Eagle Eye

Release Date: September 26th, 2008

Click here for the Eagle Eye Trailer.

In the mood for a technological action movie? Eagle Eye stars Shia LeBeouf(Transformers, Disturbia) as Jerry Shaw, a very smart guy who had multiple opportunities to go to top notch schools but decided that college was not for him. He spends his days working at the Copy Cabana trying to make rent and playing poker in the copy store supply room with his buddies. When Jerry finds out that is identical military twin brother was tragically killed in a car accident, Jerry's world gets turned upside down. When he arrives back at his apartment he finds it jam packed with boxes containing military weapons, bombs, passports, documents and basically everything needed to make Jerry Shaw look like a terrorist. When he receives a mysterious phone call telling him that he has been "activated" and that the F.B.I was on its way to take him in, Jerry is thrown into a dangerous game of Simon says. With the help of another "activated" woman, Rachel Holloman, played by actress Michelle Monoghan. The two of them forge an alliance when they realize they will have to work together or face extreme danger for themselves and their families if they disobey the mysterious woman that seems to know every move they make, wherever and whenever they make it.

I was excited about this movie when I saw the previews for it. I like Shia LaBeouf, I think he's a good actor who can handle serious roles. Add in Rosario Dawson and the ever popular Billy Bob Thorton and you have a cast that could make for a good movie. The film was never short on action and it kept me guessing the entire time, wondering "Who is this mysterious woman?" and "how does she know every move they make even when they are in the middle of nowhere?" The suspense was good and it kept you drawn into the movie. But, I was slightly disappointed when I figured out that the mysterious woman on the phone was actually a United states super computer hooked into everything technology related in the country. Although, I did not hate the idea of this computer taking on life-like characteristics and operating on its own. It was something that has not been done a lot in movies and something that most people would not think about.

Overall I liked Eagle Eye. LaBeouf gave a good performance as did Thorton, Dawson, and Monoghan. The premise was interesting, even though I was hoping for some type of organization to be behind it all. In the end I give Eagle Eye 8 Crazy Super Computers out of 10

Lost: Season 5 Premiere

Air Date: January 21st, 2009

Click here for the Lost Season 5 Trailer.

Lost, the show that has given me more frustration, more anticipation, and more enjoyment than any other shown on air. Me, along with a gigantic fan group have been waiting in grueling anticipation for the new season ever since season 4 left us with the impact that it did. Now, even though Lost is a t.v. show, it's one hour recap episode paired with it's 2 hour premiere lasted longer than most movies do, but it was totally worth it.

In case you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years here is the down low on Lost: A passenger jet crashes in the South Pacific on its way from Sydney to Las Angelas and a group of 72 people survive and make camp on a seemingly deserted tropical island. When hope of rescue grows dim, the survivors come to terms with the fact that they are going to need to work together to survive. Then some problems arise, a mysterious creature is terrorizing the island and a mysterious group of island inhabitants known as "The Others", lead by a man named Benjamin Linus, start to make life difficult. With the discovery of a mysterious hatch in the ground and a man that pushes a button every 108 minuets to postpone the end of the world questions arise. Hostilities grow between the survivors and the others and the discovery of the DHARMA Initiative, a group of scientists that built the hatch and many others across the island, is revealed and once again more questions arise. A survivor gets the opportunity to leave, new people show up and things get confusing. The others try to take out the survivors while the survivors try to do the same. One survivor sacrifices himself to save the others and get them rescued but is shocked to find out that the boat they think is there to rescue them is really there to capture Benjamin and kill everybody else. When a mercenary team arrives on the island all hell breaks loose as they casually walk around killing everybody they come across. When Ben deceives them and takes them out he attempts to move the island.

Last season left us with six survivors leaving the island and Benjamin Linus attempting to move the island. The survivors' freighter blows up and they are sent on their way back to the island when suddenly the island disappears! Yeah, the whole freaking island and everyone on it vanishes leaving nothing but ripples in the ocean! Well, the survivors on the helicopter, known as the Oceanic Six, are rescued and attempt to live out their lives until Benjamin returns and tells them all they need to go back to the island, the same island he made disappear. If they don't go back then everyone they left behind will die. Then the season ends leaving you in terrible suspense.

