Avatar

Rated PG13 for brief language, violence

Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Michelle Rodriguez, CCH Pounder

The year is 2154 and we send troops and scientists to Pandora - a moon of the planet Polyphemus - to study and hope to capture the rare substance Unobtainum which lies underneath the inhabitants home base. In order to walk on the planet and interact with the Na'vi inhabitants, we have developed avatars, that are tailored to it's crew member who plugs into it via brainwaves. After getting lost and separated from his team on the planet, paraplegic former Marine Jake Sully is taken in by the Na'vi and told that he will learn their ways. The administrator of the crew tells Jake that he has 3 months to learn and gain the Na'vi's trust, as bulldozers will be coming to mine the Unobtainum and the Na'vi will need to peacefully leave or face war.

Jake grows fond of the Na'vi though and feels more at home among their world.

This film by James Cameron took 15 years to make and visually it is amazing, as Pandora is a CGI world, yet seems real. While the story isn't the absolute greatest ever, the characters are likable and despite its run time of nearly 3 hours, it doesn't feel long at all. While it does have a message built into it, it doesn't come off as preachy - basically it comes down to good guys vs greedy guys.

If you're looking for a good sci-fi action film that the whole family can enjoy look plug into Avatar this holiday season.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

Rated PG13 for violence, brief language

Picking up in the months after Twilight left off, Bella Swan is starting her senior year of high school and just turning 18. However, after an incident involving a paper cut she gets at the Cullen's house (the local vampire clan, who lives off the blood of animals rather than humans and sparkle in the sunlight rather than turn to dust), her boyfriend, vampire Edward Cullen tells her she'd be better off without them around and breaks up with her in the middle of the woods.

Bella goes into a deep depression for several months and it isn't until she starts hanging around former childhood pal Jacob that she is brought out of her funk. However, Jacob has a secret of his own and suddenly starts acting strange - lying to Bella about being sick and avoiding her.

She also learns that acting reckless and getting adrenaline rushes makes her see visions of Edward, who in these visions tells her to stop it and be careful. In addition to all this, Victoria, the redheaded "bad" vampire from the first film returns once the Cullens leave town. She is still upset over Edward killing her lover, James, in the first film and plans to kill Bella in an attempt at revenge.

Honestly, I was pretty disappointed by the first film, as the cinematography was horrible. Despite all the hype and talk about how this one was done much better than the first, I still think New Moon is pretty much just as bad as the first and I was pretty bored the entire time - keep in mind, I thought the books were alright and will admit they were a pretty entertaining, mindless read. The only entertaining and interesting part of the whole movie was the end, where we are introduced to The Volturi - who act as the governing vampire coven in the world - in which Michael Sheen plays the leader Aro (personally, I much prefer him as lycan Lucian in the Underworld vampire series). This film also clearly caters to the ladies, as Jacob and his pack run around shirtless for a good portion of the film, as does Edward at the end.

Unless you're a Twilight fangirl, save yourself your time and money and just skip this one.

DVD Review: Obsessed

Rated PG13 for sexuality, brief nudity, innuendo, brief language

Starring Idris Elba, Ali Larter, Beyonce Knowles, Jerry O'Connell

Derek Charles seems to have it all - a great job, a supportive wife, a young, healthy son, and they just bought a new house. But his perfect life seems to get turned upside when he meets new office temp Lisa. His first encounter with Lisa takes place in the office elevator, as she drops her stack of files and he kindly helps her pick them up. Upon learning who Derek is, Lisa stops by his office to chat. Next thing Derek knows, she is filling in for his sick assistant. Derek, being the nice guy that he is, treats Lisa kindly like he would any of his office employees.

But Lisa takes his kindness for being something more. At the office Christmas party, Lisa attempts to seduce him and make her move on him in the bathroom. Explaining to her later that they were drunk and her behavior was wrong and that he's not interested in her like that, as a relationship with her would jeopardize his job and marriage, Lisa quits.

However it is not the last time Derek will run into her, as Lisa begins stalking him on a work retreat and creating problems for him at home.

How will he deal with this annoying temptress without his wife thinking something more is going on?

This was another movie that was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. It's a bit of a Fatal Attraction for a new generation - the only difference being that in this one, the husband didn't do anything wrong. While Beyonce gets top billing to bring in the crowd, this is really Larter and Elba's film - Larter has really got the slutty temptress role down (think back to her roles in Varsity Blues and on Heroes) and Elba is quite believable as the nice guy who gets stuck in a bad situation.

DVD Review: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Rated PG for brief violence, some crude humor and innuendo, mild language

Starring: Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Keir O'Donnell

Paul Blart is a Jersey mall cop who takes his job seriously and aspires to be on the local police force, however one thing holds him back from that dream - he is severely hypoglycemic and when it hits, if he doesn't have a candy bar nearby he instantly passes out. He lives at home with his mother and pre-teen daughter, who both try to set him up with online dating, as his wife left him soon after their daughter was born and she acquired her green card.

One day, the mall is taken over by a group planning on wiping out the credit machines to get rich and held hostage inside are Blart's daughter and his love interest Amy among a handful of others. Distracted at the time the mall was taken over, Blart is the lone man on the inside and the local force's only hope at stopping the crooks and safely getting the hostages. Is he up for the job?

This film is oddly similar to another film that came out this year that we reviewed - Observe and Report starring Seth Rogen - as both films deal with mall cops who aspire to be something more than just that as well them bothing having to defend their malls. Buth while Rogen's film is dark and depressing, James' is amusing and heartwarming. This film was actually a lot better than I was expecting it to be.

If you're looking for a fun film the whole family can laugh at and enjoy together, be sure to check this one out.

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

Rated R for violence, language, brief nudity

Starring Billy Connolly, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Julie Benz, Judd Nelson, Peter Fonda

Taking place 8 years after the events in of first film, the MacManus brothers have fled to Ireland and have laid low in a farmhouse with Papa MacManus. However, news reaches them that someone in Boston has killed an innocent priest using the same stylized execution rituals that the brothers are known for, framing them - after all these years, someone is trying to bring them out of hiding, and the wrong-doers of the city are nervous that this someone may succeed in bringing The Saints back.

Detectives Dolly, Duffy, and Greenly are back on the case as well to determine if this really was the work of The Saints, or just a copycat. Special Agent Eunice Bloom, who is the protege of former Agent Paul Smecker of the first film (we are told that Smecker had passed away in recent years) also steps in to put a Smecker-esque touch on determining whodunit.

"BDS2: All Saints Day" gives the audience some insight as to why the MacManus family does what they do and how they got their start. They also made this film as a segway to a third with the way it ended, making The Boondock Saints into a trilogy or maybe even a saga.

Also, Julie Benz's Special Agent Bloom, while a character in her own right and entertaining to watch in her retellings of how it happened, just doesn't do the part as well as William Dafoe's Special Agent Smecker did in the first film.

If you enjoyed the original, you'll probably either love this one, hate it, or leave the theater curious as to how the next will play out. 10 years in the making, while it was still entertaining, this one could have been a lot better.

DVD Review: Public Enemies

Rated R for violence, brief language, brief sexuality

Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cottilard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Graham

Taking place in the 1930s, and mostly in Chicago, "Public Enemies" is an excellent retelling of the late life of John Dillinger and his band of men who robbed various banks and escaped capture and from jail and several times, often times right under the authorities noses. It also shows the beginnings of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, as they desperately try to track Dillinger after naming him Public Enemy Number 1 in order to make a name for the Bureau, as many have their doubts about Hoover's ability to lead an investigation.

While I hadn't heard too much about Dillinger prior to this film, I did find it to be very educational. It was also amusing to see just how well organized Dillinger and his crew were when it came to breaking out of jail at various times. It's easy to see why people liked him - him and his crew only stole from the banks and never the people - he was sort of Robin Hood for that era.

Personally, I think this film should have been rated PG13, as you see more revealing sex scenes on network tv than you do here, the language was pretty tame, and the violence was to be expected, as the majority of it takes place at either the banks and the streets outside and during other shootouts.

For anyone who wants to know more about John Dillinger or wants a history lesson, be sure to check out Public Enemies.

