Tai Chi Zero-Attempting to learn a secretive martial art style, an outsider to a village that teaches the deadly form is trusted with their style when he proves to be the only hope they have against stopping a government team building a railroad through their village. This was quite fun and highly enjoyable, mostly when it stayed on the straight-forward path here since for the most part this one was way too comic and joke-filled that never really warranted the use for that kind of zany and utterly irritating ploy here of introducing the actor playing the characters whenever they walked up on screen followed by a brief note about them in real life. It's distracting and really takes away from what the entire purpose of here which is to be a stylish and utterly enjoyable chop-socky martial arts/steampunk mash-up that's utterly amazing to watch with the wire-fu being some of the most enjoyable and acrobatic works of art in the scene recently with plenty of intentionally dynamic works to showcase the influence of Tai Chi on the story while demonstrating some rather exceptional mechanical works in the final half to build on the redemption needed to bring the film full-circle. There's a lot more traditional action here with the destruction of the village and the later battles inside the mechanical robot, but the full-village assault is a great action highlight that really redeems this wholeheartedly, and when mixed with the great fighting around it gives this a lot to like.
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Some people are like slinkies: not good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one falls down the stairs.
Started up our Christmas movie marathon with a few that I'm surprised took this long for us to get to:
Elf-Will Farrell is not that funny and his antics really ruin a lot of this one by undermining a lot of the heart and warmth found within. The rest of the family likes it a little more than I do but even still we're not all that impressed with it.
A Christmas Carol-The animation is a little off-putting and it seems like a gimmick having Carrey perform in the roles he does but this wasn't as bad as I'd expected, just a bit overlong. We're still debating about including it but I'd lean towards no as it doesn't really sink in the way the others have done with us.
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Some people are like slinkies: not good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one falls down the stairs.
The Polar Express-Overall a much better movie than anything we did over the weekend as the animation is a little crisper, it moves along at a fairly nice pace and tells a really enjoyable story here, but there's just not anything here remotely related to the holiday and seems to be somewhat arbitrary in when it's set. It's not specifically about Christmas and the spirit of the day which is what we're all about during this, so this one will also be skipped over.
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Some people are like slinkies: not good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one falls down the stairs.
Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness-Winning a trip on a commercial space flight, the gang finds the effort sabotaged by a mysterious alien and must rely on their astronaut guides and their own mystery-solving skills to get back to Earth safely. I have to say this one was quite the enjoyable effort which offered a lot to really like about it. The humor comes through really nicely here, with the gang each getting something to do that's truly funny from Fred's quest to win over the heroic astronauts, Daphne's twin-sister vibe with their female pilot, Velma's quest to leave the shallow celebrity judge following her and Shaggy and Scooby's chance encounter with their favorite athlete also on-board makes for a really fine first half that meshes nicely with the jaded, conceited host of their flight who thinks everything revolves around him all managing to make due of the fact that there's not a slightest clue of a mystery needing to be solved here. Once the alien shows up and forces them into the space station, things pick up dramatically with some thrilling encounters, a nice sense of fun and even manages to wrap up all the existing storylines quite nicely. There's a few minor issues, namely once again the fact that Daphne's main storyline is the 'I'm-not-just-a-pretty-face' issue that's been used a few times in other films and doesn't really come off as anything new in their relationship since it's already been done before and just fills up time between them. Likewise, the alien doesn't even enter the picture until the halfway point and the resolution is so easy to guess that the mystery itself is entirely half-baked, but overall it's still a really enjoyable effort.
Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Some people are like slinkies: not good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one falls down the stairs.