Film Review: Sherlock Holmes

Holmes? An action man? Has the world gone mad? Maybe it has, but this is still a wonderful film, one of the years best. Personally, the film easily becomes the most potential franchise maker alongside Star Trek.

Holmes (Robert Downy Jr.) is a detective that can't stop thinking. That helps him in his work, but not when meeting Watson's fiancee'. Despite that, he still feels wonderful..until Lord Blackwood seems to rise from the grave!! Now the fate of 1893 London is in the balance.

The great thing about the film is it's easily distinguishable amongst it's brethern of shoot-em ups. Why? Because Holmes is fascinating, pure and simple. Like Jake Sully from Avatar, he dosen't have much brawn. But man does he have a brain. In a wonderful idea, Holmes thinks about his fighting before he does it. He wonders how long it'll take his opponent to react from a punch or to even twist his head to see. It's wonderful to watch and makes it quite a highlight not just of the film but from 2009 altogether.

Robert Downy Jr. is charasimatic and gets to hsine as Holmes. You get the feeling he IS Sherlock and those other puny adaptations didn't do the doctor justice. Robert gives a performance that is commendable, his best yet. In fact, I see a Best Actor Nom. coming his way in the Oscar season.

Jude Law is alright as Watson, though it must be admitted Robert overshadows him and everyone in the film. Still, these days, when Daniel Radcliffe is lifeliss in Harry Potter 6, the fact that acting overshadows the action (almost), well, then that's the greatest compliment of all.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10 or A

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Blu-Ray Review: It's A Wonderful Life

Christmas may bring happiness to many, but for some it's a madhouse. One man in particular affected by that is George Bailey. He's lost a lot of money and more trouble is an inevitability. However, an angels named Clarence changes all that, leading to the greatest Christmas film ever.

Jimmy Stewart is one of those talents you can't find much else and wish we had someone equivalent to him today. He's brilliant here and has a rela transformation throughout. Clarenece is unforgettable and really shines, god bless Henry Travers who is stupendous.

Theis film is one that changes cinema and the holiday CHirstmas in itself. Not only with th greatest Christmas story ever, but because of it's characters and emotion. It's one that can't be missed.

Rating: 10.2 out of 10 or A+

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Film Review: The Princess and the Frog

when I was growing up, I had an Uncle who had a large array of Disney movies on VHS. Before I could walk, I knew how to operate those babies (Yeah, I know. I'm old). I would watch Snow White, Lady and The Tramp & Winnie The Pooh again and again. So when Disney announced in 2004 that Disney would stop 2D forever, I was devastated. Tears were shed and I sure as heck wasn't pleased that Ron Clements and John Musker were thrown out of Disney. What would become of the Feature animation Department?

But in 2006, John Lasstter arrived and put a stop to the CGI madness. He brought forth 2D. Ron N' John were rehired and they had a new musical in the pipeline: The Princess and The Frog.

In the tale, Tiana wants to follow her father's dream and open up the biggest Resteraunt this side of Louisiana. However, she has soon become a workaholic and ignores all her friends and family. Soon, she meets Prince Naveen. Thanks to the evil Dr. Falicier, he has become a frog and his valet Lawernce is posing as the handsome Prince. Once Tiana plants a kiss on the prince ,it turns out trouble and adventure await the duo as they cross the New Orleans bayou to meet Mama Odie who is their only hope of fixing the spell.



Tiana is a wonderful princess. However, no offense to her, but she may be the weaker part of the film. Her companions are delightful. Prince Naveen is the best Disney Prince of all-time, hands down. Most Disney Princes have no defining characteristics (the only negative thing that can be really said about them), but he has a lot of reliance on people and doesn't get life itself. Tiana changes that for him of course. Louis is a fun character, he being a crocodile who wants to be in a band. He really stands out. Dr. Falicier is the best Disney Villain in years and has an outstanding number in the middle. His voodoo friends are really well-done.

