Movie Monday - 5/23/2011

I'm back this week with another mixed bag of films to discuss:

All the usual actors play the same characters we’ve come to know and love in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. The adventure is coming to a close with this first part of the last book of the popular series written by JK Rowling. As the story unfolds, it gets darker and darker, and this installment was fairly dark. Harry and the gang are on a quest to find the pieces of Voldemort’s soul that he has hidden in different objects across the globe. They must destroy them all to prevent the big V from becoming immortal. It was very good. I cannot wait for Part 2.



Adventureland, with Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Wendie Malick, Ryan Reynolds and more, is about a recent college graduate (Eisenberg) whose parents cannot afford to send him on his dream trip to Europe. Instead, he starts working at this sad amusement park and gears up to have the worst summer of his life, until he meets a coworker (Stewart) who livens things up for him. It was not bad.


Tortilla Heaven is a dumb movie set in a small town in New Mexico, where the face of Jesus is burned into a tortilla, and soon, pilgrims from all over flood the place to see the miracle. There were some funny parts, but this film was pretty silly and only good for a stormy day when you’d rather not leave the house and there is nothing else better to do. Jose Zuniga, Miguel Sandoval, George Lopez and Olivia Hussey (where has she been?) starred in it.


In The Back Up Plan, Jennifer Lopez plays a woman who wants to find a nice man, settle down and start a family. When that doesn’t happen quickly enough for her liking, she decides to get artificially inseminated and become a single mother. So she does and on that very day, she meets the man who could be of her dreams, played by Alex O’Loughlin (who plays Steve McGarrett on the new Hawaii Five-O and is a hottie deluxe). She doesn’t tell him she’s pregnant right away, but when she does, he is game to go for it. All sorts of predictable mayhem ensues, but in the end, it’s a cute, little chick flick.


Gulliver’s Travels is a silly, modernized adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s classic. It stars Jack Black as Gulliver (of course), Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet and Chris O’Dowd. It is kinda slapstick, funny in parts and definitely a renter, but one worth seeing.


Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph star Bridesmaids, about two good friends – one who is getting married (Rudolph) and one whose life is really sucky (Wiig) but who agrees to take on the role of maid of honor and all that goes with it. My friend Jules calls it “An SNL skit gone bad.” It was very crude in parts - very crude - but there were some laugh out loud funny scenes. Other bridesmaids were played by Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McClendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper. When the bride’s wanna-be new best friend starts throwing her expensive tastes and ideas around and goes over-the-top with wedding events, the relationship between the two long-time friends is tested. I thought it was alright – very predictable and funny...

MK out.