The Notebook

Released: 2004
Romance
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A young couple's story is told through the eyes of the elderly couple they become.

I had heard A LOT about this movie and how it was some people's favorite love story OF ALL TIME.
Man, was that a joke.
This is based on a book with the same title by Nicholas Sparks, and although that book might be great, the movie was not.
It starts out with an elderly couple living in a retirement home and she has Alzheimer's (how romantic!)  The husband reads to her everyday trying to make her remember who they both are.  The movie goes back and forth between the young version and the old version.
A lack of chemistry and a lack of shame by the end of the film, this movie was a thumbs down for me.
The filmmakers really seemed determined to make you cry your eyes out, no matter how they did that, using all the plot devices and predictability they could muster.
The ending is shameless and embarrassingly bad.

0 out of 5 for me.
SKIP IT!!!

The Legend of Bagger Vance

Released: 2000
Drama
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A mysterious caddy helps a former golfer get his mojo back.

I actually only watched this because I thought Shia LeBeouf was in it.  Anyway, he's not, but I continued to watch it regardless.
A promising young golfer in the early 20th century gets called away to WWI and is scarred forever by what he experiences there.  When he is done with his call of duty he doesn't go back home to his girlfriend, and in fact, disappears for a very long time.
Only when the Depression hits and his former girlfriend is desperate to save her deceased father's golf course does he come out of hiding slowly.  A little boy that wants to see him play again begs him to get into the big tournament that is being held to attract money and attention to the little golf course that could.
He reluctantly thinks it over and only decides to really go after it when a mysterious man comes out of the darkness, literally, and tells him how to get his swing back.

I liked it and I can easily recommend it.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for some good storytelling and solid acting.

Total Recall

Released: 2012
Sci-fi
Director: Len Wiseman
Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger Sci-fi film of the same name.

I call this Total Recall a total waste of time and it was totally unnecessary.

With that said, the basic plot is supposed to be closer to the original Phillip K. Dick story titled, "We can Remember it for you Wholesale."  Both movies were based on this short story, but the original I think adapted it into a much more interesting story line and a lot more entertaining.

This version switches things up and you certainly never get to go to Mars.  The world has been mostly destroyed by a chemical warfare agent and there's only two places that are left habitable...Australia and Britain.  People live and work in both places, but you get from one to the other by something called "The Fall."  It is a gigantic mode of transportation that takes you directly through the center of the Earth to get to the other side.
Obviously, Blade Runner still has a huge impact on Sci-fi films today because this one stole their visuals as far as the living quarters and streets go.  Everything's dark and rainy all the time, people are all squished together on busy streets and wearing clear coats, etc.  Lots and lots of visuals stolen from Blade Runner, so much so that my husband and I recognized it at the same time.

Anyway, I hate Colin Farrell and I loved the original movie so this was stinker for me.  The special effects were good and that's about it.

1 out of 5 for only the special effects.  All the fun of the first one was gone.
SKIP IT!!!! and watch the original again instead.  

The Running Man

Released: 1987
Sci-fi, Action
Director: Michael Paul Glaser
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yahpet Kotto
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: In the future of America, convicts compete for freedom on a brutal televised game show called The Running Man.

A former cop is falsely blamed for a massacre that didn't happen.  After his incarceration, a game show host wants him to be on his show.  Forced into being a contestant to try and save his friends, Arnold must compete if he wants to survive at all and give his friends a fighting chance after they are forced into the game as well.

This movie is pretty goofy and very VERY dated.  I liked the story, but this movie is so dated that watching it for the first time last night made me laugh out loud a LOT.

2 out of 5 for just plain goofiness.

Wrath of the Titans

Released: 2012
Fantasy
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: The flashy sequel to the remake of Clash of the Titans.

All style and special effects and no substance again.
Perseus is approached by his father to help the Gods overcome a mutual threat between humans and gods.  He's reluctant to leave his son to help Zeus, but when the village gets attacked, he changes his mind.

Lots of special effects, lots to look at, but the story is just mediocre.

1 and 1/2 out of 5 for the special effects.

The New World

Released: 2005
Drama
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Christian Bale, Colin Farrell
Running Time: 135 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Pocahontas and John Smith meet in Virginia in the early 1600's.

Let me say first that I have no interest in dramas depicting Native Americans or the "discovery" of North America.  I only wanted to see this for Christian Bale, having said that, this was terribly boring to me.
A lot of the movie lacks dialogue for obvious reasons, Native Americans cannot speak English and can't speak to the explorers of England.  I don't like Colin Farrell so I fast forwarded through most of the first half of the movie, because he's in it and not saying much to Pocahontas, just making moo cow eyes at her and eventually sleeping with her.

