the-only-reviews-that-matter

The Green Lantern

2011-06-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

I was always more of a Marvel guy than a D.C guy. Superman is too perfect and Batman has always been better on screen than on the page for me. However, I always kind of dug the Green lantern. It is a totally goofy Sci-Fi adventure, with green lanterns of power, an entire galaxy of creatures who protect galaxies from things like mass energies of fear. The Green Lantern Corp comes with its own oath and everything! It was always entertaining to me as a kid because it combined those goofy B-movie type sci-fi campiness with the superhero stuff. Green Lantern was about the Corp, but also about the flawed human being who wore the ring, especially when Hal Jordan was the Lantern. However, it seemed like an awful idea for a movie. Would the general public be able to get behind the goofiness? After spending nearly 300 million dollars (reportedly) to get the CGI looking good, Warner Brothers was hoping the public would. However, the movie kind of sputtered out of the gate. Banking on Ryan Reynolds' star power might have backfired.

Hal Jordan(Reynolds) is a pilot with a death wish. He is a rebel in the air and is constantly defying orders and doing whatever he thinks is possible to be the best. This reckless attitude along with his natural instinct to run away when things get serious makes him the least likely person to receive an intergalactic ring to make him a protector of our galaxy, yet the ring chooses him. The Green Lantern ring does not make mistakes and when one of the Corp members is dying, the ring finds Jordan. At first, Jordan is elated. The ring projects anything he can dream up and makes it a reality. Plus, he can fly without a jet. However, it is a huge responsibility and he is not sure he can handle it. A Green Lantern Corp member has to be fearless, and has to clear his mind in order to be successful and Jordan is not that guy. However, as the giant evil cloud of fear gets closer to taking out Earth, Jordan must find it within himself to man up and take a stand for all of human kind. There is also a love story with Carol Ferris(Blake Lively) and a human villain, Hector Hammond(Peter Sarsgaard) who has the Green Lantern powers, but he uses fear as his motivator and eventual downfall.

The Green Lantern is not nearly as bad as it is being made out to be. I know that is not exactly a ringing endorsement, but that is how I feel. It is a good movie, with decent action and some good laughs and a few nice thrills, but it never quite kicks it into high gear. Reynolds is clearly a movie star capable of carrying a movie franchise, but I think he was let down by the rest of the creative team here. The script has far too much expository dialogue and not enough of anything else. The action sequences are clever and well done, but there are not enough of them and the climatic action sequence is over far too quickly. For a movie that runs a little over 2hrs, I would have expected much more action.

Reynolds and Lively make an extremely sexy couple and they have a really great chemistry, especially during the slower more tender scenes, but even they never get a chance to really light a fire under those scenes. There is too much time spent getting the lighter to ignite and not enough time watching the wick burn or explode. I think there is a very good movie to be found in the Green Lantern world now, which I did not think going in, but this is not it. A lot of time was spent on the CGI aspect and in all honesty, I think it looks pretty great. I have heard complaints about it, but I really enjoyed them. I think part of the reason why is that they look kind of goofy and Sci-Fi like and that is how they should look. I thought all of the things Jordan imagines through the ring that come true, looked great, even if the hue of green looks a little silly as the color of a Gatling gun and other various weapons. Again, The Green Lantern has always been a big goofy.

The Green Lantern comic has had various incarnations and Hal Jordan is the most famous and recognizable of this group, so it makes sense to tell this story. It also has a nice theme about fear and how to overcome it. Jordan changed the entire thought process of The Green Lantern Corp and the movie does a good job of showing that difference. I am always down for a theme and superhero comics have often been about themes of belonging and find one's place and this is no different. There is nothing really wrong with The Green Lantern, but there is nothing terribly right with it either. it just kind of exists. If you stay after the movie and about half way through the credits, you will be rewarded with a nice moment that sets up a sequel, which Warner Brothers is writing, but I would be surprised if it ever actually gets made.

Final Grade: C

Super 8

2011-06-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

J.J Abrams gets me. He gets what I like and what I want to see. He also gets how to keep a movie mysterious and has the absolute best trailers for his movies. I truly believe Abrams is the future Spielberg, once he better figures out how to connect humanity to his epic stories. Star Trek was certainly on the path to that and it looked like Super 8 was going to make giant leaps forward in that category. It does not hurt that Spielberg was a major producer on the film and clearly his presence was felt in terms of story. I was crazy excited about this from day one. The moment i heard Abrams and Spielberg were teaming up, I was sold. My favorite director and one of my favorite up and comers together? Yes, please! There was nothing that I saw from the trailers or the reviews that made me think this movie would be less than totally awesome, which is always dangerous, as I have mentioned many times in this blog. But, I believed Abrams would not let me down! Would he?

In a sleepy Ohio town, a factory accident has left Joe Lamb(Joel Courtney) motherless. His father, Jackson(Kyle Chandler) is a well meaning man, but he is not equipped to raise a young boy on his own. Joe and his group of friends spend their days making movies and at the moment, they are making a zombie film with Charles(Riley Griffiths) as the writer and director. Joe is a master with make up, Cary does explosions, and Martin and Preston fill out the cast and crew. Charles, thinking the story is not emotional enough, decides to add a wife to the main character, Alice(Elle Fanning) is asked to be the wife. On a late night shoot near a train station, the group of kids witness an insane train derailment and total explosion. They talk to an ominous black man who warns them to keep quiet. This Ohio town is quickly overrun with military personal and Jackson, as the deputy, is soon in charge as the sheriff goes missing. It is not long after the train wreck that things start to go weird. First, all of the dogs in town leave, then electronics all over the town are either stolen or damaged, there are rolling black outs and of course, people are going missing. The young kids try hard not to talk about it and all they really want is to finish their film, but soon as the military evacuates the town, the boys set off to find answers and they find something in their footage.

Super 8 is the best movie of this year so far. It has heart, thrills, genuine laughs, and a great sense of nostalgia. It reminded me so much of all of the movies that made me a movie lover in the first place. It remembers a time when kids wanted nothing more than to be outside being creative. It has elements of Stand By Me, The Goonies, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. It also has young kids filming a zombie movie, so you have those references as well. it is a wonderful blend of low budget humanity and big budget blockbuster. It is the kind of movie I know I will watch and love many times because of the feeling it gives me. Yes, there are issues and it is not a perfect movie, but when a movie makes you feel this wonderful sense of joy, how can you really start nitpicking at it?

let us begin with the wonderful cast. The young actors in this film are just outstanding. The moments between the kids feels incredibly organic and the dialogue between them is often times hilarious and peppered with really honest lines and emotions. Elle Fanning is a star in the making for sure and she has great chemistry with Courtney and it lies at the heart of the story. Joel Courtney, in his first movie ever, is exactly what the movie needs and he really makes you believe everything he is feeling. If you have not seen Kyle Chandler in Friday Night Lights on television, you are really missing out. Very few actors can say more with a shift of weight, or with eye movement than he can. He says more with actually talking less than most actors and he brings that to the role of a father doing his best to figure out life.

Abrams knows how to direct action, there is no denying that. The train crash is about the best crash of that level I have seen. It is littered with thrills, explosions and death defying moments with the kids. He also does a great job of concealing the creature until he absolutely needs to show it to us. The final action sequence that interlocks the human side and the blockbuster side is quite a wonderful spectacle, but I felt like it never lost the human core. In fact, it kept it so intact, one of the people I saw it with thought it bordered on cheesy, but to that I say, the movie is about a father and son trying to come to terms with the death of a loved one, it had better be a little bit cheesy! I will never tire of watching people dodge tanks, bullets and exploding houses and Abrams shoots this finale in a nice blend of long and tight shots. He shoots overhead when we need to see the scope of what is going on, but he knows exactly when to pull it in and give us something intimate.

I am very much aware that there are some flaws. yes, it is a little convenient as certain points for the boys to stumble upon exactly what they are looking for, but if that is what you are focusing on, then the movie is clearly not for you, because the movie did not grab you and fill you the way it did me. I will not listen to anyone complaining about Lens Flares because it is a J.J Abrams movie and you knew what you were getting into. It is like going to a Michael Bay and complaining about sweeping slow motion shots, it is part of who Abrams is as a film maker. I am not sure Super 8 will stay my favorite movie of the year, but I am pretty sure it will end up in my top 5 and it will be a movie I love for years to come. Any movie that can combine the adventure of The Goonies and the thrills of Jurassic park is always going to be watchable in my book. Super 8 is the kind of movie that makes me glad I can just get lost in a movie.

Final Grade: A+

X-Men: The FIrst Class

2011-06-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

The filmmakers here had an impossible task; they had to reboot a franchise nearing death, without restarting the franchise, which means they could not use the characters the general public knows and loves. X3 was a disaster and Wolverine was such an all over the place mess that I wondered why this movie was even being made. They went about it the right way, at least. Bryan Singer was back in the X-Men world, but only as a producer, story doctor and consultant. He brought in Matthew Vaughn, a wonderful and varied director, to helm the project and as the cast filled out, it looked promising. Yet, I was not sold. The original marketing was not good and while the trailer looked pretty solid, I was worried that it would be difficult to connect to these mutants that were not household names. So, with these lowered expectations, I made my way into the theater.

Erik Lehnsherr(Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier(James MacAvoy) could not be more different in terms of how to use or access their mutant powers. After being in a Concentration Camp and watching his mother get shot in front of his eyes, Lehnsherr uses anger and believes mutants should rule the Earth. Xavier wants to help humans and believes that humans are good. Yet, somehow a friendship forms. As part of a secret C.I.A team, Lehnsherr and Xavier find other mutants and begin a training facility in hopes of getting these young mutants strong enough to fight back against Sebastian Shaw(Kevin Bacon), Emma Frost(January Jones) and two other evil mutants. Against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis, that was actually a plot by Shaw to gain infinite power, this is an origin story, or more like origin stories. The first class of X-Men includes Havoc(Lucas Till), Beast(Nicholas Hoult), Banshee(Caleb Landry Jones) and of course, Mystique(Jennifer Lawrence).

X-Men: First Class is the best X-Men we have. It is funny, has killer action, makes perfect use of the mutant powers and tells a wonderful story with great writing and wonderful acting. Matthew Vaughn is, by my calculations, 4 for 4 in terms of the movies he has directed. He knows how to pace this movie without letting it derail because it is, after all, a summer blockbuster. However, he lets the story hit all of the beats it need to. We get angsty mutant moments and we get the parallels between the civil rights act, or more to the point, the Nazi/Jewish parallels in the story as well. I loved how well Vaughn told this story because with so many mutants, and with a story moving in essentially three different directions, things could have gotten muddled. Direction 1 in the overall arc of Shaw as the villain, but the two other moving parts are Erik's revenge and of course, Xavier's desire to save Erik. With all of this going on, it could have easily crumbled, but Vaughn keeps it moving by effortlessly switching from kick ass action scene to quiet contemplation about the meaning of being a mutant.

This is of course helped by the wonderful acting, especially from MacAvoy, Bacon and most importantly, Fassbender. MacAvoy and Fassbender had the unenviable tasks of playing young versions of beloved characters that are played by amazing actors when the characters are older. MacAvoy is right at home playing Xavier like a playboy. it was fun to see Charles Xavier as a young, intelligent flirt who is not afraid of a lot of alcohol. So, the real task was Fassbender and what a star making performance. He is funny, angry, sincere, scary and very cool. Fassbender does what Hayden Christianson could not do: he took an iconic villain and made him human without losing the edge that lets us see that he is still going to become Magneto. He switches from accent to accent effortlessly and plays every moment in such an honest way that it makes everyone else look good as well.

Of course, this is an X-Men movie and so the action has to be crisp and it is. I loved the epic climatic battle, with all of the different characters spread out this awesome ocean landscape, but this movie is more than just the climax. And the action scenes are not always just straight up battles. There is a training montage that also provides some great action, and the scene where the young mutants reveal their abilities is very well done. The action does not overwhelm the story, but moves it forward. Azazel (think Nightcrawler, but looking like Satan) gets a lot of great action stuff to do and I loved the effect of Banshee flying and using his power. It is easy to make Havoc look cool with his red energy being flung, and when Beast gets in his full beast Mode, it is easy to make him look good as well, but to have a kind of wimpy looking kid, whose power is to high pitched frequencies, look as cool as Banshee does, you know the movie has it working.

If there is a weak spot, it is January Jones as Emma Frost. Frost should be more of a bad ass, but Jones is so weak next to the incredibly charismatic Bacon. She looks totally hot, but not entirely comfortable with her hotness, so it is kind of a bummer. I loved her silvery look and actually all of the effects were top notch, so if my only complaint is that the hot actress was not very convincing, I think that can be forgiven. X-Men: First class is a top notch entry into the Superhero genre and I hope people can look beyond the fact that there is no Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Cyclops or Jean Grey and just enjoy the ride because it is definitely worth the trip!

The Hangover 2

2011-06-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Hangover took the world by storm. It starred 3 not-that-famous guys, it rehashed Dude. Where's my car's plot and went on to become the highest grossing R Rated comedy of all time and I believe the third or fourth top grossing R Rated movie of all time. It was hilarious, but not super raunchy, so it had that mass appeal. Something about the chemistry of those three, mixed with a baby, a tiger, Mike Tyson and some serious memory loss resonated with the public. I loved it, as well. It has physical comedy, ridiculous situations, really funny lines and a genuinely interesting story. The Hangover could have been recut as a mystery film very easily. There was no way a sequel was not going to happen. Hollywood knows how to cash in on money making properties better than anything. The teaser trailer hinted at nothing but a very dirty Bangkok. The trailer looked like a complete retread of The Hangover and that actually suited me perfectly. With INSANE box office numbers in the opening weekend, it is clear The Hangover 2 will lead to a Hangover 3, but is it funny?

Opening with another messed up phone call about how they lost someone, Phil(Bradley Cooper), Stu(Ed Helms) and Alan(Zack Galifinakis) are at it again. There is a wedding, this time Stu is getting married to a ridiculously hot Asian girl(Jaime Chung) and as Stu has not forgotten what happened the last time this crew threw a bachelor party, he refuses to have one. Instead, Stu, Phil, Alan, Doug(Justin Bartha) and Stu's soon to be brother-in-law, Teddy(Mason Lee) grab one beer and have some marshmallows. Next thing they know, the Wolfpack is in a dingy motel room with Chow, a finger without a body and no memory. Thus repeats the pattern. The guys empty their pockets, go to a strip club, a tattoo parlor, a monk monastery, hook up with a chain smoking, drug dealing monkey. They get mixed up in the Russian mob, an Armenian arms dealer and Paul Giamatti. Oh, the person they lost is Teddy.

If you are looking for variety, go somewhere else. The Hangover 2 follows the comic, mystery and ridiculous beats from The Hangover exactly. In fact, the movie plays more like a remake than a sequel, but that is just fine with me. This is a ride I am willing to take as often as they offer it. It is just a flat out funny time. Cooper, Helms and Galifinakis make such a great comic team and they are all very much game for whatever director Todd Phillips throws at them and it makes for such an awesome adventure. I love the reactions from the characters as shit just gets crazier and crazier. yes, it is absolute stupid that this nonsense keeps happening to these same three guys, but that is a big part of what makes the second film work. These guys cannot believe this shit is happening either.

Helms is, of course, on the receiving end of most of the wildest stuff. I almost wish the face tattoo had not been revealed in the trailer, because it would be such a great reveal, but that pales in comparison for the raunchiest, funniest, nastiest thing that happens in this movie. That is what The Hangover 2 has going for it. It's raunch is actually hilarious, unlike Bridesmaids. Cooper still plays Phil as the ultimate Go-With-the-Flow attitude that helped bring levity to The Hangover and Helms is even better this time around as Stu. He is so perfectly over the top in how much he cannot believe what has happened to him. In fact, the movie goes to a petty dark place momentarily with Stu and in the third one, I hope they come back to it. Galifinakis makes Alan the right mixture of asshole and helpless child which is becoming his specialty.

I loved the flashback with the guys as kids doing the debauchery. It was a nice touch and the photos at the end are even more insane than the last time and I really liked that Doug was still around. This movie seemed less focused on the mystery and more on the insanity of what these guys do when they get black out nuts and that was fine because the kid playing Teddy did not matter much to me. I got the point of him, but I think the stakes did not matter as much to me this time. The cameo at the end is great, even though I totally should have seen it coming and really, the only negative thing I can say about this movie was that I did not come out of it with as many quotable lines. It is probably not going to be as memorable as the Hangover.

Final Grade: A-

P.S. This movie makes me want to avoid Bangkok at all costs, whereas The Hangover made me want to fly to Vegas as soon as the movie was over.

Bridesmaids

2011-05-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

I was never totally sold on this movie by the trailers. I thought they all sort of missed the mark. However, I think Kristin Wiig is a brilliant comic actress and Maya Rudolph and Melissa McCarthy are both great character actresses in search of a breakout. The reviews were pouring out adoration for the movie and producer and director team of Judd Apatow and Paul Feig was infinitely intriguing to me. I figured the trailers just had to be a very tame version of this R-Rated comedy. It was being mentioned as a female Hangover, of a female version of a Judd Apatow movie and who would not want to see that movie? I was excited at the prospect of all of these women coming together and creating something hilarious. After missing it opening weekend, I heard even more raves from co-workers and the general public coming out of the movie wiping away tears from laughing so hard.

Annie's(Wiig) life is not going exactly how she pictured. She is having sex with a guy who can barely stand her (he does not appear to be very good at sex either), her baking business went under and she is paying bills by selling jewelry. She has awful roommates and her only other living option is to live with her mother who goes to AA even though she has never had a drink. To top it off, her best childhood friend, Lillian(Rudolph) just got engaged and asked her to be the maid of honor. While Annie is excited for Lillian it only magnifies how off track her life is. It does not help that Lillian's life is easy street and Lillian has a friend, Helen (Rose Byrne) who has a ridiculous amount of money, is gorgeous and undermines all of Annie's ideas for the wedding party. The rest of the Bridesmaids also have their own ideas of what the bachelorette party and wedding shower should look like, and it is up to Annie to try and juggle it all.

Bridesmaids was so unbelievably disappointing. I laughed a lot in the first 25 or 30 minutes and then had a few sporadic laughs after that, but I found that most of the movie missed the mark. People around me seemed to be having a good time, but I was fidgety, bored and ready for the whole thing to be over long before its bloated 2hr run time was over. Wiig is a wonderful comic actress and she even handled the dramatic moments very well, but I am not sure this movie is worthy of her talents, or maybe I think she is meant to be a character comic actress, not a leading woman. All of the other actresses were fine too. Byrne did not drag the picture down even though she has nowhere near the comic background many of these women have and Melissa McCarthy was probably the only one who managed to be funny throughout, even though I did not get most of what everyone else was laughing at.

Also, Bridesmaids is more than a little bit depressing. I get that desperation and awkwardness make for humor all of the time, but this was just tough to watch at times. There is a scene where Annie and Helen go back and forth trying to outdo each other with speeches about Lillian and many people were laughing, but I was just left cringing because it reeked of depression from Annie. She knows her life sucks and that she may be losing her best friend and it was difficult to laugh at the pain. I like my raunchy comedies to get serious and not be afraid of emotion, but the general tone of this movie was to laugh at this woman's life spin so far out of control she has to move in with her mother. Of course, the character of Annie is not inherently likable either. There is this great cop character, Officer Rhodes(Chris O'Dowd) and Annie does everything she can to sabotage the possibility at happiness. It gets old pretty fast.

I have received the remark that I did not enjoy this movie because I have something against women who act the way we expect men to act in movies. This is false. Fart, poop and vomit jokes are not funny to me no matter who is farting, vomiting or pooping. The big gross out scene in this movie may make a lot of people laugh, but I was just left sitting there. I wanted so very much to be left with tears of laughter. I wanted my gut to hurt from laughing and instead I was just left wondering how much longer I had to sit and wait for the inevitable conclusion. I did laugh at the sex jokes. I actually appreciated jokes with women talking about sex, but not in that Sex and the City way. I really did want to love Bridesmaids, but it just did not go that way for me. I wish I could say there is a good movie somewhere in this mess, but I just do not think there is.

Something Borrowed

2011-05-23T15:09:00.001-07:00

If you know me, one of my general movie going habits is to avoid Kate Hudson movies at all costs. She is grating, unfunny and not particularly attractive, in my opinion. However, when you put her in a movie with the adorable Ginnifer Goodwin and hilarious John Krasinski, I cannot be so harsh on my habit. I still probably would not have seen it if I had to pay for movies and did not have a girlfriend who wanted to see it. There is just something so annoying about everything Kate Hudson says and does. So, it is with my Anti Kate Hudson glasses on that I went into this movie.

Rachel(Goodwin) and Darcy(Hudson)are best friends and have been since childhood. Darcy is loud, flirtacioud and fashionable and Rachel is bookish, awkward and a pushover. Darcy is engaged to Dex(Colin Egglesfield), who was Rachel's good friend and crush from law school. The night of Rachel's 30th birthday, she and Dex have sex and after she admits she always had a crush on him. Dex becomes quickly confused as to what he wants. He thinks he loves Darcy, but he always wanted Rachel, so for a while he gets them both. he and Rachel start secretly dating, and Darcy remains oblivious. Rachel's other best friend Ethan(Krasinski) becomes her sounding board and he sometimes has to tell her what she does not want to hear.

It has been roughly a week since I watched Something Borrowed and I am still undecided what exactly I feel about it. The movie is undoubtedly funny. John Krasinski is just hilarious in every scene that features him and the script has some genuinely funny moments and situations. Goodwin and Hudson have pretty good chemistry and there is a wonderful moment involving them and a Salt N Pepa song that might be the highlight of the movie. Goodwin is her usual adorably self conscious self on screen and she really sells the drama of the story, especially in the big confession at the end. She is sexy in a subtle way and even though Hollywood keeps trying to sell her as more on the frumpy side, the girl is gorgeous.

However, there is something deeper going on in this movie that keeps me from really liking it. The premise of the movie is essentially a girl has sex with her best friend's fiance. Rachel's selfishness is constantly rewarded, Dex is an indecisive asshole and Darcy is an obnoxious brat who has nothing nice to say to anyone throughout the entire movie. These are the three people we are supposed to care about enough to watch them for nearly 2hrs, but I honestly did not like any of them. Hudson's Darcy is the kind of movie character that should have no friends and only in film does this kind of personality come across as charming to a group of people. Krasinski's character is the only one who can seem to call Darcy on her shit and he is the only one really worth caring about.

I do not need likable characters in my movies, but in what is supposed to be a kind of breezy ROMCOM, I should. I should care if the characters are happy and I honestly did not. In fact, I think the movie takes the easy way out in the climax. These characters do not deserve the Hollywood ending and in giving it to them, the movie cheats life. Granted, there are consequences and the consequences are long lasting, but in the end, we get the ending we all knew we were going to get at the end of the movie. The writer got lazy which is too bad because there are at least 3 inspired scenes where the writing really helped sell these characters. The scene involving the Salt N Pepa song has a really great feel to it and almost endears the Kate Hudson character to me. Then Ethan's confession is honest, sad and beautiful and of course, the big major confession from Goodwin is wonderful, but it is all spoiled by false moment after false moment.

When the lights came up, I felt incredibly mixed emotions for the film. I was super annoyed by the ending and by the actions or lack of actions by the characters, but I also laughed a lot during the movie, especially at two side plots involving Ethan's one night stand and this super douchey guy Darcy tries to set up Rachel with. So what I have decided is that I loved everything about the movie that was not directly related to the main story. I love Goodwin, but as likable as she is, her character is too much of a pushover and by the time she grows a backbone, it is too late, I was over it. Hudson actually looked hot a few times in this movie, which is a rare thing for me to say, but she did not help make Darcy any more likable. I would have rather seen a movie built around the supporting characters!

Final Grade: C+

THOR

2011-05-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I remember how it is I do this review thing. THOR seemed like an odd choice for a stand alone character movie in the Marvel and Avengers universe. Not to say that any of these marvel movies are based in a sense of reality, but would audiences be willing to go to another world for this Superhero stuff? They cast basically a no name and hired Kenneth Branagh to direct and I just did not think it was going to work. Would it be too silly to have a dude with a spinning hammer as the hero? I was curious about it and found myself way more excited than I would have thought at the end of Ironman 2 when they showed Thor's hammer. Clearly they had me hooked! The trailers were good, but not great, but I had read some good things about the 20 minutes shown at ShoWest. Plus, there is this whole big plan with Marvel and this entire world being connected meant it would be wise to watch it. Oh who am I kidding, it is a Superhero movie, of course I was going to see it!

Thor(Chris Helmsworth) is a powerful but arrogant warrior in a realm of Gods where magic and science are one in the same. His father (Anthony Hopkins) is a powerful king and is all set to pass the kingdom to Thor, but Thor's childish arrogance starts a war and he is banished to Earth where he meets up with a trio of American Scientists. Thor's power has been taken from him and he believes if he can get his hammer back, he can get his power back. With the help of the trio (Natalie Portman, Stellen Skarsgard and Kat Dennings) Thor tries to fight through the secret government agency known as SHIELD, but as he reaches his hammer, he cannot pull it out of the ground. Back in his home world, Thor's brother, Loki(Tom Hiddleston), sets off a chain reaction to kill their father, take over their world and maybe, just maybe destroy everything.

Thor is an origin story, but not in the same way as most Superhero origin stories. Thor has always been a bit of different kind of comic. It is a very straight forward story and is told in a very straight forward way, to the point where it almost feels like a series of short films tied into one film. This is not a bad thing as I found Thor to be quite an excellent movie. My biggest fear was that they would take the material far too seriously, but the first 15 minutes of Thor on Earth are very funny and set a good tone for a summer movie. The action is a little too frenzied at the beginning, but as the movie settles in the action gets a lot easier to follow. Branagh has too many tight shots of the action, which he did not need because all of the effects looks great. I wanted him to pull the camera back and let us get a more broad scope of what was going on in the action sequences, but he does give us plenty of action. The pacing is excellent and while there is a serious amount of exposition, the story does not get bogged down in it, mostly because Portman and Helmsworth are so great together.

Chris Helmsworth is going to make hundreds of girls and gay guys drool throughout the movie, but beyond being chiseled like a statue, he makes a very great Thor. he has the right mix of arrogance, playfulness and strength to pull of a pretty oddball character. He handles the action flawlessly and there is never a time when I questioned whether he could do all of these insane action stunts. He also handles the Earth stuff very well. His chemistry with Portman was a pleasant surprise for me. Portman is her usual solid self. She clearly was having a great time with all of this big summer blockbuster stuff and it helped bring a sense of levity to the movie. Skarsgard is great as well. I expected it to be a throw away role, but the way he played it made the character incredibly important. Hiddleston, as Loki, was another pleasant surprise. It is good he was so great because we have not seen the last Loki in the Marvel universe of movies. Hopkins was the only disappointing aspect in the movie to me. He was clearly just phoning this in and I know he had issues with Branagh, so that may have had something to do with it.

Superhero movies are becoming almost overdone and people wondered if maybe Thor was signalling the end of the genre, but Thor is a breath of fresh air. With flying spinning hammers punching through crazy Ice Monsters(best action sequence in my opinion), a great cameo from another Avenger, great comedy and a solid cast, Thor borders on being truly epic. The world created is gorgeous and some of the shots of Thor's home world are stunning. I feel like Branagh and company did a very good job of making Thor workable to the general public. It is easy to have audiences embrace Spiderman, or Robert Downey Jr as Ironman and it will probably be easy to ask audience to cheer for Captain America, but it was tougher to make Thor accessible and this movie more than accomplishes that. This movie makes me hope Thor has a major part of The Avengers. It also makes me hope Portman will have at least a cameo in The Avengers.

Pre Summer movie bash!!

2011-04-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

I know I do not really write in this thing anymore, so it would not surprise me if no one came back to read it, but I am hoping to, at the very least, write reviews during the summer months. The summer movie season is always fun for me and with school being on hiatus,I am confident I will have the time to dedicate to writing reviews. So without further ado, here is my annual pre summer movie bash!

My 10 most anticipated movies of the summer.

10. Green Lantern: I am not sold on this movie because the trailers have not wowed me. The 7 minute sizzle reel was nice, but I am still missing something.

9. Friends with Benefits: So far, it is the funniest trailer of the summer and I love the cast. yes, we have seen a version of this movie already this year, but this looks flat out hilarious

8. X-Men: First Class: X3 was bad, Wolverine was bad, so why do I even care? Well, it looks really damn good. The cast is strong, I like the director and the footage so far intrigues me.

7. Thor: Curiosity is what makes this so high on the list. How are they going to do this movie. It is not the easiest character to translate to the mainstream and casting a virtual unknown as Thor is not the Marvel way, but I am curious enough.

6. Transformers 3:The Dark of the Moon: The fact that this is outside of my top 5 goes to show how bad part 2 was. Everyone involved swears they have fixed it and I love the teaser trailer!! I will miss sexy Megan Fox, but excited for more Robots beating the crap out of each other.

5. The Hangover 2: I do not care if the trailer looks like a rehash of the first movie, there is something about it that makes me giggle every time. I love these guys and want to see more crazy adventures.

4. Cowboys and Aliens: Until a week ago, this movie would have been probably down at number 7 or 8, but the new full length trailer came out and it totally rocks! I am still unsure of the full tone of the movie, but I am super amped.

3. Captain America: I love the idea of a Captain America movie. He is not my favorite in the Marvel universe, but the idea of a Captain America movie just feels right. The trailer is solid and Evans looks great, which was a big hurdle in my opinion. It has a great classic cinema look, with killer action and I think the suit looks excellent. Also, Tommy Lee Jones is a total bonus.

2. Harry Potter 7 part 2: The saga finally comes to an end. An entire generation of people were raised on this group of characters and here we are at the end. The first half was moody, creepy and totally awesome, so I can only imagine how totally epic part two will be.

1. Super 8: I am not sure I have ever felt like a director/producer team mattered as much as Abrams and Spielberg. J.J Abrams is the man in my book. I love everything of his I have seen. His mind works in a way that makes him the perfect geek director. I cannot wait to see how this one plays out. It looks like a total throw back movie and everything being written about it is positive and I just NEED this movie now!!

My guesses for the worst 5 movies of summer:

5. Cars 2: This is the first time in quite a few years that I was not excited about a pixar movie. It actually makes me sad to say it, but this looks absolutely awful

4. Kung fu Panda 2: The first movie was pleasant enough, but the action was cool and the comedy sucked. The trailers really push the comedy, so bleh!

3. The Smurfs: I will see it because NPH is in it, but there is no reason for this movie to even exist. No reason at all. The trailer looks awful and honestly, why??

2. Zookeeper: If you take Paul Blart and smash him into Dr. Doolittle, you have this movie. Kevin James is likable enough, but honestly, this is nonsense. I am typically against talking animals in live action movies anyway.

1. Pirates 4: If you know me, you know i am not shy about my hatred for Pirates 2 and 3. Getting rid of Orlando and Keira and adding Cruz does nothing to excite me. Johnny Depp has been playing nothing but Jack Sparrow for almost a decade now it seems and I am over it. I am hoping to avoid this movie, but since I see movies for free, I will probably see it.

Random Thoughts:

There is no Adam Sandler movie this summer. It weirds me out.

Priest looks sufficiently bad ass

I feel like this year is going to determine what happens with 3D. Many big movies being released in 3D this summer and winter. I hope 3D dies.

The Beaver could be Lars and the Real Girl level brilliant, or it could be a total suckfest. I do not think there is a middle ground.

Bridesmaids just missed my top 10, but will it be the female Hangover? Will Kristin Wiig be the breakout star SNL is breeding her to be?

A few interesting looking movies being released in limited release this summer: Everything Must Go, Hesher, Tree of Life
I feel like Bad Teacher would have been a good movie for Cameron Diaz a few years ago, but now it just comes off as desperate.

Until I see a trailer for Horrible Bosses I cannot in good faith be excited, but the team involved make me anxious for a trailer.

Winnie the Pooh is coming back to theaters and it is in traditional looking animation. This is the most exciting animated movie this summer, in my opinion.

CrazyStupidLove intrigues me based on the cast and the trailer is promising, but can Ryan Gosling keep up with such comic actors as Steve Carrell and Emma Stone?

There is a serious over loading of comic book movies this summer and next summer looks to be more of the same. Will people stop coming to see them?

2010 top 10 and other thoughts

2011-01-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

I admit the blog kind of got away from me in 2010. I hope that I can get it back this year. The hiatus was due to many things. First off, for half of the year I did not have reliable internet on which to post. Secondly, I saw less movies because I did not have the money to see the amount I usually see. And lastly, it was possibly the worst year of my life and I just could never bring myself to find the energy to post. Things have turned around and for now, I work at a movie theater so I get my movies for me. This should make the viewing of movies a lot easier. I am not going to retroactively review the movies I missed, but there are a few of them on this list, so you will get mini reviews. I hope I still have some readers and I hope to get the ball rolling again in 2011.

Kyle's Top 10

10. The Town: Wrapped in Ben Affleck's blue collar sensibilities, this crime heist raises the level of tension by mixing balls to the wall gun fights with moments of quiet tension. When a scene that takes place at a table in restaurant can carry the same level of tension as the final shoot out, you know the director has done a wonderful job. Affleck is going to be nominated for an Oscar for best director some day, this I believe. It was also nice to see John Hamm branch out and he has some killer cop lines.

9. The King's Speech: I did not go all crazy for this movie the way so many have, but I am going crazy for Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. These two performances give the movie a level of brilliance I am not sure it deserves. The supporting roles, the directing and the script could be improved, in my opinion, but because of the two men this movie is an absolute joy to watch. Every scene between Firth and Rush is a treasure of acting and they play off of each other so well, I want to watch them in other movies together.

8. True Grit: I honestly thought this movie would be top 5 easy for me this year, but even at number 8, I do not consider it a disappointment. The script is one of the Coens' tightest, mixing wonderful language, broad humor/appeal and a pretty gripping character study. Matt Damon is hilarious, the lead girl does amazing work and Jeff Bridges is a wonderfully gruff version of Jeff Bridges. However, the epilogue drags the movie down and I think because it is a Coens' movie, the straight forwardness of the movie was kind of off putting at times. Still, they took a genre I hate and put it in my top 10.

7. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: I would not be surprised, if over time, this movie grows on me even more. I think this movie, more than any other, has been analyzed in my head. I want to teach it, study it and just talk about it all of the time. It is a fantastic feat of direction more than anything else, but it is very much a movie aimed at people like me. I can identify with the characters, the images, the thoughts and the ideas. It is the ultimate coming of age in a digital age story. Like a movie featured later in this list, it is an in-the-moment movie that I think will be more appreciated in years to come.

6. The Kids are All right: Wonderful performances, a great script, a fun and interesting story and interesting direction choices are all one needs to make an engaging intimate movie about real life. This movie features all of those things, especially some very winning performances all the way around. You understand the motives of all of the characters and the ending leaves you wondering what will actually happen to these people because after 2hrs, I began to really feel for them. I think you own life experiences will sway your opinion on the characters, but I think that is intentional.

5. Exit Through the Gift Shop: Best piece of performance art by Banksy, or interesting, gripping documentary? No one really knows, but I do know that I was riveted in a very real way throughout. This movie is getting at what it means to be a celebrity, it speaks to how the masses are easily swayed by a name or by trying to get the next big thing, but ultimately it is an engaging story about this guerrilla style of art that at its best is pure and raw and at its most manufactured is an interesting study on what makes art real.

4. Black Swan: I cannot remember the last time I was this floored by a young woman's performance in a movie. Natalie Portman flat out gives the best performance of the year of any gender. She gets in this movie and becomes everything it is supposed to be. Arronofsky hits another home run in a film about obsession, addiction, insanity and the blurred line between reality and fantasy. it is a gorgeously dark tale with a twisted sense of humor and the most intense moments I have ever seen involving hands. It is hard to watch, but impossible to turn away from. It is controversial, brilliant and is the ultimate mind fuck. If nothing else, it is worth seeing to watch Natalie Portman give the performance of a career. I am not being hyperbolic in any way. It is truly spectacular.

3. Inception: I know this movie has been talked and talked and talked to death, but I do not care if I understand it or not, I loved it. The first half builds us the world and tells us what is going to happen and how it is going to happen, but the second half just shows us and what a brilliant piece of film making it is. Chris Nolan is juggling 4 or 5 balls in the air at the same time throughout the whole picture and he manages to land them all cleanly. The performances are great summer event film performances and the action sequences are among the most interesting I have seen, especially the hotel hallway fight. The movie is a testament to how editing can make or break a movie and honestly, I liked feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under me. People have cooled off on this movie a bit now, but having recently re watched it, I still love it and plan on always loving it.

2. Toy Story 3: Nothing seemed like a worse idea than making a third Toy Story movie. How dare I question Pixar!! This movie is more than just a wonderful cartoon. It is joyful film making at its best. It twists and bends genre conventions, from Film Noir to a jail break movie, to buddy movie to slapstick style comedy. The voice work is beyond top notch and the characterization of Ken from Barbie and Ken is worth the price of admission. It is a scary, sad, dazzling, hilarious, sweet and comforting journey that left me in tears all 3 times I saw it. The ending should choke everybody up and the way the movie unfolds is perfect.

