Quick Reviews: Megamind, Morning Glory, Harry Potter 7

I don't like to do this but I'm going to be brief with these and combine them into one post. I have jury duty tomorrow and if I'm lucky enough to get picked to serve on a jury, it will create something of a time crunch. So...

Megamind: Animated, so it's easier to appreciate Will Ferrell because it's only his voice. Megamind (Ferrell) is the arch-nemesis of Metro Man (Brad Pitt), superhero protector of Metro City. Metro Man always defeats Megamind, until one day when Megamind actually wins. Then he has to find an answer to the same question Robert Redford asked at the end of "The Candidate:" what do we do now? It amusingly plays off the legend of Superman's arrival from Krypton and even has Ferrell spoofing Marlon Brando's Jor-El. My grade: B.

Morning Glory: Kind of a mish-mash. A little bit of a comment on the news industry, mixed with an attempt at romantic comedy (between Rachel McAdams, the new producer of a network morning show with minuscule ratings, and Patrick Wilson) that falls really flat. Harrison Ford plays an old-school news anchor, being paid to do nothing until he's forced, due to a clause in his contract, to take the co-anchor job on the morning show. Diane Keaton is the other co-anchor, who doesn't mind the fluffy, non-news morning segments, so she clashes with Ford. They're the best parts of the movie, particularly Ford. The rest is just meh. My grade: B-minus.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1: It's the beginning of the end. While there are a few humorous moments, it's mostly tense, with action-filled scenes mixed with some moments that I found rather dull, as Harry, Hermione and Ron are on the run from Voldemort and his minions. A lot of what went on was a bit vague to me. I only saw each of the previous movies once, and never read the books, so one of those "Previously, on..." montages like TV series use would really have helped. If you haven't seen the other movies or read the books, don't bother seeing this because you'll be hopelessly lost. My grade: B.

Quick Review: The Switch

How fun would it have been if "The Switch" had its original title, "The Baster," and at the same time perhaps had a little more subversiveness that such a title would indicate? A single New York City woman named Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) decides she wants to have a baby and hires a married man in need of funds (Patrick Wilson) to be the sperm donor, to the consternation of her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), who loves her but hasn't told her because she put him in the "friend zone." Instead of doing it properly, Kassie holds an "insemination party," a drunken Wally stumbles into a bathroom and finds the cup with the magic material, and accidentally spills it. He then replaces it, with the help of Diane Sawyer.