The Cutting Edge (1992) starring Moira Kelly as Kate Moseley and D.B. Sweeney as Doug Dorsey, is not only a cute romantic comedy, but it also incorporates ice hockey and figure skating athletics.  Kate is a spoiled yet very talented pairs figure skater who is skating alone due to her ridiculously high standards that she sets for her partner.  Doug is an ex ice-hockey star who is no longer pro material secondary to an eye injury he suffered at the 1988 Olympic games.  With the 1992 Olympic games approaching, Kate’s coach Anton Pamchenko (played by Roy Dotrice) makes a last ditch effort in recruiting Doug to be Kate’s partner.  At first, the new pair couldn’t be more repulsed by each other.  Then, realizing they are each others last option for ever winning a gold medal, Kate and Doug begin to fuel each other, both competitively and romantically.  The pair seems to disagree on everything, from costumes and music to drinking and celebration styles. However, with a common goal in mind, Kate and Doug fight, each other and the world, all the way to the 1992 Olympic games in Albertville, France.  In their last effort to win the gold, Kate and Doug lay it all down on the ice.  The pair and the USA can only hope that their blood, sweat, and tears of pain and love will be enough for glory.

Of course this movie is a true chick flick, with love and passion and pain, which is part of reason I love it.  But, it also has this exciting sports action theme that engages you, too.  It’s the Olympics!!  Who doesn’t love and support the USA?  In the end, all you want to do is stand up and scream and root for the USA to triumph over all!  Then, I find myself cheering to the TV in an empty living room, but it’s the action story that got me there.  I truly find myself so excited for Kate and Doug.  I watch them try so hard and give up so much for one goal, that by the end, I really want them to win.  I want the USA to win.  The patriotic music and the colorful rings on the flying Olympic flags and the sportsmanship of the skaters all reel you into the journey that these athletes take and the sacrifices that they make.  The Cutting Edge is a romantic comedy at heart, but it is obviously also an inspiring sports story too.

This movie also has some of my favorite quotes in it.  For example, I keep repeating “Toe Pick” for days after seeing the movie!   “Aw Doug!  Douglas, you silly thing” also is hit if you have a friend named Doug (which I did in college, and he got quite sick of that reference).

Lastly, I do love some of the music in this movie…so much so that I have “Ride on Time” on my IPOD for my workout sessions!  The theme song, “Feels Like Forever” performed by Joe Cocker, also makes my list of favorites (and my IPOD).

The Cutting Edge is by far one of my favorite movies of all time!  My sister and I must have watched it every month in 1990’s!  It’s a five-star movie I will never get sick of and will continue to pull out of my collection when I’m in the mood for an inspiring love story.  It’s full of passion, both romantic and ambition driven, and witty remarks that make you feel, smile, and laugh.  And…this movie is a great choice to put you “in the mood to kick a little ass” in this patriotic Olympic season!

Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart) is a famous auther and motivational speaker for those who have lost loved ones.  Burke comes to Seattle to do a seminar for his book called “A-Okay!”  Burke wrote his story to tell the world about his wife’s death, which was his way of coping with his loss.  Burke’s wife died in Seattle and her father comes to see Burke to try and get Burke to grieve like everyone he helps.  As the film continues, we see the struggles of many individuals who have lost family and friends, including Burke himself.  He is not able to ride on an elevator, he sees flashbacks, and pictures her in places.  Burke spends all of his time and energy helping others get over their losses step by step, but he really can not do it himself.  Then he meets Elouise (Jennifer Aniston).    Eloise takes it upon herself to help Burke get over the loss of his wife, and Burke sees this as an opportunity and goes along with it until he feels pushed too far.  Meanwhile, Burke and his manager (Dan Fogler) are trying to work on a huge multimedia deal and all of the stress has put Burke over the edge.  This movie also stars Martin Sheen, Judy Greer and a cameo of  Sasha Alexander (Gretchen from Dawson’s Creek!)

When I added this movie to my netflix, I thought for sure it would be a nice romance movie with Jennifer Aniston, but I was sadly mistaken.  Instead, I was on the verge of tears throughout many parts of the movie.  I heard a couple stories of losses, and it just saddens me to hear their stories.  And then they play the John Hiatt song, “Have a little faith in me” and of course I just burst into tears instantly.  Every time that song is in a movie or show, it seems that it is always when someone dies or is grieving.  I thought this film was okay, but I was just expecting something different.  Love does happen in the strangest ways, but I was not impressed with the way we see love in this film.  The film was more focused on death, grieving, and finding yourself again, then it was focused on the love story between Eckhart and Aniston. If you want a good cry, then you might want to watch it, but it is not my top pick of a film.

