Sunday, March 16, 2008

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!

jedaniels-adventures.blogspot.comRelease Date: March 14th, 2008 (wide)

Genre: Kids/Family, Animation and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 28 min.
Studio: 20th Century Fox Animation
Director: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino
Screenwriter: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio
Starring: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Dan Fogler, Amy Poehler, Jaime Pressly, Jonah Hill, Josh Flitter
MPAA Rating: G
Trailer: Theater Trailer
Website: Official Website

Sypnosis:
Based on the very popular children's book first published in 1954 by Ted Geisel, who wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss. "Horton Hears a Who" is about an imaginative elephant who hears a cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Suspecting there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community which thinks he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to help.

Review:
Horton (voice of Jim Carrey) is an elephant who lives his life much as animated elephants in animated jungles do, until the day a remarkable things happens. He discovers voices coming from a speck of dust as it floats by his enormous ears. Convinced that there are tiny people on that speck of dust, Horton captures it on the tip of a clover flower and endeavors to communicate with its inhabitants. He succeeds, and begins a conversation with the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell), who urges Horton to find a safe place for the speck lest his entire world be wiped out. Horton agrees, but he encounters resistance. The Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) who rules over the jungle is a firm believer in the doctrine that "if you can't see it, it's not there," and she can't see any people on Horton's speck, so she hires the vulture Vlad (Will Arnett) to eliminate it. Meanwhile, the Mayor has trouble convincing the Whos that there's a big elephant in the sky talking to him. Even his wife, Sally (Amy Poehler), is skeptical. Only a Doctor Who named Mary Lou Larue (Isla Fisher) believes him.

www.post-gazette.com
"Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who" is one of those rare family films that actually entertains the whole family. It's a perfect mix of jokes for the adults and silly moments for the children. Thanks to Jim Carrey's voice acting. It was perfectly fit for Horton. Carrey's comedy combined with the CG animation of the element ends up being a great performance which i think it was a great combination of voice acting and animation.

Fundamentally, Horton Hears a Who! is a kids' movie but, as is often the case with today's animated features, care is taken to include material that works both adults and kids. This movie was fun enough that I think even if you don't have kids, you'll find "Horton Hears a Who" to be worth checking out.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A Fun Treasure Hunt in National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Release Date: December 21, 2007
Genre
: Action, Adventure
Running Time
: 2 hrs. 4 min.
Studio
: Walt Disney Pictures
Director
: Jon Turteltaub
Screenwriter
: Cormac Wibberley, Marianne Wibberley, Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio
Starring
: Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Bruce Greenwood, Helen Mirren
MPAA Rating
: PG for some violence and action.

Sypnosis:
Treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates looks to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, by uncovering the mystery within the 18 pages missing from assassin John Wilkes Booth's diary.

Reviews:
"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is much like its 2004 predecessor and I will be one of the few critics to say that I don't think that's a bad thing. This time, treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) is presented with a torn-out page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth which implicates his great grandfather as being a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. To prove his ancestors innocence, he and his treasure hunting team of Riley (Justin Bartha), his tech expert, and Abigail (Diane Kruger), his ex-girlfriend must travel from London to Paris to Washington in order to find clues that will lead them to a lost city of gold. Helping him as well is his historian father (Jon Voight) and college professor mother (Helen Mirren). And hot on his heels is Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), who desperately wants to become a memorable part of history himself.

The story was pretty good I like the idea of the film as well I like these types of films. With Indiana Jones coming out next year it nice to see a film that uses the same style and grace like the classic film. The film was about 2 hr and 5 mins and it held my attention from start to finish. It did not get boring at all and was just as good as the first one but the first one was a better film overall. Overall I think this is a great film to check out of the Christmas holiday which is a very crowed season with 5 films coming out this week and 4 coming out next week. Make sure you put this film high on your list to check out you will not be disappointed.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a fun ride. It has all the action and twists you need to keep the grown-ups interested, and it fills things out with some strong action and adventure that will keep the kids happy as well. This film is utterly unbelievable, sometimes silly and totally predictable, but it’s loads of fun and an adventure ride for the whole family.