Zac: So Lauren, you and I both saw Contraband this week, the new film staring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi about a bunch of smugglers trying to iron out a family debt; what did you think? [Read more...]
HST… Film Review: Contraband
01/12/2012 by Leave a Comment
Queue Review: Jennifer's Body
01/10/2010 by Leave a Comment
Diablo Cody’s second screenplay is full of great ideas and a number of good lines but something keeps Jennifer’s Body from gelling into a well paced and entertaining picture that seems to be hiding in there like the demons inside our title character.
The story follows the school’s hottest girl Jennifer and her best friend Needy whose unlikely friendship is probably based on Jennifer’s insecurities but the two are friends nonetheless. The two decide to attend a rock concert of a band, Low Shoulder, who are from the “big city” and Jennifer dreams of hooking up with their lead singer. The band though is a bit odd and is in search of a virgin which they think they should be able to find with ease at this small town gig. Jennifer lies about her sexual purity to the band and seeing that they have found their virgin an oddly suspicious fire erupts in the bar killing many local patrons and Low Shoulder uses the tragedy to lure Jennifer into their van and off into the night. Later when Needy gets home, Jennifer shows up in her house looking rather messed up, puking black goop all over the kitchen, and leaving as mysteriously as she arrived. Jennifer shows up at school the next day seemingly fine and as the school mourns the students and citizens lost in the fire more people end up mysteriously killed and we learn something seriously weird has happened to Jennifer. [Read more...]
Rental Review: Extract
01/01/2010 by 1 Comment
For a movie about flavored extract, Extract sure is bland.
For the most part, Joel lives a pretty mediocre life. He lives comfortably in his nice house with a nice car in the driveway, but its hard to be content with this with an annoyingly outspoken neighbor and a wife that uses sweat pants as if to say “you’re not getting any tonight.” What’s more is that his only escape from it all is the extract plant he built and now owns, but now it too is becoming more trouble than it’s worth for Joel. Seeing his escape thanks to an offer from General Mills to take the company off his hands, he finally sees a way to put his life back together. Too bad the factory has other plans for him. After a freak accident at work, Joel must now find other ways to bring about a happy return to normalcy before he loses his mind.
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Review: Up in the Air
12/11/2009 by Leave a Comment
Up in the Air is a painfully honest film that not only looks into the lives of our three main leads but will cause a number of viewers to reflect back on their own in these troubling times.
Jason Reitman adapts the novel by Walter Kim into a funny and sad tale that takes us all across the country and into the life, or lack there of, of Ryan Bingham; played wonderfully by George Clooney. Bingham’s home is the airport, or should we say, airports. Living his life almost literally in the skies as he flies from company to company around the country as he is hired to come in and make employees redundant. This job has made him numb to the world and unable to make any real connections to just about anyone. Bingham even gives seminars about how to detach yourself from the things that hold you back and possess you instead of possessing them. We see him doing his job, which he does well, and the company he works for sells their business as helping these employees look toward their future and helping them cope with this traumatic moment in their life. [Read more...]
Review: I Love You, Man
02/24/2009 by Leave a Comment
Paul Rudd and Jason Segel star in this solid comedy that is fairly original but lacks something that puts it into that upper pantheon of comedies over the last few years.
Peter Klaven (Rudd) has just got engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones) when it dawns upon the couple that Peter doesn’t really have a candidate for best man. Labeled as a girlfriend guy by his gay brother Robby (Andy Samberg) Peter, Zooey, Robby, and family decide to set out and get Peter and best man by the wedding day. While Robby tries to teach Peter the art of “meeting” a guy, Peter’s mom tries and set him up on man dates, and Zooey tries and integrates Peter into her friend’s (Jamie Pressly) husband’s (Jon Favreau) circle of friends. And well, things don’t go as smoothly as one would have hoped. Then at Peter’s big home showcase, he is selling Lou Ferrigino’s house, he has an encounter with Sydney (Segel) an eccentric rich divorcee hunter that hops from open house to open house trying to find someone to take home. The two click and they eventually meet up and have a pretty fine time together as a potential ‘romance’ begins to take shape. How this new found male companionship will affect his life and that with those around him is yet to be seen but on his quest to discover a best friend things couldn’t possibly start off better. [Read more...]
Review: 'Burn After Reading'
09/12/2008 by Leave a Comment
The Coen Bros. latest is an exercise in pitch black humor and absurdity that, after a bit of adjustment, is a solid comedy with some great work by the actors involved.
Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a recently demoted CIA agent who decides quit and writes his memoirs instead. His wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), is cheating on him with Harry (George Clooney), who is a Treasury agent that trolls the internet dating world for quick sex between, “getting a run in.” In Katie’s preparation to file for divorce, she makes a copy of Osborne’s files on his computer that in one way or another ends up in the hands of Hardbodies employees Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt). Linda is looking for love, and hopes to increase her chances with some desired plastic surgery, while Chad is a dimwitted trainer who sees a potential for some money from this, “secret CIA shit,” that the two have stumbled upon. A large tangled web of intrigue (?) begins and a whole lot of people get themselves into a mess of trouble over the loss of this CD of Osborne’s. [Read more...]
Review: Juno
11/15/2007 by Leave a Comment
Talk about breaking a stereotype. Who would have thought that such a great film like Juno was written by an ex-advertiser/stripper/phone sex operator named Diablo Cody. But that is in fact what she has done and paired with one of the more capable young directors around, Jason Reitman, Juno might end up being the funniest film of the year. [Read more...]
