The Dark Knight Rises

First of all, my deepest sympathies go out to those in Colorado. My heart goes out to all those affected by this unimaginable tragedy.
Now to the film.  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS. After the tragedy, it was probably not the best film to see as it is filled with darkness with few happy moments in between. For the third time, Christian Bale puts on his Batman suit to defend the people of Gotham City from the evils that surround them. Still recovering from Harvey Dent's murder, which puts a cloud over the whole film, Bruce Wayne has been in hiding for the past eight years. Luckily, the city was fine. Until now. Bane, a prison escapee, emerges with more than enough evil to fill several villains. He has a huge army and even an inside man, who is revealed in one of the few shocking scenes in the film. Bane succeeds in turning an environmentally friendly device into a nasty bomb, set to explode in five months, unless the citizen (who is unknown) pushes the trigger earlier. As a result, the city is in pure misery. It reminded me of the Siege of Lenin-berg during the second world war. The Germans had surrounded the city, leaving the citizens with little food and water and barely any electricity or heat, which was awful considering it was in Russia. For Gotham City, the policemen are trapped in an underneath tunnel, barely surviving; the rest of the citizens have limited electricity and other supplies and no one can leave the city as that will explode the bomb and destroy the city. All this time, the people are on edge and Batman has not been able to help them because he was captured by Bane and remains in the very inescapable prison where Bane had been. Luckily, Batman, like Bane was able to escape the prison and is able to save the day, again. Only this time, Batman also loses his life, but saves the whole city. His friends are somewhat dismayed that everyone won't know who really saved the city, but that's the way Batman would have wanted it.
Now to the other characters. And there are a lot of them. Alfred (well played by Michael Caine) is still the trusty butler, who strongly urges Bruce to let someone else to save the day, as he doesn't want to bury another Wayne. So he leaves and Bruce misses him. Lucius Fox (a good Morgan Freeman) is still around to invite fancy new contraptions for Batman.  Gary Oldman is also back as the DA Gordon who knows the truth about Dent but opts not to tell the people the truth and this later comes back to bite him. Then there are the new characters: Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, a seemingly benign entrepreneur who saves the Wayne business and steals Bruce's heart, but turns out to be evil and the child who escaped from the prison and Bane merely helps her do so. I was actually happy when she died. Anne Hathaway sparkles as the jewel thief Selena Kyle who turns out to be nicer than she looks as she helps Batman in the final battle. The best has to be the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Police Officer John Blake who believes in Batman more than Batman does himself. Other stars pop up in smaller roles including appearances by Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Juno Temple, Thomas Lennon, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy and Hines Ward, playing himself.
The film was far from perfect. Bane may have an interesting story behind him, but he is largely boring and though played by Tom Hardy, there is little life to him. With his device on his mouth, his words are often difficult to understand. At least Selena Kyle is interesting and engaging. You never know what move she will make next. People may believe that Anne Hathaway was miscast, but I don't agree with them. She kicked serious butt in her role and had good chemistry with Bale. However, though Nolan wanted Cotillard for Tate (he even waited until after she gave birth to her son) but I thought she was not right for her role; I would have preferred Natalie Portman.
The movie was also quite long, over two and a half hours long, with some scenes filled with action, bombs exploding and other scenes open up the emotional flood gates, most of which contain Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film is not as good as The Dark Knight, but at least in ends happily, with Alfred glancing at Bruce and Selena enjoying a fancy meal together (he didn't die after all) and John Blaine quitting the police force and journeying to the Batcave to fulfill his duties using his legal name, Robin. I will probably see this film again, as it is spectacular filmed and edited with a great, dramatic score and it will most likely be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, but I feel that that is undeserved. Still, the film is far from a disappointment and is a dramatic finale to a beloved trilogy, but it could have been better. Grade: B+

The Social Network

I have now seen this film three times. It is also my favorite films of 2010.
This film is highly stylized and beautifully shot. The editing and music in the background are flawless. However, the plot is quite complicated but fantastically done. The film begins (this also happens to be one of my favorite scenes from the film) with Mark Zuckerberg (an Oscar nominated Jesse Eisenberg) at a bar with this girl whom he's been seeing, Erica (Rooney Mara), a fictional character created solely for the film. They are exchanging rapid fire dialogue with Mark trying, badly to show Erica how smart he is. At the end, she shuts him down by breaking up with him and saying that the reason why girls won't date him is not because he's a nerd, "from the bottom of my heart, that's not true. It's because you're an asshole." And with that, Mark returns to his dorm, angry and desperate to do something. So over the course of one night, he hacks into the pages of other houses and copies the photographs of girls onto his website which pits two against one another, with the viewer picking the prettier of the two. And, of course, he blogs the whole time. Needless to say, the website breaks several laws and is completely unethical, but it is also extremely popular, so popular in fact, that it crashes Harvard's internet. Mark receives six months academic probation for this stunt. However, this stunt also catches the attention of the great, perfect Winklevoss twins: Cameron and Tyler (Armie Hammer and body doubling by Josh Pence). They recruit Mark to create a page where people at Harvard can find out information about other people. Yet, Mark takes this idea and puts his own twist. He creates it himself, after borrowing money from his only friend, the economic major Eduardo Saverin (a great Andrew). He launches the idea after deciding to add relationship status and interested in, after all, that is what drives college, who is dating who. It is launched and becomes quite popular, but the Winklevoss twins are furious, and call it intellectual theft, which it basically is. Still, a cease and desist letter does nothing to stop Mark, and he quickly expands the website, called The Facebook. Here, once it arrives at Stanford (in California) it catches the attention of the entrepeneur Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) who founded Nabster. On spring break, Eduardo tries to get some businessmen interested in the project so the website can finally make some money. Mark shows absolutely no interest in this and is quite rude to many of these people. But then, he, Eduardo and Eduardo's girlfriend at the time, Christy (Brenda Song) meet up with Sean Parker and Mark becomes completely starstruck. Everything Sean says is great and this guy can do no wrong (he also makes the biggest difference in the business, telling Mark to eliminate the 'the' in the title). Eduardo does not feel the same way; in fact, he believes that Sean is a paranoid big shot with a cloudy personal life. Both of these opinions are valid. Needless to say, Mark decides to go out to California for the summer, just as Sean suggested. After Eduardo opens up his checkbook some more, Mark hires some interns and they journey out to California. This is when things truly change and not for the better. Soon, Sean is living with Mark and the interns and Eduardo discovers this and is furious. He freezes the account he set-up for Mark and flies back home where he breaks up with the crazy Christy who burns the silk scarf he just bought her. Mark calls Eduardo and tells him to fly back out there because there is some paperwork he needs to sign as Sean set them up with a businessman who will give them money and an office to work in. Eduardo even admits that it was stupid that he didn't have a lawyer look over the paperwork. His share of the business is increased to 33%. Then we flash forward to later that year, when Facebook is about to hit one million users. But Eduardo learns that his share of the company has lessened drastically; he now only owns 0.03 % of the company and he was the co-founder. Naturally he completely freaks out. He informs Mark that he needs to lawyer up because he is coming after the whole business. Mark does not defend himself though Sean attacks him. Eduardo leaves. Mark tells Sean that he shouldn't have been that mean. Later, Sean has a party to celebrate but the police come and he (and others) get arrested. Mark, however, stayed behind to catch-up on some work at the office. Was he the one who called the cops? Of course not, but as one of his lawyers Marilyn (Rashida Jones) says all the jury needs is the possibility that he he did. Marilyn also informs Mark that his lawyers will settle, because there will be no case he stands a chance of winning the case if it is taken to a jury which is probably correct.
The film combines both lawsuits Mark faces: one from the Winklevoss twins and their friend Divya Narenda (Max Minghella) for intellectual theft while the other is against his former best friend Eduardo over his stock in the company being drastically reduced. Yet, the film works flawlessly, with snappy dialogue. The customers fit each character perfectly with Eduardo always dressing professionally while Mark wears flip flops to his hearings. Throughout the whole film, jealousy between the two friends as Eduardo gets into an exclusive club while Mark is left out. There is also an interesting scene involving a chicken, which Eduardo must take everywhere even the dining hall. While at the dining hall, Eduardo decides its a lovely idea to feed the chicken some chicken. You would think a guy going to Harvard would know not to feed a chicken chicken. Still, it was some necessary humor.
This film deserved every award bestowed upon it, though I am still upset that Andrew Garfield was snubbed, but he faced stiff competition from two of his own co-stars: Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer. This film helped the careers of all involved as it should have.
Yet, I do have problems with the film, as the women (the majority of them, with the strong exception of Erica) are nothing more than objects used for sex and Christy is the stock character of the crazy girlfriend. Nevertheless the Grade for this film is an A.

To Rome with Love

I thoroughly enjoyed 75% of this film; the other 25%, no and that's a shame.
Woody Allen is an interesting man (and completely bizarre) and makes crazy and bizarre films, some better than others. Last year's Midnight in Paris was delightful and easily one of his best films; this one fell quite short of it.
The main problem (other than the typical everyone is playing Woody Allen) is that there were simply too many plots, four in all.
The plots I enjoyed: The film begins with a young tourist, Hayley (an underused Alison Pill) needs help finding a location and she falls in love with the Italian guy who helps her find her way, Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) and soon they become engaged. Then her parents, Jerry and Phyllis (Woody Allen, playing himself and Judy Davis, a therapist) meet his parents, Giancarlo (Fabio Armiliato) and Maria. Jerry, a retired musician, discovers that Giancarlo has an amazing voice, but only in the shower. Outside of the shower, his voice falters. Jerry doesn't like retirement (he associates it with death, as his wife explains it) so he decides that Giancarlo will become famous, even though neither he or nor his family wants it. But Woody Allen must have his way, so Giancarlo becomes famous; he sings a famous opera in his shower, on the stage, with all the other actors in period customers. The show is a hit, with the audience if not with critics. However, Giancarlo opts not to travel outside of his native Italy, but Jerry can live with that. Then there is Leopaldo (the Oscar-winning Roberto Benigni), an average man with an average looking wife, kids and job. He feels as though his opinions don't matter and unfortunately, they don't, at least in the whole scheme of things. But then he wakes up one morning and is famous, huge, the next big thing. Just for being normal. Celebrities love him; women sleep with him; other people want his autograph; reporters bombard him with questions, from how he likes his haircut to whether he wears boxers or briefs. Though this plot is relatively simple, it works and works well. It is like a satire on why some celebrities in the US are famous at all (hello, Kardashians). In the end, Leopaldo loses his appeal with the public and they cling to someone new. At first, Leopaldo is happy that his life can go back to normal; he can actually get some peace and quiet but he also misses the perks of being famous and the fact that his opinion doesn't matter anymore. The last plot I enjoyed involved the young newlywed Italian couple, Antonio and Milly (Alessandro Tiberi and Alessandra Mastronardi) who arrive at a hotel to meet Antonio's aunts and uncles with the hope of a job offer for him. Desperate to impress them, Milly decides to get her hair done, but gets lost along with way to finding a salon. Needless to say, she has an interesting day. She runs into a movie set and gets to eat lunch with her hero, Luca Salto, who also happens to be separated from his wife. They go to a hotel and, after some debate with herself, she decides to have sex with him, but before she can do so, a burglar arrives and tries to rob them, and then the hotel manager knocks on the door, for his wife wants to catch him with another woman, but instead the burglar jumps into bed with Milly while Luca hides in the bathroom. Milly sleeps with him instead. Meanwhile, Antonio receives a surprise of his own. A prostitute arrives in his room. Her name is Anna (Penelope Cruz, who can speak flawless Italian). It is a mistake, but then all of Antonio's relatives arrive, so Anna pretends to be Milly for the rest of the day, which is interesting considering she is wearing a small, form fitting dress. Eventually, she gets Antonio to open up and they have sex, because, after all, it is already paid for. Apparently, Antonio was a virgin on his wedding night, though his wife was not.
Now to the plot I didn't like: Alec Baldwin is John an architect vacationing in Italy. He runs into Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) a student of architecture. However, the rest of his plot involves Baldwin as the thought reader of the characters. Jack is dating a fellow student, Sally (Greta Gerwig), a sweet, but boring person. Baldwin says as much. Then enters her friend and out-of-work actress Monica (Ellen Page) who is interesting. She pretends to know everything and she fakes it well. Soon, Jack is under her spell, even though he hooks her up with his Italian friend, but they end up together anyway, just as I fully expected them to. They both know that it's wrong, but that doesn't stop them. Though Jack decides that he will break the news to Sally and then he and Monica can be together, she gets a job offer which will take her away from Italy for five months and Jack knows that she will be out of his life forever and he'll be stuck with Sally forever. This plot was not good, as Sally was just an object, without any real purpose and the use of Baldwin as a narrator and conscience of the actors was extremely annoying, and I was happy when Eisenberg yelled at him, "Can't I get a scene alone with her?" meaning Monica. I was wondering the same thing. Though Page did well with her role and had good chemistry with Eisenberg, I felt that anyone could have played his part and the same certainly goes for Gerwig, whom I normally like but her talents were wasted in this film.
However, luckily the other plots saved the film from being awful. Too bad all the plots weren't good. Still, the film deserves a second viewing and was far from a waste of my time for there were some genuinely funny scenes scattered throughout. Grade: B

War Horse

This is the story of a brave and amazing horse indeed.
A man squanders all of his hard earned money on a young wild horse, just so he can out bid his fairly mean landlord, Lyons, portrayed by David Thewlis (aka Professor Lupin). Ted Narracott now owns the horse, but thus he cannot make his rent and does nearly lose his farm. However, his son, Albert (a great debut from Jeremy Irvine) takes a huge shine to the horse whom he names Joey. Albert spends every waking moment with that horse and even manages to train him to pull a plow to plow a field so Lyons can give the family an extension. Joey plows the whole field, a new crop is planted but a nasty storm comes along to ruin everything. Then World War I arrives and desperate for the money, Ted takes the horse and sells Joey to the army. Albert is devastated, as any boy would be. He tries to join the army, but he's too young. It isn't until after he receives word that Joey's rider has died that he runs away and joins anyway. By the time Albert has joined, Joey has already switched hands. After pulling a German ambulance for some time, he finds himself in the arms of a lovely, but ill French girl named Emily who loves the horse (s) dearly. (There is another horse with Joey, named TopSod, a black beauty.) But soon these horses are also captured by some troops where they are forced to pull artillery up steep hills; the work is dangerous and the majority of the horses don't last long. But Joey survives, only to be caught in a nasty amount of barbed wire. Here a British soldier and a German soldier work to untangle him, and in the end, he gets to go home with the British one. Joey is taken to the hospital, where Albert is recovery from mustard gas and is temporarily blind. Joey has a wound in his leg and the doctor decides that he must be shot, as it will too much work to mend him. But then Albert discovers that this horse is Joey and proves it to everyone else. Joey is not killed, and heals. Yet, another hurdle remains, he is to be auctioned off once the war ends. Albert's squad digs up money for him so he can buy him back, but he is drastically outbid by an elderly French man (Niels Arestrup) so he can have something to remind him of his granddaughter, Emily. Fortunately, a scarf found on Joey belonged to Albert's father, and thus the grandfather changes his mind, after all it was what his granddaughter would have wanted. Albert and Joey return home, to his parents.
Now, though the film is good, with its realistic set and natural lighting add to authenticity of the film, the play still manages to be better. Having seen the play in London (where it originated), where the horses are fantastic puppets instead of being real, the film changes many aspects of the plot, trying to make it seem more epic. Others work, while others simply make the film a whole mess. Emily isn't ill in the play, and Joey is not put up for auction after the war, he just gets to go home with Albert. The character of Lyons also does not exist; instead, he is replaced with Ted's brother, who also tries to buy Joey. On stage, the scene stealing goose is also much more effective, constantly trying to get in the house, where as in the film, it is a watch goose, who does get in the house. The mother (Emily Watson in the film) is a much more powerful character, spitting her lines at her husband with fiery emotion, while Watson does well in the film, though her character is largely limited which is unfortunate. The film does contain some great performances, mainly from Jeremy Irvine, but the supporting players, including Tom Hiddleton and Benedict Cumberbatch are also good to watch. For the final word, the play lost points because the German and French characters said their lines in their native language, confusing me, while the film had the same characters speak their lines in English, ruining the authenticity of the film. The lines should have been said in the proper language with subtitles. Still, the film is good, but the horse steals the show, just as it was intended. Grade: B+

