Grease: A Quick Review

As it turns out "Grease" is one of my favorite movies in the entire world.  I've seen it way more than any other and I look forward to re-watching it for years to come.  It is just such a fun, nostalgic movie and I love musicals, which strange as it is to me is apparently not a common trait for all of the human race. You all know the incredibly implausible plot, but here we go anyways: Danny and Sandy have a wonderful summer frolicking on the beach and get all depressed that they will never see each other again.  That turns out to be bull, because of course Sandy, who lives in Australia transfers to a school in the United States.  And coincidentally she ends up at Rydell High, which obviously is where Danny goes.  T-Birds. Pink Ladies. Catchy Songs. A Dance. Olivia Newton-John in leather. More singing and dancing. Fly away in a car...such a horrible ending....I don't know what they were thinking, but it's ridiculous.  Oh yeah and  if you're looking for good morals this is not the movie to look for.  Becoming a skank just to get a guy to like you is a really, really, really bad idea and can only end terribly.  It's just so hard to resist the chemistry between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and see them belting out such memorable songs as "You're the One that I Want", "Greased Lightning", "Summer Nights", etc. Equally hard to resist is the great cast and the tremendous about of energy emitting from the television screen.  True, approximately everyone in the cast was way to old to play high schoolers.  Yes, that does in fact include Stockard Channing who was celebrating her 34th birthday in 1978 when "Grease" was released.  But, believe it or not that doesn't take away too much from the movie and you just need to suspend some disbelief.  I guess most people have already seen this movie so there's really no need to go on too far.  And those who have not must be avoiding it like the plague, which of course is their right as a member of the human race and the United States of America.  "Grease" is indeed slightly cheesy, but a great movie adaptation of the Broadway show and an unavoidable, classic piece of American pop culture...kind of like "The Simpsons"...or Cher...And if you liked "Grease" then watch "Grease 2"...it is not as bad as people want you to believe...ok it's pretty bad...but it's Michelle Pfeiffer...  Ok calling this a quick review was a huge falsehood...and basically just an excuse for me to ramble.

-Joseph Sbrilli

Salt

"Salt" was directed by Phillip Noyce.  It stars Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, and several other people who are far less familiar to the general public that the aforementioned actors.

Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt.  She works for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).  As it turns out she is accused of being a Russian spy.  Also, as it turns out she adamantly denies this. So she proceeds to go on the run, like only Angelina Jolie, or any other action movie star in the history of movies can.  Of course the fate of the United States is in some kind of peril and things are not as they originally appear.  They very rarely are, in case there was any shred of doubt out there.  Oh yeah the Russian president might be assassinated...just might.

It's true.  Angelina Jolie is an action star.  And a darn good one, at that, which works out great for "Salt" because she's running the show, hence her name being the only one on the movie poster.  For some reason people are under the impression that an action star needs to be a man, but that is a falsehood and Angelina has at least 4 different paychecks to prove it.  She is a great actress, and given decent material to work with can produce some great characters.  And for the record "Salt," when compared to "Wanted" is the better action movie by far.  Maybe I'm just not into bullets that curve and looms of destiny....Another thing that I would like to add into this paragraph: I want to thank Mr. Tom Cruise for not taking the lead role in "Salt" as originally planned.  After seeing Angelina Jolie as the lead I just cannot picture Tom Cruise as Evelyn Salt.  The wonderful other half of this blog wanted me to mention Liev Schreiber in this review, so I will because I told him I would and if I don't then I'm a liar.  Liev Schreiber is a good actor.  He worked well with Angelina Jolie in "Salt" and had some good lines.  I, however do not have many movies to judge him by.

The laws of science or anything..."Salt" is way too good for all of that.  All laws of science or logic in general are completely rejected in this movie and that's how things should be because this is in fact an action movie.  Salt at one point jumped from an overpass to a passing truck.  The whole jumping on top of a truck thing occurs a couple other times and her adrenaline is still pumping and is pretty unscathed when you consider what just happened.  They are several other scenes even more impressive than this, but I don't want to spoil everything.  And through it all Angelina Jolie still manages to look great.  Which is another level of impressive.

The cinematography as a whole was nothing too special.  There were a lot of close ups of people and of car chases, etc as well as some nice aerial shots of Washington DC and other locations.  At times however, it seemed like the camera was moving to fast through a scene and spinning out of control.

The score for "Salt" didn't really do much for me.  That is a generalization, I'm sure there were exceptions.  It came off as a little cliched action movie score, which is weird because James Newton Howard composed the score and he co-composed the score for "The Dark Knight."  Unless of course Hans Zimmer did the majority of the score for that movie and James Newton Howard just snuck his name on it.

The movie was well paced, which is basicly my way of saying that my ADD didn't kick in quite yet.  And in that time we get the pleasure of some semi-cheesy lines...but the movie as a whole is so entertaining you can ignore the uninspired lines of dialogue in parts.

I need to say this...Near the end of the movie I think I spied some horrible CGI (Computer Generated Imagry) of a plane.  It must have been...something horrible attacked my eyes for about two seconds.

After the filming of the last scene wrapped up production I'm assuming Phillip Noyce, at the top of his lungs, so everyone in the vicinity could hear, yelled "Sequel!"  This is purely speculation and not fact, from a reliable source like People Magazine...don't judge.

So basically I thought this was a good movie vehicle for Angelina Jolie and I was thoroughly entertained for slightly over an hour and a half.  There's action, there's twists, and probably most importantly the lady who's face is on the poster.  If you like her or action movies in general, then by all means see it.  But be frugal, because we are in a recession.  Although I guess Regal Cinemas doesn't believe that since they are continuing to boost their ticket prices up each year.  Not award-winning material...obviously...but yeah...just watch it...it'll be at the very least fun.  2 and half stars out of 4

-Joseph Sbrilli



      

Inception

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger darling." Christopher Nolan has dreamt about as big as you can without actually touching the sun. In a summer full of films where the most original idea is a sequel, Inception is fresh, exciting and the most daring project I've seen in a long time. It challenges the mind, and where most movies are just CGI fodder, Inception has the great honor of being both incredibly entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

What little that could be gleaned from the trailer from this film didn't really tell anyone anything about Inception. Everyone just knew that it was about dreams and about Christopher Nolan's big, sexy directing skills. In the near future (or perhaps the present) the military has invented (of course they did) a device that allows several people to be together in one dream. The obvious benefit for the military is to train soldiers to fight and potentially die, without actually getting harmed. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has one of these devices, although it is never explained why or how, and is employing it for a very different purpose: corporate espionage. Companies hire him to kidnap rival employees, put them under, and discover their secrets. By creating a situation in which the dreamer feels that he is actually in reality, they can get him to admit what he knows or find a place in his mind where he keeps the secrets they want. Cobb than extracts the secrets, gets out of the dream (usually by getting killed within the dream) and makes a profit. But when a job goes bad, the man he had attempted to extract proposes a new idea, inception. He wants Cobb and his team to go into someones mind and plant an idea, specifically the idea to break up his fathers monopoly, because as Cobb said, "When an idea takes hold, it never lets go," but to plant an idea that complex will take dreams within dreams to make the subject truly believe that he had thought of the idea himself. As Cobb's team descends deeper into the subconscious, the line between reality and imagination starts to blur.

It's a lot to swallow, and took me a couple of hours combined with crazy, trippy dreams to really wrap my head around it. Confusing isn't even the beginning of it, but it is so masterfully done that I can forgive it quite easily. The cast itself is about as amazing as it gets, with enough awards between them to start a gold store: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Micheal Caine, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, and Marion Cotilliard. All fantastic and all very talented. DiCaprio's seasoned leadership, Gordon-Levitt's cool composure under fire, and Murphy's emotional journey are just a few examples of great scenes in the movie.

The special effects in Inception may be the very best thing about it, with almost all scenes doing away with the CGI that plagues other films. Nolan has opted for the best that money can buy. Car chases, vans falling off bridges in slow motion, mountaintop buildings exploding in a rain of fire, and the very best fight scene I can think of. Reminiscent of The Matrix, Gordon-Levitt has to fend off subconcious bodyguards in a rotating hall way. As up becomes down he has to manuever his way through the hall and get out alive. That's not even mentioning the moment when the hall stops rotating and loses gravity all together. My jaw was literally open wide enough for someone to throw an apple into.

The most recurring part of Inception, and also the most annoying is Cobb's influence on the dream. His dead wife (Marion Cotilliard) overpowers the regular subjects' subconscious and messes with the dream. His personal battles with the demons inside his head consistently ruin the plan and eventually get really bothersome. At least forty five minutes of footage contribute to this and could have easily been used to help explain the plot better. It was like watching the dream sequences of Shutter Island again.

The plot has a couple of holes in it that can drag the movie down a bit. Like, why was Ellen Page really necessary? How did Saito (Ken Watanabe) skip a dream? and how did Cobb get there? Why did the architect create a moutaintop retreat and then plant their starting point about 7 miles away? If all it takes to jump back to the previous dream is a sudden change in gravity, why didn't they jump back all those times they had incredible falls? and why is Joseph Gordon-Levitt so good looking?

At two and a half hours, Inception is a long one, but I didn't once think about it, my attention was gripped from beginning to end. It took me a long time to figure out how I was going to rate Inception. I decided that in the end I can forgive all of its flaws specifically because it is the most original movie I will see this year and I am expecting multiple awards and honors to descend on this superb film. Christopher Nolan wasn't afraid to dream big.

3 and a half out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

Spoiler alert! do not read on!
for those who have seen the movie, I like to think that in the end, he did make it back home.

Despicable Me 3-D

Following the immense high that Toy Story 3 gave me, I was pretty much ready to see any animated movie that might come out. Unfortunately I decided to shell out the extra cash for 3-D.

I'm not saying that Despicable Me is bad, because it's not, but I am saying that if I pay 12 dollars to see a movie in 3-D it better blow my mind away with visual effects.

Despicable Me, is the story of longtime villain Gru (Steve Carell). Gru is getting up there in years, and his dastardly plans don't have the punch that they used too. When he finds that a rival villain has actually stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt (and quite hilariously puts it behind his house and paints it like the sky) Gru decides to put into action his most evil plan of all time, stealing the moon. Yes, the moon; his plan is to use a North Korean designed shrink ray, shrink up the moon and bring it back to Earth, to show off his awesome evilness.

But there's one small problem, Vector (Jason Segel) the guy who stole the pyramid, has also stolen the shrink ray, so Gru has to get creative and adopt three adorable orphan girls to get it back.

Despicable Me is like a dark comedy for children, which is incredibly hard to put into words, but if you see it you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. It is made for children but there is enough humor here for adults to enjoy it all the same. Gru's house is littered with endangered animals that could cause a chuckle. Gru's responses to the little girls demands and pleas are what every parent thinks, but loves too much to say it, and he gets to do it in a delicious Russian accent. "Pretty please?" "The physical appearance of please does nothing." More amusing things like the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) made for an enjoyable time.

The voice cast is pretty good as well. Steve Carell shines as Gru and his accent is flawless. Russell Brand jumps in as Gru's 80 year old sidekick Dr. Nefarious and you never once think it sounds like a young man. Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, and Julie Andrews make nice showings as well.

The little yellow things climbing all over the poster are Gru's minions and really only serve as slapstick humor for the kiddies. Despicable Me is incredibly predictable but it adds a nice twist with its dark humor and general pacing. Plus, the littlest orphan is the cutest thing on the planet.

Just don't pay for 3-D.

2 and a half out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

Letters to Juliet

If you liked “Mamma Mia,” played with Ken and Barbie dolls, and don't really care about being realistic, then you'll love “Letters to Juliet.” Amanda Seyfried is back to her role as Sophie (same name as her character in “Mamma Mia” - and pretty much the same exact person.) She's an American living in Italy with her stupid fiance, Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal), an aspiring chef who should never be taken seriously. There is no need for a “comic relief” character in a friggin' chick flick. Anyway, one day while wandering the streets of Italy, Sophie comes across a courtyard in Verona where idiotic tourists write sappy letters to a fictional person (Juliet) for advice with their love lives and then shove the letters into a wall...yes, like the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. But then at the end of the day this lady comes and collects all the letters and Sophie follows her to this little group of middle aged women who answer these letters. Sophie somehow finagles her way into this little group since she's a writer. She then gets the honorable job of responding to a letter that had been written in 1957 by a woman named Claire (Vanessa Redgrave). They all gush over what a beautiful love story it is. Then like 2 seconds later in the movie, Claire's grandson Charlie, the bratty British Ken doll played by Christopher Egan shows up and yells at Sophie for reminding Claire of her past and causing her to come to Italy to find her long-lost lover. Sophie intelligently retorts “I'm sorry, I didn't know love had an expiration date” and proceeds to follow Charlie back to his grandmother – she's a little creeper.  Claire and Sophie decide to scour the countryside for Claire's former lover and Charlie is all cranky and doesn't want to go and says he hates Sophie's guts.  Regardless they go and it doesn't take a expert movie critic to predict that Sophie and Charlie end up together in a very Romeo and Juliet fashion.

Actually I'm only 99.9% sure they end up together because I left before the movie was over.  I had just seen "Eclipse" right before and couldn't handle another chick flick. It was just so predictable and cheesy.  The movie tried to get deep once when Charlie and Sophie bring up their parents dying and leaving her, respectively.  But it's a chick flick, and so background really doesn't matter and the issue was never really brought up again.  It was altogether fairly irrelevant.

The cinematography was nothing special.  It was typical "Italy" shots - warm and full.  The acting was tolerable...the actors didn't have much of a script to work with.  I think the only good thing about this movie was that it WASN'T Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey playing the leads - although it seemed like it at times.  

You can see this movie if you really really want to....or if you need to spend some quality time with your mom, because lots of moms probably will like this movie.  It is, after all, a classic chick flick.

Grades: | [ & =[ & =|

if you want a star grade, I'd say .5 out of 4. 

-Sarah Wason

Grade key:

| [ (so bad I had to close my eyes.)

=[.. (caused drooling out of lack of interest/lack of intelligent content)

=( (made me sad that I saw it)

=\ (made me concerned for those involved in production)

=| (so generic that I have no significant comment)

=] (I enjoyed it. It often made me smile without feeling shame or brain decay or it made me think.)

=D (it made me laugh... this is not difficult – I laugh at many things)

=O (made my proverbial jaw drop. Blown away by some prominent aspect.)

Good Will Hunting: A Quick Review

"Good Will Hunting," released in 1997, was directed by Gus Van Sant.  It stars Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgard and Minnie Driver.  The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, and walked off with two, Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.  I assume "Good Will Hunting" would have won more if 1997 wasn't the same year "Titanic" was released, going on to absolutely dominate everything.  That's just some information that might be of interest to some people, but now I'll get to my attempt at giving a synopsis.  Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is poor and was abused growing up.  Now he is working as a janitor at MIT in Boston.  As it turns out he has a brilliant mind for mathematics.  His brilliance in this regard makes him the perfect candidate for all sorts of high paying jobs.  Essentially he needs to turn his life around, yep that probably sounds cliched, but that is indeed a major plot point in the movie.  Several people are trying to help get him to that point in his life where he finally understands himself and wants to change.  This includes Skylar (Minnie Driver), a girl at MIT Will starts dating, Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), one of the professors at MIT, Will's best friend, Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck), and the most essential character in the movie (besides the one that it's named for), psychologist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams).  Well, as it turns out the majority of the human race loves this movie.  And the majority of the human race would actually be correct on this one, in my humble opinion.  The characters, are definitely the strongest parts of this movie.  All of the people in Will Hunting's life are well developed characters and crucial to the change that ultimately happens with his life.  Everyone gets some great dialogue courtesy of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.  The main reason why the movie is so good and why I enjoyed it so much is because of Matt Damon and Robin Williams.  Both are phenomenal actors and I have a difficult time picturing anyone else in these two roles.  The two start out not really liking each other, mainly because Will is forced to be there or he'll have some jail time to spend.  As the movie progresses they become close friends.  The chemistry between these two actors was great and Robin Williams also got a couple opportunities to have some great comic relief lines.  The rest of the cast was good to, you can take my word for it.  I don't really want to comment on everyone, though.  Two more things to comment on for those of you who actually read these things.  It keeps my mind semi-busy so I enjoy these things.  Gus Van Sant as it turns out is a great director.  Of course that last comment is only based on two movies, "Good Will Hunting" and "Milk."  This film was aesthetically appealing.  There were some great aerial shots and tracking shots of characters on the screen and the city of Boston in general. Overall very well composed and all of those other good film terms.  Danny Elfman is the last person associated with this movie that I would like to comment on.  I love this man.  His scores for Tim Burton movies are great.  However, in "Good Will Hunting" I felt like the score kind of got lost in the background of what was going on, instead of complimenting it.  So overall, great movie.  A little long, but well paced.  I would see it if I were any of you.

-Joseph Sbrilli

Knight and Day

"Knight and Day" is directed by James Mangold.  It stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.  There are of course more people in the movie, but I'm assuming that 99% percent of the people who watch this movie  are watching it for them...I happen to fall into that 1%...in case anyone was wondering.

June Havens (Cameron Diaz) used to live a normal life, restoring old cars and such.  That all changes one day when she ends up on a plane with Roy Miller (Tom Cruise).  As it turns out he's a spy who's in charge of protecting some new technology that happens to be a incredibly powerful battery.  This of course requires traveling around the entire world to keep it from the opposition and taking June Havens along for the ride because they quite obviously need to develop feelings for each other at some point.

Firstly, it seems like an awful lot of trouble just for a battery.  An awful lot of people had to die as a result of it.  But, in their defense rumor has it that it could provide energy for an entire city and that it would never lose it's power...or something to that effect.

I normally am pretty indifferent to Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.  I mainly don't like Tom Cruise because I happen to hate "Top Gun" and will never ever finish watching it.  However, he is a good actor and I have enjoyed some of his performances.  It seems like he's at his best in an action movie.  It's one of those things that is just meant to be I guess.  He's quite at home with all the car chases, gunfire, and globetrotting.  Along with the intense action throughout "Knight and Day", he also has some instances of great dark comedy.  Who knew that killing an entire plane full of people while Cameron Diaz was in the bathroom and then explaining it to her could actually be funny.  He has great chemistry with Cameron Diaz as well.  Although their entire relationship was just incredibly messed up and moved way to quickly in just a matter of weeks.  As far as Cameron Diaz's performance I'm going to have to say that a scene involving her under the influence of a truth serum was quite hilarious.  And Tom Cruise giving her pills throughout the movie to knock her out is in fact funny.

My main reason for seeing this movie was because James Mangold directed it.  I really enjoyed, "Girl, Interupted", "Identity", "Walk the Line", and "3:10 to Yuma," so I was curious about his latest endeavor.  Of the five films of his that I have seen, "Knight and Day" is my least favorite.  It's not to say that it was a terrible movie, because it wasn't and was much better than I thought it would be based on some reviews I had seen.  The cinematography was extremely visually appealing and most every frame was well composed and had a lot of depth to it.  However, the ending of the movie felt confused and rushed.  June and Roy apparently were able to flee to approximately 87 different countries over the course of a couple weeks.  That's just really impressive that they covered so much ground so rapidly.  It got tiring after a while and the last half of the movie seemed to drag a bit.

Well this review is horribly organized, but I thought the music score could have been better. Sometimes it fit the intensity of the action well and other times it felt cheesy and uncomfortable...actually that's probably the wrong word to describe it, but it's getting late so I'll stick with it.  There were probably a lot of other issues with the movie that I can't remember at the moment, but I saw it for free and was in a really good mood at the time so I'm probably subconsciously trying not to think about it.

Overall it was a nice mix of action and romantic comedy.  Each of those elements, mainly the action which was pretty intense the entire time made for a fun, entertaining summer movie experience.  It's definitely won't be getting nominated for any awards and hasn't exactly been a box office success, but this summer has been pretty horrendous for movies...so come on...this is at least better than "Sex and the City 2" and "Killers"...let's be realistic about this...I'm sorry but a 9 hour movie where the "girls" go running off to the Middle East to ride camels and wear expensive clothes just seemed like a bad idea from the start...but maybe that's just me...well anyway...I would like to apologize that this review was so awful. I am senile and found out that I have quite a small vocabulary and should probably work on that.  Basically, if you thought the trailer looked fun, then see the movie...of course as cheaply as you possibly can because saving money is always a great thing. 2 1/2 out of 4 stars...I guess... my whole star rating thing has gotten really screwed up.

-Joseph Sbrilli

Little Shop of Horrors: A Quick Review

First of all if you hate musicals to begin with then avoid this movie at all costs and stop reading this review right now because it will be of absolutely no interest to you whatsoever.  Musicals happen to be one of my favorite movie genres.  And in my opinion "Little Shop of Horrors" is one of the best.  It is a dark musical comedy that came out in 1986 and was directed by Frank Oz, yes, that Frank Oz, of "The Muppets" fame.  "Little Shop of Horrors" was based off the off-Broadway play of the same name which was in turn based off of an old movie, non-musical, also of the same name.  This version stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, and Steve Martin.  Christopher Guest, Bill Murray, John Candy, and James Belushi each show up for brief, but hilarious appearances.  The majority of the movie takes place in a flower shop on Skid Row in New York City, run by Mr. Mushnik, played by Vincent Gardenia.  Seymour (Rick Moranis) and Audrey (Ellen Greene) work for him.  At first the flower shop is about to close because it doesn't get any customers.  However, this all changes when Seymour finds an exotic plant and puts it on display at the store, prompting lots of business.  Of course that all goes horribly awry (first time in my entire life that I've used that word), since as it turns out the plant feeds on human blood.  And when it starts to get a little of Seymour's it begins to grow quite a lot and can't stop the craving for blood.  In case this isn't already obvious, everyone in the movie is in for quite a predicament. In Seymour's defense he didn't know the plant was a "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space," as Audrey II (the plant) so helpfully tells us in a song.  Somehow that song got an Oscar nomination.  It really isn't that great in my opinion though, and it probably my least favorite in the movie.  Well, this movie is just an incredible amount of fun.  The sets are beautiful, reminiscent of play sets.  The lighting is dark to make for some dreary atmosphere.  The lead actors are great.  Who knew Rick Moranis could sing?  Not exceptionally well, but he gets the job done and his duet with Ellen Greene of "Suddenly Seymour" is among my favorite parts in the movie.  Steve Martin as a demented dentist who enjoys inflicting pain on people is hilarious as is Bill Murray's character who happens to love pain.   The special effects are also really well done.  By the end Audrey II is massive and whoever was in charge of special effects created a fully functioning plant.  This is one of those movies that proves that real visual effects are better than those created using computers...yep I do in fact still hate CGI in almost all cases.  The fun thing about quick reviews is that I can ramble on and on and not feel at all obligated to separate into paragraphs because that would be way too formal.  Well I guess I could go on, but that's probably not ideal.  I find this movie very entertaining.  It's good comedy with memorable music and performances.

-Joseph Sbrilli

Grown Ups

Adam Sandler movies were the highlight of my preteen existence. Every year another Happy Madison production would roll out with awesome slapstick gags and Sandler making a fool out of himself. But there was always a great lesson in each one, classics like The Waterboy, Big Daddy, and Happy Gilmore. Then one day Sandler decided to star in Funny People which although being hilarious, left me with suicidal tendencies.

Anyways, I usually enjoy these movies because its a nice brainless getaway to the movies. Especially when you throw in Kevin James, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Chris Rock (Not really the last one). I was all sorts of pumped for this one. Sadly, Grown Ups doesn't fall into a Sandler classic.

Grown Ups is the story of five men who grew up together playing basketball, becoming the only championship team for their beloved coach. Which is pretty cool except for the fact that they were only in like 5th grade, which shouldn't be all that hard to repeat. Anyways, their coach dies and they all gather in some nameless New England town for his funeral and rent out a gorgeous house on the side of a lake. The men reminisce, discover how odd each others families are, and try to grow up a little bit.

Well, Chris Rock is never funny. My opinion, but I've never truly found him funny, mostly because he always has the same stupid face on all the time, and even so, the role he is given is awful. Completely forgettable, he sat in the background most of the time. His wife (Maya Rudolph, who is hilarious) acts as the man in his house, while Rock does all the cleaning, cooking, and B$#!ing which amounts to about 7 seconds of amusing banter and an entire movies worth of regret. Rob Schneider's role is equally as terrible for him. He plays the oddball of the group. He's married to a 70 year old woman and is just a newagey kind of guy. The rest of the men spend the whole time making fun of him, and eventually you just feel bad for him. I always enjoy Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and David Spade so I don't have much to gripe about them.

The slapstick in this comedy is pretty funny, i.e. Kevin James falling of a rope swing, Steve Buscemi hitting a wooden wall at fifty miles an hour, the guys playing arrow roullette. The jokes are equally as funny, and many of them seem to be improvised. The problem that got on my nerves was how the jokes were treated. One guy would tell a joke and the rest would laugh and compliment him on how funny it was (heh heh that was a good one!). They are funny jokes, but I don't need the rest of the cast to run in and tell me how funny it was, trust me, I can do it.

Throw that on about 2 hours of movie, plus a 18 minute long scene where everyone explains how they lied to each other and gets through the problems in their marriage (and make fun of Rob Schneider) and you have one tired audience.

The cast is tremendous and does about as well as it can, but nothing can save this movie from itself. It's good to see the guys all back together, but I wish it was in something a little more memorable.

1 and a half out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: A Quickish Review

On January 22, 2008, Heath Ledger passed away from a toxic combination of prescription drugs. A few months later, the world was introduced to Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, a role that would earn him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Most people forget that The Dark Knight was not his last film, and that he had actually died halfway through the filming of Imaginarium. Fortunately, Imaginarium is incredibly trippy and Ledger's role was able to be filled by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell.

This movie is about as confusing as it gets. Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is an immortal who runs a traveling circus show, in what looks like an oversized horse and buggy. Audience members who go inside enter into an entrancing dreamworld where they choose either the morally correct path, or the morally bankrupt path. This is because of some silly bet Parnassus made with the Devil. Parnassus sucks at his job major time, and pretty much everyone who goes in, goes to Satan. That is, until they discover a mysterious stranger (Ledger) who upstarts the whole show and tries to turn it around.

Heath Ledger is quite obviously amazing in this movie. This is right after his time as the Joker, and his acting chops are top notch. And it is incredibly fun to watch the seamless transition from Ledger to Depp to Law and sometimes Farrell. Ledger is present throughout the entire movie, thanks to a sporadic shooting schedule and it feels like he never died.

Sadly, he can't save this movie from itself. One, it can get incredibly confusing and weird (watching a waltz between the Devil and Parnassus' daughter comes to mind) and two, however incredible and magical the dream sequences are around the middle of the movie, the whole thing is a little dreary and oppressive.

It might be Heath Ledger's last movie, but I'm going to block that fact from my memory and just assume The Dark Knight was.

2 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell