morphricky Reviews

Disaster Movie (2008)

Missed opportunity on a massive scale

[1/10 · 4 March 2016]

I was looking forward to watching this because I love disaster movies and it would be so easy to make fun of them. With all the unrealistic survival situations, moron decisions by bad guys and the fact that there's very few disaster movies that would make you go "Wow!".

I haven't watched this movie for many years, but I still remember being hugely disappointed by it. Much like "Meet the Spartans", the jokes are not about what the movie is titled. Instead there's just poor celebrity imitations with bad jokes. I can't remember laughing even once. On the other hand I regularly get a lot of laughters out of bad disaster movies like "Atomic Twister". And I even think that one didn't intend to be funny at all, while this one did.

Meet the Spartans (2008)

Awful

[1/10 · 3 March 2016]

I haven't watched 300 prior to this and I don't think it was necessary either, with most of the jokes being about modern day celebrities, sex puns and poop. Did I say jokes? I suppose they were made to be funny, but the only way my lips moved was into a frown. In the first part of the movie there's a scene that sets the expectations for the rest of the movie. Leonidas is trying to survive in the wild when he meets a talking penguin that attacks him, poops on him and makes Leonidas lick ... Just no. The pooping is painful enough to remember.

The only thing that was funny was when they painted the abs on with color. Because that was one of the few jokes that had no modern day reference. The rest of the jokes feels like leftovers from a spoof about celebrities, there was no reason for them to be in the setting of 300.

The Hot Chick (2002)

My guilty pleasure

[7/10 · 23 February 2016]

I think Rob perfectly portrays the role of of a spoiled teenage girl and the clichés works in his favor. Mocking the stereotypes of how a spoiled girl acts allows him to overreact without it feeling over the top. I found the role of a teenage girl trapped in a mans body believable, unlike a lot of other movies where it's obvious that a person can't adapt to the role they are given. The jokes are plenty and the dorky friends of Jessica makes it easy to accept that they accept Rob as their long time friend. They just aren't very bright to begin with, so the plot seems plausible.

I do have some criticism though. You barely see anything of the bad guy that is trapped in the girls body. It's as if they put all their ideas into Rob being a girl that they forgot about the other part. The ending also gets very sentimental and serious towards the end, which is a complete shift from the jokes that makes fun of the clichés. The movie ends in a predictable way. Why not mock that also? You feel nothing for the ending as you're not taking any of the characters serious in the first place. Although what happens to the bad guy is funny.

She's the Man (2006)

Mega meh

[2/10 · 7 December 2015]

For a movie about a girl pretending to be a guy, there's obviously a big problem when that person looks and sounds nothing like a guy. It was hard to believe that people wouldn't figure it out sooner. Regularly through the movie she does awkward things that would blow her cover, but the guys always turn it into a joke so that they never figure it out. Because stopping nosebleeds with womens tampons is such a "dude" thing, right?

The movie is one cliché after another. You already know how the movie will end by the time the characters reveal what they want. Viola wants to win the game? You know she will. Viola wants the hot guy? You know they'll make up in the end despite that she lied to him. Olivia wants Violas Sebastian disguise as a boyfriend? The real Sebastian conveniently falls in love with her.

The movie isn't particularly funny either. I rarely watch comedies, so I was hoping for something to amuse me. The only thing that really had me chuckle was when the bald guy was talking to Violas disguise about hair-loss.

Barbie in Princess Power (2015 TV Movie)

Predictable for adults, cute for the youngest

[4/10 · 9 November 2015]

I couldn't bring myself to finish the whole movie, though normally I don't mind the harmless fun of these.

This movie feels like a fan-fiction that was written quickly and the animation reflects a lot on the overall feeling that this movie was never intended to be more than some harmless fun for an hour. While the characters do look like the toys, I found the bucket-fill colors to be very straining on the eyes at times.

Despite the title having "Barbie" in it, the main character is called Kara. She's a princess and one day gets kissed by a radioactive butterfly and gains superpowers. Then not much happens in terms of plot. Occasionally she rescues some people, but mostly it's flying through the skies with pop music playing. There seems to be no focus as to what the plot should be. Things just seems to happen so that Kara can react to it. We're introduced to a villain at the start of the movie, who does have a clear motive: He wants the kingdom instead of Karas family. After 10 minutes of screen-time, this character simply vanishes. After about 40 minutes of pop-music, flying and random rescue scenes, he is back again. Only to disappear again for some more scenes about the superpowers and harmless interactions with Kara and her friends. And then he returns a moment and then back to harmless.

