THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
4 out of 5 stars

annette bening was nominated AND won for best actress in 2011 golden globes by starring in this quasi-coming of age comedy about two teenage kids (a girl and a boy) who seek out to find their sperm donor father. she plays fiery-tongued gay mom nic, and boy…she is FIERCE! ;)



so, basically the story is this: two teenage kids by the names of joni and laser are raised by two moms, and they seek out their sperm donor father because they were conceived by artificial insemination. joni was born from nic (annette bening), a control freak and doctor, and laser was born from jules (julianne moore), a carefree sweet hippie type. the kids call up their sperm bank, and it turns out that their father is a man named paul hatfield, a local restaurant owner. (a very groovy mark ruffalo) paul is probably everything nic despises, but jules seems to like him because he’s very similar in terms of personality. the kids really like him too, and are wondering if he could become part of their family. the problem is nic feels threatened by this, and wants to limit paul’s involvement as much as possible. but the question is…is there a way to incorporate the father in a family with two moms? hmm… ;)


the storyline and the momentum of this movie just chugs along, but i can see why annette bening won a GG for her role since she’s just fab as gay mom nic! she’s controlling, a full-on type-A personality, and you can really see her vulnerability when she’s hurt by the one person she loves on earth… it’s a sweet story about how marriage works in a gay relationship (lesbian in this case), and it makes you wonder… gay marriage is nothing different from straight marriage. you still have problems because we are all human… i don’t think this was as funny as the gay couple in modern family, but still enjoyable. ;)

DESPICABLE ME
5 out of 5 stars

agnes: “does this count as an annoying sound?” (puckles her cheeks)


LOL what a cute and well-animated movie! gru is such a strange character yet one of my favorites as a villain-turned-hero! ;)

so, who is this villain gru? well, it’s no one we’ve really heard of, but just your good ol’ fashion anti-hero living in the one black house in a white picket fenced neighborhood as well as an army of lil’ yellow minions living beneath in his mad scientist lair/basement. gru (voiced with steve carell’s hungarian accent) is appalled when someone steals the great pyramid of giza, which prompts him to execute his lifelong dream of stealing the moon. but in order to steal something like the moon, he’ll need cash and LOTS of it... thus, he goes to the bank of evil (i love how it’s subtitled as “formerly known as lehman bros.”) for the loan, but he’ll have to get a shrink ray first to get the bank’s approval. vector (voiced by jason segel), gru’s piranha-lovin’ arch-nemesis decides to foil his plans, thus gru has to steal the shrink ray back! only problem is that vector has heightened security @ his home, so gru has to figure out a way to get in without tripping the security. cue three cute lil’ orphan girls selling cookies, and thus...LIGHTBULB! ;) (you’ll know what that means once you’ve seen this)

probably the best scenes involve the lil’ yellow minions becuz they’re just so cute and goofy! there are literally hundreds of them working on gru’s plans along with dr. nefario (gru’s partner in crime), and they are just so adorable. another adorable character is agnes (the youngest of the orphan girls) whose voice is just like that little kid from the incredibles! such a sweet plot about a villain abandoning his evil ways to become a father to his girls, and the animation couldn’t have been done any better... you pair this with a neptunes soundtrack, and VOILA! 5 stars to gru and the girls... ;)

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST
3 out of 5 stars

i had mixed feelings about this just because i was expecting something that’d tie in the events of the first book too… the acting is obviously superb, but does this movie give us TRUE closure to the trilogy? if you’ve read the books, the answer is probably no because a lot of key details were left out… :/



we left off the 2nd movie with lisbeth, our heroine, getting hospitalized after being buried alive with a bullet in her head. doctors rush to operate on her, and eventually save her AND her bastard/evil father, zalachenko. while lisbeth is recovering, mikael blomqvist asks his attorney sister annika to help her since lisbeth faces a rough trial with the charge of attempted murder on her father’s life. no one seems to know much about her past nor will she communicate it to anyone, and there’s also the mystery of why high-ranking swedish officials are soooo keen on offing everyone in her family… also, who are these ppl trying to kill lisbeth? what secrets does she possess? well… a member of the “section” (a secret group within swedish govt) assassinates her father at the hospital, which sends swedish police and mikael on high alert! there’s also the whole censorship angle, where mikael is trying to publish lisbeth’s autobiography in millenium’s latest issue, but someone in the govt is keen on stopping that as well… so, what will happen to lisbeth in the end? what will be the outcome to her trial? will she get her revenge on those who took away her rights? why don’t you find out for yourself… ;)


