When I first saw previews for “No Strings Attached” I really wanted to see it.  I like Ashton Kutcher.  I like Natalie Portman.  It looked like a fun, sexy comedy.  Well, I was wrong.

Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) first met at summer camp during their awkward teenage years.  They didn’t see each other again until years later, then a few other random times after that.  They didn’t date; however, until “one fateful night” after Adam finds out that his father (Kevin Kline) is dating his ex-girlfriend.  Yuck!  After a drunken evening, Adam wakes up naked in Emma’s apartment.  That morning, they end up having sex.  Then they decide to use each other for sex, whenever, wherever.  They even have rules, like “no cuddling”, “no breakfast”, “no lying”, “no jealousy”, etc.  I don’t understand why someone would rather have a “No Strings Attached” agreement instead of a real relationship.  But I guess Emma and Adam thought it would work.  Of course, it didn’t.  Someone always catches feelings.

I didn’t feel there was any chemistry between the main characters, which surprised me because usually they are both really good in their roles.  Emma was stubborn and she really irritated me.  She had this great guy but she was all “oh I’m not getting in a relationship with you because I’m scared”.  Wah.  Cry me a river.  Adam tried but not hard enough in my opinion.  He gave in to Emma’s retardery way too easily.  Overall I was disappointed with “No Strings Attached”.

I did like Lake Bell as Lucy, Adam’s spastic co-worker.  She was awkward and funny.   Kevin Kline was also good as Adam’s father.

Bottom line:  Natalie Portman should stick to dramas.  She was great in “Black Swan” and, of course, the “Star Wars” prequels, among other more serious films.  I would rather have waited for “Friends with Benefits”, set to be released in July.  Also, they didn’t play *N SYNC’s song “No Strings Attached” ever in this movie, which would have fit perfectly!!

“The Chronicles of Narnia:  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is the latest film in the Narnia series.  I haven’t read this book so my review will focus on the movie.

This time around, Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes) are living at their aunt’s house with their wretched cousin Eustace (Will Poutler) in England.  Their other siblings, Susan (Anna Popplewell) and Peter (William Moseley) are living with their father in America.  Eustace is a piece of work!!  Let’s just say that he doesn’t get along with his cousins very well.  One day the three are arguing in Lucy’s room when a painting on the wall suddenly starts pouring out water and they are sucked back into Narnia, where they are fished out of the sea to climb aboard the Dawn Treader.  At first, Eustace is in serious denial about everything and he is a right bloody git!!  (I spent a lot of time wishing he would fall overboard).

Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) is now a king and is set about on a voyage to find his father’s lost crew believed to be on a hidden island.  On their journey, they land on an island where an evil green mist is taking the people of his kingdom.  Pirates have taken control of the island and are sacrificing the people to the evil green mist, and Caspian is not ok with that!  They discover that they need to find seven swords (hmm, find seven things in order to defeat evil, sounds like another awesome movie series that we know and love), and place them upon Aslan’s table to conquer the evil mist.

The Dawn Treader and crew set out to find the seven swords and the source of the evil green mist.  Along the way, they encounter a very large dragon, some interesting creatures that have one big giant foot each, and a giant, terrifying sea serpent.  I want to say more about the very large dragon, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those who haven’t read the book.

Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) is back in a small role, as is the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), she seems to never really go away.  Susan and Peter’s roles are nearly nonexistent.  They do not return to Narnia, as Aslan stated at the end of “Prince Caspian” because they have learned everything that they could from Narnia.  So, they only appear in Lucy’s dreams.

As far as the 3D effects go, there weren’t many of them.  I wouldn’t spend the extra money for the upgrade to 3D.  In my opinion, 3D should be reserved for theme park attractions like “Captain EO” or “Muppetvision 3D” in Walt Disney World or even the Spider-man ride in Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  It seems like a waste to use 3D for a movie where there aren’t any other sensory effects.  But that’s just my opinion!!  If you prefer 3D films, then enjoy!!  Overall, this was a good family film with action, adventure and fun.

