Movie Reviews

So, we've reach movie review time once again. For those of you who may have missed my previous attempts at channeling my inner Roger Ebert, you should know I don't have enough ego to tell you what you should be watching based on my own preferences so my reviews usually have very little to do with the movie itself and focus on something completely unrelated.

Paul I thoroughly enjoyed this comedic take on the typical "first contact" movie. It is sort of an homage to every science fiction story which has come before it and was quite enjoyable. The thing is I don't know why I was all that surprised I liked it considering I find all the people who were in it (Seth Rogan, Kristen Wiig, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) to be quite funny. Also, I have enjoyed most of the things Pegg and Frost have teamed up in before, such as "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz". This was just a light, fun movie. I guess that just goes to show you sometimes you can actually trust people to deliver a quality movie based on their previous efforts, not trick you into seeing a crappy movie based on another filmed of theirs you enjoyed. (Looking at you, Sylvester Stallone in "Demolition Man".)

Win, Win Every now and again I like to shake myself out of my normal action movie routine of car chases, explosions, catch phrases and even more explosions and see how the other half lives, as it were. This was my latest non-explosion, non car-chase attempt and based on this I think I'm good for a little while. "Win, Win" is another one of those movie where the protagonist (played by Paul Giamatti) is just a guy trying to do the right thing and make everyone happy as he goes trudging through his life. The thing I found hard to watch about this movie is that he doesn't really do the right thing. I don't want to give away the plot or too much of the ending, but Giamatti's character makes some questionable decision early in the movie which makes him kind of hard to root for later on. All I know is this: when you write a movie where the audience isn't going to be sure if they like the main character or not you had better keep them interested by blowing some stuff up every once in a while.

The Conspirator Not bad for what it is, basically a courtroom drama set in the 1860s. The movie recounts the trial of the only woman accused in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. Besides being a little too long, I think my main problem is that the star of the movie is James McAvoy, who happens to be Scottish. Now, I know the ladies love them some McAvoy but he has been on my shit list ever since being in  "Wanted" (seriously, it was that bad). Also, it leads to a question I have always wondered: why is it that whenever people make a movie about 1800 America, they fill it with European actors who are then forced to speak without their native accents? Wouldn't it just be easier to find American actors? This isn't like trying to make a sports movie and having to decide whether it would be simpler to teach actors to play sports or athletes to act. It just seems like finding these actors a dialect coach is an unnecessary task to add on to what I imagine would be the already-long-enough list of things which have to be done to make a movie. Why make any job harder than it has to be?

The Dilemma The only dilemma I have about this movie is whether I should describe it as awful or god-awful. Seriously, I don't know who keeps giving Kevin James and Vince Vaughn major roles to begin with, but I really have no idea who in their right mind thought they would be able to pull off a movie where they shared the spotlight. I think by now they have proven they should only be playing the best friend or quirky co-worker at best. The only likable person in this film is Jennifer Connolly and even she can't save it. I try really hard not to be 'that guy' from the internet who takes to his blog to slam other people's work, but I did not enjoy one minute of this film. I caught it for free on my cable channel and I still thought about trying to get a refund from someone. Avoid it at all costs.

Unknown At this point, Liam Neeson seems to have settled nicely into a career of playing the same role - a professional bad-ass who is attempting to solve a mystery while killing everyone in his path. Now, I don't want you to think I am picking on Neeson - he isn't the first actor to keep playing the same part and he does it better than most. Also, this movie isn't bad. My concern is that if he keeps going down this path there will come a time when all his parts are going to blend together. Even in this movie it felt as though he was playing the same person he was in "Taken", as if it was some kind of prequel. Dude, throw a comedy in there somewhere, just to break up the monotony. It will even be funnier because people won't be expecting it.