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
.

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.

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

So it's no secret that I think Shia LaBeouf is beyond sexy. Buttt before you call me biased in how fantastic I think this movie is based on Shia's sex appeal, I also think he's incredibly talented with incredible potential as an actor. Shia is at the top of the Hollywood A-list these days, and certainly for good reason, but this movie has much more (film) street-cred than just LaBeouf as the leading man. Oliver Stone directed the film, following up his initial classic, 1987's Wall Street starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglass. For those of you who are not quite familiar with Stone's work, this is the same man who directed the 1986 Vietnam War classic, Platoon, Any Given Sunday, and writer of Scarface. That's right, he wrote Scarface.

Oliver Stone is a true visionary. This fact is no less apparent in Money Never Sleeps. For those interested in film aesthetics and cinematography, it truly is pleasing to look at. He utilizes a great amount of cinematic and technological effects in conjunction with the wall street/business/economic world. It's artistic. He makes use of the split screen technique throughout the film, which is something I have not seen in a very long time. There are numerous phone conversations throughout the film, most often with a broker and a client. Stone is showing the Wall Street world and how it intertwines with the lives of all parties involved, even outside of the office or "working" daytime hours. He is displaying greed and it's disease-like nature. Once you have succumb to it, there is no coming back from it.

Outside of film aesthetics and logistics, there is an intriguing storyline. This is another one of those films for me where I feel as though there is something in it for everyone. If you're in the mood for a chick flick or a good romance, the chemistry between Shia LaBeouf and leading lady, Carey Mulligan is phenomenal. She is a brilliant young actress. It is no surprise at all that she has made her way from indie film work like that in last years, An Education to the mainstream screen. She's a natural, and she and Shia are natural together in this movie. It is no surprise that they are now together in real life. If you're in the mood for a high speed action flick, there's some of that to! There is a racing scene between Labeouf and Josh Brolin on Ducati motorcycles. It's fast and it's sexy. It's a film for intellectuals: econ buffs, business moguls. It forces you to pay attention to the subject matter. I definitely learned a lot about the stock market world and in order to follow the movie and the progression of the plot, you have to pay attention. It forces you to pay attention in a non-forceful way. Saying that, I mean that the movie is entrancing. You want to pay attention. You are intrigued by the characters. You want them to fail. You want them to succeed. You want them to be happy. You want them to be together. You want them to make that multi-million dollar deal. In some twisted way, you want to be them!

The movie does not come without it's faults and weaknesses. The ending is less than satisfying. It was kind of cheesy, kind of corny and it just did not need to go that direction. I won't go into anymore detail because you need to see it yourself. But really, who the hell am I to critique the man who wrote Scarface? Just sayin. Either way, Wall Street 2 is definitely a must-see.

The Social Network

The movie is everything the previews said it would be. FANTASTIC. Plus, with a director like David Fincher, the man behind the madness and the genius that is Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, how can you really go wrong?

One of the best things about the movie is the fact that the two main characters are Hollywood unknowns. You do not go into the film with expectations in terms of performance because you have no idea who these two kids really are. The film was more exciting that way. It was not a great flick because it starred Brad Pitt or Shia LaBeouf. It was not even great because Justin Timberlake was featured in it. It was great because it was true. It was great because the cinematography was innovative, eye-catching, and authentic. It was great because it was absurdly well-scripted, quick-witted, fast-paced, and honest. It was great because it was REAL! It's about a world that literally everyone knows about and/or uses! I have a Facebook. You have Facebook. Your parents have Facebook. Your professors have Facebook. Your boss has Facebook. Your Grandma MiMi has a Facebook! It's insane.

The movie tracks the creation and evolution of the biggest social networking business the world has ever seen. The coolest part about it? The guy started it when he was my age, and he was my age, only six years ago. At 26, he is now the youngest billionaire in the world. It blows my mind. Watching the movie is a surreal experience. In the theater, I updated my Facebook status to, "Seeing The Social Network!" How weird is it that I Facebook'd about a movie made about Facebook? What did I do when I was finished seeing The Social Network? I checked my Facebook to read all of my comments on my status about the movie I was seeing about the site I was currently visiting....yeah... Think about it.

The point I am trying to make is that the film is so thrilling to see because it is about a culture we are completely immersed in. I check my Facebook countless times a day. It's on my phone. It's on my laptop. It's on my iPod. I monitor who I am interested or not interested in by someone's Facebook pictures, relationship status, interests, activities and the wittiness of their status updates. The cultural phenomenon Facebook has become is kind of sick. All in all, Facebook and new technology has both helped and hindered our human-to-human interaction.

David Fincher takes all of this and puts it into narrative form about the guys who started this unparalleled website that has literally shaped a generation. CEO Mark Zuckerberg started this site as a 20 year old at Harvard. Why? Not for money but to make a name for himself. To lose the geek image and to get some recognition. For friends. For the girl. Wait, did you just ask why? Why the hell not?! If had the means to change the entire world, I sure as hell would.

Eat Pray Love

This highly anticipated Julia Roberts vehicle was exactly what I expected it to be which means it accomplished exactly what it set out to accomplish. It inspired.

The movie follows Liz Gilbert, a married and successful 30 something woman who ideally has everything she thought she ever wanted in life. After a few years of marriage, she finds herself unhappy and unfulfilled and sets out on a one year journey to Italy, India and Bali. In Italy she finds the unprecedented pleasure in wholesome nourishment. In India she finds inner peace through prayer and in Bali she finds humanities ultimate felicity in her discovery of pure and true love.

As a 21 year old, I cannot say that I can relate on the level that my mother could relate to this film. I am still in college. I am not sure if I've ever been in love. I am still in pursuit of my dreams. However, as a woman, with incredible dreams of success and tremendous dreams of falling in love, I can see how one can get lost, and truly lose sight of the real importances in life. Like Liz at 21 I'm sure, I do not doubt in life that I will make my career dreams a reality, and that I can ultimately accomplish any thing that I put my mind to. It's the higher pleasures in life I worry about. Sometimes our pursuits of success and accomplishing our ultimate career goals cause us to forget what we really need in life, and all we've ever really wanted. Sometimes we can become so tainted along the way by never finding love, or by being hurt in pursuit of it, we hide behind our careers and pretend we have found our inner happiness that way. Sooner or later it all gets old. The fame doesn't mean much. The people who are supposed to be there for you, are not who you thought they were. Something is ultimately missing.

There is far too much pressure placed on women today to maintain a certain image; to be a size 2, to not live "promiscuously," to dress a certain way, to have a certain amount of intellect-not too little but certainly not too much-we can't be more intelligent or successful than our male counterparts right? As the movies tagline states, we have to let ourselves go. We have to let ourselves be happy, to be free. Without any of these things, the other pleasures in life are meaningless; we are ultimately incapable of truly enjoying them.

So I say to you...

Live your life. Love yourself. Love. And go see this film. See it with your girls. See it with your mother. See it with your boyfriend. See it.

Charlie St. Cloud

AWFUL.

Horrendous.

Horrific.

Terrible.

Puzzling.

Ridiculous.

Absurd.

Simple.

Complicated.

Convoluted.

Annoying.

Poorly-Scripted.

Mediocre(ly) Acted.

Aimlessly Directed.

...I could go on, people, but for the sake of time and space, I will not. I must tell you how hard it is for me to say all of these things because I genuinely wanted this movie to be good. I thought it was going to be good! I am not just a movie fanatic, but I'm a movie advocate. I love films. I love seeing movies. They make me happy and I ALWAYS want them to be good, and typically, there is always something good I can say about a movie, even if the overall rating of the film is poor. I unfortunately just cannot say that this time. There is nothing about this movie that saves it from its utter badness.

I first saw the trailer when I was at the theater seeing Sex and the City 2 with my Mom. We both gasped at the scene of the car accident, when the drunk driver hits the little brother and we just knew it was going to be a good movie. After seeing the trailer for months leading up to the film's release, my expectations changed a bit. I no longer thought it was going to be a movie of epic tear-jerking nature as I did when I saw the trailer the first time. Lets face it-the trailer tells you everything major that happens in the film. So at the least, I thought it would be a cliche´ "feel good" movie where tragedy happens to boy, boy falls from grace, and boy falls in love, and love conquers all. That's pretty much how the trailer makes it look right?

Yes. But what about this whole boy talks to dead brother aspect? Lets revise: boy falls from grace, boy lives in the past by seeing dead brother, boy falls in love, and love conquers all. I wish I could tell you guys this was it to the movie. This predictability would have been so much better than the abashed multi-themed, foreseeable(ly) scripted, and feebly acted cinema absurdity that ensued.

I sat there as this movie got worse and worse and did my damnedest to try and some how rescue this movie, to try and see the silver lining so that I could some how tell my readers that like the trailer displays, love, film love, that is, really does conquer all. I know how badly Zac Efron wants to be a serious actor and I want it for him! He does a decent job acting wise, and he is perfectly good eye candy if nothing else. But even the costuming fluidity is poor in the film because even after Charlie St. Cloud's fall from societal idealism after his brother's death, he's still beautiful and terribly attractive. I understand that Zac Efron is hard to "rough up" but make up these days is revolutionary and even Efron, the metrosexual himself, is capable of having a bad day. The movie misses the mark completely...on so so many levels. It attempts to combine multiple themes and is unsuccessful at fully eliciting any of them, and in no way ties them all together.

Unfortunately, everyone, even my love for the cinema couldn't save this film. I am sure none of you after reading this blog are going to go "run to the theater" to see this one, unless of course you're in the mood for a good laugh at the joke this movie is in its attempt at anything rightly cinematic. If nothing else, I hope you were at least minimally entertained in reading this blog.