Director's Summer Film Review

The blog's been pretty slow lately so I thought I'd throw in a couple reviews:

Pixar's Up is first up (pun intended).  Let me put it this way: Up is the best Pixar film yet and the funniest I've seen in a long time.  Basic plot is a disgruntled childless old guy flies away with his house rather than get pushed out by land developers and sent to a retirement home.  On the way he joins forces with a Boy Scout, a giant bird, and a dog while trying to fulfill his late wife's dream.  The beginning 10 minutes or so of the film explains how the old guy got to be the way he was, and it was so sad that I almost cried (and a couple women in the audience did).  But then it becomes this great fantastical adventure that never slows down.  If you own a dog you'll probably find the Dug hilarious like I did.  Highly Recommended.

Just this weekend I saw Terminator IV and was sorely disappointed.  There's some of the best action I've seen in a while - there's one cool scene near the beginning where the camera follows John Connor into a Helicopter which then is quickly shot down, crashes and flips over - all in one shot.  I have respect for McG now, and I apologize for making fun of him all these years.  But unfortunately he's also responsible for agreeing to direct this.  There are some interesting characters somewhere in this film, but the script and plot are just plain retarded.  There are a ton of plot holes and even a stupid exposition scene near the end where Skynet explains it's entire plan for no reason other than that we need to have it explained.  I will give the film props for CGIing a young Arnold for John Connor to fight, but that's all I'll give it.  Just writing this review frustrates me because this film could have been something cool.