The Reel World

The conclusion of the wildly popular Twilight saga last fall left a nation of haters high-fiving each other, but it also created a giant, heart-shaped vacuum in Hollywood. Where is the industry’s next big young adult-oriented, human-on-supernatural romance franchise going to come from? Valentine’s Day seems as good a time as any to find out if Beautiful Creatures — based on Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s “Caster Chronicles” series — is up to the task.

Between Jason Bateman (Office Space and Horrible Bosses) and Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids and Mike and Molly), whose career seems to be most on fire right now?  The idea of these two pairing would at first glance appear to be comic gold.  Instead the result is a road trip film that had me asking if it were over yet. When we first meet Sandy Patterson (Bateman), he’s just your average businessman trying to support his family.  With a new baby on the way, more money is just what he could use, and when he discovers the only people getting bonuses are his superiors, this rubs him the wrong way, and rightfully so.

Steven Soderbergh has had a one-of-a-kind career. And if the director is to be believed, that filmmaking career comes to a close with Side Effects. (At least theatrically speaking; his Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra, is scheduled to air on HBO later this year.) Soderbergh may have best exemplified the idea of making “One for Me, One for Them.” (Even if the director firmly disagrees with this notion.) The theory dictates his “One for Them” flicks usually had the word Ocean’s in the title and helped fund his micro-budgeted, “One for Me” experimental films.

“This is a corpse infected with the plague. It is uncaring, unfeeling.”

When it comes to the overwhelming majority of zombie fiction, it’s all about brains. (Or rather, BRAAAINS!!!) It’s what the undead hunger for, and a well-placed headshot is usually the only way to kill them (again). And that doesn’t even cover the popular device of using the walking dead as an allegory for an increasingly mindless society. Warm Bodies stands out because it’s more concerned with an entirely different bodily organ.

It's hard to imagine that Sylvester Stallone and Walter Hill never crossed paths for an action movie in the early days of their careers. Both have established themselves as staples in the action movie genre, and they dominated the 1970's and 1980's. It seems like a dream come true that the actor and director have finally joined forces. Unfortunately, some dreams are actually nightmares, and if Bullet To The Head is any indication, the two stars would have been better off had they remained unaligned.

Hansel and Gretel, everyone has heard of this fairy tale, right? The Brothers Grimm tale about a brother and sister lost in the woods who come across a house made of candy. They go inside and are soon captured by a witch who goes about stuffing them with candy to fatten them up to be slaughtered. Somehow the cunning pair manages to escape their shackles, and while the witch is distracted with the oven, they push her into the oven and destroy her. We have all heard the tale, but what happen afterwards?

"You don't want to take the silver, you take the lead".

He always told us he'd be back. After spending some years in the real world in the California governor's mansion, Arnold Schwarzenegger is indeed back...back in the reel world where he belongs. And if The Last Stand is any indication, it appears Arnie hasn't missed a beat. In fact, he's showing a bit of maturity in his acting that I honestly never would have believed possible back in the early days. Here Arnie's more Dirty Harry than Terminator. Throw in a little modern Spaghetti Western and more than a little help from Korean director Jee-woon Kim and you have a pretty tasty treat.

Sometimes a movie comes along that simply has so much to say that two hours simply isn’t enough to flesh it out to its full potential.  Broken City is a film that is filled with many great characters and story threads that needed more than just the 109-minute running time to tie everything all together.  Broken City is more than just a film about a private eye trying to take down a corrupt mayor.  Every character involved has something to gain from winning an upcoming election and even more to lose depending on the results.  The same can be said about any election.

“I want to talk to you about the war for the soul of Los Angeles.”

This could easily describe the current rivalry between the surging L.A. Clippers and the geriatric Los Angeles Lakers, but Gangster Squad has slightly weightier matters on its mind. The stylish 1940s and 50s cops and crooks saga wants to tell a story about corruption and violent men unable — or unwilling — to turn off their capacity for hurting others. Instead, the film winds up being a somewhat shallow 21st century gloss on The Untouchables. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

This is the time of the year when everyone is giving their lists for the best films and televisions shows for 2012. It's become almost the "in" thing to do, and we've resisted following such a trend here. The lists are always going to be very subjective and have very little value except a little stirring of the pot. If pressed I could tell you what I thought were the best movies I've seen in 2012. Right now I'm going to tell you about a movie that would top my list of worst films I've seen in 2012. That distinction belongs to Promised Land. I hate films that are pretentious or preach. This does both and doesn't even grant me the courtesy of pretending it's entertaining at the same time.