Toy Story 3 (Reviewed by Chuck)

4/4 Stars

Unlike many I've heard talk about their low & reserved Toy Story 3 expectations, I didn't expect Toy Story 3 to be a bad or less than par chapter in the Toy Story franchise. Deservedly so, many are generally right when it comes to multiple installments being less than impressive than it's predecessors - generally speaking of any franchise. Toy Story 3 definitely did more than most any other "3" movie has ever been able to do, and that is to be able to leave audiences grateful that hard earned money spent didn't leave you feeling robbed of 2 hours of your time. In fact this Toy Story left me glad we forked out the cash to cover the whole family, especially where everyone loved the movie.

We have Andy, who is getting ready to go to college. He's told to pack things for college or the attic and the rest ends up in the trash. In a tough decision he decides to take Woody to school and pack up the rest of the beloved toys to the attic. Which he proceeds with, until he's distracted and leaves the toys (in a garbage bag) that were on their way to the attic - next to the attic staircase. Mom finds the bag of "garbage" and proceeds to take the toys to the curb. Woody witnesses this, panics because his friends have just been tossed, then - to make matters worse - the garbage truck is a few houses away.

The toys are able to set them selves free and decide to hop in a day care donation box in the open trunk of the family car because they realize that they have a chance to get played with by doing so. Upon arrival everything looks grand, even the kids that are going to play with them, as set up by the toy who is the "administrative director" of all the toys "Lottso" (Ned Beatty) and his "right-hand man" Ken (Michael Keaton) - from the Barbie toy line. Lottso assigns them to the room with younger children (about 2-3 years old) that nobody saw, when everyone arrived. These kids are reckless, destructive and have no care or concern for how they play with any toys. This obviously puts the toys in distress and are looking to get re-assigned to the older children's room.

The Toy Story group decides to send Buzz out to find Lottso and he discovers Lottso's posse - bad-mouthing Buzz and his friends - then capture Buzz. Buzz requests they be moved to more mature children and Lottso refuses, because the toys in the older children's room have already paid their dues and new guys need to do the same. Then in order to ensure the new guys don't create an uprising they turn Buzz into their security guard, turning the movie into a prison parody. Eventually the toys we're routing for capture Buzz and accidentally reset him to a Spanish-language Space Ranger and complete their orchestrated prison break.

In the final 3rd act there were a couple of moments that were close to tissue-worthy. Pixar could definitely end the franchise here, but left it open to make a 4th movie, if they wanted to. And to be honest I would love another Toy Story. I'm not getting tired of these toys.

The Hurt Locker (Reviewed by Chuck)

The ClearPlay Experience

After 2 hours and 10 minutes of war, bombs, shooting and lots of cussing I actually wanted my 130 minutes back. War movies are about the only types of movies I'll leave the violence, disturbing imagery and bloodshed unfiltered, because of it's nature. It's war, plain and simple, it's real and it happens. Generally speaking, war movies aren't glorified violence-fests, like you'd find in the Elm Street or Jason slasher's.

Why did I want my 130 minutes back, I didn't see where there was much of a story. We follow the main character around after he replaces the last bomb defuser that was killed in a bomb shockwave. We don't have a definitive direction the movie is headed, like with Saving Private Ryan, or Black Hawk Down. We simply have the bomb squad being called in when they see trip wires, a car bomb and the like and get to see some desert shoot outs from insurgents and the troops. Lots of swearing is everywhere in this movie and the violence was no where near what I'd would have expected from an R. Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk down were far more graphic and disturbing than Hurt Locker.

Despite allowing ClearPlay to let the violent related content come through there were a lot of skipped content that I wouldn't have expected, because I guess that a lot of the dialogue in the movie was brainless profanity, as it was rated R for violence and language.


The Hurt Locker (Rated R) - with ClearPlay shields at maximum - has a common sense rating of PG-13. Due to the lack of bloody, graphic and gory violence, I'm sure if the director took out all the swearing this would have been pretty easy to give a 13 instead of an R.
I'm assuming that the MPAA justified in giving this movie an R was for a suicide bomber - and 1 soldier in a non-related scene - get killed in a blast that envelopes the characters in dust and smoke. You know these guys are toast, but you don't see body parts flying, etc and you really don't get taken by surprise. It's pretty obvious that the 2 that are at the epicenter of the blast were going to get taken out by these bombs.

It almost felt I was riding around on the show "Cops." A lot of what was happening felt very random and pointless. I didn't feel like the movie was coming to fruition, except maybe to watch and see if the bomb squad finished their last 30 days of their tour. I'll be happy to go back and watch Saving Private Ryan any day. SPR has far more emotion and edge of your seat moments than this Desert Storm version of Cops.

