More Than Meets The Eye At The IMAX

For centuries, two races of robotic aliens – the Autobots and the Decepticons – have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake. When the battle comes to Earth, all that stands between the evil Decepticons and ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf). An average teenager, Sam is consumed with everyday worries about school, friends, cars and girls. Unaware that he alone is mankind’s last chance for survival, Sam and his friend Mikaela (Megan Fox) find themselves in a tug of war between the Autobots and Decepticons. With the world hanging in the balance, Sam comes to realize the true meaning behind the Witwicky family motto – “No sacrifice, no victory", in Transformers.

Based on the Hasbro toy line that initially captivated kids in the 1980s, director Michael Bay's Transformers finds two warring bands of shape-shifting alien robots renewing their intergalactic conflict on Earth. While the Decepticons, followers of the malevolent Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving), strive to take over the planet, the Autobots, led by the valiant Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), are intent on protecting humanity. When young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers that his new car is really the Autobot Bumblebee (voiced by Mark Ryan), it sets the stage for a massive giant-robot showdown. A shining example of the Hollywood summer blockbuster at its best, Transformers combines stunning CGI effects and thrilling action sequences with drama, humor, and a touch of romance. Featuring a large cast that includes Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, John Turturro, Anthony Anderson, and Rachael Taylor, the film is anchored by LaBeouf, who always displays an engaging Everyman charm, whether he's running from colossal robots, interacting with his well-meaning parents (hilariously played by Kevin Dunn and Julie White), or pining for his gorgeous classmate (Megan Fox). While some Transformers purists may be dismayed by certain aspects of this bold big-screen adaptation (Bumblebee is a Camaro instead of a Volkswagen), the movie balances its spectacle with an admirable amount of substance, giving it an appeal far beyond pre-teen boys and their nostalgic Autobot-loving elders. Transformers, the second big-screen adaptation of the Hasbro toy line about two sets of vehicle morphing robots, delivers in all the places that spiders, pirates, and surfers couldn't: It's a crowd-pleasing, rock-´em, sock-´em, explosion-laden 143 minutes, with no pretense of being anything more than it is. Every aspect of the film is a wonder to behold, not just the buildings when weapon blasts eat out chunks of their sides or the massive robots wrestling with each other in Ultimate Fighting Championship-type encounters. Either Industrial Light and Magic has progressed leaps and bounds beyond the effects houses that handled "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean," or those other outfits are grossly incompetent. From a rational standpoint, there is no way that what is on screen could come from miniatures or stop motion. But from a moviemaking standpoint, how can Spider-Man swinging through the streets of New York look so obviously fake and cartoonish (although I LOVED the Spider-Man movies it did bug me), yet the Autobots and Decepticons so convincingly real? They blend in with their surroundings so completely and interact so flawlessly with the human actors that it's not outside the realm of possibility the production team assembled full-size robots for every sequence in the picture. There are no jerky movements, not so much as a detail out of place. Scorch marks, dents, dings…even the way each individual gear moves when one of the Transformers walks. The effects are bar none the best we've seen outside of "300." Even the actors fulfill their end of the bargain. Of course, they're not asked to do a whole lot besides run, jump, slide, yell, and pull triggers. With Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Anthony Anderson, Jon Voight, John Turturro, and Bernie Mac, a cast which reminds us more of "Armageddon" than "The Rock," takes shape. Without fail, everyone in the film does what they were contracted to do: Duhamel provides the good-looking poster boy; Mac provides a welcome breath of humor early on; Voight is his patented bewildered government official (here the Secretary of Defense); and Turturro is the man we all love to hate.  Now to the plot. The Allspark has been kept in a U.S. landmark for decades, and its power signature has been masked from everyone by reinforced concrete. I'm sorry, but concrete? Are you serious? This thing has the power to destroy entire worlds and concrete keeps all manner of scans from seeing its location? And the final decision to move the cube is just as bewildering. Why, outside of the "blowing stuff up good" rationale, would anybody agree to this plan? Hell, we can bat around all manner of plot holes or head scratchers, but that wouldn't be fun. For the sake of argument, though: Why are people continuing to run from the scene of the final battle twenty minutes after its started? Is the government so desperate as to be recruiting analysts out of high school? And why, for the love of everything rational, does the military consistently discount the one person with any credible information on the Transformers or the Allspark? Not that it really matters: This is an action movie with no agenda. If there is one aspect of the film that doesn't quite live up to what it should be, it's the introduction of Optimus Prime and the final battle with Megatron. When Optimus finally comes on the scene, there should be a bombastic score, something to herald the coming of the hero the fans want to see. There isn't that sense that everything will be okay once he's arrived. Think of how Darth Vader is introduced in "Return of the Jedi," with the Imperial March. Prime is a hero worthy of that level of reverence. Transformers isn't supposed to be anything except loud, action pulp to fill a summer slot and rake in the money. Oh, yeah, and sell toys. It's a family-friendly film, with no real objectionable content. However, there is a large amount of fighting and peril, which might cause a smaller child to have problems. The movie rates a strong 4 on my "Go See" scale because it delivers on its premise and doesn't get bogged down in plot trivialities. It's huge; it's loud; and it's filled with things that crash and blow up in glorious high-definition picture and sound. Transformers is everything you'd expect from a colossal summertime blockbuster. However, looking for logic, sense, reason, even sanity in a story based on a children's toy would be stretching the point. The movie is for the eye and the ear, not the brain. It turned out a lot better than I thought, though, by looking and sounding so very good on the IMAX screen, so I've got to give it credit. Big, dumb, and attractive in this case is good enough. I'm very much looking forward to Revenge Of The Fallen. 

Almost A First Class Delivery

When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But when they try to cash in on their luck, it triggers a series of events that forever changes the lives of ten people in Next Day Air, an uproarious action comedy featuring an all-star cast including Donald Faison, Mos Def and Debbie Allen.

There's no honor among thieves in Next Day Air, a dopey, bloody and downbeat "Black Pineapple Express." The laughs come easily enough. But the violence and grim finale drag this coke-deal-gone-wrong comedy into a hole it can't giggle its way out of. Inept thieves smoke weed, play video games and argue over who was supposed to do what at their last botched bank job. An equally stoned delivery man (Donald Faison) misreads the numbers on their door. He leaves them a box stuffed with cakes of cocaine, coke destined for the Hispanic dealer (Cisco Reyes) who lives across the hall, and next thing you know Next Day Air is off. Mike Epps and Wood Harris are cousins who believe the coke "came from God." They plot how to spend the money they're going to make, grand plans for an Escalade and hookers Brody (Epps) hires by phone. "Do something strange for a little piece'a change," he coos. Guch (Harris) is more paranoid. And with a distraught Jesus across the way looking for his lost delivery, correcting everybody's pronunciation of his name ("That's GEE-zus!"), fighting with his shrill Nuyorican girlfriend (Yasmin Deliz), Guch has every right to be scared. In this corner of Philly everybody's related to some other manner of crook, and Brody's cousin (Omari Hardwick) is the hook-up for unloading a lot of blow. Can the clumsy thieves trust the untrusting drug dealer? Will the Mexican drug lord (Emilio Rivera) put it all together and track them down? Or will he take out his frustration on poor Jesus? And what about the doper delivery dude? Will he and his steal-from-his-own-delivery-truck pal ( Mos Def) get theirs? Next Day Air was cast like a comedy with funny roles for Debbie Allen, Darius McCrary and Malik Barnhardt, who plays the robbers' blissfully sleepy roommate. Much of the violence is comic -- threats that Jesus makes every time somebody calls him "hay-Zeus," practicing waving a gun in the mirror. But all these drugs, all these thugs and all those guns are going to wind up making a bloody mess, sooner or later. Director Benny Boom saves that "mess" for the grim, message-slapped-on third act of what had been a gritty, trippy, underwritten comedy. Boom kills his own buzz. The filmmakers behind Next Day Air probably have posters of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino lining their bedroom walls. The movie is like a fanboy love letter, but you end up wishing director Benny Boom simply sent his heroes bouquets instead. Newcomer Boom directs the script by Blair Cobbs, another first-timer. Neither shows a lot of imagination and the stereotypes run deep throughout. It's the kind of movie in which you can tell the Puerto Ricans from the Mexicans because the latter characters are enjoying a cock fight. While there are some very funny moments, overall the movie is poorly produced and horribly acted. Wasn't this movie made in Hollywood? Can't they get a believable Latina or at least someone with a believable Puerto Rican accent? Don’t get me wrong, I like Yasmin Deliz, just not in this role. Even the black actors had to pretend to be “hood” which was overly acted resulting in a mockery much like that of a parody. Even the freeze frames are badly placed, unflattering and awkward. On the plus side, there are some silly jokes and a few laughs to be had, especially when Faison's character is in with his boss, who accuses him (rightfully so) of smoking marijuana on the job. The music is catchy and fits the feel the movie attempts to create. But we still have one question: who ships ten kilos of illegal narcotics through a commercial delivery service?!? The plot is as ridiculous and unbelievable as the acting. On the plus side, the film does have a certain frenetic energy, and Epps can wring a laugh out of the driest material. But really, you should just rent a double bill of "Reservoir Dogs" and "RocknRolla." Ultimately, it tries too hard to be something that it's not.....entertaining. This gets a dreary 2 on my "Go See" scale for the few laughs it produces. 

Deliver Me Next Day Air, To A Better Movie

Today Hollywood can take any subject and turn it into what they call comedy, as long as the writers know what they are doing it works. If they don't then you get something like "Next Day Air" a comedy that takes a serious subject, like gangs and drugs, adds some major comedic star power, and still come up empty.

When an inept delivery driver, delivers a box of concealed bricks of cocaine to the wrong address, things go from bad to worse quickly. This sets in motion a desperate search for the package, between the furious dealer that sent it, the intended recipients that missed it, and the accidental recipients that plan to sell it. Leo (Donald Faison) is the son of the delivery services manager, after he is called into her office, he promises his mother, yes she is the manager, that he won't smoke any more pot while he is driving for the company.

When Leo makes the mistake of dropping a package off at the wrong address no one is the wiser, until the drug lord wants his merchandise back. The people who live in the apartment where the box is dropped off, think it's a package from God. Brody (Mike Epps), Guch (Wood Harris) and their unwanted room mate Hassie (Malik Barnhardt) are three of the worst conmen, robbers and thiefs ever to try their hand at crime. They rob a bank and only take the video tapes. When they open the box of cocaine they think their ship has finally come in, Brody suggests that his cousin Shavoo (Omari Hardwick) will buy all ten bricks, cause he is a baller. Shavoo tells Brody he will buy the bricks but Shavoo doesn't know Guch, so he brings his friend Buddy (Darius McCrary) along.

When Bodega (Emilio Rivera) calls to find out if the shipment has arrived, Jesus (Cisci Reyes) tells him that it hasn't, Bodega tells him that he has tracked the package and that it has been signed for. Jesus has his girl Chita (Yasmin Deliz) go to a payphone to track the package, she is so dumb that she can't even handle this small task. Bodega decides he has to go to Philly to find his package so he takes Rhino (Lobo Sebastian) with him as his back up. Leo comes across another driver, Eric (Mos Def) going through peoples packages, Eric once told Leo that he has every right to do this and if they try to fire him he will scream prejudice. Right. Is that a good message to teach our kids? When Jesus and Chita come across Eric in his truck they pull weapons on him and threaten his life, all this for some drugs, after this little scene, Mos Def is gone, he has maybe ten minutes of screen time, so if you want to see this movie for him, DON'T.

When Bodega and Rhino get to Philly, they go to Jesus and Chita, Bodega tells them that they better come up with the drugs or else. When they finally come across Leo they beat him up and tell him unless he takes them to where he dropped the package off they are going to kill him. Back in the apartment where the drugs are Shavoo has agreed to buy the drugs so he takes Buddy to the storage locker to pick up his cash, when he gets there the locker has been broken into and the money is gone, they soon find out that the two guys who work for the storage company have the money and after threatening them they get the money back. Heading back to the apartment Shavoo is surprised when Buddy pulls out several weapons, he says he isn't sure they will be needed but it's best to just have them anyway. Up in the apartment Guch has hidden guns all over as well, just in case he says.

Once the eight main characters are set to show up at the right apartment, this movie turns into a bloody mindless excuse for violence. The end of this movie makes you wonder what you found so funny up to this point. When did this comedy turn to an action movie, when did the viewers get left behind, where did we get shafted? My thought is this, we got shafted when we plunked down our ten dollars for this stupid unfunny movie.

I give Next Day Air a 0 and on my avoidance scale a 4, this is the type of movie I try to warn movie viewers to stay away from. The comedy isn't worth the mindless violent ending. If comedies with a violent twist is your thing then this is your kind of movie, if you have any more intelligence than a common house fly stay away from this useless pile of drivel.

Next Day Air is rated R for Pervasive Language, Drug Content, Some Violence and Brief Sexuality

Running time is 1 hr. 30 mins.

3 Ghosts Changed My Life

In Ghosts Of Girfriends Past, celebrity photographer Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) loves freedom, fun and women...in that order. A committed bachelor with a no-strings policy, he thinks nothing of breaking up with multiple women on a conference call while prepping his next date.  Connor's brother Paul (Breckin Meyer)is more the romantic type. In fact, he's about to be married to Sandra (Lacey Chabert). Unfortunately, on the eve of the big event, Connor's mockery of romance proves a real buzz-kill for Paul, the wedding party and a houseful of well wishers -- including Connor's childhood friend Jenny (Jennifer Garner), the one woman in his life who has always seemed immune to his considerable charm. Just when it looks like Connor may single-handedly ruin the wedding, he gets a wake-up call from the ghost of his late Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), the hard-partying, legendary ladies man upon whose exploits Connor has modeled his lifestyle. Uncle Wayne has an urgent message for his protege, which he delivers through the ghosts of Connor's jilted girlfriends -- past, present and future -- who take him on a revealing and hilarious odyssey through a lifetime of failed relationships. Together, they will discover what turned Connor into such a shameless player and whether he has a second chance to find -- and this time, keep -- the love of his life.

It's gone well past cloying to see Matthew McConaughey play a ''charming cad.'' (The more he pushes the charm, the more the cad shows through.) But even if you've tired of the star's oily cocoa-butter narcissism, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past offers a solution, of sorts: It casts him as a studly photographer who is such a smarmy, dislikable (insert expletive of your choice) that the film doesn't pretend you're supposed to like him.  In the first scene, McConaughey, cast as a fellow named Connor Mead (that should get your hate juices flowing right there), swans around a photo set, firing off lewd remarks at barely dressed models. When they make goo-goo eyes at him anyway, the film seems to be endorsing this sleazy-does-it lounge lizard. Fear not, though — it's counting on the audience's revulsion. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, you see, is a chick-flick update of A Christmas Carol, with Connor as a heartless, babe-magnet Scrooge who, during the long weekend of his brother's wedding, gets his comeuppance when a series of ghosts reveal the train wreck — past, present, and future — that is his romantic life. The movie is cheesy, tacky, and gimmicky. But as directed by Mark Waters, it's also prankish and inventive enough to be kind of fun. As the ghost of Uncle Wayne, the Hefneresque bachelor who taught Connor how to be a pickup artist, Michael Douglas shows his gift for turning creepiness into light comedy. Laying down rules lifted from Neil Strauss' egregious insult-your-way-into-bed manifesto The Game, Douglas shows you the loser inside the swinger. And it helps to have Jennifer Garner, with her dimpled vivacity, as the lifelong object of Connor's affection. There's some funny business with a wedding cake, as well as a deeply unfunny (and shrill) performance by Lacey Chabert as the bride, but mostly there is Matthew McConaughey acting abashed — and, yes, a wee bit charming — as he gets the lesson he deserves. through its first act with little to offer in the way of comedy or romance. Connor is more cheesy than amusing, the supporting characters and situations feel re-used from other ghost or wedding movies, and the jokes are mostly pretty lame. There's also a crassness to the tone that makes it hard to laugh at the chick-chasing antics of Connor and his ghostly uncle. Surprisingly, though, things become more appealing when the film starts to focus, at first in flashbacks and then in the present, on the relationship between Connor and Jenny, one of the few women who seems immune to his supposed charms. The scenes involving the two characters as kids, then teens, then adults lead up to a pleasant if conventional third act in which Connor sees the error of his ways. While McConaughey does manage to give Connor a more interesting and vulnerable side in the story's latter stages, it's really Garner's understated performance that lends the film what charm and warmth it has. Surprisingly, there isn't much to say here. While I enjoyed this movie, it will surely be ine of those that will be seen and then forgotten. This gets a 3 on my "Go See" scale.

When Can To Many Ghosts Become A good Thing?

When a comedy takes an old classic and retells it, I usually will find this dull and boring, but when "Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past" does a little Charles Dickens, I'm couldn't help but be a little bit impressed. This movie tells the story of A Christmas Carol with a modern day twist, of course.

Fashion photographer Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a true ladies man, he thinks that by dating every woman he meets he can keep the pain from his first love slipping away at bay. He thinks the less he commits himself the better off he will be. This is a philosophy that was taught to him by his uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), a now deceased lady-killer legend who notoriously hosted mind-numbing, clothing optional, week-long orgies in his house. Connor also remarks that the term MILF was invented by his Uncle.

Connor is invited by his brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) to his and his fiance Sandra's (Lacey Chabert) wedding, against the advice of Connor's childhood sweetheart Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), Jenny had hopes for Connor at one time, they were childhood friends, and even sweethearts. Connor's reputation proceeds him, he breaks up with three girls on a conference call so he can be with a fourth woman. When Connor makes it to the mansion where the wedding is going to be held, all kinds of high jinks start. Connor goes to the washroom and there the fun starts, he is visited by the ghost of his uncle Wayne, Wayne tells Connor that he has been watching him and that he is destined to be alone, so in order to help him, Wayne is going to allow Connor to be visited by the three ghosts, they will represent his Girlfriends past, Allison Vandermeersh (Emma Stone) present, Melanie (Noureen DeWulf) and future (Olga Maliouk).

Connor even hits on Sandra's Mother Vonda (Anne Archer), she tells him that she is to old for him. She points out the one bridesmaid that hasn't already slept with Connor, he tells Denice to go up to his room and wait for him. When he gets there he meets his first ghost who takes him back in time to when he and Jenny were just kids. Just before his parents die in a car accident. Of course uncle Wayne steps up and raises both the boys, this gives Connor his education that he carries with him into his adulthood. After the first ghost leaves, Connor runs down into the kitchen to get a drink and more calamity happens, he tries to leave the mansion but is stopped by the "present" ghost. She is going to show him how happy the people around him are when ever he isn't near them. She points out that Jenny is moving on, that she still has feelings for Connor but he almost destroyed them, he has also just about destroyed his brothers wedding as well. The "future" ghost shows Connor that his life is a lone one, that no one except his brother will come to his funeral.

The next morning when Connor wakes up he opens the window and asks a young boy if it's Christmas, the boy replies "no it's Saturday." Connor finds out that what he has done has almost ruined his brothers life as well, so Connor sets out to right the wrongs of his actions. To say that the ending is so cliche is an understatement, we know he will stop Sandra from walking away, we know he and Jenny will get back together, but it's touching to witness it as it happens.

I give Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0. Ghosts isn't a true chick flick but it's close, but guys don't despair this movie is worth the time and effort. Overall this movie contains some touching scenes, the comedy hits it's mark almost every time. You will laugh and maybe even cry, I recommend this movie whole heartily.

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past is rated PG-13 for Sexual Content Throughout, Some Language and a Drug Reference

running time is 1 hr. 55 mins.

