The FilmJabber Movie Blog

Back in August I gave Balls of Fury a C- rating, a rather cruel grade for a movie I actually found quite entertaining and funny. The critic got the best of me and I scorned it for being exactly what it was intended to be: a stupid, stupid, stupid, goofy comedy. I try not to let the “critic” inside me take advantage of my simpler pleasures, but at the same time I have a reputation to attend to, and giving Balls of Fury a fair rating is a hard thing to do.

That being said, the ping-pong comedy is quite funny, and if you like silly, wacky adventures with mindless comedy, then Balls of Fury is one of the better films of recent years. I won’t go as far and say it’s a good movie, but it is funny. And for all of you who like Reno: 911 but watched that Miami movie and wanted to shoot yourselves, the main character in that plays one of the villains here. You can read the full Balls of Fury movie review here.

The movie arrives on DVD this Tuesday, and with it some special features that include deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a making-of featurette and a look at the “ball wrangler” hired for the film.

There’s really not much to say about the Balls of Fury DVD. The deleted scenes are okay, but you can see why they were deleted. There are a few scenes where the main guy sees the ghost of his dead father, but they aren’t funny. None of the other deleted scenes are funny, really. Why aren’t there any bloopers?

The alternate ending is one of those endings where you get to see a slightly different final minute of the film, and for a movie like this, who really cares? Honestly.

The making-of featurette is somewhat entertaining, as it does talk about how the cast and crew basically took a kung fu premise and replaced it with ping-pong. That being said, it is also quite promotional, though in this case, that actually works in the movie’s favor. Some of the actors joke about how ridiculous and meaningless the movie is, and that’s pretty funny.

Now, to the ball wrangler featurette. What do I say? The movie is about some poor actress who has to run around in what is essentially a Hooters outfit and make “ball” jokes to the cast and crew. What a degrading job, and the end result isn’t nearly as funny as the DVD people were hoping it would be. I saw the “blue balls” gag coming a mile away, and I’ve seen it done much, much better.

Anyway, the very few fans of the movie will probably rush out to buy this DVD; the rest of you will resort to rentals at most. Whether this film ever gains any level of cult status remains to be seen, but somehow I doubt it.

And the winners of the Paranormal State Prize Pack are…

Before we get to that, this contest was designed in anticipation of Paranormal State, which premiered December 10th at 10 PM ET/PT on A&E. The two winners listed below will receive a prize pack containing an A&E American Apparel Track Jacket, Paranormal State t-shirt, flashlight, mug and sling bag. What’s a sling bag? We’re not quite sure, but it probably carries stuff.

And without further ado, here are the winners…

Wait, first: There were 1,264 entries for the contest, which means that odds were pretty good (relatively speaking) that you could win. Don’t forget, we have tons of other movie contests running right now, including DVD giveaways for The Bourne Ultimatum, Halloween Unrated Director’s Cut, The Nanny Diaries and Arctic Tale (HD-DVD and DVD). You can also subscribe to our movie contest RSS feed so you always have the latest contests right in your browser!

So anyway, here are the two winners of the Paranormal State prize packs…

Oh, and the correct answer to the mandatory question, According to the Paranormal Insider which well known celebrity claimed to have had a “pre-birth experience”? was Richard Dreyfuss. Explains a lot, doesn’t it?

Seriously this time, here are the winners:

• Robert McGrew, Collinsville, Mississippi
• Carol Baker, West Columbia, South Carolina

Congrats to our winners! Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery.

Freestyle Releasing must have read my blog post! With three Uwe Boll movies slated to be released in a month-long period at the beginning of 2008, Freestyle – the company that is foolishly releasing all three – must have realized that is one Uwe Boll movie to many (I would counter that three is three too many). Fearing that the world would internally combust, Freestyle has dropped the video game adaptation Postal from the release schedule. It may still see the light of day, but the movie Postal won’t be seen anytime soon.

Fans of Postal are actually rejoicing right now.

Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween comes to DVD this Tuesday, including Halloween: Unrated Director’s Cut, a two-disc special edition DVD.

Those of you who have read my full Halloween movie review know that I actually thought this new version was great, and a second viewing cemented my opinion that this movie kicks ass. I was horrified when I heard that the John Carpenter classic was being remade, but as it turns out, Zombie has made a riveting horror film that actually builds on the original. I’m not saying one way or another that this version is better or worse than the original, but the best part of the movie is the first half hour where we see Michael as a child. Some were concerned that giving Michael too much of a human side would detract from the nature of the character, but Zombie figured out a way to develop the serial killer and make him scarier in the process.

