I keep talking about all the different movies out there, and there were times when I talk about DVD releases that I mention a couple of TV shows. I decided to go through a few TV shows this week that are favorites of mine. Keep in mind that a lot of the TV shows that I will talk about aren’t ones I usually watch off TV itself, I usually find them on DVD or on the internet.
The first one I want to talk about is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Figured this would be a good one to bring up because they are doing a film adaptation of this show, and it will be hitting theaters July 2. The show was found on Nickelodeon, and I believe it is still on Nicktoons, if you have trouble finding it on TV, you can easily find the season sets on DVD, there are three seasons. This show is about Aang, who is known as the Avatar, who is suppose to bring balance to a world that is in darkness. This world is divided into four different tribes, water, earth, fire, and air. Each tribe can control one of these elements, for example, people of the water tribe can control water. The Avatar, however, can control all of the elements. The show starts off with a couple of kids in the water tribe that discover a boy in a big iceberg, they free him and he turns out to be the Avatar who had disappeared 100 years before, and they follow Aang on a journey to help him learn all of the different elements so he can face the Firelord, the leader of the Fire Nation who is taking over the whole world, and bring balance back into the world. What I really like about the show, besides a lot of the cool animation, is that it has a great story to it, and each episode has a great moral to it. Definitely something that I believe is worth checking out.
By the way, you can find the trailer for The Last Airbender movie by following this link. Looks promising, but I will have to wait till the movie arrives. The trailer can also be seen before Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I haven't seen any of the new offerings yet, but this weekend Valentine's Day was number one making a total of $66 million throughout the long weekend. Of course, Avatar is still running strong, it is now standing at $661 million, impressive. Shutter Island arrives in theaters this weekend, and not much of anything else this week. Next weekend, Cop Out comes out in theaters as well, and then the following week we will see the release of Alice in Wonderland.
First off, Avatar is now the champion at the box office, in the United States, and around the world. It has sunk Titanic. Congratulations to Avatar. If you still haven't seen it, you should. As well, the Oscars have been announced, you can follow this link to see the complete list of what was nominated. They have some pretty good choices. Of course there are still plenty of good movies that didn't make it in the nominations.
Now moving on to this weekend, what else is there to do on Valentine's Day besides eating chocolate, you can go see a movie, as there are a few different choices this weekend, besides all of the previous movies that have come out. We have Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which is based on a series of books of the same name, then we have Valentine's Day which has a pile of well known actors, (remember He Is Just Not That Into You) but should be decent, and then we have The Wolfman, which was suppose to come out last year, but didn't. Seems like the movie that should come out during Halloween and not Valentine's Day, well it does give us a different choice. Plus there are a lot of other good movies that are out as well, When In Rome is actually a really funny movie, pretty cheesy but it really made me laugh in many areas.
As for DVD and Blu-Ray, one movie that I recommend is Zombieland, (it's rated R, but I saw it using a device called a ClearPlay DVD player, you can go to www.clearplay.com to learn more about it, but it's a DVD player that can skip through graphic violence and sexual content, and mute bad language, so I can enjoy a movie without all that stuff) Zombieland was hilarious, and it had a decent story. There are some more movies arriving on Blu-Ray and DVD this month, but nothing I would consider excited. In March will have plenty of good releases to choose from. Where the Wild Things Are arrives March 2, along with Ponyo (also three of Miyazaki's films will be rereleased on DVD, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service) and also 2012, March 9 will see the release of Old Dogs, Planet 51, and Evangelion 1.0 You Are Not Alone will be released on Blu-Ray (which I really enjoyed). On March 16 we will see Princess and the Frog on the shelves, along with Did You Hear About the Morgans?, The Fourth Kind, Astro Boy, Armored, and that week Twilight: New Moon will arrive (for all the Twilight fans). March 23, look for Blind Side and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Toy Story will arrive on Blu-Ray. Then March 30, look for Sherlock Holmes. And I will throw in one more title to find, on April 6, Lord of the Rings trilogy will arrive on Blu-Ray (but in theatrical edition only, fans of the extended versions will have to wait a little longer), so there is much to look forward to.
