THE REVIEW CORNER

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, and Christopher Plummer Directed by: David Fincher Screenplay by: Steven Zaillian Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson     Is it just me or does it seem like everyone has read this book?  I must be one of the few who haven't read it.  However, this film is still quite entertaining.     Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) has just gotten into some major legal issues because of an article he wrote in which his facts were not backed up with evidence.  His reputation has been ruined.     Fortunately for Blomkvist, Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), an extraordinarily wealthy man, has a rather interesting mystery for Blomkvist to solve.  Vanger's daughter has been missing for forty years and needs someone to find out what happened to her.  Blomkvist must now be a detective for Vanger and the with the help of a young computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), get to know Va...

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, and John Goodman Directed by: Michel Hazanavicius Screenplay by: Michel Hazanavicius     Is the silent film making a comeback?  In an era in which every movie made involves dialogue, how would a silent film (in black and white) be able to compete?  It's entirely possible, just ask the creators of The Artist,  the only new silent film released in recent memory.     Hollywood 1927; the silent film era is beginning to come to a close with the invention of the "talkie", the film with sound and dialogue.  Legendary silent film actor George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is on his way out of the spotlight with the coming age of films with sound.  It seems that it is time for new faces, ones in which the public can hear as well as see.     It's a perfect situation for a beautiful young dancer, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), trying to get involved in this new industry known as Hollywood when she a...

Directed by: Guy Ritchie Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and Noomi Rapace Screenplay by: Michele Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney     The ultimate detective duo is back, and this time, they're playing a dangerous game affecting all of Europe.     It's 1891 and France and Germany are on the brink of war.  Bombs are going off periodically throughout the two countries.  So, it's up to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to figure out what's really going on, and prevent a mad professor from starting a disastrous war.     As with the first Sherlock Holmes  film in the current series (2009), clues are everywhere, even in places we wouldn't expect them to be.  This long and convoluted story, involves many characters (some not even essential to the story yet are main characters), and is not exactly told in a coherent fashion.  It's easy to get lost.  There is so much information about the case given in each scene, that sometimes th...

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, and Sacha Baron Cohen Directed by: Martin Scorsese Screenplay by: John Logan Based on the novel:  "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick     I'd like to start this review by saying that if you had even the slightest thought that this would be a children's movie, you would be correct about the first third of the movie.  But I can promise you, that the other two thirds of the movie are nothing like any of Martin Scorsese's other films.  No, there are no mobsters and there is no violence.     Hugo Cabret lives his life like a mechanic.  He lives in a Paris train station during the Interwar period in Europe.  Shortly before his father (Jude Law) dies tragically in a fire, the two of them work on fixing up a machine that seems like a robot, but all it's meant to do is write and draw, nothing else.  Even after his father's death, Hugo still is determined to get the...

Starring: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and Aaron Eckhart Directed by: Bruce Robinson Screenplay by: Bruce Robinson Based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson     It's the 1960s and the guy who plays Jack Sparrow is still getting rather drunk.  But this time, Johnny Depp plays an American journalist.     Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) has just moved to Puerto Rico where he has taken a job at the San Juan Star newspaper, a newspaper that is well on its way to bankruptcy and will shortly go out of business.  So, in the mean time, he is working on covering a hotel development project on a remote island (whose name and location are never revealed) with a very wealthy American, Hal Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart).  And then there's Chenault (Amber Heard), who seems to be Sanderson's girlfriend and has no really important role.  She seems to be there simply for young teenage boys like me to stare at and drool over her beauty.     I'll be ho...

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, and Dakota Goyo Directed by: Shawn Levy Screenplay by: John Gatins and Dan Gilroy It's Rocky meets Transformers in the huge clash of action in Real Steel. It's not too far into the future, and the world of boxing has changed a little bit.  No longer are people in the boxing ring.  Instead, robots have taken over this new generation of boxing.  In this new game, it seems as though the old dogs must learn new tricks. Charlie Kenton is a broke robot boxer (once a real boxer before the game changed) in a sport that he is no longer very good at.  He has become a bad bet for those who invest their money and robots with him.  Meanwhile, Charlie is involved in a custody battle over his son, Max, between him and his ex-girlfriend's sister.  Charlie is allowed to take Max for the summer and get to know his son, even though he does not have legal custody of Max.  Max is a big fan of robot boxing, so Charlie shows hi...

Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, and Laurence Fishburne Directed by: Steven Soderberg Screenplay by: Scott Z. Burns      If you watched the credits of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, then you would have seen that a disease spread over the entire planet right?   Contagion could easily be the longer version of that story.      A new strain of bird flu has shown up in Hong Kong and has quickly spread to other parts of the world.  It's infecting people at an alarming rate, but nobody's really sure how fast it's spreading.      So, while the entire world is getting the flu and many people are dying, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the WHO (World Health Organization) begin to work in secret on growing the virus and attempt to create a vaccine, but this could be a long process, and many more people could die.      A medical blogger named Alan Krumwiede claims t...

Starring: James Franco, Freida Pinto, and Andy Serkis Directed by: Rupert Wyatt Screenplay by: Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver     It's survival of the fittest in this prequel to the Planet of the Apes  series.  And we humans aren't the fittest to survive.     Will Rodman (James Franco) has created a new virus that has the potential to cure Alzheimer's disease.  But of course, there are side effects.  While testing the virus on chimpanzees, one subject, Bright Eyes, suddenly turns violent.  It turns out that she was pregnant and is now protecting her baby.  Bright Eyes is put down and Rodman raises her baby who he names Caesar.  The virus is passed down to Caesar.  He becomes unusually intelligent for an ape and gets smarter, seemingly every day.     One day, Caesar is taken to a chimpanzee shelter after attacking one of Rodman's neighbors.  Caesar must get used to the strange environment of the...

Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde Directed by: Jon Favreau Screenplay by: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman     The time: late 1800s.  The place: the Wild West (somewhere in New Mexico).  The event: an alien invasion?  Interesting.     We meet our eventual hero (Daniel Craig) just waking up from some traumatic experience, an event which we never see.  He has some sort of bracelet around his left wrist.  Initially, he doesn't even know his name.  He stumbles into a small town and everyone recognizes him as Jake Lonergan, one of the region's most wanted men.  As he is being arrested, aliens attack the small town and begin taking people away.  What do the aliens want?  Turns out they want to mine for gold and will stop anyone who gets in their way.  Lonergan's goal is to get the aliens to return the hostages and then leave.  The key to accomplishing this goal is the bracelet on Lone...

Starring: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hugo Weaving Directed by: Joe Johnston Screenplay by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely     It's 1943 and the world is at war.  So, who's going to save us this time?  Captain America!     Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a small kid from Brooklyn who just wants to serve his country in the biggest war in history, but he is deemed unfit for service.  Fortunately for him, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) finds Rogers a candidate for an experiment to make soldiers bigger, faster, and stronger.  Rogers accepts and becomes a recruiter for the military.     Meanwhile, the evil Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) is developing weapons which use an extremely powerful technology that he wants his organization, Hydra, to use to win the war.  He is on nobody's side but his own.     So, Rogers finds out where his imprisoned friend is and attempts to fr...

Starring: Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake Directed by: Will Gluck Screenplay by: Keith Merryman and David A. Newman !!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A SPOILER ALERT.  IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO FIND OUT THE END OF THIS MOVIE, READ NO FURTHER.     For those of you who thought that this was an original idea for a film, it's not.  Is it funny?  It's hilarious.     Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake) is moving to New York from Los Angeles.  As soon as he gets there, he meets Jamie (Mila Kunis).  She is helping him find a new job at GQ magazine.  They develop a strong friendship and try to avoid the classic Hollywood cliche of a relationship.  But when they try to add sex into their friendship, complications arise.  So, after their friendship begins to diminish during a trip to Los Angeles for Jamie to meet Dylan's family, they decide to take a break from each other.  Jamie abruptly leaves the vacation.  But then,...

Starring: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis Directed by: Seth Gordon Screenplay by: Michael Markowitz and John Francis Daley     So what do you do if you hate your boss because they're making your life a living hell?  Not what these guys want to do.     Three friends, Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Dale Arbus (Charlie Day), and Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis), all hate their respective bosses, Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S (Jennifer Aniston), and Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell).  Harken won't let Nick move up in the company or be with his family when his grandmother is dying.  Pellitt wants to run his company into the ground so he can take all the profits for himself.  And Julia is doing anything and everything she can to make Dale have sex with her before he gets married to his fiance. Now is that so bad?  Probably.      Anyway, these guys are miserable at their jobs, but they do...

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, and Jason Segel Directed by: Jake Kasdan Screenplay by: Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg      We always enjoy making fun of teachers and often they enjoy making fun of their students.  Well, here's one teacher who is rather hard to make fun of.  Why?  Because she's the teacher that we all want.      Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is a recently divorced, drug using, yet extremely gorgeous middle school teacher who just shows movies in her class and makes her students do nothing.  Sound like the class we all want to take yet?  Her goal, to save up enough money to have her breasts enlarged, and she'll do just about anything to get that money, such as steal the answer key to the state standardized test so her students can get the best scores in the entire county thus making her eligible to receive a large bonus.  Another teacher comes along, Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) who s...

Starring: Tom Hanks, and Julia Roberts Directed by: Tom Hanks Screenplay by: Tom Hanks, and Nia Vardalos      Finally, in a summer full of sequels, prequels, and other action packed films, here's one that's different from the summer trend, but still entertaining.      Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) is a divorced, sales associate at a major retail store.  The film opens up with him getting fired because he didn't go to college.  So, he goes to community college where he meets some new friends, and is in Speech 217 with Mrs. Tainot (Julia Roberts) as the teacher.  So, if you've seen the trailer, you can already guess what's going to happen next.  Larry's life has fallen apart and now he has to pick up the pieces and move on.  And it will be quite interesting to watch.      The first thing that should be mentioned is that the romance between Larry and Mrs. Tainot is not the main point of the story.  In fact, it's ha...

Starring:  Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and John Turturro Directed by: Michael Bay Screenplay by: Ehren Kruger      So, I was mostly right on my predictions for this movie, with the exception of how everything plays out.  I know it's a little early to say this, but it's not as bad as most people think.        It starts out on Cybertron, the home world of the transformers amidst a massive war between the autobots and the decepticons.  A spacecraft has crash landed on the Moon sparking a reason for the space race of the 1960s (people at NASA watch it crash in 1961).  It contains pillars used to build a space bridge that the decepticons want to build in order to enslave the entire human race in the reconstruction of Cybertron after the war has left the entire planet in ruins.  Will the autobots be able to stop them before it's too late?        First of all, there has been a major cast change, prett...

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, and Peter Sarsgaard Directed by: Martin Campbell Screenplay by: Greg Berlanti and Michael Green “In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power…  Green Lantern’s light!" - Green Lantern Oath      Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot.  He is an almost fearless test pilot, making him a qualified candidate for being a Green Lantern, but he doesn't know that, at least not until a dying purple alien comes to Earth so the ring can select another person to be a Green Lantern.        So, Hal is selected and receives the Green Lantern ring, giving him superpowers.  Anything he imagines can be used as a weapon with the power of the ring.  It can create anything he imagines.  He goes to the planet Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corps (the peace keeping unit in the universe), to receive training in fighting perhaps th...

Starring: Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler Directed by: J.J. Abrams Written by: J.J. Abrams      It's always fun to watch a movie where the main plot is the main characters making another movie.  A movie within a movie.  Like Inception  but without the dreams.  Kind of cool right?  Especially with Super 8.      Flash back to 1979 in a small town in Ohio known as Lilian.  Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths) are amateur filmmakers that can't be older than thirteen.  They're making a zombie movie with their friends on a Super 8 camera (8 as in 8mm film) when the impossible happens.  A train derailment right in front of them.  But this isn't just any train derailment.  It's a top secret project that has to be covered up by the Air Force, the people who are working on it.      This "project" just so happens to be an extra terrestrial mo...

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kevin Bacon Directed by: Matthew Vaughn Screenplay by: Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz      A prequel to the Marvel superhero alliance known as the X-Men.  Does it live up to the comics and everything about X-Men that has come before?  Does it set up the story of these mutant heros well?      The film starts out in 1944, when we meet Erik Lehnsherr (who later becomes known as Magneto, played by Michael Fassbender), a young boy caught in the terrors of the Holocaust, watching his mother die at the hands of Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) while also finding out his special ability, making metal move without touching it.  We then meet Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) at Xavier's home, both discovering the other is a mutant (and soon to become a superhero).  He takes Raven in, and soon they will become life long friends.      Fast fo...

     Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third installment in director Michael Bay's Transformers trilogy.  Transformers has always been one of my favorite franchises, but Bay has turned this world wide phenomenon into something with mixed reactions.      The first Transformers film is no doubt the best of the two films that have been released, and honestly, it's really not that bad.  Yeah there's a lot of explosions and probably too many of them along with really good special effects, but underneath all that, there is actually a decent storyline.  It's a prequel to all of the cartoon TV series about how the giant robots come to Earth in the first place.      The second movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  had the potential to be even better than the first one, but it was just about the worst movie of 2009 (it only took me four viewings to realize just how bad it is).  What has made these two films worse th...

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis Directed by: Todd Phillips Screenplay by: Craig Mazin, and Scot Armstrong      If you're interested in lack of originality, you're in the right place.  While "The Hangover" was great a few years ago, was there any need for a sequel?      "The Hangover Part 2" is almost an exact copy of the first "Hangover" film.  The difference, a new place (Bangkok instead of Las Vegas), and Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married instead of Doug (Justin Bartha).  They also lose another person in their group, Teddy (Mason Lee), the bride's little brother.     After a night of hard partying and not knowing what on earth the wolf pack trio (Phil, Stu, and Alan) has done, they wake up to find themselves mysteriously in Bangkok, Thailand, instead of where they should be, at a resort in another part of Thailand getting ready for Stu's wedding.  Nothing seems to have happened to Phil (Br...

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, and Ian McShane Directed by:  Rob Marshall Screenplay by:  Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio      Our pirate friends are back for the fourth time.  This time, they bring along new people for the journey, while some of the characters from the previous films are nowhere to be seen.      Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is in London rescuing his good old friend and former first mate, Mr. Gibbs (Kevin McNally) from the crime of impersonating Jack Sparrow, saying that he's looking for a ship and a crew (because apparently the Black Pearl has been sunk) to sail to ye olde Fountain of Youth.  While Jack's purpose in London isn't to find a crew and a ship, it eventually becomes his task to find the Fountain of Youth before the Spanish conquistadores find it first.  From there, it becomes a race between Captain Jack, Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), Blackbeard (Ian McShane), and th...

Starring: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, and Maggie Q Directed by:  Scott Charles Stewart Written by: Cory Goodman      "To go against the Church is to go against God."  If this is the case, then what is going against this movie?  While Priest tries to be an epic thriller, it's easy to go against seeing it.      For as long as anyone can remember, humans and vampires (yes, vampires, but not the kind like in Twilight ) have been involved in a seemingly never ending struggle with each other.  Constant wars have forced humans into massive cities, protected by the Church, to stay safe, until they discover the power of a small group of warriors called Priests.  However, during peacetime, they are not needed and must re-assimilate with the rest of the population.      Our hero's (Paul Bettany) name is never mentioned and is only called by his job description, Priest.  His niece is captured by vampires, so it is Priest...

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Anthony Hopkins Directed by: Kenneth Branagh Written by: Ashley Miller, and Zack Stentz      If the warriors from the Capital One commercials had their own movie, this would be it.  The difference, "Thor" has cooler warriors.      Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is the son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), the king of Asgard, a kingdom in space that's one of the 9 realms.  Their biggest enemy is the Frost Giants from the planet Yodenheim, a neigboring realm.  War is looming between the two realms and Earth is going to be caught in the middle because of Thor's banishment from the kingdom after defying Odin when he tells Thor and his brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), not to go to Yodenheim.  They go to Yodenheim on the day that Thor is supposed to become king of Asgard, but instead of becoming king, he gets banished to Earth, forced to live with the mortals.  Once on Earth, Thor meets Jane Foster (Na...

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Dwayne Johnson Directed by: Justin Lin Written by: Chris Morgan and Gary Scott Thompson      Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the crew are back for yet another action packed heist.  This time, they're in Rio de Janeiro and this is their last job.  But this time, they're doing it to buy their freedom.  So what's the payout?  $100 million from this guy, Reyes, the largest drug trafficker in Brazil.  As they assemble the crew into position, they are tracked down by the FBI.  The team is led by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), one of the toughest guys in the FBI.  He never misses his target.  All Hobbs wants is for Reyes to be dead.      As the fifth installment in The Fast and the Furious  series, there isn't a whole lot of new stuff that Fast Five offers.  It's the same story but in a different place.  They're trying to steal their money while federal ...

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, and Cate Blanchett Directed by: Joe Wright Screenplay by: Seth Lochhead and David Farr    If you like a movie that is somewhat obscure, "Hanna" is the perfect movie.  It's action packed, and off beat.   A 16 year old girl, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), who lives with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana), possibly a rogue CIA operative, is trained to be a badass teenage assassin in the great white north.  Her target, Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a high ranking CIA operative who once worked with Heller.  All Hanna must do is flip a switch that tells Marissa where she and Heller are.  They split up and meet somewhere in Berlin where they plan to kill Marissa.  Meanwhile, she's got the best people in the agency after both of them.  This sends Hanna all across Europe where she meets a family that picks her up and takes her most of the way to Berlin.  The big question: What's going to happen to both o...

Voices by: Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Geroge Lopez, Leslie Mann, and Rodrigo Santoro Directed by: Carlos Saldanha Screenplay by: Carlos Saldanha and Don Rhymer          Imagine being a domesticated parrot that is the last of its species and has to go to the wild for the continuity of the species.  If this happened, we would have "Rio" in real life.     We first meet Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) as a domesticated blue macaw parrot (that doesn't know how to fly) in Minnesota.  He is best friends with his owner Linda (Leslie Mann) until one day, a Brazilian biologist, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro), comes to her house and tells her that they need to go to Rio de Janeiro so Blu can mate with the last female of the blue macaw species (Blu is the last male), a bird named Jewel (Anne Hathaway).  Along the way, the pair of birds run into a few problems, like being chained together, being stolen, and getting separated from Linda and Tulio. ...