The Hurt Locker

I was very surprised when this won Best Picture over Avatar. This film is directed by Kathrine Bigelow. When this won best picture, she was the first female director to win Best Picture. Anyway, this film is about a Staff Sergeant named James who defuses bombs in Iraq. I don't know how this won Best Picture, but Katherine deserves it. The special effects used in the film are very good and it feels like your sitting in a humvee watching all the action from inside it. Out of 4, I give it 4.

Star Trek

This film is by far the best reboot of a cult classic. This 2009 reboot of Star Trek is directed by J.J. Abrams and stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Peg, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, Anton Yelchin, and Bruce Greenwood. First of all, I didn't even see this in a theater. I had wanted to see it in a theater but the budget was tight. So when I had gotten $20.00 for my birthday, I bought it on DVD and loved it the first time I saw it. The special effects for the U.S.S. Enterprise were amazing. Even though they were awesome, they were not better than the special effects for 2012. But I do have to say that J.J. did a very good job with this one. I give 3.5 stars out of 4.

Moulin Rouge

Even though this movie is 9 years old, it is still labeled as a classic romance story in my book. Moulin Rouge is a 2001 film directed by Austrailian director Baz Luhrman who also directed William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. This film stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. This is labeled as a classic love story to me because it is about a writer named Christian who falls in love with cabaret actress Satine who works at the Moulin Rouge. When the movie came out in 2001, it got mostly positve reviews. At the Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Picture. It currently holds the record for the first musical to be Nominated for Best Picture in 22 years. Out of 4 stars, I give it 4 stars. The performances by McGregor and Kidman are powerful and believeable especially when McGregor breaks down and cries at the end when Satine dies.

2012

2012 is the latest movie from German born director Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Thandie Newton. Out of 4 stars, I give it 3 1/2 stars. The special effects are groundbreaking and the storyline is more than typical. Roland has a gift for sci-fi disaster films. For example, Roland directed the film The Day After Tomorrow. In that film, instead of the world ending, the earth was going through another ice age. So back to the plot for 2012, the film is about Jackson Curtis (Cusack) who is an author and a limo driver. When L.A. starts to sink into the Pacific Ocean, Jackson and his family try to survive the end of the world by going to China and getting in these ships that are called "Arks". In the behind the scenes featurette on the dvd, Roland says that the whole movie is basically a modern retelling of Noah's Ark. So all in all; 3.5 stars.