WAR HORSE

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 146 Minutes



Click below to watch the War Horse trailer.



In Touchstone Pictures War Horse directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the children's book and stage production War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Jeremy Irvine's horse Joey, whom Irvine has raised since Joey was a foal at their poor farm, is sold by his war veteran father Peter Mullan to the British cavalry at the start of World War I.

A combination of Black Beauty and Saving Private Ryan - the film is more about the horse Joey, than it is about the war as the film follows Joey and the various horse tending people Joey encounters on his various adventures. Due to the fortunes of war, Joey goes back and forth between both sides of the war. As a result of which, I cared about the various characters Joey encounters during the war - no matter which side you are on. Having the Germans speaking English throughout the movie was a little disconcerting to me and made it difficult for me to tell which side of the war Joey was on - as under battle conditions, everyone looks almost alike. I would have preferred to have read subtitles when the Germans were speaking, but from a commercial point of view it made sense as most of the audience would not like to read subtitles throughout half of the movie. Since the movie was mostly filmed in England, there were no American soldiers integrated into the British units throughout the war.

The uses of horse-ridden calvary was initially a surprise for me as I generally think of WWI as the beginning of mechanised warfare which was used by Great Briton and France with tanks. However WWI was a combination of using both 20th century technology and 19th century tactics. Thus, a calvary charge with swords - while a sound tactic in the 19th century, and effective with thousand pound horses bearing down on lightly armed men - is hopefully outclassed against a defensive line of machine guns. The use of horses hauling artillery was much more relatable to me as the German Army was ahead in the war in fielding heavy artillery.

The trench warfare of No Man's Land, while scary with the machine guns, is not as intense as the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan - probably because there is a distance in No Man's Land between the audience and the British troops as they go over-the-top of the protective trenches into the heavily machine gunned barbed-wire battlefield, as compared to the up close and personal battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan. One reason for why the distancing might be, may be due to the post-traumatic stress reaction war veterans had to watching the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan. Certainly, you saw no real graphic consequences of the battle - even with the use of poison gas in the trenches. Although with gas masks, chemical warfare was of limited use in the war anyway despite the stigma of the use of poison gas during the war.

The horses were definitely the stars in this movie as you definitely got acting and emotion out of these beautiful horses, even if they are animals. The horses, especially Joey, care for each other and they make for nice tear-jerker characters for the film.

At the end of the film, the audience applauded. A rare thing indeed, which makes me think War Horse will be a contender for an Oscar.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running Time: 146 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

HUGO

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 127 Minutes



In Paramount Pictures Hugo, Hugo Cabret, Asa Butterfield, is an orphan trying to survive as he makes his home amongst the tower clocks of a busy 1930's Parisian train station. While trying to survive in the train station community by stealing food from the station's dining establishments, as well as maintaining the complicated tower clocks that his drunken uncle had intrusted him to, Butterfield tries to repair an automaton that he has inherited from his dead father to find meaning in Butterfield's life.

Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, this is a wonderful family movie about an orphaned boy whose life is intertwined with a magician toy booth owner at the train station, Ben Kingsley - who just happens to be filmmaker Georges Méliès.

With Butterfield being from a family of clock-makers, Butterfield steals intricate mechanism parts from Kingsley in order to fix the automaton Butterfield and his dad Jude Law discovered in a museum. Convinced the automaton contains a secret message from his late father Law, Butterfield is determined to fix the writing/drawing automaton to discover the message his father might have put in it. When Kingsley catches Butterfield stealing a mechanical mouse from him, Kingsley takes Butterfield's father's notebook from him. Determined to get the notebook back, Butterfield convinces Kingsley's goddaughter Chloë Grace Moretz - who loves a secret and is looking to have an adventure - to get Law's notebook back for him. Butterfield then realizes that Moretz's necklace key is the key that unlocks Butterfield's automaton.

This film is basically two movies, one of the children-oriented movie with orphan Butterfield living amongst the clock towers of the busy train station in the city of Paris - while he searches for parts to fix his drawing automaton. Butterfield also tries to keep out of the clutches of the orphaned lamed Station inspector Sacha Baron Cohen, who was wounded during World War 1, as well as keeping away from Cohen's dog. The other movie about Hugo is one of filmmaker Méliès as the children discover who Moretz's godfather really is. In fact the film very easily could have been called Georges, as the film spends such a great amount of time on Méliès life. What is great about a movie about Méliès is that Producer/Director Martin Scorsese actually had footage of Méliès films, especially of Méliès most famous film A Trip to the Moon.

