Entries Tagged '2006 Movies' ↓

When A Stranger Calls is not only known for it being revived thriller, it is known for its star – the lovely and talented Camilla Belle. Camilla is one hot actress to root for if you are a Hollywood agent scouting for potential box office appeal. In this movie, Camilla does justice to all scenes – she can be provocative and scary at the same time. Now, does that not earn a wink? I can even compare Camilla’s scream here similar to what Naomi Watts did in The Ring and King Kong. Watch out for this talent. As for the movie, make it as your time filler.

Trivia:

When a Stranger Calls is a 1979 horror/thriller film starring Carol Kane and Charles Durning, directed by Fred Walton. The original music score is composed by Dana Kaproff.It is followed by the 1993 made-for-television sequel When a Stranger Calls Back. Tagline: Every babysitter’s nightmare becomes real…

I wonder how Roger Ebert (my idol movie critic) would react to his own review of Cars after the film went on garnering awards. He said Cars was the least beautiful of John Lasseter’s earlier works, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. I tend to disagree since there are lots of factors that make this movie beautiful. First, the computer filmmakers excruciatingly put the once-glorious Route 66 into detail. To make the movie a comic relief, they cast Owen Wilson. Also, this is the very first movie that I saw which featured cars in lieu of animals as a fable. Even cows were replaced by tractors. Also, I like Paul Newman’s voice performance in this movie. He had really perfected his role as Doc Hudson, the old wise racing car.

Monster House is an experiment to merge children’s animation with horror. And it succeeds. This actually is Robert Zemeckis’s follow up to Polar Express, Zemeckis having fallen in love himself to children’s animation, big thanks to the influence of Steven Spielberg. There is one memorable scene in this movie – the liplock between Jenny and DJ who are both still in their preteens. I have seen a preteen girl kissed a preteen boy in a movie (Great Expectations) but that was for a mature audience. This one, however, is a kids’ movie. I think I have some reservations on that. But anyhow, it is your choice as a parent whether you want them to see this movie or not. After all, this is also available in 3D so you may just want to make it a hell of a ride.

It’s kinda abnormal for animals to possess intelligence as humans but that’s the fun in fables where humans are involved, right? And so it is in this movie. The actors are so engrossed with their animal characters that even Nick Nolte had to research his role just as his voice would be that of a bear. But to be “fair” to the animals too, in this movie, they just want to get back at the humans for pursuing a development project in the wilds and creating a hedge between them.

Full riot from start to finish. Fun fun fun, kids will be delighted to watch, grown-ups as well.

 Trivia:

The art department went to a bowling alley to sketch the design of the ‘perfect’ vending machine. They went to various supermarkets to sketch chip bags and bottles. They eventually got kicked out of a Safeway because the manager felt uncomfortable with them being there for such an extended amount of time.

This movie is a departure from the kind of Adam Sandler that we usually see i.e. being a lone father, or pathetic lover, or someone locked up for a very obscure offense. We see an Adam Sandler here in his usual raw comedic self. Here, he plays one bored middle-class family man who wants to skip through the daily sufferings of life and accidentally discovers a so-called universal remote that can make him fast-forward or rewind his life whenever and wherever he wants to, among other things. There was one hilarious scene in this movie when he clicked the remote control of life into slow-mo while a woman with considerable cleavage passes by.

 

I must admit, even if this universal remote thingy is far from happening in real life, I can truly say that this movie makes so much sense, and that there is a very valuable lesson towards the end. You will realize what really matters most in life. It’s definitely a good watch, I’d rate it a 10.