The delight of the film is Ray, the Cajun firefly. I myself thought he was the bathroom joke spouting character, like Hurley in G-Force. However, he is actually the wonderful guru of the film, knowing much about love. His romance with a star he dubs Levangrie is beautiful and touching. SPOILER ALERT!!! His death is crushing, as Dr. Flaicier crushes him with a foot. With the sickening crunch that guaranteed his death, the audience gasped and so did I. During his funeral, everyone was crying, including me! SPOILER ALERT!!!!

The music here really fits in perfectly with the Disney Canon. Randy Newman was a choice that I was skeptical about, but he does nicley here. There are many nice numbers, but my favorites are "When We're Human", "Friends On The Other Side" & "Don't Matter What You Look Like" will have you tapping out of the aisle.



Hands down one of the best films of the year & decade, The Princess nad The Frog assures you Disney is still alive and well. Although a frog hunting scene could've been cut, that's the only thing I say was wrong with this classic worthy of Walt Disney himself. A masterpiece for generations to come, The Pricness and The Frog proves Disney is back and better than ever!

Rating: A or 9.4 out of 10

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TV Review: Prep and Landing

Disney Animation is really coming back. In December 2009, they shall mainly be remebered for the smash hit The Princess and the Frog. But they will also have a mention for the clever Prep and Landing, the next great Christmas classic waiting in the wings.

In this special, Wayne (Dave Foley) is an elf who has done his job as a Prep and Landing elf too long. Sure he helps Santa bring toys by making sure houses are safe, but it's time for change. However, his partner gets a rpomotion that he wanted. Worse yet, he has a new peppy partner named Landy. Together, they encounter a new home that has a problem. A big problem...

Wayne is a fun character rist and foremost. He may be a jerk, but as Santa says at the end: 'Everyone slips on the naughty list very once and a while." Plus, the show is funny. The reindeer launch is a paeticular highlight since it plays like a rocket launch. The two main reinderr are also funny, espicially their reply on how they'll make it through a snowstorm: "By laughing all the way!"



The Prep and Landing missions are also creative. The Ginerbread controls really are fun to watch and all the elves working to get Santa to each house really makes your heart flutter.

Prep and Landing is wonderful and joins many other classics during Christmas. I have said it before, but it bears repeating: Disney is back and better than ever!

Rating: 9.1 out of 10 or A

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Avatar Critical Watch

Avatar is coming in 5 days (excitement!!), but what do the critics think so far? Well, 90% of them have given positive marks, with even Roger Ebert going as far as t osay it's a modern day Star Wars. Outstanding.

Plus, IGN Movies just gave me the best quote of the year:

"Wow. James Cameron pulled it off."

Entertainment Weekly (a magazine I currently am subscribing to), gave it a good B, though says it's climx is "stupendous" .

Great job, James. Can't wait to see the final product.

SYS

DVD Review: The Year Without A Santa Clause

The Year Without A Santa Clause is one of the best Chirstmas specials and the very defenition of classic. With great songs and loveable characters, it's not hard to see why this has become the classic it is.

Santa feels weary and feels as if no one cares about Christmas anymore. Mrs. Clause sends off two elves, Jingle & Jangles, to see if X-mas is still alive in peoples hearts. Soon, they have to meet Mother Nature to settle Christmas cheer once and for all!!!

The rela stand-outs here are The Miser Brothers who have one of the greatest Christmas songs in creation (they were so popular that they got their own TV special A Miser Brothers Christmas which was quite average). They have great personalities and have great dance moves to boot. They aren't the only reason this special is brilliant (the young boy who comes into play later on in the special is also great). Still, they are a major part as to why this special succeds as a whole.

Overall this is a sure-fire winner with great animation and a real X-mas spirit that'll stay with you all month long.

Rating: 9.4 out of 10 or A

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Simpsons Review: Rednecks and Broomsticks

Rednecks and Broomsticks was another good 'un, and maybe the best in the season thus far. I had a good time watching it, and with many notable gags to talk about, it was easy to see why this was a great episode.

During a game of hide-and-seek, Lisa gets a lost and meets a band of witches who soon get arrested. Howevert, the trial for them escalates into a death sentence when half the town goes blind, perhaps because of the witches. It's up to Lisa to get the Witches free and show their innocence.

