It's been kind of slow on the DVD front...

A couple of times a year I hit a wall. I get to a point where I feel like I am using way too much energy just trying to find a good movie to watch. Now, as many of you may be able to tell, I am pretty easily entertained, and I can usually find something enjoyable in every movie, but lately I've been running out of new releases to watch and I've been delving into my Blockbuster online resources trying to find some good movies that I may have missed in the past few years. Hence the reason that I recently watched An Unfinished Life (2005) and Stir of Echoes (1999). I also went back to the New Release wall and rented Obsessed, Observe and Report, and Duplicity. Let's just say I didn't knock any out of the park this past week, but I only struck out once, which, if you're taking down stats, isn't too bad.

I think I'll review my recent viewing from worst to first, that can be my rating system until my roommate Timmy can think of a better one for me to use.

BAD. Obsessed. Do you ever wonder how some movies go to the theater, have wide releases, have big name stars, and are so bad they are kind of laughable? I was wondering that from the beginning of the movie to the end. Non-stop. The name of this movie should be called A Boring Dude and Two Crazy Ass Women. Some one decided to take Fatal Attraction, take out everything that made that movie cool, and you'll have this movie.

Let me just briefly explain the premise. Idris Elba (if you don't know the name, you most certainly will recognize him) plays an executive who has the "perfect" life. The opening montage is meant to inform the viewer of this as he and his wife (Beyonce) are have just bought a new home and are just walking through it and exchanging glances. It is so bad and cheesy that I was literally laughing out loud at how bad it was and how awkward and uncomfortable it was. But I digress. Ali Larter (the whipped cream bikini girl from Varsity Blues) is a temp at Elba's company, who, after one sort-of, mildly, kinda, maybe flirty conversation, becomes, drum roll, Obsessed with Elba's character. I used all those vague adjectives to describe the conversation because Elba's character is too boring to flirt. But there is really nothing else that happens between Elba's and Larter's characters to fuel this obsession, except maybe one compliment thrown to Larter from Elba. Well, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Larter's character takes things to another level, which in turn cause serious problems in Elba and Beyonce's perfect marriage. Which by the way is not even kind of perfect because Beyonce is the most jealous, untrusting person on the planet. So much so that Elba isn't even allowed to have a female assistant. This jealousy is never really explained either, except that Beyonce was once his secretary and the dude married her! But Beyonce is just as crazy as Larter in this movie. And another thing. Beyonce is a secondary character the whole movie until the end and then, this well spoken, proper woman turns all ghetto.

Now, I like Beyonce as much as the next guy. I mean she's hot. And she's pretty classy (remember the Taylor Swift VMA's thing). But she needs to stick with singing. She's not a good actress. Not that she's terrible, she's just not really good, she's actually kind of bad. There I said it.

This movie really doesn't have many redeemable qualities. For a movie that makes the audience believe it is going to be a sexual thriller ala Fatal Attraction or Discretion, there's no sex. There is a split second of Ali Larter in lingerie but the scene is not sexy and neither is the lingerie. There's a fight scene at the end that makes you wonder if all women are secretly trained MMA fighters. The only believable character is Jerry O'Connell's (Rebecca Romijn's husband). And he serves absolutely no purpose in the movie except for the audience to say, well at least one person is normal.

Don't waste your time on this one.

SO-SO. Duplicity. This movie is advertised as a sexy, smart thriller starring the sexy, and smart Clive Owen and Julia Roberts directed by the guy that directed Michael Clayton. In it, Owen and Roberts play corporate spies who work for the same company but Roberts' cover is as an inside person for the competition of her employer. The two of them meet while they are working for the CIA and MI-6 and hatch a plan to work for a commercial company and steal secrets for themselves and run away together with millions. While this sounds like a cool idea, the movie just left you feeling unfulfilled. The story is told in the form of a series of flashbacks explaining how the two stars got into the situation that the currently in. The ad's make you think that this is going to be one of those movies where you go, "Ohhhhh, that's how they did that!" Kind of like Ocean's 11 or something. I'll just tell you now, that never happens. It's more of a story about the love and lack of trust between Owen and Roberts.

This movie wasn't so much bad, as it was disappointing. I guess I had the wrong expectations. But still, even if I had low expectations, I don't think I would have enjoyed the movie because it really just didn't do anything cool. Don't rent this, but if its on HBO, maybe MAYBE waste an hour and fortyish minutes watching it. And only then, if you have some wine and an attractive snuggle buddy.

OKAY. Observe and Report. Instead of saying this movie was okay, I think I should say this movie is just strange. For those keeping score, this is the mall cop movie with Seth Rogen and not the Kevin James aka King of Queens movie Paul Blart. If you had asked me before I saw Observe and Report, if I thought Paul Blart was funny my answer would have been No. But now I think it is because Observe and Report was just really dark and disturbing. It's like someone decided to take Taxi Driver and try to make it funny. Seth Rogen plays our mentally disturbed protagonist who is the head of mall security and of course takes his job way too seriously. The problem in the movie is that there is a flasher terrorizing mall patrons, and Rogen takes it upon himself to singlehandedly stop the pervert.

Don't get me wrong here, there are plenty of funny parts in this movie, but the overall dark theme kind of takes away from it. Anna Faris plays Rogen's lust object and she is her usual crazy self, and has some pretty funny scenes, but isn't in it nearly enough. Rogen's mom is pretty funny in a couple of her scenes as his alcoholic mother, but the fact that she is his alcoholic mother is disturbing and sad in itself and makes you feel bad about laughing.

If you are into dark comedies you may like this one, but I don't even think this even fits into the dark comedy genre. It's just kind of messed up. I kind of want someone else to watch this and tell me what they thought so that I can figure out if I was just in a weird mood when I watched it. I mean I did watch this a few days after I was run over by an old lady in a Cadillac...

PRETTY GOOD. Stir of Echoes. This movie came out in 1999. This was before I discovered my affinity for watching movies. This was while I was too concerned with getting tail and improving my bench press max. So I missed the boat when this movie was actually popular. But apparently I'm not the only person who thought this movie was really good. So don't just take my word for it, this one is definitely worth watching.

This movie stars Kevin Bacon as a average Joe who, after being hypnotized by his sister-in-law, begins seeing visions of a dead girl played by Jennifer Morrison (Cameron from House, good one to know when playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon - a game I recommend on long boring road trips). We learn that these visions are actually messages from the grave trying to tell Bacon's character where the dead girl is and who killed her.

The movie is as simple as that. Its told in such away that the audience becomes just as invested in these visions and what they mean as does Bacon's character. The audience learns bits of what happens throughout the movie to the point where you can't wait until the end to find out what happens. The ending to this movie actually surprised me. Normally I can figure out the ending to a movie pretty quickly, but this one kept me guessing until the end.

The movie isn't complex, and while it is kind of advertised as being a scary movie, its not particularly scary, but what it lacks in complexity or scariness, it makes up for in intrigue. Kevin Bacon is just weird enough to play a believable possessed person but just normal enough for the audience to not get weirded out by him.

GOOD. An Unfinished Life. First of all, I want you to notice that I didn't rate any of these movies really good, or great on purpose. I didn't watch a really good or great movie in the past week, but this one was a good movie...I'd even say quite good.

This film stars Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman. That should be enough for anyone with any sense to want to see the movie right there. But then I have to tell you it also stars Jennifer Lopez. And many of you with any sense might NOT want to see the movie. Let me tell you know though that she is not that bad, and this movie is the exception to the rule that most movies with J.Lo suck.

Redford plays an aging rancher, who holds a serious grudge against his daughter-in-law, Lopez, whom he blames for killing his only son in a car accident years before. When Lopez decides to run away from her abusive boyfriend, she decides that the only place she can go is back to Redford's ranch. And oh yeah, to throw a chink in the chain, she has a daughter, Redford's granddaughter, that Redford never knew about. Freeman plays Redford's sage best friend and ranch hand who is now crippled because of he was attacked by a bear a year before. Well, as you can imagine there is lots of tension and turmoil, but in the end, everyone learns to forgive and face down their own demons, and you have yourself a very well acted, beautifully shot, heartwarming film.

For anyone out there like me, who just wants to see some great actors work together to create a good, solid piece of film making, this movie is for you. Its not a great movie, but it is a GOOD movie, and I don't think anyone in their right mind could argue that. I was happy after I watched this movie, and I was glad I rented it. In the end, isn't that all you want when watching a movie?

Crank 2 - Whoa!?

If I had to use 2 words to describe Crank 2 it would probably have to be, um, Absolutely Ridiculous. I mean this movie is nuts. Think the writers must have gotten drunk or high or something and just wrote down every crazy scene they could think of. For those of you who aren't educated on the Crank franchise, Crank 2, obviously the sequel to Crank 1, begins immediately where the first Crank left off. Crank ends with the main character Chev Chelios (played by the Transporter Jason Statham) falling thousands of feet from a helicopter, hitting the roof of a car, crushing said roof, then bouncing off said roof, 20 feet in the air, then landing face first in the middle of the road. I would go into the details of how Chev got into the position of falling from a helicopter, but it might just make your brain explode. Let's just say the man is basically indestructible.

In Crank 1, Chev is injected with a poison that will stop his heart if his adrenaline stops, but his heart doesn't stop so Chinese mobsters in Crank 2 decide that his heart is indestructible along with the rest of his organs (including his porn star sized "organ"), so they remove his heart for the head Chinese mobster (who is played by Kill Bills David Carridine RIP), and give him an artificial heart to keep him alive long enough to take out the rest of his organs, including his "organ." But this artificial heart only stays working for so long and requires regular electrical charges to stay working. Needless to say, events transpire resulting in the regular power source of the heart getting destroyed, and coincidentally, it is discovered that the heart will charge when Chev sends electrical currents through his body. This results in Chev doing things like tasing himself repeatedly, clipping jumper cables to his tongue and nipple, and grabbing a hold of electrical transformers to stay alive. Like I said, Ridiculous.

So, what did I think about this movie? I had a really good time. However, you have to totally suspend your disbelief. You have to totally dumb out and forget every intelligent thought you have in your brain. Keep reminding yourself that this movie is supposed to be ridiculous. And just get in the mood to see some of the most insane things you've ever seen on screen. If you are able to do that, then well, you'll be entertained for an hour and a half. If not, then you'll be like one of my facebook friends who wrote as her status "Crank 2 is the worst movie ever. Ever." And while I wouldn't go that far, I can see her point, because it is the most ridiculous movie ever. Ever. And I can also see, that even if a woman is able to do all the things I advised above, she will still probably hate it. It's definitely a dude movie. Read: Gratuitous nudity and violence.

Just to give you a taste of just how off-the-wall this movie is, I'll tell you some events that transpire within the first, oh 30-45 mins of the movie. There's a heart removal while the patient is awake and watching, a shot gun is dipped in motor oil then shoved up a guys, well, you know, there's a shoot out in a strip club (see Gratuitous nudity) in which a stripper gets shot through the breast implants and you see her boobs ooze out silicone and deflate like water balloons, and there's also a sex scene in the middle of a horse race, on the track, while horses are running by.

So, I think this movie should probably be rated 2 ways. On any sort of intelligent, normal, even remotely believable scale, it would get at best a D-. But on the good, dumb, crazy fun scale, I'd have to give it a B or B+. So there you have it, but consider yourself warned that this is a totally insane movie.

Ladies and gentlemen! I would like you to meet Mr. Heavy Shoes! And yes, he is doing the Mr. Heavy Shoes dance.

The Final 3 Go Sees (or rent actually)

So I'm still playing a little catch up on enlightening you with my last couple of weeks of movie nerding so I'm going to group these last 3 "go sees" together because, well, they were all good and I recommed you see them all, but like so many movies, these aren't going to blow your socks off.

1. Coraline - This is a cartoon. Actually, its not a cartoon, its stop motion, which is one of the reasons that I liked it. My roommate, to keep him anonymous, we'll call him Cakefart, rented this one, and invited me to watch it with he and his lady snugglebunny. I was a little, "Oh I don't know, I don't like cartoons all that much..." Well, I was wrong 2x. Like I said before, it's stop motion. This means that the characters were moved, a picture was taken, they were moved ever so slightly, another picture was taken, etc. etc. This is amazing because I was halfway through the movie when I realized that this wasn't just some really cool animation, it was some really cool stop motion. If you like watching movies that are just plain cool to look at, watch this one. Not only is it visually stimulating, the plot is very original, and its actually a little bit scary. The movie follows a young girl named Coraline, who has just moved and is very bored and unhappy with her life. Then, while asleep, she discovers a world, just like her real world, but where everything is just better, yet very strange. Cats talk, peoples eyes have buttons, her boring parents are super cool, the whole thing is very Alice in Wonderland-ish. Well everything seems great in bizarro world, until things stop being great. Its a very interesting movie, and I was thoroughly entertained. I highly recommend it, but if you have a hard time getting into A) cartoonish movies and B) super fantasies, you probably won't like it, but even then, you will probably enjoy Coraline way more than you think.

2. The Boy in Striped Pajamas - Warning: This is a Holocaust film and when has a Holocaust film actually not made you cry? This is a story about the loss of innocence and how childhood innocence and naivity sheilds us from so much bad stuff. It is told through the eyes of an 8 year old boy whose Nazi father has been given the post of overseeing a concentration camp. However, the boy doesn't realize his dad is a Nazi son of a b!@#$ and thinks he is a great soldier. See Childhood Naivity. Well, the boy befriends another boy one the other side of the fence in concentration camp. They form a close friendship, still our young German boy still doesn't get what is going on, and soon this friendship comes to a head. I'm not going to say more but like I said, when has a Holocaust film not made you cry. You are warned. But, on the other hand, when was the last bad Holocaust movie? This is no Schidler's List or anything, but it is still a good watch, just don't plan on doing anything fun afterward...Or do plan that actually.

3. Sunshine Cleaning - Amy Adams (the princess in Enchanted), Emily Blunt (the bitchy other assistant to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada), and Alan Arkin (the hilarious grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine. He must like doing movies with the word sunshine in it, huh?). I don't know if I need to say more. I'm not sure I've seen anything that any of these actors have done that I didn't like. When Adams' character needs more money, she along with her unreliable sister Blunt form a crime scene clean up company. I'm not going say hilarity ensues, because it doesn't. This is a good heart warming movie about family, and just making it through the day. This is an expectation film and I want to lower/change you expectations on this one because I was little disappointed, but only because of my expectations. But its also one of those that took me a couple of days to realize I actually liked it. So, Sunshine Cleaning is not funny, its not full of powerhouse performances, but it is a compelling movie, it is emotional, the performances are dead on and subtle, and I did make me smile at the end. If you like happy endings, no not those kind guys, then you will really like this movie.

Let's go on an Adventureland of good movies

You ever see a movie and you weren't quite sure what you thought about it until like 2 days after you saw it and then you decide you actually really loved it? Well, that's how Adventureland was for me. This is mainly due to the fact that this is one of those "expectation films" that I'm always referring to. Adventureland is directed by the same guy that directed Superbad. The box even says "From the Director of Superbad." But it is nothing like Superbad. Although it stars Jessie Eisenberg, who, in my opinion is a poor man's Michael Cera, Ryan Reynolds, and Martin Starr (the dude that grew the gross beard in Knocked Up), it really isn't all that funny. Well at least Superbad funny. Don't get me wrong, there are some really funny parts, but on a whole its just a really good movie. Oh yeah, it also stars Kristen Stewart a/k/a Bella from Twilight, who has got to be one of the most awkward girls I've ever seen, but for some reason I'm still attracted to her, as is much of America, I think.

When James' (Eisenberg) dad gets a job demotion, his plans to spend the summer in Europe after college graduation and before going to grad school at Columbia, are destroyed and he is forced to get a job at the local amusement park called Adventureland. While working there, he meets Em (Kristen Stewart), subsequently falls for her, and the rest of the movie carries on with the typical coming of age love story stuff. Keep in mind that James is one of the most awkward, nerdy characters to grace the screen, so there are a lot of painful scenes involving him and women. Also keep in mind that this movie takes place in the 1980's in Detroit. So you'll see a lot of awesome vintage t-shirts, ugly scenery, great hair dos, and listen to some really good, often obscure 80s rock music. Actually, the soundtrack is one of the best parts of the film.

I guess the only knock I have on this movie, and it really isn't a knock per se, is that this movie is about college-age, twenty-somethings, but feels more like a high school coming of age movie. The movie deals with first love, first sex, heartbreak, drinking and drugs (well marijuana...). All of which, Hollywood usually thinks happens to everyone in high school. Which isn't all that true for a lot of people, so I guess in that respect the movie is more real than most.

Eisenberg carries the movie as the uber dork trying to be cooler than he is but keeps his heart of gold. Stewart is the lovable, angst ridden conflicted girl that we all just want to hug. Ryan Reynold's is a supporting character that isn't comedic at all, and is actually a total scum bag, but is kind of the big brother/guide/nemesis to Eisenberg's character. Martin Starr is the monotone, pessimistic friend. There is one other actress who has a small role who I think will be big one day becasue she's beautiful. Margarita Levieva. You'll know who I'm talking about. In conclusion, I highly recommend this movie, basically because it keeps your attention, and makes you feel good, and makes you reminisce on the good old days of college summers.

What can I say? Go rent State of Play!

State of Play just a really good movie all around. When you take Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck (yes Ben Affleck, give the guy a break, he's made some pretty good movies since he broke up with J.Lo), Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren, throw in Kevin Macdonald (the director of the amazing Last King of Scotland) add a little Matthew Michael Carnahan (the writer of The Kingdom) and Tony Gilroy (the writer of all kinds of awesome movies including all the Bourne movies) and you have a recipe for something pretty cool.

The movie is based on a BBC mini-series by the same name. It's a political thriller that actually thrills, unlike a lot of the 'thrillers' that are made today. There are many scenes that get your adrenaline pumping and there is a twist at the end that I didn't really see coming at all. Of course going into watching a thriller, you are going to be suspicious of everyone and form your own theories about what is really going on, and to be honest the twist isn't so out there that it really isn't that hard to figure out. But its still a fun watch. In a perfect world, I would suggest watching it and not trying to figure anything out or without even knowing its supposed to be a thriller, but we don't live in a perfect world now do we?

The premise of the story is this. Reporter Cal McAffrey (Crowe) and Congressman Stephen Collins (Affleck) are old college roommates. Collins is investigating a private military firm that has very deep connections. When one of Collins' research aides dies, Collins breaks down on TV when announcing her death. McAffrey begins investigating this death, and with the help of Della Frye (McAdams) and the hindrance of his editor (Mirren) McAffrey begins to unravel some seriously deep stuff involving his old college buddy.

State of Play is a very refreshing movie, in that, like I said before, its a thriller that actually thrills. Russell Crowe very rarely does a bad movie, Ben Affleck is perfect as the All-American Congressman, and lets be serious who doesn't absolutely fall in love with Rachel McAdams in every role she plays. And as an added bonus, she doesn't make half of America cry in this one. I highly recommend this one to any one, regardless of what your movie preferences are.

Trivia tidbit: When this movie was first being made, Brad Pitt was attached to play Russell Crowe's part and Edward Norton was attached to play Ben Affleck's part, but filming delays prevented that from happening.