Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

This did absolutely nothing for me. I like Amy Adams though...

Up

A script that makes me wonder how high the writers were when they were thinking of this. The story’s built on non-sequiturs! But it’s a lot less about story and plot and more about relationships. The old man’s relationship with his wife, the kid, the kid’s relationship with the dog, etc. So there’s not a lot of action, but there’s a lot of shtick. And no real stakes, per se. Not my favorite of the Pixar movies, but still outstanding. Beautiful to behold and very sweet.

Drag Me To Hell

An absolute hoot. Hilarious. Alison Lohman brings a strange energy to Sam Raimi’s revisionist startle-fest. She’s pretty, but exceedingly vulnerable. Raimi and company set-up her desire to succeed snappily to jump right into the lunging and lurching. The horrible old woman, Lorna Raver, was also a great sport, devoting herself fully to her creepy, one-eyed gypsy curser. There’s not much of a plot here. You can feel the Raimi brothers just setting up situations for the next ridiculous set piece -- falling somewhere between a Three Stooges Movie and Poltergeist, or perhaps Darkman and The Gift. Made with great zeal and love for the genre, and a treat for the Evil Dead fans.

Terminator Salvation

More of an “act” or segment than an entire movie. It’s exciting and well-directed, but the script contributes very little to the whole Terminator saga. They told more story in an hour of The Sara Connor Chronicles. I hope in the next movie they get to the time travel stuff.

Star Trek

It’s as if JJ Abrams plucked Kirk and Spock out of a Star Trek episode and stuck them into an old Star Wars movie. It’s fun, exciting, and action packed. It holds the old shows in the highest regard, while still mining a few laughs from the obligatory clichés. “I’m givin’er all she’s got, captain!” The cast is great, but the new people don’t have those deep baritone voices of Nemoy and Takai. Otherwise, well done by Abrams and company and a fun night at the movies.

Wolverine

Uneventful and anti-climatic chapter from the X-Men universe. Wolverine has his motives pulled out from under him at the end, which makes most of the plot a cheap kind of red-herring. Jackman is stalwart and game for the role. But the script suffers.