I Love You Man

The best movie I have seen so far this year is I Love You, Man.
The script by John Hamburg and Larry Levin is right on point and the actors involved all give great performances. The main part of the story is about a friendless guy who goes out to find a Best Man for his wedding however the movie explores relationships between men and women. All men can relate and will love this movie but women will enjoy how true the story is. Quincy Jones daughter, Rashida Jones, is lovable and perfectly cast as Zooey. She has always been a favorite of mine on NBC’s The Office and I look for her to have continued success. This is Paul Rudd’s best movie to date. Like it or not he is one of the new Kings of Comedy and he displays an endearing quality I have not seen from him in prior movies. He was always a great support player but now after this movie expect to see him as a leading man. Jason Segel, from the forgettable movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is also good and someone to watch. Jamie Pressley and Jon Favreau play a hilarious couple and Lou Ferrigno, who I have not seen in 100 years, plays himself in the movie.

Verdict: I love this movie. Great script, good movie. Worth seeing with a significant other. My only wish was to see more scenes with Jamie Pressley and Jon Favreau.

Duplicity

Take Oceans 12, which was the worst of the lot, bring back Julia Roberts and no one else and you have Duplicity. The story is about 2 former spies who had a prior relationship and team up to pull a con job on their respective bosses.
There is zero chemistry between Julia and Clive Owens. Even when Clive does her wrong in the film you can look into Julia eyes and see that she really does not care. Clive Owens is the latest Jude Law. Clive is in many movies however he can’t open a movie (The International) and it seems as if he comes off as a 2nd rate James Bond. He is way better as a support player (See Spike Lee’s Inside Man). Paul Giamatti is excellent as always however his shtick is wearing thin.

Verdict: The only good thing about this movie is seeing the five star hotels that the lead characters stay in. Julia Roberts is holding up very well however skip this movie by all means unless you liked Ocean’s 12.

DVD Pick of the Week: 1997 Dance With the Devil (Perdita Durango)

If you enjoyed Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men then you will like Dance With The Devil. It's not a great movie but it's one of those flicks that you will watch to see how it ends. The story is about a psychotic criminal couple who kidnaps a random teenage couple and go on a violent and disturbing trip. The movie is not as good as Old Men but you can see where Javier's Oscar winning character,Anton Chigurh (the terminator from Old Men) started in Dance With The Devil. Rosie Perez gives one of her better performances and you also have Tony Saprano, James Gandophini, playing against type.

Knowing

Take Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow, sprinkle in some ET and you have Knowing. This flick was not advertised a lot and now I know why.
The movie is horrid. The story is about a numeric document that was written 50 years ago that predicts many disasters that will take place in the world. Part mystery, part sci-fi, all seen before. Bernie Maddoff must have sold this script to the studio and Nick Cage probably owed someone a favor. The special effects are 2nd rate and when they are used everything is dark so that you can’t see how bad the effects are. It’s hard to believe that Nicholas Cage is an Academy Award winner after watching this. This is one of the many disaster movies that Hollywood is launching and I hope that this is the worst of the lot. My reviews are usually short and to the point however nothing should be said about this movie. Deep Impact would be considered a Best Picture of the year next to this mess.

Verdict: Nick Cage is on the back 9 of his career. Years ago his friend, Sean Penn, said he was wasting his talents acting in big budget movies. After watching Con Air I felt Sean was wrong, now I feel he saw this coming.

Race to Witch Mountain

I like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. To me his best movie to date is 2003 The Rundown. His worst is 2007 The Game Plan.
This movie falls somewhere in between. I never saw the original version of this Disney movie. I tried to watch it on cable the other day for the first time and it was painfully dated. I couldn't get through it. The good news is that this remake is a whole new story and takes place in one of my favorite places, Las Vegas. The original kids also show up in this movie in a bar scene.
Kids will love it; they cheered throughout all of the Rock’s sappy one-liners and clapped at the end. The final scene was a total rip-off from Aliens.

Verdict: For kids and Rock fanatic fans only. I am still waiting for The Rock’s signature role. If he continues to make these movies he will soon be considered a joke.

The Last House On The Left

This is a reboot version of the landmark movie that launched Wes Craven’s career.
It’s a revenge flick and not for the weak at heart. The original version was very low budget and extremely graphic for its time. Both versions have a very disturbing rape scene, extreme violence, and lots of gore. The original trailer tag line for the 1972 cult classic was: “It’s only a movie” repeat to yourself while watching “It’s only a movie”
The new version does a good job with the story in which a gang, led by a prison escapee, kidnap and assault two young women. One of the women’s parents set out to get payback. Tony Goldwyn the nemesis from Ghost, who we have not seen in a major role for some time, shows up as the father and does a good job.

Verdict: See it if you can handle it. There is a classic garbage disposal scene. Expect more reboots of classic and cult horror movies. I am looking forward to The Wolfman with Bernicio Del Toro.

Weekend DVD Picks of the week: Open Water 1 & 2

Three NFL football players were recently lost at sea when their boat overturned. To understand how they could have perished rent 2003 Open Water which is a true story. It's low budget but there are some good tense moments. 2006 Open Water 2 is not true but a Hollywood version with Eric Dane. If you have not seen either one start with the first one to realize what really happened then move on to the bigger budget version with a not true screenplay.

Verdict: Open Water 2 is a better movie.

Eric Roberts - The Most Underated Actor in Hollywood

His best by far was 1983's Star 80, but check out my boy in 2001 Stiletto Dance. He is a better actor than his sister Julia, why Hollywood does not recognize his game I do not know.

Yes he was Kim Basinger's husband in 1992's Final Analysis in which he says to her "I didn't have one gray hair until I married you" EXCELLENT. He is one of my favorite actors by far. He was wasted in Iron Man.

The Hangover Trailer *2009* Funny

MIKE TYSON IS BACK. SO COOL

Watchmen

I had a feeling this was going to be bad. Why? Because Marvel Comics were always better than DC Comics. Today Marvel movies (Spiderman, Iron Man) are better than DC Comic movies (did anyone see Superman Returns?) except for their one shinning light The Dark Knight.
Premise: Someone is killing masked avengers, who is it? Well no need for spoiler alerts here because you figure it out half way into the movie. There is a naked blue guy that is walking around the movie called Dr. Manhattan. He looks like a direct rip off of Marvel's Silver Surfer. Dr. Manhattan?? You might as well call him Dr. Feelgood. Anyway Billy Crudup, who was the next James Dean a decade ago, plays the blue naked guy. His story is the only interesting one in the movie. Rent 1997’s Inventing the Abbotts and 1998’s Hi-Lo Country from Greencine.com if you want to see how good Billy can be.
There is one hero at the start of the movie that looks like Robert Downey Jr. 10 years from now. I kept thinking about how good Iron Man was and how bad this movie is.

Verdict: No joke, someone in the movie says this: “Can you tell us how this is going to end so that you can save us the time?” Nuff Said (nuff said was used repeatedly in Marvel Comics which was created by the genius Stan Lee).