SHORT REVIEW: Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking

Rated R

Running time: 1 hr 40 mins

Cast:

Nick Stahl
AnnaSophia Robb
Charlize Theron
Dennis Hopper

Critical conensus:

** out of *****

Matt's Take:

Has Not Viewed

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

**1/2 out of *****

The premise:

The drama follows an 11-year-old girl's struggle to come to terms with her mother's abandonment.

MY REVIEW

Sleepwalking is an appropriately named film. The pacing is so slow, it's as if the movie is moving but asleep at the same time. That doesn't mean this is an awful movie, because it really isn't. However, this is a very typical, unoriginal take on the dysfunctional family drama. There are no groundbreaking moments or scenes that just make you think and want to tear up. The story isn't bad, it's pretty decent actually, just nothing you haven't seen before.

What saves this movie the most is the performances. Nick Stahl (Terminator 3, How to Rob a Bank)is excellent here. He really captures the emotions of his character well, even though he is slightly poorly written. Oscar winner Charlize Theron (Monster, Hancock) only appears in the opening act and final act and is absent a good portion of the film. When she is on screen however, she demonstrates why she is an Oscar winner. She can deliver a pretty powerful punch in the acting catergory, and she does not dissapoint here. The real star of the movie here is young actress AnnaSophia Robb (The Reaping, Bridge to Terabithia). This is really her film. She is no Abigail Breslin but she carries herself very well in this movie. Perhaps she displays the most sincere emotions over her more respected adult cast.

The look of the movie is very rustic, if that's the right choice of word. You really feel the mood of the film through the way it looks. It was handled well by first time director Bill Maher whose done special effects work on movies like X-Men. Really though, this films major downfall is its lack of genuine emotional punch, because like I've said, we have seen this type of film every year. Sometimes these movies bring their A game such as the film Snow Angels. Sleepwalking could take a few pointers from that film.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARDS NOMINATIONS:

• Best Performance by a Young Actor or Actress (AnnaSophia Robb)

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Sleepwalking

*This is the 74th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

SHORT REVIEW: Penelope

Penelope

Rated PG

Running time: 1 hr 29 mins

Cast:

Christina Ricci
James McAvoy
Catherine O'Hara
Peter Dinklage

Critical consensus:

**1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

Has not viewed

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

*** out of *****

The premise:

A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with "one who will love her faithfully".

MY REVIEW

Penelope is by no means an outstanding work of art for the world of film. However it's an oddball of a film full of quirk and fantasy, that I actually found myself vaguely enjoying. I say vaguely because this is not a movie I will remember much about at year's end, but for the time being, with it fresh in my mind, it wasn't that bad. This is a modern day love story/fantasy, and I'm not to keep on the whole love story genre, as most of you know. Yet Penelopes story intrigued me. The movie was short enough to not drag on, every scene got straight to the point. Yeah maybe it moved a tad to fast, but how much of a love story/fantasy can one truly take? By the end, we actually have a pretty good message delivered to us as moviegoers: shallow people are stupid.

Some of the direction of the film was a little "low class" for me, something about the way the film was shot, maybe the camera itself, I don't know, but it was kind of straight-to-dvd looking. We still get glimpses of enchanting effects and camera shots, however. The cast, overall, is pretty good. Christina Ricci (Adams Family, Sleepy Hollow) and James McAvoy (Atonement, Wanted) work really well together, and showed very good chemistry. SAG Award nominee Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) was the best part of the movie for me, in terms of performances. He's a great little dwarf actor! Catherine O'Hara (Home Alone, Best in Show) was the worst performance. Her character and her acting was pure craziness and didn't seem rehearsed in anyway. Sad, because I normally like her. Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) has a very small role in the film, but is plastered all over the posters, mainly due to the fact that she is one of the producers of the film. Her borderline cameo role was pretty entertaining. Look kids, simply put, this is not a bad movie. Not one I'd recommend to many people, but whatever, it enterained me.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• 
  
  None

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Penelope

*This is the 73rd new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

SHORT REVIEW: Step Brothers

Step Brothers

Rated R

Running time: 1 hr 35 mins

Cast:

Will Ferrell
John C. Reilly
Richard Jenkins
Mary Steenburgen
Adam Scott

Critical conensus:

**1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

D+

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

* out of *****

The premise:

Two spoiled guys become competitive stepbrothers after their single parents get hitched.

MY REVIEW

You know I really don't feel the need to write some extensive review on this film, so I won't. Step Brothers, in my opinions is one of the years worst and most dissapointing comedies. This is a film that unfortunately falls victim to too much bad advertising. That generally happens to comedies. They show us an abundant amount of funny parts of the movie in both the regular trailer and red-band trailer, that make us really want to see the movie. When you watch it, as did I, I noticed all the funny parts in the film were in the trailer. I was already exposed to those jokes, numerous times. I mean there were a few new funny moments strewn about here and there that I chuckled at, but really I didn't actually laugh.

I hate to say this but...I truly hated this movie. It was way more raunchy and crude than I was expecting. These crude jokes, and they get really bad, are so poorly written and just tossed into the story and they make NO sense with the characters or with the screenplay. The comedy seemed so forced to me. Was it just an excuse to re-team Golden Globe Nominee Will Ferrell (Stranger Than Fiction) and Oscar Nominee John C. Reilly (Chicago)? Maybe. You figure they could have come up with better material for these two big stars, but sometimes you can't hold your breath. They both are very good in their delivery and timing, and both are good, proven actors; but this script did not work for them. The most annoying part of this movie was Adam Scott (The Return) and Kathryn Hahn (TV's Crossing Jordan). Scott plays one of the most cliched and obnoxious characters in recent comedy film history. By the end when he starts talking, I start sighing from frustration. He was terrible. Even worse was Hahn. Her character...I don't even know where to begin. She was so disgusting and pointless and that's really all I want to say about her.

