Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I recently offered to take my daughter to a movie and I told her she could pick the movie as long as it was not an animated feature. That limited our choices to several rated R movies, Transformers, or Harry Potter, which ended up being the winner.

I have never really gotten into Harry Potter. I have not read any of the books and I still have a problem learning the character's names. It took me 4 movies to realize that Dumbledorf was not dwarf. I learned Professor Snapes name this movie and finally quit calling him Colonel Brandon/The Klingon from Galaxy Quest. I think I've seen all of the movies in the series now but I still don't have a clue what's going on.

So on with the review. All you really need to know is that the special effects are good. The kids are growing up. Ron is not as goofy as he used to be, but the kid that played Draco Malfoy went through puberty and looks kind of freaky now. I thought The Half Blood Prince was better than the prior Harry Potter movies. I give it 7.4 stars.

The Proposal- In 100 Words

I'm not a huge romantic comedy fan, but I thought The Proposal was pretty funny. Sandra Bullock gave one of her better performance as a cruel and overbearing boss. The set up was funny and the chemistry between Bullock and Ryan Reynolds seemed to work. I will never be able to look at Oscar from The Office the same way again. Betty White was a little over the top and it was predictable in the end, but I still gave it 7.3 stars. Is it just me, or does Sandra Bullock's spine look like it's about to snap in the poster?

Australia

I had been warned that Australia was a long movie. I should have known better than to start an epic romance late at night. I only made it to the half way mark before I fell asleep. The next night I watched the second half earlier in the evening and made it through just fine.


After watching the entire film, I felt like I has seen a double feature. The first half was an Australian Cowboy/cattle drive movie and the second was an Australian war movie both of them focusing on the plight of the Aboriginal inhabitants. If you are interested in that aspect of the movie I would recommend A Rabbit Proof Fence instead.

I was expecting a different feel from a Baz Luhrmann movie. More along the lines of Strictly Ballroom or Moulin Rouge. I am not into musicals, but there were a few times when I wished someone would break into song and dance to liven it up. I felt this was more of a chick flick than an epic drama. Despite good performances from Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, overall I thought it was only okay and give it 6.8 stars.