Movie Night: Garfield: The Movie.

Review #689: Garfield: The Movie.

Cast
Bill Murray (Garfield), Breckin Meyer (Jon Arbuckle), Jennifer Love Hewitt (Dr. Liz Wilson), Stephen Tobolowsky (Happy Chapman), Nick Cannon (Louis), and Alan Cumming (Persnikitty) Directed by Peter Hewitt (#022 - Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and #287 - The Borrowers)

Review
A movie based off a long running comic strip? What could go wrong? And...nothing really goes wrong, but nothing goes right either.  Garfield the comic strip is a best a mild read better suited for a Sunday read when nothing good is on but you're out of books (someone who is out of books to read? What is this, 1995?) Turning it into a movie may not be the best use of resources, and the movie proves just that. The main reason that the movie falls short is that it doesn't have much to offer and manages to be just as breeze worthy like the comic. Murray is not a bad Garfield, but when your main voice actor is only in this because he thought the movie was written by a Coen brother and confused them with Joel Cohen, that's saying something beneath the surface. The rest of the characters are more or less forgettable, with Meyer and Hewitt's characters being more standard "lovey-dovy" cliche than actual full fledged people. Actually, their characterization is more 2-D than 3-D, so props for making them comic-like? And our villain? The only notable thing he does is that he intends to use a shock collar on Odie. I realize that sounds weird to list that, but other than that, he is standard stuff, though at least Tobolowsky tries his best to make him sound interesting. The movie could be better for younger audiences, though it wears itself out after a while. Overall, the movie isn't inherently terrible, it's just not anything special. It can't even qualify as a terrible movie, it just reigns as a middle of the road movie. I'd stick to the comic...or reading the parody web comic Garfield Minus Garfield.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: GoldenEye.

Review #173: GoldenEye.

Cast
Pierce Brosnan (James Bond), Sean Bean (Alec Trevelyan), Izabella Scorupco (Natalya Simonova), Famke Janssen (Xenia Onatopp), Joe Don Baker (Jack Wade), Judi Dench (M), Gottfried John (General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov), Robbie Coltrane (Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky), Alan Cumming (Boris Grishenko), Tchéky Karyo (Dmitri Mishkin), Desmond Llewelyn (Q), and Samantha Bond (Miss Moneypenny) Directed by Martin Campbell.

Review
In 1989, the last James Bond film, Licence to Kill had come and gone with Timothy Dalton also leaving the role. 6 years later with a new actor comes this film. This film shows that after 30 years, this film series could still live on. Brosnan is excellent, he has a bit of humor in him too make you care for the character and have a little fun with it as well. Bean, Dench, and Baker also do good jobs, as the action is good enough with a decent plot. This film is fresh enough to have a new set of legs to keep on going.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

RATING CHANGE: originally a seven, now an eight. Reason listed: None [7/16/2023]

Movie Night: X2.

Review #010: X2.

Cast
Patrick Stewart (Professor Charles Xavier), Hugh Jackman (Logan / Wolverine), Ian McKellen (Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto), Halle Berry (Ororo Munroe / Storm), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), James Marsden (Scott Summers / Cyclops), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Rebecca Romijn (Raven Darkholme / Mystique / Grace), Brian Cox (William Stryker), Alan Cumming (Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler), Bruce Davison (Senator Kelly), Aaron Stanford (John Allerdyce / Pyro), Shawn Ashmore (Bobby Drake / Ice Man), Kelly Hu (Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike), and Katie Stuart (Shadowcat) Directed by Bryan Singer (#008 - X-Men)

Review
This is the sequel to X-Men (already reviewed two reviews ago) and this might possibly be better then the 1st. It's a longer plot, which allows more depth and detail and it shows with a Plot of complications and heart. The cast does great and all, with good acting from Jackman and Stewart. While I don't approve of having Wolverine having to fight a technically evil version of him, it doesn't make the film have much effects. Anyway, with those things in the way, it's still a good movie, but is the third better? Or worse...?

Overall, I give it an 9 out of 10 stars.