Sucker Punch (2011)

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Starring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone

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So I have to admit: I'm no fan of Zach Snyder. I didn't really enjoy 300, and I couldn't finish Watchmen. The Dawn of the Dead remake was enjoyable, but not what I'd consider one of my favorites. This, combined with mixed reviews from friends, prevented me from going to see Sucker Punch while it was in theaters. Even after it arrived from Netflix, it say around for a while until I forced myself to watch it. So you've probably gathered this by now: I'm not a huge fan of Snyder's work. But the surprising thing is, while it wasn't what I'd consider a great movie, I found it pretty fun to watch. 

Sucker Punch follows the story of Baby Doll (Emily Browing). Her family is torn apart by the death of her mother. After being framed for the additional death of her sister, she is sent to a mental institute for women. Which turns out to be a brothel... Or something. Anyways, Babydoll and her comrades come up with a plan to escape from their prison. In order to execute their plan, they need to obtain a few objects that will aid them; like a map to find their way out, a key to unlock doors, etc.

This is where suckerpunch turns from a Life Time made for TV movie into a kickass over the top action flick: Each one of these objectives is represented by some crazy fantasy mission. Like a trench battle fighting steampunk nazi-zombie robots. Or a quest to steal a crystal from a firebreathing dragon. You get the idea.

                          Steampunk-nazi-robot-zombies. Also what Zack Snyder calls "subtlety".

Suckerpunch's best feature is probably its dense visuals. The fantasy scenes are always visually beautiful. The battle scenes also kick some serious ass. While there is definitely some very heavy use of CGI in these parts, it doesn't take away from the impact of the scenes. It actually helps with the campy, comic book style of whats going on. I found my self excited for what the next sequence would be, and disappointed when I knew they were all over.

But besides the visuals and stunning action sequences, there are quite a few flaws. The biggest being that the film probably won't appeal to a whole wide range of people. If you're not someone who likes this style of film, you'll most likely end up with a headache before its over.

"We're sorry about your migraine.. Perhaps more explosions will make you feel better?" 

Another flaw that bothers me, the biggest thing that keeps me from really liking Snyder's movies, is that it tries way too damn hard to be cool. It seems that literally every five minutes there is another slow motion montage of the action happening on screen. It feels like the film is just constantly reminding you "Hey. Look over here. See this? Steampunk-nazi-robot-zombies. Yeah. That's cool, huh? Look. You don't understand how freaking cool this is. Look. Look again. Look in slow motion. Isn't this hip? The kids are gonna love me. You old folks? You have no idea, cause you're lame. Guess what else? Freaking dragons. Look. Look at the damn dragon in slow motion. Look. Are you looking? Isn't it cool? Here's some more slow motion." 

If Suckerpunch were a person, it would be one of these guys. 

The acting was also another low point. By no means was it terrible, it just seemed flat compared to the outrageous-ness of all the action going on. Take the main character, Baby doll. She has the same facial expression for what feels like 90% of the movie. 

Zack Snyder calls this "consistency". 

Bottom Line: 6/10: Its a fun, no-brain-needed action flick, not much else. I may just be biased against Snyder, I'll admit that, but I found the same flaws here that I found in his other stuff. Suckerpunch has some pleasing visuals and impressive action sequences. It lacks in the character and story departments. And there is just way too many slow motion sequences. 

Red (2010)

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Starring: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Hellen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker

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The film industry is lucky  Red came out  shortly after The Expendables. (Read  my review of that train wreck here) If it had not, I might have given up on going to the movies all together. Red managed to redeem the film industry of The Expendables' mistakes, and made me believe in campy-throw-back action movies again.

This is how douchebags say "thank you". 

RED is actually an acronym; Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Bruce Willis stars in the lead role as a retired black-ops CIA super spy. He lives in boredom and mediocrity, with the only joy he gets coming from telephone conversations with a woman who works in a pension office. Rather quickly , his is attacked at home by a band of government thugs. After kicking a few asses and taking a few names, he leaves to find out why the government he worked for is now trying to kill him. Along the way, he pulls a few of his old counterparts out of retirement.

