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Sunshine cleaning is a really nice movie about two sisters(Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) who set up a business cleaning up after dead people. Crime scenes, that sort of thing. This Happens when Rose Lorkowski's(Adams) house cleaning job is not enough to pay for private school for her son who is removed from his public school for licking walls. She is then turned onto the prospect of

biohazard waste

cleaning by a cop who sees the money it pulls in. There is not really much more to the movie than that. There are no big plot twists or epic events in it just little things that really effect people. That I think is why I like the movie there is nothing too complicated about it and ti doesn't try to hard. There are a lot of movies out at the moment that exchange any sort of engaging plot line or character arc for explosions and fast cars and though I will not name names, as that would be unkind, but that kind of movie gets very old very quickly. It is nice every so often to see a movie that is character based and makes you use you mind a little bit.

There is a lot to like about Sunshine Cleaning. Amy Adams is as delightful as ever and I love Alan Arkin as the father in it. He has a fairly small part but he has an amazing ability to bring life to it and give him a place in the movie that another actor would have missed out on. He playsa father and a grandfather in the film and manages to not only be either of those things. The movie is lighthearted esentially and a great deal of the comic relief comes from Grandpa Joe. He has a few hairbrained money making scemes which are quite funny but are not overdone to the point where it makes the movie seem silly.

The only problem I have with things really is Emily Blunt's character. The acting is good and she fits really well into the plotline as the slightly underachieving younger sister who doesn't really give a damn. On the other hand the debth to her character is given by an event involving her mother as a child and though she has moments of dispair the rest of the time she seems fairly care free and happy go lucky. She shows as a good caring side and has a moment when in the house of an unknown mother where she wants to sort things out but her more depressed moments are a little out of character and seem to come out of nowhere. They don't by anymeans ruin the movie or even the character but they do knock a few figures from me giving the thing ten out of ten.
That is about the only thing that I would complain about. The movie loses momentum from time to time but again it is nothing too drastic. It is a quirky little movie and that sort of thing has always appealed to me. I like it and I would tell people to go see it.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Terminator Salvation

June 4th 2009 10:59

i am a huge fan of the Terminator films and because I am and because of my sorry disapointment with T3 I went into this movie with scepticism. Usually when I set myself up for a fall I get one but this time it was not the case. I enjoyed Salvation. It was a good movie and time magazine were completely right in describing it as an action film, wrapped in an action fil with a side of explosions.
The first installment in what will be a thrillogy of salvation movies follows the grown up(by my estimate about 33 but I only know that cause I am a nerd) John Connor in the year 2018. He knew what the future had in store for him and he is ready for it, sending out daily messages to kepp the hopes of the masses alive. Connor uses the tapes that his mother made for him(end of T2) as his guide to get him through. this I like because it goes back on the original form of the movies thatr I knew and loved and it inculdes the information, though not Sarahs original voice that fans are farmilar with. I as a fan appreciate that sort of thing in a sequal but not so much the repeating of old tag lines that are only thrown in to get a hoot from the audience( "What will I tell them when they find you gone?" J.C:" Tell them I'll be back") Other than that it did fell like an extension of the frachaise, things are done a little differently but they have to be for the movie to work as a new entity and part of the thrilogy that it is going to be.
We know from T3 that the timeline has changed so you can expect a few things to be slightly different they were origianally destained to be. I accept that and the things that are different are only reallt things that nerds like me would notice, like the fact that young Kyle Reece tells his new friend that we don'r go out at night whern old Kyle Reece in T2 told Sarah Connor that they could only go out at night and even then it was still very dangerous.

That sort of thing though most people will not notice and the other five people in the cinema with me did not notice it but still I can't help mentioning it because it annoys me when a new director ignores that subtlies of the old movies. That is just one thing though. One of the main plots of the movie is that skynet is trying to kill Kyle Reece, we can only presumes to stop him fathering our friend J.C. but what puzzels me greatly is how did they know that. There was no way of them finding out. It makes no sense.
In terms of action its a good one but not a perfect one. You are never really in fear of Connors life cause you kinda know that is is ogoing to have to come back so that they can make three movies. otherwise there are a lot of explosions and some good shoot out betweens the rebels and the T600(which didn't have rubber skin as promised) but it was if anything tamer then it predcessors and I am not really sure why because with the amount of people killed off it really had more scope to be as distructive as possible.
Actaully forget what I just said go see it.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Angels and Demons

