Tagline: It’s just one of those days when you’re feeling a little… dead.

Summary: As Shaun (Simon Pegg) vows to get his life back on track with his best friend Ed (Nick Frost), girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), and step-dad Philip (Bill Nighy), he finds himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and has to save the day, with comical and gory results

5 Words/Phrases: Great comedy; fantastic cast; Pegg and Frost work great together as a comedic duo; very welcome cameo appearance by Jessica Stevenson¹; perfect mixture of comedy and gore

Most Impressed By: The strong supporting cast – Pegg may have had the lead role, but the movie was very much about the entire ensemble and they all worked very well together

Least Impressed By: …nothing!

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

1. Stevenson and Pegg starred together in Spaced, one of my favorite TV shows. [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Tagline: 9

9 (2009)

Summary: In a post-apocalyptic world, the fate of the civilization rests on the shoulders of nine rag doll-like creatures as they fight to survive

5 Words/Phrases: Great animation; stilted way of revealing backstory; confusing at times; thinly disguised allegory; incredibly short

Most Impressed By: The animation was very crisp and clear

Least Impressed By: Movie was weak in general

Overall Rating: 5.5/10

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Tagline: Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France…

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Summary: As a group of Jewish-American soldiers (the “Basterds”) led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) fight and scalp Nazis in Nazi-occupied France, they cross paths with Shoshanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a French-Jewish girl whose movie theater is about to become the setting for the biggest scene in history

5 Words/Phrases: Spectacular acting; good use of humor in the least humorous of settings; dividing of the movie into “chapters” helped lessen any confusion; some close-up shots of violence/gore; multi-layered story

Most Impressed By: Brad Pitt’s performance was amazing; Mélanie Laurent stole every scene she was in; Christoph Waltz was phenomenal as Colonel Hans Landa

Least Impressed By: …nothing!

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Tagline: Are you man enough to say it?

I Love You, Man

Summary: Friendless Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) goes on a series of “man dates” to find a new best friend and instantly connects with Sydney Fife (Jason Segal), but it puts a strain on his relationship with his fiancee Zooey (Rashida Jones)

5 Words/Phrases: Very funny; long runtime; great humor used throughout; a few one-dimensional characters; some cliches were used (sometimes convincingly, sometimes not)

Most Impressed By: Jason Segal’s performance – I think he is a great actor and was a perfect fit for the role!

Least Impressed By: Rashida Jones struck me as whiny and hypocritical as Zooey, but this could just be my personal dislike of Jones talking

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Tagline: Rachel getting married

Rachel Getting Married

Summary: The return of Kym (Anne Hathaway), the estranged daughter in the family, for the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) over the weekend upsets the family dynamics and brings to the surface long-simmering tensions each family member has

5 Words/Phrases: Stellar performance from Anne Hathaway; cleverly used the present situation to bring back mentions and memories of the tension-wrought past; believable family dynamics; each character was given depth and realistic flaws and merits; very up close and personal feel to the movie (almost documentary-esque)

Most Impressed By: Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of Kym; how elements of the family history was unveiled a little at a time throughout the movie rather than all at once; how the character of Kym could have so easily been a cliche yet was remarkably unique

Least Impressed By: The shaky camera work! Many of the shots were fully zoomed in to an actor’s face, and some were too close for my liking, resulting in a lot of the camera going from the left to right repeatedly when characters were dialoging and the camera never seemed quite steady; some scenes (like the dishwasher and the dinner scene at the end) were too long

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.