Cast: Ian McKellen (voice of the Narrator), Charlie Cox (Tristan Thorn), Claire Danes (Yvaine), Michelle Pfeiffer (Lamia)
For complete info on this great cast & crew, see IMDb's Stardust page.
I didn't know much about this movie (other than the stars), since once I decide to see a movie, I try to avoid information about it and thoroughly enjoy the movie when I first see it. I was pretty successful with it this time around, so I was very pleasantly surprised by this wonderful story!
If you didn't see Stardust in theatres and enjoy a story with imagination, you definitely need to rent it! The story is very unique and creative and I really liked the entire movie. The cast is amazing and the scenic design, costumes, lighting, special effects, etc. are all very well done. I'm sorry I missed it on the big screen, but thankful that I have a big HD TV, so it wasn't exactly a hardship. If only I had a Blu-ray DVD player... That would have improved it some. If you like fantasy, I can't believe you haven't seen this yet. Unless you're getting a big screen TV soon (which I was, that's why it took me so long to see Stardust - I didn't want to see it on the small TV I had), rent the movie now. Besides, you can always put the movie back on Netflix when you get the big screen TV if that's a long time from now.
Grade: A-
Labels: 2007, adventure, Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, fantasy, Ian McKellen, Michelle Pfeiffer, movie, romance
Reviewed by Kat at the 8:30 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Ian McKellen (Eric Lensherr/Magneto), Famke Janssen (Dr. Jean Grey/Phoenix), Anna Paquin (Marie/Rogue), Halle Berry (Ororo Munroe/Storm)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's X-Men: The Last Stand page.
Another wonderful X-Men movie! Of course, if you've enjoyed the X-Men movies in the past, you've probably already seen this one. It's nice to see a set of movies that don't get worse as the series continues. With the exception of Halle Berry being in a bit too much of this movie for my taste, there's nothing I would change about this movie. I wasn't a fan of the comics, so I can't compare the stories to that at all, but I did like the cartoon and I was happy with what they did in this movie.
The idea of a "cure" for mutations (even as far fetched as it may be in order to have one that would change everyone to a human) really allowed the X-Men to have opinions and really care about an issue that deeply affects them.
I thought the ending was perfect, since it leaves the opening for Magneto to come back. He's such a wonderful character!
They didn't explore the Phoenix story as much as I might have liked, but it was great that they finally showed all that Phoenix can do. Jean was just sitting around in the first two movies not doing much. I hope that in the future they will do the same with Rogue. My husband didn't watch the cartoons and only knows X-Men through the movies and when we talked about her getting to do her stuff after the movie, he said, "But what does she really do anyway?" I keep hoping that they'll show how powerful she can be and let her get out there and show her stuff. She and Wolverine have always been my favorites and they've definitely given Logan his time on screen, I'll keep hoping for Rogue's!
Definitely catch this in the movie theater if you can, the special effects are always better on the big screen!
Grade: A-
Labels: 2006, action, adventure, comics, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, movie, sci-fi, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 1:10 PM show | 1 screams
Cast: Tom Hanks (Robert Langdon), Audrey Tautou (Sophie Neveu), Ian McKellen (Sir Leigh Teabing), Jean Reno (Captain Fache), Paul Bettany (Silas)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's The Da Vinci Code page.
With the exception of the strange choice of Tom Hanks for Langdon, The Da Vinci Code was very well cast! No one I know who read the book agreed with the choice of Tom Hanks, but you can't deny his overall box office appeal, in spite of some recent flops. James and I think that Michael Vartan would have been perfect - he plays an American on Alias so the fact that he's actually French shouldn't have mattered. Of course, he's not nearly on the level of Tom Hanks in terms of box office guarantees go, so I can understand the choice they made.
If you haven't read the book, I'd say see this in theaters definitely - especially if you don't plan to read it. If you always choose to either read the book or see the movie and you read, what have you been waiting for? Get the book and read it.
Although the movie was good, it definitely lacked something. It wasn't as intense or interesting as the book. Perhaps it's just because I knew the story, but I've been re-reading the book and found it just as captivating, so I don't think that's the answer.
Ron Howard did a great job of following the book. Some things were changed, but most of them were pretty minor changes that allowed for skipping some of the story due to time constraints and didn't change the story much. There was really only one major thing they changed that I thought was critical to the plot (and wouldn't have taken up much time), but on the whole they followed the book I love very well.
The cast was (for the most part) amazing and the direction and special effects were well done. I even jumped at some of the crucial suspenseful points of the movie, in spite of the fact that I knew what was going to happen.
Spoiler alert for the 5 people who haven't read the book...
Seeing the tomb made me understand why it took them a bit to figure out that the rosy orb had to be an apple when we were talking about Newton. When I was reading the book, I felt like yelling at them, "It's an apple, you idiots!" When you see it in the context of the movie, one can understand why it might take a bit longer to figure out, since the apple was not on the tomb and there was definite pressure to come up with the answer quickly, which can make it more difficult to think.
...end of spoiler
The Da Vinci Code movie is definitely worth seeing and will be much better and more exciting on the big screen, so see it before it leaves theaters. I'm sure this gives you months, since it's the second-highest grossing film for the opening weekend internationally. It didn't do as well as I thought it would in the US, but I'm sure that it'll be around for quite a while.
Grade: B
Labels: 2006, drama, Ian McKellen, movie, mystery, Paul Bettany, thriller, Tom Hanks
Reviewed by Kat at the 8:00 PM show | 1 screams
Cast: Patrick Stewart (Professor Charles Xavier), Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Ian McKellen (Eric Lensherr/Magneto)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's X2 page.
Other than being upset that they bowed to Halle Berry's demands even though Storm has never been a big character in X-Men, I'm very happy with how the X-Men movies are going.
I actually think that X2: X-Men United is a better movie than X-Men, which I didn't expect. Of course, Wolverine is my favorite X-Men character, so that didn't hurt.
I'm happy with how they made some of the characters a bit younger and changed a bit of the story line to make it more interesting and I look forward to future X-Men movies.
Grade: A-
Labels: 2003, action, adventure, comics, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, movie, sci-fi, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:15 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Professor Charles Xavier), Ian McKellen (Eric Lensherr/Magneto)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's X-Men page.
I'm not a fan of the comic books, so the issues many of my friends had with the discrepancies there didn't bother me. I was a fan of the cartoon, so I don't know as much of the back story on the characters. I actually liked that they made Rogue younger than she was originally and gave the story a it more young characters (rather than Jubilee being the only one). I thought it was great that Kitty/ShadowKat appeared briefly and that you can see where some of the other X-Men and villains will come from in the class of kids.
Overall, I was very happy with the movie and hope that they make a lot of sequels. I'll be there.
Grade: B+
Labels: 2000, action, adventure, comics, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, movie, sci-fi, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 7:30 PM show | 0 screams