Bourne Identity

Starring:
Matt Damon
Franka Potente
Chris Cooper

average rating: ★★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★★★
cinematography: ★★★★★
~
Action

This was a really good movie. I'd heard good things about it and all, but this surpassed my expectations.

Matt Damon does a really great job. He plays an amnesiac who is slowly learning who he was - and that person was not someone good. Franka Potente is interesting playing his only friend throughout the film, a cute sort of romance among the impressive fighting scenes and CIA computers.

The story is so clever, which is half the reason the movie is so good. Everything to do with Jason Bourne (Damon) is awesome. He is such a complex character, having been previously programmed to be a lethal genius, and to never make mistakes, strategically, at least. Now that he has amnesia, he still has all of those skills, but doesn't know why. The movie is generally split into Jason and Marie (Potente) driving around the world in her little Mini Cooper and the CIA trying to track his moves. There are also some fantastic fighting and chase scenes.

Unlike many trilogies, the movie wraps itself up as a first, but with just enough loose ends to make a second. I don't think I've watched enough action movies to rightfully assume such an opinion, but I would say (if I watched lots of action movies, mind you) that it's a notch above the rest. (But I don't watch a lot of action movies, mind you.) :P

Hairspray

[2007]

Starring:
Nikki Blonsky
John Travolta
Michelle Pffiefer
Zac Efron
Amanda Bynes
Christopher Walken
Elijah Kelley
Queen Latifah

average rating: ★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★★
cinematography: ★★★★★
~
Musical

This was a really fun, colorful movie! If any of you have ever seen the old "Hairspray," you will be very impressed by this remake. Without changing much of the context at all, they reworked the movie into something entertaining and interesting. The 60's theme is so consistent, from the clothes to the colors and the racial issues.

Each of the actors were great as each of their characters. Nikki Blonsky could act, sing, smile, be chubby and still be absolutely adorable. John Travolta was absolutely hilarious as Mrs. Turnblad, dressed in a giant fat-suit, with long hair and make-up. John Travolta is tall, too, so he was gigantic. The rest of the cast consisted of Christopher Walken (always funny), Zac Efron (who was just okay, but he fit his character), Michelle Pffiefer (the evil Barbie Doll), Amanda Bynes (who was cute, but sort of mute) and Queen Latifah (as big as usual).

The songs were actual bearable, too, and the story was just altered enough so that everything fit into an actual story. Anyway, it was worth the watch, quite cute. :)

13 Going On 30

[2004]

Starring:
Jennifer Garner
Mark Ruffalo

average rating: ★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★★
cinematography: ★★★★
~
Comedy

We honestly thought that this movie was going to be horrible. The title "13 Going On 30" is not very promising for our type of movie. But we were wrong. "13" happens to be a really cute movie.

Jennifer Garner was absolutely adorable (as always). Her character is Jenna, a 13-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to fit in with the popular crowd. At her 13th birthday, her best friend Mattie gives her a model of her dream home and dusts it with a powder that is supposed to make dreams come true. After a few misadventures, Jenna knocks the dust onto herself and wakes up 30, all her dreams come true.

With an awesome performance by Jennifer Garner, Jenna discovers how she's lived her life since being 13, how she became editor of her favorite childhood magazine, how she never spoke her best friend Mattie (Ruffalo) anymore, how everyone thought she was a jerk. There are some really funny bits that just scream 13-years-old at you and some cute, real scenes.

I think one reason I liked the movie was because it wasn't really about love, and it wasn't really about fitting in, and it wasn't really about friendship, though those things were combined, the movie was really about making choices. And, of course, being careful what you wish for.

It was a funny, enjoyable watch, all in all, with some really great songs from the 80's. Lol, I'm kind of kidding... Liz Phair, Billy Joel, Lillix, Rick Springfield... If you want some serious songs stuck in your head...

Notting Hill

Starring:
Hugh Grant
Julia Roberts

average rating: ★★★
~
performance: ★★★
screenplay: ★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★
cinematography: ★★★
~
Romantic Comedy

Notting Hill was actually much funnier than we thought it was going to be. I'd heard of it once, but that had been before I knew who on earth Hugh Grant was, and had thought it was just a silly romance.

Hugh Grant was hilarious, giving his stereotypical Hugh Grant performance (stuttering, thinking of ridiculous things to say, getting himself into ridiculous positions). His character was only slightly different from the characters in, say, Love Actually, or Music and Lyrics. He played a divorced British chap named William who lived in a flat with an insane Welshman and owned a travel-book store. I loved his character. But Julia Roberts wasn't so good. Her character was lame, as a matter of fact, and didn't deserve Hugh's character at all. She played a stereotypical movie star named Anna Scott who doesn't enjoy fame, who has a fling with a Brit while shooting some movie near Notting Hill (the village William lives in). Goo to you. Her mouth is too big, anyway.