It's not a horrendous movie, so I can see little girls liking it. I don't think I hate anything about the movie, I just don't feel it's as engaging story and character wise as Disneys "Tinkerbell" movies.

My Little Pony: My Little Pony: Escape from Catrina (1987) Season 2, Episode 14

I still like this today

[8/10 · 8 November 2015]

I watched this mostly as a child, but I still enjoy it. I have always liked the first episode much better, because of the danger the ponies faced. In this episode, half of it is them preparing a masquerade ball and playing. Still, this has some heartwarming moments which makes me fond of it.

Sundance is a character which brings out a lot of emotions for the episode. She starts off as clumsy, making some of the other ponies annoyed and they end up pushing her away. Seeing Megan comfort her and encourage her to try again, is a very sweet moment. In general, the episodes focuses a lot on characters doubting themselves and having others realize their true worth and what they are capable of. Usually you don't see these kinds of characters in focus, but rather those that are already full of confidence and brave.

It doesn't get a full 10, because the episode is kind of odd. There's a catlike woman who wants some potion so she can grow tall, shoot lightning from her eyes and create weather storms. And what will she do with this? I don't know. The character just seems to want to be powerful for the sake of it. It creates a weak villain. She also has a lizard humanoid who can transform himself into anything, who manages to never transform into anything useful for her plot to move forward. Which is rather odd, considering he can transform himself into a dragon and fly.

Thor (2011)

Pretty package with no character development

[2/10 · 18 August 2015]

I really should give this a 1 for the simple fact that I couldn't even force myself to watch it until the end. Character development is the one thing that needs to exist for me to enjoy a movie, and sadly, there's none.

• What I enjoyed -

Acting from most of the cast is great. Anthony Hopkins is fantastic as always. The scene where he scolds Thor is very powerful thanks to him.

The costumes and settings are nice. It's especially nice to see them keep the original design of Lokis outfit.

It had some good humor. The hospital scene felt spot on.

• What I didn't enjoy -

Natalie Portman is as pretty as her acting is wooden.

There is no character development at all. Thor changes from arrogant and bratty to a nobleman by watching lovingly into Natalie Portmans eyes. Wouldn't it make more sense if she taught him manners and made him change into a responsible man? Loki appears shy and awkward, his sudden change to deceptive and manipulative doesn't transition well. At times, it almost seems other characters gloat at him and it made me dislike the "good" characters. There's also a lot of other weird inconsistencies, such as if Odin wanted to protect Loki from the truth, why didn't he tell him not to go to Jutenheim? There's also no development to Thors friends or whoever they were. I think the sentence speaks for itself. I knew one of the characters names were Sif because I play a Marvel game where she is featured. I did not know it because she was developed as a great character.

The story is not interesting and made little sense. Odin casts out Thor for one mistake, sending him to earth where apparently Thor has no idea of earthly customs. Or well, he doesn't for 20 minutes to allow for some jokes, then he seems to know all about earth he needs to. At this point I stopped watching because I was so bored. There just wasn't anything gripping to keep me watching. Even the jokes became dull, who couldn't predict Natalie was going to hit Thor with her car again?

Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)

Clichés.... clichés everywhere!

[2/10 · 8 December 2012]

Just wow... I give it a two because the animation is still really nice. I would have given it 3 if it wasn't for Queen Latifah forcing every single line with no ounce of passion in it.

How did they manage to cram so many clichés into this movie? By the start, you could already tell how plenty of the things would end up. You knew Peaches would like Louis the best, you knew Shera would somehow end up with Diego again, you knew Peaches wouldn't end up with Ethan... why do I even bother listing it - there was not one single surprise in this movie! The clichés are not only predictable, but so painfully obvious that it feels like you are watching a completely different movie. Did I put in the wrong DVD? I'm pretty sure it didn't say "Teenage Drama 4-ever" on the cover.

The characters had zero development to their character. In the other movies, I felt plenty of the characters had great development. What happened here? Did the screenwriters just want to come up with something for the characters to do for the duration of the movie? Why not try to do an actual spin on the cliché "I insulted my father just before he went missing, the last thing he will remember is our argument, boo-hoo!" - instead you've watched the same conclusion in at least 5 other movies. Captain Gut (who I kept calling Davy Jones) is nothing but an clichéd evil character. No back-story, no development. Just an angry monkey.

The movie also left the impression that the writers were so out of ideas that they just decided to make references to other movies. And who knows, maybe they just picked a few scenes from other movies and animated them with their own characters, seeing as the characters has absolutely no development at all.

