Making my Best of List for 09 earlier this year I never properly reviewed A Prophet.  So to build awareness of this excellent film’s release on DVD and Blu-Ray I will give it the proper review it deserves.

Review: A Prophet

A Prophet might be the best crime film of the last decade and is a near perfect film on almost every level.

Malik, 19, arrives to prison ready to serve a 6 year sentence for beating up a cop.  A repeat offender, this is the first time that Malik has committed a crime of the age to be sent to the real prison and things don’t start off well for the young inmate.  Illiterate and uneducated, this half French/half Muslim kid is despised by both factions that the prison naturally split into based on ethnicity.  After getting pushed around a bit, like every new inmate seems to be, Malik’s situation gets dire in a hurry. A group of Corsican gangsters who run the prison, led by César, “volunteer” Malik to kill a Muslim inmate that is going to testify against the Corsican’s on the outside.  If Malik isn’t up to the task, the Corsican’s will kill him instead.

I will spoil no more but that recap only sums up the first twenty minutes or so of the film and Malik’s journey goes well beyond being a lackey for the Corsicans.  Malik’s journey is epic and engaging as he learns his way around prison life and works his way slowly into greater and greater prominence.  It is tough to write about this film as what makes this film great is the unexpectedness of Malik’s journey and I don’t want to spoil things any further.  But any fans of crime or prison films will quickly fall in love with this rich world that Jacques Audiard has created in A Prophet.  The film is full of twists and turns, suspense builds with every new development, and I guarantee it will shock on more than one occasion.  The scope of the film is also greater than you would think for a film set in a prison and it naturally progresses outside the walls.

The only thing that I could really possibly say that is negative about the film is that it is a bit tough to keep track of whose name is what.  The second time through this was much easier to follow though, maybe I was just tired or something the first time?

The pacing and style really help keep the potentially mundane prison environment lively and interesting, while Alexandre Despalt’s score is a real marvel that fits beautifully with the images on the screen.  Speaking of Despalt, he has had an amazing run as of late.  Between this, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Ghost Writer, and Benjamin Button he has been on a role and I can’t wait to hear his work in Harry Potter this winter.

Back to the film, also dabbles in the “unreal” (for lack of a better term) from time to time and I don’t quite know what we are supposed to take from the origin of Malik’s nick name and his constant visitor.  But rest assured this element never takes away from the stark reality this world Audiard has crafted for the viewer and it will get your wheels turning as to whether something else is inside Malik.

Breaking out as Malik is Tahar Rahim whose quiet submission slowly evolves into quiet confidence over the course of the film and Rahim does it with amazing subtlety.  Before you even realize it Malik is three steps ahead of you and Rahim can’t be applauded enough for playing the transition so well.  Getting a lot more of a role to chew on is Niels Arestrup as César and he smolders underneath his calm exterior. You get tense just from never knowing when he is going to explode.  It’s the quiet moments for César are where Arestrup really gets to shine, as he gives us so much to absorb about the character without ever uttering a word.  Adel Bencherif and Reda Kateb also turn in some very good supporting work as Malik’s friends while also providing some interesting characters to populate the prison.

In the end, A Prophet is about as good as you can make a film about prison or crime and will go down as a classic of the genres for years to come.  Nominated for an Academy Award this past awards season A Prophet might have wandered on to some of you guys’ radar already. But if you aren’t aware of this phenomenal film, rush out now to check this one out.  In my Best of 09 article earlier this year I placed this film at #11 and mentioned that it “might deserve to be higher on the list.”  Having now seen the film again on Blu-ray I can confirm that notion was right and I would easily put this up with the five best films of 09.

A Prophet is an A+

A fountain of love is something I would definitely be happy to come across.  But as hopeful as a girl can be about finding one my expectations aren’t that high, so I will settle for watching a good romantic comedy about a fountain of this nature instead.  Unfortunately after watching When In Rome I have been made aware that neither exists.

They say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”  Unfortunately for Beth she doesn’t really know what that entails. While visiting for her sisters impromptu wedding she fails to break the ceremonial vase, her speech is hindered by her total lack of Italian language skills, and worst of all, she doesn’t know the myth about a certain fountain. Legend tells that if a person removes a coin from the fountain, the person who threw it in will fall madly in love with the thief.  And seeing as this is a romantic comedy, this legend just happens to be true.  Now Beth must deal with four random strangers chasing her around thanks to her drunken mistake, as well as the possibility that the one guy she actually likes may be suffering from the spell as well.

Kristen Bell plays Beth, a girl who goes from having no hope for romance to being stalked by numerous adoring men all claiming to love her.  These men include Will Arnett as an artist, Jon Heder as a street magician, Dax Shepard as a model, Danny DeVito as a sausage king, and Josh Duhamel as the “normal” guy.  Clearly the movie is not lacking in comedic talent, yet it still falls flat because the story and script ask far too little of them.  Each of the smaller male stalker roles is given one character point to milk for laughs with little room to move from this; and though the two leads are given slightly more, it’s not enough to make their characters all that complex either.

Because these characters are always doing the same things over and over, there is not a whole lot going on in the plot: Beth might like Nick, he might be under the spell, the stalkers randomly show up, she gives in to going on a date with Nick, the stalkers randomly show up, she is overwhelmed and runs away.  Now do as the shampoo bottle says and lather, rinse, and repeat these basic plot points for an hour and a half.  Even the ending is a repeat of something that happened a few minutes before, and by this time the plot is so stale that it has become hard to watch.

I don’t need a fountain of love to force me to love the actors in this film, but I can’t say the same for the movie itself.  But seeing as one doesn’t exist, I am free to say that I don’t even want to like When In Rome as a friend.

Final Grade: D

PS – Someone please give Kristen Schaal a larger role in something because she has been popping up everywhere lately in the smallest roles (Modern Family, Valentine’s Day, Toy Story 3), making the most of her roles though she is given far too little screen time for what she deserves.

2009’s Fame may hit on some of the best parts of the entertainment industry with performances of music and dance, but all of this being crammed into one film leaves little room for an actual film to really form.

The New York Academy of Performing Arts is apparently the place to be for upcoming, high school aged artists of all types.  Auditions are brutal, classes are challenging, and you have to be just as studious as you are talented.  This film follows a group of kids who are lucky enough to be accepted into the school during the four years of their lives spent fine-tuning what they do best.

With the massive popularity of singing and dancing on TV and in films today, Fame is not the film that is going to shine above the rest as something truly memorable. Following a few of the overused, “fun” staples of similar films, such as the audition process mixing in the talented and the (attempted) comical performances of the less talented, as well as the random foodless cafeteria scene where everyone bonds through a “spontaneous” talent show, the film quickly disintegrates into something far less cohesive.  Because of this, I am going to make two suggestions as to what would have made this better:

1. Pick a smaller group of characters to follow.  Fame fails at being character driven because there are far too many students with stories to tell, and not enough time to tell them, making it completely impossible to get invested in any of them.
2. Have the film take place over a smaller amount of time, such as just Freshman Year.  This film is less than 2 hours long, with a lot of the time being devoted to music numbers and dance scenes instead of the characters themselves as they progress through the four years of their high school experience.  With little time for their stories, there is no sense of progression because all the audience gets to witness are the most heightened moments for these individuals, making everything seem so overdramatic more often than not, fully deserving of an equally overdramatic eye roll.

Though a lot of the performances in the film are pretty entertaining to watch thanks to the talents of the people cast, Fame blends these random performance pieces in with a laughable excuse of a story, creating a more than lackluster film.  Let me put it this way: most of the dance pieces on So You Think You Can Dance are able to express a far greater story than this film is capable of doing, and looks far better in doing so.

Final Grade: C-

The Time Traveler’s Wife may be about a man who uncontrollably jumps around within a certain span of time, but at its basic level it is a love story.  A love story that unfortunately takes a rocky start with its depiction on screen in concern to dialog and pacing, but eventually it finds itself and the tragically beautiful love story is able to unfold.

