WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 63

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 63rd WWW:

1) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons:
The fifth film based on the manga finds Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro back on the road. After the injuries he sustained battling his archenemy Retsudo at the end of the fourth movie, I wasn't sure what condition our hero would be in. Japanese culture continues to baffle me as a clan intent on hiring the assassin send several messengers to test him, knowing that Itto's success will mean their death. Each one carries another piece of the message, until he has his complete assignment. The clan's honor is at stake, with the daughter of their previous leader masquerading as her brother, the true successor. This is one of the darker films in the series as we see how soulless a killer Itto can be. I thought his personal experience might give him pause, and at one point in the movie he actually spares someone. It could be a turning point for a man who considers himself and his son to always be at the crossroads to Hell, but sooner or later a road must be chosen. Spiritual matters, family tragedy, nor masked warriors can stay the blade of the deadly ronin, much to Retsudo's fury. Once Itto has accepted an assignment, he sees it through to the end.

2) Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell:
The sixth and final film in this series is on par with many of the others, though not as final as I would have liked. I had made the mistake of reading how the manga ended, so I suppose I should be grateful that I didn't spoil the film series by doing so. Retsudo's actions finally catch up to him as he faces disgrace for continually allowing Ogami Itto to slip through his grasp. The Yagyu patriarch has already lost three sons, but now sends his daughter and her deadly knife juggling technique against Ogami Itto's deadly Suioryu “horse-slaying” style. The film has a certain finality as our protagonist's visit the grave of Itto's wife and Daigoro's mother, with a few clips of her demise from the first film thrown in to remind us why father and son live the life that they do. The baby cart is in full effect, with guns that penetrate concrete, hidden blades, and Itto's bladed staff all making their last appearance. Retsudo is so desperate, he even turns to an illegitimate son living in the woods with a fairly creepy clan. The son refuses to kill the ronin for his father, but pursues him in the name of his own adopted clan. Their technique includes burying warriors alive for well over a month, a ritual they believe creates beings above life and death. Though not actual zombies, they're still pretty resilient, and pretty scary as they kill from the shadows and burrow underground like serpents. Itto continues to be a master strategist, and while his enemies' technique of instilling fear by killing all the innocents around their target initially works, he once again proves that choosing where to fight can greatly improve one's odds. And so we go North, to a snowy plain where burrowing underground is no longer an advantage. Ever the master of overkill, Retsudo soon follows with a full army in tow. We get to see ski-attachments on the baby cart and we see snow stained red with blood. In the end, this one concludes much like the others in the series. I liked that they managed to keep the same cast through six films. Harry Potter will end up with eight films, which I though was unprecedented, but then here's this samurai series from the ‘70s. I wonder if more were planned, but except for one loose end, this did seem to be wrapping things up. As I understand it, there was a 78-episode television series with different actors that covered the books more completely. Thematically, the balance of the stern, stone-faced killer and his curious little boy was a good one. The killer-with-child motif would pop up again in the coming decades, in films such as The Professional or more recently Kick-Ass. It's a nice juxtaposition that humanizes a killer while raising the stakes and giving him someone to protect and care about, after he's stopped caring about himself. Overall, I'd have to give this series 4-4.5 out of 5 stars.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

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WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 62

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 62nd WWW:

1) Youth in Revolt:
While at first glance, this seems to be Michael Cera doing his usual routine, an awkward intelligent guy trying to impress his dream girl, there are a few things which set it apart from his usual fare. When Cera's Nick Twisp goes on a camping trip with his mother(Jean Smart) and her dirtbag boyfriend(Zach Galifianakis), he meets and falls for a girl named Sheemi(Portia Doubleday). Sheemi has a love of all things French and speaks with the same pretend pretentious air about things well before her generation as Nick does. The two seem to have that in common, escaping their trailer park lives by elevating themselves. Sheemi is already dating Trent, the most popular guy at her school who writes her some truly terrible poetry, and when Nick's trip comes to an end, he realizes he needs to step up his game. The kids work out a plan in which Sheemi helps Nick's dad(Steve Buscemi in a great but all-too brief role) get a job near where she lives. But convincing his mom to let him move in with his dad will require the docile teen to dig deep and find his bad side. This is where the movie had the potential to separate itself from other Cera films. He creates an alternate imaginary persona named “Francois Dillinger”. The 20-something actor ditches his slight falsetto, and adds a mustache, cigarette, and blue contact lenses. This aspect was what appealed to me in the trailers, and I wish the film spent more time with Francois, a far more interesting character. Obviously no one else sees him, but they do some clever things with split screen or simply having the “evil” twin interact when Nick is acting out. Overall, there's an independent film vibe to the piece, and its definitely a coming-of-age story. Sheemi's Christian parents catch wind of some of the things Nick-as-Francois has done, and end up sending her away to school. This leads to some standard teen sex comedy hijinks with Fred Willard as an eventual accomplice. Justin Long also has a great part as Sheemi's drug-addled older brother. He's definitely an actor who sinks his teeth into cameos extremely different from the starring roles he usually takes. In addition to some of the split screen stuff, there are a few interesting animated interludes. I've since read that this movie was based on a series of books about the Twisp character, and in light of that it comes in at a remarkably short running time of about an hour-and-a-half. With the exception of Year One(which was just awful), this is probably my least favorite Cera movie, even though I did like it(just not as wholeheartedly as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Superbad, or Nick and Norah's infinite Playlist). They definitely could have had more fun with the alter-ego persona, but it does end on a great note, particularly the last line of the film which was excellent.

2) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril:
Four movies in to the manga-based series, and ronin Ogami Itto is still wandering with his son Daigoro. Some key things happen in this one beyond his pursuit of a topless tattooed female warrior. He's finally separated from the kid for a while, and we get to see what Daigoro is turning into. Another warrior notes the lack of fear in the eyes of the child, even when he finds himself trapped in a burning field. He has seen death; he has walked the path of the warrior. Ogami's son is well on his way to following in his father's footsteps. Meanwhile, we finally learn the reason why Ogami was framed and disgraced by his enemies, and his usual one man vs. an army sequence ends with a confrontation with his greatest enemy Retsudo. Before he gets there, he resolves the situation with the tattooed lady as well as her father, and we get more insight into the notion of dying with honor in this culture. And after his big confrontation, we end on the most uncertain note of all in the series. More than ever, we see that Ogami is human, not the demon he has always proclaimed himself to be. He acknowledges that he and his son walk on the crossroads to hell, and when ninjas continue to crawl over and bite him even after losing their limbs, one can understand his sentiment. He bleeds, but he's not dead yet, for when he dies, the boy will die. Their fates are linked, so he keeps going through sheer force of will. The fights are bloodier, the music is seventies-ier, and the stakes are higher than ever. I like the continuity between the movies, as Ogami still bears a scar down his back from a fight in the previous film against an honorable foe, so it’s a safe bet that the unfinished business with Retsudo and a few other foes will come back to haunt him in the final two installments.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

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WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 61

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 61st WWW:

1) Legion:
I'm tempted to simply write, “This movie made no ****ing sense.” and move on to my next review. If you've seen the trailer for this mash-up of The Bible and Terminator 2, you've pretty much seen the best parts. At a small diner/gas station in the middle of the desert, a motley crew of actors who normally can act gather to play the survivors of an apocalypse. A pregnant waitress is apparently carrying the (new?) messiah, and God has sent an angel to make sure it isn't born, because he's “tired of all the bull***” or some nonsense like that. But Michael, played by Paul Bettany, rebels, and for some reason not fully explained cuts off his wings and loads up on an arsenal of heavy firearms. Sure, it looks cool, but when we see what a full angel can do later in the film, you have to wonder why he downgraded to fighting the way humans fight. More importantly, you have to wonder why it works. Hordes of possessed people converge on the diner as the plot devolves into your typical horror movie cliché of characters being picked off one by one, in increasingly gory ways. The big twist here is that the possessed people attacking them are being controlled not by demons, but by angels. I would have guessed otherwise from their shark teeth and blackened eyes. There's the creepy and profane old lady from the trailer who skitters up the ceiling, the limb stretching ice cream man(who does absolutely nothing beyond roar, stretch and skitter as shown in the trailer), and a little boy with a knife. Seriously, are we sure these aren't demons? Where are the demons? Why did a television show like Supernatural handle this subject matter twenty times better than a big-budget movie? Why was Lucas Black(the over-accented lead from Tokyo Drift) actually putting on a better performance than veteran actors like Dennis Quaid, and were we expected to take him seriously when his name was “Jeep”? I seriously don't know how Bettany kept such a straight face when telling Jeep his devotion to his father and love for the pregnant waitress was the reason Michael disobeyed God's orders. As Gabriel, Kevin Durand made a great Thanagarian, blocking bullets with metal wings, slicing people, and smashing things with his mace. If this were a real apocalypse, we might have seen more than one of these warriors. Can you really toss a baby around like a football without hurting it? And why would December 23rd mean anything at all to the soldiers of heaven, if the calendar is a manmade creation with holidays assigned to arbitrary dates? I could go on, but I've already wasted too many words on this nonsense. Since they chose to end the story with the same voiceover dialogue they started it with, I'll do something similar with my review: This movie made no ****ing sense.

2) Daybreakers:
It's not often that someone comes up with a novel concept for vampires, especially with the current oversaturation of the genre in our culture. The ‘70s gave us Blade, the daywalker, a vampire created when his mother was bitten while he was in the womb, giving him their abilities without their weakness to sunlight. It wasn't until the late ‘90s that a film series would give him mainstream attention and popularity. For the most part, vampires were either these romanticized old world immortals, or overly theatrical monsters. With Buffy, they were brought in to the modern age, given personalities and contemporary concerns, even if we did get a few period pieces in flashbacks to their early days. I admit I am not the target audience for the Twilight series, and have no interest in angsty teen romance and vampires who sparkle in the sunlight. 30 Days of Night made vampires scary again, and had a unique spin on horror isolation, trapping humans up North in Alaska while being hunted by a predatory pack of bloodsuckers. And then there's True Blood, part Buffy and Twilight for adults, but with richer characters and themes, making vampires “outed” beings trying to fit in to our society like any other oppressed minority. On the one hand there are definite metaphors for the struggles of various groups, but on the other many vampires have shown that humans are right to fear them. Some choose to drink a blood substitute, while others still feast on the real thing. This brings us to Daybreakers, which presents a world in which the vampires have not only assimilated in to society, but they have become society. These are civilized beings in suits and ties, going to work on the subway every day. They drive cars whose windows black out during the day, while a camera shows what's outside. They use camera's and monitors in lieu of mirrors since they cast no reflection but can be captured digitally. Sure, they take blood with their coffee, but on the surface they're not all that different than you or I. But that's the surface. Humans have become the minority, and as a food supply, they're becoming scarce. Without human blood, these civilized vampires are breaking down into their core animal nature. Below the streets they are winged bat creatures with no hair and pointy ears. They feast on each other, and are mad. It's a great concept and unique, and my only real complaint is that I wish they'd done more with it. Ethan Hawke is a hematologist working on a blood substitute(a la True Blood), and for some reason he's sympathetic to humans. He claims it was because his brother turned him against his will, but other than one speech this isn't fleshed out much further. Sam Neill is his boss, a greedy pharmaceutical tycoon who recognizes the demand the population will have for a good substitute. And Willem Dafoe, giving the best performance of the film, is part of the human resistance, and possibly the key to a true cure. I really liked the world the movie created, and wished they'd done a little more with it. Some characters have woefully short arcs. One goes from human to vampire to primal mad vampire to ashes in the span of ten minutes. Hawke's character, as I mentioned, could have had a few more details in his backstory, and he does stumble on a rather radical solution a bit too quickly. Still it was worth the rental, and scores big points on world building and concept alone. There are worse complaints I could have about a movie beyond that it left me wanting more.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 60

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 60th WWW:

1) Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx:
The journey continues in the second film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Ogami Itto's enemies are more determined than ever to put the ronin down, as evidenced in the film's first fight sequence. Itto nails one of his attackers dead center of his head with his sword, and the guy uses his own skull to make sure the sword stays put while a second attacker leaps over the first's shoulders. The blood, which looks like paint in many scenes, flows even more freely in the sequel, but underscores the whole notion of honor and the code of warriors. That first guy was as good as dead, but he tried to make his death mean something. Later, a shinobi warrior tests a clan of female assassins to see if they have what it takes to defeat the Lone Wolf. He looses fingers and keeps fighting. Then an arm. Then another arm. Then his legs. By the time he's just a torso, he's still trying to win the challenge and get past his foes. Soon, Ogami is beset by more attackers, and this time around his son Daigoro starts to take a more active role in his defense, occasionally activating some of the hidden spring-loaded blades in his baby cart. These distractions don't keep the ronin from his latest job, helping a village before they lose their wealth when one member goes rogue. He is being escorted by three deadly assassins, coming in by boat, known as “gods of death”. These are not the expendable men and women who have been attacking all along the road, but honorable warriors who recognize and respect their potential opponent. They kill, but only with provocation. There seems to be a theme of sympathetic villains, from the leader of the female clan who questions her actions when her employers threaten Daigoro, to three worthy foes you come to like, even though you know they're fated to battle Ogami. He himself shows compassion to at least one enemy, though in the guise of practicality. And still he roams, a man with dead eyes and a deadlier blade, juxtaposed with a precocious little boy, who is both his soul and his humanity. I can guess where the story is going, but if it ends up being nothing more than six movies about a masterless samurai walking with his son and cutting down his enemies with his sword, I'll be just as entertained.

2) Batman: Under the Red Hood:
In a remarkable feat of storytelling, this animated adaptation recounts the startling events of A Death in the Family before the opening credits roll. It manages to do justice to the first Batman graphic novel I ever owned, while making it accessible to newcomers. The subsequent tale which unfolds five years after those events comes from more recent comics, and it's hard for me to review without spoiling too many key plot details. From what I've read on message boards, the film's approach to the story makes a lot more sense within the Batman universe than in the source material, where these events resulted from a character from a parallel world punching reality. Comics, folks. Instead we focus on a gritty, street-level Batman voiced by Bruce Greenwood dealing with a very personal and emotional new foe in the Red Hood(Jensen Ackles). He is assisted by his original sidekick, now Nightwing, voiced with just the right amount of confidence and sarcasm by Neil Patrick Harris. The movie gets the dynamic between these two just right; they fight like clockwork, their years of training and partnership evidenced by how fluidly they work together. But Batman also pushes him away, focuses on being a loner. It's not explicitly stated, but since he already lost one sidekick, he's clearly protecting his first one. The animation is on par with the level of quality in recent DC animated features, and there's a nice balanced use of the rogues gallery beyond the enigmatic newcomer taking over the gangs and killing any bad guys that get in his way. No Batman film would be complete without a Joker, and John Dimaggio steps up to the plate and does an admirable job, getting a few laughs and, faithful to the character, laughing where a sane person would not. In the end, we get a nice personal tale about the heroes and villains under each of their respective masks, and the shades of gray for those characters who walk a fine line between good and evil. For fans worried that Jason Todd's history might be rushed, the movie works in plenty of milestone flashbacks, and chooses to end perfectly on one happy memory, powerfully tragic in hindsight. This DC animated film will certainly be remembered as one of the better ones, and the closest any modern film has come to the quality and tone of Batman: The Animated Series.

3) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades:
By the third film in this series, I really had a strong sense of these characters, even as Ogami's abilities began to border on almost superhuman. Slaying an entire army? That's from John Rambo's repertoire. Concealing firearms in unexpected places? We saw it with guitar cases in Desperado. The thing is, this film came out in 1972, so you really start to see the Eastern influence on Western cinema in the ‘80s and ‘90s examples I cited. The samurai genre was the equivalent of Westerns, with sword wielders walking the same dangerous path as gunslingers portrayed by the likes of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. It's not a pretty world Ogami Itto lives in, even if he wasn't a disgraced samurai being hunted by his former masters. These movies depict, often graphically, rapists, murderers, and thieves. It's a harsh place to raise an innocent like his son Daigoro, but perhaps that's what sets these movies apart. Some of the best scenes between the two principal actors don't even require words. Daigoro drops his rice while eating, considered wasteful in ancient Japanese culture. Ogami need only give the boy a stern look for him to pick up his food and eat it, and then he gives him an approving nod. I haven't mentioned these moments in my reviews of the previous movies, but they permeate all of them and they're nice bits of character, quiet interludes between fights. As with the second film, we also get some sympathetic foes. Along the way Ogami encounters a Watari-kashi, a hired sword, who himself was also once a noble samurai. He, like Ogami, still has his honor, though he believes it to be lost. Ogami proves that he can be a teacher to more than just his son. It's interesting that, while he constantly insists that he and the boy are living the lives of “demons”, he never stops imparting wisdom or earning respect from those he encounters. Would a demon spare an honorable opponent? Would a demon take a beating to save a prostitute? Daigoro continues to develop into more of an active player, often luring enemies into position to be vulnerable to his father. There are also some impressive camera techniques and effects for 1972, including one beheading which we see from the point of view of the victim, the camera spinning as “our” head rolls along the ground. Itto continues walking, continues his journey as a ronin, continues his work as an honorable assassin, and I'll continue watching this series.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 59

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 59th WWW:

1) Lone Wolf & Cub: Sword of Vengeance:
Ogami Itto was an honorable Shoganate executioner. He felt haunted by the spirits of those he sent to death, shockingly taking the life of a young boy at the start of the film. When a corrupt clan turns on him and takes the life of his wife while framing him for disloyalty to the Shogunate, he discards loyalty in favor of vengeance. Ogami becomes a ronin, a masterless samurai, and sets out on the road with the only other surviving member of his family, his infant son Daigoro. I had never read the manga on which the film was based, and oddly enough my first exposure to the concept was in a spoof published in the fourth issue of Marvel's What The--?! entitled “Lone Wolvie and Chris”. Wolverine, dressed as a ronin, pushes a baby cart with a little Chris Claremont inside. When surrounded by ninjas, Claremont begins speaking, creating a growing blank word balloon, until Wolverine slashes it with his claws, unleashing a flood of Claremontian dialogue. It was more highbrow than the usual spoofs, and sparked my curiosity as to what it drew its imagery from. Indeed, the notion of a warrior with a baby cart is a unique one, and definitely the hook of the concept. Ogami doesn't seem like a threat, and the kid is adorable. The ronin even sported a slight double-chin in the film which reminded me of John Belushi's Samurai Futaba. But this was a true traditional Japanese samurai film, so when it came time to draw his blade, Ogami would draw plenty of blood. Throughout the first movie there is plenty of beheading and belimbing and he certainly be stabbing. We see his origins in flashbacks, while in the present he takes on an assignment to take out a gang of criminals who have settled in and terrorized a bathhouse town. His reputation precedes him, but by the time the master of the criminals realizes why he seemed so familiar, they have already been treating him and their hostages with great disrespect. There is great contrast between the father and son. Ogami's eyes are cold and dead, while the boy still has joy, laughter, and curiosity in his. One is dead inside, while the other's life is ahead of him. There were five more films made about these characters, and I look forward to watching them in the coming weeks.

2) The Babysitters:
For some reason, I expected this independent film to take the route of satire, black comedy, or coming-of-age story. But it swiftly goes to some very dark and disturbing places. Katherine Waterston(Sam's daughter) plays Shirley, a shy and awkward high school Junior with OCD. Everything in her life must be neat and in order. As she explains at one point, if any one thing is out of place, then everything is out of place, like setting off a domino reaction. She has a crush on John Leguizamo's character, the father of some kids she babysits for. He still has a youthful spirit not shared by his wife(Cynthia Nixon), who has become a very different person from the girl he met in their youth. And so the movie sets up a very basic cliché, of a girl being attracted to an older man over her immature male classmates, and a man in a mid-life crisis trying to reclaim some part of his youth. Once a line is crossed, and he slips the girl some extra money for her “services”, the movie goes even further into a fantasy scenario, as Shirley eventually becomes a high school madam, pimping herself and her friends out to “babysit” other lonely middle-aged husbands. At first, this seems to be an enterprise without consequence, as the girls discuss their new business in class, not really paying attention to the STD slideshow the teacher is presenting. But there are consequences, from loss of innocence to greed and tension between friends. As things get more and more out of control with drugs and violence, Waterston and the set designers do an excellent job portraying the change in Shirley. Her room becomes as chaotic and disorganized as her thoughts, as she goes from shy and sweet to calculating and ruthless. Leguizamo keeps things low key, though you see his obsession grow, while the other clients are increasingly creepy husbands. It's not a fantasy; it's a corruption, and it all culminates in one very tense scene on the roof of a parking garage. Waterston, around 20 at the time of filming, played a solid lead and held the piece together through her character's arc. I would hope we'll see more of her in the future. The plot may seem contrived at times, and it's not a film I could watch more than once, but it's well-acted and succeeds in creating tension and drama. It's hard to say what lessons each character learns by the climax, but easy enough to recognize that they'll all be scarred for life by their experiences.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 58

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 58th WWW:

1) From Paris With Love:
For a variety of reasons, I was skeptical when the drummer in one of the bands I play for recommended this film. With his tastes, I took it with a grain of salt. More importantly, I'd seen the trailer, and it looked like some dumb tongue-in-cheek spy spoof. I wasn't fooled by John Travolta's new “bad-ass” look, sporting a shaved head with a goatee. I'd never seen Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in anything before, but he was clearly playing “random affordable young guy #7 as a foil to the established veteran actor playing against type”. Still, every time I played a gig, this drummer asked if I'd seen it yet, so I finally put it on my queue. Going in with low expectations, I was surprised to see Luc Besson's name attached in the opening credits. Could this actually be...a good story? While he's done better, I was pleasantly surprised that it was more of a drama with comic relief than a solid comedy, and there were some truly shocking moments and occasional graphic violence. Travolta really plays a supporting role here, and over the course of the film you see he's less of a loose cannon and more of an experience CIA agent. Rhys-Meyers is a little rough at first, but makes for a good lead. He's working undercover, given minor assignments like planting bugs, but yearns to get more into the game. Complicating matters is his beautiful French girlfriend, and how their relationship is affected by all the cloak and dagger stuff once Travolta ropes him in is the meat of the film. It starts out as a simple drug bust, and somehow ends up being about taking down a terrorist cell before they take out the president. Don't make the same mistake I did and judge the trailer at face value; I watched it again after the movie ended, and was amazed at how a little editing can change the tone of any subject matter. It's probably not something that will stand the test of time, and certainly won't win any awards, but did show Travolta has some versatility and the new kid has some potential. All in all, I'd have to settle on giving this a resounding better-than-expected.

2) The Blind Side:
REVIEW TO COME LATER TODAY. UPDATED:
There's a little football anecdote at the start of the film, wonderfully narrated by Sandra Bullock(“One Mississippi”...hey, I just got that...), which purportedly explains the title of the film. I have a different theory, in that the name comes from the fact that you tear up so many times, it's hard to see the film. Maybe that's just me. Even though most of these little “D-awwwgotalumpinmythroat” moments were in the trailer, they still got to me. Michael Oher, or “Big Mike”, was removed from the care of his crackhead mother and bounced around from foster home to foster home, more often than not crashing on a friend's couch. When his friend's dad tries to get his son in to a better school on athletic merit, he also makes a case for Big Mike. So it came to be that the gentle giant, who preferred “Michael” to “Big Mike”, attended a mostly white Christian school with kids from affluent families. Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, and while the kid playing her son exemplifies everything that's annoying with precocious child actors, his outgoing personality allows him to reach out to Michael. Eventually, the Tuohy's would take Michael in, initially for one night, but eventually on a more permanent basis. It wasn't long before he was a part of their family, and officially adopted. Michael had a rough road ahead, struggling in school, but with the help and encouragement of his new family, he eventually got his grades up. And the one area he tested highest prior to coming to a new school was “protective instincts”, which translated well not only to family, but also on a football field. It's an inspiring and heartfelt story, and a lot more than just “kid from the projects makes good because he's athletic”. Quinton Aron does a great job portraying Oher, a role that often requires him to a convey a lot with silence and facial expressions. By the end of the film, when it becomes more about his football career and less about him bonding with the Tuohy's, I almost lost interest, but the drama soon returned, especially when his choice of school attracted the attention of a suspicious NCAA. And Bullock is outstanding as a woman who has it together, stays strong in the face of danger, and is extremely protective as both a mother and an adoptive mother. The cast did a great job bringing real people to life on the big screen, making you care about and like all of them, and overall it was a very enjoyable experience. I'm not a big sports fan, but this is so much more than a sports movie. Any one of us, with the right opportunities and right support, can use our strengths and bolster our weaknesses to excel at anything. Very inspiring.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 57

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 57th WWW:

1) The Life of David Gale:
This wasn't an easy film to watch, certainly not one I could watch twice. On more than one occasion I was nearly moved to tears. But it was an outstanding film with Kevin Spacey in the title role doing what he does better than anyone else, playing a very ambiguous character. David Gale was a professor and a staunch activist against the death penalty. Through a complex series of events, he finds himself on death row for the rape and murder of a friend and colleague. Did he do it? Is he innocent? You're never sure until the last frame of the movie, and even then you're not sure how to feel about certain characters. Kate Winslet plays a reporter with a reputation for protecting her sources, which is exactly why Gale requests her for his final interview. In the three days leading up to his scheduled execution, he tells her his story. Her mind is made up about him, but sways as he paints a very different picture than what the media showed. He was a loving husband and father, and a great teacher. In debating a governor, he proves skilled at winning an argument. But he's still human with flaws, battling both alcoholism and a scandalous encounter with an ex-student. Some look at the movie as being just about the death penalty, but I think the larger theme is that of zealotry, and how far anyone would go for any cause he or she felt strongly about. As the clock ticks down, Winslet and her intern race to piece together evidence that could save Gale. The movie becomes a very tense thriller that zigs, then zags, then zigs again. I was surprised after watching to learn that Roger Ebert slammed the film with a shocking zero stars. The pacing is great, the acting is excellent, and the mystery keeps you guessing, leaving one important loose end to be forgotten until one powerful last revelation. The movie is graphic at times, certainly thought-provoking, and will leave you pondering motives and morality long after the credits and excellent soundtrack have given way to silence.

2) The Book of Eli:
Denzel Washington, as the eponymous Eli, does something in the first scene of this film that made me think I wasn't going to care for his character, or even the film itself. But it quickly becomes apparent that his actions are about survival, and he is a lone individual on a sacred crusade, walking West through post-apocalyptic America with precious cargo, the last known copy of a very important book. No one under the age of 30 seems to remember the war which turned the world into a wasteland, in which the sun is so scorchingly bright that sunglasses must be worn at all times. Eli can take care of himself, at one point smelling bandits lying in wait for an ambush. And though he is outnumbered, he proves more than capable in a fight, literally cutting through his opponents with a very big knife. The movie has a gritty Western feel mixed with Mad Max, and it is a twist at the end, obvious in hindsight, which puts the movie in much higher regard for me. Also great is Gary Oldman, a man ruthlessly obsessed with finding the very thing which Eli protects. Under Oldman's thumb is a blind woman(Jennifer Beals and her daughter Solara(Mila Kunis). Against his wishes, Solara eventually becomes Eli's ally and sidekick. There's a ridiculously stylish shootout that would make Michael Bay envious, as the camera pans 360 degrees around the action, passing through crumbling walls. In the end, this isn't a movie about the end of the world so much as what we'd need to rebuild, and the power of faith and determination when faced with a seemingly impossible quest. Eli was a man with a calling, and after walking for 30 years, wasn't going to stop without a fight.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

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Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 56th WWW:

1) F/X:
I've always had the notion that this was one of the big ‘80s movies that I'd missed, that it was something my friends raved about. Maybe I was confusing it with something else, or maybe it was a big deal because Brian Dennehy was an alumni of my high school. I like his work, but he doesn't show up until halfway into the movie. The star is Bryan Brown, an Australian who looks and sounds really familiar, but who I couldn't place. Checking his credits now, I do kind of remember him from Cocktail as the mentor bartender. But here, he takes front and center as a movie special effects wizard hired by the witness protection program to help fake the death of a mobster, played by Jerry Orbach. Of course, things go wrong, and Brown's Rollie Tyler finds himself framed and on the run from the law. Enter Dennehy as a gruff cop who realizes some things don't quite add up. There are some great dated scenes with him working with the computer girl to piece clues together on a computer with glowing green type. Ah, the ‘80s. It's actually an interesting story, with some realistic fighting. In one scene, instead of being some Hollywood choreographed martial arts sequence, Rollie has a struggle with a hitman in which he hurls pots and pans and anything he can find at the guy. Ultimately, Rollie kind of becomes a special effects superhero, outwitting mobsters with smoke and mirrors and other tricks. Lacking a bigger budget, it all feels more like a television movie-of-the-week. While entertaining with some genuinely likable characters, it doesn't feel like something that was ever shown in a movie theater. Maybe I simply waited too long to see it.

2) F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion:
Against all odds, Rollie is back, so I suppose that's something of a spoiler for anyone who didn't see the first film. I won't go in to why it doesn't seem likely he'd be showing his face in public in this sequel. In any event, he's in happier times with a new girlfriend, though he's out of the movie business. He makes toys, from a helicopter that entertains his girlfriend's son to an animatronic clown that mirrors the movements of anyone wearing a special telemetry suit. His girlfriend's ex is a cop, and calls on Rollie's help to catch a killer. So Rollie dusts off the mirrors and smoke machines and helps with an elaborate sting. Something goes wrong, and the film kind of devolves into this cliché police drama about crooked cops, internal affairs, and stolen art. Rollie calls in Dennehy's Leo, now a private investigator, to help crack the case. The computer girl returns, and there's another unintentionally hilarious dated scene involving the transfer of data from a floppy disc over an old-school telephone modem. There's even some delayed “instant messaging”, perhaps the first time on screen. Maybe that was the appeal of these movies, while modems and oversized cellphones look silly now, they were state-of-the-art then. Rollie does step up his fight choreography in this one, and uses that clown to battle a hitman in a pretty fun sequence. There's at least one random and unnecessary death scene, and one or two predictable moments. It was definitely a different era for movie making, even if it did feel light like a television show. Maybe it harkened back to things like Columbo. Maybe it looked ahead to shows like Psych in which characters can still have banter despite the presence of a dead body each week. Brown and Dennehy are certainly charismatic in their respective styles, and do get to play off one another more in this film than they did in the original. In the first movie they don't really meet until the very end, while here it's more of a buddy comedy. It's also the sort of movie that wouldn't work in this day and age of CGI special effects, so it is a good celebration of practical special effects. These films apparently inspired a series which I vaguely recall, but never watched. It apparently lasted for an impressive 40 episodes, so I may have to look it up some time.

