Documentary DVD Review: "YES MEN" Score B--

Documentary work about a small group of men who impersonate the World Trade Organization by hosting a website that is mistakenly accessed by groups around the world who think they have contacted the real WTO. In actuality these men are anti-globalization advocates. They take it upon themselves to visit conferences, lectures and TV interviews pretending to be a rep of the WTO all the while making outlandish claims, bogus statements and ridiculous ideas. The doc is OK not outstanding, lots of extraneous un-needed footage is included. The best thing about it is that it does present the reality of the real WTO and the policies it creates that benefit only major 1st world corporations and not developing countries.

MOVIE Review: “NINJA ASSASSIAN” Score B+

If you are a fan of Ninjas see this movie. If you are a fan of beheadings, be-handings, throat cutting, blood spurting and kick ass fighting see this movie. It’s a callback to those ninja films of the ‘80’s with a bit more high tech digital effects and bloodletting and better fights. The new unknown lead is proficient in his martial skills, killing and film presence. Sho Kosuki, the real eminent ninja of our modern world, plays the old master and rocks the part. The opening scene is perhaps one of the best in the film. Overall there is little plot to be had and scenes where Special Ops people in full gear get slaughtered while untrained, unprotected people manage to dodge all the killing stars will leave you scratching your head. Most of the fights are brutal as are the training flashbacks, but this is all comic brutality (like in Kill Bill or Wanted). The magical abilities of the ninja throw some things out of proportion, and may have you saying if he could do that why didn’t he just use that power earlier. Overall if you are fan of action films this fits the bill.

DVD Review: "SWING VOTE" Score C-

A hack of a movie, starring a hack of a lead…. Kosner however does manage to pull off this hick of a drunken lame ass father (its pretty close to who he really is). The young daughter was cast with a decent young actress that I am sure we will see more of in better things. As for the movie itself the biggest problem is in the writing, from the plot to the dialogue of each scene it’s all so pedestrian. The concept alone is so ridiculously out there… One drunk father misses voting so his daughter sneaks in past a sleeping official, signs him in and puts his ballot in the electronic voting machine as old cleaning woman knocks out the power cord. So no vote cast (the girl still rips off and keeps the stub). Now never mind that those events alone could happen in any America polling place with no one finding out, what happens next would be impossible he gets to revote and his uncast vote will determine the next president because it’s a tie in every state, in every county and even electoral votes for both candidates until his state is called (now this scenario is impossible). Next he will vote in 10 days and the candidates campaign just for him now making commercials, visiting him etc… all around a media circus. What crap!! Uhgh… who thought this crap up and then who said “yea great idea” let make a movie and greenlit it! Its just bad jokes after bad dialogue after bad writing.

Documentary DVD Review: "RIP A REMIX MANIFESTO" Score A-

This is a film that all creative people in modern art making need to see. I applaud its message and what it is telling us about the history of art and the future its heading toward and the “copyright laws” that will ultimately be mute sooner than later. In the end of this you could sum this movie to be about “Creative Commons” (Google it and you’ll know what that is). The bullshit that is American copyright is almost void in this Internet age. Piracy is one thing straight up stealing a product and selling the same thing…Sampling or REMIXing is a completely different thing and is ART. All art has come from and been built upon what came before. This is the future my fellow man…REMIXing is not about to go away but rather it will be accepted by all.

DVD Review: "THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT" Score B

This is a remake from the same titled film Wes Craven made in the ‘70’s. Updated for today it is not your family friendly scary movie. It’s a horrifying depiction of brutality. Extended rape and killing scenes do make this one extra disturbing as well as it being gore filled. This movie is not for the week of heart, as the torture in it is particularly hard to watch. Other than the tacked on ending this movie portrays events that unfortunately could happen (and do). The cast are all competent in playing the roles they have and this lends to the believability of the film. Be aware that this movie leaves you with an empty feeling by its end.

DVD Review: "STREET FIGHTER; LEGEND OF CHUN-LI" Score D- - -

This movie is a big pile of poop. Man was I bored to sit through this one. The movie is a result of a collaboration of wirters, directors and producers who have no idea how to make an action film and have no business what so ever creating a "Street Fighter" Video game spin off movie. First off its the horrible casting choices throughout this piece of crap. Nothing about this is remotely related to the Street Fighter game other than some of the character's names. Then, the fighting is atrocious, the wire work is horrible, the S/FX are bottom of the heap...in fact this whole movie looks like it was put together by a bunch of high school film makers who decided to make up a "Street Fighter" film (which probably would have been better than this was). The entire production that made this seem to have assembled a team of people who don't know how to shoot action, there appears to be no fight choreographers or experience, no police tactic training, and on and on and on. This thing doesn't quite deserve an F but it is close as it can come to one. The entire cast of actors are really, really bad at both their acting and their fighting. An episode of The Power Rangers would be on par with this thing, except that children's show has better fighters and S/FX. Unless you are extremely bored skip this!

DVD Review: "UP" Score A-

Pixar does it again with this rather delightful simple computer anime film. With a new lead in an old man and his young sidekick a cub scout neighbor, they embark on a journey around the world. The villian is an odd old man with a crew of dogs equiped with translation collars that allow them to talk they create some fun and some obstacles. I really enjoyed this one and its really a testament to the great Pixar teams that create these fun films. However just a note about all the sadness that seems to be at the root of a lot of Disney produced films... (ie Bambi's mom shot and killed, Nemo's mom being killed and him captured, and then this one with the old man's wife dying to set off the adventure). UP does score with top notch animation, and really fun sequences with the bird and dogs. Overall check it out its worth your time!

DVD Review: "THE MACHINIST" Score C

This movie is a waking nightmare. It is strange and out there but the plot is primarily this, a man who due to a past action a year ago, has stopped eating lost most of his weight, and is an insomniac. His insomnia is creating paranoia, schizophenia and a variety of bad life choices. The film is disturbing, and I am not really sure why it was made. Bale made a remarkable personal transformation by cutting his weight down to 120lbs to play this troubled man. I think that Bale took this movie on just to make this actors choice and go anoexic for the role. Its not a particually jaw dropping twist of an ending and if you didn't see it coming then you must not have been watching. SPOILER ALERT: here is the deal, A Man hits and kills a little boy, then he drove away from the accident, this caused him anguish and he stopped eating or sleeping for over a year, now he is disturbed mentally and is seeing the images of the mother, the boy and a strange mangled hand guy called Ivan...all of whom are just in his head he goes crazy and eventually turns him self in for the hit and run and can finally fall asleep in jail THE END... Nothing particularly great, scary or ultimately entertaining about this one.

DVD Review: "BODY OF LIES" Score B

DiCaprio is genuinely good in almost everything that he does these days. In this one he is an Agent stationed in Iraq doing undercover work (however he would really stick out like a sore thumb there if this were a real operation). The story takes an odd turn when he falls for a local nurse and she is ultimately a downfall for him and almost gets him killed. Russel Crowe is primarily useless in this one as his role of an op who now spends little time in the field and most of the time on this handsfree cell phone mic getting intel while tending to his kids. The role required little more than phoning it in.. Some of the action in this is decent but overall the slow moving pace of a relatively open storyline doesn't help this one along. Could have been a better piece.

DVD Review: "FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL" Score B-

Jason Segal is one of the new crop of dorky goofy average looking leading men. Its fine for a comedy. In this he is genuinely funny in certain scenes as he is a competent actor. The storyline here is funny enough however the convenient writing (of him happening to be staying at the same hotel on the same island at the same time as his recent ex and of a hot new replacement girl that happens to be single and happens to fall for him) leads to the comedy and the ultimate happy ending (unlike in real life). The supporting players are all funny in their respective parts and lend a hand to making this a fun ride. Its a nice little film nothing spectacular but worth a view for some laughs.

DVD Review: "MOVING MCALLISTER" Score C--

This lame attempt at a comedy road trip film falls into the crevasse of unfunny-over-trying slacker wanna be hip character film. The non-existent plot of a mail room boy who has to deliver a box from his Miami to LA to impress his law firm CEO. Also he has to pick up the CEO's "wild" niece and drop her off in LA too. Oh and now we are all set for a wacky cross country adventure. Throw in Jon Header as a slacker hitch hiker that joins the ride. The conventions of what the characters all do and their motivations make little sense The lead in 5days will take the Bar Exam and yet takes the job to drive to LA from Miami and get back. The CEO doesn't even give him enough money to rent the truck. The trippy dream/drug sequences are thrown in for whatever. He falls in love in the short 5 days. The CEO who never knew this kid in the first place was setting him up with his niece, the box only had the kid's own shoe in it, he misses his Bar Exam. Its all over the place, and not a cohesive or funny road trip (gross random things are thrown in here to try and get a laugh...they don't). Skip it.

DVD Review: "THE BUCKET LIST" Score C+

Although the teaming up of Nicholson and Freeman is a good paring this film lacked real solid scripting to take full advantage of their chemistry. Of course Freeman can't exist anymore in a film without a voice over by him, essentially un-needed. Nicholson recreates a touch of his cranky old guy with adventurous risk taker and drags Freeman with him. Their adventures are entirely anti-climatic and the film moves rather slow, we all wish they had a few hundred things on their list we could witness not just a couple. Directorial the pace is all to slow. These guys work very well together as actors just this is the wrong piece of film to put them in. Its an OK film just nothing to run out and see right now.

DVD Review: ”I LOVE YOU MAN” Score B++

A delightful buddy comedy away from the mold of a sappy romantic comedy and into the new genre of a bro-mance film. I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would. There are some really funny moments supplied readily from both Rudd (with his awkward character improv) and from Segal who brings a couple outlandish breaks along with sincere acting. Overall the chemistry with these two is great. Both of these guys deliver honest acting moments and deliver real down to earth relate-able characters. The writing is crisp and clear and this one doesn't lag at all. The story is simple enough, newly engaged Realtor Peter (Rudd) has no real male friends so he seeks one out, failed "man dates" flop and he meets a nice guy Sydney (Segal) at an open house he is holding. They hit it off and begin hanging together, which his fiance doesn't care much for. The guys split and in traditional happy ending make up by the end. Along the way this film is filled with little moments of funny that are intertwined in what are real life moments. Its a great film actually..its funny and leaves you feeling good.

DVD Review: "THE WEATHERMAN" Score C

In one of the more boring mis-fires that Nicholas Cage has starred in, the Weatherman has a great director and a decent supporting cast but fall flat. As a moderately successful weatherman in a local market, Cage's character has a life that is in shambles. Divorced (but wants to get back together) a frumpy clueless apathetic 12 year old daughter (who he is trying to hard to hang out with and be her friend) a 15 year old son (that gets sexual hit on by a counselor) and a prize winning writer of a father just diagnosed with cancer (who he can't seem to get approval from). The film plods along slowly and many scenes make no sense other than to try to set up some kind of overall message. I have never heard of a local weatherman being pelted (repeatedly) with various fast food items as he walks down the street, but its in this film. Its a weird film that repleat with bland voice overs attempt to convey a sense of dread about this one man's life. You won't be missing anything if you pass this one by.

DVD Review: "ADVENTURELAND" Score C+

This is a poor man's less funny SUPERBAD ripoff. Actually this is much more of a modern day slacker romantic comedy. I am not sure when this actually happened but a lot of "leading young men" have now become skinny, nerdy, insecure geeks. Which is fine for COMEDIES but in traditional movies its a trend that I hopes goes away soon. Jesse E is nothing more than a repeat of Micheal Cera, same delivery, cadence, and awkwardness. Also I don't see the appeal of Kristin Stewart she seems like she is eternally hungover and depressed not just in the movie but in real life as well. This tale where the lead must take a summer job at a seasonal theme park/carnival (Thus the film title) in order to save for his big move to New York. This virgin lead falls for a co-worker who is sleeping with another married co-worker (unknown to him till later) they date, their goofy nerdy group of co-workers hang out and basically the movie is a slow moving semi-love story between the two leads. Many of the scenes take place around pot smoking which makes you wonder if people are hanging with the lead nerd just to smoke his joints. The movie plays more like an extended after school special. Not my cup of tea and too lame for my tastes.

DVD Review: "THE TOURNAMENT." Score B-

The Tournament is a action movie that is purely made to blow up stuff, flip cars, cut off fingers and exploding heads and bodies. The plot of this film is ridiculous as the world's best assassians meet every 7 years to hunt each other to the death in 24 hours until there can be only one who wins a $10 million dollar prize. Just on that alone you have to write off this movie for nothing more than watching the action. Kelly Hu is basically the lead of this kicking ass all over the place. Ving Rhames is the former tournament winner who is back to avenge his wife's murder which was ordered only to make him join the tournament again. Added for no real reason is Rober Carlye who is an alcoholic poor priest that gets tied up in the game by drinking a cup of coffee that has a tracking marker/mini bomb in it, because one of the assassins removed his. The action and stunts and fighting are all top notch and deserve to be in a movie far better than this plot and writing. This film is so implausible, lacks any conventions of logic and character motivations, and the continuity is a mess (at one point the countdown clock says their is fifteen minutes left and the scenes change from dead of night after highway explosions to bright light of the next day outside a random church) The host/mastermind of the game is more like an announcer of WWE wrestling matches, as he has that movie trailer guy voice that removes him from believing that he is the character. On top of it all the billionaires watching the game and betting on it can somehow watch every moment of every fight etc. because the city has the most closed circuit cameras in the world and the techs can hack every one of them including ones in busses, in gas stations even on moving highways during 120 mph chases! The plot holes abound with cases like that if one assassin can remove his tracker why don't they all just do that? Or that the priest who swallowed that tracker, can't throw it up at first, or crap it out but magically 23 hours later he coughs it up with no problem. Or even that a $10 million prize seems way low for the top assassins (couldn't they take a billion just killing one of the billionaires?). Despite it all.... the action in this is really good. The directors and producers could have made this a comic book esqe film like WANTED or RUNNING MAN and we could have dismissed the plot and other issues. So this one is only for action fans that is it. But its great action at that.