Daddy Day Care

Take the kids to see this one! They will enjoy it and so will you. Eddie Murphy shows his excellent timing for delivering jokes in a family movie.

The only drag in this film is the ending. Mrs. Harridan (Anjelica Huston) is a somewhat believable villian when the movie begins. As the movie progresses the corniness of Mrs. Harridan and her exploits loses touch with reality...but some of the antics will make the kids laugh.

The ending of the movie (including what becomes of Mrs. Harridan) is also kid-movie-corny, but it is not so much that it ruins the movie. The kids in the movie have some unique characteristics like loving to read, having a small problem with potty training and speaking in a language that few can understand. But the characters are all fun to watch.

Grade: B-

Finding Nemo

Pixar has not disappointed before and it is only a matter of time before they have a dud. This is not the dud.

The story is great. The animation is GREAT. The characters are well-developed (and not over-developed).

The movie does not waste any time setting up the driving background: the super strong connection between the dad (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Alexander Gould). And while it does not waste time getting to the set up it also does not waste time over doing the set up. It seems that at every turn there is trouble, but I didn't really get the feeling that they were finding an unreasonable amount of trouble.

Other highlights were the sea turtles , the seagulls, Dory (Ellen Degeneres) and, as is expected from Pixar, the animation. The detail on everything was entertaining...especially on the big screen. The angel fish (Gill by William Dafoe) and the sharks are among some of the leading examples.

Finally, as we learned in A Bug's Life, it is never a good idea to follow the light (see the deep hole after the shark scene for clarification).

Grade: A

Martix Reloaded

The energy for the movie was in the theatre for the opening night screening. Sadly the movie was too bogged down with unnecessary stuff. What stuff? Almost everything. The storyline in the beginning: unnecessary. The love story: unnecessary. The last 10 minutes of the freeway fight scene: unnecessary. Mind you, this is coming from a person who didn't like the Matrix the first time I saw it.

The Architect scene was an A+ (for both content/story and for effects...how many takes did it take to get all of those reactions from Keanu? Whoa!). Renegade Program concept was a B. The Oracle storyline was crap until the Architect scene (and for those that can read between the lines the Oracle (Gloria Foster) and the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim) were explained perfectly). I give that a C+. Love story: D-...the "Orgy" scene was 100% unnecessary to the story; Neo's (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity's (Carrie-Anne Moss) carnal obsession while in Zion was 100% unnecessary to the story; the "choice dilemma" would have been greatly enhanced if his love for her were not declared thus making it a choice of not yet discovering their love versus saving mankind. The chocolate cake scene was also unnecessary, but since Monica Bellucci did WONDERS for my Hollywood Stock Exchange account I will give the scene a C+. The Morpheus' (Laurence Fishburne) belief in the Oracle and the Prophecy story I guess I don't have an opinion on yet...I think (hope) that it becomes crucial in the next movie in which case this one would get high marks...otherwise I would have to say it was useless.

Grade: C+