Wall Street: Money Never Sleep, Release Date 9/24, Diva Screen Date 9/26

I was expecting a mediocre sequel in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, but was pleasantly surprised with a very good movie.

By no means did Gordon Gekko come out of prison a changed or saved man. He didn't even become a guy that you wanted to like.

This is a new story, not just the original regurgitated for 2010 which is nice to see. You still have your good guy who's a little bit bad but wanting to be good. Along with your typical bad guys.

This is the first movie that I've seen Shia LeBouf be a "grown-up" and he seems to fit the roll well. Sorry, Transformers, I won't be watching you anytime soon!

Other than the jack-ass sitting behind us in the theater who felt it necessary to give running commentary on how the financial/wall street world works, I thought this was a great movie. Just screen your neighbors when they sit down to make sure you are by the quiet people.

Easy A, Release Date 9/17, Diva Screen Date 9/19

Easy A was better than expected!

It is the story of a high school girl who gets paid to lie that she is having sex with the guys in her class. No worries for the kiddies going to this movie, she's not.

Olive (played by Emma Stone) is a modern-age Hester Pryne from the book the Scarlet Letter, right down to putting a red "A" on all of her clothes.

Reminiscent of a John Hughes movie, they do him justice with a reference and a montage of films.

You can't help but immediately love Olive, who is clever and sharp tongued but in a way that does not suggest she is above those around her. She has a humor beyond her age that is similar to that in Juno, just less independent-movie-ish! I like that writers are realizing that kids are smart and funny and not necessarily adolescent.

So many versions of Cinderella and Taming of the Shrew have been retold set in modern teen times, it's great that they have finally chosen a new book to adapt. Now if they just can figure out how to adapt "To Kill a Mockingbird" in modern teen humor and angst...

The Town, Release Date 9/17, Diva Screen Date 9/18

I usually just see the trailers, but in this case I happened to read a review that said "this is Ben Affleck's comeback...welcome back".

That statement was the truth! Not that I haven't enjoyed the brief flash of his star here and there over the years, but this movie just goes to show that Ben Affleck needs to write his own material.

The was compared to a mix of The Departed and Heat. Although I haven't seen Heat, I've seen and really liked The Departed. This beat them both (Dave told me that Heat is not nearly good as The Departed).

Affleck plays a bad guy, but he's the good bad guy, the one you root for and the one you hope will turn good for the sake of the outcome. Rebecca Hall was very believable as the shell-shocked victim of a bank robbery and you can't help but root for her and Affleck's character to get together (no matter how wrong it may be!!).

This was a great movie, best we've seen in a long time! It's a Movie Diva thumb's up...that is, if the Diva would stoop to put a thumb up!