Korean War Drama

We’re going to take a brief pause in our rush to get caught up on theatrical releases that I’ve seen, so that I can talk about an absolutely amazing movie that I just watched on DVD. The name of the movie is Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War. It is a Korean film about two brothers during the Korean War. The movie was a huge critical and commercial success in Korea, winning Best Film and Best Director at the 50th Asia Pacific Film Festival, and with good reason – it is a fantastic war drama, and just all around a compelling and intense and exciting and touching movie. I’d like to quote the first line of the movie’s description from the back of the DVD box: “In the powerful tradition of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers comes this box-office hit from Korea.” Now it’s pretty easy to guess that the distributors of the movie simply listed these other films to try and get American audiences to check out the movie, but the comparison is absolutely spot on. Tae Guk Gi is easily of the same caliber as these movies. If you enjoy epic war films at all, you will love this movie. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I looked online to find the translation of the title (because I was curious), and discovered that Tae Guk Gi (or Taegukgi, one word) is the Korean name for the South Korean Flag. In one of the interviews with the director on the bonus features disk, he comments that when he came up with the title, everyone else on the production team was against it, and he had to slowly convince them that it was the right title. And I have to agree with him. The movie does a wonderful job of making you think about patriotism and country, and has you asking yourself just what would you be willing to do for your country. It also deals with issues of family, and how important family is, especially in such times as being at war.

Here’s the basic rundown of the movie – North Korea has just invaded South Korea, and two brothers are quickly drafted into the South Korean army, pulled away from their widowed mother and the older brother’s fiancée. The older brother, desperate to protect his younger brother any way that he can, finds out from their commander that if he can win the Medal of Honor, he can get his brother released from the army and sent home. So he goes out of his way to prove his merit – leading every charge, taking on every dangerous mission. The younger brother, naturally, hates to see his brother risking his life constantly, especially since he feels he can pull his own weight, and doesn’t want to go home unless his brother is going with him. I won’t go into any more details than this, since I don’t want to put any real spoilers into this write-up if I can help it. The story follows the two brothers through the war, and the viewer watches their changing feelings about the war, their country, and each other as they fight to survive to return to their family.

The film is written and directed by Je-gyu Kang, whose previous film Shiri I also have on DVD (and it is also a really enjoyable movie). He does a brilliant job here, keeping the movie fast-paced and the action scenes intense, while at the same time really drawing you into the brothers’ story. The ending is heart-wrenching, and had more than a few tears welling up in my eyes by the time the end credits rolled. For anyone who likes war films, or anyone who loves a compelling drama, this is a movie worth seeing. It is yet another example of why I love Asian cinema. There are just so many compelling, original films coming out of Korea and Japan and China these days, which is why Hollywood’s recent trend of remaking so many Asian movies should come as no surprise to anyone. The sad part, though, is that in most cases (as tends to be true with remakes in general, really) what you’re getting from Hollywood pales in comparison to the originals. Even the added hassle of reading the subtitles can’t diminish how wonderful a viewing experience Tae Guk Gi or any of the many other great films coming out of Asia is.

So I will conclude this review with this recommendation – if you’ve never checked out Asian cinema before, give it a try. You’ll be surprised at the great movies that you will discover. And Tae Guk Gi is a perfect place to start. Join me here next time when I push on with my theatrical reviews from December 2005, which of course brings us the holiday blockbusters Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong. Until then!!

Fall 2005

And so now we’ve reached the month of October, which in the spirit of Halloween is generally chock full of horror movies (a trend that is still going strong, much to my enjoyment). The first such film to come out last fall was The Fog, a remake of one of John Carpenter’s early films. I hadn’t seen the original The Fog in I don't know how long, so I broke down and bought it on DVD before the remake came out (mainly because it was pretty cheap, and if I remember correctly, included a movie pass so I could see the new one for free; definitely incentive to go see the remake – that and getting to see Maggie Grace in her undies. God, what a hottie!!). Neither movie is what you’d call a classic piece of cinema, but the original was a lot of fun to watch (but then again, I’m a really big fan of John Carpenter). As far as the remake goes, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly great, either. If you catch it on a movie channel, it’s worth taking the time to watch, but I don’t know that I’d spend the money to rent it.

The next October film that I saw was the video game movie Doom (which is also a horror film of sorts, so certainly appropriate for the month). When I first started seeing trailers and reading write-ups on this movie, I was very hesitant about it, for two reasons – firstly, I thought it was being directed by Uwe Boll (who seems to pretty much direct nothing but video game movies), who’s early movies House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark were both mediocre at best. But I guess someone likes his stuff, because he’s got a whole stack of movies lined up that he’s directing, ALL based on videogames (and I do have to say I was actually impressed with BloodRayne, the last movie he did – his directing skills do seem to be improving – guess I'll have to wait and see what I think of his next film or two). The other concern I had was the talk about how they were shooting 1st person perspective scenes to make the movie look just like if you were playing the video game (which seemed like a bad idea that could become really stupid, really quickly).

Well, it turned out that both my concerns were unfounded. First off, the movie was actually directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, director of DMX’s big action movies – Romeo Must Die, Exit Wounds, and Cradle 2 the Grave – all of which I thoroughly enjoyed (he was also cinematographer on all sorts of great movies). And as far as the 1st person perspective goes, it was limited to one extended scene (as opposed to scattered throughout the movie like I’d feared it would be), and surprisingly enough, was actually done very well. Now don’t get me wrong, the movie was still pretty much just another video game movie (certainly not in the league of Resident Evil or Mortal Kombat), but at the same time it was no Alone in the Dark or Super Mario Bros. or Double Dragon or Street Fighter (the Japanese anime of this is SO much better than the lame live action version starring Jean-Claude Van Damme). The list goes on and on (it’s amazing how many really, really bad video game adaptations there are out there – it's a wonder that they keep making them).

The Rock does a passable job (though not his best performance by any means), and Karl Urban is great like always (I hope to see him in many more movies, so I was very pleased to see that it's got two movies coming out this year). All in all it wasn’t too bad a movie. Nothing spectacular, and I’m in no hurry at all to pick it up on DVD, but I am glad that I saw it at the theater. It could have been a lot worse, that’s for sure.

The final movie of October that I saw was the very non-horror movie The Legend of Zorro. If I wasn’t so far behind in my entries I might take the time to talk about this one in a little more depth, but as it is I think I’ll just give it a quick once over. It wasn’t bad, and I’m glad I went and saw it (if for no other reason than because Catherine Zeta-Jones is just so damned beautiful and fun to watch), but the original was a hell of a lot better (I think the sequel really suffered from the lack of Anthony Hopkins, for one, and for another the script was just really weak, especially when compared to the first film). I’ll probably pick it up on DVD eventually just because I’ve got the first one, but it’s not one I’m in a hurry to get.

Which takes us right on into November, and the beginning of the holiday season! The first movie I saw in November (believe it or not) was the animated family film Chicken Little (I went with some friends who have a couple of little kids – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!). Surprisingly, this was actually a really cute film, much better than I expected. I was a little surprised at how badly the critics hammered the movie, but only a little (we all know how clueless the critics are when it comes to reviewing anything not vying for Oscar attention). I was also very surprised when I looked up the movie on imdb to discover that the voice of Chicken Little was done by Zack Braff from Scrubs (a very talented and funny actor). I highly recommend this one to anyone with kids.

The next weekend another family movie came out – Zathura. It’s one I thought about seeing (since I really like Jumanji), but just never got around to it. It’s out on DVD now, so I’ll hopefully I’ll catch it on one of the movie channels here soon. But considering the lukewarm reviews it got, I’m not in too big of a hurry.

The last film I saw in November was the first of the big holiday releases for 2005 – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And I have to say, this film completely redeems the series after the fiasco that was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (I guess it just goes to show what a difference it makes when you have a British director in charge of a movie based on a British story – not to mention how much of an improvement the script was over the third film). Maybe it’s just because it’s been longer since I read the stories than when I watched the third movie (although I am re-reading the books now), but I didn’t notice nearly as much missing from the fourth movie as the third. But then again, the third movie had so many glaring holes and so much important information missing that it was downright disgusting.

The critics for the most part are calling it the best of the series, but then again, they were saying the same damned things about the previous one, which was far and away the WORST of the series. One critic (and I won't name names) actually had the audacity to say that this one wasn't any better than the third one. Yeah, right! This would be why I generally pay no attention to movie critics – more times than not their reviews are simply proof that they have no clue what they're talking about.

But back to the subject at hand. Harry Potter 4 was just incredible. I saw it at the theatre twice, and wanted to see it again, but there were too many other movies coming out that I needed to see. The visual effects are stunning as usual, but unlike the previous film, the director isn’t so focused on the special effects that they negatively overshadow the story (in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I REALLY didn’t like Harry Potter 3 – I do own it on DVD, just to keep the series complete, but I was really, really disappointed with how it turned out). Watching the actors and characters mature has been very enjoyable, and the filmmakers did a great job with this one in showing the characters’ struggles as they enter adolescence. And considering how long the fourth book is, they did a spectacular job of streamlining the story to fit into a single film, without sacrificing the essential aspects of the book. I had originally figured they’d have to do this book (and the next one) as two movies in order to possibly get everything in that they’d need, but they did a surprisingly good job of condensing it into one film. Let’s just hope the fifth movie does as good a job with what is by far the longest book in the series.

Well, that about does it for fall of 2005, so I think I’ll call this entry complete. Next up will be December, and the big holiday blockbusters of 2005.

Finally finished with September! :-|

Okay, so more and more it’s looking like I’m not likely to ever get caught up with my entries, so it’s time to jump forward and get current. So instead of reviewing all the movies I’ve seen September – January, I’m just going to hit the big movies of the last several months that impressed me enough to comment on them. Along the way I may just touch on other movies (enough to say that I watched them and whether I liked them or not), but that’s about it. So on with the show!

September brought quite a few movies that I didn’t get around to seeing, and several that were disappointing. However, the end of the month brought one of my absolute favorite movies of the year – Serenity. So here’s a quick rundown of the rest of the month:

Transporter 2 – You just gotta love Jason Statham. He is such a kick ass action star. He is so much more fun to watch than Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Steven Seagal. His martial arts style is amazing to watch. Sadly this movie is a little too over the top in spots, and so it’s not as good as the original, but it’s still really fun. Great popcorn movie.

Into the Blue – Jessica Alba looking amazingly sexy in a bikini for an hour and a half. What more needs to be said?

Flightplan – Much as I like Jodi Foster as an actress, this was a very mediocre and predictable film. I wasn’t impressed with this one at all. Panic Room was so much better.

A History of Violence – It stuns me that this film is not only receiving award nominations, but actually winning awards (mostly in Canada, where the director is from – go figure)! This movie was such a disappointment. I’m as big a fan of sex and violence in movies as anyone, but this movie is the definition of “gratuitous.” Okay, so maybe the director was trying to make a statement about the gratuitous sex and violence that’s rampant in our entertainment and our society (that’s what all those idiotic movie critics out there seemed to think). If so, his big, bold statement was lost on me. All I saw was a movie filled with sex, nudity, and violent murder strictly for their own sake. But my bigger complaint goes to story. Being a writer of sorts, I love a good story. As a wannabe filmmaker, I also understand the nature of a good film script – keep the story moving forward, keep the pace steady. Here we have a movie that’s only 96 minutes long (so there’s not much story there to begin with), and yet I repeatedly saw scenes that in my mind had no point being in the movie. They were extraneous distractions that could have easily been removed with no negative impact on the story flow at all. Which leaves you with probably less than an hour of actual relevant scenes. I’m sorry, but if I’m looking for an hour’s worth of nudity and mob violence, I can watch an episode of The Sopranos – and I’m pretty much guaranteed a hell of a lot better story than what I saw in A History of Violence. So my recommendation – if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t waste your time.

Which brings me to the climax of September, the best science fiction movie of 2005 (and easily one of the best overall movies of 2005) – Serenity!! Now, I do have to make one admission – this movie is very much the end cap to the series Firefly, and if you haven’t seen the TV show, then you’re not going to enjoy the movie as much. From an objective perspective (well, as much as I can be objective, considering that I’m a HUGE fan of the show), I would have to say that as a general sci-fi movie, just on it’s own, Serenity is only a pretty good movie (but still very worth seeing). It only becomes a truly great movie when you factor in the character and story development from the series that preceded it. As the theatrical finale to the show, the movie truly shines.

This is probably not going to surprise anyone, but I just can’t help myself – I have to compare Serenity with the other two big sci-fi films that were released this summer: Star Wars Episode III and War of the Worlds (and I have to smile and say that for once the critics and I agree – they also generally feel that Serenity is the better movie over Episode III, and that George Lucas could learn a thing or two from Joss Whedon). Primarily because of who was involved in the making those other two movies (at least as far as I’m concerned), both of them did blockbuster numbers and were huge successes at the box office, while Serenity was a disappointment, to say the least. Which is a shame considering that the first of those other two movies was bad, while the other was downright horrible (I’ve actually read reviews talking about how good War of the Worlds was, which just floors me – what the hell movie were THEY watching?! Obviously there are a few critics out there that figure Steven Spielberg and/or Tom Cruise can do no wrong. Well, sadly they are seriously mistaken). While Serenity had neither the big budget nor massive fan base of the other two movies, it had one thing going for it in spades that the other two films were completely lacking in – a well written script with great dialogue (I’m sorry, but some of the dialogue in Episode III was just painful, and the weak performances that delivered said dialogue certainly didn’t help). Whatever else you may say about Joss Whedon, he is above all the master of fun, engaging, memorable dialogue.

The visual effects aren’t nearly as high-end as those in Star Wars (or War of the Worlds, as far as that goes), but they do justice to the story, which is what really counts, since that’s what they’re there for (George Lucas has a weakness for getting overly focused on the visual effects that I feel hurts his films – a habit that sadly it seems Peter Jackson is developing, but I’ll go more into that once I get to my King Kong review). It’s nice to see the occasional sci-fi movie that has a more lo-tech feel to its technology, as opposed to the shiny, glossy, super-sophisticated hi-tech that’s so common in most science fiction (this was one of the things I loved about Wing Commander, a very highly underrated sci-fi movie in my opinion).

Joss Whedon is just such a master storyteller. His characters have depth and personality, his stories are well thought out, and he combines drama and humor and action and emotional depth together into a compelling tapestry probably better than any writer/director I’ve seen (although I’m sure there are plenty of independent filmmakers out there that are as good; sadly I just seem to watch a lot more Hollywood films than independent films, and I don’t think I’ll get much argument from people about Hollywood’s serious lack of creativity and storytelling ability these days. I mean, my God, just how many sequels, remakes, and movie versions of TV shows can they pump out?).

Well, I think that’s about it. I think I’ve written enough to make it pretty obvious how I feel about Serenity. Bottom line – if you’re a fan of the show, this is a must-see movie without question. If you’re not, but you like well-written, well-acted sci-fi, then this movie is still worth checking out (but maybe not must-see). Of course, if you haven’t seen the original show, I highly recommend it. It is just a fantastic series (it’s just a shame that it aired on Fox, who completely bungled it from word go – not airing the episodes in order, putting it in a lousy time slot, basically giving it no support whatsoever. But that’s a totally different discussion that I could go on about at length, so I’ll just stop now). So until next time (and God knows when that’ll be), take life easy, and make sure to support your local Cineplex.

Movies from August (only 4 months behind!!)

The month of August saw a slew of new movies hitting the big screen. Following The Dukes of Hazzard, the second weekend of August brought us four, count them four, new movies to theatres (of which I managed to see three – the fourth being Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, which I had no interest in seeing). The three movies that I did see that weekend were: Four Brothers, The Great Raid, and The Skeleton Key. All were surprisingly good movies. So let’s get started with Four Brothers. This is the story of four former juvenile delinquents, all of whom had been adopted by the same woman. Having grown up and gone their separate ways, they are reunited when their foster mother is murdered. They band together to track down and kill the men responsible. Pretty much a straight-forward revenge movie.

Now I’ve only seen a few of John Singleton’s other movies, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the films of his that I have seen, going all the way back to his first film, Boyz n the Hood (I was also excited to see when I looked him up on imdb that he’s scheduled to direct a Luke Cage movie – be interesting to see who they cast in the title role). As far as the stars go, all give solid performances. Mark Wahlberg does a really good job as always, and Andre Benjamin continues to impress me with his acting skills. The story is pretty straight-forward, but it is paced well and makes for a good show. It’s not Oscar material by any stretch of the imagination, nor would I call it summer blockbuster material, but for what it is, it was very enjoyable. Well worth the price of a matinee ticket.

The Skeleton Key really surprised me. Not only was it better than I expected it to be, but the story had a few more twists to it than I expected (the ending is absolutely killer!!!). And the fact that it stars the very talented and very sexy Kate Hudson certainly doesn’t hurt it any, either. And it’s not yet another PG-13 spooky ghost story film (like all the recent films we’ve seen hit theatres inspired by the success of various Japanese horror movie remakes). Not that I have anything against those sorts of films, mind you. On the contrary, I think I’ve seen pretty much every one of them that’s come out, and enjoyed pretty much all of them. But every now and then it’s nice to have a change, and The Skeleton Key provides that. It’s much more suspense thriller than it is horror movie, and it should keep you guessing right up until the end. On the down side, it’s one of those movies that once you know the big secret and know how it all turns out, it’s hard to convince yourself to see it again (which is while it’ll probably be awhile before I bother getting it on DVD). But if you like spooky movies about voodoo, or just enjoy watching Kate Hudson, I would highly recommend renting this one.

As much as I’ve never been a fan of Benjamin Bratt’s (although E-Ring is quickly starting to change my mind on that score), I had to go see The Great Raid at the theatre simply because I love war movies, especially World War II movies. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one, since I’d barely seen any previews for it, but I’ve always been of the opinion that even a mediocre WWII movie is usually still a pretty enjoyable movie. And The Great Raid certainly didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t at all what I expected, but at the same time it was so much better than I could have imagined. The most surprising thing about the movie (and something I’m sure will disappoint anyone who’s a big fan of the big budget, action-packed war movies of recent years) is how slowly it moves, and how little action is in it. As a matter of fact, the 132-minute film only has one big battle scene, and that is the titular raid on a Japanese POW camp that is the climax of the film. Up until then it is very much a drama, made up of three separate but connected stories – that of the prisoners in the camp, the soldiers planning to free them, and a woman working with the local resistance to try and get medicine to the prisoners (who also happens to be in love with one of them).

The film goes back and forth between all three stories, slowly developing the characters and building the drama and tension as the woman tries not to get caught by the Japanese and the prisoners fight to stay alive and the soldiers overcome obstacles and delays to get to their goal. It’s hard to describe it all without doing a play-by-play of the film (which I’d rather not do – you’re better off going and seeing the movie for yourself). The bottom line, though, is that I found myself completely drawn into these people’s stories and completely swept up in the events leading up to the raid. It was just an incredibly good film, and one I will definitely be buying on DVD.

The next weekend in August brought only one movie I had any interest in seeing – Wes Craven’s Red Eye. Now I have to admit, after the horrible waste of celluloid that was Cursed (when a movie is so bad that even getting to watch Christina Ricci, Shannon Elizabeth, and Portia de Rossi for an hour and a half isn’t worth the five bucks you spent on the ticket, you know it’s a crappy movie), I was somewhat concerned about whether or not Red Eye was going to be any good. But the trailers looked intriguing, and it looked to be a suspense thriller as opposed to a horror film, so I decided to give it a shot. And I was in no way disappointed. This was just an all around really enjoyable movie. Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy both give tremendous performances. Yes, like most thrillers, there are definitely scenes that push believability, and some of the actions of the characters defy logic, but that’s to be expected. The movie does a great job of keeping the tension up and keeping you on the edge of your seat, and that’s what counts. And this is one that I thinks is worth seeing more than once (although I want to rent it/catch it on TV before I actually buy the DVD, since I don't know how well this one will hold up to repeated viewings).

The final movie of August that I saw (which is just now being released on DVD) was The Brothers Grimm. Now first off, I must say that I’ve always been a fan of Terry Gilliam. He’s put out some wonderful, bizarre, surreal films that are just fun to watch. And The Brothers Grimm fits in well with the rest of his pictures. Sadly, it is far from his best movie, but it’s still fun to watch. I especially enjoyed how he took so many different fairy tales and merged them all together (although I think it pushed it a bit with the Gingerbread Man). The visuals are all pretty good, and the story is okay (but not great). I’d say if you like Terry Gilliam, or enjoy fun, goofy fantasy films, this one’s worth checking out (although I’d definitely recommend renting it before I bought it).

