This film makes me so proud to be a part of the Warner Bros. family.

BEAUTIFUL – adjective.  1. Having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind.  2. excellent of its kind.  3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.

Where the Wild Things Are is a beautiful film.

I laughed, I cried, I got scared, and I left the film uplifted.

There was so much love poured into this film – just watch Max (played by Max Records) and you’ll see how safe and cherished he felt while making this film.

If you’ve read the book, you know already know what the movie is about: a little boy who acts out against his mom (“I’ll eat you up!”) and is sent to bed without supper.  A fantastical adventure follows, and Max learns some valuable lessons along the way.  He returns home to find that his mom has set out a warm dinner for him in his bedroom.

The movie builds on the story, adding a big sister and an absent father and fleshing out Max’s relationship with his mom.  The cinematography, camera direction, editing, and music were all perfection.

There is one memorable scene when Max is lying on the floor at his mom’s feet while she does some work on the computer.  She takes a break from her work to encourage her son to tell her a story.  Their sweet exchange, him telling her a story, her typing it out, and their non-verbal communication, was so true to how a child sees the world.  It’s been a while since I was a kid (hey, this old lady turns 27 in December), but working with junior high school students for the past 5 years has tuned me in a bit to what it means to be a child.

Where the Wild Things Are is what it means to be a child.  Everything is fantastical and larger than life (the monsters are huge!), but with a little bit of courage, these big huge problems (or monsters) can become adventures.  “Let the wild rumpus start!”

I also loved that some of my favorite lines from the book are in the film.  Lines like “I’ll eat you up!” and “Let the wild rumpus start!” were favorites of mine, and it was so fun to hear young Max shout these lines to his mother and the monsters, respectively.

I highly recommend this film to any adult, wether you’re a fan of the book or not.  I wouldn’t take anyone under 10 years old, mainly because the film is quite intense at times (okay, I’ll admit it, I was scared) and the pacing of the film might not hold the interest of a younger child.  But anyone junior high age or older will enjoy this film.

Now, “let the wild rumpus start!”

*For additional reviews, click here to read the one at Entertainment Weekly.

Amazing.

I knew the acting would be great (Um, hello?  Depp and Bale?  Add in a little DiCaprio, whom I saw in a GREAT teaser for his next movie, Shutter Island, and the night’s perfect!), knew the story would be great (a bank robber, 1930s Depression-era Chicago, the newly formed FBI), so I went into the movie expecting a good movie.

Michael Mann (Collateral, The Insider, The Last of the Mohicans) more than delivered.  I agree completely with Roger Ebert’s review of the film (read it here).  Mann is a compelling visual director and I know I’ll be haunted for a while by his visual commentary.

And the sound!  The sound editing and mixing was perfect.  Compared to “assault and permanently damage all senses and sensibilites” Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Enemies was subtle, surprising, quiet, and authentic.  Guns sounded like guns with a quick “pop pop pop” for the machine gun, an earth-shattering “boom” for the shotgun – never once was the Hollywood gun heard.

Only once during the film did I think, “Of course he’ll get him – he’s Batman!”

Johnny Depp as Johnny Dillinger in "Public Enemies"

Yes, the movie lives up to the hype.  It was exactly as good as I thought it was going to be.  Maybe even a little better than I thought it’d be.  It was even surprisingly funny.

But perhaps the best thing I can say about The Dark Knight is that never once during the two-hour, thirty-two minute film did I ever seen an actor on screen.

I never saw Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, or Maggie Gyllenhaal on screen.  I didn’t see Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, or Morgan Freeman.  I didn’t see a single actor in the movie.

I did see Bruce Wayne and Batman, Joker, Harvey Dent, and Rachel Dawes.  I saw Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, and Lucius Fox.

The Dark Knight is a brilliant example of actors truly disappearing into their roles.

I’ve just gotten home from a preview screening of Warner Bros. I Am Legend, and I’m not sure how I feel about it all.

The movie is a remake/adaptation of the film/book The Omega Man/I Am Legend. Confusing, I know, but depending on how you count, this latest film is either the third or the fourth incarnation of Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel “I Am Legend.” Maybe some of you have read the novel, or maybe you’ve seen Charlton Heston in The Omega Man, but my only knowledge of the story/plot was what I’d gleaned from previews for this film.

Starring mainly just Will Smith (playing Dr. Robert Neville), it at first kind of reminded me of Tom Hank‘s Cast Away, only set on a different kind of island – New York City. And instead of Wilson, Smith had his trusty dog Sam. Smith also had the luxuries of life in the city – fast cars, automatic weapons, gas, tv, movies… everything except people.

The movie did a great job of bringing me into Neville’s world – the desolate and abandoned city, creepy noises in the dark (and even some during the day), the cold calculations of a man needing to survive… I got it.

And the film preyed on my connection to Neville and his dog Sam. It took those emotions, heated them to a boiling point, then abruptly turned off the heat. Nay, took me off the stove altogether and dumped me in a bucket of ice water.

The movie ended too soon.

It’s only 100 minutes long, and I wanted more. Some movies, like Disturbia, are quite enough at an hour and forty, forty-five minutes. (Indeed, if Disturbia had gone on any longer, I’d have chewed off all my fingernails!) But this one… I feel a little cheated.

It’s a good movie, certainly intense, beautiful cinematography, and Smith more than delivers a stellar performance (as usual, complete with gratuitous and appreciated shots of his chiseled body…), but I’m not sure if I’d recommend the film.

I don’t know… that’s just my first impression. Maybe things will seem different in the morning. Ask me again in a few days if I think you should go see it.

But for now, if you do decide to go see it, here are my conditions:

You must see it at an IMAX theatre – they will be showing the first six minutes of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, before each showing of I Am Legend.

You must see it during the day. Dangerous things come out at night…

I’m not quite sure how to begin this review. I want to write a review that is so compelling, so intriguing, and so exciting that the minute you finish reading it, you go out and rent this movie. But really the best I can do is to gush about Disturbia, tell you why I liked it so much, and hope you trust my opinion enough to take a chance and watch it.

Disturbia.

Disclaimer: If you don’t like being scared, or having your head messed with, or seeing Shia LaBeouf ply his trade and work his onscreen magic, then perhaps this film isn’t for you.

But if you do like being scared just a little bit (nothing at all like B-movie slasher films, I promise), then this movie is totally for you.

It starts off with LaBeouf’s character having been put under house arrest for punching his Spanish teacher (oh honestly, who hasn’t wanted to cold cock a teacher before?). Then of course, the cute blonde moves in next door and another neighbor starts to act suspicious.

Disturbia quickly leaves the typical teenager horror film genre behind and moves easily into the entertaining, plot-twisting, edge-of-your-seat genre of good ol’ fashioned scary movies.

It’s short, about an hour and forty minutes long, but every minute is packed with substance and the last fifteen minutes or so are especially full. I’ll even admit to you, my gentle readers, that I clutched my pillow more fiercely than I have in a while when watching that movie (especially those last minutes). I’m not ashamed to admit that this movie scared me good and proper, but I loved every minute of it.

So what if it took three episodes of Friends before I was calm enough to go to turn off the light and go to sleep?

It was worth it.

Besides, from what I’ve seen of LaBeouf, both in his onscreen work (Holes, anyone?) and interviews and real-life appearances, he is one cool kid with a level head on his shoulders. He’s gonna go far in this industry, and he’d make one hell of a best friend.

And he’s cute. Did I mention that?

Watch Disturbia. Be scared, be entertained, and come back for more.

I mentioned how I disliked John Travolta in the movie, but failed to mention why.  So here it is.

First of all, his costume.  It’s ill-fitting and bulky, which limits his physical movements to such an extent that it made him look like an oversized Cabbage Patch doll.  And more than once, I noticed folds in his “fat” that real skin would not make.  It was gross and just looked so obviously fake.  I feel like they tried too hard to make him look too fat.  If they’d gone for a more moderate weight gain, maybe his costume would’ve fit better.  The make-up was okay, though he still makes for an ugly woman.

Second, his singing.  John Travolta is not the best singer.  He’s not awful, but not the best.  He was fine in Grease, mostly because he was a guy playing a guy and he sang like a guy.  But in Hairspray, he’s playing a woman (I guess it’s a sort of tongue-in-cheek thing that the musical has always had, having a man in drag play the mother) and thus he sings in a “woman’s” range.  I use quotes around the word “woman” because he’s singing in a weird falsetto and at no point does he actually sound like a woman.

The third thing that bugged me throughout the whole film was Travolta’s acting.  It was so over-the-top and corny that I never once bought that he was a woman.  And isn’t that the point of acting, to make your audience forget who you as an actor are and to believe in the character?  That’s what acting should be, and which is why Travolta in this role did NOT work for me.

But really, despite all this, the movie is still wonderful and definitely merits a few viewings.

Any other questions or clarifications needed about my review and its amendment, let me know!

But then I saw a preview. Still didn’t quite know what the plot of the movie would be, but the preview made it look entertaining, the dancing looked fun and the singing sounded good.

So I bought the soundtrack.

The soundtrack alone convinced me to see Hairspray. The singing is amazing (except for Travolta, who is only memorable in this role because of how ill-fitting and mostly average he is as Edna) and I wanted to see how the dance numbers would be choreographed.

The story pretty much straightened itself out after listening to the soundtrack, and from what I understood, I liked the story.

Hairspray is being hailed as the Grease of today’s generation. I like the movie Grease, the songs are fun, but the message of the film (“Change yourself so the girl/guy you like will date you”) isn’t exactly what I’d want my children to engrave on their hearts.

Hairspray, on the other hand, takes a fast-paced world of music, dancing, and teenage love beyond the superficials of the way a person looks (perfect hair, skin color, weight) and into the substance of the heart.

Tracy Turnblad is a typical teenager whose greatest dreams are to be a dancer on the Corny Collins show (think of your typical 1960′s afternoon variety show). She’s overweight and quickly gets laughed off the all-white audition floor. A few more doors close in her face, and Tracy soon finds herself in detention with a dozen black students. These students accept her at face value and pretty soon she’s joining them at their weekend dance parties.

And eventually Tracy does get to live her dream and becomes a dancer on the Corny Collins show (this isn’t a spoiler, as it happens pretty early on in the movie and everyone expects it). But she quickly realizes that life is more than just being on the Corny Collins show. Life, for Tracy, is about friendship, love, and standing up for what’s right.

The story then dives to a deep depth and becomes about racial equality and the character of a person’s heart. The tiny microcosm of the dancing world in 1962 Baltimore is an illustration of the much larger picture of racial and social integration during that time period. And even going beyond the 1960s, racial and social integration is still a big issue today.

So when Tracy chooses not to dance but to march for integration instead, that moment sets this film several marks above Grease and its contemporaries at the box office.

Tracy and this film (Travolta’s Edna Turnblad notwithstanding) bring to the screen the kind of message that I want my children (whenever I have them) to etch on their hearts.

As Tracy says it, “I think I’ve kind of been in a bubble, thinking fairness was just going to happen. It’s not. People like me are gonna have to get up and go out and fight for it.”

And if the solid-gold message at the heart of this film weren’t enough, the singing and dancing and smiles all around will leave you with a soaring spirit and a song in your heart.

Have I said it clearly enough? Go see Hairspray, and see it with friends. Bonnie (my lovely roommate) and I went and saw it with some co-workers of mine and it made the experience that much more fun when we all were singing along with Tracy and her friends.

I was going to go last night to the 12:01 a.m. showing, but ended up going today at the 3:00 p.m. showing. (Yes, I was supposed to be at work at that time, but they sent a bunch of us home early because they were overstaffed and under-booked – that’s a whole story that I’m still too frustrated to go into right now.)

First of all, my friend and I were able to walk right up to the ticket counter and get tickets less than an hour before the movie started with no problem. There was a line outside the theatre for the 3pm showing, but there were only about two dozen people in in it. And when they let us inside (a good 40 minutes before the previews started), there were still only about 30 of us. I played Goldilocks and changed my seat three times before I was happy.

By the time the lights dimmed, the theatre was probably a good two-thirds full, but definitely not sold out.

Why, people! Why wasn’t it sold out? I know some of you probably have jobs that don’t send you home in the middle of the day, but what about all the kids and students on summer vacation?? I guess they all had tickets to later shows, because when I left the theatre at 5:30 p.m., they were all outside, already in lines for the 8:00 p.m. showing. (I just realized that all those people are only just now halfway through the movie!)

I know, I know, this doesn’t sound much like a review, more of a recap of my afternoon, but I just wanted to set the scene.

So, the review.

I have read all 6 of the Harry Potter books, and seen all of the movies. The books were ok, most of the time entertaining, and not insulting to read. But the movies… Ah, I love the movies. They’re fun, action-packed, and they make me want to be a part of that magical world. I’ll be honest here: I like the movies a lot better than I like the books. For me, the books are supplemental material that enhance the viewing of the movies, mostly by adding backstory and depth to characters.

J. K. Rowling did a good job creating and establishing this magic world, but I think she didn’t do herself or the story justice in her execution in writing the novels. I think the different directors did the real job of creating the Harry Potter universe that we love. They took Rowling’s Potter universe and interpreted it in their own distinct styles, yet still maintained and improved upon the integrity of the story.

The fifth movie is no exception. However, I don’t think it’s as strong of a film as The Prisoner of Azkaban or The Goblet of Fire. (The first two movies, The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, are in a different class because the story and its child leads were young and still developing – very good, however, for what they promised to be and for what they ultimately were.)

The Order of the Phoenix is less action and more drama.  The main leads have definitely developed into talented young actors (evidence of Daniel Radcliffe’s recent stint on stage is prominent), and being surrounded by immortal fellow thespians like Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, and Alan Rickman (my personal favorite – he almost steals every scene he’s in) can only help.

There were several parts of the movie that had me holding my breath not because I was worried a character was going to be hurt by an exotic beast, bludger, or Malfoy, but because the inner turmoil and angst was so physically affecting them.  Really, the acting jumped up a few notches in Order of the Phoenix.

I guess I was a little disappointed because there was less action and fun than in the previous films (Fred and George hardly misbehaved at all), but I should have expected it because the books themselves have drifted from “well-mannered frivolity” to the darkness of teen hormones, bad dreams, and pure evil.  And if the movie had deviated from the path set by the books… Well, then it would have failed in its mission as an adaptation of the book.

ANYWAY… I liked the movie and I’ll go see it again with anyone who wants to see it.  We just have to see it at an AMC theatre, because that’s where I have a free movie ticket pass thingy.  I’d also like to see it on a DLP screen, because the special effects are really cool (the thestrals don’t look anything like I thought they would) and I bet they’re just crystal clear in digital projection.

My apologies for the long review.  Snaps for you if you actually read the whole thing.

P.S. In case you haven’t noticed, Willow (played by Warwick Davis) has been in all the HP movies.  He’s Professor Flitwick!

I saw Transformers tonight. Wasn’t expecting anything spectacular or breathtaking, but I was expecting to be at least entertained.

I guess I should have read the reviews a little closer.

But I’m torn.

Because the first half of the movie was really cool. LaBeouf was really funny (not to mention really cute), the car was awesome (soooo wanted to trade in my trusty Honda for a Camaro like Sam’s), and the plot had potential.

It was exciting, tense, witty, engaging, and I cared about the characters.  Well, most of them.

But about halfway through the movie, I just stopped caring.  I was getting bored.  I started talking to my friend during the movie (I think he was just as bored as I was), shifting in my seat, even resorted to thinking about what I’m going to do today (it’s about 12:30 a.m.).

The plot had gone way south, with too many characters bouncing around to make any sort of credible storyline, and the dialogue was just so lame!

The dialogue alternated between cheap, common phrases like “Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!!!” to fake, final-speech-before-final-battle wisdom like “At the end of the day, one will stand, one will fall.”  I just kept thinking to myself, “That’s it??  That’s the best they could come up with??”  I think if they’d invested just a little bit more in good dialogue and plot development, this would have been a much better movie.

So what saved (marginally) the movie for me?  The special effects.  Yep, after the “story” left the movie, I kept watching just to see the cars change into Autobots and back again.  And on a DPL screen, it was pretty cool.

So do I recommend this movie?  Sure, if action toys and cool cars are your thing.  But don’t expect to be blown away by the story.

Actually, now that I think about it, the Autobots remind me of the Ents in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Calm, tolerant of lesser species, and way cool about saving the day, both the Ents and the Autobots are widescreen wonders to behold.

Not a whole lot to say about this movie except that it wasn’t as strong as the 2001 version of Ocean’s 11, not as weak as Ocean’s 12, but it looked like everyone (audience included) was having fun.

It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from this gang again.