1. The Social Network: This should come as a shock to absolutely no one. I was on this movie from day one and saw it 4 times in theater and tomorrow will be buying it on dvd. It has a perfect, complicated script full of sharp humor, brilliant lines, and great structure. Fincher's direction is flawless, especially the interesting way he lets the movie work for him instead of him working for the movie and the performances all around are perfect. Jesse Eisenberg sheds his "Michael Cera light" tag and even sheds his likable charm and dives head first into playing this asshole who may or may not have cheated 3 people out of millions of dollars. The movie does not point fingers, even less so than the source material, but allows the audience to make up its own mind about what really went on. Sorkin has always been a brilliant writer of dialogue and structure, but in this he outdoes himself by surrounding himself with top notch people across the board. It also features the best score of the year. Yes, even the music is perfection here.

Random thoughts

The A-Team was grossly underrated. It is a wonderfully perfect action movie for the summer months.

Robin Hood and Sex and the City 2 were the absolute worst movie this year had to offer, at least of the movies I saw.

Kick Ass just barely missed the cut of my top 10, but I still think it is wonderful and spawned a great movie conversation between Robbie and I since we disagree on a movie so rarely.

Harry Potter 7 part 1 was excellent, even though almost nothing happened. It makes me crazy excited for the second half.

2010 also saw the rise of movies being released in 3D but the box office draw of those 3D diminishes as the price goes up.

The Fighter also just missed my top 10. Christian Bale is perfect.

The Harry Potter book series (spoilers like WOAH)

2010-12-23T16:31:00.000-08:00

After years and years to rejecting everyone who offered up their copy of the Harry Potter series(We will call it HP from this point on) I finally gave in. Sometimes it is just impossible to say no to a beautiful charming girl. The reason I fought it for so long was due to the fact that when I tried to read it years ago, I got roughly 60 pages into the first book and loathed it. Armed with a new perspective thanks to Erik telling me to read the first book like a Roald Dahl book, I ventured into it.

I have been trying to figure out how to best write my experience with this much beloved series and I am still unsure if this is going to go exactly how I want, but I really wanted to go through my feelings on the series as a whole. Going book by book would not really do the series justice because J.K Rowling managed to be pretty brilliant in her weaving the stories together. Yet, HP is so massive, I had to figure out how to best attack it. For those of you who follow my twitter (@KyleHadley) some of this will be familiar, but in 140 characters, I could not fully realize major thoughts. This will probably not follow any sort of chronological order, nor will it follow the normal "things I like" followed by "Things I do not like" order of my typical reviews. None of those worked when I went to write them. What is most likely to follow is a free flowing sense of ideas or thoughts. It is probably going to be messy and long, but I think ultimately if you can make your way through it, we will come to a satisfying end of this HP adventure.

One of the main things I could not get a handle on in twitter was Voldemort. The beginning of book 4 is when we really see Voldemort as a character not an abstract idea or concept. For three books he is really mostly just "he who must not be named", but in book 4 and then through the rest of the series, he becomes more tangible, more knowable. He has a personality and I think that works to the disadvantage of the series. Voldemort is scarier as an abstract. Part of the power of that character is his mystique. He is cloaked in this unknowable and when he is "knowable" he loses the dark magic. Now, if someone wants to argue that it was part of Rowling's plan for Voldemort to get less scary to us as he gets less scary to Harry, I will listen to that argument in earnest because I can see that point, but I think she worked so hard to create this legendary villain and then destroyed it. I enjoyed the Tom Riddle back story, so that was not my problem. In fact, I think the Riddle back story makes Voldemort that much scarier, but when he starts talking to his Death Eaters he is less scary. He becomes too much of a character and not this mysterious creature lurking in the darkest corners of Harry's mind.

My biggest issue with the series also ties to the idea of Voldemort as a non scary character. It is Rowling's way of writing death. I was first bothered by it in book 4 when Cedric Diggery got such an unceremonious death. However this trend continued with pretty much every character death in the series right down to Voldemort. You are telling me the scariest, most bad ass villain alive dies at the hands of his own curse rebounding??? He does not even get to have an epic wizard fight with "The Boy who Lived"?? Death scenes are hard to write. Fight scenes are tough to get a grasp on, but Rowling clearly had action sequences down by the time Voldemort died. The Battle for Hogwarts is one of the most exciting action scenes I have come across and it weaves all kinds of complex stories into the backdrop of this fight, however Rowling decides to side step death scenes by writing quick deaths that rob the readers of the emotional pull of a death. She redeems herself for Cedric and Dumbledore by giving moving tributes in the form of a eulogy, but that is such an easy way out. Sirius never gets that proper due and he is such an important character for Harry.

Through it all though, there is this foundation of Harry, Ron and Hermione. This trio of friends, I think, represents why these books are so well loved among all generations. The theme of friendship that is the glue for HP is something to which everyone can relate. Every time the series starts to lose focus, or get long winded, Rowling could rely on this rock to get her and us through it. However, not everything is always perfect in this trio and that is what makes it that much better. In life friends go through issues and this series gives them to us, but it always raises the stakes by throwing life and death at us. What made Buffy, The Vampire Slayer so great was the idea that teenagers were going through typical teenage stuff on top of saving the world from demons and vampires. In HP we get a lot of the same stuff. Ron is jealous of his best friend's school popularity, but he also has to help save the world. Hermione has image issues and jealousy issues and Harry cannot speak to girls. And on top of all of that, he is constantly nearly being killed. However, in the end, it is always Harry, Ron and Hermione. Yes, Harry is the chosen one, but without Ron and Hermione he never could have done any of it. This friendship and the perseverance of it reduced me to tears a few times and is the main reason I read through some of the stuff I hated.

This wizardering world Rowling created is certainly something to be admired. She clearly did exhaustive writing and thinking to create a fully realized world full of nuance, but this attention to detail falters her when the stories get too long winded. A few of these books could have been shorter and there are entire plots that I could have done without. The biggest shining example of too much "world" was Hermione's obsession with house elves. Yes, they turn out to be incredibly important to the world of HP, but so much of book 4 was spent dealing with these creatures and in all honesty, they did nothing to fully advance the story. We needed 3 of them and I understand the character of Hermione fights causes, but I knew that without so much time being spent on the idea of freeing house elves. Rowling also bends the will or personality of her characters to fit what she wants them to do. She is the opposite of the narrator in The Scarlett Letter who cannot control his characters. She has infinite control of them, even if it means having them do something out of character. My biggest example of this is the truly awful fifth book. Most people do not like it because of the angsty Harry, but my issue is why he is angsty. In order to get him angsty, Rowling decides to totally change Dumbledore's personality, just for this book. But worse than that was her easy way of getting out of it, by just having Dumbledore say he made a mistake. Everything he did was way out of the character Rowling had built for 4 books prior and I am just supposed to accept "Oh, well, I am old and some times I do it wrong." No thank you! How am I supposed to trust anything Dumbledore says in book 6 after that?

What this series boils down to is hype vs expectations. I understand why people love it and having read it once does not in any way make me an expert and perhaps some of the problems I have with this series exist because I am not in love with the world. I am distanced so I look at it in a critical sense and not with the sort of reckless abandon most do. I love that people have a true fire and sense of burning love for these books. A burning love for literature is beyond great and to be honest these books have such rich themes about good vs. evil and how love is the greatest magic of all that I would feel comfortable teaching this book to my children and having them find stuff for themselves. There is a certain childlike innocence people get when they start talking about the first time they picked up HP and THAT is more important than anything I have said today. When a book makes you feel something like that, it goes beyond criticism. I may never pick up the series again and yes, I was underwhelmed as a whole, but to be perfectly honest, when I think about these books in the future I am going to remember just all out WEEPING when book 6 came to an end. I am going to remember cheering when Neville stepped up, or feeling comforted knowing Harry was always going to have Hermione and Ron to help him when he needed them. Even as I type this now, I get goosebumps thinking of that feeling I had so many times when Harry and his friends conquered every challenge together, or how Hermione stuck with Harry even after Ron ran out, or how Ron came back knowing what could ultimately happen. Or even better, how Harry truly believed he had to sacrifice himself for the good of the whole world. How many 17 year old boys or girls would be willing to sacrifice a weekend to help people and Harry is being asked to sacrifice his life to save everyone else? And he does it with the calm and understanding of someone at least twice his age!

I think writing this out actually just changed my perspective on the series as a whole. As I sit here with my own words, I find myself warmed to the core by the love people have for these characters and how wonderful I felt reading sections. There is a power the written has always had over me, but here my own words have changed my opinion. This is why writing and reading are so important, but that is a whole other post for a whole other day!

I want to end with just some random thoughts that are mostly twitter style thoughts:

Luna Lovegood makes me happy.

Severus Snape is onomatopoetically perfect.

The predictability of Draco and Harry's conversations got old early on

I want to be a part of Dumbledore's Army

The way she wrote Harry and Ginny together was perfection

The plural of Patronus should be Patroni not Patronuses.

I bet Ron and Hermione's angry sex is amazing.

Dumbledore is, in my opinion, one of the best literary creations in years.

Quidditch did not really do anything for me. I did not miss it one bit when it was gone.

Most of the humor fell flat for me. However, George and Fred were constantly hilarious.

I could have done without Hagrid. I am not sure the Hagrid pay off was worth all the amount of time spent with him.

Lastly, I would have expected Rowling to create Wizard Holidays instead of using existing ones.

Top 10 list: Movie Soundtracks

2010-11-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

I am ready for this to be a bit controversial of a list, but here we go. Also, movie musicals were left off of this list.

10. The Wedding Singer: I almost did not include this because it has some movie musical like properties, but ultimately decided on it. It has great 80s songs, first of all, but each song also serves a nice purpose in the film, especially when Sandler sings them. When you throw in the two great Sandler original songs, it really takes shape. There are actually two volumes of this soundtrack and both have stellar songs from this decade that gets mocked so often.

9. Garden State: I feel this soundtrack was a precursor to all of these indie movies with pretentious soundtracks. Of course, I like a certain amount of pretension, so it works for me. The soundtrack is a perfect mood setter for this moody, melancholy movie. It gives the film atmosphere and when you listen to the songs you can actually remember in what scene they appeared. It is a wonderful meshing of sound and picture.

8. Do The Right Thing: First of all, this soundtrack features the brilliant Public Enemy song "Fight the Power" and it does not need to have any other song on it to be amazing because that is just how amazing that song is. However, it also has a ton of other great songs that have deep meaning for a powerful movie. The movie integrates these songs in exceptional ways, which is really the true testament to a good movie soundtrack and Spike Lee loved Public Enemy so much he let them do the entire soundtrack to a movie later in his career.

7. Romeo and Juliet: To be honest, I am not sure this is a soundtrack featuring music I would normally find appealing, but in the context of the film and with the idea of the film in my head, it totally works. I almost feel like I have to take this soundtrack as 1 big piece of work instead of individual songs. I know there was a second volume of this one released as well, which is just how popular the music of this film became. The movie, which was a daring version of a classic story is helped out by this weird, eclectic soundtrack.

6. Friday: With a perfect blend of contemporary hip-hop cuts and classic funk/soul jams, Friday is the perfect soundtrack for a day of smoking weed and longing in the hood. What more can you ask for from a movie about smoking weed and lounging in the hood? You get Rick James, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and The Isley brothers, but you also get Cypress Hill and 2 Live Crew providing music for this stoner comedy. Because the movie gets violent, it is good to have some harder hitting music, but it is also to have those grooved out songs during the weed smoking sections of the movie.

5. Superfly: Curtis Mayfield did the entire soundtrack and while the movie spends a lot of time glorifying the drug trade, Mayfields gorgeous songs often counteract that. I found the film to be mostly forgettable when I saw it, but the music stays with you, man does it stay with you. With insane grooves, smooth vocals and socially aware lyrics, Mayfield soars over the exploitation trappings of the film this soundtrack serves.

4. The Graduate: This is one of those obvious choices when it comes to movie soundtracks, but what are you going to do? It is a great soundtrack. It is a great album, and it is a great way to service a great movie. I cannot say anything else about this soundtrack that has not been said on any list like this, but damn, whether you are watching the movie or just listening to it, you undoubtedly feel something.

3. (500) Days of Summer: You may question this choice, or at least how high it is, but this is my list and not yours. First of all, it services the movie exquisitely. From there, it just has insanely great music. A lot stuff from artists I had never heard of, but such great songs. What makes a great soundtrack may be different to different people, but I think this list makes it clear that the way a song is used in a movie helps elevate a soundtrack and is there a more perfectly placed song that Hall and Oates' "You Make my Dreams"? I think not. This is album I can listen to and let it transport right back to this movie.

2. 8 Mile: This might be the most controversial choice on my list, but if you know me, it should make perfect sense. There are two different soundtracks to this film, 1 with contemporary songs, many dealing with issues talked about in the movie and of course the soundtrack of songs used in the film. My choice is the one used in the film because this movie features the most brilliant collection of 1990s hip hop music. It hits on every level. It works as background music to a wonderfully 1990s hip-hop story, but it also hits hard as a compilation of hip-hop's golden era. It almost acts as a hip-hop starter kit.

1. Reservoir Dogs: Honestly, this spot could just be reserved for any Tarantino film because no one puts together songs the way he does. He is an artist at it, but it is not just his song choice, it is knowing exactly at what moment to cue up the song. I went with this one because, well the music is directly mentioned repeatedly and called to because of Steven Wright's wonderful deadpan DJing. You get the classic "Little Green Bag" moment, the perfect use of "Stuck in the Middle with you" and of course, my favorite, "Hooked on a feeling." Movie Soundtracks just do not come any better than this right here.

Feel free to leave some of your favorites in the comments and feel free to trash any of my selections as well.

I do want to make it known, I clearly went with soundtracks of songs, not just movies with a score, or orchestra music. It was a personal choice I made. Also, I decided O Brother Where Art Thou was too much of a movie Musical to be included, otherwise it would have been very high on my list.

Paranormal Activity 2

2010-10-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

The Hollywood cash grab annoys me. It is the reason the Saw movies keep getting produced, or why there are so many sequels, remakes, spin offs and other vanity projects. Paranormal Activity was the biggest surprise of last year and it possibly may have been the biggest surprise in movie history. If that sounds like hyperbole, go run a check on how much it cost to make and how much it ended up raking in. The movie just kept gaining attention and gaining a fan base and when it went to a wide release, the movie just exploded. Naturally, Hollywood wanted to cash in and got a sequel into production as soon as possible. The director of the original stayed on as a producer only and the franchise was handed to the director of Door in the Floor, which was not a horror movie. My interest in Paranormal Activity 2 (PA2) was minimal, but I found myself there at a midnight screening nonetheless.

After coming home to a house that looks like it got broken into, the family of Kristi, Dan, Ali, Hunter, Martine(the housekeeper) and Abby(The German Shepard) decide to install surveillance cameras. Strange spooky stuff starts going on and Kristi gets a bit rattled. Doors slowly open, gusts of wind where there is not wind, doors slamming shut, pots and pans rattling and other sorts of shenanigans start to spook out Ali as well. martine believes the house is cursed with demons but Dan does not believe her and fires her. There is something in the house though, something that drags Hunter(a newborn) out of his crib and down the stairs. Something causes the Ouija board to spell out Hunter's name. Clearly something is wrong. Kristi has a chat with her sister, Katie(From Paranormal Activity)about the freaky things and the sisters both remember things from their youth like this, but Katie reminds Kristi that whatever it is feeds off of attention and it needs your fear to thrive. Kristi and her family then try to ignore it until it goes away.

The thing that made Paranormal Activity such a fun movie going experience was the tension it built. There are people out there who complain about the lack of pay off and there is something legitimate in that complaint, but no one could complain about the slow building tension brought more dramatic by the slow bass sound every time it was about to get ugly. In PA2 the tension is just a bit lackluster, but the pay off, oh the sweet scary pay off is too delicious. I should say pay offs because this movie delivers nice big juicy jumps over and over again. Your eyes still dart all over the screen looking for the faintest of movements of anything. The movie is made creepier by adding a baby to the mix and for making the baby the prime target for the demon. There are pay offs in broad daylight (my favorite one) and there are a variety of pay offs in the final 15 minutes that more than make up for the lack of tension built.

The film takes place roughly 2 months before the first film. yes, this is prequel and we also get a bit of mythology built into PA2. I liked it. I liked that the writers appeared to be doing more than just grabbing cash, they were building a franchise to grab cash. I do typically love franchises if they have interesting mythologies and this one does. Even though the budget was massively larger in this movie, the movie does not feel any bigger and that is a plus when it comes to these Cinema Verite style movies. There is certainly going to be a third movie and most likely a 4th and 5th to follow if they keep making the kind of money the first one made and this one is currently making. Horror movies are cheap to produce and the return on the investment can be astronomical and so far, this budding franchise is absolutely worth it. The hype is delivered on and a great time is had!

PA2 works in a different way than PA, but like the original the acting is pretty bad and there are times when you wonder why they keep running around with a camera, but on the flip side, the hand held camera idea makes the basement scene so damn freaky that most people were watching it crouched down trying to find relief before we even saw or heard what we were scared of. If the movie fails to built tension throughout, it gets it right in the basement. If you enjoyed PA there is a great chance you will also enjoy PA2, but if you thought PA was ridiculous, this movie will not change your mind. They created this film with the audience in mind and kudos to them for understanding their fans.

Final Grade: B

it's Kind of a Funny Story

2010-10-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

it has always been my belief that stand up comics can make great dramatic actors if they are given the chance to play characters that tap into the stand up comedians inherent issues, because all comics have issues. Zach Galifinakis is what one might call an "it" guy in comedy right now. he has tremendous heat from The Hangover, he has great on-line buzz with his weirdly perfect mock talk show Between two Ferns and Due Date is one of the most buzzworthy movies of the upcoming fall. He has comedy in his clutches, so what better way to try and expand than a comedy with some serious tints to it. And what better way to make that happen than playing a man in a psych ward of a hospital. It honestly felt like the best possible career move for a guy with as unlikely a career as Mr. Galifinakis.

Stressed out from a life that is far more complicated than it should be for a teenager, Craig(Keir Gilchrist) starts to have suicidal dreams. What is more is he wants to kill himself. He chickens out and rides his bike to the hospital instead. He thinks he can just be given a quick pill or something and be on his way, but he talks himself into getting committed to the psych ward. Craig is not sure how he is going to last five days in the hospital because he needs to get to school, but he is told he has to be there a minimum of 5 days. His family is as supportive as possible and he finds support from the outside in the form of his best friend's girlfriend. But, mostly he has to just live with the people in the hospital. He meets a damaged, but adorable girl, Noelle(Emma Roberts) and a few other eccentric patients, but he forges his closest bond with Bobby(Galifinakis). Bobby is a very depressed man who sees no real way out for himself, but in their talks, he helps shape Craig and helps Craig to try and work through his issues. The main issues for Craig are feelings of not being good enough. He is constantly stressed about school because his father puts pressure on him and Craig never relaxes. He believes he is a loser. Through art, music and just learning to relax, the psych ward helps Craig to realize what is and what is not important.

Told with a nice blend of sweetness, humor and a certain level of crazy, It's kind of a Funny Story is a nice movie with a more interesting movie somewhere inside of it. As far as psych ward movies go, it is by far the most tame and far too calm to elicit any hardcore reaction, but it is a genuinely sweet, moving picture with depth of character and it has some great laughs and the message is wonderful. I think I just hoped it would get just a bit darker, or delve just a bit deeper into the twisted side of the characters. it comes off as just a bit too safe, like it was trying hard to not offend any one's sensibilities. I do not inherently think a PG-13 movie has to be safe (See The Social Network), but this one is hindered by the rating, or it hindered itself to get the rating.

That being said, Galifinakis is remarkable. He is hilarious, twisted, and unafraid to let himself "go there." Bobby tries so hard to come off as a guy okay with his crazy, but the more we learn and the longer we see Bobby on the screen, the more we realize, this is a deeply tortured man. His breakdown is beautifully raw and Galifinakis goes all in. His chemistry with Gilchrist works throughout the whole picture and you really believe Bobby wants to help someone else because he believes he is beyond the ability to help himself. For his part, Gilchrist plays the tortured teenager pretty well. I wish he had a bit more chemistry with Zoe Kravitz who played the seriously sexy girlfriend of the best friend, but he and Emma Roberts are totally charming together in some tortured way. Roberts is probably a star in the making and she is very winning as Noelle. We never do find out what she is so tortured over, but it kind of makes their relationship feel more real, more tangible.

The film utilizes a few nice tricks, such as animation and dream sequences, most of which are pretty effective. In the scene where Craig has to sing lead during music time, the entire scene becomes a wonderfully charming and funny rock show with Craig singing. The song choice, Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" is what you would call "too on the nose" but it is done in such a fun way it avoids being an eye roll moment. During art time, Craig creates these complex and gorgeous brain maps. It relaxes him completely and they show the art being drawn as animation and it is effective as it gives us an idea of how Craig sees the world. He narrates sections of the movie and at times flashes back at moments that led him to this very moment. These sort of narrative tricks, or gimmicks can be obnoxious, but in this film they mostly work. A few of the flashbacks did nothing for me and honestly, anytime the film jumped to his out of the psych ward friends, I lost all interest.

Even though It's Kind of a Funny Story is too safe to be totally effective, it is definitely worth viewing. Galifinakis is the most unlikely Hollywood star, but he is making all of the right moves and in this movie he exudes a sort of Robin Williams in The Fisher King persona. He does not have to completely lose his Galifinakisness, but he stretches himself and makes the movie more than it would have been, I think. The overly tame, or white-washing of the psych ward in undoubtedly rub people the wrong way, as it did me, but there is enough in the cast to make the movie good.

Final Grade: C+

Red

2010-10-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren in the same movie lends itself to a lot of jokes about retirement homes, or at the very least bad old person jokes. The fact of the matter is, all four of these actors have a lot left in the tank, and honestly, Malkovich seems to just be having more fun as he gets older. While, I am not familiar with the source material, it is tailor made for Bruce Willis. If ever there was an old man who we had to believe could still beat people up while keeping his wits about him, it is Willis. If you want an all out action dude, go to Stallone, but if you need an old dude to kick ass, crack wise and be smart, Bruce Willis is your man. You need Freeman because he does the wily veteran thing so well and since every movie needs eye candy, we have Helen Mirren, sexy sexy Helen Mirren.

Frank Moses(Willis) has a secret. He is getting his social security checks, but he is ripping them up so he can call the office and tell the lady he is not getting them. He does this because he has a crush on the call operator, Sarah Ross(Mary Louise Parker) and he does not know how else to talk to her. Now that is not really his big secret, his big secret is that he used to be an American spy and now someone is coming after him with murderous intent. In order to find out how, Moses enlists the help of his old friends, Joe(Freeman), Marvin(Malkovich) and Victoria(Mirren). Joe is good with plans, Marvin has information and Victoria is a weapons goddess. Moses is not sure what is happening, but soon he is put in touch with the notes of a recently killed reporter and learns that in the 1980s the vice president went crazy with killing in the army and Moses and his crew may have been privy to that information. However, these old timers also have a ruthless Secret Service agent on their tail. William Cooper(the wonderful Karl Urban) is smart, savvy and brutal, but he also has ethics and to him, Moses is the man behind a bunch of serious crimes.

This year has seen more than its fair share of action comedies and a majority of them have failed more than they have succeeded. Red succeeds more than it fails, but not by the best of margins. The pacing is totally wonky, the constant freeze frames that are "wink wink, nudge nudge" moments of "HEY THIS IS A COMIC BOOK MOVIE" but it is also so much fun and the action is very much top notch. Willis and Co are clearly having a blast as the old people still shooting guns, punching people out and running from the bad guys. Malkovich has perfected this crazy guy routine that Christopher Walken used to have on lock, Willis looks more invested in a movie than he has in years, Freeman cannot wipe the giant smile off of his face and no one has ever looked like they were having more fun shooting a Gatling Gun than Helen Mirren. Mary Louise Parker is merely along for the ride but even she is having a blast playing this girl who is in for the ride of her life and finds herself very turned on by a guy in action.

the script has some nice jokes and a few great gags, but I think, on the page it probably is a bit lackluster. It is one of those movies fully brought out by the cast and because they have all bought into the movie, the movie gets a nice boost. Red starts strong, and finishes incredibly strong, but it lags big time in the middle. I think the film was hoping introducing the crazy Malkovich character half way through would allow them to slow the movie down without losing the punch, but it nearly derails the movie, not because Malkovich does not work, but because they put it all on him and do not keep the forward momentum going. As the group tries to figure out the plot, the movie lingers in this limbo between action and comedy, but neither gets much to do. I did enjoy the little action sequence at the airport, including the absolutely ridiculous climax to that scene, but other than that, the movie loses its way.

Luckily Red gets back on track and in a major way. The climatic action sequence is absolutely phenomenal. It gives us wonderful stunts, seriously awesome gun play, a little emotion, sexy Helen Mirren and then, while the twist is not much of a twist, it gives us a satisfying conclusion. It is a well paced, well thought out and excellently executed conclusion to an up and down film. It is such a good action sequence that it pushed the movie into that realm of succeeding more than failing. Red does not set the genre on fire, nor will I really remember much of it in a few months, but it was an entertaining distraction and it is fun to watch a group of people having such a good damn time at work.

Final Grade: C+

Life as We know it

2010-10-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

There is no good reason for me wanting to see this movie, but I want to. There was something in the trailer that made me think, maybe, just maybe, this would not be exactly what you think it is going to be. There is something about a movie that has a character pushing a baby down that makes you wonder what else might be in there. I am not opposed to Katherine Heigl or her movies, even if they all look the same and the director, Greg Berlanti, has done some great stuff on television. My biggest concern was that this movie would bring out my desire to be a father. I call it the Definitely, Maybe syndrome. I see a movie where the father child relationship is totally adorable and it fills me with the desire to be a father. it makes me fall in love with the movie for no good reason and leaves me feeling all sentimental and gushy. Who wants that??

Holly(Heigl) and Messer(Josh Duhamel)went on one blind date 5 years ago and it was a disaster. They were so incompatible that they did not even make it to dinner. Holly hoped they would never see each other again, but seeing as they were set up by a couple who happened to be the best friend of both Holly and Messer, that was never going to happen. Holly was the maid of honor and Messer was the best man at this couple's wedding and, yes they turn out to be the God Parents of this couple's baby girl, Sophie. After a car accident claims Sophie's parents, Holly and Messer are left Sophie to raise as their kid. Holly, of course, wants a family at some point, but never imagined it this way and Messer is stuck in frat boy mode, hence going by Messer. The arrangement goes Holly and Messer live in this couple's house and raise Sophie together, but since they hate each other, they maintain their single life, by taking days off and alternating weekends off. This arrangement will only be full time if they can pull it off and get a pass from Child Protective Services which will stop by at, of course, the most inopportune times for check ups.

I am not sure exactly how many of her movies begin with her getting ready for a date, but Katherine Heigl must choose movies based on whether or not the movie begins with her dressing for, or getting ready to go on a first date. Also, she excels in playing women who succeed in business, but are uptight, clumsy and in desperate need of a night of great sex. Duhamel is going to be constantly playing guys who were awesome in college and never want to grow up. So, it makes to put these two actors in this movie where they can play perfectly within their comfort zone and even without the trailer or the poster, or having nay knowledge of what the movie was about, you knew from the first frame these two would eventually sleep together. There movies where everything goes exactly the way you expect/want and it feels comforting. That is the reason romantic comedies are so popular, they deliver on everything you hope it will and you will be left feeling warm and fuzzy in the end. In some ways Life as We know it is exactly that movie, except, I was hoping it would not be. I was hoping the baby pushing scene would be indicative of the whole tone of this movie, not just a funny moment in a muddled mess of cliches.

There are some nice moments in the movie to be sure. I enjoyed a lot of the baby stuff, even if it is not entirely original and I thought that Heigl and Dumahel were great with the baby stuff and their chemistry towards each other was pretty good. Their first kiss is pretty hot for a PG-13 movie and even though it led to exactly what I knew it would, I thought they kept the tension at a reasonable level for a while. There is some great comedy, but it all comes within the first hour or so of the movie as this ridiculous non-couple goes through trying to figure out how to raise a baby. The movie peppers scenes with wacky neighbors, like the gay couple who pretends to like sports, the liar neighbor with the hot wife, the gossipy lady with a ton of kids, those generic types of movie neighbors.

Life as We Know it, I think, does what it set out to do, I just wish it had set out to be a bit more ambitious. I feel like at some point the script had more bite to it. I think somewhere in that film is a stronger, more subversive movie that just got its teeth knocked out by a studio, or a producer or something. I could be wrong, but it feels like something got lost in this movie. There are these great, sort of biting moments that made me perk up, but they were so short lived that the script felt like a cut and paste job from a few different writers. I cannot really back this opinion with too much evidence, it is just a feeling I have from watching so many movies. Somewhere in the world is a script with this title that is better than the one that ended up on the screen.

Final Grade: C-

Buried

2010-10-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

Movies with a specific gimmick intrigue me. I remember watching a movie that was split into four screens and the whole movie was showing the action from four different perspectives the entire time, or the hand-held camera gimmick, or a movie called Look which is shot in all security cameras. There are movies where the whole thing takes place in one room, or one set, or almost all one set. I love Phone Booth for that reason. I am also interested in movies that essentially ask us to watch 1 actor the entire time. Castaway is pretty much just us and Tom Hanks and to a certain extent, I am Legend is just us and Will Smith. It takes a pretty specific kind of actor to hold the screen without anyone else. When I first heard of Buried it was already cast. Ryan Reynolds buried alive in a casket and we see no one else. That was all I needed to be hooked into the idea. I have been a fan of Reynolds since Two Guys a girl and a Pizza Place, and am happy to see his recent success, but also happy he makes interesting project choices to feed his artistic soul along with the commercial projects.

Paul Conroy(Reynolds) wakes up in pitch black, completely unsure of where he is. He cannot move much, but he can get to his pockets and in his pocket is a lighter. He gets the lighter lit and realizes he has been buried alive. A phone rings. He does not get to it in time, but he has a phone and he calls his wife, and gets the machine. Next he tries to remember the special number he was given in case of emergency. The phone rings again and he answers. It is a man who says he wants 5 million dollars or Paul will be killed. Paul gets in touch with the F.B.I and tells him his name and that he is a civilian truck driver in Iraq. His pockets also have a pencil in them to write phone numbers on the inside of his coffin. The kidnapper wants him to make a hostage video with the phone and provides Paul with a script and lights. The man Paul is in contact with at the F.B.I thinks it is a bad idea, but Paul does not want to die and he wants to stall in hopes he will, somehow, he found.

Not only is Buried set in one location, the location is a coffin just a little bit longer, wider and deeper than Ryan Reynolds frame. In order to pull this off and not have it come off as just a gimmick or to even have it be a good movie, everyone involved has to be in top shape. Ridrigo Cortes directs and edits the movie from his own script and in his second feature length film, Cortes proves to be quite a talent. Buried is an intense thrill ride that manages to have twists and turns all without leaving a coffin. His script does a great job of giving the story an arc, but it really boils down to how the movie was made. It was very clever to give the audience different kinds of lights. It added this dimension to the film when we see the coffin lit at different times with a cell phone, the lighter, a flashlight that only occasionally worked and two of those neon green light sticks. Instead of needing to constantly edit and switch angles to keep things fresh, using these different lighting techniques really added that. Of course, the editing and camera angles and zooms in and out are important because, again, we are seeing a movie shot in basically a 7ft x 6ft x 5ft movie set.

Ryan Reynolds does a wonderful job as well. He clearly has no vanity in him as he is not afraid to totally lose his cool and go places that might come off as cheesy or over the top by an actor too afraid to fully commit, but he commits 100% and he rewards the audience with wonderfully claustrophobic performance that is all over the emotional map. He does not get to be too nuanced in the character, but he does get sympathy from the audience and there was never a time where I thought he was not literally trapped in a coffin. The voice acting from the various other people was all top notch as well and it really helped keep the tension moving to have the voices from these unseen people. Many movies would cut away to these other places, but because we only ever saw Reynolds reactions, it made the film seem smaller and that kind of feeling is absolutely necessary for this film to work.

Buried features the most intense scene involving a snake I have seen in a movie and that is saying something. it also left me exhausted, frustrated, tense and outright angry. It goes on longer than I thought it would, but it actually worked. I figured a movie with such a small scope should run about 80 minutes and if you take away the trailers, the movie still ran closer to 95 minutes. 15 minutes may not appear to be much, but trust me, many movies would be better if they shaved 15 minutes off. Yet this movie that should have felt bloated at 95 minutes, actually felt exactly right. Roger Ebert says a good movie can never be too long and a bad movie can never be too short and while I am not sure I agree with him, Buried makes every second of its run time count.

Final Grade: B+

Let me In

2010-10-10T15:25:00.001-07:00

There is a part of me that thinks I need to create a post of Kyle Movie Rules, and link to it instead of restating certain things for any new potential reader. Let The Right One In, which is the foreign film on which this film is based, is an amazing drama about a young vampire girl. I feel like the movie is looked at as more amazing in this Twilight world because of how unsexy it is made to be. That is not to say the movie is not amazing, but I think it got elevated by being completely different. That being said, a Kyle Movie Rule is that you never base your opinion of a remake on your feeling towards the original. I hope to never once in a review say "The Original was better." It may seem like an impossible task, but I feel it is important not to judge a movie based on the source material. I believe it is a fundamental right of every movie to be viewed without those preconceived notions on what a movie is supposed to be. Matt Reeves, the director of the oft debated (in my social circle) Cloverfield, deserved me coming in fresh and I always want to deliver, so it was with fresh eyes that I viewed Let me In.

Owen(Kodi Smit-Mcphee) is a bullied young man without a great family life (his mother is never shown to us full faced). He loves to eat candy, but is not allowed to and he does not have a single friend. he also has dark dark fantasies of stabbing women to death while wearing a mask and he spies on his neighbors having sex or working out. When he gets new neighbors, he appears immediately intrigued by the young girl Abby(Chloe Moretz). When Owen and Abby meet, Abby tells him straight up that they cannot be friends, but the bond is formed regardless. Abby lives with a man with secrets who kills people and drains their blood. Why does he do that? Well, Abby is a vampire. She is a 12 year old vampire and the man is her...well we do not really know. Abby needs the blood to not look and smell like death. The bond between Owen and Abby grows exponentially quickly and Abby fears it is only a matter of time he find out. When the man has an accident during one of his hopeful kills, the cops start showing up and asking questions and Abby's life starts to unravel and her secret becomes clear to Owen.

This will be the only comparison I make between the original and the remake: Whereas Let the Right one In was a dramatic film with horror aspects, Let me In is a horror film with dramatic aspects. Let me In is a masterful American horror film. It takes the basic premise of Let the Right One In and gives it an American wash set to the tune of horror, or suspense. There is definitely enough gore to please those suffering from a need for bloodlust, but the movie is not drenched in gore. Matt Reeves, who did such a great job building suspense and tension surrounding the monster in Cloverfield, has done it again here. There are entire scenes where the tension builds so insanely that I felt like I was being suffocated. He delivers a whopper of a scene when the caretaker of Abby has his accident and the pay off after the tension is exactly perfect. I am very impressed by Matt Reeves and think he is going to have a lot of great work in the genre of horror for a long time. He understands where the place for gore is and he understands how, at times, what we do not see can be much more scary than what we do see. He plays with light and dark in a wonderfully frightful way.

The film really hinges on the two young performers and how they react to each other and the kids do solid work. I am not sure they had the kind of chemistry I would have liked, but they both sold the film and they were good enough together to buy the premise of the film. Mcphee is a nice young actor, but I am not sure if he can succeed in anything where he is not supposed to be sad. he just has the perfect look for this type of movie, but he does definitely act well enough to gain our sympathy from the beginning of the film and goes through enough of a transition to buy the drastic switch in the character in a particularly brutal moment. Moretz is a young, very gifted actress I hope has a long and healthy career. She fills Abby with such a heartbreaking sadness that I kept wondering what Abby had been through in all of her years as a vampire. I kept waiting for her to want to be staked or set on fire. For an actress who has done a few things where her characters are so full of life, it was quite jarring to see this. She has always played little girls with an edge, but this was just such a difference in tone.

Let me In kept my attention, had me gasping for air and delivered on every moment of tension in an interesting way. I still think maybe the relationship between the two leads could have been stronger and the tempo does get derailed momentarily in the middle, but it never gets too far off track. As far as American horror films go, this one is top notch. I was pleasantly surprised with the film in every way. Matt Reeves has officially put himself on the list of directors whose careers I will be watching closely. he took a risk by adapting such a well received film and by doing it only a few years later, but by changing the tone, he crafted this wonderful film that will hopefully be found by audiences some day.

Final Grade: B+

The Social Network

2010-09-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

When Aaron Sorkin's name is attached to a project, you know I will be excited. It is just who I am. His hyper-literate self important characters speak to me and I want to be them. However, his name attached to a movie about Facebook was odd to me. To have it be directed by David Fincher, star Jesse Eisenberg, co-star Justin Timberlake and have the score done by Trent Renzor, looked off. On paper this is a movie that should not work. Then the teaser came out and I was hooked again. Then the full length trailer came out and it immediately became my must see fall movie. My expectations could not be managed or handled. I was setting myself to be disappointed because with every passing moment, I was getting more and more excited. I needed this movie in my life and that, as we all know, can be a problem. a little over a week before the release I got the chance to see it. Could it possibly live up to the expectations I set for it?

In Harvard in 2003 an awkward, yet arrogant young man, Mark Zuckerberg(Eisenberg) is being dumped by his girlfriend after he insulted her with his honesty. Drunk, depressed and lonely, Zuckerberg blogs. As he blogs, he creates a website where he puts the pictures of Harvard girls up and people can vote on which one is hotter. To do this, he has to hack into dorm websites and break a few other honor code laws, but in just over 2hrs, the site gets 22,000 hits and crashes the entire Harvard Internet server. This gets him in considerable trouble, but it also catches the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss(both played by Armie Hammer) who are trying to build a Harvard dating website and need a programmer. Zuckerberg takes the job because these two guys belong to the most exclusive club at Harvard and Zuckerberg wants in. At the same time Zuckerberg gets the idea to create an entire on-line networking site. He wants to take the entire college experience and put it on-line at Harvard. He approaches his best friend Eduardo Savarin(Andrew Garfield) with the idea, Savarin loves it and puts up the capital to start it. The site, The Facebook, is an instant smash. Zuckerberg gets sued by the Wilklevoss twins, but the site keeps growing until it catches the attention of Sean Parker(Justin Timerlake) who created Napster. Sean has ideas on how to really make money from Facebook that will make them all rich.

Told with Aaron Sorkin's trademark fractured narrative, The Social Network not only met my insane expectations, it surpassed them. The story is told to us through the two lawsuits involving Zuckerberg. The winklevoss twins' suit and Eduardo's suit against him for pushing him out of the company. In between the scenes of the depositions, we get filled in on what happened, from all of the different perspectives. The film does not point fingers with any confidence, it just presents the factually based story and allows the audience to make up their own minds as to what really happened. Sorkin's script is absolutely perfect. His dialogue blisters off of the screen when spoken by Eisenberg and company, but he also gets the stuff on the outskirts of the dialogue. Sorkin understands the pacing of this story and he knows how to create polarizing characters. he presents this story with biting commentary on the world in which we live, but he also allows the characters to find their voices.

The characters, as portrayed by the entire company are really something to watch. Eisenberg is a revelation as Zuckerberg. He plays him with insane arrogance, but he also plays the withdrawn, unsure side with just as much zest. Eisenberg is already adept at playing fast talking characters, but here is always speaking with purpose. He is a man with no filter and he knows he is the smartest person of any room, including his peers at Stanford. However, what really sold me on him was everything that happened after the Sean Parker character is introduced. Eisenberg's transformation from that moment is stunning. For his Timberlake sets the movie on fire. The manic glint in his as he tries to sell himself to the idea of being on the Facebook team is excellent and he handles the "Sean Parker is crazy" stuff with realism as well. He loses his Justin Timberlake-ness every time he comes on the screen and he leaves a trail of flames every time he exits the picture. Andrew Garfield (our new Spider Man) is remarkable as Edaurdo Savarin. He is kind of our hero in a way. He is the one we really feel bad for, but Garfield is not going for our sympathy, really. He plays Savarin as a man who is arrogant, and savvy, but also wounded and loyal. He believes in the friendship fully.

David Fincher took a risk with this picture, I think. Fincher has a distinct look in his films and The Social Network does not really fit that look. Fincher decides the story, the dialogue and the characters can tell this story and they just need someone to gently point them in the right direction. Fincher does the job exactly how he should. He does get to add his touch, with the colors, especially the way the movie transforms the color scheme when the action moves to Los Angeles. I also love the way he shot the Regatta race. I like that he included the Regatta race. I am not sure it is totally needed, but it added something to the Wilklevoss characters. It kind of makes you ache for them a bit. I love the way the camera or the way it was edited can totally change a moment and capture the tiniest moment from Zuckerberg. The score is also top notch. Reznor's moody, cynical hypnotic searing score adds so much to the entire mood of the film, especially in the scene where Zuckerberg has created the girl rating site and the student body is exploring it.

I cannot say enough amazing things about this movie and there are probably people out there who have been able to better articulate their thoughts, but here I am four days removed from the film and all I can think about is how excited I am to see it again. The opening scene's buzzing back and forth dialogue, to Justin Timberlake's excellently delivered "A million dollar's isn't cool. You know what's cool..A Billion dollars" and everything else is stunning. The movie not only features all of this technical jargon, that sounds pretty good actually, but it has these epic lines like "Every creation myth needs a devil." Aaron Sorkin is the star of this movie, but his performance in writing it enhancing everything else we see and hear. No one knows controlling like Sorkin and here is has crafted this perfectly complex character with Mark Zuckerberg and Eisenberg plays each of those complex layers in a way that you can, at times, feel for Zuckerberg. All he wanted was this girl and in the end his inability to connect to people in a real way was his downfall. He created this perfect tool for faking real connection, while allowing us to stay completely detached and perhaps that is the only thing Zuckerberg really knows.

It is a fast and funny movie as well. Do not get bogged down in the idea of law stuff, or computer geek stuff. The Social Network has everything you need. It comes armed with great jokes, very smartly written jokes at that. It has teenage awkwardness. It hints at sex, it has intrigue to go along with all of the bad ass dialogue. The Social Network will most likely end up as my favorite movie of the year and to be honest, it will probably end up as one of my all time favorite movies if subsequent viewings hold up, like I expect they will. It is a case of master craftsman coming together for one amazing project and hitting it in every beat, scene, word, sound, and frame. There is not a wasted moment to be found in the very tightly paced 2 hour movie and I truly cannot wait until Friday when I can see it again.

Final Grade: A+

P.S. If "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies" is not the best tagline for a movie, show me what is?

Easy A

2010-09-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

I remember first hearing about this movie thinking "A modern day, teenage version of The Scarlett Letter sounds painful!" When I read what the movie was actually going to be, I was a bit more interested and when they cast the lovely, charming and hilarious Emma Stone as the lead, I was very much more excited. Ever since Superbad, I have felt Emma Stone was a star in waiting. She outshone Anna Farris in House bunny and I have just been anticipating the moment she got the chance to break out. She is sexy, but in a way that hits you differently. She comes off as approachable, and whip smart, but sexy. She is a very version of Ellen Page and it is kind of fitting that this is her break out role, because in a lot of ways, Easy A comes off as a sexier version of Juno. And your enjoyment of this movie might depend on if you want a sexier, little more mainstream version of Juno.

Olive(Stone) is a girl telling us a story through a webcam. She lets the audience know "There are two sides to every story and this is mine, the right one." Olive was once par tof the faceless masses at her high school. She spent her weekends in her room lip-syncing to "Pocketful of Sunshine" and she gets straight A's and never causes a stir. She has a sexy, slutty best friend, Rhiannon(Aly Michalka) who bugs Olive to tell her the story of the date Olive said she had. Olive made the whole thing up, but soon the rumor went around that Olive was kind of slutty. She lived up the notoriety. She kind of gets off on the infamy. However, things start to spiral for her when she fake has sex with a gay guy to help his reputation. Soon she has losers of all types paying her in gift cards to fake have sex with her. The Christian group on campus, led by Marianne starts to make her life hell and instead of fessing up to the stuff, Olive decides to wear it proudly. As she is studying The Scarlett Letter in English class, Olive decides to stitch a giant red A on her entire new slutty wardrobe.

I am not sure I can do the movie justice in terms of the story, but I think I did a pretty good job. What matters most is that Easy A is flat out hilarious! Emma Stone is absolutely wonderful in every aspect of the film. She is funny, vulnerable and makes it sort of believable that this ridiculous story could happen. She is the entire movie, so it really hinges on her performances. She reacts well to her fellow students and to the adults that pepper the movie as well. Thomas Hayden Church as her English teacher, Lisa Kudrow as the counselor, Malcolm McDowell as the principal and the absolutely delightful couple of Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive's parents all offer something to better the film. Amanda Bynes does great work as the Christian leader and Penn Badgley shows up as the potential love interest for Olive and is not at all afraid to get goofy.

Easy A offers a lot to things that came before it. yes, it clearly is influenced by The Scarlett Letter, but as a work of post-modern film, it also owes worlds to the movies of John Hughes and it acknowledges it by explicitly referencing them and showing clips from them. In fact, the film is, at times, a Ferris Bueller style fairy tale, and it nods to Ferris Bueller with a shower scene Mohawk and later it shows a clip from the movie. Olive, as a narrator is interesting because she admits from the beginning there are two sides to the story and to be honest, the story is outrageous and if you stop to think about where the story goes you might forget to just sit back and enjoy the show.

Tucci and Clarkson, as these hippie style parents get the most laughs, and are clearly inspired by Juno. The film is also hyper literate and very very smart. The dialogue is quick witted, Olive talks like an adult and the film is very knowing in how unlike real life it is, but it also lovingly mocks 1980s movies, while giving us the closest thing to a John Hughes movie as we can probably get these days. Everything in this film is coated with a great sense of humor and self awareness that even when it spins out of control, and it does spin out of control, you can forgive it because it is so genuinely hilarious. I love the reference to Mark Twain's Huck Finn and the callback to it towards the end of the film and I love how smart it is in general.

I laughed my way through the whole movie and for a comedy that is all you really need, but I also think Emma Stone is going to break out in this movie, the way Reese Witherspoon did in Legally Blonde, or Lindsay Lohan did in Mean Girls. Comparisons to Mean Girls abound in reviews all over the place, but I actually think movie is funnier and even zanier than Mean Girls. It gets just as unrealistic, and they are both offering a different kind of commentary on high school but this does it better. The English teacher has a few great rants, especially one on Facebook and how teenagers think everything they say is the most important and pressing issue in the world. Yes, Easy A is having its cake and eating it too, but when it is this much fun, I am perfectly okay with it.

Final Grade: A-

The Town

2010-09-25T15:15:00.001-07:00

It seems like only yesterday Ben Affleck was kryptonite for a movie. If you put him in your film, it would fail, but not only would it fail, it would be panned mercilessly. I always felt like he got a bad rap because of his relationship with Jennifer Lopez. He was the ultimate victim of this idea of celebrity overwhelming the work. Go back and watch some of those movies and you will see they are not the worst movies ever made. Affleck did a smart thing after that. he took a supporting role in HollywoodLand and then he co-wrote and directed the absolutely stunning Gone Baby Gone. His eye and ear for detail in the mean street of Boston coupled with this excellent story of moral ambiguity mixed with a wonderful set of performances revitalized Affleck's career and took it in a completely different direction. Of course the first questions asked about The Town, from inside my brain, were all about whether Gone Baby Gone was a fluke, a one off perfect storm that caused Affleck to succeed. Would The Town realize my fears, or brush them aside?

Charlestown, Ma, a small blue collar town just outside of Boston is the bank heist capital of the United States. They are big on car jacking and muggings as well. it is a place for people with no real future and who are doing anything to scratch out a living. Doug(Affleck) and James(Jeremy Renner) are life long best friends who were raised on these mean streets and they run a four man crew of bank robbers. On one of their jobs, James gets out of hand and they briefly take a hostage, Claire(Rebecca Hall) and worried that she will cause problems, James wants her offed. Doug does not want murder on his hands, so he says he will watch her, but he does more than watch her. He falls for her. With the F.B.I, led by Agent Frawley, on their heels, Doug wants to take some time before their next project, but James is a hot head and Doug owes him, but when things go terribly wrong, Doug wants out. He wants Claire to go with him and he wants to find a way to start fresh away from the old neighborhood. Agent Frawley will do anything he can to put a stop to as much of this serial bank robbery as possible, but can he catch these guys?

The Town is a tight, intense and raw film starting to solidify Ben Affleck's career as a big time director. His acting is good, serviceable, if a little lackluster when compared to Jeremy Renner, but the pacing of the film is excellent and his confidence as a director shines through. He is not afraid to establish the world in which we are immersed. If the characters are a bit flat and the relationships a bit rushed, it can be forgiven because he establishes the world with these great B-roll shots of a broken, beaten little offshoot of Boston. The dialogue is incredibly blue-collar and filthy and the accents are all very hard. Everyone is just a bit dirty and there is a whole layer of filth covering everything. We understand the world from the on-screen text, but Affleck does not let the text do all fo the work, he works hard for us to understand why these characters feel trapped the way they do.

Aside from that work, Affleck gets great performances out of everybody, including Blake Lively, who has limited screen time, but makes the most of it. She is believable, makes interesting choices and overall made an impression on me. She is probably capable of more than just playing rich snobby girls on The CW. Jon Hamm has the thankless task of playing the "cop" role. It is a role that is so often thrown away in films like this, but Hamm is a presence! He has real star power and he delivers Ferocious lines with juicy intensity, including the most hardened line in the screenplay that will leave you in between a giggle and shock. However, Jeremy Renner is the star of this show. In The Hurt Locker, Renner had a tightly wound intensity, but here he lets loose and goes for it. His accent, line delivery, mannerisms and just the way he carries himself, you never once question whether or not he will go crazy, it is just a matter of when.

One of the most brilliant moments in this film comes at a cafe. It starts as a fairly innocent scene, an almost cute scene and by injecting Renner's character into it, the entire scene flips and Affleck brilliantly handles the scene shift and the pacing of the scene and the editing of the scene all change at exactly the right time. Of course, this scene is not what everyone is going to be talking about, but it was this scene that made me a full believer in the picture. That is not to say the big action sequences are not great because they are. The opening bank heist is a wonderful introduction into what kind of movie we are watching. Full of quick cuts, striking violence and this gritty realism Affleck exudes, the opening Heist really captures the audience, but if the rest of the film had been mishandled, it would not have been so impressive.

To say The Town borrows from Michael Mann's Heat may be obvious, but Affleck does not just copy it, he makes it his own. Yes, he was clearly influenced by it, but I have seen many movies with big shoot outs clearly inspired by Michael Mann, including other Michael Mann movies, that were not successful. The final shoot out in this, though, is incredibly successful. The bullets sounds like they are whizzing by your head and they pop with such violence that you cringe and bullets fly like the world is running out of them and they all need to be shot off to save the world. When you think the shoot out is over and then it spills out into the world, then it gets even more intense for a few seconds. You actually wonder who will live and who will die and I like when a movie can do that.

Really great intense movies do not come around all that often and The Town does the job. It is intense, for sure, but it also entertains. It is an edge of your seat cops and robbers story, where you are not entirely sure you know what you want to have happen to the characters. Affleck's attention to detail as a director overshadows his own performances and the love story might feel a bit shoe-horned and rushed, but there is so much to love about the movie that it can be forgiven. It is worth seeing for Renner's performance alone, but there is so much more to enjoy. From beginning to end, The Town succeeds!

Final Grade: A-

P.S. one of the best things about bank heist movies is seeing the masks and the masks in this one do not disappoint.

The American

2010-09-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

From people on The Facebook I have heard nothing but how boring this movie was. I have heard from critics I read that the movie was smart, slow and ultimately rewarding. George Clooney is a strange animal. He has this old school movie star charm, but he often makes movies not for the general public consumption. He is not afraid to remove his natural charm to make a movie. He has always chased movies/roles that interest him, even if he has to fight hard for them. He is never content just being Clooney and doing that Ocean's 11 thing in every film. For every Ocean's he does a Michael Clayton and so on. The American, from the trailers, looked like Clooney's foray into the action movie, his Jason Bourne style role, but those reviews I mentioned at the top had me believing the trailers were quite misleading.

Jack(Clooney) is a man of few words and in those words most of them are lies. He is a killer, but "cold blooded" does not really describe him. he is certainly a man who has seen too much and done too much to ever really find peace and when he finds a girl, he has to kill her. This is the beginning of the movie. He is being chased by people from Sweden, so he hides in a little town near Rome. He wants to do one more job and then get out. He meets a hooker, he meets a priest and he tries to keep his head down. If this sounds a bit straight forward it is. Jack wants out of the game and he wants to take his hooker away and try and find some peace. That is pretty much it.

The American is a very slow, deliberate, quiet movie. It might be the first arthouse assassin movie. It opens with this quick burst of violence, has 1 or 2 more quick bursts of violence, including a quick car chase, but other than that, it is a very moody, atmospheric film. It has a minimalistic score, but every time you start to hear the score, you pay close attention because the film gets tense in those moments. The cinematography is gorgeous and we get a lot of wide shots of sunsets, bodies of water and bodies of water. There are long stretches in the movie where we hear almost nothing because nothing is being said. We are just watching Clooney quietly try and live his life. Can it be boring? Yes, there are times when I was wondering what the hell the point of it all was.

Clooney has excelled in playing these guys who are lonely, but they are lonely because of what they do, or that they prefer it that way. In this movie, it is clear the character does not want to be lonely any longer. He finds this knock out hooker and while it starts as just him paying for sex, it moves into something much more. There is a fair amount of female nudity and there is a sex scene that could be considered awkward because it is not set to gorgeous music and you just see the girl the whole time. There is break from it. It certainly turned on the couple seated to my right. Of course, the movie may have just been boring them.

The direction is nice, if a little on the lacking side. Both of the on-foot chases look exactly the same, which is never a good sign for an action scene. The blocking could have been a little less bland, but the set up the camera and shoot thing kind of works. I mean there is toying with close ups and such, but often the movie is shot from this semi wide angle and we just kind of see what is in camera.

Also, it is the kind of movie where you know exactly how it is going to end and you spend most of the movie hoping it does not end that way. For whatever reason, because of the subject matter, the star, the tone, or pacing, you just know exactly where the movie is going and that is not a bad thing necessarily, but I did spend the final 40 minutes hoping to be thrown for a loop.

There is not a lot to recommend about the movie and there is not a lot to talk about, either. The movie is this pseudo navel gazing arthouse movie starring one of the biggest A-listers in the game. There are no other known American actors, the director is not well known, the guy who did the score is a German musician and the story does not appear to be something that interests American audiences. I am sure there are plenty of people who feel like you did not get the movie if you did not like it, but I am not that person. I enjoyed the film, but have no trouble believing people out there will find it dull and awfully slow.

Final Grade: C

Machete

2010-09-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

I will never understand how this movie got made. I will never understand how Robert Rodriguez was able to con a studio into giving him the money to make a full length Grindhouse style movie from a fake trailer Rodriguez made to put in front of the under performing Grindhouse. Then, how he got Robert De Niro to agree to be in it with Steven Segal, Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan is a whole other story. Regardless of what Rodriguez had to agree to do, or how he worked his trickery, he did it. He got this movie made. They released a Cinco De Mayo trailer and took some jabs at the Arizona racial profiling bill, which is somewhat factored into the story. So going into the movie my main thought was "How did they get this movie made?" and my question coming out of the movie was "How did they get this movie made?"

Machete(Danny Trejo) is one bad ass Federali. By his nickname you can guess his weapon of choice and he uses it to hack off various body parts and basically clean shop, but the man was betrayed by the chief and a naked girl, who pulls a cell phone out of her vagina after stabbing Machete. Cut to a few years later and Machete is just another illegal alien in the United State looking for work. He makes friends with Luz(Michelle Rodriguez) and is being watched by Sartana(Jessica Alba), who works for Immigration. Machete is approached by Booth(Jeff Fahey) to kill Senator McLaughlin(De Niro), but it was a set up and soon all of Texas is looking for Machete. McLaughlin is courting the hardcore Conservative vote by wanting to build a protective fence to keep illegals out and this shooting has him rising in the polls. All the while Luz has set up an underground army of Mexicans ready to fight for the right to be in The USA.

Told with complete tongue in cheek violence, cheesy B-movie dialog and acting, Machete hits and misses, but ultimately falls flat. Danny Trejo is an invaluable character actor in so many roles, but as the leading man, he just does not have enough presence. Rodriguez wisely gives him minimal dialogue, but he just cannot carry the movie. Because of this, Rodriguez has assembled an impressive roster of actors both A list and C list. Jeff Fahey is a wonderful talent and does great work in this movie and his subplot involving his dirty thoughts towards his daughter, Lindsay Lohan, provides the one subplot I actually liked. De Niro is clearly having a blast hamming it up and both Alba and Michelle Rodriguez are bad ass enough, but the characters really should have been condensed into one character to save us about 10 minutes. Michelle is sexy as hell in the climax and Alba does get to kick some nice ass using the heel of a stiletto as a weapon.

The action is such a mixed bag. The movie starts off incredibly strong with this twisted, gory action sequence and it ends with a huge bang in terms of action, but the few action sequences in the middle of the movie are not as impressive. Robert Rodriguez seems a little gun shy at times to really let loose on the movie. he understands how not to take himself or the material seriously, but something is just missing with this one. A part of it is the material just does not warrant a feature length movie. It feels stretched way beyond what it should be. We get these side characters played by people like Don Johnson that do not serve enough of a function to make an impact on the screen or on the story.

Steven Seagal being the main villain was absolutely a big draw for me. I know that sounds stupid, but I grew up watching his movies on television. I loved his 1980s persona as a quiet, effective anti-hero who could not be killed. To see him as the full on villain was a treat and he did not disappoint. While he certainly does not move the way he used to, I had a total blast watching him squint and angrily whisper his way through the movie.

Machete does not lose the sense of ridiculousness as Lindsay Lohan is seen in a Nun's uniform shooting De Niro with a shot gun and for some that is worth the price of admission, but I cannot say I that I had as good a time as I had hoped. I loved Grindhouse, both halves, but this is almost Grindhouse light. Rodriguez had the actors and they were clearly game for whatever he was going to throw at them, but he squandered the opportunity, which is too bad because I was really hoping to just sit back and have one hell of a ride.

Final Grade: C-

The State Theater

2010-09-10T11:09:00.001-07:00

I imagine anyone reading this blog came to it because they know me. I doubt too many people who check this blog out are randoms, and if they are, it should be evident I love movies. Movies have always been a huge part of my life. My family sees a movie every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that is merely the tip of the iceberg. My dad and mom still go rent movies almost every weekend and when I lived at home and was not in a show, I would sit on the couch with my parents and watch a dvd with them. I can barely remember a time when movies were not a huge part of who I am. I was 13, though, when I fell in love with movies. I am not going to delve into that here, maybe another time, but my love of movies extends beyond just movies. I love movie theaters.

Everyone has some way of coping with a bad day: retail therapy, drinking, whatever it is...I go to a movie theater and watch a movie. I love the entire experience and I like being to just sit in a dark theater, turn off the world and get sucked in. If movie theaters act an escape to me, The State Theater was like my fortress. Before I was old enough to work there, I would spend entire days of my summer watching all 3 movies the theater had to offer. It is a glorious old movie house, rich in history and full of secrets. Opening in 1937, The State theater was built specifically as a movie house. It was a single auditorium seating over 800 people and in the 1980s it expanded to include 2 much smaller auditoriums.

By the time I started to frequent the place in the early 1990s, some of the luster or polish had been knocked off, but it was still special to me. When I was old enough to work, I just wanted to work there and luckily for me, I got the chance. It was the dream high school job. There was enough downtime to do whatever school work/line learning I had and there were all the free movies, soda and popcorn. But it was more than that. For the most part, I was with like minded people. My managers and I would spend hours discussing movies, coming up with promotions and just reveling in the fact that this was our job. I spent my summers loving my job and I could often be found working on projects like a giant paper mache spaceship to promote Men In Black.

Towards the end of my senior year, the business was sold and when the new regime came in, we all quit, but after two years, I could not help but go back to watching movies there. Quickly, I started to chat up the new manager every time I went in and for years I looked forward to learning insider movie stuff from him. When I decided to go back to college and get my degree, I had to quit my full time job and find something part time. Fate struck again as I went in to watch Grindhouse. The manager, Mike, asked me if I happened to be looking for work. I jumped at the chance to work there again! So, for the last 3 plus years I worked there again.

The State Theater was always more than a job to me. I liked the paycheck sure, but on a bad day, I could go in on my day off and just hang out. I loved the people, I loved the regular customers, and I loved the atmosphere. That building is so rich in personal history and movie history. It is the place I suffered my first concussion, I watched a man get caught cheating by his wife on New Year's Eve there. I celebrated 4 or 5 birthdays there. There are countless other memories tied to that place. When I worked there the second time, the other employees became a second family to me. I still talk to hang out with most of them. School and work meant my participation in Community Theater had to be put on pause, and I did not mind it because for so long working at the theater was so much fun.

I do not want to over-romanticize my time there in any way because most of my close friends know my last few months there were extremely rough on me, but even after I quit, I kept going back, both to watch movies and to hang out. As recently as 3 weeks ago, when I was having a soul crushingly bad night, I got in my car, and drove right to the theater, just to hang out and to see my second family.

In a year where I got my heart broken, lost two extremely valuable friendships, saw my family move and saw the house I called my home for 21 years get put on the market, The closing of The State Theater came as a true blow to me. I saw the warning signs starting last November, and even when Mike told me it was probably going to happen back in July, I did not want to believe it. How could this place close down? How could this big gorgeous building that housed movies not succeed any longer? I know the answers but they are not important. On Tuesday of this week when I went into the theater to pick up my last check, it killed me. From the time I was 13, this place was my escape and now it is gone and even if it comes back, which I pray to God it does, will it really be the same? It does seem fitting that the ties I have to Woodland get less and less as I try to go away from it, but The State Theater and Mike running it felt timeless.

A part of me will always be sad to have lost this place. I kind of thought it would be the kind of place I would take my family to and show them around, and take them on a tour to see all of the random doors and rooms. I was thinking I could take my kids behind the screen in State 1 and show them the projectors and how the movies work. I know the building looks old now and I know it was starting to get too rundown, and I know that is what people saw, but it is never what I saw. I always saw the movie magic of a place like that. I always wondered the stories the walls had from the 1940s and 1950s.

I always said if I had the money, I would buy that place, fix it up and help it become what it once was. I think The State Theater could still be the catalyst to help revitalize the Downtown Woodland area and I know many other people in the town feel the same way. While Woodland is looking more and more like a big box town, there is a rich history in the town that needs to not be forgotten and I truly believe The State Theater symbolizes that. Even as I sit here typing this, I am reminded of all of the memories I made there and how I hope other people get the opportunity to make such memories for themselves.

Going the Distance

2010-09-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

I cannot really put my finger on why I wanted to see this movie, but I really wanted to see it. I felt like there was a chance it would be surprisingly funny, or genuinely sweet or something. It was like there was something beneath the trailer that was pulling me into the film. I am not particularly fond of Drew Barrymore and buying Justin Long as a romantic lead proved difficult in He's Just not that into you, so I really have no idea why I being drawn to it. A friend saw it and loved it, so that kind of solidified my need to check this flick out. With the summer movie season coming to an end and no real great comedies birthed out of the season, would this movie give me the kind of laughs I had craved? Or at least the warm romantic side of my being satisfied?

Erin(Barrymore) is a 31yr old summer intern in a dying field(newspaper reporting) She is in New York for the summer, but Stanford's Grad program awaits her. Garrett is a man unable to truly commit to a girl and is also working in a dying field(music A&R). The two meet one night, get incredibly drunk and have a great time together. They have such a good time, they decide to spend the rest of summer, 6 weeks, together, with the knowledge whatever they are doing will end when Erin goes back west. At the end of the 6 weeks, neither wants it to end, so they decide to give a long distance relationship a try. Both people have relatively non-supportive friends and family, and the time difference and expensive plane tickets complicate matters, but they really love each other. Erin tries to find Newspaper work in New York and Garrett tries to find music work in San Francisco, but when Erin gets a job opportunity at a paper in San Francisco, tough decisions have to be made.

If I were to tell you that Going the Distance is the funniest movie I have seen all year, you probably would think I was kidding, right? Well I am not kidding, it is flat out the funniest movie I have seen all year. It is raunchy, hilarious, kind of sweet and just flat out a great movie. The trailers are misleading like crazy. I did not know this was rated R, but it is a hard R with great dirty jokes that are clearly inspired from the Judd Apatow school of film making, but here the girls ge to play as well. Barrymore and Christina Applegate, as Barrymore's sister, have this great conversation about how they hate when a guy looks up while going down on a girl, which Barrymore acts out, to surprisingly hilarious results. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day play Garrett's best friends and every time either one is on screen, hilarity will ensue. Day has great subtle comic timing and Sudeikis's loud bold humor blends perfectly with that. There are moments where the guys are just sitting at a bar having these hilarious conversations or asking ridiculous questions, or discussing how Day never sees baby pigeons anywhere.

Aside from the great conversations, there are entire scenes where funny things keep building. In the trailer you get a glimpse of the scene where Justin Long is fake tanning, but that scene builds a lot more into the next scene where there is table sex going on, which you also get a glimpse of in the trailer, but the scene keeps going and getting more absurd and bleeds into more scenes and just keeps getting funnier. Jim Gaffigan provides Gaffigan style humor to Erin's brother-in-law and that is always appreciated. Long and Barrymore are no slouches in the comedy department either. While they are the "straight man" roles, they get plenty of funny stuff to do.

The romantic part of the movie is nice as well. The 6 week montage is a little labored, but I believed the rest of it and I believed the challenges of the long distance thing, but also believed these two loved each other and wanted to make it work. I like that the movie did not take the easiest way out possible. I think the climax was inevitable and the resolving event also pretty inevitable, but they went about it in a different way than I was expecting, which is nice. I know Barrymore and Long are a couple in real life, and that is nice, but their on screen chemistry does, at times, come off as too friendly. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it really helps the first 25 minutes, but I guess I was hoping for a bit more heat.

Going the Distance is a surprisingly hilarious and at times, shocking movie that can easily enjoyed by both men and women. The first 25 minutes are absolutely laugh out loud funny and as the movie settles in it offers plenty of other funny moments. I was disappointed by a lot of the comedy thrown at me this summer, but this makes up for it in many ways. Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis deserve to enjoy the breakout success Zack Galifinakis enjoyed after The Hangover last year and I hope to see them in a lot more movies in the near future. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

Fall 2010 television (new shows)

2010-09-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is mostly for Taylor, who has been asking for it, but also for anyone else who reads this thing and for whatever reason cares about my opinion.

The Fall 2010/Spring 2011 television season is going to be interesting for me because two of my favorite shows, 24 and Lost, are now gone. Granted they both aired in the Spring, but I feel a void has been left in my viewing habits, in terms of the serialized mystery and the action genres. The Fall season always offers a whole host of new shows, 3 or 4 of which I watch all the way through and another few I start off watching and eventually stop. I am not going to go through every new show, but go with the 6 or 7 I am definitely checking for and a few others I am going to at least give a shot.

The 5 I will definitely be watching:

6/7. Walking Dead/Boardwalk Empire- These shows are not on your regular channels, so I am going to lump them together. Walking Dead does not premiere until November anyway. Walking Dead is about, well, zombies. I am not sure how that will play every week, but it is created by Frank Darabont and the pedigree is insane. Boardwalk Empire is another show with a great pedigree, produced by Scorcese and the pilot was directed by him as well. I will have to download these shows to keep up, but they are both interesting to me.

5. Nikita- I think this show is going to fill the 24 void in terms of action. Maggie Q is sexy as hell and The few television critics I like say the pilot is great and should work. The fact that it is on the CW should worry me, but my favorite current show, Supernatual is on that channel. I know the CW believes strongly in the show and the action from the trailers make it look pretty awesome.

4. No ordinary Family- The Incredibles/Fantastic Four hybrid show, that looks like it has the sense of humor Heroes generally lacked. The cast is really strong, even if it might take a few episodes to see them in new roles. Chiklis as a good family man and not as a cop who killed people, is going to be tough. I am pretty excited for more superpower stuff on television, and the effects look pretty good. I guess the show could go either way, but I am optimistic for it.

3. Lone Star- I need a low down dirty soap in my life and this one fits the bill. Actually it seems this is the show people/critics are most intrigued by. The story looks interesting, steamy and sexy and Jon Voight was great in 24, so I am sure he will be great in this Dallas-esque show. I am not entirely sure what is going on, but I think the mystery is part of the hook. I am kind of following the lead of the critics on this one.

2. Undercover- J.J Abrams produced/created television will always be high on my to-watch list. This sexy spy show is not different. It looks a bit like Alias, which is not inherently a bad thing. I like spy shows, and I like watching sexy people do sexy spy things. Much has been made of the African American leads, but it will not matter if the show is not good. Abrams knows how to create tension and put people in awesome circumstances and the two leads are sexy as hell. The tension will carry this show for sure.

1. The Event- I do get sucked into these types of shows and they can reward me like Lost, or frustrate me by getting cancelled like FlashForward, or they can just burn out like Heroes.I am always willing to take the chance that one will capture me the way Lost did. A kidnapping, a hit on the President and other crimes are not the event but they lead up to the event. We do not know what the event is, but I want to know just based on what little I have seen. This show has the biggest potential to fail miserably, but I kind of like that as well. I like the risk factor, even if I can get my heart ripped out.

Some other potential shows:

Hawaii 5-0- I would not think this is a show I will like, but Scott Caan and Daniel Dae Kim being involved interests me a lot more. I am sure it is going to be a more raw show than the original and that could be cool, but as far a cop shows go, it is going to be hard for something to be more interesting than The Wire or The Shield. Still, I think I will check it out.

Running Wilde/Mike and Molly- A year after Modern Family and Cougar town made me think interesting sitcoms were making a comeback, nothing in that genre really does much for me. These two I am going to check out based mostly on the cast. Running Wilde has Keri Russell and Will Arnett, both of whom have great television credentials and Mike and Molly has Sookie from Gilmore Girls and is about fat people, of which I am one. Because they are only 22 minute long, they might work for me.

Detroit 1-8-7- I think this kind of looks like NYPD Blue, but in Detroit, which means it could be even more raw and gritty. I loved NYPD Blue, so I am going to give this show a few weeks to grow on me. It might end up being too procedural for my tastes, but it could end up being a really interesting cop show.

Guilty Pleasure television:

Hellcats: It is a show about sexy cheerleaders on The CW. I should not have to say much more. I am sure the show is awful, trashy and probably going to get cancelled after 1 season, but I am excited for the catfights, cheerleader skirts and sexy time!!

The last Exorcism

2010-08-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

Cinema Verite is a style of film making that appears here to stay. It is the term for movies shot like a documentary but that are not documentaries. You know the style. The handheld, shaky cameras, the lack of too much score, weird focusing techniques, sometimes excruciating zooms in and out. Dialog that often sounds like it was made up on the spot and the use of mostly natural light. The idea is to put the audience directly into the action. In television it is being used for comic effect in The Office or Modern Family. But in film, it is almost always used for horror movies. Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Quarantine, Diary of the Dead and last year's runaway smash hit Paranormal Activity are all films that have used this style to varying degrees of success. Along comes the latest entry into the human possession sub-genre of horror. I follow Eli Roth on The Twitter and he has been plugging this thing like crazy and the buzz on it was actually pretty good, so I thought I would be worth checking out. Plus, when done well, I really enjoy Cinema Verite.

Cotton Marcus(Patrick Fabian) is a man who was born to be a preacher. He is the son of a preacher first of all, but he is also a man of infinite poise and charm. He knows how to work a room and he understands the "show" of it all. He is also a man who has performed countless exorcisms. The problem is, he does not believe in possession and he understands it is a scam. He was okay with it until he read an article where a kid was choked to death during an exorcism. Now, he wants to shine a light on the ugly fakery the church has perpetrated for financial game. So, he is going to do one last exorcism and let cameras film him so they can see how fake it really is. Marcus picks a letter at random and they set off to find a teeenage girl possessed by the demon Abalam. Cotton does a convincing, but fake exorcism and all appears to be well until Nell(Ashley Bell), the possessed teen, shows up at his hotel room that night. From there, all kinds of crazy shit starts to happen. Nell slaughters animals, speaks Latin, lashes out at the camera crew, puts her body is crazy positions and draws pictures she does not remember drawing. Cotton does not believe she is possessed, but traumatized by her pregnancy. She has been shamed into pretending to be possessed to lash out at a father who keeps her chained up, who may have raped her. Or maybe her brother did? Perhaps it was the local pastor?

It is really tough to figure out how I feel about this movie. It is unsettling for sure. It never really made me jump, but it did get me on edge quite a few times. I enjoyed how the movie played up the satirical opening 40 minutes by splicing the exorcism footage with footage of Cotton showing how he makes the magic. Fabian is a very charismatic actor and he does a great job in the opening when we see Cotton preaching and there is a great bit involving banana bread that gets great laughs. When the movie switches from kind of comic into this weird is-she-or-isn't-she possessed movie, it loses a little bit of steam, but it still kept my interest because of intensity of the story and the great, intimidating score. The performances work better during this section of the film, but the Cinema Verite starts to lose steam a bit. The film is too dark, and we lose too much with the camera man running and I get that is the idea, but it just started to bother me.

