Anything Else (Throwback Review)

As I mentioned in my last blog, I saw Match Point by Woody Allen and I loved the film. Definitely in my top 5 Woody Allen films. That same night I also watched Anyhting Else, which stars Jason Briggs (American Pie) and Christina Ricci (Addams Family). The film tells the story of Jerry Falk (Jason Briggs), an aspiring writer living in New York City. He falls in love at first sight with Amanda (Christina Ricci) and dumps his girlfriend to get with her. Seeking advice, Jerry turns to the aging struggling artist (Woody Allen) who acts as his oracle -- and that includes trying to help sort out Jerry's romantic life.

The first problem with the film is the marketing. Dreamworks tries to market this picture as a romantic comedy not mentioning anything about Woody Allen whatsoever. It centered on the appeal of the young stars, Briggs and Ricci, in ads and trailers. Apparently, Dreamworks spent $10 million to market it, but this did not matter in the end as the film bombed at the box office. Although it did do better overseas, but not enough to match its $18 million budget.

It really annoys me when studios try to market a film and hide the fact of the film's true nature. Dreamworks marketed the film as another romantic comedy with young stars to appeal to the general public. However, if you watch the movie it has Allen's marks all over it. There is a neurotic main character who is Jewish, quirky dialogue, and jazz music. Sounds like a Woody Allen film to me.

The studios did the same thing with the comedy Adventureland, which is a magnificent comedy that has a more dramatic side to it. In the trailers it looks like Superbad Part 2. Partly because the film is written and directed by the director of Superbad (Greg Mottola). The movies are completely different in a lot of ways. As much as I love Superbad, the juvenile humor, dirty language, and sex jokes can get a little old and the novelty tends to wear off a little bit. Adventureland has a great balance of drama and comedy and it is a film that I can take more seriously. Plus the character are realer and not totally cartoonish. It reminds me of those John Hughes' films (R.I.P. Mr. Hughes) back in the '80's. It is more mature like Judd Apatow's Funny People, which is his most personal and best film he has ever done.

Anything Else is marketed with the ads and TV spots not mentioning Woody Allen at all. This is because he was box office poison at the time. I think that is wrong, but marketers have do whatever they can do to try to sell tickets. I do not blame them at all, and unfortunately that's the most logical choice given the Allen's critical decline in the late '90's into the new millennium.

The second problem with the film is that the film is not all that funny. It has its moments, but most of the time it is uninteresting. The characters are not that likable. I didn't really care for Jason Briggs' character and Christina Ricci's character came off as an ungrateful bitch. She is annoying, nagging, and unfaithful. She got on my nerves really fast. The best character is Woody Allen as he plays a crazy and gun toting writer, who is Jerry's mentor.

The third problem is that the film is recycled material from Allen's past film, which are much better. This has the scent of Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah & Her Sisters all over it. I have seen a fair share of Woody Allen films and right away there are elements that I have seen over and over again.

This is a passable film, but it is better than a whole lot of other romantic comedies. This film is like Citizen Kane compared to all of the garbage out there (i.e.: The Back-up Plan). There are some funny moments, but are too far in between and some gags just fall flat. Skip it and go see the best romantic comedy ever (Annie Hall).

Triple Dipping

I saw the DVD/Blu-ray sales and Avatar has sold 6.5 million copies combined. It's the fastest selling DVD title and the fastest Blu-ray disc seller next to the Dark Knight. This makes it the highest selling DVD title of the year behind Twilight: New Moon. I expect nothing less from the highest grossing movie of all time. I do have some concerns though.

Some people are suckers though. I talked with some friends who brought the Avatar. Half of them didn't even know there were any special features on it, and they love special features. It sucks that when I buy a movie and there are no special features on it. It's fucking DVD and not damn VHS. Give me something and not the barebones. This version of Avatar is the barebones version with nothing, but the film on it. The DVD is cheaper than the Blu-ray, but you are a fool if you have a Blu-ray player and not get Avatar on Blu-ray.

The point is if I'm paying 20 something dollars for the Avatar Blu-ray, then I want to behind the scenes look at the film. This film has the best visual effects I have ever seen, so I want to know how they made this film. I want more depth into the film with director's commentary because I can always learn more about the film.

Nevertheless, FOX is releasing this film again in November with the bonus features and everything. This is called double dipping. It's when the studio releases one DVD version and then comes out another version with more special content. I am getting is the November version. Then, they are releasing a 3-D version early next year. So, technically FOX is triple dipping.

I really hate when studios do this, but this is a business. However, this practice pisses off fans (it pissed me off). Thank God I have the internet to read reviews of DVD's.

I See Why Woody Left New York

Man, what a good night! I finally got around to seeing Woody Allen's Match Point, which was released in 2005. I love this film so much because it has so much drama and tension in it. I admit that I was bored for about the first 20 minutes. Plus I did not feel like seeing a British movie last night. Well, technically it was not a British movie. but it's still set in Britain with mostly British characters. Hmm..I guess that does make it a British movie. IDK!

Anyway the plot involves an former Irish tennis pro named Chris (Jonathan Rhys Myers) who move is struggling with money issues right now and moves to London. He gets a job as a tennis instructor at a London country club. He meets Tom (Matthew Goode), who is one of his students. Tom takes an immediate liking to him since they share a lot in common including Opera. next we meet Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who falls in love with Chris and the feeling seems to be mutual. Did I also mention that Tom and Chloe's parents are filthy rich and Chloe immediately gets her father to find Chris a good paying job. Nice.

Then Chris meets Nola (the beautiful Scarlett Johansson) who is a struggling American actress and Tom's finance. Chris wants Nola, but Nola is engaged to Tom. However, Nola takes an interest in Chris too. From then on the film speeds through with intense drama with some shocking surprises along the way.

The main theme of this movie is luck. This is shown in the first few minutes of the movie when Chris narrates that he would rather be lucky than good. Then we see a tennis ball hitting the tip of net and from there it can be luck if it lands in the other player's side. Or if it lands on your side and you're shit out of luck. Sometimes Chris gets lucky in the movie and sometimes he's boned.

I believe that this is the first time that Woody left his precious New York and do a film outside the country. I believe that this is because he had become box office poison during the late 1990's. In fact before this his last great film was Deconstructing Harry. This is not your typical Woody Allen movie at all. The only reason I knew it is his film is because I read movie reviews. Movie ads don't even feature his name anymore. Foreign audiences love Woody Allen and he is still bankable overseas. After Match Point he made Scoop and Cassandra's Dream, which also take place in London. He went to Spain fore Vicky Cristina Barcelona and then he returned to New York for the underrated Whatever Works. Now he is back to Europe again with You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (weird title). Then he is filming a movie in Paris.

I read in an interview that he considers Match Point to be his best film. I highly disagree with that as I can find five better films than Match Point. However, after years of duds it is a return to form and Allen is getting back on track again. Now I am tempted to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona and can't wait for Tall Dark Stranger to come out later this year. Oh and I saw Anything Else (another Allen flix), which I will discuss later. Believe me, I will have much to discuss for that recycled hodgepodge of a film.

The Losers Win

I saw The Losers onThursday and let me tell you that it is one of the most entertaining movies I have seen all year. It's bloody, off beat, and bad azz.

The movie is about five members of an elite U.S. Special Forces unit sent into the Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission. The team consists of Clay (Jeffery Dean Morgan), Jensen (Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short) and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada). Soon they find themselves the target of a lethal betrayal instigated from inside by a powerful enemy known only as Max (Jason Patric). Presumed dead, the group makes plans to even the score when they're joined by the mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana), a beautiful operative with her own agenda. Working together, they must remain deep undercover while tracking the heavily-guarded Max, a ruthless man bent on embroiling the world in a new high-tech global war.

First of all I have to say that Zoe Saldana is my new celebrity crush. She actually took the place of my previous crush Mariah Carey, who married that loser Nick Cannon. In the film she is sexy, cunning, and ruthless. That's pretty bad azz. Chris Eveans, who is going tpo play Captain America in 2011, shines as Jensen the computer hacker. He plays his character perfectly and kept me laughing throughout the picture. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played The Comedian in Watchmen, is such a bad azz in this. He is playing a tough guy role which reminds me of Mickey Rourke for some reason.

