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Movie Famous - March 2010

Review for The Eye

March 31st 2010 10:18


I saw this movie on cable the other day and let me tell you...I screamed at least TWICE while watching it! I was home alone! This movie had me either balled up, closing my eyes, or screaming on certain scenes! It is really good! By the way, I will be implementing a new rating system for my reviews. They will be "themed"....you'll see....


Anyway, this movie stars Jessica Alba (soo smoking hot in this movie..and I am NOT gay...but wow...beautiful!) She plays a violinist named Sydney Wells, who was accidentally blinded by her sister Helen (Parker Posey) since she was five years old. (Playing with firecrackers...no parental supervision!) She undergoes double cornea transplantation surgery, and while recovering from the operation, she realizes that she is seeing dead people (and no, this isn't THAT movie! But it is quoted in THIS movie!) With the support of Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) who initially is a real JERK and non-supportive of her, Sidney becomes determined to find out who donated her eyes. They travel to Los Llanos in Mexico to solve the mystery of her visions.

And that is all I can say, this movie has to be seen to be believed! It is slow at times but I feel it has a nice pacing that definitely builds like a crescendo of a song (Hey, I had to tie in music to this...she is a violinist afterall!) And those scenes that made me scream...OMG! Cinematic creepiness at its best! All I will say about that is, there is one scene in particular, the "elevator scene" after she starts having visions! This is what SCARY is all about! I give it 3 and 1/2 "eyes" out of five! Check out the creepy trailer!

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Review for G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

March 29th 2010 10:00


I was not interested in seeing this movie, but my movie buddy is a big fan of this movie (I think "what guy isn't?") but it was in the summer, at a drive-in (and I LOVE the drive-in, nobody breathing down your neck and you don't have to move unless you WANT to!) And to my surprise, I actually liked this movie, A LOT! I even find myself WANTING to see the sequel!

This movie is about (for those of you who don't know, and who doesn't by now!) an elite group of soldiers (who technically don't exist!) who are trained to protect the world using high tech gadgets. The film opens in France, in 1641. The Scotsman Klan McCullen has been accused of selling weaponry to both the Scots and French. Rather than being executed for treason, the jury brands his face with a white-hot mask in order to humiliate him.

In the future, weapons expert James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) and descendant of the guy in 1641, has created a nanotechnology-based weapon capable of destroying an entire city. His company MARS sells four warheads to NATO, and the U.S. Army is tasked with delivering the warheads. Duke (Channing Tatum, so sexy!) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans, cutie pie!) are delivering the warheads when they are ambushed by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), who Duke recognized to be his ex-fiancee Ana Lewis. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, love the accent!). They take the warheads to The Pit, G.I. Joe's command center in North Africa, and upon arriving rendezvous with General Hawk (Dennis Quaid, he seems unusual for this movie but....o.k.), the head of the G.I. Joe Team. Hawk takes command of the war-heads and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to have them join his group after Duke reveals that he knows the Baroness.

McCullen is revealed to be using the same nanotechnology to build an army of soldiers with the aid of the Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and wants to use the warheads to bring panic to bring about a new world order. Using a tracking device, McCullen locates the G.I. Joe base and sends Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun) and the Baroness to retrieve the warheads with assistance from Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), inflicting casualties on several G.I. Joe soldiers. After a fight, Storm Shadow and the Baroness retrieve the warheads and take them to Baron DeCobray, the Baroness's husband, for him to weaponize and use them to destroy the Eiffel Tower to serve as a showing of the warhead's destructive power. Making their way to Paris, the Joes pursue them through the streets (AWESOME scene!) but are unsuccessful in stopping them from launching the missile.

This movie is filled with excitement and daring stunts (all CGI, but still cool!) I love the humor of Marlon Wayans, it fits in perfectly with the storyline/movie, it seems to add to the excitement! Usually, this type of movie is cheesy and over-the-top, but this one has great actors that just play the scene and don't try to "overact," so that you are not annoyed or distracted by the acting. This allows the viewer to concentrate on the storyline (and what an elaborate storyline it is!) I love how the ending ties into the beginning. The entire storyline actually makes SENSE, not just tech-geek speak dialogue that you need a manual to decipher! Check out the trailer and I can't wait for the next one! (I NEVER thought I would say that!)

