I don't like Westerns at all but out of curiosity borrowed 3:10 to Yuma from my local library and watched it. I absolutely loved the movie, it was excellent. It had great casting (especially Christian Bale, Russell Crowe and Ben Foster), a quality script and visuals, great action, a simple but well-told story and mountains of drama. The protagonist was a reluctant hero but a hero nonetheless, the villain was equally evil, likeable and sympathetic. The main characters all had realistic motivations for their actions. The ending was very powerful and thought-provoking. I highly recommend this movie but for adults and older teens. Rated MA15+: contains strong violence and some strong language. 8.5/10

I've been meaning to watch Scott Pilgrim and How To Train Your Dragon.

One of the big things about Scott Pilgrim is that you have to understand video games to get the bulk of the stuff. The desert scene is a little trippy, but think of a video game when you hit game over or lose a life. I didn't really notice the racial stuff (or somehow didn't identify it as racist at the time), but the one thing I really didn't like was the character Wallace. Take him out of the movie and the rest goes pretty good for me. I did love the video game styled action scenes and some video game music.

Watched four movies in four school nights Anyways, I saw How to Train Your Dragon, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Last Airbender, and Flipped

Dragon- I loved that movie. Fun story. Great visuals. Not you typical Dreamworks movie. What's not to like? Pop Culture out the window. They need more of this. It's why I also love their movie: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, that's about the story.

Scott Pilgrim- Out of curiosity I saw this one too this week and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't think I would like it at all, which is why I didn't see it sooner. My low expectations I am sure helped me to enjoy it as much as I did honestly. I didn't mind Knives much, though she's not a favorite either. Wallace I thought was interesting, no problem with him either.

Airbender- The animated series. if you can. watch it.

Flipped- never read the book so I wasn't aware of the time-set difference. But I absolutely loved the movie when I saw it in theaters, and again when I bought it on DVD. Terrific.

About a week or so ago I recorded 1951's No Highway in the Sky because it starred Jimmy Stewart and I've loved him in pretty much every film I've ever seen him in, and because it was about aviation. My brother's a fan of airplanes and ATC, and his enthusiasm has always rubbed off on me, too; we used to fly all around the world in imaginary airplanes when we were small. (I didn't enjoy playing airplane as much after he got older and became interested in air traffic control; I remember being very impatient to get off the ground while he "radioed" the tower for clearance to take off. )

Anyway, finally had the chance to watch it with him last night, and we both really enjoyed it. Stewart, playing an aeronautics scientist who is trying to prove a theory about metal fatigue, is wonderful as the awkward, absentminded intellectual who boards a flight and becomes part of his own experiment. Don't really want to say too much more lest I might spoil it for somebody, but all of the acting was quite good, and the film was by turns very suspenseful, funny, and touching. I liked it a lot, and am looking forward to seeing it again.

Oh yes, Outlier! There seems to have been a load of good animated movies lately - I love those three you mentioned, and there's Mega Mind, and Despicable me too. I've been spending a LOT of money on movie tickets during the last year.

Hmmmm well I have yet to see Mega Mind, but for the most part, I like Will Ferrell movies so I bet I'll like it too. Despicable me was a good movie, but somehow it didn't really stick for me. It was a little too predictable and cheezy but it was still a good film... The graphics in HTTYD also seemed better too. Sorta seemed more Pixar-like, in a good way.

Pilgrim: Hmmmm well maybe racist wasn't what I was really going for there... maybe if there was a scale between "poking fun" and "racist," some of those lines were on "(border line, depending on your views) offensive"... they mainly just made me hit my forehead thinking "did he really just say that???" when some lines came... Wallace was kinda weird. No, probably just weird. The guy texts while unconsious, and shares a bed with Pilgrim... But he does give Scott good advice and is there for him, so I was fine with his character... I do agree though that it's bad reviews made me like it more than I expected, and the fight scenes were pretty awesome... and the songs!

Avatar: I think it's almost unanimous that the tv series is better than the movie... I read somewhere (I think it was in the trivia of it's imdb page), that Dev Patel (Zuko) said that except for a few scenes, he didn't like the movie... IMO, if the actor's don't really like the movie, then what does that say about the movie???

