Sucker Punch

When I first read about this movie sometime last year I quickly became very excited. To me, "Sucker Punch" seemed like the most unique, original, and creative film I had read about or seen in awhile. When I saw the first trailer...my excitement rose a hundred levels and each week my anticipation grew larger and larger until I walked into the theater last Friday, saw the film...and cursed Hollywood for their smooth advertising techniques. Sure "Sucker Punch" might look like a top notch action extravaganza on the outside, but on the inside...there couldn't be more wrong with it.

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) has a harsh life. After the death of her mother, her evil stepfather decides to kill Baby Doll and her younger sister so that he can acquire everything in the mother's will. Baby Doll defends herself with a gun but when trying to kill her stepfather, she accidentally kills her sister. After these terrible events, the stepfather sends Baby Doll to the Lennox House for the Mentally Insane. Here he bribes the head of the asylum Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to have Baby Doll lobotomised so that the truth can never get out.

In the five days that it takes the Doctor (Jon Hamm) to arrive, Baby Doll retreats into a fantasy world where the asylum is a brothel owned by the mob and she is a newly arrived dancer. When practicing her dancing her mind takes her to imaginary places, the first is Japan where she meets The Wise Man (Scott Glenn). The Wise Man tells Baby Doll that she can escape if she finds five items: a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a fifth secret item that requires "great sacrifice." From there, Baby Doll and her four partners proceed to kick the butts of anything from robot Germans from World War I, to dragons, to massive rock samurais with Gatling guns in hopes that they can escape.

Before I saw the film, I thought that the story looked incredibly original, creative, and just plain awesome. While watching the film my opinion completely changed. While it is original and creative it is also disorganized, random, and confusing. Director Zach Snyder has proven that he is very capable of visually creative and stunning films with his past works like "300" and "Watchmen," but it seems that he is trying to cram many little elements into one film and make it look good. While some may agree that Snyder has succeeded with this in the past, it is a different case for "Sucker Punch." Sadly watching prostitutes fighting imaginary robots and dragons with an old man that says random things at random times that make no sense ends up coming across as stupid.

The second problem with the story is that it is just confusing. There were many things about the plot that I had questions about and by the end of the film, none of them were answered. In fact, there were several major plot points that I did not fully understand until I read over the plot description the next day in an attempt to answer questions I still had. RED FLAG! The film fails to present a clear story that is easy to understand (those that I saw the film with will say the same).

The one redeeming thing about "Sucker Punch" is the action. This is the only part of the film the met and even exceeded my expectations. No matter if the film is good or bad, Zach Snyder can do action and he can do it well. But only twenty minutes tops had the slow-motion explosions and sword fights that I loved the most and the other hour and forty minutes could never hope to hold up the film.

I wanted to enjoy "Sucker Punch." As I sat in the theater I tried to enjoy it as much as I wanted to but I couldn't. The outlandish and confusing story proves that you can't just have a bunch of hot girls, guns, and explosions to make an entertaining movie. I give it one star out of four.

"Sucker Punch" has a running time of 109 minutes and is rated PG-13 for thematic material including sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language.

Limitless

What if you could access one hundred percent of your brain, not just twenty? What could one person accomplish with their minds at full potential? Could they become billionaires overnight, or the ultimate target for the not so nice guys? Or both in Eddie Morra's case.

In "Limitless," Bradley Cooper plays an unsuccessful, poor, and, after the first five minutes, single writer Eddie Morra. After missing the deadline for his new book that he has not even begun to write yet, things are looking bad for Eddie...until he meets up with his step brother, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth). Eddie knows that Vernon is a drug dealer and at first doesn't really trust him until he shows Eddie a new drug that has supposedly been FDA approved called NZT-48. According to Vernon, the drug will allow for the taker to utilize all of there brain. So Eddie takes one not expecting much until he feels the effects. NZT-48 makes him smarter, improves his focus, and lets him remember anything from his past like TV show clips or words heard on a radio. With the drug he finishes his book in less than a week and after that invests in the stock market which quickly begins to make him richer and richer. Everything is looking good until he finds his step brother dead in his apartment and he begins to feel the side effects of the pill. Soon his activities go by in flashes and Eddie cannot remember what has just happened and he feels ill if he is not always on the move. Now Eddie must struggle with his dilemma: keep taking the pill and go through the dangerous side effects, or stop and get his old, cruddy life back, and the whole time he can't help but think that there is someone out to get him.

There were a lot of good things about "Limitless." First off is the elaborate story and all the things I was not expecting to be in it. Walking into "Limitless," I thought it was just going to be an average drama...I was wrong. The movie isn't just a drama, its filled with a lot of mystery and action as well. The plot kept me on the edge of my seat and thoroughly entertained me the whole time. Also, I was not expecting for Bradley Cooper's character to go Jason Bourne on bad guys and who doesn't love seeing that? Thankfully NZT-48 enables Eddie to remember Bruce Lee films, TV shows about self-defense, etc. which makes him the ultimate fighter even though he doesn't even know what he's doing. Another plus is that the ending is one of those "you decide what happens" endings...I'm always a fan of those (Inception).

But the plot did have one flaw...pointless characters. There are several characters that just have no importance in the film and when they appear on the screen I find myself asking, "Why are you here? What are you contributing? Why are you wasting screen time?" The prime example of this is Robert DeNiro's character, Carl Van Loon. DeNiro was highly utilized in the advertisements for this film but in the actual movie...he only has about 15 minutes tops of screen time. His character has virtually no point and anything slightly important about him could have been transferred to the other and more important "bad guy" of the film.

"Limitless," its story, and Cooper as its lead all surprised me. I had a much bigger interest and liking for the film that I expected to have and even though some parts of the plot were pointless, I can get over that. "Limitless" is a suspenseful, action drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole trip. I give it 3 stars out of 4.

"Limitless" has a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes and is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language.

Red Riding Hood

Well here we go again, another classic fairy tale is being re-imagined for the 21st century silver screen. As some of you may know, my opinion on last weeks "Beastly" (another re-imagined classic tale) was less than spectacular. Does "Red Riding Hood" spark hope for the many more fairy tale remakes to come?

Valerie's (Amanda Seyfried) town has been haunted by the Wolf for years. The people of the town offer a monthly sacrifice to keep the beast out of their homes but even that cannot stop the Wolf from killing Valerie's sister one night. Because of the killing of this girl, the townspeople become more and more enraged with the cursed animal and want to go out and kill it and rid the town of the horrible beast forever. To help the people in their quest, the town priest calls upon Father Soloman (Gary Oldman) who has experience in slaying werewolves and witches. He promises to find the beast and kill it by any means necessary and warns the people that the wolf could be anyone in the town and to be cautious.

But to Valerie, the wolf is the least of her problems. The real problem is her love life. Valarie loves Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), a woodcutter that she has known since childhood, and he loves her. But when Valarie's parents arrange for her to be married to a blacksmith named Henry (Max Irons) in order to pay off a debt that Valerie's family owes Henry's...things get complicated. Now Valarie must decide whether or not to honor her parent's orders while keeping a watchful eye out for the Wolf who could very well be the one that she loves.

Interestingly enough, I found the pros and cons of "Red Riding Hood" very similar to "Beastly." First off, I like the film's plot and the way it manages to take a classic story and find ways to make it new. The film has a good mix of romance, action, and thrill (although romance is the overpowering element of the film). Of course being the teenage guy that I am, I enjoyed all the action that I wasn't really expecting. I was also surprised by the amount mystery that surrounded the movie. The story kept me guessing throughout, "Who is the Wolf?" and yes...the end will surprise you.

But once again, the entertaining story line is tainted by bad acting and a bad script. As some may notice, the poster says, "From the Director of 'Twilight'" and unfortunately the terrible sappiness and cheesy romantic lines seen in the vampire flick echo in "Red Riding Hood." Every time I enjoyed a good scene, a corny one would follow leaving me cringing with disappointment (and a little vomit in my mouth). And the acting just makes it worse. While the leads, Seyfried and Oldman, do the best with what they are given, the supporting actors are just a bunch of people I have never heard of and hopefully will never hear of again.