But beyond that, this Unrated Director’s Cut adds about ten minutes to the film. The new scenes don’t really add much to the film, but it’s nice to see what was cut, et cetera. More interesting are the special features, which provide some good insight into the creation of the movie. There’s nothing incredible here, but you can view an alternate ending (which, as Zombie points out in his commentary, leaves Laurie Strode with very little to do) and some deleted scenes. Again, interesting to see what was removed, but none of the scenes are especially impactful.

For such a serious movie, it’s nice to see some bloopers included.

On top of those standard features, there’s a feature commentary with Rob Zombie (I didn’t listen to it) and several featurettes, including:

• The Many Masks of Michael Myers
  A look at the creation of the different masks used in the film. I found the psychological element to the masks – which wasn’t present in the original – to be one of the best additions to the story.
• Re-Imagining Halloween
  Rob Zombie talks about how he decided to tackle the remake, including his decisions to add more to the story, to not remake the movie scene by scene (I think directors have learned after the Psycho remake) and so on and so forth. There’s nothing too surprising here, but it’s good to see Zombie talking about this thought processes.
• Meet the Cast
  One of the better featurettes on the DVD, this is a compilation of interviews with the different actors in the film.
• Casting Sessions
  If you like seeing actors off-camera, this one offers audition tapes of most of the main characters. Sort of fun to watch.
• Laurie Strode Screen Test
  I think this one speaks for itself.

All in all, fans of Zombie’s Halloween should certainly pick up this DVD. Those of you who were hesitant about watching the remake should also consider buying this one without renting first – if you’re serious about horror movies, Halloween is one of the best to come along in a long time – and certainly one of the best slashers in a while.

After a disastrous weekend a week ago with The Golden Compass falling hard and fast, the box office has been revitalized by I Am Legend. The Will Smith-starring sci-fi flick opened to a huge $29.7 million on Friday alone, which means that the movie is destined to make between $70 and $80 million over the three day weekend.

This is the injection the box office so desperately needed, and once again cements Will Smith’s place at the top of box office leaders. With exception to a few stumbles (mostly dramas), Smith can open movies big, and I Am Legend is his biggest yet. Not only does I Am Legend‘s opening beat the $62 million summer opening of Smith’s I, Robot, but it will likely surpass the number one December opening previously held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King‘s $72 million. Amazing!

I Am Legend opened on 3,606 theaters. In comparison, The Golden Compass – in its second weekend – earned only $2.6 million on Friday from almost as many theaters.

This movie may end up being mindless entertainment, but I must admit that Jumper looks pretty fun. Coming in 2008, it’s about a few individuals who can teleport to anywhere they think about in a split second. The special effects look pretty good, and the concept is neat. Here’s a new poster:

Check out the sweet new international poster for The Dark Knight:

Remember that horror movie survey we ran way back in October? Here’s some of the results:

A survey conducted by Bellevue, Wash.-based movie website Movie-Source.com found that among seven recent and upcoming horror movies to be released in the fall or winter of 2007, Aliens vs. Predator Requiem, a sequel to the 2004 box office hit Alien vs. Predator, did not rank highly among must-see horror films.

The survey, conducted in October 2007 and based on 1,543 responses, compared Aliens vs. Predator Requiem to anticipated films such as 30 Days of Night, Saw IV and Stephen King’s The Mist, as well as Rogue and The Signal, two films that were later pushed back to 2008. The Mist received a whopping 37% of first picks when asked which horror movie respondents would like to see most, and 30 Days of Night followed up with 27%. Saw IV was third with 20%.

Of the top movies selected, only Saw IV was a box office success; both 30 Days of Night and The Mist failed to meet expectations. Saw is already a proven franchise, yet one that has fans sharply divided, which would account for less people voting for it but more going to see it.

So what does this all mean for Aliens vs. Predator Requiem? With only 8% of people anticipating this film most and some of the more highly anticipated horror movies failing to deliver in box office revenues, it will most likely operate like Saw IV on a lesser degree. The Alien and Predator franchises have built-in audiences that will go see the movie no matter what, and, like the Saw franchise, fans are bitterly divided. Of those surveyed, 47% consider the original Alien vs. Predator either a “Spectacular piece of filmmaking” or “a fun ride”, while 53% consider the movie “not so good” or worse.

The survey was conducted on InstantSurvey (http://www.instantsurvey.com).

It was a sad day on this lonely planet of ours. On Earth, there are approximately 6.6 billion human beings, and of those human beings, approximately half – 3.3 billion – are men. Of those men, let’s say 10% are gay, in comas or are too young or old to know the truth. That leaves three billion men who this morning found themselves breathless as their futures were so utterly destroyed.

Yes, Jessica Alba is pregnant. How dare she cheat on us with another man! How dare she receive seed that is not ours! How dare she expand her belly for her own satisfaction! Jessica, you have made this day a dark day, and we will forever remember. December 12th is J-Day, and “J” is not for Joy.

