http://www.mysears.com/Movies Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:11:41 GMT Reviews about Movies http://www.mysears.com/Body-of-Lies-review-be7b1 <p>3 of 5 stars for the gritty drama movie Body of Lies. The lead role is played by Leonardo DiCaprio who does a great job playing a deep undercover CIA spy in the middle east. The plot is rather complex and I don't think I could summarize it easily. The focus is on middle east terrorism and a couple of groups making plans. The movie was expansively photographed with a rich selection of locations. Since the story jumps from country to country (Jordan, Turkey, USA, etc) they did a nice job of giving a look to each place. There are some action scenes which are good. Some brutal torture scenes and a fair amount of blood. The movie seemed long and its pace slow at times. All-in-all, I did enjoy it and do recommend it.</p>... Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:11:41 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Body-of-Lies-review-be7b1 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Exit-Wounds-review-56c70 <p>3 of 5 stars for the action movie Exit Wounds. This is a typical Steven Seagal movie with plenty of martial arts fights, car chases, gun fire and stunts. In this movie, Seagal plays a cop who gets assigned to a difficult inner-city precinct. This precinct has plenty of corrupt cops. Eventually Seagal discovers the "bad guys" are trying to document police corruption. <br/><br/>As I said, a pretty typical Seagal movie with direct fights where the bad guys get hurt badly. It is a good action movie and fun to watch. Perhaps not Seagal's best movie though.</p>... Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:06:55 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Exit-Wounds-review-56c70 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Rules-of-Engagement-DVD-Widescreen-review-41b52 <p>4 of 5 stars for the military drama movie Rules of Engagement. Let's start by saying any movie with Tommy Lee Jones ad Samuel L Jackson is one that I will like, both are among my favorite actors. Our two lead characters fought together during Viet Nam and experienced extreme action. Moving forward in time Jackson's character is still active in the Marines and is picked to do an embassy extraction in the middle east. His mission encounters heavy automatic weapon fire as they touch-down in the embassy compound. Extracting the Ambassador and his family, fire become heavier killing and wounding several Marines. Jackson eventually orders his troops to return fire killing over 80 people outside of the embassy. The key question was, were these people armed and firing upon the embassy? If so, they were combatants; if not they were civilians. The movie shifts to a legal and courtmarshall drama. Jackson asks his old friend Jones to be his attorney. <br/><br/>A very well made movie. Great action intensely photographed....</p>... Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:01:33 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Rules-of-Engagement-DVD-Widescreen-review-41b52 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Spider-Man-3--697719-review-73362 <p>4 of 5 stars for the comic book based movie Spider-Man 3. Of the three Spider-Man movies, this is the most complex with the deepest focus on the main characters. Tobey Maguire &amp; Kristen Dunst return in the key roles. The overall plot is about a strange black creature arrives on the Earth and ultimately bonds with Peter Parker making a "black Spider-man". There are several sub-plots in the movie which add to the complexity of the story. There is Harry the son of the bad guy from Spider-Man 2 who first wants revenge for the death of his father, then loses his memory and ultimately things work out OK. There is the "SandMan" who was the guy who really killed Parker's father; able to shift any/all of his body to sand he is difficult to fight. And then there is the engagement of Parker and MJ; well maybe. <br/><br/>As with all of the other Spider-Man movies, this one is extremely well made with good story, good characters and good action. Good special effects. The only reason for not giving a 5 star is...</p>... Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:30:23 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Spider-Man-3--697719-review-73362 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Black-Knight-review-6aff1 <p>3 of 5 stars for the comedy movie Black Knight. A worker (Martin Lawrence) in a medieval theme park finds himself transported back in time to the 1300's (Middle Ages) after getting a bump on his head. Finding himself between several factions and even a plot to overthrow the king, our hero "Skywalker" even has a beautiful maiden to rescue. <br/><br/>Well photographed, well written and pretty funny at times, this movie is easy on your brain and entertaining. Lawrence is good and fun to watch. Yes, this is a good movie and worth watching.</p>... Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:33:31 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Black-Knight-review-6aff1 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Bolt-review-a99c1 <p>4 of 5 stars for the animated cute movie Bolt. The movie opens with an exciting adventure segment where our hero, the cute little dog, Bolt (John Travolta), is being chased by bad guys. Bolt demonstrates superhero abilities to save his owner Penny (Miley Cyrus). Well, we later learn that we were watching a movie being made and the abilities (like his super-bark) are movie magic. Well, Bolt manages to get FedExed from LA to NYC and starts his journey home. Along the way Bolt meets several new friends and discovers he is not a superhero, just a cute little dog. I won't spoil the ending. <br/><br/>The graphics/animation in this movie are amazing! The most life-like animation I have ever seen. Truly amazing! The characters are wonderful though I was disappointed in the hamster [the movie trailer made the hamster seem more interesting that he really turned-out-to-be]. Even knowing that Bolt's voice was Travolta, it really didn't sound "like him"; yeah it was, just not obvious. This is good fun for the...</p>... Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:33:29 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Bolt-review-a99c1 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Transformers-Revenge-of-the-Fallen--696393-review-6659 <p>5 of 5 movies for the Blu-Ray sci-fi movie Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen. OK, let's start with an equipment check. Blu-Ray &amp; HDTV, sub-woofer cranked-up, lights out, popcorn in hand. Seat-belt on and here we go. Wow, you want action? You want loud booms and bangs? You want dizzing special effects? This is the movie for you! I just added ths to my list of favorite movies. The plot is relatively simple, but, it just gets in the way of the crashes, explosions and machine-on-machine combat. We have transformers from cockroach size up to monster size. We destroy a steel mill and some historical monuments. Some globe trotting with great scenery. But in summary, its all about the special effects and the transformers. A shout-out for the Blu-Ray version which has a second disk with more contents that the length of the original movie (well over 2 hours of behind the scenes). This movie is highly recommended.</p>... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:17:23 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Transformers-Revenge-of-the-Fallen--696393-review-6659 JimG944 5 http://www.mysears.com/Death-Becomes-Her-review-d1c53 <p>3 of 5 stars for the comedy movie Death Becomes Her. How can you not like a movie where Goldie Hawn walks around with a shotgun made hole thru her tummy--yep, you can see right through it. Oh, and when she sits down on a couch and the long wooden handle from a tool pokes right thru. This is a star packed movie (Willis, Hawn, Streep and Caine). The story line is that Hawn &amp; Streep want to drink a "foutain-of-youth" potion (from Isabelle Rossellini). They both need Willis to do "make-up" and body repairs. Ultimately the girls decide the Willis needs to live forever also to continue taking care of them. Well, Willis has other ideas. This is a well written movie. Well acted and richly photographed. Funny and worth watching!</p>... Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:45:29 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Death-Becomes-Her-review-d1c53 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Americas-Sweethearts-review-a7c20 <p>4 of 5 stars for the star-packed comedy movie America's Sweethears. What a cast of stars: Zeta-Jones, Roberts, Crystal, Arkin, Walken, Cusack. Mostly filmed on location at the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas, this comedy is about two movie stars who were a couple making their last big film. The focus of the movie is the launch of the new film and the benefits ($$) of the two (Cusack &amp; Zeta-Jones) getting back together as America's Sweethearts. To complicate matters ZJ is now dating a stud (Azaria) and Cusack is in love with ZJ's sister (Julia Roberts). Throw in a crazy nutcase movie director (Walken), some slimy PR guys (Arkin, Crystal) and you have funny situations. Well written, well produced and great acting combined for a fun movie. I do recommend this movie!</p>... Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:00:15 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Americas-Sweethearts-review-a7c20 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Murder-at-1600-review-9f320 <p>3 of 5 stars for the drama movie Murder at 1600. A solid good movie richly photographed. The story opens with a murder in the White House. When the local police arrive the "coverup" starts. The local police detective is played by one of my favorite actors Wesley Snipes. As the investigation progresses, we start learning of missing information and false leads. On the surface, it looks like an odd murder; deeper we learn that it is a plot to ultimately force the president to resign. So the movie is interesting with several surprises and plot twists. My only complaint is that it is a long movie considering its contents. I could probably cut 30 minutes from it and make it move faster; each scene is about 10 seconds longer than it needs to be. Good direction, weak editing in post-production. OK, so I do like this movie and I do recommend it.</p>... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:20:07 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Murder-at-1600-review-9f320 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Sharpshooter-review-fca5 <p>2 of 5 stars for the action-adventure movie Sharpshooter. Sigh, I had high expectations for this movie based on the trailer and the opening scenes. In the opening, a former CIA hitman is doing a hostage rescue from two high speed cars rolling thru a desert somewhere in the middle-east. Starting with only a high-power rifle, he starts the ambush. A very impressive setup and execution. From there it all went wrong. The hitman character is toally flat and 2-dimensional. Trying to achieve a rigid army-like character, the actor achieves a total boring, don't care, uninteresting character. Our hitman is talked into taking one more job before he retires. As he starts to plan the hit we get the feeling all is not right. Yep, after he hits the target, "they" will hit him. Frankly, the action ain't so good; the characters are bland and don't care. For a movie with potential, this turned out badly. Don't waste your time.</p>... Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:20:05 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Sharpshooter-review-fca5 JimG944 2 http://www.mysears.com/Death-Race-review-44610 <p>4 of 5 stars for the extreme road-rage movie: Death Race (Blu-Ray edition). Set in the future where prisons are run by corporations "for profit" they stream on internet a new sport called The Death Race. Prisoners are forced to drive race cars complete with armor and weapons where the goal is to not just win, but, be the only survivor of the race. Our hero (played by Jason Statham, one of my favorites) gets rail-roaded into prison and forced into driving. <br/><br/>This is a sci-fi movie which is richly and expansively photographed. Yeah, special effects, but, mostly great sets and live action. Really a nice blend of reality and effects. Great action, lots of bullets, lots of smash-ups. This is a recommended movie.</p>... Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:45:23 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Death-Race-review-44610 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Quantum-of-Solace-review-75dd4 <p>5 of 5 stars for the James Bond 007 action movie: Quantum of Solace (Blu-Ray edition). As with every other James Bond movie, you can expect rich big settings with grand sweeping action, exotic international locations and insanely big action. QoS is on par with other Bond movies but is not in my top 10 list. <br/><br/>QoS follows the events following Casino Royale (the remake of a few years ago, not the comedy version of the 70's). Daniel Craig plays Bond in both CR and QoS. He is a good, though not great, version of Bond. I do like Judi Dench as "M". She is strong, solid and believeable in the role. The key point to this movie is a new secret organization which MI6 learns of the hard-way. The organization is named Quantum of Solace. QoS turns out to be primarily a "business" organization trying thru illegal means to extract extreme profits from a country. The story has Bond jumping around the world to chase after the bad guys. The downside to this movie is that QoS doesn't really form as a group...</p>... Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:28:35 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Quantum-of-Solace-review-75dd4 JimG944 5 http://www.mysears.com/Dude-Where-is-My-Car-review-89311 <p>3 of 5 stars for the funny but dumb sort-of sci-fi movie Dude, Where is My Car? This movie combines Ashton Kutcher with Seann William Scott (American Pie fame) in the lead roles as "stoners" who forgot what happened last night. On their journey to discover the past, they find an interesing trail of money, women, aliens and other strange people/characters. Let's not forget that Jennifer Garner appears in the movie as a girlfriend. We specially liked the 5 alien women in the black jumpsuits. A wild, funny, odd and interesting movie. I do recommend this one! Oh, what the heck is a transfunctioner?</p>... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:26:23 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Dude-Where-is-My-Car-review-89311 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Role-Models-review-815f2 <p>3 of 5 stars for the comedy movie Role Models. Take Seann William Scott (American Pie fame) and add Paul Rudd and you have the "Bigs" (aka the role models). How did we get there? OK, these two guys have the job of doing school road-shows to sell the kids an "Energy Drink". Well, buzzed on the drink, the guys get into some ah ah trouble. The judge says, community service with a group called "Sturdy Wings" (a "big brother" kind of group). So our two heros get paired as "Bigs" for two problem kids. <br/><br/>Rudd's kid is into live acting fantasy combat (like dungeons and dragons). Scott's kid as a bad attitude. Needless to say, our heros are not into doing this community service work. The movie is all about how the "Bigs" grow and develop helpful relationships with the kids ("Littles"). It is fun how the four come together at the end to help each other. <br/><br/>A funny, nice and entertaining movie. Oh, I should point out that it has adult themes and some nudity so it is really a movie for "Bigs" not "Littles"....</p>... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:24:52 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Role-Models-review-815f2 JimG944 3 http://www.mysears.com/Doomsday-review-be531 <p>4 of 5 stars for this dirty gritty violent sci-fi movie. So a virus strikes forcing the world to enclose the entire country to prevent spread to the rest of the world. Ultimately a modern day great wall of China is built to secure the quarantine. It is assumed the whole population dies from the virus. Wrong! Many survive (hummm, natural immunity). After many years of stability, the virus spreads to England where the authorites decide they need to capture one of those immune people to create a cure. So, a para-military task force goes beyond the wall. They first go to a large city where they encounter a large collection of people who have gone "primative native" and attack the force. During their escape, they get linked to a different set of people who have gone "knights and castles". <br/><br/>This movie is very dirty and gritty. The most graphic violence that I've seen since some of those movies in the 70's. Plenty of blood, guts, bullets, body parts and dead people. Good action, good special effects,...