Movies

Last night I finished watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006,PG-13) (ScreenIt! Review).

To free his imprisoned fiancée, a former blacksmith turned swashbuckler tries to find a former pirate acquaintance who's trying to free himself from owing his soul to none other than Davy Jones.

Jam-packed with action and quirkiness.  I didn't like it as much as the first one, but it was still enjoyable.

I give it 3 out of 5.

Last Saturday we took advantage of the other set of grandbabysitters and went to see No Country for Old Men (2007,R) (ScreenIt! Review) with Matt and Laura.  From the ScreenIt! Review:

After finding several million dollars at a crime scene, a hunter goes on the run with it, trying to avoid a ruthless and deadly hitman who's after him, all as a world-weary sheriff tries to intervene before anything else bad happens.

The film was interesting to discuss afterwards since 3 of the 4 of us had read the book. Anton Chigurh was right on.  Like Juno, I thought the dialogue and the film in general were fantastic.  I give it 5 out of 5.

Last night we decided to stay up late and take advantage of being in a major metropolitan area with grand-babysitters.  We went to see Juno (2007,PG-13) (ScreenIt! review).  From Wikipedia:

Juno is a Golden Globe-nominated 2007 comedy film from Fox Searchlight, starring Ellen Page as the titular character, a sharp-tongued teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera).

It was fantastic.  Lots of laughs and a variety of good messages.  The film's namesake channels Sarah Silverman a little too much (the witty snarkiness, not the gross-out), but I was very glad that the film didn't go for the cliche car accident that I kept expecting (when you see it coming, don't worry cause it ain't).

I give it 5 out of 5.

A few weeks back I watched Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006,PG-13) (ScreenIt! Review).  From ScreenIt!:

A NASCAR racer must contend with his fall from the top of the sport at the hands of a foreign driver.

I was surprised when I realized that I had been watching for quite a while before noticing tat the "foreign driver" was Sacha Baron Cohen.  The film was quirky enough to be kinda funny despite a tame storyline.  I give it 3 out of 5.

Last weekend we finished watching The Da Vinci Code (2006,PG-13) (ScreenIt! Review).  From ScreenIt!:

An American professor of religious symbology reluctantly teams up with a French police cryptologist as they try to solve a murder that may lead to the greatest religious cover-up of all time.

We didn't care for it at all and took several weeks to make it through.  It just seemed boring and kind of stuffy/stale which was a bit of a surprise since we had heard from friends that it was good.

I give it 2 out of 5.