Jennifer's Body Review

This movie has been on the top of my "Must See" list for some time. The trailer looked very intriguing to me and it looked like it had everything that is needed for a great movie.

Thankfully it lived up to most of the hype. It is a dark comedy that stars Megan Fox, from the Transformers series, and Amanda Seyfried. The movie is about a girl named Jennifer (Fox) who kills boys. Her best friend, Needy (Seyfried) finds out what she is doing and tries to put an end to the madness.

Since this is a dark comedy from the mind of Diablo Cody, who wrote the award winning movie Juno, expect the quick witted humor we have all come to love from Cody. She truly knows how to write captivating dialogue.

I don't feel like this movie has as much universal appeal as Juno did because of the fact that the comedy is so dark, some people may be off put by that fact. But if you stick with it, I think that by the end of the movie anyone can find something enjoyable in it.

While I liked most of the movie, some of it felt very contrived. For instance, when she lures a boy over to a house, he tries to open the front door, but it is bolted shut. He finally climbs in through a window. He looks around until he finds Jennifer, then realizes that it's not her house. Some of the scenes did not feel all that fleshed out, which somewhat hurt the movie.

Some people might have a gripe that it stars Megan Fox. It didn't bother me at all. Either you like her or you don't, it's that simple. The movie did do a good job of showing off her assets, even though the film didn't have any nudity.

If you set your expectations appropriately you will have a good time, but you have to know what you are going in for before you see it. If you have seen Juno, it will help you to better understand how Diablo Cody thinks and how the plot might develop.

The highest praise this movie can be given has to be the great dialogue. It can't be said enough how creative it truly is. Their needs to be more films like it. Overall it is an impressive sophomore film for Diablo Cody, if her next film is anything like this one, I'm sure it will be a hit.

9.5 out of 10

Whiteout Review

Whiteout is about a U.S. Marshal named Carrie Stetko, played by Kate Beckinsale. She is stationed in Antarctica and is the chief security official in the frozen tundra. When a dead body is discovered, she is forced to find out how he died and ultimately track a killer in the process.

I was really looking forward to this movie. The trailer looked very intriguing, but in my opinion it's just another average movie. I was looking forward to seeing a lot of action and some mysterious elements as well. It had these elements, but not to my satisfaction.

Once Carrie finds out that she has a murder on her hands, she tries to find out more about the individual. She learns he was a geologist. He was stationed at another site with many more geologists looking for meteor samples. Once she finds out his identity, the phone just happens to ring. It one of the guy's co-workers who informs Carrie that she should come out to the base because there is something "really" important he has to show her.

When Carrie reaches the base, she finds him dead with the killer not too far behind her. She flees, ultimately getting back to safety. The scene itself just didn't feel realistic. They are in Antarctica, with winter approaching. The temperature is in the negatives with storms raging all the time. When she is outside, she attaches herself by rope to another series of ropes that keeps her from getting blown away in the storm. The series of ropes lead to all the buildings on the site. It is weird when she is running away from the killer attached to a rope and is trying to get to safety. The killer is also attached to a rope, which makes it even more laughable. There isn't anywhere for her to go but forward or backward and the whole thing just seems very contrived. There are two scenes where this happens and it just brought the movie down.

Kate Beckinsale's performance was ok at best. She didn't seem like she gave it her all. It felt like she was passive, not really there.

Another scene worth noting is that the last geologist that is alive comes to tell Carrie what his crew found in the abyss. While Carrie and he are talking, someone spooks him. He then runs away because he is afraid the killer is after him. Some scenes appeared totally random, while others were very predictable. During a few parts in the movie I was thinking to myself what the logical next step would be, and sure enough my outcome happened.

This movie felt like it was trying to take on too many genres. First and foremost it was trying to be an action flick, then somewhat of a suspense thriller with a few lines of comedic dialogue thrown in for good measure. It was trying to be too many things, most of which it was not.

The best part of the movie was Antarctica. It showed the beautiful snow-covered peaks, as well as what looked like to be the Aurora-Borealis. The name of the movie, Whiteout, works very well. The movie does a good job of showing the harsh conditions of living in the most isolated land mass on the planet.

