Yes I am finally back. Makki and I have not watched any movies in ages and we managed to squeeze in two of them this past weekend. I think we will be getting back to a movie every week or perhaps every other but who knows. It seems that we are either busy all the time lately or are watching TV instead.

The TV has not been a big help at all in fact. We finally expanded our cable and as a result we now have the BBC America channel and a DVR. I have no idea how I lived for this long without a DVR, those things are amazing. They are also dangerous though since you can pretty much record anything you want without fear of having enough tape. As a result we have ended up with a huge backlog of things to watch. Sadly, none of them are movies that we can tell you about so they just tend to get in the way of movie reviews.

So, hopefully you will see a few reviews here and there more quickly than recent history has shown.

Thanks for stopping in.

The idea is that there is this space cube which accidentally landed on early around 10,000 BC. Now a bunch of robots want it back. There are good robots, Autobots and bad robots, Decepticons. These robots can turn themselves into various vehicles to blend in, provided of course that they are some type of General Motors product. That is as horrible as it might sound because one of the main robots turns into the new Camero and frankly I think that car is very cool looking.

Yep, that it is it. That is the entire plot. Good robots fighting bad robots in an attempt to get back the cube. Even with that very thin plot, there was a surprising amount of humor. From start to finish it was like one big campy romp of fun. Was it realistic? Of course not, it is based on a cartoon. The special effects were top notch though and I usually don’t like films that rely entirely upon the effects to get an audience.

Overall, I would tell you to give this one a try if you are looking for a simple but entertaining way to spend two hours. I think I’ll give this one

Lets start with the plot. Basically we have a London police officer, Nicholas Angel, that has excelled in everything he does for the force. So much so that he has made the other officers look bad. As a result he gets sent off to a small remote village to become a sergeant. He obviously doesn’t like that as he expects it to be very boring. Once there though, he feels he has fallen into a huge plot of murder and intrigue.

This was actually a very tough movie to rate. The problem was that the first hour (maybe a bit more) was so dull that I almost didn’t finish it. The DVD got stuck and I had to clean it. I actually considered putting it back in the sleeve and watching something else. But, I have a duty to perform so I continued watching. I am glad I did because shortly after I started it back up the movie actually got pretty entertaining.

However, the pain involved in getting to the good stuff was too great and I have to give it a below rating of

Our hero, Flynn, starts out as a career student living at home with his mother. He has no interest in heading out into the real world until he gets sent home by his teacher. This leads to his receiving a very special interview at the library where he gets hired as The Librarian. He discovers that books aren’t what he is responsible for but instead he has to guard famous antiquities, many with magical properties. Obviously, things go awry and therein lies the actual plot.

The movie is quite campy and is relatively amusing. While it certainly wouldn’t win any awards it is a movie that everyone can watch and easily enjoy.
I’ll hand this one .

Once again we follow everyone’s favorite wizard on his journey though another school year at Hogwarts. That year is filled with love, hate and confusion. In fact, it is like every other year at Hogwarts. Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid fan of the books and Harry Potter is one of the few films that I make a point to see in the theatre as opposed to on DVD.

This installment is just as good as all the others from a fun movie standpoint. But, if you are a die hard, knows every plot twist kind of person be prepared to be disappointed. This was a very long book and as a result they really cut up the plot to make it all fit. Yes, most of the important stuff was there but some of it was plopped in and then forgotten. For instance, there is the point when Sirius orders Creature to “Get out of here”. While he actually means the room, Creature uses this as a way to spy on the Order and give information to the bad guys. Sadly, while Creature was sent away they never followed up with the plot element at any other point in the film.

I know, that is a small nit pick but that is merely one example of many that I could give you. In my opinion they should have made this into two movies or made this movie much longer. I may have said something similar about the previous film as well (I could check my comments but I’m lazy). If they had done this I might have been willing to give this movie a full five popcorn. I never once looked at my watch and was actually sad when it was over.

Since, they cut out as much as they did I will have to give this movie a rating. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Harry Potter is obviously a good example as they have now made five of the books into films and I personally can’t wait to see the remaining two. My excitement for the next installments doesn’t necessarily mean I like what they have done in all the films but I did enjoy them so far. The problem with these is that the books are so long that they need to pick and choose what is put into the films. As a result, things that I feel are important to the plots in later books sometimes gets dropped. Overall they do a good job of sticking with the books though which is a good thing.

Lord of the Rings is another widely popular choice. These suffer from the same problems as Harry Potter due to the length of the books. These movies also due a decent job of following the books but while they had to leave out certain items due to length they then added content that wasn’t in the books which I felt was a bit silly. They did this to give certain actors larger roles, Arwin comes to mind, and that is just not right.

Bourne Identity, Supremecy, Ultimatum. Ok, so I haven’t seen the third one yet but I can tell you already that I’m sure they blew it. The first movie was great and attempted to follow the plot of the book. I’ll admit I haven’t read the book in many years but I believe that it was fairly true to the book. The second movie was appalling. The movie didn’t follow my memory of the book at all although I plan on rereading it just to see if I am correct, which I undoubtedly am. The other problem which has nothing to do with the book is the action was all jittery and unwatchable. The director claims this was to add a sense of urgency and excitement. All I got was annoyed and thought they ruined an otherwise entertaining movie. The point with these films though is that even though I don’t think they have stayed true to the books, the movies themselves are still pretty entertaining.

James Bond. Pick one. Go ahead it doesn’t really matter which one. Yes, I have read a few of the original Ian Flemming books and they were pretty good. They were also fairly short. The movies however are basically only sharing the main characters and the titles as most of the plots are nothing like the books. I was intrigued with the latest Casino Royalle though as it had a certain closeness to the book. Of course, James Bond would rather be captured and tortured by Smersh than lower himself to playing Texas Hold’em which in a way is what happens near the end of the film so that works out.

Sahara. Yes, the second attempt at a Dirk Pitt novel on the big screen. This one really made me nervous as I am a huge fan of these books. I admit that at first I thought the casting was way off, but it in fact turned out great. After watching the abortion which was Raise the Titanic from many years ago I was hoping that they would get this one right. How shall I put this….. As an action movie it was loads of fun and I would recommend it. However, the changes they made to the structure of the plot was not only poorly conceived they were totally unnecessary. That is when the move from book to movie is a bad thing. I understand shorting the plot to make it work in two hours but there is no excuse for changing the basic elements of a story, especially one that has so many books involved just for the sake of change.

I’m sure some of you are probably wondering what I am trying to get at with this list. Lets see if I can explain.

Obviously I enjoy movies. I also really enjoy reading books. I do know some people that like one but not the other. I find that amusing as they really aren’t that different. Both are an escape into fantasy that the individual gets to enjoy. Movies just allow you to live that fantasy faster and that my friend is the crux of the problem. I often get into discussions about how the movie was not nearly as good as the book. Well DUH, of course it wasn’t. First of all you get to create your own visual images when you read a book so it is a personal experience. Even if the movie matched your mental image perfectly it would still need to be shorter and therefore leave out things which detracts from the overall quality of the experience.

Get over it. The movie will never be the book. If you can’t understand this maybe you shouldn’t see the movie if you read the book first. I will admit to the disappointment with some translations but I go in understanding the necessity of the changes and make the best of it. Maybe one day someone will just make a four hour movie version of a book and it will be awesome. Although with attention spans getting shorter rather than longer this seems unlikely.

Zarf

Harry Potter is obviously a good example as they have now made five of the books into films and I personally can’t wait to see the remaining two.  My excitement for the next installments doesn’t necessarily mean I like what they have done in all the films but I did enjoy them so far.  The problem with these is that the books are so long that they need to pick and choose what is put into the films.  As a result, things that I feel are important to the plots in later books sometimes gets dropped.  Overall they do a good job of sticking with the books though which is a good thing.

Lord of the Rings is another widely popular choice.  These suffer from the same problems as Harry Potter due to the length of the books.  These movies also due a decent job of following the books but while they had to leave out certain items due to length they then added content that wasn’t in the books which I felt was a bit silly.  They did this to give certain actors larger roles, Arwin comes to mind, and that is just not right.

Bourne Identity, Supremecy, Ultimatum.  Ok, so I haven’t seen the third one yet but I can tell you already that I’m sure they blew it.  The first movie was great and attempted to follow the plot of the book.  I’ll admit I haven’t read the book in many years but I believe that it was fairly true to the book.  The second movie was appalling.  The movie didn’t follow my memory of the book at all although I plan on rereading it just to see if I am correct, which I undoubtedly am.  The other problem which has nothing to do with the book is the action was all jittery and unwatchable.  The director claims this was to add a sense of urgency and excitement.  All I got was annoyed and thought they ruined an otherwise entertaining movie.  The point with these films though is that even though I don’t think they have stayed true to the books, the movies themselves are still pretty entertaining.

