Reel Reviews Case 39

Title: Case 39 IMDb

DVD Release Date: January 4, 2011.

Rated: R for violence and some disturbing imagery.
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane.
Favorite Quote: None.
Storyline:
Renee Zellweger plays an overworked, but ambitious social worker. She's got 38 cases on her plate and little time for anything else. Her superior drops a file on her desk, case 39. About five minutes into the movie you realize she lives for her work and the other aspects of her life are faltering a bit. She has a date with Bradley Cooper and hear her reasonings/excuses for her lack of dating.

Emily begins to investigate her latest case, a 10 year old girl Lillith, first by visiting the family in question. From the first step into their house, she finds things peculiar and disturbing. The mother looks haggard, the little girl scared, and the father at first refuses to even speak with her. When he finally comes to the living room, he refuses to speak directly but rather through the mother. When asked why, she's told he hates speaking in anger.

When the family makes it's appearance at her office, they are the picture perfect family and Emily's superior tells her there is no case. In secret, Lillith tells Emily that she heard her parents saying they were going to send her to Hell, but later denies it. Emily gives Lillith her personal number if she ever needs it and it's a short time later when Emily receives the call that Lillith's parents are coming for her.

When Emily arrives with her police officer friend, they have to break down the door and find Lillith's parents in the kitchen having duct taped Lillith into the oven. From then on, Emily is charged with Lillith's safety, but more so with finding out why Lillith's parents were trying to kill her and why they had bolts on the inside of their doors.

Billie's Views:

The whole movie had an eerie quality, lots of greys and dreary scenary. About five minutes into the movie, I was very pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Bradley Cooper, yum! I had no idea he was in the movie and he's one of my latest crushes. Have you seen those abs? Anyway, I had a hard time believing Renee in this particular role. I'm used to her in upbeat bubbly type movies so this was a bit of a stretch, but she tried. I've seen this type of movie over and over, but it was an interesting take.

Riddle Me This: (could possibly contain spoilers, read at own risk).

I pegged that something was wrong with the little girl right away. As soon as I saw them putting her into the oven, I knew that she was evil in some way and that they were actually protecting themselves from her instead of the way around. I wish there had been a little more development as to why she was evil.

Score:
I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. I would have liked a different main actress and it would have been a bit scarier. I kept seeing Renee in her Bridget Jones' role and it made it difficult to take this role seriously. I would watch it again if it was on tv. I did recommend it to a co-worker.

Reel Reviews The Social Network

Reel Reviews 

Title: The Social Network IMDb
DVD Release Date: January 11, 2011
Rated: PG-13 for some language, sexual reference and drug/alcohol use.
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer (who I only knew who he was because he was on Chelsea Lately recently), Brenda Song (if you have kids you might recognize her from Suite Life of Zack and Cody, she played the ditzy heiress London Tipton), Justin Timberlake.
Favorite Quote: "I want to hire the Sopranos to kick his ass." "If I wanted to kick his ass I'd do it myself. I'm six-one, two twenty, and there are two of me". "You're going to hand them a business card that says I'm CEO, bitch."

Storyline:
     Ah, the beginnings of Facebook. The movie follows Mark Zuckerberg as he faces two trials, both of which he's the defendant. One lawsuit is former best friend and CFO of Facebook and the second is three students from Harvard in which they are suing him for intellectual property rights. The movie flip flops between the hearings and as Mark is questioned, the movie flashbacks to the answers.
     Mark's first attempt at a social program is of course brought on by a girl. While hate blogging, he comes up with an idea of uploading pictures of Harvard's female students and users being able to choose which of them is hotter, with two girls going head to head. After he's questioned by the school, he annouces he should be recognized for being able to breach their security and bringing it to their attention.
     He's then approached by three students (those that eventually sue) to work with them on a project that would exclusively allow Harvard students to have their own page to interact with each other. He has a better idea and begins implementing it with help from his roomates and a friend.
    Facebook takes off from there, attracting the attention of Sean Parker of Napster fame. The movie obviously ends with the outcome of each of the lawsuits.

    
Billie's Views:
     All in the all the movie was decent. I had little desire to know how Facebook started until I heard about this movie coming out. Years ago my sister kept telling me to make a Facebook page so finally I made one just to shut her up. And now? I'm on Facebook pretty much constantly. I like the games, but it's also an easy way to connect with others and stay in contact with friends and family. From the movie, my take on Mark is that he's obviously extremely smart, but thinks with his head only and was often led astray by people that might have had interests in things other than his well being. I felt bad for Eduardo Savarin, the CFO that sued him for 500 million or some such ghastly amount. He pretty much got screwed over in the whole deal.

