***
Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, Adriana Barazza, and Reggie Lee.
Directed by Sam Raimi.
I must admit, for all the movies I've seen, and many were forgettable, I've never seen any in the Evil Dead trilogy. If this movie is any indication, though, I need to check them out.
Raimi has fun like few horror movies do, knowing when to go for laughs, when to go for thrills. Is it perfect? Far from. Is it fun? Yes. Funny? Yes. "Here, kitty, kitty" brought the house down.
I guess my main complaint is that everyone and their dog will see the twist ending coming from the second it's set up.
Ellen Page dropped out and Alison Lohman jumped in to the lead, which is good for Lohman but bad for the movie's box-office, as Page's star-power might've aided in a bigger opening weekend. Lohman plays a bank teller who is cursed by a gypsy woman who's getting evicted. For the rest of the movie she must fight away demons trying to drag her to hell.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
UP - Movie Review
***1/2
Starring the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer and Jordan Nagai.
Directed by Pete Docter.
Pixar can do no wrong.
Saw this with my six oldest kids, and all enjoyed it. Had to take my two-year-old to the bathroom during a crucial scene, so I do want to see it again, probably not until DVD, to see what happened in those three minutes.
I wouldn't say it's the best in the Pixar library, but it's somewhere in the middle. And the middle of Pixar's library get three-and-a-half stars.
Ed Asner voices Carl, a 78-year-old widower who sits in his house alone, pretty much waiting for death. But when circumstances mean he may lose his house and be forced into a retirement community, he fills enough balloons with helium to fly his house away. On to South America!
Except a pudgy wilderness scout is along for the ride.
The story's message - "You're never too old to follow your dreams" - is a nice one, and the villain, revealed late, is one of the scarier ones to appear in a Pixar movie.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Hangover - Movie Review
THE HANGOVER (***1/2) - Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Mike Tyson, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike Epps, Ken Jeong, Rachael Harris and Rob Riggle.
Directed by Todd Phillips.
There weren't any gutbusters, but this is probably the funniest movie I've seen since Pineapple Express. And I think I would've laughed more if the trailer hadn't given away so much.
One of the clever conceits of this movie is that it's all about the sidekicks. Whenever you see a rom-com starring, say, Matthew McConaughey or Patrick Dempsey, and he has three best friends, you could see them being played by these three. And these three are the stars rather than the sidekicks. Bradley Cooper plays Phil, the married-but-wishes-he-could-womanize type (think Vince Vaughn from Old School), Ed Helms plays the henpecked geek (think Daniel Stern from City Slickers), and Zach Galifianakis plays the "special" brother of the bride (can't think of a comparison; it's a uniquely brave and funny performance).
These best men are taking their buddy Doug (National Treasure's Justin Bartha) out for a wild night in Las Vegas, but they wake up the next morning with Doug missing and no idea what happened the night before. They then have to retrace their steps with what clues they can find.
Phil: Was I in the hospital last night?
Stu: Am I missing a tooth?
Alan: Guys. there's a tiger in the bathroom!
Coulda done without seeing the 90-year-old man's butt though.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Transporter 3 - DVD Review
TRANSPORTER 3 (*1/2) - Starring Jason Statham, Robert Knepper, Natalya Rudakova, Francois Berleand and Jeroem Krabbe.
Directed by Olivier Megaton.
I've been having bad luck with DVD rentals lately. I enjoyed the first two Transporter movies for their escapist trashy action, but I just saw this yesterday and I can hardly remember anything about it. I remember a redhead Russian girl trying too hard to be sexy. I remember an invasive soundtrack. I remember a lot of camera angles where you couldn't actually see the face of the person talking, which lends itself easily to dubbing in other languages. In fact there were a few actors where I swear they were dubbed in English, and they were speaking in their native tongues. Easier for international distribution that way.
And I remember Prison Break's Robert Knepper playing the bad guy sans southern accent, prone to shooting his own men when they backtalk.
Jason Statham's a cool action hero, and I emphasize once again The Bank Job is one of 2008's best movies, but more often than not, I don't know what Statham's thinking with some of his choices. For this third installment nuking the fridge, I blame the director. I appreciate being able to watch a car drive off a bridge and crash into the river below in one take. Maybe even a little slowed down. In this movie it speeds off the bridge, then hovers in the air Matrix-style, then quickly plunges into the river speeded-up again. Why three different speeds on one five-second action shot?
Passengers - DVD Review
PASSENGERS (*1/2) - Starring Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, David Morse, Dianne Wiest, Andre Braugher, Clea Duvall and William B. Davis.
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia.
Some movies have twist endings that add a layer to everything you've seen and it remakes you rethink everything. This movie had an ending that rendered the first 90 minutes meaningless, and since those minutes were slow and meandering, I felt like I lost on two levels.
Good cast, though.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - Movie Review
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN (***) - Starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader, Christopher Guest, Jon Bernthal, and the Jonas Brothers.
Directed by Shawn Levy.
This felt like Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: The Movie. For kids. There are so many characters thrown at the screen, so many puns and asides and one-liners, that some of them have to be funny. And some are. And by the end, I'd felt like I'd had a sugar rush. Is it better than the first one? Maybe. It's not worse.
Ben Stiller returns as our everyman Larry, now a successful infomercial entrepreneur, but he's saddened when he learns that most of the exhibits from the natural history museum are going to be archived under the Smithsonian. Then he learns an evil pharaoh is going to come to life with the magic tablet, and he could bring about world domination.
In addition to the crowded cast listed above, there's cameos from two Office regulars, two Reno 911 regulars (who also wrote the script), two Apatow vets, Darth Vader, Oscar the Grouch, George Foreman, Abraham Lincoln, American Gothic, and a giant octopus.
Rising above the fray is Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart, who's ready to verbally joust as quickly as Kate Hepburn against Cary Grant, even if Larry isn't up on his jiminy-crickets rat-a-tatspeak.