i felt like this was essentially treated as part 2 of girl who played with fire, which was disappointing, since this movie was suppose to bring us closure to all this madness… (in all fairness: it does but not really...) the momentum was very slow-paced (perfect for the recovery scenes), but didn’t really do it justice for preparations of the trial. plus, a lot of key details from the book were missing since i didn’t really understand how one discovery lead to another… (in other words: very choppy in editing) no, i didn’t read the books, but as a movie viewer, parts of this interpretation just didn’t work for me…  i think i would have felt better if they aired ALL the "dirty laundry" of the section's activities, lisbeth's involvement with the section, and perhaps unveil more of the elusive and mysterious nature of the character, lisbeth salander...  THAT would have done it for me, but maybe it's time to read the book to see what truly happens? ;) 

THE A TEAM
4 out of 5 stars

“i love it when a plan comes together.” – capt. hannibal smith



this movie was a lot better than i expected it to be! joe carnahan, director of smokin’ aces, returns with an all-out action flick based on the late 80s show of the same name. if you are a guy and a child of the 80s, i think you’ll enjoy this one… ;)


so, how does one create a 2 hour long movie based on a TV show that ran for 5 years? well… you start with the beginning! capt. hannibal smith (the wonderful liam neeson) is captured by a couple of corrupt mexican policemen under the direction of a corrupt general, and needs to free his friend/colleague lt. templeton “faceman” peck (charming bradley cooper) from getting hanged/killed as well as execute a proper escape route back to u.s. territory. on the way to rescue, hannibal sticks up corp. rosco “B.A.” barracus (UFC fighter rampage!) in his hummer he calls alicia, and they team up immediately after they realize they’re both rangers. a massive shootout and rescuing of face later… they end up at a psych ward of a hospital to pick up their pilot AKA crazy-ass howling mad murdock! (some unknown dude but hilarious nonetheless) thus, that’s just the beginning! 8 years later, you have these guys formulate a plan to extract u.s. bill plates (ones to print money) from baghdad, but they’re then framed by brock pike, who’s a mercenary working for an unknown. will the a-team be able to clear their names in time to stop all corruption? hehe, i won’t give it away… ;)


what a FUN movie! I’m so glad the producers of this picked joe carnahan to direct this because all the action sequences AKA the plans for the various missions are really well written and executed! (and the prep work montages are good too) there’s some funny moments between the guys esp. when B.A. needs to face his fear of flying thanks to crazy murdock’s flying skillz and even funnier when lt. peck busts out of prison via a tanning booth! one gripe would be that this movie needed the following actors to make it better for various reasons: 1) ryan reynolds (better villain than patrick wilson or perhaps male replacement for jessica biel’s character); 2) ray liotta (even better villain than patrick wilson AND ryan reynolds); 3) jeremy piven (i could strangely see him as murdock…) 4) ICE CUBE (you disagree that he SHOULD have been B.A.?) LOL best line from this goes to B.A.: “you pancaked my van! imma kill you, fool!” :P


p.s. oh! and what’s with the jon hamm cameo @ the very end? does that mean…sequel? hmm… well if that’s the case, i may watch that…if and only if it’s got better casting though. ;)

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD
4 out of 5 stars

this has got to be the nerdiest and most hipster-ish movie i’ve ever seen! with all the 8-bit game references, ramona the hipster GF, jason schwartzman(!), and of course, michael cera as the titular character, scott pilgrim... what more can one ask for? ;)


