On first glance I assumed that this was going to be a ruckus comedy.  It stars Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin as a group of guys who are competing to be the greatest bird watcher.  As I knew nothing about Birding, I figured that this was going to be similar in tone to “Blades Of Glory”.  How wrong I was.

Each of the aforementioned actors is playing a character who is pretty much at a cross roads in his life.  They all love Birding and are determined to do a Big Year.  After a little research I learned that a Big Year is one person’s journey to see as many different species of bird as they can.  This involves chasing down rumors and leads about rare bird sightings in different parts of the world.

But the real story here is about how this hobby is not really a hobby at all.  It is a passion, a love, even an obsession for these guys. 

Jack Black’s character works a regular day job, is 37 years old, divorced and living with his disapproving parents. They don’t like the idea of their son basically amassing massive debt as he travels all over looking for birds.

Steve Martin is an executive for an unnamed corporation.  Might be named I just don’t remember it.  Anyway, he is retiring and his first order of business is to do a Big Year.  Only problem is that the company really needs him and basically beg for his time to help close a series of deals.

Owen Wilson is the record holder for having seem over 730 species of bird in one year.  This has come at great cost to his marriage as his wife is doing anything she can to keep her attention away from the fact that her husband is never there.  This involves renovating the house to get his attention.

“The Big Year” was directed by David Frankel, who also made “Marley and Me” and “The Devil Wear’s Prada”.  Here he takes a less flashy story and really succeeds.  I got to spend some time with some nice characters who are all struggling to balance their lives with an obsession.  I also learned quite about birds and the people who watch them.

“Paranormal Activity 3” is pretty much more of the same but it is definitely an improvement from the second entry.  After the first sequel took the same formula and went over the top with it, I figured that this third entry could wait for DVD before viewing it.  How wrong I was.  It has some genuine scares.

The plot I will not go in to as it is just a setup to put more cameras around the house and film strange occurrences that go on during the night.  This time the creators go back to the original by building up to some of the bigger scares as opposed to just going full throttle every night. There is a moment where a white sheet is used by a paranormal presence that will stick with me for a long time. 

I can see this series going on and on sort of like “Saw” did when it was popular.  The trend will run out after they stop pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars.  For now the best we can hope for is that each one has a few moments that can truly scare us.

“Source Code” is a pretty ingenious sci-fi thriller.  It involves a team of military scientists that can place someone inside the mind of another person eight minutes before they die.  The technology is used to try to solve crimes but entering the mind of innocent bystanders who are killed by acts of terrorism.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Captain Colter Stevens.  When the movie opens, he is placed in the mind of a person who is killed in the bombing of a civilian train.  Through the course of the movie Colter will experience the last eight minutes of this trains existence, each time trying to discover different clues to who is behind the bombing.  This is essentially like the experience Bill Murray had in “Groundhog Day” except this is a mainstream thriller.

The director is Duncan Jones, who brought us the great “Moon” a few years ago.   With “Moon” and now “Source Code”, he shows us that he is more interested in using the science fiction genre to tell stories about specific people as opposed to wasting our time with non stop special effects. 

“Source Code” is a great thriller, with lots of neat twists and turns and an ending that sat with me for a few days after I saw it.  Its nice to see a movie that challenges the audience to figure things out for themselves.

“Sucker Punch” is all style and no substance.  Director Zack Snyder writes and directs a film that simply wants to be a series of show downs done with flashy style and break neck pace. 

The story involves a group of young girls in the 1920’s who are planning to break out of the mental asylum they are trapped in.  When each phase of their plan is being executed, we are transported to a fantasy world that seems to be a metaphor  for each specific event.  This involves a show down with demonic samurai giants, battling zombies, and giant dragons.

Each sequence is executed without visual grace.  Instead we are hammered with special effects and chaotic action sequences.  The movie is all sound and fury and it is a pretty unpleasant experience.

Zack Snyder is a director that I like.  He hit a high point with “Watchmen” and “300”.  Now he seems to be forgetting that those movies had a clear story and characters we cared about.  

“Everything Must Go” features another dramatic turn by Will Ferrell.  Ferrell has established a track record of dramatic performances that have flown right under the radar.  I suggest you seek out “Winter Passing”, “Strange Than Fiction” and now this movie. 

In “Everything Must Go” Ferrell plays Nick Halsey.  He is a travelling salesman who is fired from his job of fifteen years following an incident stemming from his alcoholism.  When he returns home he finds his wife has left,  changed the locks and put all his possessions out on the front lawn.  It is then that he decides to simply live on his lawn, getting loaded.

Ferrell is pretty much the whole show and his performance pretty tragic.  Here we see a side of Ferrell we have not seen before.  He is bottomed out, ready to snap, comfortable in his lawn furniture.  There is a real sadness to this man, yet we feel like he could bounce back.  Too bad he doesn’t know that.

“Everything Must Go” was written and directed by Dan Rush.  I am not familiar with his work but I will certainly look out for him again.     

“War Horse” has admiral intentions but I found that it just could not hold my attention all the way to the end.  Maybe it is the story, or the way that it is told.  The production is first rate and Steven Spielberg knows how to make a story like this on a grand scale, but it just didn’t click with me.

I think the problem I had was that I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters.  I found myself losing interest every time the horse would become surrounded by new characters.  I knew that they would not be around for long and that we wouldn’t get to know them very well. 

The majority of the story takes place during World War I.  In the years prior to war breaking out we meet young Albert Narracott.  When his father buys a colt at an auction, Albert devotes his time to training it to plough fields.  Over time they develop a deep friendship.  But then the horse is bought by the army and sent to war. 

From there we get a series of large set pieces that are first rate.  The movie manages to make the time period it takes place in feel authentic and real.  There have not been a lot of modern movies that have taken place during the first World War either so this was refreshing.  I just wish that the characters were better developed.

The real shame for me is that I want more movies that are classically made.  Less emphasis on computer generated effects and more focus on sets, locations, costumes, and special effects.  “War Horse” has that going for it and will probably garner a lot of nominations in the technical categories. 

So the latest “Mission Impossible” movie, titled “Ghost Protocol”, could be the best big budget action adventure film of 2011. It is that good. It feels odd to say that considering all facts surrounding the production.

The story involves a bombing of the Russian Kremlin that is basically pinned on Ethan Hunt and his team. This results in the entire IMF being disavowed.  Hunt and his crew find themselves going rogue, operating with no support.  They decide to track down those responsible and clear their names.  This results in a series of action set pieces that brought me to the edge of my seat.

The film opens with Hunt escaping from Prison but starting a Riot.  Then there is a chase through a sand storm where visibility is non existent.  All they use to track their prey is a cell phone and a tracking device.  Then there is a fight sequence that goes from level to level in a futuristic storage facility for cars.  Then that sequence where Tom Cruise scales the highest building in the world. 

Its like Brad Bird has simply been waiting to jump in to live action filmmaking.  But he also brings his sense of character and story to the screen as well.  Each actor is given a nice amount of screen time to create a pretty distinctive character, each with different motivations.  They elevate a story that is not even close to being original. 

The bad guys are the usual array of teeth gnashing megalomaniacs.  A nice touch is a bringing in Anil Kapoor who was the game show host in “Slumdog Millionaire”.  He plays a contact with information the team needs.  Only catch is that he must be seduced and his personality seems to be operating in a movie all on his own. 

After a pretty dreary year for big budget studio films, we close on a high.  Film after film and director after director has resorted to simply hammering us with frantic editing, in your face special effects and a soundtrack that destroys your ear drums.  “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” is like a throw back using modern special effects.  It really is a treat and begs to be seen on the IMAX screen.

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is a superbly crafted spy thriller from director Tomas Alfredson, who directed the amazing vampire movie, “Let The Right One In”. Here he avoids attacking the audience with mindless action and obvious characters and gives us a brooding study of a series of shadowy figures high up in the British intelligence agency MI6.

The cast includes Gary Oldman, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. Each plays a possible double agent. Oldman is assigned the task of flushing out the mole. His task is not easy as he begins to put together a seemingly endless puzzle, piece by piece.

We follow Oldman as he traces leads and tracks down sources. This involves a series of scenes set in sealed rooms, dark and shadowy city streets and secret offices. One of the delights of this movie is the atmosphere that has been carefully created in every set, location and every off beat camera locations. I always felt like I was in a place I shouldn’t be.

I have seen this movie twice now and I’m still not sure I have figured it all out. Each viewing reveals more information about the character and the story. Even after its over I found certain things lingering in my mind. This is a movie that will challenge audiences who prefer to be spoon fed a plot.

“The Adventures of Tintin” is a rousing action, adventure movie. I’m not sure it is completely faithful to the source material but I got over that fairly quickly.

My only gripe about the film is that it relies a little too heavily on break neck action scenes. No matter how good a chase can be, and here they are eye popping, It can never fully substitute for a fully rounded story. At about 95 minutes, it would not of hurt to add another 30 minutes of character and back story. But that’s just me. This movie is the best animated film of the year.

“30 Minutes or Less” is such a waste of time for its cast. Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Andari, Michael Pena, Fred Ward and yes, even Nick Swardson, Bucky Larson himself, all deserve to be in something that isn’t down right stupid.

If you want more information on this stupid movie go and google it because I’m done writing about it.