Week after week I apparently find ways to theme my rentals without realizing it beforehand. Scratch that, I totally did it on purpose, and you know it’s true cuz I said totally. A couple of weeks ago I went with creature features, and this week’s selection of The Nines and Being John Malkovich has me going for films in which reality is not really all it seems to be, creating odd words that raise questions, both for the betterment, and detrimental to, the film. [Read more...]
For Your Renting Pleasure
10/17/2011 by Leave a Comment
Now Playing Review – Bad Teacher
06/24/2011 by Leave a Comment
I wouldn’t say that Bad Teacher lacks all traces of intelligence, but it seems unmotivated to better itself to get a higher passing grade. It is lazy, goes for cheap and outlandish jokes to get laughs, loses focus… Ok, I am going to stop there. I was trying to recreate a parent / teacher conference as if Bad Teacher was the disappointing student. Mainly I just wanted to avoid the easy insult by playing with the title of the movie, but my attempt was about as poorly done as the film itself.
When looking for the source of a film’s problem, sometimes it isn’t necessary to look any further than the story. Cameron Diaz plays a gold digger that wants to find a husband that will foot the bill for her life of luxury. To do so, she decides that she needs to raise money to get a boob job in order to attract the right kind of man. Now as a comedy these idiotic plots can still lead to entertaining moments that make the lack of depth not really an issue, but this time around we are left standing in the shallow end. [Read more...]
Review: The Green Hornet
01/14/2011 by Leave a Comment
Michel Gondry with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script has crafted a funny and action packed comic book/buddy picture that, while a bit long, is a fun start to 2011.
Britt Reid is an heir to a media empire that has always been a playboy running amuck around town. No responsibility and an endless stream of cash have allowed Britt to run around causing endless debauchery into his twenties. When his father suddenly dies, Britt is left with an empire at his finger tips and he decides to use his new media influence to propel his crime fighting career he spawns with his family’s mechanic, Kato. After an encounter with some ruffians one night, Britt and Kato armor up their muscle car and with the unknowing help of Britt’s bright secretary, Lenore, they begin to hunt down the city’s criminals as criminals. This is much to the chagrin of the city’s current crime boss, Chudnofsky, and the crime fighting duos path is bound to cross that of this vile overlord.
Review: Knight and Day
06/23/2010 by Leave a Comment
Knight and Day finds Tom Cruise in a familiar role, super spy, but to keep things fresh he adds the always fun Cameron Diaz to a solid and funny script that while cheats a few too many time provides a great character for Cruise too embody and for us to enjoy.
Things open in an Omaha (?) airport where both Roy (Cruise) and June (Diaz) are both trying to catch a plane to Boston and they not so coincidentally keep pumping into each other. After June is kept off Roy’s and her flight for being over booked, she is allowed on after a phone call from the government who is tracking Roy’s movements. Here is the catch, the plane is more or less empty and Roy seems very on edge with his few fellow passengers. After some shenanigans on the plane and beyond, Roy and June end up avoiding the authorities as Roy whips them around the world in the hopes of saving a top secret mission.
Review: Shrek Forever After
05/27/2010 by Leave a Comment
The latest Shrek film greatly improves upon the abysmal third film and while it feels a tad to greatest hits and unoriginal it is solid fun and works when it isn’t trying to use pop songs for humor.
Shrek is a bit tired of family life and the routine and while he loves his family he needs a bit of a break. Enter Rumpelstiltskin, after a failed attempt to swindle Far, Far, Away from Fiona’s parents around the time Shrek saved her from her tower. Stiltskin just so happens to roll up on an angry Shrek and offers him a day in the life of the good ole days in return from one day in Shrek’s childhood. Shrek is whisked away through space and time and ends up in a world where he never existed and Stiltskin is in charge of Far, Far, Away; as Shrek wasn’t born and in turn could never save Fiona.
Suggestion Box (Dec. 21 – 27)
12/28/2009 by Leave a Comment
Inception Trailer – A longer trailer for this film was shown before Sherlock Holmes. Though it is safe to say that I am still lost as to what this movie is actually about and the extent to which they mean “your mind is the scene of the crime,” I am no less excited for it. Check it out here.
Knight and Day Trailer - Tom Cruise puts his crazy to use as a gun-toting agent of some sort with Cameron Diaz in tow. Check it out here.
Review: My Sister's Keeper
06/26/2009 by Leave a Comment
Nick Cassavetes latest adaptation is done well but strangely lacks any earned emotional punch and comes across as just expecting your emotion from the subject matter instead of working for it.
Kate has leukemia and she isn’t winning the fight. Her sister Anna has been a great medical asset for her through the years, constantly contributing to her recovery since she is a perfect match for Kate; and this is not a mistake. Anna was engineered to be a perfect match and born specifically to help keep Kate alive. Anna is sick of helping out though and decides to scratch some money together and sue her parents for the medical rights to her body, allowing her to make all decisions on whether or not she helps out her sister. The sisters mother is an ex-lawyer and will do anything for Kate and isn’t afraid to be a bitch to get it. So when her daughter sues her, which will lead to essentially the death of Kate, as she is in renal failure, she defends her and her husband in the case for Anna’s medical emancipation. The film from here jumps between flashbacks of the family’s life and drama surrounding the case over Anna. [Read more...]
