Doubt

-by Ann Marie

"Doubt" takes place at St. Nicholas in the Bronx. The audience meets Father Flynn (Phillips Seymour Hoffman), Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) and Sister James (Amy Adams). These characters are going through a political change, as St. Nicholas has their first black student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster). Sister Aloysius and Sister James soon become suspicious, when Father Flynn pays more attention to Donald. After Sister Aloysius hears of these actions, she pursues to find the truth about Father Flynn's actions, but in the end reveals more about herself.

The cast of "Doubt" consisted of many well known actors, Meryl Streep, Phillips Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. "Doubt" was also known for the cast of many children actors. Without the use of children actors, the movie would have been missing its important link.

The movie contains connections between Father Flynn's sermons and Sister Aloysius. Also, the movie contains many unique camera shots. One shot that stands out is the staircase shot, looking down to the bottom floor. This shot has been done in lots of different movies, but still unique because it demonstrates an outsiders view of what the characters are going to do. Another interesting shot is when Sister Aloysius is looking at the table with a low angle shot, showing she has to take steps against Father Flynn and is a powerful figure.

John Patrick Shanley is famous for writing many screenplays and television series. Some of his work includes "Congo," "Live from Baghdad," and "The Red Coat." Besides writing, Shanley has also acted, produced and directed.

This movie is recommended for fans of Meryl Streep or Phillips Seymour Hoffman.

Star Trek

-by Ann Marie

"Star Trek" brings many Trekkie fans back to the beginning of the whole series. It follows the storyline of Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) and how he met his fellow USS Enterprise crew members. In the beginning George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) coming in contact with Nero (Eric Bana). George's wife is about to have their son James, but George creates a collision path into Nero's ship. This changes the history of both James and Spock (Zachary Quinto). The viewer understands Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) has rewritten the course of history and helped James fulfill his destiny of becoming Captain of the Enterprise.

The cast of the movie consisted of Lenoard Nimoy who many people have come to love as Spock from the television series. However, joining the cast is Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho and Karl Urban. All these actors had big shoes to fill for their characters. These actors hit their lines spot on and really impressed the viewers that they were the original characters from the television series.

Though the cast was brilliant on screen, the writing for this movie was exceptional. The viewer can tell the writers have done their research and learned each character's one liners and certain personal characteristics in the series.

The whole movie was done in third person perspective and allowed the viewer to feel they are watching the action as it happens. "Star Trek" also contains many high speed and blurred fight scenes. These camera movements really brought the viewer into the screen. These blurred out movements made the fight scenes seem faster and fluid to the viewer. The computer generated scenes really shows how far technology has grown from the television series.

J.J. Abrams directed and produced "Star Trek," but he has worked on many other pieces that are well known. He produced "Cloverfield," "Alias" and "Lost." Though a lot of his work has been with television, Abrams is working on a Star Trek sequel.

This movie would be recommended for anyone who is a fan of "Star Trek."

Terminator Salvation

--by James "Phantom' Ryder --

I am up in the air on this movie… it is nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews are saying (oh but there are some really BAD parts) and there are some really cool sequences... as a fan of the first two movies, I can say that I thought this movie was better than T3. It’s too over-the-top in some of the action sequences to be taken seriously (this movie features one of the most improbable stunts I have ever seen in a movie. This includes characters outrunning light in The Chronicles of Riddick.) It’s too somber to be taken as an adventure picture.

That said, there is some amazing set pieces. Seeing “T-600” Terminators (precursor to Arnold’s T-800 Model of the first 3 movies) roam desolated Las Angeles was a true “cinematic” moment. However, it’s a shame then that many sequences of the rest of the film borrows from The Road Warrior, Aliens, and even some helicopter sequences from Apocalypse Now to mixed results. McG has a certain style to spare (when he’s not cribbing other movies) as there is some great mise en scène to be found – but the screenplay needed some more time to develop. We needed to feel involved in the characters, which we don’t, and there is some god awful dialog in the film (“You better be prepared to pull the trigger if you point a gun at someone!”). The cast has TREMENDOUS talent, but again, we don't get to spend much time with our heroes and heroines.

There are some great action sequences as and some really lame ones – I was honestly bored during parts of the final fight. Overall, I felt that the movie was 60/40 lousy to cool. Teenage action fans (who can see this film thanks to it's PG-13 rating) might find it enjoyable, as may fans of the original two (who may also hate it depending on how big of “purists” they are.) Don't expect any deep sci-fi messages or even characters you care about.

I didn’t hate this film, and that’s the highest compliment I can give it.

Angels & Demons

-by Ann Marie

"Angels & Demons" is the second installment of Ron Howard's films and Dan Brown's books. Like "The Da Vinci Code," the film follows Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) as he solves the clues to a murder and helps prevent terrorism against the Vatican. Langdon works with Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor) and physicist, Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) to help solve the murders taking place every hour. However, the film reveals a twist, which helps Langdon evolve.

