Originally released in 1991, “Beauty and the Beast” was the 30th Disney animated film.  It may be over 20 years old now but, like most Disney animated films, it’s timeless.  And hey, this one is a tale as old as time, right??

Belle (Paige O’Hara) lives with her father Maurice (Rex Everhart) in a village in France.  Everyone in their village thinks they are both crazy:  Maurice because he is a crackpot inventor (he’s just a little eccentric!) and Belle because she’s a little odd, and she also enjoys to read.  Gaston (Richard White) is the town brute.  Everyone thinks he’s awesome while in reality he’s really boorish and brainless (as Belle tells him).  Gaston is dead set on marrying Belle, but she wants nothing to do with him.  Belle dreams of adventures and getting away from her village.  She soon gets her wish when her father gets lost on his way to an inventors function and his horse Philippe finds his way back home.  Concerned for her father’s safety, Belle hops on Philippe and he leads her to a castle in the woods.

But this is no normal castle, this castle is magical.  Its residents include a Beast (Robby Benson) and his servants who have been transformed into enchanted objects.  When he was a human prince, the Beast was mean and selfish and he made the wrong person mad, because she happened to be an enchantress who cast a spell upon the prince and his servants, turning the prince into a hideous Beast and his servants into objects such as a candelabra, Lumiere (Jerry Orbach), a clock, Cogsworth (David Ogden Stiers), a teapot, Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury), and a teacup, Chip (Bradley Pierce), to name a few.  The prince and his crew were doomed to remain in their new appearances forever, unless someone falls in love with the Beast.

Easier said than done, as the Beast has a bit of a temper problem.  He pretty much kidnapped Maurice and said he would keep him forever (because he trespassed in his castle, but only to escape a pack of wolves and rain), until Belle offers to take his place as the Beast’s prisoner.   The enchanted objects are hopeful that Belle may be the one to break the spell, but to get Belle to fall in love with the Beast is a near impossible task.

The soundtrack to “Beauty and the Beast” features the fantastic songs “Belle”, “Gaston”, “Be Our Guest”, “Something There”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and “The Mob Song”.  Each number is exciting and fun and definitely makes you want to sing along!!

While I’m not a huge fan of 3D in movie theaters (I feel that it belongs in theme parks), I have to mention that the 3D version of “Beauty and the Beast” looked amazing.  It added depth and richness to the scenes in the forest.  It made an already fantastic movie even better.  Also of note, this version of the movie does not include the song “Human Again” which was featured on the Platinum Edition DVD release that came out in 2002.

Trivia:  I did some research and although it’s never mentioned in the movie, according to imdb, it was revealed on a Disney CD-Rom game that the price’s human name is Adam.  So now you know!!

One thing that always puzzled me:  In the prologue, it states that the enchantress cast the spell and gave him a rose that would bloom until his 21st year.  However in the song “Be Our Guest”, the enchanted objects state that they’ve been in their current non-human state for ten years.  So was the prince 11 when the enchantress cast the spell on him?  If so, he looked awful grown for 11 years old!!  And, where were his parents??  Is this an error or am I missing something??

Before the movie, there is a short called “Tangled Ever After”, which continues the story of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider (Mandy Moore and the totally awesome Zachary Levi).   I won’t spoil the plot but I will say that Maximus the horse and Pascal the chameleon totally steal the show!!  It was a nice continuation of the “Tangled” story.  Unfortunately, I did not notice if Rapunzel was wearing shoes this time.

It’s a two for one special you just can’t miss!!

Warning:  If you haven’t read the books, these reviews may contain spoilers!  Also, the vampires sparkle in the sunlight, so . . . yea, there’s that.

Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) is an unhappy, lonely boy.  He has a hard time in school and as a result, he has to spend his summer vacation stuck in summer school.  His only friend is his cousin Kyle (Austin Stowell) who is about to leave to join the Army.  However, everything changes the day that Sawyer meets Winter.

While on his way to school, Sawyer stops off at the beach.  There is a man fishing and he notices something beached on the shore.  Sawyer goes to investigate and there he finds a badly hurt dolphin.  He helps the dolphin as much as he can, until the Clearwater Marine Hospital cavalry shows up, led by Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr) and his daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff).  They take the injured dolphin to the Marine Hospital, and Sawyer heads off to school.  But, Sawyer can’t concentrate and can’t stop thinking about the dolphin he helped.  So he visits the Marine Hospital after school and officially meets Hazel.  Hazel is pretty much the anti-Sawyer.  She’s bubbly and inquisitive and she and Sawyer become friends.  Dr. Clay doesn’t really like outsiders interacting with the injured animals, but Winter (as Hazel named her) bonded with Sawyer when he was helping her on the beach, so Dr. Clay makes an exception.

Now Sawyer finally has something he’s interested in!!  He researches dolphins and visits the Marine Hospital every day, eventually not even attending summer school anymore.  When his mother Lorraine (Ashley Judd) finds out, she is not happy – until she goes to the Marine School and sees how Winter is helping Sawyer grow.  She agrees to let him help at the Marine Hospital and makes a plea to his summer school teacher to allow him to earn his grade by doing practical work.  The teacher refuses, but it all works out by the end . . . of course.

Unfortunately, Winter’s tail was so infected that it had to be amputated.  This is bad because dolphins use their tails to swim by moving them in an up and down motion.  Since Winter has no tail, she moves what is left of it in a side to side motion to swim, which is damaging her spine.  The Clearwater Marine Hospital doctors are at a loss as to how to help Winter, and fear that the more damage is caused, the worse her condition will get.

Meanwhile, Sawyer’s cousin Kyle was involved in an explosion.  He gets to come home, but he doesn’t want to be around his family.  Kyle used to be a swim star, he set several records before graduating from high school, and since the explosion he is unable to move his legs without therapy.  It’s while visiting Kyle at the VA Hospital that Sawyer gets a brilliant idea – if people can have prosthetic limbs, why can’t Winter have a prosthetic tail??  Enter Dr. Cameron McCarthy (Morgan Freeman), who crafts prosthetic limbs for veterans who have lost their own while on duty.  Sawyer convinces Dr. McCarthy to work on fashioning a fake tail for Winter.

Unfortunately, Winter doesn’t like having fake parts on her body.  It takes a couple of tries but Sawyer and company never give up!!

I really enjoyed “Dolphin Tale”.  Morgan Freeman was great as usual, (when is he not fantastic in a role??) and I really enjoyed the antics of Rufus, a rather enthusiastic pelican that lives at the Marine Hospital.  Although it had a running time of nearly two hours, the film didn’t drag and kept my interest the whole time.

Inspired by the true story of Winter, the dolphin who lost her tail, “Dolphin Tale” is a light-hearted drama (I use the term drama loosely) that is an inspiration for the whole family.  Of course, the film is in 3D, but in this case it’s kind of nice.  When there was a 3D effect of a dolphin jumping, it looked like it was smiling at me and was going to jump out of the screen at me.

It seems that the concert movie is the latest craze.  I’ve seen Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” and also The Black Eyed Peas at the movie theater in concert movie form.  Last year there was Justin Beiber’s concert film, and previous entries into this category included Miley Cyrus (or was it Hannah Montana??) and The Jonas Brothers.  Well “Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie” is the latest and greatest concert movie.  And, even better, it’s in 3D.  (That was sarcasm.  The 3D was not necessary)

“Glee” is like a non-Disneyfied version of “High School Musical”.  Non-Disneyfied because the students in the Glee Club at William McKinley High aren’t concerned with basketball games or which college to apply to or the Spring Musical (don’t get me wrong, I love the “HSM” movies.  They are positive and fun).  Instead, they deal with issues including:  teenage pregnancy, being gay, bullying, love triangles, drinking, and sex, none of which would ever come up in any “High School Musical” movie.

“Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie” was the best part of “Glee” – the performances, with none of the drama, just singing and dancing.   In between the musical numbers, we see behind-the-scenes footage of the cast preparing for the show.  And, since this is “Glee” in concert, not the stars of “Glee” in concert, the actors are always in character, which was clever and made for some fun moments.  For example, Rachel Berry is told that Barbara Streisand (her idol) will be in the audience for that show (she wasn’t really), and in true Rachel Berry style, she proceeds to freak out.

The performance that was filmed for the movie was a show in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  In addition to the behind-the-scenes footage we meet three individuals from the area who share stories about how “Glee” inspired their lives.  We also meet fans who scream and shout and cheer for their favorite characters, including an adorable little Asian boy who idolizes Blaine from the Warblers (the all-male a capella group from another school, Dalton Academy).  He even dresses as a mini Warbler and sings and dances to Warbler tunes.  Too cute!

Included in the performances are “Don’t Stop Believin’”, the unofficial “Glee” anthem, “I’m a Slave 4 U” (a somewhat raunchy performance which would make the real Britney proud), “Fat Bottomed Girls” (a very fun rock version of the song, complete with Puck playing guitar), “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (Artie sang in his wheelchair while Mike did the dancing, complete with copious crotch-grabbing), “Valerie” (a very fun performance by Santana with Brittany and Mike dancing), “Firework” (the wonderful Katy Perry song performed energetically by Rachel), “Forget You”  (does Gwyneth Paltrow just show up anywhere someone hands her a microphone??), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (a great performance by Kurt, not as sad as the version in the TV episode), and “Born This Way”, where just like in the episode, everyone wears their identifying T-shirts.  [Click here for the complete song list and cast]

The only negatives about “Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie” were that for most of the songs, they didn’t perform the entire song.  I know on the TV show they sometimes don’t perform the whole song, but on the soundtracks they always do.  So I wasn’t sure why they cut parts of the songs out for the concert.  Also, the two best characters from “Glee” were not included in the concert at all:  the ultra-dreamy, totally awesome Spanish teacher/Glee Club director, Mr. Schuester, and everyone’s favorite cheerleading coach that we love to hate, Sue Sylvester.  (Supposedly, Sue will be included in the DVD version of the concert movie).  I also could have done with less of the fans throughout the show.  I think it’s fine before the concert starts, to interview the fans, but during the show, it kind of took away from the performances.

If you go see “Glee:  The 3D Concert Movie”, see it with a fellow fan (as I did).  You’ll have fun together and you will have a hard time staying in your seat (I did my fair share of bopping around in my seat during the performance!!)

Smurfs in the City – It’s Smurf-tastic!

In the latest TV to big screen adaptation, the Smurfs invade New York and turn a family’s life upside down.

A bit of history: the Smurfs are blue creatures who are three apples tall. They live in mushroom houses in a hidden forest. There are 100 Smurfs in the village, 99 male Smurfs and one lone female Smurf, Smurfette. The Smurfs are all named after their character traits: Clumsy is accident-prone, Baker bakes, Brainy is smart, Vanity is vain, and so on.

The leader of the Smurfs is Papa Smurf, who is old and wise. The Smurfs are constantly being attacked by an evil wizard named Gargamel, who I thought wanted to eat the Smurfs, but in the movie he wanted to steal their essence and use it for evil deeds.

While the Smurfs are rehearsing for the Blue Moon Festival, Gargamel discovers the secret location of the Smurf village. The Smurfs escape, but six of them wind up sliding through a portal and end up in New York City. Azrael chases Clumsy (Anton Yelchin) as he takes cover in a big white box. That box belongs to Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris), who was just promoted to vice president of marketing for Anjelou, a cosmetics company run by the very bossy Odile (SofĂ­a Vergara).

Odile tasks Patrick with designing a major advertising campaign for a new line of cosmetics, and the assignment is due in two days. Unfortunately, this conflicts with Grace Winslow’s (Jayma Mays) sonogram appointment, as she and Patrick are expecting their first child.

The Smurfs end up in the Winslow’s apartment and take them by surprise. Once everyone becomes acquainted, Patrick begrudgingly allows the blue creatures to stay at their apartment until they are able to get back home. Side note: the five other Smurfs that landed in NYC are: Smurfette (Katy Perry), Brainy (Fred Armisen), Gutsy (Alan Cumming), Grouchy (George Lopez), and Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters).

Papa Smurf devises a plan to get the Smurfs back to their village, but first he needs to find a stargazer. . . makes sense. Most of the Smurfs (all except Clumsy) end up accosting Patrick at his office the next day, because they think he may have a stargazer there. They helpfully try to assist Patrick with his assignment, which really annoys Patrick and provides the audience with a few laughs.

Hank Azaria evilly played Gargamel as a nasty yet funny wizard who enjoyed emerging from the steam (that came out of the grates in the city streets) because “it was fun”. Also, he was not very nice to his cat Azrael. He would make Azrael venture into the unknown to see if it was safe, and then he would ask “Are you dead??”. It was pretty funny.

The animation was well done. As far as the 3D effects go, I don’t think they were necessary, although the Smurfs were so cute!! I want some. This is definitely a kids movie, as there were a TON of kids at the screening I attended. Fans of the 80′s cartoon will enjoy the movie, and especially the credits which are peppered with images of the Smurfs from the original cartoons. And, be warned, you WILL walk out of the theater singing, or at least humming, the “Smurfs” theme song!!

