There really isn’t much I can say about the movie “Epic Movie“. It really doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. Bad acting, poor story. But there are parts that are funny and they did come up with a way, albeit a weak way, to connect all the various stories from recent hit movies.

I can’t in good conscious recommend going out to see this movie, if it is even still in theatres, but someday when you’re channel flipping, it’ll show up. Go grab a few beers and laugh your ass off. Then remember all the good movies they are trying to make fun of.

I caught the movie Child of Men at the theatre recently. It had been recommended to me by a few friends, one who had been eagerly awaiting it since he had read the book by P.D. James and he like the movie adaption a lot.

The previews looked very interesting to me… in 2027 the human population has gone sterile, everybody is growing old and there is no future generation or any sounds of children playing. Society has taken turn for the worse and it looks like the world dying. And then a pregnant lady is found by rebels.

The movie stars Clive Owen who has been in just a few movies, Juliane Moore who’s also done a flicks.

I left the theatre having enjoying the movie. It made you think. You could see it as a modern day retelling of one of the oldest stories in the world. Admittedly, it isn’t a movie that everyone is going to like, I walked out and some people around me hadn’t enjoyed it, but I liked the story that left you thinking.

I recently caught the classic 1963 movie The Great Escape on TV. Like most classic movies, I can see it’s influences on modern movies. I enjoyed the movie and would recommend watching when you have a chance because you’ll learn a little bit about history and be entertained at the same time.

I’ve also seen the episode of NOVA on PBS that covered the real life Great Escape and the movie stuck very close to the true story. I would also recommend you catch this episode at some time. It was want inspired me to watch the movie. For more info about the Great Escape you can check out the WIKI entry about it. It can help you sort out the fact from fiction of the movie.

I caught the 1973 classic Al Pacino movie Serpico on HDNet Movies a week ago. I won’t say it is the greatest movie ever, but I can see why it is regarded as a classic.

The movie tells the story of Frank Serpico’s pretty much personal crusade against the corruption in the New York Police Department in the 1970s. Since he is an honest cop surrounded by officers taking bribes, he has to worry about the people backing him up as much as he does the criminals he’s chasing.

Pacino gives a classic performance, and I would expect nothing less from him though. The movie is a classic cop movie and if you haven’t seen it, you should make an effort to watch it. Parts brought back memories of the classic TV show Barney Miller, but unlike the TV show, this isn’t a comedy. It is deadly serious.

I saw The Hitcher on Friday, a remake of the 1986 movie of the same name. If you aren’t sure of the plot of the movie, or don’t know what it is about. It can be summed up as “Don’t pick up a stranger on the side of the road.”

The movie stars Sean Bean, famous for playing Boromir from the Lord of the Rings movies, as the hitchhiker you don’t want to meet. He’s just creepy from the get go. It also stars Sophia Bush who although she’s been a few movies and a lot of TV shows, the only movie or show in the list that I recognized was Van Wilder, and I have no idea who she was in that movie. Finally, it also stars Zachary Knighton who I’ve never heard of.

Now back to the movie. Not a whole lot I can say about it. Pretty typical horror type movie. Not really a good movie, but you’ll get what you expect out of it. It’ll make you jump a few times and you’ll leave never wanting to pick up a hitchhiker ever. If you like horror movies, you’ll probably enjoy it, but you can very likely wait till you can see it on DVD. It’ll probably be on DVD in a couple months.

I saw the movie Blood Diamond (official site) a few days ago at the local theater. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of Leonardo. He’s a good actor, I just don’t really care for him. In this movie, he was good, very good, cheesy accent and all.

The movie’s story revolves around conflict diamonds. Diamonds that are mined by what amounts to slaves, sold by warlords with the profits going to buy weapons. It shows that about the only people involved in this process that aren’t guilty of something are the slaves that are mining the diamonds. Everybody else from the smugglers to the diamond buyers that aren’t even in Africa are guilty of sponsors in the acts of terrors committed and wars over the rights to mine the shiny little rocks. These warlords brainwash children with drugs and alcohol, turning them into little soldiers that aren’t even really aware of what they are doing.

If life was anything like what the movie portrayed, one has to wonder if Sierra Leone would have turned into an early version of Iraq if the diamonds were oil instead.

Back to the movie… the story they came up with to set in this time period is very interesting and keeps you interested in the characters and events in the film. While Leo plays a character that is all about him, Jennifer Connelly is the complete opposite and plays a reporter that is trying to change the world with her words. The third major character in the film, Solomon, was played by Djimon Hounsou, someone I’ve never heard of. He does a phenomenal job as the diamond mine slave.

Overall, the movie was very good. It was a little long, the story probably could have been tightened up a little bit to shave maybe 10 minutes of the 160 minute run time. But it was time well spent. I was entertained and made aware of some recent history that was drowned out by the garbage being reported about Monica Lewenski. I was aware of the blood diamonds, but now I know a bit more about the reality, or at least the portrayed reality, of the conflict that occurred in Africa in the 90’s.

For more information about blood or conflict diamonds, you can visit these sites:
United Nations Conflict Diamonds Information
Wikipedia Entry on Blood Diamonds
Diamond Facts (public relations website that appears to be from the diamond industry)

So I’ve been a little lax on my keeping my movie reviews current. Time to catchup & here goes…

Apocolypto – Saw this movie a while back. I found it very interesting, knowing that although it seems realistic, I knew going in that Mel Gibson had done some blending of times, portraying different points of history simultaneously. Overlooking that, the movie was enjoyable. Parts are very interesting, other parts are a little gruesome. Final verdict, I liked it, but it isn’t a movie for everyone.

Happy Feet – Caught this movie on the IMAX and I’ll say it was one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen lately. I’d summarize it as March of the Penguins from their perspective, but with more a story and unique characters. Originally, they advertised it as being in IMAX 3-D, but they decided against doing that. I think that would have really added something extra to a few of the sequences in the movie. As a whole, I highly recommend this for an enjoyable entertaining family movie.

Eragon – Read the book before seeing this one. Book was good, kind of a little bit of a cross between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. LOTR type story, Potter type story telling, but not done as well as either. Book was good. Now for the movie. Completely unrecognizable from the book, other than a boy finds a dragon egg, the meat of the story is completely different. I can’t recommend that you don’t go see this movie enough. I’ll just say that if I was the author, I’d be buying ads denouncing the movie and urging people to read the book.

Rocky Balboa – I had serious doubts about this movie when I originally heard about it. How could they make another Rocky movie? Then I saw the ads and thought they had a good pretty good story idea. Washed up boxer sees a special on ESPN and thinks he can still box. He gets a shot at the champ, who is like most modern athletes and living at the center of their own personal fantasy world (please note, I said most, not all). If you haven’t seen Stallone in a while, he looks just a little freakish now. Giant hands that would probably feel like a brick hitting you in the ring. Surprisingly, he can still string together words to form sentences that can be understood. He even has what it takes to perform for him what would be called a significant monologue. Forgetting that you have to listen to Stallone speak for an hour, the movie is actually very good and provides a very fitting conclusion to the Rocky series. At least until he makes another one.

Sorry there aren’t any links to previews, one sheets and random links to info about the actors and directors. Pressed for time tonight. Well, now I’m all caught up on my movie reviews. Time to fall behind again.