Tintinis an old comic created by Herge. Huge in Europe, Tintin never really caught on here. He’s a young detective who solves wondrous globe spanning mysteries with his trusty dog Snowy. A menagerie of characters accompany and hinder Tintin in the many stories that Herge wrote over a 50 year span.

This movie, spearheaded by Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson merges 2 stories, “The Crab with the Golden Claws” and “The Secret of the Unicorn”. The film feels and looks a lot like an Indiana Jones movie ( a lot better than Crystal Skull). It takes place in 1930 in various dusty locals around the world. The visuals are the most striking of all, by far the best motion capture based animation films I’ve seen. Realistic character movement and facial animation, incredible environmental effects. Easily on par with the best Pixar has offered to date. Given the virtual space, Spielberg went with a full digital camera system (as first used in 2006’s Monster House I think). This allowed him to move the camera around in ways that’s impossible to do in real life. The action set pieces often use these sweeping and long camera takes that are pretty breathtaking to be hold.

It’s a really well made movie, a lot of care and work went into this. Not being familiar with the original works, I can’t comment on how well they translated Tintin to the screen, but I liked what I saw. It’s a fun, adventurous story with memorable characters and great action. Recommended to everyone.

Remake or reboot? Either way Jonah Hill took on the task of reimagining the 80’s show for the movies and it works surprisingly well.

21 Jump Street is an undercover cop unit that infiltrates high schools to stop the growing scourge of illicit drugs. Here it’s a new synthetic drug that the authorities want stopped before it spreads to other schools. Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) went to this school 7 years ago and became friends while going to police academy after graduation. A botched arrest puts them on this new task force where they need to find the dealer and then the supplier of the drug.

It’s a funny buddy cop movie, Hill and Tatum have a real chemistry that the movie really relys on. While the movie does go through the motions, some slight twists and bumps were wisely put in to keep it new and interesting. Great cameos by the main cast of the TV show give a nice final touch on the whole experience. I’d say it makes a quality rental.

Cowboys & Aliens has some pretty serious names behind it. Director Jon Favreau, stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are the headliners. The idea for the movie is cool too: in 1873 a alien invasion starts abducting people in Wild Wild West Arizona. The local law and natives are forced to work together to get their people back and fight off the aliens.

The movie is well made too, all the quality Hollywood production is there and accounted for…but it’s a really average flick. Nothing about it feels new or fresh, like it’s just going through the motions. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just surprisingly dull. A rental at best. Like if you’re sick and need something to distract your soupy brains for a bit.

The first backlog of 2012! I have a few flicks under me that I haven’t talked about so let’s get to it.

Horrible Bosses– A great dark comedy. Three friends each have horrible bosses (is that where the title comes from?) and when things get to the boiling point, a tri-murder plot is hatched. Being average guys of average intellegence and a nice nature, they’re not too sure what to do. Bumbling and awkward situations ahoy!

Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day are awesome together. Great casting really makes this movie work, I had a good time with it. Perfect length for a comedy, full of funny and memorable characters.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes– A mouthful of a title, but a hell of a movie! There was a lot of raised eyebrows on this one before it came out, but it surprised everyone (me included). Really well made, damn good cast, nothing that insults the audiences intelligence. Some of the best special effects bring these Apes to life, making them appear to be actual characters than just something made in a computer that can be easily dismissed. Excellent writing and pacing, the motion capture and animation makes for some really great story telling since the scenes with just the apes have no dialog. Powerful stuff a big congratulations to everyone who had a hand making it. Highly recommended.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides-The franchise was pretty much saved with this one. Not as good as the first, but a big step up from the third which was a mess of a movie (2 was good, but didn’t live up to the original). Johnny Depp does his thing here which is all anyone really looks for. A much more cohesive plot and action pieces with a satisfying ending. They really pulled things together for this one while keeping the crazy production values.

Conan the Barbarian– I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It’s just really lopsided. Maybe the script was really good but it just didn’t all make it on screen as it should? The cast is good but the acting is all over the place. It looks good, the special effects are all done well for the most part. Some fun action scenes, but it’s all forgettable. I can’t really pick out why, it’s just an average at best film. You really aren’t missing anything if you don’t see it.