The BETTER “No Strings Attached”

Dylan (Justin Timberlake) writes an internet blog.  Jamie (Mila Kunis, who wears amazing yet very high heels throughout this movie…walking around New York City!!!  How does she do that??) is a headhunter who lives and works in New York City.  She meets Dylan when she is working for GQ to hire a new manager, and Dylan is perfect for the job.  When he takes the position and agrees to move to NYC, Dylan and Jamie become close friends.  They watch movies together, go out to lunch together, and have fun together, just like friends do.

Since Dylan and Jamie are both single now, while watching a movie one night (I can’t remember the name, but it was a typical annoying Hollywood romance, starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones.  It was funny because it was set in NYC but filmed in Los Angeles and that was painfully obvious) and enjoying a few beers, they both decide that they miss sex.  So they decide to do it.  They swear on an iPad bible app that it won’t ruin their friendship, and that it will be just this one time.

When they make it to the bedroom, the dialogue is very untypical yet hilarious!!  Dylan admits that he is grossed out by feet, so he wears socks.  ALL THE TIME (yes, even in bed).   He also has a tattoo of a lightning bolt, because when he was younger he wanted to be a superhero, and he is also a fan of the Harry Potter books!!  Of course, just this one time turns into many more times, until Jamie decides she wants to start dating again for real.  So they go back to being friends.

Jamie meets Parker (Bryan Greenberg), a child oncologist who seems perfect, but of course he turns out to be a jerk.  And Dylan has one date with a woman who is just way too into sniffing his armpits (weird!!).  When Jamie gets dumped by both Parker and her mother on Fourth of July weekend, Dylan invites her to come with him to Los Angeles to visit his family.

While, there, Jamie learns about Dylan’s obsession with Kris Kross’s song “Jump” when he was younger which leads to a fun scene.  They also have an incident at the Hollywood sign which ends in someone being lifted away by a helicopter. Also while there, things take a turn for the worse as Jamie overhears Dylan saying some not-so-nice things about her to his sister.  She decides to head back to NYC early, and from there things get rocky between the friends, because Jamie has feelings for Dylan.

I won’t say what happens next, although it’s not too hard to figure out.

There is a lot of talk about the similarity of “Friends with Benefits” to “No Strings Attached”.  Yes, they both had similar plots; however “Friends with Benefits” was WAY better.  I’m not just saying that because I’m a borderline obsessive Justin Timberlake fan.  The acting was better, there was actual chemistry between the lead actors, the story flowed much better, and overall it was just a lot funnier.  One of the scenes near the beginning was very clever, and the fun didn’t stop there!!  Also, the supporting characters were more fun in “Friends with Benefits”.  Tommy (Woody Harrelson) was hilarious as the gay sports writer for GQ, who kept trying to get Dylan to go out trolling for men with him.

Dylan’s sister Annie (Jenna Elfman), her son Sam (Nolan Gould), an aspiring magician whose tricks never really went right, and Dylan’s father (Richard Jenkins) gave great performances.  It was sad to see Dylan’s father suffering from Alzheimer’s.  Annie and Dylan had to keep explaining to their father why their mother was no longer there (divorce) or why he couldn’t go out on his boat (they sold it), yet it was funny when he decided he didn’t like pants anymore so he took them off (at the airport).  Jamie’s mother, Lorna (Patricia Clarkson, who also starred with Justin Timberlake in the SNL Digital Short “Motherlover”) was flaky yet funny.  Although mother and daughter didn’t have the greatest relationship, they still got along ok overall.

Overall, “Friends with Benefits” is a raunchy, hilarious comedy that will make your stomach hurt from laughing so hard.  This was another excellent movie from Will Gluck, who also directed one of my favorite movies from last year, “Easy A”.  (Fun Fact:  Emma Stone, who played the lead in “Easy A” has a small part in this movie as Dylan’s ex-girlfriend).   Please leave the kids at home for this one!!

