One Sentence: Wesley Snipes is back. 

Rated: R

Running Time: 133 Minutes

Release Date: 05-Mar-2010

Nudity: A whole lot of boobs, too many to count. 

I can understand how some of you might not be too interested in seeing Alice In Wonderland this weekend, so you get the choice of going to see Brooklyn's Finest.  A movie directed by acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua.  This is one of your gritty cop drama's.  It deals with the lives of Brooklyn cops, and what they go through everyday on the streets of Brooklyn.  

Brooklyn's Finest takes a dark look into police life, and paints an amazing picture of it.  A lot of times I feel these movies are pushing a lot on the viewer, forcing an agenda, an opinion or just making everything seem so over the top.  Brooklyn's Finest makes everything so real.  Everything in the movie feels real, feels like it belongs and makes sense to the story in the end.  It has been a long time since I liked a dark cop drama as much as this one. 

Don Cheadle, Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes were all amazing in this movie.  I think that this movie relied a lot on the acting, as it dealt so much with these characters and all 4 of these guys carried their own weight and really made this movie come together.   I think this is a better movie than Training Day, another movie by the director.  So if you are looking for something heaving than Alice this weekend, then I would highly recommend Brooklyn's Finest. 

One Sentence: There is a reason I chose The Red Queen poster. 

Rated: PG

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Release Date: 05-Mar-2010

Nudity: None

This could have been a total disaster.  We all remember the Planet Of The Apes remake.  Alice In Wonderland is one of those movies, the ones you just don't mess with.  You don't change it, regardless of the original subject matter.  You just do not mess with Disney's Animated Alice In Wonderland.  So when Disney puts out a movie called Alice In Wonderland, that is not animated, and directed by Tim Burton, what is everyone supposed to think?  It is a risky move for sure, but luckily I think that this Alice and that Alice can exist together happily. 

I don't know if you would consider this a sequel, or a different story, or what you will think about it when you come out of the theater, but I think you will feel it didn't ruin any of your old fun times in Wonderland (Underland) and this movie was a great representation of whatever you get out of the world of Alice.  Even if this story takes liberties with the original books.

It is dark, fun, real and amazing looking.  It creates Wonderland in a way that has never been done and it does so beautifully.  The characters are all there as you want them to be.  For me some of those characters were better than they have been ever before.  Especially Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen.  I thought she was amazing.  It created the world that we all pictured it would be without feeling forced or, like they were taking anything away from our childhood.  This new Alice is almost exactly what I wanted it to be, and while some of it is a lot darker than the animated counterpart, I think it is perfect for any fan, except for the smallest of kids.  So check it out this weekend, in 3-D if you can.  It is worth it. 

One Sentence: A lesser sequel.

Rated: R

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Release Date: 05-Mar-2010

Nudity: None

This one might be confusing to a lot of you, it is a sequel to a French Parkuor movie that came out in 2004.  That movie I liked enough to recommend to all of you. It wasn't amazing but it worked.  So 6 years later the sequel is getting released to limited theaters in the U.S.  It was written by Luc Besson, who writes a lot of things I love.   It sounds like a good combination, Parkuor, action, fighting, Luc Besson and a sequel to a movie that I enjoyed. 

So it is sad for me to say that I thought this movie was lacking in some of the fundamentals that I was expecting, which made it a total let down.  The man thing, was the lack of Parkuor in this movie.  There was one scene of it in the movie and was short and under-used in the movie.  They got the same guys from the first one, and then just didn't really execute at least one of them in a productive way.  These guys were cast for their Parkuor skills, not their acting skills.  So it really didn't deliver what I was expecting. 

There was a lot of fighting, and it was smooth, well shot, and very fun.  This is what worked with the first movie having both good fighting and Parkour together.  Without the Parkour we have to look at the story more, and with it being a little weak, with a ending that really made my suspension of disbelief work overtime, I think that this sequel is skippable.  I think you could rent it if you were a fan of the first movie, but it's not something you should pay box office prices for. 

One Sentence: Crazy scary.

Rated: R

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Release Date: 26-Feb-2010

Nudity: None

Maybe I am just happy that there is something good in the theater, but I really liked The Crazies.  It seems like the drought of a good scary movie has been even longer.  I can't even remember the last good scary movie I saw.  So when The Crazies was over, even with the overdone ending I was very pleased.  The Crazies hit all the good fear buttons that are working right now.  Supernatural doesn't seem to be doing too well these days so The Crazies story which is rooted in reality delivered a lot of scary moments.  

Everything about this movie worked, it was small in scope and characters.  It was simple, the idea made sense and when it wanted to make you jump out of your seat it did so, and it did it well.  There were a couple of things that were a little far fetched but it is easily overlooked because of how tense you are watching the movie.  I was scared and I am very happy about that. 

Monkeyjenn said after the movie as she is getting older she is liking scary movies less, which I think is a great sign for The Crazies.  She was scared, I was scared and the movie worked, so I would check it out this weekend in the theater, especially if you have been hoping for something scary to come out. 

One sentence: Steve Buscemi plays Steve Buscemi

Running Time: 85 min

Nudity: Man penis

One Sentence: Classic horror gone wrong. 

Rated: R

Running Time: 125 Minutes

Release Date: 12-Feb-2010

Nudity: Emily Blunt side boob.

So you take a classic 1941 horror movie and remake it.  What do you expect, a simple remake along the lines of the original, with a simple plot about a monster and love.  Do you reboot it, make it 2010, with a lot more in it, and make it nothing like the original except for the name?  I think most would go with the first one, however after seeing Paramount's attempt at reviving classic horror, I might have liked the high budget reboot instead.  

