Limitless

Sci-fi Thriller

Starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro

I'm a fan of movies that pull the viewer in by making them feel what the character is feeling. Every time Bradley Cooper takes a hit of NZT, the screen gets brighter and more clear. As time flows by for BC's character, the camera shoots through the streets of NYC in a flash. Disclaimer: Beware, those parts made me a little nauseous. What is so addicting about this movie is that you want BC's character to keep taking the pill because that guy is so much for fun to watch. 

The only thing I didn't like was how the movie ended and that there wasn't exactly any closure. Maybe the writers of the film wanted it to feel limitless.

Reel Recommendation: Open your mind to Limitless. It is stimulating.

Captain America

Action

Starring Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving

I've never been into comic books, so all of these superhero movies - Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Iron Man - I had never heard of some of their stories until Marvel and DC Comics got movie contracts and made every comic book geek jump for joy. Being unfamiliar with the Captain America story, I was unsure how the movie was going to make a guy who runs around in a blue leotard with a patriotic shield a hero. I thought the same thing about Thor and his hammer.

The story line is okay but I think the real reason for the film was to get the public ready for The Avengers coming out next year. I think the makers of The Avengers made all the other movie(Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, etc) and then said, "oh crap, we forgot about Captain America! Quick! Put a hot actor with nice pecks in a skin tight costume!" 

This movie does make me excited for The Avengers film that has an ALL STAR cast including Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow...must I continue? Okay I will...Jeremy Renner, Paul Bettany, Mark Ruffalo. Can't wait!

Reel Recommendation: Must see as it is a pre-requisite for The Avengers

Bridesmaids

 Comedy

Starring Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph

"BAH HA HA HA HA" That is what I sounded like while watching this. Before sitting down on a Sunday afternoon with my very own Matron of Honor to watch this, I was told it was the funniest movie. That is a pretty bold statement in the movie buff's world. When someone says, "funniest movie" I immediatley think of the comparisons.....Office Space, Tommy Boy, Super Troopers, The Whole Nine Yards (one of my personal faves), Dumb and Dumber, Old School, Liar Liar, Baby Mama and Dodge Ball.

After watching the uncomfortable and imfamous "pooping in the street" scene I heard everyone talking about, I was sold. Bridesmaids was not only hilarious, but it spoke to the truth about women. We are crazy, jealous, competitive bitches. If you are a woman, you can deny it...but I guarentee you saw a glimse of yourself somewhere in that movie.

I enjoyed the raw humor that Kristen Wiig brings to the screen. Her facial expressions allow the audience to see right into her soul funny bone.

 Reel Recommendation:

"Do you Tracey take this movie to be one of the funniest movies of all time?"

"I do"

Repo Men

Action/Thriller

Starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker

WARNING! WARNING! This movie is extremely gory. The amount of blood shown is more than Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2 combined. I spent half the movie picking at my hang nails because I could not get myself to watch all of the cutting open of people. 

There are so many things wrong with this movie. This I should have known by the 21% fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com. I gave Repo Men the benefit of the doubt because I figured that the chances of Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and hot british Jude Law would never choose to do a crappy film. 

Like the government would let a company kill people to repossess their artificial organs that they can't pay for and then leave the bodies lying there. You get a $200 ticket in Chicago if you don't pick up after your dog takes a poopy.

Reel Recommendation: A bloody waste of time (said with a british accent)

Lincoln Lawyer

Legal Thriller

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei

Welcome back to real acting Matthew McConaughey! We haven't seen this part of you since A Time To Kill back in 1996. To be honest, I loved Fools Gold and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as much as the last girl...but his over confident, tan, shirtless character with chiseled abs can only get him so far. 

This clever film approaches the bench with a kick-ass cast. McConaughey, Phillippe and Tomei are accompanied by great actors William H. Macy, John Leguizamo and Josh Lucas. Even country music star Trace Adkins makes an appearance. 

If I could, I would take this movie to trial because it is guilty of being a great movie. I will warn you though- don't watch any previews of it before you pop it in. The twists in the plot are better to learn during trial. 

Reel Recommendation: You have the right to remain silent, anything you do to not watch this movie can and will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney - and it should be the Lincoln Lawyer. I rest my case.

Buried

Thriller

Starring Ryan Reynolds

90 minutes of Ryan Reynolds trapped in a wooden coffin in Iraq. Synopsis over. 

So for the critique, I will start with this: normally with movies where the character is in a trapped situation, the audience is privy to the actions going on around him or her. For example, in Iron Man we are shown what the terrorists are doing while poor Robert Downey Jr is locked up in the cave with some old guy. Okay that was the only example I could think of on the spot. Buried, however, kept that information from you the entire duration of the film. Not even flashbacks. This did a great job of frustrating me equivalent to the moment I thought I was stuck forever in my old apartment bathroom when I was home alone for the entire weekend. When the handle (probably built in 1912) fell off, I felt completely trapped. You all know that feeling of claustrophobic panic that rushes over you and triggers the uncomfortable hot flash. 

Another unique point about the movie was that it was shown in real time.  This kept me on the edge of my sofa - well as far as I could while still able to have two dogs on my lap. 

Here's the kicker, the date the movie takes place is October 23rd - the day Ryan Reynolds was born. How do I know this? Well my fiance just happened to be lucky enough to be born the exact day and year as Mr. Reynolds so that is his "thing." That is also the thing I had to hear before watching The Proposal, Van Wilder, Just Friends, and any other RR flick. So really I am the lucky one as I am married to his birthday twin!

Reel Recommendation: I feel like I was in a coffin for 90 minutes. I need some air but I'm still Buried in it.

Skyline

Sci-Fi Thriller

Starring: a bunch of no-namers

Not sure why I subjected myself to this movie. Maybe it's because in the preview I saw that Donald Faison was in it - you know, the black guy from Scrubs...how about Dee's boyfriend in Clueless who wears the braces? Okay now you know who I'm talking about. 

Well, that's two hours of my life I'll never get back. Serves me right for not checking rottentomatoes.com to see how rotten it really was. Only 19% of the audience liked it. After knowing that, I am left wondering what the heck kind of people that 19% is made up of. Um, the tagline of the film is, "Don't look up." When it should really be, "Don't watch this." 

It is about aliens who don't die that catch humans by pointing a blue laser at them and then pluck their brains from their heads and use them (not sure why). Incredibly weird and not even the slightest bit interesting. Oh, and they should fire the guy to was in charge of titling the film. Skyline. Really?

Reel Recommendation: Barf. With a capital B.

Unknown

Thriller

Starring Liam Neeson, January Jones and Diane Kruger

This movie was completely off my radar. I had never even heard of the film or seen one preview. I guess you could say it was completely unknown to me. Without hearing much about it, I didn't have any expectations when it arrived in my mailbox in that shiny red envelpey present Netflix wraps it in. 

A little about the cast..first and foremost, Liam Neeson is such a bad ass. This movie he played a more vulnerable, less creepy bad ass than he did in Taken, but with the same raw drive for the truth.  As for Diane Kruger, she's had me ever since she made her big debut in National Treasure. And January Jones, well all the guys think she's hot. 

This movie kept me on the edge of my couch. I found myself yelling, "run!" and "use your legs to kick him!" I'm surprised our neighbors didn't call the cops when they heard me scream, "Stab him with the piece of mirror!"

Reel Recommendation: Enter the "Unknown"

Transformers: The Dark of the Moon

Sci-Fi Action

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Patrick Dempsey, Josh Duhhamel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley 

Not horrible. Not great. Better than the second (which let's face it, wasn't hard). Not as good as the first. The story took FOREVER to get set up and the fight/action scenes were far TOO LONG. 

If you are still reading, here is what I thought of the acting...Patrick Dempsey was an interesting pick as a villain, but I will say, he did a decent job in that role. Shia played his character in his usual panicky way and there is one girly scream of his that got some major laughs. And the new girlfriend, played by Huntington-Whiteley, was a far better actress than Megan Fox. 

