A young reporter in London named Tintin buys a model of a famed ship known as the Unicorn.  He is interrupted by a man who tries to buy it back from him saying, “It’ll get him into a mess of trouble.” Tintin decides to do some research, leading him farther into the mystery of the Unicorn, Sir Francis’ family, and the greatest sunken treasure in the world. This unravels a fantastic adventure for the entire family.

The film itself is certainly amazing within the realms of CGI, creating almost shockingly realistic computer images. The company responsible was the same that did The Polar Express, which received harsh critiques for the visuals being too in-between realistic and non-realistic. The company has obviously improved since then, showing its newfound skill to create the fantastically detailed visuals in Tintin. Not a single hair seems out of place, the water looks great, and the characters look almost real enough to be live action actors. It’s almost surreal just how realistic this movie looks.

The balance of themes from adult to child are also done very well. There is no skipping on violence, but it’s slightly tongue in cheek.  Despite the pure number of people shooting MP40’s at Tintin, he never even gets near a bullet, only firing his gun a total of two times the entire film. Yet there is a lot of featured shooting and violence and obvious going on about Captain Hadock’s (Tintin’s companion) raging alcoholism. So even though the film is marketed towards children, it’s not as if it’s some little kid’s tale; there are some rather mature moments.

All and all the film is a fantastic blend of whimsical storytelling and cinematic moviemaking. Anyone who goes to see this film can have a great time for one reason or another, a fine film with amazing visuals, fun for the whole family.

This tale was set in the 1960s and it portrays the lives of rich white families and the black maids who work for them. There are three main characters: maids Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Miss Skeeter (Emma Stone), the daughter of a cotton plantation owner. Minny Jackson is a tempestuous and outspoken woman who is unafraid to stand up for herself or her beliefs. Her fiery personality often gets her into trouble with her employers and also provides much comic relief. Aibileen is a repressed woman who struggles daily with the grief of her dead son. She looks to fill that hole with the little girl she cares for: Mae Mobley. Miss Skeeter is a recent college graduate who is stuck between the old way of life and her progressive ideals. She sees the Jackson society as an opportunity to analyze that life and advance her writing career.

Miss Skeeter decides to write a book detailing the lives of the black maids in Jackson. Reluctantly, Aibileen and Minny agree to help. Eventually, many more maids join the experiment. Each person involved is concerned about the very real danger they face. None of them want to be subjected to hate crimes or be sent to prison, so they hide their identities.

Writing Miss Skeeter’s book is half the battle. The events that follow its publication are even more challenging.

As a book, The Help was nicely written. It was complex and had a plethora of multidimensional characters. At times, the book tended to ramble and not progress the plot. It also jumped inconsistently from one perspective to the next, which disrupted the flow of the story and caused confusion.

This story was presented much better as a movie than as a book. The plot was streamlined, which solved the inconsistencies and the confusion. The downside to making the plot more understandable was that many lovely scenes and details were cut or arranged in a different order.

In both the book and the movie, an important theme shines through. That theme is that every person is important and that every person has a story to tell. Aibileen sums up that theme perfectly with the saying, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

This story is a wonderful example of how anyone is capable of realizing their true potential in the face of adversity. The strong women of Jackson, Mississippi can be an example for anyone who wishes to stand up for their beliefs and tell the world their story.

Albert Narracott, played by Jeremy Irvine, is a young adult living with his parents on a farm in Devon, England leading up to the First World War. Albert’s father Ted, played by Peter Mullan, much to his wife’s dismay, buys a young colt at an auction in town. He made this rash decision simply to spite his landlord who attempted to outbid him for the horse, which ended in him overpaying for a meaningless thoroughbred because the reason he went to the auction in the first place was to buy a plow horse. The Narracott family was now left with a mounting debt, a worthless plot of land, and a disobedient horse. Albert, upon seeing Joey, immediately agrees to train the horse, and the two quickly become friends. With Albert’s determination and Joey’s strength, the two overcome many difficulties but are eventually torn apart.

The family cannot overcome their mounting debt, so Ted is forced to sell the horse to the English army when World War I breaks out. Albert is heartbroken but is eventually old enough to leave home and enlist in the army. Though the two don’t come into contact throughout the war, they both deal with their own struggles and touch many lives throughout their separate journeys.

This film has a fantastic storyline throughout and ever disappoints. The journeys of both Albert and Joey kept me engaged for the two hour and twenty six minute running time. As Joey touched the lives of many, including a young French girl and a German horse named Topthorn, I couldn’t help but feeling like I was part of the storyline and traveling throughout the devastation in Europe. It is a rarity to find a story that captures the true essence of friendship and love, but War Horse accomplishes both with an unprecedented combination of overcoming hardships and living in the moment.  

Spielberg, known for his excellent filming locations in previous movies including “Saving Private Ryan” and the Indiana Jones series, spent 64 days traveling throughout England filming the movie. The scenery and location of all of the shots were fantastic. The Narracott home all the way to the battle scenes in war torn Europe; every shot was top notch and covered every angle.

