Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Starring Sam Rockwell. Directed by Gore Verbinski

Before I watched CRIME 101 last week, I went to the movies to check out Gore Verbinski's sci-fi new sci-fi mind-bender, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE. 

Movies That Should Be Comics #22- THEY LIVE

As a lifelong comic book fan, there are movies everyone always expects I have seen already.  One of them is the 1988 John Carpenter classic They Live, which stars pro wrestling star "Rowdy Roddy" Piper.  I never bothered to watch it. Didn't feel like I needed to, because people had told me so much about it.

I found out today that his sidekick Frank was played by a young, scrappy Keith David.  That was enough to push me over the edge to watch it.

Movies That Should Be Comics #21- Young Adult

A Beautiful Mess

After 3 straight days cooped up with me and my three year old , my wife snapped suggested I go (by myself) to the movies. For whatever reason, the movie I most wanted to see amid all the holiday blockbuster hooplah was Young Adult, the story of a ghost writer of a once-popular teen novel series. Besides the fact that it stars the lovely and talented Charlize Theron, Young Adult was written by Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara) and directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking). Obviously disturbed by a recent divorce, Theron's character Mavis Gary randomly fixates on an old boyfriend, her highschool sweetheart Buddy (Nite-Owl from Watchmen), who just so happens to be married with a new baby. The combination of subject matter and creative team was too much for me to resist, so I decided to check it out!

5 reasons why I cuts for "Colombiana" even though you told me not to watch it...

When I announced my intention to go watch Colombiana, the new shoot-em-up popcorn flick starring rising star Zoe Saldana, I received many texts, tweets, and other assorted comments suggesting that my hard-earned money would be better spent elsewhere. They're welcome to their opinions, but I had several good reasons to put my chips on the deck to watch this one, whether I really expected it to blow my mind or not. I wasn't expecting an Oscar-worthy tour de force (and it wasn't one), but I was hoping for a good time, which it delivered. Here's five reasons I watched it, and you should too...

Movies That Should be Comics #19- Meet Dave

For reasons i'm still at a loss to explain, I watched the sci-fi comedy Meet Dave starring Eddie Murphy (48 Hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming To America, Boomerang, Dreamgirls) on television the other day. I'm a big fan of Eddie's old movies and stand-up, and while I did enjoy the first Daddy Day Care (there was a kid who spent the ENTIRE FILM dressed as the Flash... I'm sorry, that's funny!), I am extremely perplexed by Eddie's family comedies. Eddie is still a phenomenal talent. He's funny, good looking, and has super star charm. he's just waiting to work with a great director, in a great film...

Movies that Should be Comics # 18 : Whip It!

Just finished watching Whip It, the roller derby coming-of-age flick-starring Ellen Page (it also happens to mark the directoral debut of Drew Barrymore). Page stars as Bliss, a 17 year old small-town girl who rebels against her pageant-happy mom by secretly joining a roller derby team.

Movies that Should Be Comics #17: Action Jackson

After several high-profile sidekick roles, Carl Weathers proved he could carry a movie wall to wall in the 1988 smash Action Jackson, where he starred alongside Prince protege Vanity (The Last Dragon). Action Jackson is one of my favorite action movies. Weathers is a good actor and a better screen presence than many of the action heroes that you can name.

Movies That Should Be Comics #16: A Knight's Tale

I just finished watching A Knight's Tale, the period action comedy starring the late Heath Ledger, on dvr. I had already seen this movie a million times before I got married, but found out recently that my wife hates it for all the same reasons I love it.

Movies That Should Be Comics #15: The King of Kong

I just finished watching the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters about the battle for the Donkey Kong world record. Not being much of a gamer myself, I was only minimally interested in watching this when it came out a few years ago. This week, I received an illustrating gig that would parody some of the events in the film (however, any similarity to any real people living or dead is purely coincidental, of course), so I sat down and watched it.

Movies That Should be Comics# 14: The Book of Eli

there's only a handful of talents that automatically gets a movie onto my 'definite maybe' list (the 'must see' list is gone in this economy), and Denzel Washington (Training Day, Philadelphia, American Gangster, Glory) is one of them. Once i saw the early trailer for this post-apocalyptic action joint The Book of Eli (featuring a grizzly, disgruntled, blade-swinging Denzel and directed by Albert and Allen Hughes [Menace II Society]), it was immediately put on my schedule of things to do in the dime.

You could tell he wasn't Playin' by the look on his Grill

I didn't bother going to watch the Keanu Reeves vs Jennifer Connelly alien- invasion- as- social- commentary joint The Day the Earth Stood Still when it came out in theaters, but I figured it would be good enough to watch on television.
I figured that unless they had some game-changing special effects, there just wasn't going to be enough going on in this sci-fi remake to get me to put down cash.

Movies that SHOULD be comics #12: Zombieland

after weeks of self-imposed deadline-related exile, i went to the the sneakeasy* with my man Corance (creator of Champion of Children and 1/5th of the mighty Ghostwerks crew) and saw two totally different movies (namely Zombieland and The Informant!) and really enjoyed them both, for different reasons, of course.

Dental Hijinks

I really enjoyed the Ricky Gervais (The Office) anchored romantic comedy Ghost Town, about a dentist who gains the ability to hear and see ghosts after a near-death experience. Gervais is in full British Bastard mode as the easily-annoyed Dentist hounded by ghosts who want his help with their unfinished business. One of those ghosts is a blackberry-addicted, adulterous fast-talker played by Greg Kennier (Flash of Genius, Little Miss Sunshine), who convinces Gervais to help him wreck the impending marriage of his widow, played by underrated actress Tea Leoni (Spanglish, Bad Boys, Deep Impact).

Go See District 9 ASAP!!!

me and my boy copped some free passes to a sneak preview showing of the new documentary style sci-fi joint District 9 produced by that dude Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings,King Kong) and directed by his protege Neill Blomkamp. the film takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa where an alien ship has been hovering for twenty years, and the shiftless aliens inside have been relocated from the dormant ship to the alien superghetto, District 9. the South African corporation MNU has designs on the aliens' technology, which will not work for humans, but as the documentary framing sequence foreshadows, something goes horribly wrong.

Do the FATBOYS Run This Mutha..?

I just got done watching Run Fatboy Run on satellite, and while it was not a great movie, i'm pretty sure you could make it into one with just a few changes. first, change the star. Simon Pegg (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) is funny in the role, and does his level best to carry the romantic and heartfelt scenes, but he fell short of ever nailing it. The supporting cast all did their jobs well enough. Thandie Newton (Traffic, Pursuit of Happyness, W) shines as Pegg's long-suffering ex/baby mama, while Hank Azaria is her over-acheiving new BF. Dylan Moran and Harish Patel, Pegg's quirky friends who train him to win his ex back by running a marathon, perform admirably too...

Here Comes the Bride

as i write this i'm taking a break from the freelance job i'm working on, and watching Kill Bill on TNT. i was surprised at how well the foul-mouthed ultra-violence of this two-piece Tarantino value meal works on teevee... but i guess it IS cable teevee, right? anyways, let me just state up-front that Tarantino is over-rated, and that characters in his movies are often racist (resulting in many people calling him racist), but yo... that dude sure knows how to film a freakin' GIRLFIGHT!

Down With The King

When a Quintet of Gun-Clapping Ne'er-do-wells decide to gaffle a Vegas casino, their point man -a sinister Elvis enthusiast played by Kevin Costner (Robin Hood)-decides to dress the crew up as the King himself and do the job during an Elvis Presley convention. 3000 Miles to Graceland
was pretty much universally panned by critics who (as usual) had no idea what they were talking about...

try me and wa-da-da-DANG!

when a new york talk radio deejay is beaten nearly to death by street thugs, awakening in a hospital to find herself terrified of the city she once loved and dead to all that she formerly cared about, she buys a gun for protection. she soon sees the gun as a way to set things right, going on a vigilante killing spree that sets the city on fire. Along the way, the deejay makes friends with a divorced, frustrated detective (Terrence Howard) who has his sights set on catching the vigilante that everyone says is doing his job! despite the obvious chemistry these two characters have, it seems inevitable that their paths collide violently...

Hancock

I caught an advance screening of this movie, with an expectation that it would be really bad (the trailers don't make it look real good). It was okay though. in fact, i really liked it. Will plays a jerk, but a believable, even lovable jerk. the story took turns i found wholly unexpected and appreciated. Jason Bateman is great as a hopelessly idealistic public relations guy who decides to help Hancock work on his public image.

I Know Kung Fu...

okay, so me and the wife finally went to see Kung Fu Panda yesterday. it's a dreamworks movie, so i had not thought it would be as good as the average Pixar joint, but they did a GREAT job on this one...