Troy's Bucket

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2012-01-15T21:18:00.001-05:00

It's a little late I honestly should have posted this one over the Christmas holiday but I'm gonna sound like a broken record again, yeah I was busy with stuff. I flew down to N.C. to see the family for a week got my nog and bourbon on. Got my fill of the Christmas tree and my Mom's eclectic taste in candy. It's the good kind mind you but some of it is pretty odd, like these weirdly packaged chocolates from Belgium. She also got those Harry Potter every flavor beans, and yes they actually have a vomit flavored one, I tried it and it almost made me gag. Anyway saw some family and old friends and finally later in the week I was allowed to sneak off to see this flick with one of my best friends from home. Of course he had seen the original Swedish films and read the books. I having no such information under my belt went in completely blind. Now my friend was a bit of a skeptic to the whole thing because, as I said before, he has read the books and seen the original films. So he was trying desperately to not reveal things to me while at the same time was not so subtlety telling me everything. I was able to tune out most of it before the start of the first reel.

Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a Swedish journalist, is in pretty deep shit. He is being hit with a libel suit from a shady businessman and he just got smacked down by the Swedish courts. He's looking at some jail time and some hefty fees. In order to make ends meet he finds himself knee deep into a private investigation for a wealthy baron of industry, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who has asked the journalist to help him solve a mystery that has plagued him for over 40 years. Every year on his birthday his Niece, Harriet, would send him pressed flowers in a frame. After her disappearance the flowers kept coming, almost mocking Vanger every year. Blomkvist begins to dig into Vanger's family and finds the lot of them to be despicable, contemptible people with very little saving graces. He hires a mysterious computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) as his assistant researcher in the case. This is a damaged woman, she has almost no social graces, she's been in the system as a orphan she's experienced every setback a child with no parents can endure, not to mention she looks like a Goth girl with the grit of Sarah Connor.

Director David Fincher did an incredible job adapting this story for American audiences. I admit I'm one of those that shudder when we take a movie from overseas that has come out recently and try to adapt it. There are some occasions where it works like Let Me In (re-make of Let the Right One In), but most of the time they end up like the countless mindless shit films like No Reservations, that cooking movie with Catherine Zeta Jones. Thankfully for all of us it's got the heart that Let Me In brought. It's gorgeously filmed and wonderfully acted. I don't know much about Rooney Mara, I only saw her briefly in the Social Network, but damn she is a unique one. Her character is both fragile and strong all at once and she plays that part effortlessly. She's oddly disturbing and sexy at the same time. And I usually am not one to find tattoos and piercings to be in any way attractive, and I still don't. But for some reason she truly pulled it off.

As my friend pointed out to me after the film there were some pretty big changes from the book so a word of warning to those die hard fans, this movie is not word for word with the book so you can either accept that or don't waste your time. If you were to miss it though you would be missing one of the best films of the year. Yes it's disturbing in a way that only David Fincher can. Yes it's a little long and there is quite a lot of character and story but it is superior to many of the films out there now and it's worth every frame. It's a winding mystery with a few twists and turns and quite frankly you'll never listen to Enya the same way again. Trust me that scene was painful to watch, what is it with Daniel Craig (Casino Royale) and torture scenes. This flick should rack up a few oscar nods and Fincher should be awarded the prize that he was snubbed for last year. I doubt he'll get it this time but damnit if he didn't go right out there and make himself worthy again for a second straight year.

Grade: 4 Buckets

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

2012-01-08T21:57:00.000-05:00

Finally, it only took, four weeks before this movie went wide enough to hit my local theatre here in East Brunswick. Focus Features started their platform release on the 9th of December and slowly rolled it out to the rest of the country. Given the fact that it's a throwback to the old spy films like the Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966), where there is more character, nuance and story rather than action it's a sad fact that American audiences would probably try to avoid it. Which unfortunately seems to be the case as it has only made about 6 million up to this point. So I'm going to say this very carefully, if you are thinking this is going to be some kind of Bourne Identity or James Bond kind of film you are going to be disappointed. There are no slam bang action scenes this isn't a high-octane plot thriller. This is a methodical exploration of British intelligence during the Cold War regarding a deep and devastating Molehunt, and trust me it's Badass in it's own way.

Based on the popular book and series by author John Le Carre. In the dark days of the Cold War, George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is forced from semi-retirement to investigate a possible leak within British Intelligence. As he digs deeper he discovers a mole that has possibly been there for years providing sensitive information to the KGB whom the agency calls Karla. He chooses his team of investigators carefully taking only trusted advisors and an inside company man. The first is a retired but loyal agent named Mendel (Roger Lloyd-Pack). His inside man is Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), who has the unfortunate task of having to run interference and sneak out sensitive files for Smiley to build his case. Smiley focuses his attention on his old boss and mentor, Control (John Hurt), who along with Smiley was forced out of the service because of Control's obsession with a possible mole in the office, they call the Circus. For Control it had to be one of four people, all section chief's that run the Circus, he gave them all special codenames. The first is the ringleader of the incoming group and the new head of the Circus, Percy Alleline aka Tinker (Toby Jones). The second is the suave class clown Bill Haydon aka Tailor (Colin Firth). The third is the tough Cold Warrior Roy Bland aka Soldier (Ciaran Hinds). The last is Smiley himself, Spy. There is of course a wild card a rogue agent who claims to have a bead on the possible mole, field agent Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy), but can he be trusted

I know this was a really long explanation but it's necessary especially if you are planning to see it. It's good to know all the players going in cause this movie weaves a tapestry of characters and plot that if you aren't careful you could get a little lost. As I stated above if you have the attention span of a 13 year old then this really isn't the movie for you. There are so many things in every scene that build the story to it's ultimate conclusion that even I had trouble catching them all. This was truly a fantastic film with great performances and some excellent twists and turns that kept me guessing till the end. Gary Oldman, as always, was awesome, you aren't sure what to make of Smiley when you first meet him but as the film builds you can see the wheels turning in his mind without him saying a word, his regrets, the human side to a man who is almost machine like in what he does. It seems like he doesn't emote much or react to almost anything at the same time his mannerisms seem to react to everything. It's really quite an incredible thing to watch. I hope that Gary Oldman gets a nod for the role and even though the box office has been light it truly deserves to have a nomination for Best Picture. It was certainly one of my favorites this year hands down.

Grade: 5 Buckets

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in IMAX

2011-12-23T12:57:00.001-05:00

Tom Cruise and the IMF team are back for the fourth adventure of the series. As everyone should know it's based on the popular TV show from the 60's. My personal favorites are the first and the third films. The first one was directed by Brian de Palma and was probably one of his best movies to date. The new one follows the formula well it's an pulse-pounding non-stop adventure with twists and turns some gadgets and masks but the thing that makes Mission Impossible an exciting franchise is the death defying stunts, the ones that have you on the edge of your seat even if you feel confident that the guy is going to make it out unscathed. In the first one it was the CIA break-in. The third one it was probably the break-in to the Vatican, the second one was OK with the Pharmaceutical facility but the John Woo helmed flick suffered mightily with a somewhat silly script and those damn birds he has a fetish for. For this fourth one the greatest thrill comes when Hunt is tasked with scaling the tallest building in the world the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. This thing is 160 floors, 828 meters. Yeah, I got a little dizzy watching him wall crawl up that thing, and honestly I think you would too, especially in IMAX.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back with a new mission. Get back the Nuclear launch codes from a terrorist before he can launch the missiles. Sounds easy enough but he's got an extra wrinkle. His agency has disavowed him and his team after an explosion at the Kremlin. His team is accused of terrorism and they have to go underground. With him is loyal hacker and friend from the last film Benji (Simon Pegg) who now has field status. He's got two new additions to the team, the vary capable and beautiful Jane (Paula Patton) and the mysterious and troubled analyst Brandt (Jeremy Renner). This one sort of resembles the first film in some respects due to Hunts being disavowed again but that's where the similarities end. This film has some of the best action sequences I've seen this year, perhaps in the last few years. It's true that the characters are lacking in true depth or development but that's pretty much always the case in these films. Director Brad Bird has pumped some new life into this series and given us a film was some pretty entertaining twists and turns and he put together a great group to enjoy this new mission with. I really love the addition of Jeremy Renner here and I think his Brandt character is far more interesting then Ethan Hunt and I wouldn't mind if he did take the reigns of the series going into the future. This was truly a team effort this time, not just a Cruise fest of witty punchlines and daring do. I also kind of liked the fact that their attempts to stop the bad guys was also kind of sloppy. The special gadgets would break at inopportune times, they'd almost always have to rely on plans B or C. You hardly see a flick now a days with spy gadgets that just suddenly don't work. Surely it doesn't happen to James Bond. But I kind of liked the added challenge.

So if you want to get the best viewing experience from this movie then you gotta see it in IMAX it will blow your mind at least a little bit. Especially the tower sequence. Also if you see it in IMAX you'll get a chance to see that pretty awesome 6 minute trailer for the Dark Knight Rises. Nolan doesn't give you too much information but the film looks like it may be the best yet. I know there are a lot of flicks out there this Holiday season but if you want to stick with the solid then Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a good start.

Grade: 4 Buckets

The Descendants

2011-12-12T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's nice to finally be able to get back into a groove of seeing movies regularly. If you've noticed I've been MIA from the reviews for a few weeks. This is my second week in a row of seeing something at the theatre and I'm going to try my best to keep the streak alive. This week I decided that I've been neglecting the Indie films lately so I skipped New Year's Eve and the Sitter to go and check out the Descendants. I had my doubts going in to be honest. Director Alexander Payne is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I loved Election from 1999 with Reese Witherspoon but I disliked About Schmidt. Sideways was entertaining but overall it felt pretty forgettable. I didn't understand all of the accolades people were throwing at it at the time and it feels like that's what people are doing with the Descendants. But I have to say it's justified in this case. It's a really excellent film. Probably one of Payne's best.

Matt King (George Clooney), a local Land Baron and lawyer, has a lot on his plate. His wife has slipped into a coma after a boating accident and he has discovered that she was having an affair. He struggles to raise his two daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) after the accident as they each struggle to cope with the situation. And just to make his life a little more frustrating he is tasked to oversee a land deal for his entire family. His family consists of what seem to be lazy folk who have squandered their inheritance and are now looking for the responsible Matt to make them all filthy rich by selling off their Family land that spans back to King Kamehameha.

The film is gorgeous and it's great to see the beautiful islands on the big screen. Especially when they go to Kauai, I remembered instantly why I loved the place. The film is well paced and the script is solid from beginning to end. Clooney is certainly deserving of an Oscar nod and I think he should have a good chance to win the big one this time. It's definitely one of his best performances to date. I also really enjoyed the two girls playing his daughters they were authentic and funny and the cast melded great together. It's also a great travelogue for Hawaii, they show some really great spots. It'll keep you warm through the winter months, a little mind fuck always does the trick. But I highly recommend this little film, so after the kids drag you to see crap like Alvin and the Chipmunks and New Year's Eve, treat yourself to one of the better films of the year and take a trip to Hawaii with the Descendants, you won't be disappointed.

Grade: 4 Buckets

The Muppets

2011-12-04T20:18:00.131-05:00

I knew I was forgetting something - I completely and utterly dropped the ball on posting my Muppets post. The teaser trailers and spoofs were really fun and it truly re-ignited my joy of the Muppets. Which is why I was a little taken aback that some of the former puppeteers, like Frank Oz, came out against the film. Supposedly Frank saw the script and bolted saying that he thought it was disrespectful to the characters. He didn't seem to go much further than that, he then said he didn't want to take anything away from the film. Call me crazy, but he didn't really have to say much more to damage the film in my mind. Especially when you say that the filmmakers were disrespectful to the characters. I admit that when I read that quote I started to have some second thoughts about going to see it and especially taking my son Nathan. I wouldn't want his first Muppet Movie experience to suck just cause Disney whored out a great franchise for the greenbacks. Thankfully I saw another interview with Jason Segal, the writer and actor in the new movie. He truly loves the Muppets and this was his love letter to them. So I decided to see for myself, and I discovered that it was silly a little schmaltzy but most of all it was the Muppets and it was damn fun.

The movie begins with two brothers Gary (Jason Segal); a human and Walter (voice: Peter Linz); a muppet. Walter eats, drinks breathes everything Muppets and apparently he doesn't realize he is one. Gary decides to take a romantic vacation with his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams); also a human, to L.A. Gary decides to bring Walter along so he can accomplish his childhood dream of going to the Muppet's studio. When they get there they find that the place is a mess and that the Muppets have all been dislocated. Kermit is moping in his haunted mansion, Fonzie is telling bad jokes in Reno, Ms. Piggy is the editor of Vogue in Paris, Gonzo is a plumbing magnate. So once they get the gang back together they have to win the studio back from the evil clutches of Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) who wants to own the Muppets Studio in order to drill for oil. So apparently Fox Business channel had some kind of issue with the Muppets and this oil plot line. Apparently some idiot host on that show made some kind of implication that the Muppets were Communists and they are subverting our children with one would call hate speech towards, apparently, defenseless Oil Execs. Really, Fox Business, the Muppets are Communists? Did you watch the movie? Apparently you missed the plotline where like any good Socialist the Muppets put on a show to raise capital to buy back the studio. They also do it through a corporate TV studio. Sounds like Commie swine to me.

This was truly the Muppets I remembered as a kid, obviously modernized to some degree but the characters all seemed the same. So I guess I'm not sure what Frank Oz was talking about. This is truly a fun kids flick there are plenty of sight gags and silliness for the children and there are some subtle jokes in there for the eldest of us. Wasn't too fond of any of the new songs and Amy Adams needs to learn down to turn the cheeze factor down a few notches. But otherwise if you have to choose between the massive glut of kids flicks, be it Arthur Christmas (lame), Hugo (boring and possibly depressing), Happy Feet 2 (Annoying) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (Obnoxious, stupid and mind numbingly bad) then the answer is clear. Have a Muppets Christmas, or Muppet Hanukkah, and take the little ones to see something non-3D, barely any CGI, just good old fashioned puppets.

Grade: 3 Buckets

IMMORTALS is here!

2011-11-12T16:25:00.001-05:00

IMMORTALS - Official Movie Website

While there may not be an official review on the site, it doesn't mean I can't do a little plugging! It's a pretty fun flick and I suggest if you are a fan of Greek Mythology and the movie 300, then you'll certainly get a kick out of this movie! Immortals came out Friday - 11-11-11!

Tower Heist

2011-11-07T21:06:00.000-05:00

The question to ask after seeing this movie: Is this Eddie Murphy's last chance to redeem himself as a top Hollywood player? If you were to read Variety, Entertainment Weekly or any other Hollywood magazine you would have read that Eddie is trying to jump-start his flagging career for the second time, or is it third time? Honestly I keep losing track. The early buzz has been positive for this flick except for that little snafu with Universal trying to test Exhibitions patience with a VOD (Video On Demand) challenge. Supposedly they were going to test the market in Atlanta and Seattle through Comcast, available for 60 bucks, three weeks into the run which would make it over Thanksgiving. Theatres were not happy about this idea and declared that if Universal went through with this they would boycott the movie. Thankfully for all parties Universal blinked and everyone remains cautiously happy, but that time is coming soon where a studio may not balk and we are all going to have to have the conversation about the health of the theatre going experience. So I had a few choices this week with Harold and Kumar in 3D, In Time, Anonymous, Rum Diary and of course Tower Heist. But I wanted to see something where I could just relax and not think too much but I wanted something funny yet not gross out funny, sorry Harold & Kumar, so I kept finding myself on the Tower Heist express.

This is kind of Ocean's 11-like. Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is the manager of a elite sky-rise on the Upper West Side. It pretty much feels and sounds like Trump Tower. Josh and his staff cater to the wealthy and in particular Investment Guru and billionaire Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). When the staff discover that Shaw has lost all of their money in what boils down to a Ponzi scheme, ala Maddoff, the crew decides to take measures in their own hands and recover their money in whatever way possible, through a -buh buh buh, Tower Heist. The crew mainly consists of Josh as the ringleader, his brother-in-law Charlie (Casey Affleck), the new hire Enrique (Michael Pena), the maid and resident safe cracker Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe), a fallen on hard times stock broker who finds himself squatting in one of the apartments, Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) and the one criminal out of the bunch Slide (Eddie Murphy). Josh has the difficulty of breaking into a fortress while distracting the FBI (Tea Leoni), his superiors and the man himself Arthur Shaw.

It's a nice movie, honestly. It's fun and it doesn't make your brain hurt. It's kind of nice to watch Ben Stiller and Alan Alda lock heads in a battle of wits. It's got a nice pace and you won't leave disappointed. The problem is there isn't much more than that. It was nice seeing Eddie Murphy in something decent again but he wasn't all that special or standout that much. There were glimpses of the Eddie I love and remember from Beverly Hills Cop, Bowfinger, Trading Places and 48 Hours. There just weren't enough of them. He was drowned out by better scene stealers like Gabourey Sidibe, who was pretty funny as the psycho maid. I also enjoyed the little bits from Matthew Broderick, its been a while since he's been relevant or funny. It also felt good to see the rich ass hole get what was coming to him, it's a visceral thing but a timely one and it shouldn't be ignored. If you find yourself on the side of the Occupy Wall Street crowd then you will really feel a sense of satisfaction at the end of this film, no doubt about it. If you fancy an easy to digest comedy then this is the movie for you.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Puss in Boots 3D

2011-11-04T15:05:00.074-04:00

Last week my Mom was in town for Halloween, the little guy was very excited and we had a whole fun weekend plan, but then the snow started falling. Yes, you heard right I said snow. Saturday ending up being a bust so we decided to see brave the flurry and go see a movie. Honestly it was only a couple of inches but it was weird seeing fresh snow on green covered trees. Nathan had been anticipating this flick for a few weeks and my Mom has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with Antonio Banderas so our choices were rather limited. But overall I think the movie went over well with the little one. He's got a fascination with cats all of a sudden so I think that enhanced his enjoyment even more.

This, I assume, is a pre-quel of sorts about Puss and Boots (Antonio Banderas) sans Shrek. Puss finds himself on the run from the law and we get a little origin story about his life on the lam. Puss finds himself helping an old colleague Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) search for the Magic Beans from Jack and the Beanstalk in order to find the Goose who lays the Golden Eggs. He gets an assist from a mysterious ally of Humpty's Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), and I suppose a little romance as well. There also has to be a big bad and in this story it's Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris) who play oafish murdering criminals also on the hunt for the magic beans. The voice talents involved were pretty good but the script was lacking a bit. It was a nice departure from the Shrek series and Puss is certainly a better Protagonist then Mike Myer's Shrek who after at least two films became increasingly annoying with his bad puns. In this case the funniest running gag in the film as with the previous Shrek films is Puss' ability to switch from uber swashbuckling hero to a cute adorable house cat and back again. It makes it even funnier when it appears that instinctively he can't even help himself even though he knows better.

It was a fun flick for the whole family myself included. There were some things for the adults that would fly over the kids heads and the story was simple and fun enough for the kids to enjoy as well. There is a glut of Kids films on the way and other than the Muppets I don't see any of the other ones holding a candle to this very cute and entertaining animated film.

Grade: 3 Buckets

The Three Musketeers in 3D

2011-10-23T19:49:00.004-04:00

Fall is here and it really depresses me. I was hoping for a couple more weeks of warm weather but the chill is starting to set in. It's now time for the Fall Extravaganza of films to begin and our first offering is another retelling of the Three Musketeers. This must be the sixth or seventh interpretation. I'm starting to lose count. I remember the one from the 70's which was kind of silly but fun with that eras heartthrobs: Oliver Reed as Athos, Richard Chamberlain as Aramis and Michael York as D'Artagnan. Then you had the equally silly one from the 90's with that generation of heartthrobs: Keifer Sutherland as Athos, Charlie Sheen as Aramis and Chris O'Donnell as D'Artagnan. I do enjoy both of them in different ways. I love a good swashbuckler and the Three Musketeers is a fun series. I even enjoyed the one in the late 90's about the older Musketeers called the Man in the Iron Mask. The problem with yet another remake is the predictability factor and unfortunately this one suffers from it greatly. The other is trying to be too clever with it in an attempt to be unpredictable, sadly I have to say again, this movie suffers from that problem as well.

It is the 17th Century and apparently the Musketeers serve their king not only as loyal bodyguards but as MI-6 like assassins. The film begins with Athos (Matthew MacFadyen); scuba diving and breaking into a compound in Venice, Italy not unlike James Bond in Goldfinger. Yes I said scuba diving in the 17th Century, but lets press on. Aramis (Luke Evans) bungee jumping into action and Porthos (Ray Stevenson), he appears to have been captured but rips the chains from the walls and defeats his attackers. It would seem like a fun kick ass opening and it did look pretty cool if it just didn't feel so incredibly stupid. But the best part, or I probably should say worst part, about this opening was watching Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich) doing her Resident Evil Matrix slow-mo, avoiding multiple blasts, thing. It is after this scene we realize that this film has no fucking chance of making any real sense.

The Assassin Milady turns on her supposed allies the Musketeers as she takes the plans for Da Vinci's flying Zeppelins. Thus we fast forward to a year later where the Musketeers are in pitiful shape and in need of some cheering. They meet a young lad looking to join the Musketeers named D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman). At this point the script follows the plot of previous Musketeer storylines with D'Artagnan in all of his hot-headed glory challenges all three Musketeers to a sword fight. Before they can have that duel they find a common enemy in the evil Cardinal Richelieu's head of the Guards, Rochefort (Mads Mikkelson). The Musketeers fight they find common purpose and they attempt, with the help of their new friend D'Artagnan to defend the King from the plots of Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) and the poufy hair of the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom).

Was it an awful film, no, it did have it's fun points and that is mostly with the Musketeers themselves. I thought with the material they had to work with they did the best they could. But that script, oh, it was something terrible, I didn't expect much from this movie but I had hoped with this cast that they would be able to keep it coherent. That was asking for too much. Honestly they should have just made it a modern retelling because that's really what the script was for the most part. Other than the costumes I don't think there was any way they could have convinced an audience that this was supposed to be the 17th Century. For this I lay most of the blame on it's director the very awful Paul W.S. Anderson. This guy can barely make a good video game movie what makes you think he can take on a literary classic, especially one that has plenty of other better versions to compare it to. On the one hand it looked very pretty and the 3D was pretty good but at about the mid-way point I found myself not caring very much. If you are bored and for some reason you can't see something better like Real Steel, Moneyball or the Ides of March, then go and check it out. Otherwise I would wait for Immortals.

Grade: 2 Buckets

Real Steel

2011-10-15T20:14:00.000-04:00

Yes, I saw Real Steel, what of it? I know, it's Rock'em-Sock'em Robots on the big screen but for some reason I was compelled. The early reviews weren't so bad, most people thought it was decent dramatic fluff with fighting robots, and that is a pretty honest account of what I saw.

Set in the not too distant future, Robots have replaced humans in the boxing ring. A former boxer turned Robot manager, Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), tries and constantly fails to get a winning robot in the ring. Honestly there are times in the beginning of the film where it's frustrating to watch him be so incredibly dumb regarding his robots. He gets overly confident as his Bot takes on a rampaging bull and takes his eyes off the ring for a few seconds to cheer to the crowd. The bull gores right through his bot rendering him worthy of the garbage dump. Charlie skips out of town before having to pay up. you don't have to wonder if that comes back to haunt him later, cause it does, quite an ass whooping. Charlie seems to owe everyone money and he's leaking funds fast. He finds out that his ex-wife has died leaving him with a 10 year old son Max (Dakota Goyo). Charlie at first isn't interested in the kid, in fact he's more interested in selling him off to the kid's rich Aunt Debra (Hope Davis), who seems to be the only person that cares for this kid. He makes a deal under the table with Debra's rich husband Marvin (James Rebhorn) for 50K with the caveat that he would take Max for the summer. Charlie buys a new robot and proceeds to treat the kid like shit through about three quarters of the film before they have a bit of Father/Son bonding. The only other person that doesn't seem to hate Charlie is his ex-girl and Robot builder Bailey (Evangeline Lilly). Father and son are now desperate to locate a new robot and find a special training robot named Atom at the bottom of a junkpile and just like Rocky and every other underdog story Atom has a date with destiny in the Ultimate Robot Boxing Championship. The rest is fairly predictable but I have to say it was very entertaining.

