Martian Child

Rated PG13

Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Angelica Houston

John Cusack stars as David, a science fiction author with a best-selling book which is currently being made into a big production movie, and has been recently widowed. With encouragement from a friend who runs a childrens home, he is introduced to Dennis, a youngster who's been abandoned and abused and is convinced he is from Mars, sent to Earth on a mission to learn about our ways of life. He plays in a cardboard box, only eats Lucky Charms, takes polariod upon polariod of various things as well as takes anything he finds for 'research'. Trying to understand him, the question of 'is it good to fit in and be something your not or should you just be yourself' is one that is asked throughout the entire film.

Based on a true story, apparently the real Dennis was much more stranger and even more abused. Knowing that, it really makes ya feel for the kid, seeing how he's built this whole 'being from Mars' thing as way to escape the pain and suffering he's been through.

The movie itself was cute to watch, as is any good John Cusack film, seeing him interacte with the boy. We really feel a connection with the characters and they seem real to us.

American Gangster

Rated R for language, violence, nudity, sexuality, drug use

Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe
In the late 1970s, Frank Lucas (Washington) became the top dog in New York, being able to get better seats at events than even the Mob Bosses could. He views loyalty, respect, honesty and remembering where you came from to be of utmost importance and loves his momma enough to make sure she's secured financially even buying her a huge house, however he makes all his money from selling "Blue Magic." Cutting out the middle man, Frank gets his stuff directly from overseas, making his product the most pure available, meaning it's the best, and he sells it at half the price the others do - it's a better product at a better price. The problem, "Blue Magic" is heroin.

Seeing Frank at a boxing match, with better seats than the Dons, good cop Richie (Crowe), who is known for being too honest in admist of crooked cops (his partner and he find $1 million in a car and turn it in rather than keep it) gets suspicious and starts digging deeper, learning more and more about the Lucas family business. Despite warnings from crooked cops, Richie and his Narcatics force go after the Lucas's and in the process, result in fixing one of the biggest New York corrupt cop problems.

Frank is portrayed as an honest black man, just trying to live the American Dream. Richie is portrayed as one of the few good cops left, trying to do his job (he tells one crooked cop that "where I come from, cops arrest the bad guys") despite his own personal problems. Both are deep characters.

Odds are, you'll see this one nominated come Oscartime.

Beowulf in Digital 3D

Rated PG13 for violence, nudity

Starring Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malcovich, and Alison Lohman

The movie in general was pretty neat - the 3D animated renderings of the live actors was a really cool idea (supposidly, I'm told, the entire movie was shot using the actors and blue screens, and then they went back and computer animated everything). I recall there was one scene where you could literally see the strands of Robin Wright Penn's hair in the detail that you would a real person.

I never read the classic story of Beowulf in high school - while it's usually taught in Brit Lit, I opted to take English 101 and 102 that year for college credit. If you're not familar with the story, a Danish kingdom has a curse, in the form of Grendal - a hideous monster that comes out of hiding every so often to terrorize the residents of the kingdom, killing and destroying anything and anyone that approaches him, minus the king (Anthony Hopkins). So far, no one has been able to slay the Grendal and so the king declares throughout the lands that whoever can kill the monster will be entitled to half the king's fortune. In steps Beowulf (Ray Winstone) and his crew, who easily rid the kingdom of the monster, only to upset the creature's mother (Angelina Jolie). Beowulf soon learns of the secret the king and queen posess, as well as the curse of Grendal's mother, which both, in time, become his own.

Neil Gaiman, known most recently for his novel "Stardust" also wrote this screenplay, giving him the current lead on fantasy tales in Hollywood. Although it is animated, this is definately not a movie for kids, as it's full of sexual innuendo and lots of blood, guts, and violence. I'm actually surprised it's PG13, considering Angelina Jolie is pretty much fully nude in at least one scene (metallic 'paint' covers certain areas, but it leaves nothing to the imagination).

Across the Universe

What better way to depict the Vietnam War era than with tunes by the Beatles?

In this musical, Jude, a lad from Liverpool, jumps ship to America to meet the father he never knew, but that leads to a journey of events and friendships he never expected.

We see how the 60s affects the lives of Max, an ivy league dropout who unwillingly gets drafted into the war, and his younger sister Lucy, as well as their later roommates Sadie, a Janis Joplin-type singer, Jo-Jo, who's sorta like Jimi Hendrix, and Prudence, a little Asian lesbian just looking for someone to hold her hand.

On their adventures thru the 60s we come across Eddie Izzard in an amusing number where he's a sort of psychodelic circus ring leader, U2's Bono as author Dr. Robert (think Hunter S Thompson), and Salma Hayack as an army nurse.

It was amusing - some of it was genius, some of it was trippy, and it was fun too.

Not exactly one for the whole family, as there is some violence and nudity, but definately for those that like the Beatles or the period it's set in and can appreciate it.

Dan in Real Life

Steve Carell stars as Dan, who is a widowed father of 3 girls, ages 17, 15, and 10 and writes a weekly column in the newspaper in the fashion of Dear Ann, giving parenting and life advice to those that ask. His 17 year old daughter wants to drive, claiming that her instructor says shes really good, and his 15 year old just wants to spend every waking moment with her boyfriend, whom she's passionately in love with after only dating for 3 days.

On a trip to visit family and relatives for a sort of fall break in Rhode Island, he meets a woman at the bookstore that he instantly clicks with, only to learn later in the day that shes his little brother's (Dane Cook) newest girlfriend.

Given the cast, one might assume that this is a comedy, but not so much.

It has subtle humorous moments and the characters get put in some ackward moments that the viewer will find amusing. But it's more a heartfelt movie of a widower picking up the pieces of his life and moving on, focusing on what's important in life and finding happiness with those around him.

Saw IV

Like the tagline "It's a Trap" for this one states, it certainly is a trap... to keep on raking in the money and making more. If I had a dollar, no make that a dime, for everytime in the past 2 months I have heard some variation of the phrase "OMG they made a Saw 4?!" I'd be rich. Brace yourself folks, OMG there will be a Saw 5... and 6... and at least a 7, according to rumors that they wrote at least thru number 7 after they finished 2.

But onto the review! part IV leaves off right where 3 did... sorta...

without giving too much away, this one we see multiple interrogations of Jigsaw's ex-wife and learn a little bit about what drove him to his insanity of becoming the derranged 'killer' that he was as well as his first 'trap' and 'victim'. The last 5-10 minutes were just 1 twist after the other, linking together this trap with all previous ones in the first 3 installments. The whole time we're trying to figure out who the latest accomplice is in the Jigsaw murders, since we know it's not Jigsaw himself or Amanda, based off what happened in part 3. It also shows us the test of the SWAT team cop who's been in all of them up to this point (in minor roles so you probably never noticed him) who wants to save everyone but needs to learn that sometimes, you just need to let people save themselves.

Donnie Whalberg (Marky Mark's lil bro, or 'the bad boy' from NKOTB) is back reprising his previous role of Det. Eric Matthews, and he was actually pretty amusing.

If you've seen the previous 3 and don't mind them, then feel free to continue on in this series, if you haven't seen any or are tired of them dragging out the plot just to make money off ya, don't bother, you really don't miss much. The 'gore factor' is about on par with the previous installment - there's the medical gross factor they implimented in part 3, as well as the usual odd 'methods' of teaching the victims a lesson.

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.

30 Days of Night

It was pretty good for a vampire movie, with an interesting premise - in Alaska, some of the towns have complete darkness for 30 full days, what would happen if vampires showed up for a non-stop feast on those remaining? The vampires were pretty cool looking - all Nosferatu-esque. There was one scene where we just couldn't stop laughing (if ya see it, think of the convenient store part with the little girl). I only counted jumping a total of 3 times, so while it was good, it wasn't *too* creepy. Ben Foster (from 3:10 to Yuma) is probably my current favorite creepy bad guy - he plays it oh so well! It's also based on a graphic novel and I guess it stuck pretty much to it, only changing one part slightly but producing the same results. We're predicting this one to be better than Saw IV for Halloween this year.

The Game Plan

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stars as Boston Rebels quarterback Joe "The King" Kingman. He lives the life of a celebrity, having a huge bachelor pad covered in memorbilia of not only himself, but Elvis as well. Despite what the father on the team tells him, he thinks he has "the life." Then, after a huge new years party, the next morning a little girl named Peyton shows up on his doorstep, claiming to be his daughter from his short-lived marriage and will be staying with him for a month while her mom is in Africa. Over the course of the next few weeks, Joe goes from being a bad dad, leaving his daughter unattended at a nightclub opening, to being a concerned parent, looking after her and actually taking part in her life and the things she enjoys. Then comes the twist, where all is not as we think it is.

The little girl that plays Petyon is adorable and steals the show, holding her own against the other football players, Joe's agent Stella (Kira Sedgwick for tv's "The Closer") among others, while The Rock shows just how charismatic he can be.

For a Disney family film, it was pretty cute and clever. I'd recommend it for a family night.