Reviews by Matt

The best part about watching movies is being surprised by what you see on screen. A lot of movies have surprised me, but what is even better is when someone is surprised by as movie I like. This list will surprise even those whom I have known since my freshman year.

“Enchanted” (2007)



Amy Adams stars as Giselle, a princess who, just as she is about to me married is pushed down a well by the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon). She ends up in New York City, alone and very confused. She runs into Robert (Patrick Dempsey), a divorce lawyer, who takes her in while he figures out what to do with her. Prince Edward (James Marsdon) comes to New York to save his betrothed and bring her back, but not if Narissa can help it.

As a life long Disney fan I watched this out of loyalty to my childhood and I loved it. Even though I love all they have done with Pixar, something has been missing from Disney in the past few years. This gets Disney back to what it does best, fairy tales.

There were classic Disney images splattered all throughout the movie and they even cast the women how voiced Belle, Ariel and Pocahontas small cameos in the movie.

Adams played the innocent and naive Giselle so convincingly and over the top. It is exactly how I would imagine Belle or Ariel would react if they were to end up in our world. She wants to believe in true love, but in this new world she learns it is not all happiness and light.

“Waitress” (2007)



Jenna (Keri Russell) works at a restaurant in the South. She has an amazing ability to invent pies and loves her job. She is unhappily married to Earl (Jeremy Sisto) who is very controlling and takes all her money. She hides away as much money as she can so that one day she will have enough to get away from her controlling husband. She dreams of entering and winning a pie baking competition, but Earl refuses to let her leave.

One day she finds that, much to her dismay, she is pregnant. She decides to keep this from her husband and only lets her fellow co-workers, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), know her little secret. As she goes in for her checkups she begins to fall in love with and eventually has an affair with Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion).

Initially, I only wanted to see this because of Nathan Fillion. I am a huge fan of the cancelled TV show “Firefly” and the movie based on the show, “Serenity” he starred in. When I saw it, I got something I did not expect. “Waitress” is an original, funny, genuine and touching movie. It doesn’t have any of the Hollywood big shots or huge special effects. It is a movie that is driven by a story and by the characters. All the performances are really good and make this movie what it is

“Jersey Girl” (2002)



When his wife dies during childbirth, former advertising executive Ollie (Ben Affleck) moves back to New Jersey to raise his newborn daughter (Raquel Castro) with the help of his father (George Carlin). He meets Maya (Liv Tyler) and begins to feel like he could love again.

Most hate this movie. I love it. It may not be the normal Kevin Smith movie, but it has heart. This is Smith’s most personal movie and it shows. It is about fatherhood, something he had just experienced for the first time when his own daughter was born. To listen to the commentary on the DVD is to hear a filmmaker and star not care what others think about the movie. They are proud of it and they could care if the critics hated it.

“Stardust” (2007)



Tristan (Charlie Cox) lives in a town that borders a magical land and when one day a star falls he vows to retrieve it to earn the love of Victoria (Sennia Miller). He soon discovers that the star is actually a woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes) and that he is not the only one after her. A witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a prince (Mark Strong) all want the star for their own personal gain.

So another 2007 movie makes it into my list. It just so happens that I had some free time before the semester began and watched a few movies I had a vague inerest in, this included. I was completely surprised that I liked this. It was a cute little fairytale told with all the humor, wit, adventure and magic of a Disney movie, (again good ole’ Walt pops his head into my list).

Musicals



This is going to come as the biggest surprise to a lot of people, but I, Matt Levy, enjoy musicals. I could have easily just done musicals for this list, but I wanted to keep things interesting.
It is not just musicals like “Rent” or “Chicago,” but older ones like the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classics and “Singin’ in the Rain” and some odd ones like “Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical,” which is based on a 1936 anti-marijuana film.

There is just something about these that I have really grown to enjoy. They are fun to watch and, when done well, are great films.



I used to have this hatred of musicals because they were too out there for me, but they are the perfect escape from reality. In musicals, you are thrust into a world where everyone bursts into song and everyone knows the words and the dance steps.

So, here, take away some of my “man cards” for this, but it takes a real man to admit to something like this.