Important Announcement

As of January 29, 2012, Matt's Movie Reviews will be taking a 4-month hiatus due to my participation in the Disney College Program in Orlando, Florida. Don't worry, in the summer months I will be reviewing plenty of the hottest blockbusters including The Amazing Spider-Man, Disney-Pixar's Brave, and the highly-anticipated sequel film, Men In Black III. In the meantime, check out my other blog, The Life of an Animation Student, which gives you a lowdown of what I want to do with my career, and my current job as a cast member at the Walt Disney World Resort. I'll see you in the summer.

War Horse

2011 was a pretty disappointing year for cinema. Pixar released its first critical misfire with Cars 2 (which failed to make back its budget domestically), Winnie the Pooh was good, but unfortunately only made back its exact budget and nothing more, and a bunch of talentless hacks made the highest grossing movies of the year (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Zookeeper, The Smurfs). Luckily, all that changed later this year. Martin Scorsese made his best movie yet with Hugo, The Muppets returned in a self-titled reboot that actually works, and Steven Spielberg helped a young Belgian reporter named Tintin come to life in his first performance capture movie. War Horse is another Spielberg movie I saw this year, and I think it's a lot better than his Tintin movie.

War Horse is based on the best-selling children's novel by British author Michael Morpurgo (which was also adapted into a play as well) and is about a horse named Joey who is adopted by a boy named Albert (Jeremy Irvine). When it is announced that England is at war, Joey is taken from Albert and is forced to go into war. I should warn you that you may find some scenes that are not only a bit unsettling, but can be very gut-wrenching as well. Plus, despite being based on a children's novel, the war scenes are intense enough to give the film the PG-13 rating it was given.

The film's absolutely breathtaking scenery and an ultimately Oscar-worthy story will have you leaving the theater with satisfaction. No doubt that The Adventures of Tintin was a fantastic movie because of being faithful to its source material unlike The Smurfs, but the gorgeous masterpiece that is War Horse makes Tintin look like a hack job. It was a fantastic way to end 2011 with a bang, and hopefully 2012 will be an even better year for the filmmaking business.

Final Grade: A

The Muppets

Jim Henson, that name doesn't ring a bell on some people, but his beloved characters, known as the Muppets, are known by the young and old alike. However, since 2006, Disney had been putting them aside (along with their own flagship characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck) to focus on their tween programming. It ruined their reputation unfortunately, and it wasn't until 2009 that they were able turn their reputation around when they released The Princess and the Frog. But, what about the Muppets? Well fortunately, they're back as well, and the movie marking their return is the best family comedy of 2011.

The film focuses on the Muppet fan Walter (Peter Linz), his brother Gary (Jason Segel), and Gary's lovely girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) as they travel to Los Angeles to bring the Muppets back together again. What they find out is that the evil Tex Richman wants to shut down the old Muppet Studio to drill for oil. So, what do Walter, Gary, Mary, and the entire Muppet gang do? They decide to do a telethon to earn enough money to save the abandoned studio they originally used from being destroyed. Little do they realize that, according to a television executive they talk to, people would rather watch reality TV and Idol competitions rather than a Muppet telethon (which all changes when a currently popular show gets cancelled).

My favorite part of the movie is, well, the whole movie in general. The Muppets were always entertaining, and Disney's recent film featuring Jim Henson's lovable characters keeps the spirit and humor of "The Muppet Show" and the theatrically released musical films of the '80s and '90s. "The Muppets" is guaranteed to give the well-known franchise new fans, and I'm sure more people will take their kids to see this, and those kids will like it better than those stupid Alvin and the Chipmunks flicks.

Final Grade: B+

Hugo

This is the first movie I've ever seen that has been directed by Martin Scorsese, and is also the best I've ever seen. Coming out of the theatre, I can see why a lot of cinema fans like him so much.

The story focuses on Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), a boy who literally lives inside the clocks of a train station in Paris, France. Most of the time, Hugo tries his best to outrun and outsmart an inspector named Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen). In the middle of the film, he meets a girl his age named Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), whose godfather (Ben Kingsley), who is actually seen in the very beginning of the film as the owner of a toy shop at the train station, is actually the legendary but forgotten filmmaker Georges Melies. What this movie teaches us is how movies were thought to be a fad during the time this film takes place, but is still an art today.

Not only was the movie very excellent, but the 3D was also spectacular. It wasn't used as a gimmick, but it was made to actually make you feel like you're in the movie. This is what a family movie was meant to be. No singing chipmunks, no gimmicks used in the 3D, no fart jokes and/or toilet humor, and best of all, a great experience overall. And good gravy! A story! Characters! A plot! Three things lacking in todays live action family movies, especially the ones that came out this past summer (The Smurfs, Zookeeper anyone?).

I conclude this review with the following words, if you want an escape for two hours from the stresses of preparing for Christmas, and if you're looking for a great 3D experience, I totally recommend Hugo.

Final Grade: A+

The Lion King 3D

In 1994, when I was about 3, I saw my very first movie in the theatre. That movie? Why it's Disney's The Lion King of course. It was one of the movies released during the Disney Renaissance of the 1990s. It's by far one of the best animated movies Disney has ever made, and it still stands as the highest grossing hand-drawn animated film ever released. Seeing it in 3D was actually very spectacular, one of the best 3D conversions I've ever seen for a film that was originally in 2D. There are some scenes that look amazing in 3D, two of them being the "Circle of Life" opening sequence, and the final battle between Simba and his evil uncle Scar. The best thing about the special 3D screening of the movie when I saw it was the theatre was absolutely PACKED with older fans of the movie when it first came out, and a newer generation of kids wanting to catch a glimpse of what '90s kids like myself got to see when we were little munchkins.

Disney did a fantastic job with converting one of the best movies they ever made in RealD 3D, it was the most spectacular 3D conversion I've ever seen. Here's hoping that they re-release their older movies in theatres more often (again) like they did this year.


Final Grade: A

Winnie the Pooh (2011)

It's our favorite bear of a very little brain in his first adventure in almost 35 years. Winnie the Pooh is perhaps one of the best films of 2011. It adapts two stories from the classic book series by A.A. Milne, and does them well. And good gravy... HAND DRAWN ANIMATION!!! That's something we rarely see with reintroducing new generations of kids to familiar characters, and Hollywood would rather do the safe bet (live-action/CGI hybrids). It's ridiculous, and I'm glad Disney is one of the few Hollywood studios that wants to reboot familiar cartoon franchises the right way.

The film's executive producer, John Lasseter should be applauded for making this happen, the Pixar folks never fail to impress me, not only for their own work, but fixing up the studio that preceded them with box office smashes.This was a great movie! The unfortunate thing is that it opened against the final Harry Potter flick, and we all know who will win that battle. Anyway, back to my final thoughts on the movie. It you haven't seen this, go to the theater and see it, I guarantee that you will love it.

Final Grade: A

Welcome

I'm Matt Norcross, publisher of the all new Triad Tribune, and I'm happy to introduce to all of you this brand new sister blog dedicated exclusively to movies. It's called, Matt's Movie Reviews, and I'm happy to call this and Triad Tribune both my new homes on the internet. Right now, I don't have anything to review at the moment, but check back soon for the latest movie reviews.