Bernie - 2011

I have had this movie on my to watch list for awhile. Watching Jack Black in a serious role is a transition for me and probably everyone else sitting at home watching this movie. But you know what it worked. His acting and singing were great. The actor I struggled with in this movie was Matthew Mcconaughey. Shirley MacLaine did a great job, as she always does. The movie is based on a true story that is just bizarre. Jack Black plays Bernie Tiede, a chubby undertaker in his 30's, who takes pride in his work. He's a Gospel-singing tenor. He is genuine, real and has a big heart. He cares about others more than himself. The movie has a bunch of interviews with townspeople, mixed with flashbacks, and this allows us to follow Bernie: he arrives in Carthage, Texas (pop. 7,000), where old ladies adore him; he befriends a wealthy, mean-spirited widow named Marjorie Nugent; they become companions in both daily routines and expensive vacations. The much older rich widow is rude to Bernie, but he is too nice to know what to do. Then one day he looses his cool and kills her. This is an interesting movie with some bad language and because it is so different than regular movies I will give it 3 stars. Next up for me is the silent film you told me to watch from last year that took all the Oscars home.

F/X 2 - 1991

Wow- this is a really bad movie. I kept waiting for it to pick up but it was a dissapointment. Should have been rated R for nudity and swearing. 1 star for me. F/X man Rollie Tyler is now a toymaker. Mike, the ex-husband of his girlfriend Kim, is a cop. He asks Rollie to help catch a killer. The operation goes well until some unknown man kills both the killer and Mike. Mike's boss, Silak says it was the killer who killed Mike but Rollie knows it wasn't. Obviously, Silak is involved with Mike's death, so he calls on Leo McCarthy, the cop from the last movie, who is now a P.I., for help and they discover it's not just Silak they have to worry about.

Mirror Mirror - 2012

A fun movie to watch as a family over the Holidays. It is on instant NF. 2.5 stars.

The Producers - 2005

I remember you blogging about the original, which I have seen but it was a long time ago. This is the remake and it made me laugh quite a bit. Will Ferrel, Nathan Lane, and Matthew Brodderick were all great. I felt like the sensuality of Uma Thurman was way over the top. I get that it is part of the script for broadway and the original film, but they just sort of dwelt on it too much. Without that part it really could have been PG instead of PG-13. A very funny take on the original and it had me laughing many times. 4 stars.

The 6th Day - 2000

I read the reviews for this Schwarzeneggar film and decided to try it out. The film went from bad to worse when it started showing futuristic hologram woman performing sexual dances and poses for real people- because hey this was supposed to be the future where cars drive by themselves, you can fall in love with video images instead of real people, you can replace your pet with a clone after it dies, etc. Robert Duvall is also in the film. I could only take 60 min and turned it off. Just a bad movie. The premis is that Arnold has to kill off his clone.

Casino Royale 2006

Finally, I have found a James Bond movie that was worth its time. Daniel Craig performs in his first James Bond role and he is working to stop a terrorist funded organization, but he first needs to cut off the money man who is the connection to the group. To do this Bond must get into a ten million dollar buy in poker game and beat the bad guy to get all of his money. The battle goes back and forth between MI6 and the bad guys, Bond sleeps with the beautiful girl, who turns out to have sold out to the bad guys...wait this sound like pretty much all of the other movies. Bond does give his heart and job away temporarily in this show, but in the end, killing and getting revenge on the bad guys wins out. Just a side bar here, I have an on going battle with my brother about watching R rated movies. I do not like to watch movies that are full of stupid sex and nudity, I do not like torture violence, but I can tolerate language, because I can go essentially anywhere in the world and hear those words. However, I have watched some great R rated movies, that have no violence, no nudity, and limited language. In this movie there is sexuality, violence, killing, torture, and evilness that ranks higher than some of those other great movies...I just needed to get that off of my chest again as I am watching these nudity, sexually, violent, lame movies.

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach, James Coburn and Horst Buchholz, oh my gosh, quite possibly the coolest cowboy movie ever!!! A tiny village in Mexico is raided by Calvera and his bandits throughout the years and they are getting fed up, because they are just poor farmers and cannot defend their property and families. So to end the raids, three of the villagers seek out to find themselves some hired guns to protect them. Well they not only find hired guns, but they find some of the most cool guys in the history of the world. To make a long story short, go and watch the Seven Samurai. I know you have seen this, but I give it a solid four stars out of five,s imply because I have never felt so cool watching a western. The score is also extremely popular.

Act of Valor (2012)

The story surrounds a terrorist cell that has networks around the world intent on causing mass casualties simultaneously in America. Their network is active and complicated. To begin they take out a CIA operative and take the other hostage; the torture that she has to withstand is sometime unbearable. To the rescue are our brave men of the Navy Seals. The action sequences used actual Seals and live rounds of ammunition. Of course there were actors covering the main rolls, but they, along with the plot, sucked. It felt very much like I was watching my childhood replayed on the TV, when we used to gather int he neighborhood and play "war". The dialogue was choppy and fake, and it felt tacked on as an afterthought to the superb action sequences. If you do watch this movie, be prepared fro brief interruptions of dialogue amongst an action packed adventure. It is rated R for torture and gritty war violence.

His Girl Friday - 1940

Cary Grant Movie number #23 turns out to be Solid Gold! 5 stars!!! Made it on my top 100 list- yeah. This movie is based off the play "The Front Page". I had seen the 1974 adaption with Jack Lemmon, Walter Mathua, & Carol Burnett. That movie can't compare to this one. Grant and Rosalind Russell are incredible. This is a great fast talking, cut throat, dog eat dog enviornment type of show. The humor is off the charts. The sparring between Grant and Russell equals any type of sibling or love quarell ever seen on the big screen. I loved this show. Awesome. I can't wait to watch it again. According to IMDB this play has made it to the big screen 4 times but this is the best version. I had to rewind it a few times to catch some of the funny one liners. I found this movie on youtube under movies under free movies. What a fun show.