This is 2012, but it felt like watching a movie from 1992!

There's also huge inconsistencies in the movie, like how Manny can be sucked up a tornado and fall over a hundred meters, yet a single snowball can knock him unconscious. Davy Jones spends literally hours building a boat to ride the currents and when he gets it stolen, he just breaks a big block of ice from a wall and has some narwhals pushing it. Why didn't he do this in the beginning?

I did get a few chuckles from the only funny characters in the movie. The grandma, although a walking cliché, was a comic relief between the serious main cast. The Elephant Seal was also entertaining, just because he was so jolly all the time while being so stupid. I normally find the two possums annoying, but here I was literally begging them to come back on screen! In conclusion: The drama made me want to claw my ears off, the jokes are few and far between. The animation is nice, while the voice work sounds extremely forced.

The Fly (1986)

Excellent and puts many horror movies to shame!

[10/10 · 25 November 2012]

I find that the story, even though odd, flows excellently and makes sense in it's own weird way. The set up how Seth was going to turn into a monster was a smart move, as you can completely relate to his disappointment when he thinks Veronica is going back to Stathis. If I would have a minor complaint is that they didn't really involve any doctor to take a look at Seth, but it could be explained to the fact that Seth knew it was impossible to reverse the process.

The characters are so well made, I really feel like they are real people. Seth is quirky and lovable, I think Jeff Goldblum was an excellent choice and he also acts great when Seth changes personality. The fact that Seth admits to being scared and begging Veronica to help him is very touching, nowadays you'd never expect some macho-man lead to ever show this emotion. Veronica is really sweet, but I also like that she is confident and doesn't take BS from others. I love how Stathis is a jerk and generally unlikable in the beginning of the movie, but in the end his concern and love for Veronica makes him risk his own life to save her. He could also had chosen to just back out and weasel away when things got difficult, yet he sticks around for her and supports her emotionally without trying to make advances on her. How many people nowadays can you depend on would do this much with no obvious instant reward handed to them? It's a great character development on someone who isn't even the main character of the movie.

The special effects are great for its time. Seth really looks revolting and some effects are just nasty. The baboon scene is disgusting, but horror movies are supposed to be horrifying! If I want fairy dust and happy outcomes I'll watch a Disney movie instead. And this movie truly feels like a horror movie. It doesn't end with Disney magic sprinkled all over it and ugly people aren't the only ones dying. I loathe horror movies that ends happy. This one really puts them to shame. The ending is extremely unhappy and it has me in tears each time. This is how horror movies should be. When I first watched the movie, I expected Seth to be turned back into a human and kill the "evil" Stathis. That is how it would have ended if this movie was made in 2012 with pretty actors. So imagine my surprise! And any movie that affects me so much it has me crying really deserves a gold star, because I can be really cold and laugh hysterically when I watch characters die on screen.

2012 (I) (2009)

Makes all other disaster movies epic.

[1/10 · 25 November 2012]

It's not good when the first 20 minutes of a movie is so mind-numbingly boring that it's hard to stay motivated enough to finish another two hours. If you'd summon up this movie quickly it would be "The world is ending. Here are some people you don't care about. Watch them survive the impossible. Enjoy!" It's also an achievement to make a movie more unbearable than watching Gaby Hoffman in "Volcano." My biggest gripe with the movie is how incredibly flat the characters are. The little girl is more upset about losing her hat than the concern that all her friends might die. (and that's bad considering she isn't shedding a tear for that hat...) In fact, you wouldn't even be able to tell that these kids has any friends. I couldn't even figure out if the boy had a single friend in the movie. It's never brought up anyway, because the parents are too busy bickering. There's nothing likable about these characters, they are completely void of any personality and there is literally zero character development. Early in the movie we are shown that the girl wets her bed at night, but it seems to magically go away. Let's face it, it would take away the focus on the CGI by dealing with this personal issue, so during the disaster she doesn't wet herself a single night. Convenient.

The mother comes of as a really cold-hearted queen B, just watch the ending and see how grateful she is to her new boyfriend who has risked his life several times for her children and in general has been there for them every single day for what I assume is the past couple of months. Her boyfriend was really the only character who I liked in the movie. He was kind, risked his life for the kids and despite not liking her ex he still risked his life for him also. Yet he is treated like the most evil villain of all movies because he is the only obstacle for mommy and daddy getting together again. That's it really. And when he gets hurt, the mother and kids barely care. It made me feel disgusted!

