Movie Review: The Lego Movie (PG – 100 minutes)

If I had an unlimited income with disposable money, I would spend it on all kinds of nonsensical things.  I would definitely get one of those chameleonic paint jobs on my car so that it shifted from purple to green.  I would have a fountain in my living room (with goldfish in it).  I would have a pet Komodo Dragon (that's a terrible idea - they're poisonous!).  I would also have an entire room devoted to Legos.  Legos are one of the first toys I remember my brothers and I playing with as a child.  When I was young (crap, when did I get old enough to start sentences like that?), the sets were large, and you could build what they suggested, but you could also build many other things by combining multiple sets.  You can still do that with today’s sets, but they are far more expensive and detailed.  The franchise sets (Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Lord of The Rings, etc) function almost more like models.  This movie beautifully shows how both types of Lego play (totally random and super detail specific) can work together.

The story of this movie is fairly simple, but it’s beautifully put together.  Emmet is a very regular Lego Minifigure construction worker, he's so regular that there is almost nothing memorable about him.  He’s really happy with his life in Bricktown, where every day has instructions laid out for all the citizens, and yes, they use Lego instruction manuals.  They listen to an approved song on a loop, “Everything is Awesome!” which will absolutely get stuck in your head for hours.  They get home after their approved work every night to watch their approved favorite sitcom, “Where are my Pants?”.  President Business has ensured that the instructions are very clear, that everyone sticks to them, and has announced that he has an upcoming “Taco Tuesday” to reward the citizens. 

After work one night at the construction site, Emmet meets Wyldstyle, a beautiful girl looking for something, which of course Emmet accidentally finds.  It’s the “piece of resistance” (hilarious), and it has been foretold that a Masterbuilder would find it and use it to help stop Lord Business (it’s the same guy as President business, using an equally terrible disguise to Emperor Palpatine) before he uses a horrible weapon to ensure that everything stays organized exactly as it is for all time. Wyldstyle takes Emmet to meet a wizard, and other MasterBuilders.  She shows him that there are more places than just Bricktown, and that everyone is depending on him to save them.  Emmet then has to realize the potential within himself to become the hero everyone else expects him to be.

The movie looks like is it stop-motion Legos, but is actually carefully crafted CGI.  It has plenty to keep kids entertained, but even more impressive – it has enough jokes and action to keep adults nostalgic and happy.  

• Chris Pratt plays Emmet, and is absolutely perfect in conveying Emmet’s complete and total enthusiasm for life at almost every situation.  He is also great at conveying the sadness when Emmet realizes that no one thinks of him twice, because he’s not memorable.  He doesn’t let this hold him down, and struggles to find a way to bring the chaos and the order together in a way that will save everyone.  Sure you can build anything you want, but if you can't work together as a team, then nothing you build work work together - bam! Moral!

• Elizabeth Banks plays Wyldstyle, a kick-ass Masterbuilder heroine who has high expectations for Emmet.  She’s funny and spunky, and that hair is pretty awesome.  She does a standard hair flip when Emmet first sees her, and her whole hair moves from side to side, because it's Lego.

• Morgan Freeman plays Vitruvius, the wizard Masterbuilder, who spends most of the movie blind.  Honestly, it seems that Freeman got the chance to do a send-up of the typical Morgan Freeman-type   mentor characters, and it’s hilarious.

• Alison Brie plays UniKitty – a unicorn/kitten hybrid Masterbuilder who is all about clouds, and happy, and sparkles, and sweet things, until she’s pushed too far and snaps.  She is virtually the same as Annie from Community, so great casting there.

• Charlie Day plays Benny, the nineteen-eighty something Astronaut Masterbuilder who is happy to join the quest, and even more excited about building spaceships.  I’m pretty sure I had exactly that astronaut minifigure, because I remember that little emblem on his chest rubbing off in exactly the same way it is pictured in this movie.

• Will Arnett plays Batman – a Masterbuilder who builds only in black or very, very dark gray.  He’s also Wyldstyle’s boyfriend, so that causes some friction, mainly because he is clearly more into himself than her, but also because she and Emmet start getting closer.  He has some amazing one-liners in this movie that really made me laugh out loud – mainly about darkness.  And that bit about throwing multiple batarangs to hit a button, then stating that he hit it on the first try is hilarious even though it was in the commercials. 

• Nick Offerman plays Metal Beard, a Masterbuilder who is an impressive conglomeration of pirate, robot, and shark (one of his arms is a shark).  He’s all about warning everyone about the dangerousness of the quest they are about to undertake, but is of course there when they need him.

• Liam Neeson gets to have the most fun as Bad Cop – he’s one of those Lego minifigures that has the double face, so you can turn the head around and get another facial expression.   He’s both Good Cop and Bad Cop, and even Bad Cop’s father Pa Cop.  He seems to be the one having the most fun.

• Will Ferrell plays President Business/Lord Business, and “the Man Upstairs”.  He’s perfectly menacing in his desire to keep everything and everyone completely orderly at all times.  I especially loved the hall of relics, and when the terrible weapon – the Kragle – is revealed, well, it’s hilarious.  He’s even better as “the Man Upstairs”, which really provides the movie it’s heart.

• Those are the main players, but there are tons of others that are essentially cameos, and big time kudos to you if you can pick out everyone.  Will Forte plays Abraham Lincoln, Dave Franco plays Wally, Jonah Hill spectacularly plays Green Lantern, much to the annoyance of Channing Tatum’s Superman, Cobie Smulders plays Wonder Woman, Shaquille O’Neal plays the Lego version of himself, Jorma Taccone plays Shakespeare, and Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Willams play their respective Star Wars characters. 

I cannot stress enough how much you should see this – especially if you have any nostalgic love for Legos at all.  It’s non-stop fun, it has some touching moments, and some really great brick-building action.

9 out of 10 – So much greatness!  Gained points for Lando being the intergalactic smooth operator we all know he is, gained points for Bad Cop recovering from a wiping, gained points for the bickering between Gandalf and Dumbledore – seriously, what more can you ask for than that?  A Duplo cameo?  Okay, you got that too.  Giant points for the Michaelangelo/Michelangelo moment.

Bonus Video 1:  Billy Dee as Lando on Robot Chicken, still struggling with his deal.  

Bonus Video 2:  Pratt improvising in a Parks And Rec outtake – if you haven’t been watching this show – get caught up now, before Guardians of the Galaxy comes out this fall and he becomes leading man material, as opposed to only the funny sidekick.

Bonus Video 3: Cast interviews:

Movie Review: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (PG13 – 105 minutes)

Up to this point, there have been four Jack Ryan movies.  Jack Ryan is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy.  He was in the Marines, and was medically retired after a helicopter crash.  He married Cathy Mueller (a surgeon), and they have 4 children.  He was recruited to the CIA, and taught at the U.S. Naval Academy.   In the books, he becomes the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, and even President.  He’s a pretty impressive guy, second only to Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt - who of course is the most impressive fictional character - just ask him.

  

The first movie featuring the character was 1990's The Hunt for the Red October, with Alec Baldwin playing Jack while trying to analyze the actions of a Soviet sub commander, played by Sean Connery.

The second movie was 1992's Patriot Games, in which Harrison Ford played Jack Ryan, and he battles the IRA after rescuing the British Royal family.  

The third movie was 1994's Clear and Present Danger, in which Harrison Ford plays Jack again while battling bureaucracy and south American Drug cartels.  If you think about how Ryan became president in the books, then you can almost work Air Force One in as an unofficial Jack Ryan movie.  How about that?!

The fourth was 2002's The Sum of All Fears dealing with a nuclear explosion on American soil, and this time Jack was played by Ben Affleck.   

I read one of the novels, and struggled to get through it, but I did see all the movies except for the Sum of All Fears, and I enjoyed them.  They are smart action thrillers, and certainly entertaining.  I would say this newest one fits that description perfectly.

This movie starts with a much younger Jack Ryan, we first encounter him at school in England when the September 11^th attacks happen.  He joins the marines, and gets shot down in a helicopter.  He then spends many months in rehab where he meets and falls for Cathy, his therapist - who is in school to become a surgeon.  He is recruited by a man named Harper to the CIA - because Harper recognized how smart Ryan was - to work as a plant on Wall Street and look for terrorist plot through shady finances.  He finds some questionable items in a Russian account belonging to Victor Cherevin.  Harper then sends Ryan to Russia to dig a little deeper.  Jack then determines that Cherevin intends to (I will try to explain it, but it was a little confusing) cause a terrorist attack just before doing something to the stock market (buying? Selling?) which will cause a huge market crash, and topple the economic stability of most of the world, but of the U.S. in particular.

The movie is paced well, and stays interesting, even though it does have some slow parts.  Clearly I didn’t completely understand the villain’s plans – stock market stuff makes me tune out a little.  This is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who once again seems to be adding more to his list of awesome things that he has done.  He did the first Thor movie, which was amazing, and his version of Much Ado About Nothing was fantastic, and his version of Hamlet is epic.  If you are going to see Shakespeare, see the Branagh version.  

For Jack Ryan, he applies his skillful intrigue direction with his growing action-directing skill.  The cast is pretty much exactly what you would expect for a movie like this.

• Chris Pine plays Jack Ryan, and while this version of Jack seems very similar to the new version of Captain Kirk, he’s just fine in this movie.  He does a good job of portraying the analyst side of Jack, and the apprehension when Jack is suddenly made an active agent instead of just an analyst.  It’s something I remember Alec Baldwin also doing in Red October.  Pine is definitely capable, and this could turn into another franchise for him.

• Keira Knightly, who I haven’t seen in a while, plays the young Cathy, who Jack first meets as a therapist while he is rehabbing from his accident.  She becomes a bit suspicious of all the time Jack is spending doing shady things at the office.  When he abruptly has to go to Russia, she decides to go with him.  This means that she suddenly has to participate in a sting operation.  Knightly is just fine as well, her American accent holds up for the movie.  I am not sure I buy the whole “I just came to surprise my husband in Moscow, and I just found out he’s a CIA agent, so of course now I will participate in a highly elaborate plot to entrap a high-ranking powerful Russian businessman” plot point, but hey, whatever.

• Kevin Costner continues to be suddenly very busy by playing Thomas Harper, who recruits Jack and goes with him to Moscow.  He actually is one of the best parts of this movie, and I am happy to see him back in non-baseball movies. And I'm also happy to see him not telling Superman not to save people, and being whisked away by a tornado, when Superman could have easily saved him without anyone noticing.  

• Kenneth Branagh also plays Viktor Cherevin in addition to directing the movie and is fantastic.  He does a lot of non-verbal acting just using his eyes and expressions.  Probably because he was too busy directing to memorize a lot of lines.  He is properly menacing, and at no point do you believe that Cherevin is not the villain.

• Nonso Anozie plays the driver who picks up Ryan from the airport in Moscow.  His plot twist was ruined in all the commercials, but I won’t mention it here just in case you didn’t see any of them.  You remember him from being locked in his own vault on Game of Thrones, and faking an American accent on Dracula on NBC.

• Colm Feore plays Ryan’s Wall Street boss, who I kept expecting more from, but no – he’s just the very regular Wall Street boss.

I found this movie entertaining, but I did feel like the plot was a little convoluted.  However, I suppose that could be the fault of the book.   There seemed to be a lot of red herrings – in that I kept thinking, “Oh! This person is really suspicious!  I bet they’re involved!”  and then they were not.  In either case, I liked it – but I didn’t love it.

7 out of 10.  Gained points for Jack being smarter than everyone around him, and Harper asking him to dumb things down for him.  Lost points for Cathy immediately being okay with joining in with espionage.  Gained points for Mikhail Baryshnikov playing the big-time Russian that Cherevin answers to.  Lost points for the the sleeper cell – that’s a terrifying idea, but I suppose that’s the point.

Bonus Video 1:  My favorite Kenneth Branagh movie, well second favorite after Thor.  Dead Again – it’s amazing, check it out if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Bonus Video 2:  The Antoine Fuqua King Arthur, the only thing with Keira Knightly besides Bend it Like Beckham that I really liked (I liked it, but it might not be good).  Bonus, it has both cool Rays in it - Stevenson and Winstone, plus Mads Mikkelson, and Joel Edgerton.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews:

Movie Review: I, Frankenstein (PG13 – 92 minutes)

Here’s what you know about Kevin Grevioux, he’s the large man with the really deep voice from the Underworld movies – the second in command Lycan, Raze – who when he talked you thought, “that can’t be his real voice”, but then you saw him on Face Off last season and realized it was.  You’ve probably also seen him in various movies and TV shows as various monsters and creatures and big dudes (Men in Black 2, Charmed, Angel, etc.).  

Here’s what you don’t know about Kevin Grevioux:  he is from Minneapolis, he has a degree in Microbiology from Howard University and went to graduate school to work towards a masters in Genetic Engineering.  In school, he also took some screenwriting and cinematography classes.  This led him to move to L.A. and work towards a film career.  In 1994, he worked as an extra on Stargate and met Len Wiseman, who was a prop assistant.  They became friends, and have worked together since.  In 2003 they released the first Underworld.  Grevioux wrote and came up with the idea for the story, which he based loosely on Romeo and Juliet, and on his own experiences with interracial dating.  He also brought in his microbiology knowledge to explain both Vampires and Werewolves using viruses.  He played Raze in both Underworld, and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

He has continued writing, and wrote a graphic novel based on the continuing experiences of Frankenstein’s monster, which he then used to help write and produce as a movie directed by Stuart Beattie.

This movie finds Frankenstein’s creature wandering after killing Frankenstein’s wife, and watching Frankenstein himself die while pursuing him.  

He gets attacked by demons, and destroys them, just before being rescued by Gargoyles – yes, those stone drainage things from castles.  They are hanging out in a massive cathedral and being generally morose about everything.  He learns that the Gargoyles have been tasked by heaven and the archangels to battle demons to protect humanity.  They want the creature, who the Gargoyle queen names Adam, to side with them, but he’s not interested in taking sides. 

As the years (hundreds, apparently) pass, he begins hunting demons, looking for the demon prince who is after him.  He’s doing well until ‘descending’ a demon (you don’t kill them, you descend them) in front of a human, which upsets the gargoyles – humans aren’t supposed to know!  The gargoyles bring him back to their cathedral to chain him up and lecture him. 

Unfortunately for them, the demons seemed to be based in a palatial estate like two miles from their cathedral – now, either they know that and they are there to keep an eye on them, or it’s a huge coincidence.  In either case, a huge conflict between the two sides develops as the demon prince hunts for either the monster or the journal of Frankenstein to re-animate dead bodies.  Because of course, he wants to allow his demon hordes to possess bodies, but they can only possess bodies with no souls, and of course, only something dead has no soul, and you can’t possess a dead body – unless of course, you can recreate Frankenstein’s work.  Bam – problem solved.

Stuart Beattie knows about big time CGI action movies, having written the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Collateral, 30 Days of Night, and G.I. Joe.  However, this is only the second time he has directed a movie.  He does a decent job, this is pretty much a standard January dump action movie, but if you know that going in, you’ll be pleased with the result.

• Aaron Eckhart and his ridiculously sculpted body (when did that happen?) plays the monster.  Aside from a few scars on the face, he’s lacking all the other traditional Frankenstein affects – like the neck bolts, and big shoes, and green skin.  He’s a capable action hero, which surprised me, and he does just fine in this.  He’s very wooden, but that is exactly what is required. 

• Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck plays the doctor who is accidentally working for the demon prince.  She’s busy working on re-animating a dead rat – seriously – when she is handed Frankenstein’s journal and is told to incorporate his work.  She’s capable as well, and while the romantic aspect between her and the creature is hinted at, but not developed, they both play it subtle, which works.

• Miranda Otto from the Lord of the Rings movies (“I am no Man!”), plays the Gargoyle queen.  She’s fiercely devoted to her clan, humanity, and their cause.  She wants to find the redemption in Adam, but she’s also realistic about whether or not that is possible.  Her costuming was pretty fancy, and I never got tired of the effect of the gargoyles turning back into humans.

• Speaking of which, Jai Courtney (last seen in A Good Day To Die Hard, and Jack Reacher) plays Gideon, the number 2 gargoyle who at no point trusts the creature, and pretty much wants to kill him from the get go.  Courtney has a future in action movies, to be sure, and this just seems to be another step on the path.

• Bill Nighy plays Naberius, the demon prince masquerading as a businessman with an interest in re-animating dead things.  Seriously, at no point is the doctor suspicious of this guy?  Nighy chews the hell out of all the scenery, and is basically Victor from the Underworld movies, just more demon, less vampire.

• Aden Young very briefly plays Dr. Frankenstein, just until he follows the creature out onto the ice and freezes to death.

• And just for fun, Kevin Grevioux does show up in this movie to play Dekar, Naberius’s number one henchman.  He’s large and demony, and while this movie story strays slightly from his graphic novel story, he did help write and produce this, so it certainly makes sense for him to show up as a demon.

Again, it’s not great, but it’s certainly entertaining.  I loved the effect of the gargoyles going back and forth from stone to human, and the action was pretty good.  It’s a pretty typical January action movie, and if you know that going in, you won’t be disappointed.  I will say that it missed some opportunities for humor here and there.  The really good terrible movies have a sense of fun about them, and have no issue making fun of themselves.  This takes itself a little too seriously, but in that way, it has a similar tone to the Underworld franchise, which also took itself too seriously.  Hey, at least it’s better than Season of the Witch.

7 out of 10:  Gained points for the gargoyles, but lost points for how few of them remained, and they just kept losing members – how do you make more gargoyle warriors?  Gained points for Nighy as a demon prince, but lost points for re-animating that dead rat – ick.

Bonus Video 1:  Battle Los Angeles – Eckhart was also good in this movie, and hey!  NeYo makes it all the way to the end!

Bonus Video 2: Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters from last January, still one of my favorites from last year!  A perfect example of a movie not taking itself too seriously.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast interviews

Movie Review: Philomena (PG13 – 98 minutes)

Dame Judi Dench is very talented, that goes without saying.  I’m not sure I’ve ever really seen her break out of her box, except in those old BBC comedies that are occasionally rerun on PBS.  

Philomena is a movie that succeeds because of her, she carries the entire thing.  It is another Awards-season movie that was better than I expected.  Again, a very simple story, based on true events.  

The movie tells the story of Philomena.  As a young girl in Ireland in the 50s, she meets a charming young man at a carnival, and gives in to some carnal desires.  This results in a pregnancy, and her being given over to some nuns to live, give birth, and raise the child.  She makes the best of this unhappy situation until the child turned 5, then he is taken from her and given to an American couple.  45 years later, on what would have been his 50^th birthday, Philomena decides to ask a journalist to help her track down her son.  The journey is rewarding, disappointing, and devastating, but it’s Dench’s performance as it goes on that makes it watchable and engaging. 

Philomena is directed by Stephen Frears, who had also done The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents, High Fidelity, Mary Reilly, and Dangerous Liasons.  He does a good job with this movie, but again, it requires almost nothing from him aside from letting the actors quietly work each scene.

I personally first remember encountering Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love, then as M in the Bond movies.  She is very much a tough broad, and lightens that persona up a bit in this role to bring a maternal desperation to Philomena.  Her enjoyment at experiencing the United States for the first time is sweet, and her determination to find out what happened to her son, no matter how painful the result, is wonderful.

Steve Coogan, who co-wrote this movie, plays the journalist that assist’s Philomena in her quest.  He is recently sacked from his government position and seems to have lost faith in himself and the world around him.  Something in Philomena’s story pulls him in, and reinvigorates his enthusiasm for telling stories. 

In reality, that’s about it cast wise.  There are, of course, other actors who play the nuns, Coogan’s boss (Lady Stark), and the people that they encounter on their trip, but really, the heart and soul of this movie is Coogan and Dench, and their trip together.

The story is upsetting, and while the movie has a good end, it doesn’t really have a happy ending.  I found it interesting, but it is slow, and I wouldn’t  have ever seen it if it hadn’t been nominated.  At least the real Philomena gets to have everyone know her story.

6 out of 10:  Gained points for Phil harassing the Mexican cook in the hotel, or maybe charming him?  Lost points for those nuns – man, they were evil. 

Bonus Video 1:  Chocolat – Dench is good in this, but so is everyone.  If you haven’t seen it in a while – check it out.  One of the few times I will say that the movie is better than the book.

Bonus Video 2:  Shakespeare in Love – Dench was nominated for a best supporting Oscar for this movie in which she had about 15 minutes worth of scenes.  Impressive.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews

Movie Review: Nebraska (R – 115 minutes)

I made a real effort this year to watch the majority of the Awards-Season darlings.  This, in particular, is probably a movie I would never have watched if it hadn’t received the nominations it did.  The marketing campaign didn’t make it look all that interesting, and the last Alexander Payne directed movie I saw was the Descendants, and while that was interesting – I would be just fine never seeing it again. 

I also saw Sideways, which he directed, and hated that movie.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into this – especially since it’s in black and white.

I was very surprised.  I really enjoyed this movie.  It’s exceptionally well done, and the black and white helps to demonstrate the beauty of the Great Plains in winter, as well as the bleakness and desperation of the landscape – which is somewhat reflected in Bruce Dern’s character. 

Woody Grant is an aging alcoholic who just received a magazine subscription sweepstakes offer in the mail.  He thinks he just won $1 million, but in order to collect it, he has to head from Billings, Montana to Lincoln Nebraska.  After much arguing with his wife and disbelief from his two sons, one of the sons, David, finally realizes he could use a change of scenery as well as some quality time with his father, so they head out on a road trip to Lincoln, stopping in his father’s hometown of Hawthorne on the way. 

It’s a very simple story, and the surprise for me was exactly how funny it is.  I expected it to be touching, and it is, but I was not expecting to laugh out loud as often as I did.  Payne is exceptional at character studies, and using the master work of Bruce Dern, this movie becomes a funny and touching character study.

• Bruce Dern delivers what I would consider the performance of a lifetime as Woody.  It’s a very understated and quiet performance, with a lot of the perfection in the non-verbals.  Whether or not Woody is beginning to suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s is not addressed, he’s simply a doddering old man, determined to get his prize so that he can buy a new truck and leave something to his sons.  I particularly love his looks when they visit the house he grew up in – again, not much dialogue, but a fantastic performance.
• 
• Will Forte surprises everyone with his performance as David.  Or maybe it’s not really a surprise that he’s this good in a drama, maybe it was inevitable.  I have always thought comedians are better at Drama than drama actors (dramadians?) are at comedy.  Forte is perfect in this as an exasperated son trying to reconnect with his father.  Also – his final encounter with his dad’s former friend is fantastic.

• June Squibb has been nominated for all kinds of awards for her performance as Woody’s wife, Kate.  I think everyone expected the nominations for Dern, and even for Forte, but she was – is – the surprise of this movie.  Kate is a bitch – honestly, there’s no other way to put it, but she loves her family, and loves her husband fiercely.  She has several truly hilarious moments, and was really irritatingly wonderful.

• Bob Odenkirk continues to expand his wheelhouse as well as audiences expectations of him with a wonderful performance as local newsman and other son Ross.  He and Forte play off each other well, and they get some truly fantastic scenes together.  In particular, the scene where they decide to ‘retrieve’ their father’s air compressor was equal parts sweet and hilarious.

• Stacy Keach plays Woody’s childhood friend Ed Pegram.   His performance is very good, because definitely by the end I wanted to slap him.  He, and others in the town, once finding out about Woody’s “fortune” suddenly find a lot of reasons that Woody owes them money.

• Rance Howard and Mary Louise Wilson play Woody’s brother and sister-in-law in Hawthorne where Woody and David stop, then Kate and Ross come down to spend a weekend in an impromptu family reunion.  The scenes in the house between all the Grant brothers are still (I mean that literally, there is almost no movement), and very entertaining.

Of all the Awards-Season movies I have watched this year, this was one of the ones I enjoyed the most.  It absolutely is a very actor-y, Oscar-y type film, but it goes beyond that to be funny and charming.  The cinematography is stunning, and is actually really elevated by the black and white (I never thought I would say that).  It’s still not a comedy – be ready for that, it does have many funny moments, but I would not call it a comedy.  The performances are brilliant, and the end is absolutely wonderful.  See it, it’s well worth it.

7 out of 10:  Gained points for Forte and Odenkirk and that air compressor, one of my favorite scenes.  Lost points for Kate being so blunt, but then gained points for Kate being so blunt… Gained points for the ending, and what David finally is able to give his Dad, and lost points for the two cousins and how mean they were.  “Two days from Billings!”

Bonus Video 1: Clerks – the other black and white movie I really liked.  “I’m not even supposed to be here today!”

Bonus Video 2:  The Burbs – A bizarrely hilarious Tom Hanks movie that features Bruce Dern.

Bonus Video 3:  Cast interviews: