Ice Age 2: The Meltdown My Grade: C Plot: 6 Nothing original about the plot, it was similar to The Land Before Time. Dialogue: 7 There were some funny lines. Most of the humor came from sight gags rather than what was said. Character Development: 8 They had pretty good character development, especially with the mammoth that thought it was a possum. She acted more like a possum at the beginning of the movie but adapted to acting more like a mammoth by the end of the movie. Editing: 9 The storyline was clear and didn't drag too much or rush ahead. They took time to include a few storylines besides just advancing the main plot. Special Effects: 9 The animals (with the exception of the sloth) and the scenery were beautiful. They had water, fog, lightning bugs and many other items of visual interest. Music: 4 I wouldn't buy a soundtrack for the movie but kids would probably enjoy it. Overall Rating: C It was ok. I liked it about as well as I liked the first Ice Age. It doesn't suck but I would recommend The Land Before Time over it. General Comments: The possums were really funny in the movie, and so was the goofy squirrel chasing its acorn all over creation. I wish the poor thing could get its nut someday and get to eat it. Even the villians in this movie (2 ichythyosaurs) were cute. Diego (the sabor-toothed cat) is my favorite of the main characters. I only wish they would get rid of the sloth. I think it's an annoying character. It's used in the movies to teach the other characters life lessons (you have to conquer your fears, etc), though, so I don't think they'll be getting rid of it anytime soon.

Wow pika! You've watched a lot of movies lately! Your reviews have sparked my interest about a couple of the films and I plan to go see a few of them. Keep those reviews coming! They're great!

I love going to the movies so it's great to have an excuse to go more frequently. I don't know if I'll be able to keep seeing four movies each weekend once school starts so I'm making the most of my free time right now. I wouldn't mind if someone else wants to do their own reviews of the movies and has a dissenting opinion about them. It's fun to discuss the movies and what we do or don't like about them. :wink:

An American Haunting My Grade: D Plot: 4 The movie was based on the true story of the Bell Ghost Haunting. I've read a book about it before but unfortunately haven't had the time to reread the book to verify how accurate the movie was to the book. Dialogue: 5 The dialogue wasn't too over the top or too boring so it was ok. Character Development: 3 We didn't learn much about Betsy Bell's future, it was only hinted at. I think they should have gone more into what happened to her after the haunting. Editing: 3 The main story itself was fine but for some reason they decided to do a modern tie-in to the story and they didn't develop it at all. That drastically lowered my grade for editing. Special Effects: 6 There were pretty good special effects but not too many used. Music: 5 There was no real score to the movie, just background music. Overall Rating: D Once again, the main story was ok but the beginning and ending detracted from the rest of the movie. I think people who are familiar with the Bell Ghost and/or who like historical films will appreciate the movie more. General Comments: The movie started and ended with a modern story of a girl having nightmares and her mother thinking she was a victim of a haunting after finding a book in the attic about a previous relative's haunting. However, the majority of the movie was devoted to the Bell haunting. The modern tie-in was only five minutes before and after the main story. I think the makers of the film should have decided which storyline they wanted to pursue and only done one. If they had kept the movie a straight telling of the Bell Ghost it would have been great. If they wanted to tell a modern ghost tale with flashbacks and references to the Bell Ghost case, that would have worked. As it was, the modern story was not developed enough and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the movie. From what I remember from the book, Betsy's school teacher wanted to court her but she was already engaged and her father opposed the teacher courting Betsy. He lived in the Bell house for a time during the haunting and some people suspected that he was causing the events blamed on the ghost. Eventually the father died and Betsy married the teacher so if it was true that the teacher was the "ghost", it would appear he succeeded in getting what he wanted.

