Entries Categorized as 'J.C.'
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Easily one of the biggest releases of the year was this film and easily the biggest disappointment so far of this year is this film. If you missed where we posted an early draft of the script then here is the link. Which as you can see the aliens, fridge and everything were involved in this script. It wasn’t just Lucas being his usual self. Someone else actually thought it was a good idea.
A lot of reviews I’ve read have said that if you are a die hard fan then you will enjoy this one all the same. Let me tell you that you will not. This doesn’t offer any of the usual thrills that you get. The one-liners are all lame and the story is still trying to work on me to make me think that it is anything less than terrible. Indiana Jones does not deal with aliens.
Does anyone else realize that this franchise has just hit an all time low that only certain others have. Usually only horror movies make the leap to space with Leprechaun and Jason coming to mind but now an action movie has. And of all franchises, they choose Indiana Jones to lead the space action movie trend, come on. I know it isn’t quite space themed, but the aliens are close enough for me. You might as well throw Indy on a NASA jet and make him land on Jupiter and fight the space martians for the rights to gain Kobe Bryant in a trade.
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Rating: 3.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Posted in J.C., Movies, Reviews by J.C. 
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Tags: george lucas, harrison ford, indiana jones, kingdom of the crystal skulls, steven spielberg
Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am
The Incredible Hulk is a 2008 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. It is directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Edward Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner / the Hulk. The second Hulk film after Hulk (2003), it is a reboot that establishes a new back-story, where Banner became the Hulk as an unwitting pawn in a military scheme to create supersoldiers. On the run, he attempts to cure himself of the Hulk before he is captured by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt), but his worst fears are realized when power-hungry soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) becomes the Abomination. Liv Tyler also stars as Betty Ross, Banner’s girlfriend and General Ross’ daughter.
Marvel Studios reacquired the rights to the character after the mixed reception to Hulk, and writer Zak Penn began work on a loose sequel that would be much closer to the comics and the television series. Norton rewrote the script after he signed on to star, which clarified the film’s new back-story. Leterrier aimed to make the film realistic, giving a more frightening direction for the look of the monsters, while redesigning the Abomination from the comics’ reptilian humanoid into a mutated man with bony protrusions. Filming mostly took place in Toronto, Canada in 2007, where the production attempted to be environmentally friendly.
Normally I would pass on this movie all day long but with the recent crop of decent comic book flicks I thought, why not? I’m guessing you are more or less supposed to forget about the previous attempt by ang lee which isn’t hard to do. This one feels more like a full film and even though the bad guy is mostly made up, he is pretty cool. This one is definitely better than the previous hulk film but there is still work to be done on this franchise. Maybe the filmmakers can take some lessons from Iron Man or TDK for the next go at a hulk movie. I’m loving the fact that Marvel is making their own movies now though. Seems like the creative control that they have is really making for better movies.
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Rating: 3.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Posted in J.C., Movies, Reviews by J.C. No Comments »
Tags: Christina Cabot, Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Lou Ferrigno, Louis Leterrier, Martin Starr, The Incredible Hulk, Tim Blake Nelson, Tim Roth, Ty Burrell, William Hurt, Zak Penn
Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Moving Mountains is a New York-based indie rock band. Combining emotional vocals with elements of post-rock, the band has often been compared to such acts as The Appleseed Cast and Thrice.
Moving Mountains was formed in Westchester, New York in 2005 by Gregory Dunn (guitar/vocals) and Nicholas Pizzolato (drums). A self-titled demo was leaked to the public in early 2006 and their debut album Pneuma was released independently in early 2007. Later that year, Frank Graniero (guitar/vocals) and Mitchell Lee (bass) completed the band’s line-up. In 2008, Pneuma was reissued by Deep Elm.
I first heard of this band in an interview that we conducted with the members of The Cast Before the Break and they said that they would love to tour with these guys non-stop but for some reason I didn’t ever get around to listening to them. Then absolutepunk just did their 200 bands that you need to know about and the description under this band was, “If this list were only one band, this band would be that band.” So I immediately check them out and dug it so I grabbed the cd off of amazon and I highly recommend it. Since I’ve listened to this, I can now hear the influence that this band had on The Cast Before the Break.
You will be hard pressed to find a more epic sounding album that came out over the last year than this one. It has everything you need for a rock album. Lots of melodies, a little screaming, epic, epic songs, and a ballad. Highly recommended.
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Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Posted in J.C., Music by J.C. No Comments »
Tags: Moving Mountains, Pneuma
Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Iron Man is a 2008 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow plays his personal assistant Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard plays military liaison James Rhodes and Jeff Bridges plays Stark Industries executive Obadiah Stane.
The film was in development since 1990 at Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, and New Line Cinema, before Marvel Studios reacquired the rights in 2006. Marvel put the project in production as their first self-financed film. Favreau signed on as director, aiming for a naturalistic feel, and he chose to shoot the film primarily in California, rejecting the East Coast setting of the comics to differentiate the film from numerous superhero movies set in New York City-esque environments. During filming, the actors were free to create their own dialogue because preproduction was focused on the story and action. Rubber and metal versions of the armors, created by Stan Winston’s company, were mixed with computer-generated imagery to create the title character.
Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures, the distributor, planned a $50 million marketing campaign for the film, which was modeled on Paramount’s successful promotion of Transformers; Hasbro and Sega sold merchandise, and product placement deals were made with Audi, Burger King, LG and 7-Eleven. Reviews were positive, particularly praising Downey’s performance. The film’s stars have signed on for two sequels, the first of them scheduled for release on April 30, 2010, while Downey also makes a cameo appearance as Stark in The Incredible Hulk.
So how do you write a favorable review for a super hero movie after everyone has already seen Dark Knight and made it their favorite super hero movie of all time. The easiest thing would be to say that this movie is a lighter more fun film than TDK. Where TDK is dark and very villain driven, Iron Man is quick, funny, and Stark steals the show. Downey is pure perfection as Stark and I would have been fine with a movie without the Iron Man, just of Stark going around womanizing and throwing out one-liners. Favreau is the real surprise of this film though. Going from indie films into a big summer blockbuster and he makes it good. I have never been a huge fan of his but this one is definitely well done from all aspects. At least now on Dinner for Five it will be, “When I was working on Iron Man” instead of “When I was working on Swingers…”. God that man loves to talk about Swingers.
Regardless if you love him or hate him or like the character of Iron Man, this film is an entertaining watch. With the quality of the Comic books films this summer going up, it will only ensure that we get another three per year for the next twenty years. I personally have hated pretty much all of the other Comic book films but the big three that came out this summer are all worth checking out.
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Rating: 3.0/5 (5 votes cast)
Posted in J.C., Movies, Reviews by J.C. No Comments »
Tags: Art Marcum, Bill Smitrovich, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hawk Ostby, Iron Man, Jeff Bridges, Jon Favreau, Leslie Bibb, Mark Fergus, Matt Holloway, Micah Hauptman, Nazanin Boniadi, Robert Downey Jr., Shaun Toub, Terrence Howard
Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Eighteen-year-old Ian Lafferty sets out on a cross country drive with his best friends Lance and Felicia in order to lose his virginity to a red-hot babe he met on the Internet. But the journey, filled with hilarious misadventures and raunchy escapades, teaches all three more than they expected about life and love. Randy, raucous and unexpectedly romantic, Sex Drive follows three friends on the road trip of a lifetime!
Starring: James Marsden, Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Katrina Bowde, Seth Green, Clark Duke
Release Date: October 17th, 2008
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Rating: 3.0/5 (5 votes cast)
Posted in J.C., Scripts by J.C. No Comments »
Tags: Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, James Marsden, John Morris, Josh Zuckerman, Katrina Bowde, Sean Anders, Seth Green, the sex drive
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
The Promotion is a 2008 American comedy film written and directed by Steven Conrad. A look at the quest for the American Dream, it focuses on two grocery store managers trying for a promotion. The film premiered at South by Southwest in March 2008. It was released by Dimension Films on June 6, 2008.
Doug Stauber (Scott) is the assistant manager of a supermarket in Chicago. He believes that he is a “shoo-in” for manager of a supermarket that is scheduled to open a few blocks away. Suddenly a new assistant manager, Richard (Reilly) comes to the store from Canada, and begins to compete for the same new job.
The movie describes how the two men fight for the job, trying to impress the management of the supermarket chain. The competition causes strain on their respective marriages. Doug is under financial pressure to get the job because he has begun to buy a house that he cannot afford if he is not promoted. After Richard arrives, it appears that he has replaced Doug as front runner for the job. But it soon becomes clear that Richard has disadvantages of his own, such as a past substance abuse problem and a tendency to make inappropriate remarks.
Don’t watch this if you work or have worked at a grocery store because it doesn’t really offer anything that true about that environment. The movie is strictly about the promotion and the two people that want it. I wanted there to be grocery store humor but there really isn’t any. This is definitely one of those movies where if these two weren’t starring in it you would never have heard of it. It’s not that it’s bad either, it’s just that it isn’t that good of a movie. The voice-overs are never ending and the plot is pretty basic. I have no intentions of ever sitting through this again so I’m sure that you won’t be very impressed by it either.
Posted in J.C., Movies, Reviews, Scripts by J.C. No Comments »
Tags: Bobby Cannavale, Chris Conrad, Fred Armisen, Gil Bellows, Jenna Fischer, John C. Reilly, Lili Taylor, Rick Gonzalez, seann william scott, steve conrad, the promotion
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Salo, or the 120 of Sodom
Not Reviewed
In this new edition from the Criterion Collection you get another disc of extra material and now you don’t have to worry about paying over $100 on ebay for the first 1-disc release. The films about four fascist libertines who round up 9 teenages boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental and sexual torture. Sounds groovy eh? But you know it’s worth the dough if Criterion is throwing it out.
Nightmare Before Christmas
Not Reviewed
Now digitally restored and remastered with state-of-the-art technology, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector s Edition is deeper, darker and more brilliant than ever as Tim Burton originally envisioned. Can Christmas be saved? Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, longs to spread the joy of Christmas. But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere! This new version comes with DisneyFile Digital Copy, a full-length version of the movie you can transfer and watch on your PC, Mac, and video-enabled compatible portable players.
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden
Josh’s Review
Adam’s Review
Based the flimsy premise that as a soon-to-be dad Spurlock must find Bin Laden to help raise his kid in a safer world, he embarks on a global journey to track Osama. Most of the time, though, he just accomplishes looking funny and going for a cheap laugh in, what one would expect to be, a serious issue; finding the most feared terrorist in the world.
Don’t get me wrong, some of his schtick is entertaining and Spurlock is a talented documentary filmmaker but this issue was handled incorrectly.
Furthermore, the film lacks any real sense of closure. His journey comes to an abrupt, and unsatisfying, end that leaves the viewer short changed. His premise alone (hunting Bin Laden) sets this doc up for failure from the beginning because, barring an incredible stroke of luck, Mr. Spurlock would never be able to film the perfect ending where he actually sees/captures/talks to Osama Bin Laden.
What Happens in Vegas
Review Here
What Happens in Vegas is the newest one to be released and features Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz as two people that both are down on their luck and need to get away, so where you can go and let loose of everything? Vegas of course, during the course of one drunken evening they drink, party, drink, dance, drink, gamble, drink, get married, drink, have sex, and drink some more. When morning arrives and the 25 cent on Diaz’s finger is not fake then they both assume that a divorce should be no problem and it’s settled that the marriage is over. Then Kutcher puts a quarter in a slot machine on his way out and bam! 3 million dollars rains down upon him. Only problem is that he used Diaz’s quarter and since their married they each have the right to get some of the money. So a judge forcing them to live together for six months and try to make the marriage work and if not then he will continue with the proceedings.
Now, do I really need to tell you how this movie works itself out? It’s a chick flick and they are all entirely too predictable and it’s the getting there part that I usually rate and this one isn’t too bad. It’s not hilarious by any means but it wasn’t horrible to sit through and I found it to be much easier to watch than Fool’s Gold. I don’t care for either of these actors and this movie doesn’t really add to their credit. Just another generic movie that is sure to be loved by silly ladies everywhere.
August
Review Here
Coming out later this summer, the film August stars Josh Harnett and Adam Hall. Harnett and Hall are brothers who run the last Web 2.0 company that survived the “.com” fad of the early 2000’s. When the stock plummets, their company, Landshark, looks to sink just like the rest of the e-wannabes. Harnett’s character, Tom, has one month to save his company.
The idea of the film, the acting, and the look are all decent but the writing is shaky at best. I suppose the audience is supposed to think that Harnett’s character is supposed to be edgy and cool…but he just ends up looking like a complete asshole. Even when Tom has seemingly learned his lesson and redeemed himself, he still comes across as a douche.
The arc, or lack thereof, of the main character is just one problem that comes apparent during the film. The lack of depth of any character creates little to no connection between the story and the audience. I am usually happy or sad while watching a film, but this one left me apathetic. I did not care what happened to any of the characters because the film did nothing to make me care.
So, in short…nice try but ends up a waste of time…but not emotion.
Dough - Seasons 1 & 2
Not Reviewed
Rewind the clock and step back in time to one of Nickelodeon’s original hits, starring Douglas Yancey Funnie… you might know him better as Doug! Now, you can tune in to the complete first season with this Season 1 Collection - 3 full-length DVDs - featuring more than 10 episodes of Doug and life as he adjusts to a brand new town where brand new friends and brand new adventures await! Featuring must-have episodes like, Doug Bags a Nematode, Doug Gets His Ears Lowered, Doug is Quailman, and more!
When was the last time you got to kick back with an old friend? Well wait no more ’cause now Nickelodeon presents Doug - the complete Season 2 of the classic toon on 3 awesome DVDs! Laugh along with episodes you know and love, like Doug Wears Tights, Doug’s Got No Gift, Doug’s Lost Weekend, and more. Hang on for one hilarious ride!
This is an Amazon exclusive and won’t be sold in stores. Amazon worked out a deal with nickelodeon to “Burn on demand” meaning upon receiving an order that Amazon will create the dvd and insert then ship it to the buyer…
I’ve been waiting a long time for Doug episodes on dvd, so heres another reason to love Amazon!
Posted in J.C., WeeklyList by J.C. No Comments »
Tags: 08/26/08, august, doug, doug season 1, doug season 2, dvd review, nightmare before christmas, or 120 days of sodom, salo, season 1, what happens in vegas, where in the world is osama bin laden
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