Movie Review: Insidious....2.5 stars

I really wanted to see Water for Elephants and to my surprise it was sold out for the 4:30pm Saturday show.  That's crazy, that show has never been sold out, but that's what happened.  So, I decide to see Insidious instead.  Without any flesh eating zombies in it, I wasn't too optimistic that it would be scary.   Well, for the first hour it did a pretty good job of making me jump out of my seat.  Certainly much better than the very boring paranormal Activity 1 and 2.  If those movies scared you then stay away from this one.   Unfortunately, with about 45 minutes to go, it became very lame.   It was as if they fired the first writer at that point in the movie and brought in another one that didn't understand the horror genre.   It's kinda worth your movie dollar if you follow my instructions:  When Patrick Wilson gets hypnotized, get up and leave the movie.  There's nothing left to see so go ahead and sneak into Hanna or Source code...you have my permission because you didn't get your money's worth from Insidious.   It could have been great if they just kept going with their first thought. :-)

Movie Review: Scream 4...2.5 stars

I didn't want to see this movie because I watched the first three and thought they were okay but not great.  After watching the first one, you get the story line formula.  The rest are just minor variations of the first.  My daughter told me that the fourth was worthy of my movie dollar so I went to see it.   It was not worthy.  It was the same as the first three.  With Scream (pick your number) you should be trying to figure out who the murderer is, but after thirty minutes I could care less and was just looking forward to it being over.   That's just me though.  If you liked the first three then you'll enjoy the the fourth.  Unlike other franchise movies where each rendition is not quite as good as the first, the quality for all the Scream movies has been pretty consistent.  There are "jump out of your seat" moments along with some humor.  I just don't think it's worth spending $10 on a ticket to see it.  Instead, it is well worth watching it when it comes to HBO or netflix when nothing better is on.

Movie Review: The Conspirator...2.5 stars

James McAvoy is one of my favorite young actors.  He elevates bad movies to okay movies just because of his acting skills.  Denzel Washington is another actor that has this same type of skills and power.  The Conspirator is a historical drama about the trial of the co-conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  Specifically this deals with Mary Surratt played by Robin Wright who owned a boarding house where the assassination was planned.  James McAvoy reluctantly defends her although the evil government has the deck stacked against her.

Although well done and interesting, it is very slow moving.   If you don't find this topic interesting then you will bored and hate this movie.  If history interests you I think you will find that this movie does a good job of portraying the events fairly accurately.

Movie Review: Hanna 3 stars

Saoirse Ronan stars in her third excellent movie in a row.  I saw her first in Lovely Bones then in The Way Back and now in Hanna.   It is best that you don't know much about this movie before you see it but basically Hanna has been raised for one thing, to protect herself against some unseen enemy.    A very interesting story, well acted, with a lot of action thrown in as well.  I believe that Ms Ronan could be the next Meryl Streep.   This movie is well worth your movie dollar.  In fact, I believe that you would be missing out by waiting and watching this at home on TV.  The movie sucks you in and would be better seen without distractions.  Eric Bana also is super in a supporting role as Hannah's protector/teacher.

Movie Review: Your Highness...0 stars because I don't use negative numbers

You would think that a comedy that had Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman would automatically be great but this movie is just the opposite.  I see this movie being an early favorite for the Razzies worst movie of the year.    I call this a paycheck movie because all the stars made tens of millions of dollars each for a few weeks work on a horrible movie.  If you were planning on seeing this movie, you can thank me for sacrificing myself to save you from suffering.   I spent most of the movie just trying suppress my gag reflex while hoping the movie would turn around.   When I thought it could get no worse they started a 5 minute routine trying to make child molestation funny.   Yes, a horrifyingly bad movie.

Movie Review: Source Code 3 stars

This movie has similarities to two other movies I enjoyed.  One was the movie Pandorium.  In this movie, as well as Source Code, you have no idea what is going on until facts are revealed to you slowly.  You are finding out at the same time as the characters what is happening to them.  The other is Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington were he was able to sort of travel back in time.  This movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal is as good as either of those movies.  It's best you don't research or read reviews that reveal too much.  You need to experience it and try to figure it out on your own.  That's the fun of this movie.  Don't over think it...just enjoy :-)

Movie Review: Paul 2 stars

I first caught the British actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the very funny Shaun of the Dead.  One of my favorite zombie movies.  They went on to make two more movie that were all pretty lame (hot fuzz and run, fat boy, run) 2 star movies.  They keep their streak alive with the alien movie Paul.  I had high hopes for this movie because I thought the movie trailers were pretty funny but I was disappointed.    I thought they had a good set up with the "fish out of water" story of alien amongst humans.   Once again, poor unfunny writing shot this movie down.  They had excellent, funny actors in it, they just didn't give them very many funny things to say.   Seth Rogen is now on my list (along with Jack Black and others) that if he's in a movie the movie will not be any good.  Save your time and money and skip this movie.