Star Trek - Movie Review
STAR TREK (***1/2) - Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Winona Ryder, Eric Bana, Ben Cross, Chris Hemsworth, Tyler Perry and Leonard Nimoy.
Directed by J.J. Abrams.
The even numbered Star Trek movies tend to be the better ones, but when Star Trek 9 and 10 disappointed, and Enterprise got cancelled, the franchise seemed about dead. Enter J.J. Abrams, stage left.
This reboot, featuring a young Kirk and Spock, is about as good as anyone can hope. Chris Pine, who's been in some forgettable movies (Blind Dating, Just My Luck) and had one funky turn in Smokin' Aces, has the right amount of fortitude and swagger as James Tiberius Kirk, rebellious punk who is talked into joining Starfleet. There he butts heads with a Vulcan brainiac named Spock, befriends a gruff doctor named Bones, hits on a linguist named Uhura, etc.
The general plot, upon reflection, doesn't really matter that much, which is one reason why I can comfortably say this is NOT the best Star Trek movie ever (Khan and Voyage Home are better; this is about on par with Undiscovered Country or Final Conflict). It's about the revisitation of the characters, and how Abrams has set it up to let this crew boldly go whereever they feel like.
Karl Urban, who was one of the weaker actors in Lord of the Rings and who's had a string of crummy movies (Chronicles of Riddick, Doom, Pathfinder), is great as Dr. McCoy. It strikes me as a performance where he studied DeForest Kelley for a while, and then he made the role his own. Simon Pegg brings exactly the amount of humor I would hope for in Scotty. Zoe Saldana brings much needed futuristic feminism to Uhura. Each cast member gets their moment.
(It also a space-time continuum subplot that may reveal where Season 6 of Lost is going.)
Directed by J.J. Abrams.
The even numbered Star Trek movies tend to be the better ones, but when Star Trek 9 and 10 disappointed, and Enterprise got cancelled, the franchise seemed about dead. Enter J.J. Abrams, stage left.
This reboot, featuring a young Kirk and Spock, is about as good as anyone can hope. Chris Pine, who's been in some forgettable movies (Blind Dating, Just My Luck) and had one funky turn in Smokin' Aces, has the right amount of fortitude and swagger as James Tiberius Kirk, rebellious punk who is talked into joining Starfleet. There he butts heads with a Vulcan brainiac named Spock, befriends a gruff doctor named Bones, hits on a linguist named Uhura, etc.
The general plot, upon reflection, doesn't really matter that much, which is one reason why I can comfortably say this is NOT the best Star Trek movie ever (Khan and Voyage Home are better; this is about on par with Undiscovered Country or Final Conflict). It's about the revisitation of the characters, and how Abrams has set it up to let this crew boldly go whereever they feel like.
Karl Urban, who was one of the weaker actors in Lord of the Rings and who's had a string of crummy movies (Chronicles of Riddick, Doom, Pathfinder), is great as Dr. McCoy. It strikes me as a performance where he studied DeForest Kelley for a while, and then he made the role his own. Simon Pegg brings exactly the amount of humor I would hope for in Scotty. Zoe Saldana brings much needed futuristic feminism to Uhura. Each cast member gets their moment.
(It also a space-time continuum subplot that may reveal where Season 6 of Lost is going.)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Fanboys - DVD Review
FANBOYS (**) - Starring Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Kristen Bell, Christopher Marquette, Seth Rogen, Ethan Suplee, Danny McBride, Chris McDonald, Craig Robinson, Will Forte, Billy Dee Williams and William Shatner.
Directed by Kyle Newman.
This movie should have come out about two years ago, and it would have been a mild success, but the very ubergeeks this was aimed at protested the movie when it was leaked that a cancer subplot had been edited out. So the Weinsteins did with it what they have done with dozens of movies over the years: sat on it, dumped it, and then made it an exclusive rental from Blockbuster.
It's about three guys in 1998 who decide to take their fourth friend, dying of cancer, to Skywalker Ranch, to break in and watch Star Wars Episode I before anyone else. (Fifth friend is token female Kristen Bell.) Now the original complaint was that the Weinsteins wanted to edit out the cancer subplot. I think that would have been tricky, and it would've greatly reduced Chris Marquette's screen time, but I don't really know how that edit would've worked. This edit, cancer plot in check, still isn't as funny as it should have been.
There are plenty of fanboy-friendly cameos, from Carrie Fisher to Billy Dee Williams to William Shatner to Ray Park to a few other surprises. (Mark Hamill too busy?) Seth Rogen is most amusing in two roles, as a horribly-toothed Trekkie, and as a Star Wars-loving pimp.
I did find it weird Harry Knowles didn't play himself, and maybe there's a story behind that, but it's inconsequential. I once did an April Fools press release a few years back where I said Ethan Suplee was going to star in a Harry Knowles biopic, and here he was.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Killshot - DVD Review
KILLSHOT (***) - Starring Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Thomas Jane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Lois Smith and Hal Holbrook.
Directed by John Madden.
It's a freakin' crime this movie couldn't get play in more than a handful of Arizona theaters before being dumped on DVD. Not to overhype it (because it's not that good), but it is good, good enough that it should've been able to garner a wide release. Academy-Award directing nominee John Madden. Academy-Award acting nominee Mickey Rourke. Diane Lane. Thomas Jane. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Why no love?
Oh, it's a Weinstein release. The brothers have really lost their distribution touch since they left Miramax.
Based on one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels, it's about a couple on the outs who have to go into federal protection after the woman gets the good look at the face of an assassin. The movie has a little more seriousness to it than the book, but the main four fully-realized characters have good actors to complement them, notably Mickey Rourke as the calm professional hitman. (Seriouly, they had The Wrestler hype and still couldn't figure out how to market this?)
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Paul Blart: Mall Cop - DVD Review
PAUL BLART: MALL COP (**1/4) - Starring Kevin James, Keir O'Donnell, Jayma Mays, Raini Rodriguez, Shirley Knight, Peter Gerety and Bobby Cannavale.
Directed by Steve Carr.
I expected it to be stupid, and it was, but there were stretches where I kinda liked it. It felt like the type of movie John Candy would have done around 1986, or Chris Farley around 1996. They made thumbs-slightly-down movies too, you know.
Kevin James plays Paul Blart, a kind-hearted shlub who must endure constant fat jokes and pratfalls. He's a Segway-riding security guard, a mall cop, one of the lowest jobs on the uniform-wearing law-and-order chain. He has no authority and very little respect, but when a gang locks up the mall to steal $30 million, Blart is the one man on the inside who can stop them. It's Die Hard in the Mall!
What works? James has natural underdog charisma. There are a couple surprise laughs.
What doesn't work? The soundtrack way overrelies on 1980's nostalgia, like the B-side of The Wedding Singer (Adam Sandler co-produced). The plot is to-the-letter formula. Fat jokes get old. And you can't tell me a Segway going 5 mph can jump from the top of one building to another just because the fat guy leans forward.
It's PG and it's really more for teens and younger viewers, who might be more receptive to broader humor. (The less pratfalls you've seen, the funnier they are.) I don't mind to have seen it, and of the handful of 2009 titles I've seen, I've seen worse.
Directed by Steve Carr.
I expected it to be stupid, and it was, but there were stretches where I kinda liked it. It felt like the type of movie John Candy would have done around 1986, or Chris Farley around 1996. They made thumbs-slightly-down movies too, you know.
Kevin James plays Paul Blart, a kind-hearted shlub who must endure constant fat jokes and pratfalls. He's a Segway-riding security guard, a mall cop, one of the lowest jobs on the uniform-wearing law-and-order chain. He has no authority and very little respect, but when a gang locks up the mall to steal $30 million, Blart is the one man on the inside who can stop them. It's Die Hard in the Mall!
What works? James has natural underdog charisma. There are a couple surprise laughs.
What doesn't work? The soundtrack way overrelies on 1980's nostalgia, like the B-side of The Wedding Singer (Adam Sandler co-produced). The plot is to-the-letter formula. Fat jokes get old. And you can't tell me a Segway going 5 mph can jump from the top of one building to another just because the fat guy leans forward.
It's PG and it's really more for teens and younger viewers, who might be more receptive to broader humor. (The less pratfalls you've seen, the funnier they are.) I don't mind to have seen it, and of the handful of 2009 titles I've seen, I've seen worse.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Nothing But the Truth - DVD Review
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (***) - Starring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Vera Farmiga, Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, David Schwimmer, Courtney B. Vance and Noah Wyle.
Directed by Rod Lurie.
Kate Beckinsale is one of my favorite actresses. Total babe; very good at what she does. She may do the big-budget bill-payers like Van Helsing and Click, but she also seeks out those low-budget dramas, like Snow Angels and this.
This is probably Rod Lurie's best movie; the film-critic-turned-moviemaker will always have a place in my heart for the hilariously illogical The Contender, which still featured great performances from Gary Oldman, Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. This movie features equally fine acting jobs from Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga and Alan Alda, and for the most part it's a compelling melodrama.
It's one of those movies that champions true journalism. Alan Alda, as a defense attorney, gives a moving argument about the press being one of the last institutions in place to keep government honest. The story gets rolling when there is an assassination attempt on the President's life. Intelligence suggests that the plot stemmed from Venezuela, and the U.S. strikes. But there is an author who claims that there was no supporting intelligence that Venezuela was behind the attempt. Turns out, the author's wife is a CIA agent, and Beckinsale plays the reporter who outs her.
It's inspired by the Valerie Plame case, but it's not based on it. Vera Farmiga (The Departed) does great work as the outed agent, and Beckinsale is up to the task of the reporter who goes to jail rather than give up her source.
The reporter suffers more and more for her work. Months go by. Her marriage suffers.
And there's the twist at the end that almost ruins the movie. Not quite as rug-yanking as the end of The Life of David Gale, but it definitely hurts.
Directed by Rod Lurie.
Kate Beckinsale is one of my favorite actresses. Total babe; very good at what she does. She may do the big-budget bill-payers like Van Helsing and Click, but she also seeks out those low-budget dramas, like Snow Angels and this.
This is probably Rod Lurie's best movie; the film-critic-turned-moviemaker will always have a place in my heart for the hilariously illogical The Contender, which still featured great performances from Gary Oldman, Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. This movie features equally fine acting jobs from Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga and Alan Alda, and for the most part it's a compelling melodrama.
It's one of those movies that champions true journalism. Alan Alda, as a defense attorney, gives a moving argument about the press being one of the last institutions in place to keep government honest. The story gets rolling when there is an assassination attempt on the President's life. Intelligence suggests that the plot stemmed from Venezuela, and the U.S. strikes. But there is an author who claims that there was no supporting intelligence that Venezuela was behind the attempt. Turns out, the author's wife is a CIA agent, and Beckinsale plays the reporter who outs her.
It's inspired by the Valerie Plame case, but it's not based on it. Vera Farmiga (The Departed) does great work as the outed agent, and Beckinsale is up to the task of the reporter who goes to jail rather than give up her source.
The reporter suffers more and more for her work. Months go by. Her marriage suffers.
And there's the twist at the end that almost ruins the movie. Not quite as rug-yanking as the end of The Life of David Gale, but it definitely hurts.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Blindness - DVD Review
BLINDNESS (**) - Starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Yusuke Iseya, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Maury Chaykin, Don McKellar and Yoshino Kimura.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles.
This movie starts off very promising, very intriguing. A man goes blind, a blindness where he can only see white. The blindness slowly spreads, then rapidly spreads. The government isn't prepared for an outbreak of such unknown magnitude, and the blind are herded up and put in quarantine camps.
