Movie Reviews - Big Update

Whew...so believe it or not I've actually seen quite a few movies over the past couple of weeks. I was psyched because they played good movies that I wanted to see on the plane and that never happens. So here they are...


Stardust - 4 stars


On the way to Italy I looked up from reading and realized this movie was playing. If you remember I read this book a couple of months ago in preparation for the movie coming out and then I never ended up seeing the movie! I was so excited, so instead of sleeping I stayed up and watched.


Stardust takes place in the city of Wall, England. Tristan Thorn is in love with Victoria, a girl from town. One night while they're talking he professes his love for her and she laughs him away. He says he would do anything for her, even catch that falling star (cue falling star) and she accepts his challenge. Victoria gives Tristan one week to bring back the star otherwise she's going to marry someone else in town.


Tristan sets off towards the wall that no person in town is supposed to cross over and enters the fantasy kingdom of Stormhold where he searches for the falling star and has many adventures along the way!


I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie, it was fun, it made me laugh at parts and I got lost in the magical land. I thought it was actually better than the book, more action packed. It was certainly an enjoyable movie for a long flight!


Jane Austen Book Club - 4.5 stars


This was the first of 3 movies they played on the flight back, just to give you a sense of how long that plane ride really was!!! I was excited to see this movie, even though I hadn't yet read the book, because it looked like a fun movie. Jon of course was like, "Is this a chick flick?" I said yes and he shrugged his shoulders saying, "Well, what else am I going to do?" So we settled in for the movie.


The Jane Austen Book Club is about a "circle of friends" and two newbies who are drawn together because of life experiences and decide to start a book club that will discuss only Jane Austen books. As they read a book each month the movie also delves into things going on in their personal life...divorces, injuries, falling in love, falling out of love, affairs, loss of loved ones, etc.


The movie is definitely very "romanticized" but sometimes that's what movies should be, and in this case it completely won me over, I laughed out loud at parts, I cried, and I loved that it revolved around books!


It is definitely a guilty pleasure movie that I will enjoy probably many more times in my life:)


The Nanny Diaries - 3 stars


So we didn't watch the 2nd movie because it was some violent, shoot 'em up, Italian flick and I just couldn't watch 3 movies in a row! Then The Nanny Diaries came on and I once again decided to put my book down and escape into a movie world.


In the Nanny Diaries, Annie graduates from college and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. She feels pressure to go into the financial industry but doesn't think that's where she wants to be. Because she's not ready to make any "real" decisions she decides to nanny for a summer and then make decisions regarding her life. Unbeknownst to her Nannying isn't as easy as it seems. She gets entangled in the families problems and finds it difficult to just leave them when she knows that she should...in the end she learns from them and they learn from her.


I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I had enjoyed the other two. I don't know why, maybe because I'm not a huge Scarlett Johansen fan. It was still fun and enjoyable but just not as fun and enjoyable as the other two movies.


National Treasure: Book of Secrets - 3 stars


Our first Friday back, I was still really sick and getting over whatever it was that hit me so bad upon our arrival back in the states. So we decided to take it easy and go to an early movie. We had seen the first National Treasure movie and enjoyed it (4 stars) so we decided, since it had topped the box-office for 3 weeks we might as well go check out the 2nd one.


In National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Gates Family, at a public speaking affair is accused by someone that their relative who they claim to be a hero during the Civil War, really was a conspirator in the assasination of President Lincoln. Thus the search begins to unravel the clues provided and find the truth to this accusation.


The same cast of characters are back for fun the 2nd time around and the formula works once again. It was cheezy fun, and I must say I can understand why it did so well in the box-office. I'm sure we can count on two hands how many movies have come out in the past year that aren't animated but yet are family friendly (no cursing, no sex, no real violence!) Not many.


Cyrano de Bergerac - 3 stars


I had had this Netflix movie at home for a month or so, having rented it prior to seeing the play Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway. I had rented it in the hope that I would watch it before I went to see the play and then I would know what the story line was. However, I just never got around to it in December.


The story of Cyrano de Bergerac is that he falls in love with his cousin, who is in love with a man in his regiment. The man in his regiment, Christian, is very handsome but not very bright, so they team up (Christian's looks with Cyrano's wit) and woo the beautiful Roxanne. As expected complications arise....


I had rented the 1950 version with Jose Ferrer and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I gave it 3 stars because I thought it was a little over acted and after having just seen the play, I wasn't completely engrossed in it. Jose Ferrer was great as Cyrano and it reminded me again that I want to read the book!