The Little Mermaid (1989)

"Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human, you're a mermaid!"

After the success of "Oliver & Company" the Disney animation world was being reborn. The 80s were a hard time for Disney animation, "The Black Cauldron" was a major disappointment and they needed something to bring them out of it. While developing this film, the producers brought in songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (famous for the Off Broadway hit "The Little Shop of Horrors", as well as the 1986 film) to write the songs for the film. And magic was born...

"The Little Mermaid" is loosely based on the fairy tale of the same name. The premise was simple, a mermaid wants to be human, simple as that. What, they did is made the story enjoyable by creating loving and unforgettable characters. The voice talents of Jodi Benson and Kenneth Mars as Ariel and her father King Triton were fantastic choices. Benson can sing like no one's business and can bring a tear to your eye singing "Part of Your World". Mars can bring down the house with his powerhouse performance as King Triton. Mars has an incredibly booming voice that you won't forget.

Now, lets not forget the villain here. We have, Ursula the sea witch, not a mermaid by a half human, half octopus who has one of the best songs in the entire film. She is diabolical and she wants to rule the sea. She coaxes Ariel into thinking she is helping her, but in reality has her sign a contract saying if she can't get a human to give her a true love's kiss, she will be able to rule the sea. Pat Carroll voices Ursula (and would go on to voice her sister Morgana in the film's direct to video sequel) and gives it a real go. Her voice, believe me, you won't forget. And her rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (which is more exposition than song) is powerful.

The cast is rounded out by the legendary Buddy Hackett. Hackett voices Scuttle, a seagull who is, for lack of a better word, dumb. But, in the end Scuttle helps to save the day. This film, much like "Beauty & the Beast", can really suck you in. There are a few moments that can give you chills (like "Part of Your World") or the ending of the film. Much of this is due to Alan Menken's wonderful score (which he would receive his first of NINE Academy Awards for). The film is very much for anyone (don't let that "mermaid" in the title turn you away, boys), I loved the movie when I was a kid, and I still love the movie to this day. It was the first film in the now called "Disney Renaissance" and it was one of the more powerful entries. With a wonderful cast, great songs and really unforgettable moments, this film goes down in history as one of the best Disney films out there!

Beauty & the Beast (1991)

"It's over, Beast! Belle is mine!"

During the 1980s, Disney animation was on rocky slopes. "The Black Cauldron" in 1985 really hurt the studio with it's dark undertones and scary imagery. The animators were moved off the Disney lot and basically forgotten about. Slowly but surely from 1986 to 1989 the studio moved back into major animation films and in 1989 they produced "The Little Mermaid" completely redeeming themselves and beginning what is now known as the "Disney Renaissance". There is a great documentary film all about this time period entitled "Waking Sleeping Beauty", I suggest you check it out!

So after the success of "The Little Mermaid", Disney continued on with their production of a story that Walt Disney himself tried to animate in the 1940s but failed to come up with a decent story for it, "Beauty & the Beast". The film is a touching love story between the odd ball (yet for beautiful) girl, Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara) and The Beast (voiced by Robby Benson). After being cursed, The Beast is changed from a Prince to his hideous beast form as well as all his servants. He has a set amount of time to make someone fall in love with him before the curse is permanent. When Belle's father gets lost in the woods he winds up at the house of the Beast. Belle ventures into the woods looking for him only to make a deal with the Beast to let him go and take her instead.

This film is enchanting, absolutely wonderful. Needless to say, this is my personal favorite Disney film. I was 7-years-old when the film came out and remember going to the theater to see it. When the VHS came out I remember watching it over and over and over and over to the point where I could quote the movie verbatim. Everything about this film is wonderful, there really aren't any slow parts. The voice performances are great. There really aren't any really famous voice over actors in this, aside from Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts. And I think not having big stars in it really helped the film. You're not distracted by the voice of a big recognizable star in the film. The songs, written by the late Howard Ashman (who died before the film was completed) and Alan Menken are fantastic. The film begins with one of the biggest songs I've ever seen, "Belle". It's a song that begins with one person singing and by the end it has dozens of people singing and has told a complete story as well!

