If the title doesn’t already spark interest, then this movie is not for you.  To sum it up this is a movie about a very angry man who really likes carrots, an infant, a lactating prostitute, and a smarty-pants bad guy who spouts really bad one-liners and seems to have an infinite number of henchman who can’t fire straight.  “Shoot ‘Em Up” feels more like we are watching someone play a first person shooter from a third person perspective.  The plot is a throw away mcguffin — an excuse to see this angry man in action.  The action is great!  The guns are like hand cannons and the action scenarios they come up with are ingenious — sorta like an adult version of “Home Alone.”  The weird thing, though, is at its heart this is an anti-gun movie.  Go figure ???  For the most part I was comfortable with violence because it really seems cartoony (helped by the overall CG effect that makes everything look gritty and contrasty).  Toward the end, though, there is a torture scene that doesn’t involve guns that really bothered me.  All in all, this a film that so incredibly bad that it’s incredibly good.  Still, I want to stress that if the title doesn’t spark interest for you, then don’t see this movie.  For those who think “Shoot ‘Em Up” sounds like the thing to see, then go.  You will be pleasantly surprised and most likely leave the theater with a big smile plastered across your face.  I was definitely smiling.

“3:10 to Yuma” next week as my Saturday night was highjacked by parents who lured us with free steak dinners — SWEET.  We’re still enjoying the leftovers.

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Other thoughts on the movie: 

1.  Big gaming influence was felt will watching this.  There were clear scenes of gameplay interlaced with cut-scenes in which the talking took place.  The “player” also looted the fallen for guns and ammo, just like a video game.

2.  The studio set about generating buzz for this movie at Comic Con.  To get funding, the movie producer/director (somebody) drew 15-mins of animation to show the action involved — to heck with the story.  Like movies before it, the making-off film was used on TV and the internet to generate buzz.  It also used its “not a studio” film cache to try to appeal to the nerdy Comic Con types.  This felt vary much like last year’s “300” advertising campaign were the buzz was so great that people had also declared this the best film of the year before they even saw it.  (BTW: This isn’t the best film of the year in my opinion.)

3.  In movie advertising?  As some of you may know, Clive Owen is the driver from Guy Ritchie’s BMW films, a series of short films that were all around the Internet a little while back.  The car chase scenes featured BMW too, so I wonder if this was intentional advertisement paid for by BMW, an homage to the BMW films, or pure coincidence.

“The Simpsons Movie” is just that — The Simpsons on the big screen for about 90-minutes.  This is a very good movie, in general, so fans and people who are not so familiar with The Simpsons will enjoy this alike.  I don’t want to give away any of the story — not that there’s much to give away — so I’ll sorta dance around it.  Anyhow, all of The Simpsons characters you know and love show up at some point.  The story itself is standard Simpsons — a pretty simple story strung together with one-liners, sight gags, and the occasional moments of sweetness.  I caught more of the humor than my husband and the guy sitting next to me was giggling through the entire movie (he must have been a real fan of the show).  Should you bring children to this movie, well, most of the adult jokes will fly right over their heads.  However there is some Bart nudity, so it you aren’t comfortable with that sort of thing, then don’t take your children. 

If you do see the movie, hang around and watch the credits because there are some funny things to be seen and, for those of you into music, there’s a nice accapella rendition of “Spider Pig” and variations of the Simpson’s Movie theme done in the style of Copeland and Prokopriev (spelling?), with a little quote from La Mer.  I was intriqued.  I wonder if others will hear other styles, since I didn’t really pick up on it until well into the credits string.

Anyhow, I recommend the movie and for a snack get some nasty nachos. 🙂

Harry Potter is back for his fifth year at Hogwarts and he angry, brooding, and apparently lifting weights in his spare time.  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is quite good.  I don’t know how true it is to the novel, since I haven’t gotten past the first few pages of the novel myself (Dursley nonsense kinda put me off on reading further).  Anyhow, the pacing is good and the film has “grown-up”, so to speak, along with the characters.  This is dark and dreary movie both in scenery and costume and it adds to the impended turn for the worse at the end of the movie.  Daniel Radcliff is turning into quite a good actor and brings forth well the conflict and frustration within the Harry Potter character.  The story and the character of Harry Potter are getting more interesting and, in a way, I was reminded of Star Wars and the way we were cheated out of a good downfall story for Anakin Skywalker — that is to say, the Harry Potter story, so far, could be a compelling tale of how a good kid goes very very bad.

Anyway, the movie was well worth my $9 and lost sleep due to the midnight start time last night.  By the way it was very fun to see the movie at midnight with all the Harry Potter fanatics.  A good portion of the audience was in costume and my local theather was kind enough to open more theater houses than they sold tickets for so nobody got a bad seat.  The audience was very lively which heightened the movie going experience.

Willis!!! Who gave Homer Simpson a gun? Doh! This is worst movie I’ve seen this year. The movie breaks down this way: Crusty and computer illiterate Baby Boomer (Willis) teams up with Gen Y wimpy whiner (Apple Boy) to kick amoral well-dressed egoist gen X ‘s(villain) behind. As you know, all of today’s woes are due to Gen X … blah, blah, blah, a pox upon Gen X … but I digress. There isn’t much of plot, and what plot they had going is undermined by inconsistencies within the scenarios and techno-babble of the highest grade of nonsense I’ve heard in a while. I also wasn’t too fond of the generally negative position taken on the USA and its citizens.  The undertones of and the stereotypes in this movie deeply offended me as an American and as a hopeful person. Anyhow, the action was good, although completely implausible and against the physical laws of the universe. But then again, when physics makes no sense, use your force of will. This is the McClane Doctrine and ultimately the lesson Gen Y must learn. Technology, math, and reason are bad. The way of truth and good are gained through brute force and man’s will.  Sigh … what a sad, sad, movie. I give this 1/5. 1 point for good action (if you can suspend disbelief) and Bruce Willis’ indestructible body and bald head. Long live Willis!

This is 2-hours of the finest giant robot fun on the planet! “Transformers” the movie doesn’t have much of plot and it really doesn’t need one due to its mighty-fine robots and some spectacular special effects. The story is pretty simple: good and evil robots land on Earth and fight to bring a conclusion to their robot war. The robots are agile and clever, and each has their own personality. They are socially awkward, inpatient, and generally act like otakus in high tech gundams suits. The war and fight scenes are riveting and inspired much glee in my husband and myself. We pinched and slapped each other silly. Ahhh, … and then there are the blatant product placements in the movie. GM is sadly hoping this will make us lust after GM cars. Unfortunately, all I lust for after seeing this movie is for some cool toys. There’s big HP, Apple, Nokia, and Panasonic product placements to recall a few. Watch for the cool little guy that transforms into small personal gadgets. He’s quite cutely mischievous. Oh, and lastly, who wouldn’t want to see giant robots destroy LA! WHEEE! I give this movie 4/5 for some mighty fine robots and the destruction of Wilshire Blvd. Fanboys everywhere rejoice!