Of course, the big thing with this movie is the ending. And it is not just the final scene, it is roughly the final 10 or 15 minutes. When Cotton confronts the girl and she asks if he wants a "blowing job" instead of a "blow job" he assumes she is not possessed and she spins a story. Movie ends, or does it? Cotton, for some weird reason checks out the story, it is not true. Cotton and film crew go back and then shit just gets weird. I am all for weird, random and rushed endings, when they seem to have a reason. I do not need everything in a movie spelled out for me, nor do I need to have a firm grasp on the ending. Plenty of great stories have indeterminate endings and that is wonderful. I like to feel like the stories are not finished. However, when a movie throws a bunch of seemingly unconnected shit at you in the span of a few minutes just for the fuck of it, I lose interest. It is possible to piece these incongruous images together to form some sort of ending narrative. People have been explaining it all weekend The Interwebs. But the movie works so hard to be small and intimate that ending just blows that all to shit. And in a way it ruins the entire movie going experience.

The Last exorcism builds up a lot of good will and I can tell that people will have different opinions on the end and when a movie sparks conversation/debate I consider that to be a great thing, but this just rubbed me the wrong way towards the end. Along with the usual problems of Cinema Verite, which involves there being a point where the person with the camera would just drop the camera and run for the hills. But that is one of those things you just have to accept in movies. I liked the idea and most of the execution of the film, so it is enough to recommend, but that ending will really determine what you think of the film as a whole.

Final Grade: C

The Switch

2010-08-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

I cannot say this movie was high on my priority list. It was, at one time. There was a time when the working title was The baster and I heard Jason bateman was attached that I was excited. Just from the title it seemed like an interesting, different kind of movie. It sounded like a take no prisoners take on the "desperate woman" genre that kind of disgusts me. I get that life is supposed to include a family, but there are so many movies out there featuring women who are just desperate for it, for no real reason. These characters, played by people like Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Amy Adams and Katherine Heigl, have great jobs, great friends and every reason to be happy, but movies dictate that women are whiny, needy creatures who need a man to be validated/end rant/. However, when the title was changed and the movie "softened" get that pg-13, I became a lot less interested. On a day where it is 110 degrees outside and you have a few hours to kill, The Switch starts to look more appealing though.

Kassie Larsen(Aniston) is a successful woman, working in broadcast television, thought her specific job is never mentioned. She lives in New York city, has great friends, loves her job and is gorgeous and normal enough that she could probably find a good man. The problem is she is desperate for a kid and does not want to wait for a man. She is almost 40 years old and she needs a baby inside of her. She tells her best friend, Wally(Bateman) about it and he, of course, thinks she is crazy. She goes through with it, but because it is a movie, they have to have a party before hand. The donor, Roland(Patrick Wilson) is a great looking athletic, smart guy, who happens to be married, but they need the money. At the party Wally gets hammered and ends up replacing Roland's sperm with his own. 7 years later the story picks up with Kassie moving back to New York and reconnecting with both Wally and Roland. Wally has no recollection of what he did 7 years ago, but as he spends more time with Sebastian(Thomas Robinson), he thinks the kid might be his because they have a lot more in common than Sebastian and Roland. Wally also starts to realize he is in love with Kassie, but his neurotic, always worried mind stops him from doing anything about it.

It is hard to get too worked up over a movie like The Switch. It is a harmless movie. it has an absolutely adorable kid, likable leads, funny work from Bateman and it is not so long that it gets annoying. It will never get a ringing endorsement, but I have seen worse movies that are trying to do the same sort of thing. Aniston does fine work. She looks great, plays the desperate mother well and handles the romantic stuff with Bateman well enough. She has nice comic timing, but I have been watching Friends a lot lately and she is so much funnier there. Watching her play these desperate type women just kind of gets me angry. The script has some genuinely funny moments, especially the opening scene, but that is what made me think this script had a lot more bite to it once upon a time.

Jeff Goldblum is definitely the standout in this movie. He gets the best lines and has the strongest performance as Wally's best friend/boss. I forget just how much I like him until I see him again on screen. he is always so great in the supporting roles and hope he continues to find work in this realm of his career. He can be the new Alec Baldwin. He can be the go-to guy to play bosses in comedies for a while.

The voice over work is distracting and too cheesy for my taste, and I cannot really think of any memorable scenes except the first scene we meet Sebastian in all his cute weirdness. I like that they did not make Roland a total asshole. In fact, they made him a very nice guy, which made the eventual outcome something sweeter, because confessing your love to a girl who is with a jerk is a lot easier than confessing your love to someone who is with a good guy. Bateman deserves better, but he is really great with the kid and the scene of them getting rid of lice was totally adorable.

Final Grade: C

The Kids are All Right

2010-08-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love in the summer movie season is to find the smaller indie pictures that are being released. Last year 2 of my favorite movies of the year, (500) Days of Summer and The Hurt Locker, were indie films released in the summer. This year, The Kids are All Right was being praised left and right as one of the best movies of the year and it seemed like a no brainer that it would be the best of the indie offerings. With my love of all things Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore and lesbian, mixed with the wonderful reviews, I could not have been more excited about this. Plus, I love movies that are about family dynamics and have a good mix of comedy and tragedy. Of course, with my expectations up so high, there is always a chance of the film not meeting them and me leaving disappointed. Well, luckily for me, that did not happen here.

Nic(Annette Bening) and Jules(Moore) are a pretty typical couple raising a pretty typical family with two kids, Joni(Mia Wasikowska) and Laser(Josh Hutcherson). Well, as typical as a family can be when the father of both children was an anonymous sperm donor. As she turns 18, Joni is talked into finding out about her father by Lazer because he is not old enough yet and he wants to know. The kids to this behind the back of their mothers and they meet Paul(Ruffalo). Lazer is not sure he likes Paul, but Mia does and soon Paul becomes a part of their lives, much to the disdain of Nic. Nic, a severe type A personality worries that Paul is going to put a wedge between the family, but Jules wants to give Paul the benefit of the doubt. Jules is trying to get a landscaping business going and Paul offers her a job and soon the two are spending a lot of time together and eventually begin an affair. For Paul it might be love, but for Jules, she is just trying to feel attractive again, or just feel something again.

Told with just the right amounts of heart, humor and pain,The Kids are All Right is worthy of all the praise being thrown at it. The script is refreshingly sharp, balancing the sentimentality of a loving family with the biting sense that families are not perfect. The words as delivered by each actor jump off the screen and live your soul as you can relate so many of the things going on. Writer/Director Lisa Choloenko ushers in this wonderful family dynamic and while the lesbian family is not something she can just gloss over, she treats it not as a novelty, but as a regular family, which is nice. Maybe it is stupid to have to point that out, but it is important. I have not seen any of Cholodenko's other features, but she is a confident director, with a good eye for pacing and she knows how to get exactly the right shot and the right emotion from each character.

Nic and Jules are loving parents and a loving couple, but life gets in the way and people mess up. Moore completely nails Jules aloofness and her need to be desired. She is a character who lives by her emotions and she needs to feel to live. Bening has the toughest job because Nic is the most unlikable character. She has to balance the type A personality without going too far to that direction where you feel no sympathy for her in the third act and that sympathy is invaluable when the movie blows the door open on the affair. Ruffalo probably puts in his best performance to date. He is charming, but kind of creepy, but he also never lets himself just be the villain the movie could have portrayed him as. his Paul is definitely a douchebag, but he feels things and while Paul is ultimately vilified by the other characters, I still felt bad for him. The two kids hold their own against all of these fantastic actors as well. Hutcherson could have made Lazer nothing more than a typical teenage boy, and while there are elements of that, he gives Lazer something extra. His performance is subtle, but he does demand your attention. I expect big things from this kid. Wasikowska also gives a subtle performance, but it is definitely the more show-off youth performance. She gets the big dramatic screaming scene and she handles it perfectly.

The Kids are All Right is the kind of movie I bet gets better with each viewing because there is something new to get from the characters each time. The story is important, but how the characters react to the story is more important. There are some absolutely perfect scenes, like all of the dinner table scene, and I think they found the exact perfect ending. I was very curious about 20 minutes from the end about how it would end. It is exactly the kind of ending this movie needs. The bigger story is not over, so they could not give us a complete ending, but the story of their lives that we get to see is over and I think this section of their lives ended exactly the way it needed to end.

With wonderful writing, strong direction and excellent performances all around, I would not be surprised to see this movie up for some awards in a few months and hopefully, it gets put back in theaters so more people can check it out because it is definitely worth checking out. So many family ensemble movies go too far in one direction, but The Kids are All Right manages to find the perfect blend of every aspect of the family dynamic.

Final Grade: A

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

2010-08-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out how to best tackle reviewing this movie from the moment the movie ended. For the last 10 days this movie has swirling around in the brain and marinating in my brain folds letting me soak it all in. Part action movie, part coming of age story, part comedy, part geekgasm, it is difficult to figure out how to classify it and how to talk/write about it. The movie is turning out to be a commercial failure, which, while not shocking, is absolutely disheartening, but I am not sure it was meant to be a hit. Every so often a movie comes out that I think is ahead of the times in which it was created. Scott Pilgrim is that kind of movie. People are written it off as too hipster, or too knowing, but I think that is point. I think it is so hipster, because the only way to properly mock the hipster attitude is to embrace it fully and turn it on its head. Who better for the job than Michael Cera and Edgar Wright? Okay, maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself. Let me rewind/unwind a bit and go from the start.

Scott Pilgrim(Cera) is an underachieving 20-something that spends his days playing in a band called the Sex Bob-Ombs and he is dating a high school girl, Knives(Ellen Wong) much to the mockery of his band mates, roommate (Kieren Culkin) and sister(Anna Kendrick). That all changes when he meet Ramona(Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and instantly falls in love. He has a date with Romona and the two share a bed for the night, but Scott did not break up with Knives first. However, Knives is about to be the least of his problems. In order to date Romona, Scott is going to have to do battle with and defeat her 7 evil exes. Through his battles, Scott will learn a lot about himself, about his resolve and about the people around him. Will the young man who has spent his life doing as little as possible man up and defeat the evil exes, or will the whole thing just get to be too much?

If the story is very straight forward, the way it is told is not. The movie uses elements of musicals, serious action movies, sci-fi, anime, video games, sitcoms, and a host of other avenues to get the story to the audience. It is impossible to classify the narrative framework and I could spend hours analyzing why certain things were done the way they were. I have to admit, I am ignorant to the source material as I have never read the Graphic Novel on which this is based. However, I understand perfectly, the kind of movie this is. This is the ultimate in post-post-modern genre bending film making. Edgar Wright, the genius director behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has elevated his game and in doing so creating a movie I believe will come to be a defining film of a generation. The film is an mishmash of nerdiness, but also intrinsically cool. There are visual gags that callback to 8 bit Nintendo and each battle plays like a level of a video game, but intercut into the video game visuals is a stunningly vulnerable story.

This blending of visual with the story, make Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World play the kind of coming of Age tale high school students clamour for. Scott Pilgrim is a young man who is searching for more than just a girl, he is searching for meaning, he is searching for a way to feel something in a world that has grown cold and too ironic to understand how to feel anything. He fights a hipster Vegan with special powers(Brandon Routh), he does battle with an action star(Chris Evans) who is so detached from the world, his stunt doubles do most of his fighting. The music is also important, because in this iPod world in which we live, music is how people express themselves and this movie even uses music to be a battle, when a battle of the bands turns into a BATTLE of the bands.

Each fight is very different from the last which was welcome and the action is hard hitting, visually stunning, wonderfully choreographed and also absolutely hilarious in parts. To see Michael Cera as an action star is astonishing in its own right, but to see him do it well is just giggle inducing and I think that helps the movie. Cera is so...vanilla, that we become the character. He is so void of personality that he can become whoever we want him to be. We want him to succeed because he is us. The movie does a lot right, from all of the quick edits that can take us to 4 different locations in a matter of seconds, to the nonchalant way the movie deals with homosexuality. Scott actually shares a bed with his gay roommate and the boyfriends of his gay roommate and not a big deal is made of it.

The way relationships are dealt with is also very interesting. Romantic relationships are not treated with a great deal of respect, as these characters almost buy into the idea that we are in a post-relationship world. The gay roommate steals Scott's sister's boyfriend, Scott once had a fling with his drummer and now he treats her like it did not happen. He semi-cheated on Knives, and does not really pay the consequences at first. It is the stuff of classic Young Adult novels. It becomes a movie that could be paired with works of literature in a classroom setting, but it comes with all of these colorful bells and musical whistles that it becomes a study of both style and substance.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World might be the best movie I have seen at combining genres this side of a Tarantino flick. It has wit, heart, soul and flare, with great catchphrases to keep people reciting it, but it is so much more. I went in expecting a fun movie that would make me nostalgic for my old Nintendo and I was expecting a few cool action scenes enhanced by the video game bells and whistles, but I was not expecting for the movie to hit me the way it did. I did not expect the metaphors to be so fleshed out and the symbolism to be so effective. When the 1UP icon came up in the right hand corner, I thought it was clever, but I never expected it to be some meaningful. By the time Jason Schwartzman shows up, the movie is already amazing, but his performance and the scene in which he appears raises the movie even more.

I know I am missing things, and I know this review probably got a bit self indulgent, but it is my blog and I can write what I want. If this movie does not end up in my top 10 for the end of the year that will mean this was an insane final few months of the year.

Final Grade: A+

The Expendables

2010-08-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

There is something to be said for Stallone. The man is crazy over the hill, yet every few years he manages to make a movie the way he wants to make it and finds a way to make money doing. First we got a new Rocky, then came a new Rambo and now it is The Expendables. Stallone writes and directs these movies, finds a way to finance them for reasonably cheap and sits back and watches the money come in. He has found a way to remain relevant in the movie industry, like the male action version of Meryl Streep, he gets better with age. For The Expendables, he set out to make an action movie that would be more at place in the 1980s but with 2010 sensibilities. His dream was to gather a bunch of stars of action movies past and unleash them in the ultimate action movie. He was not fully able to get the cast he wanted, but he did gather quite an action ensemble. He loaded the movie with a wrestler, a UFC fighter, washed up action stars, action stars in their prime and his Planet Hollywood brethren, Bruce Willis and our Governor here in CA. All of this was enough to get me excited, but when the trailers were rolled out, it just made me that much more excited.

The Expendables are a group of 6 for-hire mercenaries who do the jobs no one else has the stomach for. They go into the dark corners of the world and do that dirt. They are excellent marksmen, hand to hand combat fighters, knife experts and they know how to plan to get in and out without making too big of a scene. On one mission however, one member, Gunner(Dolph Lundgren), loses his mind and he is no longer able to be on the team. So the team is down to five when they are offered another job by Tool(Mickey Rourke). Barney(Stallone) and Lee(Jason Statham) go down to scope out the new job, but the job looks impossible and they are not going to do it until Barney meets Sandra and is taken by her resolve. The job is to take out an evil dictator, and perhaps take out the man bankrolling the hostile takeover, James Munroe(Eric Roberts). With his 5 man team, Barney must find a way to get his team out alive, save the girl and kill the bad guys.

Serving up action of every variety and showing a surprising lack of vanity, Stallone manages to give every action fan everything he could want in one movie. Jason Statham beats the crap out of a group of guys, throws knives and wields a sword. Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren have this epic, kick ass fight, Stallone gets his ass kicked by Stone Cold Steve Austin, Randy Couture and Austin get this bloodied fight. There is this stunning boat dock explosion and the climatic castle explosion is totally sick. Stallone finds the perfect balance of action styles, while still maintaining that gruesome graphic violence that helped make him a star in the first place. You could call The Expendables, Rambo with a team. Body parts fly as bullets pierce them, heads roll from swords, we see bodies explode, hear blood curdling screams when Terry Crews takes a loud, testosterone birthed rifle and shoots people with bullets that seem to pierce all matter.

There is this side plot involving Statham's character that could probably have been done away with and saved about 10 minutes, but the idea was to humanize these characters, but I do not want them humanized. While I know at any moment these characters could meet their ultimate demise, I also know it could never happen. Stallone comes from the 1980s action movies where heroes were superheroes without masks and powers. He was a one man army bringing down entire empires and with a team of like minded individuals in this movie, I know deep down, the men are never really in any trouble. The car chase is cool, but it is made cooler by going directly from the car chase into a fight between Dolph and Jet. This is how these movies operate. We go from action scene to action scene and when the movie gets to climatic battle, we get an orgy of orgasmic action. A tank explodes at one point and a helicopter explodes after Terry Crews hurls a missile in the air while Stallone shoots at it exploding it in midair. More people are stabbed, shot, punched, kicked, thrown into brick walls and at one point a guy is shot and stabbed at the same time.

You know what you are in for when you go watch a movie that stars all of these people. You do not expect great acting, although Eric Roberts is the perfect villain and Mickey Rourke delivers a stirring monologue that sounded like it was from a completely different movie, but The Expendables works on every level. It works as a story about a group of men unsure of their place, which is a metaphor for Stallone and how he fits into Hollywood. He is a man left for dead years ago, but here he is with the number 1 movie two weekends in a row and this movie may save an entire studio, Lions Gate, from a hostile takeover. He has found a place doing the kind of movies he wants to do and it has to be respected. His movies will never be for everyone and to be honest, I could not stand most of the movies he made in the late 1990s, but this movie, along with Rambo, have made me appreciate the kind of man Stallone is and the kind of movies he makes. Make no mistake, The Expendables is a gory, gritty, borderline disgusting action movie, but thank god for it!

Final Grade: B

Piranha 3D

2010-08-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

An Earthquake opens up a cavern under a lake and unleashes thousands of killer piranhas and it happens to be spring break. That one sentence is really all that is needed in terms of telling someone what this movie is about. You have killer fish and spring break. In order to make a successful movie, those two ingredients should be in your dish. When I say Spring Break, I mean the movie/MTV version of Spring Break. We have a sleazy Joe Francis type, Derrick(Jerry O'Connell), there is a wet T-shirt contest with Eli Roth as the Emcee, plenty of hot half naked (two fully naked) people and tons of alcohol. There is not any sex, really, but there are enough bare breasts on display to please any 14yr old boy. We have a few characters we are supposed to care about, including a family where the mother, Julie(Elizabeth Shue) is the sheriff, Jake(Steven R. McQueen), is the lovesick teenager and they also have two cute little kids. Jessica Szohr from television's Gossip Girl provides the love interest and looks great in a bikini and finally Kelly Brook as the sex object.

Of course, if you are coming to watch this movie for the story/plot/characters well you are kind of an idiot. Piranha is about watching piranhas eat and kill unsuspecting people. The first half of the movie we get glimpses of the carnage these underwater killers are capable of, but when the movie really lets loose, it is a full on bloodbath. Offering over the top gore, silly action, cheesy dialog, the aforementioned bare breasts and some classic B-movie style antics, Piranha 3D delivers on its promise in spades. It is the movie Snakes on a Plane was supposed to be. It is the movie B horror movie fans have been quietly clamouring for. It leaves the audience feeling giddy, disgusting and kind of in awe that the movie was able to get away with a lot of the stuff it gets away with.

There is a scene that can only be described as a naked underwater ballet between two gorgeous girls, there is topless windsurfing, a CGI penis being chewed up and spit out and enough CGI missing limbs to satisfy the entire audience of people looking for this type of movie. I know the appeal of such a movie is limited and if you are even hesitant about watching it, just stay away. There is no need for people who are even hesitating about this kind of movie. It is pure direct to DVD glory, but on the big screen and in 3D. To be honest, the 3D did not do anything for me. There are not any real "jumps" that come from the 3D and as a gimmick I have seen horror movies in 3D that were better, but it was not Avatar levels of distracting. The Piranhas look exactly the way I wanted them to look. They did not look too good where you can tell a lot of funny went into them, but they do not look too cheap where it is distracting how awful they look.

The pacing of the movie is nice and the references to other movies and to horror conventions is nice. The deaths get more and more outrageous and there are definitely enough just throw up your hands moments that you know no one is taking this undertaking seriously. Ving Rhames gets the "I'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane" line and he delivers it perfectly as he wields the motor from a motor boat as a weapon to tear through the piranhas. Adam Scott, in a role that makes me wonder who he owed a favor to, is kind of the bad ass in the movie as he saves lives and shoots piranhas like he is an old pro and Elizabeth Shue is there is give the movie a winking 1980s vibe. O'Connell's appearance as a douchetastic soft core porn director feels so close to real life, you wonder if O'Connell has experience.

I do not have much else to say except Christopher Lloyd's delivery of every single line as Mr. Exposition is dripped in B-movie awesomeness. and Richard Dreyfuss' cameo is a wonderful little bit of movie reference, but I wish it had been even less subtle than it was. I want my movies that feature CGI penis, naked underwater ballet, bloodied and missing limbs, and cheesy looking fish to be void of any sense of subtlety.

Final Grade: I cannot really grade this kind of movie

The Other Guys

2010-08-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

It seems like a Will Ferrell has become a summer staple, the way an Adam Sandler movie is. We can be guaranteed a movie from this guy to infest our summer movie season and normally I skip them. I have no need for Will Ferrell in a starring role in a movie and I certainly have no need for a Ferrell movie directed by Adam McKay. This pairing just does not work for me. Yet there were things in the trailer that appealed to me. First off, Mark Wahlberg doing a comic version of his persona is always funny. People say this is his first real comedy attempt, but I promise, his role as himself on Entourage is always hilarious. Next, you have The Rock and Sam Jackson playing very arrogant versions of their perceived personas. Next, the movie had the look of a throwback buddy cop action movie. It almost felt like The Beastie Boys video for "Sabotage" in a way. With all of those in the plus column I decided to waive my policy on seeing Will Ferrell movies. Was I fooled or would I be rewarded?

When New York city needs heroes who will take up the call? With a void in in the NYPD which team of cops will step up and fill the void left by the hero cops? That is the basic question asked by our narrator(Ice-T, yes Ice-T). After a shooting gone horribly wrong, Detective Terry Hoitz(Wahlberg) has been assigned to be partners with a paper pusher, Allen Gamble(Ferrell) and it is stifling his mojo. Hoitz was a detective on the rise and now he is stuck to a desk. He is looking for a way out and he will get it even if it means kidnapping his partner. Looking for any reason to do cop work, Hoitz humors Gamble on a quest to arrest David Ershon(Steve Coogan)for not having the right building permits. Ershon is a big shot finance guy but he has people after him and soon Hoitz and Gamble find themselves being shot at, beaten up and having buildings around them blown up. Hoitz is excited by this, but Gamble wants to play things safe. In college Gamble got out of hand as a pimp and now he tries to quell the demons inside of him. But New York needs to put a stop to a Ponzi scheme and needs people who are not afraid to stand up to evil forces that lurk around the shadows of the city.

Every so often The Other Guys veers into Will Ferrell insanity and it is in those moments where the movie fails, but otherwise, it is actually a pretty solid film. Wahlberg is excellent as the tightly wound, overly frustrated Terry Hoitz. His whiny, angry performance is the perfect balance to Ferrell's ridiculous antics. Wahlberg's reactions to Eva Mendes being Ferrell's wife are picture perfect, the ballet he does is wonderful and every time his voices gets to that high pitched whine, I could not help but laugh. There is no doubt Wahlberg can handle the action scenes in the movie, but he pulls off the comedy flawlessly. Ferrell has good chemistry with Wahlberg and there are times I found him to be quite funny, especially in the first 30 minutes or so when he is remaining calm to Wahlberg's threats. However, as the movie went on, Ferrell got more and more Ferrell and the movie indulges him too much. The back story of him being a pimp in college is totally distracting and obnoxious. The jokes between he and Eva Mendes just do not work, and it is not the fault of the delivery, it is just a horrible bit.

Having Ice-T narrate the movie is brilliant and The Rock and Sam Jackson, in what amount to glorified cameos, are wonderful and the way they exit the movie is totally ridiculous, hilarious and unexpected. Kudos to the two men for being willing to take these parts. It elevates the first 15 minutes greatly. Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr. have supporting roles and Riggle is his usual half funny/half terrible self and Wayans Jr. lands enough of his jokes to think he could succeed in Hollywood, but probably on television. Michael Keaton continues his good year with a hilarious supporting turn as the captain of the precinct who has a part time job at Bed, Bath and Beyond. His constant unintentional references to TLC songs make for a great running bit, even though the movie squanders the opportunity to play "Waterfalls" at a better time than they actually do. Steve Coogan is an actor who plenty like, but I have yet to fully see his appeal. He does smarmy and weaselly pretty well in this movie, though. SO he does his job.

On the other side of this movie is the action and the commentary on the action. Ferrell's Gamble leads the duo through a few car chases and comments that he learned to drive that way via Grand Theft Auto. It is an old joke, but it actually lands pretty well because of the kind of chase that was choreographed. Also, the reactions from both cops when a building explodes near them is even funnier in the movie than it is in the trailer and it does offer a nice commentary about how ridiculous it is when characters in movies walk away unscathed from explosions. I absolutely loved the gun fights, the Heat like one in the street and the awesome slow motion one that we see glimpses of in the trailer. Wahlberg's presence really helps sell the action and the movie needs to have the action look good because the entire look of the movie is a throwback.

The Other Guys hits a lot more than it misses and I really did have a nostalgic sense throughout the entire movie. The way the film is almost washed out to look retro helps and the music has a very throwback feel most of the time and that really helps sell the film for me. Ice-T's narration also gives the movie the sense of an exploitation film that felt very organic. I hated the Will Ferrellness of chunks, but when he is reeled in, I enjoyed his buttoned up performance and I hope Wahlberg continues to explore this comic side of his tough guy persona. In a summer with pretty weak comedies, The Other Guys scores as a wonderful comic action piece and a total surprise for me.

Final Grade: B

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

2010-08-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

David Slade is a director I am going to always check out. His first two movies, Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night are wonderful visions of terror, in completely different ways. He understands how to build tension, how to shoot scenes in horrifying ways and he gets the kind of performances he needs from his actors. I was more than a little surprised when I heard he was going to be taking on the third movie in this ridiculous Twilight series. He is better than that. His movies are dark and grisly, the way a movie about vampires and werewolves should be, but Twilight is not about the dark and grisly, it is about this weak ass love story that is not really about love. Why would Slade agree to this? Why would he do this to me? Now I had to go back and watch New Moon to prepare myself for this because I was not going to miss a David Slade movie. So, the movie became about "Can a good director save a weak story?" Read on to find out the answer.

At the end of New Moon, the Cullen family decides that Bella(Kristen Stewart) becoming a vampire would be a good thing. Well, most of them anyway. So, the race is on as to when that will happen. Edward(Robert Pattinson) is dead set against it and in this movie we get a glimpse into way because there is a vampire out there creating an army of new vampires and new vampires are CRAZY! That is when vampires are at their most inhumane. Luckily, Jasper knows how it goes because in one of the far too many flashbacks we see his previous life and how that went. Jacob(Taylor Lautner), the resident double-digit abdominal muscle having werewolf, is also madly in love with Bella and he is not willing to let it go. Bella refuses to admit she is in love with Jacob, but Jacob presses on anyway. Victoria(Now Bryce Dallas Howard) continues to run around aimlessly terrorizing the Cullens, the werewolves and Bella, all while not seeming to have any considerable talent. Is she behind the baby vampire army? Will Jacob and Bella finally kiss? Will Edward do anything but sulk?

This might just be the best possible movie one can get out of such a terrible story. David Slade must be a genius because he made a watchable Twilight movie. Do not get me wrong, it is far from a great movie and every damn time the movie turned its full attention to Edward and Bella I wanted to walk out of the theater in exasperated haste, but Slade makes everything else watchable. His opening scene reminded me of his work in 30 Days of Night, and the action sequences are all wonderfully shot, paced and actually have an element of surprise about them. I found myself getting a bit into the action stuff, the way the last two movies could not do. Slade is such a sure handed director that he knew he could find the good in the suckfest that is Twilight.

Taylor Lautner has a definite future in the genre of action movies. To say the guy looks good would be an understatement. The kid is great looking and he is ripped and built the way a 19 yr old kid should not be, but he also has presence. He is not a great actor by any means, but most action stars are not, but you are drawn to watching his stoic face. Granted it could be because he is acting opposite two disgustingly awful actors in Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. I am not sure where Lautner's career will take him, but I imagine it will take him very far into the realm of action movies and dramas where he kisses girls in the rain. Speaking of kisses, why is it that every time Bella and Edward kiss it is super awkward and not at all filled with heat, but when Bella and Jacob finally get their moment, it is an erotic wonderful kiss? I am not going to get into the debate of teams, or any of that nonsense, but on the screen, the chemistry between Stewart and Lautner is far more interesting.

Because it is Twilight there is a certain level of ridiculousness, especially any scene that forces Jacob, Bella and Edward to be int he same place, but this movie actually finds a bit of humor in what is my favorite non action scene, where Bella is freezing, but Edward cannot warm her up, so Jacob gets into bed with her to warm her up while Edward is there. It is the kind of throw-your-hands-in-the-air-ridiculous, but it is actually played for laughs. Lautner's swagger against Pattinson's bumbling scowl play well off each other and when the two guys are having a conversation, it is the only time Pattinson changes his facial expression. Perhaps Edward is not jealous that Bella wants Jacob, but that Jacob wants Bella. Just food for thought.

There are plenty of unintentional laugh out loud moments thanks to a horrible script, bad plot and somewhat awkward pacing at times, but overall Eclipse is actually semi-enjoyable. I like the idea of a human girl fighting her feelings between a werewolf and a vampire, but I would rather now have it covered in a Mormon gloss and not be aimed at the teenage girl demographic because I think there could be a lot more interesting and complex stories to tell about animals vs. human and life vs. death. Jacob makes these cases pretty well in the movies and to be honest, in the way the movies have played out, it seems Bella loves Jacob more, but that the stories dictate she must love Edward and so she does. Or maybe, there is no reason given as to why she loves Edward, other than that is the way the author wants it, which is just an awful way to go.

Final Grade: C

Eminem's RECOVERY album (special edition)

2010-08-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have not attempted to review an album in quite some time and this is going to be different from all of the other ones because normally I review an album after 3-5 listens. Well, I have had this album for over a month, which means I have easily over 25-30 listens under my belt. Not sure if this will lend itself to a more comprehensive(read:longer) review, but here we go. I will be doing this track by track, just like always.

1. Cold Wind Blows- using wind as a metaphor for him is a nice image. The wind is unpredictable and Eminem himself is unpredictable. This opening track has a nice kick to it courtesy of a menacing beat that is a great contrast to Eminem's high pitched voice and his ridiculous delivery and rhyme patterns. Here he is still angry and dropping names and singing on the hook, so based on this song, it may be more of the same for the white rapper. he does sound a lot more hungry here than he has in a few albums, which is a really nice change of pace. If anyone was worried that being off the drugs would soften Eminem's tongue, this song puts you to rest pretty early on. There is nothing truly spectacular here, but there is something kind of nice about that. The beat, though, really holds this song together beautifully. I do love the last 2 bars of the final verse where he says, almost smiling "But I swear, you try to diss me, I'll slaughter you/I put that on everything, like everyone does with auto-tune/That last thing you wanna do is have me spit out a rhyme/And say I was writing this and I thought of you so." 4/5

2. Talkin' to myself- Eminem is finally talking about getting clean, about how much of a struggle his life has been with the drugs, the death surroudning him and everything else. Eminem has always been at his best when he puts his heart and pain into the music. Kobe sings a nice hook and the beat is a perfect Eminem beat because it is very off kilter, like the man rhyming. Eminem is rhyming about being jealous of Lil Wayne and Kanye because he felt he lost his touch. He says he cannot write a good punchline, his health is declining and all he had was those pills. The energy is raw, the lyrics are raw and the emotion is raw. I love when a musician is willing to be totally open and in rap music, you never doubt yourself. It is your job to always declare you are the best always, but in this song Eminem admits he lost touch with who he was as an artist. He is not afraid to admit his last two albums were lackluster and thanks his audience for being patient and begs for forgiveness for the bad albums. Damn, I wish I could bleed my soul like this! 5/5

3. On Fire- I do not have a proper tracklisting, but this beat is very Dr Dre. Eminem makes Dre better and Dre makes him better. I know people do not like this song much, but the verbal gymnastics are retarded good. His in and out rhyme patterns, his delivery, breath control, flow, tone of voice and the dark, yet hilarious imagery is fascinating. His ability to be morbid and hilarious is very evident here. The song may not really have a point, but when you rhyme this well, not every song needs to have a point. this song is just 2 32 bar verses of pure spitting. He just went into the booth and ripped apart a beat that lends itself to a ridiculous stream of verbal awesomeness. There is nothing subtle about it and in an album where Eminem will be spending a lot of time on his feeling and emotions, it is good to have a song where he is just ripping it up! 4.5/5

4. Won't back down- With a very rock style beat and Pink SOARING on the hook, Eminem finds a nice melding of commercial and edgy and he is not wasting anytime as he tears into the guitar and drum laced beat. He is rapping about that crazy Slim Shady stuff. The first verse is just nuts as he starts off rapping fast and hitting multi syllabic rhymes like crazy and then he slows down and kicks out this insane word play: I gave Bruce Wayne a Valium and said, "Settle your fuckin ass down, I'm ready for combat man!"/Get it? Calm Batman? Nah, ain't nobody who's as bomb and as
nuts/ lines are like mom's CAT scans cause they fuckin go ba-na-nas/Honey I applaud that ass, swear to God man these broads can't dance/ Ma, show 'em how it's done, spaz like a goddamn Taz, yeah" And the second verse is more of the same. He is right on with every guitar lick. The way his voice becomes one with this mid tempo beat is insane. The third verse is probably one of his most vile of the album and it really is a nice closer for this song. 4.5/5

5. W.T.P- Easily the worst song on the album. The beat is too poppy for my tastes on this album and the sing-songy hook just does not work for me. The song, about a White Trash Party, feels like the Eminem from the Encore album. There is nothing interesting here except rhyming "die Santa" with " bystander." It is a total throwaway track that the album could have done without and been better for it. But, I guess that is part of what makes Eminem, Eminem. He has to have these songs on his albums just because he can. 2/5

6. Goin Through Changes- I love this song. The sample is perfectly dropped into the hook and this slow tempo beat really complements Eminem's more personal songs. It is like he looked into the mirror while he was detoxing and just started writing. The first verse ends with this insane revelation:

I'm hating my reflection
I walk around the house trying to fight mirrors
I can't stand what I look like, yeah
I look fat, but what do I care
I give a fuck, only thing that I fear is Hailey
I'm afraid that if I close my eyes then I might see her...Shit

In this song he finally takes a bit about his feelings from when his best friend was shot and killed. He opens up about the drug problem and how much of a failure he felt like to his daughters. It is a heart on the table kind of song and while there are few of them on this album, it never gets old. Eminem has always talked about the trappings of fame, but this song goes beyond that, and talks about how fame allowed him to just do whatever he wanted. By the time he samples his daughter's voice as the driving force to helping him get sober, it is hard not to feel something for him. 5/5

7. Not Afraid- The anthem of the album. With the driving beat, the march like quality of the hook and Eminem's determined delivery, This is one of those songs that just gets me going. Much like "Lose Yourself" this song just fills one with hope, with determination and a drive to succeed. Eminem does not venture to this territory all that often, but he is always successful when he does. There is something to be said for the simplicity of it all. The repetitive drums, the chanting chorus and how Eminem is rhyming at a very normal tempo. He is not doing the gymnastics or playing with the speed or tone. He is just sitting in front of a mic and exercising his demons and telling everyone that if he can come back from his best friend dying, a drug addiction and all kinds of other nonsense, we can all take our lives back and be not afraid of our demons. I absolutely love the third verse and I rap along with it with the same determination. It will definitely be a song that makes it onto my opening night playlist. 5/5

8. Seduction- Oh man this is my song! Eminem takes a girl away from a guy because of his ability to be verbally seductive. Because of his rhyming ability he gets this girl away from some kind of loser. He gloats " There's a 7 disc CD changer in the car
And I'm in every single slot, and you're not." The beat is sexy, but in a dark kind of haunting way, like it was created in a smokey, dark strip club. Eminem follows suit with his delivery and the overall tone of the song. The singing on the hook is full of this erotic tension and with each verse he gets a bit more darkly playful, and more seductive. he is toying with his competition and by the time he gets to the third verse he is spouting stuff like:
Prick you really feel'n that bullshit, you think you kill'n them syllables
Quit play'n, these beats ain't nothing to fool with
They call me Fire Marshall, I shut the shit down
Your entire arsenal is not enough to fuck with one round (Woo!)
I am also the opposite of what you are like
You're a microcosm of what the fuck I am on the mic
I am awesome, and you are just awe-struck

It is no contest, Eminem cannot be defeated with words. 5/5

9. No Love- This might be the single most ridiculous sample for a rap song. The way it is chopped up and dropped in the hook and how the sample fits with this song, kind of work, but it is tough to get passed that. On top of that, you have to deal with a Lil Wayne verse. Granted, it might be one of his best verses ever, which is not saying much, but Eminem brings out the best in people. Wayne's voice fits the syrupy flavor of the beat and it is a stark contrast to Eminem's much more aggresive delivery, but somehow those contrasts all fit together pretty well. Eminem sings the hook and the song is kind of about brushing off the people who turned their backs whent he chips were low. I love the opening to Eminem's verse: "I'm alive again, more alive than I have been in my whole entire life" and from there he is goes into this whirlwind of in and out rhymes, where he dares you to follow where his words are going to go next. It is like an ABAABCBCC rhyme pattern or some crazy shit like that. His breath control is CRAZy considering just how many words he is spitting into each bar. It requires multiple listens just to catch where he is going with the verse. It might be his most unique verse on the album. 5/5

