In the CG animated universe it’s becoming increasingly difficult to come up with new and interesting ideas to make a good movie thats appealing to whole family. Dragon is another gem from DreamWorks. A coming of age story set in ancient viking times. The animation is top notch as usual, something we all have come to expect from DreamWorks and Pixar. The voice acting is great (although Scottish) with witty dialog and comedy while not getting to cheesy for a kids film. Really good cinematography and a story with multiple moral lessons makes this one stand out.

Hiccup, the son of the great viking leader Stoic the Vast, lives his ordinary life on the island of Berk. A village at war with the dragons, where almost every man is either a solider in the war or training to become one. Hiccup knows he’s just not the solider type but wants to impress and win the admiration of his father and the heart of the young Astrid (crush). Hiccup happens to befriend the most dangerous type of dragon, the Night Fury, and his relationship helps him realize that dragons are not all bad like his father preaches. He begins to grow as a young man and understand that you also need brains, not just brawn to solve problems. Hiccup takes his own path and stands up for what believes is right and in the process just might change the minds of his fellow vikings.

The film explores the issues of acceptance, outcast, tolerance, and peer pressure without becoming to heavy. An exciting story and great voice acting while not getting to kiddie kiddie, maybe I’m a little partial because of my Norwegian ancestry, but this film is pretty good. it is What-to-Watch.

For what looked to be like one of the more original monster movies of the year, with a good cast, and a very interesting creature, turned out be a bust. All bark and no bite. The movie couldn’t really figure what it wanted to be. It wasn’t scary at all, no suspense, no thrills. The film tries to save itself in the last 10 minutes and goes into that scary movie formula with a chase scene and a hurry up that kind of ruins the pace of the first 90 minutes. It’s a mess of morality and ethics mixed with some cool creature effects and some really violent and weird sex scenes. It has a little bit of other movie themes without settling all the way into one.

Clive Nicoli – (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast – (Sarah Polley) are two genetic scientists who are told to stop their groundbreaking work in gene splicing after combining multiple DNA’s into one brand new organism, part plant, part animal, all gross. But the new life form has the huge potential for medical benefits, and profits. So, feeling like they are close to creating something special, one decides to add some human DNA to the mix. What they create is a hybrid life form like nothing anyone has ever seen. As the new…thing starts to grow at an accelerated rate, Clive and Elsa must not only keep the new creature secret, but find somewhere it can live while they study it. While it keeps evolving and changing, the makeshift parents have to deal with its/her new attitudes and issues while also dealing with their own.

So whats the final word on this one… It does boast some really good creature effects and in the beginning, the movie is kind of interesting, it just never picks up the pace or grows the balls to becomes the scary movie it was marketed as. It’s just a waste in the end and kind of gross. You can totally pass on this one. There are plenty of better movies in this genre. Just about all of the them.

As I like to do from time to time, I try and honor some of the modern classics. There aren’t many from the year 1990 but by far the best film that year was Goodfellas. Martin Scorsese’s crowning achievement of violence and mayhem portraying the harsh and sometimes glamorous life in the late 1950′s New York mafia. The fantastic tale of Henry Hill – Ray Liotta and his humble upbringings as an Irish-Italian kid who goes from being a simple gopher for a local mod boss to a real life gangster. The movie chronicles Henry’s life as he’s is taken under the wing of James Conway – Robert De Niro, who teaches him the brutal ropes of the streets and the code of never ratting on your fellow good fellas.

Henry soon meets the love of his life, Karen Hill – Lorraine Bracco who plays a Jewish girl drawn into the life of a Mafia wife. “I gotta admit the truth, it turned me on,” she tells the audience after Liotta viciously beats up someone who made a pass at her. The later half of the movie deals with Henry’s crazy decent into paranoia and drugs as he becomes a drug dealer after getting out jail. The sleeper performance of the film comes from Joe Pesci, who plays violent mobster Tommy De Vito who always wanted to push things too far instead if just relaxing and enjoying the life he had. “Their power was intoxicating.” “If we wanted something, we just took it,” Henry says. “If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.” As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States.

Really great film.

Another post apocalyptic, Lone Wolf, Mad Max type of Samurai gunslinger film? Well just on the strength of Denzel Washington you have to stand up and take notice. In my extensive movie watching lifetime I have seen many many movies from this genre (too many to count) some good, some great, and some horrible. Is this the best? no. Is this the worst? no. I would say it fits snugly right in the middle somewhere. With an ending you’ll either love or hate. In my personal opinion, I didn’t like the ending at all. For me it kind of made me feel stupid, like I wasn’t smart enough through the whole movie. But thats OK, it wasn’t all bad, getting to see Denzel and Gary Oldman square of against each other (two of the better actors around) isn’t half bad. I just wish there was more dialog.

We join Eli as he is nearing the end of his 30 year trek, from what we assume is from somewhere back east, across a desolate landscape on his way west. Armed with a an assortment of weapons which he wields very well, and the last known copy of the Bible. Nothing is going to stop Eli from completing his journey because as he says its Gods will and his incredible fighting skills are God given. Along the way he meets the only other smart man on earth who also wants the book, but for evil purposes. Our hero must dispatch stinking, marauding bad guys with great skill, while saving the girl and finishing his quest to go as far west as he possibly can.