The Dangerous Battle For Terra

Senn (Justin Long) and Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), two rebellious alien teens living on the beautiful planet Terra, a place that promotes peace and tolerance, having long ago rejected war and weapons of mass destruction. But when Terra is invaded by human beings fleeing a civil war and environmental catastrophe, the planet is plunged into chaos. During the upheaval, Mala befriends an injured human pilot (Luke Wilson) and each learns the two races are not so different from one another. Together they must face the terrifying realization that in a world of limited resources, only one of their races is likely to survive in Battle For Terra.

Battle For Terra is certainly not a brilliant little experiment, but it sure is colorful enough to warrant a few peeks. Animation buffs will appreciate the film's lush landscapes -- but I'm wondering if the movie has that "kid appeal" that's the absolute lifeblood of CG features. The plot kicks off in slightly familiar fashion, but then we're thrown a nice little curve-ball: Seems the planet of Terra is populated by these kind-hearted and really adorable tadpole-ish creatures. This species knows nothing of war or violence, so when a massive "something" appears in the sky, most of the Terrians mistake the presence for that of a "new god." (The movie touches on religion only tangentially, but also rather interestingly.) But it's not a god; it's an invading force. Obviously the viewer is expecting the invader to be some sort of horribly nasty creature, and in some ways it is: The invader is us. After spending generations floating through space on a massive ship, the universe's last humans have chanced upon Terra -- and it sure looks like humanity has a plan to terra-form and colonize that pastoral planet. Too bad the oxygen-making process will make the Terrians extinct, but that's of no concern to the human military leaders. While some of the more considerate folks are looking for other options, the selfish General Hemmer (Brian Cox) decides to -- you guessed it -- bomb the hell out of Terra and claim it for "humanity." Clearly we're looking at a simple enough allegory, but hats off to the filmmakers for at least tossing a few curve balls into the mix. Although it's a simple adventure story and an obvious statement on the evils of war, Terra also makes a few small statements about organized religion, the dangers of conformity, and the importance of open-mndedness. I also like how neither race is portrayed as too angelic or too evil. The heroic Terrians are victims of their own conformist ways at the outset, and the humans express both nobility and horrific selfishness. Yes, it's a pretty "sweet-natured" movie, but there are some shades of gray in there, which I both noticed and appreciated. The animation is exceedingly beautiful as far as the exteriors, the landscapes, and the overall production design are concerned -- but the characters (both the humans and the Terrians) are a bit too stylized to sell the meat of the movie. The heroic Lt. Stanton looks a like like a larger, blander version of Buzz Lightyear, while the Terrians are all tails and eyeballs; cute, but not all that dramatically engaging. As is always the case with CG features like Terra, the voice cast is jam-packed with familiar chords: Evan Rachel Wood and Luke Wilson provide the voices of lead characters Mala and Stanton, but eagle-eared moviegoers will recognize David Cross as a helpful robot, Danny Glover as a wise leader, Brian Cox as a war-mongering soldier, and hey that's Justin Long, James Garner, Dennis Quaid, Chris Evans, and on and on. Based on director Aristomenis Tsirbas' short film from a few years back, the feature-length Terra has a basic-yet-admirable statement to make about the best and worst of human nature, and it makes the statement colorfully and sincerely. It's got a little something for everyone and should be seen by all. This gets a 3 on my "Go See" scale.

Mankind Takes It's Battle To Peaceful Terra

Today Hollywood has several ways to try to get their message of the moment across, today's method is a message in a cartoon, in the 3D cartoon "The Battle For Terra" we get a hidden more subtler message of greed and what it brings to everyone.

On the beautiful planet Terra, peace and tolerance are celebrated. Huge animals that resemble whales float in the sky, everyone gets along. Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) is a young girl, who is best friends with Senn (Justin Long). The two spend their days in contest with each other, the planets inhabitants are a kinder gentle people who look like a cross between amphibians and tadpoles. The inhabitants of Earth have exhausted the resources of their planet and those of two others, they are now searching for a new home. When this Earthforce discovers that the use of a Terraformer will make Terra habitable for humans they decide that they will just take it, never mind the climate change will kill all the creatures that live on Terra.

When the Earthlings embark on a hostile invasion of Terra, Mala's father, Roven (Dennis Quaid), is kidnapped. Mala is chased by a ship, she leads it into a trap, when the ship crashes Mala takes the survivor, the human pilot named Jim (Luke Wilson), back to her house and hides him. Back on the Humans ship, that is falling apart faster and faster each day, General Hemmer (Brian Cox) has decided that it is best for everyone, human that is, if he just turns the planet Terra into Earths new home base. Mala along with a robot named Giddy (David Cross) help Jim get better, of course at first when Jim wakes up he is scared but when Mala once again saves his life, Jim realizes he is with friends. Of course Terra wasn't always peaceful, they once had weapons and wars, Elder Orin (Mark Hamill) hides this fact from most of the people on Terra, he only shows Mala, cause she had contact with the humans. When Jim wakes up Senn sees him and runs and tells the elders, they come to her home looking for him. Mala takes Jim to where his ship crashed, but its gone, they follow tracks and find a hidden base, they barely escape when the people of Terra reveal themselves to be as capable of violence as humans are.

Back on the humans ship Jim is hailed as a hero back on his ship, General Hemmer asks him to help defeat the planets inhabitants. Jim tries to tell him that the people are mainly peaceful. Mala being curious about where her father is leaves the ship to look for him and is captured. General Hemmer forces Jim to make a choice when he places Jim's brother into the same room with Mala, the air that Mala breathes is poisonous to humans, if Jim hits a button the air will turn to oxygen and save Jim's brother but kill Mala. Jim presses the button but tells Giddy to save Mala. When Mala escapes General Hemmer uses that excuse to force the council to declare war on Terra. President Chen (Danny Glover) is against it, so Hemmer takes control of the council himself. He sends his fighters to attack the planet but this time, thanks to Mala, they are ready to defend their home. Of course the battle takes a turn for the worse when Jim sees who he is shooting at, Mala is trying to save Senn and has flown between Jim's ship and Senn's. The outcome of the battle is a little bit overdrawn and violent, Jim decides he can't allow the peaceful people of Terra die. The finale brings forth the one means that both races can live together.

I give The Battle For Terra a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 1, wait and watch this movie with your children in your home, this way you can stop it at certain scenes and let your children talk about what they are seeing. The message that this movie brings is a little bit harsh for the younger viewers that it is garnered towards, most kids won't think about the hidden meaning in the movie. The carton is shot in both 2d and 3D, there is little difference between the two. The battle scenes in space are spectacular and are worth the cost of admission alone, but that's about all to look forward to seeing. You will be amazed at what the younger kids see, that as adults we miss.

The Battle For Terra is rated PG for Sequences of Sci - Fi Action Violence and some Thematic Elements

Running time is 1 hr. 30 mins.

Go Ahead And Get Obsessed

Derek Charles (Idris Elba), a successful asset manager who has just received a huge promotion, is blissfully happy in his career and in his marriage to the beautiful Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles). But when Lisa (Ali Larter), a temp worker, starts stalking Derek, all the things he's worked so hard for are placed in jeopardy in Obsessed.

"Fatal Attraction,""The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,""The Temp," and "Disclosure" all come to mind as Obsessed plays out. One of those genre staples wherein a dangerous, unhinged individual becomes severely and, ultimately, violently fixated with another, the film is predictable, trashily entertaining time-filler. The villain of the piece—sexy, efficient, and, yes, obsessive office temp Lisa Sheridan (Larter)—is treated in the first half with enough intriguing shades of sympathy that it all plays out well when it turns from serious exploration into a sad, unhealthy mind showing climactic bursts of violence. Derek Charles (Elba) seemingly has it all—a beautiful wife, Sharon (Knowles); a precious baby son, Kyle (Nathan Myers, Nicolas Myers); a spacious new home in the Los Angeles suburbs; and a tidy new position as executive vice president to law firm Gage Bendix. When assistant Patrick (Matthew Humphreys) gets sick and must miss a few days of work, ambitious blonde Lisa Sheridan arrives to temporarily fill in. Derek is friendly with Lisa, listening to her boyfriend woes, bonding over music, and sharing a nice conversation and drinks. To him, their relationship is harmless, and he not once even considers the option of cheating on Sharon. To Lisa, however, there is much more between them, and she is going to do whatever it takes for their fantasy romance to become a reality. Obsessed is competently made, not above some egregious displays of clichés—there is, indeed, a heated confrontation in a parking garage, as well as some plate-throwing during an argument—but relatively absorbing for much of the time. Usually stuck in supporting roles, Idris Elba deservedly gets the lead role of Derek Charles, and is up to the challenge of portraying this faithful, hardworking businessman who gets so far in over his head that he has no idea how to get out of it. His relationship with Lisa, traveling close enough to the line of what is and isn't appropriate between coworkers that it is easy to see how Lisa might get the wrong impression, is well-developed. In another place, in another time, these two might have actually been ideal for each other. That Lisa is unwilling to accept the reality, getting lost in her own delusions of a life with Derek, is where the conflict arises. None-too-subtle examples of workplace sexual harassment follow, and the way the film sets up this predicament and then finds ways for Derek to be unable to explain his side of the story before it is almost too late to salvage his family is smart enough to not strain believability. As Lisa, Ali Larter is quite arresting, the most fascinating character in the film. Before the script pushes her off the deep end and flirts with making her a stock psychopath, Larter is given the chance to essay a person who feels like a true human being, her disastrously skewed reading of situations and relationships worth feeling sorry for her over. Fortunately, director Steve Shill is brave enough to follow the gradually charged storyline out to a natural, character-oriented conclusion. He goes for the obvious, with Lisa drugging Derek during a business retreat, and later breezing into Derek's and Sharon's home while they are out to dinner, spending time with their baby and ransacking their bedroom. The third-act brawl between Sharon and Lisa is expected—curiously, Sharon is the instigator of the knock-down fight—and worth some the excitement. As it turns out, this is also the film's biggest hit, dislocating the root predicament between Derek and Lisa simply so there can be an action-oriented, to-the-death finale where Sharon spouts one-liners and calls Lisa a bitch while dragging her across the floor and smashing her face into the upstairs banister. Certain audiences will be cheering by the end of Obsessed, particularly fans of Beyoncé Knowles who are there to see nothing more than the former Destiny's Child singer kick some white-girl booty. Knowles is perfectly respectable in the part of Sharon. The crowd-pleasing conclusion that utilizes her to her fullest is guilty of being portrayed to some as pure run-of-the-mill silliness that demeans the character of Lisa and deems her to be unworthy of receiving the professional psychological help she needs. By ending on a freeze-frame that brings no insight into anything and solves the plot in the most rudimentary fashion imaginable, Obsessed may seem like it runs out of last straws, but I enjoyed it. I thought the casting was very well put together. It will definitely draw a good crowd. This gets a 3 on my "Go See" scale.

This Is What Happens When You Get Obsessed

Every so often movies come out that just bring out the beast in everyone, the newest movie that will try this is "Obsessed." I know I am included in the large group of people who go on and on about Hollywood constantly cranking out drivel over and over again, but the truth is as long as we go sit through the endless stream of these movies they will continually be made. This movie will get a huge audience it's first week and then hopefully fade away.

Successful businessman, Derek (Idris Elba) receives a huge promotion, is happily married to Sharon (Beyonce) and they have just bought a nice house out in the suburbs. When Derek arrives at work he meets Lisa (Ali Larter) in the elevator, she is the new office temp. Derek pays little attention to Lisa until the next day when his regular assistant Patrick (Matthew Humphreys) gets the flu, Lisa becomes his new temp assistant. Derek at first thinks she is proficient and helpful, he will soon find out the depths of her insanity. When Patrick is well enough to come back, the offices lead Secretary, Marge (Bonnie Perelman) goes out with the flu, so of course Lisa gets her desk. The game starts one day when Lisa is alone in the lunch room and Derek walks in, she is crying and Derek asks her why, she tells him its boyfriend trouble. The day of the office Christmas party comes and of course spouses are not allowed at the party, Lisa dances with Derek and when he goes into the bathroom, she follows him in, she pushes him into one of the stalls, she rubs against him and pulls his shirt from his pants, Derek reacts like most men would, he pushes her away. (RIGHT).

He goes home to his wife, and starts to tell Sharon about what happened, she stops him when she tells Derek about what is going on with her sister and her cheating husband. He thinks it will all just go away. The next day back in the office, Lisa acts as if nothing happened at the party, Derek wonders what is going on until he goes to leave and Lisa gets into Derek's car, she opens her coat and Lisa is wearing nothing but a bra and panties, Derek yells at her that nothing is going on and to get out of his car. The next day Derek tells his best friend in the office, Ben (Jerry O' Connell) what has been happening, and because Derek had married his last female assistant, Ben tells him not to make waves. He of course thinks Lisa is one "smoking hot piece of meat." When Joe Gage, the firms president takes Derek and Ben to a convention, of course Lisa shows up, when Derek tells her to leave she drops a drug into his drink, later that night as Derek is passing out, Lisa comes into his room and in an eerie scene she rapes Derek. Later that afternoon when the firm is having a meeting Lisa has a hotel staff member go into the meeting and tell Derek his wife is here, when Derek comes out he finds Lisa there, he screams and stamps his feet and tells her that she is crazy that NOTHING is going on.

He walks back into the meeting and that night when he gets back to his room he finds Lisa overdosed in his bed. His concern for her is shown when he yells "come on bitch wake up." He calls 911 and they rush Lisa to the hospital, Sharon unable to reach Derek calls Ben and finds out that there has been an accident, fearing the worst she rushes to the hospital, to find a detective questioning Derek. Detective Reese (Christine Lahti) doesn't believe that a man wouldn't take advantage of Lisa, and makes it clear she doesn't believe Derek. Sharon also makes it clear she doesn't believe him, she throws him out of the house. Months go by before Sharon is even willing to talk with Derek, in the mean time we see detective Reese question Lisa, we also see as her belief in Lisa's story crumbles. Of course we see where the movie is heading, when Derek and Sharon return from their first date in three months they find that Lisa has been in the house and has taken their baby Kyle. Sharon and Derek run around the house looking for Kyle and find him in the baby car seat in Derek's car. The confrontation, when it comes is predictable Lisa makes in into the house again, even though they have added a new security system, Sharon forgets to set it on her way out and when she is reminded returns and finds Lisa in their bed. The two women fight it out, going back and forth, the fight goes from the bedroom to the landing, down the stairs to finally in the attic.

I give Obsessed a 2 and on my avoidance scale a 1, watch this movie at home, so its easy top walk away from. When a couple things are shown in the beginning it's clear that they will come into play sometime during the fight, a weak floor board in the attic is pointed out right at the start of the movie and a few minutes later some movers bring in a huge glass top table, this is paid to much attention and we know what will happen to it later. Or we should. The movie ends with Sharon walking from the house as Detective Reese drives up. Everything is over she says, can taking a life be this easy? NO it isn't.

Obsessed is rated PG-13 for Sexual Material Including Some Suggestive Dialogue, Some Violence and Thematic Content

Running time is 1 hr. 32 mins.

Bringing Music To My Ears With The Soloist

The Soloist is a biographical drama about real-life musical prodigy Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), who dropped out of Julliard after developing schizophrenia and became a homeless musician on the streets of Los Angeles. Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.)discovers the former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.

Despite being raised in the 'hood by a single-mom, child prodigy Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) exhibited such promise on the cello that by the time he graduated from high school in 1970 he had earned a scholarship to Julliard. But unlike other classmates such as Yo-Yo Ma, Nathaniel would never get a chance to realize his full potential, because during his sophomore year he began exhibiting symptoms of the schizophrenia which would derail his dream of a career in classical music. Soon, he had to drop out of school and return home to Cleveland where he was cared for by his mother until she passed away in 2000. At that juncture, he headed west, prompted by a delusion that his long-lost father resided in Los Angeles. Instead, Nathaniel only ended up on the infamous Skid Row, leading a hand-to-mouth existence in obscurity alongside thousands of the equally destitute and less-fortunate. There, the only hint of his musical past was revealed when he periodically played the violin in the park while standing beneath a statue of Ludwig Van Beethoven. Nonetheless, Nathaniel generally went unnoticed by passersby until the fateful day, Steve Lopez (Downey, Jr.), a writer for the L.A. Times, was struck by the virtuosity being exhibited by this homeless man on a battered, old instrument with only two strings. The intrigued reporter introduced himself, and was shocked to hear semi-lucid Nathaniel, during rare moments of clarity, assert that he had once studied at Juilliard. After confirming that rarified pedigree with the school's administration office in New York, Lopez decided to write a series of feature stories about how someone so talented could end up a street musician begging for tips. However, he gradually found himself crossing the line from dispassionate journalist to friend and benefactor as he became increasingly involved with rehabilitating his subject, not only finding him an apartment, but arranging for violin lessons and mental health treatment as well. Thus, "Can this lost soul be saved?" is the burning question posed by The Soloist, a bittersweet bio-pic based on Mr. Lopez's best-seller of the same name. Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), the film features Jamie Foxx who does a magnificent job in his most challenging outing since Ray. Here, he convincingly conveys the tragic plight of a man still capable of flashes of brilliance who is more often than not betrayed by his own brain. Narrator Robert Downey, Jr. is just as effective playing the would-be Good Samaritan forced by his estranged wife, Alison (Catherine Keener) to question his own motivations when his every overture is ostensibly thwarted by the very person he's hoping to help.Was Lopez truly altruistic, or just motivated by the potential book and movie deals that Nathaniel's sensational tale might enable him to land? And was it fair of him to presume to know what was best for a schizophrenic without walking a mile in the man's moccasins or medulla oblongata? Judge for yourself. There are no easy answers here, so don't expect a Hollywood ending, even though the picture was shot on location right on Skid Row (and employed hundreds of homeless as extras), virtually in the shadow of Tinseltown. A compelling cross of a couple of Academy Award-winning Best Pictures, A Beautiful Mind and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, capable of holding its own up against those similarly-themed, screen classics. A heartwarming 4 on my "Go See" scale.

The Soloist Is A Tragic Story Of Brilliance

I have said before that when a movie is based on a "real" person or event, Hollywood usually takes a view that is slightly different than the real occurrence. In "The Soloist" based on a book by Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), and his amazing story of the life of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. (Jamie Foxx).

Steve Lopez (Downey Jr.) hasn't had a good story in a while and the newspaper where he works is laying off journalists due to falling ratings. When he happens upon a homeless violinist, Ayers Jr. playing with only 2 strings. Ayers was a former Julliard student who begins to trust Lopez, and a friendship grows. When Lopez first checks Ayers story about Julliard, he is disappointed to find out that there wasn't anyone in the schools records by that name. Later he finds out that the reason Ayers name didn't come up at first is because he never graduated, he dropped out in his sophomore year. Lopez, who is influenced by the talent of the man he can only see now, writes story after story about the man with two strings. Soon gifts start to pour in from the readers who are moved by the plight of this talented man. Soon Lopez gets Ayers to store his instruments at a homeless facility called Lamp, and tells him if he wants to play them then Ayers has to go to this facility.

Ayers is schizophrenic, and has violent outburst for reasons that he feels are worthy of his time. Litter, especially cigarette butts are the number one thing that sets him off. Ayers is never more alive then when he is playing, he hears things and feels things that no one else can contemplate. Lopez makes such an impact in the city of Angels that even the Mayor comes to speak to Ayers, he also pledges fifty million dollars to help end the homelessness on skid row. Once Ayers agrees to go to Lamp, Lopez is sure that with medicine Ayers can be cured, he is given the facts by David (Nelson Ellis) one of the men who runs Lamp, he says if Nathaniel isn't ready for med's then he won't take them. Steve tells Nathaniel that an apartment is available at lamp and that Nathaniel can use it as a studio to play his music, Nathaniel is reluctant to go there because he feels that someone will steal his cart. Lopez works for his ex wife Alison, (Catherine Keener), who is fighting to keep the paper going, cutbacks and layoffs happen everyday, even with the stories of Ayers becoming such a huge hit, the paper still is hit with several lay offs. She is a little jealous of the success that Steve is getting, but keeps telling him that if he is committed to Ayers than he has to go all the way.

One of the perks that Steve is able to give to Nathaniel are tickets to see a rehearsal of the Philharmonic Orchestra. Nathaniel is aware that he is homeless and this is one reason that Steve suggests the rehearsals instead of a performance, Nathaniel goes and is so captivated by the music that he is able to slip away from his reality and just feel the music. This scene is touching and tender to watch. Of course Nathaniel's disease comes into play one day when Steve brings some papers to where Nathaniel is staying, they had agreed that Nathaniel's sister Jennifer (Lisa Gay Hamilton) would be his executor. The day Steve brings the papers over, Nathaniel misunderstands them and gets angry at Steve, he threatens to kill him if he ever comes around again. Steve picks up Jennifer at the airport and takes her to Lamp, Nathaniel has been staying there more and more.

I give The Soloist a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0. The movie ends as Nathaniel tells Steve he is sorry for saying the things he did, the disease is as heartbreaking to the friends and family as it is horrendous to the victim. This is a touching movie that will make your heart ache. This is a movie that should be seen, though it does seem to drag at points, it's understandable, there is no "light" way to tell this story.

The Soloist is rated PG-13 for Thematic Elements, some Drug Use and Language

Running time is 1 hr. 57 mins.

Not Just A Whole Lot Of Fighting

Starring Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard, Fighting tells the story of Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum), a small-town boy who has come to New York City with nothing but a dark past. When scam artist Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) offers Shawn help at making real cash by streetfighting, the two form an uneasy partnership. Shawn and Harvey both find success, but there's also struggle -- for brotherhood, survival, and respect both in and out of the streetfighting ring. Their world involves the corrupt bare-knuckle circuit, where rich men bet on disposable pawns. If Shawn ever hopes to escape the dark world in which he’s found himself, he must now face the toughest fight of his life.

Writer/director Dito Montiel drops down a few rungs after his promising debut film "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," with an undernourished drama about small-town fighter Shawn MacArthur (Tatum) who comes to Manhattan where he meets two-bit hustler Harvey Boarden (Howard). Harvey introduces Shawn to a world of underground street fighting, and Shawn proves himself a viable money-maker with an early steak of hard fought wins. The well-filmed impromptu bouts are appropriately gritty and energetic, but it's the film's romantic aspirations between Shawn and cocktail waitress Zulay (played by newcomer Zulay Valez) that provide a much-needed emotional lift to the otherwise dead-end social atmosphere. The ever-watchable Terrence Howard mixes things up with a quirky slowed-down accent that keeps you hanging on his every word, and Montiel cranks up the suspense with a third-act surprise climax that pays off nicely. Fighting's title puts aside any questions about the sort of genre story at hand, and to that end the filmmaker creates bare-knuckle fight sequences that have the kind of uncontained freestyle roaming quality of Martin Scorsese's celebrated bar brawl sequence in Mean Streets. The Italian underground mob world of Scorsese's '70s era New York is transposed to a leaner modern-day Manhattan where a Russian-operated crime syndicate is responsible for promoting no-holds-barred fights in private locations for a select group of gamblers willing to bet large sums of money on the outcome. The Wall Street frat boys that show up to invest their cash with Harvey are the epitome of the kind of greedy testosterone-obsessed guys that America has come to loath. Once we know that Shawn can handle himself in the ring, he runs into Evan Hailey (Brian White) a former wrestling teammate from high school in Birmingham, Alabama. Backstory provides that Shawn's father was their wrestling coach, who came between the two rivals during a knockdown-drag-out fight and suffered a series of unforgivable blows from Shawn's fists. It's this bit of teased-up personal drama that elicits an inevitable all-or-nothing match between Shawn and Evan that gives the movie its overflowing climax. Unexpectedly, Fighting exudes romantic warmth in Shawn's courtship of Zulay, already a mother to a young daughter. During an extended scene in her grandmother's Bronx apartment the couple painstakingly pursue a first kiss that Zulay's familial chaperone actively attempts to prevent. Montiel lets the sequence go on longer than we expect, and the naturalistic humor that comes from the situation endears us to the characters. Fighting seems like a no-brainer project for Dito Montiel that he needed to get out of his system before he can move back into an emotionally rarefied world as complex as that of his first film. Nonetheless, Montiel finishes Fighting with a narrative flourish that accomplishes the hoped-for effect of a movie aimed at romantically inclined urban audiences. No one has to keep fighting. A dramatic 4 on my "Go See" scale.

WTF? Moment : After Shawn buys a box of umbrellas from a Korean guy to sell later, it starts to rain as he takes them home. When he spots Harvey in a resturant he goes to confront him about his partner that stole his money. It's here that we notice that the box is now dry and has some umbrellas missing. After he leaves the resturant with the box it has stopped raining, but the box is repeatedly wet and then dry throughout the scene.

I Left Fighting The Urge To Like This Movie

When a movie comes along that has a silly name, I for one don't hold out much hope for a good movie, when the one word name is "Fighting" I hold out even less hope. So it was a pleasant surprise to sit through a movie that had a story, not just sweaty men beating each other to a pulp. Not saying that is a bad thing, but in a movie you want substance.

Young Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) is reduced to selling bootlegs on the streets to survive in his new found home of New York City. While selling bootlegs he is accosted by several young street thugs, in a fight to protect his property, he loses his stash of cash. He sees who picks it up and gives chase, he is blocked by the leader of the young men. Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard), is a street hustler, he has moved to New York from the bustle of Chicago. He along with a few friends from his past run some underground bare knuckle street fights. In these street fights the rich yuppies who won't or can't do the fighting bet huge sums of money on the fighter of their choice. As Shawn is walking from a store where he just bough umbrella's he spots both the young man he saw take his money, and Harvey sitting, eating in a restaurant. He walks in and tells Harvey that he wants his money back, Harvey says he liked Shawn's style in the fight, and that he can make him a lot of money if Shawn will let Harvey manage him.

Agreeing to at least meet the people that Harvey says he knows, Shawn is, from the start out of his element, these men dress fancy and spend money at clubs like it's water passing through their fingers. One of the men who came to New York with Harvey is Martinez (Luis Guzman), who actually broke Harvey's leg with a baseball bat. After Shawn's first victory, Shawn becomes an instant celebrity, the fight is in a church and lasts just a few minutes, that night at a club, Martinez tells Shawn that powerful people will try to steal him away from Harvey. Harvey finds Shawn asleep on a park bench and offers him a place to sleep, he even tells him if he needs money that there are sneakers, concert and play tickets he can scalp. When Harvey asks him to throw a fight, Shawn in need of money, still insists upon his code of honor and refuses to throw a fight.

A couple of the guys who work with Harvey at first don't like Shawn, but as he wins fight after fight they come around. Ajax (Michael Rivera), Ray Ray (Flaco Navaja) and Z (Peter Tambakis) start to root for Shawn. When the guys are celebrating Shawn's victory they go to a club and there they run into a rival of Shawn's from back home (I know, I know cliche time). Evan Hailey (Brian J. White) was a team member on a wrestling team that was coached by Shawn's father. One day they two got into a fist fight and stepping between his son and prize pupil, Shawn accidentally punched his father, not being able to live with what he's done, Shawn runs away from home. Shawn meets a cocktail waitress names Zulay Valez (Zulay Henao) and he right away likes here, she was one of his customers the morning he was attacked. He takes his time to get to know Zulay, he doesn't push her or make her life worse than it is. When he finally gets Zulay to go out with him, its to grab a quick bite to eat. The date is over even before it begins, Shawn keeps "running" into Zulay and she takes him back to her apartment, in one of the movies funnier scenes Shawn is continually harassed by Zulay's grandmother Alba (Altagracia Guzman).

Telling Harvey that he needs money, Harvey sets up a fight with the one guy that has been looking to fight Shawn, Evan. The fight is for big money, a hundred grand to the winner. Shawn wants to win, but Harvey says he can't, he thinks he has talked Shawn into throwing the fight and we next see Harvey going around to collect large sums of money to have Zulay place bets. The big money guy is Jack Dancing (Roger Guenveur Smith), he is also one of Harvey's friends from Chicago. Harvey tells Zulay to place a five hundred thousand dollar bet against Shawn. The day of the big fight draws near and Shawn has found out the hard way that Zulay and Harvey have a past, so now we are made to think that maybe Shawn will set Harvey up to take a fall.

When Harvey gets the money he goes to a couple of large money stockbrokers and also to Martinez. They both mention that if Harvey tries anything that he is a dead man. The day arrives and Shawn and Evan face off. The fight is brutal but it isn't made a part of the continuation of the story, who wins and who loses is logical if you think about it, it doesn't really matter to the story, the real story is the building friendship between Zulay and Shawn. Where this leaves Harvey is right where he started when Shawn came along.

I give Fighting a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 1. I really didn't want to like this story, the title alone gave me pause before I even went in to see it. I for one am glad I gave this movie a chance, you will be too. You may just find yourself liking this movie if you give it a chance, if you see it while it's in the theatres you won't be disappointed.

Fighting is rated PG-13 for Intense Fight Sequences, Some Sexuality and Brief Strong Language

Running time is 1 hr. 45 mins.

An Intriguing State Of Play

Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast in a blistering thriller about a rising congressman and an investigative journalist embroiled in an case of seemingly unrelated, brutal murders. Crowe plays D.C. reporter Cal McCaffrey, whose street smarts lead him to untangle a mystery of murder and collusion among some of the nation’s most promising political and corporate figures in State of Play, from acclaimed director Kevin Macdonald. Handsome, unflappable U.S. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is the future of his political party: an honorable appointee who serves as the chairman of a committee overseeing defense spending. All eyes are upon the rising star to be his party’s contender for the upcoming presidential race. Until his research assistant/mistress is brutally murdered and buried secrets come tumbling out.

Paul Abbott's much-admired BBC drama serial about a murderous conspiracy at the heart of the British establishment has been condensed and Americanised into a decent, workmanlike, old-fashioned political thriller, directed by Kevin Macdonald. The original had seemed so edgy and contemporary - State of Play was state of the art - but the movie version, while perfectly watchable, could have been made any time in the last 30 years, despite references to blogs. The TV show had young John Simm as Cal, a political journalist who was once campaign manager for a politician now intensely embarrassed by the apparent suicide of a beautiful young female researcher. The film transmutes this character into Russell Crowe, as an older and more traditionally rumpled investigative reporter, less obviously encumbered by personal conflicts of interest, but encumbered nevertheless. He is that enviable kind of journalist who never seems to have much to do in the way of work, and his grizzled integrity and heart-of-gold cynicism transmits itself in the form of a grotty car, dingy flat and a sprinkle of Irish-lite mannerisms. Ben Affleck plays Stephen Collins, the troubled congressman her paper is writing about, a man who is taking on the sinister, unaccountable corporate powers with their snouts in the defence-security trough, powers who may be behind the death of the young employee with whom Collins was having a dalliance. Rachel McAdams plays Della, the feisty young blogger with whom Mirren forces grumpy old Cal, that exasperated warrior from the Journalism 1.0 old school, to team up. Having "met cute" in the normal way, Cal and Della break the biggest scoop of their careers and despite Della's modernity, she doesn't seem to mind handling the softer "female" side of the story. Crowe ticks every box for the Hollywood journalist. In the real world, we tend to have the unexciting appendages of family, children, elderly parents, etc, to whose unsexy needs we must attend on getting home from work in the evening. Crowe, of course, is a supercool loner in a sparsely masculine apartment, in which he can take anonymous calls in the dead of night. In the real world, we tend to be obliged to show up on time for work, and then, in fact, do some work. Crowe, in that fantastic big-screen way I have never been able to manage, shows up in the office hours after everyone else and then does a kind of running lap of honour exchanging quips and in-jokes with various other ranks to show how unstarry and down-to-earth he is, before cracking on with the day's business: exchanging barbed badinage with the editor. His stories apparently do not need to be sub-edited or run past the legal department. You may recognize the scenario from a dozen other movies as Crowe sets about finding out that a congressman’s researcher didn’t commit suicide but was murdered. The politician seems to be doing a good job rooting out big-business corruption — in this case the privatisation of homeland security — but may, in fact, be deeply compromised in other ways himself and has been having an affair with the researcher. He is also our reporter’s best friend from college days; Cal, however, once had a fling with his wife (Robin Wright Penn). So we’re in the midst of an awkward political and emotional dogfight, and it looks as if the congressman’s career is a certain goner. Lie low and keep quiet, says poobah Jeff Daniels. But we know by that time that illicit sex is only half the story. How it plays out makes, in the hands of an excellent director such as Macdonald, a taut and clever thriller — even if it’s not as modern as it likes to believe. Writers Tony Gilroy, Matthew Carnahan and Billy Ray have provided a convincing screenplay and, though the action doesn’t serve up the kinetic feast of the Bourne franchise, it works well most of the time. The old-fashioned investigative hack, so wedded to his now slightly antediluvian methods he still uses a typewriter, eventually teams up with Della, his cyber-snoop Girl Friday, to solve the case. You feel the film’s heart is located somewhere in the Seventies, even as it provides enough action to placate the present. That’s no real disadvantage when the performances are excellent, right down to Jason Bateman’s sleazy PR man. Crowe and McAdams dovetail well together without — thank goodness — resorting to what would once have been an obligatory romance. Originally cast as Cal, Brad Pitt pulled out over perceived flaws in the screenplay. But Crowe, taking it at short notice, inhabits the role with an experienced weariness that perfectly suits the piece. You can almost smell the whisky on his breath — “Irish wine”, he calls it. Mirren, as a scolding, hard-boiled editor who knows she has to deliver and pushes her staff into action until her corporate bosses say no to too much scandal, is equally convincing. “The real story,” she barks, “is the sinking of this bloody newspaper.” The ending provides a speech about the continuing necessity of good, old-fashioned journalism that underlines the sentiment. We may have seen this all before but generally not as convincingly done. Alan Pakula, director of The Parallax View and All the President’s Men, would no doubt approve. It doesn’t stray too far from his better movies which suggested that campaigning journalism can sometimes solve problems beyond the daring of politicians. The director, Kevin McDonald, clearly has an affinity with the material. He’s meticulous about tying up loose ends and his pacing is dead on; deliberate and measured enough for each twist to register with the audience but never losing the sense of controlled urgency of the breaking scoop. This is not an action movie — its thrills are more of the cerebral variety — but an opening scene that captures a ruthlessly efficient double murder is a heart-stopping entrance into Washington’s underworld. Later there’s a tremendously tense sequence where Cal, too close to a very dangerous man, is stalked by a would-be killer in an underground car park. But most rewarding is the battle of wits between a journalist compromised by a friendship and a politician who might be prepared to use that friendship for his own purposes. This is exhilarating, compulsive storytelling and looks likely to be one of the year’s cinematic highlights. This gets a 3 on my "Go See" scale.

A State Of Play Brings Down One Of It's Own

Movies about the high jinks of Washington politics are a Hollywood favorite, some are better than others while some remain a mystery. Hollywood has this idea that when they make mysteries they have to spell out everything or the viewers will not understand, this is like a connect the dots movie, we are lead to each clue one at a time, in a reasonable order, its an idea of major studios that we will walk out unhappy if the bad guy gets away, so instead we are given paint by number movies where the good guy wins and the surprises are few and far between. The only mystery here is the mystery of why this movie was even made. In "State Of Play" the story is a little of both, it is made to showcase the stars talents but not to make the viewer think to hard.

On the morning of a new Congressional hearing led by popular congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) his investigation's lead Research Assistant Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer) falls in front of a train on her way to the hearings. Also, a petty thief is gunned down in an alley, along with a man delivering pizza, how they are connected no one can see, YET. A news reporter for the Washington Globe, Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), is investigating the shooting when he hears about the congressional aides death. Being an old college roommate of Congressman Collins, the Globes foul mouthed editor, Cameron Lynne (Helen Miren) wants McAffrey on the story bad, she tries to backdoor him by sending the Washington Globe's blogger newbie, a recent college grad, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) to question McAffrey about his former dorm buddy Congressman Collins. Congressman Collins is taking a high-profile position as a champion against a private corporation called PointCorp which will have taps on the entire workings of American phones, e-mails, and all private information. It appears to be very clear right from the start who is behind the death of both the aide and the thief, how they tie in is STILL a mystery.

Of course there is conflict between the two friends, it seems McAffrey has slept with Anne Collins (Robin Wright Penn). McAffrey begins to look into this story when Congressman Collins comes to his apartment and tells him, that yes the two were sleeping together, but he thinks that if he gets out in front of the story he will be ok. McAffrey gets Della to join him into looking into the story, Della goes to the hospital where the third shooting victim is now waking up, the guy who was delivering pizza's and was shot, is a pivotal witness. She walks into his room when shots are fired through the window killing the pizza driver as he lies in the bed. Stephen goes to Rep. George Fergus (Jeff Daniels) for help, Fergus is the man who handles scandals on the hill. As McAffrey and Della get more facts about the case, they realize that there is a structured network of former soldiers that have been trained into a mercenary group-for-hire and now are employed by a division of the corporation Collins is questioning in Congress. The man responsible for the killings, Robert Bingham (Michael Berresse) is getting closer to both reporters.

When McAffrey goes to question a man he thinks is on the inside, he is met by Bingham, running to the buildings garage, WHY does the guy who is running away always run where its enclosed and dark? McAffrey is chased and fired on by Bingham, of course since he is the good guy he escapes. Going to the police with some information, now that Vernon Sando (Dan Brown), has been killed. Det. Donald Bell (Harry Lennix) thinks that the reporters wasted his time. Not only did they endanger themselves, but because they hid the information, the pizza driver is now dead. McAffrey gets a Pointcorp Ad Executive, Dominic Foy (Jason Bateman) to give up some information about Sonia and Stephen, that rocks what the reporters thought was going on. Getting Stephen to commit his story to the paper, McAffrey thinks it's now over, that the story will break about Pointcorp, and the company will stop trying to kill everyone. When Stephen comes in and the story comes out, McAffrey and Anne share a minute alone, when Della and McAffrey are done writing the story they meet and share a couple drinks, they are talking about the case when something Anne said crashes through the muck in McAffrey's brain.

Now he knows who is behind the killing and he thinks he knows why, McAffrey knows that Bingham is the killer, but now he knows who sent him out, he confronts the man and tells him that he knows the truth, that he has to turn himself in or that McAffrey will call the police. When McAffrey leaves the building and is walking to his car he is surprised to find himself confronted by Bingham. The police arrive in time to save McAffrey, and make the arrests to close the case.

This movie does bring to mind the Watergate story, and looks like all the other Hollywood Newsroom type movies, yet I still give State Of Play a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 1, there are better movies coming, so wait a few weeks and catch this one at your leisure in your home.

State Of Play is rated PG-13 for some Violence, Language Including A Sexual References, and Brief Drug Use

Running time is 1 hr. 58 mins.

Efron Graduates High School Musical

Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) was a high-school basketball star with a bright future. But he threw it all away to marry his girlfriend and raise their child. Almost 20 years later, Mike's marriage has failed, his kids think he's a loser, and his job is going nowhere. He gets a chance to correct the mistakes of his past and change his life when he is miraculously transformed back into a teenager (Zac Efron), but in trying to fix his past, Mike may be jeopardizing his present and future in 17 Again.

The old age switcheroo is employed once more in this highly derivative but still moderately enjoyable comedy starring teen heartthrob Zac Efron. He plays Mike O’Donnell, who, in a prologue set in 1989, is a high school basketball star on the verge of getting a college scholarship. But just before the big game is to start, he learns that his sweetheart Scarlet (Allison Miller) is pregnant, and tosses his plans aside to marry her. Eighteen years later, Mike’s turned into Matthew Perry—a truly tragic turn of events. Even worse, Scarlet (now Leslie Mann) is divorcing him, and his kids Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight) are as distant as can be. When he’s denied an expected promotion at work, he revisits his old high school dreaming of what might have been, and a janitor-angel zaps him back to age seventeen, but in the present. He has a second chance.But of course things don’t go exactly as planned. He has the nerdy best friend with whom he’s been crashing—rich software dork Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon) claim him as a long-lost son and enroll him in the old high school again, with the intention of making a new and better future for himself. But of course his goals turn from self to his family. He helps Maggie break up with her surly brute of a boyfriend Stan (Hunter Parrish) and Alex, the class doormat, make the team and get a girl. And of course he learns that he still loves Scarlet and wants to win her back. Guess what happens when he’s faced once again with the same choice he had nearly two decades ago, at yet another final basketball game? It’s good that the essential absurdity of the premise gets the sly post-modern treatment it warrants in the offhanded remark by dorky Ned that this sort of thing is just a staple of the fantasy genre, but then the script tries stressfully to find some way to shoehorn into the narrative virtually every familiar twist and complication of the formula, and the result is too often simply ungainly (and, on a couple of occasions, borderline creepy). One gets the sense that had another draft or two been allowed, it might have turned out a smoother affair.But there’s still some pleasure to be had here, mostly because of Efron, who’s easily the best reason to see the picture. He has a basketball court dance number upfront that will satisfy all the “High School Musical” fans, but that’s hardly all he has to offer. He proves himself once more a really charismatic screen presence, handling both the physical comedy and the detours into sentiment and near-drama with as much finesse as his brings to the sports action, which is considerable. This may be more a baby-step move than a real stretch for him, but he pretty much carries things, and does so with assurance.He gets some help from the capable Leslie Mann as the grown-up and increasingly confused Scarlet, and from Trachtenberg and Knight as the kids in need of guidance from a father, even if it’s one in a seventeen-year old’s body. But entirely too much time is given over to Ned and his pursuit of school principal Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin); Lennon’s shtick as the boy who never grows up gets old faster than the transformed Mike does, and the descent into Tolkien territory between him and his quarry has a pandering tone. Even worse is the subplot involving Maggie’s romance with thuggish Stan, played dully by Parrish (the ending of which takes us into one of those slightly creepy place), as well as the sitcom stuff early on with Perry, whose reappearance at the close is mercifully brief. The inconsistency is the fault not merely of the script, but of the direction of Burr Steers. So long as Efron is at center stage, his unsteadiness of hand is trumped by the talent of the star; but elsewhere it casts a pall over the proceedings.Technically 17 Again is okay, but neither Garreth Stover’s production design nor Tim Suhrstedt’s widescreen cinematography is anything special and doesn’t provide the period punch the material would ideally invite. But the closing credits, which use the yearbook photos of crew and cast members, add an amusing touch. The upshot is a movie that’s agreeable enough because of its star, but otherwise only average. A 3 on my "Go See" scale.

Turning 17 Again Can Have It's Advantages

The theme of "17 Again" has been a favorite in Hollywood for many years, it has been told and retold with the HOT star at the time. We have had this movie told in movies aimed at girls, "Freaky Friday" and aimed at guys "Big" and here we get one aimed at teens. In 17 Again it's Zac Efron teen age heartthrob himself.

Popular high school senior Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) seemingly has it all. He is a star athlete headed straight for a college scholarship when he decides to give it up to settle down with his high school girlfriend Scarlet (Allison Miller) who it turns out is pregnant. Twenty years later, an adult Mike (Matthew Perry) finds his life is not exactly what he expected. He has spent the time blaming his wife for all his failures. He is of course now separated from, Scarlett (Leslie Mann) and is forced into living with a wealthy software genius nerd and his best friend, Ned Freedman (Thomas Lennon), his career at a pharmaceutical company is at a stand still, and his relationships with his teenage children, Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg), and Alex (Sterling Knight) is barely worth mentioning. After getting passed up for yet another promotion at work, he returns to his high school to relive his glory days, looking over his basketball awards and thinking about the life he could have had. While he is reliving his glory days, he is approached by a janitor (Brian Doyle Murray) and shares with him how things were so much better when he was 17.

As Mike is driving home from the high school, he sees the mysterious janitor standing on the ledge preparing to jump into the Los Angeles River. It's raining very hard, but Mike can still see the man on the ledge, and know who it is. Mike rushes out of his car to rescue him, but when he gets there, the janitor has vanished. Mike looks over the railing and in the water below he sees a reflection of him when he was younger. Of course Mike falls into the water, when we next see Mike he is getting out of his car and going into the shower to wash off his now muddy cloths. Mike looks up and sees himself in the mirror, his first reaction when he sees that he is now 17 again is to scream. When he goes into the other room, his friend Ned hears him walking around, when he sees Mike he thinks at first someone has broken into his apartment to rob him, and the two fight each other with gadgets and toys that Ned has collected over the years. When Ned finally believes that Mike is in fact Mike, they begin to wonder what happened and also how to reverse it.

Mike believes that his purpose is to go back to school and get the scholarship he missed out on. Mike has Ned pretend to be his father so that he can get enrolled in school again, of course when they go to enroll Mike, Ned falls for Principal Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin). When Mike goes up into the school he is at first dressed in cloths that he thinks today's teens wear, he is soon made aware of this error. Ned being the rich geek that he is, says if they are going to do this they are going to do this right. He takes Mike shopping. Once in class Mike discovers that his daughter Maggie isn't the angel he thinks she is, she is dating the basketball captain Stan (Hunter Parrish) and they make out openly in the classroom. Mike also discovers that his son Alex is the teams punching bag. One day when Mike is in the bathroom he finds Alex duct taped to the toilet and he befriends Alex, and he tries to instill him with enough confidence to join the basketball team. When Mike goes to Alex's house, which is his house, Scarlet comes home and mentions that Mike looks so much like her ex husband.

As the days pass Mike now knows he isn't young again to help himself it's to help those he gave up on in his life. Helping Alex make the team is only the beginning, Mike tries to get close to Maggie as well, but she just thinks he is kind of weird. Getting close to Scarlet is Mikes next objective, he sees the woman he fell in love with, and everything that he did to let her down. Mike realizes that he had the perfect life, but was to busy to see that, now he must find a way to get back to his adult life. The rest of the movie plays like a standard Hollywood cliche, Mike gets close to Scarlet, she is still trying to get a divorce, Alex is becoming a stronger person, Maggie is falling for dad. What? How icky is that? Unknown to Maggie, Mike is her father not someone trying to win her heart. When Stan breaks up with her, Maggie thinks Mike is trying to get close to her to date her. Later she will see Mike with Scarlet and think he is using her to get close to her mother.

Of course dad pulls himself together and turns not only his life around but also his families, now he feels he is ready to be an adult again. Making a stop at the courthouse where he is supposed to be getting a divorce, he tells the judge he has a letter from Mike, he reads this sweet letter to Scarlet telling her how much she and the kids mean to him, then he leaves. When Scarlett picks up the note Mike left behind she only sees directions written on it to the courthouse. The ending is sweet and standard Hollywood cliche, Mike turns back into the adult Mike and Scarlet runs out to him.

I give 17 again a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this movie has a lot going for it, not just Zac Efron, there is more to this light movie then just the star. It is enjoyable to watch, and it makes you laugh. When Mike realizes what he is losing and makes amends, you may just find yourself crying. Go enjoy this movie, Zac Efron the actor is getting better as he progresses. Take your family to this movie, they will all laugh at this movie, and that is what it aims for.

17 Again is rated PG-13 for Language, Some Sexual Material and Teen Partying

Running time is 1 hr. 42 mins.

Cranked Up About Jason Statham

Chev Chelios (Jason Staham) faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working in Crank 2 : High Voltage.

Despite having fallen hundreds of feet to his death at the end of the previous film, Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) remains alive after Chinese mobsters literally shovel his body off of the asphalt, remove his heart and implant a mechanical one. Escaping only to discover that his heart isn't the only organ scheduled for relocation, Chev sets out to find the guys responsible, in the process crossing paths with ex-girlfriend-turned-stripper Eve (Amy Smart); Venus (Efren Ramirez), the brother of his ex-partner; Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), who promises to return his heart to its rightful place; and Ria (Bai Ling), a psychotic prostitute whose life he saves. Unfortunately, the mechanical ticker that's keeping him going requires frequent recharging by virtually any means possible, including jumper cables, shock collars, taser guns and even static electricity, so Chev soon lights up the city with sex and violence as he tries to stay alive long enough to recover his heart and get it back into his chest. A little bit like Chelios himself, Crank: High Voltage is all muscle and no connective tissue—there's nothing truly substantial or intelligent about his or the movie's forward momentum. Scenes explode out of nowhere and dissolve into nothing just as quickly, almost never with any clear or discernible purpose except for Neveldine and Taylor to exercise some oddball creative impulse. For example, the "explanation" for Chelios' heart looks like a '50s elementary-school filmstrip, and later, a brawl at an electrical plant inexplicably turns into a showdown between Godzilla-style monsters. That said, because nothing matters except for how outrageous each moment is and how it looks while it's happening, it's hard to examine High Voltage by any serious standard, unless there's an "awesomeness/suckiness" scale for the caffeine levels in Monster energy drinks. This movie practically defines the term "hot mess," but at least it has the integrity to provide the thrill before it makes you feel a little disgusted for watching it—or wanting to, anyway. (While I endorse the film's joyful embrace of the action-movie convention that the hero never, and I mean never, gets hit by bullets, you'll forgive me for covering my eyes when the tattooed gangster slices off his own nipples as an apology for failing his mission.) As a member of the vocal minority who recommends Tony Scott's Domino as the best example of, or at least the only plot-driven entry in, this subgenre of overwrought, action-filled and style-heavy odyssey, it is nevertheless hard to begrudge Crank: High Voltage any of its excesses, because its heart is in the right place, even if the movie is literally chasing after it the whole time. Neveldine and Taylor are not especially good storytellers, but they don't seem to want to be, which makes this film and its predecessor more experiments or experiences than pieces of entertainment. Ultimately, Crank: High Voltage is the superior of the two films not because it knows it's a second helping of something that is all empty calories, but because it's simply more than the other one: more stylish, more sexy, more violent. Yes, more offensive too, but for better or worse it's just plain more ridiculous, which not only makes it more excusable, but also makes it more exhilarating. Again, Chev mows down a wide variety of ethnic stereotypes. But at least Crank: High Voltage goes about its business with a better sense of humour than Taken did. More fun are the absurd digressions and set pieces that Neveldine/Taylor cram into the proceedings with a flagrant disregard for the usual rules of time, space and continuity. Tasteless, trashy and totally over the top, Crank: High Voltage might also be one of the year's most inventive movies. Sometimes, nothing exceeds like excess. I give this one a charged up 4 on my "Go See" scale.

Crank High Voltage Is The worst Film Of 09

This movie is the reason that most executives in Hollywood should be fired. When the idea to make "Crank: High Voltage" was brought to their attention they should have bounced the writer from the room. Instead they made one of the WORST films in History. This is the type of movie that the razzies was intended for.

The film opens with a sequence designed to look like a classic video game, depicting Chev Chelios' (Jason Statham) fall from a helicopter during the final moments of the original Crank. Immediately after his fall has ended, he hits a vehicle and bounces into the street. A car drives up and several Asian gang member get out. One tries to scoop him off the street with a snow shovel. They lift him up and remove him from the scene. He wakes up in a makeshift hospital and sees doctors removing his heart, while Johnny Vang (Art Hsu) watches. He laughs at the situation in front of him, and as viewers we should all have walked out at this point . The doctors place Chev's heart in a red cooler with a padlock, and place a clear plastic artificial heart in his chest. This causes Chev to pass out. Chev comes to some time later when an Asian woman is trying to take his temperature rectally. Two doctors come in and talk about their plans to remove several of Chev's organs, including his penis. This so infuriates Chev that he beats up the doctors while staying in the hospital bed the whole time, and when he sits up, he notices a yellow battery pack is attached to him, which he leaves on, Chev stands up and walks down the hall.

The other rooms contain prostitutes, and he is able to steal a set of clothes from one of the rooms without the occupants noticing. Outside, he gets in a major gunfight and is able to get the drop on one of the shooters. Chev interrogates this thug with grease and a shotgun, the more dirty minded you are the easier it will be to believe the method Chev uses. Chev needs to learn Johnny Vang's name and his location, he finds out that Vang went to the Cypress Social Club, and then Chev sets off to look for him. Once on the road, Chev finds a phone in his pocket, and calls Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), who tells him that he has been fitted with an artificial heart. Once the external battery pack runs out, the internal battery will kick in and he will have one hour before it stops working. After the call, Chev asks a nearby driver where to find the Cypress Social Club, but crashes his car in the middle of the conversation, flying through the windshield and sliding on the ground destroys his external battery pack. In order to keep going, Chev has the driver use his jumper cables on him, and then runs to the Cypress Social Club. Upon arriving, Chev inadvertently saves a prostitute named Ria (Bai Ling) from an abusive, overly fat customer. Ria beats the customer as he lays prone on the stairs, Ria is immediately infatuated with Chev, claiming he is the Kevin Costner to her Whitney Houston.

Vang escapes still carrying the red, padlocked cooler and Chev wants nothing to do with Ria, but she claims to know where Vang is. She takes Chev to "Strip Please", where Chev is shocked to find his old girlfriend Eve Lydon (Amy Smart). In a back room, Vang has been cornered by a group of Mexican gangsters, led by Chico (Joseph Julian Soria), who shows he means business by chopping off a man's elbow. Vang agrees to let them have Chev. He isn't in any condition to fight the Mexicans. Seconds later Chev is confronted by the Mexicans, and a gunfight breaks out. Everyone gets gunned down by Chev, and a female stripper, everyone that is except Chico, who escapes out a back door. Chev interrogates a wounded gangster, who informs him that it is El Huron (Clifton Collins, Jr.) who wants to kill him, but doesn't know why. Chev picks up Eve and they walk out. Outside, he is met by a group of cops, who begin beating on him. He is by now so weakened, but of course one of them inadvertently charges Chev up by using a taser on him. Chev gets up beats all the cops up and steals a cop car, putting Eve in the back with another stripper, who tells Chev that he should look at the Hollywood Park racetrack for Johnny Vang.

They encounter a group of porn stars protesting low wages, and Chev is forced to run away when another squad car pulls up next to them, leaving Eve in the back of the cop car. In a nearby park, Chev steals an electric dog collar from a gay couple and uses it to zap himself. Chev is about to be picked up by cops when he is picked up by a guy on a motorcycle. Venus (Efren Ramirez), who reveals himself to be Kaylo's brother. He also has Full Body Tourette's Syndrome. At first, Chev tells Venus that everyone responsible for his brother's death is dead, but this prompts Venus to leave. Wanting his help, Chev tells Venus that El Huron was involved but escaped. At the horse tracks, Chev is losing energy. He calls Doc Miles and learns that the heart can be charged through the skin by means of friction. He rubs up on a couple of racetrack patrons (including Chester Benington) but finally Eve shows up and she really helps stimulate Chev. They have sex on the racetrack while the crowd cheers, and Chev is restored to full energy. Chev spots Vang and once again leaves Eve behind and chases Vang through the parking garage. Vang escapes, however, and Chev is about to be subdued by security when Don Kim, the Chinese gangster who saved Chev's life in the first film, picks Chev up in his limo. Don Kim informs Chev that there is a leader in the Triads named Poon Dong (David Carradine), who was in need of a heart transplant. When he heard of Chev's ability to withstand the Chinese adrenaline poison, he put out an order for Chev's heart. Don Kim then tells Chev that he wishes to return him to Poon Dong for a reward. Upon hearing this, Chev kills all of Don Kim's henchmen, including the limo driver, and shoots Don Kim several times. The limo then crashes, and Chev steals another car.

Meanwhile, Eve is arrested, and Venus calls in Orlando (Reno Wilson) to assist in tracking down El Huron. Chico reports his failure to El Huron, who forces Chico to cut off his own nipples. While driving, Chev is cut off by an ambulance. He boards the ambulance and is surprised to see the EMTs are working on Don Kim. He demands a new battery pack for his artificial heart, and the EMT is forced to stop working while he hooks it up. Don Kim dies, and Chev exits the limo upon seeing Johnny Vang on the street outside. Chev chases Vang after Ria, who was trying to get Chev's attention is hit by a car, the three Asian gang members run firing at Chev, the car that Vang was walking to takes off leaving him behind, Chev chases Vang into an electrical power plant. The fight between the two, is one of the most stupid fight scenes in movie history. Upon winning this fight, Chev discovers that Vang's red cooler holds something other than his heart, just what it is, we never find out.

Chev calls Doc Miles again, and learns that his heart is already transplanted into Poon Dong, but say that he promises to find him for Chev. Chev goes to ask Johnny Vang, but Johnny Vang is shot and killed by Chico, and they knock Chev unconscious. Eve is interrogated by police, but refuses to rat Chev out. Doc Miles uses his assistant Chocolate to lure Poon Dong in, and knocks him out. Chev is awakened by electric shocks to his testicles, and is dragged by speedboat to an island where El Huron awaits. El Huron explains to Chev that he is the third Verona brother, and is very upset that Chev killed Ricky (Jose Pablo Cantillo) and Alex Verona (Jay Xcala). He says he is going to kill Chev, removing his new battery pack, but there is someone who will enjoy watching it, and drags Chev over to a white tent in the pool area, where he reveals Ricky Verona's head, being kept alive in a tank by a group of scientists. Chev is whipped for Verona's pleasure, and is about to die when Orlando, Venus, and Ria show up, each with their own group of gunfighters, and chaos breaks out. Venus attempts to take El Huron down with nunchakus. Chev smashes open Verona's tank and kicks his head into a pond when it demands water, but starts to slow down. He climbs an electric pylon nearby and grabs the wires to recharge, but is flung off of it upon contact. Venus is fighting El Huron and is about to lose when Chev reappears, still partially on fire from the electricity. He beats El Huron to death, and throws his body in the pond next to Ricky's head.

In a hallucinogenic state, Chev then tries to hug Ria, thinking she is Eve, but accidentally sets her on fire as well, and she runs off screaming. His flesh burning and his face melting, Chev walks towards the camera, giving the middle finger to the audience in the final moment of the film. This is the literal FINGER, we have been sitting through a movie that has been giving us the finger right from the start. Doc Miles places Chev's heart back in his chest, while Eve watches. At first everyone thinks he has failed, and they file out of the room, the camera closes in on Chev's face and his eye opens, this can only mean one thing, a third stupid movie.

I give Crank: High Voltage a 0 and on my avoidance scale a 3. This is the type of movie that once it starts you start looking at your watch. Its only a little longer than ninety minutes but it will feel like the longest ninety minutes of your life. There is nothing in this movie that you will walk away from believing.

Crank: High Voltage is rated R for Frenetic Strong Bloody Violence Throughout, Crude and Graphic Sexual Content, Nudity and Pervasive Language

Running time is 1 hr. 35 mins.

Seeing Earth With The Help Of Disneynature

The first film in the Disneynature series, earth, narrated by James Earl Jones, tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we all call home. "earth combines rare action, unimaginable scale and impossible locations by capturing the most intimate moments of our planet's wildest and most elusive creatures. Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award-winning "Planet Earth," combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen, beginning Earth Day 2009.

Perspective is what you get with a vengeance while watching Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield’s breathlessly photographed “Earth,” with Leslie Megahey, Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield’s script intoned dramatically and sometimes humorously by the great James Earl Jones. This is the kind of film that could make you toss away your $150 digital camera or $800 camcorder and leave photography to the pros. The real pros behind the lenses, Richard Brooks Burton, Mike Holding and Andrew Shillabeer, backed up by George Fenton’s original music, all of which punctuates particular behavior by specific animals, make this a must-see for nature lovers and for Wall Street executives alike. Thematically, though, there is nothing especially new about Earth, though if you’ve been an avid fan of the Discovery Channel, you get to see a variety of our fellow animals on the big screen. There are one criticism I have, so i'll get it out of the way: the cameras cut away just as attack animals are about to consume their hunting successes, thereby, perhaps, garnering a “G” rating where a “PG” would otherwise have been mandated. Taking us from the frozen Arctic to the scorching Kalahari Desert, from the tropical rain forests of New Guinea and back to the Arctic, Fothergill and Linfield dazzle even the veterans of Discovery Channel viewing, not only in showing us the beauty of one particular bird doing a mating dance that would have seduced me but did not succeed with his date, but focusing as well on the search of some aggressive animals for meals, some successful others tragically not. For example, when a polar bear known as “the father” gets out for some Arctic air after hibernating for six months, he’s pretty hungry. He searches for walrus meat, not choosy about getting it grilled, baked, broiled, boiled or fried so long as it’s fresh. He climbs on the back of a big one as the herd back away in cowardly fashion, trying to dislodge her to get at her little one. By not succeeding in what amounts to his final plunge, he rolls over, destined to starve to death. A wolf has better luck with a member of the antelope family, again, a youthful member that gets separated from the pack. While narrator Jones notes that these food critters can outrun lupines, this one must have been the exception. Again the camera turns away rather than showing some blood. The scenes of big animals (including sharks) chasing food make one think: where is a weak animal better off: in the jungle or in the zoo? Of course zoos afford protection to their guests, but I see things the way the PETA does. Better to live at risk in the natural state where the animals can do what their species implants them to do than to be safe behind bars for life. That’s easy for me to say, though. I rather enjoyed Earth and I give it a 4 on my "Go See" scale.

Once Again Disney Brings Earth's Majesty To Life

Feature-length version of the documentary TV series Planet Earth is brought to the big screen by Disney nature. "Earth" is the first in a line of several movies that Disney has dedicated to the environment. In 2010 they will release the second one "Oceans" Why do we need these types of movies? Does anyone really pay attention to what is going on ? Not really. That's why a movie that is entertaining as well as informative is necessary. Earth mainly follows three families, A mother Polar Bear and her two cubs, a pack of Indian Elephants, and a Humpback Whale and her cub. The Polar Bear is my favorite animal, why? I'm not sure really, I think its the fact that the bear is really black but looks white, its one thing but looks another, and that's always intrigued me.

The movie opens with the story of the mother Polar Bear and how she spends the winter in her den with her cubs, the baby bears are playful, but the mother who hasn't eaten in months is weak. The father bear is out looking for food, and forgets he has a family to feed, such is the nature of the beast. The mother bear knowing the father will forget tries to rest her playful cubs together so they can trek to the area where the father hunts so they too can eat. Next we see the Indian Elephants as they trek across Africa's driest region looking for water. They travel hundreds of miles, the predators they face are as daunting to them as they are to the predators. In one scene a den of Lions attacks the herd, the herd protects the baby's but once the whole herd attacks even the adult elephants can't defend themselves. The next family that we see is the Humpback Whale. We learn that the mother teaches her cub to swim by swimming in more shallow waters, and once the baby picks up the ability to swim alone they travel thousands of miles to an area in the Arctic where they can eat there fill of shrimp. The journey across the globe for these huge whales isn't easy they are huge but the predators of the ocean are ferocious as well.

We see Great White Sharks in their element, and they are as scary as we can imagine them to be. This movie isn't about just these three families, we learn about others as well, we learn about forests that produce over ninety percent of the Earths oxygen, we see baby ducks getting their first flying lessons, how cute is that? Its down right adorable. One thing that is good about this movie is that it isn't all doom and gloom, they don't beat us up when they tell us what is happening. In one scene we see the father Polar Bear as the ice is breaking up and he is struggling to get traction to make it back to land, we hear that the rise in temperature is melting the ice faster every year. When the father bear is trapped and can't make it back, we know whats going to happen but we watch anyway, when he falls into the ocean and is forced to swim for several days to make it to shore we feel ourselves holding our breath. when he makes it to shore we think YES, but he is to weak from swimming for so long that he can't even get to the food, even though its right there in front of him. When he collapses from lack of food we know it's over.

This is a nature movie so be warned there are a few scenes of animals chasing down and attacking other animals, some get away, some don't. The camera doesn't shy away from the daily life of these animals, but they also don't show the death's of most of these animals. I give Earth a 4 and on my avoidance scale a 0, take your family to see this movie, it is breathtaking and informative at the same time.

Earth is rated G

Running time is 1 hr 30 mins.

This Violet Bloomed Beautifully

Based on true events in the midst of the 2000 election, American Violet tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie), a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely making ends meet on a waitress’ salary and government subsidies. On an early November morning while Dee works a shift at the local diner, the powerful local district attorney leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her Arlington Springs housing project with military precision. Police drag Dee from work in handcuffs, dumping her in the squalor of the women’s county prison. Indicted based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges, Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer. She is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison and fight the charges thus, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence.

Samuel Goldwyn Films is an independent studio known for releasing films considered to be arty: those which take risks, are adventurous, different from the mainstream, for select audiences. American Violet may be an exception to the rule. There is everything mainstream about its theme, its heroes, its villains, its goal to elicit from the audience heartbreaks and tears, smiles and even joy at the victories of the good guys. Goldwyn policies or not, Tim Disney’s film is one to be welcomed. Since this is based on a true story, we are not spoiling audience expectations by relating an outcome that will be welcomed by all people of good spirit and intentions. Moreover the film is anchored by a stunning performance from newcomer Nicole Beharie, actually her second role but the first that brings her remarkable talents to the fore. While we like to think that our country has come a long way in the fight for racial justice—and it most certainly has—there are pockets of resistance weighing heaviest, perhaps, in small towns, particularly in the South. Melody, Texas, the area of all the story’s actions, is a village so rural that not even Google carries a listing. This is a town run not by its mayor but by its district attorney, a racist who has the judges on his side, the police in his pocket. Under his direction, the police repeatedly make raids on projects in the poorest sections of the town, those which are inhabited almost one hundred percent by people of color. And while petty larcenies like shoplifting are prosecuted with some fervor, the principal crime that provides residents for the county jail is the peddling of drugs, particularly crack cocaine. With the help of what some southerners would call a damn Yankee (a Jewish fellow at that) and the reluctant cooperation of a resident who, despite having to live in the town with friends he’d rather not alienate, the case against one brave individual was one that the D.A. should never have pressed. This individual, Dee Roberts (Beharie), is a single mother of four who is picked up by the police on a daring raid on her housing project, an action netting some who may well be guilty of drug trafficking but which nets Dee on a drug selling charge because of the testimony of a single resident. Though she has done nothing, her mother, Alma (Alfre Woodard), urges her to cop a plea, as does her appointed lawyer, to abort a potential 16-25 year sentence: one which would require her to plead guilty, get ten years’ probation, but which would brand her a felon and result in her being evicted with her kids from the project. Harassed on one side by the abusive father (Xzibit) of two of her children and on the other by a overzealous D.A., Calvin Beckett (Michael O’Keefe), she weighs the plea offer but is dissuaded by David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) who is sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to persuade Dee to sue the D.A. The best defense is a good offense. With the not entirely enthusiastic help of former assistant D.A. Sam Conroy (Will Patton), they call Calvin Beckett into legal chambers during a deposition with the hope of impeaching his credibility. The intimate details of her lengthy ordeal, set against the backdrop of that landmark case, is the subject of American Violet, a gripping dramatization of the events surrounding the sad tragedy which ruined many a family. We see that before being framed for a crime she didn't commit, Dee had been getting along if not exactly flourishing, caring for her girls while trying to save enough money from waitressing to study cosmetology someday. But afterwards, she's soon without the financial resources or the emotional support needed to handle the situation. In matter-of-fact fashion, this brilliant bio-pic effectively illustrates the likely fallout visited upon a law-abiding but unsophisticated person like Dee up against an impersonal legal justice system unconcerned with the truth. For when she is falsely accused of distributing narcotics and held on $70,000 bail, the ripple effect of the ensuing nightmare means that she stands to lose her dignity, her job, her savings and custody of her children in fast order. American Violet boasts solid ensemble performances, including one by Malcolm Barrett in the role of Byron Hill, a lawyer who most of the time is a silent participant to the proceedings but whose fury is unleashed during the second half of the movie with resonant effect. In a plot twist, some testimony that appears to come out of nowhere, a dues ex machine if you will, Hill does what everyone in the audience prays he will do. During the movie’s epilogue, we learn that the D.A. in real life has been re-elected, presumably—as implied by the script—because many of the town’s African Americans have police records and are unable to vote while at the same time the whites in the burg just may not be entirely opposed to racist tactics. Director Disney does not hide his liberal inclinations, now and then showing us some file film of the tainted election of 2000—by which he just might imply that the corruption endemic to the town of Melody, TX can be found in the American justice system at the very highest level. I give this one a 4 on my "Go See" scale"

This American Violet Blooms Amid The Chaos

Movies based on true stories seldom give us a taste of the characters life, they present the story in a style that shows one version. Most of the time we buy into that, but in "American Violet" we see the story unfold and play out, and then we see the struggle the characters go through. Very seldom do we get this type of story and feel the emotions coming from the character, American Violet gives us the story with emotion and heart.

Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie) works in a small diner, she has been there seven years, the owner is a white woman who thinks the world of Dee. District Attorney Calvin Beckett (Michael O' Keefe) wants results for his drug task force. Alma Roberts (Alfre Woodard) lives in the same housing project that Dee does, and watches Dee's three children. Also in the same project is the father of two of Dee's little girls, Darrell Hughes (Xzibit). Dee doesn't want the girls around Darrell because he lives with a woman accused of child molestation. Beckett has the drug task force raid the projects one morning, they drive up in U Haul trucks and make several arrests. Then they go into the diner where Dee is at work and arrest her. She thinks it's because of unpaid parking tickets, the owner offers to pay the tickets for Dee. When Dee is taken before the court she is given a public defender, David Higgins (Paul David Story), we all know the case loads of public defenders are astronomical, but this guy seems to be in the dark. Dee is wrongfully arrested for drug trafficking near a school. When she meets with the public defender and the states attorney they offer her a bargain, plead guilty and get a ten year suspended sentence.

Dee feels this is something she can't do. Alma goes around to the town's people and asks them to sign a petition to lower Dee's bail, Reverend Sanders (Charles S Dutton) brings in an ACLU lawyer, David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) and his aide Byron White (Malcolm Barrett). Their first order of business is to get the former assistant DA Sam Conroy (Will Patton) to help sue not only the drug task force but the police AND the District Attorney, Calvin Beckett. They tell Dee that pleading guilty will result in her being thrown out of her home and maybe losing her children. Dee decides to not take a plea bargain in her case and instead to go ahead and sue the police involved in the raid.

The legal focus of the film does tend to bounce around from one issue to another, the problems of forced plea bargaining, the misuse of Federal drug task forces, the use of dishonest informants, the problem of fighting a war on drugs, and than finally focusing on the blatant racism of District Attorney Beckett. All of these issues are certainly present in the criminal justice system, but the relationship and role of each is often confusingly presented and blurs the legal focus of the film. Nevertheless, the story remains true, and their presentation is a potent and powerful one. Alma feels going up against such strong men will backfire for Dee, but having no options at the time she is forced into the suit. Trying to find work Dee goes from place to place, with the arrest on her record, Dee has little choice in job prospects. Finding a job in a Mexican diner Dee thinks things are looking up. One day she returns to find that Darrell has his daughters. Dee freaking out pounds on the door and is taunted by Darrell's girlfriend, Dee running down the stairs starts kicking Darrell's truck, he calls the police and Dee is again arrested, although the ACLU is able to get this charge dropped, it looks bad for Dee. Darrell feels that he deserves to have custody of his daughters and sues Dee for that right. Of course DA Beckett is the judge in family court. In a change of pace Beckett allows Dee to keep her children, while this is going on Sam, Byron and David are holding depositions in Dee's case. They question the lone informant the police used to gather names, they question the police, and even Beckett himself.

Throwing a surprise at Beckett, we knew one was coming, Dee's lawyers get her case before a judge that doesn't owe Beckett any favors. Dee wins her case, the drug task force is broken up but Beckett escapes "justice." Beckett runs for reelection and wins, he of course is keeping the town safe after all.

I give American Violet a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this movie should be seen, it isn't overly racist, but some of the tones of the movie are. Still I would encourage ever one to see this movie. Go out and enjoy this movie, take your family they may walk away enlightened.

American Violet is rated PG-13 for Thematic Material, Violence, Drug References and Language

Running time is 1 hr. 43 mins.

A Different Dragonball Than I Remember

Goku and a handful of friends battle for the Earth against the deadly forces of the Saiyans, who are sweeping across the universe, leaving a path of destruction. Goku and his friends' best chance for survival rests with the Namekian DragonBalls , which provide them the power to summon a mighty dragon in Dragonball Evolution.

The inexplicably Caucasian (and eternal bad-hair-day victim) teenage martial-arts master Goku (Justin Chatwin) must collect seven mystical Dragon Balls before evil green-skinned alien Piccolo (James Marsters)—who has somehow been freed from eternal imprisonment—can get to them first and bring about the apocalypse. If this makes no sense to you, you're not alone. Only fans of the source material have any hope of figuring this film out. It always seemed like a strange idea to adapt the super-stylized Japanese comic/cartoon characters of the Dragonball series into live action. Much like, say, Dr. Seuss drawings (and we saw where Jim Carrey and Mike Myers took us with those), the caricatured martial arts fighters of the manga never looked much like real humans, and the ever-convoluted storylines always seemed to boil down to badly drawn kids with awful hairstyles throwing energy balls at each other. If the above sounds like a gross oversimplification, maybe you will get something out of this bizarre live-action movie, but the average filmgoer is likely to be baffled. Set in some nondescript country that incorporates American and Japanese characters (while actually being shot in Mexico), Once upon a time 2,000 years ago, a powerful green-skinned baddie named Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) and his gnarly brutal henchman Oozaru were finally defeated in an epic battle and imprisoned deep within the planet, which has since been at peace. Until now, of course. Our hero is just-turned-18 Goku, played by Justin Chatwin, looking all of his 28 years. He lives with his grandpa (Randall Duk Kim), who has been training him in magical martial arts that we assume will come in handy once he meets his destiny. For his birthday, grandpa gives him a family heirloom - a dragonball (roughly the size of a pool ball) that will grant a perfect wish when in the company of the six other dragonballs scattered around the world. Meanwhile, Lord Piccolo has re-emerged on the scene - exactly how or why is not explained - and is on a dragonball hunt of his own. We assume his "perfect wish" is the destruction of mankind or something like that. Back in teen land, Goku pockets his dragonball before hitting a house party, where he impresses Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) with his smooth moves i.e. "fighting" a pack of stereotypical bullies by ducking their blows so they slam into each other. Kind of cool. But his spidey senses start tingling and he rushes home to find grandpa lying under the rubble of the house (Piccolo's dirty work). Grandpa's last few words are a to-do list for Goku: Protect the dragonball, find the other six to stop Piccolo, find Master Roshi (Yun-Fat Chow) to complete his training and remember to "be yourself." If this were an Asian movie, you'd understand the oddness of the tale—surely something must be lost in translation? But no. In English, released by a major studio, this is somehow expected to appeal to the masses. Admittedly, it's never boring...but nor is it ever logical, coherent, rational, etc. It's fun in a train-wreck kind of way, and possibly makes sense to those who know the source, but recommending this to anyone else would be a bad idea. I, for one know the main source material. Akira Toriyama's Japanese manga series Dragon Ball (serialized from 1984-1995) has proved enduringly popular worldwide thanks to numerous anime films, TV series and video-game spinoffs over the years. No surprise that a major Hollywood studio, wanting to tap into that global fandom with a live-action feature, comes up with Dragonball Evolution - a silly, sometimes sloppy popcorn-light flick that may tickle a few teenyboppers. A mythology that has unfolded over many years of comics, films and TV series is obviously a challenge to condense into one feature. So Dragonball Evolution opens with the requisite voiceover, accompanied by cheap-looking computer animation, quickly laying out the basic background. The final stand-off with Piccolo delivers a nifty psychological plot twist that at least honors the more cerebral side of the original manga series. James Wong keeps the whole enterprise moving at a good pace and there are a few entertaining fight scenes. But there is also uneven CGI, bad dialogue and a host of clichéd moments that make Dragonball Evolution just another disappointing matinee movie.I was expecting it to be so much more, but like they say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" some cartoons should stay cartoons. A saddened 2 on my "Go See" scale.

Evolution? What Evolution.

Comic book movies either work well on screen or they turn out to be trash, like "Dragonball: Evolution". This is one of the worst movies of 2009, whoever came up with the idea to make this movie, should have just kept it to themselves. Since they didn't and someone thought thisidea would sell, we get this film that is smells worse than week old garbage.

The movie starts with the geek kid Goku (Justin Chatwin) going through his daily routine, being mainly ignored in school except by the bullies. Doing his martial arts training with his grandfather Gohan (Randall Duk Kim). One day in school he helps a girl that he has a crush on open her locker with some mystical force he can control, Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) knows how Goku opened the locker because she is also training in the same arts. She invites Goku to a party at her house. He goes and right away has the school bullies attacking him, using his ability to evade the bullies punches, Goku defeats them by letting them beat each other up. During the party, which happens to fall on Goku's eighteenth birthday, Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) who has escaped from his prison and is searching for the elusive dragonballs, there are seven of them hidden around the world, attacks grandpa Gohan's house. Aiding Picolo in his search is Mai (Eriko Tamura), the evil duo destroys the house and takes the dragonball, imploding the house after they leave, Lord Picolo thinks he has killed Gohan, back at the party Goku senses that grandpa is in trouble runs back to their house, seeing it is flattened, he calls out to his grandfather. Finding him near death Goku is told to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat) to stop Picolo from getting the seven dragonballs.

To make matters worse a third person is looking for the dragonballs, Bulma (Emmy Rossum) not knowing if Goku is friendly or not just decides to fire on him. Goku convinces her that he is a friend joins her on the quest to find the dragonballs and stop Picolo. Making their way to where they think Master Roshi lives they find him and are attacked by him, neither knows who the other is, Roshi knows the fighting technique used by Goku and realizes who he is. Setting out to stop Picolo the three are soon trapped in a desert hole, offering to help them out is Yamcha (Joon Park) he wants a portion of their money. Bulma tells him that when she gets all seven dragonballs, she will create the worlds next best energy source and become rich, she offers him a split of the money, if he helps them find the dragonballs. The group, now four sets out to find Picolo. When they get to a place Roshi says is private, they run into a group of martial arts trainees practicing for an upcoming tournament.

OF course Goku runs into Chi Chi and she joins them on the quest. Picolo is grabbing the dragonballs one after the other, of course Goku and Picolo will meet and fight, the rest of the story makes as little sense as the beginning does, this movie is stupid and because it makes little sense, fans of the manga won't even enjoy this movie, Lord Picolo looks like someone that others would laugh at instead of fear, at least make the villain look evil.

I give Dragonball: Evolution a 0 and on my avoidance scale a great big 4, avoid this stupid childish movie at all cost, and as far as the title goes, they give us a twenty second explanation of the EVOLUTION of the dragonballs, then they jump right into this stupid movie.

Dragonball: Evolution is rated PG for Intense Sequences of Action/Violence and Brief Mild Language

Running time is 1 hr. 25 mins.

I Went On A Great Journey With Up

Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner), a 78-year-old balloon salesman, finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai). From the Academy Award nominated director Pete Docter, Disney Pixar’s Up invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth. Up will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D in select theaters.

Little Carl Fredricksen idolizes explorer Charles Muntz. His dream to be just like him and explore South America is his destiny, but it's not just his dream. He soon meets Ellie, a spunky girl who longs to travel to South America and wants to have a home built at the top of Paradise Falls. Like all little kids do, they dream big, but they also fall in love and get married. Over the years they continue to plan for their trip to South America, but life takes its toll and Ellie passes away. Now Carl is all alone at the age of 78 in the house that he and Ellie built, all the while new buildings are popping up all around him. He refuses to sell his house to the developers. One morning a Junior Wilderness Explorer named Russell arrives on his doorstep looking to help an elderly person to get his last wilderness badge. When Carl turns down help of any kind from Russell he then decides to send him on his own journey to find the elusive Snipe. Soon after there is an incident where Carl is forced out of his house and into a retirement home. Instead of going, he decides to fufill his promise to his wife of going to South America by tying thousands of balloons to his roof. He's in the air and ready for his journey when he hears an unexpected knock at his door. He finds out that he has a stowaway, the optimistic and overly eager Russell. While searching for the snipe he ended up under Carl's porch at the point of liftoff. Carl is reluctant to have Russell on this journey and his first reaction is to send him home until they are caught in a thunderstorm. Carl jumps to protect his precious belongings and when he gets tired and falls asleep Russell is left to steer. When he finally wakes Carl up they find out that they have made it to their destination, albeit a few miles away from the top of Paradise Falls. With the help of Russell, Carl makes his journey to take his and Ellie's house to the correct spot. Still being held up with balloons, Carl and Russell weigh it down and make their journey to the spot right next to the waterfall. During their trek they meet a rare bird. The same bird that Charles Muntz is looking for. Muntz has sent dogs out to search for this bird with limited results. The bird instantly takes a liking to Russell who finds out that he likes chocolate. Russell names it Kevin and asks if he could keep it. Carl doesn't want it with them, but it follows anyway. Soon, they come across a dog with a weird collar and they find out that with this collar he has the ability to talk. He is one of Muntz's trained dogs that are out looking for the bird. His name is Dug and he wants to take Kevin as his prisoner. Dug takes a liking to Carl because he treats him a little better than Muntz and the leader of the pack Alpha. He's pretty much the outcast because he's not the smartest out of the bunch. When Alpha contacts Dug and finds out that he has the bird in custody he along with Beta and Gamma go after the bird and Dug. When the bird gets away Alpha gets infuriated with Dug and puts him in the Cone of Shame and at the same time we found out that Muntz is alive and well is still searching for the elusive bird. Kevin is back with Carl and Russell until Alpha goes after the bird again. When he runs Alpha leads Carl and Russell to Muntz and Carl is excited to see his long time hero. Muntz is very hospitable until he finds out that the very bird that he's looking for has been following Carl. He instructs Alpha to capture the bird at all costs and when he succeeds it's up to Russell and Carl to come to the rescue. I won't give away the ending, but with it being a Disney Pixar movie you can expect a happy ending. This movie was very fun to watch, even though the beginning was a bit sad. The animation and voice acting was incredible. Some scenes may be too scary for the youngest of the young, but otherwise its a treat for all. The combination of young and old was done nicely. The overly enthusiastic kid and the grumpy old man, despite the age difference go great together. Take your kids and enjoy this journey along with them. You will not be disappointed. A joyous 4 on my "Go See" scale.

WTF? Moment : When Carl launches his balloons and takes off we see a shot of the front of the house, but awhile after liftoff we hear a knock at the door and it's Russell. Where did he come from? He WAS NOT on the porch when the house took off. How is it explained? He claims that he was under the porch chasing what he thought was a snipe. It's highly unlikely that he was under the porch and made it to the front door after liftoff. 

I Got Swept Away With Up

When a studio knows it has a hit on its hands they will sometimes have a very early advance screening, such was the case when my partner and I saw Disney Pixar's "Up". Screening this early shows just how smart a movie company can be. Unlike Monsters Vs. Aliens, some of Ups story is a little dark for younger children, most wont understand the significance of what happens early in the movie, although sadly a few will.

The movie opens as a young Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) is watching a movie of explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), as he is declared a fraud, Muntz claims he found a rare bird, scientists, unable to put together the bones decide that the bird is a fake. Muntz so enraged takes his dogs and says he is going to capture a live specimen and wont return until he does so. Carl returning home finds Ellie in an abandoned house playing, the two meet and it seems fate has found the perfect couple, getting married Carl and Ellie dream of going to South America and living near a waterfall. Carl sells balloons at the zoo, life passes the couple by, and as fate is fickle, Carl is soon all alone, the fast pace of life catches up with Carl when he mistakenly assaults a construction worker. Carl is declared a menace and is forced to move into a retirement home, but he decides that his promise to Ellie must be filled, so taking some of his balloons he ties several thousand to his chimney and lifts off.

Soon after lifting off Carl is surprised to hear knocking on his door, he opens it to find Wilderness Explorer Scout Russell (Jordan Nagai) standing on his porch. deciding he must return and take Russell home, The house is drawn into a severe storm, Carl is knocked out and Russell takes the house to a spot where they can slide down a garden hose and explore where they are. the two are soon met by Dug (Bob Petterson) who is as lovable a dog as he is inept as a watchdog, Dug wears a collar that translates his thoughts into comical sounding English, and Kevin a bird so unique that Russell wants to keep it. Seeing the falls are close Carl decides that he and Russell can take the hose and tie themselves to it and just walk the house to the falls, Dug and Kevin follow them, as they make their way closer to the falls. Also looking for Kevin are several other dogs. lead by Alpha, whose collar is broken which causes his voice to be high pitched, also with him are Betta and Gamma two other dogs who think it's funny Dug is looking for the bird alone.

Unknown to any of the three dogs Dug has already found the rare bird and Russell, who the others call the little mailman. Being trapped and cornered by the dogs Carl and Russell are taken to a cave where they meet Charles Muntz in the flesh, still looking to prove his bird was real, when Carl tells Muntz that he was a big fan of his, Muntz tells the dogs that both Carl and Russell are now his guests. Once aboard Muntz's airship the two are offered dinner, Russell inadvertently lets it slip that the bird Muntz is looking for is his new friend Kevin. Muntz feels betrayed by Carl and the two slowly make their way out of Muntz's airship. Now Carl and Russell feel that they need to help Kevin - who it turns out is female and the mommy of several small birds - get back to his nest. Setting off Muntz and his band of dogs chase and capture Kevin, feeling used up but not ready to give in Carl decides that Ellie would have wanted him to continue his new adventure, finding Dug once again Carl notices Russell has taken some balloons and set off to rescue his new best friend, Carl lightens the house by throwing all of the furniture out, once again the house becomes airborne and Carl gives chase.

Russell has been tied to a chair and is slowly falling out of the airship, Carl seeing this saves him just in time, once Carl makes his way onto the airship, Carl and Dug make their way to where Muntz is keeping his new discovery, Carl sees that Alpha has left several dogs to guard Kevin, takes a tennis ball from his walker and throws it out in the hallway, the dogs, being dogs give chase. Carl frees Kevin and starts to make his way to get off the ship, Muntz attacks Carl and the two fight it out over Kevin, unknown to Carl, Russell has gotten back aboard the ship, Alpha thinks that it is time he dealt with Dug once and for all, it is a short fight, Dug betters Alpha by slamming the cone of shame around his neck. Russell is attacked by several of Alpha's hence dogs and barely manages to best them.The group that is now four make it back to the ground and Kevin is reunited with her family. Once back home Russell is awarded the highest medal Carl can give him, the Ellie Badge. The movie ends with the two sitting outside an ice cream shop counting cars.

I give Up a high 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0. This is one of the best Pixar movies that has come out in awhile, the4 beginning has you thinking that maybe the kids next to you wont be entertained, that idea will disappear rather quickly, and you may find that it is you that is the one being entertained. Giving the idea of family movies a boost, Up will be on most every ones best list at the end of the year.Take the neighbors kids, take your kids, heck take the kid in you to see this wonderful movie.

Up is rated PG for Some Peril and Action

Running time is 1 hr. 29 mins.

I Was Very Surprised To Find Out That Hannah Montana Really Does Rock

Director Peter Chelsom takes the Disney Channel phenom to the big screen in a feature film extravaganza. Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) struggles to juggle school, friends and her secret pop-star persona; when Hannah Montana's soaring popularity threatens to take over her life – she just might let it. So her father (Billy Ray Cyrus) takes the teen home to Crowley Corners, Tenn., for a dose of reality, kicking off an adventure filled with the kind of fun, laughter and romance even Hannah Montana couldn't imagine in Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Even if you live in a cave or loathe little girls, you've probably heard of Hannah Montana. The pop-star alter ego of regular gal Miley Stewart (Cyrus) and the title character of the wildly popular Disney Channel series sashays back to the bigscreen without missing a beat in Hannah Montana: The Movie. Widely accessible even to neophytes, the G-rated pic is innocuous fare that should score big with tween girls, as well as those parents seeking age-appropriate role models for their daughters. The pic's theatrical release -- sandwiched between Cyrus' sold-out 2008 tour and 3-D concert film, and the upcoming publication of her memoirs (at age 16) -- seems poised to maximize existing Miley-mania. Propelled by the younger Cyrus' charisma and undeniable talent, the Peter Chelsom-helmed film looks to be another smart move in a career thoughtfully shepherded by her father. A kind of meta-commentary, at least in part, on the "Hannah" phenomenon, the pic kicks off with Miley trying to get into a concert -- her own --with best pal Lilly (Emily Osment), while Miley's dad Robby Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus, of course) fumes backstage over her late arrival. Hijacking a golf cart, the girls zoom past clueless security guards (unaware, like everyone else, that Miley and Hannah are the same girl), greet Dad and transform mild-mannered Miley into Hannah (with the help of blonde wig, false lashes, sequins and heels) in time for her show. Busy moonlighting in Hannah Montana musicvideos and jetting off to awards shows, Miley barely has time for friends or family anymore; the Hannah character and celebrity obligations have overtaken her life. After Miley/Hannah nearly ruins Lilly's sweet-16 bash and is a no-show at her brother Jackson's (Jason Earles) college sendoff, Robby Ray hauls her off to Tennessee for a dose of reality, promising to turn the pampered Malibu starlet back into a country girl. Despite Miley's strenuous objections, Dad insists she'll have to spend two weeks in rural Crowley's Corners, helping on the farm owned by her no-nonsense grandma (Margo Martindale). After much initial grousing, Miley begins to warm to the task. It doesn't hurt that there's a cute (but entirely nonthreatening) ranch hand named Travis (Lucas Till) around, or that widower Robby Ray has caught the eye of the lovely Lorelai (Melora Hardin). But of course, villains of the G-rated variety lurk nearby: an aggressive tabloid journalist (Peter Gunn), grasping for dirt on Hannah; and a greedy developer (Barry Bostwick) who plans to turn Crowley's Corners into a shopping destination. ("Will there be a Bloomingdale's?" Miley asks hopefully, before realizing a mall would extinguish Crowley's small-town charm.) Mayhem and pratfalls ensue at the expense of these two baddies, including the old hot/mild sauce switcheroo and a couple of nips by a hungry alligator; all the hijinks are played for laughs and, while bordering on tedious, will appeal especially to younger audiences. Several pleasing musical numbers act to both advance the story and help bridge gaps, including a rousing, toe-tapping, line-dancing hoedown led by Miley in an effort to raise funds to stave off the developer. But apparently, only a concert by Hannah Montana herself -- engineered by Miley, her publicist (Vanessa Williams) and Lilly -- can command the kind of audience that might save the town. An 11th-hour identity crisis has Miley/Hannah trying to figure out who she really wants to be, and settling on a compromise that should ultimately satisfy her fans. The same is certainly true of the pic, a goofily endearing romp that might even lasso a few new fans. I may even be one of those new fans, but i'm not telling anyone anytime soon. LOL A cheerful 4 on my "Go See" scale.

This Cynic Watched Hannah Montana's Movie And Liked It

When I hear about a movie being made that stars one of today's Teen Music Sensations I cringe. The movie usually centers on the "star" and has little else going for it, but "Hannah Montana The Movie" has a little something more going for it. The story is simple, there are no major stars, the plot is centered to please the younger female audiences, so what was it that I found enjoyable? The story itself, it shows that no matter what happens in our life family is still the most important thing we have.

Believing too much in her stage persona Robby Ray Stewart (Billy Ray Cyrus) decides to take his daughter back home to Crowley Corners, Tennessee. Miley Stewart/ Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) has taken her Stage act to heart. One day after a big cat fight over a pair off shoes that Miley wanted to buy her friend, Lilly (Emily Osment) Robby knows that he has to pull out all the stops to save his daughter. Thinking she is headed to New York with her agent Vita (Vanessa Williams) Miley is surprised to find that when the doors open instead of adoring fans she finds farmland and an unimpressed cow. Feeling like her world is coming down Miley gets in the truck that is waiting for her and the rest of the family which includes a brother, Jackson (Jason Earles). Finally on the road heading back to the family farm where Miley's Grandmother Ruby (Margo Martindale) awaits, Miley gets out of the car and goes to the side of the road, she tells her dad Robby that she won't go any further that she wants to go back to the plane and go on to New York as planned. Sitting by a fence a horse comes up to Miley, she is freaked out and Robby tells her that it is her horse, sitting i.n the grass Robby and Jackson leave Miley alone.

Travis Brody (Lucas Till) is a farm hand that works for Ruby, he teases Miley, that she has forgotten her roots, later that night back at the house Rascal Flatts performs in Ruby's living room. Miley thinks she is better than all of the nonsense going on around her, Ruby takes Miley into town one afternoon where she sees Mr. Bradley (Barry Bostwick) advertising a new shopping plaza, at first Miley sees a bright future for the town, but when she learns that most of the town will be destroyed for the new mall she thinks that maybe she was wrong. All this time Miley is being followed by a tabloid reporter named Oswald (Peter Gunn) hoping to find out how Hannah Montana and this girl from the sticks can be such good friends. When Mr. Bradley announces that all that Ruby is doing to save the town will be for nothing Travis tells everyone that Miley knows Hannah Montana. The whole town goes Hannah crazy, the town's Mayor (Beau Bilingslea) invites Hannah and her friends to an afternoon lunch, of course Travis has gotten up the nerve to ask Miley out and she accepts, its for the same day and time of the Mayor's lunch. Miley runs back and forth between the lunch and her date with Travis, changing cloths each time out, and each time back. she is caught by Travis going back into the lunch, he sees Miley with her Hannah cloths on and figures that Hannah/Miley has been playing him for a fool.

On the day of the Hannah concert, Miley has a change of heart, she announces to the crowd that she is in fact Miley Stewart. The crowd accepts her and even tells her that they will keep her secret. Of course the tabloid reporter is in the crowd, but decides not to reveal the big secret because he has two daughters who are crazy about Hannah. The end is of course a happy one, Hannah/Miley makes up with Travis, and the family lives happily ever after.

I give Hannah Montana: The Movie a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this is an enjoyable movie to watch, it ISN'T all concert footage, although it does start at one, but it soon becomes a story worth watching. Every little girl will love this movie. Heck this Cynic enjoyed this movie.

Hannah Montana: The Movie is rated G

Running time is 1 hr. 42 mins.

Seth Rogen Is A Badass Mall Cop

As head of security at the Forest Ridge Mall, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) takes his job very seriously, enforcing mall rules with an iron fist. When a flasher strikes Forest Ridge, Ronnie sees a chance to display his unappreciated cop skills and bring the felon to justice, and, at the same time, impress his dream girl (Anna Faris) and win a coveted spot at the police academy in Observe And Report.

Writer/director Jody Hill makes a quantum leap from his low-budget 2006 debut feature "The Foot Fist Way," with a hilarious subversive black comedy about America's post-911 culture of authority-abusing misfits, commonly referred to as security guards. Seth Rogen plays Ronnie Barnhardt, a racist, sociopath security guard who's far more Travis Bickle than Paul Blart. Ronnie is the bipolar head of security at the Forest Ridge Mall, where a trench coat-wearing flasher accosts the object of Ronnie's wrongheaded affection, a vapid make-up counter girl named Brandi (brilliantly played by Anna Farris). The arrival of local no-nonsense police detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) on the case threatens Ronnie's ego to the point that he applies to become a police officer. The film's title spells out in no uncertain terms the limits of authority for security guards obsessed with checking your bag and wanding your body at public entryways. The film is a take-no-prisoners satire that rises to the level of Martin Scorsese's 1982 milestone "The King of Comedy." The audience is continuously kept off balance by Jody Hill's unconventional use of slapstick humor offset by straight-to-the-heart dialogue and over-the-top plotting. Seth Rogen's performance is beyond perfect, and supporting efforts by Ray Liotta, Celia Weston, and Michael Pena are spot-on. The amount of pent-up social fury that Jody Hill unleashes on his audience is staggering. Ronnie's mother (Celia Weston) is a trashy alcoholic who, up until a few years ago, slept with her son's friends--not out of spite but rather sheer inanity. Oblivious to her son's mental deficiencies, she blindly encourages his every whim--like his erroneous idea to become a police officer. For a moment, the film seems like it might go the way of David Ayer's "Harsh Times," and put a real badge on Ronnie's self-destructive combination of protagonist and antagonist; it doesn't. In the dynamically split character of Ronnie, Rogen and Hill conspire to satirize modern America's overprotective culture that treats skateboarders with tasers and here much harsher physical punishments, while missing the mark completely on things like grand larcenies going on in the mall. Ronnie lives in a testosterone-fueled bubble of self-entitled empowerment. He's the school guard bully who sees himself as the line between good and bad simply because he wears a uniform. Never mind that Ronnie ruthlessly taunts a Middle-Eastern sales clerk unfortunately named Saddamn (hilariously played by Aziz Ansari). Ronnie has authority and he's going to push it as far as it will go. A regular at the firing range, along with his subordinate security guards Dennis (Michael Pena) and twins John and Matt (played by John and Matthew Yuan), Ronnie is a sharp shooter with a semi-automatic who dreams of carrying a gun on the job. The genius of the piece is the way the filmmaker pulls you into Ronnie's character--he just wants to be loved--and then pushes the audience away with Ronnie's repellent behavior. That there are no likable characters in the story, save for Nell (Collette Wolfe) a "born-again-virgin," adds to a real sense of mall social miasma where Ronnie earns likeability points for at least having some personality, even if that persona is completely deranged. If truth lies in reflection, then it's in Brandi where we discover how eternally damned Ronnie truly is. Like Jodie Foster's character in "Taxi Driver," Brandi is an ethical blank slate. She's as close to being a walking, talking female automaton as you can imagine. When Ronnie finally wrangles her into going to dinner with him--she refuses to call it a "date,"--she cashes in on his dime to drink her way into oblivion while he lovingly gazes upon her as if she were Venus incarnate. The sex that follows finds Brandi barely conscious with a puddle of vomit on the pillow. It's a harsh quality of intimacy informed by Ronnie's relationship with his mother that fulfills his romantic fantasy better than he could have hoped. Observe and Report is a laugh-'till-it-hurts comedy that sticks with you for all of the troubling questions it raises about our society. Just as "Taxi Driver" and "The King of Comedy" skewered the revenge mentality of the '70s, and the '80s cult-of-personality, Observe and Report takes a tally of the trust that we put in low level authority figures. One thing is for sure, the mall is not a safe place. Rogen does it again in this offbeat outrageously funny movie. It gets a 4 on my "Go See" scale. 

I Went To Observe This Movie And Report It Sucks

When comedies take the "dark" road, they tend to have one thing in common. They are vulgar. And "Observe And Report" doesn't stray from this formula for even a second. That's a bad fit considering the talent behind this movie, maybe because of his other roles we expect so much from Seth Rogan, but in this waste of talent, we are exposed to his lack of ability to carry a starring role on his own.

An anonymous flasher (Randy Gambill) exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The Bi-polar head of security, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen), makes it his mission to apprehend the offender. He is assisted by the Yuen twins (Matt and John Yuan), Charles (Jesse Plemons) and Dennis (Michael Peña) in his efforts to keep the mall safe for shoppers. Ronnie lives with his alcoholic mother (Celia Weston), she is a bane in Ronnie's life, but he is so self centered that he can't see this simple truth. Ronnie's dream girl, Brandi (Anna Faris) who works at a make-up counter, is flashed in the parking lot the next afternoon. She is so distraught that the police are called in to help catch the flasher. Ronnie tries to comfort Brandi until the police can arrive on the scene, Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), arrives and takes over, pushing Ronnie out of the investigation. He is so mad that once the detective leaves he yells that the detective will hamper his pursuit of the flasher, Ronnie is really threatened by this detective and is upset that his boss allowed an outside person to infringe on the search for the offender.

The flashing isn't the only crime being committed in the mall, a masked person is breaking into stores while the mall is closed, stealing whatever it is that grabs his fancy. Detective Harrison is once again called in to investigate, his efforts are hindered by Ronnie's unusual attempts to resolve the matter. In response, Harrison curses out Ronnie during a meeting with Ronnie's superior. In defiance of the detectives angry rant, Ronnie decides to take the steps necessary to become a real police officer. Ronnie obtains preliminary documents needed to become a police officer from a recruiting station, including forms for a physical and a psychological profile check, of course when he has to go before a review board, he rants that he has a dream where he is seen as a savior, only with a really big gun. Ronnie decides to ride along with Detective Harrison. Harrison, fed up with Ronnie, tricks him into walking into the most dangerous part of town, then drives off. Ronnie then is confronted by and subsequently subdues several drug dealers, victoriously returning to the police station with one of the Dealers son's where he sarcastically thanks detective Harrison for his help.

Ronnie goes to a coffee shop and gets free coffee everyday he speaks to Nell (Collette Wolfe), a friendly food court worker, who is in a leg cast and is being made fun of by her boss. Ronnie pays little attention to this though, what he has come for is to ask Nell for advice on asking Brandi out. The day of the big date comes and Ronnie is out front Brandi's house when she finally comes home, she says she forgot about the date, but agrees to go anyway, they go to dinner at a bar and Brandi drinks shot after shot, and gets rip roaring drunk, yes I guess this is supposed to be funny. When Ronnie takes her home, he is next seen having sex with her and she is passed out from the alcohol. The next day Ronnie finds out that he failed the police exams and won't be come a police officer, so he and Dennis spend the next few hours getting drunk and high, chasing down several kids on skateboards and beating them up. Finding out that the person who is robbing the mall is in fact Dennis, Ronnie wakes up to find himself knocked out. Dennis drives a lotto prize through the windows of the mall, driving it all the way to Mexico. Feeling like he has been beaten up, which he was by the police department, when he wouldn't leave the mall, One day when he returns to the mall Nell is crying she tells Ronnie that her boss is making fun of her and she can't stop him, Ronnie goes into the back and almost sticks the guys head in the oven, Ronnie tells him that if he ever makes fun of Nell again, he will come back. When Ronnie is walking through the mall, he sees the flasher running through the mall, Ronnie gives chase and things take a nasty turn, to say that we observe everything is a little too mild, we see EVERYTHING. The chase lasts for several minutes, and when the flasher comes face to face with Brandi, Ronnie appears from a hidden doorway and discharges his duty, he than drags the bleeding man to the police station where he brags that it was him who caught the flasher.

I give Observe and Report a 1, for the two or three times I did laugh, and on my avoidance scale I give it a 2 this is the type of movie that should be watch when it makes it's way to your local cable channels. When the movie finally ends, we feel that every one of our senses has been assaulted, we are ashamed that we laughed at some of the jokes, but overall we feel like this was a waste of time and money.

Observe And Report is rated R for Pervasive Language, Graphic Nudity, Drug Use, Sexual Content and Violence

Running time is 1 hr. 26 mins.

Understanding That He Is The Best At What He Does

Leading up to the events of X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story of Wolverine's epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe.

I'm one of the few that have had the chance to see X-Men Origins : Wolverine, and I gotta say that I'm not the least bit guilty about it. It was one of those that I couldn't wait to see and even though the unfinished version has been leaked I STILL loved it! I'm also proud to say that I will definitely see the finished product when it hits theatres on May 1st. Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar – as the fierce fighting machine who possesses amazing healing powers, retractable claws and a primal fury. This movie is just as it claims to be--Wolverine's origin and it lives up to the expectations. The story seems a bit farfetched, especially compared to Wolverine in current times, but in the end it all fits nicely. The story is at times even touching as we see the past of James Howlett and all the losses he faces at an early age. He transforms from a privileged, weak and sick young boy to the beginnings of the feral Logan. We see how he met Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), later to be codenamed Sabretooth, at a young age and how he travels and experiences life and death alongside his friend. After serving together in many wars they are recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston) to serve in a special unit made up of mutants consisting of Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Barnell Bohusk/Beak (Dominic Monaghan), John Wraith (Will.i.Am), Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), and Frederick Dukes/The Blob (Kevin Durand). After wiping out an African villiage, Logan quits the unit and goes off to live a life of peace in the Canadian Rockies with his girlfriend later to be known as the Silver Fox (Lynn Collins). Six years pass for the both of them until Stryker shows up and asks Logan to come back and be a part of a new Weapon X project. Logan refuses but Creed shows up and murders Logan's girlfriend leaving him wanting revenge against him. Logan accepts Stryker's offer to be infused with Adamantium so that he can be indestructable and go after his revenge but is double crossed by Stryker and hears him give the order to wipe his memories. Escaping before this can happen, he goes searching for Creed killing anyone who gets in his way. After reuniting with a few members of his old team, he finds out that Stryker and Creed are actually working together to kidnap mutants and keep them in confinement working on a new project, Weapon XI and that only one person knows where their new base of operations is. Remy LeBeau/Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) is the only mutant to escape this place and Logan along with John Wraith go searching for him in New Orleans. They find him in a card game where Logan tries to question him but with less than desireable results. After being blasted through a wall by Gambit, Logan sees Creed standing over the dead body of Wraith and the fight is on. Right when Logan is about to get his revenge and kill Creed, Gambit comes flying in with his staff and blows everyone apart. Creed uses this distraction to escape while Logan and Gambit go at it. After showing Gambit the light (with his claws), Gambit agrees to take Logan to Three Mile Island where the facility is hidden. Arriving at Three Mile Island by plane, Logan finds many mutant children kept prisoner by Stryker and Creed with the support of the U.S. Government. Logan confronts Stryker while he is at the finishing point of his Weapon XI project and learns the truth that Silver Fox isn't dead but was keeping and eye on him those six years and manipulating him with her mutant power of persuasion. After leaving, Fox confronts Stryker demanding the release of her sister, Emma (Tahyna Tozzi) only to be placated and told to wait. Creed comes in and Fox tries to persuade him that Stryker is only using them. Only this doesn't work and she is almost killed by Creed. Logan hears her screams and comes to her rescue almost killing Creed but being convinced by Fox that if he does that then they will be no better then Stryker. She also convinces him that she truly loves him. Fox and Logan then go to free the children (some that you may recognize). Fox leads them out of the facility while Logan goes in search of Stryker. In a firefight, Fox is wounded and sends the children on while she goes back to look for Logan. The children make it out of the facility and are met by another mutant who offers them a ride in his helicopter and protection. Stryker then activates Weapon XI and an all out battle between him and Logan insues. Logan is pretty much outmatched until Sabretooth helps out and saying "No one is allowed to kill you except me..." Together they defeat Weapon XI with Logan adding the final blow (or slice) by cutting off his head and dropping him inside a nuclear reactor. Gambit then swoops in and saves him from the falling debris and then leaves to find Stryker. Logan finds a downed Silver Fox and as he carries her toward the plane Stryker shoots him in the head with and Adamantium bullet because it's the only way to really hurt him. Gambit returns as Logan regains conciousness, but he doesn't remember who he is. From here the movie ends as Logan starts piecing his life back together. Marvel has been also known to throw in extra scenes after the credits roll, so stay for those. The special effects are gonna be awesome and the characters were really well executed. The only complaint I had was that I didn't think that there were enough Gambit scenes, but I guess I understand that they couldn't fit in everything that they (or I) wanted. So, like I said, I will definitely run to the theatre to see the finished version. I had to laugh at some scenes 'cause you can totally see Ryan Reynolds or Hugh Jackman held up by wires in some action scenes. Glad to know that you won't see any of that in the finished one. So, yes I will say it....I LOVED X-Men Origins : Wolverine! Go and see it when it comes out! I give it an Adamantium laced 4 on my "Go See" scale.     AN ADDED NOTE: There are 2 versions of Wolverine out in theatres. The finished version of the one that was leaked on the internet last month and the extended version with and alternate ending. The extended version has up to 16 minutes of added footage (mostly extended scenes) and a different scene that plays after the credits roll. 

The Origin Of Marvel's Greatest X-Man Rocks

Marvel has always been a giant in the comic book industry, now with the release of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" they are set to become just as big a giant on the silver screen. Last year saw the resurgence of several Marvel characters, Iron Man and The Hulk were part of the opening round in what the struggling studio hopes is a huge all out money collecting machine. The origins of several of the Marvel characters could be a windfall for Marvel, if this one is a success, and there is no better character to start with the Wolverine.

James Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is a young child as the movie opens, we see that he is friends with Victor Creed/Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber), the son a family caretaker. When the man James believes is his father is murdered, Logan's mutant ability is released. He has the uncanny ability to extend bone claws from between his fingers. Logan kills the man he thinks murdered his father, but when the truth is revealed, Logan and Victor run into the woods. The boys make a pact to always be by the others side. We next see the boys as they are fighting in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam. Logan stops Victor from killing a fellow soldier, still the two are court marshaled and are going to be shot by a firing squad. Victor tells Logan to wake him when it's over. The next morning William Stryker (Danny Houston) comes into the guys cell and tells them they are going to have their heads cut off the following day, unless they are willing to join his group. The two agree and we meet the rag tag group that makes up Weapon X, Wade WIlson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Barnell Bohusk/Beak (Dominic Monaghan), David North/Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) John Wraith (Will I Am) and Frederick J. Dukes/The Blob (Kevin Durand).

The group travels to Nigeria and we see in a special effects laden scene the group kill a war lords army. They are looking for a fragment of a meteor that contains a new metal. When Stryker orders Victor to kill the villagers that had found the fragment, Logan tries to stop him, telling Victor this isn't what they signed up for, and that if Victor did what Stryker wanted Logan was through, Victor tells Logan that he can't just walk away from the group. Logan throws his dog tags down on the ground and walks away, the movie then jumps ahead six years and we see Logan is now living with The Silver Fox (Lynn Collins) in the Canadian Wilderness. Logan is working for a logging company when Stryker and Agent Zero visit him, Stryker tells Logan that someone is hunting down the members of their team, Logan isn't interested at all, we next see the Silver Fox driving down the road, Sabretooth is blocking the road, when she stops Sabretooth claws her car, Logan smells blood and walks over to where a wolf's head has been left, he notices claw marks on a tree, running down the hill Logan comes across the body of the woman he loves, swearing vengeance on Creed, Logan goes into town, the two meet in a small bar and fight it out, neither one can claim victory, Logan is thrown against a semi truck, but his ability to heal helps him recover quickly.

Stryker approaches Logan and tells him he has the means to help Logan get his revenge against Creed, that if Logan joins his new project, Stryker will help Logan kill Creed. Logan agrees and we next see him in a tank of water, the process of having adamantium injected into his bones. The process is painful and stops Logan's heart, of course any fan of wolverine knows that he recovers, Stryker fearing that Logan now known as Wolverine will be uncontrollable, orders his memory erased, fearing that he wont get his revenge Wolverine escapes from the facility. Running naked into the wilderness, hiding in the barn of an older couple, Agent Zero shots both of these people and Logan drives a motorcycle out into the wilderness where he is chased by a couple of Humvee's and a helicopter, using his new adamantium claws Wolverine is able to dispatch the Humvee's and the helicopter. Agent Zero is aboard the helicopter and Wolverine using Zero's headphones tells Stryker that he is going to get Creed, and that when he is done with that Stryker will be next. Then Wolverine kills Agent Zero who is trapped in the crashed helicopter. After reuniting with The Wraith and Frederick J. Dukes who is now The Blob, Logan finds out that Stryker and Creed are actually working together to kidnap mutants and keep them in confinement, Stryker is working on a new project, Weapon XI.

Of course their is one mutant who has escaped and he is the only person who knows where Stryker's new base of operations is. Remy LeBeau/Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) is in hiding in Louisiana. Logan along with John Wraith go searching for him in New Orleans. They find him in a card game where Logan tries to question him, but with less than desirable results. After being blasted through a wall by Gambit, Logan sees Creed standing over the dead body of Wraith and the fight is on. Right when Logan is about to get his revenge and kill Creed, Gambit comes flying in with his staff and blows everything apart. Creed uses this distraction to escape while Logan and Gambit go at it. After showing Gambit that he does intend to kill Creed and Stryker, Gambit agrees to take Logan to the Island where the facility is hidden. Arriving at the Island by plane, Logan finds that many mutant children are kept prisoner by Stryker and Creed with the support of the U.S. Government. One such mutant is Scott Summers/Cyclops (Tim Pocock). Logan confronts Stryker while he is at the finishing point of his Weapon XI (Scott Adkins) project and learns the truth about Silver Fox, that Stryker was using her to keep an eye on Logan during those six years Logan wasn't with the Weapon X team. She was manipulating him with her mutant power of persuasion. After leaving, Fox confronts Stryker demanding the release of her sister only to be placated and told to wait. Creed comes in and Fox tries to persuade him that Stryker is only using them. Only this doesn't work and she is almost killed by Creed. Logan hears her screams and comes to her rescue almost killing Creed, but being convinced by Fox that if he does that then they will be no better then Stryker. She also convinces him that she truly loves him.

Fox tells Logan her sister Emma Froast (Tahyna Tozzi) is being held prisoner on the island, Logan agrees to free the children, while Stryker activates Weapon XI, sending him to fight Wolverine. While the children try to escape, they are fired upon by guards, Fox is hit and Cyclops uses his mutant ability to help them escape. Fox sends the kids on and goes back to help Wolverine who is now in battle with Weapon XI. Weapon XI and Logan's fight ranges from inside a hanger to the outer top of a nuclear reactor, it appears Logan is outmatched until Creed shows up to help save him. "No one is allowed to kill you except me" Back to back they take on Weapon XI together the fight goes on, Weapon XI uses The Wraith power to appear and disappear, until Creed grabs him by the neck, stabs him in the chest and Logan decapitates him with his powerful adamantium claws. Weapon XI's head and body go falling into the reactor, his swords cut chunks out of it the whole way down. Logan tells Creed that this changes nothing and they go their separate ways.

After just getting to the ground, Logan is saved from the reactor's falling debris by Gambit. They then go their separate ways in search for Stryker, but Logan comes upon the wounded body of Fox and starts carrying her toward the plane. Stryker intercepts them and shoots Logan in the head with adamantium bullets, which he believes are the only thing that can really "kill" him. This knocks Wolverine out long enough for Stryker to go after Silver Fox, but she turns the tables by touching his ankle and telling him to "walk until you bleed, Then keep walking." Gambit comes back finding Logan regaining consciousness but without any memories. Finding the body of Silver Fox, Gambit asks if Logan knows her but he doesn't. After the two leave, there is an appearance of an "original" X-man, one who helps Cyclops save the children, if you think, it will be easy to know just which X-Man it is. The movie ends here, but stick around through the credits.

I give X-Men Origins: Wolverine a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, all you comic book fanboys run out and get in line now, this movie will blow your socks off. Marvel has a way of adding a little something. And here once again we aren't disappointed. Stryker is picked up by the MP's with bloody feet for the murder of a general, and Logan is last seen in an Asian bar drinking shots and trying to remember who he is. And after a website leak of an unfinished movie Marvel added a few extra scenes with another ending, the second ending showing at AMC chains has Deadpool reaching for his decapitated head and whispering shush.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Action and Violence and some Partial Nudity

Running time is 1 hr. 47 mins.

John Cena Makes 12 Rounds Worthwhile

WWE champion John Cena is New Orleans Police Detective Danny Baxter. When Baxter stops a brilliant thief from getting away with a multi-million-dollar heist, the thief's girlfriend is accidentally killed. After escaping from prison, the criminal mastermind enacts his revenge, taunting the cop with a series of near-impossible puzzles and tasks …12 rounds…that Baxter must somehow complete to save the life of his fiancée. 

Although basically an excuse to string together a giant-sized popcorn's worth of high-octane set pieces, 12 Rounds is escapist fun that provides an effective showcase for the blue-collar charisma and bulky good looks of its hyper-athletic lead, four-time World Champion wrestler John Cena (think Matt Damon, only twice the size). The World Wrestling Entertainment star plays Danny Fisher, a conscientious New Orleans cop who becomes involved in the violent capture of international terrorist Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen), during which time the criminal's girlfriend is accidentally killed. One year later, Jackson escapes from prison ready to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge on Fisher in the form of a dozen death-defying, ticking-clock tests the police detective must unravel and pass if he wants his fiancée (Ashley Scott) to stay alive. Fisher somehow matches wits with the wickedly brilliant Jackson, wreaking massive havoc across New Orleans (hasn't it been through enough?) as he super-heroically wrestles with seemingly every kind of public transport to fulfill Jackson's checklist of near-impossible missions. Needless to say, mere mortals probably wouldn't survive past round 2. Yes, I saw this movie. Why? Because it was free. No one expects this to be a groundbreaking action movie that changes the face of the genre. I didn't even expect it to be a decent ripoff. But hey, I had a good time watching this one...it's not going to go down as epic or anything, but it's certainly not the worst product featuring a wrestler in a starring role (Doom, anyone?). This is all well and good, but they should change the title of this film to '12 Rounds of Insanity', because there's no way any of this movie is possible. That's where the chuckles will begin. The premise of this movie, pretty much 'Saw' crossed with 'Speed', is rather clever - it's the one reason I didn't hate the movie - however, this doesn't change the fact that this is one of the most ridiculous and insane movies of recent memory. I don't mean insane like...cool insane. I mean insane as in that only an insane person could see the events of the film as realistic. Is Renny Harlin still capable of directing decent action? Sure, as 12 Rounds doesn't do a bad job supplying some quality stunts and explosions, which, let's face it - is all the audience really wants from this movie. 'Die Hard 2' was a worthy entry in that series (though it may be the most forgettable), but hey, Harlin does pack the movie with enough action and thrills to make it at least somewhat entertaining. John Cena, as we know, is not an actor...I do not expect him to deliver award worthy work, therefore he does not disappoint. He does have an air of likability about him, but he doesn't have the same level of charisma as most other action stars nowadays. I don't even think he smiles in this movie. Again, is Harlin known for getting great performances? No, so you shouldn't expect anything more. What's kind of sad is that the actors in the movie, the people who actually have that as their first profession, are nothing short of laughable. Ashley Scott in particular was disappointing because of her lack of emotion. Aidan Gillen is a passable villain (though he couldn't have been cheesier if he tried), and is also the character hurt most by the ridiculous events in the script. Brian White as Cena's partner was probably my favorite character and performance in the film. In short, 12 Rounds is not a movie that should be taken seriously. It aims for an audience who expects cool explosions, a fast talking villain, and a ton of action. In that respect, this movie is alright. It's also the first action movie this year that the kids (around 9 or 10 and up) should be okay in, as there's very little language and no sex at all. If you go in with low to modest expectations (or are in the mood for exactly what it promises), 12 Rounds might just be a decent movie. For what it was, it was quite enjoyable. I give this a 3 on my "Go See" scale. If you need an escape from the norm and just want a movie full of action, this is the one to see. 

I Went 12 Rounds With John Cena And left Impressed

When a sports star makes a movie you expect lots of action, in "12 Rounds" you get lots of that, though you get little else. That's not to say this is a bad movie, it really isn't. But Hollywood has this idea that an action movie with a buff star would be more of a draw to America then an action movie with a real believable plot line.

Detective Danny Fisher (John Cena) is on duty one night when the FBI is trying to capture one of it's most wanted. A nearly untraceable international terrorist named Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen). Danny and his partner, Officer Fisher and his partner Hank Carver (Brian J. White) spot a women that looks like the girlfriend of the terrorist. He has escaped because he knew of the undercover sting from the beginning. Pulling the car over Hank goes up and talks with the woman, Erica Kessen (Taylor Cole) while Danny stands behind the car, telling Hank to have the woman open the car's trunk, hearing this Miles pops the trunk from the inside and opens fire on the two officers. Danny gives chase - on foot - and catches up to the car, Erica and Miles jump out of the car and start to run away, Erica is hit by another vehicle and is killed, Miles blames Danny for this.

Jump one year later and Danny and his girlfriend, Molly Porter (Ashley Scott) live together, Molly is a nurse and because Danny caught Miles he and his partner were promoted to detective. Miles breaks out of prison and kidnaps Molly on her way to work, calling Danny, he tells him that they are going to play twelve rounds and if Danny is still standing at the end, he will get Molly back alive. Hampered by the two FBI agents who let Miles escape in the first place, Danny finds that looking for Miles will be harder than he first thought. Special Agent George Aiken (Steve Harris) has a more personal reason for catching Miles, he was the lead Agent on an earlier case where Miles used a stinger missile to blow up an airplane. The second Agent Ray Santiago (Gonzalo Menendez) is a little more friendlier towards Danny.

Danny is first called by Miles after Molly leaves for work, Danny running outside to stop Molly is knocked to the ground when his truck explodes, seconds later his house also explodes. Miles tells Danny that he has now lost the first two rounds. Round three has Danny running to his brothers fire house. Danny is told to answer a certain cell phone when Miles calls, getting to the firehouse Danny hears a phone ring in a nearby cell store, going inside Danny answers the phone and is told that at a building that is now burning, Danny will find two safe deposit boxes, one with information the second with a bomb. Getting to the building Danny runs up the stairs and grabs the boxes, jumping into a fire truck Danny drives to a dock where he throws one of the boxes into the water where it explodes. The second box when opened contains information that leads Danny to a hotel across the city. Once Danny and the FBI arrive they find the room where Miles and Molly were. Looking at surveillance tapes Miles is seen holding a sign that says we are still here. Finding an employee walking with Miles on tape, Willie Dumaine (Peter Navy Tuiasosopo) is a security guard who tells Danny that Miles wanted to inspect the service elevator.

Willie walks with Danny to the elevator, both guys get on and Willie starts the elevator up. During the trip they find a small machine where Danny sees Molly reading a note that within sixty seconds the elevator will drop to the ground, Danny has to save himself but also try to save Willie, who by the way is a HUGE man. Danny climbs through the escape hatch but has a hard time pulling Willie up, getting him on top of the elevator takes almost all of the sixty seconds but Danny is able to grab onto a screen and holds out his hand for Willie, the cable's blow and the elevator plummets to the ground. Moving through the city Danny is told to get on a bus, Miles and Molly are also on the bus, Miles has Molly wired to blow up and tells Danny not to do anything stupid. Agent Aiken tries to set up Swat snipers to take Miles out, seeing this Danny grabs Miles just as the window explodes, Miles gets off the bus with Molly and Danny, who is so upset punches Aiken in the face. Now refusing to work with Agent Aiken, Danny and Agent Santiago go after Miles. After the bus episode Danny is given a piece of paper with five phone numbers on it, he is told to call one, if he picks the right number Danny will be given more information, if he picks the wrong one the call will set off an explosion. Danny picks one and Miles informs him that there is now a trolley heading into a small crowd with no brakes and no way to communicate this. Danny and Agent Santiago drive off to stop the trolley, just being able to stop it before it does real damage, Danny feels elated.

Danny's Partner Hank is searching for people who can help them find Miles, there were several people involved in the prison escape who are looking for Miles as well. Hank goes to the home of one man, when the man walks away from the building Hank follows him into a factory and we all know it's a trap, when Hank gets upstairs the man gets the drop on Hank but unknown to both men, Miles has rigged the building to blow up, Losing his partner now makes Danny even more eager to stop Miles. Figuring out what Miles wants takes not only Danny but both FBI agents, who are now willing to work together to stop Miles, Seeing that Molly is an important part to Miles' plan Danny figures out that he should be running to where Molly works, not to where Miles says she will be. Of course the whole days events are a precursor to a robbery, Miles knows that after Katrina new rules have been implemented and Miles has done everything to ensure that these rules will be set in motion.

I give 12 Rounds a 2 and on my avoidance scale a 0, go see this film and enjoy it, the summer blockbusters will be here soon enough. Of course the hero wins and the bad guy gets what he deserves, life can take anyone in any direction, make one mistake and your a bad guy. Although Miles makes all of his choices freely, why can't we ever feel for the bad guy? Why does the good guy always win? Can American movie goers accept the good guy falling short? Still all in all this is a very entertaining movie, John Cena may be the next IT man in Hollywood.

12 Rounds is rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Violence and Action

Running time is 1 hr. 48 mins.

I Had So Much Fun At Adventureland! When Are We Going Back?

It's the summer of 1987, and James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), an uptight recent college grad, can't wait to embark on his dream tour of Europe. But when his parents (Wendie Malick and Jack Gilpin) announce they can no longer subsidize his trip , James has little choice but to take a lowly job at a local amusement park, Adventureland. Forget about German beer, world-famous museums and cute French girls-James' summer will now be populated by belligerent dads, stuffed pandas, and screaming kids high on cotton candy. Lucky for James, what should have been his worst summer ever turns into quite an adventure as he discovers love in the most unlikely place with his captivating co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), and learns to loosen up.

Sometimes gourmet mustard is enough to make freezer-burnt amusement park corndogs taste fantastic. And sometimes a sophomoric summer comedy can be dressed up with witty writing, zippy pacing and an authentic sense of nostalgia - enough so that it becomes an instant summer fling with audiences. Adventureland is a surprisingly sweet and irreverent tale of summer jobs and summer love. It reminds you how the hearts of teens and young 20-somethings flutter up and down just like the rusty deathtrap roller coasters they’re looking after. And we’ve all been on this magnificent and awful wild ride. Written and directed by Greg Mottola of “Superbad” and “Arrested Development” fame, “Adventureland” opens by introducing us to James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) and his unraveling plans in the summer of ‘87. The awkward lothario and recent Oberlin College grad was looking forward to jet-setting through Europe before settling down in NYC for grad school at Columbia. With his dad’s job being downsized, Jesse can’t count on getting stroked a check for his travel and schooling. His vocab is too big to score a gig waiting tables and his biceps are too small to get him a manual labor position, so he finally accepts a summer job at Adventureland, a third-rate amusement park run by a zany married couple – SNL’s Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. At the park, James meets his dream weaver in Em (Stewart), as well as a dorky sidekick (Martin Starr), the tight-jeaned resident tease (Margarita Levieva) and a 30-something maintenance man with a proclivity for bedding 17-year-olds (Ryan Reynolds). Along the way, love triangles and quadrilaterals emerge. Feelings are hurt, egos are made and trashed, and hormones rage. The movie is nothing like the trailer, which makes it look like an “American Pie” rip-off. We actually get to know our hero James, who had a better chance of getting to second base with a thesaurus than an actual girl until this momentous summer. (You will want to strangle, slap and eye-gouge James as he searches for his flirting mojo.) And the scripted banter is the stuff of real life arguments and shit-shooting, not the paint-b y-number dialogue you usually find cheesing up these movies. I hope Adventureland isn’t overlooked, especially if the marketing continues to push it like it’s a bad retro sitcom. It’s rare that a summer comedy can combine gratuitous raunch with candid windows into relationships that feel real, from the angst-riddled pick-up lines to the steamy make-up (and revenge) hook-ups. Adventureland could also be called "Noplotland," because it's more interested in seeing what happens when these people bump against each other. Forced together in a corndog-scented dump where none of them wants to be, they spend the summer making poor romantic choices and learning from them. Adventureland has a regretful tone, and that makes sense for a movie about a bunch of people hanging out with friends who — as in director Greg Mottola's "Superbad" — may not be their friends for much longer. Mottola, who also wrote Adventureland, doesn't have much visual style (OK, he has none), but his keen understanding of behavior makes up for it. "They don't like people like me where I'm from," says James, revealing a lot about himself in nine words. And when James tells troubled Em, "I think I see you a little differently than you see yourself," that's another subtle line that speaks volumes about the intelligence and frailties of both people. Who hasn't known someone they wanted to tell, "You're a better person than you think you are"? I liked Adventureland a lot, and I'd have loved it if it weren't for one hugely annoying thing, a thing I hesitate to specify because I'm afraid you'll obsess over it when you see the movie, just like I did. But here goes: Jesse Eisenberg needs to become aware. That he has an annoyingly consistent acting tic. Which is that he pauses for about three seconds. In the middle. Of every single line he says. It may just drive. You nuts. An hilaious 3 on my "Go See" scale. Not the best, but good for what it's worth. 

You May Want To Go Solo To See This One 'Cause You'll Shed A Tear

Goodbye Solo tells the moving story of the unlikely friendship that develops between Solo (newcomer Souléymane Sy Savané), a kindhearted Senegalese taxi driver, and his passenger, a tough old southerner (Red West) whose destination request is difficult to honor yet impossible to ignore. 

Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane), a Senegalese immigrant cab driver working in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, picks a passenger, 70-year-old William (Red West),who wants to die and gives him instructions as to how, where and when he should drive him to Blowing Rock National Park, the location where he’ll commit suicide. William seems very dejected, worn-out and reserved in his appearance. He clearly has a lot of pain and suffering bottled up inside of him that needs to escape one way or another. Solo gradually befriends William and tries to convince him not to commit suicide by learning how to embrace and appreciate life, especially his own. As he gets to know William more and more through spending time with him and inquiring about his past, William angrily lashes. What makes the drama even more engrossing and human is that Solo has issues of his own to deal with, such as a pregnant wife (Carmen Leyva) who doesn’t support his desire to become a flight attendant. She allows him to occasionally spend time with his stepdaughter (Diana Franco Galindo), who also interacts with William. The tender screenplay by writer/director Ramin Bahrani, who also wrote and directed the slice-of-life dramas Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, develops the characters of Solo and William very patiently with close attention to detail and plenty of subtlety. A lot is said and felt just by observing the characters’ facial expressions, so many of the powerful moments occur happen to be the silent ones. Bahrani has a knack for creating character that come to life onscreen without resorting to contrivances or any plot gimmicks. Each has their own unique flaws, dreams, fears, regrets and other human feelings, whether they’re trapped innately like with William or more externalized like with Solo. It’s quite moving to watch how William and Solo affect each other’s lives in different ways, so that, by the end, their friendship alone symbolizes many uplifting aspects of life, such as hope, kindness, tenderness and compassion for another human being regardless of their age, race or gender. At a running time of 91 minutes, Goodbye Solo manages to be a profoundly moving, raw, tender and gently uplifting drama that celebrates the importance of unconditional human compassion. Pairing a young, Senegalese taxi driver with a gruff, old white man as his frequent fare, co-writer/director Ramin Bahrani has fashioned an interesting character study of two lives in transition. The movie takes place in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the cabbie named Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) sees his glass as half-full, always flashing a winning smile no matter the situation. He dreams of becoming a flight attendant so he can better support his wife and precocious step-daughter, Alex (Diana Franco Galindo). The old man is William (Richard Farnsworth look-alike Red West), whose glass is just about empty ---- so empty that early on we learn he is apparently planning to do something drastic. Solo's jubilant attitude towards everything and everybody in his life is inversely proportionate to William's disdain for everything and everybody around him, with the sole exception of Alex, of whom he appears to be quite fond. It is not clear, however, why Solo would be so attached to William, except that in the beginning of the film William hires Solo to drive him to a high peak in the mountains called Blowing Rock. We are constantly reminded of William's self-imposed deadline of October 20th, the date Solo is to drive to Blowing Rock, a tourist spot with lookout points, complete with coin-operated telescopes. The finale offers a few white knuckle moments as Solo and Alex stand atop the steep and slippery Rock, and we are only left to imagine if William has carried out his plan. As for William, he seems to have no redeeming qualities, but we are given a few clues as to his character's true essence ----- primarily in some written passages in the old man's diary. Sy Savane and West play against each other's characters perfectly, and as Jeanne mentions, their performances will have you thinking about this story long after the movie ends. This well-acted, methodical film is definitely worth your time. A touching and moving story that I assure you that you will need tissues afterwards. A 4 on my "Go See" scale.

The Originals Return To Get Fast & Furious

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reteam for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed -- Fast & Furious. Heading back to the streets where it all began, they rejoin Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster to blast muscle, tuner and exotic cars across Los Angeles and floor through the Mexican desert in the new high-octane action-thriller. When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Diesel) reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Conner (Walker). But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmanuever him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what's possible behind the wheel.

Fast & Furious, about dirtied-up car racing and badass drivers, arrives eight years after The Fast and the Furious revealed the unlikely charms of the sewer-throated, shovel-headed Vin Diesel. Back then, as Diesel's Dominic Toretto burned through L.A. streets, we gasped, Who is that walking Popeye, and why does he sound like he's in a Sylvester Stallone tribute band? Back then we also met Dom's nemesis, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), an equally feisty driver (and, as it happened, an undercover cop) as blond and blue-eyed as Toretto was bald and swarthy. We met Dom's cute sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster), who loved Brian, and the tough-babe driver Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who loved Dom. Mostly we met hot rods driven by hot dogs — and although the movie was no Point Break, it was great to rocket along for the nitrous-injected ride. The Fast and the Furious celebrated great music, cars, and minimally clothed chicks cast as extras. Later on, Dom became a fugitive in Mexico, Brian went to Miami (in 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious), and the F&F franchise took an invigorating global detour to Japan (2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), where Diesel's Dom showed up for a cameo. Now the original gang is reunited in L.A. for a victory lap, and they're looking pretty fly for old-timers. The music, strong on reggaeton, still pulses. The chick extras still favor bikini tops. The stars' jawlines are slightly softened, and the lived-in look suits them. (The plot, for what it's worth, is about chasing down a nefarious drug lord — who happens to be hiring guys who can drive real fast.) Fast & Furious is still no Point Break. But it's perfectly aware of its limited dramatic mission, and sturdily directed by Tokyo Drift's Justin Lin with space for a global audience to talk back to the screen. And in the jammed landscape of mass-market new releases, it offers an attractive getaway route from self-importance, snark, and chatty comedies about male bonding. Here, stick shifts do the talking. It's not called "Fast & Furious: Schindler's List". Perfect reboot if you like the genre. Big crashes, property mayhem, and sparse dialogue. The producers didn't bother with a screenwriter but did hire crash experts. The dialogue is ham-fisted but there is not much of it. And there is no discernible acting. These are things the F&F audience is not going to pay for. It could have used a screenwriter but I assume no one wanted to waste their great lines on a Vin Diesel opus. With careers stalled, Diesel (who was seduced back with a producer credit), Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster return. In keeping with their characters, Diesel, Walker and Brewster do not bother using this as an audition for other roles. The producers should have left Brewster wherever she was. I would not have missed her. On the other hand, Rodriguez is always fun to watch. The ingredients that made the original "The Fast & The Furious" a hit are here: car racing through a city and lots of crashes. Do we want sensitive scenes and tears? No! But they could have put in a hot sex scene with that hi-anorexic ball buster (Gal Gadof) who everyone feared and listened to for no good reason. Now it's about grim, grown-up consequences. Dom is wanted by the feds. Brian is a fed. And the story roils with revenge, as both men reunite to take down a Mexican crime lord. There's a high-speed race to the border. There are FBI agents, SWAT teams and helicopters. It's all so serious now. Not that there's anything wrong with that. We just note the change. And we can't help noticing Diesel turns 42 this year and Walker 36.  We also note that the guy-centric principles remain the same. The things of beauty in the "F&F" universe? Nitro-jacked speedsters that do horizontally what the Cape Canaveral program does vertically. The six-pack-abbed guys standing next to those cars. And bullet-shaped Corona beers, so men can raise them to victory or -- as one character so grandiloquently puts it -- "to the ladies we've loved and the ladies we've lost." As for the "ladies," guys love 'em, of course. But only the ones with 8 percent body fat need apply. The real love in their lives? Their rides, awesome. And their fellow gearheads. That dude-to-dude affection is unspoken, of course. Guys don't use words any more than they eat celery. But if they did, the sweet exchanges might go something like: Show me your stand-alone fuel management system and I'll show you mine. As for the death-cheating, it's still in full throttle. Take the breath-choking opener, for instance, as Dom and a team of dragsters attempt to hijack the gasoline cargo of a speeding truck. We can practically see oblivion in special-effect relief as a derailed tanker flips, pirouettes in balletic slow motion and hurtles toward Diesel. The specter looms again when Dom and Brian -- in the inevitable mano a mano street race -- screech and career through red lights at busy L.A. intersections, with nary a fender bender. What blows our lizard brains is the possibility of fiery destruction -- this subgenre's equivalent of the money shot. If that somersaulting tanker hits Diesel in his juiced-up car, the explosion's going to shoot out like a nuclear geyser. And if Dom and Brian wipe out in those crowded streets, well, boom baby boom! This is a very good action film. If all you want to is extreme car chases, explosions, and violence; then this is well worth the price of admission. Director Justin Lin does a great job cranking up a franchise on its fourth leg. He tunes down the CGI racing of the last film and brings back the bone crushing metal of street racing. Lin also ratchets up the body count. There are more gunfights and fisticuffs in this film than the first three combined. I can't help but think Vin Diesel has seen his action numbers fade and wanted to come back with a hard-hitting film. This one got my blood pumping and brought back all the action that I loved in the first one. Here's hoping that it keeps on going for a while longer. A hefty blood pumping 4 on my "Go See" scale.