May 18th 2009 11:34

When I went into the cinema to watch this movie I told myself to expect nothing. The Da Vinci code Angel's and Demons in a fast paced, pager turner in the movie it is all a bit of a blur. They fit everything in but nothing in a very meaningful way. The story is about a secret society who are going to blow up the Vatican as revenge for its age long assault on science and they fly in your friendly neighbourhood symbologist to save the day, as well of course as the pretty scientist who created the antimatter which is going to send the city to meet its maker. It is complicated, unnecessarily so you might say and unlike the wealth of pages in the book, nothing is really given enough time.
Having said that a book and a movie are very different entities and I am the very one who will tell anyone who stands close enough for me to make them hear my point that you cannot compare the two on the same level. The book and the movie are never really going to be the same. You write things down that people will picture in their head but would be very hard to put on screen(the the alternate ending). So I will just talk about the movie. Pile of Pooh I think is too harsh for this movie but it doesn't smell of roses either. You cannot accuse it of being slow movie but you don't really keep up with all the running around because it doesn't really make you care enough. You don't care if the cardinals get killed really and for some reason you are encouraged to dislike nearly all of the characters as the movie lists out their flaws but not in a

we are all flawed as human beings

sort of way but more in a

I could possibly be behind this

way and because of that you don't really connect with any of these characters. The only person you are being told to like is Ewan Mcgregor's character and that's only really because he speaks softly in a Irish accent.

Well I say Irish accent but in reality he just joins the list of actors who seem unable to do one. In fact if he had stuck with owe Scottish twang he would have been closer.
Another thing that bothered me about the movie was the way that they justified other characters being of help to our hero Robert Langdon. I wondered how a professor of symbology who has speak his career studying the symbols of different cultures and wrote a book on the Illuminati does not speak Latin and neither is his Italian passable enough to translate the passages he was trying to read. In fact if that was the case he should have just sent someone else down to the vault and got them to write it out for them in a language he could understand.
to be honest I came out of the cinema with the same thought in my head as when I went in. I was happy that I had expected nothing because that was more or less what I got. I still liked the idea of a secret society and the mysteries that they layed down it was just everything else in the movie that ruined it.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Star Trek

May 14th 2009 14:46

I am not a Star Trek fan. I just thought I had to get that out there before I went anywhere with this thing. I have admitted in the past to being a nerd and I am not now denying that fact but I am a very specific kind of nerd. I am the kind of nerd who already had Lord of the rings on DVD but bought the extended editions when they came out. I am the kind of nerd who loves comic book movies and is generally disappointed by them when they eventually get to the big screen but I am not a science fiction nerd.
My boyfriend is however and while he was wetting himself at the prospect of a new Star Trek movie coming out I was putting my foot firmly down. I was absolutely adamant that there was no way I was going to see that movie. This is where you cut scene from my foot stamping and find me nestled into a middle row seat in cineworld at said movie. Yes there was a begrudging look on my face but I went none the less

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Xmen Origins Wolverine

May 2nd 2009 14:09

This is one of those movies that doesn't need a review because, as one of the first of the summers season's blockbuster, everyone will be talking about it. Despite that I still felt the need to put in my two cents on the issue and I have good reasons for it. Empire(Uk movie review mag.) is my bible when I am planning my movie going and as such when I am about to embark on a cinema trip and spend my hard earned cash I flick through the pages and if a movie comes up with less than 3 stars I wait unti it comes out on Dvd. Xmen got two stars. By rights I should have let it go, take the good advice and gone to see another movie. But I didn't. There is a reason for that too, it is a simple one. I am a nerd. Give me any movie with magic and mahem, a splash of superhuman powers and maybe even a vampire or two and my ticket is paid for before I find out the title. It is something that tends to take away the decserning part of my nature but I can't help it. I am a nerd.
so as the nerd I am I went along to Wolverine despite the advice to the contrary and I will tell you something, I loved it. Ok love[/I is probably a bit of a strong word here but I muched away at my popcorn and for two straight hours I was entertained. There were moments sure where I thought
wait should that have been that easy?
or
hmm that came out of nowhere
but the nerd in me told me to shut up that I was ruining the movie. That would be my advice on this one, don't over think it. It is interesting and, in some places, even well done but there are a good many holes in the exciting blow by blow plot. The holes though are not big ones and they can be passed over but there are also a lot of sequences that are rushed and don't really add to the story except to give you a tiny piece of information that you didn't reall need to have but that the movie producers hope woulld make you think
Oh that is how that happened!
.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Zack and Miri Make A Porno

March 9th 2009 07:54

MATURE CONTENT

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Posted By: Nichole Rutledge - Category: No Category