3) Bad Company:
I'm not sure if this movie was boring, or simply not my cup of tea. Laurence Fishburne is, of course, a cool cat as always. A former CIA agent, he now joins some dubious private corporation known as the “Toolshed” which specializes in corporate blackmail. Frank Langella does what he does best as the sinister leader of this organization, and Ellen Barkin actually smolders as his femme fatale right-hand lady and steamy love interest for Fishburne. So there are three strong leads, and a nice film noir feel to the whole piece. Yet the pacing is very slow, and the plot isn't all that complicated. A man whose company is being sued for dumping toxic waste that poisoned one community hires the Toolshed to sway the vote of the judge trying the case, fairly simple given the judge's gambling debts. A lot of double-crossing is woven in to the plot as well, with a few twists, and you're never quite sure whether Fishburne is still working for the agency, or just working for himself, or if anyone in the movie can really be trusted. And then it's all wrapped up in one messy bow, and it's over. I think there was some fine acting, and the movie had a lot of potential, but lacked any real excitement. I was never really worried for any of the main characters, nor perceived any danger to them, at least until the final scene. And by then, most of the plot had already unraveled, save for a few loose ends that seemed to exist solely to extend the story to feature-length running time. As as rental it's okay, but I've seen better, especially from the principal cast.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

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Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 55th WWW:

1) Return to Me:
David Duchovny surprised me with his range in this film, particularly one heartbreaking scene when he's alone with his dog and breaks down sobbing over the recent loss of his wife. I couldn't believe this was the same cool cat who played Fox Mulder, or that he was successfully pulling off the lead male role in a romantic comedy. I had avoided the film for years because I feared the subject matter would be too sad or macabre, but it wasn't at all what I expected. Minnie Driver, to no surprise, fully shines as the lead female love interest, winning over the audience as much as Duchovny's Bob with her beauty and awkwardness. Driver's Grace is a young woman with a weak heart, given a second chance by a transplant. The catch is that her new heart comes from Bob's wife, though neither know this when they meet. There's just some instant chemistry, some sense that something familiar lives on in Grace. An ape at the zoo where Bob's wife worked is the first to recognize it, and later the family dog takes to her as well. This isn't a story about possession or anything supernatural either, simply fate and coincidence and the funny way things work out. Return to Me has all the classic charm of movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany's, something rare in today's cynical world. Carroll O'Conner is amazing in his final on-screen role as Grace's loving grandfather, who runs an Italian/Irish pub/restaurant alongside his brother-in-law, played by Robert Loggia. The old men and their friends steal the show many times. Overall the film is sweet and feel-good, and even if you figure out where the plot is going, you'll probably still be sitting there with a dumb grin on your face most of the time. It's two hours of pure charm and grace.

2) The Opposite of Sex:
Christina Ricci might narrate, but it quickly becomes clear that the stars of the film are Martin Donovan and Lisa Kudrow. Ricci's Dede is fully aware of the audience, at times skipping ahead or making fun of movie clichés. It's an interesting device used sparingly, though it does get old in one or two spots. Upon the death of 16-year-old Dede's stepfather, she runs away from home and tracks down her older half-brother Bill, played by Donovan. Bill is a teacher who takes everything in stride. When he catches a student writing graffiti about him in the bathroom, he calmly points out a grammatical error, then proceeds to take a marker and modify an obscene drawing. Dede soon tests the limits of Bill's stoicism when she seduces his gay lover Matt(Ivan Sergei,) claims to be carrying his baby, and runs off with him and some of Bill's money. Bill's life is further complicated by the arrival of a former student(Johnny Galecki) who was not only involved with Matt, but makes allegations of sexual abuse against Bill that threaten his career. By Bill's side at all times is Kudrow's Lucia(pronounced “Loo-sha” because she emulated her sisters Marcia and Tricia in their pronunciations). Lucia's brother Tom(Coupling/Eureka's Colin Ferguson in a non-speaking flashback role) was Bill's former lover who died of AIDS. Bill and Lucia are still connected through his memory. The movie is slow at times, an independent film focusing on character more than plot. Character is the film's saving grace. Ricci is cynical and destructive, rarely showing cracks in her armor, and she's a hurricane that twists the lives she has blown into. She warns the audience not to sympathize with her, not to expect an arc where she grows a heart by the end of the tale. Lyle Lovett is collected and wise as the town sheriff who grew up with Bill and has his sights on Lucia. Most of the characters have a cynical view of sex. Lucia blames it for her brother's death. Dede sees it as a tool to manipulate others. Lovett's character has an interesting speech about how it's more than recreation or procreation, but perhaps concentration, a “biological highlighter” forming a connection between two people in a world of billions. With some good performances, interesting ideas, and a couple of laughs, I give it about three stars: average, but entertaining.

3) Guinevere:
Sarah Polley plays Harper, a 21-year-old bound for Harvard, whose life is changed by an older photographer she meets at her sister's wedding. Connie(Stephen Rea) swiftly charms her with his accent and nicknames her “Guinevere”. Though as old as her parents, and not the best-looking guy, he still wins her awe, much to the chagrin of her mother(Jean Smart in a strong performance). Connie sees talent in Harper, though she has yet to take a single photo. And when she learns that she's not the first of his “Guinevere”s, that he has a tendency to take younger women under his wing, she must decide whether she has anything to gain by studying under him, and staying romantically involved. The film gets into the mechanics of the true artist, someone who sacrifices wealth to do something he or she truly enjoys. Rea does a good job with Connie, going from homely but charming to creepy and predatory to genuine and sad. A true photographer can capture and immortalize moments and emotions the naked eye might miss. Polley is a strong protagonist, petite and fragile yet enduring. Her opening monologue perfectly sums up her experience with Connie: “If you're supposed to learn by your mistakes, then he was the best mistake I ever made.” When Harper rebels and chooses her own path rather than the one her family has planned for her, there are risks and losses along the way, but also possibilities and opportunities she never would have had otherwise. For better or worse, every person we meet shapes and refines the person we're going to become, and vice versa.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

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Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 54th WWW:

1) Shutter Island:
I suspected the twist back when I saw the trailer, and likely the first time I glimpsed the word “twist” in a newspaper review, so I won't be discussing that aspect of the film. I will say that Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job as a ‘50s U.S. Marshall. At some point, I realized we never leave him during the movie, and there are very few actors charismatic enough to carry every single scene in a film. Along with his partner, played by Mark Ruffalo, Leo's Teddy Daniels is sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a woman from a mental institution for the criminally insane located there. The fact that the name of the place is an anagram for “Truths and Lies” is but the first clue of the deep conspiracy taking place. Twisted dark woods, pouring rain, steep cliffs, and creepy facilities set a perfectly suspenseful mood, and Martin Scorcese manages to achieve a great Hitchcock tone to the piece. Teddy himself is a haunted man, faced with memories of what he faced in World War II as well as the tragic loss of his wife to an arsonist. This is all about mood and character, and even if you do guess or have an inkling of the truth, that's only a small piece of the puzzle. The real stars are Leo and the island itself, set against a delightful collection of not-quite-right staff and patients, from Ben Kingsley as the head doctor to Jackie Earle Haley as one of the patients. Between this and the recent Inception, DiCaprio is at a career high right now, with two solid performances in films that will make you question the reality that is, and the reality we choose.

2) Zathura:
This was a fun little PG adventure for the whole family, in the tradition of Jumanji. A few parents on the boards objected to one or two mild swears, but I think this is good for kids 9 or 10 and older. Left to their own devices when their father(Tim Robbins) has to run to the office for a few hours, two bickering brothers find that a dusty board game from the basement is more than it appears. Every turn of a key and push of a button moves a little spaceship further ahead on the board, but also ejects a small card which always come true. When the card says there's a meteor shower, the house is bombarded, and they find it floating in space. When it says their crewmate will be frozen in suspended animation, that fate befalls their big sister(Kristen Stewart). Dax Shepard enters the scene when they draw a card that says they rescue an astronaut, and there's a really cool sci fi twist with his character, which is satisfying even if you do guess the truth before the big reveal. Jon Favreau directed, and noted in the special features how he used minimal CGI to avoid having things look too fake or too much like a video game. I like CGI, but agree that when done badly it lacks the same magic as practical effects. Having actual robots, aliens, explosions, and shaking sets definitely added to the magic of the film. The young actors playing the brothers won't win any awards, but still did a good job of showing how siblings fight, and how they learn to get along when facing a common enemy. It might lack the all-star cast and epic feel of Jumanji, but it has a lot of heart and takes you in to the game along with the boys. And like them, once you start playing, you'll have to see the game through to the end. My imagination was never as good as the things that happen in these movies.

