Movie Reviews

Sex Drive

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sex Drive
  • IMDB: link

“What smells like jizz?”

Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a senior in high school and still a virgin much to the dismay of his best bud Lance (Clark Duke) and his over-agressive brother Chet, I mean Rex (James Marsden doing a spot-on imitation of Bill Paxton from Weird Science).

Ian’s life is complicated in his hidden feelings for his best friend Felicia (Amanda Crew) who has a crush on Lance.  The threesome pile in Chet’s car for a road trip together to get Ian hooked up with a girl he met online (Katrina Bowden) and hilarity, or vague resemblance to it, ensues.

The film is exactly what you expect it to be, no more and no less.  It’s a braindead teenage love story filled with odd humor (Ian dressed up as a donut), the inevitable trip to jail, embarrassing situations, some hot chicks (Alice Greczyn, Jessica Just), crazy people met on the road (David Koeschner, Dave Sheridan, Seth Green), and a slow realization from all the characters about who they are and who they truly belong with.  Awwww…

…

Sex DriveRead More »

Sex Drive Read More »

Body of Lies

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Body of Lies
  • IMDB: link

“Ferris didn’t give much thought then to the complexity that lay beyond this vision; the maze that was so perfectly constructed you didn’t think to ask whether it was perhaps inside a larger maze.”

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as CIA agent Roger Ferris who is sent to the Middle East by his superior Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) to find and stop an emerging terrorist leader.

When the film focuses on the relationships between Hoffman, Ferris and the head of the Jordanian Intelligence (Mark Strong) it works quite well.  Trust and partnerships are very fragile things in the region where anyone could just as easily be your enemy or ally.

Ferris must deal with the ego of his boss while trying to create trust with the officials in whose country he is operating.  It doesn’t help that Hoffman’s idea of diplomacy is deception and the end of the knife.  Hoffman’s only concerns are completing the mission and keeping American interests prioritized over of all others.

Although DiCaprio gets the bigger role it’s Crowe who steals the film.  As Hoffman he portrays an intelligence and American arrogance which is infuriating as he turns out to be right most of the time.  Strong also puts in another nice supporting performance here.

…

Body of LiesRead More »

Body of Lies Read More »

City of Ember

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: City of Ember
  • IMDB: link

“In the city of Ember, the sky was always dark.  The city of Ember was old, and everything in it, including the power lines, was in need of repair.”

Hollywood has a thing for kids saving the day.  From Hoot to WarGames, in films it seems the only ones paying attention to upcoming disaster are the next generation.  In this same vein comes City of Ember.

For more than 200 years the city of Ember has substained life.  Now the generator which keeps the underground city lit has begun to fail and it falls to two young tweens (Saorise Ronan, Harry Treadway) to save the day.

Like most films about kids saving the world the film is a bit of a mixed bag.  The story, adapted from the Jeanne DuPrau novel, allows for some imaginative set design teen adventure, but doesn’t offer much more than an amusing ride.

Over the course of the tale we learn that children pick their life-long professions out of a sack at the age of 12, the mayor (Bill Murray) knows more about the increasing power losses than he’s saying, and that most adults (as in most films like this) have absolutely no idea what is going on.

…

City of EmberRead More »

City of Ember Read More »

The Express

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Express
  • IMDB: link

“And I won’t tell him he’ll be the next Ernie Davis, because there’ll never be another Ernie Davis.”

Sports movies are often filled with cliché and usually fall into one of two categories – the underdog who makes good (Rocky, Seabiscuit, Major League, Hoosiers, Miracle, Blue Crush) or the team facing racial diversity (Remember the Titans, Pride, Glory Road).  Although The Express falls into the later category it has enough of its own voice to separate it as something more than just another Titans knock-off.  It’s not a great film, but it’s better than I expected.

The film follows the college career of young Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) who follows in the footsteps of his hero Jim Brown (Darrin Dewitt Henson) to play football for Syracuse University.

After the early scenes involving Ernie’s recruitment by Brown and head coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), the film moves to Syracuse, the short scenes involving Davis’ freshman season on the bench, and his break-out sophomore year.

…

The ExpressRead More »

The Express Read More »

I Served the King of England

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále)
  • IMDB: link

“It was my luck to run into bad luck.”

From the Czech Republic comes this tale of a waiter with dreams of being a millionaire who finds himself caught up in love, money, desire, and the Nazi invasion of his homeland. The story follows the remembrances of Jan Dite (Oldrich Kaiser) who, recently released in prison after almost 15 years, begins a new life and thinks back of the experiences of his younger self (Ivan Barnev).

We follow the young waiter’s experiences as he works himself up the ladder at various restaurants and hotels over the years.  Dite’s slow rise takes some unexpected, and often humorous, turns over the years.

His emotional journey also takes him through the arms (and out of the beds) of beautiful women before falling hopelessly in love with a card carrying Nazi (Julia Jentsch).

…

I Served the King of EnglandRead More »

I Served the King of England Read More »