DVD Review: Shoot Em Up

Rated R for violence, language, some sexuality

Starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci

Sitting at a bus stop on an empty street, munching on a carrot, a drifter only known as Smith sees a pregnant woman run past him. Moments later, a man with a gun comes chasing after her. Smith decides to get involved and takes out the guy, only to learn there's more - why are hitmen chasing a pregnant lady? While fighting off her attackers, Smith helps the woman deliver her child, as she goes into labor. Trying to get mother and child to safety though, the woman gets shot and killed. Unable to leave the newborn behind, Smith takes the child with him and visits a brothel mistress named Donna, known for her milk, in hopes that she can help him take care of the kid while he tries to figure out why people were trying to kill the mother and now the baby (which they call Oliver).

They are soon in the middle of a top secret arrangement, as Oliver's mother was one of several surrogates used to produce children with a politician dying of bone marrow cancer, in hopes that one of the children will be able to work as a suitable donor. Someone has found out about this though and doesn't want the politician to get better.

With tons of stylized shootout scenes that take place in non-ideal situations with sharp witty comments provided by Giamatti, Smith and Donna try to stay ahead of the bad of guys and keep baby Oliver safe.

Shoot Em Up lives up to its name, as it basically is just a movie with a lot of action and shootout scenes to a pounding, rockin' soundtrack. If you like that combination, you'll love this movie!

DVD Review: Jennifer's Body

Rated R for sexuality, partial nudity, violence and gore

Starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Johnny Simmons

Anita (aka Needy) is your average high school girl. She wears glasses and works on the newspaper staff. She also dates a cute band geek named Chip. Jennifer on the other hand, is the typical hot cheerleader who has no concern for anyone but herself and is quite the tease. What do Jennifer and Needy have in common? Not much these days, but they've been friends since the sandbox days and despite being on different ends of the social circle they still remain best friends. That is, until Needy starts to think Jennifer is evil. "And not just high school evil." Needy clarifies.

Their demise all started one night when Jennifer insisted that Needy join her to see a hot Myspace promoted band perform at a local "niteclub." However the venue catches fire and Jennifer, mesmerized by the band, barely manages to escape with Needy. They run into the band's singer, who insists they join him in his band's van for safety. Needy protests, however the singer takes Jennifer by the arm and leads her way. Later that night, Jennifer shows up at Needy's home, covered in blood, growling and vomitting something "evil" all over Needy's kitchen floor before disappearing into the night. The next day at school however, Jennifer seems completely normal. But then, as the town is mourning the lives lost at the niteclub, the school's star athlete is found dead and dismembered in the nearby woods.

A few weeks later, Needy also has another strange encounter with Jennifer, as she's driving home and almost hits Jennifer, covered again in blood and not looking "human". Frightened, she high tails it home, but is startled by Jennifer in her room. The two share a brief sexual encounter before Jennifer tells Needy what she recalls of the night of the fire. Soon after she got in the van with the band, she noticed various books on witches and the occult laying around the floor ("They were like agents of Satan, but with awesome haircuts!") and the members begin asking if she is a virgin. Scared, she tells them yes ("I don't even know how to have sex!") and that they should let her go and find some girls that do know how to have sex. Soon they arrive at their destination and tie her up, preparing to sacrifice her to Satan for fame via a ritual they found online. She remembers them stabbing her repeatedly, but after that, all she knew was she was hungry, explaining that when she's not full, she feels weak. Scared, Needy tells her to leave.

At school, Needy does some research and learns about demonic transference and that if a virginal sacrifice ritual is performed on a non-virgin, then the demon gets stuck in the victim's body and has a hunger for the flesh. The only way to kill the demon is with a knife. Scared for Chip, she tells him it's not safe for them to go to the upcoming Spring formal - "It'll be a like an all-you-can-eat boy buffet!" she tells him.

Will Needy be able to put a stop to her man-eating best friend before it's too late?

