Review of Basically Every Movie I've Seen This Year ojesus

[robertsona]

SPOILERS ETC.
I'll try and Finish this tonite, let's see if I can. WOOO!
Quantum Of Solace:
Casino Royale was a nice balance between romance, action, and all other things you associate with Bond, even if, in my opinion, it was overrated. It introduced and ushered in an exciting new generation of Bond, starting with the fantastic Daniel Craig himself.
Quantum of Solace ****s the system up a bit, (but not beyond repair) focusing on the wrong things. Daniel Craig is still good in this movie, although not as exciting as in Casino Royale. As usual, the story is a sort of blabber that not many people will care to decipher. Not to say it is a horrible story, but does anyone really care? Not I. The movie sort of follows Bond as he hunts down Dominic Greene, head of a ecologic organization, who wants a piece of desert...or something like that. It also follows his struggles with M, his "boss", who thinks he has gone "vigilante" and basically kicks him out of M16. The movie is sort of a mess, climaxing with an equally messy ending, with explosions and jumbled emotions and all that jazz. The movie also includes a sort of wimped-out Bond, not the one I wished him to be. I have never been a big fan of Bond movies, but I know he can do better.
2.5 out of 4 stars.

Bolt (repost).
When I came out of a theatre after watching Kung Fu Panda I was happy, not because it was a great movie, but because it confirmed that studios such as Dreamworks who had been lagging behind in terms of quality were now putting more effort into their children's movies, instead of having a gem every now and then and a load of bombs in between. If Kung Fu Panda was the confirmation of this fact, then Bolt is the follow-through.
Bolt is a movie that is a joy to watch for the first two-thirds, but when the last third comes around, its cliches start to make themselves visible. About two years ago in a magazine I can't recall the name of, I read an article describing the plots of upcoming Disney movies. One told the story of a dog that was a television star, until he was kicked out of the show. He was then picked up by a cat and traveled on the road with the cat. However, he still thought he was on television, even on the road. Bolt somewhat follows this, only the opposite: he never thought he was on television. Bolt is a dog who stars in an action show that somehow combines all the stereotypes of cheesy action television you can imagine into one show. With the help of all the people on the set, he performs ridiculous and impossible stunts, such as his sonic “Super-Bark”. However, the fact that these people on set are doing the work for him isn't presented to him; he thinks it's all real. And the producers like it that way. When one of the producers sees a boom microphone on screen for a second or two, he “freaks out”, fearing any more mistakes would ruin the act. The show basically follows him and his companion, Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus), as they chase after the evil Dr. Calico, who captured Penny's father. Throughout the show's span, Bolt has grown to become friends with Penny, and vice versa. So when, in the most recent episode, Penny gets kidnapped, Bolt is determined, even after the shooting of the episode ends, to “find” Penny. He runs away in search for her, not knowing she is on the set the whole time. Due to his jumping in a box being shipped to New York City, he is sent there from the set in Hollywood. Along his trip back to Hollywood and to where he perceives Penny was kidnapped, he meets two companions who join him in his travel. The first of the two, who he meets in New York, is Mittens, an alley cat who makes pigeons give her food in exchange for “protection”. He thinks her to be a worker for Dr. Calico, or, as Bolt calls him, “The Man With the Green Eye”. Bolt forces her to help him find Penny, and, even though she has no idea what he is talking about, he “convinces” her by holding her over speeding cars on a bridge. The second is Rhino, a hamster in a ball who resides in a trailer. Rhino is a huge fan of Bolt's television show and eagerly joins their party, to the exasperation of Mittens. The movie mostly chronicles their travels across America, which is one of my favorite things about this film. Their travels are frequently interesting and funny, as are the characters. The conversations between Mittens and Bolt sometimes get tiresome and predictable, with Bolt always convinced he is the “super-dog” and Mittens always taking the sarcastic side, but overall these characters bring joy to the movie.
After a while, Bolt finds his superpowers not working, and he starts feeling things like pain and hunger. He is confused by these feelings because they aren't familiar to him, but finds temporary solutions to his problems. After a long while of traveling, Rhino inadvertantly tells Mittens that Bolt is on a television show. She then realizes that all of his superpowers do not exist and are only fabrications for the television show, an explanation for why they weren't working. She tries and tries to convince him that his powers aren't real, when they get captured by Animal Control, where he realizes he actually doesn't have superpowers after all. They both escape, and thus begins my favorite part of the movie, where she teaches him how good being a dog can be, by teaching him how to do “dog-like” things, such as fetching and sticking his head out the window of a moving vehicle, all during their travels across the backdrop of cities and towns in America, such as Las Vegas.
However, this happiness does not last forever, because Mittens refuses to go to Hollywood, telling Bolt that Penny doesn't really care for him, because she is just an actress (in the scenes showing Penny while Bolt is gone, she actually does miss him). All of this is told in a speech that is much too reminiscent of Jessie's speech to Woody in Toy Story 2, which is when the movie's flaws shine through a little more than the scenes before. Bolt leaves for Hollywood without her, convinced Penny loves him. When Rhino is told of this, he tells Mittens that no matter what he says, they should follow him. The following events which make up the ending semi-successfully attempt to wrench at your heart, at the price of coming off as strange and forced. Still, the movie is fun and, while still blown away by the quality of WALL-E, or basically any Pixar movies for that matter, the movie still has heart, and is a good Disney animated movie, if not the nostalgic classic we have been looking for.
3 out of 4 stars.

