Drag Me To Hell

Fan favorite director Sam Raimi has finally made it back to the genre that has been missing him so much since taking up the reins of the Spider-Man franchise. As a long time horror movie fan, it is great to see a classic horror film that has some great scares and shows that Raimi has truly mastered his craft since the days of Within the Woods and Evil Dead. The goat shadow demon that haunts Christine Brown in the film is terrifying and some of the best visual effects I have seen on film. Justin Long, from Jeepers Creepers, takes a break from being the Apple guy and plays the protective boyfriend who tries to help save his cursed love. As in all great horror films, the ending is satisfying and painful as it should be for us long time fans.

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Up

Pixar is back in the theaters with their latest tour de force that has the best opening sequence I have ever seen on film. I actually teared up over the opening sequence and lost myself in the film until the end credits. This film is a must see for everyone. All of my friends and colleagues who have seen it agree. This is the second must see film of the summer and a definite must-have addition to my ever growing Pixar film library.

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Angels & Demons

Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are back with another film based on a Dan Brown novel featuring Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon. This time out the Vatican is being attacked my the Illuminati and Langdon is brought in to solve the clues before more priests die and the Vatican destroyed. Unlike when I watched The Da Vinci Code, I was more engaged with this movie since I had not read the novel and enjoyed the ride even though I figure out the plot twist well before the end of the film. Who thought the Catholic Church's convoluted history and secrets would still be so interesting the second time out? A good film and worth seeing especially since Tom Hanks is no longer sporting the atrocious hairdo from the first film.

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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

The sequel to the 2006 family sleeper hit, Night at the Museum, is here and it takes place in my own back yard at Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Museum. The premise is that the museum's historical artifacts are being relocated due to waning interest in the New York museum and former nightwatchman, Larry Daley played by Ben Stiller, must get them back and save the museum. The regular cast of characters are back in this non-stop action film and joined by Amy Adams and Hank Azaria as Amelia Earhart and the Pharaoh Kahmunrah respectively. Amy Adams can do no wrong and as my friend Steven said "her button looks great in those aviator pants". The plot is weaker in this outing but it is still fun and the seeing it in IMAX was a real treat.

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Terminator Salvation

The much hyped fourth installment, or new launching point for the Terminator franchise, is on the screen with the smoke of war and the washed out grays that are our future due to the machines. I don't get the back and forth between directors McG and Michael Bay over their "giant robots" but I didn't see anything on the screen that would over shadow the new Transformers sequel coming out later this year. Also, the film is more about the Marcus Wright character than John Connor. I am hard pressed to see how they plan to do another two films if this was the best the could do to relaunch the franchise. Fox should have renewed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which has a better plot and was more interesting then this film and its heart-based ending.

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Design for Living @ Landsburgh Theater

The Shakespeare Theatre Company present's a Noel Coward classic that is hilarious and completely engaging. The play reminds me of the movie Threesome I saw back in 1994 and makes me wonder if it was not the inspiration for Andrew Fleming's screenplay. The acting is superb as expected from the STC and the comedy effortless with fantastic dialogue. A must see for theater fans before it leaves the stage. I love my season tickets and can not see what is in store for next season.

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Fighting

Channing Tatum, from such films as Coach Carter and Step Up, is trying his hand at the fight movie. The film has some ok fight scenes but they do not hold a candle to a few of my favorites like Gladiator, Lionheart, or Fight Club. The reason he fights in the film is flimsy at best and of course his wrestling rival and him both land in New York City. The film has Terrence Howard in a role I would think that could have had more depth but seems a waste of his talent. Not sure there was enough here to warrant wide release to the big screen but ok for a network action flick on Saturday night.

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hugh Jackman officially kicks of the 2009 summer blockbuster with a film that leaves the rest of the X-Men back at the mansion and focuses on his origin. Unfortunately, there are plenty of other mutants and future X-Men around to take up the screen time instead of delving in to a rich and bloody R-rated Wolverine origin that long time Wolverine fans would have liked to have seen. That said, it is a fun film and the peripheral characters are fun with Ryan Reynold's deserving more screen time as Deadpool. Good thing there is a spin-off movie planned for his character. A good start to the summer and don't forget you popcorn.

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Star Trek

Star Trek does not disappoint and I am jazzed I got to see it as a free screening with my friend Ric. The casting is superb and the plot is just great with amazing starship battles that I have been missing as a Star Trek fan. Each actor channels the traits of the original series cast that we have all come to know and love but make the characters their own. Kudos to J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci, and Alex Kurtzman! I can not wait to see the next film and oh boy will there be another in this refreshed and relaunched franchise.

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Ragtime @ The Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater

The only thing I knew about this musical was that it was done as a movie with James Cagney as one of his last film roles before he past away. I was surprised I knew a lot of the songs from the musical and the Kennedy Center's production was wonderfully staged. I recommend anyone who loves musical theater to check this out if they get the chance. Did I mention I loved my box seats?

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Dragonball Evolution

Director James Wong, from The X-Files and Final Destination, takes his chance to bring to life the anime favorite, Dragon Ball Z. I did not go into this film with high hopes but on the intrigue to see what they could do with the material if brought to life. I really enjoyed this film and it was a lot of fun and funny where it needed to be. Justin Chatwin stars as Goku and does bring along his acting chops to this role to keep it from being campy or forgettable. I remember Chatwin from The Invisible and was amazed then at the great perform he gave in that film as well.

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State of Play

My colleagues at the Watergate can finally go to the theater and see the film that they stood around in the freezing cold watching be made in from of our offices. DC is showcased very well in this film and the story is good too. The cast includes Russell Crowe, the cute Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck and my favorite mature and still sexy actress, Helen Mirren from such fantastic films as Calendar Girls, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, The Cook The Thief The Wife & Her Lover, and Caligula. Russell Crowe is great as always and Ben Affleck is finally acting again. If you love DC and all the things that make it iconic on all levels, you will enjoy this film just like me.

