Friday, December 10, 2010

7 Word Weekend Movie Review: The Fighter, The Tourist, and The Dawn Treader


New Movie Releases Reviewed in 7 Words Each


And Everything is Going Fine (limited) - So... Spalding Gray is still dead right?

The Tourist - Reminds me of something...Oh yeah, boring.

Hemingway's Garden of Eden (limited) - I didn't know Mena Suvari still existed.

The Fighter (limited, wide Dec. 17) - It's the battle of the bad accents.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - The title is longer than the review!


The Tourist strikes me as the type of movie I've been avoiding since I was a kid. The only difference is if someone rents it, it'll look silly for me to hide under the table and wait for cartoons. Note that I said "it'll". I have no problem hiding under tables waiting for cartoons. Sure the cast is outstanding (mostly) -Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie (what makes it mostly), Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, and Rufus Sewell- but I'm not to keen on remakes of French films that sounded boring to begin. Plus there's the whole mess it went through with different directors and leads. Altogether a big mess.

There's already a lot of Oscar buzz for The Fighter. Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in the based on a true story of "Irish" Micky Ward. I'm not really into boxing so forgive my ignorance as to who Micky Ward is. I'm sure the movie is great. David O. Russel has put out some interesting films. But just from the previews alone, I don't think I can get past the accents. I don't need my eardrums assaulted for 2 hours. Especially since I've come the conclusion that Christian Bale gets off on doing bad accents.

I loved the first Narnia movie (he said with trepidation fully realizing that he just passed on the two grownup movies in favor of the kid's special) even if I thought it was a tad glossy. The second one... well Prince Caspian has always been my least favorite Narnia book. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on the other hand is one of the best in the series. Reepicheep has always been one of the most fun characters in Narnia and this time he's voiced by Simon Pegg. Win. Eustace, who I sort of always felt was basically Edmund 2.0 but who I liked slightly more, is played by Will Poulter (Lee Carter in the very excellent Son of Rambow) who I think will be perfect for the role. All in all it's shaping up to be a great film. And for the sake of Cotton who doesn't get to see trailers, here's the Narnia preview in all its goodness:


Now if they just get Chris O'Dowd to play Puddleglum in The Silver Chair, I'll be good.

I've been overloaded with Christmas movies lately and I'm contemplating making up a guide to the best and worst ranging from Hallmark to Lifetime to classics. 

Have a great weekend everyone!



18 comments:

  1. unfortunately Marky Mark is doing his real accent in this movie. An accent that I get assaulted with on a daily basis.

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  2. Agree with you on the Narnia movies! The second book had the least amount of substance, which is why they felt compelled to toss some extra junk in. I'm seeing Dawn Treader tonight - will review tomorrow.
    And what's wrong with kid's movies?

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  3. What a lousy week^H^H^H^H year for cinema.

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  4. a Christmas-themed week sounds very cool to me - but I get into the sappy spirit so I'm biased.

    I'm a hemingway fan and 'Garden of Eden' (the book) sucked. Considered I think his worst. So a movie? Yeesh.

    Also - be proud that you're jazzed for the 'kids' movie. Did you like the golden compass? I just saw it for the first time and enjoyed it some, so it's somewhat a bummer that it died and no sequels followed.

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  5. I like Walberg, but I feel like that underdog take has been done a lot lately. I'm interested to see if fans are still going to eat it up or spit it out.

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  6. So when I told my son that I read on TNR that the new Narnia movie was out, he was like... "Yeah, Mom. I already told you that."

    Oops. I guess I get my movie news from the 7 and only the 7.

    And again... LOVE the addition of the preview. The kids huddled up with me to watch this one. Trailers have always been one of the highlights of watching movies for me, I'm not sure why anybody (MY HUSBAND!!!) would fast forward through them.

    Definitely do the Christmas film thing... and OH MY! I just had the most BRILLIANT idea of my LIFE! I'll have to email you... we don't want anyone getting a hold of this bad boy.

    PS) Always a thrill to see the fabric of our lives mentioned on your blog.

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  7. Wheh I was little my Grandfather build me a great wooden ship that I always called the Dawn Treader. I puy it the water once and it took off so fast that we had to rent a paddle boat to go after it. I have great colors and a lion masthead to add but I am too afraid to mess up the original ship work. So I will see the movie for sure.

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  8. Damn marky mark is all over the place, acting producing.....buddy must be raking in paper

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  9. I didn't know Mena Suvari, or whatever the heck her name is was still kickin' around, either!

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  10. Narnia is always awesome and relevant. I want them to do the magician's nephew so badly. And Mark sounds like a New Yorker or New Jerseyer (I don't know which he's trying to emulate) with a mental disability. So that kind of puts me off.

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  11. I took kiddo to see Narnia last night, she loved it. The Dawn Treader was my favorite of the books, so really it was her that took me to the see the movie.

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  12. I'm so excited to see Dawn Treader! I'm really glad it got a good review from you. :)

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  13. It's weird seeing marky mark in "oscar worthy" films.

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  14. The Narnia movie is on our list for this weekend. Glad to see it's a great movie! We saw "Tangled" last night, which I loved. Since you admit to cartoons, maybe you've seen this one? Maybe not? BTW, I loved your German spoon definition! Ha!

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  15. Yay - going to see Dawn Treader with kids Christmas weekend as our annual non-rental movie. We can only stay awake long enough / afford to splurge for the one, so I'm excited that it's worthwhile.

    Hey, have either of those Wahlberg's been btn'd yet? How about it?

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  16. You are probably dead on in what you say, but I'm going to see the Tourist for Mr. Depp, if nothing else.
    Kid's movies aren't the same these days, I don't really think they are made just for kids. I'll be seeing the "dawn treader" for sure.

    I for one, am very tired of boxing movies. It seems like they are really the same movie, right?

    Thanks for the great reviews!

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  17. I'll watch Mark Wahlberg in anything, but Christian Bale? Meh. No, worse than Meh. It's no surprise he's playing the creepy brother in The Fighter, because he slapped around his mother and sister in real life, a year or two back. On Christmas!

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