Finally Made It To 2006!!

And so we’re on to 2006, which means I’m only 5 1/2 months behind!! Now usually, the beginning of the year is a pretty sluggish time at the theaters, with studios dumping a lot of films they don’t expect to do very well onto movie screens at a time when generally not a lot of people are going to the movies. So you’d think that would mean I’d only have a handful of movies to review, and could quickly skim through early spring so that I could be caught up and ready for the summer season (which is already starting up). And in years past, that has indeed been the case. But this year, being the diehard movie buff that I am, I actually watched A LOT of movies this spring (hell, I think I saw as many movies this spring as I do over an average summer). As is generally expected, most of these movies didn’t bring in a lot of cash (and some of them completely flopped), but that didn’t stop me from putting my money down to see them.

In January, I actually only saw one new movie (about what I’d expect for the post holiday season). February, on the other hand, had me at the theater for FIVE new releases (although at least two of them (both starring Paul Walker, interestingly enough) I don’t think I actually got around to seeing till March, I’ll still cover them under February since that’s when they were first released). March saw the release of FOUR new movies that I went and saw, including the absolutely stellar V For Vendetta (which is this year’s Sin City – a fantastic movie based on an incredible comic book graphic novel). It’s probably not going to rate as highly on my top 10 for 2006 as Sin City did for 2005 (if I’d actually done a top 10 list for 2005, that is), but that’s mainly because this summer’s blockbusters look to be so much better than what we saw last year, so V For Vendetta is likely to have a lot more competition than Sin City did.

Finally, we have the month of April, which was more online with what I’d expect from this time of year – there were a number of interesting movies released, but nothing that really motivated me to get out to the theater. I caught only two movies at the end of April, and I did a double feature and watched them one right after the other the same Sunday (which turned out to be a mistake, since I was just starting to develop a nasty flu, and so by the time I was finished with the second movie I was deathly ill, and ended up home sick pretty much the entire next week – but that’s another story entirely). I probably won’t get to those two movies (or March’s movies) until my next entry (since I saw so many movies in February), but I’ll try my best to get these next two entries done in the next few weeks, so that hopefully I can quickly get May’s movies done and actually be caught up and current and doing my reviews as the movies come out (imagine that!!) by mid-June. The challenge from there, of course, is to actually STAY caught up. We’ll see how it goes. And now, on with the show!

The one new movie I caught in January was the action/horror sequel Underworld: Evolution. Sony was smart enough not to screen this movie for critics, knowing that critics across the board hate this genre (among others) and would likely give it nothing but negative reviews (which is exactly what they did once they saw it after it had opened). To me, this is a smart move, and one I think more studios should follow. In the past, it was always assumed that if a movie wasn’t screened for critics, it meant that the studio wasn’t happy with the results, and it was likely to be a disappointing if not downright awful movie. Critics continue to insist this is the case, but I think nowadays studios are wizening up and realizing that certain genres of film (regardless of how much fans of that particular genre will like them), just don’t get good reviews from critics. So why give the critics a free showing of the movie when you know they’re just going to give you bad press and try and keep people from paying to see your movie? If you know they won’t like it, I say make them pay to see it like the rest of us!! Which is exactly what Sony did with Underworld: Evolution.

I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed with the original Underworld. It just didn’t have the action and excitement I expected from the trailers, and while not a bad movie per se, it was just kind of a letdown from what I’d hoped for (although I haven’t gotten around to seeing the Director’s Cut DVD to see if that version is any better). I must say, however, that the sequel did not disappoint. It had more action, more incredible visuals, and a more well thought out story (in my opinion), not to mention a steamy love scene between Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman (damn is she hot!!). The amusing thing about that love scene is that the director of the movie is actually Kate’s husband (they got married after meeting on the first movie), and from interviews I’ve seen with her, it seems that Scott is a actually a good friend of the couple, which made that scene somewhat uncomfortable to film. I had to laugh when I saw her on one of the late night talk shows – they kept bleeping her whenever she said the phrase “cock sock”, which is the industry term for what is used to cover an actor’s penis when they film scenes like that. And as far as director Len Wiseman goes, I figure you've got to either be really committed to you art, or just a little bit messed up and perverted, to not only watch your wife naked pretending to have steamy sex with another man, but to actually be the one directing their actions and making sure that it really looks steamy. I don’t know if I could do that, but that’s just me (no wonder Hollywood marriages have such a high divorce rate).

But enough of Kate Beckinsale’s love scene (as enjoyable as it was to watch – and can I just say she looks so damned hot in skin-tight plastic!!). Overall this was a pretty fun movie – certainly an improvement over the original. They seemed to look at what worked in the first movie and what didn’t, and shored up the weak spots and improved on what worked in the first film. If only more sequels would take that approach, as opposed to just giving you more of the same like so many of them do. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever buy this one on DVD (I still don’t own the original on DVD), but it’s certainly worth renting if you enjoyed the original at all.

And so now on we go to the unbelievably movie-filled month of February. I still can’t believe how many movies came out that month that I actually saw at the theater. Then again, one of the big differences in the spring and fall off seasons as opposed to the summer and holiday blockbuster seasons, is that since it’s a dumping ground for a lot of lower-budgeted, lower expectations movies, studios aren’t as worried about what else is opening that weekend, or what opened the week before or opens the week after, and so I think you get a lot more movies getting released on the same weekend, so it’s much more likely there will be two or sometimes three movies come out the same weekend that all look interesting (although even I usually don’t manage more than two new movies a weekend on a good weekend, so often movies either don’t get seen, or get seen just before they leave the theaters on a weekend that DOESN'T have a couple of new movies I want to see). During the summer and at Christmas, on the other, you generally get only one big new movie that everybody wants to go see, that no one else really wants to compete with, so they move their films to a different weekend. So once May hits, I expect to see one new movie a weekend, and maybe one older movie I hadn’t seen yet that’s still playing if I get motivated to go to the movies on Sunday.

So the first movie I saw in February (at least I’m pretty sure it was the first one I saw in February, it’s hard to remember that far back), was something of a disappointment, and that was the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall. It was your standard, generic action/thriller, and while it tried for a high-tech edge to give it something new, sadly there were a number of technical blunders that as a computer guy really jumped out for me as being hokey and unrealistic. And I have to agree with the critics – let’s face it, at 64-years-old, regardless of the shape he’s in (and for his age, he’s in pretty damned good shape), Harrison Ford is just getting a little too old for these sorts of movies. He’d be better off in the dramas that he’s done very successfully in the past, or in an action/thriller that is a little less physical, with fewer fight scenes (such as Sean Connery in Entrapment). I just think audiences would accept him more in these sorts of roles, as it’s just hard to believe that a supposed computer security expert in his mid-60s could handle the situations he does in Firewall (I certainly don’t know any in that good of physical shape – it’s just not something that tends to go hand-in-hand with being a computer geek). He may have the time and money for personal trainers to keep him in top notch physical condition, but most of his characters proabably wouldn't (I'm just saying). So overall I’d probably give this one about 2 1/2 stars – it’s worth renting if you enjoy this sort of movie, but that’s about it.

The other movie I saw this weekend was much, much more enjoyable, and that was The Pink Panther remake starring the very funny Steve Martin. Now I do have to agree with the critics and with friends of mine who also saw the movie – Steve Martin is no replacement for Peter Sellers in this role (but let’s face it – NO ONE will EVER replace Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau – it just can’t be done. He so completely created and embodied that character). So the key to enjoying this movie is to go into it knowing that Steve Martin is not Peter Sellers, and that this isn’t the original character or original movies. If you go into it with that in mind, this is a really, really funny movie. Steve Martin is hilarious, Jean Reno is fantastic in his role (but he’s always done well as the quiet, serious character, and is perfect as the straight man to Steve Martin’s bumbling Clouseau). Also wonderful in this movie is Kevin Kline as Chief Inspector Dreyfus. The things they put that poor guy through! Also fun to watch is Emily Mortimer, who is just lovely and charming and adorable (and with such a sexy accent). I was excited to see her in this, because I loved her female hit woman character in Formula 51 (which is too bad, because despite the wonderful performances by all the main actors, this movie was pretty much complete crap, and not one I’d bother to own, despite how much I liked her and several of her co-stars in it).

The physical comedy in The Pink Panther is fun to watch, and there are a number of great scenes. My favorite featured Clive Owen as Agent 006, an obvious parody on the fact that he was up for the new James Bond role (one which he ultimately did not get). I think this scene proves he would have made a great Bond (but I do admit that I have high hopes for Daniel Craig, also a very talented actor – we’ll see how he does). I was also very pleased to see a cameo by Jason Statham, who's very high on my list of favorite actors. This is definitely a movie I’ll be getting on DVD at some point, and I look forward to a sequel if they decide to do one.