Mr. Bale doesn't show up until near the end of the movie and ends up sleeping with her too.  They get married and have a kid after she was told a while back that John Smith was dead.  When she finds out he's alive, they meet up in England, but do nothing but talk.

The end, oh I think she dies of some disease?  And then Christian and his son float off in a boat.

So boring for me, but if you like this kind of stuff, it may be for you.
I say skip it.
1 out of 5 for Christian Bale looking smoking hot as usual.

AVP: Alien vs. Predator

Released: 2004
Sci-fi
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, Raoul Bova
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Aliens and Predator aliens fight each other on Earth.

I actually wanted to see this in theaters, but just got around to it last night.  Glad I didn't spend the money on it in theaters.

Basically the head of the Weyland Corp. Mr. Weyland wants to explore a new pyramid that he's found out in the middle of a frozen wasteland.  No one else has ever been there so he collects a team of experts to help him explore it.  Turns out it's a Predator ship where they breed aliens.  The people wake up the ship by accident and then Predator police are dispatched to the scene from space to control the damage of freshly woken aliens.
Most of the action scenes are ridiculously impossible physical feats and the plot just isn't very good.

Skip it.
2 out of 5 for special effects, but not much else.

A Sound of Thunder

Released: 2005
Sci-fi
Director: Peter Hyams
Starring: Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley
Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A researcher and a scientist try to save humanity after a time travel jump goes wrong.

The movie was based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.  I'm sure the short story was good, but the movie was atrocious.
Basically in the future, there's a company that allows people to go on a hunting trip 65 million years into the past to shoot down a T-Rex.  The participants are informed to not touch anything or go off the path or else they might change something that effects the future.
Of course, an idiot jerk does something and things start to change when the team returns to their normal time.
A scientist and a researcher that leads the safari trips team up to try to go back and fix whatever went wrong, once they figure out what that thing is.

The special effects were completely not special, and instead laughably bad.  A short story was obviously stretched to try to fill in almost two hours when their simply wasn't enough material for it.  That's why in this movie you end up with half dinosaur, half monkey beings.

Trust me, you want to skip this one altogether.
1 out of 5 for having Ed Burns take off his shirt.

Battleship

Released: 212
Action, sci-fi
Director: Peter Berg
Starring:  Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard
Running Time: 131 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Aliens invade near Hawaii and some Naval ships try to save the world.

In a very minor way this movie was based on the board game by Hasbro, but it really doesn't have anything to do with that game.
Basically aliens invade Earth after we send out a beam of communications to a distant planet that is discovered to be a lot like Earth.  During a training exercise, the Navies of the world meet up near Hawaii and some ships end up getting locked in by an alien force field.  The one screw up at the beginning of the film has to save the world, all while doing it with Rihanna as part of his team.

This movie has some great special effects and I liked the way the aliens looked and their space suits and all, but this movie is all style and no substance.  I think it would've worked better as a comedy since there are some genuinely funny moments, but otherwise it's pretty shallow.  The characters have no depth and the movie has no heart.  You don't care if the characters die as long as it's spectacular to look at.  Oh yes, and I should mention that like all other movies of this type, the characters have the list of commonly spoken phrases like, "I didn't sign up for this."  or "Light em up boys."

2 out of 5 for special effects and the hot guy from John Carter.
P.S. Rihanna stick to your day job, you are certainly no actress.

Bioshock Infinite

Released: 2013
First person shooter
Fantasy

This is the third installment of the Bioshock series, but is not a direct sequel from the first or second.
Here you play a man named Booker DeWitt who needs to get rid of debts by getting and handing over a girl from a place called Columbia.  Columbia is a city that floats in the sky.  The girl is named Elizabeth.

I was looking forward to this game for a while now and I loved the first two.  I knew this one would be very different, but I had no idea what it was going to be like.

I really can't tell you more about the plot because this kind of game is better experienced than for me to tell you too much, but it's very smart and well written.  The characters are interesting, the game play is exciting, the action/shooting parts are great fun and the plot is better than most movies out there today.  I enjoyed the hell out of it and the ending was something I totally did not expect.

There's a reason this game has won 85 awards and is getting 10's or close to perfect for a lot of game review sources.

PLAY IT!!!!!
4 and 3/4 for me out of 5 only because the last half hour of play is overflowing with information and I would've liked it to slow down so I could better process everything that happened.