Netflix DVD – they rated it as 4.7 stars for me, with 4.1 for the general audience. I’m going to give it 5 stars. I had heard good things about it, which surprised me because I didn’t think it would be that great with a talking raccoon! I think I avoided it back when I was into comic books, because I just didn’t like the silliness. This movie, though, does silly in a great way, it’s the ton of fun they said it was, and I enjoyed it a lot. The visual effects were fantastic, and I could see the science fiction city scenes working perfectly for a Legion of Super-Heroes movie.

Groot was a fun character, and even the raccoon was fun. I thought the green woman was cool, but maybe not as tough as she could have been – but then, maybe it worked better this way. The big, thick, muscle-bound guy, I think, was probably the weakest of the characters, some of the humor with him was pretty lame. I liked the main guy a lot, he’s got a good screen presence, and he fit this movie perfectly. The general tone of the movie, with the music and a large number of humorous moments, combined with the science-fiction visuals, really worked well. Hopefully we’ll see a lot more movies like this in the future … and more serious ones with science fiction visuals like this.

Netflix streaming – they rated it 4.5 stars for me, but only 3.7 for the general audience – “my kind of weird”? Yes, what a great movie this was, I didn’t think I was going to like it at all, but Netflix is almost never wrong with my ratings. I’m going to give it 5 stars. Salma Hayek was wonderful in this movie, as was Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera. A number of big-name stars had shorter roles, and in some cases weren’t easy to recognize: Ashley Judd, Edward Norton, Antonio Banderas, and Geoffrey Rush. This movie had a great tone to it, the music added a lot, the special-effects scenes of paintings, the costuming – it all came together to make this a masterpiece.

What an amazing life this woman had. Continue reading →

Netflix DVD. They predicted it at 4.3 for me, and it has 3.8 for the general audience. I gave it 5 stars.

Wow, this was a really spectacular movie, I can’t believe it got only a 65 on Rotten Tomatoes. Somebody is being a bit too picky about plot holes, I guess. I haven’t even thought about any plot holes, I just let the movie wash over me and it was amazing. Spectacular scenes, many funny bits, sibling rivalry roller-coaster, and a fantastic twist at the end. Not to mention gorgeous styling of costumes and scenery. What’s not to like?

Netflix streaming – a rewatch, I had seen this before and gave it 5 stars. The general audience rates it as a 4.2. This second viewing reminded me what a good movie this is. I didn’t remember that there was so much swearing in it, or that there were so many great dialogue scenes. Several of the scenes are very emotional to watch – if you truly connect with this movie. It was fun to watch Robin Williams again, but all of the main actors were fun to watch.

I can’t believe a printed movie poster would have such a blatant spelling mistake in it! Btilliant!