Welcome! I'm MovieKnight

Movies are my passion. Movies are my life. If you can't talk about movies, I can't talk to you.
I don't have a "5 Stars" or "two thumbs up" rating system of my own. I rarely see a rating I agree with, and I'm not about to make the same mistake myself.
I do my best to make this blog interesting, useful, and informative.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Toy Story 3 (June 18, 2010) G

Starring:
Tom Hanks (Big 1988, The Lost Symbol 2012)
Tim Allen (Galazy Quest 1999, Brothers 2011)
Joan Cusack (War, Inc. 2008, Hitman 2 2012)
Ned Beatty (Captain America 1990, Shooter 2003)
Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice 1988, The Other Guys 2010)

This is definitely Disney's best movie since, well, Toy Story 2! I laughed, I weeped, and I sat on the edge of my seat in anticipation the whole movie. What a great, creative plot! What hilarious characters!

The creators and actors of this movie didn't miss a beat since the last one. The movie takes place with Andy about to leave for college, and his favorite childhood toys are wondering where their fate lies... The attic, or the dump?!?!

But, as usual, there's no predicting what these toys will do and what measures they're willing to take to show their devotion to their true owner.

I seriously laughed so hard in this movie I was embarrassed... I laughed harder than my date, Ashlee, even though the movie was her choice not mine...

Factoid: Toy Story 3 made $110 million its first weekend; Pixar's best opening weekend ever.
Factoid: Sid, from the first Toy Story, appears as a garbage man in this movie.
Factoid: The plot and story for Toy Story 3 was 2-1/2 years in the making.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (May 28, 2010) PG-13

Starring:
Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead 2005, Love and Other Drugs 2010)
Gemma Arterton (Quantom of Solace 2008, Tamara Drewe 2010)
Ben Kingsley (Lucky Number Sleven 2006, Number 13 2011)
Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2 2004, Poe 2011)

Despite the predictable plot, steriotypical villians, and the fact that Prince of Persia was a video game adaption, this was a very entertaining and enjoyable movie.

Gyllenhaal delivered a great performance. The 29-year-old actor has shown me nothing but outstanding performances (and no, I've not seen Brokeback Mountain) since October Sky in '99, and I was concerned to see a serious actor stoop to the level of a video game movie. However, my worries were unconfirmed as I saw Gyllenhaal give the movie just the amount of performance it needed to be good.

The movie takes place in a fictional 6th century Persia ruled by white people who travel around conquering fictional cities. The plot picks up when Dastan, an adopted price of Persia, breaks orders and leads an invasion of a peaceful city that contains a powerful secret and a SERIOUS Bond-girl hotty.

Dastan, being smart, decides that a hotty would make his scenes more enjoyable, and decides to drag her through the entire movie. Thank you, writers.

Overall, it's not fair that such a good movie would be released right after 2010's heaviest hitters--Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood--but Prince of Persia is still a good movie.

Factoid: Gyllenhaal confessed, in an E.T. interview, that he "over-prepared" for his role physically because he didn't know what they were going to ask him to do, and he wanted to make sure he'd "hopefully be able to do anything."
Regarding all the muscle he gained for the film, Gyllenhaal says that after filming is done his muscle will "turn into fat, and I'm going to be happy."

Robin Hood (April 9, 2010) PG-13

Starring:
Russell Crowe (Gladiator 2000, Westworld 2012)
Cate Blanchett (The Aviator 2004, Indian Summer 2011)
Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes 2009, Green Lantern 2011)
Kevin Durand (3:10 to Yuma 2007, Real Steel 2011)
Oscar Isaac (The Nativity Story 2006, Sucker Punch 2011)
Danny Huston (30 Days of Night 2007, The Warrior's Way 2010)
Matthew Macfayden (Pride and Prejudice 2005, The Three Muskateers 2011)
Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist 1973, Truth and Reason 2011)
William Hurt (The Village 2004, Shadows 2010)


I knew, as soon as I saw that Danny Huston (Who's vampiric performance in 30 Days of Night made Salem's Lot look like a Twilight prequel) was going to play King Richard (typically a character who inspires hope) I knew that Ridley Scott's version of Robin Hood wasn't going to be wearing TIGHT tights!

Russell Crowe, who's delivered outstanding performances for the past decade since Gladiator, played history's famous quasi-fictional character Robin Hood. He brought the character in both a traditional, but, also, totally different direction as other Robin Hood films. They stayed true to his ever-famous archery abilities, and his persuit of the Lady Marion, but also surprised me with much of the plot and story.

Mark Strong played the new Robin Hood villian, Sir Godfrey (at least I never heard of him before) with skill, and I would have been impressed had his performance in Sherlock Holmes not been so much better.

I could go on about Danny Huston, Cate Blanchett, and William Hurt's dramatic performances, but it would get redundant after a while and you REALLY should experience this movie for yourself in theaters. I'm sure, since it's good, that it won't be in theaters much longer...

Robin Hood shot a bulls-eye. Did I seriously just write that?

And did I mention it's a prequel?

Factoid: True to his record, Russell Crowe recently stormed and cursed his way out of a BBC radio interview when the interviewer accused Crowe of having an Irish accent in Robin Hood. I love Russell Crowe. He and Christian Bale need to freak out on people more.