Despicable Me

Despicable Me (2010)
Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, and Russell Brand
Directed by: Peter Coffin and Chris Renaud
Grade: A++

This is my favorite animated movie ever. And I love Beauty and the Beast...but this is adorable. The minions are too cute to be described...like tiny yellow pills of adorable. Anyway, the story is about Gru (Carell), a super-villian who gets jealous of the newest villain on the block, Vector (Segel). So, to outsmart him, he adopts three adorable little girls (one voiced by iCarly actress Miranda Cosgrove). He plans to use the girls in his villainous plan (which is to steal the moon) but ends up loving them instead. I'm a huge fan of animated movies and this one is the best...and it's not even Pixar...hmm...

Charlie St. Cloud

Charlie St. Cloud (2010)
Starring: Zac Efron, Charlie Tahan, and Amanda Crew
Directed by: Burr Steers
Tagline: Life is for living.
Grade: B

I love Zac Efron. He's one of my favorite actors (and he's very cute) and I can't wait for The Lucky One to come out. I was interested to see this movie, but not so much that I went to the theater. But I did get it when it came on video. It's pretty good, but I didn't really like the supernatural edge to it. Charlie (Efron) has a very good future ahead of him, until the death of his brother, Sam (Tahan), makes him give up on life. He takes a job as caretaker of the cemetary, because he wants to carry on the relationship with his brother, so much so that he even begins to see and talk to him. But then a girl (Crew) comes into his life and messes up his relationship with his brother, because, as his brother points out, "the more you're in her world [meaning, the real world], the less you can be in mine." Overall, pretty good, well acted, especially by Efron and newcomer Amanda Crew, who you can see as the hilariously dumb Kia in She's the Man.

Weekand at Bernie's 1 and 2

Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, and Terry Kiser
Directed by: Ted Kotcheff
Tagline: Bernie would be the perfect host, except for one small thing...he's dead.
Grade: A+

This is one of my favorite 80's movies. Yes, it's stupid and yes, it's not the best movie ever, but its genuinely funny and well acted. It's slapstick at its best. Larry (McCarthy) and Richard (Silverman) are two lazy workers who happen to stumble upon an error in their company's records. They tell their boss, Bernie (Kiser), and hope they will get promoted for saving the company money. What they don't realize is that the mistake was made on purpose and Bernie was the one who stole the money. After they tell him, he decides to tell his partners, who will hire someone to "take them out" when they visit Bernie at his island retreat. The partners decide that Bernie is making too many mistakes and, instead of killing the boys, they kill Bernie. When Larry and Richard get to the island, they discover Bernie, dead. But, not wanting to give up the parties, they decide to pretend that Bernie is still alive...but only for the weekend.








Weekend at Bernie's II (1993)
Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, and Terry Kiser
Directed by: Robert Klane
Tagline: Bernie's back...and he's still dead.
Grade: C

This movie is nowhere near as good as the first one. But there are a couple of good laughs. When Larry and Richard return to New York, they are blamed for losing the two million dollars that Bernie stole. They investigate and find that the money is somewhere in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. While they travel to the island to find the money, Bernie comes back to life (he's not really alive, just able to walk around when music is playing) and a native woman tries to use him to find the money. The usual hi-jinks ensue and Larry and Richard must, again, find a way to outsmart Bernie...even though he's still dead.

Unknown

Unknown (2011)
Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, and January Jones
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Tagline: Take back your life.
Grade: A

Liam Neeson...is...awesome. End of story. Martin Harris (Neeson) and his wife Elizabeth (Jones) are vacationing when he's in a taxi crash. This results in a coma. When he wakes up, he finds that someone has taken his identity and even his wife doesn't remember that he's Martin Harris. He enlists the help of Gina (Kruger), the girl who was driving the taxi that crashed. With her help, he slowly starts to find his way through the mystery surrounding his life. Not only is Liam a very convincing actor, he can kick some serious butt...and boy does he kick a lot of butt in this movie.

License to Drive

License to Drive (1988)
Starring: Corey Feldman and Corey Haim
Directed by: Greg Beeman
Tagline: Some guys get all the brakes.
Grade: A-

This is one of my favorite 80's movies. The two Coreys are classic 80's. And they are in top form in this movie. Les (Haim) fails his drivers test and, of course, on the night he was supposed to take out the hottest girl in the school, Mercedes (Heather Graham). His best friend Dean (Feldman) convinces him to go out anyway. Hilarity/hijinks ensue. As much as I love Corey Feldman, after Lucas, I think Haim was the more talented of the two. Although, Feldman does deserve points for being one half of the Frogg brothers...

