In The Reel World

Dopamine is an indie flick about love, and dissecting it to it’s base of chemical reactions.

It centers around Rand and Sarah. Rand (and his partners Winston and Johnson) create a virtual interactive pet named Koy Koy. They are trying to get the creation on the market, and have to go through a kid testing, allowing an elementary class (taught by Sarah) to demo the program for a while. Rand and Sarah get together, and while Sarah obviously is into Rand, he’s so convinced that love and lust and feelings toward other people in general is based on nothing more than chemical reactions. This even inspires him to create a “mate” for Koy Koy, when he’s able to create a code for pherimones.

The acting is very good (even if John Livingston who plays Rand looks eerily like Ben Afflack in certain angles.) The cinematography is great. The story is fantastic. Basically I LOVED this movie, and I think you will too.

Just saw The Simpsons Movie. It was freakin’ hilarious! Although, I guess it’s one of those movies that you either love or hate. When it was over, I heard two people (on opposite ends of the theater) make comments. One said, “That was great!” the other said “That was the stuppidest movie ever.”

*shrugs* I liked it!

There were tons of funny stuff. Granted, there were a lot of completely UNfunny jokes as well… but I think funny won out.

I was also surprised by numerous things in the flick, including Bart’s true feelings toward Homer showing through (wishing Flanders were his dad instead because he’d then have a dad who cared), Marge’s true feelings (unable to take Homer’s antics anymore), and Bart’s… uh…. package.

Ok, so the last one was uncalled for, but the way it was presented was still funny as hell! This movie will make you laugh out loud many many times.

Dreamland is a film about a girl (Audry) who lives in a dessert trailer park called Dreamland.  She’s got her dad (a drunkard with an unexplainable fear of leaving the trailer park), her best friend (who wants to be Miss America, and has MS), her boytoy (a co-worker who “drives her home” with a fair regularity), and her poetry. Then a new boy comes to the trailer park.  The problem is that both of the main girls end up liking him.  Audrey’s friend ends up being the one to date him, though, and Audrey is forced to watch their relationship… until it’s revealed that the boy actually likes Audrey.

The acting in this was… good.  It wasn’t great, but it didn’t reek of B-movie amateurism either. The plot was fairly interesting. The scenery was nice and the cinematography was well thought out.

However, the pacing was slow, and the script didn’t seem full. There wasn’t much reason for Audrey to “be in love with” the new guy, or even for him to like her back. They only hung out together a couple of times during the movie. The boy spent most of the film with Audrey’s best friend Calista who he was dating. Not enough happened between him and Audrey to give cause for their feelings for one another.

There’s also a scene where the dad is actually able to leave the trailer park.  This is, presumably, supposed to be a HUGE turning point for the character… but there’s never really a big deal made about it, as there should have been.  Everyone just kinda brushed it off.

So while the movie was pretty good (not GREAT, but didn’t suck), there were just some things that seemed unanswered.

Just watched Serenity last night.  It was FREAKIN’ SWEET!

Serenity is the movie conclusion of the cancelled tv show Firefly.  The movie shouldn’t even exist, really… I mean, what CANCELLED tv shows gets turned into a major motion picture?!?!!?  But Joss Whedon’s masterful show picked up a HUGE following.  The fans rallied, Joss was relentless, and we Firefly fans got our demand: A movie which concludes the series.

The acting was great, the cinematography, the storyline (and it’s twists)… it was beautiful!  Now, if you’ve never seen Firefly, Serenity will come off to you as a pretty good (yet not fully explained) sci-fi flick.  For Firefly fans, though, it’s a thing of beauty.  So obviously my opinion is slightly skewed, but *shrugs* I loved it, and it was the perfect ending to a great (and sadly short lived) show!

10 Items or Less     has gotten RAVE reviews from just about everyone.  It’s won a TON of awards.

It stars Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega, and was both written and directed by Brad Silberling. Morgan Freeman plays an actor who hasn’t been in work for several years.  He recently was offered a role in an independant film as a store clerk.  He goes to the store where Paz Vega’s character works, so that he can do research on the role (even though he hasn’t committed to the role yet). They end up getting to know each other well during the course of the day as Freeman’s driver never comes to pick him up, and he must go around with Vega as she confronts her cheating soon-to-be ex-husband, goes shopping, and interviews for a secretarial position.

I was VERY disappointed in this film.  It has gotten such wonderful comments, that I really had high hopes.  Those hopes, however, came crashing down about 30-40 minutes into the film.  I would have preferred more in-store interaction.  ACTUALLY, I would rather if the entire film would have taken place in the store.  The “adventures” the main characters went on was uninteresting, and more than that, it was unentertaining.

The acting was great!  Don’t get me wrong… but of COURSE the acting is great!  It’s Morgan Freeman!  The character he played, however, was just annoying. Vega’s character was realistic, and it took a fair amount of time for the ice princess she plays to warm up.

And the cinematography was very nice as well.  There were some great looking shots.  I was even more impressed by it when I learned in one of the special features that the film was shot in a mere 15 days!

Everything else, was BLAH.  The plot was uninteresting. The pacing was slow. I didn’t care about the main characters (never a good sign!). It just had me bored.

My sister was surprised that when I sat down with her this afternoon to see The Boondock Saints, it was the first time I’d ever seen it!  I’m glad I did.

This movie was great.  The acting was superb, the action was realistic, the story was good, and the music… OH the music!

Two brothers kill two members of the Russian Crime Syndicate in self defense. After being questioned by a homosexual FBI detective (played by Willem Dafoe)they spend the night in a holding cell.  While there, they recieve a message from God to kill evil people.  They start off by offing the rest of the bosses of the Russian Crime Syndicate.  Their friend learns their secret and joins them, as he knows all the major crime people in the city. That FBI detective from earlier is constantly a step behind them, until he comes to the conclusion that they’re doing good (in his eyes).

This movie is a must see (if you haven’t already)!  The ONLY thing I didn’t like was the twist at the end.  I don’t know, my sister thought it was a fantastic twist, I thought it seemed forced and broke the flow of the film.