Donn's Movie Reviews
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Directed by: Brian Helgeland
Rated: PG-13
Staring: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, Paul Bettany, Alan Tudyk,
Laura Fraser, Bernice Bejo, Christopher Cezenove
If you are looking for an authentic recreation of medieval life, look somewhere else. If
you are looking for an enjoyable movie with lots of fun for everyone, see this movie. A
Knights Tale is the story of William Thatcher (Heath Ledger) a commoner who is the squire of an old
noble who you never really meet (he dies at the begining of the movie). He gets the idea to
disguise himself as a noble and participate in the tournoments himself. During the course of
the movie he, of course, has a love intrest, he wins alot, and there is a particularly snooty
noble who becomes the villian in the movie, competing with William for the love of the girl
and the Championship.
This movie is absolutly predictable in every aspect, and reality is thrown out right from
the start with medieval peasants claping to the beat of "We Will Rock You" by Queen and doing
the wave in the stands. The tournomants have been made out to look alot like a WWF match. But
for all of that it is an enjoyable movie and worth the money you spend on it.
Rating: 
Pearl Harbor
Directed by: Micheal Bay
Rated: PG-13
Staring: Ben Aflack, Kate Blackenshire, and many others (lot's of stars)
The love story gets in the way of the movie. That said, this is a pretty good movie. The
script for this movie is designed to be patriotic without villanizing the Japaneese (so it
will play well to Japaneese audiences) and it even manages to try to make Americans hero's in
Euroupe (even though it takes place before America entered the war) by sending Ben Aflack to
Great Britan as part of the Eagle Squadron of the RAF (with lot's of great shots of the Dover
Cliffs). The actual attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japaneese takes up about 40 minutes of the
movie and is a special effects spectaular. Overall, it is a pretty good movie, but if you
are wanting to see a movie about friendship and lovers, wait for video (or skip it entirely),
if you like big screen special effects go see it.
Rating: 
Shrek
Directed by: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
Rated: PG
Staring:Animated. Voice talents of: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Camron Diaz, John Lithgow.
Shrek is laugh out loud funny. Shrek is a twited fairy tale about an ogre
(voice by Mikey Myers), a talking donkey (voice by Eddie Murphy), a princess (voice by
Camron Diaz), and a pipsqueak Lord (voice by John Lithgow). Lord Farquat wants to be have the
perfect kingdom, so he "relocates" all the fairy tale creatures to an unwanted swamp, excpet
it is wanted by the solitary ogre name Shrek, in order to have the perfect kingdom, Lord Farquat
must become a king, to do this he needs to marry a princess. When Shrek shows up to complain
about the squatters in his swamp Farquat enlists Shrek to go and rescue a princess for him. This
twisted little fairy tale, which combines the elements of many fariy tales in its story line,
makes for a fun movie for adults and children alike.
Rating:
Moulin Rouge
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Rated: PG-13
Staring:Ewan MacGregor, Nicole Kidman
Moulin Rouge is a musical. That said, it is visually stunning, but the story is a
little weak. The first hour of the movie seems to go out of it's way to assault you with a
barrage of visuals and sound without really doing much in the way of telling the story. Once
that settles down, the story is a mushy and completely predictable love story. Amazingly
Ewan MacGregor can really sing. All of the music is a compilation of late '70s and '80s
songs, and there is one nice duet between Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman that is a
medley of the most famous lines from some of the sappiest love songs of the '80s. If you have
any intrest in this movie you really should pay to see it in the theatre where you can get
the full effect of the visuals and the music.
Rating:
A.I.
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Rated: PG-13
Staring: Haley Joel Osmet
A.I. is the newest movie by Steven Spielberg. It is set on a future earth where
the polar ice caps have melted covering a large portion of the Earth with water. The result
is a world where population control is now vital and births are only granted with permits.
Robots (called Meca's) are built to take over some of the work load of a greatly reduced
population. They then decide to build a robot child that can love, and give the proto-type,
(David, played by Haley Joel Osmet) to an employee who's child is suffering from a (thought
to be) termial illness. The movie tries to address too many of the questions raised by
the idea of creating artificial life forms. It works too hard and does not focus on any one
aspect of the moral problem. The ending is also very annoying, after a long and dark journey
Speilberg felt obligated to try to give you a happy ending, you might as well leave the
theatre as soon as David find's the Blue Farey (see the movie and you will know when that is)
scince the last 15 minutes are just trying to make you happier (and not working). Overall
it is a very interesting movie that raises some prickly moral issues.
Rating:
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