I’ve said it before and I’m not afraid to say it again – Hollywood has pretty much run out of ideas.  Most films that are released are either sequels or remakes or book adaptations or hybrids of other movies.  I’m going to say that “Monte Carlo” is a mix of “Big Business” and “White Chicks”.  I’ve seen comparisons between “Monte Carlo” and “Model Behavior” but I disagree because the switcheroo in “Model Behavior” was intentional, while in “Monte Carlo” it was accidental.  (Don’t know what “Model Behavior” is??  Check it out on imdb, here)

Grace (Selena Gomez) has just graduated from high school.  She’s been saving money for her dream trip to Paris for the past four years.  Now she is about to take her fabulous vacation with her best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy), a 20-year old waitress who wears “hoochie heels” and is dating local boy Owen (Cory Monteith from “Glee”).  Too bad Grace’s stepfather is insisting that Grace’s stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester, who was much less scary in this movie than in “The Roommate” thank goodness!!) join the girls on their vacation.  Grace and Meg aren’t very sisterly towards each other, and Grace and Emma pretty much resent Meg’s intrusion into their trip.

Once in Paris, the girls join a tour that truly is “whirlwind tour” of Paris.  They move through the Louvre so fast, I’m amazed they saw anything at all!!  (Anyone who’s been to the Louvre knows that you need a long time to really see everything there).  And as it always happens in the movies, the accommodations are not what they seem, as their room is dirty and small and ugly.  But hey, they do have their own bathroom (unlike the Griswolds).  On the second day of their tour the girls are left behind, stranded at the Eiffel Tower, unable to make it back to the tour or their crappy hotel room.  They then get in a tiff about the tour bus leaving and Grace feels terrible because she was the one who planned the whole trip and now it’s all ruined.  At this point, I got a little annoyed, because there are always tons of taxis near the Eiffel Tower, so I’m not sure why they didn’t just get in a taxi to rejoin the tour group, but they didn’t.  They ended up traipsing through the sudden rainstorm and popping into the lobby of a fancy hotel to dry off.

Also at the fancy hotel is Cordelia Winthrop Scott (Selena Gomez again), a spoiled British heiress who is a tabloid favorite due to her outrageous behavior.  She is angry because she is supposed to fly to Monte Carlo to do a charity event but she would rather go off and party.  While the girls are drying off in the bathroom, Cordelia enters and Emma and Meg are stunned by her striking resemblance to Grace (Grace is crying in a bathroom stall at the time and didn’t see Cordelia).  Once Cordelia is gone, the hotel workers mistake Grace for Cordelia and show her to her lavish suite, complete with a multitude of suitcases containing all kinds of fancy clothing, jewelry, and makeup galore.  So they decide to lie down on the posh bed and rest for a few minutes.  Next thing they know, it’s morning and they attempt to sneak out of the hotel, until the hotel employees inform “Cordelia” that her plane is ready to take her to Monte Carlo.  The girls decide to go along with it, and a case of mistaken identity has now become impersonation, as Grace now takes Cordelia’s place at the charity event in Monte Carlo.

Cordelia’s escort is Theo (Pierre Boulanger), whose father is in charge of the charity that is holding the event (the charity raises money to build schools for needy children).  At first Theo is unhappy that Cordelia is supposed to be there but then she grows on him (of course, because she is really Grace!!).  The girls thought they would only be in Monte Carlo briefly, but they discover they will be there for a few days, until the big charity auction, to which Cordelia is donating a multi-million dollar necklace (it was gorgeous and sparkly, all diamonds and sapphires!!).

Along the way, the three girls grow up and learn more about themselves and their relationships with each other and with the boys in their lives.  Since Emma did not leave Owen on such good terms, he decides to fly to Paris to surprise her.  And that’s where the “White Chicks” comparison comes in, as he sees the girls in the newspaper at the charity event (just like how the Wilson sisters discovered they were being impersonated) and knows where they are.  And since they’re in the newspaper, someone else spots the picture and discovers what is really going on.

My complaints about this movie were that the girls never appeared to return to their original crappy hotel to retrieve their belongings (wouldn’t they want their stuff??) and the lack of consistency in the character’s accents.  Emma’s Texas accent faded in and out, and when Grace was impersonating Cordelia her British accent faded in and out as well (although I’m not sure if that was intentional or not).  Oh, and they also kind of glorified identity theft, but they didn’t do it on purpose (not really) and they tried to help a charity, and they did come clean in the end.

Overall, “Monte Carlo” was a fun, fluffy, fantasy confection (not a dirty fantasy, but a happy, fairy-tale fantasy).  I probably would have done what those girls did if given the chance.  Who wouldn’t want to live like the rich and famous, even for only a few days??

How far will one teacher go to land a man??

Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) just finished the school year at John Adams Middle School (JAMS for short, it took me most of the movie to realize what JAMS stood for so I’m putting that out there up front).  Her fellow faculty members give her a lovely good-bye party and she heads home to her sugar daddy/fiance Mark (Nat Faxon).  Unfortunately, Mark ends the engagement and Elizabeth has no choice but to move into an apartment with a man she met on Craig’s List and resume teaching at JAMS.

Now more than ever, Miss Halsey just doesn’t care.  Instead of teaching, she shows school-related movies in class, including:  “Lean on Me”, “Dangerous Minds” and even “Scream” (hey it takes place in a school!!).  She drinks and sleeps during class and she smokes pot on the school grounds.  When she grades papers, she writes comments such as “Stupid”, “Wrong”, “So Stupid”, you get the gist.  Unfortunately, her classroom is right across the hall from Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch) who is kind of obnoxious, annoying, a real Little-Miss-Perfect.  Miss Squirrel is always pointing out Miss Halsey’s flaws and really, who likes that kind of person anyways??  (She also had an incident back in 2008 which I don’t think was ever fully explained but it seemed like some kind of meltdown).

When Miss Halsey meets Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), the new school substitute, she thinks she sees her ticket out of JAMS.  Scott is rich and Elizabeth wants him to be her new sugar daddy.  Add gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel) into the mix and we have ourselves a love trapezoid (it’s a school movie, just go with it).  Both Miss Halsey and Miss Squirrel have the hots for Scott, but Russell only has eyes for Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth sees a picture of Scott’s ex, she thinks the best way to get him to notice her is to get a boob job.  So she begins collecting money for the procedure.  When fellow teacher Lynn tells her about a bonus that she can earn if her class scores the highest on the state exam, it’s game on for Miss Halsey!!  That’s when she becomes like a real teacher, because she has to beat Miss Squirrel (who usually wins the bonus) and get the money for her new boobs!!

The stand-outs in this movie were Kirk (Eric Stonestreet from”Modern Family”) and Lynn (Phyllis Smith from “The Office”).  It was funny to see Eric Stonestreet playing a butch, scooter-riding, school-official threatening character, a complete 180 from his character Cameron on “Modern Family”.  And I adored Phyllis Smith, she was so straight-laced it was cute to see her opposite Cameron Diaz’s ruthlessness in this movie.  I also liked John Michael Higgins as the earnest Principal Snur.  And of course, Thomas Lennon was awesome as always as the keeper of the statewide test.

I liked this movie because it didn’t sugar-coat anything.  In movies, we often see characters go through some life-changing event and they miraculously morph into some wonderful person.  Is real life like that??  Not really!!  SPOILER ALERT:  Elizabeth didn’t have an epiphany and donate all her hard-earned money to starving children in China.  Yes Miss Halsey was a little over-the-top, but so what?  She was funny and in the end, she got what she deserved (and so did Miss Squirrel).  We all know she is a bad teacher, but was she necessarily a bad person??  I don’t think so.

This movie is rated R for a reason.  This one is NOT for the kids.  Some examples of the adult content are:  many bare boobies, a scene where two characters dry hump each other, and bad language galore.

A feminine look at First Class…

I love superhero movies.  I’m not a fan of comic books, but I really enjoy the movies and learning about the characters and their stories.   I’m not going to lie though, I had no desire to see “Thor”.  For awhile I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to see “X-Men:  First Class”.  I really loved “X-Men”, really liked “X2″, and liked “X-Men:  The Last Stand” (although I remember being disappointed about something, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it).  I like these movies because of the ensemble of characters, the good guys working together, the good guys working together with the bad guys, mutants versus humans, etc. I never saw “X-Men Origins:  Wolverine”, because I thought it only focused on Wolverine, and I didn’t want to see a movie about just one X-Men (X-Man??); I like the dynamic of the group interaction.  So, I was unsure about “X-Men:  First Class”, but the more previews I saw, the more I decided that I wanted to see it.

The movie starts out with a scene that looks a lot like a scene from a previous “X-Men” movie, where we see the beginnings of young Magneto’s powers in the 1940s.  Then we meet Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a Nazi who enjoys experimenting with people and mutants.  What happens next is similar to a scene from “Star Wars Episode II”, and we see Magneto unleash his full powers.  Meanwhile, Charles is asleep in his family’s mansion when he hears an intruder, and he meets Raven/Mystique, a homeless orphan who is different like he is, and whom Charles offers a place to live.

