Appaloosa

Westerns are not typically my thing. Last year we had some good ones, but for the most part, I think Westerns are for people who want people to think they love film. Westerns are like Radiohead: you are supposed to like them so show you are serious. When the trailer first came out for Appaloosa, I thought it looked pretty good and then the reviews reaffirmed that thought. Plus, Ed Harris directed Pollack beautifully and he was directing himself here, as well. But again, Westerns are not really my thing.

Virgil Cole(Harris) and Everett Hitch(Viggo Mortenson) travel the wild wild west enforcing law. They are paid to be "good" guys and in order to do it, they make the towns adhere to their brand of justice. Included in their brand of justice is killing people if they disobey the law. They are brought to Appaloosa because the town is being terrorized by the Bragg gang, led by Randall Bragg(Jeremy Irons). Bragg killed the town's sheriff and his two Marshalls and they town wants him and his gang brought to justice. Cole is an everyman who stumbles to speak in big words and Hitch is a smart man, but a man of few words. Cole tells Hitch he cannot be one of the greats because Hitch has feelings and "feelings get you killed." This theory will be tested for Coles himself because into town strolls Allison French(Rene Zellwegger) and Coles is quickly taken by her. Allison is a piano playing, intelligent and quick witted woman, but she needs to be the center of the world and when she starts to feel neglected she tries to turn to Hitch. Coles and Hitch finally get Bragg and get him to stand trial for his crimes. As he is being transferred to his death, circumstances free him and Coles and Hitch must chase him down again.

I can think of few westerns that feature a script as smart or full of wit as Appaloosa, which is probably the biggest saving grace. First off, this is not your shoot them up western. Guns are drawn and shot only 3 or 4 times and they are not long battles. In a brilliant exchange of dialog, Hitch, after a shoot out exclaims "well that was fast" and in rhythm Coles responds "Everyone was a good shot." It perfectly summarizes the movie in whole. It is a straight to the point film that doesn't take itself overly serious. Ed Harris seems to have a very good handle on the western genre, shooting in a way that is both dirty, sparce and beautifully poetic at times. However, the most important thing in the movie becomes the relationship between Harris and Zellwegger and because of that, the movie ultimately falters.

Zellwegger's appeal is lost on me, but she and Harris have hardly any romantic chemistry. It does not feel like an age thing, they just aren't compatible. Harris and Mortenson have so much more chemistry and I would have seen more focus on them. Mortenson's Hitch bookends the movie with some voice over narration, so we are witnessing this story through his eyes. We see Allison's need to be loved and her willingness to change men quickly to get it, through his eyes. We see Coles change from a hard edged lawman to a kinder, less focused lover boy through the steely cold eyes of Viggo Mortenson's Hitch. It works better that way, I think. It seems less a study in vanity for Ed Harris, by making the audience point of view, Mortenson's point of view.

I was hoping there would be a bit more to the idea of "Feelings get you killed" because it is the tagline of the movie and it is obviously a moment of importance for Coles but in the end, feelings got everyone exactly where they were supposed to go. The ending is not clean cut in terms of being happy or anything like that, but it could have been a more interesting ending. I think it would have required the movie to go deeper than it intended to go though. I was also hoping Jeremy Irons, the greatest voiced villain ever, would have just a bit more to do, but when the movie takes an unusual turn in the third act, the Irons character kind of loses his ability to instill fear in the hearts of men.

Final Grade: C+

W.

This whole thing sounded like a bad idea from the get-go. Why I went to see it was beyond me, really. I enjoy most of the actors and I have enjoyed plenty of Oliver Stone movies, especially his more off the wall crazy movies, which this one looked like. The concept was decided on in March, it was shot in 6 weeks, edited in two months, promoted semi quietly and now it is here. The whole process was only like 6 months, which is kind of exciting and very scary all at the same time. The trailers are all over the top which made me believe this would be something actually worth watching.

The story is straight forward. This is the story of George W. Bush starting in college and ending a few years ago. The movies switches between post-9/11 and Bush's life from his Yale time until he runs for President. We get the major events that are well documented and probably some that are less so. Throughout the whole thing, Bush is presented as a good-ole boy who seems to mean well and is likable but is led around by Cheney and others whom are smarter than he is. Josh Brolin, as Bush, presents a pretty complex character full of inner turmoil. A man with daddy issues, a lack of work ethic and who is unsure of what his future holds. Oliver Stone seems a little timid to go fully crazy. In fact, the whole movie seems a bit timid. I wanted something all over the place and some non-stop zaniness. Instead I got a boring movie that goes nowhere and brings up nothing inventive or interesting.

Some great performances get lost in the shuffle of this mess of a movie. Josh Brolin is excellent, James Cromwell as Bush Senior presents a great counter-point and Bush's staff is filled out with some great performances. Richard Dreyfuss' Dick Cheney is a conniving piece of garbage who plays on Bush' naive nature and Toby Jones' Karl Rove is played as an energetic little man-child who is a little keen on Bush. To round it out is Thandie Newton as Condelezza Rice, as a little girl with a big crush on Bush and in the best performance of the whole shindig is Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell. Wright gives Powell a nice sense of gravitas that raises above all of the silliness of it. However, enduring two hours of W. almost voids the whole thing.

The jokes almost all fall flat or are so easy, that it is surprising I paid for something that isn't even as good as a good SNL sketch about politics. And, how can you make a movie about W without any mention of the events of 9/11. I get a bit sad even thinking of the whole thing today. I know it is getting good reviews and I should like it because it takes shots at a conservative regime, but I was checking my watch throughout the entire movie.

Final Grade: D-
Performances: B+

Body of Lies

Yes, the title of this movie sounds like it should star Angie Everhart and Richard Greico and it should premiere late night on Cinemax. Yes, the movie is another movie about the war on terror in Iraq because that is really what we need or want right now. Yes, the movie pretty much bombed(excuse the pun) at the box office and yes, it is time for Russell Crowe to move on from being in Ridley Scott directed movies. Yet, it does have the nice combination of Russell Crowe and Leonado Decaprio and is directed by Ridley Scott, so it couldn't possibly be a bad movie.

I am going to keep the summary pretty basic so as to not ruin the few surprises or twists that are scattered throughout. Roger Farris(Decaprio) is a field operative for the C.I.A currently in Iran, trying to find the man responsible for a series of bombings. His mission goes horribly wrong and he ends up being responsible for the death of a friend and ends up with cuts all over. he gets transferred to Jordan where he will be working with Jordanian intelligence led by Hani(Mark Strong). Stateside, Ed Hoffman(Crowe) is running the operation from a cell phone while doing the mundane family tasks. He is consistently undermining Farris and putting Farri's job and trust at risk because he doesn't have the luxury of Patience. One night as Farris is chasing a guy he gets his leg torn up by some dogs and meets a nurse, Aisha(Golshifteh Farahani). They begin a friendship as Farris tries to find a sense of peace with what he does.

That is all I feel terribly comfortable giving out as Body of Lies, plays out in a series of possible double crosses and a few twists that vary in degrees of surprise. What Body of Lies lacks in originality it makes for in many other areas. Spy movies are rarely totally original, I mean how many different ways can people be double crossed? What Body of Lies brings to the table is confident direction, great performances, a script with some nice moments of relief and a few truly brutal moments. As I was watching Decaprio, I couldn't find that timid soft spoken actor from Titanic anywhere. He has fully transformed into a strong and confident actor. His Farris is a respectful, tolerant but wily and smart agent and Decaprio, as the movie's main focus really nails it. It isn't Oscar worthy material or anything, but he keeps you riveted, especially in the final act, where he ramps up the intensity. Crowe is also great, which is quite a feat considering the screen time and the kind of screen time he has. Most of his stuff is expository and kind of light and Crowe does wonders with it. He is so perfect at the subtlety of a line like "Well, I should probably pack." He handles the whole thing quite well. However, Mark Strong, as Hani the Jordanian intelligence leader, really steals the movie in a star making turn. He has an Andy Garcia quality to him and really falls into the role perfectly. He keeps us wondering if he can be trusted or not and he shows that ruthless can be played with class and style. The costumer puts him in these spectacular suits and it helps him fit the role perfectly. It makes me excited to see his villain turn in next year's Sherlock Holmes movie.

For his part, Scott keeps things moving along at a brisk pace. The movie never comes to a stop and even when it slows down, Scott manages to keep the intensity of every scene moving. Even in scenes with Decaprio and the lovely Iranian woman, we never get full sense of calm. I am not sure if it is because of how it was filmed or why, but I never felt a moment of sure rest, even in the lighter moments. One scene in particular balances the light and the heavy. Farris is invited to eat with Aisha and Aisha's sister and Farris has a light hearted and funny conversation with the children but follows it up by being grilled by the sister about the war. This movie kind of walks that line. Crowe and Decaprio have a few conversations that border on too silly for the movie, but it always pulls back in with some cool spy stuff.

It isn't exactly the movie you would hope it would be given the talent involved, but it is a nice addition to the espionage sub-genre and it features a whopper of a torture scene and a better than expected third act. Decaprio has transformed himself into a true star in terms of acting and Crowe seems perfectly comfortable taking the back seat. He is Scottie Pippen in this movie and it suits him. I went in with not terribly elevated expectations and was pleasantly surprised at how it all worked. Scott has directed better movies, even a better war movie (Black Hawk Down), but Body of Lie works way more often than it doesn't.

Final Grade: B-

Max Payne

I could be considered a pretty big fan of Mark Wahlberg. I think he works as an action star and actually works in odd comedies(His performance in I Heart Huckabees is classic). More than anything though, Wahlberg works when he has guns in his hand. He belongs in movies where he is shooting at people. I tried to play the Max Payne video games, but the controls didn't work for me, so I have no idea if Wahlberg is the fit for the character but the character carries guns and so Wahlberg is perfect for it in my eyes, and that is all that matters. My one worry going in was that the movie is only PG-13 and it looks like should be R.

In a dark and dank version of New York, Max Payne(Wahlberg) stalks to the streets looking for the guy who murdered his pregnant wife. He is a former murder detective who now works in the cold case unit. He uses old contacts to find the killer. One night he meets a sexy woman, Natasha(Olga Kurylenko), who has tattoos of wings, which intrigues Payne. Natasha wants sex, saying she'll pretend to be Payne's dead wife, which is a total turn off for Payne. She leaves and then is killed. Payne's old partner finds Payne because Natasha had his wallet on her. Payne doesn't talk but the old partner later notices Natasha's tattoo is the same as a tattoo on one of the people who killed Payne's wife, who was killed by Payne. The partner is promptly killed and Payne becomes a suspect. Meanwhile, Natasha's sister, Mona Sax(The very sexy, but very miscast Mila Kunis) is looking for Natasha's killer which leads her to Payne. Payne and Mona team up to try to find out what is happening. SO what is happening? There is a drug on the street, Valkeir, that causes some seriously wicked hallucinations leading to death. The drug was created by a pharacudical company, where Payne's wife used to work, and the idea of the drug was to make super soldiers because the drug makes users super strong. Unfortunately in 99% of users it causes those suicidal tendencies. Payne trusts the wrong people and gunfire ensues often.

In a case of style over substance, Max Payne is at times stunning and awesome and at times boring and tedious. John Moore, the director of such movies as The Omen(remake) and Flight of the Phoenix, directs Payne with a strong visual hand but not much else. Also, in showing the hypocrisy of the MPAA rating system, Max Payne has about the highest body count one could possibly have in a PG-13 movie because there is no blood. Instead of blood, we get striking red visuals throughout the movie as a possible substitute for the blood. It gives the movie a sort of Sin City light feeling because the movie is so dark and and drab, but these fiery reds streaking across the screen in letters or sets. The violence is paced well and choreographed well and of course,e Wahlberg with guns in his hand, rules the Earth. The gun blasts are so loud and vivid, you jump the first few times you hear them, especially in the public bathroom scene. In terms of the hallucinations, the visuals are truly intense and spectacular, in particular when Payne himself takes the drug. What we see are gigantic winged gargoyle looking Angels, that all look like shadow creatures and the loom over the city and tear roofs off of the building and make painful screeching sounds. They give the effects of the drug quite a nice visual kick for us. The camera, with quick jilted movements help emphasis what a strange drug trip it is for people.

The good kind of ends there though. The story is muddled and the writing quite terrible. Wahlberg is usually charismatic, but he is lifeless as Payne, some of that is the fact that the character is lifeless, sure, but he could have brought something to it. Kunis is sexy as hell wielding weapons, but she doesn't work as a bad ass, in my opinion. Her voice and body language don't really incite fear the way you want them too. Ludacris, as a cop, sets the rapper turned actor movement back a few years with his dreadful acting. he can't make any of his lines sound fluid or real. Beau Bridges as a confidant of Payne's doesn't really add anything whatsoever and while it was nice to see Chris O' Donnell on screen again, he doesn't get enough screen time to really give us anything worthwhile. In scenes where there isn't action the movie comes to a screeching halt and none of the actors have much chemistry.

Also, if you have a fear of drowning stay away from Max Payne. The movie opens on and comes back to, a scene of Payne struggling to survive in water and it is a violent, visceral experience of what it looks like to drown. The water loudly crashes against his struggling body and he dips under the water and he shoots up trying not to choke on the water. It is a loud, messy and scary moment that sets things in motion very well. The way the camera dips under the water really captured me and put me right in the water with Max. It is moments like this that make me believe there should have been a better movie here. I know movies shouldn't be all action all of the time, but when a director as such a vivid visual style, you kind of wish they could be. John Moore may not know what to do in times of story or character, but he certainly knows how to stage a drugged out high and because of that, I will rate this higher than it maybe deserves.

Final Grade: C+

Religulous

There was a span of about 5 years where Bill Maher and his show, Politically Incorrect, was appointment television for me. I thought that man was hilarious, polarizing, charismatic and asked interesting and thought provoking questions. Then, the show was cancelled and I lost my interest in the man. I think it was two years later when I stumbled on a stand up special of his and after about 3 minutes concluded he had lost it. Nothing was easier at the time than jokes about Priests and young boys, but the entire section I saw was full of those easy jokes. My other point of view going into this movie, is known to those who know me, but for anyone justs tumbling onto this review blog, I should fully disclose that I grew up Mormon (I no longer affiliate with it) and religion has long been an interest of mine.

As far as documentaries go this is a pretty straight forward one. Bill Maher hates religion and interviews people to find out why people buy into it. He talks to Christians, Muslims and Jews. He talks to a Catholic Cardinal, ex-Mormons, Ex-Jews for Jesus, Muslim leaders, a Muslim rapper, Jewish Rabbis and even a guy who believes he is the second coming of Jesus Christ. He talks to black ministers, reformed Gays, Gay Muslims, scientists and a guy who plays Jesus in a reenactment at the Jesus version of Disneyland. He also talks to random people on the street and gets kicked out of the Vatican and The Mormon Temple Square. Maher is a funny interviewer although very combative at times and yes, he is out to trick his interview subjects.

Religulous plays like Borat crossed with Michael Moore movies. Maher attacks easy marks like Borat and incorporates music, cartoons, subtitles and clips from existing sources to make his point in the way Moore does. If you go back and see my Borat review, or have had discussions with me about Borat, you would know, my biggest issue with the movie, aside from not being funny in any way, is that Borat attacked easy targets. We all knew that homophobia exists in the south and that frat boys are misogynistic. When Maher opened this movie talking to a group of Christian Truckers, I thought, "Oh great, here we go again." The fundamental issue with intelligent conversation or debate on religion is that religion is not based in intelligence. That is not to say that only idiots subscribe to religion, it is saying that people who have faith, are led by their faith and not facts trying to prove or not prove the existence of God. It is easy for Maher to make people who have faith look stupid and it is easy for "I have faith" to be a cop-out in a debate. This presents a problem for Maher's interview tactics. He does land some nice punches and he gets people to say stupid things like a U.S Senator saying "You don't have to takes an I.Q test to be a senator."

What Maher should have focused more energy on is the hypocrisy of the commercialization of religion. When he goes there he scores great laughs and great points. He confronts a minister who wears $2,000.00 dollar suits, has lizard skin boots and thousands of dollars worth of bling and wonders if Jesus would be happy about it. The highlight of the movie was the Catholic Cardinal who admitted he hated the excess of the Vatican. The guy was funny, honest and humble. He seemed to "get" his faith in a way so many do not. Maher does contradict himself in one moment though, that bugged me. Maher spends a lot of the movie trying to convince Christians that the bible is a dated book, that it contains things that no longer apply and that to believe 100% something from a book written so long ago maybe is not the best way to go. He makes the point "What else from those ages do we still use?" Well, nothing really. However, when a Muslim woman tells him that she believe the violence spouted by Muhammad was meant only for the days of Muhammad, Maher attacks her by saying, Well the book says it is to be. Maher tries to have it be both ways. Here is an intelligent and peaceful Muslim woman who buys into the theory he spouted to the Christians and he has to attack her. It doesn't work.

Of course, Maher is preaching to the choir in this movie because no real religious person is going to watch it. He makes the point repeatedly that the story of Jesus follows countless ancient myths, like Horus and that religion is man-made solely. Maher doesn't believe in God and he has problems with God because he asks those all too frequent questions "Why would God allow the Holocaust to happen" Or "Why would 9-11 happen?" These are important questions to non-believers and the only answer faith based people can give is that we can never understand God's will. For Maher, those kinds of answers are not even close to sufficient. Towards the end of the movie, Maher loses that sense of humor and goes for the jugular in two impressively written and even more impressively delivered rants aimed square at not just people of faith, but people who do not have faith, but refuse to challenge faith based people. Maher is angry and eloquent all at the same time and his message is clear: Religion, with its violence, intolerance and hypocrisy, is dangerous. If God was not involved any group who practiced such blatant homophobia, violence and monetary hypocrisy would be considered a blight on mankind.

I do want to mention that Religulous is a very funny and interesting movie. I did not mean for this to turn solely on religion, but I also want to say that Maher was not exactly fair and balanced here. He did get intelligent men to debate him and Maher did hold his own and at times best people, but Maher spends an awful long amount of time grouping religion into religious fanaticism. Not all people of faith are out for blood and not all people of faith are homophobic. The religions may have homophobia engraved in the tenets, but not all people who subscribe to religion are fanatics and I am not sure that group was represented well in Maher's skewering of religion. Bill Maher makes so many great points, but at times, he is does get lost in his own mission. Of course, there are times when he doesn't even have to make the jokes because the jokes just happen, like two theme parks- one based solely around the Crucifixion and another by a faith based group out to explain science and the bible co-existing by having animitronic dinosaurs right next to anamitronic children. Those jokes can't be written folks!

Final Grade: B

City of Ember

Books are always better than the movie on which they are based. The most annoying thin g a person can snidely say is "The book was better." Of course the book was better. The book typically has much more time, language and ideas it can get across. Also, the entire action takes place in our mind and no image on a movie screen can compare to the images that flicker in our own imaginations. It is just the way it is. Perhaps then, the best compliment a movie can receive is that the movie made me want to read the book. If a movie based on a book I have not read is a good movie, why wouldn't I want to read the book, if books are always better? I mention this for this movie because I now have a desire to read the book, and maybe even the others in the series.

Ember is an underground city that needs to exist for 200 years. It was built in hopes of maintaining the human race after some unexplained event that wipes out the above world. The city is supposed to last for 200 years and after 200 years a box will open with instructions on how to leave Ember. Each mayor holds onto the box, but something happens after one Mayor's death and the box disappears. I have never seen a movie that so quickly and effectively spanned 200 years. It is a manner of minutes before we are 200 years later in the story. Ember is starting to fall apart, the self sustaining artificial lights are starting to freak out because the generator was only meant to last 200 years, only no one seems to know. The Mayor, Cole(Bill Murray) is a clueless and mean Mayor, who has a giant pot belly, when the rest of Ember is barely scraping by. The story focuses on two young people, Lina Mayfleet(Saoirse Ronan) and Doon(Harry Treadway), who have just been assigned their jobs in Ember. Doon got messenger and Lina got pipeworker, but Doon trades her because he wants to be closer to the generator that he believes he can fix. Lina's younger sister finds the magical box and Lina begins to piece it together trying to figure out what it means. She and Doon quickly realize they are directions to leave Ember, which no one thought existed.

City of Ember is the kind of movie that everyone ignores, but shouldn't. Every year so many movies come out aimed at kids, based on books that have supernatural type flavor and some catch on and some get lost. City of Ember has gotten lost and it doesn't deserve to be lost. Ember moves quickly, features an amazing CGI city (Some of the other CGi miss the mark, admittedly), is thrilling, interesting and complex. Of course, it is also too dark and maybe a bit scary for kids. It is a PG movie in the vein of The Goonies or other adventure movies. I am not saying it is comparable to The Goonies, but it is similarly themed. The two young stars are both good here and Bill Murray and Tim Robbins add a nice adult presence. Murray doesn't deliver the laughs you might expect from him, but he facilitates the villain role well enough. Robbins has become a master at playing disaffected weirdos and here he adds another character to that genre of characters. Ember is a dark movie and doesn't offer the kind of escapism people are looking for as we watch Ember go through the hardships of an economic downturn and the citizens are in constant fear during the very scary blackout sequences. It seems that the soul or spirit of humanity has been lost as these underground citizens remain unsure of what is going on.

There are many unanswered questions that I think will annoy people, but I kind of enjoyed that aspect. We never find out what happened above ground that caused the demolition of the human race. Whatever it is, it may have been the cause of turning small animals into giant animals. We see a giant bee and a mole looking creature that is botrh impressive and very scary looking, with these weird tentacle looking things and a nasty appetite. The ending will also probably provoke questions, which I think is a good thing. Is the ending happy? One could make that argument, but there is still so much left about which to be curious. I know that a young person movie has to wrap up in time for kids not to get squirrelly, so I am sure some of the stuff got left on the cutting room floor. But I have so many questions. I want to know more. I need to know more. I was even hypnotized by the crisp sound in the movie. Throughout the whole movie you could hear the water dripping from the tiniest corner of the frame. It is mesmerizing for me.

It is not all that often that a movie aimed at young people gets me these days. Pixar being the exception of course. However, City of Ember has me interested. I want more time in that dark and dirty city. I want to know more about how the whole thing works. The movie leaves some to be desired, but it also has made me care enough to know more. I want to know why English hasn't seemed to change much in 200 years, but the names have gotten stranger. Maybe I am over-thinking it (Me, NO, NEVER!), but I am fully committed to this idea of an underground city that has a very cool and elaborate way out. And to me, that signals that the movie did its job of thrilling and entertaining me. I was never bored and when it was over, I felt relief, sort of. Oh and if you need more of a reason to see it, the woman who wrote Edward Scissorhands and Nightmare before Christmas wrote the script, so you know it is interesting.

Final Grade: B+

Ghost Town

I would not classify myself as a fan of Ricky Gervais. I never watched the British version of The Office, and what I watched of Extras was only funny due to the cameos(Check out Kate Winslett's episode) and what little I have seen of him in the movies- Night at the Museum- has left a bit to be desired. To be honest, if I was not working at a theater where I got to watch this movie for free, I probably never would have seen it. It received pretty good reviews, but my parents thought it was bland and my dad is probably the easiest person to please with a movie (Other than Shayne), so that didn't exactly make me want to run out and watch it. However, after studying for midterms I wanted an escape and it came in the form of Ghost Town.

Bertrum Pincus(Gervais) is a dentist who hates everything and everyone. Can you blame him, his name is Bertrum Pincus, after all. He is on schedule to undergo a colonoscopy but he refuses to get it without anesthesia. The next day he wakes up and heads home, but he starts to notice that people are following him. These people keep claiming "Wait, you can see me?" Pincus believes something happened that has left him with hallucinations and when he gets back to the hospital he find out he died for seven minutes, or a bit less. When he came back he could start seeing ghosts. These ghosts cannot leave Earth because they have unfinished business here. One in particular, Frank Herlihy(Greg Kinnear)buddies up to Pincus and promises him he will get the rest of the ghosts to leave him alone if Pincus can convince Herlihy's widow, Gwen( Tea Leoni), to break off her engagement to her new man. Frank is convinced the new man is just after her money. Pincus agrees to help by putting himself into Gwen's life. It turns out Gwen lives in his building and has tried to be nice to Pincus many times and was met with a bad attitude. Through a series of cute and pretty funny dates or meet-cute's Gwen starts to enjoy the company Pincus provides. Frank starts to get jealous and he is also feeling guilty for cheating on Gwen. It turns out though that Gwen's new man is actually a good guy and not a bad man like Frank convinced Pincus he was. Pincus tries to take himself out of Gwen's life. It is a romantic comedy so it is not hard to see the outcome, but with these kinds of movies it is not so much the destination that makes them.

Ghost Town is certainly in the upper echelon of romantic comedies. Neither Gervais or Leoni come across as typical RomCom type actors and that helps keep this movie more fresh than most. Gervais is an absolute riot as the curmudgeon, but he also does a pretty good job with the sweeter side of the character. he captures the loneliness perfectly and we feel sorry for Pincus even as he is a jerk to everyone. Leoni does a wonderful job with a more physical kind of comedy and she has a warm presence and it is easy to believe that she can fall in love with Pincus because she comes across as loving a guy who makes her laugh. Kinnear for his part glides effortlessly through a character that is essentially the villain of the story until the end. He is a self absorbed jerk and Kinnear, in his nice tuxedo plays the role perfectly. But, the biggest laughs are provided by Kristen Wiig as the doctor performing Pincus' colonscopy. This woman (Saturday Night Live) has probably the best comic timing I have ever seen from a woman in movies. I know that is bold, but she was in two scenes in Knocked up and was memorable and in this she has three scenes and they are the best moments in the movie. She is a shining comedic character actress and hopefully she will continue to build on these types of roles.

David Koepp, who wrote and directed this movie handles the director duties well, considering he usually writes and directs thrillers- Secret Window, Trigger Effect, Stir of Echoes. His dialog hits the cliches it is supposed to hit, but he also has a few nice gems in there that I wish I could have written down for this review. I would like to believe that Koepp wrote a majority of the great awkwardly comic moments, but my guess is Gervais had a big hand in shaping where the movie went. He lends himself to that style of comedy and it suits him. Gervais is probably more at home when he can contribute to the dialog because he seems to have a small niche of what he is capable of doing. Well, this is right in his wheel house.

Of course, there is the whole ghost thing. Anytime a movie exists where a guy talks to ghosts it opens itself up to that broad kind of comedy where everyone else sees this guy talking to himself and Ghost Town does not avoid that, but for some reason it came off as funny here when it usually just seems dated. Perhaps my mood going in made me like the movie more than I would have, because I just needed an escape, but there are some great laughs. Also, it is about ghosts, which is always cool. I think there is almost enough for two full movies here, but instead they crammed most of the ghost resolves into your easily digestible movie montage. It leaves a bit to be desired because we actually feel a bit invested with our ghostly characters and we don't get to see how much of it plays out.

I was not expecting much of Ghost Town and was pleasantly surprised. There are 4 or 5 scenes where the comedy is so excellent I could be heard laughing from outside of the theater. Gervais, while maybe not a diverse comedic actors, is excellent in this role and the movie avoids enough of thew romantic comedy cliches that it seems fresh enough. I don't do a whole lot of RomCom watching, but this is one I can recommend to people.

FInal Grade: B

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a former professor of mine about this movie. He thought that he was just too old for a movie like this and the whole thing would just annoy him. I thought it was an interesting statement, considering my professor loves the John Cusak 1980s comedies and make no mistake, Michael Cera is John Cusak. I mean see the point of view my professor has, the movie is chalk full of this too-cool-for-school hipster attitude and a soundtrack that is equal parts charming and annoyingly indie. However, if you want to see where young Hollywood is headed this is the movie to see because Cera and Kat Dennings are the two people to watch right now.

Nick(Cera) opens the movie leaving a message for Triss(Alexis Dziena) lamenting their break up. His attempts to win her back, creating mix Cd's, is a losing cause as Triss just tosses the Cd's, but they find their way into Norah's hands. Norah(Dennings) falls in love with the mixes and through a chance encounter she makes out with Nick before finding out who he is. This sets off a chain of events that are plotted around the search for a concert from a band that rarely plays live. Nick's friends, Thom and Dev, coax Norah into hanging out with Nick and try to get Nick over Triss because Triss is an evil she-witch. With Nick and Norah in the same car, Nick cannot stop talking about Triss, without ever realizing how cool the girl in the car with him is. Norah is a solid friend, always babying her drunk mess of a friend, Caroline(Ari Graynor) and Nick and Norah have the exact same taste in music. Nick and Norah seems perfect for each other and everyone seems to know it except Nick.

