The Guard

Not everything they do in The Guard works, but it's still a funny movie, and Gleeson and Cheadle are fun to watch.

The first thing I noticed about The Guard was that I couldn't understand what they were saying, so I had to turn on the subtitles. They were definitely the worst subtitles I've ever seen. Super obtrusive, covered stuff up, and didn't even get all the dialogue. The movie was pretty funny, but a lot of things were kind of a swing and a miss for me.

Kiss of the Damned

Kiss of the Damned has great cinematography and music, but the writing and acting really bring it down. 

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I loved the music, and I like Milo from Gilmore Girls, so I was pretty much hooked. Roeper didn't review it, but at least one person on IMDb said it wasn't terrible, so I watched it. It turned out to be pretty interesting. The best part about it is the music. It's really good. All the songs fit the scenes perfectly, and the parts of it that are original score are amazing.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Like all the HP movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is well done. It looks polished, the acting is good, and the story is creative. This one was definitely boring in places, but it kept me interested for the most part.

I like the Harry Potter movies. I've never read the books, and I don't really see any reason to, but I used to watch the movies when they hit a network TV channel for the first time. I think I even saw one of them in the theater. They're always well done; they look great, the acting is good, the story/things in it are creative. I totally screwed up the series for myself with this one, though. I knew I had seen HP 1-5, and I thought there were only 7 movies in the series. I thought Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 were movies 6 and 7. So, since I'd seen 1-5, I thought it was time for Deathly Hallows. How very wrong I was.

56 Up

56 Up was interesting, but I wouldn't try to watch it all in one sitting, and they should've delineated the classes more clearly.

For anyone who doesn't know, the premise of the "Up" documentaries is to take a bunch of people, and interview them/put out a documentary every 7 years, starting at age 7. Initially I think it was supposed to show contrast in socioeconomic status, and I think they should've stuck with that. My biggest problem with it was it didn't delineate clearly enough between the rich kids and the poor kids. I really had no idea who was who, with the exception of the one rich girl who never had to get a job.

Tai Chi Hero

Tai Chi Hero made no sense, and it wasn't as visually appealing or original as Tai Chi Zero. Maybe Tai Chi Summit will redeem the series.

I was expecting great things out of Tai Chi Hero. Tai Chi Zero set it up perfectly, and I thought Hero was going to be better than Zero, but it wasn't. It actually made Zero look like a five-star movie in comparison. Hero wasn't as visually appealing or as original as Zero. They took out a lot of the more annoying elements, which was good. But the plot was sparse and it didn't make sense.

Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6 is a fun movie. Some of the fights and cars are cool. It's really clunky at the beginning, though, and the dialogue pretty much always sucks.

I don't know why I keep watching these movies. I guess I just like the premise. Cool cars and Paul Walker, yay? Maybe it's just because I've seen all the others, so I feel compelled to keep up with them. I figured this would be a good one to see in the theater, and that decision was validated right with the opening scene, in beautiful somewhere-or-other Spain. I was also immediately glad I brought ear plugs, since loud engines are the first thing you hear. I was a little confused that the opening title was "Furious 6," but I see now that was the original name for the movie. They probably should've changed the opening title. Just an idea.

Tai Chi Zero

Tai Chi Zero really only exists to set up Tai Chi Hero. It looks amazing, but it's super cheesy.

I saw a trailer for Tai Chi Hero, and it looked cool, so I decided to check out the prequel before I saw it. I read on IMDb that Hero was better than Zero, so I wasn't expecting much. The whole kitschy/cheesy/video game feel was kind of obnoxious. It wasn't my thing. I didn't like the pop-ups about the style, or the diagrams that showed up under people's feet. And I especially didn't like the part where it would say "That's Angelababy as Chen Yu Niang! She's a famous actress!" It really took you out of the movie, and I don't know who those actors are, anyway.