Mamma Mia

Rated PG13 for sexuality

Starring Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski

Sophie is about to get married, but has always dreamed about having her father walk her down the aisle and give her away on the big day. Unfortunately, she grew up without a father, and while she doesn't know who her biological father is, after reading mom's diary, she has narrowed it down to 3 who could possibly be her father and invites them all to the wedding festivities, unbeknownst to her mother. When they all arrive at the same time, Sophie spends time with each of them, trying to figure out which one she takes after most, while hiding them from her mother at the resort.

I never saw the Broadway musical, but I did grow up listening to Abba songs. Meryl Streep steals the show in this fun, lighthearted romantic musical. If you're a fan of Abba or just like musics, check this one out.

The Dark Knight

Rated PG13 for violence, dark themes

Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman

This is the 2nd installment in the remake of the Batman franchise.

After the police and Batman close in on the mobs in Gotham, the Joker decides to step in, being a new class of criminal and causing death and chaos in an attempt to call out who Batman really is. New elected politician Harvey Dent, while on his crusade to lock up all criminals gets caught in the middle of it, as does Bruce Wayne's oldest friend Rachel Dawes. We see how revenge can consume some, while others "just want to watch the world burn."

While still good, I think it probably should have been cut into two movies, allowing for more elaboration of Two-Face - Harvey Dent doesn't turn into his alter ego until the last hour or so of the film and he doesn't get much face time - I recall him being much more villanious in the comics and it seemed like they just kinda crammed his story arch in with the Joker's when it could have filled a whole movie itself.

It should definitely be nominated for an Oscar though and the critics will be talking about it for awhile! Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was amazingly dark and truly creepy - he deserves an Oscar for this role... too bad he died though, as it was definitely one of his best roles and his career had a promising future.

Definitely don't miss this one this summer and I recommend seeing it twice at least!

Hancock

Rated PG13 for language and violence

Starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman

Will Smith is Hancock, a superhero who spends his time between crime-stopping out getting drunk. After saving a PR worker from death by train, the PR worker decides to return the favor by helping Hancock clean up his image and be someone people can look up to - not a superhero causing trouble and doing more damage to the city in his crimefighting techniques.

It was a fun twist on the superhero movie with several plottwists to keep viewers interested.

Wanted

Rated R for language, violence, sexuality, nudity

Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Common

Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) works in small cubicle in an office, a la Office Space. He hates his job as his boss regularly abuses and humiliates him from of his coworkers, and his best friend is banging his girlfriend behind his back. While filling his a prescription at the grocery store, he meets Fox (Jolie) and gets caught in the middle of a shootout between her and a man sent to assassinate Wesley. Turns out, Wesley's father, who left him and his mother when he was just a baby, was a great assassin who was recently killed and Wesley just inherited his insane fortune. He is brought into the Fraternity his father was a part of, headed up by Sloan (Freeman) in order to help gun down his father's murderer by the rogue member Cross. During his training, Wesley is reborn and begins to take charge of his life, making something of it.

This movie is very loosely adapted from the graphic novel. While the plot starts out the same, the end result is somewhat different. In the comic, rather than a Fraternity of assassins, they're actually a Fraternity of Super Villians, living in a world void of Super Heroes since the 1980s. In the graphic novel, some of the villains and their gimmicks are amusing. Also of note, in the graphic novels, Fox was modeled after Halle Berry, while Wesley was modeled after Eminem.

If they had stuck closer to the graphic novel, it would have made for a much much cooler movie, as it's not often we have films about super villians, although if you haven't read any of the graphic novel, you'd probably say it was a really good action flick. I'll admit, it was clever and entertaining!

Get Smart

Rated PG13 for mild violence

Starring Steve Carrrell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson, Terance Stamp, Masi Oka

Maxwell Smart (Carrell) works for Government spy agency CONTROL in an administrative capacity. When headquarters is attacked, the Chief (Arkin) decides to assign Maxwell as a spy and partners him with Agent 99 (Hathaway), much to her dismay, to get to the bottom of things. Maxwell is a total clutz though and screws up royally - he even finds himself framed to look like a double agent, while the real culprit is still on the loose.

I grew up watching the reruns of the original series on Nickelodeon as a kid. In my opinion, it was alright... I thought it could have been better though and the ending seemed a bit rushed - how 99 all of sudden goes from not being able to stand Maxwell to all of a sudden she's in love with him, makes no sense - there needed to be more character development between the two of them to establish their eventual romance. Steve Carrell was really good as Maxwell Smart though... and actually the entire cast was pretty good. There were tons of cameos, two of the favorites being Bill Murray as Agent 13 and Patrick Warburton as Hymie.