I was worried. The critcs all hate it. Even David Edelstein gave a scathing review on CBS Sunday Morning, and he usually sees the fun in a move like this.
But I went anyway... And thank goodness I did!

I think Mom put it best... after listening to yet another critic complain about the giggling girl-trios overdoing the insane laughter and bonding, she said "these guys have obviously never lived in a girls' dorm."

First, let's get the questions out of the way....Can Pierce Brosnan sing? Not on a bet. (one star off)
Is it all over-the-top and goofy? Yes, of course. It's agiant Abba technicolor musical. But that's not a bad thing.
Is it totally a chick flick? you betcha. It's also a super-cheese-fest, and totally hilarious.
What about the move from stage to screen, which has dulled many a brilliant stage show? This actually came of very well for Mamma Mia. The move to the screen adds two wonderful things that couldn't be done in the theatrical venues -- the incredibly fairy-tale scenery of Greece in the background, and the close-ups. All those facial expressions, which you just can't see from the second balcony in the local concert hall, add greatly to the humor, sentiment, and character development of the script.

The best way I can sum up the movie is that the actors up on screen are obviously having a grand old time and are losing themselves in the pleasure and goofiness of their roles, and I just wanted to jump right in and join them.

Some particular highlights:
--The girl who plays Sophie, the daughter is incredible.
--Meryl Streep just throws herself completely into the role of Donna. Who knew she could be so great at physical comedy?
--The "Dancing Queen" scene. It alone would make the movie totally worth the admission price. Almost every female in the sold-out audience (certainly including me) were laughing, clapping, and all but jumping out of their seats to join in.

As the final credits began to roll, our theater burst out into applause. That's a pretty rare thing these days...

The heart of the story itself is beyond words (maybe because the first 30-40 minutes of the film use maybe a dozen words in all).

But here are some of the thoughts buzzing in my head...

1. Cross Charlie Chaplin, 2001 A Space Odyssey, and the all around magic of your favorite Pixar film. Then start multiplying. That's just a taste.

2. Best Love Story.... Ever.

3. Wave at Wall*E!

4. Pixar's latest entry shows why, in the world of movies, (not just animated movies... *all* movies), the best of the rest of the movie houses are still just the rest.

5. Cockroaches can be CUTE? Cockroaches CAN be cute.

6. And the Oscar for Best Picture goes to....

So just go see it, already.
Take your sweetheart, if you've got one, and keep your hand nearest her free. You just might find yourself wanting to reach over and hold her hand.

Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are both trying to get over Mr Wrong. So they meet through a vacation house-swap website, and swap houses (outside London and LA) just to get away from men for Christmas. While swapped, they have adventures, meet some new people... and the general bent of the plot from there towards Jack Black and Jude Law is not particulary surprising.

But the journey to get there is delightful, sweet, and funny.

The film has a great cast, good writing, a few bends in the road, and the small British village and big flashy LA suburbs become supporting characters in themselves.
Now on DVD, and well worth renting (or a Netflix slot) if you like romantic comedies.

Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally together in one movie!

This is the movie you get when you cross Neverending Story, The Karate Kid, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The premise --a chinatown pawn shop, standard schoolyard bullies, mysterious travel to another world, a special fighting staff, a drunken scholar, an inscrutable monk, an orphan with a grudge and a jade hairpin, a Monkey King, an immortal warlord, beautiful landscapes, Kung Fu, CGI effects, and some random white kid from Boston who likes King Fu movies -- sounds really cheesy.
But somehow, they made it all work.
.
I really enjoyed the film - its mix of action, humor, art, and fantasy was just right in my book. Definitely worth the splurge to see on the big screen.

so I'm way behind on movies, and I finally got this on Netflix. I know, wierd that a Disney animated movie took me so long to get to.
I'd heard it was a pathetic attempt by Disney to do CGI withour Pixar, so I keot pushing it off, And now that I've seen it, I'm sorry I waited.

It was a delightful story set in a bit of a sci-fi background, but with all the heart and humor of a true Disney feature.... and all based on a quote from Walt himself. It was not one of the best Disney movies, but I found it very watchable, entertaining, and endearing... a nice movie making good advatage of the CGI animation medium, but always just as a support to the story, never overshadowing it.

If Walt were still with us, he would approve.

This animated film, originally a graphic novel, is based on the real life of the author, who is also heavily involved in making the film. It's originally in French, so our showing was subtitled.

Synopsis: Marjane Satrapi grew up in Tehran wearing sneakers and listening to rock. She wrote her own commandments and wanted to grow up to be a prophet and meet Bob Dylan. When she was ten years old, her world changed overnight. Girls and boys had to use different doors to enter the school. She had to cover herself with a long dark robe. Marjane has several close encounters with the country's morality police and her teachers at school. Iraqi bombs fall on the street where she lives. Grownups around her are arrested. Eventually, her parents send her to a friend in Europe to keep her safe...

My thoughts: A bit depressing, but well worth watching nonethless, even for people like me who don't do depressing... It's well written, humorously animated, and I believe it really has a shot at the Animated Film oscar tonight. (Then, I haven't seen either of the others yet to compare to, but they are on my netflix list...)
If you've read "Reading Lolita in Tehran", or otherwise paid some attention to the political situation in Iran in the 80s and 90s, it's especially interesting to see the period through the eyes of a young girl and her family.

Last time I saw this movie in the theater, it was 13 years ago with over a dozen dorm-mates, all piled into my Puke green '79 Chrysler Newport... and it was every bit as great as I remember it on the big screen.. and even better with the 3-D. I was a little worried, as I sometimes have trouble with 3-D movies. (I'm also one of those people who could rarely see the image in those posters everyone used to have in the 90's, where 3D images were supposed to "pop" out if you just looked at it right)... But I had no troubles at all with this, and it looked amazing. And the story and animation themselves were of course as good as ever. Worth even the extra 1.50 they tacked on to the regular movie price.... (though I'm taking a star off for the extra cost - movies are expensive enough!)