Due Date (Doesn't Deliver)

Aaaah, Due Date. Lofty expectations going into this movie, as I adore both Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr., but unfortunately, the movie doesn’t really deliver (rimshot). The movie is actually filled with a lot of typically good comedic actors, Danny McBride, Matt Walsh, Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis, but at its core, Due Date is about and centers around Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ethan (Zach Galifianakis). Unfortunately, that is part of the problem. Directed by Todd Philips (of The Hangover fame), Due Date doesn’t really work on the same level as The Hangover, instead of being buddies, Ethan and Peter are mortal enemies from the outset. A lot of the comedy happens when they are either yelling, fighting, or screwing each other over in some way. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is funny, but you can tell it’s missing something.

The story follows Peter, as he is trying to get back home to his wife who is expecting to deliver their bouncing baby boy. While getting on his flight in Atlanta, Peter gets thrown off a plane because of Ethan, and through a series of unfortunate events, has to take Ethan up on his offer to drive him to Hollywood (Los Angeles, no one calls it Hollywood). Various hijinks ensue, including getting rid of Ethan’s father’s ashes in the grand canyon, making a pit stop to pick up drugs from Heidi (Juliette Lewis), and getting arrested by Mexican border officials for trying to sneak drugs into their country, because hey, why not?

The funny parts are funny, and Todd Philips does a great job of keeping everyone focused, and of course Zach and Robert developed a pretty good chemistry together, and they actually work as a comedic duo, but the film is missing a little something something, and it’s noticeable. Perhaps it’s because I’d rather see Zach and Robert do a comedy where they are partners or on the same team instead of working against each other. I don’t know, I give it a 2/5, but not for lack of comedy, mainly it lacks heart, and also a cohesive/compelling story. One of the things that made The Hangover work so well was because you knew that the gang needed to get Doug back home for the wedding, Due Date lacked that urgency, and suffered for it.

RED - Really Extremely Delightful

Bruce Willis. That name alone is enough marketing to get me paying full price for a ticket and heading to the theater. Add in the always quirky John Malkovich (Marvin Boggs), the soulful Morgan Freeman (Joe), and the regal Helen Mirren (Victoria), and you have every reason to go see this movie right there. Even Mary-Louise Parker (Sarah), who has never really wowed me, manages to keep up with this all-star, experienced cast.

RED (Retired, Extremely, Dangerous), follows retired CIA Agent Frank Moses, played by Bruce Willis, as he is sought by William Cooper (Karl Urban) of the CIA. Turns out someone wants Frank dead. Something involving a mission in a South American country that went horribly wrong, and now everyone involved must die. Frank gets involved with Sarah, and because they have a history of phone conversations, she has to go on the run with him. Along the way they pick up Marvin, who is a paranoid former LCD recipient; Joe, a chronically ill former spook; and Victoria, "the best wet-work asset in the business". Along the way this rag-tag bunch of geriatrics picks up an old KGB operative, Ivan, played by Brian Cox.

The running gag here is that they are all old, so of course, they are sorely underestimated. Whether it be breaking into the CIA, or attempting to kidnap and interrogate Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss), who is a big-time CEO. Throughout the whole movie they survive various altercations by the skin of their teeth, and do so with the humor and flair that only these season actors could portray.

I won't get too into the plot, because at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. This is a longer movie, at 111 minutes, but you are literally entertained throughout the entire film. Its incredible, but it never really lags, there's no real time where you start looking that clock and waiting for the plot-point dialog to be over. It's kind of like watching Avatar for the 1st time in 3D. You are sitting there, for over 2 hours, but you can't look away because it has completely grabbed your attention. RED is by no means as visually stunning as Avatar, but it definitely does grab your eyeballs and earholes and doesn't let go. There are definitely a couple of really well shot scenes, one of which is a medley of exploding bodies. Sure that sounds weird and gory, but the way they do it, is kind of hilarious, the entire theater was laughing, and you will too.

