North Country Review (DVD)

This was a pretty good drama movie, but I don't think its for everybody. As always Charlize was excellent and it was clear why she is nominated for another Best Actress Oscar. In fact, I thought she was a little bit better in North Country than she was in Monster. Frances McDormand's performance was very good as usual and Richard Jenkins did a good job as the father that works at the mine. Sean Bean and Woody Harrelson also do pretty good jobs. North Country takes a boring news story and turns it into a pretty interesting movie. The storyline in the movie is fictional, but it is based off the first sexual harrassment class action suit and shows how ordinary people can have extraordinary courage. The movie is well done and really worth seeing. My only complaint was that the courtroom drama and scenes got way too Hollywood in the end. Its hard for me to imagine a real-life judge losing control where the entire courtroom is doing whatever they feel like. However, this did not take away from the great performances and the story behind the film.

North Country = Go Rent It

Dark Water Review (DVD)

This movie isn't too scary, but its not bad. The trailers would have you thinking that this is a cover your eyes type movie, but it's more of a mystery movie. The cast is decent besides Jennifer Connelly. Most of the other actors are recognizable from other films. Pete Postlethwaite aka Kobayashi is in it. John C Reilly the fitness expert from Boogie Nights is in it. Dougray Scott from MI-2 is in it. Camryn Manheim makes an appearance and my favorite, Tim "be cool honey bunny" Roth shows up as well. The little girl Ariel Gade steals the show IMHO. Another actress like Dakota Fanning that is ahead of her time. The beginning of the movie is slow and the suspense isn't that high, but I liked that the movie didn't get really crazy like The Ring and The Grudge. The Japanese-converted supernatural thriller movies have started to run their course since they aren't too original anymore. Maybe there is a good idea or two left for this genre, but we'll have to see if the trend continues. This movie would have been disappointing in the theater, but as a rental it's not bad.

Dark Water = average rental

Four Brothers Review (DVD)

Four Brothers has a couple of over the top Hollywood moments but overall it was a decent rental. There are a lot of tough guys in the movie and it's a basic street justice flick. A mystery element has been thrown in to add interest to the movie and the action is decent. Andre 3000 does a pretty good job of acting considering he's so fresh and so clean, clean. If you like tough guy movies on mean streets, this is probably a decent recommendation.

Four Brothers = Decent Rental

Corpse Bride Review

I actually got to see an advanced screening of Corpse Bride and thought it was pretty good. Visually the movie is great and the Johnny Depp character had a very unique voice. There are times throughout the movie that you forget it is him. The piano pieces were very good in the movie, but the overall soundtrack was very Danny Elfman. There were a couple of very creative musical bits with some great visuals. In the end, I thought Corpse Bride had a good message and some funny moments. However, the middle of the movie did drag a little for me. This is a cute little movie with some sophisticated elements for adults.

Corpse Bride = Worth the Price of Admission/Decent Rental

Team America Review (DVD)

Despite being made by the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, I didn't think this movie would be very funny because it is a puppet movie. On the contrary, some of the funniest moments were because you could get away with things using just puppets and not live actors. Team America was a lot funnier than I expected, but it was a little bit shocking too. The language is really vulgar and the sex scene was freaky. I couldn't believe they got away with some of the things they did, but it might just have been because it was the unrated DVD. It makes me wonder if certain parts were shown in the theaters. If you can handle the shock value and the really adult humor, you'll definitely laugh watching this movie. Its pretty offensive and may disgust many people, but its worth trying out.

Team America: World Police = Funny Rental

Flightplan Review (DVD)

I heard a lot of good things about this movie and someone even said it was the best movie they had seen in the past 10 years. The only way this could be true if you watched nothing but junk in the past decade. At the beginning the movie is so boring as you watch a mother and daughter deal with a death in the family and pack up for a flight back to the US. Its about as fun as travelling in real-life. The little girl all of a sudden is missing and the best part of the movie starts. Jodie Foster does a good job of acting psycho and making the audience feel scared and tense for her situation. There are some great exchanges and insults thrown about and the mystery is setup. The end left a lot to be desired since it was so far-fetched with loose ends that didn't quite make sense. A lot of explanation is made to answer questions that everyone watching might have, but I'm not sure if you could buy everything that was explained. In the end the movie has a lot of flaws in the premise and it just seemed so unbelievable. Its not the worst movie but I was definitely disappointed.

Flightplan = Average Rental Without the Hype