DVD Review: Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Rated PG for brief sexual innuendo, slapstick violence

Starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Bill Hader

Taking place several years after the first film, Larry Daley is now a successful inventor of random household gadgets based off things he came up with to do his job in the first movie (ie: glow in the dark flashlight, unloseable keyring, etc) and hasn't visited the Museum of Natural History for some time. Upon revisiting, he learns that they are renovating the museum, replacing many of the exhibits with interactive holograms. Larry is told by Teddy Roosevelt that while he and a few select others will be staying at the museum, the rest will be moved to the Smithsonian Archives in Washington DC, and they will be going without the magical Golden Tablet Of Ahkmenrah which makes them all come alive at night.

Soon after the move to the Smithsonian, Larry receives a frantic phonecall from tiny Jedediah - apparently Dexter the monkey stole the tablet from the Museum of Natural History and everything is coming alive at the Smithsonian - including Pharaoh Ahkmenrah's not so nice older brother Kahmunrah who seeks the tablet to raise his army of the dead with the help of other classic bad guys such as Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon, and a young Al Capone. War is breaking out among the historical characters and Larry must get to Washington in time before Kahmunrah gets his hands on the tablet!

Since the one mostly takes place at the Smithsonian and it's multiple museums, we are introduced to a plethora of more historical characters than the first, one of the major ones being free-spirited Amelia Earhart.

This is a great adventure film for the whole family, as kids will learn about more history and adults will appreciate the humor and maybe even learn some history even they didn't know! If you enjoyed the first one, don't miss this one!

DVD Review: Trick R Treat

Rated R for violence, gore, language, scary elements, brief nudity and sexuality

Starring Anna Paquin, Leslie Bibb, Brian Cox, Lauren Lee Smith, Moneca Delain, Dylan Baker, Britt McKillp, Tohmah Penikett

Trick R Treat is a film that takes place on Halloween night in a fictional town that takes their Halloween traditions very seriously. While the film is split into several different stories, they are all linked together, as you'll see characters from one story passing by in another. Also tying the stories together is the constant presence of a small trick or treater wearing a burlap costume with a giant pumpkin head known as Sam. Sam (who I thought of as "the spirit of Halloween") sort of oversees that the Halloween traditions are being kept and teaches a lesson to those that break them.

The first story, we meet a widowed school principal and his young son, however this principal is one you wouldn't want to get stuck with in detention, as he also moonlights as... something else.

Next we meet a group of teens who are collecting pumpkins. One of the girls tells us a story about a school bus driver who drove his bus and the 8 disturbed kids in it, off a nearby cliff, into an abandoned quarry, drowning in the lake. They plan on going to the bottom of the quarry and leaving the pumpkins as a tribute to the deceased, however, after playing a horrible prank a strange girl who tagged along with the group, something goes awry...

Throughout the first half of the film, we are introduced to a group of girls in their early 20s who are wearing  sexy storybook character outfits and looking for dates to take with them to a Halloween party in the woods. One girl, Laurie, however, has trouble finding a date for herself and tells her friends to go ahead to the party and she'll meet them there when she finds someone. Not having much luck, she gives up and starts heading to the woods by herself. A man, dressed as a vampire, who we see bit and kill a woman in a previous scene, has noticed Laurie though and begins to stalk her... will she make it to the party alive?

And finally, we visit the next door neighbor of the principal in the first story. This story actually takes place during the time frame of the first one, as we briefly catch a glimpse of events that occur in this one happening in the first one. The cranky old man neighbor lives alone with his dog and rather than pass out candy, he scares any trick or treater that comes to the door with his dog in a scary mask. Sam however does not approve of this and decides to pay the old man a visit...

Book-ending the movie is a quick tale about a couple. After attending the Halloween parade, the woman decides it would be best to take down all their Halloween decorations tonight, rather than in the morning, as her mother is coming to visit and it won't get done until later. Her partner begs her not to break tradition by taking the decorations down early, but she talks him into letting her. As you can imagine, this is a big no-no!

If you're in for a good, original Halloween-based movie and don't mind a little gore and some frights, be sure to check this one out!

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

Rated PG13 for comicbook violence

Starring Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marlon Wayans

In the near future, a weapons expert has created a nanotechnology based weapon that can destroy an entire city. After selling the warheads to NATO, troops such as Duke and Ripcord are sent to protect and deliver the goods to NATO, however they get ambushed by bad guys, which include Baroness, who also want said warheads and GI Joe troops Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Heavy Duty and Breaker step in to help out.

We learn that the GI Joe Team is a classified organization of the best troops in the world, lead by General Hawk. The story centers around the nanotechnology warheads, which do eventually get stolen from the good guys who have to put a stop to the bad guys before they destroy The Eiffel Tower, and three other monuments across the globe. There's also several plot twists, including a connection between Duke and Baroness.

With Channing Tatum in one of the main lead roles, I was not expecting much from this film, as Tatum is known for his roles in teen films such as Step Up and it's sequel. G.I. Joe actually ended up being much better than I was expecting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is brilliant in his role as The Doctor as well as another role that is revealed in one of the twists. Marlon Wayans, while not as goofy as some of his previous work, was pretty good as the main comic relief. While the acting in general was nothing to really write home about, some of the devices used in the film are pretty neat (such as the accelerator suits, for example) and there were some really cool martial art scenes as well.

While it won't win an Oscar, if you're looking for a fun, action film based on an 80s toy that doesn't suck this year and is okay for the whole family to watch, check out G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

DVD Review: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Rated R for language, crude humor, sexuality, nudity

Starring Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Jordana Spiro, Craig Robinson, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong

When a car dealership is in trouble and needs to host a sale to make some serious cash they call in hot shot salesman Don "The Goods" Ready and his team to get the job done.

Selleck Motors has been a family business for over 40 years, however due to back payments to the bank, Selleck needs to sell as many of the 211 cars on his lot over July 4th weekend, otherwise he risks foreclosing on the lot. Ready and his team comes in using their motivation techniques and methods, rallies the rest of Selleck's sales team to sell as many cars as possible. Despite several mishaps, such as special guest Eric Bice (brother to American Idol's Bo Bice) failing to show and the crowd rioting in protest, the team presses forward to get the job done.

Throughout the weekend, Don begins to fall for Selleck's adult daughter Ivy, who is engaged to Paxton, an up and coming boy band member and the son of a rival car dealership who plans on buying the lot Selleck Motors is on once the property forecloses. Also, after noticing many similarities between himself and 22 year old Selleck sales team member Blake, Don is convinced that Blake is his son, after having unprotected sex with a woman the last time he was in Temecula 23 years ago.

Despite not being in theaters long, this film was actually pretty funny. Having work for a company that does work similar to that of Don Ready and his team (only for furniture stores instead of car dealerships), I was particularly interested in seeing this one.

Brought to you by the team of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, if you enjoyed their previous works Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, you won't be disappointed. While some of the humor is a tad crude, if you're not easily offended by such things or other films in the R-rated comedy genre, you'll most likely enjoy this one.

DVD Review: Observe and Report

Rated R for language, comedic violence, crude humor, drug use

Starring Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Pena, Collette Wolf

Ronnie Barnhardt is head of mall security at Forest Ridge Mall. After a flasher runs around the parking lot, scaring mall-goers, Ronnie and his ragtag team of security vow to catch the perp and put a stop to his perverted antics. But after the flasher strikes again, this time exposing himself to Brandi, a make-up counter worker and the object of Ronnie's affection, and a mass robbery at the mall, the owner decides to call in a detective to get to the bottom of things. Feeling threatened, as the mall is his turf, Ronnie decides to tag along with the detective, making things only harder.

Frustrated with just being a mall cop and not getting the respect or a gun that he feels he deserves, Ronnie decides to pursue his dream of being a real police officer and enrolls into the police academy. He also gets up the guts to asks Brandi out.

Feeling on Cloud 9 with the delusion that everything is going great for him, Ronnie is devastated when things turn out to be not so. Although it may seem like he loses everything he had going for him, Ronnie still tries to make good on his vow to protect the mall from the flasher, convinced he will strike again.

Seth Rogen films are usually pretty fun for those that are accustomed to his type of humor. Most will be quite surprised to learn that while Rogen does the best he can given the material he is provided here, the end result is not what one would expect.

Ronnie gets treated like dirt by the majority of the characters in this film, save for the lone Christian girl who works the coffee stand and befriends him; the mall owner treats him poorly, the detective and the rest of the police force play cruel jokes on him and are just mean to him in general, his mom is always drunk and relies on him to take care of her even after she tells him that she's sure he's the reason his father left them, his best friend and second in command ends up using him, and Brandi is a complete jerk to him and only uses him for his medication that she uses recreationally with alcohol.

Granted, Ronnie's not an innocent character here either and he's got problems of his own (we learn he suffers from bipolar disorder), however no one deserves to get treated as bad as he does in this film. Just when it seems like things are starting to look up for him, everything gets completely stripped out from under him.

Sure, it had it's funny moments, but those were few and far between - the rest of this film left you feeling sad for how mean everyone was. Save yourself the pain and skip this Rogen film - it's not the comedy that the trailers made it out to be.

DVD Review: Swing Vote

Rated PG13 for language, frequent alcohol use

Starring Kevin Costner, Madeline Carroll, Paula Patton, Kesley Grammer, Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci, Dennis Hopper, and George Lopez

Bud Johnson is a loveable loser from Texico, New Mexico who could really care less about politics. He can barely hold a job, let alone take care of his young daughter Molly (she does all the housework and cooking, he spends his free time guzzling down beer at home or with buddies at the bar). With the election coming up, Molly's school gets the kids all excited about it and Molly insists that her father take part and vote. After promising he'd take Molly to go see the voting process, Bud instead gets drunk and passes out in his truck, leaving Molly waiting at the polling place alone. Frustrated, she sneaks in and decides to vote for her father, however the machine malfunctions and although the ballot is registered, the vote did not count. Scared, Molly runs to go find her father and heads home.

Later that night, it is learned the election is at a standstill, as it all comes down to whoever wins the state of New Mexico and the lone vote holding everything up is Bud's, as the state is literally 50/50. Bud and Molly are awaken in the middle of the night by government officials who inform that due to the malfunction, Bud's ballot was not recorded and that he has up to 10 days to recast his ballot.

What ensues is a media circus on Bud's lawn, putting Texico on the map, as the entire nation watches and wonders who Bud will vote for. Both election candidates arrive in town as well, both changing their stances on the issues just to sway Bud's vote. A man who's only care was getting drunk and doing whatever he could to avoid losing his daughter is now faced with deciding on the next President of the USA.

While this movie came out a few months before the important election of 2008, it was an easy one to pass off as pure election propaganda. Sure, the central theme is that every vote does count, but it was actually an enjoyable movie. Madeline Carroll steals every scene she's in as young Molly who has to take care of her immature father and the rest of the cast really makes the film believable. By the end of the film when Bud realizes what he has to do to make the best decision, you really are cheering for the fact that he seems to genuinely change and have people's best interests at heart, thanks to his daughter.

This is a good one to watch - it has drama, it has comedy, it is lighthearted and also makes you feel patriotic and inspired to go vote.

DVD Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Rated PG13 for comicbook action and violence, brief language

Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Houston, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, Will.I.Am, Ryan Reynolds

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is just that - a film about the origins of Wolverine. We are introduced to James Howlett (aka Logan, Wolverine) and his older brother Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth) and see that at a young age, back in 1845 the brothers were forced to flee due to their strange mutations - Logan with this odd retractable claws, and Victor with his sabretooth cat like strength and agility.

The two brothers spend most of the next century and a half fighting in the American Civil War, World War I & II and the Vietnam War. During Vietnam, Victor allows his rage to take over, killing innocents in the process, while Logan does what he can to stop and save his brother.

Both are imprisoned after they were unable to executed for the crime, but offered spots in Major Stryker's Team X, composed of other humans with strange genetic mutations. Here we are introduced to John Wraith, Fred "The Blob" Dukes, Wade Wilson, Agent Zero, and Chris Bradley. While with the team, the brothers go on top secret missions, but after one that requires murdering innocent villagers, Logan has had enough and leaves, eventually leading to the collapse of Team X.

Years later, Logan is leading a simple, yet happy life as a lumberjack in Canada with his school teacher girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox. His approached by Stryker, informing him that someone is killing off the former team members and to be careful, however we learn that it is Victor doing the killings. After Victor kills Kayla in an attempt to get his younger brother's attention, Logan allows Stryker to conduct a test procedure on him, turning his entire skeletal system into hardened adamantitium, giving him metal indestructible claws capable of finishing off Victor. However once the procedure is a success, Logan overhears Stryker talking about erasing his memory, causing him to flee instead.

Knowing that Stryker is up to no good, Wolverine gets some help from his former Team X members, as well as new friend the Cajun Gambit to put an end to Stryker and his brother in the process.

If you like comic book movies, especially any of the X-Men films, you'll be sure to enjoy X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Law Abiding Citizen

Rated R for language, violence, some gore and torture, tense moments

Starring Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb

Engineer Clyde Shelton witnesses his wife and daughter brutally raped murdered by several men who broke into their home one evening. When he is told that one of the criminals will not be convicted, Shelton pleads with prosecutor Nick Rice to take the case to court and let him testify, as it saw it all. Rice, who is more concerned with keep his 96% conviction rate, tells Shelton that it doesn't matter what is right, what matters is what can be proven in court, and do to a botched forensics investigation, there is not enough solid evidence for the case. Clarence Darby, the criminal who actually raped and murdered Shelton's wife and daughter, gets off on a third-degree murder charge, which will only get him a 5-10 year jailtime, while accomplice Rupert Ames gets the death penalty. Shelton later sees Rice outside the courthouse shaking hands with Darby in what appears to be them finishing a deal.

10 years goes by and it's time for Ames' execution, however someone has tampered with the execution materials and his lethal injection becomes more horrifying than normal. Darby, believed to be response for the botched execution, runs from police with the help of a stranger on a cell phone who tricks him and kidnaps him, torturing and slowing killing him on film in the process.

Rice and police have reason to believe Shelton is behind both murders and take him into custody, however he knows how to play the legal system now and even though he's behind bars, everyone involved in the case regarding his wife and daughter's murders is being killed off. It's only a matter of time before Rice and his family are next.

What would appear to be a thriller about the corruption of our legal system and one man's attempt to avenge the murders of his wife and daughter, ends up feeling more like an installment of the Saw franchise, in the aspect that both films the villain has a reason for why they cause the death of others and carry out the deaths with clever devices of torture. Play by the rules and you'll live, but continue doing what you're doing and you'll surely reap what you sow.

While not as gruesome as the Saw franchise and the fact that this film would fall more under the category of thriller than horror, if you're not expecting all the gore that you get with this one, you will be in for quite a surprise!

Zombieland

Rated R for zombie violence, some gore, language, brief sexuality

Starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic America, zombies roam wild and finding normal humans is hard to come by.

We are introduced to college student Columbus, who has managed to survive by following a set of rules that include always wearing a seat built, double shooting a zombie to make sure it's really dead, and staying fit, among many others. He is heading home to Columbus, OH to see if his parents are still alive. On his travels though, his car breaks down, but fortunately, a man by the name of Tallahassee pulls up and the two band together for the journey. While making a stop at a grocery store, the boys meet sister Wichita and Little Rock, who, after a few misunderstandings, join the boys on a journey west in hopes of finding a safe zombie free area rumored to be out that direction, while making a stay at Pacific Playground in L.A. so Little Rock can have one more chance at being a kid again.

Part horror zombie flick, part comedy Zombieland is a fun movie much along the lines of Shaun of the Dead. If you don't mind zombies and like fun comedy action flicks, you'll be sure to love this one!

DVD Review: Dakota Skye

Rated R for language, sexuality, teen drinking and drug use

Starring Elieen Boylan, Ian Nelson, JB Ghuman Jr.

Dakota isn't your typical 17 year old girl. Why is that? Well, she has a superpower, as she calls it - she can always tell when someone is lying and what they really think when they lie. She has come to accept that everyone lies, it's unavoidable. That is until she meets Jonah, who happens to be her boyfriend's best friend who is visiting from out of town. Jonah seems to be 100% honest all the time. This confuses Dakota because how is it possible for someone to be that completely honestly? Is something wrong with her superpower? Dakota and Jonah begin falling for each other, trying to hid it from her boyfriend, until Dakota seems to have caught Jonah in a lie and then she really begins to questions herself.

