For Your Renting Pleasure
This week we've got one good and a whole bunch of bad (at least in my opinion), with Dorian Gray, The Joneses, The Killers, and Lie to Me: Season 1. Rent: Lie to Me: Season One Now he may be no House, but Cal Lightman is another great character on TV that is easy to love for the reasons the people in →
Review: Machete
I found Jan Brewer’s beheaded bodies, they are in...Machete! The Grindhouse faux trailer turned feature length grind house film fits in perfectly with its predecessors, Planet Terror and Death Proof. The film is just as over the top, gory, and ludicrous as those that aforementioned double feature and is filled with same game talent beyond that. The film follows Machete; an ex-Federales →
Review: The American
The second feature effort from Anton Corbijn is almost as good as his first and is a quiet, deliberate, and sexy thriller lead by the great George Clooney. Clooney stars as Jack/Edward, a hit man that is loosing his drive for the profession though is still as sharp as ever. After a too close for comfort encounter with some enemies he →
Review: Going the Distance
Going the Distance is dirty R-rated romantic comedy that has a grounded and believable couple surrounded by a top notch supporting cast equals a funny and entertaining flick. The film follows Erin and Garrett a new couple that meets over a game of Centipede and when they fall harder than expected they decided to keep the relationship going when Erin has →
For Your Renting Pleasure
That's right, my write-up for rentals has changed yet again. This time around (and hopefully I will stick to it this time) I will write up little blurbs about the movies I have seen in the past week on Fridays, giving you suggestions for what to pick up and what to avoid when considering what to rent that weekend. On →
Now Playing Review – Machete
Usually a man’s best friend is a dog, but you’ve got two guesses as to what Machete likes to keep at his side. Evildoers beware; you are about to be introduced to his BFF. Back in Mexico Machete was the one man on the police force that would make grown man weep if they heard he was coming for them. He →
Now Playing Review – Going the Distance
Following the recent release of The Switch, it seems as if we have made yet another step in the right direction of the realistic romantic comedy with Going the Distance. Maybe not quite to the same extent as the former, but way better than that heightened, cookie cutter, romanticized nonsense, none-the-less. When it comes to long distance relationships everyone always thinks →
Review: The Switch
The Switch is a high concept rom-com that might seem a bit, “I’ve seen this before,” but its great performances, fantastic heart, and the most realistic characters in a rom-com, in what feels like forever (save 500 Days of Summer), make this a quality effort that is easy to enjoy. (This review might be a tad spoilerly for some, but I →
Now Playing Review – The Switch
The title might speak towards the switch of a certain bodily fluid in the story, but this is not the only switch with this film. Instead, what we get is a non-stereotypical romantic comedy (if you can even stick that genre title on it), differing in tone and far less groan worthy than most. For better or worse, family and friends →
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World vs. The Comic vs. The Adaptation vs. The Video Game
That's right! We are back with a new round of questions and answers, this time taking of the ever evolving universe of Scott Pilgrim in order to celebrate the film's release this weekend (and just how awesome Scott Pilgrim is in general). And this time things get "heated." Read on to find out why. SPOILERS AHEAD, SO ENTER AT YOUR OWN →
Now Playing Review – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Taglines on movie posters are iffy things. They are there to grab your attention if the image on the poster can’t pull that off on its own, with words that are supposed to get you excited as it toots the horn of the film that might not deserve to even have a horn capable of being tooted. Just look at →
Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a kinetic, and often times perfect, adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s fantastic comic series and is a movie that is unlike almost anything you have ever seen. Scott Pilgrim is a nice guy, but he can be kind of a dick, and rather oblivious, but ultimately he is dating a high schooler. Knives →
Review: The Expendables
Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables is a man on a mission, action all stars extravaganza being sold as an explosion a minute yarn. But if it wasn’t for a solid final 25 minutes or so of non-stop action then this film would have been a colossal failure of its potential. Now I hate to feel a little burned by a film’s marketing, →
Now Playing Review – Eat Pray Love
Based on this title there are three things in the world needed to bring oneself out of an overwhelming depression that has ruined one’s sense of direction in life. First one must eat to build strength and energy for the long journey ahead. With a full stomach and a foot placed hesitantly on the trail, one must pray that they →
Review: Eat Pray Love
Eat Pray Love is a dull and poorly executed picture that meanders, is no where near as good as it thinks it is, and fails to engage or fill us with emotion almost every step of the way. Liz Gilbert isn’t happy in life and when she decides she can’t take it any more she sets out on a globe trotting →
Review: Cemetery Junction (Now Out on Blu-Ray/DVD)
The first feature film from the brilliant British duo Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais is a bit more of a dramatic affair but still serves as an excellent, if a tad conventional, portrait of an era with their excellent blend of humor, sadness, and reality. The film follows three friends form a rundown section of England known as Cemetery Junction in →
Review: The Other Guys
The Other Guys is the latest from Adam McKay and Will Ferrell and it serves as a great send up of the buddy cop genre with a consistently funny pacing and many flashes of brilliance along the way. Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz are not the guys, that title is held by Detectives Highsmith and Danson. Gamble and Hoitz are the →
Review: Flipped
Rob Reiner’s Flipped is based around an interesting gimmick, flipping perspectives after every sequence from the boy to the girl’s perspective, but it is rarely used to any real effect. Added to this, Reiner and companies attempt to capture the 60’s doesn’t quite work as well as they think it does. Bryce didn’t really like Juli from the minute he laid →
Review: Step Up 3D
Step Up 3D is a clichéd narrative nightmare but when its focus is dance the film works pretty damn well. The film, oddly enough, is also a saving grace for the 3D medium after a series of mediocre post conversions that have enraged many avid filmgoers. The story for this installment of Step Up seems to be somewhat of a continuation →
Now Playing Review – The Other Guys
If you are like me then Will Ferrell acting out the role of a cop gunning down criminals is an intriguing thought. I mean, he’s done pretty much everything else at this point, so why not fill the shoes of an action star? Unfortunately the film’s poster isn’t really an appropriate representation considering you can’t quite pull that off when →
Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Exit Through the Gift Shop is about as entertaining as a documentary can get. And while its subject matter, street art, is fascinating, the third act of this film will have you wondering if the wool is being pulled over your eyes; in a good way. The film is directed by famous street artist, Banksy, but the film's real (?) subject →
Review: A Prophet (Now Out on Blu-ray and DVD)
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 →
Review: The Kids Are All Right
The Kids Are All Right is a unique and funny dramedy that is driven by its excellent acting on all fronts. Following a pair of siblings born from the same sperm donor but were each birthed by their separate moms, we pick up just after the oldest, Joni, has turned 18 and can legally request to meet her donor. Joni is →
Review: Salt
Salt is an iteresting film that twists your loyalties and features a great action turn by Angelina Jolie and while the film doesn’t knock it out of the park it is a pretty good grounding for the film’s larger goal. Evelyn Salt is a spy for the CIA who is winding down and about to settle into a pencil pushing job →
