We headed out to see Transformers last night and my inner-child was a ball of excitement. Here’s how I broke down the movie:

• Times I gasped aloud: 4+
• Times I was told I am a “dork” (;)): 4+
• Times I said aloud “this is going to be awesome”: 2-3
• Times I said in my head “this is going to be awesome”: 20+
• Favorite AutoBot: Prime - CG department done good
• Favorite Decepticon: Barricade - mainly because I have a small crush on the new (ish) mustangs
• Lamest human actor/actress: The girl - her character was as pointless as her acting was bad
• 2nd lamest human actor/actress: Tyrese - he annoys me on many levels
• Favorite Car: New Camaro - GM can design non-crap cars after all!
• Best Moment: All the times when the autobots are standing around - it looked awesome

Basically, they did a fantastic job with this. I was a bit apprehensive when I first heard they were doing this film. I would have felt a huge letdown if they took my one of my favorite childhood toys/shows and butchered it - they certainly did not.

What a movie

So finally after months of watching and re-watching the teasers and trailers, we are here - a day before the official release of The Transformers. My inner child is literally freaking out. I read a great article over at Tomshardware.com (or whatever sub-site it was on) which drove home my sentiments whenever a “remake” movie comes out.

I feel  like though remakes may lack originality (ie: Transformers isn’t “new”, nor is Superman, Spidey, Batman, etc), they really have a great opportunity to ‘Wow’ the audience.  Now, some movies really have little wow-potential - lets take Dukes of Hazzard.  The only ‘Wow’ I muttered was in response to hearing they bothered to remake that TV show (not a “good” wow).

Remakes do have a rather high benchmark, however.  Audiences including fans and not-so-much-fans immediately conjure up a laundry list of “Can’t Wait to see”s and “Hope they don’t screw up”s.  When a remake finally comes out, it is subjected to a different level of criticism (from me anyway).  I want authenticity, action, and above all else, wow-factor.  I certainly got that from Batman Begins and a bit from X-men (Enjoyed it once, don’t see myself owning the series).

To summarize this post, I’ll wish everyone a happy Independence Day, including those countries which we occupy - what’s ours is yours and what’s yours is ours, after all. If anyone has seen Transformers I beg you not to post any spoilers :D.

We hit up Tinseltown last night for a 7:10pm showing of 300.  The theater was almost empty which completely rocked.  We got there early to beat the non-existent crowd and brought our DS’s to pass time.

The movie itself lived up to my expectations.  It did not exceed them as my expectations were abnormally high for a movie.  I had little expectations for the last adaptation of a Frank Miller graphic novel, Sin City and that completely floored me.

I thought 300 was very well done - the parts where Leonidas would stand up, yell, or do anything, really - were awesome.  Cinematics were fantastic and the mood created was really great.  The film reminded me of Gladiator, but with a ton more action - and one less hour of movie.

Basically, if you enjoy action movies even a little, see this movie…even if you hate movies and violence, see this movie.

…Now

Firstly, I feel that Orlando Bloom should keep practicing his marksman skills and protecting a hobbit dude with a shiny ring.  If he tries anything other than that, he tends to suck.  And Kirsten Dunst can act like an idiot wonderfully - but is she acting?  Who knows…

We sat and watched Elizabethtown on Saturday evening after a wonderful meal at Bamba Bistro for our 365.25-day anniversary.  Meal was fantastic, and the bill was downright..not fantastic, but I had no qualms about paying it - great dinner.  

So back to Elizabethtown, the story of a shoe designer that becomes a rather sizable failure by designing a shoe that, much like Bloom’s acting - sucks.  Bloom can’t convince me he’s American with his accent.  There were times when his pronunciation cracked and his British accent was just a bit too much - poor chap!  Anyway, Kirsten Dunst plays a brain-damaged flight attendant on a plane that Bloom is on due to his Father’s death in Kentucky.  I pretty much thought of his movie as a half-assed, unrealistic Garden State - one of my top movies (Blues Brothers , btw, is the best movie evah).

The movie could have ended in about…60 minutes.  Bloom meets Dunst, is taken aback by her stupidity, meets his gargantuan Kentuuuucky family, checks into a hotel and ends up talking to Dunst on his cell for the entire evening.  The script called for a pointless, lengthy and mundane road trip that Bloom takes from Kentuuucky to Oregon (or Calif..iono) and Dunst organizes a book full of photos and crap for him to follow along his way (where the hell did she get time to do this?!). 

The movie left me rather annoyed at both Bloom and Dunst.  Thank god Alec Baldwin had a cameo - and a good one at that.  It was very early in the film though and it left me missing it by the time the blasted road trip occurred. 

The shining star in the movie was the score - filled with wonderful songs from a range of artists - Petty, Elton John, The Temptations and a few others that I don’t recall.  There are two volumes to the soundtrack too! - Check it out.

To Mr. Bloom - Here’s to hoping there’s a new LOTR movie…not sure you can do anything else.

To Ms. Dunst - You actually have me convinced that very little acting was required when the script called for a "Really mental Kentuuucky Girl" 

To the dude/chick that did the music - You turned a crap film into a crap film with a great score, well done! 

This concludes my first attempt at a very crass and harsh movie review, woo! 

So, I finished watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Saturday night. Thank goodness for that bottle of wine - it was cool, but I do like the original more. Wonka had more of a “hey I got a creepy blue Chevy van with some candy in it…wanna see it, kids?!?” The Lumpa folks were cool, but they weren’t as creep-tastic as the old 1970s ones. Nothin says freaky like green hair and orange faces .

Throughout the movie I sorta wished I was watching the first one. I’ve been told this remake (part of hollywoods “summer o remakes” - boh-ring) was more true to the book, which I fully respect as I’ve been witness to many a “book to movie” translations gone wrong. Anyway, the sets were very well done, and the plot was just like the original except they did not have that ridiculously annoying belching scene like the first one did - holy pointlessness batman! I’m not a full blown movie critic like the “oh so credible” Jack Garner at the D&C, but I felt like posting something about this flick.

I wondered why Chuck’s family seemed to have the CRAPPIEST HOUSE EVER. I mean, come on. It seeemd to be the only house in the slums where they lived…I dunno, I was left wondering why they didn’t just take out a loan and hire a contractor - Wonka’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Anywho, it was good, glad I saw it. I will forever love the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp combo - they work so well together. I will forever wish that Burton did all the Batman flicks .

I also saw the new ‘potter movie…I’ll comment and that soon…