Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 146 minutes






























Click below to watch the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 trailer.



Warner Bros. Pictures Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 has Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter on a quest to destroy Lord Voldemort's, Ralph Fiennes, horcruxes - items which contain pieces of Lord Voldemort's evil soul. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Magic has declared Harry as Undesirable No. 1 - so Harry and his friends Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are pursued by both the Ministry and Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters.

The movie is based on the first half of the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The movie changes the format of the other Harry Potter movies in that the movie does not take place at Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards as it normally does, but takes place on the road as Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave home and run from the Death Eaters - as well as Harry, Ron, and Hermione searching for a way to destroy the horcruxes. The movie follows very closely to the book, which is not surprising as author J.K. Rowling is one of the producers. Although, there are parts of the movie that may be confusing to people unless you have read the books or have seen the other movies. For example, house elves like Creature and Dobby are suddenly thrown into the story. Creature and Dobby this time look less like computer animation figures but more like real characters, which shows how far computer animation technology has improved. The film also has an animated sequence, telling the tale of the Deathly Hallows. The animation is an animated version of shadow puppetry which is very interesting as you rarely see this kind of animation style, which is a form of stenciling, in a movie.

This is a dark movie, both in theme and is also visually dark. The movie reminds me of a vampire movie. You know the movie is going to be dark when the Warner Bros. logo disintegrates as the picture begins. The movie has some intense action scenes, but when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in the camping scenes in the middle of the movie - the movie slows down. After the camping scenes - the movie picks up again and you feel the intensity and the danger for the characters. For those who have not read the book, several characters and icons in Harry Potter's world die - or are destroyed. There are several scenes which are very sad and I started to tear up - and I already knew what would happen from reading the books, and I still teared up. The film's climax is more of an anti-climax as it leads into the next film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which will premiere next summer - where the real climax will be portrayed. I personally can not wait to see the war at Hogwarts in the next movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 146 minutes.

Click below to watch another trailer with the cast and crew of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.



Click below for a trailer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Red

Summit Entertainment
and DC Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 111 minutes



Click below to watch the Red trailer.


Lonely suburbanite Bruce Willis is wooing his government case worker agent Mary-Louise Parker for his government checks. Soon - a professional hit squad tries to kill Willis in his home. Willis is a former CIA agent who has been declared RED - Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Now Willis must gather his fellow RED agents, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren to break into CIA Headquarters to find out who is trying to kill all of them, as well as his girlfriend Parker - who reluctantly gets caught up in the middle of all this mess.

Based on the graphic novel Red, DC Entertainment's Red is a much lighter and more comedic version of the graphic novel from what I hear, although I have not read the graphic novel yet. The mature cast seems to be having a lot of fun in the movie. To see Willis as a tough CIA agent developing a relationship with the young Parker and finally letting someone into his secret agent life is rather touching. Having The Queen of drama, Oscar winner Helen Mirren - wearing an evening gown and firing a machine gun - in an action film was one of the reasons why I wanted to see this movie in the first place and Mirren does not disappoint. As Mirren tells Parker, "I kill people, dear." Even if Mirren does kill people, Mirren is still very much a lady. Malkovich is over the top playing an agent who was given LSD for 11 years. Freeman is not given as much to do in the movie, but he does have his moments.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time 111 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

The Social Network

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 121 minutes



Click below to watch The Social Network trailer.



Columbia Pictures The Social Network is about the creation of the website Facebook and the legal problems Harvard computer undergrad creator Mark Zuckerberg had as a result of the website's creation.

With flashbacks between the creation of Facebook and the legal problems Zuckerberg goes through, and a script by Aaron Sorkin, there is twice as much dialog in this film than in a normal film which can be exhausting if you are not used to that much dialog. This is evidenced by the first five minutes of the film of an intense dialog with Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, and his then girlfriend who are sitting in a bar before the opening credits roll. That was supposed to be eight pages of dialog crammed into five minutes of film - where normally it is a minute's worth of dialog per page. Although there is a lot of dialog, with David Fincher's direction, this is not a talking-heads movie. The dialog basically shows what an intense jerk Zuckerberg is in the movie and you can imagine how his personality could lead him into trouble as he goes about creating what was then known as The Facebook, a social networking site allowing people to stay connected with each other which was originally created for Harvard. When Zuckerberg gets involved with Justin Timberlake, as Napster creator Sean Parker, the business potential for Facebook grows into the billions - where most of the legal troubles begins.

Watching the movie initially brought back memories of college for me, both with the intense academic life and the sorority life. It is interesting that while the Facebook website was originally created for college students, a lot of the movie-going audience that I saw the movie with was of an older crowd. While it is said that a lot of the material was created for the movie, and is not real, the movie gave me an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of such a big business.

Another aspect of the movie deals with the twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, with Armie Hammer playing both parts. The Winklevoss twins - Hammer - got Zuckerberg involved in creating a Harvard social networking website for themselves. One interesting thing about the Winklevoss twins, aside from their legal actions against Zukerberg for stealing their idea, is that the Winklevoss twins were part of Harvard's Crew Team. As a videographer who spent a season videotaping the Orange Coast College's Crew Team - who are known as "The Giant Killers" for defeating well-known crew teams such as Harvard, it was a delight for me to get a glimpse of this sport again as it is rare that I get to see crew in a movie. It was also a delight to see Disney Channel star Brenda Song in an adult role for once as the girlfriend of Zuckerberg's friend and co-creator of Facebook Eduardo Saverin, Andrew Garfield.

