Reviews

For the last 11 years we've watched people get sliced, decapitated, hung, stabbed, impaled, and blown up, among other things, in the Final Destination series. What else could they possibly do in a 5th movie? Like the first four movies we get someone who has a vision of a horrible accident about to happen and then rescues his friends, and possibly other, from the situation only to have death hunt them down and try to finish what he started. This time around we have Sam played by Fired Up's Nicholas D'Agosto. He sees that him and his friends are supposed to die in a horrific bridge collapse, but safely gets a handful of his friends off their bus before it happens. Along for the ride are The Walking Dead's Emma Bell, Tom Cruise look-a-like Miles Fisher, the Friday the 13th remake's Arlen Escarpeta, Anchorman's David Koechner, and a slew of people you've probably never seen before. As the movie progresses one by one they start to die in the order they would have in the accident they all avoided. Once they learn that death is out to get them they try to do whatever they can to avoid death once more.

In more ways than not this is exactly like the first four movie. Same set-up, characters you don't care about, bad acting, death's pattern is the same, etc. They do try and bring back what made the first two movies in the franchise entertaining and fun but they don't end up executing it well enough. A lot of the deaths still feel very cartoonish because of the heavy CGI on most of them and the 3D adds nothing to any of the deaths.

They do try to add some small things that differ from the previous movies. For instance, if you kill someone who wasn't already supposed to die then that would cancel out your death and you'd be off the hook. Also what they do with the ending I thought was very creative. I won't spoil anything but they do find a nice way to tie in this movie with the first movie. While I did like the ending I did not like the, literally, last two minutes of the movie because they go out of their way to do something that is just even more ridiculous than most of the deaths in the movie.

As far as the acting goes your not going to find anyone here who is giving a good performance. All of the kids are mostly hamming it up every second their on camera and David Koechner is clearly there just for the comic relief. We get a pointless character in an agent, played by Courtney B. Vance, who is interested in finding out what is happening to these people that survived the bridge accident. Tony Todd makes a cameo appearance that isn't much but he at least tries in his very short amount of screen time.

The deaths I found to be pretty weak. They actually started off great with the first death but then turned into great build-ups and then blowing it on the actual death. Most of the deaths don't look too good either because they are all CG and it just makes them look too unreal. Had they at least maybe tried to use some practical effects I think the deaths would have had more impact that just looking like a cartoon.

All in all this movie does have some entertaining moments and the ending, except for the final two minutes, is done really well. It's not as good as the first two movies in the franchise but it definitely beats part three, and is leagues better than part four.

Rating: 5.5/10

It's 2011 and here we have yet another Planet of the Apes movie. But could this one actually be incredibly good?

With this Ape movie we get James Franco playing Will Rodman, he works for a company that is trying to use apes to make a new drug that will possibly cure Alzheimer's. After his main test subject is killed, he finds out it had a baby which is now without a home. He ends up bringing the ape, Caesar, into his home where he lives with his father (John Lithgow) who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Over the years they all bond and become a happy family, teaching Caesar humanly traits and how to be a kind loving person. An incident happens involving a neighbor and Caesar is sent to live in a facility run by Brian Cox and his son played by Tom Felton. While living there he would have the chance to interact with other apes, which he has never had the chance to do before. Over time he is mistreated by the people who run the facility and has given up hope of Will ever coming to his rescue, so he uses he knowledge to get the other apes on his side and eventually break out and dominate the humans.

This movie really took me, and I'm sure most people, by surprise. The last Planet of the Apes movie we got was the 2001 Tim Burton remake that was all around ridiculous. With this movie, we get a new take on how the apes came to be almost human and tried to take over and it all works out quite well. It's always great to see that some people can still make a prequel, remake, or sequel and it actually be really good.

While James Franco does a great job in the lead role here the real star is Caesar, who is played by Andy Serkis in the same way he played King Kong and Gollum. Every movement and action Caesar makes all looks as real as can be and it makes you actually believe there's an ape on screen doing human activities. John Lithgow also provides a good performance in the movie as well. The rest of the cast is fine but most of their characters are mostly one dimensional, especially a character played by Slumdog Millionaire's Frieda Pinto who is sort of the love interest for Franco's character.

As far as the visuals for this movie go, they are pretty stunning. All the apes, gorillas, and orangutangs look as real as they can be. Director Rupert Wyatt really lets us get a feel for this animals and shows us that they are just like humans in a lot of ways. He also gives us characters we can care about like Will, his father, and especially Caesar.

The summer movie season this year has been pretty good I would say, but they were definitely saving one of the best for last to end the summer on a very high note.

Rating: 8.5/10

Kristen Wiig is without a doubt one of the best members of the Saturday Night Live cast. She's had some moderate success in movies so far with supporting roles in Paul, Whip It, and a very small role in the comedy Date Night. I've been wanting to see her get a starring role for quite sometime now, but does it end up being good or not? In Bridesmaids, Annie (Kristen Wiig) is picked to be the maid of honor by her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Annie and Lillian have been best friends since they were young and Annie, getting to be her best friends maid of honor, should be lots of fun and a time to make some great memories right? Wrong. Once Annie gets introduced to another member of the bridal party Helen (Rose Byrne), all hell breaks loose between them. We get the two of them bickering throughout the majority of the movie and trying to one up each other to show Lillian how much better they are than one another. Along for the ride is the rest of the bridal party played by the likes of Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper from The Office, and Melissa McCarthy, who ends up stealing the entire movie.