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Review for Dead Silence

March 28th 2010 14:45


I decided to watch this movie when I was flipping channels one day. It was in the evening, at my old apartment, which was a VERY big, double house and NO-ONE was home! Big mistake! This movie will scare the bee-gees out of you (and no, NOT the singing group!) The only "stars" in this movie are, Donnie Wahlberg as Det. Lipton, who probably got this role due to the fact that he was in "Saw," and this movie is from the makers of that franchise (there are two cameos of the "infamous" Saw doll in this movie as well!) Bob Gunton (who is Jamie's rich dad, Edward Ashen, he played the warden in "Shawshank Redemption") and Amber Valletta (who is Jamie's step-mom, Ella, and in real life, a former supermodel


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Review for Matchstick Men

March 26th 2010 10:01

Today's review ends our theme of "Bad Men with Good Morals." I have heard about this movie and was fortunate to see it the other day for the first time. I really liked it (I am a big fan of Nicholas Cage and Sam Rockwell!) Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage, who starred in one of my favorite movies "City of Angels
but there are just too MANY to name for him, he truly is "movie famous!") is an obsessive-compulsive (and he has got it bad with a touch of agoraphobia!) con artist who is teaching his partner Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell, who I saw for the first time in "Charlie's Angels
loved his dancing!) the tricks of the trade. We see how they scam people out of their money without using a gun. They pull scams such as selling $50 water filters to people for over $300 and promising them that they have won a big prize, which they will never receive. One day, Nicholas runs out of his anti-anxiety pills. In order to refill his prescription, he needs to visit a psychiatrist. This psychiatrist suggests that something is eating at him deep down. Nicholas admits that a long time ago, he was with a woman who was pregnant as they broke up and he wonders about the child, if this woman even had the baby. Nicholas and the psychiatrist agree that this woman should be contacted which Nicholas asks him to do (this is very key to the entire movie!) It turns out that Nicholas does have a daughter who would like to meet him. Meanwhile, as they are about to pull off a really big con, Angela (Alison Lohman, starred in my other review of "Drag Me to Hell
is great in this role!) who is the 14-year-old daughter of Cage, arrives. She has never seen her father and absolutely adores being around him and imposes herself upon him and his life (not good for a con artist!) They end up bonding and she finds out (by snooping in his stuff!) that he is not an antiques dealer which he has told her but something much more deviant. When he tells her the truth, she begs him to let her pull a con with him, which he does. She is excellent but at the end of the con (which was a very good one, no one would ever suspect!) Nicholas makes her return the money to the woman they just conned. Eventually, Angela puts their biggest swindle in jeopardy. Nicholas, of course, is a "bad man" but throughout the movie, he clearly has a "heart of gold." We see him bonding with his daughter, even when she angers him and she cries, he apologizes immediately, feeling terrible! He made her give back the money from her first scam (what con artist does THAT!) and he talks about how he wishes he didn't have to do this for a living. I think the most beautiful example of his "heart of gold" is evident at the end of the movie which I will not reveal (you have to see it for yourself!) This movie builds VERY slowly and seems very long (It's almost as if the writer is trying to convince us that Nicholas really IS a good guy!) but the ending is amazing! You never see it coming and you feel like you have been conned! Good movie (and GREAT music!) Check out the trailer below!
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Review for Tombstone

March 25th 2010 10:26


Today, we continue with our theme "Bad Men with Good Morals." Tombstone was released in 1993 (It doesn't seem THAT long ago!) I am NOT a cowboy movie fan but I have to tell you, I LOVED this movie! The acting is superb and that cowboy look, those boots, the hats, with the long coats....SMOKING HOT! When it was in the theater, I took everyone I knew to see it (it is soo much better than that BORING Kevin Costner version!) I watch it every time it comes on t.v., I even own a copy! I watch this movie when I'm having a bad day. It makes me feel like I can take on the world! (My own personal "pep" talk!) I believe it has that effect on me because it is a true story (I researched the events and this re-telling is about as close as you can get except Wyatt had a few more brothers that were left out of this movie!) The cast is spectacular! Practically, everyone in it is very "movie famous!" Usually, I place pics of movies each person has been in but I don't think there would be enough room for that but I will name the cast


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Review for Ninja Assassin

March 24th 2010 10:04

Today continues our theme "Bad Men with Good Morals" and we are reviewing "Ninja Assassin." Ever since Bruce Lee
(maybe Jackie Chan)
nobody has ever impressed me with their fighting skills...Well, the time has come! Rain (who hasn't done much acting but is a very big pop star back in Korea and is SMOKING HOT!)
has been dubbed by me, the "new" Bruce Lee! As we all were impressed with the way Bruce swung those numchuks (is that right?), I was soo impressed how Rain swung those knives attached by a chain! To me, that is much more dangerous, especially when you are learning (Damn, I lost ANOTHER finger!)

