within a film. It is up to you (the participant in the game) to tell me the following:

1) The name of the actor (or what the actor goes by in his acting profession).

2) The name of the character in the movie.

3) And, the name of the movie.

Each correct answer gets you a point - so if you get all three correct on a given week, you can get three points. I will keep a running chart each and every week. As of now, this will be played for bragging rights only - but we shall see what the future holds.

So here is week #18:

Standings:
Matt - 17 points
Jess - 15 points
Fletch - 10 points
Mrs. Kano - 5 points
Nick - 4 points

Tuesday's With Movies: 4/5/11

Tron: Legacy: Ever since I heard that this movie was coming out I have been trying to track down the original Tron. I thought that I saw it when I was younger, but apparently I was confusing it with The Black Hole. I have not been able to track down the original to watch, but once I do I will definitely be watching this sequel.





Little Fockers: I have seen the first two films and I enjoyed them as much as you can. I don't particularly enjoy Ben Stiller's brand of humor, but I thought that the first two films had a few decent jokes. I will watch this to complete the trilogy, although I have heard it is the worst of the bunch.






I Love You Phillip Morris: OK, so when I first heard about this film I added it to my Netflix queue and there it sat - for almost two years, maybe even more. This film was made awhile ago, but for some reason never got a release, despite some decent reviews. Finally, it is coming in the mail and I will get to check it out.





Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: I really enjoyed the first film of this series and I have the second film in my closet, although I have not watched it. I will have to though so I can watch this, the third in the series. I am a bit upset though because the two children that I actually enjoyed don't appear to be present in this film. I haven't read the books, but I am guessing they aren't in there either. I will give it a try.




Casino Jack: I don't know a lot about this one. I saw a trailer a long time ago and thought it rather odd that a drama/mystery movie had Jon Lovitz in it. Then I hadn't heard anything else about it until now. As of now I have no plans to see it, but perhaps some time down the line.

32/50: Heat

This was the longest film that was on my 50 list and I couldn't really figure out why a heist film would be so long.

I knew a little about Heat before going into the film, but apparently I didn't know much. I went in thinking that Val Kilmer was the main villain and Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were the cops that were tasked in stopping him. But, I was a bit wrong.

Anyway, Pacino is Lt. Vincent Hanna, a man who is married to his job, which has sort of ruined his slew of marriages - and is currently interrupting his new marriage.

De Niro plays Neil McCauley, the leader of the crime wave that has hit Los Angeles. McCauley leads a crew of Chris Shiherlis (Kilmer), Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore) and Trejo (Danny Trejo).

McCauley is planning one last major heist - a bank job - so he can leave town and retire in New Zealand with his new girlfriend, Eady (Amy Brenneman). Hanna is right on the gangs tail the entire way and soon figures out where the heist is taking place - and heads off to stop it.

I have to admit, this film was amazing - though it could have been a bit better. The heist and gun fire was amazing, but it was not in the film as much as it should be. There was so much depth to this film and so much is going on. De Niro was great as the bad guy, and man Kilmer is amazing again.

I believe this film may have also been one of the last films where Pacino didn't play Pacino. He was actually acting and was great.

Also, nice of the writer or director to step out on a limb and give Trejo an amazing name in the film.

Anyway, despite the film needing a bit more action it was a great watch and I couldn't even tell that it was almost three hours long - which to me makes the film worth the watch.

Grade:

31/50: Red

This movie sort of got lost in the wind. I found myself counting the rest of the films I had left on my 50 list and I was coming up one short. I had to go back through and figure out what was missing - and sure enough I had forgotten to put down this film.

So, here is the missing film that I watched a good while ago.

Red is a film that follows a quartet of retired CIA agents that are brought back together to after Frank (Bruce Willis) is attacked in his house.

After realizing that the assailants have tapped his phone, he heads to Kansas City to find the only person he has been talking to, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) in fear that they would go after her to find him.

To help him along the way, he joins up with his former CIA team of Joe (Morgan Freeman), Marvin (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren) to help him track down who is after him and why.

This film had a lot of great action and plenty of small jokes. Malkovich was way over the top which is the way I like my Malkovich. Freeman wasn't in the film as much as I would have liked - and he was outstanding as well.

I won't go into the entire story as it might ruin what the film was about. I had heard that this film was outstanding, but I was a bit underwhelmed - however, it was a decent watch, just not outstanding.

Grade: