The American President - a sort of oldie, but pretty goodie

I say sort of oldie because it came out 15 years ago, and I say pretty goodie because it is a good, solid romance. It's a chick flick but a decent one at that.

Michael Douglas plays President Andrew Shepherd, a widower and father who has an very large approval rating, but begins to get uncomfortable with the perception surrounding his being a single father. Coincidentally, he meets hard-charging political strategist and lobbyist Sydney Wade (Annette Bening - American Beauty). Shepherd is immediately taken by Wade and invites her to a State dinner, the two begin a relationship, much to the chagrin of Sydney's boss and much to the delight of President Shepherd's political rival, the scheming Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss - Jaws). Rumson begins to attack Sydney and the President's character which sends President Shepherd's approval ratings tumbling and eventually forces Shepherd to choose between one of his priority bills and the bill Sydney was hired to get passed. The film also stars Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, and Samantha Mathis.

This is basically just a well done, feel good romance movie. It has likable good guys, hatable bad guys, chemistry between the stars, a happy ending. It's really hard to say anything bad about it. I'm sure some of those people who are so super conservative or liberal would focus too much on whatever political thing is going on in the movie rather than the movie itself, but those people need take a hike anyway. It's not too long, it progresses nicely, and ends on high note. It's not overly cheesy or cliche' but then again most romances have those, which is one of the reasons we like them.

I guess if I had to say one critical thing about the film is that I thought it may have spent a little too much time focusing on the race for votes which is the mechanism used to drive the action of the film and not enough on the relationship of our main characters. But that's me being nit picky.

I don't know if you necessarily need to go out and rent this one, because it's not going to change your life or anything, and its also on like every week. But since its on TV a lot (and there's usually a reason for a movie being on TV a lot...it's a good movie) I would recommend cuddling up with your snuggle buddy and taking this one in.

A Serious Man - Coen Brothers, so it'll probably be awesome the 6th time I see it

A Serious Man is the newest Coen Brothers creation. If you haven't at least heard of the Coen Brothers, you have 2 options. Go jump off the nearest really tall building or do some research on them and watch some of their movies, because they (the movies and the Brothers, not the really tall buildings) are awesome. Having said that, however, Coen Brothers' movies are also very weird, and sometime very hard to really understand. They all have this strange, um, thing, about them. I find that the first time I watch a Coen Brothers movie, I am a little confused, and find myself saying, "well, that was okay...i guess..." But then the second time I like it a little more and the third a little more, and so on and so forth. Usually the opposite happens with most movies. They lose a little bit of their luster after each subsequent viewing. I say all of that to say this. A Serious Man was okay...i guess...

A Serious Man is a very black comedy of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, who is a good man who's live is unraveling around him. His wife Judith is leaving him for a totally pompous acquaintance, his unemployable brother Arthur sleeps on the couch and gets in serious legal trouble, his son Danny is a discipline problem and a total pothead, and his daughter Sarah is stealing money from his wallet, an Asian student is blackmailing him for grades, and all the while Larry tries to keep his life in order and find answers to all of this through guidance of 3 very unhelpful Rabbis. This is a movie about the Jewish faith, about trying to stay faithful amongst all the crap that's going on. If you know the biblical story of Job, this is a black comedy based on that.

The Coen Brothers always find ways to deal with very deep themes in their movies. This one is no different. This would be a very serious, very depressing drama if there were not the series of outrageous events, circumstances, and characters that inhabit this film. There are no big stars in this flick either, however, you'll probably recognize a few of the actors.

It is really hard for me to write a truly honest review of this movie because I can't help but think that this movie is actually much better than I thought after my first viewing. If I had to tell you right now, without anything else, what I thought of the movie, I would have to say I thought it was a little dull, very strange, and a bit difficult to understand the point. But I can't say that because I know it is a Coen Brothers movie and their flicks are so subtle and creative and different that they all end up being good. This movie is definitely creatively done, and definitely original.

