It probably doesn’t help that Takers follows the strangest and most ambitious heist flick ever made [that would be Inception], but it still manages to be smart and hold one’s interest until the wheels fall off [almost literally] in the last act.
From the category archives:
Movie Reviews
See, this is all it takes to make me happy. Make a goofy, over the top horror movie that KNOWS it’s a goofy over the top horror movie. Even after saying that I think the Producer of Piranha 3D are too clever by half. Their tongue in cheek marketing campaign, while kind of brilliant sets the expectation that the movie is going to be campier than it actually is, while the use of 3D is a distraction from what is, surprisingly, a pretty fun B-movie.
Grade: B
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an 8-bit, rock & roll, multi-period, anime´, kung fu teen romance – which is to say that it’s a genuinely unique movie experience. Short form: Pilgrim falls in love with a girl in what he thinks is a dream, meets her at a party and stalks her until they fall in love, then has to deal with her baggage [seven evil exes] as well as his own [the girl who dumped him went on to become a rock & roll goddess].
Grade: A+
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Eat Pray Love is a breezy, leisurely travelogue that is held together by one woman’s search for enlightenment. Directed and co-written [with Jennifer Salt] by Ryan Murphy [Glee, Nip/Tuck], this is a movie that looks great – check out the panoramic looks at Italy, India and Bali – has a mostly easy to take script, and features an amazing cast. So, why am I of two minds on it?
Grade: B-
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The Summer of my discontent continues. I can’t say that I walked into Scott Pilgrim with high hopes, I loved Michael Cera in Juno, but his one note acting ability got old real quick. In every movie he’s in he gets to be the hero, gets the girl, gets to be in a band and have his own posse and does it all with very minimal effort. Is he a geek, slacker or cool guy? He’s all of these and we as an audience is supposed to feel some connection to him but he and his characters always come across as too aloof. Scott Pilgrim has moments when it is laugh out loud funny and has some truly cool action scenes but it’s overdone, over the top and they are so darn smug and self-aware about everything.
Grade: C
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I walked into the theater with visions of writing all of these great pithy put downs on Step Up. Thinking things like, “This is what 3D was made for,” “All hail James Cameron for bringing us 3D so we can get movies like Step Up 3D,” I had this really cool snarky review in my head but you know what? Step Up 3D is a fun ride and probably the best use of 3D I’ve seen all year. Seriously, no really, I think this movie is proof that there is a real difference between a movie that was conceived for and shot fully in 3D than sloppy, post conversion garbage like Clash of the Champions or Alice and Wonderland.
Grade: B
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It’s taken all of a week for Dinner for Schmucks to be replaced as the funniest movie of the summer, so far – especially because The Other Guys is the unlikeliest of movies – a funny parody of cop/buddy movies. Unlikely because there have been so many in the genre that more than a few have lapsed into self-parody, and the ones that have tried to be funny simply weren’t.
Why does The Other Guys work where others have failed? Will Ferrell’s best performance in years; Ferrell’s best material in years and, in Mark Wahlberg, an actor who is absolutely fearless in putting himself out there.
Grade: A-
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