Magic Mike

This is another film that should have been better, but at least it proved that Channing Tatum isn't a total dud. He does have some talent and can be confident, traits he was sorely lacking in The Vow.
Here, Tatum is Michael Lane, aka Magic Mike, who is part entrepreneur, part stripper. In addition to his stripper gig, he is also a roofer and apparently also has a small business dealing with cars as well. But his dream is to make custom furniture, and though his creations do look good, they are really nothing more than rumble he finds along the beach and puts together to create a table with a glass sheet on top. However, when he visits a bank towards the middle of the film, he can't get approved for the loan he needs because his credit score is awful, but he has money, tons of it as he gets paid in cash every night.
The main plot of the film is when Mike takes the young (only 19) Adam under his wing and teaches him the lay of the land (almost literally). Adam becomes a stripper and is quite popular, just as Mike and Dallas (Matthew McConaghey) expected. However, Adam is really nothing more than a loser with a caring sister, Brooke (Cody Horn, a blond Anna Kendrick). He got into a fight with his college football coach and thus tossed away a football scholarship; he's a real keeper, ladies. Once in the stripper business, Adam also gets involved with the ecstasy business as well, much to Mike's chargrin. In fact, Mike tells him to never give the drugs to a girl he doesn't know. Actually, he shouldn't be giving drugs to any girls, whether he knows them or not. However, once they run away from the party where they both were stripping, as they were getting beat up over Adam's actions, Adam leaves his bag with the large remainder of the drugs so now he owes his dealer a ton of money. Money he does not have. Instead, Mike pays it, just so Adam is not physically harmed. Ten thousand dollars, all for a jerk who does not truly appreciate what Mike did for him. Adam takes his gesture for granted, though he swears he will pay him back, but I personally doubt it.
Mike is also still getting a grip on his own life, and must deal with the fact that his main source of income is moving to Miami, but he will not be getting the cut of the business that he feels he deserves and in the end, leaves the stripping business behind. Which is good, as Dallas took advantage of his best, and most buff stripper. But then again, you never really knew what Dallas's big plans were, as he was the one who said that he would just let his kid watch the money channel all day long to figure out how to become rich, that school was nothing more than a waste of his time.
Then there are the women. For a while Mike tries to have a relationship with Joanna (Olivia Munn) who enjoys psychology and threesomes, but all along, she had a fiance. Then there is Brooke (Cody Horn), Adam's responsible medical assistant sister who is dating this boring guy, Paul, but luckily soon he is out of the picture, leaving room for her to get together with Mike, which does happen, though once again, she allows him to sleep with her too early in the relationship, just as all the female characters in the film do. They are merely objects. Another stripper, Ken (Matt Bomer) even lets Adam touch his wife's boobs, and she just lets the young kid get away with it. And everyone lets Adam drink alcohol even though he's too young, which is illegal, just for the record. Yet, the film was still decent as Tatum was in full control of his role, but ultimately, it just wasn't enough to save the film. Grade: B 

Moonrise Kingdom

This film, like all Wes Anderson films, is an experience. An interesting experience.
Here, there are two young people who runaway from their homes. In the case of Sam (Jared Gilman), it's his campsite, while for Suzy (Kara Hayward), it's here house, with her mature younger brothers and neglectful parents, Walt and Laura Bishop (aka Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). Laura calls her children to dinner with the use of a blow-horn.
After a chance encounter during a production of Noah's Ark, when Sam sneaks into the girl's dressing room, the two meet and become friends and pen pals. Sam is an orphan, and horribly unliked at the Khaki Camp which he is attending, though when he escapes his scoutmaster Randy Ward (Edward Norton) organizes the remainder of his troops into a search party for the young boy. In the meantime, the police are also notified. The only cop we really see is Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), who just so happens to be having an affair with Laura. He is a lost and lonely man. But he throws himself into looking for the lost children.
Sam and Suzy have some interesting experiences, including their first encounter with kissing. But they also run into the fellow campers and Suzy ends up stabbing one of them with her left-handed scissors, which is bad. The moment that the two are caught is hilarious. They are both inside the tent, sleeping, but when they open up the tent, all the adults are just staring at them and Bill Murray is furious and rips the tent right off of it base. The children are taken back to their respective homes, but soon they escape again, this time with the help of Sam's fellow troops. One camper takes them to his cousin Ben's (Jason Swartzman) camp who marries them (not officially of course) and they once again try to escape, though this time it is the weather that thwarts them as a downpour arrives.
In the end, the kids decide to return home. Captain Sharp decides to open his home to young Sam, which is an offer he accepts, as he does not want to go with Social Services (Tilda Swinton) where he will be taken to a mental institution to be evaluated. Laura also ends her affair with Captain Sharp, though he understands why this needs to be done. She also tells Walt that they need to focus more on the children (though I don't think they follow through on this). At the end of the film, Sam and Suzy are still friends and may remain so for the rest of their lives, or they may eventually take it to the next level, but none of that matters, as they are together which is precisely what they wanted.
I do have some problems with the film, including the role of Suzy. Though her parents often say she is troubled, I don't believe that to be the case. She is lonely and way too old for her years. She also lets Sam touch her chest too early in the relationship. When Sam makes her a pair of earrings, but she doesn't have pierced ears. Not a problem, Sam just pierces them for her, with a stream of blood running down her neck from the procedure.
Still, the film has some great moments. The characters are all interesting and portrayed well by the famous actors. But Edward Norton does look old for only 42 and why is the Bill Murray character always the one being cuckolded? However, the scenery is fabulous and Anderson certainly pays attention to every single detail in his films, from the camera angles to the books Suzy reads aloud to the menfolk. It was a good film, but it could have been better. Grade: B+

