February may be a short month, but it’s not short on love.
Sharks United Television wants to make sure your February is full of fantastic entertainment as well as chocolate hearts and flowers. Here’s a review of SUTV’s February movie offerings.
I can’t think of a movie that says Valentine’s Day better than “Easy A”— well, maybe the movie “Valentine’s Day” but that’s not playing this month. Instead, SUTV is offering this film starring the beautiful, Emma Stone, in her Golden Globe nominated performance as the high school girl reaping the benefits of a fictitious sexual exploit. Loosely based on the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” Olivia (Stone) tells a white lie about losing her virginity and then sells similar fibs to students who want to appear like they have lost their virgin cards. This romantic comedy is entertaining and includes a brilliant comedic performance by the quickly-rising Stone.
For a change of pace, there is, “The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole,” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” The former is directed by Zak Snyder of “300” and “Watchmen” fame, and develops around a young owl who leads an army of Guardians in a battle against the evil owl army seeking to take over. With beautiful animation, this was one of the best animated films of 2010.
“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” is a Swedish film adapted from the renowned novel by Stieg Larsson, about a troubled girl who is attempting to free herself of a murder accusation. She does this with the help of reporter Mikael Blomkvist. The novel and the movie were such successes that there is an American remake of the film underway.
While the previous films do nothing for the celebrated, hallmark-created, holiday that surrounds this short month, these next two don’t help either. They are “Lottery Ticket” and “Hotel Rwanda.” In “Hotel Rwanda,” Don Cheadle fantastically portrayed Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwanda man who risked his life by hiding Tutsi refugees in the hotel he managed during their struggle against the Hutu militia. It’s a heartbreaking, yet inspirational story of heroism and triumph.
“Lottery Ticket” takes a serious look at the ridiculous events that might follow if an average Joe were to suddenly win the lottery. Needless to say people go crazy. “Lottery Ticket” stars Bow Wow as well as a hilarious line-up of comedians like Mike Epps, Bill Bellamy, and Charlie Murphy. I suppose if you won the lottery and it was Valentine’s Day you could buy a lot of candy — think about that.
Finally, my recommendation for the movie you should watch is, “The Town,” directed by and starring Ben Affleck. This crime drama set in Boston tells the tale of a group of bank robbers who decide to take on one last job, which is meant to set them up for life. The acting, the story and the action make this one of the smartest and most satisfying crime movies of the year and Jeremy Renner, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as one of the bad guys, brings the goods.
There is also “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the 1962 contro-versial film, which dealt with racism in the South and is hailed as one of the best movies of all time. If you feel that none of these choices have the sufficient amount of adrenaline and testosterone that you look for in movies, there’s also “Salt.” “Salt” features Angelina Jolie as a spy doing what she likes to do best; jumping off of cars, swinging off ropes, and shooting guns.
There’s something for everyone in this month’s selection of films, except maybe for Cupid, who probably wishes that “Love Story” or “Titanic” was playing.
