First, I need to explain; this is not necessarily a movie that I would normally see in theatres. I did express a little interest in it, but only as a movie I would watch had it been on cable.

I got dragged into this whole First Sunday mess only because I was with two girls, both of whom desperately wanted to see 27 Dresses. Well, the brother of one of them was not down. So, I said I would go with him to see whatever was playing. It came down to this, or Meet The Spartans. Hopefully, now you can at least see why this choice was made.

Onto the cinematic adventure! I had good knowledge of what to expect as I sat down in this very empty, very shabby theatre. I knew the premise, I knew the stars, and I really was interested to see Ice Cube in another situational comedy. That would have been all fine, had they actually had any intention of this being a comedy. I laughed, probably, twice. And both of those laughs came in the first 20 minutes. Had I not been with my best friend's brother, I would have walked out. It was 20 minutes of comedy, and another 1 hour of Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan just talking. Nothing that important either.

In fact, in one scene, they argue for 15 minutes over who has the money. They tried very hard to get you to care about the characters, sooooo hard. But they failed miserably. You didn’t care about his son, you didn’t care if Tracy Morgan died, you didn’t care who the hell had the money, you just wanted it to end.

My only guess is that they tied Cube and Morgan to the script, rather than let them improvise. They are both funny guys, but this is probably one of the biggest comedic flops I've ever been forced to witness. The only other movie I've ever wanted to just run from as fast as I could, was Shallow Hal. So, hopefully that avoids any type of possible racist accusation. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic (Carlos Mencia), if it isn’t funny...it REALLY isn’t funny. I mean, REALLY REALLY REALLY, isn’t funny. Here’s hoping there’s no "Next Sunday". Seriously, upon learning that this was David E. Talbert's directorial debut, I wasn't surprised. I also wouldn't be surprised if it's the last movie he directs.

0.5/5

Well, first review. I decided this year would be the year I actually started voicing my opinions about movies through RT. And, my first movie of the year was actually one that I had been anticipating since, well, since it was unleashed during Michael Bay's bowl movement (transformers) last year.

I had set the bar fairly high for this film. I have much faith in the artistic direction of J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves as well, and for the most part I was not let down.

Plain and simple, you will love this film, or you will hate it. But, if you hate it, I can't see you making a valid point of hating it strictly based on story or direction. To be able to take a handheld, and do what they did. Truly artistic, truly amazing.

Many comparisons are made with this to The Blair Witch Project. I guess I can see why, but really it should not be made. The major difference in this film is that you actually care about the people you’re watching. The cast may not have been amazing, but they worked well together and did a pretty damned good job of reacting to nothing. Another thing that sets this apart from say, other monster movies, is that the CGI is top notch. It continues to amaze me that as much as they spent on CGI in Spider-Man 3, this film completely blows it away on a modest effects budget.

I highly recommend this to pretty much anyone that likes to think. Intelligent people will love this film. The mood and setting that Matt Reeves instills is brilliant. For the beginning of the film, as you begin to know each character, you’re sitting there thinking the same thing as everyone else in the theatre; "when is this shit going downhill?". And the mood continues to hang in your mind throughout the film. As they peak around corners, or as they deal with the situation, you too find yourself wondering what could happen next, and how would you deal with it if you were in the same situation?

All in all, this is my film of 2008 so far. That isn’t saying much, but I expect it to hold for at least a few months. The one thing you need to ask yourself going into any cinematic adventure (stolen from Dane Cook) is this: Did they do everything they set out to do? Yes a thousand times in this situation.

My only other advice? If you have a weak stomach, distance yourself from the movie. But, please, if you know going in that you probably cant take it, then complain and put down the film afterward, you completely deserve the nausea that will ensue.


5/5