QMR: Monsters vs. Aliens, Taken, Vicky, Sister Dorothy, Shane

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Monsters vs. Aliens: 3D (2009)

• Bottomline: Take your kids to see it – in 3D!


• Pros: Tremendous production. Tons of fun.


• Cons: Couple of scenes in the movie that actually made a little girl in the theater cry.


• QMR Opinion: Word on the street is that this movie was actually filmed in the 3D technology thus giving it an even better 3D look on the screen. It worked. The 3D work here is terrific and is absolutely worth your time and money to go to the theater. There is nothing overly deep here although I have heard one reviewer applaud the film for is empowerment of women. All in all it’s just a lot of fun. Other than a couple of scenes where it turns “serious,” the movie moves along at a quick pace understanding both its audience and its purpose – kids = fun. Reese Witherspoon does good voice work here but kudos go to Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach and Seth Rogen as B.O.B.

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Taken (2008)

• Bottomline: Save your $10. Rent It.


• Approximate DVD Release Date: May 2009


• Better Abduction Movies: Die Hard, Live Free or Die Hard, Silence of the Lambs


• Pros: Watching an angry father kick butt and take names


• Cons: Action scenes tend toward the absurd. Requires above average need for suspension of disbelief


• QMR Opinion: Liam Neeson’s daughter has been snatched while on vacation with a friend in Europe. Talk about a bad choice. Turns out that Liam is a former CIA operative who specializes in killing bad folks. He warns his daughter not to go to Europe. She and her slutty friend go anyway. Within about an hour of landing on foreign soil, they are kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. You know where this movie is going. You know what’s going to happen to the “loose” friend. I laughed out loud at one action scene where Liam is in the middle of the bad guy’s camp, putting a drugged young lady into the back of a car. . .all the while bad guys are shooting at him from every conceivable direction. Glass flies. Bullets fly. Men are yelling. Liam raises up, shoots his pistol about three times – three bad guys dead. Not one scratch on Liam. The good news is the movie lasts about an hour and half. As of this writing, it’s still in theaters. . .save your money and rent it.
  

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Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

• Bottomline: Definitely worth the rent.


• Pros: Strong performances by Javier and Penelope. Intriguing storyline.


• Cons: The neuroses can get on your nerves. Scarlett Johansson stares at nothing – a lot.


• QMR Opinion: Penelope Cruz, who won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance here, is strong. No doubt. However, we don’t see her until we’re about an hour into the movie. Up to that point, that movie is being carried by Javier Bardem, who surprised me with his strong performance here. Woody Allen wrote and directed this film so you get a lot of Woody’s personality in the characters – neuroses, worried, etc. Each character represents a different component of the Freudian personality complex – the Id (instinctual, pleasure seeking), the Ego (reality) and the super-ego (organized toward perfection). A particular disappointment here is the cookie-cutter New York businessman. Woody takes the easy way out with this cliché. A bonus? Patricia Clarkson.
  

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WARNING: TRAILER CONTAINS DISTURBING IMAGES.

They Killed Sister Dorothy (2008)

• Bottomline: Excellent documentary worth your time.


• Where It Can Be Seen: It is running on HBO. DVD release date has not been announced.


• Pros: Gives insight into the fight over the rainforest and why it’s important. Seeing the trial is worth watching the doc.


• Cons: Showed the bullet-riddled and bloodied corpse of Sister Dorothy. Necessary?


• QMR Opinion: In February 2005, two men walked up to Sister Dorothy Stang and shot her once in the back of the head and then emptied their pistol into her body as she lay dying. The nun from Dayton, Ohio, died facedown in the dirt of the Brazilian rainforest. For 30 years she and other nuns had been fighting for proper land use of the rainforest. Each day they faced down illegal logging and bullying landowners. There is no question that this documentary can get preachy at times but it tells a riveting story of a brave lady who died fighting for something she believed in – something she was willing to give her life for. Watching the trial of her killers would make even the most cynical person appreciate the North American justice system.

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I love these old school movie trailers.

Shane (1953)

• Bottomline: See it. Then watch it again. Magnificent.


• Where It Can Be Seen: Turner Classic Movies. DVD.


• Pros: Fantastic direction by George Stevens. Powerful performances by Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, and Jean Arthur. Terrific scenery and cinematography (Oscar winner).


• Cons: Not enough scenes with an extremely young Jack Palance.


• QMR Opinion: Every now and again, some one will come along and ask: “What is the best western of all time?” I would offer up The Searchers (1956) and Unforgiven (1992). However, Shane is easily in the Top 5. Stevens spent months finding the perfect location (just outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming) and then spent more than a year editing the movie until he thought it was perfect. The one scene you see over and over is where Little Joey is yelling for Shane as he rides off into the horizon. However, watching the movie again gives you a whole new appreciation for just how good it is. Alan Ladd is positively electric throughout the film. The sexual tension between Ladd and Arthur is intense. A bonus here is a young Jack Palance who is a downright badass in his black hat, black glove and cold-hearted demeanor.