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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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With the exception of the title, I have been staring at a blank word document for the last half an hour. In my head, this film has been rated from 1 star to 4 stars and back down to 1 again. Even now, I have no idea how it’s going to end up.

Hancock (Will Smith) is the anti-superhero. When he’s not saving peoples' lives he is passed out drunk on a street corner somewhere or drinking himself into a stupor on his way to being passed out drunk. He is a mess. When he isn’t drunk, he is “helping” to save the city from random low-end thugs. I use the term “helping” loosely because his nonchalant approach to property damage mid-rescue seems to be a source of great displeasure to those he is trying to help. His antics finally become too much of a cross to bear and the city turns against him. It is curious that he doesn’t seem at all fazed by the fact that people in general seem to despise his existence: he just keeps coming to their rescue.

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Review by Deana Martin

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Ever since Crash won the Academy Award for Best Picture it seems as though Hollywood screenwriters have been in a race to make the next ensemble drama where everyone's story is woven together into a neat little bow. Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe is just another in the long list of these attempts. This time, the thread holding these characters together is weak, predictable and at times, ludicrous. According to IMDb, the four interweaving stories in this film are supposed to mirror the Chinese proverb claiming that happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love are the most important things in life. But outside of the director telling us before each sketch which emotion the following segment is supposed to represent, you do not really get anything other than depressed, stereotypical characters in ridiculously over the top life and death situations.

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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News flash: relationships are hard. They can be very frustrating at times. The way men and women attempt to communicate has always been a source of equal parts fascination and bewilderment to me. Everybody wants to know what the other person is thinking but unlike any other interaction in life, we use these odd methods of approach when dealing with the opposite sex. Rarely do people just come out and say what they think or ask what they actually want to know. Women seem to always want to know what guys are thinking. Men, on the other hand, seem less interested in wanting to know what women are thinking than they are in finding ways to not let on what they are thinking. I think everyone can agree that the whole thing is absurd, yet we still find ourselves doing the same thing again and again. My Blueberry Nights is a character study that dissects this very concept.

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Review by David DiMichele

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There is a line of dialogue that is as sharp, lethal and beautiful as all of the extreme violence in Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic book-to-movie adaptation Wanted: “He can conduct a symphony orchestra with a pistol.” Russian-born director Timur Bekmambetov does exactly that in stylish fashion to produce a creation that’s the zestiest and sexiest movie of the summer. At the risk of having his movie fall into the fringe of mindless action and pointless shoot-'em-up sequences, he nevertheless weaves a gut-wrenching story where the action scenes double as pristine pieces of adored art work.

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Review by David DiMichele

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The bewilderment and wonder that characterized stories involving toys, fish, cars and rats isn’t as powerfully conceived in this story about robots. But that isn't to say that Wall*E falls flat on its face, either. There is truth to be told in a post-apocalyptic animated film that equates to a kid's version of An Inconvenient Truth. Yet, even as the egos begin to swell at the Pixar studios, they should realize that conquering space is much more arduous than conquering a boy’s bedroom, a French restaurant, a run-down Route 66 and the Atlantic Ocean.

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Review by David DiMichele

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Get Smart is a film that’s smart in its approach to the genre it is supposedly spoofing. It avoids the vulgar comedy, old routines and bad acting that the “spoof” genre is rightfully known for, and instead, cashes it in for believable characters, a good story and silly humor that actually works without having to be being forced down your throat. Hatching what seems to be a James Bond-esque plot that proves to be a distant cousin of those films, it delivers goofy, yet realistic humor reminiscent of the 1960s television series it lays claim to.

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Review by David DiMichele

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There’s one scene in the newest version of The Incredible Hulk that sweeps you up to an emotional high point and just drops you, face first, without any regard. It involves a young woman and her lover in a local restaurant. The rain is pouring outside but they are getting served after closing time because they know the owner. The camera moves to woman's point of view as she stares with ecstasy at her lover while she talks excitedly to him. The camera then shifts focus beyond the lover’s head to a set of swinging doors. Another man, the woman’s former lover, comes from the swinging doors of the kitchen without knowing she’s there. The glances that the woman and her former lover exchange are beyond priceless. He leaves again so quickly that she misses the opportunity that she has been yearning for ever since he left. She says to the old owner with tears already seeping down her cheeks: “just tell me what I saw was real.”  He replies with the slightest nod of his head. She exhales deeply, finally reassured hat her former lover has safely returned from wherever he was. At this point we completely forget  that we’re watching a comic book movie about a gigantic green monster.

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Review by David DiMichele

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Nothing in this film bears any resemblance to M. Night Shyamalans’ previous morbid and dull thriller, Lady in the Water. The Happening departs from that film and from all of the director's previous films, to focus instead on a theme that resonates deeply with our world’s current situation - terrible things happen to people but no one knows why. The result is a slowly building suspense film that binds reality and imagination together in ways that only a master bedtime storyteller could do.

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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A decade on from the release of Toy Story, the new car smell of the age of computer animated feature films is gone. Nowadays it is difficult to justify liking something simply because it looks good. I’m afraid that ship has sailed. No, now we assume the film will look great and so we look to the story to work in conjunction with the animation to make a great film. These days, our assumptions and expectations have been heightened by the success of so many computer animated feature films, but sadly there are few really great ones. But the good news is that it is time to clear a spot towards the top because we have a new member of that illustrious circle.

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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My appreciation of the career of Adam Sandler has been a tumultuous affair. It started with Billy Madison. With every bone in my critic and non-critic being, I know it to be an atrocity of a movie. But I still like it. Happy Gilmore paid it forward and then Bulletproof came along. I didn’t like it, but I appreciated the departure from his brand of stupid comedy. Then he went back to his stupid brand of comedy for a few films, then Punch-Drunk Love came out and blew everybody away. Then he went back to the well, then Spanglish. The well. Reign Over Me. The well. And so on. Whether it works or not, every time he tries something different he follows it up with a few old stand by’s. You almost have to admire his tenacity.

Almost.

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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The idea of being terrorized by strangers is nothing new to the horror or thriller genres. Exponentially, the idea of being terrorized by those same strangers within the confines of your home should be scarier. The idea of someone forcing their way into your house threatens the belief we have that we are safest in the sanctuary of our own home. The Strangers attempts to weave that idea into a story, which it does pretty well. It then attempts to sustain that idea for the length of a two-hour movie, which it doesn’t do very well.

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Review by David DiMichele

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If Babe Ruth, arguably the best baseball player of all time, was alive today, would he plunge head-first into the steroid/human growth hormone fiasco that has led to the decay of the game? He was a great player in an era where these enhancements, not to mention the fancy equipment that players of today now swear by, were non-existent…so what need would he have for them? This is what has happened to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the latest installment in what is arguably the greatest series of action films of all time.

Director: Andrew Adamson
Release Date: May 16, 2008
Running Time: 137 min
MPAA Rating: PG
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Pictures

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Review by David DiMichele

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The travesty of Disneyfication that surrounded the first wearying and child-like installment of C.S. Lewis' seven- book series is still lurking somewhere in the shadows of the second installment, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The first half of the movie details the overthrow of Narnia by the ruthless Telmarine Empire, an army of men sporting perfectly-sculpted beards that scream EVIL! The Narnians have problems of their own. Their deceased king's son, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), is next in line to inherit the throne, but the man who killed his father is his uncle Miraz (played with abundant energy by Sergio Castellitto). Not only does Miraze want the throne for himself, he also intends for his newborn son to inherit it from him. Caspian is thus forced to flee from the medieval castle.

Starring: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett, Nate Parker
Director: Denzel Washington
DVD Release Date: May 13, 2008
Running Time: 123 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: The Weinstein Company

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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When you pair up two great actors in a film you expect great performances from them. This seems like a simple idea, but it doesn’t always play out the way it should. The Great Debaters is touted as having two former winners of the Academy Award for Best Actor going head to head with each other, yet curiously they only share two scenes together, by my count. Both scenes work well but aren’t a true indication of how the movie plays. The Great Debaters follows the true story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington), a no-nonsense debate coach and sometime political activist who drove his team to national prominence in 1935 by challenging and defeating some of the best debate schools, white or black, in the nation.

Starring: Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox
Director: Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski
Release Date: May 9, 2008
Running Time: 135 min
MPAA Rating: PG
Distributor: Warner Bros.

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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Prior to this weekend, I could not think of a single pertinent reason that would justify making Speed Racer into a feature film apart from the obvious one of exploiting existing media for financial gain. I had every reason to dislike this film. Larry and Andy Wachowski, the force behind a couple of little indie films, Bound and The Matrix, had some splainin’ to do. Since being widely and rightfully accused of ruining The Matrix franchise, they have not set foot behind the camera. I would call this a good thing.

Speed Racer is more than just a movie by the Wachowski Brothers; it is their attempt at reinvention and they want to make a statement. What that statement is, though, is unclear. Do they want to be taken seriously once again, or do they want something that will put a middle finger in the face of anyone who questions their path? Either way, adapting an anime series with a cult following is a curious choice of material. But dig a little deeper and it’s not as much of a leap as you’d think. Look at their directorial efforts – Bound, The Matrix Trilogy, and now Speed Racer. All pretty different movies, but thematically they have a common thread: the observation of the traps people make of their lives and the revelation of their eventual transformation. Basic stuff, I know, but it becomes interesting when you consider that their career is starting to become molded to that same theme. Speed Racer is the Wachowski’s warm embrace of that idea.

But I am getting off track.