GRAN TORINO

MY VIEW:
Once again Clint Eastwood makes a great movie! The acting was well done. Clint Eastwood is still Clint Eastwood. This movie made me laugh and watch how he built a relationship with his neighbors, which ended up better than the relationship he had with his family. This was a great movie...go see it!!

SYNOPSIS:
Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Kowalski, a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Tao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Tao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.

TULSA

A great movie to have seen! A fiesty red head named Cherokee Lansing seeks revenge for her father's death. His cattle was killed when the Tanner Oil Co. was drilling for oil in a nearby field and oil leaked into the stream where Lansings cattle drank from and some of his cattle died. Lansing went to speak to Tanner Oil and was killed. Cherokee Lansing ended up drilling her own wells and which ended up in her seeking power and wealth. This film was done in 1949. Starring in it was Susan Hayward, Chill Wills, Lloyd Gough and Robert Preston along with many others who made this a great old time flick!

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTONS

SYNOPSIS:

"I was born under unusual circumstances." And so begins 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918 to the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be. Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, Benjamin Button is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

MY VIEW:
I would give this movie a 9 also!! Brad Pitt was perfect! This movie was also emotional for me. Then again I'm a crybaby at movies sometimes. This is one I will be buying the DVD for when it becomes available. I say go see it...you won't be sorry you did!
Brad Pitt once again pairs up with Tilda Swinton. I saw then together in the movie "Burn after Reading" which I didn't care much for after they killed Brad Pitts Character, I thought that movie went downhill after that.

7 POUNDS

SYNOPSIS:
An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.

MY VIEW:
I gave this movie a 9!! it was so wonderfully done!! Will Smith once again at his best! I enjoyed his acting as well as the story he told. This movie will surprise you. don't try to figure it out...just watch it!! It was great. I laughed and cried my emotions were touched. I would definately recommend this movie!!

TWILIGHT

SYNOPSIS:

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a bit different, never caring about or fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix, Arizona high school. When her mother Renee (Sarah Clarke) remarries and decides to move with her new husband to Florida, and Bella decides to go live with her father, Charlie (Billy Burke), in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn't expect anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she's ever met. Intelligent and witty, his piercing eyes see straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance. Edward can run faster than any cheetah, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands, and he hasn't aged since 1918. Most importantly, he's a vampire. Like all vampires, he's immortal. He doesn't drink human blood (they're vampire "vegetarians"), which is rare among the vampire population. Instead, they go on regular "hiking" trips, where they feed on prey such as grizzly bears and mountain lions. For Edward, Bella is the thing he has waited ninety years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. And what will they do when James (Cam Gigandet), Laurent (Edi Gathegi), and Victoria (Rachel Lefevre) come into town and James sets his sights on Bella? Will true love prevail when Edward is forced to save her life and conquer his thirst? The true question is, When you can live forever, what do you live for?

MY VIEW: OH WOW!! I'm hooked on Twilight Series. I loved the books and I loved this movie. It was so well done!! Directed to the youth, but loved by big girls too. I liked that the movie was morally clean however it kept my intest with just enough romance and seductiveness. I say Yes to this one! Also the guy who plays Edward (Rob Pattinson) was born on my birthday, May 13th! (well he was born in 1986) He is a very good pianist and wrote a song and played it on the piano in the movie.

SECRET LIFE OF BEES

SYNOPSIS:

The Secret Life of Bees i set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping.

MY VIEW: I really enjoyed this movie. We had read it earlier in our book club. Queen Latifa plays her role very well. I am impressed at how Dakota Fanning has grown in her acting abilities and just physically she has grown in young woman.

FLASH OF GENIUS

MY VIEW:
This was a well done movie! The actors played their parts well. Greg Kinnear was great in his role as was Lauren Graham. It was a true story. I found it to be a bit sad in the courts outcome in the end for the Kearns family. But he got what he ultimately wanted...the recognition that Ford was in the wrong. In August 2008 I went to the Benjamin Franklin Museum in Philadelphia, PA and saw his actual invention on display in the museum along with his story. I would give this movie a B++. Go see it...it was very good.
SYNOPSIS:
Based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns' (Greg Kinnear) long battle with the U.S. automobile industry, Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price. But this determined engineer refused to be silenced, and he took on the corporate titans in a battle that nobody thought he could win. The Kearns were a typical 1960s Detroit family, trying to live their version of the American Dream. Local university professor Bob married teacher Phyllis (Lauren Graham) and, by their mid-thirties, had six kids who brought them a hectic but satisfying Midwestern existence. When Bob invents a device that would eventually be used by every car in the world, the Kearns think they have struck gold. But their aspirations are dashed after the auto giants who embraced Bob's creation unceremoniously shunned the man who invented it. Ignored, threatened and then buried in years of litigation, Bob is haunted by what was done to his family and their future. He becomes a man obsessed with justice and the conviction that his life's work-or for that matter, anyone's work-be acknowledged by those who stood to benefit. And while paying the toll for refusing to compromise his dignity, this everyday David will try the unthinkable: to bring Goliath to his knees.