All in all it's a solid film. At first I didn't know this was rated R. It had some questionable stuff in there, but I'm not complaining. I don't think more gore and language would make it better. As much as I liked it, I say to just rent it. It's solid, but nothing to memorable. Besides Iron Man 2 is coming on May 7, so if you only have money to see one film this summer make it Iron Man 2. Now I just hope that IM2 doesn't suck ass.

The Last Airbender

I stopped watching Nickelodeon a long time ago. It's funny how things change so quickly. Back in the old days I was addicted to Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network was a close second. I remember the days when I used to watch Nicktoons every day like Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, and Doug. Then, some other shows came on like Rocko's Modern Life, CatDog, Ahh! Real Monsters, Rocket Power, etc. I even watched SpongeBob and Fairly Oddparents for a while. However, I grew up and my favorite toons from the past got canceled. So I really stopped watching.

Then, a show called Avatar: The Last Airbender comes on and I am hooked. It is not an anime series because it did not come from Japan, but it a cartoon with anime elements spliced into it. A basic summary of the story is that there are four nations (Earth, Fire, Water & Air). Each of these nations have people who can bender a certain element. Then, there is the avatar, who is reincarted into different nations every 100 or so years. The avatar is suppossed to bring balance to the world and everything. One day the Fire Nation decides to get all power hungry and wage war on the other nations. Then, when the world needs him most, the Avatar disappears. Cut to about a century later and two teenagers (Katara and Sokka) find a boy frozen in a block of ice. The boy (Aang) awakens and he is the avatar. Now he has to master all four elements so he can bring peace to the world before the Fire nation burns it all to the ground.

It is an intriguing premise and I still like anime. However, I am a very casual fan and I don't really go to anime festival and dress up as a ninja at these things (I hate Naurto so much)! I heard to show was good, but I still wasn't interested. I actually had to force myself to watch this show to find out for myself. I watched several episodes and I started to like it.

Unfortunately, the show is over and the episodes are all out of order. In fact I saw the series finale before I even watched the first season. The show doesn't really break any ground plot wise and you know what is going to happen in the end. The cartoon has some slick action sequences and some surprisingly funny dialogue at times. I find the title character to be a little flat, but the one character who stands out is Prince Zuko. He is the heir to the Fire Lord, but when he speaks out of term he is challenged to a fight with his father. Zuko loses and part of his face is burned by his father. Then he is banished and tries to hunt the avatar hoping he can gain his father's love again. Eventually, he becomes a protagonist, but through most of the series he is a classic tragic hero.

Now Nickelodeon is making a big budget live action movie about Avatar and it looks promising. Of course it is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who is pushing out trite shit ever since The Village. I am leery because he has never done an action film, and I wonder how he will handle the fight scenes and everything.

Another thing that the fan boys are pissed about is the choice to cast white actors in the three main roles instead of Asian actors. Although race is never really discussed in the show the premise takes place in a presumed East Asian world so it does make sense to cast Asian actors. This topic came up in Dragonball: Evolution where Goku is played by a white guy. I think it was the same guy who played the Tom Cruise's rebellious son in War of the Worlds. They really couldn't find anyone better I suppose. Anyway i still did not have a problem with that because Goku is an alien! People tend to forget that and I tend to forget also. It helps if Goku is played by an Asian actor, but if a white actor can pull the character off then more power to him. Unfortunately, Justin Chatwin (that's his name) failed miserably and that piece of shit movie failed miserably.

Shyamalan is pissing off the fan base and it is never good to piss off the fan base with piss poor decisions. Dragonball: Evolution is a good example of this. I really don't know how this is going to turn out. Avatar really didn't really become a cultural phenomenon like with some other similar cartoons. There are supposed to be three movies for each season of the show. However, if the film doesn't do decent business you can forget about the other two films. It is up with some strong competition like Toy Story 3, Knight and Day, Grown Ups, and Twilight: Eclipse. It might get lost in the shuffle, but if it gets some good reviews then things will start to look up. I hope it is successful because I would be interested in seeing the other movies.

P.S. M. Night Shyamalan, if you ever read this post then do not put a twist at the end of the movie. If you do I will never forgive you. I forgave you for the Happening, but not if the twist happens. Seriously, the flowers are making people kill themselves? That's Fucking bullshit!

I Should Have Had A Back-Up Plan

Once again I went to a free screening of the newest Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy The Back-Up. OMG this film is shit, even for a romantic comedy. About 95% of romantic comedies are very sub par and predictable. Of course they have to be predictable to a certain point. The main things that matter in this kind of film is the chemistry between the main leads. If the two leads have real strong chemistry they can make people care about the film. Also if it has some good jokes then it can be a good time. Films like Definitely, Maybe and When Harry Met Sally are good examples. Back-Up is the worst movie I have seen all year and a very bad romantic comedy.

I should have seen the signs a mile away. I got my tickets from gofobo, which is essential to sign up for if you want to go to free screenings. About two hours before the film started gofobo were still on the website. If those tix aren't gone then ppl have a lack of interest to see it. That's Strike 1. Jennifer Lopez hasn't been in a movie or made music in a while because she's been having babies. Her time has passed. Her acting is horrible in this movie, but that's not a problem since she has never been a good actress anyway. At least she could make other romantic comedies slightly more tolerable in the past. That's strike 2. The chemistry between the two leads sucked ass big time. I just didn't believe that they were a couple at all. Like I said earlier, chemistry is essential or else we do not care about them. Strike 3.

The movie starts out decent. Any movie that starts off with doctor screaming vagina repeatedly can't be that bad. Most of the jokes fall flat and some of humor is very juvenile, which surprises me a little bit (IDK though). There is one hilarious scene in the movie and a nice appearance by Anthony Anderson, but besides that it is not worth your time. Back Up Plan is a garbage date movie. I should have had a back up plan and sneak into another movie like Date Night. In fact go see Date Movie. That's a film that actually has strong chemistry between the leads (Steve Carell and Tina Fey). Hell I even say The Bounty Hunter is better than this trite piece of film. It's another throw away romantic comedy and the second film from CBS films, which has already had one shitbomb called Extraordinary Measures. It is a romantic comedy so it should do decent business, but it could bomb badly. I don't know because I'm not the movie's demographic. Skip this shit.

Brotherhood

I am a big Fullmetal Alchemist fan. Ever since I saw it back in '06 or '07. I can't really remember. It's a manga about an alternate reality where alchemy prevailed over science. Two brothers try to bring back their mother from the grave using alchemy. However, they commit the biggest sin in alchemy, which is human transmutation. They get screwed as the older brother Edward, loses his leg and his younger brother alphonse loses his entire body. Later Edward sacrifices his right arm in order to attach his brother's soul to an armored suit. The boys are determined to find the Philosopher's Stone, which can give them their bodies back. Along the way they undercover a big conspiracy, which will threaten the whole world.

That's a crude summary, but you can just look it on wikipedia to get a better aspect of the show. The manga is really good and it was adapted into a 2003 anime and eventually released in America. I loved the anime, but the only thing about is that the anime strays away from the original plot of manga into its own story-line. This was necessary because the manga was not finished yet. The anime had a great finale, but it was a little anti climatic. That was until the movie came out and tied things up. It was a fitting goodbye to a great series. Still i thought to myself "what if they had animated the rest of manga."

My prayers were answered when the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, Hironu Arakawa. announced in '09 that Bones (production company) is going to produce a second anime series that follows the manga more closely. I jumped for joy for the most part. The only bad thing is that about the first 15 episodes feel like they are being pushed down your throat. After that it is smooth sailing for the rest of the way. In Japan it is already on episode 52 and the series is on episode 11 in the United States. At this point the second anime is going to end soon and will probably end around 60 something episodes.

If you are a fan of manga then you own it to yourself to read the series and watch both of the animes. Now you can always buy the series from the books store or you could just read it on the internet. I am not saying what site, but it should be easy to find. If you are reading then you know that the series is getting down to the final innings, and it is going to be a spectacular ending (hopefully). Now if they made this into a movie, which should be easier to do compared to a lot of other anime, I will be super special excited.

Kick-Ass get its ass handed to it.

I read the the paper today and saw the box office totals for the weekend. Kick-Ass, which was predicted to take the top spot came in second place with a total much lower than expected. It was beaten by How to Train Your Dragon, which is holding up really well and is getting outstanding reviews (98% on Rotten Tomatoes). It was a close one with Dragon winning by only about 250 grand. Kick-Ass made about 19.7 million, which is certainly lower than I expected given its internet hype. I mean the fan boys were just raving about it and it does look good, but Kick Ass isn't really a comic book known by the general public at all. This also proves that once again the internet hype doesn't mean shit 90% of the time.

I was hoping that it would take off like Zombieland, which was a surprise hit last fall. If you think about super hero movies not usually know by casual moviegoers usually do bad at the box office. Watchmen did score a big opening, but it went down like a shit bomb it's second weekend. It ended up with $107 million, which really was disappointing. a movie with an opening like that should at least reach close to $200 million. Plus some people did not really find the character of Hit girl very amazing and some were turned off by the intense violence. If you think about the film was going to have a niche audience from the beginning. The comic book is not known like X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, etc. It will reach profitability eventually. In the mean time I ams till waiting for Iron Man 2.

Death at a Funeral (Average Unnecessary Remake)

I saw Death at a Funeral this past Wednesday and it was a mixed bag. Now, I didn't even know that this is a remake of a 2007 British film of the same name up until a couple weeks ago. It befuddles me on why Hollywood decides to remake a film only after three years when the original came out. I mean I understand that Hollywood will make remakes of any kind of film that they feel like that can make a quick buck on. Some remakes are actually better than the other original movie (Ocean's Eleven, The Departed, Insomnia). Some remakes are average (Funny Games, Great Expectations, I Am Legend). Then there are some that are unfathomably bad pieces of shit (The Wicker Man, Poseidon,Planet of the Apes). Then we have have Death at a Funeral, which is just not necessary at all.

In 1998 Universal Studios felt the need to remake the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho. It is a shot by shot remake of the original except that it is in color. Vince Vaughn played Norman Bates (WTF) and Anne Heche played Marion Crane, who was brutally murdered in the shower. This is back when she was bangin' Ellen (ewww). Anyway it also starred William H. Macy, Viggo Mortenson, and Jullianne Moore. Plus it was directed by Gus van Sant, hot from his award winning film Good Will Hunting. Later the man would win the Palm de Ore at the Cannes Film Festival. I wonder if this was an experiment by Universal to see how much money they could make from a shot to shot remake of the original. Well it super failed and that means to never mess with a classic. It's just like if you remade Citizen Kane. If they did Orson Welles would be rolling over in his grave.

That's besides the point. Death at a Funeral is an unnecessary remake made more marketable towards American audiences because a lot of Americans have varying opinions on the dry British humor. As we speak the film has already grossed more than the original in one weekend (original only made 8 million at B.O.). Like Psycho the film is unbelievably faithful to the source material and it even has a good and funny cast. This includes Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Danny Glover, James Madsen, Zoe Saldana, Loretta Devine, Keith David, Luke Wilson, and more. Plus it's directed by Neil LaBute who directed some good decent movies like Nurse Betty and Lakeview Terrace. This is also the man who directed the horrible train wreck called The Wicker Man.

The film is better than I expected, but I really did not have high expectations for it in the beginning anyway. A quick summary of the movie is that a family is holding a funeral for their father and every possible thing that can go wrong, does go wrong. The film wastes its talented cast. Chris Rock is decent as the straight man. They didn't give Martin Lawrence or Luke Wilson anything to do. James Masden tries to hard to be funny, but he does have a couple of laughs. Danny Glover was funny as a cankerous old man. I did not like Tracy Morgan at all. I do not think he is very funny and his voice just gets on my nerve. Granted I have only watched a couple of films that he is in, but if those films are any indication of his comedic talent then I am not very impressed at all. The film results to some potty humor, and I did laugh at that even though I am ashamed of myself for that. I can't help it. Bathroom humor always brings out the juvenile side in me.

This is not a bad remake, but there was no reason to remake it, since the first one got mixed to positive reviews. Plus it's only been three years since the first one and that just annoys the fuck out of me. It is not bad, but it didn't have to be made in the first place and doesn't really add anything different. I haven't seen the original so I can't judge it off of that. Skip it.

Quarter 1

Now that we are going to jumps into the summer movie season in a couple weeks I thought it might be nice to share my thoughts on some of the movies I've seen, and some movies that looked like shit. Let me say that I love free screenings. I have not paid for a movie since seeing Avatar for the second time. I mean I get so many free tickets that have the time I can't even go to them.

I saw Edge of Darkness back in January and it was decent, but not you know I was not expecting much anyway. It's a comeback vehicle for Mel Gibson who had not acted in a movie since the little DUI tirade about how the jews are screwing up America. Yeah, I would say out of the spotlight for a while too. So after directing Apocalypto and going through a nasty divorce with his wife who nearly tooklike half of everything he had, he is back. This is why you always sign a pre nup kids.

Edge of Darkness is about Gibson's daughter getting killed by some guys and now is going after the guys who killed his daughter. Gibson finds out that his daughter's murder is connected to some big government conspiracy or whatever. Another standard revenge movie with nothing special in it. It had a couple of good violent moments, but they were to far in between and there was too much damn talking. You can skip Edge of Darkness.

I saw The Lovely Bones back in January too, which I really let me down before the film came out. The reason behind that is because this looked like a potential Oscar nominee for a long time. I thought this was going to be a Best Picture Nominee along with Nine. I mean it Lovely Bones it directed by Peter Jackson, Spielberg is an Executive Producer, has an Oscar winning cast, and based off a hit bookWell we all know how that turned out. Both Nine and The Lovely Bones turned out to be critical and and commercials failures. Well to be fair Lovely Bones did a little better, but still barely broke even with its production budget with $66 million. At first it looked like it cost $100 million, but the budget actually turned out to be $65 million.

The first thing I want to say is that the film really deals with some dark subject matter. The film is ablout a girl named Suzie Salmon, played beautifully by Saoirse Ronan. She is killed by a child molester, and now she is watching over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal. This is some deep stuff and Jackson's overbarring visuals don't really mix well with this depressing story. Jackson doesn't make full use of his cast, but Stanley Tucci owns this movie. He plays the child molester and he gets deep into his role, and truly creeped me out and was a great villain. Besides that the story really doesn't go anywhere and the ending is a little anti climatic for me. I'm going to see this film again since I got a free DVD of it. So maybe my decision might change. However, right now I say skip it.

I also saw Extraordinary Measures in january witjh bredan Fraiser and Harrison Ford. The basic plot is about the efforts of John and Aileen Crowley to find a researcher who might have a cure for their two children's rare genetic disorder. This movie should not have been released to the big screen. This is totally a made-for-TV movie that has no kind of cinematic flair. Seriously, this is melodramatic soap opera movie that has been told dozens of times. If it was a TV movie then I wouldn't judge it that hard. It wasn't and it was painfully average and unnecessary. I say skip it.

In February I saw the Wolfman, which i also did not have high expectations for at all. It was supposed to come out last year, but thabks to reshoots it was delayed until February. Whenever there are reshoots it means that the film is not going to be good, and I was right. It stars Benecio Del Toro, who I cannot understand sometimes, as a man visiting his old home and is bitten by a werewolf. Not much of a plot, but the transformation scenes are good. Some of the action scenes are cool, but not enough action. The movie didn't really hold my interest and wastes its good cast. There are much better werewolf movie, but renting it wouldn't hurt. of course you could just rent the original wolfman movie, which is more satisfying.

I also saw Shutter Island back in February, but since I already wrote a review on it I will kjeep it super short. Not as good as I thought it would be, but Leonardo Dicaprio gives a strong performance. Martin Scorsese did a good job, but to be fair his remake of Cape Fear was better than this (both are similar psychological horror movies). I didn't get that involved with the characters and there are some good surprises, but not enough to care. I'll see this one again and see if my opinion will change. I do know that if this was released last October it would not be an awards player at all. I say to at least rent it.

In March I saw Brooklyn's Finest, which is nothing special. It centers around three cops stories all intervining in Brooklyn. The three leads Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, and Richard Gere, all give very solid performaces. Antonie Faqua brings out the best in his actors, but the story is stale and uninteresting. Rent it.

I also saw She's Out of my League, which was fucking hilarious. A solid comedy about an average guy, who is a 5 (Jay Baruchel), meets the perfect woman (a 10), but his lack of confidence and the influence of his friends and family begin to pick away at the relationship. The movie's logline is how a 10 can end up with a 5. Okay, that's just a stupid plot point. It's a sweet romantic comedy, which stands out as being better than most of the recent horrible ones (bounty Hunter anybody?).Jay Baruchel is likable and has a certain charm about him. it kept me laughing through the whole time. It will be on DVD soon so just catch it then.

Repo Men is a movie that I looked like it would be quirky and stand out like Zombieland. The movie is set in the future where people buy organs, but if you can't make your payments then the Repo Men (Forest Whitaker & Jude Law) will come and take your organs back. Pretty soon Law gets artificial organs and is now on the run from his partner (Whitaker). This movie totally rips off Repo! The Genetic Opera, but this film is good compared to that piece of trash. An intriguing idea turns out well in some points, but the script gets stale and all that gore really is unecessary and totally comes out of left field. I did like the ending, but I felt a little cheated at the same time. I say rent it, but if you don't like bloody violence then stay away.

Finally I saw Hot Tub Time machine, which is the funniest comedy I have seen since the Hangover. This is the time of film that is so stupid it's supossed to be funny, and it succeeds with flying colors. The film is just about four men who are transported to the eighties thanks to a hot tub time machine. The cast has great chemistry and the jokes work. It is foul and raunchy, and it is totally awesome. Too bad it hasn't done that well at the Box office.

Well that's it for now.

OK, you &^%$@, let's see what you can do now!

Kick-Ass is turning out to be this year's Zombieland, which is something I was hoping Repo Men to be (but failed miserably). This movie sneaked up on me and didn't even know of its existence until a couple months ago. Well it comes out this Friday, and I am excited as hell. Along with Death at a Funeral this should be a good movie weekend.

The basic summary of Kick-Ass is about Dave Lizewski, who is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming. However, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero even though he has no powers or training. He is joined by other superheos like Bigg Daddy, Red Mist, and Hit-Girl, and together they try to take down a mob boss.

So far, Kick-Ass is getting generally good reviews, which around the 70's on Rotten Tomatoes. However, some braindead critics and uptight parents are complaining about the character of Hit-Girl. Hit-Girl is a 11 year old superhero, who fights his her father (Nicolas Cage). The character is played by Chole Grace Moretz, who at one point in the movie says, "OK, you cunts, let's see what you can do now!" This combined with the level of violence plus the fact she was only 11 years old at the time of parents really pissed some parents and critics off. Australian Family Association spokesman John Morrissey claimed that "the language [was] offensive and the values inappropriate – without the saving grace of the bloodless victory of traditional superheroes."

All I have to say to these guys is just shut the hell up...please! This is movie is rated R and that line was in the red band trailer, and not in the regular trailer. If it offends you that's fine (I can see why). It's just a movie and obviously not in your demographic, so just don't watch it. However, this is good for the film as all these uptight critics and reserved parents are just stiring up controversy for the film. The last time I checked controversy equals big bucks at the box office. The film's production is $ 28 million and it has already made at least half of that. Of course the film hasn't been released in the United States yet.