Flipped: Yeah, I read the books when I was in sixth (or seventh grade)... Except for the era/time change, the book is almost exactly the same as the book... Although I think Lynetta's and Garrett's character was slightly bigger

Hmmmm well I have yet to see Mega Mind, but for the most part, I like Will Ferrell movies so I bet I'll like it too. Despicable me was a good movie, but somehow it didn't really stick for me. It was a little too predictable and cheezy but it was still a good film... The graphics in HTTYD also seemed better too. Sorta seemed more Pixar-like, in a good way.

It is really good and funny - in some ways a little bit like Despicable Me () and really sweet.
I really liked Despicable me, though I'll have to see it again before I decide whether it or HTTYD is better. And I understand about the Pixar-like - highest compliment to an animated movie EVER!

We had free Showtime channel at work over the weekend and I got to watching the 2009 film Knowing with Nicholas Cage. It's...weird. It starts of with Nick Cage and his son acquiring a letter that was sealed in a time capsule at his son's school. Where the other kids got pictures Nick's son gets a letter from a little girl with all sorts of numbers on it. One night Nick is looking at the paper (while getting sloshed...he's recently widowed) and discovers to his horror that the numbers are actually dates and death tolls. He tracks down all of the events for the past 50 years and discovers that there are 3 events still left to transpire on this paper and they're all occurring within the week. What follows is something of a race against time as Nick and his kid are joined by Rose Byrne and her daughter in trying to stop what's going to happen. Meanwhile there are these blonde headed weirdos sort of stalking both their kids and whispering a lot. And lots of little black stones.

I have mixed emotions on the film. The special effects were pretty good and Nick Cage has his quirky acting cap on, not that there's anything wrong with that...I like Cage, but I know he's not everyone's cup of tea. The film includes elements of theology but they're a bit...off (nice try again, Hollywood...hopefully one day you'll get it right ).

The thing that annoyed me most about this film was

Well, today I went to the library and got The Karate Kid (2010) and King Arthur (2004). Should be an interesting viewing experience.....

Will post my thoughts on these films after I've watched them!

I'll wait to post spoilers, but both are pretty good. While difficult to replace an original, I actual like the new Karate Kid better than the old one. As for King Arthur, it's different than any typical Arthurian movie, much more historically themed and not so much legendary based. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on them.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga' Hoole.
Maybe the movie gets better, but I couldn't really get into it. It wasn't long before I just turned it off. And I really hoped to enjoy it.

Nanny McPhee Returns.
Much like the first one from 2005, the movie is silly- but the lessons are nice to watch. I enjoyed it. Although I still enjoy the original just a tad more.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga' Hoole.
Maybe the movie gets better, but I couldn't really get into it. It wasn't long before I just turned it off. And I really hoped to enjoy it.

Aw, I'm so sorry you didn't like it! Maybe you should have suffered under it, and maybe you would have enjoyed it after awhile. I really loved that movie - especially Owl City's song in it.

King Arthur: Directors Cut (2004)

Pretty much what I expected, though it was a bit better than I thought it would be. The acting is a bit rough in spots, but all the principle characters are well formed and likable. I do wish they had developed Merlin a bit more. He seems to just pop-up a few times and give advice then disappears.

The special effects, set design, cinematography, music, etc. was all very top notch. I thought the look of the film felt familiar, then found out thanks to the "making of" that the cinematographer for Arthur also did Black Hawk Down. Hans Zimmer's score is your typical action music from him, though this time it's actually both highly enjoyable and mostly orchestral. Gasp!

The film is basically split into two halves: first part is largely political talk with a few battles and then the build-up to the big finale. Some of the political talk got a bit annoying, but it was overall handled well. I like the fact that

So, I would give this 3 1/2 out of 5.
Unrated, though contains mild language, lots of violence some gore and a brief love scene.
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The Karate Kid (2010)

First off: why call it "The Karate Kid" when the film features Kung-Fu? They even repeatedly say it's Kung-Fu in the film..... *sigh* Hollywood.

I was pleasantly surprised by this little film. While it's nowhere near as good as HTTYD, it does have likable characters, a good sense of humor, some neat martial arts and great cinematography.

There are some negatives to the film, though. Some of the actors seemed a bit stiff at times, mostly from the kids. For the most part the kids did great, but at times some of the line delivery was on the flat side. I really disliked the overacting by the Mom. I know she was suppose to be part of the comic relief, but she really got on my nerves. The score by James Horner was good and fit the film well (as always), but is not one of his better efforts. Far and above Avatar, but lacking something... well, until the last half hour that is.

BTW, did anyone else noticed that during the scene where Mr. Chan was fighting the kids the music sounded like something from TDK?

Overall I liked this film and wouldn't mind seeing it again. Along with HTTYD this is another pleasant surprise from 2010.

3 1/2 out of 5.
Rated PG: Mild language, action/fighting.

@: PrinceCor004, the best explanation for "Karate Kid" is to blare out to the world, "Remake!" They covered their buts from people screaming that they had knocked off from another movie by simply stating that it was a remake. Is this making sense?

Anyway, I recently saw a remake: The A-Team!

A four squad team known as an Alpha or A-Team is accused of a crime which they didn't commit. During the course of the movie, they try to prove their innocence. Yep, that's pretty much it! What spruces up the movie is a myriad of dazzling stunts i.e. "flying a tank".

Now, this is the list of characters as they appeared in the *TV series*. There's Hannibal Smith, the ever calm guy who smokes cigars and always has a plan. There's Face, the con artist and ladies man. Guess who he likes to con? There's B.A. Baracus, the bash 'em thrash 'em dude. And last, but certainly not least, there's Murdock. His upstairs is a little different from ours, but he is an excellent pilot.

There you have it. These were the characters which I have grown to love. Hannibal I love because he always raises five hundred every time some one is trying to intimate him. I'm kinda half and half about Face. He's charming to be sure, but there's that con artist and ladies man side to him. Fortunately, in the TV series, lots of his schemes end up back firing. That's fun to watch! B.A. I love because, hey, he's got muscle to spare! However, if anyone has watched the TV series, I would be very surprised in any of them didn't like Murdock. His antics were just so hilarious and he got away with them in the name of craziness.

So, getting back to the remake, this is the kind of characters I would have liked to revisit, even for a fleeting moment. I would have preferred it more than flipping jeeps which is what the other half of the TV show was all about. Unfortunately, the filmmakers chose to focus on the latter. There were a lot of amazing special stunts, but fun was lacking because of the lack of completely outrageous characters.

Hannibal had a strong opening, but was later portrayed as the guy without a plan. Call me a purist, but I didn't like this. Hannibal is supposed to be, like I said before, the guy who raised five hundred every time he's being threatened. In the last part of the movie they gave the glory to Face of all things! This made no sense to me, especially since they watered down Face's character even more by not focusing on his con artist side much and more on his ladies man side. That's right, they give the glory in the end to the ladies man! Humph, is what I say!

Now, I was also kinda ho hum about how they handled B.A.. Of course, you might be thinking, "how hard can you screw up a Bash 'em Thrash 'em part?" Well, they did it. For the most part, characters are generally more interesting three dimensional, right? Well, in the filmmakers attempt to make B.A. three dimensional, they screwed up his character. Basically, they set up a power struggle in B.A. where he's trying to decide whether or not he's truly a tough guy or not. But, seriously, that ruined it for me a little. The whole point of B.A. is simply this: nobody can beat him up. Somebody punches him and it like he was hit by a fly. He punches somebody and they fall prostrate. Seriously, a human tank is cooler when it is! Not when it's deciding whether it is.

Lastly, I come to Murdock. Now, I will give the actor who played him the benefit of the doubt. How can anyone be expected to live up to Dwight Schultz as that role? That would be practically impossible! However I would have liked to have heard a least one crazy one-liner which reminded me of Murdock. I got it! In the movie, Murdock hits a heater or something with a helicopter and it falls onto B.A.'s van. Murdock replies to B.A.'s utter outrage: "That's a handicap zone. You can't park there!" Unfortunately, that's the only memorable line and it's in the trailer to boot. Oh, well, figures!

Okay, that about sums it up. A good FX movie, but it failed to portray the characters the way I like them. I give it: 6.5/10

Shadowlander I watched that recently as well and I must agree that the ending was definitally wierd...and for once I would love to see Nicolas Cage in a movie not about having all these clues and trying to find something...much like Jack Black and comedies

my all time favorite movie is the Sound of Music I love everything about this movie, I know every single word to the movie, and even missed watching the Super Bowl one year because it was on TV

The Karate Kid (2010)
First off: why call it "The Karate Kid" when the film features Kung-Fu? They even repeatedly say it's Kung-Fu in the film..... *sigh* Hollywood.

Cuz it's Hollywood! The movie takes place in China, and Kung-Fu is Chinese, yet they have to keep the title of Karate (Japanese) because it sounds cooler