I recommend this movie to people who love this acting tandem and who love to laugh at raunch. It's just not my cup of tea, especially when it is done as weak as this movie. Have I lost my funny bone? I may never know.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARDS NOMINATIONS:

• TBD

To view this films red-band trailer, click this link: Step Brothers

*This is the 72nd new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Rated PG-13

Running time: 1 hr 44 mins

Cast:

David Duchovny
Gillian Anderson

Critical consensus:

**1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

Coming Soon

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

**** out of *****

The premise:

Based on the award winning dramatic TV show of the same name, and a sequel to a 1998 film. Mulder and Scully are asked to come out of hiding to assist in a case that needs their otherworldy expertise.

MY REVIEW

The Story and Screenplay: I'd like to point out to those who don't know: I am a die hard fan of the The X-Files TV show. I've seen every episode. However I am not an "X-Philer" as they say, meaning I'm not some comic-con nerd who lives and breathes the show. As a matter of fact it's misguided thought that The X-Files has some huge nerdy cult following like Star Trek. Whatever though, think what you want. On to the film.

Creator Chris Carter and regular X-File writer Frank Spotnitz have delivered a story that I thought completely stayed true to the heart of the show. No it has nothing to do with aliens. If they made a story about aliens, then you would lose the entire non-X-Files fan audience. The first film in 1998 focused on the alien conspiracy that made the show what it was, and did so in a way that even a person who never saw the show, could enjoy. The first film is excellent. It was hip, it was sleek, and it was appealing to everyone. They also couldn't do an alien story here because that mythology storyline concluded in the show. Not to mention its been 6 years since the show ended, an alien story would have been cheesy. So we get a stand-alone film.

Mulder and Scully are enlisted to help in a case involving a missing FBI agent. They are asked for help, because the FBI is currently using a psycic to help them, who claims he knows where the agent is being kept, or he can at least help find her. This story we have is a very basic story that we would have seen in an episode of the show. Except in this film, Scully has her own storyline that is a prominent part of the film but has no connection to Mulders story involving the missing agent. Of course they are helping eachother until Scully realizes Mulder is doing this for his dead sister. Look theres a lot I can get into here, but I won't for time reasons.

I cared more the Scully aspect of the story actually, about her patient that she so desperately wants to help. At what cost though? Same moral dilema goes for Mulders story. Which inevitablely hurts their personal relationship (which by the way they are a couple now living together). Scullys half of the movie was the more dramtic element to the film, and you really feel for her character (fan or not). She struggles with the higher authorities at the hospital, she struggles with Mulder, she struggles with her faith, etc.

With the investigative storyline, it does tend to drag on a tad bit, which was my main issue with this movie. The villians of the story really get no screentime, and when they do they are speaking russian and we have no subtitles. We don't really know exactly what their big diabolical plan is beyond the current issue (which I won't reveal as it could be major spoilers). So the story really doesn't create much tension, meaning we aren't scared of these baddies. So much occurs in the end with little explanation that it bothered me. The show was always very good at explaining to us everything that we needed to know, yet I think it faltered here in the second movie. However, the overstall story of the film was excellent at staying with the shows format.

The Story and Screenplay rating: **** out of *****

The Performances: Probably the film's strongest point was the performances. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have both been recognized by the Emmy's, Golden Globes and SAG Awards. They changed nothing about that for the film. Duchovny was his charming little self that us X-Files fan grew to love in the show. He plays his character so well. Mulder is kind of a selfish man and tries not to listen to people telling him what to do, and he does that well bouncing off Gillian Anderson. Anderson, i my opinion, steals the show. She was the only one to actually win an Emmy of the two, but she was always over shadowed by Duchovny in the spotlight. While he's a great actor, at least on the show and in these movies, Anderson gives us an array of emotions that make the audience feel for her struggle and simply love her! She doesn't go quietly into the night, and Scully isn't afraid to let people know what she thinks about them. Anderson was fantastic on the show, and she was great in the first movie, but here is where I think she truly shined. She turned up those acting chops and delivers an amazing performance. Not Oscar worthy by any means, but you catch my drift.

The rest of the cast is good, but all very much supporting. Billy Connolly plays the ex-catholic priest who molested alter boys turned psycic. He's a bit quirky and occasionaly over the top in his performance, but he is playing an eccentric old psycic man. He's no Peter Boyle (true X-Files fan will get that one). Then we have Amanda Peet who plays the FBI agent who originally asks for Mulder and Scullys help. She was better than I was expecting, but her character is so one dimensional and useless after a certain point in the movie that you just don't care. She was very good, but her character wasn't. Finally we have Xzibit playing Peet's partner. He plays kind of a jerk, and doesn't actually get a whole lot of screentime or speaking lines, but when he is on screen, he actually wasn't that bad at all. Kinda suprising actually. Oh and p.s. nice little limited performance from Mitch Pileggi. Glad to see him back.

