24 May 2012

Amazing

This review is from: Charlie St. Cloud [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) This was an amazing movie. But if you don't like movies that have heartbreaking sad parts that stick with you after you finish the movie don't buy this one. Otherwise you're in for a very well put together heart full, and touching movie. At times the plot line is hard to follow. But I think if you can tell what's going to happen and when, the movie maker hasn't done their job. In this case you are hooked on the story and the acting the entire time. The moments between Charlie and his brother Sam where very heart warming and also heart breaking. All these things are the mark of a wonderful movie. It has a very good message: you can love your family forever, even if they are no longer with you, but you must also live your life. Zac Efron has come a long way from High School Musical. I think he could go the distance as an actor. The same can be said for his young co-star, Charlie Tahan, who played Sam St. Cloud. He was very convincing every second he was on the screen. I cried every moment it was intended with him. I think he also has a bright future as an actor. I really latched onto them both. Which means they where good at their parts. I give this movie, which will stay with me for a long time, a 10/10.

24 May 2012

EXCELLENT Film

Zac Efron has solidified himself as a leading man in Hollywood with his masterful portrayal of Charlie St. Cloud. Without giving too much of the plot away, Efron absolutely shined throughout the film. You felt every single bit of his angst, heartache, emptiness, and sadness. I never read the book, but I'd imagine this movie more than did it justice. What a beautiful, heart warming film. I can't say enough good things about it.

20 May 2012

Read the Book!

I purchased this movie because the book was soo amazing. Although the movie is good and well acted I was dissapointed. There were several important scenes in the book the movie left out. I feel as if the book gave more depth to the story. Zac Efron did a lot better job than what I gave him credit for, this guy will become a great actor. I believe he's on his way to becoming the next Brad Pitt or George Clooney. I recommend this movie for people who have not read the book, but I also still suggest you read the book.

20 May 2012

Wonderful

This movie is wonderful. I went in thinking that Zac was going to be a possible down fall of the movie because of him being a Disney Star and I was blown away. Blown away by the movie, the story and including him. This movie is worth every penny, and I just bought the book.

17 May 2012

A good movie with a re-used plot.

Charlie St. Cloud reminded me of the movie "The Invisible." Also, there was a TV show episode with a similar plot many years ago on I believe Nickelodeon. For me, this made the movie a little predictable, yet it was still entertaining.The acting was good, but the story could have went much deeper and could have been much more emotional than it was. It felt a bit lazy. I thought it was good how the movie had adult themes. I'd say this one is a rental.

17 May 2012

ST Cloud

This movie wasn't what I thought it would be but I still liked it. I think I wanted a little more out of this movie.Like they were not giving me enough to make me completely love it.But all in all I would still recommend it. It is a good girls night movie.

girllovesmovies27

13 May 2012

Lovely Little Gem

I adored this film! I'm not familiar with Efron, but am very impressedby the maturity and introspection portrayed/he showed for his characterof Charlie. This is a touching film that is family-friendly. Sam isplayed by an adorable young actor. I found the two to interact quitebelievably as brothers and was touched during their scenes together.There are a few things that threw me off. One being Charlie's buddiesfrom high school. I think a couple went into the military, but am notsure. One of them reappeared later, but the film led me to believe thathe was a vision to Charlie, that he was deceased. There are a few linesin the bar that seem "off" for the character of Charlie, but overall Ithink the writing was decent.Efron is easy on the eye and provided stability in a film that playswith time and space. A really climactic moment was when Tess left herhouse with her dog to walk him, and then we are in the coffee shopwhere Charlie learns of her disappearance. You realize that thefilmmaker/writers played tricks on you with the development of Charlieand Tess' relationship. Other than that, I enjoyed the film andprogress Charlie made, a real catharsis.

13 May 2012

A movie to watch

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and Zac Efron as an actor. He did an amazing job in capturing the essence of the character and letting the audience feel the pain, love and happiness. The cinematography was so beautiful and inspiring, it blew me away. The little details in this movie, ie the tear drop on the statue after the rain or the color of Efron's eyes that matched the color of the water(his eyes told a story on their own)gave the movie a nice dynamic. The story itself was intriguing and thought provoking.I would recommended it to anyone.

Gordon-11

11 May 2012

Beautifully filmed but story telling is poor

This film is about a young man who loses his younger brother to atraffic accident. He remains locked in a state of grief until herekindles with his friend from high school."Charlie St. Cloud" is beautifully filmed, with great artistic scenesand amazing sceneries. Cinematography is great, and many scenes are sobeautiful that they could become postcards. However, the story is notas good, it is not very engaging. I find the plot unconvincing and thestory telling is rather poor. The romance Charlie and the girl developsis unconvincing and contrived, and the emotional burden and guilt ofCharlie could have been explored further.

