movie review

Odd Thomas (2013)

ODD-THOMAS_STILL_201.jpg

Director:

Stephen Sommers

Starring:

Anton Yelchin

Addison Timlin

Willem Dafoe

Plot:

In a California desert town, a short-order cook with clairvoyant abilities encounters a mysterious man with a link to dark, threatening forces.

Review:

I’m ashamed to say that they got me with that ending. I was so sure that the person that did end up dying in the end was going to die and then it looked like they didn’t but they had. I forgot his powers. It just meant that the ending got me more emotionally than it should have.

Good movie. Good story. Would love a sequel or maybe a TV show like one review I read mentioned. Have added the book to my never ending To Read list.

4/5

Admission (2013)

admission

Director:

Paul Weitz

Starring:

Tina Fey

Paul Rudd

Plot:

A Princeton admissions officer who is up for a major promotion takes a professional risk after she meets a college-bound alternative school kid who just might be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption.

Review:

This was supposed to be a comedy, or at least that’s what I thought. It had Paul Rudd and Tina Fey they’re comedians surely they’d be funny in a movie together. Nope. The funniest person was Lily Tomlin and she was barely in the movie. I didn’t hate the movie which is the only reason it’s not getting one star. It was not a movie I would recommend and it was completely unremarkable.

2/5

Best Man Holiday (2013)

The Best Man Holiday

Director:

Malcolm D. Lee

Starring:

Monica Calhoun

Morris Chestnut

Melissa De Sousa

Taye Diggs

Terrance Howard

Plot:

When college friends reunite after 15 years over the Christmas holidays, they discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be reignited.

Review:

The previews for this movie made me thing comedy. There were some funny elements, mainly from Terrance Howard, but this movie was mainly about rebuilding relationships. I cried a lot.

I saw the ending coming, there were just too many signs. My husband laughed at the football scene just because they used every cliché possible.

Overall it wasn’t a bad movie but it wasn’t anything remarkable either.

2.75/5

Ender’s Game (2013)

enders game

Director:

Gavin Hood

Starring:

Harrison Ford

Asa Butterfield

Hailee Steinfeld

Plot:

Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion.

Review:

So I read Ender’s Game before I knew anything about Orson Scott Card’s politics. The book was amazing and I told anyone who would listen to read it. Now I look for it in used bookstores because I would love to own it but I don’t want to give money to Card. Oh well.

I was wary of the movie because as every reader knows Hollywood almost always crushes our preciouses with their CG and incomprehension of what really makes the book amazing.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t read the book in a couple years but I thought the movie was pretty good. It wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t the horrible piece of crap I thought it was going to be. I guess all I really need to do is go into a movie with super low expectations and I will more often be pleasantly surprised.

I did think they should have cast someone even smaller in the roll of Bean. And I don’t remember there being a romantic relationship between Ender and Petra. Maybe I was reading too much into it.

3/5

Frozen (2013)

Frozen-characters

Directors:

Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

Starring:

Kristen Bell

Josh Gad

Idina Menzel

Jonathan Groff

Plot:

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna’s sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

Review:

What is it with kids movies and making me sob like a little girl? It wasn’t quiet Pixar’s Up opening but it still had me in tears. Great story, love me some fairy tales. Glad that the ending wasn’t the predictable prince saves the day. I actually thought it might end up being Elsa saving the day but I liked that Anna ended up saving herself.

I am totally buying this and, I think, if my daughter ends up choosing this movie to watch every day forever I’d be ok with that.

5/5