Secretariat

PG
Starring: Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Scott Glenn and James Cromwell
1 Hr & 56 Minutes

Finally a movie that makes you want to stand up and cheer! What a beautiful story. I am old school and I actually remember hearing about the stories of Secretariat the race horse.
This is the true-life story of Penny Chenery Tweedy played by Diane Lane a mother and housewife raising her family in Denver, Colorado. After the death of her mother and a father who is very ill and heart-broken, she tries to balance her time between her home and all of the responsibilities of her father and running their horse farm. The colt Secretariat is born and she falls completely in love with him. He had special qualities and he was a great runner. They called him "Big Red". Her father suffered a stroke and passed away. She is left with her brother to make all the decisions concerning their parents estate including their horses and stables located in Virginia.
With her parents home in financial trouble, her brother and husband recommend they just sale it and be done with everything. She has a strong will and a fierce determination and refuses to give in. She hires a colorful horse trainer played by John Malkovich to help train Secretariat. With Secretariat becoming a rising star, she has more and more decisions to make and more responsibility concerning him. She still has her four children and husband home in Colorado needing her as well. She has to become a savvy business woman and make some serious choices in the male-dominated field of horse racing.
This movie is packed with emotion and leaves you on the edge of your seat. I seriously loved this movie! I would recommend this movie for children ages 10 and older. It is a sports drama and it is action-packed. It is a feel-good movie and you won't be disappointed.

Toy Story

G
1 hour & 43 minutes

Andy, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Rex, Lots-O'-Huggin Bear, Slinky Dog, Mr. Potato Head, Mrs. Potato Head, Bo Peep, Hamm, Squeeze Toy Aliens and Barbie & Ken.
Outstanding Pixar animation hits their mark again! This movie was amazing in every sense of the word. It was sweet and touching and adorable all at the same time.
Andy is now seventeen years old and all ready to leave his home and move forward with his life and go off to college. His mother insists that he needs to go through all of his old things including all of his old toys and decide which ones he wants to keep and which ones he can discard.
The story belongs to the toys as they go through the agony of being discarded and replaced. Their only wish is that Andy will decide to keep them around as they cannot tolerate the thought of being abandoned by him! Their greatest wish is for Andy to never grow old and want to play with them forever. Andy must move on and eventually he has to make the ultimate decision of who will stay and who will go.
I found this heart wrenching and very emotional. With three children of my own I could totally relate to the story. There were parts that were somewhat scary when the toys were mistakenly put out as trash by Andy's mom. They made it all the way to the dump where they were put on a conveyor belt and nearly incinerated!
Eventually Andy made the ultimate decision after Woody wrote a note and persuaded Andy to donate the toys to a little girl named Bonnie. It was very emotional and really struck a cord with all of the people in the audience.

Twilight: Eclipse

PG-13
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson & Taylor Lautner

This is the third installment of the much anticipated twilight series "eclipse". Anyone who has a teenage or twenty-something daughter will know about this movie. The movie is fairly good, definitely geared for its target audience of young girls/women. There happens to be a following of women of all ages. I actually enjoyed the story and saw it with my own daughter who happens to be a "twihard" (people who are consumed with the twilight series including reading the books numerous times, watching the DVD's repeatedly and hosting their own Twilight parties too)!
Dilemma-dilemma-dilemma, who is Bella going to choose, Edward or Jacob?It is difficult to say because she cares deeply for both of them and in this movie Jacob is more assertive about his feelings and Edward is standing his ground as well. Bella is at risk of losing her life with the obsessed vampire Victoria who is consumed with Bella's destruction. Victoria is determined that Edward needs to feel the pain that she feels because he killed the love of her life-James. Both Edward and Jacob team up to help keep Bella safe against the evil Victoria.
There are also some new vampires who have arrived on the scene. They are know as the "Newborns". They are hungry and overwhelmed for their thirst for blood. A teenage boy named Riley is missing in the Forks area and has become Victoria's new friend.
The Volturi ( The royalty of the vampire world) also come back to stop the Newborns.
They decide to wait and see if the Newborns can destroy the Cullens (Edwards family) first. There are twists and turns and it is somewhat melodramatic in parts. There were some pretty intense fighting scenes and some hot and steamy kissing scenes with a lot of passion, a well deserved PG-13 rating. Bella definitely has her work cut out for her. Choices and consequences, what is a beautiful young girl to do? Guess you'll just have to see the movie and decide for yourself! The total running time is: 2 hours & 4 minutes.

Alice in Wonderland

PG
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, & Crispin Glover, Running Time: 1 Hour & 49 Minutes.

