How To Train Your Dragon: An IMAX 3D Experience

After getting over the sticker shock of the $10 surcharge on my regular matinee fee for 3D and IMAX, I really enjoyed this film and recommend it to every one as a real visual and story telling treat. The story is about a young viking who wants to be a dragon hunter like his father but gets derailed when he befriends and takes care of a mysterious dragon that he helps recover from the lost of a tail fin. The voice cast includes stars you would not expect in a typical kid film but an adult comedy like Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig and T.J. Miller. The various dragons are really cool and fun to learn about much like my joy of reading the Dungeon & Dragons Monster Manuals from TSR back in junior high school - enjoyed the manuals more than playing the game. I will definitely be getting this little treasure for my movie collection when it hits DVD - maybe even Blu-ray.

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Bitch Slap

If you want an updated and cool twist on the Russ Meyer sexploitation flicks of the 60's then this movie has everything you want to see as repeated by Michael Hurst in the DVD extras with lots of "tits and guns". Our three femme fatales, Hel, Camero and Trixie, are played by Erin Cummings, America Olivo and Julia Voth and they are smokin' hot and deliver a fun flick with further plot twists a la Memento and The Usual Suspects. Besides Hurst there are plenty of cameos by your Hercules and Xena favorites like Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Conner, Kevin Sorbo and stunts coordinated by the awesome Zoe Bell. Besides the wood-inducing trailer, I knew this was going to be a great movie when the clips shown during the opening credits rolled by with classic scenes from all of the great B-movies from my youth that I was not allowed to watch until I was older. A balls out fun film and a definite must see for all guys who have not had their man card punched in a while,

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Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths

DC Comics brings us a new straight to DVD movie featuring the Justice League and a tale of the DC multiverse where they are recruited by a "good" Lex Luther to help take down criminal superheroes from a parallel earth. The voice talents include William Baldwin as Batman (really?), Mark Harmon as Superman, and Chris Noth as Lex Luthor with James Woods as Owlman and Gina Torres as Superwoman. Any DC story dealing with the "mirror mirror" version of the Justice League always seemed lacking to me in the comics and unfortunately the movie suffers the same fate. Why could DC not keep with the actors who have voiced these characters well in the past? The best reveal in the film is how Wonder Woman gets her invisible plan and the DVD extra, DC Showcase: The Spectre written by Steve Niles, made a better film then the DVD's namesake.

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The Bounty Hunter

Gerard Butler is a bounty hunter who is tasked with taking his bail jumping ex-wife, played by Jennifer Aniston, to jail but things get complicated when he finds out she may be actually telling the truth about a faked suicide and a police cover up. The chemistry between the two is OK but not really convincing. The best laughs are to be found in the trailer with Christine Baranski giving the movie a touch of class as the lounge singer mother of Aniston. Will 2010 be another high profile year for Butler? Only time will tell but let's hope the rest of the year is filled with the action films he does well.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The trailer for this movie hooked me from the start. The kids are adorable and the depiction of middle school bullies, cooties, and the "cheese touch" are hilarious. Steve Zahn and Rachel Harris play the parents of our wimpy kid and make me wish my parents where that much fun when I went to ol' Central Junior High School. Chloe Moretz, who will be staring in Kick-Ass as Hit-Girl later this summer, plays the older and wiser school reporter who documents our wimp's exploits to be the number one kid in his grade but just fails miserably. A fun movie for the kids that will bring back bitter sweet memories for the parents - check it out.

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Repo Men

Early critics of this movie did not seem to like it because of the violence and the blood but what did they expect from the film? The story is about two friends, Jake and Remy, played by Forest Whitaker and Jude Law, who repossess artificial body parts from clients who have defaulted on their payments - of course it is going to be violent and bloody! The story is interesting and has potential but the climax is unsatisfying but to be expected. Liev Schreiber plays a great asshole an steals all the scenes he is part of. The movie is worth checking out but too bad it is not a must have for my movie collection regardless of the red stuff.

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Green Zone

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have teamed back up to bring us this new political action thriller based on the US's efforts to locate Iraq's WMDs, or weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, this movie is nothing like the successful Bourne films and the political intrigue is dumbed down and spoon feed to the audience. The film is rather meh to be honest and forgettable which does a real disservice to the subject matter. How about just giving us another Bourne film because that is what we wanted anyway and were lead to believe from the trailers. Definitely wait to see this on cable and save yourself the price of admission.

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She's Out of My League

Jay Baruchel, from Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder, stars as the an average guy who lucks in to a relationship with a "hard 10" played by Alice Eve to the surprise and ribbing of his close friends and family. Jay and Alice make a cute couple and the story has some very funny moments but it does not make it to the the level of There's Something About Mary. The trailer leads you to believe the movie would be a bit more raunchy but it tops out as a feel good movie. I enjoyed the film and look forward to seeing Alice Eve again on the big screen. Another highlight was seeing Debra Jo Rupp from That 70's Show but I wish her part was bigger because she is always funny and fun to watch.

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Alice in Wonderland 3D (2010)

I must say I have never been a fan of the Alice in Wonderland movies I had seen or have I ever read the actual books those movies were based on but if Tim Burton was doing a new film then I needed to see it. Luck had it that I got to see this opening night in 3D with a group of my good friends in celebration of floogee's birthday - Happy Birthday Mike - and also an impossible thing happened that night in that this was the first film we had all seen with our friend Abigail that see actually liked! The effects were amazing in 3D and the story was very engaging with Johnny Depp's Madhatter retelling of the Jabberwocky tale the highlight of the film for me. All of the Tim Burton faithful where in the audience and were as happy with film as we were. The film is truly a marvel and a must see for everyone - especially in 3D!

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Cop Out

I am a huge fan of Kevin Smith's and was looking forward to this film until I found out it was not written by him but that he was just directing it for the "paycheck". There are a few funny moments in the film but after the opening interrogation scene they are few and far between and the film just lacks the dialogue you would expect in a Kevin Smith project. There where plenty of people in the theater when I went and they were laughing at scenes that I just could not find any humor in. The stars abound in the film which included Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Pollack and Sean William Scott but none of their performances really clicked with me and Adam Brody was the worst. Skip this movie and check it out on cable - you will be thanking me later.

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The Crazies

If you cannot come up with an original horror movie idea then your safe bet is to go to the well of a master who has has done it all before and "re-image" or remake one of his. So far, remakes of George A. Romero films have been paying off well for younger directors and let's hope they continue to do so. The story is that town folks have been going crazy and killing each other and the government is stepping in to lock down the town for the citizens own protection but with all Romero stories this is never the case. The new film stars genre favorites Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mithell with relative newcomers Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker as a last remaining town members trying to get out of the city and away from the government that is set on killing them to hide their secret. Horror fans should be pleased with the fast pacing and appropriate levels of gore - check it out.

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Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges stars as Bad Blake in the twilight years of country music career who is scrapping by going from one small time gig to another subsisting on whiskey, one-night stands, and a beat up pickup truck. But as he is going from town to town he falls for a local journalist and tries to start a relationship that is doomed to fail. Bridges is great and seems to channel the very soul of Merle Haggard who the story is supposedly based on. Maggie Gyllenhaal is the local love interest but other cast members include Robert Duvall as an elderly bartender and Colin Farrell as Tommy Sweet, Bad Blake protege whose star is surpassing his mentor's. This is one of Jeff's finest performances in a long time and definitely worth the Oscar buzz he is getting.

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Valentine's Day

A sappy movie with an all star cast directed by Garry Marshall. Not sure how many boyfriends and husbands got subjected to this but based on the box office it does not seem like many had to endure it. Plus side was that it did have a few of my favorite hot actresses like Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, and Anne Hathaway. The funniest part of the movie was Anne Hathaway's phone sex operator business while Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner where just plain annoying. Stick with flowers and chocolate this year and avoid this flick if you want to make through to another Valentine's Day together.

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Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are back together to bring us a mystery about the disappearance of an inmate from an insane asylum for the criminally insane. The story unfolds in the finest traditions of Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick with plot twists, misdirection and genuine scenes of graphic horror you would not typically see from a Scorsese film. DiCaprio delivers his best performance to date with a supporting cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Ted Levine, and Patricia Clarkson. This movie is great and a must see for all Scorsese fans to see a true master at the top of his craft. Now we just need to see what Scorsese can do with a musical or sci fi film.