This is kind of like the Champ meets Rocky meets Transformers. You get some pretty excellent Robot fighting with some drama between Father and Son. The kid is pretty great in fact he's one of the high points of the film. You find yourself invested in his journey and he does a great job of bringing the audience in even when the script starts to falter. Most of that is due to Hugh Jackman and his over-acting. It really feels like he's trying to hard at times, which is what makes this movie mostly frustrating. Jackman is his own worse enemy in that regard. Thankfully there are some nice moments with Evangeline Lilly as she appears to be Charlie's conscience. Anthony Mackie is great too, he's criminally underused in this film, he's such a fantastic actor and this role was completely beneath him. This really felt like a bad script that Steven Spielberg took out of the trash, tweaked it and this was the end result. There are all those Spielbergian elements floating around and most of the time they are effective. There is a part of me that wanted to show the film to my son, even though he's probably at least another year or two away from seeing something like this. But I couldn't help but think how much he would enjoy watching those Robots tear each other apart. If you have a little guy, oh say, around the age of 5 or 6 take him to see this movie it will make him deliriously happy. It has it's faults for sure but it's cute and kind of fun and should be entertaining for the whole family.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Moneyball

2011-10-07T11:39:00.001-04:00

I actually saw this one last week but I've been in mourning for my NY Yankees and their pitiful attempt to stay in the playoff race. Watching this movie I felt even worse about my Yankees as the filmmakers gleefully pointed out the discrepancy every time they play a poor team and the Yankees win it's a glaring reminder that they are the haves and almost every other team is the have-nots. The film didn't pull its punches it basically starts out where the A's won the first two playoff games and then stumbled and collapsed and lost the series with the graphic showing: Yankees 140 million; Oakland Athletics 40 million. Ouch, the game does start to take on a different meaning when you can see the problem in stark black and white. But I don't disagree, there is one thing I despise about the Steinbrenners and about the team I love, in a nutshell, the Yankees are a spoiled rotten rich team that has lost it's blue collar roots and become something else entirely. But that's a post for a different time. Let's talk about some Moneyball!

This is the movie based on the book, based on the true story about the General Manager of the Oakland A's Billy Beane (Brad Pitt). This takes place in the early 2000's and they get right into the impossibly tough business of acquiring top talent to play for a ball club. The Oakland A's have a pretty miniscule budget compared to most teams especially the Yankees and the Red Sox. After coming off of a heartbreaking ALDS game against the Yankees, Beane finds himself against a wall as he is about to lose his two prime players. Jason Giambi to the Yankees and Johnny Damon to the Red Sox. Owner Stephen Schott seems like a good guy but he's unwilling or unable to give Billy what he needs to replace the two super stars. So Bean is forced to think outside of the box to get results with little to no money. He buys a smart nerd analyst from the Cleveland Indians, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Brand explains Sabermetrics. Created by number cruncher Bill James. This guy was not a baseball person so he was pretty much laughed at by Owners, Scouts and the players alike. But his idea was that you analyze a player through objective, imperical evidence and you can find value in a player where most top teams see red flags. I know it seems like a lot of exposition but in this case it's important to understand at least a little bit about the complexities of the system and why it was so crucial to Bean and Brand as they tried to rebuild the Oakland A's into a championship worthy team.

This was truly an incredible film, from the acting to the writing to the pacing. We weave in and out to see a young Billy Beane faced with the decision to go to College or go to the Major League. You can feel his frustration as he tries to fight a system he just cannot win no matter what he does. It was also really great to go in the dugout and see how the team was reacting to what Beane was trying to do. The guy playing David Justice (Stephen Bishop) was pretty great and from the little I know of Justice he seemed to fit the persona well. I also really liked Chris Pratt as Scott Hatteberg, I can't fathom how frustrating and difficult it must have been to have to switch from being catcher to first base, the kid had a lot of heart. This isn't like a lot of underdog stories. You keep waiting and hoping that even if Beane doesn't win it all he will somehow gain the respect of his peers. I won't go into too much detail but if you follow baseball at all then you already know how this turns out. But that really isn't the point. It's that he tried to do something that no one else was willing to try, and it wasn't just using it whenever he needed to. He decided if he was going to follow this system he was going to follow it with every ounce of energy he could regardless of what the Coach, Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), thought, regardless what the players thought. It's a noble thing and it's quite an amazing thing to see, especially if you are a true fan of Baseball.

Now I never read the book but I did feel that the movie probably gave Beane a bit more credit then he deserved. Yes I understand they are telling a narrative here and the facts don't necessarily have to add up perfectly. The man was certainly a pioneer and once the Red Sox started using it and won a World Series you can't deny that Beane had some small part to play in that. But at the same time Sabermetrics has been around a long time and it really is Bill James and his program that made all of this possible. Plain and simple. There is also a twinge of arrogance to the screenplay that is a tad unnecessary. I love me some Sorkin as my previous posts can attest to. But sometimes he can write with this "holier than thou" attitude that can distract from the overall story at times. Also not sure why Robin Wright was in this movie. She plays Billy's ex-wife and her scenes were really awkward. Maybe that was supposed to be that way but they were so small, I'm still scratching my head as to why she took that part. But regardless of these flaws in the film it's still phenomenal and I certainly put it high in the pantheon of baseball movies. So if you want to see a film that truly seems to love and appreciate the myth and majesty of baseball then this is your movie, don't miss it.

Grade: 4 Buckets

Drive

2011-09-18T22:08:00.000-04:00

This weeks offerings seemed a bit weak to me, nothing really stood out for me, but I was intrigued by the trailer for Drive. I couldn't tell if it was just another action flick like the Transporter or was there something more to it than that. The score for the trailer seemed to be a bit odd but the film felt like they were going for a solid high-brow action thriller. The other choices was a brutal re-make of the already controversial and brutal film from the 70's, Straw Dogs. Some really obnoxious flick about Power Moms with the very annoying Sarah Jessica Parker and the re-release of Lion King...in 3D!! I took the youngster to see Lion King yesterday in, thankfully, non-3D. He really loved it and it still looked pretty good up there on the big screen. I had heard that the 3D-ification didn't go over as well with audiences although you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at the box office. It looks like it's on its way to 30 million or so. So that's all your going to get out of me about the Lion King, no review needed for that one. As for Drive, I'm still not sure what to think of the film. It wasn't terrible but I didn't really love it all that much. Again that score just baffled me, it felt like opening a time capsule and pulling out some rejected 80's score from flicks like Manhunter or Thief or something. I'm not so sure if it worked.

They seem to be going for a Clint Eastwood western motif with this guy, I honestly couldn't remember his name but IMDB calls him Driver so I guess he's the Driver with no name. Anyway Driver (Ryan Gosling), is a man of many parts. He's a stunt-driver, a mechanic and in his off-hours he acts as a getaway driver for anyone who can pay. All of his jobs, legal and illegal, are provided by his loser mentor, Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Shannon lines up a job for him with some shady dudes in the Jewish Mafia; Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks, yes that Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman). Honestly I would have never believed that Albert Brooks could pull off a tough guy but he holds his own pretty well here. He isn't inherently a tough guy but he whacks a few guys convincingly enough. So our Driver also is trying to get to know his pretty neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son Benicio. He finds out she's got a loser husband (Oscar Isaac) who just got out of the clink and is in trouble already. The guy owes some heavy hitters a butt load of cash which of course he cannot pay. They threaten his wife and kid and this is where the Driver decides to get involved. He tries to help the young couple by doing a job to get the husband out of debt but things go south, of course, and the Driver has to steer the ship before they all careen off a cliff.

There were some good performances here, but I swear the director, Nicolas Winding Refn, was way too determined to make this one-note action thriller into some kind of masterpiece. Unfortunately it wasn't, not even close. The cinematography was gorgeous they got a lot of mileage out of that for sure. But that score, oh man, that score was something dreadful. It totally took me out of it. It completely reminded me of those terribly shitty 80's synth tracks. Just really awful. Also I'm really getting sick of these films that are considering themselves "Art house" films with the long annoying pauses and the long stares as if were supposed to get that these characters have some kind of connection that unfortunately doesn't exist. Just stop it, this isn't the 70's anymore, there were only a few filmmakers who could make that shit work and this Refn guy is not one of them. Gosling was ok, but he seemed a bit out of his element, and I just didn't understand his motivation for anything we don't know anything about the guy when it starts and we barely know much about him when it ends. He cares a lot about Irene and her son but I'm still not 100% sure why. He can also apparently be extremely brutal when he needs to be and he seems to know his way around firearms and knives. They never say if he was some former special forces guy or has some dark past, nothing. He's just apparently a really good Driver who, if you cross him, can fuck you up with whatever weapon is lying around.

I would say see this film at your own risk. If your looking for explosions and a fun slick script. This isn't it and you are going to be seriously disappointed. Its actually more like a souped up Indie film with some pretty graphic action scenes and a lot of awkward pauses.

Grade: 2 Buckets

Warrior

2011-09-16T20:37:00.001-04:00

UFC Fans rejoice!! This was your movie, why did you not embrace it? I saw this flick last week but I didn't get a chance to get my review in on time. I'm not sure it would have made much of a difference. It stunk at the box office making only a weak 5 million. I thought this was a multi-billion dollar business with die-hard fans? Fans who have been screaming for a movie that reveals the honor and prestige of their craft while proving once again they are the real deal and the WWE is a laughable clownish fake. I guess the filmmakers didn't pander enough to that crowd, or maybe it was just too close in plot to the Fighter from last year. I don't know, but personally I really enjoyed the movie. It did have similar themes to the Fighter but overall it felt like a really good post-9/11 recession fueled flick, with fleshed out real characters.

Estranged brothers, Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) sign up for a UFC contest in Atlantic City to fight for the 5 million dollar purse. Tommy is a hard drinking former Marine who appears to be bottling up so much anger and resentment that he could explode at any time. His brother Brendan is a school teacher and former UFC fighter who is finding the recession is taking its toll on his family. He's looking at an eviction notice if he can't pay his bills his family is out on the street. Both of them seem to be holding grudges against one another but they both seem to have one thing in common, the mutual hatred of their formally drunk and abusive father Paddy (Nick Nolte). Tommy tries to put his feelings aside as he asks his old man to train him for the contest but finds that almost impossible to do.

This was a much better movie than I thought it was going to be. There are many worn out themes here but the director and the actors take a so-so script and make it much better than it probably should be. Tom Hardy hasn't steered me wrong yet, everything I've seen him in proves time and time again what a fantastic actor he is. It was nice seeing Nick Nolte in something worthy again too. The man is a train wreck personally but he's still a great actor. The fight scenes were really intense and they didn't feel staged. It really did feel like an updated Rocky. It was hard to root against either brother. And as much as I enjoyed the contestants battle it out I really was annoyed with the in-movie commentators. I felt like they were tacked on for that elusive UFC audience that ironically didn't show up for this movie. They gave them way too much air-time and it made it feel more like a cheap spectacle rather than a heavy weight match-up. No offense to those UFC fans out there but it reminded me of the WWE announcers. The thing that aggravated me the most was the one thing the film could not control. In the trailers, they hype up the fight between the two brothers the problem is they don't fight till the end. Which means all of the really intense fighting they have to do up to that point is lost because the audience already knows they are going to meet each other in the final round. It's really sad to because there was one fight that Brendan had that had me at the edge of my seat even when I knew he was going to win. They shot the hell out of it to great effect. If I were the filmmakers I would have been pissed about those trailers.

This is really an entertaining flick and you may get a little choked up at the end especially if you have a brother, like Bryan's Song, Rudy and even 61*, it does a great job of sucking you into these characters and really feeling something genuine for them. Which makes it all the more sad when one of them falls. Don't waste your time on some of the gunk out there, you've got Moneyball coming out in a week but if you have to see a movie before that, especially if you are feeling the sports movie, then you won't be disappointed.

Grade: 3 and a half Buckets

Conan: The Barbarian

2011-08-21T21:56:00.004-04:00

I really could have seen anything this weekend, maybe I should have, but I was just too damn curious to see what this thing would look like. I was never a huge fan of the comic book character and I remember vaguely seeing the Conan movies long ago and I honestly can't tell you much about them except that Arnold was in them and he said things like, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!" It's a funny line, bad ass, but funny. Especially when Arnie says it. I just wasn't sure how they would be able to reboot a series that pretty much made Arnold the action God that he is.

Conan the Barbarian (Jason Momoa) is out for revenge against the evil bastard that killed his father (Ron Perlman), his name...Lord Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang). Conan finds out that Zym is trying to revive his dead witch of a wife using a special mask of power created by Necromancers and to, you guessed it, take over the world. In order to do all of this conquering Zym has to get the pure blood of an Archeon (don't worry it really isn't that important to the plot to know what an Archeon is.) named Tamara (Rachel Nichols). Conan grunts and smolders and kicks a lot of ass, protects Tamara and puts the smack down on Zym and his nutbag daughter with the giant forehead, Marique (Rose McGowan). End of story.

There really isn't much to say about this it's pretty much as advertised. The entire plot, narrated nicely by Morgan Freeman by the way, is spelled out in the beginning about Necromancers, dark masks and magic, yadda yadda. The film doesn't waste much time to get to the Spartacus: Blood and Sand type gore. Conan doesn't say much he growls and stares like the lead singer of Metallica and he has this annoying habit of randomly driving his sword into the ground. Momoa, who also does his best Conan on the hit show Game of Thrones, isn't terrible in the role. The kid who plays Conan the younger tops him for sure. Momoa wields the sword as best he can in a script that seems to have been written by a three year old. It's absent the politics and subtle overtones on war and spiritualism of the Milius' hit from the 80's. But it delivers on what is advertised lots of action and blood and gore and ample boobies throughout to keep any red blooded male satisfied. Not to mention the locales are pretty breathtaking. Very impressive cinematography I must say. Stephen Lang chews the scenery well as Zym but he isn't served much by the role, and Rose McGowan is pretty much useless except for looking head-scratchingly weird with her bulbous forehead and squeaky voice. She doesn't sound much like a warrior woman. Rachel Nichols provides the only character development other than young Conan and she does her best with what she has to deal with. It's also too bad we didn't get to see more Ron Perlman as Conan's daddy. This guy is great in pretty much whatever he does.

Overall it's a brutal mindless action flick that really should have come out earlier in the summer and probably would have fared much better. Also if you do decide to go and see it I would personally skip the 3D if I were you. I saw it in 2D and it looked just fine, there doesn't seem to be any advantage in seeing it in 3D, except for the studio, in that it burns a hole in your pocket. But if you're looking for an escape from the reality of our shitty economy and you're just feeling bloodthirsty about it then don't waste anytime get your blood lust out on this Conan flick and feel much better.

Grade: 2 Buckets

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2011-08-11T19:00:00.148-04:00

The summer is winding down as the crazy action-packed blockbusters start to fade away. This film could be called another re-boot, remake or pre-quel in the popular sci-fi series. The early trailers didn't do much for me except for the motion-capture CGI apes that looked damn impressive. The trailers followed the apocalyptic blueprint to a tee: Man creates cure, cure is not what it is meant to be, the experiment goes haywire, Apes become smart, Apes rule the Earth. It's crude but that's what it looked like to me, thankfully that's not what it was.

Will Rodman (James Franco), a geneticist, is struggling to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. It is even more personal for him since his Father, Charles (John Lithgow), is suffering from this disease. Will is experimenting with chimps, he discovers that his cure enhances the brain power of the chimps with violent side effects. When a baby chimp, Caesar (Andy Serkis), is discovered to have the cure in his bloodstream, passed from his mother to him. Will finds that Caesar is different from all of the others, as he grows his brain functions triple in size. He forms a consciousness and begins to feel the torment of an intelligent mind in the body of an animal that is considered inferior. Caesar is taken from Will when he attacks a neighbor in self defense. They lock him away and he learns how to gain respect among his kind and to escape.

I was truly impressed by this movie, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. It had all the trappings of the end of the world scenario but instead of strictly following the formula it veered off into something completely different altogether. Unfortunately for Will and his very hot girlfriend Caroline (Freida Pinto), they just weren't interesting enough to carry the film. Where the film was unique and overall satisfying is watching Caesar learn and grow while under Will's care and then later at the Pound. How he earns the respect of the other chimps and he comes to understand who he is and what he actually wants. It will surprise you in it's simplicity but it also just felt completely honest. Don't worry I won't talk about what that is here. You had some nice performances from Lithgow and I liked seeing funnyman Tyler Labine being utilized in something worthwhile. This isn't a funny role for him but it was nice seeing him play someone other than a giant douche. Even though they didn't give her enough to do I also enjoyed Freida Pinto, she's a good actress and she deserved a bit more meat than she was given. But in the end the real star here is Caesar, at first you feel like you are just looking at some very clever CGI but as it continues and you see him in his prison trying to sort out what to do. You completely forget you are looking at a CGI construct and you are convinced that Caesar is alive. Another testament to Andy Serkis and his motion-capture performance. The guy truly should be up for an Oscar this time as he should have been for his role as Gollum.

If you aren't interested in crap horror movies (Final Destination 5, Fright Night) Conan or stupid blue creatures then you really should check this one out. It's got a pretty good cast and a pretty good script. This is not your Father's Planet of the Apes. This is not just an action movie, although the bridge fight was impressive. This fits more in line with Flowers for Algernon. This is about an animal that becomes aware of itself and it's surroundings and how he deals with that. If they can continue to make the Apes franchise with this much care and attention then I think you can have a healthy series in the coming future.

Grade: 3 1/2 Buckets

Cowboys & Aliens

2011-08-07T21:24:00.002-04:00

So, I know many of you are asking, what the hell is this film about? That's really the beauty of that title. It's all right there. Although you could technically call it Cowboys, Indians & Aliens, but that probably wouldn't sound right. This is actually a pulse pounding action Western that is the embodiment of Survival of the Fittest. Funny story, I ironically put that idea into motion as I was driving out of the parking lot at the end of the movie. I watched to my horror, as two dumb rednecks in their pickup truck were careening in reverse towards me, the only thought in my head was, "What the Fuck are they doing, and am I going to die in the Movie Theatre Parking Lot?" Thankfully I pulled quickly out of the spot and the redneck stopped suddenly if I had jerked the wheel the idiot would have probably run into me. I then realized of course that he was putting on the throttle just to get my parking space. You see it would have proven that theory, as the dumb jackass was driving a beat up old pick up truck and I was driving a 2003 Volvo station wagon. It's built like a tank I would have had some bruises and he would be a grease stain. "Only the Strong Survive," in action. My near death crisis aside, or his near death crisis, as it was, I had a blast with this film. I'm starting to get annoyed with these reviewers and their bitching and moaning. This was exactly what was advertised, it had action heroes like Daniel Craig and the man himself Harrison Ford kicking alien ass and taking names, what else do you need? A plot you say? There was one, they didn't go to great detail but it was there, and here it is in a nutshell.

The man with no name awakens in the desert with hardly any clothes and a strange alien device strapped to his arm. He can't seem to remember his name, turns out later to be Lonergan (Daniel Craig), and he hasn't forgotten that he's a bad ass. He rides into town and runs head first into trouble as the local Cattle Baron's brat of a kid, Percy (Paul Dano), tries to provoke the man with no name to mixed results. The brat's dad Col. Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), is a tough man, some might even say a bad man, keeping the townsfolk in fear of him. He confronts Lonergan but before they can throw down the sky lights up and the Aliens come to town. Killing and kidnapping folk left and right. It's up to Lonergan, a band of Indians under the command of Black Knife (Raoul Trujillo) and Dolarhyde to put away their gripe and work together to get their people back and kill the demons.

I'm always a sucker for a good western and a good sci-fi flick so putting them together was a no-brainer for me. There are many ways this could have gone south but they had a pretty excellent team here with great support from veterans like Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach, Keith Carradine and of course the beautiful and mysterious Olivia Wilde. Personally you can't have an authentic western without Keith Carradine being in the mix somehow. It was great seeing him and Harrison Ford together and it makes me wish that Harrison had done more westerns. I would have loved to see the two of them in a kick ass western twenty years ago, ah well better late than never. It's a really fun ride, don't let the naysayers tell you different. Director Jon Favreau, Producer Steven Spielberg and one of the writers Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek) spared no expense to bring you a fun action flick. So please, do us all a favor and stay away from the blue creatures that sing. Put your money into a man's movie. It's stronger and better and deserves to stomp out those fucking annoying blue rodents. Even though I'm sad to report that even though Cowboys & Aliens barely skated by it's opening weekend over the blue turds it looks like it's going to come up short in it's second weekend. A truly sad day for film.

Grade: 3 1/2 Buckets

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-07-28T13:10:00.189-04:00

How many Comic Book movies does that make now just for the last four months? Not that I'm complaining or anything I've seen most of the biggies and I'd have to say I'm about 65% satisfied with the lot of them. But I do think in the future it might behoove these film companies to spread the spandex out just a little bit. For instance having Thor, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Transformers 3D and Captain America all come out within 4 months of each other was kind of overkill. Which brings me to my next point about Cap's box office haul opening weekend last week, it had pretty good reviews and opened to a solid 65 million. Yes, that's a pretty solid opening for a superhero that isn't enjoying Spider-Man size popularity across the board. But honestly, it should have been bigger, which makes me think it had something to do with Cape and spandex fatigue. I mean after all the bloated shit the U.S. has had to deal over the last few years in addition to real super soldiers from Seal Team 6 putting two in Osama's face, there was no doubt in my mind that a guy who wears a star spangled shield and is named Captain America kicking the Nazi's ass in WWII was, and frankly should, be number 1 at the box office for three straight weeks. America, Fuck Yeah!

Weakly Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), is determined to join the Army to fight the Nazis at whatever cost. He may be a 90 pound asthmatic weakling but he's got courage and heart which count for a lot. He's denied several times at various recruiting stations until a kindly scientist, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) offers him the chance to serve his country by being the first test subject for a Super Soldier Program. Cap gets to join forces with the Howling Commandos; his old pal Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), James Montgomery Falsworth (JJ Feild) and Jaques Dernier (Bruno Ricci). Their mission is to bring down the science division of the S.S, Hydra, led by Johann Schmidt aka. The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) and his toady scientist Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones). Cap gets some extra support from his gal Peggy Carter (Haley Atwell) a British agent who is fiesty, smart and gorgeous. Also from the craggy Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Billionaire industrialist and father of Iron Man Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper).

As a fan of the comics and the Avengers it's easy to forget when you are reading about this adonis with the super shield actually started as a weakling. You get a few random sketches of him, in those books, as a thin rail but most of the story he's already Captain America with his heightened strength, speed and agility. So for the film it was really great seeing the Cap you know and love in the body of this little runt. It really gives the performance a lot more weight. Yes at times it was a bit hokey and the script wasn't perfect. But it really captured the essence of the time period, that spirit of the Greatest Generation and Evans' Steve Rogers embodies that perfectly. I really did enjoy this flick, director Joe Johnson has, for the second time, been successful in transporting me back to the early part of the 20th Century. The first was the Rocketeer from 1991, a truly fun flick if you haven't seen it I recommend you check it out on Netflix. Cap also fits in nicely to the larger story that everyone, including myself have been waiting for, The Avengers. There is a great teaser trailer for it after the credit sequence, it's like being a kid at Christmas. It's a truly fun flick and if you are looking to just get away and see something that will make you feel good to be an American, where it seems like the "Can do Spirit" still exists. So avoid the Smurfs, go and see something worth a damn, God Bless America!

