Cloverfield

**** (four stars)

Cloverfield (2008)
Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi
85 minutes - PG13 rating
Director: Matt Reeves
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, TJ Miller, Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, and Odette Yustman

Brief Plot: During Rob's (Stahl-David) surprise going away party, a huge crash occurs in the heart of New York. As residents of the city panic a huge monster appears causing mass chaos and panic. All of this is captured on a video camera.

Best Audience: Watch if you don't hate monster/alien movies, even if you don't really care for them that much. Avoid if you hate 'doomsday' plots or if non-traditional camera style bothers you.

My Review: Usually I would say the type of movie Cloverfield represents doesn't ever deserve 4 stars. However, Cloverfield takes a one idea genre and makes something truly entertaining. The entire movie is shot in "video-camera" type camera style, which you will either love or hate. Personally I found it beginning to get tiring during the set-up but once the action started it worked splendidly. The acting was generally good, and the movie is mercifully short enough that it won't begin to get repetitive or too long and boring. Solid excitement from the point of the crash on and extra credit for attempting a gutsy camera style.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

**** (four stars)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Genre: Musical
116 minutes - R rating
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sasha Baron Cohen, and Jamie Campbell Bower

Brief Plot: Based on the hit broadway musical, Benjamin Barker, a.k.a. Sweeney Todd (Depp) returns to London to seek revenge on a corrupt judge who falsely incriminated him years before, ruining his life. Todd opens a barber shop where he slits the throats of his "customers" after which Mrs. Lovett, his partner, bakes the corpses into meat pies.

Best Audience: Great if you like musicals! Bad if you can't stand them. Large amounts of throat-cutting gore with generous amounts of blood make this a bad choice for the weak of stomach.

My Review: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp deliver the goods in this beautiful portrayal of the Broadway hit. With catchy tunes, and a great score there is plenty for the ear in this movie, and the visuals are gruesomely fantastic as well, no pun intended. Depp and Bonham Carter provide surprisingly effective in their roles which required them both to sing a considerable amount. Burton delivers a stereotypical Burton-esque film, but it looks and sounds so great there can be complaint for lack of originality. Fun, witty, and satisfying.

Dan in Real Life

*** 1/2 (3 and 1/2 stars)

Dan in Real Life (2007)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
98 minutes - PG13 rating
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Alison Pill, Brittany Robertson, and Marlene Lawston

Brief Plot: Dan is a widowed father of three girls. When he meets a woman at a bookstore, he thinks he might have found love again, but when he meets his brother's new girlfriend at the family reunion, he's in for quite a surprise.

Best Audience: Dan in real life is not too girly that it won't appeal to men, but not too adult that younger teens won't be able to enjoy it. A broad demographic will enjoy this movie.

My Review: Dan in Real Life was a refreshing detour from most of Steve Carell's comedy endeavors. I really thought that he played a believable dad in the film, and that he showed he has some acting talent outside of his tv role on The Office. A strong supporting cast also helps this movie. A smart, enjoyable film.

There Will Be Blood

*** 1/2 (3 and 1/2 stars)

There Will Be Blood (2007)
Genre: Drama
158 minutes - R rating
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano,

Brief Plot: The story follows Daniel Plainview, a prospector who begins and oil business and attempts to profit from oil discovered in the Little Boston region of California. Paul Dano stars as Eli Sunday, a local church cleric, who has his own ambitions and plans.

Best Audience: An obvious must if you are a fan Paul Thomas Anderson, or Day-Lewis. If you like good acting, interesting cinematography and are willing to sit through two and a half hours' worth, this is a good choice. Not a movie for the casual movie-viewer, in my opinion. R rating is rather mild, mainly due to a few violent scenes with minimal blood.

My Review: As much as this movie has been hyped and praised, I finished it feeling a little disappointed. Daniel Day-Lewis is very good, there is not questioning that, I really liked the musical score as well, and had no problem with the cinematography. Most of the script was also very good. I liked the lack of dialogue at the beginning, and who could not like the "milkshake" scene? I think the plot and the story were what actually bored me with this movie. It didn't seem to be enough to really grab me. The whole movie is really just about the Day-Lewis character, and you kind of get the idea that he's a crazy, ambitious and ruthless guy from the beginning but he really breaks out into that form at the end of the movie. That seemed to be it. Paul Dano's character seemed more like a diversion and the movie desperately needed the scenes he was in. I guess there doesn't seem to be enough progression to satisfy me in this film. It was much too much like just watching Daniel Day-Lewis play this character for two and a half hours without enough happening or his character changing very much. It's hard to explain but I didn't love this movie. I liked it, I just didn't wildly love it such as many of the other film critics out there did. I would rather have watched a partly historical film about Rockerfeller with Day-Lewis playing him. That would be something to see!

Blood Diamond

**** 1/2 (4 and 1/2 stars)

Blood Diamond (2006)
Genre: Adventure/Drama
143 minutes - R rating
Director: Edward Zwick
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly

Brief Plot: A mercenary smuggler seeking a valuable diamond, a poor fisherman searching for his family, and an American journalist who desperately seeks a way to make a difference: all set in the African civil war conflict in the Sierra Leone valley in the '90s.

Best Audience: most content suitable for only mature audiences. A good movie for several different tastes ranging from action-adventure to humanitarian. Some language and periods of sustained graphic violence and war carnage.

My Review: I've seen this several times and it has been out for a while but I decided to write a review after I watched it today. Blood Diamond is fascinating in that it is able to take educational and humanitarian themes such as conflict diamonds and child soldiers and weave these themes into an immensely entertaining film that is adventurous from start to finish. With deep characters, good script, and a emotionally powerful screen presence, Blood Diamond is the film that should have won the oscar in my opinion.

Rescue Dawn

*** 1/2 (3 and 1/2 stars)

Rescue Dawn (2006)
Drama/War
126 minutes - PG13 rating
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies

Brief Plot: Dieter Dengler (Bale) is an American fighter pilot of German descent who is shot down during the Vietnam War. Captured in Laos, he is sent to a prison camp where he and fellow POWs plan a daring escape.

Best Audience: This will bore anyone looking for lots of action or plot twists. But the movie is a superb look at human spirit and resolve and many will be attracted to these strong points. Brief torture scenes and some violence.

My review: Rescue Dawn was an entertaining film; sadly, I don't think it lived up to it's potential. Top-notch acting all across especially Bale who's German accent will shock you! The dedication of these actors who all lost significant amounts of weight really made the film more real and it was beautiful to watch. The film is based on a true story, but there are many inaccuracies in the film that I thought were unnecessary. I really would have enjoyed it more if I had not looked it up online and found out that so much of the movie had been 'hollywoodized'. Werner Herzog is a good director, and I think had he stuck to real-life facts the movie would have been much more enjoyable. Even so, a solid film and a good story make this a movie worth checking out.