Nick and Norah is a movie that is probably funnier than it should be because, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings both have exceptional comic timing and find a way to make most of their banter funny, even if you aren't sure the dialog is funny. The soundtrack, full of Vampire Weekend type bands did bug the crap out of me, but the movie is so funny and full of so much earnest cuteness it is hard to fault it. Ari Graynor as the drunk mess friend gets an insane amount of laughs and gets many points from me for not being afraid of getting down and dirty, drooling, snoring and even putting her hand in dirty toilet water. The ongoing gum joke doesn't ever lose its comedy, which is rare for jokes that last so long. Cera and Dennings make such an amazing couple you kind of hope they star in all kinds of movies together. Cera really shines, in a role that is much more brooding than his other two big roles and he proves he can carry a movie. He is on screen in just about every scene and never looks overwhelmed. He really is one to watch.

Yes, at times it feels like the movie thinks it is more clever than it really is, but I tend to like movies like that so it works for me. I like that Nick's friends are gay without it being a big deal at all. I think it says something about where we are headed in the movies. The friends didn't have to be gay, but they are and it is just accepted without them being overly stereotypically gay. That is always a nice thing to see. The jokes about Nick's yellow Yugo being a cab are a bit lame, but all the other jokes about the Yugo hit pretty well for nice laughs. There is something here for anyone as the girls swoon over Cera's ridiculous sweetness and the guys have a handful of beautiful women to look at and the humor itself transcends gender. There is nothing particularly new about what happens in the movie, but it manages to seem fresh for the most part and I appreciated that about it.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist will not win any awards and it isn't even one of the funniest movies of the year, but it rises above so many romantic comedies revolving around young people because it actually got good actors to fill the roles. It sets the two stars on a nice path for stardom and really sets Cera up as the John Cusak of this new generation, which is never a bad thing to be.

Final Grade: B

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

There is a question posed in this movie that requires much thought: Would you give Megan Fox a cherished ring your dead mother left you, if Ms. Fox promised to have sex with you? Marinate on that for a bit, especially guys and lesbians.

Sidney Young(Simon Pegg) has always been obsessed with celebrity, but he lives to tear it down, mock it while wanting to be part of it. He runs a little magazine in England, where he tries to get into exclusive parties pretending to be the car taker for the pig who will star in Babe 3. One night he crashes the party of Sharps magazine and a big to do its made. The next morning, the man who runs Sharps, Clayton Harding(Jeff Bridges) offers Sidney a job on Sharps. Sidney shows up for day one in a t-shirt that reads "Young, dumb and full of come." He is not a brilliant guy. He desires to turn Sharps from celebrity worship to celebrity mocking. At Sharps he is the low man and answers to Alison Olsen(Kirsten Dunst). She appears to be the only one who can put up with Sidney's brand of obnoxious humor. Sidney is going nowhere int he magazine because he refuses to conform and give a celebrity publicist(Gillian Anderson looking amazing) final cut on his articles about her clients. However, when Sidney meets, a young and hot actress, Sophia Maes(Megan Fox), things change and he has to get next to her. Slapstick ensues and some love matches keep missing each other and Sidney finally makes it to the top, in a sad little montage that feels beneath the movie. He gets where he wants to get or does he?

So, were you thinking about the question posed because the movie kind of starts there and then the big climax happens as a result. Could you give up a family heirloom for a night of sex with Megan Fox? Sidney Young thinks so, and it is not difficult to see why. Megan Fox, all sexy pouty lips and that body, struts around this movie like the hottest thing ever. She always has some descent comic timing, although I suspect the dumb act wasn't difficult for her. Simon Pegg was kind of born to play roles like this as he has brilliantly subtle comic delivery, but is also adept at physical comedy and there are plenty of pratfalls for Pegg to do. He and Kirsten Dunst have a very nice easy chemistry which is good because the movie kind of revolves around the two of them becoming friends. Jeff Bridges doesn't have much to do, but he does a pretty good job and looks to be having fun with the role, which is nice in a movie like this.

"How to Lose" offers much in the way of laughs, especially in the first half, but it does lag in the final act, as we all know where it will eventually go. I think ti could have been shorter and perhaps tighter, but it still offers some great moments, unfortunately a few of the better laughs were blown in the trailer. There is a hilarious fight towards the end and Simon Pegg going on and on about this really sucky director never fails to make me laugh. With Hollywood being ripe for all kinds of satire or parody, I hoped this would be a bit more biting and maybe if I was in the magazine business, I would think it was biting, but it seemed a bit soft for my tastes in terms of satire. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did. It kept one shoe on the entire movie. How uncomfortable!

Simon Pegg makes the movie worth my time because he is quite funny and he makes the most out of the material given to him and he proves he can carry a movie without the help of his usual co-workers, although he seems to work better with those guys. The movie is a little sweeter than I would have expected and not as biting. However, it has posed a question I will think about for eternity: What would I give up for the chance to have sex with Megan Fox?

Final Grade: C+

Flash of Genius

There is an inherent problem with this movie: it is about windshield wipers. There is no getting around that it presents a lack of interest from the get go. No matter what you do with the script or acting, it remains a movie whose focus is on the windshield wiper. It hardly seems like the kind of story worthy for the big screen. I mean we all use our windshield wipers, but we don't, as a collective, spend too much time pondering the windshield wiper and why should we? The wipers are like sporting referees, if they are doing their job we never notice them. However, here we are presented with a movie that takes the concept of the windshield wiper very seriously. So with that bias going in, how can a movie like this succeed?

On his way home from church on a rainy day, inventor/college professor Bob Kearns(Greg Kinnear) wonders out loud to his wife and 6 kids why there can't be speed changes on a windshield wiper. He thinks that wipers should work like eye lids, blink faster if needed and not much if not needed. Then a few minutes later in movie time, he has created a way for a windshield wiper to pause between wipes and even speed up. He puts together a business proposal and soon is taking the product to Ford to show them he did it. He wants to manufacture the product himself and sell it to Ford for them to put on cars, but after waiting a while Ford rejects the proposal and that was that. Well, until Kearns sees Ford cars using his technology. He needs to sue them. He needs validation for all of the (off screen) work he did on it. In doing so, he pushes his business partner/friend away. He ostracizes himself from his wife and his eldest child resents him. He spends time in a mental facility and reverts to stealing off of cars to try and prove his point. But, he does get his day in court.

So, can a movie about the windshield wiper be interesting, not really. The team of writers, directors and actors do their damnedest and should be applauded for their efforts, really, but in the end, there is something missing that is key to movies- the big event. I guess you could classify this as a character study, but whose character is being studied? The Kearns character? I guess, but there isn't a real character change there, except for aging, which deserves recognition- the make up and adding of pounds was quite exceptional. Kinnear gives a very winning performance, but the characters of Kearns character lacks a zany or wacky or fun personality. He feels like your uncle, your average every day uncle. As the wife, Lauren Graham, the picture of modern and classic beauty, does what she can, but it is a pretty typical character to be playing. I spent the entire movie waiting for something major to happen- something tragic, or interesting, or happy- but it never came. Every so often the movie would jump ahead a few years in time, but essentially the same stuff would continue to happen.

When Kearns finally gets his day in court, I will admit the movie perks up a little bit, but only because Kearns is representing himself because no lawyer will take on Ford. The awkward comedy that comes from a non-lawyer trying to be a lawyer works but the best scene is when Kearns has to call himself as a witness. I am not sure if he did it in real life, but on film it is funny to hear him ask and answer his own questions. The movie is trying to make a point about standing up for the voiceless or the little man against big companies and there is some passing mention to other inventors who were robbed of their inventions, and I believe it to be a worthy cause but it is only touched on without going into much detail about the whole thing.

I am glad I watched the movie because Kinnear is quite good with what he has, but ultimately this is a movie that did not need to be made. Yes, the verdict and everything else is a nice story, but it isn't really worthy of the big screen when it is all said and done. I doubt anyone will remember this story a few days after watching the movie. Maybe that is sad for us as we take these little inventions for granted, but it is the world in which we live.

Final Grade: C

Eagle Eye

Shia LaBeouf seems bullet proof. No matter what he does in his life, on screen he shines. He is the opposite of most child actors. He can get arrested for stupid shit, get in 2a.m car accidents and it just bounces off of him as he goes to shoot these big movies. He stars in summer blockbuster franchises and starred in one of 2007's biggest surprises, Disturbia, which in the words of Robbie, had no business being as good as it was. He is Speilberg's golden boy. The heir to the thrones once owned by Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. In one year he went from the next big thing, to the now big thing. When Eagle Eye opened to nearly 30 million dollars in September he proved he can open a picture without robots or Indiana Jones. He is the new Will Smith. I mention all of this because your joy in Eagle Eye will probably rest upon what you think of the man who once was known as Louis Stevens.

Jerry Shaw is a man just barely scraping by in life. He is ducking rent and winning money at poker. He has less than 80 dollars to his name and to top it off, his brother has just died, his twin brother. After the funeral, he has a confrontation with his father that ends badly, but we find out Jerry was the black sheep and his twin brother was in the Air Force and the all American boy before being killed in a car accident. The next day Jerry has over $700,000.00 in his account and his apartment is chalk full of explosives and war equipment. He gets a phone call that tells him the F.B.I is on the way, and when he is captured by the F.B.I the voice tells him how to escape. He is ordered to go to a car. In that car is Rachel Holloman(Michelle Monaghan) who has been ordered by the same voice to follow orders or her child will be killed. Jerry and Rachel begin to drive everywhere doing what they are told. Their tasks include sticking up an armored truck all while being watched by someone. The F.B.I is still on their tails as is the Air Force. I cannot really say anything else for fear of giving too much away, but the twist certainly spins the movie in a whole other direction.

Eagle Eye has a summer movie sensibility in the end of September. I think the only thing that made this not a summer release is that it is so dark in tone and bleak in its cynicism. It is also trying to make a point, which is a typical no-no for summer fare. However, there is a bomb ass car chase, a few fights, more chases, explosions, crazy set pieces and Shia, which all point to summer. It is a movie that is a lot of fun and it movies along at such brisk pace that it doesn't allow you to stop and think about how ludicrous the whole thing is, which is a Good thing. Of course, it is utterly ridiculous how it all plays out, but who cares when you are on the edge of your seat during the thrills? Exactly, no one!

Shia has mastered the art of running in the movies. He runs from danger or towards danger than just about anyone ever has. He is flawlessly good in these types of action movies. Michelle Monaghan does her best job at keeping up and their chemistry is pretty good and the writers did a pretty good job with their dialog. I enjoyed getting to know the two characters and watching them get developed at least a little bit during the course of the movie. I enjoyed watching Jerry starts as a guy who lets things happen and then transform into a guy who makes things happen. I also enjoyed being in the dark through most of the movie as to why these two were picked. Maybe I should have picked up on it sooner, I don't know. Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Embry and Michael Chiklis are all good in their supporting roles and Thornton's scene of chasing Shia and Michelle through the airport is one of the standouts in my opinion.

Many movies are made about how technology so maybe Eagle Eye is not totally original, but what it does with the story is interesting, so at least it dealt with common territory in an interesting way. D.J Caruso (The director) is making a nice career for himself by directing Shia in movies produced by Steven Speilberg. Not a bad way to go about things, right? He also directed some great episodes of The Shield and he is still on the come up. He paces this movie perfectly, giving just enough for us to breathe in between chases or other action stunts. No, it is not a perfect movie, but it is an enjoyable thrill ride and sometimes that is all that matters.

There is this thought I see in reviews and on Message boards these days that say we aren't supposed to just have fun watching a movie anymore, but Eagle Eye bucks that notion. It is a fast, fun and thrilling movie that can take your mind away for two hours. Sure, Shia isn't quite ready for the beard thingy he is rockin in the movie, but he knows exactly how to maneuver through a movie like this and it takes a certain talent to do so. Yes, I would like him to try his hand at something a little meatier next time, to show he is an actual actor, but for now, sit back, strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. It really is a good time to be had.

Final Grade: B

Choke

I don't recall exactly how long ago it was when I read the book on which this movie is based. I also don't vividly recall the details of the book because I remember not loving it. I remember thinking the book fell apart in the final act, which is fairly common for books by Chuck Palahnuik, in my opinion. Of course, I am a hardcore believer in separating the source material from the movie. I think each has to be judged on their own merits. I was curious to see this movie mostly because it was written and directed by a first timer(Clark Gregg) whose day job is to be an actor. (I know him from Aaron Sorkin t.v. shows, but he was in Ironman this summer) I was curious how a first timer would handle such an odd movie topic. Would he be fresh and exciting, or would it overwhelm him?

Victor Mancini(Sam Rockwell) is a despicable kind of human being. He is a sex addict who cuts out of Sex addict anonymous meetings to have sex. In order to make extra money he goes to restaurants and pretends to choke on food and when someone saves him, the savior feels responsible for him and sends him money every year. In his day job, he is a performer in a reenactment of a old style village. He lives for the orgasm because it is the one moment of life where he feels nothing at all. He thinks it is bliss. He has sex with every female that walks. His best friend, Denny(Brad William Henke) is addicted to masturbation and together they live miserable lives. In his free time, Victor goes to visit his mother(Angelica Houston) who is living in a facility for sick old women and doesn't know Victor is Victor. She always thinks he is a lawyer or some other random person. In a series of flashbacks, we see that Victor and his mom had a rough relationship and he was in and out of Foster care because his mother was getting arrested all of the time. Victor is dying to know who his father is and finds her diary to figure it out. Victor gets close to a doctor on staff, Paige Marshall(Kelly McDonald)and he wants to have sex with her, but he cannot get it up for her. He thinks it means he is falling in love with her. Victor cannot read the diary because it is in Italian, but Dr. Marshall can read Italian and finds out that Victor may be a direct spawn of Jesus Christ himself.

In the movie sounds absolutely absurd it is. I didn't even mention the friend falling in love with a stripper and collecting rocks to beat his masturbation addiction. There is an interesting twist towards the end of the film that shakes things up but, to be honest I was expecting or hoping for more from Choke. It has all the elements but something was missing in the execution. It can be hilarious (any scene involving their day job at the village) and it can be serious, (Victor with his mother) but there is a disconnect somewhere for me. I wanted to love the movie and I only ended up liking it okay. It only runs 95 minutes long, but I was so sure it was about 2 hrs long when it was over. It just lags, especially in the flashbacks, which needed to be a lot more interesting considering how time we spend watching them.

That being said, Sam Rockwell is just phenomenal as Victor. He seems to have been born to play the part of the sexually immature character. He is smooth and fast talking and just the right amount of damaged for us to believe him in every moment. He comes off as vulnerable in the right moments and while I think the character is loathsome, he made it all partly endearing in moments. Houston does a great job as the senile mother, but I wish she had been given more to do with the flashbacks, instead of standard mean mother type stuff. Clark Gregg also playing the part of the lord of the old village provides some of the best laughs in the movie, hands down.

There are certainly interesting aspects to the story in regards to why Victor is the way he is. He believes if he just finds his father he will know why he is emotionally stunted. He thinks all of his problems could disappear if he knew why. Instead of actively working at changing, like his friend, Victor's quest to find out this information just makes the whole thing worse. His constant need for sex destroys his humanity, but in his mind it is the only thing that keeps him grounded. The script does a fairly good job at representing that, although I had hoped it would have a bit more bite to it.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to many people, except to watch Rockwell totally own the character and movie and maybe to anyone who likes to watch quick 5 second flashes of sex in the movies because this is full of those. Choke has flashes of great material, but it wanders around for far too long a time to make use of the great stuff it has.

Final Grade: B-

Towelhead

There was controversy surrounding this movie long before it ever came out because of the title. After watching it I was surprised the controversy did not come from what actually happens in the movie. When the movie started there were 9 people in the theater, by the time it was over I was the only one left. People just cannot handle this kind of subject matter. The title, though, is actually pretty fitting for the story being told.

Jasira(Summer Bishil) is a 13 year old girl experiencing her sexual awakening. While babysitting a neighbor boy, she catches the neighbor looking through dirty magazines; she is fascinated by them. One day while looking through one, she starts rocking back and forth and rubbing her legs and it gives her an orgasm. Soon, she is giving herself orgasms in class, at lunch and anywhere else she can get away with it. Jasira, a Lebanese girl, comes from a very strict household. Her father has turned to Christianity and loathes anything non American, but he is not willing to teach Jasira anything, just slap her around when she does something wrong, or wears something inappropriate. This leads to her turning to her neighbor, Travis(Aaron Eckhart). Travis is a father and a husband and unnervingly attracted to Jasira. He doesn't come off lecherous at first, but he is sexually drawn to the young girl. He lets Jasira take some of his magazines home with her and is looking to take advantage of her naivete in the ways of sex. One night he crosses the line, but Jasira doesn't know what to do with it. Instead she turns to a classmate to fulfill her sexual desires. However, she is still drawn to her elder Neighbor. She puts herself in the position to be alone with him, asking him out to dinner and things like that. Soon another neighbor, Melina(Toni Collette) catches on to what is going on and sees Jasira needs a mother figure. She also sees Jasira needs guidance in the ways of sexuality so she buys her a book. All hell starts to break loose when her father finds the magazines and it leads to quite a climatic final half hour.

Right after the opening credits, Jasira is standing in a shower in a bikini with her mother's boyfriend shaving her pubic area. Later there is a close up ona bloody tampon. The orgasms Jasira has are probably longer than is comfortable. The scene where she is manually raped is long and graphic and unsettling. These are all scenes that were followed by people walking out. I get it, I mean I get walking out when faced with something uncomfortable. However, the movie makes sense. While the movie is called Towelhead, so it leads one to believe it will be all about race, it is really about what happens when parents do not talk to their children about sex. If Jasira's parents had taught her things, there is a chance Jasira never would have wanted those magazines and the neighbor man wouldn't have seen her as sexual prey. Or, if they had taught her, maybe she would have spoken up about the rape and not have that kind of thing happen again. Yes, race factors in as Jasira is constantly called a towelhead or Camel Jockey and her father will not let her be with a black kid because he thinks it makes her look bad to American society, but be clear, this movie is about the startling sexual awakening of a young girl.

Towelhead is a very well made movie in terms of structure and performances. Aaron Eckhart is the perfect amount of slimy suburban dad and everyone else shines as well. However, in her very big screen debut is outstanding. She conveys the innocence and curiosity of Jasira perfectly. She lights up the screen with her presence and is certainly fearless in this movie. It would not work without such a strong lead performance and Summer does such a great job. Yes, it is a big messy movie and I do not blame anyone who wants to stay away and I do not blame anyone for walking out, it is meant to be that kind of movie. It is meant to be in our collective faces, but for the most part it works.

My only complaints about the movie are about writer/director Alan Ball. Ball who wrote a brilliant script for American Beauty seems a bit off his game here. He was comfortable writing from the Suburban dad perspective, but his usual wit and charm are mostly missing from Towelhead. Those elements would have made the pauses between shocking scenes a little easier to stomach, but maybe it was intentional to leave them out. Also, as a first time director, sometimes he seems overwhelmed by the material. At times it feels like he is so in love with his words, he just wants to point and shoot, but this doesn't seem like that kind of movie. I wanted a little more from the camera work.

