District 9

This was a pleasant surprise for me.

I spoke to someone about the movie and he had told me that it was a sleeper. I never take anyone's "word for it". As a movie enthusiast I must formulate my own opinion of the products of Hollywood.

Upon viewing District 9, I can honestly say that I enjoyed every minute of the movie. If you are looking for a "shoot 'em up" sci-fi flick, then you will be disappointed in this particular movie. It is done in the same fashion as Cloverfield. As you watch the movie, you will find that it is actually more of a documentary style, sort of a History Channel versus Syfy Channel.

There is a cast of unknowns, making the documentary feel of the movie even more real.

The protagonist of the movie is someone you begin to relate to as you begin to feel his distresses in the unknowns of an alien culture.

I felt that the film makers took a new and fresh look at the idea of the alien style movie. After The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson's involvement in any film, still does not disappoint.

(500) Days of Summer

This has to be one of the smartest romance films that I have seen in quite a while.

It is a boy meets girl classic. We find Tom at a job that he does not enjoy when he finds the girl of his dreams, Summer. Over the next couple of hours, we follow Tom through the course of 500 days.

One of the aspects I really enjoyed about the movie was it was not set down in a chronological order. The audience skips around to love found and love lost and back to love found again. In this jumping, the continuity of the movie is not lost. The audience is never left baffled. As the audience jumps from scene to scene, the director was kind enough to offer a day that the viewer was visiting within the 500 days. For example, Tom meets Summer on day 1. On day 341, Summer has left. It was a great tool to let us see the happiness and the heartbreak of Tom in an almost simultaneous fashion.

I feel that the audience really wants Tom to become happy, to find love. When the film is watched, I also feel that the audience will be pleasantly satisfied.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has come a long way since 10 Things I Hate About You. He offers a dynamic role as the hopeless romantic. Zooey Deschanel is that enigmatic love interest in a persons life. She does a wonderful job at portraying the person who does not want to be pursued or conquered but wants to enjoy every aspect of her life.

Year One

For having two wonderful and funny actors as Jack Black and Michael Cera, I felt the movie was lacking. The beginning of the movie was extremely slow, but when it finally got up to speed, it was like riding in an Amish buggy: not very fast and extremely uncomfortable.
I am very sorry to say that the funniest parts of the movie were already spoiled in the previews. Don't get me wrong, there were the funnier parts of the movie of a would-be hero. But those funny parts were few and far between. In the movie one can find an overly effeminate Oliver Platt and a circumcision obsessed Hank Azaria (Abraham).