Last week Olga and I skipped out of work to spend some quality time with the little people. We decided to go see a movie, because that's the best type of quality family time there is. Before going, we took a vote on which movie we would see. The kids had already seen this, and wanted to see other movies. So we took their votes away and did a recount.

Plot: There is a moon somewhere that contains a really valuable type of rock. So the earthlings move in and start strip mining the moon. There's this one place on the moon that has an incredible amount of this rock. But of course there are some blue humanoids living there. And they don't want to move. That's when the company's mercenaries get involved.

There are also some scientists who do science stuff. But if I wanted to watch science I would have gone to work. Luckily the science people in the movie are doing pretty interesting science, so it was ok.

What I thought: The visuals were insane! It was magic the way some of the scenes were presented and the ability to draw you into the moon's environment. The night sense were wonderful. They also went back and forth from real film to animation. It worked really well.

What I thought about the plot: Enh. Typical Disney/Hollywood stuff. The scientists are good. The military is bad. The Indians aliens are peace loving hippies who are good by definition. The plot pulls at your emotions, but doesn't really offer anything intellectual. My biggest beef is that they use the whole 'nature is good' line. I noticed there weren't any crippled, sick, or mentally ill aliens. I think they got eaten, because in reality, nature isn't good. Nature is hungry.

3D? Actually 4D if you count time as a dimension. But that's not marketable just yet. I'm not really a big fan of 3D stuff in general, but it looks like they're starting to get this right. Not perfect, but as my dad said, "It doesn't get in the way of the movie."

Should you see it? Yes, and pay the extra couple of buck for 3D. It was fun having stuff pop out at you, plus you're supporting R&D for something that could be really cool once they get it figured out. It's like ethics in that sense.

A few of our friends told us that District 9 was a classic sci-fi movie. They told us to think along the lines of Matrix. Naturally we locked the kids in the closet and made a bee line to the theater.

Plot: Aliens make contact with Earth. But they're poor aliens, so the humans put them into a refugee camp. The movie is kinda a suspense movie, so I don't really want to give anything away. Except the aliens have awesome weapons, but they don't use them. Yeah, slight plot hole. 'Slight' like the ozone hole.

What I thought: It was a really good movie. Maybe great movie. Probably not a classic. Not up there with the Matrix. I liked the plot and I really liked the way the movie was shot. A lot of it is set up like a documentary, but they don't stick with that format when it gets in the way of the action/plot.

When we left the theater I felt wanting for something. I wasn't sure what it was. Maybe I wanted a better fight at the end. Although killing someone with a pig is pretty cool. So I'm not sure what was missing.

Should you see it? Yep, it was fun. But maybe get a babysitter instead of handcuffs.

Last week the family went to the beach for a vacation. It was really nice. While we were on vacation GI Joe was in the theaters. Need I say more?

Plot: Destro isn't Destro quiet yet. But he is a weapons trader and he's created some pretty awesome nano-bot warheads that eat everything metal. The Baroness steals these weapons causing Duke and Ripcord to join the secret GI Joe. Wisely, Cobra attacks the french knowing that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. Snake-eyes and Storm Shadow fight and there are lots of explosions. Somewhere in there is a plot twist with the Baroness. And Scarlett gets emotional. And Cobra Commander takes power. And Destro came into existence.

What I thought: It was fun. It started out pretty cool. Olga described the start as a fairy tell for boys. Lot of fighting, little dialogue, then a hot woman coming onto the screen. Then it got a little more interesting when the plot was introduced. That's when I thought the movie got a little worse.

I thought the plot of Destro and the Baroness was pretty stupid. I used to be a really big GI Joe fan back in the day and I didn't appreciate some of the things this movie did. I also didn't like the way Destro and Cobra Commander were created. The more I think about it, the less I like about this movie. It's like they had just enough of a plot to get in the way and be annoying. They should have either gone full plot or no plot. I think no plot would have been the better path.

Let's be positive. I think they did a good job and not making you think about the plot. The effects were cool and the action was fun. So yeah, it was a pretty good movie in that regard. And they did attack Paris, so that's a plus. OK, this was a lukewarm movie (see Revelation 3:16).

Should you see it? It's worth the rental just to see Snake-eyes battle Storm Shadow.

While at the beach on vacation Olga and I needed a break from the kids. So we tied them up and threw them in the closet while we went to see Funny People.

Plot: Adam Sandler is a big movie star that used to do really stupid movies. He's diagnosed with a deadly disease but put on experimental drugs. He also goes and starts doing more stand up comedy. But he isn't funny, so he hires some guy to write the jokes for him. Adam doesn't tell people about the disease at first, but the other guy.... You know what. The plot was stupid so I'm not going to waste anymore time typing about it.

What I thought: Halfway through the movie I turned to Olga and said, "This sucks." She agreed. If we had known we were only halfway through the movie we would have gotten up and left. Sucks to be us.

Should you see it? No. Absolutely not. This movie ranks right up there with the second Indiana Jones movie.

The current generation hasn't been saturated with dorky Star Trek stuff. So J.J. Abrams decided to get a bunch of young actors together and fix that. Winona Ryder was also invited (which is freaking cool). Opening weekend the kids went to see it with their father. They both liked it, so Olga and I decided to check it out.

Plot: There's some time travel and the old Star Trek mythology is put out of whack. This is an alternate mythology. So don't write them that things are different, because they already know that. They probably don't really care. So suck it.

The real plot: All the Enterprise people are kids going through star fleet and getting beat up in bars. There's a miner who wants to destroy Vulcan. But the real star fleet people are somewhere else, so the cadets get sent to Vulcan. But they don't realize it's being attacked. Anyway, after some really cool special effects the day is saved. Or not, depending on which side your on. Your day would also not be saved if you're on Vulcan after it's attacked.

What I thought: It was decent for a Star Trek movie. I thought they spent a little too much time explaining that time travel means this movie is gonna be a little different than the original series. I for one welcome the freedom and flexibility for the next episodes of this franchise. It's a lot more fun to watch a movie when you don't know how it's going to end. For example, how cool would it be if Spock died in the next movie while trying to save the Enterprise from a radiation leak. Or if that guy in the red shirt lived. Maybe they can do some more time travel and save a dolphin.

Should you see it? If you don't care about the old mythology, then you'll probably like it somewhat. If you've got a blow up Captain Kirk doll in your closet then you should probably stay home (and in the closet).

The X-Men franchise is over, but yet someone in Hollywood wanted some more money. Wolverine becomes the first spin off.

Plot: Wolverine is a child and kills someone. Then he fights in a bunch of war (WW I, WW II, Civil War, Vietnam) with his brother. And this is all before the opening credits finish rolling. The rest of the movie is about how he comes to hate Sabertooth, why he has no memory, how he got the name Wolverine and a few other interesting things.

What I thought: It was a great movie. One of the better ones I've seen in a while. Good plot, good characters and good action. Just a little predictable in my opinion.

Should you see it? Yep. It was all that and a bag of chips.

I didn't hear about this one until the Boy started talking about it and showed us a trailer. It had a blue guy that could blow people up by touching them. So we were interested.

Plot: There are some vigilantes that used to dress up like super heroes and go out. Most of the time they tried to enforce the laws, but it wasn't that cut and dry. One of them gets killed in the beginning of the movie, so the rest of them get back into costume to figure out what's happening. And this is all taking place at the same time a nuclear showdown between America and Russia is taking place.

What I thought: There were some really cool parts. Unfortunately these took place in between long boring parts. Here are the good parts: cool fighting, fire, great special effects and cool fighting. Since most of the movie was the dull and boring parts, I'll focus on them in individual paragraphs.

Comic book that tried to be deep. OK, I watched the trailer. It was full of action, violence and mayhem. The movie tried to be emotional and thought provoking. If I wanted to think I would have read a book (and not a comic book). I didn't appreciate the side plot about 'Who watches the Watchmen' or really care about how the characters were facing inner turmoil about getting suited back up to fight crime. Comic book movies should be heavy on action, short on dialog and empty of 'thought provoking' situations.

Narrators with deep voices. I understand that a deep voice is supposed to be mysterious and powerful. It's being overdone. When they did it in X-Men is was acceptable. The first Batman movie with that angry Bale fellow was marginally ok. It got annoying and in the way of the second Bale Batman movie. Now it's a stupid cliche that makes me roll my eyes. Especially if it's a skinny white guy that's supposed to be talking like that.

Violence. Usually I don't count this as a negative. But it's usually done in a fun, American way. Like when one of the characters followed a bad guy into a prison bathroom, comes out a little later and some blood runs out under the door. You know something violent happened. The bad guy isn't coming out of the bathroom on his own two feet. But you didn't really see anything graphic or gruesome. That's fun, American violence. Some parts of the movie were bad violence. Like when the good guy kills some dogs and throws them at a bad guy. It's bad because they spent a minute or so showing the good guy just hacking into the bad guy with a cleaver. That's just distasteful and it gives violence a bad name. Even if it is only comic book violence.

So my final thought is that it was a fun 1.5 hour movie that lasted 3 hours.

Should you see it? No, unless you want to see a big blue glowing man running around naked in half the movie.