Summer Blockbuster Roundup

Summer is here and, along with sunburns and mosquitoes, we get one of my favorite portions of the year - the summer blockbuster season! Beats the heck out of the Oscar hopeful season, and Christmas season movies are always disappointing. Speaking of disappointing, here be reviews of the ones I've seen so far!

Iron Man - B+. RDJ did an excellent job as Tony Stark, really playing up that charisma. Good storyline without a lot of emotional nonsense. Other than that, the film had its fair share of problems including the final big fight scene being shot in the dark. Seriously, I came to see an action film - that means I want action and I want it visible. I also thought their defense industry stuff was a bit silly too, but it is the movies after all.
Stark Industries Logo:

Lockheed's Logo:

I'm sure Lockheed is just thrilled with Iron Man.

Speed Racer - A-. What a beautiful film! It was exactly how anime translated to live action should look - shiny, strange, and unapologetic about being unrealistic. Christina Ricci was perfect as Trixie, since she sort of looks like a cartoon anyway. I simply don't understand the lack of box office and poor reviews. You get films like Transformers that struggled to find a plot, but was chock full of amazing CGI - that did well. But then you get something like this movie that is creative and fresh, filled with some of the most impressive digital work I've seen in a movie to date, and people complain about it being so CGI. Can't please anybody. Here's hoping DVD sales are big enough to justify a sequel.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - B-. Yet another Apatow comedy, but thankfully this one was written by and starring Jason Segel. The plot was pretty weak - a slight bump of conflict and then resolution, but really who sees comedies for plot anyway? Each scene was a pretty good bit by itself and Russell Brand absolutely stole the show with his bizarre brit rock star persona. There's absolutely no reason to see this movie in the theaters, but I'd grab the DVD if you liked Superbad, etc.

Prince Caspian - C-. Oh Walden, it took you until the 2nd Narnia film to completely mess things up, but here we are. SPOILERS COMING!! They changed so much that made the story flow in the book - when the horn was blown, who led the attack on the castle, etc. It was so poorly paced, just rambling nonstop for the entire film until it was done and you wondered what you just watched. I had zero expectations, thankfully, so I'm glad I wasn't let down.

Movie Madness!

Summer blockbuster season is upon us, and I have a backlog of films that I need to get reviewed/graded and out the door. So here we go!

Cloverfield - B. First person filmmaking is not new, but it had not been done mainstream like this. A bit overhyped. I decided to get the full effect, me and Shane would watch it from the front row. Phill had to move back further since he gets the motion sickness. The story was good, and has the infinite sequals potential (one event, follow any number of people going through the same event). Recommend a rental, since it's not in theaters any more.

The Bank Job - C+. What a fabulously depressing movie. Real life events are rarely turn out as well as Hollywood conceptions, and this was no different. If you were expecting Jason Statham to have some great fight scenes, wrong movie.

Jumper - D+. I have a feeling this was originally a 140 page script. Producers ripped it in half, and said "There, now we have a sequal already written." Tired idea that was not played out very well. Hollywood seems to think that if you cast Jackson as a villian it is immediately a good movie, but even SLJ couldn't save this mess. Look for Jumper 2 in theaters soon, I'm sure.

Doomsday - B+. Not the greatest movie ever, but it was fun, fast-paced, and did not appologize for anything. You want a car chase? Well hey, the roads are perfect and you just found a Bentley! Great watch, fabulously cheesy. You must rent.

Step Up 2 The Streets - C+. Anybody who saw this did so for one reason - cool dancing. It was a pretty generic story, enjoyable, and the dancing was really worth the wait. Rent, skip to the end, and there you go.

10,000 BC - D+. Why, oh why. Roland Emmerich is not anybody I'd describe as a great director, but his movies are usually pretty fun. 10kbc - not fun at all. Ugh.

Be Kind, Rewind - C-. Creatively shot and I love the message of community filmmaking. Beyond that, I'm just sick of Jack Black and really didn't enjoy the film too much.

Semi-Pro - D+. Oh hey, if we swear a lot nobody will notice we didn't write any jokes. What, it didn't work?? #$%@!!!!

The Forbidden Kingdom - B-. Jet Li and Jackie Chan together at last! Thankfully we got one good fight scene out of them before continuing on through a relatively uncreative storyline. Still was pretty fun (and clean - hey-o!), so I'd catch it on DVD.

That's all I got for now. I've so far only seen 14 movies this year, and am far off my pace of breaking 80. Iron Man is tonight, Speed Racer after that, then more Narnia, then Indiana Jones, and and and!