(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer

My oldest son gave me this movie for Christmas. We watched it last night with his two brothers. It’s about this young man, Tom, (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who was also Tommy in the TV series Third Rock from the Sun) who fell in love with this girl, Summer (Zooey Deschanel), who doesn’t believe in labels and relationships. The movie tells us about the 500 days of their relationship, but not in chronological order. It’s a funny and sweet movie. And I think it was neat to watch it with my three boys. They all like it, even the youngest one, who’s only 11 going on 12.

Across the Universe

Across the Universe

This musical film is a feast for the ears and eyes, especially if you like Beatles song. The main characters are named Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood, she’s all grown up). You must have already guessed why those names – Jude as in Hey Jude and Lucy as in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It was set in the turbulent 60’s amidst the riots and the Vietnam war. The most memorable scene for me was when they sang Let It Be. I’ve heard for the first time some of the Beatles songs that I have never heard before. And I just fell in love with them.

Thirteen

Thirteen

Thirteen is co-written by Twilight’s Nikki Reed (Rosalie) and Catherine Hardwicke (director). Hardwicke also directed Thirteen, so please don’t judge her just based on the first Twilight movie. Thirteen is about Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) who was a sweet innocent 13-year old with pigtails at the start of the movie. But on her first day of junior high, she noticed how Evie (Nikki Reed), the hottest girl in school is getting all the attention and she did all she could to be her friend. But Evie was a bad influence on sweet Tracy. Evie encourages Tracy to steal, have body piercings, tattoos, sex and drugs. Great performances from the actors, especially from Holly Hunter who plays Tracy’s mom. It was also interesting to see a very young and cute Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) as one of Tracy’s nicer friends.

Push

Push

This Dakota Fanning starrer is an interesting sci-fi action thriller based on the writers’ assumptions that there are people working for the government that can see the future, as in psychics. Like how else would somebody know that some person is smuggling drugs at this place on that date? The characters in this movie have paranormal abilities, like telekinesis, psychic abilities, and the even the ability to change the future. The scariest ones are the Bleeders. They have the ability to emit high-pitched sounds that cause anybody who can hear to burst blood vessels and eventually die.

Get Smart

Get Smart

I love Steve Carell. I think he’s a classy funny guy. I enjoyed watching this movie. The boys loved it too. In this movie, he works for a U.S. spy agency as an analyst but has wanted to and has been training to become one of the agents. An opportunity came for him and he got promoted as an agent and he was partnered with the famous Agent 99 who he didn’t know was this gorgeous agent played by Anne Hathaway. Cool spy agent devices. Kind of like James Bond, only funny.

Driving Lessons

Driving Lessons

It’s nice to see Rupert Grint play a role other than Ron Weasley. In Driving Lessons he plays Ben. He works as a companion to an eccentric ex-actress, Evie, played by Julie Walters who plays her mum in HP. I didn’t recognize Julie Walters in this movie because she’s usually larger as Molly Weasley in the HP movies. Ben is a shy boy and has a strict Catholic upbringing, but after hanging out with Dame Evie that summer, he grew up and learned how to stand up for himself. This is a nice coming of age story.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a copy of December Boys anywhere here in Winnipeg. It’s the one that stars HP himself, Daniel Radcliffe.

Ballet Shoes

Ballet Shoes

When I found out that the three primary cast of the Harry Potter movies also filmed other movies, I thought that it’d be nice to watch them play different roles.

The first one I rented was Ballet Shoes starring Emma Watson.

It’s a good family movie. Emma plays the oldest of three orphans raised as sisters, Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil. It is set in the 1930s and is based on a children’s book of the same title. Pauline wants to be an actor, Petrova wants to fly an airplane, Posy wants to be a ballerina because the only thing her real mother left her were a pair of ballet shoes. The film basically tells the viewers that “Dreams do come true.” I think young girls will enjoy watching this movie.