Movie Reviews

It's been a while since I've reviewed movies on here, so I thought I would fill you in on a few movies that I've seen lately (in the order I've seen them).

Meet the Robinsons

This film is confusing at best. It's a wonder it made it through the storyboard phase. The main problem - too many characters. It is confusing enough when you have a character going back and forth through time, it is too much when you introduce a bunch of people that confuse and disturb the story. Overall it had a good message and was kind of fun to see how they weave the story through time, but mostly I was confused through a great part of it. (Spencer points out to me that the problem may be the amount of writers that were on the project).

Hannah and Her Sisters

Typical Woody Allen relationships and neuroses. I love Woody Allen films simply because he is able to share pieces of lives of people that actually seem to exist. While this film is definitely not as intriguing as Annie Hall or Love and Death, it certainly has heart and drama which is rare for most of Allen's work. I especially loved how subtle he was with the characters, it reminded me a lot of the drama that exists in the show Mad Men (which is also great). Overall I think I would have preferred Allen's wackiness to this more serious venture, but it was definitely worth a look.

The Night Listener

Definitely creepy. This is the sort of film that can raise a certain amount of suspense, but never fully delivers. Nothing really happens. It is like a slow moving symphony that threatens to pick up, but never delivers. I absolutely love Toni Collete and she was perfectly crazy in this film. It's no wonder she was given the role of Tara. As for predictability, this one was up there, but it didn't spoil the movie for me, it was just a "meh" at best. It did show that you don't need people dying and/or killing each other to create suspense.

Crossing Over

I don't know where this film came from. I had not seen any trailers and I have read absolutely no reviews for it. We were given free passes to see it at the theater so we decided why not. All I can really say that was good about the film was they were able to raise a lot of tension in very hostile situations. If anyone deserves a medal for being in this movie it would have to be Summer Bishil for her portrayal of the precocious young teenager who is way in too deep. I also give kudos to Ray Liotta who, although playing the same purv-ey stereotype he always does, was able to bring it together in the end with a subtle and sad depiction of a broken man. As for the film itself - whatever.