Kung Fu Panda 2– A solid sequel. If you liked the first one, jump right in. The best from Dreamworks Animation since How To Train Your Dragon. Po’s adventures continue with all of your favorte characters back with a great new villain. It looks fantastic too!

Fast Five– I can’t believe I didn’t write about this earlier, I watched it awhile ago. Probably my favorite action flick of 2011. I’m not a big fan of the FF franchise, but this one knocked it out of the park from beginning to end. Such a a great idea to get everyone back, really well written and some expert direction at work here. All the best characters are back and The Rock is a great addition as the law. He fits in perfectly and watching him and Vin Diesel butt heads is a ton of fun. The bank heist angle is a great twist for the franchise and the special effects are amazing (the should have gotten a Oscar nom).

Super 8– Another movie I liked a lot. The hype behind this JJ Abrams flick was massive and while it didn’t meet everyone’s expectations, I think it got the job done. A throw back to 80’s Spielberg, Super 8 is the adventure of a group of young kids who’s town is the epicenter of an alien escape. A fun movie with an awesome cast, check it out.

If you want to watch really good cinema these days, you can pretty much turn to documentaries to see the best stuff you could ever want to see. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world and a lot of people brave and talented enough to cover it.

Enter Waiting For Superman. It’s about the failing US Public School system. The system has been on the decline for about 40 years now and the growing global economy is exacerbating the problem(s). Soon the United States won’t have the higher educated population to fill the high demand/paying jobs of the coming job market(s).

It’s a problem that has festered in a system that hasn’t changed to adapt to the changing world. There are people in power (two massive teachers unions in particular) that refuse to admit the problem and will not allow forward thinking people make the new steps we need. Time and a mind boggling amount of money is wasted every year. Waiting For Superman gives a very clear picture of today’s education system by following 5 students; showing what is really happening to real students all over the nation of every economic class.

A must watch.

They don’t make many fantasy comedy movies, especially since comic book and remakes have taken over Hollywood. I’m a fan of Danny McBride’s style of comedy (rude, crude and obnoxious) and that mixed into a fantasy setting really clicked with me. There aren’t too many movies like Your Highness out there. It sticks to the fantasy formula (damsel in distress, magic, sword fighting, mythical creatures) but has enough ideas of it’s own to keep things interesting. The creative cursing helps too.

Thadeous (Danny McBride) is a bum of a prince and reluctantly goes along on adventure with his brother Fabious (James Franco) to save his girlfriend from an evil wizard. McBride and Franco are an awesome team (as first seen in Pineapple Express) and the whole movie pretty much rides on them. They’re surrounded by some great people (Natalie Portman and Rasmus Hardiker in particular) which results in some really funny moments. The laughs come in a few bursts, but on the whole I thought it was pretty funny. The movie is helped greatly by some quality special effects work, they managed to get a legit budget for this goofy project and hooked up with some companies who really knew what they were doing.

McBride and director/friend David Gordan Green know and work really well with each other and it really shows in their projects. I look forward to all the stuff they do.

The Inside Job is one of the most important documentaries ever made. I’m late to the party on trumpeting it’s merits, but as the economy is still in the toilet and we are headed for the presidential election, it’s still timely. Inside Job is story of how the financial collapse of 2008 happened. If you know nothing, a little, or all about it you must watch this film and tell everyone you know about it. 99% of the world got screwed and nothing happened to the scum that did it. In fact, they made even more money when it all did collapse. Everyone needs to know the facts of what mind boggling greed does. Pay attention and let’s try to keep it from happening again by calling for extreme reform of Wall Street. A must watch.

Pro MMA fighter, Gina Carano makes her film debut in Haywire. I was in the mood for an action movie and Haywire fit the bill. The tale is simple, Malory is a black op for hire. You need someone taken out, someone extracted or the like and she can probably help you out. After a mission from her employer, she’s sent on another “quick and easy” assignment where she’s betrayed by her boss to seal up a shady deal. Quick to sense something is wrong, Malory goes on the run and out for blood to get her revenge.

Direct and to the point story with a stacked supporting cast. Gina is a real fighter and it shows on screen. The fight scenes are all her and all awesome. Just brutal and creative, each globe trotting action scene is a lot of fun to watch. She’s a promising actress too! Her voice was altered (I think to make it more rough, she sounds very feminine in intervews) but for her first time out I was totally impressed. I hope this is just the start of a long career, I dig her a lot.