Sherlock Holmes

So far, I have not read Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries; nor have I seen the Basil Rathbone portrayals of Sherlock. I enjoy Robert Downey Jr as an actor so I went to see the movie. I was not disappointed as it appeared Robert loved playing Sherlock and the chemistry that he had with Jude Law's Watson was a joy to watch. It took a little bit to let myself enjoy the fast-paced film-making style of Guy Ritchie and the thick British accents but once I got carried away in the story, I enjoyed it. There is quite obviously sequels in the works as Sherlock will have more cases to solve. It was a fun escape and give it an enthusiastic thumb up looking forward to the eventual sequel(s).

Invictus

Honestly, I do not know much about South Africa's apartheid nor Nelson Mandela. I do know that when Morgan Freeman is in a movie, it is rare for that movie not to be good. That tradition is upheld in Invictus. This is most definitely his movie and also part of Nelson Mandela's legacy. When Clint Eastwood directs Morgan, it is a potentially award-winning combination as was shown in the previous Million Dollar Baby (where Morgan's role is not nearly big enough but I digress). The movie shows how President Mandela showed a divided country how to unite, in this instance it is due to a sports team. I know there are some non-sports fans out there that think we are entirely too centered on sports but like it or not, sports is a good microcosm of society where there are battles (games) to be won, strategy (game plan) to be utilized and all because of people working together for the good of the country (team). I do not know anything about how Rugby is played but the fact that the South African national team vying to win a world cup (championship) is green and gold makes this die hard Packers fan proud! There are a lot of good lines of dialogue that are as appropriate in 1995 South Africa as they are in 2010 America. Ironically, both are being led by African-American presidents. More people need to see Invictus to help to realize that we are all in this life together no matter what our race, religion, sexual orientation nor anything else and to be divided is to be conquerable. I highly recommend this movie with two thumbs up reading a copy of the William Ernest Henley's poem titled Invictus.

Avatar

OK, I admit, I didn't want to see this movie. It looked like a bunch of effects and not much story. I am guessing that it will garner some Oscar nominations and I had heard that James Cameron was working on it since before Titanic so I succumbed to peer pressure and saw it. I saw it in 3D but not IMAX due to myself being too old to handle the nausea that sometimes shows up when watching IMAX films. First of all, the 3D was pretty neat to watch with all the things flying toward you like you can touch them and what not. Did it really add to the film, not in this reviewers mind. Like Titanic, it felt like the movie made the actors and that no one star stood out for their performance. Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang are all good actors and did however play their roles well. The whole time I was watching, it reminded me a lot of Pocahontas with the environmental beauty and the plot line. I was waiting to hear Vanessa Williams sing Colors of the Wind. Overall, I'm glad that I saw it but I have to wonder what is lacking when a film has to rely on 3D and IMAX to encourage people to see it. It was good but it didn't make me want to see it again nor recommend it to others so I give it one thumb up for excellent marketing.

It's Complicated

Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in one movie, wow, it's got to be good...right? Well, It's complicated. Divorce is a serious event in too many lives. Humor is a necessary component to a healthy existence. So when the two are brought together along with the natural hilarity of the over-50 set 'talking about sex', you do have a funny movie. It's Complicated is funny, very-adult movie with the usual good acting by Meryl, comic timing from Alec and unfortunately not enough screen time for Steve. I think the plot of Agness and Pedro was under-developed but I would rather see it stay under-developed in order to increase the role of Steve Martin's character Adam. I also think John Krasinski although very funny was given too big of a role due to his popularity from The Office; again give some of his lines to developing Adam more. Overall, I give It's Complicated one thumb up for a nice cinematic diversion from our 'real lives'.

Planet 51

Welcome back to my blog from a much too long absence (again). Over the weekend, I saw the animated movie, Planet 51. It was a sparse crowd (only 4 of us) probably because everyone else was at either New Moon or The Blind Side. Knowing that I have gone through a bit of a withdrawal at seeing movies and that in a month I will need to start my Oscar-watching viewing, I chose to get back into watching what I assumed to be a 'cute, simple kids movie'. Anmiated movies seem to have changed. It seems like instead of enjoying a cute animated story, we must make a political statement. In this case, that people not like ourselves are not bad simply because their different. While I agree, I would rather have the "A-ha" moment come to me rather than feeling forced to feel a certain way. We don't necessarily all respond well to force. The animation seemed good. The voice-over work was ok, Gary Oldman and Seann William Scott seemed to be the saving grace. John Cleese wasn't featured enough and could have been funny but wound up being irritating. Duane Johnson, besides not sounding like himself, seemed somewhere between trying too hard and not caring about the lines...considering that the lines were written by the writer of Shrek, very surprising. Speaking of which the animation gravitated between Shrek and Wall-E but not as good as either one; especially the former. I think a couple of times there was humor that was a bit adult-themed. I think most people would feel a bit bored at times but young boys would appreciate it the most for the space/alien topic. Overall, I enjoyed this movie as a simple sidebar to fill time in between other tasks...1 thumb up pointing to the galaxy to wonder if there is intelligent life out there--or at least over in Hollywood.