Horrible Bosses (2011)

Just a bunch of awkwardness, followed by slapstick. No substance, not even that smart. Some funny though.

Saint Ralph (2004)

Not a great movie - I wanted to see it since it was about a marathoner (albeit fictional) and it's Canadian - how bad could it be? It is quite contrived, poorly acted, but not without some charms.

Ralph is in high school and his mother is dying. He wants a miracle, so he prays to the saints, decides he needs to work on his faith and decides he'll win the Boston Marathon... And there are a few laughs too.

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Wanderlust (2012)

Just a comedy about a commune in the spirit of Funny Farm or The Great Outdoors - city folks are just funny out of their urban environs. This film is full of cliché and one-liners.

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All the Days Before Tomorrow (2007)

This film has a Richard Linklater (Before Sunset, Before Sunrise) feel to it. Not much happens outside of the jumps in location and time. The two characters simply dialogue, so it's very much like a play. The trouble arises when the conversations aren't terribly engaging and the tension - often sexual - is not very compelling. The two protagonists jointly battle becoming romantically involve in order to preserve their friendship. Unfortunately for the viewers, the woman has little inhibitions, is very self-involved, and isn't that interesting.

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TRON: Legacy (2010)

Oh Tron. So unbelievable, but oh, so luminescent. Disney cashes in on 3D, Jeff Bridges popularity, and a cult classic by releasing this souped up version of a movie based on an arcade game.

Kevin Flynn's son enters the videogame a couple decades after his father disappeared only to find that the dominant microchip force is bad and is looking for a way out of the videogame world and into the real world where they can take over! Yikes!

Not a great film. Probably fun to watch on the big screen with glasses.

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The Future (2011)

I was eager to see what Miranda July would give us after Me and You and Everyone We Know. Sadly, this film disappointed me. It tackles some good ideas, but the characters are just too weird and self-interested that I really didn't care what happened to them. And the talking cat was the worst part of the film -and the strange for the sake of being strange dance July does. Why??!

I guess it incited some emotion from me...

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Love and Other Drugs (2010)

This is a sappy and rather unfulfilling story of humility and being less self-interested. In a society that prides itself on questionable principles like independence and self-satisfaction, this film at least pokes some holes into those straw men.

A pharmaceutical rep keen to make gobs of money meets a beautiful sex-addict and while the two promise not to become emotionally attached, the inevitable happens. The screwdriver thrown into the romance is her Parkinson's Disease. Will she be able to allow him to help her? Will be be willing to throw away his lucrative career to care for her? So many predictable answers!!

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El Superstar: The Unlikely Rise of Juan Frances (2008)

A friend of mine recommended this teenage boy level mockumentary about a white American becoming a music superstar in the Latin scene. It has a couple laugh out loud bits, but on the whole become quite tiresome as the actors are on par with a Mexican telenovela and the circumstances are way over the top.

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The Last Airbender (2010)

It's a kids movie - terrible writing, acting. Really quite boring. The clincher for me was the interview with the creators of the story - not much depth there.

Kids with super powers band together to save each other's super powers.

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Vegas Vacation (1997)

Chevy Chase offers another tribute to family with this slap stick, ridiculous comedy. Just a few laughs really, usually when Randy Quaid is onscreen.

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Iron Man 2 (2010)

Fluff with glamour & effects. Not much else to say except that it didn't live up to its predecessor.

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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Kind of lame Jim Jarmusch movie to be honest. I liked Coffee and Cigarettes and Broken Flowers, but Ghost Dog just went on and on without any kind of useful affectation.

Forest Whitaker plays a modern day urban samurai who contracts himself out as a hitman. After a hit, an entire gang decides to take him down. . . Guess what happens. The film is littered with sayings from a book called "The Way of the Samurai" which demonstrates that this guy just needs something to believe it. There's a constant juxtaposition with violent cartoons too which brings out our ongoing fascination with violence.

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Right at Your Door (2006)

The twist at the end did very little to redeem this film. The preview showed promise and I think it could have been great. It wasn't.

A dirty biological bomb goes off in L.A. setting the entire metropolitan area under a cloud of a contagious disease. Brad seals himself inside his house after finding that it will be impossible to locate and get to his girlfriend, Lexy, who is downtown. He is faced with a dilemma when Lexy shows up at his house, coughing and asking to come in.

Some scenes drag on and on and while the opening sequence is pretty gripping, the last 3/4 of it lack depth and intensity.

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The Money Pit (1986)

This classic 80's comedy wasn't as funny as I expected - lots of slapstick and elaborate set up with corny characters.

Walter and Anna are committed to each other, but she doesn't want to get married. When they find themselves without a home in NYC, they discover a mansion outside of town that is being sold at a bargain price. The moment they move in however, they discover the house needs a few more repairs than they had bargained for.

The metaphor of this house with a good foundation that is falling apart mirroring the trials they experience within their relationship is ok, but it is overshadowed by the phony and shallowness of it all. Watch The War of the Roses if you want to see a relationship and house fall apart.

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Ciao maschio (1978)

This weirdo movie was a big hit at Cannes back in the late 70's. Bye Bye Monkey is an art film contemplation of gender roles, aging and history.

An immigrant man in New York (a very young Gerard Dépardieu) finds work at a historical wax museum and as a tech at a tiny art theatre house. He is seduced/attacked by the actresses there, one of whom he develops a more lasting relationship with. With more friends they find the carcass of King Kong on the beach and then adopt a baby chimpanzee. Things just get stranger and stranger as the story drifts into more and more surrealism.

I found very little about the film to be appealing and even less to be meaningful.

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Terminator Salvation (2009)

Not really any reason why this film should have been made except to feature some special effects and make money on a lasting franchise. I expected more with Christian Bale taking the lead, but it really is quite boring.

The Machines still want to kill John Connor (the kid from Terminator 2) who is an adult now in 2018. So the Machines develop another elaborate trap for Connor involving another sophisticated machine. A couple children, being the remainder of the human Resistance in L.A., become central to the story and that doesn't help the movie.

Some cheesy lines, melodramatic scenes, and predictable ending make you wish John Connor would throw in the towel.

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The Truth About Charlie (2002)

A remake of an old 1963 film Charade brings new meaning to pointless and boring stories that should have stayed in the vault.

Regina Lambert returns from holidays to Paris to find that her husband has been murdered, her apartment ransacked and a lot of people seeking her attention. A convoluted story brings us to a less than inspired ending.

The film does succeed in bringing an old style 1950's/1960's comedy/adventure feel to the screen, it's just not that great of a story and I can only stomach so much melodrama when lives are being lost every 15 minutes.

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Old School (2003)

Silliness on a college campus.

Three old friends a decade after college return to a campus as a relief from their lives of responsibility. When the "evil" dean of the college decides he doesn't want them around, they form a fraternity. Lots of parties and initiation rituals.

Will Ferrell is hilarious and that's about it as far as good things in this movie. It descends into a Revenge of the Nerds story that can hardly be related to by real people.

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Henry Poole is Here (2008)

More a story about healing than a story of faith, Henry Poole is Here is an unrepentant moral tale whose characters fail to compel us.

Henry is sad and he's just moved into the neighbourhood. He's about to drink himself to death when the locals discover an image of Christ on his house's stucco. They begin to interfere with his life, forcing him to face his own doubts.

Yeah, this movie wasn't so good - though there were a couple moments that shined. It had a lot of potential as the actors are of a high enough calibre, but the writing and pace of the film fell flat.

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Shi mian mai fu (2004)

House of Flying Daggers is a disappointment storywise, though it contains some elegant and elaborate visual effects.

A group of rebel fighters who throw, um, daggers, are fighting the corrupt establishment. A luscious blind woman dagger thrower is captured but is rescued by an enchanted police officer. The plot cavorts like a live shrimp on a hot grill until it finally falls dead.

The film shared its eggs among the basket of special effects and flowing fabric and the basket of sentimentality.

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