Mike's Mini Movie Review: Get Smart!

My youngest brother lent me this DVD on the weekend. I had zero expectations going in, and they were surpassed. It's funny in spots. Steve Carell is pretty good. Anne Hathaway is very cute. It's probably better than it has any right to be. It won't win any academy awards. The movie did pick up some bonus points for having the Rock (or, as he's known to the kidz, "Dwayne Johnson"), as well as the GREAT COLLIE (sic) in featured roles.

Mike's Mini Movie Review - BOLT!

My older daughter and I went on a Daddy-Daughter Date today, and saw BOLT!

It was very fun. The hamster - Rhino - stole the film. The throwaway scene with him riding on top of the kayak had tears streaming down my face. I would fully endorse Rhino getting his own sequel film.

I'm pretty sure I made more money last weekend ...

Misfires: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr. Face Bomb-Making Charges For 'Delgo'

Delgo's $916,000 gross is the lowest ever by a film that opened on more than 2,000 screens — 2,160 to be exact. Its $424 per-theater average means that some showings of the animated sci-fi fantasy in more competitive markets likely played to audiences of fewer than five people at a time.

Update: It's worse than expected!

In a world of movie trailers

The death of voiceover guy Don LaFontaine reminded me of this hysterically funny movie trailer ... which was NOT voiced by Don LaFontaine, but is nevertheless still one of the greatest pieces of comedy I've ever seen.

... sigh ...

Confirmed: All 6 Star Wars Movies to be Released in 3D

I love the Star Wars movies ... I really do ... but do we really need ANOTHER version?

A modest proposal

The new Batman movie hasn't even opened yet, but already the late Health Ledger is being touted for a posthumous Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the Joker.

Well, I'd like to start an Oscar nomination bandwagon myself:

Wall-E for Best Picture.

Not Best Animated Picture, but Best Picture, period.

Wall-E for Best Picture. Let's make it happen.

Wall-E and weather

Two things on Sunday afternoon:

• I took the family to see Wall-E this afternoon, and it was great. This might be Pixar's first "adult" film in the sense that it was a far more simple, yet sophisticated, story than they usually do. It was a sad comedy if that makes any sense. Excellent movie.
• My older daughter got 15 minutes of fame today when her video of hail pouring down on our deck made the Weather Network this morning. Good for her!

Edit:

Video added ...

Mike's Mini Movie Review II

Oceans 13: It was weird. Well done, and fun to watch, but weird. It also required watching the wretched Oceans 12 to fully understand it. I'm going to have to watch it a couple more times to tie all the plot twists together. And if I did actually follow the movie correctly, there's the opening for an Ocean's 14 movie with all of the screwed-over bad guys from the first three movies gathering together to get their revenge on Danny's gang. That could be fun.

Sunday evening edit: OK, I watched it again today and it made a whole lot more sense the second time around. A lot of the cues that tie the story together are half-whispered, barely-mentioned throwaway lines that you really have to listen for. But I was far more impressed with the movie the second time around having now pieced the entire thing together.

That still doesn't make Oceans's 12 any better, though.

Mike's Mini-Movie Review No. 1

First in an infrequent series ...

We picked up the Enchanted DVD during our recent Washington visit ($15 US!) and while the rest of the family had watched it, I took my first look at it a few days ago. I never thought I'd see the day Disney made a kid-friendly fairy-tale feature film basically satirizing kid-friendly fairy-tale Disney feature films, but there you go. It was every bit as twisted as I had hoped. Well worth a rental for sure.