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Crank: High Voltage

Chev Chelios, aka Jason Statham, is back for another round of over-the-top action and mayhem. This film picks up where the last one stopped as Chev was plunging to his death from a helicopter. But one large bounce and then a scrapping off of the road with a shovel and Chev is off and racing to retrieve a body part that was harvested by the Triads. The action is in the en vogue style of choppy cuts and shaky camera angles to simulate action. Thanks Ripley Scott for giving lazy directors ways to give us vertigo and motion sickness instead of truely well thought out action sequences.

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Royal Kill

Well it is strike two for me today and I just headed back home after watching this film that should never even made it to the discount rental rack at the local Blockbuster. You know this piece of celluloid waste has been setting around for awhile since one of its stars is Pat Morita who has been dead since 2005. How did this get wide release? The film has no real action at all, the plot is ridiculous and the ending is something that is completely ludicrous unless maybe you are a zealous sleeper agent for Al Qaeda. The Manchurian Candidate this is not and I can not think of any part of this film I enjoyed in any way and I love bad films.

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Observe and Report

Seth Rogen is back on the screen in this dark and disappointing film that is suppose to be a comedy but all of the comedy parts you see were already revealed in the trailer. I like Seth but this film is just bad and the insane ending is startling and just wrong. Anna Farris is a favorite of mine too but contributes nothing but cleavage and weird looking lips. This film should die out quickly after this opening weekend and you should not even waste your time seeing it. The Washington Post critic, who hates everything, was right about this stinker.

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Fast & Furious

Director Justin Lin is back for a second helping of cars, babes and bullets with his follow up to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but this time he actually has the original cast back from the original film, The Fast and the Furious, to star and produce. Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordan Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez are reunited and seek revenge, or justice, for the death of one of their own. The car stunts are cool and the action non-stop behind the wheel thanks to extensive CGI enhancement. The use of GPS CGI of the racers as they race is reminiscent of the Uwe Boll stunt to liven up The House of the Dead with a gunfight sequence edited with scenes from the actual video game - never cool and highlights the cartoonish effect of the scene! All in all a good sequel which highlights how cheesy the other two sequels really were.

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Forget Twilight and see Adventureland

Horror fans all know Twilight was lame and limp when it came to portend itself as a vampire movie with teenagers.  Give me Lost Boys any day.  I will admit the movie was much better than the novel because it got rid of that tweener internal monologue that only teenage girls seem to get or understand.  Issue could be I am in my late 30s and should not be reading such juvenile stories  and hope to be enthralled by a captivating story.  Damn you JK Rowling!  Stephanie Meyer is so not your contemporary regardless of book sales or those rabid fans at last year's San Diego Comicon.  Sorry Denise but it's true.

Enough of that.  What I want to say is Kristin Stewart has redeemed herself in my eyes with a great performance in Adventureland that gets wide release in theaters tomorrow.  Forget Bella and give me Em any day.  I know this is not a horror film but so what.  Its my blog and I can rant on it however I want.  Besides that it is a great film and reminds me of the John Hughes films from when I was in high school.  If you grew up in the 80s, listen to Sirius channel 8 with abandon, worked shitty summer jobs, and wanted to have, or either had, that great summer romance, you must see this.  It was a great flash back to my younger days and captured my budding hopes and fears at that time on being on my own and in the harsh world without a net. 

Lastly, the soundtrack music is killer with classic tunes of the era.  I will have to get this for my ipod and not the iphone.  I am a Storm man through and through.  My review of the film will be on www.michaelwproffitt.com soon and I hope I still have something to say in Five Sentences or Less. 
-- sent via Michael's Blackberry Storm

Adventureland

Superbad's director, Greg Mottola, is back with his latest coming of age story that is reminiscent of the John Hughes films of the 1980s but much better. The film is set in 1987 and stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart , from Cursed and Twilight, as two college students working at the local amusement park who meet prior to heading out to fend for themselves in the real world. Kristen Stewart's performance here eclipses the one from last year's bloodless vampire tweener drama and shows her as an actress that can deliver great subdued performances. The 80s feel is dead on, the music is great and should make for a fantastic soundtrack, and the story really sucks you in and takes us thirty something's back to a cherished time. A good movie from a great upcoming director that is worth seeing as soon as possible in the theater - you will not be disappointed.

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12 Rounds

The WWF production machine is back with another cookie cutter action flick with the same wrestler and the same plot but with a different occupation and in another southern location. This second version of The Marine has John Sena as a cop instead of a US Marine, his live-in girlfriend is Ashley Scott versus wife Kelly Carlson, bad guy Robert Patrick is replaced with Aidan Gillen, and director John Bonita is replaced by Renny Harlin. Even with Harlin in the director's chair, the effects are just marginally better and Sena's acting is reminiscent of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger but with better English. I went to this film for mind numbing action to clear my head and it worked. If you like these types of movies, then maybe it is worth paying to see it but I would rather wait to see it on cable which I am already pay for.

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Knowing

Alex Proyas, the director of such visually stunning and darkly imaginative films like The Crow and Dark City, brings us the end of the world. The film melds secular science and religious belief in to a compelling story that, despite the great lost, there is always hope. Not sure if many of the "church going" crowd will embrace this like I did but I think that they would be hard press not to see this as a valid interpretation of the end of the world. The story is what matters here and Nicholas Cage's acting is ok but nothing that would be considered great. The best acting was by Rose Byrne, the star of TV's Damages, who delivers a motherly performance that is real and tragic for what she will never know.

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