To me C. S Lewis’s the Chronicles of Narnia are a masterpiece, full of allegory, references to World War II, and allusions to Christianity. It’s hard to take all of that literary genius and translate it into a box office hit on the big screen. Prince Caspian the movie, just wasn’t as true to the original book as I would have liked. For one I thought Reep-a-Cheep deserved a little more screen time, and a little less humor, true he is a mouse, but he’s also one of the most bad ass warriors in the entire series. Just my thoughts.

Prince Caspian was a little more violent than the original “Chronicles” movie, but the battle scenes were executed very well, utilizing a wide range of shots, from aerial to upfront and in the action. Prince Caspian was very visually engaging from the battle scenes to the setting of the picture, the film itself is beautiful, perhaps a little heavy on the CGI effects and a little light on the actual substance from the books, but still an above average movie, I give it a 6 out of 10.

Juno has a great soundtrack, and funky dialogue throughout. I’d give it a 7 out of 10 and recommend it to everyone. But I do have some problems with this flick, though not huge gripes, I’d like to get these opinions off my chest:

1. The story and movie are all wholly carried by Juno MacGuff. Sure she’s a smart, independent, and uncharacteristically confident and well spoken 16 year old, ( which is another one of my gripes, how many 16 year-olds have you ever met who speak as hip, cool, and confident as Juno does) and the movie is about her, but man oh man without Juno…no movie, nothing. And I guess Juno being the main character and all, that this wouldn’t even be a gripe, if she was a little more believable as being 16. Likable yes, admirable, definitely, believable as a high school junior in 2007, eh not to me. But honestly I don’t know that many High school Juniors these days.

2. She seems to fall in love with Mark Loring (played by Jason Bateman) the husband in the couple she has chosen to adopt her child. She goes over to his house when his wife Vanessa ( played by Jennifer Garner)

is at work. She calls him from school “Just to say Hi”, they share music and talk about movies, and they hang out a good deal. Not only does it seem like Juno is falling for him, but he seems to be doing a great job of being cool, but not hitting on her. Then when they are slow dancing Juno puts her head on his chest in a very suggestive way, and he tells her that he’s leaving Vanessa, and she freaks out….like she didn’t know what she was doing….her step-mom even warned her about such “boundaries”. Maybe my opinions, as a 27-year-old male are skewed in this particular situation, but it seemed to me like she was seriously leading him on. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

3. Everyone was way too cool with her being pregnant. true that could be a result of Juno herself being so cool, and selfless about everything, but man,I would have thought her Dad would have gotten just a little more pissed off. I don’t think they reprimanded her at all….nothing…..she’s pregnant? That whole deal was a little hokey, and so was the dorky boyfriend, Paulie Bleeker’s (played by Michael Cera) reaction, I mean don’t you think he’d be a little more stressed out, after all, it is his baby too. Not only does he not seem to care at all, but he’s such a dweeb about the whole thing, playing this little wilted flower role. I was just having a hard time believing in the reality of such a character, that’s all.

Other than that Juno was a decent flick, not great because of the reasons I mentioned above, but good, and definitely worth seeing. I recommend seeing it with a girl or numerous girls, they’ll probably really like Juno. And did I mention Juno has a really great soundtrack.

The movie started out well, with Arabic music playing in the background, there was your typical American agent in the Middle East played by Jake Gyllenhal, along with some other generic characters, including a ruthless female politician played by Meryl Streep, very reminiscent of today’s Hillary Clinton, I think Ms. Streep may even have studied some of Senator Clinton’s mannerisms for this role.

The plot begins to move forward as Jake’s character is explaining the routine to a new , older agent as they ride through a stereotypically middele eastern city in a cab. As their cab circles around a crowded square you get the feeling something is going to happen. The scene rotates between the dialogue in the cab, and a bald obviously important Arabic man of stout stature and middle age who is complaining about the traffic jams in the square. Then Booom! A bomb goes off and the story takes off from there.

There were plenty of references to life and family and all of the universal themes that connect us as humans, but Rendition did not follow through with any of it. The acting was weak…Jake Gyllenhal doesn’t even seem to want to be in this movie. Allen Arkin gives a forced performance and for some reason uses the title word “Rendition” as he yells at his aide, a friend of Reese Witherspoon’s character (played by Peter Sarsgaard) who is trying to help her husband (played by Omar Metwally) who in turn is being held in relation to the bomb that went off at the beginning of the movie. But Arkin doesn’t seem to use the word properly, or even in a way that flows or makes sense, and the whole dialogue seems staged.

Rendition attempts to conquer several gigantic ideals, but falls short, not devoting the time or artistic talent necessary to truly drive any of the points home. In short because Rendition tries for so much, it attains very little. With big dreams of tackling moral and political issues, Rendition wants to bring hard hitting points home to the American public, but falls flat. For example there is the one scene where Gyllenhal’s character is speaking to the Director of the Interior and he says “How many 1,000′s of enemies have we made by torturing one or two people?” A valid point about the US’s information gathering practices, and a clear juxtaposition of “them against us”. If we are all using the same techniques, and are all driven by the same passions: family, love, pain, revenge. Then what makes “us” good and “them” bad. A good point, but not a very good script. Poor directing, and sub-par acting make Rendition a flick to skip.

I give Rendition a 5 out of 10, because the movie does try, and some of the scenes are beautifully shot. The climactic final scene does get your heart pounding in fear and expectation, but then there’s this weird time shift that doesn’t really make any sense, and is not clearly explained, Leaving you sitting there wondering what the hell is going on. By the time you realize it, you’ll probably be more pissed at the movie than at the terror attacks and injustice going on in the film.