There are many times throughout the film that give me chills or even bring a tear to my eye. You can really get rolled up in the film and forget you're even watching a movie. I think that when a movie can do that then it works. It takes a lot to get someone to fall into a movie like that. This Disney film has tons of songs, I think it might have more songs than most other Disney movies. It's no surprise that Disney chose this to be their first Broadway musical and the musical is just as amazing as the film.

But, that aside, this film has gone down in history as the first animated film to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award (losing out to "The Silence of the Lambs"). And, honestly in my opinion it's still the only one to be nominated for that (in 2009, the Disney/Pixar film "Up" was nominated for Best Picture, but I really don't think it would have been nominated if the Academy hadn't extended the number of nominations from 5 to 10 that year, and since). The film won Academy Awards for the music and it won the Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) Golden Globe. It's a film that is timeless and will continue to entertain people for years to come. I'm glad this film was part of my childhood and I still enjoy seeing the film today. I HIGHLY suggest, if you haven't seen this film, to go out now and check it out!

Bridesmaids (2011)

"This is the first time I've seen you ugly. And it makes me happy"

Let me begin by saying I didn't have the highest expectations for this movie going in. I had seen the preview in the beginning of the year and actually thought it looked really funny. I chose to pass on seeing it in the theater and even when it came out on DVD I passed for a while, just recently seeing it this week! The film is very basic, a girl (Maya Rudolph) is getting married and asks her best friend (Kristen Wiig) to be her maid of honor and everything goes wrong and that's where the humor lies. However, there is very little humor in this film. Lets begin...

First off, Kristen Wiig plays one of the most unlikable characters I've ever seen. Her character used to own a bakery called "Cake Baby" and it went under because of the economy. She lives with these very odd British people who literally annoy the living hell out of me. Throughout the entire film all her character does is complain about shitty her life is. She constantly puts herself down and it is very clear she hates herself. Why should I care about this character? Even when she finds a guy she still shuts him down and then expects him to come back to her.

The film is also just one joke the whole time. The film is basically a battle between Annie (Wiig) and Helen (Rose Byrne). Annie has been Lillian's (Rudolph) best friend since childhood, Helen has only known Lillian for 8 months. So the joke is that they are trying to outdo each other, which begins with one of the most painfully slow scenes in the entire movie. The scene is people giving speeches at Lillian's engagement party and as the maid of honor Annie gives her speech then Helen gives a speech trying to outdo Annie and they go back and forth trying to get the last word in. The scene goes on forever and isn't funny at all.

The film also has a pretty damn disgusting and unfunny scene involving food poisoning. Annie takes the girls to some Brazilian restaurant and of course they all get food poisoning while doing dress fittings. This leads to a very stupid scene involving all the girls either throwing up on each other or shitting in a sink or in the street. The scene is trying to be funny but it just fails and comes across as the worst bathroom humor I've ever seen, simply because the writers (Wiig and some other co-writer) don't get what they are doing.

Overall the film tries very hard to be the female "The Hangover" and it fails on every single aspect. There were very few funny scenes in this 2+ hour film. The scene in the jewelry store between Annie and a teenage girl is pretty funny and the scene where Annie and Helen are trying to get the guy Annie shut down to come back to her with their car was pretty funny as well. Overall, the funniest thing in the movie was the character played by Melissa McCarthy, this actress is absolutely hilarious and sadly she is not used enough in the film. Another note I'd like to make is that other than Wiig and Byrne, none of the other characters are utilized much at all. Maya Rudolph is pretty much pushed off to the side and then the other characters have a few lines and that's pretty much it. The film tries too hard to be funny and simply isn't. How this film was nominated for Academy Awards baffles me, especially the nomination for screenplay!

Rocky II (1979)

"Yo, Adrian! I did it!"

