7 Word Weekend Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Dagenham, and I get animated

New Movie Releases Reviewed in 7 Words Each

Made in Dagenham (limited) - English... Important... But not Harry Potter... Pass.

The Next Three Days - But I haven't finished with today yet.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - Part 1 - Should be magical. (No I won't apologize.)

It's not quite irony, but one should find humor in the fact that Made in Dagenham, a film about women in England fighting for equal pay, will largely lay forgotten for Harry Potter, a film based on a set of books by an authoress who has accumulated more money than many small countries. I do want to see the Dagenham, one day. It's got a pretty decent cast, and the story interests me. But Harry Potter was made for theater watching. It can't help it. 

Course there's also The Next Three Days. It doesn't look that bad, but I have a problem with Russel Crowe. I used to really like him, then he went crazy, and then worse still, boring. I can still enjoy him in a film, but his name has the effect of turning me off initially. 

Last Friday I had an animated marathon. Started off with How To Train Your Dragon. I wanted to see it in theater, but just didn't have the time. It was even better than I thought it would be. In some ways it reminded me of Eaters of the Dead, a Michael Crichton book that's a blend of Viking history and Crichton's take on Beowulf. If you haven't seen the movie, it follows Hiccup, a young Viking out to prove to his father that he's up to the task of slaying dragons. Along the way he befriends a dragon that he himself has injured. He then slowly begins to, as the title suggests, train the dragon. The casting of Jay Baruchel as Hiccup is inspired. He adds a depth to the character that kind of reminds me of Wart from The Sword in the Stone. It's a fun movie with lots of laughs. 9 out of 10

Next up was Toy Story 3. I was going to see it in theater but ended up seeing something else. As I can't remember what it was, I'm guessing I made the wrong decision. All the beloved characters are back (unless you loved Bo Peep, cause... she dead). The drama this time surrounds Andy's leaving for college. The toys find themselves headed to a daycare center which is ruled by a pretty close to carbon copy of the villain from TS2. While I loved the film and thought it was better than the second film, the fact that it reuses so many themes and gags from the other two, feels less like connecting the series and more like unimaginative scripting. Given the quality of the overall film and the fact that one gets to see such well loved characters back in action, it's a small complaint. 8 out of 10.

Finally I capped off the evening with my favorite animated film, The Iron Giant. It's a movie that I've watched way more than I'm willing to admit to. The story is simple: A giant robot crashes on earth and a boy saves his life and befriends him. The themes blended well with my earlier viewing of How To Train Your Dragon. I always enjoy the feel and style of the artwork along with the old pulp science fiction tone it sets. I love the cast. Harry Connick Jr. as the hip junkyard proprietor is comic gold and Vin Diesel as the robot, takes me back to a time when I thought he had potential. And you won't often hear me saying this but I truly enjoy Jennifer Aniston's performance as well. It's a beautiful, emotional, and very funny film. If you haven't seen it, heck even if you have, get it and watch it. You won't be sorry. 10 out of 10.

Have a great weekend everyone!