Mr. Popper's Penguins

0.5/5

I can only handle so much of penguins doing the exact same thing over and over again before it gets incredibly boring. I can also only handle so much penguin poop and falling over before I get sick of the repetitive humor. The conflict in the film is so ridiculously forced that it left me cheering for the villian - of course the penguins should be taken away, it doesnt matter if they're loved or they love their owner, they're PENGUINS, put them in the right habitat where they'll live happier lives! I don't care about Cooper Kiegan, I don't care about the inability to purchase the tavern on the green or any of the obnoxious conflict put in to give the film plot. Jim Carrey is no where near as funny as he used to be either. Forget this movie, either pick up an older Carey movie for the comedy or go get a more enriching film for the family.

Green Lantern

2/5

For such a large budget, the film looked cheap. the CGI felt lazy and the suit when he was flying was clearly a CGI suit with his head on top - it didnt feel like much of an improvement from the days of the earlier Superman movies. The powers that he had were creative and were decently exploited, but also a bit ridiculous (the first way you think to bring down a crashing helicopter is a childs toy car racetrack?), and underdeveloped for other aliens - since Hal is using human tech, i'd love to see more of what aliens think of to use. Parallax is a great looking and acting villain, but how is it that Hal was able to bring him down at the end, in an incredibly unsatisfying and anticlimactic fight? Was he really that much more special than the team of lanterns that fought earlier in the movie? We don't see anything special. And most of all, after the fight when the three lanterns are there to meet him after he fights...why weren't they there sooner? Clearly they were there with enough time to calmly pull him out of the gravitational pull of a nearby star, why not help him fight? Is it REALLY that big of a deal that he fight Parallax alone knowing that he had already killed at least 5 lanterns? Conclusion - characters were weak, plot devices were weak, great powers were handled weakly, and the CGI and "effects" were incredibly weak, mixed with an incredibly weak cast of characters and pretty forgettable acting make my favorite superhero look pretty lame. Still, some of the fights are worth watching and some of the ways that Lantern's powers are used are pretty creative, so it wasn't a waste of time, just a waste of money knowing I could have seen it on a Tuesday for free.

Super 8

3.5/5

A fun, if predictable, action flick thats filled with lens flare as a J. J. Abrams film should be! A bit easy to see every twist and turn and a few annoyingly unbelievable parts (how a man could survive and have an intact body from a head on collision with an oncoming train is beyond me), but suspend your disbelief and you'll have a fun time with a lot of explosions, creepy happenings and a really cool looking alien. an extra half a star for its wonderful use of

X-Men First Class

4.5/5

A fun, energetic, easy to love joyride filled with great action and fun characters. It's intriguing, a bit emotional, not to historically insulting, and goofy enough in humor to keep me interested and to keep me wanting more, and a huge improvement over the 3rd X-Men film and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I can't wait for a sequel.

Kung Fu Panda 2

4/5

A more fun, better animated film than its predecessor. I liked the villain a lot, the action scenes were all exciting if a bit too much too close together, the animation was sleek and state of the art without losing its cartoony and fun animal characters (as DreamWorks seems to really excel at), and I liked how the story acknowledged that a goose simply cannot father a panda. I hated that issue in the last film. Overall, definitely one to check out if you're looking for goofy Jack Black humor and a fun animated action movie.

Midnight in Paris

5/5

As of July 13th 2011, my favorite film of the year. It took me a while to get around to seeing this film, as it wasn't in my local theatre for a while and i was more or less seeing films as they came out, but I saw this film for free at another theatre at last and completely fell in love with it. I love the cast, I love the premise that uses the cast to its full extent, I loved every historical artist (especially Ernest Hemingway, played by Corey Stoll), and for the first time I didn't completely hate Owen Wilson - in fact, I actually loved taking nightly strolls with him throughout Paris. I loved the writing, I loved the direction style (what else do you expect from Woody Allen), and I absolutely loved the ending to the film. Definitely a must see, and almost definitely going to be in my top 10 of the year.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

1.5/5

Boring, unnecessary, riddled with plot holes, obnoxious acting from everyone including Depp (all of Sparrow's unpredictability is completely lost), unbelievable traps and action scenes, this was a stupid movie for me to spend money on. Still, at least some of the action was there and, although the script ruined the character, Depp did give it his all. I hated how the sense in the action was also gone. Things didn't flow, they had ridiculously small windows of success that always seemed to perfectly fall into place. It was bad.