Courtney’s Movieblog

Well, out of this month’s batch of mini movie reviews, I think I only liked about three or four of them. See if you can pick the good from the bad:

Nell: Real life married couple Liam Neeson and the late Natasha Richardson starred in this movie as two doctors who discover a feral woman (Jodie Foster) living in the woods, speaking her own language. Foster got an Oscar nomination for this role, and I don’t know why she didn’t win because she was fantastic!

McLintock!: One of John Wayne’s famous Westerns, in which he plays a rancher at odds with his estranged wife (Maureen O’Hara). Normally, I don’t like Westerns, but after reading Maureen O’Hara’s memoir, I wanted to see the chemistry that she and her friend the Duke had on screen. I must say that they worked very well together. My one complaint about this movie is that Maureen O’Hara’s characters was such an insufferable bitch, not just to McLintock, but to everyone in that town that used to be her friend! So I didn’t have a huge problem with what happens at the end…although I can safely say that it would be too controversial for a remake.

Me, Myself & Irene: Jim Carrey plays a guy with a split personality. Need I go on?

Good Burger: Do you remember the old Nickelodeon variety show All That? This was the first (and only) movie made out of its recurring sketches. And like most of the Saturday Night Live movies, it’s not that great. Still, it made me nostalgic for the old Nickelodeon of my childhood.

Grease 2: As much as I despise this sequel, I’m ashamed to admit that I still know most of the songs by heart. Plus, Maxwell Caulfield was kind of hot.

Prelude to a Kiss: The honeymoon is over for a newlywed couple (Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan) when the bride ends up switching bodies with an old man. You can bet that if this movie were remade into the types of comedies that exist today, things would get really gross.

Life: Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence are two guys wrongfully sent to prison in the 1930s. It’s actually very depressing for a comedy, but still good.

Made of Honor: I was right, this is pretty much the same as My Best Friend’s Wedding, with minor differences. I didn’t think it was possible, but the Patrick Dempsey version was actually worse than the Julia Roberts predecessor. Can I ask what woman would model lingerie for her straight male friends?

Sid and Nancy: The tragic story of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), also known as the punk-rock Romeo and Juliet. Fellow Sex Pistols bandmember Johnny Rotten claimed that the movie was bogus, so even though it’s supposedly a cult classic, I don’t if it’s a reliable biopic. Still, this movie is so disturbing that it makes a pretty powerful antidrug statement. Oldman was good as Sid, but I found Webb’s Nancy to be very grating.

Back to School: Rodney Dangerfield plays a rich guy who enrolls in college so that his son won’t drop out. The ’80s always had great comedies. Wouldn’t it have been awesome to have Dangerfield as your commencement speaker?

To celebrate the end of summer, here are 10 movies that involve traveling, whether it’s for a simple vacation or for an epic quest:

1. National Lampoon’s Vacation: The first disastrous Griswald family vacation. I’ll bet your family didn’t have such bad luck while traveling.

2. Tommy Boy: Chris Farley and David Spade hit the road on a cross-country trip to save the family business. Best part of the movie is the sequence when they sing along to various radio tunes.

3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy: I think I can safely say that Frodo and the fellowship endured the worst road trip in movie history.

4. Thelma & Louise: Two women (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) go on vacation, but end up on the lam after killing a would-be rapist. Also features Brad Pitt as a handsome yet dishonest hitchhiker.

5. Planes, Trains and Automobiles: An uptight family man (Steve Martin) is fatefully paired with a clumsy salesman (John Candy) while trying to get home for Thanksgiving. I don’t know what it is about two mismatched guys hitting the road; it’s just a formula that usually seems to work.

6. The Muppet Movie: The very first outing with Kermit and the gang as they travel to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. I haven’t seen this movie in years, but who doesn’t love it?! Kermit’s song, “The Rainbow Connection” is just so beautiful.

7. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey: Lost pets trek through the wilderness to find their owners. I don’t care how unrealistic it is, it’s still a classic! Besides, there are true stories of pets that managed to find their way home…

8. Dumb and Dumber: Two dimwits (Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels) drive to Aspen to find their dream girl. It’s the perfect movie to learn how to drive people crazy, using the “world’s most annoying sound” and James Taylor’s “Mockingbird.” Actually, “Mockingbird” could be a fun song to sing in the car…

9. Little Miss Sunshine: A dysfunctional family drives to a beauty pageant in a ratty Volkswagen. A fun, poignant movie.

10. Forrest Gump: This counts as a traveling movie because Tom Hanks not only goes to a bunch of different countries, but also runs across the entire U.S.! How many people have the drive to do that?

What are your favorite road trip movies? Feel free to share in your comments, and I hope you all got to travel to some interesting places this summer!

Time for yet another roundup of trailers!

Tron: Legacy: The son of Jeff Bridges’ character (from the original movie) gets sucked into the computer world to find his long-lost father. You know, if they’re going to make sequels to ’80s movies like Tron, Wall Street and Indiana Jones, they might as well do Ghostbusters III even if ends up being bad. I don’t like sequels to old movies anymore than you guys do, but it doesn’t look like it will make a difference to Hollywood.

Jackass 3-D: Oh, lord. Why do people keep paying to see this crap? Wasn’t it bad enough in 2-D?!

Let Me In: Foreign vampire flick Let the Right One In is getting an American remake with Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl from Kick Ass). From everything I heard, it makes Twilight look like a lightweight — which isn’t a hard thing to do.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story: A depressed teen checks into a mental health clinic. Features Zack Galifianakis in his first dramatic role, which I’m very interested in seeing if he can pull off.

Red: Bruce Willis leads a retired team of assassins. I have no idea what Helen Mirren is doing in this movie, but part of me would like to see how much butt she’ll kick!

Love and Other Drugs: Brokeback Mountain co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway reunite in a dramedy about a pharmacy worker that has trouble committing until he meets a free-spirited woman. Why do I have the feeling that this will involve an illness of some kind?

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Guillermo del Toro directs yet another scary fantasy. It almost had me…until I saw that Katie Holmes will be in it. No thanks.

Lovely, Still: Independent film about elderly people falling in love.

Skyline: Yet another movie about aliens coming to Earth. I will admit that the trailer showing all those people getting sucked up into the spaceship does look creepy…

The Company Men: Ben Affleck plays a corporate worker who loses his job and apparently finds himself.

September starts tomorrow, and I guess the summer movie season is over. Gosh, it goes by so quick…but a great season, if I do say so myself. My personal favorites included Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, The Other Guys and (even though it was in limited release) Ondine.

Now onto the fall! As always, most of the movies I want to see don’t come out until November. But here are the ones you can count on me to review:

Due Date (Nov. 5)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I (Nov. 19)

Tangled (Nov. 24)

Somewhere (Dec. 22)

I also have a “might-see” list of movies I’m considering, but may wait to watch until they’re OnDemand:

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Megamind (The one where Will Ferrell voices a supervillain that fights his superhero nemesis (Brad Pitt). It looks cute, so maybe…)

Nowhere Boy (The John Lennon biopic)

It’s Kind of a Funny Story (More details on this one in my next entry)

What movies are you planning to see this fall? Feel free to share!

Today’s entry is dedicated to one of my favorite comedic actors of all time: the late John Candy. Although his life was short, he did so many movies in the ’80s and ’90s that you’re still likely to see one of them on TV at least once a month. We all knew him as the lovable lug; he was like the uncle we always wanted to have. Yet most of his most memorable characters revealed great depth and vulnerability. Very few comedic actors have managed to pull that off in such a charming way.

Out of all the John Candy movies I’ve seen, here are 10 that I think are the best:

1. Planes, Trains and Automobiles: One of Candy’s most memorable characters was Del Griffith, the obnoxious drifter that tags along with Steve Martin. As annoying and frustrating as he could be, Martin and the audience learned that there was more to him than meets the eye. Candy both made us laugh and broke our hearts, and this was his most defining scene:

2. Stripes: A group of misfits, led by Bill Murray, try to hold their own in the army. Candy played the atply named Ox. Most people remember the mud-wrestling scene, but I heard that he hated that part because he saw it as a fat joke.

