Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assisstant

What a great movie. Totally enjoyable. I was a bit nervous going in... especially after reading some of the reviews. I was worried that it might end up feeling too "young" for my tastes. That wasn't the case at all. The story line wasn't childish at all and held my interest throughout. You come to care for the characters in the movie and root for the good buys. The little bit of teen romance between Darren and the "monkey girl" is sweet and adds warmth to the movie. Definitely should be getting higher ratings that what most of the critics out there are giving it.

Where The Wild Things Are

A fantastic movie portraying what it's like to be a nine year old boy. I was thoroughly delighted with this movie. I remember reading the book as a boy and Spike Jonze has been able, in my opinion, to capture the essence of the story, while fleshing it out more to be a feature length film. Max is a typical nine year old boy, dealing with a wild imagination, as well as all the insecurities and fears that go with growing up. To make things harder for him though he has also to death with a missing father, a sister who is older with a life that doesn't include her baby brother and a mother who is at the end of her rope, sometime dealing with him as well. Max is feeling a bit neglected but doesn't know how to deal with these emotions. The movie starts as one night he gets in trouble and "running away" he travels to the imaginary land of the Wild Things. There he meets Carrol, Judith, Douglas, KW, Alexander, Ira and The Bull. These "monsters" teach Max about what its like to be a family. How to deal with life's curves and to realize that although we all have our differences that a family loves each other despite this. Looking deeper into the movie you see that each of the Wild Things represents a different aspect of Max. Carrol - his temper, KW - his love, Judith - his insecurities, etc etc. Max in dealing with these characters in the movie allows him to deal with his issues himself. I KNOW pretty deep. You don't need to think about this though when watching this movie... just enjoy it for what it is. A nostalgic look back into your childhood.

Law Abiding Citizen

This movie kind of snuck up on me. I didn't even hear about it till a couple of weeks ago as there wasn't much publicity surrounding it. For that reason, I wasn't expecting much when I went in. It's normally not a good sign when the studio's don't push a movie. In this case I was pleasantly surprised. The movie turned out to be AMAZINGLY well written and executed. Both Gerard Butler and Jamie Fox played their parts to a T. Gerard Butler playing the barely constrained father looking for Justice. Jamie Fox playing, at first. the arrogant up and coming Public Attorney looking for glory and then later a more humble D.A. The weakest part of the movie I think was the ending. Not to to give anything away, but I thought they could have ended it in a more satisfying way. It will be interesting to see how it does at the box office. For a movie with little fan fare the theater was packed. Sold out.

The Invention Of Lying

This movie starts out with an interesting premise. What would the world be like if nobody could lie. In fact the word "lie" doesn't even exist and everyone tells the absolute truth all the time. People would say such things as "Yes that does make your ass look big" and "Your baby is hideous". The movies would consist of only documentaries as make-believe can't happen with lying. There would be no secrets at all, whatsoever. Take that scenario and then throw in Ricky Gervais and when he discovers Lying for the first time and you have a great comedy in the making. As you can imagine a man who can lie in a world where everyone tells the truth and believes whatever you tell them has great potential.. I liked how Gervais played the character..he takes advantage of his capability.. BUT.. he does draw the line.. on certain things he wont do. One thing that bothered me was that the movie proposed that faith in God was in essence a lie made in order to make people feel better about death. As a Christian of course I don't buy this.. the evidence of God is too great to ignore. If you ignore this one thing though.. the movie was fun and entertaining. There was ALOT of cameos by big name stars as well that suprised me. This speaks to Ricky Gervais popularity lately. People like Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Edward Norton, and Jason Bateman.