The Wolfman

Starring:  Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins
Sci Fi/Fantasy, 2010 (Rated R)

An actor (Del Toro) returns home after being told that his brother is missing.  He arrives home to find his brother has been found dead and the town is in an uproar and on the hunt for the vicious creature they believe is responsible for his and other murders.  He finds himself the target of the hunt after being bitten by a werewolf himself.  He finds out some terrible family secrets as he tries to avenge his brothers death as promised to his brother's wife Gwen (Blunt).

• The lighting in this movie is horribly dark.  I get it that it is supposed to be ominous and scary but I could hardly see what was happening on the screen.
• This movie is not as good as I expected it to be.  It was just OK and hardly even held my attention throughout. 

3 STARS

The Runaways

Starring:  Kristin Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon
Drama, Rated R

Kristin Stewart stars as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning stars as Cherie Currie in the story of the short lived hit teenage all girl band of the 70's called The Runaways.  The band came out of nowhere at a time when rock music was ruled by men.  Their rise to fame was unexpected and the film tells the story of the ups and downs that come along with that sudden popularity and living the rock star lifestyle.

• Loved it!!!  Kristin Steward and Dakota Fanning are a dynamic duo in this movie if I ever saw one.  They are both so captivating in their performances. 
• Fanning is so amazing I can't even put it into words.  Wasn't it just yesterday that she was a little girl on "I am Sam"?  Now she is all grown up and doing her first on screen kisses-one of them with a girl!  She has this amazing ability to really take on a character and make you believe it.  Fanning was gone and in her place I saw Cherie Currie-the rock star-and nothing else.
• Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) was obnoxious and ridiculous beyond belief.  Shannon did an excellent job playing this neurotic over the top character.
• I find it pretty amazing that this band was so young.  Currie was only 15 when the band got put together.  It seems like a more common trend now that superstars are barely teenagers but that wasn't the case so much back in the 70's.
• Another story about the pitfalls of super stardom but it was gritty, interesting and so well done that nothing about it felt like just another story.

5 STARS

The Road

Starring:  Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron
Sci Fi/Fantasy, 2009 (Rated R)

A man and his son travel on foot in a decimated post apocalyptic world hoping to find hope and some semblance of civilization 

• This movie was just sad.  As I watched this man and his son trudge onward in a world where people have committed suicide rather then live in it I find myself wondering what is the point.  What kind of life is that to live in fear, hunger, and constant survival mode?  This man is driven to keep going when it seems most logical to just give up.
• Great acting by Mortenson and the boy Smit-McPhee.  There were scenes where watching this little boy cry was almost heart breaking. 
• Great movie all around.

5 STARS

Alice In Wonderland

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway
Fantasy, 2010 (Rated PG)

Nineteen year old Alice has a huge imagination.  So huge in fact that she is the only one who notices the rabbit in the waist coat running across the lawn.  After running away from an unwanted marriage proposal she follows this rabbit and finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into another land.  Here she must figure out a way to help the characters in this world restore the white queen to power and oust the evil Red Queen who rules the land with decapitation for anyone who does not agree with her.

• I really wasn't all that interested in watching this but hubby wanted to so I went along with the program. 
• I found that it was an OK movie.  This is coming from someone not really so into animated fantasy type movies.
• The graphics are excellent and Depp does a great job as the quirky mad hatter.
• I am not all too familiar with the original story having never taken a huge interest in it so I can't say much regarding the adaptation of the original but the movie itself was entertaining for the most part.

4 STARS

Leap Year

Starring:  Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott
Romantic Comedy, 2010 (Rated PG)

Amy Adams stars as Anna who is after the perfect apartment and the perfect life with her perfect boyfriend.  Since he hasn't proposed after all this time she decides to take matters into her own hands by following him to Ireland where he is attending a medical conference.  According to an Irish tradition a man can't refuse a proposal from a woman during leap year so she hops on a plane to get her man only to find out it's not nearly as easy or simple as she thought it was going to be. 

• I love Amy Adams and just about every movie she's done.  She is pert, lively, pretty, and a darn good actress.  As perfect as Anna is in this movie she somehow still manages to come off as down to earth and relatable.
• Just about everything that can go wrong does on this trip but Ana refuses to give up.
• Oh, the dilemma's that arise in matters of the heart!  Ana's boyfriend Jeremy (Scott) is as perfect as perfect can get.  It's clear that he loves her but the question remains...is it enough? 
• There are unwanted and surprising sparks between Anna and Irishmen Declan (Goode) who is quite an unpleasant character who begrudgingly helps her along her travels.  His heavy Irish accent is sometimes hard to understand so my habit of watching movies with subtitles on came in handy.

4 STARS

Extraordinary Measures

Starring:  Brendan Frasier, Kerri Russell, Harrison Ford
Drama, 2010 (Rated PG)

Brendan Frasier stars as John Crowley the father to two children with a rare and deadly disease called Pompei.  He feels helpless as he watches his two children become sicker and sicker until one day he decides to take matters in his hand.  He contacts a brilliant rough around the edges scientist (Ford) and teams up with him in a next to impossible attempt to get his research off the ground and into the labs so that a new drug can be developed that might save his children.  There are so many ups and downs along the way.  Is there time to save his children's lives?

• Ford is excellent as a hard nosed, rude, and quite impossible to get along with scientist.  As brilliant as he is he is hopeless at working with others and as the movie goes on I grow to sort of hate him and wish I could reach through the TV myself and give him a kick in the head.
• This is based on a true story and you can't do anything else but root hard for John Crowley as he seriously does everything that is humanly possible to save his children.
• Great story, great acting, great movie.

5 STARS

Legion

Starring:  Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki
Mystery, Suspense, 2010 (Rated R)

A group of people at a remote desert diner find themselves in a fight for their lives as they battle those sent from up above intent on destroying human kind.

• This movie was just OK for me and not nearly as good as I was anticipating. 
• This whole thing about the fate of the world and human kind resting on an unborn child is so unoriginal which is fine, however I don't feel they brought enough of anything new to the table to make it fresh.
• Definitely entertaining but did not blow me away at all.

3 STARS