Fast forward 20 years to the swinging 60s.  Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has written a thesis on mutation.  He is best friends with his “sister” Raven (Jennifer Lawrence).  Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is searching for Sebastian Shaw, who is now the leader of the Hellfire Club and has some powers of his own.

Meanwhile, there is some talk about nuclear weapons, Turkey, Russia, Cuba, and the CIA gets involved.  Enter Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne, who is seemingly everywhere nowadays) who observes some odd happenings in the back room of a club in Vegas involving Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost (January Jones), and Azazel (Jason Flemyng).  She seeks out Charles for help in explaining mutants to her boss.  They track down Sebastian Shaw, but guess who else has also caught up to him??  None other than Erik!!  Charles saves Erik from cetain death, Sebastian gets away, and the trio of mutants teams up to help the CIA.  But first, they decide to find others like them.  Other mutants. Other X-Men.  Enter Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz), Sean Cassidy/Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), Armando Muñoz/Darwin (Edi Gathegi), and Alex Summers/Havok (Lucas Til), some of whom appear in later installments in the series.

I really liked learning the back-stories of Mystique and Beast.  It was also nice to see Charles/Professor X and Erik/Magneto as friends and to see what drove them apart.  Prior to the screening, I had no idea that Kevin Bacon was in this movie.  He played a really good villain, because I certainly hated his character!!  And the first Magneto helmet, which Sebastian Shaw originated and wore first, I’m sorry but it made him look dorky.  It was effective, but dorky-looking.

Overall a solid superhero film and an excellent installment in the X-Men storyline.  After watching this movie you may be tempted to go looking for more information about the X-Men characters (I found this to be a very informative website:  marvel.com/universe) as I did, to learn even more.  And, keep your eyes open for a few surprises throughout the film.

When I first heard about “Bridesmaids”, I thought “Great!!  A movie I’ll definitely be able to relate to!!”.  Having been a bridesmaid thrice, with two more tours of duty coming up soon, this was perfect for me.  Well let me just say, thankfully I was not subjected to the insanity that these bridesmaids went through!!

Annie (Kristen Wiig) works for a jewelry store, because the cake shop business that she opened a few years ago failed.  She is single, but she has a “bang buddy” who doesn’t treat her very well.  She shares her apartment with an albino-looking set of siblings who happen to be British, and are not very nice to her.  As her mother (Jill Clayburgh) says, she’s hit rock bottom.

Annie and Lillian (Maya Rudolph) have been best friends forever.  When Lillian becomes engaged, she asks Annie to be her maid of honor.  Annie accepts, and then the “fun” begins.  Also in the bridal party are:  Megan (Melissa McCarthy), who is the groom’s sister, Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who is married with a few sons and is tired of her husband, Becca (Ellie Kemper) a newlywed, and Helen (Rose Byrne), who is Lillian’s fiance’s boss’s wife.  Things are starting to look up for Annie, especially when she catches the eye of a cop, Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd).

Too bad for Annie, from the beginning, Helen tries to out-do everything Annie does.  From the toast at the engagement party, to the fancy wedding dress shop she gets the girls into (which unfortunately they visit after lunch that does not sit well with the ladies, if you catch my drift), to the lavish bridal shower she throws (after stealing Annie’s theme idea), she pretty much takes over the maid of honor duties and eventually becomes maid of honor (by sabotaging Annie on the way to the bachelorette party in Vegas – what follows is hilarious yet unfortunate as they do not make it to Vegas because they get thrown off the plane).   She does it in such a way that it’s subtle but it really chaps Annie’s hide.  Like Annie doesn’t have enough to deal with!!

With a running time of just over two hours, “Bridesmaids” was jam-packed with outrageous moments, and it really took its time with character development.  Nothing felt rushed, they really let this one breathe and it made it even better.

I had doubts about Kristen Wiig leading the film, but she exceeded my expectations.  She really did a fantastic job with “Bridesmaids”.  Although, I felt that a bit of her “SNL” character Penelope (the perpetual exaggerator and one-upper) was peeking through, Annie wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as Penelope.  I found myself relating to her character in more than one way.  And anyone who has participated in wedding planning, while being single, broke, and borderline depressed will also!!  I really thought Melissa McCarthy stole every scene she was in, especially on the airplane ride to Vegas.

Warning:  not for the kids!!  There was liberal use of the F word as well as inappropriate content.  Fine for us adults but not for the kiddies!!