The Performances rating: **** out of *****


The Direction and Filmaking: I liked the look of this movie. It was so very much nostalgic of the show. The show was always known for having a dark look, and this movie is no exception. The whole movie is so dimmly lit and morose, but does so to create a creepy mood. That worked for me. There were a lot of shots I thought were really cool too. The camera weeved around the line of agents in the snow beautifully. Chris Carter always did a wonderful job filming the show, and I'm glad he's getting a chance to direct his characters on the big screen (he didn't direct the first film). He showed his dark side in this film, where in the first one it was more "bright" so to speak.

The first film is better, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this movie!

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• Best Other Genre Motion Picture


• Best Dramatic Actress in a Leading Role (Gillian Anderson)


• Best Theatrical Trailer

To view this film's theatrical trailer, click this link: The X-Files: I Want to Believe

*This is the 71st new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

STRAIGHT-TO-DVD SPOTLIGHT: Otis

Otis

Rated R
Running time: 1 hr 40 mins

DVD Release Date: June 10th

Cast:

Bostin Christopher

Ashley Johnson

Daniel Stern

Illeana Douglas

Jere Burns

MY REVIEW

I knew there was a reason I suffer through this straight-to-dvd flicks! Actually it isn't suffering. That sad thing is, is that I truly enjoy watching these movies. They are fun in a bad way. There the types of movies you can watch and just have a blast laughing at, also in a bad way. However, there is an extremely rare exception when one of these movies sincerely entertains. Otis is that exception.

This is a horror movie, but not one of the scary gory kinds. Also not one of the poorly made kinds with ghastly visual effects and gore effects. Otis is a film that vaguely pokes fun at all the mainstream gore fest films like Saw and family. It never takes itself too seriously as a genuine horror film. The first half of the movie we focus a lot on the title character: the seriously deranged Otis. He kidnapps young blonde girls, keeps him captive in his dingy old house, chained to the floor. He has a makeshift teenage girls bedroom with a few sadistic devices included. We don't learn a whole lot about Otis or why exactly he's crazy. He calls these girls "Kim" and makes them "play" along with him in his fantasy of being a hot jock who gets the hot girl. Obviously theres some past event that traumatized him in some form, involving his own high school past that makes him do these creepy things. We never actually find out the truth, but we enough to go with to understand him fully. The first half is him metally messing with the girl and the film also focuses on the girls home life.

We meet her family who has called the cops and FBI. They are disturbing little family, but certainly one you love. The head FBI agent is a total tool and doesn't care what he says to this family. The second half of the movie focuses soley on this family. The girl is safe, and the mother goes after Otis with the aid of the Dad and their son. What happens at Otis house I will keep secret, but it is seriously some of the funniest things you will ever see in a horror film. Yes, this movie is a comedy. An actual comedy, not a movie you laugh at because it's awful. Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas are fabulous as the parents seeking revenge, and their son played by Jared Kusnitz is a riot!

I can honestly recommend this film for your viewing pleasure. You will have to go to a blockbuster or on Netflix to rent it, but I suggest it to you all. It a fresh take on the horror genre that won't really scare you, but will make you pee your pants from laughter. Oh and the blood and gore is there, mainly in one particular long scene, but it's still quite minimal and you are laughing to much to get queasy from it. So great!

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating: **** out of *****

*This is the 70th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

*Straight to DVD movies do not qualify for my awards.

SHORT REVIEW: Step Up 2

Step Up 2: The Streets

Rated PG-13

Running time: 1 hr 38 mins

Cast:

Briana Evigan
Robert Hoffman
Adam G. Sevani
Will Kemp

Critical consensus:

** out of *****

Matt's Take:

C

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

** out of *****

The premise:

Romantic sparks occur between two dance students from different backgrounds at the Maryland School of the Arts.

MY REVIEW

There really isn't a whole heck of a lot to comment on for this movie. You know I don't understand why we have to be subjected to a slew of hip-hop dance movies with no attempts at actual storylines. Step Up 2 offers us nothing groundbreaking in a screenplay and really delivers no true inspiration from its characters. This a well below average story and I really don't know what the point of it was for us to get. We see and hear glimpses of some of the main characters personal lives, but really this movie, like so many of these films, are all about the dancing. That's where this movie impresses me personally. I really stopped paying attention to the lack of good dialogue, the uninteresting characters and the weak performances by the cast. When these people started dancing, you kind of can't take your eyes of the screen. Pretty much all of it is simply put, really cool. In particular that final "dance-off" in the rain was quite awesome. Sadly all the dancing is compacted into a fictional film with one dimensional characters and a cliched attmept at a storyline. My question is: why can't they just make a documentary or even a mockumentary about life of hip-hop dancers on the streets? Seeing real life people doing this and actually learning about them would be far more intriguing then what we have to see two or three times a year in films like this.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARDS NOMINATIONS:

• 
  
  None
  

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Step Up 2: The Streets

*This is the 69th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

STRAIGHT-TO-DVD SPOTLIGHT: Insanitarium

Insanitarium

Rated R

Running time: 1 hr 29 mins

DVD Release Date: July 15th

Cast:

Jesse Metcalf

Kiele Sanchez

Peter Stormare

MY REVIEW

Boy oh boy, it's kind of sick that I'm entertained by these straight-to-DVD films. Not entertained in a good way, just that it's fun taking a break from real movies to watch films that are even beneath theatrical garbage like One Missed Call or Meet the Spartans. These films, especially ones like Insantitarium, make those movies look like Oscar gold. OK, maybe that's a stretch. But seriously, I think this movie is actually ten times worse than the last insane asylum based movie I just watched, Asylum.

