Movie Reviews

Dakota Fanning headlines the controversial drama Hounddog, a movie best known for featuring a rape scene of the young actress. Directed by Deborah Kampmeier, Hounddog features strong acting and a good screenplay, but it fades in the end as it fails to get to the point.

Hounddog is about a young girl named Lewellen (Fanning), who has become quite independent over the years as her father (David Morse) skips town from time to time, effectively leaving her to fend for herself. One day, though, her dad is struck by lightning, turning him into a mental cripple. Aided by her grandmother, Lewellen takes to caring for him, even though her real aspirations are to meet Elvis. But in her desperation to get tickets, her innocence is stolen, her future apparently shattered.

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There are many movies that have been released over the years where sequels make sense. That doesn’t mean they need sequels, but you can see how it’ll work. A sequel to Donnie Darko, however, never crossed my mind.

Donnie Darko, one of the most unique, intriguing, mind-bending and debate-invigorating films of the 21st century, is one of my favorite movies. The film, though it was never a box office hit, has become a cult classic, solidified Jake Gyllenhaal as a leading man and is just one damn fine film. It is also a movie with a satisfying ending… an ending where the title character dies to save the world.

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Ah,Wolverine. Where does one begin? This movie was just plain awful, and the more I think about it, the more I hate it. It’s sad when such a movie exists that I would rather watch X-Men 3 ten times over before seeing this stinker again, and X-Men 3 was no walk in the park.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine continues its downward slide, falling another 44% to earn $14.8 million this weekend. To put it another way, despite opening $10 million higher and a week earlier, its $151 million domestic box office take is only $4 million higher than that of Star Trek, and it will be surpassed and left in the dust midweek. Had Fox and Marvel actually devoted some time to make this movie good, this might not be happening.

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My Bloody Valentine 3D comes to DVD this Tuesday, May 19, 2009, and I’ll just say: wait until the new Friday the 13th hits stores. When I saw the movie in theaters, I found it mildly amusing, if only for how bad it was and for the fact that it was in 3D. The movie was, in fact, my first Real3D experience, and the visuals are pretty impressive; impressive enough that they helped me survive through a rather painful and cliche horror movie that thinks it is so much smarter than it actually is.

You can read the My Bloody Valentine 3D movie review here, or read on for my DVD review…

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I am finally venturing into the world of YouTube (the creation side, that is), so check out my first-ever video movie review below… I plan to get some better video editing software than Windows Movie Maker in the near future (am thinking Adobe Premiere, since I already know how to use it) and clearly need to improve some things, but with that in mind, comments welcome – both on my opinions of Star Trek and the video itself.

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Anne Hathaway nearly earned herself an Oscar for her stunning performance in Rachel Getting Married, but she also starred in another 2008 movie, the little-known Passengers. A thriller about a young psychologist who is assigned to deal with the survivors of a jet liner crash only to find that the survivors not only have conflicting stories about the events but that they are apparently being hunted by the government, Passengers had potential… But there’s a reason why no one has heard of this movie.

Passengers barely received a theatrical release and almost no promotion; the trailers were downright terrible. Still, the movie has a strong cast including Hathaway, Patrick Wilson and a few others, so it was worth a chance – though I only watched it because Sony sent me the DVD to review. Unfortunately, Passengers is exactly what I suspected; a forgettable, dull thriller.

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One of the leaders during the Academy Award race, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button came away with “only” three minor awards, its thunder reduced to a whisper by the underdog-that-never-really-was Slumdog Millionaire.  The movie, which stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and is directed by David Fincher, is now available on DVD.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a very good movie, but the more I think about it, the more overrated I realize it is. While the concept is ingenious and the performances excellent, the movie lacks real conflict and just sort of plods along without tremendous drama or humor. Written by Eric Roth, who wrote Munich and, more importantly, the very similiar Forrest Gump, the movie just pales in comparison. In other words, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button doesn’t live up to its full potential.

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It only took two weeks of summer to get to the good stuff, as J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek for non-Trekkies has arrived, and it is quite a spectacle. Exciting action and an entertaining, swift screenplay are capped by stunning visual effects in what can only be described as the first blockbuster Star Trek of the franchise. It isn’t perfect, but it is one of those movies I will be going to see again in theaters- and those don’t come along very often.

As an introduction, I am a Star Trek fan. I am not, however, a Trekkie. I don’t dress up, I don’t know the science behind warp drive and I can’t speak Klingon. I make fun of Trekkies, but I also have enjoyed all of the television series save for “Enterprise” and most of the movies. I watch both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at least twice a year, and I am slugging my way through the original series, of which I haven’t seen every episode.

