127 Hours

This movie is pretty much what I expected it to be and that’s why, for most of the movie, I forced myself to multitask rather than focus completely on what was happening on screen. Especially at the end I tried not to watch too closely (if you don’t know what happens, you must be living under a rock [haha!]). James Franco did a fantastic job and was almost the only person in the movie, definitely deserving of that Oscar nomination. I don’t want to own this one, but it was worth checking out just to say “Hey, I saw that!”.

Paper Man

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this movie. The acting was fabulous, I know that much. Emma Stone, Jeff Daniels, and Lisa Kudrow all did a splendid job; I definitely had empathy for their characters. The storyline, however, was a bit too odd – a middle-aged writer can’t sit still and has an imaginary superhero friend named Captain Excellent. His wife only visits him on weekends to allow him time to work and also to get away from his insanity, so he hires a babysitter for himself and they become really awkward friends. Odd story, but decent movie overall.

Limitless

Bradley Cooper is pretty. Wait, that’s not the point of the movie, but it’s a definite bonus. This movie was surprisingly good – decently acted, interesting concept, and entertaining plot. If you need to know what it’s about (other than Bradley Cooper), the basic idea is that a guy starts taking a drug that allows him to use 100% of his brain, thereby allowing him to do many things an average man cannot. He starts accessing information he didn’t know he had and making connections in completely new ways. Fascinating concept that is likely to spark conversations and entertain you, too.

Dakota Skye

Dakota Skye is a teenage girl who has a unique superpower – she can tell when a person is lying and knows what the truth is. Because of this power (and teen angst in general) she’s unhappy and is somewhat of a slacker. The plot starts getting interesting when she meets Jonah, her boyfriend’s childhood friend, who never tells a lie. The more time Dakota and Jonah spend together, the closer they get and start to fall for each other. Predictably, this causes some problems so now the movie has a plot. It’s an interesting story, but quite slow at times.

Timer

The premise of this movie is pretty nifty: it’s an alternate reality where a timer was invented that, when implanted in your arm, will start a countdown until you meet your soul mate provided he/she also has a timer. The story follows two sisters, one whose timer says she’ll meet her man at age 45 and one whose timer hasn’t started yet, and how their timers affect their, and others’, life decisions. It’s a fantastic concept but it’s a shame the acting wasn’t up to par. If you have Netflix streaming, it’s certainly worth the $0 to check it out.

Cowboys and Aliens

This movie has a terrible title. I won’t say that the movie was spectacular but it wasn’t as bad as the title would have you believe. It’s entertaining, but that’s about as much as I can give this film. Being a western with aliens, the storyline didn’t stand a chance of being genuine or heartfelt. Also, the acting was mediocre and I felt little kinship for the characters (with possible exception of the Native American, but since I don’t remember his name I guess I didn’t care that much). I say you should save yourself $9 and just Redbox it.

Gnomeo and Juliet

Let’s start with some honesty: I love Romeo and Juliet so my opinion may be a bit biased. That being said, I really enjoyed this movie. It was adorable and followed the basic storyline about as well as you can expect from a cartoon about garden gnomes. There were little Shakespearean references and a few slightly dirty jokes for the adults and a cute love story with Elton John music for everyone! Oh, and did I mention it was all English people doing the voices? Fun! One complaint I had: please leave out the dance scene at the end, thanks.