The film had very few flaws, if any. Spielberg recaptures the magic of cinematography in this emotional triumph. War Horse is sure to capture the heart of the audience long before the credits roll.

That is, until Professor James Moriarty, played by Jared Harris, a man as devious, cunning, and smart as Holmes himself, happens to change that. The only difference between Holmes and Moriarty is that Moriarty no problem killing people to achieve what he wants. What that is, we don’t know, and what Holmes hopes to find out. Moriarty sends Watson and his beloved a wedding present, and soon after that the chase to stop Moriarty is on.

I liked this movie for a many reasons. The technology and weapons were more up to date than in the first one. There were a lot of weapons used in WWI used in this movie, like the German bolt action rifle, the Kar98k. Holmes also switches from a revolver to a Mauser 1896 machine pistol. He also has a car, not a modern one, but the kind that looks like it was put together like a kid. It was very cool to see how far cars have come, since some did look like that. Also, there was an apparatus that made oxygen, which Holmes’s brother had for some reason. They also show Holmes’s brother, Mycroft Holmes, played by Stephen Fry. He is a funny character and brings a new air to the movies. I mean, there shouldn’t be just one Holmes, should there?

The main thing I didn’t like about the movie was the action, well, I liked it, but was annoyed by parts of it. It was good when Holmes goes into the mode where he sees the fight, plans out what he’s going to do, and then does it. That’s the only good slow motion part. The other action was slow motion. When they are running in the forest, it’s all slow! It’s annoying because none of the action really surprises you, because you can see it before it happens. Honestly, it makes it even more unrealistic. It should have been regular speed and more of Watson fighting like the soldier he is. He didn’t once use his cane sword (at least, I don’t remember him, using it, and he used it all the time in the first). Secondly, the movie was pretty easy to second guess. I kind of saw the end coming. It wasn’t as complex as the first movie, which really had me going, because it was hard for me to piece it together.

The film was good, but the action was too slow. I recommend not making any plans or make plans for the movies, because you should see Sherlock Holmes 2. That is, unless you don’t like watching a movie with some romance, explosions, action, slow motion action, guns, weird objects, and witty sayings. Honestly, who doesn’t?

The hilarious movie “Tower Heist” shows the story of hotel employees who try to steal their money back from a multi millionaire after he scammed them of all their money. Their funny escapade leads to many laughs, and suspense.

“Tower Heist” is the story of employees who are working at one of the fanciest and nicest hotels around, and their quest to find and take back their money from a multi millionaire stock broker (Alan Alda) who had offered to help increase the employee’s earnings. However it backfires and the employees have their savings stolen, and are left with nothing. The employees (Ben Stiller, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe) decide to steal the money back with the help of a thief (Eddie Murphy).

I did enjoy the movie. Their humor was good, and not too crude or childish. There was a good mix of humor, and suspense making the movie even more enjoyable. I believe that they choose the right actors for this movie. All of them were good with their parts causing the move to be better, and somewhat relatable. We all fear having our money stolen, but this movie takes it to a whole new level.

However there were some things in the moving that were not so good. Some of the things they did in the movie weren’t realistic, like ramming an FBI agent with a cart and it knocking them out. That is not realistic. That would not knock someone out, not to mention the assault charges. There are also some other moments where the movie stops being realistic.

Other than those instances the movie is good.

Overall I did like the movie, and put those few unrealistic moments aside it was a good movie.

Rating 6 out of 10

The movie shows the view of three CDC workers (Laurence Fishburne, Daria Strokous, and Marion Cotillard) as they try to find a vaccine for the new and very deadly epidemic, but due to the disease being so deadly it kills the host cell to quickly to study they try to find something that it won’t kill, so you watch their struggles as they hurry to find a vaccine to stop the quickly spreading and very deadly disease.

It also shows the view of a blogging journalist (Jude Law) who is telling people that the government is holding back a cure to the disease so congressmen and other people can make money off of it. Later on he starts acting against the government more and more.

The last view is from a man (Matt Damon) who is immune and whose wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the first to spread and contract the disease, and his struggles to keep his daughter (Anna Jacoby-Heron) from getting the disease.

I did like the movie for multiple reasons. To me, the movie seemed very realistic. The events in the movie that happened appeared to be things that would happen if a horrendous epidemic were to appear in our world and start tearing through the world’s population. Also the acting was very good, they had good facial and body expressions making the movie seem even more realistic. The movie also was good two hours.

I especially like how the movie shows how easily the disease could spread. For example when Gwyneth Paltrow’s character contracts the disease and just shakes people hands, or touches drinking cups, the people who are touched or touch the cups quickly get the virus and die. It made me realize how easily it would be for a disease to spread.

However there were a few shortcomings to the movie. I personally think they didn’t really address food shortages and I think they skimped on the anarchy. I believe there porn should have been more burglaries, looting, etc. But I can understand the lack of it since the movie focuses on surviving the disease and finding a vaccine for it.

Overall I liked the movie and thought that it was worth the money.