+++More Tangled pics here+++

Once upon a time, there was a magical flower that had healing powers.  An evil witch discovered the flower, and she kept it hidden so she could use it to keep herself young.  Then, the queen of a nearby kingdom became gravely ill, and the king sent all his men out to search for the magical healing flower.  To the evil witch’s disappointment, the king’s men found the magical healing flower, and they plucked it from the ground to deliver it to the queen.  The queen drank tea made with the flower, and she became well again.  However, the queen was pregnant, and the magical properties of the flower were transferred to her baby.  The evil witch was not happy about this turn of events, and when she discovered that the baby princess had acquired the magic, she kidnapped the princess.  But the king and queen never give up hope that the lost princess would be returned.  Every year, on the princess’s birthday, the people of the kingdom release hundreds of floating candles into the sky in memory of their missing princess.

Fast forward seventeen years….Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) has been locked in a tower for seventeen long, lonely years.  She spends her time painting, reading, and dreaming, with a cute little chameleon named Pascal as her only friend.  Sure, she gets visits from the evil witch Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy), who tells her all about the scary things out in the world.  Rapunzel is too terrified to even want to leave the safety of her tower!!  But Mother Gothel knows she has to keep Rapunzel in the tower, because she uses her for her own personal fountain of youth.  You see, when they sing a special song, the magic happens, Mother Gothel reverse-ages, and Rapunzel’s hair grows.  Oh yeah, and her hair is about 70 feet long now.

Rapunzel is no damsel in distress though.  When it comes down to it, Rapunzel discovers that a frying pan makes a handy weapon.  When Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), thief, discovers Rapunzel’s tower while fleeing from castle guards, Rapunzel takes him hostage (she ties him up with her hair!!) and then forces him to help her escape.  Rapunzel has been keeping track, and she knows that in a few days, the floating lights will appear and she wants to see them up close and personal.  Rapunzel has no idea that the floating lights are in memory of the lost princess, who is actually her!!  What happens next is a fun adventure involving some thugs in a pub, a mean horse named Maximus (he was really funny) and a little romance thrown in for good measure (this IS a Disney movie, after all!!).

What I liked:  There was more humor in this movie than a lot of other Disney animated films.  Since this is the 50th animated feature by Walt Disney Pictures, I was glad to see that it still had all the charm and wonder of the first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, and it will leave you with that feel-good, happy feeling.  The visuals were amazing, very rich and colorful.  There were no talking animals in this one, but the chameleon and the horse were very expressive and humorous.  The songs were catchy, and I especially enjoyed hearing Zachary Levi (TV’s Chuck Bartowski) sing.  I thought the main characters reminded me of Aladdin (a thief with no family) and Jasmine (a rebellious princess).  I also noticed a spinning wheel (like the one from “Sleeping Beauty”) up in Rapunzel’s tower.  I’m sure there were more nods to other Disney films that I missed.  Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi were awesome in this movie.

What I didn’t like:  Rapunzel spent the whole movie barefoot.  I would think her feet would be killing her, what with all the running around she was doing.  I’m sure she could have found shoes somewhere (or a pair of scissors?)

Don’t believe when people say this is a rip-off of “Shrek”.  I like the “Shrek” movies, but they are never as good as Disney films.  Disney animated pictures have that certain something that other animated movies lack.  This is a perfect addition to your holiday festivities, add Tangled to your must see list.

“High school was a horror movie, and this is the sequel…”

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When Marni (Kristen Bell) was in high school, she was, well, to put it nicely, your typical geek. Between the braces, the bad complexion, the coke-bottle glasses, and the unfortunate word that her initials spelled out – “MOO”, Marni was an easy target for the school’s bully, JJ (Odette Yustman, think Megan Fox only not skanky and a lot more pleasant).

Fast forward eight years, and Marni is now a successful Public Relations agent who was recently promoted to Vice President of one of her firm’s offices. More good news – her brother is getting married!! Now the bad news – his fiancé is the one and only JJ, Marni’s high school nemesis, who now goes by the name Joanna. Marni arrives home for the wedding and is surprised to discover that Joanna pretends not to remember her and the horrible way she treated her back in high school. But Marni didn’t forget.

Next we meet Joanna’s rich, jet-setting Aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver), who lo and behold, has a history with Marni’s mother Gail (Jamie Lee Curtis). Now there are two generations of bullies and the bullied in this wedding!!

Even though it’s been eight years since high school, Joanna picks up where she left off and continues to torment Marni. Then, when a series of unfortunate incidents causes Marni to look just as she did in high school, Marni decides that enough is enough. Tired of the abuse, she decides to show Will what Joanna is really like. So she digs up the high school’s time capsule video and plays it at the rehearsal dinner. What happens next is complete chaos.

