The Island 8 / 10

Well last night my wife, my brother, my two best friends and I made the drive to New Glasgow to have dinner and a movie. The movie we choose was THE ISLAND starring Lincoln (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan(Scarlett Johansson).

Story: People are getting cloned so that when they want\need kids or transplants their clones can do the work for them or provide the body parts. Downside: Although the clones are oblivious to what's really going on, believing in a nicely contrived story involving a lottery, in actual fact they are treated as disposable chunks of meat. Not the best possible life. But what happens is one person decided to question the lottery and their way of life, i.e. Lincoln.

First Impressions: not to bad, actually quite good. Love the recognizable spot actors in the crowds of clones. I thought the premise was one of those concepts that's just horrifying to think any humans could organize, but at the same time, we all know people who would do such an option if given a chance. The special effects were great (although my wife still wants to know why they used train wheels if none of the trains in the movie had wheels). The plot and character interaction was enjoyable, and although the lead characters show very low emotions, its definitely part of the story line that causes this, so its fits perfectly.

Ewan McGregor was quite good in his role as Lincoln and we get some nice insight into rational thinking that too many of us don't bother with anymore. The concept of clones trying to survive (using catch phrase the company uses to sell cloning to the public) was a good plot line and defintely a story you want to keep watching. Without killing any plot, there were two scenes that intrigued\bothered me. One is actions of his sponsor. I agree the sponsor would take those actions, but I think he would actually take much harsher actions. Two is the air-bike chase. This screamed EWOKS and having Ewan McGregor run around on an air driven bike through a city was too much like Star Wars for me.

Overall I really enjoyed the story and found it to be one which spawned a lot of conversation on the drive home. I thought the "bounty hunter" was a great role and would have prefered to see more interaction between him and the clones. Perhaps even a segment showing the branding discussed near the end. I'm glad I watched it, and will watch it again when it hits ppv or dvd. Well at least its not the tenant.

Foolproof 6.5 / 10

I love when nothing is on TV. Last night I was flipping through the channels after RockStar: INXS and Canadian Idol ended and there was really only one movie about to start, so it won.

I'm so glad it did.

Foolproof is a very cute story about 3 friends who occupy their time by planning the perfect crimes (ie foolproof crimes). Mind you they never commit them, they just plan them until they are foolproof. Quite a interesting concept in its own, that is until a mob boss catches on to them, steals there fingerprint covered plans, pulls off a big score crime and then blackmails them into committing a large real score for him.

I loved this movie, and its not just because I my opinion both Ryan Reynolds and (unknown to me) Kristin Booth had nice chemistry without letting it actually lead to any wasted on screen romance time. . I actually learned not to like the third member of the team Joris Jarsky but that actually played right into the movies willing suspension of disbelief. I guess what I loved about this movie is two things

1) The story/plot seemed fast enough with just enough information to keep you intrigued, but not enough to bore you.

2) I love a movie that has the people in the room shouting out guesses as to what's going to happen. I like it more when my guesses are right :), but i won't ruin the movie for you.

Overall : great movie to watch with friends at home. I actually think one worth buying. Well lets face it, it was a foolproof hit for the cast and crew in my opinion.

Well at least its not the tenant.

Million Dollar Baby 7 / 10

Last night I went to watch Bewitched, but unexpectedly ended up watching Million Dollar Baby. First of all this is a highly acclaimed movie with what looked to me to be a strong sports drama feel to it, so I was not that interested in watching it.

First Impressions (besides this is not Bewitched) : Interesting story, better than expected. I felt like it should have had a lot more information at the beginning to clear up questions about the family of the trainer (Clint Eastwood) and his history, but Hollywood never gives a movie the time to tell an entire story (well except Titanic and Postman, of which I preferred postman). Overall a recommender.

The acting in this movie was quite good, but it was Morgan Freeman that made the movie for me. Clint was ok, but I felt it was the same personality we always see him play, so where is the acting in that. Morgan made me so interested in the movie that I kept watching hoping he would take over the role of Clint in the training. Maggie (Hilary Swank) was very good in this movie, but I felt more insight and emotion from her character were needed. People who have grown up that bad are emotional about it, and she did not reach the level of emotion I wanted to see. Not even at the end. The narration bit was cool, but probably did not add the effect they hoped and could have been left off and the movie would not really have suffered if they moved some of it just into basic dialog.

Not a boxing fan, I did get excited about the boxing. The cockiness of Swank really came through and you wanted to see more of it. The big fight she had was amazing, but lets be real. Ramifications would have happened and as a watcher, I wanted to know what they would have been. In the room at the end, she should have the belt (is that the belt in the gym at the end? If so, make it clearer to us... If not, explain why not).

The story had a few side stories as all do, but I felt they were weak with not enough follow through. 110 was good, but needed more about it afterwards.

Overall a great movie. One I probably would not buy as its not that re-watchable for me, but one I definitely will tell people I know to go watch.

Well at least its not the tenant.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 10 / 10

Well this book adaptation (I'm not a book reader) is quite interesting. First I have seen the older Hollywood Version (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) a lot of times. So I was really looking forward to seeing this new version.

First impressions: if this movie is like the book, then obviously the old one had really been Hollywood-ized, but that's ok, I loved it anyway.

This movie is quite interesting. Johnny Depp is so good as Wonka, but he definitely portrays a different type of Wonka than did Gene Wilder. I got the impression watching this movie that it was very ARTSY. I felt strongly that although I loved it and will definitely buy this movie on DVD, had I not been such a fan of the older version, I might not have liked it as much. I loved the glass elevator scenes and actually cracked up in the theater when Wonka walks into it.

The candy was great looking, and the boat idea was much better than before. Overall I can not wait to watch this movie again and again.

I have to say that I did not like the decision to make the ommpa loompas all the same actor. I felt this was another example of using technology to replace live actors which weakened the movie. I also did not think the songs (with the exception of Wonkas theme) were memorable. They could have kept more commonality between the kids songs. Also if this is such a blockbuster, and the ommpa loompa is digitally fixed, why not get a famous actor to play the role, like Jim Carey or Robin Williams. This one (or a million) character(s) was in my opinion the weakest part of the film.

Overall, however, I loved the kids, the grandfather and even Charlie. Depp was amazing, and for playing a role which made me believe he was Wonka, I would give him the Oscar (although I feel Hollywood does not reward rolls like this, never mind how good the actor plays it).

Well at least its not the tenant.

First Post

So my name is Jeffrey McNally and I am a Doctor of Computer Science and Mathematics at STFX University in Antigonish NS. I have a beef....

My beef is movies. I love them. Seriously for some strange reason I have an amazing ability to go into complete "willing suspension if disbelief" and really believe anything that happens in a movie. I mean accept it for the length of the movie with 100% confidence. This being told, I find that many times I do not agree at all with the reviews of so called "movie critics", so I thought this blog could be me talking about movies I have seen (spoiler warning, I might spill a movies secret).

So I'm gonna watch movies and let you know my opinion. Feel free to comment back on it, just keep it nice. I'll rank each movie from 0-10 with 10 being the best and 0 being a movie i absolutely hated (The Tenant). So read, enjoy and have fun.

and while reading this, remember, at least its not the tenant.