The story is very forgettable and just doesn't seem very logical. I mean sure, since the characters are so void of any form of concern and care for others, then I can see why it would be realistic for the world leaders to not even attempt to help the citizens from this disaster. They have what... 2-3 years to prepare? Do they even attempt to get people moved to an area least likely to be hit? No. Do they try to reinforce places to allow people a chance? No. Do they let people know in advance of the disaster so they can mentally prepare for the unavoidable? No. Let's face it, that would force the characters to have emotions, personality and character development. And that would be a disaster for this movie! So all the world leaders in this movie are scumbags. And since there's such a big focus on these scumbags, you have yet another set of people you could care less about and is forced to like. Ironically, this makes "Big Impact" seem like a masterpiece in comparison. At least there the president was concerned for the citizens and made sure people were prepared if the world was going to end.

The only good thing about the movie is the CGI. Outstanding special effects, which unfortunately, is not enough to endure the torture of watching the rest of the movie.

Tangled (2010)

Finally Disney makes an enjoyable movie again!

[8/10 · 13 August 2012]

I am one of those people who dreaded every new Disney release after their successful hit in the 90's. It seemed all the movie had gone downhill. Boring and predictable. You just had to look at the cover to know how it ended.

This movie is a wonderful surprise. I was very reluctant to watch it, but my friends told me it was funny, so I gave it a chance. And I'm glad I did.

The characters have very good personalities and the animation is beautiful and might I even brag it looks flawless? The voices are excellently picked, even though I worried with the choice of Mandy Moore, she fits the character perfectly.

And the best part is that this movie is so funny! I was constantly laughing and giggling, especially thanks to that horse. Excellent animation and thanks to the fact the animals are silent made it even more funny. It felt almost like watching an old Donald Duck cartoon. (I find that talking animal sidekicks tend to draw attention away rather than provide good humor)

The movie has good morals, a good story and overall it was very easy to relate to Rapunzel. Fun, good pacing and I liked that the male character was more vain than the princess.

It only gets an eight because the singing voices were beautiful, but all the songs were forgettable. Big lack of melody made them pretty pointless. I wouldn't have mind if there weren't any songs.

My Little Pony Tales (1992)

Not a big hit for me.

[5/10 · 24 July 2012]

Having an all cast of teenage ponies obviously leads to a lot of annoying teenage drama with predictable plot stories about who loves who. Fortunately enough, there are episodes which doesn't focus on this at all. The Swedish dub has (too obviously) an all adult cast, so I can't speak for the original voices.

Some episodes are kind of good, I think the episode where Bon-Bon is acting like a drama-queen because she isn't getting attention had a good lesson on what is important when someone in the family is ill. Another good example is when Clover wins concert tickets which all the ponies want, but she can only choose one of her friends to go with her. These episodes all focus on relating to others.

An example of what is bad about this show is the episode where they are having one of the ponies dressing up as a princess. One of the other ponies moves the candy bowl away and tells her "A princess is supposed to be slim!" That sends a bad message to girls. Another bad thing is that most of the male characters are self-centered jerks. There's mainly three boys present in the series and only one of them is nice to the girls because he wants to. The other two are only nice because they want something from them and that is never addressed. Rather we see many of the girls try to win the affection of them by changing themselves to their liking.

Watchable, has some good morals, the characters had good personalities. I'm just not fond of the stereotypical teen drama. I prefer the older show which had elements of fantasy in it.

My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)

A disappointment, rarely watched it.

[4/10 · 24 July 2012]

I remember being extremely disappointed with this movie as a child. Comparing it to "Resque at Midnight Castle", one of the very first and obvious things I don't like is the character Baby Lickety-Split. This character is so insanely obnoxious and selfish, yet she is the big focus of this story. To summon up the character, all she does is think about herself and if she doesn't get her way, she will cry like a baby and pout. Much like "A Troll in Central Park", when the main character is such a brat, then the movie becomes a drag.

Thankfully there are some distractions, such as the witches making the evil "ooze" to cover the land in a concrete like goo that makes people angry when they come in contact with it and can't be cleansed. A lovely addition to an already obnoxious cast, isn't it? Sigh...

So some characters goes for a search to get rid of the goo, while Lickety Split is on her own adventure, because she is such a brat she runs away. So the focus shifts between three focuses. The search party, Lickety-Brat and the witches.