And that about does it for August. Next up, September, featuring one of my absolute favorite movies of the year, Serenity!! But, that will have to wait for another entry. And hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll start putting together my best/worst lists of 2005 (because you know you just gotta do those!). :-)

Blogging in Arkansas

This week's blog comes to you from Camp Robinson, AR (just outside of North Little Rock), where I am attending a one week course for work. But since I've got a laptop and Internet access, I'm not going to let that stop me from getting my blog out! :-]

So the final two weekends in July brought us 3 more movies that I deemed worthy of spending my hard-earned dollars on – The Island, followed the next weekend by Sky High and Stealth. The Island, sadly, was quite a disappointment (not nearly as much as previous lame summer movies, but still not nearly as good as I’d hoped it would be). Being a Michael Bay movie, you have to expect that the story is going to play second fiddle to the action and explosions and special effects. That’s just a given. But that being said, The Island’s story is still so weak and full of holes that it really takes away from the movie. I’m as willing as anyone to turn my brain off for a little mindless summer movie eye candy, but I’d still like a basically believable story. Especially when I’m watching a sci-fi movie (and despite what critics of the genre might think, YES, you can have a sci-fi/fantasy film that has a believable story – there is a difference between a believable story and a realistic, true-to-life story). And while the action scenes are fun to watch, they’re no different from any other of a dozen action movies that have come out over the years (many of them directed by Michael Bay, and most of them done better). The critics hammered it like they do most of his movies, but in this particular case I can’t really bring myself to disagree with them (although most of them hated it much more than I did). Scarlett Johansson (who I was very surprised to see in Home Alone 3, which I watched on HBO Family last night because there wasn't much else on and there's not a whole lot else to do in a hotel) and Ewan McGregor are both fun to watch, but they didn't really seem to have much chemistry between them, and just can’t save this lackluster film. To be honest, I actually much more enjoyed the performances of Sean Bean and Djimon Hounsou as secondary characters than I did the performances of the main characters.

The last weekend of July brought a couple of better movies (although not necessarily great movies). The first was Stealth. While the story was a little preposterous, it was a whole lot more believable and well thought out than The Island was. Though hardly the best movie to come out this year, it was still fun to watch. I haven’t decided yet if it’s worth buying on DVD – probably be one I pick up when I can get it on sale (I passed on it when it first came out, so it'll probably be awhile before I pick it up).

The other movie that came out this weekend was Sky High. This was a fun movie. I really, really enjoyed this movie, quite a bit more than I thought I would. Sadly it’s been long enough since I’ve seen it, though, that I can’t remember all the specifics of the movie that I’d like to talk about, so a fuller review will have to wait. I picked it up on DVD right before I came down here to Arkansas, so once I get home and get a chance to watch it, I'll do a fuller review of the movie.

And so we come to August. The first movie of August was one that looked like it was going to be pretty stupid, but was one I just had to see regardless – The Dukes of Hazzard. And much to my surprise, it was actually good! Not great, mind you, not even really good. But still all in all an enjoyable movie. What impressed (and surprised) me the most was how many things it pulled from the original series. Naturally all of the characters from the show were there, and the General Lee (of course), and even the exploding dynamite arrows. And of course the car chases and unbelievable jumps with the General Lee were still there. But they also had the narration just like the original show, and even the brief moments where the scene was frozen and the narrator would make some goofy comment (like the show always did right before it went to commercial). I thought little touches like this were just great. And while I still say Daisy Duke has no business being a blonde, I have to admit that Jessica Simpson did a pretty good job with the role (and looked damned, damned fine doing it!!).

My biggest complaint about the movie would have to be the characters of Bo and Luke, which sadly were way too over-the-top and really not at all true to the original show. Luke Duke was the worst. The way they made his character not only completely stupid, but seemingly in love/lust with the General Lee, was just sad and lame and wrong. This is one of the big things that made the movie go from really good to just pretty good. So while I enjoyed it, I also think with a few minor changes it could have been a lot better. But still, all in all it made for a fun summer popcorn movie. Regardless of what the critics thought (of course they hated it, but that’s the reaction the critics always have to dumb, goofy comedies. All I can say to them is – get a sense of humor already, for crying out loud!!), I have to say that it was worth the $5 I spent to go see it.

Well I think that’s about enough for this entry. I’ll cover the rest of August next time out. Until then, my dear readers! :)