I thought this movie was fast-paced and didn’t drag. There were several funny scenes, including a dance rehearsal at the wedding planner’s studio and another part when Gail goes to visit Ramona in her lavish hotel suite. And of course, everyone knows there is going to be a girl fight between Marni and Joanna. That was funny too!!

I can’t forget to mention notable performances by Betty White (the “It Girl” of the moment), Kristin Chenowith (as the wedding planner with a flair for performances) and Kyle Bornheimer (as Tim, Joanna’s ex-boyfriend who still has a thing for her, big-time and isn’t afraid to show it. Tim was quite amusing in a sad sort of way).

Will the wedding go on? Will Joanna apologize to Marni for making her high school years a living hell? Check out “You Again” for the answers. A fun, comical film with a great cast and a super soundtrack.

What happens when a little white lie about losing your virginity spirals completely out of control?

When Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) lies to her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) about her recent weekend activities, she tells her that she lost her virginity to a boy from the local community college. Unfortunately, you should always check the bathroom stalls before revealing any personal information, because they are overheard by Marianne (Amanda Bynes, who may or may not be retired from acting), a Jesus-loving goody-two-shoes who tells everyone in school that Olive is a slut. Suddenly, Olive goes from being the invisible girl to the girl that everyone wants to talk to…and hire. That’s right, the boys want Olive to lie and tell everyone about the relations she supposedly had with them, to boost their popularity, in exchange for gift cards to various stores and restaurants.

Now that the whole school thinks Olive is an uber-slut, she decides to go with it. She begins dressing WAY inappropriately and wears a red “A” on her top, just like Hester Prynne in “The Scarlet Letter” (which her English class is studying). It’s fun for a while, but soon everything goes haywire. She keeps having to visit the principal’s office for her behavior, the Jesus-loving kids keep trying to “save” her, the school counselor keeps trying to give her handfuls of prophylactics, and then Olive is blamed for giving a student an STD. Things take a turn for the worse when Olive finds out who is really responsible, and she reveals to the person’s spouse that their partner is unfaithful.

While all of the actors in the movie were fantastic, there were a few that really shined. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, as Olive’s quirky parents, were awesome. They were the hit of every scene they were in. Emma Stone was extraordinary as well. She had perfect comedic timing throughout the whole movie.

“Easy A” was a teen high school movie like “Mean Girls” but I thought it was even better than that. It’s narrated by Olive as she speaks into her webcam, dividing the movie into different parts, such as “Not with a fizzle, but with a bang”, to explain the sequence of events. Slightly raunchy, extremely funny, “Easy A” is A+!!!

Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron) has a promising future. He’s a skilled sailor and ready to attend Stanford. He has a younger brother, Sam (Charlie Tahan), who looks up to him and a mother (Kim Basinger) who works hard to support her family. All that changes after a tragic accident leaves his brother dead and Charlie overcome with grief.

On his way to an after-graduation party, Charlie and Sam are in a car accident. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Charlie flat lines, but the paramedic working on him, Florio (Ray Liotta) doesn’t give up, and Charlie is given a second chance and survives.

Fast forward five years, and Charlie is a caretaker who lives in a cemetery and takes care of the grounds. This involves cleaning duck poop off the headstones, chasing away the ducks from the grounds, and taking care of the plots. He never made it to Stanford, he hasn’t sailed in five years, and he’s pretty much regarded as the town crazy. Oh and every night, he plays catch with his dead brother Sam.

When a classmate from high school, Tess (Amanda Crew) is missing at sea, Charlie realizes why he was given a second chance and joins the search to find his missing classmate. I can’t really reveal any more about this storyline, as it would give too much away.

Charlie cried a lot in this movie. A lot. However, it was truly part of the story, unlike a certain vampire series where the lead male character cries a lot. Anyway, Efron has come a long way from the “High School Musical” series, and he showed it in this movie.

This is a straight-up drama. Don’t go see it expecting to laugh. Do expect to cry (possibly). Slightly reminiscent of “The Sixth Sense” (minus the thriller factor), “Charlie St. Cloud” is a good story with fine acting and overall a decent film.

