TAKERS

SEXY.

SEXY.

SEXY.

SEXY.

SEXY.

I could just leave it at that, but for my male readers, I will go on. The movie is comprised of an all male cast of Hollywood's leading actors right now. Because you do not think of a lot of these actors as gangster-types, or types that would play in heist-movies, you root for them the entire film. You want them to succeed. Hayden Christiansen has a boy-like quality about him onscreen, and even though he's a criminal, he has this innocence about him and you want him to succeed. The same goes for all of these actors. Paul Walker is not exactly new to playing somewhat of a badass in films (Fast & the Furious films) and to be honest, his character in this one is not far from his character in those movies. However, once again, as an audience member, you still find yourself rooting for him.

The films is based around this group of men that commit major heists once a year. They do it once a year, because when they do it, they do it big. Period. In one robbery, they may steal multiple millions of dollars. Because they only do it once a year, this is also how they never get caught. Their heist's are highly stylized, and incredibly strategic. Idris Elba is as beautiful as ever and is very much the "father figure" of the film. T.I.'s character is the one that stirs everything up. I find his acting to honestly be annoying. Overall, the character he plays is himself. He's a criminal fresh out of jail, and immediately is into more illegal mischief, sure to have him end up right back in the "Big House." I found his acting to be over done and like I said, pretending it was just a reality show of his life would have gone over much better.

Saying much more will give away too much of the film's plot. I will just say this. The film is not the next Goodfellas. It's not The Departed. However, it is an action-packed film, with an A-list cast of actors that are NOT at all bad to look at. Overall, the acting is fine. The plot is fast-paced and fun. It's a good time. You felt for these characters. In some sick way you might even want to be them. The film is entertaining and sometimes that's all the cinema is supposed to be.

Case 39

I do not know about all of you, but there's nothing more horrifying than children in horror movies. Remember 1984's Children of The Corn? How about The Omen-the 1976 original and the 2006 remake? And let's be real, The Exorcist is a film that has frightened generations and will continue to do so.

Would I put this film amongst the same ranks as that of The Exorcist? No. It's not that scary, and it's not quite that good. It has its moments, however. You will jump. You will scream, and you do not see right away the turn the film is going to take until about midway through. Renee Zellweger does a good job at playing the hardworking, "truly caring," frumpy, social worker. Bradley Cooper is honestly not in the film as long as I would have liked. It's not his best work, but this is not exactly a film that showcases true acting ability. Let's be real-the man is hot, and it's never disappointing to see him in a film, even if just for a short while.

My overall conclusion: Is it going to go down in horror film classic records? No it's not. It's a horror flick with a moderately over-done plot, and just decently scary. However, If you're in the mood for a good scream, I do recommend it.

For Colored Girls

Well...To maintain a sense of diplomacy with my feelings on this film, I will talk about the good in it first. First off, I genuinely wanted to like this film. I am a Tyler Perry fan. I respect his work and his tremendous brilliance in terms of his entrepeneurship in the industry. When I heard he was doing For Colored Girls, I was excited that he had this opportunity. I knew of the "heavy" nature of the material presented in the play, and I knew that Tyler Perry would certainly be majorly stepping out of his own genre with such a film. I felt that him directing this film would truly expose his ability to get gritty, to get real. That is what I was hoping to see from him with this one.

The turn out ended up being quite the contrary. The film featured a cast of African-American, A-list actresses, but unfortunately, not even they could save this cinematic debacle. As I mentioned above, the film deals with a lot of raw, difficult material. There is rape, there is abortion, there is trauma from years of forced incest masked through promiscuity, there is poverty, murder, and life-changing deceit. Every issue that the film deals with are issues that regular women face on a day-to-day basis. All women, not just those of color face these problems. That is the beauty within the storyline. This is also where Tyler Perry fails in his direction of the work. The film revolves around these issues but he never quite lets you come to terms with them. In the film, you see the murder of two children, but then immediately are cut away from it. It's shocking and appalling, but let me be shocked and appalled! Let me absorb what happened before you cut away to the next scene of the film before I can even come to grasp the horror that has just taken place on the screen. There is rape, and during the rape, the disgust of the act taking place in front of you is masked by interjected cuts to a different scene with an overlay of opera music. There is something just off about this. I know what Tyler Perry was trying to accomplish with such cuts, but he failed. When making a movie that is very real, and very raw, in order for the film to have the necessary effect on its audience, these disturbing scenes cannot be masked with attempted, but failed cinematic style choices. We need to see it. That's it. We need to see the acts and we need to see the reactions these acts have on the characters
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Because Tyler Perry is so caught up in this filmmaking style where everything has a happy ending and nothing is really that bad if we have faith, etc, etc, he never makes films that are real enough. In life, sometimes things are not okay. Some situations do not have happy endings. Life for some, does not always have a silver lining. Perry is doing the cinema a disservice by not showing the truth that lies in everyday life. Cinema is great in that things can be fantastical and can take us out of our everyday lives into a new world that is completely made up. However, when brought with a script like that of For Colored Girls, where the storyline revolves around the honesty, by not bringing out that nakedness within the script, you have brought cinematic detriment upon yourself as a director and your viewers.

Perry tends to make jokes at interviews and in his blogs about the fact that he will never win an Oscar for this reason or for that one. The fact is, he will never win an Oscar because he does cookie-cutter cinema. Give me something raw. Give me something real. For Colored Girls was his opportunity for that and he failed. He let what could have been one of the best, most talked about and acclaimed films of the year fall through his finger tips. I'm disappointed.