Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

"Because there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

-Aslan

Dawn Treader is flawed from the opening shot. The film skips over what is perhaps the best opening line of any novel. "There was once a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." Instead, we are treated with a stunning 3-D shot of a cathedral, then exposition establishing the war, and some clumsy business showing us Edmund's desire for duty and Lucy's for beauty. I suppose that such a commercial movie demands some exposition tying it to the other films for uninitiated audiences, but one of the strengths of the book was that it stood so well on its own. Lewis' humorous description of the Scrubb family opens the book with a healthy dose of satirical social commentary. This turns into the subtle underlying message of the book; that modernism has destroyed our senses of wonder and creativity. This message is still relevant, but is largely abandoned for one of "faith and family". While some Christians may appreciate this, it will leave a sour taste in the mouths of most viewers.

Movie Review: Black Swan

Don't bring this guy, no matter how suave and worldly he may seem.

Black Swan is, without a doubt, the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. Admittedly, I haven’t seen any good horror movies (or any horror movies, for that matter), but even if I had, Black Swan would blow them all away. However, it’s a different kind of scary, one that makes it hard to place genre-wise. “Psychological thriller” is the term being bandied around to describe it, and that’s roughly accurate, but doesn’t quite capture the depth of it. Straight-up warning: Black Swan is definitely not for younger viewers.

Upcoming Movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and more

This looks about right.

Let me ask you a question: did artistic integrity stop George Lucas from making swimming pools of money off of adding three more movies to his trilogy? Of course not. So why should we expect anything different out of Disney regarding their hit Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy?

Movie Review: The Fighter

There are some stories which are told over and over again and never really get old. Of these, one of the most perennial in film is the underdog sports story, or, more specifically, the boxing drama. The Fighter, the latest entry in the genre, tells a tale which, although predictable and not particularly original, as a whole works quite nicely.

The story revolves around the boxer Mickey Ward during the years 1993-2000. Focusing on this time in Ward’s life was an interesting choice for director David Russell to make; in real life, Ward’s greatest and most famous fight took place as a three-part match up with Arturo Gatti some time after the events of The Fighter. Russell’s decision to cut this episode demonstrates his desire to make The Fighter more about the boxer than the boxing. It was a good decision, as Ward’s life outside the ring is far more interesting than his life in it.

Movie Review: Tangled

They never do get his nose right.

Some of you seem to be under the impression that I hate joy, due to such articles as this, and that disappoints and saddens me. A little. I do not, in fact, hate joy (well, not always). Actually, there are occasions where I can get in touch with my inner child, and watching Tangled was one of those times. Tangled was a Disney movie that managed to actually pull off the hardest kind of movie to do well: a children’s movie.

Now, that being said, this is still a Disney movie, and you have to know what you’re getting into. The movie’s humor can get a little silly, in an animals-act-like-people kind of way. It stays away from cheap or immature laughs, but the funniest scenes involve Maximus, a horse with a clear sense of justice who will stop at nothing to hunt down main character Flynn Rider, or else a band of ruffians with mysteriously golden hearts. Reality is rarely ever flirted with, but that seems fair from a movie based on a fairy tale, and the tale of Tangled still manages to be delightful even with the fairy aspects.

Oscar Watch, Pt. III with Add-Ons!

Ah, the final Oscar Watch! post is finally upon us. And while the original list of 24 Films to Keep Tabs On was good, I stupidly left off some very deserving films. These are most definitely now included with this third installment of the Oscar Watch! series. 

The first installment (and other half of the first installment) and the second installment included some ridiculously amazing films. However, this last list is even better in my opinion.

It features what may be the two films that duke it out for the majority of awards . . .

Holiday Gift Ideas! And More News...

Not sure what to give someone for Christmas? Don't want to get caught up in the vicious, maniacal holiday shopping hoards? Too lazy to get off your computer? Well then, we here at Yet Another Movie Blog have a perfect solution for you!

Head on over to the YAMB Astore, always located in the sidebar, or click here! 

Look through and choose from a wide range of great films that are reviewed by us, or suggested by viewers, like you. 

You could look here, but you'll probably just get
dreadfully lost. 

Anyway, we would like to tell all of our viewers out there in cyberland that we are beginning to kick the tires on getting back at this movie blog, and we are attempting to conjure up relevant articles the people want to spend their time reading. If you have any ideas, please comment below!

We are still on our hiatus, and probably won't get any chances to write anything 'til after all of our college exams are finished (whoot!). After all those end, we should be good to go! 

