A-Team 2010

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

The A-Team was one of my favorite shows as a kid. As a family, we would park in front of the T.V. every week to watch Mr. T bust some heads. Dwight Schultz was unforgettable as “Howling Mad” Murdock and George Peppard as “Hannibal” Smith brought class along with his legendary career to the show. But what brought me to the show was “Faceman” Peck himself, Dirk Benedict. I loved Battlestar Galactica as a kid. The original BSG, the one were Ben Cartwright was the Admiral, Rick Springfield was Apollo’s brother, while  Jane Seymour was his wife and the coolest Viper pilot ever was Lt. Starbuck and Starbuck was a man played by Dirk Benedict. So going into the updated release of the A-Team I wasn’t expecting much.

The story revolves around four military special forces officers, that specialize in impossible missions, sent on a secret mission to recover stolen U.S. plates for printing hundred dollar bills. The mission goes awry as their commanding officer, and the only man who knew they where on a sanctioned mission, was killed and the plates where stolen by rival operatives.

After being court martialed and spending six months in separate prisons, they escape to track down the other operatives, return the plates, and clear their names. All while being chased by FBI agent Charisa Sosa (Jessica Biel) and rogue CIA agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson).

The cast chosen to fill these roles needed to be special and I feel in most cases they found great replacements. Liam Neeson not only continued the tradition of placing a veteran actor into the role of Hannibal but really made the role his own. His look and normal persona was very different from anything I’ve seen of his previous work.

Bradley Cooper is no Dirk Benedict, but his charm makes him instantly likable as the modern Faceman and his six pack gets the women interested or at least it works for my wife.

Relative newcomer Sharlto Copley brought the madness as Murdock. Only seeing Copley in the film District 9 I wasn’t sure what to expect from him, but other than Jessica Biel, he was my favorite part of the movie. Without his performance the movie would have been just another over the top, completely unbelievable action flick, but with him the movie is the second best action/comedy of the year, Kick-Ass being my favorite, and in the top five of the past five years.

One of the questions I get the most after people find out I went to see the A-Team is “what about the guy playing Mr. T?” The only way to answer that is to say Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson isn’t playing Mr.T, he is playing B.A. Baracus. To most people the 80′s A-Team was Mr. T and although I don’t think Jackson is as much of a standout personality as Mr. T was, but his performance of B.A. he was good. This B.A. was a little more laid back than the T.V. show but it worked better for the ensemble cast.

I mentioned earlier that Jessica Biel was my favorite part of the film. Let me be completely honest, her part could have been played by anyone. There was very little of interest in her character. The only reason she was my favorite part of the film is because she is Jessica Biel. I’m willing to watch her in just about anything.

Over all the film was a over the top action feast. A load of bullets flying and things blowing up, mixed in with some unbelievable stunts that barely work thanks to the help of computer effects, but in the end it is fun. You laugh more than the last two comedies I went to see and I found myself cheering, inside, for the good guys. For me the A-Team is defiantly worth seeing and I’m looking forward to adding it to my Blu-ray library.

Karate Kid 2010

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Growing up in the 80′s and looking into the next millennium I expected flying cars, robot maids and all those kind of futuristic things. What I did not expect is the growing list of television shows, cartoons and films from the 80′s being updated for the modern audience. In one week two very well known 80′s franchises where relaunched with new actors and new stories but similar feeling as their 80′s counterpart.

One of these 80′s remakes is the Karate Kid starting Jaden Smith as the lead kid. The new film follows the original story with it’s own take on the tale. Young Dre Parker (Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) travel to China for a new job and a new life. Once there Dre realizes he doesn’t fit in when some of the local bullies decide to make his life tough. The leader of the bullies, Cheng (Zhenwei Wang) and his gang are trained in Kung Fu and torment Dre every time they run into him. After Dre plays a prank on the group they chase him down and begin to beat him. Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), the handy man at Dre’s apartment steps in to protect Dre. After defeating the group of boys, Dre asks Mr. Han to teach him Kung Fu to help protect himself from the other kids. Mr. Han takes Dre to speak with Cheng’s teacher Master Li (Rongguang Yu) to try and rectify the problem. Master Li has trained his students to never show mercy and informs Mr. Han that he is not going to be able to leave if either he or Dre does not fight. Mr. Han tells Master Li that Dre with fight Cheng but needs time to train so they are to meet in the upcoming Kung Fu tournament. Master Li agrees and Mr. Han begins to train Dre in an unorthodox method. Dre learns more than Kung Fu as his friendship with Mr. Han grows, so does his respect for his mother.

The 2010 version of Karate Kid differs from the original yet maintains the heart of the original. Jackie Chan is the perfect replacement for the instructor originally played by the late Pat Morita.

The younger cast in this version felt strange to me. The violence between such young kids in the film felt wrong to me compared to the much older actors in the original. Although it is easy to see Jaden Smith has had martial arts training compared to Ralph Macchio in the original. Bottom line if you saw the original the new one offers little new to the story, but the action is bumped up to the next notch. If you haven’t seen the original then it is a fun family film, providing your family is okay with the fighting. Keep in mind the over all moral to the story is Kung Fu is for defense and not to fight. Jaden is still pretty young and seems a little challenged with his performance at times but Jackie Chan was incredible. I’m not sure I’ve seen a better performance from him.

It is worth sitting through the first part of the end credits to see some behind the scenes photos. Shots of Jaden with dad Will Smith are touching and a shot of Jaden with his hair upbraided caused quite the chuckle in the theater.

I enjoyed the film but can’t say I’m in a hurry for the Blu-ray release. It is worth a viewing so check it out, but go to a cheap show save you cash for the other big 80′s remake.

Splice

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Probably one of the scariest concepts in the modern age is the idea of how far will man push the boundaries of science before science pushes back. The reason it is scary is it is real. We found out how scary real science can get in 1945 with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Since then we’ve moved into the world of colliding atoms and DNA splicing. The idea of creating a black hole that causes the planet to implode and get sucked into the black hole afterward or creating a creature with DNA manipulation that you are not quite sure if it is harmless or not are the nightmares science can be created today. That fear of science has made its way to the movie theater in the recent release of Splice.

Spice revolves around two scientists,  Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley). They are in charge of developing new species to harvest tissue from for the benefit of medical research. To do so, they use genes from different animals to created new life forms. After successfully creating a new male and female life form, the two scientist secretly continue their research by adding human DNA. After a quicker than expected gestation period a new life form was born. Clive wanted to destroy it before the experiment went to far, but Elsa decided to keep it and study the new creature they named Dren.

Dren (Delphine Chanéac) grew quickly and developed into an intelligent female with a tail with a stinger at its tip.

When the company funding the research begins to pressure the science team for results Clive and Elsa move Dren from the laboratory  they had her hidden in to a storage room then finally moving her to a farm Elsa owned.

Keeping Dren a secret and raising the new creature begins to take its toll on the two scientists relationship, especially once Dren begins to get feelings for her creator father Clive.

The film has a few good scares but really felt less like the horror film I was expecting and more like dark drama or thriller. There where plenty of times where the film made me feel uncomfortable but few where I actually felt scared.

Over all the acting was good. the performances Abigail Chu as young Dren and Delphine Chanéac as the older Dren was done very well. For a creature that doesn’t speak both actors where able to make you feel compassion for the creature and fear at the same time.

Overall I think I liked the movie, although for some reason I felt almost dirty walking out of the theater. It was like I shouldn’t have watched what I just saw and I can’t explain why I had that feeling. I did not find the movie overly scary nor do I feel a want to watch it again anytime soon. That being said I felt it was well made, and interesting premise with excellent acting. I just can’t put my finger on why I’m not excited to put this movie on my Blu-Ray wish list.

If you like this type of movie, you should see it. Maybe go see it at a local cheap theater or during a manatee to save some cash, with ticket prices these days save where you can, but I think it is worth a viewing. At very least rent the Blu-ray or DVD when it makes it way home but don’t watch it with children.

Robin Hood

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

I’ve been a long time fan of Ridley Scott‘s films. Since I was a kid and first saw films like Alien, Blade Runner and Legend I was hooked. Some people might say he stumbled for a few years with pictures like Thelma & Louise and G.I. Jane, I for one enjoyed both, but most would agree he hit home runs with Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. There have been mixed reviews of some of his newer films like Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven and American Gangster, again I liked them although preferred the directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven more than the theater cut. His latest film is a retelling of the legendary archer and bandit Robin Hood.

To tell you the story of Robin Hood would be a little difficult because every time a version is made details of the story change. Over all it is the tale of a man who becomes a bandit and with his followers, often referred to as his merry men, take up arms against the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham and protect the people by stealing from the corrupt rich and giving to the poor.

But this film isn’t that story. This is the tale of military archer Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) who has fought with King Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) during the crusades and is returning from the war. As the army marches north it stops along the way to pillage cities in France as to not return to England broke and empty handed. While attacking the last city before meeting with the barge to take them home the King is killed and the army retreats.

The one of the Kings nobles, Robert Loxley, takes the crown to return it to the Kings son, soon to be new King, Prince John. Loxley and his group of Knights were attack and killed by Godfrey (Mark Strong), a friend to Prince John (Oscar Isaac) who was working for the King of France. Robin and his group seeing a group of English being attacked fought back forcing the French to run. Loxley with his dying breath asks Robin to return his sword to his father Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow) which he agrees to do.

Robin realizes he and his men won’t be allowed on the barge home as commoners so he takes the identity of Robert Loxley while his men take the gear of the Knights. The pretend nobles take the crown and use the barge to return to England. After handing over the crown to pampered Prince John, Robin and his men head to Nottingham where they are meant to split and go their own ways.

When Robin goes to the home of Sir Walter Loxley  to return the sword and ask about an inscription found on the hilt, he runs into the now widowed Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett). After reporting the news of Robert Loxley’s death to Marion, she takes him to Walter Loxley to return the sword. To his surprise Robin is asked by Walter to continue playing the part of his son Robert because Walter is old, blind, and weak and with Marion being a woman the family lands would be claimed by the crown. Robin agrees to the deception.

Meanwhile, King John sends out Godfrey to collect taxes and Godfrey uses his power to anger the people in an attempt to force an uprising causing the Kings forces to be split between the uprising citizens and the incoming forces from France.

Robin gathers his men to help fight against the invading army.

Originally I was pretty disappointed with the movie. I didn’t feel it was a Robin Hood film, but more like a sequel to Kingdom of Heaven. Then I got into an argument with a buddy of mine over Guy Richie’s Sherlock Holmes flick. He was saying Holmes needed the traditional hat and pipe and shouldn’t be an action hero. My thought was we’ve seen that version and there are plenty of classic examples that do it fine. My guess was Mr. Richie wanted to do something different, and I thought making the fight and action scenes  unfold using intellect was an interesting approach. Once I had debated that a new twist to an old subject was refreshing, I couldn’t go the other way with Robin Hood.

If you are a purest Robin Hood fan who looks forward to Robin doing trick shots at the Sheriffs competition, then this isn’t the Robin Hood you’re looking for. If you want something in the vain of Kingdom of Heaven meets Gladiator then this will be your favorite movie ever.

Russell Crowe played Robin like he plays every character, quite and bruiting. There where times I forgot I was watching a Robin Hood film and thought it was Maximus from Gladiator. Mark Strong as Godfrey was a convincing enough antagonist, but he has had a lot of practice this last year playing the bad guy that the performance didn’t stand out. Even Cate Blanchett who is normally a screen darling didn’t seem to shine as brightly as normal. The people who really seemed to stand out to me where two fairly small parts. One of which, Friar Tuck (Mark Addy) and the other Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow). Addy was a perfect fit for Tuck and brought some humor to a fairly dry movie.  Sydow playing the strange pretend father to Crowe’s Robin was probably the best character in the film even though he has less that ten minutes screen time. Between his instant likable personality and the glee his character seems to exude, Sydow is a blessing to the film.

