Category: Three Sentence Movie Reviews

Given that nearly every scene in this movie was reproduced verbatim,* I can only conclude that the reason for remaking this classic was to save today’s teenagers from the heavy synthesizer soundtrack of the original. The new Ren and Ariel do not have the–and I can’t believe I’m saying this–gravitas of Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer, and Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell are no John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest,** but I greatly enjoyed this movie. Setting this version in the South was a brilliant move and it’s so true to the original that it’s fun to see the “quotes” of the original movie sprinkled throughout in costumes, props and dance moves.***

Someone once told me there was a documentary about the girls who were in Annie and a post at the library blog prompted me to put the movie on reserve. I didn’t see a stage version of Annie until I was in my twenties, but the movie–and the movie soundtrack–was a big part of my childhood. It was fascinating to hear the stories of the girls in the Broadway show and on tour; some details were a bit horrifying (ten-year-olds at Studio 54! Where were their parents?) and some girls clearly never got over washing out at twelve, but the subject was fascinating and made the ending song particularly bittersweet.

“There’s a whole movie about Elmo?” everyone asked me when I mentioned I was going to see it. I was unsure too, I mean, Elmo the slightly annoying after-my-time Sesame Street character? But it was a fabulous documentary, because it was the incredibly moving story of someone on a path he was supposed to be on, and a story that included Jim Henson, who always cheers me.

This was well acted, very pretty to look at, had an interesting plot and was, alas, very slow. This was also the first modern 3-D movie I’ve seen and I found the 3-D to be a very distracting experience. “More like a Viewmaster, than actual 3-D” the person behind me commented and I couldn’t agree more.

I had to start knitting again because I needed to somehow feel productive while watching,say, four straight episodes of this series. It also caused me to break my “watch one disk and then back to the library” rule because it was just so damn good. Though I was quite disappointed in the final episode, what came before was amazing in a way I haven’t seen on a network series in forever–if ever.*

Hit with a massive wall of nostalgia from watching Pearl Jam 20, I had an intense craving to watch this movie, which I own. Alas, I own it only on videocassette and our DVD/VCR combo player bit the dust, only to be replaced by a DVD-only player necessitating me ordering this movie on DVD from the library. It’s been several years since I have seen it, but I still enjoyed it as this is a movie I can’t be objective about–it has changed in my mind from a movie to a “conduit to visit emotional states from many different points over a good decade or so of your life.”

I hadn’t heard of this populated-with-excellent-actors-who-acted-excellently movie. Aside from the somewhat frequent use of the f-word, it was a bit old-fashioned in the contemplative way and I enjoyed going along for the ride. This is not a movie to begin watching late at night, for you will surely fall asleep, but on a rainy afternoon, immerse yourself in this.*

This was a very fun movie which probably would have been even funnier if it had been subtitled as a lot of the British English mixed with the British slang flew past my ear. I loved the low production values, the characters were funny and sympathetic and the plot was interesting. Highly recommended, for people with the right frame of mind.

I’m not a fan of Pearl Jam’s music and never have been, but I am a fan of Cameron Crowe and my friend Kelly is a fan of Pearl Jam and this documentary appeared on my radar somewhat near her birthday so off we went. With all that said, I LOVED this movie. It might have been the huge nostalgia factor–there is a ton of early footage–that reminded me of my youth spent having crushes on boys whose style looked an awful lot like early 90s Pearl Jam, or it might have been that everyone interviewed came off as nice and their story compelling and so I couldn’t stop thinking about this movie for days.*

Not a film to take your germ phobic friend to, it was fun to see the many famous and talented actors (including, as I realized three days later: “That was Lizzie! From the Pride and Prejudice Miniseries) wander through this film. But what I enjoyed the most was the exploration of the societal aspects of the epidemic: the closing of state borders, the rioting, the looting. One slight criticism: if the mortality rate was 40%, why did we never see anyone get sick and then recover?