The movie begins with a young Alice wandering into her father’s business meeting, having had another strange dream.  Her father comforts her as she tells him of her reoccurring nightmares, featuring none other than a certain white rabbit in a magical land.  In the next scene, we follow adult Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as she reluctantly attends a fancy gathering where, much to her surprise, a buck-toothed ginger-haired Lord has planned an elaborate marriage proposal for her in front of hundreds of people.  Overcome by this unwanted arrangement, Alice runs off, following a rabbit who has caught her eye in the bushes. 

Commence: falling down a rabbit hole, landing in a strange fantastical world, and encountering the typical series of Wonderland staple characters.

As always, Helena Bonham Carter (the cruel Red Queen) and Johnny Depp (the quirky Mad Hatter) play their roles impeccably and disturbingly well.  Alan Rickman (Snape!) lends his unique voice to the advice-giving blue caterpillar, and beautiful Anne Hathaway portrays an exquisite kind-hearted White Queen.  Each character along the path of Alice’s mission in Wonderland (yes, she has a sort of quest in this version, as opposed to the more common random meandering) is colorfully executed in true Burton-esque style.

But I am sure this information comes as no surprise. Very few people expect anything less than greatness from Tim Burton as they enter the theatre to view one of his films (which I recommend you do, preferably in 3D, possibly in IMAX).

My only complaint falls upon the film’s subtle lack of beyond odd, disgusting, and unsettling imagery.  Sure, eyeballs are stabbed and pulled out, and of course heads are cut off – many of which Alice must use as stepping stones to venture across the Red Queen’s moat – but the overall gross-out factor seems low.

Luckily, Tim Burton’s creativity level prevails. Burton accomplished exactly what he hoped to with this creepy interpretation (and expansion) of Lewis Carroll’s infamous tale; he gave Alice and her mystical journey a back-story with grounded, humanistic appeal.  It was quite nice to see the imaginative young girl, whom we all know so well, finally find her purpose.

Blades of Glory focuses on two famous ice skaters, Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder).  They are bigtime rivals in men’s figure skating, and after a performance, they tied for the gold medal, leaving them to have a full out brawl in front of everyone.  The National Figure Skating Association bans them permanently from the men’s figure skating division.  They both go there separate ways and find other jobs, however MacElroy is not happy and wants to continue his ice skating career.  They have yet another brawl in public, which is witnessed by MacElroy’s coach (Craig T. Nelson), who thinks the pair should ice skate in the pairs division.

They finally decide to do it, and the practicing starts.  They perfect their routine, including trying a death-defying stunt called the Iron Lotus.  They go to the Winter Sports Games to compete, and come face to face with another USA pair, Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenburg (Will Arnett and Amy Pohler).  This pair will do anything to destroy Michaels and MacElroy, including plotting their little sister Katie (Jenna Fisher) into breaking up the pair emotionally, while the other two do the dirty work of kidnapping.  The hijinks and craziness go all the way to the end!

I saw Blades of Glory in the theaters when it first came out, and I cried because I laughed so hard!  I think that Ferrell and Heder are a dynamic, hilarious duo!  This movie is packed with comedy from beginning to end.  If you enjoy most Will Ferrell films, you will definitely enjoy this one!  I highly recommend it to those who love a good laugh and comedy.  The film is on television quite a bit, so if you catch, I would have a seat and laugh the evening away!

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SYNOPSIS

“Our marriage, their wedding.” It’s lesson number one for any newly engaged couple, and Lucia (America Ferrera) and Marcus (Lance Gross) are no exception. In Fox Searchlight Pictures’ OUR FAMILY WEDDING, they learn the hard way that the path to saying “I do” can be rife with familial strife. When they return from college and too suddenly announce their marriage plans, they soon discover that their fathers – two highly competitive over-the-top egos – can wreak a major amount of havoc on their special day.

With insults flying and tempers running high, it’s anyone’s guess if the alpha dads (Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia) will survive to make it down the aisle in one piece. Lucia’s mother (Diana Maria Riva) is busy planning the wedding of “her” dreams and the only levelheaded one in the bunch is Angela (Regina King), the groom’s father’s best friend and lawyer, who manages to keep her cool when the madness reaches a crescendo.

