Quick takes

The holidays allowed for some much needed catching-up-on-movies time for my wife and I. Sadly, due to last semester's business, our movie-watching took a serious nose-dive to the point that we had to cancel our Netflix subscription (I'll pause to let you catch your breath). The silver lining in all of this is the fact that my brother and sister have a movie collection that could rival Netflix, thus I have borrowed from their extensive collections. So here's a bunch of quick shot mini-reviews of movies I've seen recently and what I thought about them.

• Mean Girls - I must admit, I orignally had no desire to see this movie. Back when it came out, I did read quite a few articles about it and while intrigued, the idea of watching caricatures of girls being mean to each other for an hour and a half just didn't float my boat. My curiousity was peaked though when my wife watched it and recommended that I see it due to its over-the-top hilarity. I've got to say, this may be one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while, but it also hits quite a few all too true notes. 8/10
• 16 Blocks - Bruce Willis plays a washed up drunkard of a cop assigned to escort a witness to a court hearing a certain distance away eluded to in the title. The catch is the witness is going to testify against some dirty cops, one of which is Bruce's old partner. Mayhem ensues, and despite being a drunkard, Willis channels some John McClane mojo to pull off some decent action sequences. 7/10
• Hostage - Another Bruce Willis movie, only this time he's a former hostage negotiator turned small town sheriff. As the name of the movie implies, some kids take a man and his children hostage in a botched carjacking attempt and it's up to Bruce to seek a gruesome, deathly ending for those involved. A few nice twists along the way, but I could have done without the "Crow" -like imagery. 7/10
• Resident Evil - Let's just strip this down (like Milla Jovavich in all her movies): if you were a fan of the video games, you'll probably like the movie; if you're a fan of thriller sci-fi, you might like the movie; other wise, you'll think it was boring and made little to no sense whatsoever. I fall partially in all 3 groups: 9/10 for game fans, 7/10 for sci-fi, 4/10 for normal people = 6.7/10 avg.
• Pirates: Dead Man's Chest - I admitted in my theatrical review of this that it was far lesser of a movie than the first one. While I still feel that way, a second viewing on DVD actually made me like it more, a phenomenon that's becoming more and more common with me (same thing happened with the last two Harry Potter movies). Still a bit long and at times uneven, the ending three way fight between Jack, William, and Norrington is fun action. 8/10