Didn't Quite Live UP

Well...It was the most anticipated movie for the Fredstrom, but didn't quite live UP. This was by far Pixar's most emotionally TUGGING movie starting off slow and sad, but HANG on UP fans! Meet The Fredrickson, a retired balloon seller that sets out to fulfill a childhood dream. The Fredrickson was supposed to take his wife on this adventure, but life got in the way. Unfortunately,  The Fredrickson out lives his sweet wife, leaving him to take their house with him. Destination: South America.

So this is Russell, a very accomplished Wilderness Scout needing to assist the elderly for that last badge to become a senior scout.  Russell gets CAUGHT UP with The Fredrickson and is along for the adventure, encountering some of his own challenges and adding new ones for his geriatric compadre.

UP was very clever. Although slow at parts, UP's two main characters come from totally different places, ending up on the same page forming a very sweet relationship. And as with any Pixar film, it offered a very creative short film called Partly Cloudy...love it.

UP earns 7 Picasso's for it's creative plot and lovable characters.

Terminator Stinkation

So Terminator gets sent back to take out Sarah Connor because her future son John will lead the resistance against the machines in the future. John sends back his dad, Kyle Reese to protect her.

Terminator gets Terminated only to get sent back again this time to defend pre-pubescent John Connor (remember that squeaky voice?), from a liquid-metal terminator and again both terminators end up taking dirt naps. 

Terminator gets sent back again to defend college co-eds John and his woman against uber-hot terminator.  Terminator again takes care of terminat-her and sacrifices himself to keep John alive. Viva la resistance!

Judgment Day has come and gone leaving the world in utter decay. Nuclear fallout is no fun! It's the year 2018 and middle-aged John is battling against the machines along with a bunch of thugs that were extras in Tupac and Dre's video "California Love".  Weird thing is that John Connor's dad who's a teenager(?) Has been captured by the machines.  John has to go into Skynet headquarters to fetch him out.  He ends up running into the Governator in his birthday suit!  Good thing for computer generation, not sure anyone wants to see 62 year-old Arnold in his birthday suit!

The Fredstrom won't give away anymore info about this somewhat disappointing movie.  There is only so many ways to remix this Terminator saga.  The 3rd one was redundant enough, this is just getting ridiculous.  This near waste of $7 earns 5 Picasso's.

The Fredstrom Likes Angels and Demons

If you like The Da Vinci Code then you will really enjoy Angels and Demons.  It's a sophisticated European version of National Treasure and let's face it, Nick Cage doesn't have much on Tom Hanks.  Dan Brown is a genius at creating this very smart and intriguing plot.

Tom Hanks (Robert Langdon) is back and called upon by the Vatican to help find 4 kidnapped Cardinals that are finalist in line for Pope-hood. Hanks roams all over Vatican city in search of clues to find these lost Cardinals before they are killed in ways that only he can unlock.  Ewan McGregor brings it as the late Pope's right hand man and gives Hank's a serious run for his money. The ending was completely unexpected with a shocking twist! Everone dies after the...just kidding, go see it for yourself!

The spiritual metaphors are fascinating and endless.  The CG effects were pretty decent-regenerating a hodgepodge of the innards of the Vatican and other Roman churches.  You history buffs will like the symbol decodings, the Vatican archives (including Vatican cover-ups), Galileo's writings, Bernini's statues, and more.

The more the movie went on the more the Fredstrom was feeling that this movie is really good. Dan Brown, Tom Hanks, Ewan McG. and Ron Howard have earned themselves 8 Picasso's!