May long weekend.... time for a movie review post

Hello my blogging friends. In the last week I have seen a few movies and I thought you might be interested to know what I thought of them. Maybe you are and maybe you aren't but either way I'm going to write about them :)

Last Chance Harvey - the trailer looked promising... a cute love story between Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. But the delivery was slow and, in places, almost irritating. Dustin Hoffman loses his job halfway through the movie (it's in the trailer so I'm not giving anything away) but they never really explained why. Just that he was "out of chances". I finished the movie feeling dissatisfied and somewhat bored. Sorry, this was just a 2 star movie for me.

Star Trek - I think I enjoyed this movie more than most. Based on the fact that sometimes I was the only one in the theater laughing, I got some of the inside jokes that others either missed or didn't find funny. I also love that they legitimately took the Star Trek story in a whole new direction. They can re-explore the relationships between crew members, re-introduce old villains as new again, and enjoy the story-telling devices of new technology while still giving a nod to the original franchise. This movie gets a solid 5 stars from me :)

Slumdog Millionaire - Maybe the fact that I saw this movie after the hype and awards put my expectations too high. It was a good movie but I didn't think it was outstanding. It left a couple of unanswered questions and, frankly, with the news stories about the "slumdog kids" having their homes demolished and so forth, it put a bit of a damper on the whole show. I'll give it 4 stars.

Hound Dog - the controversial movie where Dakota Fanning's character gets raped. It was an okay movie. Dakota Fanning was awesome but she always is. For movie going satisfaction I'd recommend The Secret Life of Bees instead. It's a surprisingly similar story but more entertaining and easier to watch. Hound Dog gets 3 stars from me.

Frost/Nixon - I'm surprised this movie was a nominee for best picture at the Oscars. Yes, the acting was excellent but the story didn't really grab me. Maybe because I'm not a fan of Richard Nixon I was tainted before seeing it. I was mildly entertained but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend. 2 1/2 stars.

Marley & Me - one of the few movies I've seen that does justice to the book. Don't get me wrong, the book is better (it always is) but I didn't feel like anything critical or exceptional had been left out in the movie. I'm not a big fan of Owen Wilson but he did a decent job of being the sympathetic main character. If you haven't seen it, I recommend having a full box of tissues nearby when you watch it. It's a tear jerker but it's worth it. 4 1/2 stars.

Tin Cup - to be fair, this is an older movie although I'd never seen it. To further be charitable, I was tired when I started watching it so falling asleep during the movie may not have been totally the movie's fault. But in all honesty, I can't imagine anything worse than watching an actress (Rene Russo), who seems to only be able to play the same one-dimensional character over and over, unconvincingly act smart and strong while simultaneously watching Kevin Costner attempt to play the wounded hero by either being an idiot or standing around and saying nothing. All this is set on the background of a rundown driving range while Cheech Marin drinks beer, smokes cigars, and tries to be the movie's comic relief. I tried to like it but really none of it was working for me. 1 1/2 stars.