In the Line of Fire: A Quick Review

Just to reiterate what I said a while ago in a couple reviews: I love Clint Eastwood, very, very much.  I find him to be an incredibly talented man and many of his movies are among my favorites.  Also, I feel like as he got older his movies got better.  One of these such movies, "In the Line of Fire,"released in 1993 and directed by Wolfgang Petersen follows along with my previous statement.  Clint Eastwood is joined on the big screen with the likes of John Malkovich and Rene Russo.  Clint Eastwood is Frank Horrigan, a secret service agent.  He has been protecting presidents for decades and actually was quite near John F. Kennedy when he was shot, but did not react as he definitely should have.  30 years later he is making darn certain that that never happens again, while he's on duty.  This time around he needs to protect the president of the United States from a psychotic assassin, Mitch Leary, played brilliantly by John Malkovich.  Mitch starts out calling Frank, telling him about his proposed assassination of the president, and things escalate.  Rene Russo plays Lilly Raines, co-worker and naturally the woman of Clint Eastwood's affection...because most female leads fall for him eventually.  This movie is just all around a great movie and somewhere on my list of favorites.  Clint Eastwood as always is a force not to be reckoned with.  True, many of his characters he plays in movies are quite similar, but he being Clint Eastwood can do that, because he is wonderful at it.  So naturally he makes a great lead for this thriller.  He was surprising spry at 62 years old.  He also gets some great, funny lines in the movie, including the final line of the movie, which is random and great, simultaneously.  But, the whole entire show is stolen whenever John Malkovich is on the screen.  He was incredible in his role of Mitch Leary.  The character was so psychotic, sick and twisted, among other adjectives and John Malkovich made every line intensely believable and worked nicely against Clint Eastwood's character. John Malkovich was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and probably should have one.  But, on Oscar night that year Tommy Lee Jones walked away with the award for "The Fugitive"...in case anyone was wondering about that one.  "In the Line of Fire" was also well pace and generally exceptionally entertaining...and you're intelligence isn't being insulted while watching it.  Everything was leading up to an intense climax.  I love musical scores in movies so I will briefly and slightly randomly mention that it definitely added to the intensity of scenes in the movie and fit nicely overall.  Basically, just a well put together thriller.  So yes, I highly recommend this movie.  If you don't like Clint Eastwood, than that is kind of irrelevant and you need to fix that.    

-Joseph Sbrilli

The Expendables

I am going to have to split this review into two parts. The first part is about action; it's quite obvious that the director, writer and producer of "The Expendables" (Sylvester Stallone) intended this film to be the biggest action movie you've ever seen with all your favorite stars. After that I will move on to an actual movie review, one that I would normally write but given the circumstances surrounding this unique film I believe it required a little bit more.


First, the action review:


WHOA, KA-POW, BAM, KASWOOSH, WHUPPA WHUPPA WHUPPA CHOPPER, MANLY GRUNTS, TESTOSTERONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy monkeys stealing food from random tourists Batman, this movie was intense. The bad guys were like "We got hostages and guns so nyeah" and the good guys were all like "Oh yeah?" KAPLOW and all the bad guys heads blew off in a shower of guts and meaty entrails. I haven't encountered this many jaw dropping "daaaaaamnn dude" moments since I saw the last "Die Hard" movie. And Bruce Willis didn't even kill anyone. I was like "whatttt this is out of control and unrestrained Stallone baby."


But it wasn't perfect. You got some very neat explosions, some nasty kills that had my loins pumping adrenaline like a crazed lion, and the craziest fight scenes this year, but it has a few flaws that detract from its action movie status. First off, CGI blood? really? At least make it look sort of real, I've seen plenty of movies with lower budgets that showed off sweeter non-CGI gore. And if someone dies by fire, they should like they're on fire, not like they got torched in a video game. You are way above that, Stallone, get it together. Secondly, where are all the chicks? Action movies should have at a minimum 3 different girls. All of whom should kill somebody during the film. "The Expendables" had one who I guess is cute on a good day but is annoying as a cat in heat on any other day. Thirdly, and finally, you are missing out on some key players, my friend. Jean Claude Van Damme? Steven Seagal? The only real action stars are Jet Li, Sly Stallone, and Jason Statham, since Bruce Willis doesn't kill anyone, the rest are just ex-wrestlers in my book.


