Have you ever had a DVD sitting at your house for weeks, and somehow you’re just not really into actually watching this movie that you obviously went to the trouble of renting – in my case, putting in my Blockbuster cue?

Well, that’s exactly what happened with a  movie that I actually felt interested in when I heard it was being made, and when the blu ray came out, Alice in Wonderland – the version by none other than the weird movie maker of our time, Tim Burton.

Alice in Wonderland has a lot of going for it out of the gate. You have Johnny Depp and Tim Burton teaming up again, which is usually a great pairing since Depp is perfectly intuned to the zany style of Burton, you had a talented young actress playing Alice, the same actress who played the older sibling in the great movie “The Kids are All Right”, and you had a big, big budget for special effects.

That’s like a treasure trove when you do something as high tech as Alice in Wonderland, where special effects can really blow you away.  However, something about this movie ultimately fell flat for me.

The special effects were amazing.  Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were ingenious.  Although there was a lot of CG, it did come off pretty well most times.  Burton added his own brand of “ew” weirdness too, sometimes going for the little gross outs, which I’m surprised since it was a Disney movie.

However, I felt like some of the performances were just ho hum. Surprisingly, I thought Depp felt a little less energized than he usually does, which was shocking since he is probably the only actor I can imagine playing the over the top Mad Hatter. Perhaps success has finally dulled his enthusiasm?

Helena Bonham Carter, who is also Tim Burton’s main squeeze in real life, was good as the Queen of Hearts, but even her performance seemed a bit under the radar.  I guess I was expecting more oomph out of these characters because of the magnitude of the actors who played them.

Crispin Glover didn’t seem to know what to do with his role as the Queen’s lover.  This surprised me as well, since this notoriously quirky actor usually nails the over the top, wackiness of the characters he’s usually chosen to play.

My favorite character, oddly enough, was 100% computer generated – the Cheshire Cat.  All in all, I have to give this movie credit, because I think part of the reason I was bored by it wasn’t the fault of the actors or makers, but more the idea that I’ve seen and heard this same story done a hundred times.

I’m still partial to the live TV version myself, but maybe that’s just my own nostalgia getting in the way.  In the end, it is something that probably more appeals to children than adults.

We had this movie called “Transsiberian” in our cue for quite a long time at Blockbuster (we receive movies online from them).  For some reason, I kept pushing it to the bottom, where it stayed for a while until we finally had absolutely no new releases to watch, and resorted to this one finally.

Lesson learned : Sometimes the lesser known movies are the best and most interesting ones.  This movie, which starred Woody Harrelson in a very different role for him as an average schmuck kinda guy, Emily Mortimer as his former alcoholic and confused wife, Kata Mara as a young drifter traveling with her shady boyfrined, and Ben Kingsey as a Russan detective.

Everyone in this movie was excellent.  Even a new face I had never seen before, a Latino actor named Eduardo Noriega, who played Kate Mara’s (Abby) shady and oversexed boyfriend.  He was excellent as the is he or isn’t he bad guy in this movie.

First, let me say that what happens in this movie is not what my husband or I thought would happen at all. Because the description of the movie is fairly misleading, you go into it thinking one thing and come out of it knowing another, which is always a fun thing for me because I usually figure things out pretty fast!

A married couple, Roy and Jessie, played by Harrelson and Mortimer, who seem to be going through some issues is coming back from a charitable mission in China, and decide to take the Transsiberian train, which is a several day trip through the barren outback of Siberia, as you know, one of the coldest and most ruthless places on earth.

They encounter a very friendly, but also witholding couple on the train, who happen to be rooming with them.  We’re not sure at first if they really are up to no good, or if the movie is just leading us to believe that.

Through a series of totally fortuitous events, a murder occurs.  Roy and his wife are put through the ringer in a chilling portrayal of being lost in a foreign country where the rules may be out the window, whether you are American or not.

This movie has some interesting turns, and all in all it is a pretty solid and original movie that has very good performances and some aspects that make it look realistic and genuine.  I’d recommend this for anyone who likes a good thriller.

My husband and I have watched the show “The Office” since it came out several years ago, and although we enjoyed most of the seasons, the one we really disliked was the 5th season where Carell’s character Michael Scott met and fell in love with his female doppleganger named Holly.

The problem with that? This particular female version of Michale just wasn’t funny.  Her antics and silliness just were no match for Michael’s more honest, less forced brand of awkwardness and innate embarrassing behavior.

As a matter of fact, many times when they were interacting, it was uncomfortable to watch because it just was that bad.  And let me be clear, I actually really like the actress who plays Holly. She was great when she was in The Wire on HBO, and she’s been in several movies where she was great.

This character just fell flat and dragged the season down. Now, in the final season for Steve Carell, Holly is back.  We haven’t seen any of the episodes yet because we just finished season six on DVR, but I’ve seen ads for it and it already seems like it’s not going to be as funny as season six, which in my opinion is one of their funniest.

Hopefully I’m wrong and the last season with the delightfully uncomfortable Michael Scott will be great and fresh, but I’m seriously doubting it after seeing season five go downhill with the Michael/Holly dynamic.

The rumor is that Will Ferrell will take his comedic talents as a guest star replacement for Steve Carell in at least a few episodes in the next season.  I could see that working – as long as he plays either a straight guy or a total goofball believably.

It’s going to be hard to get the same dynamic that you have now with that show’s character, that’s for sure.  Hopefully we’ll still be fans of the show that “Parks and Recreation” borrowed heavily from. By the way, if you love the Office, you should REALLY check out the original British version of the show starring Ricky Gervais. 

It is a lot funnier, in that way that only British humor can be.  David Brent, who is Michael Scott’s inspiration, played by Gervais is absolutely one of the best comedic characters of all time.  I would LOVE if he could guest star on the show!

After watching the movie “The Kids are All Right”, it made me realize that I really love the actor Mark Ruffalo. I think this guy is probably headed straight up the career ladder in the notoriously finicky Hollywood, because he seems to show a real talent for being likable on camera. 

The last movie I saw him in before this one was Shutter Island, and I thought he did a good job on that movie as well. He’s certainly come a long way from only doing lukewarm romcoms, that’s for sure. And boy oh boy, if the sex scenes between him and Julianne Moore don’t make more than a few women hot under the collar, then I don’t know what will!

This movie earned Anette Bening, an extremely talented actress, another nomination for best actress as well.  She deserved it. She did a great job, but actually Julianne Moore did too. They were both excellent, although I’m not sure they really had the chemistry or believability that they were lesbian lovers.

The chemistry was more raw and powerful between Moore and Ruffalo actually.  This movie is really a story about marriage and long term commitments in general, even though the film centers around a lesbian couple with two grown children.

It is a poignant look at how hard it is to stay madly and romantically in love after years together and as Moore puts it in the movie “slogging through the shit” of marriage for years. I think that’s something that pretty much every married couple can related to.

Another thing they can relate to is the deep bonds that keep us together as opposed to making us seek out other partners every couple years – that elusive thing we call monogamy. 

Ruffalo plays Paul, the guy who donated his sperm to produce Bening and Moore’s two beautiful children for them years ago as a broke college student.  When Bening and Moore’s son gets curious about who his biological father is, Paul is brought into the family and starts to form a bond with the kids.

The problem is, Paul, a well meaning free spirited hippie type, ends of falling for Moore’s character, who sleeps with him multiple times because of her insecurities about her relationship.

Of course, hurt and pain ensue after Bening learns of the affair accidentally, and we see how this affair tears the family apart and threatens to test the bonds of family.  All in all, this is a really great movie. Much more intense and raw than I thought it would be, but that’s exactly why I enjoyed it so much.

We went into watching the movie “Devil” with not too  much of an expectation that it was going to be any good.  The movie was marketed as an M Night Shyamalan movie, but really he was only one of the producers. Instead, it is actually directed by a lesser known director, as part of a trilogy of horror flicks that an Shyamalan headed group plans to release.

As you know, the last few films by M Night have been critically panned and audiences have largely disliked them.  However, he may be redeeming himself with this new endeavor to bring good, old fashioned horror back to the screen with his group effort.

The movie “Devil” is a really interesting concept that probably required some delicate handling to not totally screw it up. First, you needed great actors, and this movie’s casting choices were perfect. 

 The reason for that is you had only 6 characters, stuck in an elevator for hours and hours, one of them picking the others off one by one anonymously.

Through a backstory, we find out that one of the people on the elvator is not really a human being at all, but the devil himself, come to earth to wreck havoc on earthly people who have damned themselves to hell in various ways by sinning on earth.

The devil, in this story, supposedly comes to earth in human form every so often, and tortures the damned on earth before he wisks them off to hell for eternal damnation.

The story, although of course far fetched, and at times a little corny to take, is actually pulled off quite well, purely because of the scare tactics and effects used to get you to stay on the edge of your seat the whole time.

This movie was surprisingly scary to me, and my husband and I enjoyed trying to figure out who the devil was. In the end, we were both surprised since the plot intentionally tries to mislead you several times.

It was definitely a fun scary movie to watch. Don’t expect any new depths of story telling here, but do expect a good hour and half of escapism and lots of scares in this horror flick. Oh, the only other complaint I have, as a true horror film fan, is the fact that it was rated PG13 and couldn’t really show a whole lot of blood or a lot of swearing.

First off, let me start by saying one of the reasons I really wanted to see this film in the first place is because I am a huge fan of James Gandolfini. I loved his work in The Sopranos – in fact, that show would have been nothing without him and the other talented cast members.

 He brings such a real vulnerability to the screen that I don’t think many actors can convey, and such a rawness, without compromising the believability, that he is a pure joy to watch. Always convincing, never over the top.

 The movie Welcome to the Rileys was, quite simply, a really amazing and touching story of an aging couple who have obviously grown apart. We see at the beginning that Gandolfini’s character is having an affair, and his wife, played by the uber talented Melissa Leo, who was nominated for an Oscar, has become a shell of her former self.

 She boards herself up in the house, and has not left the house in years, suffering from agoraphobia, and panic attacks. 

Gandolfini’s character ends up going on a business trip to New Orleans, where he serendipitously meets a young teen hooker and stripper, played by Kristen Stewart. At first Stewart’s performance is a bit wooden, but she does grow in to her character and becomes somewhat believable as a foul mouthed runaway hooker.

 There are several uncomfortable scenes where Steward solicits him for sex, and you’re not certain which way the movie is going to go, but it goes in a very tender, touching direction.  We find out that he and his wife lost a child around the same age as Stewart’s character, and he has taken her under his wing.

 There are several scenes in this movie that will move you to the point of a lump in your throat if you’re the emotional type, like I am.  They’re not even sad-touching, they’re just really emotional. Great movie, and great actors who made it a great movie.

So I finally saw the Sundance favorite, a film about the poor folk in the Adirondacks mountains. It was definitely a well made film and very, very realistic. But, I didn’t make it all the way through the movie simply because I just wasn’t interested in the characters. I didn’t really feel for them, even though the female lead character should have been sympathetic.

The movie was shot on location and the movie’s directors and producers really did go all out to make it look and feel real and not like some Hollywood reproduction of people living on hard times.  I heard on NPR that they even traded in their brand new Carharts for local’s used Carharts to make the film look all that much more realistic.

There is no doubt that some serious talent went into making this, however something with the characters just fell short for me.  The funny thing is, I read about how the movie ends and it actually made me want to watch it after I had already returned it to Blockbuster.

Jennifer Lawrence, the little known lead of the film did a good job projecting a young girl who was angry with the world, having to basically raise two younger siblings, but there was so little expression in her acting that it was hard to empathize with her.

That may be what the intent for the character was, but I guess something about her character didn’t quite strike a cord with me personally, and therefore couldn’t hold my interest. Perhaps the film was too bleak for me, but it was well made and well directed. 

This movie was definitely authentic, and I think that therein may have been the problem. There was no stylizing that we’re used to, there wasn’t much dramatization like we’re used to, and therefore I think that’s why I was actually bored by it. I think I’ve been ruined by Hollywood produced films!