The Kingdom (2007): The best movie of the year?

Director Peter Berg's latest effort, The Kingdom, is a high-intensity action drama that succeeds on all levels. And by that, I mean it blows away most of the competition as being one of the year's best so far. The film, about an FBI team who goes to Saudi Arabia to find out who is behind a devastating terrorist attack, boasts a star-studded cast and gritty imagery throughout. It also marks another large cinematic jump for director Peter Berg, who shows he has improved mightily from the less-than-stellar Very Bad Things less than ten years ago.

Berg's visuals are a feast for the viewers' eyes. The handheld camera work, which has proven to be a successful style in films such as Babel and Syriana, never distracts from the action. Particularly, the visual direction in the film's non-stop 30-minute concluding sequence will leave you with your mouth open. Easily, the sequence has some of the most engaging shootout action since Black Hawk Down.

Read the full The Kingdom movie review.

DVD review: Knocked Up

Knocked Up hit DVD on Tuesday, September 25th (yes, just the other day!) and this hilarious comedy - most likely the best comedy of the year (read the full Knocked Up movie review) - is now out in several new editions, including a 2-disc Collector's Edition. The cover art here implies Amazon.com may not have the latest info, as the DVD in my hands (well, not literally in my hands - how would I be able to type?) says "Extended & Unrated". Watch out!

The cover also boasts over three hours of bonus footage, and they aren't kidding. The DVD includes "Finding Ben Stone", which looks at other actors who were considered before settling on Seth Rogen, an inside look at the stripper scene (how horrible), some video diaries and several other things.

Of course, one of my favorites are the gag reels, and the DVD boasts two gag reels. The DVD also includes 50 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, not all of which I have watched quite yet. I may do another article next week when I get a chance to watch all of this extra footage.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter what the bonus features are like - this is a hilarious, well-written and sharp comedy that you have to buy, because you know that otherwise you're just going to end up renting it over and over and over again.

Movie Review: Eastern Promises (2007)

Eastern Promises does have a lot to promise. Featuring top notch talent such as Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, director David Cronenberg hot off his last award-winning [and Mortensen-starring] masterpiece A History of Violence and an unsettling plot about a woman who has accidentally become entwined with the Russian mafia, expectations for the film were high. And Eastern Promises lives up to them... for the most part.

As one might expect, Eastern Promises has its fair amount of ultra violence, which Cronenberg seems to enjoy adding even when his films appeal most to adult audiences. Some may find the violence or at least the gore (necks getting sawed at with razor blades until blood is squirting profusely from severed arteries, knives to the eyes, etc.) unnecessary, but that is part of the reason I am a growing fan of Cronenberg's work. Even in the most subtle or raw dramas (I am mainly referring to A History of Violence), he likes to shock the audience with sudden bouts of violence. The audience becomes squeamish, but that's all part of the act: his movie is about regular people who get involved with nasty things, and he makes the audience react accordingly.

Read the full Eastern Promises movie review...

Why Resident Evil: Extinction is a bad movie (movie review)

This weekend is a great weekend for movies. All kinds of Oscar possibilities unleashed themselves upon audiences (at least in the Seattle area), including The Hunting Party, Across the Universe, Eastern Promises and In the Valley of Elah... So why in hell did I go and watch Resident Evil: Extinction?

I'll admit I was looking forward to this second sequel to the popular Resident Evil franchise. Neither the first or second films were particularly great, but they had enough action and mayhem to be entertaining enough. The third had promise: it returns Milla Jovovich to the role of Alice, who has now taken to wandering the ravaged Earth alone. The Earth is now a desert wasteland, not unlike in Mad Max, but amidst the walking dead, the Umbrella Corporation is still searching for Alice with hopes that her blood could cure the world. It's a neat concept, and I liked the direction the film had taken, but...

Resident Evil: Extinction is one of the worst movies of the year.

Read the rest of the Resident Evil: Extinction movie review.

Harry potter review

I just got back from a 12:15 screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and have posted a movie review over at Movie-Source.com. This is what I get for waiting until 6:00pm the night of to buy a ticket for Harry Potter - not only do I have to stay up even later in the night, but I'm not even the first of the regular movie-going public to see the movie (of course, all the other time zones saw it before me). I know I should have mugged those two little kids when their parents went off to the bathroom..

Man, I am going to be tired on Wednesday. This isn't my day job people - I have a long day ahead of me, and probably will get in at 8am... okay, maybe 8:30 given my lack of sleep. I'm a man who needs his sleep, and I am not going to be a happy camper in a few hours.

Anyway, so I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...

Leonard Nimoy as Spock in new Star Trek movie? Really?

Well, even though the new Star Trek movie from director J.J. Abrams is a prequel and will not star William Shatner, the ex-Captain Kirk has confirmed that Leonard Nimoy is going to play Spock.

Personally, I highly doubt this is real, but worth noting anyway. I really doubt that they would make a prequel that stars one of the original cast members, and it is unlikely that Nimoy would actually take the role. Then again, money is money, and this new Star Trek movie perhaps has more buzz floating around it then most (thanks mainly to J.J. Abrams, who seems to be at the center of all kinds of buzz these days - see Cloverfield), and what better way to resurrect a struggling series than to get one of the most popular cast members back on?

Still, if Nimoy, now really quite old, ends up in the new Star Trek movie, I will be mightily surprised.

George W. Bush Assassinated: Death of a President Movie Review

Death of a President opened last year to mixed reviews and plenty of controversy. Is it appropriate to do a movie about the assassination of a real U.S. President who hasn't been assassinated, and who is still in office? Apparently yes, because the movie was filmed, marketed, released and now on DVD.

Death of a President takes a look at the events leading up to the murder of President George W. Bush and the events that follow, including war, conspiracy, paranoia and fear. It all plays out in documentary style, and is very believable - I'm sure one or two people who are really out of the loop could, and did, fall for it (of course those same stupid people would never be watching a political film of this nature anyway).

For anyone interested in politics, Death of a President is a vivid and surprisingly powerful documentary - little matter that the events didn't actually take place. Here's my full Death of a President movie review.

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj Movie Review

Ah, what a great weekend this was. It felt longer than it actually was, I finally made it to the theater and saw two fun movies (The Lookout and Shooter), actually cleaned my apartment and caught another couple movies on DVD.

The first and least desirable of the two is National Lampoon's Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj, which stars Kal Penn in the sequel no one wanted made in the first place. The first Van Wilder wasn't that great to begin with, but it had its moments - this second movie has even less originality and none of the edge of its predecessor. It isn't a complete disaster by any means, at least until the ending, where it all but crumbles into a million fragmented pieces of poo.

You can read my full Rise of Taj movie review here. The bottom line is this: who thought this movie would make any money? It looked awful, it is a sequel that would normally go direct-to-video and offers little way in the form of sex or nudity. There is no value proposition here!