Rambling Film

Michael Bay has out Michael Bay-ed himself. The Transformers movies always get a lot of flack. Sure their plots are simple, women are just there to be gawked at, and the majority of the film involves things blowing up, but I've always enjoyed them. I played with the toys as a kid and watched the cartoon, so seeing them brought to the big screen was always a joy to me, no matter how "bad" the movies got. This time around Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is a college grad with no job. We learn his previous girlfriend has broken up with him and he's living with his new flame, Carly. (Rosie Huntington-Whitely, who made Megan Fox look like a thespian. I legitimately missed her.) He thinks he should work with the Autobots, but just wants an easy way in. Our robot story dates back to the war between the Autobots and Decepticons when an Autobot ship crash landed on our moon. The humans knew of this all along, and the ship has something key to our Transformers. Of course the Autobots just

Getting bludgeoned in the head doesn't kill these people. But Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi) will finish the job. He's a ruthless serial killer. He preys on women of all ages. In fact, our film opens to a beautiful shot of snow falling on a highway. It turns ugly when we realize a women is stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. She becomes the next victim. She also happens to be the pregnant fiancee of Kim Soo-hyeon, (Byung-hun Lee) a special agent that is now hell bent on vengeance. He's so blinded by his hatred that after he tracks Kyung-chul down, he doesn't actually kill him. Instead, he beats him to a bloody pulp and hunts him. When he begins to strike again, Kim Soo-hyeon shows up and unleashes more hell on him, but never kills him. The lines become blurred with who the bad guy is. The sadistic killer, or the man that's giving him a run for his money in the sadism department. The story is very intriguing. The idea of a man tracking and be

Earlier this week the folks at  Entertainment Weekly  posted that pre-sales for the highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II are showing more people are opting for 2D rather than the current fad, 3D. I was curious as to what my fellow movie goers locally were choosing, so I asked my buddy that works at the theater. 2D is selling more than 3D as well. In fact, with the sales they've gotten for 2D, they are actually saving one of their biggest screens for just that. Originally their plan was to have both of their largest theaters in 3D. Anyone who reads my blog knows how unnecessary I think 3D is. I've been patiently waiting for this to fade out. I jumped for joy when Part I of Deathly Hallows nixed the decision to show in 3D. Now with arguably the biggest film of one of the most successful franchises on it's way, can Harry Potter fans show the world that movies can make bank without the 3D price tag? I find 3D a negative for plenty of reasons. Here

Whoa, dream big! Juno was the surprise smash hit of 2007. It sky-rocketed indie darling Ellen Page's career and reminded everyone that Jason Reitman makes some damn good movies. Juno (Ellen Page) is a teenager that finds herself pregnant with her best friend, Paulie's (Michael Cera) baby. Her parents, played by J.K Simmons and Allison Janney are surprisingly supportive and approve of their daughter's decision to give the baby up for adoption. They pick Mark and Vanessa Loring. (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) Juno's relationship with them is eventually leads into some unexpected territory. The acting in this movie was fantastic, Ellen Page deserved her Oscar nomination, even if it has slightly type-cast her since. I'm a bias Ellen Page fan so I obviously don't care, she's great in everything. Simmons, Janney, Batemen and Garner are all at the top of their game. We're introduced to the fresh presence of Oliva Thirlby, who plays Juno's blunt frie

CGI Overload. Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot that ends up being the first ever human chosen by the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic group that tries to keep the peace throughout the universe. He's the new chosen one, as he begins to master his newly acquired powers he's faced with an even bigger challenge in the form of Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) One of the things I always enjoyed about the Green Lantern comics were how unique they were. Their stories, and our hero always marched to the beat of their own drums. The movie didn't capture that feeling. It had a $300 million dollar budget that is over done with too much CGI and what felt like a last minute change that called for cramming too many story lines into one film. I blame the studio. With that budget, I expect some Lord of the Rings worthy CGI, but I didn't get that. At first it was nice to look at, but then it just became too much. It almost started to remind me of the Speed Racer movie,

