...say, "What about Galvatron?" (Transformers 2 review)

Don't believe the negative hype.

I love me some IMAX. The last movie that I went to watch in IMAX was The Dark Knight...which, if you didn't get a chance to do that, I feel sorry for you. My next opportunity, Transformers 2. Luckily the just put an IMAX next to my parents house. Why not Cville?

So 6.7 on IMDB. Not so hot right? But to put this in perspective...The Rock, possibly one of the best action flicks ever (thats right, I said it) is a 7.2. Armageddon=6.0. Now, I am talking about action-only flicks, so please don't say that the Bourne movies are better, or Empire Strikes Back. Obviously, those are "better" movies because of story, acting, editing, etc. But Transformers 2 is non-stop from start to finish...its like eating ice cream in a cake cone.

The good: Can I say that I love some Shia Labeouf? Not so much as Megan Fox...but that dude is funny. I swear, I think I laughed out loud more times in this movie than in The Hangover...well, close at least. The comedy left off where the first one started and had some good laughs the whole time.

Action, action, action. There were like 30 robots in this movie--including the Constructacons and Soundwave. The fight scenes were awesome, and there were lots of them, which was a problem in the first one (not enough fights). They pulled a lot of the slow motion parts where it shows the robots getting busted up--there are some brutal scenes.

And did I mention Megan Fox?

The bad: Although there are lots of robots, there is nearly no characterization--which I don't care too much about. But if you didn't see the first one, you will not understand a lot of it. There are just robots and characters popping out of no where with no explanations. So we can go ahead and say there are plot holes and bad story telling, but that was a given.

Also, there are a few action sequences that just dont look too good. It almost seems like they ran out of money for some of the CGI scenes, and they had to get cheaper programmers to do it.

But, whatever! I loved this movie. So to all of you nay-sayers...

Rating: 8 out of 10

...say no to drugs. (The Hangover review)

Bachelor party in Vegas. Every man's dream.

I don't really have any related story to tell, so I will go straight into it.

The good: This movie is ridiculous! Very similarly to my beloved How I Met Your Mother, this movie tells the story by showing crazy outcomes, and then flashes back to see how they happened. I will say that it has a fair amount of bad jokes, but the level of good jokes definitely outweighs that. All of the cast were funny...and I generally HATE Zack Galifinakis. The story comes together pretty well as crazy as it is. I don't wanna give away too much, but there is quite a lot of shock value to this movie as well. Oh, and a Heather Graham flash??

The bad: No real complaints. I will say to those that are easily duped--don't believe the hype. Just so you won't be let down. I was reading some reviews that said this was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I say nay to that. Oh, and maybe a little too much "man" shown.

Go watch it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

...stop making fun of Trekkies. (Star Trek review)

Never seen an episode. Never seen a movie.

Of course I can rattle of the names of characters and things from the Star Trek franchise: Captain Kirk, Spock, Klingons, USS Enterprise, Kahn, "Beam me up, Scotty", Scotty, Checkov, Uharu, Vulcans, Romulans...Wookies? Star Trek is ridiculously intertwined with our culture that every person knows most of these terms.

And with the new trend of "beginnings," such as Batman and James Bond, it only makes sense to see how Star Trek came to be. It got my attention.

The good: This movie is great from start to finish. The mix of action, comedy, and story line is everything that I look for in a movie. And what made it fun for me was seeing all of the characters that I have only heard about, and where they come from. Thanks god they gave Captain Kirk a new persona. Imagine, a, young, William, Shatner, who, speaks, with, breaks, between, every, word. It, just, wouldnt, fly, with, today's, audience. And with two of my favorites, John Cho and Simon Pegg, I was smiling the whole way (although they have small parts).

The thing with Sci-Fi is that they can get away with ridiculous plots. Time travel. Exploding/Imploding planets. These are conventions that you expect when you go into it.

The bad: I would've liked to see more of the bad guy...Nero? Zero? I forget. But when you have a bad guy that is as sinister as this, you'd like to see him whip a little more butt.

Halleluiah for the most entertaining movie of 2009!

Rating: 9 out of 10

...a short and sweet review. (The Love Guru review)

Don't watch it!

Rating: 3.5 out of 10

...watch it if, and only if you like Starwars. (Fanboys review)

In production for many, many years. Scenes shot, reshot, and shot again. This movie was "coming soon" for so long, that only a select group of starwars spoof underground movie-goers knew about it.

The story is simple. Die hard Starwars fans want to watch Episode 1 before it gets released to the public--so they decide to go steal a print of it. Enter shenanigans.

This is the type of movie that you have to have common knowledge of Starwars to enjoy. If you have never seen a Starwars movie before, I suggest not watching it. However, if you have seen any of them (like any normal person who knows what a good movie is), I suggest watching.

The Good: This is very Road Trip-esque, so if you like the "travel, jokes, travel, jokes" type of movie, this is perfect of you. The cast is great, although I don't really know any of their names. Lots of cameos such as William Shatner, Seth Rogan, Danny Trejo, Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Ray Park(Darth Maul), Will Forte. This is like a dumbed down, smart comedy...if there is such a thing. The best parts are when Starwars fans and the Star Trek fans are just talking a lot of smack to each other. This epic battle between these subcultures traverses well into real world.

The Bad: The really good jokes were few and far between. Although the entire this is fairly well rounded, I only laughed out loud a few times. I'll go ahead and say that there are many plot holes, but thats to be expected.

Watch it...especially if you are reading this blog.

Rating: 7 out of 10

...go watch Star Trek instead.(X-Men Origins: Wolverine review)

I heard horrible things. Such horrible things about this movie that I wish not to repeat them on a public forum. However, these were things that I heard from people that had the "inside scoop" before the movie even came out--not actual reviews. The actual reviews that I heard seemed to give this movie some promise.

My brother was the first to tell me that he enjoyed this movie, then I had a co-worker tell me the same thing. But here's the thing, when someone follows up their opinion of a movie with a "because..." there is something wrong.

Example 1:

Me: "How was Wolverine?"
Brother: "It was good."
Brother: "Well, I liked it BECAUSE I didn't know much about Wolverine's background and that was kinda fun to watch."

Example 2:

Me: "How was Wolverine?"
Co-Worker: "I liked it a lot."
Co-Worker: "I liked it BECAUSE I used to read the comics when I was younger."

Now I'm not saying these are invalid reasons to enjoy a movie. I am just saying that these people know that its not a good movie. They have to justify themselves now, because they know later I will scrutinize them for liking the movie. Imagine back when someone told you Pulp Fiction was good. Did they say "It was good, because..."? NO! They just say its good...no explanation needed.

Example 1:

Me: "I never saw Shawshank Redemption, is it any good?"
Friend: "You haven't seen it?! Dude, its good."

Thats it. The lesson here is, good movies do not need explanations when giving your opinion. Bad movies do.

The Good: The idea of this is good. We have 3 X-Men movies, most of which were pretty good. Why not have separate movies for each of the characters? Marvel is crushing it with the Avenger series (Iron Man, Hulk, soon to be Thor). There was a good amount of action. I did have to cringe a little for a few scenes with horrible effects, but a lot of the fighting scenes were good. Thats

The Bad: CORNY!! It had so many cliche action scenes that it was annoying. The worst (SPOILER) being when Wolverine blows up the helicopter as he walks away (and you see the explosion behind him). I hate that soooo much. The effects were pretty bad(as noted earlier). The comedic level was much lower key than the X-Men movies. I think Wolverine's jokes had a huge impact on those movies.

Overall, it was a watchable movie, but waay too many crappy parts. It would go 15 minutes worth of good movie watching, then get followed up with 20 minutes of crap. Then 5 minutes of good, and another 20 mins of bad.

Rating: 6 out of 10

...go to Bhaliwood. (Slumdog Millionaire review)

I don't know if this was actually a Bahliwood movie, but it is based in India...so thats close enough, right? I'm so mad. I generally like to see the movies that were nominated for Best Picture, but I didn't get to see any! This is the first of that group that I have seen.

So this movie was the out-of-nowhere favorite of 2008. It won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It has an 8.5 on IMDB and has had ridiculous amounts of hype. Does it live up to the hype? Absolutely! Do I think its the best thing since sliced bread? No. But it's probably the best movie I have seen in several years.

I do have a question though. Does anyone know why Indians tend to bobble their head when they talk? I hope this isn't offensive, but I've never gotten an answer regarding that.

The Good: I love the story. It is based on an Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Everytime the contestant answers a question, it shows a flashback of how he actually knows the answer. This was a pretty sweet gimic that ties together a rather compelling story (although the story itself reminds me of The Kite Runner). They are all no name actors, at least in America, but all do a great job. The entire movie was paced well...I was never distracted by boredom--like the Mars scenes in Watchmen.

The music was awesome. There was a couple of pop songs that are familiar, but a lot of up-beat Indian music that I had never heard. I think one of the songs ended up winning an Academy Award as well.

The Bad: Nothing really. Maybe I would've like to laugh a little bit more, but not necessary.

Rating: 9 out of 10