The story isn't horribly original, and it can get pretty confusing, especially in the third act. Red makes up for the weak story line with lots of awesome characters. Of course, Willis is the usual wise cracking badass. Nothing new for him here, but he's good at it. Mary-Louise Parker gets a few good laughs as his reluctant love intrest. Morgan freeman and Helen Mirren are great as another two ex-agents pulled out of retirement.  Karl Urban does very well as the initially cold and calculating government agent sent to stop the REDs, whatever the cost. Out of all of this, my favorite character was played by John Malkovich. He is a mentally disturbed ex-operative, mostly due to the fact that he was fed LSD daily for 11 years when he worked for the CIA.

Seems perfectly stable to me...

Bottom Line: 8/10: Red has its flaws, mostly in the story department. But it sure as hell is fun, with plenty of campy action and fun characters to go around. If you're into action films, don't let this one slip past you. Even if  you thought The Expendables had ruined the gene for you. 

Repo Men (2010)

Starring: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga

Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik 

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Repo Men is a sci-fi film that has a lot of good ideas. It starts out with a very interesting "what if" question, as many good sci-fi films do. The unfortunate thing is, thats the only thing it does well. Almost everything else about Repo Men is mediocre at best. 

Remy (Law) and Jake (Whitaker) work as repossession officials for a large corporation called The Union in the not too distant future. The only thing is, this company sells insanely expensive artificial organs to the sick and wounded. When people get behind on their payments, the repo men are sent out to recover the organs... In some of the most disturbing ways possible. From here, the story takes some very predictable turns. It manages to pull off one surprising twist, but everything else is cliché. It ends up being very disappointing because there is so many directions they could have gone with this- Instead of going for pure shock when organs are harvested in disgusting ways from innocent people. 

Should have gone with the PPO.....

The acting is another problem here. Its incredibly inconsistent. Sometimes Jude Law does a fair job, other times his lines come of as stilted and hollow. Whitaker just seems out of place in this whole film. Some of the secondary actors are much better than the lead cast, however, there are still no outstanding performances in this film. Some scenes are just pure awkward. One in particular involves lots of semi-nude making out, while the two characters slice each other open to scan their artificial organs. It just reeks of some really odd sexual fantasy.

Tarantino's foot fetish suddenly seems a lot less weird. 

Bottom Line: 4/10: It starts off with a good idea that is marred by bad everything else. The story can hold your attention if you're not too grossed out by the gore. There is a plot twist, which I'm not sure was intelligent or cheap...I'll just say it was interesting. Lots of questions are left unanswered, like why it seems that 80% of the population has needed an organ transplant. Don't go for this one unless you really want to... Unless you're a die hard sci-fi buff, chances are you won't enjoy Repo Men a single bit. 

The Social Network (2010)

Directed by: David Fincher

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake

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Without a doubt, Facebook has changed the landscape of the internet ever since its debut in 2003. Its even changed what happens when you meet new people, usually you'll hear a "Facebook me" instead of a request for a phone number. Its now become somewhat socially taboo when someone tells you that they don't use Facebook for any variety of reasons. As it turns out, the creation and first few years of the worlds most popular of social network were a rather turbulent affair. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood would manufacture a dramatized version of that story. 

Don't worry, not that dramatized. 

Jesse Eisenberg fills the shoes of the site's creator, Mark Zuckerberg. He's a somewhat awkward college student with a knack for computer programming. After being dumped by a girlfriend, he goes on a drunken blogging rampage about his recent ex. He also creates a simple site, called Facemash, meant to demean female students. The site quickly gathers so much traffic that it crashes the university's computer network. Zuckerburg and a couple friends soon realize how a social networking site could catch on. Along with some (alleged) inspiration from a pair of twins trying to start their own site, Mark and his friends soon create "The Facebook". It becomes wildly popular, and the rest is history. Oh, and Zuckerburg's former friends and business partners file millions of dollars in lawsuits against him for intellectual property infringement and for selling off most of one of the founder's stock. 