The story here is as follows: Jesse Metcalf gets himself locked up in a looney bin (even though he isn't crazy) for the purpose of breaking out with his sister (who is crazy, but he believes deep down she isn't). On his journey through this asylum, he learns that the crazy doctor played by Peter Stormare (crazy russian astronaut guy from Armageddon) is doing freak experiments on his patients that has a deadly side effect: basically these experiments turn the patients to zombies. Now the brother and sister duo are on the run, trying to escape that asylum. Again, a story that never had hope of being remotely good. This is like Prison Break: Zombie Asylum edition (Prison Break, a fantastic show that Peter Stormare was actually a part of for 2 seasons).

Everything about this crappy gore-fest of a film is sickening and awful. It is almost non-stop over the top gore (even worse than the Saw films). Of course, all the blood and gore looks incredibly fake compared to a major released film. Still though, there are scenes of: cat's heads being ripped clean off, numerous arms being broken in half and ripped off, countless stabbings, slit throats, a woman eating her own intestines, people being stabbed through the top of their heads, people eating other peoples guts, the list sadly goes on. Theres "torture porn" films like Saw 2 through Saw 4 and Hostel, and then theres this: Zombie porn? Yikes. The budget of the film was obviously around $346 because the effects were like tobassco sauce being squirted at the camera for blood. The sound effects were even worse! Every time someone was stabbed it sounded the same, which I can't possibly describe the sound in my own written words.

Finally, I'd like to point out the attempts at witty one-liners. You know how in action movies when the good guy will say something cool or witty right before he kills the baddie? Example, in the Die Hard films, Bruce Willis says "Yippie-Ky-Yay Mother F***er" before he does something awesome. This film attempts those lines. Some examples: "You're a knockout" or even better, "Consider this my resignation". Picture these quotes in those "tense" moments right before a good guys does something "awesome". Did ya think about it? Amazing huh? That really defines how truly remarkably bad a film can get.

"You've just been reviewed!" *Cue awesome hero moment*

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating: 0 out of *****

*This is the 68th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

*Straight-to-DVD movies do no qualify for my awards.

STRAIGHT-TO-DVD SPOTLIGHT: Asylum

ASYLUM

Rated R

Running time: 1 hr 42 mins

DVD Release Date: July 15th

Cast:

Sara Roemer

Jake Muxworthy

MY REVIEW

Well listen, it's always kind of fun to watch these really bad straight-to-DVD movies, because you really to get see how incredibly awful a film can get. Asylum is no exception. This is a terrible, terrible film and if ever released in theaters, would have been a massive flop. Thank goodness for Netflix for giving me the ability and strength to watch movies like this. Since I want to be a good film reviewer, I have to stomach all the movies I possibly can including the very worst. I can't be picky!

The plot is very basic: A group of college students are housed in a new dorm that used to be an insane asylum and now the ghost of a psycotic doctor is picking them off one by one. There was never potential in this story to be somewhat of a good movie. I like a good ghost movie, especially a ghost movie that takes place in an abandoned asylum (Session 9 anyone?). Asylum falls prey to a horrific screenplay, trashy directing and most of all, an extremely horrendous cast. This kind of feels like a high school play gone very, very wrong. My advice is to not watch it unless you want to have a good time with your friends picking apart and laughing at film at it's very worst.

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating: 0 out of *****

*This is the 67th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

*Straight-to-DVD films do not qualify for my awards.

SNEAK PEEK REVIEW: The Rocker

The Rocker (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 42 mins

Cast:

Rainn Wilson
Christina Applegate
Teddy Geiger
Josh Gad
Emma Stone

Critical consensus:

**1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

C-

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

** out of *****

The premise:

The Rocker tells the story of a failed drummer who is given a second chance at fame.

MY REVIEW
*I saw this film a month in advance, due to be released August 20th*

The Story and Screenplay: The Rocker is basically another un-original, un-inspiring, cliched comedy. Rainn Wilson (TV's The Office) headlines the film in what I think is his first actual leading role. He plays a 4o year failed drummer who was one of the original members of a now legendary and ficticious band called Vesuvius. This was in his 20's, and they kicked him out of the band in order to essentially become famous headliners. Cut to twenty years later, and now Wilson AKA "Fish" in the story, is some sort of phone salesman but still dawns that "groovy" hair doo. To cut this short, he finds himself as the new drummer in a teenage punk band. They instantly become famous because they find themselves on youtube with "fish" playing the drums naked, AKA "The Naked Drummer".

What follows is a pretty typical comedic story. I've made it known that I am not a huge fan of the comedy genre. I haven't lost my funny bone ladies and gentleman, I still laugh at these movies. It's the stories that drive me nuts. I like a good movie story. There's the type of comedies that are meant soley to make an audience laugh (spoof movies are this only exception) without having an actual story. Then there are the rest of the comedies, where the humor is derived from the crazy antics wrapped neatly in an attempt at heartfelt storyline. This particular story annoyed me. I'll tell you why: This teeange rock band has some of the most depressing teenagers in history of film!

The Story and Screenplay rating: ** out of *****

The Performances: Josh Gad (the kid in the red shirt from TV's Back to You) is the only exception. His character is actually kind of funny. He plays the nephew of failed drummer, Fish. He is the piano man in the band. He has a pretty good comedic delivery which is dry. Then we have Emma Stone (Superbad) she is the backup singer/bass player. She plays this typical teenage character who thinks she has life all figured out, like she's more important than she actually is in the grand scheme of things. Her performance isn't awful, but I hate her character. She utters the line, "smiling is for the weak" in a non-comedy scene. This line was meant for dramatic effect for her character to kind of give us a taste of who she is. The line is stupid, and I began to hate her character from that moment on. We never really get a true insight into why her character is the way she is, yet these kids are the main focus of the story. Weird. Then we have the lead singer/guitar character, and "heart of the story" played by newcomer Teddy Geiger. What a downer this kid was in this movie. He takes that stereo-typical depressed teeanger film character and amplifies it to the point where I hate his guts. He mopes around for the majority of this movie with a frown on his face and saying things like, "Oh my dad walked on me when I was a kid" or "I just wish my dad could see what I've become", blah blah. This character was SO depressing I almost wanted to take a gun out and shoot myself! Again, not a bad performance really, just a terribly writen character. Rainn Wilson almost embarasses himself. This is a joke compared to his Dwight Schrute character on The Office. That's all I'm going to say about that.

The Performances rating: ** out of *****


The Direction and Filmaking: No need to touch up on this subject a whole lot. For a comedy, it's pretty standard filmaking. Nothing to go crazy over, but comedies aren't meant for that are they?

The Direction and Filmaking: ** out of *****

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• None

To view this film's theatrical trailer, click this link: The Rocker

*This is the 66th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

SHORT REVIEW: Superhero Movie

Superhero Movie (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 25 mins

Cast:

Drake Bell
Christopher McDonald
Leslie Nielsen
Sara Paxton
Kevin Hart

Critical consensus:

*1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

C

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

*** out of *****

The premise:

Orphaned high school student Rick Riker is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, develops super powers (except for the ability to fly), and becomes a hero.

MY REVIEW

Superhero Movie is from the guy (Craig Mazin) who brought us Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. Personally, I preffered those two films to the earlier two Scary Movie films. They sort of dipped back to what the genre started with, back in the early 80's with one of my all-time favorite films, Airplane. Superhero Movie is no Airplane, I want to say that real quick. In fact all these spoof movies have lost all the touch we grew to love with Airplane. These movies no longer bring us any originality. Honestly, it's a dying film breed in it's last breath with such god-awful films as Meet the Spartans and the inevitable crap-fest, Disaster Movie. However, Superhero Movie somehow to me, was kind of funny. Kind of entertaining, kind of enjoyable.

This teeters on a 2 1/2 to 3 star rating for me, because it is by no means a good movie. It's korny, but obviously, that's what it is supposed to be, what do you expect? There were actually a lot of jokes where I found myself genuinely laughing. Meet the Spartans didn't even get a slight chuckle out of me. The thing that seperates the two movies is that Superhero sticks to it's story and the genre it's spoofing (superhero-action pics). It's humor is meant for the movie and its storyline, whereas Spartans just threw in an as many random jokes as they could that had nothing to do with the story (Yeah, they brought back the Yo-Mama jokes). So that's where I give Superhero Movie credit, at least it stays true to it's original genre.

The movie is rated PG-13, barely getting away with it as well. There are numerous sex related jokes involving teens (Nickelodeons Drake Bell) quite a bit of cussing (including the one PG-13 allowed "F" bomb), and an extremely elongated fart joke. A lot of the humor is pretty PG-13 though, but it gets away with a lot. Probably not a film quite appropriate for younger kids. The performances are stupid, but again, meant to be so. Good to see Leslie Nielsen (Airplane, Naked Gun series) still going at it with these movies. This guy was once a dramatic actor. To sum it up though, Superhero Movie is a dumb little comedy that entertains unlike so many spoof movies have done recently. It's just one of those movies that's fun to watch but in a few weeks, you just don't care about it anymore.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• None

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Superhero Movie

*This is the 65th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

SHORT REVIEW: First Sunday

First Sunday (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 36 mins

Cast:

Ice Cube
Katt Williams
Tracy Morgan

Critical consensus:

*1/2 out of *****

Matt's Take:

Coming Soon?

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

**1/2 out of *****

The premise:

Durell and LeeJohn are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. When told they have one week to pay a $17,000 debt or Durell will lose his son, they come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church. Instead, they end up spending the night in the presence of the Lord and are forced to deal with much more than they bargained for.

MY REVIEW

First Sunday should have been a terrible movie. Unfortunately, I found myself oddly entertained. The movie kind of ends up being a slightly heartwharming story. It is obviously cliched though. We have two "thug" characters played by Ice Cube (Friday, Anaconda) and Tracy Morgan (Little Man, TV's 30 Rock) who live a life of crime, robbing whoever they can. They find themselves robbing a church of all places, because they found out they have earned over $200,000 in charity. With some crazy antics, they sneak in at night, but unbeknownst to them, the staff is there. The cooky, eccentric staff that makes up the odd cast. We have Loretta Devine, Chi McBride, Malinda Williams, Olivia Cole, Michael Beach and the most eccentric one of them all and probably the best performance of them all, comedian Katt Williams. Now all these characters start off scared by these thugs, then grow tired of them in comedic fashion. Then they get Tracy Morgan to open up and make him realize this isn't what he wants to do. Then they begin to feel bad for Ice Cube because of his problems with his ex and his son. Now they all know that what these guys are doing is wrong. However, they are in God's house, and they are God's people and they forgive these men and help them escape.