I saw A Trip to the Moon years ago - but in black and white. Hugo actually used the hand-colored footage that was recently found in a barn in France in 2002, which makes those film clips of A Trip to the Moon even more magical with the film clips being hand-colored like that. Since Méliès was a stage magician, he pioneered the use of the practical stage special effects to use for his short films - as compared to the heavily detailed computer graphic effects of today. The opening shot was of a computer graphic zoom/dolly, which made me think that the movie was going to be a computer graphics movie instead of a live-action movie - until the shot stopped at a closeup of Butterfield. I especially felt the movie was going to be a computer graphics film after I had just seen the trailer for The Adventures of Tintin just before the movie Hugo began. When you compare a computer graphics shot like that opening shot of the movie - to the primitive effects Méliès used to do in his short films, it is awe-inspiring to see what kind of film magic Méliès used to do at the movie industry's infancy. Méliès was such a pioneer of the movie industry in his time, that he is regarded as "The Father of Special Effects."

Scorsese usually makes hard-core period piece ethnic New York films, so although a child fantasy-like film is more a style for Steven Spielberg rather than a Scorsese film, this being a period Parisian film in a crowded train station was up his alley as Scorsese deals with the period and the crowded train station. You can see Scorsese's idolism for film pioneer Georges Méliès.

This film was also shot in 3D and should be seen in 3D. As it was shot in 3D, the 3D effects are much more believable and impressive than a 2D film converted to 3D. There was a closeup of Kingsley at the end of the movie that I noticed that, instead of being a flat closeup shot with a telephoto lens usually done with a 2D film, the closeup was a 3D closeup of Kingsley's face. I normally do not notice closeups in 3D as they are usually flat. It makes me wish I paid more attention to the closeups in the rest of the movie to see if they were also in 3D. This is what a 3D film should look like, especially when shot by a filmmaker like Scorsese. Considering that this is Scorsese's first 3D film, the film is amazing. The various clockworks mechanisms shown throughout the film are especially graphic in 3D.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 127 Minutes.



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Pancho's Movie Reviews

J. Edgar

Warner Bros.

Rated R

Running time: 137 Minutes



In the true story of Warner Bros. J. Edgar, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - J. Edgar Hoover, Leonardo DiCaprio, dictates his life's story to varous Federal agents.

Based on the true story of Hoover's life, and Directed and with Music by Clint Eastwood, this film is a very dramatic history of both J. Edgar and the FBI. It is amazing how much forensic proceedures J. Edgar developed in both library research and criminal science. These proceedures were very critical in the solving of the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. The film makes references to various criminal related cases the FBI was involved with, such as the notorious gangsters as well as the Charles Lindberg baby kidnapping. Throughout the 20th century, these cases of the FBI helped make J. Edgar a national hero. The private files J. Edgar supposedly kept of various political figures, including Presidents also made J. Edgar notorious and a person you did not want to make a political enemy of.

When a bomb explodes at the home of his boss, J. Edgar (DiCaprio) becomes driven throughout the rest of his life in dealing both with radical groups, as well as the subversives against America, and also in dealing in criminal science - such as having criminal's fingerprints being registered and centralized at the FBI. J. Edgar is soon made Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has a career that lasts half a century and eight Presidents. The film goes back and forth between the mature characters of the present, and their younger selves. J. Edgar struggles in gaining respect for the Bureau, in that he has strict standards for his agents, getting proper jurisdiction and funding for the Bureau during Congressional Hearings - as well as getting loyalty and respect for himself. As a result, J. Edgar's biography "The Untitled FBI Story" is rather embellished with stories about J. Edgar.

The film also deals with J. Edgar's relationship with his mother Judi Dench, and his "daffodil" relationship with agent Clyde Tolson, Armie Hammer. While I knew of this relationship from various studies, the relationship was subtly played in the movie. Although it is interesting J. Edgar originally wanted a relationship with his new secretary Helen Gandy, Naomi Watts. However Watts only wanted a business relationship with J. Edgar. As a result, J. Edgar becomes uncomfortable with girls, and has a different relationship - although the FBI continues to deny any such portrayals of J. Edgar. It is ironic of having Armie Hammer in the movie when Armie Hammer's great-grandfather, tycoon Armand Hammer, was suspected by J. Edgar Hoover of having Soviet ties.

There was definitely an older crowd for this movie in the theaters. I am not sure if that is because of Clint Eastwood, or that the older crowd is more familiar with J. Edgar Hoover. Most probably it is because of the relationship the older crowd has with J. Edgar despite the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio. J. Edgar was the reason I saw the movie. I would not be surprised if DiCaprio is nominated for an Oscar for his performance in this movie.

Rated R for langauge, violence, and sexual situations. Running time: 137 Minutes.

Pancho
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Pancho's Movie Reviews

TOWER HEIST

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 104 Minutes



In Universal Pictures Tower Heist, Ben Stiller is the building manager of a large hotel tower when he realizes that the tower's richest tenant Alan Alda, who Stiller has investing the employee's pension, has not only defrauded his clients money - but has defrauded their own employee pension as well. Feeling guilty for what he did in trusting Alda, Stiller wants to make things right - by stealing $20 million dollars from Alda.

In a cross between Die Hard, Horrible Bosses, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this is a cute action comedy of a tower heist, of which the tower was really Trump Tower in the movie. In the ultimate Upstairs, Downstairs situation, Stiller recruits his fellow staff members - concierge Casey Affleck, elevator operator Michael Peña, housekeeper Gabourey Sidibe and evicted tenant Matthew Broderick to make the heist of Alda's safe up in the penthouse suite. Realizing they do not know how to steal, Stiller then bails out his neighborhood thief Eddie Murphy to teach them all how to steal. Planning the heist soon becomes difficult as Stiller develops a relationship with FBI agent Téa Leoni, who is in charge of Alda's incarceration.

I liked the fact that Stiller and the others timed the heist with the Macy's Day Parade. It was great to see a cameo of Matt Lauer as part of the Parade. While having what is supposedly Steve McQueen's car in the movie was cool - what was even better was what they did with McQueen's car. A cameo by Victoria's Secret supermodel Kate Upton as Mr. Hightower's mistress is also cool. I would have liked to have seen more of the residents in the tower, as well as more of the security arrangements in the movie - given that they are about to pull off a heist, how are they going to get past those? What I do not like about the film is that you do not know what happened to Eddie Murphy at the very end of the movie. I was expecting the last shot to be of Murphy since they did not resolve his character like they did all of the other characters in the movie.

Rated PG-13 for language and violence. Running time: 104 minutes.

Pancho
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Pancho's Movie Reviews

IN TIME

20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Rated PG-13

Running time: 109 Minutes



20th Century Fox Film Corporation's In Time, is set in the near future where time is literally money - and if you run out of time, you run out of life.

Time poor Justin Timberlake, not meeting his quota of making time scanners, saves the life of Matt Bomer - who has a century of life on his clock. In gratitude, and because he is tired of living forever, Bomer transfers most of the time on his clock to Timberlake while Timberlake is asleep. Timberlake wakes up - just in time to see Bomer's time run out. Timberlake then must go on the run before the ghetto Minute Men and the Time Keepers discover Timberlake has more time than he should.

At first Timberlake decides to get out of the ghetto time zone that is his home - and live it up in the rich time zone. Traveling across the different time zones requires more and more time for payment, which surprises ghetto-raised Timberlake. While in the rich time zone, time-rich Timberlake meets Amanda Seyfried and gambles with her rich father Vincent Kartheiser at their mansion party. When Time Keeper investigator Cillian Murphy crashes the party to arrest Timberlake for the death of Bomer and take Timberlake's extra time - Timberlake takes Seyfried hostage and they go on the run.

While the beginning may start out similar to Blade Runner, the movie soon turns into Bonnie and Clyde. While kidnaped, rich Seyfried soon has her clock drained by the leader of the gang of Minutemen in the ghetto. Soon, Seyfried is living minute by minute, just as Timberlake has been living minute by minute all of his life. In order to change life in the ghetto - Seyfried and Timberlake soon begin to rob Kartheiser's time banks and disseminate the time scanners to the people.

While this supposedly takes place in the near future, it seems that the technology to produce this culture must have taken place over a long period of time - especially if you engineer everyone to be of the age of 25. The culture is too near to the our present for such a radical cultural change. Also it is somehow implied that everyone's clock just suddenly appeared, which would require a major scientific breakthrough to effect the entire world all at once. Other than that, the moral of using time as money and that when you run out of time - you die. This is a rather graphic portrayal of being broke, as shown with Timberlake's mother Olivia Wilde. A much more interesting portrayal than people just running out of money and being broke. This idea makes you appreciate being much more frugal with your money.

