Along with a few other goals this year, we (viri and I) have decided that its time to get caught up on watching our extensive movie collection. So, Viri and I have started watching movies 1-9, then A-Z of our "to be watched" movie list. Today we start with a movie called "2:37", which was an interesting film but unfortunately flawed on so many levels.  This movie essentially copied the wonderfully done movie "Elephant" by Gus Van Sant (a local portland director) and butchered it into a suicidal, teen drama which portrayed a very sick modern youth. Not to say that our youth isn't sick.

The saddest part about this movie is the reality that these kids exist in today's schools. This movie is about a suicide that takes place near the beginning of the movie and they take us back to the beginning of the day to see how everything unfolds. You get to see that sadly any of the eight or so students could have easily been suicidal. The homosexual, the bulimic girl, the raped sister, the jock, and the kid who wet's his pants due to having dual urethra's make this somewhat intriguing to find out the result.  Unfortunately it's painfully slow, and you had better have a red-bull with you to stay awake through it's entirety. The nice thing about this movie is the shock of who did end up being the one, and that this movie is a dedication to that person who died at 2:37pm.  Overall, I would recommend just skipping this movie and watching something a little less depressing.

Recommended: No (See Elephant instead)
Rating: 5/10

Being a huge Guillermo Del Toro fan I went to this movie tonight trying to be objective with regards to his past movies. If you don't know who Guillermo is, then it's likely that you have not seen Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del fauno), which is one of my top 10, maybe even top 5 favorite movies of all time.  There is an amazing beauty to the style of characters, the sets, and music chosen for his films that gives it a unique look and feel.

Before you go to see Hellboy II with any high expectations, I must warn you right off the bat that this movie is cheesy and rightly so because it is based on a comic book. It does an amazing job of combining Fantasy, comedy, sci-fi, drama, adventure and tons of action which will definitely not work for everyone's taste. You can almost say that this style of movie is almost an acquired taste. :) The action in the film is un-explainable because of its bigger than life fights mixed with the martial arts speed and accuracy of masters like Bruce or Jet Lee.

For anyone in the market for a visually stunning masterpiece that is utterly off the wall, with a self-aware character, you must watch this movie. Although it is rated PG-13, I would say for most families, it is more in the PG rating because of the violence in the film. 

Recommended: Absolutely Yes
Rating: 8.5/10