Saturday, December 10, 2011
This holiday movie bonanza has a massive, celebrity-stuffed cast, but little else.
Movie: "New Year's Eve" No less than a dozen different story lines intertwine in the star-stuffed film "New Years Eve." These stories are somehow spliced together and made into a movie. The small stories include first kisses, midnight rendezvous, newborn babies, dying fathers, trapped strangers and husbands at war. The end result is a big, bloated cast of celebrities with very little to say, except, happy holidays. So who's in the film ? Let's roll the credits… Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, Sofia …
Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Muppets are back and better than ever.
Movie: "The Muppets" Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal and all the rest are back together again in "The Muppets." Jason Segel co-wrote and stars in the film as Gary. He and girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) head to Hollywood on a dream trip. Tagging along is Gary's brother Walter, a cute little puppet who is the world's biggest Muppets fan. Upon arriving in Hollywood, they find out the Muppets' studio has fallen into disrepair. Kermit and his gang of friends have long since parted company, but reunite just in time to put on a telethon to raise cash to buy back the studio. An all-star cast of Muppets and live actors make this a pretty good movie for young and old. Listen, I know the the Muppets are not for everyone -- they …
Friday, October 21, 2011
This popular movie franchise is about to make you jump in your seat again.
Movie: Paranormal Activity If you like scary movies, "Paranormal Activity 3" may be just the movie for you. This good old-fashioned ghost movie takes the storyline back to the very beginning of the franchise. Cast with unknown actors, the horror prequel focuses on the two sisters who were seen as adults in the previous films. The girls share a two-level home with their mother and the mother's boyfriend. The girls are aware of a ghostly presence in the house that the adults, at first, are not. The boyfriend, who is something of a VHS video expert, has cameras set up all over the house -- running all the time, day and night. The suspense builds as we watch the "surveillance" type video looking for subtle changes and waiting for a ghost to …
Friday, September 23, 2011
The latest Brad Pitt film throws a real curveball at the conventional sports-movie, but is it Oscar worthy?
Brad Pitt sets out to revolutionize the game of baseball in the real-life story turned movie "Moneyball." Pitt plays Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager who hired math whiz Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) to help revolutionize the game of baseball. There is not a lot of time spent on the field in this film, it is really all about Beane and how he created a winning organization not with roster talent, but by using statistics called sabermetrics. It is the story of a time when nerds took over what had always been a jock's world and hit a grand slam. "Moneyball" stands on its own with a strong supporting cast of personalities in a timeless David and Goliath story. Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the team manager at odds …
Friday, September 16, 2011
This movie is less about driving and more about the questionable choices that drive people -- and the choices that drive people away.
Movie: "Drive" "Driver," played by Ryan Gosling, is a solitary stunt driver who works on movie sets by day and drives getaway cars at night in the movie "Drive." Driver falls for his apartment neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a mom with a small son whose father is an ex-con. The ex-con drags Driver into a robbery that goes wrong and threatens both Irene and her child. Albert Brooks plays a crime lord with a thing for forks, Ron Perlman is the Jewish gangster who does business in a pizza parlor, and Bryan Cranston plays Driver's best buddy, giving this film plenty of acting horsepower. "Drive" is a gritty, yet glamourous film bursting with action. European director Nicolas Refn does a wonderful job with this ultra-violent, ultra-stylish …
Friday, September 9, 2011
Two brothers face MMA combat in one of the best sports movies I have seen in years. If you're not careful, you may take a punch to the heart in this emotional film that will surely get some Oscar consideration.
Movie: "The Warrior" Two brothers slug out their emotional baggage in the moving, melodramatic sports movie "Warrior." Joel Edgerton plays Brendan, a family man who earns a living as a daytime teacher and extra cash moonlighting as a fighter. His brother Tommy, played by Tom Hardy, is a brooding war veteran who has returned home under mysterious circumstance. Their father Paddy (played by Nick Nolte) is a once violent alcoholic who is now sober. The brothers have grown apart and dislike each other. The only thing they have in common is the hatred they share for their father and all his years of abuse. Through a series of MMA or mixed martial arts fights, the two brothers face off in a winner-take-all cage match. Brendan needs the money to …
Friday, September 2, 2011
It's time to go Nazi hunting in an espionage thriller filled with action and surprising revelations.
Movie: "The Debt" Six actors play three roles over a 30-year time period in this thriller about Nazis, Israeli spies and all sorts of lies in "The Debt." Helen Mirren plays a retired Israeli Mossad agent named Rachel who is honored for her role in the assassination of a Nazi War criminal in 1965. Thirty years have passed, but questions still remain. Did she and associate Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) and others really kill their target? After an apparent suicide of a certain spy, Mirren rewinds the entire mission 30 years prior. Jessica Chastain plays a young Mirren, who along with Sam Worthington's character, build suspense across two different time periods in a film that will leave you on the edge of your seat. The film lurches back and forth …
Friday, August 26, 2011
A clueless hippie with no real goals in life drives his family crazy, but ends up providing some real life lessons man.
This week's dinner and a movie features the flick "Our Idiot Brother" and a trip to Riverside Pizza. Movie: 'Our Idiot Brother' Paul Rudd looks all hippie dippy as "Ned," an immature man-child who drives his family crazy in the film "Our Idiot Brother." Rudd spends most of the movie crashing on one sofa after another in a series of unfortunate events. Ned first lands at his sister Liz's house. Liz, played by Emily Mortimer, is an insecure Brooklyn mom married to Dylan (Steve Coogan). Ned quickly wears out his welcome and moves in with his sister Miranda, played by Elizabeth Banks, a writer for Vanity Fair. Finally he joins his artsy, bisexual bohemian sister Natalie, played by Zooey Deschanel. Ned has a knack for always saying or doing …
Friday, August 19, 2011
Hasta la vista Arnold. The 1982 movie that made Schwarzenegger a star has been remade. This new 3D version introduces us to a new young movie star who more than fits the part.
This week's Dinner and a Movie features the flick "Conan the Barbarian" and dinner at Iron Wok for all the iron men out there. Movie: "Conan the Barbarian" Conan the Barbarian is back. Bare chested, bloody, and brutal, it is everything you would expect from a franchise that helped launch Arnold Schwarzenegger's career 30 years ago. Move over "ah-nold" -- there is a new barbarian breaking new ground. Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa breathes new life into the role as Conan. Momoa is best known for his role in the wildly popular HBO show "Game of Thrones" as Khal Drogo. Now the long-haired actor, who looks as if he belongs on the cover of a Harlequin romance, brings his muscular physique to a whole new legion of fans. The storyline for this movie …
Friday, August 12, 2011
The pizza businesses is bombing one chuckle at a time.
This week's Dinner and a Movie features the flick "30 Minutes or Less" and of course, Domino's pizza. Movie: 30 Minutes or Less "Social Network" star Jesse Eisenberg finds himself in dire straits as a pizza delivery guy turned bank robber in the dark comedy "30 Minutes or Less". Eisenberg, along with "Parks and Recreation" star Aziz Ansari, team up to rob a bank to help Dwayne (played by Danny McBride) obtain $100,000 in order to pay a hit man (Michael Peña) to kill Dwayne's father (played by Fred Ward). The reason for the murder -- to get Dwayne's inheritance. Nick Swardson plays McBride's sidekick in this fast-paced and strangely funny film. This film is based on a similar premise as "Zombieland" -- by placing incompetent characters in …
Beverly
2:08 pm on Saturday, October 22, 2011
I watched the movie and I am surpirsed to see that there are more scenes that were not in the moive more ›