Reel Corner

Movie Reviews

Now showing at a theater near you!

INCEPTION
Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe
Directed by Christopher Nolan
PG-13

Is it a dream? That was a question I asked myself in the first half hour of this film. This film is refreshing as it offers a very clever plot of technology dream invasion. It isn't a sequel, a story based on a comic book, or an adaptation from a foreign film and it doesn't have a formula that you can predict. This one actually makes you think. Leonardo DiCaprio should not only get nominated for this film, he should win this time.
He plays a scientist that has perfected a way to penetrate another person's dreams to influence their thoughts. Along the way he battles unresolved issues with his wife, an eager student of his method, and a multitude of ethical issues. Inception is a fast-paced action sci-fi and some of the time more confusing than necessary. This movie will challenge your mind and leave you with a question...is the last scene a dream or reality? (4 stars)

Eat Pray Love
Julia Roberts, James Franco, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins
Directed by Ryan Murphy
PG-13

Eat Pray Love, or as I call it, "Every Woman's Fantasy", is casted beautifully as Julia Roberts does Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir proud. There are a few diversions from the book, but by and large the movie follows Gilbert's journey to self-discovery with the same energy she exhibited in the book. While most of us only dream of escaping our mundane lives to travel to Italy, India and Bali, Ms. Gilbert did it. Of course, unlike most of us, she had support. Not only from her publisher, but also an advance on a possible book.
The film chronicles a year's real-life journey of Elizabeth Gilbert, a New York City writer, newly divorced and just out of another broken relationship, as she embraces the food, language and culture of Italy, the spiritual enlightenment in an ashram in India, and the romantic tropical land of Bali. Here's to women everywhere who are not afraid to seek and find their emotional balance. (3 stars)

The KIDS are ALL RIGHT
Annette Bening, Julianna Moore, Mark Ruffalo
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
R

This breakthrough movie has a very familiar plot. It's about a couple, Jules and Nic, together for 20 years, raising two teenagers, ready to face one child going off to college, and dealing with one partner's unfaithfulness. They feel distance growing between their children and between themselves. Nothing different from many movies over the years, right? Now make the couple lesbians and their children who were born by each mother with the same sperm donor. The children, now turning 18, want to know their "bio-dad" ...now you have a breakthrough story. This Sundance film will surely give Annette Bening an award; she brings incredible depth to Nic's character. Julianna Moore is good, but it is Mark Ruffalo who is a scene stealer - sexy, self-absorbed, street-smart restaurateur bio-dad who wants more than just to meet his biological children.
This movie is R rated for explicit sex scenes  (3 stars)

Dinner for Schmucks
Steve Carell, Paul Rudd
Directed by Jay Roach
PG-13

Loosely adapted from the French film the Dinner Game, Dinner for Schmucks is much more elaborate in scope. Dinner for Schmucks is about a group of executives that invite exceptional guests to dinner once a month. Unbeknownst to the guests, they are actually competing for an award...the biggest schmuck.
You can't help embracing the sweet, buffoon (Carell) rat taxidermist who illustrates his life with a hobby of stuffing dead rats, dressing them up and displaying them in window boxes. Everything from two rats romantically sipping a cheese milkshake to just about any activity humans participate in.
Cast Rudd and Carell together in just about anything and you have a winner. The movie has a cast of characters that display some of the most unusual hobbies and performances, but none compare to Carell's as he competes for the prize.
A very funny film. (3 stars)

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