To be completely honest, this movie is more Amanda Seyfried's than Megan Fox's as, despite being hot eye-candy, Fox can't carry a movie on her own. This is one of those types of movies that was intended to be a humorous B-movie (I hope) as you really can't take it too seriously. It would most likely be one of those movies that MST3K would be making fun of or our grandkids will be looking up clips of it on Youtube and laughing at how bad it is, as that's how dumb it was.

Now don't get me wrong, Diablo Cody (who also wrote Juno) has a way with words, as the dialogue in this film is pretty clever, witty and funny (after getting impaled by a giant metal rod, leaving a hole in her stomach, Jennifer asks Needy if she has a tampon she can use!) and Jennifer tends to tell it like it is in crash terms. But that doesn't make up for the ridiculiousness of the plot and the fact that Megan Fox can't act her way out of a paper bag. This film is solely Megan Fox eye-candy with witty dialogue and a stupid plot.

Do yourself a favor and unless you have someone to sit and watch a B-movie and make fun of it with, skip it. You're not really missing much.

DVD Review: 17 Again

Rated PG13 for brief language, some innuendo, teenage sexuality

Starring Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann, Michelle Trachtenberg, Thomas Lennon

What if you could have a do-over? Would you?

And so is the question this movie poses.

In a similar tale to those of the movie Big and 13 Going on 30 where the main characters wish they were older, in this one, the main character wishes he could go back and redo the end of his senior year.

In 1989, Mike is the star basketball player and a talent scout is at the big game just to watch him. Do well and he has a college basketball scholarship. But then his girlfriend Scarlet makes an appearance during halftime. He can tell she's upset, so he goes to talk to her and learns she is pregnant with his child. At first he goes back out on the court, but then, after seeing her leave, he chases after her and proposes, telling her that they're in this together.

Fast forward 2 decades later, and Mike, having had another kid with Scarlet, has constantly regretted giving up his opportunity for her and they are on the brink of divorce, as she feels like he never could get past the past and build a future together.

After a strange encounter with the high school's janitor, Mike wakes up the next morning and he's 17 again. Realizing that maybe this is his 2nd chance to get that scholarship and make something of his life, he enrolls in the high school again, with the help of his lifelong friend geeky Ned (who is now a multi-millionaire, despite getting picked on in high school), whom he poses as his long lost son. ("Uncle Ned never mentioned having a kid..." Mike's teenage son points out to his 17 year old father. "Yeah, my mom didn't want anyone to know she had a kid with Ned - can you blame her?" he responses. He son accepts that, agreeing with him at the logic.)

After his first day though, Mike realizes that it's not his 2nd chance at a scholarship, but his 2nd chance with his kids, as his purpose for being 17 again must be to help them. His teenage son Alex is the school punching bag, despite having his father's natural talent for basketball and his teenage daughter is dating Alex's main tormentor, and despite having gotten accepted to Georgetown, she is planning on going to school nearby and moving in with her jerk boyfriend soon after graduation. By hanging out with Alex and getting on the basketball team with him, he is able to give him his moment to shine as the basketball and catch the eye of a cute, sweet cheerleader he's been crushing on but is too afraid to talk to.  He is also able to teach Maggie that not all guys are horny jerks and that her and her friends should have more respect for themselves. And he also gets to reconnect with his wife (who can't get over the fact how much Uncle Ned's kid looks like her husband at that age), really learning about her interests and helping out when he can (she enjoys landscape art, something he thought was dumb before).

This was a cute twist on the classic "what if..." story, despite the awkward scenes with his daughter coming onto his teenage self (think Back to the Future) and his longing for his wife despite appearing as a minor. It also has some funny "geeky" moments in a subplot that involves geeky Ned (who's home is decked out in various sci-fi, movie and gaming memorabilia) trying to date the school's principal (the eventually realize they have a common love for Halo and Lord of the Rings and can both speak Elvish).

