Movie Night.

Took a night off from working on art and did a "movie night," catching up on some of the movies I have been putting off lately. Here's some thoughts on what I saw:

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON -- An EXCELLENT movie! The visuals are stunning. The story is a bit basic and predictable, but sometimes I prefer that. What shines here is the visuals. I think what I liked the most was that the main dragon Hiccup rides looks and acts exactly like my black cat Hobbes. Just as curious and cautious. It was easy to see the cute factor in him as a result of that. We got this as a used dvd, but I think I will upconvert to Bluray or this as the flying visuals I bet are stunning as hell. This film should be the winner of the best animated movie oscar. but it won't be. Toy Story 3 will beat it. And that sucks. While Toy Story 3 has a couple really emotionally impactful moments, I still thought it was heavy on dark plot and not as enjoyable as the first two. See the far superior HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. Best animated film I've seen in a long time. A-

RED -- Loosely based on the comic. The previews always looked entertaining. And the film itself was entertaining. However, I felt like it moved a bit too fast and had a lot of talking scenes that seemed tedious after a while. But it was a treat to see the great cast it had. I'm mixed on it. Was I entertained? Yes. Was it the best action thriller ever? Absolutely not. I'd recommend it for a basic afternoon watch. Go in with low expectations and you will find yourself enjoying it. B-

BATTLETRUCK (otherwise known as WARLORDS OF THE 21ST CENTURY -- I love post apocalyptic stuff (I know... DUUUUUHHHH, right?) So I was excited to see this. Plus I love the idea of horrid 80's schlock cinema with cars and gadgets. Well, this one frankly failed to deliver. It was slow, uninteresting and not visually interesting either. Not a lot of action. Just a bad guy mostly dominating until a gangly motorcycle dude bests him like you know he would. I've seen far better post apocalyptic cinema. Nothing will beat MAD MAX or WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD it seems. Even the promise of a large armored vehicle to look at wasn't interesting. I forwarded through the latter half of the film just to get it over with. Not very good. But not the worst I've ever seen. But also, nothing to make fun of. Just dissapointing. D+

So there ya go!

T