10. Space Bound- If I had done this review after 3 or 4 listens, this song would be rated much differently. it has grown on me so much. At first the space theme did nothing for me and I did not quite grasp what he was going for because it sounds like it wants to be a love song, but it is more a song about obsession, about how love can be an addiction and an unhealthy all consuming one. Eminem has a lot of experience in this. I love how the end of the first verse he says she takes his breath away right at the end of a line where he is clearly losing his breath. It is an insanely precise moment. The hook is still bothersome to me. I do not like the robotic feel of it because Eminem is all about feeling. There is not much to the beat that really stands out but it allows Eminem to just be very on edge throughout the song. And clearly every verse starts off normal but as the verse gets on, his lyrics gets more driven, his delivery more pointed and the whole thing sounds more desperate. It is another way Eminem goes beyond just writing insane lyrics. His performance elevates this song way beyond what I heard the first few times. 4/5

11. Cinderella Man- This is another kind of anthem type song. The kick drum and clap create the foundation of the beat and the chorus has a gospel feel to it and Eminem sounds like a man given second life, which is kind of true. The song about a guy who is still around when he maybe does not deserve to be rings very true to Eminem's life. The song takes a lot of boxing metaphors, which fit with the movie called Cinerella Man. His words are very crisp and he is hitting every single beat perfectly. He is not playing with his voice at all, because it is the clarity of message is what is important here. Even the guitars in the beat are muffled to not pull focus from the marching effect. It is also catchy as hell when the hook comes in "Wish I had a time machine." The second verse he plays with his words a bit more because he knows he has our attention and now he can show off why we are glad he is still around. I love how the beats drops out when he raps "How fuckin irritated are you? How much in your face am I?" His confidence/swagger are back! 4/5

12. 25 to Life- Hip-Hop as a woman is nothing new. Rappers have been using that analogy for a long time. However, Eminem's take on women is very different from most, when Eminem compares hip-hop to a woman, you know you are in for something different. He does not disappoint. The song, if you can guess from the title, is how he has felt imprisoned by hip-hop. He feels he has not been given the respect he deserves and that hip-hop is using him. It is a surprising revelation to me because so often Eminem has rapped about how rap music saved him, and of course it has saved him, but hip-hop is fickle and there really is a "What have you done for me lately?" feeling in the rap world. It is a young man's game. The beat is nice, but not overwhelmingly so and it lets Eminem play a lot with his flow. The chorus is probably a sample, but I do not know. This is another song where he breaks from the traditional 3 verse format for two longer verses and in the second verse it gets complicated to follow the rhymes because he is not putting them in traditional places and I love that about him. He may rhyme the first syllable in one word with the third in another and you have to pay attention to catch them sometimes. 4.5/5

13. So Bad- In my opinion, this is another filler track. It is a song the album could have done without and been better for it. However, the beat is sick. It sounds like Dre, but Dre with a lighter touch. The song is about how he gets a girl interested and how he is totally wrong for her, kind of. To be honest, With as much as I like this beat, I wish Eminem had just ripped the track. The hook is boring and Eminem sounds his least inspired on this song. 2.5/5

14. Almost Famous- This song begins the perfect storm of awesome that closes the album. The beat is NUTS, the chorus is spot on and Eminem just RIPS it up all over this track. The song is about his struggle to get a major label deal, but it is more about how he spits this song that makes it amazing. The third verse is ridiculous and it sounds like the hungry Eminem who was rapping his ass off to get on. To be able to put himself back in the frame of mind of a young rapper starving, unable to buy diapers for his daughter and just rapping out of desperation, is amazing. The lyrics are incredible, but printing them would do them a disservice. It is about how his vocals just rip through the beat, the hook, the lyrics, the album all of it. He is truly a rapping animal all over this song. He mentions screaming the wood panel off of the studio because he is just rapping to eat, to survive. Oh man, the kind of passion found in the final verse is INSANE! 5/5

15. Love the way you Lie- It is hard to believe this is an Eminem song because it is so "pop" but not in the way Eminem songs are usually "pop." It might be his catchiest song, which is saying something. Rhianna and Eminem make a wonderfully vulnerable song pairing and the song allows them both to be vulnerable all over the song. Both have been through incredibly tough public relationships and so the song suits them. The beat is pretty special and lends itself to a song about getting your heart ripped out by the person you love. Eminem has never had a filter and even though this is a massive crossover hit with the big chorus, Eminem keeps up the kind of wounded, angry, slightly misogynistic persona he has milked for so long. It is kind of a bold move on a song where one of the most visible victims of domestic abuse is singing on your hook, but that is what gives the song the depth. Eminem's desperate pleas border on too crazy and by the end of the third verse you realize he is his own worst enemy when it comes to love. His temper is what has him alone. 5/5

16. You're never Over- The only rap song to ever bring me to tears, is this one. It does not still get me there but the first 5 or 6 listens I was on the verge. 3-4 years later, Eminem is finally able to write a song about his murdered best friend and what a fitting tribute it is. It is inspiring, angry, confused, winning, and features the amazing vocal dynamics Eminem is famous for. You really get the idea that Eminem's soul was attached to Proof, his best friend. Eminem paints a picture of a man who meant everything to him and was the reason he was able to hold onto his sanity. The second verse is one of the most heartfelt, open and warm verses I have ever heard EMinem spit and it begins with this: For you, I wanna write the sickest rhyme of my life/So sick it'll blow up the mic, it'll put the "dyna" in "mite"/Yeah, it'll make the dopest MC, wanna jump off a bridge and shit himself/Tap dancin all over the beat, it'll jump off the page and spit itself

As someone who once lost a best friend, I can really relate to how he is feeling and as I go through some of the hardest moment of my life the last 6 months, I realize how much I wish I had my friend back and I can only imagine how hard it is for Eminem to go through the drugs, the second divorce and everything else without his best friend. I can listen to this song over and over and never tire of it. 5/5

17. Untitled- Havoc produced this song and Eminem heard it once, loved it so much he had to have it no matter what. It is exactly the way Eminem closes all of his albums, a song where he just spits ridiculous stream of consciousness rhymes that essentially nonsense, but sound so fucking good because of how he manages to rhyme. He is also very dark, morbid and hilarious again. My favorite little section is probably:

Cause it will turn into a +Gremlin+ and run over kids, women and men
Vrinn-vrinn, motor so big you fit a midgit in his engine
Bitch give me them digits, why you cringin? Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin
will I spend-spend even ten cents on you, since when
do you think it's gonna cost me a pretty penny? Shit, if I think a penny's pretty
Just imagine how, beautiful a quarter is to me
Eeny-meeny-miney-mo, catch an Eskimo by his toe while he's tryin to roll a snowball
But don't make him lose his cool, if he hollers better let him go y'all!

It is complete and utter nonsense, but I cannot help but giggle and sit in awe of it all. The song is nothing but sections like this set this amazing beat. It is the perfect way for Eminem to finish off this reintroduction to who he is. 5/5

Bonus Coverage!

18. Session one (Featuring Slaughterhouse)- I could get used to hearing Eminem killing tracks with this group for years to come. Eminem is the lead off batter here, setting up this track with word play like "So suck my dick on the couch if you wanna cushion the blow." The beat is vintage Just Blaze sounding, which means it is breezy, it hits hard and is perfect for a group of emcees to rip up. Royce, Eminem's one time rhyming partner feeds off of Eminem's energy and rips his verse, even if it is a little more straight forward, but his growl compliments Eminem's voice nicely. Joell Ortiz continues his insanity on the mic. The kid is rapping along side veterans, but he does not show any signs of feeling overwhelmed, instead he sounds just as confident on the as everyone else. He destroys the voice and his breath control is INSANE! Crooked I, the surprise of the group to me, closes the song off and he brings it home wonderfully with this insane group of rhymes, all set to a spot in the beat where it changes, just slightly:
Bilinguist don, I kill with the tongue, I'm Atilla the Hun
I'm Genghis Khan, I'm a genius spawn
I pillage your village for fun, an egregious con
A syllable gun, real as they come, Long Beach Saddam!

Oh man, I wonder what Joe Buddens verse would have sounded like if his label did not stop him from jumping on it! 5/5

19. Ridaz- This is not an Eminem sounding song. In fact, Dr. Dre drops his most West Coast/Gangsta rap beat in years. I felt like The Game should have been rapping voer this menacing track. Granted, it is a dark sounding beat which is where Eminem excells, but it just hits so HARD, I expected a gangsta rap song, not an Eminem. This is not a problem, it just takes some getting used to. Em goes into the song nicely, but it sounds a bit like a left over from the last album. It is a drug infused story of violence, which is more in line with Relapse than Recovery, but it does not stop Eminem from dropping his brand of odd rhyme schemes all over the place and because I am who I am, I still love it all because of how he rhymes, or how he delivers his rhymes. However, I feel like this beat could be better served. Rarely do I feel that in an Eminem song. 3.5/5

20 Despicable Freestyle-

I wanted to post the whole thing because it really gives you an opportunity to hear what I have been talking about this whole review because this verse embodies all of who he is. His rhymes patterns, his breath control, his flow, his delivery, the wordplay and his just pure rhyming insanity are all on display in this 2 minute verse. I cannot even listen to the original versions of the two songs he uses because he just murders both beats too well. He takes possesion of it all. It may take a few listens to catch it all, but give it time. You will probably love it the way I do. 5/5

I may overrate Eminem a bit, as I am admittedly a massive fan of how this guy operates. I understand that my opinion might be a bit biased, but I am entranced by interesting and complex rhymes, so even if I am not sure I like the theme of a song, or even the tone of a song, his ability to make words do what he wants them to do, always impresses me. He is an inspiring artist to people who love to create and as I wish I could be a writer, I am floored by how his mind puts words together.

Dinner for Schmucks

2010-08-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

I am not the biggest Jay Roach fan. He directed those horribly over rated Meet the Parents movies and was a producer on Bruno and Borat. However, he also directed the 3 Austin Powers movies and the wonderful HBO movie Recount. This leads me to believe that he has nothing to do with my liking or disliking of a movie. I hate Ben Stiller typically and I like Mike Myers typically. It would make sense I hate Meet the Parents and love Austin Powers. With that reasoning Dinner for Schmucks appeared to be a winner for me. I love Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell makes the most out of even the worst scripts. The original trailer was horrid though. It did not make me laugh at all, but the revamped second trailer looked funnier and my concerns were mostly quelled.

Tim(Rudd) is a man who is living a bit above his means. He loves his girlfriend, but when he proposes to her, she needs more time and Tim is not sure he is good enough for her, so he goes after a promotion at work. He is this close to getting the promotion, but he has hit a snag. His boss and the people on the 7th floor (where Tim wants to be) have a gathering once a month where each person has to bring an idiot and the biggest idiot wins a trophy, but the idiots all think they were invited because they are uniquely talented. Enter Barry(Carrell). Barry is the kind of person who only exists in the movies. He takes dead, stuffed rodents and creates these dioramas out of them. he has created The Last Supper, The Mona Lisa and various other works of art. At his house he has a giant landscape of these stuff rodents. Tim knows Barry would be perfect for this dinner, but Tim's girlfriend is dead set against the idea and makes Tim question whether he should. Through a series of very contrived happenstances, Tim and Barry end up spending the entire day together as Tim wonders if his girlfriend is cheating on him with an artist she is curating for. The Artist, Kieran(Jemaine Clement) sort of eases Tim's fears, but Tim has to decide what is more important to him, his job or his girlfriend.

Paul Rudd is hands down the most likable actor working. You just want everything to work for him. Here he is working very hard to make Tim a little bit not likable, but it is so hard to even believe Tim is anything but a good guy. Rudd's Tim has a quality to him that gives him more of an edge than I would have thought, but he is still a basically nice guy. Rudd is very funny as the straight man in most movies, but here he almost has to work overtime to play the straight man because everything else going on round him is so damn wacky. Even he has to resort to the wackiness in a moment of physical hilarity involving some serious back pain. The problem is, you can see him working hard. Rudd is at his best when the jokes, the looks and the attitude come naturally. The script for this movie is, at times, so awful, you can see the sweat forming as Rudd tries to mine the funny out of the source material.

In fact, that is my biggest issue with the whole movie. You can see everyone working. Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd, Zack Galifinakis and Jemaine Clement are all extremely funny people, so for them to get laughs out of me is not a difficult task, and they accomplish it often, especially Clement's brilliantly spacey performance as a performance artist in love with his own animal sexuality. However, you get the feeling that after every take each man was exhausted from trying so hard to make the movie funny. Galifinakis particularly is working very hard. The role is not written in a very funny. It is mostly just mean, but Zack is working overtime to make it funny. It helps that he is playing off of Carrell, who can find the funny in the most unfunny of places. Carrell has made a career out of playing lovable losers and this is no exception, but there is some depth, some sadness and some real pain thrown into this role. There is also some very real joy in watching Carrell light up as Barry starts talking about his creations.

The movie has plenty of misses though. Every scene involving Lucy Punch as a crazy ex-fling of Tim's falls flat in a massive way. The jokes and the physical comedy are just so out there that I cannot buy them. They do not get laughs, they just get looks of bewilderment. I am not sure if the movie needs to have a 2 hour running time, as it starts to burn off the good will with roughly 20 minutes left and because of the hefty running time, by the time we actually get to the dinner I was kind of worn out. The dinner is not as funny as one would hope with the crazy collection of characters, but that embodies the spirit of the movie. They just throw the wackiest stuff possible at you and hope you find it funny. You get a blind fencer, a woman who claims to be a medium for dead animals, a ventriloquist, Carrell and Galifinakis. It is a kitchen sink scenario big time.

Dinner for Schmucks could have been an absolute disaster if done by any other set of actors probably. Somehow the people involved in this make it work. I laughed more than I thought I would and yes, I did roll my eyes more than I thought I would as well. You do get some wonderful comic moments and I do not want to take away from those gems, but you also have to sit through a ton of unfunny stuff. Jay Roach is probably lucky he got this group of men involved because otherwise, it might have turned out to be just as bad as Meet the Parents.

Final Grade: C

Salt

2010-08-02T11:39:00.001-07:00

This movie made waves before it ever got going on filming. It was set to be Tom Cruise's comeback picture, but he passed on it and Angelina Jolie took over. The part had to be re-written for a woman, and the battle was set for the summer of 2010: Tom Cruise's actual comeback vehicle vs. the one he passed on. I was not really anticipating Salt all that much. I like Jolie in the action genre, but I could not get excited about this particular one. There was no reason for the lack of enthusiasm. In fact, this is usually the kind of movie I get up for. I love espionage action flicks! The trailers were just so "blah." Yet the reviews were mostly positive and that has the ability to swing me one way or the other if I am unsure about a movie. I mean, I probably would have seen it eventually, but with all of these critics saying it was a solid, fun action movie, I ventured out hoping I was not being led astray.

Evelyn Salt(Jolie) is an American Spy with a specialty in Russian spy stuff. When a Russian defector comes in to the office, Salt is charged with finding out if the guy is on the level, or not. The defector tells that a Russian spy is going to kill the Russian President on United States soil during the United States Vice President's funeral. He also tells a story of groups of young kids who were stolen from their parents as kids and turned into killing machines and then planted all over the world with assumed identities and when the time is right, they will all be called upon. Salt smells the B.S, but the defector says the name of the operative and, you guessed it, the operative is Eveyln Salt. From there, the chase is on. Salt is the one being chased and Ted Winter(Liev Schreiber) her friend/boss, and Peabody(Chiwetel Ejiofor) are the ones doing the chasing. Winter believes that Salt is being framed, Peabody does not. With crazy twists and turns hitting every 15 to 20 minutes after that, it would be wrong to divulge anymore of the plot from there.

Salt has a title that lends itself to really bad puns about flavor for critics to put in the headlines of their reviews and it is hard to get away from that for the first little while of watching the movie. You think to yourself, why is her name Salt? Could the writer really not come up with something that was not so silly? However, when you get over that, you settle in and realize you are watching a surprisingly kick ass movie. With old school action stunts, Jolie's winning charm and solid acting performances from Schreiber and Ejiofor, Salt turns out to be a great action movie. From the moment Jolie's Salt goes on the run, through every twist and turn (some awesome, some totally ridiculous) to the even more ridiculous but fun ending, Salt kept my attention and at times put me on the literal edge of my seat. The car chases all have this very old school feel to them and the limited use of CGI effects helps that. Yes, there are explosions, but mostly there are just cars running into each other and this brilliant moment of Jolie stealing a motorcycle to better weave through the traffic. This sequence is one of the best, and the most extended. She is leaping off of trucks, she is running while getting shot at, she drives the motorcycle and dodges oncoming traffic and when this scene comes to an end, you can finally exhale.

I do not want to compare this movie to some movies that I want to mention, but I want people to know what kind of action movie this is. I really got a The Fugitive vibe from this whole movie. The Fugitive worked because it was constantly moving, had a lead who was comfortable in the role and had this wonderful supporting role. It also hearkens back to another Harrison Ford movie, Patriot Games, which was directed by the same man who did this one, Phillip Noyce. These action movies work because they keep the foot on the gas. Yes, there are pauses in the action, but the tension never really goes away once the movie gets going. There are no light hearted jokes once the action gets moving. We do not pull away from the main characters to see what someone else might be doing. No, we watch Jolie on the run for nearly 90 minutes and she handles all of the action stuff wonderfully. She never looks out of place holding weapons, or shooting them and She keeps the mystery alive at every twist. We are never entirely comfortable with Evelyn Salt and that is to Jolie's credit.

The script might have some holes, upon closer examination, but that is the fun of this style of action. it moves too fast to really pay attention to those potential holes. I love the sequence at the church, and how creatively it is set up and the hand held fights, while semi plagued with shaky camera syndrome, look crisp and clean and it is possible to actually see what is going on, which is always a welcome change in action movies. I know we are supposed to feel the action as opposed to seeing, but I like to be able to see Jolie totally kicking ass. The effectiveness of an action movie rests on the action and Salt has great set ups, wonderful execution and it is all shot in ways that allow the audience to actually see what is going on. That is all the important factors.

Salt is not a genre changer, nor is it this wonderfully epic movie that everyone needs to run out and see, but it is a solid action movie. It would have been a wonderful comeback vehicle for Tom Cruise, but Jolie is definitely solid in the role and it helps having pros like Schreiber and Ejiofor handling some of the more tedious work. Your enjoyment of the film may rest on how you handle the 3 or 4 big twists, but I think the action looks good enough that it can overcome twist problems, although I had no problems with the twists, even the more ridiculous ones.

Final Grade: B+

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

2010-07-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

My excitement for this movie is hard to explain. I knew it would be a bad movie. And I think that is mostly why I was so excited. I get that it makes absolutely no sense, but there is something about this awful looking, CGI infected, bad Nic Cage hair having movie that just made me giggle about how bad it could be. It is the absolute worst reason to see a movie, but whatever, it is my life and my money and not yours. Of course, the movie is taken from the Mickey Mouse section of Fantasia and Disney turning movies out of rides and things like that have had success, with Pirates and I think Disney had hoped this movie would on that level. You have the CGI and the big budget director, so why could they not spin gold twice.

Opening in the time of Merlin and quickly jumping to the year 2000 and then again jumping quickly to 2010, we are clearly in need of some exposition. First off, there were 3 apprentice's under Merlin-Balthazar(Cage), Maxim(Alfred Molina), and Veronica(Monica Bellucci). Maxim goes bad and joins Merlin's nemesis helping to kill Merlin. Veronica does a spell that merges herself with the villain and Balthazar captures her in a cute little jar. Balthazar does this to bad sorcerers all through time until he is the last one left, with a dragon bracelet to put on the hand o the true successor of Merlin who can actually kill these evil guys, not just trap them. In 2000, a young boy, David, stumbles into a magic shop where Balthazar works. Balthazar gives the boy the dragon thingy and it works, but quickly, David breaks something and lets out Maxim. Maxim and Balthazar fight, get trapped and we jump to 2010 where David(Jay Baruchel) is a total science nerd. He loves physics and cannot get a girl. Maxim and Balthazar get free and go after David. Turns out David is the heir to Merlin's power and he must defeat everything thrown at him. David buys into the idea pretty quickly, but does not buy into himself. He is self loathing, a dork and a loser. He meets a hot girl, Becky(Teresa Palmer) who helps him find his confidence, but will it ever be enough to defeat the evils of the supernatural world?

There is a lot lacking in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. This probably does not shock anyone, but the stuff that is lacking is the stuff I was hoping to find. The movie is too small. There are action sequences to be sure, but it just feels too small. There is too much time spent on the romance, or even the training and not enough on the fact that these guys shoot plasma balls and fire balls. Yes, there is a giant steel eagle that pops up, but it is not used enough, along with the giant bull they are thrown away in favor of story!! Boring! I mean it would be fine if the story was great, but I just wanted action because who cares about the story?

I liked some of the stuff, like the scenes where David is working on his physics stuff and we get these electric wave lengths that give off sound and David uses them to create music for Becky. It is a charming moment and Jay is a charming young actor. He is from the Michael Cera school of charm, but it works for him, Teresa Palmer is far too hot for him, but she does not play Becky shallow in any way shape or form, so in a weird way the whole thing works between them. With Jay and Mr. Cage, though, that is a whole other story. In my opinion, I wanted Cage to be bigger, crazier and more obnoxious. He is too subtle in this role. He is playing a sorcerer who is thousands of years old, but he is far too serious. Lighten up man!

I really do not have much else to say about the movie. It was harmless, and the CGI was pretty good, but I just was not invested in it at all. It was on the screen for a while, I watched it and when it was over, I felt like I was already starting to forget the experience. There is just nothing memorable here. I liked some of the nods to the original section of movie, from which the movie comes, and Alfred Molina playing a villain is always fun, but even he was too serious. It just felt like they all forgot they were making a big fun summer movie.

Final Grade: D

Cyrus

2010-07-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

There is this very small movement in film that has been called Mumblecore. Essentially it is very very very low budget film making where the camera work is very shaky and intimate and the actors typically create the dialog on the spot. Most of the movies involve (That I have seen) involve very articulate characters who just have no idea what they are doing in their lives and like to talk it out with friends. The movies are typically very short, feature very little to no music and to be honest, the movies have a very limited appeal. I have seen 4 or 5 of them at this point(Thanks to Netflix streaming) and have managed to enjoy 2 of them. I mention this because Cyrus was written and directed by a pair of brothers who got started in Mumblecore. And your appreciation of Cyrus might rest on what you think of Mumblecore.

John(John C Reilly) is one of those guys who just cannot seem to get his shit together. 7 years ago he got divorced and it still eats at him. His ex-wife, Jamie(Catherine Keener) still puts up with him and clearly thinks if he could get his act together he could find someone. Jamie is getting married again, and John is not coping well, but Jamie tells him to get out and meet someone and even invites him to a party and gives him Vodka and Red Bull and sets him into the wild. John, trying to be open and vulnerable, opens up far too much to a random girl on a couch. Towards the end of the night as John is peeing into a bush he meets this beautiful, if a bit damaged, Molly(Marisa Tomei) who overheard his earlier rantings to the random couch girl and for some reason she loved the honesty of it. John takes her home and she leaves before morning. John and Molly hit it off, but Molly's refusal to stay the night worries John so one time he follows her. He falls asleep in the car and wakes up the next morning and skulks around her house to discover she has a grown son, Cyrus(Jonah Hill). Cyrus comes off as a very pleasant young man, but something does seem disingenuous about him. Also, Molly and Cyrus have a very co-dependant, borderline creepy relationship. As John and Molly get closer, Cyrus starts to get passive aggressive to destroy the relationship and John can see what is happening, but Molly is oblivious to thinking her son could be anything other than sweet.

Mumblecore with a budget, as it turns out, is kind of sweet. Cyrus does not supply the kind of laughs you are led to believe it will from the trailer or even the reviews. In fact, I would not even really call the movie a comedy. Yes, there are laughs to be found, especially in the awkwardness of the early interactions between Molly, John and Cyrus, but the laughs really take a back seat about half way through. That is not to say the movie is not good, but I went in expecting one thing and did not get that thing. Reilly and Hill are both capable of great laughs and they are funny in the movie, but it is not really laugh out loud kind of humor. It is more of a snicker to yourself kind of humor. The film making is just too intimate to really laugh hysterically. The camera work is too close for us to feel comfortable laughing too much, like the characters will hear us laughing at them and get even more uncomfortable.

Beyond the awkward and uncomfortable laughs, there is this great story being told, a story about trying to find love at over 40, a story about a young man who has no idea how to react to a massive change in his life and a story about a woman who is trying to balance a man and her son. The 3 actors-Reilly, Hill and Tomei- all have great chemistry with the each other and all are totally believable in their roles. Tomei has blossomed into a gorgeously damaged actress who you believe could fall in love with people like Reilly. Reilly is such a wonderful actor and he plays puppy-dog in love quite well. he is subtle here, which works wonders for the Mumblecore style of film making. He is, of course, well adept at playing lovable losers, but in Cyrus, I really rooted for him. I felt him from beginning to end. He was a loser, yes, but I really saw the potential of this man to do something better, if he felt he had something to believe in. Hill, well I have been saying for a little while that I wanted to see Hill tread into the darker sides of comedy. With Cyrus he creates a character who is dark and twisted, but more than anything he is a pathetic and sad character and I thought Hill really "got it." He is funny and he does have the standard Jonah Hill-isms, but there is something deeper lurking beneath the surface.

The final 45 minutes of this movie really turn up the drama and I think the movie is better for it. I think the movie makes the turn at the exact right moment and I think the way it all comes to a head makes perfect sense. I think the showdowns between Hill and Reilly give the movie this sense of urgency and make that Mumblecore style of shooting a movie bearable. The shaky camera work is hit and miss all of the time, but in such a small intimate movie, it becomes even more so. The weird angles and constant bobbing of the camera has a tendency to get overwhelming and entirely too distracting, but in this style of making movies, they are a staple because they lend to the low budget feel of the film. However, one aspect that is quite excellent in this particular movie is the zoom feature of the camera. The camera is zooming in and out at these seemingly random intervals, but they really capture a specific mood, or facial expression, and because the camera zooms quickly in and then quickly out, it acts as almost like a bold print, as in, pay closer attention to that moment. It may be a kind of small detail to some, but for whatever, I caught it in this film and it really enhanced my viewing experience.

I have no idea if this script was written or if it was concocted by the people on set, but Cyrus does have a very natural feel to it. It is awkward and uncomfortable and while never truly rises to laugh out loud comedy, it provides a lot of solid moments. I liked the quiet desperation all of the actors gave in their performances and if Mumblecore with a budget is going to turn out this kind of hybrid of comedy and drama, I am in. It does take the right kind of actors to make something like this project work and here, they lucked out and got 3 people who are wonderfully suited for this and it helps make the movie work pretty well.

Final Grade: B-

Despicable Me

2010-07-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

This is one of those movies I never really had much of a desire to see. I never paid close attention to the trailers nor was I interested in doing so. I kept confusing this movie with Megamind, a similar movie that comes out later this year. One had Steve Carrell and one had Will Ferrell and I could not be bothered to tell them apart. What eventually drew me into watching it, besides a free ticket and desire to get out of the house, was the opinion of a few friends who told me the movie was a a nice distraction and that it made them smile. With my own smiles in short supply, I thought I would give it all a shot.

Someone has stolen the Pyramids and replaced them with a blow-up version of them. Could a new super villain just have made his mark? Will the reigning super villain, Gru(Carrell) be dropped to number 2? It just may be. However, Gru has a plan that will change it all. He is going to steal a shrink ray, shoot himself to the moon, shrink it and then steal it and hold it for ransom. The problem is, Gru is not at the top of his game, his cohort is nearing 100yrs old and all of his little minions seem far more interested in being ridiculously cute than anything else. Plus, the new super villain, Vector, is younger, faster and far more advanced, with an impenetrable fortress, at least impenetrable to Gru. Vector appears to have a weakness for Girl Scout cookies. Gru sees this opportunity as a chance for him to get into Vector's palace and take the shrink ray. In order to do so, Gru has to adopt the girls who sold Vector the cookies. Gru just wants to use the girls, but in true animated movie fashion, he starts to feel for them because, well they make him laugh. He has a wonderful day at the amusement park with them and slowly becomes attached to them, mostly the little baby girl because she loves unicorns and it just adorable. The girls are in a ballet class, but their recital is the same day as Gru's moon launch and with pressure from the Evil bank and his cohort, whatever will Gru do?

Despicable Me is a sweet, adorable little movie that seems perfectly suited for the word cute. I am typically against the word cute in describing a movie. it is a word people use in absence of a real opinion. It is what people say for Romantic Comedies that were boring, but not horribly so. They use them for children's movies where they do not have a real opinion. When someone calls a movie "cute" I typically write off that movie. It is hard to avoid that word when talking about Despicable Me, though. First, you have these tiny yellow minions who speak in beeps and some sort of spoken Morse code with these adorable voices and they are all essentially precocious little children in yellow form. Then, you have the little children, one of which is a baby obsessed with unicorns. But if that is not enough, they give the little baby girl a fluffy stuffed unicorn and it is impossible not to think it is cute as she yells out with glee "It's so FLUFFY!!"

Steve Carrell is both funny and charming as the lovable loser super villain and Jason Segal is at times, obnoxious and at times totally rad man. The two guys only have a few scenes together but their completely different approaches to the movie blend perfectly. Segal has ramped up his energy level, whereas Carrell has lowered his. Carrell's odd accent does not ever get annoying, when I thought it would and in fact, there are times when I found things funny solely because of that accent. The other voices are provided by pretty funny people, but they do not enhance the story at all really. In fact, I could have done with anybody reading those lines and probably get the same idea.

It is hard to judge the animation because the last animated movie I saw was Toy Story 3 and Pixar is so far ahead of anyone else, it kind of is not fair. The animation here is nice. I really liked the look of the amusement park, and shooting it often in First Person point of view was a nice touch. The characters all had very distinct looks that perfectly suited the individual personalities, which is a nice plus for the idea of animation. They can make characters look exactly how they want and in a way that we understand why their personalities are that way. There is only one real action sequence and it looks fine. It is not super thrilling and I have seen far better looking scenes in recent animation, but the movie holds onto the cuteness factor all the way through.

Despicable Me is nothing special, but it has caught on with the general audience and I think that cuteness factor is a big reason. It is a nice safe family choice to see a movie. It will not challenge your emotions the way the last few Pixar movies have, but it is not dumb like so many of the Dreamworks movies are. It does not go into this weird Kubrickian place the way Happy Feet(My favorite non Pixar comedy of the last 6 or 7 years) does, and maybe it is better for it. it relies on the minions, the cute little girl and Steve Carrell's charming almost father role. I cannot fault it for that and when the movie was over, I did have a smile on my face, so I got exactly what I hoped to get from it. There is something to be said for that.

Final Grade: B-

Predators

2010-07-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of Predator. I am also a fan of Alien Vs. Predators 2. You can toss anything else involving the Predator creatures away because the rest of it just sucks. When I read Robert Rodriguez' journal about getting El Mariachi and Desperado made, I remember reading about a treatment he once had to revitalize The Predator series. I thought it would be a good project for him. Apparently someone at FOX thought the same thing, only what, 15 years later? At this point, Rodriguez was not as interested in directing the film, but he wanted to produce it and have a say in how it went, so his Troublemaker production company took the major producing credit and Rodriguez picked Nimrod Antal to direct. Antal had previously directed 2 American, 1 excellent(Vacancy) and 1 not so excellent(Armored). I was still excited about the idea.

With a story very close to The World's Most Dangerous Game, People are set on an island and then promptly hunted. Why? Well that is never entirely clear. This particular island happens to be on another planet and the hunters happen to be crazy alien creatures. The humans are some of the most vicious killers/predators on the planet and they are not friendly. We have Royce(Adrien Brody), a former black ops military guy, Isabelle(Alice Braga) also some sort of mercenary. Then there is a Japanese mobster, a Mexican thug, Russian mercenary, Death row inmate, an African rebel and randomly a scrawny, wimpy doctor(Topher Grace), who is there seemingly just to provide us with comic relief, and maybe to patch up our humans. This band of multi colored human beings must somehow band together and stay alive against these creatures who adapt very quickly and have awesome weapons and a cloaking ability. Pretty basic stuff.

Predators is a bit too talky, but when the action gets going, it really worked for me. Too much time is spent in exposition, considering we get a crazy EXPOSITION MAN(E.M) character in the form of Laurence Fishbourne. For those of you not well versed in Kyle movie lingo. The Exposition Man character is one who exists solely to tell us what is going on. In horror movies like this, he is usually a minority and usually he is crazy. In this movie he is both. Yet even with E.M, the characters also give much expository dialog, which always brings the movie to a screeching halt. There had to be a way to have maximum amount of action, and use E.M more to give us the information we need without all of the other dialog. It is a script pet peeve of mine to have too many people explaining what is going on. One or two characters is all we need to get what is happening.

It is kind of a minor complaint because the action is totally awesome. I remember being worried that Brody was not bad ass enough to carry a picture like this, but he is. He worked out, clearly, but more importantly, Brody has always projected himself to be an actor who is always thinking and to play a Black-ops guy, he has to use that and it works completely. I believed him as a strategist and if you needed help buying the baddassery, Brody spends a majority of the movie with a giant gun in his hands. Could that be overcompensating? Maybe, but it is awesome. The weaponry all the way around is totally sick. The Predators have these cool blasters and the humans have all sorts of guns they can use to blow away the little pig like creatures in the first cool action sequence and then hopefully to kill the predators.

Predators is not a remake, or reboot, it is another movie in the canon of Predator movies. It references the original film and it is a nice addition to the world. The movie opens in this awesome moment, of someone(Broady) falling out of the sky and waking up and opening his parachute. It is a wonderfully claustrophobic moment and sets the tone perfectly. The jungle looks amazing and it is utilized well, as the characters move all over the place throughout the jungle, so we get a very good sense of geography, which is important for this type of film. The predators look great, although Megan, my movie going companion does a wicked impression of the predators and made them less scary because of it. The climatic fight between Brody and the last standing Predator is totally kick ass, but I tend to think any fight that takes place around a ring of fire, is pretty kick ass. I also enjoyed the little twist towards the end. It kind of came from nowhere, but I am sure it makes sense if you go back and watch again. It is not going to start trends in action movies, but Predators packs enough of a punch that it kept me entertained.

Final Grade: C+

Splice

2010-07-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Small budget horror movies in the middle of summer can reap wonderful rewards for the audience. If you need an example, I point to The Strangers. It was this wonderfully creepy horror movie in the middle of the superheroes, boy wizards and transforming robots. Now, Splice did not come out looking specifically like a horror movie. If you can excuse the pun, it looked like a hybrid, a splicing of the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres, but undoubtedly it looked interesting. We had it at our theater for a few weeks and it took me a while to get to it, but everyone coming out of the film talked about how weird it got. This intrigued me because the premise was already weird, so for it to get more weird, what would have to happen? This was the biggest question on my mind when I finally watched Splice.

Elsa(Sarah Polley) and Clive(Adrien Brody) are rebellious scientists who get on the cover of magazines for their cutting edge working styles and research subjects. They have created hybrid animals that will hopefully be used to treat human illnesses and diseases. However, these two young, rock star scientists want more. They want to go outside of moral, ethic and legal boundaries and splice together human and animal genes, just to see what would happen. Thus Dren (Yes, Nerd backwards) is created. At first, they just want to see if they can bring the creature to term, but Elsa becomes attached to it and soon, they are caring for this hybrid creature. Dren grows at a rapid rate and keeping her under wraps becomes increasingly difficult. Clive and Elsa both grow to care about Dren, but Elsa harbors a secret past and her crazy tendencies start to show as she tries to be a mother to this creature, so Clive takes a more nurturing role.

That plot synopsis may not be one of my better ones, but even writing about this movie brings back the feelings of just how damn weird and uncomfortable it got. There is a scene fairly early on when Else and Clive start to have sex on a couch, with Dren sleeping near them and Dren wakes up and watches. Clive sees her watching, but he cannot stop himself from sexing his girlfriend. It was at this moment, that I thought "Oh no...this is going to get strange." But I was not even prepared for the fucked up nature of this nonsense. The movie gets so bizarre that it negated what was a pretty damn good movie. Now, I am all for movies that just go there but this just took me so far out of the movie and just when I thought the weirdness was at a peak, it would twist out again. There are no less than 4 weird twists in the final 35 minutes that I just threw my hands up in the air and gave up.

However, up until that point, I was totally engaged. Splice is not a scary movie. It does not offer cheap jumps, or real jumps save 1 or 2 moments. The opening P.O.V shot of something being born/hatched/created totally put me right in the movie and was such a great way to start and from there the movie builds a lot of interesting tension. I was never scared, but I was often on the verge of being scared. I kept waiting for the jump and I kind of liked that anticipation of being scared. The effects of Dren are slick and gross, but not overly gross, until the movie goes batshit crazy. I liked the way Dren moved, very chicken like in her younger forms and I thought Brody and Polley were believable as these sort of renegade scientists. There is cool montage scene set to cool music that really sets the film up and I was excited for where it was going.

