CRAZY HEART
5 out of 5 stars

“son, i’ve played sick, drunk, divorced, and on the run. bad blake hasn’t missed a goddamn show in his whole fucking life.”
– otis “bad” blake

WOW! jeff bridges won best oscar in 2009 due to this role as bad blake, and he sure as hell EARNS it in this! this movie puts that gweneth paltrow as drunk-ass country singer movie TO SHAME. fox searchlight, you’ve done it again… ;)

so… who is this bad blake? the movie starts out with a hobo-looking dude (jeff bridges) with a kicker hat and old-school aviators drive up to a bowling alley in his ’78 suburban named old bessie. he’s pissed off at someone named jack, and basically goes straight to the bar… (total alchy!) he orders up a double of mcclure’s whiskey (his fave), and thinks he can just put it on his tab. unfortunately, his agent jack knows what kind of spending habits bad has, and brokered a deal with the venues to have bad pay for his own liquor. bad can’t believe that his life has come down to playing for small audiences at bowling alleys and saloons, but enter jean craddock (maggie gyllenhaal), a reporter from a local sante fe newspaper, doing a piece on bad blake. while in sante fe, jean and bad fall in love, but bad is still reeling from the issues of his mentee, tommy sweet (colin farrell transformed into a country music star!), outshining him… but it’s not just jean he’s fallen in love with… jean has a little four-year-old boy named buddy, who inspires bad blake to “wake up” and possibly write one of his best songs yet… ;)

i originally perceived this movie to be a depressing movie about a dying country star with crazy issues (both family and external), but there was a really good storyline to this one… it’s not so much about bad blake’s issues per se, but what he does to overcome them and how he turns his life around after a chance meeting with a woman and her son. jeff bridges proves yet again that HE CAN ACT WELL, and he’s got it down to every mannerism. both bridges and farrell sing, and actually quite well! but it’s really the soundtrack that brings this movie altogether. they say that country music is supposed to be about stories and telling one’s life story… partnah, add this to your queue b/c you don’t want to miss out on this story. ;)

THE WARD
3 out of 5 stars

hmm... in some ways, i thought this was better than sucker punch because 1) definitely scarier, more thriller-like 2) the overall story makes sense 3) amber heard might be a better actress than emily browning? ;)

so, the movie starts with a skinny blond teenager (amber heard) running through the woods, then setting a farmhouse in the oregon countryside on fire. the police apprehend her, and take her to this asylum, where a dr. gerald stringer (jared harris from mad men) is trying to treat her. turns out this girl’s name is kristen, and she learns that there are 4 other girls living in the same ward. they are: 1) emily: the weird one 2) iris: the nerd and artsy one 3) zoe: a girl who thinks she’s 5 years old 4) sarah: the seductive one. kristen tries her best to escape whenever possible, but as it turns out, a ghost named alice seems to be haunting and killing each girl, one by one... there seems to be a secret that the other four girls seem to be harboring, but kristen doesn’t understand why the ghost seems to want her. well, there’s a major plot twist towards the very end involving a traumatic event and delusions and well...you really want to know? i’ll just give you a hint: remember that movie with john cusack called identity? ;)

this was john carpenter’s first movie in a while, and it’s quite a comeback, IMO... i thought being that j. carpenter is considered “the master of suspense” that this movie was quite the thriller esp. trying to figure out why these things were happening to the girls and the real mystery behind alice. the final revelation is pretty awesome, which is why this 2 star movie gets an extra star from me! let’s just say this is no shutter island, mindyou, but it works for me. (hell, it makes waaay more sense than sucker punch) i think if they explained why alice’s mind fractured the way it did, this could have done well. plus, why market this as a horror movie when in fact, it’s really a thriller? SMH... :/

GNOMEO & JULIET
3 out of 5 stars

this one is cute and got the cheesy “we made it exclusively for the kids” vibe, so automatically it loses points b/c it lacks the sophistication... (just comparing it to the latest pixar and dreamworks films, that’s all!)

and that is just too bad... b/c i feel like if pixar or dreamworks took this one on, they would have made it great! well, this one is pretty straight-forward in terms of plot: on verona drive, there are two rival gnome households...the reds vs. the blues. the reds, lead by lord redbrick (voiced by michael caine) and his daughter juliet (voiced by emily blunt) are proud of their pedestal and tulips, where as the blues, lead by lady bluebury (voiced by maggie smith) and her son gnomeo (voiced by james mcavoy) are equally proud of their flowers and this flower tree lord bluebury planted. there’s also a tybalt (voiced by jason statham) as well as a “benny” AKA benvolio, even a neutral mercutio type AKA featherstone the plastic flamingo! obviously....gnomeo and juliet fall in love after one night out of their respective gardens, and of course, their love becomes too much to bear since it’s forbidden! (GASP) but like most kids’ movies, they can’t show the “true” ending to the ever-popular shakespearian play, so there’s the happy ending version... ;) (not to mention: the ELTON JOHN SOUNTRACK!) 

overall, it’s watchable for both kids and adults alike...however, the flamingo’s back story is the saddest and also the most random! it leaves you wondering why they included such a sad story, but i guess one can’t really take advantage of true love? or is it the fact that if one experiences a breakup, others suffer along with too? waaaaaay too deep for kids... hell, it’s even too deep for me, and i’m 25 years old! :P

THE EAGLE
2 out of 5 stars

ehh, this was original enough for a movie set during the roman empire, but not as good enough as gladiator or even spartacus, that starz TV series... this movie felt like it wasn’t cast right. i mean, you have channing tatum...WHY?!? then, mark strong in a really small role...WHY?!? then to top it all off, DONALD SUTHERLAND?!? :/

the eagle is based upon the book by rosemary sutcliff. and it’s about a commander named marcus flavius aquila (channing tatum), who takes a post in britain to defend roman territories against the “evil” and “savage” druids. he’s haunted by the memories of his father, and he helps save his men from a druid attack one quiet and unexpecting night. he sends out a patrol to see what’s the dealio with the grain delivery, and of course, the druids attack right away... he kills the chieftain of the druids, but he’s injured badly during the attack, resulting in a honorable discharge from the roman army. it isn’t enough that his family name is tainted by his father, whom we learn “lost” the golden eagle of the ninth legion during a vicious attack with the tribes beyond hadrian’s wall... so, marcus feels like he has no choice but to retrieve the golden eagle back from wherever it is with the help of his briton slave esca (jamie bell), who can speak gaelic and navigate this no man’s land. marcus’s uncle (donald sutherland) tells him that it’s a suicide mission, but marcus and esca go forth on their journey... will they find the eagle? what really happened to marcus’s father? if you want to know, put it on top of your netflix queue or redbox it. (but i can tell you- it’s no mystery and the story is quite straight-forward)

like i said, there’s really nothing special about this one, but it is quite original since most roman empire flicks concentrate on caesar or conquests in germania. this one is all about britain (good god, how many tribes were there back in the day?!), and it’s just alright... i think the casting had a big impact on the final product of this movie, plus the story is very linear. seriously, don’t expect any surprises with this one, and the pacing is kind of slow... plus, one thing that bothered me greatly was the american accent! why mark strong decided to speak in an american accent is BEYOND me... comeon, mark! i expect better from you, OF ALL PPL... :/

