Anne Hathaway you have my blessing.

So truth be told, I was a little skeptical when I found out that Anne Hathaway was cast as Catwoman for The Dark Knight Rises. Instantly I thought....Really? Anne Hathaway? Princess Diaries? Brokeback? Devil Wears Prada? 

However my doubt lasted for about two seconds. I remembered one thing. Christopher Nolan is at the helm.  Christopher Nolan knows what he is doing. He ALWAYS knows what he is doing. 

Come on people. Inception was FANTASTIC. The Dark Knight was FANTASTIC. Christopher Nolan is the best director of our time hands down.  Let's trust the man.  He has a vision, and Anne Hathaway fit the role for him. That is all that matters. That's why we pay him the big bucks. He knows what he is doing.

Trust him!

Oh, and my friend Anne has been working on her inner cat.  Here are some pictures that will hopefully rest your troubled mind.

This picture is of Anne on the first day of shooting the film.  

"MEOW-I'M A CAT"

Pic found here

"UH- I have awesome hair. Like a lion." 

Lion=Cat

Pic found here

Her back is killing her in her new costume. 

All that leather. Ouch. Meow.

Pic found here

This photo JUST SURFACED! Look at the special effects! 

Anne! You look JUST LIKE A CAT!

Pic found here

JTraas's Top 10 of 2010

So here it goes. Love me or hate me, I have compiled my favorite movies of 2010.  Please leave comments! I want hate mail people! I want you to disagree with me vehemently and then comment! Oh, and if you actually agree with some of my choices please feel free to comment too.

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#10 Knight and Day

Everyone has beef with Tom Cruise because he jumped on Oprah’s couch.  Cut the guy some slack.  He is still an exceptional actor, so quit boycotting his movies just because he jumps on couches.  Knight and Day was really entertaining.  It was a fast paced, fun thriller.  Cameron Diaz played her part really well and although the storyline was a little weak, it was fun and definitely worth watching.  So give my friend Tom a break and watch this movie.

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#9 Despicable Me

We all know Steve Carrell is hilarious in The Office.  It is now fact that he is both entertaining as an on screen actor and as an animated character.  The movie was cute and funny for the whole family.  I mean, who didn’t want a minion after watching this movie?

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#8 True Grit

I never in a bazillion years thought that this movie would make any list in my book(and by book I mean blog).  However, one of the great things about movies is that one will come along and exceed all of your expectations. It is extremely smart and really keeps your attention for the entire span of the movie.  I don’t think I’d ever watch this movie again, but I really enjoyed it from beginning to end.

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#7 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

I love the Harry Potter books, but have never been a fan of the movies.  I believe that this Harry Potter movie was by far the best of the seven Harry Potter movies thus far, and I have high hopes for the eighth and final film.  Long live Potter!

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#6 Toy Story 3

This movie was incredible for so many reasons.  I don’t need to write a lot explaining why I liked this movie.  If you didn’t like this movie, you have no soul.  Yeah, no soul.  I grew up with Andy and it was probably just as hard for him to give up his toys as it was for me to give up the Toy Story saga.  Toy Story 3 was the top grossing movie of the year, so a lot of people agree with me.  Such a good movie.

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#5 It’s Kind of a Funny Story

This one made number five on my list, and probably didn’t make it on any other person’s list.  Oh well, such is life.  I loved this movie because it was such an honest, yet entertaining take on depression.  We can’t just watch life pass us by without being grateful for the things we have.  Life is hard, but we can get through it with friends and family.  (Wow, that sounded like a church talk. Feel inspired?)

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#4 Tangled

Good music. Good message.  Disney has a way with connecting with it’s audience.  I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about seeing this movie.  Let’s be honest, an animated movie about hair is not exactly a good selling point.  Boy, I was wrong.  This movie dominated at the box office and got rave reviews.  This movie showed that Disney can still produce good musicals when they want too.  Disney pretty much rules the world.  Well, Disney and JB.

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#3 Salt

What do you do when someone feeds you something and it doesn’t taste very good?  You usually add a little salt. Am I right?  In a year with relatively weak movies, we needed a little Salt in our lives.  Ready for a random bit of knowledge? The role of Salt was originally written for a male(specifically Tom Cruise).  I am so glad they rewrote the script for Angelina.  There are a lot of Angelina Jolie haters in this world and I have one word for all of them. Salt.  She was phenomenal.  She was extraordinary.  This was by far the fastest paced movie of the year.  If you have not seen this movie, get a life, and rent/buy it.  I’ve already watched it twice this week since I got it for Christmas.

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#2 The Social Network

Let’s be honest.  Facebook is changing the world.  You probably all checked Facebook before looking at my blog.   You probably all check Facebook multiple times a day.  My point is simply this: take some time to see how Facebook really got started.  You obviously won’t be able to believe everything that you see, but I believe this film provides a pretty accurate depiction of the founding of Facebook.  The acting in this movie was insanely good.  Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake were all in their element.  It’s hard to keep my attention when there is no action, but the dialogue was so engaging the entire time.  This was a definite must see of the year.

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#1 Inception

Surprise! My favorite movie of the year was Inception.  Bet you didn’t see that coming! Well, if you know me at all, yes, you actually did see this coming.  What made Inception so great? It was original.  Originality is so rare these days.  Christopher Nolan is probably the greatest director of the past few years.  Everyone thought he would probably peak with The Dark Knight.  We were dead wrong.  Some of the critics thought this movie was too deep, and too confusing, and too much for audiences.  Uh, hey critics don’t insult our intelligence.  This movie changed my life.  Every morning I wake up, I use my totem to make sure that I am not in the third level of sleep.  Inception will change your life.  It changed mine.

So there you have it.  My top 10 of 2010! Here’s to hoping we have a great 2011! Be sure to check out my blog this year.  I am pretty sure I’m on the brink of making it big this year.  2011!!!

 ***Other great movies this year: Devil, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Karate Kid, The A-Team, Unstoppable, ,Megamind , Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

True Grit

I have been sick lately.  I have been lying in bed crying, knowing that my fans were desperately awaiting some movie reviews.   My fans depend on me. You depend on me. 

As I was lying in bed I was tossing and turning, knowing that Tron had been out for a while and I still hadn’t seen it.  I had been waiting to see Tron for a while and had planned to see it as soon as I recovered from my life threatening illness. (Ok, so it was the flu, not exactly life threatening.)

But to my surprise, I decided to go see True Grit before seeing Tron.  I had heard good things about True Grit and I just didn’t believe the rumors.  I decided to make the sacrifice and go see this movie. For my fans. For you. (And sorta for me.)

It was so good. I was pleasantly surprised.  It is rare that I go into a movie with the thought that I won’t like it.  However, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.  You don’t have to like western movies to like this one.  This is a movie that both women and men will enjoy equally.

The thing that made this movie so great was the witty dialogue and Indians.  Without the witty dialogue and Indians this would have been an average western movie.  However, Jeff Bridges and a new actress Hailee Steinfeld stole the show.  Jeff Bridges is a polished actor and played his role spot on.  I think he will be better remembered as Kevin Flynn from Tron, but he played the cowboy spot on.  Haille Steinfeld was exceptional.  She played an overly ambitious 14-year-old girl who is trying to track down her father’s murderer.  She is now in talks to play Katniss for The Hunger Games series.  My vote goes to her.

Go see this movie.  You’ll like it, I promise.  

Where I got the pics:

http://www.cinemaspartan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2010_true_grit_001-650x433.jpg

http://www.full-movies-links.com/images/true-grit-2010-big.jpg

http://www.americansweets.co.uk/ekmps/shops/statesidecandy/images/american-quaker-traditional-white-hominy-grits-1170-p.jpg

The Tourist

“Welcome to “movie math” readers!  Please answer the following question.”

Angelina Jolie+ Johnny Depp + Movie = ?

“Go ahead….what do you think the answer is? Go ahead and shout them out!”

“Perfection!”

“A box-office smash hit!”

“Greatest movie of all time!”

“Oscar nominations!”

“Good answers children/readers/old people.  But sadly you are wrong.  This is one of the more difficult math problems because when you add two of the greatest actors of all time to a movie, you would expect the answers that were given.  But children, you forgot that a movie does not just consist of the actors.  There are actually many elements that make a perfect movie besides just the actors….like a PLOT! Ok, you all fail. Please read the following for your next assignment and we will review the question again.”

 

I was SO disappointed. I am just sad.  Sad, sad, sad.  I will say it again. Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are some of the greatest actors of our time.  This movie was sure to succeed.   Too bad it failed miserably instead.

I don’t blame the actors.  Angelina was great and Depp was ok.  I mean, you can only act out a crappy script so well. The plot of this movie was absurd.  Completely and ridiculously absurd.   The whole movie was based on the concept of identity theft.  Yeah, lame.  I mean, how many of us, who have had their identity stolen have thought to ourselves, “yeah, this would be a great movie!” Oh yeah, none of us because that is the lamest story ever.

So I failed chemistry in high school, but I didn’t need to get an A to know that the chemistry in this movie failed completely.  Sorry Johnny, you are way out of Angelina’s league.

The music in this movie was completely off.  It was some creepy, classical lullaby that was trying to put you to sleep the whole time.  I wish I would have fallen asleep because I probably could have dreamt up something a lot more exciting than the movie( cue Inception.)