James Bond.  Pick one. Go ahead it doesn’t really matter which one.  Yes, I have read a few of the original Ian Flemming books and they were pretty good.  They were also fairly short.  The movies however are basically only sharing the main characters and the titles as most of the plots are nothing like the books.  I was intrigued with the latest Casino Royalle though as it had a certain closeness to the book.  Of course, James Bond would rather be captured and tortured by Smersh than lower himself to playing Texas Hold’em which in a way is what happens near the end of the film so that works out.

Sahara.  Yes, the second attempt at a Dirk Pitt novel on the big screen.  This one really made me nervous as I am a huge fan of these books.  I admit that at first I thought the casting was way off, but it in fact turned out great.  After watching the abortion which was Raise the Titanic from many years ago I was hoping that they would get this one right.  How shall I put this….. As an action movie it was loads of fun and I would recommend it.  However, the changes they made to the structure of the plot was not only poorly conceived they were totally unnecessary.  That is when the move from book to movie is a bad thing.  I understand shorting the plot to make it work in two hours but there is no excuse for changing the basic elements of a story, especially one that has so many books involved just for the sake of change.

I’m sure some of you are probably wondering what I am trying to get at with this list.  Lets see if I can explain.

Obviously I enjoy movies.  I also really enjoy reading books.  I do know some people that like one but not the other.  I find that amusing as they really aren’t that different.  Both are an escape into fantasy that the individual gets to enjoy.  Movies just allow you to live that fantasy faster and that my friend is the crux of the problem.  I often get into discussions about how the movie was not nearly as good as the book.  Well DUH, of course it wasn’t.  First of all you get to create your own visual images when you read a book so it is a personal experience.  Even if the movie matched your mental image perfectly it would still need to be shorter and therefore leave out things which detracts from the overall quality of the experience. 

Get over it.  The movie will never be the book.  If you can’t understand this maybe you shouldn’t see the movie if you read the book first.  I will admit to the disappointment with some translations but I go in understanding the necessity of the changes and make the best of it.  Maybe one day someone will just make a four hour movie version of a book and it will be awesome.  Although with attention spans getting shorter rather than longer this seems unlikely.

Zarf

Now don’t get me wrong, this was not a bad film. In fact, it was a decent film and kept me interested the whole time. Basically, a network security expert, Jack, has his family taken hostage to force him to help some people rob the bank that he works for. The bad guys have their plan go awry very early on when they find out the computer terminals they needed have been relocated. Now Jack has to figure out a way to get them what they want so his family won’t be killed.

The action never stops in this movie and if you like Harrision Ford you will probably find this movie entertaining enough to watch. But at best, I will call it average.

How about

Most of these movies tend to be heavy on fighting and light on actual substance. Of course I realize that most guys watching a Jet Li movie are probably not looking for substance and that is fine with me. In this case though, the movie is heavy on fighting and still heavy on substance. The substance mostly comes from the fact that this movie is based upon an actual person, Huo Yuanjia, who became an inspiration for his people and helped them free themselves from western domination.

Jet Li portrays Huo very well and you really feel attached to him by the end of the film. Obviously I don’t know how close this story gets to the actual events involved nor do I really care. You must assume that the story is a bit exagerated if for no other reason than the stories of most cultural heroes get exagerated. No one claimed that this was a documentary, so again, I don’t care.

Some of you may find one negative with the film and that is the subtitles. I’m sorry, get some culture, read the subtitles and get over it. If you are too lazy to read them, don’t rent this film and consider it your loss. For those of you educated readers out there who prefer the natural language and don’t mind subtitles rush to your video store and fasten your seatbelts. You will not regret this rental.

I give it a proud .

This is a Spanish romance story that involves a young girl named Tita who falls in love with Pedro. Tita is the youngest daughter of three girls. Pedro wants to marry Tita but Tita is forbidden because of a family tradition. This traditional belief forbids the youngest daughter to marry but she must instead care for her parents (and in this case her mother) until death. The story takes place in the era of the Mexican Revolution.

But wait…it gets real interesting. Pedro reluctantly marries Titas sister. The only way Tita can express her emotions is through her cooking. If she is feeling sad then the people eating the food will experience sadness. Some of the scenes are pretty bizarre and funny. Suffice it to say they show a few cooking scenes which involve a lot of colorful spices and other creative ingredients.

This movie has drama, romance and some humor. I also learned that like water for chocolate is a common expression in Spanish speaking countries and is often used as a metaphor for describing a state of passion or sexual arousal.

I give this movie a rating of .