The film is presented by cutting back and fourth between disposition for the lawsuits, and pivotal events in Facebook's history, and events relevant to the lawsuit. Its a simple format, but its very well done. The disposition scenes only make up a small percentage, but the film would have felt completely different without them. 

The biggest thing The Social network has going for it is the cast. All of the lead actors are superb. Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo Saverin, one of Mark's early business partners. Justin Timberlake is good as the smarmy Sean Parker, founder of the controversial Napster music sharing site who moved on to Facebook. Jesse Eisenburg's Zuckerberg is definitely an interesting character. At first, the self righteous college student kind of gets on your nerves. By the end of the film, you feel a little better about him, but still can't help but thinking he a bit of a jerk. 

Bottom Line: 8/10: The Social Network is an interesting film about the people who changed social networking forever. The real life versions of these characters have seen the film, and have said that the events and characters were altered a bit. I can't say its 100% accurate as to how Facebook came to be and its struggles along the way, but it sure is entertaining. 

  

MacGruber (2010)

Directed by: Jorma Taccone 

Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe

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I didn't go into MacGruber with awfully high expectations. It is, after all, a film based off of a Saturday Night Live sketch, and therefore should be graded on a curve. Even with that taken into consideration, MacGruber manages only to be slightly better than terrible. 

Sorry, Pat... You're still in last place. But it was close. 

MacGruber, on its face, is a parody of 1980's TV action shows. Once you start watching, you'll notice the only things it draws from this source material is the main character's looks, and something to name the film. MacGruber (Forte) is an ex secret agent, skilled (so they say) in making weapons out of everyday objects. He is approached by the US government to stop a terrorist, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) who has stolen a nuclear weapon. MacGruber is reluctant to take the mission, until he hears that the terrorist behind the plot is the same man who killed his wife years earlier. 

The humor is low brow, and usually consists of copious use of the F-word, and various instances of bathroom humor. Not that I have a problem with bathroom humor or cursing, its just that this film uses them as a substitute for actual humor. I could have pitched this to a group of third graders, and they could have told me I was a dumb ass and come up with something substantially better themselves.  The film managed to make me chuckle only a couple of times. And when it does find a joke that doesn't fall flat on its face, it repeated it multiple times until you are sick of it. Even the jokes that don't work are repeated more than once. 

Guys, guys.. Get this. We'll do the celery up the butt bit, not once -pay attention now- but twice. 

Bottom Line: 3/10:  Most of the jokes aren't funny, the characters can be annoying, and the story is downright dull. Watching Macgruber was only slightly less painful than having a vegetable shoved in your rear.  

Predators (2010)

Directted by: Nimród Antal

Starring: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne

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I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Predators. After the disasters that were the two Alien VS Predator films, I didn't think there was much life left in the series. Luckily the creative team behind this film thought the same as I did about the AVP films, and decided to ignore that storyline altogether. They drew most, if not all, of their inspiration from the first film.  Predators is a fun, no-brainer action movie, that gives a slick 2010 feel to the 1987 classic.

We open on our main character, Royce (Brody), as he is in freefall.  His parachute opens and he lands less than gracefully in a jungle. There, he meets up with a few other people who have fallen in the same fashion he has. Most of them are all killers of some kind (save for one doctor): Special forces, mercenaries, mass murderers, and gang hit men. They soon realize that the're not on earth anymore, and that something is hunting them.

One of the best thing that Predators does well is the casting. Adrien Brody is perfect as the impromptu leader of the group trying to survive. Alice Braga does well in her role as the tough Israeli soldier, who reluctantly follows Royce in their attempt to get off the planet. 

However, there are a couple of cast members that don't totally fit in. Laurence Fishburne is Roland, a crazy soldier that has been trapped on the predator planet for years. His acting is great, I was just surprised at how small his part ended up being. It seems as though the character was tacked on just so they could get another big name actor in the credits. Eric Foreman Topher Grace also feels awkward as a seemingly harmless doctor. Its another role that doesn't seem like it has a lot of purpose to it. Intentional for the character or not, Topher just seems out of place in a gritty action film.