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 Pancho's Movie Reviews

PUSS IN BOOTS

Paramount Pictures/ DreamWorks Animation

Rated PG

Running time: 90 Minutes





















Click below to watch the Puss In Boots trailer.



In Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Animation film Puss in Boots, orphan Puss in Boots Antonio Banderas tries to regain his honor and retrieve some magic beans with his fellow orphaned brother Humpty Dumpty Zach Galifianakis from the bad guys Jack and Jill Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris.

While this is supposedly a prequel to the movie Shrek, in that these are Puss in Boots adventures before he met Shrek, this movie definitely stands on it's own and you do not have to see the Shrek movies in order to enjoy this film. Just as in the Shrek movies, Mother Goose characters populate the land, so it is in the same world - but the film is in the style of the Zorro movies with an Hispanic Old California type of feeling. This was quite an appropriate style given Banderas background as Zorro. There is the sword slash of a P which I wish happened at least once in the movie itself instead of being done as a logo for the beginning of the film. The DreamWorks Animation logo also had the same style/feeling that was appropriate for the movie. This is a swashbuckling film with lots of action and story - so much action and story, that I was surprised the movie was only 90 minutes long.

When Puss in Boots's caper of acquiring magic beans, beans that he has been searching for all of his life, from bad guys Jack and Jill is horned in on by the equally mysterious roguish rival Kitty Softpaws Salma Hayek - the upset Puss soon falls for Kitty and eventually tells her his story to woo her. Going from a kitten orphan to a disgraced hero, Puss struggles to regain his honor - especially after meeting his estranged orphaned brother Humpty Dumpty. As a baby kitten, Puss was very cute. His eyes were very expressive - especially when he was pleading, making him irresistible. I saw the movie in 2-D - but even in 2-D, the movie looked like it was in 3-D, that is how advanced the computer graphics have become. The use of old-style filmic techniques like split-screen and film wipes give a nice contrast to the high-technology of the 3-D style computer graphics. My favorite scene is the Dance Fight, which has a strong Latin musical arrangement. The character of the Old Man in the dungeon reminds me very much of my old friend UFO Bob, that I almost thought it was him.

While there are Mother Goose characters in the movie, they have a superficial resemblance to the characters that we grew up with. I always thought of Jack and Jill as brother and sister - but in the movie they were husband and wife, with desires for making a little Jack and Jill of their own once the magic beans lead them to the legendary Golden Goose. Jack and Jill's underhanded schemes make them worthy opponents to the dashing Puss in Boots. And several of the orphanage characters were not as nice as their original Mother Goose rhymes made them out to be. Executive Produced by Guillermo del Toro, his Commandante is determined to get Puss for the Commandante's belief of Puss's betrayal of Puss's heroic ideals from his hometown. It is rather sad to see what leads up to Humpty's story on the bridge, that his story has became so famous, especially after what you see of Humpty's childhood plans and dreams.

This is a wonderful family movie and I am so glad it had a theatrical release instead of going direct to DVD as was originally intended. It is a much more interesting story than the typical direct to DVD release. From the initial box-office, Paramount Pictures made a wise decision in releasing it theatrically. I think Puss in Boots is a better movie than Shrek, and I loved Shrek, although Shrek was more into turning the traditional fairy tale story upside-down. Puss in Boots is more of a traditional fairy tale story = that turns the Mother Goose characters upside-down.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 90 Minutes.

Pancho
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 Pancho's Movie Reviews

THE THING

Universal Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 103 minutes



Universal Pictures The Thing is a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing which is based on the short story Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr. (Don A. Stuart). In Antarctica, a scientific research station discover not only an ancient spaceship - but an alien thing.

While Carpenter's The Thing is closer to the original story by Campbell, this version of The Thing is closer to the Howard Hawkes version of The Thing From Another World, although it is still the same basic story as Carpenter's The Thing. Scientist Ulrich Thomsen brings in paleontologist Mary Elizabeth Winstead to study the discovery in Antarctica. When the frozen alien thaws out and suddenly comes alive, the men and women at the research station not only must fight for their lives - but must discover which one of them has also turned into a thing.

I believe this is the first instance of the movies explaining the thing's chameleon/cloning capability of becoming another person. This movie is just as graphic as Carpenter's The Thing, including pieces of the thing becoming other things. Since this is a Norwegian outpost, it backs up Carpenter's The Thing as the first outpost that was attacked by the thing.

