Bolt, 2008

Cute movie about an Action Hero dog, Bolt (voice of John Travolta), who doesn't know he's actually just a TV actor. When producers decide to add some drama to his show by "kidnapping" Bolt's human, Penny (voice of Miley Cyrus), things go horribly wrong when Bolt leaves the set for the first time ever in his attempt to save her.

Think The Truman Show for a younger audience.
However, older audiences will enjoy it too.



There are some confusing messages as well as some dramatic chase scenes, so not for young children who scare easily.

Directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams.
Screenplay by Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams.

Melody's Stars: * * *

Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008

Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1921 short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is anything but short. Almost three hours long, it follows the life of Benjamin (Brad Pitt) who was born old and died young. Along the way he falls in love with a girl named Daisy (Cate Blanchett). While most of the time their love seems creepy, for a few years in their 40s their outward ages "meet in the middle."



The makeup, visual effects, special effects and art direction were all quite good.
Directed by David Fincher.
The screenplay by Eric Roth, who is probably best known for his Oscar winning screenplay Forrest Gump.

When you have a formula that works, why mess with it?

Melody's Stars: * * *

Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

The Reader, 2008

Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross star in this bizarre love-story about a 15-year-old boy's coming of age.

Michael Berg (David Kross as the younger and Ralph Fiennes as the older) gets sick one day on the street and a stranger, Hanna Schmitz, helps him out. When he goes back to thank her for her kindness, they end up naked in her bathtub.

About fifteen years his senior, Berg's attempts at courtship are adorably awkward. He takes Schmitz for country bicycle rides, buys her lunch, and reads to her everyday after school. But when Schmitz leaves one day without notice, Berg is left with heartache and questions.

Years later Berg sees his love again: on trial as a Nazi prison guard. Berg is filled with overwhelming emotions, but rather than confront Schmitz (or even allow his presence to be known) he wimps out time and again. The older Berg is an unlikeable character, showing no sign of a spine. When he finally does confront Schmitz, she is so old that it is not a fair match. He also asks all the wrong questions.

Ultimately The Reader is more about the listener. It is Schmitz who the audience wants to know better. A lonely, confused, and twisted soul who takes on a child as a lover, seems to see her job as prison guard the same as any other job, and takes a life sentence in jail rather than admit she cannot read.





Yet another fictional WWII film, this one is more sex less gore.The Reader may make you cringe if you think about the fact that David Kross turned 18 in July, 2008. When did they film this?


Directed by Stephen Daldry.
Screenplay by David Hare.
Based on the book by Bernhard Schlink.

Melody's Stars: * * *


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Flow: For Love of Water, 2008

Hundreds of years ago Native Americans assumed that no one could own the land. It is a resource that everyone has a right to use as needed. Then the Europeans came along and changed that idea. Today we are possibly facing a similar turning point with water.

What would life be like if you had to spend 50% of your income on clean water for your family? In a world of diminishing resources, this is more than a theoretical question for some. Flow examines the future of one of our most vital resources on earth.





While it seems a no-brainer that everyone should have a right to clean water, I wish that the film had not simply taken this assumption and instead asked questions such as:

• What are the costs associated with piping clean water into small towns?
• Who should be responsible for these costs?
• Is the cost that people are asked to pay a lot more than what it actually costs?
• In areas of high pollution, who is doing the polluting and are they taking responsibility for the damage left behind?
• Everyone should be able to access clean water, but what are the costs involved in doing this?

The film poses some very important questions, but in an extremely one-sided way. Flow asserts that water has been stolen by big corporations. Perhaps this is simply a documentary that exposes how corporate fat-cats are getting rich at the expense of the poorest people on earth, but it seems that there is more to the story than that. I wish that the filmmakers had asked the question: "What are the reasons that water is so scarce for some? It is simply greed or are there larger issues at play?"

Directed by Irena Salina.


Melody's Stars: * * *


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Pride and Glory, 2008

Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich and Jon Voight star in this action/drama about a family of NYPD cops. When a case reveals departmental scandal, family ties are shaken.




Mention must be given to cinematographer Declan Quinn for top-notch work. For example, watch at the beginning of the movie when Emmerich's character arrives at a crime scene and the camera never cuts away.

As usual, Edward Norton delivers a great performance. This movie would have been four stars if it didn't start to drag at the end. Also, there are a number of characters in this film who only speak Spanish and they did not bother to subtitle them.


Directed by Gavin O'Connor

Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Taken, 2008

When the daughter of former a spy, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), wants to go traveling around Europe with her best friend, he reluctantly agrees. His ex-wife thinks that he is being an over-protective Dad, until the two girls (played by Maggie Grace and Katie Cassidy) are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves.



A story about a father's love for his daughter, Mills quickly flies to Europe where he has to use his skills and old work connections to try and rescue his daughter and friend before all tracks are gone.

While Taken is a well-produced, compelling story I really wish that I did not watch this movie because it has some pretty horrible scenes in it and I left with nightmares.

Directed by Pierre Morel.

Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona, 2008

After first viewing this film I would have given it '0' stars. A stereotypical Woody Allen film--complete with an unnecessary narrator--Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona is about two friends (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson) who meet a man in Barcelona and the mixed-up love triangles that follow.



For some reason this film has stuck with me though. Mostly because it questions why and how we fall in love and the reasons people do or don't stay together. For that reason, I am giving it a few extra stars. Also, there are a number of talented actors to watch. If you have seen No Country For Old Men, this film highlights the talented Javier Bardem in a completely different role.


Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

WALL-E, 2008

WALL-E is a robot love story with a message. When humans trash the earth so badly that there is no room left for living plants, they move to another planet where they grow fat and lazy while machines do everything for them.

I can't decided if this movie was hyped-up so much that it could never live up to my expectations, or if, perhaps, it really is only so-so.



Cast includes the voices of Fred Willard, Kathy Najimy, and Sigourney Weaver.
Directed by Andrew Stanton.


Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Bring Back the A-Team, 2006

British presenter Justin Lee Collins loved the A-Team as a child and now he's on a mission to reunite the cast. One by one he ambushes the former cast members and convinces them to attend his reunion party. Only Mr. T proves to be hard to track down and Justin worries he won't be able to reach him in time.




While not a ground-breaking documentary by any means, this is a clever and fun film. The film looks at behind-the-scenes tension between the late George Peppard and Mr. T.

Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

The Day After Tomorrow, 2004

When the Vice President (Kenneth Welsh) refuses to listen to scientist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), the USA is unprepared for a huge global disaster courtesy of Mother Nature.

If you can get past things like cell phones still working when half of New York is underwater, huge ships sailing past the New York Library, and why if scientist Dad is smart enough to tell his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) to stay indoors from the cold he thinks he will survive a snow-shoe trek from D.C. to Manhattan, this movie isn't half-bad. It does contain a typical-Hollywood cringe-worthy ending though.




Wanting to be sure that no one confused him with the bad guy VP who wasn't friends with the scientist, former VP Al Gore produced a movie based on this film two years later. I guess Gore didn't realize that The Day After Tomorrow is a fictional film?




Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Felon, 2008

After an intruder breaks into his home, Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff) kills the man with a baseball bat. Since the intruder was unarmed and attempted to flee, Porter is arrested and sentenced with jail time.

While his wife (Marisol Nichols) and son (Vincent Miller) struggle at home without him, Porter struggles in the "big house." Gang fights are part of everyday life, and Porter is thrown into the middle of it all.

When "lifer," John Smith (Val Kilmer) becomes his new cellmate, Porter quickly learns a few things about surviving prison life.



Directed by stuntman Ric Roman Waugh, Felon is very well done but is not for the faint-of-heart since there is almost non-stop graphic violence.

Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Son of Rambow, 2007

Set in England in the early 1980s, a young boy from a religious family becomes friends with a trouble-maker who owns a video camera. The unlikely friends pair up to make a movie together. Complications arise when a popular French exchange student wants to join in.



Staring Bill Milner, Will Poulter and Jules Sitruk. Directed by Garth Jennings. Bittersweet, funny coming-of-age story.

Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Ghost Town, 2008

Ricky Gervais, who plays the boss in the BBC's The Office, is a cantankerous but lovable dentist who wants nothing more than to be left alone. When he accidentally dies for a few minutes, his life is changed by New York City's ghosts who will just not leave him alone.






This movie starts off really good, with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, but somewhere in the latter part of the movie the humor slows down and you're left waiting for things to wrap up. Also stars Greg Kinnear, Aasif Mandvi, and Claire Lautier.


Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Step Brothers, 2008

For the most part, I like Will Ferrell. Some people don't. But he usually can make me laugh. And teamed up with John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, 2008), and Mary Steenburgen this movie starts off with a comic bang. If you're in the mood to play along with the premise that two 40-year-old men still live at home and behave like 13-year-old boys, this movie is quite fun.




Unfortunately towards the end, Step Brothers gets all Hollywood sappy and that kind of ruins things. But there are quite a few laugh-out-loud moments in here (and not just the ones shown in the trailer).


Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time
Fail=So bad it doesn't even make the rating system

Seven Pounds, 2008

This movie was a bit too long. Sad but sweet story starring Will Smith and Rosario Dawson. Directed by Gabriele Muccino.






Melody's Stars: ***


Rating System:
*****=Worth Buying
****=Worth Seeing in Theaters
***=Worth Renting
**=Worth Watching on TV
*=Worth Watching if also cleaning house or doing paperwork
0=Total waste of time