What will work : That cast is amazing. Spacey, Farrell, Batemen, Sudeikis, that's a perfect combination of top notch acting and great comedic chops. I've always loved when Spacey plays the antagonist. He flourishes in that. The Rating. While an official rating hasn't been released by the MPAA (as I type this, anyways) interviews from the director and various members of the cast give the impression that it will more than likely be an R rating. In my opinion, R rated comedies are always funnier. What might not:   Aniston's track record. While she's obviously not a huge part of the movie her last few comedies have crashed and burned. Not to mention the character she's playing is extremely sexist. If the roles were reversed, and the pervy dentist was a male, we wouldn't be watching the same movie. Call me a downer, but you know it's true. Random Thought : The last time we got Batemen and Aniston together we got The Switch. Here's hoping for someth

But don't expect it to go quickly. Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) is an alcoholic. In one day he loses his job and goes home to find all of his belongings out on his front lawn, his locks changed, and his wife gone. He doesn't want to leave, but he can't seem to give up his drinking habit. The local detective, who is also his AA sponsor suggests he have a rummage sale so that he can stay on his lawn for a few more days until he gets everything together. He enlists the help of a lonely neighbor boy, Kenny (CJ Wallace, Notorious B.I.G's son) and tries to get to know his new neighbor, Samantha. (Rebecca Hall) Everything Must Go has an interesting story, but it moves at a snail's pace. It was originally adapted from a short story and I think that hurt it in the long run. Short stories make good short movies, but when you try to stretch them out into feature length you run into long periods of time with the characters doing nothing. There's tons of shots of Nick moving

Love is a powerful thing. Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is a happily married man with a steady job. After a near death experience in a car crash, Steven decides he's going to live his life to the fullest and be who he's always wanted to be. This means coming out as a gay man and living in style. After he divorces his wife and moves to Florida he soon finds out that his way of living is expensive. So he begins to commit fraud, gets arrested, sent to jail and ultimately meets the love of his life, Phillip Morris. (Ewan McGregor) Phillip is shy, kind, and timid compared to Steven's outgoing personality. Steven soon realizes he will do anything to stay with Phillip, even if that means getting transferred to the same ward, and going as far as pretending to be a lawyer to get Phillip out of jail. When they are both out and trying to start a normal life, Steven can't help but fall back into his shady ways. I have absolutely no idea why this movie did not get more attention. I r

If E.T were on steroids.. In the summer of 1979 a group of children making a zombie movie witness a Michael Bay worthy train crash. This is more than just a freak accident. Soon, mysterious things start to happen in their small town and they take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of this. It's obvious that director JJ Abrams along with producer Steven Speilberg were going for the nostalgia factor. They were basically re-creating the films that Speilberg used to make and it works wonderfully. I was afraid this movie was going to be too kiddie going in. I'll admit after I saw the original teaser trailer and then found out the the film was going to be centered around children I felt a little let down. I'm glad to say I was wrong. The kids in this film were great. While they aren't the best batch of actors the dialogue they were given was hilarious and helped set the tone. I actually ended up finding the adults to be the corniest part of the movie. The film makers d

The boring suburbia.  At least that's how teen drug dealing Troy (Josh Janowicz) views it before he hangs himself. He leaves behind his best friend Dean, (Jamie Bell) who is still trying to cope with it, but finds himself in an unlikely scenario. You see Troy's customers still want to get at his pills, and they know Dean is the closest they will come. When he refuses, the trio of Crystal, (Camilla Belle) Lee, (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Billy (Justin Chatwin) try to kidnap Dean's little brother. Only they end up with the wrong kid. Instead they get the child of a police officer (John Heard) and a wedding planner, (Rita Wilson) who is about to marry the local dolphin loving mayor. (Ralph Fiennes) There's a lot going on in The Chumscrubber, but it doesn't feel cluttered and chaotic. Some will complain about the idea of "suburbia sucks" plot line being used, but I found the stories generally interesting. The cast comes together wonderfully. There's a lot of