I’m a big fan of serialized shows, and in general not a big fan of sitcoms or reality shows. They can be entertaining even when they are complete crap, but I don’t like that guilt factor when watching a show. However, there are two reality shows I am big fans of, and they are two of the originals. They are both on CBS, and you may have heard of them: Survivor and The Amazing Race.

While some have said Survivor has grown old, the producers have really figured out a way to make the show unpredictable without being ridiculous, and it continues to work its magic. I look forward to this one quite a bit each week.

And then there’s The Amazing Race, a ridiculously addicting reality show that doesn’t rely (too much) on drama on talking to the camera. It’s a race around the world, and it’s a race produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Every episode is exciting, and you get to see places you’d never ordinarily see.

Anyway, to the point of this article, CBS has renewed The Amazing Race for its 13th season. The show apparently struggled with its eleventh season, but now in an 8:00pm Sunday timeslot, it has been averaging 12 million viewers a week, more than enough to convince the channel to bring back its Emmy-winning reality show. Sweet!

Stardust comes to DVD next Tuesday, December 18th, and it may very well be this decade’s Princess Bride. I know that’s a big statement, but Stardust is just an all around fun movie that never takes itself too seriously while still offering up some thoroughly enjoyable adventure and romance.

I didn’t know what to think when I saw the previews; it looked fun, the visuals looked so-so, the screenplay awkward. However, as it turns out, Stardust is just one of those movies that ends up being hard to market, even though it can appeal to anyone who has an imagination. Stardust is funny, exciting and… really, really funny (did I already say that).

And don’t mock Robert De Niro for taking a part in this movie! Not only is it his best career choice since Analyze This (yes, I know, that was a comedy), but how many chances to do you get to play a gay pirate who dresses up like a woman? Yes, you heard me right. The movie also offers up a good performance from Michelle Pfeiffer and a decent one by Claire Danes, among others.

You can read my full Stardust movie review here.

I should have posted my prediction here so you all would believe me, but at IHOP this morning, I predicted to both my mother (who I was taking to thundering Qwest Field) and the IHOP host that the Seattle Seahawks would beat the second place Arizona Cardinals by a 20-point spread. Ambitious, maybe; optimistic, certainly, but given home field advantage, a need for revenge and the chance to clinch the division right here and now, I didn’t think it was unreasonable. My prediction came pretty close, as Seattle routed Arizona 42-21, a 21-point spread.

Kurt Warner didn’t look bad, other than the five interceptions he threw – a career high. He seemed to like Marcus Trufant as a receiver more than his own guys, as he lobbed easy passes to the Seattle defender all game long – including one that was returned for an 80-something yard touchdown, and another that killed the momentum gained when Arizona recovered an onside kick. Needless to say, even when the Cardinals got to 27-14, their closest point spread of the game, this Seahawks game was not that stressful. And that’s a good thing.

Had the Seahawks lost, the Cards would have had a tiebreaker over the Seahawks, they would have been only one game up on the Cards with a toucher schedule to go, and the Cards would get that tingly feeling thinking that they are actually better than the Seahawks. It’s cute to think they thought they would actually win the division… when I was down at the Grand Canyon in October, I remember reading a paper in Arizona that, understandably, was so excited and confident that this year was the Cardinal’s year. After all, they were playing well, on par with the Seahawks and so on and so forth. Again, it was just cute that they thought that success would carry through to the end.

Sorry Cardinals, but the Seahawks are NFC West Champions. Again.

The Bourne Ultimatum is out on DVD this Tuesday, and the DVD features some good special features that any Bourne fan will enjoy. I won’t go into detail on how much I liked the movie, as I’ve already written a movie review here, but having now watched the film three times, all I can say is that it is a great action movie – but not quite as good as The Bourne Supremacy (the second one).

Anyway, I’m a big Jason Bourne fan (of both the movies and books, even if they don’t match up at all), but here’s what the DVD offers:

• Deleted scenes
  A few deleted scenes. Nothing much to say here. There’s nothing all too remarkable here, and you can tell these were cut due to pacing issues.
• Man on the move: Jason Bourne
  The first of several very good featurettes, this one, split into chapters, takes a look at each unique filming location, from Berlin to Tangier to New York. You get to see the challenges the team faced in every location, such as in Tangier (they had to block off parts of a busy market, and often had to film in crowds) or, most interestingly, in London, where the train station scene had to be filmed amongst normal commuters – so there are several shots of Matt Damon running around with a camera crew on his tail, winding in between people on their way to work. This is definitely a highlight of the DVD.
• Rooftop Pursuit
  The Tangier rooftop scene was quite an accomplishment, according to the DVD. Whether it’s getting the right camera angles in tight quarters or filming that scene where Jason Bourne leaps across empty space and into a window, there were some complications (apparently camera crews collapsed a roof at one point) in the sequence. This is another great behind-the-scenes look.
• Planning the Punches
  A behind-the-scene look at the choreography and training involving the fight sequences. Also quite fun to watch.
• Driving School
  This is an entertaining one, as we get to see Matt Damon drive stunt cars, do 180′s and speed down a parking garage ramp. It’s always nice to see the actors actually doing some stunts, and having fun with them, too.
• New York Car Chase
  This one has some interesting moments, as we get to see special cars rigged with cameras or even stunt men (a guy sits on the roof and drives the car while Matt Damon is inside below, getting filmed). Overall this one isn’t as good, but still a decent entry.
• Feature Commentary with director Paul Greengrass

