The film is well-rounded with plenty of excitement, puzzles and good laughs. Music creates a suspenseful mood that keeps you on the edge of your seat, while the special effects add breath-taking scenes. The characters are well-developed and all different from one another. The hero who works from the desk, Benji (Simon Pegg) the intelligence analyst, brings comical relief.  William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is the classic right-hand man to their leader, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton) plays the female hero.  

Ethan and his friends are on a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin in Russia for nuclear launch codes. Before they are able to accomplish the mission, they are detered by an explosion. Ethan is not the only one after the codes. The bombing is blamed on Ethan’s team and his organization IMF. Their job now is to retrieve the launch codes and stop nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia.

Will Ethan get the codes in time? It’s your mission to find out. If you miss your window of opportunity to see the film in theatres, plan B is to rent or purchase it upon release.

“Ghost Protocol” is rated PG-13. Visit the official site for trailer and features.

In the town of Whoville, Christmas is the most important time of the year, and when it rolls around, everyone goes crazy with Christmas cheer.  Well, everyone except for the Grinch, a hairy green Who that lives on Mt. Crumpet with his dog, Max. Cindy Lou Who, a young Who that isn’t quite feeling the Christmas spirit, does some investigation and discovers that the Grinch was humiliated as a child, which spurred his hatred of Christmas and the Whos. Cindy Lou befriends the Grinch and soon nominates him for Christmas Cheer Meister, which reunites the Grinch with many of his childhood friends and enemies.  As a final attempt to show his hatred for Christmas, the Grinch decides to steal all of the presents in Whoville and ruin everyone’s Christmas.

Jim Carry does a very good job portraying the sarcastic and misunderstood Grinch, while adding comedic relief through the side comments from the Grinch. A very young Taylor Momsen, who plays Cindy Lou Who, captures the innocence and childhood charm that Dr. Seuss intended for the character. The other cast members, including Jeffrey Tambor, who plays Mayor Maywho, and Christine Baranski, who plays Marth May Whovie, did a good job bringing the town of Whoville to life with enthusiasm and excitement.

 The costume design and set design of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is impressive.  While the costumes are very ostentatious, they portray the cartoon essence from the original book. The set design, complete with a giant Christmas tree and lots of fake snow, creates a sort of Winter Wonderland that is full of holiday spirit. The storyline is very easy to follow, and the viewer doesn’t have to think about multiple plot lines going on at the same time. 

If given the choice, I would choose the animated version over the live version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. While the amount of holiday spirit can be overwhelming at times, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is a must see every holiday season. With a heartwarming ending and an amusing plot, this movie keeps the viewers attention.  This movie is perfect for young children and people who want to reminisce over a childhood favorite.

The live action “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is rated PG for crude humor.

The new movie “The Muppets” uses clever humor and catchy songs to awaken the inner child inside adult viewers. It is the most sophisticated Muppet movie yet.

The movie follows brothers Gary (Jason Segel) and Walter (voiced by Peter Linz), who are the biggest Muppet fans ever. Along with Gary’s girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), they travel to Los Angeles to tour the Muppet Studios. When they arrive, they see that the place is abandoned and in jeopardy of being torn down by an evil oil driller (Chris Cooper). With the help of Kermit the Frog (voiced by Steve Whitmire), they travel around the world, reuniting the iconic gang again in efforts to save their studio.

This movie is full of guest stars, spanning from the NBC hit “The Office” to CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory.” Mary and Gary were perfect for their roles. 

“The Muppets” creates a modern spin on Muppet humor. This movie made me literally laugh out loud. The puns were so cleverly hidden that I sometimes had to analyze what I  heard to find the humor.

The music in the Muppets was cheesy at times but also had hilarious moments.  Classics like “We Built This City” by Starship were Muppet-ized. The songs movie will have you dancing your way out of the theater.

The Muppets is rated PG for some mild rude humor.

This remake has taken the classic Three Musketeers and  ‘modernized’ it using  humor it’s best to roll your eyes at and walk away. This would-be action movie  had moments where I was glad I came, but a few seconds later I was determining whether I would rather go home and sleep or be lazy and deal with the movie seat.

In the movie the young and cocky D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman) joins forces with the three legendary Musketeers (Matther MacFadyen, Luke Evans and Ray Stevenson) in the recreation of Alexandre Dumas’s story. They must stop the evil  Richlieu (Christoph Waltz), face the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom) and backstabbing double agent Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich) for the sake of France and its king, King Louis XII (Freddie Fox).

The purpose of the remaking of this movie seemed to be  money–not a new perspective on the original. It slows down at unimportant scenes and speeds up the moments you want to last forever. The one redeeming point of the film was the progression of the characters. They did not care for anything with meaning but in the end saw what they were truly fighting for, whether literal fighting or fighting a battle within themselves.

I would not recommend you spend your money and Friday night on this movie.  I give it a generous one star out of five. Wait until it’s out on rental and there isn’t a better movie you could watch instead. You’ll be glad with your choice.

This movie is rated PG-13.

Palace, which opened its doors in July in the first floor of the Smith Building, is a fusion of coffee culture, local art and musicians and feels much like a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in a huge city like New York rather than small-town Canyon, Texas. Owners Patrick and Kristal Burns still keep Palace feeling local as they, along with their merry bunch of baristas, learn the names of all their regulars and generally remember the favored beverages of all who enter.

I could not help but visit Palace on the first day they opened, curious as any to check out a new establishment in Canyon that was not an Asian food restaurant. The mixture of modern design and a hodgepodge of garage sale and fine antique furniture appealed to me as the sort of atmosphere where I could spend a lot of time in a corner reading or sharing a conversation with friends. I have, since then, done both many times.

Palace is not like a coffee shop I have ever visited. Unlike some shops that seem to cater to the daily hustle and bustle of the busy world, Palace encourages you to come in and relax awhile. They hold a growing collection of books and board games, and walking in to see the baristas in a competitive match of chess is common.

Along with all of this, the sense of community spirit Palace gives off is undeniable. From the diverse patrons of the company, to the way they integrate community artists’ work on their walls, feature musicians’ talents in their Palace Room, and include products from other stores such as Bistro to Go’s sandwiches and The Cake Company’s pastries, this place is definitely a group effort.

All in all, Palace Coffee Company is a great addition to our community for people of all ages and types, and is a place I hope to continue visiting now, and for years to come.

I recommend the game for all fans of the sports game genre and all who have bought and/or played Madden before and enjoyed it.

  In a nut shell, “Sucker Punch” is about a girl, Baby Doll, locked away in an insane asylum by her abusive stepfather after her mother and little sister die. She and four other female inmates (Rocket, Sweet Pea, Amber, and Blondie) escape into imaginary worlds that parallel with their plan to escape the asylum. The lines between reality and imagination are skewed as the women fight against everything from robots to dragons to giant samurai made out of rock. However, the story is not all fighting and combat. Each of the inmates is fleshed out and given a nick name that reflects their personalities, and each go through their share of horrors

 Not only is the plot of “Sucker Punch” immersive, but the soundtrack and special effects are breathtaking. Zack Snyder creates visually stunning worlds and directs his cast into heart-stopping fights, filled with his signature slow motion shots. The costume designs and lighting in each of the worlds are also amazing, quickly setting the moods for each one. The soundtrack is a fast barrage of classic rock remixes and original songs that beat down on the audience from all sides, providing smooth transitions from one dream to another dream and finally to reality. Among the songs remixed are “Army of Me,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “White Rabbit,” and a mash up of “I Want It All” and “We Will Rock You.”