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“Ramona and Beezus” is based on the book series by Beverly Cleary.  I know I read these books when I was in elementary school, but I don’t really remember them much.  I do remember that Ramona was a rambunctious little girl with a very active imagination.

Ramona Quimby (Joey King) is a creative little girl, who has an older sister Beatrice (Selena Gomez).  (When Ramona was small, she couldn’t say Beatrice’s name, so she called her Beezus, which stuck as her nickname.)  Ramona and Beezus also have a baby sister, Roberta (can you tell by the character’s names that these books were written in the 50s and 60s??).  Ramona, Beezus, and Roberta live in Washington with their parents Robert (John Corbett) and Dorothy (Bridget Moynahan).  Also part of the family is Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin), whose high-school boyfriend Hobart (Josh Duhamel) is back in town and wants to get back together with Bea.

Everything is peachy keen in the Quimby house, until Mr. Quimby loses his job and the family faces the possibility of losing their home, forcing them to move to another town.  Ramona comes up with some fantastic yet harebrained ideas to try to save their house, including selling delicious lemonade, offering delicious car washes (that of course, ends in disaster), and auditioning for a commercial.

Even though she means well, Ramona is always in trouble in school.  Mrs. Meacham (Sandra Oh) is her exasperated teacher who has to deal with Ramona and her far-fetched ideas.  I’ve got to give Ramona credit, she tries really hard!

What I liked: when Ramona would imagine fantastic things in her mind, we the viewers saw them on the movie screen.  I thought that was a nice visual touch.  The story flowed well, and I have no complaints about the dialogue or the acting.

What I didn’t like:  overall, the movie was kind of hokey, but that’s to be expected.  In this day and age, it was kind of unusual but nice to see a nuclear family doing family things with their neighbors!!  Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with a happy ending, is there??

Warning:  there was one sad part.  Parents may have to explain the concept of “pet heaven” to their children after watching this movie.  I thought that part of the movie was handled well though.  The girls dealt with it and accepted it.

I thought for the lead role, Joey King’s performance was more than decent.  A few scenes were just so-so but overall she gave a pretty strong performance.  I think she has potential.  I enjoyed the interaction between the sisters.  I think both actresses performed those scenes well.

“Ramona and Beezus” isn’t the greatest flick ever, but it certainly isn’t the worst.  Don’t go to the theatre expecting much and you will enjoy it for what it is.

Sex and the City in the Middle East – excuse me, that’s “The New Middle East”.

***Want more Sex?  Click the image above***

Carrie and the girls are back for another adventure. It’s been two years since we’ve left Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon). If you’ll recall, the first “Sex and the City” movie ended with Carrie and John (aka Big) (Chris Noth) marrying, Samantha moving back to New York from Los Angeles, Charlotte giving birth to her and Harry’s (Evan Handler) daughter Rose, and Miranda reuniting with her estranged husband (cause he cheated!! but he felt real bad about it) Steve (David Eigenberg).

Since then, apparently everything’s been going swimmingly!! Now the girls and their families are gathering for the wedding of Carrie’s best gay friend Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson) to Charlotte’s best gay friend Anthony Maratino (Mario Cantone). Fans of the series will recall that Stanford and Anthony were once mortal enemies, but now they are in love (I guess hate sometimes DOES give way to love??) and about to be married in an over-the-top ceremony, complete with Liza Minelli as the wedding officiator.

A few days later, on Carrie and Big’s two-year anniversary, Carrie realizes that their marriage has lost its sparkle when Big’s anniversary gift to her leaves her feeling disappointed. Meanwhile, Miranda is unhappy at her job and yearns to spend more time with her family, and Charlotte can’t handle her unruly two-year old who cries constantly.  Now everything’s not so peaches and cream, is it? Of course not, otherwise there wouldn’t be a movie!!!

When Samantha is offered an all-expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi, naturally the girls come along to take a break from their troubles. They fly first class (they even have their own cubicles!! Just as if they worked in an office!!) and stay in, well, basically, a palace. Between their own fancy cars, personal butlers, and surrounded by all that decadence, what more can these girls ask for?? But of course, a bit of the real world seeps in as Carrie reads a particularly scathing review of her book. That’s when everything goes askew.

And oh yeah, did I mention that Aidan (John Corbett) returns? The other love of Carrie’s life shows up in the desert (imagine that – it MUST mean something, right??) to further complicate Carrie’s life. I know many of my girlfriends think Carrie should have ended up with Aidan (I disagree, I think Big was her “lobster”) and will be very happy to see Aidan back in Carrie’s life.

What I liked:

Hello!! Who wouldn’t want an all-expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi?? Since that will never happen to me, it was fun to see what it would be like in the movie (even though the movie was actually filmed in Morocco due to its racy nature, which is a big no no in the Muslim country). I also thought this movie was lighter than the first one, as it lacked the drama of being left at the alter and the infidelity. Of course, Samantha stole the show with her excessive efforts to trick her body into being younger as well as her sheer outrageousness.

What I didn’t like:

During the wedding reception at the beginning of the movie, Liza Minelli performed that awful song “Single Ladies”. I seriously wished I would go temporarily deaf. No offense to Ms. Minelli, but that has got to be one of the worse songs ever. I was praying for my torture to be over. I also felt that Big’s unconventional “idea” about his and Carrie’s marriage was just wrong. It made me a little angry, and I’m not married (not even close). And, for a movie titled “Sex and the City 2” there really wasn’t much sex going on. (I’m just saying!!). Oh and the clothes. Sometimes they were nice. Other times….what were the costume designers thinking?

Fun, light-hearted fare that fans of the series will enjoy. No, this won’t change the world but hey, it’s good for some laughs.

I have to get out this last tweet!

As a die-hard “Harry Potter” fan, when I first saw a preview for “Percy Jackson & the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief” I rolled my eyes and thought “oh how nice, they are copying “Harry Potter””.  However, the more previews I saw for “Lightning Thief” the more I actually wanted to see it.  I always loved reading Greek myths in school, so when I realized that this story is about the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena, I was there!!

Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is your average high-school student.  While on a school field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in the ancient Greek section, he is caught off guard by an attacking fury who demands that he return Zeus’s lightning bolt.  Percy is confused, as he has no idea what a fury is, why it’s attacking him, and why it thinks he has Zeus’ lightning bolt.  Somehow, Percy’s best friend Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and his teacher Mr. Brunner (Pierce Brosnan) know what’s going on and they come to Percy’s rescue.   This part was confusing; it wasn’t explained how Grover and Mr. Brunner anticipated the attack. Maybe the books elaborated more on it, but the film lacked the proper exposition to my liking.  It is later revealed that Zeus’s lightning bolt has been stolen, and if it’s not returned by the summer solstice, then there will be a war in Mount Olympus.

It is soon revealed that Percy’s mother, Sally (Catherine Keener) had a relationship with Poseidon, hence, Percy was born.  Sally’s husband, Gabe (Joe Pantoliano) doesn’t get along with Percy, and he’s not very nice to Sally either, but that is explained.  Since it’s not safe for Percy to be in the real world, Grover and Sally take him to a special camp for children of mortals and gods, Camp Half-Blood.  While there, Percy meets Annabeth (Alexandria Daddario), a daughter of Athena, and Luke (Jake Abel), a son of Hermes.  At Camp Half-Blood, I found it rather disbelieving that the second Percy picks up a sword, he is able to wield it like a pro.  He didn’t even visit the weapons master to learn his sword fighting skill!!  This was explained as his “warrior instinct”.  Hmmm, I don’t buy it!!  But I’ll play along.

The characters seamlessly accepted their new roles as demigods with too much ease.  Also, everything we just a little TOO convenient for me.  I didn’t feel as if the characters were in any real peril.  There was always someone/something that “just happened” to be nearby to give them aid.  And mortals (such as Sally) had entirely too much knowledge about things that mortals don’t usually know about, such as the location of Camp Half-Blood, and how to get to Mount Olympus (what, you don’t know that?)  The climactic finale managed to drag a little bit.  Otherwise, the acting was solid, the special effects were fantastic, and the references to Greek gods and goddesses were plentiful.  I liked the mixing of ancient Greek mythology with present-day pop-culture, which oddly didn’t seem forced.  Everything blended nicely.

It must have left a decent mark with me, because I will be taking a field trip to my friendly neighborhood library to borrow the first “Percy Jackson” novel.  Maybe it will fill in some of the background details for me.  Overall, if you enjoy the “Harry Potter” and “Chronicles of Narnia” movies, you will enjoy “Percy Jackson”.