The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for the ‘Movie Review’ Category

Don’t even get me started on that TV show from Nickelodeon from when I was growing up. I have always loved spooky movies, but for some reason, that show was too much for me. But the movies, I could do them all day long, except for when it was bedtime, then I would have to watch a cartoon or something silly to get the scary thoughts out of my head. I still have to do that lol

This year, Halloween week, my husband is out of town, so I am watching these creeptastic movies by myself. I am ok with that, because he really doesn’t like them anyway. But, that also means I am alone when I go to bed and I feel like a goof being 24-years-old and leaving the light on. To prepare for this week, I have DVR’d all kinds of scary movies and plan on spooking myself out to the max. This is very easy to do thanks to SyFy, AMC and ABC Family. They are all running every scary movie possible this week.

I am going to do two things with this post. 1. I want to leave a list of my favorite Halloween’ish movies and 2. Leave a list of the movies I am watching this year.

There are two types of Halloween’ish movies that I love. I love the uber scary ones, but I also like the fun witchy ones.

Favorite Scary Movies:
1. Halloween: Halloween is by far my favorite scary movie of all time. To this day, when I hear the theme song for Michael Myers, I get chills. I’m not quite sure why, but I feel like there’s something about older scary movies that give me the willies more than new ones.
2. Halloween 4: The second Halloween movie is ok, I hate the third one, but coming back to the 4th and 5th, I’m a fan. These are the two that have little girl in them. Her name is Jamie and from this movie, I learned that if kids are involved, the movies are scarier.
3. The Skeleton Key: Based out of the swamps of New Orleans, pure witchraft is the source of this movie. I have seen it tons of times, but each time, it still intrigues me and makes me want to learn more about old witchcraft traditions.
4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: When it comes to newer movies, this one takes the cake. It’s one that freaks me out, but I can laugh at the same time. For my senior prom, we actually rented this movie and ordered pizza before the dance.

If you can tell by my movie choices, I am a fan of anything that could be real. Those are the worst kind to go to bed on, but I still can’t stop watching them.

Favorite Fun Halloween Movies:
1.  Hocus Pocus: Does this surprise anyone? I think this is a fan favorite of the ages. I have always loved this movie and get in the true Halloween spirit when I see it.
2. Practical Magic: Another witch movies. You may see a theme here. Most of the fun Halloween movies I watch yearly deal with witches. I am a huge Sandra Bullock fan and actually watch this movie year-round when I need a good cheering up.
3. Any Harry Potter flick: I could watch these movies over and over and never get tired of them. I saw one on last night and wished that it was a Harry Potter weekend on one of the channels.
4. Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride: I still love me a little cartoon action and this one takes the cake. Although it is very dark, I love this movie. I caught it a couple of years ago on ABC Family and look forward to it every year.

Ok, so those aren’t the only movies that I have come to know and love. As promised earlier, I will be adding and updating a list of the movies that I watch this week right here on my blog. My movie watching actually start on Friday night. And if I don’t like a movie, I normally don’t watch it all and wste my time because there are so many great ones to offer.

1. The Skeleton Key

Friday:
2. The Hitcher- This was my first time watching this one. It was really creepy. The bad guy was a hottie though, so it was hard to hate him
3. The Final – OMG, the non-popular kids are fighting back against the ones who made fun of them in a really screwed up way.

Saturday:
4. Kill Theory – Could you kill your best friends to save your lives?
5. Final Destination

Sunday:
6. The Reeds
7. Prom Night (new one)
8. Corpse Bride
9. Secrets in the Walls - the was kind of crazy on Lifetime

Monday:
10. House on Haunted Hill - this one always freaks me out but there’s so many famous people in it

Tuesday:
11. Halloween – although it’s my favorite, I have so much reading to do, I may not be able to get all the way through it. Plus, once that song gets in my head, I can’t get it out!
12. The Craft

Wednesday:
13. Halloween 4

Thursday:
I took Thursday off – spent the evening with my mom, soaking up the Project Runway finale.

Friday:
Friday… well I am taking Friday off too. Tonight I am going to the Miranda Lambert concert with a friend and some family. I may be able to talk the girl’s into watching one with me late tonight when we get home

Saturday:
14. Scared Shrekless

Sunday:
15. Hocus Pocus
16. Halloween - Yes I watched it again!
17. Halloween 2
18. Hide and Seek

Why did I wait so long to watch this movie? Oh My Gosh, I will preface this post with I absolutely loved it!

This movie is about Margaret Tate, Editor in Chief at a major book publishing company, and her very scared assistant, Andrew Paxton. Margaret finds out she is going to be deported back to Canada for not taking the proper procedure in updating her Visa. And the only thing that can keep her in the US with her fabulous job (if I do say so myself) is getting married. She chooses Andrew and to make it look real, they go to Ryan’s home in Alaska where they are very surprised at how wonderful their weekend is.

