Dinner for Schmucks

My Rating: 3.5/4


If anyone is hungry, let his/her appetite be satisfied in "Dinner for Schmucks". Having a star loaded cast doesn't seem to be an obstacle for the film, seeing as how it has Paul Rudd(right, "I Love You, Man"), Steve Carell(Left, "Get Smart"), Zach Galifinakas("The Hangover"), and Bruce Greenwood("Star Trek"). I understand this is probably the 5th or 6th movie I've reviewed in the last few months that has a star-loaded cast. Such as "Grown Ups", "Despicable Me", and so on and so forth. When you have an element such as this, great acting becomes the absolute standard. And, I'm sure you noticed my four and a half star rating, so I'm also sure you can take an educated guess that it delivered on the standards with interest. The plot is a remake of an old French film where a man named Tim(Paul Rudd) wants get a promotion at work but in order to do so, he must attend a dinner with his boss and superior co workers. His boss(Bruce Greenwood) hosts a dinner every month where everyone at work(who's in on the messed up scam of course) invites an idiot to dinner. Whoever brings the biggest idiot gets a promotion or a raise on something of that nature. And the biggest idiot, well, gets a trophy. Now, as if it's just his luck, Tim runs into an idiot unlike any other named Barry(Steve Carell) Who's biggest hobby is making dioramas with small mice dolls as the civilians. But, over this journey, will Tim use him to get a promotion, or has he found a best friend? Now, the film is a comedy and so you can tell the story was set-up to be one. I can honestly say it's one of the best comedies ever made. I CAN'T honestly tell you how hard I laughed because I laughed so hard it may count as a near-death experience. But wait, even THAT is not an honest description. So, if you are planning to see this film in the theatre, make sure you don't drink to much Pepsi at once or stuff your face full of Popcorn and/or candy or any other food that we all want to eat but it's not good for us or else you might choke. As I said before, the acting is great, no visible flaws unless you go into the film with intentions of searching for them. The story is interesting and works well with it's characters and script. I obviously enjoyed watching the film, and my attention never ceased or wandered around lost in the clouds(which it normally is) and I never, well, didn't enjoy it. I felt that "Dinner for Schmucks" was a textbook example of how to make a comedy. It's well-rounded, heartfelt, interesting, and most of all...hilarious. But, in order for me to give a Five-Star rating, the film REALLY must go above the "above and beyond" rank. "Dinner for Schmucks" was the above and beyond, but no further. But overall, I loved the movie, it's funny, clever, and just a well-told story. Definitely wanting to buy it when it comes out on DVD. So, my advice to you is, (also given by Time's Richard Corliss in his review) well, that only a Schmuck would miss it.
Starring: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Bruce Greenwood, Director: Jay Roach
Zach Galifinakas

Kick-A**

My Rating: 3/4



Okay, I have to admit, in a weird sense, "Kick A**" was a good movie. Now, with a title like that, you can't help but wonder what the film is a about. Well, allow me to shed some light on the subject. This tells the story of Dave Lezewski(Aaron Johnson), a high school comic-book geek who has always wondered the inevitable question: "How come no one has ever tried to be a superhero?" Now I agree. Of course, it is a dumb and especially dangerous idea. But then again, we have thousands of psychopaths who've done crazier things. I mean, don't you think at least ONE of them would've tried a dumb idea with good intentions? But Dave is curious as to why people say it's impossible. He answers them: "Putting on a mask and helping people? How is that impossible?" So, (clearly not knowing what he's getting himself into) he orders a wetsuit(above, front), two batons, and a tazer off of the Internet, and takes on the alias of "Kick A**". Which ends up being all over the Internet, T.V., and pretty much everywhere you'll find news. But, sometimes people do things at absolutely the wrong time. During this time, Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), a cocaine dealer who disguises himself as wealthy man in the lumber business(although he IS extremely rich), is tracking down another mysterious superhero that the world never saw enough for him to catch on like Dave did. He calls himself "Big Daddy"(played by Nicolas Cage) and he wears what looks like a batman costume ripoff. And his daughter, Mindy, calls herself "Hit-Girl"(played by Chloe Moretz). The crazy thing is that she's eleven and she does the most butt kickin' in the film. From doing backward- flipping kicks to chopping people's legs off and shooting them in the head, when she's involved in violence, there's always going to be blood. But anyway, Dave(or, well, Kick A**) is thought to be the one killing all of his men and destroying D'Amico's drug stock. So, he is mixed into a big misunderstanding and must partner with other superheroes that include the ones already mentioned as well as the one who knows how to ride in style, Red Mist(Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who owns and is driving the car in the picture above. And he must stop D'Amico. Now, you may think that the plot is either cool, interesting, or stupid. But regardless, it works out well. It's funny, entertaining, interesting, and most of all, original! In an interview, Christopher Mintz-Plasse(again, Red Mist) said that all of Hollywood's current comic book films were either reboots or sequels. It was as if everyone was afraid of trying something new. But "Kick A**" was one of those bold attempts to find something fresh that would get a lot of fans. And well, mission accomplished. I loved the film's idea and storyline. It's creative and well done. The acting was also great. Everyone did a great job. But there was, however, some controversy about Chloe Moretz(Hit Girl)'s potty mouth in the movie. But, you must understand that it's acting and she doesn't say that in real life...at least I don't think she does. The star of the film that plays Dave/Kick A** is Aaron Johnson who happens to be a British actor. And for this film he had to use an American accent. Which he does perfectly and if all you did was watch the movie and didn't know anything about the stars, it wouldn't even cross your mind he was British. Now, that aside, I think that the moral of the film wasn't that you should go out and try to be a superhero, but that you don't need laser vision or super-strength or the ability to fly just to help someone out. And I think if you really pay attention, "Kick A**" really shows you that. Now the movie could definitely have been more appropriate. And there was some wasted potential. I had ideas that I think would have made the film more enjoyable. But I recommend "Kick A**"to anyone who can handle it. And for the most part, "Kick A**" kicked a**.
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Director: Matthew Vaughn
Christopher-Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong,
Lyndsy Fonseca

Salt

My Rating: 3/4


Wow. If I am certain about anything in this movie, it's that thrillers will never be the same. The plot focuses on a woman named Evelyn Salt(Angelina Jolie) who works for the C.IA. . One day, a man comes in for interrogation. He is a Russian. He claims that a Russian spy will come and kill the Russian president at a government funeral in the U.S. . The spy's name: Evelyn Salt. After he says this, the neural scanner says he is truthful. So, Salt becomes hunted by the C.I.A. and must discover who set her up. Now, after reading the plot line, there are quite a few things you can tell. The first thing is that it's an action movie. There's a lot of chasing a gun fights as Evelyn must stay alive. The second thing is that it's a thriller. There are so many shocking revelations revealed that you couldn't see coming. As well as many "WHAT THE (never mind this part)?!" moments. But, this is easily the best thriller I've ever seen. I was never certain of what was going to happen. But, when something did, I was extremely surprised. I was kept guessing and guessing the entire way through. It's the best thriller since "Lakeview Terrace"(as I mentioned in my last review). And one more(or third) thing is that, it's interesting. I wasn't bored for a single second during this film. Everything about it intrigued me and interested me. Just imagine "Lost" on the big screen. That's how much I wanted to know what happened next. The action is very well done too. It doesn't lack the entertainment element but also doesn't use that to hog up the film's running time. Which by the way is a very lean 1hr. , 40 Mins. . The perfect length to tell a story like this. That way the suspense never dragged or kept you waiting too long. The acting was very well done. Of course I like Angelina Jolie's performance...but then again, who doesn't? Liev Schreiber(X-Men Origins: Wolverine) had a very good performance as well. All of it was fully believable. And truthfully, I didn't spend much of my time watching the film thinking about the acting. Because the sheer quality of the movie was enough to keep my mind off the subject. The only problems I had with this film are that of which I had with "Inception". Some of it was a wee-bit confusing. But in the end, I understood. I also understand that it's supposed to be a thriller but I think it was just a little too dull. I'm not saying it should've been a comedy but maybe one or two funny lines could've brought it further. It reminds me of the Joker's famous line in "The Dark Knight": "Why so serious?". But overall, I loved "Salt". Despite it's tiny flaws, Salt delivers on it's promise and will keep you on the edge of your seat...until you move to the center of your seat.