And finally we come to the new season! If any show has ever started a new season with a bang it would be Lost. The new season started with Jack, the previous leader of the survivors and one of the Oceanic 6, at the end of his ropes and trying desperately to return to the island and convincing the other survivors to do the same. Well all seems lost(no pun intended), out steps Benjamin Linus, and, like always, he has a plan. Together, Jack and Ben try to get Hurley and Sayid to go back with them to the island while Kate and Sun try to remain in a normal life. Meanwhile we finally see what happened to the island and its inhabitants. To them, all they experienced was an ultra bright flash of light and a deafening noise. But they quickly realize all is not right when their camp and everything they had is gone. When they question physicist Daniel Faraday he divulges to them that their camp isn't gone, it hasn't been built yet. That's right, when the island was moved it was moved through time, but things got screwed up and instead of staying in one time, the island is like a skipping record. Meaning every so often the island jumps through time. Now the Oceanic six are trying to get back and the survivors are trying to figure out just what really is going on. They answered a few questions with the new season opener and, like always, raised a million questions.

Needless to say I have not been this excited for something in a long time. This season can only bring great things for the show and it's audience.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Release Date: August 1st, 2008

Click here for The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor Trailer.

Ah the Mummy.......one of my favorite action/adventure movies. The first one was great, totally original. The second was good too, good story and action with the right blend of humor. Then some years past and I see the preview for the third Mummy movie entitled "Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". Well naturally I was excited, really excited. I mean Brenden Fraser, mummys, action and when I finally get the movie and watch it I'm filled with disappointment. Which really sucked for me because I had good expectations.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor stars Brendan Fraser as adventurer Rick O'Connell who has done his fair share in mummy disposal. O'Connell and his wife are done with their adventurer days while their son Alex is off excavating mummies of his own. Everything seems okay until the O'Connels are asked to transport a priceless artifact from England to China. While enroute they run into their son and Uncle Jonathon and things get hairy. A Chinese general attempts to steal the artifact and use it to release an acient chinese emperor played by Jet Li. Once again it is the whole O'Connell family aided by the two guardians of a fountain of youth type relic to save the world from ultimate destruction.

My first and foremost problem with this movie is that the character of Evelyn O'Connell is not played by previous actress Rachel Weisz but is instead portrayed by Maria Bello. I absolutley hate it when they have different actors play the same characters in movie installments. It takes away from the previous relationship made with the audience. Secondly, I did not think that Bello had the same spark that Weisz did. Weisz did a much better job as the goofy librarian that is transformed into the hardened adventurer. Another fault in the movie was the fact that Jet Li, whom I was excited to see in the movie, wasn't actually in the movie. For most of the film Li's character was computer generated as a stone statue that walked. It was essentially Li's body covered in stone. Only at the end of the movie did Li have flesh and bone. The acting of the son's character played by Luke Ford was a so-so performance. Evy O'Connell is British and speaks with a heavy british accent and Rick O'Connell is a full blooded American; Alex, naturally, would formulate to one specific accent, english or british. However, Alex did not. He seemed to slide from one accent to the other never really settleing on one.

On a positive note, the movie did have good action sequences. The fighting was well coreagraphed and the mummies did look good. Overall this was an okay movie, one I would probably watch again, but not over and over again like I do the first two, but still worth a rewatch. But it did lack the spice the original two did. I give The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 7 Chinese Mummies out of 10

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Release Date: January 16th, 2009

Click here for the Paul Blart: Mall Cop Trailer.

The first comedy I've seen for the new year and..........I was a little dissapointed. Kevin James plays Paul Blart; a single father from New Jersey who still lives at home with his mom, works as a security guard at the local mall, and wants nothing more than to become a New Jersey State Police Officer. But Blart has one problem, he falls asleep whenever he doesn't get enough sugar in his system.

A 10 year veteran at the mall Blart hasn't had to deal with anymore than a punk kid or a shoplifter. Then one fatefull day some people break in and try to rob the credit card machienes. When Blart is the last one left and he finds out that the bad guys have his dream girl hostage, he goes from lonely security guard to super mall cop and tries to save the day armed only with what wits he has, the best knowledge of the mall, and his trusty segway.

I think Kevin James is a good actor and a funny comedian but, like so many comedies these days, Mall Cop doesn't quite rach the mark. Now when I first saw the previews for this movie I thought "Hey that looks pretty funny." And even though I thought it was a funny movie I still wanted more. This is surprising due to the fact that the movie was produced by Happy Madison, the movie company created by Adam Sandler and the same company that does all of Sandler's movies.

Kevin James was the only main stream name in the movie, except for one or two of what I like to call "The Sandler Gang", these are the guys you can always spot in all of Sandlers movies. But other than that, no one else was really that well known. However all the characters that were in the film were good actors that made their roles believable. I personally did not like the character of Paul Blart's daughter. She was a portly, latino 12 year old whose main purpose in the movie was to add that sweet, tender life time movie aspect that, for me, deters away from the whole comedy aspect because it is trying for a serious sentimental moment. The fact that all the robbers were like professional skate boarders, bmx riders, and free runners was actually pretty cool as they chased Blart through the mall doing all kinds of stunts. The ending threw me a twist, which doesn't happen often for me. I can honestly say that I was surprised.

All in all this movie didn't suck (although my girlfriend thought otherwise). I thought it was a reasonably funny movie but not one that had me rolling or wiping the tears from my eyes. It could of had a little bit more to it. I give Paul Blart: Mall Cop 7 over weight security guards out of 10

Role Models

Release Date: November 7th, 2008

Click here for the Role Models Trailer.

We've all had one. Someone we look up to, admire, and try to be like; a roll model.

Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd star as Wheeler and Danny; two advertising executives for an energy drink company. After a long day of being dumped by his girlfriend, chugging down energy drinks and going from school to school filled with annoying kids Danny has had enough. He hijacks the company minotaur truck and crashes it into a school monument. After some wheeling and dealing from his lawyer ex-girlfriend(Elizabeth Banks), Danny and Wheeler are faced with two options: do some hard time in lock up or serve 150 hours of community service at the judge's favorite place, a big brother/big sister program. Everything sounds good until the two meet their little siblings. Wheeler is faced with a wise cracking, foul mouth fifth grader named Ronnie while Danny gets paired up with Augie(Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Superbad), a shy 16 year old nerd who is obsessed with his fantasy medieval live role playing game, LAIR.

While Wheeler tries to deal with civilizing Ronnie and Danny tries to manly up Augie things go sour. Surrounded by upity do-gooders, ignoring parents, wild partys, an ex-con director for the mentorship program and the looming penalty of jail time if they screw up, Wheeler and Danny just can't seem to get it straight.

I had big laughs during this entire movie! Little sarcastic Ronnie had me rolling with his foul mouth, big attitude, and utter hatred for Wheeler. And I could relate with Augie and his nerd fantasies, and seeing an epic battle played out in a community park with foam swords and cardboard castles couldn't have been any more hilarious. Scott performed good as the party-going, womanizing, adult adolescent. His and Ronnie's characters gelled nicely. As for Judd, his depressed, bitter, angry at life character acted as a wonderful opposite to Mintz-Plasse's down to earth, innocent character.

This movie is sure to please any fan of the loud, foul-language comedy. 8 Role-playing Nerds out of 10

21

Release Date: March 28th, 2008

Click here for the 21 Trailer.

Jim Sturgess is Ben Campbell, a young, brilliant student at M.I.T in Boston who desires nothing more than to transfer to the Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor. Aiming for a scholarship his dreams are crushed when he realizes that is poor, working class background is not sufficient to afford the pricey $300,000 tuition for his four to five year stay at Harvard. Insert Kevin Spacey, who plays unorthodox math professor Mickey Rosa. Mickey introduces Ben into a secret group of brilliant students who Mickey is training in the secret art of counting cards in blackjack. Driven by his financial deficit and his burning desire to get into Harvard, Ben decides to join the team. Drop in Laurence Fishburne as a vengeful casino security manager, jealous team members, and the overcoming power of greed and arrogance and you have a combination sure to please.

21 delivers an intriguing look into card counting and the brilliance behind it. This remarkable true story is a pulse-pounding movie that leaves you wowed during the whole film. Sturgess and Spacey deliver excellent performances and Fishburne makes you scared to try anything remotely close to cheating anywhere near a casino. Sturgess' co-stars all deliver good performances and seem to have a good chemistry about them. I give this movie 8 card counting troublemakers out of 10

Valkyrie

Release Date: December 25th, 2008

Click here for the Valkyrie Trailer.

"Many saw evil. They dared to stop it."

Valkyrie is the story of a brave German resistance group planning to take out Adolf Hitler and ending WWII. The all-star cast lead by Tom Cruise includes Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terrence Stamp, and Eddie Izzard. Tom Cruise is Claus von Stauffenberg, a Colonel in Hitler's army stationed in Africa. Upon an attack by allied air forces Stauffenberg is left wounded and disfigured and questioning the reasons for being in the war and if it really is the best thing for Germany. The movie centers around Cruise's character formulating the most daring act possible, killing Hitler and seizing control of Germany. While not packed with amazing special effects, huge explosions and a frenzy of firefights, Valkyrie does deliver intense action of a different sort. Throughout the entire movie Cruise and the other resistance fighters are engaged in an act of high treason against Hitler and Germany and all face the death penalty if caught. Director Bryan Singer delivers on edge-of-your seat anticipation. Around every turn of the movie left me wandering if they were going to get caught and all the close calls they had during the film is enough to make anybody's heart start pounding.

My only flaw with this movie was the dialect of the characters. The movie takes place in Germany and while you would expect the actors to have German accents they didn't. However this wouldn't be so bad if it was consistent with every character but in the movie some characters spoke with accents while others merely talked as they normally would which for me drew away from the realism of the movie. But all in all Cruise delivers a very believable performance that is very intense and calm showing the true brilliance of the real Claus von Stauffenberg. And Cruise's co-stars perform to their best displaying the true sense of fear, courage, sacrifice, and dedication to their cause that the men needed to pull off one of the most daring assassination attempts in history. I give Valkyrie 9 One handed Nazis out of 10

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Release Date: December 25th, 2008

Click here for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button Trailer.

If you haven't heard of the Curious Case of Benjamin Button then you must never turn on the t.v or read the paper. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett star in this captivating movie centering around life, love, and living a life in reverse, based off of a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Brad Pitt is Benjamin Button, a man who was born under most peculiar circumstances. when Ben was born he had all the physical attributes of an 80 year old man. Arthritis, loss of hearing, loss of eye sight, Alzheimer's, you name it and he's got it. But, unlike everybody else in the world, instead of growing older, Benjamin is growing younger, taking off a year each birthday instead of adding one. Benjamin was left on the doorstep of an elderly home in Louisiana when his father couldn't bare the sight of him. To Benjamin, being old never seemed different to him because everyone he was around him was also old. Nothing extravagant happened for Benjamin until ha found the love of his life, Daisy(Blanchett), whose grandmother is a friend of Benjamin's.

While Ben grows younger and everybody around him grows older Ben goes on a journey that spans different countries, different friends, lifestyles, war, and loss. Nothing compares to what he sees and the extraordinary life he lives.

I surprisingly liked this movie. The previews looked good but I wasn't sure if it would be one of those long boring movies that is really slow and gets nowhere and that is exactly what it wasn't. This movie was among one of the most interesting movies I have ever seen. The story of a man who lives life in reverse is something everybody has thought about and the way they aged and deaged Pitt through the movie was a true masterpiece of today's current technologies.

I really enjoyed the drama between Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. It was truly sad to see that they're love could never last, especially because it was a dying Cate Blanchett who told the story to her daughter on her death bed. At some points Ben was too old and Daisy too young, then they starting getting closer in age. One of the best parts of the movie was the time frame when they're ages met. It was good to see them live the life they should have been able too. Overall this movie truly was spectacular. Its story is unmatched and, not being a huge fan, I think it was Brad Pitt's best performance. The exceptionalism of the movie makes the 2hr and 45min run time worth every second.

I give The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 10 80 year old babies out of 10

Welcome to Movie Reviews by Zack. Ill be reviewing movies as I see them and giving my opinion on what I thought.