I probably just ruined the movie, but you have to expect the story to end up like that anyway. This is a comedy, not a suspense thriller. Yes, it has a happy ending. The reason why I'm not hating this movie is because while it was cliched, it did have vague attempts at trying to be different. Usually in a movie like this where the bad guys end up in court, there is some big heroic speech that moves everyone and they get set free. In the final court scene you see hints of this happening but all speeches are cut short. These men are released for other reasons. The performances are average but no one is "bad". Katt Williams kind of suprised me actually. He was witty and funny and I couldn't tell if he was bad because he was playing himself, or if he was really good because he was just playing an oddball character. I'm going with the latter because I've never seen his standup. I don't honestly recommend this movie as a must see, but hey, if you are ever bored and have nothing else to watch, this isn't such a bad choice.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIE AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• Best Breakthrough Performance (Katt Williams)

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: First Sunday

*This is the 64th new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

SHORT REVIEW: Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 53 mins

Cast:

Martin Lawrence
Joy Bryant
Cedric the Entertainer
James Earl Jones
Nicole Ari Parker

Critical consensus:

** out of *****

Matt's Take:

C-

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

** out of *****



The premise:

A successful talk show host leaves Los Angeles to reunite with his family in the Deep South.

MY REVIEW

I'll keep this as short as possible. This is kind of like a filler movie. Something that came out in 2008 I just wanted to fill my time up, and something I could write a review on. This isn't an awful movie, and it isn't one of the worst of the year. I can see the appeal a movie like this has on people, but it just didn't work for me personally. It does have it's funny, charming little moments. However the films falls flat storywise. This is a typical and predictable movie about a person who is estranged from his family and all their quirks and comforts, and then realizes in the end his family is what he needs most, and not his rich city life. We have a very loud cast of characters here and all of them tend to be a tad annyoying by the end. Martin Lawrence (Blue Streak, Bad Boys) is getting tiresome to me. He's never been funny in my eyes. Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop) and his routine are growing boring and old. His stand up can be hillarious, but that carisma has never tranfered to the big screen. Mike Epps (All About the Benjamins) was really the only funny part of the movie. He too got a little annoying by the end of the film though. Like I said, this is not a terrible movie, it's not a good movie, it's one of those movies that you see once just because you had nothing to do and then move on. I won't remember it by years end, and I don't know anyone who would remember it. Even its fans.

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIE AWARDS NOMINATIONS:

• None

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

*This is the 63rd new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.

SNEAK PEEK REVIEW: Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (Rated R)

Running time: 1 hr 51 mins

Cast:

Seth Rogen
James Franco

Gary Cole
Danny R. McBride
Rosie Perez

Critical consensus:

Coming Soon

Matt's Take:

B-

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

** out of *****

The premise:

A stoner and his dealer are forced to go on the run from the police after the pothead witnesses a cop commit a murder.

MY REVIEW *I saw this film a month before it's release (August 8th)*

The Story and Screenplay: This is probably one of the more dissapointing films of 2008, and it hasn't even been released yet. Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg co-wrote the film (They are also responsible for last years teen raunch fest, Superbad). Superbad was a well written film, even with all the sex humor and vulgarity. It the heart of it, it was a solid story. With Pineapple Express, we have a film whose main story is centered around pot smoking. Rogen's character witnesses a man being murdered and drives off. Not before he tosses a "roach" out of his window he was smoking, and the murderer turns out to be the drug lord who sold the weed known as "pineapple express" to Rogen's drug dealer. The story then immediately (yes theres no screwing around, the main story begins within 7 or 8 minutes of the films running) turns into an action comedy about two pot heads on the run from a murderous drug lord and his lady cop partner. When watching the previews, I thought this looked like an intriguing, original take on action comedy. Even with the story centered on pot (which normally I don't care for drug related movies). Yet watching the film, you see that they screenplay is incredibly weak. There were numerous moments of uncomfortableness, becuase myself and the audience weren't sure if they were supposed to laugh at certain parts. The jokes seemed to run on to long and evenually become redundant. There was certainly laughter from the audience, and even me, but there more than enough scenes that simply failed to impress or make anyone chuckle. The story was unoriginal, it felt like a police drama from the 70's or 80's, if that makes any sense. I honestly don't know how to describe what this movie reminds me of. I just know it was not breaking any new ground in the genre. Sad.

The Story and Screenplay rating: ** out of *****



The Performances: Again, we have standard performances here for an action comedy. No one is winning an Oscar for this. No one was expecting that of course, but hopefully you understand what I'm saying. Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad) is a fresh take for comedies of our generation. His comic delivery and timing is pitch perfect, but it only works if he's given material that's fit for him. The sad part is, he wrote his lines! You figured he'd know himself a little better. Yes, he's very funny in this film, but also just very awkward. Not in a filthy or raunchy kind of way. I would describe it as one of your friends telling a joke that was not funny, but you fake laugh anyway...that's kind of how his performance felt for me. Then we have his partner in crime, James Franco (Spiderman, Spiderman 2). I felt Franco was a little better peformance wise then his co-star. He seemed to have a higher percentage of funny moments. Also it appeared the actor was high the entire movie, not just his character. Maybe that was a requirement. The rest of the cast was average and forgettable. I'm just glad someone finally punched Rosie Perez.

The Performances rating: ** out of *****



The Direction and Filmaking: Nothing stands out as being remarkable about the filmaking of this movie. It did look kind of like a classic old 70's or 80's movie, and I think that's the feel they were trying to get at (even though I believe it takes place in present day). David Gordon Green directed this movie. He is responsible for helming one of 2008's finest films to date, Snow Angels. I had high hopes when I found this out, but ended up being dissapointed. This isn't entirely his fault, he was given material that was bland and unoriginal and did all he could with that material. The movie looks good, but like I said nothing stands out as impressive.