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU
5 out of 5 stars

OMG, EXCELLENT MOVIE... i finally BROKE this dud streak!!!  just the visual effects with the doors, the interesting/intriguing plot, the romantic chemistry between matt damon and emily blunt makes this one sooooo worthwhile! makes me wonder...are we in truly in charge of our lives, or are we all part of a pre-determined plan designed by this “chairman”? ;)

matt damon stars as congressman david norris, a man whose got his eyes set on a senate seat in the great state of new york... as he progresses with his campaign which is going beautifully, he has a setback, where the new york post runs a scandalous photo of him pulling a prank during his college days. (LOL, he mooned his classmates/friends...) he loses the election, but the night of the election before his defeat speech, he goes into the bathroom of the waldorf to practice, and finds a young woman named elise (emily blunt) hiding in the men’s bathroom from hotel security. (turns out she was crashing a wedding) they kiss because there’s this obvious connection between them, and this leads to david giving a different speech...one that’s more heartfelt and truthful to the american public and his constituents. this then leads him to take on a job as a partner in an investment firm on wall st., and on the way to work, he bumps into...elise. this time, he even gets her #, but he soon finds out that there’s a lucrative group called the “adjustment bureau” that helps ppl get on track according to their plans, including intervening with subjects when necessary esp. when subjects like david fall in love when they’re not suppose to... david can’t believe that his whole life is some predetermined plan, so he does whatever it takes to be with elise. think the bureau would just let that be? gosh, no... that’s why they send in a specialist named thompson to convince david otherwise... ;)

like i said, EXCELLENT movie with a great screenplay and a wonderful adaptation to phillip k. dick’s short story! the chemistry between matt damon and emily blunt is really good...funny moments, romantic sparks, and of course, all that comes from two great actors enjoying/fleshing out their characters real well. one can’t help but think if our lives are on some plan and some predetermined destiny, and this movie explores just that! it’s great as a sci-fi thriller, a romantic dramedy, and of course, action with all the craziness that happens in the end! SEE THIS MOVIE NOW!!! (you’ll thank me later)

p.s. this was the perfect movie to watch before i head to the big apple this weekend!  mainly b/c this movie takes place in NYC + lots of great scenes weaving in and out of the city... ;) 

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT
2 out of 5 stars

darren: “so...do i turn into a bat?”
larten crepsley: “no! no! that is bullshit.”

strange, strange, strange... it’s strange because it makes no sense, LOL. while the whole premise of a teenage vampire has been done, but this one is a little bit different. combine a circus troupe with good vs. evil vamps and two teenage boys wanting to become vampires, and you get this!

darren shan, a well-adjusted sixteen year old boy living in boring suburbia, has a BFF named steve. (it’s laser from the kids are alright!) he and steve decide to break curfew, and go see a freak show that’s in town... there, darren and steve see the bearded lady AKA madam truska (a sexy selma hayek- when is she not?), alexander ribs (orlando jones), a wolfman, a limb generating lady (30 rock’s jane krakowski), and of course, larten crepsley and his madame octa. (john c. reilly with his red & blue pet spider) darren, fueled by his obsession with spiders, decides to steal or “borrow” madame octa, and unexpectedly overhears steve’s plea to make him into a vampire. larten rejects him by stating that he’s got “bad blood” (whatever that means), and that angers steve... the next day at school, madame octa escapes from darren’s backpack, and the spider bites steve putting him in a coma. without an antidote, steve is dead, so darren pleads with larten to give him an antidote BUT under one condition: he must become a half-vampire... thus, darren becomes the vampire’s assistant! ;)

there’s more to it... there’s this fat guy in a suit named mr. tiny who wants a war between the so-called “vampaneze” AKA the ruthless vamps vs. the good guys AKA larten, willem dafoe’s character and some dead vampire named vincent. larten and darren hide out at the cirque’s winter campgrounds, until the vampaneze come for darren... it’s very twilight-y esp. with darren falling for a girl at the campgrounds, and the ending is very open-ended, which means sequel? oh, please no... i’m just going to file this one under the “DO NOT SEQUEL” file and call it a day. who’s with me? :/

SUCKER PUNCH
3 out of 5 stars

“you have all the weapons you need. NOW...FIGHT!!!” – the wise man

gotta give zack snyder points for creativity and originality on this one! highly stylized in his usual graphic novel wash with an intricate multi-layered plot... ;) (but not as well written as inception, mindyou)

if you can’t really figure out what’s going on from the trailer... (it’s OK b/c i didn’t either) this movie is about a pretty young blond girl nicknamed baby doll (emily browning), whose mother dies suddenly and her stepfather tries to molest her and her sister as “revenge” for not being included in her will. she tries to defend herself with a gun, but accidentally shoots her sister. this is where it gets a little confusing... instead of the police putting her in jail, her stepfather takes her to the lennox house of the mentally insane, where she’s slated to receive a lobotomy. but before the lobotomy takes place, baby doll retreats into a fantastical world where the asylum is a nightclub/brothel run by ruthless blue (oscar issac- prince john from robin hood: ridley scott version) and the dance teacher, madame gorski. (carla gugino from watchmen with a thick russian accent and stilletos!) baby doll soon becomes friends with sweet pea (abbie cornish), rocket (jena malone), blondie (vanessa hudgens, WHY?), and amber. (jamie chung) the fab five decide to make a daring escape out of lennox house, but they’ll need five items: 1) map; 2) fire; 3) knife; 4) key; 5) ? they’ll also need to obtain these items before the “high roller” comes for baby doll. (LOL, john hamm is randomly in this...)

i think the thing that bothered me most about this movie is how baby doll’s dance fantasies don’t mesh at all with the ongoing plot. one minute she’s fighting nazi zombies, the other...trying to defuse a bomb headed for a city. very very strange/confusing... i thought this would have been a stronger movie if they just stuck with the fantasy world of the brothel and then the reality of lennox house. too much was going on, and it’s not like it was done well or made sense like nolan did for inception... the chicas do a great job in their respective roles, and kudos to carla gugino and oscar issac for great acting! not to mention...AWESOME SOUNDTRACK!!! this movie feels like a string of well-produced music videos. even down to the lack of a plot that makes sense! :P

CEDAR RAPIDS
2 out of 5 stars

this could have been better… with ed helms from the office, john c. reilly, anne heche, stephen root (“have you seeen…my stapler?” dude from office space), and kurtwood smith (eric’s dad from that 70s show), this is the best they could come up with?! puh-lease…i’d rather see a conference episode from the office...when michael scott was around… :/

so, why is this movie set in cedar rapids? what’s so special about this city? well, the ASMI (american society of mutual insurances- something like that) have an annual conference in the wonderful city of cedar rapids, and the president of ASMI (kurtwood smith) gives out the prestigious two-diamond award to the best insurance co. in the midwest. tim lippe (ed helms) is a man-boy, who is pre-engaged to his 7th grade teacher mrs. V, and gets to ride an airplane for the first time to travel to CR to try and win the two-diamond for his company. originally, another dude, roger limky was suppose to get the award this year, but he committed “suicide”. (not really- more like sexual asphyxiation, LOL) so, once tim gets to his hotel, he befriends a ho (it’s maeby from arrested development!), becomes roomies with ronald (the senator from HBO’s the wire) and sex-crazed/alcoholic dean zeigler. (john c. reilly- HILARIOUS!) he even hooks up with another insurance agent named joan, and discovers the truth to why his co. keeps winning the two-diamonds… such an adventure! :P

best scenes HANDS DOWN are the ones with john c. reilly, who is one HILARIOUS guy. but we knew that from his movies with will ferrell! ed helms basically plays the same character as when he’s on the office, and that to me was boring… the general plot is very original, but like i said, this could have been better/funnier. i think if they got a funnier/quirkier joan, a better script, and more debauchery, we would have gone somewhere with this. instead, there’s a lot of drinking and contemplating. too much thinking goin on for a comedy, dammit! :P