The movie I found had some very few enjoyable moments. Most of the movie is quite slow, the characters are mostly annoying and the songs weren't very spectacular either. Even Lickety-Brat gets her own song. (Ugh! And yes, the song is nothing but whining on her part....) In the first release in Sweden, they cut the scary parts out (as well as the spider Agh, who has a one second appearance because of bad editing), so when I watched the movie it didn't make sense to me at all why they suddenly shouted "We made it!" when there wasn't any apparent danger. It wasn't such a treat to watch these cut scenes when I watched the full movie, as the animation is so sloppy that they have the wrong characters in the scene! Not only that, but the characters changes in the scenes. Sometimes even Lickety-Brat is there though she's not supposed to. That's beyond bad... quality control anyone?

I watch this movie very rarely. I think last time I saw it was about five years ago and it doesn't really cross my mind to watch it again.

My Little Pony Tales (1992)

My favorite MLP episode.

[5/10 · 24 July 2012]

It's kinda strange how the darkest episode which features a lot of beasts, crumbling castles and dangers would be my favorite compared to the cuteness of the "MLP and Friends" episodes.

First of all, it needs to be mentioned that Tirac had the coolest voice ever in the Swedish dub from the eighties. So much more powerful and sinister than the, in comparison, measly American voice. On the other hand, they had a grown woman doing the voice for Megan in the dub, which always made me believe that Megan was an adult and not a child.

As for the episode, it starts out very nicely with the beautiful landscape of Dreamvalley. I always liked the animation style in this episode compared to "And friends", though the hair had less detail. The opening song is so pleasantly sung (especially in the original Swedish dub) and it's just such a nice feeling over all. Then quite fast, the episode takes a dark turn and they have to get to the Midnight Castle to rescue their friends.

I always liked this episode because it's not so dandy and perfect. There's a good mix of personalities among the ponies, some are brave, some are clumsy, some are scared, some like adventure... you can clearly tell the difference from the other, instead of everybody being equally good and brave. Especially Twilight who is scared, but has to be brave to help her friends. The personalities aren't as shallow as they were in "Friendship is Magic", these characters give a real heartwarming feeling. (Thankfully there's no character like Pinkie Pie in this episode)

I can't speak for the dialog in the original voice acting as I always watch this in Swedish, but I found it very good. It shows that there doesn't need to be excessive dialog to get a point across. Conversations are short and informative.

I also enjoyed all the songs featured in the episode. They don't feel like a commercial jingle composed in two minutes (ala "FIM") and are of good length as well.

Unfortunately this episode was re-dubbed for the DVD release and the new dubbing is unbearable because of a huge error. In the "Call upon the Seaponies" song, the translator has completely missed the point of the song and translated it to "Use your phone to call the sea-ponies." There are no phones underwater! How can someone do an error such as this? Did they use Google Translate?

I love this episode and I will continue watching it until the old cassette withers away and can no longer be played. I love this episode so much I can remember almost every line spoken. Very few movies and episodes do this for me.

My Little Pony (1986–1987)

Both good and bad episodes.

[7/10 · 24 July 2012]

After watching "My Little Pony: Friendship is magic" and being tortured by the excess dialog, it reminded me of why I love the old cartoons so much. I personally hate any movies and animation where the characters are talking excessively, it also feels like a bad excuse to fill the show with dialog rather than animation. As for the old episodes, the characters talk at a normal pace and at least in the Swedish dub from the eighties, they had normal sounding voices and rarely any excessively squeaky.

As for the actual show, some of the episodes have good morals and are fun to watch, such as the episode where the baby ponies learn to use their imagination. It also develops the characters very nicely as you get to know each pony and their dreams. I also enjoyed the episode where Sweet stuff is treasure hunting and they teach the morals about being happy about being yourself. Some episodes were not dubbed in the eighties and watching the new dub is unbearable as the translators sometimes completely misses what a sentence meant.

However, there are some episodes which are quite frankly dreadful. I find that the episodes which focuses on characters which are only there for the plot are usually the worst. I hate the episode with that unlucky creature. I did as a child as well and they gave him a very annoying voice in the Swedish dubbing. But compared to 20 minutes of "Friendship is Magic", I'd rather watch that episode.... twice! I also found some episodes a bit too dreary/violent, such as the ice cream wars. That episode is nothing but bickering, arguing, crying, whining... and then "Moral of the story" slapped on in the last two minutes of the episode. Similarly I feel about the episode with the evil queen and her daughter.

The show is enjoyable, though I tend to watch the same episodes. Because of the clumsiness of VHS, it was hard to watch certain episodes as they (as I assume was deliberately) crammed the boring episodes in the start of the cassette and the good episodes were last.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2020)

Excess dialog makes this unbearable

[2/10 · 23 July 2012]

I grew up with the original "My Little Pony" in the 80's and I still love the show. I was still a kid when I watched "Tales", but wasn't really much of a fan of it. I have friends that are "bronies" that have begged me to watch this show because they know how much I love the original. But I just can't like this. I have tried to watch many different episodes, but I run into the very same problem in each.

1. My biggest gripe with this show is the excessive use of dialog. Everything that can be said within 3 sentences regularly requires at least 10. The characters are very rarely quiet and they talk fast. Most of the time, I honestly stop paying attention. Half of the time, I can barely make out what they are saying. I have no problem listening to English speech, but I struggle whenever any character talk too fast.

2. There's no "show and tell". I can pick the perfect example. There's an episode where the ponies talk to a princess and she is explaining to them about some heroes. Instead of showing the heroes and what they do, while she speaks, all we see is her hair flowing in the wind. And if you don't pay attention to every thing she says, you'll have no clue what the other characters are saying to her. In the first generation episodes, there's a scene where a characters talks about a pony that lost her horseshoes. While he talks, we see an animation of it. That way, it didn't matter if you didn't pay attention to his words, because it was shown on screen.

3. One of my favorite things to watch in cartoons is characters expressing emotions. In the episode I watched, one of the ponies Twilight (something) got upset and was comforted by the new Spike. In this scene, she is hiding in a bush that occasionally moves and he just stands there, occasionally moving as he speaks. Not once in this scene do we see any interaction between these two or see her face so we can tell how she is feeling. Compared to when Megan comforts Sundance in "escape from Catrina", this feels like lazy animation. Just hide one character from view and pretend anything.

4. Compared to the original show, the animation just seems... dull. The characters rarely do much but talk to each other while their heads are bopping up and down. I don't like the way they are drawn, their oversize heads and eyes just make them not look much like horses. They remind me more of puppies and kittens. While the original in no way had realistic features, at least their eyes were relatively small to their heads.

5. The show teaches some awful manners. In one of the episodes, Pinkie Pie and her friends are visiting a hospital where there's newborn babies. Pinkie Pie decides to be selfish and sing a song to the newborns, despite the fact that they need rest and sleep. Even though the nurse tells Pinkie Pie, several times, to stop singing, she does it anyway anytime the nurse walks away. Why are we teaching children it's okay to be this rude? In "My little pony and friends", the mother ponies always taught the younger ponies to treat newborns with respect.

I can see how this show does appeal to people. It never gets deeply involved in anything, the humor is very shallow and loud (like some Japanese anime) and the focus just seems to be "happy all the time". A lot of the problems faced reminded me of "My Little Pony Tales" and the lessons learned were the same.

A Troll in Central Park (1994)

I'm a bored troll, a very bored troll....

[2/10 · 22 July 2012]

If it wasn't for Don Bluths outstanding animation and the good voice acting, this would be completely painful to watch. And that is being nice, since this movie is mind-numbingly boring and it seems to make very little sense. The moral of the story (you have to be brave to fulfill a dream) comes in way too late, by this point my mind had already melted from boredom.

There's no animation so beautiful I could watch an hour of things bouncing around and smiling. At least half an hour of this movie consists of just this and it's not like it's very spectacular to watch.

Plot? I couldn't find one. Things pretty much happen at random.

The characters aren't very likable either. Stanley comes off as annoying and too cowardly. Gus is a spoiled annoying brat who spends most of the movie arguing with people and shouting "Rosie!". Rosie is cute, but that's it. Gnorga was the only somewhat entertaining character, but she doesn't spend much time in front of the screen despite the fact that she is the villain.

There's also a big lack of humor, remember-able moments and inspiring dialog. It's like stuff just happens, the characters talk because they have to and... well, that's it.

What crowd was this movie aimed for? It's pointless and boring for anyone over five, but the movie is too scary towards the end for anyone at that age to enjoy.

It's hard to imagine this movie and "The Land Before Time" had the same directors. How is it even possible?

World Trade Center (2006)

Audio-book or movie?

[1/10 · 21 July 2012]

This movie obviously have good intentions when the actual survivors helped write this, but in the end, it left me unaffected and bored.

I actually had to stop the movie once and watch it a couple of days later. This is a movie right? It feels more like an audio-book since more than half of the movie takes place in darkness. You can barely make out the people on screen and I actually felt relieved in the scene where fire comes flying by the actors. Finally we can see something! Of course the fire dies out and the screen turns so dark I can see my own reflection. I have seen plenty of other movies and documentaries where people are trapped and it really doesn't need to be this dark.