My disappointment in the final half hour was made more grand by the fact that I was so very much enjoying the movie up until that moment, and I knew, I just knew that moment was coming, but I was hoping the film maker was going to somehow avoid it. he did not. He wasted all of this tension, all of these interesting shots, and effects and this great use of light and shadows, for some cheap gross out moments, a completely disgusting rape and this horrid end. Yet, I got the very of the movie. I actually understood that is how the character would react in that situation, but the fact that the writer/director thought of putting Elsa in that situation just got to me.

I want so desperately to recommend Splice because of the fantastic first 75 minutes or so, but I cannot do it. It just took it to a place that ruined the entire experience for me. It was like having really great sex and before you can finish, your partner rips off her skin and is a reptile and instead of remembering how great the sex was, you remember you had sex with a reptile. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Final Grade: D

Toy Story 3(spoilers)

2010-07-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Very few movies bring out the child in me like Toy Story or Toy Story 2. What kid did not wonder if his/her toys came to life when left alone? When Toy Story came out, yes, the animation was groundbreaking, but it was also about the story of unbreakable friendship. This theme carried through Toy Story two and I figured it would carry through Toy Story 3 as well. Pixar raised the level of story telling, not just in animation but in film making. Their string of hits feels unprecedented for a studio, or for any part of movie making. And it all began with a group of toys belonging to a young boy with a wild imagination. When I first heard Toy Story was adding a third chapter, I was a little bit concerned because it had been so long and I did not want to watch my favorite toys in something not worthy of them. When the first trailer came out, all of my worries were eased, just by seeing Woody, Buzz and the gang on screen again. I went in to the film having no doubts about how good it would be and in the process realized doubting Pixar was just stupid!

Our favorite toys are in some trouble as Andy, their owner, is heading off to college and they have no idea what comes next. They have not been played with for years and fear they are headed for the trash. Woody tries to calm their fears by telling them they will go to the attic and there they can live together and play together until Andy has kids and maybe, just maybe, they will be played with again. After a bag mix up, the toys end up in a daycare and at first it looks like the perfect place for them. However, Woody refuses to stay and finds away to escape, only to end up in the backpack of a young girl. At the daycare, our favorite gang of toys, meet a few new toys including Ken, of Barbie and Ken fame. Quickly, though, the daycare turns from dream to nightmare when our toys are placed with kids who have no business playing with toys. Buzz goes out to investigate and stumbles onto a conspiracy of toys. It turns out the Lotsa Hugs Teddy Bear runs his toy rooms like a prison and our gang of toys are prisoners. The bad gang of toys reprogram Buzz to help them enforce the prison rules and all looks hopeless for our toys. Meanwhile, Woody meets some new toys, and hears a horror story about the daycare center and realizes he needs to save his friends, more than he needs to get back home to go to college with Andy. From here Toy Story 3 transitions into a combination of film noir, prison break movie and absurdist comedy.

Somehow Toy Story 3 managed to bring tears to my eyes in two different ways. For the first 90 minutes, it is one of the funniest, most clever Pixar movies and then, just when you think it is too funny to make you feel emotional, it gets you at your core. I was so relieved that it was so funny because it meant I would not have water works the way I did during Wall-E and UP. But the second the toys think they have reached the end of their corporeal journey and join together, I started to tear up and then, in the final scene, I just lost it completely. Pixar truly has done it again. They tell a genuinely great story in an interesting fashion all while making it look excellent. Woody's movements are still jerky and hilarious, but they look more clean. Buzz's big wide, vacant eyes are just as great as I remember and everyone else is the same way. Of the new characters, Big Baby looks scary as hell and being a walking talking baby toy does not help my fear of creepy moving dolls!

However, I do not want to give off the impression that Toy Story 3 is just this silly frivolity that manufactures tears in the end. Toy Story 3 is a movie that crosses genres with such ease that you would think Tarantino had something to do with it. The movie opens with this epic Western/Sci-Fi action sequence with exploding train tracks, a dinosaur, force fields and Woody and Buzz saving the day, maybe. From there the movie gives us all of these great film styles and mixes them together to really please anyone. If you want a goofy comedy, you get Spanish Buzz Lightyear, which as funny as it is in the trailer, it is a million times funnier in the actual movie. if you want ridiculous over-the-top comedy, there is a bit involving Mr. Potato Head, a tortilla and a pickle that will just slay you. But then, there are these great action sequences and these great moments of pensive thought and this gorgeously dark sequence involving voice over narration from a clown toy while we see a flashback. There is a car who talks like he stepped out of a 1940 noir film and the extended, very thrilling prison break scene that somehow manages to combine all of those elements in a 10 minute span.

I remember loving Toy Story 2 because, in essence, Woody gave up eternal life to go back to his life with Andy. Toy Story 3 has a sort of similar theme, but in a different way. For 3 movies we watched these toys stay together, get each other out of trouble and bond in very real ways, but the overarching idea was that they were Andy's toys. They belonged to him and he was what kept them together. In this movie, the toys realize, what I feel like we have known all along: They are what keeps them together. It is the friendships they forged through years of being together that makes them all what they are. Woody needs Buzz, and Mr. Potato Head needs Piggy Bank and so on. The characters may be the last to realize that and it may take a near death experience to realize it, but the moment they all get it really makes the wait worth it.

Toy Story 3 is hilarious, genuinely touching, thrilling, action packed and thought provoking all within a two hour time frame. It is another notch for Pixar to hang their very high flag on. It gives us what we love about the characters and adds to the world Pixar first created that began this remarkable run. It features amazing voice acting (especially Michael Keaton as Ken) and is just a great time for everyone. I laughed a lot and I also cried heavy heavy tears and the tears were there the second viewing as well. I did not bother with 3D, but when a movie resonates this much, it is not about the spectacle, it is about the heart and Toy Story, thankfully, wears its heart on its sleeve. I cannot imagine this movie will be anywhere but my top 5 for the year when the year comes to an end.

Final Grade: A+

Knight and Day

2010-06-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

I could go on this little diatribe about the raw deal Tom Cruise got, but whatever. Dude was in love with a 25 year old, jumped on a couch, then made some stupid comments in the name of his bizarre religion. He rubbed people the wrong way and because of it he became a punchline. He has not starred in a movie in a few years and to be honest, I have missed him. Cruise was a movie star. He could do the big action picture and still make thoughtful dramas and get nominated for awards. He has a winning smile and has made quite a few good to great movies. There was a lot written about what his first project back would be. He was circling 4 movies at one point, including Salt, which now stars Angelina Jolie, but ultimately landed with Knight and Day. He was re teaming with Cameron Diaz for an action comedy that looked kind of like a throw back film. Of course, a big problem came when Killers looked just like Knight and Day, but with younger and hotter talent. That being said, I was relatively excited about the prospect of Tom Cruise toplining a summer action movie again.

June Havens(Diaz) and Roy Miller(Cruise) appear to randomly bump into each other at an airport and then they do it again right before they get on the flight. After some doing, Havens and Miller end up on the same flight, and Havens believes there must be reason and she wants to make her move, so she goes to the bathroom to pep herself up and while she does that, Miller disarms an entire flight of CIA agents trying to kill him. Miller tries to explain to Havens what is going on and while she thinks he is kidding, Miller lands the plane and knocks Havens out. However, Miller and Havens are not through with each other as Miller feels obligated to protect her, but the CIA is spinning a story about how Miller is a crazy agent who went off his mission to crazy town. It is not difficult to believe the CIA, but Havens is drawn to Miller. He is charming, extremely cool under pressure and has a way out of everything. He is carrying this self charging battery that could power entire cities and he thinks one of the CIA agents is dirty, so he is keeping it safe while trying to keep Havens safe.

Knight and Day is a pretty mixed bag, but for the first hour, the action and comedy work pretty well. Cruise wears the role of a light hearted spy like a comfortable pair of jeans and he is clearly having a good time with the jokes. He and Diaz have a nice friendly chemistry, which works for and against the movie and the action stunts are all done with this knowing tone, like everyone involved knows it is all just ridiculous and that makes everything more fun. Cruise still has that movie star look and he carries that movie star arrogance proudly, but he sometimes looks like he is trying too hard, like maybe this was not exactly the right vehicle for him to use as his comeback picture. I know he was looking for something light hearted and action packed, but there is something old about how this movie plays out.

That being said, I did have some fun with the first half of the film. I enjoyed the set and the breezy way the action was filmed and the general tone of the film. Diaz and Cruise have some great moments in that time, including a better than average meetcute that lasts through the plane crash and I wanted the relationship to stay in that area, but the movie tries too hard to shoehorn a romance between the characters and I just did not really buy into the idea that they could be in love. I could buy the flirty opening and some of the lighter things, but once there was a sweeping shot lit perfectly with them kissing, I was over it. They did nothing to earn that moment to me. Yes, they deserved a few of the funnier romantic moments, but the movie did nothing to me to think they deserved such gorgeous looking frame up for a kiss.

Another problem that started as an interesting moment was how the action was almost always told from Diaz's point of view. The first big action sequence we only get glimpses of it the way she does as she comes in and out of being drugged up. At first, it seems like a really interesting way to move the story along and it actually provides some funny moments that help the tone of the film, but as the movie goes on, I kind of wanted to get a more grand scope of the action. I wanted it more from a 3rd person view, like have the camera pull further out and let me really see what was going on. By committing to the idea that she is out POV character, the director handcuffs himself into that idea throughout the film. There was potential for some better stunts, but we only got glimpses of the daring escapes and chases.

Knight and Day is pretty messy and it ultimately does not deliver enough laughs or explosions to make the full movie experience worth it and as a romantic venture it fails even more. Diaz still has these gorgeous blue eyes and she can pratfall well, but something just seemed off. The entire thing was trying too hard to be too much and it end sup not being enough of anything. The comedy goes away to give way to a love story, Cruise is trying to regain what he had, only to falter because he is trying so hard. It is clear the movie had multiple rewrites and even reshoots because of just how messy it is. And it is not better than Killers released a month ago with the same tone and general story.

Final Grade: C-

The Karate Kid (2010)

2010-06-17T15:16:00.001-07:00

When I first heard of this remake, I got concerned. Not because I have these romantic notions that the original is this amazing movie that should not be touched, but because I thought it was a weird choice for Jaden Smith's first starring role. The kid did well in his first two movies- The Pursuit of Happyness and The Day the Earth Stood Still- but to pin his starring hopes on a remake no one really wanted seemed like a dangerous proposition for the budding star. I think often we, as movie fans, decide the movies we grew up loving are better than they really are. The Karate Kid is a cool movie, but no remake is going to ruin my childhood, nor do I think The Karate Kid was this experience that should not be messed with. In fact, karate movies should come back. I want another Three Ninjas and Surf Ninjas as well. I know we are in an age of street fighting/Mixed Martial Arts, but the Martial Arts are a fascinating study of control and ass kicking and why shouldn't we have more movies balancing the two? Plus the first time I saw the trailer, I thought that 12 or 13 year old Kyle would be all over it!

For somewhat unspecified work related issues Sherry and Dre Parker(Taraji P. Henson and Jaden Smith respectively) are moving to China. Dre's father is dead and he is not a bad kid, just hardened. His first day in China he meets a friend, a girl and an enemy. It was a big first day! At school his enemy tortures him, and eventually Dre just starts hiding. He wants to learn martial arts, but the big martial arts school is where the bully learned all of his tricks. After a serious confrontation with 6 bullies, Mr. Han(Jackie Chan) agrees to teach Dre Kung-Fu in order for Dre to compete in a Kung-Fu tournament and get these bullies off of Dre's back. Dre is an attentive student, but he rarely sees the point of the discipline minded activities Han gives him, like making him take off, pick up and hang up his jacket thousands of times. To Mr. Han "Everything is Kung-Fu." The young Dre's attention is not fully on Kung-Fu as he starts a romance with an adorable little Chinese girl, but she is a violinist and as their budding romance takes her away from her practicing she is forbidden to see Dre. Will this underdog be able to win the tournament? Will Mr. Han find redemption in this young kid? Who knows?!?!?!

Jaden Smith will be a star for decades to come if he plays his cards right. He has this amazing pedigree, yes, but he also has instincts. he carries the heft of this overly long movie and he is up to the challenge. He is quietly charming, the way his father, Will, is outwardly charming. The young Smith finds that not saying something is, at times, the right way to act. He spends a lot of time quietly contemplating Dre's next move or anticipating Han's next move. He is a talented kid and he very much impressed me in this movie. He also seems to be void of vanity and as a young actor, that is priceless. He had absolutely no reason to play a character who gets beat up over and over again and is forced to cry and scream about hating his life and Jaden allows us to fully understand how hopeless the kid feels. He is not afraid to let his Dre very much hide from danger without making Dre feel too weak. We never call Dre names because we understand because Jaden makes us understand with his face.

The movie is surprisingly good, too. The beginning has a nice mix of action and humor, with Jaden getting a chance to show just how charming he can be, but the very first time we see Jaden get beat up is brutal. I mean the movie is hard hitting in the action. We see, hear and feel every hit, kick and every time Jaden hits the pavement. I actually flinched in a PG movie a few times. This has to be on the verge of PG13, that is how brutal the action is for a family film. It was nearly shocking how brutal it is. Jackie Chan does very little fighting, but he has slid into the mentor role nicely. He wears it the way his Mr. Han wears a rundown baseball cap, presumably to hide himself from his shame. His Han lacks the usual Jackie Chan joy, which made Han much more believable. As Chan is less able to do all of his crazy stunts with age, I much prefer him in this type of role to the crazy goofy kid comedies he is doing. Henson does not have much to do but be the overly worried, overly sassy mother, but she is a talented actress and fills the role well.

At the running time reaching nearly 2 and a half hours, The Karate Kid is just too bloated. Much of the romantic side plot could have been cut and perhaps 1 of the training montages could have been trimmed a bit. By the time we get to the tournament, the movie starts to try the patience of the audience. Now, the tournament is very cool. Again, the action is more brutal than I would have guessed and the nods to the tournament in the original are nice, if a little pandering and there is never a question as to what is going to happen, but I went with it. I knew the ending was coming and it still got me all into it. I wanted to see what was going to happen, even though I could have drawn exactly what was going to happen. Also, there is a whole lot of obnoxious shaky camera that does not serve much of a point. Not everyone needs to use it just because they can.

When it comes to underdog stories, the climax is never the defining feature. There are only two ways for it to go, either the underdog wins, or he loses but learns something valuable and gains the respect of the favorite. it is what the movie does before it gets there that makes a movie, and The Karate Kid offers enough good stuff to make it worth it. The emotional climax with Chan and the young Mr. Smith hits the right notes and shows range for Chan, but it also shows that Jaden knows what he is doing on screen. These are two actors and characters that require the other to reach the goal. They need each other, whereas it seems like Dre needs Han. So, besides a bloated midsection, I was pleasantly surprised by The Karate Kid. The world is in Jaden's hands and I am excited to see the kind of actor he will become, because he really has all the tools to do a lot of very strong work.

Final Grade: B+

The A-Team

2010-06-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Anyone who was with me in a theater when the trailer for this movie came on can attest to the fact that I was AMPED for this movie. It defined summer movies for me, without the female sex appeal. It looked funny, goofy, ridiculous, overblown and 100% pure octane AWESOME! The trailer was 150 seconds of pure summer movie glee and I was buying into every damn second of it. A tank falling out of the sky? Why the hell not! Bradley Cooper in all of his smug glory mixed with Liam Neeson and all of his badassery? Bring it on!! I do not care about complaints that it would not be like the television show or that the movie looked too ridiculous. I had a "Screw you" attitude towards anyone who tried to talk me out of my excitement. My excitement would not be quelled! I was so excited I went to a midnight screening! However, with such expectations could it possibly live up? Should I stop ending my first paragraphs with a leading question meant to force you to read on?

The A-Team is a team of Army Rangers who do missions together until they commit some crime and are forced to live outside of the law to avoid jail. The idea is pretty basic, but here is an origin story. Hannibal(Neeson) is a man being tortured and left for dead, but he is left unsupervised which is not good, because Hannibal is a grade A bad ass and the opening scene proves it. He rushes out of his jam to head to save his fellow ranger Templeton "Face" Peck(Cooper) who is in a jam because he bedded the wrong woman. On his way to save Face, Hannibal runs into a big black man with an attitude problem, B.A.(Quinton Jackson), who also happen to be a ranger, so he enlists his help and after the rescue, the 3 men find Murdock(Sharlto Copley) who is a helicopter pilot for the Rangers who helps them escape. Thus forms our A-Team. Cut to a few years later, the team has been in the middle east helping us win the war, and they are on their way out when they get one more mission to stop some counterfeiting. Something goes wrong and they are accused, tried and convicted of a few crimes. They break out of jail and attempt to follow, Lynch(Patirck Wilson) to figure out what happened, all while being chased by Charisa Sosa(Jessica Biel), a C.I.A agent with a past that involved Face.

Jessica Biel's character has a line in this movie that sums it up pretty well. In describing the team she says "And they specialize in the ridiculous." The A-Team specializes in the ridiculous, much to the delight of this movie fan. The wonderful opening sequence involves Liam Neeson in the shadows taking off handcuffs and cuffing two dogs together, Neeson shooting B.A in the shoulder and features Cooper rolling down a hill in a bunch of tires. From there the movie just gets crazier. The helicopter rescues is thrilling, but also with a sense of humor, which kind of also describes the movie. Everyone involved knows everything they are doing is ridiculous, but they all have this kind of childlike joy attached to their faces that they get "it." They know they are involved in shenanigans and it allows us to just sit back and enjoy it.

Cooper is clearly having all kinds of fun playing up how smug he can be, but in this movie, as opposed to so many others, his smugness is likability charming. He is also shirtless for roughly 50% of his screen time which does not hurt his likability. The only one who might be having more fun is Copley. Fresh off of his turn in the surprisingly successful District 9, Copley is a relative newcomer, but if he throws himself into every role like he has done in this movie, he is going to be a strong character actor for a long time. His crazy Murdock is a funny interesting character study. He has great chemistry with all of the other actors and he understands perfectly what kind of movie this is. Neeson continues his strong grief fueled work. He is a hard working actor working through tremendous grief from the death of his wife, but in this movie he lets loose a bit. He has that edge from Taken, but he lightens up. He looks so much like the television version of his character and he gruffly delivers all of the great lines and he makes a perfect leader. The biggest concern was, of course, Quinton Jackson filling in for Mr. T. Jackson is not an actor, but he fills in for Mr. T pretty well. His line delivery is not as goofy as Mr. T, but He is a tough dude and the camera likes him. He could probably turn into a decent action star if he wants.

Joe Carnahan, a director whose career trajectory has been all over the place, wrote and directed the wonderfully violent Smokin' Aces, so there is not doubt the guy knows how to shoot violence. What he also knows how to do is add a lightness of touch. He does not force anything. He is a good field general and knows how to shoot an action sequence. The climatic action sequence is a dazzling spectacle that required a lot of explosions, multiple cameras, a few fights and a slight of hand, in the scene and in the execution of said scene and Carnahan does not let it overpower him. He knows how much of everything he wants and because of that the climax is wonderfully executed and plays very well. Things blow up the way we want them to, people get punched in the face, guns are unloaded and cars driven just the way an action sequence should go.

But, if everything else had sucked, the movie would have been worth it for a sequence where they fly a tank. Yes, they fly a tank. They are in a plane, that get shot down, but they all get in the tank and as they are dropping in a parachuted tank, the parachute gets damaged and to save themselves and to shoot down the planes, Cooper goes to the gun of the tank and starts shooting!! A tank is falling out of the sky and he starts shooting planes, then, in order to crash into water, Cooper has to shoot the cannon in different directions so the tank moves with the force of the cannon. Yes, the manipulate a falling TANK so they can crash land in a nicer spot!! Of course, it is stupid, but it is such glorious fun and Cooper plays it so perfectly that all you can do is laugh and enjoy watching a tank being flown.

The movie fills in gaps from the show like why B.A hates flying and why he has such hatred for Murdock, and there is a wonderful scene after the credits which gives the television show fans something to get giddy over, but it also offers enough for people who just like fun movies. Sure, it is full of holes and at times the dialog and the plot are a little ridiculous and I wish Patrick Wilson had more to do, but who cares when everyone was having such a damn good time! No one is going to confuse this movie with great cinema, but in the middle of summer, I just want some fun and The A-Team has fun in almost every scene.

Final Grade: B+

Get him to the Greek

2010-06-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is one of my favorite comedies of the last few years. It was kind of unexpectedly brilliant and honest. Plus it featured a Dracula musical with puppets. It is tough to beat that. When I heard they were spinning off Russell Brand's Aldous Snow character, I was concerned, but with Nicolas Stoller (The Director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) at the helm and writing it, I thought it could work. I also think Jonah Hill has the potential to be a very funny actor, although, I think he needs to work in the darker realms of comedy to realize this potential. Yet, when the trailer came out, I was severely underwhelmed. It just did not look that funny. Trailers can be misleading, but the biggest crime a comedy trailer can commit is to not make me laugh. What is the point of going to see the movie if 150 seconds of footage do not make me laugh. When the reviews came out and were pretty positive, I did not get my hopes up, but I was certainly a little more interested in seeing it. Were the critics right?

Aldous Snow(Brand) was the world's last rock star. He was hedonistic, arrogant and knew how party, but he sobered up. He was the biggest star in the world until he tried to solve the problem of genocide in Africa with a horribly racist song and album. His girlfriend(Rose Byrne) of seven sober years dumped him and Snow did a nosedive right back into the partying lifestyle, becoming less and less known for his music. With the music business in the tank, Music Executive, Sergio Roma(Diddy) is looking for the idea that will jump start his hurting label. Enter Aaron Green(Jonah Hill) with an idea to get Aldous Snow to put on a show at The Greek to celebrate 10 years since he last played there and made a live album from it that turned out to be the biggest selling live album ever. Roma decides to let Green run point on the project and Green has 72 hours to get Snow from London to Los Angeles. It will not be an easy task, as Snow prefers drugs, alcohol and women to anything else and Green is not exactly a force to be reckoned with. There is also a side plot involving Green and his girlfriend (Elizabeth Moss) and how they cannot seem to get on the same page and even maybe break up.

For the first 75 minutes Get him to the Greek is a hilarious movie. It moves quickly, the jokes are fast and funny and the action keeps moving. We get all of the drugs, girls and alcohol a throwback rock star deserves and Diddy straight up kills the movie with his over the top persona, not unlike his actual persona. His lines are delivered with this reckless abandon and it works for me. Hill prefers a more subtle, quiet approach and his quiet demeanor mixed with Brand's outlandish personality creates a nice little balance of comic styles. Brand also does a little bit of acting that really works, especially as he orders Hill to get him drugs. You can see the recovering addict digging into his own life. The girls are sexy, the music is funny whne it is supposed to be funny and the soundtrack under the film is excellent and probably pretty expensive. The Las Vegas sequence is inspired comic genius with this wonderful physical comedy infused with just these ridiculous sight gags about petting the furry walls and this super drug called "Jeffrey."

However, once the movie actually gets to Los Angeles it just kind of dies. I honestly do not care about Snow's quest to get his girlfriend back and then the movie takes a totally weird and uncomfortable turn with an almost threesome between Aaron, his girlfriend and Snow. I am not sure if Stoller just ran out of ideas for his movie and threw together a long, unfunny and awkward climatic set piece spanning nearly 30 minutes, but it was pretty obnoxious. Not only does it stop being funny, but the pacing totally slows down. The movie just comes to a stand still and even the very last scene, which is pretty funny cannot bring the movie around fully. It is really disappointing because the movie builds up a lot of good will in that first section, but quickly destroys it all.

Russell Brand may never really get beyond this persona and Jonah Hill really needs to play in the darker realm of comedy, but the movie does offer plenty of good laughs. Diddy shines which surprised me and Stoller's loose directing style allows for some inspired moments, like Hill's drug trip with little Diddy heads popping up and each other. It reminded me of Stoller and Jason Segal's daring idea to use puppets to sing a ridiculous Dracula musical. I think Stoller has better things ahead of him, he just needs to figure out how to reel himself in when his ending start to spin out of control.

Final Grade: C

Sex and the City 2

2010-06-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

I come at this movie having seen every single episode of the show and the first movie. I also come at this movie having enjoyed a good portion of the series and got so into the first movie, it is almost embarrassing. So, I am not one of those guys who is just out to hate the entire idea of this movie. I am invested in the characters and this ridiculous world. That being said, this movie never looked very good. The trailers were awful and when the reviews came in and they were just terrible, I second guessed my desire. However, I was more curious what the fans had to say and when the girls I know also told me the movie was pretty bad, I became less interested. Well, if not for $5.00 Tuesdays, I probably would not have gone to see it, but I did see it and was it as bad as everyone said? Read on to find out.

Carrie(Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha(Kim Cattrell), Charlotte(Kristen Davis) and Miranda(Cynthia Nixon) are back and we are reintroduced to the ladies as they make their way to pick up wedding gifts for Stanford's wedding. The wedding is the movie's first big set piece, and what a gay old time it is. However, not all is well in the world of these four ladies. Carrie and Big(Chris Noth) are in a relationship stalemate, Charlotte's new baby cries nonstop, Miranda's new boss hates her and Samantha is going through menopause. The girls still get together to complain and trade really bad puns, and Carrie still narrates. When Big proposes putting a television in the bedroom, Carrie begins to wonder if this can work. In the middle of all of this, Samantha gets the opportunity to take the girls away on an all expenses vacation to The Middle East. While there, Carrie runs into Aidan(Jon Corbett) and begins to wonder some more. Charlotte and Miranda bond over the troubles of motherhood and Samantha does everything she possibly can to offend an entire nation of people all while spouting the worst puns ever. "Lawrence of my labia" Really??

While the first Sex and the City movie put some people off by being too serious, Sex and the City 2 is not serious enough. The movie is a mix of awful scenes, throw away social commentary, disrespect and bad jokes. The Samantha character, who showed some growth towards the end of the series and regressed a bit in the first movie, is beyond obnoxious here. It is not about her portrayal of feminine sexuality, it is just the one note characterization of it. Samantha was at her best when she was trying to be in a relationship. Of course, the blatantly offensive nature of a majority of her scenes did not help. I get that in America we do not have a lot of tolerance for countries with such drastic different standards, but a lot of the jokes made at the expense of the Muslim culture gets uncomfortable. That is not even mentioning the god awful Karaoke "I am Woman" moment.

Part of the joy of Sex and the City is reveling in the excess of it all. We knew from the beginning that Carrie, as a syndicated columnist, could never afford all of those shoes and clothes, but it was an escape for the audience. However, as the recession gets worse and worse, you would think we would need more of that escape, the problem is, that escape comes with far too much whining. Miranda hates her nice paying job and is complaining all of the time despite having a paycheck and a family that loves her. Charlotte has a beautiful family, does not have to work and has a nanny on top of that, and still she complains. No, money does not make life automatically better and it is stupid to assume rich people live nothing but happy lives, but it is tough to get an audience behind all the whining when it is done in such expensive clothes and in these exotic locations.

There are a few nice moments, and it is always nice to see Aidan back, since he was always my favorite Carrie boyfriend. One of those nice moments, came during a rare sincere moment. As Miranda and Charlotte enjoy their time in The Middle East, They also take a moment to really talk about how hard it is to be a mom. It is a moment of complaining, yes, but it feels honest. It feels real. It is done with humor and class, but also brutal honesty of what it is like to be a mother. If the movie had felt as real as this more of the time, maybe it would have been easier to take the whining. When we see Aidan, yes, it is ridiculous. How in the world could these two people end up in this exact moment at the same time and to be honest his two scenes seem put in the movie just to serve a purpose of pushing Carrie and to Big, but it was still nice to see him and on a shallow level, that scene was about the only time I have ever really found Sarah Jessica Parker attractive.

Sex and the City 2 is such an unmitigated disaster, it is hard to even care if these stories continue. The movie is poorly directed, horribly scripted and badly acted, but even worse than all of that, it just is not entertaining. It is at least 30 minutes too long and when it reaches the inevitable finish, I was too exhausted to care anymore. Sure, the clothes are nice to look at, and the hotel in which they stay is gorgeous beyond belief, with a private elevator and everything, but ultimately, what is the point if it does not come with entertainment value? There are people more intelligent than I that have written about how offensive the movie is, but to be honest, offensive things in entertainment do not bother me. In fact, if done well, I can appreciate a little offensiveness to point out something ridiculous. However, what I cannot forgive is the lack of entertainment value. It is almost offensive to me that anyone thought this movie was worth making in the way it was made.

Final grade: F

Robin Hood

2010-05-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

At the movie theater where I work, there is no way to annoy my co-worker more than mentioning that Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott are working together again/ Crowe has appeared in the last 4 Scott movies and while they have had varied degrees of success, critically and financially, those of us that work at The State Theater believe it should stop. I was never excited about Robin Hood. I watched it go through all kinds of changes in script, casting and even the basic story structure, but it never once sparked my interest. When the trailers were released, I still felt nothing. And I love movies with Bows and Arrows. I love that cliche follow the arrow shot and I love watching hundreds of arrows flying through the air. However, there was just something too on the nose for me about this. Of course, Ridley Scott was directing with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. You need a villain, of course Mark Strong would be that villain. You need a wise older man, who else would be but William Hurt. It was all just too easy, too convenient. I probably never would have actually seen it if my free movie ticket was not expiring, but it was and I did.

Robin Longstride(Crowe) is an honest man, a good archer, and a good soldier. However, when his honesty gets him in trouble with King Richard(The always valuable Danny Huston) he decides it is time to cut his losses and leave the army. When Richard is killed in battle, Robin and his band of merry men make their break for it, but they run across a bunch of dead soldiers who were returning the crown to the king. He assumes the identity of Sir Robert of Loxley to take the crown to London and to take a fallen soldier's sword home. His sense of duty brings him to Nottingham where he continues to take on the part of Robert of Loxley in order to protect the real Robert's wife, Marion(Blanchett)from losing everything. Meanwhile the new king, John starts taxing like crazy and anyone who will not listen gets their cities destroyed by Godfrey(Strong) and his evil army. Godfrey is a trusted confidant of the new king, but he has an agenda of his own, starting with killing our fair hero, Robin/Robert.

This Robin Hood is an origin story. We see Robin the Hood before he became the "Rob the rich to give to the poor" legend we all know. He is an honest man who works outside of the law because of a corrupt ruler. While he is wonderful with a bow and arrow, we rarely see him with one. In fact, we rarely see anyone with any weapons because there is this giant chunk in the middle of the movie where nothing even remotely interesting in happening. Are we supposed to care to watch Robin and Marion fall in love? She never actually grieves her dead husband, but since we find out they only spent a week together, that is supposed to make it okay. We know Robin and Marion are going to end up together, so why not give us more action?? I want to see Robin wielding his bow and arrow! I want to watch Little John swing his weapons on some unsuspecting villain. I do not want to watch Robin and Marion riding horses trading life stories.

The film making is also very lazy. I felt like I knew every single shot, cut, color scheme and action movement before it happened. I believe i have seen this movie about a dozen times, and this one lacked the energy to even care about switching it up even just a little bit. Ridley Scott is man who has directed his fair share of wonderful movies, but this felt like a paycheck for everyone involved. No one even tried to make something interesting or unique. They just gave me exactly what I expected them to give me. There was no creative spark to be found anywhere. Even Mark Strong, an actor I think has amazing potential, was just essentially rehashing his Sherlock Holmes villain. He is better than this. Go check out out Body of Lies. This guy has more going for him than just being the new Andy Garcia.

I know I expected nothing, and some might say that clouded my ability to enjoy the movie, but I disagree. I went in hoping to be surprised. It is not my fault no one showed up for work with a glint in their eye. Russell Crowe is only good when he is challenged by some outside force and here, his biggest struggle was keeping an accent. Now, I am not one to talking about using accents, but I am also not paid 15 million dollars to appear in a movie. I am not saying his British needs to be perfect, I am just saying it needs to be steady. He needs to keep the same accent for the entire movie, or just do not use one. I was far more distracted by his varying accent than I would have been listening to an Australian Robin Hood. He does not have the charm to pull off Robin Hood. Crowe is a lumbering laborious actor who is better when he is not supposed to be charming. If you wanted an Aussie for this job, they should have gone with Hugh Jackman.

I hope this is the worst movie I see this summer. I was bored out of mind and even the climatic battle, which should have been awesome left me yawning and not caring one bit about what happened to anyone. Maybe I just wanted my Robin Hood to be a Robin Hood movies, not some dumb generic movie. I wanted the Sherwood Forrest, the Sheriff of Nottingham to be a big part and I wanted to watch Robin Hood rob rich people and give it to poor people. Is that really too much to ask?

Final Grade: F

The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

2010-05-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Summer is the perfect time for ridiculous movies. There is something about the summer movie season that makes it okay for these cheesy, big broad action movies to exist. I wish I could better explain why it is that way, but I cannot. It is just a fact of my life. In fact, I kind of get excited for Jerry Bruckheimer produced movies in the summer. Even though he made a mockery out of them with those god awful Pirates sequels, I still want his summer movies to be big and fun. This year he was returning with a Pirates style action movie. It is a "Sword and Sandal" style action movie big splashy effects and the Memorial Day release date. It seemed like a cannot lose situation, but the movie was not without controversy due to Jake Gyllenhaal not being remotely Persian. More importantly though, was the question "Can this break the bad movies based on video game?" curse.

The king of Persia has two sons from birthright, but one day he sees an orphan boy go out of his to help someone else and the king adopts him. The 3 boys grow up to be The Princes of Persia. The orphan, Dastan(Jake) grows into your typical movie black sheep. He does not follow orders, takes too many risks, but somehow manages to always succeed. His brothers decide to attack a sacred city because they received information that this city was making and selling weapons to Persia's enemies. They take the city and capture the sexy princess, Tamina(Gemma Arterton). The big prince claims her for wife, and he leaves Dastan to present her to the king, along with a gift that Dastan is supposed to claim as his own. The gift, a prayer robe, kills the king (Like the husband in Medea) and Dastan is the main suspect, so he bails with the princess. The princess goes with him because during the raid Dastan got his hands on a magic dagger and she is the protector. This dagger has a button on it that if you push turns back time 1 minute and only the holder of it knows time got turned back. The dagger is triggered by the sands of time that were put in a giant hour glass by the gods after saving the life of a young girl or something. Dastan and the the princess must keep the dagger out of the hands on whoever is the bad guy because if you push the button when the dagger is stuck in the hourglass, time forever can be changed, except not really because doing that will just wipe the Earth clean of people.

If you could not follow all of that have no worries because 90% of the dialogue in this movie is exposition. There is almost dialogue that does not explain something to us. It is as if the characters should just turn to us and lecture us on what is happening. Apparently we are incapable of figuring anything out. Also, if you ever forget what movie you are watching, they remind you often by saying "The Prince of Persia" about 7 times in the first 15 minutes, including the ridiculous pre-credits opening voice over work. No one in the movie can really make the dialogue work, but Alfred Molina as a anti-government crook who organizes ostrich races manages some laughs with all of the stupid stuff he has to do and say. His presence gives the movie a bit of a jolt, but I was hoping he would only be a cameo so when he kept popping up, I kind of got annoyed.

That being said, the movie was actually pretty damn entertaining. While I am certainly not a fan of the video game, on which this is based, the movie does a great job of making it feel like a game with all of ledge jumping. The director, set designers and stunt team do a great job of coming up with realistic reasons for all of the jumping and while the editing is a bit to swift for my taste, the action sequences actually look and feel pretty good. The action moves quickly and has a enough big stunts to make me sit up a little bit. The initial castle siege, led by Jake is particularly cool, especially when a giant vat of fire is introduced to the action. Sword fights are always a welcome sight in a movie and because I am a sucker for them, I am fairly easy on sword fighting movies, generally. Every time the movie starts to get waterlogged from exposition, we get an action scene that gets us going again. I only wish I had less talking and more jumping.

When it comes to these types of movies, they can be made or broken by the effects. There are some cool effects in this movie, especially as the building crumbles in the climax, but the snakes looked a bit too fake for me, which is always annoying. I am not saying they looked as bad as the Alligators at the end of Erasure, but they did not look that good. However, watching the king burn was a nice effect and a lot of the jumping stuff was probably done in front of a blank screen and it looks pretty solid. I do know a lot of money went into building the sets and it shows. A lot of the castles and cities are impressive looking. I really liked the ostrich track and that whole scene which takes place in this city full of criminals. It was a nice touch. Also, the effect of watching people go a minute back in time looks kind of cool, but also kind of goofy because we see people walking backwards and it looks like someone just hit the rewind button. That always makes me giggle.

Jake Gyllenhaal is typically an actor playing characters facing major tragedies and he is a quiet, solemn kind of actor and it was really nice to see him lighten up and go kind of crazy. He plays Dastan with a half smile and a light in his eyes. He uses his whole body to exude this kind of kinetic energy that distracts you from his ridiculous looking hair. Ben Kingsley is kind of locking down this awful kind of over acting and looks to be trying to outdo Liam Neeson for appearing in the most movies in the last two years. Gemma Alterton is not an actress so much as a young lady with a slamming body who can read lines well enough to not feel like a robot. She is perfect for this kind of movie and she and Jake have a nice sexual chemistry, but the dialogue they are given as flirting is pretty bad.

