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.

Has 'nanny' overstayed her welcome?

It's been a while since we last saw the good, old nanny on the big screen. So much so, that we have forgotten how she operates. When we need her but do not want her, she must stay; when we want her but no longer need her, then she must go. Sure we may have wanted her to return but now that she has, we realize we don't really need her anymore.

Emma Thompson in Nanny McPhee Returns

Nanny McPhee Returns continues the story of the title character through the years of WWII as she arrives at the Green family farm to help out a destressed mother (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) who has to deal with her three wild children, as well as her aristocratic niece and nephew, while her husband (played by a very scarce Ewan McGregor) is off fighting in the war. Life couldn't get much worse, right? Wrong. On top of all this, Mrs. Green is struggling to keep her farm from an evil brother-in-law who needs to sell the farm to pay off his gambling debts.

Luckily, Nanny McPhee (small "c", big "P") shows up, warts and all, to save the day. Or at least that's how it should be, right? Things should start to get better when Scary Poppins arrives; however, her presence only seems to add to the entire mess of the film.

As the movie progresses, things become crazier and crazier and it becomes apparent that there is no structure to this film. It bogs the audience down in an overly busy, hyperactive "subplots" that make you feel like you are in (or would rather be in) a daycare center filled with spoiled brats.

As far as being a sequel goes, it isn't a very good one. Yes, there is much more magic, but much less story, humor, and heart. As in the original, the nanny shows up claiming that she has five lessons to teach the children, but after the first one, the lessons (along with any sense of story) take back seat to almost two hours of CGI antics (such as piglettes doing syncronized swimming, dancing barley that takes the shapes of random animals, and a constantly belching crow). The children start acting as if they are learning their lessons (and Nanny McPhee starts loosing her warts as if they were), but it never quite feels like they garnered their true meaning.

The movie tries ending on a charming, warm note, as its predecessor did, but fails completely. Once the ending hits, it is hard to believe that that's how it is really going to end and we realize that Nanny McPhee  did absolutely nothing to help the family (or our familes at that).

Nanny McPhee is a loveable character and it would have been nice to see her return in a, for lack of a better word, better movie than this. Nanny McPhee Returns is a jumbled mess of a movie and it feels like nothing less than chaos on steroids, it is too long, and I can't imagine any child (or adult for that matter) getting anything out of this film.

Skip it.

Movies You Should See

Drama/ Comedy:

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Garden State (2004)

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Drama:

American Beauty (1999)

American History X (1998)

Rocky (1976)

Rocky Balboa (2006)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Gran Torino (2008)

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Invictus (2009)

Titanic (1997)

Seven Pounds (2008)

Wall Street (1987)

Crime/Drama:

No Country for Old Men (2007)

The Departed (2006)

Crime/ Comedy:

Fargo (1996)

Raising Arizona (1987)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

Mystery/Suspense:

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Prestige (2006)

Jaws (1977)

Sleepy Hallow (1999)

Thriller:

Scream (1996)

Scream 2 (1997)

Halloween (1978)

The Ghost Writer (2010)

Cape Fear (1991)

Comedy:

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

Back to the Future (1985)

Shanghai Noon (2000)

Rush Hour (1998)

Hitch (2005)

The Karate Kid (1984)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

School of Rock (2003)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

Austin Powers (Trilogy)

American Pie (1999)

American Wedding (2003)

Superhero Movies:

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

The Dark Knight (2008)

X2: X-Men United (2003)

Iron Man (2008)

Superman (1978)

Action/Adventure:

V for Vendetta (2005)

The Matrix (1999)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

RoboCop (1987)

Taken (2009)

Sci-Fi:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Signs (2002)

Men in Black (1997)

I Am Legend (2007)

Independence Day (1996)

Alien (1979)

Predator (1987)

Inception (2010)

E.T. (1982)

The Terminator (1984)

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

The Box (2009)

Horror:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Psycho (1960)

The Shinning (1980)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Disturbia (2005)

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Planet Terror (2007)

Death Proof (2007)

Poltergeist (1982)

The Descent (2005)

The Omen (1976)

Fantasy:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Film-Noir:

Double Indemnity (1944)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Animation/Pixar:

Anything by Pixar

War:

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I think it's fair to say that when the opening Universal title sequence came up, every geek in the theater got a boner. Everything about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World screams nerd afrodisiac- from the comic book/ video game feel of the movie to the music, action, and even the gorgeous love interest.

The trailer for this film tells you pretty much all you need to know about this movie. Scott Pilgrim is your average 22 year old Canadian: he is an inessential member of a terrible indie rock band, he shares a tiny, one room apartment with his gay roomate, and is dating a 17 year old high school girl. The whole "dating a 17 year old high school girl" thing doesn't last for long after he meets the girl of his dreams (literally) at a party. Scott can barely speak to her, but is willing to fight each of her seven evil exes in mortal combat like death matches in order to be with her.

With a runtime of almost two hours, this movie makes you kind of wish that Ramona (the goregous love interest) had five evil exes instead of seven. Michael Cera spends too much of his time putting fist to face and not enough time growing into his character. If the ominous, narrating voice from nowhere hadn't told us towards the end of the movie, "Scott has earned the power of love!" or, "Scott has earned the power of self-respect!", we wouldn't be any the wiser.

This movie really solidifies the theory that Michael Cera doesn't have much range. This movie probably would have captured people's attention more had there been a different lead. Thank God we have Edgar Wright. Wright really knows his stories and knows how to tell them well. He is good at paying tribute to classic film genres in a very inventive and entertaining ways (see Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). Wright brings his talents to this film, making sense where sense probably doesn't belong. Wright sets everything "right" (Haha).

As I said, this movie is based off a series of graphic novels (I wish people would just call them comic books), written by Bryan Lee O'Mally, but it runs more like it is based of a video game. The establishing shot of Scott's apartment that opens the movie looks like it jumped straight out of a comic book and the little graphics that appear everytime somebody gets hit are about it in terms of this movie running like a comic book. Everyting else, especially the action sequences, feels more like an old, 80's arcade game.

Despite its length and Michael Cera problems, this film is actually entertaining. The semi-hilarious script cupped with a young and vibrant cast gives this movie a kind of charm that is hard for us new millenials to resist.

See this film.

Step Up 3D

I would like to start my review off with a joke... Step Up in 3D.

If you like movies with a strong story, a solid script, and character development beyond going from "single" to "in a relationship", then this is not the movie for you.

This latest installment of the franchise revolves around a teenager nicknamed "Moose", who has just graduated from high school and is ready to start a new life at NYU as an engineering major along side his bff, Camille; the two are seemingly inseparable and do not yet know they are in love with each other. During his departure from his parents,  Moose runs into and befriends a street dancer named Luke, who happens to be the leader of a local dance crew creatively called the Pirates. Coincidentally, Moose happens to have the skill the Pirates need to win the big dance competition that could earn them the money to save their "crib" from foreclosure.

The story in this film is pretty much zero. It lacks originality and the momentum that it needs to keep an audience interested. When people aren't dancing it seems to just stand still and lul the audience to sleep with a pathetic attempt at an actual story. In a film like this, the story should be what matters most and the dancing should be the kick that gives the movie some flavor. That's not how this movie rolls. It relies too heavily on the dancing sequences and not enough on its characters. Not only that, but this movie is so focused on going between the two couples that it fails to revolve around the dance team itself. We never even see them them practicing.

It doesn't help the audience any when an already snoozefest of a plot gets put in the hands of some not-so-talented actors. These characters are boring and there is about as much depth to them as there is to my bathtub. Sometimes the foundation of B acting can be enough to hold a story through (see any of the Twilight films), but in this case it just did not work.

Did I mention how uninspired the script was? The way these characters intereacted with each other seemed as if they couldn't wait for the other person to shut up so they could get their turn to talk; there was a lot of talking going on and not enough listening. There was no passion, no intensity, and no dramatic effect anywhere in sight and it just made the movie more boring than it was already doomed to be. You know there is something wrong with your film when the most dramatic line is "I'm leaving on a train to California", and it makes the audience laugh rather than feel bad.

Well you cannot talk about a movie that has "3D" in the title and not talk about the 3D, right? Well the 3D in this film is pretty good for the most part. This film was shot in 3D unlike most films nowadays that are put into 3D via post production. The 3D is most noticable during the sequences when the dancers have their hands all up in yo face; however, the more spactacular scenes, like the final dance, did not work as well in 3D.

However this movie is good for a couple things: it makes the first Step Up look like it actually has a structured plot while also serving as a prime example of what movies shouldn't be in the future if 3D does in fact become the standard and 3D premium pricing becomes the norm.

So unless you like watching people dance on screen, Step Up 3D is a boring, unoriginal installment to a franchise that has now run its course, but if you are a fan of these movies then you will probably want to see this film.

I say skip it.