When Clare Abshire was 6 a man spoke to her from the trees asking if he could borrow her blanket seeing as he seemed to have forgotten his clothes. Before disappearing again he promised to come back to see her.  Ah the creepy start to a beautiful relationship.  Years later after she has grown into a woman she comes across Henry DeTamble, the same man from the tree-lined meadow, but this time around he knows nothing of her.  The problem is that at this stage in his life he has never come to visit her in that meadow because he is a time traveler, and thus Clare has already fallen in love with a man who she has known all her life but who has never met her before.  Good thing time can fix that.

The film starts out a little rocky because it rushes straight into the relationship in order to catch up with where Clare is within in considering she has been waiting for this all of her life.  She may already love him, but the audience doesn’t get to see that happen (though a little of this will be filled in later on as Henry flits around through the timeline).  With Clare already deep in the relationship, Henry rushes to catch up, and before you know it they are in love.  The movie is called The Time Travelers Wife after all.  Because of this, the depiction of the romance is bound to be a little awkward, but unfortunately this comes across in more ways than it should.  For starters, the chemistry between the two actors seems a little inconsistent and a little forced, with little help from the dialog they are given.

At this point I was starting to be afraid that Eric Bana is not quite up to par in concern to this genre, but when comparing his acting to that of Rachel McAdams (who has proven herself in this genre on numerous occasions) it became quite clear that a lot of it has to do with how his character was written.  Not all, but most of it.  For the first part of the film when he is not time traveling he is spending his time explaining that he is a time traveler to others and what it is like.  And then this guy is supposed to be one of the most romantic characters in literature, yet during his first meeting with the girl he is meant to be with forever he practically comes off as a pedophile (because this scene plays out a little like this: “I hope you come to see me again little girl.  Just don’t tell your mom.  Oh, and bring clothes.”).  But once the relationship moves past the actual wedding it becomes much stronger in concern to dialog, acting, and general presentation of the story.

Similar to Bana’s character, McAdams is given a lot of horrible dialog and cheesy moments to wade through when trying to show Clare’s side to the story.  Luckily, once they are married and the full force of what it is like to live with a man with this condition finally hits her, McAdams is able to grab on to something and go with it.  We can feel the tragedy of Clare’s story and the loneliness and frustration she is forced to endure, and I only wish there had been a few more moments like this other than a montage and two other memorable scenes.

It would have been nice if the lighter moments in the relationship had been stronger and placed throughout the entirety of the film instead of just stacked mostly at the front, but the premise of this film only really lends itself to the path of a tragedy.  Not to say that it’s overly depressing, but there is a certain inevitability to the sadness of the lives they are stuck with.  However, its how they deal with the hand they have been dealt, especially when possible glimpses of their future start to be revealed, that make it easy to see why they are able to make this work through all types of hardships.

When all is said and done, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a little disappointing because I can’t help feeling like Audrey Niffenegger’s novel wasn’t fully done justice by this film (though I am just assuming because reading the book is still on my to do list).  The dialog is cheesy and the love feels forced early on, and it isn’t until after a big chunk of the film is gone that it really starts to find the story between these two characters.  But once the tragedy of the situation is realized, it is hard not to be affected by it.

Final Grade: B-

The Hurt Locker may be a beautifully shot film, but it is far from the perfection I was expecting after all the hype it has been drenched in, especially post Oscars.

To sum it up, I think the best way to describe the movie is to compare it to the subject matter of the film, bombs (this seems like a really great and creative idea at 4 AM, so I’m just gonna go with it and see how it pans out).

Defuse Attempt: The Hurt Locker follows a team of three Army bomb squad members who are brought in to keep the ridiculous amount of bombs found in and around the streets of Iraq from exploding.  These scenes may not be as crazy and up-tempo as the bomb defusing scenes of the MacGruber SNL skits, but honestly the best scenes in the entirety of the film are those spent simply waiting.  The passage of time is marked with a countdown of days left until these men are home free, but its presence is more foreboding than it is hopeful.  As time slowly passes in the day to day and Staff Sergeant William James is met with a surprising amount of new and different bomb set ups, there is so much tension in the waiting because though you tell yourself there is no way they are going to blow up a bomb in someone’s face early on in the game you have to remember that this is war and casualties happen in the blink of the eye.  The tension becomes palpable, and you begin to think that maybe today will be the day that Specialist Owen Eldridge dies because that wide-eyed innocence never works out well for the one wearing it in this sort of film, right?