Starring: Angeline Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor Director: Phillip Noyce

From Paris With Love

My Rating: 1.5/4

John Travolta is earning his increasing reputation of being a good actor that is always put in weird roles. Like in "The Taking of Pelham 123", he played a crazy guy with a gun. Now, in "From Paris With Love", he's playing a very similar role. The plot centers around James Reese(Jonathan Meyers), a personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France. But, his dream job is to be an agent for the C.I.A. . So one day, he's put on a mission for such an organization with his highly-skilled, balled-headed killing Machine partner, "Wax"(John Travolta) to stop a terrorist attack.
Now, the plot is certainly interesting. But, does it deliver? The clear answer I can give is "Nope". I just wasn't really liking the film. The best thing about it is probably the acting. But even that doesn't qualify as "outstanding". But it still was pretty good. Nothing seemed fake, but nothing seemed to be at the level of the performances by Morgan Freeman in "Invictus". Or Tim Robbins in "The Shawshank Redemption". Or especially Morgan Freeman(again) in "The Shawshank Redemption". As for the action, it's certainly entertaining. Travolta pulls off some crazy fighting "manuvers" that usually result in quite a few dead badguys. From things like shooting while hanging upside down or to droppping a bomb on top of a car as soon as the bad guys reach it, it's crazy. But, all the same, it feels senseless. Not much of a point to it. The movie just seems to go on and on, without much of a purpose. But hey, at least it only has a length of an hour and a half, which is very short. One thing that really killed the movie was that it failed at hitting one of its targeted genres. It tries to not just have action, but be a thriller as well. But, it fails. It's totally predictable. When I watch thrillers, I like to have my brain guessing the whole way through, but never being even remotely certain of what comes next. That quality was shown to the max in films like "Lakeview Terrace"(2008) and "Salt"(2010). My grandmother figured out the film's most "shocking" revelation within five minutes of watching it. And that's just about all she watched! But, when all is said and done, "From Paris With Love" had entertaining action, good acting, a predictable story, but overall mainly just fails. Let's hope this is the last love letter we get from Paris.
Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Meyers Director: Pierre Morel

Our Family Wedding

My Rating: 2.5/4





In short, "Our Family Wedding" was stellar. It collided its own flaws and strengths. Not making anything about the film tiresome. Centered around a comedic plot about a couple played by Lance Gross(Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns") and America Ferrera (Ugly Betty).They want to get married, but their families are polar opposites. They want the wedding to go different ways, they want this, the other wants that, and so on and so forth. So, will they be able to cope with each other and have a nice wedding or will they have one big mistake? Well, you can watch "Our Family Wedding" or, read the walk through story of the film that those spoiler-lovers wrote on IMDB. But, I personally would watch the movie. I did enjoy the film. But why was this movie necessary? I'm just missing the point the movie was trying to get across. I for sure know it was entertainment that was it's primary goal, seeing as it's a comedy. But, there have been many films like that but they always have SOMETHING else they're trying to tell you. But, like "Dumb & Dumber", there doesn't appear to be one. But all the same, There were at least plenty of funny parts. And to me, everyone needs a movie like this every once and a while. Something we can just enjoy. Not much to walk away with, however, other than a small grin. So whatever you learned from watching, say, "The Blind Side", I guarantee you won't learn it after watching "Our Family Wedding". The acting was pretty well done(I guess that's just long for "it was good") It's stars do well. But perhaps the best performance in the film is from a star that oddly enough doesn't play a VERY main character, just a semi main character, and it's by Forest Whitaker(shocker). If you don't know who that is, he was in "The Great Debaters"(2007), "Repo Men"(2009), as well as MANY others and is extremely famous. And like I said, he had the best performance. Overall, I enjoyed "Our Family Wedding'. It is yet ANOTHER small, light-viewing, joyride. I laughed a few times, and enjoyed watching it. Today, sometimes movies just like to be that way, but they've done it so much a lot of people who don't see a lot of movies think that this is the REAL DEAL when it comes to film. But, I have seen enough movies to know that no, they certainly aren't. But, for that branch of film, "Our Family Wedding" gets the job done.

