Harry Potter is back for his fifth year at Hogwarts and he angry, brooding, and apparently lifting weights in his spare time.  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is quite good.  I don’t know how true it is to the novel, since I haven’t gotten past the first few pages of the novel myself (Dursley nonsense kinda put me off on reading further).  Anyhow, the pacing is good and the film has “grown-up”, so to speak, along with the characters.  This is dark and dreary movie both in scenery and costume and it adds to the impended turn for the worse at the end of the movie.  Daniel Radcliff is turning into quite a good actor and brings forth well the conflict and frustration within the Harry Potter character.  The story and the character of Harry Potter are getting more interesting and, in a way, I was reminded of Star Wars and the way we were cheated out of a good downfall story for Anakin Skywalker — that is to say, the Harry Potter story, so far, could be a compelling tale of how a good kid goes very very bad.

Anyway, the movie was well worth my $9 and lost sleep due to the midnight start time last night.  By the way it was very fun to see the movie at midnight with all the Harry Potter fanatics.  A good portion of the audience was in costume and my local theather was kind enough to open more theater houses than they sold tickets for so nobody got a bad seat.  The audience was very lively which heightened the movie going experience.

Willis!!! Who gave Homer Simpson a gun? Doh! This is worst movie I’ve seen this year. The movie breaks down this way: Crusty and computer illiterate Baby Boomer (Willis) teams up with Gen Y wimpy whiner (Apple Boy) to kick amoral well-dressed egoist gen X ‘s(villain) behind. As you know, all of today’s woes are due to Gen X … blah, blah, blah, a pox upon Gen X … but I digress. There isn’t much of plot, and what plot they had going is undermined by inconsistencies within the scenarios and techno-babble of the highest grade of nonsense I’ve heard in a while. I also wasn’t too fond of the generally negative position taken on the USA and its citizens.  The undertones of and the stereotypes in this movie deeply offended me as an American and as a hopeful person. Anyhow, the action was good, although completely implausible and against the physical laws of the universe. But then again, when physics makes no sense, use your force of will. This is the McClane Doctrine and ultimately the lesson Gen Y must learn. Technology, math, and reason are bad. The way of truth and good are gained through brute force and man’s will.  Sigh … what a sad, sad, movie. I give this 1/5. 1 point for good action (if you can suspend disbelief) and Bruce Willis’ indestructible body and bald head. Long live Willis!

This is 2-hours of the finest giant robot fun on the planet! “Transformers” the movie doesn’t have much of plot and it really doesn’t need one due to its mighty-fine robots and some spectacular special effects. The story is pretty simple: good and evil robots land on Earth and fight to bring a conclusion to their robot war. The robots are agile and clever, and each has their own personality. They are socially awkward, inpatient, and generally act like otakus in high tech gundams suits. The war and fight scenes are riveting and inspired much glee in my husband and myself. We pinched and slapped each other silly. Ahhh, … and then there are the blatant product placements in the movie. GM is sadly hoping this will make us lust after GM cars. Unfortunately, all I lust for after seeing this movie is for some cool toys. There’s big HP, Apple, Nokia, and Panasonic product placements to recall a few. Watch for the cool little guy that transforms into small personal gadgets. He’s quite cutely mischievous. Oh, and lastly, who wouldn’t want to see giant robots destroy LA! WHEEE! I give this movie 4/5 for some mighty fine robots and the destruction of Wilshire Blvd. Fanboys everywhere rejoice!