My Sisters Keeper

Director: Nick Cassevetes

Writers: Nick Cassevetes, Jeremy Leven, Jodi Picoult(author)

Starring: Abigail Breslin, Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vassilieva

Release Date: June 26, 2009

Length: 1 hour 59 minutes

Anna Fitzgerald has been giving blood, having surgeries performed on her,  helping her older sister who is suffering from cancer in anyway possible since the hour she was born. Now she is eleven years old and about to donate a kidney to her sister. Under the pressure of her mom (Cameron Diaz) and guilt from her sister (Sofia Vassilieva)., she decides to hire the best lawyer  she knows (Alec Baldwin) to get medical emancipation from her parents, making her own decisions from now on. It truly pains a book lover when one of their favourite novels is forever ruined by what they call a cinematic take of the book.  My advice for filmmakers translating bestsellers from book to movie,  is just don’t touch it. Don’t do anything. Don’t change anything. Everyone loved it as a book, so why do anything else? Unless you are extremely careful to not change anything or you have something that’s based on it and change the title, why even make it into a film? I suppose that for the people who didn’t read the book they would have wept and considered it a beautiful story and honestly I would have preferred seeing the movie first,  and then have read the book. This movie is a true tearjerker but you don’t have to bring a box of tissues because it’s almost as if the theatre has them ready for you. Everything in this film that is supposed to make you cry is too forced. It’s almost like you're crying for the sake of crying and nothing else.  While everyone else was balling their eyes out and I had two of my friends heads on each side of me resting on my shoulders, I was sitting there appalled by the completely changed cliché ending stolen from every other episode of Grey’s Anatomy and ER. To all those heartbroken fans of the book, don’t let this ruin your idea of My Sister’s Keeper like it has for me. 

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Director: Michael Bay
Writer(s): Ehren Kruger, Robert Orci
Starring: Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox
Release Date: June 24, 2009
Length: 2 hours 30 minutes

If Bay and Spielberg thought that 2 and a half hours of explosions, robots and a sweaty Megan Fox could distract the audience from lack of plot and a poorly written script…they were greatly mistaken. Two years after the first installment of Transformers in 2007, Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox are back for Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen, along with of course the noisy, annoying, screen hogging robots. Sam and Mikaela have matured and now Sam is off to college while his girlfriend works in a garage usually wearing nothing but short shorts and a ripped tank top(the source of half the film’s income). I’m not even going to try to explain the plot for this movie because I didn’t even get it or care for it either. What this film lacks that the first one had, were the different character dynamics. The extra hour and a half of this movie that they didn’t need could have been used to bring back characters from the first one played by Anthony Anderson, Jon Voight, Rachael Taylor, etc…etc… That actually kept my interest during the first film. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen has an extremely long climax, and you think it’s going to end, when in fact its only about halfway in. Excluding a few laughs brought out of me from the scenes with Labeouf, Kevin Dunn and Julie White – who played his parents – this film was a waste of expensive CGI and 2 and a half hours of my life I will never get back. 

The Proposal

Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Peter Chiarelli
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds
Release Date: June 19, 2009
  Length: 1 hour 48 minutes

From Anne Fletcher, director of Step Up and 27 Dresses comes a more likable film to a wider audience range, The Proposal.  When Margaret, a pushy type-A senior editor who works at a publishing company in New York, goes into a meeting with her boss, she finds out she is being deported back to her home country Canada. When her young good-looking American assistant of 3 years – oh so conveniently - interrupts the meeting at that very moment. Margaret attempts to solves her problem by claiming her assistant as her new fiancé on the spot. After going to the immigration offices, they are suspiciously told there will be interviews to learn how much they know about each other, in case they are committing a federal crime – which wouldn’t you know it, they are. Andrew knows everything there is to possibly know about Margaret, but because she doesn’t know anything about him, they go to his hometown in Alaska for his grandmother’s birthday for the weekend. Soon they discover that their relationship may not be just a working  affiliation any longer – again how convenient. Putting aside the fact that its slightly hard to believe Andrew would lie to his entire family and have them go through with thinking they’re actually getting married, The Proposal is harmless, meaning cute and completely unrealistic but you won’t whine about it. The film makes up for it with the laughs assuming you can put up with the clichés. The two main stars Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock share great chemistry – both in comedy and in romance. Without Bullock and Reynolds this movie would definitely not be as enjoyable. The scenes that take place in Alaska where the film shows how Margaret doesn’t fit in to Andrew’s family’s life style vaguely resembles the same theme in “The Family Stone”. That was a well-done romantic comedy that came out in 2006, with Sarah Jessica Parker in the Sandra Bullock-like role. Both films also had Craig T. Nelson as the father. Betty White as Andrew’s grandma can either be perceived as annoying or adorable. My opinion changed from scene to scene. All in all, people will enjoy this movie depending on what your tolerance level is for the cliché’s. A bit ridiculous…but pretty enjoyable.

The Hangover

Director: Todd Phillips
Writer(s): Scott Moore, Jon Lucas
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis
Release Date: June 5, 2009
Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

Less then halfway through the movie, believability for the hangover went out the window, which was surprisingly okay. The Hangover is one of those films that can be completely unrealistic and it leaves you thinking half the time “did that just happen?” – but it works. Shot and produced in a small amount of time, The Hangover has flown completely under the radar and shocked us all.  After a group of friends drive to Las Vegas for a pre-wedding bachelor party that gets a bit out of control, they wake up the next morning wondering why there is a tiger in their hotel room, whose baby is in their closet, and most importantly where the groom is. Not remembering most of what happened the night before Phil(Bradley Cooper), Stu(Ed Helms), and Alan(Zach Galifianakis) set out to find answers that could lead to solving the mystery. Encountering diverse groups of people of Las Vegas, each clue leads to the next. As the film proceeds, they learn more about what happened the previous night. However, stuff just keeps happening to them that gets them into more and more shit with whatever they have to deal with next. This is one of the few problems I had with the Hangover. I would have been more disillusioned, but again you get used to the fact that anything can happen in this movie. A true raunchy, hilarious Vegas tale that you can sit through without questioning.

Away We Go

 Director: Sam Mendes
Writer(s): Vendela Vida, Dave Eggers
Starring: John Krasinksi, Maya Rudolph
Release Date: June 12, 2009
Length: 1 hour 38 minutes

From academy award winning director Sam Mendes comes a lighthearted romantic comedy that stars John Krasinski (the office) and Maya Rudolph (SNL) as a young expecting couple, Burt and Verona.  Verona is 6 months pregnant and they are looking for a place to call home after they both find out Burt’s oblivious parents played by Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels are moving to Belgium and are going to miss the baby’s first 2 years.  The couple realizes there is nothing holding them down to the town in which they live and they can be anywhere they want. They decide to take a trip visiting Phoenix, Montreal, Miami and Madison.  All cities have friends or family. Even though this film may portray what seems like a road trip movie, it generates laughs from the brilliant script by screenwriters Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida and the comedic performances delivered throughout the movie. Especially Maggie Gylenhaal and Allison Janney in supporting roles.  The film takes an unexpected dramatic turn towards the end, but it doesn’t make everything serious. It’s a gentle fit for the film’s ending. It’s a nice change from Mendes’ usually dark and serious films like most recently Revolutionary Road.  The fact that this film is a drama and a comedy is not a problem, but when you’ve been laughing for a good hour or so, some viewers may be confused.  It is a nice film that is enjoyable and quite funny but wont leave you in tears for feeling sad or laughing so hard. It’s an in-between movie.