End-of-Summer Movie Review

I know I’m late in saying so, but I hope everyone had a really happy and restful Labor Day weekend! I spent mine with my brother who was visiting from Scotland, and also shooting a wedding with Kate. I’ll be posting those pictures soon, so stay tuned! In the meantime, and since the official end of summer is drawing near (or was marked by back-to-school for some of you) I thought that I’d recap this summer’s movies as seen through my eyes. While I’m no expert at reviews, these are the movies I had a chance to see this summer and my very brief thoughts on each:

• Iron Man – I’m not a die hard fan of comic book hero movies, but this one was actually really fun and kept my interest.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – I rate the Indiana Jones movies in the following order, from favorite to least favorite: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Last Crusade, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and then Temple of Doom. So in my humble opinion, this one wasn’t the best one in the series, but it wasn’t the worst either.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – I only recently went back and read a few books in the Narnia series because I somehow missed reading them as a kid. Is it totally blasphemous to say that I like the movies as much as the books? I know in most cases the book is way better than the movie, but I think I liked the Prince Caspian movie even better than the book…
• What Happens in Vegas – Fairly predictable, but decent and entertaining enough. It’s what I expected from an Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz comedy.
• Wanted – A huge stretch of the imagination, extremely violent/graphic, but who doesn’t love seeing Angelina Jolie kick ass?
• WALL-E– I absolutely positively adored this movie! Pixar totally delivered in what is now my new favorite film from the Pixar line. And the short before the movie, Presto Chango, made me laugh so hard. I think I laughed louder than anyone else in the audience, including the 5-and-under crowd.
• Step Brothers – I feel like it started off pretty funny, but then went downhill after the first half. The majority of the laughs were the moments that were featured in the previews, so by the time I saw them in the movie they weren’t as funny.
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 – I know I am probably just a teeny bit past the age range of the target audience for this movie, but I did enjoy the first one so I went to see this one as well. It was a nice flick to catch with your girls.
• Pineapple Express – Second to WALL-E, this was my favorite movie of the season. The movie was much more violent than I expected, but it was just as funny as I was hoping it would be. There were plenty of great lines and moments from the movie that were not previously spoiled by seeing the trailer over and over. My only disappointment was that they didn’t use the M.I.A. song, “Paper Planes” in the movie as heard in the preview! So far in his career, Seth Rogan is hilarious in every role, and this one was no exception. The interaction between Seth’s character and his (BFFF) dealer is hysterical.

I know, I know…there are a couple of big ones that didn’t make the list. I totally missed the boat every time friends were going out to see Sex and the City, for instance. I was always at a wedding! In any case, it’s on my Netflix!)