The one thing we liked about this movie was the presence that Chicago made in it. Since we had seen the filming throughout the last year, our reaction to many of the scenes was, "This is what we saw filming on Wacker Dr!" or "That's the old post office on the river!"

We paid $15 a ticket to see this in 3D. The movie wasn't worth that for sure, but the previews we saw made up for it - The Change Up, Captain America, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. All which we will see in theaters.

Reel Recommendation: If you live in Chicago, its worth renting. Otherwise, don't bother.

The Tourist

Action Romance

Starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp

The thing I liked most about this movie is that from the very start you weren't privy to the background information for each character. You don't know if Elize - played by Jolie - was good or bad. Normally, a movie sets up the characters in the very beginning with small clues to who they are and what side they're on. A typical crime drama opens by showing the man waking up in the morning and let's say, putting their gun and badge in their pocket, kissing their wife good-bye and heading out to their detective partner holding a donut. This movie kept you guessing to the very end on who was who and on what side.

I popped in the DVD with considerably low expectations after hearing from most people that it wasn't that good. Turns out, it was entertaining, but when is Johnny Depp not entertaining?

Reel Recommendation: Better than your average tourist trap

Prince of Persia

Action Adventure

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

Being that this is a Disney flick, I had high expectations. I loved Pirates of the Caribbean and this was produced by the same fellow. Within the first 5 minutes, Tommy and I were both singing, "One jump ahead of the breadline, one swing ahead of the sword" as the story seemed to be very parallel to Aladdin. 

Beyond that, the romance was cheesy and the fight scenes were like Cirque du Soleil let some of their acrobats loose on the streets of Persia. 

Reel Recommendation: I wish I can use the dagger to turn back time and not watch this movie

The Switch

Romantic Comedy

Starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman

There are two types of romantic comedies - those that i would look forward to watching over and over on TBS and those that are easily forgotten (e.g.......this one....i had to scroll up to see what it was called). 

Even though I am a huge FANiston and I love Jason Bateman in everything he's been in, I was not that impressed with this film. Oh and Jeff Goldblum is in this movie too. He plays a scientist who is planning on endorsing a dinosaur park and a couple years ago, on the 4th of July, he saved the human race from alien domination..oh wait that was a different movie. But basically he plays the same character.

Reel Recommendation: I would Switch this with a better Rom Com - maybe a trusted oldie like Pretty Woman or When Harry Met Sally 

Daybreakers

Vampire Thriller

Starring Ethan Hawk and Willem Dafoe

That's right, I created a new genre: Vampire Thrillers. You knew it was coming with the vampire show/movie craze: True Blood, The Twilight Saga, Vampire Diaries. I rest my case.  

To the point -  I was looking forward to re-heating some left-over spaghetti for dinner after watching this movie on a quiet Sunday afternoon. That dream was abruptly shattered after watching the gore in this movie. Needless to say, I don't think i will be eating spaghetti, or rather an red food for a while.  

I hope the creators of the fake blood for the movie set made it truly edible or at least full of vitamins - because the actors sure ate/drank a lot of it.

The only thing that cleared the permanent mental picture of a pack of 20 vampires feeding on one helpless human, ripped body parts flying all over, was a half hour of some good old America's Funniest Videos. There is nothing a montage of crotch shots can't handle.

You may be thinking, "there isn't much in here about the movie." Exactly. Not much there to say. 

Reel Recommendation: If you like weak story lines and gory vampire scenes, this movie is for you! 

Life As We Know It

Romantic Comedy

Starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel

Cute movie - even though my fiance would disagree. He says, and I quote, "the movie, as we know it, sucked." However, I caught him laughing quite a few times at the relationship banter made funny by Mr. Duhamel. 

Katherine Heigl plays her staple successful, established, control freak character, the same person we saw in Knocked Up. Josh Duhamel's "rough around the edges" care-free character is what makes this movie funny. His one-liners are hysterical but sometimes hard to hear if your fiance is still laughing at the last one. 

I'll put it this way, I can see why this movie made it to theaters, and I can see why it was only there for a couple weeks.

