"That's wonderfully sensitive... especially from a man who wears such tight pants." "It forces all the blood to my heart."

Music and Lyrics, 2007. Three and a Half Stars.

I remember having no desire to see this movie when it came out in theatres. But I'd randomly found it on the TV guide one day, and decided to set up a recording for it on my DVR. Then finally one day I watched it.

This movie is surprisingly fun! Lots of great satire about the pop music biz. And the original music in this is pretty good! The movie opens with Hugh Grant's former band's video, which is hilarious, but also catchy!! All his "has-been" music is great, and the new pop diva that he's writing music for is so ridiculous, but also in a hilarious way.

Hugh Grant, who I'm usually not as charmed by as everyone else seems to me, was INCREDIBLY charming and handsome! Drew Barrymore is also sweet and adorable. They have a quirky kind of chemistry in this movie, which was shockingly likeable.

This is a very cute movie, totally turn it on one night if you're in the mood for something light and cheery!

"It's time to pay the piper. He's gonna reap what he sowed, and it sure ain't corn. Or wheat."

Eagle vs Shark, 2007. Two Stars.

I was sooooooooooooo disappointed in this movie! Firstly, I am a HUGE fan of Flight of the Conchords, which I should probably do a review about some time soon. Secondly and consequently, I love everything about Jemaine Clements. He's hysterical on FotC, and he's also an amazing musician. And he's sexy. AND he was the balls in Tongan Ninja, which could very well be one of my favorite movies and I should also review it sometime soon as well. I also love the episodes of FotC that Taika Waititi directed and wrote, they're one of the funniest/most bizarre ones!

While looking up info on the internet about these two guys one night, I stumbled upon an incredible (and stuff-heavy) website about this movie they did called Eagle vs Shark (I don't think this is the same website I'd found, but it's pretty close!). It looked kooky and adorable and fun, which are all things I dig. I'd looked at an old newspaper and found out that I just missed it at one of the local indie cinemas. Blast it! And it looked like it wasn't playing anywhere else near where I lived, and the DVD release date was uncertain. Double Blast!!

But, it finally came out on DVD, and I rented it with my friend Captain. So, this movie was advertised as like a quirky comedy about a weird couple of social outcasts. My kind of flick, right? Turns out a lot of it is really sad. Jemaine's character is really mean to his love interest, and turns out he has a little girl who lives with his family and he's pretty apathetic toward her. WHAT?! The whole thing with his brother Gordon (played by Taika) was pretty rad, and the dad's kind of funny, and Jemaine and Loren's characters are so cute in their painfully awkward way (well, sometimes for Jemaine's character). And the relationship between Loren's character and her brother is interesting because it's very precious.

But, I still can't get over all the weird mean stuff in this movie. This definitely wasn't the light-hearted romp that I was expecting. It was pretty darn heavy, in fact! I appreciate the movie for what it is, but I would have liked it a whole lot better if I'd been expecting something so heavy. The light-hearted PR misled me, and it ruined it for me.

Unrelated: I must also mention that I'm also crazy about Bret McKenzie, the second part of the duo that makes up Flight of the Conchords. Mostly for some of the reasons I like Jemaine, but also more specifically because he was some killer dance moves!!

"He's a killer, Daniel." "Then someone ought to have the decency to bring him to justice."

3:10 to Yuma, 2007. Three and a Half Stars.

I'm a fan of this movie! And I normally don't like Westerns. But I don't think this really counts as one. It's more of an actiony-thriller in my book.

The action's good, the characters are great, and I think the acting and story-telling is awesome. There's a lot of focus on character development, which I love in general, but it's particularly neat-o in this movie. Christian Bale is one of my fave actors, and he's fabulous in this. Plus Wash and That Crazy Guy is in it!

"Frank, this is Albert Einstein, the smartest man in the world." "How they hanging?"

I.Q., 1994. Three Stars.

I happened to catch a description of this movie on the TV guide, and it sounded so crazy and cute that I immediately set up a recording for it on my DVR!

Walter Matthau plays Albert Einstein, and he helps Tim Robbins, who plays a mechanic, win the affection of his niece, who is played by Meg Ryan, and who also is the object of Tim Robbins's love. How adorably random is that? VERY!

This indeed ended up being a charming story with a great cast. I see that it was released on Christmas Day, which seems about right for a movie like this. If you're not in the mood for a sugary-sweet historically-fakey-in-the-name-of-feelgood-romanticcomedyry, or if your bag is only depresso intellectual abstract flicks, then this movie will bore you. But check it out if you feel like watching something you don't have to be too emotionally invested in and want to see A Grumpy Old Man act like A Crazy Einstein. Plus Stephen Fry plays the snotty guy, which is always fun, and Tony Shalhoub is in it too, which is pretty rad!

FYI, I can't remember where I wrote down the quote from this movie that I wanted to use for the title of this review, so I just looked at the quotes on imdb.com and picked the most random-sounding one.

"I'm sorry. This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there."

Iron Man, 2008. Four stars.

That's right, FOUR STARS!!

I'd heard that the Iron Man costume and stuff was all CGI, which I thought was really stupid and would look bad and ruin the movie for me. But I decided to suck it up and see it in the cinema with some of my friends. And, the CGI didn't bother me a bit! I actually almost forgot all about it.

The writing was really well done, it was like a real movie rather than a summer blockbuster with pretty special effects. It caught me off-guard. And the acting is great. Everything about it grabbed my attention. Plus, S.H.I.E.L.D.! Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury. That's something to look forward to!

I'd not really followed any of the Iron Man comics, I'm only familiar with The Ultimates. But, from what little I previously knew about him, I could tell that Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark! He's magnificent!! I love that guy in movies.

Gwyneth Paltrow, who I think has the nicest name ever, was sooooooooooo cute in this movie.

And, Jon Favreau directed this? Way to go, dude!

"I bet it was that mouth that got you that nose."

Lucky Number Slevin, 2006. Three and a Half Stars.

This was really fun to watch! It's fast-paced with great dialog, and has an amazing star-studded cast. And I have to say, I actually wasn't expecting the ending. I loved it. Revenge kicks butt!

Yeah, so Lucy Liu is capable of playing cutesy, quirky characters. Who knew?? Way to round out your cv, girl! And Josh Hartnett: talk about charming and just plain CUTE. Much like with Ryan Gosling, I can't believe I'm starting to like him in movies nowadays.

Well I guess there is nothing more I can say about this, except to emphasize that I just really really enjoyed this flick.

"Ever since I was a child, folks have thought they had me pegged, because of the way I am, the way I talk. And they're always wrong."

Capote, 2005. Three and a Half Stars.

I didn't know anything about Truman Capote when I saw this movie. I still don't really. So I'm not able to discuss whether the movie was true to his character, or history, or anything else.

This movie as a movie, however, was REALLY GOOD! Written well, excellent acting, just very interesting. And I thought the time period was well-captured too.

For being a man of a very particular physique, Philip Seymour Hoffman is an e-x-t-r-a-o-r-d-i-n-a-r-y character actor. I first really took notice of him as "Rusty" in Flawless, and I've been flabbergasted by him ever since. Whether playing a not-so-leading role to being a main character, he's always appropriate and spot-on.

So, like I said, I didn't know much about Truman Capote, but Philip Seymour Hoffman owned that character in this movie. I felt like I wasn't watching an actor. And his performance sparked my curiosity about the real man, and to learn about him and his work (which I kind of haven't done yet, BUT STILL).

And Catherine Keener, who I also love in movies, did a phenomenal job as well. I also don't know much about Nelle Harper Lee, but the way Keener played her actually helped the audience to better understand Capote's character: she was the antithesis of Capote, which completely complemented him.

BTW, I love the quote that I used for the title of this review. It would be so rad if this is something he actually said.