Beastly

PG-13
Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Alex Pettyfer, Neil Patrick Harris and Mary-Kate Olsen.
1 Hour & 35 Minutes

This movie is a modern contemporary version of the original French fairytale "Beauty and the Beast". It is centered around the young, handsome and wealthy high school senior Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) who is full of himself and thinks he is better than anybody else. He is taught a life-altering lesson when a classmate (Mary-Kate Olsen) who is also a witch, curses him and causes him to physically change into a totally different looking person with a bald head, scars and tattoos. The only way the spell can be broken is if someone tells him that they love him within the next year. His life is turned upside-down and his famous father is ashamed of him and sends him away to live in a different place. He is attended to by a caring housekeeper and a blind tutor (Neil Patrick Harris). He is very angry and gets no sympathy from his tutor.
He goes out and rides his motorcycle one night and runs into Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) a very intelligent classmate as well. He feels sorry for her when her father is being assaulted by another man. Just like the original story-she moves in with him to stay safe from her father's attacker. He tries everything he can to make her fall in love with him. He leaves her gifts and candy. They form a relationship and start to fall in love. She tells him that she loves him and the curse is finally broken. He turns back into Kyle the handsome classmate. She had no idea that he was Kyle all along. He remains the nice, kind and understanding person that he has become. I'm going to assume that they will live happily ever after.
This movie is geared especially for young adults. The young girls will love this movie! I think adults will enjoy it as well. It is rated PG-13 for some mild language, one suggestive love scene and also because a gun was brandished. I enjoyed this movie.

"The King's Speech" won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Be sure and watch the 83rd Annual Academy Awards Presentation on February 27th.
The nominations for Best Picture are:
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"Inception"
"The Kid's Are All Right"
"The King's Speech"
"127 Hours"
"The Social Network"
"Toy Story 3"
"True Grit"and
"Winter's Bone"

My Favorite film for 2010 is hands down "Toy Story 3". It has it all. Don't miss it!

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!