Director Adam McKay (in his fourth collaboration with Ferrell) could have made an entire two-hour movie of just watching these two sit at their desks busting each other's balls and it would have been hilarious.
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It's in the all-important element of storytelling that Despicable Me fails to succeed. You kind of need a story that has a point to keep my attention. I'm sure the kids will love it, but this movie doesn't have a story or a point.
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Predators tries but cannot match the unpredictable, quiet, and stalking suspense with the jungle trees that the original had. I never felt a level of taut suspense while watching it. There are some great action sequences, which earn its stars here, but I never jumped out of my seat in surprise or scooted to the edge of my seat in excitement.
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With The Last Airbender, I thought M. Night was going to break his losing streak. The previews looked promising and didn't emphasize his usual weirdness. I thought by taking on and adapting a name-brand project from a place like Nickelodeon that he would shake off the rust. I thought that doing essentially a kid's film he didn't obscurely write himself would ignore both his signature tendency to drop scary twists for the sake of twists and also the itch to create an R-rated picture like 2008's The Happening. Boy, was I wrong.
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The Karate Kid proved every pessimistic expectation I had from the marketing and production wrong. Even with a long 140 minute running time (right there with Robin Hood), your watch will stop and the time will breeze by. After Toy Story 3, this is the best family film so far this year. Boy, was I wrong and so pleasantly surprised!
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Don't get me wrong. The action outweighs caring about the story's implausibility. Like I said, shut your brain off and enjoy the great fireworks. When you compare this movie to crap like Killers or the overdone CGI stunts of other movies, it's truly fun to watch Tom Cruise do his own thing.
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Toy Story 3 proudly continues not only the legacy of its own successful film series, but the Pixar dynasty of perfection.
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Jonah Hex is as convoluted and as haphazardly made as the title character's face.
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Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl may be hot bodies with pretty faces, but they have absolutely no chemistry together. Both characters seem out of place in their movie lives and both actors seem out of place in these roles. The comedy is rough and the action is mindless and predictable.
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The movie and Smokin' Aces director Joe Carnahan amp up the signature action of the original series in every way possible. Instead of the same staged Hollywood car flips and rolls, we get parachuting tanks. Instead of badly reused helicopter stock footage from cop shows, we have the power of CGI effects. Despite the overused style of queasy-shaky action camera shots and choppy, hypercutted editing that's been an unfortunate action movie standard since Michael Bay made it cool over a decade ago, all of it creates and absolute blast of a movie experience! Sure, the action may be physically and mechanically preposterous, but that's the point and that over-the-top spirit matches the B-movie style of the original show perfectly.
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The trouble with Get Him to the Greek is that it's missing an important element to be a successful R-rated comedy. It lacks that unforgettable gag, quote, or scene I was talking about that every good R-rated comedy has that makes you want to come back and see it again.
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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time adds to that Bruckheimer and Disney hurdle. Instead of being a brawny combat epic from the video game it's based on in someone else's hands (say a guy like Ridley Scott), Bruckheimer and previous Harry Potter series director Mike Newell have crafted a safe, yet convoluted tale for the mass audience.
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