Reviews

Okay...How do I even begin to name all the things that went wrong with this film. Okay first I'll start by saying it's pretty bad, not Dragonball Evolution bad, it's actually tolerable, but it's still bad.

First they got they got the storyline completely wrong. The Baroness isn't romantically linked to Duke. She has always been faithful to Destro. Snake Eyes and Scarlett are suppose to be romantically linked, but that was thrown out of the window. Oh and then they killed Cover Girl! What else...The flashbacks were pretty much pointless, personally I found the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow flashback to be tedious and infantile. I think they're rivalry could have been explained without having to waste so much time.

Sienna Miller was worse than usual. I have nothing against her personally, but she does nothing for me. I've seen better acting from a cardboard cutout. Channing Tatum is mediocre at best. The rest of the cast is okay. The best performances were pulled off by Christopher Eccleston who plays Destro, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander.

There were some scenes that were so cheesy I almost burst out laughing in the theater, but I contained myself.

Also I know the film has some sci-fi elements, but still there were some things that were too outrageous. One thing that bothered me is that the Baroness' husband is a Baron who is also a scientist. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most people who are related to royalty and have a formal title don't work. I mean has anyone ever heard of a Baron scientist! I thought not. Maybe I'm just picky, but for some reason that really bothered me.

The Cobra Commander storyline is again wrong as well. He is not related to the Baroness. He wasn't acquainted with Duke, he was not a soldier, but a used car salesman.

They basically took the original storyline and crapped on it. But I don't expect much from Stephen Sommers. Nothing against the guy personally, but he has no real creative imput in any of his projects. I think his best film to date has been the first Mummy flick. And even the Mummy wasn't that good. He is just one of those directors who's specialty is to make summer popcorn movies with stereotypical and dated plot lines.

I guess the only thing positive I have to say is that the film delivers in the special effects area. That's about it.

The film's title says it all, this is a film that fills us with doubt.

The film takes place in 1964 and follows Sister Aloysius, the strict principal of a Catholic School in the Bronx. When Sister James (Amy Adams) informs her that Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), the parish priest, called a student to the rectory alone she is convinced that Flynn has overstepped his boundaries. The student in question is Donald Miller, the only black student in the school.

She confronts Flynn, who defends himself and after the confrontation Sister James thinks that Flynn is innocent, but Aloysius doesn't think so. She still firmly believes that Flynn has an inappropriate relationship with Donald Miller.

Meanwhile Sister James after seeing Father Flynn embrace Donald warmly begins to have doubts about the priest's innocence.

Aloysius tries everything to prove that Flynn is guilty even calling Donald Miller's mother, Mrs. Miller to the school to speak to her. In the film's quintessential scene Mrs. Miller tells the nun that Donald's father hits him, and does not express disgust or outrage when Aloysius speaks her suspicious of Flynn's indiscretions, which leads the elder woman to believe that Miller is not a very good mother. She coerces Mrs. Miller, like she coerces Sister James, into believing her.

At the end of the film there is a confrontation between Aloysius and Flynn. Flynn looses the fight, but does not confess. At the end of the film Aloysius tearfully reveals to Sister James that she has doubts.

After watching this movie your mind is racing, and if you're like me you are left with a somewhat uneasy feeling after watching the dubious ending. John Patrick Shanley does a great job as he adapts his award winning stage play into feature film. If anyone else had adapted his play, it just wouldn't be the same. Shanley knows these characters in and out, they are his characters and that's one of the reasons why the film works.

Streep as always delivers a great performance. It's funny how someone like Streep can be in a fun musical like Mamma Mia!, and in a tension filled drama like Doubt in the same year. It just shows you that she is an actress filled with diversity. I believe she can play any character she wants to because she fully commits to her performance. Some say that her performance as Aloysius is a caricature and too over-the-top, but I believe that if you're going to play a character as cold, manipulative, and strict as Aloysius that you might as well do it right or not do it at all, and that's what Meryl Streep does, she fully commits to this role.

Amy Adams is wonderful as the innocent young Sister James. We the audience are a lot like James because like her, we are caught in the middle of Flynn and Aloysius' battle and we don't really know who to believe. Viola Davis is a revelation as Mrs. Miller, she's probably in two scenes in the whole movie and yet her performance is probably the best in the whole film, she definitely deserves her Oscar nomination. Phillip Seymour Hoffman delivers a great performance as Father Flynn. The tension between him and Streep is palpable and it makes the film all the more watchable.

The story begins with Julia Ormond as Caroline sitting by her mother's deathbed in a New Orleans' hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Her mother, Daisy, is played beautifully by the extremely talented Cate Blanchett. Daisy asks Caroline to read her a journal which use to belong to an ex-lover of hers, named Benjamin Button. But Benjamin was no ordinary man, he was born as he was approximately eighty years old, and instead of growing older he began to grow younger.

Benjamin is played by Brad Pitt in one of his most emotionally arresting roles. Benjamin is abandoned by his father after his mother dies in child birth. A black couple who work in a nursing home find Benjamin, and decide to keep him and raise him. Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) becomes attached to Benjamin as she is unable to have children of her own. Henson plays Queenie so well, that we feel the warmth and love that he characters emits through the screen. She falls in love with Benjamin, and we fall in love with her which makes her departure later in the film very emotional not just for Benjamin, but for the audience as well.

Benjamin meets a young girl named Daisy, and he quickly develops a strong friendship with the girl which lasts a decade. Later the two are separated when Benjamin goes off to work in a tugboat. They visit Russia where he meets a British woman played by Tilda Swinton and he falls in love with her. The British woman is married, but she has a short-lived affair with Benjamin before leaving abruptly without saying goodbye. Benjamin is visibly heartbroken. He soon forgets about his heartbreak after he gets caught up in World War II after the tugboat where he works is enlisted in the army, and they are attacked. The owner of the tugboat and Benjamin's employer, Captain Mike dies along with other sailors.

After this accident Benjamin decides to go back to New Orleans where he meets a dying Thomas Button who reveals his true identity. Benjamin makes amends with his father before he dies. Meanwhile Daisy is working as a successful ballet dancer in New York City and she has also fallen in love with a fellow dancer. While working in Paris Daisy has an accident which halts her career, Benjamin goes to comfort her but she spurns him coldly. But destiny brings Daisy and Benjamin together again after she goes to New Orleans and they fall in love. They stay together for some time before Daisy gives birth to a daughter, Caroline. Benjamin leaves after realizing that Daisy cannot take care of two children and that he will not be able to be a good father due to the fact that he will grow younger.

Later Benjamin and Daisy meet again. The latter has gotten married and started a life without Benjamin. The two have a one night stand, but they both realize that Daisy has gotten to old for Benjamin. Daisy later takes care of a infant Benjamin who is suffering from dementia. She stays with him in the nursing home until his death. In a very emotional scene Daisy says goodbye to Benjamin as he dies in her arms as a newborn baby.

The film has a lot of emotional scenes, like when Benjamin and his father make amends just before Thomas dies, Benjamin's death in Daisy's arms, the scenes with the younger Benjamin and Daisy, Queenie's funeral, and Daisy's death. For emotional people such as myself this is definitely a cry-fest. But it's so much more than just a tearjerker, it's one of those rare films that you can watch a thousand times and still find something new to marvel at. David Fincher shows why he is a great director, this film is so different from his usual work. He usually does suspense and he is good at it, but here he shows a much softer side to his work as he brings a dramatic romance to the screen. Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt are reunited for the second time, the first time being Babel, and no wonder why. They have great and undeniable chemistry. Pitt is also reunited with director Fincher, and his Burn After Reading co-star, Tilda Swinton.

Definitely a great film with a great message. It's one of the best films of 2008, and worth the watch. Trust me even though it's long, it will not bore you. Every minute is essential and entertaining.

I'm a chick, which means I love tearjerkers and this film is no exception. I wasn't actually going to see this movie, but my mom bought it along with Love Actually. They were both in an economy pack and it was really cheap and since mom liked both films' DVD covers she bought them. And so I watched Love Actually first which I didn't really care for. Then I watched Atonement a few days later, and this film just blew me away. I haven't read the novel so I can't compare them or judge one or the other, but I can say that this is one of those films that if you haven't read the novel you will still understand it because it is so well explained and told so brilliantly by Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright. And from both films I can already tell he's going to be a high in demand director.

****WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS****

The story is about a thirteen year old overly creative girl named Briony Tallis, who is an aspiring writer. She comes from a wealthy English family. The year is 1935 and World War II is rapidly approaching. One hot summer day soon turns into a chaotic one when Briony witnesses an intimate moment of sexual tension between Cecilia, her older sister, and Robbie, the housekeeper's intelligent son who goes to the same University as Cecilia. Briony misinterprets this innocent moment and thinks that Robbie is somehow assaulting her sister.

After Briony reads a letter meant for her sister from Robbie, she makes up her mind that he is a sex crazed pervert who is obsessed with her Cecilia. Later that night she witnesses Robbie and Cecilia in the mists of passionate lovemaking in the library, she mistakes their act of love and believes that Robbie has raped Cecilia. Later when Lola, her fourteen year old cousin, is raped while searching for her twin brothers who have "run away", Briony is the only one who witnesses the act. She convinces not only Lola, but herself that Robbie is the rapist.

Lola immediately believes her as does the rest of her family all except Cecilia who maintains that Robbie is innocent and defends him during an interrogation with an inspector. But it is simply not enough to save poor Robbie from been prosecuted and sentenced to years in prison. When the war begins however five years later, Robbie is permitted to leave prison so he can enlist in the army.

The rest of the film consists of the troubles and pains that both Robbie and Cecilia have to go through after Briony's lie tears them apart. They fight to be together, but it seems like they are destined to be apart. Meanwhile Briony grows older and as she does she realizes the mistake she has made and is later revealed during the movie that petty jealousy was perhaps the reason why Briony made up the lie. Of course Briony doesn't realize until later that her lie has horrible consequences not only for Cecilia and Robbie, but for the rest of her family including her cousin Lola.

Vanessa Redgrave delivers a great performance, however short, as the elder Briony.

What I love about this film is that at the end you are left somewhat empty because we find out that she never truly realized the kind of damage that her lie caused, and she never truly achieves her atonement by not telling the complete truth and disguising it with something that makes her feel less guilty about what she has done.

This film has great performances by McAvoy, Knightley, and newcomer Saoirse Ronan. I am definitely looking forward to Saoirse's upcoming performance in The Lovely Bones. Another thing I love about this movie is the film score by Dario Marianelli.

If you like romance, tearjerkers and intricate story telling that this is must-watch for you.

They just don't make films like they did in the 80's. The hairdos, the attitudes, the cheesiness, the realism...

I love Top Gun despite the fact that the movie is outdated for todays fast paced CGI loving audiences, the plot is a little too simple for my liking, some of the acting is over the top and stereotypical *cough* Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis *cough*.

But I still love it because it represents it's decade so well. From the very beginning, the music, the yellow lit back round, the aircrafts being maneuvered around the hanger (I'm a chick so I'm not sure if that's what it's called, but whatever). It screams 80's, and that's why it's so good. It's one of those staple films of it's decade along with other classics like Risky Business(which also starts Tom Cruise), Beverly Hills Cop, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and other great flicks.

But the cheese ain't the only other fault in this movie. Though I'm a big fan of Top Gun the movie does have it's flaws. One, too cliché...From beginning to the end the film is filled with stereotypical clichés maybe that's what makes it so cheesy. Another flaw too much music...Again the film is just jam packed with classic 80's tracks which gets a bit annoying after awhile. The third flaw no chemistry between McGillis and Cruise. Every time I watched Kelly McGillis trying to woo Tom Criuse I cringed. I found these scenes to be boring and a waste of good time. Fourth flaw, the movie drags on in a few scenes. Apart from a few flaws the movie is a great popcorn flick and a lot fun. It should be regarded for what it is a true classic and one of Tom Cruise's best films to date.

Another I have to point out is the fact that the film is subconsciously homoerotic. I know you have all heard this before but it's the truth. Of course this little known fact was made known to the otherwise ignorant masses by none other than Quentin Tarantino in the 90's flick Sleep With Me, and after you watch his famous monologue in that movie you have to admit it does make a lot of sense. As watching the movie recently on TV, and I decided to rent for further inspection. The scenes with Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise are filled with sexual tension most of all the "dangerous" scene. Awkward...

Also what the hell was that volleyball scene about anyway. It seemed to make no sense what so ever. But at the end of the day, the cheesiness, the over-the-top acting, the homoerotic subtext, the stereotypical and almost forced in love story make it the great film that it is. Actually I think it's the flaws that make this film so much fun to watch and so enjoyable. Also the incredible fighter-jets sequences are amazing. The fact that this movie was done before CGI became the big thing in Hollywood makes it so real because you know those aircrafts are real. The danger those stunt men where in when flying those fighter-squadrons is real. You can't fake stuff like that.

The realism of the action sequences is I think a reason why the film remains so popular today. Another thing about this movie is that it introduced us to a lot of actors that weren't that well known back them like Michael Ironside (from earlier Scanners' fame), Anthony Edwards, who went on to do ER, Meg Ryan, Val Kilmer and of course how can we forget Tim Robbins' infamous cameo, he's literally on the screen for like five minutes or less on only two scenes in that entire movie.

Not only did it make these no name actors house hold names, but it also made it's two main stars leading 80's stars. Kelly McGillis most well known role before Top Gun was that of Rachel Lapp in Witness opposite Harrison Ford, but this was the movie that made her a leading lady. She would go on to start in other 80's flicks like Made in Heaven and The Accused. And then there's Tom Cruise who rose to the limelight with another 80's classic Risky Business, but this is the film that propelled him to real stardom and made him a huge box office attraction. After this he went off to start in other classics like The Color of Money, Rain Man, Days of Thunder, A Few Good Men, Interview with a Vampire, Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia just to name a few.

I must say that recently when I was watching this movie and Goose dies I actually began to tear up right when Maverick (Tom Cruise) is holding his body in the middle of the ocean and when he goes to Goose's house to pick some of his personal items from the navy and he shuts the door just before he sees Meg Ryan's character and starts to cry. I thought that apart from his typical badass performance throughout the whole film this scene in particular is some of Cruise's best acting to date. Say what you will about the guy, but he can act, and if you doubt his acting ability even after seeing that scene watch A Few Good Men, Magnolia, Interview with a Vampire and Collateral, I personally think those are his best performances.

Overrall this is a great movie for people who love 80's flicks. It's also a movie that makes you smile, laugh and possibly cry as well. If you haven't seen it then watch it. Trust me is better than some of the garbage we are forced to watch these days.

This movie is not bad, it's awful. The acting is mediocre at best. The direction is bad, the special effects are not very good. You would think that a movie with a big budget would have at least have good special effects, but alas this is not the case. The thing that really bothers me is that this movie had some potential, but unfortunately the bad casting, the overall plot, the dialogue and the acting just weren't there. Here's ten reasons why you shouldn't watch this movie: 1. Bad casting - I don't know who thought it was a good idea casting Justin Chatwin as Goku or Emmy Rossum as Bulma. I think Emmy is a great actress but she is definitely not the right choice to play Bulma.

2. Dubious setting - Where does this story take place. It's like some urban/desert place. The setting is way off, and they never do tell you where the story is taking place.

3. Bad acting - I have nothing against Justin Chatwin, but it wasn't even like he was trying to act. The only one that I think did a tolerable job was James Masters, and even he wasn't performing to the best of his abilities.

4. BAD special effects - Okay the special effects in this flick where laughable and completely not believable. I dare anyone to keep a straight face when Goku transforms into Oozaru. There were people giggling behind me, giggling...Need I say more.

5. It's PG - Now there is nothing wrong with PG movies, but when the original material is violent, outrageous and bloody there's definitely something wrong. They took everything that was cool about Dragonball and erased it. They tried to make the movie so family friendly that it lost everything that made it Dragonball.

6. Bad adaptation - They got the casting wrong, the characters are all wrong, the actors don't act like their counterparts. The costumes are wrong. Where's Bulma's blue hair? Where's Yamcha's scar? Nowhere near this movie that's where.

7. The direction is all wrong - Did anyone really think that James Wong was ready to undertake a project this big? Now I'm not dissing James Wong as a director, I'm just saying that clearly he wasn't ready to direct and helm a big budget blockbuster.

8. God-awful script - A script determines whether a movie is gonna be gold or whether is gonna be trash. The dialogue is gag worthy, it's cheesy, stereotypical, and downright lame. Some of the films important plot elements aren't fully explained, and the storyline is all over the place.

9. Score - The score is actually tolerable, but it just doesn't fit the storyline, or the mood of the characters.

10. Too short - I found the film's length to be too short. Why because there's too much information being cramped in. It's only 84 minutes long, which is not good for a film with so much complex story plot points. The film's length might be why it falls short.

I can only conclude that this film is not worth spending ten dollars. If you're still curious go ahead watch it, but know that not only are you wasting money, but valuable time as well.