review

I rarely see movies in the theater anymore, but here are some reviews of movies I've seen lately, out of four stars.

August Rush: * * 1/2
This is a case where the trailer is better than the movie. I loved the music, and I love Freddie Highmore. It makes me so sad when boys this cute have to grow up and turn into weird Hollywood types. Have you seen Finding Neverland? One of my very favorites, and he is the boy who plays Peter in that show, and August in this one. His dimple is adorable, and he is a seriously great actor. Most people will think August Rush is weird--and it is. I especially hated Robin William's character "the Wizard" and wish he hadn't been in it at all and they had focused more on the Juliard aspect of his life. But the cello music is amazing, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is very handsome (is the Irish accent real?) and reminds me a little of Joaquin Phoenix. I also thought Terence Howard was underused. I liked it, but you probably won't.

Dan in Real Life: * * * *
LOVED this movie. I love Steve Carrell so I was bound to like it, but this movie was so real. My sister Ellen leaned over and said that she loved that the girls in the movie wore sweats and pajamas (they're at a family reunion in a remote lakehouse), because that's what real people would do on that kind of trip. She also mentioned that it was interesting that there were kids around in every shot. This is realistic! Families go on vacation and the kids disappear? No, they're all over the place. That's what it's like. The family is funny, the situations are real, it's just one of those feel good movies that make you happy for days. Juliette Binoche plays her part well and isn't 20 years old because that would be unrealistic, even though most movies would cast a 20 year old because they're hotter. Wherever the movie is shot is beautiful! One thing that did bother me was one of Dan's daughters, who is probably 14 or 15 is "in love" with this guy and he catches them making out in a restaurant in the beginning and again later in the movie, and everyone thinks Dan is being unfair to this daughter when he tells the guy to leave her alone and that she can't see him anymore (his daughter, in one classic scene, calls him a "murderer of love". Hilarious). Here's the thing: he's the dad, she's acting inappropriately, and it's fine for him to set limits on who she dates and what they do when they're together, especially at her age. Even given that, I still give it four stars and highly recommend it.

Transformers: * * *
Dave and I rented this a few weeks ago. He'd seen it in the theater but I hadn't seen it yet. I thought it was surprisingly good! I used to play transformers with my brother as a kid, so it was sort of nostalgic. I also love Shia LaBeouf and thought he did a good job in the movie. One weird thing is you see his best friend tons in the beginning of the movie and once he meets the pretty girl you never see him again. Why even introduce the character if he's not playing a more central role? Weird. One awesome thing: you can go to the transformers website and have Optimus Prime call someone you know and have it personalized. My brother had him call me and it was hilarious!

Becoming Jane: * *

This movie was not what I expected. Again, the trailer was better than the movie--in fact, watching it again here gave me chills and made me want to see it again! I love Jane Austen and never knew her heartbreaking life story--but the movie was a little weird, with strange sexual references and one nude scene that was totally unexpected. My mom, sister, and I went down to the dollar theater in Provo to see it because that was the last place in Utah that it was playing...it was packed (it brought back lots of memories of $.50 Tuesday movies!) and if I had been watching the movie at home by myself I totally would have cried, but it wasn't worth crying in front of people for. The character development wasn't good enough, especially for her sister or her boyfriend--why do we care that her sister never got married either, and why do she and Tom love each other all of a sudden after hating each other?--and the artsy cinematography was awful. Another problem that I had is that I really liked the guy who wanted to marry her (not Tom), so it bothered me that she wouldn't give him the time of day. Not my favorite movie by a longshot. The music is beautiful, though.