Looking back at last year, I'm a bit surprised by how many movies I watched.
Here's a list of ones I saw that came out last year.
Dan in Real Life--a good movie. A bit of a chick flick though (April liked it a lot more than I did).
The Bourne Ultimatum--great movie. I also saw the second movie in the trilogy this year (for the first time). Jason Bourne is very real...and the action's great too.
Bridge To Terabithia--this one is very underrated. A great movie with lousy advertisements and poor box office showing. If you haven't seen it, now's the time. It's a great children's story, with lots of depth. April really liked it too.
Pirates of the Caribbean 3--fun, but overrated.
Spiderman 3--not as good as the first two, but still a good movie.
Ratatouille--I was excited about this movie when I first saw the previews, months before it came out. Besides being one of the best cartoons ever, the scenes of Paris were fantastic. It's the real Paris. Trust me. I've been there. It may seem like a small detail, since most people have never been to Paris, and most who have just saw the Eiffel Tower and stopped by the Louvre for a quick visit, but the shots of the river and the river bank were so real that they actually brought back memories. Fantastic movie.
Harry Potter--good. I like the movies, but I don't get as excited about them as a lot of other people.
I am Legend--I was really excited about seeing this. Will Smith's a good actor, and he usually stars in good films. The movie was different than I expected--darker, more intense, and definitely not a standard action flick. Good, and I'll recommend it to the guys. The girls probably won't be interested.
Live Free or Die Hard--I like Bruce Willis, and have always wondered about the Die Hard movies. This one's the first PG-13 one. Fun, yes. Am I going to recommend it? No. I understand now the "Die Hard" part--Bruce Willis can't die. Lots of unrealistic action and a plot with lots of problems.
Stardust--The best movie of the year. A bit of British humor in a fantastic fantasy. If you haven't seen this, you need to. It's got action, romance, comedy...and it does it all well.
Enchanted--April and I saw this last night. It's fun. More of a chick flick (April enjoyed it quite a bit more than I did).
The following is a list of movies that came out that I still need to see:
Golden Compass--ya, I know it got horrible reviews. But it has some good actors, it's fantasy, and religious right hates it almost as much as they hate Harry Potter. So I definitely need to go see it.
Hairspray--I'm not sure about this one. Everyone says it's good, and April really wants to see it. Even Eric Snider gave it a good review. We'll see.
Lars and the Real Girl--it's supposed to be very good (and, somehow, clean).
An edited version of No Country for Old Men--This one has gotten fantastic reviews from the critics. It's done by the Cohen brothers (think O Brother Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, and, of course, Hudsucker Proxy) and it's supposedly their best work. Unfortunately, it's rated R.
My overall top picks (in order):
Stardust
Ratatouille
Bridge to Teribithia
The Bourne Ultimatum
Any recommendations? Comments?
6 comments:
We saw I Am Legend and Enchanted over the holiday, and I thought they were both great. We never made it to Golden Compass, though. I got Bourne Ultimatum for my wife for Christmas, but it didn't seem to make it back home with us, so we still haven't seen it yet.
I thought about seeing Golden Compass, but decided not to when I heard that the guy who wrote the book did so to promote his atheist views. I mean a lot of fiction out there is ambiguous about the religious, which I am fine with. Let readers come to their own conclusions about things. But this guy has stated that what he wants children to take away from his books is that there is no God. He is passionate and vocal about it. Kind of an anti-Narnia. I'm not going to hate it, but I choose not to go out of my way to see it.
There are a lot of people out there that are against Golden Compass; from all reliable reports I've heard, however, the movie is not atheist-leaning. Maybe parallels can be drawn between the Catholic church and the bad guys in the movie, but...
I think this is just another instance of people overreacting (remember how much some people feared Harry Potter, especially at first?)
I guess I trust Eric Snider and other film critics more than I trust mass emails and somebody else's Relief Society President.
I really want to see some of those movies - good to hear you liked the Bourne series. I've been interested in those.
About the Golden Compass - here's what I've read.
Pullman said he is primarily attacking the idea that a church with too much political power is dangerous, and his book particularly hints at the Catholic church. Thus, Catholics have been the most upset.
Second, the movie removes his atheist themes in an attempt to approach a wider array of audiences.
In his book, there is a quest to kill God, and in the end of the trilogy they succeed (although the "God" they kill is a phony.)
About him being anti-C.S. Lewis here's a quote I read:
"I loathe the 'Narnia' books," Pullman has said in previous press interviews. "I hate them with a deep and bitter passion, with their view of childhood as a golden age from which sexuality and adulthood are a falling away." He has called the series "one of the most ugly and poisonous things" he's ever read.
In spite of complaints about the forthcoming film, Pullman fans and atheists are still excited about the exposure it will give his novels. They say the American literary market is sorely lacking material for those who don't believe in God, and they scoff at the idea that the series is hazardous to children.
"Philip Pullman and I would say it is religion that poisons everything," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the atheist advocacy group the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and a co-host of Freethought Radio, a talk show that recently went national on Air America Radio. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305487,00.html
Sooooo....even though the movie may be watered down, any book that is heavily supported by atheists to promote "thinking" in children is a no for me. TV, the internet, music, and the way many live already leads children away from God. At some point we as believing adults have to stand up and say, no, this has gone too far. I won't support this. That's why I won't support the movie - because of the books they represent.
Thanks Christine for doing the research on this that I was too lazy to do for myself. What I did take was my mom's word on the issue, this is something she is quite passionate about, she's not one to take mass emails and run with them.
This guy's views give meaning to the scriptures that say, "Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil..." 2 Nephi 15:20. So much of what we have to deal with is a lot more subtle than this guy. He kind of reminds me of Korihor.
You may not see this since you've already posted afterward, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I love movies :).
I agree with you on all the ones you reviewed that I saw. I'm still being talked into I am Legend (and I've met plenty of girls that have loved the movie, but I don't do suspense well), and I'm not really an action-thriller type of person, so the Bournes didn't really appeal to me so much, but I did enjoy them. I LOVED Stardust, Bridge to Terabithia and Enchanted and I love Pirates (I had a few issues with that one, but overall I loved it) and Harry Potter always.
And I saw The Golden Compass. I wasn't planning on it, but it was a pick your battle sort of situation, so I caved. I say that as a movie it was fantastic. They did a great job telling the story, and that little girl was just so adorable. However, (and this may sound strange and I may have been influenced by all that talk going around) there was some sort of evilness eminating from the story. I just sat there feeling incredibly uncomfortable the entire time. Afterward I could justify it away with words, saying it could be interpreted in a lot of ways, even as a story for Christianity, but when it came right down to it, it just felt evil. So, I will not be seeing it or any of the following movies or reading the books. Ever. I have much better and more uplifting things to spend my time doing. So there is my opinion, even if you didn't ask for it. :)
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