Quick Reviews: J. Edgar, Muppets, Puss in Boots

Blogging for me is in fits and spurts right now. Either I have to be really inspired or it has to be something quick (such as those featuring a photo or two), and my lack of time (due to work and other issues) makes it worse. As far as these movie posts are concerned, I finally decided that I'm just not going to get to separate posts for these right now. So...

J. Edgar: The story (more like a psychological profile) of infamous FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is well-acted but the jumping back and forth in time made it much too disjointed. I read lots of comment about Leonardo DiCaprio's makeup for Hoover's latter days but to be honest I thought the makeup job done on Armie Hammer was worse. My grade: B-minus.

The Muppets: I loved the old Muppet Show and enjoyed this movie, but it was a bit too much of an exercise in nostalgia to be truly spectacular. I appreciate Jason Segel's efforts in getting the Muppets back on the big screen, but somehow I felt this didn't quite fully win my heart. The best celebrity cameo (and one that got quite a reaction from the audience) was by Jim Parsons as...well, I won't spoil it. My grade: B-plus.

Puss in Boots: It took weeks but I finally got to see this yesterday. Spinning Puss (voice of Antonio Banderas) off from the Shrek films wasn't a surprise, but stripping the film of the "Shrek" barrage of pop-culture references was. It was a wise decision. But why didn't anyone tell me they used a Lady Gaga song in the film? I might have seen it sooner. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: Gnomeo & Juliet

You already know that "Gnomeo & Juliet" is basically "Romeo & Juliet" but with garden gnomes. Gnomeo (voice of James McAvoy) is one of the Blue Gnomes, who are feuding with the Red Gnomes from the yard next door. He meets Juliet (Emily Blunt), who is a Red, they fall in love, etc. Since this is an animated movie for kids (which tries hard to be as funny for adults as the better of the "Shrek" films, but falls short) the story isn't quite the same. You may also already know that Elton John executive-produced this and some of his songs are used in the film -- sometimes his original recording and sometimes orchestral versions. You might even know there are a couple of new Elton John songs in the film. But what you didn't know is that one of the new songs is a duet with Lady Gaga. Now, every time you see "you" in the previous sentences, replace it with "I" and you'll understand why I was perplexed just now when I read that Gaga was singing in the movie (although on the soundtrack album only Elton's solo version appears). Either it didn't register in my brain or I didn't recognize her voice at all or something. Next time I'm at the theater, I'll have to try and sneak in at the point it's used in the movie to hear it again. My grade: C-minus.