Grade: 3 Buckets

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

2011-07-22T00:47:00.001-04:00

The end is nigh! Oh what will Warner Brothers do now? I'm sure that as much as WB has been anticipating the finale to one of the most profitable film series ever, they are also dreading the fact that they won't be able to pull the lever on the cash register for this series any longer. The funny thing is once the last book ended, author J.K. Rowling assured the public that there would be no more Potter to tell. Now that some time has passed and the films are coming to a close she has been gradually changing her tune from a never to a....maybe. Which must have given the execs at Warner Brothers a big Corporate grin because it means that maybe we haven't seen the last of Harry Potter, or at least his universe. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing some of the other characters get a stand-alone flick or maybe some prequels, but I would just as soon go forward and find another pond to jump into. What about the Wizarding World in the U.S.? Take note Warner Brothers! But enough of my yammering about the future, let's focus on the present and my review.

I have really enjoyed this series especially the last two or three, they have, in my mind, been able to convey the tone of the last few books and in some cases exceed them. That would certainly be true for this last film. I really enjoyed part 1 where Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are forced to go on the run, looking for Horocruxes, as Voldermort (Ralph Fiennes) grows ever stronger. They had to fend for themselves living in isolation in a tent like refugees moving from place to place in order to stay hidden. It was truly excellent filmmaking and I was sure that wouldn't be able to keep it up into the final chapter. Thankfully, they were able to do that and more. The pacing was extraordinary as we followed the kids from one harrowing journey after another from Gringotts Bank to Hogwarts where the final showdown takes place. It did feel a little Return of the Jedi-ish, without the space battle of course. I got a kick out of watching shy Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) come out of his shell and become a reluctant hero worthy of Indiana Jones, when you see the scene you'll know what I mean. Ralph Fiennes also brought an interesting new wrinkle for Voldermort as you get to see him for the first time as a vulnerable man clinging on to the little bit of life he has left. I was also really glad they finally gave Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) some much needed screen time, I feel like she usually gets the short end of the stick in these movies but she got some great lines and even some action pieces in this one. Daniel Radcliffe has continued to shine and take command of this series and there is no doubt that this kid has vastly improved his skills from the slightly wooden of the first two films to the reflective and honest portrayal in this last film. It was great to see Ron and Hermione get some much needed screen time and the flashback sequences for Snape (Alan Rickman) were some of the best of the series. Just those scenes alone proved why the talented actor would take on what would seem to be a tiny and insignificant role because, as you discover watching those scenes, it turns out to be one of the most intriguing of the series. But I promise I won't go into detail here.

The action scenes were intense and they did a great job with the 3D. They were clear and concise and you could really feel the carnage as Hogwarts gets ripped to shreds. Both Tamar and I were more than impressed, lately the 3D flicks I've seen have been mediocre to terrible, so it was nice to see them use it properly. It wasn't in your face every second but they utilized the technology more for depth and scope rather than bells and whistles and in my mind made it much more exciting. Now if I had any problems with the story it was mostly some nitpicky things where they introduced characters oh so briefly and they disappeared just as quickly without much explanation either way. In some cases, at least for those of us who read the books, it was fine, but if you hadn't read the books you were probably scratching your head a bit more than usual. Here are a few names that you may either be scratching your head at who the hell they are or if you are like me agree that these folk needed a bit more screen time if you were going to introduce them at all. Bill Weasley, Ariana Dumbledore, Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Tonks (Natalia Tena) and Aberforth Dumbledore (Ciaran Hinds). The premise surrounding the Dumbledore brother's sister Ariana was always intriguing in the book and I had forgotten what had actually happened, but they don't give you much to go on in the film either which sort of felt like a waste. Why give us these nuggets if you aren't going to at least explain some of it. And of course Remus and Tonks get sidestepped again, yes I understand the book did this as well but it was one thing I was hoping they were going to correct for the film. They were probably in it for about two minutes and then --SPOILER ALERT--- they were worm food. I felt there was something more for Lupin to do and it felt like Rowling didn't know what that was and now it looks like we'll never know. It's one of those things where I wish screenwriter Steve Kloves had put his foot down with J.K. and said that too many of these deaths occur off camera and people are going to feel cheated. The flip side of that argument is that it's just life and people die. Deal with it. True enough but I can't help but feel a little disappointed.

As for the final sequence, with the kids all grown up and sending their kids off to Hogwarts, I actually felt it played well. Yes you could look at it as the super happy ending but if you watch that great scene with a world weary Harry comforting his young son about his trepidation of being chosen into the Slytherin house. It gives weight to a certain person's sacrifice and it validates the kind of man that Harry has finally grown into. So all you haters can relax. I have truly enjoyed this series and I personally hope they leave it alone for future endeavors, it's pretty perfect the way it is.

Grade: 4 Buckets

X-Men: First Class

2011-07-06T15:52:00.186-04:00

Yes I realize this is really late but this summer has been extremely busy. I was recently in the city of (Dirty) Angels for work and got to catch up with some friends. They both had seen First Class already but they liked it enough to see it again with me, which was great, cause at the rate I was going I was never gonna see the damn movie on the big screen. For a few weeks I tried to get my wife interested in seeing it but she's doing this, "I'm kind of done with the Superheroes" thing. She couldn't quite understand why the X-Men were in the 60's and what exactly that had to do with the Cuban Missile Crisis? She lost interest before she could even finish her sentence. So thanks Jen and Speck for seeing it again just for me.

First Class follows the two very different lives of it's most famous Mutants. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), the telepathic mutant originally played by Patrick Stewart in the first few films. Thankfully McAvoy didn't play him as a caricature. He's a good hearted guy but he's arrogant and spoiled and he's not above using his powers to bed pretty girls. He's sheltered from the world in his mansion and it makes it harder for him to control or fully understand his complicated friend Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), a Holocaust survivor and mutant with the power of magnetism. Erik was originally played by sir Ian McKellan, and honestly I think Fassbender is even better in the role. Erik only feels anger and vengeance and in the beginning he's on the hunt for Nazis in hiding. The first forty minutes are almost like the Odessa File and Munich, as Erik brutally hunts these men down and kills them. The big fish he's after is a former Nazi under the surname Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) who is himself a mutant. Possibly the most powerful of them all as he is able to absorb kinetic energy, channel it and use it as he sees fit. It also allows him to slow the aging process. Shaw is intent on bringing humans to their knees while birthing the dominance of mutants by inciting a war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Only the X-Men led by Xavier and Lensherr, aka. Magneto, can stop him from creating a new global Holocaust.

This flick completely washed away the terribleness of X3 and Wolverine. I really did love that this takes place in the 60's where I think being "children of the atom" works best in this era. I still wish that Fox would get a clue and included the original X-Men to this movie and call it a reboot. That would include; Scott Summers aka. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake aka, Iceman, Warren Worthington aka. Angel and of course the only one of the group that was in the movie Hank McCoy aka Beast (Nicholas Hoult). Instead we got stupid throwaway B characters like Darwin (Edi Gathegi) & slutty Angel (Zoe Kravitz). Admittedly Darwin wasn't terrible but ugh, Zoe Kravitz's Angel was awful. She looked awful when she flew she looked almost laughable when she shot out her flame balls from her mouth. If they had given her a larger role it would have completely ruined the movie. Thankfully the chemistry between frenemies Xavier and Magneto was so good it allowed me to ignore her for the most part. I also really liked the evolution of Beast as they seem to stay pretty close to the comic. He was certainly the heart of the show and you really feel for him when the experiment on himself goes awry. I also really loved Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, she totally erased the bad acting of Rebecca Romijn from the first few films. She gave her a depth and a much better road for her turning wicked then what was presented in previous films. I know fanboys were howling over her early relationship with Xavier but it really makes sense in the larger scheme of the comics and how she makes her turn to the dark side. The rest of the team, Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) and Alex Summers aka Havok (Lucas Till) were nice additions. I also really enjoyed Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert. Not quite sure why she was a C.I.A agent but whatever I though it worked. For future films I'm going to enjoy how they explain Alex Summers, who is Cyclops' younger brother, fits into the larger universe especially if Scott makes an appearance in future films.

As for the bad guys I really dug Azazel (Jason Flemyng) who is sure as shit Nightcrawler's daddy the way he moves. Riptide (Alex Gonzalez) was cool but they didn't really allow him to do much except make little mini tornadoes. Kevin Bacon was great as Sebastian Shaw, he was effortless with his German, perfect embodiment of evil. The only flaw here was the White Queen (January Jones). She is certainly hot and she looks the part but damn this woman is so wooden. There are so many women who I think would have been great in this role but none of them were January Jones. Yes I understand she is on Mad Men but that doesn't mean she's a good actress or more importantly it doesn't mean she is capable of playing a complex character like Emma Frost. I mean this chick has been apart of the Hellfire Club the Brotherhood of Mutants and the X-Men. Couldn't they find somebody a little more suitable then January Jones? But again she wasn't bad enough to deter me from loving every minute of the film. Director Matthew Vaughn has proven once again what a phenomenal director he is. So far I haven't seen a film he has directed that I haven't liked. So if he wants to bitch about how bad Brett Ratner is, I think he's well within his rights to do so. Yes I understand that X-Men hasn't brought in as much money as Last Stand but it is a far superior film. Hell I think it's just as good or better than X2 which up until now was my favorite of the X series.

I realize that this review is really late and X-Men First Class may already be gone from your local theatre but if it isn't or if it's in a subrun house, ditch Transformers and that stupid looking Zookeeper, go and see something that will make you feel good about the comic adaptations again as well as entertain the fuck out of you. A small note here for MGM/Sony, whoever the hell is going to be doing the Bond flicks in the future; If Daniel Craig decides to stop being Bond you shouldn't waste much air and go right for Michael Fassbender the guy was basically playing Bond for the first hour or so of this movie, I shit you not he may be an even better Bond than Craig and Connery.

Grade: 4 Buckets

Cars 2

2011-06-26T21:58:00.192-04:00

It's finally here, it's what my son has been waiting for since he saw that first teaser trailer almost a year ago. Ever since then my boy has been salivating to see what his old friends from Radiator Springs have been up to the last few years. When we saw Kung Fu Panda 2 it took me almost twenty minutes to pull him away from the Cars 2 Mural hanging in the lobby. Now every time we go to Target it only takes a half a minute to find himself knee deep in McQueen and Mater toys. (They have their own section, of course) I couldn't pry his fingers off of a talking Mater (The rusty tow truck) and now my wife and I are subjected to the musings of Mater and his, um, charming repertoire every day almost 24/7. The wife and I were skeptical though having seen the trailer and not understanding this new direction about spy cars and a somewhat contrived assassination plot against McQueen. I was also getting annoyed watching creator/director John Lasseter trying desperately to sound enthusiastic about taking Mater to foreign countries just to see how he would react. So after a false start on Saturday which led to crying and the GUILT, we finally took him to the theatre on Sunday afternoon. Let me tell you, seeing that giddy look in his smile had to be the best thing I'd seen in a long time.

Unfortunately the giddiness was short lived, he loved the first thirty minutes or so and was excited to see the new car Finn McMissle and his old friends but after a little while he was hinting at leaving already. And why, that a child who has been so enraptured in the Cars universe for at least 2 years would be almost bored by the sequel? Please, allow me to explain. So apparently some time has passed in Radiator Springs, McQueen (Owen Wilson) is an accomplished race car driver having won 4 Piston Cups and is settling in to his new home in Radiator Springs. It just seems like McQueen's character is completely fulfilled, which is why he takes a pretty big back seat in this movie. The new focus is on Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) who finds himself Forest Gumping his way in and out of trouble in this new film. Mater accidentally gets his old buddy caught up in a dare to join an international race in London, Japan and Italy. Which also allows McQueen to test his mettle against International racing sensation Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro). McQueen takes Mater along and as Lasseter explained in the promo trailers, the fish out of water jokes never stop, sometimes to the detriment of the film. So cool super spy, Astin Martin, Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and his new recruit Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) mistake Mater for an American spy, and you can imagine what happens next.

The problem with this sequel, and the reason that Nathan was bored is that they sidelined all the fun and interesting characters from the first movie, they also solved McQueen's problems and found themselves with nothing to do so they created this subplot about spies and evil oil Barons. Although it was clever making the bad guys Lemons, (Gremlins, Pinto's etc.) the most disrespected cars in the world and the ones most likely to start committing crimes. The biggest problem here though is Mater, who is best in small doses is now elevated to leading man status and it doesn't quite work. Now Nathan loves Mater, for comic relief purposes, but the star of the show should be Lightning McQueen and the races but as the film continued it made me think they should have just renamed the sequel Trucks instead. This plot was just way over Nathan and probably Mater's head and it's a shame because he loves these characters so much. I know people say that Cars is the worst of the Pixar bunch and on first viewing I would probably agree, but there is a lot of heart and some really great characters in that first film not to mention the late great Paul Newman as Doc Hudson.Which is sadly missing in this one. They do give a shout out to Doc and I assume a wink to Paul Newman as well. I was surprised that they found someone to fill in for Filmore who was voiced by the late great George Carlin. The rest of the crew from Radiator Spring's is largely marginalized to one-liners and cameos. The whole film sort of reminded me of the five minute snippet from the first film when a very arrogant Lightning McQueen wishes he could sell out and be a big time movie star in his own spy thriller. I guess that all kind of came true in some way.

Overall I enjoyed some of the new cars like Finn McMissle and Holly Shiftwell but they honestly should have been in a different movie. McQueen and Mater just didn't fit so well in this plot and it really shows. If you have a child between the ages of 3 and 6 as much as they may love McQueen and Cars this one may be too much for them to fully understand and there is a chance that it will bore rather than thrill. Although in the end Nathan was very content, he did ask to go home once or twice but he still had a nice smile after the film even though I could tell he didn't really follow it very well. Oh, and by the way the Toy Story short was really fun, in fact I think I liked the short more than the actual film. But that's only because Lasseter and the Pixar guys only seem to put more energy and love into their Toy Story sequels. But Cars 2 is still a good summer flick to take your kid to, honest. But now that the excitement of McQueen and Mater is over in our household I'm setting my sights on Winnie the Pooh. It's a great trailer and Nathan seems pretty pumped about that one too. So many kids flicks this Summer!

Grade: 2 and a half Buckets - Kid Bucket: 3 Buckets

The Hangover Part II

2011-06-03T22:08:00.000-04:00

The Wolfpack is back in second installment of the series. The question you want to ask is it funny? The answer is certainly yes. The only problem that will probably make this review shorter than normal is that it is exactly the same plot and beats as the first film. You put in the exception of Thailand and swap out a few characters and you basically have the same movie. After the film was finished I was a little perplexed. On one level I really enjoyed it, I mean it still was pretty fucking funny. But I also just felt cheated that they couldn't go with a more original plotline. I mean many sequels I know do tend to go this route but it's been a while since I've seen one that took that to the extreme.

Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper) & Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are up to their old hijinks but this time they are in Bangkok, where the danger just got amped up a notch. Poor Doug (Justin Bartha) doesn't get left behind this time but he does get muscled out, somehow, from the adventure altogether. This time Stu is about to marry into a strict Thai family and the pack ends up losing the family's genius son, brother of his soon to be wife, Teddy (Mason Lee). They have a day and a half to track down Teddy or they apparently lose him forever to the city that claims so many lost souls. (It's kind of a theme in the movie.)

It was nice seeing more of Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) and bringing in Paul Giamatti as a drug runner was interesting and the stakes are certainly a lot higher now that they are in another country especially one as dangerous as Bangkok, but I could pretty much check my watch and time when the local mafia turns up and when the best time for Stu to sing his "we are shit out of luck" song. I mean if I were to play the first Hangover at the same time as this one would Stu start singing at the hour and a half mark? Alan is a bit more annoying and therefore at times is hard to stomach, I like Galifianakis, but his schtick is starting to wear a little thin in this film. Bradley Cooper seems a little bored with his role this time out as he kind of sleep walks through it. But Ed Helms is great as always and he's the standout in my mind this time around. I'm actually looking forward to Hangover part III I just hope they change it up a bit and go with something a little different. I heard something about busting Alan out of a Psych ward. Ok, I'm down with that, just stop with the losing people plotline, and please, please no more Mike Tyson. It's not really that funny, it just seems kind of sad.

Grade: 3 Buckets (Although it really should be 2 and 1/2 but I just had so much fun with it)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

2011-05-29T22:32:00.001-04:00

Captain Jack Sparrow is back in the fourth film in the series. Usually when you get to number 4 in a series you've already upset the trilogy Gods as you embark on uncharted waters. You could end up with a Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where you take home the biggest box office haul for a Star Trek film, up to that date. Or you could end up with Batman & Robin and totally fucking destroy a franchise, for at least a few years. So how does Pirates 4 stack up, is it a Fat Scotty or nippled breast plate? The answer is......well, I'm not sure I can say. I'm kind of thinking neither.

Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns for another adventure, actually, if you were paying attention at the end of the third film you would have heard Jack mention the Fountain of Youth. And that is of course where this little adventure takes us. Some familiar faces are in tow, like Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally), Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and Keith Richards as Captain Teague, Jack's father. And I think there were a few supporting cast members from previous films, but don't quote me on that. Everyone else is new including the director, Rob Marshall who is replacing Gore Verbinski on this ho-hum quest. The new cast is pretty exceptional though, Ian McShane as Blackbeard, Penelope Cruz as his femme fatale like daughter. There are vicious mermaids and large battles and of course the Fountain of Youth.

So why the lack of joy in this review you might ask, cause with all of this, with the great cast, visuals and mildly interesting plot, what is actually wrong with this movie? Well to put it mildly it's boring through most of it and it just lacks the fun of the previous films. Yes the second and third films were not very good but they were entertaining spectacles. You were in on the ride no matter how bat shit crazy it was. This one, Jack seems almost normal through most of it. He throws us a few weird speeches just to remind us he's Jack Sparrow, but for the most part he just felt like he was just another action hero with a spice of Han Solo. The script was also seriously lacking, it didn't have the wit or the spark of the first one. It's a real shame to because this cast was pretty impressive. Honestly Barbossa was truly the best part of the flick, he elevated the material for sure, which is why I'm still scratching my head with Johnny Depp, usually he's doing that too but maybe he just wasn't able to break away given that the film is now solely on his shoulders. No wooden Orlando Bloom or hot Keira Knightley to bounce off of. Anyway, if you find yourself scratching your head and looking for a movie to kill some time with, then sure, Stranger Tides wouldn't be a bad choice, but between Thor and Hangover part II, the choice becomes clear. I know this won't deter Disney from making another one, given that the Box Office has been pretty good the last two weeks. But one could hope they'll keep the Pearl in drydock and lets go back to making more original Pirate adventures. I'm sure they can come up with something--Nah, this is Hollywood, they can only do something truly original in the mainstream maybe once or twice every ten years or so, I think that's a law.

Grade: 2 1/2 Buckets

Thor

2011-05-09T00:00:00.004-04:00

The second film of the Summer is upon us and it looks like it's on it's way to a strong 66 million for Mother's Day weekend. I did try ever so valiantly to take my lady for Mother's Day to see Thor, but she would have none of it. Chris Hemsworth's pecks were not enough to get her to the cineplex, I had to see it by myself late on Friday. But no worries on that score, I've been eagerly anticipating this one as well as Captain America: The First Avenger which comes out July 22nd. Being a fan of comics and Marvel specifically, the hiring of Shakespeare obsessed Kenneth Branagh to direct was a very smart move, and even before I saw any footage, I had a feeling that this was going to hit all the right notes. Once I finally saw the trailers though I was hooked, it looked great and it seemed like they fixed the problem of blending a mythical magical storyline into the hyper-reality of the Marvel Universe. Ever since I saw Chris Hemsworth in his brief but memorable role as Captain Kirk's daddy in Star Trek I was intrigued about this guy that made me believe he was the leading man in a film I absolutely knew he wasn't. I kept saying to my wife, "who the hell is this guy, I want to see what happens when this guy is given his opportunity at the center stage?" Looks like I got my answer, and given the strong showing at the box office it seems to be holding true.

The Norse God of Thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) are tasked by their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) to guard the 9 Realms of the Universe and keep the peace with their mortal enemy the Frost Giants and their evil King Laufey (voice: Colm Feore), who had attempted to take over the other realms especially Midgard or Earth. But his forces were defeated by Odin and the bad King's power cube was taken away from him so that he may never use it for evil again. Thor, because of his vein and arrogant nature provokes another war with the Frost Giants putting the 9 Realms in danger once more. Odin is of course pissed and banishes his son to Earth and strips him of his Godlike power which resides in his mighty Hammer Mjolnir. Thor and his hammer crash land in New Mexico where he meets a team of researchers (Stellan Skarsgard & Kat Dennings) led by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who try to understand how Thor got here. He has to put his vanity and pride away in order to save Earth from his spiteful and manipulative brother, Loki, who now has sights on Odin's throne. Thor will need the help of everyone on Earth and on Asgard, especially his closest confidantes: Volstagg, played by the great Ray Stevenson, who unfortunately gets a little lost in the shuffle of so many characters, Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), Fandral (Josh Dallas) & Sif (Jamie Alexander), who really showed what a bad ass Sif could be on the big screen. Not to mention smoking hot too.

The movie is well put together, honestly, even after seeing it I still don't know how that worked. You have this crazy fantasy world with on top of the bizarre buildings and a Rainbow Bridge for Christ sake, a bunch Gods wearing outfits from the Middle Ages and speaking in Olde English. Then you have modern day New Mexico, where the slightest tweak could make the whole movie unintentionally funny and ruin the whole thing. It's the same problem they worried about before the Avengers was put into action. How do you put Iron Man in the same room with the God of Thunder and have it not be goofy and weird. Chris Hemsworth pretty much put that argument to bed himself in this film. He continued to talk funny for great comic effect but it worked. It didn't feel as out of place as it should have and he fucking sold it man. He kicked S.H.I.E.L.D's ass all over town and as Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) put it made them look like a bunch of Mall rent-a-cops. I as always enjoyed the little Easter Eggs from other Marvel U alumni, see how many you can find. For instance I heard the Infinity Gauntlet was to make an appearance in Odin's vault but I didn't see it. They make references to Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and you get to see a certain purple clad archer make his big movie debut before the Avengers. (Thankfully they didn't have him wear that Purple spandex.) This was a truly great cast and I thought they all complimented each other well. I really liked Idris Elba as Heimdall, I know a lot of people were bitching about a Black man playing a Norse God but you know what it really worked. You needed somebody big and commanding with a sense of nobility in that role and I think he fit the role nicely. It's not a huge role but it's pivotal to the overall story.

Now the only real downside was the 3D, not that it wasn't good, it was, it's just that the 3D makes everything darker and harder to see. Also it just didn't feel like it needed the upgrade. I actually want to see it again in 2D, I have a feeling I'd enjoy it more. Watching Asgard in 3D was absolutely stunning but it just didn't make sense for the rest of the film. My suggestion, if you see the movie you should see it in 2D if you have the choice. Honestly it really isn't worth the extra dough to see it in 3D. But I do recommend you see it. Especially if you enjoyed the other Marvel films like Iron Man or the Hulk, they are really starting to hit their stride.

Grade: 4 Buckets

Fast Five

2011-05-08T18:58:00.003-04:00

If you would have told me a few months ago that I would like the fifth installment of this apparently dead series about car races I would have laughed in your face. But it seems that new life has been pumped into this series of deadwood acting, fast cars, pretty girls and a lifeless plot. What happened what changed, does that mean I need to go back and watch the fourth one? Almost ten years ago I saw the first film the Fast and the Furious, it was pretty fun. I liked Vin Diesel, I thought Paul Walker made Keanu Reeves look Oscar worthy, Jordana Brewster was hot and yeah, those cars moved really fast. The second film wasn't very good and I completely lost any interest in the series. I tried to watch the first ten minutes of Tokyo Drift, and I just couldn't get it through it. So fast-forward to this year, the trailer comes out for Fast Five. I shrug my shoulders, "eh big deal." It didn't seem that interesting to me. The main guys return to steal some money and race some cars, oh and now the Rock is involved. O.K., good for them maybe they'll make a few bucks. Then I start hearing from very reliable people that this is better then you might think. I'm still skeptical. I mean these flicks are almost always bad, and not in the fun way, more like lame. But I was told on good authority that these were actually worth checking out and that it's a solid heist flick. So I said OK, why not, let's see what Toretto and O'Connor have been up to the last few years.

