It's Kind of a Funny Story

Remember back in the good, old days when Hollywood used to give their inpatients lobotomies? I do. For all you softer, gentler moviegoers, here's It's Kind of a Funny Story, and it is.

For everybody who has seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Zach Galifianakis' performance as Bobby will inevitably bring back memories of Jack Nicholson as McMurphy. Sadly, I am not sure if that is good enough.

Unlike 'One Flew', however, this ward-based romantic comedy also tries serving up a fresh, hot bowl of drama on the side, with little success I might add.

Now it's not the cast or even the crew that are to blame for this mishap. In fact, Keir Gilchrist and Emma Roberts do a pretty good job here in their roles and Zach Galifianakis definitely brings the laughs. No, I believe the fault lies with the script. There are just not enough opportunities for drama to develop here because the film is too busy trying to be indie, with the hand-drawn animation and the teenage monologues/ flashbacks.

Now that's not to say that this movie isn't funny. It is. Zach Galifianakis is a brilliant comedian who has the ability to derive laughs from practical, totally unfunny situations and that is what most of the humor consists of in this film. However, when this film tries to be dramatic as well, it totally destroys everything this movie was going for.

Overall, this is a funny, entertaining movie that has the right heart, just not the right script. I believe that if Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck had focused more on the story and less on trying to be indie then this could have definitely accomplished everything it is desperately trying to be.

R.E.D.

So let me get this straight... It's another action-comedy starring Bruce Willis as a cop? Wait a second... didn't Cop Out suck? What's that you say? It also stars Morgan Freeman? Cool, but he hasn't done any big time action films for a while. Oh, Morgan Freeman punches Richard Dreyfuss in the throat? Cool! And you say it also stars John Malkovich as a paranoid, anti-government, senile, old coot who blows stuff up with a stuffed pig? I'm there!

So you're a retired CIA agent living on your own. You've given up the life of high speed chases, shootouts, and a really cool badge, what are you going to do now? Not much. In fact, you have nothing to do besides rip up retirement checks in order to continue talking with your cute case manager. So when the V.P. tags you Retired Extremely Dangerous, you are more than happy to assemble your old special opps team in order to hunt him down and get to the bottom of this.

CASE FILE:
CAST:
Frank Moses- Alias: Bruce Willis: Same facial expressions and attitude he has in every other cop-comedy makes for a funny, yet predictable preformance.
Joe Matheson- Alias: Morgan Freeman: Although his preformance is brief, Freeman still manages to get a chuckle or two out of the audience.
Victoria- Alias: Hellen Mirren: Old lady doesn't take anything from the overall experience; however, we never benefit from her preformance.
Marvin Boggs- Alias: John Malkovich: The most plentiful source of humor in the movie. He makes the movie worth paying for.

SUMMARY: Willis and Malkovich have two of the most prominent roles in the film; however, everybody seems to be having fun playing their part and that, in turn, makes the movie that much more fun.

DIRECTOR:
That German Who Directed The Time Traveler's Wife- Alias: Robert Schwentke: Fairly interesting camerawork takes this film from mediocre to  something actually entertaining.

SUMMARY: It might be interesting to see Schwentke take on another action film like this one.

WRITERS:
Those Two Brothers Who Don't Really Have a Big Movie to their Name- Aliases: Jon and Erich Hoeber: Not everything these characters say or do makes sense, but in a way it kind of adds to the whole humor thing; however, it takes a lot away from the film and make it more difficult to follow along, if you care about the plot.

SUMMARY: These guys should probably spend their time writing more comedies and stop writing things like Whiteout.

CASE SUMMARY: This movie is ridiculous so don't walk into the theatre expecting to see some face-paced, witty, class act action film. Although it is face-paced, it is neither witty nor a class act film. It does its job as a comedy and thanks mainly in part to Malkovich and Schwentke, this film is worth seeing.

CASE CLOSED.

The Social Network

If we were still living in the 1990's and you told me that Justin Timberlake would co-star in one of the greatest movies of 2010, I would've been like: "You mean that guy from NSYC?".

The Social Network. So you probably know what this movie is about by now- Mark Zuckerberg and his $25 billion dollar website that nobody has ever heard of called Facebook. You would think that creating a massive online social gathering site off your laptop in your dorm while you are still a sophomore in college would be simple, right? Well there actually is more to it than that, much more. Your rich friend who pays for everything isn't getting "his slice of the pie", you are in the middle of two law suits, one of which is your bestest and only friend in the world, and if that wasn't enough, Sean Parker, the founder of Napster somehow gets invloved too. 

What can be said about this movie? Well, it's pretty, darn good. Everything about this movie flows evenly: the cast is great and clicks wonderfully, the director is one of a kind, and the script is almost inspirational.

This movie owes a lot of its success to its cast. Jesse Eisenberg is excellent as depressed, lonely, super-hacker Mark Zuckerberg. His preformance here is a career best so far that will be tough to top and it is definitely Oscar-worthy. Andrew Garcia brings most of the drama to the table in his role as co-founder of The Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, also a career best. And of course there is pop superstar Justin Timberlake who, shockingly, gives a stirring preformance as Napster founder Sean Parker. It goes without saying that this is, by far, is also an acting career high for the singer.

My friend, founder of his own popular site: http://the3rdreel.blogspot.com/, once said that David Fincher is probably the greatest director of our generation. Now, I like Fight Club and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button but I didn't exactly agree with him (I mean come on, Fincher got his start directing George Michael music videos!) until I saw this movie. Fincher excells in movies that deal with a fragmented timeline. He is the master puzzle solver who actually makes you take what you're seeing and piece it all together yourself and once again, he works his magic o make this one of the best movies of 2010.

Last but not least, there is Aaron Sorkin. Oh, Sorkin, we love you. We love your understanding of human interaction and how you get to the core of what real drama is. We love your work in writing The West Wing and A Few Good Men. We may not know exactly how you know what it takes to take real storiest, find the drama in them, and then whip up a very smart, very classy script about them, but we're glad you do it. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin.

Yes this movie has a wonderful cast, awesome direction, and one of the greatest scripts ever written, but I am here to tell you the truth in everything. This movie is very entertainning and it will keep you in your seat wanting more... that is if you do not have ADD and are interested in this story. This movie isn't as dramatic as it needs to be in order to be a really enthralling drama. There is a lot of talk and I mean A LOT of plain, old fashioned talk. However, if you care about the story and have the attention span, it really is a good movie.

See it, definitely.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

It has been 23 years since Oliver Stone has invested anything into his original story and now fans are investing hard earned disposable income and time into his latest installment, Money Never Sleeps. Many loyal fans have been banking on this sequel, but maybe their money is better off sitting in a mutual fund somewhere or something.



Most sequels pick up right where the original film left off, or maybe a year or two later, however, Money Never Sleeps takes place an entire generation after the first film, which is one of the most interesting things about it. Finally, Gordon Gekko is out of prison and released into a whole different world than when he went in. Gordon is broke, lonely, and has been dropped off in the economic meltdown of 2008 and is finding out that 21st Century Wall Street is much leaner and meaner than the 1980's version.

Money Never Sleeps has enough going for it and this sequel definitely focuses more on the past life of the character who won Michael Douglas his Oscar, and attempts to derive most of the drama from the shambles of his broken relationship with his daughter; however, about halfway through Michael Douglas disappears from the film for far too long and it leaves us with Shia LaBouf talking about numbers for a big portion of the movie- boring (if I wanted numbers, I'd pay attention in my accounting class).

This movie is star studded. With actors like Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, and of course Shia LaBouf and Michael Douglas, there is definitely no shortage of talent, but even with all these big names Money Never Sleeps can't seem to keep everybody awake. These actors are definitely capable of stirring up emotion, but this script is about as dramatic and clever as it is funny, so in other words, it's not either of those things. Money may not be able to sleep, but that doesn't mean the rest of us can't.

Oliver Stone really likes shots of New York city, as most of the scene changes are exactly that. Stone's work with the camera in this film is probably some of his most interesting work, sadly he seemed more interested in getting a shot of some sky scrappers in the sunset.

It has ben 23 years since Oliver Stone has invested anything into his original story and from seeing how this sequel turned out, he probably should have kept Gordon behind bars. Twenty-three years is a long time for a sequel so there is no excuse for this boring script. As Gordon Gekko says here,"Money is not the prime asset- time is" and Stone has committed the crime of robbing us of both.

Interest rates are low on this one. Skip it.

What the 'Devil'?

There's no doubt that M. Night Shyamalan's recent "scare" (The Last Airbender) is probably his most frightening film to date; however, Devil is proof enough that Shyamalan still has what it takes scare and entertain audiences with an original story.

Set in a Philidelphia office building, Devil traps five complete strangers in an elevator with nothing but their past choices and misfortunes bonding them. Of course this wouldn't be a horror film if nothing horrific happened, so if being stuck in an elevator with four strangers isn't scary enough, one of them just happens to be, you guessed it, the devil.

Devil is the brainchild of M. Night Shyamalan, but for those of you fearful of this fact, don't worry, Shyamalan is only the money behind it; there will be no writing or directing for him on this one, although fans familiar with Shyamalan's work will recognize the atmosphere that director John Erick Dowdle brings to this film.

Dowdle is no newbie to these kinds of movies, having written and directed the very scary, very intense Quarentine, which is probably why M. Night Shyamalan trusted him with this movie. Dowdle does a fine job with the camerawork here, starting with very interesting angles right from the get go and he keeps it up throughout the film. This makes everything about this film more interesting to watch and it is difficult to find time to take your eyes off the screen.

Brian Nelson is also familiar with this genre, having written the screenplay for the vampire thriller 30 Days of Night. The script in this film makes everything feel more realistic: from the witty banter to the ways the characters develope and interact with each other. One of the most difficult things to capture in a horror film is real human essence and making the characters themselves feel real, seeing is how the actual story in most horror flicks can be a little drastic, but this film has a great script with believable characters that react in very reasonable ways.

Simplicity is the key to success for this film. It takes a talented filmmaker to take five actors, place them in a small elevator set, turn the lights on and off and turn that into legit fear. This film is very Hitchcockesque in the way that it creates fear out of, essentially, nothing; you don't see most of what's going on and Dowdle understands the concept that it is what we don't see that scares us the most.

Devil may just be Shyamalan's most entertaining idea since Signs. It gets props for its intruiging camerawork, believable script, and extraoplating more fear than there probably should be.

Definitely see this film.

A Monologue: The Last Airbender

A.K.A: The Last Shyamalan

Air... Water... Earth... Fire...  They say that only the Avatar can master all the elements, so if that's true, M. Night Shyamalan could be the real Avatar, seeing is how he has mastered the element of surprise...ingly bad movie making.

If Shyamalan can't even successfully tell you what this movie is about, how do you expect me to? Yeah, this movie is that bad. Everybody who is a fan of the original animated series has a pretty good idea of what is going on here (kinda), but if you are not familiar with the cartoon, strap in your seat belt because it is going to be a long and bumpy ride.

Okay, so let's start off with the most obvious mistake about this movie- it was ever made. This movie is based off a Nickelodeon cartoon, so that right there should be the first sign that this probably isn't going to be a great film. Not only that, but each element in the story has its own season in the actual show. So how do you take an entire season's worth of story and condense it down into a two hour film? Don't as Shyamalan because he sure doesn't know.

Secondly, this movie has no character developement what so ever. The three main characters, Sokka, Katara, and Aang (not Ung!) are all introduced literally within the first few minutes of the film. After that, the movie jumps right into what Shymalan calls the "story" and moves so fast that it is difficult to develope or care about any of the characters because there are so many of them coming at you so fast.

Expanding on that, Shyamalan does try to develope each character carefully and give them each a backstory that will make them seem more human: Zuko has his father issues, Katara and Sokka's mother has died and their father is off fighting in the war, Aang's entire race has been wipped out, and Sokka even has a brief love interest; however, none of it meshes the way it should and by the end it just all feels overbearing.

Next, the script was so uninspired and boring that it was actually funny. Most of the lines uttered in this film were just blatant observations like: "No! Katara, don't hit that sphere!", and "That bison thingy floats" when obviously the bison thingy is floating. Each character speaks as if they can't wait to finish their line and quite honestly, neither could I.

Moving on, the acting in this movie is terrible. Now I know that I have done my fair share of complainning about bad acting, but this one takes the cake. In fact, it made me miss the great stoneface acting of Dear John. I don't know what Shyamalan was thinkg hirring such a cast of bad actors. Oh wait, yes I do- "Let's spend all our money on visual effects and take whatever we have left over and hire whoever will work for it. I mean come on, in today's economy, that's pretty much everybody so work won't be hard to find!". I mean you know your movie is bad when Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi is playing your villain.

Despite semi-stunning special effects, this movie is a total bomb. Nothing works here and we are all being conned into paying our hard earned cash to see it. It is also yet another disappointing run in Shyamalan's losing streak, but despite my subtitle, I don't believe that this will be his last movie. Shyamalan is a talented writer-director and I can't wait for his next good movie (if indeed there ever is one).

The Last Exorcism

WARNING: KEEP ALL SMALL CHILDREN AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE!

If you plan on seeing this movie, it may be smart to bring a priest along.

Patrick Fabian brings to life Cotton Marcus, a minister who has lost his own faith but continues preaching to feed his family. After reading about the death of a little boy during an exorcism gone wrong, Reverend Marcus decides to retire from exorcism indefinitely. However, the good reverend gets his chance to expose exorcism for the fraud that it is when he receives a plea from a Louisiana farmer who is convinced that his sixteen year old daughter is possessed by the devil himself. To do this, Cotton brings along a camera crew to capture the moments of his last exorcism.

At first glance, The Last Exorcism may look and sound like any other horror movie, especially to those who are familiar with any other movie about exorcism, but it has its own, unique feel. Yes the shaky cam is reminiscence of The Blair Witch Project and exorcism is nothing new to fans of the horror genre, but this movie takes both of those concepts and makes them feel new. In other words, this movie isn't boring.

As I said, this movie feels fresh. This can be contributed to all the great performances we see in this film. Ashley Bell does a terrific job bringing her character to life and making the supposed "possession" seem so real. In fact, Bell's performance is probably the scariest aspect of this film. Patrick Fabian also does a wonderful job at creating empathy for the reverend. This movie is more centralized around the main character than a lot of its predecessors and Fabian does a wonderful job at holding it all together.

I have been asked many times if this movie is scary and I always answer by saying, "It's an Eli Roth film." The Last Exorcism is a great horror flick because it always keeps its audience on edge; you never quite know what is going to happen next and it keeps you guessing until the very end. However, like I said earlier, this is an Eli Roth film so it pretty much borders on R and is probably too gory and too intense for any thirteen year old that I know.

The Last Exorcism is a great horror flick for those of you who are into that kind of thing. It produces legitimate scares without sacrificing the storyline and always has the audience engaged in what is happening.

See it.