Movie Review: National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (2007)

 The gang is back with another adventure, but this time they also have to disprove that their ancestor was involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  So Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) involves his ex (Diane Kruger), his parents (Jon Voight and Helen Mirren) and his partner (Justin Bartha).  Their rival (Ed Harris) is using the groups knowledge to get what he wants.  The clues lead them to Europe, France and London, and then back to the White House.  It even leads to their kidnapping the president to get to the book; the book of government secrets passed down from president to president.  There are two people going for this treasure, the big lost city of gold.  They get there at the same time.  They eventually find it under Mount Rushmore.  

Fun ride.  

DC Movie Review: ****Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

 In this movie our superheroes have two actors each, one for their normal person and one for their super hero person.  Shazam! is faced with a big test of his abilities as well as his character.  He is obsessed with Wonder Woman and keeps dreaming of her.  Three gods have stolen a staff which Shazam! discarded in the first movie.  They steal it from a museum.  With the staff, and their own powers they wreck havoc on the world.  Our team of superheroes, the Philly Fiascos, have their hands full.  The spend a lot of time dodging, but Pedro is not good a dodging.  The bolt from the staff takes your powers away.  An interesting character in the movie is Anthea.  She is one of the evil gods, but is also enamored with Freddy, one of the superheroes.  The wizard also has a prominent part, first with Freddy as the escape captivity together.  Kalypso is very very evil.  She is determined to eliminate all mankind as a punishment for past perceived wrongs.  Hespera is the third evil gos, but she changes before the end of the movie.  She wants her powers back but not at the expense of all humanity.

• 

  Zachary Levi

  Shazam
• 

  Asher Angel

  Billy Batson
• 

  Jack Dylan Grazer

  Freddy Freeman
• 

  Rachel Zegler

  Anthea
• 

  Adam Brody

  Super Hero Freddy
• 

  Ross Butler

  Super Hero Eugene
• 

  D.J. Cotrona

  Super Hero Pedro
• 

  Grace Caroline Currey

  Mary Bromfield

  /Super Hero Mary
• 

  Meagan Good

  Super Hero Darla
• 

  Lucy Liu

  Kalypso
• 

  Djimon Hounsou

  Wizard
• 

  Helen Mirren

  Hespera
• 

  Faithe Herman

  Darla Dudley
• 

  Ian Chen

  Eugene Choi
• 

  Jovan Armand

  Pedro Peña
• 

  Marta Milans

  Rosa Vasquez
• 

  Cooper Andrews

  Victor Vasquez

Movie Review: ***^The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

The Christmas Season has begun, and this is my first Christmas movie.  It was entertaining.  Sort of a combination of Nutcracker (with less dancing) and Babes in Toyland.  Clara's (Mackenzie Foy)mother has passed away, and this is their first Christmas without here.  Clara has been especially set back and is hard on her father (Matthew Macfadyen).  Drosselmeyer is played by Morgan Freeman, who as Godfather introduces Clara to a kingdom discovered by her mother.  There she meets the Nutcracker (Jayden Fowara-Knight), who is a guard of a bridge to the kingdom.  This kingdom is torn with four realms.  Clara first visits what appears to be an evil realm, ruled by Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren).  She appears at war with the other kingdoms, especially Sugar Plum (Keira Knightly).  A key is needed to save the kingdom, which fits an expanding machine, and Clara's small ornament.  She is disappointed when she discovers only a music box in her ornamental ball.  However the key also opens the machinery, and Sugar Plum is not who she seems to be.  With the key she begins manufacturing tin soldiers to control the kingdom.  And Clara found the key for her and has only made things worse.
Keira Knightly as Sugar Plum is so sugary it is disgusting.  The music of Tchaikovsky is played in bits through out. 

Movie Review: ****^Hitchcock

Hitchcock is a 2011 movie starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville.  It also features Scarlett Johansson as the actress Janet Leigh.  I watched it through Netflix DVD.

I found this movie very entertaining.  It is about the making of Psycho.  I was fascinating with the making of a film, and even more fascinated with Hitchcock and his wife, coming together to make a triumph.  They took a great risk with this movie, as Hitchcock could not find financial backing, and had to back the movie himself.  There were so many nuances to the making of the film that at times it seemed the project was going to fall apart. There was dealing with the studio, dealing with the censors, and dealing with personal pressure at home because of they mortgaged their home to make the film.

Overlapping this is the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife Alma.  Hitchcock determines she is having an affair, and this effects his work on the movie.  However when he collapses from exhaustion, Alma comes up to keep them going and to keep production from falling too far behind, or to keep the cost overruns from being too great. Alma was not having a physical affair, but perhaps one of loyalty as she was helping a friend write a book.

In the end, this movie was Hitchcock’s greatest success, even surpassing “North by Northwest.”  I am putting this movie in my motivational movies.  It shows what can be accomplished with a dream, determination and resolve.  

I don't think youngsters would appreciate this movie.