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Guest Reviewers Wanted

2014-04-27T13:04:00.002-04:00

Looking for two guest movie reviewers.

Hit & Run

2012-08-29T20:01:00.001-04:00

Hit & Run

ACTION/COMEDY:

United States, 2012

U.S. Release Date:

2012-08-22

Running Length:

1:40

MPAA Classification:

R (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Content, Nudity)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio:

2.35:1

Cast:

Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rosenbaum, Tom Arnold, Kristen Chenoweth, Beau Bridges

Director:

David Palmer, Dax Shepard

Screenplay:

Dax Shepard

Cinematography:

Bradley Stonesifer

Music:

Robert Mervak, Julian Wass

U.S. Distributor:

Open Road Films

Subtitles:

none

For an action comedy, it's generally advisable that the movie be (a) exciting, (b) funny, or (c) both of the above. In the case of Hit & Run, the unfortunate choice is (d) none of the above. A slow, meandering misfire of a movie, this co-directorial production of David Palmer and Dax Shepard tries hard to achieve a Quentin Tarantino vibe (consider the sequence focused on the ingredients of an inferior brand of dog food) but doesn't do a good job. It's like Mozart being interpreted by someone who's tone-deaf. (I'm sure Tarantino would get a kick out being compared to Mozart.) And the ending is so flaccid that it takes a few minutes to realize that the climax has come and gone. (Women may be more familiar with that experience than men.)
Some of Hit & Run's comedy is just plain strange. Although "strange" does not necessarily equate to "funny," there's a penchant for quirkiness. Consider, for example, the hotel room occupied by a group of old naked fat people. (Note: in the trailer, they have been given CGI underwear, but there's not of that in the movie - sort of like Natalie Portman's chainmail bikini.) That's where Hit & Runearns the "nudity" in its rating content description. The scene isn't really funny (unless you find out-of-shape human bodies to be funny, which I suppose is possible - think Kathy Bates in About Schmidt) but it is unusual. Most of the material with Tom Arnold, whose character exists exclusively for comedic purposes, is more annoying than amusing.
The opening scene is illustrative of the film's overall tone. Tom Arnold's character, a Federal marshal named Randy, spills coffee on himself while driving. He pulls over to the side, gets out of the car, and forgets to put the vehicle in park. The car starts rolling away on its own with Randy in pursuit, firing his gun at it. This is more embarrassing than funny - a cartoonish scene that even Adam Sandler might reject. When it comes to the action side of the equation, Hit & Run isn't much better. There are three car chases, although two are so perfunctory that to call them "chases" might be deemed an exaggeration. There are also a couple of brief fights but that's about it.
Does Hit & Run want viewers to become invested in the characters? I suppose that's the goal, even though there's not really a likeable individual in the film and more than one is nails-on-the-blackboard annoying. Liking anyone is a chore. The protagonist is a lying slacker who constantly hides things from his girlfriend and shows little willingness to accept the consequences of his actions. The "innocent" girlfriend is whiny and self-righteous. And the villains spend too much time acting cool and reciting "hip" dialogue to be imbued with sufficient malice.
The story revolves around "Charlie Bronson" (Dax Shepard), or at least that's what he calls himself. When he entered the witness protection program after testifying against his former best friend, Alex (Bradley Cooper), in a bank robbery trial, he was permitted to trade in his birth moniker, Yul Perkins, for something more intimidating. For the past six months, he has been living in Podunk, CA with his new girlfriend, Annie (Kristen Bell). He loves her so much that, when she's offered the job of a lifetime in L.A., he decides to opt out of his new life and go back to the scene of the crime. That might work well if it wasn't for Annie's jealous slimy ex, Gil (Michael Rosenbaum), who does a little on-line sleuthing and discovers most of the salient details about Charlie's past. He then Facebook-friends Alex and informs him that he knows the location of his one-time best buddy and driver. This leads to the three aforementioned chases, the highlight of which occurs when Randy's SUV goes airborne.
Bradley Cooper, who has made a career out of playing nice guys, lacks the badass gene. His character is not the least bit intimidating. Dax Shepard, who co-directed and wrote the screenplay, is okay as Charlie, but he spends too much time rationalizing his actions. For Kristen Bell, this is another dead-end role that makes one wonder whether she needs a new agent. She has become so typecast that she's sleepwalking her way through these parts. Hit & Run could use a little sex appeal to liven things up, but it doesn't come from her.
The movie is typical of what gets released at this time of the year. It's the end of August and this is when studios and distributors dump their trash so those titles can arrive on DVD/Blu-Ray/streaming without the "direct to video" tag, which remains a badge of dishonor. There's no expectation on Open Road's part that this is going to do very well at the box office and, based on the quality of the production, no reason for them to be proven wrong. Even for home viewing, Hit & Run would be considered marginal - the kind of film that would not be paused for bathroom breaks and trips to the refrigerator. When it comes to movies about cars, this one's only moderately more intense than Driving Miss Daisy.
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WATCH A TRAILER/CLIP:

