Hilarious but disappointing CG sequel to the 2001 hit. Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are living their new married life happily together, when Fiona's parents (John Cleese and Julie Andrews) insist that they come visit so they can meet her new husband. Donkey (Eddie Murphy) comes along for the ride, too. What the king and queen don't know, however, is that their daughter didn't marry Prince Charming but, well, an ogre. You'd think the plot would get better, but it doesn't. The movie is pretty much just a string of Hollywood culture gags. A lot of those jokes are...how do you say... SIDE-SPLITTINGLY FUNNY!!! (trottin' in place, trottin' in place...) No character development, hardly any good plot twists, and the animation isn't even as good! I know I'm spoiled with Nemo, but Dreamworks, come on!! FYI: A necklace is supposed to be three-dimensional, NOT a tattoo!! *vent-mode: off* Still, there's a nice half-message about inner beauty, and the gags are hilarious, but from a story point of view, (and isn't that what a movie is supposed to be? a story?) not great. I wish Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (writers from the original that also wrote Pirates of the Caribbean and Aladdin, website here) had stayed to help write this, it would've been much better...... I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
Spiderman 2 - 2004
The rare sequel that actually improves on the original (from 2002.) Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire *fangirl squeal*) just can't keep up with his double life - nerdy, stressed Peter Parker by day, web-slinger-in-colored-undies by night. His grades are falling, he can barely keep his two jobs, one as a pizza delivery boy and one as a newspaper's photographer (paper run by J. Jonah Jameson, a hilarious J.K. Simmons), he's nearly broke and his obnoxious landlord (is that redundant?) keeps demanding rent, *gasp for breath* his best friend Harry (James Franco) is going alcoholic and is bent on killing Spiderman, and did I mention the love of his life Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is sorely disappointed in him? Sheesh, you'd think the writer (Alvin Sargent) would give him a break. But no, along comes Dr. Otto Octavius (a wonderful Alfred Molina). Doc Ock was a brilliant scientist with a dream of creating a fusion reaction, but guess what, the experiment went awry and he's the new terror of New York, complete with four mechanical arms fused onto his spinal chord. Gee, I never would have seen that one coming. Anyway, Spidey goes around fighting Doc Ock and theives and terrorists and whatever, all while having a huge internal identity crisis. Needless to say, there aren't many flat moments in this movie. There's even some good costume gags. (one word: laundromat) (one more word: elevator) Tobey Maguire, in my opinion, is an incredibly good-looking but only so-so actor. His acting style, "the deadpan" (Omigosh, he actually moved his eyebrow!! Wow!), really fits Peter, but if he were playing a different kind of role he'd be dead. (It's a joke! Dead! Deadpan! Get it?...) Everyone else in the cast is awesome! Especially J.K. Simmons - he is SAVORING every second of that part. Yah, the CG looks kinda comic-book-y, but it's a comic-book movie!! HELLO?! Only two flaws: the soundtrack (the only reason I knew the theme is because I heard the "Theme from Spiderman" ringtone), and they put way too much of the plot into the trailer, so there aren't too many surprises. *sad* :*(
I reallyreallyreally loved this movie, and I've already seen it three times! There's angst and laughs and oddly-specific wisdom-spouting and more angst and action and reaction and smoochies and more angst and rhetorical questions asked to no one in particular and one-sided phone calls and AWESOMENESS!!! A solid entertaining story, everything you could want from a movie.
I, Robot - 2004
Decent high-tech sci-fi about Detective Spooner (Will Smith), a techno-phobic homocide detective in 2035, surrounded by a society that uses robots as personal assistants. That was lots of big words, here's English: Pretty good special-FX stuffed movie about this dude (Will Smith) who investigates like, murders and like, dead people, and it's in like, 2035, and he's like, afraid of robots, but like, no one else is. You know? Anywho, the genius behind the robotic phemonenomenon is dead. Most clues point to suicide, but Spooner is convinced it was murder by - gasp - a robot. How convenient! He's been waiting for a case like this his whole life! Now he can PROVE robots are malevolent and evil! Yah. Even though murder conflicts with the most basic programming of robots. The high-tech investigation follows. A well-done movie, with good themes and a surprising solid twist at the end. You know it's a good twist when you whack your head repeatedly because there's NO WAY you could've been stupid enough to not see it!! Uh... yeah. Will Smith is almost droolworthy, too... I don't normally notice special effects, but these were pretty darn good. The camera angles during "action sequences" get kinda dizzying sometimes, but it's still cool!! DUDE!!!
