13Thirteen

In Tim Burton’s re-imagining of  Alice in Wonderland, 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.

Vic’s Review:

Having seen the movie in 2D, there was moments where the focus was horribly offset: these were parts of the film that I could only assume were intentioned for 3D. On top of that, the dialogue was at times incredibly difficult to understand; especially from Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Scissorhands) whose haphazard attempt at Scottish came in and out in his portrayal of the Mad Hatter.  Perhaps the only person you could truly understand was the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter – Sweeney Todd, Fight Club), but her bulbous head was distracting enough that you really didn’t pay much attention. Read the rest…

With the 2010 Academy Awards right around the corner, here are my picks to win the Oscar:

Best Picture

There are 2 major favorites in this category, the world’s highest grossing film of all time: Avatar, and one of last year’s lowest grossing films: The Hurt Locker.  This match up looks to be a daunting one, and I personally like The Hurt Locker more than Avatar, but if the votes split, there might be an upset winner: Up in the Air.

My Pick: The Hurt Locker
Runner Up: Avatar
Upset Winner: Up in the Air
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2009 was a year filled with some great blockbusters including the now #1 highest grossing film of all time, Avatar.  You can see a full list of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2009 and their worldwide grosses on Wikipedia.   Of that list, only 2 films made my list of the Top 13 movies of 2009.  These are movies that I would definitely recommend to rent and watch if not own.

Those films are:
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Flint Lockwood thinks he’s a genius. But none of the things he invented are things that make sense or are useful. However, he has the support of his mother but when she dies, he’s left alone with his father who thinks he should give it up. When the community that he lives in, is in an economic crisis because their primary source of income, a sardine cannery, was shut down, Flint decides to try his latest invention, a machine that can turn water into food. But something goes wrong and the machine ends up in the atmosphere. Later it starts raining food. And so the shifty mayor tries to use this as a way to help their community. But when Flint sense something’s wrong with the machine, the mayor convinces him to ignore it. But as Flint predict chaos ensues. (Originally Written by rcs0411 { at } yahoo { dot } com For IMDB.)

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A personal aide to U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers – August Rush, The Tudors) has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All James wants is to become a bona fide agent and see some real action. So when he’s offered his first senior-level assignment, he can’t believe his good luck until he meets his new partner, special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta – Old Dogs, The Taking of Pelham 123) – a trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon who’s been sent to Paris Read the rest…

A remake of the 1941 horror film and set in Victorian-era Great Britain, The Wolfman is the story of Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro – Che, The Usual Suspects)  a Shakespearean actor and nobleman, who is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes.  Reunited with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins – The Silence of the Lambs, The World’s Fastest Indian), Talbot sets out to find his brother and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.  He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable blood-lust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving – The Matrix, Lord of the Rings) has come to investigate.  Read the rest…

The first film in a series of adventure and fantasy books authored by Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief tells the story of  Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman, Gamer), a twelve year old boy diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) who finds out that he is the son of the Greek god of the seas, Poseidon.  After being attacked in a museum, he is sent to Camp Half-Blood, a camp for children with a Greek god as a parent.  Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’ thunderbolt.  He is given ten days to return the thunderbolt to Mount Olympus in order to stop a war between the gods from starting, and save his mother, who has been held hostage in the Underworld. Read the rest…

Well, I’ve started a new job recently and I think I’ve started getting lazy (As if watching 365 movies isn’t lazy enough).  Although, I’ve started slacking on my movie watching, mostly because I just haven’t seen anything out there that interests me.  I’m probably about 20 movies behind at this point and I need to finish writing up the reviews for the 20 or so I’ve already seen.  I’m also in the process of creating a list of my top films for 2009 with mini-reviews that should hopefully be posted before the weekend is over (… hopefully …).

To add to the myriad of distractions that beset me on a daily basis, the 2010 Winter Olympics are starting tonight.  Just what I need, hours upon hours of non-stop TV, watching such menial, mind-numbing yet inexplicably hypnotizing events such as curling.  Ooh.  Curling.  Seriously?  Anyway, we’ll see if my eyes can snap away from the Olympics long enough to watch a quality film or two (I use the word quality very lightly).

Film number 18 in my 365 Film Challenge is perhaps the least likely to win any awards at any time in the near future, except perhaps a Razzie.  In short, here’s the plot: Three bad girls travel to a remote desert hideaway to steal $200 million in diamonds from a ruthless underworld kingpin.  That’s it.  The rest of it is filled with so much innuendo and T&A that it’ll blow the head off of any teen-aged boy.

Read the rest…

Based on the children’s story by Roald Dahl, this stop-motion film is unmistakeably styled in Wes Anderson’s dry yet illustrative aesthetic. I remember having read the story as a child and enjoying the hijinx that ensued between all the animals and the farmers. And having enjoyed most of Anderson’s films including Rushmore and the Royal Tenenbaums, I found this film a perfect blend of both the story and director’s wittiness.

Great and unmistakable voice performances by George Clooney and Bill Murray.  This film missed making my Top 13 list of 2009 by just one film.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10