Hoot is Nothing to Give a Hoot About

This movie is a bit older, but I've never seen it before, so here we go.  We'll see how the movie is.  I hope it's alright; I mean the book it's based off of is a New York Time's Best Seller and won the Newberry Honor Award.  That's pretty impressive.

So far, it's nothing original.  A new kid goes to school and is having trouble adjusting to the new school.  Plus, he has had run ins with both school bullies.  How many times have I seen that before?  More times than I care to remember.  Cody Linley's character shows some promise though.

I like the narrative style it has: Logan Lerman's voice over in the movie.  It's nice to hear what the main character, Roy, is thinking.  Personally, I believe that any movie should do that because the audience gets closer to the characters by staying in the character's head.

To be honest, I'm getting kind of bored with this movie.  The little kid getting beat up all the time can relate to the little owls about to get beat up by capitalism in the form of a Pancake Buffet.  Same story as most "new kid" movies, just different details.

In the end, I guess the movie is inspirational if you care about owl/animal conservation.  But even then, it's mediocre at best.

Thank God for The Princess and the Frog

I am SO glad that Disney has reverted back to its classic animation style.  No more silly CG movies.  It's not that I don't love Meet the Robinsons and all the movies Pixar has put out, but I love the classic Disney movies.

It's no wonder why they stopped producing animated films.  Thier film to see if it was still viable was Home on the Range.  Who even saw that movie? Seriously.

But finally someone had a brilliant idea and said "Hey! Kids loved movies like Aladdin and The Lion King.  Let's try it out on this generation.  Home on the Range was a terrible movie to do the demographic study anyway because no one bothered to see a show about singing cows, especially with Nickalodean's Barnyard coming out around the same time."

And thus, The Princess and the Frog was born.  Plus, Disney added it's own twist on the classic story, instead of copying it straight out of a book and removing the violence like Beatury and the Beast and Cinderella.  Hurray for trying to be original!

The movie itself is wonderful.  The songs were great and it wasn't the typical Disney Princess movie.  Sure, Tiana had her own struggles to overcome, but she also had to deal with being a frog.  And in the end, she decided being a frog was okay.  I don't think any of the other Princesses would have said that -- all they wanted was true love and the crown.

Also, Prince "Charming" was an egotistical jerk, not at all charming.  Sure, girls fawned over him, but his personality was severely lacking in princely-ness. It was nice to see a prince with a personality; not only that, but a flawed personality.

If you haven't seen it, see it.  If you don't, Disney will revert to only CG movies and an artform will be forever lost (aka for twelve years until they decide to test again) .  Given one of the teaser trailors, however, I think their test was a success and we'll soon have Repunzel retold by Disney.  I'm excited.

Blindsided by The Blind Side

Every preview for this movie on TV talks about how it could get Sandra Bullock an Oscar. (And it totally did on March 7!!) This statement is not just something to get you to go see the movie; it really is true. I have seen many of Sandra Bullock’s movies, but never have I seen Sandra Bullock like this. Sandra Bullock is well known for her romantic comedies, but this role is anything but comedic.

Sure, Leigh Ann Tuohy has her sarcastic moments, but she is a completely different character from what Sandra Bullock is used to. Bullock, however, meets the challenge head-on and gives the best performance of her cinematic career. It’s fantastic. I would go see that movie again just to see Bullock’s acting. It was unbelievable.

Ignoring Bullock’s movie presence for a moment, the movie is about football.  I didn’t really care about. that part of the movie.  I’m just not into sports.  I was more focused on a subtler part of the movie: what makes a person a Christian? When the school was talking about accepting Michael Ore, even though his grades were sub-par, the coach pointed to the Christian seal behind him and said something along the lines of “you can either act like a Christian or you can paint the word on the wall, but either way, this [enrolling Ore] is the right thing to do.” Also, Leigh Ann and Shaun Tuohy get into a small tiff about allowing Ore into their home. Leigh Ann says that it is the Christian thing to do, but Shaun asks why they have to be the Christians to do it.

I guess that is the real dilemma of calling ourselves Christians: we all know what the ‘Christian’ or ‘right’ thing to do is, but we all know that we don’t always do it. Maybe that’s why Christians have such a bad reputation now days. We’re all like Leigh Ann’s friends, laughing at the people who make an effort to be Christ-like.

In the end, I’ll say this about the movie: if you’ve seen the previews, you’ve seen the movie. There are no surprises (except for how amazing Sandra Bullock is). Despite this, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year.  It doesn’t matter who you are, you’ll probably find something you like about The Blind Side and you will walk out of the theater shocked and wanting to change the world.

Men Who Laugh At Goats

I heard about this movie on The Colbert Report.  After seeing what Colbert had to say, I knew I would have to see the movie just out of morbid curiousity.

Colbert and Jon Ronson

And then the movie came out.  I rented it immediately because I had to see it.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I pressed play.  But whatever expectations I had were completely blown away.  I knew it was going to be ridiculous, but it was ... just WOW.  Not wow in a bad way, but wow in a good/funny way.

All the talk of Jedi was especially funny because it was all directed at Ewan McGreggor, who played young Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi in the Star Wars movies.

All I can say is that if you want a movie to make you laugh, then by all means, watch this one over and over.  If you are looking for something inspirational or substantial, try The Blindside.