Starring: America Ferrera, Lance Gross Director: Rick Famuylwa

The Bounty Hunter

My Rating: 2/4



Gerard Butler has been a dad, a spartan, a "Law Abiding Citizen", a game avatar, some dude in a love story(twice), (as well as many others) and now, a bounty hunter. While Jennifer Aniston, on the other hand, has been a mom, a wife, some dudet in a love story(several times), a puppy owner, and now a, well, I now this isn't proper English but let's just say she's a "bounty huntEE". The plot centers around Milo(butler), a has-been cop that now has a crazy line of work as a bounty hunter. But so far, that's left him with very little. One day, he is offered $5,OOO to take his ex-wife(Aniston) to prison. Why? Because she is a journalist who wanted a story so bad she decided to skip her time in court was automatically sentenced to a small amount of jail time(for assaulting an officer). So, Milo must hunt down his ex wife and take her to jail. But, this could go one of three ways. Either it will go as planned, they could start falling in love again, or they could kill each other in the process. What killed this film was the same thing that killed "Did You Hear About the Morgans?". Was it fun and funny? Yes. But the rest of it seemed just like dead space almost. I felt that some wasted potential was taken up by slight nothingness. I saw how the story all fit together, but it could have been much funnier. That's kind of the point of comedies. But, I did think it was a nice movie. Nothing to big, but still enjoyable. It had some good acting, of course, from it's two very expensive stars. But it all turned into a small, light-viewing movie. Some parts I laughed, and I was interested. But I think whether or not you will enjoy it depends on what genres you like. But for now, this will do.

Starring: Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston Director:Andy Tennant

Cop Out

My Rating: 3/4

Comedy has always varied between different films. Some movies are truly funny and are done right. Some replace that with vulgar jokes and the F-word. And then you have "Cop Out". Which seems somewhat of a hybrid between the two. It's a lot like the more mature version of the "Rush Hour" series. The film stars Bruce Willis(Live Free or Die Hard, above,right) and Tracy Morgan(G-Force,above,left). They are two NYPD cops who are trying to get back Jimmy(Bruce Willis)'s mint condition baseball card that he was going to sell to pay for his daughter's wedding. And Paul(Tracy Morgan) is his partner in anti-crime and is helping him out. But, along the way, they are pitted against a cruel money-obsessed gangster. And are tangled in a long struggle to, well, get a baseball card. But hey, it's worth about 80,000 dollars...or something close to it. So, the plot doesn't include anything too fancy. No work of art. But it does make it work. However, it doesn't do what the ideal comedy would do. I know I mentioned this same comedy principal in my review of "Grown-Ups", that comedy movie must build the hilarity on the situation, not solely on just one-liners. And I felt that "Cop Out" just built off of one-liners. There were some situations where comedy could have built off of but didn't. Although, somehow, a miracle is performed. Whats this? "Cop Out" actually had a lot of hilarious one-liners. Perhaps the funniest line is when the two main characters are talking and at one point Jimmy says "But I already made my decision." and then Paul replies "Hello, the president is black now, we make decisions!". I laughed so hard you have no idea. They are many others like that but that by far was the funniest. The acting is good. Two stars do the job but there's nothing extraordinary. But I did feel that the story lacked some detail. It seemed jumbled and could have been better. But the funny thing is that the movie seems to almost tell you that it's excuse for that is the funny comedy. And well, that my friends, is a cop out. While I did enjoy watching it, it was slightly predictable and had some flaws. But overall, it WAS pretty funny and this film seems to make it work. If they turn this into a series, I do think it has the potential to overcome even the"Rush Hour" series which is like this film's cousin. But for now, it has plenty of time for improvement.

Starring: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan Director: Kevin Smith