Movie Review Catch-Up Blog

  * Oct. 4 exercise: walking the boy home from school, 10 blocks round-trip, about 20 minutes.*



 Going to finish my backlog of movie reviews, so I can get down to catching up the much longer list of book reviews. I have four, so each will just be a short capsule, posted in order of most recent viewing to oldest:

 1. The Campaign
   Starring Will Farrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis
 A good election year comedy. Both parties take hits equally for being corrupt, pandering, morally bankrupt, or all of the above. Not a big Will Farrell fan, but he and Zach Galifianakis play off each other perfectly as competing congressional candidates. The feel-good ending is completely unrealistic, but that doesn't hurt the movie. After all that cynicism, a fairy-tale ending leaves you feeling refreshed.

2. Brave
 I wasn't sure a Disney cartoon about a medieval Scottish teenage girl would hold a six-year-old boy's attention, but he got into the magic, the swords and the bears. It's not going to be a keeper, though. The animation is gorgeous, but the story just isn't that compelling, and the music is pretty, but forgettable.

3. The Avengers
 Best movie I've seen this year, hands down. (Granted, I haven't seen that many.) I was surprised to enjoy this so much, since I never followed the Avengers comic, or any of the individual heroes' comics. (Iron Man, Thor, etc.) I felt that way about all the lead-in movies, too - low expectations, then pleasantly surprised. But this one is easily the best of the bunch: action-filled, witty dialogue, well acted. And Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston - best super villain, ever! Good-looking, funny, but still menacing, and a God - can't beat that!

4. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
 Exactly as expected, the book was better. Oh, they tried their best, but shrinking down such an extensive, well-researched and detailed book into just a couple of hours was doomed from the start. Plus, I didn't like the addition of scenes that weren't in the book, or the changed ending. Bit of a disappointment, I think it could have been adapted better, though the acting was wonderful. Benjamin Walker was a perfect Abraham Lincoln, believable as president and action hero. Too bad the script didn't give him more to work with.

 There. All caught up.