The screenplay was hilarious, with lots of little lines that you might miss the first time. William's flatmate was equal parts funny and disgusting, while his family was 3 dimensional and cute. But the story was lame, honestly, the whole "movie star falls in love with regular chap" crap was really flat. If there had been an interesting spin on it, it might have been cool. But nope.

However, if you're a person with a good sense of humor and keen ears who is looking for a good laugh, watch it.

Sweet Home Alabama

[2002]

Starring:
Reese Witherspoon
Josh Lucas
Patrick Dempsey-Wempsey

average rating: ★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★★
cinematography: ★★★★
~
Romance

Sweet Home Alabama is a rather sweet movie, really. Lol, excuse the pun (if that counts for a pun...). Reese Witherspoon (who is so cute) plays a woman named Melanie Smooter who grew up in Hick-Town before moving away to NY to start a new life. Melanie changes her last name to Carmicheal, starts a fashion business, and tries to forget that she ever had connections with the fashionless, dirty, thick-accented losers from Alabama.

When her gushily perfect NY boyfriend (Dempsey-Wempsey) proposes to her, she is forced to take a trip back to Alabama to force her husband/ex-husband, Jake Perry, (Lucas) to sign the divorce papers that he's been blatantly refusing for seven years. Well, you can guess how it goes. She reacquaints herself with the simple ways of the south.

The acting is pretty good, the story is sweet, and the southern accents are hilarious.

P.S. If you are wondering to what tone I use the term "Dempsey-Wempsey," it is strong sarcasm and contempt... i think he's nasty!

The Mask of Zorro

[1998]

Starring:
Antonio Banderas
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Anthony Hopkins
Stuart Wilson

average rating: ★★★
~
performance: ★★★
screenplay: ★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★
cinematography: ★★★
~
Action Adventure

I'm sure there's everyone's seen the Mask of Zorro, so I'll cut the story bit. I'll just say that Antonio Banderas has very pretty eyes and that the movie was very silly. Entertaining, though, had quite a few funny lines. Mostly it was silly.

Mrs. Bradley Series

[1998, 2000]

Starring:
Diana Rigg
Neil Dudgeon
Peter Davidson
and guest appearances of:
Phyllida Law
David Tennant
etc.

average rating: ★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★
cinematography: ★★★
~
Mysteries set in the 20's... Rad fashion... Lovely acting...

I personally loved the Mrs. Bradley series. We had picked it up at the library once before, neglected to watch it because it looked really lame, and returned it. We didn't even think about it again until Mom reserved "The Avengers," which Diana Rigg stars in, and somehow we wound up with the Mrs. Bradley mysteries on our T.V. room floor again. And I'm very glad we did.

Diana Rigg and Neil Dudgeon were great. Diana plays a smart, stylish, witty lady (and oldish lady), Adela Bradley, who works as an investigator and is very knowledgeable in all things Freudian. She is really great, her voice is awesome. With her is her endearingly loyal chauffeur, George Moody (Dudgeon), who always helps her with her mystery. If he wasn't in the series, I wouldn't have watched all of the episodes. They act together really, really naturally and it was very cute.

The stories were really silly, with lots of stabbing, bloodiness, choking, screaming and all that jazz. The mysteries were not necessarily predictable (we had fun guessing the culprits) but they were very silly.

The series are set in the 20's, and with the 20's comes the fashion and the music. Mrs. Bradley wears a different outfit every day, consisting of an outrageous hat and dress. At the beginning of each episode there is a really funny little song, and all of the rest is lots of crazy jazz. It's really quite hilarious.

Anyway, however tacky or silly this show might have been, there were many points at which we laughed out loud, wondered (with some concern) what was going to happened, and smiled.

Send Me No Flowers

[1964]

Starring:
Rock Hudson
Doris Day
Tony Randall

average rating: ★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★★
cinematography: ★★★★
~
Comedy

Life With Father

[1947]

Starring:
William Powell
Irene Dunn
Jimmy Lydon
Elizabeth Taylor

average rating: ★★★★★
~
performance: ★★★★★
screenplay: ★★★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★★★
cinematography: ★★★
~
Comedy

Miss Congeniality 2

average rating: ★★
~
performance: ★★
screenplay: ★★★
plot/storyline: ★
cinematography: ★★★★
~
Comedy

Mansfield Park

[Masterpiece Theatre, 2007]

Starring:
Billie Piper
Blake Ritson
Haley Atwell

average rating: ★★★
~
performance: ★★★
screenplay: ★★★
plot/storyline: ★★★
cinematography: ★★★★
~
Jane Austen