Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

This slightly depressing but hopeful movie was what was on my movie watching radar last night.  This movie stars Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman, and the scene stealer Jason Bateman, who play's "the mutant".

The movie starts out slow, then gets dark, then brightens up in the end.  The pace of the story is slow.  I could read a blog while watching the movie.  Natalie Portman plays a woman not sure of her gifts, something a lot of people can identify with, including me.   Dustin Hoffman plays a long lived man, Mr. Magorium who has worn out his last pair of shoes.  He is about to leave the world so he hires "the mutant" to get his estate together.

I don't want to give too much of this movie away.  I liked it.  It is a good movie for adults.  But I would not watch this with the children, unless you are ready to discuss death.  

Jason Bateman held this movie together.  He played the straight man.  I don't think he knew that he stole scenes, as the lovable character the accountant.

Top Secret

This is an 80's movie that stars a very young Val Kilmer.  

I watched this dud last night.  The movie is trying to be a spoof movie like Hot Shots or Airplane.  But the jokes don't work.  I think Val Kilmer was trying funny movies at this time.  It worked for him in Real Genius but not in this Spy movie.  He plays a good goof ball serious guy but not a dumb person.  This character seemed restrained.  Maybe it was the director fault that the performance was stiff.

My movie tastes are all over the place because I love to watch good movies.  Once in a while a bad movie creeps in.  There is not much more to say about this 80's dud.

No movie Today

I did not watch anything last night.  I got consumed with watching youtube and Disney resort footage from average film makers.  The movies were helpful.

Pride and Prejudice

The version I am reviewing today is the one done for A&E.  This version stars the handsome Colin Firth and pretty Jennifer Ehle.

I own this on DVD and I watch it at least once a month.  I love this version.  When the opening music chimes and Mrs. Bennett starts shrillingly talking I smile.  The direction of this piece was super.  I love this movie.

There has been a recent Pride and Prejudice done staring Kira Knightley, that movie captured the essence of the book but left out tons of juicey detail that this version I am reviewing has.  

If you are a Jane Austin fan, pick this one up.  Pride and Prejudice is a good movie.

Howl's Moving Castle

Enchanting! I enjoyed watching this movie with my daughters.  They watched the wizard Howl, the Witch of the West and Sophie with avid admiration.

This movie is animated.  The animation is well done. The vioces acting was well done by: Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall Blythe Danner and Billy Crystal (he was a fire named Calsifer).  

The director was Hayao Miyazaki and he is a great story teller. His eye for detail is fantastic to observe.

But all that technical information is not what you want to read.  You want to know if the movie was good or bad.  As you can read I enjoyed it, this was a good movie.