I'm assuming a few months had passed since the fourth film and we start out with a daring mid-day breakout from a prison transport for Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel). It looks like his old buddy, former cop turned outlaw Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and Dom's hot sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) are behind the wheels of the escape vehicles, inexplicably there were no injuries and the other prisoners were accounted for except for Toretto. Fast-forward a few months later and Brian and Mia are together and on the run, this time in Brazil, they are apparently out of money and starving. They wind up doing a job to bring in a few bucks but find themselves on the bad side of a notorious drug runner and cop who apparently has the ultimate power in Rio, Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Dom and Brian decide the only way to get this Bad Cop out of their lives is to steal every last dime he has, about 100 million. But in order to do this big Con they have to hire some help; Tej Parker (Ludacris) is there gadgets and tech man, Roman Pierce (Tyrese Gibson) is I think what you might call a Forger, they imply that he can get in and out of any situation with this charisma. Han Lue (Sung Kang) a driver, he was in Tokyo Drift I believe along with Tej. There is an Israeli woman who it is implied that she formally worked for Mossad, Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot), I think she may be a weapons expert but I can't remember what she was there to do specifically. She was gorgeous though and pulled a great lift in the film. To round out the crew you have two goofy locals as the grease men. Rico Santos (Don Omar) and Tego Leo (Tego Calderon) had to do most if not all of the dirty work and you'll know what I mean when you see the movie. To top it all off the crew now has the ultimate warrior bad ass cop from America on their tail and he doesn't give a shit about much except for taking Toretto and his crew down, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). He is assisted by a local honest cop, Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) to take down Torretto, but she gets the hots for the bank robber and finds herself in a pickle.

So yeah, I thought this was a fun flick and I like the direction they are going with the series, it seems a little more streamlined and has become more of a heist movie then a racing movie which suits me just fine. I never got into the illegal drag racing element of the original storyline, so them getting back to fare like Ocean's 11 and the Italian Job was a win win in my book. Now it isn't as clever or smart as those films, kind of a low rent Ocean's 11, but it really is an exciting ride. The script could have used a last polish but I won't nitpick that here, I mean this thing made a boatload of cash over the last few weeks so obviously no one else was bothered by the slightly dull script. Ironically of the cast members this time around the one I found myself rooting for the most and enjoying was Paul Walker, yeah, I said Paul Walker. The guy made of wood and stone for most of his career seemed to be having the most fun with this one and I will admit I felt he had the most heart. Vin on the other hand was stiff as a board and seemed like he was just kind of there. Maybe that's just how his Dom is supposed to be but damn, inject some kind of life into it. It reminded me a bit of his Riddick character from that sequel almost no emotion whatsoever. Where is that guy who was so animated in Saving Private Ryan, the Boiler Room etc.? I also was a little annoyed with the casting of Tyrese Gibson, that guy is just terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Every time he opened his mouth in this movie I think everyone in the theatre collectively groaned.

Anyway, Director Justin Lin did a great job keeping the pace and the action of the flick going and not allowing anything to let up, he just put his foot on the accelerator, with a dose of nitrous, and kept on trucking. At first I thought the Rock was also a little stiff but he grew on me and I really enjoyed his fight scene with Dom, very good idea pitting him against Vin Diesel, I recommend they do a repeat in the sequel I think it will certainly give it a boost. So go and check this out if you're looking for a fast fun popcorn flick that doesn't let up from start to finish. I would see it soon though, there are far better films coming down the pike, and even though it made a boatload of cash to start out the summer I have a feeling it won't be the last.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Rio

2011-04-29T10:33:00.001-04:00

I'm having some issues with my computer, apparently my laptop likes to just erase half or all of what I just typed and then I made another mistake to get it back by refreshing back until unfortunately there wasn't anything left. It ended up automatically saving that nothing so then of course I had nothing left of what I just wrote. Soooooo, here I go again for a second time. I took my little guy to see the first big kid flick of the Spring. He's been a little more excited to see the upcoming Cars sequel and Winnie the Pooh but given that he is my kid and that he would pretty much watch anything that was on the screen I convinced him that it would be a good idea to check it out. Rio is a 3D flick but thankfully they also have some 2D screenings for those of us with little kids who can't handle wearing the glasses for 2 + hours. Which is a relief cause the last time I took Nathan to see a 3D or 4D film it really freaked him out. When we got to the theatre he was really excited to get the popcorn again and he wouldn't relinquish his grip on it until the movie was done.

The film follows a nearly extinct Macaw named Blu (Jessie Eisenberg) who finds himself a domesticated bird, who can't fly, living in Minnesota. His Human, Linda (Leslie Mann), helps him to live the good life without much of a care, until both of their lives are turned upside down when they are visited by a Brazilian ornithologist, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro), who is interested in mating Blu with another Macaw in order to preserve the species. The only hitch is they have to travel to Rio de Janeiro in order to complete the task. Once they make it there Blu and, his soon to be mating bird, Jewel (Anne Hathaway) are kidnapped by a trio of Poachers (Carlos Ponce, Jeffrey Garcia & Davi Viera) and their evil bird, Nigel (Jemaine Clement). The Macaw's get a little help from their friends in the animal world, a couple of musical birds (Jamie Fox & Will.I.am) and a Toucan (George Lopez) who is intent on teaching Blu how to fly.

I was a little worried at first, Nathan seemed happy with his popcorn as he was munching away but after about twenty minutes he looks up at me and says, "I want to go home now, Daddy." I looked down at him and told him, "don't you want to see what happens to Blu? Maybe he'll learn how to fly and you'll be able to see that." He looks at me very cutely and said, "No, that's ok, I want to go home to see McQueen." Ugh, of course nothing holds a candle to Lightning McQueen. I leaned in and told him give it a few more minutes. Thankfully my gambit worked. Once he got to the amusing Bulldog (Tracy Morgan), he was back into it again. I found it to be a very cute film, but not quite on the level for little kiddies and it still didn't seem to be pulling the clever punches for the Adults either. But it was entertaining and Nathan in the end felt very confident about flying like his new pals Blu and Jewel. I was a little concerned with the dastardly-ness of Nigel, I could have sworn he killed a couple of the animals--but I don't think Nathan noticed, thankfully, and he didn't seem to be overly afraid of him, good news for me, cause if I had traumatized the kid Tamar would never let me take him to another movie again. All in all it should be a good time for the whole family. There isn't any language, a little action and of course that malicious bird but overall it felt pretty kid friendly. So if you are looking to take your little one to something this weekend you should definitely check this one out.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Source Code

2011-04-10T11:50:00.003-04:00

When I was a kid one of my favorite shows I would watch with my Dad was Quantum Leap with Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett. He was a scientist who discovered an interesting way to time travel, he'd step into the accelerator and his consciousness would transport to another person through time travel. He couldn't control when he would leap but the rules were that he could only leap within his own timeline. His mission was to put right what once went wrong with the hope that his next leap would bring him home to his own time. It was a really great show and a great concept for time travel. It lasted about three years and was unfortunately canceled. Now you are wondering why am I talking about an obscure show from the 90's when I should be reviewing Source Code? Other than a few changes this kind of Quantum Leap is exactly what happens to Jake Gyllenhaal's character Captain Colter Stevens in Source Code. I recognized from the trailers what it was referencing but I didn't realize how much, and it was a real treat to see what appears to be a more updated version of Quantum Leap up on the big screen.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a train with a face that he does not recognize. After 8 minutes of confusion a bomb explodes and Captain Stevens finds himself trapped inside a chamber with a image of a Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) on the viewsceen, who tells the Captain that he is apart of a mission called Source Code that allows his consciousness to transport to a passenger on a train that was blown up that morning by a possible terrorist cell. He has eight minutes everytime he enters the Source Code to determine where the bomb is and who set it in order to avert another possible attack. This is kind of like Quantum leap meets 12 Monkeys. . It's not clear whether or not Captain Colter can alter the past but only study the tragedy in order to piece together clues in order to stop this from happening again. The scientist who created the Source Code, Doctor Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), explains that the Source Code is only meant to be used to study and analyze, according to him the current reality we are living in is not able to be changed. Therefore it doesn't matter what Captain Colter does while in the Source Code. Which creates a dilemma for him cause he begins to form feelings for a woman, Christina (Michelle Monaghan), who is in a relationship with the passenger that is now inhabiting Captain Colter.

This was a really clever and fun flick, well written and executed. In the beginning it felt a lot like Groundhog Day as Colter is trying to learn about his surroundings. He takes an all business approach at first but he comes to appreciate the other innocent people on the train which fuels his determination to try and save them all. There is some really nice humor here among all the confusion and it balances out nicely. I still have yet to see Director Duncan Jones' directorial debut Moon, but I can see why this guy is in high demand. He really builds an interesting moral problem for Captain Colter while slowly peeling away his own mysterious past and why he is in the predicament he's in. There is a nice twist here that, in my mind, plays really well but I promise I won't reveal what that is here. But I was rather proud of my picking up the identity of the actor doing the voice of Colter's father. When I came home I had to make sure and there it was on IMDB, Captain Colter's Fathers voice was of course---Scott "Sam Beckett" Bakula. I'm willing to bet that the writer and possibly the director were big fans of Quantum Leap and got him as a wink to the fans. It's very possible, if they wanted to, there could be a sequel potential here and if they were to do it you can bet I would be one of the first to line up for it. We are gearing up for the Summer blockbusters but until then, if you haven't seen Limitless yet, then you should really go and check out this very clever thriller.

Grade 4 Buckets

Sucker Punch

2011-04-01T11:45:00.001-04:00

I saw this one last week but got so bogged down with work I didn't have a chance to post it. To be honest I wasn't in such a hurry. I had mixed thoughts about seeing this one to begin with. I really like Director Zack Snyder and most, if not all of his films so far, but there really aren't that many. I've seen two of the four so far, Watchmen and 300. Both are great but they are also not his original works. Sucker Punch on the other hand is Snyder's attempt to make something completely his. And here is where we run into the roadblocks. The visuals in this movie are simply stunning. I loved most if not all of the action sequences but the story is seriously lacking and it's hard to relate to or care about anyone involved. Which, after a bit of time, makes even the coolest action sequence seem mundane and boring if we can't feel invested.

Babydoll (Emily Browning) is thrown into a mental institution by her abusive step-father after she accidentally shoots her sister. The step-father is after the family money and Babydoll is in his way. So he pays off an Orderly, Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to have her treated with a Lobotomy within a few days. Which of course gives her time to devise a plan to get her and her new nuthouse friends outta there; Rocket (Jenna Malone), Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) & Amber (Jamie Chung). So this thing has two added layers to it. Once were in the nuthouse we see Babydoll envision this place as a Brothel and the girls are sex slaves to their pimp Blue. The girls get instructions from their Doctor/Madame Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino) who tries to give her girls a way out of this hell by allowing them to dream when they perform. So when Babydoll dances for the clients she is able to go to another dreamlike place that allows her to be truly free. She hatches the plan to get out and enlists the help of the other girls.

It's really a shame honestly because I really felt like there was so much opportunity with a movie like this but in the end it felt similar to me and my friends in Film School sitting around talking about how great it would be to make a movie with every pop culture reference we could think of. Nazi zombie samurais and such. It was almost an overload of visual stimuli. The problem, I felt no sense of real peril for anyone until the end and even then I'm not sure if what happened actually happened. They never truly established an anchor for the real world for us to truly understand what was supposed to be true and what was imaginary, and maybe that's the point but if so, it just didn't work. The girls really tried to give it their all but it just wasn't enough. Not to mention it was truly wasted having Scott Glenn as the Wiseman that appears in the girl's dreams who just utters a bunch of empty platitudes and tries to lead them in the right direction. This role could have been meatier and better written but the script just felt forced in some ways and half ass on the other.

So to sum up, it was a visually stunning with interesting action pieces but overall a complete waste of time. There was no substance and falls completely flat after the first act. It literally was like watching a video game movie. They had different levels one more insane then the next but I just didn't see the point for it. I would have actually appreciated the movie more if they dumped the second dreamscape and just kept it in the Brothel, but that's just me. There are quite a few new flicks coming out over the next few weeks that frankly should bury Sucker Punch, so if you really want to see it I suggest you see it soon before it's gone.

Grade: 2 Buckets

Casting Call: The Joes Part 2

2011-03-30T15:58:00.023-04:00

As promised Cody and I have put together our rag tag bunch of heroes that we hope will someday, make it to the silver screen. Cody will also be featuring his list of new Cobra recruits in a solo post, very soon, but for now let's get to our new 6 for GI Joe 2!

Nicky Lee - Rank: Sergeant (E-5) Codename: Tunnel Rat (by Jeff)

This guy would be an interesting addition to the Joes given that he is not your typical big muscle bound hero that saves the day by charging headlong into a mess of Cobra forces. This is the guy they send in covertly either over the fence or, if Tunnel Rat had his way, under it. His primary job is explosive ordinance disposal, but he's also apparently a combat engineer. This is the guy who activates your plan B when plan A has gone to shit. He's short but don't let his height fool you he's wicked smart and he was trained by the best, the Rangers. Honestly I really don't have that much info about him, I don't really recall reading many of the comics with him involved in the storyline. Although I have extensive knowledge of his character from the G.I. Joe animated feature from the 80's. Tunnel Rat is of Asian descent and seems to have a knack for getting into trouble. He was sort of goofy, almost the class clown, which I think could work in the film but he would obviously need to be someone who can go from humorous to clutch handyman without much hesitation. I've thought about this one for a while and honestly I only have one good candidate, his name, Aaron Yoo. The guy has made the rounds in big movie fare from Disturbia, 21, Nick and Nora and Freddy Krueger. The guy can be genuinely funny without it turning into a caricature. But I do have a wildcard if they were intending to make Tunnel Rat a bit more of a badass guy who slinks through the tunnels and leads the dirty missions that other Joes may wish to avoid. Ian Anthony Dale, in my mind would be that guy. I've been watching the Event on NBC and I really like his secret double agent character. Not sure if the guy can bring the funny, but I would say that if you wanted to elevate Tunnel Rat to a more heroic leading role. Dale would probably be your guy.

Ian Anthony Dale

Aaron Yoo

Wayne R. Sneedon - Rank: Command Sergeant Major (E-9) Codename: Beach Head (by Jeff)

For some reason I have always had a deep affinity for this tough as nails drill Sergeant, not always sure why, although I always thought he just looked like a total badass with his green mask and bulging biceps. This is a guy you wouldn't want to cross, seriously, yes I know his mask was bright green but it worked. Beach Head is the guy who whips the Joes into shape, with drills and combat tactics. This guy is extremely smart and a excellent tactician. This is pretty well established on the G.I. Joe cartoon from the 80's. The comics implies that although he is a consummate professional he tends to have some contempt for Protocol. This is a guy who leaps headlong into a mission without much consultation with the higher ups, which apparently has hindered his ability to rise further in the ranks. Now for the film it would be tough for an actor to have to wear that mask the entire film, I mean you already have one Snake Eyes. I assume he would only wear it into battle, but the question is who could play this tough talking tough guy from the mean streets of Auburn, Alabama. If only Steve "Stone Cold" Austin were just a bit younger, he would be the perfect Beach Head. So my next thought would be someone slightly younger but still old enough to be a drill instructor and I came across Kevin Durand. The guy has made a habit out of playing slimy assholes, but there is no denying he's a bad ass. Watch his soldier of fortune on Lost and tell me that guy didn't make you almost wet your pants. But he can play a good guy too as displayed in Robin Hood next to Russell Crowe. I think the guy is deserving of a big screen action role and what better to play a no-nonsense Southerner in G.I. Joe. If you need an example of his Southern twang look no further than 3:10 to Yuma from a few years ago.

Lonzo R. Wilkinson - Rank: Sgt. Major (E-9) Codename: Stalker (by Jeff)

Stalker is technically the first Black G.I. Joe, he makes appearances in the original cartoon but is usually only there, unfortunately, to fill the color quotient. It was in the comics that Stalker was allowed to shine as a leader of the Joes and an effective and lethal member of this elite squad. In the comics he came up through the ranks with his best friend Snake-Eyes and makes it near the top as the second in command to General Hawk and is heavily involved in recruitment and dangerous missions. This high command diminishes once Duke takes over the squad but he is still integral in tough missions and is usually placed in the thick of it with his good buddy Snake-Eyes. Now if I had a time machine Carl Weathers in my mind would be the perfect Stalker but Carl is pushing into his late 60's so that ain't gonna work. Now there are quite a few guys I can think of that could pull off this tough guy from the streets of Detroit who turned from his life of hustling to join the U.S. Army. After doing a thorough search I feel pretty confident that Stalker would be best in the hands of Anthony Mackie. The guy can act and he's comfortable playing soldier from the Hurt Locker to Eagle Eye. He also has street cred playing Tupac Shakur and a tough boxer from Million Dollar Baby. Plus I can see him sporting the beret, not an easy feat for anyone.

Ettienne R. Lafitte - Rank: Gunnery Sgt. USMC (E-7) Codename: Gung-Ho (by Jeff)

Gung Ho, in a sense, is G.I. Joe, this guy just always seemed to me to be the face of the Joes a tough bruiser but kind and heroic. He's been a staple on the show and the comic book since the beginning. Used as the muscle and comic relief on the show ( no one apparently wanted to eat his Gumbo), but in the comic he isn't really given the storylines his character probably deserves. He's usually just part of the Joe squads, peppering the story arc with his humor. He is the first Marine on G.I. Joe and he deserves to play a role in the next G.I. Joe movie in a pivotal way. Now if Steve Austin could speak a cajun accent he also would be a perfect fit for Gung Ho, but again he's too old. Honestly I'm going to take a chance, this guy is a great actor, but I'm not entirely sure he can pull off a southern accent much less a Cajun one. But still he can fit the look, Tom Hardy. He played a great con man in Inception and an even greater bad ass loon in Bronson. But I think he could bring something interesting to Gung Ho. I mean the guy is going to be Bane in the next movie, so someone with some authority, other than me, thinks he can play a muscled bad ass.

Courtney Kreiger - Rank: Specialist (E-4) Codename: Cover Girl (by Cody)
I felt strongly that we should have included Cover Girl in our original G.I. Joe Casting Call two years back, but it had already been decided that Jeff would take the Joes and I would take Cobra. And obviously, Cover Girl did not make Jeff's cut. I can understand why. Of the original three Joe ladies she never had the screen time of a Scarlett or a Lady Jaye who always seemed to be at the forefront, always involved in the most important, most exciting missions. Of course we all know why, don't we? It was because they were shacking up with their superior officers! Cover Girl was always her own woman, never tied down. She was brassy but flirtatious, often trading frisky barbs with Shipwreck or stealing a kiss from Duke (much to Scarlett’s chagrin). She was very much a guys gal, always more a part of the Joes' boys club, than ever really one of the girls.

What always intrigued me most about the character was that she was this absolute knockout who leaves the cosmopolitan world of fashion modeling to join an elite military force and drive a motherfucking tank instead. That is pretty badass. And I really don't care that the 2009 film features a character that, I GUESS, is supposed to be Cover Girl. She was played by real life supermodel Karolina Kurkova, who is super hot and super Czech, but super bad at acting. Like most of the characters in the ‘09 film, "Cover Girl" (w/air quotes) is completely mishandled. However, she's barely in the film and I'm not even sure she's ever referred to by her codename. So I say let's just pretend it never happened (like the movie as a whole). Let's reboot the character properly for the sequel. To do that we need an actress who is hot, very important, but she also needs to be tough, equally important. I think the perfect fit for the new Cover Girl would be Swedish model and actress Mini Anden, best known for playing Carina Miller, spy friend and C.A.T. Squad teammate of Yvonne Strahovski's Sarah Walker on the show CHUCK. Fans of the show can attest to Mini's badassedness. And the look, well... it speaks for itself:

Ronald W. Tadur - Rank: Corporal (E-4) Codename: Dusty (by Jeff)

When Cody and I discussed the possibility of revisiting the casting call for new Joes for the sequel the first name to come to my mind was Dusty, and it was partly after watching Channing Tatum's performance as Duke in the first film that inspired this thought. I kept thinking he really feels like he (Tatum) deserves to be on the Joe team, but just not as it's leader--I just couldn't see him leading these guys into battle. He certainly has the look of a soldier but he played him kind of naive and green which made me think, hmm, he really would have made a great Dusty. But of course, he can't be Dusty now that he's going to be Duke again, so we have to find someone else.
Now to give you some background on the character. Dusty was another favorite on the TV show he could be extremely naive in who he chooses to trust but the kid had heart and he was always the moral center of the Joes, he was always trying to do the right thing no matter what. Now in the comic book, Dusty gets some new specialties. Not only is he trained in Desert warfare he can speak Arabic and can be used as a tracker and survivalist in the extreme heat. Not to mention the guy can fix your air conditioner and your Fridge when it goes bust. No I'm not kidding you, he's an expert. It would be best to get someone who can pull off the inexperience without being annoying yet also be a skilled fighter and of course has to bring pathos and the moral perspective to the group. I do like Anton Yelchin for the role but he's played in so many pop culture films of this type, I think it may be time to give him a rest, also I'm not fully convinced even after he's played the young Reece from the last Terminator movies that he can someday be a badass, he's just too small. I think after careful consideration I'm going to go from the gut and go with Native Australian Liam Hemsworth for Dusty. He's a big kid, he looks posterboy Military but from the few roles I've seen of him, and they are few, he has an innocence about him that I think would work great for Dusty. Now he's mostly known, at least in this country, for doing Miley Cyrus and that movie of hers, but I think this could be his chance to get out of Miley's drunken shadow and his elder Brother Chris "Thor" Hemsworth by taking on a bad ass role equal to the mighty God of Thunder--Dusty.

Sweet 16 and the Final Four Matchups 2011 - Revisited

2011-03-24T16:18:00.003-04:00

Well, the first weekend of March Madness is behind us and a lot of brackets have been busted. We always expect there to be upsets in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but most were still surprised when we reached the Sweet 16 after Sunday Night. My national championship pick, Notre Dame, was indeed sent packing to the shock of many as well as myself. Florida State looked as though they belonged among college basketball’s elite. The Seminole team that showed up to play on Sunday night was not the same team that the committee felt was no more deserving than a 10 seed. They held Notre Dame to just 30.6% percent shooting. Anytime it looked as if the Irish were going to stage a comeback, the Seminoles immediately ran in transition and scored a basket or got a foul in the process. A great weekend for the Seminoles and they look to keep it up this weekend.

When looking at the Southwest Region, hardly anyone could predict we would see three double-digit seeds moving on to the Sweet 16. The committee raised a lot of questions among the sports world when VCU was given a spot in the tournament over their neighbor Virginia Tech. Well the committee was bailed out of that controversy as VCU took down Georgetown and steam – rolled Purdue, very impressive job by the Rams. In making matters worse for Virginia Tech, Richmond also made the round of 16 by squeaking by Vanderbilt, but got a gift in playing Morehead St in the 3^rd round. Once again Virginia Tech was left out of the tournament for the 4^th year in a row, but two of their neighbor schools are shockingly in the Sweet 16.

In the Southeast bracket, Saturday night’s game between Pittsburgh and Butler had everyone on their heels. We all saw last year what Butler and coach Brad Stevens did for the mid major teams. Not too many people thought Stevens and the Bulldogs could bring their magic from last year into this year. Well guess what, they once again find themselves surviving into the 2^nd weekend of the tournament after defeating the number 1 seed. Yes, the referee’s calls towards the end of the game were controversial, but the calls were not one sided. So that’s the end of that and we move forward.

The only real surprise in the West region was that Texas lost a nail-biter to Arizona, a team nobody thought could make it to the Sweet 16. Rick Barnes has proven once again that he has all the talent in the world, but yet can’t get them over the hump. Maybe it is time for a coaching change in Austin. This doesn’t take away from the performance of Arizona’s Derrick Williams who was quite impressive in leading the wildcats to victory. Duke got back Kyrie Irving, but he saw limited minutes in both games. After almost blowing a 15 point lead to Michigan, Irving sealed the deal with a crucial basket that put the Devils back in the lead with only seconds remaining. It will be very interesting to see how many more minutes Irving gets in the game against Arizona.

In the East, We saw more referee controversy the following day in a great game between North Carolina and Washington. The non – call on the goal tending at the end wouldn’t have mattered anyways because it was a two point shot. How much time should have been on the clock? Well, I don’t really know but maybe Washington shouldn’t have thrown it up from half court to put them in that situation in the first place, but it was a great victory for a young North Carolina team. Ohio St looked like the overall number one seed with a impressive performance in 1^st round and a blowout against George Mason in the 2^nd round. A lot of dramatic games overall for the entire 1^st weekend and I can promise it’s only going to get better as action kicks off tonight. My bracket predictions have already been busted so I am going to start from a clean state and go through each region and give my picks once again.

EAST REGION

Ohio St over Kentucky

North Carolina over Marquette

REGIONAL WINNER – North Carolina

WEST REGION

Duke over Arizona

Connecticut over San Diego St

REGIONAL WINNER – Duke

SOUTHWEST REGION

Kansas over Richmond

Florida St over VCU

REGIONAL WINNER – Kansas

SOUTHEAST REGION

Butler over Wisconsin

BYU over Florida

REGIONAL WINNER – BYU

FINAL FOUR

Duke v. North Carolina – Wow, the two teams have never met in the NCAA tournament but I think this is finally going to be the year that it happens. Many fans do not want to see this happen, but as a die-hard North Carolina fan, I would love it. The loss could be devastating for either club if they were to go on and win a national championship. Coach K would be going for the all time wins record over Bobby Knight. Wouldn’t that be great for Heels fan if they were the ones who made him wait an entire off season for that to happen.

WINNER – NORTH CAROLINA

Kansas v. BYU – A lot of people are assuming that Kansas would be a lock for the national championship game. Well, they are going to have to get by a BYU team, who has an unbelievable player in Jimmer Fredette. I do think the absence of Brandon Davis will be too much for them to handle.

WINNER – KANSAS

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

North Carolina v Kansas – Roy Williams will face his former team once again in the national spotlight. They met in the 2008 national semifinal and Kansas handled the Tarheels, eventually cutting down the nets that year in a great win against Memphis. These two powerhouse programs will play for it all, but will the young North Carolina team have what it takes especially after the semifinal game against their arch – rivals? Well, I believe this team has something magical going for them. They have been a different team ever since Kendall Marshall has taken over the point guard position. A year ago this team didn’t even make the NCAA tournament, a huge disappointment to all the coaches, players, and fans. Well………..order is going to be restored and they will be partying all night long on Franklin Street baby!!!!!!

2011 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS – NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS!!

Patrick Warco

Guest Columnist

GI Joe Casting Call: Part Deux

2011-03-22T16:54:00.004-04:00

GI Joe has been in the news recently as Paramount is gearing up to make a sequel to that POS that was released in 2009. I had hoped that after a little time had passed that they would rethink the approach and just reboot again but it seems like they'd rather take the lazy predictable approach and just continue forward with part 2. The first film boasted the worst casting I've seen in quite a long time.Obviously they didn't consult the Bucket and our casting call cause if they had I can guarantee the film would have been much better. Sienna Miller as the Baroness? Please. Marlon Wayans as Ripcord? You have got to be kidding me. The good news is that Stephen "Craptastic" Sommers has been booted from the second one, the bad news is that they hired that guy who directed the Justin Bieber movie. WTF? Director Jon Chu is also known for those Step Up Dance movies. I read an article where he said something like this, "Because of my background in dance and choreography, my love of movement. I can do a lot with an action movie." Right, they do move a lot in dance movies but that doesn't mean you can direct a hard charging military action flick. Although he did say GI Joe needed to be tougher and not kiddie, so he does have that going for him.

So what we are going to do is revisit the mistakes of the first film and what Chu and Paramount should do to at least try and fix the sequel since they are unwilling to start from the top. We are going to add 5 more new Joes to our casting call and 4 new Cobra characters. Cody is going to do a special new casting for one of his favorite Joes, Cover Girl, who was totally botched in the first film. So pay attention this time Paramount, Cody and I know what were talking about we know what makes GI Joe tick so if you truly want a successful and awesome GI Joe movie then you really need to listen to what were saying and make those changes, and hey you've got the best deal we're not gonna charge you a dime. It's a win win for all. (We'll be posting our picks over the next couple days)

The first film focused mainly on Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) and those God awful accelerator suits. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were pretty cool but not in it enough. The romantic plots between Duke and the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Ripcord and Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) was just god awful. Never have I seen so many pairs of mismatched people in my entire life. And of course Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) were just--painful. Especially after Cody put Eccleston down perfectly as Dr. Mindbender. He would have been a great one had they gone that route. He's not menacing enough to be Destro even with the helmet. And we're not even going to discuss General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), it just hurts to think about how horrible he was in the movie. So the question is what can we do to turn this shitfest around. Let's start with what they have done right so far. Getting rid of Sommers is a key step, that guy couldn't direct his way out of a paper bag. Adding the writers of Zombieland could be a good move. I did like that movie and thought it was well written and funny, but I'm not sure if that translates into a solid GI Joe action movie. They also are not asking back any of the original cast except for Duke, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. This is certainly an improvement but I hope it doesn't mean that there won't be a Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness or a well rounded Joe team. I certainly don't trust Paramount with the keys so they are going to have to do quite a bit to convince me they are capable of making a kick ass GI Joe film.

Now in the original Casting Call for GI Joe I chose 8 of my favorites that I thought would be great in the film. Three and a half of those actually made it into the movie: Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes and technically Roadblock even though he was called Heavy Duty (Who was really just a Roadblock ripoff on the show anyway). (You can also check out the 8 Cobra's cast by Cody if you click right here.) I still stand by my call that Kevin McKidd would make a great Duke and Amy Adams would have been a really excellent Scarlett, but I doubt you could get her now since her asking price went up after the Oscars. I'm hopeful that they give Shipwreck a try for the next film since he didn't make it in the first one. Josh Holloway is perfect and he seems to need some work so help a guy out and get him for the next movie as Shipwreck. As for Flint and Lady Jaye, it could be overkill especially if you have Duke and Scarlett but I still think they would be great for any ensemble especially if you get Nathan Fillion as Flint and Morena Baccarin as Lady Jaye. They have such great chemistry together from their stint on Firefly that it would be a shame not to let them sizzle up the screen with their sexual tension.

March Madness Begins 2011

2011-03-16T21:39:00.000-04:00

Let the Craziness begin. This year is going to be harder than ever to figure out who is going to make it in the Big Dance and because of this extreme difficulty I have called in a Sports Professional my good friend Patrick to help us sift through the top teams and figure out who is overrated and who is going to possibly win it all. I have a feeling that he may be onto something with these picks. Enjoy!

The Ides of March is upon us and most are becoming anxious for the start of spring. People are thinking about the weekend getaways to the beaches, the nice boat rides while enjoying the beautiful sunset, but most of all the warm weather. Yes, we all love when the frigid temperatures and terrible winter weather is behind us. Though, let’s not forget the real excitement that accompanies the month of March and the madness that is about to ensue in the world of sports. It’s the month that is College Basketball’s grand stage. An event in which so many people want to participate in filling out a bracket that they make their picks based on which mascot is better, or which color uniform they like the most. When the word “Cinderella” is heard all over the city and everyone knows you aren’t referring to the folk tale. Every alumni packs their local bars to cheer on their alma mater in hopes their team survives to live another day. A time when office pools are popping up everywhere and work production hits its lowest point of the year. CBS offers every game in live streaming over the internet with the infamous “boss button." Let’s all be serious though, your boss is probably not going to come check to make sure you aren’t watching because he/she is too busy watching it themselves. That’s right ladies and gentleman, MARCH MADNESS is finally here!

A lot of you have been researching teams and studying the brackets the minute they were released on Selection Sunday. Some of you might think that your picks are golden and you are confident you have the winning bracket. You probably have the traditional #12 over #5 seed upset that occurs every year, even some have #13 over # 4, #14 over #3, and MAYBE a #15 over a #2. I am going to go through each region and give you some possible upset picks as well as possible Cinderellas, and of course my winner for each region. This will lead me to my final four and eventual 2011 National Champion!

EAST REGION

When CBS released the brackets on Sunday, they first started with the East. I didn’t even have to look at the other brackets to know the East was going to be the most difficult. Ohio St., North Carolina, Syracuse, and Kentucky are the top 4 seeds. Ohio St has been hot all year long, and North Carolina has turned it around since mid – January with the presence of Kendall Marshall at point guard. Kentucky is riding high after defeating Florida in the SEC championship game, and Syracuse is always a danger with the zone defense.

Possible 1^st round Upsets-

Clemson over West Virginia: Fatigue might be a factor for Clemson after playing in the opening round against UAB on Tues Night…but with a forceful defense and the way they are shooting as of late, Clemson very well could win.

Marquette over Xavier: A very popular upset pick from what I've been reading and what people around me are saying…but Xavier has proven they can play come tournament time..if you are going to go with this one…do so with extreme caution…I believe Xavier could knock out Syracuse in the 2^nd round.

Possible Cinderella: #7 seed Washington.

East Regional Winner: Ohio St over North Carolina - I believe the experience of Jon Diebler and David Lighty…along with the great post play of the freshman Jared Sullinger is going to be too much for a young North Carolina team….Should be a fantastic Elite 8 matchup.

WEST REGION

Possible 1^st round upsets –

Oakland over Texas: Yes, Texas has been one of the top teams in the country throughout the year, but they have shown recently with losses to Nebraska and Colorado, that they have vulnerability. Oakland has played seven teams in that are in the field this year. This very well could be the upset that have people talking.)

Missouri over Cincinnati: The Tigers have a very athletic team with a Coach that has experience in the tournament. They have a very aggressive defense that will allow them to shut down the Bearcats offense.

Possible Cinderella - #5 seed Arizona.

West Regional Winner – Duke over UConn - Let me set the record straight. Connecticut is a very good team, as they showed by winning five straight games in the Big East Tournament. Duke is returning two starters, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler, and if the Freshman guard Kryie Irving is healthy, this team has a shot to win it all.

SOUTHWEST REGION

Possible 1^st Round Upsets –

Richmond over Vanderbilt: Richmond beat Purdue at the beginning of the season which showed people that they can compete with powerhouse schools. Vanderbilt played in a weak SEC conference this year.

Florida St over Texas A&M: The Seminoles have a great defense and it will be interesting to see if Chris Singleton can rebound from an injury in mid – February. If he comes back to play, this team could be a dark horse in this region.

Possible Cinderella: #10 seed Florida State.

Southwest Regional Winner: Notre Dame over Kansas - Ben Hansbrough is the Big East Player of the Year and the three point shooting of Notre Dame has been lights out coming into post season play. The leadership and intensity within Hansbrough will surprise most and lead this team to the Final Four in Houston.

SOUTHEAST REGION

Possible 1^st Round Upsets –

Utah St over Kansas St: Kansas St has played erratic over the course of the entire season and Utah St. has only lost three games.

Belmont over Wisconsin: The Badgers inability to score as was seen in the Big Ten Tournament when they scored only 33 points spells trouble for this team. Belmont has five seniors that average double digit points and only lost four games the entire season.

Michigan St over UCLA: Don’t bet against Tom Izzo when it comes time to play in the tournament in March. They have made back to back Final Fours, including the championship game in 2009. I know they had 14 losses during the season, but the experience of Kalin Lucas and Draymond Green could lead this team to a 3^rd consecutive final four.

Possible Cinderella: #10 seed Michigan St.

Southeast Regional Final: Pittsburgh over Michigan St - The Panthers have a well balanced team and might be one of the most complete college teams in the nation. Jamie Dixon is a great coach and is trying to get over the hump and finally make a Final Four. Brad Wanamaker is a senior guard who will lead this team to Houston.

NATIONAL SEMIFINALS

Ohio St over Duke

Notre Dame over Ohio St

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Notre Dame over Ohio State - Yes, they will be celebrating a championship in South Bend, Indiana, BUT NOT FOR FOOTBALL!! Ben Hansbrough will join his brother Tyler, as a National Champion!

Patrick Warco

Guest Columnist

Oscars 2011

2011-02-28T00:30:00.003-05:00

We're going to do something a little different on the bucket this year. We're here at home watching the Oscars with my wife, myself, her dad and her mom and we're going to make our comments about the big wins. Not a full play-by-play of the evening but a reaction to the winners in each category and give our candid and unbridled opinions about the event.

So here goes--

Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland wins for Art Direction--they love them some Tim Burton and his team. The only response from the peanut gallery here is--"Really?" I mean, it did look good but that's probably about it--it certainly wasn't a good movie.

Cinematography: Boo-yah! Although I feel bad that Deakins got snubbed again, but Pfister did do an amazing job on Inception, so pretty pumped that Inception gets something substantial.

Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo--hmm, I really thought she shot herself in the foot with those ads but I guess no one really gave a shit. She did do a great job, but man, I still think that Hailee Steinfeld was awesome and I know we'll see her again. Wow, Mrs. Leo is losing it--she just dropped the bomb, I guess they are on a delay cause they just bleeped it. Gotta be an even bigger thrill that she got the award from Kirk Douglas, that guy is still pretty sharp and funny.

Best Animated Short: The Lost Thing? Don't know much about the shorts except for Night and Day, the Pixar short in front of Toy Story 3. It was a pretty awesome short, so who knows, maybe Lost Thing was pretty extraordinary too.

Best Animated Feature: Well, as predicted Toy Story 3 won--not a big surprise. But it was a pretty awesome film, if you haven't see it you definitely need to. Not much to say about it--looks like folks around here are getting sleepy. So far not too many surprises here.

Adapted Screenplay: BOOM! Sorkin first time win and there it is! Yeah, he went on a bit too long but damn he didn't skip a beat he didn't stutter. Love that guy! Is it just me, or do Bardem and Brolin look like a couple of waiters in those tuxes?

Original Screenplay: So King's Speech is beginning its run--Seidler seems like a decent guy, but damn I wanted Chris Nolan to get it for Inception cause he's probably going to get snubbed for Picture. My mother in law is schooling me when I asked her thoughts about the win for King's Speech: "What are you asking me for, I haven't seen that movie."

Best Foreign Language Film: Yay for In a Better World from Denmark--the third movie from Denmark to win in this category--yeah, I don't know about this movie. But I'm surprised the one movie I knew about in this category, Biutiful, didn't win. Seems like a nice lady--no comment from the peanut gallery here, guess no one else here knows about this movie either--and since they are more worldly than I am I don't feel so bad.

Best Supporting Actor: As it should be, Christian Bale gets the award. He's an exceptional actor and he totally earned that, but all my wife can say is that that beard is hideous. FIL (Father-In-Law) concurs that the beard is horrible. FIL can't fathom how this guy can pull off such a flawless American accent. Bale forgot his wife's name--ouch, but I have to admit it's always a tough thing to get up there and do that.

Best Original Score: I figured Trent Reznor would get and it is well deserved. FIL is surprised that Reznor was in Nine Inch Nails--he said that is pretty amazing. That's a pretty big win. The guy is musically gifted so it seems like a pretty well deserved win.

Sound Mixing: My wife is bugging me to inform her when something interesting is happening. Well here it is: Inception bags another one. Congrats!

Sound Editing: Richard King and Inception again! So that is three for Inception, not too bad. But it's starting to look like Inception is getting the pity fuck awards. It's starting to become clear that they are gearing up to give the big ones to the King's Speech.

Makeup: Rick Baker the best in the makeup business. My wife and Cate said that the clip for Wolfman was gross at the same time. Yeah it's hard to compete with anyone else when he's on the ballot the guy is just that good.

Costumes: No real surprise there that Alice in Wonderland took the costumes award. It's hard to compete with that I would think given the crazy whacked out things the characters were wearing in that movie. So the wife is now inspired to look up what the internets are saying about Anne Hathaway's outfit changes. What saith Google? Anyone care to know the tricks to managing your breasts in plunging gowns?

Best Documentary Shorts: Strangers No More, interesting--don't know much about that one. FIL is snoring. Everyone is wondering how long are these shorts, 30 minutes? Now FIL, who is suddenly awake, says he wants to see it cause he heard the lady was from Israel--hmm.

Live Action Short Film: God of Love. Wow, look at this guy's hair--Jewfro. And he comments about getting a haircut, nice. Oh, this guy went to NYU Film school, why is that not surprising?

Best Documentary: "Good," says FIL, "Phenomenal movie." Inside Job just won for Best Documentary. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm kind of scared to 'cause I feel like I'm gonna be pissed the whole time. Charles nailed it: none of these bastards that railroaded our economy are in jail right now, and that is a shame. FIL is still glowing about Inside Job: "It's mesmerizing." He's now saying, "They are all crooks, it's terrible." That it is, my friend.

Visual Effects: Inception, as it should, gets the Visual Effects award. I would have been pissed if it went to Hereafter. So up to 4 now--not so bad. How the hell did Tron: Legacy not get a nomination but Hereafter did, there is definitely something wrong with this picture.

Film Editing: Social Network got editing--nice, it was a well put together film, so good job. I was talking over this one at first so I didn't even realize which one was on. But my wife was very impressed by one guy who thanked his wife for allowing him to have a passionate role with his family and his work. She doesn't usually get so excited about a thank you speech, but she's been getting annoyed with these guys who thank their beautiful and hot wives. She'd rather they say what this guy just said, or use the word intelligent before calling them beautiful. I smiled and said of course they should, my dear.

Best Original Song: FIL thought they were all pretty bad except for Randy Newman's. He's been grouchy about these "terrible songs" all night. Ah, thankfully Randy Newman won for Toy Story 3, 'cause that is the only one FIL thought was any good, so maybe we won't hear much grousing about it anymore. Randy Newman the cutup. What a funny guy.

In Memoriam: Fucking Celine Dion has to sing the song to remember those that have passed? Tacky. She's so fucking melodramatic with her facial contortions--ugh--just pull away to a clip already. John Barry, best Bond songs ever! Billy Fraker, guy was an incredible cinematographer--Sally Menke- Tarantino's right hand in the editing booth, Leslie Nielsen you will be missed, very sad...okay, get off Celine's stupid face. Arthur Penn: man, I didn't realize he had died. Irvin Kirshner: saved Star Wars for all time with The Empire Strike Back- I don't have the words; Dennis Hopper: that crazy bastard will be missed. Nice special tribute to Lena Horne.

Best Director: No surprise Tom Hooper won Best Director for King's Speech, even though it should be Fincher or more importantly Chris Nolan. Hooper is a good director but fuck, I don't understand how he won this award. They are sitting down half the damn time in the film. There were some odd angles and maybe that's why--but even fans of the film call it square for the obvious reason. But he seems like a nice guy, thankfully. Otherwise worst pick by far.

Governor Awards: Eli Wallach, Godard, Brownlow and Francis Ford Coppola for the Governor Awards. It's always great to see Eli Wallach get some love, yeah I know he was a little weird in Wall Street 2 but that doesn't take away from his great body of work. Magnificent Seven, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Mackenna's Gold, How the West Was Won and many more. And of course Coppola too, his stuff hasn't been as good of late but his classics are just that. I really shouldn't have to list them here. Not a big fan of Godard but the guy is a true artist and deserves to be awarded for his hard work. Don't really know much about Brownlow, it looks like he's got some interesting documentaries about Old Hollywood. Have to check those out.

Best Actress: Again, no surprise, Natalie Portman got the win for Black Swan. But she's great--I haven't seen the flick yet but I'm sure it's well deserved. Everyone is now asking who is this guy she's maybe married to, is he French. Yeah, he's got a French name.

Best Actor: So my wife is telling us that apparently Hershlag is her original name. My mother in law thought she was asking if it was presenter Sandra Bullock's original name, but it is actually Natalie Portman's real name. And now you know. The group is now recognizing that Jesse Eisenberg is from East Brunswick; I wish I could record the reactions 'cause this is funny. FIL is yelling at Colin Firth to "move it along 'cause we all know you won!" And no surprise, it's Colin Firth for King's Speech. He's been due for a little while so it's no biggie. And he's a pretty good guy, and he did a great job in the film. He played a very convincing stutterer, which I'm sure is no small feat.

Best Picture: Man, they got Spielberg. Nice, maybe it'll finally go to the most worthy film which is of course Inception. But I doubt it. By the way I did see King's Speech this afternoon, so I can make my criticism about it plain. I'll be posting my review sometime later this week, so stay tuned; also going to do one for The Kids Are All Right. Just realized that they are making it so obvious that it's going to be The King's Speech: they are showing all of the nominees but we only hear that damn King's speech over everything. Way to go to build up the suspense---Yawn. Yes we know The King's Speech is going to win. Ugh, what a fucking crock--we knew it was going to be this movie for weeks now--no surprise. I want to say it was a good movie it really was but Best Picture--Fuck no. Not even close. But what are you going to do. This guy accepting the award is saying it's not an obvious film to back, are you fucking kidding me, this film has had Oscar winner stamped on it since the first draft.

Well that was an okay evening, the best films get snubbed for the big awards yet again. But what are you going to do, the old farts are still running things and giving awards to the most ordinary and obvious films like the King's Speech. If there are British aristocrats in your film and especially if it's a period piece then you've chalked yourself up to at least a nomination, and in most cases a win. Overall Hathaway and Franco did ok, even though he seemed to not really care to be there and she seemed like she was sniffing glue or something before the show. She took goofy to a whole other level. But it did seem to move along a bit better this time, not as much starfucking but there was still plenty to go around. I hope going forward they will get the monarchy films out of their system for a while and we don't have to see one of these stuffy-ass Brit films for at least a few years.

Oscar Picks 2011

2011-02-26T21:46:00.057-05:00

Well it's that time of the year already and at first it was starting to look like the competition would be fast and fierce since there were quite a few great movies this past year. But Big Harv has seemingly spoiled the competition as it appears he has bought his way, again, into the hearts of the Oscar voters. As of this posting on Saturday, the King's Speech's Tom Hooper has now somehow won best Director at the DGA awards today. I haven't seen the film and I'm trying not to judge, I know the film has already made over 100 mil at the box office which is kind of unheard of for a square film like this. And everyone I know seems to think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Apparently even my folks are drinking this kool-aid. But I am going to try and see it tomorrow so I can put all the hype to bed. But in the meantime we can go through the big awards and talk about who is going to win. Again, this isn't about whether the film is truly good or not it's about star fucking and no one star fucks like the Oscars. Shall we begin?

Best Picture: There is a possibility that there could be a surprise here, there are after all a lot of great films here. So far I've seen six of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture: Inception, Toy Story 3, The Fighter, The Social Network, True Grit and just yesterday The Kids Are All Right. The remaining 4 I have yet to see are The King's Speech, 127 Hours, Winter's Bone and Black Swan. I really enjoyed the Fighter, and I wouldn't mind if it won but I didn't feel like it was the best of this bunch, as far as I've seen. It's a great character study and Christian Bale is certainly due his for his role but I don't know if it should get more than that. Toy Story 3, however, could take the prize and I would be pretty excited. It's certainly the best of the three previous films and that is no small feat. I've seen it three times and it still gets me choked up at the end. Personally, I'm rooting for Inception, it's the most original and entertaining film I've seen in a long time and it truly deserves the win. But for some reason the Academy seems to hate Nolan since they snubbed him for Director and now it looks like he's not even close to front runner status in this category. According to the recent reports it's a toss up between The Social Network and The King's Speech, with the latter as the front runner. If I were to put money on the event I would place my bet with King's Speech. People are slobbering all over the damn thing and when you have Harvey Weinstein shamelessly promoting your film there really isn't much of a chance for anyone else. So we'll see if my prediction is true about the obsession with British Royals/Monarchs and the Oscars.

OSCARS: The King's Speech
MY CHOICE: Inception

Best Actor: The nominees are; Javier Bardem for Biutiful, Jeff Bridges for True Grit, Jesse Eisenberg for the Social Network, Colin Firth for the King's Speech & James Franco for 127 Hours. Again this one seems to be a lock for the King's Speech, and Firth probably is deserving, I'm willing to concede that. The guy is talented and I'm sure he's due. Although I hate it when they vote that way. I loved Jeff Bridges in True Grit, and I would love for him to win again but he didn't steal that show that was Hailee Steinfeld. Also thought Eisenberg was good in Social Network but he was still playing the nebbish Geek he always plays. Not sure if he warranted a nod there. His buddy Andrew Garfield was the one who really got snubbed for the supporting role in that film. Life imitates art I guess.

OSCARS: Colin Firth
MY CHOICE: Colin Firth

Best Actress: The nominees are; Annette Bening for the Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone, Natalie Portman for Black Swan and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. Now for this category I'm really behind because I've only see one of these films and frankly as much as I love Annette Bening I just don't understand how she was nominated and Julianne Moore was not. I mean, Julianne Moore killed it, I was totally engrossed in what she was doing on screen in that movie. Again I think that Hollywood has snubbed Annette a few times and they are now looking to make up for it even though her performance was just ok. But it's pretty clear the front runners here are Natalie Portman and Annette is nipping at her heels. I already know how great Natalie Portman is and I'm quite positive she is great in this, so I feel pretty good about throwing the ball in her court. I really want to see this Winter's Bone because it's getting a lot of good press, but it probably won't happen before tomorrow, so sorry Jennifer Lawrence.

OSCARS: Natalie Portman
MY CHOICE: Natalie Portman

Best Supporting Actor: The nominees are; Christian Bale for the Fighter, John Hawkes for Winter's Bone, Jeremy Renner in the Town, Mark Ruffalo in the Kids are All Right and Geoffrey Rush for the King's Speech. This one seems pretty locked up for Christian Bale and is much deserved. He really is at the same level as Daniel Day Lewis, say what you want about his serious and somewhat pissy nature the guy can fucking act. I also really liked Mark Ruffalo in the Kids Are All Right, as a free wheeling hippie. He gets blown away by Bale but in an off year the guy would really be a contender in that role. Jeremy Renner is always great but his tough guy criminal in the Town doesn't quite make the cut in my mind. He was really great in the movie but I thought the character has been done to death; likeable, angry/crazy crook with a sense of dignity. I'm sure Geoffrey Rush is exceptional in the King's Speech and he's certainly in the race, but I just don't see him beating Bale.

OSCARS: Christian Bale
MY CHOICE: Christian Bale

Best Supporting Actress: The nominees are; Amy Adams in the Fighter, Helena Bonham Carter in the King's Speech, Melissa Leo in the Fighter, Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit and Jackie Weaver in Animal Kingdom. Both Amy Adams and Melissa Leo were great in the Fighter but neither one really stood out for me in this category. I was really blown away by Hailee Steinfeld, she verbally manhandled great actors like Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon without even blinking. I don't think she's going to win but I am really rooting for her. Some reliable sources who have seen the King's Speech seem to be perplexed that Bonham Carter was even nominated for her role. It was apparently tiny and not particularly memorable, but I'm sure that's just Harvey's influence again. It'll probably boil down to Amy Adams and Melissa Leo, but I think Leo shot herself in the foot with her weird and self-indulgent ad campaign for herself. Can't fathom that got her any extra votes. So we'll have to see how this goes down.

OSCARS: Amy Adams
MY CHOICE: Hailee Steinfeld

Animated Feature Film: The nominees are; How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist and Toy Story 3. Unfortunately I've only seen one of these but it's odd to me that they didn't nominate Tangled or Despicable Me. I've heard great things about the Illusionist and I'm really kicking myself that I didn't try to make time to see it. I really think Toy Story 3 should only have been nominated in one of these categories instead of both because it's clear that it will probably win here and lose in Best Picture.

OSCARS: Toy Story 3
MY CHOICE: Toy Story 3

Cinematography: The nominees are; Matthew Libatique for Black Swan, Wally Pfister for Inception, Danny Cohen for The King's Speech, Jeff Cronenweth for The Social Network and Roger Deakins for True Grit. Now I have been a fan of Roger Deakins for a long time and it's awesome to see him here. He shot the shit out of True Grit with it's vast arid landscapes that were just beautiful. Some of his favorites of mine; Hudsucker Proxy, Shawshank Redemption, Thuderheart (yes I said Thunderheart, it's a good movie and it looks awesome thanks to Deakins), The Big Lebowski, House of Sand and Fog, A Beautiful Mind, No Country For Old Men and the Assassination of Jesse James. And this guy has never won one? The guy has been nominated 8 fucking times just give it to him, and you can feel good about it because his latest work is just as exceptional. As a runner-up I really did like the way Inception was shot, the guy did a phenomenal job. If he were to pick it up I'd be sad for Deakins but Pfister is no less worthy for his work.

OSCARS: Roger Deakins for True Grit
MY CHOICE: Roger Deakins for True Grit

Director: The Nominees are; Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan, David O. Russell for the Fighter, Tom Hooper for The King's Speech, David Fincher for The Social Network and Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit. I liked David O. Russell for the Fighter, it could have turned into an annoying episode of Jerry Springer but he really got this best out of his cast and made the underdog story interesting with the help of the very colorful characters. I'm glad to see him on the list but this isn't his year. The Coens have been here before but they probably aren't going to walk off with a trophy either considering they've been here recently. I think they were at the top of their game with True Grit but Fincher really went against type and pulled off a great feat with the Social Network. Writer Sorkin sometimes has a habit of making his characters sound similar and I think through Fincher's direction was able to utilize that great dialogue to create some very unique and different characters. I honestly hope he gets it. It's between him and Hooper and Hooper walked off with the DGA award today so, it's looking more and more like a win for him.

OSCARS: Tom Hooper for King's Speech
MY CHOICE: David Fincher for the Social Network

Film Editing: The nominees are; Andrew Weisblum for Black Swan, Pamela Martin for the Fighter, Tariq Anwar for The King's Speech, Jon Harris for 127 Hours and Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for the Social Network. Much like Directing I'm not sure why Lee Smith wasn't nominated for Inception. I mean that was a complicated film to shoot much less piece together, it's truly a crime that he got snubbed. I liked the pacing of Social Network it truly was put together well. Very fluid as we jump back and forth. Again the King's Speech is the one to beat again from what I hear. It's hard to say which way this will go.

OSCARS: The King's Speech - Jon Harris
MY CHOICE: The Social Network - Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Visual Effects: The nominees are; Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 1, Hereafter, Inception and Iron Man 2. Having seen all but one of these again I would have to say quality of script with awesome effects equals Inception hands down. I loved Iron Man 2 and Harry Potter and the great things they pull off but they just don't match the complexities of Inception. Alice in Wonderland wasn't very good honestly, so I just can't bring myself to give it anything. I love Tim Burton but this was not his finest work, not even close. And my only other question in this category is how did Tron Legacy get bumped off this list. Say what you want about the film, personally I really liked it, but you can't deny the effects were pretty damn impressive and certainly deserved a nod.

OSCARS: Inception - Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
MY CHOICE: Inception- Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Writing Adapted Screenplay: The nominees are; Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for 127 Hours, Aaron Sorkin for the Social Network, Michael Arndt for Toy Story 3, Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit and Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini for Winter's Bone. The Pixar folk really did a great job with their script and it is truly worthy as is the great western script by the Coen brothers but I'm gonna go with Sorkin for this one. He elevated this movie's status 100% with his involvement and with that smart rapid fire dialogue of his that is always fun to watch.

OSCARS: Aaron Sorkin for Social Network
MY CHOICE: Aaron Sorkin for Social Network

Writing Original Screenplay: The nominees are; Mike Leigh for Another Year, Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for the Fighter, Christopher Nolan for Inception, Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumburg for the Kids Are All Right and David Seidler for the King's Speech. I haven't seen Another Year unfortunately so I can't make many comments on that one, but The Fighter was pretty great as well as the Kids Are All Right, but again in any other year they would be prime contenders but I just don't think they stand up to Inception. Although I'm not sure if Inception has a clear path here. I've been hearing more and more rumors that King's Speech is going to walk away with this one too. Given how much Oscar has screwed Chris Nolan this year I'm thinking that they are going to give him the pity fuck here.

OSCARS: Chris Nolan Inception
MY CHOICE: Chris Nolan Inception

Music - Original Score: The nominees are; John Powell for How to Train Your Dragon, Hans Zimmer for Inception, Alexandre Desplat for The King's Speech, A.R. Rahman for 127 Hours, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network. The scores for Inception and Social Network were really fantastic. Personally I was more affected by the Inception score, it just worked with the film so effectively that many times you didn't even notice it's impact. I thought that the Social Network score had a hard edge to it like in a suspense film, it honestly shouldn't work with the film but it really does bring a new element to the story that makes it far more interesting.

OSCARS: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Social Network
MY CHOICE: Hans Zimmer for Inception

Time is an issue so I just kind of breezed over the main categories if I missed one you love, sorry, I'll try to get them all next year. I wanted to put Foreign Films up there but I just hadn't had a chance to see any of the film in contention this year so it wouldn't have been a very interesting conversation. We're going to be putting up our thoughts about the Oscars tomorrow on the Bucket so you can check back either late Sunday night or Monday for our thoughts about the 2011 Oscars.

I Am Number 4

2011-02-26T21:44:00.000-05:00

Based on the serialized novel of the same name that incidentally came out fairly recently. Even more interestingly the novel was ghost written by Jobie Hughes and James Frey under the name Pittacus Lore. If you know your books or at least your scandals you would have recognized the name, James Frey. He's the guy who wrote the semi-fictional-autobiographical book about his life as a man dealing with alcoholism and drug abuse and the 12 step program that brought him out of the mess called A Million Little Pieces. The book was huge and got a big boost from Oprah, but unfortunately he made a lot of it up, creating a scandal where Oprah was forced to unleash a can of shame on his ass. But since then I guess the guy has been busy, apparently I Am Number 4 spent 6 weeks on the NY Times Best Sellers list for young adult science fiction. I've never read any of his books or knew much about the guy, but I guess given the early hype for this movie, he's found a way to bounce back. Even if he had to use a pseudonym.

The story is about young John Smith (Alex Pettyfer), a young teen who looks normal but is in actuality an alien from another planet. He's one of nine special children from the doomed planet, Lorien that are being hunted down one by one by the Mogodorians. The evil aliens responsible for the destruction of their homeworld. These Mogodorians have found them on Earth and have killed the first three already. John is number 4. He is sheltered by another of his race, Henri (Timothy Oliphant), who isn't given much to work with playing the guardian/wise old sage role. But given that he's the only truly credible actor in this production, it's extremely necessary. So the two of them John and Henri move from place to place, try to keep hidden, in order to evade detection from the Mogodorians. They find themselves in Paradise, Ohio where John meets some new peeps, the local geek, named Sam (Callan McAuliffe) and the girl, John crushes on, Sarah (Dianna Agron). Of course the Mogodorians track him to Paradise and the battles ensue. But all this kid wants to do is live a normal life, unfortunately he has ugly fish face people trying to kill him and crazy hot light beams shooting out of his hands at random, what is a teenager to do?

I know I sound snarky about it but I had a good time with it, it made me feel like I was watching Smallville, which is probably a backhanded compliment. It's the same writers and it feels and sounds like a Superman rip-off. But the pacing isn't bad and the romance isn't too CW but it's pretty close. I hate to say it but I don't see this one making a successful series. Supposedly there are five more books in the works, and this movie left it wide open for more sequels. It just didn't feel original enough and I'm not sold on Pettyfer as a leading man. They should have given this to up and comer Teresa Palmer who fills in nicely as a bad ass number 6. She seemed to try a little too hard, but she has potential and did I mention that she's smoking hot. They left her backstory a bit of a mystery, although it could be more meat for the next one. It was frustrating that they didn't really give her more to do, but I guess the less is more approach is what made her interesting in the first place, so in hindsight it was probably a good idea.

For a simple serialized sci-fi story it wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't shout from the rooftops about it either. The special effects were ok, they were pretty much like Smallville in the first hour or so but the final battle was a little more impressive. I think the series as a whole could be interesting if they put a little more meat in there and they need to try and avoid the similarities between Superman and John cause there are times where it just looks so blatant it's almost criminal. The doomed planet stuff, the I'm different and don't belong thing. The addition of learning powers, which he laments they aren't a gift--yada yada yada, you get the picture. If you want to see a fairly simple story with some pretty people and some decent action then I Am Number 4 is up your alley.

Grade: 2 Buckets

Don't You Want Me-by Atomic Tom

2011-02-24T16:38:00.001-05:00

Take Me Home Tonight opens on Friday March, 4th!

The Mechanic

2011-02-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

So yet another remake of yet another classic action film. I don't know what the tally is on remakes in the last two years or so but it's gotta be in the high 50's at least. Anyway, saw this one a couple of weeks ago. I'll be honest with you crazy busy season has set in here at the Bucket. (Hey if it were a full time gig, there would be more posts, promise.) But I've finally found a few seconds to sit down and give my two cents about the film. Just checked the grosses so far, and it kinda seems like a modest hit with about 26 mil in the tank. Not too bad for a small action film, or Chopper as my father in law likes to call it. Must be some Israeli thing, cause when I think of a Chopper flick I'm thinking about Hells Angels, jailhouse tats, boobs and a lot of blood. The Mechanic has about three out of four, so I guess it can qualify. It's a remake of a Chuck Bronson classic of the same name from 1972. It's not a bad update, Statham does his signature growls and then proceeds to kick the bad guys ass. It's not rocket science but it works.

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is the best assassin in the business. In fact he's so good he can, at times, make his kills look like accidents. He's sophisticated cause he only listens to classical music on vinyl and he's dedicated and loyal to his handler (Donald Sutherland). Did I also mention he beds a super hot model, Sarah (Mini Anden). But things go south when he starts to have issues with his agency and it's top dog Dean (Tony Goldwyn) and he has to go on the offensive. To top it off he's tasked with training the loser son, Steve (Ben Foster), of his mentor and handler. All in a days work for the Stat.

It's a predictable, but fun action romp. The Stat says one step ahead of everyone in the movie which is par for the course for one of his movies. There are some really nice action pieces not unlike the Expendables. Personally I think the Mechanic is what the Expendables should have been with an ensemble, but what can you do. Ben Foster, however, is a nice addition to the mix. He stews nicely as a poor man's Ryan Gosling. The guy can sell intense I can tell you that, he's just so damn serious. And I think the Stat and Foster made a nice team for a while, I enjoyed their back and forth banter. It's also nice to have a solid actor in the mentor role and no one plays a mentor like Donald Sutherland, the guy is a master, literally. It's also a nice return for director Simon West who hasn't had a solid action flick in a while; since what, Tom Raider in 2001? So if you have a hankering for a hard edged, but slick action thriller, kind of a low rent Spy Games, then check this one out. But I'd do it soon, coming out this week is I Am Number 4 and that kick ass looking flick with Liam Neeson, called Unknown. It'll probably be tough to find the Mechanic after this weekend so go while the Stat is hot.

Grade: 3 Buckets

The Company Men

2011-01-29T23:19:00.000-05:00

Ben Affleck appears to be on a nice little roll. He seems to be hitting his stride first as a director in Gone Baby Gone and the Town and as an actor in smaller fare like Hollywoodland. Honestly I've always liked the guy but it did appear for a while that it was getting to his head. It's nice to see him back in good character driven stories like Company Men. Director John Wells got some of the best character actors in the business to be in the film with solid actors like Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Maria Bello. I also really enjoyed Craig T. Nelson and Rosemarie DeWitt. Craig plays a great jerkwad boss who is completely unaware of the suffering of his employees, and worse he probably could care less. And Rosemarie De Witt isn't in as many scenes as she should be but her presence was felt always. The film was in some senses a less depressing version of Up In the Air, or to put it more bluntly it follows the poor saps that George Clooney was firing. I was skeptical of the film at first especially when I saw John Wells name attached. If you know anything about Wells and his TV background you'll know that he had a hand in two of my favorite shows West Wing and E.R. but he also had a bad habit of over the top melodrama; Think E.R. when the tank came to the hospital or a hostage crisis in the E.R. Now I'm not saying he masterminded these episodes himself but he was executive producer and both shows seemed to suffer from this problem from time to time especially during sweeps week. So given this dubious background I was concerned that this problem would carry over to his feature directorial debut. I can happily tell you that it doesn't happen and in fact it really captures the Corporate culture and all of it's terrible faults accurately without banging you over the head with it.

A low level Corporate salesman, for a shipbuilding firm is laid off and he struggles to put his life back together. Bobby Walker, (Ben Affleck) can't seem to adjust to not only losing his job but losing the perks that go with it, his Porsche and playing golf. It's almost sad watching him struggle in denial about what just happened and how he may have to adjust his lifestyle in order to pay the bills and support his family. The film also follows Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), a middle aged man who finds himself on the chopping block, and his story is even more heartbreaking as he is only a few years from retirement. Chris Cooper gives another great performance as a man who has his dignity stolen from him in the most humiliating way possible. His age becomes a hurdle for him in job placement as he isn't given quite the golden parachute his kindly boss, Gene McLary (Tommy Lee Jones) is given. Tommy Lee Jones' character is hard to pin down he's a corporate guy living high on the hog but he does seem to have a sense of honor and he truly cares about the people under him. Its interesting watching him navigate through the impending doom of his company and hoping and waiting for him to do the right thing. The story takes direct aim at the current financial crisis and the out of touch Corporate culture that still continues to dominate our world in the worst ways possible.

It's an honest examination of the White Collar world in the 21st Century and I have heard some complaints about the ending being too happy, which personally I think is ridiculous. I think for those of us who work in any industry would like to believe and at least hope that someone from the upper management cares about the welfare of their employees beyond just paying them. That being said every time I felt like the movie was getting sappy or over the top they balance it out nicely. I even enjoyed the scenes where Bobby has to work for his brother-in-law in construction just to pay the bills. Someone should honestly tell Kevin Costner never to attempt a Boston accent, he didn't get it right on Thirteen Days and he certainly didn't again here. But at least he toned it down. So if you are caught up on all of your Oscar nominated flicks then you should see this little film, it's a good drama with some great performances.

Grade: 3 Buckets

The Green Hornet

2011-01-23T17:55:00.000-05:00

It looks like Hollywood is tossing out the Superhero stories even earlier than normal this year, you've got the Green Hornet to be followed by Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class & possibly Red Sonja. It's going to be a big year for spandex clad heroes and another big test to see if comic book films still have true staying power. The Hornet has a slightly different feel then most of these costumed super heroes. The Green Hornet originally got its start on radio back in 1936. Then in film serials in the 40's and eventually the Hornet got his own TV show in the 60's. It was campy and silly much like it's more popular counterpart Batman. But it was really Bruce Lee, as Kato, that put the show on the map. It was his first on-screen gig and with the addition of the gorgeous 1966 Imperial Black Beauty it became a cult classic years later. (It only lasted on the air for a year.) Unfortunately the guy playing the Green Hornet was um, less famous. He was played by Van Williams who had the unfortunate task of looking like a bad ass next to Bruce Lee, I really didn't envy him in that position. So as it goes the premise is this newspaper man named Britt Reid takes on the alter ego of the vigilante Green Hornet with his bad ass sidekick Kato to fight crime by posing as criminals. Again, I was never a fan of this show, thought the name was cool and of course Kato was pretty awesome but it was never enough to keep my attention. Fast forward to today and the remake with Seth Rogan and Jay Chou as Kato. At first when I saw this happening I thought it sounded like a bad idea. It felt like they were just going to Animal House a superhero movie and it would still be just as stupid and silly as the 1960's version. Then two things happened, I saw Observe and Report and watched Seth Rogan convincingly beat the shit out of bad guys while still retaining the funny and I learned that Michel Gondry was taking over as director for Green Hornet. Admittedly Gondry can be hit or miss I really hated Be Kind Rewind... But I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But to put Rogan and Gondry together at once sounded insane or insanely brilliant. After seeing it I find it clearly falls more into the latter.

Britt Reid (Seth Rogan) is damaged rich guy who, when he was young, tried to help kids who were being bullied by getting into fights. His father (Tom Wilkinson) in disgust rips the head off of his favorite superhero toy and tells him to man up. Thus this kid becomes a male version of Paris Hilton, spoiled rotten, sheltered and completely clueless about the outside world. When his father is found dead by a bee sting, Britt is left with a multi-million dollar Newspaper and the responsibility to make up for his past laziness. One of the prime movers in getting him off his ass is his father's mechanic Kato (Jay Chou). After seeing Kato's smarts and his ability to kick ass Bruce Lee style he decides they should become vigilantes. And just like the show they try a bit of mis-direction by appearing as criminals to lure the bad guys into a false sense of security. This plan doesn't work out so well but it is damn funny watching them try. He dubs himself the Green Hornet and again just like in the TV show lets Kato do most of the muscle work if not all of it. It's particularly hilarious to watch as he Forest Gumps his way to some success and takes full credit for everything while constantly calling Kato just his sidekick. They get into some trouble when they cross paths with a dangerous psychopath named Chudnofsky (Chrisoph Waltz) with serious anger issues. Waltz puts in a really funny performance too. He definitely plays for more laughs then you would think.

I really got a kick out of this flick honest. If you liked Pineapple Express then there isn't any reason why you wouldn't like this one. Although Seth Rogan's Britt Reid is even more of a douche in the Green Hornet if that's even possible. It's hard to like the guy through most of the movie, but thankfully Jay Chou is really fun to watch especially when he's kicking ass. He actually is the main hero after all. The guy is also pretty funny and the chemistry between Rogan and Chou is pretty great. I especially loved the knock down drag out fight between the two of them it ranks up there with the Tony vs. Rhodey fight in Iron Man 2 for sure. They use every piece of furniture possible. The car chases were pretty fucking awesome and the action pieces were impressive. Not sure why this needed to be in 3D but it didn't take anything away from it. But it just didn't feel like a 3D type of film except for maybe the last action sequence. Also I don't understand why the hell Cameron Diaz was in this movie. Her soul purpose in the film felt completely forced and out of place except for one scene when Britt was questioning her for the job and was not so politely calling her old. It was a pretty damn funny scene, and I'll give her credit for taking the hit, but I couldn't shake the image of a boardroom meeting with Seth Rogan saying shit like, "OK, picture this Cameron Diaz, hot, a little on the old side, maybe menopausal, the jokes will flow like wine. How awesome would that be?" Then they realize that she's only in the movie for ten minutes so they give her some bullshit talent to be a Mob profiler. Yeah, sorry Cameron, but that's what it felt like.

Anyway, if you get a chance to see the flick you should absolutely see it, whether in 3D or 2D it shouldn't matter it's got the laughs and the action to keep anyone satisfied. I also really dug the Kato perspective fighting technique they used. At first it's a little odd but it was a pretty cool format and it really allowed it to keep it's credentials in the awesome effects departments. I give Gondry all the props there. That car also was pretty kick ass. So if you don't go for either Rogan or Chou then definitely go for that tricked out car. Very cool stuff.

Grade: 3 Buckets

True Grit

2011-01-02T09:16:00.030-05:00

Happy New Years everyone. It's that time of the season again to start endlessly speculating on the Oscar picks for this year. It's the second day of January and again I am behind on my Oscar Watch movies. The nominations are not in yet but I feel confident that I'm at least 5 or 6 movies behind. Thankfully over the Christmas break I was able to catch up a little bit. So far this year I've seen: The Social Network (It's a Relativity title so sorry guys no review), The Town, Toy Story 3 and Inception and of course now I've seen True Grit. Over the next month I'm going to try to see and review Black Swan, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, The Kids Are All Right, and I still haven't had the chance to see the Fighter (Also a Relativity title), but I have heard great things about the flick, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this one soon. The Globe nominations came out recently and has given us an inkling about the Oscars although these nominations seem to indicate even more that bribery is the best way to get a nod. Apparently True Grit has not campaigned hard enough so therefore it got completely snubbed for everything. I wanted to know what was wrong with the movie to warrant such a blatant snub. I've got one word for you---nothing.

I know what your thinking, especially if you are a classic western fan, why remake a movie with the great John Wayne who by the way won an Oscar for his performance in said movie. I thought it was crazy too, until I saw it and I was pretty damn impressed. I'll admit I've never been a big fan of the Duke, I've been more of a Clint Eastwood fan myself. The annoying pauses always took me out of it--felt like the guy was trying too damn hard. But he is iconic for sure and before you Wayne fanatics try to lynch me, understand that his Rooster Cogburn is pretty fantastic and unique. That being said Jeff Bridges, who plays Rooster in the new version, makes him even more of a drunk rascal as only Bridges can. He is also fantastic and a source of great enjoyment for me as I watched the film. But unlike the original he is not the main attraction it is actually Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) the 14 year old girl who is looking to get Justice for the senseless murder of her father by the outlaw Tom Cheney (Josh Brolin). She's got a sharp tongue and perplexes almost all of the men she encounters in the film. She's smart and she's got guts and she isn't going to be pushed around even in one of the most dangerous territories in the west. She hires Rooster Cogburn an honorable drunk Marshall who has the habit of killing the men he's instructed to bring in for Justice. They are joined by a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) who has been tracking Cheney for the past few months. They make an unlikely trio but they try to survive Indian territory and the harsh winter weather in order to track down the outlaw. It shows this western world to be a harsh and dangerous country but it is complimented greatly by excellent cinematography and an even greater cast. If this young Steinfeld is robbed of a nomination for the Oscars like she was for the Globes then it should be considered a mockery of the awards process(Eh, who am I kidding it's already pretty fucked up). She absolutely surprised me with her performance right out of the gate. Never saw the girl before but she impressed me greatly. The film kind of ends abruptly but I'm not sure how it could have ended any differently. Some may be disappointed in the lack of elaborate action and sparse gun battles but I thought that it laid out an even pace along with the performances to keep me pleasantly satisfied. I can say easily this is by far one of my favorite Coen brother films right up there with my favorite of them all the Big Lebowski.

Overall True Grit is not exploring anything that we haven't seen in Westerns before but it highlights the most important aspect of Western life, that in my mind which is what makes it so interesting. The vast loneliness and isolation that can cause a normal man to take even temporary leave of his senses. The lawless nature of men in a place where Justice and Law are difficult to find and are sometimes found in men who are perceived as cruel and without societal merit. Always interesting parallels. If you haven't seen this one do so as soon as possible you won't be disappointed.

Grade 4 Buckets

Tron: Legacy

2010-12-20T23:39:00.003-05:00

Greetings Programs, yes, as you might suspect I'm a pretty big fan of the original Tron film from 1982. I remember going with my Dad as the blur of blue lights and cool tricked out light cycle motor bikes captured my imagination. Of course I was only four so I couldn't quite understand what was going on but--nevertheless even today I can remember how excited I was to see it, especially, when I saw it a few years later at the ripe old age of 10. I remember riding my bike to the theatre where they happened to have the actual Tron game and I got to see the movie again during the Summer. I think I loved it even more when I saw it again, the bikes and the technology just seemed pretty awesome. Now Tron was never as cool as Star Wars or as interesting as Star Trek but the environment created by Steven Lisberger had a very distinct personality and it was surely ahead of its time. Even though the film never really became a hit, only grossing about 30 million in it's initial run, it's clear that Tron has a heavy influence on some pretty popular films you may have heard of like the Matrix and even Avatar. Most folks don't realize that it was one of the first true CGI films ever made. Almost all of those guys who worked on the first Tron went on to be very successful animators or special effects wizards like John Lasseter who made his bones on Tron and went on to run Pixar. I know you're wondering why the lengthy explanation, and it's a two fold answer. One it's important to understand and respect the influence the original Tron had on the film industry despite it's shortcomings with the general public. Two, seeing the current box office of the new film clearly indicates that most people don't remember the original, or at least as fondly as Disney would have hoped. When last I checked Sunday they were sitting on about 43 million for the weekend which is about 7 million shy of what they had intended. The reviews have not been kind and a specialty film like this, no matter how tricked out, still requires a bit of a miracle to bust down the doors of public opinion.

Tron Legacy follows Sam Flynn (Garret Hedlund) the orphaned son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), who twenty years ago, seemingly disappeared leaving his young son his company Encom and a shitload of questions. Sam takes a trip through memory lane as he visits his Dad's old arcade with some great 80's tunes to get you in the mood. He finds his old computer and accidentally finds himself inside the world of the computer grid. He discovers his long lost dad who is now trying to fend off a sentient digital copy of himself named Clu who is bent on killing his creator and leaving the virtual world for the real one where apparently he will be granted with Godlike powers. Only Sam, his father and the mysterious Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a different kind of computer program stand in Clu's way.

So the question you're asking now is---is Legacy as good as the original? Sadly that answer is no. It's a great ride for sure and I enjoyed it immensely with the upgraded Grid and all the dangers that come with it; Light Cycles and Battle Discs. The story wasn't as shallow as the critics were complaining about but I felt that Clu wasn't nearly the foil for Sam that Sark and the MPC was for Tron and Flynn in the original. David Warner was truly missed in this one. Not to take anything away from Jeff Bridges who is excellent as both, it's just that Clu and young Flynn were a bit distracting with their dead eyes and weird mouth movements. I'm afraid the technology is still not quite there to make Jeff Bridges look 30 years younger. There are times where it works so well that it's startling and then he'll move his face and it just doesn't sit right. It was distracting and at times took me out of the movie. Plus they didn't do a good job of explaining why Clu was doing what he was doing. I got that there was a falling out and that he wanted to leave the virtual for the real, but it wasn't clear why he was so mad at Flynn. He seemed to imply a betrayal but he was the one that committed the coup, so...Your guess is as good as mine.

But there was a lot to love about the film with the history of Encom, seeing Alan Bradley/Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) one more time, in fact it would have been nicer to have him be more integral to the plot. There is a nice surprise in there about what happened to Bradley's program Tron, after all of those years on the grid, but I won't reveal that here. I got a kick out of the improved gaming grid with the levels of play for the Disc Battle, it was dizzying, Cody said it was so nuts he got a little nauseous during some of it. Didn't bother me so much but I can see how it could have that effect. I really fell in love with the new and improved light cycles; I'm sorry whatever your issues with the movie, you can't deny they were pretty fucking cool. As far as the performances go, Jeff Bridges, as always was great as both Flynn and Clu. It was nice to see Flynn again and I am probably one of the few that actually enjoyed his fusion of Kevin Flynn and the Big Lebowski. Bridges played him as a bit of a hippie in the first one so it makes sense he's this way as an older man. I also really enjoyed Olivia Wilde's Quorra, she really brought a real spark to the film that unfortunately, no matter how hard he tries, Garrett Hedlund just doesn't quite get there. He isn't terrible but he doesn't feel like leading man material and he is completely overshadowed by Jeff Bridges twice as well as the over the top Michael Sheen as a Casablanca-like bar owner. Oh, and if you are into Techno or Daft Punk, then you will truly love the score. I'm kinda iffy on that music but I thought the score was pretty good, and it totally works for this kind of film.

If you are looking for a fun, not overly complicated story with some pretty interesting twists and some pretty jaw dropping effects then you should check this one out. I will say that if you haven't seen the original then you might be a bit more confused about what's going on. Cody had trouble following it and I suspect that they probably didn't really give enough clarification for those who haven't seen the original. Although Flynn telling his son stories about Users, Recognizers and of course Tron at the beginning of the film does help to get a peek at the world of the first film. So my suggestion is just pay close attention at the beginning and you'll be fine. End of Line.

Grade: 3 and a half Buckets

Tangled

2010-12-06T23:19:00.000-05:00

To be honest I caught this one with the family over Thanksgiving weekend but it's been so crazy the last week and a half that I haven't had time to put the thing up. So if you are a box office junky like myself you'd have noticed that Tangled actually beat the boy wizard this past weekend which is a pretty incredible feat for it's second weekend considering how dominant Harry Potter has been around this time of year. Also it's pretty rare for a film to take the top billing in the second week of it's release. But I think the good buzz and non-stop marketing probably helped a lot. This is another revamp of sorts for the Disney animation brand. It's been DOA since the late 90's allowing CGI heavy Pixar to take the mantle and never look back. They had a middling hit with the Princess and the Frog but due to Market research they discovered that little boys are not interested in seeing an animated movie with a chicks name in the title or the word Princess. Apparently this kind of thing affected the bottom line for Princess and the Frog so badly that for this film instead of calling it the girl friendly yet boy averting Rapunzel, they opted for Tangled instead. They also added a dashing Han Solo like character to action the piece up. I read about all of these changes and I was a little annoyed. When I was a kid, boy or girl, you go and see Snow White, Cinderella, etc. they aren't chick flicks, I mean there is some mushy stuff but that Dragon in Sleeping Beauty was wicked scary. I never, even as a kid, cared about the titles as long as the movie was good. I'm not sure what is being taught today with these young boys that they should feel uncomfortable if they see a movie with the words Princess in it. Anyway, I digress, the marketing strategy seems to be a success based on the box office. But thankfully having seen the movie there is so much more than just actioning up the thing for my little boy. It's got adventure, a nice love story and some great chemistry, all you need for a fun Disney animated film.

Flynn Rider (voice by Zachary Levi) is a dashing thief who is a little too into himself, but he meets his match with the lonely girl in the tower Rapunzel (voice by Mandy Moore). Rapunzel was kidnapped as a child because of her magic locks and imprisoned in the tower by a greedy woman (Donna Murphy) who claims to be her Mother. All Rider wants to do is get back the shiny crown he just stole all Rapunzel wants is to see the floating lights from the Kingdom. She hides Flynn's satchel of treasure in exchange for a day out of her prison so she can see the lights. Action and Adventure follows.

Overall I think the film was a success, our little guy seemed to enjoy it despite some slightly intense sadness in the beginning, he really got into the hijinks and music of the film. I noticed that my wife too seem to have some good vibes about it. Those Disney guys led by John Lassetter and Pixar have shaped the Mouse House forever in their image with sharp scripts and engaging characters with a hint of that old Disney magic with more than bearable songs from Oscar winner Alan Menken, who provided the special magic to the run of Disney animated hits in the 90's like the Little Mermaid and Aladdin. I know it sounds harsh when I say bearable, but I'm just not that into musicals at all. If I can shrug my shoulders and say, eh not so bad then I'm sure it's actually a masterpiece in the animated musical world. Anyway, the animation is, like always with Disney, superb and I really enjoyed the vocal characters, the chemistry was pretty good between Rapunzel and Flynn and I swear I thought I heard Zachary "Chuck" Levi singing a couple of songs. Yes there are certainly more songs then you would think if you just watch the trailer, and some of them can be a bit showtoony if you don't like that kind of thing. But the witty banter and slapstick will reel you back in, honest. And of course there is plenty of action for you young boys that are afraid there is too much chick stuff. So if your looking for something family friendly to take your little tyke too over the holiday season definitely take them to see Tangled, you've got something there for the whole family.

Grade 3 Buckets

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 1

2010-11-24T19:13:00.004-05:00

Harry Potter has finally grown up. I guess, technically, you can say that he grew up during the third film but its safe to say he became an adult in this film. They waste no time throwing Harry into the thick of a dirty war after the first few seconds. And its not just Harry but his two best friends Ron and Hermione that have finally taken the big leap into adulthood. Especially Hermione who is forced, because of these dangerous times, to erase her parent's memories of her in order to protect them. It's a great scene, unspoken, as she fades from her parent's minds. It sets the tone perfectly for what is to unfold in the next two films. No Hogwarts to shelter them, no Dumbledore to protect them. It's just the three friends against the worst kind of evil imaginable.

This is the 7th installment in the series building up to the big showdown with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are forced to take their show on the road literally to escape the Snatchers, or Death Eaters, who are killing everyone in their path just to get to Harry. The kids find themselves searching for the three remaining Horacruxes that contain pieces of Voldermort's soul. In the process they learn a little bit about their Hogwart's former Headmaster Dumbledore and his past. They also learn a bit about those Deathly Hallows; which by the way has a pretty great animation sequence to tell the story. Apparently Voldermort is searching for a special wand that can help him kill Harry. The trio are forced to work together to avoid Voldermort and his death squads, hunt the Horacruxes and destroy them and deal with that isolation, jealousy and those ever changing hormones; well they are only 18 after all.

Honestly I believe I enjoyed this film the most out of the series. By breaking the book into two films they are allowed to give more time to the three main characters and it makes for a much better film. The only downside of course to splitting them into two films you make it difficult to have a complete film. I wish I could say that you could watch Deathly Hallows on it's own without the previous films and feel it complete, but that just isn't the case. It's honestly a shame because the film is so solid in performance, camera work and pacing that I just didn't want it to end, but it does and far too abrupt for my tastes. It doesn't have a true ending--it's a cliffhanger, which is to be expected, but it's not a great one for a film of this scope. I think they could have jacked it up a bit more to give us a spectacular firework show to boost it to the next film, but I just feel they dropped the ball. This is where a trilogy like Back to the Future get's the cliffhanger ideal just right. Say what you want about the Back to the Future sequels with Marty left in 1955, Future Doc disappeared to the Old West and 1955 Doc passed out -- it was a holy crap I wanna see what happens next ending, wonderfully executed. And that's the problem with the Deathly Hallows, where is the holy crap moment at the end to bridge the films. Not that I don't want to see what happens next I really do, but visually the end was a bit of a let down. I won't go into too much detail about it but take my word for it, you'll be like, uh, what--is that it?

But the abrupt ending aside, what happens in the film itself is pretty extraordinary and Director David Yates seems to get the best work out of his young cast. Especially the "Lost in the Wilderness" scenes, which personally didn't work for me at all in the book. In fact the Forest Chapters in the book reminded me of the boring "Hedges" pages from the Fellowship of the Rings. It felt like JK was running us in circles and it was at times a tad boring. But for the Film Yates makes the quiet and the isolation a strength in the film as the kids deal with jealousy, loneliness and true fear. I think this emotional struggle is best realized in a scene where Ron is tempted by the dark side and sees visions of Harry and Hermione making out in what appears to be the buff, yes I said they were nude, it's CGI but still, you see some skin in Harry Potter. Which was completely unexpected. Some of the scenes felt like I was watching Cormac McCarthy's the Road, in tone and visuals. It just really brought a new feel to these films that I never thought they were capable of. They've come along way from the Sorcerer's Stone. There are also quite a few deaths in this film and a couple are pretty big characters from films past. All of these darker themes have really brought this series from the whimsical magical world to the harsh realities of the real world. Magic is still a commodity but it is certainly a much more dangerous place.

If you haven't seen the other films I recommend you see them soon while you can still catch this one on the big screen, or if you can hold out till the Summer, supposedly they will release it again before the final chapter in glorious 3D. I will warn you if you haven't read the books and if you've been frustrated with the films in the past for not clearly explaining everything, you still may find that frustration when you see this film so beware. It can be annoying at times I truly understand, having read the books, I also get peeved sometimes when they gloss over plot points. But this is just how it is, love it or hate. Nevertheless it's a great experience and keeps you occupied for it's almost three hour running time. It really does suck now that we have to wait six months to finally see the conclusion to the series. Damn Warner Brothers and their blatent milking!!!!

Grade 4 Buckets

Fair Game

2010-11-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

Recently I attended a luncheon for charity where three prominent people from the film industry were honored for their work. One of them was director Doug Limon (Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) who seemed to be a decent fellow. He spoke about his newest film Fair Game, the bio-pic about former CIA agent Valerie Plame, who was outed as such by the Bush Administration. He told us that he made the film as a sort of love letter to public service and that he had asked Mrs. Plame, after wrapping the film, after everything she went through if her kids wanted to serve either in Clandestine Services or the military would she try to talk them out of it. He said that she didn't hesitate or waver in her answer she said very plainly that she would be proud for them to serve. Considering the public bashing this woman took during this ordeal I wouldn't have begrudged her at least hesitating on that answer, but she didn't she didn't regret it at all. That in my mind is the sign of a true patriot. Its what also compelled me to see the film. I wanted to see for myself what a love letter to public service would look like. Whether it would preach on the pulpit for one side or would it give a balanced portrayal of these people without distorting the facts. I think it was kinda both, honestly.

Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) is an agent for the CIA in a division that specializes in non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Her husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) is sent by the VP's office to investigate claims of Yellowcake Uranium being processed for Saddam Hussein in the African country of Niger. After Wilson reports back that the report was bogus the White House continues the drumbeat about Niger alive in the State of the Union address which eventually led us to war with Iraq. Wilson, upset by the lie, decides to write an op-ed piece criticizing the administration for not telling the truth and for his actions the Administration decides to go after Wilson's wife by outing her in a newspaper article. The Wilson's struggle to hold their marriage and their collapsing careers together during the aftermath.

The performances are really exceptional and the chemistry between Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are solid. Naomi Watts will probably be a long shot for an Oscar but I think the Academy should seriously consider her for the nod. The film is at it's best following Valerie as she juggles her very stressful job with being a mother and a wife to a very public figure. The film falls flat when they follow Joe Wilson, especially when he launches his crusade against the administration. This is where the film veers off into pander territory and tends to get preachy. The film also was shot very poorly, good Lord, a person could get sick as the camera bounces around aimlessly from person to person. There were only one or two segments where I felt the camera was stagnant. I'm not entirely sure what Limon was going for here with the shaky cam. It works great for the Bourne movies but not for a drama like this. It just looks really unprofessional, which is sad because I thought the script and performances were so good. Nevertheless I found the film to be very entertaining and I found myself admiring Mrs. Plame for her unwavering ability to keep things level headed even while she is getting death threats. This is truly a woman who is apolitical and was only interested in doing her job to the fullest and most importantly interested in protecting her assets in the field. This is one of those stories that should be burned into the brains of every American that a crime was committed here, whether you agree with Joe Wilson politically or not his wife should not have been considered Fair Game, as Karl Rove famously told Chris Matthews. She was doing her job and lives and careers were lost because of this political action and that should never be forgotten.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Halloween Favorites: Monster Squad

2010-10-30T01:20:00.002-04:00

Sketch by Dezi Sienty

When I was a young kid my mom and my step-dad owned a barber shop. The shop was on the first floor of a three story town house in dead center city Allentown, PA. We lived above the shop on the second and third floor. My step-dad was a distant guy. Didn't really care about teaching me or my step-brother how to hit a baseball or throw a spiral. As a result, I spent the bulk of my childhood watching a whole lot of movies on our VHS player. Also, my step-dad stole cable. We had a cheaters box with all the premium movie channels. And that was pretty much all I did with my free time as a kid. Watch movies. A lot of movies. I would just record endlessly off HBO onto video tape, EP mode you could fit 3 or 4 movies on one cassette! And the 80's, man, just produced a ton of great, great movies that were geared to kids and teens. But what made these flicks great was that they didn't patronize their young viewers, like tween movies do nowadays.

Print by Dezi Sienty

Which brings me to The Monster Squad. One of the truly, quintessential 80's kid flicks I speak of. It was violent, it was scary, the kids curse like sailors... a 6 year old girl gets called a bitch. Sure, it's a cult classic now, but when the film came out in theaters it was a big box office failure. A studio's attempt to cash in on the Goonies craze. And let's be honest, The Monster Squad is basically The Goonies, but instead of the Fratellis, it's classic movie monsters. But the movie goes beyond just trying to be a cheap knock off. The kid actors are just as engaging. The humor is just as sharp. And the scares just as thrilling. Duncan Regher's version of Dracula is brilliant and frightening. Tom Noonan's Frankenstein Monster is imposing, yet pitiful. The movie is a great homage to the classic Universal monster flicks of the 40s. If you haven't seen The Monster Squad, lately or ever, definitely pick it up this Halloween and enjoy. At the very least you will learn two very valuable, possibly life saving lessons if you ever have the misfortune of running into a werewolf: Lesson #1, there's only one way to kill a werewolf. Lesson #2, Wolfman's got nards. - Cody Dee

Halloween Favorites: Ghostbusters

2010-10-28T23:34:00.002-04:00

Halloween is here again so this year Cody and the fellas at Cave Drawing Ink decided to take a trip back to the 80's (Everyone is doing it this year: Karate Kid, A-Team, etc.) and explore two of our favorite flicks that coincide nicely with Halloween. Monster Squad and Ghostbusters. Both are great classics and both make fun homages to the Monster Movies of the 40's and 50's. In this first post we'll talk a little bit about Ghostbusters, we've got a couple of original pieces from our Cave Drawing friends Ian Glaubinger and Ori Ayalon so take a look and enjoy!

Print by Ian Glaubinger

I know, everyone and their brother loves Ghostbusters, you may ask why am I talking about something that has been seen by so many people and has been analyzed and fawned over by popular culture and nerds like me for at least twenty years? All true, but there is something about the mythology and the story telling that makes Ghostbusters stand above the rest and should be strongly considered a favorite for families to watch over Halloween. And I'm going to make that case right now. One of the best parts about Ghostbusters is how they pay tribute to those timeless classics like Abbot and Costello meet the Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein and I believe the Mummy. In my mind those classic creatures were what Horror movies were all about. Fun, kind of campy with some mild creepiness. I'm sorry but I just can't seem to find any interest in these torture porn flicks like Saw or Hostel, where is the suspense if you are watching somebody being carved up in a bloody massacre? Subtlety is the best way to go, build up to a good scare or like in Jaws where most of the destruction takes place off camera, allowing your imagination to take over. Now Ghostbusters isn't as scary as Jaws but nothing scared the shit out of me more than that damn librarian at the beginning of the film. I practically jumped out of my seat. Such a great scene; they get me laughing on the way in, scare the crap out of you, and get you laughing again right after. I mean how creepy is Sigourney Weaver when she's possessed by Zuul. "There is no Dana only Zuul." That shit gave me nightmares for weeks, of course I was ten. But I couldn't get enough of that movie I remember seeing it like ten times in the theatre no matter how many times it scared me. And of course no conversation of creepiness would be complete if I didn't mention that Prehistoric Bitch who sent a 400 foot Marshmellow Man on a rampage on the upper west side, Gozer the Gozarian. What a fantastic name for an inter-dimensional demon hell bent on the destruction of New York. That lady was seriously creepy with her butch cut and crazy red eyes. It fits perfectly in the canon of old folk tales and Ghost Stories. No kid could walk out of that movie and not want to strap on proton pack and hunt for ghosts. What makes Ghostbusters so unique is director Ivan Reitman's ability to go for the laugh just as much as he goes for the scare. It's a hard blend but in this film it's perfect.

Sketch by Ori Ayalon

My son just recently discovered Ghostbusters, the soundtrack actually, not the movie, he's not quite of age yet. But he loves it, he dances around and then cries when it's over. I recently showed him a couple episodes of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. The one that sticks out most in my mind is the one titled the Headless Motorcyclist. The Ghostbusters take a job tracking down the Headless Horseman, who in modern times, has been hunting down the descendants of school master Ichabod Crane on a wicked flaming Harley. It was a great little follow up story to the classic, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. My little guy seemed to enjoy it and I too found myself drawn to the cartoon again after all of these years. There isn't as much of an edge and it isn't as funny but the characters are still consistent with the films and most importantly it put a smile on my kids face. After watching the episode I found myself drawn back to Irving's classic tale of the Headless Hessian and it's interesting how much he seems to be, like Ghostbusters, going for the humorous as much as the scare. His Ichabod Crane could be a cross between Egon and Peter Venkman. He's lanky and bookish, a little goofy, with a long nose and he's always looking for the financial angle to get him ahead. It's written in a very satirical fashion. It's also steeped in lore and haunted tales, almost like the Ghostbusters film where we get the pieces to the disturbing puzzle of Gozer and the NY highrise. All of it built on a rich layer of myth and legend. It is a fact that Ghostbusters is one of the most quoted films ever made and it boasts the funniest cast ever with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis. But it is also a great ghost story/folk tale about a group of working class stiffs who are just trying to stay afloat against the worst spooks and spectres the great city of New York has to throw at them. It's this kind of narrative that gets you in the Halloween spirit and it doesn't have to involve chain saws and bloody hockey masks. So go and revisit Ghostbusters again with your kid after a night of trick-or-treating it should be a staple in your household it certainly will be in mine. In about 7 years or so....

What do you want I don't want my kid having nightmares!

The Town

2010-10-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

Just got back from director/actor Ben Affleck's new movie, The Town. It's a character driven action thriller, half like the Michael Mann flick, Heat. The other half, well it's Boston, It's gotta be Good Will Hunting. I'm pretty impressed with Mr. Affleck and his directing abilities. I still haven't seen his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone from a few years ago. But I can see why studios may be lining up to give him a job behind the camera as much as in front. He handles the double duty pretty well as he shows us the seedy side of Boston, yet again. I would say that the crime diseased Southie crowd has been portrayed to almost excess over the last few years. Here they are again, but, even though the situation is similar the road is a little different and that is certainly a high point for the film.

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) and his crew of bank robbers, Jem Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert (Slaine) and Desmond (Owen Burke) hit a bank and take the pretty Manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. Once they let her go, they worry that she might have seen one of them, which causes Doug to meet her without the mask. Like all good drama, he falls for her and finds himself in a pickle on whether to do another job or not. Especially when they have a tough as nails Fed Sam Frawley (Jon Hamm) nipping at their heels.

I really liked the film, the pacing the writing everything. Sure there were fairly generic touches dealing with trying to get out of the crime life, but you still got sucked into it anyway. You found yourself rooting for Doug and hoping that he gets away. They really pulled out the stops to make Frawley pretty unlikable, although you understand why he's such a bastard, Hamm plays it to perfection. I also really enjoyed Blake Lively's turn as a skanked up ex-girlfriend of Doug's. She really took that good girl image and flushed it down the toilet, in a good way. She also played her character pretty unlikable, but it works. You understand even more why Doug wants to get the hell out of town, he's being dragged down by everyone. I liked seeing Chris Cooper as Doug's jailbird Dad, but he's only in one scene for like 5 minutes. It would have been great to have seen some extended scenes with him. Overall I really dug the movie but I had a few problems with the end. I won't give it away but it tries to have a happy ending which just didn't sit that well with me. I just don't think you can have a happy ending after all that transpires but, there is some redemption in there to make all that joyfulness a bit more palatable. But it just felt like they weren't sure how to end it and it's kind of a drag. I also enjoyed watching the kinetic Jeremy Renner play the psychotic Jem, he does at times feel a little 2 dimensional, but Renner really elevates the character to a place he really shouldn't exist in.

It's a good flick and I recommend it highly. So after you've seen Let Me In (Not a shameless plug, honest it's a great movie) go and check out the Town. It's doing pretty well still at the theatre so you should have some time to squeeze in some Vampire kids and a Facebook movie before.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

2010-09-26T21:06:00.017-04:00

So, it's been a while since I'd seen the original Wall Street. Since that time I'm accustomed to hearing the lines quoted verbatim in the streets mostly those of Wall Street Huckster Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas). But what really stuck out for me after all of these years wasn't always the quotable lines or the villainous turn by the head baddie himself, it was watching Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) being carted away at the end in handcuffs, crying all over his thousand dollar suit. It's an image I wanted duplicated tenfold in this film and it came really close, but in the end Oliver blinked and lost a major opportunity to say something very important about how our financial system is regulated. I think we all know that Oliver Stone is not just the crazy guy or the mad guy but I would like to think he's the guy that enjoys making the audience squirm a bit in order for them to get a taste of this fucked up system of ours and how it feels to be screwed. You really think he's going to go there with this and that is why it's just so damn sad. He could have tapped into that anger and depression out there about these Wall Street clowns and finally explain the default swaps and the toxic assets that led to the financial collapse in a coherent way. He could have shown the villains true face and explained that these assholes are still there looking to do more damage because they don't give a shit as long as they make their payday. He just didn't do that, and its a damn shame.

Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is an investment banker who finds himself caught in the middle of two pretty difficult situations. On one hand he wants to play with fire and get some revenge on the asshole Corporate Raider, Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who sabotaged his former firm and made a fool out of his beloved mentor (Frank Langella). On the other he's trying to patch up his fiance's (Carey Mulligan) shitty relationship with her cold as ice father, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), who is seemingly trying to repair that relationship as well as his public one after his fall from grace and nine years of prison. What is a boy to do.

I know I sound harsh, but I really did love the first hour and half of this movie. It was well paced, it was building toward something. How Jake was able to manipulate the stock by making a few phone calls, nice. I liked all the tech references and how they were weaving into the big con. We also get to see the building up toward the collapse in 2008, with bailouts to follow and the slimy bastards that were looking to get their payday, the American people be damned. After the fall the knife begins to turn a bit more thus becoming a movie half about revenge and the other about Gordon Gekko and how he's trying to get his house in order. It wasn't that I disliked this part, I just didn't understand what that had to do with the overall story. From then on Stone had Gekko talking more about the financial gloom of where we are headed as a nation but not really giving much content on why or how. Then we get more into his fucked up relationship with his daughter and then the the Wall Street stuff starts to take a drastic back seat to this unfolding drama.

And now instead of a shining, "Oh fuck", moment like Bud Fox being carted away crying in handcuffs, you get a cushy ending where everyone is happy and nothing is really fixed. The bad guys go to jail and redemption is found. It didn't feel like reality. It's nice to think that there will be justice for people who lost it all due to greedy bastards but that just isn't our reality and it just makes the ending feel even more vacant and surreal. Although there was a nice touch when we see Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) in his cameo and he like most of these Wall Street wolves hadn't learned anything from his incarceration. He was just as slimy as Gekko was in Wall Street with just as big a chip on his shoulder. The performances were great though and it's really wonderful watching Michael Douglas chew out Shia and spit him out a few times. Josh Brolin was also incredibly frightening as the cold as ice Bretton James, great job all around on the cast, including Eli Wallach's crazy old business man. Near the end his little quirks got a little too weird but I was amused with him just the same. I am putting my Bucket stamp of approval on the movie, even though it has its faults. Honestly the first hour and a half is a masterpiece it just starts to crumble a bit after that. But it's a good flick and deserves your attention especially if you are fan of the original.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Fall TV: New Shows I Have Watched and May Watch: Thursday & Friday

2010-09-26T14:46:00.001-04:00

I was planning on doing Thursday and Friday earlier in the week but things built up at work and well you know how that goes. But I did get a chance to watch a few of the new shows that aire on Thursday and Friday and may be able to give you an idea of what works and what doesn't. Let's begin:

THURSDAY: So this is probably the only day where my old shows dominate. I only had one new show that I actually got a chance to see. My favorite returning shows on Thursday are 30 Rock, Fringe and The Office. I really want to watch Community, but I've just never been able to find a way to consistently watch it. Last year the wife had to have Gray's Anatomy and so I wasn't able to see it or the Office in primetime. I ended up watching the Office on Hulu thankfully but just couldn't squeeze in time for Community. Cody Dee swears by it and he usually has a good sense for these shows. So fast forward to 2010 and I've convinced my mother in law to DVR Gray's Anatomy at her place now freeing me up for Community. I'm a little behind but from what I understand it's worth it. Community aires on NBC with the block of 30 Rock and the Office starting at 8:00 PM.

SHIT MY DAD SAYS: It's always a bad sign when you make a show for the networks where you can't even use the proper title. Apparently the show has already caused problems with people's DVR cause they don't know how to look up the show cause it starts with $#"!. But what do you expect from a show based on a twitter feed of the same name. The only reason I was giving this show a chance was because I love William Shatner, dude is funny even when he doesn't intend to be. This should be a no brainer, but as I was watching the show I noticed something horrifying. It looks like the showrunners have decided to put a collar on Shatner and his antics. He seems caged in the pilot--they should let the freak Shatner fly, but instead he's just limited to groan inducing one liners. Shatner still emerges at times to give me a chuckle but he seems to be buried under a schmaltzy and mostly unfunny script. The guy playing his kid is almost unwatchable. He's trying way too hard, the show could have promise if the writers were truly interested in channeling Archie Bunker. But it just seems like they are trying to continue to cash in on the shit Dad says on twitter which is pretty hit or miss most of the time. I'm on the fence whether or not I'll check out the second episode but if you are tired of painfully formulaic sitcoms then this show is not for you. ($#"! My Dad Says aires on CBS at 8:30 PM)

There are two other shows that I had some thought about taping but decided against it at the last minute. The one that I'm sort of regretting is Nikita, which aires on the CW at 9:00 PM. The trailer didn't do much for me but then I will admit to you I saw star Maggie Q wearing that red bikini and then I started to think--damn maybe I should give it a shot. In all honesty the reviews have been mixed but most have said it was fun and I do love me some spy shows. I'm a complete sucker for them so why shouldn't I watch this one---maybe I'll watch on Hulu. The other show I considered was Outsourced but now I'm kind of glad I dumped it. The trailer was pretty bad and most of the reviews I read were pretty negative. This show was based on the John Jeffcoat movie of the same name. It's about an American who is sent to Mumbai to manage an American novelties company (fake vomit) Call Center and through his new job he gets to learn about Indian culture. The premise sounds like it could be funny but it seems like they dumbed it down to the lowest common denominator. Did I mention the almost all Indian cast is going to be fielding calls about fake vomit. Yeah, remember what I said about NBC and subtlety. This would probably apply here. But if you want to take a shot let me know what you think cause I don't think I'm going to be adding this to my Must See TV list. (Outsourced aires on NBC at 9:30 PM)

FRIDAY: So Friday, usually is dead air, but that's usually. Last year I enjoyed two truly great shows that aired on what is considered the death knell for tv shows. Friday Night Lights and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. This year I'm still awaiting Friday Night Lights cause I don't have Direct-TV, it'll aire sometime in January I believe. They also moved a couple shows I watched on Wed that are now on Friday Human Target and the Good Guys. (I did a review for the Good Guys a few months ago, click here.) You can check out both of these shows on Fox starting at 8:00 PM with Human Target and the Good Guys at 9:00 PM.

BLUE BLOODS: I just saw this one last night and I really enjoyed it. They've got a great cast with Tom Selleck, Frank Reagan, as the patriarch of a family of NY city Cops: Donnie Wahlberg as the tough as nails Detective Danny Reagan and eldest son of the brood. Danny's tough Assistant DA sister Erin (Bridget Moynahan) and their little brother, former Harvard student, turned rookie cop Jamie (Will Estes). You even have Frank's retired cop father Henry (Len Cariou) to make this a total family affair of three generations of Cops. I really thought it was well written and brought some new flavor to the typical Cop Show. This is a bit of both cop drama and family drama which is important for this show to really work. In the pilot they go right at opposing viewpoints on tough subjects like water boarding. I think you've got some great potential for compelling stories as well as a fun thriller that will keep the viewer on their toes. It's great to see Selleck back on something as smart as this and it's always great to see him sporting the signature stash. I know Friday is the night to party but if you find yourself at home you should really check this one out I highly recommend it. (Blue Bloods aires on CBS at 10:30 PM)

OUTLAW: I actually got to watch the pilot a week or so ago and I wasn't that impressed. I was intrigued with the premise of the show about a Supreme Court Judge, Cyrus Garza (Jimmy Smits), who decides to leave the bench and go back into private practice. The intriguing part was that he is a very conservative style judge who has a very liberal personal life with the gambling and womanizing. Could be interesting right. We learn right off the bat that his very liberal minded father was killed recently in a car accident with Cyrus at the wheel. So in the pilot Cyrus pisses off the right wing because he doesn't tow the line and they try to blackmail him. He seems to be having a crisis of conscience. He gets the jump on their threats and leaves the bench of his own free will. I find it amusing that a guy as Conservative as this would all of a sudden become so liberal minded so quickly, but oh well. Where the show works is it's lead star Jimmy Smits. The guy is a pro and he makes Cyrus very compelling. The problem is the pacing and the overblown ridiculous plot. We are to believe that this guy leaves the bench and helps a convict avoid lethal injection just because he stood up to a judge for five minutes. The guy had been on death row for like 15 years or something and he digs just a little bit and gets him off. The whole thing just felt so contrived. I want to give the show more time but I was so annoyed by the ease in which he solved the case that I couldn't fathom how they could make this show last a whole season without the audience laughing off every triumphant victory. It sort of reminded me of Matlock which is never a good thing. (Outlaw aires on NBC at 10:00 PM)

Easy A

2010-09-25T21:15:00.000-04:00

I know what your thinking. Why would I go and see a movie that on the surface looks like yet another Juno ripoff. If you've seen the trailers and if you have an idea about actress Emma Stone's ability to charm your pants off then you, like me, would not have hesitated to see this movie regardless what the pundits were saying. It's a good thing I did too because not only was it funny it also cleverly tripped down John Hughes lane soaking up all of the greatness that was the 80's.

Olive (Emma Stone) is just trying to get by in High School but one little white lie to her gabby best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) about a hook up with a college kid turns her into the class slut overnight. This balloons into further lies that cast the young Olive even further as a harlot with comparisons to Hester Prynne from the Scarlett Letter. Olive gets cast in the role as whore from the Class religious nut Marianne (Amanda Bynes), who constantly tries to make Olive's life a living hell for her perceived sins.

Couple of things that work off the bat for this film is first, the writing. It's sarcastic, funny and snappy and I'm sure it will be highly quotable at some point. The second is Emma Stone who takes the material and runs with it, yes she's feisty and brash like Juno but believe me when I tell you they are very different characters. Emma Stone is sexy Ellen Page is cute. Nuff said! Also her parents were hilarious. Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci had some of the funniest lines in the movie. In fact they were so good you could do a sequel about her parents and their very interesting dynamic and it would probably do very well. You also had some great support from vets like Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow. I think the closest thing to compare Easy A to at least in writing and style is the done too soon Veronica Mars that aired on the CW a few years ago. They dealt with the rumor mill and the sucky nature of high school in similar ways. But both protagonists get by with their wit, charm and sarcasm. It's a fun ride as you watch Olive's fake lifestyle spiral out of control until she decides to set the record straight. Ironically the only knocks on the film were things I also got some amusement out of. They played the reference and nostalgia card well on early 80's romantic comedies but there were times where they hit you over the head with them. I'm not going to give the ending away but they make a pretty blatant ripoff of a classic cheesy comedy with a certain Patrick Dempsey flick from that era. It was harmless but I did utter a little groan as if they probably went a bit too far. But all of that aside, the film has a lot of heart and some great laughs and I highly recommend for a good time, especially as a date movie.

Grade: 3 Buckets

Fall TV: New Shows I Have Watched and May Watch: Tuesday & Wednesday

2010-09-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

TUESDAY:

There are quite a few newbies on Tuesday but so far I haven't really felt much excitement about most of them. Detroit 1-8-7 on ABC at 10PM looks like a paint by the numbers procedural that probably won't make it to mid-season regardless of Michael Imperioli, he's been on a losing streak since Christopher got smothered by Tony on the Sopranos and I'm afraid it's gonna continue. There is also Raising Hope and Running Wilde both half hour sitcoms on Fox at the 9 - 10 PM slot don't look much better. I really like Will Arnett and Kerri Russell for Running Wilde but the promos so far haven't really got me jumping through hoops yet. I kind of dig the premise of an Oil Baron (Republican) tries to woo a girl he knew when they were kids who is an Environmental Activist (Democrat) and then you have a show that basically describes the relationship between Republican pundit Mary Matlin and her Raging Cajun Democrat Husband, pundit, James Carville. Raising Hope looks like an even redneckier version of My Name Is Earl if that's even possible. Showrunner Greg Garcia returns to tell the story of a young man who knocks up what one would call the Female equivalent to a Caged Heat convict who is then forced to raise the youngster himself while the mother is in stir. He turns to his bizarre family for help and therein lies the comedy. I gave up on My Name is Earl around season 3 and apparently so did everyone else. I got tired of the stupid idiotic rednecks that populated the show day in and day out and unfortunately Garcia seems to be trying to tap that well again. So good luck to you Greg, but I won't be watching.

Some of the returning shows for Tuesday that I fell in love with last year was Parenthood on NBC at 10 and the Good Wife on CBS also at 10. Both of these shows are well written and will keep your interest I suggest checking these out when they open this week. So for Tuesday I guess I had only one show that piqued my curiosity, and of course it deals with superheroes.

NO ORDINARY FAMILY: Yeah I know, it's ABC Family and it's basically a live version of the animated hit the Incredibles, but I'm still curious to see how this one turns out. I really like leading man Michael Chiklis who plays the patriarch and invincible Dad on the show. I also have really grown to love Julie Benz after great turns as Darla in Buffy and Angel and more recently as Rita on Dexter. It feels a little Fantastic Four as a family of Four gain super powers after an accident in the water. This thing could go either way honestly, it seems to have a pretty good Showrunner in Greg Berlanti who has done some writing on popular shows like Brothers and Sisters and short lived ones like Jack and Bobby and Dirty, Sexy Money. (No Ordinary Family aires on ABC at 8 PM)

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday is going to be a light day for Prime-time viewing this year. Of the returning shows the only one I'm interested in is Modern Family which comes back on ABC at 9. It's such a funny show and totally deserved all the Emmy love it received this year. If you missed this one last year, don't be a dope and miss it again, it's just too good. So of all the few newbies this year on Wednesday I've only got my eyes on one show. And it's got JJ Abrams name all over it.

UNDERCOVERS: Yeah I'm always a sucker for the spy genre I can't ever get enough. I actually got into that Piper Parabo show Covert Affairs over the summer. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure but it's a fun cast and I really got a kick out of it. Undercovers probably falls in the same category except there is probably a better twist, given that it's JJ Abrams. At least I hope so. They are kind of taking a page out of the Mr. & Mrs. Smith playbook with two former C.I.A agents who marry each other and start a catering business. It's short lived of course and they are thrust back into the agency. It seems like it's a Action/Comedy/Romance, could work. Just looking at the trailers the two spies played by Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw seem to be having fun together, I've got a good feeling about this one. (Undercovers aires on NBC at 8 PM)

Stay tuned for Thursday & Friday.

Fall TV: New Shows I Have Watched and May Watch: Sunday & Monday

2010-09-19T21:20:00.001-04:00

It's that time of the year again where new shows dominate the airwaves. It's especially interesting this year due to NBC's big time debacle last year when they so stupidly tried to run the guy with the chin weeknights at 10PM. They have now agreed with everyone else that it was dumb and have now ordered something like fifty new shows for the fall. Subtlety is not in NBC's wheel house. So I decided to study the new fall schedule check out some of the new shows I wanted to see and listed them here for you. All you have to do now is just set your DVR and enjoy the show.

SUNDAY:

So there is only one show to watch this Sunday, that is if you aren't watching Football, and it's Boardwalk Empire on HBO. If you've read any reviews on the subject everything is glowing and damn right it should be. This is director Martin Scorsese's first attempt at a TV show and it should be considered a major coup for everyone involved. Although I did hear that of the first 5 episodes Marty's was the weakest. Nevertheless it's Scorsese doing what he does best telling a story about the Mob. This time it's in Atlantic City during Prohibition and it's about how one guy, Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), took the reigns of everything illegal in that town and completely ran with it. There's a young Capone, "Lucky" Luciano, Arnold Rothstein and many others. It's got a great cast, a great group of creatives and it's probably going to win a shitload of Emmy's next year. I shouldn't have to say much more about it cause this one has been the talk of TV for about two straight months now, if you haven't heard about this show then you have no business watching TV to begin with. (Boardwalk Empire aires on HBO Sunday Sept. 19th at 9PM)

MONDAY:

It's funny but Monday seems to be a busy night for TV in my house all of a sudden. I never would have thought that a few years ago. So I have the old standard Chuck which is always a must see. Even my brother caught the Chuck bug. He watched all three seasons over the summer and is chomping at the bit for season 4 to begin, as am I. We've got a few newbies to add to Monday's list. One I'm on the fence about but I have been hearing great things is a half-hour sitcom called Mike & Molly. It's a little different from your average sitcom in that the main actors are fairly normal looking, ie they aren't thin as a rail 30 somethings who look like they should be on the cover of GQ. I saw the pseudo trailer and I just didn't find it very funny, but I was going to wait to get the consensus at the end of the week. I can always check out Hulu over the weekend. The big problem is I want to watch Lonestar and the Event and unfortunately I can't DVR all three.(Mike & Molly aires on CBS Monday at 9:30 PM)

LONE STAR: This is an hourlong drama about a con-man, Bob Allen (James Wolk), who leads a double life in Texas, naturally. He's got a wife (Andriana Palicki) in Houston and a girlfriend (Eloise Mumford) in Midland. He seems to want to go straight and leave the con business and his con-father behind, but he can't seem to shake the double life he's carved out for himself. The trailers have been pretty interesting and I really dig the cast. Especially David Keith as the Con-Man Father trying to keep his kid in the game. I'm getting a real-life kind of vibe that really worked for Friday Night Lights and it's in Texas, again, so what could go wrong? This one has been getting some good buzz but it's always hard to tell with some of the newbies especially when it's a first time Producer/Showrunner Kyle Killen, he's also writing the film the Beaver with Mel Gibson which comes out later this year. (Lone Star aires on Fox Monday at 9:00 PM)

THE EVENT: This is also one of those shows that has been talked about to the hilt. The first couple trailers didn't do much for me especially with the entire cast talking up the secret surprise that is the title---the Event--ooh spooky. What is it? Everyone seems to want to know and even --- dum dum dum--the President doesn't seem to know what the fuck it is. I also really hated the editing with the weird cut to actress Laura Innes (ER) goofy face in order to ramp up the intrigue and suspense. Just a little tip, showing this does not enhance my desire to see the show. But as the slew of advertising progressed an interesting premise appeared and they had me curious to what the damn event really is. It seems that a President, Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood), a scruffy looking guy, Sean (Jason Ritter), and Sean's kidnapped Girlfriend Leila (Sarah Roemer) are going to find out what it is the hard way. They knew they would get me now that Lost is off the air and I suppose they decided to go the extra mile and make it look a bit like 24 now that that show is over too. I say smart move--this should do pretty well, as long as you know, no more weird cuts to Laura Innes' weird face. (The Event aires on NBC Monday at 9:00 PM)

HAWAII FIVE-O: I have a good vibe about this one, I really do. I shouldn't because on the surface this seems like another crap re-make of a classic popular show. And I should know I have watched my share of bad remakes: Knight Rider, Bionic Woman etc. But this show has what those couldn't dream of having, a damn good cast. Alex O'Loughlin as super cop Steve McGarrett, Scott Caan as Danny "Danno" Williams, Grace Park as Kono and my personal favorite Daniel Dae Kim as Chin Ho. I loved him on Lost and I'm sure I'll love him here. I used to watch the original when I was a kid in syndication you don't get much better than Jack Lord and of course there is that theme song. This new one has the great cast but it also has the luckiest two writers in Hollywood attached to it, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the guys who wrote the Transformers movies, the new Star Trek and the awesome show Fringe. These guys have been on a roll the last few years it's doubtful that Hawaii Five-O will stop their reign.(Hawaii Five-O aires on CBS Monday at 10:00 PM)

I'll hopefully be posting Tuesday and Wednesday's lineup tomorrow night. Stay tuned.