The Wolfman was quite a painful experience, and I am not talking about the excessive gore and blood that was drenched across the screen, I am talking about the extremely thin plot, and horribly boring horror movie experience.  It seemed like everyone that was part of this movie wanted to go with the classic horror feel of the original Wolfman, except make it a lot bloodier.  It made for a movie that felt weak, empty and resorting to cheap tricks to try to scare the audience, an audience that has had 70 years to evolve from the original release.  I was bored and didn't feel scared or jumped once during the whole 2 hours and 5 minutes this movie ran, when the movie ended, someone next to me got up and said, "That was one of the worst movies I have ever seen."  I am not going to go as far as to say one of the worst, but I am going to say that no one here should go see this movie in the theater, on DVD, HBO or on Sunday afternoon on TBS, unless you are looking for one of the least scary horror movies ever made to fall asleep to. 

One Sentence: Some great comedians were not used at all in When In Rome. 

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 91 Minutes

Release Date: 29-Jan-2010

Nudity: None

I am all for romantic comedies, they are light, fun and usually make the lady or man in your life a little happier if you go with them to see it.  So when I go to a romantic comedy I am open to the formula that usually happens, and to most of what happens in romantic comedies.  So when you put people like Will Arnett, Danny DeVito and Bobby Monyihan into a romantic comedy, it gives me great hope that it is going to be funny.  Along with the always cute Kristen Bell I was pretty excited about When In Rome.  

After seeing it I can not pass on that hope to you all.  This is a hard thing to write as people generally don't think much of romantic comedies but, When In Rome might have been the worst romantic comedy I have seen in a very long time.  Poorly written, horribly cut, completely unfunny and sort of boring, When In Rome was very hard to get through.   Which is so disappointing when you have such an amazing cast in a movie. 

I think When In Rome is the leader for worst movie of the year 1 month into the year and if not for a few slightly funny scenes this movie would get 1 star, but it saved itself just barely.  But getting 2 stars doesn't mean anyone out there should see it in any format, even when it's on HBO at 2 AM and you have nothing else to watch except the Magic Bullet infomercial, pick the Magic Bullet infomercial. 

One Sentence: My girlfriend had a panic attack because of this movie. 

Rated: R

Running Time: 117 Minutes

Release Date: 29-Jan-2010

Nudity: None

Mel Gibson is back after his assault on the Jews to avenge his murdered daughter in Edge Of Darkness.  What we find is a twisty, weak story led by an aging angry old man that never ends up being very good.  The movie is one of those movies that ends up being about more than you can see originally, and while those movies can end up being very interesting, I don't think Edge Of Darkness succeeds at being very interesting at all.  It attempts at being something that the audience would really get into, it just fails almost completely. 

Mel Gibson's performance is ok, but it is hard to get past his recent statements, and it is hard to look at him otherwise.  The performances of everyone else doesn't really make for an amazing supporting cast as well.  I also had quite a few scenes where I had a hard time understanding people talking to each other, accents and mumbling just made it hard to figure out what was going on, in some crucial scenes.  

Overall I am pretty meh on Edge Of Darkness, the girlfriend liked it more than me, and the panic attack really didn't have too much to do with the quality of the movie, and more with some of the content.  I guess you could rent this, for a mediocre action drama, but don't go out of your way to catch Mel's return to the movies.  

One Sentence: Grumpy Harrison doesn't stretch at all. 

Rated: PG

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Nudity: None

Release Date: 22-Jan-2010

This is a new movie Executive Produced by Harrison Ford and released by the new production company CBS Films.  It is one of those movies where the subject matter by itself is supposed to make you feel, and while I can get on board with these types of movies, I think that the subject matter by itself can not carry the movie.  Extraordinary Measures doesn't have the story or acting to carry the heavy subject matter to an extraordinary movie. 

The movie ended up being more of a look into the pharmaceutical business and less about healing, life, and love.  Which is really where the movie should have gone. It felt so clinical and cold, with both Brendan Frasier and Harrison Ford not really being anything exceptional as well. Harrison just seemed grumpy and short, not much different that he seems when he does interviews in reality.  Maybe this was the intention but I didn't enjoy it. 

I don't feel like backing this movie even for rental.  I don't think it was especially bad, but I just don't think it was good either.  I felt like if you never saw this movie you would not feel any differently than you did today.  If you are into the business of getting a drug to market, then you should go see it, otherwise, I would skip it. 

Rated: R

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Release Date: 15-Jan-2010

Nudity: None

One Sentence: Might be the best apocalypse movie I have ever seen.

Going into The Book Of Eli the only thing I knew about it was that Denzel Washington was in it and it looked apocalyptic.  The trailers told me nothing and there seemed to be no one talking about it or know much about it.  I think now it is better that way and I will try to tell you as little as possible while telling you that this is an amazing movie.  

The movie is one of the best, if not the best apocalypse movie I have ever seen, it is quiet, powerful and wonderfully put together.  The movie seems huge and tiny all at once, the feeling of a giant empty world and yet a story about a single man in that world doing what he must.  The story is simple and amazing and a wonderful idea about what must be done in a world like this.  It captured what I think the world would be like after some huge catastrophic event and it does it beautifully.  I think it goes without saying that Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman are amazing in their parts, and I can find very little to fault this movie.  

I think this is as the ads are saying on TV the first must see movie of the year.  I loved it and I think most people will love it as well, so go to the theater and check it out as soon as you can.  It is rentable from a visual effect point of view, but it is so good I think you should pay the theater cost for this one anyway.