With only weeks to plan their wedding, Lucia and Marcus soon discover the true meaning of love and find there is truth to the saying – that when you marry someone, you marry their entire family.

OUR FAMILY WEDDING is directed by Rick Famuyiwa from an original screenplay written by Rick Famuyiwa, Malcolm Spellman, and Wayne Conley. The film is produced by Ed Saxon and Steven Wolfe. Linda Burton (CADILLAC RECORDS) is the production designer, the director of photography is Julio Macat (WEDDING CRASHERS) with costume designer Hope Hanafin ([500] DAYS OF SUMMER), Editor Dirk Westervelt (NOTORIOUS) and music composed by The Transcenders (“Gossip Girl”).

This movie is a story of an ordinary man, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) who is living in a universe of catastrophic events.  He has just been informed from his wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), that she is leaving him for his obnoxious family friend, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed).  Larry’s odd ball brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), sleeps on the couch and is becoming a burden to the family.  Larry’s children Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a trouble making, pot smoking kid, who is close to his Bar Mitzvah while is daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) steals money from his wallet to save for a nose job.  The bad luck isn’t over yet.  Larry receives a money bribe from one of his physic students to raise his grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation.  To top it off, the tenure board is receiving anonymous complaint letters against Larry, in hopes of sabotaging his chances for tenure.  Plus, Larry’s hot neighbor torments him by laying out nude and showing him the glories of pot smoking.

Struggling for survival, Larry attempts to visit three different rabbis for advice.  Comically, they are of no help to him and the storm builds bigger and bigger.  Larry’s greatest hope is that he become a mensch–a serious man.

What a stupid plot you say?  I agree.  A Serious Man is not your typical rise and fall predictable movie.  I suppose for that reason alone, I can appreciate it.  This movie had no beginning, middle, or  end.  It was a story of a man’s bad luck and the pressures of stress building more and more.  At least, that’s what I got out of it.  I am sure the Coens had a deeper meaning for the film that I am too shallow-minded to understand, but that does not change my attitude about the movie.  I understand the Coen Brothers are supposed to be these great writers and their minds are brilliant.  Sorry.  A Serious Man barely gets one star from me and unless you are fans of the Coens or you can appreciate an artsy film, I would not recommend seeing this one.

Watching this film was one of the strangest hours of my life, comparable only to the act of watching one of your own nonsensical dreams fly out of your head and land in video form on your television.   The plot features just one actress (Kristýna Kohoutová) as Alice, and a few live animals, leaving the rest to the art of  stop motion (an extremely creepy and effective choice).  Most of the story follows Alice following the White Rabbit (he’s late, he’s late!) who’s stop motion face often triggers brief, uncontrollable laughter.  And when it comes time for Alice to shrink, she morphs out of her human body into the queen of all possible creepy – a tiny, beady-eyed stop motion doll!

Svankmajer also places a heavy emphasis on sound by accenting small noises and eliminating most other noise, a production choice that forces viewers to focus solely on the film’s visuals (many of which will never leave their heads).

In this portrayal, Lewis Caroll’s famously unanswerable riddle, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” takes a backseat to other mysteries, like, “Why is a sloth-like fox cleaning all of the tea cups at the Mad Hatters table?” Or, “Why did a crying baby, tossed out a window in a blanket, suddenly turn into a piglet?” And also, “Why do most of the animals have regular bodies but skeleton heads?” Or maybe, “Why does the White Rabbit both eat and bleed sawdust?” (Just to name a few.)

But these beyond bizarre events only add to the story’s magic – after all, Wonderland always has been the epitome of imagination.

I can see where some people might feel bored as the story drags on, but I believe the film’s painfully slow pace benefits its mission. Stunted action and repetitive patterns help create the feeling of insanity – an emotion with which Alice is all too friendly.

But because many of us know the young girls story, we become impatient for the next scene. Our need to move quickly through the story comes only from our over-familiarity with the tale.  That being said, a person who knows nothing of Alice’s travels through Wonderland would have absolutely no idea what was going on (probably an even more enhanced experience).

My only qualm: failure to include the Cheshire cat.

Regardless, Wonderland enthusiasts and apathetic film-goers alike will be deeply affected by this hilarious, dark, and trippy Alice classic.