Not many sequels can outdo their originals but in my opinion "Rocky II" did just this. Rocky went down in history winning 3 Academy Awards including the Best Picture Oscar for 1976. So, by the time Stallone decided to make a sequel to his blockbuster role, America was very familiar the Italian Stallion.

Rocky II takes place over the following year after the original film. After Rocky heals up from the fight in the first film he quickly spends his money. Unable to do commercials like he thought because he has a hard time reading, Rocky finds himself strapped for cash. His eye injury from the original film also takes it's toll. But when Apollo wants a re-match (feeling that people thought he didn't actually win the fight), Rocky wants to feed his desire to fight.

Rocky II has much more going on than the original one did. The love story between Rocky and Adrian is continued and develops more. The character of Rocky is much more developed in this film showing that Rocky isn't exactly a "smart" guy. He runs out spends all his money on stuff that he doesn't really need. He can't read and ends up getting fired from doing commercials, and he becomes very selfish when Apollo challenges him. He puts his wife and unborn child off to the side just so he can do what he wants and in the end he pays the cost. However, after everything that happens with Adrian I just don't understand how she just changes her mind like that. It was so important to her before he slipped into a coma, but afterward she was just like "Win!".

The movie has a really cool running sequence to "Gonna Fly Now" which encompasses hundreds of kids running with Rocky as he makes his way to the art museum. And the ending of the movie is just as iconic as the ending of the original film. The "Yo, Adrian! I did it!" part is just as amazing as the "Adrian!" ending of the original film. It really shows that to Rocky his wife is the only thing that matters to him.

Overall, the film plays out much more entertaining than the original film and this is coming from a huge fan of the original. Even the fight at the end film is much more entertaining, it's a thrilling fight, and as most people probably thought, Rocky wins, but honestly when you see the end of the fight, you're seriously on the edge of your seat even though you're pretty sure he's going to win.

Rocky (1976)

"Cut me, Mick"

Before I post my review I want to let everyone out there know that I actually hate sports, a lot! I don't find them entertaining one bit, I am more of an arts person. That being said, Rocky is one of my favorite movies of all time!

Rocky follows the story of Rocky Balboa, a no one boxer who gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to fight the heavyweight champion of the world. Rocky was Sylvester Stallone's big break, after starring in a string of incredibly low budget films (including soft core porn). Stallone really fought for his vision to be seen and he really fought to star in the film and it proved he knew what he was doing. Rocky nabbed 10 Oscar nominations including Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for Stallone. In the end the film walked away with 3 Oscars including the coveted Best Picture Oscar.

The film is incredibly moving and shows pure dedication. Stallone portrays Rocky as a warm hearted person who does what he has to, to get by in life. Rocky is collector for a loan shark but shows early on in the film that he has a heart when he lets one of the guys go even though he was told to break his thumbs. Rocky lives in a studio apartment and his only friends are 2 turtles and a fish. He spends his days trying to woo the sister of his friend Paulie, Adrian. The interesting thing about Rocky is that it's completely about the character of Rocky and not too much about the boxing event at the end of the film. When Rocky trains for the fight all he wants is to "go the distance" with Apollo Creed, he doesn't care about winning or losing, he simply wants to go the whole fight with him and in the end his efforts are proven when he loses the fight. And the amazing ending that everyone has parodied (Adrian!) is amazing because after all that, he doesn't care about losing or the press, all he wants is Adrian.

Stallone plays the role of Rocky as the most lovable guy in the world. He is very simple minded, but you love him for it. He continues to play the character like this throughout the entire series as well. The film series, and this one especially, are incredibly iconic. People travel to the Philadelphia Art Museum all the time just to run up the stairs (I've done it!) and the Rocky statue (which is presented in Rocky III) still stands at the art museum. The film is a part of American culture and it most definitely deserved to win the Best Picture Oscar!

Jason X (2001)

"It's okay! He just wanted his machete back!"

