Mass Movie Reviews

I watched a lot of movies over this holiday season so I'm going to try to do a quick review of all of them.

Joyeux Noël
This is another of my wonderful little French movie finds however the language of the movie is not entirely in French. It takes place on Christmas Eve during the trench war of WWI amongst the French, German and Scottish forces. They realistically use French, German and English throughout the movie. Based on a true story, I highly recommend this as a holiday movie for you and your family next year. It was an amazingly touching story and I was delighted with a cameo performance by Michel Serrault.



The Black Dahlia
I was so interested to see this movie since I tend to like true-crime stories and this one is a particularly fascinating story because they never figured out who the murderer was despite the numerous suspects. I was sorely disappointed. The movie was much less about the Black Dahlia and much more about the soap opera worthy drama of two police officers who were investigating the crime. Granted I was pretty sick when we watched this one but the drama was so uncompelling that I was unable to stay awake. Steve had to tell me what happened in the end and it turns out although I slept through more than half the movie, I didn't miss much. Starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank.



Lady in the Water
I am a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan so I was very excited that this one had been released to DVD. He wrote this story as a bedtime tale for his children and I would say that it very much had that feel to it. It reminded me of stories that S3 has read in the past few years - not exactly at an adult level but definitely past Dick and Jane. I don't think they marketed this movie to children but other than one scary beast, it's very appropriate for most of the 10 - 13 year old set (I don't think Ty could handle it but he's easily frightened). There is a big demon-like dog that jumps out at unpredictable times that is startling (I screamed like a girl!) but the fright is over quickly and there is very little to no tension in the rest of the story. I loved it! Starring Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard and M. Night Shyamalan.



Nacho Libre
We were lazing about one of the days after Christmas and decided to buy this one from PPV. I slept through most of it since I was not feeling well but what I saw was a little slow and not very funny. However S3 liked it a lot so I'm guessing if you liked movies like Napoleon Dynamite and The Benchwarmers you'd probably also like this one. I think I remember hearing my sister and her family also enjoyed this movie. Starring Jack Black.





Invincible
I had wanted to see this one in the theater so badly but we were just too busy and never made it so again, I was thrilled to see it had been released on DVD. It's about the Philadelphia Eagles and a 30 year old underdog, Vince Papale. Dick Vermeil was brought in as a new coach in 1976 and decided to try something radical - he held open try-outs for the Philadelphia Eagles. Vince Papale was encouraged by his friends to try out despite the fact that he only ever played one year in high school and back-lot football with his friends. The story chronicles both Papale's and Vermeil's struggle to make it in the world of professional football. I'm not a huge fan of football but I really, really enjoyed this movie. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear.



Annapolis
This one is about a guy who's mother's dying wish was to see her son rise above being a ship builder and attend Annapolis. Somewhere along the storyline it changes from a movie about the struggles of a new student at a tough Naval academy and turns into a movie about boxing. It wasn't a horrible movie but it was very predictable and a little hokey. Not bad if you're looking for mindless entertainment for two hours but I'd have been mad if I'd paid $10 a ticket to see this one. Frankly, the best part of watching this movie was seeing Tyrese Gibson with his shirt off. Oh Mama! Starring James Franco, Donnie Wahlberg (remember NKOTB?), and Tyrese Gibson.