Movie Reviews: A Canadian Mom in L.A.!

I L-O-V-E the movies.  And being a gal in LA, I am surrounded by them.  The first Pirates movie was filmed just down the road from us.  The town we live in often doubles for San Francisco because of all of our hills.  But to truly explain to you why I love the movies I have to digress a little bit (you are thinking… oh, great).  I love everything about the movies.  Okay, so I could do without the bloated salaries, relentless advertising, & downright annoying product placement, but I digress…again.  I love going to the movie theatre.  There is nothing like that moment when the lights start to dim & whether you are waiting for Gandhi or Austin Powers to appear, the anticipation of something magical about to happen is hard to contain sometimes.  I don’t know anyone who sits there at that moment & thinks “this is going to suck!”  Some of my fondest memories are of the movies.  Going to see Annie with my best friend & my Dad, my Dad being downright scared to be the only man in the room.  We knew a thing or two about girl power!!!  Seeing the double feature of Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back with my brother & Grandmother, missing the pivotal “I am your father moment” because I fell asleep.  The day my Dad rushed home with an armful of video tapes & a brand new BETA machine under the other arm (way to go Dad on the choice of BETA, he he he).

That all brings me to today & my current movie-going conundrum.  Before we had our little guy, my hubby & I went to tons of movies.  Even some really questionable ones!  But when you have to pay a babysitter, buy 2 ever-increasingly over-priced tickets, as well as an exorbitant amount of money for popcorn & a drink (I, for one, think they put an addictive chemical in movie theatre popcorn that makes it impossible for an average human to resist), it better be a damn good movie.  Even when you don’t invest in all of those things & you JUST go out & rent a movie, who wants to waste their precious child-free time on a big old stinker?!?  Which brings me to movie reviews.  I get Entertainment Weekly & read the reviews in the paper, & after reading all of the experts’ opinions on “cinematic beauty” & “doing justice to the genre” I am left with the same nagging question.  Is it worth my precious time (& money) to see it???  So who do we, as women, normally turn to?  Our family, our peers, & most importantly our girlfriends.  So, why not reach out to as many girlfriends as possible, & isn’t this wonderful resource called urbanmoms.ca the perfect way to do that!?!

So when it comes down to it I am here to help give an honest, non-expert opinion on some of the movies that are new to the box office & the video store.   In each column look for at least 2 movie reviews, a few movies to look forward to over the next month, and, stealing from one of my favourite movies (High Fidelity), a Top Five List.  The movies will be ranked on a 4-star basis: 4 stars = don’t miss it, 3stars = worth seeing, 2 stars = not terrible, 1 star = don’t waste your time.

In Theatres Now

Spiderman 3
This was one of those babysitter, dinner, movie, & all the accoutrements nights.  We were sitting in a packed theatre that hooted, hollered & cheered…& we hadn’t even got past the previews at that point.  The whole theatre laughed at every joke & cheered on the underdog Spiderman as he dealt with every new villain (three in this movie….did we really need three villains?!?).  I left the theatre after the movie fairly entertained & thinking pretty positively about the movie.  That glow has faded over the last two weeks.  The movie has a complete identity crisis.  It wants to be an action movie one minute, a comedy the next, and then a serious drama the next.  Trust me, it does none of these well.  Most of the main characters come off as whiny & completely self-centered.  The only remotely interesting character is the Sandman, which of course is hard to get past the fact that he is in essence a pile of dirt.  It just goes to show you that the “experience” goes a long way in determining your opinion of the movie.  Bottom line is if you are into comic-book characters, or you love seeing a big blockbuster on the big-screen, then go for it.  If not, save your money & wait for it on DVD.  Just as a footnote, I personally believe this movie is only appropriate for children 10 & up.  Obviously you are the best judge of your own children.
Margot’s Rating:

(FYI – the hubby gave it 3 stars, but there’s no accounting for taste)

New to DVD

Blood Diamond & Babel
I decided to review two movies out now on DVD, because I think they are related to each other.  Both deal with several serious social issues; how we view others who are different than us, & how we as humans treat each other.  Let’s just start out by saying that these are not feel-good movies.  At points they can both be downright disturbing.  Blood Diamond is the story of a man who is trying to rescue his son from a rebel militia, & the people he encounters & allies himself with along the way (the son happens to be about 10 years old, so this aspect is very disturbing).  Babel is 4 separate stories happening all over the world all linked to one random act of violence (or as the movie truly portrays, just a tragic accident).  Both of these movies raked in the awards during awards season, & rightly so.  But when it comes down to it, they both fall into the “Schindler’s List” category.  Excellent movies, but not ones I would see again.  Babel sat around our house for almost a month (we use Netflix) before we got up enough nerve to watch it.  I do believe that both of these movies are worth renting, but only if you are in the right mood.
Blood Diamond:

Babel:

Movies to Keep an Eye On
This summer seems to be full of big-budget movies & sequels (I mean who’s not looking forward to Pirates 3, Shrek 3, or Harry Potter 5), but a few (over the next month) that may not be so mainstream that you might want to seek out are:

Waitress – Currently in theatres.  Keri Russell in a sweet, but not too sweet, story of a woman who seems to be at a dead-end in life.  Tragic real-life story behind the movie is that the woman (Adrienne Shelly) who directed, produced & starred in it was murdered last fall before the movie debuted at Sundance.

Nancy Drew – June 15.  Okay, no clue whether this Emma Roberts (yep, famous Auntie) incarnation of Nancy is any good, but come on….it’s Nancy Drew.

Martian Child – June 29.  John Cusack, Joan Cusack.  ‘Nuff said.

Evening – June 29.  Big, big, crazy big stars.  Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Glen Close, Meryl Streep & her real-life daughter.  Did they throw in the kitchen sink too?!?

Top Five
I appreciate those of you who made it all the way through this tome of mine, I promise (maybe I shouldn’t do that) that future installments won’t be quite so verbose!!!  So here’s this month’s Top Five List.  I’d love to hear your opinions on movies I’ve missed or what your top five would be.

Top Five Guilty Pleasure Movies:
(after watching Blood Diamond & Babel I need to watch a few of these)

5. Ten Things I Hate About You – Shockingly a Shakespeare adaptation.  Heath Ledger when he was cute & I could still understand what he was saying.
4. Clue – Man this movie, based on a board game (hey, we have three movies based on one theme park ride, so why not), is just downright hilarious.
3. White Christmas – I had THE biggest crush on Danny Kaye when I was growing up, because of this movie.
2. Grease – Part guilty pleasure, part cinematic genius!!
1.  Dirty Dancing – I saw this movie four times in the theatre & am required (by some unseen force) to sit & watch if it happens to be on TV.

Thanks all & see you at the movies!!!

Margot is a Canadian mom of 1 living in L.A. Her Movie Review column will appear monthly on urbanmoms.ca.  Please share your comments and suggestions below or send an email to Margot at email@urbanmoms.ca.