You Again, with Sigourney (spell check thinks that should be Eastbourne, Swinburne, Dourness or Glyndebourne – I think we’re still a far hail from a robot uprising, so we can all relax for a few years) Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis in a family ‘coming of age’ blah story. My personal edits would have left the movie with Weaver and Curtis and it would have been a hilarious, albeit short, movie. To put it succinctly they stole the show. The younger women’s story was probably around a 6/10 because while it wasn’t bad, it really wasn’t worth paying attention to and the story given to them to act was rather highschool-imaturity crap. Weaver and Curtis’ parts of the movie were easy 8/10 possibly even a 9.

Overall I’d say 6.5/10. Unless you like Weaver and Curtis in their comedy roles, you’ll get zero out of this movie beyond a bunch of young adults acting immaturely.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was great, but Nicholas Cage and Jay Baruchel are both actors you can’t go too far wrong acting. Baruchel is actually one of my new favourite actors (I watched him in Undeclared so I really can’t say favourite new actors, although certainly favourite new lead actor). The story is typical young-adult sci-fi of nerd likes girl, impresses girl = love. Albeit the story surrounding it is actually well put together and planned.

Overall I’d say 8/10. It’s fun to watch and is original enough to feel new. The acting is good quality so nothing kills your engrossment. It also very discreetly left an opening for a sequel rather than the typical BTW SEQUEL SET-UP RIGHT HERE like you get out of many young-adult targeted movies. Heck it’s Baruchel, 8.5/10.

The Switch was a good all around romantic comedy that wasn’t just about cheap and easy laughs. Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston played their roles excellently, plus Jeff Goldblum was good comic relief throughout. Like a lot of Bateman’s comedic roles, he lets you find the humour. This was what I got from Arrested Development, his role in Juno and many others. He’s funny, but he’s not trying to be zany to get laughs.

Overall I’m giving this another 8/10. It was a good all around movie that only helped its own story. It was funny, it was touching and most of all it didn’t feel like the happy ending was being forced on the characters.

Country Strong again was a good movie. Gwyneth Paltrow played the alcoholic country star good. The best actor in the movie was Garrett Hedlund (IE Tron Legacy) as I fully liked the character before I caught why he felt familiar and IMDB’d him. He played a guy in the middle of it all quite expertly and he managed to make his character feel real.

Overall it’s a 7/10. Kelly Canter’s (Paltrow) twist ending was rather forced. I know things are predictable when both me and my wife are guessing it before it happens. I like a good twist, but it has to be well executed and in this case it wasn’t. So it ended with me feeling rather cheated as up until they pulled the ‘twist’ card I would have given it an 8, but don’t piss me off with the damn ending. They could have played straight into it, but didn’t.

©2012 Nik Gregory. All Rights Reserved.

Considering I went through this with my wife, it was actually damn close to what real life is. If reality is why this movie got a not so great rating, then I like bad movies. Reality, for me, trumps farce every time.

It’s a definite must see movie.

©2012 Nik Gregory. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s why I liked it:

Most importantly, the voice acting was very well done. The voices suited the characters, they weren’t just planted in the role because of who they were; I didn’t realise I knew Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) from as many things as I did. There were, obviously, some name-drop extras, however John Goodman and Oprah Winfrey fitted their roles well.

The story was strong, with a few good twists. Not necessarily unexpected twists, but they’ll certainly be a delight for the young children this movie is targeted towards. It is enjoyable for adults, which the Disney Classics usually are. The emotions in the movie feel genuine, which is a must for any romance.

The musical numbers were excellent, and I’m talking Aladdin & The Lion King good. The plot existed and wasn’t as holy as Swiss cheese, it made sense throughout the entire movie for the characters to be doing exactly what they were.

And here’s what I disliked:

The key problem in this movie was pacing. The beginning was fun, however progress through the bayou felt a little stuck in the mud. It had its humour, but the start of the middle section had a serious pacing issue. This resolved itself and recovered for a good ending, however here’s a message to Disney: You’re selling this to small children, I didn’t want to sit still during the slow period, why would an 8 year old?

Other than pacing, there weren’t any glaring problems. The action and adventure felt genuine and not forced. The romance between Prince Naveen and Tiana had feeling. Most notably, this felt like an actual movie, it didn’t feel like it was created to play for a black demographic because it’s an ‘untapped market’ by Disney. It’s a romance set in New Orleans, end of. The fact Tiana is African-American is as irrelevant to the story as it should be, it’s a story about love.

Overall: 8/10

©2012 Nik Gregory. All Rights Reserved.