The Hurt Locker

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug” – Chris Hedges 

Imagine the feeling you get when you are waiting for something to happen. The anticipation building up in the pit of your stomach. Your hands in tight fists showing white knuckles. The Hurt Locker is 131 minutes of that feeling. An intense and real war film that keeps the viewer in a constant state of worry and stress. You might be thinking “Why would I watch that?” Because it is a profoundly moving film. That’s why. This movie is outstanding and the message being conveyed is so clearly communicated. This movie takes a subject that makes people uncomfortable and shoves it in our faces. We are forced to see the ugliness of war.

Grab your girls and a bowl of popcorn…

I think that to succeed in this life a girl needs one very important thing: a great group of girlfriends. Here are five of my favorite girls’ night flicks.

Sex and the City

Sex and the City is the epitome of the girls’ night movie. We have four women with four very different personalities who come together in such a way that they find themselves in each other. All of my life I have wanted to have great girlfriends like that. I’ve gotta tell ya, my girlfriends are pretty fantastic. But I digress…

Best Worst Movie

If you have never seen Troll 2 I whole-heartedly encourage you to do so. When the movie was initially brought to my attention I was honestly not at all interested. I finally caved and devoted 95 minutes of my time to watching this nonsensical botched film that wanted to be something that was so much more. The dialogue was atrocious. The acting was aggressively bad. The name of the movie has nothing to do with the film as there are never actually any trolls in the film. There are goblins… no trolls. What is the fundamental purpose of this film? I can’t answer that question. I have no idea. A family swaps homes with another family for a vacation. The Waits family travels to Nilbog – Goblin spelled backwards – and arrive at the stereotypical creepy old house. The family who occupy the house appear vacant and weird, but this doesn’t bother the Waits family. They’re just hungry. So the Waits family finds food and the audience waits for a plot to develop.

Ten Summer Movies to Warm You Up

In this home stretch we call Spring in Chicago, it is hard to imagine that the balmy, sunny days of Summer will ever be here again. For all of you shivering – and frustrated – Chicagoans, here is a list of ten great Summer films to get you thinking warm thoughts.

Some Like it Hot

With a cast like this one you just can’t go wrong. Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. Lemmon and Curtis play struggling musicians. After witnessing what appears to be the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, the two have to go into hiding. Dressed as women, they make their way to Marilyn Monroe and hilarity ensues.

What did I think of the Oscars?

Today in my film class, the lovely girl who sits behind me asked me what I thought of the Oscars. It took me a moment to answer because I had worked so hard to wipe that night from my memory.

I finally said that I thought it went terribly. She laughed and kindly agreed. Then she told me that after the show, she went to my blog to see if I had written about it and what I thought. I felt bad that I hadn’t said anything and that someone had actually cared enough to check on what I had to say.

Sabine, this is for you.

The Oscars turned 83-years-old this year. Much like Kirk Douglas, they have become slower and a bit nonsensical with age. You know…

More published mini reviews!

My names on Twitter include @katiekapoww and @Ms_SilverScreen. Both of them got a printed review in the March 11th issue of the RedEye! Twice! Check this out…

 

Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: L.A. is like Signs meets We Were Soldiers meets Independence Day. It is a mishmash of hand-held camera style filming and war scenes. A big budget ad to join the marines. Lots of unanswered questions here. If you want your questions answered, look elsewhere. Explosions at every turn and lots of silence in between. I mention the silence because I find myself impulsively covering my ears when there is silence in a movie. My brain instinctively knows that the movie is setting me up for a startle.

Five Promising Films for 2011 (Spring into Summer)

The end of a year in film is always kind of a sad time, but with the beginning of a new year comes a slew of new films to delight us, frighten us, make us laugh, make us cry, and make us think. Here are five films that I am looking forward to in 2011.