Fair warning though, once January or February ends, the blog will once again be put into hibernation. As much as we love writing for you all, we also like to maintain great good adequate passing college grades. 

Thank you all so much for following along!

While you're waiting, check out these articles...

Open Letter: BRB

To our faithful, wonderful viewers,

As you may have noticed, this blog has definitely been slowing down to near-standstill as of late. Due to the fairly busy scheduling of our collegiate careers and overall lack of new material, new posts have been few and far between. We even had a post desperately asking for help. It's been sad and rather lackluster on our part. However, we really like getting good grades in college because that's kinda important...

We know some of you have expressed concern on the future plans of this beloved blog (okay, well maybe not beloved, but still...). Don't worry we will not stop posting the latest and greatest movie news; we are just going to take a brief break.

A hiatus of sorts.

We'll be back.

We have come to a conclusion that we do not want to stop this blog because we really enjoy it, and we love that viewers like you also like reading our material! However, we realize we need to take a break. Therefore, we decided to use November and a little bit of December as some sort of interlude from writing.

Have no fear! We will be back! We won't set a date when we will be return, and if we decide to extend our little hiatus longer than November (say... 'til the summer), we will inform you of that decision. And don't worry, if and when we do decide to come back, we will NOT disappoint.

And, from all of us here at Yet Another Movie Blog

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your support!

We really appreciate it! It means so much to us.

So, brb, folks.

Sincerely,

The B*Team

You haven't gotten rid of us yet, world.

What's Wrong with My Horror Films?!

“I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. I’m not proud.” ~Stephen King

Seriously. What’s wrong with my horror films? The short answer: everything. From the one-dimensional characters to the flimsy plot lines to the smattering of gore from good-looking people, horror has become horrifically awful. Unfortunately, in the day and age of the slasher/torture porn flicks and remakes, the bloodier and the skimpier the outfits, the better. Not to mention, these films are dirt cheap to produce, and they draw a ridiculous amount of people who flock stupidly to go watch the trash.

Even this guy is confused.

Okay, maybe I’m being a little too harsh. Sure, some horror films capture the meaning of what it takes to be a “horror film.” But what IS a horror film? A quick glance at the all-powerful Wikipedia, “horror films” are “unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers.” Well... emotions such as “fear” or “horror” don’t really hit me when watching these abundant splatter films, but I definitely have my disgust-o meter short-circuiting. You would think that audiences can waste only so much time at the theaters watching the latest bimbos getting chopped and disemboweled after a romantic romp in the woods with their now-dead boyfriends. However, this, dare I say “logical,” thought process is quite the opposite. In fact, American audiences can’t get enough of the latest gore-nogpraphy. So, maybe the question of “what’s wrong with my horror films?” should really be: “What’s up with people wasting money on slasher flicks?”

Upcoming Movie: Due Date

"I'm bored. Want to make a movie?" "Yeah, sure."

In a stroke of cosmic irony, while YAMB has been falling into disrepair, the world has apparently decided to recognize our contribution. After writing an article about a girl road trip with our favorite actresses, Warner Bros. comes out with a movie that’s basically the same thing only with men. Due Date, coming out November 5, is a movie about a father-to-be who needs to get across the country to attend the birth of his child, but his only way to get there is via road trip. And it’s going to be awesome.

    

Suggestion Box

This has nothing to do with anything.

OK, to be really honest, this post would be more honestly titled "A Desperate Plea for Help." After having sort of acclimated ourselves to college, we found ourselves with less and less free time, explaining the lack of posts. However, this last few weeks, you may have noticed a drop in posts. There weren't any.


Oddly enough, this wasn't necessarily because of lack of time. Some of us were even on Fall Break (not me, though *grumbles*) and those who weren't sure had some time between their classes and such. Problem was, for me at least, and at least some of my fellow YAMB-ers, that we couldn't think of anything to write. This dearth of material has led to some desperate attempts at articles or else just no writing at all.


Some of us considered just writing MTSBM (Movies That Should Be Made) about just anything they could think of, but that would A: get old real fast, and B: undermine the (already limited) legitimacy of this blog. Instead of doing this, or continuing to write awful articles about Lord of the Rings, Zooey Deschanel, or both, we hoped we could get some suggestions from the viewers about what to write about. Any new movies you saw the trailer of that you'd like to hear about? Movies you totally think should be made, but haven't bothered writing a snarky plot summary full of inside jokes about? Actors you want to see profiled, or what new movies they're going to be in? Or really just anything at all? In case you haven't noticed, we're sort of desperate, so we'll take anything.


Please help us!
Sincerely, YAMB

Enough of the Eagles!

Yeah. Screw these guys.

Because of this blog’s increasing nerd obsession with Lord of the Rings, and because I simply have nothing better to do, it seems as though it would be in everyone’s (i.e. my) best interest to clear up a standard misconception about Lord of the Rings, namely the eagles. Oh boy, here we go . . .

Every jerk smart-aleck who fancies themselves an English major knows about the supposed gaping plot hole of Lord of the Rings, the eagles. I mean, come on, for a classic of modern literature, Tolkien sure was dumb! Why couldn’t they just ride the eagles to Mount Doom, without all that tedious walking? Like . . . duh? This is so prevalent that there’s a popular YouTube video called “How Lord of the Rings Should Have Ended” that covers the supposed plot hole.

Hooray for Hogwarts: Taking a Peek at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Mark your calendars: on November 19 the first half of the final installment of the Harry Potter film series, The Deathly Hallows, will be released. Trailers are present now frequently across screens of all shapes and sizes. The website screenrant.com described it as “suitably epic.” Hopefully The Deathly Hallows lives up to the high expectations set by the trailer. 

Oscar Watch, Pt. II

Well, it has been awhile since the last Oscar Watch installment (and the first installment), but I have slowly but surely rolled out the next portion of the 24 Films to Keep Tabs On come Oscar season!

Now, I realize most of these films haven't been released to the mainstream public, and to tell you the truth, most of these films won't be viewed by the mainstream public, only snobby, hoighty-toighty, art snobs like myself. That being said, it's never (I repeat, NEVER!) too early to start talking about the Oscars!

Some interesting thing before we start... a film I had in the second part of the first installment (confusing, I know), Blue Valentine, was hit with an NC-17 rating. Yikes. From what I've gathered from early reports was that the film was intense at times, but hardly anything worth giving such a harsh rating.

Now, without further ado, I present you Part II of the Oscar Watch series.

Movie Review: The Social Network

Yes, we're here for our Oscar nomination, please?

As I write this, I am also on my email, listening to music (Buffy the Vampire Slayer music) on iTunes, and of course on Facebook. Of course when I say The Social Network, the first thing most people think is “oh yeah, that one movie about Facebook, right?” Well, yes and no. Technically it’s about the guy who invented Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), and the two lawsuits he went through over the invention (discovery? creation?) of Facebook. But of course, just like Facebook, there’s way more than just that. In fact, the movie is about Facebook, despite the fact that the only time Facebook is actually shown is the exceedingly old main page, and Mark’s own Facebook page right at the end. The Social Network ends up being a comprehensive, lovingly crafted yet critical view of modern culture in general, as exemplified by Facebook.

A Desperate Plea to Nolan, David Tennant, and Those Working on Batman 3

Bats. The Third. 

With master-of-everything, Chris Nolan, finished up with his latest film, Inception (maybe you’ve heard of it?), another film slowly emerges from the awesomeness of the Nolansphere. Riddle me this, riddle me that... Batman Three!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So many choices!

One of the first major posts on this site was about the ridiculously insane amounts of rumors that were swirling around the web and various movie blogs. Reports of Cher, Eddie Murphy, Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Sienna Miller, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rachel Weisz, Dane Cook, Kate Beckinsale, Robin Williams and the latest news Edward Norton, along with so many other so-called “reports” had celebs lined up to partake in various villainous capers and go toe-to-toe with The Dark Knight, still played by the talented Christian Bale. 

So Much Facepalm . . .



I thought about writing an article about Transformers 3 but I think this picture just about sums up everything I am feeling at the moment.

"You Sack of Wine!"

-Nate S 



(Guest Writer) Upcoming Film: The Avengers

Unofficial tagline: "Party in the U.S.A. has a whole new meaning.

UPDATE: Get the Latest Avengers news here!

Watch the Trailer Here!

I realize this is supposed to be a preview of The Avengers, but you'll have to be patient for my expectations, because there's a lot of lead-up.  I won't get to The Avengers itself for a little while.  

So, many of you may have realized that there has been a large upheaval of comic book movies in the past 10 years, especially in the past 4 or 5.  Marvel and DC have been going absolutely crazy lately.  They bust out superhero movies so often it's like having Christmas twice a year (if you’re into that sort of thing).  The only problem is that since they're getting rushed into production and release so quickly, it's as though the hero doesn't have time to put on his suit, and he dashes boldly into the fray, then realizing that he forgot his mask, hammer, flight-stabilizer, side-kick, underwear, etc.  My point is that comic-book franchises are cranking out movies so quickly they aren't getting the greatest products.

Totes OMG ROFL! It's a Review of The Social Network

To quote YAMB’s very own Blackthorne Esquire: “David Fincher remains the most underrated filmmaker in Hollywood.” (check it out: here) Hopefully with the release of The Social Network Fincher will finally win the Oscar he most definitely deserves. His latest film centers on the character of Mark Zuckerberg, who as most everyone now knows founded the iconic website facebook.com. Rather than being little more than a semi-interesting if not all that memorable biopic though, The Social Network instead give it’s viewers a fascinating look at modern society.

Speaking of Facebook... (and other Housekeeping news)

We have reached (and are exceeding) the 100 "like" mark on our Facebook page!

WHOOOOO!!!!!!! A hug for everyone. (extra hug for the 100th follower, sorry we couldn't figure that one out)

/Hug

Thank you all so much for following us on Facebook!

If you haven't clicked the little "like" button on our page, please do! Link: here.

Also, for those who have been following our Facebook page, we have conformed to joined Twitter.

Why? Well. . . Twitter seems to be a good way to connect with a larger audience.

We want to reach as many people as possible, so please, follow us on our Twitter page as well!

More tidbits and announcements after the jump. . .

Yet Another Movie Sequel: Sherlock Holmes 2

Yes please.

Well, as long as we’re talking about movie sequels, the movie sequel news of the week is, of course, Sherlock Holmes 2. Besides Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, who made the first movie extremely good-looking, there are a host of other actors getting tacked on to the project, suggesting that this could be the go-to Christmas movie blockbuster of Aught-Eleven (I guess it’s not really aught-anything, but it sounds nice), with the release date set as December 16, 2011. And of course, Robert Downey Jr. is always fun to look at.

Actor Profile: David Tennant

Personal Life

Tennant was born on April 18, 1971 in some area of Scotland. Actually, he was born David McDonald, but decided to choose “Tennant” instead (Brandon as a surname was his first choice. Just a small nugget of information.) Since the age of 3, he decided he wanted to be an actor. A natural thespian, Tennant performs on both the stage and the big (and smaller) screen, as he is an accomplished television star and an up-and-coming big screen actor. These skills were acquired when he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He is unmarried, but is currently dating Georgia Moffett (who played Tennant’s character’s daughter in Doctor Who. Kinda creepy...). Tennant also has two siblings, a brother, Blair, and a sister, Karen. 

Upcoming Film: The Hobbit

Rockin'? I think yes.

Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, is one of the biggest successes in the history of film, both commercially and critically. His three-part masterpiece, including the Best Picture-winning Return of the King, will live forever as possibly the greatest movie trilogy of all time. At the very least, it will forever retain that spot in the hearts of nerds like me. Keeping that in mind, it seems hard to believe that a movie version of The Hobbit, Tolkien’s prequel (well, okay. It’s not actually a prequel) to The Lord of the Rings, would be difficult to get off the ground. And yet, that’s just what’s happening.

Upcoming Film: Avatar 2

ANOTHER blue people movie?!

To a deafening lack of surprise, James Cameron announced the start of filming on an as-yet-untitled movie that is being referred to simply as “Avatar 2.” Cameron has said he doesn’t particularly like the “Avatar 2” title since, as he says “he’s not an avatar anymore, is he?” True. Well, then, what will the point of the movie be, you may ask? Well, besides making absurd buckets of money, Cameron said he intends to focus on the oceans of his created planet of Pandora, as well as on the spirituality of his created race, the Na’vi. Of course, this being James “go big or go home” Cameron, there will be much, much more than that, in eye-watering CGI.

It's BAAAAACKKKK!!!! Presenting: The Open Thread

So, the Open Thread has returned after a one week absence.

Let us know how you all are doing this week!

Be sure to check out the posts that happened since the last Open Thread (a lot of stuff...):

• Oscar Watch, Pt. 1.5
• Movie Review: The American
• Guest Review: The American
• Winter is Coming...Err, Next Spring, That Is
• MTSBM: The Lay of Leithian
• Upcoming Film: The Dark Tower
• Upcoming Film: Monsters

Oscar Watch, Pt. 1.5

Sorry for all the delays. This thing called "college" is a bit more time consuming than I wanted to priorly consider. 

However, the Oscar Watch posts are back!

This post is an extension of the First Installment. 

The Second in the series of films to watch for during the Oscar season should arrive in the not-so-distant future. Hopefully...

Let's go!

As always, viewer discretion is advised for watching the trailers.