Drag Me to Hell could also be called Evil Dead 4. Director Sam Raimi goes back to his horror roots with this one. Christine, a normal, friendly girl, is a loan officer. One day an old gypsy woman swoops in to her office for a loan extension, which Christine denies to help herself move up the corporate ladder.

Taking a page from Stephen King’s “Thinner”, you don’t upset old gypsy women because they will curse the shitout of you. Christine spends the rest of the movie running from hell, seeking help to break the curse to keep her on this mortal coil.

So if you’ve seen an Evil Dead movie, you know what to expect. The main character is tortured through bizarre and scary events, trying to the last frame of the picture to save their lives. Jump scares, demons, gross out effects, dirt, blood, bugs and a whole lot of yelling is the main course for viewers. While the premise of the movie is actually very scary (if you don’t break the curse, you are literally dragged to hell), the move really isn’t. It’s funny and exciting really. The acting is great, especially Alison Lohman who plays Christine, the effects are top notch and there is actually very little gore. It’s edited just right, sound work is great too, lots of wild surround work done to really push the intensity at you. There are a lot of fantastic scenes in here, I would have loved to have made this movie. The fight in Christines bed room was wild, the feeling of being stalked by something supernatural was perfectly done.

I liked Drag Me to Hell a lot. It’s the kind of material that Raimi excels at (I think the Spider Man movies have been overly praised). It’s not for everyone but as far as I’m concerned it’s worth watching (especially with friends)/

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

This one is a simple affair; summer action blockbuster. It’s based on decades long toy line, G.I. Joe has an ensemble cast that blows shit up (or tries to keep shit from blowing up) around the world for an hour and 25 minutes.

It’s the classic tale of the good guys teaming up to stop the bad guys from taking over the world. And you know what? It works better than Transformers 2 despite it being just as outlandish at times. It’s CG overload, I think 90% of this movie is digital effects. It ranges from passable to very good and honestly I had a good time watching it. Don’t expect Die Hard in terms of quality and you’re good to go.

You can pretty much walk into any Pixar movie and expect to have a good time at the very least. Everyone rates the movies differently, but Pixar is pretty much the only studio on the planet that hits big with every single picture they make. Up doesn’t deviate from that historical line.

78 year old Carl is up for an adventure. Living his life with his beloved wife, she passes away without them going on the big life adventure they always intended to make since they met as kids. After being fed up with all the changes going around him, he decides to give a middle finger to the world and pack up and leave all the kids to ruin things the way they see fit. Except he takes everything that is his. With baloons tied to his house! Just after lift off he finds a stow away passanger, the neighborhood kid Russell. Russell meant well, he just wanted to help old man Carl so he could earn his last Wilderness Explorer badge.

So off the odd pair go, to land in the lost legendary lands somewhere in South America. Up is a touching adventure of two people who are worlds apart that soon discover they have more in common than they ever thought. The typical charm and magic of a Pixar movie is here. Great characters, a solid story, fun dialog and animation to die for. Things do get more juvenile and wacky closer to the end of the movie (dogs flying bi-planes? Okay, aerial dog fight but still) which is pretty rare for a Pixar movie. So while the action gets low brow the movie doesn’t really suffer for it. It’s a great flick for anyone to enjoy.

Watch in confidence. Pixar did make it you know.

Adventureland

Adventureland is your typical “The Summer That Changed My Life” movie. While it is a cookie cutter genre picture, I still liked it. Held down by Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, Adventureland is the name of the amusement park that the kids work in.

It’s the late 80’s and James is just out of college when his European trip is cancelled due to his father losing his job and being relocated. Off to Pittsburgh, James gets a job at the amusement park to save up and move to NYC for graduate school when his friend gets back from Europe at the end of the summer.

Cue love triangle with the troubled girl and the douchebag guy, partying, fights and other such youthful trials and tribulations. The cast is great, the acting solid and the direction safe. The biggest knock against the movie is that it’s nothing special, but it isn’t a bad movie. It’s a solid story of growing up that’s entertaining enough to keep you for it’s hour and a half or so run time. It’s got some good laughs here and there making it a great movie for a rainy day.

Crank: High Voltage

Jason Statham returns for the second Crank film! While the first movie was goofy and dare I say original, this is a pointless movie. Much better off as a one, goofy, braindead movie, the creators of this borefest try to squeeze more excitement than God could even dream of.

Chev lives through the first movie and has his heart stolen and replaced by a battery operated one. He then runs around for the rest of the movie trying to get it back. I was willing to go for the ride in the first movie, but this is just more of the same, but none of it works. Amateur at best, from every angle Crank 2 is more annoying to watch than anything. Frantic shots and editing try to make everything exciting when there really isn’t a single good action set piece. What action there is is just ruined by the direction and editing. Every single character is irritating and more cartoon character than person. You don’t care what peoples names are, let alone if they live or die. More effort than it’s worth to watch, avoid at all costs.