Beastly just kind of showed up at my house earlier this week unexpectedly, as I have no idea how it made it to the top of my queue that is nearly 300 movies long. However, I was always intrigued by the basic story that is modeled after the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast, most commonly known in its Disney form. There really isn't much to draw my attention to this movie besides two things, the one being what I've just mentioned about the good concept of a modern-day telling of Beauty and the Beast. The second draw to this film I had is that one of the stars of the film is Neil Patrick Harris, whom I've recently taken a liking to after watching him play Barney Stinson on TV's How I Met Your Mother. To counter those two draws to the film, there were several drawbacks, one of which being the same as what drew me to the movie. There's something about the possibility of a clever re-telling coming out of a modern day version of this story, but much like many other adaptations of classic stories, it can all go very wrong if not treated correctly. Unfortunately the latter is the case here, as I didn't find that Beastly even had all that much in terms of a quality story that pulls on the emotions like the classic story does...[more]...

Upon hearing the news of a fourth installment to the Pirates franchise, I got severely upset because I honestly don’t understand how anyone can stand the third film at all. There just was something about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End that really irritated me, between the boring same-old act from every character, to Elizabeth becoming the pirate “queen�. After my first viewing of the second film I felt the same way as well, but upon a re-watch I decided that I like the second film quite a lot due to Bill Nighy and his underwater boat and crew under the name of Davy Jones. It gives the film exactly what the first film has and that’s a believable and fun antagonist to Jack Sparrow and the rest of the crew. When seeing the trailer for this fourth film, it seemed to display some of the qualities that the second film had and led me to believe this was going to be a somewhat decent return for Pirates. By no means did I expect to like this more than the first, but I had hope that it could compete with the quality of the second and unfortunately the trailer leaves nothing to look forward to. I felt like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was a complete rehash of the entire series with a bit of new characterization to change up the game, but it really doesn’t do enough at all in the department of originality....[more]...

It has been a few years since we’ve had a dramatic performance from Jim Carrey, and some feel it’s been awhile that we’ve seen a good movie of his, period. I’ve been a huge fan of all of Carrey’s films from the day I began to watch his comedies as a child. His recent comedies include a lot of children’s films such as Horton Hears A Who! and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, but also the criminally underrated Yes Man. However, I Love You Phillip Morris is his most recent dramatic work since The Number 23, which I thought was an outstanding role for Jim Carrey to display his actual acting abilities in. He’s always been a high-energy, entertaining, and immensely talented actor, and his performance as Steven Russell shows us absolutely no different. This film never really saw the darkness of a movie theater, at least anywhere near me, and it was due to several problems during production and with its reception afterwards. It’s no surprise to me why this wasn’t a huge blockbuster, and it’s also no wonder as to why this may be Jim Carrey’s only forgotten film in the future...[more]...

This past year’s Academy Awards was riddled with recognition for the film The King’s Speech, and much like a few years ago with Slumdog Millionaire I wasn’t buying into the hype. It seemed like a sure grab for critics because they always go for the films that everyone could care less about, and have never heard of before. It usually makes it seem to me as if they only pick these movies because of these reasons, and it’s so hard for me to believe that they’re worthy of the recognition they receive. But, just like with Slumdog Millionaire I was proven entirely and whole-heartedly wrong, and The King’s Speech without a doubt in my mind deserved most of its accolades. Winning four Oscars for its presence in the year of 2010, it definitely deserved all but one, that being the Best Director. I think the main reason Tom Hooper was given the win is because this was supposedly his “first film�, however it is his third after his last film The Damned United which I have seen starring Michael Sheen...[more]...

It’s been a week or so now since the release of one of this year’s biggest franchise players, and it’s only taken that amount of time to receive a general consensus on this film, Scream 4. So far the feedback for this revival of the Scream franchise has been fairly negative with a few pleased customers mixed within, most of which I think went to the film expecting what was given. Now, that being said you would assume me, Nick of Jack’s Maniacal, was absolutely prepared for what I was given with Scream 4, and probably enjoyed it for what it was. Despite being about as big of a horror fan as you can get, I just couldn’t hardly find a single thing to be happy about with Scream 4. There’s so many things in this film to blame for the terribleness that was this waste of franchise resources, and I really just wish this film never would’ve been touched. Obviously, since this film’s release the news has broken that the inevitable new Scream trilogy continuing with “SCRE5M� and “SCRE6M�, is actually going to be held back and not be made for the time being, and here’s why...[more]...

It’s been nearly seven years since most have heard the name Paul Haggis, the writer/director of the Academy Award winning Crash. Besides a film, In The Valley Of Elah, in 2007, The Next Three Days is his latest film to have directed, as well as written. Having the writing credit under his belt for many other great titles like Million Dollar Baby, Casino Royale, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Flags of our Fathers, definitely led me to believe that this film would have to be pretty great. While I can’t say it was a complete failure of the film, it just really didn’t live up to a Haggis-hype and it didn’t deliver very much on a unique kind of film. Two huge names co-star in the film as a married couple and once one of them gets locked up for being accused of murder, all the rules go out the window. The problem is I don’t really feel like there was all too much going on in the film to keep you interested for more than a two hour runtime. I may have expected much more from the film, but it’s still worth a watch for anyone because I think most could forgive the flaws that I found with it, and that’s because of the star power...[more]...

With Hanna, we have a flick that literally slipped under the radar for most of its time being brought up onto the silver screen, and until just now is being entirely recognized. A simple-minded action/thriller according to the trailers, but this is a film that shouldn’t be skipped over because of cover appearances. Hanna is definitely a high-concept film despite its appearance, and after having seen it once, I can only wish to see it again to dig deeper into the film’s story. This is a film that really defies the tradition of action in being simple-minded, and gives us an action film that we can not only enjoy for the blood and bruising, but also the story and film-making skills involved. Directed by Joe Wright, whose talents have given us such quality films like The Soloist, Pride & Prejudice, and Atonement, Hanna really proves to its audience that action films can be much more than just explosions and bad ass dudes. Hanna presents us with quality characters played by extremely high-quality talents in acting, but also it has that fresh feel about it. Also wielding a score from the relatively well-known techno musicians The Chemical Brothers, Hanna is a powerful film in more than one sense and is really a show for how misleading trailers can be for any kind of film...[more]...

Based off of the 1981 film of the same name, Arthur focuses its attention on a drunken but wealthy man who comes to a fork in the road of his life, where he has to choose either love or prosperity. The thing about this film that makes this simple choice interesting, is that our main character Arthur Bach is very eccentric and young at heart. The actor chosen to play this character may be a bit of obvious casting, however I did not find from the trailers that it was a very wise decision in choosing Russell Brand. The trailers definitely play Arthur off as being more of a straight-forward comedy than it really is, and ultimately ends up being about as “chick flick� as it gets. Fortunately for the guys out there the eccentricity of our main character is enough to generate laughter for the entire film, but for the gals I can’t say there’s much here in terms of a quality romance. It’s odd that the film was marketed as a comedy, most likely to disguise its romantic comedy traits, and as it turns out there may have been a reason in hiding it. However, the audience I saw the film with thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of the 1981 comedy classic, and Russell Brand is without a doubt the reason why...[more]...

A movie with the title Animal Kingdom may not get the recognition amongst the common movie-going audience as a film that is anything outside of an animal documentary in today’s recurring nightmare of 3D. Instead, Animal Kingdom is writer/director David Michôd’s first endeavor into feature film with only experience in documentaries and shorts. What makes this film deserving of being recognized and watched by anyone, is that it is without a shadow of a doubt, by far one of the best movies of 2010. If I could go back now to change my end of the year list for best of the year, I would rank it within my Top 5. It’s a movie that takes off from the get-go and puts you right into the shoes of our main character J, and what he has to experience with the instant changes in his life. The film drives hard for nearly 110 minutes, and from the opening scene builds tension until the final second of the film. I would consider Animal Kingdom amongst one of the best crime dramas in the last 5 years, and without a doubt now ranks highly in being one of my favorites of all-time...[more]...

To some, Dwayne “The Rock� Johnson has made many questionable film choices in the last five or so years, but being that I’ve been a fan of his for quite awhile, I can’t say that I agree. While he may have dove deep into the family genre and made two or three movies that were silly of an ex-WWE superstar, he always made them his own. There’s an undeniable characteristic that “The Rock� has in any movie to make it charismatic and entertaining relative to the character he is playing. Obviously, action movies have always been his strong suit, and Faster makes him return to the genre after a five to eight year vacation depending on what you consider his last “true� action movie: Southland Tales [2006], Doom [2005], Walking Tall [2004], or even The Rundown [2003]. Faster however gives us Dwayne Johnson at possibly his darkest and most involved in the action he’s ever been, and it really marks the return of a future action hero. Starring a few other people as well, Faster manages to create a fast-paced action thriller that unfortunately lacks in originality beyond the point of Dwayne “The Rock� Johnson’s character...[more]...

The first big comedy release of the year is finally upon us, and if you haven’t heard about Paul then now is your chance. Quite possibly my most anticipated movie of the year overall because the two stars of the film, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, or Shaun and Ed for some. Having not seen them in a movie with each other since Hot Fuzz, their other film with director Edgar Wright, I was really expecting a riot of laughter for Paul with the addition of many other great comedians. This film however was not directed by Edgar Wright, rather it was helmed by another recent comedy director in Greg Mottola who gave us the sure to be comedy classic, Superbad. With all of this we’re presented the story of the two lads who have come to America from England to enjoy UFO hot spots and San Diego Comic-Con. Fortunately for audiences, our duo has a lot more in store than they’re prepared for when they discover an alien that takes them on one hell of a wild ride. Paul is a great debut for the comedy genre this year, and even though it’s not Pegg and Frost’s best work as a comedic duo, it sure as hell did enough for me being one of the biggest fans in the bunch...[more]...

With arguably one of the best top billed casts of 2010, Stone is a movie that walked away from its debut with little to no praise at all. Assembling some of the best actors known alive today including Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, at least in my opinion, along with Milla Jovovich returning to the real world for a big-time drama. With such a cast assembled one might assume that this would be the powerhouse drama of 2010, but rather it was this star-studded event that made other dramas look much better on the year. A promising film in concept and talent was seemingly expected but with John Curran, he couldn’t manage to up himself from his previous films. Stone does about exactly what the title suggests by boring you to stone with too much emotion to fill the half-cup characters that are created by the cast. Though not in sole fault to the cast itself, one may consider the progression of the relationships in this film to be at times lifeless without building much suspense at all. Considering Curran’s previous work with Edward Norton in The Painted Veil, it’s no surprise that Norton’s character Stone is the center of attention for this piece...[more]...

Based off of the similarly titled Swedish film Let The Right One In, the American version Let Me In sets out to be bigger and badder than its predecessor. Considering that I’m a fairly avid fan of the Swedish version, I wasn’t expecting too much originality or surprise from this American Horror remake. However, I was actually surprised at how well-made this American version was, comparative to the original, as well as many other aspects. While the film is a remake of Let The Right One In, it still does plenty enough to make it its own movie and pays respects simultaneously to the original. I really like all of the choices made for this film and seeing that most American Horror remakes in the last ten years have been mostly atrocious, it’s nice to see something halfway original and respectfully adapted from its source material. Let Me In is everything an American Horror remake should be, and it has all of the elements that made the Swedish film such a fantastic addition to the vampire genre. Casting for this film was extremely important to maintain the character presences that the original film created, and Matt Reeves could not have done a finer job in selecting a cast for this film...[more]...

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT MY REVIEW CONTAINS ANY SPOILERS, BUT SOME THINGS CONTAINED WITHIN MAY BE CONSIDERED MINIMAL SPOILERS FOR THIS MOVIE. THIS IS JUST A FAIR WARNING SO NO ONE YELLS AT ME FOR RUINING THE MOVIE, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE I KEPT THIS REVIEW SPOILER FREE. ALL CAPS REALLY MAKES THIS SOUND THREATENING, BUT I ASSURE YOU MY REVIEW IS NICE...[more]...

Not being the biggest fan of the first film of the same main title, I wasn’t entirely too excited to be checking out Paranormal Activity 2 this weekend on Blu-ray. I always was willing to give the first film its credit where it was due, in that it had a fantastic marketing campaign in getting it demanded in your own city. Word of mouth for the first film was so high that maybe in the end I was ultimately let down expecting more, but the atmosphere in movies like The Blair Witch Project just haunt me much more than Paranormal Activity could ever hope to. These films suffer from a few of the same problems between both, and the second one suffers from much more because of it being a duplicated sequel. Paranormal Activity 2 fails very easily in the sense that it does absolutely nothing different to establish itself as a different film from the first, and at the same time does more of what made the first film so “likable�. The fact that this sequel does match up with the first film as a sort of prequel is really cool, but it’s honestly not played off of enough because there isn’t enough actual quality material from the first film for it to build on...[more]...

Written and directed by first timer Gareth Edwards, Monsters was one of the most talked about science fiction films of this past year of 2010. Not only was it massively talked about, but it was mentioned as being the true sci-fi flick for this year, as well as being compared to recent gems such as District 9. For Gareth Edwards, I’m sure this is all more than he could have expected for this film, but it is truly deserving of all of the recognition it has gotten in the past year. The title of this film in a way is misleading, because it’s not your typical science fiction/horror adventurer, but rather it blends in the untraditional element of drama/romance that aren’t normally present in this atmosphere. At the same time however, the title so adequately describes what this film is all about and in that way that it’s misleading, does it for a reason. I will have to say that while I was sort of shocked as to how this film carried itself and progressed through its story, I was more than amazed at how good the film actually was. District 9 being one of my favorite films of the last few years, let alone sci-fi films, I was hard to let this movie impress me but in the end it did more than that with quality all the way around...[more]...

Ever since hearing about The Mechanic I have been stoked to see it and most would assume that that is because of Jason Statham which I suppose would be an accurate guess, but there’s another reason. Co-starring in the remake of the 1972 film of the same name, is one of my favorite small role actors and that is Ben Foster. Ever since seeing him in Alpha Dog I have always been a huge fan of his dramatic performances in a ton of smaller films, and has always provided a lot of character and emotion for his roles. The Mechanic follows the character of Arthur Bishop into the life of a hitman and the complications that come along with working for those you’re close to. When Arthur is forced to kill someone he has known for a very long time, he is faced with the conscious afterthought of the whole thing and thus develops our story. It’s really a simple and basic action film that really has just enough to make it worth watching, because while it is fun to watch it really doesn’t do anything that any other movies we haven’t seen has done. Really what made this film for me is the performances because I’m a huge fan of both main actors, so if you’re not this might not be the most entertaining movie you’ve ever seen...[more]...

Twelve came in the mail from my Netflix queue and I honestly hadn’t a clue what it was, but after giving it a quick look I quickly figured out my motivation. Kiefer Sutherland is listed for being part of the cast in this film, but unfortunately to my discovery he is only a narrator for the entire film. The film does have a starring cast that only really has a few recognizable names for me, and even then the cast isn’t all that extraordinary. There are a few small moments with each character in the film that really accent the performances of the actors, but the entire movie at times feel too much like Crash or something where it’s an assembly of a random characters for an ending. It doesn’t necessarily have as impactful of an ending but it gets the job done with the story it sets in place, and even the actors choose their moments to stand out and shine. I’m really kind of glad I actually saw this movie and it’s really only good enough to see once, but it has a good enough story and characters to keep you entertained for an hour and a half, but that goes along with the film’s few problems as well...[more]...

One of Summer 2010′s big films was this film here called Salt, which honestly could have been called Pepper and made just about the same amount of sense, somehow. What Salt doesn’t really have going for it is a strong enough story to carry the so-so performances from most of the acting talent in the film. While the story isn’t necessarily the film’s strongest aspect, it’s definitely present and had initial promise considering the depth of the whole thing. For being Angelina Jolie’s big return to action, I and I think many other viewers of the movie couldn’t help but be disappointed. With two big stars in place this film should have easily become an action great because of its slick and complex story, but it falls rather short on both ends because of the tragic execution put in place here. It’s really sad to see a potential flick fall to failure, especially one of the action genre which we don’t get too many greats from nowadays. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Jolie’s career will be tainted by this film because people obviously still saw it in the theaters, as it was one of the higher grossing movies of the summer, which only goes to show the power of Angelina...[more]...

So as some of you know by now, I’m not the biggest fan of the Twilight franchise and its films and I really find them to be terrible, bloated filmmaking at its finest. What these movies have proven to me time and time again is that popular culture and teenagers of any generation can make something that isn’t unique or different at all, become popular at the drop of a hat by just feeding it money. I’ve seen all of the films up to this point as well as everyone else has at this point, and there isn’t much I can say for the franchise quality wise in the films. I can deal with the first film Twilight, but New Moon puzzled me as to what brain mode does a viewer have to put themselves into to be able to enjoy such a “retarded� movie. I’m sorry to use such harsh words, but I really can’t find any that better explain my point than dumb. These films have obviously continued forth as Harry Potter and others have, mainly for reasons that are financially related to anyone involved with the projects. Eclipse however is probably the best of the franchise thus far that at times is at least tolerable to the point that you can make it to the end of the film, not feeling that you have completely wasted your time...[more]...