10,000 B.C.
I will indubitably have trouble reviewing this movie, as I have only seen it once, gathered around a ridiculously small television screen, surrounded by 40 boys or so at camp. However, I will be able to tell you, beyond doubt, that this was not a good movie.
10,000 BC, a sickening addition to the testosterone-filled movies trend of 2007/2008. From the start I could tell this movie was not going to be a good one, because the only selling point was that it takes place in "10,000 B.C.!!!!!!". The name of the film obviously reflects this, because they couldn't say anything else about the movie that was interesting enough, because they spent next to no time on it. The movie's plot is some incoherent jabber about a tribe being kidnapped, and the protagonist having to go hunt the kidnappers down and save the day. The movie is predictably filled with grunts and manly gestures, what else should I have expected? Any attempts at anything other than straight-up action completely fail because of the nature of the movie, and the movie degenerates into boring fight sequences. The movie went by as a blur to me. Perhaps it was the viewing environment. More likely it was the fact that the movie was a predictable bore.
1 out of 4 stars.

21
Once again, I can't say I saw this movie to it's fullest; I saw it on the bus on a school trip to Washington D.C. The movie is based on a well-selling book, Bringing Down the House, and features the new actor, Jim Sturgess, full of potential from Across the Universe.
The main character, played by Jim Sturgess, Ben, is a generic retread of characters past, most from better movies. He is an MIT student with 4.0 GPA, currently trying to get into Harvard Law. He is shy, reserved, calm, and very good with numbers. He gets accepted, but can't afford the $300,000 tuition. One of the teachers, Micky Rosa, sees Ben's potential and invites him into his Blackjack club. It is immediately revealed that the purpose of this club is card-counting, and Ben refuses. Politely, of course. Ben is never rude, is he? Of course, you know that he eventually joins, blah blah. He makes money, blah blah. Loses his original friends, blah blah. Uh-oh, he forgets who he is, blah blah. Suddenly, plan flips upside down on him, gets caught, etc. etc. Mostly, 21 is a pretty fun but predictable ride, only for those naive filmgoers.
2 out of 4 stars.

Baby Mama
Baby Mama, a film I have seen twice, chronicles the story of Kate, a hardworking businesswoman, who, by a uterus deformation, is unable to have a baby, and Angie, a wacko goofball who eventually becomes Kate's surrogate mother. The movie also shows their predictable yet often funny conversations between each other.
These two characters have been paired up in many different movie before, although in different situations, and embodied by different people. These conversations have happened before, if about different subjects. Angie, unwilling to take anything seriously, exasperates Kate, who wants only the best for her eventual baby. Of course, when we see Angie, we know that the two will clash and have trouble with each other, ending in the two realizing that they can get along despite their differences. Which is the disappointment about the movie. It is, at points, a funny movie, but just too predictable to be a good one.
2 out of 4 stars.

Burn After Reading
Winning the Oscar for No Country for Old Men must not have affected the Coen Brothers much, because they are back to the wacky plots full of people dying of the golden days.
Burn After Reading, a movie with a plot that is ridiculously complicated on paper, but makes sense during the movie, is a slightly unbalanced mix of genres.
It is a comedy movie, no doubt. Chad, the character embodied by Brad Pitt, is one of the most hilariously stupid characters I have ever seen. The scene where he finds the "files" on a disk made me laugh more than I do, even in full-on comedy movies, which Burn After Reading is not. Also very funny is Linda Litzke, acted by a pitch-perfect Frances McDormand (winner of the "Best Actress" Oscar for her performance in another Coen Brothers film, "Fargo"), obsessed with her imperfections.
It is an action movie, shining through when the death of a certain character half-way through messes up any implications of what you thought would come out of the plot. The balance between these two genres is imperfect, and thrown in your face. The movie is fulling of people cheating on people cheating on people betraying people, which can get you dizzy, but if you focus, there is a fun, exciting movie beneath.
3 out of 4 stars.
Okay done for now; will edit later with more.

PS I typed these as I went, except for Bolt.

[SkySeal]

wait what
edit oops i thought the thread title said that you were gonna review every movie of the year

[tangomango]

I too was a little disappointed in Quantum of Solace. It was ok, but I liked Casino Royal more.

Bolt was a great movie. It was a little cheesy at some parts, but I found it really funny at some parts.

[Svaz]

wtf
you didn't see WALL-E?!? you're disgusting

[robertsona]

Yeah i have I'm not finished yet

i have a LONG way to go

[Tr44nc33]

i didn't see any of those movies, I prefer to speculate by the sinopsis, movie title, and story of the movie.

So i never waste my money lolz.

[MalReynolds]

Loooooved Bolt. Even more than Ratatoullie. When I tell my friends this, we all realized that we didn't really like Ratatoullie that much and my argument holds less water.

[robertsona]

I liked Ratatouille much better than Bolt

4 out of 4 stars from me.

[MooMoo_Cowfreak]

I honestly think Ratatouille is the best Pixar movie out there. I really, really like it. Thanks for this too, might rent Bolt when it comes out in dvd.

[Tater Tot]

Australia: I just went and saw it on Thursday. Absolutely beautiful movie, even if it is three hours long. Don't get hung up on the thought that it's just a chick flick, it has a fair amount of action in it, and the story really pulls you in. It has some great talk about the treatment of Aboriginies during the 19(40's?). If I could get someone else to go with me and watch it again, I would.

[NFD]

Why didn't you see The Dark Knight.

[thechild]

You underrated 21

[robertsona]

i saw the dark knight, look at my wall-e response post, man.