the hurt locker.

gripping, intense, compelling.  just a couple of words that come to mind as i reflect on seeing this film.  it’s really good.

there’s a quote that begins the movie on a black screen says something about war being a drug.  then that’s all the opening credits you get.  then it’s right in the middle of a team of bomb techs in bagdad.  they got the little robot guy out there then they put guy pearce in a moon suit and he walks out to the bomb.  i thought that was pretty cool and a trick you don’t see very often.  they like to put a bunch of credits in the beginning.

this thing just throws you right in the middle of the action and i loved it.

the movie follows a team of bomb techs on several missions.  and they do get into some shit.  as you would imagine a bomb tech team might get into in iraq.

it’s a great movie.  it’s the movie to see this weekend if it’s released in your city.  it’s a limited release so you might not get it.  but if you do, go see it.  it’s the best war movie i’ve seen in recent memory.  and i see lots of movies.

the actors are all terrific, the scenery is masterful, the soudtrack is riveting.  i’m running out of superlatives.  it will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire film.

my only complaint would be the over the shoulder camera work.  it’s really good camera work and they get some very interesting angles to help tell the story, but come on guys.  i like to sit in the third row.  are you trying to make me throw up?

i think this movie is a good insight into the minds of some of our men and women fighting over seas.  remember, war is a drug, like they say at the beginning of this film.  you know those guys that just keep going back?  i’m thinking this is probably why.  they get addicted to it just like some many people get addicted to pain killers, or sex, or anything that you can get addicted to i guess.

imagine yourself immersed in war where every move you make could be your last.  live like that for a year.  then stand in the cereal aisle at kroger and try to decide which one to have.

five car bombs out of five.

500 days of summer.

i like how the voice over at the beginning tells you, “this is not a love story.”  and the tag line they have on imdb.com says, “boy meets girl.  boy falls in love.  girl does not.”

let me start by saying i can truly relate to the character Tom in this movie.  Tom is played smartly by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  who looks eerily like heath ledger if you ask me. we will not get into how well i relate to Tom here.  that’s for another blog.

he falls for the always enchanting Zooey Deschanel.  who i just love.  she’s great.  i think i fell in love with her during this movie. i mean really, she’s great.

pay attention during the opening credits.  there’s a line right after them that sets the attitude for the film.

it’s a fair study on the nature of human relationships.  and it’s done in a witty fashion with beautiful, likable characters.  there are some very interesting transitions including a big dance sequence.  i’m not sure what’s not to like.

some people will call this the best date movie ever.  i can’t call it the best ever.  i mean, we’ve all seen this film before.  my generation calls this movie Singles.  i saw Definatly, Maybe a few weeks ago and that is this type of film.  with just a little bit of an edge.

this movie has a message for dorky, tweaked out dudes all over the world.

four popcorn buckets out of five.  and two diet cokes.  and some goobers and raisinettes mixed into the same box.  so ya never know if your getting nutty or squishy.  it’s an adventure in flavor excitement.

the ugly truth.

the ugly truth is this movie is so god awful it made me want to puke.  the ugly truth is i’m embaressed i sat through the whole thing.  the ugly truth is i’m embaressed for the people that sat through it with me.  one thought kept running through my mind as i was watching this thing.  “this is terrible.”

here’s the synopsis:

boys are stupid.  no girls are stupid.  yeah, well you’re stupid.  hey look at that hot guy. 

there.  i just saved you two hours and 30 bucks.  save your money.  invest in condoms.

there are some halfway cool little pop songs that make some nice transition scenes that are almost tolerable.  it’s just unfortunate they transition into three or four poorly produced sitcoms.

katherine heigl almost saves it.  but not quite.  gerard butler looks completely out of place in a romantic comedy.  not that he had too much of a script to work with.  he just doesn’t look comfortable.  i much prefer my gerard butler dressed in chain mail cleaving some dude’s head open with a broad sword.  which leads me to a totally random thought, but wouldn’t it be cool for someone in hollywood to do a remake of the highlander with jason statham and gerard butler?  that would kick ass.

oh, and the anchor couple is pretty funny.  there are some funny lines here and there but it’s not worth the time.