What starts out as a study in survival and adjustment devolves into a Lord of the Flies allegory, when one man gets a gun and decides to run the quarantine camp like a dictator. I happen to have a little more faith in humanity than this movie. People stop using toilets and feces spreads across the floors. Food-for-sex becomes the choice for desperate women.
The twist is that one woman, Julianne Moore, can see, but she's pretending to be blind so she can be with her husband. She becomes the selfless servant, and that was one frustrating aspect. As the quarantine building degenerates into a living hell, she never figures out how to use her sight to her advantage to overthrow the despot. At least until after a lot of bad things have happened.
There's nothing enlightening here. It's bleak, it's dark, it's dehumanizing. Very cool beginning, decent end. Ugly, ugly middle. Its ambitions are grander than its execution.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles.
This movie starts off very promising, very intriguing. A man goes blind, a blindness where he can only see white. The blindness slowly spreads, then rapidly spreads. The government isn't prepared for an outbreak of such unknown magnitude, and the blind are herded up and put in quarantine camps.
What starts out as a study in survival and adjustment devolves into a Lord of the Flies allegory, when one man gets a gun and decides to run the quarantine camp like a dictator. I happen to have a little more faith in humanity than this movie. People stop using toilets and feces spreads across the floors. Food-for-sex becomes the choice for desperate women.
The twist is that one woman, Julianne Moore, can see, but she's pretending to be blind so she can be with her husband. She becomes the selfless servant, and that was one frustrating aspect. As the quarantine building degenerates into a living hell, she never figures out how to use her sight to her advantage to overthrow the despot. At least until after a lot of bad things have happened.
There's nothing enlightening here. It's bleak, it's dark, it's dehumanizing. Very cool beginning, decent end. Ugly, ugly middle. Its ambitions are grander than its execution.
Friday, May 8, 2009
The Uninvited - DVD Review
THE UNINVITED (**) - Starring Emily Browning, Elizabeth Banks, Arielle Kebbel, and David Strathairn.
Directed by The Guard Brothers.
We have a movie where we are given characters and situations, and we are asked to accept them on face value, even though it's obvious things aren't what they seem and we're going to get a twist ending. So in a 90-minute movie, if only the last 5 minutes are good, is it worth seeing?
Elizabeth Banks is far too sweet an actress to play an evil stepmother. It's somewhere on par with asking Paul Rudd to play a wife-beater. I just don't buy it.
Now I go back to the grand one-two punch of 1999 with The Sixth Sense and Fight Club, two of my favorite movies of that year. Both had twist endings. Both were entertaining throughout so that the twist endings were icing on the cake. I think that's the whole key to a great twist ending. The ride needs to work on its own merit before we get there.
Here we get Emily Browning (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Anna, a girl just let out of a mental hospital. She's traumatized after her mother died in a fire, and she goes back home to live with her sister, father, and father's brand new wife. The sister, Alex, thinks their new stepmother may have actually been behind their mother's death.
With the occasional ghost showing up, I knew that everything I was watching was going to be turned on its head at the end. Banks was obviously playing two different motivations simultaneously. When the twist came I thought it was neat, if not entirely original. So was the 85 minutes of stalling worth the final 5?
Not really.
Directed by The Guard Brothers.
We have a movie where we are given characters and situations, and we are asked to accept them on face value, even though it's obvious things aren't what they seem and we're going to get a twist ending. So in a 90-minute movie, if only the last 5 minutes are good, is it worth seeing?
Elizabeth Banks is far too sweet an actress to play an evil stepmother. It's somewhere on par with asking Paul Rudd to play a wife-beater. I just don't buy it.
Now I go back to the grand one-two punch of 1999 with The Sixth Sense and Fight Club, two of my favorite movies of that year. Both had twist endings. Both were entertaining throughout so that the twist endings were icing on the cake. I think that's the whole key to a great twist ending. The ride needs to work on its own merit before we get there.
Here we get Emily Browning (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) as Anna, a girl just let out of a mental hospital. She's traumatized after her mother died in a fire, and she goes back home to live with her sister, father, and father's brand new wife. The sister, Alex, thinks their new stepmother may have actually been behind their mother's death.
With the occasional ghost showing up, I knew that everything I was watching was going to be turned on its head at the end. Banks was obviously playing two different motivations simultaneously. When the twist came I thought it was neat, if not entirely original. So was the 85 minutes of stalling worth the final 5?
Not really.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Movie Review
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (**3/4) - Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Ryan Reynolds, Will.i.am, Lynn Collins, Dominic Monaghan, Kevin Durand and Taylor Kitsch.
Directed by Gavin Hood.
I won't pretend I've read too many comics, but I've read more issues of X-Men than any other titles out there, and of the X-Men, Gambit was my favorite. I'm glad he's finally able to show up, but if Taylor Kitsch was trying for a Cajun accent, I only caught it on a syllable here and there. But they do give Gambit some style, and I still found myself wishing he'd be able to show up in another X-Men movie.
Oh, wait, this is Wolverine's movie. Well, it's better than X-Men 3. It's a prequel, so some characters are recast with younger actors, although they've changed some of the events that allegedly happened before. In the first X-Men movie, Sabretooth was a 7-foot guy who never talked, just roared. Here he's the chatty, intelligent Liev Schreiber.
Wolvy and Sabretooth, aka James and Victor, are brothers - kids - in the 1840's when they discover their powers. They grow up to be Jackman and Schreiber for the Civil War, so they age normally until they hit about 40 and then stop? We see them have fun fighting WWI, WWII and eventually the Vietnam War, when Victor goes nuts and starts killing US soldiers. The two are sentenced to death by firing, but since both heal really, really fast, this doesn't actually kill them.
Enter Major Stryker (played by Brian Cox in X2, but he's been youthified to Danny Huston here). Stryker has a program that will allow them to really use their powers for good. Here, they team up with guys who will eventually be known as Deadpool, Kestrel, Bolt, Blob, and Agent Zero, but here they're just called Wade, John, Bradley, Fred and David. (Three of them are eventually called by their mutant names, but I had to ask someone who the other two were.)
Stryker's team engages in nefarious activity, and so James, now called Logan, quits the team. A few years Stryker catches up to him in Canada, where he warns him someone is killing off the old team one by one. Prime suspect? Victor.
(Where does Gambit fit in? We're over an hour into the movie before he shows up.)
One major problem I had: how does Stryker know that adamantium bullets in Wolverine's brain will make him lose his memory? We know from the first three X-Men movies Wolverine has amnesia, so he has no memory of the events of this movie taking place.
Directed by Gavin Hood.
I won't pretend I've read too many comics, but I've read more issues of X-Men than any other titles out there, and of the X-Men, Gambit was my favorite. I'm glad he's finally able to show up, but if Taylor Kitsch was trying for a Cajun accent, I only caught it on a syllable here and there. But they do give Gambit some style, and I still found myself wishing he'd be able to show up in another X-Men movie.
Oh, wait, this is Wolverine's movie. Well, it's better than X-Men 3. It's a prequel, so some characters are recast with younger actors, although they've changed some of the events that allegedly happened before. In the first X-Men movie, Sabretooth was a 7-foot guy who never talked, just roared. Here he's the chatty, intelligent Liev Schreiber.
Wolvy and Sabretooth, aka James and Victor, are brothers - kids - in the 1840's when they discover their powers. They grow up to be Jackman and Schreiber for the Civil War, so they age normally until they hit about 40 and then stop? We see them have fun fighting WWI, WWII and eventually the Vietnam War, when Victor goes nuts and starts killing US soldiers. The two are sentenced to death by firing, but since both heal really, really fast, this doesn't actually kill them.
Enter Major Stryker (played by Brian Cox in X2, but he's been youthified to Danny Huston here). Stryker has a program that will allow them to really use their powers for good. Here, they team up with guys who will eventually be known as Deadpool, Kestrel, Bolt, Blob, and Agent Zero, but here they're just called Wade, John, Bradley, Fred and David. (Three of them are eventually called by their mutant names, but I had to ask someone who the other two were.)
Stryker's team engages in nefarious activity, and so James, now called Logan, quits the team. A few years Stryker catches up to him in Canada, where he warns him someone is killing off the old team one by one. Prime suspect? Victor.
(Where does Gambit fit in? We're over an hour into the movie before he shows up.)
One major problem I had: how does Stryker know that adamantium bullets in Wolverine's brain will make him lose his memory? We know from the first three X-Men movies Wolverine has amnesia, so he has no memory of the events of this movie taking place.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Summer Box Office Predictions
Last summer seventeen movies made it past the $100 million mark, with six of those passing $200 million. I will say this is one of the hardest summer to guess on (not that I'm hitting bullseyes every summer) because with the economy, some movies are actually doing better. I mean, who could have seen coming the triumphs of Paul Blart, Taken, Knowing, Fast & Furious, and Obsessed?
1. HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE - $335 million - It's been two years since the last one, a little longer lay-off than usual, and this one really gets into some background of some characters. It also has the Dark Knight spot.
2. TRANSFORMERS 2 - $270 million - I can't say I'm hyped for this one, but this is one where I'm assuming it's my age (I'll have turned 36 a few days before this opens). I think this will be big with the 12-25 range. I hope they spend a little more time on the robots and a little less on the humans.
3. STAR TREK - $255 million - It looks huge. It looks different. It looks accessible to non-fans. It looks like the shot-in-the-arm the franchise needed to stay viable.
4. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 - $250 million - The publicity hasn't hooked me yet, but the first one was a giant success, and this one promises to be funnier. Ben Stiller's proven to have a pretty good track record.
5. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE - $230 million - I see this thing opening in the $75-80 million range, getting dealt a body blow by Star Trek the next week, but both of them have decent legs to ride the rest of May while theaters keep trying to get rid of Fighting, The Soloist, and Crank 2. General consensus so far is that it's at least better than X-Men 3.
6. UP - $225 million - Pixar can do no wrong. Doesn't look like the masterpiece Wall-E was, but looks more accessible.
7. ICE AGE 3 - $215 million - Does the franchise still have legs? The Scrat previews are always entertaining.
8. ANGELS & DEMONS - $160 million - Not the event that The Da Vinci Code was, even if the movie wound up being not that great. Angels & Demons actually has a better plot book-wise, so hopefully it will make for a better movie.
9. JULIE & JULIA - $144 million - I know there's gotta be a $100+ million grossing chick flick somewhere in here, and this looks like the most potential even though it doesn't have the name recognition of Sex & the City or Mamma Mia! It does have Meryl Streep, and she's turning out lately to be one of the most reliable female box-office stars. Between this and Night at the Museum 2, Amy Adams will have a good summer.
10. LAND OF THE LOST - $138 million - The preview looks okay. It at least keeps some of the elements of the series. And Will Ferrell running from dinosaurs might be enough to get kids begging to see it.
11. TERMINATOR SALVATION - $130 million - Something's gotta slip somewhere, and I'm wondering if it's this one. I liked the final trailer they have, but it looks as bleak as a PG-13 movie can possibly be, with Christian Bale maybe doing some damage to himself after his infamous rant. (See also: the box-office for Mission Impossible 3 after Tom Cruise went couch-hopping.) Plus it's McG and I don't know how good a straight actioner he can actually make.
12. PUBLIC ENEMIES - $125 million - It's Michael Mann. It's Johnny Depp. But it is an R-rated gangster flick in summer, so $125 million is pretty darn good. And it will make for a good Christian Bale summer.
13. THE PROPOSAL - $110 million - Yes, it's a contrived plot, but it's gotten laughs from the audience every time I've seen it, and again, I can't see any other chick flick not yet listed doing better. Maybe it's Sandra Bullock's comeback.
14. G-FORCE - $107 million - Looks like The Wonder Pets to me with 10,000 times the budget. Those talking-animals movies tend to do better than I ever think they will. G-Force to me means Battle of the Planets, but I didn't see Mark, Jason, Tiny, Cheops and Princess in the trailer.
15. THE YEAR ONE - $105 million - Dry laughs with Jack Black and Michael Cera living in B.C. times. I think it looks funny but it might be crowded out by other titles opening around it.
16. FUNNY PEOPLE - $101 million - Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen try to mix the comedy and drama, as stand-up comedians. Their goal is probably something like 1988's Punchline but with two Tom Hankses and no Sally Fields. I will be impressed the first time Judd Apatow writes a movie where no one smokes pot.
17. THE UGLY TRUTH - $85 million - I don't get the Katherine Heigl thing, but hey, this has a shot. My goodness, What Happens in Vegas almost made this much.
18. BRUNO - $79 million - Looks like it will be about as outrageous in 2009 as Borat was in 2006.
19. THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 - $77 million - Grown-up remake of the Walter Matthau semi-classic (I'm actually watching it now; DVR'd it a couple months ago). Denzel Washington can be counted on for a certain level of box-office. John Travolta, who plays villains half the time, looks more dangerous than usual. This could be a surprise hit, but I think this is the range the studio is expecting.
20. THE HANGOVER - $72 million - Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Gali-something-ikis seem like the B-team of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson turning it down, but just writing that, I realized that I'm more interested in seeing it with these three lesser-known guys than I would be with the more famous three. Good preview.
Possible sleepers:
Drag Me to Hell - I just realized I don't have a horror flick on here, but then again, last year a horror flick did not make the top 20. But #21 was The Happening and #22 was The Strangers. Drag Me to Hell's being produced by Sam Raimi, so I think it'll be a little more creative than Final Destination 4 or H2.
They Came From Upstairs - Also a horror flick, so....
H2 - Rob Zombie's Halloween follow-up will probably gross around $50 million overall, but with Friday the 13th opening huge, maybe there's an increased desire to see the old serial-killers doing their thang.
Imagine That - After Meet Dave died an ignominious death, I wonder if Eddie Murphy can rebound, and Imagine That might do it. I haven't seen the preview yet but it sounds too similar to Bedtime Stories.
My Sister's Keeper - Based on the best-seller, if it's a good adaptation, it could bring out fans, plus it'll be interesting to see how Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin play off each other as mother and daughter.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, I Love You Beth Cooper, or When in Rome - One should do well, but I doubt all three. I remember when Ghosts was a Ben Affleck project and they yanked the plug because they didn't feel like he was bankable anymore. But his wife stayed in it.
Predicted bombs:
G.I. Joe - They made Joe an international force instead of an American one, so it's like a secret U.N. fighting team. Riiiight. It has name recognition, but most fanboys I know/read/hear from think this is going to suck and be the bomb of the summer.
Inglorious Basterds - I think this will make a lot more money since it has Brad Pitt, but Quentin Tarantino has been living off borrowed cool for a while now. I'd love to be wrong on this one.
Shorts - Robert Rodriguez got the story idea from his kids. Last time he did that, we got The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl. Yeesh.
My Life in Ruins - Nia Vardalos attempts to recapture the Big Fat Greek Wedding magic.
The Brothers Bloom - Yanked off the winter release schedule days before it was supposed to open, I don't think Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo have become any more bankable in the past six months.
Summer 2008
1. The Dark Knight - $527.36 million
2. Iron Man - $318.31
3. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $317.02
4. Hancock - $227.95
5. Wall-E - $222.1
6. Kung Fu Panda - $215.43
7. Sex & the City - $152.53
8. Mamma Mia! - $143.33
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $141.62
10. The Incredible Hulk - $134.53
11. Wanted - $134.33
12. Get Smart - $130.25
13. Tropic Thunder - $109.88
14. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $102.28
15. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $100.83
16. Step Brothers - $100.47
17. You Don't Mess with the Zohan - $100.02
18. Pineapple Express - $87.34
19. What Happens in Vegas - $80.28
20. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - $75.79
1. HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE - $335 million - It's been two years since the last one, a little longer lay-off than usual, and this one really gets into some background of some characters. It also has the Dark Knight spot.
2. TRANSFORMERS 2 - $270 million - I can't say I'm hyped for this one, but this is one where I'm assuming it's my age (I'll have turned 36 a few days before this opens). I think this will be big with the 12-25 range. I hope they spend a little more time on the robots and a little less on the humans.
3. STAR TREK - $255 million - It looks huge. It looks different. It looks accessible to non-fans. It looks like the shot-in-the-arm the franchise needed to stay viable.
4. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 - $250 million - The publicity hasn't hooked me yet, but the first one was a giant success, and this one promises to be funnier. Ben Stiller's proven to have a pretty good track record.
5. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE - $230 million - I see this thing opening in the $75-80 million range, getting dealt a body blow by Star Trek the next week, but both of them have decent legs to ride the rest of May while theaters keep trying to get rid of Fighting, The Soloist, and Crank 2. General consensus so far is that it's at least better than X-Men 3.
6. UP - $225 million - Pixar can do no wrong. Doesn't look like the masterpiece Wall-E was, but looks more accessible.
7. ICE AGE 3 - $215 million - Does the franchise still have legs? The Scrat previews are always entertaining.
8. ANGELS & DEMONS - $160 million - Not the event that The Da Vinci Code was, even if the movie wound up being not that great. Angels & Demons actually has a better plot book-wise, so hopefully it will make for a better movie.
9. JULIE & JULIA - $144 million - I know there's gotta be a $100+ million grossing chick flick somewhere in here, and this looks like the most potential even though it doesn't have the name recognition of Sex & the City or Mamma Mia! It does have Meryl Streep, and she's turning out lately to be one of the most reliable female box-office stars. Between this and Night at the Museum 2, Amy Adams will have a good summer.