The explanation for why everyone went blind nicely tied into the fact that Homer was judging a moonshine festival. It seems the hilbillies threew the leftover moonshine into a river, leading into the water supply for Springfield. This was what made the town go blind, not withces. Very clever.

It should also be said that there was a Bambi gag that was sick and twisted...yet I loved it!! You must see it for yourself to know just how funny it is. There was also a good Sideways reference and a nice nod to the horrible 2005 Bewitched film.

Overall, this was a nice outing for The Simpson. They have had a few duds this year(Wedding For Disaster, The Devil Wears Nada, but The Simpsons are back in fashion.

Rating: 9.2 out of 10 or A

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Film Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson isn't exactly Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson or even Mike Judge. He has a following, but it isn't as big as Judge's. And he hasn't made any large films in the recent years that garnered $300 million dollars at the box office. He has made The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray, but it didn't make much cash or Oscars overall. Wes seems to have a fondness for animation if we're to go by some of the sequences in The Life Aquatic that were animated. His friend Henry Sellick directed those (and Coraline and the Nightmare Before Christmas), but here he comes forward as some kind of mad scientist in his lab. The result? A brilliant fare and one much better than expected.

In this film, Mr. Fox is having a mid-life crisis. He really wants to live it up soon. So he moves into a condo (or a tree) and decides to go pilfering, much to his wife's dismay. She figures he has enough troubles at home, like their only son who needs attention. However, when 3 angry farmers try to destroy the forest in search of Mr. Fox, all the critters realize Mr. Fox may be their only hope in surviving the onccoming war.

Now, admit it, that's not some ordinary film. This has to be one of the most mature films ever created, even surpassing Up, I freely admit. That is a plus. Also, the cast gigantic with the likes of George Clooney, Merryl Streep, William Dafoe and Jason Shwartzman in there. They all sound like their having fun and I think filming their voices outside in barns and underground helped get some authenticy in their voice work.



The biggest hurdles is the animation, but you get used to it after a while, tough goodness knows why they couldn't have spent a few bucks more and gotten better stuff.

The whole film feels like you are really in this forest because they all have nice qualities to their voices that makes you know them better. Since the actors are very talented, you get a sense of charisma, power or envy in their voices that makes them feel like realy people, something only Aardman and PIXAR seem to have cornered on the animation market before.

There are a few nitpicks though. For insatance, a few plot holes pop up now and then and it's very anooying that characters can't cuss. They just say cuss like "What the cuss?" You feel like Wes Anderson wants to make this a little more racy, yet the studio told him to stay put where he was.



This is, however, something that makes me realize the lgeacy that Wes Anderson has on cinema. He really makes great films that have real situations and now he's even transversed genre's to get into animation. He's broken barriers that we may not have even known were there.

Fantastic Mr. FOx is one of the year's best and really shows what animation has done this year. I take my hat off to Wes Anderson and Co. for coming thiiiiiiiiiss close to topping PIXAR in quality. Highly reccomended.

Rating: 9.2 out of 10 or A

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Blu-Ray Review: Forrest Gump

Robert Zemeckis has nearly hit a career high recently with his Christmas Carol. Emphasis on nearly. This film and Back to The Future prove his peak. To be quite frank, I may like this film better than Back to The Future, but maybe maybe I should watch Future again to settle the opinion. Anyway, this film is as great as they come and definitely deserves the praise it's gotten.

This film is about Forrest Gump, a man who at a bus stop, tells many people about his life, ranging from Vietnam to a girl that he loves named Jenny. During his tales he gains fame, fortune and love.

Tom Hanks is wonderful in one of his best films he's ever done. It's quite amazing that they had the technology at the time to incorporate Tom Hanks into such old archive footage. It still remains a high point for visual effects to this day.



This entire film is among the most wonderful ever created and is one of the best films of the whole 90's decade. I could even argue it's in the Top 25 best films ever. Forrest Gump is one film that is impossible not to love and cherish. A cinematic masterpiece that one shall never forget.