3) The Hurt Locker:
In Iraq, war is not what it used to be. The enemy is largely unseen, but no less deadly. U.S. troops have teams of specialists with skills in identifying and diffusing bombs, which could be anywhere, at anytime. This film focuses on a small three-man team adjusting to a reckless new leader(Jeremy Renner) amid already tense conditions. Renner's Sergeant Will James seems unconcerned for his own safety, tuning out his teammates, discarding his protective suit, and opting to walk up to potential bombs in person rather than use a robot rover. At one point, they fantasize about killing him. But gradually, they begin to bond, especially when pinned down by sniper fire. Suddenly, his ability to be cool under pressure comes in handy, and nonchalance proves as contagious as panic. He encourages one soldier through cleaning blood off some bullets. When he asks for juice, it is not for himself, but the other soldier on his team. These guys face unimaginable danger. Any wire, cylinder, pile of rocks, or sack might contain some crude explosive. A suicide bomber might appear with a locked vest. Even the body of a small child might be used as a bomb. We gradually see the cracks in James' armor, that he is not invincible despite defusing hundreds of bombs. If anything, his role in the war has become addictive, the only thing he knows, and the thing he's best at. Even with a beautiful girlfriend(Evangeline Lilly) and an infant son waiting for him at home, the lure of adrenaline is stronger. This may be one of the more realistic depictions of modern warfare, along with the psychological effects on both the troops and the Iraqi civilians. It is especially great as a character study, and it makes a big difference setting it in the military as opposed to a stateside police bomb squad. It takes a special kind of individual to walk down a street, tracing wires and snipping them at their source, especially when the buildings might conceal a sniper or someone with a remote detonator. It is a film about staying cool under pressure, and when someone might be too cool...

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

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Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 53rd WWW:

1) Turner and Hooch:
Here's a Tom Hanks classic that I missed, though truth be told, it was by design, not accident. I tend to avoid movies where an animal shares top billing, because that means one of two things: corny humor, or heartbreaker in which animal is injured and or killed. And even though one or both of those descriptions proved accurate(to my surprise), I did enjoy the film. It comes from a simpler time when slapstick and character were enough to drive a story, and the plot didn't have to be all that elaborate. Hanks is Scott Turner, an investigator in a small town where nothing ever happens, on the verge of moving to the big city. When an old man Turner was friends with is killed, he reluctantly ends up with the man's dog Hooch, a type of slobbering mastiff known as a Dogue de Bordeaux, and the only witness to the murder. Most of the film relies on physical comedy, and the contrast between this large, destructive beast, and Hanks' obsession with keeping things in order. It was fun to watch a young Hanks early in his career, if only to reinforce how much his son currently mirrors him, and how far he's come. Turner and Hooch of course eventually come to an understanding and learn to like one another, and Hooch even leads his new master to a romance with a pretty veterinarian played by Mare Winningham. Just when you've almost forgotten the murder mystery cop drama aspect of the film, it comes back in with a bit of a jarring tone shift, as well as tv-movie-of-the-week dialogue and revelations as the bad guy explains his motives. By today's standards, it's all very predictable, and may have been predictable even in its time. I'd probably change one thing about the ending, because a cute reveal in the very last scene didn't make up for something horrific in the sequence prior, something that reminded me why I usually stay away from this type of film. Hooch reminded me of the Neapolitan Mastiff some friends of mine own, and definitely stole the show. I personally wouldn't want a dog that big that was perpetually drooling white foam, but I did enjoy watching him on screen.

2) Notorious:
I was never in tune with the hip-hop scene, although when I went to college in Queens my friends definitely turned me on to Wu-Tang Clan and other rising artists. While I was following the mainstream rise of Grunge in the ‘90s, big things were happening in the world of rap. I knew who Notorious B.I.G. was and could recognize a few of his songs, but until this film I didn't know much else about his history. Gunned down at the age of 24, he didn't have all that much history, which is probably why the film didn't have the same epic feel as other musical biopics, such as Ray. Still, with the constant rhythm of Biggie's music throughout the film, it kept my interest, and I occasionally caught my head bobbing or foot tapping. Biggie, born Christopher Wallace, started out, as he narrates, with a “clean slate”. His own son Christopher Jordan Wallace plays him at a more innocent age, when his overprotective mother would walk “Chrissy-poo” home from school and never let him off the stoop. He had good grades and a lot of potential, but the lure of the street was greater. One day he finally rebels, and becomes a drug dealer. He manages to keep this part of his life a secret from his mother(who in one scene hilariously mistakes drugs under his bed for plates of “old mashed potatoes”), and begins to question the value of an education. When a teacher tells him he's destined to be a garbage collector, the sharp youth quickly realizes that a garbage man makes more than a teacher. Without his father around to teach him what it means to be a man, he draws his own conclusions and decides getting paid and having nice things makes him a man. His morals are dubious; in one scene he sells crack to a pregnant woman. This isn't 8 Mile. For the most part, the at times graphic movie pulls no punches and seems to tell it like it was. He has talent, occasionally rhyming and rap battling on the street, but it isn't until he gets arrested and has nothing but time to write in a notebook that he begins to develop his lyrical poetry. When his friends introduce him to Puff Daddy, he soon begins a rough road to a career and superstardom. You feel sympathy for the child he was, but as a man he's clearly corrupted by his fame. He's not a fat little nerd anymore, and draws inspiration from soda, weed, and women during one recording session. Despite his size, he was smooth and had style, but could never remain faithful, not to his first girlfriend and his daughter's mother, not to Lil'Kim, whose career he helped launch, and not to his wife Faith Evans, who gave him a son. Temptation was all around him, and he succumbed constantly. It was strange watching a film narrated by a dead man, his life flashing before him in his final moments when it was too late to change the things he might have regretted. He forged a strong friendship with Puffy, but his friendship with Tupac turned into a bitter rivalry between East and West coast rappers. The film portrays the origins of this feud as a misunderstanding, Tupac blaming Biggie for an ambush while Biggie was apparently rushing down to help him. And after Tupac is killed, Biggie would meet a similar fate while on the West coast. A lot of the events in the film probably need the word “allegedly” attached to them. In the end, Biggie made an impact on his fans, something his mother finally realized upon seeing the outpouring of support at his funeral procession. And she could still hear his voice on the radio. His second album dropped posthumously, and no one knows where his career and life might have gone. Notorious tells the tale of someone who burned bright, and burned out early. He was a smart boy who became a thug who almost turned things around with his talent. In fiction, a protagonist will usually have an arc, and come to some great realization and make a change in his ways. In real life, we don't always have the chance. If the movie lacks something, it was because the man's life lacked something. Maybe he was growing as a person, maybe he was going to be a better father to his kids, but all that growth was interrupted by a few bullets. The rest is silence, and memories on CD.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 52

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 52nd WWW:

1) xXx: State of the Union:
Sometimes I like to watch a bad movie, if only for the fact that they're more fun to review. This is less of a sequel to the original xXx and more of a spoof, and while that may not have been the film makers' intent, watching it with that mindset made it infinitely more enjoyable. More than once I had to pause and go back after I was done laughing at some outlandish line or sequence. In the original, Vin Diesel is an extreme sports expert tapped by the government to be a special agent. Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as a caricature of himself, a shouting government agent in charge of a top secret program that's literally underground. He needs a new xXx, someone more extreme, when their operation is compromised, and turns to an old member of his military unit currently serving time. Rapper turned actor Ice Cube definitely has presence on film, and has turned out some likable roles. Here, he's a walking cliché, all attitude, scowls, and catch phrases. The soundtrack frequently blasts rap because, you know, stereotype. Sometimes it can be hilariously distracting, and at least one lyrical “YEAH!” on a scene change seemed to be in response to a question asked by a character at the end of the previous scene. Cube really doesn't bring anything more to the table than Diesel, or show what special skills he has that Jackson requires. He's a “master of disguise” because he'll sometimes put on glasses and wear a suit or tuxedo, because who would expect that from a black guy? Did I mention stereotype? He quotes Tupac more than once, and eventually even has the president of the United States doing the same thing because, well you get the idea. Treated as a serious contribution to the action genre, an American James Bond, this movie is absurdly bad. Viewed as satire, it borders on brilliant. Cube's action hero status is wholly manufactured. He drives a boat up a crane and lands it on a police cruiser. As everyone in the background runs around screaming, he strolls in slow motion, looking around with a badass squint, and calmly gets in the car with the nerdy white tech guy he's rescuing. Then they drive off with no further interference from the law. There's also a scene where he shoots water after leaping off a moving train, because I guess displacing it would keep him from breaking his neck. A burning train car is falling right on his heels, just to make it interesting. “Welcome to the first tank-jackin' in history.” he says during one of the sequences in which he gets to drive a tank, and he even manages to throw one tank at another. In one scene he's saved by editing, since at one camera angle he's falling short of catching the skid of a helicopter, while at another he's much closer. He fools thermal detectors by heating up TV dinners. The list of ridiculous things is almost endless. Jackson is adept at self-parody yelling things like “I told you you shoulda killed that b*tch!” The ending leaves the possibility of a sequel open, with perhaps yet another xXx agent, but they'd really have a hard time topping this. I like Cube, and this might be his best comedy since Friday, but it's definitely a franchise killer for a movie that shouldn't have spawned a franchise to begin with. To paraphrase Tupac, bad movies come and go, but bad sequels are eternal.

2) The Benchwarmers:
Yes, the humor is very sophomoric, and there are a few too many gross-out scenes, from bullies breaking wind in nerd's faces to projectile vomiting and worse. The acting won't win anyone any awards. And there's something very telling in an ensemble when Rob Schneider is the normal one. Schneider plays it fairly straight for a change, as a good-natured landscaper who takes pity on some kids facing bullies on a ball field. He teams up with his two misfit friends, David Spade, as a lonely video store clerk and Jon Heder, as the world's oldest paper boy, and challenges the mean kids to a game. As expected, Heder and Spade suck at baseball, but Schneider is actually pretty good. He consistently cracks home runs and seems to know what he's doing. The film paints nerds and jocks with broad strokes, but touches on the theme of how these things get passed down from generation to generation. The “cool” kid's dad is clearly his role model, and picked on Heder and Spade when they were kids. Schneider didn't grow up in the area, and there's an interesting twist about his childhood toward the end of the film. Jon Lovitz(remember him?) shows up as the father of the kid they defended, and as a nerd who grew up to be a successful billionaire, he gets to drive around in cool cars like the original KITT(complete with William Daniels' voice) or the 1960s Batmobile. He sponsors these three losers in a competition which begins to draw more and more attention(while Schneider manages to hide it from his wife, who wants to conceive a child with him). The film slowly segues from gross-out comedy to feel good humor, giving hope to underdogs everywhere. It's formulaic Happy Madison, with a definite “aww” moment or two near the end as it becomes less about revenge and more about changing attitudes. We're all people; we all have the right to enjoy the same things. Sometimes it isn't about winning or losing, but how you enjoy the game.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 51

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 51st WWW:

1) The House Bunny:
I'm not sure what to make of this mis-marketed Anna Faris vehicle. An orphan who becomes a ditzy Playboy bunny when she grows up, she lives in the mansion with Hugh Hefner and dreams of becoming a centerfold. On her 27th birthday, she receives a note that she's too old now and that Hef wants her to leave. Through your typical Happy Madison contrivances, she eventually finds herself house mother to a group of misfit sorority girls on the brink of losing their charter. And so, what could have been a satire or sex comedy instead becomes a Legally Blonde/Mean Girls mash-up about girls dealing with self-esteem issues and scorn from the popular crowd. Emma Stone and Kat Dennings are the young talented actresses headlining the group Faris' character helps makeover. And while she gives them beauty and fashion tips, they help her get a little smarter and woo Colin Hanks, a charming guy who works in a nursing home. The film starts out pretty stupid with Faris doing her standard dumb blonde shtick, and by the end I had the strong sense that the target audience was young females, but it had a surprising amount of heart and a decent message. It's not a great film, and this sort of Revenge of the Nerds plot has been executed many times before. But it's always nice to see the underdogs come out on top, and the stuck-up materialistic people keeping them down get their just desserts. Faris is still a long way from transitioning from satirical movies into mainstream pieces, and here she's an absolute cartoon character. Fortunately, Hanks, Stone, Dennings, Rumer Willis and others surround her with more stable performances. I struggled with it in the beginning, cringed at most of the music selections, but in the end I found it was better than I expected.

2) Punisher: War Zone:
I think I'll always struggle with the idea of The Punisher as a hero. When Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered, it motivated him to push himself to the peak of human intellectual and physical development, and he became the crimefighter known as Batman, employing a wide range of skills and tools in his war, except for guns. Guns were abhorrent to him, the thing which took his family. He would not become that which he fought. When Frank Castle lost his wife and children to mobsters, he became a full-blown vigilante, with no remorse, no compunctions about killing. This makes for a great character, a great “anti-Batman”, but it's hard to put such a person front and center. Even Jack Bauer played by the rules sometimes, or worked around them in the name of justice and a greater good, always grounded by family and friends. In some ways, Punisher: War Zone does manage to give a human side to the vigilante, moreso than the 1989 and 2004 films about the character. When Ray Stevenson's Punisher accidentally kills an undercover FBI agent, it makes him question what he's doing. The man had a wife and a daughter, and Castle can empathize with their loss. Wayne Knight is also here as Frank's supplier Microchip, though they could have utilized him a bit more. This is darker than previous films, but also so over the top with violence that I laughed aloud several times. It was gun-porn blended with horror movie aesthetics. At one point an acrobatic villain is hit with a missile in mid-leap. In another scene, Frank punches a guy through the face. He decapitates an old man early in the film in one fell swoop. There are a lot of prosthetic limbs and blood packs used in this film. Castle himself never takes a hit anywhere other than his bulletproof vest. And while the idea of Jigsaw, an archnemesis from the comics making his big screen debut seemed appealing, Dominic West played it too over the top. Think of Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, that throwback hammy style of playing a disfigured villain like a cartoon character. It doesn't fit with the more serious nature of the film, and ends up creating the sort of comic book movie we endured in the ‘80s. They are getting closer with these movies, but I'm realizing that if I don't like the character to begin with, I'm probably always going to be a little critical. The film's climax basically involves Jigsaw recruiting an army from various stereotypical ethnic gangs, and filling a hotel with cannon fodder for The Punisher. There are so many henchman that exist for the sole reason of getting shot in this film, that they bordered on having “Thug #1” t-shirts like the ‘60s Batman. We do end on an attempt at humor, leaving me wondering if I just watched a comedy. If it all was an intentional spoof, then it might actually be brilliant, but I can't bring myself to watch it again with a different mindset. There are probably a few good drinking games that could made out of it, though.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 50

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 50th WWW:

1) Monsters vs. Aliens: B.O.B.'s Big Break:
I certainly loved Monsters vs. Aliens, and this prequel focusing on Seth Rogen's gelatinous B.O.B., Hugh Laurie's Dr. Cockroach, and Will Arnett's Missing Link trying to escape government captivity and outwit General Monger(Kiefer Sutherland was equally enjoyable and well animated, if not better animated. I didn't get the full benefit of 3D because neither my current polarized glasses that theaters now use nor my childhood red and blue lensed glassed worked; this one needed red and green lenses apparently. But the disc included a 2D version, so all was well. My main complaint about the short, which can't be blamed on the filmmakers, is that it is so short. It seemed a waste of a Netflix spot for a disc with a 13 minute cartoon, even if it did include a game and 3 karaoke songs performed by the animated characters. Netflix has been adopting an even more disturbing trend these last few weeks of sending “rental” versions of movies, which include only the film with a few trailers and language options; no commentary, and no special features. I can't blame them if Monsters vs. Aliens released its bonus content on a separate disc, but it is annoying that they're not offering bonus content with anything now. As for the short itself, it focuses on a plan gone awry, in which Dr. Cockroach tries to turn B.O.B. into a bomb and instead gives him telepathic powers. Rogen is funny as ever as the dimwitted blue blob, while Sutherland's R. Lee Ermey impression still has me double checking the credits. And even in 2D, the animation is ridiculously good, reminding me that this current 3D fad is only as good as the content it's enhancing. There's a scene in which the monsters are hurling bits of B.O.B. at the general, and the rendering that must have gone into all the reflections and transparency of these gelatinous spheres is insane. I loved the quality of the content, even if I was a little disappointed in the quantity.

2) My Neighbor Totoro:
This classic Miyazaki film had the potential to be a real tearjerker, but ended up being a wonderful celebration of youth and imagination. A father moves to the countryside with his two young daughters, while his wife remains in the hospital battling an unspecified illness. After encountering “soot gremlins” and being told by a local little boy that their new house is haunted, the girls are only more curious. The younger sister ventures in to the woods after following two rabbit-like creatures, and encounters a much larger version inside a large tree. She names it “Totoro” based on the sounds he makes(provided in the American dub by Frank Welker in a rare instance of improvement over the original Japanese audio track). Later, the older sister and the father find the little girl asleep in some tall grass, with no evidence of what she saw. The father tells the girls that the creatures were probably forest spirits, who will only be seen if they want to be seen. Eventually, the older sister meets Totoro as well, and the film is pretty open about whether these are spirits or merely the girls using their collective imaginations to deal with a difficult situation, the possibility that they might lose their mother. The forest spirits are definitely charming, while the Catbus, literally a bus with the body of a cat, is a little freaky, a mix between the Chesire Cat and a caterpillar. I later read that his design influenced the look of Appa, the six-legged flying bison from Avatar: The Last Airbender. There's one scene that parents might find awkward, in which the girls are shown bathing with the father, but that may be attributed to cultural differences. At no time does any part of the film feel less than innocent. As usual, Miyazaki and his animators show that they understand children, and these girls seem authentic, with a range of emotions, from glee to wonder to fear to bravery. This film gets how children view their world, and see things we as adults have discarded. Real or imaginary, we'd all benefit from a friend like Totoro.

3) Backdraft:
Even before a fire inspector portrayed by Robert DeNiro or a pyromaniac played by Donald Sutherland describe it as such, fire genuinely feels like a living animal in this Ron Howard classic. It really feels like a ravenous entity, lurking behind closed doors waiting to consume all in its path. William Baldwin plays Brian McCaffrey, the younger brother of Kurt Russell's Stephen McCaffrey, trying to follow in their father's footsteps(Russell also portrays the father in the film's opening sequence). The elder McCaffrey brother wants to keep an eye on his younger sibling and protect him, and he's tough on him for many reasons. Fire has taken much from him, and his career has even separated him from his wife and son. Brian eventually has enough, and takes a new job as DeNiro's assistant, on the recommendation of an old girlfriend(Jennifer Jason Leigh). Together, they begin to find that a lot of the fires that have claimed lives with backdrafts, explosions resulting from a door being opened and introducing oxygen into an airtight environment with a dormant flame, are part of a larger conspiracy. Even when I thought I had it all figured out and knew who the villain behind everything would be, there were still a few pleasant surprises. More importantly, this film is a celebration of the risks firefighters take when they enter an inferno to save lives. The little jets of water from their hoses seem puny when buildings are crumbling and fire is spreading across every surface. They are also fiercely loyal to one another. “You go...we all go!” is a motto heard more than once as they pull or attempt to pull brethren from the brink of certain doom. This is one of those movies that everyone has seen except for me, and I'm glad I finally got a hold of it on DVD.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 49

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 49th WWW:

1) The Invention of Lying:
I have mixed feelings about this movie. For the most part, I absolutely loved it, and if you liked Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town, here he continues that tradition of the feel-good comedy with the hapless chubby everyman as the hero. The concept is a great one, an alternate world in which there is no lying. As he explains the opening voiceover, this means no deceit, no flattery, and no fiction. People believe everything, because no one ever speaks something that isn't true. There isn't even a need for the words truth or lie. When Gervais' Mark Bellison picks up Jennifer Garner for a date, she's brutally honest about being out of his league. Even as he pursues her throughout the film and chips away at her with his charm and humor, she's forthright in her concerns that genetically, he'd give her fat kids with pudgy noses. Mark is a writer for a local station that only writes about historical events to be read over the air. He loses his job, and hits rock bottom, until something goes off in his brain, and he tells the world's first lie, to keep himself from getting evicted. Once he discovers this power, and the fact that people will believe anything he says, things begin to turn around for him. And Mark is a good guy, so while the initial temptation for personal gain is there, he also uses his “power” to help people. About halfway through, the movie gets in to some dangerous territory by broaching the subject of religion. Basically, we get an atheist's view of the world, because there is no religion, which means the existence of a higher being, whatever your faith, is a lie. In a film that states that there would be no religion in a world without lies, our protagonist takes some actions that a Christian or any person of faith might take. He helps a homeless man get some money, helps a young bickering couple reconcile, and offers friendship and companionship to a man struggling with thoughts of suicide. There's a truly beautiful montage in there of Gervais being this great guy. And when he comforts a dying woman with words of an afterlife, he unintentionally opens a huge can of worms. Suddenly, he's inventing a “religion”, an oddly placed spoof of Christianity, and telling people about a big man in the sky who decides if they get mansions when they die based on whether or not they were good or bad in life. He has to answer questions like “Did the Man in the Sky give my mother cancer?” and “Did the Man in the Sky cure my mom's cancer?”, and basically digs a big hole for himself and the film. It manages to get back on track and give us a sweet ending, and remind us that this is a movie about a nice fat guy trying to get a pretty girl, but it probably should have avoided the other stuff entirely. Still, it was an original idea for a movie with a charming, likable hero, and had quite a few cameos, some less obvious than others. Whatever your beliefs, it's certainly thought-provoking and entertaining.

2) The Soloist:
Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx are two actors at the top of their game right now, no more evident than in this film. RDJ plays Steve Lopez, a real-life reporter who discovers a Julliard trained musician homeless on the streets of LA. Foxx plays that musician, one Nathaniel Ayers, and does a great job capturing the chaos suffered by the mentally ill. Schizophrenia broke Ayers, and sent him out on the street, and only music seemed to drown out the voices in his head. Lopez began writing about Ayers in his column, and in doing some research learned that this guy playing beautiful music with only two strings on a violin did even more with the double bass. Ayers is suspicious and afraid of being confined, but Lopez eventually lures him in to a homeless shelter run by a guy played by True Blood's Nelsan Ellis. As something of a musician myself, though not on the level of Ayers, I definitely appreciated music as a force of order, as notes and rhythms bringing peace to someone's troubled mind. As RDJ's Lopez notes to his ex-wife at one point in the film, he gained an appreciation for Ayers' appreciation of music, seeing the love in his face when he listened to Beethoven. The Soloist isn't a big action epic, and most of it focuses on two characters, and the setting around them. But these are great actors portraying equally great people, and in capturing the streets of L.A., the film shows what perils and environments the real Lopez braved, first to get his story, but ultimately to help a great new friend.

3) Valkyrie:
It's a little slow, and a lot of this movie is men standing around in rooms, whispering and plotting. When you get past Tom Cruise as a WW II German colonel, there actually is a compelling story at the heart of this Bryan Singer film, based on actual events. The real Colonel Stauffenberg was among the Germans who wanted to take down Hitler, to, as Cruise's version says in the film, “show the rest of the world that we're not all like him”. Treason against one's own country is a bold move, even in recognizing the atrocities the Nazi party was committing. Failure would mean certain death, but most of these men held to their principles. The limitations of being based on historical events do make for a slow picture at times, although there is great tension when their plan to kill Hitler and stage a coup goes in to effect. The problem here, one Quentin Tarantino got around in his fictitious WW II tale Inglourious Basterds, is that we're pretty sure we know how the story is going to end. Singer still sets up an intense climax, to the point that I found myself wondering if he was going to stray from the history books to make a more exciting story. There are definitely some strong performances here that capture the honor and nobility of this group, and you root for them in spite of knowing history.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!