SOURCE CODE
4 out of 5 stars

“this isn’t time travel. it’s time reassignment.” – prof. rutledge

a very VERY interesting concept re: time and space continuums and going back in time i.e. the past in order to prevent something from happening to the present and/or future… netflix categorized this movie as a sci-fi thriller, and i guess technically it is a sci-fi because it does deal with science, but i enjoyed this one as more of a thriller, actually… ;)

jake gyllenhaal stars as capt. colter stevens, who suddenly awakes in the body of a guy named sean fentress, a teacher from some little illinois town. he’s on a chicago-bound train, and a woman named christina (michelle monaghan) starts talking to him, as if she’s known him for a while… capt. stevens is immediately freaked out by his surroundings, and goes to the bathroom to figure out what’s going on. while he’s trying to figure it all out, the train suddenly EXPLODES a la michael bay style, and then capt. stevens wakes up in some weird space capsule with screens and stuff. capt. goodwin (vera famiga) comes on one of the screens, telling him that he’s at beleagured castle…whatever that means, right? she conducts a memory test with playing cards and verbal dictation, then she explains to him that he’s been participating in a project called source code, where he is sent back in time (so to speak) in the body of a man, who died in a train explosion a couple days ago. (!) he is given 8 min. to figure out who the bomber is, where the bomb is located, and most importantly of all: help prevent a second attack. all that within 8 MINUTES. time is definitely of the essence here, but capt. stevens wants to know why he’s involved with this lucrative govt project? you’ll see why, and why everyone is hestitate towards telling him outright… ;)

it was definitely not what i had expected! in fact, the reason why capt. stevens was involved in source code really gave this one a good plot twist, thus the extra star… the producers and director really made this one interesting by exploring the idea of alternate realities and asking the question of “what would happen if you did X differently?” i mean, at times, you wonder if this train was meant to explode and these ppl on it were suppose to die? it’s a very interesting concept, and i really liked the flow/story structure. the acting has depth to it, and of course, jake gyllehaal whose played army dude many times really gets into his conflicted and confused character. i thought the “villain” and his rationale for destruction/chaos was a little bit weak, but leading up to figuring out who it is was rewarding enough… ;)

THE WARRIOR’S WAY
3 out of 5 stars

not as great as a kim-chi western should be, and also not as good as ninja assassin, IMO... however, stylistically, this one was sort of a hybrid of the two. (graphic novel story-telling with the action of a kim-chi western, i suppose?)

so, do you remember that movie i reviewed called “the good, the bad and the weird” from last year? that’s a kim-chi western because it’s got the spicy-ness of the korean people, set within a good ol’ fashion western! this... it’s definitely got some spice coming from director sngmoo lee and hottie jang dong-gun (south korea’s tom cruise) starring as the warrior AKA yang. the great sad flute warrior yang is tasked with killing the last member of his rival’s clan, which appears to be an infant girl princess. his consciousness gets the better of him, and he spares her life, which makes him public enemy #1 on his clan (the sad flutes)’s list. thus, he and the infant flee to america, where yang tries to find his friend, smiley, who apparently is running a laundry service in a little western circus town. as yang and the infant begin to settle in, there’s an evil colonel (a truly evil danny huston), raping all the young/pretty women in this town... yang soon finds out that lynn (a plain and redhead kate bosworth), a circus knife thrower, had her entire family killed by the colonel, thus helps her hone her knife throwing skills... ronald the town drunk (a hilarious geoffrey rush) is called back into “action” when the colonel comes back with a posse after an attempt on his life goes wrong... but then, the sad flutes catch up with yang for betraying their trust, and it’s a showdown between west and the east! yeeeee-haw! :P

the background of yang is not as complex as the main character in ninja assassin, which did not add depth to the character of yang. i thought kate bosworth and geoffrey rush did a great job with their roles, but jang dong-gun seemed to struggle some... maybe he was nervous b/c this was his first english-speaking role? maybe...maybe not. i thought the little princess was sooooo adorable beyond words, and danny huston really played the villain quite well. i think i would have liked to have seen a bit more action... this director could take a few pointers or two from graphic novel director, zack snyder. snyder would have maxed the action out and probably sexualized the story more between yang and lynn, LOL. but that would have been OK because afterall, what are graphic novels good for? :P

UNKNOWN
3 out of 5 stars

such a DISAPPOINTMENT!!! ugh... it was going so well, then it took a really BAD detour into absurdity!!! jaume collet-serra, i expected better from you... :/

and to think, i was SO EXCITED when i heard i was getting this movie next on my queue! anyway... this one is about DR. martin harris. (the great liam neeson & i capitalized DR. b/c he kept emphasizing that he was indeed a phD like 20X- douchebag... :P) so, the movie starts with dr. martin harris arriving in berlin, germany with his beautiful blond wife, elizabeth. (the ice cold january jones AKA betty draper from mad men) they get into a cab, and head to the hotel... upon arriving, martin realizes that he’s forgotten his briefcase with all his valuables and documents, so he hops in another cab to head back to the airport. they run into some heavy city traffic, but then out of nowhere, the cab ends up in an accident thus plunging into the river! his gorgeous ukrainian taxi driver (diane kruger from inglorious basterds) saves his life, but martin ends up in a coma for like...5 days. he wakes up in the hospital, but can’t recall the accident. he then ends up going back to the hotel to look for his wife, but another man (aidan quinn) has taken over his identity! (and his wife doesn’t remember who he is either!) WTF?!? from then on, he enlists the help of a former secret police officer/spy from the days of communist germany to help him figure out this “conspiracy”. the truth about martin is absurd, but the actual conspiracy is pretty good. i have to give them plot points for that... ;)

part of the problem with this movie is how it ends... it starts out beautifully with lots of intrigue re: martin’s past (flashbacks of him and his wife, his childhood, etc.) as well as a good premise. who is the real martin harris and why has his identity been compromised? well, there are a lot of good chases and suspensful moments that make this thrilling, but then a really BAD and absurd detour occurs! all that chasing and for what?! well, i won’t give it away, but let’s just say that a secret group of highly skilled assassins is too tarantino for me. if i wanted to watch kill bill, i would have done so! :P

BLUE VALENTINE
3 out of 5 stars

WOW, there are no words to describe this! this was one intense movie about a broken relationship that’s beyond salvation, and we get a chance to see how it began/how it evolved...

this movie begins with a couple, living in rural pennsylvania, with their little girl, and it looks like the little girl is looking for her lost dog, megan. dean (ryan gosling), her father, consoles her, and they go wake up “mommy” AKA cindy. (a very slim michelle williams) turns out, mommy is a nurse at the local doctor’s office, and daddy is a house painter. from then, there’s flashbacks to their past when dean gets his first job as a mover, when dean and cindy first meet, when cindy finds out she’s pregnant, when cindy marries dean, etc. as you begin to notice from the very get-go, cindy and dean have fallen out of love, and both are equally unhappy with the way their lives have turned out... there’s no spark, no sex, the constant arguing, the bickering, and eventually it escalates into a really BAD situation at cindy’s workplace. if you like fluffy rom coms, you’ll hate this because there is no “happily ever after”... :(

stylistically, i thought it would have been better if the director just stuck with a style and stayed with it... i mean, was this suppose to be more of a "mockumentary" with lots of ad-libbing and filming the true/raw emotions of his co-stars? or was this suppose to be fictionalized, thus a movie-movie? it’s a mix of both, and i found that to be a bit off for me... both actors are truly wonderful in this, and their “chemistry” is really good/convincing. both are intense and in each other’s faces as well as tender and loving when their relationship first starts. a bit slow-paced but an overall good story about how a relationship deteriorates over time. however, if you think about it and end up watching this, you’ll realize that dean and cindy were together for the wrong reasons. did they realize that at the time? no, so i guess that’s why people say that you shouldn’t rush into something when you’re not 100% certain... ;)