Transformers (2007) MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated – OPENS July 4, 2007 Starting: Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox
We saw this preview last week when we were waiting to see Shrek The Third. My 4 year old son was on the edge of his seat! The movie is based on the cartoon series – Transformers. Cars, Trucks and Planes transform from innocent looking machines to metal monsters. The visual effects look spectacular! It looks like this movie might be packed with a bit of violence.
Update
You can win free Passes to see the Transformers when it comes out on July 4th
Shrek The Third(2007) MPAA Rating: PG Starting: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Eric Idle, Justin Timberlake Running Time: 92 minutes
The third installment of the Shrek movies opened up last week making over $122 million in three days. That is the most any animated film has made. Unfortunately, it will doesn’t tell you how good the movie is. While there were some entertaining moments, the movie, on the whole, was predictable and not that funny. Some of the old jokes were replayed and the newer material was just ok.
The animation, on the other hand, was fantastic. I enjoyed just watching the detail on each of the characters.
The plot was simple and involved Prince Charming trying to gain control of the kingdom. The King dies and bestows the kingdom on Shrek and Fiona. If they don’t want it, he tells them, there is always Arthur. Shrek sets out on a journey to bring back Arthur to rule as King. Fiona is left behind and has to deal with snooty princesses, pregnancy and a hostile take-over by Charming.
The film does have its number of poop, fart and vomit jokes (which the young kids seemed to enjoy).
Faced with the task of further linking the Alien and Predator franchises, director Paul W.S. Anderson should be applauded for his efforts instead of condemned for their results. When you are building upon two historic cinematic franchises you can expect the expectations to be quite lofty. I, like so many others, rushed out to see Alien vs. Predator on opening night a few years back and left feeling as though I had fallen victim to some kind of mega-movie exploitation. The first hint of just what I was getting into was when I visited Regal Cinemas website to view showing times of the film. Alien vs. Predator had several time slots, as do all other featured films, but the rating was PG-13. Under the impression that it was impossible to take two series of rated R films and smoosh them together into a PG-13 flick, I assumed some ministerial neglect had taken place.These were the thoughts that slowly came back into my mind on Sunday night as I flipped to Alien vs. Predator, which was the featured DVD on TV all day. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie, I did, but I just felt that I had been duped into expecting much more than what I had received. The movie felt like a hack job. There was no depth behind the main story. In fact it could’ve actually been scrolled out on a dirty napkin in some country bar while a Hank Williams song was playing and no one would’ve been the wiser.I tend to be overly critical of films that are meant to be epic and fall short. Call me a sci-fi nerd or whatever, but I want to come out of this film with a sense of origin of one if not both of the species. This film was just so out of step to what both franchises historically have delivered. I just didn’t get it, and then at the end Paul W.S. Anderson leaves it wide open for a sequel. At this rate, I’m assuming the sequel will have a Spaceballsfeel to it.
Late this evening I was watching a rerun of the movie Garden State. I don’t really know the actors in this movie(Zach Braff and Natalie Portman) and I’m not sure that I really care. This is one of those movies that is much better to watch the second or the third time than it is to watch the first time.
It’s hard to describe why this movie is better the second time around. Some movies are kind of like leather shoes they may not exactly be comfortable the first time you wear them but after you work them out in a start to mold to fit your feet they can become the best pair shoes you’ve ever owned.
I don’t know the Garden State will ever be the best movie that never watched but it does get better after you’ve seen it a couple times. I’ve never seen the movie from beginning to end, this is also one of those movies I always happened to flip over to in the middle of the movie.
It is however special in one significant way, this is a movie that is more about conveying the emotions of the experience that the main character lives through that it is about telling a story or taking you on a journey. Throughout the movie you learn to empathize with the main character situation through one odd or strange experience to the next.
More and more I find movies that are getting better at conveying emotions in addition to the scenery and the sounds in the action and the plot lines. Garden State is not a tearjerker movie nor is it a chick flick or movie that will make you cry a whole bunch I don’t really mean emotions and that sort of way.
But I do mean is that as you watch the movie you can feel the angst and the discomfort and the awkwardness that the main character should be feeling but can feel because he’s been on various types of psychotropic drugs since he was 10 years old. His father is a psychiatrist is basically kept him drugged up throughout his entire formative lifetime and he doesn’t know what normal is.
He comes home after living in Hollywood as a movie star for some time after his mother passes away. He doesn’t have a strong emotional connection to either his mother or his father because they sent him away to boarding schools while he was drugged up. When he comes home he forgets to bring his medication and so he starts to experience life at home with old friends and in people from school with a new, novel sober perspective.
He is so amazingly mellowed out that nothing seems to faze him, but you the spectator of the movie get to go on the roller coaster of emotions that he should be experiencing and that’s what makes this movie fun.
You get to share in the discomfort of all situations that he goes and as he deals with his father and his relatives during the wake for his mother, and in the bizarre situations they find themselves and with his friends who all seem to be drugged out on various illegal or quasi legal drugs. Needed to experience his embarrassment as he gets raped by two different dogs the same day or when the spokes to much marijuana and take some ecstasy at a party and gets his body covered in lewd and crude words with a magic marker.
All in all this is a very funny movie, but funny at emotional level as opposed to money from the perspective of a joke read old movie with punchline after punchline after punchline. You take an emotional journey through the weird in the bizarre and you come out feeling like you haven’t watched a movie but instead experienced a strange day of your own.
Trailer Below-Don’t let the music fool you there isn’t that much action happening in the movie
The people’s champ takes one final shot to prove his greatness, can the senior citizen deliver a knockout or throw in the towel?
Being a strong Rocky fan I was stoked to hear that this one was in the making. After the initial excitement wore off something hit me, Sylvester Stallone is like 50 something now, how’s he going to pull this off. Well though it’s not one of the best in the series it does deliver with a modern feel to bring in maybe some new fans of the series.
Rocky Balboa is no longer a fighter, instead he owns his very own restaurant where he converses with the customers through some old fighting stories of his. Adrian has passed away so the only one left from the original series other than Rocky is good ol Paulie, played by Paul Young.
On the antagonist end is the hot shop up and comer Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon, played by Antonio Tarver. When ESPN puts together a CGI bout between Rocky and Dixon the result is Rocky coming out on top. This gets a slue of attention from the Dixon promoters to get old versus new.
When the fight is setup it prepares the audience for one last Rocky underdog fight.
The story within the action is Rocky trying to regain the relationship he had with his son whom is now a high paying serious business person.
This one is a little cornier then the others as there are a lot of lines meant to be motivating but just seem a little out of place. You are still thrown a montage of Rocky bulking up and getting in shape but in this one it’s not so much something we want to see as Stallone is a much older man now.
The movie wasn’t amazing and doesn’t live up to the older Rocky movies mainly because of the age of Stallone. It does deliver an entertaining and nostalgic feel. It brings an end to the much beloved franchise which is definitely at its end of the road but it doesn’t go out on an embarrassing note.
For fans of the series, it will bring them one last montage but those who have not yet seen all the previous Rocky movies they may find this one to be a little on the lighter side and cheesy.
It’s not a knockout but it sticks hangs in there the whole time though not having Eye of the Tiger was kind of disappointing.
After spending the better part of the last two weeks studying for a licensure exam as well as developing a writing project, that will traverse generations to shake the very pillars of the readers existence, I decided to spend a leisurely evening watching 80’s sci-fi movies. Abandoning preconceived notions of prime time television and the allure of American Idol, I dug deep into the bowels of our armoire like a proctologist on a mission and selected Tobe Hooper’s award nominated 1950’s remake of Invaders From Mars.
Set in a sleepy little town on the edge of a NASA facility young David Gardner (Hunter Carson), a young astronomy enthusiast and penny collector, lies on his back next to his father as a meteor shower sends slivers of light racing across the evening sky. In a story that develops quite precociously, young David is tucked in by his parents as a thunderstorm descends with heavy rain, frequent lightning and raucous thunder. David, unable to sleep, groggily opens his window for fresh air and sees a huge peanut shaped spaceship encapsulated in electricity slip behind the hill in his backyard.
After seeing these events, David charges into his parents room and has a freak out/meltdown. The parents eventually calm him down and get him to sleep. In the morning David’s father goes over the hill to check things out and eventually returns acting mysterious and drone like. As the film goes on, many of the town members are lured over the hill and begin to appear drone like and hold another similarity; they all have band-aids on the back of their necks.
Without going into too much detail, Invaders From Mars is an interesting movie that develops at an intermittent pace, culminating in a huge military battle in Martian constructed caverns beneath California. Instead of being “little green men”, the Martians are 12 ft. tall fat slimy meatball looking aliens who are controlled by a hive brain with eyes and slimy tentacles. It is definitely worth hanging around to see these aliens.
The plot develops steadily but the acting is horrendous. I’ve seen better acting on the WB network and that’s not saying much. The plot is draped loosely around NASA’s Mars Viking mission, copper and a little boy who still gets tucked in at 12. I really enjoyed this movie when I was a kid, but watching it about 15 years later, I now realize how it found its way into the colon of my movie collection.
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Year: 2004
Rating: R
Runtime: 79 minutes
Open Water is a catastrophe of waiting and waiting and waiting for more only to reveal a lackluster result.
When the trailers ran for Open Water it seemed like a movie with a lot of potential that could bring back the fear of going in the water since the days of Jaws. This is farther from the truth. It may cause you to possibly think twice about scuba diving you’re more than likely to disregard this film providing you stay awake through the whole thing.
The movie’s premise is a couple decides to go on vacation and take on the activity of scuba diving. While on the trip they are accidentally stranded and left floating in the ocean for much of the movie. The psychological thriller has a good idea going but it really doesn’t deliver with something that can really get attached into your head and make your really frightened or worried.
Though this film is based on a true story the way it’s gone about gives too little to the audience to stay interested.
There is a plus to this film and it’s the cinematography or almost lack of. The film was made with a very small crew to give it more of a raw look. There was also absolutely no CGI in the film so all the sharks that were in the movie are real. The actors were actually put in the water at the same time with the sharks during the scenes.
The problem with this movie is that it never really becomes really intense or nerve racking. Now this isn’t supposed to be a monster type movie with a giant villain but it still never really delivers. It may give a scare to a few out there but for the most part it will put most to sleep. Might want to skip this one and look for another thriller to checkout.
With the 2007 NHL Playoffs under way I felt it only natural to review a movie in response to it, Miracle.
This film is based on the 1980 USA Olympic Team which upset the Soviets without ever been given a chance. This is one of the better hockey films out there. Disney has done a great job capturing the authenticity of the game and the camera work is phenomenal.
Kurt Russell plays USA coach Herb Brooks. If photos are held up to each other they resemble each other very closely. Some of the players on the team were also played by some of the actual players sons which gives then not only the look but an even better idea of what the actual player was like.
The film begins prior to the olympics when the original tryout is held and goes all the way up to the big game against the Soviets. Along the way the players really gain their own personality and have the audience rooting for them each game.
This film gave me the chills when the crowd began the U-S-A chant. It’s a very patriotic film in a way, it gets you really loving your United States.
For any sports fans out there this is a must see. It really delivers in realism as well as being very compelling. Good family film but good for all ages.
The band moves from the stage to the big screen in a musical/cinema extravaganza.
Jack Black and Kyle Gas star in this take on the origins of the band and their search for the mythical “Pick of Destiny.” The movie begins with Jack Black moving to California where he meets Kyle Gas whom he becomes fascinated with his ability. Kyle tells him in order to join “KG’s” band he must go through training in the art of rock.
The movie has a few good laughs for those in their late teens early 20’s. Doesn’t offer too great of a story as it’s pretty generic. Band forms and they must find the object that will make them a great rock band.
This movie does shine in the array of Tenacious D songs that can be found throughout the film and also help narrate it. Though they’re not serious songs they’re typical comedic Tenacious D flavor. Any musician could appreciate this movie and those fans of Tenacious D may as well. Many outside of that may see it as a kind of flop. It is a casual rent but not much of a buy.
A Season on the Brink is a portrayal of Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight (very well played by Brian Dennehy). It neither portrays him as a hero nor a villain, but shows both his good qualities as well as his negative ones. It takes place during a season of the Hoosiers back in the 80s.
Now it does have scenes of Coach Knight lashing out at players. One scene at the start is very effective when he gets angry and loses his temper with player Daryl Thomas, literally chewing him out in front of the team. There are other scenes in the movie when he yells at the team when they’re not performing up to his expectations.
However, there are an equal number of scenes, which show his nice side. He often helps his players personally, to overcome their problems both on and off the court through guidance and advice. He raised funds to help support a former player of his (Landon Turner) after he got paralyzed. Coach Knight is also shown as a good and dedicated father to his son.
After watching “A Season on the Brink”, one could conclude that Bobby Knight is not a bad guy, but a contraversial coach who really should learn how to harness his temper. It is possible to state your disagreement with someone without lashing out at them or putting them down.
out of 5. And hope that there is not another one!