This is the classic fairy tale on steroids! It begins with Alice as a child who continues to have a dream that is very realistic.
Then Alice who is now 18, has just been brought out to a public social gathering in England by her family. When a young dowdy Lord whom she is not attracted to at all, proposes marriage to her. She is distracted by a little white rabbit. She chases after it where it goes down into a hole. She falls down, down, down the hole herself where she ends up in Wonderland. She has to find her way out of a room with many doors. She has a potion to drink for making her small and cake to eat to make her large. She is completely confused and bewildered. She encounters the white rabbit, a mouse, the cheshire cat, the caterpillar, Tweedle Dee Dee, Tweedle Dee Dum and finally the Mad Hatter played superbly by Johnny Depp. He is simply amazing in this role! All that meet her ask her if she is indeed Alice? She assures them that she is and they question her if she is the real Alice? She does not understand why they question her. The Mad Hatter tells her "You were once muchier." "You've lost your muchiness." She continues to believe that she is still dreaming and that all she has to do is wake up to get out of there and go home.
Helena Bohnham Carter plays the Red Queen of Hearts. She was delightful as this quirky little character with an enormous head. Her favorite saying is "off with their heads". She is mean, self-absorbed and heartless.
Anne Hathaway plays the angelic White Queen who is gentle and kind.
The battle of the queens of good and evil ensues and Alice is chosen to slay the infamous Jabberwocky. He is a dastardly character who looks like a gigantic dragon.
She has to muster the courage she needs to take on this enormous task and be successful.
She has luck on her side and ends up victorious! Then she is allowed to leave Wonderland and return back to her life. When she escapes the hole she finds things just exactly as she has left them. The young dowdy lord is still waiting for her answer. She refuses to marry him and wants to live her own life.
I found this movie utterly amazing! I saw it in 3-D and felt like I had been transported myself down into Wonderland. The special effects were astonishing! Tim Burton directed this movie and he did an outstanding job of it!
Be advised that there were scenes with the caterpillar smoking something and some pretty scary and realistic fight scenes during the Jabberwocky slaying! I am actually surprised it received a PG rating rather than a PG-13 because of the dark and scary scenes. The children in the audience loved the movie and so did I!

Dear John

PG-13
Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried & Richard Jenkins
1 Hour & 48 Minutes

This is a romantic, highly-anticipated chick flick geared directly for young women. The story is about a young and handsome soldier named John who is very troubled and confused about his past and his childhood. His mother left he and his father when he was a small child, so he was raised exclusively by his father. His father was very quiet and hardly ever spoke to him. His father immersed himself in coin collecting. John's childhood memories revolve completely around his father's coin collecting.
He enlists in the Army's "special ops" division and is sent to dangerous places all over the world. Many of his mission's are highly classified. While he is sent home for some R & R, he meets a beautiful young woman whom he starts a relationship with. She comes from a well to do cultured family and background. Her friends are not happy that she is seeing this new stranger. He keeps pursuing her and she falls for him. A confrontation and physical fight ensues between him and her friends and he is labeled by them as an outsider.
Their love continues to grow stronger and they cannot stop seeing each other. She insists on meeting his father who is pretty much a recluse. He is reluctant and finally allows her to meet his father. He has to go back to his special ops mission and they cannot bear to be apart. He waits everyday to receive letters from her. When he finally receives his infamous "Dear John" letter, he is devastated. She decided to marry another man! He is severely injured in a roadside bomb and he is sent home. His father also passes away and he is very lonely! He decides to go and visit her and she did not marry the man he thought she had. She married a man who was very ill and had a young son with special needs.
They finally end up together after many years.
This was a movie that was very touching and really gave you insight into a soldier's life in the battlefield.
I would recommend this movie to people thirteen years and older. Be advised that there is a love scene with kissing and intimacy.
There is some mild profanity and some physical violence as well as realistic violence on the battlefield. There is also drinking. I really enjoyed this movie and it really made me appreciate living in America!

The Blind Side

PG-13
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates and Quinton Aaron. 2 Hours & 6 Minutes
This is the outstanding true sports drama about all American football star Michael Oher.
Michael Oher played by Quinton Aaron stars as a practically homeless struggling high school student. He has had a very difficult childhood. He has been raised by his mother who has drug and alcohol issues and is incapable of being depended on. They live in a very depressed area where crime runs rampant.
He is found walking down the road on a cold and dreary night when he is taken in by the Tuohy family of Nashville, Tennessee.
Leigh Ann Tuohy played by Sandra Bullock is a great person and a very caring mother and immediately takes him under her wing. The whole Tuohy family finds themselves drawn to Michael and they decide to ask him if he would like to stay with them.They each form their own special relationship with him. Mr. and Mrs. Tuohy become his legal guardians. They hire a tutor to help him with his education and to raise his GPA. They also talk to the football coach and get him on the high school team. After working and practicing very hard he starts to succeed. Mrs. Tuohy has to show him how to guard his teammates so he finally understands his position. Then he really excels and helps them to win many games. When the college coach's hear about Michael, they all become interested and they all beg him to attend their universities each with prestigious football programs.
He goes on to graduate from high school and he decides to attend "Ole Miss"(the Tuohy's alma mater) for his university career. Michael succeeded at "Ole Miss" and was drafted by the NFL to play for The Baltimore Ravens in 2009. This was a great heartwarming story that just makes you feel good and believe in mankind again. I would recommend it for anyone over 13 years old. It is rated PG-13 for brief violence, sexual and drug references. Blind Side has been nominated for two Oscars. One for The Best Picture category and the other for The Best Actress category. I personally think Sandra Bullock deserves this award. She was spectacular in this role.

When In Rome

PG-13
Starring: Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel and Dax Shepard
1 Hour & 31 Minutes

A fun and happy movie to help beat the winter doldrums. This story is about a darling young girl who is a workaholic. She is recovering from a relationship that has gone bad. She goes to Rome to attend her sister's wedding. While she is there she makes the mistake of taking several coins out of a fountain and taking them back home with her. Each coin represents a man who automatically falls in love with her. They will go to any length to earn her affection. Two of the characters are Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez from the Napolean Dynamite movie. It was fun to see them reunited on the big screen again.
Her sister informs her that all of the men who are chasing her are doing so because of the coins she took from the fountain.
Her heart is stolen by Josh Duhamel. However she is under the impression that he only loves her because of the power of the coins. She finally realizes after many twists and turns that he is genuinely in love with her.
This is a movie that is appropriate for ages 13 and up.