The Other Guys (2010)

The Other Guys is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Bradley and I went to see this the weekend it came out and it was the best decision we had ever made. I am a huge HUGE fan of Will Ferrell (Anchorman) and Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder). Until this movie I have never really had any reason to watch a movie with Mark Wahlberg (We Own the Night), he mostly plays up tight cops and thats not my kind of movie. In this movie though, Mark Wahlberg makes the couple of odd ball cops even funnier. Topping the cast off with my favorite batman of all time Michael Keaton (Batman) and even Samuel L. Jackson.

The movie starts off with a high speed chase through New York. Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne (Not the rock anymore) Johnson are shooting down thugs and destroying the city as they go. Later on to see that the bad guys only have an ounce of pot in their car (misdemeanor at the most) they are framed as the hot shot heros of new york. They chase bad guys, drink their livers dead, sleep with beautiful women, and basically every other cop movie rolled in to one. For the short time they are in this movie they make the scenes hilarious. About three scenes in to the movie though Jackson and Johnson dive off of a thirty story building chasing after a group of bad guys that got away a long time ago. There wasn't even an patio to fall on, just street. It was the funniest death scene in the movie.

The movie though centers around two cops who happened to be partnered together and aren't getting along too well. The first and shortest man alive is Mark Wahlberg (We Own the Night), he plays a neurotic alcoholic that lost his girlfriend because he is too devoted to being a cop. The random scenes where he goes to visit this old girlfriend are the best, the one they cut out being my favorite. I know that Mark Wahlberg makes a good cop drama actor, but I have to say if they picked any other person for this role it wouldn't have been this good. Mark Wahlberg makes jokes with a serious face and I just can't help but laugh at him every time I see him now. Maybe if he does more movies like this I might watch him more often. In my oppnion Mark Wahlberg could be the next Leslie Nealson, RIP, for the remakes of the movie Airplane.

Making the already too short Wahlberg look like a midget is the hilarious Will Ferrell (Elf). Will Ferrell is a funny actor. If you don't like him, well thats your fault. He is an acquired taste, and if you don't like his movies then you never will. Basically all his movies are the same, Ricky Bobby makes fun of NASCAR and hillbillies, The Other Guys makes fun of cop dramas, and Elf makes fun of all those sappy kid movies. Other than the colossal failure that was Stranger than Fiction, all of Ferrells movies are great. He is a funny guy, who is funny looking, and doesn't know when to stop. The whole stable whores scene was great. Don't forget to get his new Faceback application for the Iphone!

Playing Ferrells wife and apparently the hottest woman on Earth Eva Mendes (We Own the Night), is just as funny as he is.  Mendes plays the wealthy and sexy wife of Ferrells character that Wahlbergs character drools over. I have seen her in more serious roles and enjoyed the movies. I don't think that if they picked another hot actress that the movie would be different at all. She was mainly there to look good, and any other person could do that. Even though the whole grandmother scene was hilarious, they didn't really have much of a role for her in the movie.

The police station where Ferrell and Whalbergs characters work is kept in line by a stress riddles captain that just happens to quote TLC lyrics. Michael Keaton has had my respect as an actor since the first batman movie with the joker and vicky vale. Keaton can be funny, as his many other movies have told us, or completely serious to where they make you cry. He is a great actor and I don't think I would love this movie as much without him. He does the TLC lyrics perfectly and his second job at Bed Bath and Beyond was great. Seeing him in that apron just made me roll on the floor laughing.

The last big actor I have to give credit too in this movie you probably don't think is that big. I have seen many of the movies he has made and think that he is one of the biggest names they could have picked for his small role. He is funny, crazy, and British. Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder) plays a great bad guy in this movie. He isn't too threatening, which you don't want in a comedy, or too over bearing an actor. I loved his work in Tropic Thunder though they killed him off before the main story even started. Hamlet 2, which isn't a movie for the weak hearted, is a funnier movie where he is the main character. He is a whiny little guy but I am looking forward to his next movies and hope he teams up with Ferrell once more. Maybe even for a squeal? 

The last people I'm going to talk about are probably my favorite in this whole movie. They are the side actors that make the little quips about Ferrell and Wahlberg molding them in to better cops. These two guys might not have the biggest names in Hollywood yet but I predict many good things for their future. The first is Damon Wayans Jr (Dance Flick), thats right another Wayans. He is funny and can be a complete ass hole when he needs to be. Teamed up with his partner in crime is Rob Riggle (The Daily Show) that I have been laughing at since he started to do his crazy reports on comedy central. They make the scene where Ferrell plows right through a crime scene with his little car covering it with cocaine. Riggle even makes a comment, "It looks like Scarface sneezed on your car" that kept me laughing halfway through the movie.

All in all I would give The Other Guys a 4.5 out of 5. It is funny and has some serious special effects, though the wrecking ball going through the building was completely real. It kept me laughing and I expect nothing less from a Ferrell movie. If you don't agree, I don't care. Because I am going to be quoting this and many of his other movies for a long time.

I honestly didn't know who Derek Jeter was until this movie came out but being a pro athlete he really tackled those big words at the end of the movie very well. Good luck with your sports thing, and I'm sorry acting didn't really work out for you.

The Greatest (2009)

The Greatest movie is anything but. Never herd of this movie? Thats because its a low budget movie that went straight to DVD. Its about dealing with a great loss within your life, and how different people deal with that loss.

There is one good thing about this movie, Pierce Brosnan (James Bond), I love Mr.Brosnan saying till the day I die that he will be one of the greatest James Bonds ever. Excluding that one with the invisible car and the giant satellite that burns things. Pierce Brosnan is a great actor that looks good and sophisticated at the same time. He has the sexiest accent and I do believe he is the hottest old guy around. Pierce Brosnan is really the only reason that I rented this movie and I am glad I did.  Pierce plays the father of a son that was lost in a deadly car crash. The first scene we see Pierce is when he is sitting in his bed holding his alarm clock, we later realize that he hasn't slept since that fatal night. He has to deal with his drug addicted living son and crazy wife. He does a great job in this movie and I am glad I rented it.

Susan Sarandon is the crazy mother in this movie that doesn't talk about her dead son while she is concious and refuses to let the maid come in to house to keep her sons room just as it was. Susan starts to break down in the beginning of the movie and it just gets worse and worse as the story line progresses. Susan can play a great crazy woman. There was a particular scene that got to me, its the middle of the night and Susan Sarandon is sleep walking through her house crying out for someone to help her find her son. She is in the middle of a hallway talking through her madness just pleading for someone to help her. It was a moving scene and almost made me cry, ALMOST. I rented this movie because of Pierce Brosnan but I'm glad I got it because Susan was so great.

The son that dies about ten minutes in to the movie and is mostly in flashbacks you might know. The kid, Aaron Johnson (Kick Ass), has an awkward sex scene with his first girl friend in the beginning of the movie. He starts to drive this girl home at the beginning of the movie and when he stops to have a romantic moment and tell her that he loves her the car gets hit head on. This kid wasn't in the movie long enough of me to judge his part or acting skills, but from what everyone in the movie says about him. Well, I would say he was a total jerk.

Halfway through the movie after a funeral and the family starts to fall apart a collage age woman appears at their very large houses' doorstep saying that she is pregnant with their dead sons child.  This girl is a new comer to the screen and I have only seen her in one other movie, which was very good.  I couldn't tell if the other movie was good because of her, but now I know. The young actress, Carey Mulligan (An Education), brings a spark of life to this dieing family. She gives Pierce Broasnans' character the strength to tell his crazy wife that he still loves her and doesn't blame her in the slightest. She shows Susan Sarandan a new side of her little boy, and that she was blaming the wrong person for the death of her son. Carey Mulligan shows this family not only that being different is a strength, but that them being different is what binds the family together. Carey Mulligan is a strong actress and she plays the part perfectly. I am looking forward to more movies with this girl.

The story line of this movie is depressing. There are no special effects to say anything about because its mostly about human interaction. The family is crazy, it really brings back a lot of memories, but they are functional at the same time. The dialog is great and I never got bored. Keeping my attention is a feat considering I might have ADD. Though I have nothing bad to say about the actors and their characters I do have something horrible to say about the movie in general. Since this was a straight to DVD movie it didn't really make any impact on society or get any award credit. The movie touches over everything slightly, there is no in depth scene. There are many mentions of things and no elaboration. If I had a hand in this movie I would done, more. I don't even know what that means in general terms, but I would put MORE in to this movie.
All in all I would this movie a 4 out of 5. I would say if a friend had it then borrow it, but don't go out and spend money on it.


Got a  movie? Let me know and I will review it. PLEASE I NEED IDEAS!

Devil (2010)

The Devil is the first movie in a promised line of new releases in The Night Chronicles. We don't know whats going to happen in this new line of movies funded by M. Night Shyamalan. Hopefully he won't write any more hit movies like "The Lady in the Water" or "Signs". Thankfully this movie wasn't written by Shyamalan, but Brian Nelson (Thirty Days of Night).
The story line is simple enough, a group of people get trapped in an elevator and things start getting strange. One by one the people start dieing off in the elevator and the police are watching the security footage as it all happens.

A police officer who lost his wife and son in a hit and run accident five years earlier in the story, played by Chris Messina (Julie and Julia) just happens to be the first officer on the scene. He watches as the lights begin to flicker in the elevator and one by one the people start dieing.

The first to die, a crooked business man played by Geoffrey Arend ( Super Troopers). He is not in the movie for very long. From what we see of the mainly television star Geoffrey Arend he plays a pompous ass very well. They cut most of him out of the movie, I can just say from what little i saw of his character I'm glad he died first. If you don't recognize the name, and don't worry I didn't either, you may know him as the very high kid who ate all the mushrooms in the beginning of Super Troopers.

The second person that mysteriously dies is the little old lady in the elevator. We only discover how awful this little mystery woman is when you review the deleted scenes on the blu-ray disc. The little old lady, who turns out to be the Devil in disguise, is played by Jenny O'Hara (Big Love). If you appreciate the scary movie genre as much as I do then you see automatically that the little old lady is the odd one out no matter how hard they try to make her look bad. She plays a vindictive racist jerk that complains too much and no one likes. Overall she is a very good actress, because she can look mean.

After everyone starts freaking out because two people are dead there are only three left. The next to die is a security guard that is temping at the building who just happens to have a record of assault and battery. The security guard is played by Bokeem Woodbine (Saving Grace). The virtually nameless actor plays a very good paranoid claustrophobic but equally as soft character that grows close to the only other female character in the elevator. He is a giant person that gets his head twisted completely around on his body and the only other person in the elevator is supposed to believe that a female half his size did it with her bare hands. All in all a very weak part played by a new actor, even though I admire a director using new people, with new actors its a hit or miss.

The last female in the group and second to last one to die is a black widow that all the men in the elevator are supposed to ogle over, nothing special if you ask me. Bojana Novakovic (Edge of Darkness), another nameless person, in a very small role I would say she was great for the part. I literally have nothing to say about this woman. I believe that in a bigger role she would be a decent actress, but in this role I got nothing. She was okay, I guess.

The last left in the elevator and the only one to confess his sins and admit that he thinks he deserves his punishment is a young mechanic trying to get a better job so he can support his fiancee. In the end when faced with the devil himself the young man, Logan Marshall-Green (Deep Blue), admits to the detective that five years ago he hit a woman and child and accidentally killed them and ran from the scene of the crime. The only thing that saves his sole from hell is the detective forgiving him. This young man was the one person in the elevator that had the most dialog and the one you knew was going to live through it all. The young actor played the part well, and I am really looking forward to seeing him in more movies. Hopefully not one written or directed by M. Night Shymalanana, or how ever you spell that crazy name. Not to mention he was pretty cute in the jaded kind of bad boy way.

This movie had an original story line, that was actually based on real superstition of "The Devils Meeting."  If you haven't guessed who the devil was, which is very hard to ignore, it would keep you jumping in your seat racking your brain to figure it out. One promise of this movie is that M. Night Shyamalan didn't get to mess it up by helping in the writing or directing. There are very little special effects, but of those few they were actually pretty good. None of the deaths were very ostentatious and slightly believable. Plus when ever I step in to an elevator I am scared to death that it will get stuck on a random place and I will be trapped inside. This just reaffirms my belief in stairs.
All in all I would give the movie a 3.5 out of 5

http://www.thenightchronicles.com/

If you like this movie or you are a fan of scary movies, check out the website. I actually thought that "Signs", that came out when I was in middle school, was pretty creepy when it first came out. Hoping that M. Night Shyamalan gets back on his game and just forgets the last couple of movies he has written, THE LAST AIR BENDER WAS THE WORST MOVIE EVER, and teams up with Bruce Willis once again to make another "Sixth Sense or Unbreakable"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2009

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo staring Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomkvist), Noomi Rapace (Lisbeth Salander), Lena Endre (Erika Berger), and Peter Andersson (Nils Bjurman) is not a family time movie.  If you have read the first or all three books in the Millenium Trilogy you can agree that the Swedish version follows the novel very closely.  Michael Nyqvist is a good actor and just how I expected Mikael Blomkvist to be. He isn't the best looking man on the planet but compared to Daniel Craig (who is going to be playing this part in the American version) is a great pick for the main character. Noomi Rapace, playing my favorite character ever, has just enough attitude for this part. Lisbeth Salander is described in the book by a young girl who looks like a teen age boy and who can kick any ones ass that crosses her. I haven't seen Noomi in anything else she has played in, but she plays this part well. She looks the part, I hope by making her clothes baggy and adding dark make up, and is very convincing when the character needs to be tough. Lena Endre doesn't have a very big part in the movie, in the third movie you see much more of her. Then there is Peter Andersson that plays the despicable Nils Bjurman. He portrays the sinister pervert perfectly and I can't picture anyone else in the part when I read the book.
The actors portray the characters well. The story line is complex, but not too much. There is a variety in moods spanning from light with a touch of humor to dark and victorious. There are no special effects that I can comment on. This movie is all about the actors and how they bring the well known and loved novel to life and I think they achieved that perfectly. Though it is in Swedish and if you don't like subtitles then don't bother trying with this movie. It is one of those movies that you have to pay attention too.
All in all I give this movie a 4 out of 5. Mostly because Lisbeth Salander kick ass in the movie and books.

Cant take subtitles? Don't worry they are filming the American version and will be out in theaters I assume next year.

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet, staring Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express), Jay Chou (nothing important), Cameron Diaz (Theres something about Mary), and Christolph Waltz (Inglorious Bastards); lived up to my expectations.  If you want a good action hero movie then don't cast a comedian in the main role. Seth Rogen is funny in all the other movies he has done and is quite hilarious in this movie, but not a super hero.  He did nothing but talk and wine the whole movie.  Jay Chou, as Kato, was the coolest kick-ass-iest character in the movie, basically fighting crime while his ugly yet funny "hero" over shadows him.  Cameron Diaz, getting on in her years, played an office assistant while also writing articles and researching for the news paper the green hornet owns, and completely ruining the view of women in the work place by only getting the job that pays nothing and means nothing by her looks. The only person i have nothing bad to say about in this movie is Christolph Waltz, the awesome bad guy. He was the ultimate Nazi in Inglorious Bastards and his attitude carries over in this movie. He tried to be funny and hit the nail on the head, asking his victims "am i not scary?" in a very desperate way right before he shoots them with a very awesome double barrel gun. All in all i would give The Green Hornet a 2.5 out of 5 stars.