Review: The Karate Kid

06/11/2010 by Leave a Comment

The Karate Kid remake is more of in spirit re-imagining but the result is an effective family film that avoids sap, teaches good morals/lessons, and features a couple of great turns by its two leads.

Dre and his Mom are forced to move to China as times are tough in Detroit and if Dre’s mom wants to stay employed than this is their only option.  Dre quickly get his eyes stuck on a girl but also becomes the uninitiated enemy of the son of her families close friends.  Dre proceeds to get beat up and grows to hate living in China in quite a hurry.  But when an opportunity arises for the unsuspecting maintenance man to teach Dre how to use Kung Fu it will put him on a path of discipline and help ease him into Chinese society.

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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...]

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The Decade's Best – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

07/10/2009 by Leave a Comment

David Fincher’s – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
David Fincher’s 2008 film stands up with any of his best films by telling a wonderful story, getting fantastic work out of his actors, and utilizing ground breaking special effects that are so good you don’t even know you are watching them much of the time.
The story of Benjamin Button is that of a child born of unusual circumstances. He was born old and as he ages his body gets younger. Born practically deaf, blind, and with arthritic bones as he ages all of these things get better becoming more youthful and spry as he ages. Raised by an adoptive mother, Queenie, he lives in the retirement home she manages and is surrounded by older people that look similar to himself at his young age. The story here is Benjamin’s life and the experiences he has, there is no great struggle, no horrible emotional issues over his condition, no real plot whatsoever. We just are along for the ride and that structure is really hared to grab on to as we experience this film for the first time. Films aren’t made in this fashion all that often, especially major studio fare like this, and the film only grows in richness on multiple viewings. [Read more...]

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Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

12/23/2008 by Leave a Comment

David Fincher’s latest is an epic tale of the life of Benjamin Button and it is an amazing tale, fantastic production value, and a film that will only grow richer on subsequent viewings.
When Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is born he doesn’t look quite right, and upon further inspection by a doctor, he shows all the signs of an elderly person, wrinkled skin, arthritis, cataracts, hearing loss, he was born and old man and given little to no chance of survival. But his adoptive mother, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), decides to take him in anyways and as the years pass Benjamin keeps hanging around and he slowly grows as an old man living as one among the elderly in the rest home Queenie helps run and manage. Benjamin learns a lot in this home, living with people reaching the end, while he is just discovering the world yet constrained to the view from the porch. But as Benjamin grows older, his body gains more strength and seems to be getting younger, and he also gains a friend of sorts in Daisy who is the granddaughter of one of the tenants at Benjamin’s home. Benjamin instantly held a connection with her and the two would cross paths throughout the rest of his life once he finally gets out and begins a life of his own. [Read more...]

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