New In Town

While this movie follows the standard RomCom formula and is totally predictable, it does have a couple of things in it that make it worth a watch. First, the cold weather and fish-out-of-water Miami girl spending her winter in Minnesota is very interesting especially for folks for have known both extremes. Second, the great cluster of locals make for enough funny moments to keep us interested.

Renée Zellweger looks her age and as if shes had too much work done to hide. Sorry Renée but some of the close-ups were not very flattering. Perhaps this was by design? If so, the effect is successful.

Harry Connick Jr. plays her professional "rival" but personal love-interest. Similar to his character in "Hope Floats", this character is scared and flawed and available. The relationship is a bit rushed by the time constraints of the movie and never really felt real to me.

The real "characters" of this story are the locals, played to perfection by the likes of Siobhan Fallon, J. K. Simmons, and Frances Conroy. If you know anyone from Minnesota you will surely recognize these folks. No offense intended - I love these people. Ja sure.

This is sort of a cross between "Gung Ho" and "Hope Floats" and "Norma Ray", but don't read too much into that comparison.

Watch this movie with someone who has had to get out of coveralls in a hurry.

Angels & Demons

Zealotry redefined. Ron Howard delivers another fun, exciting, nail-biter. Not exactly a sequel to DaVinci Code, but not totally unrelated either. Tom Hanks returns as Dr. Langdon, the professor who defies labeling.

Ayelet Zurer plays the female lead who stops short at becoming a love interest of the good doctor. Ewan McGregor plays the youngest of Vatican leadership. Stellan Skarsgård, one of the best-known Swedes in Hollywood (Bootstrap Bill) plays the head of the Vatican's Swiss Guard. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays a senior cardinal and the stage is set.

Who killed the Pope and hired an assassin, played well by Nikolaj Lie Kaas, to kill the favorites to replace him? Who are the Illuminati and where are they hiding?

With a little help from Galileo and a lady bio-physicist, Dr. Langdon comes to the rescue again, this time at the request of the Vatican.

This great international cast give the movie a very authentic feel. There are so many wonderful accents and looks and voices. The soundtrack adds big-time to the feel of the movie.

Watch this with someone who believes in both science and religion.

Passengers

This movie is billed as a mystery. To me, the biggest mystery is how long it will take you to figure out what is going on. No spoilers here, so this has to be a fairly short review.

Anne Hathaway plays a trauma psychologist working with victims of an airline disaster. When their stories differ she pushes a little farther into the lives of her "patients" than normal. Soon a web of interconnection becomes obvious and the story unfolds.

Patrick Wilson plays one of the passengers and is creepy good. Who is helping whom more?

Andre Braugher, David Morse, and Dianne Wiest do a wonderful job of keeping the story going and both confusing and exposing the truth.

Watch this movie with someone who has fun guessing how movies will end and time how long it takes.

Crash

Everyone is guilty of, and everyone is a victim of, racism. Regardless of who we are and what we deny, this applies to all of us. If you have not yet seen this movie, you should. Watching this movie with a group of people is far more effective than any diversity training I've been exposed to.

Nominated for 6, it won 3 Oscar's in 2006 - Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Writing. All are deserved.

Talk about an all-start cast: Matt Dillion, Terrance Howard, Thandie Newton, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, and Michael Peña just to name a few. There are more for sure.

The acting is superb and just about everyone should be able to relate to at least one of these characters. That is what makes this movie so special - it's easy to put yourself in the place of at least one character. Lessons should be learned.

Watch this with someone who is, in one way or another, different from you.

Outlander

Not to be confused with the 1981 classic with Sean Connery "Outland", this story takes place a few thousand years earlier. In fact, this story takes place in what is now Norway in 700 and change A.D. Basically a group of Vikings meets a guy from the future who crash-lands his ship on earth with a stowaway in the form of a bio-luminescent dragon.

James Caviezel plays the uber-tough ET. John Hurt and Ron Perlman play warring kings and are totally convincing. Well done guys. Jack Huston plays a king wannabe and romantic competition for the space traveler. Sophia Myles is that love interest and tougher than nails daughter of the reigning king. See the story developing?

There is a thin spot in the plot that is never really cleared up, but it does not really matter. Why was this space traveler transporting the bodies of his dead family someone other than where he lived, and what caused his ship to crash? Did the stowaway cause the damage that lead to the crash? Perhaps, but that is never made clear.

With an R-rating for violence and some gore, this movie could easily have been PG-13. I'm guessing some lobbying was done to get the R-rating in the hopes of more ticket sales.

Watch this movie with someone who likes dragon movies.

Fanboys

To many people there are only two kinds in this world, Trekkers and Star Wars fans. This movie is a must-see for the Star Wars fans. Yes - it totally makes fun of fans of both stories. As the movie points out, never refer to Star Wars as just "a movie".

If you have seen or read most of the Star Wars saga you will not get most of the really funny bits. There are tributes to not only Star Wars, but most Lucas films. Not sure about the Princess Bride bits, but they were funny. There are also some very fun cameo appearance by Star Wars alumni Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams. Funny stuff. William Shatner also shows up at a Trek convention in Vegas. Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob) have a very short, very funny scene.

Every one needs their Death Star, their defining moment, their life's quest, the most important accomplishment of their life. That is how this group of Fanboys talk themselves into trekking (sorry couldn't help the pun) across the country to get a sneak peak at a new episode. They make it to Skywalker Ranch in northern California and get caught.

It's really not that bad of a story. It is full of fun characters. There is even a sweet little love story as part of the subplots. There are few loathsome characters but they are not on screen long enough to make a negative impact.

Watch this movie with your costumes on and lots of popcorn.

Star Trek (2009)

Wow. If you were not a Trek fan before (I was) you should almost certainly be one after watching this great prequel. Do you need to have watch the original TV series in the 70's to get this? No, but it will certainly help. You may not get the inside jokes, the puns, and the surprise relationships as much if you have not seen these characters on the little screen. And that is about half the movie.

The other half of the movie is an equal masterpiece. There are tributes or homage to so many other great space or action movies that I almost lost count. Can you spot them all? Star Wars, Top Gun, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Indiana Jones, and others get a heart-felt nod.

I highly recommend the Special Features on the DVD that covers the making of the film. In fact, I suggest watching that first and you may gain a greater appreciation of the special things done to give this movie a more authentic feel. One thing to note if you choose to not watch this feature, nothing was done via CG that could be done live. I was impressed and I hope you are too.

Leonard Nimoy reprises his role as Spock in a very interesting story twist. Zachary Quinto plays the younger Spock. I loved when the two meet at the end. Brilliant.

Chris Pine plays Captain Kirk and thankfully modeled his performance off of characters in Top Gun and Indiana Jones rather than the character from TV. All the rest of the cast were very good and totally believable as the younger versions of the familiar older characters many of us know and love so well.

Watch this movie with a Trekkie and a Star Wars fan and notice which parts they enjoy together.

The Proposal

First, let me say that this movie was far funnier than I expected. Then, let me say that I had pretty low expectations. Several scenes had me laughing hard enough that I had to pause so I would not miss potential funny bits. Fortunately there were plenty of these. The pace of the movie is very good and none of it feels wasted.

Sandra Bullock is wonderful as the overbearing boss who is forced to see her employees in a new light. Ryan Reynolds playing opposite her was a little tough to swallow for me. Their 8 year age difference is a little too obvious for me, but aside from that, this RomCom totally works.

Betty White steals the show as the eccentric Gammy to Reynold's character. Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenburgen are super as his parents who cope with the surprise wedding announcement.

What would you be willing to do to land or keep your dream job? I think we might all be surprised to find out how far we'd go. For that reason it is pretty easy to relate to the premise here. And the characters are so over the top it's fun to insert ourselves into the story somewhere along the line. You'll notice how all the major characters are either very very good or very very bad, or very something else.

The bottom line - the moral of the story is that its easy to lie to someone you don't love.

Watch this movie with someone for whom you would go to great lengths.

