The movie reviews

The Sundance Film Festival is still a few weeks away, but we decided to watch quite a few movies lately. Not sure whose taste matches mine, but perhaps this may be of some help.

• Pirate Radio - This is a hilarious story about the radio stations that ran in the mid-60's off the coast of England. Philip Seymour Hoffman was good, but there was really no lead actor or actress. They were all good. The soundtrack was incredible. A definite "go see". The crowd loved it.
  
• Sherlock Homes - an action packed adventure. Good acting. Great period sets. If you ever saw the TV show "The Wild Wild West" and liked it, you'll love this movie. It followed the same pattern, but did it in a way a TV show never could. If you will ever see it, go to the theater. The effects are much better on a big screen.
  
• Up - an animated movie about an adventure taken by an old man and a kid that accidentally comes with him. It got huge reviews and has been extremely popular but it just didn't do it for Julie and I. It was ok, but I prefer a number of the other animated movies including Shrek and Monsters, Inc.
• Taking Chance - This was a Sundance movie last year and is now out on DVD. This is one of the most moving movies I have seen in years. It is the story of an officer (Kevin Bacon) who travels back with a cask to the soldier's family. It is impressive and emotional to see the love and care that goes with each fallen soldier. Watch it at home so that you can wipe all the tears without anyone seeing.
  
• Invictus - based on the true story about Nelson Mandela's push with the South African rugby team, helping get them to the 1995 World Cup Championship. Matt Damon is good as the rugby captain. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela about as well as an actor ever could. He should definitely be up for some awards. Interesting to watch, but not one of my favorites. I knew the ending.
  

We saw some of these at home on DVD, some at the theater and one at the library auditorium as part of the Park City Film Series. How do you take a very good movie (Pirate Radio) and make it awesome? Win the raffle at the start of the movie. To kick off our new diet for the year, we brought home a delicious lemon cake with a yummy almond icing. It probably weighed 4 pounds (before we started eating it).