Death Defying Acts

Death Defying Acts was a movie loosely based off the life of Harry Houdini. By loosely I of course mean if your high and squint at it you might see the connection. I didn't find the acting all that great and it annoyed me the changes and character they tried to make. Death Defying Acts is a bit of a miss name since he only does escapes maybe twice in the whole movie. It is mostly romantic dribble. It was heavy on the spiritualism angle finally leaving the audience at the end to believe is mediums. It completely failed to show that Houdini went out of his way to show the public the truth behind mediums and to expose them.
I did watch a bit of the 'behind the scene' videos where Guy Pierce (actor that played Houdini) talked about all the research he did into Houdini to get a feel for his character but in the end decided he liked what they decided to go with in the script so he threw out all his research. Seriously he actually said he liked the made up crap better than sticking to anything in history. Why didn't they just make a movie about an escape artist with a made off name instead of trying to pass him off as Houdini.
I don't recommend this movie, it was crap and mostly bad romance. If your looking for illusions or magic go with The Prestige or the Illusionist. They are atleast interesting, well written and starring a great cast. (sorry Catherine Zeta Jones, you stank in this one)

I Love You, Again

While flipping through my new Entertainment Weekly magazine this weekend I heard some extremely sad news. Warner Bros is remaking The Thin Man movies... Starring Johnny Depp. Now don't get me wrong folks, I do enjoy Johnny Depp in some roles, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, Public Enemies. But Why are they remaking a classic. Don't touch the classics, go remake something that the original was crap. 3:10 to Yuma for example, the original was short, boring and lacking in everything. The Remake was witty with a plot and Christian Bale. For those of you that might not know anything about the Thin man movies, I recommend clearing a day and renting them. The Thin man stars a detective Nick Charles played by William Powell and his rich socialite wife Nora played by Myrna Loy. These movies have everything murder mystery, witty banter, amazing chemistry and great supporting casts. I highly recommend this series of six stand alone movies to everyone. In honor of my favorite couple, I rented another one of their movies for this weekend. I Love You Again.
I Love You, Again is not something I would rank as high as the thin man but its a fun little comedy about name Larry that has an accident while returning home on a boat from a cruise. After a blow to the head he remembers his name as George. George's last memory was getting a blow to the head on a train 9 years previous, George is also a con man. George decides to go to the sleepy little town Larry has been living and rob people blind. It is rather amusing watching him try to bluff the whole town so they don't know he has no clue who he is. You can imagine his surprise to find Larry has a beautiful wife that is trying to divorce him.
I say this movie has a fun little story and worth watching. Of course with me anything involving William Powell or Myrna Loy is worth checking out.

MIA

I am very sorry for the extreme lack of posts. It is very sad to say that i've not been watching as many movies lately as I am accustom to. Never fear though, winter is fastly approaching and I tend to try to never leave the house. So my large collection of movies and Netflix will have to keep me company.

He's Just Not That Into You

I know this have been out for a while, but I watched it again last night and thought, eh i'm behind in my blogging i'll just drop a few lines about it.
I think overall for a chick flick, I like this movie. It does amuse me. I really like Justin Long in most movies and I loved Ben Afflecks character in this as well. I did find several of the characters to drive me absolutely nuts. Like the married couple. The wife Janie was freaking insane. She can just get over her husband cheating and make excuses for him, but the minutes she finds out he has been lying about smoking she's done. Seriously lady you might have to rethink your priorities. Her husband Ben has serious jerk issues and his girlfriend Anna was distracting by her bitchy ways and her wardrobe made her often look disproportionate.
My other problem was with painfully awkward scenes . The narrator and main girl of the story is Gigi. I like Gigi. I don't like several scenes that are just too painful to watch. For example when she is stalking some guy to the supper club, she talking to much to a stranger that ends up being the guy's friend. Or she decides some guy is in love with her even though everyone can see that he's just not that into her, its painful to watch. I have to admit I also had this same problem with Meet the Parents which i have only been able to get through once because there were too many awkward, no one is that stupid scenes.
All that said, it is a fun movie to watch, just don't expect to get alot out of it. But the phrase 'he's just not that into you' is always a good one so say it and use it often

Northanger Abbey

Ok so it has been brought to my attention that i've been too busy lately to do any of my normal movie watching in bulk. Therefore I have not been updating as often as i would like. So this will be a quick note for those Jane Austen fans out there.
Northanger Abbey (it is very late and i hope that i'm spelling this right but i'm too lazy to check) is probably the weakest Jane Austen book. I remember just not caring for the book at all, but part of this could stem from the fact that i just couldn't visualize large chucks of what was going on. I thought the main character flighty and not all that bright.
That said, I thought well this is a PBS mini series for the book, it probably won't be bad and maybe it will help me visualize the story better. It did not. I thought the acting was just terrible. i didn't really care for any character at all. not even 1! I got the movie from Netflicks and it stopped in 2 places where the disc wouldn't play a little section. My first thoughts were 'oh well it cant be important anyways'. Its pretty bad when i dont' care if I miss some of the dialogue.
Next time your in the mood for a movie addition of Jane Austen (recommended only after you have read the books, books are always better) I would recommend Emma, or Mansfield Park, they are not as well known but i found both of those movies enjoyable

Shining Through

Today was a fun day because I got a new movie from Amazon. Shining Through. It came out in 1992 and has Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith and Liam Neeson. I love this movie! It is set in World War II which is one of those time periods that has always interested me. Melanie Griffith is just a girl from queens that is pulled into the war like many girls by falling in love. The reason she is so endeared to me is that she like i am a movie-aholic. She relates everything to some movie that she has seen. Its great. Its not just a bit of a love story though, it also has spy's. Over all fun movie and i recommend it.

Inception.. again

I have now gone to see Inception for the second time. i found it just as enjoyable as the first time. I took my dad this time and he felt it was one of the best movies that came out this year. Of course Harry Potter won't be out till November, I feel it will be able to hold its own atleast with me.
I did have some reserves to going to see Inception. First off the Trailer. While it perked my interest i can honestly say that I had no idea whatsoever on what the movie was about. I did find a few things online about the movie. My interest was still peaked, but my next reserve was I had a strong fear of this being a new 'matrix'. I put that all on the back burner, decided not to dwell on the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio was the main character and decided to look forward to the movie.
The movie was really good. The plot had lots of twists and kept me interested and guessing. I liked all the actors. I find my two favorite characters were supporting roles, Josepf Gordon-Levitt who played Arthur and Tom Hardy who played Eames. They had great lines and interaction.
This isn't much of a spoiler because people have been talking about this like crazy since Inception came out but I like that the ending leaves you guessing. Which leads me into my huge ***Spoiler alert*** Read further at your own risk
I think that Cobb is still in a dream at the end. First off there was no more 'kicks' to wake him or Saito up. Also the Children. Cobb had been gone for while and kids grow like freaking weeds there is no way that those children are wearing the exact same clothes that he last saw them in.
I have a few other complaints with some of the plot but nothing that can't be over looked.

I repeat, See this movie