There was no action.  SALT was such a good movie because Angelina kicked some serious booty.  While watching The Tourist I kept hoping that Angelina would bust out some of her sick moves and beat up a bunch of guys. Nope, she just played some lame British chick that didn’t know anything.  Depp was ok, but not great by any means.  He was pretty unfunny, but did his best with what he had to work with.  He was asked to build a sand castle without any sand. (Ok, that was a really stupid metaphor, but it worked.)

Save your money.  Don’t go. Or go. Do whatever.  It’s a free country.

TANGLED

I can take criticism.

I can.

I criticize movies all the time. I criticize actors.

So yeah, I can take some criticism myself.

Recently someone told me that they have been reading my blog.  This person (you know who you are) said, “ I really enjoy reading your reviews Justin. I do! But……..”

But what?!

I am perfect!!!!!

Ok, so I am not perfect according to this ONE person I talked to.

Let me continue with the story.

She said, “I really enjoy reading your reviews Justin.  But, I think that you are too positive.  You are not hard enough in your critiques.”

So here it goes.  Me taking some advice. Please enjoy this review on Tangled. 

I hated this movie for many reasons.  I hated that the Disney character Rapunzel was an animated character cuz I think that in real life we would get along. Heck, Rapunzel and I would probably get married.  We would have four kids.  I hate how this fairy tale will never come true for me.

I hate that I can’t have Mandy Moore in my life.  She did an excellent job in this movie.  She is an amazing singer and really pulled through in her songs.  I think that the soundtrack to this movie is one of the better soundtracks that Disney has produced.  I hate that Mandy Moore is perfect and was exceptional in this film.  I hate that more actresses aren’t as talented as Mandy Moore.  Don’t lie….you know that you cried after watching A Walk to Remember. 

I hate that this movie is going to make so much money at the box office because of how it is the best family film of the year hands down.  I have not met ONE person who has hated this movie.  ONE! And that is definitely saying something.  People of all ages will love this movie because it is just an all around, clean, feel good movie.

I hated how perfect the story was.  I hated that this movie made me laugh/tear up/ laugh/ tear up.  The storyline was so perfect and I am so mad that Disney will have such a hard time living up to such a creative plot.  

There.  See? There were a lot of things that I absolutely hated about this movie.  

Fair Game

If you LOVE politics then this is a good movie to see.

If you HATE politics, then you will not like this movie.

Chances are you have never heard of this movie.  It had a limited release a few weeks ago and was released to most theaters this past weekend.  The movie is “inspired” by true events.  Isn’t every movie “inspired” by true events?  Please refer to the list below as I prove my point.

Inception-we all dream. “Inspired by true events”

Harry Potter-we all know a kid named Harry. “Inspired by true events”

Batman-bats exist. man exist. “Inspired by true events”

I think if you claim that a movie is “inspired by true events”, then you should have to at least try to follow some truth.  I just saw the movie Unstoppable.  I went home and read the “true” story.  It was a completely different story.  The only thing in common was the train.

Anyway, back to Fair Game.  This movie is about Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who is exposed as being a spy. Who exposes her you might ask? THE GOVERNMENT! Oh the drama! Oh the conspiracy! Bush lied! Like we haven’t heard that before.

With that being said, it is a really interesting movie.  This is a hard-core liberal movie, but I really enjoyed it.  Sure all the facts are not true, but some of it is true and yeah, Valerie Plame got put in a tough position she didn’t deserve.

Valerie Plame is palyed by Naomi Watts.  You know, The Ring actress, King Kong actress.  She is an awesome actress.  She played this role extremely well.  Sean Penn plays her husband, Joe Wilson. He is a great actor also.  2 great actors+Government Conspiracy=Good Movie.

I loved this movie.  I eat up politics. (Can you even say that….eat up politics???)  The more politics the better.  Throw in a little conspiracy here and there and I am there!  The movie felt long at times, but all in all was a pretty interesting movie.   It got me asking some questions.  Why did we go to Iraq? How did the intelligence get so messed up in the CIA?

Go see the movie. But maybe wait till the dollars…I don’t think it will be in the normal theaters for long.

The Next Three Days

This movie came out the same day as Harry Potter.  I don’t know why anyone would release a movie the same weekend as the juggernaut Harry Potter, but they did.  This movie will fail at the box office, living in the shadow of Harry Potter. It’s a shame too because this was a pretty decent movie. 

The movie is about a lady/wife/mother who is convicted of murdering her boss and is sentenced to life in prison.  However, her husband believe she is wrongly convicted and does everything he can to break her out of prison. 

It is a pretty cool movie, but I will never watch it again.   It had a really interesting story but took a little while to develop.  However, it definitely keeps your attention the entire way through.  The movie is good because you are constantly asking yourself different questions the entire movie.

I wish the writers would have called me though because I would have made the ending ten times better.

Give me a call and I’ll tell you how it SHOULD have ended.

Good movie.  Short review.  It’s a fun movie and definitely won’t disappoint.