10. LAND OF THE LOST - $138 million - The preview looks okay. It at least keeps some of the elements of the series. And Will Ferrell running from dinosaurs might be enough to get kids begging to see it.
11. TERMINATOR SALVATION - $130 million - Something's gotta slip somewhere, and I'm wondering if it's this one. I liked the final trailer they have, but it looks as bleak as a PG-13 movie can possibly be, with Christian Bale maybe doing some damage to himself after his infamous rant. (See also: the box-office for Mission Impossible 3 after Tom Cruise went couch-hopping.) Plus it's McG and I don't know how good a straight actioner he can actually make.
12. PUBLIC ENEMIES - $125 million - It's Michael Mann. It's Johnny Depp. But it is an R-rated gangster flick in summer, so $125 million is pretty darn good. And it will make for a good Christian Bale summer.
13. THE PROPOSAL - $110 million - Yes, it's a contrived plot, but it's gotten laughs from the audience every time I've seen it, and again, I can't see any other chick flick not yet listed doing better. Maybe it's Sandra Bullock's comeback.
14. G-FORCE - $107 million - Looks like The Wonder Pets to me with 10,000 times the budget. Those talking-animals movies tend to do better than I ever think they will. G-Force to me means Battle of the Planets, but I didn't see Mark, Jason, Tiny, Cheops and Princess in the trailer.
15. THE YEAR ONE - $105 million - Dry laughs with Jack Black and Michael Cera living in B.C. times. I think it looks funny but it might be crowded out by other titles opening around it.
16. FUNNY PEOPLE - $101 million - Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen try to mix the comedy and drama, as stand-up comedians. Their goal is probably something like 1988's Punchline but with two Tom Hankses and no Sally Fields. I will be impressed the first time Judd Apatow writes a movie where no one smokes pot.
17. THE UGLY TRUTH - $85 million - I don't get the Katherine Heigl thing, but hey, this has a shot. My goodness, What Happens in Vegas almost made this much.
18. BRUNO - $79 million - Looks like it will be about as outrageous in 2009 as Borat was in 2006.
19. THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 - $77 million - Grown-up remake of the Walter Matthau semi-classic (I'm actually watching it now; DVR'd it a couple months ago). Denzel Washington can be counted on for a certain level of box-office. John Travolta, who plays villains half the time, looks more dangerous than usual. This could be a surprise hit, but I think this is the range the studio is expecting.
20. THE HANGOVER - $72 million - Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Gali-something-ikis seem like the B-team of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson turning it down, but just writing that, I realized that I'm more interested in seeing it with these three lesser-known guys than I would be with the more famous three. Good preview.
Possible sleepers:
Drag Me to Hell - I just realized I don't have a horror flick on here, but then again, last year a horror flick did not make the top 20. But #21 was The Happening and #22 was The Strangers. Drag Me to Hell's being produced by Sam Raimi, so I think it'll be a little more creative than Final Destination 4 or H2.
They Came From Upstairs - Also a horror flick, so....
H2 - Rob Zombie's Halloween follow-up will probably gross around $50 million overall, but with Friday the 13th opening huge, maybe there's an increased desire to see the old serial-killers doing their thang.
Imagine That - After Meet Dave died an ignominious death, I wonder if Eddie Murphy can rebound, and Imagine That might do it. I haven't seen the preview yet but it sounds too similar to Bedtime Stories.
My Sister's Keeper - Based on the best-seller, if it's a good adaptation, it could bring out fans, plus it'll be interesting to see how Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin play off each other as mother and daughter.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, I Love You Beth Cooper, or When in Rome - One should do well, but I doubt all three. I remember when Ghosts was a Ben Affleck project and they yanked the plug because they didn't feel like he was bankable anymore. But his wife stayed in it.
Predicted bombs:
G.I. Joe - They made Joe an international force instead of an American one, so it's like a secret U.N. fighting team. Riiiight. It has name recognition, but most fanboys I know/read/hear from think this is going to suck and be the bomb of the summer.
Inglorious Basterds - I think this will make a lot more money since it has Brad Pitt, but Quentin Tarantino has been living off borrowed cool for a while now. I'd love to be wrong on this one.
Shorts - Robert Rodriguez got the story idea from his kids. Last time he did that, we got The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl. Yeesh.
My Life in Ruins - Nia Vardalos attempts to recapture the Big Fat Greek Wedding magic.
The Brothers Bloom - Yanked off the winter release schedule days before it was supposed to open, I don't think Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo have become any more bankable in the past six months.
Summer 2008
1. The Dark Knight - $527.36 million
2. Iron Man - $318.31
3. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $317.02
4. Hancock - $227.95
5. Wall-E - $222.1
6. Kung Fu Panda - $215.43
7. Sex & the City - $152.53
8. Mamma Mia! - $143.33
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $141.62
10. The Incredible Hulk - $134.53
11. Wanted - $134.33
12. Get Smart - $130.25
13. Tropic Thunder - $109.88
14. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $102.28
15. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $100.83
16. Step Brothers - $100.47
17. You Don't Mess with the Zohan - $100.02
18. Pineapple Express - $87.34
19. What Happens in Vegas - $80.28
20. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - $75.79
Monday, April 27, 2009
Observe & Report - Movie Review
OBSERVE & REPORT (**1/2) - Starring Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Pena, Celia Weston and Aziz Ansari.
Directed by Jody Hill.
Haven't seen Paul Blart: Mall Cop, but I imagine this is the bizarro-world, evil version of that movie. Seth Rogen plays Ronnie Bernhardt, a bipolar, mean-spirited, delusional mall cop who sees himself as a lone warrior keeping mall patrons safe from flashers. It's a lot like The Foot-Fist Way, but it goes even further than Foot-Fist ever dared.
