robyn-710-767167 Reviews

Spy Kids (2001)

Interesting concept

[7/10 · 16 May 2012]

I watched the first one finally, and have to say that despite the cheesy story plot at times, it wasn't that bad. Some kids find out they are spies and end up having to save their parents from some evil dude. The technology and gadgets are very impressive and funny. I liked the age the kids were, not too old (teenager) but not too young to not be, I guess, easy to relate too.

I did find the conclusion a bit cheesy and the characters were at times a little over done, but the special effects and everything was done quite well.

I rate this 7/10.

Surf's Up (2007)

Cool story, no environmental crap

[7/10 · 16 May 2012]

Movies with penguins tend to be environmental. By that, I mean the plot basically consists of humans who do something evil or otherwise are causing harm to either the penguins or to other creatures. Doing so, the message is to not harm nature. I love nature and don't want to destroy it, but when movies are dedicated to showing that humans are the only cause, then I get annoyed and frustrated.

Happy Feet is a good example. The first one was major political. The second not so much, but still consisted of humans doing evil things (how dare they eat chicken!). Surf's up was different. It didn't mention humans at all, in fact I dare say it may have been a penguin world for all I know.

I loved the story, and especially loved the look and feel the film was looking for. Shaky cameras making it seem like actual people were there interviewing everyone. It was really nicely done.

I rate this 7/10.

Happy Feet Two (2011)

Ugh!

[3/10 · 3 May 2012]

Happy Feet 1 came out and was basically consisting of two plots. One, a penguin trying to fit in, and two humans are evil. As I said in my Happy Feet One review:

"Now, let me explain. I love the Earth. I love the creatures. I want us to take care of them. Keep them healthy, happy and strong. Let's learn about them. Understand them.

But I also know that humans are not the only cause, if any cause at all, to the problems with the world. I mean, global warming? Really? The message I got from this movie was to never give up even if you are different, and that humans are evil. The first one was okay. But the story was weak. The humans are evil part was just annoying. If you're going to frame us, do it in a clever way."

Now I've changed my views a little since 2010 (when I reviewed it) but I still believe that movies like these are only made for political messages. They are usually negative toward humans and are bias to one side.

This movie continues the story of the penguins. Now the rejected one who can dance is a father and his kid is basically trying to figure out what he can do. So we already have a repeated story. Then the kid discovered a penguin who is able to fly somehow (we find out how later on in the movie) and the new penguin wants to fly too. So for half the movie he tries to fly. Meanwhile the penguins are... hmm what would make a good 30-45 minutes of a movie? Oh I know, make the penguins trapped in a hole from the ice. Good idea!

So now we have the father penguin and his kids who have to feed their tribe or group or clan or whatever a set of penguins are called. Meanwhile the kids somehow have British accents while the parents do not. What?

** MAJOR SPOILER BELOW **

Then finally at one point the little penguin discovers that he can sing... well very badly at least. Long story short, father penguin is seeking help and is refused it. The little kid decides to sing a song about how great is father is. It could have been emotional... if the kid's singing wasn't so high pitched and hurt my hears to death! Plus he went into the whole opera style singing and everything, uck!

** MAJOR SPOILER ENDS **

I'm surprised that the humans didn't do anything much in this movie. I mean, they showed the humans cooking turkeys in their ship (how dare they want to feed themselves), and they come and show up to help the penguins escape, but then they disappear after a snow storm. That's it. Nothing about a human taking a penguin and capturing it to show how evil we are, just boring lame humans cooking food to eat.

The plot was better than I though, so I gave it a 3/10. It could have been 4/10 but that singing was terrible (the little kid's, no offense but it hurt my ears) and what's with the kids having British accents? That's just annoying.

So in the end, I rate this movie 3/10.

Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

Unique story but beware of the political messages!

[7/10 · 1 May 2012]

I must first confess that it took me several days, almost a week, to watch the movie. The reason being that the DVD I watched it from was scratched and so I couldn't see halfway through. So a week later I got a different one and watched it again, this time seeing the rest of the film. So my true feelings of the movie kind of disappeared but in general I still have my opinions on it.

First, it's definitely unique. Yet it's annoyingly political, which doesn't surprise me. It's a story about believing in something that you cannot see, hear or taste or smell or touch. And the character who does witness a sound from the speck is considered a fool and it comes to the point where he is actually threatened to lose his own life possibly or at least be injured for his views.

The reason? A kangaroo who has a negative attitude about everything, like some political parties I know. Anyway, she refuses to accept any new ideas such as a speck containing life and because of that she tries to banish the elephant who does. A few things that bothered me include her use of "homes school" which was inappropriate. She used it after her son asked to play with the kids and she refused, saying he had to not be brainwashed by the silly views that the others had.

This is rude because I (as I've admitted in another review for the movie RV) home school and find it wrong to make a bland assumption that home schoolers restrict themselves from the rest of the world like that. Some do, but so do public schoolers. Anyway that drove me mad but in general her negative attitude was annoying but it helped with the plot. And of course I found everyone's acceptance to quickly go and join and believe in the kangaroo's views so easily kind of fake and annoying, and in the end when..

SPOILER BELOW

... she finally does hear the voices and is shocked and is just sad. I mean, she goes all that way to prove she's right and then that happens? With her attitude I'd come up with an excuse and dismiss it, demanding visual proof until ultimately the small guys on the speck are able to grow (or these with the speck and the flower shrink) and then she'd be satisfied, apologize and end up being happy. But nope, she's just sad.

END OF SPOILER

But anyway I still enjoyed the unique movie and liked how it was. The son who didn't speak until the very end was touching and his private location up by the planetarium building was cool.

So anyway, I rate this 7 because of the unique plot. It sort of loses a point from being 8 for the silly political stuff but in the end I'm sure (and hope) that everyone knows that it's a movie so it's not all true.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)

Not bad at all, it's a great classic!

[8/10 · 1 May 2012]

On a social networking site, a friend posted a screen cap of a movie with edited captions on it. The movie was of some dogs talking to each other. I looked it up and discovered this movie.

I got it and watched it. My younger sister came in halfway and she is very sensitive to movies that are even a little bit scary. To give an example, she cried at the end of Open Season because she didn't think Boog would make it back home and was upset about it.

So with that in mind, I watched the movie for the first time. And so I didn't have the nostalgia feeling as many did. But I still enjoyed it and could tell that it could produce that feeling for those growing up. I really liked the plot, the simplicity of the animals speaking (no moving animated mouths or anything) and the music helped to fit in with the theme.

I rate this 8/10 for a brilliant movie that deserves a higher rating on IMDb than a 6.

Bolt (2008)

Brilliant concept, pretty well executed

[7/10 · 29 April 2012]

The movie starts out as an almost cheesy crime fighting adventure film with superheroes and gadgets and the whole deal. It lasts a few moments before finally the reveal at the end of the "show" that it's actually just a TV show and is all fake. From there on you know interesting stuff's going to happen.

One of the twists though, is despite nearly everyone knowing it's a TV show, the dog, which is one of the superheroes, thinks the show is real life. He thinks he really has powers and really needs to save his owner who (in the latest TV show) ends up being taken but not rescued (as a response to a request from someone from networking). So he's off in the real world to try to find her, in the meantime she thinks he's gone forever.

I really liked how they mixed the TV studio concept with friendship. I'm into video editing and I really enjoy seeing how people make TV shows and movies and despite from a slightly fictional world it's still cool to see how their TV show could have been "made" if it were real life.

Anyway, I want to rate it 8 but it's not quite there to make the full rounds. It did a brilliant job with the ending and I really enjoyed it, but I don't feel it's a 7 either. It's like a 7.5. But IMDb doesn't let you do that, so I'd just rate it as 7.

So I rate it 7.5 out of 10.

The Wild (2006)

It's okay but not great

[6/10 · 27 April 2012]

Having seen Madagascar previous to this film, I wasn't sure what to expect. Probably just a badly ripped off film or something. But nope, it starts off completely different and ends still different. I found a few spots to be similar but for the most part it was to rescue a tiger cub.

I have to admit it wasn't the greatest of films and I didn't get emotional or anything, but there was a nice story to tell and watching the cub roar and the father roar super loud was cool. But the ending wasn't as great and they basically just milked the joke with the buffalo or whatever the animals were who were basically stupid or something as the Koala was their "God" or whatever.

Anyway, it's not the greatest and could have been better, but wasn't the worst. I rate it 6/10.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)

Um

[4/10 · 24 April 2012]

Maybe it was because I didn't see it in 3d. Maybe it was because the video was perhaps the slightest out of focus and the sound wasn't the greatest. Maybe it will play better on DVD. But for the first time ever I swear, I was actually bored of the movie about halfway through. I had seen the original first movie and the second one and they were okay.