Rating: 9 out of 10                                          

After Atenton quits his job in New York City, he relocates his family to a New England town. To the family’s surprise, the new home is the murder scene of a mother and her children. The entire town believes this to be the doing of the father that survived. As Atenton pieces together this mystery with neighbor Ann Paterson (Naomi Watts), who was close to the family that lived there before, they find that he and his family are the next victims of this dream house.

I was really expecting a little bit more out of this movie. The movie was hyped too much and the special effects were minimal.  However, there weren’t too many opportunities to use special effects. What I did like was the acting. Although this movie is a drama, nothing was done over the top and it was all pretty believable to a certain extent.

At first, this movie seems to be like a regular Hollywood feature: Father quits job, family moves to their new, perfect house they’ve always wanted, and everything seems great. However, as the story develops everything isn’t great and you find yourself caught off guard with the suspense and mind boggling twists. This is a great movie to see if you like sitting on the edge of your seat, anticipating what will happen next.

Kate realizes how much she is missing out.  Greg Kinnear dominates in the role of Kate’s husband Richard Reddy.  You couldn’t have put a more perfect pair of actors and actresses together to create the perfect couple. 

 How perfect is the couple though? Are they actually the complete opposite? Kate and Richard are nowhere near perfect from a relationship standpoint both dealing with jobs and always on the go, one wonders when do they actually have time for each other but that’s the issue that affects it all, time.  There is simply not enough time in the daily life of Kate Reddy. 

 Parker does a fantastic job playing her part.  She is the perfect fit of the down to earth type and no other actress could have done it better than Parker herself.  Managing two children, her job, and her marriage this film shows the meaning of the importance of people and how important it is to have a balance in life.

 Although Kate’s best friend Allison (Christina Hendricks) contains a small role in the movie, she has a major impact on Kate’s life by helping her get through rough situations and tough decisions.  Allison also acts as an outlet for Kate being there in time of need and support.  Allison is someone whom Kate can confide in and get away from her complicated life with once in a while. 

 Kate’s nanny Paula (Jessica Szohr) contains a small role in the film.  Paula is a young adult that could be considered irresponsible.  Although she seems to understand Kate’s needs for the kids better than anyone, she is the one person Kate trusts to watch after her children.

 Despite having to deal with a family, Kate has to deal with her career as well.  Taking on many responsibilities is something that is required and emphasized throughout the film. If it wasn’t for Kate’s assistant Momo (Olivio Munn), Kate would never accomplish half the things she does.  Momo is another hard-worker; she lives to work and works to live.  Constantly achieving her life goals, she gets thrown a curve ball that changes her outlook.  She and everyone else learn as the movie goes on.

 With new opportunities comes a new project which means traveling.  You would think that a job that requires traveling, raising two kids with help from a nanny, and trying to make time for your marriage is enough to deal with? You’re wrong.  For Kate at least, she has to deal with a flirtatious co-worker which could affect her life in the long run.

 If you’re in the mood for a movie that has a lot of meaning behind it I would definitely go see “I Don’t Know How She Does It”.  The movie also shows Sarah Jessica Parkers humorous side.  A quick witted, simple one liner is all this movie takes to make one laugh. 

I would not recommend this movie to young viewers; it does have a mature side to it.  This movie is also different then Sarah Jessica Parker’s other known movies like Sex in the City, Failure to Launch, and Did You Hear About the Morgans?.  I Don’t Know How She Does It  shows the realism of motherhood and life itself which differentiates the movie. 

 This movie is hands down a must see.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Directed by: Joe Johnston.

The movie is about a scrawny boy from the Bronx in the mid 1940’s that undergoes a secret military procedure. He becomes a German fighting super soldier that helps the allies end the war. The film had really cool scenes, and the acting was decent. The movie takes place in the mid 1940’s, and is very realistic. The movie had all the right cars, buildings, clothes, and even hair styles. The graphics of the movie were really good and it had some funny moments. However the movie had a predictable plot, and the ending of it walked the line between an acceptable ending and an ending that is totally unbelievable.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Cowboys and Aliens

Directed by: Jon Favreau.

The film had very good graphics, making it seem like real life. Daniel Craig, and Harrison Ford made the movie’s acting very good, and kept you believing in the story. The movie is about a man who ends up fighting aliens while trying to get his memory back. The plot was original and had twists and turns. It was a somewhat predictable ending, but still really enjoyable. This movie had the right props and the way they talked was accurate to the time period that the movie took place.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two

Directed by: David Yates.

This film had good graphics, and some average acting. This movie is about Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they try to save Hogwarts from the Death Eaters, and their evil leader Voldemort.  However the movie had a very predictable plot, along with a lot of buildup to a scene that only lasts about twenty minutes, which was quite disappointing. However that scene was pretty cool, but not good enough to make up for all the buildup. The acting was good. The movie did have some enjoyable parts. So overall the movie was decent, with a little too much buildup.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Crazy, stupid, love

Directed by: Glenn Fircarra and John Requa.

The movie brought several different and very comedic actors. The movie was a romantic comedy about the life of an average family that gets shaken up when a divorce comes into play. The movie was relatively predictable, but keeps you interested with lots of jokes. The plot is enjoyable and creative. There was good flow to the movie and the entire movie had no slow or boring points.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

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