The biggest laugh for me came in the first five minutes. Toward the end though, one character expressed what I'd been feeling about the previous half-hour. When a detective is listening in to Ronnie being told he doesn't qualify to be a real policeman, he comes out of hiding and says, "I thought this was going to be funny, but it's really kinda sad." It's underlined by a scene at the end of the flasher running through the mall, and there are no Austin Powers/Beowulf tricks to hide his shortcomings.
I appreciate Seth Rogen going for something different, and going full out, but I keep thinking of Alan Alda's rule of comedy he expresses in Woody Allen's Crimes & Misdemeanors: if it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not funny. This movie bends a lot and then it breaks.
Directed by Jody Hill.
Haven't seen Paul Blart: Mall Cop, but I imagine this is the bizarro-world, evil version of that movie. Seth Rogen plays Ronnie Bernhardt, a bipolar, mean-spirited, delusional mall cop who sees himself as a lone warrior keeping mall patrons safe from flashers. It's a lot like The Foot-Fist Way, but it goes even further than Foot-Fist ever dared.
The biggest laugh for me came in the first five minutes. Toward the end though, one character expressed what I'd been feeling about the previous half-hour. When a detective is listening in to Ronnie being told he doesn't qualify to be a real policeman, he comes out of hiding and says, "I thought this was going to be funny, but it's really kinda sad." It's underlined by a scene at the end of the flasher running through the mall, and there are no Austin Powers/Beowulf tricks to hide his shortcomings.
I appreciate Seth Rogen going for something different, and going full out, but I keep thinking of Alan Alda's rule of comedy he expresses in Woody Allen's Crimes & Misdemeanors: if it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not funny. This movie bends a lot and then it breaks.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Spirit - DVD Review
THE SPIRIT (*1/2) - Starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Paulson, Dan Lauria, Paz Vega, Eric Balfour and Louis Lombardi.
Directed by Frank Miller.
Please don't let Frank Miller near a Dick Tracy remake. Not that I've heard rumors or anything, but if anyone suggests it, slap them down. Apparently his co-directing gig on Sin City was lightning in a bottle, because tonally this movie never calms down and just struck me as silly. Sometimes it's has as much heft as a shot-by-shot remake of a 1978 Superfriends episode, complete with Wonder Woman showing us how to do a card trick. Most of the time though, it's like watching Dick Tracy remade by the cast and crew of America's Next Top Model.
Gabriel Macht will someday do something memorable in another film, but he gets no help from Miller, whose emphasis was on visuals, and the visuals are great, but that doesn't mean there are any appealing characters or engrossing plotlines. The word that keeps coming back to me is "silly." Silly, silly, silly.
Directed by Frank Miller.
Please don't let Frank Miller near a Dick Tracy remake. Not that I've heard rumors or anything, but if anyone suggests it, slap them down. Apparently his co-directing gig on Sin City was lightning in a bottle, because tonally this movie never calms down and just struck me as silly. Sometimes it's has as much heft as a shot-by-shot remake of a 1978 Superfriends episode, complete with Wonder Woman showing us how to do a card trick. Most of the time though, it's like watching Dick Tracy remade by the cast and crew of America's Next Top Model.
Gabriel Macht will someday do something memorable in another film, but he gets no help from Miller, whose emphasis was on visuals, and the visuals are great, but that doesn't mean there are any appealing characters or engrossing plotlines. The word that keeps coming back to me is "silly." Silly, silly, silly.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monsters vs. Aliens - Movie Review
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS (***) - Starring the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, and Paul Rudd.
Took the family to this. We had free matinee tickets. The only thing that would have been was if we'd had free 3-D tickets, but I ain't complaining.
I was actually a little worried this would be like most other DreamWorks animated flicks where they insert dirty humor here and there, which made the Shrek movies progressively worse and helped sink Shark Tale, but there wasn't anything more vulgar than what the previews show.
This movie takes the sci-fi paranoia of the post-Roswell era, mixes in the military absurdism of Dr. Strangelove, and mixes it in with a crop of lovable weird characters, and it results in a decent if not disposable little $150 million movie.
Most of the laughs come from B.O.B., the blue blob voiced by Seth Rogen. The lead though is Susan, an idealistic bride-to-be who has a radioactive meteor land on her on her wedding day. Her fiance freaks out at her fifty-footness, while war honcho General W.R. Monger (get it? get it?!) dubs her a monster that must be locked away to keep citizens safe. In the safe confines of Area 51, she befriends B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach (a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach), the Missing Link (a 20,000 year-old fishman), and Insectisaurus, a 350-foot tall insect-grub thing.
They are promised their freedom when aliens invade and threatens to eliminate the human race. So if you looked at the title and thought it was based on the lost seventh Jane Austen novel, your thought process maddens but intrigues me.
Took the family to this. We had free matinee tickets. The only thing that would have been was if we'd had free 3-D tickets, but I ain't complaining.
I was actually a little worried this would be like most other DreamWorks animated flicks where they insert dirty humor here and there, which made the Shrek movies progressively worse and helped sink Shark Tale, but there wasn't anything more vulgar than what the previews show.
This movie takes the sci-fi paranoia of the post-Roswell era, mixes in the military absurdism of Dr. Strangelove, and mixes it in with a crop of lovable weird characters, and it results in a decent if not disposable little $150 million movie.
Most of the laughs come from B.O.B., the blue blob voiced by Seth Rogen. The lead though is Susan, an idealistic bride-to-be who has a radioactive meteor land on her on her wedding day. Her fiance freaks out at her fifty-footness, while war honcho General W.R. Monger (get it? get it?!) dubs her a monster that must be locked away to keep citizens safe. In the safe confines of Area 51, she befriends B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach (a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach), the Missing Link (a 20,000 year-old fishman), and Insectisaurus, a 350-foot tall insect-grub thing.
They are promised their freedom when aliens invade and threatens to eliminate the human race. So if you looked at the title and thought it was based on the lost seventh Jane Austen novel, your thought process maddens but intrigues me.
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