Movies 1/25-2/8
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)
Rating: 
The first movie in the series was pretty fun, even though it didn’t do a very good job of following the book. When I saw there were two follow-on movies, I figured it could only get worse, but I’m always game for a brainless action movie. This one was horrible. I really don’t know what they were thinking. They introduced a new kind of bug that turned it into a really bad horror movie. The only sequel that comes to mind as being worse than this one was Highlander 2.
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008)
Rating:
Well, it was certainly refreshing after watching #2. This one played MUCH more like the original movie, with all the fun advertisements (“would you like to learn more?”), a bit of the original cast, and the fun play between members in the unit. This was more what I expected from a sequel… not as good as the original, but still fun enough to spend a couple hours watching.
Rumor Has It (2005)
Rating:
Further proof that I can’t love a Jennifer Aniston movie. I wonder… can she successfully act in a movie without infidelity involved? There has got to be some other type of movie for her out there.
Man on Wire (2008)
Rating:
I watched this one online through Netflix, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have seen it. In case you didn’t know, as I didn’t, some guy and his buddies illegally setup a tight rope between the World Trade Center buildings back in the 70s and he successfully made the walk across. In fact, he made the journey a few times while messing with the cops trying to get him down after they figured out what was going on. The documentary is fascinating, and I think it does a decent enough job repeating how what they were doing was illegal, without attempting to glorify their accomplishment too much.
The White Countess (2005)
Rating:
I tend to like anything Ralph Fiennes acts in, with an exception being The Avengers (oh man, was that a disappointment after stupidly buying the DVD before watching it). The movie was well done, but the story simply didn’t work well enough for me to get the 5 stars many others rated it on Netflix.
Death Defying Acts (2007)
Rating:
I keep holding out hope that Guy Pearce can have another hit acting role after seeing L.A. Confidential years ago, but here we have another disappointment. I hadn’t really heard some of this history of Houdini’s final years, and did find it a bit interesting, but it didn’t hold up very well. I think The Illusionist and The Prestige are far more entertaining “magic” movies. If you are into that type of movie, watch those first.
Horton Hears a Who (2008)
Rating:
This movie was so far beyond what I expected. They did an amazing job bringing comedic life to the Dr. Seuss story minute after minute. The animation was spectacular… it really felt like you were inside a Dr. Seuss book. This was so refreshing after recent failures like Mike Myers’ The Cat in the Hat and Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Future Seuss movies should take a huge hint from this one. By the way, the kids absolutely refused to watch it… said they were too old for Dr. Seuss movies. “Talking elephants are for little kids, Dad.” Gah. Actually, I was getting very close to rating this 4 stars and forcing the rest of the family to watch it… until the cast broke into song at the end: REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling. Ack… what was that doing there? That surely would have caused T to send me some ugly facial gestures.
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
Rating:
We actually watched the 2-D version, which is sort of weird to see. There are so many things happening on the screen that feel out of place… they are simply there to drive your senses nuts when watching in 3-D. It was decent enough as a Spy Kids movie, but the previous two were better. This simply appeared to be geared only around providing a 3-D experience, and did not hold up in 2-D mode.
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