I’ve seen a few movies lately that I think are better served as quick hit reviews than one of my full on blabber format.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is based on a comic book of the same name and is expertly directed by Edgar Wright (best known for Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). SP is about a young Canadian man and his trouble with ladies. He starts dating a High School girl and then meets Ramona Flowers who he immediately becomes infatuated with; love at first sight. But she has more than her own baggage in tow! Enter the 7 Evil Exes that Scott must defeat in order to be with Romona. The world of Scott Pilgrim is rooted in video game fantasy. Everyone is a fighting master, super powers aren’t out of the ordinary and there are a ton of video game/anime references. It has a very narrow market (as seen by the box office results) but it’s a really well made movie. I like Michael Cera as Scott, the whole cast is great really. The soundtrack is tops (I’m listening to it now) but I was really impressed by the direction and special FX. Every dime they spent can be seen on screen. The CG is fantastic, the editing and direction are just eye popping, there isn’t a single boring cut in the movie. The fight Choregraphy is some wild shit too! Expertly made, there was a tremendous amount of time and love put into the production. It really looks like a comic book come to life. I dug it more than I thought I would, it’s exciting and pretty funny at parts as well.

Batman: Under The Red Hood is a direct to DVD animated feature. It rocks. A great story that involves Robin and Nightwing that just gets better as it goes a long. I was completely enthralled when the end credits hit. Production values that fit Batman; great animation, fantastic soundtrack, really well written and a tasteful amount of violence. Batman and Joker have new voice actors which I was worried about, but it didn’t take me long to get used to them (John DiMaggio does an incredible Joker laugh). Highly recommended for Batman fans.

The Princess and The Frog– I haven’t seen an animated Disney movie in awhile and this one was pretty good! Loved the animation, there is some crazy set pieces (mostly for the music numbers) with eye popping color work. It takes place in New Orleans so there is Jazz running all over the place which I really enjoyed. The songs are all pretty catchy (Dr. Facilier’s number being my favorite). The story is pretty standard fairy tale fare with a slight twist. Instead of the prince turning back into a man with a kiss, the girl gets turned into a frog which of course leads to a wild journey of danger and self enlightenment with a batch of colorful characters (Raymond the firefly rules). Good times.

It gets pretty redundant to review Pixar movies. They have the best track record of any studio in Hollywood, so it comes down to less of “Is it a good movie?” to “How does it stand next to Pixar’s other movies?” Toy Story 3 stands near the top in my humblest of opinions.

Toy Story was released in 1995, capturing the attention of an entire generation. It put Pixar on the map as an animation super power and that train hasn’t slowed down in 15 years. Toy Story 2 was a tremendous creative and box office success, so there’s a lot of pressure for the last film to close out the trilogy (I honestly hope they keep it at 3). Fear not, the heart and soul is in the script and comes out on screen as we go on another adventure with the gang of toys.

This time Andy is getting ready for college, his childhood coming to close and it looks like the relationship with his childhood toys is as well. Through a mix up, most of the toys (Rex, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Slinky, Buzz) get packed up and sent to a daycare center. Woody springs into action to get his friends back to their home.

What follows is one of the most touching stories I’ve seen in awhile, animated or not. There’s something to it when you feel for an animated Mr. Potato Head. The themes of growing up, friends, family and even death are present. It feels a bit like a life journey in an hour and twenty minutes. But, it treads that careful line of not being preachy or condescending. It’s surprisingly adult though, it gets pretty dark until the happy ending. Who knew a strawberry scented teddy bear could be made into such a villain?

Toy Story 3 has it all, drama, suspense, comedy, thrilling action sequences, great characters that you know and love and a message about life that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

Inception is a breath of fresh air for movies!

Things have been a bit lukewarm at ye old picture house this year. Aside from a select few real great movies (Toy Story 3 comes to mind most recently) people seem to be pretty bored with what Hollywood has served up in the first half of 2010. Enter director: Chris Nolan.

He’s really one of the best filmmakers working today, you just need to look up his name and see his resume. He unleashes something every 2 years or so, slowly baking new ideas with his crew and serving them up when they’re good and ready. Inception is his latest and greatest and judging by other reviews and the box office results, he’s made some very happy viewers.

Inception is a complicated movie. At it’s core, it’s about working in peoples dreams. There’s a way in, you can manipulate the environment, the dreamer, steal ideas and get out. That’s called “Extraction”. “Inception” is the act of planting an idea in someones head. Inception is the difficult task given to Mr. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team.

That’s the gist of it. You won’t get everything in just one viewing, there’s a lot of wild concepts, terminology and just general mind bending stuff at play here. The visuals are incredible, the direction clean and precise, the soundtrack fittingly epic and the cast is just fantastic. Inception is a mix of The Matrix (in terms of sci-fi) and your favorite Jason Bourne/Italian Job type heist movie. I absolutely love the concept of it and the execution of it is just of the highest caliber, we don’t see these kinds of movies out of Hollywood that often. Inception grabbed me hook, line and sinker. I look forward to seeing it again to connect more of the dots.

I think the less you know the better it will be for you. Just know that it’s easily the best movie of the year and enjoy the ride.

I saw Iron Man 2 more than a week ago and I just realized I didn’t write about it.

A well made, average movie. I’m pretty apathetic about it. I’ve never been a fan of the IM character so I really have no expectations for it. Maybe just wanting to see a guy in a robot suit lay down the law in a blaze of glory, of which there is very little of in this movie.

After the 2 hour movie was over, it was left feeling that there wasn’t enough fun stuff between all the talking and Robert Downey Jr. making faces at the camera. There were a lot of cop-outs. I dig Mickey Rourke, but he was barely in it. His whips were really cool, but again, he barely uses them. I have no idea how he survived getting his torse crushed by a 2 ton car either. Tony Stark is a drunk but they pass it off here as his reaction to being unable to find a cure for his power core induced illness. But the worst is the way they cured him, I can’t remember seeing anything that dumb and ludicrus in ages. People ridiculed Avatar for it’s silly use of “Unobtanium” but the magical model/over night Hadon Supercollider/laser beam triangle element-ium is just insulting.

The cast is fine, the effects match and what action there was, was fun to watch. In the end I just feel like it’s nothing special, a good rental. Batman for life.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a historical horror film. It created a horror icon in 1984 that saw 6 more movies in 10 years with Freddy Krueger’s last appearance in Freddy vs Jason in 2004 (considered the 8th Nightmare movie, the 11th Friday movie).

Over the years the series became more and more campy, pushing visual effects over the true vision of the Fred Krueger character. If you think about it, it is pretty weird that a child killer would become a merchandising gold mine with dolls and lunchboxes with his image all over the place.

So it’s been a long time since Freddy was scary, his one liners got worse, his prancing around more pronounced. But that became part of the series charm for better or worse. There are some real stinkers in the series, but they are all mostly fun to watch (except for the second movie which really is unwatchable). Robert Englund made Krueger his own, no one else could be seen as him, until this reboot. Which I think was necessary. Don’t get me wrong, Englund’s performance and all too brief scenes proved that the character and the idea of a dream killer is incredibly scary. Englund is andn always will be synonymous with Freddy Krueger. Now it’s been years since a proper Nightmare movie so a reintroduction, I think, was necessary.

While this Nightmare is far from perfect, I really liked much of what they did here. The dark and brutal tone was back, necessary to make Freddy Krueger a monster again. They followed the original, but broke off in the right ways.

I really like Jackie Earl Haley as Krueger. His body type is similar to Englunds, he had the right mannerisms and I liked his take on the voice (which is pretty opinion based. This one is love it or hate it I think). A lot of people have a huge problem with changing Krueger from a child killer to a pedophile. I don’t understand the outrage. Both versions prey on the young and hurt them in unimaginable ways. They’re both pieces of shit. Freddy Krueger isn’t someone you should like or care for. He’s a villain, he’s a demon. I’ve even read that he’s a “pussy” now. Well, what really changed? He haunts kids, exploits they’re weaknesses, chases them down and brutally kills them. And really, what’s the statistic on the creeps who kill children but didn’t harm them in any other way? I really don’t understand the complaint here. He should make your skin crawl. This movie even follows the rules set by creator Wes Craven closer than most of the sequels did! He gets his power through memory and fear, he can’t jump in and out of dreams at will or make people pass through solid walls (I’m looking at you, 2 and 3). In all honestly I’m not a big fan of the new make up, I kept thinking of Voldermort from the Potter series when seeing his face. There are some nice touches though (like the holes in his head where his ears burned off and the cheeks). I thought Jackie did a great job with what’s there. He was a real menace, there was some great (if brief) moments of tension….he made a real dirt bag come to life. I even felt for him when you’re led to believe for that moment that he’s innocent.

