Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

RATING:***** (5 stars)

With Voldemort beginning a reign of terror after the death of Dumbledore, Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione embark on a search for the remaining horcruxes--the key to Voldemort's power.

Disclaimer: Arthur has not read any of the Harry Potter books. Whether by popular demand from fans or otherwise, the final Harry Potter installment has been broken up into two parts, with the second being released in 2011. For those who have been following Harry since his debut on the silver screen back in 2001, you should be well-acquainted with the knowledge that evil wizard Voldemort is quite immortal and that Harry Potter is the "chosen one" needed to defeat him. You should also have a solid grasp of all of the major (and many minor) characters that have already been introduced over the last six films as HP 7.1 (as I am dubbing it) wastes no time in exposition.

One of the beautiful things about a cast that has stayed with a franchise as long as Harry Potter is watching and truly appreciating the growth of the young actors and actresses, particularly in this case when they have been surrounded by such a large assortment of Britain's finest actors and actresses themselves. Our three lead characters get plenty of chance to stretch and demonstrate their acting skill this go-around, with quite a large chunk of the two-hour film consisting of them on-screen by themselves.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 delivers much of the same in terms of music, effects, cinematography--a good number of things to be consistent with throughout any franchise remains true here. What is markedly different in this latest installment is the tension of our protagonists to the world around them and to each other. Without spoiling any of the details for any movie-goers who like myself are not familiar with teh book and do not know how things turn out, rest assured that HP 7.1 is exciting, funny, dramatic, and sets the stage beautifully for the finale next year.

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Unstoppable

RATING:**** (4 stars)

Two blue-collar men working together for the first time decide to chase down a runaway freight train with dangerous materials that threatens a heavily populated area.

Starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as our two primary leads, the star power alone almost demands a theater viewing. Luckily, we are given a tense drama with very human characters that can deliver an experience worthy of the big screen.

There really is not a whole lot of depth to the story: Frank (Washington) is a veteran of the train industry who has only a couple weeks left before his forced early retirement, while Will (Pine) is a young dad with marriage trouble who from one perspective got a nice job because he has relatives in the industry. The tension starts at the very beginning of the movie, and rides hard until the very end, so all of the character development (what little there is) comes along the way and cuts to the point--not unlike many people having normal conversation. It is in this aspect that Unstoppable really shines. We see two men that by all accounts are very "normal" people put into an extraordinary situation, and do the best they can under those circumstances.

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Due Date

RATING:*** (3 stars)

When a stressed-out father-to-be gets put on a no-fly list, he ends up taking a cross-country jaunt with the aspiring actor who got him put on the no-fly list.

There has been a lot of buzz recently over Due Date, in no small part because of the trailers loaded with choice bits of comedy from the film. As expected, the story focuses on Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) and the many misadventures they have from the moment they meet as they travel to Los Angeles for the birth of Peter's first child. The story is pretty straight-forward, our two characters meet briefly outside the airport, get put on a no-fly list shortly thereafter, and share a rental car as they both travel halfway across the country to California.

While there is plenty of comedy to be had here, much of it feels forced. The story seems to serve only as a vechicle to take us from one ridiculous situation to the next, where there will be similar-but-different hijinks going on. This is not to say that you won't laugh--there is plenty to laugh at in Due Date. You might feel a bit swindled that much of the best comedic moments were in the trailers and that you've already seen them, but otherwise there is some good comedy here.

Maybe not worth theatre money, but definitely worth a rental. Also as a note to parents, plenty of marijuana jokes and smoking on-screen.

Trailer

RED (2010)

RATING:**** (4 stars)

When a retired CIA operative is targeted for elimination, he assembles his old team to find out who wants them all dead.

Many Americans (myself included) have been looking forward to RED since the first trailer came our earlier this year. If you haven't even heard of this yet, prepare for another action movie in a year of action movies--except this one has an all-star cast and is liable to make you laugh the entire time as well. Our hero this time around is Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), who thinks he might have found a girl (Mary-Louise Parker) who will let him put his past behind him and lead a "normal" life. A professional hit squad, that he deals with rather well I might add, lead to a more awkward first meeting than he hoped for. So he rounds up friends from the old days to figure out what is going on (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren) while they are pursued by young CIA operative William Cooper (Karl Urban).

RED delivers on everthing the trailer promised, from beginning to end. We have more than enough action to classify this as an action movie, and more than enough one-liners and laughter-inducing scenes to call it a comedy as well. In addition to the cast above, you can expect some notable roles from Richard Dreyfus and Brian Cox to give you even more of a reason to get to theaters this weekend and see this film.

Sure, some of the camera-work could have been a little better and the plot itself isn't anything outstanding. Let's face it, we're not exactly looking at anything that is likely to get anybody an Academy Award in a few months. But that also is part of the reason you want to go and see it--because it's a blast to watch and sure to sate your movie appetite for the month. Unless of course you wanted lots of drama and romance, but there are other movies in theaters to provide that.

Trailer

Life As We Know It

RATING:**** (4 stars)

When their best friends die in a car accident, two godparents who can't stand each other are left to raise their friends' baby.

I'm not going to deny that I can be rather picky when it comes to "date movies", but pickings have been pretty slim in the latter half of 2010. So it was with reserve that I went to Life As We Know It, and I was pleasantly surprised. The movie starts rather slowly, taking its time to build up to the premise. But hang in there, because what is really happening is that you are being introduced to Messer (Josh Duhamel) and Holly (Katherine Heigl) and learning what makes them tick. We then get pivotal event #1: the married couple dies. Given the fact that this film is not meant to be a depressing film, the way this was handled was startlingly well done. Things progress quickly from there in a fairly genre-typical fashion.

Life As We Know It fires on all cylinders and does exactly what it is meant to do. We get the small laughs throughout the film, interspersed with just the right amount of emotional touches. What was particularly interesting, and well-done by both the writers and our lead actor and actress, are the various scenes where Messer and Holly are coping with the loss of their best friends. Two strong, independent people coping and looking for emotional release in ways that won't make them look vulnerable. Very good stuff.

Really, the only thing going against the film is the predictability, and I'm certainly not going to hold that against one of the few really good date movies to come out recently that is quite good. So grab that special someone (or that person you would like to become that special someone!) and go see it!

Trailer