Movie Reviews

Horrible Bosses, average comedy

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Horrible Bosses
  • IMDB: link

Horrible Bosses posterDon’t you wish you could kill your boss? Wouldn’t it be cool if you’re two best friends felt the same way and you all decided to go into it together? That’s the basic premise of Horrible Bosses, a foul-mouthed raunchy comedy that is neither as dark or as funny as it needs to be.

It isn’t that the movie is bad, I’ll admit to laughing at some of the ridiculous antics displayed on-screen. Not big laughs, but laughs none the less. The problem is it just isn’t that memorable.

One of the cardinal rules to screenwriting is to never mention or evoke memories of better movies, thereby reminding the audience of films they would rather be watching. A clever homage, maybe, but it can backfire at least as often as it succeeds. Namedropping movies the audience would rather be watching, yeah, that’s not such a great idea.

…

Horrible Bosses, average comedyRead More »

Horrible Bosses, average comedy Read More »

Transformers 3 brought to you by Michael Bay and Lenovo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
  • IMDB: link

transformers-dark-of-the-moon-posterIt’s official, Michael Bay can now be legitimately named the serial rapist of my childhood. Three Transformers movies and the man still doesn’t know what the hell a robot is (let alone a Transformer). Short version: Despite showing a momentary early glimmer of promise of not totally sucking, the film wastes what little it had going for it by making a series of mistakes and beating you down with a level of stupidity it’s hard to believe was done on purpose. For the first, but certainly not the last, time in this review, let me just say: Fuck you Michael Bay.

What works? The special effects are well done. The 3D isn’t Avatar level but is still impressive. Everything else? Hold on to your seats boys and girls this is going to get messy. Spoilers be damned, I’ve got a hellova lot to talk about. You’ve been warned!

…

Transformers 3 brought to you by Michael Bay and LenovoRead More »

Transformers 3 brought to you by Michael Bay and Lenovo Read More »

Cars 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Cars 2
  • IMDB: link

cars-2-posterLet me get this out of the way first, for those who might not know, I absolutely loved Cars. How much? Enough for the Pixar film to top my Best Movies of 2006 list. I know some who would argue that it the original Cars isn’t among Pixar’s best. They’re wrong. Very, very wrong.

Even though I adore the original, I had a fair amount of misgivings when I heard it was getting a sequel. Face it, the message of the first film was pretty well played out. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) had made a few new friends and learned something about himself during his short stint in Radiator Springs.

Cars 2 is the biggest shift in story of any of the Pixar’s sequels. The simple story about a star finding peace in a small town is replaced with a level of action and adventure that even puts The Incredibles to shame.

Let’s start with the positives. The film looks great. The different locales (including London, Paris, and the Mediterranean) are expertly rendered. I especially loved how the cars glistened in the bright neon streets of Tokyo.

…

Cars 2Read More »

Cars 2 Read More »

Green Lantern

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Green Lantern
  • IMDB: link

green-lantern-posterHere’s the thing, I’ve been waiting for a Green Lantern movie since 1980. That’s a long time (and a big stack of comic books). On hearing Green Lantern was finally getting his own live-action franchise I was cautiously optimistic. And then every still, trailer, and commercial I saw made me increasingly less so. Was this really what I waited so long to see?

Director Martin Campbell unleashes a CGI extravangza which certainly isn’t the Green Lantern of my childhood. However, the script by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg gets enough of the character right and does a fair job of combining various story threads, told over several decades, into a single cohesive narrative that by the time the credits rolled, I’ll admit, I had a slight grin on my face.

Of course it’s also possible that my longtime love for the character and my growing unease at something during its marketing began to look all too similar to Marvel’s botched Fantastic Four franchise may have caused a psychotic break.

…

Green LanternRead More »

Green Lantern Read More »

Super 8

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Super 8
  • IMDB: link

super8-posterWriter/director J.J. Abrams sets out to make his version of a classic Steven Spielberg film in Super 8. Those who expected a Cloverfield sequel (which it thankfully isn’t) may be disappointed. What we get instead is a little bit War of the Worlds, a little bit Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a little bit Jaws, and a whole lot of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial – all filtered through J.J. Abrams lens-flare-filtered frame.

The story centers around a group of kids in a small Ohio town during the summer of 1979. In true Speilbergian fashion we get single parents, teasing shots of the film’s monster, and many, many reasons to be wary of the United States Government.

The film begins with a son (Joel Courtney) dealing with the tragic death of his mother. After a short jump ahead we see a snapshot of Joe’s (Courtney) life including his uneasy relationship to his father (Kyle Chandler), the town’s deputy sheriff, and time spent working with his friends to create an 8mm film.

…

Super 8Read More »

Super 8 Read More »