So I'm going to totally see this movie as soon as I can. I was hoping to get free tix to see this, but the film never came to my city (that sucks). Well, I did get passes to see Death at a Funeral tomorrow. I will try to write that review as soon as I can. I will also try to write Kick-Ass review soon too. I should be focusing on my paper, but hey I get distracted a lot. Hmm...I think i'll got eat something now.

Iron Man 2

I read an interesting article earlier that talked about the high anticipated sequel to Iron Man, and how it might surpass the Dark Knight in terms of the highest grossing opening weekend. Iron Man came out in 2008 and it enjoyed critical and commercial success. That movie opened with $98 million and went all the way to gross $318 million. The movie also holds a 93% fresh rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Not bad for a movie where the super hero is hardly known outside of the comic book community.

I have seen Iron Man back in '08 and had hardly heard of the character. I mean let's face it. Iron Man is not as popular as other Marvel Superheros like Spider-Man, X-Men, or even the fucking Fantastic 4. I saw Iron Man and it was the most fun I had in a while. That, Hellboy 2, and The Dark Knight made it a good year for superhero. The perfect way to get the shitty superhero movie taste out of my mouth from the previous year (SM 3 & FF4: ROSS).

The question is whether Iron Man 2 can surpass the opening weekend record set by Dark Knight, which made an astonishing 158.4 million dollars (holy cheese)! I have no idea. It's possible, but at the same time it would be very hard to pull off. Now, it will definitely make more than $100 million in its first three days, which is around what the first iron man made. My prediction is that it won't surpass it, but it will be very close. I say around $140 million, which is pretty damn good. It will probably make around $400 million at the box office (domestically). Let's just hope it gets decent reviews because that will be an extra bonus too.

Here are the top 10 opening weekends for the domestic box office (just for reference). Of course if you're a box office junkie like me then boxofficemojo.com and the-numbers.com are some essential websites to go to.

The Dark Knight - $158 million
Spider-Man 3 - $151 million
The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $142 million
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - $135 million
Shrek the Third - $121 million
Alice in Wonderland - $116 million
Spider-Man 3 - $114.8
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - $114.7 million
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $108.9
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - $108.4

My Growing Distaste of Blockbuster.

So I went into to my local Blockbuster the other to rent some more movies. This is my second time going to Blockbuster this year since I barely have time to go anymore. I went earlier in early March since my spring break is the first week in March. I mean there was still snow on the ground when my school went on Spring Break. If that's not messed up, then I don't know what is? The last time I went there I rented 8 movies (yeah I'm crazy). I rented Serious man, Moon, Bruno, Saving Private Ryan, Lost in Translation, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 25th Hour, and Intolerable Cruelty. All movies that I have been dying to see. So I paid my 18 bucks and left satisfied.

Here's where the shit started. I rarely turn my videos in on time. I have to pay late fees like almost 90% of the time. It really killed me in the past when Blockbuster made you take 'em back 1-2 days later. However, several years ago they got rid of their late fee policies and now you can keep them as long as you like. Well you still have to pay a restocking fee, but that's different from regular late fees. Now I could have my grace periods and Blockbuster wouldn't be all up in my ass about returning videos.

So I go to the video store this past weekend and rent another 8 movies (crazy). I rented some movies I've wanted to see for a while like Big Lebowski, Wall Street, Interiors, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and others. When I go to checkout I found out that I owe $46.08. OMG! I was so fucking pissed. It sort of spoiled my mood, but still ended up getting 3 Woody Allen movie. Of course they're his older movies for when he was still in his prime. I watched Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (but were to Afraid to Ask), Interiors, and Everybody Says I Love You. Jesus, this man puts a film out like every year and he's like 70 something.

Not laugh out loud funny, but a more subtle humor, which is still funny too. Will I ever go back to Blockbuster? Yes, but I want to join Netflix so badly. It cost $8.95 a month, but I need a credit card, and I hate credit cards. I'm also concerned that the movie will get lost in the mail. This is because most of the local mailmen in my area suck so badly. However, there is a solution to that problem because you can stream movies on the Ps3, which is what I have right now. Nevertheless, I hate using credit cards.

Blockbuster is losing money and the stores are closing. One store close to me has already closed down so I hope the other one doesn't close down.