When in Rome

Rated PG13 for brief language, slapstick violence

Starring Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Will Arnett, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston

Beth (Bell) is a successful art curator at the Guggenheim museum and a bit of a workaholic. "When I meet someone I love as much as my job, that's when I'll get married" she says at one point, although she does become a bit frustrated at her sister's impulsive wedding in Rome when, heeding her father's advice on love, she takes a chance on Nick, the Best Man (Duhamel), only to feel devastated when she sees him kissing another woman. Drunk and feeling down on her luck, Beth climbs into the "fountain of love" and takes several of the coins that were thrown in, not aware of the local legend that if you take a coin from the fountain, you will become the object of the coin owner's affection.

Holding true to legend, once Beth is back in New York, she begins being stalked by several suitors - one is a creepy aspiring artist who paints her likeness all over the city (Arnett), another being a wacky Criss Angel type magician (Heder), one who is prestigious sausage king (De Vito), and another who is a self absorbed male model (Bell's real life fiance Shepard). Adding to her troubles, is that Nick appears to be smitten with her as well. After a few dates and noticing that some chips in his poker set match a poker chip she took from the fountain, Beth is unsure if Nick's affects are for real or if it's all because she took his coin.

For being a PG13 RomCom/chick flick, this one was actually pretty clean compared to most and has been praised for such. Myself, not being one for chick flicks that are over the top mushy, I actually enjoyed it - the humor was pretty good and the acting was enjoyable. I especially liked the brief cameo of Efren Ramirez as Heder's character's sidekick.

This is a perfect film for when you're in the mood for a cute film to enjoy with the girls!

DVD Review: Coraline

Rated PG for some scary scenes

Starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher

Coraline Jones has just moved to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon from her home in Michigan. It's always rainy, making it so she can't play outside as much as she'd like (her mother detests mud), she misses her friends from back home, and her parents are both too absorbed with their work to pay her any attention (they are working from home on a garden catalog). Out of boredom, she befriends her neighbors - the man upstairs is an acrobat whom her mother deems is drunk, and the two elderly sisters downstairs who are former actresses who can read tea leaves (they tell Coraline that danger is headed her way). Out of loneliness, she also befriends the landlady's grandson, Wybie who gives her a strange doll he found that eerily looks like Coraline, but she gets frustrated that he talks too much.

One day, while exploring the house, she comes across a strange door that is sealed up. After tearing away the wallpaper and unlocking it, she learns that there is nothing but a brick wall underneath, until later that night when she follows a small mouse to the door and finds that it is a doorway to another "other" world. In this world, despite everyone having buttons for eyes, her "other" mother dotes on her and makes delicious meals, her father pays attention to her and her neighbors put on fascinating performances. And other Wybie doesn't talk at all! Coraline continues to visit this "other" world nightly, but soon, what seemed like a dream come true begins to turn into a nightmare!

Brought to us by the director of Nightmare Before Christmas (no, not Tim Burton - the other guy) and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman we are given a fantasy story that soon becomes a bit of a horror. While it starts off a little slow, by the time Coraline visits the "other" world we're on the edge of our seats to see what happens and how she gets herself out of this strange predicament!

To be honest, I had no interest in seeing this movie until I learned it was based on a novel by Gaiman, and now I'm glad I did! Being an adult, and a fan of Gaiman's other full feature film Stardust, I hope to someday read the novel, as I hear it's even scarier than the film. Despite this being animated (it's the first stop-motion film filmed exclusively with 3D in mind), I would not recommend it for young children, as the film is pretty dark and the idea behind the story will definitely scare them!

DVD Review: Run Fatboy Run

Rated PG13 for brief language, slapstick violence, some crude humor

Starring Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria

The film starts out with an overly nervous Dennis fleeing from his pregnant bride Libby moments before their wedding. Five years later, Dennis and Libby share custody of their son and Dennis, who works as a guard at a lingerie boutique and lives in a small studio apartment hasn't aspired to become much of anything, never having finished a thing he started, yet deep down he still loves Libby and wishes they could be a family together. One day, while picking up his son Jake, Dennis meets Libby's new beau, a go-getter American named Whit, whom we learn intends to marry Libby and whisk her and Jake off to Chicago. Hoping to win Libby back and prove that he can finish something, Dennis, upon hearing that Whit is running in the London Nike River Marathon, decides to sign up for the race as well, which is less than a month away and he is extremely out of shape. With the help of his friend Gordon and his landlord, he does his best to get in shape and sets out to prove not only to himself, Libby and their son, but to everyone that he can finish something.

Like most movies Simon Pegg is in, this one is filled with British humor, however the overall feel of the film is inspiring. You're rooting for Dennis to get in shape, change his lifestyle and beat Whit (whom learn is quite the jerk). You want him and Libby to get back together and his interaction with his son is quite admirable, as it's clear that while he might not be the best father figure to a young child, he still deeply cares for his son and enjoys the times they spend together.

This film was also the directorial debut of Friend's co-star David Schwimmer - while it might not be Oscar worthy, it was still fun and moving. If you like heartfelt comedies and the humor of Simon Pegg, be sure to run and catch this one!

Daybreakers

Rated R for violence, language, brief nudity

Starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill

In the year 2019, most of the world's population has been turned into vampires due to a pandemic disease. Fortunately though, they have been able to carry out their day to day lives due to working the 9pm-5am shifts and using blackout glass for houses and cars. While pharmaceutical company Bromley Marks harvests the humans that are found for their blood, due to the growing number of vampires though, they are beginning to run short on blood supply, creating a lesser sub-specie - the aggressive bat-like sub-siders. Several Bromley Marks scientists are hematologists and have been trying to create a suitable blood substitute, one of whom is Edward Dalton. Dalton, we learn, was unwillingly turned and would much rather try and find a cure, as he much preferred his human life and has a compassion for humans (he won't drink human blood). After a chance encounter with a small group of humans, he learns one of them used to a vampire but was cured. He disappears with them, in order to replicate the cure and bring it to Bromley Marks, however not everyone is as excited for a cure as he is.

Daybreakers has an interesting plot and while it has a message, it's not quite as "in your face" as Avatar's was. The concept is simple - over indulgence can lead to a downfall in society. And while there might be a solution to revert back to how things were before, those that profit now while the rest suffer might not be in favor of giving up their current lifestyle for the better of mankind. It was also an interesting take on the vampire lore - something popular today blended with a situation we can certainly identify with! (Think of our current economic state and housing crisis and how some big businesses are doing okay, while the rest of us are not).

My only complaint was that I thought the last 10 minutes or so of the film were dumb. They spend a good portion of the film developing the cure and coming up with a clever way to get into Bromley Marks unharmed and spread it, and in a matter of minutes we're back to where we were 20-30 minutes ago in the film. The rest of the film, I thought, was pretty good though - Sam Neill (remember him from Jurassic Park?) makes a good villain, and both Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe did some really good acting!

If you like vampire films, this might be one you'd like to check out. But be careful, as it may make you think!