Towelhead is a tough movie to sit through and it misses its mark at times, but a great breakout performance from Summer and an interesting story that should serve as a warning to non-communicative parents make it ultimately a good movie. I am sure the controversy will always overshadow the actual movie, which is too bad, but understandable.

Final Grade: B

My Best Friend's Girl

Originally I thought about taking my Good Luck Chuck review, copying and pasting it and changing every mention of Jessica Alba to Kate Hudson. I mean, the movies looked to be essentially the same thing right? Dane Cook does something with women that helps them find love and he falls sometimes. The trailers show the star girl stripping to her underwear cut with scenes of Cook mugging for the camera and then falling. One has to wonder if every September will bring a new Dane Cook "Romantic comedy" in his version of the Sandler summer. Of course, I kid. I mean these movies promise to be very different. The problem is that while I find his stand up comic routine quite hilarious, Cook has only been good in one movie, and it wasn't even a funny one!

Tank(Cook) is your average every day guy. He sells air purifiers for a living, he has a best friend and he dates. What makes him different is that he "tanks" dates for money. Guys pay him to take out their exes so the girls will come running back realizing what they are missing. The movie opens on such a date. Tank plays a vulgar song on his stereo, talks on his phone to a pretend ex of his. He says he didn't know it was a girl friend's sister he nailed because it was dark. We get the joke. Dusty(Jason Biggs) is Tank's cousin and best friend and he has a problem. The girl he loves, Alexis(Hudson), broke up with him because he proclaimed his love far too quickly. Dusty hires Tank. Tank sets up a meet/cute, playing off the romantic comedy cliche. Alexis and Tank set up a date. Enter problem number 1, Alexis has been convinced by her whoreish roommate that she needs to loosen up and bang Tank. Alexis starts the date off drunk, so she is immune to Tank's usual tricks. She invites him up, but he leaves. However, Alexis doesn't go back to Dusty so Dusty sets up Tank and Alexis to go out again. This time Tank cannot control himself and sex occurs. Dusty decides it is better to be friends with Alexis than nothing at all and soon he realizes she is seeing someone. Of course, Tank is that person. Alexis and Tank are not exactly dating though, they are just bed buddies. Tank wants more. Problem 2: Dusty show sup one night while Tank and Alexis is fooling around. Tank convinces Alexis to go ona real date. They become a couple. Problem 3: Alexis takes Tank to her sister's wedding and the sister is the girl from the beginning of the movie that Tank went out with. Tank believes he is holding Alexis back so he has to tank the wedding. Will they work it out? Who knows?!

This is the first movie where Cook shows what makes him a great on stage performer. Here is a movie where his "Tank" persona is quite like his stage persona and in the two scenes where he is tanking dates, the movie is quite funny. The wedding scene in particular has some great very funny moments. They are also the moments that make the movie rated R, in the trend of R Rated comedies. Tank is a fast talker and Cook is in his wheel house there. If this movie had been made 5 years ago it probably would have starred Vince Vaughn, but Vaughn comes off a lot more likable than Cook does, which kind of is a problem for Cook's good guy ploys. Yes, the prom scene is genuinely sweet and charming, but other than that, the movie misses its mark by a long shot. Most of the comedy is supposed to be mined by shock value, but it isn't all that shocking. Jason Biggs as a masturbation addict, how so very Nineties of them! Biggs has made a career of being addicted to porn. Kate Hudson, who is somehow considered an A-list star, continues to evade me. I do not get Kate Hudson. She is cute enough, I guess, but she isn't really funny, which would be a good thing to be, in a comedy. Am I nitpicking for wanting a comedy to be funny? I do not think so.

I am not even sure the general public is going to find much of this stuff funny. I saw the movie four days ago and I am already missing giant chunks of it. I do know there are no less than 2 montages where a male character has a messy house. I do know that the sex is strictly pg-13. The script is surely a piece of crap considering the only funny moments in the movie existed when Cook was improvising. The wedding scene was straight out of the Dane Cook playbook and that is why they worked. I am not sure I believe Cook to be a comedy leading man or a romantic leading man, but I will say I would rather watch him on screen than Matthew Maconaghey. I know that is not exactly saying much, but it is what it is.

Also, the movie is called My Best Friend's Girl and The Cars once wrote a song called "My Best Friend's Girl." It makes sense to feature such a song in this movie. The director realizes this so he decides he should put it in the movie 4 damn times! The worst offense being putting it in the final scene, then dropping it for the 2 minute coda and then re-starting the damn song for the credits. WE GET IT! It is a little on the nose don't you think? Never mind the fact that the girl is only his best friend's for the first 10 minutes of the movie. There are better places to get your Dane Cook fix, if you so desire it. I can not in good faith ever tell anyone to watch this. I am sure Tank's ten steps for ruining a date will be on Youtube in a few months and you can watch the only moment worth watching for free.

Final Grade: D

Lakeview Terrace

I am not sure if I am just dense or maybe I thought it would possible to have not have it be a big deal, but I was not expecting this movie to make such a big deal about the interracial coupling. I probably should have expected it, but I never did and it turns out to be the main focus of the movie overall. In fact, race is pretty much the only thing about the movie. I am sure there will be movies that exist where a black and white relationship can exist on screen without it being a main point of the story, but this is clearly not that movie. Lakeview Terrace is certainly out to show that we have not come as far as we would like to think as a country.

Chris(Patrick Wilson) and Lisa(Kerry Washington)are a young married couple who have just purchased their first house in an upper scale gated community. They seem very happy and progressive as Chris drives a Prius and they want to help the world. Their next door neighbor is a cop, Abel Turner(Samuel L. Jackson)and Turner has two kids. It is very obvious from opening moments that Abel is not what he seems. Within moments of realizing his new neighbors are an inter racial couple, Abel has decided to make their lives miserable. It starts off as only slightly menacing but before the movie is over, it has become a full fledged illegal harassment. We do spend a little time with Abel on his job, and it is clear he is an unstable man. At home he is not much different. He rules his two children with an iron fist, even slapping his 15 yr old daughter in the most chilling and uncomfortable scene in the movie. Chris, at first, tries to reason with Abel, then he defies him, then he tries to exact his revenge on him. Throughout the film, Lisa, thinks Chris is maybe stereotyping the black man. Lisa also wants a child and Chris isn't ready, but she takes matters into her own hand. Lisa's dad appears to hate Chris and while we never meet Chris' family, Lisa is sure they hate her. This disharmony starts to eat away at the once happy couple.

Lakeview Terrace is a movie that was mishandled at the promotional level. The previews make the movie out to be this over-the-top nonsense with fires and yelling and what-not, but it really is not that kind of movie, until the end. Set against a backdrop of a Southern California fire, Lakeview Terrace is an interesting movie for the first 75% before falling into the trap of revenge style flicks. It sets up the premise nicely and manages to be pretty engrossing, mostly due to Sam Jackson and Patrick Wilson. Both men are strong, although Wilson seems a bit over-matched, but who isn't next to Jackson as a bad ass. Director Neil Labute, known for more intimate character dramas, does a pretty good job of keeping the movie intimate even when the script calls for the movie to get out of control. He does lose control of the picture, but that is mostly a script issue. The first third plays a lot more light hearted, more mischievous than menacing, and then at a very specific moment the movie has a tonal shift that sends it straight into a very intense drama.

My biggest complaint, other than the out of control ending, is that Kerry Washington never gets the chance to confront her neighbor/tormentor. In a movie that is all about how hard it is for a white guy and a black girl to be together, it would have been nice if the black female got to stand up for herself to her black attacker. Washington is a strong actress and this part was just calling for her own big scene. Sadly, they never give it to her. Of course, there is the obvious symbol/metaphor of the big fire that seems to be closing in on Lakeview Terrace as the intensity ignites, until the climax is had as the fires are right on top of the terrace. It seems a little on the nose, but I guess it works. It is nice to have fires blazing behind Jackson as he plots on how to now kill his neighbors. I was disappointed in the ending as it left me with a big question and a concern for any children.

Movies will often try and humanize the villain and Lakeview Terrace tries and fails at it. They give Abel a wife who was killed in a car accident and leave him with 2 kids, but it isn't enough for me to feel sympathetic to him. He hates this couple for seemingly no logical reason and he seems to have no regard for the well being of his children, so why did they give him a dead wife? Why try to humanize a character that is going to spin so far out of control. Jackson was in another movie that had a similar idea, Changing Lanes. It was a movie about two good people who set each other off into a tail spin of revenge, but in that movie, both characters were sympathetic and you could see why they went where they went. Here, Jackson is evil just because he is supposed to be evil.

Lakeview Terrace offers up some interesting insights to race of all kinds and doesn't back off of making politically incorrect notions of race, but when it abandons that idea, it falters and leaves the audience with the wrong kinds of questions. The male performances are strong, but the female lead is left with little to do but be scared. I didn't expect anything out of the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised, but once they hooked me, I wish they did more to reel me in.

Final Grade: C+

Burn after Reading

I want to begin by saying, this is one of the most difficult reviews I have ever written.

The Coen Brothers are movie nerd idols. They have created amazing comedies and amazing dramas/thrillers. They won their first Oscar last year for the incredible No Country for Old Men and wasted no time getting back to work. Instead of trying to recapture the No Country for Old Men themes, they went as far away from it as possible. The trailers certainly showed that much. With Hollywood Heavyweights Brad Pitt and George Clooney at their disposal, the Coens wanted to go back to being goofy. But, are they able to do it? Do they recapture the goofiness so prevalent in their comedies?

