Movie Reviews

Got to see 2 movies this last weekend.

The first was a kids movie called the Ant Bully. This is a WB produced movie from back in July '06. It is a computer animated movie with such star power voices as Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti, Lily Tomlin, Bruce Campbell and Ricardo Mantalban.

The story itself I thought was excellent, and the writing was very, very good. I'm really surprised this movie did not do better at the box office. Perhaps it was just a matter of what it was up against.

The story plot involves a small boy, Lucas, is being picked on by a bully. He then turns his frustrations on the Ant Colony living in his yard. To the ants he is known as the Destroyer. So when the wizard ant makes a magic potion to shrink him everything changes. He is ordered by the Queen that he must remain and work among the ants until he becomes an ant.
He learns how to make friends, work as a team and never give up. Things many kids are lacking these days.
When the exterminator comes, he rallies the ants and enlists the help of the Ants enemies, the wasps, to attack the exterminator. But instead of one of those half faked battles where when the bugs turn on him, they run, the exterminator fights back. The plan looks doomed and the ant colony is on the verge of destruction, when Lucas saves the day. He is later awarded an Ant name and returned to his normal size. When the bully comes around again, he stands up to him.

Overall, I give all aspects of this movie a big thumbs up. If you have young kids, or even if you don't, this is a very funny movie with some good life lessons.

My 2 favorite lines were actually lines in passing, one referring to the mystical yellow rain. And the other was someone mentioning the boy had his skeleton on the inside and an ant said, "you mean he's turned inside out?" Friggen awesome.

Movie 2 was the Transformers. This Michael Bay Film released this year, has plenty of hot action in it. It was a bit lacking on star power as Shia LaBeouf from Holes, I,Robot and was great in Disturbia is the main star, Sam Witwicky. (he is also going to be in the upcoming Indiana Jones movie coming out next year.) He carries the show as the only other main star was Jon Voight, who looks like he is past his prime years.
Megan Fox as the very, very hot girlfriend, ex-con puts in a strong performance as does Josh Duhamel as Captain Lennox.
The rest of the cast was only so-so at best down to downright stupid.

While the plot overall was fine, some things seemed very out of place. The Computer hacker storyline was fine, but 2 characters had semi-main parts in the movie and yet contributed nothing to the actual story at all.
At 2 hours and 23 mins, it went on a bit, and there were many areas they could have been cut out.

A couple things I really liked about the movie:
1. The fact that a concentrated attack by the American forces could actually cripple and take down a transformer. I get really sick and tired of aliens who can come here and not even nuclear bombs have an effect on them.

2. I loved the scene when they are in the house looking for the old glasses. The Auto-bots were outside trying to "sneak" around, that was genius. In addition, when the parents find Megan in their son's bedroom, their reaction wasn't the typical hollywood, "what is a girl doing in here?" But instead the fathers bumping fists with his son to congratulate him and his mom is saying "your gorgeous", like, she can't believe her son is scoring this hot piece.

3. If for no other reason, you have to watch this movie for the special affects. OMG, they are awesome.

4. The fight scene at the end was great. The transformers were just wreaking havoc everywhere. And Megatron was done very well and looked totally evil.

5. Hell, all the fight scenes were great. From the original opening with the helicopter bot, to the scorpion bot in the desert, to the fight with bumblebee to save Sam.

Things I didn't like in the movie.
1. The name Witwicky, come on.

2. The computer genius hacker character. Totally stupid, added nothing to the movie at all. Cut this guy out completely. His comedic value was offset by him being just too damn stupid.

3. The government giving a full tour to all the characters of the most top secret military installation in the world. For no real apparent reason other than they needed to include it in the movie somewhere.

4. 20 mins into the main fight at the end, there were still people in their cars driving into the area. And yet, there were no cops. If I saw a bunch of transformers standing 5-8 stories tall, fighting. Buildings were being crushed, cars flying, etc.. It would take me all of about 2 mins to get well away from that entire area, even if on foot. There were people still just standing in the street watching the fight.

Overall, I thought there were a lot more positives than negatives. I thought the writing and editing could have been tightened up, but the acting from the main characters was good and the special affects are top notch.

For an evening of cool action with some great affects in a family movie that everyone is going to enjoy, another thumbs up from me.

Until next time...