The (Sometimes Unavoidable) Explosion: The one downfall to the film is that for every faster paced action sequence that added some relief from the long, tension filled stretches of film, there are just as many faster paced scenes that are completely unnecessary.  Which brings us to:

The Aftermath: Remember that scene towards the end of Saving Private Ryan where there is an explosion followed by a surreal moment of confusion, slower processing and functioning on the parts of the characters, and that annoying ringing noise?  Well, a lot of this film is like that and loses its footing from time to time.  The story is slightly episodic in the way that it jumps from bomb to bomb, with only the countdown of days giving this film a goal to work towards because there really is no path to the story, it’s just a series of events along a timeline.  There is nothing wrong with a fragmented structure like this because this film is about the experience if anything else, but then random scenes are thrown in to make the movie more cinematic with an overarching story that just doesn’t seem to belong (such as a scene in the second half that seems more fitting to the Bourne series than this), causing more confusion than clarity.

And then there is Staff Sergeant James.  There is no question that this man goes through as many bombs as he does cigarettes, and it has become his addiction.  He is a reckless soldier who waves his bravado around like a flag for all to see, and I just don’t understand him.  Don’t get me wrong, Jeremy Renner deserves all the praise he is given for his portrayal of this role, but I just can’t figure him out.  The majority of the time he can be kind of a d-bag, but then he will do something that fleshes his character out a little more and works as a reminder that he is actually human, but when all is said and done his character is more enigmatic than ever and I can never quite figure out why he is the way he is or if he even cares about saving lives.  Maybe he has something to prove, or he’s running from something, or maybe it’s just a strong sense of duty, but as he does things that seem to be out of character for him and those unnecessary scenes come back into play I start to wonder if many I am just trying to tack on a meaning to the man that isn’t actually there.

Okay, enough with the bomb comparison.  Though the story and Renner’s character leave more to be desired on my part, it is impossible not to notice how great this film looks.  It is shot with a rockier style thanks to the cameras mobility, adding an even greater sense of urgency to what is playing out on screen.  And then there is the environment, which seems always more than willing to make its presence known.  Each shot is drenched in reminders of just how horrible this world really is.  If it isn’t the bombs that will drive one insane then the heat seeping from the color palate on screen, or the sweat dripping down the brows of the actors, the swarms of flies adding some of the only movement to numerous shots, and the sand (man is that a lot off sand) caking on to their faces is enough to make anyone uncomfortable.

The Hurt Locker finds its strength in its ability to amplify the tension and sense of danger in the job that these soldiers perform, but unfortunately it is weakened by the way it goes about trying to be more than just a simple story about an adrenaline junkie performing one of the most dangerous jobs out there.  This is not to say that it doesn’t deserve the attention it is getting, and many of the awards it has won are well deserved (including Kathryn Bigelow for Directing and the awards for Sound Editing and Mixing at the Oscars), but the problems in the story, character, and the last ten minutes of the film keep me from seeing this as the “Best Picture” of the year.

Final Grade: B-

As many of you may know by now (considering I have said this on numerous occasions) I love horror films.  I love them so much that in the past I have gone to the movie theater on my own to watch them (and sat as far away as possible from the only other person in the room / creepy man in the front row) because none of my friends like the genre, and I am not opposed to watching them at home alone in the wee hours of the night with all of the lights off.  Well, I may have to stop doing this because I just found out the hard way that some movies really are a little too scary for those viewing conditions.