The film as whole is pretty good, especially the monotone lack of color that the whole movie is shot in, it really adds to the atmosphere and lends to the authenticity of a barren post war America. The performances are OK, Denzel is kind of under used. It’s not really a good role for him, not enough dialog and range for his skills. Gary Oldman is good, as always, but he’s played this part many times before. Pretty violent but not too bloody. If it wasn’t for Denzel and Oldman I’d say pass. Check it out, it’s good enough.

It had the promise of being a really good, long needed remake of the original, loaded with present day special effects and production value. As it turns out this Wolfman can’t even hold a claw to the wonderful 1941 Lon Chaney classic of the same name. For the first 30 minutes of the film, when you don’t actually see the beast, it’s kind of scary, and you almost think they might have done this right. But, Hollywood still hasn’t figured out that less is more, especially in horror films. When the monsters appear, the movie goes down hill from there. Benicio Del Toro is mis-cast in my opinion, and Anthony Hopkins… really?, is he in every period movie now? The film tries to make up for its lack of genuine eeriness with lots blood and guts and there goes the old saying again, “less is more”. The movie that kind of advertised itself as the twin for Bram Stokers Dracula, cant even be stored on the same shelf.

Benicio Del Toro (the Wolfman aka Lawrence Talbot) returns home to Blackmoor after his brothers death. He see’s his crazy father. See’s his bothers ex played by Emily Blunt and tries to find out what happened. He soon gets bitten by the mysterious beast and now whenever there’s a full moon, he can’t control himself. He reins havoc all over the countryside and a auditorium of poor doctors. but Lawrence isn’t the only beast in the woods, and soon there’s going to be a show down.

Unfortunately, the Wolfman just never seems to live up its potential. Benicio is average and Hopkins is over played, only Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving give decent performances, and only decent. The movie has to much gore and not enough of anything else, like story or suspense. If there’s nothing else to watch, you could do worse, but you can certainly do much much better with just a little bit of effort.

I’m not sure there are enough words in the English language to describe the monumental impact and fantastic achievement that is Avatar. I just might have to use the Na’vi language to convey my awe and amazement. James Cameron’s career is filled with ground breaking epic films that seem to set a high bar for the movie industry for the next decade to come, and Avatar just might be Cameron’s greatest work yet. The special effects in this film, are so far and above anything released r to date, that there isn’t really anything to compare it to. It’s sort of started its own genre. The 3-D isn’t even distracting like most movies, it just adds to the depth and grandeur of the whole experience. Now, every other film is being released in 3-D, (unfortunately) but Hollywood still doesn’t seem get it. It isn’t the 3-D, its the vision and passion with which Cameron makes his movies that is the difference.

Jake Sully – Sam Worthington is called upon to take the place of his deceased brother in a mostly military, part scientific program called Avatar. The scientists take human DNA and combine it with alien DNA to make a hybrid life form that can be remotely controlled by it’s human consciousness, so, when they link the brain patterns, you now control the body of a Na’vi, a twelve to fifteen foot tall blue life form from the planet Pandora. The humans have been there for five years now. Teaching the Na’vi English and trying to build some sort of friendship so they can take advantage of the Na’vi and plunder the natural resources of the beautiful lush forest/jungle world. To get their hands on the rare mineral that may save the Earth, Jake is enlisted to be sort of a double agent. Gain the Na’vi trust by becoming one of them, then hopefully finding a weakness that will give the humans the edge they need to clear them out of their home tree, which sits right on the richest mineral deposit on the planet. Jake meets Neytiri – Zoe Saldana, while almost being killed on his first night in the jungle, and his loyalties come in to question. Jake soon understands that he is playing for the wrong team and decides to help the Na’vi defend their land against the greedy human invaders. The journey and the discovery of this new life form and their wonderful planet are nothing short of spectacular.

You can draw similarities to almost any major problems facing our planet and human condition you like. Consumption, technology, war, greed, or anything from our past. The American Indians, Vietnam, racism, and thats just a few. The story has been told many times before, in almost every type of setting you can think of. Many movies have had this same plot before, but the difference is, this isn’t just another movie. This is a mans vision and conviction to tell a story that means something to him and is relevant to the times we live in. Nothing short of an absolute masterpiece that will be copied (unsuccessfully) and revered for years to come. If you are a human (and you haven’t seen it yet) don’t miss this movie.

Although I’m not a fan of the first film (Twilight), I thought New Moon was better in some area’s and worse in others. Being more depressing than Twilight was going to be hard. It was also much more predictable. At least there’s a little more action this time. The special effects were average as they decided to go werewolf style instead of vampire style this time around. You would have expected better with the budget they had to work with. It was much more mysterious and suspenseful when you knew they were werewolves but never really saw them. I don’t know, 10 foot tall, 500 pound werewolves made it just a little silly and overdone for me but, legions of loyal fans made the movie a huge success at the box office. So who am I to argue.