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Review for Wanted

March 23rd 2010 09:30

Today continues our review of movies "Bad Men with Good Morals" theme. Next, is Wanted. I absolutely LOVE this movie! ( Wanted 2 will be released in 2011!) I think it has one of the coolest soundtracks ever! And although this movie stars someone (Angelina Jolie) who is getting to be extremely annoying in the public eye ALL the time, I am able to somewhat "suspend my disbelief" (actually to REALLY get into this movie, you have to "suspend your disbelief" for most of the scenes!) and forget that she is who she is in real life!

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Review for Scarface

March 22nd 2010 10:00


This week I am reviewing movies with a "Bad Men with Good Morals" theme. Every character will be deemed by society to be a "bad man" but who possesses a heart of gold! Feel free to comment and to suggest movies with the same theme! Thanks


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Review for The Taking of Pelham 123

March 21st 2010 19:59


I was intrigued by the picture of John Travolta in this movie. Here is Mr. Vinnie Barbarino from Welcome Back, Kotter,
Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever,
and Danny Zuko from Grease,
looking like this? O.K., I know he played Vincent Vega in "Pulp Fiction"
but he still LOOKED like the other characters and acted kinda dumb. THIS character looked like an extreme biker dude with the tattoo on his neck, a goatee and he was smart! (He talks a lot about stocks and trading!) He even did a lot of cursing...John, baby, I didn't know you had it in you! I guess John is releasing some of his hurt and anger over the loss of his son and it is working for him! Denzel Washington (The Book of Eli),
who usually is the "kick-ass, take no prisoners" guy in his movies, takes a meeker stance with this role


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Review for Drag Me To Hell

March 20th 2010 10:00

This movie was written by the legendary Raimi Brothers, Sam and Ivan. (Both either write, direct, or produce!) These brothers have an extensive and diverse list of accomplishments! Best known for their work, the cult classic, "Evil Dead."
They are currently working on "WarCraft," and "Evil Dead IV" (Wow, they have that many sequels for it?) Sam has worked on, "The Grudge 1 & 2,"
"Boogeyman,"
"The Quick and the Dead,"
"Darkman,"
surprisingly on ALL the "Spiderman"
movies (1,2, and 3!) And most surprisingly, (and recent) "Armored."
Wow. Ivan has an equally impressive list working on movies such as "Army of Darkness"
(another cult classic!) I really wasn't interested in watching this movie, but my movie buddy (who is like a major IT guy!) wanted to try out the Netflix streaming capabilities. So, we chose this movie. And I'm glad we did! I had forgotten how I like to laugh (and be scared!) at this type of "cheesy," sick, try to gross-you-out movie! And boy, does this movie have plenty of those moments!

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Review for The Collector

March 18th 2010 06:13

This movie was billed as "from the writer and director of Saw comes "The Collector." ,
(that's Marcus Dunstan, he wrote Saw 4, 5, 6, and yes in production NOW! Saw 7! Can you tell I'm a HUGE Saw fan!!) Of course, this is what prompted me to go see this movie. Mistake, sad but true BIG mistake. For someone who can be as creative and has the ability to tie SEVERAL movies in together so that they make sense, the collector does not make ANY sense! I tend to stay away from movies that I think are like this one....First of all, this movie has only one "big" name (star) and that is Madeline Zima from the t.v. show "The Nanny,"
(she was the LITTLE girl, I emphasized little because baby, "she ain't LITTLE anymore!" I will explain in a minute!) I think that having no major stars in this movie added to the overall creepiness of the film. Kudos, to whoever made the final decision on that (unknown actors need a break somewhere!)

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Review for Sherlock Holmes

March 16th 2010 03:06

The trailer for this movie was shown for several months and at first, I wasn't interested in seeing it until about 3 weeks before the movie was due to come out, I was watching t.v. (I can't even remember WHAT show!) and every commercial was a teaser stating "stay tuned for a sneak peak of Sherlock Holmes." I kept rolling my eyes and thinking, "I've seen the trailer a hundred times at the movies, the cinematography looks good, but no thanks." Well, the sneak peak came on and I was hooked! I changed my mind! It just so happens that my movie buddy is a HUGE fan of Guy Ritchie films, (prior to this I have NEVER seen one!) When he found that info out, he told me, "Really?, he is one of the most underrated directors out there!" "He does this camera trick of speeding up the film to show a pivotal point in the movie that normally would have taken about 10-20 minutes." Then he said, "Oh, we are DEFINITELY going to check that movie out." This movie stars Robert Downey Jr. who will forever be linked to his character in Less than Zero 1987
(unfortunately his movie character became his REAL life.) Side note: Robert Downey Jr. and Drew Barrymore are the two actors who inspired me to root for the underdog. (I am an underdog too!) They were having a very rough time in Hollywood especially with drug abuse. Everyone laughed at them but like a phoenix, they arose from the ashes to shine as brightly as the sun! And I am very proud of them! Additionally, Robert won me over in Chaplin 1992
(brillant!) and Zodiac 2007.
Jude Law (smoking hot!) is Dr. Watson. Jude came to my attention from the movie Gattaca 1997.
Rachel McAdams is Irene Adler. She starred in one of my all time funniest movies (I laugh so hard I cry EVERY time I watch it!) The Hot Chick 2002.
I knew from watching that movie that she was going to be someone to watch, she just had a certain "je ne sais quoi" (I don't know what) or special quality about her. Honorable mention goes to Mark Strong who played evil Lord Blackwood (gotta have a villian!)
and Eddie Marsan who was Inspector Lestrade (got to have the bumbling bubblehead!) Well, this movie did not fail to deliver! It begins with Sherlock searching for Lord Blackwood who has an evil cult with many followers. Sherlock catches him, puts him in jail, and he is eventually put to death by hanging....or was he? When there are strange occurrences that resemble the trademark of Lord Blackwood, Sherlock begins to believe that somehow he is still alive! (Which highly upsets Dr. Watson, who pronounced him dead, says "I am a doctor, I KNOW when someone is dead!") While all of this is going on, Irene Adler arrives on the scene. She is the former love (and apparently verbal "sparing" partner) of Sherlock's. It turns out that Lord Blackwood IS still alive and is responsible for bringing Irene back to town and back into Sherlock's life (and it is that revelation where I witnessed one of those Guy Ritchie camera tricks.) Cool. There are great fight scenes and lots of suspense. I especially like how Sherlock is very inquisitive (he likes to experiment either on himself or the dog shared by him and Watson!) and due to this inquisitiveness, he describes certain things (like how to knock a man out!) with such technicality. Side note: One of the best scenes is when Watson brings his fiancee to have dinner with Sherlock (who is not happy that Watson is getting married!) and Sherlock describes almost every detail of her life except he is off base with one and she throws her drink in his face! The cinematography throughout was breathtaking (you really felt like you were in "merry ole England!") as well as the CGI effects. Everyone did a superb acting job and the pairing of Robert with Jude was flawless. Normally I think when they add a woman into the mix, it becomes like a third wheel thing but when Rachel came onto the scene, she blended in beautifully and kept up with their comedic timing and acting. Can't wait for the sequel!
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984/2010

March 14th 2010 23:12
This is a commentary of the 1984 movie "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
The new movie has been remade and is due out at the end of April. (They should have waited until Halloween, THAT would have been cool!) I clearly remember being on the phone with my best friend from school and we were watching T.V. together. All of a sudden, there is this movie preview (old term, now it's trailer!) of this guy with arms that are growing as he is walking and of course it had the all time memorable line "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep!" Being the extremely horror/scary movie fanatics that we were (we loved to go see all of the Friday the 13th movies!) we were like "What the heck was that?" followed by "Aww, man you know we gotta go see that!" All the while I'm wondering, "How the heck do you NOT fall asleep?" Everyone needs to sleep and apparently sleeping puts you right in the killer's lair! Yeah, it's like going to Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, or Jack the Ripper's house and hanging out! As if! (Yep, I was a valley girl and always will be, not "Clueless" either, the REAL valley girl from the Moon Unit Zappa song!) I thought this was a cool original idea/premise to a movie. (My best friend and I attended a performing arts high school like "Fame" and so we considered ourselves critics!) We thought we would check the movie out and give our "opinion." This movie stars John Saxon (who I knew from the Bruce Lee movie "Enter the Dragon" 1973)
and at the time was the film's biggest star. Then there was Amanda Wyss (Tina), Heather Langenkamp (Nancy), Jsu Garcia (Rod Lane, and we thought he was smoking hot!), Robert Englund as Freddy, and in his first feature role, a very young Johnny Depp (Glenn). The movie starts out so spooky that we said, "This is gonna be good!" Almost everyone knows the movie details so I won't go into that aspect but rather points from the movie. Like when Tina was killed, that was one of the bloodiest scenes (at the time) that we had ever witnessed. We were very upset when Rod Lane was killed. (Not cutie pie!) The scene when Nancy is in the bathtub and the hand comes up, is one of the best (and creepiest, also we were thinking all types of naughty things!) One of the all time favorite quotes from the movie (that I still use today in certain situations) is "Now he's after ME, mother!" It was creepy how Nancy's mother had the actual glove, in the basement! We thought "No wonder she is having those nightmares and why the HELL did she save it?!" Johnny Depp (Glenn) was cool as the "voice of reason" throughout the entire movie and was the one who essentially saved Nancy's life although he failed to save his own. It is to Glenn she tells the now famous trailer line of not falling asleep. We loved Nancy's thick hair which was highlighted dramatically in slow-mo, when Nancy was leaving to meet up with Glenn and after she had just received a phone call from Freddy Krueger (which caused her to rip the phone out of the wall), the phone rings again! (We were like "You KNOW who it is! It's not connected to the wall!) So when it rings, she spins around and her hair spins with her...so cool! And of course, who could forget the eerie but equally cool "nursery rhyme" (can you remember the whole thing, WITHOUT cheating?) Well, now there is the new one coming out and normally, I'm not a big fan of remakes, of ANYTHING (movies, songs, you really gotta impress me with a remake). The trailer looks awesome and they didn't stray too far from the original (just threw in some additional ideas with some CGI effects) The movie stars Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger this time. Jackie came to fame in "The Bad News Bears"
(1976 and sequels) movies. It's good that he is making a comeback to movies (he has done less memorable roles) and he chose a great role to do it. He is currently on television's Fox Channel show "Human Target." (He plays a smart, techy guy). FYI: It turns out that Jackie is a good friend of Johnny Depp's and they BOTH auditioned for the original but Wes Craven (the director of the original) chose Depp (an unknown) and not Jackie. Good for you Jackie to audition for this movie... again! (Underdogs NEVER give up!) and how awesome that you got it.... this time!

Watch the trailer to the new one (I like it


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Review for Armored

March 13th 2010 04:49

This movie has an extremely interesting group of characters. Starring Matt Dillion (who will forever be linked to the "Outsiders"
in my mind, he is the one in the middle) For me, he falls into the 80's group of actors like Corey Haim. Side note: Look at how many famous actors were in this movie! (1983) Jean Reno (who will forever by "The Professional"
a very cool movie! (1994) It also has a very young Natalie Portman, who does an excellent acting job) Laurence Fishburne (who IS Morpheus!) And Columbus Short (Sorry, don't know his other works, not that he hasn't been in some good movies but I haven't SEEN those movies, yet!) is the star of this movie (Wow, how did he pull that off?) Kudos to the director to cast someone not very well known versus trying to stick a veteran in the lead. I personally believe that this is how Hollywood should operate, give someone "new" a chance! (Me!) Anyway, I digress. This movie seems like it came and went quickly through the movie theaters. (although it seemed as though the advertisements lasted for months!) And just on the advertisements alone, this movie looks soo predictable, I even said this is a straight, watch at home on DVD movie, you can tell what is going to happen. But alas, I was wrong! This movie has many twists and turns and you actually do not know what is going to happen next! Very hard to do (and write) especially with practically ONE scene. (What is this, a play?) The guy is locked in the armored car for crying out loud, how many twists can you have with that? Where the hell is he going? Well, the movie starts with Columbus as a new guard working for an armored car company and when he goes for his first run, the car is hijacked, or is it? Turns out it was just a joke. Later on that day over drinks, we see all the characters talking and teasing. Matt is like a godfather to Columbus and really looks out for him like a big brother/little brother thing. Well, Columbus is overheard asking for overtime, he needs this to save his house. Well, there isn't any overtime. Matt and the others tell him that they aren't going to let the bank take his house. On the way home, Matt explains to Columbus that the little "joke" they played on him was actually a test run...for a real heist. Columbus is appalled. Matt explains that they are set to steal 42 million dollars (Wow!) Columbus is between a rock and a hard place. He has his brother to support since they lost their parents, he is about to lose the house they live in and Matt is like an older brother/surrogate father figure who is telling him that it is o.k. and everything will be alright. (Decisions, decisions) Well, he finally agrees to do it, only if nobody gets hurt (As if!) The robbery DOES go smoothly at first. They get the money, they have it timed,( to report it as a robbery, well, they are not lying, kinda!) they have the signals, but then someone is watching them in the warehouse where they are hiding! And the roller coaster begins taking off from there and it is non-stop action! One thing leads to another, each action going from bad to worse! This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat, taking sides, and repeatedly asking yourself "What would you do for a Klondike bar?!" Just kidding! What would you do in Columbus' situation. Great movie to discuss morals versus desperation, which in this economy is a GREAT debate! Oh, what the hell...anyone know of anyone hiring for armored guards? (Wink!)

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Review for Cop Out

March 12th 2010 05:04

This movie stars Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis which is an unusual pairing to say the least! But I have loved Tracy since Saturday Night Live and who doesn't love Bruce Willis? (Moonlighting anyone?) The movie starts with a very cynical Bruce and a sometimes over-acting Tracy (he pushes just a little too hard for the laughs) on the trail of drug smugglers. Well, in a sting that goes awry, the officers are put on suspension WITHOUT pay! We soon learn that Bruce has a daughter (a very grown up Michelle Trachtenberg, she's old enough to be getting married!) and her wedding is going to cost about $40,000! Not only has daddy been recently laid off, Michelle's step-dad is rich and he tells Bruce if you can't pay for your only daughter's wedding because I know how little you make as a cop, then I will pay for the wedding..(Jerk!). So this obviously does not sit well with Bruce and the only thing he can do is to sell his beloved vintage baseball card, that supposedly will sell for an amount well above the cost of the wedding..problem solved right? Yeah, right! This is Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis! These two are like the keystone coppers (that's black and white silent movies for you "youngies"). Everything that can go wrong, does! Quick synopsis: While trying to hock his vintage card, the store that Bruce is in gets robbed even though Tracy is standing right outside the store but he is so engrossed in his conversation with his wife (Rashida Jones, Quincy Jones' daughter) because he thinks she is cheating on him, that he doesn't see a thing! Then, the guy who stole the card, Seann William Scott (very funny and does a great job at keeping up with the comedic timing of Tracy) sells it to the Mexican drug dealer who they were trying to trap in the first place. The movie has a lot of twists and turns with a lot of fast talking (some of it in Spanish... uh, translator please!) But the ending is like real life, it doesn't have the nice neat little ending like you THINK it should but everyone does get to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. It's kinda like the cliche: If life hands you lemons then make lemonade! Last note: The absolute ending as the credits are rolling is hilarious....
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Review for Brooklyn's Finest

March 11th 2010 22:43

This movie was interesting based on the selection of actors alone! There is Don Cheadle, Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, and Wesley Snipes. Now those of you who read my other blog, All Celebrity Bytes, will know that I am for the underdog. And you can't get any more underdog than Wesley Snipes! This was a great (albeit minor role) return to the big screen role and it is being touted as "Wesley Snipes reprising his New Jack City role as Nino Brown." Close, but no cigars. The movie is filmed very interestingly with the coverage of three New York police officers (You guessed it, Wesley is NOT one of them, and the title, I realized halfway through the movie is a sarcastic one, definitely!) that are consumed with their own lives instead of being involved with the specifics of their jobs. Don is deep undercover in the drug racket and we come to find out he owes his life to Wesley Snipes. So while he is trying to watch both of their backs, Don is also griping about how the streets are starting to get to him, how he wants his wife/life back, and wants a desk job. Ethan's character is an officer caught between a rock and a hard place, who has gone bad, and has resorted to killing drug dealers for their money or doing anything he can to get his hands on drug money. He is a Catholic father with many children at the time we meet him (my movie buddy and I joked that every home scene his kids kept multiplying, scene 1, one kid, scene 2, two kids..) and we learn that his pregnant wife is having TWINS! To make matters worse, the extremely cramped little house they live in is making his wife's asthma (due to mold) exacerbate. Richard's character has been on the force for about 20-30 years (I forget, hey, it was hard to keep up with the triple storyline!) and is about to retire in 7 days. He is so burnt out that upon rising for his shift he puts his revolver in his mouth and pulls the trigger. Can we say serious psychotherapy counseling? And this is who is protecting the streets? Alrighty then! Although this is an excellent fast paced movie that builds up layer upon layer until the climatic ending, I found the ending upsetting and it left me disappointed on two points: The outcome of the characters and the absolute ending. I will say that MY interpretation of the ending is: The Richard Gere character did not give a rat's patutti about his job, we saw him tell new officers "Don't be so gung-ho, take it slow and easy, a very non-chalant approach to officiating. The other two were playing too close to the edge/with fire, emotions ran really high and we all know how movies with men and high emotions and guns pan out (not good). It's like the director was saying "Pick and choose your battles, don't be a hot head in every situation, every situation doesn't require going from 0-60 emotionally and then you will possibly live to see another day. It is certainly worth checking out. Superb performances!
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Review for Law Abiding Citizen

March 11th 2010 20:20

This movie stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler who get HUGE kudos from me for the expansion of their acting abilities with this movie. The movie grips you from the moment it starts with a brutal home invasion scene by these two scumballs with Gerard, his little girl, and wife horribly violated and it just rips your heart out. Next we see Jamie, who is the lawyer handling the case for Gerard, who is the only survivor of the brutal attack. Jamie tells Gerard that they had to make a deal with "the devil" i.e. the scumbag who raped and murdered his wife and little girl. When Gerard protests, saying that he was an eye witness (he blacked out, won't hold up in court) and various other reasons why they SHOULD go to trial, not only does Jamie say that they are not going to trial but that the deal he made with the criminal is final and will set him free! Gerard now blames Jamie for not trying as hard as he could to avenge him. (Isn't our legal system great?!) Hence, the deep philosophical meaning of the title of this movie. Of course, here is Gerard, a "law abiding citizen", gets screwed royally and this piece of scumbag gets to live his life as if nothing ever happened! Well, what makes this movie so cool is, it is written like we all would have written it and how things should be if something like this happened to someone we loved dearly. Fast forward to ten years later (which just so happens to be about the time that the appeals process runs out for death sentenced criminals). Gerard gets the guy who is in jail about to be executed (easy target!). Then, he goes after the scumbag who walked away with the deal. Oddly but written beautifully, we see the deal-making scumbag get what is coming to him very early on (very, very graphically!) which momentarily leaves you wondering "O.K., if the two bad guys are dead this early in the movie, what else could we possibly watch?" Oh, boy, dumb question! There is much, much more to watch! All with you glued to the edge of your seat! I am a big "Saw" movie buff and I shook nervously more in this movie than I did in Saw! It turns out that Gerard is like this super smart engineer who can invent things to help assassins kill people. Since the justice system failed him, then to him, the ENTIRE system is on "the list", including Jamie. It becomes one of the coolest "cat and mouse" game ever played and so very well acted. There is a cool twist at the end, and the ending will leave you with a lot of great discussion topics of right and wrong, the justice system, how tragic pain never heals, personal vendettas, etc. Great movie!

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Review for Shutter Island

March 11th 2010 05:46

This movie is starring some heavy hitters, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, and Max Von Sydow. I have to tell some of this movie review from a personal view.. because it is soo funny! My cinema buddy (we try to go every Friday) have seen the trailer for this movie since the summer of 2009! It took so long to make it to the theaters that HE swore we weren't going to see it. Well, one Friday I hadn't been paying attention to the movies that were coming out for that day. He calls to say that we were going to the movies but that he was picking the movie. I asked, "what movie are we going to see?" He stated, "It's a surprise." When we arrive at the movie theater and we walk up to the window I said "Well, you might as well tell me, we are here. He says, "Two for Shutter Island. I started screaming with delight that he had changed his mind but quickly learned that it was sold out. (Oh crap!) Then I suggested we go to the next county (which wasn't too far from where we were) to another movie theater to catch it. On our way there, I expressed how surprised I was that he changed his mind and he explained that he was dying from curiosity about the movie. And how it better not be what he thinks the ending will be, which was divulged to me (I kept my guess a secret) We arrived just in the nick of time...Shutter Island starts out with beautiful cinematography set in the 1940's. Leonardo and Mark are U.S. Marshals going to investigate the disappearance of a patient in a secluded insane asylum. As they are riding the ferry boat to the Island, Leonardo starts to discuss things with Mark especially personal stuff. I swear, it was then that I KNEW the ending (the general ending, at least). Leonardo and Mark proceed to question the staff while Leonardo has a feeling that somebody is hiding something from them. The movie takes a lot of fast turns and throws in correlating material rapidly. It definitely will keep you on the edge of your seat. You really have to pay attention to every scene to understand how it all ties in together. Leonardo does a superb acting job to the point I had to remind myself this was Leonardo. He certainly "suspends one's disbelief." Well needless to say, my movie buddy and I both guessed the general ending, in fact as it was being played out, he turned and stared at me TWICE with a very disgusted look on his face, I had to elbow him to make him stop! But the overall ending was cleverly put together (very heartbreaking, my buddy said he felt my emotion!) As the credits rolled, if you've ever watched the "King of Queens", t.v. show, we had a classic Doug and Carrie argument (very jokingly) over the ending and for choosing to see this movie. So although it has a very predictable ending, (up to a point) this movie is worth every penny to see how it can grab, hold, and keep you until the end.
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Review for Book of Eli

March 11th 2010 04:42

The Book of Eli is a movie starring Denzel Washington in the title role with Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, and Jennifer Beals. Upon viewing the trailers for the first time, I commented "Oh, boy here we go, Denzel wanted a movie like I AM LEGEND with Will Smith." Boy was I wrong! This movie starts out slow with Denzel alone hunting for food, trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world while protecting this "book". Meanwhile, Gary Oldman (and boy does he LOOK like an old man in this movie, luv ya anyway Gary!) is searching for a particular book and it just so happens to be the one that Denzel is protecting. In this post-apcalyptic world, most of the books have been destroyed especially the highly controversial ones. Topping the list: The Bible. Gary runs this small, western inspired town by controlling the water supply and has these goons working for him to keep people from stepping out of line. But alas, Gary wants more power to the point of mind control and he feels that by "preaching" the bible, he will have many followers (i.e. cult..can anyone say Charles Mason!?) So while traveling through this little town, Denzel goes into Gary's hotel-bar-brothel house-home (nobody can say he wasn't entrepreneurial!) and the goons start a fight with Denzel...mistake...big mistake! This is one of the coolest scenes, definitely a rewind moment when watching at home! Of course, this causes Gary to take notice and sequester Denzel on the premises. While in his room, Denzel takes the bible out and reads it. Gary sends Mila Kunis to seduce Denzel into staying with their group. While in Denzel's room, she notices the book and begs him to read to her (she is too "young" to know how to read since the books were all destroyed before she was born), he doesn't but rather tells her some things about what is in the book, like praying. Mila fails in her mission. Upon returning to Gary, she describes the book to him and he realizes this is "the one" (cue the choir: Ahhhh!) The rest of the movie is spent with the famous "good against evil" chase scenes. It has a big, climatic buildup with a cool ending and surprising twist that you definitely do not see coming (which in my book makes for an AWESOME ending/movie!) In fact, the twist at the end will make you want to watch the whole movie again to compare the scenes with your "new" knowledge. Personally, I was a little unhappy about the ending but the twist made up for it!
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Review of The Princess and the Frog

March 11th 2010 03:30

The Princess and the Frog is Disney's first attempt at giving us (us being "movie buffs") an African-American princess. As far as Disney movies go, this movie is tops! The fact that Disney has decided to have an African-American princess was ingenious to begin with (maybe to coincide with the first African-American president, eh?) and the storytelling was great as well as the music, singing, and characters, but let's dissect some elements and expose what is hidden underneath them. The movie opens with a young Tiana and her best friend (who happens to be a rich Caucasian, little girl) playing together. They read the story of the frog becoming human again from a kiss. Tiana's friend dreams of becoming a princess (as if she didn't have enough money already!) and would kiss a frog in a heartbeat and "poor" little Tiana, who thinks kissing a frog is disgusting, only dreams about opening a restaurant with her daddy. That's it!? A lousy restaurant? Well, I guess that would be a lot for the "era" that the movie was set in, I guess I will allow that. Fast forward in time and the two best friends are at least 18 years of age. Tiana works in a restaurant as a waitress (and her father has been killed, another no-no in my book i.e. a father-less home), penny-pinching every last wage for her "dream" which is burning even more to honor her father and her best friend is still rich and still wants to marry a prince. The best friend's father is having a party at his house, where a handsome, young prince (Prince Naveen, who by the way is very ethnically vague meaning he could marry a Caucasian girl or African-American girl..how convenient!) is coming to stay at their grand mansion and in honor of this party. She must have Tiana make her famous baked goods for this party to impress the prince. Why couldn't she have just invited her to the party as her friend ONLY? Anyway, at the party Tiana runs into a talking frog who is actually prince Naveen. He was turned into a frog because of the shady deal his personal assistant made with the local witch doctor. Well, Naveen and Tiana decide that kissing him is the only way to change him back..not only is she disgusted by kissing him, it backfires and now SHE is a frog. The rest of the movie is set with the two of them searching for a way to reverse the spell. Along the way they meet a series of funny and interesting characters. As I stated early on, the movie is great especially as a first attempt of "ethnicity" and is entertaining ( I almost cried during one moving scene) but fails miserably by relying heavily on stereotypes and limited thinking. Thankfully, my two daughters are young (5 and 3) enough to just enjoy the movie!
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