Be Kind, Rewind (2008)

Michel Gondry kind of just appeared out of no where with a big hit like Eternal Sunshine For The Spotless Mind. I personally really liked that movie, i thought it was innovative, and brought something new and fresh to the way directors direct. Gondry's second film The Science of Sleep on the other hand, i thought was complete and utter shit. I thought it was an extremely pretentious movie with little to no plot. It did absolutely nothing for me. So queue my anticipation for this movie, which was actually pretty high. I have been wanting to see this movie for a little under a year when the trailer for released. I thought this movie looked phenomenal and the plot was something that i thought i would only see in dreams.

Be Kind, Rewind stars Jack Black as Jerry and Mos Def as Mike. It also co stars Danny Glover as Mr. Fletcher and Mia Farrow as Miss Falewicz . Basically the plot of this movie is a small business is a crappy NJ city that sells VHS tapes needs money to be renovated or they are getting kicked out into the projects. So Jerry and Mike have a plan after Jerry erases all the VHS tapes in the store that Mike works at and Mr. Fletcher owns. Jerry erased them because he got magnetized after being electrocuted. So they decide to shoot their own versions of their films and they call it "SWEDENIZNG' them. I wont say much more but that is the main plot of the movie, doesn't seem like much does it?

And that is my biggest problem with this movie, was that no matter how much i love that idea for a movie, i think the idea and plot is one of the best! Unfortunately it wasn't enough. There wasn't enough substance in this movie to make it that much better. There was a sub plot about a famous Jazz musician growing up in the building with the video store, but to me, it felt pointless and a waste of time. Fortunately, that is really the only negative stuff i have to say about this movie. Other then that, the rest was excellent. The story was real fun to watch and was real fun to see them remake some of my favorites like Ghostbusters. The dialog and acting were spot on. I like Jack Black and i forgot that Mos Def is actually a really good actor and it really shows in this film. This film had a lot of heart to it, and it was very funny in most of it. I can definitely recommend this movie to casual movie goers and the avid ones. If you can look past the sub par substance given in this movie and just enjoy a good movie, you will have a great time

7/10

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

A story about everyone who works for a living. That is the tagline on the movie poster for this movie. And it holds completely true to this film. A movie about a group of land salesman trying to make a living and make a buck.

This movie had quite an amazing cast attached to it, with Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Al Pacino and Jonathan Pryce and written by one of my all time favorite screen writers David Mamet. When you see the written by credits with David Mamet attached, expect a lot of long dialog scenes, and that is exactly what we got in this film. Extremely well acted and spoken dialog from all the actors in this film. Lemmon pulls off one of my favorite performances by him in this movie.

Not much more to say this but i highly recommend checking this movie out, if you are a fan of dialog or even a fan of Coen Brothers films, check it out. Worth your time

8/10

Shoot Em Up (2007)

Why? Why Clive Owen? Why Paul Giamatti? Why did you make such an awful, awful movie?

Shoot Em Up revolves around a guy, we'll just call him that because thats all he was to us. We had NO confirmation of his backstory, just some dude sitting on bench who can shoot a gun pretty fucking well and likes to eat carrots because they help his eye sight. Who see's a pregnant woman running and a guy with a gun chasing after her. The main story is that his Senator was manufacturing babies so they could give him a proper bone marrow transplant to pass a gun law in congress, of course it all being fully backed by a gun company. Yeah.......

This movie just goes no where for the hour and 20 minutes it lasts. I tried to sit there and tell my self thats its just a mindless action movie but i should not have to sit there and keep telling my self that to enjoy it. This movie was just plain awful, from the stupid and unnecessary action sequences to the fucking CGI blood. CGI blood people? Come on now.

Not to mention that the cliche and horrible dialog made me cringe a few times. I was even disappointed by Owens and Giamatti's performance in this movie. Giamatti is one of my favorite actors and this movie is up there with Big Fat Liar and Planet of the Apes. Please dont see this movie

2/10

Crimewave (1985)

Now, the question remains, who has seen this hidden gem? I was quite amazed when i saw this movie. Directed by Sam Raimi and written by Sam Raimi, Joel & Ethan Coen! I thought this has been pretty much my dream team since i first got into movies. Unfortunately, the outcome i did not like that much. This movie is a spoof comedy, its a spoof on crime movies from the 20's. I mean, expect anything less from the Coen brothers?

The movie is told in somewhat a narrative form by the main character named Vic Ajax while he's about to be electrocuted in the chair for murder. Its the story about a two business partners whom one sells the business to Renaldo *played by Bruce Campbell* under the others recognition. The one business man who didn't know of the selling then hired these 2 cartoon character like hit men to kill the other. This movie is humorous in some spots, its more of a slapstick comedy then anything else. It has some part of a love story in it also but more of a comedy/crime movie. Not much crime though, but it does have some extremely good looking shots from Raimi and of course, some spectacular dialog by the Coen brothers.

I think my biggest problems was this film was that my expectations were so high with these names attached, i expected a little more but you know what? It was still a decent film. Id recommend it highly to Raimi and Coen fans all around. But overall, just was not for me.

6/10

Confessions of a Superhero (2007)

When you were a kid, did you ever dream that you were a superhero and you just wish that you could fly away and fight evil? I did all the time, just the fact to escape from reality and wish you were Spider-Man, swinging through New York City and fighting the mugger who took that old ladies purse, or stopping the jewel thieves from robbing the pawn shop. Ok, i got a bit off topic there, sorry. But Confessions of a Superhero is a movie revolving around 4 main characters, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Hulk. All 4 played by actors in costumes who work on Hollywood Boulevard trying to make a living.

This is a documentary, straight up and down. Shot exactly like a documentary, but i think a little too stereotypical of a documentary. With its implemented still photographs and out of focus and out of angle interview shots, didn't quite bring anything new to the documentary style but im not complaining, i liked it. It was very beautifully shot and done very tasteful.

But what really makes this movie is the characters, Superman who is Chris Dennis is one disturbed soul if you ask me. This man has a devout obsession with Superman and when they show you his room, its a little creepy but he is definitely shown as the most calm of the bunch and seems to love what he does.

Maxwell Allen played Batman. This was quite an interesting character, he has a "dark" past according to what he said. Stating that he was in the mafia and left a body count in his past but a lot of people did not believe what he had to say. He had a lot of anger issues and it showed, and also his uncanny look alike to George Clooney in the bat costume was nothing short of amazing.

Jennifer Gerht is a southern girl who came to Hollywood looking to become an actress and found herself getting small time work but dressing up as Wonder Woman on the side to make money. She was actually particularly hot and her story wasn't as sad or depressing as the others but an interesting look into her life was shown.

Joseph McQueen played The Hulk. He got a lot of shit from the tourists for being an African American Hulk and his story is up there in the depressing level. He moved to Hollywood to become an actor during the Rodney King riots and was homeless for four years.

The movie pretty much follows them on their everyday lives of how they get money but say "We accept tips" when the tourists take pictures of them. It follows Max going to therapy in his Batman costume talking about his past. Joseph getting an acting job and Chris, well being Chris.

This movie is a must see, it has a lot of heart in the story and at times can be a bit of a downer but it really gives life to these people and really shows what they are all about.

8/10

The Lookout (2007)

I was told by many people to check this movie out, with them knowing that Brick is one of my all time favorite films, they said to check this out. Mostly they were right, this movie was a crime movie, it had Joseph Gordon-Levitt and great dialog and a good story but i think it really fell flat in some areas.

Mainly it was my expectations, i do not think that Levitt will ever be able to top his performance in Brick, and he did create a really well rounded character in this film but something felt off about his performance. Jeff Daniels on the other hand played an amazing blind man, i think that he really stole this film. The script was phenomenal i thought and so was how the movie was shot. The story in which i originally thought was not that great, turned out to be real good. It was the story of a big shot hockey player who gets in an accident and kills two of his friends and paralyzes himself in the process. The only thing though is that he paralyzed himself mentally and there are basic motor functions that he cannot do. Sounds kinda boring, but it was not at all.

Minus the, in what i thought lackluster performance by Levitt in this film. I dug it, probably would not watch it again like Brick, so thats why the score is a little lower.

7/10

Persepolis (2007)

Persepolis is based on a graphic novel, written and drawn by Marjane Satrapi. I have fortunately had the chance to read this graphic novel awhile back and it blew me away. But i had no idea that it was becoming a movie. I saw the preview for this movie awhile back and thought meh, another hokey art house film. Well after awhile i realized, HOLY SHIT! I read that comic! And low and behold this was a perfect adaptation of Marjane's story.

The movie is basically the author of the comic who also was the co-director of this film Marjane Satrapi's life story of growing up in Iran during the Iranian Revolution and during the time when Iraq took over. It involved elements of her family getting arrested for being communist, to her rebelling against the rules set for the females in Iran and speaking up for the revolution in the middle of class. It really tells the story very well of a girl growing up with a government who did not allow the females to be expressive of themselves.

What makes this movie great is the animation. This movie is fully animated but in a classic cartoon/comic style. Not CGI, and when something like this comes out, it goes to show you that movies like Shrek and Ratatouille do not have to be the originators in animation films. Everything about the animation in this film, with the way it flowed on screen or to how well it worked with the story and how close it was to Marjane's artwork in the comic.

This film has a lot of heart in it and there are some scenes that are downright sad, this movie deals with death and oppression a lot and sometimes it goes to show you how good we had it here. But there are also scenes where the movie is hilarious, Marjane was not the best little girl in the world and loved to cause trouble with her unhealthy obsession with Bruce Lee, and her love for Iron Maiden. The "Eye of the Tiger" montage was one of my favorite scenes, hands down.

Overall, i highly recommend this movie to anyone whom may be into comics, art, stories about triumph, or even comedies.

9/10