Sorry, it's been way too long since I have last written on my blog. There has been plenty that has happened since. First off, Avatar is making a lot of money. Since the Friday estimates, it stands at $525 million, and by the end of this weekend, it should surpass The Dark Knight, which ended it's run with $533 million, and hopefully soon it will surpass Titanic which stands at $600 million, and become the number one movie of all time in the USA, and it's also coming close to becoming the number one movie in the world money wise. (Expect me to make an announcement when it finally surpasses Titanic) That's pretty impressive, if you haven't seen it yet, you should go see it. In fact, go see it in 3D, it is a great experience. Another good one that came out during the Christmas break was Sherlock Holmes.
As for the releases in January, there have been a few. One movie that got a wide release was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, if you don't know what it is, it was actually the film that Heath Ledger was working on when he died in January 2008. They had to make some changes to the movie to deal with the big loss, which included bringing Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to help fill in his role. It is a really bizarre movie, but it is very entertaining, in fact I want to go see it again. Another movie that got a wide release was The Lovely Bones, haven't seen the whole thing, but it looks good from what I have seen. Plenty of other releases this month, the first weekend had Daybreakers and Leap Year. The next weekend had The Book of Eli, which looks good in my opinion. And the kids movie The Spy Next Door. This weekend we have Legion, The Tooth Fairy, and Extraordinary Measures. I have heard the latter is really good. This month will finish with When In Rome, and Edge of Darkness. When In Rome looks like a decent comedy that should have a few laughs, it has a decent cast attached to it, so hopefully it will be good. Edge of Darkness stars Mel Gibson, who plays a father who loses his daughter, and she is involved in some conspiracy, it looks interesting. The following months have pretty solid movies that should be coming out, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief looks rather good, and it arrives in February, along with Shutter Island. We get Tim Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland in March, plus a remake of Clash Of The Titans. We have some pretty good movies coming.
As for DVD and Blu-Ray wise, there have been some pretty good releases. One that I did get on Blu-Ray was 9, and the quality is very good, both video and audio wise. This Tuesday, we will see the release of Surrogates this Tuesday, and also we will get Michael Jackson's This Is It. Plus Whip It! too. This year will hopefully have some really good catalogue releases on Blu-Ray, like Armageddon, which would look good on Blu-Ray. I will keep you posted on the main things that come out on Blu-Ray.
The ones that I will more likely remember the most
Avatar – A 3D movie that is really worth watching, I mean there are other movies out there that have the 3D feature, but they aren’t necessarily better in 3D, but this one is. It is amazing to watch, the visuals are incredible, and the performances are also really good.
Blind Side – One movie that took me by surprise. A great uplifting story to begin with. I think the great part is to watch this with lots of people that are really engaged by the movie, it was fun the first time to watch it when everyone in the theater was clapping when Mike takes that guy during the football game over to the buses. Also, Sandra Bullock gives a great performances, as well as everyone else.
Star Trek – I am not a Star Trek fan, in fact I never really watched anything that had to do with Star Trek, just one film 10 years ago, but this one was really engaging, even if I really didn’t know too much about the franchise, I really loved the movie and was something that I could watch again and again.
Up – Pixar does it again, they give us a really good story and incredible animation. It was also very entertaining that I came back to watch it multiple times.
Fantastic Mr. Fox – I really like to watch movies that are different than what we normally watch, this is one of those that is very different, and yet it was very fun to watch, and also had a very engaging story to it.
500 Days of Summer – Again, a very different movie than what we would normally watch on a daily basis, but yet it was very funny. I really liked a lot of the camera work and the editing was cleaver. One of the best parts is the dance sequence, guaranteed to make you laugh.
Taken – A surprise action flick. You see Liam Neeson kick a lot of butt, in fact the ones he goes after are people that actually deserve what they get. It was very entertaining and intense.
Sherlock Holmes – I think Robert Downey Jr. is becoming a great actor. He is great and funny in the roles that he is in.
Where the Wild Things Are – Not many people really appreciated it, but I found the movie to be great. It was a very deep movie that had a lot of emotion to it, which really surprised me.
District 9 – A really interesting concept. Aliens as refugees, really cool weapons, this was a very entertaining movie.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – I really liked this flick because beforehand, I was not a huge Harry Potter fan, I mainly went to the movies to watch them because they were decently entertaining. But this one basically made me a fan. It was dark and had really interesting development to the story.
Ponyo – I am a Miyazaki fan, and if you are too then I guarantee that you will enjoy his latest masterpiece. Great animation and very simple.
Invictus – It was a little slow in some parts, but it had a great story to it, and the performances by both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon were excellent.
