Puss In Boots

Puss in Boots

                Puss in Boots is DreamWorks latest animated film and it expands on the character first introduced in Shrek 2.  The story starts out with Puss, voiced by Antonio Banderas, escaping from captivity and looking to steal some magic beans from Jack and Jill.  That’s when he meets Kitty Soft paws and her associate Humpty Dumpty who as it turns out has a long history with Puss from their days spent in an orphanage dreaming of some day getting the goose that lays golden eggs from the giant’s castle.  The movie follows the three as they search out the golden goose as well as all the twists and turns along the way.

                The movie told a good story and was enjoyable for kids and adults.  Just like the Shrek movies there was humor for both kids and adults.  It does a nice job of filling in Puss’s back story, but while I assume that this all happened before the Shrek movies there is really no way of knowing since there was no real attempt to tie the two stories together.  I would guess that there will probably be at least one sequel and they will tie the stories together in that.   The voice acting was done well with some big names bringing the characters to life.  Aside from Antonio Banderas, some of the other voice talent includes, Zach Galifianakis as Humpty Dumpty, Salma Hayek as Kitty, and Billy Bob Thorton, and Amy Sedaris as Jack and Jill.

                I thought the movie was alright I did not think it was as good as the Shrek Movies but it did have its moments and it worked well as a standalone film.  The movie also did receive an Oscar nomination for best animated feature it lost out to Rango which I agree was the better movie.  I recommend this movie to anyone who liked the Shrek movies or families looking for a good film that the whole family can enjoy.

I give Puss in Boots 3 out of 5 paw prints.  It was good just not great.

My next review will be the 2011 chick flick Friends with Benefits.

And now as always “You don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here!”

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

                The Hunger Games is the movie based on the hit book of the same name by Suzanne Collins.  The story is set in the future when all that is left of the North America is twelve districts and a Capitol which is all now called Panem.  74 years before our story begins there were 13 districts and they revolted against the capitol and lost.  District 13 was wiped off the map and as reminder every year 1 boy and girl between the ages 12 and 18 are taking from each district every year to compete in a brutal fight to the death called the hunger games.  The movie begins on reaping day and follows our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, played by the very talented Jennifer Lawrence, from the moment she volunteers for the games to save her sister up through all of time spent preparing and fighting in the games. 

                The movie was amazing and I am very happy to say that it lived up to all of my expectations.  I was very happy with the fact that it followed the book very closely and while it did leave out a few things and some other parts were sped up for time’s sake it remained close to the book and all of the changes were things I can live with.  It was definitely better than some other book adaptations that I have seen lately were they changed huge parts or left things out entirely.  Since I had read the books I know the story pretty well.  But I do not feel like you had to read the books to understand what was going on in the movie,  although I would highly recommend the entire trilogy if you are looking for something good to read.   The acting was solid throughout the entire movie and I felt like every single character was cast well and that they really held true to what I pictured the characters looking like from the book.  Aside from Jennifer Lawrence the other actors/actresses of note in the movie were Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, Liam Hemsworth as Gale, Elizabeth Banks as Effie, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickman, and Donald Sutherland as President Snow.     

                I absolutely loved this movie and would highly recommend it to anyone male or female above the age of 13.  I do feel that the subject matter was too mature for young children but the violence was handled very tastefully and the story is just amazing.

I give the hunger games a perfect 5 out of 5 paw prints.

My next review will be Dreamworks most recent animated family film Puss in Boots.

And now as always, “You don’t have to go home, but you have the get the hell out of here!”

Real Steel

Real Steel

                My review for today is over the 2011 fighting robot movie Real Steel.  The story is set in the near future where robots have replaced humans inside of the boxing ring.  The main character of the movie is former boxer turned small time promoter Charlie Kenton, played by Hugh Jackman.  The story goes that Kent gets stuck with his unwanted son when the boy’s mother dies.  The two do not get along at first but quickly bond over Atom the fighting robot that they find in junkyard while scrounging for parts.  Atom learns how to box from Charlie and quickly works his way from back alley fights into the pro circuit even earning a title shot. 

                I liked this movie alright the robot fighting was cool, but I thought at times the father son bonding was a little over the top, and the dance scene I felt was just slightly unnecessary.  (Yeah you read that right I wrote the dance scene)I won’t go into details about the scene but you will probably have the same reaction that I had.  I understand that they have to have the side story to draw a bigger audience but I thought it was all pretty cliché and they poured the sappiness on a little bit thick.  The special effects were good and the robots and the fighting didn’t look fake like it could have.  .  The acting was fine but in a movie like this the acting does not have to be Oscar caliber, the actors played their roles well enough but it was nothing special.

                Overall I enjoyed the story as a whole but I was mostly in it for the giant robots fighting so that was the parts that I liked the most.  The movie does appeal to a fairly wide audience my wife even liked it mostly for the story and not the robots, but any movie that we both like cannot be too bad.

I give real steel 3 out of 5 paw prints.

The next movie I will be reviewing is the current box office champ The Hunger Games.

And as always “you don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here!”

Moneyball

Moneyball

This movie is based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis, and it tells the story of Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane.  Beane, who is played by Brad Pitt, is trying to recover from the loss of three of his stars to big market teams with big market checkbooks.   The movie follows Beane as he tries to compete with the big markets by trying an unconventional statistical analysis of players to fill in his roster holes.  The idea is first brought up to Beane by Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill.  Beane takes what Brand has to say to heart and the two of them begin to work together to make the Athletics’ winners again.  Not too many people are fans of the idea especially the fans and scouts but Beane sticks the plan and the A’s turn it around with a record setting streak and another trip to the playoffs.

I really enjoyed this movie as I do with most movies about sports.  I thought it told a very interesting story and one I can definitely relate to being a fan of a small market baseball team, the Minnesota Twins.  While the A’s haven’t won the final game of the year they showed that you do not have to spend millions of dollars to compete.  I thought the acting was really good in the movie with most of the credit going to Brad Pitt.  He did a great job playing Beane as a very confident manager but also showed him as vulnerable with his daughter and when he recollects about his past as a first round draft choice that never lived up to the hype.  Jonah Hill also did a nice job playing the often nervous Peter Brand.  While most of the time he seemed nervous you could tell that he was learning from Beane and that he truly believed in what they were trying to accomplish.  Acting shout out goes to Chris Pratt who played catcher turned first baseman Scott Hatteberg.  He did not have a big role but it was nice to see him play a different role other than Andy from Parks and Rec.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie and I can see why it was up for best picture.  I haven’t seen any of the other candidates so I can’t say whether it should have won or not, but I thought it was one of the better movies I have seen in a while. 

I give Moneyball 4 out of 5 paw prints. 

 

The next movie review I will be doing is the 2011 robot fighting film Real Steel.

And as always “you don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here.”