</p>... Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:24:52 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Doomsday-review-be531 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Wanted-review-2a693 <p>4 of 5 stars to this crazy action movie: Wanted. Combine Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie and you have a powerful combination. When this movie first starts it starts slowly and seems like a dumb movie about a nerd kid. In fact, I almost turned it off. What's cool is that minute by minute this movie gets better and better. By the end, you have a powerful action movie with solid characters. At first it jumps around a bit with the kid having dreams and some visual experiences that you don't know if they're true or not.<br/><br/>The story is about the son of a secret agent who gets recruited into the agency (The Fraternity). Thru the whole movie, you have to suspend your thinking as things border on fantasy rather than reality (e.g. kid gets shot, they put him into a stone bathtub with fluid that repairs him; or you can make a bullet go around solid objects by putting "spin" into the bullet). Anyway, they train him and set him into the field as an assassin. Oh, did I mention the truck load of rat bombs?...</p>... Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:05:41 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Wanted-review-2a693 JimG944 4 http://www.mysears.com/Toy-Story-Widescreen-review-ee9d2 <p>Toy Story is a movie that changed how we look at animation. It's Pixar's first feature, the first fully computer animated film is still amazing today! In this edition, the entire movie has been redone for a much sharper image then seen in theaters. The reason that still makes it great today, and led to Toy Story 2 and leading Toy Story 3 next summer is the movie.  The movie has an great cast, a great soundtrack, and is very light. Unlike Up and WallE, Toy Story is a very light film. The movie is just a joy to watch. That is why I own this DVD, planning on seeing the Toy Story 3D double feature in theaters, and planning to see Toy Story 3. The movie still holds up. And for such a fan, the bonus features are great too. Commentary, deleted scenes, and games, and of course the movie itself make this a must have of your collection!  I still love Toy Story after 10 years from my first viewing of it!</p>... Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:38:16 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Toy-Story-Widescreen-review-ee9d2 rayman 5 http://www.mysears.com/Oceans-Twelve-Widescreen-review-afe65 <p>How do you manage to get some of the best actors of our decade and put them all together on one movie and still have the movie be utter garbadge.</p> <p>Watch Ocean's Twelve and you'll find out.</p> <p>Without giving too many spoilers this movie has a horrible plot that makes little or no sense and tries to cover it up by having twists and turns. To the untrained viewer it appears that there is merely a complicated film. But viewing it more than once it quickly becomes clear that this emperor has no clothes.</p> <p>The only reason that this film warrants an average rating is because you can enjoy it if you just like seeing famous actors...but that's about it. Sure you can see it once and laugh at how utterly plotless it is and ohhh and ahh at the famous actors and actresses who are in this movie (there's plenty of them) but don't bother buying the DVD...seeing the film more than once doesn't help any. </p>... Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:16:04 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Oceans-Twelve-Widescreen-review-afe65 MikeyRocks 3 http://www.mysears.com/Star-Trek-Enterprise-The-Complete-Series-review-2ae01 <p>Okay, I was never a big Trekkie till I started watching Next Generation while living in the UK. Patrick Stewart got me to take Star Trek seriously. Having watched all eight series, I was certainly hungry for more...Voyager, Deep Space 9 followed.</p> <p>I did not get to see Enterprise when it first aired, but I bought the series on recommendation from one of my friends. I had low expectations given some of the comments and reviews, as well (and here is the heresy) the fear that it would be similar to the original series - not my favorite Sci-fi experience...loved the characters and stories just not the low budget effects and campy acting (but then without it there would have been no franchise). Instead, I was really pulled into the story of the first Enterprise, the first warp 5 ship, the technical teething problems (and being outgunned by every alien in the galaxy), how the federation ultimately came together etc...and yes even the Temporal Cold War thread. The crew of the NX-01 consisted...</p>... Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:29:07 GMT http://www.mysears.com/Star-Trek-Enterprise-The-Complete-Series-review-2ae01 askrob 5