The Direction and Filmaking: ** out of *****

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• None

To view this film's theatrical trailer, click this link: Pineapple Express

*This is the 62nd new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

SNEAK PEEK REVIEW: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 2 hrs 24 mins

Cast:

Christian Bale
Heath Ledger
Aaron Eckhart
Gary Oldman
Maggie Gylllenhaal
Michael Caine
Morgan Freeman

Critical consensus:

****1/2 out of *****

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

***** out of *****

The premise:

Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.

MY REVIEW *I saw this film 2 days before it's release*

The Story and Screenplay: The Dark Knight may very well be one of the best films of 2008. It may very well be one of the most perfectly crafted films of 2008. This film deserves a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars this year. The Dark Knight is without a doubt a beautiful, stunning, epic masterpiece. Starting with a magnificant screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (the man behind such films as Memento and The Prestige) Christopher Nolan may be one of the most talented and slightly underrated filmakers today. The story they have come up with for these new Batman films is sinister and dark. This is by no means a cliched and standarized superhero story.

The Batman character is almost a supporting character in his own film. You see so many superhero movies where it's a guy in a suit going after one bad guy creating havoc all over the city. That seems to have changed this year. With films like Iron Man and now The Dark Knight, we have superheroes fighting crime but also there own personal demons. More so with The Dark Knight. Batman isn't widely accepted by the citizens of Gotham, he is called a vigilate by the very people he is trying to protect. They see him almost as the villian, claiming he's only brought more destruction and death to the city. As his Bruce Wayne persona, he has to deal with his business and a man threatening to reveal Wayne as Batman. On top of this, you have the actual criminals: the Mob, Two Face and of course, The Joker. More on him later. These villians aren't super human. Neither is Batman. They are all regular human beings who cloak themselves as the good guys and bad guys. The Joker raids the city like a mad men straight from hell itself and kills tons of people with no remorse. Again, more on him later. Two Face is one of the creepiest and most complex villians in superhero history. I won't say anymore to prevent spoilers.

With all this combined, we have one of the best crime stories in recent memory. A story full of evil, corruption, damsels in distress, heroes who are being cast out by their city, etc. We've seen a lot of stories like this in the cinematic past but none have been shown to us in the degree the Nolan brothers have done. No crime story has ever made my heart race. The Dark Knight did. I can't tell you how many moments there were in this film where I felt so tense and honestly had no clue what was going to happen. This is an extremely intense story unlike any superhero movie ever imagined. We don't know if Batman will be alive at the end of this movie. Most superhero movies, you just know that no matter what peril these heroes get into, they will be OK in the end; you don't feel that with Batman. I loved that. This story does have twists and turns. Not just in story arch, but in character arch. These characters are so complex and true to life, even with their glorified film character layer. Listen, just see this movie, it is dark, haunting and even beautiful. It is one the best Superhero movies ever made, and one of the greatest and unique crime stories ever told.

The Story and Screenplay Rating: ***** out of *****


The Performances: We will start with Christian Bale (Batman Begins, 3:10 to Yuma). Personally I think he is the only actor to play Batman right. I never read the comics, so I don't have "inside knowledge" of the character, but I've seen the previous films. I believe Bale is perfect. He is a great actor and has become big name in recent years and now only escalting his name into top billing roles. Deservedly so. My only issue is that Batman voice. I understand the character has to alter his voice to hide his true identity, Bruce Wayne, but still, it's a little wacky. His voice gets very deep and raspy and it honestly throws me a little, it's kind of distracting. Especially from Bale, because you can see in his eyes and mouth (all we can see of him when dawning the Batman mask) that he struggles with this voice. It's OK though, its a very, very minor thing and isn't that bothersome in the long run. Basically, Bale is pretty perfect as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and IF they do more, I hope he continues.

Moving on to Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking). He plays Harvey Dent who, if you know anything about Batman, becomes Harvey Two Face. Dent is the the D.A. of Gotham and his loved by his city. He is an honorable man. A hero to everyone. Gotham city, the police, and even Batman, know that Dent is the man who is destined to play the hero charcter of the city. Eckhart hasn't really been in a lot of huge movies, a lot of people still don't recognize the man. I liked him here. He was an effective choice for Harvey Dent. He displays his persona right, he doens't make him an annoying character. He doesn't play him as the type who tries to be the hero and falls in the end, because we as the audience admire this guys passion; we respect him. I don't want to ruin the movie, but when this character transforms so to speak, is when Eckhard truly shines. He has to play one of those most emotionally scarred charcters in a superhero film ever, and he does it brilliantly. I won't say more, because I don't want to spoil it. The rest of the supporting cast: Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman were all excellent. I was iffy before seeing the film about the change in actresses for the Rachel character (played in Batman Begins by Katie Holmes). However, after seeing it, it was a much needed change. Gyllenhaal actually makes you like this character. That could be because I've never been a fan of Katie Holmes however.


This part needs a few paragraphs. The reason is the man pictured above: Oscar nominee Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain). I want to make it known right now, that my review of this film and of this performance is not biased or altered because of Ledgers tragic death this year. I reviewed this film and this performance as if nothing had happened. With that said, here we go. The Joker has been labled as one of the most disturbing and deeply scarred villians in the history of film and comic storytelling. After seeing this film, there's no doubt in my mind: The Joker is the most disturbing and frightening villians and characters ever brought forth to the silver screen. Never in all my film watching has a character unnnerved me and made me as tense as I was, as The Joker. This guy clearly has a dark past, which he tells us in many scenes; mainly due to a sadistic and abusive father. We never really know the core of most superhero movie villians, but that is not the case for this film. The Joker parades around in clown makeup (no where near as cartoony as Jack Nicholson's version in the original Batman film) that all in itself is scary. To top that off, he kills without looking back. Shooting off guns at innocent civilians, jabbing knives in people's mouths, shooting bazookas at cop cars; I could go on for a while. He walks into a room with confidence and fills that room with fear. He fills the audience watching the film with fear.

