Nerd in the 'Noke

Cowboys & Aliens (2011), PG-13, 118 minutes - #5 on my Most Anticipated Films of 2011 list, Cowboys & Aliens is a Sci-Fi/Western mash-up directed by Jon Favreau that boasts a pretty hefty cast led by Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. The movie takes place in Arizona back in 1873, when Jake Lonergan (Craig) comes to out in the desert with no recollection of what came before. He works his way into town where he has a scuffle with Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), the arrogant, free-loading son of local tough guy prospector Woodrow Dolarhyde (Ford). Both are tossed in prison and are set to get shipped out of town courtesy of the U.S. Marshalls. Just as the carriage is about to take them out of town, the elder Dolarhyde arrives looking for his son. Then all hell breaks loose: alien ships buzz the main drag of the western town, shooting lasers, blowing things up, and abducting people. It's at this time that a bracelet-like object on Lonergan's wrist comes to life. He re...

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), PG-13, 124 minutes - This new Captain America movie (there was a terrible one made back in 1990 ) checked in at #3 on my personal Most Anticipated Films of 2011 list. Cap also happens to be one of my favorite comic book characters so my hopes for this movie were pretty high. Much like Thor, I was quite satisfied with the end result. Captain America: The First Avenger, as one would expect, tells the origin story behind the character. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a scrawny young American who attempts to enlist in the Army repeatedly in 1942. He keeps getting rejected due to his size and medical history. During one attempt, he is checked out by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci). Dr. Erskine is a German scientist who defected to the United States and is overseeing the Super Soldier Project in an attempt to help the U.S. fight Hitler's Nazi's. He offers Rogers the one thing he wants: an opportunity to join the Army and fight...

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), PG-13, 157 minutes - I'm just going to go ahead and get this out of the way: Dark of the Moon was much better than anticipated and those of you who told me as much were right. I'd also like to point out that I never said this looked bad, just that I wasn't wicked excited about it after the disappointment that was Revenge of the Fallen. Dark of the Moon might be the best of the three Transformers films. The origin story is out of the way and the plot gets back to story aspects from the original Generation 1 cartoon from the 1980's. Megatron is the plotting/scheming villain that he was always meant to be, and the soldier side of Optimus Prime comes out (this time believably), after he no longer feels he can trust the intel provided by his human allies. The short version of the plot: the space race of the 1960's was fueled by the crash landing of an Autobot ship known as The Arc on the moon. Lost in the wreckage was Senti...