My suggestion to you guys is this. If you like Coen Brothers movies, you should rent this one. But be forewarned that it is a much more serious "comedy" than some of their others. It will be difficult to grasp at first, I think. If you don't like the Coen Brother's or you are like Timmy and need explosions and car chases to keep you entertained, then you are going to find this one very dull. Maybe after I see this one again, I can write a better review, but until then, this is all I've got.

Couples Retreat - a bit more serious than I thought

What can I say about this one other than it was "Okay"? Couples Retreat is a movie with an all-star comedic cast including Vince Vaughan, Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Juno), Jon Favreau (Swingers, I Love You, Man), Faison Love (The Perfect Holiday, Idlewild), Kristen Davis (Charlotte from Sex and the City), Malin Akerman (The Heartbreak Kid, Watchmen), and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, When in Rome). When ever you have Vince Vaughan and Jason Bateman in a movie, there are going to be laughs. This movie was no different. There were plenty of laughs. I mean I laughed a lot, but for a comedy to be truly funny and really good, the ratio between laughs and seriousness needs to be right. This movie was too light on the laughs and too heavy on the seriousness. Hence, the highly specific "Okay" rating.

Couples Retreat is centered around four couples who settle into a tropical-island resort for a vacation. While one of the couples is there to work on the marriage, the others fail to realize that participation in the resort's therapy sessions is not optional. In attending these sessions, the couples realize that things aren't so hunky dory and all of the couples problems get multiplied and exacerbated.

Like I said before, this movie is bad, its just not great. I expected more from the comic geniuses in this flick, and I didn't get it. Vince Vaughan has some of his classic, hilarious rants. The naked Asian guy from The Hangover is in it. You see all the hot girls in their underwear and bikinis. My favorite part is seeing Kristen Davis, who I think is an absolute smoke house, in a not much clothing a lot. And the scenery is breath taking. It made want to go on vacation bad. But the real scene stealer is the little kid who plays Vince Vaughan and Malin Akerman's youngest kid. He's cute as hell and everything he says and does is hilarious. Obviously the cuteness helps, but still.

If you rent this one, you won't be terribly disappointed, but you won't be thrilled either. If I had to give it a number grade, it would be probably a B- maybe a C+ if I wrote this on a Monday.

New York, I Love You - Paris, je t'aime too.

Some of you may be blown away at my multi-lingualness and you very well should be, because I just wrote some French at you. New York, I Love You is the sister film to 2006's Paris, je t'aime which translates into Paris, I Love You. Creative, I know. The premise behind both these films is that they are a series of short vignettes, each directed by a different director, each about a different kind of love, each in a different part of the city. I personally think it is a really cool premise.

New York is a little different from Paris in that Paris's stories never really intertwined and some of New York's did. It is also different in that we were told who was directed what in Paris but not in New York. Paris had a couple of fantastical scenes, where as New York really only had one-ish. I like both of these movies equally for different reasons.

New York stars many big name actors. Some playing roles that are very atypical for them, some not. If you want to see a movie with tons of big names, that doesn't suck, as I've heard but don't know first hand about Valentine's Day, then you'd like this one. Some of the big names include in no particular order, Bradley Cooper, Shia Le Beouf, Natalie Portman, James Caan, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Christina Ricci, Blake Lively, Orlando Bloom, Anton Yelchin, Ethan Hawke, Drea De Matteo, Maggie Q., Robin Wright Penn, Chris Cooper, Cloris Leachmen, John Hurt, and more and more.

I like this movie because it is like watching a bunch of tiny little movies because each is it's own interesting story, and each is filmed in its own special way. Characters in one story appear briefly in other stories. Character's from two different stories interact in transition between the various scenes.

This film doesn't have a end goal. The stories and characters don't combine into one final resolution. It is a film that just contains different stories about different love in an amazing city. The stories range from a story about a boy (strangely) losing his virginity to a manny and his charge to a husband and wife in love to a lonely, aging star and a bell hop. They are very different but all very intriguing. I do however recommend that everyone see this movie. It's not going to blow your socks off, but I think you will feel a little bit more cultured, maybe a little bit happier after you see this. This is more on the movies-are-an-art-form side of the spectrum than the movies-are-just-for-entertainment side, but it is still quite entertaining. Rent this one, pour some red wine, get cozy with your honey, and enjoy the show. Or rent this one, be like Timmy and open a Natty Light, and enjoy the show. Regardless, rent this one.

Zombieland - FINALLY! I good movie!

I will totally watch this movie again! Zombieland is a completely entertaining movie. From beginning to end, I was having fun. I love it when silly movies don't take themselves very seriously, and this one definitely doesn't. For those of you who don't know anything about Zombieland, and are just going by the name, this is not a scary, Zombie movie, this is a funny Zombie movie, and it's pretty dang funny too.

Zombieland takes place in the very near future when a plague of some sorts turns just about everyone on earth into flesh eating Zombies. The movie follows 4 survivors as they try to reach some sort of "Zombie-free" zone. The story is told by Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg - the poor man's Michael Cera) in which he explains how everything happened and periodically tells us the rules of survival, which appear written on the screen when on of his rules works or doesn't. He is accompanied on his journey across the country by Tallahassee played by an absolutely hilarious and entertaining Woody Harrelson. These two are joined by Wichita (Emma Stone-Jonah Hill's girl in Superbad, who is actually hot in this) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine). There are many fun and entertaining parts as the 4some journey's across country to California where we have a super show down between the zombies and our heroes.

There are multiple reasons why I liked this movie. Firstly, everyone in the movie is does a really great job and is hilarious. I mean, my boy Woody kind of steals the show, but there really isn't a weak actor in the bunch. It's also filmed in Georgia, and while I didn't necessarily recognize anything right off, I'll be glad to share a little trivia with you. There is a section of the movie that takes place in an ridiculously large, and opulent home owned by a super hilarious movie star, who has a really funny cameo. That house is in Buckhead. There's also a scene at an amusement park. That is filmed at the theme park in Valdosta. Just a little trivia. Like I said earlier, this movie doesn't take itself seriously, so there are a lot of "yeah right" scenes, but because of the nature of the movie you are totally cool with it. There's also something wickedly fun about killing a lot of zombie, I don't know what it is, but it's really cool. Call me weird.

I recommend this one to everyone. I do that with one bit of warning though. It's a ZOMBIE movie, so there is going to be a lot of gross, gory parts. Either prepare yourself for it, or get over it and grow a pair, but either way, you gotta see this one. You'll have a blast.

Whip It - Drew Barrymore's directing debut

The back of the DVD box for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut about women's roller derby's says something along the lines of "pure genius." Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I wouldn't say it was "pure retard" either (pardon my political incorrectness there).

Whip It is the story of Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page - Juno) who is a sort of edgy, "alternative" misfit who has grown unhappy with her small-town Texas life football and beauty pageants. Football loved by her father Earl (Daniel Stern - Home Alone I and II) and the pageants by her mother Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden). Bliss just wants to get out and needs a plan and a calling. She eventually finds a flyer for a Roller Derby event, schemes to attend, gets invited to try out and becomes Babe Ruthless, her alter-ego roller derby character. She makes the team, lies about her age, works hard to succeed, experiences her first love with the young lead singer of an Indie rock band, gets disappointed in love, bonds with her new family of roller derby girls who include such actresses as Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig (SNL, Knocked Up), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers, Old School), Eve, and Andrew Wilson (Luke and Owen's older bro), fights with her mother to escape the beauty pageant and live her new dream as roller derby star. And they all live happily ever after. The End.

This was a good movie in that it had an interesting cast that all seemed to mesh with one another. It was also pretty cool in that it is a decent flick about women's roller derby which I can honestly say I've never seen.

It should be noted that the word "good" for the purposes of this review is the be defined as "well acted, well written, well cast, well directed." It is not to be defined as "I liked it." Because I was actually kind of bored with it. I mean, I like Ellen Page, I like Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, and Juliette Lewis, but I just didn't like this movie. I felt it kind of hard to believe that Ellen Page's little ass could handle one match in the rough sport of roller derby. I also just wasn't that intrigued by the roller derby sport. I know the idea is to see sexy women in skimpy outfits, knocking the crap out of each other, and that's supposed to be hot, but I just don't think it is. The women are tattooed and butch and the only time women fighting is hot is when it involves bikinis, a kiddie pool, and lots of jello...or mud...or KY jelly...

This is one of those well made films that just felt a little flat to me. The fun parts just didn't feel all that fun, the sad parts just didn't feel all that sad, and the happy parts just didn't feel all that happy. Maybe I was in a bad mood when I watched this, but I honestly wouldn't recommend anyone rent this. If I comes on HBO or something, maybe you can watch it, but don't waste you hard earned money on this one.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - WTF???

When the person that you are watching a movie with has to lean over both half way through the movie and also immediately after it and apologize to you for suggesting the movie in the first place, you know it's a pretty bad one. Some of you may have no idea, but The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is the movie that Heath Ledger was filming when he tragically died last year. Most think that his last movie was as the Joker in The Dark Knight, but no, it was this one. And I kind of wish it wasn't because basically this movie is so weird it was bad. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of weird movies are good because, if nothing else, they are different from anything else out there. But this one is so bizarre it makes it almost unwatchable.

When trying to figure out how I was going to tell you what this movie was about, I hit the proverbial wall, and could not for the life of me think of how to describe this movie without my head exploding. So I looked up some other synopsi...synopsises...synopsis'....whatever. And now I will paraphrase them for you.

Ahem....The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a travelling show where members of the audience get an opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits - creepy guys in Domino and Book of Eli), in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina (Lily Cole) is now rapidly approaching this birthday and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls into believing in their brand of life. Dr. Parnassus enlists the help of the mysterious Tony (played by 4 actors: Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) in his journey. Dr. Parnassus basically promises his daughter to the man that helps him win.

Okay, that sounds basic enough right? Well, when you consider the fact that this movie takes place in the 'imaginarium' which is basically in some one's head, living out their fantasies, it gets incredibly bizarre. You never really learn how all of this is going on other than Dr. Parnassus is somehow pulling the strings with his mind.

I wanted to see this movie because it was Heath Ledger's last movie, and I have liked him even before he blew all of our minds as The Joker. I also knew that even though Heath died half way through the making of this movie, they still wanted to finish it and enlisted the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to finish it. They all 4 play the same character, Tony. And I really wanted to see how they were going to pull that one off. And while it was really cool to see such well known actors play the same character, and while it was a sort of surreal feeling seeing the point in the movie's filming when Heath died, the movie was still pretty bad. There is so much time spent in the 'fantasy world' and it is so strange that you actually get bored with the movie because there is not enough explanation into the characters and their motivations and how the things are happening. Also, this is one of those movies that ran waaaayyy too long. Maybe if it were a bit shorter, it would have been more captivating, but that didn't happen.

I really only have 3 good things to say about this movie. 1) The visuals and effects in this movie are pretty dang amazing. 2) You get to see Heath Ledger's real last film as well as see 3 of the biggest actors today step in and help. 3) This movie would probably be good if you were on some sort of psychotropic drug or something.

I honestly can't say I recommend this movie to anyone other than for them to see Heath. I know some people will say this is a masterpiece of a movie with it's visuals and fantastical and moral themes, but I just didn't like it at all. I can see its good qualities as a piece of art, which are actually pretty amazing, but as a piece of entertainment, I think this one falls way short.