When Winstead is in her lab at the beginning of the film, she is listening to the Men at Work song Who Can It Be Now. This was appropriate to the future paranoia that will happen in the movie. The end scenes in the movie with the spaceship could have been done at the research post. As it was, it was basically the end scenes from the movie Alien and really broke the format of all the terror taking place at one location as well as just seeming unnecessary. I started to go ho-hum when the movie went in that direction. As a result, Winstead's character was based on Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien.

For a research post, the scientists have a lot of weapons - especially flame throwers. Flame throwers are not normal military weapons, for scientists to even have flame throwers is questionable. I might understand if flame throwers are used for ice mining, but they did not establish that and it is still a lot of flame throwers.

Do not leave as the end credits roll as there are scenes which lead directly into Carpenter's The Thing.

Rated R for graphic violence and language. Running time: 103 Minutes.

Pancho
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Pancho's Movie Reviews

Real Steel

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 127 Minutes

















Click below to watch the Real Steel trailer.



Set in the near future, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Real Steel has down on his luck ex-boxer Hugh Jackman using the last of his money getting fighting gigs for his second-hand robot boxers - which gets trashed. When Jackson gets temporary custody of his orphaned son Dakota Goyo, Jackson reluctantly uses Goyo's boxing robot to earn more cash as he travels from city to city searching for his next boxing match.

Because the money went from human boxers to robot boxers for more violence, Jackman searches for parts to make another robot in a junkyard. After inadvertently saving Goyo's life in the junkyard, Goyo scavenges the remains of the small sparring robot Atom, that saved Goyo's life, from the junkyard. When Jackman's former girlfriend Evangeline Lilly overhauls Atom for Goyo, Goyo soon persuades Jackman to coordinate Atom's boxing skills. Built to take punches, Atom soon goes up the ranks of both the underground robot league and the World Robot League.

This movie is basically The Champ with robots. Or to get a better picture, it is The Champ, Rocky, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and Robocop - without the criminal violence. This is basically a remake of The Twilight Zone's episode Steel, adapted from the 1956 short story by Richard Matheson. With Goyo in the film, it is a very cute human film - but very predictable. As Jackman's son, Goyo holds his own against Jackman.

The filmmakers wanted to make this movie in the "near future." Because this is a "science fiction" film, the opening shots can be confusing as it is set in a normal-looking Mid-West. You might think you are in the wrong theater - or rented the wrong movie - if you have not seen the movie before, because the filmmakers wanted the movie to be very familiar to the audience. The film being familiar is also evidenced by the various product placements, including Hewlett Packard and ESPN.

The robot boxing fights were motion-captured from professional boxers - who were supervised by world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Leonard's training also made Jackman's boxing performance believable. A part of the boxing scenes is like a computerized version of the old toy "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots" by Marx/Mattel. The Rocky movies have a big influence on the film, with the final fight scene basically being a blow-by-blow scene from Rocky IV. The operatic championship music was by composer Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo fame.

Rated PG-13 for language and violence. Running time 127 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Moneyball

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 133 Minutes

















Click below to watch the Moneyball trailer.



In Columbia Pictures Moneyball, the major league baseball team Oakland A's general manager Brad Pitt tries to build a winning World Series team in 2002 by building a team of misfit ball players using statistics.

Based on a true story, this is not your typical baseball film in that the film is about the "Business" of baseball instead of about the players "playing a 'children's game.'" The players in the film are treated like commodities instead of athletes as Pitt uses the player's statistical skills to build a winning team the A's can afford instead of paying for expensive talent. In a world where big franchises can afford to pay millions of dollars to get players, that is an intriguing business decision when you only have hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for your players - or using baseball scouts searching for talent. The sports analysts like Bob Costas get on Pitt for using this experimental system on baseball - but totally ignore, or are at least are unaware, that Pitt is operating under a very small budget to produce a World Championship team. Pitt had also been the product of a talent search, which did not turn out well. This is one reason why he is going with this approach.

It was nice to see Jonah Hill play an adult role for once as Pitt's statistical assistant responsible for Pitt's entire team strategy. This is also one of Pitt's best roles and I would not be surprised at talks of an Oscar nomination. The writing by Aaron Sorkin definitely helped Pitt's performance. Several of the actors playing ballplayers has had baseball experience, which adds realism to their roles - especially as the team heads for the playoffs, although the film does not spend that much time in the ballpark.

