Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

PG-13
Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Keith Richards, Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane.
2 Hours & 17 Minutes
Johnny Depp is back in the infamous role of Captain Jack Sparrow. With this being the fourth installment of the very popular Disney "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, you never know exactly what to expect. This movie will not disappoint you. It was exciting and just plain fun! Johnny Depp is magical as he reprises this role that he was born to play. He is so good as Captain Jack that he literally becomes him!
This movie was inspired by the book "On Stranger Tides" about the pirate Blackbeard and his quest for the fountain of youth by Tim Powers.
This movie is full of adventure with the usual array of weird looking characters and zombies, intense fighting, explosions, rescues and beautiful mermaids who are basically water vampires. There was also a voodoo doll of Captain Jack. The scenery as always was tropical and gorgeous.
This movie introduces Penelope Cruz as Angelica who is the daughter of the ruthless Blackbeard. She and Captain Jack have a love/hate relationship.
The secret for the fountain of youth involves two specific silver chalices, a mermaids tear and the water from the fountain of youth. This is an action packed thrill ride that does not disappoint! Parents be advised that there is your basic pirate violence with swords, guns, explosions and a small amount of female cleavage. I think PG-13 is a good rating for this movie.

Soul Surfer

PG
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Carrie Underwood and newcomer AnnaSophia Robb.
1 Hour & 45 Minutes
This movie is a truly inspiring and touching story about young Bethany Hamilton played by the beautiful newcomer AnnaSophia Robb. She is the 13 year old teen-age surfing sensation from Hawaii who had her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing back in 2004.
She was absolutely on top of her game when the tragedy struck. An amazing young lady with many friends and a great family. A fourteen foot tiger shark attacked her out of the clear blue and shattered her dreams and expectations.
She (and her family) were very fortunate that her friends got her the medical attention that she needed immediately and were able to keep her alive.
Bethany was a natural-born surfer having grown up with a surfing family on the island of Kauai. She became an outstanding surfer and had begun winning competitions.
This is her story about coming to grips with an unimaginable tragedy and how she was able to overcome her own obstacles and find her way back to feeling happy and knowing that she had a very important purpose.
Just weeks after her tragedy she went with
her church youth group to Phuket, Thailand in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami. While there she helped many people and inspired them to overcome their own fears. This helped her to to overcome many of her own obstacles and gave her the courage she needed to go forward and be strong.
She began to get mail from people all over the world who supported her and found her to be their personal inspiration! This gave her the courage to confront the big waves and try to make a personal comeback. With the help and support of her great family she overcame her limitations and entered another surfing competition. She gave it all she had and it was amazing!
I personally found this movie to be extremely inspirational and touching. I am seriously amazed at the courage and determination of this beautiful young girl! She credits the Lord with helping her to survive and thrive!
Be advised that this movie may make you feel a little squeamish. The shark attack scene was very realistic and difficult to watch. There was a lot of blood and it was very emotional.

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.