For those of you who don’t know, The Blair Witch Project follows three student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams) in the woods as they hope to get footage for their documentary about the myth of the Blair Witch. After first doing some interviews of those familiar with the myth around the nearby town, they venture into the woods to search out certain “haunted” spots.  Things don’t go too smoothly thanks to some questionable forest exploring skill levels, but on the trip in they do make it to the spots they hoped to.  Following some normal camping experiences things start to go bump in the night, and though slightly creeped out, the filmmakers don’t think too much of these odd occurrences because they don’t plan on being in the woods that much longer.  At least that is the plan, which proves to be easier said than done.

Even though this film was released back in 1999, it holds up with the horror films of today because, just like Paranormal Activity, it preys on the viewer’s imagination and manipulates it in order to create this growing fear and anticipation about what can happen, and not necessarily what is.  The film starts off at a slower pace as the filmmakers go through the beginning stages of their process.  Nothing significant really happens and the characters become slightly irritating at times considering they spend about half of the time yelling at Heather to get the camera out of their faces as things start to go from bad to worse, but these initial scenes are necessary to see just how far the characters fall as they slowly start to lose their hope and grip of reality.

Though the performances get stronger as the days pass, the strongest moments during the film occur during the nighttime hours when hardly anything can be seen.  The use of a handheld camera dictates the audience’s view of what is occurring, creating a sense of terror of what is lurking right outside of the frame.  Just consider the footage shown: the majority of the nighttime shots are of the camera panning back in forth from left to right along the trees in front of the tent, with each swing of the camera bringing about the possibility of something jumping out at it.  Then, what is not of the trees is a completely dark picture with only the audio giving any indication of what is occurring.  I remember at one point one of the characters says, “What the f is that?” (I might be subconsciously editing that…) and I was so engrossed with what was happening that I was talking back to the screen, saying: “‘What the f is that?’  What do you mean what the f is that!?  I didn’t see!!!  I can’t see anything!!!”  And then I resorted to the childhood tactic of watching the movie through squinted eyes.  Basically, I was so afraid of what I might see that I was avoiding eye contact with my TV, and this is the only time (other than while watching ET as a child) I have had to do that.

Even though little actually happens in this film, it is so successful as a horror film because the audience becomes a fourth member of the group of filmmakers thanks to the use of the handheld camera.  We get frustrated with them when they do stupid things (Some of my input: “I can’t believe you just knocked that rock off the creepy pile!  Stupid!  What!?!?  Don’t touch it!  Ugh, now you’ve got curse on you!!!”), we lose hope along with them, and we freak out like nobodies business when they get frantic (well, at least I did).  And though I am not necessarily a fan of the ending, I highly recommend the movie to anyone who likes the genre because it is a cult classic for a reason, and if you are brave enough, sit through it in a dark room by yourself because I guarantee it will provide a completely different (and way more terrifying) experience.

Final Grade: B+

Resident Evil: Degeneration is an animated film that takes place within the timeline of the game franchise, and it probably would have worked as a game, but unfortunately it comes up lacking as a film.

Picking a new hub for a zombie outbreak, RE Degeneration takes on a whole new level of failed security and terrorist attacks at an airport.  For starters, a random zombie makes his way through the terminal, making his first meal out of a security guard.  Within seconds people are being turned left and right, and just when things seem to be as bad as they can be, a plane crashes into the side of the building, with even more zombies that were turned by one passenger pouring out of the planes door (how they got it open is still open for debate).  After a rescue mission is set into motion to save a few survivors trapped in one of the lounges in the terminal, it becomes clear that this incident is just an indication of what is to come.

As far as the RE franchise goes I know far more about the live action movies than the game series.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against the games because I have heard nothing but great things about them, and I am more than willing to sit and watch someone else play them.  And I am sure that if you put me in a bright room with tons of friends and/or armed guards around me then I might be okay to sit down and play them (because playing them alone is not an option.  I might pee my pants).  But lets face it; I don’t have that many friends who would be willing to watch me play these games.  And I definitely don’t have bodyguards.  So to sum up, horror films = awesome.  Horror games = wet pants.