Separate the films from the comics. Being someone that's read so many comics over the years, one thing I've learned is that its best is to completely separate them from the movies. The same can be said for X-Men: First Class. Although I found it a little hard to do that at some points throughout the film. Another thing I felt I had to do was separate it from the previous installments that it was serving as a prequel for. There were some obvious inconsistencies, but when you look past that First Class was a great film to stand on it's own and I would rate it 3rd amongst the 5 X-Men movies that have been made. First Class follows a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) before he's known as Professor X. He's a student at Oxford doing research about mutations. After revealing himself and his "sister" Raven (Jennifer Lawrence, the future Mystique) as mutants themselves the CIA brings them in to help get their hands on Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his associ

What could work: The excellent cast. Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei. That sounds great on paper. They are all actors that adapt well to anyone and can create chemistry. Ryan Gosling..sans shirt. Yep, I said it. You can't really go wrong with a shirtless Gosling. He's a fantastic actor, so it's like a bonus. What might not: Judging by the trailer it's walking a fine line between rom-com cliche. Hopefully the humor and cast will pull it away from being just another rom-com. It sort of reminds me of Dan in Real Life. Sure, the plot is completely different, but I can't shake Steve Carrell's previous film. It just wasn't that good. Random Thought: Emma Stone is a doll. I loved her in Easy A, she's instantly likeable. When to see it: I'll catch a matinee when I have the time. Unless it gets great reviews from all those early watchers. Then I'll make more of an effort.

Some things are better left for the news.  No one can take away what really happened to Bethany Hamilton. This girl has guts. You may remember back in 2003 a then 13 year old Hamilton got her arm bitten off by a tiger shark in Hawaii. It was all over the news, she lost a lot of blood and still somehow managed not to completely panic as her quick thinking friends made her a tourniquet and drove her to the hospital. Eventually she got back on her board and went on competing. She deserves a lot of praise, what she doesn't deserve is a poorly made, badly acted, lifetime movie to show for it. She deserves better than that. Beach blonde Bethany is played by AnnaSophia Robb, who certainly looks the part, but unfortunately still hasn't grasped the whole "acting" part of her job. Her parents are played by the equally bland Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt. Carrie Underwood is thrown in there as her youth group leader who does nothing but smile and show zero depth. The film adds a

Real or Fake?  That's a question you will hear a lot when discussing Catfish. Is this a real documentary? If so, was this happening in real time or did the film makers take the time to recreate it? Or was it simply just a good story with some shady marketing? I'll get the marketing part later, but these questions really don't matter to me. I enjoyed the story. I enjoyed it whether it was real or made up, the point is it was interesting and deserves to be watched. Catfish follows a photographer named Nev who has been communicating over Facebook with a woman named Angela for months. His friends began to shoot a documentary on this relationship. Angela's 8 year old daughter Abby is a fantastic painter and has sent Nev paintings of his own photography. Abby is too young to talk to Nev on the phone, so he speaks with Angela and gets to know her circle of friends through Facebook. This includes Angela's other daughter, Megan. A beautiful singer/dancer who starts an onli

What plot?  I'm going to be honest with you. This movie was so bad/boring that I actually didn't catch the purpose of the plot. Roy (Tom Cruise) is a secret agent who recently finds out his current mission will be his last. He gets June (Cameron Diaz) caught up on the middle after they meet at an airport. Soon they are on the run from other agents played by Peter Sarsgaard and Viola Davis. Prepare for lots of twists and turns. I felt like this movie didn't know what it wanted to me. Action? Romantic comedy? Mixing to two didn't come off the greatest. The tone feels to light for some of the horribly done action scenes. When I say "horribly done" I'm referring to the CGI plane crash at the beginning of the film that makes Final Destination look like a freaking masterpiece. Also the not so interesting car and motorcycle chases. Cruise and Diaz do have chemistry, I'll give them that. I usually always find something to like about Diaz but I just couldn&#