Osborne Cox(John Malkovich) has just been demoted by the CIA for his drinking problem; instead of accepting that he quits. He decides he is going to write a memoir and the disc including his notes is left at a gym where Chad(Brad Pitt) and Linda(Frances McDormand) find it and decide they want to get some money for returning it. They do think it is highly classified material after all. When the exchange goes horribly, and hilariously wrong, Chad and Linda take it to the Russians. Linda wants money for cosmetic surgery because she thinks she needs to be hotter for romantic reasons. She finds dates on-line and finds Harry(George Clooney). Harry is married and is sleeping with Katie Cox(The ice queen Tilda Swinton) who is Osborne's wife. He is now sleeping with Linda as well. He is a very unhappy guy, who seems to love his wife, but cannot control himself. He is also building something in his basement and the reveal of that is probably the most out loud you will laugh in the movie. Every so often, the CIA pops back up to kind of try and explain what is going on, but the story only gets more confusing from there. People die and double cross and in the end no one is really sure what happened, but isn't that the Coen way, really?

Burn after Reading is not the kind of movie I really can recommend even though I loved it. it is rarely a laugh out loud kind of movie, but it is a chuckle silently movie, but the chuckles are endless. Brad Pitt is funnier than he will probably ever be. It is a more supporting role than the trailers will lead you to believe, but every time he is on screen, I was chuckling. Everything he does or says is funny and I would like to see him used more in light hearted fare. Clonney is totally affable and funny, but he is at his best in the very last moment you see him. The look on his face and his line delivery right at the end offer up some of the biggest laughs you are likely to get. The star, though, is John Malkovich. Profanity spewing, alcohol swilling and shouting are the only things he really does, but everything about it is funny. He gives a very mannered performance, which would be annoying in a more serious movie, but in a outlandish and broad comedy like this, it works to a hilt. The women, Swinton and McDormand, are both excellent even if I spent the whole movie wondering if Tilda Swinton was sexy or not. I still cannot decide. She does play icy very well and McDormand, in a role completely lacking any sort of vanity adds a sense of sadness and realness to her character. It gives someone to root for, in an otherwise cast of self absorbed no-nothings.

The Coens knew they could never top No Country for Old Men, so they did not even bother trying. This movie is as far away from that one as possible in every aspect except the sudden violence. "Burn" has two flashes of violence and in true Coen fashion, they are sudden and shocking bursts of violent fits. They pace the movie perfectly and often times supply the laughs merely shooting someones feet as they walk down a squeaky hall. They wrote a pretty funny, if utter pointless, script full of great lines and they did it with hardly any of the kind of comedy that is in right now, which was cool. "Burn" comes off as an old 50s type of comedy, with much more profanity, much much more profanity. I would like to go back and count the amount of times the "F-bomb" is thrown around. I think people will be turned off by the randomness and pointlessness of the movie, but those are some of the best qualities in my opinion.

In a song Eminem once rapped an entire song about nothing and then in the very last line summed it up by saying "I just did a whole song and I didn't say shit." Who knows the why he did it, but my guess is that he did it because he could. He was mocking everyone who hated him and joking with those who loved him. His fans got it and his detractors hated it. In the very last scene of this movie, J.K Simmons- some of the best work anyone has done for only being in a movie for 5 minutes- has a scene with David Rasche where they are kind of reviewing what has happened and in the end they come to the conclusion that it is one big "cluster fuck" and they have no idea what just happened or why it just happened. Coen fans will get it, non Coen fans won't. That is just the way it goes. That scene left me laughing for a few minutes and I know people who felt it was mocking them for watching it. If you go to the movie, stay during the credits for a bit to hear one hilariously awful song. It is totally worth it.

Final Grade" B+

Righteous Kill

Who in their right mind could pass up an opportunity to watch De Niro and Pacino. I mean, seriously who could? These guys are gods among men in terms of acting. Both have no less than 5 performances each that define what being an actor is. Watching their 2 scenes together in Heat just made you want, no need, more from them. Here is that chance. At first, the movie was promoted as some sort of urban police thriller, using the name 50 Cent in the first trailers. Well the early reviews changed all of that. People were focusing only on De Niro and Pacino, so that is what the ad campaign changed to. So the time came to finally watch these two back in action.

Turk(De Niro) and Rooster(Pacino)-the real names are not used until the end for glaringly obvious reasons- are long time partners in the police force and long time best friends. They feed off of each other and they get each other's back, no matter what happens. A serial killer comes along and starts killing all the bad guys who got away from the law due to technicalities. Most of the guys being killed were arrested or questioned by Turk and Rooster. Two other detective, Perez(Jon Leguizamo) and Riley(Donnie Wahlberg) are also on the case as they picked up one of victims. The victims are marked by a poem that the killer leaves. As the cases move forward, it looks as if Turk may in fact be the killer and Perez and Riley firmly believe this. After all, Turk did once plant a gun on a man who was set free on a child murder charge, in order to get that man arrested for a different crime. He could conceivably murder someone right? Rooster, of course, doesn't believe a word of it, but works with Perez and Riley to get to the truth. On the side there are two plots- Turk is banging a forensic detective, Karen Collelli(Carla Cugino) who loves really rough and violent sex and Rooster and Turk are seeing the precinct shrink to decide if they are fit to be back on the job after a shooting. I cannot say anything more as the movie is a twist movie.

Righteous Killlives up to its billing as De Niro and Pacino in action together. They are on screen together most of the movie and their chemistry is ridiculous. The early scenes of them looking at crime scenes, or joking around together are fantastic to watch and as the movie gets deeper and they get more intense, there are fire works between them. However, the movie is a damn mess. First off, from the opening two minutes, there are only two ways the movie can possibly go. The rest of the film is spent pushing so hard the other way, that any intelligent person will know exactly what is coming in the end. I knew it right away, which kind of diminishes the movie, big time. The director, Jon Avnet, ruined a movie with Pacino in it earlier this year with the same nonsense. Avnet is working so hard to confuse or mislead the audience that he isn't creating a movie, he is creating a "Choose your own adventure" type thing. The Sixth Sense worked as a twist movie because the whole movie wasn't explicitly trying to mislead us. It was telling a story that ended in a twist. This movie exists purely for the twist and it fails miserably. Carla Cugino does offer some serious sex appeal, but watching her take it from behind with De Niro pumping away at her, is kind of gross to watch, even if it is brief and from a distance.

I wanted to like this movie so much and there are flashes of it. Anytime the director gets out of the way and lets the two actors work, the movie feels real. The climax is a true testament to the two guys, but they deserved a much better movie. They deserve a movie that is not ruined by 50 Cent's "acting" or Jon Avnet's stupid and silly stunts. How many times are we going to see what happens from the killer's eyes so we don't know who it is!? I am glad I saw it because of the two legends, but it would have probably been better to wait for DVD.

Final Grade: C-

4 mini reviews- Traitor, Hamlet 2, Babylon, Bangkok

I took a kind of break from the reviews to get everything in order for the new semester and I think too much time has passed to get in to full reviews of 4 movies I saw a few weeks ago, so instead I will do mini reviews of them.

Traitor- I really enjoyed the movie, even though I kind of had an idea as to what was going on. The trailer kind of blew the movie a bit, but the performances from Don Cheadle and Guy Pierce made it worthwhile. There is a ton of discussion about religion and fanaticism that is interesting, if not entirely original. It is really a thinking man's action/thriller. It is similar to the Bourne franchise in that aspect, but never reaches the intense heights of that franchise.

Hamlet 2- I think your love of this movie kind of hinges on whether you like the lead, Steve Coogan, or not. I admire his lack of vanity and his willingness to go balls out (Literally!) for the role. He has a Will Ferrell like quality in that way. Of course, we know I loathe Will Ferrell. I did not loathe this movie, but I was expecting more. I was expecting to be shocked in the way The South Park movie shocked (same writer). I was not shocked by the good white girl wanting a little taste of Mexican boy, or the endless flow of gay jokes. There are some very funny moments and the actual play they put on is quite hilarious. Also, "Rock me Sexy Jesus" is not the sacrilegious song it is cracked up to be. It is actually praising his clean morals as being hip or cool.

Babylon A.D- Here is a Vin Diesel movie that could have been very good, if the studio did not butcher it. Because the studio wanted a PG-13 action they cut this movie to shreds. As a result, the movie doesn't make a lick of sense. Things happen all to quickly and we are left without a clear explanation as to why. I enjoyed aspects, like the futuristic maps and the overall look and feel of the movie. Plus, there is a pretty bad ass shoot out towards the end, but I, along with everyone else, was left with a desire to see more, or to understand exactly what happened. The plot involves a religion trying to become the dominate religion, but it is all lost and just comes off looking unfinished.

Bangkok Dangerous- Another possible entry in the worst movies of the year list, here. I fell asleep for about 15 minutes but woke up having not missed anything. Everything about this movie is awful- the dialog, acting, direction, sound, set and everything else. I was actually happy for the moments with the deaf girl because it was a nice break from listening to dialog. Not even the all too brief action sequences make this piece of crap watchable.

American Teen

This movie is getting all kinds of praise for the realistic portrayal of teen age life in the wake of stuff like The Hills. However, there are also many people on-line claiming the whole thing is staged and fake, much like The Hills. I cannot comment on such things because I tend to believe most documentaries have staged moments in them, or moments heightened for dramatic effect, I think a movie is supposed to be good storytelling above all else and if things have to be recreated to capture good story telling, well that is fine by me.

A few years ago a woman, Natalie Burstein, set out to make a documentary about real high school life. She wanted to make it wholly American so she wanted to go to the Midwest. She wanted ethnic diversity but had trouble finding that. She e-mailed all kinds of high school and students and finally settled on a little town in Indiana and she found her 4 subjects. She found 4 students with interesting lives that differed and she probably had to make sure she found 4 kids who would be good on camera. Colin, Megan, Geoff and Hannah are the four kids we take our journey with.

