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Having both Jet Li and Jackie Chan opposite each other in one movie should have been a milestone. Save for one head to head battle, it’s the story and acting that’s bringing this movie down.
Story wise, it’s a copy and paste of so many cliche dialogues, it doesn’t even make sense anymore.
For the rest, it’s just mediocre, the jokes, the effects and some of the directing. Between the fights, it’s just too much of nothing, and it will kind of bore you. So beware.5½.

A slow simmering study of an elder man (Ben Kingsly) and his life, treading between sexual lust (this time the object being Penopele Cruz) and love. For the first half, it only focuses on the lust part, but slowly more elements are developed over time. In the end, it’s still a bit too slow, and the end might be a bit off-putting, but drama-wise, it’s a one thumb up.7-.

Finishing the summer movie season, is an utterly non-surprising sequel, to a literally dying franchise. While non of the sequels where that interesting, the pace and the action keeps it mildly entertaining, and this one is no different. Character wise, it’s the same as all the others. No real depth, with big quickly cut action scenes alternating punch lines. The special effects are also as before, sometimes too obviously computer generated.
Having Jet Li as the main bad guy doesn’t add any gracious kick ass moves either, it could’ve been any one else. If seeing the same movie again, but only with a slightly different setting, this one is for you. For all the others, just go see the only summer hit this year again (The Dark Knight).6½.

George Lucas let us down a few years ago (blocked Phantom Menace your memory, dinya ?). He did it again this year (Indiana Yawns 4, anyone ?), but he reallllllly blew it with this animated feature.
Just neatly fitting it between Episode II and III, it really is of no consequence. Let alone, we already know the outcome. Then we have the simple animation, where textures feature no more than 256 colors. Talk about taking hyperjump shortcuts.
Missing original voices is really bad, but with this lousy script, it’s understandable and acceptable. I don’t even think the story will appeal to kids, simply going from mission to mission (with the usual “wait for reinforcement” plot device to stretch for time, before looping into another same mission).
Motion capture seems to be reaching too far from the budget, as the once graceful saber fight are replaced with wooden moves that makes stop-motion look more smoothly.
Just consider Star Wars a closed chapter, and ignore the existence of this franchise (trying to spin off a TV series).4-.

Now that Guillermo del Toro made name for himself with the independent and critically acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth, a Hellboy sequel seems to be the right choice to make (according to Universal, buying the rights from Sony because they deemed the Hellboy franchise not profitable).
Well, you have a superhero movie with a lot of fantasy elements, but it’s really nothing more than that. Character depth is not to be found and story hobbles along with no real danger looming over us (or none apparent, at least). Action is just okay, but no eye-openers anywhere in sight.
With no wow-factors, it kind of feels like a let down (especially compared to the low budget sweet movie that Pan’s Labyrinth was).6½.

Subtitled “The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan”, it’s a personal and long dragged out journey full of pain and misery for just one character. Showing the younger years of mr. Khan, with a running time of 2 hours, is a long happening. Mostly the hardships are shown, over and over again. While he voice-overs his own journey, it doesn’t provide any character depth, because all dialogue lack any emotion, reasoning or motivation. Some things are even shown the be mythical (or maybe just illusions of the mind), adding to the confusion of what this movie is trying to tell us.
Luckily, there are some big battle scenes, but as an Oscar nominee (2007 – Foreign film category), I don’t see how it got this nomination.
Except for rooting for the underdog part, there’s no real emotional resonance, and the story is a bit barren, like a desert lacking green plants.7-.

Looks like a generic spoof (Naked Gun) flick, but turns out the be just generic fun. Starring Steve Carrell as an high tech secret agent operative, it provides a full 90 minutes of mild entertainment. Steve has enough charisma and comedic juice to carry the role, while the other characters are tagging along just finely (Anne Hatheway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin).
Screenplay has enough exciting scenery to film, but the story takes a back-seat in both smartness and uniqueness. So overall, it levels around average fun.7+.

Yeah, don’t mess with him. Just ignore him. Totally.
Adam Sandler basically has a whole range of characters, mostly divided by the really dumb group (Waterboy, Little Nicky), and the more serious types (The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates). Not surprisingly, it’s the latter group that makes the more entertaining movies, and this Zohan character is a bit inbetween those two extremes. While it doesn’t make this movie ultra dull, it also doesn’t makes this movie that enticing (even with the loads of dirty jokes).
The script lacks anything special, but I could’ve seen that from the trailer. I just expected at least some fun inbetween all those misfires, but you really have to look for them. Skip with ease (unless you like easy sex and racial jokes).4+.

Here’s a chance to benefit from my keen scheduling abilities. Chosen with care, scheduled with love. You don’t ever have to look up what you’re going to see next again ! Therefore, this will be the only moving blog entry:

11 sept Wanted
11 sept Deception
25 sept Babylon AD
25 sept The Bank Job
25 sept Tropic Thunder
2 oct Death Race
9 oct Eagle Eye

Subject to change (depends on Jac Goderie’s mood).

The last movie is already buried in my memory, not able to remember if there was any alien involvement or government conspiracy burials. The TV show, with all the cult followers, I didn’t get also. The Mulder-Scully bickering got to be too generic anyway, always going to same way.
This time, at least their relationship is taken to another level, but it seems it’s the only fresh thing to be found in here. There’s nothing too special in the story, with such a mundane topic, it’s almost embarrassingly typical thriller-y style, I think it might offend about 99.9% of the X-Filers out there.
For me, seeing this objectively as a movie, it fails. It lacks too much to be called a movie. Even for a TV special it would lack too much. Maybe an extended episode then, but even then it wouldn’t rank that high among fan favorites.
So, Chris Carter wants to believe he’s still got it, but to me, he never had anything to begin with anyway.6-.

Another wondeful Pixar production (not to mention the short unrelated pre-movie, as usual). It’s as original a 3-D animation could be, and as sweet as family movie can be. In its own quiet way, it builds, and the story unfolds in various stages, including lots of different locations and atmospheres, keeping the whole movie fresh.
Script is overall fun and even has a hidden message. Characters design doesn’t go too deep, but it’s just enough to give it that little extra something.
Among the Pixar hits (Ratatouille, Toy Story) and the mediocres (Cars, The Incredibles), this one ranks all the way up there.8½.

It’s final now. Director Christopher Nolan made it to the top. There’s no going around him anymore. I, of course, already knew it when I first layed my eyes on Memento. Batman Begins showed us he could do well with big budget as well. But with The Dark Knight, you will leave the movie theater with a gasp and think to yourself, “Wow, what a masterpiece!”.
With a wonderful setup now out of the way, we can get straight to the core for a full two and a half hours of intense drama. Introducing more characters, it actually leaves screen time for the main characters (with a superbly casted Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart, while Maggie Gyllenhaal holds her own replacing Katie Holmes). But somehow, how the story is written, it doesn’t matter. Nolan combines character, story, drama, and action into one powerful and dark movie. While there’s also less time involved in explaining the technical stuff, it means an upgraded Bat-suit and other neatoh gadgets also gets less screen time.
Finishing off the toppings are Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, again collaborating on the sound track. The sound track to Batman Begins was so special to begin with, this one is different enough (with some tracks more brass and percussion heavy), yet borrowing some recognisable cues from earlier to ensure the same dramatic response.
All in all, you shouldn’t be put off that this is a superhero movie, because as extreme as the characters may sound, it’s so well written and grounded to reality, that makes it’s so scary. And that makes The Dark Knight one of a kind.10-.

Success for low budget slasher flicks vary from time to time, but they usually rebound their budget or make a killing (financially, of course). Lately, they’ve been on a slight uptick again, but honestly, I couldn’t care less, cinematically speaking.
This one is no different. Just your typical horror, with the latest hot topic “home invasion” (see last year’s Funny Games). They all seem to scream, live in the upperclass suburbs at your own risk, but beyond this message I see nothing new. It’s your average “help I’m getting chased by a psycho killer, let’s do something stupid to make my own situation worse, aaaargh, I’m dying” movie. Sure, it builds some tension here and there, but it’s still not enough to make a movie (still missing out on story and character). So the overall warning still stands, don’t go to these type of movies (resist, even if you really crave for a Liv Tyler movie).4.

Will Smith continues his July blockbuster trend, but it’s not all fun this time. A slightly bit down character makes for a darker moody atmosphere, but actually doesn’t provide Mr. Smith an extended range of acting opportunity (instead it’s just a sour face throughout the movie). Besides this departure (his movies were either full blown fun, like Independence Day and Men in Black, or it was overall serious, like Ali or The Pursuit of Happyness), the script is a bit off, the three acts are so noticable different, it’s a bit disturbing.
Director Peter Berg let’s down too (coming of an excellent engaging The Kingdom), inviting us into the movie with a high speed green screen cgi sequence, but making it look like it’s finished with Sony Handy-cam and an amateur version of Pinnacle Studio 9. Maybe it was a budget or time issue, but it’s a bit Will Smith unworthy.
Overall though, the movie is still enjoyable (still enough jokes to go around), it’s just not as strong and solid as you’d expect.7+.

Movies based on the truth are usually interesting. You’re always trying to figure out what was the truth and what was the embellishment. Based on the book “Bringing Down the House”, which was embellished already, the movie probably does a 1 on 1 translation, with enough truth and excitement to fill a whole movie. With a longer than expected 2 hour running time, it doesn’t bore at all. There’s the bit of drama, and the bit of smarty pants intrigue to keep it all running. While mostly focusing on the main character (Jim Sturgess), Kevin Spacey gets enough screen time too, setting down a interesting character till the end. Antagonist Laurence Fishburne’s character is less fleshed out, but fierce on its own nonetheless.
Overall, while not too deep, it’s interesting and entertaining.7½.