The mutants return in this follow-up to 2000’s X-Men. As before, if you are expecting the same team of mutants as you read about in the comics growing up, you probably are going to be disappointed. Chances are you will see glimpses of them, but they simply aren’t the same. If you are just a fan of movies in general, then you’ll probably get along fine.

Now that things have calmed down and it seems that the Mutant Registration Act is back out of everyone’s mind, it looks like things will return to normal for a while. But if that were the case, there wouldn’t be any need for a movie. It seems that William Stryker (Brian Cox), will do something about the mutant “problem” if there’s anything that he can do about it.

It turns out that his son, Jason attended the school run by Professor X many years ago, but Stryker and his wife were hoping that he would be cured of his problems, and that’s just not how the school works. It also seems that Stryker was somehow involved in the creation of the mutant we know as Wolverine, but we’re not going to learn the details of that one, at least not right now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Roy (Nicolas Cage) is a con man with an issue. He is an obsessive compulsive (among other things). He has to open and close doors three times (each – although there are a few times that he forgets, which indicates that perhaps it’s all in his head).

Luckily, he has a caring partner in Frank (Sam Rockwell), who helps him remember to take his medicine when he needs to do so, and manages to set up plenty of short cons, where Roy can just walk in and help clean up the mess so that they can rake in some easy, if small, money. Frank just wants to get Roy to make a big hit.

Read the rest of this entry »

This follow-up to 2001’s Legally Blonde starts off with a scrapbook that walks you through the first movie in an effort to bring back the magic. It almost completely fails, but it is sadly about as close as it gets.

What made the first movie work was that it was completely unexpected and it was just a fun ride. The second time through is never as much fun, though admittedly the original is nearly as good on subsequent viewings.

Read the rest of this entry »

This rehash of the “switch body” theme is anything but boring.

Anna (Lindsay Lohan) is a bit of a slacker who just wants her mom to leave her alone – especially since her mom is getting married, and this boyfriend isn’t Anna’s dad.

Other than that one flaw, he’s not a bad guy. Anna’s mom Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) probably just needs to loosen up a little – but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to do so, unless she’s forced into it.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is probably my least favorite movie of the series, but it’s growing on me. Probably because I’ve caught bits and pieces of it this weekend on some station or another (USA, I think), and those bits and pieces remind me of the parts of the series I like, without force-feeding me the whole thing, which reminds me why I don’t like the whole thing.

In this third go-round, Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are, as you may imagine by the title, getting married. As you may also surmise, simply because you’ve been paying attention previously, things probably aren’t going to go quite as expected along the way, and you’d be right, even if you hadn’t seen a single preview of the actual movie.

Read the rest of this entry »

The acting in this drama was superb, especially from Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. I find that as I watch more and more of Tim Robbins, I find that he has his characters nailed (he won an Oscar for his performance here) but they just don’t vary a whole lot. They always have the same off-kilter look, and they each make you wonder what is going on underneath the surface, but there just isn’t a lot of real depth. While I’m not the world’s largest fan of Sean Penn, I was impressed by his role here (he won too, deservedly so).

The thug-like character played by Penn is matched by Bacon’s police persona, and wouldn’t you know it? They knew each other as kids. As it turns out, Tim Robbins rounds at the trio as one of the friends who was abducted and abused one fine day while they were in the middle of some mischief making.

Penn’s character, Jimmy Markum, finds that his daughter is missing, and then that she is dead. Meanwhile, Bacon’s detective, Sean Devine claims the job of trying to figure out who did it – or at least find a reasonable suspect – before Markum uses his contacts to bring someone to justice.

Read the rest of this entry »