The actor that made the biggest impression on me was Oscar Isaac as Prince John. I hadn’t seen Isaac before his performance in Robin Hood, but he felt very convening as spoiled John and as the story developed I really thought he was learning and growing only to have the carpet pull from under me when he reverts to his head strong ways.

Overall the look and feel of the film was that of a well made movie. I understand we are getting a different telling of the Robin Hood mythology and I’m fine with that. I even feel this telling makes sense in a pseudo-historic way. I think in the end it just wasn’t the adventure I was hoping for. I think I’ll watch it again once it comes to Blu Ray, I’m sure there will be the three hour directors cut, and try it out in a different mind set but for now if you want a recommendation for Robin Hood check out Mel Brooks: Men in Tights or my favorite version was done in England during the 1980′s call Robin of Sherwood and stars a young Ray Winstone as Wil Scarlet.

Iron Man 2

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

In Hollywood, sequels are almost required if the first one has any success and sometimes even if the first one tanked. It seems as though reboots/remakes and sequels are a third of the “new” movies released this summer. Add to the mix that movies based on comic books, which seem to take up a third of summer releases, and right in that mix lands Iron Man 2.

Iron Man 2 revolves around billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who dons a armored robotic suit to help stabilize peace. He isn’t a crime fighter in the vain of Batman, helping to clean up the streets of his city, but prefers big picture stuff like stopping wars. The problem lies in that the public knows who is behind the helmet; Stark isn’t the most stable person; and the government doesn’t like the powerful weapon in the hands of a loose cannon. Throw in a pissed off Russian, Ivan Ranko (Mickey Rourke), who wants revenge on Stark for his families past wrongs and you’ve got two hours of computer generated action. Russians, Senate and self image aren’t Stark’s only concerns.  The source of power for his suit and the magnet that keeps shrapnel from getting to his heart is spreading  poison into his blood system and killing him. Knowing he is dying, Stark becomes self destructive and to keep his company in stable hands he turns it over to his secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Needing a replacement secretary he hires Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) who turns out to be more than he expects.

With all that is going on in Stark’s life behind the scene’s a business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) has helped fake the death of Ranko and is using Ranko’s knowledge of the arc reactor to build new powers suits to upstage Stark at his own Stark Expo and Stark’s friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) grows tired of pressures from the government to get the Iron Man technology and Stark’s immature antics takes one of the suits and turns it over to the Airforce.

Iron Man was my favorite movie of 2008, even ahead of the Dark Knight. Where as the Dark Knight might have been darker, with over all better performances but, if I had to pop a Blu-ray in for a few hours of entertainment the lighter Iron Man would be my choice to kick back to. Iron Man 2 is enjoyable but for 2010 isn’t as enjoyable as an earlier comic book release this year in Kick-Ass.

Downey is his typical mix of rugged leading man with the awkward charm invoked from Charlie Chaplin. Although Cheadle’s role as Rhodey was more intense than Terrence Howard who he replaced in the sequel, it seemed to work better against the childish Downey. My biggest complaint with Cheadle  is there just wasn’t enough of him. Paltrow who always seems way too classy for these movies is intelligent and graceful as Potts. Rourke is terrific as Ranko although playing crazy doesn’t seem much of stretch for him, nor does playing smarmy seem to be out of place for Rockwell as Justin Hammer. If I had any negative criticism about the film it would be a lull in the middle and Scarlett Johansson. There is no doubt in my mind this was the best Johansson has ever looked on film, being a fan of redheads myself, but her performance was stiff. She really has the prefect look for a comic book heroine, but I felt she was fairly robotic in the part, seeming to walk through the role without emotion. Maybe that was just her character, or maybe the script didn’t give her much to work with, but it felt to me that she was shoe-horned into the movie either to add a hot girl to the mix, as a set up for the future Avengers movie or maybe her character head lining her own flick. If she is ever picked to play a sexy Vulcan all she’d need is the hair cut.