Other good movies worth noting
Angels and Demons – I did not enjoy The Da Vinchi Code that much, it was way too slow paced, but this one was more fun to watch and a lot of cool shots in it.
Terminator Salvation – Never really watched the previous Terminator movies till this year, but once I watched them, I really enjoyed them. This is another one that I really enjoyed, different than the older ones but still great to watch.
9 – Yes it was short, but the visuals were excellent and it was great to view the animation and the design.
X-Men Wolverine – I have to admit that I was disappointed when I first watched this movie, but I have watched it a few times since and I have enjoyed it. Good story to it.
A Christmas Carol – I have heard of too many adaptations of the Christmas Carol story, but I really enjoyed this interpretation.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – The best way to describe this movie is that it is really crazy funny, a lot of moments that will just make you laugh because they are really ridiculous. It is totally worth watching.
The Proposal – One of those comedies where you are certain that it won’t be that funny, but it turns out to be very funny, in fact there are parts where you end up laughing really hard because it is very funny.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – They made the sequel to the 2007 blockbuster just a little too crude that it ruined the movie for many people. Besides that, it was a fun blockbuster to sit through for two and a half hours. Lots of action, battle sequences, and special effects.
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra – One of those movies that is actually fun to watch and rather enjoyable. Definitely not the best story or acting in a movie, but if you want a movie that you want plenty of action, here you go.
State of Play – I was actually really surprised by how good this one was. It is one of those where you have to think through to figure out what is going on. A lot of interesting twists.
Surrogates – Good movie, I don’t know exactly what to say about it, but it was entertaining, and it had a good message behind it. It is worth watching.
Princess and the Frog – Disney’s return to traditional animation, and it was a grand return. I loved the songs and the animation to it. Very fun to watch.
Michael Jackson’s This Is It – With the death of Michael Jackson back in June, they decided to release this documentary on the rehearsal performances of his comeback concert. It was great to see how well he performed. I didn’t have much respect for him, but I do appreciate his work after watching this documentary.
See once, and you will be satisfied
All About Steve – The one thing that I will remember about this movie is Sandra Bullock and her playing a very different role than I would normally watch her in. I was also laughing really hard at a few parts in the movie.
Land of the Lost – I thought the movie was so stupid, that it was funny. There were parts where I was laughing so hard because it was ridiculous.
2012 – Lots and lots of special effects. You want to see a movie where everything gets destroyed, then here you go.
17 Again – I am not a Zac Efron fan, but I actually enjoyed this movie, and there was one part where I was laughing really hard.
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – The one character that made this movie was Buck the Weasal, voiced by Simon Pegg.
Inkheart – It was entertaining, lots of fun moments.
I really didn’t need to see that
Year One – I was not impressed with this movie, I do have to admit that there were moments where I was laughing hard at, but not enough to say that this movie was worth my time.
The Invention of Lying – The first 30 minutes were full of great laughs, then the story took the turns where things weren’t as funny.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant – I think John C. Reilly was the greatest thing in the movie, and that was about it. It was entertaining in some areas, but not really worth your time.
I am really excited for some of the things coming out this year, and hopefully they will be great.
Just got back from watching Avatar. And yes, I watched it in 3D. I felt the best way to watch this movie was to view it the way that James Cameron made it to be viewed, which was in 3D. Was it worth it, YES. Even if you don't see it in 3D, is it still a good movie, absolutely. It's amazing to think how much 3D technology has changed in the last while. I still remember going to see Spy Kids 3D back in 2003, I really didn't care for it, and the 3D effect was incredibly annoying to watch, not easy to focus, for 3D glasses, we were given these red and blue glasses that we would wear, difficult to watch. In 2007, I went to go see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, it was originally made back in 1993, but they converted it for 3D, and it wasn't super amazing, but it was still good to watch, but also I really enjoyed the movie. They have done many movies in 3D this year, some of the ones I saw were Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Christmas Carol. The thing that makes 3D good is that it makes everything look more real. This movie was totally one of those where everything looked real, and was totally a great experience. The only drawback to the 3D, especially if you can't always handle watching it, is that it is a long movie and having glasses on for that long can be hard, and trying to adjust afterwards can be a little interesting. But it was worth it, and I would love to watch it in 3D again, and I totally want to watch it again in either 3D or 2D. The performances were great, I really like Sam Worthington, I think he is a really good actor, Zoe Saldana was superb (she has been in Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean 1, Guess Who), Sigourney Weaver was also great, as well as everyone else. I highly recommend this movie, and this is one of those that you should see on the big screen.