those harry potter kids are crazy.

i just thought they would have shown up a little earlier.  they didn’t really start getting to the theater for their midnight shows until around ten.  sure, we had a few kids there around 4, but i would have thought there would be more.

don’t get me wrong.  plenty of them showed up last night.  about 2000 of them.  we sold out nine midnight shows.  nine.  if we could have played it on every screen in the theater i think we could have sold them all out.  or been close.  i’ve never seen the theater like that.  it was nuts.

there were all kinds of hogwart’s costumes.  probably a hundred kids with lightening bolts painted on their forehead.  we had entire quidditch teams.  there were about 12 or so kids all decked out like they were going to an ncaa college football game with their faces painted the different colors of their favorite quidditch team.  quidditch jersey’s, wands, robes.  these kids are crazy.

but it was also a crazy good time.  i got stuck working the podium, you know, where they tear your tickets and tell you what theater to go to.  that was actually fun for me.  i like talking  to people and giving them a hard time even better.  so when i had a big group of little girls in their hogwart’s outfits, or their “i’m sleazy for ron weasley” t-shirts, i’d tell them we had a problem and had to cancel their movie.  their reactions were priceless.

that’s just a lot of fun for me.

the whole thing really was an awesome time.  people that came for other late movies, and there were a few.  it was 5 dollar tuesday after all.  they all made comments about the harry potter kids.  i think they were just jealous they didn’t have anything halfway cool to do that night.  the harry potter kids had a freaking blast.  and i did too.

i’ve not been at the theater long, but that was far and away the biggest midnight premier of any movie with which i’ve been involved.

i did miss a golden opportunity to be lay down one of my best lines ever on one of the straight up smokin’est girl i’ve seen walk though that theater door.  there was a special screening of harry potter at 6:30 sponsored by some financial firm and this young woman was one of their 488 guest.  i spotted her in her sleek, black dress trimmed with just a little silver sequiny sash standing with an older woman.  i took the leisure to approach the two women and introduce myself.

i asked them if they were excited about seeing harry potter and the older woman said her granddaughter was, indicating this fine fox of a woman standing next to her, but that she was not really too keen on the whole harry potter thing.

i commented that in no way was this woman old enough to have a granddaughter as old as this young woman.  i actually missed a chance to get an age out of the younger woman.  i could have said something witty like, wow, you look very mature for a two year old if this young lady here is your grandma.  but it’s whatever.  i have made a good impression.  the young lady’s name is amber.

i told them i had screened the film last night and it is without a doubt the most visually stunning of all the harry potter films and that i thought they would have a good time.

and i thought all about this foxy little amber who was at least as tall as me with her heels and very slender.  and i should have prepared myself as soon as i thought about it.

but i failed to do so.

i saw her again after the movie.  i saw her through the crowded throng of people exiting the theater.  then i thought i saw her and her granny exit out the side door and i was sad i didn’t get a chance to say hello again.

but then it happened.  my golden opportunity.  she walked right in front of me.  i said hey amber, how was the movie?  she said she liked it and all that and i said good and all that.  then she left.

here’s the line i should have dropped.

“hi amber.  this is really unprofessional and i really have never done this before, but you are the most visually stunning creature i have ever seen walk through those doors and i would regret it the rest of my life if i didn’t do this.  here is my card with my number on it.  you’ll notice on the back it’s good for one free coffee.  so if you ever need a good cup of coffee i would consider it an honor if you’d take me up on it.”

but i failed.  i won’t next time.  i’m printing up cards with now.

harry potter and the half blood prince.

by far the most visually stunning of all the harry potter films.  the castle has never looked cooler, nothing has ever looked cooler, in fact.  there was some really big magic like we had not seen yet and a diabolical murder that we had not seen anything like as of yet.  these stories are starting to get pretty serious.

i can’t say this is the best potter yet, but it’s close.  the only thing i didn’t really like is some of the dialog between the characters that didn’t have anything to do with the main plot line seemed a little…forced.  maybe, forced is a good word.  maybe contrived.  it just didn’t seem natural to me.  but nothing about harry potter is really very natural at all, is it?

the kids are all to the ages now where they are really starting to develop love type relationships with each other and some of the other students.  and this film really does try to build some of that teen angst, but they are just too busy with the main story line to spend too much time on it and the dialog suffers. 

but in the end, this is a really, really good film.  you will raise an eyebrow or two during some of the dialog but coming right up is some kick ass magic or an amazing pan from one side of the castle to the next.  the weasley home looks really cool in this one too.  the inside of thier home they show a shot from the bottom of the staircase and it reminds me of that picture with all the staircases going all directions.  very cool.

four old shrivled and charred hands out of five.

i love you beth cooper.

is not that funny.  that chick is totally smoking hot.  i actually said, “holy shit” out loud when she took her graduation gown off and was standing there in some daisy dukes and tight tank top.  wow.

but other than that, you’ve all seen this movie before.  about 50 times.  and out of those 50 times, 46 of them are better.

they made a valiant effort to produce a grade A coming of age teen flick.  they’ve got all the ingredients.  nerdy, love struck kid, gorgeous head cheerleader with deep rooted self esteem issues, the beefcake older boyfriend (who this time around is coked up), the slutty and snooty girlfriends, the equally nerdy best friend.  but it’s just all been done before.  and better.

it had it’s moments, don’t get me wrong.  but there’s just not much senimentality or really anything at all to get any kind of emotional response from the audience.  at least from me anyway.  a few good jokes but nothing special.  other than looking at that chicks backside in those super high heels.  she must be like a miniature person in real life because she was still a good 6 inches shorter than the nerdy hero.  who was like a foot shorter than the beefcake, coked up boyfriend.

the hottie blonde’s ditzy white friend was the best part about the movie.  she was really perfect for her part.  comic relief when the film started to flounder.  she would say something that would make me laugh.  and i really wish i had her number.

2 out of 5.  i don’t care enough to try to think of something witty.

public enemies.

not johnny depp or christian bale’s best film of the year.  sure, depp looks cool shooting his tommy gun and christian bale is the determined law man sent to bring him down, but this thing is simply too long and the climax is pretty anti-climatic.

i blame michael mann.  the story of john dillinger should be a lot more exciting than this film was.  it dragged in places and they strung it out about 30 minutes too long.  we all already knew what happened.  no twist, no real epic love story.  just flat.  just like every other michael mann movie since….um, what was the last thing he did worth a crap?  let me check imdb.com real quick….

heat?  in 1995?  collateral was okay.  ali was kinda blah…miami vice was unwatchable.  you suck michael mann.

skip this movie.

my sister’s keeper.

everything that is bad about hollywood that is reflected in transformers, this film is everything good about hollywood.  a compelling story, believable characters, true human emotion.  it’s great.  it made me cry.

it’s the story of a family that concieves a child to be a donor child for thier older daughter that has lukemia.  they will use the younger daughter’s organs for transplants, her blood for transfusions and her bone marrow when needed to keep the older daughter alive.  that’s some pretty gruesome stuff if you ask me.  but then again, if i had a daughter with a disease like that what lengths would i go to keep her alive?  and there is no one that hasn’t been touched by cancer in some way or another.  and this film tells the story of how one family was affected. 

i’m not generally a big cameron diaz fan.  i believe her best work was in the mask with jim carrey about a hundred years ago, but she’s still sexy as all get out.  jason patric is fantastic as the husband, the little girl from little miss sunshine is great as the younger daughter.  Abigail Breslin is her name and she is spectacular.  this little girl is great in everything she’s been in so far.  or at least that i’ve seen.  she’s gonna be around for a long, long time.  unless of course she gets hooked on drugs in her teens and ends up on “where are they now.”  let’s hope not, she’s a very talented young actress.

don’t see this movie alone unless you just need a good cry.  because cry you will.  take a girl and you’ll be her hero for the night.  i have to give this movie a five out of five.  and i don’t even have anything to give it other than stars.  anything else would just be wrong.  i’m probably never going to purchase this film just because it’s one of those i’m glad to have seen it, but do not want to see it again.  unless i think i might be able to get a little lovin’, then i might pick it up.