If you enjoyed the first movie, you’ll want to see Iron Man 2. As far as sequels go it wasn’t a bad follow up, but doesn’t hold up as well as the first. Like the first film you’ll want to sit through the credits for a small scene which leads into another upcoming Marvel movie. It will probably be one of my top five movies of the year.  As of right now it sits at number two and will defiantly be on my Blu-Ray wish list.

One thing I almost forgot to mention, unlike every other big budget movies Iron Man 2 is not in 3-D and as far as I’m concerned that is a bonus. Although I have recently read that Marvel is jumping on the band wagon soon enough and most of their future releases will be.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

With the over abundance of horror movie remakes in the past few years seeing the re-launch of such classics as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and Friday the 13th, it was only a matter of time before we saw the return of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. One thing I never really understood was the tie to Elm Street and why they don’t just stick with the Freddy title like they did for Freddy’s Dead in 1991 or Freddy’s Nightmares like the short lived 1988 tv series, but I digress.

In this retelling of the Wes Craven classic, teen Dean (Kellan Lutz) falls asleep at his table in a Springwood diner and dreams of walking around the diner chasing down a pot of coffee. He runs into a man covered in burn scars and wearing a glove on his right hand with long metal claws extending from each finger. Dean is awakened as the man slices his hand and discovers the cut is real. Deans girlfriend, Kris (Katie Cassidy) shows up and after stepping away from her guy comes back in time to see that Dean is now cutting his own throat while waitress Nancy (Rooney Mara) also watches. Unknown to the girls Dean has fallen asleep again and the razor gloved Freddy (Jackie Earle Haley) his having his way with Dean.

Then the characters start falling over like dominoes. Kris noticed a photos of herself with Dean when they where children even though she’d believed they hadn’t meet until high school. Kris then began to dream of Freddy and found some comfort in her ex-boyfriend Jesse (Thomas Dekker). Jesse stayed with Kris while her mother was gone but was unable to protect Kris from her dream man. Freddy killed her as she slept and Jesse could do nothing but watch. On run from the police Jesse now covered in Kris’ blood, runs to Nancy’s house. After the two talk they discover she has dreamed of Freddy also.

Jesse is caught by the police and taken to jail. Eventually he falls asleep and Freddy lets his fingers do the walking and Jesse too is killed. Nancy begins to question the connections between the local teens who have been dropping like flies. Nancy and her friend Quentin (Kyle Gallner) begin to discover a hidden past and when she confronts her mother (Connie Britton) she finally learns that all the kids went to preschool together. Fred Krueger was the gardener and would play with the children. Nancy was his favorite child and everything seemed ok until she came home one day and told about his “secret cave” and that he did bad things. Nancy’s mother then explained Freddy had skipped town before he could be arrested and the parents split up the kids to try to erase the terrible memories.

Quentin tries to convince Nancy that the dreams are just repressed memories of their childhood, but Nancy  not convenienced, starts to track down each of the kids in their preschool class on the to find they have all died. Finally Quentin has a dream of the true events of the past. After the kids told on Freddy the parents chased his down and burned him alive. Nancy and Quentin realize they need to stop Freddy before he kills them and the showdown begins.

The basic story is very similar to the original with one glaring error in my book. In the original Freddy was a child killer and used the knife glove as his weapon of choice, in the new vision, without saying it, they hinted toward Freddy being a child molester. Both are obvious horrible things but arguably the new version wanted to one up the original act by making the new version more horrific, but it loses the glove connection in the mix. Other than some odd symbolism of the glove being the nightmare re-imagining of  of the fears of the gardeners hand cultivator tool, but that is a stretch if you ask me.

I loved the original Freddy, played by Robert Englund, but Haley’s version was darker without the one liners and goofy gross-out gags like Freddy slicing his own fingers off or licking Nancy through the phone like in the original. There by making Freddy more frightening is less the butt of the joke. For the the burn make-up I can go either way. The original look is classic, but the new look feels a little more believable. Without confirmation, I believe the modern look was enhanced with computer magic and I’m not always a fan of using computer just because you can. A prime example was there is a scene that is an homage to the original where a teen is sleeping and Freddy stretches out of the wall over them. The new version has that overly clean and shiny plastic look of quick CGI, where the original must have been done with some sort of latex or rubber prop. The original couldn’t pop out as much but you can see the texture of the prop stretching giving it a more real feel to me.

Over all I enjoyed the retelling. The story stayed pretty true and Freddy wasn’t turned into a joke. With only the few things above I mentioned as a negatives, I’d have to put this one up there with Rob Zombies Halloween as one of the better remakes. This film will defiantly be added to my Blu-Ray collection. Now lets hope the don’t screw up and decide to make a sequel in 3-D or make Freddy goofy again. Oh well too late, Elm Street Sequel in 3-D?

The Losers

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Seems like if you go to a movie theater these days you are going to find either a movie based on a comic book or that stars Zoe Saldana, with The Losers you get both. The Losers is about an elite military special forces unit which is double crossed and fake their deaths after one of their covert jobs in Bolivia goes awry and leave them fugitives. The only clue the group has to there double crosser is a voice on the radio and a name, Max (Jason Patric).

Unit leader Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) decides to go after Max once he receives information from Aisha (Saldana) although his second in command, Rogue  (Idris Elba), doesn’t trust her. Three others round out the team; Pooch (Columbus Short), Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) and Jensen (Chris Evans).

Hi-jinx and mayhem ensue as The Losers try hunt down Max and clear their names.

As the movie started off I was wondering if I was going to enjoy it. Most movies I see I have a certain expectation of the film and if those expectations aren’t meet it can be a little disappointing. With the Losers I’d never read the comic book, and wasn’t sure if the group was supposed to be super powered, or if the movie was going to lean more towards a political dealing with terrorist and such. It took me fifteen to twenty minutes to settle into the film and get a feel for what it was going for. What was it going for? Well to me it felt like an episode of the A-Team. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to you, but for me I found it entertaining. Just an over the top action movie. Not as over the top as something like Vin Diesel’s xXx. Maybe somewhere in the Showdown in Little Tokyo range. Mix a good amount of explosions, with some good chuckles, then stir in a little Zoe Saldana to help steam things up a little and you got the Losers.

For me it was hard to pick someone that really stood out. With many ensemble casts I normally gravitate to one or two characters, but I found everyone to really hold their own. If I had to pick it would be a toss up with Óscar Jaenada as sharp shooter Cougar and evil master mind Jason Patric. I had never seen Jaenada before but his quite performance of Cougar and on screen charisma made me enjoy the character. While on the other end of the spectrum I was very familiar with Jason Patric going all the way back to some of his first work in Solarbabies and the Lost Boys. While Jaenada played the strong quite type, Patric’s over the top villain was almost off putting at first. I almost didn’t want to take him seriously, but by the end of the film he really stood out as a great Lex Luthor for the Losers.

Can I give a full endorsement for the film? I’d say if you like fun action films, see it as a matinee and save a few buck. It is worth seeing it on the big screen, but it is getting harder and harder for me to say go see something for full price. It will be on my Blu-ray wish list, but not a rush out to buy as soon as it is available.

Date Night

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Every now and then I break away from my normal theater view choice of horror or action and settle into something on the lighter side. Comedies are not my first choice for theater viewing. To be honest I don’t see the need to watch comedies at the theater. The big screen and the surround sound don’t really add anything to my comedy viewing and I think that may be why sitcoms do so well on prime time television. On the rare occasion that a comedy strikes my fancy, it is normally a Kevin Smith film or has an actor that stands out to me, and sometimes it is just an excuse to for a little get away with my wife. That was the case with Date Night. What is more appropriate to go see with as a date than a movie called Date Night.

