Wanted

This weekends movie of choice was Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman.

This story is about an anxiety-ridden, frustrated office worker named Wesley (James McAvoy) who has less than $14.00 in his bank account, his boss is a donut eating slob on a power trip from hell, and his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend.

Wesley gets the opportunity to avenge on his tormentors and enter a fantasy world where he can realize his hidden powers as a skilled assassin. This happens after he is picked up in a bar by Fox (Angelina Jolie), who confides that he is now a member of the Fraternity, a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins who kill bad people.

We enter a heightened reality in which there's a transformation from nerd to killer, a mystical a language in thread and an upside down world when fate spits out names to balance a chaotic world. Guilty pleasure or ripping escapism, it's a wild explosion of a film that rides high on its extravagant script and blows us away by its surreal action scenes.

I really enjoyed this movie!!

Get Smart

As I mentioned earlier, mom and I didn't go see Get Smart together because my husband wanted to see it. Since this weekend was our anniversary, we decided to have 'date night' - Yep, you guessed it...Dinner and a movie (we're so original).

For fans of Steve Carell this is a must-see. No classic here but not an embarrassment either. Get Smart has admirably mimicked the blend of genres and innovations that made the original series so memorable, and while die-hard fans will likely pick apart what this re-envisioning doesn't get right, it's almost impossible not to laugh at Carell's ludicrous on screen antics.

Although CONTROL is supposedly defunct, Max works for the still active but clandestine U.S. spy agency as an intelligence analyst. But he dreams of becoming a field agent like his friend Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). When many of the identities of their top agents are revealed to the international crime organization known as KAOS, Max’s chief (Alan Arkin) is forced to send Max on his first assignment, along with seasoned Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to thwart the villainous group's latest plan for world domination.

Whether or not Steve Carell perfectly embodies Maxwell Smart, he certainly knows how to handle his comedy. If you're looking for a good laugh, this is a must see.

The Happening

Today mom and I wanted to go see Get Smart; but, since this weekend is my husbands and my anniversary, and he wants to see Get Smart, we decided to watch something else. So we headed out to see The Happening, which turned out to be nothing more than a GREAT BIG disappointment.

It's official: M. Night Shyamalan is no longer the next Spielberg. After the stellar Sixth Sense and the equally excellent Unbreakable, he's managed a downward spiral that few others writers could survive. Signs was alright, but with The Village, Lady in the Water, and now The Happening, he has touched a level of incompetence that could never have been expected of him.

"The Happening" contains a horrifying premise, and, at least for the first forty-five minutes, Shyamalan is on his game in a way that he hasn't quite been since "Signs."

One beautiful fall morning, all activity in New York's Central Park suddenly stops as an ominous breeze overtakes the citizens, first disorienting them and then causing each and every one to gruesomely take their own life. Further downtown, construction workers begin leaping off buildings. As news of these mysterious catastrophic events sweeps down the northeastern seaboard, so does the epidemic. Soon, rumors begin flying of terrorist involvement, while others think the local nuclear power plant may be responsible. All anyone really knows is that the psychological virus is spreading and no one appears immune... or safe. Hoping to outrun whatever it is that's occurring, Philadelphia science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and math professor Julian (John Leguizamo), along with Elliot's wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and Julian's young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), prepare to travel southward. When the train conductors lose contact with the outside world, the group is left stranded in the direct center of the hot zone with seemingly no escape..

Unfortunately, Shyamalan's writing is a big let-down for the rest. As the focus moves from the metropolitan to towns and from crowds to smaller groups, the sense of fear is lost – the biggest sin a horror movie can commit.

My advice, don't waste your money.

Kung Fu Panda

I didn't get to go see a movie with mom this weekend; instead, I took four girls to go see Kung Fu Panda. This weekend was my baby girl's fourth birthday and she told me that she wanted to go see the "Panda movie"; so we loaded up the car - blankets in tow - and headed to the movies...

I will start by pointing out the excellent cast that I wasn't aware this movie had..You probably already know that Jack Black was the voice of Po, the Panda. But did you know that the other voices where that of Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Lucy Lui??

And if that weren't enough to make me happy, the song at the end was song by one of my favorite artists - Cee Lo AKA Gnarles Barkley.

I took the girls to this movie, really not expecting much, other than a few laughs. But Kung Fu Panda exceeded all of my expectations. The story is simple but the execution is superb. The animation is very rich and the colors are crisp and bright. The action sequences are great and the laughs are mixed in at the appropriate moments.

The theater was full and it was composed of a mixture of Adults and young kids, with almost complete silence - with the exception of laughter - throughout the entire movie. There were no kids running around, screaming and crying; they were all involved in the film. And I heard plenty of laughter from the parents too.

This is a fun for all movie. A testament to this fact is that almost the whole crowd stayed for the end credits and this is a very rare occurrence nowadays - of course, that could have been because of the great song at the end :)

If you haven't taken your kids to see this one yet, I suggest you go see this one. You might even enjoy it too.

Sex and the City

There aren't really any movies out right now that mom and I are just dying to go see. Sex and the City is a hot one right now and it looks like a fun 'girl' movie so off we went, with our friend Sharon too.

As columnist/author Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) prepares to move in with her longtime beau Mr. Big (Chris Noth), her three fabulous friends are facing their own unique issues. Samantha (Kim Cattrall), after five years in California with her soap actor boy toy (Jason Lewis), is getting antsy for her old stomping grounds... and sexual ways. Miranda's (Cynthia Nixon) husband Steve (David Eigenberg) has been feeling unloved, and his actions drive a wedge in their marriage. And Charlotte (Kristin Davis) loves being a wife and mother.

Keeping in mind that neither mom nor Sharon have ever seen Sex in the City - the HBO Series - they really had no idea what to expect. I, on the other hand, had watched a few of the stories on HBO and was familiar with the basic story line.

However, I thought the movie did a really good job bringing everyone up to speed at the beginning - perfect for those who went to the movies without knowing anything about it....

This being said, if you've never watched the show, or you've never sipped Cosmos and hung out with a tightly knit group of girlfriends, or gazed with true adoration at a pair of $500 shoes, this really isn't the movie for you.

As for me.....I really enjoyed it!

The Strangers

It's been a while since mom and I have been to a scary movie. This weekend we decided to check out The Strangers. Inspired by true events, it seemed this might be one that was actually scary.

"On the night of February 11, 2005, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt left a friends wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family summer home.

The brutal events that took place there have never been revealed."

This is stated at the very beginning of what turns into an hour and a half of nail biting, edge of your seat suspense.

"The Strangers" claims to be inspired by a true story - According to Wiki, with whatever veracity you choose to accord it:

"The movie is inspired by an event from the director's, Bryan Bertino, childhood, among other things. A stranger came to his home asking for someone. Later, he found out that empty homes in the neighborhood had been burglarized. With that memory in mind, Bertino created this, his debut screenplay. The screenplay is also inspired by the events of the Charles Manson murders."

The rest is probably fiction. But oh, what fiction! For what it is - a movie about suspense, dread, and helplessness - "The Strangers" is very well done; however, after an hour of watching these 'strangers' mess with this couples minds it got a little old.

Was it Scary? I don't know that scary is the word I would use to describe this one - Disturbing, yes. Scary, not really. However, I can definitely see how some would find it scary.

All in all, mom and I thought it was pretty good.