As the film picks up where Twilight left off, as we find Bella Swan – Kristen Stewart and Edward Cullen – Robert Pattinson are breaking up, which sends Bella into a long, tiring, depressive state. Bella begins seeing mirages of Edward whenever she’s in danger, trying to warn her, so decides to do anything dangerous just to see his face. When she finally begins to come out of her shell there’s Jacob Black – Taylor Lautner ready to try and swoop her off her feet and fill the void. You never really believe she is going to give up Edward for Jacob and thats where the film kind of loses it’s bite. Eventually Edward will return and the love triangle will start to cause drama (no surprises there). The film deals with love lost, friends trying to become more than friends and all the young love issues in between. I really kind of miss the vampires because the werewolves are just a bunch of wild teenagers looking for thrills and there just not that interesting. It’s always going to be team Edward and you all know it.

If my review sounds a little on the negative side it’s because the whole teenager depression thing just isn’t my cup of tea. most teens will really like this, and the true Twilight fans will love it. I do have to give praise to Kristen Stewart though, she really is the star of movie, and plays her part very well. She seems to be the only person in movie with real emotion and character. Is it what-to-watch? It sure is.

Strong, one of the better thrillers to come along last year. One of those rare movies where you really root for the bad guy, who is really a good guy. Just like in the film Taken, you understand the revenge of the character and identify with his pain. Sort of evil genius, and, loving father who has been wronged by the system, Now has one singular vision to make everyone involved pay with their lives. You cant go wrong with Gerard Butler and Jaime Foxx facing off either.

Clyde Shelton – Gerard Butler is the victim of a horrible home invasion
where his daughter and wife are raped and murdered while he watches helplessly tied up on the floor. The two men responsible are caught but, the prosecutors use one to testify against the other to get the death penalty. It makes Nick Rice – Jamie Foxx look good and keep up his conviction rate high while he aspires to higher office. The problem is, the system doesn’t serve justice as it should, and just do whats right. Well, Clyde just happens to be an inventive tinkerer with years to spend planning his revenge. Clyde finally gets to exact his revenge on the real man responsible for his families death and does to him what he deserves. Soon, Clyde is arrested for the gruesome murder and once they lock him up, the killing spree really gets started, and even behind bars, everyone who was involved is now in danger.

Gory in some parts, but not excessive. Acting is top notch all the way through, even the supporting cast is really good. An all around good thriller for most everyone. Check it out, it’s what-to-watch.

For me, THE best movie of 2009. Sure Avatar is the crowning achievement of the 2009, but up until late December, this was the best movie of the year. The perfect low budget sci-fi film that proves you don’t need Transformers type CG to make a great movie with special effects. The story is exceptional and has some great plot twists as well. The acting is absolutely great, and you don’t know any of the actors. Extreme gore but with purpose, and a plot thats actually believable. A harsh look at the human condition and prejudice regardless of the species. All in all, an utterly engrossing, fantastic movie.

28 years ago an alien space craft stalled high above Johannesburg South Africa. When the humans finally get inside they discovery an entire race of extra terrestrials (about a million) starving and sick. The government quickly sets up a refuge camp below the broken ship in an attempt to nurse the aliens (called Prawns) back to health, and keep them in one place. As the aliens begin to venture out into the city and cause trouble and the camp soon gets walls and becomes part ghetto, part concentration camp. The “aliens rights” bill is past, and it looks like the Prawn’s are here to stay. The human population reaches its end with the alien problem as their numbers have increased to almost two million, and wants them moved out of the city. A government group called MNU decides to relocate the alien population 200 miles away to a new tent city called District 10. This movie is about what happens when you try and evict two million alien life forms from a slum they have been oppressed in for 25 years.

District 9 is as original and entertaining as any alien movie in the last decade. The special effects only help with the realism, they don’t take over the movie. The best part of this movie is the story and, the interaction of the characters. Harsh, gross, and in the end, sad and heart felt. There are no excuses why you haven’t seen this movie yet.

Well, what can you say. Quentin Tarantino at his usual fantastic best.
Dialog and character richness in a way that no one else can seem to manage. His movies are becoming a genre of their own since no one else can even come close to making a movie with that kind of substance. With an ensemble cast that’s absolutely stunning. Everyone delivers in this world war II fantasy where they manage to rewrite history.

An elite group or soldiers (Jewish soldiers) called the Basterds are being assembled to do one thing, kill Nazi’s. Lead by Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt) who tells his small group of men that as of now, they all owe him 100 Nazi scalps. They roam the countryside killing Nazi’s and collecting scalps. The other half of the plot has you following the Jew Hunter,
Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) who proceeds to steal the movie as the man the Germans call in when they need the best. During a raid on a small farm, Landa loses a teenage Jewish girl named
Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) and the film manages to follow her as she grows up and waits for the perfect time to exact her revenge. With the Basterds, Landa, and Shoshana all on a collision course the films last act is just what we all wish would have happened to end the war.

With the acting and dialog at its absolute best, this film was one the five best last year. If you are a fan of Tarantino’s movies (and I don’t know how you couldn’t be) this will be known as his best work since Pulp fiction. Exceptionally bloody and violent, the film is perfection on every level. Don’t miss it.