Reel Recommendation: don't move it to the top of your Netflix queue, but it could be worth an instant play 

Edge of Darkness

Thriller

Starring Mel Gibson

This movie grabbed me in the first 10 minutes and kept me biting my newly manicured nails all the way through till the end. The only thing that annoyed me, is that between both Tommy and I, we couldn't keep some of the characters straight. We found ourselves asking - "wait, is that the guy in the beginning that was in the garage? Is that the Senator?" 

The plot was twisted and there were quite a few unpleasant surprises, but I wouldn't say its a "must see" or a Mel Gibson film legend. The next time you are playing trivia at your favorite bar and the announcer asks you to name five Mel Gibson movies - your answer sheet will read Braveheart, The Patriot, Signs, Lethal Weapon (all 3) and What Women Want. Edge of Darkness will be one of those movies that while browsing IMDB you say to yourself, "oh yeah, i totally forgot about that movie." Much like I did when i was reminded that Mel was the voice of John Smith in Pocahontas. RIGHT?

Reel Recommendation: Right on the edge of being a pretty good movie

The Adjustment Bureau

Sci-Fi Thriller

Starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt

I saw this one in the theaters and I will say it was worth the $20 in tickets, and $20 in popcorn, Skittles, Nestle Crunch Bites, and 1 large Diet Coke (for TWO - as I didn't see this movie alone). I'd say this movie was a mix between Inception and The Matrix. The storyline was especially creative and intricate, but not to the point of confusion. Sometimes I find myself exhausted by movies that get so far into the details that a flow-chart is needed to get through a 2-hour movie.

Emily Blunt's character was my favorite. She plays the unattainable love interest.  Her humorous disregard for the linear political agenda not only entertains us, but also mirrors the core message of the film - [insert message here] - I don't want to be a spoiler :)

Reel Recommendation: Adjust your fate so this movie is in it

Ghost Writer

Political Thriller

Starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan

So this movie is classified as a political thriller, but to be honest, there wasn't anything particularly thrilling about it. This flick was very........very...........v...e...r...y... slow moving.

The story is about a writer who agrees to finish a ex-prime minister's memoirs that have already been partly written by another man who was mysteriously murdered days before finishing the book. If I hadn't had one large caffeine-infused Starbucks drink, I would have been passed out within the first 20 minutes of the film. This surprises me, because the director is the one and only Roman Polanski (known for academy award winning movies Chinatown and The Pianist).

Once the answers do start to reveal themselves during the last 10 minutes of the movie, you then watch it all come to a screeching halt when a main character is killed off suddenly. In the words of Tommy, "I was so happy when he died because that meant the movie was over." I rest my case.

Besides fleeing to France after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 13 year old, this movie is another reason why Roman Polanski should not be allowed back in the United States without being arrested.

Reel Recommendation: This movie will leave you saying, "Wow, that's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back"

The Town

Suspense/Drama

Starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner

There are three things this movie did:

1. Kept me guessing - This plot was like nothing I've ever seen before. Unlike most movies, I couldn't tell when the big climax of the film was. 

2. Had me rooting for the bad guy - The only other movie that had me doing that was Oceans Eleven

3. Made me want to visit Boston - the city view establishing shots were so beautiful!

In all seriousness, the Town hit all the high points - great story line, well done special effects that coincided with heart-pumping chase scenes and gun fights. The ending was anything but typical and the script was clever and well written.

Reel Recommendation: Have a night on "The Town"

Salt

Action Adventure
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber

This movie pleasantly SPY-prised me. After it ended, I was left screaming, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I hope they make another one!" I assume they will as the last scene left the story pretty open ended. Don't let that deter you from watching it though, because you'll want to be prepared when Salt 2 - Salt and Vinegar comes out. The name I think I think they should use :)

When the movie began, I didn't know exactly what it was about - only that Angelina Jolie played a kick- ass spy, which is pretty standard for her (i.e. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Tourist). She does so well playing Evelyn Salt that right from the beginning I was confused who's side she was on. She is so good, I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role. Funny because the script was originally written for Tom Cruise - ick. 

Reel Recommendation: Make sure you add a pinch of SALT to your next dinner and movie night.