What I am trying to say with that constant stream of ramble is that because of this lack of fangirl mentality going in to the film I feel like it wasn’t made for me, but is rather made for those who will geek out on the similarities to the game structure.  Take the overall story arc of the game.  Once the initial outbreak occurs one might expect throngs of zombies to attack and up the terror.  But no, instead there is actually an awkward lack of flesh eaters, with a few popping out of dark corners for slight frights.  (And where are the zombie dogs?  Everything I have ever witnessed about RE throws in zombie dogs!)  And then once the film moves away from the airport all hope for scares is lost, and instead is replaced by a mediocre ode to a boss battle.

Then there are the characters.  Both Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy play intricate roles at some point during the game series, but this movie doesn’t really fill in the backstory of who they are or how they know each other (which I am assuming was pretty important at one point because they had some awkwardly long eye contact moments during the film).  Leon makes a pretty cool character in the film, so I will forgive the lack of explanation for him due to his awesome action sequences, but I expected more from Claire.  There are a few indications of the potential she has in a situation like this with her willingness to fight off the masses with an umbrella and her ability to slow mo catch a gun, but in all honesty I am surprised she made it out of whatever game she was in alive.  But it’s cool; I will just replace the memory of her in this with that of Ali Larter in Resident Evil: Extinction.  Other than these two the new characters being introduced are not any better, ranging from the people who won’t believe they are in a zombie movie until someone is gnawing on their appendages to those you just hope are there as cannon fodder.

Another problem with this film is that in its attempt to mimic a video game it tends to really slack on other key aspects of good movie making.  Everyone knows that a basic mistake in horror films is to split the characters up, but seeing as it happens all the time it can be forgiven.  What I cannot forgive is the fact that they never really explain why they are breaking apart.  This isn’t a single campaign game mode and I cannot pull up an objective screen to remind myself where characters are going, what they are doing and why they are doing it.  So please, try to explain their actions a little bit, and make them legit.  As mentioned before, the structure of the movie is pretty weak, with a story that isn’t any better and full of even worse dialog.  A game can still be great if the gameplay makes up for these lesser elements, but films don’t have this luxury.  So though the action scenes in this film are pretty great, there is far too little to mask everything else that is not up to par.

The animation style of this film works fine for the cutscenes of a game, but it is just another thing that comes up lacking in this movie.  The environments and use of darkness and shadows are pretty great, and there are some moments when everything just comes together in a “whoa” moment, but for the most part it becomes a hindrance.  For starters, the character animation is hit and miss.  The moments of action are by far the highlight of the film, but it is when we are supposed to sit and stare at the characters that the flaws become really obvious.  For the most part it is really hard to understand what the characters are thinking because their emotions do not come across at all in their facial expressions, so all that remains are just awkwardly long shots of their faces where all we can do is gawk at how unnaturally smooth their blank faces are.

If you have not played the games of the Resident Evil series then, like me, you are probably going to feel like you are out of the loop while watching Resident Evil: Degeneration.  The story and dialog are both incredibly weak, with far too little exposition to fill in the questions I had while watching.  Though the animation style presents some pretty cool moments, this film would probably work better as a live action movie because let’s face it, animated can do creepy (see Coraline and 9), but animation horror just doesn’t quite have the strength of live action horror unless done perfectly.

