Archive for the 'Movie Reviews' Category
March 21st, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
I have got to hand it to Will Ferrell. In recent times, it seems like some have soured on some of his antics, which can happen to a lot of comedic stars who make a lot of movies that can be generally categorized in a similar way. I like Will Ferrell quite a bit, he makes me genuinely laugh, but more importantly, while it may not seem immediately apparent to some, he takes a lot of chances with his films. One can point to some of his roles and see a lot of the same elements shining through, but beyond some of the goofiness that he exudes (which, again, continues to make me laugh), there are some interesting choices being made. The one that provides the subject for this review is his Spanish language film, Casa de Mi Padre, a passion project of sorts, which has been independently financed and put out in limited release. It is not a great film, but I did laugh quite a bit during it and admired this weird, experimental parody of telenovelas. Continue reading ‘Casa De Mi Padre Is A Decently Funny Experiment’
March 19th, 2012 by Mary Welms
If you are looking for a movie with non stop laughs, crude humor, and down right goofiness, 21 Jump Street is guaranteed to make you laugh. This Cinematic version of the 80’s television series with the same name is the funniest movie I have seen this year, Tatum shows us his comedic side, while Hill continues to make us laugh. They play off each other well, and make a great team! Written by Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall, and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) The original series starred Johnny Depp as Officer Tom Hanson; it turned him into a teen heart throb and launched his career. The movie does not follow the original characters of the series, but it is a continuation of the Jump Street program. Continue reading ’21 Jump Street (Movie Review)’
March 19th, 2012 by Scott Wampler
Back when V/H/S (which, for brevity and sanity’s sake, we’re going to call VHS from here on out) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the word on the street was that directors Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence, David Bruckner, Adam Wingard, and Glenn McQuaid had crafted one helluva found-footage horror anthology: reports had audience members vomiting in their seats, people fainting out of sheer terror, massive rounds of applause when the credits rolled, and so on. And so, it was with great anticipation that I decided to check out one of the film’s midnight screenings during this year’s SXSW Film Festival. Did the film live up to the hype? Find out below, folks. Continue reading ‘SXSW Film Festival: ‘V/H/S’ (Movie Review)’
March 16th, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
So anyone that was hoping for the dark and gritty reboot of the 80s undercover cop drama 21 Jump Street in the same way that Michael Mann rebooted Miami Vice, they will be disappointed with what has actually been made. Instead, this is a delightfully funny and wild take on that material, which is like a crack-addicted blend between John Hughes and Lethal Weapon. This new take on 21 Jump Street maintains the same basic premise of assigning cops to undercover roles as high school kids, but ups the raunchy factor significantly. The film is at times crude, but also a lot cleverer and more self aware than one would expect. It is entertaining in a wonderfully over-the-top sort of way, with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum making for a great comedic team. Continue reading ‘Sex, Drugs, Car Chases – It’s Not High School, It’s ’21 Jump Street’’
March 15th, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
Finding the words to properly review a stand-up special can be tricky. It can be especially difficult when dealing with a comedian that you may not be entirely familiar with. Fortunately, I do enjoy Pablo Francisco in general, though I have never spent time watching a special of his as long as this one entitled You Put It Out There. Filmed in Santa Ana, CA, this is a lengthy stand-up special, which has Francisco going all out with his impressions and joking about various issues. It is both funny and exhausting. But, as is always the case, his “movie voiceover king” impression never gets old. Continue reading ‘Pablo Francisco: They Put It Out There (Stand-Up Special Review)’
March 15th, 2012 by Lauren Pacheco
If you haven’t heard the buzz from when Huff was filming last year, get ready because now that the first rough cut has been made you are about to hear a lot more about this nursery rhyme favorite turned twisted thriller. I was recently asked by Director Paul Morrell to stop by the editing bay of his studio and watch a rough cut of the film. Having written a script review I knew what the story line was going to look like. I also was able to see the live action on set for a few days during filming so I had an inkling of what to expect. Still when I sat down in front of the screen to watch it unfold before my eyes, I lit up with marvel. Continue reading ‘Huff (2012): Rough Cut (Movie Review)’
March 15th, 2012 by Scott Wampler
At this point, there’s a good chance that you’ve already heard people singing the praises of Gareth Evans’ The Raid (now clunkily titled The Raid: Redemption, but we’re just gonna continue calling it The Raid): for months now, the film—which may, in fact, be the greatest action movie since the original Die Hard—has been making the rounds on the festival circuit, and it’s never played to anything less than a wildly enthusiastic response. Earlier this week, Evans’ film played as part of the SXSW 2012 lineup. Wanna know more? Read on for our official review. Continue reading ‘SXSW Film Festival: ‘The Raid’ (Movie Review)’
March 15th, 2012 by Scott Wampler
This past weekend, the 2012 SXSW Film Festival opened with Drew Goddard’s Cabin in The Woods, a horror/comedy mashup you’re going to end up seeing on a whole bunch of film geek top-ten lists come December 2012. The buzz surrounding Cabin in The Woods has—let’s be frank—kind of bordered on the hyperbolic, calling it a “masterpiece”, “brilliant”, “worth seeking out immediately in a packed theater”, and a dozen other effusive bits of praise. Well, folks, I can’t help but join in with the rest of ‘em: this is a film that’s worthy of every bit of hype it receives. Read on to find out why you need to see Cabin in The Woods immediately. Continue reading ‘SXSW Film Festival: ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ (Movie Review)’
March 9th, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
Well I had fun with this space jam. It must be tough for guys like James Cameron, George Lucas, or in this case – director Andrew Stanton, who work years on end to deliver a passion project of theirs, but have so much negative thought put into whether it will succeed or not based on early impressions. I am not sure how John Carter will do in its opening weekend and I am not sure how the majority of the population will react to it, but I had fun; warts and all. While the story rides the line between being too old fashioned and too involved, given the lack of a clear backstory build up, I really admired the spectacle that was presented. I found this to be a fun sci-fi yarn, full of inventive visuals, a handful of interesting characters, and some well-staged action. It has a few flaws, but it plays well enough as an old tale finally brought to life on the big screen. Continue reading ‘‘John Carter’ – Get Your Ass To Mars’
March 9th, 2012 by Sean Ferguson
From Academy Award–winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes John Carter – a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). John Carter is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands. Continue reading ‘John Carter 3D (Movie Review)’
March 8th, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
There were two films that hit at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, which featured rising star Elizabeth Olsen. One was the tense, but quiet thriller, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and the other is a remake of the Uruguayan, Spanish-language horror film, La Casa Muda, known as Silent House. What makes the original and this remake unique is that both films were designed to portray one continuous shot throughout its entire running time. Quite the feat to achieve, for sure, and whether or not the films have actually been done in one entire take or not, whatever edits there could be are certainly very few and far between, which is a stunning technical achievement in itself. Additionally, the film gets points for being a suspenseful experience and once showing once again that Elizabeth Olsen is a young force to be reckoned with. It is a neat take two for an experimental type of film, regardless of similar narrative problems. Continue reading ‘‘Silent House’ Is One Long Shot Of Suspense’
March 3rd, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
I was kind of excited about this one. That’s saying something in my eyes, as I have yet to really enjoy a full length Dr. Seuss feature film. How the Grinch Stole Christmas was pretty forgettable, I try not to talk about The Cat in the Hat, and Horton Hears a Who was a step in the right direction, but they all suffer from the same problem. Dr. Seuss’ books simply were not really meant to be stretched into 90-minute films. Sure one could feasibly write enough new material to keep things interesting, but that still has not really worked. The Lorax is the latest attempt at this, but once again, I found myself quite bored with the attempt at making this film last longer than it needed to. It didn’t help that the musical numbers, which there are quite a few of, were fairly uninteresting, let alone the fact that two of the lead actors are singers that didn’t sing. I was also kind of missing out on learning more about the title character, who only appears so much in this film. There was a certain amount of charm that I thought could be had with The Lorax, but unfortunately, it did not pan out as well as I was hoping; though it is a brightly animated experience. Continue reading ‘‘The Lorax’ Is Certainly A Colorful Film…’
March 3rd, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
I tend to dislike the reviews where I feel like I have to write about the qualifiers needed to justify where I am coming from on certain films. Project X, for example, is a film that is seemingly designed to be enjoyed by the teenage boy crowd, despite being an incredibly hard-R rated film full of debauchery throughout (that description would have saved space for the poster and the MPAA, by the way). I can say I went in open-minded, as, behind the scenes, there are a number of people involved that made this project more intriguing to me. Coming out of it, beyond a few chuckles here and there, there is not really much for me to recommend to the paying movie-going public that couldn’t be found in other, better films or on the internet for other…obvious reasons. Take away the gimmick of making this a ‘found footage’ film and all you have is an unoriginal, tepid, and fairly mean-spirited film that provides plenty in the way of raunchiness, but not much else. Continue reading ‘Way Too Much Monkey Business In ‘Project X’’
March 2nd, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
The Secret World of Arrietty is a charming and wonderfully detailed animated film. This is an anime that has come out of Studio Ghibli, which is way more focused on delivering a relaxed story and providing plenty of details through its wonderful hand-drawn animation, than flooding the eyes of its viewers with non-stop wackiness and forced jokes. Now that isn’t to say that this is some sort of animated prestige picture, but it is a film that differs from most mainstream fare. In any case, it is a fine, low-key, but wonderfully made animated feature that is fortunately a part of a fairly-wide theatrical release. Continue reading ‘Borrow A Pass And Enter ‘The Secret World Of Arrietty’’
March 2nd, 2012 by Brian White
I had many mixed feelings going into Project X this past Tuesday evening. Sure, I thought. It looks like a wild and raunchy, good ole time, but where will the story ultimately go? Being not a person to partake in such wild festivities myself in real life, I knew I would only be able to take so much before my senses eventually dull and I start to feel like I’m watching the first twenty minutes of Bellflower at 2 AM after working a 12-hour manual labor day. But there’s a name attached to this “project’ that I guess you could say, kind of gave me a sense of proverbial hope. That name belongs to none other than The Hangover director, Todd Phillips. The fact that his name is attached to this “project” gave me a glimmer of shiny hope that maybe; just maybe…this might work out after all. With his source credit, I figured the least I could do is give it an unbiased, fair try. That’s what being a reviewer is all about, right? Continue reading ‘‘Project X’: Instruments of Destruction (Movie Review)’
March 1st, 2012 by Scott Wampler
If you’re going to make a movie about cops, you’ve got a few templates to choose from: you can do the “Rookie Story”, where you follow an up-and-comer through the ranks as he achieves his goal of becoming a decorated police officer; you can go the “Grizzled Detective” route, and put an embittered, brilliant detective to work on whatever mystery your script entails; and, of course, there’s the “Crooked Cop” route. At this point, the “Crooked Cop” story has been told, re-told, re-imagined, remixed, and re-sequalized a billion different times, so going that route means bringing something special to the table. Does Oren Moverman’s Rampart manage that feat, or does it rank amongst the worst of the “Crooked Cop” genre? Read on to find out, folks. Continue reading ‘Rampart (Movie Review)’
February 25th, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
I do like it when I laugh a lot during a comedy. The funny thing about this film is that I did laugh a lot during it, yet it is hard for me to say that I really loved it. I liked it for sure, it has Paul Rudd being incredibly charming, smarmy, and just plain silly, along with a very talented supporting cast; all with moments to shine. The film is also just plain bizarre at times, fitting in having little moments that I can appreciate based on my own tastes. Still, even as a smile remained on my face, the structure of this film has its faults, not feeling like a seamless experience, as it reaches its inevitable plot beats. Were the premise to be strong enough to go somewhere more interesting, this film could have relied on more than just humorous moments from its cast, but as it stands, it does provide enough humorous moments from the cast, which is just fine. Continue reading ‘Set Yourself Free For A Laugh With ‘Wanderlust’’
February 24th, 2012 by Aaron Neuwirth
Last year my title for the film review of Battle: LA stated that you may need a video game controller in order to watch it. With Act of Valor, it seems more like a supplement to playing a video game. If you were to become tired of playing Modern Warfare or Battlefield, then Act of Valor is easily a way of keeping that emotional state alive. For a film that is based around authenticity of the actions taken by the actual active duty U.S. Navy SEALs, it is certainly just as concerned as looking like a slick video game come to life. The big difference is that this film is clearly working on a lower budget and lacks some of the visual panache that is more easily achieved by experienced action directors. Still, Act of Valor does contain a lot of harrowing action sequences, glued together by a plot that is a straight procedural and entirely inconsequential. Regardless of the intentions of this film (which started out as a recruitment film in early stages), if one desires a flurry of explosive action that is slightly more realistic than average, this is that film. Continue reading ‘‘Act of Valor’ – Rated M For Mature’
I have got to hand it to Will Ferrell. In recent times, it seems like some have soured on some of his antics, which can happen to a lot of comedic stars who make a lot of movies that can be generally categorized in a similar way. I like Will Ferrell quite a bit, he makes me genuinely laugh, but more importantly, while it may not seem immediately apparent to some, he takes a lot of chances with his films. One can point to some of his roles and see a lot of the same elements shining through, but beyond some of the goofiness that he exudes (which, again, continues to make me laugh), there are some interesting choices being made. The one that provides the subject for this review is his Spanish language film, Casa de Mi Padre, a passion project of sorts, which has been independently financed and put out in limited release. It is not a great film, but I did laugh quite a bit during it and admired this weird, experimental parody of telenovelas. Continue reading ‘Casa De Mi Padre Is A Decently Funny Experiment’