I'm rambling now. Its a great movie, I give it 4/5 stars, now go and see it :)

Knight and Day - Review

I have not gone into a movie in quite a while with lower expectations than when I went to see Knight and Day over its opening weekend. I had heard mediocre things at best about it from various different critics, but I did hear one by the Movie Man where he was pretty positive (http://bit.ly/9HOHn6). The Movie Man is into this movie and so am I, the movie takes about 5 minutes to get going, and then continues to throw in a mix of action, comedy, and dramady which holds your attention for the almost 2 hours that this film runs.

Tom Cruise (Roy Miller) and Cameron Diaz (June Havens), make for an odd couple. I believe in real life she towers over the actor but on screen their pairing kind of makes sense. He plays a suave, confident super-spy and she's a capable but clueless owner of a car shop. They meet randomly in Wichita, Kansas while waiting for their flight to depart. That's about all the set-up there is, in addition to some dialogue in the plane, before shit starts to get really real, really quick for June. While in the bathroom freshening up for Roy, June is completely oblivious to the fact that he dispatches a handful of assassins as well as the pilots of the plane they are on, and is then forced to crash land the plane in a field. That's the first 10 minutes of the movie, and from then on its a great back and forth between the two of them, from highway chases to speedboat rides, the two play off of each other and have a great rapport and chemistry on film.

The movie's plot is based on Roy trying to save Simon (Paul Dano) and keep a battery that Simon has developed from falling into the wrong hands. He's being chased by Fitzgerald (Peter Sarsgaard) of the FBI and Antonio (Jordi Molla) of a European gun manufacturing syndicate. At first I thought Jordi looked familiar and when he started yelling, I recognized where I knew him form, he played Hector Tapia in Bad Boys II and I really liked him in it, shame he doesn't get much screen time in Knight and Day.

I have to say that Cruise is back to his goofy bad-ass self in this movie. He's been doing different dramatic (Valkyrie) and comedic (Tropic Thunder) films for the last few years, but here he's back to what made Mission Impossible so great, he's: funny, smart, charming, daring, and has that Tom Cruise grin that all the ladies swoon over. It's almost unfair to Diaz, she tries very hard to keep up throughout the movie, but Cruise steals the show. She's a good fit for him though and their comedic timing fits well together (think Mr. & Mrs. Smith which is the closest thing to this movie).

I give Knight and Day a 4.5/5. That might be a little bit high, but the movie met and exceeded my expectations in every way (and that's not just because my expectations were low at the get-go). The best part about this movie is the way it ends, the final sequence is well done, and plays off the feel of the movie. Of course it also leaves a bit of an opening for a sequel and I, for one, and really hoping that they can do it.

George W.

One of things that I realized after watching the United States play Ghana in the World Cup yesterday was that Bill Clinton was right there watching the USA battle it out. That kind of made me ponder as to wear George W. has been for the last year and a half. After leaving office Clinton has popped up all over the place, from various humanitarian efforts to other events where he can use his celebrity to help his and/or the United States' causes. I haven't really seen anything from George W. or have even heard what he is up to now, does anyone know?

A-Team Review

For those of you who were fans of the original 80's TV show, which ran from 1983 to 1987, you will be happy to know that this origin story keeps the same tone that the TV series did. Murdock (Sharlto Copley) is still insane, B.A. (Quinton "Rampage" Jackson) is still B.A., Face (Bradley Cooper) is pretty damn gorgeous and has fantabulous abs, and Hannibal (Liam Neeson)is still the brains of the operation.

Directed by Joe Carnahan, The A-Team starts off with 15 minutes of pure awesomeness, following Hannibal as he attempts to save Face (pun) and meets Murdock and B.A. for the first time, and then jumps 8 years and over 80 successful missions into the future. We meet Charisa Sosa (Jessica Biel), Lynch (Patrick Wilson) and Pike (Brian Bloom), all of who are trying to get the A-Team to obtain a series of plates used to produce American currency that were rebuilt in Iraq after the fall of Saddam.

The plot follows those plates as for the first time ever, Hannibal's plan doesn't go according to plan, and his team gets arrested and court martial-ed. After busting out of prison, the fugitives try and chase down the plates to clear their names and bring those responsible to justice.

Unfortunately, The A-Team hasn't made as much money as I would have liked it to make in order to guarantee a sequel, I am hoping that there will be one in the works soon. Carnahan, who also directed an underrated but quite good movie by the name of Smokin' Aces, makes sure that the pace is kept up and that there is no real downtime in between action or comedic sequences, which makes the movie go by pretty quick even though it clocks in at about 2 hours.

I really enjoyed the characters and Quinton Jackson does a great job even though he doesnt have a lot of acting expertise, then again this is Sharlto Copley's second major film. The cast has some serious chemistry, and they play off of each other pretty damn well, especially Jackson and Copley.

This is a solid 4 out of 5, and I hope that everyone go see it and experience the movie. It's probably not the best written movie that is out right now, especially with Toy Story 3 being released this week, but it really is a great popcorn movie and I recommend an ice cream right along with it as well.

The Karate Kid - Review

Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith team up to take on an evil kung Fu gym... sounds like the beginning of a very strange buddy martial arts flick. The Karate Kid would probably have been a better movie if it had been just that. It would have made a lot more sense, especially with the ways movies are made now, to have Jackie Chan, an old school master, team up with Jaden Smith, a reluctant new student, and take on a gym full of Chinese kung fu masters. Instead, Jackie Chan's Mr. Han is an oldish maintenance man, with no legitimate kung fu training, except for what his father taught him, and Jaden Smith's Dre Parker is an American kid transplanted to China after his mom is inexplicably transferred (she works in a car factory, which makes little to no sense).

Dre needs to learn how to defend himself after falling in like with Meiying (played adorably by Wenwen Han). The problem with Meiying, is that she has a "family friend" by the name of Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), who finds it hilarious to knock Dre to the ground and pummel him for interrupting Meiyings violin practice. After continued pummelings, Dre decides that he wants to learn kung fu, and after watching Mr. Han defend him during a bout of six dudes to one.

Mr. Han eventually gives in to Dre (after accidently having him challenge Chan in a kung fu tournament) and starts teaching him kung fu, mainly by having him take off and put on his jacket, which he tends to drop on the floor. This goes on for an indeterminable amount of time, until Dre begs to be taught some actual moves that will help him fight in the tournament.

The problem with the movie is that while the parts that are good are great, the majority of the film tends to run a bit long and have you waiting for the next scene where Jaden is practicing or actually fighting. The fight sequences are pretty good and fairly visceral, you can almost feel the kids getting slammed on the ground, but the rest of the movie drags, and the Meiying story line is good, but goes on too long and goes into too much detail, detracting from the kung fu master/kung fu student story, which should be at the center of the film.

I'd have to give this a 3 out of 5, its a solid movie, and a decent re-imagining of the original story. Unfortunately the side plots took away from the overall experience. I can still easily recommend this movie, if for nothing more than for the Jaden Smith's performance. He does an impeccable job and steals practically ever scene he is in. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith definitely have to be proud of their son after this performance, and it is a great one, especially for his first more or less starring role. At the very least, The Karate Kid isn't as bad as some of the crap that has been coming out in this lackluster blockbuster summer. Hopefully Toy Story 3 can bring this summer movie season around.

Shrek Forever After - Review

The final Shrek movie was a great send off for all of the characters that I have loved throughout the years. It seemed that all of the characters made it out, except for maybe Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother, although they did get a bit of a shout-out at the very end credit screens (which was a nice touch). In fact the closing credits did a great job of bringing the Shrek epic to a close, with some of the best scenes from the previous films.

Instead of adding in additional random characters (Prince Artie) and building the story around them like in Shrek the Third, the fourth Shrek movie goes back to basics. Mainly, Shrek (Mike Meyers) does something stupid, and has to spend a good portion of the film trying to undo his ridiculous mistakes. As always there's a moral, this time it's "appreciate what you have when you have it, because you 'don't know what you got 'til it's gone'". After Shrek gets sent to an alternate reality by this movies Lord Farquaad, Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), he has to reunite and win over his old friends all over again. The new relationships between Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Puss (Antonio Banderas), and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) really makes this movie pop. It's great to see the gang get to know each other all over again in this alternate reality, and its interesting to see how Fiona interacts with Shrek in a world where he didn't save her from her castle parapet.

The film is great, the story is so-so, the voice acting is fantastic as always, and even the 3-D doesn't go overboard and gives just enough depth to the film to really add something to the style without being an annoying eyesore. Overall this gets a 3.5/5 from me. I recommend seeing it, and in 3-D if possible. It's not the best movie in the series but it definitely does bring about a fairy tale ending to one of the most beloved animated franchises of all time.

Iron Man 2 - Review!

I know this is a bit late, but this week's been busy! Iron Man 2...awesome movie. That's pretty much all I need to say about the movie. If you enjoyed the 1st one, you will enjoy this one. Robert Downey Jr. comes back as the playboy turned weapon, Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts his assistant turned CEO. Jon Favreau is back as his assistant Happy and in role of Rhodie is Terra....Don Cheadle! Oh, Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson are also in here as Ivan Vanko and the Black Widow respectively.

The movie follows the rise of the Iron Man weapon and is more or less a vehicle for Robert Downey Jr. to play his former self, an egotistical schmoozer with an attitude problem. Throughout the movie Tony Stark attempts to perfect his suit, while alienating his friends and ending up all alone and in a donut. Luckily, with some help from his long dead father (in the form of video clips from the past), he discovers a way to rid himself of the poison his arc reactor has been spreading through his body, and making Iron Man even more power, all while sparring with Ivan Vanko who, using his father's schematics and Justin Hammer's (Sam Rockwell) money, has developed his own portable arc reactor and Whiplash suit.The movie climaxes at the Stark Expo, where every year, the greatest scientific minds unveil their cool new gadgets (kind of like the World's Fair, or CES).

As far as I'm concerned this easily gets a 4.5 out 5 stars. I hesitate to give a perfect score because while the movie flows great and is paced very well, the story takes a bit of a backseat to the characters. I don't really think this is that much of an issue, I never came in to Iron Man or Iron Man 2 expecting to be emotionally moved, that's what The Dark Knight and The Watchmen are for. This movie is all about taking what made the first one a success, humor, explosions, chemistry between the actors, and a really cool super hero, and turns it all the way to 11.

I would definitely recommend seeing this, and if you haven't seen the first one, go out and rent it, you won't regret it! At the very least these are fun action movies with cool characters and plenty of humor to keep anyone entertained!

The Losers - Review: Loserific!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see The Losers until a week after it came out, but boy am I glad that I did get to see it. This is one of those rare movies that comes out of nowhere and surprises the crap out of you. All I knew about The Losers was that it's based on a graphic novel, and that it starred Chris Evans (as Jensen). There was a whole lot more to it than that...

The story is fairly simple. Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada, who looks like Justin Long with a musketeer 'stache) are soldiers on a mission in Central America. Through a couple twists and turns, they get left for dead and must try to find a way back to the United States to find Max (Jason Patric) and show 'em what it means to double cross The Losers! Along the way they pick up Aisha (Zoe Saldana) who help them achieve their goal as she is also after Max (he's a bad, but really dapper and oddly likable dude).

Without giving away spoilers there are some twists and turns, but the story isn't really what makes the movie pop, it's the way The Losers clan interacts with each other. You can really tell that everyone had a great time making this movie, the crew all gets along well, the jokes pop, and it kind of feels like a buddy cop comedy a la Beverly Hills Cop. That's a pretty odd reference to make, but the way the crew feeds off each other kinda reminds me of how Foley, Rosewood, and Taggart had their adventures and mishaps.