Final Grade: D+

Though I am happier than ever that my mother has remained married to the same non-crazy man for all of my life after watching this film, the concept behind The Stepfather has a much greater impact on this feeling than the film itself, which doesn’t even live up to the other “horror” films of the same caliber (e.g. Disturbia. Yes, I realize that comparing these films may annoy many a film watcher. Let me just stop you right there. I know that both films are remakes and that one came before the other. But just look at them; if you only consider these two remakes then, in a nutshell, the movies are freakishly similar in look, story elements, and bikini-clad girls… This just doesn’t have the comedic power of Shia LeBeouf. Or tension. Now breathe and read the rest of the review when you are ready).
Following the murder of his family, David Harris is in the market for another family to get to know and kill. While perusing the selection at the grocery store, he comes across a family of the perfect quality with Susan and her two children. The next time we see them Susan and David are quickly heading towards the altar and/or a massacre, and Susan’s eldest son, Michael is returning home from military school. For the rest of the film he plays the skeptic and we are left to live through his paranoia of David in concern to his true identity and intentions.
The film starts out strong with a very haunting scene in which David is cleaning himself up after killing a family, making it clear who the bad guy is right away. I commend the film for challenging itself to find a new way to keep an audience intrigued when the mystery has already been revealed, but unfortunately it just doesn’t overcome the challenge. Instead we just get to sit there and live vicariously through the characters as they play catch-up. For the most part the characters in the film are not idiots (well, except maybe the mother. And definitely the daughter. She seemed way too touchy feeling with her soon to be step dad…). They are not just completely oblivious to what is going on and even start investigating and letting their opinions about David be known to Susan. The problem is we learn early on that if a character is too smart for their own good then they are going to die. I mean, why else would we be following random, somewhat unimportant characters around their home if they weren’t going to die in the next minute or so? With the number of skeptics dwindling, we are left with Michael’s paranoia to give us a sense of hope for this man’s comeuppance considering Sarah shields herself from all the obvious “wait-a-tick” signs and his girlfriend Kelly is too busy trying to make a swimsuit-clad girl dripping water all over the house (which you know has to be cold) look natural without a towel wrapped around her.
Though the characters on the whole can be frustrating, especially when considering how easily they are snuck up on, the character that is often the most frustrating is the killer himself. As the film progresses the question as to why he is integrating himself into families only to kill them down the road begins to nag at the audience, but the hope that maybe halfway through there will be a flashback or some revelation of some sort calms the nagging somewhat. But eventually the credits begin to roll and there is still no indicated motivation behind his actions. If a film is strong enough then it can get away with this lack of knowledge and can actually be eerier because the horror cannot be understood, but this is not one of these films in the slightest. Especially considering the fact that this story is slightly based on the real murderer John Emil List, a man who killed his family decades ago. Now that man is creepy, especially considering why he did what he did, but David doesn’t carry this same feeling with him. This is not to say that Dylan Walsh was horrible in the roll at all. He is believable in his family man routine with hints of what is really underneath peaking out occasionally, and has one of his best moments when he finally snaps, but I never really felt scared of him. Which obviously equals a failure for a scary movie.
In the end the early revelation of who the murderer is in The Stepfather is a hindrance because the challenge it presents to make things interesting for the viewer does not seem to be the concern of the film. Instead of a game of who-done-it and questions as to whether a character’s paranoia is warranted, we are left with a simple guessing game of how long it will take the killer to pop out and kill a member of the supporting cast, with an ending that is far from satisfactory enough to make some of the films weak points forgivable.

Final Grade: C

No matter who you go with, when it comes to vacations some fighting and mishaps are bound to happen, but usually there are enough good moments to balance out, if not overpower, the bad. Couples Retreat tries to show these moments of both ups and downs (well, mainly downs), but in the end the trip is far too painful to enjoy.
Of the four couples, Jason and Cynthia are the most willing to admit their relationship has problems. After many years and unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant the stress of the situation has finally reached its peak, and they are contemplating divorce. Feeling that this is their last hope, Jason and Cynthia ask their fellow couples, Dave and Ronnie, Joey and Lucy, and Shane and Trudy to go with them to Eden West, a couples resort on a beautiful, tropical island. When they arrive they are forced to partake in couples counseling, and those couples that assumed they would be spending a vacation having fun in the sun are finding that maybe they have more issues than they thought bubbling under the surface.
This film groups a bunch of great actors together to fill out the cast, including Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis, and Kali Hawk filling various roles of the above mentioned couples. Between them, they all have enough comedic talent to bring this film to life, but unfortunately they are playing a bunch of one-sided whiny roles that are more irritable than hilarious. Of this cast Akerman comes out looking the best because she is the least annoying character of the bunch, but it is actually some of the smallest roles in the film that shine. In concern to the couples, Kali Hawk, who I have never seen before and plays the least important member of one of the couples thanks to her younger woman / rebound girl status actually got the most laughs from me and outshone those with more experience. In addition to Hawk, in easily the funniest scenes of the film, Carlos Ponce plays the smarmy yoga instructor who is a little too touchy feely in his teaching methods, and John Michael Higgins and Ken Jeong are hilarious in their attempts to dole out some helpful observations and encouragement to the couples during their therapy sessions. Unfortunately their scenes are a rarity and the remainder is left to the couples, who remain far from interesting enough to make this film work. The story stretches thin as the movie progresses, losing focus and any resemblance of a decent plot. Though it is most noticeable towards the end, this actually plagues the film’s entirety. To sum it up, Couples Retreat gives off the impression that the script was written around a bunch of humorous situations without giving much thought to the dialog or story on the whole, including one guitar hero scene that is shot more like an high schooler’s attempt at a music video than a film with actual money backing. Sure, sometimes these moments warrant some laughs, just not enough to detract the audience’s attention from the utter lack of a fully developed story.
Couples Retreat shows a lot of promise with this group of actors and the situations they find themselves in, but instead of taking advantage of these elements the film simply drags out and falls flat in its comedy. In actuality I laughed the most when watching the bonus features, but unfortunately you have to rent the film in order to see them, and I just don’t think that is a suggestion I am willing to give.

