The Rocker-Film Review

What a movie! I just saw it again for the 8th or so time last night! Rainn Wilson is hilarious in this. From the director of The Full Monty. Unfortunately this movie bombed at the box office if I'm not mistaken but I saw it in the theater and thought it was pretty good. But after seeing it several more times I can safely put it in the Stealing Harvard section of my film enjoyment. Plus how can you go wrong with Will Arnett and Bradley Cooper in a hair metal band?!! Then there's Jane Lynch as Fish's (Rainn Wilson) sister and mother to Matt (Josh Gad). The great Jeff Garlin as her husband and Matt's dad. Ed Helms as their agent and manager who has some great lines as well. And let's not forget the beautiful Christina Applegate as Kim, Curtis's (Teddy Geiger) mother who goes out on the road with the band. The music's not bad either. It helps that Teddy Geiger was actually a musician first and then an actor (and as I see on IMDB that he hasn't done any acting since. Also a young Emma Stone (Superbad, The House Bunny, Zombieland) rounds out the cast. It's a broad comedy in the strictest sense but it has other little things that you see if you've seen it a few times that makes it funnier in a different way. I wish Rainn Wilson made more movies! I wish this made money at the box office! I wish everybody could see this and love it for what it is and for what every movie we see we hope does for us. To take us out of our everyday routines and lives and make us feel something, good or bad through entertainment. I could see it again right now....

Killers-Film Review

A pleasant enough movie with Ashton Kutcher as a hit man and Katherine Heigl as the woman he meets and falls in love with. It was nice to see Tom Selleck again in a movie and Catherine O'hara's character (Heigl's character's mom) was pretty good as a woman who drank a little too early and a little too much. This wasn't Ashton's better romantic comedies. He was much better in Just Married and What Happens In Vegas. The script wasn't the greatest either. Katherine was much better in the movie The Ugly Truth also. I guess if you're trying to find something for rent one night this wouldn't be too bad but if you haven't seen the other mentioned movies starring them then I would definitely try the others first. All have done better work than this.

Harry Brown-Film Review

Who's up for more geriatrics kickin' ass? (well kickin' ass with guns anyway!) The british version of Gran Torino which stars Michael Caine who is just fed up with those damn kids beating up and killing everybody who stands in their way. Something has got to be done! And Harry Brown's the guy! Not a bad flick because you could watch Michael Caine by himself reading a Dick and Jane children's book and it would be pure genius so you already know you've got a respectable movie here. The man is one of our most prestigious and gifted actors moviegoers will ever see grace the screen. I didn't mind this at all. Good.

A Call Girl-Film Review

Tale of a small town girl who moves to the big city being a student by day and a call girl by night. Yeah we've heard this all before but the location and the language has changed. A good performance from Nina Ivanisin as the title girl who at first has the world by the tail but later finds out she is way over her head. She has a dad back home who loves her very much who is trying to get his old high school band back together(!), a funny sidenote to the story, a mother who's cold toward her that she hardly ever sees, a jilted ex lover who is trying to get back into her life and two men who want to take her deeper into another world that she will never recover from. It's really not a bad little film if you patience for these kind of foreign stories. Once again it's always neat to see a new city or a slightly new perspective on these things. That's why people shouldn't limit themselves to just american films anymore. There's just too much good stuff coming out of other countries now more than ever. Do yourself a favor. Try a few foreign films. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised as long as you can handle the subtitles. And if you can't you're hopeless!

Boogie Woogie-Film Review

Great cast of unlikable characters in a kind of "mosaic" type movie. I can't really say I had sympathy for anybody here but was I supposed to? I don't know. 3 stars just for the cast acting. I mean you've got Stellen Skarsgard, Danny Huston, Heather Graham, Gillian Anderson, and even Christopher Lee (!) and Joanna Lumley from the old school even show up in it. And then there's Amanda Seyfried and her wonderful legs.....but I digress. The story's about a priceless painting that Christopher Lee's character owns that the two owners of art galleries (Skarsgard and Huston) want more than anything. Backstabbings, double crosses, adultery, suicide, you name it it's here. You don't want to know anybody in this film because they'll just use you up and spit you out when they're done!

