Black Swan

Rated R for graphic sexuality, some tense violence

Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Nina is an innocent yet very talented and dedicated ballet dancer, part of a New York City ballet troupe. It is announced that lead featured dancer Beth, who is quite older than the rest, will be retiring soon and that a new lead dancer will be picked to replace her as the Swan Queen in ballet conductor Thomas Leroy's new adaption of Swan Lake.

While saddened to see Beth go, Nina is eager at the shot of a lead featured role and auditions for the part. Thomas tells her that if he were only casting for The White Swan, the part would easily be Nina's, but he's looking for a dancer who can perform and embody both The White Swan and her evil, seductive twin The Black Swan, which he doesn't feel the innocent Nina can pull off. After forcing himself on her, Nina bites Thomas' tongue and he feels he's seen a sliver of The Black Swan in her and decides to cast her in the part, but in rehearsals he constantly berates her not being seductive enough or losing herself in the part enough. To add to matters, an equally talented feisty new dancer named Lily has just transferred to the troupe from San Fransisco and Nina fears Lily is out to get her role as Lily seems to be the opposite of innocent Nina - the Black Swan to her White Swan.

As Nina struggles to tap into the Black Swan of the role and the days of opening night approach, Nina begins to hallicunate and lose her sanity. Her overprotective and overbearing mother (whom we learn is a former ballerina who gave up her career when she got pregnant at 28 with Nina and is now living vicariously through her) worries about her so much that it only pushes Nina further into her madness. Soon the Black Swan persona begins to take over Nina - will she be able to fight it or will the dual role of nice vs. naughty get the best of her in the end?

Black Swan is an interesting look into the darkside of ballet and how striving too hard for perfection in a role can drive one mad. As one person put it, it's reminescint of what Heath Ledger might have gone through while getting into and emboding the role of The Joker for The Dark Knight - a role that he strived to perfect so much that it drove him over the edge and killed him in the end. Natalie Portman gives a stunning and believable performance though, as she worked hard physically to get into the role - for her role here, she deserves any award she's nominated for this award season.

While it's a bit of a psychological thriller and drama (we see Nina downward spiral and lose control of her sanity), it's definitely rated R for a reason as there's some pretty graphic sexual scenes in this film that are not appropriate for kids to see. I wouldn't say it's my favorite film of 2010, but it's definitely worth seeing!

Inception

Rated PG13 for violence

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy

In our minds we can lock away anything - secrets, codes, plans, information and more. But what if it were possible for someone to break into your mind and steal all that? In Inception, Dom Cobb and his pointman Arthur have a top notch team that makes it possible for Cobb to go into people's dreams (which is when your mind is pretty unguarded) and do just that - steal information, secrets, codes and anything else someone could want, for a price.

At first, Cobb and Arthur try to extract information from a top businessman named Saito, but as the dream crumbles due to a massive mob riot happening in the real world, they wake up and take a more forceful approach with Saito... however, due to a glitch on the Architect's part, Saito realizes they're still in a dream world - a dream within a dream. With him about to wake up (for real) they use a "kick" to wake themselves up early and scram as they were unable to retrieve the information from Saito's mind - we see that all along they were sitting on a train, asleep in the same cabin.

About to go their separate ways, Cobb and Arthur are taken by Saito and his men and informed that he was testing them. He then presents them with a new job, different from any they've done - instead of extracting information from someone's dream, why not implant an idea in the person's dream? Inception.

Saito wants them to enter the mind of his dying business rival's heir and implant the idea that he should disassemble his father's empire, citing that if he doesn't do so, it will create a monopoly in their business and that it's important the heir do this for the good of the world. Arthur claims it can't be done, however Cobb states he's done it before. Having been framed for his wife's death, Cobb can no longer return to his home and children in the US without being arrested the moment he sets foot on ground - Saito knows of this and tells Cobb that if he does this job, with one phonecall he can give him his life back and he'll get to go home and see his children, all charges dropped.

