brenring Reviews

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

Not perfect but a lovely animated movie

[7/10 · 21 March 2011]

This seems to be a movie that people either enjoy or virulently hate. I am one of those who enjoyed the movie and I am mystified by the virulence directed against it. Yes, it was a little long and obvious at times but the animation was simply gorgeous, especially the cave sequence. One poster said the animation was "too good" and felt that animation should look more cartoony. I think the value of animation, even if it is "too good", is that you can do things with animation that you could not otherwise do. And as other posters have said, this movie is actually about something. It is about the importance of having a mother and father raise their children. Because of the title, some posters seem to have missed that the movie is about the importance of having fathers as well. Think of how the Martian fathers ended up in the movie. The movie also touches on the difficulties of raising children and on the dangers of the modern move towards "efficiency" and outsourcing tasks to machines. The movie seems aimed at kids with the sometimes overdone Gribble character but I think the movie is more interesting to older audiences. I saw it with my parents and we all enjoyed it. We are long-time science fiction fans and we loved the science fiction aspects and the lovely scenes of Mars. I am usually disappointed by Mars movies but I liked this Mars movie the best. It was like Avatar Meets Mars. It wasn't perfect but it was lovely.

The Gospel (2005)

This was what the Fighting Temptations should have been.

[8/10 · 24 October 2005]

The Gospel was a nice movie. It was what the Fighting Temptations should have been. Unlike the Fighting Temptations, this movie dealt with real situations and showed people going through real struggles. It showed people who were flawed and who were struggling with their faith but who persevered and grew. It was not a groundbreaking movie but there were surprises. Some of the characters went in different directions than I expected. The ending could have been made a little clearer. The director choose to end with flashes of scenes that you had to look at quickly before they went away. But it was a nice movie. The music was nice too, although I would have liked to have seen more variety in the songs they picked. Most of the songs came from only one composer.

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

If you loved the play, avoid the movie

[2/10 · 30 December 2004]

Do not go to this movie if you loved the play. The acting and singing is inferior to any production I have seen of Phantom of the Opera. Gerard Butler is too young for the role. He does not have the proper range, magnetism, or singing voice for this role. The powers that be chose to minimize the Phantom's disfigurement. In the movie, the Phantom's mask hid all signs of disfigurement; The rest of his face was completely smooth. This left me feeling like the Phantom had no disfigurement worth mentioning and that he chose to hide in the opera house because he was an arrogant and petulant psycho. Emmy Rossum as Christine seemed to be asleep during the whole movie. Perhaps the directors wanted her to appear overwhelmed. Her voice was more animated then she ever was. The only decent actor (of the three leads) was Patrick Wilson, who played Raoul. The music, however, is great and the staging is faithful to the play. If you are only a casual fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber, give the movie a try. Perhaps you won't mind the director's choices. If you loved the play, avoid the movie at all costs.