Kathy Lin

Well well, Kathy finally got to pick a movie. Just kidding. Usually Spiff and I are down for seeing the same movies, but once in a while I have to prod him to see something more on the “chick flick” side. Overall, I thought this movie was ok, very predictable, required no thinking, was cute, but will probably fall into the ‘The Book was Better’ category (once I read the book, of course).

Basic plot is as follows: Andy (Andrea), as recent Northwestern grad, takes a job at Runway magaznie as the second assistant to the editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly. Even though Andy knows nothing of fashion or of doing the catty-woman-thing, she takes the job hoping that it will cement her place in the journalism industry.

My first thought was Anne Hathaway has huge eyes. My second thought was, boy these poeple are skinny. Andy actually describes herself as fat because she’s a size 6 (rather than a 4 or 2). Well, that’s lame. I certainly hope she wasn’t being serious. Miranda even calls her fat but smart. Blech. The movie certain reminded me why I don’t work for or read fashion magazines.

Ok, so in the end she learns that being a size 4 isn’t everything and that performing her job has cost her her boyfriend, her free time, and most importantly, her morals. Yadda yadda yadda she ends up quitting her job and pursuing a more down to earth career with a New York newspaper. Well, I’m sure we could all see that coming a mile away.

Meryl Streep is the only reason Miranda really comes to life, otherwise this movie would not have packed a punch at all in the character development department. Well, at least it was fun to watch. You can’t ask for much more from a summer chick flick.

Thanks, Pixar. I love you guys. Cars, the first movie not completely and utterly leave me disappointed. I admit I haven’t seen the Da Vinci Code yet, but something tells me that will probably leave me disatisfied.

But how could Pixar, the hero of all animation studios, possibly disappoint me? Of course they didn’t. Aaron had mentioned that perhaps the animation wasn’t up to par after viewing the first few trailers, and I have to admit, the trailers were pretty bare-boned. But I remained confident til the end, and I was rewarded with a great movie, the first to make me all sniffly in a while.

The plot wasn’t the most original in the world. A character starts out arrogant, is humbled, and gains morality and a rich spirit. He has to learn a number of life lessons. But Pixar does everything with such inherent cleverness that the “typical” plot can be accepted. Lightning McQueen, the hot shot racecar voiced by Owen Wilson, develops real heart. Unlike the characters in other movies such as Shark Tale and Over the Hedge, his character is not tied exclusively to the actor. How refreshing to see animated objects brought to life by voice talent, not but actor/actress reputation. Mater was by far the cutest character, even though he is basically a sloppy redneck. He has a lot of great lines, and also is brutally honest.

The animation was lovely, and I didn’t mind the super shiny-ness of all of the cars. The animation world has come a long way in terms of trees and water, so of course those looked great. How many hours did those scenes take to render?

I was also really amused by the popularity of NASCAR, evident in this movie. Attention was given to a lot of race details, which I only managed to catch because Aaron’s dad watches a lot of NASCAR. Who knew that knowledge would come in handy? And of course, cameos from Mario Andretti, Richard Petty, and Dale Jr.

I guess the biggest con was the somewhat generic plot. Even though this movie was really clean and clever, it didn’t come up to the standards set by Toy Story, The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. That’s ok. The other con was the trailer reel before the movie. Blech. Practically every movie featured smart-mouth asinine animal characters who are crude, generic, or representitive of some ethnic group. Ugh. We’ve reverted to the crows found in Dumbo.

Stay for the end credits, though. Definitely.

The following post contains spoilers, so wait til you’ve seen the movie, as to not spoil it for yourself…

As the title suggests, this is the last of the X-Men trilogy, but if you’ve seen, you know they just have to put in hints for a sequel, in case some studio coughs up the cash later on down the line. My overall impression of the movie was … it made me sad. Magneto in the park, playing chess by himself?! That was so sad! I told Chris that it was like Geri’s Game, but not funny. Anyway. I thought there was a lot of pointless death and the dark Phoenix thing was “eh.” It sounded really cool at the end of X Men 2, but what happened in this one that was so cool? Jean Grey didn’t learn how to control herself, and she randomly tried to kill five or so people. Hmph. Cyclops showed up for about five seconds, and the other more seasoned X-Men were kind of pushed aside for the younger crowd. And, Mystique as a human? That is so unexciting. Angel had some potential, but really, character development was at an all time low.

What I also found kind of silly was all this talk about the “class 3″ versus “class 5″ mutants. I’ve never read the comics, but on the big screen it sounded hilarious. Sort of like a role playing game.

Did I mention a lot of meaningless death happened?

Overall, this is what one would expect from a summer blockbuster. There was one glitch in the special effects — when Magneto is moving the Golden Gate Bridge (he couldn’t find a better way?) it went from dusk to pitch-black-night in roughly 5 seconds. Anyway, I’ll have to say this makes me look forward to what Bryan Singer decided to work on instead of X-Men 3 — Superman Returns. My summer lineup has been rather disappointing thus far, and I don’t have high hopes for the Da Vinci code. The only saving grace for next month will be Cars. Pixar, don’t let me down.