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

This film should have been better. It just should have been as it had a great cast, full of famous and talented British people: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton and the young but still talented Dev Patel.
These people are all retired and want to make some changes in their lives, some for pleasure, others out of necessity. Maggie Smith hates all that are not white, but she needs hip surgery and does not have the money to have it done in Britain, thus she is outsourced. She goes, albeit reluctantly. Judi Dench plays Evelyn, a recent widow, whose husband left her deep in debt, thus she goes because it is cheaper there. Tom Wilkinson goes to seek out a lost love, who turns out to be someone who you least expected. He's homosexual and the man he seeks out is a former servant of his. And then he dies, but at least he can die happy. Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy are the only married couple among the group, though they are unhappy, for Penelope often flirts with Tom and becomes quite upset upon learning that he is gay. Bill is enjoying India, while Penelope struggles with the adjustment and towards the tail end of the film, leaves, alone. She tells Bill that she's done. Ronald Pickup and Celia Imrie (the two least known stars) stay put. Celia sets Ronald up with this rich British woman staying at another hotel. However, it is Maggie and Judi who thrive the most. Judi finds a job, her first in her life and loves it. Maggie recovers from her surgery, comes around to those different from her and eventually gets a job helping Dev run the hotel.
The hotel has struggles of its own. Dev is deep in debt. At least, the hotel doesn't even have operating telephones. Dev also tries to woo a beautiful girl, played by Tena Desae, to the chagrin of her family.
In the end, everyone is happy. Dev's mother comes around; the hotel stays in business and Judi finds love again with Bill. Dev and Tena are also happy together.
Though the film has its good moments, especially when Maggie Smith reveals her true history. She was a servant in a large house, but after awhile, the family hires another servant. Maggie takes the new person under her wing and shows her the ropes, but then the family fires her; she was no longer necessary. And there are some funny moments, but ultimately, the film did not really teach a lesson or inspire people to change their lives in anyway. Grade: B

Brave

This was a fairly good film, though it was far from Pixar's best.
In Brave (this will contain massive spoilers), Merida (Kelly MacDonald) is a Scottish princess, who wants to change her fate. She doesn't want to marry one of the heirs to the other clans. Instead she wants to go her own way. Skilled with the bow and arrow, she orders the others to a game of bow and arrow to win her hand, as is the tradition of her people, but after the contest is over, she (knowing that she is the first born) decides to fight for her own hand, and she beats all three of the boys. Naturally, her mother (Emma Thompson) is furious, though her father (Billy Connolly) is less so. Not satisfied with the results, Merida then runs away and journeys into the woods where she meets up with a strange witch who conjures up a spell to change Merida's fate. A pie is made which Merida brings home to her mother. I wondered what was going to happen, just as everyone else did, but I never expected what would really happen. Mom changed into a bear. However, this creates a huge problem. Dad has not had good experiences with bears and one even chopped off his leg (this turns out to be one the ancestors who also tried to change his fate). Thus upon finding out that there is a bear in his palace, he tries to attack and kill it, despite Merida's pleas to stop. She has to recruit her crazy younger brothers (who are addicted to sweets) to help her mother escape. However, instead of finding the witch (she has gone off to sell her craved wood products), the two spend time bonding, though it is awkward as the mother is a bear. The spell does have a catch, it will become permanent after two sunrises. Soon, Merida realizes that the spell can be broken if the tapestry (which she ripped in the previous fight with her mother) is mended. However, though Merida's main problem is mended, as her mother comes around and decides that she does not need to marry unless she falls in love. But the bear is caught and the people begin to chase after her, and Merida does to, bringing the tapestry along with her which she carelessly mends as she rides along to save her mother. As the final battle begins, the other bear (the ancestor) comes along also despite for revenge. Suffice to say, everything works out. The mother bear manages to kill the bad bear while saving her own life. Merida gets the tapestry onto mother's body in time and she (along with the younger brothers who found and ate some of the cake as well) all turn back to normal. All is right in Merida's world.
Though Merida is a fascinating character, and it is truly wonderful to finally have a female lead in a Pixar film, the film ultimately falls flat. The plot feels forced and weak, and there are several times when I wondered why Merida was making the decisions that she was. And I didn't understand why the tapestry needed to draped across the mother's body for the curse to be broken. Still, there are some genuinly funny moments, though most of these involve Merida's crazy younger brother or the stock character maid. Still, I will gladly watch the film again, though I expected something much better from Pixar. Grade: B+

The Amazing Spider-man

I really enjoyed this movie, though now it leads me to wonder why was the series with Tobey Maguire ever made when this one is much better? Okay, now don't  get me wrong, I really liked the films with Tobey MaGuire as Spiderman, especially the second one, though the third one was nothing more than a waste of my time. However, this time, it was quite different from the Tobey Maguire series, but in a good way. Number One: Andrew Garfield is hands down a better actor (and taller) than Maguire. Number Two: Emma Stone is loads better (and prettier) than Kirsten Dunst. Number Three: The story tells us the background of Peter Parker's life, and why he needs to do what he does.
The movie begins with Peter trying to find his parents, and at first, I thought his parents had already vanished, but this turned out not to be the case. Instead his father, Richard (Royal Pains's Campbell Scott, who still had the accent for his character on that show) and mother, Mary (Embeth Daviditz) whisk him away and deposit him at the home of his Uncle Ben and Aunt May (Martin Sheen and Sally Field).
Flash forward to the present day, Peter is now in high school (Midtown Science High School) and is now portrayed by Andrew Garfield, whom I will get to later. Here he is a loner, without any real friends, though he tries to stick up for the little guy only to get pounded in return. Also at this school is Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) whom Peter harbors a crush for and she is one of the few people who actually see him as a person. However, Peter wants to know more about his parents and after looking through an old briefcase of his father's, he discoveries a formula. Desperate to know more, Peter seeks out his father's old partner, though he lies his way into the lab, stealing the identity of another student, though Gwen (who works there in her free time, an important job for a mere high school student) opts not to call him out, though after Peter wanders off from the rest of the group, she has no problem terminating his visitor's pass. It is when Peter wanders off from the group that his fate changes. He sneaks into the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (his father's former partner) and accidentally lets some super spiders loose and then one of them bites him on the neck.The effects of the bite are felt almost immediately. On the subway ride home, changes are noticed. His hand gets stuck to the shirt of this one woman, and he doesn't know why. He can't remove it, so the woman's entire shirt is ripped off. The next morning, just brushing his teeth proves to be too difficult, as he nearly destroys his bathroom. He tries to get back at the bully at school, though that plan backfires; he angers his aunt and uncle and yells at his uncle and leaves the house in a huff. After a nasty encounter with a store clerk, he lets a thief go into the street. This same thief later murders his uncle, leaving Peter with ever more regrets. It is because of this that he decides to harvest his new powers for good instead of evil, and thus he begins to help the police by capturing the bad guys for them. However, the police led by Captain George Stacy, Gwen's father, (a well-cast Denis Leary), don't like what he's doing at all. In fact, at one point they issue a warrant for Spiderman's arrest. Never mind that he's a favorite of the public.
By the time the movie gets a true villian, Peter and Gwen are dating. She invites him over to her house for fish one night, but the evening does not go well. Captain Stacy and Peter argue over the true intentions of Spiderman really are. Then he and Gwen have a make out session on her balcony and here he reveals his other true identity. Gwen doesn't get angry at him, though, instead she merely mutters to herself that she's in trouble. (I'll discuss this scene more later.)They continue to see each other, creating more than enough screen chemistry to go around.
Now to the villian: Dr. Curt Connors (another good performance from Notting Hill's Rhys Ifans). Having only one arm, he is desparate to find a cure so he can be completely human again. However, despite his vast amount of research, he is not even close to doing this. Enter Peter into the picture. Peter arrives with the formula he found in his father's suitcase and the new formula is given to the test mouse, Fred. And it works, Fred now has four legs, just like any other mouse. Dr. Connors's boss is even more desperate than the doctor, and wants human trials to start immediately, though that breaks many laws. When Connors does not agree to this, his funding is cut completely. Connors decides not to give up that easily and injects himself with some of the serum. This has devastating results. He becomes a monster, both literally and figuratively. Revenge is all he has in mind and he immediately becomes the number one enemy of Spiderman.
All of this leads up to the final battle, when Connors decides to use biological weapons to turn the rest of the city into lizards as well. Peter recruits Gwen to make an antidote to cure the lizard while he attacks the man himself. However, though he has been only victorious before, the lizard is considerably larger than him and much more dangerous, and injuries him often, causing him at one point to almost give up, fortunately the father of a child he saved earlier comes through with cranes to aid Spiderman in his quest to defeat the Lizard. Though he begs Gwen to escape the medical office, she defies him and stays put to finish the antidote. Spiderman finally reaches him destination, only after being caught by the police, though he wiggles (almost literally) out of getting arrested by saying that Gwen is in the path of the nasty lizard. The final battle is a nasty one, but luckily, everything does work out, Peter manages to fit the antidote into the machine, causing everyone affected with the lizard virus to be cured. (He fits the serum in after Gwen gives it to her father whom then gives it to him. The Captain stays behind to battle the nasty lizard.) After this step is complete, Peter returns to the aid of Captain Stacy, who is near death. In his dying breathe, he makes Peter promise to stay away from Gwen so she does not get involved in all that he does. Naturally, Gwen is devastated when Peter doesn't show up at her father's funeral (though he does come, but hides the entire time). Needless to say, they break up. The end is somewhat ambiguous, leaving plenty of room for the sequel.
The movie is not perfect. My two favorite scenes include the one where the Lizard attacks innocent cars on a bridge, and a small boy is trapped in a car. Peter manages to save him, though it is incredibly difficult, But what got me was the reunion of father and son. Peter's mask is still on, but you can almost see the tears behind the mask, for Peter longs to have his own father back. Another great scene is after Peter is injured by the Lizard in one of their first encounters. He sneaks into Gwen's bedroom, but before she can tend to his wounds, her father wants to know if she'd like any cocoa. Her first excuse is lame, but her second, that she has cramps prove to be much more effective, though I would have love to see Peter's reaction to that excuse rather than her first one. Still, it was easily Emma Stone's best scene, because she was underused.
The scene that made me mad was the make out one on her balcony. Gwen starts to walk away from Peter, but he uses his spiderweb to capture her back and then draws her close, proving that he has all the power over her, causing the feminist in me to get mad. This may only be a minor detail, as it is, but I hated it, and found it demeaning to Gwen's character because she is a strong independent woman, though that scene sets her character back decades. Another problem is with Aunt May. Though Sally Field was perfectly cast, she looked much too old and haggard at the beginning, and thus after she loses her husband, nothing changes, though it should. Also, I don't know how that many fights would be allowed in schools, but these were needed for the plot to work.
However, despite these minor problems, the film is still great with perfect casting of the relatively unknown Andrew Garfield in the lead role. He may be 28, but he nearly looks like a teenager. Emma Stone was also great, though underused. You truly do get to know more about Peter Parker and his background, which the three films lacked. The father was seldom even mentioned. Though the character of Peter's best friend, (James Franco in the previous three films) was also eliminated, but a character like that wasn't even needed. I will still gladly see the film again, because this film is hands down, better acted and contains more interesting camera angles than the first series. Grade: A-