The Cure

The Cure (1995)
Starring: Brad Renfro and Joseph Mazzello
Directed by: Peter Horton
Grade: A++

This is one of my favorite movies and it definitely helps that Joseph Mazzello is in it. I love him...he's one of my favorite actors. And he is adorable in this movie. He plays Dexter, an 11 year old who was given AIDS from a blood transfusion. Everyone in the small town thinks AIDS is contagious and makes him an outcast. Erik has just moved next door to Dexter, whom he happens to meet through a fence. After he takes a chance and climbs the fence. Both of them find a best friend in the other, the first real best friend either has had. I think this is one of Joseph's most impressive roles, other than The Pacific, which he was also incredible in.

Easy A

Easy A (2010)
Starring: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, and Amanda Bynes
Directed by: Will Gluck
Tagline: Let's not and say we did.
Grade: A+

This movie really surprised me. I had never seen Emma Stone before this (I saw this before Zombieland) and she is awesome. The movie sounds kind of slutty (and it kind of is) even though she doesn't actually do anything. Olive (Stone) is a girl with a really good reputation. To avoid further abuse from her best friend (Alyson Michalka), she tells her that she "did it" with a mysterious guy (who isn't real). She and her friend's conversation is overheard by the most popular girl in school (Bynes) and Olive is quickly branded as a slut. She then decides that her life kind of parallels the novel The Scarlet Letter, so she decides to sew a letter A on her shirts and start helping nerdy guys by letting them lie about doing it with her. But, she eventually learns that being popular for being sleazy is not the same as being popular.

Love and Other Drugs

Love and Other Drugs (2010)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Grade: B

The only reason this movie gets a mildly low grade is because it was very dirty. I don't like awkward movies...and this is obviously one. My best friend and I went to go see it...about half an hour into the movie, we had already seen more of Anne Hathaway (not to mention Jake Gyllenhaal) than we ever wanted to see. Anne plays Maggie, a girl who is a very free spirit and won't let anyone "tie her down". But she meets her match in Jamie (played by Gyllenhaal, of course), who is very charming and won't let up until she agrees to go out with him. They eventually realize that they feel something for each other that neither has felt in a long time (or ever, in Jamie's case). But Maggie's sickness threatens to destroy their relationship for good.

Zombieland

Zombieland (2009)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Tagline: Survival Rule #4: Don't be a hero.
Grade: A++

This movie is amazing...gross, but amazing. The world has been taken over by zombies. Columbus (Eisenberg) is searching for his family, who are from, hence the name, Columbus, Ohio. He is a shy and inexperienced college student who has only survived the zombie apocalypse by following his many rules, such as always look in the back seat, double tap (shoot the zombie twice), and avoid public restrooms. He meets up with Tallahassee, a "good-old boy" from Florida, who loves to hunt zombies. After a while of traveling on their own, they find con artist sisters Wichita and Little Rock. They join together to get to Pacific Playland, the place they believe to be the last place in the country that was zombie-free. They go to a lot of interesting places along the way, including the mansion of a famous actor...

Book of Eli

Book of Eli (2010)
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis
Directed by: Albert and Allen Hughes
Tagline: Religion is power.
Grade: A

This movie is set in a violent, post-apocolyptic world where you either kill or be killed. Eli is a drifter who is obsessed with protecting a book. When he reaches a village where a man named Carnegie is in charge. And Carnegie is obsessed with finding the same book that Eli has. When Eli escapes the town, he is followed by Carnegie's daughter, Solara, who convinces him to let her stay with him. But with Carnegie close behind, and Eli keeping a huge secret, the road ahead is even more difficult than the road behind. PS...huge, mind-blowing twist at the end.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker (2008)
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Tagline: You don't have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps.
Grade: A++

Every Iraq war movie I've ever seen is very liberal, saying how we shouldn't be in this war...blah blah blah. But this one is very different. It focuses on the soldiers in the war, instead of the war itself. It focuses on a bomb disposal unit, one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. When a new sergeant, James (Renner), takes over one of these units, he surprises the other two men in the unit. While he is extremly skilled in disposing of the bombs, he puts their lives in danger with his recklessness every day. While he is dedicated to protecting them, he lives as if he will not die. This puts everyone under his command in danger.

I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four (2011)
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, and Dianna Agron
Directed by: D.J. Caruso
Produced by: Michael Bay
Grade: A-

Okay, I read this book. And it's AMAZING. I was pretty excited about Alex playing John (aka Number Four) but when I heard Timothy Olyphant was playing his guardian Henri, I was stoked! But I was disappointed overall in the movie. Timothy Olyphant was great, but his part was limited and they showed him to have a lot of weaknesses that he didn't have in the book. They also changed a lot of the dynamics between John and Henri. In the book, it's very much like a father/son relationship, because Henri is the only father John has ever known. But, in the movie, it seems that John is always annoyed and disrespectful to Henri, something that never happens in the book. Dianna Agron was very good as the cute and sweet Sarah, Callan McAuliffe was adorable as John's geeky friend Sam, and Theresa Palmer was the perfect choice for the tough but loyal Number Six. Overall, an enjoyable movie, especially if you haven't read the book, but it would have been even better had they not made so many changes.