So pretty awesome but not the best, there are definitely better movies out there.


Action Rating: 3 out of 4 burning helicopters.


And now for the real review:


This is not a lie, and I am not exaggerating in any way (I have friends and disgruntled theater goers that can prove it), I laughed through this entire movie. Not a little chuckle, not a slight knee slapper, but full on out-of-breath guffaws. This is due to the absolutely deplorable writing. There was not one gleam of hope in this script. Giving Stallone a pad of paper and telling him to come up with meaningful dialog is like forcing me onto a nuclear submarine and telling me to find the bathroom, eventually I am just going to drop my pants when I have to go. But you say, "But Chris, Stallone wrote "Rocky" and that won him two Oscar nominations." "Sure," I'd reply, "and every so often I'd probably find that bathroom; doesn't mean it wasn't a fluke."


Here is an example of how terrible it is, Mickey Rourke is trying to bear his soul while painting a guitar. It went a little like this. "My soul is all dry like this paint on this guitar." That's a fine analogy but Stallone decided to throw in more dialog to try and flesh out a concept that everyone in the audience already understood. Rourke continues, "Because the paint will dry on the guitar when I'm done, just like my soul." Or something ridiculous along those lines. I literally had a friend next to me leave the room because she was laughing so hard, I almost followed her because it was almost too ridiculous to stand.


The plot is alright, but certainly not the stuff of legend. Especially when you realize that the team goes in to do a job for no money, when they could have done it for money, but whatever - you didn't go to see "The Expendables" for a plot. You came for guns and more guns.


But you may have also come for acting, because a good movie becomes a bad movie with bad acting; and a bad movie becomes even worse. When the best actor in your film is 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, who has all of three lines, you need to rethink your priorities.


If you don't like action movies, I would avoid this movie like you would avoid a skunk with diarrhea, but then again I got one of the most hearty laughs ever out of this film and I left the theater smiling.


1 and a half out of 4 stars


-Christopher O'Connell

Soapdish: A Quick Review

I always wanted to see "Soapdish" and thanks to IMDB/Hulu I got to watch it recently, for free, which made me very happy.  The movie was released in 1991 and was directed by Michael Hoffman.  It boasts a cast of extraordinarily talented actors including Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr., and Whoopi Goldberg. Garry Marshall and Carrie Fisher have smaller roles.  The title of the movie is actually quite descriptive of the plot, which surrounds the behind the scenes goings on of a soap opera.  Sally Field plays Celeste Talbert, the star of the fictional soap opera "The Sun Also Sets"...sounds like a keeper to me.  To say the least she is extremely difficult to work with and gets thrown for a curveball when her ex-lover, Jeffery Anderson joins the cast of the show.  If I learned anything from watching "Tootsie," it is that a movie about the making of a soap opera can be extremely funny.  "Soapdish" doesn't have any cross-dressing like the aforementioned, but has a similar feel, although "Tootsie" is the better, more quality movie.  As it turns out what's going on backstage of the daytime soap opera (quite positively the worst television genre ever imagined) is full of more drama and unexpected surprises than the show itself.  This leads to some funny scenes including Kevin Kline attempting to read off of a teleprompter without the aid of his glasses.  I won't spoil any of the actual surprises in the movie, since I know deep down the average American wants to watch "Soapdish" at least once.  Well, the cast is great.  Everyone plays their over the top, disfunctional characters perfectly.  Sally Field and Whoopi Goldberg share some of the movies best scenes together.  It's a shame that these two have not had major film roles in a while, they are incredibly talented women.  So if you enjoy a funny movie with a great cast, then check this out.  If you hate the cast, then avoid "Soapdish" at all costs, because they make the movie.

