I have enjoyed Will Smith for quite a while. He’s had a few flubs, such as Wild, Wild West, but generally even in those, he can be entertaining to watch.
This time around, Smith plays Alex “Hitch” Hitchens, matchmaker extraordinaire. He doesn’t advertise, and won’t even talk to you if your plan is just to get the girl for one night. For Hitch, it’s all about the long ball.
I’m really a bit of a sucker for any apocalyptic tale. Perhaps the fact is that I just know we’re done for one of these days anyway, or maybe I’d like to hear the tale of the underdog who manages to scrape through in such circumstances. Then again, maybe I feel like I’ll never have the chance to experience the Old West, and it’s about as close as I might get – though it would be at the expense of a great deal of our society to get there. Not saying that I’m the one who’d be able to save the world or anything. I just find the stories more interesting than a Utopian future is all.
Nonetheless, this one focuses mostly on a generally reluctant hero – Theo Faron (the typically under-rated Clive Owen), thrust into the role of bringing the world back from the brink of destruction when he becomes the protector of a pregnant woman. This is significant because she is the first such instance in years, and while a single pregnancy may not save the world, it does offer some amount of hope.
Casino Royale is interesting in a number of ways. It is the twenty-first film in the James Bond series. It is the third time that the novel by the same name has been adapted into a film (though the first as a “real” Bond film). It is the first time Daniel Craig took on the mantle of the superspy. But it’s also important for one other reason. It’s a significant restart of the franchise.
In the movie, we get to go back to the beginning – the very beginning – where Bond first earns his stripes (and his legendary “double o” status). The movie is much grittier in style than the others in the series, to be sure – no sign of any of the previous Bonds to be found, and that’s not an entirely bad thing.
Though I have often been called a geek, it’s usually because I like computers and such. I did collect comics when I was younger (okay, when I was older too), but not as much as some other people I knew. I’ve always been more of a technical geek than a hidden-away-geek. Not that there’s anything wrong with either.
As such, I’m generally on the periphery of most movies that have anything to do with comicdom. I can typically keep up – while my wife would often run or walk the other way – and I can often enjoy them to at least some degree. But in this case, I didn’t so much. I liked the original Fantastic Four, and I’m aware enough of who the Silver Surfer was to be able to keep up, but I just didn’t really care for this sequel.
In 1978, George A. Romero released Dawn of the Dead as a follow-up to his 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead (the forerunner of all modern zombie films). While Romero gets a writing credit for this movie based on his original 1978 screenplay, and there are definitely some similarities here, it’s not the same movie.
Directed by Zack Snyder, and still taking place in a shopping mall as the zombies start to make their presence felt throughout the world, there is a definite shift over thirty years. Where the first film left you to do a bit more interpreting, and was a bit more on the psychological side, this one is a bit more a sign of the times, and gives you a lot more action to work with while you watch the affect of being cooped up as the world crumbles.
I’m going to take a bit of a departure on this one, and say that if you’re looking for a plot, go elsewhere, because there isn’t much. Deep in Slovakia (actually, it might be just inside Slovakia, we never really know), a group of ultra-rich people do what ultra-rich people do – they get together and create for themselves what they can’t find anywhere else: A warehouse where they can kidnap and ultimately maim and murder wandering teens who would not be missed if they go missing.
Did you follow me? I hope so, because it isn’t really much to work with, and it really goes downhill from there.
Luther and Nora Krank typically spend their Christmas season with everyone. The emphasis here is on spend. With so many holiday decorations and parties, last year they spent more than six thousand dollars. This year, however, their daughter Blair is joining the Peace Corps, and so they’re on their own. Luther Krank (Tim Allen) has an idea. Since Blair isn’t going to be home, and he and Nora will have all this time to be alone, why not just skip Christmas entirely?
As an accountant, it actually works out great. As a man, he knows he can’t get away with just ducking the holiday, so he comes up with a plan: They’ll take a cruise. Even after planning for a full cruise package, they are going to come out thousands of dollars ahead. Assuming that they can duck all of their standard holiday commitments, and that isn’t going to be an easy task. The first thing he has to do is sell his wife on the idea. It turns out that will be the easy part of it.
This was – I believe – the first of the films I took in from the 2006 edition of the After Dark Horrorfest. From what I understand, this was also incidentally voted the fan favorite, and it later saw a theatrical release all its own, in addition to the original release along with the other Horrorfest films. But I digress, because that really doesn’t have much to do with the movie itself.
A brief introduction on a farm shows us a peasant family sitting down to eat when their dinner is interrupted by a truck carrying two infants. Suddenly the story jumps forward forty years to meet a woman, who has been summoned to Russia by a notary claiming to have found her long-dead parents at the farm they once owned. On the steps to the office, she bumps into someone, but doesn’t pay any attention to it, as most of us wouldn’t. Pay attention, though, because this is important. During her meeting, she is informed that there are no other living heirs and she sets out to claim the home of her parents. She has a guide, who appears to be the only person willing to visit the farm at night. Also pay attention to the truck, because it looks an awful lot like the truck in the opening scene.
When Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) wakes up, he knows that he doesn’t want to go to school. He’s ready to take a day off and stop to take a look around. If you don’t, life just might pass you by. But in order to do that, he has to convince his parents that he’s sick enough to stay home, but not sick enough to go to the doctor.
In order to do that, Ferris gives us his plan. He’s going for the clammy hands. While he’s bent over from coughing, he licks the palms, which gives them the wet feeling. He also gives us a point-by-point on-screen blow of why not to go for a fever (you might end up at the doctor’s office). Which is a little odd, really, because the on-screen thing isn’t used elsewhere. But it works, and his parents head to work and he has the day off. Now he just has to get through it.
On another indeterminate day, sometime after the original Clerks ended, Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) is headed back to the Quick Stop. Only today is a little different than another day, because as he lifts the door to the store, he sees something different inside. Fire. Lots and lots of fire. At first, he can’t believe it, so he simply shuts the door.
Then he lifts it again, verifies that it is indeed fire, and he calls 911.
Welcome to Celluloid Heroes! Here you will find movie reviews of all shapes and sizes. No stone is left unturned, and that is meant quite literally. In fact, you are probably quite unlikely to find the best of the best, as that's something that you can find elsewhere. Here you're more likely to find the dregs of the movie world than anything else.
As to the name? It's actually from a song by The Kinks, and while it may or may not have anything to do directly with the movies, it does mention quite a few movie stars, and things that make you think about movies, and well, it just seemed appropriate. Hopefully you'll agree, and if not, I suspect it won't get in the way too much.
Thanks for visiting, enjoy your stay, and come back often.