The soundtrack is really fantastic and the film looks great as well. There are some terrific transitions, the lighting/cinematography is quality and most of the effects are well done. There’s some poor CG at times (when Freddy stretches out Nancy’s bedroom wall) but all the practical stuff looked great and the kill effects were superb.

Speaking of kills, there weren’t many. Which a lot of people are also up in arms about…but why? This series never really had many per film if these “fans” would recall and the level of gore even went down as the series went as well. Same amount of deaths as the original is present here and they changed them all to be different, even if paying homage to the original (Tina’s). For all the cries of being unoriginal, has anyone scene New Nightmare? That one was directed by Wes Craven himself, used Tina’s death again almost exactly and had one of the lowest kill counts! The first death in this reboot is pretty fantastic by any measure. There’s 3 or 4 deaths alluded too which would have padded the number, but also would have made the film run way too long. I don’t understand the venomous hate. This isn’t a Friday the 13th movie where Jason hides his kills in catwalks and boathouses.

I’ve seen a lot of hate on the cast as well and I think the cast is fine. Nothing award winning to be sure, but none of them were offensive. They all seemed like believable people to me and the adults were more or less window dressing. Now the movie was staged oddly, for most of the picture you think Kris is the heroine until Nancy steps forward as the cast dies off (she’s there from the very beginning, but her involvement seems like she’s a side character). But it follows Freddy’s intentions (which the movie makes clear). Nancy was his favorite and he works up to her, gaining strength as he goes and biding his time until she can’t stay awake any longer. I really liked how Nancy discovers Freddy’s kill path with the class photo leading to her and her friends (I thought Marcus’ video blog was really cool). The concept of micro naps is really cool and worked really well (for the most part, I’ll get to that in a bit). By the end the last kids don’t know what’s real or a dream any more which leads to some great scenes. I liked the homages to the original, like the sticky floor that turns to blood that acknowledges some of the most memorable scenes from the original while doing it’s own thing. I appreciated those tweaks.

Now, while I did really enjoy this new Nightmare, it’s got it’s fair share of problems. First, there’s a lot of peaks an valleys. The intro is very strong, but the movie never quite reaches that point again. It’s really well done, sets up Freddy (he’s got a great line) and the death is really well done. The movie goes into lulls at times and then perks up whenever Freddy hits his stride again. While the idea of micro naps is great, it isn’t used right The first half (at the very least) of the movie needed to be more subtle. Actually, there is no subtlety. There’s never a question of if someone is dreaming or not. You see the lighting change and the creepy music kicks in right away. That ruins the advantage of catching the audience off guard. Strangely it’s done the best in the last act of the movie (around the pharmacy scene which was the most creative part of the movie) as Nancy and Quentin can’t stay awake for more than a few minutes anymore. As a result to this, jump scares are used as the only real method of scaring you. But that’s not really fear at work, just startling someone. If you need to rely on a orchestra hit to scare people, you’re not doing it right.

Also, there was a lack of imagination at work here, but I’m on the fence about it. This is probably the biggest problem people have with the movie. Being a new Nightmare movie, fans expected crazy dream sequences which there really weren’t any. But this was a reboot, not a sequel. The sequels always tried to top the last one with new and outlandish dream sequences. So in the idea that this is Krugers first killing spree, they kept it simple (just like the original). He doesn’t transform into creatures for example and holy shit, how about some more dream locations? Over use of the boiler room and the “claws against the wall” trick. It’s defiantly a legit complaint, it just doesn’t really bother me much. The tone and direction of the film was pretty clear to me, but I expect all new crazy shit if they make a sequel. That said I would have changed Jesse’s death to something that made more sense (and was more clear) given the circumstances (although Freddy’s parting words were brutal). Finally, if you’re going to copy a scene from a 26 year old movie, make sure it doesn’t look worse in the end (Freddy stretching Nancy’s wall being the main offender). The last scene in the movie is a great homage to the original but is marred by horrific CG as well.

As an aside, I wonder if they should have made the sense of time passing more clear. I figure that the movie takes place around a week. Watching it, we find out Freddy has killed quite a few kids before we see his first in the movie. Nancy is crossing off her former classmates on the picture she found and we see two newspaper clippings and the video blog of the (possible) last 3 before Freddy gets Dean. The 70 hour “micro nap” time limit is clearly established so odds are the first person who remembered Kruger did it at least a week prior. Now this is a lot to fit into the movie, we’re talking about 7 or 8 more characters which is unrealistic for a reasonable run time. It does make for a good background though, I wonder who started the chain of events that started the domino effect of everyone beginning to remember and passing along Freddy’s legend (and how they died!).

