Sin City

Intriguing concept for a movie.

There is no single identifiable plot. It's several stories that happen to take place in the same city and each contains cameos from the others. One story involves Marv (Mickey Rourke) who is treated nicely by a woman who is then killed. He goes out to find her murderer. Another involves Bruce Willis as a good cop who saves a little girl and is then framed as her defiler. Always lots of violence and strange characters.

I liked the stories. They were very interesting and engaging. The characters themselves were strange. The city is huge with lots of depth and history. Sadly, we don't get much of that history. The visuals were awesome. I liked this style and effects. However, I don't think many of these bigi name actors can play these types of roles. Bruce Willis and Brittany Murphy to name just a couple. The roles should be filled with people like Humphery Bogart. There's a way of delivering the lines and having prescence which this doesn't quite live up to. Their physical performances were fine but the dialogue just didn't quite come off. It felt cornball. Still, there were many people who gave good performances. Mickey Rourke was amazing. Jessica Alba was far better than I expected. And Willis wasn't so bad when he wasn't narrating.

3.25 of 5. Good plot lines, good visuals. Performances so so.

Love Stinks

Watched this at a request and it was worthwhile.

At his best friend's,Bill Bellamy, wedding, French Steward falls for one of the bridesmaids. Let the games begin. After one night, she quits her job to focus on him, eventually moves in and is pursuing him for marriage from the outset. He doesn't come along as easily as she wants, but far easier than he should, and all hell breaks loose.

Very funny, entertaining flick. I wasn't sure about French Stewart in his part but he works as it's a very comedic performance. Not as slapstick as something Chevy Chase or Jim Carrey would do but still a lot of facial and bodily humor. Bill Bellamy can't act and the narration of parts of the story is a tad annoying and pointless. However, the movie is funny. Their pranks and fighting are quality and the ending is fantastic. Sadly, I think I got more annoyed with the girl than I should have. It seemed to almost go extreme but it plateued nicely. There are a few plot things to nitpick at but should really get with the "suspension of disbelief" thing and just enjoy the ride.

3.5 of 5 very worthwhile.

Mean Girls

Um, yeah, so who doesn't like looking at Lindsay Lohan?

Lohan was homeschooled until 16 when her parents finally decide to send her off to public school. Here she meets some people who become her friends and she learns all about the clicks of public shool life. They then decide to have Lohan become a spy for the "Plastics" (the attractive girls everyone wants but are really snobbish and bitchy). Eventually, Lohan becomes so engrossed in the plastic life that she forgets about her real friends and starts a war amongst the plastics. Lessons learned at the end, happily-ever-after.

It was a fairly decent movie. Entertaining and short skirts: the best combinations. Though fairly formulaic, it brought some cleverness. There was good dialouge. Damian was an awesome character. And it was fun to watch the Plastics fight amongst themselves.

3 of 5. Funny, sometimes witty, though a tad predictable.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

You see this movie for what it could have been and you're greatly disappointed with what it is.

The year is 1899 and Europe is on the brink of war. A mysterious man is invading countries with different armies (the Brits used to make raids into Germany; Germans into Britain) causing all kinds of unrest. He also has super new weapons for the ages: machine guns and tanks. Sean Connery is recruited to help save the British empire. At his debriefing he meets the other extraordinaries: Captain Nemo, Skinner (the invisible man) and a woman who turns out to be a vapmire. They go off and recruit a couple more people and then try to save the world. A few twists and turns later they learn to get along, save the world and all is happy with an ending fit for a sequel had this movie done well.

First of all, getting these fantastic characters together with unique abilities and who are world famous expecting them to work together is liking watching the US Men's Olympic basketball team: they just don't mesh and all have huge egos. Then you add in the idea that the movie can't really decide if it's fantasy/comic book with all the really cool, legandary characters or whether it's sci-fi with wigged out technology and special effects. Not much time is spent with the characters but is rather spent watching all the cool things the filmmakers could do with computers and whatnot. It's nice to see in 1899 that Captain Nemo has better technology than we do today. His submarine, the Nautilus, looks like an ornate pistol. You know the kind: the really fancy, old-fahsioned, mother of pearl sort of six-shooter. Needless to say, though I'll say it anyway, the movie was disappointing. The story could have been interesting if the "twists" weren't so obvious. The characters were cool to see and fun to watch, when you did get to see them. Basically, all you're watching are a bunch of special effects. You can't even really enjoy Connery. While his voice is still pretty awesome, he's getting old and you can see it in this film.

