I wasn't sure I would like this movie with Tom Hanks doing 20 voices (not really 20, but feels like that), in a kinda cartoon.
It's not the best movie in the world, but it's not the worst Christmas one ever either.
It starts with a narrator (Tom Hanks) telling his story about when he was a boy and he was beginning to fail to know the meaning of Christmas and thus didn't really get why he was celebrating it. His spirit of Christmas was failing.
One night on a Christmas eve, he goes to sleep and wakes soon to the sound of a train very nearby. Now to me, that wouldn't have woken me up, but that's because I'm used to that sound. Maybe not the train sitting at my house waiting for me to look and come out. Confused, he grabs his robe and rips his poket (this is actually pretty important) and gets aboard the Polar Express.
The conductor is also played by Tom Hanks and he is there to punch tickets, he punctures weird letters into the tickets that aren't quite understood yet. There are other children on the train as well. A little African American girl, a nerd, and a shy kid are the other main kids. When tickets are being punched, the little girl is missing her ticket and the conductor takes her away
They go through amazing adventures going to the North Pole. One of which when the boy goes to bring the little girl's ticket to the conductor, as he fears she will be thrown off the train. He climbs on the top of the train to walk across and meets a strange man on top (again, played by Tom Hanks) who talks to him and also gives him a ride to the engine train.
When he gets there and give the conductor the girl's ticket, there is trouble, the train is on ice. Left, right, left, right, forward, to get to the train tracks across the frozen lake.
Eventually they get to the North Pole. When they get there, the four kids kinda get side tracted by a sound they hear. They end up finding the Naughty and Nice room, and the presents room. Through the process of Santa's Workshop they end up in the top of Santa's bag. When they get down, they have to pick who gets the first present of Christmas. Not hard to figure out who it is and he picks a bell on the reindeer, the sound they had heard (that at first he did not) When he believed, he could hear.
When he gets back onto the train, he's already lost the bell, that dang pocket. Anyway, he wakes up on Christmas morning and finds a small present left for him... his bell. The parents can't hear the bell, but he and his sister could hear it, and he says that at some point his sister could no longer hear it, but he never stopped hearing the bell.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Movie: Christmas with the Kranks
Okay this is a worthwhile movie to watch during Christmas. I know many people have one movie they will watch during Christmas time and don't really want to branch out. This movie is worth branching out for.
It starts out with the Kranks dropping their daughter, Clare, off at the airport. She's in the peace corp and going off for Christmas. Well this just leads Luther Krank (Tim Allen) to devise a Christmas plan unlike anything he or his wife, Nora, would have thought of before.... Skipping Christmas and going on a cruise.
Well this is different for the Kranks, they typically are all about Christmas, spending thousands of dollars every year on Christmas alone. It takes a little convincing for Nora to go along with it, and throughout it she seems a little weary of the situation.
Throughout their ditching Christmas scheme, the neighbors are highly disapproving of the Kranks skipping Christmas. It starts with the skipping of Christmas cards, not buying a Christmas tree, not putting up Frosty and other Christmas decorations. This doesn't exactly work for a neighborhood that does Christmas together.
The neighbors can tell something is different and when they find out they are ditching Christmas for a cruise, the neighbors almost harass the Kranks to participate in Christmas.
When it is Christmas Eve, the Kranks are getting the last arrangements together before they go on the cruise when they get a call... it's from Clare, she's coming home and she's bringing her boyfriend. That means that the Kranks have like 12 hours to get Christmas back on schedule. Have you ever tried to get everything you need for Christmas, on Christmas Eve? The store is usally empty, the trees are the crappy ones that cost a ton, the decorations take weeks to get together.
Thanks to the neighbors, the Kranks are able to barely scrap together a great Christmas to impress their daughter's boyfriend. Now there is the problem with two cruise tickets, and no longer being able to go. Luther decides to give it to the neighbors, whose wife is dying of cancer.
So they all end up going from no Christmas to one of the best christmas celebrations they could have ever had.
It starts out with the Kranks dropping their daughter, Clare, off at the airport. She's in the peace corp and going off for Christmas. Well this just leads Luther Krank (Tim Allen) to devise a Christmas plan unlike anything he or his wife, Nora, would have thought of before.... Skipping Christmas and going on a cruise.
Well this is different for the Kranks, they typically are all about Christmas, spending thousands of dollars every year on Christmas alone. It takes a little convincing for Nora to go along with it, and throughout it she seems a little weary of the situation.
Throughout their ditching Christmas scheme, the neighbors are highly disapproving of the Kranks skipping Christmas. It starts with the skipping of Christmas cards, not buying a Christmas tree, not putting up Frosty and other Christmas decorations. This doesn't exactly work for a neighborhood that does Christmas together.
The neighbors can tell something is different and when they find out they are ditching Christmas for a cruise, the neighbors almost harass the Kranks to participate in Christmas.
When it is Christmas Eve, the Kranks are getting the last arrangements together before they go on the cruise when they get a call... it's from Clare, she's coming home and she's bringing her boyfriend. That means that the Kranks have like 12 hours to get Christmas back on schedule. Have you ever tried to get everything you need for Christmas, on Christmas Eve? The store is usally empty, the trees are the crappy ones that cost a ton, the decorations take weeks to get together.
Thanks to the neighbors, the Kranks are able to barely scrap together a great Christmas to impress their daughter's boyfriend. Now there is the problem with two cruise tickets, and no longer being able to go. Luther decides to give it to the neighbors, whose wife is dying of cancer.
So they all end up going from no Christmas to one of the best christmas celebrations they could have ever had.
Movie: Empire State
I wasn't really sure how I would feel about this movie as I hadn't really heard much publicity for it. Just so happens, I didn't like it that much. It was okay at giving a little history lesson from the 80's, but not much more than that.
It's about the largest robbery that the U.S. has ever seen. The thing is, they don't even know the exact amount that was taken.
It starts out with the end and a small future part then goes into the past to lead up to it. Detective Ransome, Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, is asking Eddie where the money and where Chris was. Then it goes back in the past to show the story.
Chris, Liam Hemsworth, is looking for a job as a police officer to help his family, after his father loses his job, but is rejected from the police academy. So Chris goes to Empire State, an armored truck company, to be a security guard. He's paired with a middle aged man named Tony who shows him all the tricks in the trade. In the beginning of the movie, Tony dies when men try to rob the truck. After this, Chris is put on indoor secruity detail and he finds out that the company was supposed to pay Tony's family a lot more than they did.
Chris starts to slowly steal some money to help Tony's family and have a little for himself. Eddie, his friend, decides that they should steal all the money and they get some other low-life criminals involved in this. When the original night was supposed to take place, two different men try to rob Empire State and thus Chris calls off the whole thing. Eddie, greedy for money and a little scared after seeing Mike kill Jimmy he decides he's gonna do this either way.
Detective Ransome has this idea that it was Chris involved and finds out about it all. They end up arresting Chris and Eddie. Eddie wasted his portion of the money on a cocaine dealer, while the money Chris had was hidden and still has never been found.
It's about the largest robbery that the U.S. has ever seen. The thing is, they don't even know the exact amount that was taken.
It starts out with the end and a small future part then goes into the past to lead up to it. Detective Ransome, Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, is asking Eddie where the money and where Chris was. Then it goes back in the past to show the story.
Chris, Liam Hemsworth, is looking for a job as a police officer to help his family, after his father loses his job, but is rejected from the police academy. So Chris goes to Empire State, an armored truck company, to be a security guard. He's paired with a middle aged man named Tony who shows him all the tricks in the trade. In the beginning of the movie, Tony dies when men try to rob the truck. After this, Chris is put on indoor secruity detail and he finds out that the company was supposed to pay Tony's family a lot more than they did.
Chris starts to slowly steal some money to help Tony's family and have a little for himself. Eddie, his friend, decides that they should steal all the money and they get some other low-life criminals involved in this. When the original night was supposed to take place, two different men try to rob Empire State and thus Chris calls off the whole thing. Eddie, greedy for money and a little scared after seeing Mike kill Jimmy he decides he's gonna do this either way.
Detective Ransome has this idea that it was Chris involved and finds out about it all. They end up arresting Chris and Eddie. Eddie wasted his portion of the money on a cocaine dealer, while the money Chris had was hidden and still has never been found.
Movie: The Blindside
Sandra Bullock does an amazing job in any role she does, and she can do a whole ton of different kinds of roles. This is one of my all time favorite movies, and no it's not because I'm from Baltimore, Maryland and the story is based on one of the Raven players!
The Raven player, Michael Oher, had an interesting high school experience. One that lead him to be with a family that loves and cares for him over being an orphan wondering from home to home.
The movie starts with Michael living with a friend's family and they are on a trip to a catholic school where the father of the friend was trying to get his son recruited. In doing this he also managed to get "Big Mike" recruited to the school too because of the athletics coach.
During a school play, Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and her husband were going home when they saw Michael walking back towards the school. So she asks why he's going back to the school and he says because it's warm... (aww) So Leigh Anne tells him to come home with her and stay there (it's Thanksgiving the next day).