There’s a lot of talk that this is the worst movie in the series which is just not true. Part 2 holds that honor steadfast. That movie was a mess. Broke the dream rules, had horrible kills and the tone of that movie is just bizarre (it remains the only movie in the series with a male lead) and is pretty boring. I was pretty psyched to see a new Nightmare movie in theaters and I think it hit many of the correct notes. I’d put this in the top 3 or 4 of the series. Freddy’s back, I just expect the bar to be raised higher with a new, refreshing direction if a sequel gets made. The foundation has been re-established, let’s get the effort done to make a new house that Freddy built. Please no 3D!

Astro Boy is a completely forgettable CG animated movie. I wasn’t going to write anything about it, but it really exemplifies how amazing Pixar’s movies are.

The animaion is good, there was some good work done by IMAGI, the action set pieces are fun to watch. It’s the story is so half assed and awkward, it seems like the script never went beyond the first draft of a 12 year old. Astro Boy is originally a manga character created in the 1950s. He’s a robot boy with a cute design, what’s not to love? Everything in this embarrassment. Astro Boy starts as a real boy who get’s killed in an accident and his scientific genius father builds a robot in his image and puts his “DNA memories” into the robot to try and get his son back. Using some Blue energy magically obtained from space as a power source, Toby is seemingly the same good matured kid. But of course you can’t bring back the dead, much to his fathers dismay.

Everything is closed over in the story. Sure it’s outlandish about a robot boy can talk and have feelings (a big plot element in any sci-fi robot story) but you accept it as part of this world. It’s in the future! But good lord, there is so much garbage at work here. The Blue and Red energy idea is so childish. The DNA memory concept is absurd, the robot guardian that absorbs just about everything it touches, there is an apparent war between Metro City and the Surface of Earth that only 2 people say is happening. There’s this juvenile political angle to the movie that is so out of place and handled poorly it makes any adult scratch their head. Astro Boy doesn’t even seem surprised when he discovers he has rocket feet when he thinks he’s a boy. The part with Toby’s death at the beginning is so quick and awkward I wouldn’t want a kid of mine to see it. See Pixar’s Up to see how masterfully such an intense life lesson can be carefully and masterfully handled.

All the voice actors sleep walk through this. Just lines on a page to read. Astro Boy is a prime example of a poor animated movie. It’s aimed very low and comes off as such. Pixar movies are aimed at everyone. They don’t insult the intelligence of the audience, regardless of age. Pixar painstakingly makes amazing stories with real character(s). They can make serious parts and comedic parts that everyone can enjoy (even if they are too young to understand it). It really struck me at how much better Pixar can make a movie.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the movies and Kick Ass brought me back to the picture house.

Based on the Mark Millar (many Batman books, Sin City…) comic, Kick Ass is the story of Dave who is your average kid who wonders why no one has tried to be a real super hero. One day he gets the courage to try it out, makes a costume out of a wet suit and proceeds to get his ass kicked.

This movie was a ton of fun, just what I was looking to watch. Funny, exciting, crude and rude. There’s a solid dose of violence (that has been hyped up much higher than it really is) and the action is really well done. I really enjoyed the direction and cinematography. The movie looks great outside of some rough blue screen and CG, but there are some great transitions and set ups. The 3D comic back story of Big Daddy and Hit Girl was terrific, the fight choreography was really well done and one of the better soundtracks I can remember in quite some time.

Kick Ass is just short of 2 hours long and the story hits a lull half way through. But the characters really kept me engaged, the entire cast was really good. And that includes Nicolas Cage! His resume is filled with craters but he was really enjoyable here, his Adam West homage as Big Daddy was brilliant. He had a real chemistry Chloe Moretz who plays his 11 year old daughter Hit Girl. They are in every major action scene together and their last one was actually really touching at the end of all the carnage (which oddly enough had both the best and worst looking sections of the movie). I’ve never heard of Aaron Johnson (a bloke from the UK) before but I gotta say I’m a real fan now. His American accent is perfect and he made Dave into a completely realistic and likeable person. Dave isn’t a complete nerd, he’s not obnoxious and I could really relate to him. When he gets beat up you feel sorry for him and when he gets the girl you’re totally psyched for him. And Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of Superbad fame) is great, as always, as Chris/Red Mist.

