Movie #159 - Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector

Title: Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector

Director: Trent Cooper

Release Year: 2006

Plot Summary: A redneck health inspector investigates an outbreak of mysterious food poisonings at the city's swankiest restaurants.

Thoughts: Let me start out by saying this was emphatically not my pick of something to watch. I was all set to sit down to a nice, happy evening of seeing Cars for the twentieith time, but I was overruled by a thirteen-year-old.

Gad, this movie was horrible. It was stupid, it was clichéd, and it wasn't even remotely humorous. I actually feel dumber for having viewed it. I wish I'd had the option of just turning it off and finding something better to do. Like cut my toenails. Or write Christmas thank-yous. Or anything really.

Recommendations: Ye Gods no. To be avoided at most costs.

Movie #158 - Eragon

Title: Eragon

Director: Stefen Fangmeier

Release Year: 2006

Plot Summary: In his homeland of Alagaesia, a farm boy happens upon a dragon's egg -- a discovery that leads him on a predestined journey where he realized he's the one person who can defend his home against an evil king.

Thoughts: Take Star Wars. Replace all the actors with crappier actors. Take away Chewie and the droids. Replace the Millennium Falcon with a dragon.

Violà! You have Eragon.

Really, that's all that needs to be said. ;)

Recommendations: Take some people to laugh along with you, and you should have a lot of fun. I wouldn't pay to see it, but I enjoyed myself immensely.

Movie #157 - Charlotte's Web

Title: Charlotte's Web

Director: Gary Winick

Release Year: 2006

Plot Summary: A spider with a flair for promotion pledges to save a young pig from slaughter.

Thoughts: I think probably I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if I didn't know the story by heart. As it was, it was very pretty, very sad and yet uplifting at the end, and I can see children loving it - but there wasn't anything new there to make it all that worthwhile. I found myself getting bored about halfway through, simply because there weren't any surprises forthcoming. Maybe that's my own fault, I don't know.

Recommendations: If you've got kids who don't know the story, it's definitely a cute little holiday film. If you've read the book a million times and seen the original animated movie, it's probably not worth paying to see this one.

Movie #156 - The Holiday

Title: The Holiday

Director: Nancy Meyers

Release Year: 2006

Plot Summary: Two women with guy problems swap homes in each other's countries, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love.

Thoughts: It was a chick-flick, but I went with chicks, so it was alright. ;) Anyways it was a really cute movie, and while it didn't so much avoid most of the clichés of the genre, it handled them in such a way that you don't feel like you're being beaten over the head with them. Well, there's one notable exception, but the fact that it jumped out at me made me realize that none of the rest of them had. Definitely a good thing.

All of the actors did fantastic jobs, even Jack Black, whom I usually feel ends up just looking goofier than the role demands. He managed to tone it down to more muted levels for this one, and it definitely worked a lot better that way.

One absolutely minor quibble - didn't really feel like the movie actually took place at Christmastime, which was (at least in theory) one of the points of the whole thing. However, if you take "holiday" in the sense that the two main characters decided to "get away from it all" and just ignore the Christmasy aspect of it, it works out just fine.

All in all, nothing particularly new or surprising here, but it was handled extremely well. Probably this would be quite a good date movie, or at least not as painful as some of the options out there.

Recommendations: Not something I'd go and see by myself, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.