The Runaways

Being a huge fan of Joan Jett and her music, I was thrilled when I learned about this bio-pic and happy to see Kristen Stewart in something other than the Twilight films. The story centers around Stewart and Dakota Fanning as Jett and Cherie Currie and the formation and eventual break-up of a 70's all-girl, teenage, rock band. The music is great and Stewart's portrayal of Jett seems dead on while Fanning pulls out the sexy stops as the reluctant front-woman who gets caught up in a drug frenzy and implodes. Although I enjoyed the film thoroughly an older couple decided to leave the theater when Jett and Currie started making out. Hey it's rock-n-roll - what where you expecting?

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Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey star as Phil and Claire Foster who up the ante of date night by taking another couple's reservation at a popular restaurant and then run in to trouble when two thugs show up looking for them as the couple who stole from their boss. The trailer looked funny and thankfully the movie lived up to my expectations with a great depiction of a well-grounded married couple. Other cast notables were Kristen Wiig and Mark Ruffalo as a couple splitting up making the Foster's question their own relationship and Mark Wahlberg as a hunky former client of Claire's that turns out to be a spy. The car chase sequence is one of the best I have seen in a comedy in awhile. The film is well worth seeing and would make a great date night viewing regardless of the title.

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Kick-Ass

Matthew Vaughn, the director behind Layer Cake and Stardust, brings Mark Millar's comic to the big screen about a nobody teenager who decides to be a real life superhero who has no powers or any training and runs in to some unsavory characters on both sides of the mask. Like the comic, this movie has very adult themes and definitely relishes its R rating which lets all of the colorful characters from the comic come to life on the screen in hilarious and ultra-violent brilliance. The hero everyone loves and that steals every scene she is in is Hit-Girl, played by Chloe Moretz, who is a 12 year old spitfire who loves weapons, kills like a ninja in a full on blood fury, curses like a sailor but loves her Big Daddy played by Nicolas Cage. After you get past the comedy, the violence, and costumed vigilante heroes you still have a great little story that made the transition for the illustrated page to the screen without losing a single drop of its charm or wit. I loved getting a chance to see this advanced screening and have already twittered my peeps to see who are up for seeing this with me again once it is out in general release on April 16th - just f@#king awesome!

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Boarding House

This C grade movie holds a special place in my heart as being the first R-rated movie I saw in the theater much to the chagrin of my mother with a supposed best friend and his mother at the time back in 1982 in good old Bluefield, WV. The movie, and now the DVD in my collection, was everything a 13 year old boy could want to see - nudity, horror featuring "horror vision", and without my mother's knowledge, permission or consent. There was a bet between my friend and his mother on who could stay in the theater the longest without leaving and I can proudly say I won hands down and laughed loudly as they both left the theater and I was still there watching the "sinful" movie - nothing was budging me from my seat until the end credits rolled by. The joke of it was that with horror vision, a 70's & early 80's riff on the tactics of William Castle and Alfred Hitchcock, the film would flash a black glove or play some odd music to let you know when a scene of "intense" horror was coming up. The trailer below gives the plot but basically it was a movie about a bachelor setting up a house with all girl roommates so he could bed them all but a crazy mental patient daughter of the previous owner escapes to find her house over run but she possesses telekinetic abilities which she uses to kill off the the tenants until the final showdown of telekinetic wills between the bachelor, paired with his conquest of the day, and the nut case daughter ends the movie - just what every pubescent male teen wants to see!

Click here to see the official trailer.

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door

For a long time I have always said Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho was the scariest book and movie I had ever read or seen until I just watched this film based on Jack Ketchum's novel which was based or inspired by a true story. As my friend Geoff always says, if the "based on a true story" tag line is there it is always a hook to see a movie but it seems most of the films that have this moniker are always horrific in nature. This story is about a young girl in the 50's who is brutalized and tortured by the woman and her sons that she and her sister are forced to live with after the death of her parents and how the neighborhood kids are pulled in to participate in the domestic violence. The movie could have easily just fallen in to pure exploitation but it does not cross the line and the moral outrage and the inability of our child protagonist to stop what is happening to Meg is truly heart wrenching. This is not an easy film to watch but it does show that the 50s where not the happy times that nostalgia would have us believe and is well worth seeing if you can take it.

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Let The Right One In (Lat den ratte komma in)

I have been hearing about this film for a while now and decided to pick it up Saturday at my local BestBuy. The premise is about a 12 year old boy who is tormented at school by bullies but finds friendship with the new girl across the hall who turns about to be a vampire who has been 12 years for awhile. A very unique movie that delivers a great coming of age story and shows that even vampires need friends and are not the glamorous or sparkling things that are the current craze. The English dubbing is a bit off but the movie delivers good horror that fits the realistic setting and does not require any effort to suspend disbelief. I recommend this film as a must see for all jaded vampire fans to show that creativity and good storytelling still exists in the genre.

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Clash of the Titans

1981's Clash of the Titans gets the remake treatment and opened this weekend starring new action thriller go-to-guy Sam Worthing, as Perseus, who must save Alexa Davalos, as Andromeda, and the people of Argos from the wraith of the Gods they no longer pray to. The story has changed a bit from the original film but still hits all the same core beats and is worth seeing if you are a fan of Greek mythology. Ray Harryhausens's classic stop motion has been replaced with new state of the art CGI and the new Kraken does look cool but the sentimental kid in me still prefers the classic special effects. My favorite part was seeing the Bubo cameo that may be lost on a lot of the new viewers but did put a huge shit-eating grin on my face. It did suck to hear that the new film was done in 3D only after the film was completed to bring in more money from the audience; so I passed on this and opted to see it on the screen as it was suppose to be seen and save my wallet an undue diet.

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Chloe

Not my typical movie fare but since I had the time to kill I decided to stop in and see this art house film of marital infidelity, betrayal and starring one of my favorite actresses, Julianne Moore. Catherine, played by Moore, believes her husband, played by Liam Neeson, is cheating on her so she hires an escort, played by the lovely and sexy Amanda Seyfried, to trap her husband and confirm her suspicions. A rather subdued movie but well acted and has an amazingly hot make-out scene between Moore and Seyfried. Seyfriend appears to be pulling a Gerard Butler and is the hot commodity star appearing in multiple films this year. A decent enough film but there are other films out that you may want to see instead and just wait to rent this one for date night.

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Hot Tub Time Machine

If you don't get the premise from the title of this film or the trailer, I can't help you here. Being a teenager of the 80's and a fan of the John Cusack classics like The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, and One Crazy Summer, this was a must see movie for my generation. The comedy is good but not raunchy as is the norm for the current crop of comedies and it does deliver on the 80's tradition of T&A, spandex, and parachute pants. Hearing someone yell, "I want my two dollars", on the screen and in the audience met my expectations so I got my money's worth. Stand out comedy moments and laughs all come from Rob Corddry who rules fronting Motley Lue.

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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.

Click here to check out the official website.