Hit – Starring Amy Adams, James Marsden, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon

A animated Disney fairytale comes face to face with modern-day New York City in this story about a princess who is sent to the human world by an evil queen. When her prince comes to save her, Giselle begins to realize that she doesn’t want to be saved.

This movie is a great way to start off the holiday film season. Not only does it offer a lot of laughs, it is a great film for the entire family. Amy Adams fits the character of Giselle like a glove. James Marsden does a fabulous job of being the handsome prince. Patrick Dempsey is like-able as always.

The one thing that I would have liked for this movie is more musical numbers. The musical numbers that were included in the film were great but they needed a little more pizazz.

Bottom Line: This movie will enchant your whole family.

Rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo.

Animation/Comedy/Fantasy

Running Time: 1 hour 47 minutes.

Miss – Starring Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko

Hitman Agent 47 gets in the middle of a political conspiracy. Interpol and the Russian military are now looking to bring him down.

Yikes! An action film with absolutely no plot advancements is rough; Rick! I really don’t know how this movie got made or funded as the plot was so basic and blah-zay that it makes me want to _____________ (some madlibs action for you). The best part of this film was when it was over and I could go home.

If the character of Agent 47 was more dynamic, this movie could have been better, but sadly, it was a disaster. I hope to never hear about it again.

Bottom Line: Hitman? More like “Miss”man.

Action

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexuality/nudity.

Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

Miss (but really cute) – Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick

Barry B. Benson has just graduated from Bee-academy College and has become worried about his role in the world. In order to find himself, Barry takes a trip outside the hive. Once outside, he violates the most important bee rule: Never talk to humans. Barry becomes friends with a human named Vanessa who is a florist in New York City. As they become better friends, Barry discovers that humans consume honey. Barry then decides that it is time for him (and the other honeybees) to get a cut of the honey making profits.

Bee Movie is exactly what its title assumes, a “B” movie. This is the movie you might see after a feature length film or this movie might be cut down to 10 minutes to make it a short film that would appeal to all audiences.

Instead of a short film, this movie is feature length. There is nothing wrong with the movie being a feature, but what is wrong is the target audience. I found myself wondering who the target audience was and what exactly the movie was trying to say. I found the most interesting part of the movie was when Burt Bee came on to talk about how the honeybees are dying off and we need to do something about it.

Ultimately, the animation was cute, the dialogue was delightful, but the story was missing. I guess the writers strike started earlier than intended.

Bottom Line: A visually stunning and adorable movie doesn’t make up for a poor script.

Rated PG for mild suggestive humor, and a brief depiction of smoking.

Animated Comedy

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes