Sherlock Holmes

Steve thought this movie was good for special effects with excellent cinematography. Robert Downy was great to watch, and the relationship between Holmes and Watson was well portrayed and humorous. But the plot seemed forced, overly complicated, and difficult to follow. The writers tried to cram too many meanings into the movie and the audience was left to not care much in order to keep watching. Although they did tie up all the loose ends in the concluding act (somewhat like a House episode), by that time the audience has pretty much given up caring.

RuthAnn and Audrey both enjoyed the movie well enough and did not have the same complaints that Steve had, but did say that the movie seemed long to them.

Young Victoria

RuthAnn and Audrey both loved this Jane Austen-esque movie. They liked watching it and will probably buy the dvd to watch it again and again.

Courtney and Belle (the younger crowd) did not like the show nearly as much. In fact, they had trouble staying awake.

The Princess and the Frog

RuthAnn kicked off her seven-movies-in-eight-days marathon with this animated show. It served as a good start to her week of entertainment. She said it was good enough to recommend to others to see, but that it was a little bit slow for her.

Audrey says that it is a very cute movie with a good message and the music and characters were fun, but the plot was nothing special.

Belle and Rachel (the young audience) seemed to love the show very much.

The Informant

We went to see The Informant, after having seen movie trailers that made it look like a comedy. I guess that what was most intriguing in the short clips was seeing Matt Damon acting like such a geeky, nerdy guy. It turns out that that is indeed the only interesting thing in the whole movie. My wife and I agreed that this movie is not a comedy. It is not a drama, either. What it would best be is a made-for-tv Sunday night movie. I guess that the story is based an actual events, but there is little in this movie that draws the audience in and makes them care for any of the characters. It was also hard to escape the feeling that one was watching Jason Bourne in disguise.

UP

It has been some time since I first saw this movie, accompanying my eight-year-old daughter and my wife. I was expecting good production quality because it was a Pixar-Disney film. What I was pleasantly surprised to find out was that the movie was also humorous, psychologically savvy, and inspirational. I watched UP another time with other relatives and found it to be equally delightful the second time.

I highly recommend this movie for the whole family. I already know that it will be a permanent addition to my own personal DVD collection.

Slumdog Millionaire

This movie was hard to watch. I had thought it was a "feel-good" show, but it is not much of one. It is mostly a gut-wrenching field trip through the dregs of India with subplots of brutality and betrayal.

There is also a subplot of enduring admiration, love, and generosity, but the good feelings are thin throughout this story.

It is a good show to watch. It is a hard show to watch. Sensitive viewers should exercise great care when selecting this movie -- it will be too rough for some.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I know that I liked this movie because I had fun watching it and I have thought about it days later. The images from the movie evoked feelings that are fun to recall.

I also know that for some reason I did not like this movie because at some point I asked myself how long is this going to last? It was not a bladder condition that had me looking at my watch, but a certain feeling of restlessness. Maybe that it what the movie was going for...

It felt like an epic movie that should be filled with profound lessons. Maybe they were there and I just did not see them. There was a lot of storm imagery -- water, hurricanes, war, etc. There were some revelations of secrets long hidden (a universal theme of discovering that things in our childhood were different than we had thought). There was the peculiar oddity of aging backwards (I had heard that Merlin of King Arthur's Court "youthened" as he got older) that was very well portrayed -- Pitt's understated performance gave the experience a context of grace and patience that comes as close to being a message as anything else in this movie. There were "I want to live life the to fullest" lines inserted here and there -- I suppose an existentialist message in the face of hurricanes, aging, and other forces that overwhelm our human experience.

All-in-all, I would recommend this movie -- with the warning that you might not like it, but I would love to talk with you about it after you see it.