Mr. Peabody & Sherman

I recently got the chance to take my family, my sister and my ‘baby’ brother to the movies.  We watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

There is one particular thing I want to mention about this movie before I move forward.

It’s nice to see a father figure in a role that promotes the idea of becoming a father instead of making the father look like an oaf.  Too many times in movies and TV shows fathers appear to have mud as brains.  Society is in need of fathers, and although I’m not one yet it is clear that they are needed today more than they have ever been.  Mothers birth children, yes, but the father’s role is always overlooked.  Broken families sadly, often, bring broken children.  Sometimes it’s not possible to fix these broken families I understand.  Mothers, please continue doing the great job you are doing.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman is based on a skit that was apart of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  The small segments were fun but short but packed a lot of heart.  This movie was true to the original minus the bit about being short.

Mr. Peabody is a genius dog that adopts a boy, Sherman, and becomes his father.   Because of his status with helping politicians, creating inventions, and so forth he is able to convince the courts to grant him the adoption of Sherman.  Usually, this is the other way around but the movie talks not of this oddity.    The two, soon accompanied by the local bully girl, have fun across time and space to meet some funny historical figures.  We see them meet Leonardo Da Vinci, the Trojan war, the French Revolution and numerous other historical events.

The antagonist of this movie is actually the CPS worker that disagrees with a ‘dog’ taking care of a human child.  The movie goes to great length to show that even a dog can love a human like a real son.  Even if that means defending his right to his son.

The graphics were on par with the movies of today.  The CGI was solid but also cartoonish at times.  This was done on purpose with great effect.  The time machine’s effects were very cool and the final shots were amazing looking.

This movie is a very funny movie for the ENTIRE family.  There aren’t many out there nowadays.  Please take the time to take your children, grandchildren, etc.

This movie is a solid 80 out of a 100.

This is Nathan Atteberry for Attebiz movie reviews.

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Gravity

Gravity, a film starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, depicts a doomed space shuttle repair mission that takes place in orbit around Earth. I dislike spoilers in movie reviews, so I will simply hint at the plot: US Space Shuttle vs. Raging Russian Space Debris.

The film contains breath-taking cinematics, dizzying realism, and an extremely focused cast of characters. We find ourselves experiencing oxygen issues, contending with Russian space debris, and near miss after near miss. Few films have elicited an emotional outburst from me, but I have to admit

I yelled at the screen during this flick. Thankfully, Bullock’s character took my advice in that particular instance.

I would warn folks who have a legitimate fear of heights and/or suffocating to consider avoiding this movie. Not being overly fond of either of these, after the movie, I had to actively “unclench” and release the stress induced from Gravity’s space antics. I think unclenching after a movie is a sign of two hours well spent.

I would rate Gravity 4.5 Beards out of 5 Beards, and mock you openly if you haven’t yet made plans to see this movie.

Movie review by The Beard

How to watch a horror movie the J-Man way

1. 

   Cover of The Orphanage

   Step 1: be home alone with the lights off.
   Step 2: drink two Scotch ales, minimum 8% abv
   Step 3: lock the door.
   Step 4: start the movie after 10pm
   Step 5: ensure that the door is in fact locked
   Step 6: spend the first act of the movie looking into the deeper meanings, symbolism and such.
   Step 7: lose the ability to do so sometime during the second act and start freaking out at every jump scare.
   Step 8: no seriously, did you lock the door?
   Step 9: grit your teeth and tough it out because you are going to sit there and get all the way through this movie, damn it.
   Step 10: watch every single trailer and clip you possibly can for Anchorman 2 in hopes of forgetting the last two hours of your life and actually getting some sleep.

   Side note: the Spanish horror flick The Orphanage is actually a really good movie. You should check it out. Using the above guidelines
   

Let’s be up front about this movie.  This critic feels very overwhelmed by this movie.  This movie seems to be a movie a little beyond my critic ability.  Readers reading this should refrain from saying things like “well than you just shouldn’t review it then” and but instead suggest edits so this critic can grow to be the best darn critic in the world.

Full Metal Jacket is a great movie.  Flat out great.  This movie was from the late 80’s and was written from a solider’s point of view during the Vietnam War.

We have some favorites of mine.  One being Adam Baldwin.  This guy is hilarious.  Stanley Kubrick is the director at the helm here.  Click the link for more information on him.  The main actor though is Matthew Modine.

Matthew or ‘Joker’ starts off at boot camp and has to undertake the hardship of being beaten down, almost literally, every day during basic.  The movie was very detailed and straightforward on how bad the experience was.  The men woke up crazy early every morning, ran, drilled, were screaming at every single day.  The process was designed to break them down.  They became completely rebuilt as soldiers instead of ‘boys’.  IMDB‘s trivial section talks about the Drill Sargent in the movie and how he actually was one in the Marines.  He was intense.  This detail was very important to me and it really showed the movie’s realistic details and pedigree.

The loser of the group goes through a lot of pain.  Being overweight and not as physically ept as the rest of his buddies he grows hatred for the men around him.  The drill Sargent ‘helps’ the soldier out by punishing the rest of the platoon instead of him for his transgressions.  The platoon learns to hate the kid and in a sad moment of human society.  They beat him in the middle of the night, ‘breaking’ him finally down.

The latter part of the movie shows the men jumping between bunker and bunker.  The camera follows the men very closely.  I really enjoyed this part of the movie.  It seemed uncharacteristic of the movies of the generation.  The camera was appeared to be a shaky cam following the guys.  I could be wrong but the foot work behind this scene looked amazing.  I felt that while watching the one scene I was down in the grind with the guys and I loved the experience.

Is this the best movie ever?  No.  But it is worth the watch.  Keep it away from children.  This movie is a solid 85%,

For Attebiz movie reviews this is Nathan Atteberry

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