What a terrible waste of time. I can understand not including Mars since it's based on the short story and not the original film, but why then include references to the old film? The most upsetting thing was having the three-boob lady but not explaining why? Perhaps she got that way from being exposed to bad air outside of the safe-zones. I really wish at the end he saved the day by turning on a machine that literally cleaned the rest of the world's air so people no longer need to live on one island. The best twist ending this film could've had would have been the original ending to the old movie, even without Mars. Oh well. Maybe the next re-boot in 20 years will be better.

1.5 Stars (out of 5)

Certainly my favorite Wes Anderson film in a long time. Beautifully shot on good old fashioned film helps sell the retro summer camp nostalgia. I appreciated the stripped down story and focus on the two main characters despite the ensemble cast. The best bits were the sideways dolly shots at the camp. Brilliant work.

3.5 Stars (out of 5)

More like Batception... amirite?  Seriously though, with so many cast members, the same look and feel, and even the charging music throughout the last 30 minutes this felt more like a sequel to Inception than a Batman movie.  Batman himself wasn't even in it very much.  I felt myself asking if there was even going to be any Batman in this Batman movie.  Regardless, Christopher Nolan is amazing filmmaker and this was a pleasing film with enough surprises and suspense throughout to amuse me. (Personally Batman Returns is my favorite Batman film.  "Still, could be worse, my nose could be gushing blood.")

3.5 Stars (out of 5)

This film feels like a hodgepodge of story elements all fighting for dominance. It starts out pretty straight-forward.  The main character Merida is determined to live by her own rules while her mother is trying to groom her into being a great queen someday.  The montage of Merida exploring waterfalls and riding through the beautiful landscapes was by far the best thing in the film.  I expected this movie to tell the story of two people who need to each give a little and meet somewhere in the middle at the end...

Then the witch scene happened.  As soon as the awkwardly non-funny but trying to be funny witch wishing scene happens the film completely falls apart.  It's trying to be silly like Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon, to be sentimental like a classic Disney film, but also capture the exquisite natural beauty from Pixar's art department.  Mix it all up and what do you get?  Bears.  Scary, children are crying in the theater-not relevant to this story-realistically rendered, frighteningly loud bears.  I don't understand why.  The montage of mommy bear learning to hunt salmon with silly music is literally taken directly from Brother Bear.  But why?  Why does the mom need to learn how to ACT LIKE A BEAR if she's going to be transformed back the next day?  Wouldn't you want to not try to let her act like a bear, since she might get lost to the bear instincts as the film pointed out?

The art and locations of this film are wonderful and I like the characters (other than the witch).  It's a shame the story is just so utterly awful.  BEARS!?!

2.0 Stars (out of 5)

The world that was created for this movie is believable and it's nice to see a science fiction backdrop that feels real.  Things like the new Total Recall reboot look more like iRobot with all its computer generated backgrounds and green screened action scenes.  Prometheus feels more organic.  I loved the first two-thirds of the film but when it came time for everything to wrap up in the end I was left disappointed.  The entire film is worth it for the C-Section scene and Michael Fassbender's David.
Overall it left me feeling that this was more of a set-up for a new trilogy than a prequel to Alien.  I would've rather had a more in-depth Prometheus film than 3 watered down cash cows.

3.5 Stars (out of 5)

This was several times better than the second film.  I'm still not sure we needed another Men in Black film, but I'm glad it was at least enjoyable.  For me, it really comes down to the bad guy.  Vincent D'Onofrio's creepy and funny Edgar in the first film is hard to top, but Jemaine Clement does a good job here as Boris the Animal.  The female 'bad guy' in the second movie was just terrible; not scary, and having Johnny Knoxville with two heads just made things worse.  MiB 3 is entertaining, but the deadbeat dad back story is weak and the overly sentimental ending is undeserved... but that's alright with me because I liked the villain.  And of course Brolin's Tommy Lee Jones impression is pretty impressive.

3.0 Stars (out of 5)

I am a huge fan of the earlier ventures from Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles: Borat and Brüno.  I was disappointed that there wasn't any "real" footage in The Dictator, something the first two films are built upon.  For me the draw was always the clever way they used unwitting people to carry out a predetermined storyline.  The Dictator easily would've fit this mold, (although I'm sure it's harder now that he's so famous).  Had the health food grocery store actually been set in a real city, they could get endless reels of Aladeen treating real customers terribly, and not just a montage of shameless cameos and unknown actors.  It's just a regular 'ol ho hum Hollywood comedy, which is fine, but it's not what I was hoping for.

In my mind Religulous is the third movie in the Larry Charles docu-style movie trilogy.  Whether it was Brüno interviewing a gay converter in the deep south and visiting the Middle East, or Bill Maher doing the very same things, Larry Charles was right there directing.  Even though Religulous is technically a documentary and Borat & Brüno are narrative films, they're really all documentaries, and good ones at that.  It's a shame The Dictator isn't in the same format, but it's still a pretty funny comedy.

3.0 Stars (out of 5)

This was the best The Avengers movie anyone could've hoped for and I'm giving all the credit to Joss Whedon, (and to Marvel for hiring him).  Usually the screenplays for summer blockbusters are jammed out by committee, with producers and writers (and toy designers) all sitting in a room jamming more and more things into it for their own commercial or personal reasons.  By the time we see a summer movie it's been watered and dumbed down until it's hardly a "movie" anymore.   I went in expecting The Avengers to be more like last year's Thor with silly product placements for Kashi GoLean Crunch, big name actors shoved in like Anthony Hopkins just to sell tickets, and a less than cohesive plot made up of conflicting ideas from multiple parties.

Yet The Avengers isn't anything like that.  Marvel put almost all their eggs in this basket, spending years building up the individual story-lines, and it could've all fell flat.  But it didn't.  Thanks Joss.  Thank you for working hard and stepping up to the plate when called upon.  Now I expect nothing less than Joss (and more storytellers like him) to step in and clean up the messy Hollywood situation.  The recent release of Cabin in the Woods and now this film shows that audiences are sick of the dribble, and clamoring for something with actual entertainment value.  Just because it's a fun summer movie, doesn't mean it has to suck.  I was once as sick of superhero movies as I'm getting with the boardgame and fairytale movies now, but... If Battleship was written and directed like The Avengers, even I'd want to own it on Bluray and visit the theme park ride they base on it.

4.0 Stars (out of 5)

And some credit goes to Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. for showing how fun these comic movies are supposed to be.

The most fun I've had in a movie in years. During the first scene I am literally wondering if we accidentally walked into the wrong movie, and then when the title pops up I just bust out laughing. The dual storyline concept was done beautifully jumping back and forth from a straight-forward horror film and something else. The entire third act is just candy, a bonus to be savored. It's refreshingly unpredictable. It's silly without being stupid. It's serious without being heavy. It's a strange movie definitely worth experiencing, especially if you're a horror movie buff. I cannot believe it was ever greenlit, but I'm extremely thankful it was.

4.5 Stars (out of 5)

If I am comparing this film to any in the Twilight series I would say this is not only a better movie, but the messages are far more positive or at least relevant to our real world. I've not read the books, but I love the distinct differences between the affluent characters of the capital and the hard-working "regular" folks of the other 12 districts. This was probably the film's strongest point. The wealthy folks live life without a care. They have time for crazy make-up and hairstyles. There's always huge banquets of foods laid out as if they were kings. They have the audacity to point out how lucky these common-folk are just to simply enjoy these spoils for 48 hours, even though all but one are about to die in a battle to the death... The crazy thing is most of them actually buy into this. The elites talk of what an honor and privilege it is for these poor children to "serve their district" and they actually believe it. ...continue reading →