Movie Reviews
by Nicole Cacozza, age 10, for
Monsters Inc. and Lord of the Rings

Nicole's Page of Stuff

Even More Literal Expressions!

by Nicole Cacozza - 26 May, 2003
a page of common expressions rendered literally

All new third installment of re-interpretations of some favorite expressions.

Literal Expressions!

by Nicole Cacozza - 04 January, 2003
a page of common expressions rendered literally

All New Page for the new year.

by Nicole Cacozza - November 09, 2002 a page of common expressions rendered literally

editors note: Hi, paul here. As I put this up here and look at it, I see it as a grand Hommage to the manner and genius of Mad magazine's "Horrifing Cliches" series, who could forget such magic as "on the horns of a dilemma" or "teasing a curl". I don't know offhand if my Niece has ever seen any of these. To tell the truth I'm not sure what Mad is up to these days and the paperback collections of their golden age nonsense is harder to find than it used to be. It hardly matters the will to pun is not something learned or practiced, but something awakened.

Lord of the Rings : Fellowship of the Ring . A review

by Nicole Cacozza - July 14, 2002

This movie is is about a hobbit named Frodo, who is given an evil magic ring. Frodo learns he must go on a quest to destroy the ring. He is helped by his manservant Sam Gamgee and his cousins Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck, and Peregrine (Pippen) Took. He brings the ring to Rivendell, home of the elves, and leaves again soon as part of a group calling themselves the Nine Companions of the Ring which consist of: Legolas the Elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn and Boromir, Humans, Gandalf the Wizard, and Sam Merry and Pippen, Hobbits.

The Nine of them try to travel over the mountain Coradras, but they are forced to turn back because Gandalf s' superior, a Wizard who has gone bad, Saruman, sends storm clouds at them. Then they travel into the mines of Moria, the ancient deserted home of the dwarves. Before they leave the mines they are confronted by a Balrog, a beast of darkness and flame. The Balrog falls into the abyss when a bridge cracks under it, but he pulls Gandalf down with him.

Less Gandalf the Company leaves and passes through Lothlorien and they then take boats down the river Anduin. When they make camp they are attacked by Sarumans's breed of Orc: the Uruk-Hai. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli fight off most of the Uruk-hai, while Merry and Pippen distract the Orcs, so Frodo and Sam could get away. But Borormir gets killed by the Orc captain, Lurtz, who Aragorn then kills. And so the movie ends with the company divided.

I think LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring is a very good movie. It has good special effects, make-up, costumes and actors. It is suspenseful and has a good plot. It might not be suitable for young children, but my parents also took my younger brother, Lucas, to see it and he really liked it ["the Orc's, are the bad guys", he'll offer - Ed.].

All in all - a grade "A".

Monsters Inc. A review

by Nicole Cacozza - 1 Feb, 2002

Monsters Inc. is a good movie. It is about monsters who go into kids closets and scare them so they scream. Monster Inc. is a factory where closet doors are lowered into a doorway by machine, and the monsters go in. When the kids inside the door scream, it fills up a yellow tank that's strapped to the door frame and they [the monsters] use the screams for electricity. But, the monsters think kids are toxic - so if a kid touches or almost touches a monster they shred that door.

Sully and Mike work in the factory. Sully's rival, Randall, always tries to scare more kids than he does, but he never succeeds. When a kid comes through a door have their hands full. Keeping "Boo", they sneak her back into the factory, but Randall discovers her. He tells their boss, who tosses them into an icy cave, but they go down to a village and get back into Monsters Inc. Sully arrives just in time to save Boo from Randall's Scream Machine.

Sully and Mike take Boo on a ride on the doors, but Randall follows. They dart in and out of the doors trying to find Boo's door. They are able to shut Randall up somewhere else and smash the door Boo and Sully somehow get into the training room, and their boss nearly catches Boo. He's arrested, but Boo's door gets shredded after she's back inside.