Hit? Or miss? That depends. Although I could easily see how Battleship could be a miss, I'm going with hit. What I said a couple days ago regarding The Dictator applies here: in order to enjoy Battleship's voyage, you've gotta realize early that you're expected to simply accept whatever's on screen, no matter how unbelievable or absurd, and (to cite Brooklyn Decker's previous film) just go with it. [spoiler show="Show More Details / Spoiler"]For example, in the prologue we find out that Taylor Kitsch's slacker character is forced by his older brother to join the Navy. Huh? Um, all... Read More »

Once you realize in the beginning of the movie that The Dictator is going to be an over-the-top comedy, you'll be able to enjoy it more. But let me warn you now: despite the long list of similarities (including the trademark stunt marketing), Sacha Baron Cohen's latest offensive (to put it very lightly) character trails Borat in nearly every, if not all, aspects of entertainment. If Borat is the Gaddafi or Bin Laden of Baron Cohen's work, then The Dictator is like Kim Jong-un, not really proven. Co-written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen, The Dictator chronicles a visit to the U... Read More »

The summer movie season officially launched today with one of our most anticipated movies of 2012, and damn, was it a freaking blast! The culmination of five prior Marvel films, The Avengers is the pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow of various popular superheroes, wholeheartedly embodying the comic-book studio's name (i.e., you WILL marvel at what you'll see). Even though I had some more-than-satisfying action just last week in Safe, Jason Statham's bad-ass rampage through Manhattan was like a salad appetizer compared to what The Avengers serves you. It's a very appropriate tit... Read More »

If not for The Raid: Redemption's stateside release about a month ago, my clear-cut choice for best action movie of the year so far would probably be the new Jason Statham action flick, Safe, a fast-paced thrill ride that more than satisfyingly delivers what I expected from Safe House a while ago. Whereas that Denzel vehicle might have been one of the bigger disappointments of the pre-blockbuster season, Safe ranks as one of the bigger surprises yet and could very well end up being one of the best by year's end. Written and directed by Boaz Yakin, who's taken a substantially diffe... Read More »

Bland, ho! This Band of Misfits must've made a stop in the Caribbean because I have a new candidate for the most disappointing film of the year, and I'm a sucker for animated flicks. While Aardman Animations' previous movie (Arthur Christmas) wasn't in the lovable stop-motion format that put them on the map, I've enjoyed their entire track record of films, including Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Flushed Away. That is, until now. Despite being composed of the same ingredients that made its predecessors successful, Aardman's maiden voyage into 3D,... Read More »

Disneynature's annual celebration of Earth Day this year swings onto big screens as Chimpanzee, a documentary about a primatologist and the gorilla he's trained to communicate with humans via a special device that translates the creature's sign language into a digitized voice. Oh, wait. Sorry, that was the movie Congo. There's really no need for me to elaborate much further on what Chimpanzee is about beyond the fact that like last year's African Cats, the doc tries to humanize a family of wild animals by telling a story edited from footage that was likely extremely difficult to capt... Read More »

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, glad this wasn't rated R, cuz I didn't see another penis. Think Like A Man is a new he-said-she-said romantic comedy that pits a group of male friends against their female interests and counterparts. Based on Steve Harvey's best-selling self-help book (Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment), the movie presents love as a guys-vs.-girls war, and for battles recounted in Think Like A Man, the gals constantly refer to the Family Feud host's guide on guys as a bible of sorts to ... Read More »

Foreign film The Raid: Redemption, one of our Most Anticipated Movies of 2012, is easily the best action movie this year so far and arguably the best martial arts one in years. Coming from Indonesia with very high intensity despite a very low budget, The Raid showcases the country's native martial arts style, called pencat silat, in a furious flurry of machetes and machine guns. Heart-poundingly brutal and gripping, The Raid: Redemption would have been an epic video game. That's not to say it was as ridiculous or lighthearted as say, Lockout, because The Raid is definitely neither... Read More »