3. Uncle Buck: Yes, Uncle Buck wasn’t exactly the most responsible person to leave your kids with. But despite it all, he had a good heart. Plus, he made giant pancakes and helped straighten his bratty teenage niece out!

4. The Blues Brothers: Even though his role in this movie wasn’t huge, all the fans remember this memorable quote:

5. Splash: You wouldn’t believe that Candy could play Tom Hanks’ womanizing brother, but he managed to pull it off. Once again, he managed to play a comedic character with depth in the scene where he tells Hanks that he was lucky to find love — even with a mermaid — because some people never do.

6. Spaceballs: Who could ever forget Barf the Mog?! Half man, half dog!

7. Only the Lonely His only role as a romantic lead, in which he tries to date Ally Sheedy while his mother (Maureen O’Hara) disapproves. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen this one yet; the DVD is apparently out of print, but I heard nothing but good things about it!

8. The Great Outdoors: John Candy plays a family man that tries to go on a camping trip and deal with his obnonxious in-law (Dan Aykroyd). One of my favorite movies to watch on TV.

9. Cool Runnings: The true story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team. Candy plays their coach, which was a rare dramatic role for him.

10. The Rescuers Down Under: Did you know that Candy did the voice of Wilbur the seagull? Neither did I! But I still have fond memories of this movie from my childhood…it was one of the few Disney sequels that were actually good.

Just thinking about all these movies makes me sad. RIP John Candy. It’s been over a decade and we still miss you…

For years, movie stars have set the standards for physical beauty. Consequently, us ordinary people have been quite insecure about our own self-image. Women especially are concerned with their waistlines as they try to be as fabulous as the “beautiful people.”

Nevertheless, recent films and TV shows have tried to promote the idea of inner beauty by focusing on heroines that aren’t exactly slim. Recent examples include the movie Hairspray, as well as the shows Drop Dead Diva and Huge. These shows try to show that while it’s important to be healthy, it’s okay to be yourself.

But in case you have never seen any of them, here’s a shocking little known fact that should boost any woman’s self-esteem: Marilyn Monroe, a Hollywood icon and one of the most beautiful actresses in history, was a size 16.

I just found this out, and I was shocked. Far be it from me to guess sizes based on appearance, but always thought that Marilyn Monroe was too skinny. Yet as it turns out, she was a plus-sized girl just by being curvy in all the right places!

So to all the women out there reading this: stop killing yourself to go down to a size two! If a legendary yet troubled actress can be a size 16 and still be considered beautiful, then so can anybody!

Reviews from early test screenings for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I have recently surfaced on fansites like MuggleNet, and so far, they’re very positive! I’m happy to say that some of the scenes and characters that I thought would be cut are in the movie: we not only get Bill and Fleur’s wedding, but we also see the return of Dobby!

Even though most of the fans have pretty much read the entire book and therefore will not be spoiled, I’m still not going to post the details I found out, just in case. It has been revealed what will be the big cliffhanger for Part I, and I have to say that it isn’t as bad a cliffhanger as it could have been.

However, let me just say one thing: I think the battle for Hogwarts is going to take up a very large portion of Part II. So points to Loochie for an accurate prediction!

It appears that M. Night Sylamalan, the acclaimed director once known for successful movies with awesome plot twists like The Sixth Sense, isn’t as revered by the public as he used to be.

This has happened to even the most renowned directors. Look what happened to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas: once upon a time, their movies were classics, and the Star Wars prequels and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made them fodder for numerous jokes. Indeed, most of Shyamalan’s recent movies haven’t been very popular either, because audiences got sick of his predictable plot twists. Even worse, his live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender was panned not only by critics, but also by fans of the original cartoon, putting the future of planned sequels in jeopardy.

I had no idea how far he had fallen in movie jokes until I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World last week. I happened to see the poster of his next movie, Devil, which is due in the fall. Two other moviegoers passed by it. One of them said, “Oh, that movie is going to be horrible.” Her companion replied, “Of course it’ll be. It’s M. Night Shyamalan.”

Later, I did see the trailer for Devil. Basically, a bunch of people are trapped in an elevator and one of them gets posessed by the devil. But which one is it? Or are they all already dead? Either way, there will be some ridiculous plot twist.

The lesson to be learned is that plot twists, like many cliches, should be used in moderation. And even then, they need to make sense in order to work. I never thought I’d live to see the day when people are bored by plot twists!

Is there any possible way that Shyamalan can regain his popularity? Is anyone actually going to see Devil? Feel free to share your thoughts!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a video game movie.

No, really. It literally is a video game: there’s a bunch of colorful graphics, video game music (they even borrow the theme to Legend of Zelda), the bad guys turn into coins and there are doors that magically appear to another place. It’s also the strangest movie I’ve ever seen that somehow manages to be entertaining.

Michael Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, a 22 year-old Canadian lead guitarist of a band called “Sex Bob-Omb, who has been in a funk ever since he got dumped by a popular singer. He tries to rebound with a high school girl named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). It isn’t as perverted as it sounds, but his friends still object. Then, out of the blue, he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the American girl of his dreams. Although she isn’t interested at first — while Knives is still interested to the point of obsession — he manages to win her over.

Then, at a rock concert, he’s attacked by one of Ramona’s boyfriends, and subsequently finds out he has to defeat all of Ramona’s evil exes, led by Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman) in order to have a future with Ramona. Does he stand a chance?

The pacing and style of the movie is so close to a Japanese anime that if it wasn’t live-action, you’d swear you were watching a cartoon. This is appropriate, seeing as how Scott Pilgrim was originally a graphic novel series, though it comes off as over-the-top at times. It doesn’t leave much room for character development, yet that doesn’t mean they are any less enjoyable.

While it does seem unbelievable that Cera, who could still pass for playing a teenage nerd, could suddenly develop excellent combat skills, he manages to come off as a likable hero, although he seems kind of blase. Winstead is equally blase as Scott’s lady love, who changes her hair color without a second thought. Wong is a little more entertaining as the sweet yet psychotic Knives. But easiliy the best character in the whole show was Scott’s gay roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), who had the funniest lines.

The best way to rate Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is by quoting an audience member that was seeing it for the third time: if you a nerd, Scott Pilgrim is the perfect movie for you. But even if you aren’t, it’s a fun, weird ride.

7 out of 10 Sparty Heads

Fans of Christina Aguilera are in for a surprise this Thanksgiving, when she will make her big acting debut in the musical film, Burlesque.

The title should speak for itself, but here’s a summary anyway: a small-town girl named Ali (Aguilera) moves to Los Angeles to become a star. She finds a job as a cocktail waitress at an old theater, The Burlesque Lounge. Although Ali wants to be one of the dancers/singers, her boss (Cher) is reluctant to give her a chance. But after making friends with some of the fellow dancer, she finally gets her break, and her performances attracts some much-needed business.

The first trailer was just released, and my first impression is that it looks very flamboyant. With a cast featuring Cher (yes, really), Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming and Kirsten Bell, what else could you say about it? And the story itself sounds suspiciously similar to movies like Center Stage, Flashdance, Coyote Ugly and Moulin Rouge!. As a matter of fact, the costumes do look like something Christina wore in the “Lady Marmalade” music video…

I like Christina Aguilera. I saw her VH1 Behind the Music episode a few months ago, and I’m glad at least one former teen pop princess has managed to keep her career and a good personal life. But is she ready to be a movie stars? A lot of singers tried and failed to tackle movies — does anyone remember Britney Spears in Crossroads? Let’s not forget Mariah Carey’s infamous Glitter either, though to be fair, she got a second chance with the highly acclaimed Precious.

As much as I like musicals, I’m probably not going to see Burlesque. However, I will be interested to see what the reviews will be like. Good luck, Christina…