Now In Theaters - Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen

A quick video review of the Transformers sequel.

New On Video This Week

A quick video review of the video releases for this week. Check it out and LMK what you think!!

Now In Theaters - Angels and Demons

The crew that gave us 'The Da Vinci Code' is back one more time to give us another adventure with Robert Langdon. Of course Tom Hanks is back to reprise his role and Ron Howard is back in the drivers seat. I have never really been a huge fan of good ol' Opie myself, but I am a HUGE fan of Hanks. But even still, he wasn't enough for me to enjoy this film. You know how they say that some sequels shouldn't have been made? And you know how they also say some books just shouldn't be made into movies? Yeah... let's just say that I can see why that was said.

Once again Langdon is contacted to try to help uncover some "church conspiracy" centuries years old. I will assume that you have already seen 'Da Vinci' before reading about 'Angels'. This time around, we learn that the old secret society known as Illuminati was resurfaced and planning on making the church pay for wrongs they committed years and years ago. Now, in 'Da Vinci' there was at least an interesting story that kind of made you think. (Despite the fact that the entire story was completely untrue.) But I can't say that about this one. I hate to be the one to spoil the film for you, but the entire film is just waiting for Tom Hanks to read something, ponder a few moments, and then figure out the next piece of the puzzle. Yaaaaaawwwwwn.

Seriously, I could have sat and watched Tom Hanks fill out a crossword puzzle book for an hour and a half and would have gotten the exact same level of enjoyment as this film. There was a decent amount action... but overall the movie was very, very slow. It just drug on so much. I hate to just down this movie so much, but there are just weren't very many high points.

This is definitely not one that I would suggest for the movie theaters. LOL, depending on how your day has gone you just might fall asleep during that first 45 minute span. I would give this one about a 4 out of 10. I wouldn't even use a free Redbox rental on this one.

New On Video This Week

A quick video review of the video releases for this week. Check it out and LMK what you think!!

Now In Theaters - The Hangover

Can someone PLEASE tell me when will movies about buddies going to Vegas and having wild and crazy adventures get old??? LOL, well as long as they are half as funny as this one probably NEVER!! Todd Phillips has done it to us one more time. I think we can officially put him up there with the great comedic directors of all time after this one. Besides 'Hangover' he was also the man behind 'School For Scoundrels', 'Starsky and Hutch' and 'Road Trip'. Oh and how about 'Old School' and 'Road Trip'. Speaking of 'Old School', IMDB shows me that a part "dos" is in the making. I don't know about you movie watchers, but I for one am very excited to hear that.

Okay, let's get back to this film. The chemistry that the cast had together was brilliant. Any guy out there can see just a little bit of one of his buddies in each of these guys. The way they interacted together really made you feel that they were lifelong buddies. Sometimes you get the "buddy" type of movie where the camaraderie just isn't there. I did not have that problem here.

Secondly, the writing and directing was brilliant to put it mildly. I was joking with a friend of mine and was saying there is NO way one person wrote this thing. The absolute randomness that adds to the films creative value seems too much for one person. I would not have been surprised had there been about four writers, LOL. Come to find out there are two writers, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and they have worked together quite often. In watching this it almost seems like someone wrote it and then someone else came back over it and threw in more randomness. How else does a missing tooth, a tiger, a naked Asian man with a crow bar, a hooker, a baby, a black jack table and Mike Tyson all end up in the same film? Just when you think the film can get no weirder... **SPOILER ALERT** a guy pops out of the trunk butt naked and beats the crap out of three guys!! LOL **END SPOILER** It is literally one laugh after another.

I definitely recommend this one for anyone looking for a good laugh this week. If you are into guy buddy movies like say a 'Road Trip' or 'Knocked Up' you will enjoy this one. Overall I give it about an 8.5 out of 10. Go check it out... and bring a friend! LOL

** An orange spoiler alert means it is slight and not detrimental to the story, but could possibly spoil a minor surprise in the film.

New On Video This Week

A quick video review of the video releases for this week. Check it out and LMK what you think!!

In Theaters - Drag Me To Hell

Horror films are always unpredictable. You can never know really what to expect. Now you add in the fact that the director of 'Drag Me', Sam Raimi, is most notably known for directing the 'Spiderman' franchise. Now how will a writer/director of a huge comic book super hero movie transition into the horror/thriller type of genre? Going into this one I figured that it could easily go either way, but I was optimistic because the trailer seemed interesting. (The people who make trailers really should be paid more, LOL)

Now I will be the first to admit, I am NOT a huge fan of horror movies. So I probably will be a bit overly critical when reviewing them. But I do feel that the criticism I have for this one is well warranted. I was actually very impressed with the writing and the story line in this one. It was a pretty imaginative idea. One thing that I enjoyed about this is the fact that I prefer a supernatural enemy as opposed to some guy with a big ol' knife running around hacking up people in horror films. We get introduced to the "villain" in the opening sequence of the film. And we very quickly learn that it is completely without remorse or any type of sorrow whatsoever.

The biggest downfall of this film is the ridiculously over animated violence scenes. **SPOILER ALERT** I severely hate to give away actual scenes from the movie, but there is a scene where the woman attacking our lead actress sticks her entire arm down her throat. Yaaaaaaawn. **END SPOILER** There are quite a few scenes kind of like this. I don't mind gore, I don't mind excessive violence... but I do mind sillieness. (The whole hair pulling thing became really old and really stupid after the second time. And i think it happened about 5 times. LOL)

I was not overly impressed with the skill of our lead, Alison Lohman, by any means. She was standard at best. I enjoyed the job that Justin Long (the Mac guy) gave us in that film. He was the one small dose of reality as he played our hero's other half. Most impressive is a relative unknown by the name of Dileep Rao. I have never seen him before and IMDB.com has him as only being in a couple of random TV show episodes before this. But I am confident that we will see more of him. His somewhat eerie demeanor mixed with his genuine emotion really stood out to me.

Overall, the film was not bad. To be honest, if Lohman was replaced and the comedic silly violent scenes were redirected to go another direction, the film would've be fairly high on my charts. But as it is, I'd give it about a 6 out of 10. If you like horror films, check it out. But if you aren't a big fan of the genre... you can definitely wait until this one is in the NetFlix cue.


** A light yellow spoiler alert means it is very slight and not detrimental to the story.

In Theaters - Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Ben Stiller brings us back to the museum that comes to life at night... only this time it is the LARGEST museum in the world. Stiller and crew this time take on the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Heavyweights Robin Williams and Owen Wilson are back along for the ride and this story also adds the likes of Hank Azaria, Bill Hader and Amy Adams. Even funnymen Craig Robinson and Jonah Hill peek in for a piece of the action. Well, the casting director did a great job, so what about the writers and the director?

This story starts us off with the lovable museum night watchmen making it big with inventions that he came up with in order to ease his transition into the museum. Personally, I thought this aspect of the new film was incredibly silly. LOL, how odd is it to call something silly in a movie about inanimate items coming to life and taking over a museum? But really, the entire opening scene comes off as though it should be a dream sequence more so than a segment filling us in on what has happened since the last movie. We then continue to find out that all his buddies at the museum are being shipped off to the archives of the famous Smithsonian Museum where the fun loving antics pick right up. Napoleon, Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible are among the mischievous characters involved. While Amelia Earhart, General Custer and even the 16th President of the United States of America Abraham Lincoln. And I would be remiss to not mention that the Tuskegee Airmen showed their faces as well.

The story is very cute and the jokes are quite quirky. This is where the film really loses its appeal. The film's comedic value is more geared toward children, yet it doesn't really have the appearance of a children's film. I do not feel that adults will enjoy the film that much, and I also do not think that children will bug mom and dad to go see the new Ben Stiller movie. I'm sorry to say, but the film just isn't as entertaining as it could and should be. I also have a personal gripe with the film in that I wish that it would have given just a tad bit more educational value. Since it is set in a museum and somewhat geared toward children, I would have appreciated it a bit if there had been more educational gems randomly dropped in there. But as I said, that is just a personal opinion. Does it hurt the credibility of the film? Not so much.

Overall the film is not necessarily bad, it's just that it is not necessarily good either. A lot of the same recycled jokes from the first film, and not enough fresh material for a sequel. In my opinion, this one is about a 6 out of 10. It may sound a bit harsh, but this is one sequel that really did not need to be made.

In Theaters - Terminator Salvation

Here we have the next installment in the 'Terminator' series and we have finally made it to the war that Sarah Connor tried so hard to prevent. The original 'Terminator' and 'T2: Judgment Day' were instant classics given to us by James Cameron. The third installment in the series was pretty much a disastrous project and I mostly blamed the lack of having Cameron on board as the downfall. So of course trying to do yet another without the original mastermind behind the series left me a bit worried. But I did feel as though it would take a monumental fail in order to be as bad as 'T4'.

Personally, I am a huge fan of Christian Bale so I was glad to see him on board with the project. (Certainly a major upgrade from Nick Stahl to play John Connor!!) I'm not all that big on McG, but I will give credit that he did a pretty good job here. I always enjoy seeing writers connect story lines and show us how it all unfolds on the big screen.

This film takes us through and shows us how Connor is emerging into the great military leader that he has been prophesied to be. It also gives us the origins of the T800 program. (For those of you unfamiliar, the T800 was the Terminator that Arnold was in the original movie.) Bale did a decent job of portraying Connor as a tough gritty general. I definitely enjoyed him more so in the 'Batman' movies and even in 'The Prestige', but I was still happy with his performance here. The supporting cast also provided overall good performances. Most notably in my opinion was that of Sam Worthington in the role of Marcus Wright. He was a very believable character that was manipulated by Skynet and forced to aid in the the research of the T800. I really look forward to seeing this guy in the 2010 film 'Clash of the Titans'. With the aid of heavyweights Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, it should be a pretty good film.

Overall 'Salvation' was an above average film. Much, much better than 'T3' (but that isn't saying much) but definitely not on par with the original nor 'T2'. But those movies are classics and hard to keep up with. I feel McG did a decent job with what he was given. I say 7.5 out of 10. Not the best movie of the summer, but far far far away from the worst. If you are a fan of the franchise you should definitely go see it. You'll be in for a treat when Connor finds himself in Skynet. ;)