While Arthur is hesitant, Cobb is tempted and the 2 set out to assemble a team in France, including a new architect - a young grad student who is studying under Cobb's father-in-law and mentor. Cobb trains her quickly in the ways of the dream world, explaining to her how if you manipulate the laws of physics too much, bad things will happen (she gets a little too excited experimenting in the dream world). She also grows close to Cobb, having shared dreams with him now, and soon learns that instead of holding dear to the memories he has of his deceased wife Mal, he instead is haunted by her Shade in the dream world and it only begins to get worse. For this reason, he cannot design the dream worlds anymore, as when he does know them, she tends to pop up and mess things up for the team.

With arrangements made and things ready to go, the team sets into The Mark's dream world (in which they try something new - a dream within a dream within a dream and eventually even into a 4th level!). Things seem smooth at first, however they quickly learn that The Mark has been taught how to guard his mind against extraction in the dream world and his mind's guards are quickly in pursuit of the team, trying to stop them at all costs!

With only 10 hours in the real world to get the job done and The Mark's mind guards causing more problems for them than they anticipated, will the team be able to implant the idea and make it stick? Will they all make it out of the dream world alive? (in most cased, if you die in the dream world, you just wake up, however if you get killed by one of the guard's, then you get stuck in limbo where you can get stuck for years and years, never realizing it's still just a dream world) Will Cobb be able to fight off the Shade of Mal or will she once again interfere?

Inception was a very interesting movie.

Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) had the idea of this movie and wrote out an 80 page script nearly 10 years ago for it, but wanted to wait until he had more experience with big budget movies and it really shows! While the new Batman films are dark, Inception is more along the lines of his earlier hit film, Memento, as it's important to actually watch the movie and pay attention to what is happening. Like Memento, it's pretty easy to follow, but if you weren't paying attention, you'll miss things (not to mention, why are you spending money on a movie that you're not actually watching?). Like Memento, he also leaves the film open ended and hanging for you the viewer to decide and debate what's really real (I don't want to give it away).

It's one of those films where visually it's really neat, as several scenes in the dream world seem to defy the laws of physics and gravity, it's also very thought-provoking and makes you think the entire movie about what is happening. He also explains the dream world pretty well - in one scene, when at least 1 person is awake in a different dream level, we see that seconds in the first level translates into about 3 minutes in the second level, and about 20 minutes in the third level; what feels like an hour in the dream world is really about 5 minutes in the real world.

Leonardo DiCaprio has really come into his own this past decade from being the cute Romeo all the girls gushed over in the mid-90s to a pretty good serious drama/suspense actor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has really grown up from the goofy awkward kid he played on 3rd Rock for the Sun - he too has really become a good, solid serious actor in the past few years.

If you like movies that make you think with a bit of a sci-fi/action take to it, don't miss Inception! It really is a great movie and despite being nearly 2 and a half hours long, it definitely doesn't feel like it, as the last 2/3rds of the film really draw you into it.

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: The Strangers

Rated R for graphic violence, scary tense scenes, a scene of torture

Starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman

Young couple Kristin and James return to James' parents vacation home in a secluded area (while there are houses nearby, it's clear they're out near the country or woods) after what appears to have been a wedding. Candles are lit, flower petals have been laid out. But something is wrong. Kristin is acting distant and confused, James seems upset. We learn in flashbacks that he had proposed to her earlier in the evening, but she said no. James leaves a message for his brother to come pick him up first thing in the morning, telling Kristin she can stay for as long as she needs. When he leaves to go pick up some cigarettes, strange things begin happening. First, someone keeps pounding at the front door, someone is messing with their phones, James' car gets vandalized, etc. Pretty soon we learn that they are being terrorized by a trio of masked crazies wielding big knives.

Will they make it til morning?

The Strangers is a film with very tense moments, a lot of build up, and very little action or violence until the end. While watching it first, it wasn't as scary as all the hype made it out to be, however the aftermath will make you paranoid, causing you to over analyze noises when you're home alone or trying to sleep late at night.

Unless you really like tense horror thrillers and movies that make you paranoid, skip this one.

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.

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!

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: 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: 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.

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!

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.

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!

Cloverfield

Rated PG13 for violence, language

What would happen if a giant monster started destroying Manhattan out of nowhere?

Well in JJ Abrams' Cloverfield it pretty much gives you an account of what it could be like.

Think Blair Witch meets Godzilla.

We're introduced at the very beginning, a la home video style, to Beth and Rob. Then fast forward the tape to a month later and we learn that Rob is leaving for job in Japan and his brother Jason and Jason's girlfriend Lily are planning a huge surprise going away party for him. Lily tells Jason his job is to spend the night documenting the party and capturing people's goodbyes to Rob on video, sort of like they do at weddings. Jason doesn't want though and suckers Rob's best friend Hud into doing the job all night.

Drama ensues at the party and then all hell breaks lose after midnight. Scrambling to find out what's going on and escape the city together, Hud captures the entire night of chaos on film.

While it's an interesting way to film a godzilla-type movie, it does feel very realistic. The dialogue reminds me of some of my friends and how we would react in that type of situation, as well as it just makes you feel like you're there as it's happening with the first person point of view. Only thing nice is that you're not running out of breath or running for your life.

If you don't like 'shakey cam' or get motion sickness easily I'd suggest skipping this one - first time I saw it i was fine, but then the 2nd time I ate a bunch of nachos at the beginning and started to feel them a bit later on...

The House of Yes

It's based off a short play and stars Parker Posey, Freddie Prinze Jr, and Tori Spelling. It's thanksgiving in the early 80s and Jackie-O and her family havent had guests in years. Older brother Marty comes home to celebrate the holiday and brings his new fiance with him, causing crazy sister Jackie-O (as shes referred to) to go a bit more psychotic that usual. The plot deals with incest and the effects it can have on a family as a whole. All the characters are pretty deep, having their own hidden agendas and skeletons in the closet. Excellent acting by Parker Posey though. Given the subject matter, it was a pretty interesting film.

Michael Clayton

Very good if you like character developement, plot and dialogue. George Clooney stars as the title character who is basically this law firm's fixer upper guy when it comes to legal troubles (or janitor as he refers to himself). When working on a case, the firms represenative on it comes across some incriminating evidence against the company and illegal chemicals used in their product and so he secretly starts building a case against them to blow the whole thing into the open. He comes off looking a bit crazy though and goes a bit too far... Clayton picks up on it and realizes what his collegue was doing, and attempts to finish what he started.

I Know Who Killed Me

Really, I do - it was the director who filmed this piece of wannabe artsy crap and the team that came up with the idea. They killed 2 hrs of my life and I want it back.

The twist that's been hyped on tv and online is really easy to figure out, altho the trailer may make you think otherwise. At one point, Parent Trap jokes were being made among us.

The 'killer' and the point of him is retarded. Altho Lohan had no problem playing a crackhead stripper. The 'torture' scenes were mainly just bloodiness.

It tried to be artsy with the colors blue and red, but it was just waaaaaaay too over the top.

It ran on for waaaay too long too - we were yelling at the screen for it to just end.

Yeah, it was that bad.

Skip this one and go see something much more worth your time and money.

Casino Royale

Ive never been real big into james bond movies, but I *really* liked this one! it's not your typical bond movie - it's more like a prequel to the james bond series, although set in modern time - his only gadet really is his cell phone. he's pretty ruthless too. it was really good - if you like james bond movies you wont be disappointed and if ya like good action movies with a plot you'll like it too, even if you're like me and arent really a bond fan.

V for Vendetta

It was very very good yet very political.

V (Hugo Weaving) is a terrorist in future england who runs around in black cape and robert fausk mask. On Nov the 5th he rescues Evey (Natalie Portman) right before he demolishes a well known british monument and the next day takes over the BNT (british network television) and declares for everyone to join him outside parliment on the next Nov 5th, to see parliment fall. The next year follows his relationship with Evey as well as the governments attempts to capture them and a detective trying to figure out who V is and why he is doing this.

There's a lot of Big Brother, WWII, and Count of Monte Cristo references and parallels as well. A lot of it foreshadows the possible results of the war on terror going on know as well.

It was also directed by the Wachowski Brothers, who did the Matrix Trilogy. If you like action, drama, or things getting blown up it's definately worth seeing.