The Prince of Persia is a mostly fun, harmless action movie that fills the quota of big bad summer action movie. the action kept me interested, but the dialogue tried its best to put me to sleep. I am not sure Jake really has a career in top-lining summer movie franchises, but it was nice to watch him cut loose and have some fun with a role that required him to be more physically present than mentally present. It is not going to convert anyone to video game adaptations, but there are worse ones out there and this one mostly satisfies.

Final Grade: C

My Ten Favorite Movies from 1993

2010-05-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I find myself in the mood for another long term movie list project. I had a lot of fun with the Anytime Movies series last year, so I thought I would try out another series. I plan to take each year of the 1990s and make my top 10 list from each individual year. I will mostly use IMDB, but there will probably be a few other sites I use to determine the movies on the list. Yes, my real hardcore movie viewing did not begin until 1993 with Jurassic Park, but since 1993, I have watched movies from all over the place and have seen enough to be able to fill out these early years. These lists will contain where the movie are on my list NOW, not when I saw them initially. Granted, some of these movies I will have seen more than others but such is the way of a film buff. I hope you enjoy the series!

10. Dazed and Confused- Now, in honor of full disclosure, I would probably like this movie more if I watched it high, or if I even had a lot of experience in being high, but I still think it is a damn funny movie, with some great high school schenanigans, hot people, cool clothes and this magnetic performance from the now always shirtless Matthew. There is not a whole lot to say about the movie, it is just a funny drugged out comedy that takes place over 1 (?) day in a high school in the late 1970s. Watch it and laugh.

9. Last Action Hero- When I was a teenager and saw this, I really hated it. I thought it was a stupid movie that did not know what it wanted to be. When I got older, I realized that was the point. The movie is meant to be a satire on all those 1980s action movies. When I realized that, I really loved the movie. It is a big fun action movie that is surprisingly smart, even if Arnold looks like he is trying a bit too hard. I recently watched it again as part of my Shane Black phase and it still rings pretty funny. You probably have to give it a two viewings to get what all is happening in terms of the satire, or maybe I just did because I was too young to get how an action movie could also be a satire on action movies.

8. Philadelphia- Tom Hanks won the Oscar, deservedly so, for his physical transformation, on top of a brilliant performance, but Denzel Washington also soars in this tragically sad story of a man fired for being gay and having HIV. Setting much of a movie in a courtroom without it being a thriller is tough, but Jonathon Demme is a sure handed director with a lot of confidence in his material, his actors and his own level of skill that the movie never turns boring. It helps having powerhouse performances, a really well written script and a message, that while a little preachy, is never too much because it is balanced with Washington's character's own blatant homophobia, which is perfectly put on display by the actor. The film is a master class in acting and of course, in film make up. Hanks' transformation really is remarkable.

7. Sleepless in Seattle- One of my all time favorite Romantic Comedies featuring two actors who work very well together in that genre. This was the second of three for this duo, and clearly the best of the bunch. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan spend most of the movie apart, yet their chemistry comes across even as they are seemingly worlds apart. The story of a widowed man trying to find love with the help of his son is at times touching and sad, but also can be very funny. Rob Reiner's supporting role as Hanks' buddy is very funny and Rosie O' Donnell turns down the annoying for a funny side character. It takes a lot of cues from An Affair to Remember which is widely considered one of the more romantic movies to exist, so Sleepless in Seattle is a bit manipulative, but it still works.

6. Pelican Brief- Denzel Washington is a favorite actor of mine and this is the second of his movies this year to appear on my list. Based on my favorite John Grisham novel, This tight thriller is still something i enjoy watching. The movie moves very quickly, and even the down beats are filled with a nice intensity. The editing and score help a lot, but the script and story really emphasize a fast moving thriller with car bombs, up close gun deaths, far away gun deaths and they manage to make a movie where a big part of the plot is about pelicans, incredibly tense. Julia Roberts and Washington both give excellent thriller performances and they have a really nice chemistry that comes off exactly how you need it to in the film.

5. The Fugitive- Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones really make this movie for me. I love a good chase movie, but essentially they are all the same thing. What sets the good ones apart from the mediocre ones, is usually the level of acting. Tommy Lee Jones was awarded a Supporting Oscar for his work in this movie, and that combined with Ford's hard assed resolve and gruff delivery help make this movie not just a big screen version of a television show. It is tightly paced, features some great stunts and of course that great monologue from Jones about checking everywhere for the man on the run. It is a monologue that is repeated in some form by every chase film since, including the less successful, but still entertaining spin-off.

4. The Sandlot- The childhood glee of baseball has been captured in many movies, especially in the 1990s, but none capture it quite like The Sandlot. Infinitely quotable, this story about a rag-tag group of young men spending their childhood summers playing baseball. The movie is funny and sweet, but mostly it is just awesome. Growing up playing baseball, this movie has a lot of special meaning to me as it shows how baseball can bring people together and why it is called America's past time. It is one of those family movies that everyone can enjoy and it is still fun to watch, even today. The themes of the film are universal, and who does not want to just sit back and watch a wonderful movie about growing up in a simpler time heavily featuring baseball and these wonderful kids just having fun.

3. Schindler's List- To me, the fact that Speilberg did this and Jurassic Park in the same year is a perfect example of why I love him so much. This brilliant piece of film making is really tough to watch, though. I have seen it twice and am not sure I could ever really watch it again. Horrifying in almost every way, it does not flinch away from the subject matter and for that reason, I love it. The acting, the script and the solid directing all add up in this masterpiece. Neeson and Fiennes show true depth and give equally amazing performances and the black and white picture is so strikingly gorgeous that it works as a juxtaposition to the horrific things going on in the film.

2. True Romance- A brilliant script, a solid directing vision, wonderful performances all the way around and some seriously kick ass action make this one of those 90s movies that help define the decade of Tarantino fueled film making. Slater and Arquette make a dynamic tragically cool couple and when you throw in all these insane cameos from Brad Pitt, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman, you get this delightful kaleidoscope of characters turning this movie about drugs, sex and violence into something somewhat iconic in a cult classic kind of way. It is the kind of movie I appreciate more and more with every viewing.

1. Jurassic Park- This is the movie that started it all for me. I had enjoyed movies my whole life, but this movie made me fall in love. From the effects, to the scares, to the story, and finally just to how the movie made me feel, Jurassic Park changed the entire course of who I was. It is still a movie I go to to remind me what movies can mean to someone, to me. Everything about it still holds up today in my eyes. Watch it and tell me those dinosaurs don't still look amazing 17 years later! Speilberg is my favorite director for a variety of reasons, but this movie is probably the biggest reason. The movie scares me, intrigues me, makes me laugh and makes me feel good all at the same time. I could never say enough great things about it and in fact, I think I will go watch it now.

Iron man 2

2010-05-10T12:23:00.001-07:00

When Iron man blasted into theaters, it took me by surprise. I had hoped it would be good because I love Robert Downey Jr, but I did not have any expectations. I was blown away by the film. It was fast, full of wit, well paced and action packed. It was the most summery superhero movie one could ever imagine. It was the perfect opposite to the dark brooding Dark Knight that came out later that summer. However, could they capture that magic again? With huge expectations and a growing number of movie stars involved, could Iron man 2 ever live up to what everyone was hoping for? Marvel Studios has a lot riding on the success of this franchise as it is launching an entire campaign based on the strength of the Iron man movies. It cannot rely on Spiderman or X-Men, so they threw all of their weight behind Iron man. It was a bold move and one that could end up paying huge dividends for the next few years, if it works.

If anyone thought admitting to being Iron Man would change the overall demeanor of Tony Stark(Downey) they would be wrong. The man is still cocky, still an asshole and still totally cool. He is putting on a year long expo to find a better world, he is battling the Senate over his Iron Man suit and as always, battling his own self destructive nature. On top of all of this, he now has to battle Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) a Russian with the tech of Iron Man and a personal vendetta against the Stark family name. Stark's health is also an issue and causes him to spiral out of control causing a confrontation between he and his good buddy Rhoadie(Don Cheadle). Vanko is his bigges problem though, especially after Vanko's grudge is bankrolled by Justin Hammer, a Stark rival on the weapons front who has grand ideas of getting rich and getting in the White House. With Hammer's resources and money, Vanko can afford to have tech just as good as Stark.

This is kind of a broad stroke recap of the action because, well there is a lot of story going on. There is an entire side plot dedicated to setting up this massive Marvel world involving Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the organization putting together The Avengers Initiative. And a good chunk of the tech geek in me loved watching Stark try and create a new element to keep him alive, but I think that section might actually bore people a little bit. Like so many of these superhero sequels, Iron Man 2 does suffer a little bit from trying to do too much. The middle does sag just a little bit, but whatever shortcomings the movie does have, it makes up for all of them with lively performances, great action, a breezy attitude, a kick ass soundtrack and one knock out climax.

Downey Jr is back in full snarky form and he is having just as much fun this time around. Downey had a hand in hiring the screenwriter and had a hand in helping the script the film and it shows, as the dialog flows out of his mouth just perfectly, He is matched wonderfully by Gwenyth Paltrow, back as his potential love interest and everyone else handles the dialog well. Mickey Rourke is quietly intimidating and while he does not have much in the way of dialog, he makes perfect use of his screen time with just a nod, or a smile, or a tilt of the head. His Russian accent does not waver and he has this great scene in a prison cell with Downey, where the these two redeemed actors quietly feel each other out and have an intense moment. Sam Jackson adds nice levity to the ridiculousness and Johansson is perfectly sexy, naughty and the right hint of dangerous. She has never looked sexier, which is saying something. However, Sam Rockwell kind of takes the cake for me on this movie. From his badly self tanned hands, his awful dancing and his mannerisms, Rockwell recalls every 1990s Gary Oldman villain. He is full of this glee at being in such a massive movie and his energy bounces through his entire body in every scene.

Jon Favreau directs with a steady hand, but never overdoes it. He understands the comic beats in the movie and understands that Iron Man is meant to be summer fun. We should leave the theater feeling like we got our sweet tooth on. The brain candy that is Iron Man 2 does come with some serious moments, but they are always followed by these wonderfully charming moments, like the roof top scene towards the end. We just witnessed chaos and bombs exploding, followed by a heart to heart, but the scene ends in laughs. Favreau deserves kudos for understanding not to let things get too serious because after all, it is a movie about a superhero.

Of course, it is a summer superhero movie, so what about the action? There is not as much of it as one might expect, but the action that does exist is pretty awesome. There is a short action scene towards the beginning that was surprisingly brutal, but the real fun comes when Rhoadie gets to put on a suit and become War Machine. Stark and Rhoadie have this wonderful fight, tearing through Stark's house all set to this mash up of "Another one Bites the Dust" and "It takes Two." That scene features a lot of glass smashing, which is always welcome in an action scene, but it is also brutal to watch these two friends just beat on each other. The trailer for the movie was built around this image of Iron Man and War Machine being surrounded by robots, so, the movie's action adrenaline is going to live and die by the climax.

And what a climax it is! First we get Iron Man being chased by these drones AND Rhoadie, flying through the air, weaving in and out of buildings and structures trying to lose as many as he can. While that is going on, the drones on the ground are firing rockets and causing explosions. Plus, Scarlett Johansson is getting her hand-to-hand combat one with a bunch of dudes. She flips, kicks, spins and punches her way through a handful of bad guys, only enhancing her sex appeal ten-fold. From there we get that epic image of our two heroes surrounded by these drones and it does not disappoint at all. The action is fast and well shot, dizzying us a bit but not too much. We get a lot of gun shots and hand to hand combat, plus this crazy awesome weaponry. By the time we get the eventual climax of the climax, we are so revved up, we cannot wait to see what happens next.

Iron Man 2 does have a lot going on and at times it may seem tough to follow. Marvel is setting up a lot for the future in this movie, while trying to tell a mostly self contained story and it mostly works exactly how they hoped. There are some wonderful nods to fans of the Marvel world and the movie does a great job of getting me excited to see where this entire world heads and I cannot wait to watch it unfold. The suitcase Iron Man suit was a nice touch for the fans and the tag after the credits is pretty exciting for those who are invested in the world of Marvel. Iron Man feels bigger than just a movie, as it represents a whole movement of films and it is not easy to not get crushed under all the pressure, but by adopting a breezy attitude, Iron Man 2 stays afloat and entertains for 140 minutes and when it was all over, my brain was full of all the ice cream and candy it could need for a while.

Final Grade: A

My 10 favorite movies from 1992

2010-05-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

I find myself in the mood for another long term movie list project. I had a lot of fun with the Anytime Movies series last year, so I thought I would try out another series. I plan to take each year of the 1990s and make my top 10 list from each individual year. I will mostly use IMDB, but there will probably be a few other sites I use to determine the movies on the list. Yes, my real hardcore movie viewing did not begin until 1993 with Jurassic Park, but since 1993, I have watched movies from all over the place and have seen enough to be able to fill out these early years. These lists will contain where the movie are on my list NOW, not when I saw them initially. Granted, some of these movies I will have seen more than others but such is the way of a film buff. I hope you enjoy the series!

10. Basic Instinct- Always a guilty Pleasure, the Erotic Thriller is a lost art. I would say it peaked with this glorious movie of sex, murder and very over-the-top acting. The big reveals are perfectly delicious, the sex is at turns steamy and erotic and at times ridiculous. The dialog walks the fine line between B-movie and mainstream, often veering solely into B-movie, which is perfectly okay by me. The movie was made famous for Sharon Stone's crotch shot and the reaction shots from the guys, but the movie has ice pick killings, lesbianism, crazy movie sex and Michael Douglass' best B-movie cop performance, ever. Seriously, what is not to love?

9. Batman Returns- Some might be surprised to find this movie so far down the list, but I am not as in love with Tim Burton directed Batman movies as so many others. Yes, Michelle Phiefer in the catwoman suit is sexy as hell and Michael Keaton makes a wonderful Batman, but the whole penguin and Christopher Walken storyline just do not do as much for me as others. Still, it is worth being on my list because, well catwoman is always sexy. The action is pretty cool and the look of the movie is appropriately dark and Michael Keaton really is a winning Batman.

8. Wayne's World- I truly believe Wayne's World is the reason SNL keeps trying to make movies from the their sketches. Wayne's World is the best of the bunch if you ask me. Yes, more than Blue's Brothers. The chemistry between Myers and Carvey is ridiculous, the outlandish storytelling and broad jokes, mixed with physical comedy is awesome and of course, all of the 4th wall breaking is absolutely wonderful. Of course, the only thing this movie needs to be on this list is that glorious scene with Bohemian Rhapsody. Does anything else really matter? I mean I could talk about Rob Lowe being awesome, or Tia Cararre being sexy, but you have 4 guys lip-sync performing Queen's epic song and that is enough!

7. A League of their Own- Girls playing baseball is not usually something I am clamoring to see on screen or in real life, but how can you not like the movie? It captures the joy, innocence and importance of baseball in times of trials for our country. Tom Hanks is absolutely delightful in a supporting role and Madonna and Rosie O' Donnell mine good laughs from their easy going chemistry, but Geena Davis is really the star of the picture. The baseball scenes are well paced and genuinely exciting. Actually the movie does a great job at keeping things moving throughout the whole time. Plus, it features Tom hanks delivering the now famous line "Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball."

6. Chaplin- I have to admit that my love of this movie is pretty much solely due to Robert Downey Jr's flat out amazing portrayal of Charlie Chaplin. Downey has long been a wonderful actor and this movie proves the guy can do anything. Downey not only nails the side of Chaplin the movie fans saw, but he delivered a layered, complex performance of a genius not fully understood in his time and who felt trapped the persona on screen. Of course, Downey is no stranger to that kind of tortured artist side, but he is a daring actor always willing to just put himself out there. The movie hinders entirely on the performances and everyone delivers. I do not get back to this movie very often, but I am always glad when I do.

5. Malcolm X- Much like Chaplin, this movie hinges on the lead performance and Denzel delivers like crazy. Spike Lee challenges the audience with an unflinching film of one of the more controversial African-American leaders of our time and Denzel goes completely with him. As a filmmaker Spike Lee has always challenged views on race from every angle. He takes white people to task, but he has also always challenged those in the African American community and in this movie he is after everyone. He asks us to respect a man, while often disagreeing with his methods. I cannot comment on the historical accuracy of the story, but I know good filmmaking when I see it and Lee's style is splashy, but it works, even though the film probably called for a more traditional style. Lee's angles, colors and lighting actually help make this better than the typical Biopic.

4. Glengarry Glen Ross- David Mamet has long been a favorite writer of mine and this movie is the perfect example of why that is. At times, Mamet's screenplays get bogged down in too many double dealings, but this one is just a great story, great dialog and brilliant performances all the way around. The cast- Pacino, Harris, Spacey, Lemmon, Arkin and Alec Baldwin's memorable cameo- give a master class in how to speak intricate dialog, all while delivering knock out performances. There is not a lot of action going on, it is just a bunch of guys talking and saying these ridiculously perfect lines, crafted by a master of the language. James Foley has not amounted to too much of a director, but in this movie he knew to just let the words and acting do it all. I never tire of watching all of the brilliant male performances and I wonder how it would have gone if the actors let their own egos get in the way too much.

3. Aladdin- There was a time when I could recite this movie from beginning to end. It is a magnificent triumph in filmmaking, animation, voice acting and story telling. Everything about it is just so wonderful. When I was 12, I fell in love and I am still in love to this day. Robin Williams' Genie has become the measuring stick for comic voice acting and it has yet to be surpassed or even matched by anyone else in any other animated film. The songs are catchy, but also have meaning in furthering along the story and just about every character is memorable in some way. It features one of my favorite love songs from a Disney film and gives us a great meaty villain, who is just scary enough without going overboard. I love the vibrant colors and quick pacing of the movie. Plus, it has a magic genie, a flying carpet, and a tiger!

2. A Few Good Men- Like David Mamet, Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers. His screenplay for this movie, based off of the play he wrote is fast, funny, dramatic, daring and full of these brilliant lines. However, he is helped by Tom Cruise's confident performances and his ability to hold up to Jack Nicholson's nasty, scenery chewing and the two of them in the courtroom together create this gorgeous, combustible scene that lives on thanks to their back and forth about wanting the truth. The cast is filled out with all kinds of good actors, and Rob Reiner really opened the movie up by letting Sorkin know, characters could walk and talk in movies, allowing Sorkin to write these wonderful scenes while keeping the camera moving and keeping the entire thing interesting.

1. Reservoir Dogs- Capping off a year of bold and interesting screenplays we get to my absolute favorite writer/director: Tarantino. This is one of my all time favorite movies and it might just be the coolest looking movie of all time (no offense Casablanca!). Tarantino's script is marvelous and he got all of these wonderful actors to give these perfectly hardcore performances. The movie still holds up to me as the dialog, while peppered with pop culture, does not appear dated. Tim Roth gives a gutsy performances, void of vanity and he gets this great "story" to tell and the way Tarantino shoots the whole thing makes it look effortless. His visual style, while a pastiche of those who came before him, feels fresh and totally unique. His use of existing music, while reminiscent of Scorcese, transcends being just a copy, or just an homage to him. I feel like I could go on and on on who Tarantino is and what he means to me not only as a fan of film, but as someone whose love of film has been shaped by his influence. Instead, I will just say, Reservoir Dogs is one of the movies that made me fall in love with movies and it keeps me in love with movies.

Date Night

2010-05-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

The pairing of NBC stars Steve Carrell and Tina Fey seems like a no brainer. Pairing them as a married couple is funny because their respective characters on their respective television shows are unlucky in love and thinking of Michael Scott and Liz Lemon dating makes me giggle at how awkward that date would be. Fey is all the rage right now and Carrell is always in style with his awkward white guy persona. I remember when I first heard about Date Night, I thought it sounded like a great idea. When I heard that James Franco, Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg were going to have minor roles, I got even more interested. However, when the trailers started trickling out, my excitement did not stay so high. I still wanted to see it, but it was no longer a must see, which is why it took me so long to finally get to the theater to see it.

Phil and Claire Foster(Carrell and Fey) are a married couple stuck in the routine of married life. They are not unhappy exactly, just bored. They never have sex and even their date nights have become routine. When some friends of theirs confide that they are getting a divorce because they realized they were just roommates now, Phil and Clare both start to worry individually that their own marriage is heading that way. So, Claire decides for the next date night, she was going to dress up a bit more. Phil follows suit and promises Claire dinner in the city. They are trying to shake their routine, remind themselves that they are still in love. Phil decides part of his shake up is to take someone else's reservation at a restaurant. When he does that, he sets off a chain of events that the Fosters will never forget. They are approached by two men who turn out to have guns and mistake the Fosters for thieves. Phil and Claire escape, but now they are being hunted by gun wielding maniacs who turn out to be cops, so the Fosters cannot turn to the cops. Instead they turn to a private security guy that Claire knows. Holbrooke(Wahlberg) helps how he can, but he does it shirtless and intimidates Phil. Phil and Claire go off to find the real thieves in an attempt to get the stolen property, return it and go back to their real lives, but more madness ensues!

Carrell and Fey make a very good team. They are giving to each other in comic moments and I completely buy them as a married couple. They are appealing together and they both have a nice easy charm on the big screen and these characters, while awkward, are not as painfully awkward as their television counterparts. The comedy is not as smart as one would expect from a movie in which Tina Fey is the star, but she does a pretty good job of slumming it for laughs. She looks great and is totally game for anything, including dressing up like a stripper and joining Carrell in his usual "Awkward White Guy" dance that he must utilize in everything he does, apparently. The mundane tasks of marriage come across pretty easily, but we never get the idea that this is a couple on the verge of divorce. We can see that these two love each other, they are just stagnant and what better way to break free from that then being chased all over New York city by two gun toting cops who are really bad guys trying to keep a mob boss in business?

Because this is a broad actionish comedy, there are comical set pieces, and the most effective is a lengthy car chase where the car the Fosters runs into a cab and they get stuck together, but they are on a chase from the cops, so the two interlocking cars drive together. It is hard to explain the comedy of this scene, but it is by far the most effective piece of comedy in the movie. It is laugh out loud funny and it works as an action scene as well, which is definitely nice. The stripper scene is also funny, but it is not anything new, really. We have seen Carrell do this a million times, but I will say Carrell and Fey doing the robot while trying to grind on each other was pretty funny. Every scene with Wahlberg hits very well. Wahlberg plays against his usual aggressive type and it works opposite Carrell's blustery anger at Wahlberg's shirtless chest. They also get a really good "F" word in there, which if you know me, I look for in the PG-13 movie.

The cop angle is annoying and wastes a valuable actress, Taraji P. Henson. The story does take a little too long to get where it going and not all of the comedy works for me. The first interaction between the Fosters and the two gun toting cops is supposed to come off as somewhat comical, but I found it to completely miss the mark and the one scene with James Franco and Mila Kunis did not work for me. I love both of them, but they were trying so hard to be funny that it came off rather painful, which is too bad because I was looking forward to it. I did like the running gag of people being disgusted with the Fosters taking a reservation, but even that kind of bombed in the scene with Franco and Kunis.

Date Night is a very safe, nice action comedy that does not ruffle any feathers. I believe Carrell and Fey have a much better movie in their combined future, perhaps one with a much harder edge. I feel like we have only experienced a pretty tame Fey and if given the opportunity, she could really do some R rated damage and we know Carrell is good in the edgier setting. There is definitely enough comedy that works to satisfy enough people, but I guess I was hoping for more from this particular duo. The supporting cast suggested something better as well, but Wahlberg shows a nice flare for comedy and makes me anticipate his summer comedy The Other Guys a little bit more.

Final Grade: C+

Nightmare on Elm Street

2010-05-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

I could begin with a diatribe on the idea of the remake. However, if you have spent anytime reading this blog, you know I am one of the few who is not inherently against the idea of a remake, especially in the horror genre. I can list at least 5 horror remakes I prefer to the original. What I will say is that the difference between a good horror movie and a bad horror movie is often the smallest thing. Most Slasher Flicks are essentially the same thing with a slightly different killer. The differences can be death scenes, or the director's confidence, or the editing or music. Whatever it is, it can be slight. The difference between My Bloody Valentine and Friday the 13th is small, but Friday the 13th is a vastly better horror movie.

Nightmare on Elm Street takes place in some suburban city on some suburban street and inside some suburban houses. It has all of the usual suspects of a slasher flick: The killer, a group of teenagers and adults that are either clueless or are keeping secrets. The teenagers are: Quentin(Kyle Gallner), Nancy(Rooney Mara), Kris(Katie Cassidy), Jesse(Thomas Dekker) and Dean(Kellen Lutz). The Killer is the burned, knives for hands Freddy Krueger(Jackie Earle Haley). He invades your dreams and if he kills you in your dreams, you die for real. After Dean mysteriously slices his own throat in a diner late at night, the other kids start realizing their nightmares are similar. They all hear a creepy song, they have Freddy appear in them and often they are led to a preschool. The problem is, none of these kids knew each other until high school, or did they?? Quentin and Nancy are the main focus here and we watch them try and piece together memories and nightmares all while trying to not fall asleep and fall victim to the torture and the one-liners of Mr. Krueger

While the movie runs about 15 minutes too long and starts to run out of gas before closing out on a good climax, This remake/re imagining has enough good jumps, cool visuals and a super creepy Freddy Krueger, that I had a damn good time. Yet, there are problems. The flashback sequences to the horrible memories of the youth and giving Freddy more of a back story pulled focus, especially when it looked like the movie was going to humanize Freddy, ala Darth Vader. Therefore, I did get a bit annoyed a little more than an hour into it, but redemption came in the form of some seriously creepy, way left of good taste stuff in the climax. In the original film, Freddy was not so much the jokester the latter movies made him and in this remake, Freddy has some of those punchy/corny one-liners, but he is also a true monster and he has a few lines that just push him back into the side of pure evil and I like that the movie did not shy away from that.

Visually there are a few great moments, showing a first time director with confidence. I loved the nightmare in the bookstore when the books started vibrating and the waking nightmare in the pharmacy had a nice flare for the dramatic, in how Freddy appeared in a fiery silhouette. I liked that the transitions from nightmare into the real world. I should have tired of the constantly cheap and loud "jump" moments, but I found them to be mostly effective. I liked that the length of the nightmares varied a lot, so we never really knew what to expect or for how long to expect it. The last moment, visually I want to mention is during the climax where the director keeps cutting between the awake life and the dream of of Nancy. The parallels of Freddy and Quentin was a very nice effect and really brought home how deranged the Freddy in this movie was. I found it to be effective visually and in driving home this Freddy Krueger was never a man, but the kind of monster you hope to never encounter in life, or in your dreams.

The great thing about the idea of Nightmare on Elm Street is that the more the kids try to avoid Freddy, the more likely they are to encounter him. The more you try to avoid sleep, the more likely you are to experience dreams while awake as your brain tries to reboot itself. Effectively, by staying awake, you are putting yourself in just as much danger. This movie played up that idea pretty well and actually Freddy used it to his advantage. I thought there would be more focus on drugs/pills for young people to take to stay awake, but they did not do that. The movie is not perfect as the repetition of the nightmares can become exhausting, the script is pretty bad and a lot of the lines Freddy has are too groan worthy to even be moderately interesting. The make up for Freddy was not as good as I wanted it, but I could not put my finger on what my exact issue with it was. Something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. As it is a horror movie, the acting varies from serviceable to obnoxious and I actually found the gore to be a bit off-putting, which is rare for me in a horror movie.

Nightmare on Elm Street does not quite live up to my favorite horror movie remakes (Last House on the Left, Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead), but it is by no means a truly bad horror movie. I had fun and my scary movie buddy did plenty of jumping and hiding in my arm and once she even dug her nails into my shoulder, so that always makes for a better movie going experience. The first jump in the movie is really successful and it sets a nice tone. The movie should have done away with the two extended flashback sequences and it could have cut the running time down by at least 10 minutes, which could have left the movie with a tighter, more compact effect, instead of getting slightly drawn out. However, a good climax with two great one-liners almost make up for that lull midway through.

Final Grade: B

My 10 favorite movies from 1991

2010-05-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

I find myself in the mood for another long term movie list project. I had a lot of fun with the Anytime Movies series last year, so I thought I would try out another series. I plan to take each year of the 1990s and make my top 10 list from each individual year. I will mostly use IMDB, but there will probably be a few other sites I use to determine the movies on the list. Yes, my real hardcore movie viewing did not begin until 1993 with Jurassic Park, but since 1993, I have watched movies from all over the place and have seen enough to be able to fill out these early years. These lists will contain where the movie are on my list NOW, not when I saw them initially. Granted, some of these movies I will have seen more than others but such is the way of a film buff. I hope you enjoy the series!

10. City Slickers- Billy Crystal is kind of an enigma. He is better on stage than in film, but he has made some pretty great movies as well. He is not an actor, really, nor is he a star, but everyone I know seems to enjoy him. City Slickers is a funny and touching movie, but mostly it is about Jack Palance and his quest to win an Oscar in what seemed like never-going-to-happen scenario. Crystal and Daniel Stern have this great chemistry throughout the movie and the physical comedy of Stern blends well with Crystal's wit. When you throw in the hard ass Palance mixing it up with Crystal and you have a movie that is still pretty funny today.

9. The Last Boy Scout- When I first saw this one, I did not get it. I was too young, too unversed in the ways of cinema. I hated it. However, this list is about where the movies stand for me now and now I really enjoy this movie. Shane Black's script is hilarious and the action really keeps coming. The fact that it is ridiculous is pretty much the point of the film. Bruce Willis does his usual laconic dry one-liner thing and he is matched by Damon Wayan's brash youth and together they find a nice blend of comic styles. The violence is relatively shocking when you remember it was 1991, but it is still the comic timing that keeps me coming back to this movie. Black has a way with timed banter and a way with mixing non-sensical dialog with the stuff that is deadly important and it comes off so effortless.

8. The Boyz n the Hood- When I was 14 years old I found this movie. My love for the gangsta rap music is well documented and John Singleton's directorial debut was the filmed version of my favorite gangsta rap albums. There are great performances, a very real and dark script and Singleton's vision and together they make a combustible film about trying to survive under circumstances that do not give anyone a chance to survive. Laurence Fishbourne adds a sense of gravitas to the movement and Singleton became the youngest director to ever be nominated for best director at the Oscars. It is a tough movie to watch, but I believe it is an important early 90s film.

7. The Rocketeer- How could a young boy not love this movie? Well, I did and I still kind of do. There is a sense of charm that exudes from the innocence of the film and the filmmaking. Joe Johnston has gone on to make some fairly decent action movies, but here he remembered the charm. It is helped by the delightful performances and the easy on the eyes appeal of Jennifer Connelly. A guy finds a jet pack and becomes a full fledged superhero in WW2 era America. What is there not to like??

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze- It is obvious that you can chalk this movie up to the nostalgia of it all. Of course the movie is not very good and the Vanilla Ice cameo is something that I should not cheer on, but I do. It captures a perfect moment in pop culture and it embraces that moment with reckless abandon, so why not love it? The turtles are still funny and still kick ass. They have to face down a Super Shredder and deal with two giant mutant monsters that are poor facsimiles of Bee-Bop and Rocksteady, but I still love it all. Talking ninja turtles will always fulfill my childlike sense of wonder and I am not ashamed of that. Plus, the Vanilla Ice really is totally awesome!

5. Cape Fear- Robert De Niro has given better performances and given more frightening performances, but this one always sticks with me. There is something about the way he interacts with Julliete Lewis that goes beyond good taste. It is the hair, the accent, the fact that he is always sweaty. He just creeps me out something fierce in this Scorcese remake. I remember catching this on television when I was 13 and I just had to see it uncut and without commercials. In terms of Scorcese's filmography, this is often left out of the upper echelon of films, but it is quite a good movie and it is creepy and thrilling, violent and has all of the things you expect from a Scorcese film, including, well De Niro.

4. Thelma and Louise- I am not sure how this movie has not been remade yet, but I am glad it has not. Ridley Scott directs the hell out of this Women on the run classic, but he also knows that Susan Surandon and Geena Davis just need to be let loose and he stays out of their way. Surandon is tough and sexy throughout and it is impossible not to root for these girls as they take back their sexuality, their power and the lives from the hands of sexist and oppressive male forces. It is mostly known now for introducing the world to an undeniably sexy Brad Pitt, but it is so much more than that. By the way, head on over to IMDB.com and to the trivia section of this movie to see all of the different people who were considered for the 2 female leads and the Pitt role. It is insane!

3. Silence of the Lambs- unlike the majority of the world, I do not consider this to be one of the best movies ever. I actually think it is pretty overrated. It is a great movie, do not get me wrong, but it is more culturally important than cinemtatically important, meaning, the place of the characters, the dialog and the story is important in a larger sense, but in terms of film, I feel like it gets unjustified acclaim. That being said, I still find a few scenes incredibly effective and the Buffalo Bill villain always intrigues me. The pacing is really good and I understand why people rave non-stop about it. It is worth it for one scene where the F.B.I is storming the house they believe to be Bill's. The editing in that scene is just flat out fantastic.

2. Beauty and the Beast- The was the first animated movie to ever be nominated for best picture and it was well deserved. It tells a timeless story with wonderful heart, humor and humanity. The music is gorgeous and the voice work is top notch. The animation is still wonderful and it is impossible not to just be taken in by the extravagance of it all. "Be our Guest" is worth the price of admission alone! Beauty was right in the middle of Disney's animation revolution and it remains my second favorite of the Disney musicals (My favorite will be on next week's list).

1. Terminator 2- Era defining effects, incredible action, a wicked supervillain, Arnold's cheesy lines and Linda Hamilton's bad-assery, what else do you really need? T2 is one of the best pure action movies of the decade and it offers thrills at every corner, while also ushering in the breathtaking effects of the T1000 robot. Robert Patrick has done all kinds of films since this, but he will always be T1000. He embodies the idea of a shape shifting, almost liquid villain. The stunts are still eye catching today and the movie holds up. The end is a tad bit too much in terms of cheesy, but that does not really matter when you have all of that action leading up to that moment of self sacrifice.

The Losers

2010-04-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

To be fair, by the time late April gets here, people just want summer movies. Everyone is waiting for Ironman, or the kids are waiting for the next Shrek, or the females are waiting for Sex and the City 2. No one is looking out for new movies this week or next week (Well, I am anxiously awaiting Nightmare on Elm Street this Friday!), so this week kind of felt like it was a dumping zone for movies. Granted, The Losers did not suffer from a lack of promotion. As Erik put it "I want to see the movie, but I never want to see the trailer again." The Losers did seem hindered by a year full of this kind of movie. Later this year we have The A-Team and The Expendables that are both similar in plot and probably tone. The other two movies are summer movies, so those are the ones we are actually waiting for. However, The Losers has a great cast of actors on the rise and that was my initial pull into the film.

A small group of soldiers with names like Clay, Pooch, Jensen, Roque and Cougar (Jeffery Dean Morgan, Columbus Short, Chris Evans, Idris Elba and Oscar Jaeneda, respectively) are on a mission to kill a bad guy. However, things take a turn when they realize the place they are about to bomb has 25 little kids in it. They try and stop the bombing, but they realize they have to go in and save the kids. They have this awesome shoot out and get the kids out, but they were being set up and the opening sequence ends in tragedy a lot more serious than I was expecting given the overall tone of the movie. These four men are always cool under pressure and always have quick quips to bring levity to any situation, which is good because in their quest to find out who set them up, they need that levity. Helping them find the villain Max (Jason Patric) is the super sexy Aisha(Zoe Saldana). She may or may not have ulterior motives and Clay may or may not have really bad taste in women, but the girl is super sexy and can kick your ass, so how can one blame him? Max is connected somehow, and he is trying to sell some sort of eco-terrorism weapon and that does not really matter to the story. What matters is The Losers need to find him, kill him and get their lives back.

Shot, scripted and acted with a sense of breezy confidence, the Losers is an effective mindless action movie that does not take itself seriously enough to make the plot holes that important. In a similar fashion to The Oceans franchise, this is a movie that when the good guys need something, they just find it. When they need to get somewhere, they are just magically there. The soldiers are all excellent at their jobs and they have no reason to be overly concerned, so we never are either. We know this will turn out alright and even the twist, which is moderately effective does not rile us up, because these good guys are just too good at what they do for us to worry about them. Hell, one of the guys gets shot in both of his legs and we still know he is going to somehow help the good guys come out in the end. The action is fast paced, with the usual mix of slow motion and hand held camera stuff that is far too common in action movies, but it is still fun.

The acting is fine. All of the guys are similar in personality, so we never get a great idea of what the actors are capable of, except Chris Evans does his usual snarky, sarcastic humor that is funny, but worries me in terms of his ability to play Captain America. Idris Elba is a star in the making searching for the right role, he just cannot seem to find it. I really like Jeffery Dean Morgan. He has this old Hollywood charisma to him that he just looks cool all of the time. He is a pretty talented guy, but I wonder if he is better served on television. I really like Columbus Short. I keep waiting for him to break out, but his movie selections just keep him right under the radar. Zoe Saldana has very little to do other than look sexy, which is not tough for her. She is too skinny, but she oozes sex appeal and while her various accents in the movie are less than effective, she can wear a tank top. However, the real acting star of this movie is Jason Patric. He is the perfect villain, getting into Over-the-top Bond Villain status.

