Movies
Movie Review
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Not Rated)
★★★★☆
September 2nd, 2010
Based on Mesrine’s memoir Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Part 1), director Jean-François Richet creates an action-packed crime drama. The story opens in ’60s France where war hero Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) starts his career by meeting mob kingpin (Gérard Depardieu). There’s an addictive quality to the film due to the story’s unpredictable nature and the expert filmmaking on display. Read more »
Movie Review
Takers (PG-13)
★☆☆☆☆
September 2nd, 2010
Written by a committee of four screenwriters, Takers is a nondescript heist movie with one-dimensional characters and an inexcusably silly plot. Misguided director John Luessenhop wants his audience to admire his well-dressed gangsters who talk like they’re taking a semester away from Harvard to pull off an armored car job in L.A. To see talented actors Matt Dillon and Marianne Jean-Baptiste stoop so low is a travesty. Read more »
Movie Review
Piranha 3D (R)
★★★☆☆
September 2nd, 2010
This is one of the most gleefully gory horror movies of all time. Director Alexandre Aja’s update of Joe Dante’s notorious 1978 film (written by John Sayles) packs in exposed boobies and dismembered bodies. Lake Victoria, Ariz. (Lake Havasu), is the partying ground for a slew of horny college students. Aja (High Tension) ramps up the tension and gore to a fever pitch before sprinkling in a hearty dose of gross-out humor. Read more »
Movie Review
The Switch (PG-13)
★★★☆☆
September 2nd, 2010
Thanks to the lovable chemistry between Jason Bateman and newcomer Thomas Robinson, The Switch is a fun and endearing flick. Bateman plays Wally, who switches his best friend Kassie’s (Jennifer Aniston) sperm donor swimmers with his own. Despite the plot being unoriginal and the first half a bit of a snooze, once the second half picks up you’ll be on board as the movie’s touching and comic events unravel. Read more »
Movie Review
Lake Horror
You might never go on spring break again
August 26th, 2010
“I don’t pole-dance for nothing.” That’s what one of Piranha 3D’s many frequently topless beauties says before climbing onto a rope that hovers four feet above the surface of water teeming with frenzied, toothy prehistoric fishes. It also expresses the irreverent tone for one of the most gleefully gory horror movies of all time. Director Alexandre Aja’s update of Joe Dante’s famous 1978 film (written by John Sayles) packs in exposed boobies and dismembered bodies like maraschino cherries filling a 50-gallon aquarium. Read more »
Movie Review
Who’s Your Daddy?
Bateman, Aniston film rises above its unoriginal plot
August 26th, 2010
Blame the sweeping success of the feminist movement or Jennifer Lopez’s lousy film The Back-up Plan, but when Jennifer Aniston rattled on about becoming a mother without the need of a man, it felt redundant. However, as it turns out, The Switch isn’t so much about a woman’s journey to single motherhood as it is a man’s passage to self-awareness. Read more »
Movie Review
Lottery Ticket (PG-13)
★★☆☆☆
August 26th, 2010
Co-writer/debut director Erik White seems more concerned with racial stereotypes than modern-day African-American culture. Kevin wins a $350 million lottery jackpot on the Fourth of July holiday. The long weekend drags on before he can cash in the ticket while everybody in the immediate vicinity tries to get a piece of him. Crude physical humor and disposable dialogue make for an unsatisfying urban comedy. Read more »
Movie Review
White Wedding (Not Rated)
★★★☆☆
August 26th, 2010
Debut writer/director Jann Turner reveals refreshing aspects of South Africa. Jovial Elvis (Kenneth Nkosi) must travel from Durban to Cape Town, in the company of his best man (Rapulana Seiphemo), to wed his sweetheart (Zandile Msutwana). White Wedding is an unpretentious comic celebration of love and loyalty that crosses all borders. Read more »
Movie Review
Get Low Gets Astoundingly Real
Duvall’s quiet film puts all the shallow summer special effects to shame
August 19th, 2010
First-time director Aaron Schneider is at the helm of the Depression-era Get Low, which tells the story of Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), an ostracized Tennessean who wants to throw himself a living funeral so he can hear all the gossip that’s been said about him. He makes a deal with local funeral director Frank Quinn (magnificently played by Bill Murray) and his angel-on-his-shoulder assistant, Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black). But as the story unfolds, dark quirks and demons gradually seep from Bush’s hardened exterior—and nothing is quite what it seems. Read more »
Movie Review
Step Up 3D (PG-13)
★★☆☆☆
August 19th, 2010
Spectacular dancing couldn’t save the embarrassingly awful story and acting that is Step Up 3D. But if you’ve seen the first two, then you already know what this one’s about. Cast purely by Abercrombie good looks and dancing alone, the actors brought nothing to the characters. Although director Jon Chu executes the dancing and 3-D astoundingly, this dance flick is a total dud. Gene Kelly would surely be pissed. Read more »