Starring Thor's Chris Hemsworth and a bunch of fresh young meat, The Cabin in the Woods is the new "horror thriller" that's hampered by bad CGI reminiscent of The Mist, except that Stephen King adaptation was good whereas The Cabin in the Woods falls a little short mostly due to its unsatisfactory third act and lack of horror or thrills. Co-writer Drew Goddard, who wrote Cloverfield and several Lost episodes, makes his directional debut a decent and fascinating one with loads of genre references that horror fans will greatly appreciate (it's like Scream to the max), but as an actual ... Read More »

Is it Taken in space? No. I'm just glad it's not the disappointing Unknown in space. Luc Besson's latest production, the sci-fi action thriller Lockout, is comparable to his previous, Colombiana. But what made me like it over Colombiana is Lockout's reckless audacity and sheer ridiculousness. It's like a cheap county fair ride that's an obvious and janky rip-off of a Six Flags attraction, but the bottom line is it's fun as hell while still managing to deliver the thrills. Just don't expect much beyond that. The debut of directing/writing duo James Mather and Stephen St. Leger (wit... Read More »

Nearly a full decade since the last slice of American Pie hit theaters comes the return of the billion dollar franchise in American Reunion. As the Reunion title indicates, that's pretty much what the movie is because there's little substance beyond the simple outline of "Hey, look who we managed to round up!" But American Reunion, a rare comedy that manages to get crazier and crazier, is nevertheless a hilarious romp, even if it banks very heavily on nostalgia. Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who together wrote the entire Harold and Kumar series and directed Escape From Guant... Read More »

I'm ashamed I watched this. I blame it on my significant other and because the movie we wanted to watch had no seats left. But mainly I blame her. I'd rather have watched Titanic 3D, where I know I'm guaranteed at least a good hour (the end, of course) even though I'd have to get through two hours of romantic BS first. Instead, I got nearly two full hours of straight up BS. Mirror Mirror is the first of two separate live-action Snow White movies this year. Hollywood has a history of spitting out similar, competing movies around the same time, and this year's match-up is Mirror Mir... Read More »

Sometimes movies aren't very memorable. It's only been a couple years since the Clash of the Titans remake, but it's felt like the decade that separates its events and its new sequel. All I could remember about Clash was Sam Worthington, Medusa, The Kraken, and the epically horrible 3D, possibly the worst I'd ever seen. So I rewatched Clash before catching the new sequel, and aside for the vastly improved 3D, Wrath of the Titans is pretty much a recycled version of its predecessor. The main differences are Sam Worthington's curly hair (same Aussie accent as always though), Rosamun... Read More »

When I first heard about The Hunger Games last year, it sounded familiar. Sure, it's got the murders=ratings reality show elements of The Running Man and The Condemned, but it was the kids-killing-kids core that got my attention the way an ultraviolent Japanese cult classic called Battle Royale did about over a decade ago. That controversial bloodbath of a film was never even given a stateside theatrical run until an extremely limited one that only started a few months ago. There's been tons of discussion on whether Suzanne Collins ripped off the Japanese masterpiece, which I won't g... Read More »

It looks like a joke, and it probably should've stayed as one. Casa de mi Padre is the new Will Ferrell comedy that's subtitled in English... because it's mostly spoken in Spanish. Sounds like a joke, right? While it's a gimmick that could be really funny (and occasionally was), Casa de mi Padre also sounds like a hard sell, so it's no surprise that the film, which tries to imitate the style of telenovelas, has only gotten a limited release. The low-budget production is full of deliberately dated effects, such as prop dummies, Disneyland-style animatronics, looped and missing clip... Read More »

I gotta give Jonah Hill props. After failing badly to carry The Shi--I mean, The Sitter in his first solo headlining role (and his last "not-so-Slim-Shady" one), he's moved way beyond one of our finalists for Worst Movie of the Year and instead has been sailing on a wave of success that's included Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in Moneyball. And now his newest film, 21 Jump Street, is an early candidate for best comedy of the year. Emphasis on his. Hill, who also executive produced and co-wrote the movie with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), de... Read More »