Date Night is about a New Jersey couple who have been together for awhile and their marriage is in a repetitive slump. After finding out one of their friends is getting a divorce Phil Foster (Steve Carell) decides to take his wife, Claire Foster (Tina Fey) to New York for a dinner at an exclusive restaurant. Once at the restaurant they realize they won’t get a table because they don’t have a reservation, so they decide to pretend to be a couple that didn’t show for their reservation. The couple is then mistaken as the couple they stole the reservation from by a couple of bad cops, Armstrong (Jimmi Simpson) and Collin (Common),  who are working for a crime lord, Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta). The Miletto’s men are looking for a flash drive that was stolen by the people whom are suppose to be at the reserved table.

The Fosters’ try to explain that they are n’t really the Tripplehorn’s, the name the reservation was under, but the dirty cops don’t believe them. The Fosters’ lead the bad cops on a wild goose chase and manage to escape in the process.

Now stuck in the city not sure who to turn to for help Claire remembers a former realty client who worked in private security that lived nearby. The asked Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg) for help and he lead them to the real flash drive thieves.

Date Night was a great date night film. A lot of fun and a few laugh out loud moments. There is no surprise that Steve Carell and Tina Fey made for one of the best comedy couples of all time in my opinion. So the plot was nothing new but that didn’t stop the film from having some really good laughs. Was my suspicion of disbelief broken? Sure, but that is comedy for you. Exaggeration of the normal makes things funny. Taking two of the funniest people on television, and putting them together some times creates a mass of ego but Date Night managed to marry the two actors in to delightful characters who played off each other so well it was hard to believe they aren’t married.

Look I’ll admit it isn’t my “type” of movie, and I more so went to see it for my wife, but it was a lot of fun and we enjoyed ourselves so it is a winner in my book.

Besides the main actors there where a few supporting roles that where very memorable. Any girls who like Mark Wahlburg should love the fact he spent his role shirtless. James Franco and Mila Kunis have small but key roles as the couple who’s reservation was stolen and although their role wasn’t much of a stretch from Franco’s role in Pineapple Express, their scene was one of my favorites.

There is no doubt if you’ve seen The Office or 40 Year Old Virgin and you enjoy Steve Carell in those rolls you will like Date Night.

Cop Out

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Anyone who knows me knows I am a Kevin Smith fan boy. I’ve seen and enjoy all his movies, even Jersey Girl which I still say isn’t as bad as people think it is and if you haven’t seen it quite stalling and just check it out. I read many, if not all the comics he wrote; really enjoying Green Hornet these days. I tune in to his podcast, called SModcast as they come out. Even saw him live at his Q&A in Alaska, and would love to here his impressions of his trip to Alaska and seeing a moose. So when I heard he was directing a movie he didn’t write I was curious to see how it turned out.

The story revolves around two cops, Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) who are trying to recover a rare baseball card that is stolen from Monroe who needs the money to cover the cost of his daughters (Michelle Trachtenberg) up coming wedding. When they catch the guy who stole the card (Seann William Scott), he has already passed the card off to the head of a local gang, Raul (Juan Carlos Hernández).

The movie felt like Kevin Smith filming a cross between Die Hard and Beverly Hills Cop, although not as good as either of those. Mind you I said it wasn’t “as good” but it was still a lot of fun. Although I didn’t find it nearly as funny as Smith’s last picture Zack and Miri Make a Porn, I did enjoy the film. Technically I think it was Smith’s best visual work except a little editing thing, which Smith was also the editor, early on that bothered me. Can’t put my finger on it and to be honest the edit issue might have been caused by an issue with the actual film being projected like a bad splice or fix on the print I watched.

One of my favorite surprises was the return of Jason Lee to the Kevin Smith films after being noticeably missing from Zack and Miri. I also have to admit I am not a huge fan of Tracy Morgan but the scenes between him and Seann William Scott where some of the funniest in the film.

Bottom line I’ve seen everything Smith has put out at the theater since Dogma and would have seen the first three if it wasn’t for Amy and Clerks limited release and Mallrats either never made it to my state or was here for one showing at the theater that the rest of the week plays Debbie Does… Cop Out will be happily added along side the rest of my Kevin Smith discs some where between Clerks and a Threevening With. Was it my favorite Smith film, no. Actually it was probably my least favorite of his films, yes even behind Jersey Girl, but I think it still funnier than most of the big hit comedies out there. Although I’m on the group that thinks Judd Apatow has nothing on Kevin Smith. I’ve seen most of his flicks and enjoyed them, but even his funniest wasn’t as good as Cop Out.

Kick-Ass

Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned…

Seen any good super hero movies lately?  With the money Hollywood is making on classic comic book stories it seems every paperback property is being being snapped up and thrown up on the big screen. Kick-Ass is the latest to go from the splash page to film glory.

The story of a typical high school student and comic book fan, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who decides he is tired of watching others getting taken advantage of and feels the best way to stop the bad people of the world is to dress up in a costume and patrol the city as the crime fighter named Kick-Ass. The problem is he is a normal kid, no powers and no special crime fighting skills, but even after getting put in the hospital he doesn’t give up.

He soars to popularity after a video of him protecting a man gets put on the internet. The down side to fame is  you also catch the attention of the bad guys. The head bad guy is Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong), who’s crime ring has been taking some hits. He believes it must be Kick-Ass and wants him dead.

Unknown to D’Amico Kick-Ass isn’t the only hero in town, a former cop who has it out for D’Amico is the one causing trouble for the criminal. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) has been training his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) to get revenge on D’Amico for setting Big Daddy up and causing him to spend five years in prison.

Can Kick-Ass, a geek turned costumed vigilante  fight crime and try to get a girlfriend without ending up in the hospital again?

Kick-Ass was one of the few rated-R comic book to film movies and unlike most superhero flicks these days it stays away from the dark brooding heroes of films like Watchmen or Dark Knight. In many ways Kick-Ass is to comic book movies as Zombieland was to zombie flicks. It keeps the true feel of a super hero story and even dishes out a moral to the story like a good super hero tale should.  While maintaining that super hero vibe, it turns it on its ear and makes one funny story, and realistically if you saw a guy dressed up in tights trying to fight crime, you’d have to laugh at him too.

Some people might not care for the amount of violence in the film but strangely what seems to be getting the most press is the language 12 year old Chloe Moretz uses while dishing out large amounts of her own ass kicking. Personally I laughed my ass off as the cute little girl lays into the gang members with a bladed staff weapon then drops an F-bomb or two, and her description of how to contact her and Big Daddy when Kick-Ass asked how was priceless, but bottom line keep your kids from seeing it unless you don’t mind cleaning their mouths out with soap.

The movie was just fun. I didn’t laugh that hard through the number one comedy this week, Date Night, even though it too was funny. The action was a blast although mostly came in two venues, one Kick-Ass getting his ass kicked or Hit Girl causing serious pain to guys twice her size. She really does steal the show.

Nicolas Cage who is normally front and center being the big star takes a back seat to the younger cast, but still his performance shines as Big Daddy. Between the terrible mustache and his ridiculous laugh the unmasked Daddy was a throw back to his zanier Raising Arizona days yet calmer like H.I. McDunnough on prozac.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse has an important role as Red Mist, a super hero Kick-Ass befriends. He is always good for a few laughs.  If you’ve seen some of his past roles like McLovin in Superbad or LARPer Augie Farks in Role Models you know what I’m saying.

This movie is my favorite so far this year. If you are a fan of Zombieland and enjoy super heroes it is a must see and best of all no 3D B.S.