Saturday, January 22, 2011

My 2010 Movie Odyssey - Part XIX

The Family Man (2000)
It’s supposed to be It’s a Wonderful Life for the new millennium, but I found some of the characters difficult to swallow and I thought it downright cruel to send Nicholas Cage to an alternate reality for so long only to yank him back once he got comfortable.

High School Musical (2006)
There are some catchy tunes and a couple bits of inventive choreography that make for a pretty good made-for-TV musical.

Cutthroat Island (1995)
Geena Davis is woefully miscast in this mess. She is far too quiet and mousy to be believable as a bloodthirsty pirate queen. None of the characters are interesting or likeable in any way, and all attempts at humor fall flat. And then there are the action sequences which have so little regard for the laws of physics that they lose any semblance of credibility.

Gojira (1954)
This movie is much better sans dubbing and Raymond Burr. Godzilla is downright scary, partly due the to the fact that we don’t actually see him until half way through the film. His immense size and incredible strength make him a virtually indestructible killing machine, and that is before he unleashes his radioactive breath. The scenes showing the aftermath of his destruction are shocking and grim, on par with the best war movies. There is a love story that is little more than filler and the means of Godzilla’s demise are classic B-movie silly science, but when it comes to pure terrifying destruction, Godzilla can’t be beat.

Julie & Julia (2009)
This is a light, mostly entertaining piece starring the always radiant Amy Adams as a woman who has taken it upon herself to cook everything in Julia Child's cookbook. This story is intercut with the story of Meryl Streep as Julia Child, on her journey to becoming Julia Child. It took me a while to get used to Julia Child's unorthodox voice, but overall it was a pleasant movie. Warning: Do not watch this film on an empty stomach. I was very hungry by the time it ended.

Coming up next: three of the most critically acclaimed movies of last year.

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