It also really stresses the values of marriage and family, and being involved in your family and their lives. Mike was too busy wallowing about his missed opportunity for nearly 20 years that he missed all the other opportunities he could have had with his family. He had minimal involvement in his kids' lives and always made his wife feel bad for asking her to marry him.

While not necessarily for younger kids, this is definitely one to watch together with a spouse and the older kids.

Alice in Wonderland

Rated PG for some scary moments, fantasy violence

Starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen and Stephen Fry

In this Alice story, Alice is now 19 years old and her father has recently passed. For the past 10 years, she has been having the same "nightmare" where she visits a strange place. She thinks she is going crazy, however her father always told her that "the best people tend to be a little bit!" Her mother accompanies her to a formal outdoor party, which Alice soon learns is to be her engagement party to a boy named Hamish, who's father was partners with her father and now is the sole owner of their trading firm. When Hamish pops the big question in front of all the guests, Alice panics and is distracted by a strange white rabbit she had noticed several times throughout the gathering. She excuses herself and chases after the rabbit and ends up at a rabbit hole and falls in.

Arriving in a strange room, she must figure out the puzzle of how to squeeze through a tiny locked door. Once on the other side, she is greeted by The White Rabbit, a dormouse, a dodo bird, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Despite them acting like they know her, she don't recall ever meeting any of them. Confused as to whether The White Rabbit brought them the "right" Alice, they take her to Absolem the Caterpillar to let him decide. See, in this version of Wonderland (or Underland as they say it's called), the evil Red Queen has overthrown her younger sister, the White Queen and has been ruling with an iron fist, offing people's heads for reason or another. And well, Frabjous Day is coming soon and it is told that a hero named Alice will slay the Red Queen's wicked beast - the Jabberwocky, and free everyone from her rule.

"I'm not that Alice! And even if I were, I can't kill anything and I won't!" Alice cries. She also seems convinced that this just her having another one of her nightmares, as the people and place are exactly the same.

Believing that Alice is back, the Queen sends her right hand man - The Knave of Hearts - with the Bandersnatch, Jubjub Bird and solider-like playing cards to retrieve her and stop her. While they capture most of Alice's group, the Cheshire Cat shows up and helps her escape, taking her to the Mad Hatter and March Hare and rejoining her with the dormouse. The Mad Hatter is able to explain to her what went wrong, trying to get her to remember her previous time in Underland ("You were so young back then... you even kept calling this place Wonderland!"). But soon enough, it seems that everyone who comes in contact with Alice gets capture by the Red Queen's lackeys. Before being captured, the Mad Hatter gives her directions to get to the White Queen who can assist her in preparing to fight the Jabberwocky. But Alice would rather rescue the Mad Hatter and innocent beings the Red Queen has captured.

Is this Alice indeed the "right" Alice? Will she end up fighting the Jabberwocky? Will she stay in Underland?

Now some have complained that Tim Burton took the classic Alice stories and turned them upside down. Others have criticized it for being nothing like the original Disney version. What you must understand going into this one is that no, it is not a remake of the classic story nor an adaption. You could almost consider it to be "the next chapter" in the Alice story, as it takes place years after the events of the original stories (which we see in a flashback segment). The characters are all still there, however Wonderland is a much darker place than now than we may recall.

I personally loved it. The story was great, the characters were amusing and the scenery and details were definitely works of art! Oh and there's lessons for everyone that you shouldn't make choices for yourself based on what others think is best. Be responsible and make your choices for you.

Now this film is being offered in both 2D and 3D formats. We saw it in 3D IMAX and while I can't really say if the 3D enhanced it any, the IMAX was well worth it, as it really made you feel like you were in the movie, and this one of those movies where that effect really works great!

Little kids might be a little scared by the Jabberwocky and Bandersnatch, but other than that, this is a great film for a family outing!

DVD Review: Terminator Salvation

Rated PG13 for action violence, language

Starring Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin

Set in 2018, the war between Skynet and humanity is in full force. The world has become nothing more but a wasteland and those that have survived thus far are constantly on the defense against the machine, banding together to find a way to put an end to them. Leading the Resistance from an army-like submarine is John Connor and General Ashdown. After developing a device that seems to shut down the machines, they stage a worldwide Resistance attack on Skynet Headquarters. Only as the day to strike approaches, John is informed by a strange man named Marcus Wright that a young Kyle Reese - that's right, John Connor's eventual father - has been taken captive by Skynet. If they strike before rescuing him odds are, John Connor will cease to exist, as the time to send Reese back in time has not yet happened. The General doesn't seem to care though - he's afraid that if they don't strike when they have the opportunity, they may never get another chance to destroy Skynet's Headquarters.

Can John get the Resistance to hold off firing long enough for him to save his future father and his existence? And can he really trust this strange mysterious Marcus Wright?

Unless you're a die hard Terminator fan, feel free to skip this installment. The first movie was a groundbreaking sci-fi action film and the sequel was just as good. The third installment showed how the machine takeover began. All this one does is introduce John's father as a teenager and explains the origins of the T-800. Unless the next installment actually shows us John sending Reese back in time and brings the franchise full-circle I most likely will be skipping out on it.

Dear John

Rated PG13 for military violence, brief sexuality

Starring Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Henry Thomas, Scott Porter, Richard Jenkins, Keith Robinson

At the beginning of the film, we see Special Forces Army solider John get shot. In a voice over, we hear John read a letter about the last things he remembers as he blacks out from the shot. "I heard the sound of coins and was taken back to a time when I visited the US Mint." He goes on to say how he is like a coin, minted in the US, rough around the edges, etc "And the last thing I thought of, before I blacked out, was you."

He then takes us back to where it began - spring of 2001. He is on a brief leave of duty, staying with his dad in their home near Charleston. It is here that meets Savannah, a college student on spring break, visiting her friends, family and building a Habitat for Humanity type home for a less fortunate family who's home was destroyed in a storm. The two begin a brief romance during her last week of break. Unsure of a future together, Savannah is upset at the thought of leaving John. He tells her that he only has 1 year left on his military contract and that when the time is up, he'll return, she'll be almost done with school and then they can be together forever. "A lot can happen in a year" Savannah tells him. He promises her that he'll return and they agree to write each other as often as they can. "What is one year of waiting for a lifetime after we spent one amazing week like that together?" she says.

Several months go by and they both struggle with not being able to be together in the flesh, but they still have hope. However the September 11th attacks occur and the rest of John's Special Forces team are eager to extend their contracts to fight for our country. Their captain tells them they have 2 days off and to think about their decision, as he too has family back home to take into consideration for his choice, and that since they are a team, if any one of them decides not to extend, then neither will the rest of them. John quickly goes home to his father and Savannah to spend what little time he has left, but he is hesitant to inform Savannah that if he re-enlists, it will be another 2 years or so before he's able to come home. Naturally she is not keen on the idea, despite the fact that he is clearly torn on keeping his promise to her but being loyal to his team and serving his country.

Will Savannah stay by him and support his decision?

Like all film adaptations of Nicholas Sparks' books, this one too was a bit of a tearjerker. However, while the previews and part of the film focus on the relationship between John and Savannah, who the movie really is about is John. True, Savannah does play a large role in his life during this time, (she especially helps him to understand why his father is the way he is), but she's not the sole focus of the film - John is.

Personally, I grew to really dislike Savannah, as she tried to rationale and make things all about her, not really taking into consideration John's feelings or how her actions would affect him for years to come. And then even at the end, she still tries to justify what she did, expecting John to pick up where they left off and pretend like nothing had happened. Girls like her make me roll my eyes and want to slap them upside the head for a dose of reality.

If you've enjoyed other Nicholas Sparks' film adaptions and don't mind a bit of a tearjerker (or one that makes you want to slap some sense into the female lead), feel free to check this one out.

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!