The Wolfman (2010)

Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. His father sent him from the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor to an insane asylum, then he goes to America. When his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns to his father's estate to learn that his brother's mauled body has been found. Reunited with his estranged father, Lawrence sets out to find his brother's killer... and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Someone or something with brute strength and insatiable blood lust has been killing the villagers, and a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline comes to investigate.

Pretty much what I expected. Dark, moody, hairy, and violent. Like your Uncle Lester, only in the 1900’s. The first thing you’ll notice is that Del Toro has obviously become romantically involved with his dialect coach, as there is very little trace of his thick, Latin accent. The hot bloodedness, however, remains. Citizenry are systematically maimed, shredded, and beheaded. Not for the squeamish. Story? Meh. It’s spooky monster writing 101 here, but with better special effects.

Subtitled: "How to Make A Boring Horror Movie". If you don't already know all about werewolves and this story, happy sixth birthday and mom and dad shouldn't allow you to watch this. For the rest of you, it's The Wolfman, again. This gets 3 stars for the updated and pretty good effects. At least the stuff you can actually see.I get it, he only comes out at night but come on. It ain't scary if you can't tell what's going on. Of course, for some reason I'll never understand, you can't make a horror movie about a ravenous creature running around killing and mutilating people unless you have some kind of love story going on and a father-son relationship to explore. Hello no, you can't expect to hold an audience's interest just by having a monster slashing and hacking people in graphic detail. Obviously you need a story to hold everything together but, in this version it's almost like the guy happens to be werewolf. Out of the 103 minutes run time, maybe 30 minutes actually involve the creature. There's a lot of talking about the creature, a lot of contrived set-ups, way too much back story, and just plain filler. By the time something happens you're more relieved then scared. But, as I said, the effects are pretty good and the sets and period piece is fine if you're in to that sort of thing. Just enough happens to keep you from dozing off but not enough to keep you entertained.


***/*****

3/5 Stars

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

An adolescent named Max has an active imagination, and he will throw fits if others don't go along with what he wants. Max - following an incident with Claire (his sister) and her friends, and following a tantrum which he throws as a result of his Mother paying more attention to her boyfriend than to him - runs away from home. Wearing his wolf costume at the time, Max not only runs away physically, but runs toward a world in his imagination. This world, an ocean away, is inhabited by large wild beasts, including one named Carol who is much like Max himself in temperament. Instead of eating Max like they normally would with creatures of his type, the wild things befriend Max after he proclaims himself a king who can magically solve all their problems.

A very different movie than expected - I thought it would be a sort of children tale, light, and bouncy, entertaining and brought to the screen exclusively for kids. However, the movie turned out after an opening setup to be a more adult level story, in essence a psychological introspective analysis into how a child deals with aspects of his behavior he doesn't really understand, through his fantasies of wild, scary, muppet like creatures on an isolated island. That part of the story will be way over the heads of most kids, and adults for that matter, and they won't see past the superficiality of the somewhat scary creatures acting strangely. The setup to the story was just excellent - Max (the charismatic Max Records - a riveting presence) feels lonely, isolated, in his existence, primarily his family relationships. Single Mom (Catherine Keener) loves him, but his preoccupied with making a living and catching The Boy Friend (Mark Ruffalo), while older teen Sister (Pepita Emmerichs) sees Max as that pesky little brother. Max finally blows up after an incident where his feelings are hurt, gets out of control, and runs off to the woods - where the second part of the story begins. The second part of the story is the almost group therapy with the Wild Things providing the feedback. I found the Wild Things creatures fascinating, and the analogies of each monster to parts of Max's conflicting behavior really creative - a much more complex story than the simple setup story. Of course Max returns to reality, and Mom, and you're left to your imagination how Max's goes through. Overall, this movie is worth renting on two levels: a somewhat interesting, albeit slow, story of a kid and Wild Things for preteen viewers; and a fascinating adult level psychological look at the imagination of a kid projected on fantasy creatures as he tries to cope with reality.

This artistic film is visually hypnotic and stays true to the tone of the childrens' book, emphasizing the raw emotions, confusion, uncontrolled behavior, and eventual understanding of "wild thing" Max that relationships and feelings are challenging and cannot be controlled the way a king rules a kingdom, temper tantrums and wild behavior are hurtful, and the fact that he is not always be the center of attention does not mean that he is not loved. A terrific score/soundtrack add to the film's beauty, Max Records is fascinating to watch (you can see the wheels turning as he ponders and tries to offer solutions to the challenges of the monsters' conflicted social life and insecurities), the voice-actors make the monsters almost human, and the costumes brilliantly match the illustrations from the book. However, the slim story is too slight for a full-length movie. Most kids and many adults will be bored with the slow pace and confused by the lack of exposition. As in real life, the characters express themselves as if through a mental and emotional filter -- they barely understand their own feelings, and therefore have trouble communicating them to others. Can you say "passive-aggressive"? As viewers, we have to use our own thoughts and experiences to cobble together an understanding of what is going on with each of the characters. This challenge is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is different from family films where the story is fast-moving and straightforward. I recommend that parents and kids watch it together at home where you can talk about feelings and what is going on during the movie. It is a great opportunity for adults to put themselves into kid-sized shoes, where small events seem huge and emotions can be very big and scary.


****/*****

4/5 Stars

Knight and Day (2010)

June Havens finds her everyday life tangled with that of a secret agent who has realized he isn't supposed to survive his latest mission. As their campaign to stay alive stretches across the globe, they soon learn that all they can count on is each other.

How come Tom Cruise isn't catching any bullets? How come the govt. in this movie seems to be composed of the worst marksmen ever? How come all these action movie cliches are extra annoying in this movie? These, among others, are the questions I asked myself while watching Knight and Day. I say skip it. It's not really funny or full of great action (unless you like the nonsense stuff). The score really sucks. It's about 20 minutes too long and, in a nutshell, this is just Tom Cruise's way of saying, "Hey everyone! Remember me? I can still do action-y flicks!" Box office numbers don't lie people. This is a flop.

Just so you know this going in, this is NOT an action/comedy the way it is being billed and advertised in the trailers. I went in expecting to see someting completely different. As it turns out this is a ROMANTIC COMEDY, with an emphasis on the romance and not so much on the comedy (a few minor points) and very few and far between on the action. The story itself is slow, repetative and very predictable. That said, it is not completely unenjoyable. Just far from what the editing leads you to believe. Diaz almost overplays the ditzy blonde and the way the story goes cant seem to decide between being helpless or a tom-boy. Cruise almost seems to be consciously downplaying the action as it if were a spoof, very disappointing having seen him excell at the same in Mission Impossible, Collatteral, etc. Dano probably gives the best performance in here playing a quirky genius who doesnt even get much screen time.


**/*****

2/5 Stars

Who's Sori Now?

Left Fielder Cranks 2 HRs in Cubs 3-1 WinOh, so that's how you beat the lowly Pirates: You hold them to one run, and you have your left fielder Alfonso Soriano — the guy who'd homered twice in his previous 28 games — crank two solo round-trippers. Crafty lefty (is there any other kind?) Ted Lilly was again strong, going seven innings and allowing a mere one run. Did Lilly just prove he might be the Cubs' ace, or did he up his trade value? Maybe both. Other than Soriano's bombs, though, the Cubs' offense didn't exactly wow us. But hey... one-game winning streak! Woo-hoo!

Jonah Hex (2010)

Enlisted by a Union soldier (Will Arnett), scarred bounty hunter Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) scours the Wild West in pursuit of Turnbull (John Malkovich), a crazed voodoo master with a scheme to assemble a devastating weapon that will destroy the government and lift the Confederacy. Based on the cult DC Comics hero, this action Western co-stars Michael Shannon as strange circus impresario Doc Cross Williams and Megan Fox as beautiful gunslinger Lilah.

As a Western Jonah Hex is horrible. As a comic book film it is okay. It is filled with the usual PG-13 thrills i.e. large explosions, no blood and stock characters. Surprisingly the prelude, done as a moving comic in the film, would have been better filmed & fleshed out to keep it closer to a real Western. Much of the rest of the film needed to be animated, especially the acting. Josh Brolin plays a mumbling, pseudo-supernatural Jonah Hex. Although Brolin assumes the look, he cant capture Hexs snarl. John Malkovichs Turnbull is barely a one dimensional character given no reason for his desires. Megan Fox continues to prove that she cant act her way out of a paper bag. The film moves quickly but without purpose. Watching it I was reminded of the Clint Eastwood Westerns. Jonah Hex was DCs man with no name. Here is a man with no movie.

Remember how people always seem to make jokes that they lose interest in a movie if something isnt blown up in the first five minutes of whatever theyre watching? Well, if thats true, those people wont have any problems with the opening of Jonah Hex. There are two huge explosions, a shootout, and a robbery in the first fifteen minutes of the film. Not to mention the fact that the film is beyond loud. With all of the explosions, fires, shootouts, fistfights, and yelling going on in the film, there isnt really a single moment in the films entire duration where the floor isnt rumbling or your chair isnt shaking from the intense action taking place on screen. Jonah Hex is incredibly flawed and the film seems to try and make a point to showoff its weak points more than anything, but its short enough that it doesnt seem like torture and tries to be as explosively entertaining as it can during that runtime. If Desperado and Van Helsing could somehow meet, spend a romantic evening together, and mate that resulted in offspring in the form of film, Jonah Hex would be their love child.


***/*****

3/5 Stars

Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball (2010)

Walter Weed is an unassuming desk jockey at the FBI when the Bureau uncovers a plot to assassinate him. A team of degenerate, psychotic assassins dispatched by mystery man Hal Leuco to win a huge bounty includes a resourceful beauty who has a unique method of killing her prey, a power-tool wielding psychopath and a deadly master of disguise.

Nowhere near as good as the original, this prequel has quite a few holes in the story, with it's greatest flaw being that it's immediately obvious who the "bad" bad guy is. Yeah, it's fun to look at, great sets, colorful costumes, etc. But the final scene is all that saves the film.

Forget comparing it to the original Smokin' Aces. It just doesn't have the quality of the "omg" moment at the end. The final seconds of the film is the part I recommend. This movie is okay. It has the shoot out's, government twists and hitmen. If you've seen the original Smokin' Aces, then you're weary of the characters from the beginning and you know one character's fate for this film. On its own, it is not a bad film. Watch it if you feel like a good shoot out movie. I recommend it for that. But if you're going into it wanting the twists and excitement like the original, be well aware that it is just not up to par.


***/*****

3/5 Stars

Tokyo Zombie (2005)

While training to fulfill their dreams of being jujitsu champions, Fujio (Tadanobu Asano) and Mitsuo (Shô Aikawa) work in a fire extinguisher factory. But when a mob of zombies suddenly invade Tokyo, they'll have to employ their limited fighting skills to battle the undead. They soon join with other zombie fighters to try to reclaim the city. Directed by Sakichi Sato, this Japanese zombie-movie satire is based on the manga by Yusaku Hanakuma.

This flick is one of those where you want it to be good, but it fails it's source material, and never develops a voice of its own. It's zany and all over the place - and not in the good way. In the right hands, this could be something. But this ain't it. Watch Wild Zero or Biozombie instead; both are infinitely superior.

Don't believe the hype. The back of the case describes it as a "Japanese Shaun of the Dead". It's not even close. The first 30 minutes are entertaining with some funny jokes, but then it slows down considerably. Then shortly after, the movie takes a major plot turn and the tone of the movie changes all together. I won't spoil it by giving details, but the second half of the movie is not only not at all funny, but tediously boring. If you're looking for a humerous zombie movie, other than the obvious Shaun of the Dead, try Dead and Breakfast or Undead instead. This one is not worth your time.


**/*****

2/5 Stars