Film Rating: 9/10

Director, Writer: John Carney
Cast: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová
Studio: Fox Searchlight

Soundtrack Rating: 10/10

beau·ti·ful [byoo-tuh-fuhl]
–adjective
1. having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
2. excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.
3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.
–noun
4. the concept of beauty (usually prec. by the).
5. (used with a plural verb) beautiful things or people collectively (usually prec. by the): the good and the beautiful.
6. the ideal of beauty (usually prec. by the): to strive to attain the beautiful.
–interjection
7. wonderful; fantastic: You got two front-row seats? Beautiful!
8. extraordinary; incredible: used ironically:
-movie
9. ONCE

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This movie has it all! Stallone! Violence! Dexter's girlfriend!

This is a must watch. I almost spit up my drink after seeing the first 10 seconds of the gore. Be prepared to get your ass kicked January 25!

If you were the director of the new Rambo, what would your tagline be?

Book:

Film:

In 1995, Elle magazine's editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, suffered a stroke. He awoke 3 weeks later and was fully paralyzed. The only exception was movement in his left eye. He had no brain damage, no memory loss and all he could do was blink his left eye. This rare condition is called Locked-In Syndrome.

His speech therapist arranged the alphabet in order from most used letter to the least used letter and would recite the newly arranged alphabet over and over. When she got to a letter that Bauby wanted, he would blink and she would write the letter down. Letters would become words and slowly the words would become sentences. This is the only way Bauby could communicate with the outside world.

Bauby decided to take advantage of his newly reestablished ability to speak and wrote a memoir titled The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The alphabet was recited over and over and each letter was written one by one as Bauby would blink. He would spend most of the day structuring his sentences and memorizing about 10 lines before he and his translator, Claude, would begin.
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Tis the season for movies. I thought it would be appropriate to create a top 5 movies of Christmas. Take note, I have not seen It's A Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street. Or Godfather. Please don't castrate me.

Honorable mention: Gremlins

This movie just scared the hell out of me. I did want to put Gizmo in my pocket forever though.

5. Jingle All the Way

Poor Arnold. When he forgets to get his son the only gift he wanted for Christmas, a Turbo Man doll, he goes on an unforgettable journey to track one down. On this adventure, he must battle an angry postman played by Sinbad (remember him?), an army of midget Santa Clause's, and a bike cop who happens to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don't care what you say, this movie is filled with great Arnie one liners and rocks come Christmas season. Or maybe this was the only film Suncoast Video would let us play on Christmas when I worked there.

Fun fact!: After all of the ending credits, there is a short film about what happened that Christmas night for the family.

4. Scrooged

In the tradition of me loving Bill Murray, this is reason number 72 on why I love Mr. Murray. This modern day telling of mean ole' Scrooge casted the perfect rat pack of the 1980's, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, the guy that looks like Benicio Del Toro, and of course, Bill Murray.
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the latest collaboration between Director Tim Burton and Actor Johnny Depp. After seeing this blood soaked and delightfully demented musical, I had one question continuously racing through my head. What could possibly be left for the team of Burton-Depp? How can they top or follow a film with such large amounts of blood, repulsively great characters, and macabre musical numbers?

The film begins with Sweeney Todd returning back to London many years after being wrongfully imprisoned. The years have not been kind to Mr. Todd, with his lifeless complexion and long black and white hair that is styled up and out not down he resembles Frankenstein’s younger brother. The desire for revenge and the hate that currently resides in him has removed the humanity and warmth from his heart. Mr. Todd wants everyone to suffer for his pain, but especially the corrupt Judge Turpin and his faithful assistant Beadle Bamford.

Judge Turpin is played by Alan “the bad guy from Die Hard” Rickman. Mr. Rickman has a had solid career but no matter what he does he will always be best known for playing the cold blooded Hans Gruber. While Turpin isn’t as rememberable as Gruber, he is still an adequate villain. Rickman’s Turpin is especially vile when he is expressing his love for Mr. Todd’s estranged daughter, Johanna, who Judge Turpin keeps locked in one of his rooms, often spying on her through a hole in the door. Soon after Sweeney returns he meets Mrs. Lovett, who informs Sweeney that the Judge drove his beloved wife insane and imprisoned his daughter. After hearing this, Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett devise a plan for revenge where Sweeney kills his customers and Mrs. Lovett disposes of the bodies by turning them into delicious meat pies.
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As a director Judd Apatow is a perfect two for two. He is the director behind the very raunchy and very funny films The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. However, as a producer Mr. Apatow has a mixed record. Mr. Apatow’s past producing projects range from commercially and critically successful films such as Talladega Nights: The Ballard of Ricky Bobby and Superbad to unfunny films that had a poor box office run including Kicking and Screaming and Celtic Pride. Where does Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the latest film produced by Judd, rank? Squarely in the middle of pack. While Walk Hard is unable to keep up with the consistent laughs of Superbad and Talledega Nights, it is certainly a funnier and more entertaining film than the film’s currently found in Judd’s comedic closest.

The film is a parody of the music bio films that have become very successful lately. The great John C. Reilly who almost always plays a supporting character stars in the title role as the utterly clueless and fictional music legend, Dewey Cox. You can tell Mr. Reilly revels being in the spotlight for once, playing Dewey as a cross between Johnny Cash and Roger Rabbit. Mr. Cox’s showy and necessarily hokey performance makes Dewey Cox one of the great lovable idiot’s in recent silver screen history. The role also allows Mr. Reilly to again showcase his singing talent. John adequately adjusts his voice to the pitch of the many time periods that Dewy goes through. Jenna Fischer plays Dewey’s on again off again love, Darlene Madison. Ms. Fischer’s tongue in cheek performance as Darlene serves as competent counterpart to John C. Reilly’s hysterically exaggerated Dewey Cox. No matter how ridiculous a scene may get Ms. Fischer is always game. The rest of the cast, which is made up of comedic veterans like Tim Meadows and Chris Parnell, is able to successfully keep up with the great performances by the film’s leads.
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a lot like its predecessor. Same theme, same plot and basically the same ending. But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I enjoyed the first National Treasure movie so I was intrigued to see the sequel and would have to say that it wasn't a let down.

When you see this movie, keep in mind that it's a Disney movie. Now, I'm not saying that Disney movies are bad. I guess I am trying to say that Disney is to movies as Walmart is to music. There's not a whole lot of edge and everything has been a little dulled down. So, with that in mind, I really enjoyed sitting back and looking for some treasure. A city of gold, to be exact.

The movie was full of clever puzzles and codes that led to unsuspecting outcomes and twists. Much like the first movie, Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) has to beat the bad guys to the treasure. This time, the lead bad guy is played by acting veteran Ed Harris who seems to have the villian part down pretty good.

This movie definitely wasn't incredible and I'm not aching to see it anytime soon, but it definitely was enjoyable and possibly even one to own on DVD when the time comes. Especially if it's loaded with special features. (I'm a special features nut and you should be too).

If you have some time on your hands and want to see a movie thats fun to watch, then go see National Treasure.

Finally.

After a few years of talking to the hand, Peter Jackson (the only guy who seems to get CGI right) and New Line have finally kissed and made up. They will now join forces to produce not one, but two Hobbit films. They will team up with MGM Studios to make this super geeks dream come true.

Said Peter Jackson, “I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world. We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth. I also want to thank Harry Sloan and our new friends at MGM for helping us find the common ground necessary to continue that journey.”

The two “Hobbit” films – “The Hobbit” and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of “The Hobbit” release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this for some time now. I'LL PROBABLY EVEN DRESS UP. Sadly, It's a few years away. Try not to get yourself killed.

And still no official word if Sir Ian Homs will be playing the title role. We will let you know as soon as we know. If you could choose, who would play Bilbo?

So... all of the following people had cameos in Walk Hard (except for Judd Apatow). BUT, this is only 4 of the many cameos. Anyway, we will have our review up on Friday, when the film hits theaters. There is much to be said about this movie so come back with your reading glasses in hand (or, on your face).

Go see Walk Hard on Friday!