Best Picture of 2009? Seriously??? After recently watching District 9, I'd put that as a better picture than Hurt Locker, but still wouldn't proclaim Dist 9 as the best picture either. However Dist 9 definitely had more going for it than this picture did. Parents are better off letting their kids watch a "real" war movie than this boring time waster.

Karate Kid (2010) (Reviewed by Ed)

 

3.5/4 Stars

Several months ago when I heard that they were going to remake the classic movie "The Karate Kid" I was thinking, "Whaaa??"  Then I heard that Jaden Smith (son of Will and Jada Smith) was going to be playing the role of the karate kid and I was thinking what a travesty this is going to be.

 

Then I saw the first trailer of the movie…yeah I was blown away!  Every trailer I saw I thought what an amazing movie this HOPEFULLY will be.  I mean let's be honest; I wasn't expecting this movie to be as good as the original.  In many ways it isn't but in many ways it's better.

 

They follow the main storyline of the original 1984 movie where the boy moves from his home to a different location (Detroit to China), sees the pretty girl, gets in a fight with the wrong boy(s) and the maintenance man (Mr. Han) teaches him how to fight (even though the boy has no idea he is being taught Kung Fu.)  Wax on wax off, paint the fence, sand the floor and paint the house is replaced by take off your jacket, hang up jacket, take jacket off (the hook), drop jacket, pick up jacket…and so on. 

 

What was done well in the movie:

 

First and foremost is the fighting!  If you thought the fighting in the original Karate Kid was good just wait until you see what's in store in this version.  Sometimes it was hard to follow the fight sequences because of the camera angles and the closeness of the camera to the fighters but for the most part it was fabulous.  The fighting in this movie was intense and I had the same feeling of emotion today as when I saw the original movie back when I was a teen.  All I can say is "The Fighting Dragon" fighters would utterly destroy Johnny and his "Cobra Cai" band of brothers in a heartbeat.  In fact, some of the fighting was hard to watch cuz it got kind of brutal in some areas.

 

Jaden Smith's fighting.  I'm pretty sure that if you were to take the 12 year old Smith and put him up against the 16 year old Macchio (even though I'm sure he was closer to 20 when the movie came out) Smith would kick the living daylights out of Macchio!  The kid is a fighter and has some amazing talent when it comes to fighting!

 

Jackie Chan.  Yeah the guy has had several bombs in the theaters over the past several years (probably his best movie before this one was Rush Hour 2).  Chan shows that he can take a serious role and make it work.  The scene where he's sitting in the car with Dre (Smith) is heart wrenchingly good.

 

Cinematography was a big plus in this movie.  Not only do you get to see some of the "slums" of China but you also get to see some breathtaking scenery.  The scene where Mr. Han and Dre go up to drink from the Dragon Well is quite impressive!

 

Emotionally for me this movie did a great job.  There was enough humor and heartfelt moments scattered throughout the movie to fill a person to the rim.

 

What was wrong with the movie:

 

I'd have to say that one of the biggest weaknesses was Jaden Smith's acting.  He had some really good moments but then there were times where he showed that he still needs A LOT of practice in this business.  Probably the worst moment for me in this movie was when Dre Parker (Smith) was lying on the bed after he had been injured in the tournament and he asks Mr. Han (Chan) if he thought he could win the fight.  The scene in the 1984 version had Macchio pour his heart and soul out but Smith's performance in this scene had ZERO emotion and left you not wanting him to even get fixed to go out and continue fighting.  There were also other scenes scattered throughout the movie where the same thing happened.  But he's only 12 and it's only his second movie so I'm willing to look past this a little bit.

 

I thought the 2.5 hour length was a bit long by about 20 or so minutes and they could've shed some stuff in editing here and there.  But I never really thought, "This movie is dragging!"  I was never really bored in this movie.

 

Another thing that bothered me was the kissing scene.  Smith has a kissing scene in the movie with the girl that he's fallen for and it's kind of weird to watch two 12 year olds kiss.  Now the kiss is pretty mild (which is far better than the kiss that Macchio and Shue gave us in the parking lot of the "Golf and Stuff"- which has to be the most disgusting kiss in the history of cinema if you ask me!)  But still, I felt a little uncomfortable watching this scene.

 

One thing that fell short in this movie was the relationship that Dre and Mr. Han had with each other.  You can feel the connection they had at times but it never was up to par as it was for Daniel and Mr. Miagi in the original version.

 

Overall this is just a great movie.  I'd put this as my favorite movie of 2010 so far.  If you have young kids please know that there is some mild language throughout (I think I counted 4 swear words…mostly said by Smith.)

 

Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!

Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 5
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 1 (Because I will buy it!)
Would I buy the movie? 5

 

"The Karate Kid" is rated PG and features some strong violent content and imagery, mostly involving pre-teens and teenagers (bullying, including beatings, and martial-arts action violence, such as kicking and punching), scattered profanity, some mildly suggestive references and slang terms, and derogatory language and slurs. Running time: 140 minutes.

