Juno
Quirky, entertaining, and fresh. It's not one of those, "Wow! That movie was AMAZING!" feelings so much as "Hey! I really enjoyed that - I wouldn't mind seeing it again soon." The music fit the witty dialogue perfectly. Grete's star rating (out of 5): 4 stars
High School Musical 2
Ugh. CHEESY, fake, unoriginal ("Saved by the Bell" summer job episodes, anyone?), waaaay overrated (if you consider tween reviews "ratings"), and did I mention cheesy? It was a little painful to watch them say something hoaky and then immediately know a song would be sung about said hoaky-statement. The only good part was that the airline chose to play something other than clips of sports and news shows for the flight. Grete's star rating: 1 star
High School Musical (yes, I saw the original one after the sequel)
This one benefited from the fact that I saw the worse one first. And those darn songs are so basic and repetitive that they get stuck in your head after one viewing! The writing was slightly more entertaining than "2", but otherwise it was also cheesy, unoriginal (I saw many Grease plot throwbacks), and made for ages 15 and under (hence, my little cousin wanted it for Christmas). Grete's star rating: 1 1/2 stars
Atonement
I purposely avoided hearing summary reviews for this because I really wanted to take in any surprises in my own viewing of the movie. I thought going in: romantic drama. Yes, it was romantic. Yes, it was dramatic. But, goodness, it was DEPRESSINGLY tragic for most of the latter half. All the beautiful cinematography, costuming, and face close-ups only suck you into the cheerlessness more until you leave feeling like, "*sigh* That was NOT what I was expecting to see." Jon told me afterwards I should've guessed from the title word that it would mean something bad would need redemption. Grete's star rating for movie quality: 4 stars. Grete's star rating for upliftingness (if that's a word): 1/2 star.Anyone have any recommendations for me to see?
5 comments:
I can understand how you might be surprised by "Atonement" if you hadn't read the book. I think if you had read the book first you would have had a different experience. I went in expecting that it couldn't be as good as the book... and I was surprised at how well they portrayed the essence of McEwan's story. It is depressing. But, I think it is ultimately uplifting. We often make choices in life without thinking about the significance of them. But this movie shows how choices can change the course of one's life staggeringly and sometimes, sadly, devastatingly. But it doesn't have to always be negative - the fact that our choices matter means that we matter. Just my thoughts... :)
I recommend Enchanted...if you want uplifting. We are going to go see National Treasure next weekend...we were supposed to go this past weekend with Dave and Karen and I got really, REALLY sick!
"Enchanted" was a fun movie. I think you and Jonathan would both like it.
We also both liked "Sweeney Todd." Johnny Depp was born for this role.
And then there's "Kite Runner" (my favorite movie of the year) But you should read the book first!
I agree with your rating of Juno--I was pleasantly surprised! Did you see "The Golden Compass"? I read the book a long time ago and liked the movie (but it's not really stand-alone... it needs it's sequel!). We also recently saw "I Am Legend". I thought it was very good but very very scary (I actually had nightmares... I think the last time that happened was when I saw Ghostbusters at age 9 or so).
Tah Tah.
grete, you're speakin' my language.
i recommend reading atonement (or anything by mcewan) he's a fantastic writer...
there's so many things that "atonement" is about as a book that it's hard to capture in the movie.
glad to hear your movie thoughts...i recently thought..."maybe i do need to give HSM a chance." but you have unconvinced me of giving it a go. thank you.
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