10 May 2012

Heartfelt

Efron really does carry this movie. I completely enjoyed it, cried a few times, and was surprised by a few of the twists. BUT- the movie as a whole would not have been my cup of tea if it wasn't for the amazing acting and presence of the always beautiful Mr. Efron. I loved this film. I recommend it, wholeheartedly.

Riva Stewart

10 May 2012

Pleasantly surprised

Zac Efron stars in the touching tale of a young man who must deal withthe untimely death of his little brother. It is the last few weeks ofhis senior year in high school and Charlie (Efron) has a bright futureahead of him. From a single parent, working class family Charlie is atalented sailor that has a scholarship to an Ivey league university.The night of Charlie's graduation, with the responsibility of watchinghis brother Sam, he attempts to sneak out to attend a friend's farewellparty who will be leaving to join the military. But as he quietly turnson his car there's Sam right in front of the car. After a littleteasing Charlie agrees to drop his brother at a friend's house. As theyare driving tragedy strikes, they are in a car accident that kills hislittle brother. Unable to release the pain and guilt of his brother'sdeath Charlie doesn't accept the scholarship. Years go by and Charlieis stuck. Stuck in the same town in grew up in and stuck in a routineto keep his brother's memory alive.A young woman Tess, a sailor, enters Charlie's life. While sailingduring a storm Tess doesn't return. Charlie has a decision to make doeshe stay for Sam or go save Tess.In his first adult role Zac Efron was believable as the pain strickenbrother. I was interested to see how he would fare in this dramaticrole. I was impressed. One scene that stands out in my mind is when hewas asked to come to the local bar after work. The emotion that heexhibited without words was clear as he attempted to fit in to thehappy crowd around him. Zac's got some acting chops. He carried thismovie well and made it enjoyable.We know Zac is a cutie that can sing and dance. Now we see he can holdhis own in a drama. All we need now is to see if he can be a tough guy;execute some martial arts and handle a weapon then ladies and gentlemanwe may have our next superstar.www.rivareviews.com

jayleshd

09 May 2012

Family Values.

If you are family orientated person, whom believes in putting thefamily first and going the extra miles, this is for you.Zac Efron's performance is excellent and I can't find any faults. The story is of a brothers commitment to preserve his younger brothersmemory by becoming a cemetery caretaker. By doing so, he takes care ofhis brothers grave and others and makes it his purpose to visit hisbrother everyday at the same place for many years regardless of his ownambitions.The interaction between the characters is emotional.It is also a thinking movie and allows you to learn coping with theloss of a loved one and how the process of letting go occurs. This wasvery well handled. Thumbs up!

sunraider

08 May 2012

Nothing much to recommend

There's nothing offensive or even really unlikable about CHARLIE ST.CLOUD, but there's nothing to recommend it either. It plays more like anicely shot Lifetime or Hallmark channel made-for-TV movie of the week.The characters undergo their life-altering experience before we've hada chance to become emotionally connected to them or understand how theloss of the younger brother could so affect the older one that he givesup a scholarship to Stanford and instead takes a job and the graveyardcustodian. No real dramatic conflict ensues and the decision thecharacter has to make, whether to forgo searching for and possiblyrescuing a young woman instead of playing catch with his dead butbetween-worlds brother in the churchyard, is not much of a conflictupon serious reflection.While Zac Effron is fine in the movie, I found the little brotherannoying and not very likable. In fact, the script makes it hard tounderstand how and why they were so close. I'm also puzzled by thedecision to cast such well known actors as Kim Bassinger (mother) andRay Liotta (paramedic), only to give them so little to do. The stillincredibly lovely Kim Bassinger disappears after 5 minutes, and withher goes any opportunity to explore the sharing of grief between motherand son and there's never any explanation of how a mother couldre-locate and leave her obviously troubled son to waste away in achurchyard and become the town's resident loon. Instead of maternalwarmth from Bassinger, we have to endure listening to Charlie's"friend" and graveyard maintenance man, played inexplicably by an actorwith an almost unintelligible British isles accent. As for Ray Liotta,he does what he can with a seriously underdeveloped role.The fantasy elements in the story are weakly presented, the religiousor moral messages muted, and the final rescue is underwhelming. Thefilm also fails to instill in the audience any love or affection forsailing/yachting, which is the main character's great passion, despitelovely Pacific Northwest scenery.