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After X-Men: The Last Stand left fans with a sour taste in their math, anticipation has been building for the next film, a prequel that looks at the early life of Logan, also known as the hairy, foul-tempered and clawed Wolverine. Unfortunately, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a disaster, and makes the aforementioned film look like an Oscar-winner in comparison. That’s impressive, but not in a good way.

In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we begin with a young Logan in the mid 19th century, who following a violent situation realizes his true nature. Scared and in shock, he goes on the run, led by his older brother, Victor – the man that would become Sabretooth. The two run amok through various U.S. wars, but Victor shows signs of drifting to the dark side; his distaste for humans and willingness to kill on command begins to worry his more moral partner. Nevertheless, the two are recruited by the government through a man named William Stryker, who promises them that they can find their true calling by carrying out missions for him. But Stryker’s motives are less than sincere, and Logan soon goes on the run.

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The summer movies have yet to arrive, but 2009 has already treated us with a few surprises. State of Play, the political thriller starring Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels and Ben Affleck, is the best of the year thus far and could find its way into the Top Ten when all is said and done.

State of Play, based on a BBC miniseries, had the potential to be a disaster. After all, boiling down a complicated, six-hour drama-thriller into two hours – for American audiences no less – could have led to some major dumbing down. Thanks to superb direction by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void), smart writing by guys who collectively have written such films as Shattered Glass, Breach, Lions for Lambs, Michael Clayton and The Bourne Supremacy and excellent performances, State of Play is a taut, edgy and believable thriller that avoids such a date. The movie craftily merges political conspiracy with dialogue about the state of the newspaper industry, and even includes a fair amount of humor. All in all, it’s a masterfully crafted and executed drama-thriller.

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I was excited when I popped The Uninvited into my DVD player this morning. After all, I was looking forward to some creepy dead kid and a bunch of disturbing monsters haunting a scantily clad Odette Yustman. But then it dawned on me that I was thinking of The Unborn, that other January horror release. Excitement plummeted, followed by expectations. And for good reason.

The Uninvited is a remake of one of my favorite horror movies, the Korean-made A Tale of Two Sisters. The Korean version was creepy, subtle and confusing, avoiding convention and delivering a superbly complex thriller. As one might expect, The Uninvited is a shallow, routine movie where directors Charles and Thomas Guard resort to cheesy hallucinations and dream sequences to make up for a lack of storytelling ability.

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After years of waiting for the Sin City sequel, fans got stuck with a different Frank Miller movie – this one solely written and directed by him. Based on the comic book series by Will Eisner, The Spirit has the same look and feel of Sin City, except that it is just so, so bad.

The Spirit is about a mysterious man who wears a small mask and a red tie who has similar powers to Wolverine; in other words, he can heal really fast. Having “died” once, he refers to himself as The Spirit, protector of the city he lives in. As he deals with a variety of love interests, some dangerous, some not-so-much, he finds himself pitted against his longtime rival The Octopus, a mad inventor of sorts who’s actually responsible for his condition. Fighting and goofy antics prevail.

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Charlie Kaufman is undoubtedly one of the most creative minds at work today, as exemplified by such multilayered films as Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Those titles are some of the most unique properties released in the last ten years, so it’s a bit surprising that his directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, came and went with minimal fanfare.

Synecdoche, New York features a relatively unrecognizable cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Supporting cast members include Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Hope Davis. In other words, there’s no talent involved. At all.

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Battlestar Galactica is done, but Caprica is just beginning. Sci-Fi Channel hopes fans acknowledge that transition and stick around because one is just like the other, right? Oh, and for the fact that the channel doesn’t have much else to offer.

Caprica is set 50 years before BSG on Caprica, which in only a few decades will be obliterated by Cylon nuclear weapons. The show, apparently, will focus on political, religious and moral issues through the eyes of two families – led by Daniel Graystone, a super-rich genius who is on the verge of recreating life (read: Cylons) and an outsider with a powerful past, Joseph Adama. Similar to today’s issues, the seemingly bright and shiny civilization of Caprica is cracked with questionable ethics, corporate greed and personal ambition that, as we all know, will eventually lead to their downfall.

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Mickey Rourke and The Wrestler arrive on DVD this Tuesday, April 21, 2009. Rourke, easily considered the biggest comeback kid of 2008 – if not the 21st century – went from career obscurity to major Oscar contender overnight with his tragic performance as an aging professional wrestler in Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece.

The Wrestler was denied Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director despite the movie’s superiority to the other films in the race. Frankly, this one makes Slumdog Millionaire look like a TV movie – but voters tend to like the feel-good over the flat-out brilliant. Thankfully, the movie garnered some attention through Rourke’s close race with Sean Penn for Best Actor – and Marisa Tomei’s Oscar-nominated performance.

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