There is also a subplot involving Annie and a police officer played by Chris O'Dowd. While a few of the scenes between them feel unnecessary, O'Dowd comes off as sweet and funny in the nice guy role. Another subplot involves Mad Men's Jon Hamm but he feels underused and surprisingly isn't very funny in his role. One problem that I have with this movie is the back and forth with Wiig and Byrne. While both women are good in their roles the scenes where they try to one up each other just come off as annoying and make their characters, especially Bryne's, unlikeable.

All in all, the movie ends up being quite hilarious overall. Wiig shows that she can be a leading lady in a comedy. Maya Rudolph continues to show off her comedic chops time and time again and we get a breakout star in Melissa McCarthy.

Other than a scene involving gross-out humor the movie is a funny, raunchy, and sometimes sweet comedy that pretty much all women, and even a good bit of men are sure, to enjoy.

Rating: 7.5/10

When it comes to Marvel Studios, they really know how to put well made movies together. Better yet they know how to adapt them from their source material and make them into entertaining, humorous, and action packed movies. They started with surprisingly great Iron Man, then went on to make an improved Incredible Hulk movie than the 2003 Ang Lee version, and last year they put out, the not quite as good as the first but still enjoyable, Iron Man 2. Now this year we get to Thor, and in July Captain America.

Thor might not be as well known as Spider-man or even Iron Man, but once audiences check out his movie he will definitely be known. He is the God of thunder, son of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and he's played by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth. When his father banishes him to Earth he meets a girl named Jane (Natalie Portman) and her research team which consists of Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard. While on Earth, his father falls into a deep coma allowing his brother Loki (Tom Hiddelston) to be King and force his ways on everyone in Asgard. All the while Thor must find his mighty hammer, for it holds great power.

Throughout the movie we get lots of action sequences, some laugh out loud moments, and even some well played out drama that works mainly because of the chemistry between Hemsowrth and Portman. Kenneth Branagh has put together a movie most thought wouldn't work well or fit in well with the other characters in the Avengers since Thor is a Norse God and isn't from Earth. So it's a good thing they were able to make such an enjoyable movie out of his character otherwise he could have brought down the Avengers in a way.

One of the problems a lot of people had with Iron Man 2 was the fact that they tried way too hard to put in little hints at the Avengers whenever they could. In the end it felt it was just too many and the majority were not needed. With Thor, they handle all the Avengers mentions quite well. Other than a scene after the credits with Samuel L. Jackson back as Nick Fury, we also get Jeremy Renner showing us a little of his character Hawkeye who will be in the Avengers, as well as Clark Gregg back as Agent Coulson who works for S.H.I.E.L.D.

All in all I would say definitely go out and see Thor while it's in the theater. It's a great summer popcorn film that the whole family should be able to enjoy.

Rating: 8/10

The Hangover was a surprise hit in 2009 that went on to be not only a critically acclaimed film, but also a huge box office success. The Hangover Part 2 is exactly the same movie except this one takes place in Bangkok, and isn't nearly as good or as funny as the first film.

This time around Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married and they're having the wedding in Thailand, which is his future wife's home country. Coming back along with him we have bad boy Phil (Bradley Cooper), the groom from the previous movie Doug (Justin Barth), and the person who practically stole the entire first movie, Alan (Zach Galafianakis). Once in Thailand we meet a slew of new characters who really don't ever seem to matter all that much and eventually we get to the next day and where the movie turns into an exact copy of the first one.

Why the writers and director thought essentially remaking the first movie would be good is beyond me. Other than they figured it would make a ton of money regardless of how they made it. But to make almost exact scenes over again is just ridiculous. The gang loses one of their own again but this time it isn't Doug, it's Stu's soon to be brother-in-law Teddy. They wake up and have no idea as to what happened the previous night and have to go on another wild adventure to try and figure out everything that happened, only this time it doesn't seem nearly as interesting.

They even go as far as to bring back characters from the first movie that have no business even being in this one. Ken Jeong comes back as Mr. Chow and while he was one of the few funny characters, he really served no purpose in being there. Mike Tyson also comes back for another cameo, singing once again. Only this time it feels like it was just crammed in because he was in the last one and had a really great cameo. In this movie it's just unnecessary and makes you wish he didn't show up.

Our main characters this time around aren't even as funny as they were before. Alan just seems almost too outrageous and crazy, Stu freaks out every moment of the movie and Phil is just kind of there throughout. There were about two times that I actually laughed out loud and another few times where I got some chuckles but that was pretty much it.

All in all, this movie felt like it was made just to cash in on the very successful first movie and they ended up just remaking the first one only this time it wasn't nearly as good.

Rating: 4/10