Oz the Great and Powerful is a solid start for Disney’s return to that merry old land, but it works best when blazing its own path and not being beholden to The Wizard of Oz. [Read more...]
Film Review: Oz the Great and Powerful
03/07/2013 by Leave a Comment
Film Review: Ted
06/29/2012 by Leave a Comment
Seth MacFarlane’s feature debut, Ted, doesn’t take the risks it thinks it does and it would have been nice to see him stay away from his comfort zone a bit more than he does here. [Read more...]
For Your Renting Pleasure
12/23/2011 by Leave a Comment
A few weeks have passed since my last compilation post of movie rentals, and I should be ashamed at my lack of movie watching, but I have still spent a large percentage of my time wisely! We’re talking playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on that stupid Wii and rewatching all three previous seasons of Parks and Recreation on Netflix. So yeah, all was not for naught. With that said, I knew you guys would be wandering around your favorite rental store, kiosk, or internet site without my help in possible choices, so here we go. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Black Swan
12/10/2010 by Leave a Comment
…… O_O ……
In order to sum up my thoughts on Black Swan you would have to determine what you could based on a blank expression that looked a little like that, mouth slightly more agape. That’s right, I really did just resort to an emoticon to review a film. Unsophisticated response? Maybe a little, but even hours after watching this film and the loss of the visible appearance of that look, the dumbfounded expression is still present on my brain (if my brain could wear an expression of course), with a splash of a “WTF” overtone.
Rising on pointed toe far above the flashy dance films being pushed out in the past few years, Black Swan follows Nina Sayers at the start of her escalating dance career as a ballerina. Following the struggles to outshine the other girls in her dance company Nina is finally giving the starring role of the swan queen in Swan Lake, but it is in the happiest moment of her life that it begins to unravel around her. [Read more...]
Review: Black Swan
12/03/2010 by Leave a Comment
Black Swan is another fantastic entry into Darren Aronofsky’s filmography that is driven by a wonderful lead performance by Natalie Portman and could very well be my favorite film of the year when it is all said and done.
The film follows Nina Sayers who has been a background ballet performer in an elite New York company that finally gets her shot at stardom when the company’s lead decides to “retire.” Nina gets her shot in the company’s next performance of Swan Lake and her life begins to parallel her character of The Swan Queen. Nina applies a lot of pressure on herself and beyond that she lives with her mother who is overbearing and is clearly living vicariously through her daughter. Added to the self and parental pressure is the extremely competitive nature of the world of ballet and these elements all thrown together provides for a volatile environment for Nina to try and rise to stardom. So when her director keeps getting disappointed in her work and a new talent from San Francisco shows up in the company, Nina finds herself in a stressful situation.
Rental Review – The Book of Eli
07/01/2010 by 1 Comment
Throw together a lone figure with their own arsenal of weapons and a post apocalyptic world and you have the potential of a pretty cool film. But you also have the same description of about a billion other movies out today. Though we will trudge through the familiar in The Book of Eli, the end of the road is well worth the path taken to get there.
The lone figure for this film is Eli, a man who has been traveling across the barren remains of the United States, hoping to someday reach the western coast. Sounds simple enough, but it’s not as easy as a two-day journey in a commandeered car. Instead, Eli has spent the last 30 years hoofing it, dealing with the usual downside of an apocalypse, including the scarcity of food and water, and murderous thieves who will pry your stuff from your cold, dead hands before eating the body attached to those hands. Though these roadside attacks show that the value of a civilized society has gone down hill once the world as we know it was destroyed, small towns still exist, including one ran by a man with a strange obsession with the written word. I’ll give you one guess as to who is currently carrying a book with him. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Date Night
04/23/2010 by Leave a Comment
If Date Night were a blind date between you and another person (as opposed to what, I don’t know) then I would say that the date is going pretty well. Sure there are times when some traits are revealed that you aren’t really sure if you want to stick around for, and sometimes they make some nervously ill-conceived jokes that you laugh at to be nice, but overall you genuinely had a good time and were glad you didn’t need to get a friend to call with an “emergency” to allow you to bail out early.
The date that this story revolves around takes a different path than the hypothetical mentioned above. In Date Night, Phil and Claire Foster try to add a little spice to their marriage by going out to a fancy dinner in the city. Unfortunately they do this without making a reservation, but instead of leaving they decide to take on the identity of the Tripplehorns since they bailed on their table. Unfortunately for the Fosters, they don’t even get through their dinner before two men pull them from their meal and accuse them of doing something in a case of mistaken identity, starting off the most dangerously adventurous date of their relationship. [Read more...]
Review: Date Night
04/09/2010 by 1 Comment
Date Night works by pairing two comedy greats together, letting them do what they do best, fills the supporting cast with some great actors, and doesn’t drag at all over its crisp runtime.
The premise is easy to grasp by simply watching a trailer or TV spot, a suburban couple, the Fosters, goes into the city for a night out on the town and when they steal someone else’s reservation they are mistaken for being someone else. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse all across the city that plays out as a detective story as the Foster’s try and track down the “Tripplehorn’s”. Now the film does take a few turns where you might scream at the screen at why The Foster’s are doing this instead of that which could have avoided this whole mess, but then you wouldn’t have a movie now would you. If you can get past this kink then you will find a fun, funny, and kind of weird adventure with an odd couple that encounters a lot of interesting characters along the way.
Review: The Book of Eli
01/16/2010 by Leave a Comment
The Hughes Brothers post-apocalyptic adventure doesn’t bring a whole lot new to the table but has a good lead cast that keeps the film entertaining to a point but will have you scratching your head at the logistics of the film and make you a bit restless with not a whole lot going on.
Following a lone wander, Eli, through the desolated American west he patiently survives day to day, spending his nights reading from a book and only encountering those that are unavoidable. Upon showing up into a little town we are introduced to the boss of the neighborhood, Carnegie, who has gangs pillaging wanders on the road looking for a specific book that we come to figure out is, The Bible. Well it just so happens the book Eli is in possession of is in fact a bible and after a failed bid by Carnegie to charm Eli into turning it over to him so he can use its words to will people to his bidding they end up in a chase on the road west.
Unfortunately for the Hughes Bros. their film is covering quite similar territory to last year’s post-apocalyptic entry, The Road, and it doesn’t come close to touching that films quality. While Eli is a cool and pretty bad ass hero the film settles to be nothing more than a light on the action, action film, with a bit of Christian mysticism thrown in that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Eli is on a mission from God, who has spoken to him according to Eli, and the mission is to protect the book and to head west. [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.
[Read more...]
Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
04/28/2008 by Leave a Comment
Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller have set an early benchmark for comedies this year with the winner that is Forgetting Sarah Marshall!
Peter just got dumped by “sexpot” TV star Sarah Marshall and decides, after a few weeks of promiscuity and wallowing in the remains of his relationship, that he should go to Hawaii to get away from it all. Little does he know that his ex-Sarah Marshall is there as well and she isn’t alone. Marshall’s fling is British pop star Aldous Snow who sings about being “inside of you” and asks his fans to sodomize intolerance. Peter finds a romantic interest [Read more...]
