I didn’t want to go see it, but my friend really did, so being the great pal I am, I said okay. I do like hip hop music, but I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to see a documentary movie about a concert. Plus, I really don’t know Dave Chappelle. I recognized him when I saw him, but I never watched his show.

In the first 15 minutes, I was worried. It was kind of boring and it was just talking, but then suddenly the movie started skillfully blending music, comedy and documentary and I was hooked. I also thought the movie had a great message…we’re all the same and we all can have the same opportunities no matter where we come from. And Wyclef Jean’s encouragement to African-American college kids near the end summed up the whole feeling of the movie. I definitely recommend it.

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Well, just got back from packing the kids up to go see Curious George. $47 later (we needed popcorn, hot dogs, drinks and tickets), we got into the theatre.

The movie is loosely based on the original Curious George by H.A. Rey book where the Man in Yellow Hat travels to Africa and meets George, puts him in a bag and takes him back to New York to put him in the zoo. The movie tries to remove some of the politically incorrectness and has George becoming a stowaway on the ship on the way back…and there are no zoo plans for George.

But what I found weird is the movie is still filled with politically incorrectness in that the Man in the Yellow Hat (Ted) is sent on an expedition to Africa to loot historical artifacts. And then when he gets back without what he expected, he tries to deceive people through trickery, which seems very out of character for the gentle Ted (voiced by Will Ferrell).

Putting all that aside, the kids loved it. They laughed so hard at the antics of George. I mean, who doesn’t love a silly, curious monkey? Even my laughing was loud enough for the whole theatre to hear. It was definitely cute.

Even though the movie was only about an hour and half, it seemed so much longer. The conflict which was just a little drawn out and in the end, I personally didn’t care how it turned out. I would have been happier watching George and his silly antics for the duration of the movie.

As far as my nearly 3 year-old and 4 year-old are concerned, they liked the movie, but when they want to start running around the theatre at about 60 minutes in, I know it’s not as good Finding Nemo or the SpongeBob movie.

Director: Matt O’Callaghan
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, David M. Kirschner
Starring: Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Eugene Levy, Dick Van Dyke

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A lot of things can happen in a bar. You can meet some strange people. Those strange people end up changing your life, in ways you never expected. So starts the movie “Matador”, starring Pierce Brosnan in the role of lead man with the gun, without the panache or noble aims of James Bond.

Brosnan is Julian Noble, hit man for hire. He travels the world, taking on corporate “jobs”, and is sitting at a bar in Mexico City, contemplating the fact that there’s no retirement plan in his line of work, and the mirror behind the bar says he’s not getting any younger.

Down the bar sits Danny Wright, also at a crossroads in his much duller life as a traveling salesman. Wright is struggling to keep his head above water in a competitive retail world where he doesn’t have the drive to keep him at the top. Add in the domestic crisis taking place at home, and he too is wondering what his future holds.

The two get together, but their budding friendship is nipped by Noble interrupting Wright’s most intimate revelation with a dirty joke. The rift is patched up, and the duo head off to a bullfight to bond….and not James Bond, either. Once there, Noble explains what he does, and how easy it is to carry out.

The odd relationship is on solid ground when they part, and a good thing, for Noble turns up at Wright’s doorway months later, to be greeted by the salesman’s wife asking if he brought his gun. The hit man fascinates them both, and they intrigue the hit man, who has never lived their kind of lives.

Now close to each other physically as well as emotionally, Danny Wright becomes involved in Julian Wright’s “business”, although their personal motivations are still worlds apart. Set up as a study of two disparate characters, “Matador” takes you on a wild and sometimes poignant ride on an emotional roller coaster that rises to comedy, dives into depression, and coasts to a finish on the rails of friendship.

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How much of life is luck, and how much is lust thinly disguised as love? That’s one of the many questions director Woody Allen puts to the audience in his 2006 release that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. “Match Point” may look like the eternal triangle turned into a foursome, but it is far from being the simplistic story of boy meets girl, other girl wants boy, what should he do?

Chris Wilton, a former tennis pro now working as an instructor, gets lucky when he takes on new students Tom and Chloe Hewett, offspring of a wealthy and indulgent London family. Much to the surprise of Tom, there is more to Chris than being a sports jock, including a love of opera. Soon, he is joining the family in their box at the theatre, where Chloe is drawn closer by a desire that has little effect on Chris.

The tennis pro is much more interested in the sizzling actress wanna-be that Tom is engaged to, over the protests of the family. Can he overcome his lust for his new friend’s fiance and do what is right? Or is his marriage to Chloe doomed from the start, by the deeper, darker desires that keep him playing a dangerous game from inside the family?

Luck runs deep, but it only goes so far. When it runs out, Scotland Yard is there to find out how Wilton’s relationships with both women, ended up at Match Point.

In the end, the movie really is quite sad. I don’t know what other word to use to describe it. As is said in the movie, “Some people get all the luck.” Even when they don’t deserve it. It’s definitely a movie worth seeing, though. Some of the dialogue is awkward and strange, but I think that’s characteristic of a Woody Allen flick, so be sure to check it out.

Director: Woody Allen
Producers: Stephen Tenenbaum, Gareth Wiley
Starring: Brian Cox, Matthew Goode, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers

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Otherwise known as “Underworld: Evolution”, Underworld 2 is the sequel/prequel to the surprise hit “Underworld”, from 2003. The original movie detailed the ongoing struggle for supremacy between two evil races, the Death Dealer Vampires and the Lycan werewolves, who exist in a sub-culture beneath the everyday human world.

In this follow-up, they not only continue the struggle between the races, but trace its origins back to the birth of the two factions, and how they came to be mortal enemies, managing to exist unknown amongst human civilization.

Selene, the female warrior leader of the Vampires, and Michael, the human turned half Lycan, search frantically for the key to their beginnings, so they can prevent an end to their race, and the world as they know it.

As the story unfolds, the audience discovers there are not so many differences between the human and the underworld, as intrigue darkens the path out of their dilemma, now complicated by a forbidden love, as they rush headlong to a final confrontation.

Director: Len Wiseman
Producers: Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Bill Nighy, Derek Jacobi, Tony Curran

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