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!

Eat, Pray, Love, Release Date 8/13, Diva Screen Date 8/22

I was not expecting much from this movie. Because of ratings both professional and user ratings on Rotten Tomatoes I thought it would be one of those regrettable movies that I would later wish I hadn't seen.

It wasn't bad.

It wasn't the best movie that I've ever seen and it really copied a lot of it's idea from Under the Tuscan Sun, but it was still good. The Italian part of the movie (or the "eat" part) was probably the best. It actually made me so hungry we had to have pasta for supper. I could have done without "pray" in India, she could have just kind of wrapped up Pray and Love into one section. Don't get me wrong, I get that this is based on a book that I've not yet read and I suppose you can't veer too far off topic when the title is telling you that there will be three distinct sections, but I still think if nothing else, this could have been a bit shorter.

James Franco is briefly in the movie and I can't help but feel that if I'd read the book, I'd understand the importance of this relationship to her life. It also seemed to happen so fast before she's divorced and was implied that it was impactful yet didn't seem to last more that a few weeks. It left me confused.

Thank goodness for Javier Bardem. Right about the time I was getting hungry from watching Julia Roberts eat Italian food then bored and getting sleepy from watching her pray, we got to the love part. If you go to a chick-flick you've gotta love the love part! In this case Javier Bardem breathed a little life back into this flick when she got to Bali.

Overall it was a good movie, worth going to (just don't drink a large soda or you'll have to take a potty break) but only go with the girls, DO NOT drag a guy to this!

The Other Guys, Release Date 8/6, Diva Screen Date 8/21

The Other Guys could have been a funny movie...but it wasn't.
It was nearly 2 hours of Mark Wahlberg yelling and Will Ferell being his usual self...NOT funny. He is a skit man and should always be taken in small doses. The last time I saw him be funny? A guest appearance on SNL. Last movie that he was funny in? It's a tie, Old School and Elf (both from 2003).

Diva's opinion is to wait until this one is on HBO, maybe even until it's on TBS during a Will Ferrell marathon so you can watch all the crappy movies with it: Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro, and Land of the Lost.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Release Date 8/13, Diva Screen Date 8/15

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is based on a comic book and in this movie they tie in the "ka-pows" in writing that are usually reserved for an illustration or a Roy Lichtenstein painting.

This was a good ass-kicking movie, the type that makes you want to learn some sort of marshal arts.

I am a big Michael Cera fan, I think he is funny and has great delivery of his performance in that uncomfortable, gotta love him sort of way. In this movie, though, Kieran Culkin steals the show. After seeing this, I'm looking forward to seeing Culkin play the son of Robert Downey Jr. in a future flick. They would be a great combo. Culkin has that dark sort of warped way about him the only RDJ has done in then past.

Thanks to Kieran Culkin this is a big Diva's thumbs up. With out him it would have butt just a small thumbs up!

The Expendables, Release Date 8/13, Diva Screen Date 8/14

The Expendables is a throw-back to the 80's action type move. There is a plot (yes, even if my reader disagrees) there definitely is a plot. A small island has been taken over by a former CIA operative, plummeting the island into ruin. The former Generals daughter has reached out to a band of "expendables" for help.

This is a super duper shoot'em up kind of movie, to the point that when someone gets shot their entire head or top half explodes.

It's unrealistic and fantastic. It's also nice to not have the corny mushy love stuff worked in. Thank you Sly for realizing that although this movie was your concept, you were too old to get the girl.

The names were not very original but totally reflected Sly's genre of 80's moves with names like Barney, Lee Christmas, Ying Yang and Toll Road

Frankly, I love that these guys get so fired up about a knife throwing contest. I've seen the truth, when a group of guys are together, they don't need entertainment past sports on TV or their own contest to keep them occupied. Never have I seen the hubby and his buddy's need to have porn in the background or some modelesque girl to entertain them, just good ol' male competition. It was probably the one true, nonfiction portion of the movie.

I really liked this movie and give it a Diva's action adventure thumbs up!