Stick It My Grade: B Plot: 9 There wasn't much going on at the beginning of the movie but toward the middle the filmmakers suddenly came up with an incredible plot and the movie ended on a high-note. Dialogue: 4 Lots of juvenile humor in the beginning and the characters didn't connect at first but it came together at the end. Character Development: 4 The main character was completely unlikable in the beginning. I actually found myself liking her enemy better than her. Her friends and her coach were great, though, and the main character improved by the end. Editing: 4 I noticed the same wording was used in to parts of the film, and not like as in a flashback. It was poor editing. The beginning of the movie needed work to bring it up to the standard of the later part of the movie. The beginning was too predictable. Special Effects: 9 They did a great job on stunts and special effects for the movie. They either used real athletes as actors (which might account for the bad acting) or they did a good job of editing in stunts by stunt doubles. Music: 6 Not the type of music I like but it worked for the movie. Overall Rating: B I was fully prepared to give the movie a bad rating but the strong ending saved it. General Comments: One of the first things I noticed was that it had the "feel" of a tv show, not a movie. I used to watch the show "Clueless" on tv and it reminded me a lot of it. The dialogue was retarded and bad attitude isn't cool to me so the movie rubbed me the wrong way at first. Jeff Bridges, playing the coach, was great in the movie. He carried the whole first part of the movie along with the main girl's friends, who brought much-needed comic relief. I don't know the first thing about gymnastics so I can't verify how accurate the movie was in regard to what it's like to train and what the competitions are like. The plot was based on the main girl, who was a former gymnast, gets in trouble with the law and as a creative sentencing option, since she's a juvenile, gets sent to a gymnastics camp. The coach helps her see why she started gymnastics in the first place, why she dropped out, and why she should continue it again. At the competition, the girls don't agree with some of the judges' callings (one girl with a perfect routine loses points for her bra strap showing) so they conspire to choose which girl will win each event. The one they select does the routine as planned while all the other girls intentionally screw up to get themselves eliminated. It was an ingenuous plot twist and one I wouldn't have thought of, plus it showed how meaningless judges scores are in some competitions. Athletes have to compete only because they love the sport and to drive themselves to do the best they can. If they're competing solely for the ratings from some judge who doesn't even know them and basing their self-esteem on those results, they're only setting themselves up to fail.

Hoot My Grade: C- Plot: 3 Not a believable plot at all. In real life events wouldn't turn out this way. It was very much like Home Alone, with a bunch of kids outwitting dimwitted criminals and cops. Dialogue: 4 The dialogue was dumbed down stereotypical Southerner/small-town stuff, which rankled me, being from Florida myself. Character Development: 4 Not much was done to explain why the characters acted the way they did. It would have been helpful if more background had been done on the main characters. Editing: 5 The movie was slow to develop and didn't stray from it's predictable path. Music: 8 The music was by Jimmy Buffett so I had to like that. Overall Rating: C I was so disappointed in Hoot because I had been looking forward to seeing it. The owls were cute as expected but the rest of the movie was pretty lame. General Comments: One thing that annoys the heck out of me is when cops are portrayed as inept idiots. They go through a lot of training and are not going to be fooled by obvious pranks. They deserve respect for the job they do, not to be treated like buffoons in movies and on tv. :roll: One good thing about the movie is the main kid is polite and his parents have instilled good values in him. However, at one point a bully on the school bus is harrassing him and he hits the kid, breaking his nose. His parents make him write a note to the bully apologizing for hitting him and he delivers it personally. IMO, that's going too far. You certainly don't owe an apology to someone who is beating you up every day if you fight back once and hurt them. The movie was completely unbelievable. In real life, a company would not be allowed to own land that an endangered species had a habitat on, let alone build there. Instead of pulling tricks on the company, the kids could have said something to the local media and/or reported them and gotten the building stopped. I'm sure if the kids had explained to their parents what they were doing, especially the main kid, they would have helped them. At one point, one of the kids dumps a bunch of snakes on the property to stop the construction but snakes would have hurt the owls so that would have been counterproductive. It's sad that they chose to do the movie the way they did. The plot was a fine premise but instead of being a screwball comedy, it could have been about teaching your kids appropriate values and showing them how to stand up for what they believe in and make a difference in their community.

Re: King Kong
King Kong My Grade: C Plot: 8 People go to a mysterious island to shoot a movie. People encounter natives, dinosaurs, giant insects, and a giant ape. People capture ape and take it to New York. Ape escapes and climbs tall tower to gaze at the sunset. Acting: 7 Most of the actors all did a fine job, though no one stood out as being spectacular. I'm sure what to think about Jack Black's performance. I thought he acted as if the movie was a comedy. The faces he made and the way he spoke at times just didn't fit. It did make the movie more interesting, though. Without Jack Black, the movie would've been a whole lot less entertaining to me. Dialogue: 6 There was only one cringe-inducing line in the entire movie, which was the last line. Other than that, the dialogue was fine but a little dull. I don't expect people will be quoting this movie anytime soon. Character Development: 5 I assume the reason for the first hour of the movie is to develop the characters. But I didn't come away from the movie felling connected to any of the characters. Editing: 5 There was so much of the movie that could have been cut out. Three hours is just too long for this type of film. The scenes with King Kong and the dinosaurs seemed to go on forever and really served no purpose. Special Effects: 6 King Kong and all the creatures on the island looked cool. But the blending of fake and real was done poorly. There were numerous times when it was clearly obvious that the characters were acting against a giant green screen and everything around them was fake. The big dinosaur stompede scene looked absolutely horrible at times. It was hard to get ino the film when because of how fake everything looked. Overall Rating: C I was disappointed in Peter Jackson's King Kong. It was very underwhelming. And too dang long! Three hours is just too much! General Comments: My wife fell alseep while watching the movie. And unlike other movies she's fallen asleep during, she didn't go back to watch what she missed.

