The Blindside

A "Blind Side" in football terms is the spot where a quarterback cannot see. If this place is left unprotected then the quarterback is open to be squished flat by an opposing team member. That is where Michael "Big Mike" Oher comes in. Let us just say that if you wanted to be your bodyguard, he would be the guy you would want to pick.

After being taken away from his family when he was little, Michael traveled from foster home to foster home, being what the government calls "a runner". He was failing in his senior year of high school and had a very low GPA score, although he was not stupid. He was also found to be very protective of others and was really good at sports, considering that he had a giant body frame, but was still quick. With no one to watch him, he spent much of his life having to fend for himself.

Unfortunately no one really took notice of Michael's good qualities until he was taken in by a kind middle-class Christian family, the Tuohy's. They consisted of the parents, Leigh (Sandra Bullock) and Sean (Tim McGraw) and also two children, Collins and S.J. . They all accept Michael and help him succeed in life while giving him more than just the necessities of life, while he helps them grow closer together.

I went into this movie not really wanting to see it, I left pleased with it though. The main reason I did not really care to see it is because I thought it was just another one of those sports movies that try to inspire people. It actually makes the movie more lifelike when photos of the real Michael are shown over the credits. (The movie is based on a book, which is based on real-life events). The first half of the movie does not even show or mention football much. When it is finally shown more often, it does not show the games in great detail. The sports are included just for addition to the storyline. There is also a surprising twist in the story near the end of the film.


As for the acting, Bullock just did okay, Tim McGraw did better, and the best were actually the actors who portrayed Michael (Quinton Aaron) and S.J. (Jae Head). The soundtrack was not really noticeable, annoying or wonderful. There are a few moments of drinking, smoking, and also a few uses of some bad language, though no "F words" in it. Leigh actually don't say "the A word" to her family. During a car accident, there is some blood that is shown on the victims of the incident, though they are not bothered much by the injuries. At another point of the movie, it is mentioned briefly to Michael not to get a girl pregnant or else a certain private part will be cut off as a punishment. The camera also closely shows a married couple kissing each other on the face.

The story is a classic one that belongs in the heart of a movie lover right along with "The Pursuit of Happiness". If you are looking for a movie without explosions and just a quality movie this holiday, look no further for this is it.

Disney's A Christmas Carol

Here is yet another one of those movies based on a book! This time it is the another adaption of the classic by Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol". It was first published in 1843 and the buzz has not stopped since. There have been numerous versions of this movie put in cartoons, live-action movies, plays, operas, musicals, and also attempted prequels/sequels to the book. This story has been shown in so many ways that there are even books that exist just to tell you about the adaptions that "A Christmas Carol" has been turned into.

This book's storyline is well-known but in case you do not know it, I will try to describe it now while not ruining it. The book starts off with the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner. It then skips 7 years later to show a greedy rude Scrooge who does not waste a single schilling on anything. On that Christmas Eve Scrooge is then visted by the ghost of his partner who is in heavy chains. The ghost then warns Scrooge that he will ge haunted by three ghosts that night. These 3 spirits are the bright ghost of Christmas past, the joyous ghost of Christmas present, and the dark and mysterious ghost of Christmas yet to come.

In this edition of the Disney adaptions, legendary director Robert Zemeckis takes control and uses his unique motion capture animation. To top that Jim Carrey takes the position as Scrooge and also plays quite a few other roles in this movie. His facial expressions really add to the characters he plays and brings more life to the movie. There is also a flashback that shows what Scrooge was like when he was younger. Using the motion capture makes young Scrooge looks just like Jim Carrey did in "The Truman Show".

Besides great casting, the animation is awesome! It is sort of cheating though because it uses real-life people in front of a green screen acting it out and then animation is layed over that (motion capture). Most of what is on screen is animation though, and it looks so real! The thing that I did not find right with this though is that Zemeckis is going through all of the trouble to make things look realistic but then he makes characters do unbelievable dance moves which ruins it a bit. The camera angles are some of the best I have seen for a movie and make you feel like you are really gliding through the sky. This could be because I saw it in IMAX 3D but I still think that it would have been pretty cool without it. What would a movie with such a title be without a few carols? A few songs such as "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" are included and even the main score for the movie is some sort of instrumental remix of "Deck The Halls". The makers of this were clearly not afraid of using anything religious which I give them bonus points for.


This movie may look like a good ol' family movie but it can be a scary at a few parts. There are the ghosts that I mentioned, but only 2 out of 4 of them I would consider scary. At one part, there are many tortured ghost seen floating around London and could really make a little kid want to scream. There is also a dead body shown as the first thing in the movie and a body is shown later on turning from flesh to skeleton to dust. There is no bad language in the film except for during a game of charades in which Scrooge briefly mentioned as the other name of a donkey. There is also nothing sexual in this movie.

To summarize it tops any other version of the story that I have ever seen. It is also the best film that I have seen in 3D. The 3D effects are really put to use and are worth the extra money if you have it. I don't think that this movie would be all that frightening when it comes out on DVD(or blu-ray), the largeness of the movie I think would really just creep a little one out.

The Men Who Stare At Goats

There sure are a lot of movies out right now that are based on books! I have posted about 2 of 3 already based on books plus this one. There are also at least 2 that I can think of right now that are currently in theaters that are based on a book.


The movie is about exactly what as it sounds and nothing much more. This film is based on a book by Jon Ronson who based his book on his encounter with the New Earth Army. This army run by the United States is a New Age, peace-loving, hippie group who believed that they could access supernatural powers that they could use for good. These powers include walking through walls, making clouds separate, changing minds of other people, and even killing animals just by staring at them.

The main character in the movie is a journalist based off of Ronson and played by Ewan McGregor. This is a great actor to cast for this movie as it makes quite a few references to Star Wars. For example, the New Earth Army soldiers are called "Jedi warriors" and there is also another hippie character in the film named Jango. There are also a number of quotes and motions that imply more references to the Star Wars movies. Not too many that it makes the movie a parody but just enough to make it funny.

The style of this movie is much like that you may find in a Cohen brothers movie (it is not though). It even has some of the same actors from movies like "The Ladykillers". George Clooney casted as another main character did an excellent job playing as a LSD-influenced psycho soldier of the New Earth Army. Kevin Spacey also plays the villain yet again in a film, but he was not that recognizable to me.


It is not really appropriate but it is made for laughs and entertainment, which is exactly what it did. The film included a lot of heavy cussing, and also some very brief nudity of male backsides. In addition there is drug use in the film, even to the point where an entire army base is sabotaged with LSD. You can only imagine what could happen when that base is also full of tanks. It does not promote the use of LSD but rather for laughs and to go with the story.

On the note of how the film shows psychic powers at use is hard to interpret if they wanted to show that this really could happen or not. At most moments(pretty much the whole movie) the New Earth Army is meant to be a big joke to everyone else and also the unbelievable powers that come with it. However, at a few key moments of the movie the powers are shown to work, but then again it could just be a coincidence, it is never said.

As I said earlier, this movie is just made for fun. It's not the best movie of the year, and will not win Academy Awards(except maybe for best actor...). I don't think that the crazy powers are much to be concerned about but you may want to take in mind the other suggestive content. After all just by the title this movie sounds like it is probably making fun of men who are staring at goats.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

"You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower "meatier" than this."- Sam Sparks

So true. If you get hungry just from going to the grocery store, make sure you bring some snacks to this movie because delicious looking food is given screen time about 95% of the movie. Anything from hamburgers to ice cream to fortune cookies is shown as enormous proportions fall from the sky.


This movie is also loosely based on a book of the same name, but I can not compare it to that as I have not read it in a while, if ever. From what I can tell though, it looks like it takes the main idea from the book about food falling from the sky and then elaborates from there without ruining it like "Where the Wild Things Are" did.

The film follows inventor Flint Lockwood as he tries to create things that people will love. Finally he gets an opportunity when the city gets limited to eating only sardines, which as we all know, everyone hates sardines. Flint answers the problem with his invention called the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (the FLDSMDFR)! At the sight of hamburgers falling from the sky, the city praises Flint's name and the isolated island get much needed public attention of this event by Weather reporter Sam Sparks.

The story does go further but I will not ruin it for you because this is a great movie. If you do not find this movie believable, then you are not getting the point. Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, its not supposed to be believable, just fun and quirky. The animation and effects are also really great and and to the theme of the movie. The voices of the actors are also well casted featuring Bill Hader(SNL), Anna Faris, and also Neil Patrick Harris(Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog) as a Monkey with a thought translator. Mr. T even had a part in the film as a policeman, which I found as funny because his character had the opposite haircut that he really has.


Normally I found that Pixar films have a great story and graphics(Up, Toy Story) while Dreamworks movies are just funny with good graphics(Shrek, Madagascar)but Sony seems to have mixed both of these studio's specialties into one great family movie. There is minor cartoon violence, no nudity(except for a man in a diaper played by Andy Samberg), and no bad language unless you want to count crabballs as swearing. My little brother went also and he loved the movie. He gave it a 100,059 thumbs up. Unfortunately I am not Roger or Ebert so I do not do thumbs up(not that I am a genetic freak and I have that many thumbs) instead I use cute little stars as my rating system. This is simply just a fun, creative little movie that was born for a family pizza night.


Note: This film is also featured in 3D in some theaters but I did not see it in that format as I saw it much later than it was released.