-Joseph Sbrilli

Look Who's Talking and Look Who's Talking Too: Quick Reviews

Last year I bad mouthed this movie a little bit in a review for "Saturday Night Fever."  In my defense I was avoiding it like the plague at the time.  I'm going to now retract part of that bad mouthing.  True "Look Who's Talking" is overall pretty dumb.  Also true, Bruce Willis provides the voice of the baby and if you've ever wanted to see a movie with some talking sperm, then this is definitely the movie you must be looking for.  However, I actually thoroughly enjoyed myself watching this movie and was glad I watched this all the way through instead of finishing "Mr. Wrong," a completely ridiculous Ellen Degeneres romantic comedy.  The cast is great and includes Kristie Alley as Mollie, an accountant who is having an affair (really awful idea by the way) with Albert played by George Segal.  This affair results in a baby who's voice is Bruce Willis.  Shortly before going into labor Mollie meets James (John Travolta), who happens to drive the taxi that takes her to the hospital.  Mollie and James become quite close, and as it turns out James would would be the perfect father for little Mikey (Bruce Willis...fresh off of "Died Hard") The movie naturally makes tons of money and spawns 2 sequels.  This movie definitely did not warrant a sequel, let alone two.  But I can't deny it, one of these days I will see them both.  Olympia Dukakis and Abe Vigoda finish off the talented cast.  The movie is ridiculous and you can live a perfectly fine life never having seen it.  But I found it fun and I love John Travolta very much...minus his whole Scientology thing.  I guess I can't even really recommend this movie in good conscience, but that's beside the point.

"Look Who's Talking Too" is more of the same and just a way for Columbia Tri-Star to try and cash in on the success of the first movie.  John Travolta, Kristie Alley, Bruce Willis, and Olympia Dukakis are back for some more fun in this sequel.  And Olympia Dukakis was the lucky winner of the funniest line in the entire movie, since they are few and far between.  And subconsciously the people who made this movie knew that, since its close to 20 minutes shorter than the original...luckily they didn't try to drag it out any longer.  This time around Mollie and James are married and expecting a second child...which makes little sense because their daughter was already born at the end of the first movie...but these movies do have talking babies so realism is not at the forefront of their minds.  Little Julie is naturally voiced by Roseanne Barr, who I find to be a hilarious lady.  Mel Brooks also is in this, getting the pleasure of being the voice of Mr. Toilet Man...yes this is the kind of movie we are dealing with here...a kids movie...but with some profanity thrown in there.  Gilbert Gottfried also has the funny/frightening role of the baby gym teacher. However, the movie does end with "I Got You Babe," over the end credits...so that's a huge plus.  Both movies actually have some great music throughout including some Beach Boys and Elvis Presley songs.  So yeah this movie did not dissapoint me, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.  Largely forgettable...I know huge surprise...and not as much fun as the first...I just have a hard time resisiting a great cast...even if mediocre is literally the nicest thing I can say about the final product.  I assume the third movie may actually blind me...we shall see.

-Joseph Sbrilli

Crash: A Quick Review

"Crash," written and directed by Paul Haggis was released in 2005.  It won three Oscars including Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.  There are several people in the main cast, but I am going to opt to just list a handful (meaning the rest of the people I would be unable to recognize if I saw them in another movie): Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, and Matt Dillon.  This film is set in Los Angeles and covers a two day period and a wide range of characters.  Each character has there own story but as the film unfolds it becomes evident that their experiences are all interrelated. Crime and racism in general are both prevalent themes that are explored through such characters as a district attorney and his wife (Fraser and Bullock) and a racist cop (Matt Dillon).  The acting in this movie was fantastic.  Had any of these actors dropped the ball, the movie would not have been nominated or won any Academy Awards and would not really be worth people's time.  "Crash" is very character driven.  Each of the people have their own characteristics and their own problems to deal with.  Throughout the movie it moves back and forth between each of the different characters, usually two or three at a time.  This make the story interesting to watch and ended up being quite easy to follow.  I have not seen the other four movies that this was up against for Best Picture, so I have nothing to compare it to in that regard.  The movie was well done, as for as the aesthetics go and it was perfectly paced.  I however, have seen better movies to win Best Picture, but that's merely my opinion.  I can highly recommend this film in good conscience.  And if you don't at least start to tear up or show any kind of emotion during a particular scene near the end, you may actually have no soul.


-Joseph Sbrilli

The Other Guys

Buddy cop movies seem to have died out over this past decade, but the buddy cop farce is definitely picking up steam. I can see the meeting in a Hollywood production studio now: "Hey boss, why don't we put two famous actors in a movie together who obviously have different personality traits, make them partners of some sort, put them up against insurmountable odds, and eventually have them grow to be best friends?" "Overused, Johnson, you're fired. How about we take that idea and call it a comedy?" "Brilliant idea, boss. That's why you're the boss." "You're rehired, Johnson."


And against insurmountable odds, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have done just that.


Detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), are probably the worst cops on the force. Gamble is basically the workhorse who does everyone's paperwork and Hoitz accidentally shot Derek Jeter after mistaking his bat for a deadly weapon. They live in the shadow of Highsmith and Danson (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson), two detectives who are much, much better and cooler at what they do. But when Danson and Highsmith mistakenly throw themselves off of a ten-story building in pursuit of a suspect, Gamble and Hoitz must prove themselves by uncovering a Bernie Madoff-esque crime to become respected detectives.


If it wasn't so obviously a comedy, it sounds like it could be a remake of "Lethal Weapon" - a movie that is inadvertently a comedy. Anyways the casting in "The Other Guys" is pretty brilliant. Will Ferrell's nice sensitive guy a la "Elf," and Mark Wahlberg's tough guy act a la "The Departed". If it hasn't been yet, it will be considered the funniest pairing of this year.


"The Other Guys" is only really funny because of these two. Ferrell is flawless as the nice, gullible guy; easily convinced to pull off a desk pop (firing your gun in the police station). Wahlberg is the bully who grew up and has delusions of grandeur (he is convinced that everyone after him is part of a Columbian drug cartel). His constant berating of Ferrell's character for being a wuss and peeing in a feminine manner caused me some constant amusement.


They aren't the only ones who throw some comedic weight around. Michael Keaton stars as the police chief who moonlights at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And Eva Mendes plays Ferrell's wife which confuses Mark Wahlberg to no end. ("Who is that?" "That's the old ball and chain" "No, seriously who is that?")


For a comedy, "The Other Guys" has some fairly good action scenes. Scenes that really have put other movies to shame this past year. It's kind of ironic when a comedy pulls off better action sequences then action movies do.


My two complaints run like this: although very funny, this movie didn't have me rolling on the floor. Which I really wanted to do, because the writing was smart, the actors were great, but I just didn't feel it completely. My other is that Mark Wahlberg's role could have easily been played by John C. Reilly, and I feel like that was the original intent, but thankfully someone smart stepped in and switched that up, making an infinitely better movie.


Not the funniest movie of the year, but a pretty good film nonetheless. One that other movies could take  a few pointers from.


2 and a half out of 4 stars


-Christopher O'Connell

The Crazies: A Quick Review

"The Crazies" is a horror movie, directed by Breck Eisner. I have not seen any of his other movies, or heard of him until this movie, so i cannot comment extensively, or at all, on him. This is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name, which I have not seen so I am unable to compare the two.  The plot is relatively simple: It takes place in a little town in Iowa where all hell breaks loose when the water supply becomes contaminated by something.  This naturally causes many of the townsfolk to become demented, zombie- like killers.  The main focus of the movie is the sheriff of the town and his wife as the try to escape from the insanity around them.  I would be happy to list the cast for the movie, but let's be realistic here, if you are as unfamiliar with Breck Eisner as I was, you will be even less familiar with the cast.  It is more or less completely unknowns.  They do a nice job though and massive star power would have felt out of place in this comparatively low budget affair.  The movie was nicely shot with some great wide and aerial shots of the town.  It was also well paced and I would assume that the short running time will hold the interest of the average movie renter.  Of course if you don't like horror movies, then avoid this like the plague like you have been doing.  The movie certainly is bloody and violent, but I felt like it was much more toned down than other movies that are made these days, which is nice.  Tons of blood, believe it or not does not make a movie any better, just grosser and occasionally even annoying.  So granted I probably would have enjoyed this movie more if I wasn't so unbelievably tired, but it was certainly entertaining and at the very least I would assume worth the dollar to rent.

-Joseph Sbrilli

My Sister's Keeper: A Quick Review

My Sister's Keeper is worth the watch. It's probably good to grab a couple tissues before starting the movie though. 


It's directed by Nick Cassavetes, and it stars some amazing actors.
Abigail Breslin (Olive from Little Miss Sunshine) plays the role of Anna. Sofia Vassilieva plays Anna's sister, Kate. Their brother is played by Evan Ellingson. Cameron Diaz plays the mother and Jason Patric plays the dad. The movie also stars good side actors, such as Alec Baldwin who played the lawyer. Overall, it was a great cast.


The story of the movie goes like this. The mother and the father had a daughter who at a very young age got diagnosed with leukemia. The daughter's name is Kate. They didn't know how to keep her alive for longer, until a doctor suggested to them that they could genetically conceive another daughter, who's body, and blood could be used to make transfers to keep Kate alive for a longer time. 


Cameron Diaz does a brilliant job at playing the over-caring mother who will do anything to save her daughter's life. Throughout the movie, you start to hate her because she plays her role so well. She acts as a crazy b*tch who won't listen to anybody but herself, and all she cares about is keeping Kate alive. She ignores the rest of her family, because she can't bring herself to think about anything else, other than the cancer that's killing her daugther.


One day, the second daughter, Anna decides to see a lawyer (Alec Baldwin). She sues her family because she no longer wants her body to get used for all of the medical operations. This is where it gets emotional, because Anna wants rights, yet she knows her sister will die. The mom is not okay with it.


That's all I'm going to say about this movie. The rest of it is filled with a bunch of pleasant family scenes, outrageous emotional outbursts, and some crying moments. There is also a surprise of the real reason of why Anna sued her family, it wasn't just because she wanted the right to her own body.


Overall, the actors did a wonderful job. Cancer is not an easy thing to make an enjoyable movie out of. However, there is plenty of fun happy moments to balance out the depressing stages of this story. They did well with portraying what it really would feel like, and the movie was very realistic.


I say grab that tissue box, and give this movie a try. 3.5/4 STARS.

-Addy Stamenova

Casino: A Quick Review

If you made a list of the greatest directors using the information from my brain (i.e. very little) Martin Scorsese might show up once or twice or fifty different times. The undisputed king of mobster movies tends to rock my socks off every chance he gets namely Shutter Island, The Departed and Goodfellas. I had heard about Casino for years and I finally got the chance to view its amazingness. Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is an old bookie who was sent out to Vegas by some old guys to run the Tangiers Hotel. He tries to run a straight business but when his protector and mob buddy Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) starts running illegal  type activities on the side things start to go downhill. It really is a fairly interesting look at different relationships and how quickly they can break apart, especially between De Niro and his wife, Sharon Stone, who received a best actress nomination. Casino is worth a viewing strictly for the acting talent alone. De Niro is incredibly likable and it is heartbreaking to watch everything collapse around him. Joe Pesci may be the smallest guy on the block but his tenacity and ruthlessness results in some of the most memorable scenes. The entire film is superbly crafted and broke many boundaries. It was criticized for its violence (which isn't too bad but definitely harsh) and had the most F-bombs of any movie up to that point. My only complaints is the fact that Casino is 3 hours long and there is so much dialog that I had to watch with the subtitles turned on. If you love Scorsese though you won't pass up this film.

-Christopher O'Connell

Ramona & Beezus

Based off Beverly Cleary's classic “Ramona” series, Joey King stars in a new version directed by Elizabeth Allen. As far as I know “Ramona and Beezus” follows the story fairly. The cast is excellent – John Corbett and Bridget Moynahan as the Quimby parents and unfortunately Selena Gomez as Beezus (luckily her role wasn't that significant – I heard it was originally supposed to be Miley Cyrus...which would have ruined the movie. Some people are critical about a Hispanic actress playing Beezus, but at least she doesn't have an Montanan accent.) I was excited to see Ginnifer Goodwin as Aunt Bea and Josh Duhamel as Uncle Hobart since they co-starred in “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” back in 2004. Eleven-year-old Joey King plays Ramona, which was probably the best casting decision ever made. It's a very demanding role, what with Ramona crying and vomiting and all; nevertheless, King gives an incredible performance.

The story line is a little complicated since there are so many little things going on at once. Plot #1: Ramona is a very unique and imaginative individual and is always messing up and causing trouble so she sometimes feels like a nuisance. Plot #2: Basically Mr. Quimby loses his job, the Quimbys have financial problems and may have to move, so Ramona tries her best to help out. Plot #3: Ramona's Aunt Bea and the next-door neighbor's Uncle Hobart were high school sweethearts. They kinda start falling for each other again but Aunt Bea's pretty bitter about Hobart's fear of commitment. Plot #4: Beezus (her real name is Beatrice...) is “coming of age” and develops a crush on her childhood friend, Henry (Hutch Dano).  Even with all these plots, it's not hard to stay focused and understand what's going on - it is a children's story after all.  I don't really remember the books all that well but everything I saw looked believable and actually pretty realistic. I rarely cry at movies, but I just felt so much sympathy for Ramona. Joey King is adorable and genuine and so talented at making you smile or cry with her.

Visually, “Ramona and Beezus” is pretty great. It's stylized so that it looks sort of like “Juno” with that warm, vintage-esque feel. There are a couple cool graphics which add a lot and really let you see into Ramona's imagination. One of the best parts in my opinion is the montage of Ramona and Howie jumping out of the hole in the house. Speaking of montage, the music is...okay. I was annoyed that they included a terrible remake of “Walking on Sunshine.” Oh, the remake is by Aly & AJ... There's also some Taylor Swift and an original Selena Gomez song. Ew. But to redeem itself, there are also songs by Peter, Paul & Mary and OK Go. There's a little too much music in this film – but that's one of my only complaints.

Basically, I ended up liking this movie a lot more than I expected. I mean, it's a Beverly Cleary story, there's a great cast, and some nice cinematography/graphics.  It's like a younger “Juno”... and definitely not as Disney Channel as it seems in the trailers.  So don't be perturbed by how Selena Gomez is hyped up in the billing – she doesn't have that big of a role.   They just want the tweens to come see it. Honestly, though, I really think that this is a great movie for all ages. The 7 and 9-year-olds I babysit loved it, my cousin loved it, and even I (a film student) liked it.  So go check it out! Grades: =] & =D or 3.5 out of 4 stars.

-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.)

Red Dawn: A Quick Review

With the seemingly unending slew of 80's remakes constantly showing up at my local theater, I thought it might be a good idea to actually watch the original first. I heard rumors of a new Red Dawn being remade, and my brother had recently purchased the original, so I decided to check it out. Red Dawn is the story of a group of teenagers in an unidentified Midwestern town who start a guerrilla war against an invading, communist army. That's about the gist of it and if you want anything else I'd suggest reading the back of the DVD box, you'll find words like "unforgettable", "memorable", and "gripping", you know, those words that are on every single movie box ever produced. Anyways Red Dawn isn't that bad. Once you get past the ridiculousness of a group of high school seniors mounting successful guerrilla operations against an army whose leaders probably fought better equipped insurgents in Afghanistan, it kind of grows on you. I kind of got a little Cold War fever and found myself quietly chanting USA, USA every time they turned a communist convoy into swiss cheese. Some moments are cheesy, and others tend to be a little more moving than you'd expect, but it's really all thanks to Patrick Swayze. The best actor out of all of them, including Charlie Sheen, and I'm pretty sad he's dead right about now. Anyhoo, lots of gunfights and Americans using their second amendment rights on commies. Oh yeahh.

Look for the remake later this year I believe.

-Christopher O'Connell