"I'll never be typecast all the way out here in the jungle."

Bottom Line: 8/10: Predators is one of those no-thought-required action films. It managed to hold my attention from beginning to end, while capturing the feel of the original 1987 film. Best of all, it pretended like the AVP films never happened. 

The Mystery Team (2009)

Directed by: Dan Eckman

Starring: Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes

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The Mystery Team is a raunchy film from the guys at Derrik Comedy. They have gained a pretty big following on YouTube, and their increased popularity has allowed them to make their first feature length film. The humor is low brow, some of the jokes fell flat, and the acting can be a bit shaky in some areas. However, that didn't stop me from laughing out loud on more than one occasion. 

Our three main characters, Jason (Glover), Duncan (Pierson) and Charlie (Dierkes), are a trio of high school seniors, who seem to be stuck in their elementary school years. They venture around the neighborhood, solving "mysteries" for much younger kids. They mostly stick to juvenile "crimes" to solve, but still wish to  move on to become big league detectives some day. Most of their peers and elders are frustrated with them, seeing them as a bunch of naive losers. (Which they are.) Soon, The Mystery team gets a chance to prove themselves. A little girl commissions them to find out who killed her parents. Right from the onset, the team is dragged into a world of hired killers, gentlemen's clubs, and drug dealers. 

"Hi, we'd like to buy some cocaine." 

Most of the humor is low brow, with a few clever puns tossed in here and there. I didn't have any problems with most of the jokes, but I can still appreciate fart jokes. A few of the gags do fall flat, but the film doesn't dwell on them. It moves past them so quick and hits you with a new joke that you soon forget the one that didn't work so great. There are a few points where the film can get pretty disgusting- involving vomit and a scene inside of a seedy strip club bathroom. 

The acting, for the most part, is pretty solid. Glover steals the show with this one, while Pierson is close behind. Dierkes struggles in some places, and its pretty obvious, but he still manages to supply a good amount of laughs. The film manages to look pretty good considering it's low budget. Granted, there aren't any major action sequences or big special effects. 

Bottom Line: 7/10: Those who appreciate sophisticated humor should look elsewhere. For those who like bathroom humor, The Mystery Team may be perfect for you. The jokes fly at you non stop, the story is interesting, and the characters are enjoyable. I hope to see more from these guys in the future, it would be cool to see what they could do with more resources available. 

The Mist (2007)

Directed by: Frank Darabont 

Starring: Thomas Jane, Nathan Gamble, Marcia Gay Harden

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The Mist is a horror film adapted from a Stephen King novella. I haven't read the book (Who reads those anymore?), so I can't say how accurate it is compared to its source material. I can say its pretty dang scary and equally depressing.

The Mist takes place in the state of Maine, like a lot of Stephen King stories do. (Well, I haven't read much from him, but he is from Maine.)  David Drayton (Jane) is an accomplished artist, living in a nice house with his son, Billy (Nathan Gamble). After a rather turbulent storm, the two join their arrogant lawyer-neighbor, Brent (Andre Braugher), to venture into town for some supplies. After reaching the supermarket, the town is covered in a thick mist. Things turn even more strange after a bloodied man runs into the store, yelling about there being "things in the mist". The store is locked down as more odd events start to happen. Soon, it is relieved that there are truly "things" in the mist, as one of the store employees is dragged away by a couple spike laden tentacles. More and more creatures of various types begin to attack the store over the course of the night. David must soon put himself and his son at risk once the survivors' mob mentality turns out to be as dangerous as the creatures attacking them. 

Your local forecast: Highs in the mid 50s with mostly cloudy skies. Low visibility with a 90% chance of being eaten by giant tentacle monsters. 

The Mist manages to be a pretty frightening film. The various monsters are downright terrifying. There are the giant tentacle monsters, which you never really see in their entirety. There are football sized fly like creatures, that have a lethal bite. There are mutant pterodactyl creatures that eat the fly creatures, but will still eat your face. Also: 

AHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE GET A FLAMETHROWER! 

Spiders. Too many spiders.Millions of little spiders. Spiders that shoot acid web.  Four foot tall giant spiders. Medium sized spiders, that like to jump on top of your head. If you have any degree of arachnophobia, you might want to watch this film with a change of undergarments ready. Or put the television in the bathroom, so you can watch from atop the throne and not have to worry about cleanup. 

Forget the flamethrower, I'm skipping right to the thermonuclear bomb. 

Apart from the fact it managed to scare me, there are a few things wrong with The Mist. First of all, the acting can seem a bit over the top and clichéd at times. (Although the only black guy isn't the first one to die.) I remember a couple scenes were ruined by an odd or over acted reaction from one of the characters. Not all of the acting is bad, there are some parts where the terrified murmur of the crowd as a monster or dead body comes into view will send a chill down your spine.

Thats not a kite on the other end of that rope... 

My biggest beef was with the way the religious zealot is portrayed. She serves as another villain along with the monsters, destroying the logic of the trapped people as they try to make a plan for survival. I'm not very religious to begin with, but I think the way they hammered the bible thumping types was a bit too over the top. The fact that people actually listened to her insane rants, even going as far to kill someone by throwing them out of the store, seemed a bit odd to me. 

(Minor spoiler below. Don't read the next paragraph if you haven't seen the film yet.) 

Those looking for a happy ending might not enjoy this one either. The film's conclusion is deeply depressing. I don't want to give too much of it away, but the actions of the main character seemed pretty hasty considering what he did. It just didn't seem like a normal person would choose to do what he did with almost no hesitation. 

Bottom Line: 6/10: The Mist is a truly scary film. Its held back by only a couple things, mostly I didn't like the ending. Its a well put together film, I enjoyed watching it, but wouldn't opt for another viewing. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Dead Alive (1992)

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Starring: Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Ian Watkin

IMDB Page

Browsing Netflix instant watching options one lazy afternoon, I stumbled onto a zombie category. Being a fan of zombie films, I quickly started looking through. I had never seen Dead Alive (Known as "BrainDead" to overseas audiences) before, thinking it was going to be awful. It had relatively good reviews on Neflix, and it claimed to be the "The goriest fright film of all time", so I figured "Why the heck not?". While it might not be very frightening, it sure keeps its promise of being "the goriest". 

Clam down, its only a flesh wound.

Dead Alive is less of a scary movie, and more of a dark comedy; with a very, very, very sick sense of humor.  Its a story about Lionel (Balme), a socially awkward mama's boy, who is constantly being controlled by his evil overbearing mother. His mother is soon infected after being bitten by a strange creature at a zoo, and begins slowly turning into a zombie. Lionel tries desperately to hide what is happening to his mum, as a few more zombies are created in the process. Eventually, he has to fight through an entire horde of the living dead in order to save the girl of his dreams. Also, lots and lots of blood. 

Dead Alive isn't very scary at all, but it is a shock film. The gore is so insanely over the top, its not realistic in the slightest. However, that doesn't mean it isn't stomach turning. I found myself grossed out several times over the course of the film, and that is saying something. Some of the ideas for killing humans and zombies are as brilliant as they are disgusting. The effects are well done, on par with films like The Thing. The folks behind this picture have some very active imaginations... And maybe a bit of mental illness as well. Zombies are torn to shreds, impaled, disemboweled, ground up, pummeled to death, and hacked to pieces.  To hammer the point home, have a look at this tidbit taken from the IMDB trivia page:

"During the lawnmower scene, movie blood was pumped at five gallons per second."

You now want to watch this movie.

One of the most surprising things about this film is the director: Peter Jackson. Yes, the same guy who directed the Lord of the Rings films and the upcoming Hobbit films made a film that features two zombies having sex, and a reanimated pile of guts complete with farting anus. 