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The lost Boys - The tribe

February 21st 2009 04:20

It started with a newspaper article announcing to the world that Cory Haim was clean, sober and ready to work again and it ended with a straight to DVD movie that a high percentage of people don't even know exist.
The original lost boys movie is one of my favourite films of all time so when they made a sequel I ignored the crappy reveiw from those I precieved not to be real fans and went out and rented it anyway. The only word I can use to describe my reaction was disapointed. There was the look of the lost boys but they just brought it up ten years used the same basic story line and ignored the massive plot holes. Edgar Frog(CoryFeldman)"We need to find out where the vampire live," Chris(Tad Hilgenbrink)" Ok I will become a vampire and find that out for you" Edgar" Great just pop over to their place and do that" It s hard to miss the lack of real passion in this movie. It is like they decided to make it but got bored half way through and just rushed to finsh it off.
The story line basically isa brother and sister move to vampireville the sister is turned into a vampire at a party she is invited to by strangers in dangerous town she doesn't know but why not her brother is going to come and start fights with people who would kick his but. Then he has to save her from the terrible vampires who video themselves beating each other up and who should be hard to kill but it turns out are not at all. And all this before she had her first drink of human blood which luckily doesn't happen for a really long time

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Juno

February 19th 2009 02:12

I know this one has been out a while and most people have probably already seen and don't need my opinion on it at all but it is so good I feel the need to say it anyway.

Juno

is a really simple movie with a simple story about a teenaged girl who gets pregnant but it is also an outstanding comdey and a exceptional piece of entertainment. It is beautifully shot with bright exciting colours that reflact the mood and momentum of the movie. The characters are well developed, even though you are only seeing a two hour, or nine months movie time, snatch of these peoples live you feel like you know and if you did you would like them . There are no evil characters or sinister people lurking the back ground just ordinary nice people with thier own language that is infectous. I went around for about a month after seeing it the first time using the phrase "honest to blog" which didn't really have any relevance to what I was saying but I just liked saying it. Oh and also "guesstamation" which has, I think, Inflitrated ordinary language.

For those who haven't seen it I recommend going out and getting the Dvd immediately. Ellen Page is wonderful as Juno and Micheal Cera(superbad) is delightful(not a word I use lightly) as the slightly nerdy Beaker. I have not found a person yet who doesn't like it. Plus not only is it a great movie but it has a fantasic sound track which I in fact went out and bought. It is easy listen which is not to everyones taste but it is the kind of music that puts you in a good mood so it is to be liked for that.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Rules of Attraction

February 19th 2009 01:37

Rules of Attraction

is one of those older movies that are not quiet in the classic section but are also not close enough to the new section of the video shop that you would pick it up. I picked it up because I had just finished reading the book(which I would really recommend reading but not if you are easily offended) and I wanted to see how in Gods name they made of movie out of that jumble. Well they didn't. They combed through the material in the book and plucked out a plot line that wasn't really there and tried to make sense of something I don't think was really meant to make sense. The irony of the book is lost in translation and you are left with very little but the star of Dawson's Creek doing various sinister facial expressions as a substitute to acting.
The movie is all about drugs really and life in a certain era for college students and maybe if you were on drugs there is a possibility that you would get what is going on but I am not so I think I was left behind at the start. I was disappointed by the show from the man who brought us

American Psycho

but then it isn't really his fault that they couldn't work out what he was doing enough to make the movie.
If you are interested I would say read the book and give the movie a miss.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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Mullholland Dr.

February 4th 2009 05:00

It is rare that you can sit through two hours of a movie and walk away having no idea what just happened. This movie has been out a few years and the fact that it got such good reviews at the time made me think I had missed out in something so I went back and rented it on DVD, then becasue I still didn't get it I looked it up to find out what the director said it was about and as it turns out he doesn't know either.
There is a certain enigma to the film that is enjoyable it sucks you in becasue you are sitting there not wanting this movie to out smart you. You want to be able to get to the bottom of it and find out what is real and what is not and fix it al in your head but doing that is a watse of time because it doesn't figue out. Post-Modern is a phrase I would use to describe Mulholland Drive. It is a story but not one that makes sense and it is about attitude to life and peoples reactions to other people. It is about being an individual who is trying to fit in.
I hate to say I didn't like it becasue everyone else seems to love and I don't hate it, I didn't want to get up and walk away from it but i think in some ways it trys to hard. As a veiwer I was kept involved in the movie but it was trying to keep me out too. It is not an easy movie to watch. I would say if you are a film buff try it but not for a wet sunday afternoon.

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Posted By: Rachael Murphy - Category: No Category

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