ROTTEN TOMATOES: James A. Janisse's Movie Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

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Minority Report (2002)

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Minority Report is Steven Spielberg's 2002 science fiction film loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Taking place in a dystopian 2054, wh... More

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	Votes +1 +2 / -1 thumb up thumb down Red Eye (2005) Genre: Mystery & Suspense 70% Posted on 8/02/10 09:06 PM Wes Craven has long been a thriller/horror director, from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street to the iconic 90s slasher Scream. In 2005, he made Red Eye, a claustrophobic thriller that relies on its two young leads to make the most of its simple premise. Rachel McAdams plays Lisa, a hotel manager who hates to fly. She's about to hate it a lot more, thanks to the very menacing Jackson (played by Cillian Murphy) and his ice blue eyes. In perhaps the most contrived terrorist plot ever, Jackson threatens Lisa during a red eye flight to Miami with a choice: She can call her hotel and move the director of Homeland Security into a specific room so that Jackson's employers can kill him, or she can have her father killed by an associate of Jackson if she doesn't make that call. When Lisa first meets Jackson, waiting for their delayed flight, he's quite a charmer. He buys her a drink before they get on the plane and realize that they sit right next to each other. It's not until the plane has taken off and there's nowhere to go that Murphy transitions perfectly from mysterious and intriguing to psychotic and ruthless. Craven builds on the naturally tight setting of an airplane with extremely close shots, especially on Murphy's face as he intimidates his victim with murderous stares. The bulk of the film takes place on the plane ride, and it's here where it's at its best. Tons of suspense and tension, and although the other passengers are given the minimalest of roles, it doesn't matter because the leads are so adept. Rachel McAdams is cute and forceful as Lisa. One of the best things about Craven's films is his consistently powerful female protagonists, and Lisa is no different. She's a take-charge, competent, and successful individual, whose only flaw seems to be that she's a bit too focused on her career. Despite the different ways that any one of us might react to her situation, it's still easy to root for her and appreciate her different attempts to get out of Murphy's trap. Red Eye is full of clever instances, from truly hilarious comments made by background extras to the best damn way to hide a giant missile launcher on a yacht I've ever seen. Unfortunately, its tense and witty start brings the movie to an uncharacteristically dull third act. It's when the characters leave the plane that the movie begins to deteriorate. The plane setting is replaced by Lisa's house, bringing the story into the real world and shedding light on its unlikelihoods. Worse yet, Lisa's intelligence and competence is usurped by standard horror victim tendencies - she very frustratingly doesn't assault Murphy when he's entirely unarmed, for no reason other than to draw out the movie's thin premise. Red Eye is a sometimes witty thriller that enjoys a very terse first hour. The last act is very disappointingly subpar, losing its self awareness and becoming the very generic movie that it seemed like it would rise above. Still, very strong performances by two attractive leads makes Red Eye a movie that's worth checking out. Final rating: 6.5/10 --James A. Janisse 1 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: wxdeadpoolmwam on 9/07/10 at 07:31 PM Great review. This is also my favorite role of Cillian Murphy's,too. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +2 +2 / -0 thumb up thumb down Get Low (2010) Genre: Drama 70% Posted on 8/01/10 07:17 PM Aaron Schneider's Get Low is a pithy little movie partly based on folklore surrounding a hermit who wanted a living funeral. The hermit is Felix Bush, a cantankerous old man who has lived isolated from society for a couple of decades. Feeling that his end is near, he arranges his own funeral and plans to attend it, ostensibly to hear everyone's wild tales that have sprung up about him over the years. Felix Bush is played by Robert Duvall, an acting veteran at the age of 79. Bush is pretty indistinguishable from Duvall, and whether that's due to brilliant casting or brilliant acting, it makes the movie either way. Full of quiet acerbic wit, Bush is an intriguing character who I was very interested to learn more about. The supporting cast is just as pleasant. Bill Murray plays the owner of the funeral department that agrees to Bush's bizarre requests. Murray oozes with avarice, always interested in the best way to make a buck, and essentially married to money since he seems to be the town's only divorcee. Lucas Black plays his protege, an ethical foil to his incessant greed. The only time I've seen Black previously was as "Jeep" in the suicide-envokingly bad Legion, and I was grateful to see that, when given real material to work with, he held a strong presence on screen. Sissy Spacek plays one of Bush's old flames, and I found that it was her scenes with Duvall that were among the movie's best. Both of these actors have decades of experience under their belts, and seeing them gently sweet talk each other will make you really believe that they have a life time of history between them. Get Low has incredible acting, and it's also a rural feast for the eyes. The 1930s setting provides a lot of natural beauty, taking us back to a time when a town and the nature around it were much more entwined, a much simpler time. The problem with Get Low is that it really is simple to a fault. The premise of a living funeral can only take a movie so far, and although a great deal is built up around Bush's past, when the reveal finally comes at the end, it can only be described as underwhelming. We hear a couple of rumor mill reasons why Bush had originally gone into isolation throughout the movie, and I only wish that the true story was half as interesting as any of those. Of course, that could be the point of the movie. It certainly seems as though it champions the mundane over the exciting, the flat realism over anything fantastical. Get Low is a brilliantly acted affair set in a time that's beautiful to visit. The characters are interesting to watch and there are plenty of genuinely funny moments. If that sounds like enough for you, then it's probably worth watching. If, on the other hand, you enjoy an engrossing story, then you should probably sit this one out. It never tries to evolve past its original premise, and the mundane plot that follows isn't enough to hold it up. Final rating: 7/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 0 Comments \| Send This \| Comments:
	Votes +17 +21 / -4 thumb up thumb down Predators (2010) Genre: Action & Adventure 20% Posted on 7/13/10 04:59 PM Robert Rodriguez's "Predators" is the third movie in a series that began with Arnold Schwarzenegger running around Guatemala in 1987. This latest entry sees a group of the world's most dangerous individuals paradropped onto a foreign planet, where they serve as game for a pack of Predators. The movie wastes no time exploring the gears behind this situation, and that's definitely a good decision. In a movie like this, I don't care who dropped these characters here or why, I just want to see some bad-ass soldiers forced to work together to survive. Unfortunately, these bad-asses are so one-dimensional that I couldn't have cared less about who'd survive. Half of the characters don't even mention their names, let alone display any aspects of personality. The screenwriters probably figured that audiences would be able to distinguish the characters by appearance, since there's "the convict", "the Russian", "the Mexican" (frequent Mexican Danny Trejo), etc. Sure, I knew who was who, but I didn't care about them at all. The de facto leader of the group is played by Adrien Brody. I usually appreciate Brody, and I just had a great time seeing him in Splice, but I don't like him in action-flick mode. He just throws on a gruff Batman-esque voice and growls his lines without any emotion. Alice Braga plays a role that curiously didn't go to Michelle Rodriguez, and Laurence Fishburne is wasted with one of the smallest and insensible roles of his career. Topher Grace was actually all right to watch, but by the end of the movie I wished he had never been there. The first half of Predators is slow and boring. Some very Lost-like shots begin a goalless trek through the jungle, with occasional obstacles such as CGI dog-boars and weird skinny mantis things that are never fully explained. When Fishburne appears, he lets the remaining survivors know that there are actually TWO type of Predators, "little ones" and "big ones". The big ones are creatively known as "super Predators", and are unfortunately a bit difficult to distinguish from the "class Predators" when they're rolling around on the ground together fighting. To be entirely honest, I hated this movie. I went in with an open mind, and even when I realized what I was in for, I was ready to accept a good campy action movie. Instead, I got a film that nobody cared about enough to look over before releasing. *SPOILERS AHEAD* There are absurd moments of laziness in this movie. After Brody abandons the last two members of the group, Braga and Grace, he goes and frees the "classic Predator" that was chained up by the "super Predators" for whatever reason. Classic Predator activates his ship from his wrist, including having it eventually take off without him. Super Predator then kills Classic Predator before also pressing buttons on his OWN wrist and having the Classic Predator's ship blow up. Because that makes sense. By far the lowest valley of the film is when Topher Grace turns on Alice Braga and poisons her. His motivation is non-existent; in fact, they're currently captured by the Super Predator and his leg is broken, so the decision seems pretty self-destructive. The reason he gives, barely audible through Braga's hardcore drug tripping, is that he feels like he belongs on the planet with the Predators, because even though he had to be saved multiple times earlier that day, he's actually a totally bad-ass dude for real. *SPOILERS BE GONE* Predators is a stupid movie that only cares about decapitations and explosions. I expected Rodriguez to rejuvenate this series with an exciting but well-made action sci-fi. Instead, he gave us a bunch of characters who were only thought up as cool death scenes were imagined. The movie's ending is more open than a bar in Vegas, and I wouldn't be surprised if these extraterrestrial hunters wind up with another movie. Hopefully, someone will just remember to edit that script. Final rating: 2/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 27 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: D.D on 7/13/10 at 05:20 PM It sounded like a bad film anyway. Nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 7/13/10 at 06:06 PM I liked this movie, but you make some good points in the review. I wouldn't slam it too much for having 1 dimensional characters, the team in the original weren't exactly swimming with nuance (Jesse The Body Ventura liked chewin tobaccy & carried a minigun, Bill Duke was his chum apparently, BILLY(!!!)... was an Indian? etc.) of course they offset this by being cheesetastically quotable, the one place where this movie severely falls down in my opinion. Beyond that, this movie is serviceable 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher P. on 7/13/10 at 06:06 PM Yeah this sounds dumb. Real dumb. I'm not watching a Predator movie unless Arnold Schwarzenegger is banging out one-liners...lol 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Parker M. on 7/13/10 at 06:15 PM i didn't like it, but i didn't hate it to your calibre. it felt the same old to me. good harsh review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse billwh2 on 7/13/10 at 06:58 PM I had no inentions of ever seeing this movie -ever - and I feel sorry for you that you saw it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 7/13/10 at 07:08 PM If I see it, it will be on Netflix. Good review..... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jack Waters on 7/13/10 at 07:18 PM hmmm. I enjoyed your review, but I respectfully disagree. The chracters were very well fleshed out due to some great performances(though I'll admit both Trejo and Fishburne had too small and too uneccessary roles).I loved Brody in this and I hope for another one just like it in the future!!!..good review though. haha 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 7/14/10 at 02:09 AM Nice review james but it looks cool 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Rai MI on 7/14/10 at 07:37 AM Mostly agree. The characters were very 1 dimensionable. The Topher characters turn to the dark side, made no sense. Just like the space ship explosion made no sense. A poorly made flic ... for sure. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Rai MI on 7/14/10 at 02:38 PM Oh yeah ... "more open than a bar in Las Vegas" ... a great line. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse HeIsAtTheMovies on 7/14/10 at 10:22 AM Fuck that movie? Wow...maybe I'll go see Last Airbender again instead. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Halimali on 7/14/10 at 10:25 AM nice review James. Might watch it on DVD 0 Replies \| Report Abuse unbreakable_samurai on 7/14/10 at 11:59 AM I pretty much disagree with everything you had to say about this film. P.S. Splice was one of the biggest pieces of junk I have regretably seen in a long time. Much worse than this. If you want a solid action film this worked just fine. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 7/14/10 at 01:31 PM Nice review. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 7/14/10 at 06:09 PM Great review, topher grace ending was so ridiculous 0 Replies \| Report Abuse troyman21 on 7/14/10 at 09:19 PM Interesting review here. I personally didn't hate it but did find it dissapointing, though you have some good points. Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Debjyoti G. on 7/15/10 at 04:15 AM Ohhh...is it that bad...I was hoping that the story might be good after so many series went wasted after the original...still planning to watch it on DVD....nice review though....well I skipped your SPOILERS part :) as it really takes away the surprise moment. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse maxthesax on 7/15/10 at 11:18 AM well said. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Matthew P on 7/15/10 at 02:23 PM Good reivew! I still will NEVER watch this flick ever. Not even for Redbox. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 7/15/10 at 06:24 PM ill admit alot of the movie was enjoyable but really stupid, i was expecting alot from Robert Rodriguez but when you think about it alot of his films are enjoyably stupid. I am not bieng cynical either but i could have thought that this film should have been alot more gorierexcellent review James! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Cory B. on 7/17/10 at 08:27 PM Agreed. The final act was terrible. I was sort of enjoying myself to that point, but the final 30 minutes or so pushed it into rotten territory for me. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Mack Tuck on 7/19/10 at 03:29 PM i enjoyed this movie while you make some great point i have to say i believe it deserves a better raring than that yet nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Amardeep i. on 7/19/10 at 04:04 PM Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse cade14 on 7/23/10 at 05:08 PM i agree - this film was quite bad 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Pseudonym on 7/26/10 at 05:28 AM Very cool review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse nbrush on 7/29/10 at 06:01 AM I've not seen this yet--- didn't read your spoilers section, but you seem to rate movies as I see them, so I'm a bit disappointed now. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Mariel A. on 8/07/10 at 10:13 AM Haven't seen this, but I really liked your review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +5 +5 / -0 thumb up thumb down Kick-Ass (2010) Genre: Drama 70% Posted on 7/01/10 08:10 AM Amidst the present-day cinemascape of mega-budget comic book movies comes Kick-Ass, ready to satire the genre by asking the question "What would happen if an average guy took it upon himself to be a superhero?" It's an enticing premise, to be sure, something I myself have wondered many times before. Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn (who also directed one of my all-time favorites, Layer Cake), is a hip and violent movie that almost seems like a comic book lovechild of Tarantino and Kevin Smith (There are even a few Pulp Fiction references to boot). Kick-Ass follows Aaron Johnson as a high school loser who begins to pursue the life of a superhero. During his first outing, he is severely beaten, earning him some damaged nerves and metal plates. With these newfound "powers", he ventures out again, this time successfully fending off three attackers while simultaneously getting recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Kick-Ass is born, and soon attracts the attention of a seriously ass kicking superhero duo of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his 11 year old daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz). They're doing their own (very, very violent) crimefighting, trying to get to the big baddy, played by Mark Strong. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Strong's son who seeks both paternal pride and a bitchin' superhero identity. The cast is well-suited for their roles. Johnson seems like he could slide in next to Jesse Eisenberg on the "awkward young guy" continuum (with Michael Cera of course on Eisenberg's other side). He's naively sweet but also tough enough to stand and fight. Nic Cage gives an inspired performance as Big Daddy, occasionally channeling an Adam West accent and bursting at the seams with pride over his daughter. Hit Girl, played by Chloe Moretz, will of course be the most talked about, and with good cause. She embraces the violence and obscenities with confidence, famously dropping the c-bomb at one point. While Moretz annoyed me in her little sister role in 500 Days of Summer, she's easily the best part of Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass is cutesy, snarky, and sticks to the source material through inventively portrayed backstories. The problem with the movie is that it seems to be well aware of its strengths, so for everything else, it decides to coast. It coasts past any truly creative humor, past any overall moral message, and past coming up with original solutions to its fight scenes. Kick-Ass is like the cool guy at school who knows he's cool, so he acts like he's cool, and it makes him less cool. The premise of Kick-Ass requires that the story stay grounded in reality - after all, we're supposed to identity with Johnson as one of us in the real world; he's seen all the movies and comic books that we have. Kick-Ass does stay grounded, but this is a problem when so much killing goes on. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are intelligent and efficient, no doubt, but they're hard to root for when they kill so casually in a world that's supposed to be our own. I don't really have a problem with violence in my movies, but Kick-Ass just seems so mean-spirited that it's hard to ignore. That being said, the fight sequences were still my favorite parts of the film. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are truly amazing in action. In fact, in retrospect, I would rather the film had embraced its strong action sequences and taken a more serious approach. This is because the humor seemed like it was just recycled generic "cool loser" dialogue. A subplot involves the girl Johnson likes and the rest of his school thinking he's gay because he was ostensibly brought into the emergency room naked (he had the paramedics dispose of his costume). Not only does this result in a lot of obvious gay jokes, but I can't really see how the student body came to the "gay" conclusion when it seemed like their fellow peer was raped. It seems either not entirely thought-through or just plain cynical, and with the rest of the film being so amoral, I suspect the latter. Finally, although the fight scenes were true delights, many of them ended the same way - one person getting pinned down, another showing up to save them at the last minute. This happens at least three times, two of them within fifteen minutes of each other. There's also a "secret weapon" that they hold out on showing for way too long. I guessed it when it was first brought up, and I don't even do that in movies. Overall, Kick-Ass is a movie that is great in some areas and regretable in others. It's clear that it's found a huge fanbase, which isn't surprising given its slick, action-packed, self-aware take on the comic book genre. I really did enjoy the movie, but I thought that it could have been much better if the ideas had been more fleshed out. Still, Kick-Ass manages to be entertaining and pretty clever, so in the end it lives up to its name. Final rating: 7/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 1 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Ljiljana S. on 7/01/10 at 03:35 PM Great review. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +15 +15 / -0 thumb up thumb down Fatal Attraction (1987) Genre: Mystery & Suspense 90% Posted on 6/24/10 12:57 AM Fatal Attraction was a huge deal when it was released in 1987. Not only was it the highest grossing film of the year, it also gained 6 Oscar nods, including Best Picture. Somehow I managed to remain relatively unaware of the film until recently, when I was able to experience it in all of its infamy. Fatal Attraction looks at the repercussions of extramarital affairs, especially when said affairs are with a psychotic woman. This particular psychotic woman is Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close. Alex appears to suffer from a violent form of borderline personality disorder, prone to emotional reversals and manipulative behavior. Alex becomes obsessed with the man she knows is married. Michael Douglass plays the cheating husband, Anne Archer the hapless wife. Close is clearly the highlight of the film. Sometimes she is frighteningly manic, and other times overbearingly sweet - both modes equally disturbing. One of the more terrifying things about Alex Forrest is her intelligence compared to her emotional maturity. She is clever in all the ways she gets around Douglass's avoidance, but also cries and cuts herself when she doesn't get her way. She's like an intelligent, violent toddler that Douglass can't get rid of. Glen Close gives a performance that may very well end up in your nightmares. The film excels in thrills and suspense, and even dips into the horror genre for its memorable finale. Director Adrian Lyne spins the story out with a very effective touch. There are a number of scenes with great intercutting, including Close catatonicaly turning a light on and off, and the infamous boiling bunny sequence. Other scenes are brilliant in tone, like the clausterphobic library where Douglass confides in a colleague amidst heavy breathing and tall book cases. The suspense builds steadily as Close goes further and further with her infatuation, and the movie keeps up pace. I'm pretty sure the sound of the phone ringing gets increasingly louder. By the last act, the phone's ring sounded more terrifying than any big budget sound effect - all it took was simple conditioning. Well played, Mr. Lyne. My only issue with the film is that it seems somewhat unlikely for Douglass and Close to end up having an affair in the first place. Douglass slips into bed with her very casually, making it seem like he's done this frequently before. If that's the case, then I don't feel as much pity for him, even if he is get stalked. As for Close's character, it seems dubious that she should have so steady a job with an affliction so serious, but maybe she was fine before old cheatin' Douglass came around and messed up her world. Fatal Attraction may have been made in the 80s, but the only thing that seems dated is the attire. It's still an effective thriller that maintains constant suspense, and Glen Close delivers one of the best female antagonist performances I've ever seen. This is easily one of the greatest thrillers ever made. It should not be missed. Final rating: 9/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 21 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Ljiljana S. on 6/24/10 at 02:54 PM Great review, very good movie. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jake on 6/26/10 at 12:37 PM One of my all time favorite movies, great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/26/10 at 01:52 PM Good review James. What did you think of the ending where Glenn Close is shot by the wife? I remember hearing Roger Ebert's review of it, and he said that up until that point he considered it Oscar-worthy but that scene made the whole film fall apart. Am not sure if I agree, would like to hear your thoughts 2 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/27/10 at 09:04 PM I don't feel like it detracted that much from the movie, but I was a little surprised at them using what I considered a cheap trick. Just seemed like a generic touch to an otherwise unique movie, you know? 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/28/10 at 03:46 AM I think you hit the nail on the head :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Andrew K. on 6/29/10 at 10:52 AM Thanks for ruining it! Gees. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/29/10 at 05:45 PM My sincere apologies. I tried to put "spoiler alert" in square brackets but for some reason RT removes them :S 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 6/26/10 at 03:05 PM Great review, Glenn close plays a great psycho bitch. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/27/10 at 09:04 PM Yeah, absofuckinlutely. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse sam48 m. on 6/26/10 at 03:30 PM boy did you take a trip dwon memory lane with this classic, great review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/26/10 at 05:16 PM I remember people saying that this movie would make people think twice before having affairs - not! It was a great thriller. Nice review..... 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Film Ninja on 6/27/10 at 06:36 PM It managed to keep me out of a few one nighters! 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/27/10 at 08:53 PM Just leave Glenn Close alone, you'll be fine...... 2 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/27/10 at 09:04 PM Or just don't have affairs. Report Abuse Film Ninja on 6/28/10 at 08:03 AM Whether it's an affair or not, I'd rather not have a creepy psycho in my bed or in my home. Maybe at a motel on a road trip or something.... Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 6/26/10 at 05:24 PM excellent review James!This is by far Glen Closes best performance! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/26/10 at 07:23 PM Nice review but this one lost me when i was watching it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Film Ninja on 6/27/10 at 06:35 PM Seeing this movie as a kid probably saved me from at least a half dozen relationship disasters. I've met way too many women who resembled Glen Close's character! Good review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Halimali on 6/28/10 at 11:19 AM nice review james. I liked this movie as well. well acted 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 7/02/10 at 11:01 AM Agreed, great movie. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse TheCriticAlex on 8/08/10 at 01:47 PM I have only seen a few minutes of it so i've never seen the entire movie. I'll see it soon nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +13 +13 / -0 thumb up thumb down Sunshine Cleaning (2008) Genre: Comedy 80% Posted on 6/22/10 08:05 PM Sunshine Cleaning follows sisters Amy Adams and Emily Blunt as they try their hand at a new business. That business would be cleaning up after crime scenes and accidents, involving a lot of gross messes and bodily fluids. They're unlikely candidates for the job, and at first their inexperience shows, but eventually it becomes more than just a source of income to them. I had a great time watching this movie. The distinguishing feature of it, the "cleaning up after dead people" occupation, gives the story an obvious path, and I'll admit that it doesn't stray far from it. Still, the movie prevails by remaining optimistically upbeat throughout, while still being able to have a few deeper scenes. The cast is no doubt the reason for the film's cheery cadence. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are an excellent pair of female leads. Adams is so insecure that her self confidence has to come through Post-It notes. Blunt is such a fuck-up that she can't even keep a job down. Both find self-value in the clean-up job. It's a simple but effective character arc that Adams and Blunt handle terrifically. Even with recent career missteps such as "Leap Year", Adams has quickly become one of my favorite modern actresses. Alan Arkin co-stars as their father, and when isn't Arkin a pleasure to have on screen? Arkin provides a lot of the optimism of the film, supporting his iconoclast grandson and encouraging him to realize his talents. Steve Zahn is also in attendance, acting like a real human being for once. The ensemble creates a very realistic family - sure, they might be a little weird, but so is everyone's family. Sunshine Cleaning is decidedly a character study, and it's good because its characters are worth studying. One of the most interesting characters in the movie is sadly mistreated, however. Clifton Collins, Jr. plays a one-armed store owner who goes to great lengths to help Adams out. Blunt initially calls him a freak, citing his dismemberment as the only necessary cause. Adams may not share her sister's disgust, but it seems like she relies on him a whole lot - some might make a point she was using him. Now I'm not saying that every guy who helps out an attractive girl should be rewarded with some sort of shot with her, but Collins, Jr. essentially starts her job training, and even watches her kid for him - a kid who just broke a model airplane of his. In the end, Collins, Jr.'s reward seems to be the friendship of Adams and her family. I think the prospect of a one-armed romantic interest would have been a sensible and progressively step for the movie to take, but it uncharacteristically deviates from formula here. Amputees aside, the film shares a lot of similarities with Little Miss Sunshine: eccentric old grandfather, cutesy outsider kid, dysfunctional family, a vehicle as focal to the characters' journeys, and hell, even the word "sunshine" in the title. Still, Sunshine Cleaning has enough heart to stand alone as its own movie, and if the producers end up with a third movie addressing the same themes, I'd be fine with a "Sunshine Trilogy" - as long as the third film matches Sunshine Cleaning in quality. Despite an apparent impression of unoriginality, Sunshine Cleaning is an effective character study with an excellent cast. It's a bit formulaic, but grade-A performances and an optimistic tone make Sunshine Cleaning worth watching. Final rating: 8/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 13 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: ChrisCinephile on 6/22/10 at 08:32 PM great review James!sounds like a great time,i should check it out 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/22/10 at 08:38 PM I liked it as well. Good review.... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Rohit Ramachandran on 6/22/10 at 11:35 PM Nice review. But I think I'll pass. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/22/10 at 11:41 PM Very good review it looks like a film i will see. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 6/23/10 at 12:13 AM Nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 6/23/10 at 05:08 AM Nice Review, I wasn't too pushed about Little Miss Sunshine, but this doesn't quite as quirky, which is more up my street 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Slushy on 6/23/10 at 09:11 AM nice review, looking forward to seeing it 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 6/23/10 at 10:32 AM Great review, very good movie. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse unbreakable_samurai on 6/23/10 at 02:16 PM One of my favorite films of last year actually. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Courtney W. on 6/23/10 at 03:30 PM I keep thinking I'll watch this one. I'm glad you decided to review it. Good Job. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Erik P. on 6/24/10 at 07:29 AM nice review dude, ive seen parts of this but never the entire thing. I love amy adams so ill finish this soon 0 Replies \| Report Abuse jorge m. on 6/24/10 at 01:11 PM I really wanted to see this film, but it sadly never came up in my country. I guess I'll just have to look for it somewhere, because it really appeals to me...Great review ;) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Amardeep i. on 7/06/10 at 03:45 PM Nice review,soon I am gonna watch it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +1 +2 / -1 thumb up thumb down Top Gun (1986) Genre: Drama 40% Posted on 6/22/10 06:44 PM I think it's safe to say that nostalgia is the only reason Top Gun remains so revered. At least, I hope that's the only reason, because Top Gun is a really bad movie. Top Gun was the highest gross film in 1986, as well as the cannon that shot Tom Cruise into super stardom. Since I wasn't around in '86 and I have the benefit of hindsight, I can't fathom how people watched Cruise and didn't think something was a little off. He has such a creepy intensity that oftentimes I just had to assume he was looking at Kelly McGillis intimately. If I'd judged it by his acting, I could only assume he was about to strangle her. His character, the forever memorable Maverick, also seems to me like an unlikely character to root for, much less idolize. Maverick is absurdly arrogant and desperately defiant, risking his own and others' lives repeatedly. The movie lets him off the hook by having tragedy come by way of accident instead of his actions, but that doesn't change the fact that Maverick is, all things considered, a prick. The characters remain static, never becoming more than "the goofy best friend", "the hard-to-get love interest", "the snarky rival", and, of course, "the angry bald dude". All of them spend the entirety of the film telling Maverick to chill the hell out. Maverick spends the entirety of the film telling them to fuck off. Adding insult to injury is the soundtrack. I'm not a hater of 80s music by any means, but the guy in charge of Top Gun's soundtrack seems content with getting two songs and repeating them ad nauseam. "Danger Zone" has never been anything more than a novelty, and the opening bars of "Take My Breath Away" are not some works of genius - neither needs to be heard as much as they are during Top Gun. There are a few redeeming reasons to watching Top Gun. You'll probably recognize a bunch of phrases that have become part of popular culture, and there are some amazing flight scenes. In fact, the action scenes in the air are so impressive that I would probably recommend the movie for those alone - the last act, which centers on Cruise's first real assignment could stand alone as a great action short film. Had the movie focused even more on scenes with its characters kicking aerial ass and less on superfluous beach volleyball scenes, it might have gained more credibility as a classic 80s action film. Instead, Top Gun is a Tom Cruise showboat, championing a character who you'd never want to work with in your life. The story is flat and superficial, and the acting is hammy, sometimes worse. As an impressive showcase of jet pilot action scenes, Top Gun works exceedingly well. As a movie, Top Gun is really bad. Final rating: 4/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 1 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Ljiljana S. on 6/23/10 at 10:50 AM Very good review, I liked the movie, it has some charm. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +27 +27 / -0 thumb up thumb down Toy Story 3 (2010) Genre: Animation 100% Posted on 6/13/10 05:27 PM In 1995 and 1999, Toy Story and its sequel made a huge impact on the world of feature-length animations, combining stunning visuals, solid stories and unforgettable characters - all in the relatively new field of computer animation. It's been 11 years since we last followed Woody and Buzz. In that time, CGI has become ubiquitous and the Academy Awards have created the "Best Animated Feature" category. Despite the age of its source material, Toy Story 3 stands up to both its predecessors and its contemporary competition. This is an excellent movie in every way. The original principal cast all return. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen lead the excellent ensemble, comfortably reprising their roles of Woody and Buzz. New characters include an old timey strawberry-scented bear named Lotso Hugs, voiced by Ned Beatty in perfect form, and a possibly closeted Ken doll voiced by Michael Keaton. The film starts with a comical action sequence being acted out in a young Andy's mind. With the transition to reality comes the reality of aging, as camcorder footage fast forwards us to nine years later. Andy is about to leave for college; he has long stopped playing with his toys, who are desperate for attention. During packing, the toys accidentally get set out for the trash, and the adventure begins. They eventually wind up in the Sunnyside Daycare Center, where Lotso is in charge of all the toys. At first it seems like toy paradise, with the immortal prospect of cycling groups of children to play with them forever. All of the toys except Woody approve and want to stay. Woody would rather them go back and sit in Andy's attic. This motivation was the only problem I had with the movie. The film seems to be on Woody's side in suggesting that the best thing for a toy is playless waiting out of loyalty. But then again, what do I know about how toys should be treated? I'm a human being. In any case, the daycare turns out to be a toy prison with Lotso as its strawberry-scented warden. Woody, having left his friends to get back to Andy, finds out about their peril and goes on a rescue mission. The rest of the story is very fulfilling and entertaining. It always moves forward, and expertly paces its light and heavy scenes. And there are heavy scenes. Toy Story 3 contains the darkest and most emotional themes of the series, appropriate for the maturity of the audience that grew up with Andy. One scene near the end gets surprisingly somber in a moment of fatalist acceptance. The film is able to retain its humor, however, continuing the balance between heart and laughter that the series has always attained. All of the secondary characters have great moments. Usually as franchises go on, the pantheon of characters expands, but Pixar uniquely decided to scale back its returning players. Now only the core group remains, with even the little green army men defecting early on. This paucity of characters provides a chance to give each of them a little more screen time. They're all funny characters with great talent behind them, so I'm grateful that Toy Story 3 is not bloated with new characters. There are a few new characters, but many of them receive very little screen time. Luckily, they all make the best of the time they're given, and are some of the highlights of the film. Timothy Dalton is scene-stealing as a pompous hedgehog toy, and it only made sense when I learned that Kristen Schaal voiced Trixie, another toy dinosaur, and a small character that delivered huge laughs. I was also pleasantly surprised to find the Spanish Buzz sequence funny; I thought it looked trite in the early teasers, but it plays out with mucho hilarity in the film. Toy Story has it all. It provides great laughs (two of my favorites both involved monkeys) and a lot of heart. The end of the film is the most touching of all, and provides a perfect cap for the entire series. Pixar has seemingly done the impossible: They've created the perfect trilogy. Toy Story 3 is everything you want and expect it to be. It's just like the first two, and that has never been a more complimentary comparison. Final rating: 10/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 30 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: RJ Smoove on 6/13/10 at 05:41 PM Holy shit. I expected it to be good, but now I'm overly hyped. Let's go Pixar, let's go...Great review! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Isaiah R. on 6/13/10 at 05:47 PM Great review. Toy Story 3 looks too good. I HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE!!! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/13/10 at 05:55 PM Normally I don't get hyped, but you've got me hyped. Great review! 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/13/10 at 05:55 PM Plus, anything with a Timothy Dalton cameo can't be all bad :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/13/10 at 06:27 PM Nice review don't think i will see this though. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse William S. on 6/15/10 at 11:46 AM wtf? 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/15/10 at 03:01 PM It's not something i am likeing to see. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse troyman21 on 6/13/10 at 06:37 PM I was planning on seeing this either way with the intentions that it would be a nice comeback for the series but wouldn't be quite as great as the first 2. But here I read your review, and it's just as excellent as the first two, really? I'm hyped now! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 6/13/10 at 07:06 PM This sounds good, I'm not a exactly a die hard pixar super fan but I enjoyed the first 2 Toy Stories. I'd definitely give it a look on this recommendation. Nice Review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/13/10 at 07:07 PM I knew it was going to be tough to top How to Train a Dragon but it sounds like it did. Good review..... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Roberto L. on 6/13/10 at 07:51 PM Fuck Man i cant wait to see this!!!!! just 6 more days!!! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Vampire Reilly on 6/13/10 at 08:09 PM Good review,Can't wait for this one 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bernard1422 on 6/13/10 at 08:44 PM It's good to read that this franchise is viable. Nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Alexson Philip on 6/13/10 at 09:34 PM Great review man. it sounds just like what most of the other critics have been saying about this film. i cant wait to watch it. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 6/13/10 at 11:09 PM Awesome review, really looking forward to see it. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Erik P. on 6/14/10 at 06:29 AM im impressed with this movie already. i cannot wait to see this. awesome review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Matthew P on 6/14/10 at 08:53 AM This is already out?! I thought it was gonna be out this Friday!! Holy crap!! Fulfilling and optimistic review.. must see this one. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse maxthesax on 6/14/10 at 09:24 AM what a terrific review! You've really gotten me excited to see this one (I loved the first two). 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Frederic C. on 6/14/10 at 09:56 AM Go Pixar! Way to create the perfect trilogy! Wow, now I'm really excited about seeing this movie! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bill T. on 6/14/10 at 11:12 AM Well, it seems that Toy Story can do no wrong! Excellent review and I'm really looking forward to seeing this one! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Slushy on 6/14/10 at 02:27 PM Great review James, I hope it holds the 100% mark... such an amazing series of movies 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Z-Man on 6/15/10 at 04:42 AM GREAT REVIEW. CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS ONE. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse The Yellow Dart on 6/15/10 at 07:07 AM Super excited for this now. Great review.Never thought of it that way! This would be one of the best trilogies of all time! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 6/15/10 at 02:03 PM fuck i cant wait to watch thisexcellent review James! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse nbrush on 6/18/10 at 06:01 AM It's still sitting at 100% from the Rotten Tomatoes critics too, so this is a truely rare feat... 3 excellent movies in this Toy Story franchise. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse sam48 m. on 6/22/10 at 01:34 PM excellent review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse cade14 on 6/26/10 at 12:47 AM another great review - i really loved this film! keep it up!! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Komal S. on 6/29/10 at 01:12 AM excellent review James! I agree with you on all parts of your review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 7/03/10 at 07:27 PM Great review! Love this series too much. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse D.D on 7/06/10 at 12:16 PM Looks like a great film. Have to make time to go watch it. Great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +13 +13 / -0 thumb up thumb down Going Overboard (1989) Genre: Comedy 0% Posted on 6/08/10 11:49 PM I stumbled upon this movie while working and subsequently discovered that it was available for free on YouTube. I was interested to see what Sandler was like so early in his career, before joining Saturday Night Live and after only a few appearances on the Cosby Show. Within the first five minutes of the film I had already become skeptical of it ever displaying any redeemable qualities. My expectations were met spot-on. The film follows Sandler as a cocktail waiter on a cruise ship full of beauty pageant contestants. Sandler is aware of the camera and frequently speaks to it, often having conversations with it that the other characters ignore. Not a bad way to tell a story, but Sandler's inexperience shows painfully. What's really telling is that you can see all of the comedy shticks that would end up making him famous - silly faces, baby voices, stammering - in a totally unrefined way. Yeah, more unrefined than Sandler has ever been. The jokes are all lame and obvious, and it seems like the script (if there was any) probably never reached a second draft. The worst part is that there is a comedian on the ship who is probably the least funny character. Sandler's "character" yearns to also become a stand-up comedian, which is only appropriate for this film, since his jokes are also horrendously flat. There's another plotline involving General Noriega and two of his cronies who have Arabic names and speak with a sort of Italian accent. They too end up being stand-up comedians at the end, and they are, wait for it, unfunny. The only one who gets any laughs is a "what the hell are you doing here" cameo by Milton Berle, who tells a few simple jokes that are aeons funnier than the garbage that Sandler and co. put forth. Billy Zane, also early in his career, shows up as Poseidon, and might be worthy of the "worst actor" title for this film. I'm convinced that if more people had seen this movie, Zane would not be a successful actor today. But not many people have seen the film, to the benefit of everyone involved. I understand that the film is, as Sandler lets us know early on, a "no budget" film. Someone probably got permission to shoot on a cruise ship with traveling beauty pageant contestants and didn't want to pass the opportunity up in the name of "quality". It's cool, I know what's up. But even with zero dollars for your budget, you can get a bit more creative than birds crapping in someone's drink. If you have the time and are interested in Sandler's career, go to YouTube, search for this movie, and skip ahead to any point in the film. I promise that within a minute you'll instantly understand everything I've said in this review. It's epiphany-inducingly bad. Final rating: 0/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 16 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Vampire Reilly on 6/09/10 at 12:23 AM Good review,Maybe I'll watch this just to check out it's crappiness 0 Replies \| Report Abuse John Arthur Beaman on 6/09/10 at 12:29 AM I always say, the best movies are on You Tube. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 6/09/10 at 12:39 AM Great review. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 6/09/10 at 12:48 AM Nice review, I'll check out this movie to see just how crappy it really is 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jack P. on 6/09/10 at 02:53 AM i thought it was bad, but i like to watch it sometimes with my friends just to sit there and make fun of it with them 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 6/09/10 at 04:25 AM Not being a huge Adam Sandler fan to begin with, I think I'll avoid this one. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/09/10 at 04:42 AM Nice review I know it was crap. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/09/10 at 06:45 AM Don't like Sandler so I'm not too surprised. Good review..... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Erik P. on 6/09/10 at 10:01 AM i hate adam sandler, nice review anyway though 0 Replies \| Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 6/09/10 at 07:40 PM great review James!!thanks for the warning!ill follow you on twitter! 1 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/10/10 at 09:28 AM Fuck yeah, thank you! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bernard1422 on 6/10/10 at 05:09 AM I couldn't agree more with you. It should have been kedt undone 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Halimali on 6/10/10 at 11:08 AM oh looks awful. nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Mack Tuck on 6/10/10 at 12:17 PM i love adam sandler i will moste deff have to check this one out good revie man 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Amardeep i. on 6/20/10 at 02:22 PM Really never heard and probably not gonna dare to watch it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 7/04/10 at 08:06 AM Bad! Great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +11 +19 / -8 thumb up thumb down The Wolfman (2010) Genre: Mystery & Suspense 20% Posted on 3/22/10 04:52 AM The Wolfman! One of the classic Universal monsters alongside Dracula, the Mummy, and a handful of others, forever inscribed upon our collective consciousness through continuous revampings and updates. Does the latest reboot of a horror series stand up to the quality of the installments that preceded it? Though I've never actually seen any other Wolfman movies, I can only hope that that answer is "no" - the latest interpretation, by director Joe Johnston, is a bad movie in absolutely every regard. With the evolution of the vampire guiding that iconic monster into tweeny bopping territory, I looked at the apparently dark and violent reboot of the Wolfman as a chance to find a badass monster amidst a current sea of sucky creatures. Unfortunately, this Wolfman film is unintelligible, relentlessly grim, and laughably cheesy. And not cheesy in an intentional campy way. It's just a bit pathetic. The Wolfman follows Benicio Del Torro, who returns to his home town after his brother has been killed by a werewolf. He has an estranged relationship with his father, Anthony Hopkins, and a nascent inappropriate relationship with his dead brother's widow, Emily Blunt. Through in Hugo Weaving as a Scottish inspector, and you have our cast. Our players for our horrible, horrible film. What makes The Wolfman so bad? Well, for one, the film was plagued by a series of rewrites that resulted in an entirely senseless story. You have to go into this movie expecting things to not make a lick of sense. One of the most glaring examples is when Del Torro is arrested because the townspeople suspect him of being a werewolf after suffering a bite at a gypsy camp. That's all well and good, but after detaining Del Torro in a mental hospital, the tune of his antagonists changes: Now they insist that Del Torro has made the whole werewolf thing up in his mind, and they are going to hold him in a room to prove to him that his delusions aren't real. Wait, what? Yes, they arrest him against his will because he might be a werewolf. Then, as he sits bounded, yelling at his captors to let him go so he won't kill them, they insist on holding him to prove that he's NOT a werewolf. Pointless and infuriatingly inconsistent scenes like this tie together werewolf attacks dominated by cheesy deaths and unimpressive CGI gore. The bad CGI is really disappointing, because one of the few things I can commend the movie on is its werewolf make-up. It's much more evocative of the original prosthetic make-up that I've seen this Wolfman's ancestors sport, and not bogged down by computer graphics. Had they consistently applied this technique, I would have been able to at least laud the film's visual effects. However, after designing the Wolfman, it appears as though the film's crew gave up and fell back on CGI blood obfuscated in the shadows of the hardly-lit settings. Del Torro himself is gruff and joyless in the lead role. I understand that this is supposed to be a horror movie, but there's a difference between strong and silent and squinty-eyed and uncharismatic, and unfortunately Del Torro never expands beyond the latter pair of abilities. The once-glorious Anthony Hopkins seems tired and bored, well-aware of the low grade of the material he's been given to work with. The only actor who makes their part enjoyable is Hugo Weaving as the persistent inspector who will probably show up if they ever unwisely decide to make a sequel to this trash. The Wolfman suffers from a predictable plot with a foreseeable twist, on top of stale acting, a pastiche story, and a tiring devotion to showing a shot of the moon between every scene. Speaking of which, how long does the story in this film go on for? There is a laughably high frequency of full moons that turn various characters into werewolves. It would have been awesome if the writers had found a way to tell a good story across a couple of full moons instead of an incomprehensible one across many. No matter how interested you are in werewolves, you shouldn't bother seeing this movie. Maybe you heard of the werewolf fight, complete with one flaming werewolf - trust me, even that is far more boring than it sounds. This entire film is a dark and muddled mess, and a tragic reboot to a series that obviously has the ability to resonate with multiple generations. Now we just have to wait the three years for this film to be erased from our memory, and perhaps someone will get the Wolfman right. But probably not. Final rating: 2/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 27 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Shane K. on 3/22/10 at 05:19 AM Great review man, all that's needed now is for someone to make a really awful Frankenstein movie to complete the set. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 3/22/10 at 05:46 AM Good call... though we'll also need a creature from the black lagoon! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 3/22/10 at 06:22 AM Good work. I have not seen anything good about this one...... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Andrew K. on 3/22/10 at 07:16 AM I have to disagree. While I wasn't blown away, and it wasn't what I expected, I enjoyed this movie, and I hope the DVD release can clear up some problems. It's a movie with a lot of "what if"s tied to the making of, but with all of the problems during production, I enjoyed the final product. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 3/22/10 at 07:18 AM Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Dean H on 3/22/10 at 09:20 AM if its a digital wolfman then its nothing special, but Lon Chaney Jr actually became the CHARACTER of the wolfman, now thats talent. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse TheCriticAlex on 3/22/10 at 09:30 AM Wow this movie must really suck. I mean I thought it would as least be medicore. Well I'll see for myself. The message I sent you was about the new predators trailer so you could hear arnold schwarzenegger's critique you'll like it lol. Send it to your other friends if you want. I'm sending to mine as well enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBv4AsGVDxw 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Booze Fighter on 3/22/10 at 10:10 AM to bad it had a decent set of actors. Guess ill have to wait to rent it 0 Replies \| Report Abuse cjsmovies on 3/22/10 at 10:28 AM Great review, hope I never see this one. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 3/22/10 at 10:47 AM I do agree that it's way to predictable but i was still able to enjoy the movie as a whole. Fantastic review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse HERESSSSSSJOHNNY on 3/22/10 at 10:56 AM I didn't think the film was that bad, but thats just me. Great review! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Awesome Barnhart on 3/22/10 at 11:16 AM Awesome review, thumbs up! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Castle91 on 3/22/10 at 12:16 PM I have to correct you on your example of bad story. If you recall, Francis Abberline believed that Talbot was mentally unstable, and thus could have committed the murders. And he followed the trail right back to Talbot in the morning. The church group confronted him about being a werewolf.Otherwise a very well-written review. Although I enjoyed it far more than most. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Psycho Manana Banana Man on 3/22/10 at 01:04 PM This would bee to violent for me but you really did put me off it (so great work there). Great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse John H. on 3/22/10 at 02:31 PM Totally agree with you James. I knew this would be bad, but I had no idea how bad it would be. I just sort of hoped that maybe...just maybe this would be pretty good. No such luck! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Nate R. on 3/22/10 at 03:42 PM I disagree I loved this movie.. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse starlett2005 on 3/22/10 at 03:43 PM I have to disagree. I enjoyed this movie. However, great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Isaiah R. on 3/22/10 at 06:48 PM I only saw the last half of the movie and based on that I liked it. I'll have to see it from the beginning to form a true opinion. Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bernard1422 on 3/22/10 at 09:17 PM There have been some favorable comments about this flick but not too many. I personally feel you have your finger right on the pulse of it. It's one of those disaster that occurs with frequency when someone is too eager to pursue the monster(wolfman in this case)and forgets about the all important storyline, if the movie ever had one 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Pheasant on 3/23/10 at 09:21 AM Have not seen it but was not really interested. Thanks for giving me more to think about.. might be a DVD rental one day. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse KJ Cassidy on 3/23/10 at 10:12 AM So disappointing.But an excellent review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse MTGHall on 3/23/10 at 11:11 AM Loved the original Universal Wolfman. I have heard mixed reviews about this, just waiting to see it before I judge it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse piratefan60 on 3/23/10 at 05:44 PM good review. i haven't seen it yet, but i wasn't to interested in the trailer. thanks for letting me know more about it 0 Replies \| Report Abuse David S. on 3/25/10 at 07:24 AM I didn't think it was this bad. I believe that they were trying to make a B-horror flick. That's what the original was. I believe that this is one of those movies that if you don't think about all the little details it will be fun. I had fun watching this movie and felt that it was worth the ticket. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse JT Vincent on 3/25/10 at 03:19 PM Great review, won't be witnessing Wolfman. Yep, that's deliberately awful alliteration 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Michael Wheeler - Reevue on 3/26/10 at 01:05 PM Really that bad? lol 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Epi on 3/28/10 at 07:48 PM Totally agreed -- Hopkins and DelToro might have thought they were walking into a great film, but after watching the end result, they must be distancing themselves from this embarrassment. One of the worst films of 2010. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse

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One Sheet	Reviews

	Votes +1 +2 / -1 thumb up thumb down Red Eye (2005) Genre: Mystery & Suspense 70% Posted on 8/02/10 09:06 PM Wes Craven has long been a thriller/horror director, from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street to the iconic 90s slasher Scream. In 2005, he made Red Eye, a claustrophobic thriller that relies on its two young leads to make the most of its simple premise. Rachel McAdams plays Lisa, a hotel manager who hates to fly. She's about to hate it a lot more, thanks to the very menacing Jackson (played by Cillian Murphy) and his ice blue eyes. In perhaps the most contrived terrorist plot ever, Jackson threatens Lisa during a red eye flight to Miami with a choice: She can call her hotel and move the director of Homeland Security into a specific room so that Jackson's employers can kill him, or she can have her father killed by an associate of Jackson if she doesn't make that call. When Lisa first meets Jackson, waiting for their delayed flight, he's quite a charmer. He buys her a drink before they get on the plane and realize that they sit right next to each other. It's not until the plane has taken off and there's nowhere to go that Murphy transitions perfectly from mysterious and intriguing to psychotic and ruthless. Craven builds on the naturally tight setting of an airplane with extremely close shots, especially on Murphy's face as he intimidates his victim with murderous stares. The bulk of the film takes place on the plane ride, and it's here where it's at its best. Tons of suspense and tension, and although the other passengers are given the minimalest of roles, it doesn't matter because the leads are so adept. Rachel McAdams is cute and forceful as Lisa. One of the best things about Craven's films is his consistently powerful female protagonists, and Lisa is no different. She's a take-charge, competent, and successful individual, whose only flaw seems to be that she's a bit too focused on her career. Despite the different ways that any one of us might react to her situation, it's still easy to root for her and appreciate her different attempts to get out of Murphy's trap. Red Eye is full of clever instances, from truly hilarious comments made by background extras to the best damn way to hide a giant missile launcher on a yacht I've ever seen. Unfortunately, its tense and witty start brings the movie to an uncharacteristically dull third act. It's when the characters leave the plane that the movie begins to deteriorate. The plane setting is replaced by Lisa's house, bringing the story into the real world and shedding light on its unlikelihoods. Worse yet, Lisa's intelligence and competence is usurped by standard horror victim tendencies - she very frustratingly doesn't assault Murphy when he's entirely unarmed, for no reason other than to draw out the movie's thin premise. Red Eye is a sometimes witty thriller that enjoys a very terse first hour. The last act is very disappointingly subpar, losing its self awareness and becoming the very generic movie that it seemed like it would rise above. Still, very strong performances by two attractive leads makes Red Eye a movie that's worth checking out. Final rating: 6.5/10 --James A. Janisse 1 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: wxdeadpoolmwam on 9/07/10 at 07:31 PM Great review. This is also my favorite role of Cillian Murphy's,too. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +2 +2 / -0 thumb up thumb down Get Low (2010) Genre: Drama 70% Posted on 8/01/10 07:17 PM Aaron Schneider's Get Low is a pithy little movie partly based on folklore surrounding a hermit who wanted a living funeral. The hermit is Felix Bush, a cantankerous old man who has lived isolated from society for a couple of decades. Feeling that his end is near, he arranges his own funeral and plans to attend it, ostensibly to hear everyone's wild tales that have sprung up about him over the years. Felix Bush is played by Robert Duvall, an acting veteran at the age of 79. Bush is pretty indistinguishable from Duvall, and whether that's due to brilliant casting or brilliant acting, it makes the movie either way. Full of quiet acerbic wit, Bush is an intriguing character who I was very interested to learn more about. The supporting cast is just as pleasant. Bill Murray plays the owner of the funeral department that agrees to Bush's bizarre requests. Murray oozes with avarice, always interested in the best way to make a buck, and essentially married to money since he seems to be the town's only divorcee. Lucas Black plays his protege, an ethical foil to his incessant greed. The only time I've seen Black previously was as "Jeep" in the suicide-envokingly bad Legion, and I was grateful to see that, when given real material to work with, he held a strong presence on screen. Sissy Spacek plays one of Bush's old flames, and I found that it was her scenes with Duvall that were among the movie's best. Both of these actors have decades of experience under their belts, and seeing them gently sweet talk each other will make you really believe that they have a life time of history between them. Get Low has incredible acting, and it's also a rural feast for the eyes. The 1930s setting provides a lot of natural beauty, taking us back to a time when a town and the nature around it were much more entwined, a much simpler time. The problem with Get Low is that it really is simple to a fault. The premise of a living funeral can only take a movie so far, and although a great deal is built up around Bush's past, when the reveal finally comes at the end, it can only be described as underwhelming. We hear a couple of rumor mill reasons why Bush had originally gone into isolation throughout the movie, and I only wish that the true story was half as interesting as any of those. Of course, that could be the point of the movie. It certainly seems as though it champions the mundane over the exciting, the flat realism over anything fantastical. Get Low is a brilliantly acted affair set in a time that's beautiful to visit. The characters are interesting to watch and there are plenty of genuinely funny moments. If that sounds like enough for you, then it's probably worth watching. If, on the other hand, you enjoy an engrossing story, then you should probably sit this one out. It never tries to evolve past its original premise, and the mundane plot that follows isn't enough to hold it up. Final rating: 7/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 0 Comments \| Send This \| Comments:
	Votes +17 +21 / -4 thumb up thumb down Predators (2010) Genre: Action & Adventure 20% Posted on 7/13/10 04:59 PM Robert Rodriguez's "Predators" is the third movie in a series that began with Arnold Schwarzenegger running around Guatemala in 1987. This latest entry sees a group of the world's most dangerous individuals paradropped onto a foreign planet, where they serve as game for a pack of Predators. The movie wastes no time exploring the gears behind this situation, and that's definitely a good decision. In a movie like this, I don't care who dropped these characters here or why, I just want to see some bad-ass soldiers forced to work together to survive. Unfortunately, these bad-asses are so one-dimensional that I couldn't have cared less about who'd survive. Half of the characters don't even mention their names, let alone display any aspects of personality. The screenwriters probably figured that audiences would be able to distinguish the characters by appearance, since there's "the convict", "the Russian", "the Mexican" (frequent Mexican Danny Trejo), etc. Sure, I knew who was who, but I didn't care about them at all. The de facto leader of the group is played by Adrien Brody. I usually appreciate Brody, and I just had a great time seeing him in Splice, but I don't like him in action-flick mode. He just throws on a gruff Batman-esque voice and growls his lines without any emotion. Alice Braga plays a role that curiously didn't go to Michelle Rodriguez, and Laurence Fishburne is wasted with one of the smallest and insensible roles of his career. Topher Grace was actually all right to watch, but by the end of the movie I wished he had never been there. The first half of Predators is slow and boring. Some very Lost-like shots begin a goalless trek through the jungle, with occasional obstacles such as CGI dog-boars and weird skinny mantis things that are never fully explained. When Fishburne appears, he lets the remaining survivors know that there are actually TWO type of Predators, "little ones" and "big ones". The big ones are creatively known as "super Predators", and are unfortunately a bit difficult to distinguish from the "class Predators" when they're rolling around on the ground together fighting. To be entirely honest, I hated this movie. I went in with an open mind, and even when I realized what I was in for, I was ready to accept a good campy action movie. Instead, I got a film that nobody cared about enough to look over before releasing. *SPOILERS AHEAD* There are absurd moments of laziness in this movie. After Brody abandons the last two members of the group, Braga and Grace, he goes and frees the "classic Predator" that was chained up by the "super Predators" for whatever reason. Classic Predator activates his ship from his wrist, including having it eventually take off without him. Super Predator then kills Classic Predator before also pressing buttons on his OWN wrist and having the Classic Predator's ship blow up. Because that makes sense. By far the lowest valley of the film is when Topher Grace turns on Alice Braga and poisons her. His motivation is non-existent; in fact, they're currently captured by the Super Predator and his leg is broken, so the decision seems pretty self-destructive. The reason he gives, barely audible through Braga's hardcore drug tripping, is that he feels like he belongs on the planet with the Predators, because even though he had to be saved multiple times earlier that day, he's actually a totally bad-ass dude for real. *SPOILERS BE GONE* Predators is a stupid movie that only cares about decapitations and explosions. I expected Rodriguez to rejuvenate this series with an exciting but well-made action sci-fi. Instead, he gave us a bunch of characters who were only thought up as cool death scenes were imagined. The movie's ending is more open than a bar in Vegas, and I wouldn't be surprised if these extraterrestrial hunters wind up with another movie. Hopefully, someone will just remember to edit that script. Final rating: 2/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 27 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: D.D on 7/13/10 at 05:20 PM It sounded like a bad film anyway. Nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 7/13/10 at 06:06 PM I liked this movie, but you make some good points in the review. I wouldn't slam it too much for having 1 dimensional characters, the team in the original weren't exactly swimming with nuance (Jesse The Body Ventura liked chewin tobaccy & carried a minigun, Bill Duke was his chum apparently, BILLY(!!!)... was an Indian? etc.) of course they offset this by being cheesetastically quotable, the one place where this movie severely falls down in my opinion. Beyond that, this movie is serviceable 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher P. on 7/13/10 at 06:06 PM Yeah this sounds dumb. Real dumb. I'm not watching a Predator movie unless Arnold Schwarzenegger is banging out one-liners...lol 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Parker M. on 7/13/10 at 06:15 PM i didn't like it, but i didn't hate it to your calibre. it felt the same old to me. good harsh review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse billwh2 on 7/13/10 at 06:58 PM I had no inentions of ever seeing this movie -ever - and I feel sorry for you that you saw it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 7/13/10 at 07:08 PM If I see it, it will be on Netflix. Good review..... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jack Waters on 7/13/10 at 07:18 PM hmmm. I enjoyed your review, but I respectfully disagree. The chracters were very well fleshed out due to some great performances(though I'll admit both Trejo and Fishburne had too small and too uneccessary roles).I loved Brody in this and I hope for another one just like it in the future!!!..good review though. haha 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 7/14/10 at 02:09 AM Nice review james but it looks cool 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Rai MI on 7/14/10 at 07:37 AM Mostly agree. The characters were very 1 dimensionable. The Topher characters turn to the dark side, made no sense. Just like the space ship explosion made no sense. A poorly made flic ... for sure. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Rai MI on 7/14/10 at 02:38 PM Oh yeah ... "more open than a bar in Las Vegas" ... a great line. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse HeIsAtTheMovies on 7/14/10 at 10:22 AM Fuck that movie? Wow...maybe I'll go see Last Airbender again instead. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Halimali on 7/14/10 at 10:25 AM nice review James. Might watch it on DVD 0 Replies \| Report Abuse unbreakable_samurai on 7/14/10 at 11:59 AM I pretty much disagree with everything you had to say about this film. P.S. Splice was one of the biggest pieces of junk I have regretably seen in a long time. Much worse than this. If you want a solid action film this worked just fine. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 7/14/10 at 01:31 PM Nice review. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 7/14/10 at 06:09 PM Great review, topher grace ending was so ridiculous 0 Replies \| Report Abuse troyman21 on 7/14/10 at 09:19 PM Interesting review here. I personally didn't hate it but did find it dissapointing, though you have some good points. Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Debjyoti G. on 7/15/10 at 04:15 AM Ohhh...is it that bad...I was hoping that the story might be good after so many series went wasted after the original...still planning to watch it on DVD....nice review though....well I skipped your SPOILERS part :) as it really takes away the surprise moment. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse maxthesax on 7/15/10 at 11:18 AM well said. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Matthew P on 7/15/10 at 02:23 PM Good reivew! I still will NEVER watch this flick ever. Not even for Redbox. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 7/15/10 at 06:24 PM ill admit alot of the movie was enjoyable but really stupid, i was expecting alot from Robert Rodriguez but when you think about it alot of his films are enjoyably stupid. I am not bieng cynical either but i could have thought that this film should have been alot more gorierexcellent review James! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Cory B. on 7/17/10 at 08:27 PM Agreed. The final act was terrible. I was sort of enjoying myself to that point, but the final 30 minutes or so pushed it into rotten territory for me. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Mack Tuck on 7/19/10 at 03:29 PM i enjoyed this movie while you make some great point i have to say i believe it deserves a better raring than that yet nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Amardeep i. on 7/19/10 at 04:04 PM Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse cade14 on 7/23/10 at 05:08 PM i agree - this film was quite bad 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Pseudonym on 7/26/10 at 05:28 AM Very cool review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse nbrush on 7/29/10 at 06:01 AM I've not seen this yet--- didn't read your spoilers section, but you seem to rate movies as I see them, so I'm a bit disappointed now. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Mariel A. on 8/07/10 at 10:13 AM Haven't seen this, but I really liked your review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +5 +5 / -0 thumb up thumb down Kick-Ass (2010) Genre: Drama 70% Posted on 7/01/10 08:10 AM Amidst the present-day cinemascape of mega-budget comic book movies comes Kick-Ass, ready to satire the genre by asking the question "What would happen if an average guy took it upon himself to be a superhero?" It's an enticing premise, to be sure, something I myself have wondered many times before. Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn (who also directed one of my all-time favorites, Layer Cake), is a hip and violent movie that almost seems like a comic book lovechild of Tarantino and Kevin Smith (There are even a few Pulp Fiction references to boot). Kick-Ass follows Aaron Johnson as a high school loser who begins to pursue the life of a superhero. During his first outing, he is severely beaten, earning him some damaged nerves and metal plates. With these newfound "powers", he ventures out again, this time successfully fending off three attackers while simultaneously getting recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Kick-Ass is born, and soon attracts the attention of a seriously ass kicking superhero duo of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his 11 year old daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz). They're doing their own (very, very violent) crimefighting, trying to get to the big baddy, played by Mark Strong. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Strong's son who seeks both paternal pride and a bitchin' superhero identity. The cast is well-suited for their roles. Johnson seems like he could slide in next to Jesse Eisenberg on the "awkward young guy" continuum (with Michael Cera of course on Eisenberg's other side). He's naively sweet but also tough enough to stand and fight. Nic Cage gives an inspired performance as Big Daddy, occasionally channeling an Adam West accent and bursting at the seams with pride over his daughter. Hit Girl, played by Chloe Moretz, will of course be the most talked about, and with good cause. She embraces the violence and obscenities with confidence, famously dropping the c-bomb at one point. While Moretz annoyed me in her little sister role in 500 Days of Summer, she's easily the best part of Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass is cutesy, snarky, and sticks to the source material through inventively portrayed backstories. The problem with the movie is that it seems to be well aware of its strengths, so for everything else, it decides to coast. It coasts past any truly creative humor, past any overall moral message, and past coming up with original solutions to its fight scenes. Kick-Ass is like the cool guy at school who knows he's cool, so he acts like he's cool, and it makes him less cool. The premise of Kick-Ass requires that the story stay grounded in reality - after all, we're supposed to identity with Johnson as one of us in the real world; he's seen all the movies and comic books that we have. Kick-Ass does stay grounded, but this is a problem when so much killing goes on. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are intelligent and efficient, no doubt, but they're hard to root for when they kill so casually in a world that's supposed to be our own. I don't really have a problem with violence in my movies, but Kick-Ass just seems so mean-spirited that it's hard to ignore. That being said, the fight sequences were still my favorite parts of the film. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are truly amazing in action. In fact, in retrospect, I would rather the film had embraced its strong action sequences and taken a more serious approach. This is because the humor seemed like it was just recycled generic "cool loser" dialogue. A subplot involves the girl Johnson likes and the rest of his school thinking he's gay because he was ostensibly brought into the emergency room naked (he had the paramedics dispose of his costume). Not only does this result in a lot of obvious gay jokes, but I can't really see how the student body came to the "gay" conclusion when it seemed like their fellow peer was raped. It seems either not entirely thought-through or just plain cynical, and with the rest of the film being so amoral, I suspect the latter. Finally, although the fight scenes were true delights, many of them ended the same way - one person getting pinned down, another showing up to save them at the last minute. This happens at least three times, two of them within fifteen minutes of each other. There's also a "secret weapon" that they hold out on showing for way too long. I guessed it when it was first brought up, and I don't even do that in movies. Overall, Kick-Ass is a movie that is great in some areas and regretable in others. It's clear that it's found a huge fanbase, which isn't surprising given its slick, action-packed, self-aware take on the comic book genre. I really did enjoy the movie, but I thought that it could have been much better if the ideas had been more fleshed out. Still, Kick-Ass manages to be entertaining and pretty clever, so in the end it lives up to its name. Final rating: 7/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 1 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Ljiljana S. on 7/01/10 at 03:35 PM Great review. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +15 +15 / -0 thumb up thumb down Fatal Attraction (1987) Genre: Mystery & Suspense 90% Posted on 6/24/10 12:57 AM Fatal Attraction was a huge deal when it was released in 1987. Not only was it the highest grossing film of the year, it also gained 6 Oscar nods, including Best Picture. Somehow I managed to remain relatively unaware of the film until recently, when I was able to experience it in all of its infamy. Fatal Attraction looks at the repercussions of extramarital affairs, especially when said affairs are with a psychotic woman. This particular psychotic woman is Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close. Alex appears to suffer from a violent form of borderline personality disorder, prone to emotional reversals and manipulative behavior. Alex becomes obsessed with the man she knows is married. Michael Douglass plays the cheating husband, Anne Archer the hapless wife. Close is clearly the highlight of the film. Sometimes she is frighteningly manic, and other times overbearingly sweet - both modes equally disturbing. One of the more terrifying things about Alex Forrest is her intelligence compared to her emotional maturity. She is clever in all the ways she gets around Douglass's avoidance, but also cries and cuts herself when she doesn't get her way. She's like an intelligent, violent toddler that Douglass can't get rid of. Glen Close gives a performance that may very well end up in your nightmares. The film excels in thrills and suspense, and even dips into the horror genre for its memorable finale. Director Adrian Lyne spins the story out with a very effective touch. There are a number of scenes with great intercutting, including Close catatonicaly turning a light on and off, and the infamous boiling bunny sequence. Other scenes are brilliant in tone, like the clausterphobic library where Douglass confides in a colleague amidst heavy breathing and tall book cases. The suspense builds steadily as Close goes further and further with her infatuation, and the movie keeps up pace. I'm pretty sure the sound of the phone ringing gets increasingly louder. By the last act, the phone's ring sounded more terrifying than any big budget sound effect - all it took was simple conditioning. Well played, Mr. Lyne. My only issue with the film is that it seems somewhat unlikely for Douglass and Close to end up having an affair in the first place. Douglass slips into bed with her very casually, making it seem like he's done this frequently before. If that's the case, then I don't feel as much pity for him, even if he is get stalked. As for Close's character, it seems dubious that she should have so steady a job with an affliction so serious, but maybe she was fine before old cheatin' Douglass came around and messed up her world. Fatal Attraction may have been made in the 80s, but the only thing that seems dated is the attire. It's still an effective thriller that maintains constant suspense, and Glen Close delivers one of the best female antagonist performances I've ever seen. This is easily one of the greatest thrillers ever made. It should not be missed. Final rating: 9/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 21 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Ljiljana S. on 6/24/10 at 02:54 PM Great review, very good movie. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jake on 6/26/10 at 12:37 PM One of my all time favorite movies, great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/26/10 at 01:52 PM Good review James. What did you think of the ending where Glenn Close is shot by the wife? I remember hearing Roger Ebert's review of it, and he said that up until that point he considered it Oscar-worthy but that scene made the whole film fall apart. Am not sure if I agree, would like to hear your thoughts 2 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/27/10 at 09:04 PM I don't feel like it detracted that much from the movie, but I was a little surprised at them using what I considered a cheap trick. Just seemed like a generic touch to an otherwise unique movie, you know? 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/28/10 at 03:46 AM I think you hit the nail on the head :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Andrew K. on 6/29/10 at 10:52 AM Thanks for ruining it! Gees. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/29/10 at 05:45 PM My sincere apologies. I tried to put "spoiler alert" in square brackets but for some reason RT removes them :S 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 6/26/10 at 03:05 PM Great review, Glenn close plays a great psycho bitch. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/27/10 at 09:04 PM Yeah, absofuckinlutely. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse sam48 m. on 6/26/10 at 03:30 PM boy did you take a trip dwon memory lane with this classic, great review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/26/10 at 05:16 PM I remember people saying that this movie would make people think twice before having affairs - not! It was a great thriller. Nice review..... 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Film Ninja on 6/27/10 at 06:36 PM It managed to keep me out of a few one nighters! 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/27/10 at 08:53 PM Just leave Glenn Close alone, you'll be fine...... 2 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/27/10 at 09:04 PM Or just don't have affairs. Report Abuse Film Ninja on 6/28/10 at 08:03 AM Whether it's an affair or not, I'd rather not have a creepy psycho in my bed or in my home. Maybe at a motel on a road trip or something.... Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 6/26/10 at 05:24 PM excellent review James!This is by far Glen Closes best performance! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/26/10 at 07:23 PM Nice review but this one lost me when i was watching it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Film Ninja on 6/27/10 at 06:35 PM Seeing this movie as a kid probably saved me from at least a half dozen relationship disasters. I've met way too many women who resembled Glen Close's character! Good review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Halimali on 6/28/10 at 11:19 AM nice review james. I liked this movie as well. well acted 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 7/02/10 at 11:01 AM Agreed, great movie. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse TheCriticAlex on 8/08/10 at 01:47 PM I have only seen a few minutes of it so i've never seen the entire movie. I'll see it soon nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +13 +13 / -0 thumb up thumb down Sunshine Cleaning (2008) Genre: Comedy 80% Posted on 6/22/10 08:05 PM Sunshine Cleaning follows sisters Amy Adams and Emily Blunt as they try their hand at a new business. That business would be cleaning up after crime scenes and accidents, involving a lot of gross messes and bodily fluids. They're unlikely candidates for the job, and at first their inexperience shows, but eventually it becomes more than just a source of income to them. I had a great time watching this movie. The distinguishing feature of it, the "cleaning up after dead people" occupation, gives the story an obvious path, and I'll admit that it doesn't stray far from it. Still, the movie prevails by remaining optimistically upbeat throughout, while still being able to have a few deeper scenes. The cast is no doubt the reason for the film's cheery cadence. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are an excellent pair of female leads. Adams is so insecure that her self confidence has to come through Post-It notes. Blunt is such a fuck-up that she can't even keep a job down. Both find self-value in the clean-up job. It's a simple but effective character arc that Adams and Blunt handle terrifically. Even with recent career missteps such as "Leap Year", Adams has quickly become one of my favorite modern actresses. Alan Arkin co-stars as their father, and when isn't Arkin a pleasure to have on screen? Arkin provides a lot of the optimism of the film, supporting his iconoclast grandson and encouraging him to realize his talents. Steve Zahn is also in attendance, acting like a real human being for once. The ensemble creates a very realistic family - sure, they might be a little weird, but so is everyone's family. Sunshine Cleaning is decidedly a character study, and it's good because its characters are worth studying. One of the most interesting characters in the movie is sadly mistreated, however. Clifton Collins, Jr. plays a one-armed store owner who goes to great lengths to help Adams out. Blunt initially calls him a freak, citing his dismemberment as the only necessary cause. Adams may not share her sister's disgust, but it seems like she relies on him a whole lot - some might make a point she was using him. Now I'm not saying that every guy who helps out an attractive girl should be rewarded with some sort of shot with her, but Collins, Jr. essentially starts her job training, and even watches her kid for him - a kid who just broke a model airplane of his. In the end, Collins, Jr.'s reward seems to be the friendship of Adams and her family. I think the prospect of a one-armed romantic interest would have been a sensible and progressively step for the movie to take, but it uncharacteristically deviates from formula here. Amputees aside, the film shares a lot of similarities with Little Miss Sunshine: eccentric old grandfather, cutesy outsider kid, dysfunctional family, a vehicle as focal to the characters' journeys, and hell, even the word "sunshine" in the title. Still, Sunshine Cleaning has enough heart to stand alone as its own movie, and if the producers end up with a third movie addressing the same themes, I'd be fine with a "Sunshine Trilogy" - as long as the third film matches Sunshine Cleaning in quality. Despite an apparent impression of unoriginality, Sunshine Cleaning is an effective character study with an excellent cast. It's a bit formulaic, but grade-A performances and an optimistic tone make Sunshine Cleaning worth watching. Final rating: 8/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 13 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: ChrisCinephile on 6/22/10 at 08:32 PM great review James!sounds like a great time,i should check it out 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/22/10 at 08:38 PM I liked it as well. Good review.... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Rohit Ramachandran on 6/22/10 at 11:35 PM Nice review. But I think I'll pass. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/22/10 at 11:41 PM Very good review it looks like a film i will see. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 6/23/10 at 12:13 AM Nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 6/23/10 at 05:08 AM Nice Review, I wasn't too pushed about Little Miss Sunshine, but this doesn't quite as quirky, which is more up my street 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Slushy on 6/23/10 at 09:11 AM nice review, looking forward to seeing it 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 6/23/10 at 10:32 AM Great review, very good movie. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse unbreakable_samurai on 6/23/10 at 02:16 PM One of my favorite films of last year actually. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Courtney W. on 6/23/10 at 03:30 PM I keep thinking I'll watch this one. I'm glad you decided to review it. Good Job. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Erik P. on 6/24/10 at 07:29 AM nice review dude, ive seen parts of this but never the entire thing. I love amy adams so ill finish this soon 0 Replies \| Report Abuse jorge m. on 6/24/10 at 01:11 PM I really wanted to see this film, but it sadly never came up in my country. I guess I'll just have to look for it somewhere, because it really appeals to me...Great review ;) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Amardeep i. on 7/06/10 at 03:45 PM Nice review,soon I am gonna watch it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +1 +2 / -1 thumb up thumb down Top Gun (1986) Genre: Drama 40% Posted on 6/22/10 06:44 PM I think it's safe to say that nostalgia is the only reason Top Gun remains so revered. At least, I hope that's the only reason, because Top Gun is a really bad movie. Top Gun was the highest gross film in 1986, as well as the cannon that shot Tom Cruise into super stardom. Since I wasn't around in '86 and I have the benefit of hindsight, I can't fathom how people watched Cruise and didn't think something was a little off. He has such a creepy intensity that oftentimes I just had to assume he was looking at Kelly McGillis intimately. If I'd judged it by his acting, I could only assume he was about to strangle her. His character, the forever memorable Maverick, also seems to me like an unlikely character to root for, much less idolize. Maverick is absurdly arrogant and desperately defiant, risking his own and others' lives repeatedly. The movie lets him off the hook by having tragedy come by way of accident instead of his actions, but that doesn't change the fact that Maverick is, all things considered, a prick. The characters remain static, never becoming more than "the goofy best friend", "the hard-to-get love interest", "the snarky rival", and, of course, "the angry bald dude". All of them spend the entirety of the film telling Maverick to chill the hell out. Maverick spends the entirety of the film telling them to fuck off. Adding insult to injury is the soundtrack. I'm not a hater of 80s music by any means, but the guy in charge of Top Gun's soundtrack seems content with getting two songs and repeating them ad nauseam. "Danger Zone" has never been anything more than a novelty, and the opening bars of "Take My Breath Away" are not some works of genius - neither needs to be heard as much as they are during Top Gun. There are a few redeeming reasons to watching Top Gun. You'll probably recognize a bunch of phrases that have become part of popular culture, and there are some amazing flight scenes. In fact, the action scenes in the air are so impressive that I would probably recommend the movie for those alone - the last act, which centers on Cruise's first real assignment could stand alone as a great action short film. Had the movie focused even more on scenes with its characters kicking aerial ass and less on superfluous beach volleyball scenes, it might have gained more credibility as a classic 80s action film. Instead, Top Gun is a Tom Cruise showboat, championing a character who you'd never want to work with in your life. The story is flat and superficial, and the acting is hammy, sometimes worse. As an impressive showcase of jet pilot action scenes, Top Gun works exceedingly well. As a movie, Top Gun is really bad. Final rating: 4/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 1 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Ljiljana S. on 6/23/10 at 10:50 AM Very good review, I liked the movie, it has some charm. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +27 +27 / -0 thumb up thumb down Toy Story 3 (2010) Genre: Animation 100% Posted on 6/13/10 05:27 PM In 1995 and 1999, Toy Story and its sequel made a huge impact on the world of feature-length animations, combining stunning visuals, solid stories and unforgettable characters - all in the relatively new field of computer animation. It's been 11 years since we last followed Woody and Buzz. In that time, CGI has become ubiquitous and the Academy Awards have created the "Best Animated Feature" category. Despite the age of its source material, Toy Story 3 stands up to both its predecessors and its contemporary competition. This is an excellent movie in every way. The original principal cast all return. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen lead the excellent ensemble, comfortably reprising their roles of Woody and Buzz. New characters include an old timey strawberry-scented bear named Lotso Hugs, voiced by Ned Beatty in perfect form, and a possibly closeted Ken doll voiced by Michael Keaton. The film starts with a comical action sequence being acted out in a young Andy's mind. With the transition to reality comes the reality of aging, as camcorder footage fast forwards us to nine years later. Andy is about to leave for college; he has long stopped playing with his toys, who are desperate for attention. During packing, the toys accidentally get set out for the trash, and the adventure begins. They eventually wind up in the Sunnyside Daycare Center, where Lotso is in charge of all the toys. At first it seems like toy paradise, with the immortal prospect of cycling groups of children to play with them forever. All of the toys except Woody approve and want to stay. Woody would rather them go back and sit in Andy's attic. This motivation was the only problem I had with the movie. The film seems to be on Woody's side in suggesting that the best thing for a toy is playless waiting out of loyalty. But then again, what do I know about how toys should be treated? I'm a human being. In any case, the daycare turns out to be a toy prison with Lotso as its strawberry-scented warden. Woody, having left his friends to get back to Andy, finds out about their peril and goes on a rescue mission. The rest of the story is very fulfilling and entertaining. It always moves forward, and expertly paces its light and heavy scenes. And there are heavy scenes. Toy Story 3 contains the darkest and most emotional themes of the series, appropriate for the maturity of the audience that grew up with Andy. One scene near the end gets surprisingly somber in a moment of fatalist acceptance. The film is able to retain its humor, however, continuing the balance between heart and laughter that the series has always attained. All of the secondary characters have great moments. Usually as franchises go on, the pantheon of characters expands, but Pixar uniquely decided to scale back its returning players. Now only the core group remains, with even the little green army men defecting early on. This paucity of characters provides a chance to give each of them a little more screen time. They're all funny characters with great talent behind them, so I'm grateful that Toy Story 3 is not bloated with new characters. There are a few new characters, but many of them receive very little screen time. Luckily, they all make the best of the time they're given, and are some of the highlights of the film. Timothy Dalton is scene-stealing as a pompous hedgehog toy, and it only made sense when I learned that Kristen Schaal voiced Trixie, another toy dinosaur, and a small character that delivered huge laughs. I was also pleasantly surprised to find the Spanish Buzz sequence funny; I thought it looked trite in the early teasers, but it plays out with mucho hilarity in the film. Toy Story has it all. It provides great laughs (two of my favorites both involved monkeys) and a lot of heart. The end of the film is the most touching of all, and provides a perfect cap for the entire series. Pixar has seemingly done the impossible: They've created the perfect trilogy. Toy Story 3 is everything you want and expect it to be. It's just like the first two, and that has never been a more complimentary comparison. Final rating: 10/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 30 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: RJ Smoove on 6/13/10 at 05:41 PM Holy shit. I expected it to be good, but now I'm overly hyped. Let's go Pixar, let's go...Great review! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Isaiah R. on 6/13/10 at 05:47 PM Great review. Toy Story 3 looks too good. I HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE!!! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/13/10 at 05:55 PM Normally I don't get hyped, but you've got me hyped. Great review! 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Daniel Mumby on 6/13/10 at 05:55 PM Plus, anything with a Timothy Dalton cameo can't be all bad :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/13/10 at 06:27 PM Nice review don't think i will see this though. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse William S. on 6/15/10 at 11:46 AM wtf? 1 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/15/10 at 03:01 PM It's not something i am likeing to see. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse troyman21 on 6/13/10 at 06:37 PM I was planning on seeing this either way with the intentions that it would be a nice comeback for the series but wouldn't be quite as great as the first 2. But here I read your review, and it's just as excellent as the first two, really? I'm hyped now! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 6/13/10 at 07:06 PM This sounds good, I'm not a exactly a die hard pixar super fan but I enjoyed the first 2 Toy Stories. I'd definitely give it a look on this recommendation. Nice Review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/13/10 at 07:07 PM I knew it was going to be tough to top How to Train a Dragon but it sounds like it did. Good review..... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Roberto L. on 6/13/10 at 07:51 PM Fuck Man i cant wait to see this!!!!! just 6 more days!!! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Vampire Reilly on 6/13/10 at 08:09 PM Good review,Can't wait for this one 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bernard1422 on 6/13/10 at 08:44 PM It's good to read that this franchise is viable. Nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Alexson Philip on 6/13/10 at 09:34 PM Great review man. it sounds just like what most of the other critics have been saying about this film. i cant wait to watch it. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 6/13/10 at 11:09 PM Awesome review, really looking forward to see it. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Erik P. on 6/14/10 at 06:29 AM im impressed with this movie already. i cannot wait to see this. awesome review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Matthew P on 6/14/10 at 08:53 AM This is already out?! I thought it was gonna be out this Friday!! Holy crap!! Fulfilling and optimistic review.. must see this one. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse maxthesax on 6/14/10 at 09:24 AM what a terrific review! You've really gotten me excited to see this one (I loved the first two). 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Frederic C. on 6/14/10 at 09:56 AM Go Pixar! Way to create the perfect trilogy! Wow, now I'm really excited about seeing this movie! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bill T. on 6/14/10 at 11:12 AM Well, it seems that Toy Story can do no wrong! Excellent review and I'm really looking forward to seeing this one! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Slushy on 6/14/10 at 02:27 PM Great review James, I hope it holds the 100% mark... such an amazing series of movies 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Z-Man on 6/15/10 at 04:42 AM GREAT REVIEW. CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS ONE. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse The Yellow Dart on 6/15/10 at 07:07 AM Super excited for this now. Great review.Never thought of it that way! This would be one of the best trilogies of all time! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 6/15/10 at 02:03 PM fuck i cant wait to watch thisexcellent review James! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse nbrush on 6/18/10 at 06:01 AM It's still sitting at 100% from the Rotten Tomatoes critics too, so this is a truely rare feat... 3 excellent movies in this Toy Story franchise. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse sam48 m. on 6/22/10 at 01:34 PM excellent review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse cade14 on 6/26/10 at 12:47 AM another great review - i really loved this film! keep it up!! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Komal S. on 6/29/10 at 01:12 AM excellent review James! I agree with you on all parts of your review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 7/03/10 at 07:27 PM Great review! Love this series too much. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse D.D on 7/06/10 at 12:16 PM Looks like a great film. Have to make time to go watch it. Great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +13 +13 / -0 thumb up thumb down Going Overboard (1989) Genre: Comedy 0% Posted on 6/08/10 11:49 PM I stumbled upon this movie while working and subsequently discovered that it was available for free on YouTube. I was interested to see what Sandler was like so early in his career, before joining Saturday Night Live and after only a few appearances on the Cosby Show. Within the first five minutes of the film I had already become skeptical of it ever displaying any redeemable qualities. My expectations were met spot-on. The film follows Sandler as a cocktail waiter on a cruise ship full of beauty pageant contestants. Sandler is aware of the camera and frequently speaks to it, often having conversations with it that the other characters ignore. Not a bad way to tell a story, but Sandler's inexperience shows painfully. What's really telling is that you can see all of the comedy shticks that would end up making him famous - silly faces, baby voices, stammering - in a totally unrefined way. Yeah, more unrefined than Sandler has ever been. The jokes are all lame and obvious, and it seems like the script (if there was any) probably never reached a second draft. The worst part is that there is a comedian on the ship who is probably the least funny character. Sandler's "character" yearns to also become a stand-up comedian, which is only appropriate for this film, since his jokes are also horrendously flat. There's another plotline involving General Noriega and two of his cronies who have Arabic names and speak with a sort of Italian accent. They too end up being stand-up comedians at the end, and they are, wait for it, unfunny. The only one who gets any laughs is a "what the hell are you doing here" cameo by Milton Berle, who tells a few simple jokes that are aeons funnier than the garbage that Sandler and co. put forth. Billy Zane, also early in his career, shows up as Poseidon, and might be worthy of the "worst actor" title for this film. I'm convinced that if more people had seen this movie, Zane would not be a successful actor today. But not many people have seen the film, to the benefit of everyone involved. I understand that the film is, as Sandler lets us know early on, a "no budget" film. Someone probably got permission to shoot on a cruise ship with traveling beauty pageant contestants and didn't want to pass the opportunity up in the name of "quality". It's cool, I know what's up. But even with zero dollars for your budget, you can get a bit more creative than birds crapping in someone's drink. If you have the time and are interested in Sandler's career, go to YouTube, search for this movie, and skip ahead to any point in the film. I promise that within a minute you'll instantly understand everything I've said in this review. It's epiphany-inducingly bad. Final rating: 0/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 16 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Vampire Reilly on 6/09/10 at 12:23 AM Good review,Maybe I'll watch this just to check out it's crappiness 0 Replies \| Report Abuse John Arthur Beaman on 6/09/10 at 12:29 AM I always say, the best movies are on You Tube. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 6/09/10 at 12:39 AM Great review. :) 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Hawaiianguy2991 on 6/09/10 at 12:48 AM Nice review, I'll check out this movie to see just how crappy it really is 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jack P. on 6/09/10 at 02:53 AM i thought it was bad, but i like to watch it sometimes with my friends just to sit there and make fun of it with them 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Shane K. on 6/09/10 at 04:25 AM Not being a huge Adam Sandler fan to begin with, I think I'll avoid this one. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Jesse P. on 6/09/10 at 04:42 AM Nice review I know it was crap. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 6/09/10 at 06:45 AM Don't like Sandler so I'm not too surprised. Good review..... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Erik P. on 6/09/10 at 10:01 AM i hate adam sandler, nice review anyway though 0 Replies \| Report Abuse ChrisCinephile on 6/09/10 at 07:40 PM great review James!!thanks for the warning!ill follow you on twitter! 1 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 6/10/10 at 09:28 AM Fuck yeah, thank you! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bernard1422 on 6/10/10 at 05:09 AM I couldn't agree more with you. It should have been kedt undone 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Halimali on 6/10/10 at 11:08 AM oh looks awful. nice review 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Mack Tuck on 6/10/10 at 12:17 PM i love adam sandler i will moste deff have to check this one out good revie man 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Amardeep i. on 6/20/10 at 02:22 PM Really never heard and probably not gonna dare to watch it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 7/04/10 at 08:06 AM Bad! Great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse
	Votes +11 +19 / -8 thumb up thumb down The Wolfman (2010) Genre: Mystery & Suspense 20% Posted on 3/22/10 04:52 AM The Wolfman! One of the classic Universal monsters alongside Dracula, the Mummy, and a handful of others, forever inscribed upon our collective consciousness through continuous revampings and updates. Does the latest reboot of a horror series stand up to the quality of the installments that preceded it? Though I've never actually seen any other Wolfman movies, I can only hope that that answer is "no" - the latest interpretation, by director Joe Johnston, is a bad movie in absolutely every regard. With the evolution of the vampire guiding that iconic monster into tweeny bopping territory, I looked at the apparently dark and violent reboot of the Wolfman as a chance to find a badass monster amidst a current sea of sucky creatures. Unfortunately, this Wolfman film is unintelligible, relentlessly grim, and laughably cheesy. And not cheesy in an intentional campy way. It's just a bit pathetic. The Wolfman follows Benicio Del Torro, who returns to his home town after his brother has been killed by a werewolf. He has an estranged relationship with his father, Anthony Hopkins, and a nascent inappropriate relationship with his dead brother's widow, Emily Blunt. Through in Hugo Weaving as a Scottish inspector, and you have our cast. Our players for our horrible, horrible film. What makes The Wolfman so bad? Well, for one, the film was plagued by a series of rewrites that resulted in an entirely senseless story. You have to go into this movie expecting things to not make a lick of sense. One of the most glaring examples is when Del Torro is arrested because the townspeople suspect him of being a werewolf after suffering a bite at a gypsy camp. That's all well and good, but after detaining Del Torro in a mental hospital, the tune of his antagonists changes: Now they insist that Del Torro has made the whole werewolf thing up in his mind, and they are going to hold him in a room to prove to him that his delusions aren't real. Wait, what? Yes, they arrest him against his will because he might be a werewolf. Then, as he sits bounded, yelling at his captors to let him go so he won't kill them, they insist on holding him to prove that he's NOT a werewolf. Pointless and infuriatingly inconsistent scenes like this tie together werewolf attacks dominated by cheesy deaths and unimpressive CGI gore. The bad CGI is really disappointing, because one of the few things I can commend the movie on is its werewolf make-up. It's much more evocative of the original prosthetic make-up that I've seen this Wolfman's ancestors sport, and not bogged down by computer graphics. Had they consistently applied this technique, I would have been able to at least laud the film's visual effects. However, after designing the Wolfman, it appears as though the film's crew gave up and fell back on CGI blood obfuscated in the shadows of the hardly-lit settings. Del Torro himself is gruff and joyless in the lead role. I understand that this is supposed to be a horror movie, but there's a difference between strong and silent and squinty-eyed and uncharismatic, and unfortunately Del Torro never expands beyond the latter pair of abilities. The once-glorious Anthony Hopkins seems tired and bored, well-aware of the low grade of the material he's been given to work with. The only actor who makes their part enjoyable is Hugo Weaving as the persistent inspector who will probably show up if they ever unwisely decide to make a sequel to this trash. The Wolfman suffers from a predictable plot with a foreseeable twist, on top of stale acting, a pastiche story, and a tiring devotion to showing a shot of the moon between every scene. Speaking of which, how long does the story in this film go on for? There is a laughably high frequency of full moons that turn various characters into werewolves. It would have been awesome if the writers had found a way to tell a good story across a couple of full moons instead of an incomprehensible one across many. No matter how interested you are in werewolves, you shouldn't bother seeing this movie. Maybe you heard of the werewolf fight, complete with one flaming werewolf - trust me, even that is far more boring than it sounds. This entire film is a dark and muddled mess, and a tragic reboot to a series that obviously has the ability to resonate with multiple generations. Now we just have to wait the three years for this film to be erased from our memory, and perhaps someone will get the Wolfman right. But probably not. Final rating: 2/10 --James A. Janisse http://twitter.com/JamesAJanisse 27 Comments \| Send This \| Comments: Shane K. on 3/22/10 at 05:19 AM Great review man, all that's needed now is for someone to make a really awful Frankenstein movie to complete the set. 1 Replies \| Report Abuse James A. Janisse on 3/22/10 at 05:46 AM Good call... though we'll also need a creature from the black lagoon! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bob M. on 3/22/10 at 06:22 AM Good work. I have not seen anything good about this one...... 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Andrew K. on 3/22/10 at 07:16 AM I have to disagree. While I wasn't blown away, and it wasn't what I expected, I enjoyed this movie, and I hope the DVD release can clear up some problems. It's a movie with a lot of "what if"s tied to the making of, but with all of the problems during production, I enjoyed the final product. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Ljiljana S. on 3/22/10 at 07:18 AM Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Dean H on 3/22/10 at 09:20 AM if its a digital wolfman then its nothing special, but Lon Chaney Jr actually became the CHARACTER of the wolfman, now thats talent. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse TheCriticAlex on 3/22/10 at 09:30 AM Wow this movie must really suck. I mean I thought it would as least be medicore. Well I'll see for myself. The message I sent you was about the new predators trailer so you could hear arnold schwarzenegger's critique you'll like it lol. Send it to your other friends if you want. I'm sending to mine as well enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBv4AsGVDxw 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Booze Fighter on 3/22/10 at 10:10 AM to bad it had a decent set of actors. Guess ill have to wait to rent it 0 Replies \| Report Abuse cjsmovies on 3/22/10 at 10:28 AM Great review, hope I never see this one. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Christopher on 3/22/10 at 10:47 AM I do agree that it's way to predictable but i was still able to enjoy the movie as a whole. Fantastic review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse HERESSSSSSJOHNNY on 3/22/10 at 10:56 AM I didn't think the film was that bad, but thats just me. Great review! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Awesome Barnhart on 3/22/10 at 11:16 AM Awesome review, thumbs up! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Castle91 on 3/22/10 at 12:16 PM I have to correct you on your example of bad story. If you recall, Francis Abberline believed that Talbot was mentally unstable, and thus could have committed the murders. And he followed the trail right back to Talbot in the morning. The church group confronted him about being a werewolf.Otherwise a very well-written review. Although I enjoyed it far more than most. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Psycho Manana Banana Man on 3/22/10 at 01:04 PM This would bee to violent for me but you really did put me off it (so great work there). Great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse John H. on 3/22/10 at 02:31 PM Totally agree with you James. I knew this would be bad, but I had no idea how bad it would be. I just sort of hoped that maybe...just maybe this would be pretty good. No such luck! 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Nate R. on 3/22/10 at 03:42 PM I disagree I loved this movie.. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse starlett2005 on 3/22/10 at 03:43 PM I have to disagree. I enjoyed this movie. However, great review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Isaiah R. on 3/22/10 at 06:48 PM I only saw the last half of the movie and based on that I liked it. I'll have to see it from the beginning to form a true opinion. Nice review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Bernard1422 on 3/22/10 at 09:17 PM There have been some favorable comments about this flick but not too many. I personally feel you have your finger right on the pulse of it. It's one of those disaster that occurs with frequency when someone is too eager to pursue the monster(wolfman in this case)and forgets about the all important storyline, if the movie ever had one 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Pheasant on 3/23/10 at 09:21 AM Have not seen it but was not really interested. Thanks for giving me more to think about.. might be a DVD rental one day. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse KJ Cassidy on 3/23/10 at 10:12 AM So disappointing.But an excellent review. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse MTGHall on 3/23/10 at 11:11 AM Loved the original Universal Wolfman. I have heard mixed reviews about this, just waiting to see it before I judge it. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse piratefan60 on 3/23/10 at 05:44 PM good review. i haven't seen it yet, but i wasn't to interested in the trailer. thanks for letting me know more about it 0 Replies \| Report Abuse David S. on 3/25/10 at 07:24 AM I didn't think it was this bad. I believe that they were trying to make a B-horror flick. That's what the original was. I believe that this is one of those movies that if you don't think about all the little details it will be fun. I had fun watching this movie and felt that it was worth the ticket. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse JT Vincent on 3/25/10 at 03:19 PM Great review, won't be witnessing Wolfman. Yep, that's deliberately awful alliteration 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Michael Wheeler - Reevue on 3/26/10 at 01:05 PM Really that bad? lol 0 Replies \| Report Abuse Epi on 3/28/10 at 07:48 PM Totally agreed -- Hopkins and DelToro might have thought they were walking into a great film, but after watching the end result, they must be distancing themselves from this embarrassment. One of the worst films of 2010. 0 Replies \| Report Abuse

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Red Eye (2005)

Get Low (2010)

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Fatal Attraction (1987)

Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

Top Gun (1986)

Toy Story 3 (2010)

Going Overboard (1989)

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Showing 1 - 10 of 67 Reviews