This third one, in my opinion, was just a money grabbing machine. I mean, the songs were good but most of the movie was on the island and there wasn't anything interesting that happened. There were many movie references that were funny, but for the most part it was just an excuse for a third movie, which of course disappoints.

Anyway, I'll give them a little credit for trying and for doing well with the animation, but I have to rate this 4/10.

Treasure Planet (2002)

Brilliant and awesome

[7/10 · 24 April 2012]

I had seen this movie a long time ago around the time it came out. I was young back then so the 3d was amazing and fascinated me. Now of course I've seen plenty of 3d films so going back to cartoon only was sort of a challenge at first, but I got used to it. So it became really cool watching the 3d animations take off.

The plot, despite being from what I could assume is the future, was still very interesting and was at heart. I really enjoyed the characters and their development. And the ending was very well done! The characters that fell in love weren't as good as I thought it could have been, and I'm a bit disappointed that the main guy didn't get a girl (As they all seem to) but hey, it wasn't bad anyway!

So I thus rate it 7/10.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Very well done, wasn't expecting the ending!

[7/10 · 24 April 2012]

The movie starts out showing a professor talking to a group of people in a meeting of some sort. It isn't until he get's a phone call at one point and then apologies while turning on the lights (that made the stage bright and the audience dark) that you realize the group of people is really just a bunch of lamps and other random objects that happen to look like hats or heads and such! I literately said "wow" out loud because of how amused I was.

Then the movies goes on and coming to the climax of the movie when it was revealed one of his helpers was in fact evil caught me a little off guard. I hadn't seen any other original films based off of this nor do I read books, but the way that the film went was very fascinating and clever.

I thus rate this 7/10.

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Brilliant ending... for the most part

[7/10 · 21 April 2012]

We are greeted in this series with Marty and Doc and their adventures with a time traveling vehicle. Marty ends up back in time by mistake and ruins his parents first meeting. So he has to get them to fall in love while avoiding changing everything else in the past. After some intense moments, he succeeds and is able to get back to his time and everything changed, but for the better.

Then the next movie comes out and it's a pretty darn good sequel. Not only does Marty go forward in time to the future, he gets to go back in time and ends up in an alternate timeline due to someone else getting access to the machine. So with this problem, they have to go back to the same time as last time, only this time Marty has to avoid himself, the one who's getting his parents together! In the end it's almost perfect... and then Doc ends up being struck by lightning while trying to land the time machine, and he goes back to the 1800s during the wild west!

Of course Marty can't leave Doc alone and goes back in time to save Doc... only this time Doc ends up falling in love with a women, and after being mixed between trying to send Marty and himself back home, and wanting to stay with his newly found love, he ends up sending Marty back to normal time, while sticking around. Of course by this point we need a happy ending and Doc reveals that he in fact invents a train that can travel through time.

I didn't like the fact that Doc ended up breaking his own rules, however it is fictional and I suppose it only shows that Doc is human. But in the end, I liked it!

I rate it 7/10.

Brother Bear (2003)

Interesting concept, but didn't sink in enough

[7/10 · 21 April 2012]

I love the classics, even when they were made in 2000-2005 or whenever. As long as they stay true to the story they tell, then that's all that matters to me.

This story takes the idea of a tribe's ancestor's watching over them, while having one member end up becoming a bear to give him a new perspective. He ends up meeting a bear cub and they go to the place where he can become human again.

He learns the lessons we'd expect to get from something like this. Love, loyalty, friendship, etc. I personally think it ended too soon as I didn't feel connected enough by the end to truly appreciate the ending, however I still think it's a really good movie.

I rate it 7/10.

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Brilliant sequel

[7/10 · 19 April 2012]

The original was brilliant. Time travel, the conclusion of the story, the way the characters interacted, the science and the fiction, wow.

Now here comes a sequel and boy oh boy do they do a great job with it. Wow, who would have put your original first movie into your second movie, only with a different plot twist? Amazing and brilliant.

I loved how, once again, they implied the third movie with the ending. I look forward to watching it Tonight hopefully.

I didn't really like the swearing though, the few sexual references and such, but other than that it was really great!

Rated 7/10.

Open Season (2006)

They should have stopped here

[7/10 · 18 April 2012]

My first review on this site as a registered user was Open season 2. I had, of course, previously seen Open Season 1 and then just a few weeks ago saw Open Season 3. Seeing all of them now (and the 1st for the second time) I can now exclaim that they should have stopped at this movie.

