Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

She Said:

So, I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull twice. The first time was at a midnight showing with a group and the second time was on a Friday night date night with HIM. The second time around I did not like LOVE or HATE it more than the first time, I just picked up on a few little things that I didn't notice the first time. For example, before we meet Mutt in his Brando-esque entrance, we here "IN-DY" coming from the train instead of "Choo-Choo."

Anyways, I liked this movie. I'm not going to say its a cinematic feat or that the plot was revolutionary. I do think that it fits well into the Indy series and people who say that it doesn't are not realists in my opinion. It has the same cheesy/funny dialog and somewhat unrealistic yet exciting scenarios. I mean just take the "three times it falls"..um yeah, you'd be dead bud.

But, the point is that is why we love Indiana Jones. He is basically a superhero but Marvel never bought them out. He goes by Henry and wears his glasses and his hair parted to the side during the day, then he gets his whip and fedora and he's ready to go as the Indy we all love.

On another note, I've been a Shia LaBeouf fan sine his days of Evens Stevens. I was very excited to see him in this role and I thought he did the character well. His character COULD evolve into a Indy-like character but first he'd definitely have to go back to school!

I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoyed ANY of the past Indy flicks or for people who enjoy a popcorn movie. If you don't know what a popcorn movie is....you probably shouldn't go see it!

busy, busy, busy

She Said:

We have recently moved and have been very busy so we haven't updated. HE is away but when he returns he will soon seen INDIANA JONES and I am going to see it tonight. We have been prepping by watching the last three chapters on the Sci-Fi channel as well as watching specials about crystal skulls and the arc of the covenant!

Stay tuned for a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!!

AMC BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE!!

On Saturday, February 23, 2008 we went to the AMC Best Picture Showcase. The all day event showed all 5 films nominated for Best Picture. We both saw THERE WILL BE BLOOD prior to the screenings, and blogged about it, and we will write up on all five of the films AND the 80th Annual Academy Awards held on Sunday, February 24, 2008.

We will upload the reviews as they are written..so be patient as collectively we have two full time jobs, one part time job, and a part-time student! :)

There WIll Be Blood

She Said:

Daniel Day-Lewis is intriguing. His movies are far and in-between but he always transforms himself and creates these beasts of characters. And he is super hot. His character, Daniel Plainview, is probably one of the most complex and hardcore characters of any film I’ve seen in a LONG time. Visually, the movie was extremely well made—diverse and uncommon type shots and beautiful deep focus. Also, the score of There Will Be Blood is almost like another character in the film. Without the score or Daniel Day Lewis….this movie wouldn’t be HALF of what it was. I will see this movie again, whether it be in the theater or on DVD. I’m not sure it will win Best Picture at this years Oscars as storyline and plot were a bit weaker than the above mentioned, but DDL has a great chance to win for Best Actor.

If you are in the mood for a light film that doesn’t require much thinking or feeling, this is not the movie to see. This movie can easily get you riled up—laughing, scared, and intriged. AND I also have to add that Paul Dano wins the freak of the week award with his performance---he was creepy as hell!

So go see this movie if you are in for a heavy period piece that is visually stimulating and performed well. Or you can go see it if you are a fan of Upton Sinclair, it is loosely based on his fictional book, “Oil!” ya know.

HE Said:

Daniel Day-Lewis is quite possibly the greatest actor of this generation. After seeing There Will Be Blood, I am not going to debate that. I have been a fan of his since he was Hawkeye in Last of the Mohicans. My favorite performance of his was as Billy "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York. His voice is commanding, his appearance steals the scene and he is so convincing as any character he plays, it just blows my mind. There Will Be Blood was a tremendous movie and one of the best I have seen in a long time. I don't even want to spoil the movie at all for you, so I am going to skip any kind of summary. Just see this movie and you will not be disappointed! I can't wait to see it again.

American Gladiators

He Said:

I was definitely excited when I first heard they were bringing this back. It takes me back to my childhood. I was a big fan of the show growing up, as I'm sure a lot of you were. Gladiators was a David V. Goliath esque show. Putting average Joe's and Jane's going toe to toe with characters like Laser, Sabre, Siren, Nitro and Ice to name a few was a genius idea. After watching the first 2 episodes of the new American gladiators, it is still a fun show to watch but it doesn't quite live up to the excitement of the original. I was quite surprised seeing the introduction of the new Gladiators on the show. When Crush was introduced I knew she looked familiar. It turns out her name is Gina Carrano. She is a professional MMA fighter. She fights on the SHO XC format on Showtime. Anyhow, I will still probably continue to watch just because there isn't much on the tube still.