I'd recommend this as a great weekday movie, since the weekends are going to be full of blockbusters from now until September, you might not want to miss those new ones, but this is definitely a movie you shouldn't miss. 4 out of 5 stars from me for humor, action, and a kick-ass, gritty hotel fight sequence that rivals the mess-the-house-up Mr. and Mrs. Smith sequence.

A Nightmare on Elm St. (now with Jackie Earle Haley)

So, I got to see this opening night and I have to say that it's not very terrible. I went into this film with pretty low expectations, apart from Jackie Earle Haley (taking over the role of Freddie Kruger from Robert Englund, who's played the character since its inception, and who looks more and more like Ben Kinglsey [see pictures]), who I really do like in most of his new roles. There are really no other notable actors here other than Clancy Brown, who's name you don't know but who's face and voice you'll recognize. The actors playing the kids in the movie are new to me, except Thomas Dekker, who played John Connor on Fox's Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The story has been changed this time around and instead of a *spoilers* creepy guy who was "wrongfully" murdered and is taking his revenge by killing his murderers children, into a child molester tormenting the kids that he assaulted...hurray! While it takes a bit for the movie to reveal this intriguing little plot point, when it was divulged I was immediately turned off. A Freddie who is seeking revenge by killing kids makes sense in my mind, while a sexual deviant Freddie who is just trying to further destroy the lives of the kids he once molested just did not compute.

Apart from that the movie is actually fairly scary. If you like the "popping out of darkness and going 'boo'" type of horror movies that have become fairly commonplace lately. The plot is pretty simple, teenagers get stalked and killed in their dreams by Freddie and if they get hurt or killed in dreamland, they get hurt or killed in real life, and in order to escape the horror they must somehow get him into the real world and kill 'em.

As far as remakes and reimaginigs go, this one's OK. I much preferred Rob Zombie's Halloween, but that being said it's much better than the new Friday the 13th movie, and is better than some of the original stuff coming out now...here's looking at you Midnight Meat Train.

This movie deserves a 3 out 5 for being better than average at scaring the audience, but for horror with story I'll stick with the Saw franchise. I'd recommend renting A Nightmare on Elm St. and watching it with your significant other on the couch, but there's no reason to rush to the theater to check it out.

Get Him To The Greek Review!

I recently had a chance to see an advanced screening of Get Him To The Greek, and it was easily the most I have laughed out loud in a theater since seeing Wedding Crashers. Sure there have been funny movies since then, Tropic Thunder and The Hangover immediately spring to mind, but Get Him To The Greek felt like it had more laugh out loud guffaw moments. Jonah Hill and Russell Brand (together again after appearing in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) do an amazing job of leading a fairly hefty comedic cast, which includes quite a bit of fun celebrity cameos (even a Harry Potter-ite pops in for a bit).

Aldous Snow (Brand) is a rock star on the decline after a failed single that was said to be the worst thing to "happen to Africa since apartheid". He's being recruited by Aaron (Hill) to play a 10-year anniversary show at the Greek Theater in order to reinvigorate his career and make some money for Aaron's boss Sergio (played hilariously by Sean 'P. Diddy Daddy Puff' Combs), so he can buy more Air Jordan's for his 6 kids.

Naturally things don't go according to plan as Aaron tries to drag Aldous from London to L.A., with pit stops at the Today Show (hilarity ensues), Las Vegas (Jeffries ensue), and his Ex's house (which she happens to share with Lars Ulrich).

While the movie is filled with belly-laugh inducing one-liners and and ridiculous fuzzy walls, it actually has some heart at its center, and while it doesn't delve too far or too hard into the serious (Funny People was guilty of this), it does a good job of slyly inserting a moral to the story.

I think it's definitely safe to say that with this strong comedic performance Jonah Hill is definitely here to stay (he's the perfect mix of deadpan and razor-sharp delivery). Russell Brand is also making a very big splash in the states with his charming accent, witty quips, and devilish grin (which is on full display for a good chunk of the movie). I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of him, and hopefully paired with Hill (in Get Him To The Apollo perhaps?).

Get Him To The Greek will be one of the summer's biggest comedies, and it is definitely worth seeing in a large theater crowd. Even though I got to see it for free, I'll most definitely be back in theaters opening night to laugh along with the audience, and suggest that everyone go and bring their friends...fair warning though...you might be a bit uncomfortable throughout some of it, but its totally worth it!

I give the movie a 5 out of 5 for hilarity and just enough heart!

Kick-Ass Punches Butt!

After seeing the original trailer for Kick-Ass many months ago, with the falcon looking kid jumping from a tall building and landing directly on a taxi cab, I was intrigued. The movie seemed like it would be funny, crude, and at the very least an interesting look at mind of a high-schooler with delusions of grandeur. Kick-Ass did not disappointed in the slightest. Before I actually "review", let me mention the most talked about part of this movie, which is Chloe Moretz's Hit-Girl . The film has been slammed for allowing the 13 year old actress use very harsh language and create such mayhem and violence http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-04-15-chloe15_ST_N.htm. Personally, I think she did a great job, and handled the dialog and action scenes very well. She reminded me of a younger Dakota Fanning in Push. Both are troubled, haven't really had much of a childhood and are out to get the people that caused them to lose everything, and they do it in high-octane fashion.

Kick-Ass is based on a comic book of the same name written by Mark Millar and follows the story of Dave Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson), who wants to take up fighting crime regardless of tiny annoying fact that, other than having some metallic plates in his body from a car accident stemming from an early crime-fighting adventure, he has no super powers. After developing his Kick-Ass persona, he teams up with Hit-Girl and Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage, who steals every scene that he is in), to fight the D'Amico crime family who run their operations out of a lumber company. The best parts of the film were ones that weren't shown in previews and trailers, which is a welcome surprise since that seems to be more and more common. One of my favorite scenes was towards the beginning of the film when Big Daddy and Hit-Girl are first introduced and are going through intense "training".

The film was actually much darker than I had originally thought it would be, but that was a welcome change from the screwball "ha-ha, I punched your nads" comedies that have been coming out for the last couple years. The comedic moments were well placed and well acted, giving the story light lifts every now and again when the subject matter got a little too-intense.

Since this is my first film review, I need to figure out what kind of system I want to use in terms of scoring, and I think a 5-point system would work best. Cliche-ly I give this film a 4 out of 5 stars. While Aaron Johnson still has a ways to go in terms of acting chops, Chloe Moretz and Nicolas Cage are both great, and make this a contender for what might be one of the years most surprising and best comic book films. Granted we still have almost the entire year to go, and haven't even gotten Iron Man 2 yet, I really do believe this film is very underrated, and comic book fans (which I admit I am not one of), will really enjoy the film.

Hopefully there will be more reviews later and this will turn into an actual "thing" but that's my test run for now! If you have any writing style or general suggestions I would love to hear them, thanks!

What does American Idol have to do with Miley Cyrus?

Why is Miley on American Idol as a mentor? I can't for the life of me understand what qualifications she has for that role. Watching her perform live is always a chore, her vocals are spotty, her stage presence is nonexistent, and she sounds like a horse with bronchitis. I don't quite understand her appeal, as well as American Idols' decision to make her a mentor. Honestly this is possibly the weakest batch of contestants that I have seen on the show (full disclosure: I have only watched the last 3 season with any degree of regularity), and they need all the vocal help they can get. Unfortunately Miley is definitely not the right person for the job, you could not only tell by her own live performance on Wednesday night, but by the way she gave advice to the contestants. Saying that everyone was "great" and that the vocals were "great", and that they will all do "great" was painful to watch.

Hopefully later on there will be more capable mentors, my vote is bringing Adam Lambert back and teaching the kids a thing or two about stage presence.

Anyhow, that's my inaugural post...sad that it took a horrible episode of a TV show for me to create a blog...more to come!