The script is a complete disaster. When Jimeno is brought to the hospital and his wife talks to him... I actually felt bad for the actors. It was so cheesy and so predictable it made me cringe. In fact, most of the script in this movie is either incredibly cheesy or way over the top. I felt bad for McLoughlin having to listen to Jimeno while they are trapped, his voice becomes nails on a chalkboard. So as you can imagine: Having to listen to that grating voice while you can barely make out the characters or anything on the screen... ugh!

I feel bad writing this as I know the two wives helped write this, but I found both their characters annoying. And their relatives were as well, especially Jimenos relatives. They seemed to come from those comedies where the in-laws/relatives are obnoxious and pure horror to be around. One of Donnas children comes off as a spoiled brat with no manners and the rest of the children are fillers with no personality. Heck, even the wives themselves have no personality, they are just whining and crying that they are missing their husbands. When they are reunited with their husbands I felt nothing! The only character who seemed remotely like-able and I wanted to give a hug was the black woman at the hospital. And she was on the screen for tops 5 minutes. Maggie's character (who I honestly can't remember the name of) is apparently so distraught that her relatives gets her medication to prevent a miscarriage, but you never get the feeling of her being this distressed. Most of the time she just walks around with the same expression on her face, you can never tell what she is feeling. When they actually suggest to the character the medication she just seems like she would say "Okay, sure." with a shrug on the shoulders. But because of her constant devoid staring, I have no clue what the character was supposed to feel.

I feel this movie would have been much better if the movie had started with developing the families in their every day life, then have the disaster and them worried about their husbands. These random flashbacks while they are trapped makes it very hard to relate to anyone of them.

I'm sure the real people are a lot more interesting than portrayed in this movie and I felt more sorry for the people involved by reading about the survivors on Wikipedia than while watching this "audio-book" devoid of emotion.

The Brothers Lionheart (1977)

I never liked this as a child and not as an adult either.

[3/10 · 15 July 2012]

I kind of like the story, at least the beginning and the end. But all the stuff in between is something I've never enjoyed watching and found boring. I've never been a fan of war movies even in the medieval times.

I was apart of some after-school activities where they showed this movie in parts each time we were there. Unfortunately my worst memory is that I had to be removed from the room crying in panic because I was so afraid of the dragon Katla. Katla, when I watch the movie today, is so ugly and silly looking that I just snort while trying to hold back a laugh. The flapping of the fake looking wings is just too funny.

My biggest gripe with this movie is the acting. Skorpan is just devoid of emotion most of the time and I found him hard to relate to. It's also hard to feel sorry for him or happy with him since you can't really tell what he is feeling. Even when his brother tells him he is going to die Skorpan seems barely responsive. You'd think when your brother laying next to you dying because he's been burned by a dragon would evoke more than an "Oh noez" kind of response.

The Land Before Time (1988)

A very important movie in my childhood.

[10/10 · 15 July 2012]

Even at 26 years old I still cry at several of the scenes in this movie. I don't remember crying as a child, but I do remember I was so terrified of the T-Rex that I closed my eyes anytime it was on screen.

I think this movie is an excellent mix of sad and happy. It is balanced in such a way that even though the movie gets very depressing, there are many charming and funny moments. Even though I was terrified of the T- Rex as a child, it didn't keep me from watching the movie several times.

The artwork is beautiful, I love the scene where Littlefoot has just hatched and is hiding behind his mother because he is afraid of the new world. I remember liking it as a child as well, since the movie portrays a lot of emotion without word.

The fact that this movie is so emotional is what makes me love it so much. The characters are very easy to relate to and feel sorry for. Everyone has their own unique personality, especially Cera becomes interesting because she is so stubborn. The movie teaches that being stubborn and rude dosen't last, that being kind and humble earns you friendship.

I also like the movie because it deals with so many difficult issues, but in a way that is possible for a child to relate to. Especially the scene where Littlefoot has just lost his mother and feels that life is unfair.

I felt the movie was very important to my childhood, I had to witness some difficult things and I felt this movie was something I could relate to.

Wildflowers (1999)

Trouble sleeping? Watch this.

[1/10 · 15 July 2012]

Bland, boring teenage girl starts obsessing over and stalks a beautiful woman (Daryl Hannah) she sees dancing. Then we find out the girl might have a secret connection with this woman and returns a book that belongs to her. Geez, I wonder what could that connection be? I figured it out probably an hour before the movie finally revealed it. It's so obvious by the way they have set the environment so that this girl wouldn't miss anyone if she connected with this person.

