155. Oliver!

Yes, this is one of my wife's movies. I don't know why but she really has a thing for musicals. Well she had never seen the film adaptation of the musical Oliver so guess what I got to watch today. Good thing I love her! Oliver is a musical about a young orphan boy who gets thrown out of the workhouse that he was born in because he was "ungrateful" and asked for another serving of gruel.

Well one thing leads to another and young Oliver finds himself homeless on the streets of London. It's here that he meets the theiving group led by Fagen and the Artful Dodger. Oliver is young and naive but has a good heart and voice. He stays with Dodger and Fagen.

However, a mishap happens on his very first outing and he is accosted and falsely accused of attempting to pickpocket a wealthy London native. Realizing his error and the fact that Oliver has no family the man takes him in.

Oliver's criminal friends won't let him go so easily because they are afraid that he is going to rat them out so they kidnap him back. In the end the wealthy gentleman realizes that Oliver is the illegitimate child of his niece who ran away and he adopts Oliver.

Needless to say I really didn't enjoy this movie. Just too much singing. Plus the plot was totally predictable. I won't be watching this one again if I can help it!

154. Contagion

I don't know about you but I have really been looking forward to the movie Contagion which was written by Scott Burns and directed by Steven Soderbergh (the Ocean's Franchise). Seeing the previews just made me more and more excited and anxious to see how awesome this movie was going to be. I love end of the world/disaster movies so this was right up my alley.

Plus, I figure that it was going to be interesting when Soderbergh went into it wondering how many Oscar winners and nominees he could kill off in one movie! For example, as the trailer gives away Gwyneth Paltrow's character dies within the first fifteen minutes of the movie. I am not going to tell you if these individuals die or not but other notable oscar nominees and winners who appear in this film include: Matt Damon, Kate Winslett, Laurence Fishburne, and Jude Law. Although I don't think that it was particularly important, my wife was quick to note that Jennifer Ehle from the British Pride and Prejudice mini-series (which is one of her favorites) also starred in this film.

Contagion will keep you on the edge of your seats and as far away from other movie goers as the theatre seats allow...yes, you will be that paranoid by the time it is finished! Anyway, this movie was totally awesome!

Final Verdict: Worth Owning!

153. X-Men First Class

We have been packing furiously and preparing to move to Saint Joseph. It has even got so far that we have all our movies packed. Maybe that's why I was SO excited when my wife surprised me with X-Men: First Class on blu-ray! What a good wife I have!

If you have ever wondered how the X-Men got started then you should definitely watch X-Men First Class! By watching First Class you will find out how Professor X (James McAvoy) ended up in a wheel chair, why Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X ended up enemies, and more.

The movie itself was pretty awesome! Of course the uber x-men nerds out there will notice that there are some differences between the comics and the movie but that is to be expected. Overall I feel the movie was true to the comics and honored its roots. It is also set up perfectly for a sequel that would occur between first class and X-Men 1. I can't wait to see what they do with that.

If you have enjoyed the previous X-men movies then you are really going to enjoy this one. You definitely won't be disappointed!

I also liked that the movie made sense to people--like me--who aren't huge X-Men comic nerds. So don't fear that you will be lost if you don't know who Eric Lensher is or why the beast is blue. You'll find out soon enough!