She Said:

I vaguely remember watching the original American Gladiators back in the early 90's. I remember red, white, and blue spandex and the event when the throw the balls from the machine. I on the other hand was more interested in G.U.T.S. a show were normal KIDS got to face off in the same type of events. They were not kicking the sh** out of each other like on Gladiators and there weren't any scary roided out competitors.

So far for the NEW American Gladiators, I've enjoyed watching so far. It's fun to watch. But I feel like as a nation, we are past this. With all the Anabolic Steroid and HGH drama going on between the MLB and WWE, how are we back to glorifying these unnatural grossly looking "athletes" in spandex?? It's almost like a message is being sent to the viewers and the "average joe/jane" competitors that steroids are OK and you should aim to be THAT big and huge.

So far, out of the 12 contestants we have met thus far, two appear to me to be on the juice or have been recently. No, I'm not talking about the Gladiators! HE mentioned CRUSH She appears to be one of the ONLY Gladiators who is not UNNATURAL. She is 5'7 155 lbs is thick and built. She isn't just a brick wall that growls at the competitors like most the other gladiators!

But yes, I will keep watching as its fun and there is not a whole lot of new television on. As for in little more than a month---BIG BROTHER 9 is starting! Atleast ONE thing has come from the continued Writer's Strike!

National Treasure : Book of Secrets

She Said:

The first National Treasure was awesome-excitement, comedy, action and of course historical references. The second film, Book of Secrets has it all as well. Being a sequel, it isn't up to par with the original. However it does allow more time to focus on the characters and give them more comedy time (the character of Riley has a bigger part than just the techie). Also the addition of Helen Mirren AND Ed Harris makes it a fun watch. Nicolas Cage probably gave a half-ass performance, but he's been mailing in his performances for awhile now.

I would see this in the theater with a big tub of popcorn with a date OR family. Plus, HE will probably buy it DVD when it comes out to go along with the first one we have.

I certainly can watch this again!



HE Said:

I LOVED the first National Treasure. As SHE mentioned I own it on DVD. It's a classic according to my tastes. I love the adventure and conspiracy theories surrounding our nations past. I could watch the first over and over again. When I first heard about the sequel I was pumped. I knew it couldn't live up to the original but let's face it, rarely does a sequel live up to the original. That said, I enjoyed seeing Book of Secrets. i laughed a lot, enjoyed another adventure ride with all the clue gathering and deciphering and eventually uncovering the final mystery. Sweeet! I enjoyed the movie and would recommend seeing it. Can't wait to see it again on DVD.

I Am Legend

She Said:

Every Christmas, HE and I go to the movies. It's our tradition. Another tradition, unfortunately, is that the movies don't always live up to my expectations. The Last Samurai, King Kong, Night At the Museum are all movies we seen in the past. EH, nothing spectacular. HE was VERY excited to see I AM LEGEND so I went along with it even though I wanted to see about 3-4 other movies before seeing that one. I AM LEGEND is 100 minutes of a suspenseful yet sometimes boring and attempt at a message film. I understand that it was based on a book, but its not lacking story potential. I feel like there was a LOT of film left on the cutting room floor that may have helped the film a great deal. A lot was crammed into the last half hour and brought the film to a whole new place. It was definitely NOT legendary! I hate horror movies, I hate being scared. Disturbing images and acts stay with me for DAYS. This movie had some scary imagery, but I still left the movie feeling very BLAH. Trust me, that is saying a lot.




HE Said:

First, I should say I am a fan of action/horror or anything post-apocolyptic. Though I really don't get the opportunity to see much of it because as SHE said, she doesn't like being scared. SHE is right in her assessment that our Christmas movies do not live up to expectations. This one did fall a bit short of my expectations but I was not disappointed at all. I do feel that it should have been at least another 30 minutes longer in the end, as I was not completely satisfied with the conclusion. That said, I loved the concept and the imagery was kick ass in this movie. There were some inconsistencies throughout the movie that bothered me a bit. One thing that confused me was when Dr. Robert Neville stated that the "dark seekers" lacked any human characteristics anymore. This was inconsistent because there was a 'Leader' that had pet attack dogs, organized an assault on Neville's shelter and sought revenge on him. If you ask me, those are definitely characteristics of a human mind. Anyhow, the movie did keep me in suspense and there were some jump-out of your seat scary scenes. I did enjoy the movie and would say it is worth seeing in the theater.

On a side but related note, this movie has been made a couple times before. Most notably, in 1971 with Charlton Heston playing Dr. Neville. That movie is called The Omega Man, it is actually next on my Blockbuster Que. Based on what I have heard so far, I am really looking forward to this one.