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.