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Showing posts from September, 2010

"Let Me In"

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I didn't expect that "Let Me In" would be my cup of tea - Fandango.com says that it's rated "R" for "Strong bloody horror violence." However, the film ended up surprising me, in that its actual content - when one looks further than the bloodshed - told an interesting story, and one that we all might be able to relate to, even as humans. Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee, "Matching Jack") doesn't have a lot of friends and is being bullied by his fellow classmates, so when Abby (Chloe Moretz, "Kick-Ass") moves in across the hall from him, he is happy to be able to make a new friend. From the very start, however, something is off about her - she tells him that they can't be friends, and she doesn't wear shoes while walking in the snow, even though she says her feet aren't cold. Abby lives with a man Owen presumes is her father (Richard Jenkins, "Eat Pray Love"), and they pretty much keep to themselves. Soon, again

"Secretariat"

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I told people yesterday that I was "finally" going to get to see "Secretariat," which is a little ironic because it won't be out in theaters for another two weeks. However, my parents had seen it at a Livonia screening two weeks earlier, and there was an earlier Southfield screening that I hadn't been able to go to. Luckily, Jackie from Free Is My Life was able to hook me up with a ticket to this one, and we definitely go the VIP treatment, as the tickets were set up through Disney: we got to skip to the front of the line and had reserved seats. I was prepared to like "Secretariat" after the rave reviews I had heard, but it actually ended up surprising me—in a mediocre way. It was a bit slow for the first half or so, but then it picked up rapidly during the second part of the movie. Penny Chenery (Diane Lane, "Nights in Rodanthe") is called home for her mother's funeral, and she learns that two of her mares are pregnant by one of t

"You Again"

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I had tickets to see "the owl movie" last night (aka "Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole") but when I won tickets from The Oakland Press to see "You Again," I of course decided to see that instead. The trailer looked funny and it was a movie I had been wanting to see for a while. The movie was cute overall, but unfortunately after starting out very funny, the humor level deteriorated during the rest of the film. Marni (Kristen Bell, "When is Rome") is flying home for her brother's wedding, when she finally hears from her mom (Jamie Lee Curtis, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua") whom her soon-to-be sister-in-law is: Joanna (Odette Yustman, TV's "October Road"), aka JJ, aka Joanna's "arch nemesis" from high school. Needless to say, even though it has been eight years since she graduated, she is not too pleased about this, and it gets even worse when she meets Joanna, who pretends not to remember h

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"

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I was excited to see this movie. The trailer looked great, and after seeing the original "Wall Street" (from 1987) on DVD a few months ago, I was happy to see Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas's character) making a comeback. After the sequel droned on for over two hours, however, I was definitely reconsidering my excitement. Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen") has a great job on Wall Street working for his mentor, Lewis Zabel (Frank Langella, "The Box"). When the crash of 2008 starts to hit his company, though, Jacob suddenly finds himself on the brink of unemployment. When Bretton James (Josh Brolin, "Jonah Hex") offers him a job at his rival company after Jacob makes his stock almost crash (he's impressed with Jacob's skills, apparently), he takes it, so he will have the opportunity to enact more revenge on Bretton. Jacob's girlfriend, Winnie Gecko (Carey Mulligan, "An Education"), tries not t

"The Town"

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"The Town" is the second major feature film directed by Ben Affleck, and although I haven't seen his first, "Gone Baby Gone," I had heard good things about it. The trailer for "The Town" looked great and I was hoping the movie would live up to it; in fact, the movie actually ended up surpassing my expectations. Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck, "Extract") has been robbing banks with his crew for a while now, but this is the first time he and his buddies take a hostage - bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall, "Please Give"). They release her unharmed but she is still traumatized. When his buddy James (Jeremy Renner, TV's "The Unusuals") suggest that one of them checks up on her to make sure she doesn't have any info that could jeopardize them, Doug volunteers for the role; what he doesn't know, however, is that he will soon fall in love with her, even though she has no idea he was part of the bank robbery. Meanwhile

"Flipped"

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I had wanted to see "Flipped" at the advance screening back in August or so, but it was too far for me to drive. It was then announced that although the release date for some cities (mostly major ones, like NYC, LA, etc.) would be August 27th, "Flipped" had no release date yet for Michigan - rather ironic, since much of it, if not all, was filmed in Ann Arbor, and many area residents allowed their classic cars to be used during filming. "Flipped" was finally released in Michigan this weekend, and although it didn't fully live up to my expectations, I am glad I saw it. When Bryce (newcomer Callan McAuliffe) moves to a new neighborhood as a young boy, he is promptly greeted by Juli (Madeline Carroll, "The Spy Next Door"), who immediately wants to become friends with him. He is of the age where boys are made fun of for hanging out with girls, however, and so Bryce does his best to avoid Juli. This goes on until about the 7th or 8th grade, when,

"The Social Network"

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When I joined Facebook in March 2005, before the end of my senior year of high school, I didn't really know what it was. I had received an email invite from a friend, and when I logged on it turned out there were about five people (out of 500 or so) from my graduating class who had also registered for it. The profiles looked a little something like this and the concept was simple - upload a profile picture and some information about yourself, including your school, relationship status, and interests. Over the last five years, Facebook has evolved in many ways, and now it's not just about sharing information - there is a Marketplace where you can list your apartment to sublet, a Games section, and tons of ads and other things to keep one occupied. The profiles have evolved from something slightly more complicated than the original to something that now has multiple tabs for your Wall (where friends can leave you messages), photo albums, and other information. I knew the site

"Easy A"

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First off, it is refreshing to see a movie that is actually funnier than its trailer. I had seen the trailer for "Easy A" several months ago, and I remember thinking that it looked hilarious. I had tickets to see "Secretariat" last night, but since that is not coming out until October 8th, when tickets for "Easy A" became available I decided to see that instead, and I'm glad I did. "Easy A" is about Olive (Emma Stone, "Zombieland"), a typical high school girl. Her friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka, TV's "Phil of the Future"), is always probing for details of Olive's non-existent love life, so one day Olive makes up a story and says that she had a one-night stand with a college guy. The class "bible-thumper," Marianne (Amanda Bynes, "Sydney White") happens to overhear, and the news spreads like wildfire. Soon, Olive is branded a "slut", which is ironic since she is actually still a virgin.

"Machete"

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First of all, this screening was at 5pm, which was a little early. From the trailer I could see it would be a "slice 'n dice" movie but it had a pretty good cast, so I decided to go see it. Lindsay Lohan, Steven Seagal, Cheech, and Don Johnson, I could see why you were in this project - you needed the money, I get it - but the rest of you? DeNiro, Jessica Alba? You could have much better than joining this cast. Machete (Danny Trejo, "Predators") is hired by Booth (Jeff Fahey, TV's "Lost") to kill the infamous Senator McLaughlin (Robert DeNiro, "Everybody's Fine"), who has taken a hard stance against illegal immigration in his bid for re-election. What Machete doesn't know, however, is that Booth actually works for McLaughlin, and is trying to generate publicity for him. Meanwhile, Immigrations officer Sartana (Jessica Alba, "Valentine's Day") has been tracking the immigrants in the area for a while and notices Mach