So, in 1993 New Line Cinema obtained the rights to Jason Voorhees, and they chose to kill the character off once and for all in the film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. After that the studio decided to work on getting Freddy vs. Jason done and in theaters. 8 years later they still had nothing, but they were close, so they decided to revisit Jason and bring us a new film.

Jason X finds us met up with Jason Voorhees (played for the fourth and final time by Kane Hodder) once again as he is being readied to be put into cryo freeze because he can't be killed. When this happens, Jason stabs the person in charge of this subsequently freezing her as well. Jump 450 years later and the two are unfrozen and taken aboard the Grendel space ship. Needless to say, unfreezing Jason wasn't such a good idea and good old fashion killings begin.

The film is nothing more than a "popcorn flick", it really shouldn't be taken seriously. It's one of the weaker installments in the series but not at the worst (at least when he went to space he was actually in space most of the time, as opposed to say, Manhattan). The film has really terrible performances from the actors in the movie, and none of them are people you've heard of before or since. This isn't the first film in a horror series to send their killer to space (Leprechaun and Hellraiser anyone?), but it's always a mistake. What's the point of sending Jason to space? There really isn't one, except to try and use CGI as much as possible. That all being said, the film has some nice little nods to the other films, like how he just wants to use his machete as opposed to a new weapon and of course the reenacted Part VII virtual reality scene.

And of course even though the "uber" Jason scenes were really unneeded and only there as a novelty act, it's kind of bad ass to see Jason like that. Also, Kane Hodder IS Jason Voorhees, he's the only person to play the role more than once and he's also the best. He made the character his own and this film is a lasting tribute to the character, mainly because of his unwillingness to die.

Overall the film is incredibly goofy and over the top, but again it's really just there for entertainment purposes. You can take it as a Friday the 13th film or you can just take it as a film to enjoy and laugh at.

2011: A Year in Review

Instead of doing my traditional top 10 and bottom 10 of 2011, I have chosen a different route. I feel that I haven't seen enough films this year to do a fair top 10 list, so I have decided instead to write about all the films I have seen this year.

2011 was not a very good year for film. It took me about 3 1/2 months to even see a new film at all. That film being Red Riding Hood, I was pleasantly surprised with this film. When I first saw the trailer I was split, it looked too much like "Twilight" and it was

even directed by the director of "Twilight", but the film was actually pretty good.

Following that came Scream 4 a film I was very much looking forward to and was slightly let down by. The film clearly didn't live up to what eve

ryone thought it would be, but the film was at least half way decent.

After that it was another month before I saw another film, that being The Hangover Part II. This film was great and it was the best film I had seen so far in the year. A lot of people complained that the film was too much like the original and I do agree with that, but at the same time there really wasn't anything different they could do. They kept the basic premise but added new things to it.

After that I'm not sure what I saw next but there were films during the summer like Cowboys & Aliens, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Final Destination 5 that I did go see in the theater. Cowboys & Aliens was another film I was looking forward to and that was a major disappointment. A very boring film that was incredibly predictable and as a friend of mine put it should have been called, "Cowboys with the Occasional Alien". Harry Potter wrapped up the story nicely and Final Destination 5 was a welcome addition after the major disappointment of the last film.

The biggest surprise of the summer was Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I thought was going to be terrible and it ended up really impressing me. The best film I saw in 2011 was surprisingly The Muppets. I was looking forward to the film and it really impressed me. I grew up watching "The Muppets" and this film really made me happy with it's good story and incredible soundtrack.

The film wasn't without it's definite terrible films. With such films as: No Strings Attached, Your Highness, The Green Hornet and Kevin Smith's terrible film Red State. With the exception of Your Highness none of the other films really looked any good anyways.

Other films I saw this year that I was pretty much indifferent on were A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, which I thought would have been better, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which honestly I didn't expect much from and Jack & Jill, that looked funny and disappointed, Al Pacino really saved that film.

Overall, 2011 was a pretty disappointing year. I didn't see films like Captain America or Green Lantern yet, but I do plan on it. Once I see those films I will definitely review them and put them up.