What movies have you seen recently?

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Jingle All the Way

Arnold movie in which he tries to get an action figure for his son on Christmas Eve.

Whiskey on a Sunday....in honor of the day...

Life Of Pi

Lol, which story do you like better - the real story or the Book of Daniel telling...

No Country for Old Men. I know it's been around for a few years, but you can't rush these things.

Scooby Doo 2

Bit weird seeing what is normally a cartoon, transformed into a non-animated version.

JFK

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Steve Carell makes a crappy attempt to shed his "nice-guy" image by playing an egocentric magician based in Las Vegas in a corny, predictable "Jerk VS Jerk" movie, with Jim Carrey playing an egocentric street magician with rising popularity.

Oz, The Great and Powerful

Overall the movie itself is comparable to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The basic storyline is similar (and similarly predictable): the reluctant hero gets thrown out of reality and into the fantasy world, where s/he is prophesied to save the land from a murderous villain. Then we have the characters: There's the reluctant hero who inevitably winds up saving the day (Oz and Alice), the pure-hearted monarch (dressed in white, no less) who needs a champion (Glinda and the White Queen), and the semi-sympathetic, shrieking villain who routinely wishes death upon everyone who dares cross her (the Wicked Witch and the Red Queen), as well as some CGI companions/comic relief.

However - and this is a big however - the biggest difference between Alice and Oz lies in their execution. This is going to sound blasphemous coming from such a die-hard devotee of Tim Burton's, but I actually thought that Oz, The Great and Powerful was better executed. The dialogue was snappier, the fantasy world was more spectacular and lively-looking, there was actually some racial diversity in the cast (although all of the main characters were white, some important secondary characters were black, which is unfortunately more than you can say for pretty much any of Tim Burton's movies except Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even then it's dubious), and the use of actors and actresses other than Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter was actually kind of refreshing. I wouldn't mind seeing James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis in other roles.

Don't get me wrong, Alice in Wonderland and all of my other Burton favorites still hold a very special place in my heart that can never be replaced, but there's also a tiny part of me that wonders just how differently movies like Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would have turned out if they had landed in Sam Raimi's (the Oz director's) hands instead of Burton's.

To basically sum up my experience: I walked into the Oz movie expecting something lesser than or equal to my favorite Tim Burton movies, and walked out questioning my loyalty to my favorite director. The obsessive, nostalgic aspie in me still prefers Burton (because his movies were the last major special interest I had before I seemingly lost the ability to have special interests at all), but my inner movie critic prefers Raimi.

Rise of the Guardians

This movie really resonated with me because of how strongly I feel about imagination and supposedly "fictional" characters (I believe in the Multiple Universe Theory of quantum physics, if that tells you anything). During one scene I got goosebumps and almost started crying. Not out of sadness, but out of joy. I love this movie because it made me feel like a child again: totally in touch with my imagination and feeling like I'm invincible and that anything is possible.

But despite my love for the movie, it did have one fault: I thought that the scenes of flying/traveling happened too frequently and lasted a little too long. This is a fault that is very easily overlooked, though. I found myself totally absorbed in the movie and those scenes didn't jar me out of it one bit.

I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to get in touch with their inner child again.

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) - surprisingly very good.

very funny indeed

Life Cycles (2010) - X sport type documentary
I Believe I Can Fly: Flight of the Frenchies (2011) - the guys were there the previous week to show their line walking skills at the open air cinema.

The Pianist

The true story of a Polish-Jewish piano player who struggles to survive World War II. Great movie. Warning: There are some brutal scenes involving Jews being murdered.

Big Fish

This is one of few Tim Burton movies that I had been procrastinating on seeing because I worried that it would be boring or lacking in usual Burton charm/magic. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about. It was an expertly-woven, magical tale of a father's life told through flashback as he was nearing death. It was hard to tell where fantasy stopped and reality began, which both confused me and endeared me to the story. There were some scenes in this movie that made me go WTF, but they added a touch of surreal humor to the movie. All the actors and actresses in this movie were very good. There were some people who I recognized immediately, such as Missi Pyle and Deep Roy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and of course Helena Bonham Carter; while others I didn't recognize until I looked up the cast on Wikipedia, such as Danny DeVito (who of course had starred in Batman Returns) and Marion Cotillard (who I know from Inception), as well as Miley Cyrus , who (thankfully) played a bit part.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to anyone who would enjoy a little dose of fantasy in their day.

The Aviator

Martin Scorsese film about Howard Hughes' life between 1920 and 1947.