I think The Pineapple Express came out with very little fanfare and kind of understandable because most people were still seeing and talking about The Dark Knight, including myself.  I finally saw it after reading some good reviews on it and I thought it was a very funny movie.  Although I don’t care for the drug aspects about the movie, it made for great humor as Seth Rogen (Dale Denton) and James Franco (Saul Silver) lead the way.  Denton witnesses a murder in front of drug lord Ted Jones’ (Gary Cole) house and because of that he is immediately penciled in as someone who needed to be eliminated, but he ran to his drug dealer, Silver, and he also gets included in the chase as the murderer finds Denton’s discarded joint and knows it was Silver’s “Pineapple Express” so that’s where they go to find Denton and Silver.  Because they a high during the chase it leads to idiotic ideas and behavior, and it is very funny stuff.

A third character named Red (Danny R. McBride) is introduced and easily gives up his buddy Silver and Denton to the hit men, but they were able to get away. Red gets shot, but continues to plug away and contribute to the humor.

The man that is murdered was a part of a rival drug empire called “The Asians”.  We don’t really learn anything about the gang, but there is an all-out war between Ted Jones’ men and The Asians.

I laughed extremely hard because of a Star Wars reference to the Rancor, so if you are a Star Wars fan, you should laugh, but you also need to pay attention to find it. I also loved how Dale Denton seemed to become a legend and a professional to Ted Jones and his goons, even though we know he’s a high doofus.  I hadn’t really been a fan of Rogen in his previous movies, but he was pretty good in this one and I thought Franco was great as a high-all-the-time drug dealer.  If you are looking for some good laughs, this is a movie you need to check out.

The Pineapple Express trailer

When I first heard about 10,000 B.C. and saw the movie trailer, I thought for sure it was going to be a movie I saw in the movie theater, but I never made it and watched it on DVD. The movie follows a group of hunters and other members of their group as they hunt and survive on mammoth. When a group of mysterious horse riding people come in a kidnap D’Lay’s (Steven Strait) love, Evolet (Camille Belle), he leads a group of his fellow hunters after the them in hopes to get his love back.

I thought it was a good change of pace movie…meaning it’s not the same stuff we see over and over again, but it doesn’t mean it was a good movie. All I can say is that I’m glad I saved some cash and avoided seeing this movie in the theater.

10,000 B.C. trailer

I was very excited last fall when I heard that they were going through with another X-Files movie. I was really hoping they would kind of go back to the traditional X-Files that made me love the show. Unfortunately for me, my expectations were way too high for this movie. I completely avoided all trailers and info regarding the movie, but what I didn’t know was they were trying to do the same thing by not revealing any plot. So I went to The X-Files movie on the Saturday morning after it opened. I thought I was going to be in the theater by myself until two other nerds walked in by themselves.

So Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) were back and it was very weird seeing them after the 6 year layoff from the tv show. I thought that there were many good X-Files moments including the familiar dialog between Mulder and Scully, but overall I really didn’t like where Chris Carter (the creator of the X-Files) took the movie. After the 6 year layoff I felt they could have went a little further into the paranormal. I think that if this wasn’t “The X-Files” it would have been seen in a different light, but to me, the true X-Filers should have been a little disappointed.

So what was the movie about? The FBI calls on Mulder and Scully to help them find a missing FBI agent where their only lead is a former priest who claims to have received psychic visions. There is a some great proof that his visions are real, but does it mean that he really has visions or is he in on the plot? Mulder wants to believe and Scully of course doesn’t believe it. Scully has another battle going on as well, as she has returned to practicing medicine and she again is a doctor, who is treating a very sick boy with a little chance of survival without doing a risky surgery.

I think that Chris Carter took a little risk with this movie and don’t think it lived up to most X-File fan’s hopes. I could be wrong, maybe others liked it more than I did, but I was happy to see another show with Mulder and Scully.

The X-Files:I Want to Believe Trailer

Somehow I was lucky enough to actually hit a home run with the video camera running. I guess it will be nice for me to watch when I’m done playing:)

Here it is…

The Dark Knight is a phenomenal movie and it does live up to the hype. Since I have Batman Begins in my top ten all-time favorite movies it’s pretty obvious I was looking forward to this one, enough to actually catch it on opening weekend, something I never do. From start to finish it had me on the edge of my seat and I liked how they tied up a couple loose ends from the previous movie right away. The Dark Knight was directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed Batman Begins and was also co-written along with his brother Jonathon Nolan. They definitely took the comic book down a dark path where it’s hard to believe it’s based on a comic book.

The most important character in the movie is the late Heath Ledger, who starred as the Joker. With his performance he helped take this movie to another level of greatness. The Joker was pure evil and he continued time after time to come up with diabolical situations that left Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), Commssioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) , and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) into some very difficult and ethical decisions. The Joker wants to humiliate Batman and wants him to reveal himself to everyone and he does this by playing into the minds of the people of Gotham. All I can say is that every time the Joker was on screen, he stole the show. It’s weird to think about the Jokers of the past movies or tv shows after seeing Ledger’s performance. I thought he blew Jack Nicholson version of the Joker away.

Christian Bale again does an excellent job as Bruce Wayne/Batman, who really feels like he might not be making the difference that he wants to do to clean up Gotham. Although the scum of the city has decided to take care of business during the day in order to not get caught by Batman at night. He has to decide what kind of person he has to become to deal with killers like the Joker and it tears him up inside.

Every character brought their “A” game, especially Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart. So great that I didn’t even mind that Batman and Joker weren’t on the screen the whole time. Michael Caine again played the faithful butler Alfred to a tee, and Maggie Gyllenhaal does a pretty good job replacing Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne’s love Rachel Dawes. Morgan Freeman returns as Lucius Fox, the man behind all of Batman’s gadgets who also has to make ethical decisions when it comes to helping Batman.

What’s great about this movie is that you really get emotionally connected to the characters and even though you dislike the Joker for what he is doing, you can’t help but love what he does for the movie. I like that they were able to bring in another famous batman villain (Two-Face) into movie without disrupting the flow. There have been other movies that try to do this and fail because there isn’t enough time for character development and it all seems just thrown together, Batman and Robin, for example. The special effects were also excellent. Seeing Two-Face was very gross, but it led to his powerful change in personality. I remember seeing Two-Face in the previous Batman Forever movie with Tommy Lee Jones, it all seems like a terrible make-up job.

The Dark Knight is a definite must see and it receives 5 out of 5 baseballs!

The Dark Knight trailer

With the encouragement of Troy “T-Bone” Wunderlich, I watched Rambo. Expectations weren’t too high, but I thought that it was pretty good entertainment. It didn’t exactly start out like wild fires, but once it picked up, it was sweet action. Sylvester Stallone again plays the character John Rambo, who is living near Burma, where there is a constant civil war. He owns a boat and has gained a great knowledge of the river and the area. When a group of missionaries go missing in Burma, Rambo helps to try and get them back. He developed a relationship with Julie Benz (Sarah) as he brought them by boat into the war zone and she tries to get Rambo to see what they are trying to accomplish by going into a war zone. When someone hires a group of mercenaries to find the missionaries, Rambo brings them to the place where he dropped off the missionaries and proceeds to help find them. This is where the action starts as they find the destroyed village and they try to track down the Burmese army and get them back. There is, of course, a lot of blood and guts with a war movie as there is a big battle between the Rambo led mercenaries and the Burmese army. I thought it was smart that the movie didn’t drag on and it was a relatively short. I think if you want to check out an action movie, this would be a good one.

Rambo trailer…

First thing, first. I really dislike scary movies and therefore have not seen very many in my movie watching days, but I went out on a limb and decided to check The Mist out. The Mist was based on a Stephen King novella and directed by Frank Darabont, who is known for directing my favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption. So there is another reason for me to give this movie a shot. I was not feeling too well when I rented this movie, so I thought that maybe it would be something that would get me out of my rut.

So what is in the mist? Whatever is in it, is killing people and driving a group of people trapped in a grocery store insane because they want to get out and they don’t know what they are up against. David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is one of the leaders in the store, who wants to protect his son. As the group continue to try to wait it out, they are attacked by different creatures, with some very gory scenes.

So they have to decide what to do, stay there or try to find their way out of the mist without getting killed in the process.

All in all, I thought it was alright. It was pretty scary with some gross parts, but I didn’t mind it too much. I did have to shut it off and take a break one time because of being grossed out, but others might not be. I think if you’re looking for a little scare with some weird things happening, this is a good movie to check out.

The Mist trailer

Cloverfield was one of those mystery movies where you see the movie trailer, but there aren’t any plot details revealed, but this movie has been out on DVD for a while so now most people know it’s about a monster in New York City. I had heard mixed reviews about it, and I have to admit I kind of liked it. Some scenes were tough to follow just because the whole movie was filmed through a hand held camera and I think some people probably found it to be annoying.

Cloverfield revolves around a group of people giving a goodbye party to Rob (Michael Stahl David), when something starts happening in Lower Manhattan. The hand held camera, which was being used by Rob’s friend Hud (TJ Miller), was used to get testimonials from everyone in saying goodbye to Rob, but it ends up being used to film the event of the monster invading New York and the their journey to save Beth (Odette Yustman) who was trapped somewhere in her apartment building.

I thought the movie was scary at times and there were a few distinct scenes that stuck out to me. The first is when you see the Statue of Liberty’s head fly in and land by the group of people and second, when you get your first good look at the monster.  There was also a scene where a building collapsed and a big wall of debris and dust came flying in and it reminded me of some video of 9/11.

I think it might be worth you time to check it out what’s suppose to be America’s version of Godzilla.

Cloverfield trailer

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is one of the most anticipated movies of the year, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed. After the twenty year absence of the Indiana Jones movies I can’t believe they went in the direction they went in. It did have the great Indiana Jones feel and action, but the story and plot weren’t very good. I’m just astonished that Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones) would agree to do this movie. I don’t think that it’s bad enough to have damaged the previous movies greatness, but I don’t think this movie helped the cause.

I’m going to reveal part of the story here so if you don’t want to know what it is stop reading. The story is set in the year 1957 and it’s about the discovery of aliens and the chase of a crystal skull that was shaped in the form of an alien. I really had a hard time buying into the story, and it didn’t really feel like it was 1957. There were a couple cool action scenes and a very gross scene with these huge ants, which I thought was good.

I’m not sure where they are going to take this franchise as far as making more Jones’ movies, but I hope that they learned their lesson with this one. I think that there is no problem with seeing this movie in the theaters if you’re a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, but I would definitely wait for the DVD to save a little cash.

I was really looking forward to seeing National Treasure 2 ever since the I saw the first National Treasure. As far as movies go, I didn’t think they would be able to duplicate the original and I was right, because although I liked it and thought it was good, it didn’t come close to the the first movie as far as surprises go. Nicholas Cage (Ben Gates), Jon Voight (Patrick Gates), Diane Kruger (Abigail Chase), and Justin Bartha (Riley Poole) are all back to reprise their roles and it was good that they all came back because they do have good chemistry together. Also, on a local note, Albany’s own Joel Gretsch (Thomas Gates) is also in National Treasure 2. It’s pretty cool to see that someone from your hometown has made it big in the Hollywood scene. I actually met Joel a few years ago at Albany Golf Club when he was back in town visiting family.

In this Treasure, Ben Gates is trying to clear his family’s name and the possible connection to a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Gates, with the help of Riley Poole, Abigail Chase, and his father Patrick Gates try to find truth behind the missing 18 pages from John Wilkes Booth’s diary. Their chase leads them to Paris, Buckingham Palace, The Library of Congress, The White House, and Mount Rushmore as they pursue the clues they continue to find.

I thought there was good action and the movie flows very well. I didn’t think there were any real lulls, which is something important during an action movie. This definitely makes for a great DVD rental, but if you haven’t seen the first National Treasure I would rent that with confidence and I think you will enjoy that, too.

National Treasure trailer