Overall, it is mediocre. It's one of those movies that really isn't that good or bad, just average.

7 out of 10

Gamer Review

Gamer, a movie staring Gerard Butler of 300 and The Ugly Truth fame, is about a man trapped in a game controlled by another human.

This movie isn't for everyone. As the title implies, people who like games- or more specifically video games- will find some enjoyment out of this movie.

The movie takes place in the not so distant future. The world is in utter chaos, with the prison system on the verge of collapse. Michael C. Hall, known best for Dexter, plays billionaire software mogul Ken Castle. He has created this virtual reality where people can vicariously control every movement of another human being.

Castle has created two worlds, the first called Social, which is what it sounds like, a place for people to get together and mingle with each other. They can be anyone they want to be and live out any fantasy they wish. When I first saw this, it made me think of an application for Sony's Playstation 3. The application, called Home, allows you to create an avatar and be who or whatever you want. But in Gamer, it is taken to the extreme. All Social really is is a place to have sex and show gratuitous amounts of nudity. I understand the message that they were getting across, but it served no purpose whatsoever.

The second world, Slayer, is where most of the movie takes place. The players that are in Slayer are death row inmates who have an opportunity to be set free if they win and stay alive. They must win 30 sessions to be free. No one has beaten it before. Instead, most of the people die in over-the-top ways, with a good number of head shots, might I add. Gerard Butler's character, Kable, has won twenty-seven matches, with only three more to go. The matches consist of Kable shooting people in various way, a-la the video game Call of Duty 4.

While this movie is supposed to appeal to gamers, it does to some degree, while also failing miserably. The movie carries along with it the stigma that is attached to people who play video games, that it is only kids or fat adults that don't have anything better to do with their lives. There also is a dance number in the movie. I have no idea why it was in there, but I guess it was supposed to add some comic relief. It just didn't fit the style of the movie.

If you are someone who likes to play video games, then this movie might appeal to you more than just the average moviegoer. It had some good action scenes, as well as everything else in between. Overall it just another movie with a lot of killing.

7.5 out of 10

The Time Traveler's Wife Review

A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure/displeasure of seeing The Time Traveler's Wife, a movie starring Eric Bana as Henry the Time Traveler and Rachel McAdams as Clare the Wife, based upon the book by Audrey Niffenegger(yes, that's really her name). Just walking into the theater gave you a feeling about what this movie was going to be like. The place was crowded with dates and mothers and daughters (or, in my case grandmothers and granddaughters). And all of a sudden I knew I was walking into a sap story.

The movie itself isn't really that bad, and the story was relatively strong....but the script just kept slipping. I didn't really care about Henry and Clare until the very end of the movie, where, SHOCKER, something goes wrong.

The movie starts off focused on Henry and his time traveling ways, the first time he traveled, some of the rules of traveling. One thing that is not explained however, is why Eric Bana's wig is so bad. It was so bad I wanted to reach through the screen and rip it off his head. It made my head itch just looking at it, but I think you get my point. Eventually he meets Clare, who he has apparently met before when he was older, but he didn't know it when he meets her in the future/past. It was moments like this in the movie where it started to make no sense. My grandmother had to turn to me several times during the movie and ask what was going on, and when I attempted to explain it, it really made no sense.

There were other moments like this, where Henry would just abruptly travel and leave Clare behind for long amounts of time and you would just feel so depressed and sometimes even slightly bored. Other things in the movie just go completely unexplained. For instance, it doesn't explain why in one scene we see Henry beating the crap out of some guy while he's wearing what appears to be denim short shorts and a pink t-shirt with lace trim and screaming "GODDAMN HOMOPHOBES!"
Towards the end of the movie, you begin to feel that ominous feeling that things are starting to go downhill, when the vibe in the room begins to change. And when Henry finds out he's going to die when his daughter turns 5, I heard the woman next to me whisper, "Oh shit..."

And then when that big, horrible moment does come, all around me I heard sobs and gasps and even my grandmother was bawling her eyes out.

What the movie really comes down to is a sweet, sappy love story that at times doesn't really make sense.
I would wait to rent it.
6.5/10

Halloween 2 Review

This weekend marks the return of 2 horror franchises, Final Destination and Halloween. Unfortunately, they have both failed to make a comeback.

In Halloween 2, Rob Zombie's remake failed to capture what is great about the series. Zombie, who wrote and directed this film, tried to explore both the mind of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, the sole survivor of Zombie's first Halloween.

The movie starts off right where the first one ended. Laurie is rushed to the hospital in the wake of Michael's reign of terror. Myer's body, presumed dead, is transported in a van to the coroner's office. The van just happens to crash into a cow in the middle of the road, reawakening Myers.

A year later, Laurie is trying to cope with the horror that had befallen her. She is now living with her friend, whose father is the sheriff. She starts having bad dreams that, unfortunately, the viewer has to experience with her.

The movie tries to show the mind of Myers and Laurie. While it might be an interesting idea, the execution is awful. The viewer is transported into these "trippy" scenes that look into Michael's and Laurie's pasts. This unfortunately pulls the viewer out of the movie.

One thing that I did find interesting was the fact that it showed the contrast between Laurie's life and Dr. Samuel Loomis. Loomis, Michael's former psychologist, has struck it rich with his books about the killer, while the books have negatively impacted the people that have been effected by Myers. It shows how Dr. Loomis has gotten rich off of his story and how the fame and fortune has gone to his head. Laurie, on the other hand, starts sinking more and more into depravity, until she finally loses it.

This movie isn't as good as Zombie's first, but it still has it moments. It felt a lot more visceral than his previous movie, leading to more suspense and more horrific kills.

The ending was something that I didn't expect. I am not going to spoil it, but with the way it was set up, it could lead to a new Halloween that we have never seen the likes of before.

The idea of looking into the minds of Myers and Laurie was a great idea, but it just did not turn out how I would have liked it. This movie will probably not be at the box office long, so if you want to see how the story of Zombie's Michael Myers continues, you better get there fast.

6.5 out of 10

The Final Destination 3D Review

The Final Destination is the fourth and final movie in the long running horror franchise. Like in all the previous Final Destination movies, where the main character foresees the untimely deaths of other characters through gruesome accidents, this one involves a teen that has a premonition of a deadly car race.

The teen, named Nick, realizes that death is coming for him, so he leaves the racetrack along with some of his friends and a few other people who heed his warning. Soon, some of the people are dying and it is up to Nick to keep everyone alive.

This movie is just a rehash of the other three movies, only with a different cast. It still has the same gruesome dismemberment scenes that we have all come to know from this series.

Some events leading up to the death seen even more convoluted than in past iterations. One event happens, and then another, and the events eventually culminate into the horrible death of a person. They draw it out too much instead of making the cause of death somewhat plausible.

The Final Destination can be either seen in 2D or 3D. I saw it in 3D. The added dimension did not really have that much of an impact on the movie. It felt like it was just an afterthought. An object would come flying at the audience, letting the viewer know that in the coming minutes someone was about to get killed by that very object. The movie did this countless times. I felt that it really detracted from the overall experience of the movie.

The acting in this movie was awful. Most of the acting felt forced, which is not something I want to see. Even though this series has never had a good track record for acting, you think that by the fourth movie they would have gotten a little better.

Lastly, the story was laughable. There were scenes where they tried to add comedy, but it failed miserably. The previous movies, especially Final Destination 2, tried to have a story. While it did not work on all levels, it did, however, give us a connection with the characters. It made us care for them and care whether they lived or died. The Final Destination, however, did not do this. If a person died, it was just another person. The viewer did not have that same sense of compassion as in some of the previous movies. The whole movie just felt like many people died for no reason.

This movie is a standard horror flick. It's nothing that hasn't been done before. If the viewer likes to see various gruesome deaths, this is the right movie. If you are squeamish around blood, then this isn't your movie.

7 out of 10

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