While not quite what I was expecting, this small indie film was really well done and kept me intrigued the whole time as well. Be sure to check this one out for an interesting drama.

DVD Review: Strange Wilderness

Rated R for language, comedic violence, crude humor, sexuality

Starring Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Justin Long, Kevin Heffernan, Jonah Hill

Once upon a time, Peter's dad hosted a well-known nature show, known as Strange Wilderness, where he traveled the world and taught American about animals and nature much along the lines of what we would see on the Discovery Channel. When dear old dad passed, Peter was left with hosting duties on the show, however ratings began to decline and the show was slotted in the 3am place. With word that he and his crew have weeks to save the show before it is ultimately canceled by the tv station and replaced with a rival nature show, they set out on a journey to capture an animal on film that could turn things all around for them - Big Foot.

What I'm sure was a good idea for a film in theory - a ragtag crew who knows nothing about nature trying to save their beloved nature show - the end result feels more like a bunch of Adam Sandler's crew (afterall, this is a Happy Madison film made up of much of the production's regulars) just goofing around together on camera and calling it a movie. Some of the gags are pretty fun, but the rest of the movie is pretty much forgettable.

Feel free to skip out on this one!

All About Steve

Rated PG13 for brief langauge, some sexuality, tense scenes

Starring Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong, DJ Qualls

Mary Horowitz is a very skilled cruciverbalist, or crossword puzzle writer to you and me, and is proud of her work - crossword puzzles are her passion in life, however Mary is not like "normal" people. She wears bright red boots, and while all her coworkers talk about going out and having fun, none of which seems to faze eccentric Mary, who lives with parents, talks to her guinea pig who seems to be her best friend, and can't seem to find Mr. Right.

Her parents decide to set her up on a blind date with Steve, an attractive news cameraman who goes where the story is to capture the action with his crew. Mary is immediately attracted to Steve physically, but her aggressive and eccentric personally frightens him, saying he has to go cover a news story. He tells Mary he wishes she could join him on the road, but since she has a join it just won't work out. Leaving her with his umbrella, he quickly tries to get far far away from her.

Mary on the other hand becomes completely obsessed with Steve, which causes her to lose her job, so she decides to take him up on his offer to go on the road with him, following he all across the country to various breaking news stories. He tries to explain to her that he was just being nice when he said that, however his reporter, Hartman Hughes, decides it'd be fun to egg Mary on and encourage her obession with Steve.

After a freak accident on the road, Mary becomes breaking news in a bit of a plot twist.

The theme of the movie is finding yourself and being happy with who you are - just be yourself rather than try to fit into what society deems as "normal". As Mary says at the end of the film "Why should you have to change to be 'normal'? All you have to do is find someone who's as 'normal' as you are."

This was cute, quirky film brought to us by the same crew that brought us another Bullock hit, Miss Congeniality. If you liked that one, you'll most likely enjoy this one as well.

DVD Review: Sunshine

Rated R for brief language, violence

Starring Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans

In 2057, the Icarus II is sent into space with a stellar bomb to detonate into the sun and reignite it, as the sun is slowly dying and will be no more in 50 years otherwise, leaving Earth in an unlivable solar winter. In 2050, the Icarus I was sent, but never returned. When the crew of the Icarus II gets just beyond Mercury, they no longer can have communication with Earth and receive a distress single from Icarus I. Torn to delay the mission and check help Icarus I, the crew has a decision to make. Deciding to help Icarus I and find out what happened, they change their course, but with disasterous effects that make it near impossible for the entire crew to make it to the sun and leaving them with no resources to get home if they do make it. What's the crew to do? Will they be able to make it into the sun now to carry out their intial mission? And who is slowly killing off the rest of the crew of Icarus II?

What started out as an interesting sci-fi filmed, turned into Event Horizon by films end. It's worth a rent if you enjoy sci-fi films that take place in space, however if you've seen Event Horizon you can pretty much predict the end result.

DVD Review: True Romance

Rated R for language, violence, sexuality, nudity

Starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Gary Oldman, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini

Clarence Worley is a comic book store clerk who lives a simple life. For lack of better things to do, he spends his birthday watching a martial arts triple theater at a Detroit theater, where he meets the attractive Alabama Whitman. The two go for coffee after the films and he shows her the comic book shop, after spending a night together, she regretfully confesses that she is a call girl who was hired by Clarence's boss as a birthday present, however she has fallen for him completely. Luckily, Clarence has fallen for her as well and the next day the two go down to the courthouse and get married.

After learning about her pimp Drexl, Clarenced decides he's going to confront him and get Alabama's things for her. The confrontation doesn't go as planned though, and gunfire breaks out, with Clarence killing Drexl in the process. He grabs what he believes to be Alabama's suitcase of belongings and heads back to her, only to learn that he took the wrong suitcase and this one contains a bunch of stolen cocaine.

The couple decides to head out west to LA to hideout and sell the drugs so that they can establish a home for themselves elsewhere, however the mob is on their tail wanting to retreive the cocaine. The police also get involved.

Clarence and Alabama are very likable characters, played memorably by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. Written by Quentin Tarantino as his first major screenplay, this film has bit of it all - action, violence, sexuality, romance, crime, the mob, and thrills, this one classic you won't want to miss.

DVD Review: The Lookout

Rated R for violence, language, sexuality

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher

The film starts out with a teenage Chris driving at night with some friends down an old country road. In an attempt impress his girlfriend, he turns off the headlights to show them the fireflies, but crashes into a combine, killing their 2 friends, leaving Chris with brain damage that affects his short term memory, and his girlfriend requiring a prosthetic leg.

As years go by, Chris has been learning to live with his disability, by keeping notes in a small notebook and living with helpful aid by blind friend Lewis. Chris holds a job as a night janitor at a small-town bank, however he has desires to become a teller someday, learning from one of the fellow bank tellers and practicing regularly.

Eventually Chris  becomes the target of a gang who is planning on robbing the bank he works for. Knowing of his condition, the gang befriends Chris and uses the lovely Luvlee to seduce him and convince him he is part of their gang. Chris is confused at first, but eventually goes along with the gang, only to realize they are just using him for access to the bank. He decides to take matters into his own hands to put a stop to it.

The Lookout was a very good drama and thriller. It builds the characters very well - you symapthize with both Chris and Lewis, as they both struggle make the best of their disabilities and you hope for the best for them as well. While many may have missed this gem in the theater, be sure not to miss it on DVD, as both Levitt and Daniels give great performances.

DVD Review: Untraceable

Rated R for violence, torture, language, gore

Starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth Hurt

Jennifer Marsh is widowed mother who cares for her daughter by day and heads up the FBI's cybercrime division by night, usually fighting indentity theft and the like. One night however, she comes across a webite called killwithme.com which is streaming video footage of a kitten being tortured and killed, live on camera. Not thinking too much of it, as it's only an animal, Jennifer's supervisor tells her to just shutdown the site and don't worry too much about it.

Shortly later, however, killwithme.com is active again, and this time the vicitim is a human. The more people that tune into the site, the faster the victim dies. Despite warning from Jennifer, the press holds a conference, urging people to avoid the site, however this causes more people to become curious about it and only increases the site's popularity.

Will Jennifer and the FBI be able to find out and stop the killer before he strikes again? Will they be able to do it before more and more people tune into the site, causing the victims to die even faster? As Jennifer gets closer to figuring out the case, the killer begins to come after her. In this deadly game of cat and mouse, who will come out alive?

This film, starring Diane Lane, was an interesting view into the FBI cybercrimes division. While still considered to be part of the "torture porn" genre of horror films that include flicks like Saw and Hostel, this one was a lot more toned down that its predecessors. The violence and torture, while a bit graphic at times, was necessary in order for this film to work, but fortunately, it wasn't nearly as graphic as what we've seen in recent films like Saw.

A bit too scary and graphic for the kids, this in an interesting race against time thriller for the adults to watch.

DVD Review: Teeth

Rated R for language, some graphic violence, sexuality

Starring Jess Weixler, Hale Appleman, John Hensley

Dawn is a teenager who, with a small group of like-minded friends, is part of a Christian group that promotes abstinence by wearing purity rings and speaking at different schools about what it means. During one of these meetings, she is introduced to fellow abstinence pledge Tobey and developes a crush on him, fantasizing about marrying him one day. After giving in to their mutual feelings for each other, Tobey and Dawn meet at a local swimming hole, where he attempts to rape her, however we, including Tobey and Dawn quickly learn that something is not normal with Dawn - she has vaginal dentata. Horrified at what has just happened, Tobey stumbles off. Scared of what just happened, Dawn goes home to research online, trying to learn what is wrong with her and she visits a gynocologist  to get checked out, however the gyno takes advantage of her and the dentata strikes again.

Dawn eventually learns how to control the dentata and by movie's end, we are left to believe she will put her 'gift' to good use when it comes to dealing with perverted men in the world.

Even though it's an indie film, it was actually done pretty well and was quite an interesting take on the subject matter. While a bit graphic at times, it was a decent story.

DVD Review: The Island

Rated PG13 for brief language, action violence

Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi, Ethan Phillips

Directed by Michael Bay, The Island takes place in 2019. Lincoln Six Echo lives in a colony of uncontamined humans who all believe something happened tot he planet to cause them to live here. Each week, a drawing is conducted to decide who will be the next inhabitant to go to The Island, the last place left on the surface of Earth that wasn't contaminated. Lincoln however becomes frustrated at the lack of individuality in the colony, as they are forced to wear plain white clothes and everyone is under strict rules by the colony leaders. Upon learning that his good friend Jordan Two Delta is next to go to The Island, Lincoln discovers, thanks to a friend in a restricted construction area of the colony a way out. However on his exploration of the world directly outside the colony, he sees 2 recent colonist, thought to have been taken to The Island, being subjected to medical procedures and organ harvesting.

Concerned for Jordan, he finds her and the 2 try to escape and get to the bottom of what is going on, after learning that there is a whole world outside the colony they thought was destroyed.

Not to give too much away, but the film is a commentary on cloning and raises some interesting questions for being a Michael Bay film. However, like most Michael Bay films, his love for explosions is shown and we are subjected to the typical elements of a Michael Bay film.

It was an interesting sci-fi film though, so it's worth a view.

District 9

Rated R for language, violence, gore

Starring Sharlto Copley

Set in 1982, an alien spaceship comes to Earth and hovers directly above Johannesburg, South Africa. Supposidly part of the ship broke off and dropped to Earth, but was unable to be found, leaving this ship stranded on our planet. After no activity from the ship for some team, an exploratory team flies up to the ship and opens it up to find a million starved and dying creatures that look like giant arthropods. In an attempt to help the creatures surivive, they brought down to Earth and placed in a slum community, named District 9, under the watch of MNU, Multinational United, who polices the district, as the inhabits, referred to derogatorily as "Prawns" are becoming more and more destructive.

It is decided that District 9 is running out of space and the Prawns will need to be relocated to the newly formed District 10. Heading up the operation is Wikus van de Merwe, who is forced to serve the Prawns with eviction notices, informing of them of the move. However, one alien, known to us as Christopher Johnson, and his young son, resist Wikus and the MNU, as Christopher seems to have a higher intellect that the others and understand his rights. While raiding Christopher's shack, Wikus discovers a strange container and takes it with him, however, not knowing what it is, Wikus tampers with it, causing it to spray him in the face.

Within the next 12 hours, Wikus falls ill and starts to change, physically, developing an arm like the aliens. After being taken into MNU custody, they begin to test Wikus' new arm, and discover that he can operate the alien's weaponry, as it is only responsive to their DNA. MNU then decides to cut open Wikus and vivisect him, however he freaks out and runs to District 9 for refuge, where he again encounters Christopher and his son. Christopher tells Wikus he can change him back eventually, but first they need to break into MNU and retrieve the canister Wikus took earlier from Christopher, as it contained just enough fuel to get the alien ship started up again and take them back to their home planet.

While a bit graphic and violent for some, District 9 deals a lot with the theme of racism. Wikus treats the Prawns poorly as he is evicting them, but then begins to see things from the other side once he begins to turn into one of them.

If you like sci-fi adventures and don't mind a bit of graphic violence, be sure to visit District 9.

DVD Review: Run Lola Run

Rated R for violence and language

Starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu

Run Lola Run is a German thriller with English subtitles that follows the story of Lola and her boyfriend Manni.

It starts out with Lola receiving a phonecall from a paniced Manni, who tells her he lost a bag containing 100,000 Deutsche Marks that was supposed to be dropped off to crime boss Ronnie. As it turns out, Lola was supposed to pick up Manni after he made an exchange for the money, however her scooter was stolen and she was unable to meet him, causing him to have to take the subway, where he runs into some guards and panics, accidently leaving the money behind. Manni is convinced that if he does not deliver the money to Ronnie in 20 minutes, he will be killed. He also tells Lola that he is contemplating robbing a nearby supermarket, to recoup at least some of the money he lost, however Lola tells him to just wait 20 minutes for her to get there, as she has a few ideas up her sleeve.

Lola has 20 minutes to get to the money and meet Manni. This takes her 3 different times to get it right however, as various minor events on her journey cause other things to happen in a butterfly effect sort of way. Each attempt though, Lola seems to learn until she finally gets it right. It's almost like a video game, where each failed attempt at the level, puts you back at the beginning to restart it and try again until you get it right.

It was a very interesting movie and although we're seeing the same thing happen 3 different times, it is fun to notice how 1 thing at the beginning of each attempt can affect something major later on. For example, Lola encounters a dog at the beginning of the first and second attempt, slower her down in one attempt, while giving her more time another. This becomes significant as she has to time the encounter just right to put her in the right place at the right time.

Definitely worth a view if you haven't seen this one before!

Inglourious Basterds

Rated R for langauge, violence

Starring Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, BJ Novak, Samm Levine, Harvey Keitel, Mike Myers

Taking place in an alternate history, Quentin Tarantino's latest, Inglourious Basterds, tells the tell of a ragtag team of Jewish American's who were a thorn in the Nazi's side. The Basterds would ambush Nazi troops and skin the scalps of the dead, while branding the survivors they let live with swastika's carved into their foreheards. After getting word that a Nazi propaganda film will be premiered at a small cinema in Paris and that all the Nazi heads, including Hitler himself, will be in attendance, The Basterds decide this would be the perfect chance to put an end to the war and the Nazi regime.

In a parallel storyline, at the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Jewish Shosanna Dreyfus, who barely escapes with her life, after her and her family are outed from hiding at a neighboring farmer's house after a visit from "The Jew Hunter" Colonel Landa. Being the only survivor of the masaccre of her family, Shosanna assumes a new identity in Paris, and tries to live a quiet life operating a small cinema with her new boyfriend and projectionist Marcel. Unfortunately, she catches the eye of Nazi warhero and actor Fredrick Zoller, who insists her cinema would be perfect for the premiere of a new Nazi propaganda film which he stars in. She is terrifed at first, as it was the Nazi who killed her family and she is afraid they'll finish the job if they learn she is really Jewish, however after thinking it over, she agrees, plotting with Marcel that it would be the perfect revenge on the Nazi's to trap them in her cinema during the film and burn it to the ground with them inside.

Sure the film had it's stomach turning moments, with The Basterds being ruthless and gruesome in the way they kill some of the Nazi's, however the overall story was very well done. The whole time you're routing for The Basterds and Shosanna to achieve their unknown shared goal of putting an end to Hitler and the Nazi's.

Several parts of the film also include French and German dialogue with subtitles.

While not for the kids, if you like historic films and works from this particular time period, be sure not to miss this one!

DVD Review: Paycheck

Rated PG13 for action violence, brief language

Starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart, Paul Giamatti

Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer, who for a large amount of money will analyze a client's competitor's products and come up with new, better designs on the original. After each job, he has his memory erased to protect the clients intellectual property. Usually, a typical job for Michael lasts about 2 months, however he is offered a job from former college friend and now CEO of Allcom James Rethrick to work on a project that could take 3 years, but with a huge paycheck. Michael agrees and takes up residence in Allcom.

3 years comes and goes, Jenning's memory is reset and goes to collect to his paycheck, only to learn that he signed off on it earlier, and instead of his personal possessions he was forced to leave in an envelope when he enter Allcom, he receives an envelope with an assortment of random items. Trying to figure out what is going on, he is aprehended by the FBI, which he manges to escape. Turning to an old friend as well as a biologist he fell in love with during his time at Allcom, he tries to piece together what it was he worked on during his time at Allcom and why people are after him.

Paycheck is an action adventure sci-fi film directed by John Woo. While a bit of a roller coaster ride, Paycheck delivers when it comes to fun entertainment at the movies.

DVD Review: Fanboys

Rated PG13 for language, drug content, sexuality

Starring Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen

On Halloween 1998, Eric reunites with his high school buddies Linus, Hutch, Windows and Zoe, however tension runs deeps, as Eric is the only one of the group who has moved on past high school, while the rest haven't changed one bit, however they still all share a love for Star Wars. After learning that Linus has cancer and is only given 4 months to live, while Star Wars: Episode 1 doesn't come out for another 6 months, the gang decides to drive out to Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough cut of the film, so Linus can see the next Star Wars installment before he dies.

Their trek takes them to various stops on their road trip and rekindles the friendship they once had.

If you're a geek and/or enjoy sci-fi films and Star Wars and Star Trek you'll enjoy this fun geeky adventure. While the focus of the film is Star Wars episode one, we do get to witness a bit of the Star Wars vs Star Trek rivalry among fans. This is one sci-fi comedy that you don't want to miss!

DVD Review: The Spirit

Rated PG13 for comicbook violence and action, sexuality, brief nudity

Starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes

In Central City, the masked Spirit is a vigilante who protects the city. After a tip from the Detective that something big is going on near the docks that could include Spirit's arch-nemesis The Octopus, he rushes to the scene, where he finds the Detective dead and only 1 of 2 chests remaining. He also encounter The Octopus and the 2 duke it out for quite sometime until The Spirit is knocked unconscious, waken up a bit later at the hospital, appearing fully healthy despite being shot. Trying to find who killed the Detective and why, The Spirit finds a golden locket on the Detective's body that he recognizes as belonging to his childhood friend Sand Saref.

The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller, is reminiscent of Miller's previous work in Sin City, having the same stylized action and comicbook feel to it. The plot however, if you're not paying attention, can become a bit confusing as well.

If you enjoy comicbook films and liked Sin City, be sure to check this one out as well, as it's much of the same, but on a PG13 scale, otherwise, you're not missing much if you decided to skip this one.

DVD Review: Adventureland

Rated R for language, drugs, teen drinking, sexuality

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig

It's Summer 1987 and James has just graduated from college and is looking forward to spending his summer in Europe and attending grad school at Columbia in the fall. That is, until his parents announce that due to financial problems, they won't be able to help out with the money for either as was originally planned. In an attempt to at least have some money to put towards grad school, James takes a summer job at the local amusement park, Adventureland, where he is assigned to the games area.

Throughout the summer, James spends his days at Adventureland mingling with the other staff, which include saracastic Joel, popular Lisa P., Sue, childhood friend Frigo, and repair technication Mike who is older than the rest of the kids working the park and despite being married, has a habit of picking a different girl each summer to have an affair with. There is also Em, who saves James from being knifed by a disgruntled customer. The two begin hanging out regularly outside work and James believes he is falling for Em, however she is a complete mess, and is secretly hooking up with Mike throughout the summer.

Despite not being in theaters long, Adventureland was a pretty good film about summer work and romance.

Filmed on location at historic Kennywood just outside Pittsburgh, PA, it really does feel like 1987 with the clothes, cars, music. Having just visited Kennywood weeks before I saw this film, it was really neat to watch the movie and see all the rides and locations in the park that I had just been at.

This one is definitely worth a view in case you missed it!

The Ugly Truth

Rated R for language, sexuality

Starring Gerard Butler, Katherine Heigl

Abby is a Sacramento morning show producer, who's show is failing in the ratings and on the verge of being canceled. In an attempted to render the situation and save the show, the show's owner decides to bring on Mike, a man with a cynical view on love and relationship who runs a cable access show called The Ugly Truth where he shares his cynicism.

Abby is disgusted by Mike and the two get off to a rough start, however when Abby meets the man of her dreams who meets all the qualities on her list of the perfect man, Mike makes her a deal - if she follows his advice and gets the guy, she has to agree to happily work with Mike, however if she follows his advice and doesn't get the guy, he will quit and they will never have to work together again. Desperate to get rid of Mike, Abby agrees to the terms.

What follows for the remainder of the film is predictable, but there are quite a bit of adult humor and laughs along the way!

My husband surprised me by taking me to this one for a date night film, as much as he expressed he didn't want to see it, but he came out of the film admitting that he actually enjoyed it and while even though it was predictable, it was better than he was expecting.

The Ugly Truth may not be as raunchy as most Judd Apatow films of these days, but this one is still not suitable for kids! So if you enjoy fun rom-coms with a dash of raunchy sex humor, be sure to view this one with your spouse after the kids are in bed.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Rated PG13 for dark elements, fantasy violence

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter

Taking place directly after the events of the previous film, Voldemort is back and his loyal followers, The Deatheaters, are wreaking havoc on not only the wizard world, but the muggle world as well. Draco Malfoy has also been recruited to carry out a task for the dark lord, one that Harry tries to figure out through most of the school year.

Back at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron are taking potions class with new returning Professor Slughorn, as Snape is now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry receives a potions textbook that appears to have belonged once to the mysterious Half Blood Prince, in which the pages of the book are covered with annotations, which Harry uses to his benefit. Harry is also kept busy by Dumbledore, who, through the use of a pensive, shows Harry various memories of a young Voldemort, known back then as Tom Riddle, and teaches him about seven Horcuxes that Voldemort has created to safeguard his soul, that they need to find and destroy in order to stop the dark lord for good.

Love is also in the air at Hogwarts, as Harry begins to fall for his friend's sister, and Ron becomes smitten with a fellow student which makes Hermoine insanely jealous.

In comparison to previous Potter films, just like the books, the films are continuing to get darker and darker, with this being the darkest installment yet.

It does make for a good adaption from the book however - sure there were some parts that were left out or slightly changed for time, but overall, it left most fans satisfied and eagerly anticipating 2-part installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - the last book in the series.

In spite of the dark and scary moments in this film, there also are some cute moments amongst our favorite wizard teens, as they continue to grow up and experience romantic love too, but in a way that is still innocent compared to other teenage films with teen romance.

While I wouldn't recommend this one for the younger kids, as some of the scenes might scare them a bit too much, the older kids, especially if they've read the book, will be just fine!

The Hangover

Rated R for language, violence, nudity, sexuality, drugs and alcohol

Starring Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor, Ken Jeong

Doug is getting married this weekend and asks his closest friends and groomsmen Phil and Stu to take him to Vegas for his bachelor party. He also invites his fiance's socially awkward brother Alan for the trip, in hopes of bonding with him. They arrive, book a penthouse suite at Caesar's Palace and get ready for a night they'll never for forget... or one they won't remember!

Waking up the next morning with no recollection of the night before to a trashed suite, the groomsmen trio discover a huge tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Stu is missing a tooth and wearing a wedding band, Phil has on a hospital bracelet, and there is no sign of the groom! Having roughly 36hrs to get the groom to the alter, they go on a wild and hilarious search to backtrack what had happened the night before in hopes that they will learn where the groom has gone.

Probably one of the funniest adult comedies this summer, this is one Hangover that won't be soon forgotten!

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Rated PG13 for action violence, mild language, sexuality

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibbons, John Turturro

Picking up two years after the original film, The Transformers are now working with a top secret government group called NEST, headed up by Major Lennox (Duhamel), in order to track down and disassemble Decepticons throughout Earth. Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Fox) are preparing for Sam's first semester away at college across country.

