Quick Movie Reviews

For a while there I thought we might actually have a nice spring. The end of April provided us with a string of sunny, warm-without-being-hot days and I honestly started to believe that we were being rewarded by Mother Nature for surviving one of the harsher winters on record. Turns out I was wrong. The last two weeks have been rainy, not particularly warm and, overall, pretty damn awful. While this weather has been great for my lawn (which looks better than it has in years and, yes, I realize what that says about me when that is so important), it has not allowed people in this area to get out and finally partake in some outdoor activities. Honestly, I've gotten around two days of yard work in and haven't even had a nice enough weekend to go golfing yet, which is a crime. The only upside is that I don't feel guilty about catching up on all the movies I never bothered to go see or rent. I mean, I would feel lazy if I sat inside on my couch during a beautiful day, but that feeling goes away when it's raw and rainy out my window. Therefore, just in case this weather does break in the coming days, I figured I would provide you with some quick movie reviews so that if you see them coming up on the guide you don't have to debate sitting inside or enjoying the day.

The Losers: Allow me to sum this movie up in one word: BOOM. It is not much more than big explosions, gun fights and witty one-liners between the bad guys. So, of course, I loved it. Still not totally sure of what the plot was, but I'm fairly certain that was beside the point.

The Back-Up Plan: Look, I'm not proud of myself for watching this. I can't even blame it on someone else - I paused for 30 seconds and the next thing I knew twenty minutes had passed and now I just had to watch the movie until it was over. Essentially it's 90 minutes of Jennifer Lopez doing every chick-flick stereotype there is. (I love you, so I'll push you away. Crap, I shouldn't have done that.) Also, it shows I've spent waaaayyyy to much time around pregnant women the passed four years, because I couldn't stop thinking how women carrying twins are never allowed to go full-term.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: It was kind of a trip, but I'll give it this - at least it was different. It was half video-game/half movie, which if you know that going in makes the entire thing much more enjoyable. Don't try to figure out what is going on, just go with it. Not a movie you see every day, which makes it a breath of fresh air.

How to Train Your Dragon: I figured I should watch it now and know what's going on because I'm bound to end watching it with the next generation soon enough and they have this tendency to talk over movies at the important parts, which would annoying at any time, but some reason is extra annoying when it happens during a bad movie. However, after checking it out I'm not sure the girls and D-Mac will be seeing this for a while. It's got great animation, but it's a little intense for kids so young. Definitely for the 8-10 year-old crowd instead of the 3-5 one.

Long Story Short: This was Colin Quinn's stand-up special under the guise of being a history lesson. Even though I never thought Colin was great on "Saturday Night Live", I thought he was particularly good in this because he was back in his element. Parts of it dragged, but for the most part he kept the show moving along and seemed to make fun of everyone equally. Of everything I've seen the past month, this is the one I would recommend the most.