New Dredd Movie

2012-08-21T23:17:00.000-04:00

When the first trailer for Pete Travis' 'Dredd' hit the web, the one thing people seemed to dwell on is a central plot point that seemed oddly reminiscent of Gareth Evans' 'The Raid.' This recently released clip from the movie hits upon the similarity in more detail. Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) advises the people in her building that two judges (Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby) are in the vicinity and that until they are brought down, the block is on lockdown. I'll grant you that this looks a lot like 'The Raid,' but keep in mind that these two movies started shooting at roughly the same time. All I know for certain is that it's a great setup for a metric ton of violence and destruction. Take a look at the clip below and let us know what you think.

2012-08-13T22:50:00.000-04:00

MOVIE REVIEW

“The Campaign,” a new bandwagon for Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as dueling canadates may not revive political comedy, but it does recall Lily Tomlin. Use your iPad to watch.

“No matter how cynical you get, it’s never enough to keep up,” Tomlin said.

For those of us feeling some buyer’s remorse about recent electoral selections—or even having a panic attack over the bad choices soon to come—“The Campaign” offers reassurance that no, it doesn’t get much worse than 2012.

In a very slightly better world, Ferrell is Cam Brady, a North Carolina Democrat with a safe congressional seat and a seemingly unbeatable platform: America. Jesus. Freedom. Cam admits to his campaign manager Mitch, the bland Jason Sudeikis, that as a practical matter, he doesn’t know what that means, but it works.

The way Mitch is looking at the poll numbers, though, it hasn’t been working well since “The Call.” That was a breezily but explicitly salacious message Cam intended for his “dancer” mistress, but instead left on the answering machine of a God-fearing family—and remember, this is North Carolina, where folks are very afraid of God.

With his Clinton-Obama political orientation, Cam helpfully suggests that Mitch simply turn the poll chart on its axis, so the line goes up again. He’s not worried; he’s running unopposed.

In another part of the political jungle, though, the billionaire Motch brothers are perturbed by Cam’s plunging polling. They need a safer placeholder, or office-holder, to turn his district into their latest

Like modern American political discourse, “The Campaign” isn’t overflowing with ideas. But the Motch brothers, played by Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow with “Trading Places” panache, do introduce one sure-fire buzzword, “

They are buying up the district so that they can shift their penny-torturing Chinese factories back to America—along with Chinese workers who would still be excluded from safety, child labor and, of course, environmental rules. You know, over-regulation. That will cut the transportation costs the brothers now pay to ship their products back here for sale.

With their preferred contender already in prison, the Motches turn to Marty Huggins, who cheerfully boosts his town as tourism director and tour bus announcer. He’s a nerdy character of a type Galifianakis has trotted out before, but here plays with genuine sweetness.

Box Office Top 10

2012-08-12T10:32:00.003-04:00

BOX OFFICE

Rank	Gross in millions:	Weekend	To Date
1.	The Dark Knight Rises	$36.4	$354.6
2.	Total Recall	$26.0	$26.0
3.	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days	$14.7	$14.7
4.	Ice Age: Continental Drift	$8.4	$131.9
5.	The Watch	$6.4	$25.4
6.	Ted	$5.5	$203.4
7.	Step Up Revolution	$5.3	$23.1
8.	The Amazing Spider-Man	$4.3	$250.6
9.	Brave	$2.9	$223.3
10.	Magic Mike	$1.4	$110.9

Bourne, Under New Management Movie Review: ‘The Bourne Legacy’

2012-08-12T10:17:00.000-04:00

When agent Aaron Cross plunges into icy waters in the opening moments of the brisk and satisfying spy thriller "The Bourne Legacy," the scene serves two purposes: to commemorate the superb and well-loved trilogy that came before, in which Matt Damon, as the man called Jason Bourne, made his first appearance in "The Bourne Identity," fished out of the Mediterranean Sea with bullets in his back; and to baptize Jeremy Renner as the action-hero heir worthy of leading the franchise forward. Check eBay or amazon out not.

The symbolism works elegantly. Renner's Cross is a conflicted hero built to take advantage of the "Hurt Locker" star's best qualities as an actor — his default intensity, the way he conveys that complicated mental calculations are taking place under cover of watchful stillness, even underwater.

Director and co-writer Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton") has custom-tailored "The Bourne Legacy" for the present by opening up the narrative. Unnerving scenes of backroom operations among shadowy governmental and private-enterprise types reveal the machinations of a much bigger, more nefarious tangle of players than previously imagined. There are mystery men running the country — and, by remote control, the world. This movie recommends

Meanwhile, Cross is currently the agent in the crosshairs.

To his handlers he's only "No. 5," one of six experimental warriors chemically enhanced for use by the Department of Defense in an operation called Outcome — sort of the 2.0 of the original trilogy's Treadstone. But now his masters (led by an effectively steely Edward Norton) want to eradicate all evidence that Outcome ever existed by destroying these six superagents. In desperation, he turns for help to the pharmaceutical scientist who "created" his enhanced capabilities (Rachel Weisz, a good choice, and from the looks of her, a good runner). Soon the two are sprinting for their lives together.

Like any story with 'Bourne" in the title, this one scampers around the globe, with a big chunk of well-crafted showdown action set in teeming Manila. Gilroy, who as a screenwriter has shaped the movie saga from the beginning, trades the wired rhythms established in the past two episodes by Paul Greengrass for something more realistic and closer to the ground. The change is refreshing. Jason Bourne's legacy is in good hands. Grade: B-

Guest Reviewers Wanted

2012-08-05T02:07:00.001-04:00

Looking for some guest reviewers to help me out with some reviews. Come on give it a try. Everybody loves the movies. Be the first :)

Oz The Great and Powerful "Munchkins"???

2012-08-05T02:01:00.000-04:00

Man of Steel "WOW"

2012-08-05T01:46:00.002-04:00

The Bourne Legacy

2012-08-05T00:57:00.002-04:00

360

2012-08-05T00:55:00.001-04:00

The Campaign

2012-08-05T00:54:00.001-04:00

Total Recall

2012-08-05T00:52:00.002-04:00

The Watch

2012-08-05T00:48:00.000-04:00

Anne Hathaway Makes All The Men Say Meeooowww!

2012-07-25T10:16:00.001-04:00

Anne Hathaway peformance as Catwoman was awesome. She played the part like it was made for her. She really sets herself up for her own spin off movie. Let me know what you thought?

Dark Knight Pays His Respects.....

2012-07-20T17:52:00.000-04:00

Dark Knight Rises - Takes A Real Life Deaths

2012-07-20T09:15:00.000-04:00

A lone gunman went on a real-life rampage at a midnight showing of the “The Dark Knight Rises” outside of Denver Friday, killing 12 people and wounding up to 50 others.
A 24-year-old suspect, identified as James Holmes, was in custody. A SWAT team had surrounded his apartment building in North Aurora after he told cops it was packed with explosives, police said.
The gunman burst into the theater through an emergency door minutes after the movie started, released a canister that might have emitted tear gas and opened fire, authorities said.
We “heard loud noises and [saw] smoke and thought, ‘This is a joke. This is fireworks,’” theatergoer Megan Walton told the Daily News.
Ten people were found dead at the scene. Two died at local hospitals.

Dark Knight Rises

2012-07-20T09:03:00.000-04:00

Dark Knight Rises was excellent. Great movie. More Prestige/Inception-like than the Dark Knight and not nearly as mainstream. Probably Bale's best performance as Bruce Wayne. Anne Hathaway is excellent as Catwoman and Bane is more badass than the Joker. You can nitpick certain things, but it's another Christopher Nolan classic. This movie concluded it's a near-perfect ending to the trilogy and the second-best movie, better than Begins and slightly behind the Dark Knight. In-depth discussion welcome...tomorrow.

The 50 Worst Movies Ever The most disastrous films ever made - as voted by you!

2012-07-18T22:17:00.001-04:00

Please give your movie that should be added to my list?

Dark Knight Rises

2012-07-16T10:36:00.003-04:00

I can not wait till this movie hits the theater.............. Review to follow!

Walking Dead

2012-07-12T21:45:00.001-04:00

Any Walking Dead fans out there? I love this show and can't wait for season 3. Anyone with me on this?....Or has everyone turned into walkers that's why no one is commenting or viewing my blog.....

Rambo Movies

2012-07-12T21:23:00.002-04:00

Want you to let me know which Rambo movie was your favorite and why?

Game of Thrones

2012-07-11T21:35:00.001-04:00

Who would like to see a movie made out of the epic HBO series Game of Thrones? I need something to get me through until next season. Winter is coming but I can't wait does anyone feel the same please leave me a comment if you agree.

The Dictator

2012-07-08T15:53:00.002-04:00

Stinker alert! Not a good movie in my opinion. General Admiral Haffaz Aladeen — the latest outsize specimen of male self-delusion created by Sacha Baron Cohen — has been a very busy tyrant of late. In recent months, the cartoon despot who rules over the imaginary state of Wadiya in The Dictator has crashed the Oscars, kidnapped Martin Scorsese on SNL, and sat for an interview with Larry King. His Excellency's public relations campaign leading up to the movie's release has been a coup, a testament to a unique talent for character improv from the British comedian who created idiot British rapper Ali G, idiot Kazakh journalist Borat, and idiot Austrian fashion queen Brüno. The movie itself, though, is a failed insurrection. Tethered to a script that, in a dismaying tonal turn for the mushier, requires the idiot North African oppressor to learn and love by story's end, Baron Cohen's demonstrations of political ''outrageousness'' feel all too canned, planned, and defanged. So, yes, the script (by a huddle of guys, including the star) is a problem. After some forced convolutions, Aladeen winds up working as an employee in a stereotypical Brooklyn-hipster quinoa emporium, where he reports to Anna Faris' stereotypical vegan-type feminist chick with proud tufts of armpit hair. But the casting of well-known professional actors (including the likable Faris) also saps Baron Cohen's strengths; he does much better playing off unsuspecting real people in documentary-style settings. Sir Ben Kingsley, in particular, flounders as a scheming member of his cabinet, unable to find the right balance between menace and straight-faced lunacy. Director Larry Charles, meanwhile, brings the same slapdash style to The Dictator that he did to Borat and Brüno, always happy to linger longer than necessary on the gross, the insulting, and the politically or sexually ''shocking.'' What's shocking this time is how tame Sacha Baron Cohen's newest wild man is, for all the kerfuffle the comedian can stir up on the promotional trail. Let me know what you thought of the movie.

MUST SEE MOVIE: Ted

2012-07-08T14:31:00.002-04:00

I laughed so hard I think I pulled a stomach muscle. My friends this is a must see movie! You may possibly know someone like Ted. He’s the best friend who graduated high school with you 15 years ago but who never moved on. Who takes up semipermanent residence on your couch with a bottle, a bong, or the remote. Who always has a great idea that gets you in trouble with your girlfriend. No need to tell him to get stuffed. In “Ted,” he already is. Writer-director Seth MacFarlane’s debut feature film is a crass, foul-mouthed, mostly hilarious, surprisingly sentimental bromance about a grown boy named John and his teddy bear. John, warm and wonderfully dim, is played by Mark Wahlberg. The teddy bear, Ted, is voiced by MacFarlane with the punchy Boston accent of a guy who hangs out at the packie all day. Years ago, in his lonely youth, John wished his Christmas present would come to life, and through the miracle of angels and digital effects, it did. Now John is 35 and trying to be a grown-up, with a girlfriend, Lori (Mila Kunis), and a job. Ted, with his taste for weed, politically incorrect jokes, and hookers, is all that’s holding him back. If you’re a fan of MacFarlane’s animated TV empire — the long-running “The Family Guy” and its various iterations — you’ll know to expect cheerfully smutty gags and smart pop-culture throwaways. “Ted” just increases the verbal filth. It’s remarkably inoffensive for all that, although anyone who takes a child to this just because there’s a teddy bear on the poster should have their head examined. The movie works not because the gross-out jokes are funny (MacFarlane bats about 2 out of 3) but because the two central relationships, between John and Kunis’s tough, tender Lori and between John and Ted, feel real — or real enough. Ted really is that friend you can’t outgrow even when you want to, who shares your taste for bad ’80s movies , and who believes adulthood can be avoided if you just don’t show up for it. Around that core dilemma, MacFarlane scatters characters and comic riffs and a lot of famous people playing themselves. (Ryan Reynolds you’d expect, but Norah Jones?) Some of the plot tangents, like a bear-napper played by an unctuously creepy Giovanni Ribisi, don’t go anywhere. Others, like a rent-bash that spins out of control, you never want to leave. MacFarlane is used to the confines of animated TV comedy and he can misjudge his tone: A few of the live-action gags here play like cartoons. But all he has to do is put his reluctantly job-seeking teddy bear in a little black suit, grumbling “I look like Snuggles’s accountant,” and he’s on inspired ground. “Ted” is not for audiences who frown at juvenile humor, clever or otherwise. On the other hand, anyone seeking a filmed Boston that feels close to home will rejoice in the specificity of the locations. Not just the Zakim Bridge but the Hatch Shell and not just the South End but the corner of Chandler and St. Charles. Any director can end a movie at Fenway Park. To finish up atop the Green Monster, you need to have lived here. It’s not just the places that “Ted” captures but the accents and attitudes. When Ted asks John for a hug by saying “Bring it in, ya bastid,” I thought I’d been transported back to the old Garden, circa 1973. And when “Ted” opens with a mock-nostalgic Christmas flashback memorializing “that special time when Boston children gather together and beat up the Jewish kids,” you know MacFarlane understands our civic disunions more clearly than any outsider. Better, he knows how to nuke them with laughter. Please comment and let me know what you thought of the movie.