Shutter Island (Reviewed by Chuck)

2.5 out of 4 stars

The ClearPlay Experience
After 2 hours and 15 minutes of twists and turns I was pretty tired. I definitely expected a lot more of a slasher-type movie and got a psyco-trippy thriller. Despite it's rating for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity, ClearPlay did another amazing job of keeping it clean. And to my surprise the skipped content didn't make the movie feel disjointed. I almost couldn't tell where anything was skipped. Although there was plenty of muted language, yet this wasn't even a remote distraction.

Shutter Island (Rated R) - with ClearPlay Shields at maximum - has a common sense rating of PG-13 - up until the last 20 minutes - if you're basing it on the content the dvd player skipped. However - despite the skipped content - I'd have to lean towards keeping this one rated R, based on a delusional woman has drown her children (about ages 8 - 14) and they show the pale, lifeless children being pulled from the lake and being placed on the shore. As she babbles on about keeping them for their personal dolls... very sick and disturbing. Very delusional.
If you are comfortable letting 13 - 18 year old teens watching R's you might want to re-consider. Perhaps as a parent I'm too sensitive now, but I found it gut-wrenching as I watched the scene with the kids and in the same instant the thought crossed my mind as to what I would be doing and thinking if I were in the same position. By the time you're at flashback with the kids, you know what's coming and you can skip right through this flashback scene and be just as good without seeing this part.

Looking beyond the MPAA

It's often thought amongst those in the LDS community that there is a commandment that R-rated movies are to not be watched. As explained in Is There an R-rated Movie Commandment? - by Orson Scott Card we're actually reminded that we're admonished to avoid pornography, violence, sex, profanity - and the like (pertaining to all media, not just movies.) Also to not give ourselves a false sense of security by holding to a law that was never handed down from the Latter-Day Saint prophets, by black-listing R's and white-listing all PG and PG-13 rated movies. In short if there is content that you don't deem appropriate or isn't - as Paul says - "beautiful, lovely or praise worthy," don't watch it, don't listen to it, avoid it... run away from it as fast as you can.

Which brings me to a new family-friendly device that tries to put movies back towards "beautiful, lovely or praise worthy:" the ClearPlay DVD player. In case you haven't read the little blurb in the upper right Simply put, ClearPlay is a DVD player that enables your family to enjoy all of the great Hollywood movies you’ve always wanted to watch—without all of the junk you don’t want. The DVD player has been programmed to skip points in the movie that contain inappropriate scenes or mute inappropriate dialogue - so you don't have to hover your finger over the fast forward and mute buttons.
After watching many movies on my ClearPlay DVD player I will never go back to watching movies without ClearPlay, if I can help it. Also, for many R-rated movies I've watched, ClearPlay has cleaned them up to be worthy of a PG-13 rating. ClearPlay has also done a very good job toning down a lot of PG-13 movies so I don't need to feel that a 13 year old would need to be 16 before being mature enough to watch some movies.

In my home if a PG-13 movie has content I don't want a 16 year old to watch I'll deem it R, Restricted - as the single letter acronym stands for. That being said, because the members of the MPAA rating panel are human too we should always remember that what the panel members slap on a movie isn't "movie rating gospel." As a parent I still dictate what is appropriate and what isn't. As for myself, I've even had a few people question me as to why - as an adult - I'd need something like this, and frankly I care about making sure I see movies without profanity and sex and all around a lack of inappropriate content.
One caveat about ClearPlay is that it can't change the overall tone of any movie. For example - I won't watch Brokeback Mountain, because it's about 2 gay men. Even without anything sexually related I still don't want to watch a movie about the relationship between 2 gay men. Nor can it remove the hate-fueled revenge between the 2 leading characters in Lakeview Terrace. It will remove the profanity and violent acts, but not remove the overall tone of animosity between the 2 characters.

When suggesting to a friend of mine - that has a ClearPlay DVD player - that she should watch R-rated "The Rock" on ClearPlay (it's an Alcatraz movie that I found to be very entertaining and void of anything close to being rated R, when viewed via ClearPlay), she said "Oh, I haven't come to the point where I'll watch R's on a ClearPlay DVD player." I then asked this person if they'd watch the "made for TV" version and she said "probably." Then I asked her what the difference was between the TV version that had content removed, versus the ClearPlay version that has virtually the same content removed. Needless to say, questioning her logic left her making excuses as to why an R that was cleaned up for TV was acceptable to watch and the ClearPlay version was not.