Furry Vengeance-Film Review

The two movies that were the most critically maligned this year have been All About Steve and this one featuring Brendan Fraser. Well this one blows away All About Steve. Summit Entertainment totally promoted this movie wrong. They tried to sell it as a fun little family movie. Well it is that. But it's a fun little family movie that's aimed at 8 or 9 year olds. They should have pushed it toward the Garfield movie crowds and the like. Frasar plays a real estate developer who's company promotes themselves as being green but is currently destroying an entire forest to put in a new housing development that his family must live in for at least a few years. His boss, played great by Ken Jeong (who is rapidly stealing the show in every film he's in lately) is a riot, especially when he reprimands his assistant. Frasar's wife in the movie is played by Brooke Shields (huh?!) and I was wondering the same thing. How did she get the part? Totally miscast and zero chemistry between her and Frasar as well as their son. The dialogue between the family slowed down the movie. We want Brenden Frasar doing physical comedy in these kind of movies don't we? Why yes we do! You see there's a bunch of animals in the forest that don't take to having their homes destroyed so we see them plotting revenge! The raccoon is their ringleader. There's squirrels, skunks (in a funny scene), and all kinds of creatures trying to see the wrong in Frasar's thinking. Will they succeed? Well it's a family movie after all.

Me And Orson Welles-Film Review

Nice period piece with a rock solid performance from Christian McKay as the bigger than life Welles. The core of the movie is seen from the eyes of Lucious Samuels (Zac Efron in a nice performance, better than I expected). He plays a high schooler who is plucked out his ordinary existence and thrust in the adult world of broadway. Although I have never been that fond of the theater arts this definitely held my interest for the story was interesting and seeing McKay as Welles was an amazing treat. I'm not kidding when you should see this movie for the one reason of seeing McKay play this guy. One of the better performances of the year in my opinion. I'd give his portrayal of the character 5 stars but his performance far outshines anything or anybody else in the movie.

That Evening Sun-Film Review

Wow! Now it's Hal Holbrook's turn to shine in a new movie! As a older gentleman who is sent off to a nursing home by his son (who's a hot shot lawyer in a big city), he just walks out one day to go back to his home and finds out that a family is living there because his son let them rent the place from him since he's the power of attorney for his dad. Well Mr. Meecham (Holbrook) doesn't take that too well at all. He wants them off his property pronto. What we see is a man who has lost his loving wife, knows he doesn't have a lot of time left on this earth, he's lonely, and he just wants to go home to spend his last moments there however long that may be. But the family especially the father ( in a chilling performance by Ray McKinnon) doesn't think Meecham's got a right to be there. That is the focus of this story for the rest of the movie. I liked this movie better than I thought I would. It's kind of sad though when you think about it. We all don't have a lot of time on this earth really. It's over in a blink of an eye.

The Joneses-Film Review

I must say this is a new idea in a movie. Let's put a make believe family together, move them to a new upscale neighborhood, give them new products from huge companies that aren't even out to the general public, show them off to their new neighbors to influence them to buy them and watch the profits soar for the companies who pay this other company who provides the fake families (who we later see are alll over the world) Everybody's happy right? Wrong! Of course wrong. Especially wrong for the neighbor who's trying to keep up with the Joneses(!), and then there's the fake daughter (the beautiful Amber Heard) who's trying to get with her fake dad (David Duchovny), the fake mom (Demi Moore), who is also the head of household in the business of all of this. Duchovny is the new guy in the company where this is his first job, his first family and his first experience. Everybody's got to meet a certain quota of sales or they will be replaced. Like I said interesting idea and a pleasant enough movie. For the guys there's Heard and I've got to tell you Demi is looking great in this one as well. Not a bad choice if your options aren't many. Recommended.

Secret In Their Eyes-Film Review

Once again another excellent foreign film with an unsolved mystery. A retired criminal investigator is trying to write a novel about a case that has since been closed but unsolved. We see through flashbacks details of the case and the effects it has on everybody involved in the present time as well. I warn you the flashbacks come without any signal but if you pay attention you will have no problem figuring this out. If you're thinking is this movie as good as "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" I would have to say no. This is a different kind of animal here. There's nothing here as electric as Noomi Rapace but it's not trying to be. If you like these kind of movies where one central character is trying to learn through past clues where as the movie unfolds is plunged deeper into the abyss then this is another one of those movies. I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you can definitely check this one out. Highly recommended.