"Untraceable"

Since there has not been much out there in the theaters as of late I have wanted to see, my web site has suffered a little, but I did get out to see a movie that opened this past weekend. All of you that have checked out my web site before already know that I love a good serial killer movie so when I heard about “Untraceable,” I knew straight away regardless of the critic’s reviews that I would be going to see it.

As usual the critics decimated this film, but as I read reviews from people that had actual gone to see the movie, I noticed that there were quite a few that enjoyed, so here is my 2 cents regarding “Untraceable”

Diane Lane, plays the main character in this story, Jennifer Marsh. She is a single mother living with her daughter and mother in the greater Portland area. Jennifer is an FBI agent, working for the internet department. She spends her time working the night shift catching bad guys that like to steal people’s identities, and all manor of scum of the World Wide Web.

Some one tips off the local authorities on a web site called “Kill with me” dot com. The web site first pops up streaming live a poor little defenseless being killed. While grotesque and sad, the operator of the web site has set himself up in a way that he can not be located or traced in any way, hence the name “Untraceable.” The story starts to run wild when the web site pops up again with a live stream of a man slowly being tortured, and the catch is, the more people that log onto the web site to watch, the faster the man dies. This is about as far as I can go without playing the spoiler.

Lane does a decent job with her character, but for the most part this movie just doesn’t cut the mustard, and in a couple different ways plagiarizes straight from other movies. I think the best way to describe this film, would be a cross between “Fear.com” and “Silence of the lambs.” Unfortunately, this story does not come close to either of those films. While watching this film you pretty much get the feeling throughout the entire time that you’ve seen this all before, and you would be right.

Although director Gregory Hoblit has quite a few nice feathers in his cap, this will not be one of them. To successfully market and sell a good serial killer movie, your story, characters, and plot must be original, and as hard as it has become, it must be a fresh look at these sick people that wander the earth. This story just does not meet any of these criteria, and sadly I have to end up agreeing with most of the critics this time, mores the pity. While I do not endorse paying the big money to see this movie on the big screen, it would probably be a good rental when it comes out on DVD. There were some good scenes that would make it worthy of watching at home.

My rating for this movie is 6.5 out of 10.00

"Surfs Up"

OK it’s time for another animated movie review! I must admit the kid inside me fights its way to the surface whenever a good animated film comes out, however I did in fact miss this one in the theaters. After “March of the Penguins," and “Happy Feet,” I thought to myself, “Why would I possibly want to go see yet another penguin movie?” OK big mistake on my part.

“Surf’s up,” is a product of Sony Animation. I have no idea if Pixar and Sony are affiliated with each other in anyway, but the quality of this film was definitely “Pixar” material front to back. The rendering of the animals brought to life on screen was brilliant. From the soft fluffy feathers of the young penguins, to the sleek lined wet look of the big penguins in the water, to the ridiculously life like characteristics of waves, this movie has it all! There are a couple of scenes in particular when you are looking “first person” inside a massive tube wave as one of the characters surfs through them, and it is breath taking.

As far as the story itself goes, it is the typical, yet not so typical “Karate Kid” type tale. A teenage penguin named Cody Maverick (voice over by Shia LaBeouf) lives in the Antarctic town (Ice block) of Shiverpool. (How classic is that even the name of the town is cute) Cody was once visited as a young penguin by the champion surfer at the time “Big Z” and from that day forward he is a surfer. He dreams of leaving his home town to some day surf “Pen gu Island,” where the big surf contests are held. Along the way he meets up with Chicken Joe (voiceover by Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite) and they become friends as they finally arrive at the big surf contest. The bad guy in this one is “Tank (The Shredder) Evans.” (Voice over by Diedrich Bader) Tank has won the past 9 surf contests, and has no problems playing dirty to win his 10th trophy. The slap stick character is a Reggie Bellefonte (voice over by James wood.....Yes THAT James wood) he is the surf promoter with the hair and attitude of Don King, and totally makes this movie hilarious.

I typically try to make notice of the director in each film I review, but in this instance it is by far the animators of this movie that deserve the praise. From the frozen waste land of Shiverpool, to the tropical beaches of Pen gu Island, these folks put together an animated film of the caliber of “Finding Nemo,” and “Monsters Inc.” If you are any kind of animated film fan, this is an absolute must have for your collection. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched this movies since I bought it, and each time I enjoy it more even knowing what happens and where the punch lines are. It is simply that good.

My rating for this movie is 9.00 out of 10.00

"The Reaping"

My next offering for DVD reviews, is Hilary Swanks latest leading role in the religious / Horror movie entitled, “The Reaping.” While I had made the mistake of not going to see this movie in the theater because of mixed and or bad reviews by the movie critics (that are almost ALWAYS wrong. Once again, I should listen to my own conscious, and gone to see it on the big screen. So here we are again at the basis of my web site. Movie critics about 80% of the time don’t have the first idea of what is good in the eyes of the average movie watcher, and it still drives me crazy. While this is not an “A” movie by any means, it is certainly worth a rental, or even adding to your collection if you like this kind of film.

Katherine Winter (played by Hilary Swank) suffered the horrible loss of her husband and daughter both in Sudan, just shortly after being ordained, and sent out into the mission field. This tragedy turned her against God, and she abandoned her faith completely. After this tragic event, Katherine is then called upon to investigate supposed religious miracles, or events, and then by scientific means she debunks the events proving that God had no hand in the said event.

A particular event taking place in Haven Louisiana has caused the locals to call upon Katherine to come investigate these strange biblical type plagues that are running rampant in the town. The events seem to be taking place around or because of this little girl. At first some of the so called plagues that are happening she has no trouble as usual finding a scientific reason for them, but other things centered on this little girl are also taking place that can not so readily be dismissed as a hoax or natural occurrence. As the evil forces that seem to be at work in the town close in around Katherine, she must once again find her faith in order to try and solve this mystery.

Director Stephen Hopkins (better known for his directing the TV series “24,” and “Californication,”) definitely find a nice over all look to this movie. The mix between the beautiful country look of Louisiana and the horrible plagues is breath taking at times, and down right eerie.

As far as the acting goes, there are no real serious notes of Oscar performances by any stretch, but everybody seems to keep a good cohesiveness throughout the entire story as each person’s role plays out, and when all is said and done the cast of characters did a good job of telling the story. The story itself, while not an original concept, was done differently enough to be entertaining, and keeps you involved from beginning to end.

My rating for this movie is 7.50 out of 10.00

"Polar Shift"

OK folks time for another book review before I head back to the movies. Since I have recently started getting into Clive Cussler, I’ve read several books by him all designed around the NUMA group, Dirk Pitt, and his family, and associates. The latest one I had the pleasure of reading was entitled “Polar Shift,” and the Hero in this one is Kurt Austin.

Now I have to preface this review by saying that most of these NUMA books typically all have the same punch line, “Bad guys try to blow up the planet, good guys stop them,” of course this punch line has been the same for a century or longer in thousands of books and movies, but they really seem to follow this pattern almost to a fault in this collection of novels.

OK that point out of the way, let me turn it around, and say that this is a very good book even with it sticking to the pattern as mentioned before. Polar Shift takes a little different turn by branching out into what seems to be two completely different stories, and both are quite entertaining. The Bad guys in this book have stumbled on the works of a Hungarian scientist, and his works with polar shifts. Basically stated, a polar shift is when the earth’s electromagnetic field is thrown off balance by natural circumstances, and causes the Southern, and Northern poles to move. This can cause a wide array of problems with the modern day world.

The problem with the bad guys plot in this book is that even though they have the technology to cause a polar shift, they do not realize that they could inadvertently cause a physical shift of the earth’s tectonic plates which would basically mean the end of the world as we know it. Now, mixed in the middle of this story is a diversionary trek to an archeological discovery of a baby wooly mammoth that has been perfectly preserved in the permafrost since the animal died supposedly millions of years ago. With this discovery there are of course good and bad people after this animal, but what they end up finding in the end is.......Well....I can’t play the spoiler on this one, you will just have to read it, but man was it a cool twist. Personally I think the book could have held its own if they would have just stuck to the mammoth discovery, and the story that follows it.

As with all the NUMA books, this one has its fair share of cloak and dagger elements that have made Clive Cussler a #1 best seller book writer for a long time now. With every chapter you are clung to the edge of your chair wanting desperately to keep reading. This book is entertaining in every way, and there are no dry spots to speak of, or what is even worse with some Authors, an anticlimactic ending. This one has a great ending and leaves you smiling, while at the same time searching for the next book in the series.

My rating for this book is 8.00 out of 10.00

"Reign Over Me"

Happy New year to all! I’ve got lots of reviews to catch up on, so let’s get to it! My first offering to the New Year, is a different type of movie staring Adam Sandler as Charlie Fineman, and Don Chealde as Charlie’s old college roommate Alan Johnson called “Reign over me.”

When I first heard about this film, I thought the concept of the story was intriguing, but I had my doubts as to Adam Sandler’s ability to take on this kind of role considering his past body of work. While his comedic style of acting still managed to take over most of the scenes, there was a few that seemed to cross over from comedic, to serious.

“Reign over me,” is a story about a man who lost his wife and daughter in the 9/11 tragedy. Having lost everything in his life that was important to him, Charlie lapses into a deranged state of mind. His only outlet to keep from completely going over the deep edge is his music, and oddly enough video games. One day Charlie bumps into his old college room mate, and the story begins from there. Allan Johnson a successful partner in a dental practice takes a strange interest in trying to bring his old room mate back to the world of reality. There are strange and uncomfortable scenes throughout the movie in which Charlie lashes out, some times violently at the slightest bit of some one trying to give him physiological help.

A side story is the in laws of Charlie’s wife who are trying to have him committed so they can try and take over the very large amount of money Charlie has. Along with that there is also anther tangent that I thought was kind of off the wall where a woman tries to seduce Allan during a dental appointment. The woman finally ends up playing a good guy (girl) role in the end, but the conflict that ensues when Allan coldly stops her advancements cause friction at work, and home. Along with the woman, there is also tension in the Johnson house hold when Charlie starts to accept his old room mate as a friend, and calls on him to go out at all hours of the day and night.

What is made very apparent in this film is the catastrophic loss that Charlie suffered from the horrors of 9/11. All of the thousands of lives that were affected by the most tragic day in American history are brought back up to the surface, and thrown directly into the faces of the people watching this film. Some may see this as a good thing because we should always be reminded of the pain and suffering of those families that dealt with this kind of loss, and yet others may find it an uncomfortable reminder of something that they would rather just forget.

While I expected something a little more from Director Mike Binder (director for Minority report) “Reign over Me,” is just strange and interesting enough to be something worth watching, but it will also never be confused with a movie of the year.

My rating for this movie is 7.00 out of 10.00