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Brooklyn's Finest

Antoine Fuqua, who brought us Training Day and Shooter, is back with his newest cop drama where the line between doing what is right and what is wrong has never been more obscure. I lucked in to an advanced screening of the film with the director and Wesley Snipes on hand afterward for a little Q & A but I opted for half-smokes from Ben's Chili Bowl across the street instead of the Q & A. The movie was good but deliberately paced and a bit slow in spots. Richard Gere was interesting as the retiring cop who just wanted to make it to retirement alive while Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke both delivered power performances as the long under cover cop who is losing is family and the cop who can not get enough money to support his family except from the leftover cash during drug busts. Wesley Snipes was good too but his role was more understated that you would expect and not the break out performance as some critics where saying.

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The Wolfman

Of all of the Universal monsters, my favorite has always been the Wolfman and upon hearing that a remake of the classic tale was being done with a cast that included Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving with creature makeup done by Rick Baker there was no way I was not seeing this as soon as humanly possible. Homages to the original film are as pervasive as I had hoped and the werewolf makeup just fantastic. There is a deeper story than found in the original film and the acting was all top notch but I did see the plot twists coming and could not have cared less. It was great seeing the classic monsters of my youth treated with the respect they deserved unlike in the ridiculous mashup called Van Helsing. Now I hear a remake of the Creature from the Black Lagoon is due in 2011 - as Stimpy would say - JOY!

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From Paris With Love

Luc Besson, who brought us the action thriller classics like Nikita, Leon, and The Fifth Element, brings us a new story starring a bald but cool bad-ass played by none other than John Travolta. Travolta plays the American spy come to stop a terrorist plot in Paris with the aid of a reluctant ambassador's aid played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers who discovers he is a key asset in the terrorist's plot. Travolta's performance steals the show and is a joy to watch on screen as he chews up the scenery with either fist fights, gun play, explosions or chase sequences. Besson films are always fun to watch unfold and worth the price of admission. Although not Besson's strongest story, Travolta more than makes up for this and redeems himself well after such a lackluster performance in Old Dogs.

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Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Another popular children's book series gets the big screen treatment by Chris Columbus but this time out it focuses on the Greek gods and their human offspring better known as Titans. Our story deals with Percy, the hidden son of Poseidon, who has been tasked with retrieving Zeus's missing lightning bolt before the gods go to war and destroy the earth in the process. The cast includes Sean Bean as Zeus, Pierce Brosnan as Chrion, Rosario Dawson as an amorous and bored Persephone, Uma Thurman as the deadly Medusa, and Kevin McKidd as Poseidon. The movie has great effects and the story is pretty good too. Studio's are looking for the next big thing to fill in the void that will be created by the last installment of the Harry Potter franchise and I am not sure this series will be up to the task. Either way, this is definitely one of the better family films out right now and it will keep the kids happy and the parents entertained.

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When In Rome

Mark Steven Johnson, the director of Ghost Rider and Daredevil, takes a crack at the romantic comedy staring fanboy favorite actress Kristen Bell as Beth who is trying to find the right guy who she can love more than her work. While in Rome for her sister's wedding, Beth retrieved a few coins from the fountain of love causing her to be pursued, or stalked, by a quirky group of suitors that include a sausage king played by Danny DeVito, a self-absorbed male model played by Dax Shepard, a street magician played by Jon Heder and a want-a-be struggling painter played by the ever funny Will Arnett. The pleasant surprise for me was seeing Kate Micucci, of Garfunkel & Oates, playing Beth's co-worker and friend who I was recently introduced to by either @therealereed or @reesah. As romantic comedies go it is not the greatest but it does have some very funny moments that makes it worth seeing. But if you want a really good laugh thanks to Kate, check out this video - Pregnant Women are Smug.

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Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson is finally back on the big screen this week acting instead of directing and it is about time. Mel plays Thomas Craven, a homicide detective, whose daughter is accidentally murdered in a revenge hit on the detective but as the story unfolds it seems his daughter was the real target after all. Ray Winstone, who voiced Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf, costars as the dark government operative who plays by his own rules and has not made up his mind whether to help or hinder Craven's investigation. Nobody does revenge or anguish better than Mel and this role is by no means a stretch for him but it is fun to watch him go through the paces. A good film noir that is set in current headline events and intrigue.

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