So another classic fairy tale has crashed and burned under the modern silver screen. Lets hope that this pattern shown by "Beastly" and "Red Riding Hood" doesn't reflect what is coming up this year and next year with the many more fairy tale revamps coming up including adaptions of Sleeping Beauty and three different takes on Snow White. Hopefully the screenwriters for those films can perform a little better than the ones for "Red Riding Hood". I give it 1.5 stars out of 4.

"Red Riding Hood" has a running time of 100 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence and creature terror, and some sensuality.

Beastly

My first reaction when seeing the trailer for this film was, "NO! Please don't mess with such classic source material as Beauty and the Beast," most easily recognized in the mega-hit Disney film from 1991. Could such love, emotion, and power captured in my favorite animated film be copied in the 21st century rendition? While "Beastly" did exceed my expectations, it can never compare to the greatness shown in the classic fairy tail.

Meet the popular, handsome, and all around total jackass Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer). One could blame Kyle's cruel attitude on his father who has taught him his whole life that "looks" are the key to success. Because of this idea, Kyle is obsessed with his self image and cruelly makes fun of anyone who he deems ugly. An example is a girl named Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen). One night, during a party, Kyle runs into Kendra and begins to once again make fun of her looks. Kendra then reveals herself to be a witch and casts a spell on Kyle, taking away his good looks and replacing them with gashes and scars. She explains that Kyle has one year to find another who loves him or else he will remain in his new form forever.

Now forsaken by his prideful father, out of school and alone, save for his maid and his blind tutor (Neil Patrick Harris), Kyle searches longingly for a girl that could see past his outside appearance. Lindy Taylor (Vanessa Hudgens), a student that Kyle once knew, becomes caught up in gang violence because of her father and is in need of protection. When Kyle saves her father from two gunmen, he offers to protect Lindy so that the gang cannot harm her. The father agrees and sends Lindy to Kyle's apartment where Kyle desperately hopes that she will be the one who breaks the spell.

The classic story of "Beauty and the Beast" is a unique and timeless one that I love no matter how it is portrayed. In "Beastly" I enjoyed the ways that the makers of the film manage to revamp the classic story to fit into a modern day Manhattan setting. The transitions of the story and the characters from 18th century France to 21st century New York high school fit well, but the sour-spot came from the lackluster script. The laughable dialogue made it hard to watch most of the film without smirking and ruined the more serious scenes.

As far as acting goes, I believe the two leads did as best they could with the bad script they had to read. Pettyfer and Hudgens are both young actors who I believe have potential if they can manage to choose the right films. In this case, what some might call "bad acting" is really caused by the script...not the actor's ability to act. On the other hand, my favorite part of the film was Neil Patrick Harris' character, Kyle's blind tutor who teaches Kyle more about life than schoolwork. Harris manages to steal every single scene he is in with his wit and humor; and his lines and scenes are the best in the film

But the biggest problem with "Beastly?" Where is the heart and the love that people think of when they think of "Beauty and the Beast." The classic story is about how the two main characters actually come to love each other, but in "Beastly," the so called "love" seems more forced than gained as if Kyle just wants to use any girl to get his looks back. For me, the only time I could feel emotion for a character was when, guess who, Neil Patrick Harris was on the screen (once again, he is the best part of the film).

So does "Beastly" live up to other versions of the "tale as old as time?" Sadly...no. Though the plot and characters are enjoyable, this new tale could never hope to have the emotion, heart, and magic that was shown in the Disney classic. I give it 1.5 stars out of 4.

"Beastly" has a running time of 95 minutes and is rated PG-13 for language including crude comments, brief violence and some thematic material.

The Hangover Part 2 Trailer 2011 HD

The Wolfpack is BACK!! This trailer doesn't show much but I'm still very happy to see the return of one of the funniest trios in comedy!