Movie Reviews

I watched a couple of really great movies this weekend and thought I'd share. You've probably seen them already since I wait for stuff to come out on DVD instead of seeing it in the theater, but if not, I give thumbs up on these 3!

Movie #1 The Butterfly Effect
I love movies that make you think. This one plays on the theory of the Butterfly Effect; "If a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, the ripple effect could cause a tempest on the other.” I saw “Dude, Where’s My Car” and believe me, I didn’t have high hopes for Ashton Kusher in this movie. Surprisingly, he was quite good. This movie is about this guy named Evan who has always suffered from something that causes him to "blackout" during times of extreme crisis. All through his childhood he would blank out right before something drastic happens and not remember anything that happened. Now in college, he reads through a journal he used to write as a kid to notice that all of a sudden these harmful memories are coming back to him. When he goes to ask his childhood sweetheart about it she doesn't want to talk about it. He finds out however, that he can actually tap into his past and change what happened in these events. Unfortunately, every time he changes the past, even in the slightest way the future is also affected. I won’t give away the ending, but it was surprising. I totally recommend this movie. I sat down to watch just a few minutes of it while I was eating ice cream before going to bed and ended up watching the whole darned movie. Good thing it was a weekend!

Movie #2 The Island
OMG! This movie is amazing. How did I miss it before? It’s a cross between Logan’s Run, the Matrix, and Coma. It’s about Lincoln Six-Echo who is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid 21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the "The Island" - reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie. He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones. Lincoln makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta. Relentlessly pursued by the forces of the sinister institute that once housed them, Lincoln and Jordan engage in a race for their lives to literally meet their makers. Yeah, okay, I stole that description off of imdb. The whole idea is intriguing. The sets are marvelous, technology fantastic, and there are some truly amazing chase/crash scenes. Greg and I give it 2 thumbs up. I wish I could find a novel of it, but I can’t find any reference to it being a book before a movie. Dang.

And movie #3 Detroit Rock City
You all know that I like those silly high-school coming of age movies. This one fits the bill perfectly. It takes place in 1978 when four members of a high school band called Mystery do everything they can to attend a KISS concert in Detroit. In order to make it to the show they must steal, cheat, strip, deal with an anti-rock mom and generally do whatever it takes to see the band that has inspired them to be musicians. The soundtrack to this movie is so great. They did a good job of suiting the song to what was happening in the movie and keeping it pretty close to the right era. I went to order it on Amazon, and found out that who ever created it totally screwed it up. Instead of using the original versions of songs like “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, they have Marilyn Manson singing it on the soundtrack. WTF?? I’ll just have to make my own, I think, with the REAL songs. I’m not a huge metal fan, but this movie has a lot of good ones in it.