2 of 5 for some pretty wicked, fun effects.

The Punisher

A dark comic book movie.

Frank Castle works for the FBI and on his last raid a gangster's son is killed (mostly 'cause the kid is an idiot and pulls a gun but the gangster doesn't care). Castle then retires. Travolta is the gangster who then orders Castle's entire family slaughtered, Castle included. Unfortunately for Travolta, they don't quite kill Castle. The entire time Castle is out killing the baddies and doing his thing he's not claiming to do it for revenge but to punish the bad guys. This is why he is called "The Punisher." He's operating outside the law only because the law in extreme cases is inadequate.

This was good. It is nothing like X-men or Spiderman. This guy has no super powers but how to fight and use guns. Plus, he kills and maims and tortures. There is nothing "feel good" about this movie. It is, however, still very interesting and very well done. He's not invincible so gets his ass kicked a lot. Nothing is really over the top about the movie. I don't know how true this is to the comics but I watched the "Origins" special on the DVD and it seemed like there were several different beginnings in the comics. I don't know how Castle survived his "death," either; I think I blinked and missed it. Other than him explicitly stating it, the Punisher's message does not come across clearly. He has one little confrontation with the mayor (or maybe it was the police chief) and I think that's where we're supposed to see it but they kind of missed the mark on that part.

4 of 5. Very well done, nothing campy, quality characters.

Dumb and Dumberer

The prequel to Dumb and Dumber is just plain dumb. Yes, that was lame sounding but I can't do anything better with this movie.

Harry (the blonde one) has been homeschooled until this year and is finally going to public school. Lloyd is the school janitor's son and has been living in the basement of the school. The school principal is a shyster out to take all the school's money to own a house on Waikiki. Their destinies collide on the very first day when the principal decides to try for $100k grant for special needs classes. Harry and Lloyd are the first students tagged for the class who are then told to recruit others. Hot on the pricipal's trail is Jessica, an investigative school reporter who smells something fishy. Hilarity is supposed to ensue but doesn't really.

The first problem with this movie is that the actor who plays Lloyd is not really playing the character but is playing Jim Carrey playing the role of Lloyd. While he does look and sound uncannily like Carrey, the performance doesn't seem all that natural. The next problem is that the movie tries too hard to be funny. While some of what occurs is funny (such as the game of tag with the 7-11 clerk or some of the word play) other times it falls short or is just too forced and/or slapstick (such as Bob Saget yelling, "There is shit everywhere!"). I probably should have expected this but it's still disappointing.

2 of 5. Still has some humor to it but not all that exciting.

Without A Paddle

Pretty much the same movie as "Stand By Me" but less dramatic, funnier and the kids are taller.

Three life-long buddies reunite after the fourth has died. After the funeral they decide to take a trip they had planned when they were kids in search of some legendary money. They all have issues and have to deal with them on the trip (such as Seth Green being a complete pansy). They confront bears, two rednecks growing weed and two hot, female hippies living in a tree. By the end they've all "grown up" and learned some valuable life lessons.

The movie felt exactly likfe "stand by Me." A group of friends goes off in search of some sort of "treasure." Except here the friends are already supposed to be grown up. The movie is funny but some of the stuff is a bit potty humor. It's also pretty predictable. Doesn't mean it's not good. The methods are sometimes pretty funny. I'm a fan of Seth Green and Matthew Lillard. Not so much of Dax Shepard.

3 of 5. Worth a rent with some good friends. Probably better while intoxicated.

Eulogy

Now this is a screwed up family.

Rip Torn is the father to 4 children. He dies and the families get together at the old place for the funeral. The main character is the granddaughter played by Zooey Deschanel (she's the daughter of Hank Azaria in this movie). She's also the only sane one in this movie but she has some issues with one of the local boys. The family is crazy. Ray Romano has twins who are absolute hormonal pricks. They drove away their mother at age 11. One of Torn's daughters is a lesbian who is then constantly persecuted by the other daughter for her lifestyle. Nobody pays any attention to the widowed grandmother who spends the movie trying to kill herself. It makes for quite hilarious situations.

The movie is really funny for the first half but dies off for the actual funeral. It regains the funny afterwards. It has a few predictable moments but most of the humor is very clever and, I felt, very well done. It also has a few unique twists.

3.5 of 5. Very funny, entertaining.