Riddle Me This: (could possibly contain spoilers, read at own risk)
     No riddles in this one, the movie was pretty straightforward with no mystery.
    
Score: 
     I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. The acting was good, Jesse Eisenberg plays a great genius, almost cold though. No reason to watch it again, unless someone I was hanging out with wanted to watch it.

Reel Reviews Frozen

Reel Reviews 

Title: Frozen IMDb
DVD Release Date: September 28, 2010
Rated: R
Starring: Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers
Favorite Quote: "Hmm, smell that mountain air. You know what that smells like? ...Cancer."

Storyline:

     Parker joins her boyfriend, Dan and his best friend Joe on their Sunday ski day, much to the dismay of Joe. Skiing at Mount Holliston is usually bros only and Joe feels a little jilted since Dan has been spending all his time with Parker. The guys generally bribe the girl running the ski lift to let them on without buying lift tickets, but when she's nowhere to be found, Parker is asked to turn on her charm and convince the guy working to let them on. She succeeds and they spend their day on the smaller slopes as Parker is a bit inexperienced.

     As the day goes on, the three smooth talk their way back onto the lift just before close for the last run. Miscommunication and misfortune lead to the lift being shut down as they are halfway up the mountain. As the they realize that they are indeed stranded dangling in the air on a ski lift that will be closed until the following weekend, they are forced to make the difficult decisions. Do they stay on the lift and wait to be rescued or try something more drastic?

Billie's Views:

     I saw this movie preview on some other dvd I rented and wanted to see it. I had forgotten about it until I was browing the movie shelves, I saw it and picked it up. I would say this is more suspense than a horror movie. I liked the storyline, though it was limited in what could happen as they spent most of the movie stranded on a ski lift. The acting was believable and the movie made me think about what I would do in that position. If you have weak stomach, there are definitely some parts in the movie where you might want to look away. I have a pretty strong stomach and I still furrowed my brows and groaned a few times.

Riddle Me This: (could possibly contain spoilers, read at own risk)
     Why did the wolves let her go? They had just eaten two people, you would think the would want more. I guess maybe they were full. And speaking of wolves, though they looked badass, you would think that a ski resort would have some sort of deterrant to a pack of wolves running around on the slopes. Richard brought up the fact that at the end of the movie they pan down the slope and by the ski lodge, showing their car. We both thought that the staff of a closing ski resort might check out any vehicles left behind to see what guests they belong to.

Score:
     I give it a 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for decent storyline, believable acting, and some ick factor. Plus, wolves look cool. I'd watch it again if it was on tv.
         

Reel Reviews

I recently received a good piece of advice. Review what you know. Well I know movies. We watch movies. A lot of movies. Our local video store knows us all by name and most of the employees can recognize our voices on the phone (this is also true at the game stores, but that's a whole other post). New movies come out on dvd on Tuesdays and we generally rent them that day. I'll watch most any movie, but it takes a lot to keep my interest. I'll post my honest reviews on the movies that I watch. Feel free to leave a comment if you agree/disagree.

This week Richard (the husband) and I watched The Other Guys released on dvd December 14, 2010. I remember seeing previews for this one and knew I wanted to see it. I like Mark Wahlberg, he's come a long way from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. I do like Will Ferrell as well, though his movies are 50/50 for me. I either really like it or the humor misses me entirely.

Wahlberg and Ferrill both play paper pusher desk cops that are stuck in the shadows of superstar cops, played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Wahlberg is unhappy with his job, but Ferrill is perfectly happy to continue working on constuctrion permit violations and this leads to tension, albeit funny tension, between the two. They eventually come to somewhat of an agreement to chase after a bigger case.

The movie started off pretty funny, there were several one-liners that had Richard and I both laughing and it takes a lot for him to laugh. Further into the movie, however, the plot started getting muddled and I watched it a little confused and mostly bored. It seemed to jump from scene to scene with little connecting them and the comedy got dull and infrequent.

Billie Says = I'd watch it again if there was little else on. Michael Keaton was in it and showing his age.
Richard Says = Lame sauce.