Bottom Line: 7/10: Its not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. There's not much to the story, but that isn't what this film is about. You're here to watch a man get his entire ribcage torn from his chest and to see a disembodied head mashed into a running blender, not for a deep and interesting plot. There's enough wit and tongue and cheek gore here to keep any horror or zombie fan entertained. Just make sure you don't have a weak stomach. I'll leave you with one last tidbit from the IMDB trivia page: 

"The rental in Sweden (and probably other countries as well) came with supplemental vomit bags."

V for Vendetta (2006)

Directed by: James McTeigue

Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, John Hurt

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From the writers behind the Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta is an amazing imagining of a not too distant future. Aside from being politically relevant, it wraps a great plot, characters, and action scenes into a rather kickass package. 

Great Britain is now a fascist state. The people are spied on at all times. The government's henchmen, called "fingermen", assault civilians on a whim. Constant propaganda is blasted over the television sets. Any kind of dissent gets you whisked away in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. The film definitely draws from influences like Orwell's 1984. 

It is on her way back from work at a television station that Evey (Portman) runs into a couple of the government "fingermen". Just before they are able to have their way with her, she is saved by a mysterious masked vigilante, who only calls himself "V" (Weaving). V wears a mask bearing the image of Guy Fawkes, a man who attempted to blow up the British parliament hundreds of years earlier on the fifth of November.  The two part ways, only to be reunited later. V attacks the television station that employs Evey, broadcasting a message asking the citizenry to join him in one year's time, on the fifth of November. This time, Evey prevents V from being captured by the government. He rescues her, taking her to a place away from government eyes. 

I don't want to give away too much more, because V for Vendetta is one of those films best enjoyed when you go in not knowing too much of what will happen. However, I will say that I have barely scratched the surface with this description. The plot is very deep and complex, but not too convoluted. It is a story of personal revenge, revelation, as well as a story of revolution. 

Another area where the film shines is in the acting department. Natalie Portman is absolutely perfect in her role, showing true emotion all the way through. If anyone deserved an Oscar for best actress in 2006, it was her. Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from the Matrix films, for those looking to put a face to the voice.)  is equally good as V. His role has an added level of difficulty: He wears a mask throughout the entire film, allowing him to only emote with his voice and body language. John Hurt has a rather ironic role as the tyrannical Chancellor Sutler, who is always seen on large video screens angrily spouting off propaganda. His role is ironic because John Hurt played the opposite role of the film adaption of Orwell's 1984, as the citizen constantly being watched by a government figure on a television screen.  

Stephen Rea also turns in a memorable performance. He plays a detective tasked with tracking down V after the attack on the television station. As he slowly uncovers a vast government conspiracy, his feelings about the "terrorist" he is supposed to apprehend change.  

Bottom Line: 10/10: V for Vendetta is one of my personal favorites. Its very easy to make political connections between the world in the film and the world we live in today. This may be a turn off for some, but its not a movie that hammers you too hard with a political message. Its a well done drama film, with some truly moving moments and characters. Theres even a couple of well done action scenes thrown in, but don't expect non-stop bullets and explosions. 

The Other Guys (2010)

Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes

Directed by: Adam McKay

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Yet another Will Ferrell movie from director Adam McKay and.... Will Ferrell. Don't know who Adam McKay is? Name a Will Ferrel movie, and chances are he's directed it. (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers) All of those films manages to be slightly better than mediocre, with a few good laugh out loud moments. The Other Guys follows that formula, having quite a few genuinely funny moments, while being held back by copious amounts of bathroom humor. And Will Ferrell screaming.

He has to, its in his contract. 

Allen Gamble (Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) are two NYPD officers living in the shadow of another pair of detectives, P.K. Highsmith and Christopher Danson (Samuel L Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). Terry is looked down upon by the rest of the department because he accidentally shot Derek Jeter at a Yankees game, and Allen is just an office dwelling loser who enjoys doing paperwork just a little too much. When the two prodigy officers are killed in the line of duty, its up to the other guys to step up and take down the corporatist villain.

The best thing about The Other Guys is the casting. Ferrell isn't venturing into any new territory with his role, he still plays the loser who tends to raise his voice at inappropriate times. Wahlberg has great chemistry with his costar, with Wahlberg providing a real world "ground" for some of Ferrell's ridiculous actions.

Scream one more time... I dare you. 

 Michael Keaton has a role as captain Gene Mauch, the guy in charge of our two main characters. There is also many smaller roles that provide good laughs, including a hilarious cameo by Derek Jeter that I mentioned above.

There are a few problems with the Other Guys. It is your typical Ferrel romp, so if you arn't a fan of his other movies, this one will be no different. A lot of the humor rests on Will Ferrell doing Will Ferrell things, so at some points it can feel like the jokes are repeating themselves. I found myself not even paying attention to the main story, which wasn't too bothersome for me. It involves taking down some rich businessman involved in some kind of ponzi scheme. Its certainly a relevant story in todays age of government bailouts, but it took a backseat to the jokes here. The end credits are very interesting, featuring some impressive graphics and animations about today's Wall Street world. But they feel like they belong in a Micheal Moore movie, not a Ferrell comedy movie.

Bottom Line: 7/10: About on par with other Ferrell/McKay films, although its not as quote-able as Anchorman or Talladega Nights. A few great laughs with a great cast, but nothing memorable.

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

Directed by: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders

Starring: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera

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Lets face it, if you've been in the business of making feature length computer animated films, you've been chasing Pixar for the past 15 years. Many studios have tried to match the charm, humor, and heart that Pixar seems to nail every single time, and haven't succeeded yet. There have been a few memorable attempts, like DreamWork's Shrek (which has been wrung dry by a number of less than stellar sequels). With How To Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks still hasn't topped Pixar, but it has come pretty dang close. Lets just hope they don't ruin it with a bunch of crummy follow ups. 

I've heard the sequels were only made so Eddie Murphy wouldn't starve trying to find work. 

How To Train Your Dragon takes place on the fictional Island of Berk during Viking times. The island is almost constantly under attack by dragons, who will destroy houses and make off with the villagers' livestock. Most of the time of inhabitants is taken up by repelling the dragon attacks, or supporting the effort through other means. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is having trouble living up to his father and village leader, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). He desperately wants to kill a dragon himself, but is kept back by his father and others out of fear he will be killed or hurt. 

Against his fathers wishes, Hiccup sets out to kill a dragon on his own. Using one of his inventions, he downs a "Night Fury", the most feared type of dragon that is known to the villagers.  Once face to face, he finds himself unable to kill the creature, letting it go instead. The dragon, nicknamed Toothless, is unable to fly on his own. With the help of Hiccup, Toothless regains his flight abilities. Soon, the two learn to trust each other, becoming good friends. But that friendship is soon put to the test when Hiccup's father leads an attack on the dragon nest. 

The story isn't anything too new for an animated fare, following a familiar path with only a few small deviations: Character X is misunderstood. Character X meets character Y, who is also misunderstood. Character X and Y become friends, much to the disapproval of their respective friends and family. At some point, there is an epiphany, and character X and Y must save the day. Everyone loves them, the end. This doesn't stop the story from being good, its quite good in fact, just not anything new in the area of kid friendly animation. 

Speaking of animation, this is an amazing looking film. The fire and smoke legitimately look real. Textures and fabrics look fantastic. One of the other things How to Train Your Dragon does well is facial animations. While the human characters are still caricatures of human beings, they emote visually as well as any live action actor. This holds especially true for Toothless, who is only able to "act" through various facial expressions and animal like noises. The dragon can go from a "puppy dog" look to "I am going to murder you" in an instant, with the ability to show off a large range in between. 

Action scenes are plentiful and well done. The aerial shots are spectacular, with a mix between fast paced dogfights, or slow cruises through the clouds.  I wish I could have seen it in theaters, I bet it would have given James Cameron's Avatar a run for its money in the 3D department. 