Colin is the star of the basketball team, which is the big sport at the school. He is not particularly good looking, but he gets the girls because he is the star athlete. His dad spends his days as an Elvis impersonator. Colin's biggest issue in the movie is getting into college. He can only go to college if he gets a basketball scholarship, but his senior year in basketball is not going so well. He dreams of playing for a big NCAA division 1 school and so he is trying to win all of his games by himself. It isn't until he can learn to play with the team that he can possibly be successful. Colin is a nice quiet kid who loves his dad, but is letting the stress get to him. He has probably the least screen time of the 4 because he just isn't magnetic a personality.

Megan is the villain of this story. She is your typical hot cheerleader/student body president/evil bitch. She has a male best friend who hooks up with one of her friends all hell breaks loose. The girl sends a topless picture to Megan's best friends and soon the entire school has the picture. Megan bitches about losing her friends, but she treats them like shit. She is not a very nice person, but she has trouble as well. She is worried she will not get into Notre Dame like all of her brothers before her. She also has a family tragedy that comes out just in time to kind of redeem her.

Geoff is the band geek of the story. He is a sweet kid with braces and terrible acne and he is dying for a girl friend. Throughout the movie we see him try and overcome his image issues and get a date. He loves Zelda and is aware that no one thinks about him. He is a tragic figure and I think the one most people will relate to. He does get a few girls during the course of the movie, which does kind of call into question the motives of the girls. He goes 3 years without a girl then in his senior year he had 3? I hope the girls weren't out to be on screen, because he is a sweet kid.

Hannah is the real star of the movie. She is an outcast artist, who wrestles with manic depression. Her mother is a manic depressive and she cannot live with her. Hannah begins the story as super happy but a break up sends her in a downward spiral and she doesn't spend much time in school for a while. The whole thing is cringe inducing and you find yourself hoping she will overcome her issues and get back to school. She is a beautiful young lady but doesn't believe in herself in that aspect. She is dying to get away from small Midwest life and desires to be in California.

Who knows what the real point of the movie is, but it does show a pretty accurate portrayal of teenage life. I think everyone can relate to aspects of the story, either in terms of school or friends or even family life. Some of these kids are too pressured for school and some have to deal with peer pressure. The kids don't really interact with each other, as they run in different circles, but the one time Hannah and Megan are seen together, it is really uncomfortable. I think the movie found the right kids and it doesn't a pretty good job of allowing us to get to know them. My only real complaint about the film is the animated sequences they use. Often times they cut to these bizarre sequences when the students are at the most vulnerable. The director either didn't trust the kids or trust the audience enough to just put the cameras on the kids and let them talk it out. I would have been so much more engaged if I could see Hannah talking about her she thinks everyone hates her as opposed to watching a weird claymation like sequence.

In a world where teens have blogs and vlogs and are obsessed with wanting to be famous, this is the perfect documentary. It is almost a time capsule of how things are now. We live in a society that believes little should be private anymore; it is a world where we have access to so much of each other and to people we do not know. American Teen captures that. I am not sure it is as provocative as it could have been and at times I wondered why this was on the big screen, but overall I laughed and worried with the kids and I silently cheered for the good things that happened.

Final Grade: B-

Vicki Christina Barcelona

I do believe this review will be less a review of the movie and more thoughts on the themes within the movie. It might come off as a frustrated rant. I apologize in advance if that is what happens.

Vicki (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) are best friends who have been invited to spend the summer in Spain. Vicki is grounded In reality and is engaged to the perfect man. Christina is a girl who goes where the world takes her and is still looking for her place. She prefers adventure and falls in and out of love weekly. One night the two girls meet a mysteriously sexy man, Juan Antonia (Javier Bardem), who is a painter and all around lover. He propositions the two ladies to fly away with him for the weekend where they will see the sights and make love with each other. Christina wants it, but Vicki doesn't. Christina wins and they go with Juan Antonio. Christina gets sick while there and Vicki and Juan spend the rest of the weekend together. They have sex, but never speak of it again. When they get back to Spain, Christina and Juan become involved in a torrid love affair, Christina moves in, but Juan Antonio's ex-wife (Penelope Cruz) enters the picture. Instead of causing issues, Chrstina, Juan and his ex enter in a weird threesome relationship. Meanwhile, Vicki's husband flies to Spain so they can be married there.

Implementing a narrator who is not part of the story is an interesting idea. Woody Allen uses the narrator as a way of making it so the characters do not have to do any expository dialogue. It frees them up to be specifically in the moment of the film. It is a littler weird at times and sometimes I wish I had less of the narrator, but I like how it allows the characters to avoid the exposition. The acting is all top notch, even from Penelope Cruz, whom I usually loathe. I still am not sure why everyone thinks she is super hot, but her body is smoking and while I usually find smoking gross, she looks sexy as hell with a cigarette. Scarlett Johansson is very good in a role pretty far removed from the roles she usually plays. Rebecca Hall does a fine job although this is the character/theme I have the most issues with.

This movie is about love. The first half plays like a romantic comedy and the last half plays like a weird romantic drama. Vicki spends the whole movie wanting to relive her moment with Juan Antonio and Christina spends the movie trying to find her place and find the kind of love she wants/needs. The Dialog is full of lines like "Only unfulfilled love can be romantic." It portrays Spain as a sensual and romantic country full of poets and sexy guitar players. The problem I have with it, is how it perpetrates this Hollywood ideal that the right man can't be the man desired. Vicki has a perfect man at home. He loves her, he has a steady job and he is attentive. He wants to give Vicki the world and he is good looking and funny to boot. But, nooooo this is Hollywood and so every girl has to want the exotic guy who sleeps around. He is of the world and has very romantic opinions about love, so he must be the one every female wants. Why is it so hard to believe that the right man can also be the one who is full of life? Why, in movies and books, must girls go after the guy who doesn't exactly treat the women properly. It is found out Juan Antonio and his ex tried to kill each other. That is bad right? Nope, in a movie it just shows the passion and that kind passion is what makes life worth living, right?

Movies like this are aggravating because it is very well made, but was hard for me to care because I was so annoyed at this idea that romantic love can only come from something unknown, exotic or wild. It falls into the trap that wanting a "normal" life is somehow bad because it lacks mystery. Nobody in the movie suffers consequences for their actions, really. Yes, it is a movie and movies are for fantasy, but where is the movie that shows wanting a house and a career is a good thing? The guys like that in all of these movies always lose out to the guy who treats the women badly and is distant. It is somehow impossible for the right guy, the nice guy to also be romantic. Oh well, I guess that is what movies are for.

Final Grade: C+

Death Race

When it comes to Jason Statham movies, I only need two things: Statham driving fast and Statham beating the crap out of people. I do not need story, character development, good dialogue or anything that is truly important in film. I just want to sit back and enjoy the ride. So far Statham has succeeded far more than he has failed, but I still have a the bitter taste from War in my mouth from last year at this time. However, Death Race seemed like the perfect example of a Jason Statham movie. It was the perfect movie to wet my appetite for The Transporter 3 and Crank.

In the year 2012 The United States is a mess. The economy is shot to hell and crime takes over. Prisons were overcrowded and corporations will come in, take over and make prisons a profit driven industry. First, prisoner cage fights are broadcast on the Internet for those willing to pay, but the audience grows tired of it and then Death Race is created. The game is simple; if you win five races you get your freedom. Each race starts with 9 racers and each race is 9 laps over 3 days. The goal is to win, yes, but it is also to kill the other racers. The cars are laced with machine guns, napalm, smoke and oil as well as a protective shield over the cars. You have to drive over specific parts of the track to turn on the weapons. It is a big business for the warden of the prison, Hennessey (Joan Allen), but things are starting to look bad. The crowd favorite, Frankenstein has died but no one knows that. She frames Jensen(Statham) for murdering his wife and tells him he can have his freedom if he races as Frankenstein. Frankenstein only has one race left to win. Machine gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) is Frankenstein's nemesis. Jensen agrees to race and the race begins!

Don't worry about the story because the script sure doesn't. Jensen was some kind of race car driver as some point in his life, we think, we don't really know. What matters here is the race and what a glorious exploitation good time is to be had by the final 45 minutes of Death Race. We get to see people killed in all kinds of fun ways and we get to see a few spectacular crashes including one glorious slow motion accident that is DOPE! Throw in 3 fist fights with Statham and you have a rollicking good ass time. Death Race is a loud visually crazy movie and you will feel like your eyes and ears have been assaulted but it is that glorious kind of assault. It is that kind of brainless action you want right before the summer ends. It was nice to sit back and tell my brain "Dude, it is cool to take a nap right now, I got this." Nothing in the movie makes particular sense but it is so damn entertaining you forgive all of it.

There isn't really much else that can be said. I mean this is a guy movie and the trailer kind of says it all. If you enjoy these kind of movies, this will not disappoint, but it doesn't appeal to you, just stay away. Jason Statham does his usual stoic tough guy act and Tyrese is his usual flamboyant, tough, but charming self. Also, there is a girl in this named Natalie Martinez who is 100 different kinds of sexy and is totally comfortable being the eye candy in this testosterone fest. It is really the cherry on the awesome sundae created by Paul W.S Anderson (The director). Death Race is not a good movie, but it knows that and it revels in being trash. Very few things are better than movies that are better suited being video games, when they get it right and this does get ti right. It is really worth watching just for the middle race, where Hennessey lets out this big semi truck, with machine guns, flame throwers and rockets attached. It is quite a sight and quite an awesome scene of destruction. I am not a car guy or an adrenaline junkie and this movie allows me to pretend to be both. AWESOME!

Death Race: B