:lol: :lol: :lol: Sounds like your wife enjoyed it about as much as I did. From the buildup, I was expecting great things from the movie and kept waiting for it to get to the good part but it never did. What a disappointment. At least the dinosaurs were cool looking but I agree with Matt that they really did nothing for the movie. They could have used some major editing to whittle the movie down. It was too long and had parts that dragged and dragged.

Re: King Kong
My favorite part of King Kong was the valley of the giant bugs. That was pretty cool when everyone was getting attacked by those nasty things. But it had absolutely nothing to do with the story. It was like, here's a scene with giant bugs... sit back and enjoy! :grin: Peter Jackson needs to redeem himself by making a movie of The Hobbit. And then maybe only then he will be forgiven by the legions of dorks, nerds, and geeks who worship him.

Hey everyone! It's my first review for the club! I rented Flightplan tonight. Here's what I thought of it. Flightplan My Grade: B Plot: 8 Although the plot has some twists that are very unlikely, the plot moves along at a great pace and has the viewer switching sides quite frequently. The entire movie leaves you guessing if the main character is imagining things, or if the crew has made mistakes. Dialogue: 7 The dialogue isn't really what drives the film. In a thriller, it usually isn't. The dialogues between Kyle (Jodi Foster) and her daughter are quite real. Jodi Foster is excellent. There are however, moments of dialogue that are extremely gripping such as her conversations with the captain and crew. Character Development: 7 Jodi Foster's character is the only one that was really developed. We don't learn a lot about the others. Editing: 9 Editing was great. The story moved along very well, and the continuity was quite well done. It was surprising how real they made the plane, especially the cargo hold. Special Effects: 7.5 The special effects were nicely done. There were some issues with continuity. For example, at one point in the movie Kyle rearranges the wires in the attic so that the oxygen masks come down, so she can create a diversion. There is supposed to be major turbulence but the masks don't move. It's kind of like they were just shaking the camera. Music: 10 I really liked the music. The music seemed to fit each scene perfectly. I liked it so much that I'm looking into buying a soundtrack for it. Very well arranged. Overall Rating: B If you like a good thriller, you should rent it. I won't buy it. I didn't like it that much, but it's definitely something to look into. General Comments: Jodi Foster played a fantastic role in the movie, and it was clear that she was really able to know who this character was, and what this character was thinking. The captain was also played well. My biggest nitpick: The beginning is difficult to comprehend and at first I thought it would make sense in the end. But I watched it back again and there are several interpretations I arrived at. I think the main message is that she is very distraught after losing her husband, but it's unclear where she is going/leaving from. Average nitpick: It's unclear at the end why they originally thought the girl was dead and why they had a paper from the hospital that declared her dead when she really wasn't. Smaller nitpick: The plane featured in this movie isn't in commercial production yet so it's a bit unrealistic to be using it in a film. Acclaim: I enjoyed the plot and I enjoyed Jodi Foster a lot. It's a good movie to rent. It will entertain you, and have you trying to decide who to side with. Find out who made the flightplan...

Yay for your first review, idolfan! I wanted to see Flightplan when it was in the theater but never got around to it. I'll have to rent it sometime.

