Science Friday!

The Orphanage

I liked this movie more the next day. Its has a very 1970's early 80's feel about it, kind of like The Changeling or The Entity, which are two awesome ghost stories from the greatest decade ever for the horror genre. There were some real creepy moments (including a terribly creepy child in a horrifying mask), an engaging story and a wonderful performance from the lead actress, Belen Rueda. I'd definitely recommend this to fans of the genre.

National Treasure 2

Nicholas Cage on the hunt for his missing sideburns.

I don't know why. Perhaps because I like conspiracy theories and such. Anyway, Someone must have either slipped Helen Mirren a roofie or paid her eleventy billion dollars to be in this mess of a movie (and it's not just a forgivable cameo either). The entire gong show is almost hilariously bad. However they did find a way to make Nicholas Cage even harder to look at - they made him shave his sideburns for the role a la Tom Hanks in The DaVinci Code. Disgusting.

Juno

Awe..it's the year's most inexplicable and forced romantic pairing!
I know I'm in the minority on this but I'm not sure what the big deal is all about. I found the characters slightly irritating more than anything. Ellen Page is great but the whole thing just seems so unlikely and forced (especially the too-cool-for-school dialogue - sorry, I was too busy rolling my eyes to be charmed by their non stop little quips) One of the many ways this story seems unlikely is because the Juno character was a walking contradiction. There is no way she would be interested in someone like Michael Cera's character - he had zero charisma, and not once did I feel like I liked his character. They also went in a very painfully awkward and disruptive direction with the Jason Bateman character, which I thought was unnecessary. Add to that a decidedly pro-life message and you have the years most over rated film - Juno. Allison Janney was great though, as usual.