I was okay with it for the most part. The things that bugged me most was just the bear giving in and becoming friends with the annoying animal that almost ruined his life multiple times. I do understand the message, however I found it kind of odd and didn't make the movie as good as it could have been.

Anyway, it's still better than the second movie and definitely better than the third movie. Thus, I rate it 7/10.

Back to the Future (1985)

Brilliant

[8/10 · 14 April 2012]

What an absolutely brilliant film! It contained everything. Action, adventure, humor, love and time travel! I mean, it was like a super hero movie without the cape and super powers... unless you count the time traveling machine as a power, haha.

Basically this boy Marty ends up in a situation where he decides to go back in time to try to save the crazy scientist who invents the time machine but get's shot. Then back in time Marty ends up in the 50s where his parents are his age. He interferes with their meeting and has to get them to fall in love or else Marty won't exist.

I loved the story and how it progressed, and how the time traveling made sense to me yet was still obviously not foolproof.

The swearing was a bit extreme, but other than that I really enjoyed it.

I rate it 8/10.

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

Very funny movie!

[7/10 · 12 April 2012]

Most Disney movies aim for the serious side, however I was quite impressed with the way this movie went. It told the story of a ruler, only from his perspective. He told the story as if he were the innocent one being hurt and attacked by everyone. But it was quite the opposite.

His humor and sarcasm as well as the almost seemingly intentionally dumb yet funny bad guys made the movie entertaining to watch. And the ending was pretty good too, watching the almost exaggerated climatic scene unfold.

I liked how it was funny and the one who told the story was the "bad guy" through most of the warning.

I rate this 7/10.

The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town (1977 TV Movie)

Easter bunny is coming to town... and they dare mention religion?!

[7/10 · 10 April 2012]

I never got into the world's view of Easter. What I mean by world's view is, for Christmas we have Santa and the elves and such. For Easter it's the Easter bunny. Yet I never got involved in that much, that I can remember, as a kid. I'm a Christian, and of course my focus was on Christ.

However, it was interesting to watch this video to not just enjoy classics, but to see what things the world does Today and the creative ways they are explained in movies like this. And one thing that shocked me but shouldn't have was the mention of religion. The chicken or the egg song was awesome when they revealed the Bible story.

I must say that the majority of the movie was great, and I really enjoyed it. The only odd thing was the ending, which seemed badly rushed, for lack of better word. The mean aunt suddenly gave into Easter and next thing you knew, she was happy and then the movie ended there, with the conductor and the train. I was expecting the movie to end with the conductor seeing the Easter bunny all grown up and professional and everyone happy. Because it didn't, that confused me a little, but hey it's a classic anyway.

I rate this 7/10.

Tarzan (1999)

I really enjoyed it!

[8/10 · 8 April 2012]

This was one of those types of movies that, sure couldn't happen or the things that happen were very fictional. However, it's a Disney movie and so I accept some fiction in their reality.

The film basically consists of a baby boy who is raised in the jungle and becomes a jungle crazy type guy. He is named Tarzan. Soon humans come to check out the animals and he ends up interacting with them.

The only thing I found odd was that he and the girl somehow fell in love so quickly without knowing anything about each other. Sure, it's possible to fall in love at first site, but a shirtless guy from the jungle whom I'm sure smelled a lot worse than we see on TV.

But anyway, that's my only real gripe on the movie, if anything.

I rate this 8/10.

Open Season 3 (2010)

Um... what?

[4/10 · 4 April 2012]

So Open Season 1 was great and unique (According to what my review says of Open Season 2) and Open Season 2 was more bleh and an excuse to make money and keep the characters going.

Open Season 3... it started out randomly in the middle of a story, that I actually had to pause the movie, and head to the Internet and look up Open Season 2 to see where the movie ended at. Yep, Open Season 3 really doesn't continue smoothly.

The next thing that surprised me was the bad quality of the animation. I mean, sure nothing will look super realistic, but it looked like a video game at first, and I thought perhaps I had pressed the wrong menu button or something.

What really was sad was when the plot just sort of sank down. There was no real reason to care for the characters, and they almost seemed to be faking their emotions during the majority of the film.

And what is it with the lama or whatever the heck the "best friend" with the accent and his spitting? I mean, are they trying to make him funny by having him spit every two or three words? It's annoying.

And of course the dogs return... and have no real point in returning. The angry leader dog is just annoying and doesn't do much. Even the couple, the wife who talks and never lets her husband say a word, weren't as funny as the past movies. The alien encounter was amusing but nothing exciting. And yes, I saw the sneaky Sony phone advertising in the movie.

Anyway, enough with my rant. I was certain this movie wouldn't meet my expectations, and I was right. Too bad. I rate it 4/10.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

Better than the first, and had potential

[7/10 · 4 April 2012]

The first movie was great, with original characters and a plot and it all just fit together nicely.

The second movie wasn't as great, and started to lack on real character development. It struggled and had a bit of a political message, but other than that it wasn't absolutely terrible.

The third movie actually managed to be better than the second. There were enough unique characters, both main and background, as well as the plot which was almost completely unique again.

The comedic nature the movie presented was very appropriate, and I enjoyed the ending and the battles.

I rate this movie 7/10.

Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

Plot is starting to weaken but it's okay

[7/10 · 4 April 2012]

The first movie was great, introduced fairly unique characters and made the plot interesting.

The second movie deals more with finding mates for the characters and trying to learn how sacrificing one's time for another works.

The only thing I didn't like, but was part of the plot in the first place, was the melting and the idea of global warming. True or fiction, I don't care. But I just don't like the idea of a political message being put into a fun entertaining movie.

But other than that, it wasn't the best but it wasn't horrible either.

I rate it 7/10

The Next Karate Kid (1994)

Almost better than the third

[7/10 · 2 April 2012]

When the third came out, I knew they would soon run out of steam. But then I saw the fourth and changed my mind just a little. The Karate Kid 2 managed to entertain me enough without making it seem like the fourth attempt to keep milking the original.

In this fourth installment, the boy has left and in place is a girl. She's a teenager and has lost her parents so her attitude and mood are affected by that. However, when the great karate master in the past three films comes to "babysit" for a while, things get tense.

At first the girl is annoyed by him as she was her aunt (I believe), however after much time and a trip to see Monks, the girl soon becomes happy. Soon she gets a date to prom and then of course, things get crazy! But that's for you to find out!

Anyway, I rate this 7/10.

Ice Age (2002)

Okay, not Toy Story but not Shrek either

[7/10 · 2 April 2012]

I don't like comparing movies to the successful companies like Pixar or even Dreamworks, but sometimes to best explain and/or compare their films to stuff like thus, at least in my mind. But assuming Toy Story is the best film ever and something badly made by Dreamworks is the worst, this movie is more toward Toy Story.

The film is basically a fun movie about animals that have to bond together to bring back a "missing" human baby. I won't get into details, but all the things you'd expect in a movie like this is there. There's even a sub- plot with a squirrel thing that has it's own funny comedic plot going, and it at times affects the main movie (especially in the sequels)

Anyway the movie was pretty good, and thus I'll rate it 7/10.

The Karate Kid Part III (1989)

Not as impressive as the first two

[6/10 · 30 March 2012]

The movie started out excellent. The first Karate Kid was wonderful and I really loved it, minus the odd ending.

The second movie was okay, it helped to show more of the older man's life and we got to see his culture and history. It was okay.

This one goes back to the kid's life, only now he's older and more of an idiot for lack of better word. No offense, but he's definitely more annoying in the third. So what he "grew up" a little? He doesn't have to spend his college money on the older man's house, and in continually insist on entering the tournament, only to end up refusing to and getting angry at everything when he has to.

I found the "bad guy" to be not that bad, just annoying. Again, it was okay, and by the end it was better than I thought it would be, but I just wasn't that happy with the initial idea behind this.

Anyway, I'll rate it 6/10.

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

It was okay, but wasn't anything super exciting

[6/10 · 29 March 2012]

I will first say that the graphics were amazing, the CGI was fantastic and the actors were really great. However, it's unfortunate that the plot was basically the same thing over and over with just a few changes. For starters, it was aliens vs cowboys, I mean come on let's get a little more original here!

The fact that the movie starts with the main character confused as to who he is and we have to join in in the journey to discover who he is, just to find out the boring history of who he is. Plus the girl who sacrifices her life is pretty much what would be expected.

On the positive side, it was really funny and I enjoyed it for the most part. I forgot it was pg:13 and so a lot of the graphic violence wasn't really needed. I had to hide my eyes a few times because the gore was a bit too strong. However, all in all it was okay.

I'll rate it 6/10 for the good attempt. Get rid of all the gore and stuff and it could make it to 8/10.