Movie Reviews By Movie Reviews Pro

Crazy Heart

Rating:

Movie: Crazy Heart (2009)

Studio : Fox Searchlight

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 112 min

Website : foxsearchlight.com/crazyheart

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb7utw

Review:

As of this writing, Jeff Bridges has already won a Golden Globe for his performance in Crazy Heart, and he is expected to receive an Oscar nomination, if not win the award entirely.

And he deserves it. Bridges disappears completely into his portrayal of Bad Blake, a 57-year-old alcoholic former country star whose career has been reduced to playing in front of small crowds in bowling alleys and bars. Subsisting on a steady diet of cigarettes, whiskey, and longnecks, Bridges can still entertain the crowds of loyal fans who request songs, and he’s still suave enough to be able to take groupies back to his hotel room.

Things begin to look up for Blake when he meets Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a reporter for a small New Mexico paper, who wants to interview him. They talk about music and life. Soon enough, predictably but endearingly, they’re soon doing more than talking. She has a four-year-old son and has made mistakes in her life as well, but has held it together. We see that there’s potential for change in Blake, but he’s so worn down, so accustomed to the hard-drinking, nomadic lifestyle that change can be just out of reach. There’s a heartbreaking scene where he takes Jean’s son for some quality time at the playground, and he shows here that he could just be an effective father figure. Upon bringing him home, he sneaks away to take a swig from his flask.

This is a wonderful movie. Bridges doesn’t play Blake; he embodies him. He and Gyllenhaal create a convincing chemistry, and we root for the relationship to drive Blake to throw away the bottle and settle down with a family. Colin Farrell does a good job as the country star who was mentored by Blake and is still loyal to him, and Robert Duvall has a small but powerful role as an old drinking buddy of Blake’s who’s sober. Duvall’s presence was no doubt inspired by his Academy Award-winning performance in Tender Mercies, a similar film about a down-and-out country singer. I haven’t seen it, but now plan to.

I’ll also add the music. The soundtrack, which I also intend to find, had my head bopping throughout. I’m not a huge country fan, but I do have Toby Keith on my iTunes, and I’m listening to him as I write this review. Like most of the country songs I’ve heard, Blake’s revolve around alcohol, heartbreak, and regret, strong themes in his life. One of his songs goes, “I used to be somebody, but now I’m somebody else.” But does he need to stay that way? We know the answer, but the center of the film revolves around whether he learns it. It’s a masterpiece.

-Craig Wynne

Drama, Mystery, Romance crazy heart, Drama, Music, Romance

Sherlock Holmes

Rating:

Movie: Sherlock Holmes(2009)

Studio : Internationale Filmproduktion Blackbird Dritte

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 128 min

Website : Sherlock Holmes

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9byrr

Review:

Sherlock Holmes is a popular novel turned into a block buster movie. The cast includes some of the hottest and popular stars like Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams and others. If you liked the novel then you would definitely enjoy the movie as well.

The movie is a thriller in which Sherlock Holmes works to solve detective cases. Serial killer Lord Blackwood and his close assistant Dr. Watson have been caught by Holmes. Sherlock Holmes thinks that he is done with the case but Blackwood returns back again and resumes his killing activity. It becomes the task of Sherlock Holmes to look for the sorcerer Lord Blackwood and hunt him down. The detective has to work hard to open up secrets of killing, cheating and black magic while contending with the head of Scotland Yard as well as the Fiancée of his partner.

The movie is a good one and all the parts seem in place, however even though the director has done a good job in maintaining the viewer’s interest the momentum does not stay the same throughout the movie. The best scenes were those where dialogues were shared between Law and Downey Jr., their interactions were quite witty and quick which seemed to be like that of a married couple.

There is minimal and clear-cut action which is worth watching in the movie. The director has done a good job in not putting too much emphasis on those scenes which are not really important to the story. Everything seems to go in harmony and flows down naturally till the end of the movie.

The make up on Rachel is a little too excessive and unnecessary; she would have looked much better looking a little more natural. The movie has got quite a lot of repetition; once you have crossed the first 30 minutes of the movie you have pretty much seen it all. There seems nothing new happening after the initial minutes, the rest of the movie is just recycling of the first few scenes.

Overall, the movie is entertaining and although it may be a little repetitive you will most certainly enjoy it.

