Stars: 4 and one half out of 5
All I can say is I am a HUGE fan of the books, and I have read all of them several times over. So when I heard that they were making a movie of it, I did a dance of joy. But then I saw the trailer, and thought "Here we go again, it's just gonna be some dumb kids movie that has nothing to do with the book and is saturated with toilet humor." When I went to see the film, I was crossing my fingers hoping that wasn't the case. But I was pleasantly surprised. The movie stayed very true to the book, using many of the same jokes and gags as the novel by Jeff Kinney. And even though there was some toilet humor, most of it was very funny. (I say most of it, mind you. The few unnecessary potty jokes are the only thing keeping this film from 5 stars.) It was very funny, I think I may have annoyed the person sitting next to me in the theater by laughing so hard. The acting was surprisingly good, especially the main characters Greg and Rowley. But the thing I liked most was the style of cinematography used in this movie. The director Thor Freudenthal seamlessly blends live action, animation, and music to create a very well done film. In conclusion, this is a great film. Just one warning, if you have never been to middle school, you WILL NOT like this movie.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon.
Stars: 5 out of 5
When I first viewed the trailer for "How to Train Your Dragon," I thought "Oh great, another one of THOSE films." It appeared as another one of those fun for young kids, unbearable for adults, zero plot types of movies. I thought wrong. As much as it pains me to say it, I really enjoyed this film. As I got into the theater, I had very low expectations for it. The trailers that played during the movie were all movies that I thought looked dumb. Then the movie actually began. It started as an epic fight sequence between dragons and vikings, with your normal "doesn't fit in, can't find his place in the world" type of kid telling the audience about his life. He is the son of the chief of vikings, who would only love his son if he was a buff dragon killer. Well, it turns out he isn't. The main character, "Hiccup," (horrendous names scare off gnomes and trolls, by the way.) is just a skinny wimp who always seems to mess things up. Well, I can't tell too much more about the story, so long story short, Hiccup wounds a dragon, is too squeamish too kill it, and ends up befriending the dragon instead. Later, he must show the vikings that all dragons are not bad, and that they could become allies of the dragons. In the end, the dragons and vikings do team up, too fight a monstrous dragon 100 times bigger than the biggest dragon. In the end, I found myself applauding the outcome, it was a very clever ending that I didn't expect. All in all, the movie was almost perfect, it had a clever story, breathtaking animation, and it was funn- oh wait I forgot, it wasn't funny. That was the only problem I had with this film. I think I laughed maybe once. It seems that the animators were so focused on the story and the animation, they forgot to put in jokes. I mean, there were some jokes, but not the amount of the typical Dreamworks film. But whatever, the rest of the movie covers for jokes 10 times over. In conclusion, I loved this film and I strongly recommend it.
When I first viewed the trailer for "How to Train Your Dragon," I thought "Oh great, another one of THOSE films." It appeared as another one of those fun for young kids, unbearable for adults, zero plot types of movies. I thought wrong. As much as it pains me to say it, I really enjoyed this film. As I got into the theater, I had very low expectations for it. The trailers that played during the movie were all movies that I thought looked dumb. Then the movie actually began. It started as an epic fight sequence between dragons and vikings, with your normal "doesn't fit in, can't find his place in the world" type of kid telling the audience about his life. He is the son of the chief of vikings, who would only love his son if he was a buff dragon killer. Well, it turns out he isn't. The main character, "Hiccup," (horrendous names scare off gnomes and trolls, by the way.) is just a skinny wimp who always seems to mess things up. Well, I can't tell too much more about the story, so long story short, Hiccup wounds a dragon, is too squeamish too kill it, and ends up befriending the dragon instead. Later, he must show the vikings that all dragons are not bad, and that they could become allies of the dragons. In the end, the dragons and vikings do team up, too fight a monstrous dragon 100 times bigger than the biggest dragon. In the end, I found myself applauding the outcome, it was a very clever ending that I didn't expect. All in all, the movie was almost perfect, it had a clever story, breathtaking animation, and it was funn- oh wait I forgot, it wasn't funny. That was the only problem I had with this film. I think I laughed maybe once. It seems that the animators were so focused on the story and the animation, they forgot to put in jokes. I mean, there were some jokes, but not the amount of the typical Dreamworks film. But whatever, the rest of the movie covers for jokes 10 times over. In conclusion, I loved this film and I strongly recommend it.
Movie Review: Oceans
Stars: 3 out of 5
The documentary "Oceans" captures breathtaking and visually stunning imagery. The beauty of the film almost brought me to tears in a few scenes, such as the sight of an extremely large battleship going over monstrous waves 100's of feet tall, or the beautiful Blanket Octopus gliding through the water. Pierce Brosnan narrates, and his soft tone makes the film extremely soothing- perhaps too soothing. Unfortunately, the film gets a bit too sleepy , and I'm sorry too say I found myself wishing to leave the theater a couple times. But the beauty left me flabbergasted all the same. The only other criticism I have for the movie is its pleas to stop acts such as pollution and overfishing. It was a bit arbitrary, in my opinion, to inform viewers about this, since we've already heard it hundreds of times. There are just too many movies and documentaries that talk about this, and I don't think this one had to go there. All in all, this is an amazing movie, and although it is a bit tedious, I think you will find it breathtaking all the same.
The documentary "Oceans" captures breathtaking and visually stunning imagery. The beauty of the film almost brought me to tears in a few scenes, such as the sight of an extremely large battleship going over monstrous waves 100's of feet tall, or the beautiful Blanket Octopus gliding through the water. Pierce Brosnan narrates, and his soft tone makes the film extremely soothing- perhaps too soothing. Unfortunately, the film gets a bit too sleepy , and I'm sorry too say I found myself wishing to leave the theater a couple times. But the beauty left me flabbergasted all the same. The only other criticism I have for the movie is its pleas to stop acts such as pollution and overfishing. It was a bit arbitrary, in my opinion, to inform viewers about this, since we've already heard it hundreds of times. There are just too many movies and documentaries that talk about this, and I don't think this one had to go there. All in all, this is an amazing movie, and although it is a bit tedious, I think you will find it breathtaking all the same.
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