Iron Man 3 isn’t really an Iron Man movie for much of its run time, but that doesn’t stop it from being an entertaining and hilarious ride from nearly start to finish. [Read more...]
HST… Film Review: Identity Thief
02/07/2013 by 1 Comment
Identity Thief has its fair share of laughs, but McCarthy and Bateman can’t save the mess of a film that this script has created. [Read more...]
Comic-Con International 2010 – My Experience in Nerd Heaven
08/02/2010 by 1 Comment
A couple of weeks ago I excitedly told my aunt that I was going to Comic Con in a week, with a big ol’ smile on my face. I didn’t really expect her to be jealous, but I was overly excited. Then she asked if it was a gathering of comics or something. As in comedians. I then proceeded to try and explain that it was this really cool event that happens each year that has been taken over by Hollywood in the past decade or so. Basically it has everything a nerd would desire to see, including comics, writers, artists, video games, tv shows, and movies. I told her about the panels I was planning on sitting in on and some of the people that were scheduled to attend. I was adamant about making her see how awesome it was, but she just didn’t get it. Color me deflated. Oh well, I guess Comic Con is just for certain people…
Like this girl:
Review: Iron Man 2
05/07/2010 by 1 Comment
Summer is here, as is our first sequel of the summer in Iron Man 2 and the results are an entertaining and solid follow up to the widely lauded original, but I can’t quite put my finger on how it stacks up to its predecessor.
The conundrum I have with the film is the tone and focus this film takes. Now there isn’t a lot of plot like before, there are a few new characters to digest, and briefly glimpsed ones get even more screen time. But the film actually handles it’s “more” well in that we get a good grasp of who everyone is and what their motivations are rather efficiently; but it doesn’t flow the greatest as it jumps in and out everyone’s stories. The film is still the Tony Stark show first and foremost but it jumps away on a couple occasions for just a tad too long from our favorite iron suited alter ego. In fact, this film is barely an Iron Man movie and more of a Tony Stark tale; which I actually think is a good thing. The Iron Man action scenes are great and its best moments are better than the original’s set pieces, but there are really only two or three scenes of Iron Man doing his thing. The film is more focused on Stark and his issues of being a hero and a crisis he is having as part of his role as a superhero. Now again, I think this is great, but I wasn’t really prepared for it going in and was caught a bit off guard and think I need to see it again to really settle on a final opinion, especially when comparing it to the first film.
Rental Review – Couples Retreat
02/26/2010 by Leave a Comment
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. [Read more...]
Review: Couples Retreat
10/09/2009 by Leave a Comment
Peter Billingsly’s feature debut with screenwriting stars and duo Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau have created a relationship comedy that has a number of interesting points on couples, but really lacks a lot of good humor and drags at a miserable pace for the last forty five minutes or so.
Dave, Jason, Shane, and Joey are a group of four friends and their respective significant others Ronnie, Cynthia, Trudy, Lucy are all going through varying stages of their relationships. Lucy and Joey are on the verge of divorce once their daughter heads off to school, Trudy and Shane are a young couple (two weeks) and Shane still isn’t over his divorce, Dave and Ronnie are fairly content in their lives, and Jason and Cynthia are having problems conceiving. Jason and Cynthia are also contemplating divorce as the stress of the lack of baby making is wearing thin and as a last ditch effort they decide to go on a couples getaway and want their friends to go with them as it gets them a discount rate. After a bit of convincing they are all off to Eden West, and before they know it they are unsuspectingly thrown into couple’s therapy activities under the tutelage of an expert on repairing relationship, Marcel. From here, everyone’s relationships get a bit turned all around, stretched thin, and problems arise as they go through zany exercises and sessions to supposedly help their relationships. [Read more...]
Rental Review – I Love You, Man
08/15/2009 by Leave a Comment
We’ve all been there. Making friends can be a scary experience, full of rejection and awkward attempts to impress others with menial talents and sentence forming capabilities, all in the hopes of finding that special someone to share your bucket of chalk with as you draw beautiful murals on the sidewalk. Oh to be five again… Though this is not quite the context, it is the basic premise of I Love You, Man, a hilarious film that restructures the romantic comedy.
Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) has a problem. All his life he has been stronger at forming friendships with girls rather than boys. Though this hasn’t caused any problems prior to now, it quickly becomes a slight set back when he realizes he has no one to be the best man at his upcoming wedding. After a series of unsuccessful, blind man dates, he eventually happens upon Sydney Fife (Jason Segel). Sparks fly instantly, and the rest of the film is spent exploring their newfound friendship.
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: Four Christmases
12/15/2008 by Leave a Comment
Seth Gordon’s feature debut is unfortunately a lackluster affair, though is saved from being a complete atrocity from the work of Vince Vaughn (though, he has been far, far better at times).
Brad and Kate have been a happily unmarried couple for three years now, they are successful, live together, and have no interest in spending anytime with each others and own families. Choosing to lie about trips to help third world countries when they actually go on fun vacations for themselves over the holidays, their families are oblivious until they are happened to be interviewed at the airport after every flight out of San Francisco has been canceled due to fog. Seeing there children on the news, their respective parents (conveniently all divorced for plots sake) call them up and invite them to Christmas leaving them with four houses to hit in one day.
The movie from here takes the couple on a journey from one side to the other, and does a very poor job of finding a balance of anything. [Read more...]
Review: Iron Man
05/02/2008 by Leave a Comment
Summer season starts off with a winner with the release of the excellent debut of Marvel as a standalone entity. Directed by Jon Favreau, Iron Man is a success do to its excellent acting, solid humor, and creating a comic book film that is having fun without being super sappy and or hamming things up.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a weapons manufacturing super genius that has lots of money, good looks, and loves to chase women around the city. While on a weapons demonstration in the Middle East Stark is taken hostage by a terrorist cell and is asked to build them his latest missile system, Jericho. [Read more...]