I find it interesting that there is a security blanket in a cleaned-up-for-TV version that this person didn't find when considering watching the same movie on ClearPlay. I guess there is safety in familiarity. How about yourself, assuming you have an aversion to R-rated movies, how quick would you be to watch a TV version of "Back Draft" or "The Matrix" instead of the version on ClearPlay? After all skipped content is still skipped content.
I hope no one assumes I'm saying that ClearPlay makes every movie in the G - R spectrum acceptable to watch, I'm simply saying that for the most part ClearPlay does an excellent job of cleaning up of the inappropriate content in a movie and can enhance your DVD watching experiences, but remember that if something has an overall tone that is disagreeable, ClearPlay can't cleanup the tone. It can't make the 2 lovers in Brokeback Mountain heterosexual.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Reviewed by Ed)

(2.75 out of 4 stars)

“I've seen its power with my own eyes. Releasing the Sand turns back time. Only the holder of the Dagger is aware what's happened.”

Set in the mystical lands of Persia, a rogue prince and a mysterious princess race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time -- a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

Adopted from the streets of Nasaf by King Sharaman of Persia, young Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) grows up amongst royalty and quickly earns his place as a mighty warrior and prince. As his brothers Garsiv and Tus plan battle strategies, a spy sends word that the Holy City of Alamut has been supplying weapons to enemies of Persia. Taking matters into his own hands, Tus orders an attack on the sacred city and upon its fall Dastan encounters the beautiful Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton). When King Sharaman dies under mysterious circumstances shortly after, and Dastan is accused of his murder, he flees with the princess on a harrowing mission to clear his name. Learning from Tamina the true motives behind Alamut's invasion, Dastan must embark on a perilous quest to stop an evil mastermind's plot for ultimate power with a mystical weapon that can control the very fabric of time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473075/plotsummary


Leading up to this show I was very excited to see this movie. From just the trailers alone I thought this was going to be one of the best movies in a long time. But after hearing some of the buzz around the movie of people that actually saw the movie, sadly my expectations dropped quickly; going from what I was hoping to be one of the best movies of the summer to just hoping that I would at least get my money’s worth on my movie ticket (my ticket was free so I’m sure there’s a lame joke in there somewhere).


What was good about the movie:

I really enjoyed the action scenes in this movie which were choreographed well and there were plenty of swashbuckling fights and chase scenes to keep a tired 40 year old entertained. The acrobat and “Parkour” chase scenes were fun to watch.

(What is “Parkour”? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour).


The special effects (SFX) didn’t disappoint either. ILM was the company that did the SFX and they did a good job for the most part. The SFX were about as good as you would see in the “Pirates” movies but not up to the standards of the “Star Wars” movies or even “Avatar” but still good nonetheless.

The acting, although not great, was still good enough to get you through the movie and not be disappointed.

There’s enough eye candy in this movie for both men and women with Jake Gyllenhaal’s ripped abs and biceps and the beauty of Gemma Arterton to keep both sexes happy for almost 2 hours.

The brightest point of the movie, in my opinion, was Alfred Molina. He really saves the movie. Every scene he is in he does a great job. This is one of the first movies I remember him being in where he plays the “comedy relief” character and he does a good job. Hopefully his star will rise and he will do more characters like this.


What wasn’t good about the movie:

Probably first and foremost was the editing of the movie. It seemed there were times where you thought “did they skip a scene?” Makes you wonder if they were rushing a few areas to edit the movie down and didn’t go back and check what they just did. Some transitions from one scene to another were choppy at best.


The plot lacked fluidity. I think this goes along with the editing problems as they go hand in hand. The flow of the movie seemed chaotic and in need of some help but it wasn’t as bad as the editing was.


I’m giving this movie 2.75/4 stars and I probably would’ve given this movie 3/4 stars if I wasn’t so tired while watching the movie. (I saw a 10:25pm showing and I was pretty tired leading up to the show.)

Overall this was a fun “popcorn” movie that most people will enjoy. Will it be good enough to see again? Only time will tell. Disney will probably make enough money from this movie to be happy but probably not enough to be thinking “sequel baby!!”

The movie is rated PG-13 but honestly if it wasn’t for a few quick innuendos within the first 30-60 minutes and the more extreme violence in the last 30-40 minutes of the movie this movie could’ve been a PG movie. I’m excited to see this movie on ClearPlay as I can already tell this will be one that should flow nicely (for the most part) when watching it on ClearPlay.


Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!

Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 2.5
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 5
Would I buy the movie? 2.5


“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" is rated PG-13 and features strong violent content and imagery (arrow fire, swordplay and knife play, including slashings and stabbings, creature attacks, fiery and explosive mayhem, and violence against women and children), brief gory and bloody imagery, suggestive language and references (mostly innuendo), derogatory language and slurs (some of them sexist in nature, others based on ethnicity and social standing), brief drug content (poisons and toxins), a brief scene depicting violent interrogation, and glimpses of nude artwork (statues). Running time: 116 minutes.