Tom Hanks is re casted in the role of Robert Langdon, but this time is joined by many new faces. One new face is Ewan McGregor, he has been in films such as "Moulin Rouge," "Black Hawk Down" and "Big Fish." Now he has joined the screen with Hanks to help tell the story of Brown's second book "Angels & Demons," playing Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, who has many hidden secrets about himself. Another new face is Ayelet Zurer, she has played a role in "Vantage Point," but is well known actress in Israel. She also joins the screen with Hanks as she plays Vittoria Vetra, a physicist who is trying to stop the destruction of the Vatican from a top secret science experiment she has been working on.

Unlike "The Da Vinci Code," "Angels & Demons" plays with the use of depth of field. In many shots throughout the film, the viewer sees for example, Hanks character in focus as the agent is discussing the situation in the Vatican. Another scene was when the car was backing up, it stayed in focus and then blurred out. This brought an artistic style to the piece. Howard also used more handheld and fast camera movements to bring a first person feel to the viewer.

Compared to "The Da Vinci Code," Howard kept similar style characteristics in "Angels & Demons." The film kept a set pattern of in between figuring out the clues, Langdon would explain the historical events that took place, to help link everything together. Howard also kept true to the adaptation of the book.

As stated before, Ron Howard has directed "The Da Vinci Code," but has also done other films, such as "Cinderella Man," "A Beautiful Mind," Apollo 13," "Frost/Nixon" and "Backdraft." He is widely known director, but also acts, writes and produces. Howard is a man of many hats and is in the process of working on nine films.

This film is recommended for anyone who has read any of Brown's books or is a fan of Ron Howard or Tom Hanks.

Bedtime Stories

-by Ann Marie

This family comedy follows the storyline of a hotel janitor Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) working for Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) who bought out Skeeter's father's motel. Barry announces that he needs a manager for his brand-new gigantic hotel project. Skeeter's dreams are crushed when Barry makes his future son-in-law Base Kendall (Guy Pierce) the manager. Also Skeeter's sister Wendy (Courtney Cox) leaves her children with Skeeter as she leaves town for an interview. Skeeter learns a lot about self esteem, going after his dreams and family.

Adam Shankman's cast consisted of funny man, Adam Sandler. Other cast members included Courtney Cox, Richard Griffiths, Guy Pierce and Keri Russell. This cast worked well on the screen. Some of these actors have worked with Sandler before in many of his films.

This family comedy is great for both adults and kids alike. Like many Sandler movies, there was a lesson to be learned. The movie contains many humorous scenes to help keep kids interested.

Shankman wears many hats in the film business. He has directed many well known films such as "Hairspray," "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and "The Wedding Planner." Besides directing he has also helped with the choreography of "Hairspray," "Catch Me If You Can," "The Wedding Planner" and "Dudley Do-Right."

This movie is recommended for Adam Sandler and comedy film fans.

Munich

Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg (2005), is a visually intriguing film with a muddled storyline. The film itself looks gorgeous, processed in a “Bleach Bypass” method.

The opening montage in particular is the films high point. Actors and archival footage interact with one another as the terrorists and counter-terrorists watch each other on TV. Lasting about 10 minutes or so (just guess off of memory – I did not count so don’t quote me), we jump around from group to group to group as the action unfolds on the TV, giving us a lot of information visually and through sound montage.

Another effect that Spielberg uses in the film is the changing of focus from aspect to another. For, example, in any given shot, Spielberg might begin with a drivers face in car door mirror (Spielberg’s signature shot by the way) then move and focus to the cars window to focus on a passerby’s reflection, then move to a balcony that is about to be blown up. This type of shot is incredibly impressive to see in action and the entire film is shot in this changing focus style. This creates the sort of unease and visual metaphor for the morally grey area of the subject matter.

Regarding the storyline, Spielberg does his best to present a very delicate topic, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In attempting to be fair to both sides, the film does engage in some slightly stilted speeches. However, it is not the speeches but during subtle moments that I found the most displays of humanity in the characters. In particular, there is a scene where Eric Bana’s character jokes with a target he is about to kill on a hotel balcony, who even offers the Bana character sleeping pills because of his loud suite neighbors. The storyline most suffers from lack of overall coherence. The assassins kill one terrorist and we next meet the assassination squad outside the next targets house/work/etc. Individually, the scenes are great, but strung together, they don’t quite mesh and some sort of segue would have been beneficial to the film.

Recommended.  - James Ryder

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

-by Ann Marie

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" follows the storyline of James Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and his brother Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) run away after both James' adoptive and biological father are killed. Together the brother's served throughout many wars before Victor and James were recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston) to serve in a special unit. The movie takes off as the story follows James from his life as a lumberjack to explaining certain parts of "X-Men."

Gavin Hood's cast for the movie consisted of Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Will i Am, Danny Huston and many others to help make this movie. Acting in the film was brilliant and flowed on the screen.

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" consisted of many high intense action scenes. The choreography of the movie was fluent and exploited with high energy off the screen. The camera shots throughout the movie, were beautiful and added the movie's storyline. Hood used the basic formula of an action film, keeping the fast cuts, multiple angles used and the moving camera.

Hood is a very versatile man because he acts, directs and writes for many television series and movies. He has acted in "Stargate SG-1" "King Solomon's Mines" and "Rhodes." Besides acting he has also directed movies such as "Rendition" and "A Reasonable Man."

This movie is recommended for fans of X-Men or a fan of Hugh Jackman.