08 May 2012

Hallmark Version of The Sixth Sense

This review is from: Charlie St. Cloud (DVD) I have to start by saying that I give Zac Efron props for trying to break out of his High School Musical/Teenage Heartthrob stereotype. He is certainly trying to differentiate himself from his past characters and for that I give him a great deal of credit. It is difficult for a teen sensation to break out from the mold he has made for himself, especially if that childhood mold was as lucrative as Efron's. Sadly, I don't think Charlie St. Cloud was the role to break Efron free from his teen bop status. The plot is weak, the writing is cliched, and the storyline is beyond convoluted. It seems that this movie was made to show Efron's acting chops but instead it comes off as a Hallmark version of The Sixth Sense.Charlie is a sailing champ who is devoted to his younger brother, Sam, and their single mom. While the two brothers are close, Charlie has just graduated and wants to spend time with his friends. One night, while their mom is out, Charlie is put in charge of watching Sam. The two get into a bad car accident in which Sam is killed. Charlie is unable to forgive himself. He defers going to Standford and spends five years working as a landscaper/caretaker of the local cemetery. Every evening he meets Sam's ghost in the forest to plan catch. Charlie's pattern is disrupted when he meets a female sailor with whom he falls in love. Suddenly he must choose whether to live in the past with the ghost of his brother or try to forge a life for himself in the present.Though this movie touches on deep issues of life after death, grief, and regret, it does little more than tap on these issues. As a Massachusetts resident, it was hard for me to believe that this movie actually took place in Quincy when in fact it looked a great deal like the California coast. Yet my greatest disappointment was how forgettable this film is. I only watched it a couple of days ago and my memory of it is already hazy. I always look for movies and books that leave a lasting impression and make me continue to think about the characters for days or even weeks. This is not so with Charlie St. Cloud. Though I wanted to like this movie and cheer for Efron's development as an actor, I found myself disappointed.

Nikolai Schiller

06 May 2012

Zac Efron should just give up

Charlie St. Cloud Review: A young teenager's younger brother is killedin a car accident and the when running away from his funeral, he findshis brothers ghost and they play catch. But of course, Charlie meets agirl and now he has to choose between the girl and the stupid kid.Amazingly terrible story that makes no logical sense what so ever. Puta lot of effort into making us think and feel that his younger brotherwas a ghost. Not. It was just awful acting to and it was reallyover-done and over-rated. I don't know what this film was trying toachieve but its just going to go down from here. See my Despicable MeReview and my Salt review. Charlie St. Cloud is terrible! Do not see,you will have wasted your money!

vincentlynch-moonoi

06 May 2012

Not great, but good

This is not a great film. But, of course, most films that come out ofHollywood are not great. But this is a good film, and worth watching(depending on your tastes) I had never seen Zac Efron before, andfrankly, I wasn't expecting a lot. But he very nicely here. Others mustagree...he has five films coming out in 2012! He's not JUST goodlooking. There's some substance there, and I expect we'll see quite abit of him over the next few years.I also was not familiar with Amanda Crew, but she was quite good as thelove interest in this film. The other actors do their jobs. The scriptis decent, and there's more to it than a Lifetime movie (which one ofour reviewers said).This film won't end up on my DVD shelf, but I'm glad I watched it. It'sin that Hollywood middle ground of quality. Worth a watch.

05 May 2012

really enjoyed this movie

This is a really good movie! I don't know how this movie did in theaters, but I hope it did well because there should be more movies like it. It was heartfelt and moving without being cheesy. The acting was really good too, which I appreciated since I hate seeing bad acting in a movie with a good plot. Thumbs up!

05 May 2012

Zac Efrons Contribution Is Better Than the Film Itself

These brief and admittedly superficial comments are just some impressions on having seen the still new movie, "Charlie St-Cloud", that stars Zac Efron. The film is a bit silly and weepily sentimental, but it provides Zac with many chances to pose beautifully his increasingly hunky body, "hunkily man" now rather than "hunkily teenage boy". I wish that Efron had shown more bare skin, which, of course, is what everybody really wants to see in this kind of commercial endeavour, but he was shirtless at times. (At some other times, his t-shirt would be soaking wet and clinging sexily to his "hard" body, very suggestively.) Actually, Efron's acting is quite good; any faults are of the script, not his, for his acting really is exceptionally fine, certainly better than that of most of the other principal and secondary characters. Zac even has pre-marital sex in this film, quite a change for this Disney studio-famed star! That is going to shock some of his fans -- or, more likely, their parents and other cackling adults. The sex, though, is quite discrete. If it is there in the novel (which I have not read), then it would have to be in the film, too, to render the book cinematically with some fidelity. The impressive, tranquil beauty of the sylvan setting of the film, which rivals the romantic couple's humanly physical allure for attention, is almost reason enough to see this movie.This is not my favourite Zac Efron film, so far. That honour goes to "17 Again", in which the "eye candy" charms of Efron are on more display, especially in those clinging, sweat-soaked gym outfits, in an entertaining and amusing film (one that has more focus and skill in script and in some other important other ways) in which Zac Efron acts utterly to perfection, much better, in fact, than too many critics are willing to admit. Often Zac Efron transcends "his material" (the films) in a most gratifying way, and he does that again in "Charlie St-Cloud".

03 May 2012

Zac Efron maturing...