I do not see why the movie is Rated PG-13. I do not recall any language and the only violence is when Pitt throws furniture around when he is angry. There are locker room scenes, but I do not recall anybody being really undressed. The rating kills an additional audience that would relate to Pitt's daughter Kerris Dorsey when Pitt is at home. The movie is over 2 hours, which makes the movie drag at the end of the film. A couple of scenes at the end of the film could have been deleted and made the movie tighter.

Rated PG-13. Running time: 133 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Apollo 18

Dimension Films

Rated PG-13

Running time: 88 minutes

Click below to watch the trailer for Apollo 18.



In Dimension Films Apollo 18, a secret documentary from NASA and the Department of Defense shows the two organizations actually sending a classified Apollo mission to the moon - with horrifying consequences.

A combination Apollo 13, The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Alien, the movie is more of a suspense film than a horror film. I freely admit that there were a few times where I did jump and flinch - but I was not really scared, just startled. The film starts out with a crawl stating that Apollo 17 was the last Moon landing mission, but then the crawl states that in 2011 hours of documentary footage was uploaded onto the web at http://www.lunartruth.org/ and that this movie of the recovered footage of Apollo 18 is the edited result. The quality of the footage looks like 1970's 16mm footage that would have been in use during the time. Make no mistake - despite the documentary style, and NASA confirms it - this film is a work of fiction.

Clicking on the lunartruth website is not worth it as the website says the footage has been censored. There are no links or anthing on the site except that disclaimer. This site is apparently not available anymore. The website that has the Apollo 18 conspiracy is http://lunatruth.com/. And while not noticing a Saturn V rocket on a launch pad could be justified for the movie, a night launch that was shown is much harder not to notice. I once was at Cape Canaveral for a Discovery space shuttle launch, and we had to pass through a security gate. After driving for a distance through the complex, we parked at a public viewing area. From across the lagoon, I could just barely see the launch pad without my telephoto camera lens. Aside from the noise, and even with the noise, it is quite possible not to notice a Saturn V rocket launch from a distance as the whole area is quite isolated and secured.

The various noises in the lunar module makes you think that the aliens are already around - but the astronauts hardly paid attention to them, so it is difficult to tell if the noises are natural lunar module sounds or the aliens crawling around. The sounds are pretty scary when you consider how empty and lonely the moon is.

Apparently there is an entire species on the moon with the aliens metamorphosing from rock to alien, which apparently got to a previous Soviet lunar mission. You never really get a good look at the aliens, but they appear to be small insect-like creatures instead of man-size creatures, so one astronaut being suddenly dragged away does not make sense. Lloyd Owen being infected by these creatures is reminiscent of Alien. With Warren Christie wanting to go home to his family, and not having a lonely death in space, you could feel Christie's desperation as the situation deteriorates rapidly towards the end.

The sets and effects of the spacecrafts and the lunar surface were very good and realistic in that you could easily believe that this was real footage from NASA.

President John F. Kennedy's classic speech about choosing to go to the moon was a nice touch.

While supposedly set during Christmas time - there are hardly any references to Christmas, with the most notable reference as the Christmas carol instrumental music played during the end credits.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 88 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

I Don't Know How She Does It

The Weinstein Company

PG-13

Running time: 89 Minutes



In The Weinstein Company's I Don't Know How She Does It, working mom Sarah Jessica Parker tries to balance career and motherhood.

Parker loves her work, but her devotion to her family gets in the way. With office rival Seth Meyers ready to pounce on her achievements - Parker possessively goes after mature partner Pierce Brosnan, for whom she is developing a dynamic new investment fund for, who is in their New York office. As the major breadwinner, now that husband Greg Kinnear left his job and is going out on his own as a freelance architect, the pressure increases for Parker for her to succeed and still take care of her family. It does make Parker feel extremely guilty that she is missing out on what is important in her children's lives at home, especially when she has to travel from city to city during the holidays.

The film is full of asides to the audience and interviews of the characters as they comment on Parker and their lives in general. While it seems hard to believe that Parker's company would be involved in developing a brand new fund as most investments are already in place, it seems almost appropriate that it would take that long to develop a brand new fund.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. Running time: 89 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Rated PG-13

Running time: 105 minutes



In Twentieth Century Fox's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, James Franco develops a new experimental retrovirus for a corporation to cure brain damage like Alzheimer's Disease - with a by-product of increasing intelligence. Testing on apes begets Ceasar, Andy Serkis, the leader of the Apes.