Little do they know, Sam still has a sliver of the Allspark that when he touched it, filled his mind with Cybortron hieroglyphics and now he can't help but go crazy, writing them everywhere, trying to figure out what they mean. Meanwhile, the Decepticons devise a plan to break into a government building, steal the Allspark, and then ressurect Megatron. Megatron wants the information Sam now has in his head, as it contains information as to the location of The Matrix of Leadership, which is needed to activate a Sun Harvester device on Earth which will take out our sun and turn our planet dark and cold forever. The race to the Matrix of Leadership and to the destroy the Sun Harvester leads us to Egypt and the middle East.

The first time around, this movie was entertaining, however the more you watch, the more you catch simple flaws and holes in the film that a simple editing job of the script could have prevented. This film is pure mindless entertainment, with very little depth to it. Like a typical Michael Bay movie, Transformers 2 focuses heavily on explosions, chase scenes, more explosions and extended action sequences which make you wonder if you really did just spend the last 20 minutes watching characters run through the desert through constant explosions.

Up!

Rated G

Starring Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai

Everyone wonders why Carl Fredrickson is a grouchy old man. Not many know that he lost his wife, who was the love of his life.

Ellie and Carl met when they were just kids. They shared a love for adventure and exploration and both want to growup and explore the world like the famous explorer Charles Muntz. They made a pact to someday move their clubhouse (an abandoned home in their neighborhood) to Paradise Falls, a mysterious place in South America where Muntz is rumored to live. Carl and Ellie get married and they moved into the old abandoned home, making it theirs for good. As the years go by, they try to save for their trip to Paradise Falls, but different financial hardships come to them. On the eve of presenting Ellie with their travel tickets, she gets sick and passes, leaving Carl alone.

Years go by and the city begins to grow up around Carl and the house. After getting into a fight with a nearby construction worker, Carl is required to move into Shady Oaks Retirement Home. But he has other plans for himself and his house. Just as the orderlies are about to take him to the rest home, Carl launches thousands of balloons out his chimney and the house takes off into the air towards Paradise Falls, in an attempt to keep his promise to Ellie. Only Carl didn't plan on the neighbor Wilderness Explorer, Russell, to be hiding out on his front porch when the house took off!

On a course for getting the house to the perfect location in Paradise Falls before all the balloons pop, Carl and Russell encounter a "talking" dog named Dug, a colorful tropical bird Russell names Kevin, and Charles Muntz himself. However Carl learns various life lessons on their short journey and realizes that sometimes the people you idolize may not always be who you think they are.

Disney and Pixar have done it again, with their 10th film together, creating another heartwarming story that both kids and adults can enjoy. Adults will be moved by Carl's undying devotion to Ellie and his promise to her, while kids will love Russell, Dug and Kevin.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Rated PG13 for language, sexuality

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert

This take on the classic Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" focuses on Connor Mead (McConaughey), a playboy magazine photographer.

Connor and his younger brother Paul (Meyer) lost their parents when they were just kids and were raised by their playboy uncle in his lavish mansion. After having been rejected by his best friend Jenny (Garner) at a junior high dance (she has her first kiss with the popular jock, rather than Connor), he takes comfort in Uncle Wayne (Douglas), who goes to show him how to pick up women and teaches him in the ways of becoming a playboy.

On the eve of his brother's wedding, Connor is visited by the ghost of Uncle Wayne, who tells him he will endure visiting his past tonight to learn the error of his ways. Soon after, Connor is visited by the ghost of his first girlfriend, Allison (Emma Stone), who takes him on a journey of all his many many past relationships (some which lasted a whole 30 seconds!). Next he is visited by the ghost of his assistant Melanie (Noureen DeWulf), who shows him his present, which is pretty pathetic. Before the night is over, he is visited by a mysterious ghost of the future, who shows him what a dim lonely future he has ahead of him if he continues on the same path.

It was a cute and had it's funny moments when Connor is conscious and freaking out about seeing ghosts, however it was extremely predictable. Connor does realize that there's more to life than just being a playboy and that sleeping around all time can still leave you feeling lonely when you have no solid relationship with someone. It also points out the importance of family, as Paul defends his brother despite his fiance (Chabert) and her friends objections towards Connor, and after majorly messing everything up, Connor sets out to make things right with Paul.

If you like girly movies, but don't mind them being predictable, settle in for the night with this twist on the classic Dicken's tale.

Star Trek

Rated PG13 for sci-fi action and violence, mild language

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, John Cho, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin

In the year 2387, the galaxy is threatened by an unusually volatile supernova. Ambassador Spock (Nimoy) pilots a ship carrying "red matter", which will create an artificial black hole to consume the supernova. Before not before it destroys the planet Romulus. Captain Nero (Bana) blames Spock for the destruction of his planet and chases him through a black hole's event horizon, putting them both in the past.

Nero's ship arrives first, 154 years earlier, and since his arrival appears in the form of a space lightning storm, the Federation sends out the ship Kelvin to investigate, which ends up getting attacked by Nero. Acting Captain George Kirk orders an evacuation, which includes his wife and unborn son, saving over 800 lives in a matter of minutes while he stays behind on the ship and acts as a cover for the departing shuttlecraft. Spock arrives 25 years later, where he is captured by Nero and marooned on the planet Delta Vega so that he can witness the destruction of Vulcan, as retribution for Spock's failure to save Romulus.

James T. Kirk (Pine), now born without a father, grows up to be an intelligent young man, despite his reckless rebel behavior. After an encounter with some Starfleet Academy students, Captain Pike realizes who Kirk is and encourages him to enlist in Starfleet and do better than his father did, in order to get Kirk to realize his full potential. We also see a younger Spock, mocked by the other kids because of his half human, half Vulcan heritage.

The rest of the film takes place during Kirk's third year at Starfleet, and follows how Kirk became Captain of the USS Enterprise and together with Spock (Quinto) and the rest of the crew, they overcame Nero and the Romulans.

Personally, I've never really been into Star Trek, but I did find myself enjoying this movie. The characters were likeable and had depth to them, and the plot was easy enough to follow for a non-Trekkie with little to no previous knowledge of Star Trek. This was a good film to kick off the summer season.

Crank 2: High Voltage

Rated R for violence, language, sexuality, nudity

Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Efren Ramirez

Jason Statham reprises his role as Chev Chelios in this sequel to 2006's "Crank."

Our story picks up right where the first one ended, with Chev falling out of a helicopter above LA and landing smack on the pavement. Moments later, several Chinese men rush to the scene, scoop Chev's body off the ground and haul him away. When Chev awakes weeks later, he finds himself in a make-shift hospital and learns that his heart has been removed and replaced with an artificial one that operates like a car battery. Upon learning these men intend on harvesting his organs, Chev breaks out and decides to track down Johnny Vhang, the man who issued his heart removal and is now keeping it stored in a padlocked red cooler.

Throughout the film, Chev reconnects with his girlfriend, Eve (Smart) who has become a stripper in Chev's absence, and Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam) who once again tells Chev what he needs to do in order to stay alive and also informs he can put his heart back in him once he gets it. Chev comes in contact with with a crazy, but helpful hooker named Ria, who seems convinced Chev is now her boyfriend because he helped her out. He also meets Kaylo's homosexual twin brother Venus (Ramirez), who appears to suffer from Tourette's Syndrome and seeks revenge on those who killed his brother in the first film.

Singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park makes another memorable cameo in this film, as someone Chev comes into contact with at the horse tracks, after learning that friction can charge his artificial heart (Bennington had a cameo in "Crank" as a drug addict in a pharmacy). David Carradine, in one of his last film appearances before his death, makes a brief cameo as the leader of a group called the Triads. Geri Halliwell has a minor role, playing Chev's mother in flashbacks he has of when he was an unruly child. Other cameos are made by Corey Haim, Ron Jeremy, Maynard James Keenan and Lauren Holly, among others.

"Crank 2" has much of the same outrageousness as the original did, only more of it. Instead of doing anything and everything to keep his adrenaline up, like in "Crank," Chev takes even more drastic measures to keep his artificial heart charged and beating.

If you enjoyed the first film, you'll really like this one!

Fast & Furious

Rated PG13 for violence, mild language, some sexuality, high speed car races

Starring: Vin Disel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster

Picking up 5 years after the original film took place (after 2 Fast 2 Furious, but before Tokyo Drift), Dom and Letty have fled to the Dominican Republic and have assembled a new crew and are now robbing gas tankers, rather than truckers with electronics, much in the same fashion as they did in the first film. Because of this, they are now international criminals. Once word is spread that the feds are after Dom, he picks up and leaves Letty in the middle of the night, thinking it would be safer for her if she were not with him in the event he gets caught.

Dom and Brian's paths cross yet again, when Brian, now an FBI agent, is hot on the case of a drug lord and Dom returns to avenge a close friend's death. Dom, not caring about Brian just doing his job, continues to get in the way of the case, as they both need a spot on a driving team that is linked to the drug lord.

Twists and turns come and go; there's plenty of car chases, races, explosions and scantily clad women much in the same way of the previous installments. We are given a little more insight as to why certain things happened in the first film.

I was a little upset over the death of a main supporting character so quick into the film, but it did serve a purpose to the plot.

If you liked the first film, you'll enjoy watching this sequel to it, as it's got all the "original parts" back in the cast, and shows a brief background to one of the main characters in Tokyo Drift.

I Love You, Man

Rated: R for language, adult humor

Starring: Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Rashida Jones, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin, Jamie Pressley, Andy Samberg

Peter's only known Zooey for 8 months, but is convinced she is The One and proposes to her. She willingly accepts. At a gathering with her girlfriends, Peter overhears them wondering who he's going to ask to be the best man, as he really doesn't have any close male friends and that could make for a lopsided wedding party.

Realizing the sad truth that they're right (he always tends to make friends easier with the women in his life) Peter desperately goes on a hunt to meet a guy who could have potential to be his best friend and best man. After being set up by his gay brother and his mom on various "man dates", as well as trying to hang with Zooey's friend's spouses and failing miserably, Peter has about given up.

Then he meets Sydney who shows up at his open house (Peter is a struggling realtor) to eat the free food Peter has left out for vistors and to meet rich divorcees. They have a brief conversation and trade business cards. A few days later, Peter calls Sydney to meet up and talk business over drinks, only they talk about everything but and end up having dinner together. Realizing they have more in common, such as their love for the band Rush, the 2 start hanging out all the time. Sydney is thrilled to have a friend to hang out with, since all his are married with kids and lives of their own now, and Peter loves how real and honest Sydney is and how he can be himself around him. Only as the wedding draws near, the more time they spend together, the more Sydney's honesty and lifestyle starts to jeopardize Peter's relationship with Zooey.

This was a cute comedy about on par with more recent stuff Rudd and Segal have starred in. Getting in on the "bromance" craze spawned by MTV, it shows just how important it is for a guy to have that 1 great male friendship with another guy.

If you like the humor of Rudd and Segal movies, be sure to check this one out with a good friend! It's worth the laughs!

Watchmen

Rated: R for language, gratuitous violence, nudity, sex

Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson

Based of the highly recommended 1986-87 graphic novel of the same name, Watchmen takes place in an alternate 1985 America. Nixon just won his 5th term, costumed vigilantes have been outlawed and the US is on the brink of nuclear war with Russia.

The film starts out, we see a man, after being beat up in his high-rise penthouse, get thrown out through the glass window. People wonder, was this a random murder? A political killing perhaps, since the man had connections to the government? Rorschach, a man doning a trenchcoat, brimmed hat and a mask with inkblots that move around, believes someone is killing off former superheros. We soon learn that the man thrown through the window was The Comedian - a man who was part of the original 1940's Minutemen, fought in Vietnam and was part of the next generation of Minutemen, known as the Watchmen.

While we follow Rorschach and the rest of the remaining Watchmen (which includes Dr. Manhattan, The 2nd Nite Owl, The 2nd Silk Spectre and Ozymandias) avoid assassination and get to the bottom of what's going on, we have flash backs into each of their lives. We see that The Comedian wasn't exactly a nice funny guy, but rather had a more sadistic sarcastic sense of humor. We see how Dr. Manhattan became the big blue glowy dude that he is now and how his condition has affected all his relationships and in turn the effect it's had on him, we see how 2nd Silk Spectre's mother and relationship have effective her and so on. We also see the affects that the superheros have had on on major historical events throughout the decades.

Watchmen shows how even superhero's struggle with their inner self and have to deal with real issues just like the rest of us. It even begs the question, is it right to sacrific a smaller majority in order to ensure that the rest of the human race will live on?

Although it was almost 3 hours long, it kept my attention the entire time and definitely gave you some interesting points to think over.

It's definitely not one for the kiddies though, as Dr. Manhattan is shown fully nude in multiple scenes, 2nd Silk Spectre gets it on with several of the male characters and not much is left to the imagination, The Comedian attempts to rape another female character, and the violence is shown full force too - take some of the more graphic violent scenes from Zack Snyder's previous films Sin City and 300 and then multiply it several times. People get stabbed and shot with a close camera on them, limbs get hacked off in plain graphic site... there's a reason it's rated R.

He's Just Not That Into You

Rated: PG13 for adult situations, sex

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Justin Long, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper.

Every girl likes to think her date went well and that there was a connection, even if there wasn't. Some tend to blow their interpretation of the date way out of porportion and believe there's something more than there really is. If he's not calling you back after the first date - he's just not that into you!

And so the premise of this movie, based off the best selling self-help book.

Our story follows several couples who's lives all intertwine at some point or another. First we have Gigi who has a fabulous date with Connor, or so she thinks. Connor's not really all that interested in her though - he'd much prefer hot Anna, but she no longer enjoys sleeping with him and would rather move on with her life, putting Connor on the backburner, just in case. Anna meets Ben at a convienent store one night and she's smitten with him as he is with her, only he's married to Janine who's busy renovating their home and already starting to question her trust with Ben. Janine also works with Gigi and Beth. Beth has spent the last 7 years with Neil and when her baby sister gets engaged she starts to wonder if Neil is really serious about their relationship and why he hasn't proposed to her. And then there's Mary, Anna's good friend who has trouble keeping a guy past the first date and complains about how men keep rejecting her through various forms of technology (ie: Myspace, text messaging, voicemail, etc). In the midst of it all, after Connor blows her off, Gigi starts taking advice from bar owner Alex (also Connor's friend), who continuously tells her that if a guy isn't doing A, then he's just not that interested and to move along.

It was interesting to see how all the characters lives intertwined with each other and everyone can relate to at least 1 of the multiple story lines - the girl wondering if she's wasting her time on a guy who won't propose, a woman who finds out her spouse is having an affair, never hearing from someone after the first date, reading too much into a situation, and so on.

Even though it's more of a chick flick, the men in the theater were nodding their heads and sharing the occasional laugh, as there's so much truth to what's being said. A good choice for a girl's night out or a romantic date night.

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Rated: PG

Starring: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Krysten Ritter, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Goodman, John Lithgow, Joan Cusack

Gardening journalist Rebecca Bloomwood has been into fashion and shopping ever since she was a little girl, so when a position opens up at high fashion magazine Allette, she jumps at the chance to interview for it. When she arrives for the interview, she learns the position has already been filled internally, so she reluctantly agrees to interview for Successful Saving, a fiance magazine who shares the same publisher as Allette and is located in the same building, to use as a sort of stepping stone to work up to Allette.

Eventually, despite an amusing misunderstanding on her part, she lands the job for Successul Saving. While writing for the finace magazine, she realizes she can explain fiance and debt, from her own shopping experiences, for the average joe reader to understand it, which makes her column and the magazine a huge success. But little do they realize, she's living a lie, having over $16,000 in credit card debt while she continues to shop.

While hiding from her credit collector and lying to others about him (at one point she tells her coworkers he's an ex boyfriend who keeps stalking her), she also attends Shopaholics Anonymous, which her outings with them are quite amusing.

In the end she learns the hard way that her relationships and friendships with others are what really matters and it's better to be honest than live a lie. Money and material things can only make you happy for so long, but it's the friendships and relationships that last.

Isla Fisher, known mostly to movie-goers for her supporting roles in "Wedding Crashers" and "Definitely, Maybe," shows that she can she hold a movie on her own as the leading lady in this romantic girly comedy.

Girls like to shop and her rationale for spending as much as she does is one that every girl can relate to. It was a cute and amusing movie - definitely one worth seeing for a Girls Night Out.