Kevin Smith’s “Cop Out” is a full out slap you in the face comedy. If you add Tracy Morgan to anything it’s going to be hilarious, guaranteed. I couldn’t stop laughing whenever he was on the screen. I think the last movie I saw with Bruce Willis was “The Sixth Sense” and that was quite some time ago. I forgot how much I like Bruce Willis and you can’t go wrong with a Kevin Smith movie, am I right or am I right?

This movie was funny from start to finish. It opens with such a funny interrogation scene that I can’t stop laughing about. That’s right, I’m laughing about it right now. This was a great way to open up the movie.

As you can see, Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are tag team cops and have been partners for 9 years. What seems to be a normal day on the job turns into one big clustercuss when Jimmy’s rare baseball card is stolen. Jimmy wanted to sell this baseball card to pay for his daughter’s wedding, that’s just how rare of a card it was.

From then on the movie turns into a game of cat and mouse. The two partners are working as hard as they can to get the card back from an obsessed Latino memorabilia collector and his gang. Jimmy Monroe is clearly the lead cop but he can’t seem to do without Paul by his side for some reason. The two find themselves getting into quite a few sticky situations that end up causing them more and more problems.

This film has a really strong cast including Sean William Scott as a friendly thief, Adam Brody and Kevin Pollak as the other “by the book” cops, Rashida Jones as Paul’s wife, and of course… Jason Lee had to be in there somewhere.

This movie is definitely worth paying for in theaters and is easily guy/girl friendly. If you don’t like Tracy Morgan than I think something is wrong with you… cough cough Bri cough Jenna cough cough. This is a really good pick me up movie. I’m only giving it 4 stars because I feel like most comedies aren’t worthy of 5 stars because of the main plot. This film had sort of a weak plot but it was just flat out hilarious and I will definitely own it when it comes out. Cop Out is right up there with the likes of Superbad, Role Models, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks, etc..

COP OUT hits theaters tomorrow! Bring your man or he will bring you, and if not, dump him.

Kurt Russell stars as Herb Brooks, coach of Team USA Hockey for the 1980 Winter Olympics.  This true story shows the blood, sweat, and tears shed by this underdog team going to the Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid.  A team was put together by college hockey players to go up against countries all over the world who have had more experience and practice.  The film shows the tryouts, practices and games played throughout the year for the team.  We see a bond between coach and players form, and the team that had the winning attitude to go on and win the gold medal in hockey, defeating the unbeatable Soviet Union and Finland. This film also stars Sean McCann and Eddie Cahill.

Miracle is the definition of this USA team winning the Gold in 1980!  As I enjoy many sports films, this is one of my favorites.  I have recently really been getting into hockey, as my fiance has enjoyed the sport for years, and watching Miracle again with a little more background knowledge has been better.  Any sports fan will love this film, especially those who have seen the real 1980 team win gold.  Now you get to see the whole story come back to life and relive the experience.  If you enjoy movies like We Are Marshall and Remember The Titans, you will LOVE Miracle!

Derek Charles (Idris Elba) is a successful business  man who is high up in his firm.  He recently bought a perfect house, has a hot tamale wife, Sharon (Beyonce Knowles), and a beautiful baby son.  Life couldn’t get any better.  Derek’s firm recently hired a temp worker to help fill in while others are out sick.  Lisa (Ali Larter, who also plays Niki for all you Heroes fans), is the hot blonde temp who has her eye out for Derek.  What starts as a friendly flirtation, slowly builds into…you guess it…an obsession.  BUM BUM BUM!!  Best part:  there is an amazing chick fight at the end that had me laughing the entire time!  Let’s just say, don’t ever piss off Beyonce cause she’ll whoop you.

Ok, anyone who has witnessed a corny female thriller knows that you just need to let your mind free and enjoy it for what it is.  Does Obsessed have the best script in the world?  No.  Does Obsessed have some of the best acting on screen?  No.  Is the story so ridiculously filthy that it is secretly enjoyable?  Yes!  Although this flick is only worthy of one lonely star, keep in mind that Beyonce is in this film…and it doesn’t get any better than Beyonce.  You won’t toss in your grave if you don’t get around to seeing this one, but hey, if this is your thing….I won’t judge you at all.  This movie is a perfect Lifetime Channel hit and I’m sure they’ll eat it up (if they haven’t already).