X-Men The Last Stand My Grade: B+ Plot: 9 The story was interesting and believable. It wasn't overdramatized or silly. Dialogue: 7 Predictable but ok. Character Development: 9 Good use of combining mutants talents. Each mutant had a distinct personality and individual talents. Editing: 9 Easy to follow storyline even though it jumped back and forth in time. Flashbacks used to enhance storyline but didn't confuse it. Special Effects: 10 Excellent special effects. They must have been computer generated because most of the time I couldn't figure out how they did them. Overall Rating: B I haven't seen the first X-Men movie but I understood what was happening in this one anyway so it stood on its own. The Fantastic Four is still one of my favorite superhero movies because of the humor in it and I loved the Spiderman movies but this one was not too far behind them. General Comments: Scott was really cute. ROWWRR. I'd like to see the first X-Men movie now to see more of him. Johnny Depp who? :lol: One thing they didn't explain was about the girl who couldn't touch people. Why couldn't she touch them? Would it hurt her or would it hurt them? I didn't understand it. Man, the girl that played Mystique looked so awful all in blue and with those weird eyes. I couldn't believe how pretty she looked as a normal person. Question (but also a major spoiler so highlight the box to read it if you've seen the movie and want to know): Why did Wolverine kill Jean instead of giving her the mutant cure? Was it that he just didn't have the cure on hand or was she so powerful that the cure might not completely cure her and she could still be dangerous? Was it because she couldn't live with the guilt of having killed Scott and the professor?

The Da Vinci Code My Grade: C Plot: 5 The plot was very predictable, which took away a lot of the suspense. At all the major points of action, I was able to predict what would happen next even though I hadn't read the book. Dialogue: 6 The interpretation of the clues was not possible by the audience so I'm glad it was explained to us. Character Development: 4 They could have explained the characters backgrounds better. There seemed to be an awful lot of coincidences (going to someone for help who just happened to be looking for them) but it all made sense when you knew how the characters knew each other. Editing: 4 All the jumping back and forth in time and flashbacks from events not explained to us made the story confusing. Special Effects: 7 Pretty good special effects, authentic-looking details. Overall Rating: C It's hard to make a movie about a book and make it so people who haven't read the book can follow the movie. I'd like to go back and read the book (since I haven't read it yet) and then see the movie again. it might make more sense to me then. General Comments: The crime scene techniques at the beginning of the movie were all wrong, but then again it would depend on how crime scenes are processed in France (where the death occurred on the movie), if it was the local police who processed the scene or federal agents, etc. In the US, the police would take pictures of the victim and then move them from the crime scene. No way would they question a suspect/someone who knew the deceased in public and take them to the scene with the body still there. If any evidence was found on the body, the suspect could always say it was left there when the police brought them to the scene. I didn't understand how Tom Hanks was interpreting the codes. With the special effects, it looked like they were using different lighting to highlight certain letters but it might have been they were just showing how his mind was working, what he was picking up on. I got a chuckle from this...words from the movie that you'll never hear in real life: "I have to get to a library fast". :lol: :lol: :lol:

Over the Hedge My Grade: B Plot: 7 The plot was ok, a little strange because they had a turtle, a squirrel, opossums and porcupines hibernating together in a log during the winter. First of all, I think each of those creatures would stick with their own kind. Second of all, opossums and porcupines don't hibernate. They may stay in their dens during the cold season but they don't sleep all winter. For that matter, neither do bears. Dialogue: 9 There were a lot of funny moments. Good job on the dialogue, keeping it interesting and clean for the family. Good interaction between characters. Character Development: 7 I wasn't happy with how people were portrayed in the movie. Not all people living in the suburbs are uptight animal haters. The animals themselves didn't have very deep personalities but it's a kids movie so I can understand that. Kids would get bored with understanding the motivation behind the characters personalities. Editing: 8 It could have been trimmed down some. Some of the scenes could have been combined instead of chaining together several separate incidents. Special Effects: 8 The special effects were pretty good. The scenery was beautiful but the people and animals looked weird. I would have liked the animals to look more lovable. Music: 8 I liked the music. It wasn't the type of thing where I'd want to buy the soundtrack but it didn't have any annoying kids songs either. Overall Rating: B It was pretty good. I would recommend it to people with younger kids. It's a good movie for a family to watch together. Teens probably wouldn't be too interested in it. General Comments: Why are people portrayed so bad in animal films anymore? It's like anytime people are in cartoons recently, they're angry, stupid, and wanting to destroy things and kill animals for no reason. I think if movie makers want to send a message to kids about how people should act, they should show them positive role models, not how NOT to act. Plus, it's good to have a message in a movie but I don't like it when they load movies down with too many messages or hammer them down too hard. The messages kids get from this movie is people eat too much, people hate animals, people are greedy, junk food is bad for you, the suburbs are a bad place--get back to nature, etc, etc, etc. I was able to put all that aside and still enjoy the movie for its own sake but someone like my dad would be offended by it and be rolling his eyes throughout the movie, if he even stayed to watch the rest of it.