Michael Oher actually ends up staying with Leigh Anne and her family and they become very fond of him in their family and want to adopt him. In this process, Leigh Anne finds that Michael Oher is a ward of the state, and thus no permission needs to be taken from his mother. Leigh Anne goes to find Michael's mother so she can talk to her and find out his real last name and so she knows she is not helping him out.
One of the main reasons Leigh Anne wanted to adopt Michael was because he wanted to get a drivers license. One day when driving with his little brother, S.J., they are in a terrible accident. The paramedic tells Leigh Anne that S.J. is just fine, but he shouldn't sit in the front seat and it's amazing that he was walking away with a bruised lip. She finds out that's because Michael ended up stopping the air bag.
Next up, football! Michael doesn't take to football the way the coach initially thinks he will for being as big of a guy as he is, but they end up finding that he does best when protecting... the quarterback is who he's to guard. During the first game, there is a player who throws a lot of words at him and gets Michael distracted. But after watching the coach defend him when the referees keep giving him penalties he helps the team win the game by keeping his mind on his team and not what the other player is saying.
Through his stellar performance in the game he finds a lot of colleges looking to recruit him. His family really wants him to go to Ol' Miss, but Tennessee also wants him and those are the two that he decides between.
When he picks Ol' Miss is brings up some suspicions that the only reason the Tuohys took him in was because he would be a good sports player for the school they sponsor. It makes Michael question it, but he realizes that they do care for him.
The movie ends with him going to Ol' Miss and then when the Ravens picked him.
The Raven player, Michael Oher, had an interesting high school experience. One that lead him to be with a family that loves and cares for him over being an orphan wondering from home to home.
The movie starts with Michael living with a friend's family and they are on a trip to a catholic school where the father of the friend was trying to get his son recruited. In doing this he also managed to get "Big Mike" recruited to the school too because of the athletics coach.
During a school play, Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and her husband were going home when they saw Michael walking back towards the school. So she asks why he's going back to the school and he says because it's warm... (aww) So Leigh Anne tells him to come home with her and stay there (it's Thanksgiving the next day).
Michael Oher actually ends up staying with Leigh Anne and her family and they become very fond of him in their family and want to adopt him. In this process, Leigh Anne finds that Michael Oher is a ward of the state, and thus no permission needs to be taken from his mother. Leigh Anne goes to find Michael's mother so she can talk to her and find out his real last name and so she knows she is not helping him out.
One of the main reasons Leigh Anne wanted to adopt Michael was because he wanted to get a drivers license. One day when driving with his little brother, S.J., they are in a terrible accident. The paramedic tells Leigh Anne that S.J. is just fine, but he shouldn't sit in the front seat and it's amazing that he was walking away with a bruised lip. She finds out that's because Michael ended up stopping the air bag.
Next up, football! Michael doesn't take to football the way the coach initially thinks he will for being as big of a guy as he is, but they end up finding that he does best when protecting... the quarterback is who he's to guard. During the first game, there is a player who throws a lot of words at him and gets Michael distracted. But after watching the coach defend him when the referees keep giving him penalties he helps the team win the game by keeping his mind on his team and not what the other player is saying.
Through his stellar performance in the game he finds a lot of colleges looking to recruit him. His family really wants him to go to Ol' Miss, but Tennessee also wants him and those are the two that he decides between.
When he picks Ol' Miss is brings up some suspicions that the only reason the Tuohys took him in was because he would be a good sports player for the school they sponsor. It makes Michael question it, but he realizes that they do care for him.
The movie ends with him going to Ol' Miss and then when the Ravens picked him.
Show: Power Rangers Ninja Force
I actually liked this turn around of The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. There is one spin off called Samurai and Super Samurai and those two I couldn't watch. The acting was awful and it made the whole show not worth it to me.
In the beginning, there are three sports fanatics. Tori (the surfer), Shane (the skateboarder), and Dustin (the biker). They are students at Wind Ninja Academy, in the first episode Lothor decides to capture all the ninja academies. Due to their tardiness, the three are not captured in this and are found and become the Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
They do what all the other Power Rangers do, fight bad guys. In the beginning, there are two other power rangers that don't look like the three but are bad guys. They turn out to be Thunder Ninja Rangers and when they find that Lothor lied to them and was the cause of their parents' death, they switch sides.
Cam, is the computer nerd that helps the Rangers get all that they need. His one dream is to be a Ranger, but his father (the sensei, who was turned into a hamster) refuses him until it's the only option and Cam becomes the last of the team, a samurai ninja (it's okay, he actually knows how to act)
This team fights Lothor all the way to the end when they finally defeat (the original three do) and then return to the ninja academies
In the beginning, there are three sports fanatics. Tori (the surfer), Shane (the skateboarder), and Dustin (the biker). They are students at Wind Ninja Academy, in the first episode Lothor decides to capture all the ninja academies. Due to their tardiness, the three are not captured in this and are found and become the Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
They do what all the other Power Rangers do, fight bad guys. In the beginning, there are two other power rangers that don't look like the three but are bad guys. They turn out to be Thunder Ninja Rangers and when they find that Lothor lied to them and was the cause of their parents' death, they switch sides.
Cam, is the computer nerd that helps the Rangers get all that they need. His one dream is to be a Ranger, but his father (the sensei, who was turned into a hamster) refuses him until it's the only option and Cam becomes the last of the team, a samurai ninja (it's okay, he actually knows how to act)
This team fights Lothor all the way to the end when they finally defeat (the original three do) and then return to the ninja academies
Friday, January 31, 2014
Show: Power Rangers Mystic Force
I grew up watching the original Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, and I would occasionally watch episodes of other versions of Power Rangers. I caught the first few episodes of Mystic Force and I thought it was a different take. I thought it was interesting, so I continued watching it.
It starts with 5 teens getting drawn into a magical forest where they meet a woman who tells them they are the Power Rangers and that they need to help save the earth and forest. They are the Mystic Force.
There are a lot of different battles they go through and the more lessons they learn while battling the more spells they learn and the more things they can do to become more powerful.
The red ranger is troubled as being an orphan and he finds out that the sorceress is actually his mother and that his father was the original savior that trapped the master in his "jail".
They find that the red ranger's father is actually a person they battle throughout the whole season and then he is finally freed which he then helps the rangers and again has to trap the master.
They of course go after him to get him back and in the end they all have to work together to save the earth from these very powerful magical creatures and through their kindness they are able to recruit some of these creatures. However they lose their powers and Earth is in trouble and then they go on a mission to see if they can get them back which they are denied at first, and then after showing their courage they get them back and through a team effort they were able to trap the evil back and the end!
Show: Roswell
I remember watching this show when I was younger, but only watching season one. Then recently I rewatched season 1 and then watched season 2 and 3 along with it. I must confess, I got more disappointed as the seasons progressed. In otherwords, season one was great, but I wouldn't really recommend the other two, it felt like a waste of my time.
Anyhow, it starts with Liz getting shot in her parent's restaurant and Max healing her mystically with powers. Thing is she can't tell anyone about this or Max, Isabell (Max's sister) and Michael (their friend) would get in trouble and the government would be after them.
Because of this one day, Max and Isabell become closer and a connection forms between the two. Meanwhile she can't tell her friends about what is happening, but she has to tell Maria, her best friend. Maria can tell Liz is hiding something. Eventually they tell Alex (Liz and Maria's best friend). Throughout the first season, Liz and Max grow close and Maria and Michael grow closer.
The Government finds out about the three aliens and go to Roswell to figure it out. Meanwhile there is another alien called Nasedo that is a mystery to the group. They are not sure if he is on their side or a bad guy, but it seems he is not a friend to them.
In season 2, Nasedo comes out as a helpful character trying to protect the gang from the government. Along with him comes Tess, who is another alien like Max, Isabel, and Michael. Tess seems to make Max go crazy for her and something is very strange about it. Max meanwhile is trying to convince Liz that he doesn't have feelings for Tess, and Liz is trying to not feel anything for Max because of a visit she gets from the future.
Tess ends up getting pregnant by Max by the end of the second season and the baby is "dying" so she needs to get back to their home so that the baby can survive. Also in the middle of the season, Alex dies, and while it's deemed a suicide, Liz is convinced it is a homicide and in the season finale, they figure out who actually killed Alex... It was Tess, she mind-warped Alex to translate a book for them and in doing so killed Alex. Well that means she can go home alone because the rest of the gang stays behind to do season three.
Season three... gosh, I don't even know how to go about explaining this season at all. It's all just very.. um crazy. Well at this point, Liz and Max are back together and they are doing some crazy things to figure out if there is another way to get back home, because Max gets the distinct feeling that his son needs him. Well this ends them up in jail and thus Liz's father said no more, you aren't allowed to see Max anymore. Did this stop them, not really. It's not until Liz gets really sick and starts experiencing alien powers that she decides getting far from Max is best for her, so she goes to the east coast at a boarding school. This doesn't make her safe, however. There are some people that come to her and then Max saves her in a sense while he also is the one going after her. Anyway, Liz starts to be able to see the future and she uses this to see that the government kills them all on their graduation day, so they all make an escape and are on the road running from the government, from then on. It ends showing Liz and Max getting married.
Happy ending.
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