Reviews

Terrible movie. The acting was bad .. the lines .. were contrite .. script was terrible.

Not so much a Christmas movie but a bad romcom movie. I do like romcom movies, but this was was just so unbelievably.

I loved the original series. Every episode kept my attention with stories that were enjoyable and characters that you could relate to.

This new series is horrible. The animation looks like it was fine by a fifth grader .. no wait, a fifth grader would have been better. The stories don't hold my attention and the new characters are boring.

If they brought the original characters back and replaced John Ritter, who passed away, with another voice, it would have been great. What were they thinking ??

Hopefully the movie version coming out in 2020 will have more imagination put into it.

Just came back from the screening of Captain Phillips.

Directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) with the same non-stop action and intensity he is known for.

I was glued to the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie. Even though I know how it ended, the movie still kept me guessing.

Wondering how they got the US Navy to have 3 ships in the movie. It wasn't CGI. The night scenes gave the move an eerie look of reality.

The interaction of Hanks and his crew felt so real life.

Tom Hanks is simply an amazing actor. Really hope he gets nominated for Best Actor for this one. One of his best performances. Barkhad Abdi, a newcomer, also deserves a nomination from the Academy for his role as Muse, a Somali pirate.

Whip It and Bend It Like Beckham are so similar, but so much different. Both tell the stories of teenage girls who sneak away to participate in sports, Soccer and Roller Derby.

Both girls have crushes and relationships with the opposite sex, both end differently.

The main difference in Whip It, which makes the film really stand out, is the relationship with Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) and her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). This is the main theme of the movie and is beautifully developed. Drew Barrymore said she was drawn to the script because of mother-daughter theme. Drew and her mom have had problems and wanted to do the story because of it.

Bliss grows up in a small town (Bodine) in Texas, which is on the outskirts of Austin. Watch for the part when Bliss and her friend Pash dance to the Dolly Parton song Jolene, and change the words to Bodine. One day while shopping in Austin she picks up a flyer for the local Roller Derby team, the Hurl Scouts. Bliss talks her best friend. played by Alia Shswkat, into driving her into Austin to watch an actual game. She is invited after the game by Maggie Mayhem to attend a tryout to make the team.

Drew said she was attracted to the sport of Roller Derby by the crowd. When she attended an event, she looked around and saw yuppies, blue collar workers, teenagers, families, and just a wide range of people. All drawn to the sport of Roller Derby.

The book was written by Shauna Cross who based her experience on her career with the LA Derby Dolls. Shauna skated with them as Maggie Mayhem (played by Kristen Wiig). Shauna was looking for a tennis partner and searched Craigslist for one, and found an ad for Roller Derby, which started her career.

Drew made some additions to the script. A fan of the hockey movie "Slap Shop" and the characters the Hanson Brothers, she came up with the Manson Sisters for Whip It. They play silent but deadly teammates on the Hurl Scouts. A little hard of hearing or not caring to, they walk by the white board with a play diagrammed, look, and just keep walking. They are played by LA Derby Dolls skaters Kristen "Krissy Krash" Adolfi and Rachel "Iron Maiven". Adolfi and Piplica are teammates on LADD's Tough Cookies, on whom the film's fictionalized Hurl Scouts are based.

Landon Pigg goes from musician to his first acting role, as Bliss' love interest. I think this is the only scene of making out under water I have ever seen.

If some of the blood and bruises look real .. they are !! Most of the actors did their own skating and had their share of mishaps. Bliss (Ellen Page) was trained by LA Derby Doll's Axle of Evil. Drew suffered a huge bruise on her thigh while wrestling with one of the trainers. During the training, some of the actors would yell out "I am hurting" and the trainers would yell back "Keep Skating".

The movie scenes of Roller Derby action look extremely real as Drew used hand held cameras for a lot of the action. A huge crane in the middle of the track took shots from high above and also went down close to the action.

The moral of the movie (per Drew) is finding yourself, to get out there and do things, to improve yourself, and to pick yourself up and keep trying.

I highly recommend this movie to one and all.

Just came from the Premiere of Whiteout in Westwood.

This movie has a really stunning poster. And that is the best I can say for the movie.

The first 10 minutes of the film, involving the Russian transport plane, is the most exciting part of the movie. You can leave after that part.

Everything in this movie has been done before. The cop who has had a crisis on the job .. the flashbacks .. the reservation about your job .. etc.

The most beautiful part of the movie was the scenery. However in most scenes, there were so much snow blowing around (Whiteout) you couldn't see all of the action.

Reese Witherspoon was scheduled to play the lead. Not that Kate Beckinsale wasn't good in the movie, but the script catered on the gore instead of on the quality of the plot.