Sylvain White does not have much in his filmography as a director and there is nothing in that filmography that makes me think he should be directing action movies, but he does a pretty good job handling the action. There is not a serious visual flair, but he is capable. The first fight scene between Morgan and Saldana is sexy, funny and pretty brutal for a PG-13 movie and the climatic action sequence which spans about 15 minutes and takes place all over this dock, is quite entertaining. In fact, I just think the movie is entertaining. It does not aspire to be some big sweeping epic and it is not out to be this genre busting, subversive form of entertainment. It just tells a simple story in a snappy and breezy way that made me laugh and held my interest for the entire 97 minutes. I think the cast could have handled meatier material, but they are clearly having fun and in turn I had fun.

Final Grade: B

My 10 favorite movies from 1990

2010-04-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

I find myself in the mood for another long term movie list project. I had a lot of fun with the Anytime Movies series last year, so I thought I would try out another series. I plan to take each year of the 1990s and make my top 10 list from each individual year. I will mostly use IMDB, but there will probably be a few other sites I use to determine the movies on the list. Yes, my real hardcore movie viewing did not begin until 1993 with Jurassic Park, but since 1993, I have watched movies from all over the place and have seen enough to be able to fill out these early years. These lists will contain where the movie are on my list NOW, not when I saw them initially. Granted, some of these movies I will have seen more than others but such is the way of a film buff. I hope you enjoy the series!

10. The Hunt for Red October- I am just going to say it, more movies need to feature both Sean Connery and James Earl Jones and they should always have scenes where they just yell back and forth at each other. It has nothing to do with this movie really, but how cool would that be? Jack Ryan makes his very first foray into film in the person of Alec Baldwin and any movie that takes place on a Submarine is automatically a little cooler than it should be. It has been a few years since I have last watched it, but I remember it being a pretty awesome thriller, almost claustrophobic in how it was shot and acted, making it that much more combustible. Baldwin never really became the leading man this movie set him up to be, but he is pretty cool, and that is not an easy feat when next to Sean Connery, the ultimate in cool.

9. Flatliners- The first time I saw this movie it was on television and I was totally taken by the story about med students who start getting their kicks by dying and being brought back to life by the other students. The cast was beautiful, young and talented, full of energy and ready to take this thriller to the next level. Joel Schumacher has a nice flare in his directing style in this movie. It does not hold up as well these days, but I still enjoy it when I catch it on the television. It never fully reaches above the idea of a thriller, which a movie like this could, but it is essentially a bleed over from the 1980s excess, where pop philosophy of life and death were not as important as style. The film might lack the substance, but it is a stylish film with some nice thrills.

8. Total Recall- Every year has to have one pure awesome action movie on a top ten list. For this year, it is this bad boy. Arnold's awesome sci-fi adventure that was actually interesting and had a complex plot. Following a Phillip K. Dick story (That guy knew how to create a story, didn't he?), Arnold stars as a man who keeps having these wicked dreams about something that may have actually happened. Quickly the movie spirals into a tightly paced action movie with clever looking visual stunts, great action sequences and insane violence. Plus, Michael Ironside is in it and that always spells awesome.

7. Dick Tracy- Crazy colors, colorful characters, over the top performances from Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman and a script full of awesome cheesy hard boiled dialog make this movie one I enjoyed more over time. Ten year old me was awed by the color palate and the crazy twist at the end, but as I get older, I actually enjoy the movie on different levels. It is pretty much a disaster, but it is a glorious disaster with bright colored suits, Tommy guns and a pretty sexy Madonna. Warren Beaty makes such a cool Tracy and his pretty low key performance only enhances the over the top nature of the villains. I was not terribly familiar with the comic books, but I loved the cartoon and we had all of the action figures, so this is just fun like crazy!

6. Misery- It does not matter what else she does, Kathy Bates will always be Annie Wilkes. She is ferocious, interesting, complex and ultimately venomous and off her rocker crazy and Bates nails every single moment. She gives a master class in deranged, while grounding the whole thing in the very real possibility of something like this happening. It is a scary movies, for sure, but more than scary, it just haunts you after it is done. James Caan gets credit for being an actor willing to defer to the crazy character and because he does that, it makes the movie that much better. As far as his scary stories go, this is the best Steven King adaptation and Rob Reiner does just enough to let you know he is a confident director, but he does not do too much to get in the way of the actors who spend most of the time on the screen. It takes a good director to know when to just get out of the way and let the actors do their thing.

5. Home Alone- There are very few things I love more about the holidays than watching this movie repeatedly as it airs on television. it is a classic little boy movie. I do not know any boy who saw this movie and did not go home and try and figure out how he would rig his house with awesome traps in case of being left alone and near a string of break-ins. Culkin is the perfect little cute curious boy to make this movie just the right mix of cartoonish violence and hilarity. It helps that Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern were willing to fully commit to everything that was being thrown at them. I can quote a good portion of it and I never tire of any of it. I even appreciated the sequel in New York.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Ah the classic of my youth will always hold a special place in my heart. I can still quote huge chunks of dialog and can vividly remember hours spent in the backyard of our new house running, kicking and fighting pretending we were all the ninja turtles. The movie is funny, full of action and I love the outfits the turtles are in. Shredder makes an insanely awesome villain and I can always put this movie on and just sit back and bask in all of the childhood memories attached. It may be a sentimental choice, but the movie is really good. It does all the things you expect from a movie called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

3. Edward Scissorhands- The disdain I have for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton can be mostly attributed to this movie. They are both so brilliant in rendering this melancholy, tragic story of love, loss and weirdness that when I see the garbage they do now, it just angers me! Depp's portrayal of the ultimate outcast, mixed with Burton's gorgeous surroundings turns this from a navel gazing freak show into something incredibly beautiful. Winonna Ryder gives a heartfelt believable performance as well, which is not that easy, but she makes everything seem so believable. Unlike many of the movies Burton and Depp make now, Scissorhands not only is masterful movie making, it resonates real emotions within this viewer, which really is a nice bonus on top of the gorgeous film making.

2. Miller's Crossing- Here is another great mob movie. Granted it is not as obvious or as loved as Goodfellas, but it is that kind of movie that truly gets better with every viewing. Three years after the madcap hilarity of Raising Arizona, the Coen brothers switched gears and directed this deep, cinematic piece of art, full of nuance, subtlety and the flashes of brilliance that the Coens show in every movie. Using violence and sex in a way that is more implied than shown on the screen, the Coens leave the audience wondering and get the people thinking. The film also has some great performances from Gabriel Byrne and John Turturro, especially Turturro. Turturro, like Christohper Walken, has kind of become a parody of himself, but watch this movie to remind you that the guy knows how to act.

1. Goodfellas- If you ask most film geeks, they will say Goodfellas not winning Best Picture at the Oscars is the worst oversight in the history of The Oscars. Of course, it might sound like hyperbole until you realize it lost to Dances With Wolves. Goodfellas is a tight, stylish mob flick with a wonderful script, a great director's vision and most importantly amazing performances from the 3 main actors. There are a handful of excellent mob films in the history of cinema and this is certainly one of the best. Scorcese directs with the confidence of a man who can do no wrong and the movie's visual palate looks beautiful even as the most gruesome violent things are happening. Ray Liotta has never been better and De Niro and Pesci are perfectly at ease in their roles. Not only is this the best movie of 1990, but it is one of the best movies of the decade.

Kick-Ass

2010-04-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

The R Rated superhero movie is slowly becoming a nice little sub-genre and Kick-Ass is the next entry. Based on a comic book, of course, I have been pretty excited about this since day one. Not because I am a fan of the comic, to be clear, I have not yet had the pleasure of reading it. I just liked the idea of it. I will eventually get around to reading the book, but for now, I just had the movie on the horizon to keep me going. The first trailer was actually underwhelming a bit, but then the Red-Band trailer came out and showed me what the movie was really going to be about and I was hooked. Since it came out, the movie has generated a heaping of controversy for the violence committed by a 12 year old girl, so obviously the movie is not for the timid. With all of this in mind, Erik and I went to a midnight screening to watch this world with people just as excited as we were.

Dave Lizewski(Aaron Johnson) is a pretty typical high school nerd. He is invisible to girls, gets picked on and loves comic books. he has nerdy conversations with his friend about why no one in real life has ever tried to be a superhero and so he decides to give it a shot, with the name Kick Ass. His first time out does not go as planned as he is stabbed and hit by a car, but after the surgeries, his ability to take pain and not feel it, becomes a de-facto super power. He stops a mugging and he becomes a you-tube sensation. Will this spark a whole wave of costumed superheroes without powers? Well, kind of. We have an ex-cop and his 12 year old daughter (Big Daddy(Nic Cage) and Hit Girl(Chloe Moretz)respectively) who have some serious fire power and are really out to kill the bad guys and we have Red Mist(McLovin), another costumed hero who teams up with Kick Ass. All of them appear to be after the same bad guy, an old style Mobster boss(Mark Strong, new go to villain). All the while, Dave is trying to maneuver the typical high school problems, but finds his masked superheroism has given him a little confidence and in a series of voice over narrations we are treated to his Peter Parker-esque inner thoughts.

Filmed with slick precision, splashes of bright colors and brutal unrelenting violence, Kick-Ass joins Watchmen in showing how superhero movies should be shot, if they were not overly concerned with the ratings system. Kick-Ass is a subversive mixing of genres, but it has one main objective, shock and awe. Every time we have adjusted to the world something throws us totally off. The actions appears to be grounded in some sort of reality, until Hit Girl shows up and starts kicking ass. Then we adjust to tat and we are thrown a jet pack and Gatling Guns. Matthew Vaughn, directing from a script he co-wrote, is out to keep his audience off balance and is out to challenge our morality. Is it morally reprehensible for us to cheer on a 12 year old girl saying "Cunt" and shooting and stabbing people with confidence and ease? Should be disgusted that the movie fetishizes her with a pleaded skirt and pink wig? The answer is "Probably" but it all just looks so damn cool! Sure, watching a 12 year girl take a massive beating by a grown man is tough to do, but she always gets up. She is the real superhero here and Moretz is a star in the making. She is a great actress, makes interesting movie choices and is very charming on screen. She steals this movie every time she is on screen.

Nic Cage also gets notice for his 1960s Adam West Batman spoof. He is hilarious, while being totally dry about it and finding the perfect release for his acting tics. The rest of the acting is fine as well, Johnson makes a totally believable high school nerd and his American accent is spot on and McLovin does his best to shake the likable McLovin attitude and get laughs from a much darker place. Strong is always a reliable villain, but he deserves better. he is a talented man who happens to look like a nastier version of Andy Garcia. He cannot really help that. However this movie is not really about the acting.

the action sequences are all highly stylized and all very effective. The final hour of this visually striking cinematic adventure is tightly paced, action packed and displays firepower, knives, hand to hand combat and the slow motion action shots we are now accustomed to in this style of film making. The violence is a constant attack on the senses and yes, it may be excessive and possibly made to make violence seem cool, but so what? The idea behind the movie, or of any superhero movie is 'What do we do when no one can see our face?" And Kick-Ass believes we shoot and kill bad guys. Perhaps the film could benefit from a little subtlety, but that is not the point. Vaughn and company are showing us how comics should look when they are in a film medium. Violence is messy and brutal, and why should it not be that way in movies?

Of course, none of it would matter if the movie was terrible, but it is excellent. I laughed and cheered and had a wonderful time. It does get a bit slow for a little while and the suspension of disbelief will need to be extended in the awesome climax, but the pay off is so worth it, I think. There are 3 great action sequences, an awesome explosion and a lot of really solid dark comedy. It has all of the things a superhero movies should have. Kick-Ass did not open to the numbers people expected, but an R rated superhero movie never will. There will always be hesitation. We do not want our superhero movies getting much darker than The Dark Knight and that is fine for the mainstream movie going audience. However, there are those of us who want something more subversive from our comic book movies and while this is not the first and will not be the last, it does further this little sub-genre nicely.

Final Grade: A-

Death at a Funeral

2010-04-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

in 2007 a British movie came out called Death at a Funeral. It was a well received comedy and in my circle of movie friends, it was called one of the best comedies of that year. I saw it and was incredibly underwhelmed. Apparently, someone thought all the movie needed was an African-American cast and BAM! comic gold. So, in 2010 we have an American remake, with African American actors being directed by the once interesting Neil LaBute. To be perfectly honest, there would have never been a way I would have seen this if I had had to pay for it. I love Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence and think this cast could make a fantastic movie, but this did not look like it was going to be that movie. Also, the original screenwriter came back, just armed with a lot more F-bombs. Not sure why that is, but I guess he wanted to keep his point of view, just adding a splash of color.

Many families only ever get together for a funeral and this is one of those families. Aaron(Rock) is the eldest son and the responsible and he has been in charge of his father's funeral. He is an uptight, hard working man who is constantly overlooked because his younger brother, Ryan(Lawrence) is a successful writer and his much more charismatic. Ryan is flighty and he and Aaron do not see eye to eye. The funeral has all kinds of crazy things that happen including, but not limited to, the boyfriend(James Marsden) of a niece(Zoe Saldana) accidentally taking some acid laced acid and going all kinds of crazy, a cranky uncle pooing on someones hand and face, and the main thing, a white midget(Peter Dinklage) trying to extort money to not show pictures of him and the dead father engaging in some gay sex. You also have Luke Wilson's fat scary face as a family friend who wants to make Zoe Saldana his girlfriend, even though they only had one night of drunken sex and she does not want him.

In what amounts to a pretty straight remake, Death at a Funeral offers some laughs, but it does not do anything in my mind to make me understand why it was made. Rock, Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Dinklage, Danny Glover, Marsden and Colombus Short are all capable of being together in a great movie, but this is not it. Rock is not much of an actor, but he can be hilarious when you let him out of the box, but here he is handcuffed in a role that requires him to act too much. Lawrence is less handcuffed, but his role just is not very funny. I saw the movie on Friday night and it is Monday and I am struggling to remember anything funny the guy said. Tracy Morgan is his usual on and off self. He can say some seriously funny stuff, but he can also miss big time and this movie is no different for him.

the slapstick is where the comedy actually works. I liked Marsden, even if it comes off a little too over the top, but his drug induced antics are certainly the highlight of the movie. He commits wholeheartedly to the role and it shows. The stuff with Dinklage is pretty funny because Dinklage is another guy who just commits to the movie. He is reprising his role from the original and it seems funnier here. I am not sure if it is the fact that the family is black this time around, but it might be. When he goes into his drugged out shtick, it works pretty well, because Dinklage always looks so distinguished and to see him jumping around licking things is funny.

There is nothing in this movie that is very original, but it was an alright distraction. When it was over, I was already forgetting things that happened. Zoe Saldana and Colombus Short are totally wasted and that bothers me because I believe Short has some serious talent and I guess I have to hope The Losers makes him a more bankable star. I am not sure why this movie exists, or why Neil LaBute agreed to direct it since there is nothing particularly interesting in the script or on the screen. I will say this though, Peter Dinklage on screen is always a good thing, so any time there is a movie role for him, I am ultimately okay with it.

Final Grade: C-

Pre Summer Movie Bash 2010!!

2010-04-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

I have weird feelings about this summer movie season. I am not nearly as excited as I usually am this summer and only about 5 movies really truly make me excited. However, there are a good portion of movies that look like they could be good, and look as if they could be bad as well. It should be an interesting summer movie season with The Twilight Series making its first try at summer and hoping not to have a Chronicles of Narnia type result. Plus, we have a few sequels bound for big bucks and a few franchise hopefuls. However, I do not see any comedies that are really screaming out to me and I am curious to see if there is going to be a Hangover style breakout hit. Enough with this, on to the lists!

the 10 movies I am most excited about

10. The Adjustment Bureau- I am kind of working sight unseen on this bad boy because there is not a trailer that I have seen, but it does not come out until the end of August, so I have some time. I just know it stars Matt Damon, is based on a Phillip K. Dick story and Anthony Mackie is a supporting player. Those 3 things are all I need to start to get excited. I could change my mind when I actually see the trailer, but for now, I am looking to it.

9. Salt- I know, I know. This does not really look very good. I get it. However, I am a total sucker for Angelina Jolie in an action movie. It is just how it is. I do not love her, or think she is particularly hot these days, but still, there is something about her in an action movie that gets me going. The action does look fairly by-the-numbers, but I cannot help myself. A strong supporting cast helps matters and I like that Jolie got cast in a role that was written for a man.

8. Dinner for Schmucks- I am not as excited about this movie as I want to be considering it stars Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell, but because it stars those two, I am putting it on this list. The premise could go either way, but Steve does excel at playing strange characters and Rudd, well Rudd can do no real wrong in my book. Ron Livingstone is also in it and the trailer does offer some laughs, I just thought I would be way more excited.

7. The Sorcerer's Apprentice- This is another movie that should not be on this list, but it is summer and what is summer without a gloriously over the top Nic Cage movie? I can barely contain my glee at the ridiculous trailer with the stupid effects, bad one-liners and awesome Nic Cage hair. Mock if you want, I can take it. I know this is going to be a mess, but it is a mess I want to see and giggle through.

6. Knight and Day- Tom Cruise has long been a favorite of mine and I know that so many people have vile vitriol towards the man, but I respect his talent. I like how he effortlessly moves from action to drama to romance. After being off screen for a few years, he made this his first big screen effort in a few years. The trailer is snarky, breezy fun and the action looks cool. I am not sure exactly how it will go, but I am optimistic, even if it has Cameron Diaz in it, which is always hit or miss.

5. The A-Team- I was a fan of the show, but I am more a fan of the trailer for this bad boy. Bradley Cooper shoots a plane down from a tank, that is falling for the sky! Cooper is shirtless! There is action, and laughs. There is the theme song being whistled, A Bazooka is fired! Someone repels down a skyscraper, pulls someone out of a building, throws him out and they are both taken away by a helicopter! It is so damn packed full of explosions that I get mesmerized! Joe Carnahan makes pretty ridiculous movies and I enjoy the hell out of them and this looks to be no exception! Plus, Patrick Wilson is in it!

4. Scott Pilgram Vs. The World- If you have seen the 90 second trailer, well you should just know exactly why I am amped about this flick. It has comedy, action, crazy visuals, and hot talented people. It is helped by Edgar Wright being a phenomenal director with a spotless record thus far. Sure, maybe Michael Cera needs to grow up, but for now, I am ready to take this journey with him. I am not familiar with the Graphic Novel on which this movie is based, but having flipped through the pages a few times, the tone of the film looks perfect. I hate that I have to wait for August to get here before I get to witness this glorious genre bending post-modern movie and it cannot get here soon enough!

3. Toy Story 3- If you are not anxiously awaiting the return of Woody, Buzz and the whole gang of toys, well you have no soul! Sure, I had a certain level of trepidation when I heard they were bringing back my favorite gang of talking toys, but the first trailer eased those nervous thoughts. Pixar continues to push the boundaries of animation, but more than that, they continue to tell amazing stories with rich characters, wonderful humor and honest emotions. In the second film, Woody gave up eternal life to go back to his friends and here we are many years later and the toys are on another quest of true friendship and love. I expect Toy Story 3 to be the biggest money maker of the summer when you throw in the 3D money, but I also expect it to be the most heart warming film of the summer.

2. Inception- Chris Nolan is the best director working right now. Yes, I said it. I stand by it as well. He makes great movie after great movie. His films are rich in visual style, point of view and story. He pulls great performances and directs tight scripts and he makes it all look so easy. He is on the cutting edge of film and this movie looks like it continues the trend. He bucked full CGI in favor of building these elaborate sets to discombobulate his actors and with every sliver of footage that comes out, I get more and more intrigued and excited. I love the cast and am very curious to see what Nolan gets out of Decaprio. I am not sure how this will play at the box office and Nolan swears it is not a twisty film, but it looks twisty and intimate while being on such a huge scale. I simply cannot wait!!

1. Ironman 2- When Ironman came out, I was pretty stoked for it, but even I could not imagine it would be as wonderful as it ended up being. The stakes for a sequel as always higher and it is more difficult to find good story to tell because the origin story is always such an easy way to go. So what do you the second time? Well, in this case, you hire Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell to be your villains and you get an upgrade at sidekick, with Don Cheadle. The teaser and the full length trailer are both rockin and rollin good times and Robert Downey Jr looks just as snarky and perfect this time around. It is going to be tough to be as good this time because they are not catching anyone off guard, but if the scene in the trailer with all of the Ironman robots is half as good on screen as it is in my mind, this is going to be a damn amazing time at the cinema!

5 movies I feel could really go either way

Sex and the City 2- I very recently (last month) finished the entire series and the first movie and have to admit, the whole thing grew on me and by the time the movie was half over, I was totally involved (just ask my movie watching partner). However, the trailer looks just too ridiculous for me. I do not want to see the girls leave NYC. I hated the episodes set in Los Angeles because NYC is a character of these ladies' stories. That being said, the characters still pull me in and while it is utterly implausible for Carrie to run into Aiden half way around the world, I loved Aiden and want the movie to go well for everyone.

Grown Ups- Having some of the main players from the early 1990s SNL that I grew up on, is a HUGE draw for me, but these actors are so far away from being those young hungry edgy comics that it is tough to get too wrapped up in the prospect of them being in a movie together. Replacing Chris Farley with Kevin James is too on the nose, but James is likable on screen and is responsible for the funniest part of the trailer. I am hoping the movie has enough funny moments between the guys to make up for what I am sure will be a sappy message in the end, but it could very much end up a mess. I want to into it and I want it to be hilarious, but I am very cautious about it.

The Karate Kid- Not going to lie, this actually looks pretty damn good, and the blogs coming out of ShoWest were all pretty positive. I have romanticized feelings towards the original flick, but that does not mean I cannot give this movie a fair shake. It is obviously a younger, gentler Karate Kid starring the cute-as-a-button son of Will Smith and with Jackie Chan filling the Mr. Miagi role you can expect this to be fairly different from the original, which is actually a plus in my book. The trailer does actually grab me a little bit and I feel like if I were in the age range of like 10-14, I would enjoy the hell out of it. As it stands, I am curious and I will be seeing it, which I would not have said when I first heard about it.

Killers- Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl does certainly make an attractive movie couple, but can I buy Kutcher as some sort of killing machine? The movie has a Mr. and Mrs Smith feel, which is good and bad. If the light hearted comedy aspects hit, then this could be a really fun summer distraction. If the comedy does not work, well, I expect it to be a dud. The trailer is hit and miss, with half of the stuff working alright and some of it just bombing, but they are an appealing couple and they might have what it takes to pull it off.

Get him to the Greek- I am not sure Forgetting Sarah Marshall needed a spin off movie and I am not sure I am ready to buy Russell Brand as a bonafide movie star yet, but this could work. Nicolas Stoller as the director revs it up a little bit and I really think Jonah Hill has the chops to be a big time comedy star if he so desires. The trailer has a lot of funny stuff in it, but I worry that the best stuff is spoiled in that trailer. I have hopes that the movie will surprise me, but I am not so sure it will. I have fears that I am going to be disappointed and I hate being disappointed in a comedy.

Random Thoughts:

I cannot even fathom a world where I need Ridley Scott's Robin Hood.

Shrek 4? Really? Seriously? Honestly? Shrek 4?? Why...oh WHY????

SNL sketches do not need to be movies, certainly not McGruber!!

The Twilight Saga:Eclipse has a great director, but it still stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, so how good can it be?

The Other Guys might be the first Will Ferrell summer movie I do not mind seeing. Funny trailer

Yet another re-launch; this time for real!

2010-04-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

I know this is about the third of fourth time in the last few months I have tried to mount a re-launch of this blog, but I have rededicated myself to the project. The last 5 or 6 months have been a whirlwind of craziness in my life and now I am settling back into the routine of my life, I realized how much I missed writing about movies. Plus, it gave me something to talk about with people and made the messages in my Facebook inbox more interesting. To start, I will go Sun-Wed, with an occasional Thursday. It breaks down like this:

Sunday- Lists (I am always looking for list suggestions. Do not hesitate!)
Monday and Tuesday- Reviews of movies currently in theaters, or new to DVD, or semi new to DVD.
Wednesday- trailer reviews. I will review two trailers every Wednesday.
Thursday- This is a kind of wild card. I may review random DVDs if I see something interesting, or perhaps an essay/rant, or just random movie related thoughts. This may also be used to music or theater reviews.

As always, I love to have feedback. I want to know what people think of the movies, or even what they think of the reviews. I do want the comments to be thoughtful and interesting. I am not interested in on-line flame wars, which is why I have never heavily promoted the site beyond people I know. If you like what you read and want others to see it, awesome!

LOST: Dr. Linus

2010-03-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

For the beginning of season 6, I have been saying that the stuff off the island has been better than the stuff on the island and actually, the on the island stuff has been pretty obnoxious. The last few episodes have started changing that. Jack's episode had some interesting on the island stuff and Sayid's episode really ratcheted up the action and intrigue on the island. Now this week, we get a Benjamin Linus episode. Finally!

Linus is one of the most interesting television characters I can ever remember. What started as a guy being tortured like crazy for maybe knowing too much has turned into one of the most fleshed out, while still being unknowable, characters to appear on television. he is well written to be sure, but also, Michael Emerson acts his ass off every week. His line delivery is pitch perfect, but the man can say more with an eye brow raise than most actors can with a whole monologue. He takes the idea of face acting to a whole new level. This week finds Benjamin Linus as a crossroads on the island, maybe beginning to pay for all of the devious things he has done. Linus is forced to dig his own grave, realizing he has no allies, no friends, no one who really cares. He tries to plead his way out and eventually bribe his way out, but it takes Not-Locke to come give him freedom, but Linus is surprised by what happens after that.

Off the island, in what have become known as "Flash Sideways", Linus is a high school history teacher. He has a Ph.D and he is miserable. His dad is alive and sick, but Linus takes care of him. We learn that they did go to the island, but they did not stay. So in this flash sideways world, the island exists, just not as we know it? It is the first reference to the island in the flash sideways. It kind of blew my mind and made me wonder if the island is going to start playing a part in the off the island stuff. Linus appears to be very mild mannered, meek and submissive in his flash sideways, but much like when we first met Mr. Linus, he is not what he seems. When he gets wind that the principal may be having a sexual affair on campus with anurse, he blackmails the principal to get what he wants, but unlike the Ben we have come to know, he backs down. Having the student that Ben cares about be his daughter was a nice, if a little on the nose, touch. It was nice to see that Ben has flairs of the man he was on the island. The parallels make me curious if I missed similar things in the episodes from earlier in the season.

With super intense stuff off the island and interesting character stuff off the island, this week's Lost is my favorite of the young season and keeps me getting excited for upcoming episodes. I love that the Linus storyline still gave us all this other stuff. We got to witness more of Not-Locke, then there was the great cliff hanger and most importantly and most intensely, Jack and Richard.

Jack is a character many people do not much care for, but he has always been one of my favorites. I think he has undergone more changes in character than anyone else on the island and well, I kind of like Matthew Fox. This week, we see a new side of Jack. He is slowly starting to pick up clues as to what is going on the island. He does not understand the motives, and he cannot answer the "why" question, but he is starting to understand some of the rules of the island. Richard wants to die and his impassioned reasoning was perfectly played, but he cannot kill himself, so he asks Jack to do it. Jack and Richard then engage in this crazy intense back and forth about fate and destiny all while a stick of dynamite is lit and is slowly burning. Oh man, some seriously crazy few moments!

As the final season winds down, we are faced with the knowledge that not every question will be answered directly for us and that is okay with me. I like that we have an understanding of what the smoke monster is and how these people came to be on the island, but more importantly, I am thankful for great television every week. That is what is important! Lost continues to deliver top notch intrigue and thrills, while throwing in enough humor for levity and it almost always works. This week worked in every way imaginable and I am already hankering for next Tuesday!

Valentine's Day

2010-03-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Any movie that features Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner and Anne Hathaway is going to be high on my list of movies to see. Granted, this is not exactly the kind of movie I had in my mind when hearing this cast, but I will take what I can get. Piggy backing off of the success of He's Just not that into you, this movie was attempting to bring together scores of actors and putting them in a movie that serves the purpose of making single people miserable. Why would I subject myself to such a film, in my current single status? I honestly wish I could answer that question, but I can't. Perhaps I am glutton for punishment. Perhaps, as hopeless as I feel right now, I am deep down always hoping to be hopeful and cute or cheesy romantic comedies help me to feel hopeful? Or maybe, just maybe, I was still hoping a movie starring those four women would go the way it does when I close my eyes and imagine it.

Set on the day full of reds, pinks and flowers, Valentine's Day is a story about 16-20 different people in different states of romance maneuvering their way through this unholy day. The stories are loosely connected and it is all set in Los Angeles. Going through it all would be impossible and I am not going to bother with character names, so I will just kind of touch on the main stories. Ashton Kutcher owns a flower shop and he proposes to Jessica Alba who says "yes" but it might not be what it seems. Jennifer Garner is Kutcher's best friend and she is in love with McDreamy, who may or may not still be married. Garner is also friends with Jessica Biel, who hates Valentine's Day because she cannot find a man until Jaime Foxx enters the picture. Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway play an adorable couple who struggle through the early stages of a relationship which is not helped by her side job as a phone sex operator. Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts are two people who meet on a plane and spend the movie talking, but it is never what it seems with them. I know I am forgetting people and characters and stories, but you get the idea.

One of the best and worst qualities about these Vignette style movies is we do not get a lot of time with characters. When it comes to annoying or boring characters like the Jessica Alba or Jessica Biel characters, that is a great thing, but when you want to actually spend more time with some of these people, like the coupling of Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway, you are left unfulfilled. Ashton Kutcher is essentially the heart of this movie and he is actually pretty good. As a guy who believes in the true power of love, Kutcher is charming and funny and he even does a good job when the movie breaks his heart. We know where he will end up about 25 minutes into the movie, but that is okay. There is something comforting about the familiar end of a romantic comedy.

Valentine's Day is a lot more serious than the commercials or the cast would lead you to believe. You have an adorable little boy who spends the entire movie trying to tell a girl he loves her and is consistently vanquished, then you have an elderly married couple played delightfully by Shirley McClaine and Hector Elizondo going through something serious and even the Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts storyline is mostly serious. Most of the comedy is actually handled by the goofily charming Taylor Swift who plays a love sick teenager and while she is not a great actress and her line readings were a bit stiff, she is not afraid to go out there for a laugh and I admired her for that.

Heavy on the cheesy cliches of the Romantic Comedy genre, Valentine's Day is not a bad movie. It is not a great movie either. It is definitely cute, if a bit predictable, but who cares, when we go to these movies we want to see the best friends realize they are in love and we want to see the gay quarterback find love and we want the girl who hates Valentine's Day to find a guy to kiss at the end of the night. We complain about the conventions of movie genres, but we want them. They make us feel safe and comfortable and from a movie called Valentine's Day, released on Valentine's Day, I expect happy endings and we mostly get them. Also, props to George Lopez for not being at all annoying for the first time ever.

Final Grade: C+

The Oscars

2010-03-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

I am not entirely sure what the best way to talk about the Oscars would be. Would reviewing the show be the right way to go, or just talk about the winners and how I feel about them? Ultimately, I thought I would kind of combine those two ideas. First off, I want to talk about the winners of some of the major categories and briefly mention who I thought should have won and why. Then, I will give a few thoughts on the show in general.

Best Supporting Actor:
To be fair, I have only seen two of these performances but I doubt I would change my mind if I had seen the other 3. Christoph Waltz was a revelation. The twinkle in his eye in every scene and the pure menace in his performance is beyond incredible. There is no one that even holds a candle to him this year in terms of a supporting role.

I am skipping Best Supporting actress because I did not see the winning performance and so I cannot compare the others to it, but Monique's acceptance speech was obnoxious, just like she is, so it was fitting.

Best Original screenplay:
I am kind of torn on this because (500) Days of Summer was not even nominated, but I have no problem with The Hurt Locker winning. I do think Inglorious Basterds not winning is kind of lame because that script had so many astonishing elements to it, but The the script for The Hurt Locker is tight, intense and just the right amount of bare bones to let the actors and director really work. Ultimately, I would have voted on Inglorious Basterds, if for no other reason than having the balls to re-write history.

Adapted Screenplay:
Precious won and the guy who won got up and gave a heartfelt, if too blubbery speech, and that is nice, but in a category that included the brilliant Up in the Air screenplay, the scathingly funny In the Loop screenplay and the eloquently beautiful An Education screenplay, I just do not understand Precious. Granted, I have not seen the film, nor do I have a single bit of desire to see it, but Up in the Air stole my heart and I think it deserved to win. Jason Reitman will get his due eventually, and I really thought it would be this year.

Best Actor:
Jeff Bridges won and that is nice for him. I truly do not get his victory. I saw the movie and was not as impressed as I expected to be. George Clooney or Jeremy Renner really deserved this award. Bridges was fine, but he did not get me going the way the other two guys did. If I had to pick, I would have given the award to Clooney. Just because a guy makes it look effortless does not mean he is not working hard. His performance fits like your favorite suit and he just lives in that role. Watching his transition in the film makes the movie that much more heart breaking.

Best Actress:
Just like best actor, I am happy for Sandra Bullock because I like her. She is charming, affable and has been working hard. Of course, none of this means she deserves the award, because she does not. Sure, she was good and believable. I would even go as far as to say she did solid work, but solid is not enough. Carey Mulligan's star making turn in An Education takes a pretty good movie and turns it into a wonderful movie. She is fierce while being naive, and she grows in every minute of the movie. I am sure Mulligan will be back on the Oscar stage, but she really did deserve it this year.

Best Director:
This is another one where I was kind of torn. Katherine Bigelow (How hot is she???) directed the hell out of The Hurt Locker. There is no denying her influence made that movie one of the most gripping and intense movie watching experiences I have had in years. However, Tarantino created a masterpiece. I think when it is all said and done, I would have voted for Tarantino. Yes, Tarantino is the biggest star of his movies, but "Basterds" is just ridiculous in every way and Tarantino is responsible for that.

Best Picture:
First off, let me say that Avatar, The Blind Side, Serious Man and District 9 had absolutely no business being nominated. I cannot speak for Precious as it is the only one I did not see, but Where the Wild Things Are should have been nominated. Aside from that, I cannot complain about The Hurt Locker winning. It was one of the best of movies of the year easily and I like that a small picture won and is was basically deserved. For me, Inglorious Basterds was the most deserving. It had all of the elements of what makes a movie "The Best Picture." Again, this is not a complaint about The Hurt Locker winning. I am perfectly content with it winning and I was happy it won. However, part of me was just excited to see Avatar lose. 2009 was a phenomenal year for movies and The Hurt Locker does a great job of being the ambassador of 2009 movies for future generations of movie lovers who go back and watch winners.

General thoughts on the show:

Any show that opens with Neil Patrick Harris in a sparkly tuxedo jacket singing a song, is pretty much gold in my book. Yes, I openly swooned when I saw his beautiful face on my television.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were kind of hit and miss in their opening, but Martin referencing his start as "a poor black child" made me laugh. The Clooney bit and all Avatar jokes tanked. I was hoping for a little more Meryl Streep ribbing.

Ben Stiller did not look happy doing the Avatar bit. Sacha Baron Cohen was originally supposed to do it, but he dropped out. For Cohen this bit would have been a step up.

Christoph Waltz had my favorite acceptance speech and Robert Downey Jr and Tina Fey were my favorite presenters.

The street dancing was cool enough, but I did not love it.

The Paranormal Activity spoof was really funny as was the Snuggie/Slanket bit.

Tyler Perry was at the Oscars and no one punched him. That is a shame. Someone should punch that man and soon.

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner have absolutely no charisma whatsoever.

I loved the John Hughes tribute, but How cool would it have been if the actors recreated some of the lip-syncing moments from his movies on stage? Matthew Broderick doing "Do you love me" or Jon Cryer doing "Try a Little Tenderness" would have been amazing!

I had a good time watching the show, and I love Martin and Baldwin, but I prefer more of a showman as the host.

OOOHHH Final note: Avatar won for best Cinematography. How a movie that is all computer generated wins that award is beyond me! Did the voters not see Inglorious Basterds?? I mean, SERIOUSLY!!

Possible relaunch

2010-03-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

This may or may not be a relaunch of my blog. I have enough stuff to cover this week pretty easily with The Oscars, reviews of Crazies, Cop Out and Valentine's Day. Along with possibly going to see Alice in Wonderland, Brooklyn's Finest or Shutter Island. Also, the television stuff just got to be too much of a hassle because I stopped watching everything when it was on, but, if I decide to actually relaunch this thing for real, I will do a Lost post every Wednesday and would really like other people to chime in.

The last few months have been kind of a whirlwind and now that reality has come back to me, I am going to try and do the things I always did to make myself happy and of course writing about movies has always been towards the top of that list. I cannot afford to go to the theater nearly as often as before, so it is a bit depressing, however, I miss writing about movies. If I actually rededicate myself to this project, I might rely on DVD reviews a little more than in the previous years.

I do not want to get anyone too excited yet, but if after this week, I keep going, I hope whoever is reading this continues to read and possibly comment and invites other people to read.