movie reviews

[icyaurora8]

So... some movies I've watched recently and I feel like telling you about them.  All the reviews below have slight spoilers. 

Nancy Drew

I loved this movie, even though I wasn't a huge ND fan.  I read a few of the books when I was younger, and I would have probably read more, except that I always read at a much higher level than my age, so by the time I was starting middle school, I was reading mostly late high school age books, hence no Nancy Drew.  Overall, the movie did a good job of having action, suspense, and a huge amount of cuteness.  The kids did a great job of acting, and the sets were pretty cool too.  OMG... Nancy and Ned were insanely cute too!  It was totally adorable how Ned liked her but never did anything.  The whole movie had a huge grin on my face,  and  overall the plot line was enjoyable.  If you want to see a movie that will leave you feeling happy, this is the one to go see. 

Knocked Up

The plot line wasn't bad in this movie, but it is definitely just a flick to make you laugh a lot.  Which they did a GREAT job of, btw.  I really laughed through the entire movie, a few times so hard I felt like I was tearing up.  It was easy to like the characters, but at the same time, I think some of the ideas behind everything were a tad bit unrealistic, at least in how they were explained, and the movie left a few loose ends too.  Even though the movie was rated R, I was surprised at some of the stuff they showed in it (such as the actual birth scene of the baby!).  I was definitely a bit shocked at that, and after seeing it, it was somewhat hard to concentrate on the end of the movie.  It's very hard to squick me, and I can't say it was really squicky in that sense, but more of a shock that they really showed it.  I think it kinda took away from the overall comedic factor, because at that point, it gave off the feeling of a love story/documentary (not sure how else to explain it).  If you are in the mood for a comedy, the movie will make you laugh your ass off, but at least you will already know what to expect at the end, so hopefully it won't take anything away from the comedic aspect of the movie like the shock did for me. 

Transformers

This movie was completely actioned packed.  It was incredibly enjoyable, and I love Shia LaBeouf too.  It had it's funny moments, but overall, it really shined in the special effects department.  I understand many people were upset with some of the changes the producers made, such as Bumblebee not being a Volkswagen Beetle, but because I never really followed the series as a kid, it didn't bother me.  My fiance was a HUGE Transformers fan, and even though some of the changes really got to him, he still REALLY liked the movie.  For being such an action based movie, it did a really good job of endearing you to the characters, humans and robots alike.  When Bumblebee lost his 'legs', I got really upset and almost teared up a bit. LOL.  It is a movie I would go see again in the theaters, and when it comes out on DVD I will definitely be buying it, because it's not very often that an action movie that is rated PG-13 is this good.  Even if you don't like movies like this, you should see it anyways, cause the special effects are awesome.  AWESOME, I tell ya. 

Apocalypto

Overall... I really didn't like this movie that much.  The first thing that really bothered me was how it was shot, especially in the 'running' scenes, when the filming was all shaky.  It reminded me of the Blair Witch Project, and not in a good way.  Secondly, the CG work REALLY needed to be better.  It's not that difficult to make anything look more realistic than they were able to in this movie.  It was rather annoying, and it looked so fake that you couldn't concentrate on anything else.  The acting wasn't that great, and the few actors that I think did a decent job, ended up dying.  Then... we get to the hugest part of why I disliked this movie.  I believe it was too much historically wrong.  Now, I understand changing stuff to make it cinematically more exciting, but whatever.  It was annoying, and it pissed me off too that it ended up being a love story, and not about the fall of the empire.  Not to mention the biggest fall of the Mayan empire happened close to a thousand years ago, and that there wasn't really a Mayan 'Empire' after that, because each 'city' was run by it's own indigenous people/tribes, unlike the Inca Empire which was in it's prime during the 1500's, when this movie was set.  It was like they took the large, showy aspects of the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs, and threw them all together to make it seem 'cooler.'  Here is a movie they claim is historically based, but the blatantly admit that they don't know how much of their speculation on what type of things happen, from the amount of sacrifices, to the slave trade, etc., is actually realistic.  I don't have a problem with Mel Gibson, but I think he should have made a movie about something different, because this one really did nothing to improve his image in my eyes.  Each of those individual cultures has an incredible amount of interesting history behind them, and yet he chose the Mayans, and then didn't even truly stick to the historical facts.  THAT really bothers me.   

OMG... only a few days until HP OoTP movie!  I'm sooo excited!  Of course, Josh will be out of town for training, so guess who I get to go with?  My sister... but oh... just not my sister.  3 of her friends too!  So basically it's like me... the 22 year old chaperone, with 4 high schoolers. Gah.  At least they are all Harry Potter fans, and most of them have read the books, which is more than I can say for Josh.  He doesn't ready ANYTHING.