Love Actually

Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Martin Freeman, Keira Knightley

Directed by Richard Curtis

Rating: A

An ensemble movie with a huge cast, "Love Actually" tells the stories of different people's love stories during the Christmas holidays. Jamie Bennett (Firth) finds out the hard way that his girlfriend is cheating on him -with his brother- and he takes to France during the winter holidays to write. Daniel (Neeson) just lost his wife and has a young stepson who locks himself in his room all day. Daniel tries to connect with him, since they both lost someone very important in their lives. Hugh Grant plays the British Prime Minister (he doesn't have a proper name in this movie) and is distracted from his job by the one of the household staff, Natalie (Martine McCutcheon).

"Love Actually" is a great movie to watch for any occasion. It's a great Christmas movie to watch, perfect for Valentines Day, and to watch during the summer when you're craving a good British film. "Love Actually" isn't the average cheesy romance that we tend to see in the U.S. It has substance, humor, a great cast, and yes, romance. It's not just a "chick flick" because there are actually a good handful of guys who appreciate this movie too. So there! It's great for all audiences but it does have some rated "R" moments so anyone under sixteen might have to wait.

"Love Actually" doesn't bore you with one straight plot line. Instead you follow different characters (and it's not too confusing to remember who's who but you might have to watch it a second time). This is one of my favorite movies of all time (number two!) and you can never go wrong gathering some friends and watching this for a fun movie night.

The Grey

Liam Neeson

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Rating: B-

Ottway (Neeson) is a wolf hunter up in Alaska. On his way home, his plane goes down and only eight survive the crash. Ottway in the others make camp in the freezing cold of Alaska, trying to keep it together. Surviving the crash is one thing, but surviving the wolves that keep hunting them down is a complicated task when they have nothing to do protect themselves with.

"The Grey" is a simple movie to describe. At the heart of it, it's a survival movie and pretty predictable. Liam Neeson is the leader of the group (why wouldn't he be when he is a wolf hunter and knows how they prey?). Liam's character and the group decide staying by the plane might be a poor decision since the wolves keep coming back so they trek to the woods in hopes of finding shelter.

This film is a pretty intense movie and by the end of it, you don't know how to feel about it. The ending is what you gets you. "The Grey" could have easily moved from a "B-" to a "B" or "B+" if the director had expanded the last scene instead of cutting it short. Or perhaps made an alternate ending. While it's been a while since a fight for survival has been in theaters (unlike "Haywire" but more fighting against nature) it's a nice change from the action movies.

"The Grey" was more of a movie you would watch at home and definitely better to rent than buy (unless you're a sucker for Liam Neeson films and survival genres). Personally, I thought it was a good movie. Maybe not the best one made but it was different and Liam Neeson wasn't too disappointing.

Batman Begins

Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Cain, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Rating: A-

The first of the Batman trilogy, Batman Begins pulls you in to the secret life of Bruce Wayne (Bale). Upon being released from a prison in Asia Henri Ducard (Neeson) goes to speak to Wayne, convincing him to train  to fight against evil. Wayne goes home to Gotham to find it in the same thug-controlled environment he left it in. Dr. Crane (Murphy) is working with villain Ra's Al Ghul to take over Gotham with an intoxicating hallucinogen. Lucius Fox (Freeman) works at Wayne Enterprises and helps order material for Wayne to use as Batman. However, Wayne has to use his millionaire persona to dissuade people from getting any notion that he is the masked vigilante "Batman".

Christopher Nolan is a mastermind at making movies. From Memento to Inception to the Batman trilogy, Nolan has audiences flocking to the theaters to see his latest hit film. What makes these films brilliant is not only the choice of cast, the acting believability, but the intricate plot that has the mind spinning. What makes Batman Begins so good is how viewers get to see what makes Batman tick. Wayne lost his parents to a mugger who took their lives outside of an opera. Wayne never kills his enemies; murder is the last thing he wants to do. All Wayne wants is justice and to clean up the city his father tried to build.

Batman Begins is a movie for all audiences in general. Not that parents would take their five-year-old to see this but it's safe enough for an eight or ten year old to see. After watching this movie, viewers begin to anticipate the next two movies and the sequel The Dark Knight does not disappoint.

The A-Team (2010)

Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Rating: 3 stars

Hannibal (Neeson), Face (Cooper), B.A. Baracus (Jackson), and Murdock (Copley) make up the A-Team. They've become a group of friends like a dysfunctional family. A few years after they first grouped together, they get put on a mission to recover plates for printing 100 dollar bills used to print a billion dollars. After accomplishing the job, their commander gets killed in an explosion and as a result the A-Team gets court martialed. Each member gets sent to a separate prison but six months later a C.I.A agent (Patrick Wilson) comes to Hannibal to help him get his team back together and recover the stolen plates.

A re-make of the original show, The A-Team is an entertaining movie with a well-picked cast. The first time I saw this movie in theaters, I thought it was great. However, upon viewing this movie a second time months later, I felt that it was more of a three-star movie. The movie has an interesting plot line and there are some funny scenes in it (like when each A-Team member is breaking out of jail). This is the kind of movie where no improvements or edits could make it into a four-star movie. It's entertaining and I would recommend this movie to people who like the above actors, comedies, or don't know what to watch. Would I buy this movie?  Personally, I wouldn't but I would like to rent it again sometime.