for those who don’t know about scott, he’s just your average nerdy 20 something canadian, living in toronto, looking for love. he’s in a rock band with his friends stephen stills, kim (queen maude from pillars of the earth), and young neil. (johnny simmons AKA the BF from jennifer’s body) he’s also dating a 17 year old HS chick named knives chao, and one day, while at the library with knives, his eyes fall on beautiful yet bitchy ramona flowers. oh, and we shouldn’t forget his gay roommate and hilarious friend wallace. (kieran culkin- mac's lil' bro) ramona and scott start to date, but when her 7 evil exes start to attack scott, he has no choice but to fight them...action hero style! exactly...who are her evil exes? we have: 1) matthew patel: her 7th grade flame; 2) lucas lee: chris evans as the skater now turned actor; 3) todd ingram: brandon routh the vegan bassist; 4) roxy richter: mae whiteman AKA anne the christian on arrested development now ramona’s lesbian lover; 5) and 6) the katayangi twins: the DJs; lastly 7) gideon: jason schwartzman AKA the hipster record producer. LOL who hasn’t ramona not dated? ;) (hey! a double negative!)

it’s very stylized and very fun! of course, there’s the nerd/hipster factor, but that’s what this movie is all about... i esp. liked the 8-bit references a lot, and the script is actually pretty well written too. michael cera is definitely the perfect scott, but the supporting cast is well casted too even the evil exes and band members. it’s a good story too about fighting for your true love and standing up for yourself...battling evil exes or not. any gamer or game nerd would appreciate this one, but if you’re like me, you’ll like it for the good storytelling and fun cast! ;)

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
4 out of 5 stars

aww... i just LOVED this! toothless the sleek black dragon is soooo adorablezzz!!! :D (yes, that’s with 2 extra z’s to emphasize his cuteness!)


it’s a unique story told to us by the producers of shrek and other great animation movies... skinny and coward-like viking teen hiccup (voiced by jay baruchel from she’s out of my league) is nothing like his heroic father stoick the vast. (voiced by gerard butler; who better than a native scot, right?) the problem is hiccup is too small for a viking, so his father doesn’t want him fighting them whenever the dragons raid the village. hiccup doesn’t listen, and one day, he tests out his newest invention: a catapulting rope net. oh! we learn that hiccup works as an apprentice to gobber the stone mason/blacksmith, craig ferguson in his native scot accent, and has the talent to create fascinating inventions in his spare time. he knows that he hit something with his newest machine, and goes exploring in the woods to find it. to his surprise, he finds the rare night fury dragon, and eventually makes him his pet, calling him toothless. (you’ll see why) to an even bigger surprise, his father decides to enroll in dragon fighting training, and the results are fun... ;)

the dragons are actually really well animated and like i said, toothless is really cute! i think the viking characters were well animated as well, esp. stoick! (that beard, LOL!) the voice talent seems like they just recasted everyone from she’s out of my league + gerard butler... it’s not as good as toy story 3 or any of the pixar films, but i think it’s because those movies have original storylines as well as better script writing. i thought this one to be a little bit too much like cloudy with a chance of meatballs esp. with the disapproving father, weird/inventive son, etc., but that’s just me... but BEST scene: when hiccup is “training” toothless for the first time and feeding him the fish, which then toothless regurgitates for hiccup to eat. it’s just so cute to see them becoming BFFs... ;)

LEGENDARY
2 out of 5 stars

legendary, this is not... this was the wrestling version of the karate kid, where nerdy and “bean pole” cal asks his older and meatier brother mike to teach him how to wrestle. and guess who his older bro is? that’s right! JOHN F-ING CENA!!! :P


this movie failed on sooooo many different levels... lack of a good plot, lack of good acting, lack of all of the above... however, the story is a bit interesting: this one takes place out in good ol’ sooner country, oklahoma! nerdy cal (the guy who plays teenage dexter) decides to join his high school’s wrestling team. he’s horrible at it until one day, he tracks his depressed older brother mike (john cena in his first serious acting role) to coach him for the regionals. his mother (the great patricia clarkson) resents cal participating in this intermural sport due to the fact that both his dad and brother were champion wrestlers and his father died on a scouting mission with mike. (thus she blames wrestling for taking away her husband’s life) you’ll see how the brothers bond over wrestling, and it’s actually sort of heartwarming to see them practicing together, day after day.

