My Name Is Slumdog: Kindly Rewinding Through Recent Movie Reviews

Sorry for the dry spell.  Fear not.  Brett man’s got a fresh crop of movie reviews for your enjoyment!

 

My Name Is Bruce

Like any blood soaked B-movie, My Name Is Bruce has its fair share of bad editing, nauseating dialogue, and forced plot devices.  But at the end of the day, Campbell excels at making fun of himself while still maintaining his “Ash-hole” persona.  If you’re a Bruce Campbell fan, you’ll love it.  If not, maybe worth a watch.  If you don’t know who Bruce Campbell is, well…it’s your loss.

 

3 out of 5 Brett heads

 

 

Be Kind Rewind

You might think to yourself, “Jack Black and Mos Def recreating Ghostbusters?  Sign me up!”  But those looking forward to screwball comedy antics in Be Kind Rewind will surely be disappointed.  Though Michel Gondry’s unique visuals add a quaint magical realism factor to the story, the film’s downfall is its attempt to reveal a larger theme that unfortunately misses the mark by a long shot. 

 

2 out of 5 Brett heads

              

 

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire definitely finds itself in the critical “hot seat” for those (like myself) who saw the film after winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  Even with that being the case, the movie’s vignette style of storytelling is entertaining without becoming too stale.  Danny Boyle provides a cinematography and editing feast for the eyes.  But in the end, the film doesn’t ratchet up the stakes quite enough, leaving viewers with a fairly predictable ending.

 

3 out of 5 Brett heads

       

Monster Mash: Monsters vs Aliens is a 3-D Smash

In a day in age when the phrase, “I’ll just catch it on DVD” is heard more and more, it’s refreshing to see a film that pays homage to the movie theatre experience.  Or at least doesn’t make you regret spending $9 on a ticket.

From left to right The Missing Link (Will Arnett), Dr. Cockroach Ph. D. (Hugh Laurie), and B.O.B. (Seth Rogen)

Monsters vs Aliens 3-D is such a film.  Featuring more sci-fi tropes and eye popping action (quite literally in some cases) than your average CG movie, you might feel good enough to buy a tub of popcorn too.

After being struck by a glowing meteorite on her wedding day, Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) transforms into a fifty foot woman and is transported by the government to a top secret monster bunker, never to be seen again.  But when alien dictator Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) sends a robot probe to retrieve the mysterious meteorite substance on earth, the government calls on the monsters to stop him from taking over the world.

The big star of the film is the recognizable and entertaining cast.  Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, and Seth Rogen as three unlikely monster all-stars provide endless amounts of slapstick gags and adult references (Seth Rogen as gelatinous monster B.O.B. attempts to pick up a Jello mold).  The standout performance is undoubtedly Stephen Colbert as President Hathaway.  The film is worth seeing just to watch Hathaway interact with the aliens for the first time by playing an 80′s synth, dance remix of the Close Encounters of the Third Kind theme.

But the real reason to see the film is the added 3-D element.  After seeing the movie, my girlfriend commented, “I wish all movies were in 3-D.”  And it’s true.  The growing trend of 3-D films really makes going to the movies fun again.  And the filmmakers know when to push the right visual buttons (The entire theatre gasped upon seeing a scientist smack a paddle ball into the audience during the opening sequence).

Don’t wait until this movie comes out on DVD.  Cough up the extra dough to see it in 3-D.  The truth is out there…at the theatre.

 

 

 

4 out of 5 Brett heads

Brettflix Meets Netflix

Every time someone signs up for Netflix, an angel gets its wings.

Yes, that’s right boys and girls, I have re-subscribed to Netflix, the silent killer of video stores everywhere. It is only a matter of time before those little red envelopes begin pouring into my mailbox once again. Well, at least a trickle of them under my one at a time unlimited plan.

About this time every year, I sign up for Netflix. Perhaps it’s something in the spring air that makes me want to watch an unlimited torrent of movies that I will never have the time to watch. However, there have been vast improvements to Netflix technology that will no doubt keep me thirsty for more. Case in point: being able to watch Netflix movies over XBOX Live.

In other Netflix news, the online movie rental site just shipped out its 2 billionth DVD. The lucky film? Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist on Blu-Ray. Clay Shannon of Alabama was the lucky recipient. When told by Netflix she could keep the special disc, Shannon responded, “Then how am I supposed to get the next DVD in my queue?”

My DVD and Instant Watch Queue

Slumdog Millionaire

Be Kind Rewind

My Name Is Bruce

South Park: Season 1

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

Blade Runner

Left 4 Dead: Raimi Wants Campbell’s Boomstick

Get your chainsaw appendages fueled up because the book of the dead has once again been opened.  According to a recent interview with Empire, Sam Raimi is already 9 pages into a fourth installment of his Evil Dead franchise.  Word on the street is that he wants Bruce Campbell to reprise the role of Ash.

Even though that within the last few years, Raimi has been a tease about the likelihood of a fourth Evil Dead film (at one point, a remake starring Ashton Kutcher was rumored.  Blah.), this time it sounds like he’s really ready to kick some Deadite butt.  And who has he been fantasizing about as his pen strokes paper?  None other than everyone’s favorite big chinned B-movie actor Bruce Campbell.

Campbell has recently made a career out of… well, being Bruce Campbell.  Just check out recent projects like My Name Is Bruce or the TV show Burn Notice.  Campbell will no doubt be able to slip right back into the role if he signs on.  Who else could play the part?

Raimi hasn’t mentioned anything about the plot of the film, but I definitely like the idea of an aging, overweight demon hunter going through a mid-life crisis.