All in all, this is a great DVD. It doesn’t have a ton of features, but the features it have are informative and fun to watch. Thankfully, we get to see Matt Damon out of character, and he seems like a pretty fun guy to work with. It’s nice seeing how the cast and crew seem to get along with one another (Damon makes fun of Greengrass’ Oscar nomination at one point), but more importantly, it’s cool to scene how “real” the movie is compared to other action movies, which is really one of the strong selling points of the franchise.

While there are bigger and better DVD sets to follow, I’m sure (there’s already a trilogy DVD set, and an HD-DVD/DVD combo coming soon is going to have more features than what is found here), the regular Bourne Ultimatum DVD is a good value disc.

I’ve posted three new movie reviews, which I believe are the last of the eleven I wrote last weekend. Click on the links to view them:

• We Are Marshall
• Talk to Me
• First Snow

Other movie reviews coming up soon are Stardust, In the Land of Women and The Namesake, and DVD-specific reviews for Braveheart: Special Edition and Halloween Unrated Director’s Cut (Rob Zombie Version).

Um… Where do I start? High School Musical 2 is coming out on DVD this Tuesday in an Extended Edition, which includes a new music scene, sing-along features, a rehearsal cam (where you can watch dance rehearsal footage while watching the movie), karaoke features and music videos. First, though, you have to see the movie, and if you’re not in the Disney demographic, you probably won’t like it.

“Probably won’t like it” – is that true? High School Musical 2 was one of the biggest hits of the year, and that must mean that more than pre-teen kids are watching it. It received pretty good reviews, so that must mean that some adult critics liked it, too.

But honestly, I do not see what the appeal is, though I’ll admit that I am way out of the target demographic. I like musicals, but I like realistic musicals with engaging music with excellent musical sequences. High School Musical 2 does not offer this. I liked one song out of the entire movie, and had to fast forward through several of the other musical sequences as they were just so utterly unbearable. The songs are so chipper (yes, so Disney) and cheesy, but what really kills them is the poor audio matching to the actors – I’m pretty sure they sing the songs, but the audio track is so obviously separate from the actual filmed scenes that it pretty much looks like they’re lip syncing the entire time. Oh, and the dance moves are just dreadful. I felt like I was watching an N’Sync or Backstreet Boys music video from ten years ago, as the dance moves are so goofy and un-trendy you just have to see them to believe them.

When the actors aren’t singing, High School Musical 2 is pretty bearable and somewhat entertaining. The development of Zac Efron’s character is decent enough (the story is about him forced to decide between a bunch of easy choices to get into college and allegiance to his friends and girlfriend), and I also liked the nasty performance by Ashley Tisdale. Having known nothing about the High School Musical franchise before tonight other than Vanessa Hudgens’ nude photos, I was a bit surprised to see that Hudgens has such a small role in the movie (maybe because her acting, singing and character aren’t very inspiring). In reality, the writers’ decision to keep the movie away from a typical teen romance story (though it does have a lot of those elements) and do something different (no, I’m not saying it’s original by any stretch) was a smart one, though.

The only other thing that bugged me about the movie was just how G-rated it was. I should have seen it coming – it’s from the Disney channel after all – but for some reason I had expectations that it was going to be something more. Since it has been so successful, I figured that the movie would branch away from Disney just a little bit, but nope. Why does G-rated stuff bother me? The movie is about 17-year olds, yet Efron and Hudgens only kiss at the very end, there’s almost no cleavage (hair is strategically placed at times to hide Tisdale’s) and the girls don’t wear bikinis. It’s not that I needed these things, but the absence of them are so blatant and forced that the whole movie feels unrealistic as a result. It’s hard to get into characters when everything about them is unbelievable.

High School Musical 2 is probably popular because it is safe and G-rated while never boring, which is perfect for families with younger children or people with certain religious values who don’t believe that men and women should touch each other before marriage. I understand this, and for the right age, I can see how the movie could be quite entertaining.

Still, I am just shocked at how low quality the music and the dance numbers are; they are so bad I couldn’t even watch them. That’s not a good sign for a musical.