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.