Once again I was tricked by clever movie marketing. Tonight I sat down to watch Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Kevin James plays the role of a single dad who’s failed attempts to get into the New Jersey state troopers (his dream job) has kept him at a job as a security guard at a local mall. The predictable plot includes a love interest played by Jayma Mays .

20 minutes into this flick and it was evident that the jist of this one-sided hot mess was centered around James’s bumbling, stumbling fat boy antics. The improbable love interest of James’s character played by Jayma Mays is equally uninteresting. Add to her thorougly unconvincing acting ability and you are left with a bad taste in your mouth.

The storyline centers around a group of thugs led by Keir O’Donnell who’s rediculous idea is to rob a mall of the stores nightly credit card take (what?!). O’Donnell’s character as a villian is overplayed and adds nothing to this banal comedy.

As entertainment goes, Mall Cop is a waste of two plus hours of time. Save your money and watch some reruns of Kevin James in King of Queens where his predictable acting ability is appreciated.

This is not about Natasha Richardson or her recent death from a skiing accident. It is how I feel in general.

Every single day someone famous or well known dies. There are hundreds of traditional news stories and thousands of internet articles.  I hear people say “oh that is so sad” or “I feel terrible” or “I am really upset”.  To me these are incredibly “fake” comments in response to public media situations. If anyone actually felt bad single every time someone died they would be miserable 24 hours a day forever. Not just today or tomorrow, but every day for the rest of their lives.  That is just silly.

I feel bad if people I know intimately die. I feel bad if someone in my family dies. I know these people. I have a relationship with them. I have actual feelings for them. I don’t know Natasha Richardson. Some say she was a good actress. That is wonderful, but it does not make me feel more for her now then I did a month ago.

For example I am sure a great doctor somewhere on the planet just died as I was typing this post. I don’t feel sad for them, and realistically neither does anyone else with the exception of those immediately related or attached to them. Those people who make the “oh that is so sad” or “I feel terrible” comments are not going to be upset over this death. They just are not. And going back to what I said earlier, if they did have a profound emotional response to every single death in the world, they would be in the loony bin for deep depression.

What is more realistic is the emotional shock reaction people have to these very public death situations. Sure the deaths of Princess Di and John Kennedy were sensational and (more…)

Saw Quarantine tonight. Not bad, but also not good.

Filmed like the movie Cloverfield, it is completely shot from the view of a cameraman following a reporter. the reporter is doing a story on a group of firemen and goes along with them, only to stumble into an effected building where they are locked inside (by the authorities) while everyone turns into blood sucking rabid zombies. Just like Cloverfield it starts with about 30 minutes of the filming of a bunch of people while the reporter is doing film spots with the different firemen around the firehouse. this lets the viewer get to know each of the characters.

After that and once they get to the infected building the movie quickly turns into a rapidly jerking around camera view, a lot of screaming, running, bloody biting, and people’s life ending quickly. (more…)

From IMDB: Though it’s been some twenty years since they have spoken with one another, two estranged soul-singing legends agree to participate in a reunion performance at the Apollo Theater to honor their recently deceased band leader.

That about sums it up, but don’t forget the 2000 times they say fuck, mother fucker, fuck this, fuck that, and fuck fuck fuck. I have no problem with the word fuck being used in a movie, but in this movie it almost becomes comical how many times in the same sentence they use the word.

Actually a GREAT drinking game could be done with this movie if you had to take a drink every time they say the word fuck. You would be TRASHED within the first 15 minutes of the film.

I have long been a Samuel L. Jackson fan but this movie is below par even for him. Bernie Mac was fun in the Ocean’s 11 series of movies but has always been more of a supporting actor in my opinion.

What I disliked most about this film is that it is JUST NOT FUNNY. It was billed as a comedy and ends up failing as a buddy movie about 2 old guys becoming friends again. Overall I was not impressed.

I did not believe the “buddy” plot.
I did not think the music was particularly good or well performed.
I did not believe any of the main characters and the people they met along the way were even more ridiculous, highlighted by Jackson’s daughter’s clown of a boyfriend.