The next movie I saw wasn’t one I’d originally planned on seeing at the theater, but my buddy talked me into going to see it, and I’m glad he did. The movie in question – Date Movie. It was hilarious!! Admittedly, there were a few scenes that were a little gross for my tastes, but sadly that’s to be expected in this sort of parody movie. But regardless of that, the movie is really damned funny. Naturally they poke fun of all sorts of romantic comedies and chick films, but they go so far as to throw in parodies of such films as Star Wars: Episode III and Lord of the Rings! They also reach way back to the 80s and 90s and parody some classic movies (something you generally don’t expect in parody movies -- normally they're pretty focused on strictly recent films). Alyson Hannigan is as beautiful as ever (I so love her!), and incredibly funny at the beginning of the movie when she's in her fat suit, and Sophie Monk is just unbelievably sexy and gorgeous in every scene she’s in!!

And now we have the two February releases that I didn’t get around to seeing until weeks after they’d come out (and probably just before they were due to be pulled from the theaters). Both starred Paul Walker (which had nothing to do with why I didn't catch them when they first came out; it was actually pure coincidence), but otherwise were about as different as two movies can be. The movies I’m talking about are Eight Below and Running Scared (which is in no way related to the original Running Scared from 1986 that starred Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines – which is too bad, because that was a much better movie). Of the two, Eight Below was definitely much more worth the price of admission. For those who don’t know, it’s the true story of a team of sled dogs who are left in Antarctica during the winter when their owner is forced to leave without them due to incoming storms. The story jumps back and forth between the dogs’ struggle for survival, and their master’s attempts to get funding to get back to Antarctica to retrieve them.

What can I say, like most Americans, I’m a sucker for a heroic dog story (how can you not be?). And this one has not just one, but eight dogs in it. And they do a very good job of distinguishing the dogs and letting you get to know them just as if they were human actors, which connects you as a viewer that much more into their plight. And Paul Walker does a surprisingly good job portraying the one person who never gives up on them and does everything he can to get back to save them. While I enjoy most of the movies he does, I’ve never really considered Paul Walker that great of an actor, but I have to say in this movie he does a surprisingly good job with the character. So if you like good wholesome family movies or dog movies of any sort, this is absolutely a movie to check out.

Our final movie for the month of February (and the final movie for this entry, since it’s getting a bit on the long-winded side) is the action crime thriller Running Scared. While not the worst of this genre that I’ve seen (but then again, this is one of those categories of movies that seems to produce A LOT of B-grade, direct-to-video films), it’s hardly a movie I’m going to rush out and buy when it comes out on DVD (although it does have enough gratuitous violence and nudity to it that I’ll probably pick it up eventually, once it's cheap).

Here’s the basic plot outline – Paul Walker plays a small-time hood whose gang is involved in a drug deal gone bad that results in the deaths of several men they discover are actually dirty cops. His boss gives him the handgun that had killed the cops and tells him to get rid of it. Well, instead of getting rid of it, he hides it in his basement. What he doesn’t realize is that his young son and his son’s friend are hiding in the basement at the time and see him hide the gun. His son’s friend is the stepson of a drunken, abusive Russian mafia guy, so he steals the gun, shoots his stepfather in the shoulder, and then runs off. Well naturally when Paul Walker realizes the gun has been stolen, he’s in a panic (since he was supposed to have disposed of it). So from there you’ve got him chasing the kid (who of course loses the gun so once he finds the kid he's still looking for the gun), and his gang is looking for him and the guy in charge of the dirty cops is looking for them. It takes some very, very bizarre twists and turns (such as when the Russian boy is helped out by a really friendly couple who turn out to be murderous child molesters) before finally reaching a finale with a big twist to it that isn’t necessarily what you’re expecting (if for no other reason than because of how hard the movie is to follow), but that doesn’t really come as that much of a surprise once it’s revealed. So not really a movie I can recommend, but certainly an interesting movie to watch, if for no other reason than to see the strange directions that the movie goes in and the goofy, only-in-Hollywood problems this guy has as this gun goes from person to person to person as he does his best to chase it down.

Well that’s it for the beginning of 2006. I’ve got 6 movies to cover for March and April, but I just saw The Da Vinci Code last Saturday, so I’m thinking I’m going to put together an entry for it while the movie is fresh in my mind (and the movie’s actually still new and at the theater so that my review is timely and relevant, for once). Once that’s done I’ll go back and do March and April movies, and then I’ll do an entry for May movies, and then onto current movies from there (well, that’s the plan anyways. We’ll see how well it actually works). Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight!