3 Friends & a Brat Tread Dawn in 3rd ‘Narnia’
December 8th, 2010 by Jim Kulko
20th Century Fox has recreated the Narnia magic once again… The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, third in the series of the beloved books penned by C.S. Lewis, comes to the silver screen in all of its 3-D glory… To its credit, this movie was filmed in 3-D, and not just “pumped up” from a 2-D print, as many of the new releases are… Don’t feel pressured to pay the extra $$ for the 3-D version, it’s just not necessary on this one… Continue reading ‘3 Friends & a Brat Tread Dawn in 3rd ‘Narnia’’
Sometimes it is not easy to come up with titles. I could have easily said, “The Fighter is a knockout,” but that would have been way too cliché. I mention this, because in The Fighter, Mark Wahlberg stars as a boxer who did not have an easy path to getting a chance at a title shot. So you see the titles…oh nevermind. My poor attempt at a humorous connection aside, this is a strong biopic that features some very good performances, particularly by Christian Bale. 
Casino Jack is a fact-based biopic that deals with lobbyists, finance, and the shameless fleecing of the American taxpayer. It is also quite funny, as leads Kevin Spacey and Barry Pepper essentially sleaze their way through this story as real life lobbyists and businessmen Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon. The film hits a lot of the familiar beats of a biopic and may not be as intriguing as it could be to those more informed on the subject matter, but that does not stop this film from having an entertaining rhythm held throughout. 
I was very close to giving this flick a pass simply because Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has finally come back to the action scene, after pushing hard in the family-friendly film territory. Unfortunately, this revenge/thriller does not quite reach a passing grade for me. It does come close however. I admired this film for its simplicity, especially when we get what we would want in a film like this: The Rock moving through town, hunched forward, gun in hand, with killing on his mind, as 70s rock plays in the background, and not giving a damn about anything in his path. 
Love & Other Drugs is a simple romantic comedy-drama that tries to break away from its simple mold by having deeper parts of a story to explore as well as a hard R-rating. Despite these elements, the film has problems with breaking away from the traditional formula along with balancing its tone. Fortunately, both Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway bring enough talent to the film to keep it entertaining and sold on its performances. These two make a good pair and do the film a service. 
First thing’s first. Christina Aguilera…where have you been all my life? Why have I never recognized your…um…talents until 2010? Well anyway, the original deal between my writing partner Gregg Senko and I was that I would tackle the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie review last week and he would take on Burlesque. After all, it only seemed more fitting since Gregg is into dance and musicals way more than I. Funny thing though was that while I immensely enjoyed Burlesque (oh no…the cat’s out of the bad…already!), Gregg only so-so cared for it. 
I’m learning how to properly execute a head-butt. You may ask why and I can tell you it has something to do with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. No, I’m not trying to emulate his wrestling career. I had the misfortune of watching Faster this week and I’m attempting to pound the memory out of my head. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton and Carla Gugino…oh Carla, why did you have to take this script…anyway, it features those aforementioned “actors” (let’s face it, Dwayne Johnson isn’t an actor) and throws them together in this revenge-oriented tale of brotherly love and determination. 
In a game such as Chess, the player progresses through by strategically moving their pieces into specific locations, one by one, hoping to reach a particular attack point. Once all of the pieces are set, a series of actions could take place leading to the end of the game. For this chapter in the Harry Potter saga, all of the pieces are being setup and moved into their appropriate locations. This film is based on the final novel in the series. As the novel is quite large, the only way to seemingly make this into a satisfying ending for the film series was to divide it into two parts. 
Well, I guess I should preface this entire review by saying first and foremost that I am not a Harry Potter fan. I have never read the books, but many have told me that they are fantastic. And no, I have not taken very well to the films so far (#1 and #2 are sure fire cures for insomnia, in my opinion), but maybe, just maybe, the seventh and final two installments may be the charm? Who knows? I don’t know, but going into Tuesday evening’s press screening, I was definitely interested in finding out while keeping an open mind (a necessary evil in the world of film reviewing). 
Something has been gnawing at me about this cutesy, romantic comedy, based around a morning news program. It has nothing to do with its leads, who are all charming in their own ways, whether it be Rachel McAdams bubbly, yet spunky personality, or Harrison Ford’s ability to play bull-headed and grumpy (yes, he’s “acting”) for comedic effect. It also does not have anything to do with the story, which is a pretty standard script, delivering a good amount of laughs, before settling into familiar plot territory. 
Fair Game is both a drama centered on politics and a character study about the struggle of a marriage. The story is based on true events, involving the Bush administration’s attempts to discredit an American ambassador by revealing his wife’s status as a covert CIA agent. The film is very much skewed towards a certain audience, but for those interested in a film like this, it is very well made. The direction and editing are solid enough to make note of, as the film constantly moves forward, while dealing with all of the information presented. 
I hope some comments answer the question I am going to start this off with. Why this film is called The Next Three Days? After sitting through this silly thriller, which consists of a lot of empty entertainment that can easily fall apart for the viewer if they try to step back and think about it for even a second, I still found myself wondering what the title of the film was actually referring to. We are presented with a number of title cards during the film, which give us a rough time on how things are progressing, but never one that actually says “The Next Three Days.” 
If Skyline was a person, you would complement their shoes because of how unappealing the rest of that person is. Basically, yes, this movie does some nice work with the effects, but really fails to deliver in any other category to make you like the movie. Directors Colin and Greg Strause (billed as The Brothers Strause) are special effects guru’s who have done work on films such as Avatar and Iron Man 2 and also directed Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. For this film, they enlisted a few pretty, but low-profile actors and filmed a very cheap movie within their own apartment building. 
Unstoppable is the new action thriller from director Tony Scott and star Denzel Washington and presumably the second part of their “Train Trilogy,” which began with the tepid The Taking of Pelham 123, and will hopefully conclude with an adaptation of red-light/green-light taking place on a monorail and reuniting Denzel with his Man on Fire costar Dakota Fanning. Seriously though, this was an entertaining film that managed to be better than I thought it could be. It is a solid B-movie that audiences should be able to enjoy. 
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the final Swedish film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, which was preceded by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Unfortunately, the series has delivered in diminishing returns. This film is in fact the weakest of the trilogy for obvious reasons. While the first two films delivered upon having both an incredibly interesting lead female character and intriguing mystery elements, this film robs us of both those aspects, delivering instead a merely average thriller. 
Megamind is the second animated feature this year (next to Despicable Me) to focus on the villain’s side of things. It comes from Dreamworks, whose animated features tend to range from satisfying, sweet, clever types to forgettable, pop culture-heavy, jokey types. This film falls somewhere in the middle, but on the positive side. It features top notch animation and some of the best 3D effects work that I have seen this year (alongside How to Train Your Dragon and Jackass 3D, respectively). There is a stellar voiceover cast present as well. 
So I guess I was expecting better here. I did not necessarily expect to see a comedy classic in the making, but I did think that the talent involved in this film would have provided me with a consistently entertaining movie. Instead, what I observed was a film that was only occasionally very funny. I certainly laughed at some key scenes and chuckled at others, but the film as a whole really didn’t click into place as well as I was hoping it could have, which is a shame. What could have been a clever retread of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for a new generation instead turns into a pretty standard road movie, with two quality actors in the lead roles. 
