Movie Review Four-Fer! Karate Kid, Toy Story and more!

So once again I've seen a slew of movies and never had time and/or was just to lazy to do full reviews for them. So here I go again with the combo movie review blog! In the past week or so I've seen four more 2010 movies. Three of them in theaters and one was a straight to DVD/Independent movie: The Karate Kid, The A-Team, House of the Devil and Toy Story 3. So here we go!

#19: The Karate Kid. Starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Rated PG. 2 hours 2o minutes. The critics give this film a B-. I give this film an A-. I have to confess a deep dark sinister secret: I've never seen any of the original Karate Kid films. Yikes, I know...I'm just awful. But going into this movie I knew it was a remake and you know how I feel about remakes. It also starred Jackie Chan, who isn't exactly making "great" movies lately. I went into in expecting to not care for it to much. This is a 2 hour 20 minute long "kid" movie as well...so again I was not expecting greatness. I was SO pleasantly surprised by how solid of a movie this was though. Sure it runs a little to long but it never really feels to long (that's what she said). The screenwriter does a wonderful job bringing these characters to life. They take time to develop them and make sure we like these people...and we do...we really do. Jaden Smith is a freaking screen natural. His father is a great mentor. He really steals the show here. He's full of charisma and still has that "adorable" aspect to him. Jackie Chan...totally shocked with him. He isn't doing his normal shtick and comedy routine. He's serious here, and he's actually very good. A wonderful score. The cinematography was brilliant, the setting was absolutely gorgeous. The climatic final showdown was actually really tense and exciting. This movie was just all around really really well made. I don't know how it compares to the original...but I don't care. This movie on it's own is a fantastic summer surprise and I pretty much loved it!

#20. The A-Team. Starring Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper. Rated PG-13. 1 hour 57 minutes. The critic's give this film an F. I give this film a C-. For $5.25 and a movie theater 2 seconds from my apartment...I figured, ah what the hell...I'll go see the A-Team. I was not expecting to love this movie...and I didn't. This movie was loud and ridiculous. For a summer movie you are not supposed to take seriously or think to much about...it does it's job. It has a shit ton of mindless action, a poorly written script and a plot that is completely predictable. This is what we should expect going into a movie like this...so how do you know if it's good or bad? Well this movie is both...at least it was for me. It was good in that it was just fun to watch, it kept me mildly entertained through and through. It was bad in that sometimes the action was to much, and to much in your face. There were some scenes of action that you couldn't even tell what was happening. It was all going so fast that it just was a giant ball of blur. So I don't know...sometimes the action was fun...sometimes it was nauseating. The acting was decent...mainly from Liam Neeson and Jason Patrick. I could NOT take Jessica Biel seriously as a tough government agent. She looked silly, and I don't think even knew how to hold a gun properly. This movie overall get's its job done. It will appeal to fans of summer action movies that don't seem many movies. To people like me who see a TON of movie...it was just OK. Not awful by any means, but there have been WAY better mindless action movies.

#21: The House of the Devil. Starring Jocelin Donahue. Rated R. 1 hour 35 minutes. The critics gave this film a B+. I give this film an A-. Not many people know about this movie, but I think more people should. Especially if you are a fan of slow building, tense horror movies. This is a throwback film to the 70's, early 80's. It even looks like it was made in the 70's...everything from the opening credits to the cinematography. I loved the vintage feel of the film, loved it. Brilliant film on a technical aspect. Storywise...it's extremely simple. College girl is "babysitting" (I won't say more than that) for a mysterious couple so she can make some quick money to pay for first rents month new house. The first act of the film is the set up. We meet the girl, her friend and the creepy mystery couple. The whole middle chunk of the film is where it is at it's finest. Just the girl in the house. Not much dialog, just her sitting around the house or doing some exploring. Strange things occur and she investigates and it's in those very slow moving scenes where the real creepiness comes into SOLID effect. This movie is extremely effecting in that regard. You have NO idea what is going on in this movie...but you know something is not right and you know it is leading up to something horrific. It's that kind of quiet, subtle horror movie that I truly love. Not these in your face, slasher movies or remakes. This movie has minimal violence, and minimal blood (well...sorta). It relies solely on the camera work and performance from the main character to carry this film. We have no clue what is going on until maybe the last 10 minutes. It's pretty horrific and it happens pretty suddenly and ends rather quickly. I just loved this movie. It was a perfect, classy horror film that every fan of the genre should see. But it IS fairly unsettling and creepy.

#22. Toy Story 3. Voices of Tim Allen and Tom Hanks. Rated G. 1 hour 43 minutes. The critics give this film an A+. I give this film an A+. I'm not going to go on and on about this movie, because I don't need to say much. Toy Story 3 is hands down the VERY best film of 2010 to date. This series has always been extremely lovable and here we have the same story going again. It's is very uncommon for a series to keep it's magic as successfully as this series has. Man this movie was great. It was funny, it was heartfelt, and it was a fitting conclusion to one of the greatest film trilogies ever. These characters are incredible and so fun to watch. The story was just as good as ever. The animation was even better than before. Pixar has yet to fail, and I don't think they ever can. They know EXACTLY how to make a good family film. They make movies that aren't "kid" movies...these are movies for everyone. Adults may like this movie even more than kids do! I even got a little choked up in the end. Great voice over work, great writing, great everything. THIS is the must see movie of the summer so far...this is the must see movie of the YEAR so far! This is can't miss movie!! LOVED IT!