A combination of Charly and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, this is an intelligent story of the beginning of how the apes became the dominant species in the Planet of the Apes series. Not surprising since the novels Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys and Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, of which Charly and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes are based on and suggested by, are classic literary books. What makes the movie work is Franco's love and devotion to his father John Lithgow - who is suffering from a degenerative brain disease. Although they do not specifically mention that Lithgow has Alzheimer's, just that he has a disease. This is one reason that Franco pushes for the development of the serum. Despite his obsession, Franco does soon realize that the serum is still experimental and that there could be side-effects.

The computer graphics of the apes were very good. The chimpanzee Ceasar was very cute when he was younger, especially when he was home, but very serious as an intelligent adult played by Andy Serkis. This is shown when the older Ceasar is first shown in the San Francisco Redwoods. The beastial nature of all the apes - most of which, if not all, are performance-capture artists - in the animal shelter compound can get to you if you are not used to that much raw emotion.

Tom Felton of Harry Potter fame was quite good as a sadistic animal controller assistant.

A classic line from the series is priceless.

Stick around when the end credits begin as there is a scene and graphics which leads to the development of the entire Planet of the Apes series. Wait for the graphics to be complete. The lost of a manned Mars space mission also hints at the series, as well as other homages to the series.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 105 minutes.

See the movie review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes by UFO Bob:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz5R6MJEPP0&feature=colike

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Cowboys & Aliens

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 118 minutes



Set in the old west, Universal Pictures Cowboys & Aliens has amnesiac Daniel Craig waking up with an alien weapon strapped to his wrist and soon comes up against aliens from space.

When Craig arrives in a frontier town, the townspeople realize he is a wanted criminal and the sheriff arrests him. Cattle rancher Harrison Ford wants revenge on Craig for what Craig did to his son and wants Craig for himself, but before Craig can get shipped off to a larger town for trial - aliens arrive and kidnap some of the townspeople, including Ford's son, the no good Paul Dano. Mysterious Olivia Wilde convinces Craig to go after the townspeople which would in the process help Craig recover his lost memory. Craig joins Ford as they go on a quest to bring Ford's boy and the rest of the townspeople home from the aliens.

This film is True Grit meets Battle Los Angeles with the film being mostly a western. There is hardly any hi-tech gadgetry aside from Craig's wrist gun and the foo fighters.

The reason the aliens are here is not really explained aside from the initial reason - nor the reason why the beastial aliens kidnapped people in the first place, although Craig looks like he was part of an experiment. With Ford turning out to be a former Army officer, the movie soon turns out to be an Indiana Jones meets James Bond movie, although I accepted British Craig as an American. Soon, all the various human groups - townspeople, cattle ranchers, stage coach robbers, and native americans - join forces against the aliens in a battle for survival.

I was upset the dog was not used more throughout the movie. What should be obvious with the dog, but then he would just be there, then disappear, then show up again and that was rather irritating for a such a neutral character. Other than those things, I thought this off-beat movie was pretty good.

The director Jon Favreau also insisted the film should only be shot on film since this is a Western, so I do not think there will be any 3-D versions of this film.

See UFO Bob's video review of Cowboys & Aliens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6dQO6d74E

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 118 minutes.

Pancho

All people smile in the same langauge.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Paramount/Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 124 minutes

Set during World War II, Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger has 98 lb. weakling Chris Evans becoming the subject for an experimental super-soldier serum - and then becomes Captain America.

After being discovered in a block of ice in the present day arctic ruins of a huge flying wing plane, the film then tells the World War II story of Evans. Although it is a simpler time, the country is at war. Despite his physical unfitness as a recruit, Evans is determined to be accepted into the Army. When discovered by scientist Stanley Tucci, Evans is given the chance to develop his natural human potential in a top-secret defense project. After Evans is processed with the super-soldier treatment, Tucci is then killed by an agent of The Red Skull Hugo Weaving - the head of Nazi Germany's research department and their own version of a super-solider accidentally created by Tucci. Weaving uses the Cosmic Cube from the movie Thor to create a series of high tech energy weapons to arm his army of HYDRA in his pursuit for world domination. Without Tucci's support, the now muscular Evans becomes an American USO poster boy punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw. Despite the support of British agent Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper the inventor - and father of Iron Man - who supplied Evans his iconic bullet-proof American shield, Colonel Tommy Lee Jones consigns Evans to the USO. Disgruntled at this branding role Jones has put him in, Evans soon goes off to rescue his captured best friend Sebastian Stan - as Captain America.

The cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in present-day New York City sets up for the superhero team movie The Avengers. At the end of the movie is the trailer for The Avengers. Too bad the movie leads up to The Avengers as Captain America sets up The Howling Commandos during World War II, a series I would have liked to have seen.