Kick Ass is one of the best movies I’ve seen in awhile. It takes the standard comic book conventions and mixes them up to keep it new and interesting. The characters are great, the action fun, everything I really look for in this type of movie. It’s been getting shit reviews from old critics, but this movie isn’t meant for them. It certainly isn’t perfect. It pushes for shock value that often times doesn’t work, but it’s a small complaint in an otherwise terrific movie. The audience I was with really liked it. I’m thinking this is going to have a terrific opening weekend and beyond as the release was timed perfectly.

Nice description of the trailer that’s coming for the next movie(s).

I’ve been slacking on my reporting duties, so let’s catch up.

Zombieland-A fun zombie movie. Very simple, 2 months after a outbreak, Columbus makes his way from his college dorm in Texas though zombie land to get back home in Columbus, OH. He’s made it so far by living by a strict rule set, like good cardio for running, beware of bathrooms, double tap, buckle up and don’t be the hero. He meets 3 other people on his trip (woody harrelson rules and Emma Stone is gorgeous) home where they team up to survive. It’s not as violent or gory as I thought it would be, but it’s still good. Fun characters, fun scenes and one of the greatest cameos ever by Bill Murray. Great rainy day movie.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the third movie in the franchise. It’s a good movie, it continues the traditions set by the last movie(s). It’s cute, funny, and really well animated. Simon Pegg’s character is probably my favorite addition.

Pandorum– one of the better sci-fi movies recently made I think. Two crew members on a large space ship get woken up from deep sleep a long time later than they were supposed to. The soon find that they aren’t the only ones moving about the ship on their quest to figure out where they’re going and what happened to the thousands of people that were supposed to be on board with them. The story takes some new twists, it’s well directed and acted. Convincing visual FX and fantastic set design make this a creepy movie. I recommend it.

District 13: Ultimatum is the sequel to 2004’s District 13. The first is famous for introducing the world at large to parkour, or “free running” which became a huge trend. Think Jackie Chan’s famous moves for climbing and moving over objects in fast and unorthodox gymnastic movements. District 13 is one section of a city that is a constant battle zone between politics and gangs. Here, the two unlikely heroes from the first movie team up again to stop the secret service’s plan to wipe out the 5 gangs that control the sector in one devastating and sneaky plan. Some really wild action scenes, though one or two more would have been nice. You watch this movie manly for the stunts, but the story is well done and it’s a well made movie. It’s French and I chose to keep the original language with English subtitles.

Ong Bak 2 It took it’s time getting to these shores, but Tony Jaa continues his run as the best action star today. Forget the story, just fast forward through any talking. It meanders, makes no sense and just gets in the way of the insane fight scenes. More weapon work than the first movie, Tony Jaa is the new Jackie Chan. He’s just amazing. This is simply an action scene show case, plain and simple.

Chocolate– I have no idea why this action movie is called Chocolate. This one is a slow boil, it takes awhile for the movie to break into a run, but when it does! Oh man. This is the story of an autistic girl (Zen) who happens to have a gift. She can learn martial arts just by watching movies. And her favorite movies? Tony Jaa of course! Zen’s mother gets cancer and with the help her friend they find out that people around town owe her a lot of money! So Zen goes around looking to reclaim those debts and no one seems to be willing to pay up. Enter ass kicking Mai Tai fight scenes! This girl is insane! She’s right there in Tony Jaa’s shoes doing crazy stunts and beating the stuffing out of every stuntman they could find. Stick with it, the last half of the movie is practically all action. Great direction, very easy to see and good use of slow-mo.

(500) Days of Summer has one of my favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt so I have a certain expectation for him. Expectations have been met as he’s fantastic as Tom and he plays off of Zoey Deschanel (Summer) really well.

(500) is a relationship movie, one where the boy falls in love with the girl, but the girl doesn’t fall in love with the boy. The 500 days catalogs their time together, but it doesn’t play out in sequence. It’s edited so that we enter the story when they’ve broken up and jump to parts of the relationship out of order. It’s kinda like how we remember things in pieces, out of order. And for Tom, since he gets dumped, he remembers all the good parts first before thinking about where the warning signs started to show up.

The story is really well told, it’s told honestly. You can tell it came from the writers real life experiences…it’s sweet, it’s sad, it’s happy, it’s funny and it isn’t fair. JGL and Zoey really sell the movie as a convincing couple. The first time they meet, their courtship, their breakup all feels real and genuine. Editing is spot on and the soundtrack is finely chosen.

I really liked it. About 90 minutes long it’s the perfect run time, I’d recommend it to anyone.