I have described to you The Joker, I have not described to you Heath Ledger. Ledger doesn't play The Joker. He is The Joker. This wasn't acting, this was a man literally becoming a character. You do not see a single hint of Heath Ledger in this character, you may never have known it was him if he wasn't in the credits and wasn't receiving all the movie hype. If I'm reviewing this as a performance, this may very well go down as one of the single greatest supporting performances in the history of film. A dark, creepy, sinister and utterly brilliant performance. Every time he was on screen, (which was the right amount of screentime, they didn't over use him) he stole the show. He was the best part of an already phenomenal movie. This was Ledgers finest hour in his short lived film career. Actors should watch this performance and learn a thing or two. Actors play characters, rarely do they become them. We may never know the real reason behind his untimely death, but I do know his Joker character will go down in history. He will and should be remembered for this role, and this role alone. It is his hall of fame performance so to speak, and if he doesn't get an Oscar nomination, I may boycott movies. It would be a travesty to film. Don't watch this film and this performance out of sympathy for Heath Ledger; admire this performance, because you may never see one like it again.

The Performances rating: ***** out of *****

The Direction and Filmaking: When they say "Dark Knight" they aren't kidding. This is an incredibly dark film. A very sleek looking film as well. Christopher Nolan has recreated these characters and the city of Gotham like the Batman saga was his baby. He has made me love the Batman films (I don't like the original movies from years past). He is the perfect director for this film. Everything about it looks so cool. The action scenes are smart and needed, whereas some action moments in film are just there to look awesome. While that works sometimes, here it was a great move on Nolan's behalf to make the action scenes part of the story. They were never seriously over the top, and some of the stunts were unbelievable. In fact, Nolan never uses the action and CGI to impress us, he uses all these moments with class and in good taste. It almost looks like a classic film noir type crime movie. I don't know who this guys does it.

This is an explosive film. A Beautiful looking film. A dark film. It has everything you could want while watching a damn good, entertaining movie. It is a brilliant film. Correction: Not only is it one of the two best motion pictures of the year, this is by far, the best superhero movie ever brought to cinema. I cannot imagine anything overthrowing this film in superhero greatness. It would be impossible to create such a world and story full of a brilliant ensemble cast. Bravo!

The Direction and Filmaking rating: ***** out of *****

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: The Dark Knight

*This is the 61st new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

Mad Money

Mad Money (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 1 hr 43 mins

Cast:

Diane Keaton
Queen Latifah
Katie Holmes
Ted Danson

Critical consensus:

** out of *****

Matt's Take:

D+

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

*1/2 out of *****

The premise

Three female employees of the Federal Reserve plot to steal money that is about to be destroyed.

MY REVIEW

The Story and Screenplay: Glenn Gers screenplay is your typical heist movie story. You have these characters who are struggling financially, or characters who have kids to support and a crap job that isn't providing enough money. These characters find themselves working at a financial institution and stir up a plot to steal money. They are rather successful. They keep this scheme going for 3+ years, or so we are told in one line, it's never really shown to us that this much time passes. It isn't your typical bank robbery though. These 3 women work in a backshop area of the bank where old, ruined money is destroyed. They see it as since the money is being destroyed anyway, what's the harm in taking it? I'll give it this, it's an interesting setting for a heist movie, and the way they pull it off is kind of cool. It just becomes redundant however as they keep showing us these women stealing money. Then one of the husbands gets involved. Then a boyfriend. Then a security guard love interest. What bothered me is that this plot to steal money from a bank came from one person. Yet these 5 other characters were pursuaded so easily. They almost gave it no thought to commit a serious felony. Whatever, it's only a movie. By the end, we really don't care if they get caught, there's no great suspense built up. We are lead to believe these women are way to clever to be caught, so when they do (and we do they get caught right at the beginning of the movie) we just don't care. At least I didn't.

The Story and Screenplay rating: *1/2 out of *****

The Performances: After watching this film, it's hard to believe Diane Keaton has ever received an Oscar Nomination (Something's Gotta Give, Marvin's Room), becuase I hated her in this movie. Her character was a crazy little b***h. I don't know if it was the character or her performance, but I just don't care, she was awful. Oscar nominee Queen Latifah (Chicago) is probably the only performance I liked in this film. Her character was just as gross as the rest of them, but in terms of the performance, I enjoyed her. I usually do. Non-Oscar nominee and Queen of Scientology Katie Holmes played an....interesting character. Is that what happens when Tom Cruise lets her out of the house? I don't even think she combed her hair for this movie. Performance wise, she was OK, but she's never been good.

The Performances rating: *1/2 out of *****

The Direction and Filmaking: There was nothing overly impressive about the direction of this film. It looked worse than most heist movies, which usually have a sleeker look to them, and fancy camera shots. This was a movie about women stealing from a money shredding part of a bank. How can you make that look exciting? Well the director didn't know how either.

The Direction and Filmaking rating: ** out of *****

CURRENT MIKEY @ THE MOVIES AWARD NOMINATIONS:

• Worst Lead Performance of the Year (Diane Keaton)

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Mad Money

*This was the 60th new film that I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.