Moon is a 2009 film starring Sam Rockwell. What makes this film so great; a. the story b. the very well done special effects. The story is about a company man that is on the moon finishing up a 3 year contract. Besides doing his job, all he thinks about is getting home to his wife and daughter.

The problem – he’s in an accident while checking on one of the mining vehicles and is rescued by —– himself. Or as we later learn – his clone. You’ll have to watch the film to find out the rest!

The special effects are excellent; the producers and directors took full advantage of the 2008-2009 union strikes and got work done for the film that otherwise would have cost them more than they had. The result is this beautiful film with great moon shots, special and visual effects. All done on a tiny budget.

Great film to own!

Budget: $5 milllion
Director: Duncan Jones
Staring:
Sam Rockwell
Kevin Spacey
Dominique McElligott

The Informant is a 2009 film about Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), who is helping the FBI catch senior level people at his company for price fixing. It’s an off beat comedy that has some really funny moments, if you pay close attention and watch the film. The story starts with an unexplained virus that keeps infecting their product at the corn company where he works. Whitacre ends up making up a story about a Japanese competitor that says they have a mole that is sabotaging their product and will only tell them who it is for 10 million dollars. The company decides to bring in the FBI to catch the mole, but since they are running a price fixing operation, Whitacre gets nervous and tells them the truth - or so you think.

Turns out the price fixing is real, only everything else Whitacre says isn’t, he’s a liar, thief, embezzler, and jeopardizes the DOJ’s entire case with his antics.

Overall, it’s a good movie and funny.

Budget: $21 million
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring:
Matt Damon
Melanie Lynskey
Scott Bakula
Joel McHale
Ann Cusack

After the awesomeness of the first Transformers, people were really excited for this one to come out. Overall, it was a good film, but unlike the first one, this film seemed to be more about the special effects, Megan Fox, and a forced plot. Most of the things I recall reading about the film, turned out to be momentary snippets that didn’t amount to much.

The film is about Megatron being brought back to life by a crew of Decepticons that are hiding on earth. From there, they have to find the key to a machine that has been hidden on the planet for thousands of years. The Decepticon behind all this is named Fallen.

So, the film, while loaded with action and awesome special effects, really lacked an attention grabbing plot. For a film that is 150 minutes long, you really need one of those.

Budget: $200 million
Director: Michael Bay
Starring:
Shia LaBeouf
Megan Fox
Josh Duhamel
Tyrese Gibson
John Turturro
Isabel Lucas
Rainn Wilson
Ramon Rodriguez

Terminator Salvation was the much anticipated 4th installment to the Terminator franchise. The film was loaded with special effects and an interesting plot twist as the story and struggle of John Connor (Christian Bale) continues. This film takes place in the near future, after the machines have destroyed the world and are still looking to kill the resistance leader – John Connor.

Surprisingly, Connor isn’t the ultimate leader of the rebellion as made out in other films, but by the end of this one, he will be.

The machines, trying to kill him, have their own surprises, as they release the new Terminator (Sam Worthington), to look for him. Only thing is, he doesn’t know he’s a Terminator – he thinks he an ordinary man – Until…..

Overall, a great film to watch and own.

Budget: $200 million
Director: McG
Starring:
Christian Bale
Sam Worthington
Helena Bonham Carter
Bryce Dallas Howard
Moon Bloodgood
Michael Ironside
Anton Yelchin

The Fourth Kind was a pretty good film. There has been a lot of heated debate around this film, specifically pertaining to the ‘actual footage’ used in the movie. Basically, there is one story but two films taking place at the same time. One part of the movie shows you the ‘actual footage’ then slowly transitions to the movie (‘recreation’) part. The whole movie is shot this way. But it’s done in such away that it’s not over distracting or annoying. Most of its pretty interesting.

Though, I don’t know if it’s true or not – but the ‘actual’ footage is said to be staged as well. That was fine with me, even if it is the case. Still makes for a really suspenseful and scary movie at parts.

This film will make for a good Friday night rental.

Budget: $10 million
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Starring:
Milla Jovovich
Will Patton
Elias Koteas
Corey Johnson
Hakeem Kae-Kazim

This is a really good country movie about a drunk country music singer named Bad Blake (Bridges). Basically, the better days of his country music career are gone and he is stuck traveling town to town performing in bars and bowling alleys. Lucky for him, one of the guys he mentored when he was younger, has made it big. Tommy Sweet (Farrell), never forgot the help that Blake gave him years ago and has vowed to help him get back on top.

You’ll enjoy this film if you like country music, bars, and really good acting.

Budget: N/A
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring:
Jeff Bridges
Colin Farrell
Maggie Gyllenhaal

This is a really great film. Initially, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but something about it really pulls you in. If you’re a fan of dramas, The Lovely Bones is for you.

It’s about a young girl named Susie Salmon, who is murdered, and the story is told from her point of view. It shows how her murder affected her family, the person that killed her, and the trials and tribulations that parents go through, when they know they’re daughters dead, but never find the body.

The performances by everyone involved were completely awesome. Even the evil Stanley Tucci, who you can’t wait til something bad happens to him, did an outstanding job in bringing his character to life.

Budget: $65 million
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring:
Saoirse Ronan
Mark Wahlberg
Rachel Weisz
Stanley Tucci
Susan Sarandon
Jake Abel
Michael Imperioli

This is the second film in the Twilight Trilogy. I recall watching the first one and finding the film interesting, but didn’t that same sensation watching this film. Though, it may be that way because I’m not the ‘target audience.’ When I watched the film, all I saw was a girl getting attacked by vampires, professing her love for her vampire boyfriend, and constant begging to be turned into a vampire. This type of film, while crafted well, isn’t my cup if tea. It’s main audience are the tweens and housewives, so that leaves me out.

Budget: $50 million
Director: Chris Weitz
Starring:
Taylor Lautner
Kristen Stewart
Robert Pattinson
Billy Burke
Ashley Greene
Anna Kendrick
Christian Serratos
Michael Sheen
Jamie Campbell Bower
Dakota Fanning

Watchmen was a 3 hour disappointment. Before the film came to theaters, I remember seeing the trailer for the film about a dozen time; thinking this movie is going to be awesome. I never did get to see it in theaters, but I did buy it in a store, sight unseen, and when I finally watched it, which takes forever, when you almost immediately don’t like something; it turned out that the trailer was the best part of the film.

There were a few good scenes, but they were so spread out by time and boredom, they’re hardly worth remembering.

Budget: $130 million
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring:
Billy Crudup
Malin Akerman
Matthew Goode
Jackie Earle Haley
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Patrick Wilson
Carla Gugino
Matt Frewer

This was probably one of the best films we’ve seen in a long time. The action, plot, cgi, it’s all there and it’s all perfect. What a really great revivification of a popular series of films. J.J. Abrams went all out with this one and scored big. Even more exciting is the film that is in the works for 2012. This is a must see or buy film. It’s available at almost any store and is worth watching over and over; even of you’re not a hardcore fan of the Star Trek franchise, it’s still a really good film.

Budget: $140 million
Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring:
Chris Pine
Zachary Quinto
Leonard Nimoy
Eric Bana
Bruce Greenwood
Karl Urban
Zoë Saldana
Simon Pegg
John Cho
Anton Yelchin
Winona Ryder