 The most impressive thing about the film is just how tough and heart-wrenching each actress makes her character. Emily Browning, who plays Baby Doll, plays wide-eyed innocence and naivety, and also vengeance and cruel persistence, amazingly well. Vanessa Hudgens, who plays Blondie and is mostly known for her role in teen romance flicks, does a complete turn in the role and proves herself to be a formidable action heroine. The close relationship between sisters Rocket and Sweet Pea is also believable and incredibly moving because of the acting skills of Jena Malone and Abbie Cornish. 

Overall, “Sucker Punch” was a thoroughly enjoyable not only for the spectacular special effects and fight scenes, but also its soundtrack, performances, and twisting plot. I highly recommend it for adventuresome movie goers and those who enjoy visually appealing films. 

“Sucker Punch” is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language.

Spongebob…

Fairly Odd Parents…

Big Time Rush…

Penguins of Madagascar…

Tuff Puppy…

Victorious…

Why did it feel like I was missing one? I went to the map of the Westgate Mall and looked through the list of store names. Finally, a light bulb came on.

“The answer is Spencer from iCarly!”

The great race was on. We rushed towards Spencers, trying not to attract much attention, because what if the enemy was among the sea of people? A blond woman walked towards me, and I put my head down quickly trying to avoid her, but it was too late. She had seen me. Autumn Castle yelled to her group, and now it was a race for the prize.

The mission of the day was to find Waldo. For the past two hours we had searched and found him, and this was the last round. The winner of this one would win the grand prize of a mini-trophy from Dollar Tree, but the prize wasn’t what everyone wanted. We wanted to be able to rub it in the faces of one another that they were losers and we, we were the winners.

Our legs ached to run but we couldn’t. The mall security guards were like sharks, watching us, daring us to try. Autumn’s group was on our heels and Spencers was getting closer. We had to find some way to get there first. I judged the distance from Spencers to myself and thought hard. I can make it, just a few more feet and I would make a break for it.

One…Two…Three…

I started to sprint and the others followed. The sharks were now coming after us but victory was within our grasp. Josh was the first to get there. I was still a good three feet away so I took one for the team. I stopped and faced the sharks. They told me that I didn’t need to run and to tell my friends as well. I apologized and then walked into Spencers where my teammates were rejoicing while the cashier gave us questioning looks.

We all walked out of Spencers and laughed in the faces of the other team, enjoying the taste of victory. One we got to the food court, Autumn’s mom gave us our worthless trophies, and we held them high in the air and danced around. Although to most of the people in the food court that day we seemed like we had been drinking or sniffing sharpies, we didn’t care because we were the champions of Where’s Waldo.

Released on Dec. 17, the plot of the movie is fairly simple. After regaining control of his video game company, ENCOM, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) mysteriously disappears. 20 years later, his son, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), begins to look into his father’s disappearance and is pulled into the Grid, a digital world that his father created. Once there, he has to compete against ruthless digital beings in order to bring his father back to the real world.

There are both 2D and 3D scenes in TRON: Legacy. For example, all of the scenes taking place in the real world are 2D, while everything that takes place in the Grid is 3D. It adds to the strange sci-fi feel of the Grid and helps the viewer distinguish between reality and the digital world. So don’t go into the movie expecting it to be nothing but 3D gimmicks, since the special effects blend in instead of taking the audience by surprise.

The soundtrack, composed by French techno duo Daft Punk, is absolutely amazing. Not only does it have the distinctive techno feel of their other albums, it also has orchestral songs mixed in with synthesizers and beat machines. Daft Punk has created an entirely new sound and a standalone soundtrack for the movie. Be sure to stick through the end credits, because the song playing then is by far the best in the movie.

The most impressive thing about the movie is how effortlessly it translates the original 1982 designs into the sleek digital world of the Grid. The light cycles and suits do get upgrades, but they still have that classic TRON feel to them that’s sure to make fans of the original film happy.

So, if you’re looking for a movie with spectacular visual effects, good acting, and enough technology to make any nerd happy, I highly recommend TRON: Legacy.

TRON: Legacy is rated PG for sci-fi violence and brief mild language.