There is talk of an Oscar and I could see an Oscar for this film.

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, language, and drug use. Running time 121 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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You Again

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 105 minutes





























Click below to watch the You Again trailer.



Touchstone Pictures You Again is a cute film of new Public Relations Vice President Kristen Bell who, when Bell returns home, finds out that her brother is going to marry Odette Yustman - the hot woman who had bullied Bell all through high school. Bell then is on a quest to prove to her family of Yustman's sinister true character.

This is a film where just about every character has a history with every other character from their high school days, usually from dating jealousies - like Bell's mom Jamie Lee Curtis and Yustman's aunt Sigourney Weaver. It was almost over the top for me with everyone connected like that and I think the movie would have probably either played better with less character history, or have every character having a history with a high school rival. Seeing Bell's ugly duckling look in high school and going to poised, matured Vice President is an incredible transformation - and it is painful to watch Bell revert back to her high school looks due to painful circumstances that were not of her own making. I was expecting Bell to use her talents as a Public Relations person on exposing Yustman, but there was very little Public Relations as Bell lets her emotions get away from her as she tries to prove Yustman's meanness. Bell's older brother James Wolk, who is going to be married, is too good to be true. Wolk makes me want to strangle him, or have him get run over by a car as he jogs. Having the talents of Event Planner Kristin Chenoweth coaching the wedding party in song and dance almost makes this movie seem like a High School Musical. Betty White continues her long comedic career, this time as the cute grandmother.

It was great to see the rock duo Hall & Oates at the end of the movie as they basically do a video with all the characters in the movie during the end credits.

Rated PG for language. Running time 105 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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The Other Guys

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 107 min



Click below to watch The Other Guys movie trailer on YouTube.



In Columbia Pictures The Other Guys,  Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson are a couple of gung ho urban street cops. And then there are The Other Guys - Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, desk jockey precinct detectives. Ferrell and Wahlberg are stuck in the background who are forced to do the Jackson's and Johnson's paperwork. When Ferrell goes after a high profile multi-billionaire investment banker Steve Coogan for a building code violation, partners Ferrell and Wahlberg soon find themselves linked into New York City's biggest crime.

With the movie as a combination Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop, Jackson and Johnson make a great combo as street cops - but make no mistake, as the trailers may be misleading, the movie is really about the other guys Ferrell and Wahlberg. In fact, several people walked out of the theater when they realized the movie was no longer about Jackson and Johnson early in the movie. Although I think a full movie with Jackson and Johnson really as cops would be a fun movie, and there are talks with making a prequel movie about Jackson and Johnson. Mismatched Ferrell and Wahlberg grew on me as they took on the investment banker investigation - with accountant Ferrell having the hot babes like Eva Mendes interested in Ferrell, and of disgraced Wahlberg's unfortunate meeting with major league MVP baseball player Derek Jeter. After watching Ferrell and Wahlberg in the movie, it makes me realize what a waste it is not to get civilians to sit at the desks to do the clerical and administration of police business so they can free up real cops to be out on the street. Also, while the police do a very important job, it is sad to realize the police are not being paid very much because police captain Michael Keaton has to get a second job with Bed Bath & BEYOND to put his bi-sexual son through college. During the end credits, there are financial graphics displayed, along with the results of fraud schemes in keeping with the money laundering plot of the movie. There is also an outtake of the restaurant scene after the credits.

Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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Knight and Day

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

PG-13

Running time: 109 minutes
















Click below to watch the Knight and Day trailer.



In Knight & Day, civilian Cameron Diaz is on her way to her sister's wedding - when she bumps into agent Tom Cruise at the airport. Diaz soon becomes an unwitting accomplice for Cruise. Diax goes on the run with Cruise in Cruise's battle against CIA agents.

This movie is a cute, comedic spy thriller cross between Mission: Impossible  and Wanted. Cruise's off-beat antics makes you wonder if he really is a rogue CIA agent or not as he takes Diaz around the world. As Diaz says, "I just don't know what to believe." Aside from what may be happening to Cruise and Diaz, I just did not get the sense of the real ultimate stakes of their actions - of why this mission is so important in the first place as everyone searches for a newly developed power source. Also, while we may know where the Knight came from in the movie, there is no obvious reason why the movie would be called Knight and Day unless you really reach for the meaning.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 109 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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Killers

Lionsgate

Rated PG-13

Running time: 93 minutes

Click below to watch the Killers trailer.



In Lionsgate's Killers, mild, mannered Katherine Heigl meets the man of her dreams, Ashton Kutcher, in France and marries him. When a 20 million dollar contract is put out on Kutcher, Heigl finds out that Kutcher really is not what he seems to be - as "killers" come after them.

This film is a combination of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Grosse Pointe Blank. Intelligence agent Kutcher craves an ordinary life at home, and treats Heigl like a queen, before Kutcher gets pulled back into the business. Heigl has become trademarked as a ditsy blond, however I miss her in her dramatic roles like in the TV series Roswell. It seems over-the-top that the resources of so many sleeper agents would be sent to keep an eye out for Kutcher as he lives in suburbia. While not everyone is a killer, most of the neighborhood is a sleeper agent and the situation was getting quite funny as a result.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 93 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews