Friday, September 20, 2013

Cake (2005)



Number Rolled: 13
Movie Name/Year: Cake (2005)
Genre: Comedy
Length: 94 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Nisha Ganatra
Writer: Tassie Cameron
Actors: Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe, Taye Diggs, Sandra Oh, Keram Malicki – Sanchez, Cheryl Hines, Bruce Gray, Sarah Chalke, Sabrina Grdevich, Michael McMurtry, Amy Price-Francis, Reagan Pasternak, Jefferson Brown, Suzanne Cyr,

Pippa is a travel writer. She spends her time bungee jumping, running with the bulls, sky-diving, whatever she comes across. The freedom of the single traveler calls to her and she avoids anything that might tie her down. On a trip home, to go to a friend’s wedding, she learns that her father is sick and having trouble with one of his businesses. When she agrees to fill-in, she finds herself editing a wedding magazine.

This was a romantic comedy that was just like every other romantic comedy, except it had a little edge. I don’t mind recipe movies, as I’ve said quite a bit, but if you’re going with a recipe as simple and well known as this kind of rom-com, you’ve got to have something extra to make the movie stand out against the thousands of others. Despite the slight edge to it, this movie didn’t really have that extra. It gets lost among the mediocre films that make up the majority of the genre. That doesn’t mean it was a bad film, it just wasn’t good, either.

If the story had taken a slightly more interesting turn at the end or involved a few more unanticipated moments throughout, it might have been fantastic. All the actors were amazing in their parts; Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe, Taye Diggs, there’s really no going wrong with them. With a better script/story they would have elevated this movie to great heights.

Basically, it was a typical Romantic Comedy that wasn’t great, but watchable.

Overall Opinion – 2.5/5


Movie Trailer: 


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Shoot the Hero (2009)



Number Rolled: 47
Movie Name/Year: Shoot the Hero (2009)
Genre: Action & Adventure
Length: 80 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Christian Sesma
Writer: Christian Sesma
Actors: Jason Mewes, Samantha Lockwood, Danny Trejo, Nick Nicotera, Mike Hatton, Nicholas Turturro, Paul Sloan, Fred Williamson, Taylor Negron, Brian Drolet, Chris Fries, Josh Marchette, Katie Morgan, Annemarie Pazmino, David Shackelford

Nate and Kate are having some relationship problems. In an effort to fix it, Nate brings her to a jewelry store to get her to pick out a ring. Things don’t go quite as planned and he winds up being dumped as the store is getting held up. Meanwhile, the Smith brothers are having their own troubles; they’re stranded in the desert after they run out of gas. Somehow, the lives of these two couples converge.

The movie had a bad start. There was an action scene that didn’t quite live up to what it could have been and it ran way too long. Once the story started going, though, it was unstoppable. Even with the various action scenes, I still would have labeled “Shoot the Hero” a comedy, but that’s beside the point. When you do something like run a review blog, it becomes very difficult for movies to catch you off guard. You start to memorize recipes at such a level that you can almost quote scripts before the words are said. This movie found a way to get through that all and really shock me.

It’s not one of the most well loved movies, and I’m not really sure why. Yes, it had a rocky start and, yes, it was a little disjointed until the loose ends were tied up, but it was thoroughly entertaining and a decent storyline.

Of course, if you look at the actors list, you’ll see Jason Mewes and Danny Trejo. Neither of these men are known to be the world’s greatest actors, but they are known as kind of “kings” of their own genre’s. Trejo is known widely for his tough-guy, usually B-movie, work. I recently saw him in “Machete” and “Sons of Anarchy,” and really enjoyed his performance. Mewes is a regular in the work of Kevin Smith and adored in the part of Jay throughout that general universe. If there’s such a thing as cult actors – these two would be part of that title. It’s because they make their parts amusing and they’re dedicated. Both of them worked well in this movie.

I really enjoyed “Shoot the Hero.” It was a fun, violent, impossible, movie with a lot of laughs.

Overall Opinion – 4.5/5

P.S. The credits have two parts to them. Wait until after the first part for an extra scene.

Movie Trailer: 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Rubber (2010)



Number Rolled: 77
Movie Name/Year: Rubber (2010)
Genre: Comedy
Length: 82 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Writer: Quentin Dupieux
Actors: Goodyear, Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Wings Hauser, Roxane Mesquida, Ethan Cohn, Charley Koontz, Daniel Quinn, Devin Brochu, Hayley Holmes, Haley Ramm, Cecelia Antoinette, David Bowe, Remy Thorne, Tara Jean O’Brien, Thomas F. Duffy, Pete Dicecco, James Parks, Courtenay Taylor, Blake Robbins, Michael Ross, Gaspard Auge, Pedro Winter, Eloy Lara, Gayle Kate

There’s very little I can say regarding what the movie is about. I can say that it was about a psychotic tire that becomes a murderer. No, that’s not a typo and, yes, you read that right. If I were to reveal anything else about the plot – even just the beginning – it would spoil a great deal of the storyline. Since much of the comedy is based on shock value, I’m just going to leave it at this.

I have to say, the start of the movie was one of the best I’ve ever seen. By five minutes in, I was already hooked. There’s some basic philosophy involved, but in the end it’s really just strange and unique and weird as all hell.

The plot of a killer tire, I thought, was going to get old pretty quickly. I mean, how many ways are there for a tire to kill somebody? By the end of the movie, however, that main character almost becomes secondary to the big picture. That being said, I’m glad I got to watch it with a group of friends. Although the movie itself was interesting, I think it was made even better by the MST3K-style commentary offered by me and my friends.

I know this might not sound like a fantastic movie by plot alone, but if you can gather a small group of friends willing to give it a chance, you should.

Overall Opinion – 4/5

Movie Trailer: