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10/10
Your "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" movie guide
15 December 2012
Your "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" movie guide.

First, for those of you who LOVED the Lord of the Rings, which was a rich, wonderful "adult level" read in their original book form...remember that The Hobbit was a much lighter read aimed more at the child or young adult (in book form).

Having said that, I am hearing of "critics" viewing the movie as not as well developed (as LoTR) and with many "made up" scenes...

...I am so tired of "critics" who don't know the history of the product they are reviewing"...

...every scene I did indeed remember from something I read about Tolkiens Middle Earth. While not all of them were "directly" from The Hobbit, they are on par with the time-line and come from sources like The Silmarillion.

Plus, The Hobbit "the MOVIE" is NOT The Hobbit "the BOOK". It "includes the book" within its frame of reference but is also designed to give a much broader stroke of Middle Earth as Tolkein envisioned it. Peter Jackson is also trying to neatly create a tie-in for a smooth transition from The Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings movies.

Peter Jackson is the ultimate Hobbit and Hobbit fan; as was I in my youth. What I have liked about all his Tolkien movies is the fact that he seems to have been a fan of many of the artist renderings I enjoyed as a young man (and collected) of Middle Earth. The most notable is the Brothers Hildebrandt. In fact, Gollum's grotto jumped right out of the screen at me as a direct childhood memory...including the shape of the rock on his lake center island.

While there are a few slow areas as Peter develops the complex web he is trying to create, the overall movie worked very well.

Plus I saw it in HFR (High Frame Rate) 3D, which I would highly recommend (even over sound quality). Instead of the normal frame rate of 24fps as most movies are made by, this was filmed at 48fps. Why? The result is a much smoother image which gives the human eye the ability to pick up detail even more than just 1080p itself. Frame rate is not high definition in itself, but the ability to feed more information to the human brain per second. It looked "very" life like. My only negative comment was it also, to me at least, appeared overly "bright". Perhaps that was a wrong setting with the projectionist as this was the first showing (ever) of this technology. In that regard it did not match the lighting of the earlier movies (at all). It came across a little cartoonish...hopefully they will fix this either at the theater or when the final Blu-ray or Red-ray DVD's come out.

Still, even though this is only part I of III, the audience applauded at the end (rare enough) and I walked away having enjoyed myself immensely. Peter Jackson, the ultimate Hobbit, has done it again. :)

Happy Holidays!
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Gunless (2010)
10/10
Wow - Refreshing
28 August 2010
Refreshing original look at a tongue in cheek Western...a tale of the Montana Kid up against Canadina sensibilities.

Has the look and feel of an old fashion western and is wonderfully played by the leads.

Not meant to be a story of particular depth, if you look for what isn't there then you never got it to begin with. Having said that there are scenes which do have depth, and a great feel of honor and, at times, nobility.

I enjoyed this movie for a lot of reasons...not least of which are the performances of Paul Gross and Sienna Guillory.

Excellent Canadian gem!
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10/10
Softly Spoken Gift of Family, Self Sacrifice and Love
8 December 2008
Beautiful holiday tale of a Marine family, struggling as any typical family does to get along with each other let alone the world at large. Just about everybody in the cast is an unknown or at least with only a few movies (or TV shows) under their belt, including the director, Sheri Le Mon. The only easily recognizable character is "George", their grumpy next door neighbor, who happens to be Sherman Hemsley (aka George) of The Jefferson's fame.

None the less, everybody does a great job of not "over acting" (less is more), and brings a strong story of family realizing there are more important things than themselves, no matter their age, whether immediate or extended, in their lives.

I laughed often at how accurately the internal family squabbles were played, especially between the crooked halo of the youngest daughter and the older two children (the scene with the kids working on the neighbors flower bed was perfect).

Bridgette Potts (playing Grace Harrington) did a wonderful job as the teenage daughter, caught up in all the "normal" teenage dramas (actually, at their worse the kids were pretty well behaved), yet coming around when a family member, who couldn't fend for himself, needed help. Grace and her friends hard work brings everybody together and touches the hearts of all around them. A lot of detail was given to the human interactions…and I felt they were all believable.

And then there is Semper (as in Semper Fi), their lovable golden retriever (who doesn't seem to have his name in the cast of characters in IMDb – what's up with that?!), who brings family and friends together perfectly playing his part as…a dog!

Being a Marine myself and a lifelong dog lover, this gentle story of how animals can tie family, friends and community together, is a beautiful, gently stated holiday special which looks at the world through unfettered eyes and is suitable for any family member.

Good job!
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