In other news, there have been a handful of trailers that have come out this week. There is one for Iron Man 2, Alice In Wonderland, Shrek 4, and Clash of the Titans. I am looking forward to next year, should be great. I am excited for Iron Man 2.
Sorry I haven't updated for a while, I have been getting through finals and the end of the semester. Well, because I finished all of my finals tonight, I decided to celebrate and go see Invictus. It was a really good movie. Morgan Freeman plays a recently elected president in South Africa and he is trying to help build the nation up, and he finds the rugby team that represents South Africa is one way to help bring the nation together. Everyone gives really good performances, including Morgan Freeman. In fact, he has received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. I highly recommend the movie. Also, if you want to see the list of the Golden Globe nominations, click here.
Another movie that I recommend is Fantastic Mr. Fox. It is a very different movie than what we normally watch, but I found the movie to be very enjoyable. If you like stop motion animation, or are looking for something that different, then you will enjoy this movie. Another one I recommend if you enjoyed all of the classic Disney movies like Little Mermaid or Aladdin, is Princess and the Frog. It was a very enjoyable film, and brought back a lot of good memories of the old Disney musical cartoons.
This weekend, we see the release of one movie we have heard about the last few years. I first heard about it back in January 2007, it is Avatar. Of course I have been really more excited for it recently with all the trailers they have been showing. You will be able to find it in either 3D or 2D, for those who can handle the 3D, apparently this is one movie that must be watched in 3D, so I plan to check that out tomorrow. I will let you know what I think when I see it. Another option to consider for it as well, IMAX 3D.
The other movie coming out tomorrow that looks good is Did You Hear About the Morgans. You have some good choices this weekend. This fall and winter have had some pretty solid movies to go see, which is good, and hopefully these next two weekends bring us some more good ones. Sherlock Holmes should be amazing. We will find out. I will also give a review of this year soon.
Well, we have made it past the Thanksgiving holidays, and now we are entering the Christmas season. We had some pretty good movies come out, I got to check out Blindside, which was excellent, if you have not checked it out, then go to the theater and see it. This week, I am going to try to go see Fantastic Mr. Fox.
As far as releases go this weekend, there isn't a whole lot of action, there is Armored, Everybody's Fine, and Brothers, and Up in the Air. Everybody's Fine looks like it might be decent, it has Robert De Niro who plays a father that has all his children cancel their plans to see him for Christmas, so he decides to go visit them. I guess we will see how it does. Next weekend, we see The Princess and the Frog, Invictus, and The Lovely Bones. Fans of classic Disney animation like Aladdin may want to see Princess and the Frog, Invictus looks like it should be a pretty good film, and Lovely Bones looks bizarre but could be good. The following weekend will have Avatar, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, and Nine. Then Christmas weekend we get the sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sherlock Holmes, It's Complicated, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. There will be plenty to choose from. I am mainly excited for Sherlock Holmes and Avatar.
Also, there will be plenty of Blu-Ray and DVD releases. Terminator Salvation came out today, and also Night at the Museum 2. Next week we will have Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and to let you know that I looked at the prices on www.bestbuy.com, and I saw that the DVD version with only the movie is $15.99, while the Blu-Ray version is only $16.99, and the Blu-Ray version also comes with a DVD copy of the movie, and also a digital copy. If you have a Blu-Ray player, and you are deciding between the DVD version or the Blu-Ray version of a movie, and the price difference between the two is only a buck, then go for the Blu-Ray version, especially for a price like that. I bought Terminator Salvation today online at bestbuy.com, and the Blu-Ray version was the same price as the DVD version, which was $15.99, so I got the Blu-Ray version. Also next weekend we get Julie and Julia. December 15 we get The Hangover and G-Force. December 22 we will see District 9, All About Steve, and 500 Days of Summer arrive in stores. Then on December 29, Blu-Ray and DVD versions of A Perfect Getaway, 9, and Paranormal Activity will be found on the shelves. Also, keep your eyes on the prices of these movies, you may get lucky and find rather good prices on Blu-Ray versions.
Last note for tonight, did any of you join the Black Friday fun. I did, and I got some pretty good deals. I got Spaceballs and Live Free or Die Hard on Blu-Ray for $8 each, and then Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Batman Begins for $13 each. Pretty solid deals, and I also got some other items that morning.