Final Grade: D

Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White have teamed up on Black Dynamite to make a spoof/homage of black exploitation films of the 60’s and 70’s and the results are a fun and often hilarious movie that hits all the right notes.

The year is 1972, and Black Dynamite is the baddest mother on the streets, kicking ass, taking names, and bedding women of every race, ethnicity, and color (at once) is not one to be crossed.  But when he learns from an old CIA buddy that his brother has been killed in a drug deal gone bad, Dynamite vows to hit the streets and get to the bottom of this mess leaving everyone dead in his wake behind.  His investigation takes him to the crime underground dealing with pimps and hoes, drug lords and enforcers, and goes even deeper that anyone can imagine.

Now, the plot of the film isn’t why you are here, it is silly, over the top, and completely ludicrous but that is all part of the films charm and humor.  Where the real price of admission goes is to the excellent re-creation of the look and feel of these films, from screw ups, to the crazy fights, the ridiculous names, pumped up sex appeal, and low budget film making.

Visible booms, slow camera pans, crappy cut-aways, poor frame replacements, and shitty looking prints, its all here and this would play wonderfully on a double (triple?) bill with Grindhouse.  One of the stand out moments of the film is also the absolutely absurd and drawn out rationalization the characters take from clue A to conclude B and it is just insanely hilarious.

The film is also helped by a fantastic cast that “gets it” and is just having a blast playing out this silly homage.  Tommy Davidson, Arsenio Hall, Mykelti Williamson, are just a few of the familiar faces, but Michael Jai White steals the show and carries everyone on his back as Black Dynamite.  White is a martial arts expert, so he makes the fights almost look too good, but his abilities allow them to take things to another level of absurdity that makes the film work even better.  White’s creation of Black Dynamite is so great you can’t help but hope for a sequel when the credits roll.

Just remember viewers, when going into this film that it is not serious in any way shape or form.  The film is pure fun and entertainment and has a lot of fun playing with an already laughable set of films viewed on their own right.  The film also serves as a textbook example of how to make a spoof film though.  Respect the genre, have fun, and embrace the gifts that the film styles give you.  Spoof films aren’t just cheap and gross imitations of pre-existing films and should be homage of respect as much as making laughs at their expense and Black Dynamite completely gets that.  The film did drag a tad at the end, but it kept things light and fun through out and pacing moved right along

In the end, Black Dynamite is one of the better spoof films of recent memory and would play great with a Grindhouse, Shaun of the Dead, or Hot Fuzz in a double feature.  Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White show some solid filmmaking talent and I hope we at least get another adventure with Dynamite out of these two.  Silly and quality fun is to be had if you choose to check out Black Dynamite and I highly recommend you do so.

Black Dynamite is a B+

Rent the film here on Netflix!