Overview: Charlie and his younger brother, Sam, are enjoying the last few weeks of summer before Charlie goes to college on a sailing scholarship. Tragedy strikes and Sam's life is lost while a tormented Charlie's life is saved. Instead of going on with life, he lives alone in the woods and starts working at the cemetery. Why does he stay behind? Because he can see his dead brother and promises to meet him every day to practice baseball. Thus begins the story of Charlie St. Cloud, a young man who "stops living" because he can see dead people and does not want to let go of the memory of his brother.Good Content: Charlie's dedication to Sam (alive and dead) is a good example of being a good brother. Even when Sam has died, Charlie keeps his promise to Sam. Later in the film Charlie turns out to be a rational young man as he makes a choice between "himself" and another person's life.Spiritual Content: The fact that Charlie can see dead people is not necessarily creepy. It's more of a psychological thriller than anything. Charlie and Sam have a conversation about what would happen to Sam if Charlie broke his promise and stopped visiting him. Sam is concerned he will "cease to exist". Charlie's life was "saved" by a paramedic who is a strong Catholic. Later in life the two meet and the paramedic asks Charlie why he was "given a second chance to live" and if he will use this second chance for a good purpose. The paramedic believes saving Charlie was a heaven-sent act. He wears a pendant of St. Jude around his neck.Sexual Content: Charlie and his girlfriend Tess spend a night together in the cemetery. Nothing is seen because the camera cuts out right before anything happens but cuts back in afterwards. Same tells a few crude jokes (I only got one of them because another audience member was laughing as if it was a dirty joke).Violent Content: We see some aspects of the car crash that Charlie and Sam are in. We see them while they are in the ambulance-Charlie's face is somewhat bloody. Charlie gets in a fist fight with another young man.Profanity: a total of about seven or eight profane words ranging from h-- to s--Conclusion: Unnecessary elements (such as the cemetery scene, some language) make this a PG-13 film. While the idea of the plot seems "iffy"-a young man spending time with his dead brother-it doesn't really touch on anything spiritual in terms of life and death. Rather, it is more of a psychological, "think about it" film. Borderline tragedy, chic-flick, drama, this film is recommended for mature audiences who are not opposed to somewhat "unrealistic" stories.

sabotschool-837-324259

03 May 2012

Ethereal Movie for Enlightened Old Souls

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, the book's title and movie'soriginal title that should have remained, is suitable for viewing withyour PG-13 aged family and a dinner discussion afterward.What was taken away from the book: love prevails and permeates body andsoul in life and in death.What was taken away from the movie: no one is a lost cause and somesouls for some reason are given a second chance at life. Death, loss and loneliness from grief are topics many souls here in thenew world push away. The movie will fair better in Europe and beyond asthere are many more old souls in old world societies. Miracles happen every day but are not grand or loud. Miracles are tiny,quick, and quiet. Many of the small happenings in the book and moviehave happened to myself and my Sister as I am a Hospice volunteer andmy Sister, a Hospice RN. For example, when we dream of the deceased, yes, we are dreaming ofthem but they too are visiting us in our dreams. A different, open wayof looking at dreams and another world beyond our physical reach andfull comprehension. Dante speaks of a world in between life and death, called 'Chaos.' Manytimes our body and soul do not leave this earth together. Either maylag behind for a mere moment, many minutes or a few days. In Hospicework, one may objectively measure the death of the body but none of uscan fully measure the subjective passing of the soul. Some in andaround Hospice and the dying say they can feel the soul of a loved oneleaving the body. Some even say they can see the soul of a belovedfamily member or animal leaving the body. A difficult concept totranslate into our often uncivil, chaotic, smarmy society of late.Charlie St. Cloud is not a movie for the sensory minded or hard heartedperson. Better also if one has read the book before viewing the movieas its ethereal nature may be lost on the non-enlightened. This movie would have been a wonderful opportunity for ParamountStudios to promote Hospice. Zac Efron is a talented, young 'old soul' of an actor whose intelligentperformance carries the movie along, as the subject matter is difficultto translate onto the grand, exciting, loud screen. He is also the mosthandsome actor to hit the big screen since a young Tyrone Power with asubtle soul, kind eye, and the old world mannerisms of a youngLauerence Olivier.Kim Basinger and especially Ray Liotta add a maturity and familiarityto the movie cast as they are seasoned and special actors.Amanda Crew has an unusual calm, quiet, quality around her acting notfound in most leading ladies. Charlie Tahan is a delight as he is surprisingly mature and mostcompetent in his first big performance on the big screen.Slow down, breathe and take your entire enlightened PG-13 aged familyto this melancholy yet lovely movie and enjoy family time together.Remember, friends and family are forever.Katherine Barrett Baker, Director of The Sabot School of Etiquette,Manakin-Sabot, Virginia www.betteretiquette.blogspot.com