Action, Adventure, In Theaters, Mystery, Thriller sherlock holmes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceRating: Four stars

Rating:

Movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Studio : Warner Brothers Pictures

 Info : Click Here

Runtime : 153min

Website : harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x99zz1

Review:

There’s a scene at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where Professor McGonagall (always wonderfully played by Maggie Smith) says to Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, “Why is it whenever something happens, you three always seem to be in the center of it?”  Ron replies, “I’ve been wondering that myself.”  That’s basically the essence of the entire series, but these three kids (now teenagers) are so charismatic and likable that we accept everything and take the ride with them.
 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment in this huge franchise, and for those who haven’t read the books, I’ll give a brief plot summary: there’s strong sentiment going around the wizard world as to whether Harry Potter is the “Chosen One,” that is, the person who has been chosen to fight Lord Voldemort and save all of humanity.  Harry’s also found a book in his Potions class that belonged to the Half-Blood Prince, and this book is able to help him create potions.  Meanwhile, more ominous things are happening at Hogwarts, and Lord Voldemort may be working through Harry’s archenemy, Draco Malfoy, in order to wreak havoc.  We also learn more about the Dark Lord’s past, and see how Dumbledore inadvertently groomed him in order to become the force of mass destruction he is today. 
 
All of this stuff is fun and exciting, and we’re seeing a less whimsical and much darker Hogwarts than we have in the previous films.  The film seems to be mostly shot in neutral tones, which works very well given the secrets and histories we’re exposed to in this installment.  It does lag somewhat as we move towards the final sequence, but that’s only for about 15 minutes in a two-and-a-half hour film, and the conclusion left me stunned (even after I knew what was coming from having read the books).
 
Still, my favorite parts of the film had nothing to do with the suspense portion.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione have blossomed into teenagers, and they’re all experiencing true romance for the first time.  There are some well-observed moments here, as Hermione scowls while Ron becomes involved with another girl, and Ron’s sister Ginny grows increasingly infatuated with Harry.  I, along with several others, laughed out loud at some of their behavior, because watching it indeed reminded me of what it was like for me to be in love as a teenager. 

This is a good film.  It’s not my favorite of the series, but the action in this movie is as exciting as it was in the previous entries, and thus far, it’s the most human. 
 

-Craig Wynne

Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy, In Theaters, Mystery, Reviews by Genre, Reviews by Status, Romance Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy, harry potter, Romance

Orphan - Jaume Collet-Serra

Rating:

Movie: Orphan (2009)

Studio : Warner Bros.

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 123min

Website : orphan-movie.warnerbros.com

Trailer : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8qjbh

Review:

Movies about creepy kids have long been a reliable box office draw. Usually consisting of some seemingly angelic little boy or girl who starts out all wide-eyed and innocent but in the end is revealed to be a granny-mangling demon from the bowels of pre-pubescent hell, this sub-genre has given us such nightmarish cinematic icons as Regan from The Exorcist and Damian from The Omen.

The Orphan probably sits somewhere between the above classic examples of how to do creepy kid movies and Children of the Corn (as an example of how not to). Essentially it’s a domestic horror tale centering on the troubled Coleman clan and the swirling black-hole of loss and guilt that resides at the core of the family. We soon come to learn that the black-hole is the result of the tragic loss of Kate and John’s unborn baby. Kate is in therapy for her drinking problem while John deals with things by wandering around the house in a near perfect state of semi-consciousness. And so, to fill in the hole they decide to adopt another (older) child. Enter Esther.

Believed to be born in Russia and possessing prodigious musical and artistic abilities, the delightfully polite Esther immediately impresses Kate and John with her quiet and sad demeanor and they quickly decide to take her home from the orphanage. What was interesting at this point was that Esther was not simply being depicted as a one-dimensional mini -monolith of evil, but rather seemed genuinely vulnerable and moved by her introduction to the Colemans’ (relatively) stable family life.

It wasn’t long however before the creepy kid clichés began to pile up. But still, I reassured myself, that’s okay – heck, you could argue that all genre movies are just a series of orchestrated clichés! It was in the final act though that I finally gave up on The Orphan. Back-pedaling furiously from the complex position of having created an almost sympathetic killer kid, the film-maker instead took the easy way out by inserting one of the most ridiculous “twists” to come down the pipeline since Bobby Ewing came back from the dead in Dallas. Yes, the “twist” did answer a few (unimportant) questions – but it also provoked a new one: why did I spend $10 dollars on this crap?

In the end, despite the strong first half, the only person I would recommend this orphan to is Madonna.

-Paul Meade

Drama, Horror, In Theaters, Mystery, Thriller Drama, Horror, Mystery, orphan, Thriller