Unfortunately when they finally start to meet regularly it isn't heartwarming or special at all, the woman is an emotional wreck who constantly relies on this teenager to look after her and comfort her. The conversations are long and not interesting, the shots of Daryl Hannah can change 5 times within 10 seconds (I thought something was wrong with the video quality!), making me wonder if she couldn't hold back a laugh or something, why else would they need to have so many different shots in such a short time? It also leaves the conversations choppy and it doesn't feel like the actors put much emotion into it as you get the feeling each sentence was done on different days.

I also feel they played the same acoustic guitar melody over, and over, and over... the same bland melody finally made me fall asleep as there was nothing to keep me awake anymore.

Up (2009)

So depressing and so boring.

[2/10 · 14 July 2012]

I give one star for the fantastic animation and voice-acting. This movie is indeed very beautiful to look at and the voices fit the characters.

Unfortunately, there's an overwhelmingly bad about this movie, hence the low score.

• Bad Advertising - This movie-poster and trailers give the impression that this is a lighthearted and fun movie. Colorful balloons, funny looking bird, bright lit sky. The back of the DVD even says it's a fun-filled adventure full of laughter. What we get is a very depressing, sad, boring, frightening and mean-spirited movie with the occasional attempt at a funny scene that lasts a second or two. The only thing that had me giggle was the bird and the scene where the old man imagines dropping the kid from the house.

• Lack of plot - I agree with other reviewers, it seems that they had a great idea and once they get to their destination this movie hits the drain. Instead of the goofy bird, we get dogs that can talk with collars (I thought they were creepy) and a maniac who wants to kill the main characters to capture the goofy bird. Was this at all in the advertisement or back of the DVD? Nope. And what's up with the adventurer and his age? He looks younger than Carl, but should be about 30 years older. And why wouldn't a collar that makes dogs talk and able to understand humans not be more interesting to show than that goofy bird? Heck, even a collar that makes dogs understand human emotions as well? Nope, only goofy birds are good enough for scientists.

• Depressing - The characters aren't likable (except the bird) and there's a lot of violence, sad moments, scary moments... I also thought it was very unneeded with the aggressive dogs. The moment where Kevin is caught in the net and taken away from her babies was also depressing. This whole movie is a huge downer. I don't mind depressing animated movies if they are done well. "The Land Before Time" is an excellent movie which faced many difficult things, but had enough humor and charm to balance it. This movie also started with killing off the funniest character, Ellie, by having her grow up into an old lady and die of cancer. Now that set me up in a bad mood from the very start.

This isn't a movie I would want to watch again. I could barely make it through the last 30 minutes of the movie. The ending was disappointing and predictable.

Cujo (1983)

The dog is too adorable to take seriously.

[4/10 · 11 July 2012]

While I appreciate all the effort that went into making the dog appear rabid and vicious, it's just too obvious that the dog is playing. It wags its tail in one shot and you can clearly tell when it's looking for a toy. If it wasn't for the excessive growling, it would be hard to believe this dog could harm a fly. The dog is simply too cute to imagine as a rabid dog.

I was also disappointed that they changed the ending. This is a horror movie - we don't need a happy ending! The real ending of the book was sad and tragic, also realistic considering the circumstances. If I want to see a happy ending I'll just watch a Disney movie!

Dumbo (1941)

Another Disney movie I found hard to like as a child.

[4/10 · 8 July 2012]

I think if I would describe this movie with one word it would be "depressing". It's hard to watch all these characters being so cruel to a little baby elephant who doesn't even have the voice to defend himself against it all. I disliked this movie as a child, because so much in this movie feels mean-spirited and upsetting. I remember thinking I was glad the movie was over, instead of actually being happy for the characters, since I was left with such a bad mood after all that had happened.

I also found the Pink Elephant Parade creepy and it really serves no point to the plot. As for the songs, I didn't really like them much. "Baby Mine" was the only one I truly liked.

The animation is great though.

Pocahontas (I) (1995)

The songs is the only good thing.

[3/10 · 8 July 2012]

The songs for this movie are great and are a welcome treat between the mind-numbingly boring plot and the, quite frankly, dull looking animation. I remember watching this in the cinema as a child and only enjoyed the swirling winds animation when Pocahontas sings "Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?", otherwise the animation lacks shading which makes everything appear flat.

For some reason, all the good characters just end up very bland and boring. And they have too much dialog for me to sit through, I'm certain more than 75% of this movie is just talking. Thankfully the sidekick animals don't have any words to speak, it was the only way I could even put up with them.

I much more enjoy the soundtrack rather than the actual movie, even the instrumental pieces are wonderful.