Tag: movies

The latest film I experienced was “Somewhere,” written and directed by Sofia Coppola who also helmed the 2003 film “Lost in Translation.” “Somewhere” seemed to be technically sound, but unfortunately, is flawed underneath.

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Somewhere’”

With public anger over the financial meltdown of 2008 directed at corporate executives, it may seem unfeasible to create a movie that makes an audience feel sorry for them.

However, “The Company Men” manages to pull it off

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘The Company Men’”

Director:
Harald Zwart
Cast:
Jaden Smith
Jackie Chan
Taraji P. Henson
Wenwen Han
Rated: PG

Every so often, a critic has to eat crow when they see a movie they thought was going to be bad and it turns out to be good. This is one of those cases.

In this remake, the audience follows the character Dre Parker (Smith) who is moving to China since his mother was hired at a new job. His first few days there are a little rocky until he meets a girl named Mei Ying (Han) and the two become friends. However, this leads to trouble, mainly from a bully named Cheng.

The conflict eventually leads to Dre to fighting Cheng, who studies martial arts. As a result, Dre also wants to learn martial arts and begins training under a maintenance worker, Mr. Han (Chan).

Continue reading “REVIEW: ‘Karate Kid”

Director:
Robert Luketic
Cast:
Ashton Kutcher
Katherine Heigl
Tom Selleck
Catherine O’Hara
Rated: PG-13

After seeing this I felt like I had been punked out of my money when leaving the theater by Mr. Kutcher.

The film follows Jen (Heigl, who while on vacation with her parents meets another single named Spencer (Kutcher). Although they have an awkward meeting, the two hit it off and eventually get married.

Their relationship starts off well enough, but after settling into their lives things begin to change. This is mainly due to Spencer being a spy and having people out to kill him. The result is Spencer going on the run with his wife.

The film is a complete mess in terms of its story telling. Not only does it feature cliches in the action and romcom department, the filmmakers couldn’t seem to decide on a good tone for the flick, either. Sometimes it seems to lean toward a more satirical look at marriage and other times it goes for over the top action comedy and it simply never meshes.

The script was lacking, too, with much of the dialogue trying to come off as witty, but feeling more mean spirited, making much of the picture unlikable. Additionally, the film features a twist toward the end that crashes the whole thing even more.

The worst offenders in the film, though, lie with the performances. Heigl, for example, did nothing with her character but shriek, yell and whine. This became grating really fast and made her intolerable.

Kutcher, meanwhile, was basically just playing himself which isn’t saying too much. Kutcher isn’t awful in comedic roles, but he just doesn’t have a high level of screen presence and he also doesn’t have chemistry with Heigl.

The action in the film was likely the best part of the movie. Despite the acting being bland and annoying and the story and the script not holding much weight, the action sequences were actually somewhat competently made.

In the end, that’s not much of a saving grace. The action might have at least made this watchable, but all of the other issues along with that horrific plot twist at the end push this one far down. 1 out of 5.

This review was first produced for the KSDM-KGHS Radio Station in International Falls, Minn.