Sherlock Holmes – AMC Del Amo 18, Torrance, CA

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Bullfrog117

Absolutely wonderful! I mean I already knew I would love it just for the talent (Director Guy Ritchie and actors Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, and Mark Strong!), but it turned out to be 100 times better than I could have possibly imagined.

I may boycott movie theatres except for big, BIG, releases (thank God there’s only 2 more Harry Potter movies). Cell phone glows are the bane of my existence.

Soundtrack is incredible! Yay Hans Zimmer!

We saw at least 20 minute of trailers: Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Youth In Revolt, Cop Out, Clash Of The Titans, Iron Man 2…it was ridiculous!

Interesting article on Sherlock Holmes’ Cocaine Habit

Nine – Regal Garden Grove 16

Posted on December 25, 2009 by Bullfrog117

Phenomenal! So much fun! The music, the casting, the performances…my God it’s beautiful! The new songs that original composer Maury Yeston wrote specifically for the adaptation perfectly complement his original tunes as well as uniquely honing Rob Marshall’s vision for exploring the pre-pubescent mind of 50 year old film director Guido Contini.

The Princess And The Frog – AMC 12 Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Bullfrog117

YES! That’s what sums up this movie at the end of the day for me – it was such a wonderful experience to watch that I can barely express it! I mean it’s New Orleans jazz! It’s Goliath the Gargoyle singing, dancing and casting voodoo spells! It’s got Jim Cummings as an adorable, endearing Cajun firefly – reusing his Jambalaya Jake from Darkwing Duck voice! It’s got a story that rips your heart out, stomps it all over the floor, laughs at you, and then perfectly sews it back up and makes you laugh with joy!

Rule Number One of the bayou – never ask directions from a gator. I got confused by the typography, geography…choreography!

Gator down!

Look in the gumbo!

I’ve been looking for you all morning! What a coincidence! I’ve been avoiding you all morning!

Disney is doing a decent and amazingly fun thing by tying in the movie at their theme park (at least Disneyland) with Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, but watching the movie I couldn’t help but do some armchair Imagineering – I listened to the firefly’s warming up for “Gonna Take You There” and I could just picture a New Orleans style Country Critter Jamboree. I looked at Mama Odie’s boat-in-a-tree-house and I saw a revamp of Tarzan’s Treehouse.

I’m pretty sure Muskers and Clement gave themselves cameos again (as bead tossers during the Mardi Gras finale).

In Tiana’s restaurant, the featured band is Firefly Five Plus Lou, which is a direct reference to the Disneyland band Firehouse Five Plus Two that was composed entirely of Disney animators including Ward Kimball and Frank Thomas!

Amazing string of A-list celebrities in bit parts! Oprah Winfrey as Tiana’s mother Eudora (the best seamstress in New Orleans). Terrence Howard as Tiana’s hard working father. John Goodman as ‘Big Daddy’ La Bouff [any relation Shia? ]. Emeril Lagasse as…a gator?

BEAUTIFUL MUSIC BY RANDY NEWMAN! AND HE DIDN’T MAKE ME CRINGE BY SINGING ANY OF THE SONGS! YAY! Sorry that’s my own personal bias – he’s a great composer/performer, but his singing makes me cringe. Pretty, pretty New Orleans jazz!

Let Disney know that John Lasseter isn’t crazy with all this 2-D animation nonsense the only way a lot of Disney executives understand – by buying a ticket and seeing this adorable movie! You won’t regret it!

Planet 51 – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Bullfrog117

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The trailer sets up the idea of an astronaut on a routine mission to a supposedly barren planet only to discover the planet is fully inhabited. But it gets better than that – the planet’s civilization has a parallel timeline to Earth but it’s about 60 years behind us (and with various technological differences like hover technology) – so they’re at the peak of the 50′s, listening to rock and roll a watching drive-in movies about – an alien invasion by the humaniacs. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

The vocal cast was unlisted at the end of the film (an interesting choice), but it’s quite an all-star cast: Dwayne Johnson (who doesn’t sound like himself at all, making him an even more versatile actor than before) as wayward astronaut Chuck Baker, Justin Long as the “alien” Lem who helps Chuck, Sean William Scott as his paranoid conspiracy theorist who works at the local comic book store, Jessica Biel as Lem’s love interest, Gary Oldman as the militaristic general out to protect his planet from alien invasion, and John Cleese as the leading scientist in charge of curing the alien invaders.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Bullfrog117

My chest hairs are tingling!
This contact lens represents you! And my eye represents my eye! I got my eye on you Flint Lockwood!

Mr. T is HYSTERICAL and happily doesn’t have the only funny bits in the movie! You’ve got Bruce Campbell, Anna Farris, and Bill Hader (among a host of other wonderful characters) in leading roles and they all deliver wonderful comedy and pathos. I’m actually really interested in reading the book and seeing the source material for the first time. That’s right – I didn’t grow up with this book. I grew up with “Good Night Moon”, “Where The Wild Things Are”*, and the works of Audrey Wood (“King Bidgood’s In The Bathtub”, “Elbert’s Bad Word”) and Graeme Base (“Animalia”, “The Eleventh Hour”), not “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs” or “A Day With Wilbur Robinson”. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out this wonderful film (unless you want to spoil the plot for yourself).

Steve the monkey is essentially Dug from Up, but so much more wonderfully primitive (and primate, being that he is a monkey)!

The movie was very much designed for 3-D and the falling food effects are incredibly eye popping (without being 3-D gimmicks).

Anna Farris continues to astound me with her acting ability. I mean who would have imagined that the lead girl from Scary Movie would be such an amazing actress! I’m so happy to break her out of that stereotype (at least in my mind since I don’t know anything about her).

Flint Lockwood: It’s okay… it’s just pain.
Flint Lockwood: Come on, Steve! We’ve got some diem to carpe!
Flint Lockwood: Computing! Coffee break!
Mayor: Bon voyage! And bon appetit!
Flint Lockwood: Me too! But about you!
Steve: Gummi Bears!

* I’m not invested/interested in the film adaptation at all…mostly because I wasn’t invested in the book.

Public Enemies – AMC Del Amo 18

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Bullfrog117

I enjoyed this film very much. I love Johnny Depp and the “story” of John Dillinger presented is visceral and refreshing to watch. He may not have exactly been a noble Robin Hood, but he had a code of honor that is more and more rare in today’s society (unlike Troy).

I like Michael Mann. Well I mean I didn’t see Miami Vice, but that’s because I wasn’t interested and had no vested stake in a movie version of a TV show I’ve never seen. I saw Collateral first, liked it, then went back and saw Heat and liked it as well.

It’s exciting how realistic Michael Mann films look like…so visceral and gritty.

Yay! Filmed all in America!

Yay David Wenham! Sure he’s a character on the periphery of Dillinger’s life, but yay Faramir!

Pretty clothes!

I want to watch Manhattan Melodrama now!

Spoiler Alert! (place and hold your mouse over the bar to see)

I was surprised that the FBI agent nicknamed fat boy was allowed to remain on the job after he smacked around Johnny's girl...even the grizzled veteran crime buster knows you don't do that. I love when he pins fat boy against the wall...so vindicating!

According to one of my friends:
Mann knows what gunfire sounds like in different environments and it carries through really well.
Gross historical inacurracies: Pretty Boy Floyd outlived Dillinger and Babyface Nelson didn’t die in the woodsy shootout.
Mann apparently caught a lot of crap for filming entirely in HD, but it looks AMAZING!

Up – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Bullfrog117

A fitting 10th film for Pixar, Up is a delightful and charming story with action, adventure, suspense and vistas to knock your socks off! The 3-D experience (while not granting us a viewing of the new short Partly Cloudy…at least not at the midnight, 3-D showing) was extremely well worth the extra cash. It creates more depth and realism in the film…big action sequences look even bigger and tender moments are revitalized with a deeper clarity.

I wasn’t very excited by the trailers before this film…I mean Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs looked fun the first time, but 3-D didn’t really add anything to it…I’m bored by the Ice Age 3 teaser with Scrat…but I can’t complain too much. Can’t be too much of a wet blanket because the trailers are only 20 minutes out of a two hour presentation. Oh yeah! And especially since they gave us a 3-D teaser for Toy Story 3. I mean, I knew Toy Story 3 was coming (despite all the politics of Disney v. Pixar), but this teaser makes me very excited!

Features the voice talents of Ed Asner (Carl Frederickson), Christopher Plummer (Muntz), Delroy Lindo (Beta the Dog) and co-director/storyman Bob Peterson as Dug (SQUIRREL!) AND Alpha! So exciting!

3-D is SOOOO pretty! It was especially cool with the Disney logo and seeing all the additional detail in the background. And the Pixar logo is incredible!!! It could be described as a simple camera rotation, but it’s eye-popping in 3-D!

The music is once again phenomenally orchestrated by Michael Giacchino. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with Randy or Thomas Newman, but Giacchino’s work is a perfect fit for this adventure. The soundtrack takes you on a highlight tour of the film and you can see it in your head…it’s just beautiful!

Pixar has done it again!

Life isn’t a destination, it’s the journey.

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People

Posted on October 11, 2008 by Bullfrog117

The Devil Wears Prada + US vs. UK + celebrity “journalism” instead of fashion “journalism” + Simon Pegg being an oblivious ass. Absolutely delighful. I would call it a romantic comedy in the same bawdy fashion of Wedding Crashers.

I was suspicious of Jeff Bridges character (much in the same way I was suspicious of Mel Brooks character in Robots), but he cleared away my suspicions very well.

The House Bunny

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Bullfrog117

Very funny film from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company. Smart comedy of the same bizarre, exaggerated streak that was present in Zohan.

An adult fairy tale about Shelly, who gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion on her 27th birthday (that’s like 59 in bunny years), and becomes the house mom for a sorority house full of misfits.

Anna Farris is wonderful in another blonde bimbo role (a role she cultivated in the Scary Movies), but this character was surprisingly smart at moments and that pleased me.

Poor Anna Farris…she got a bad Botox job before filming…it slipped from my consciousness as the film went on, but it was very noticible at first.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Bullfrog117

Whee!

I love the Yeti designs.

Scorpion King of the Far East, but still enjoyable….

I just can’t understand Rob Cohen…he doesn’t know when a franchise has stalled out (creatively) and keeps making movies with lots of explosions and violence regardless of which cast members want to come back, but then he writes the lyrics to the movie’s torch song which is beautiful and poignant.

It really is a shame that Maria Bello had to step in for Rachel Weisz, but Bello does a very nice job. Weisz initially backed out due to scheduling conflicts (which the web is praying is due to her portraying Ava Lord in Sin City 2), but it could have been her pregnancy or dislike of the script…we’ll never know. It’s almost like Back to the Future where Elizabeth Shue replaced the original Jennifer, but she’s really a secondary character. Bello does an excellent job capturing some of the pep, vim and verve that Weiss brought to the table. Also interesting how the trailers barely show Bello, which initialy lead me to hope that it would just be a father/son romp through the Himalaya’s. But I’m very happy with the results.

How is this not Indiana Jones? They did the same thing of jumping forward in time, except Brendan Fraser hasn’t aged as much or as visibly as Harrison Ford. They’re both wonderful adventure films.

I thought Jet Li was done making movies? Not that I’m complaining, I just dislike retirement feighnts a la Steve Jobs.

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