Although initially I was not that interested in watching a World War II comic book movie, despite my being a fan of Captain America, this is the best of the comic book super-hero movies of the 2011 summer. Evans character as Steve Rogers/Captain America may seem a little two-dimensional, but his sincerity and drive eventually makes you care about him and towards the end he starts to have a little dimension to him - especially when you discover he has become a fish-out-of-water.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 124 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Horrible Bosses

New Line Cinema

Rated R

Running time: 98 minutes



In New Line Cinema's Horrible Bosses, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis are employees with horrible bosses - psycho Kevin Spacey, nympho Jennifer Aniston, and druggie slacker Colin Farrell. So the guys decide to kill their bosses.

This is one of the funniest movies I had ever seen. I was surprised at how funny it was to me. A very politically incorrect movie as the guys are so fed up with their bosses, enough to kill them, and enlist the help of ex-con Jamie Foxx to be their murder consultant. Kevin Spacey was great as usual as a psycho and the movie focuses more on how bad he is, as compared to hot Jennifer Aniston's and druggie Colin Farrell's small roles. A combination of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train and Throw Momma from the Train, this film concentrates more on the guys doing things, such as breaking into homes as they search for a way to kill their bosses as well as their comedic consequences. Although this movie is similar to Throw Momma from the Train, this movie is much funnier. One of the funniest scenes is when Charlie Day does an internet search for an assasin.

Cameos by Donald Sutherland and Bob Newhart were cute. The outtakes at the end of the movie were cute, but not as funny as the movie.

Rated R for violence, langauge and sexual situations. Running time: 98 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same langauge.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 157 minutes
















Click below to watch the Transformers: Dark of the Moon trailer.



In the third installment of Transformers, Paramount Pictures Transformers: Dark of the Moon, has the Autobots discover that humanity's space race to the moon was the result of an event - the discovery of a crashed Cybertron spaceship.

The basic story of the movie was interesting about the secret of why we had the first landing on the moon, with a cameo by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, although the filmic use of historical presidential leaders was not as good as in X-Men: First Class. The various Transformers fight scenes were mind-numbingly over the top. At over 2 1/2 hours, half the movie was of CGI Transformers fighting and most of the time - because they are so detailed - you can not tell the Transformers apart during the battles. As a result, you do not care about the Transformers - especially when there is a lot of collateral damage. I wanted the film to get on with the story. You initially do not see any consequences of the collateral damage caused by the battles of the Transformers. It is not until the last act of the movie where human bystanders are disintegrated by the Decepticons fire that there consequences. The military was intelligently used against the Decepticons fighting for their home which made you care more about the battle scenes as you relate to the soldiers. The skydiving scenes were incredible, but still the battle scenes was mostly Transformers mayhem which got old very fast.

The new girl Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is okay, but being suddenly so intimate with the Transformers world seemed a bit much when you realize Shia LaBeouf''s previous girlfriend from the other Transformers movies Megan Fox is out of the picture. Having Leonard Nimoy being the voice of the Transformer leader Sentinel Prime was great in that for a new character, you care immediately about him.

Rated PG-13 for violence.

Pancho
All people smile in the same langauge.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 130 minutes

In Warner Bros. Pictures Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, this last movie of the Harry Potter series continues where Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 left off - where everything comes to a head with evil Lord Voldemort, Ralph Fiennes, retrieving Professor Dumbledore's, Michael Gambon, wand and the battle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry begins. The question now is - will Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, live or die?

The beginning of the movie will be confusing for people who are not familiar with the book, or at least the movies, as Emma Watson is disguised as the evil Helena Bonham Carter when they try to sneak into the wizard bank Gringotts. Harry eventually realizes his ultimate destination is his second home, Hogwarts. In events that take place basically in one night, Voldemort and his Death Eaters and his bestial army attack Hogwarts demanding Harry Potter's surrender. Meanwhile, Harry and his friends Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are searching to destroy the last of the horcruxes in Hogwarts that are in actuality the last parts of Voldermort's soul in order for Voldermort to cheat death. The teachers and students of Hogwarts defend their school as Voldmort and his minions attack. As in the book, several major characters die, although you usually do not see their actual deaths. Their deaths were very sad to see as their bodies are laid out at the end, but that is the consequences of war. Harry's decision to confront Voldemort, whose life has been intertwined with his ever since Harry's birth, was emotionally draining as Harry realizes his destiny.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 130 minutes

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews