Captains and Aliens and Pooh Bears

COWBOYS & ALIENS
SCI-FI/WESTERN

The title should be called Cowboys, Indians and Outlaws vs. Aliens. Based on a graphic novel, the story is about Jake (Daniel Craig, the latest James Bond) who is out in the desert not knowing who he and has a strange cuff on his wrist. The adventure starts when he has to discover who he really is. The cast is great, as Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) is great as Woodrow Dolarhyde, a powerful rich guy, and Olivia Wilde (Tron Legacy) is not just the woman in the movie. She plays an important part. It is a strange hybrid, but with loads of action. If you don’t like your westerns mixed with monsters don’t go, but it is different and good!!

WINNIE THE POOH
ANIMATION

The classic Winnie the Pooh is back and is sooo delightful, but the film is too short. The lovable bear who loves 'hunny' with his stuffed friends. The story is simply Eeyore lost his tail and Christopher Robin has a contest who finds his tail gets a reward: hunny!!! The film is lots of fun yet short, but it has musical numbers, comedy, suspense The older people who know the cute bear knows that the narrator is now John Clesse not the late Sebastian Cabot, and the film is old school animation.

ZOOKEEPER
ROMANTIC COMEDY

Griffin Keyes (Kevin James, King of Queens, Mall Cop) is the zookeeper of Franklin Park Zoo. He is good at his job but his sexy ex-girlfriend Stephanie(Leslie Bibb, Ironman) wants him back to sell hot cars and live the good life. Kate (Rosario Dawson, Men In Black 2, Unstoppable) likes Griffin too and works at the same zoo. The animals like him too and they TALK!!! The voices of the animals are Adam Sandler as Donald the monkey, Sylvester Stallone as Joe the lion, Nick Nolte as Bernie the gorilla and Cher as the lioness. It should be a fantasy with talking animals and chubby James getting attention from two beautiful women, but he is charming and romantic enough to make it work. Kids will love it, adults not so much.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
ACTION/FANTASY

This character has been done in the movies so many times but this time they got it right!!! Comic book fans may disagree, for there are some changes from the comic. You know the story; Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) a sickly kid tries to go to the serve his country by going in the military. He is rejected every time until Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) sees something good within him and wants to experiment on him, so Rogers agrees and turns into the superhero.

The cast is good but the film is not about acting. You can’t believe that Evans was the Human Torch in Fantastic Four!! Hugo Weaving is just evil at his best portraying Johann Schmidt/Red Skull. STAY AFTER THE CREDITS or you’ll miss a good scene. You'll have to decide for yourself if the film is patriotic or propaganda.

The Horrible and the Hallows

BAD TEACHER
(COMEDY)

This film has the right title. Elizabeth Halsey is a bad teacher, but the good thing is she is played by Cameron Diaz. I think this is her best part yet!!! She drinks; she smokes, she is selfish, she is self-centered, she swears, she schemes. She should give up teaching and be a politician. Her rival Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch) compete for Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), a wealthy but nerdy substitute teacher. They fight for his affections in crazy, funny ways. The acting not important as the raunchiness!!! For the guys she washes a car like she's having sex with it!!! For the women, there is even romance believe it or not!!!

HORRIBLE BOSSES
(COMEDY)

Did you ever fantasize of killing your supervisor? Well in this movie, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis decide to kill their bosses with the help of “murdering consultant” Jamie Fox. Their bosses are egotistical Kevin Spacey, an unrecognizable Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston as a maneater!!!. It is gross and funny at the same time. The acting is good especially Aniston, who is playing waaay against type. Guest stars appear against type too, so get ready for that!! The plot is nothing new but the three leads act like real people in a stressful or drunk situation. Should you go see if only if you like the premise and comedy.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS –PART 2
(FANTASY/ACTION)

You know that phrase ‘save the best for last’ applies to this movie. You should read the books (I haven’t), or at least seen most of the movies because they refer to many parts in the movie. If you thought the last movie was grim, it gets worse. Harry, Ron and Emma try to stop the evil Lord Voldermort with sad and tragic results. Severus Snape, played by Alan Rickman, has important role in this film. The production is top-notch even if you are not a fan. Quality and quantity has not lowered. It is an amazing film franchise achievement. Fans of the movie will love it; people who read the book will like it--even if there are changes in the movie. It is good in 2D or 3D.

Green Grit and Summer DVDs

GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD KNIGHTS
ANIMATED-2011

For those of you who need some more green after Ryan Reynolds: Finally, DC comics and movies are moving on to their other superheroes. This story is about a new recruit Arisia (Elizabeth Moss) and Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion, Firefly, Castle) tells her stories about the famous green lanterns before them. It is very good and the animation is brilliant. It does have some disturbing parts, but it's still worth watching. It has great celebrities who offer their voices such as Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter) Kelly Hu (Hawaii 50) and Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy series).

TRUE GRIT
WESTERN/DRAMA -2010

Two things you should know before reading my review. First, I never saw the entire, original movie with iconic John Wayne in 1969 and second, I don’t like westerns--Italian westerns. This remake is very good for it feels like a real western--not a Hollywood western. Story is about a young girl named Mattie Ross (talented Hailee Steinfeld) who wants revenge on the man who killed her father played by Josh Brolin and gets help by Rooster Cogburn played by the great actor Jeff Bridges. Everyone does a fantastic job, and the cinematography by Roger Deakins is amazing. The Coen Brothers did fine jobs as with the movie “No Country for Old Men”. Remakes are usually terrible, but this one is very good.

Moony Robots, Goony Women

TRANSFORMERS 3: DARK OF THE MOON
ACTION/SCI-FI

I enjoy the Transformers movies, so I won’t give a bad review. Many people think it is too loud, or inane, but that’s why I like it. To me it is fun to watch. The third movie is the same as it ever was. The story is about Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime’s mentor, who crashes on the moon escaping Cybertron in the war, and he has to bring him back alive to stop the Desciptions. Let’s face it, plot not really important, and acting is REALLY not important. What IS important are the giant robots beating the hell out of each other in big cities!!! They do that a lot in this film.

I heard it is better in 3D, but I loved it in 2D. This film's visuals, you have to see again, or on video to catch up on what you missed, because there is a lot going on in this movie. If you are an action-hound you will LOVE it. If you saw Battle: Los Angeles, it is something like that. The things that bother me is one, so much is going on, that you can’t tell the Autobots from the Descipticons, and second, Megatron is acting like Starscream!!! He is second to another powerful robot, but he is MEGATRON!!! He is evil, but in the last two movies they don’t show it in full force!!!

Humans are afterthoughts in this film, like Shia and Rosie (a model, of whom the best can be said is that, Megan Fox was a better actress). I have read this is Michael Bay’s last Transformer movie--too bad. Critics and fans say he is a hack. I wish I made a couple of billion dollars for being a hack! Whatever director replaces him, I hope they do a better hack job.

BRIDESMAIDS
COMEDY

Didn’t think I would see this movie, uh? Well I did. Female driven films are rare, and even rarer in summer blockbuster season. It works because it is very funny. There are gross parts in it, but it is funny and romantic too. The story is about Annie (Saturday Night Live Kristen Wiig) who’s best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph another Saturday Night Live star) is about to get engaged. She wants her to be the maid of honor and she messes up in hilarious ways.

Kristen Wiig is just great as Annie. She is funny and tragic. Maya Rudolph is fun to watch too. Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is Annie’s sometimes handsome yet total jerk boyfriend. The late great actress Jill Clayburgh is in it too. I hope this becomes a trend in the summer, because women want to have fun at the movies too.