The supporting cast of characters isn't as nearly as interesting as our two stars. They provide not much more than a couple of laughs. The voice talents are good, each fitting their role suitably. Like I said above, most of the entertainment comes from the chemistry between Toothless and Hiccup. This is impressive, considering Jay Baruchel was not only reading lines off of paper in a tiny room, but his "costar" didn't even exist outside the minds of the animators and artists that brought him to life. 

Bottom Line: 9/10:  While How To Train Your Dragon still isn't as good as some of Pixar's greats, its the closest another animation studio has ever come. A charming story, combined with great main characters and some slick looking animation make this one of Dreamwork's best. 

  

Inception (2010)

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy

IMDB Page

Everything about Inception feels big. The scale, the characters, the music, the action, the visuals... Nolan has definitely has the ability to give a film an "epic" feeling. While being held back in only a few areas, like a plot that is perhaps a little too big, Inception provides for a very entertaining ride. 

The opening to the film is initially very confusing. You jump right in with our main character, Cobb (DiCaprio), transcending different dream levels as he attempts to extract secrets from the mind of Saito (Ken Watanabe), a wealthy Asian business mogul. I was totally lost in this opening, and not in a good way. Soon, all of the characters wake up, and you start to find out what exactly is going on. 

Cobb is part of a corporate mercenary team that specializes in infiltrating other's dreams to steal secrets from their subconscious. The opening scene was a "dry run"; Saito was testing out the team before dropping his hard earned dollars. Not much explanation is given into the past of this team, nor the technology behind it. Its not a huge issue, but I would have liked to have heard more about the mysterious machine that is used to sneak into other's dreams, other than "it was a secret government training project". 

Cobb is also haunted by the memory of his dead wife. She haunts his subconcious, making it increasingly harder to preform his job. He is also wanted by the US government under suspicsion that he had something to do with her death, making it almost impossible to re enter the county to see his children. Saito offers him a deal: Preform an extremely risky operation, called an "inception", which involves implanting an idea in someone's head, rather than stealing one. In exchange, Cobb will be able to enter the US again to see his son and daughter. The majority of the film is taken up by planning the inception. It also explains all of the rules of the dream world, which makes the film's opening scene finally make sense, as well as prepare the viewer for the film's finale. The finale is ingenious, if not a bit too complex; consisting of a dream, within a dream, within a dream. 

Nothing confusing here....

Apart fron the intriging story, everything else about Inception is top notch. The visuals are the best part, allowing for us to see some truly mind bending stuff when the characters enter the dream world. The action is typical Nolan, with plenty of PG-13 rated gun play and car chases. The hard hitting and ominous score by Hans Zimmer has the same feeling, shaking you right to the core during action scenes, and perfectly helping to set the tone for others. Once scene in particular blends action with a true "how did they do that?" moment. A fight between two characters happens in an upscale hotel, as gravity does all kinds of weird things around them. 

Not for those with vertigo. 

Now, onto the bad. I've mentioned a few times already that the plot can get a bit convoluted. You can get lost easily if you miss only a couple of lines of dialog. For example, Cobb and his team encounter armed resistance upon entering someone else's dream. I had no idea who these goons were, or why they were fighting our main characters. On my second viewing of the film, I caught a couple of lines I had missed on my first time through. Apparently, people who fear having their secrets stolen via the dreamworld have trained their subconscious to fight any intruders. It was really easy to miss, so make sure you aren't distracted while you watch. To add onto that, make sure you have the time to sit and watch, as Inception clocks in at a two and a half hour runtime. 

Also, just a pet peeve of mine, an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) is used in the completely wrong way to revive a character that has died. Yeah, you could say it works because its just a movie, or they were in a dream at the time. I'm not going to subtract anything for this, but it had my inner medicine nerd yelling "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!". 

Bottom Line: 9/10: While it gets caught up a little in a complicated story, Inception pulls through with flying colors. Once you can understand whats happening, the story will pull you and and won't let go. The dream worlds are beautiful, characters are interesting, and theres plenty of bullets and explosions for the action fans. On top of that, one of the most well done ambiguous endings I've ever seen.