Sure Issac Hayes and Bernie Mac died shortly after filming this movie, but that does not change the fact that it is sub par (in my opinion) at best.

IMDB link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1111948/
Box office - In 13 weeks in wide release it only made 12 million dollars, further showing that the viewing public (including the African American audience that it is obviously targeted at) clearly also thought it was not a good movie.

We saw Friday the 13th, 2009 last night and completely LIKED it. Very good remake that was neither cheesy or dumb. Very well done, well shot, and good effects. It has an R rating so the killing is graphic, there are excellent sex scenes, a good amount of humor mixed in and they don’t have to hold back with the scary stuff. ALSO, the sound track and sound effects are VERY well done. The “scary” stuff is enhanced by the sound effects that are perfectly placed and executed.

This is similar to the recent first remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where they did a good job reinventing the film in modern times. The same people produced this new version of Friday the 13th and did an equally excellent job.

I liked how they introduced the hockey mask into the story, but I won’t tell you so you can see it at the theaters.

Here is the description from IMDB - (more…)

I just saw The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke in it. This is SUCH a damn good movie. If you want to see an actor playing a used up-beat down-end of his rope character then you have to see Rourke as over the hill professional wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson. It is VERY hard to watch this film because The Ram is such a mess and how well Rourke plays a character that is probably VERY close to his real life.

Rourke IS going to be one of the favorites for Best Actor for this role. This is one of those once in a lifetime roles where everything comes together for an actor. I was exhausted at the end of watching this movie. You literally feel every hit and fall the character goes through and most of the pain is from his life outside of the ring. Rourke’s relationship with his estranged daughter is also very hard to watch at times.

Marisa Tomei is also good in the movie as the closest thing Rourke has to a love interest. She plays a stripper and is virtually naked a lot throughout, but also has some emotional moments with Rourke.

Rourke has had so much plastic surgery that he looks “off”, but (more…)

I was extremely excited about this movie when it originally came out in July 2008. I could not wait to see it then and was equally excited to see it again this week when it was finally released on DVD for the holiday season. And to top it all off the movie was re-released this week in theaters for a short final run before the Academy Awards where it will probably take home a truck load of Oscars.

When the early reviews came out and they were outrageously positive I thought for sure I would be let down. Even Rotten Tomatoes had it at 95% positive which NEVER happens on that website. People were going crazy calling it one of the best movies of the year, or ever made. I thought that this must be hysteria surrounding Ledger’s recent death. So the group of us I went with all decided NOT to be overcome by all of the positive reviews and just watch it and make our own decision on if the movie was great or not.

Well after seeing it back in July i can say that without question it is amazing. It is not just a great “super hero” movie, it is an incredible movie from start to finish. I would be shocked if it is not a serious contender for multiple awards including (more…)

When this movie first started came out I was excited. This looked pretty cool. People killing themselves for no apparent reason with the killing spreading all along the East Coast. The tailors were awesome and made you really get excited about the movie. So it was on top of my Blockbuster online list and we eagerly awaited to receive it. Our excitement was short lived.

What a bad movie. Is it a horror film? Kind of. Is it a political statement about people destroying the environment with some gory killing moments tossed in? Kind of. Is the acting horrible? Definitely. Is it another M. Night Shyamalan that is more style then substance and has a terrible ending again? YES!

M. Night is very lucky that the 6th Sense was his first lucky hit, because his movies have unfortunately gotten worse and worse since. Let’s review: (more…)

I LOVE movies. Blockbuster should give me some sort of lifetime achievement award for excellence in the field of online and in store renting. This being an election year I thought it would be relevant to list my favorite movies about politics. With all due respect to All The Kings Men, The Candidate, Mr Smith Goes To Washington, The original Manchurian Candidate, and Gandhi - all which are all time great movies - here are my favorite flicks about politics in no particular order.

Being There: Rarely does a movie stay with people like this one has for me. When I was young I remember watching it with my father in when it first was released. The incredible Peter Sellers was Chauncey, a simple-minded gardener who has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chauncey is put out on the street (more…)