john cena can’t act for shit, thus ruined this movie altogether. i guess they wanted to get an ex-pro wrestler to play the part of tortured soul mike, but no, it doesn’t work in this case AT ALL. j.cena needs to stick with the balls-to-the-wall action b movies he does from time to time to supplement his WWE income. well, it’s his first dramatic movie, so we got to give him some credit, right? patricia clarkson and danny glover redeem this one with their roles, but they could have done so much more with this esp. with a plot with more depth than just some lanky kid who wants to wrestle @ his HS. le sigh... :/

JUST WRIGHT
3 out of 5 stars

i really liked this one actually! doubt if you must, but this rom com featuring queen latifah and common is actually not that bad, and let me tell tell you why... ;)


my oh my...it is refreshing to see queen latifah in something other than a musical these days! (not that we don’t like those, but this is different for her) QL stars as funny/smart/caring/good-spirited physical therapist leslie wright, who is still single...even at 35... it seems like all the men in new jersey want her as just a homegirl, which isn’t what she wants. (she wants mr. fabulous) so when her childhood friend morgan (paula patton) and she attend a nets game, morgan points out the obvious awesomeness of nets player scott mcknight (common), who is apparently having a birthday party at his home the following weekend. then, while leslie is pumping gas into her shitmobile, she sees scott roll up in his brand new mercedes at the same gas station! scott runs into some trouble finding the opening to his gas tank, and so leslie helps him out. (she’s very handy like that) she gets the invite, and of course, she brings morgan along...and she uses all her gold-digging powers to become scott’s gf. scott soon gets a serious knee injury, preventing him from playing and entering a state of depression due to getting dumped by morgan, that leslie ends up helping him out with his rehab. feelings start to develop between them, but not before morgan decides to enter the picture again. (her timing is right on point when scott returns back to the court) will leslie and scott end up together, or will he chose beautiful morgan over homegirl leslie? it’s a rom com...don’t you know already? ;)

such a great story about how an ordinary woman with a gold-digging BFF ends up with the man of her dreams AKA mr. dreamy basketball player! common can’t really act, but QL does a great job as the strong-willed leslie. such a great cast including dr. richard from grey’s anatomy as her father, pam grier as her sassy mother, and OMG...mrs. cosby as scott’s mother! (LOVE her!) paul patton does a great job as beautiful morgan, and i even liked the dude who plays scott’s agent. LOL best scenes: morgan using her binoculars to scout out the players’ wives section; the shitmobile’s transformation thanks to scott; when scott is practicing his jazz @ night; leslie bringing scott to his neighborhood b-ball court; of course, the ending... totally recommend this one to all the homegirls out there who think mr. right isn’t out there for them. (despite being surrounded by the boyz) he is, ladies... he is... ;)

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE
5 out of 5 stars

are you really that surprised that i, jinalee, lover of owls and rice university grad, would rate this less than a 5? of course not! plus what a visually striking movie with a great storyline about good vs. evil owls! it’s about OWLS, dammit... what is there not to like about this?! :P


so, you’re asking what makes this a great story? well, i will tell ya... this one starts out with idealistic dreamer soren, who is a tyto owl, beautiful with his chestnut and white feathers living with his family in the forest. he dreams of becoming a guardian someday, which we learn that there’s a group of owls living in the great tree and keepers of the peace among all the different owl kingdoms. soren has a brother kludd and sister named eglantine, and one night while their parents are out hunting for food, soren and kludd decide to practice their “branching” skills, which is to fly from branch to branch since they are just young owls. (AKA owlets! isn’t that a cute name?) they fall to the ground, and suddenly they’re both snatched up by these horned owls that take them to the evil metalbeak’s orphanage called st. aggie’s, run by metalbeak’s wife nyra. there, soren literally takes a small elf owl named gylfie under his wing, and finds that st. aggie’s is nothing but a prison for young and kidnapped owls. an old owl named grimble decides to help soren and gylfie by teaching them to fly, so they can alert the guardians about metalbeak and the pure ones’ plans for owl kingdom domination! of course, along their way, soren and gylfie befriend the lute-playing “poet warrior” owl twilight, a twitchy digger owl appropriately named digger, and very random...the pink snake housekeeper/nursemaid mrs. p! (LOL why a snake was chosen to be a nursemaid for owls...i will never know)

LOL i think a lot of people would think of this as the owl version of 300, which the fight sequences definitely reminisce of, but overall, the graphics/animation of this movie is truly beautiful. the flight sequences are done well, the script is funny and very cute, and great voice talent casting! you can’t go wrong with helen mirren, geoffrey rush, jim sturgess, hugo weaving, and sam neill! there’s a lot of great personalities among the different species of owls, and you really become a part of their world. i think the creators of this movie truly had fun designing all aspects, and you can really see that in the final product. BTW...for those who doubt that the great owl can’t be ferocious, take a closer look @ metalbeak, then tell me what’s so cuddly/cute about him... :P

p.s. i could have done it w/o the owl city song in one of the scenes...please save that shit for later or until after the movie! other than that, even the music was appropriately done with that LOTR style singing. ;)

THE TOWN
3 out of 5 stars

i was a bit disappointed with this one, since i read such rave reviews about how great this movie was and how awesome ben affleck did as his directorial debut. unfortunately, i had some gripes with this just becuz i wanted to see more of the culture of charlestown and why this little neighborhood produces so many bank robbers/criminals in all of americaland… :/



if you’ve seen the departed and boondock saints, you’ll know that boston is the city that breeds blue-collared criminals and the irish mob rules all. (in this case, it’s a guy called the florist) with neighborhoods like dorchester and charlestown (where this is set), you wonder how an ex-pro hockey player becomes a career bank robber overnight. doug mcray (affleck) is just that guy. he loses himself to pain killers, and pretty soon, he’s in over his head… it doesn’t help his situation when all his friends/crew members are bank robbers too. there’s jem legally known as james coughlin (jeremy renner who’s a superstar in this one!), his drug mule single mother sister (“there’s nothing serena about her” blake lively), gloans AKA the getaway driver, and dez the technician who knows everything about bank security. the movie starts out with a robbery, which leads us to claire the bank manager (american accented rebecca hall), who is then kidnapped by this crew as a potential “hostage”. as it turns out, claire lives in charlestown, and the crew starts to panick, which then doug takes charge of the problem. (if there really is one) of course, this action/thriller wouldn’t be great without a good antagonist, in the form of jon hamm (HOT!), who plays special agent adam frawley. frawley is a no-nonsense type of agent, who won’t stop until he puts these charlestown homeboys in prison, which adds fun even to the very end of the movie…


OK… my gripes: 1) the plot to me was very superficial. affleck could have done a better job at fleshing out some of the characters and even providing some more cultural insights to why charlestown is the way it is. the only character that was fully developed was doug. so, what about the others? the script is well written but affleck shouldn’t have played the main protagonist. (sorry… but you’re not really a good actor…) 2) the entire movie is really choppy, as if someone took bits and pieces of a longer movie and pasted it together without any seams. i did read on IMDB.com that the original cut was over 4 hours long, so maybe that’s why? 3) jon hamm is a great actor, but one can’t help but think of mad men whenever we see him. it’s like “but you’re DON DRAPER!” despite all my gripes, i do have to hand it to jeremy renner for an awesome job as a the hot-headed jem. he’s SPECTACULAR in this, and really defines true method-acting by engrossing himself in the role. (every scene with him is great!) affleck, you may want to take some acting cues from j.renner next time… :/

TOY STORY 3
5 out of 5 stars

“THE CLAW!!!” – alien toys from pizza planet


OMG pixar, you’ve done it again! (and never cease to disappoint!) such an original story with the gang of toys we fell in love with from the first one! LOVED this, and if you are a child of the 90s, you’ll like it too! ;) (can’t you just tell with the amount of !’s i’ve used thus far?)

TS 3 picks up exactly where we left woody, buzz lightyear, jessie, buckeye, rex, ham, the potato heads and slinky dog! in andy’s bedroom, of course… however, the toys are now tucked away in andy’s toy chest, aching to be played with once again… the thing is andy is now heading off to college, and his mom really wants him to either trash his toys or donate them to someone. so when andy is cleaning/packing up for college, he puts all the toys except for woody in a trashbag…which then mistakenly gets put out on the curb for pickup by andy’s mom. the toys start freaking out, and it’s up to woody, who ends up in the college box, to save his pals! then, they (all the toys except for woody) decide to try out daycare, and woody reluctantly goes with the idea. when they get to sunnyside daycare center, they find a whole new world of toys under the leadership of lotso the cuddly carebear and ken. (that’s right…as in ken and barbie!)


such a wonderful and original story about a group of toys that don’t want to be abandoned by their owner! it’s very moving, heartfelt, and very cute... barbie and ken really shine in this one, esp. since they make ken a bit “questionable” and really in tune with his feminine side… (the fashion show is one of the best scenes) i really applaud pixar for putting such personality and depth into all their characters, and of course, the animation is truly done very well! (no wonder this is up for a couple nods @ this year’s golden globes) even the voice talent is just great with tom hanks as woody and tim allen as buzz. (LOL @ buzz when he’s in spanish mode!) the end is very bittersweet, but nonetheless it gives us closure to some of the characters pixar has given life to… ;)

UNTHINKABLE
3 out of 5 stars

OMG this was one of the craziest movies i’ve ever seen! the term “cruel and unusual punishment” is put to the ultimate test when an islamic convert states in a publicized video that he’s planning to detonate 3 nuclear bombs in 3 major cities if the U.S. govt doesn’t give into his demands... get ready for a rollercoaster ride because this movie will take you on one, for sure! :)


special agent helen brody (carrie-ann moss wearing makeup this time) heads to the FBI L.A. field office to continue piecing together the terrorist social network on one of those extra large dry erase boards with her colleagues including hot brandon routh AKA bryan singer’s superman. suddenly the TV starts blasting news that a man named steven arthur younger is planning to detonate 3 nuclear bombs in 3 major U.S. cities, and the FBI goes into a frenzy! i mean, exactly how does the media know more about a major domestic terror threat than the FBI?! in the midst of all this, a top-secret/uber-confidential file is sent to this office, and 2 of agent brody’s colleagues go to investigate. turns out this file was mistakenly sent, and the file is on CIA negotiator/torture expert henry harold humphries AKA simply as “H”. (samuel l. jackson, muthafucker!) brody and H’s paths collide once more when they meet again in a secure facility holding none other than steven arthur younger in a observable torture chamber... (michael sheen does an awesome job in this!)

for those who can’t withstand the sight of human torture and/or violence at all: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED. you can’t help but flinch at the sight of this one, just because H has no bounds and will do ANYTHING to get someone to crack incld. the infamous pulling out the fingernails as seen in syriana, water-boarding, electroshock, even slicing fingertips very slowly! (ugh...) brody and even members of the military can’t STAND this treatment of the prisoner, terrorist or not, and it’s even worse because it’s totally illegal since younger is an american citizen... however, the true question is: to what lengths will the u.s. govt go to protect and secure its citizens? is one man’s torture worth the lives of 10 million ppl? even better yet, is intel acquired from torture even accurate? if you’re curious about the answer to these questions, see for yourself... ;)

GOING THE DISTANCE
4 out of 5 stars

“MAYA STATUE!” - corinne (erin’s older sister)


i totally thought this one would be a dud as a cynic when it comes to long-distance relationships, but i really enjoyed it! a cute story about how a couple struggles to work with the distance in their relationship… ;)

drew barrymore and justin long star as erin and garrett, who hookup one summer night at the local watering hole, and eventually their relationship turns into something more than that. but before we get into that, a little background on the lovers: erin is a news intern with the new york sentinel, hoping to chase her dreams of becoming a real reporter someday. garrett is a scout for a record producing company, with hilarious BFFs “i like to man-cry at night” dan and “i’m going for a specific demographic with the ‘tache” box. (dan is the roommate; box is the co-worker) so, while the 3 amigos are hanging out and garrett rudely interrupts erin’s game on one of those old arcade machines, they end up hooking up back at garrett’s place...top gun soundtrack included! (you’ll see what i mean! gotta love DJ dan!) the chemistry between garrett and erin is going great until the cold hard fact emerges. erin is only in NYC as a SUMMER intern and needs to go back to san francisco, thus garrett decides they should try something long-distance since he doesn’t want to lose her. does it work out? well, you’ll see... ;)

the script is really well-written, and lots of hilarious moments throughout the entire movie! i almost felt like the supporting characters in this made it gain the extra star because they’re just that awesome. christina applegate is the older, OCD, razor-sharp witty sister, and jason sudeikis (AKA floyd from 30 rock) is hilarious with the whole ‘tache routine! even phil the husband (jim gaffigan) is hilarious! although my fave character was the crazy-ass roommate dan... i also really liked the animation sequences of all the flights and texts between garrett and erin because it adds to the cutesy-ness to the movie. i’ve always thought of drew barrymore as a really cute person, but if you pair her with justin long... double cuteness! highly recommend to those currently in a LD relationship and for those who don’t like/believe in them because this one keeps it quite real... ;)

CHARLIE ST. CLOUD
3 out of 5 stars

OMG such a sad/heartbreaking story about a HS boy who can’t let go of his guilt and memory of his dead little brother… of course, i’m miss sensitive when it comes to movies like this, thus i gave it an overall 3 out of 5, when in reality, it’s more of a 2… ;)



cutie pie zac efron plays the titular character, charlie st. cloud AKA mr. captain of the sailing team and mr. mcdreamy of his HS. he and his little bro sam compete in sailing competitions in quincy harbor all the time, winning gold medals and better yet, getting a sailing scholarship to STANFORD! so, graduation rolls around, and charlie can’t wait to start college. his relationship with his little bro is very adorable, since sam can be both annoying at times yet cute. he even decides he’s going to teach lil’ sammy how to play baseball the “right” way, so that sam can make the town’s team in the fall. (and sam is a DIE-HARD boston red sox fan too) so, when their mom puts charlie on “sam duty” AKA babysitting, charlie decides to sneak out to a post-graduation party. well, sam wants charlie to drive him to a friend’s house, and on the way there, they get into a major car accident… sam doesn’t make it, and that leaves charlie devastated… :’(


i think overall, this was just OK. like i said, it’s very sad and heartbreaking, but at the same time, it could have been done better by fleshing out charlie’s character a bit more by i.e. what happened to his mom?, how can one hook up with a ghost?, and what happened to him in the five years between the death of his bro and the present? the whole love story between him and tess is sweet, but they could have casted someone better for tess… also, i found it the story a bit choppy and a bit too much sixth-sense-y for me… (the whole “i can see dead people” storyline) best scene is when he’s interacting with his BFF tim who fought in iraq, and then you realize it’s his headstone thus…


p.s. oh! apparently zac passed up on footloose 2011 for this, which i think was a misjudgement on his agency’s call.. stick with the singing/dancing routine. it’s a little too early for dramatic roles, z… ;)

SHREK FOREVER AFTER
4 out of 5 stars

the final installment of the shrek saga was GREAT! (probably just as great as the 1st and 2nd ones) all the characters from far far away reprise in their original roles, and this time, shrek’s got BABIES!!! ;)



shrek (voiced by mike meyers) is back, taking on the responsibilities as “daddy” to his beautiful ogre babies and as “husband” to princess fiona. (cameron diaz) even donkey is MARRIED to dragon, and their crazy little dragon-donkey babies fly around shrek’s home annoying shrek… being married “happily ever after” seems mundane and restless to the big green ogre, so when he destroys the birthday cake at his kids’ birthday party, fiona senses that something is wrong with him… turns out that he wants to be just shrek the angry ogre again, so when the evil little rumplestilskin hears him say this: he immediately drafts up a contract for shrek to be an “ogre for a day”. things are going great in this alternative world, except for the fact that he’s no longer married to fiona, thus no kids, he’s not even friends with donkey, and puss is FAT! oh, and rumple is somehow king of far far away… (you’ll see why he hates on our shrek so much…)


i thought that this storyline was quite original, with LOTS of funny little moments that made fun of fairytales, just like the creators did in the first and second shreks. best moments were: shrek’s babies; the donkey-dragon babies; pinnochio’s scenes; fat puss in boots (you got faaaaaaancy!); the pied piper (i dunno why but i thought it was funny when they were talking about an elusive bounty hunter and it was him…); the last scene; rumple’s witch rave; and OMG, rumple’s pet goose FIFI! i kind of wonder if this will even be the last one… kinda hoping it wouldn’t be, but then again, it probably should be. this isn’t the SAW movies, afterall…  we can't make it go on forever! :P