MOVIE - Into the Woods

PG (2:04)

Wide release 12/25/15

Roadhouse Cinema Friday 1/9/15 with Cyra

RT Critic: 72   Audience:   58

Cag: 2/It was okay....

Directed by Rob Marshal

Walt Disney Pictures

Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Johnny Depp, 

My comments:  Well, I loved being at the Roadhouse.  I enjoyed the music, the set, and the costumes.  But the story, the plot, the way it all went together just didn't do it for me.  You were expected to know the stories (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk...and I'm still not sure about the baker, his wife, and the witch) so that big important chunks were only discussed after the fact.  The interlude with the baker's wife and Prince Charming (Chris Pine nailed this)????   (My favorite scene was the one between Prince Charming and his brother, Rapunzel's beau, at the waterfall.) What happened to the witch at the end...and why?  Interesting to note:  Some of the audience broke into applause at the end (and the ending stunk).

Google Summary:  As the result of the curse of a once-beautiful witch (Meryl Streep), a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) are childless. Three days before the rise of a blue moon, they venture into the forest to find the ingredients that will reverse the spell and restore the witch's beauty: a milk-white cow, hair as yellow as corn, a blood-red cape, and a slipper of gold. During their journey, they meet Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Jack, each one on a quest to fulfill a wish.
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MOVIE - The Five Year Engagement

A real treat (though a bit long) 

Wide release 4/27/12

I saw it Saturday 5/26/12 at Century Kolb, alone

R (2:04)

RT Critic:  62 Audience: 64

I liked it a lot....4.5

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Universal Pictures

Jason Segel (who co-wrote and produced), Emily Blunt (both were superb)

Good comedy - a touch of seriousness, all worked together well.  

MOVIE: Gnomeo and Juliet

Ho Hum
Released 2-11-11
G (1:24)
3-1-11 at El Con with Rachel G.
RT: 54 cag: 58
Director: Kelly Asbury
Voices include James McAvoy and Emily Blunt
the music's by Elton John, and if I remember right, he produced it, too.

Next door to each other, in contemporary England, live the garden gnomes of the Capulets and the garden gnomes of the Montagues. They come to life whenever there's no human in the vicinity. They, too, hate each other for no remembered reason, just as the humans do. They are constantly trying to outdo and out race each other. Then Gnomeo and Juliet meet and fall in love. I more or less follows the same story, but they don't die at the end, they life happily ever after.

It wasn't boring, but it sure wasn't great. It was rated G and a movie I could take a ten-year-old lady to see. So it served its purpose.

MOVIE - Sunshine Cleaning

Loved it - a lot
Viewed: Monday, April 27 at El Con
Rotten Tomato: 71% Mine: 95%
EW: B- Mine: A (Its beginning to appear that I disagree with EW a lot)
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Released: 3-13-09
R (1:42)
Directed by Christine Jeffs (she also directed Little Miss Sunshine)
Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Alan Arkin

Rose Norkowski (Amy Adams) has an eight-year old son, low self-esteem, a bumbling screw-up sister (Emily Blunt), a dad who tries all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes (Alan Arkin), and a mom who committed suicide when she and Nora were young. Add to that an affair with her now-married high school boyfriend (Steve Zahn) and a cleaning job that brings in very little income, plop it all in the middle of Albuquerque, NM, and you have the basis for this movie. There were so many layers to peel through, and I loved every one of them. The relationship between the two sisters was really the crux of the whole movie, and Adams and Blunt did mighty magnificent jobs. Such acting!

Zahn's character is a cop, and while investigating a suicide he hears how much the cleaning company charges for bloody, smelly, yucky clean-ups. He convinces Rose to try her hand at this sort of clean up and removal. The gross jobs they get are part funny, part very serious, and Rose and Nora get better and better at it until Nora screws up once again and burns down one of their jobs. Without insurance, they are sunk.

Clever, happy ending. Cute kid. A new love interest -a really interesting one. Layers and layers. Totally enjoyable, real characters with a great storyline. A new favorite.

Hey, this is my 250th post since I started blogging in August. Pretty cool.