Media Junkie

Movie Review: 9

9
Focus Features
PG-13
79 Minutes
2009

Expectations have a nasty way of getting the better of you.  Rarely does a movie truly live up to the expectations we build for it in our own minds, and this is even rarer after months of anticipation. 

Shane Acker's original short film, 9, was nominated for an Academy Award and impressed famed director Tim Burton so much that Burton and director Timmu Bekmambetov, best known for his work on 2008's phenominal high action graphic novel adaptation of Wanted, produced a feature length reimagining of the story. 

Featuring stunning visuals, a superb voice cast including Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, and Crispin Glover, 9 looked like it would be one of the most imaginative, impressive films of the year.  Upon viewing the trailer that preceded Coraline (still one of the year's best films), 9 jumped right to the top of 2009's must-see list.

Unfortunately, seven months later, my expectations did indeed get the better of me.

Movie Review: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Paramount Vantage
R
90 Minutes
2009

What a year for comedies this has been.  Whether it's family-friendly fair like Pixar's incredible Up, raunchy comedy like The Hangover, or flat-out offensive like Bruno, 2009's lineup of comedies has been pretty strong.  The Goods has some incredibly stiff competition to live up to, and it didn't quite sell me that it deserves to be at the top of the list of 2009's funniest.

Produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, The Goods is another in a long line of nonsense comedies like Anchorman or Talladega Nights.  It has its moments, but it can't sustain itself for the duration of its rather short running time.  Still, if you've got time to kill, you could do much worse.

Movie Review: District 9

District 9
TriStar Pictures
R
112 Minutes
2009

2009 could be the year of the sleeper hit.  Commercial successes like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra have also been critically panned.  The Hangover has become the year's biggest comedy practically on the strength of word of mouth alone, grossing nearly three times as much as Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno, even after an intense bidding war between studios for the latter. 

Now we have District 9, the directorial debut of Neill Blomkamp.  Though Peter Jackson's name is plastered all over the TV spots and his Wingnut Films production company helped bring the movie to audiences worldwide, Blomkamp wrote (alongside Terri Tatchell) and directed this clever, engrossing sci-fi action thriller and he does so with such style that it's hard to believe this is his first time behind the lens.

Part Cloverfield-style mock documentary, part action, part sci-fi, and part political commentary, District 9 is a fabulous film that is destined to be a cult classic.

Movie Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
118 Minutes
2009

There is something extremely sad about watching your favorite memories from childhood get thrown into the Hollywood marketing machine, ground up, then regurgitated as a slick, modernized version.  Growing up in the 80s, I was crazy about G.I. Joe.  I videotaped the shows and watched them over and over.  I owned all the figures and vehicles, sometimes doubles, triples, or more in order to have an entire legion of generic Cobra soldiers for my Joes to shoot at. 

To say that I was leery of the latest attempt to sell my childhood back to me, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, is an understatement.  I was vehemently opposed to it.  I had sworn it off completely after seeing the costumes, the accelerator suits, and footage of Marlon Wayans jumping through a train in slow-motion.  I had a morbid curiosity, but that what where it ended...until I left the choice of movies up to my friend.

Not only did I see The Rise of Cobra, I saw it on opening night, in a packed theater.  Normally, this is the type of experience that can make you rethink your stance.  The theater cheered and clapped, awed by the intense action and special effect.  They laughed at all the jokes, even the bad ones, and the kids whose parents brought them seemed enthralled.  I, on the other hand, spent the entirety of the film thinking "This is not what I grew up on."

Movie Review: Funny People

Funny People
Universal
R
146 Minutes
2009

After the dreadful Pineapple Express, I was worried that the comedy team of Seth Rogen and producer/director Judd Apatow had hit their wall.  Up until that point, everything they touched seemed to turn to gold, and I may have been in the minority but I felt Pineapple Express was a complete failure on every level.  It wasn't funny, it wasn't exciting, and the characters did more to irritate me than endear me to them.
 
Apatow returns to the director's chair for their newest collaboration, Funny People, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the ship seems to have been righted.  Apatow squeezes some truly remarkable performances from the talented cast, and delves into slightly more dramatic territory - more akin to Knocked Up than the slapstick humor of Superbad (which he only produced).  There's still plenty to laugh at in Funny People, including the usual dick-jokes, insult humor, and some interesting pseudo-realistic stand-up routines, but it also has the quality that has made so many of Rogen's movies so fantastic - the human element.

Movie Review: Bruno

Bruno
Universal
R
88 Minutes
2009

Sacha Baron Cohen is either a madman or a genius.  Or perhaps he's both.

His "gotcha" style of comedy is anything but subtle, and though it can be crude and vulgar, it also works on a deeper level - highlighting the prejudices, fear, and downright stupidity of those he manages to trick into an interview.

One must admire his dedication to his work.  The British comedian rarely appears as himself for interviews, and when in character not even the film's director can coax the real man out.  He truly inhabits the over the top personas of three famous characters.

Though his first film, Ali G. Indahouse was largely panned, and never even received a theatrical release in the United States, his follow up with a smash success.  Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan not only earned more than triple its budget, it made numerous Top Ten lists and was even nominated for an Acamedy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.  After this success, a fierce bidding war ensued for the rights to Baron Cohen's one remaining character, the gay Austrian fashionista, Bruno.

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG-13
115 Minutes
2009

Please note: The following review contains MASSIVE SPOILERS.  If you do not wish to know major plot details of Terminator Salvation, do not click the link below.

I'll just get this out of the way right now: Terminator Salvation is not a good movie.  It's an even worse Terminator film, but it's just not a good movie all around.  From the wooden performances, gaping plotholes, and flat out awful story decisions, there is hardly anything redeeming about it.  Ironic, isn't it?

The film will undoubtedly be remembered more for Christian Bale's now infamous on-set, profanity-laced tirade than for being a memorable or worthwhile entry into a classic sci-fi/action franchise.  It may not be the worst of the Terminator series, a dubious honor that still belongs to its dreadful third incarnation, Rise of the Machines, but Salvation feels more like a generic action movie with a Terminator facade that a true attempt to revive the ailing franchise.

Movie Review: Mirrors

Mirrors
New Regency Pictures/20th Century Fox
Unrated
110 Minutes
2008

I should have known better.  Any film that sells itself with the pitch "From the director of 'The Hills Have Eyes'" is bound to be utterly terrible, but I hoped against hope that the supernatural thriller Mirrors would be more than just another gorefest, light on the scares and heavy on the fake blood.

Whatever the elements for making a good horror film may be, Mirrors has practically none of them.  

Movie Review: Taken

Taken
20th Century Fox/Europa Corp
PG-13
94 Minutes
2009 (US)

There are some films that are so utterly generic, so formulaic, so predictable that you practically forget about them by the time the credits have stopped rolling.  The action-thriller Taken is just such a film.

Penned by the talented French filmmaker Luc Besson (The Professional, The Fifth Element) and Robert Mark Kamen (all three Transporter films), and starring Liam Neeson, Taken is the type of paint-by-numbers drek that takes a somewhat decent premise and squanders all of its potential with its lack of imagination.

Movie Review: Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice
Geffen Pictures/Warner Bros.
Rated: PG
92 Minutes
1988

Tim Burton has always been a visionary film maker, though lately he seems more comfortable with churning out dark and gothic remakes of existing properties than creating fresh and original works.  Still, he has left his creative mark on the movie industry with modern classics such as Edward Scissorhands, his take on DC Comics' Caped Crusader, Batman, and of course, the black comedy Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice strikes the perfect balance between comedy and the low budget horror found in the best B-movies.  It's too funny to be terrifying, but a little bit too eerie to be just a comedy.  At its heart though, Beetlejuice is still a hilarious film, thanks to a stellar cast including Alec Baldwin (who has proven his comedic skills time and again with numerous hosting gigs on Saturday Night Live, as well as on the Emmy Award-winning series 30 Rock), Catherina O'Hara, and especially Michael Keaton in the film's title role - that of the bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse.