Dinner for Schmucks

Yes.

Dinner for Schmucks isn't without it's faults, but those faults are easily forgotten while you're laughing so hard you can't breathe.

The movie is easily 15-20 minutes longer than it needs to be, but that time is filled with comedy. All of the slow parts were necessary if they wanted to tell an actual story. If the slow parts were left out we would have been complaining that there was no plot.

The two stars are cast perfectly for their roles, as is the entire supporting cast. Unfortunately, none of them are able to convince you that any of what happens in the movie would ever happen or that these characters could possibly exist in real life. Since it's completely unrealistic to begin with, the lack of a plot may have been a good thing... except that, without the boring plot development, we may all have died from laughter.

Go see Dinner for Schmucks, keeping in mind that the slow scenes may be saving your life.

Charlie St. Cloud

No.

There isn't much to say about Charlie St. Cloud. It is as the preview suggests. It's about getting women to swoon over a hot guy who is vulnerable, sad, or damaged. Zac Efron spends a significant portion of the movie in tears, manipulating his target audience into crying along with him.

I, however, was completely unmoved. There wasn't a whole lot of setup. I didn't care enough about the characters before the accident to be affected by their struggle to move on... and it was not the fault of the actors. Efron does exactly what the story calls for. He plays a good looking, brooding, mysterious graveyard caretaker, who was once unbeatable in a sailing race, better than baseball camp for practicing, an excellent cook, can talk to the dead, and is capable of stitching up a wound, which is always helpful after he destroys in a bar fight, and does so convincingly, believe it or not. Unfortunately, the writing and directing took his hard work and flushed it down the tubes.

The whole thing was choppier than the stormy waters that swallow up Efron's love interest's boat. It was even choppier than that last sentence. I honestly don't know whose fault it is. Ignoring the fact that the story was kind of lame, it was just a terrible movie that wasn't made well. The script is corny and manipulative, the directing choppy and indulgent, and the movie was edited so poorly that there were times that I couldn't quite figure out how we had gotten to that point.

Don't bother with Charlie St. Cloud. I know it's been a while since we've had this kind of movie to fill the void left by Dear John, The Last Song and Letters to Juliet... Just re-watch those on DVD.

Salt

Yes.

Salt is a straight forward action movie. Angelina tears up the screen performing insane stunts and the director gets some really exciting footage as a result. There isn't a lot of thinking involved in Salt, which is a nice break from the puzzle that is Inception. The plot twists are fairly evident from the very beginning, although they may keep you teetering back and forth between a couple of possibilities.

If you're looking for a fun time at the theatre with a movie that was, very suspiciously,  able to rip it's plot straight out of current events, go check out Salt.

Inception

Not only should you... I'm considering requesting that a bill be submitted to congress that would require every American to see Inception at least two times.

I'm behind on my reviews; I've seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Despicable Me and I just watched From Paris with Love at home... I'll go back to them, but I need to submit this post now because everyone needs to go out and experience this film as soon as possible.

I saw it twice. On Wednesday, I woke up and was at work by 10:30am. I worked until 9pm and then watched Inception, a two and a half hour film, at 1am (technically Thursday morning). I was exhausted, first from the day and then from trying to follow what was going on in the movie. I drifted off once or twice and needless to say, I had several questions at the end of the movie. I watched it again at 10:45pm on Thursday night and everything became clear. There are no words to describe the epic nature of Inception, the closest I can get would be with "Brilliant", or "Mind-blowing", or "Astounding".

When I say everything became clear, I don't mean to imply that I could verbalize the complex plot or the rules created by the genius writer/director that govern the world(s) the film takes place in... I just don't have the vocabulary or the articulation necessary to explain it. Suffice it to say Inception is one of the most extraordinary pieces of film making to hit the screen in... forever(?). The fact that anyone could put something like Inception together in a way that is even remotely coherent, is staggering.

Christopher Nolan. He hasn't made a "bad" movie yet. Memento was phenomenal, Insomnia was OK. Batman Begins was great and The Prestige was really good as well... you should know by now how I feel about The Dark Knight and now he pulls Inception out his hat. His next film will be the final entry in his Batman trilogy and if he is successful with "Batman 3", he may earn the coveted role of "Mike's favorite director". (Yes, it is coveted.)

Needless to say, the writing and direction are unbelievably good. The acting is stellar all around; there isn't a single weak link in the cast. The visual and sound effects seamlessly bring you in the world of the dreams, and the orchestral score is emotive and exciting. The action sequences will keep you on the edge of your seat and the love story is absolutely heart-breaking.

My suggestion to you is that when you go to see Inception... and you will go see Inception... you pay attention when the characters are talking... even some of the "throw away" lines of dialogue are important. Go see it tonight. And tomorrow... I'm going for a third time next week, let me know if you wanna tag along.

P.S. Warner Bros - Thank you for not releasing this in 3D.

Despicable Me 3D

Yes.

Despicable Me is a fun, family friendly heist movie with adorable characters who get you to laugh, not because they're saying funny things, but because they are just SO cute. The kids are cute, the minions are cute as hell, and even Gru has his moments...

While it's a very entertaining 100 minutes, the only thing that will really stick with you when you leave the theatre is how cute it was. Despicable Me is great family fare for a rainy day when there is nothing else to do.

Predators

No...

So Predators is by no means a good movie, but it's successful in that it was an unnecessary sequel that didn't destroy the mythology of the original, and actually could have held up on it's own without the original having already existed.

There were no weak links in the cast, and the writers and director were totally aware of the lack of necessity for another film in the Predator saga so they never took the film too seriously.

Should you see it? No; it didn't even need to be made... but you can. If you do you'll probably have fun.

The Last Airbender

No.

But to be fair, I didn't think it was as bad as the critics made it out to be. The writing is hokey and the acting is terrible. I never saw the cartoon on Nickelodeon and knew absolutely nothing about the plot. Ignorance is bliss... with better dialogue and a different cast, The Last Airbender could have been phenomenal, but to be honest, I didn't hate it.

I'm not taking away my "no", but you should know that while it's not good, The Last Airbender isn't nearly as bad as some would have you believe.

From Paris with Love

No.

To be honest, I really wasn't paying attention while it was on; The fact that it couldn't grab my attention on a 40" HD screen in a tiny room isn't a stirring endorsement...