Etz Limon (Lemon Tree)

If foreign dramas are your thing, this is a very good one. The main languages are Hebrew and Arabic so you may need the subtitles, but that certainly does not get in the way of a very good story, told very well.

Hiam Abbass does another wonderful job. Her character self-describes as a lone wolf, and the use of that plays very well in the second half of the movie.

A relative new-comer Rona Lipaz-Michael is excellent here as the Israeli neighbor to Abbass's Palestinian character. Both women are left to deal with things in the wake of men in their lives over which they have no control. After those world's collide both women experience a personal hell.

We are left to wonder a few things about the plot but if you don't think too hard it is still a pretty good story. It is really the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a very micro level, at least from some point of view. Why would the new Defense Minister move to a home exactly on the border next to a lemon grove his security team deems a real and present danger to national security? Why not live in a much safer location?

Watch this movie with someone who loves gardening AND politics if you can find that combination.

Nothing But the Truth

Political thriller? Not quite. Court room drama? Hardly. This movie does not fit into most of the typical genre categories. It is clearly a drama, but it's also more than that.

Kare Beckinsale does perhaps her best work to date. Most of us first met her in the film adaption of "Much Ado About Nothing" in which she plays the lovely Hero. Since then she has done a variety of projects with a range of success. Her, she captures our heart and spirit by sticking to her values.

Matt Dillon plays a wonderfully strong "country lawyer" who is assigned as a Special Prosecutor in Beckinsale's character's case. These two are equally matched and determined.

Between stands a very interesting character played by Alan Alda. He seems equally concerned with his expensive attire and his client's case. As it turns out his best work begins when he stops charging for it.

So, who is the source who gives away the identity of the CIA operative who is married to the Ambassador? Who is the person who, by giving this info, leads indirectly to the murder of the CIA spy? See if you can figure it out before the end of the movie. Count how many times you get it wrong and let me know.

Watch this movie with someone who understands what it means to be persecuted for one's principals.

Kærlighed på film (Just Another Love Story)

The Danes certainly have a way of telling stories. This is a twisted, addicting, heart-tugging, tale of deception, depression, suppression, and perhaps love. If you don't mind reading a movie, or if you do understand Danish, this movie is well worth your time.

Unless you are a fan of Danish cinema you probably won't know the two main actors, but they are well worth the watch. Anders W. Berthelsen and Rebecka Hemse are both fantastic. They both show a great range of emotions and take us into their characters heads brilliantly.

Mind you, this movie has nothing close to a happy ending. That is no spoiler since the movie ends where it begins, but don't expect this to be what the title implies. I found myself asking what I might have done in similar situations as these characters found themselves. To me, that speaks highly of the writing, directing, and acting.

While the characters are not particularly likable they are certainly interesting and compelling. Each had a little something for us to relate to.

Watch this movie with someone who "gets" dark comedy and darker drama.

Max Payne

Normally, the transition from the little screen to the big screen is awkward at best. In this case going from video game to feature film was not all that bad. Admittedly I had low expectations and have never played any of the Max Payne games. Those who are avid fans of the game may feel different however.

Mark Walhberg is stoic and brooding in this role, which is appropriate. In fact, until the end, he showed almost now emotion at all. Since I have no clue as to how the game character behaves I cannot make that comparison. But I was pleasantly surprised at how this story was told in bits and pieces and we were not given too much information too fast or too slow.

For example we are not told until just the right time about the dark angels who haunt the movie from the beginning. I liked that.

Beau Bridges plays an old family friend with conflicting interests. Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges (no relation) plays a similar character on the other side of the law. Nicely done. Mila Kunis, yeah the voice of Meg Griffin, plays a vague assassin for the Russian mob in New York and factors in more prominently as the movie goes along. Bond girl Olga Kurylenko has a delicious role early in the picture as the sister of the Kunis character and the catalyst that brings Payne and the assassin together. Chris O'Donnell and Donal Logue play interesting characters with too-short screen time.

Watch this movie with someone who has, AND someone who has not played the game, and see how their opinions differ. Let me know?