This movie was very predictable, but I really liked it. And by the way he was laughing, I am pretty sure Michael liked it. It’s funny, it’s girly, it’s got love and marriage, and it’s got emotion. Yes, I cried during this movie (laugh all you want, I cry at almost every movie I watch and weekly at Grey’s Anatomy).

The characters in this movie are great. I am a huge fan of Sandra Bullock and I haven’t watched a Ryan Reynolds film that I haven’t liked! And Betty White, she’s proved herself. You don’t even have to say anything other than she is in the movie. Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson play Andrew’s parents in this movie. I haven’t seen Nelson since Coach. My mom LOVED that show!

I really don’t have any complaints about the movie. It had me laughing most of the time, at some times so hard I was almost crying. I suggest watching this movie, if you haven’t already. Even if you are a man!

I give this movie 5 popcorns!

I’m a sucker for cute teeny bopper movies and this one so fits the bill. Yes, it’s completely unrealistic, but it was super cute.

Things didn’t quite turn out the way Mike O’Donnell expected. He was the star of the basketball team, close to getting on Syracuse’s team, until his girlfriend gives him a stunner before a major game. Jump forward 18 years to Mike not getting a promotion, but he is getting a divorce. When he wakes up 17 again, he has a chance to become friends with his kids and prove to his wife they should still be together.

This movie is very cute and there were a couple of times when I laughed out loud. Zac Efron is a cutie and I had to tell myself he wasn’t younger than I am the whole time I watched it.

*SPOILER ALERT*
I don’t really have any complaints for this movie, other than the ending. I was glad Mike and Scar got back together, but it’s their sons big chance to show off his moves on the basketball court and they just walk out the door. I’m all about involved parents. No, I don’t mean stage parents, but as much as Mike loved basketball, you’d think he would want to watch his son get his chance.

I think the thing I liked best about the movie, and it wasn’t REALLY part of the movie was at the end when they were going through the credits. Everyone who had parts in the movie or was part of the writing or production, they pulled up their high school photo when their name whizzed by. Very cool idea. And you probably wouldn’t know them anyway if  you saw their “today” picture.

I give this movie 3 popcorns. It was cute, but I probably won’t watch it again and I definitely won’t be buying it.

I have been leery about watching this movie since it came out. I knew I wanted to watch it, but since I’m such a book nerd, I wanted to read the book first. I just looked at the review I did when I read this book and the first sentence was almost exactly the same

I only gave the book 3 bookmarks. It was just ok. I felt like I put quite a bit of pressure on it because I was so excited to read it and it just didn’t match up.

The movie on the other hand, I really liked. I think it was mainly because I could see the characters. I liked being able to see Phoebe grow up with her down syndrome. I think it helped me relate to her better. I also think that since it started in the 60s, it’s not a time I knew, it was nice to see it. I liked the visual of the hospital, the nurses, how people acted and dressed. It’s easier, for me, to watch those things then try to picture them in my mind.

The only thing that really stood out to me as missing from the movie was the emphasis the book put on Norah’s alcoholism. There was one point where David told her to drink another one, but that’s it. I thought the book hit on that really hard, but the movie let it slide.

It’s been a few months since I read the book, but I don’t remember Phoebe going to see Paul play in the book like they showed in the movie. I actually really liked that part. It showed a bond. They didn’t realize what it was at the time, but I thought it was a nice touch.

And yes, like ALL Lifetime movies, I shed a little tear. I even know what happened.

I give the movie 4 popcorns.

To see my book review on The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, click here.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this movie because I loved the book series and sometimes it’s hard to live up to the books.

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a Shopaholic. She grew up with thrifty parents who cared more about the longevity of a new pair of shoes than if they were the cute ones all of her classmates had. That ended up turning her into a monster.

She owes $9K in credit card bills and just lost her job. She doesn’t get the job she wanted at a fashion magazine, but does get an interview at a money magazine. Ironic? You betcha.

The movie is SUPER cute, but I’m kind of stuck on how I feel about it. If I wouldn’t have read the books, I think I would have loved it. But since I did read the books, I can’t decide if I liked it because it wasn’t verbatim from the books, or if I hated it for that reason.

There were similarities in the book and the movie. Like the scarf, the job, the crazy shopping, the names and of course the credit card frozen in the ice block in the freezer.

I wish that the movie would have  been based in Europe. In the book series, she doesn’t move to the US until the second book. I always imagined Rebecca having an accent, but in the movie, she’s American, so no accent.

If I would never have read the books, I would give this movie 4 popcorns. It’s a “straight from the book” chick flick. But since I’ve read the books and there were parts of the book that I wish would’ve been in the movie, I am giving it 3 popcorns.