The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, U.S.)

I hate to say it, but yawn. I was kind of expecting it, to be honest, but it was still disappointing anyway. It started out so well with the arrival of the dwarves, invading Bilbo's home and pantry, cheerfully singing their clean up songs and mournfully singing their treasure songs. I was pretty excited then, because those early scenes in Bilbo's hobbit-hole were perfect. It was all downhill from there.

Mainly the problem is that a book, essentially a children's fairy tale, that should have been made into one movie is being stretched painfully into three. "Like butter scraped over too much bread," if you will. They drew out things that hadn't happened in the books, bringing characters on screen that were simply mentioned by other characters, namely Radagast the brown. Him and his stupid bunny sled were ridiculous. The book is mostly from Bilbo's point of view, and I certainly don't remember any description of what the dwarves were doing while he was lost in the dark in the Misty Mountains, and the giant fat albino goblin type thing that they encountered was just stupid. Also as much as I love them, I could have done without Elrond and Galadriel. Ugh, huge parts of it were just frustrating.

I'm being generous and giving this a 3.0 because of course Middle Earth was as beautiful as always and the casting of Bilbo and the dwarves was great and the early scenes were so enjoyable, but honestly it was just boring for huge parts. Very sad. Should have been one movie only. Duh.

Rating: 3.0

X-Men (2000, U.S.)

I can't lie, I was confused for most of this movie. Partially because I was talking to Jeff through most of it, and partially because I never read or watched X-Men as a kid. Mostly I wanted to watch the trilogy so that I could watch and understand Wolverine because a) I have become a Hugh Jackman fan (especially since he hosted the Oscars) and b) Aaron Jeffrey is in it!

Still, I thought it was pretty sweet. For starters, the aforementioned Mr. Jackman was awesome, and the rest of the cast was great too. The special effects were really believable, which is sometimes all one can ask of a movie like this. One thing that did really bother me was when the script obviously dropped the ball. For instance, Storm is letting herself (and everyone else) get beat up, and I assumed she just couldn't use her powers inside. Then five minutes later, she uses her powers to save the day. Why couldn't she do this earlier? I don't know.

So yeah. Good casting, good special effects. That pretty much sums it up.

Rating: 3.5

Jack and Sarah (1995, UK)

This must have been another one of those films that Blockbuster recommended, because I don't know why I'd see it otherwise. Well, to be fair, it did have a stellar cast—Judi Dench, Ian McKellan, Imogen Stubbs, Eileen Atkins... but those were all the supporting roles. The main characters, especially the girl, were awful. The dialogue was often stupid, and there was some horrible, horrible acting.

The premise was good. A (British) man's wife dies in childbirth and he's left to raise his baby daughter by himself. Enter the mess of an American nanny, and instant romantic comedy. Pretty serious subject matter for a romantic comedy, though.

Like I said, the leads weren't great, but the premise was good and there were some very funny parts. But overall, I could have lived my life without seeing it and I would have been okay.

Rating: 3.0

Gods and Monsters (1998, UK)

I watched Gods and Monsters a couple of days ago. The main reason I decided to watch it was Sir Ian McKellan—also Blockbuster recommended it to me because of my other rentals. (Side note: I think that Blockbuster thinks that I want to watch nothing but GLBTQ films.) Then I found out that Brendan Fraser was in it, and I seriously reconsidered.

But I'm glad I watched it. It was quite interesting. It's about the director of such classics as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Apparently he was very openly gay, and it caused him a lot of trouble in his career and personal life. This film explores the final days of his life, leading up to his suicide in 1957. I loved the fact that it was a somewhat true story. I love that it was about the Golden Age of Hollywood. I loved that I didn't hate Brendan Fraser for once. I loved the incorporation of Whale's stroke/mental instability that led to increasing numbers of flashbacks. I loved piecing his history together.

And I loved Ian McKellan. This role was exactly how I've always pictured Sir Ian in real life—very British, very neat and polished, and very unashamed of his sexuality. He was brilliant. And almost sexy. Not to mention the fact that his acting was the most brilliant I've ever seen. (I always figured he had the potential, but I haven't seen enough of his movies to know for sure. Yeah, he's great.) Lynn Redgrave was also perfect.

So, although this isn't one of those films you could watch over and over, it was still wonderful. Adding all the good bits together gives it a pretty high rating for a non-repeater.

Rating: 4.0