Reviews

Even when they're purple and evil the minions are cute beyond belief.

The movie was aimed somewhere between adult and child with enough funny to go around. We saw it with a mixed audience, and I could hear laughter from all ages.

I don't want to give too much away but Gru and crew, Agnes, Edith, and Margo along with Dr. Nefario, and assorted others, all turn in stellar performances.

The story kept me engaged, and there was enough going on that I didn't even leave to go to the bathroom, even though I needed to.

I can't recommend this highly enough. Go see it!

I tried to approach John Carter as someone who had not read the books. But I HAD read the books so it was somewhat disorienting to see all the familiar characters and settings but an almost entirely different story. Unlike some, I didn't have a problem with this John Carter's attitude problems, but Dejah Thoris failed to charm me. Of course the "Incomparable" princess was never more than a raison d'etre in the books anyway so I didn't expect much. I have to say, the VFX were stunning and very true to the books (except Woola was too cute) I just didn't get some aspects of the story and few explanations were given. For instance, why was the city of Zodanga a big moving pile of metal? And, why bring Therns into the plot when they clearly weren't necessary? I have other questions that will never be answered but those are important, sort of. As an action/adventure film it was compelling if a little disjoint and It's too bad there won't be a sequel. I'd like to see more character development and perhaps the other two Barsoomian races (Yellow & Black) but I'll manage. I really think it's a film worth watching. Mostly because it's visually stunning.

Yes, the acting is reasonably decent and the plot moves along without too many starts and stops, I just have some trouble with the whole premise. Alphas are people with extraordinary abilities who can wreak havoc or save us all as the mood, and the writers, strike them. OK, I guess, but this series, based on the pilot episode, seem a little like NYPD Blue with super powers. How would we fight crime if we could read minds and jump over tall buildings? The Alphas only reason for existing is, apparently, to fight other Alphas. It just doesn't capture my imagination. Also, I'm wondering why someone hasn't strangled David Strathairn's character, Dr. Rosen. He's infuriating and self-important. His whole answer-a-question-with-a-question approach to the mental health of his team seems very ineffective, not to mention irritating. I'll watch a couple more episodes to see if things improve but I won't be holding my breath.

If you didn't like Roseanne Barr before, there is nothing here that will change your opinion. She is as screechy and obnoxious as ever, if not more so. We decided to watch Roseanne's Nuts to see if there was anything of interest. There isn't. In the first episode we see how Roseanne deals with feral pigs on her Macadamia nut farm. She screams at them, fires a shotgun over their heads, traps them and then lets them go and sends them psychic mind messages to "go away and never come back." When she actually calls someone who can get rid of the pigs she refuses to let them kill the animals because of bad karma. The pig hunters are, understandably, confused and try to tell her that killing and eating the pig is what they do but she steadfastly refuses to let them do it, claiming she doesn't eat meat. We only made it half way through the second episode which featured Roseanne tearing up the landscape on a bulldozer and using very bad language. We switched to Southpark and had a much better time. In short, Roseanne is loud, foul-mouthed, abusive, and manic with anger issues. I hope Lifetime cancels this show ASAP.

This movie just meanders around in the woods for awhile, much like the cast, and then ends.

I like Gary Oldman and I have to admit the other actors did a good job. The movie was very well done, cinematically and directorialy, however, it just didn't go anywhere. And, at least for me, there were a few important points that needed a bit more explanation.

Like why was the little girl locked up? It had something to do with her mother and someone having offended God, I think, but otherwise you just have to guess.

And, what happened to Gary Oldman's dog?

I found the characters hard to warm up to. I just didn't care what happened to any of them. I can't really recommend this as some sort of underrated masterpiece. It isn't.