Rating: A+ or 9.7 out of 10

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Film Review: The Blind Side

Let me get something straight from the start. I don't know quarterback from a pile of quarters. I do not like football. That being said, I loved The Blind Side.

This is the true story about NFL quarterback Michael Ore. Michael is abandoned and homeless when the Thooeys find him. They take him in and adopt him as one of their own. Soon, both Michael and the Thooeys lives are changed forever as Michael shows skills and determination.

This film may be heartfelt, but there's plenty of laughs, particularly Sandra Bullock's character, who's feisty and rough, but soft underneath. Tim McGraw plays her husband. You don't see him a lot, but he's okay. The two standouts are Jae Head (he plays Sandra and Tim's son) and Quinton Aaron as Michael Ore. Both are exceptional.

The film touched me in ways only a few (like Up and Where The Wild Things Are) have done this year. In the best part, Michael Ore savess the Thooeys sons life from an airbag during a car crash. It's a provacative moment that touches your soul.

Rating: A- or 8.9 out of 10

P.S. At the end, Tim McGraw's hit song Southern Voice plays. I love country, so that was just the icing on the cake for this chocolate cream pie film.

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3D Film Review: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is amazing. It is a terrific film, but before we indulge into that, let me give you a brief summary of the animation used here.

The animation in the film is Mo-Cap which is when actors dress in black suits and have their movements recorded on CGI characters. Examples of this are Gollum from Lord of The Rings and Na'avi in the upcoming Avatar.

Robert Zemeckis (the director) has now made 3 films in this format: The Polar Express, Beowulf and now A Christmas Carol, his best since Cast Away.

We all know the tale, so let me get to the point: this film is something to marvel at. There have been god knows how many adaptations of this story, and yet this never feels like it is a retread. On the contrary, this feels like you'll remember this singular tale for Christmas's to come.

Jim Carrey astounds as Scoorge (in all of his ages) and The 3 ghosts that haunt him. He really puts a fine job here and I think it's my favorite performance of him ever. He really seems to be having a lot of fun as these 4 characters. Bob Hoskins is nice as Cratchit and Fezziwig and Colin Firth is delightful as Fred, Scrooge's nephew. Robin Wright Penn is even in here as Scrooge's old girlfriend Blle, though she doesn't get to do much.


I haven't really like Mo-Cap until now. The Polar Express frightened me with it's zombie like humans and Beowulf just seemed out of place with it's actors and characters. Here all of that has been fixed with even the yes looking much better. It feels more genuine than ever before.



Another good thing is that most of this film is straight from the book by Charles Dickens. Scenes that aren't in most adaptations are in here and don't feel tacked on.

I have just noticed now that I have gone on for a while just praising this film to the high heavens, but it really is a grand christmas joy. I say, see this film the holiday season or your Christmas just won't be complete.

Rating: A or 9.4 out of 10

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Blu-Ray Review: Star Trek

J.J. ABrams has made many-a classic things this decade. Lost, Alias and Mission Impossible 3 (the former is probably at the bottom fo the classics though). You would think though, J.J. would be horrid to create the film. He didn't even know what Tribbles were!! HE...DIDN'T...KNOW....WHAT.....TRIBBLES....WERE!!! However, he's the best thing that's happened to this franchise sincE Khan was shouted.

In this reboot, Kirk finds himself joining Starfleet Academy with Bones, Spock Uhuara and Sulu and soons learns of aa time-traveling Romulan who plans to use an Elder Spock for his own datardly deeds...

This film has some great visuals, but it's the comedy, heart and action that just blow you away. Spock is truly heartfelt here and comedy comes in spades, mainly thnaks to Scotty played by Simon Pegg. (surprisingly, Tyler Perry is in here, but dosen't crack a smile!!) The opening, like Up, is worth any price alone to see. It's wonderful and very real. You feel like your in the midst of the great Star Trek battle.

This is easily the best Star Trek film ever and, honestly, I'm excited to see what a sequel might bring to the table. Warp speed to your nearest store to pick up this grand item.

Rating: A- or 8.8 out of 10

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