Christmas Break Movie Reviews

Over Christmas break we chose to spend some of our lovely leisure time watching movies. We are grateful for the invention of the RedBox, from which we are able to rent movies for $1 a night ($1.08 to be exact :-P). We are more often in the mood for comedies than anything else, and we managed to pick three pretty good ones to watch (you have to be careful with RedBox--some of those movies are "weirdies," as we say). So, for the benefit of any film fans who might read this, here are a few reviews:

Kung Fu Panda is about a panda named Po who dreams of being a kung fu legend. He works with his dad making noodles, which is clearly not his passion. Comically enough, his dad is some sort of duck, which is about as far from a panda as any animal in the movie (except perhaps a grasshopper). The dialogue between the two of them is quite funny, and Po's dialogue is really pretty humorous in general, most likely because his voice is played by Jack Black (and he looks a bit like him as well). The movie features a lot of slap-stick comedy as well as a fair share of verbal jokes, but there is also a pretty cool action aspect to it, which is a bit weird in that it features a random assortment of animal martial artists, but is fun to watch nonetheless. It is a bit on the kiddy side, but, like many animated movies, it has a good deal of humor for adults to enjoy as well, and enjoy it we did. It is a pretty good pick for a family film, although really young children who are easily scared might want to avoid it, because there are a few intense and "scary" scenes mixed into the adventure as well. We would both give it about 3 1/2 out of 5.

Wall-E is an another animated film (and quite well animated at that), although we're not sure that it is best suited to a young audience. There is nothing inappropriate in the film, but there are long stretches without dialogue, and without a lot of exciting action to hold the attention of small children. On the other hand, there is quite a bit of humor which we both enjoyed, and we suspect other adults would enjoy as well. The story is about a little robot named Wall-E (surprise!), who is all alone on earth, except for his funny little cockroach friend (one of Bekah's favorite characters). One fateful day, however, Wall-E is visited by another robot from outer space--Eve (or Eeeeevuh, as Wall-E says it)--who he quickly falls in love with. Eve is not quite as taken with Wall-E, but throughout the course of the film he proves his devotion to her in many and various ways, and eventually wins her love in return. Along the way there are some very funny scenes involving a trip to space, where the humans have all relocated. Without giving too much more of the plot away, we will simply say that it is definitely worth watching, for older kids and adults alike. We would give it a 4 out of 5.

Burn After Reading is almost as complicated as an "Ocean's" movie, and happens to share two leading actors with those movies--George Clooney and Brad Pitt. These two certainly display their impressive acting talents in the film, and are joined by a very good all-around cast. Every character is convincing and most of them are hilarious. Attempting to explain the plot would be very difficult and spoil a lot of the fun of the movie, which we will refrain from doing, because it really is a lot of fun. The plot, and the characters in and of themselves, had both of us cracking up all the way to the end (and laughing harder and harder as we went). Admittedly, the movie does pick up a bit slowly, but the stage-setting that takes place at the beginning is definitely worth it. One downside to the film is that it is definitely riddled with obscenities (in all fairness, it is rated R). This seems to be a growing trend in films these days, and while I don't really appreciate it, I find myself growing numb to it. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but there it is. Some of the humor in the movie is also rather crude and lewd, but not the overall majority of it. In short, this is definitely not one for the whole family (or anyone under the age of 18 without parental discretion), but for us mature grown ups (heh heh), it is hilarious. It's not for everyone, but of all of the movies we've seen lately, we can easily say that it was the most entertaining. We'll give it a 4 1/2 out of 5, just shy of a perfect score because it really did the job of a comedy well (made us laugh a LOT), but it may not do the same for everyone. Still, if you're willing to ignore a few "unsavory" bits, it's definitely worth a try.

So there you have it folks. If you can't enjoy at least one of the movies we mentioned, there is something wrong with you. Just kidding! ;-P But still, they were all good, and worth every penny of our $3.24. "Woohoo for RedBox!" :-D

-Zach & Bekah