Movie Reviews

Archive for 2010

This might be even easier than last week’s. At least, I think it would be for me. Congrats to CaptainRon19 on joining the Leader board last week.

Standings:
J.D. – 15
Fletch – 14
Nick – 6
Wendymoon, Clive Dangerously – 5
Jason/Daniel, David Bishop, Rachel – 3
Evan Derrick, Jason Soto, BD79, Dreamrot (smacdonn) – 2
Steel11Kane, TonyD, Luke Harrington, Adam Ross, Justin, Anders, Dave, JLG, Big Mike Mendez, Nic Cage, CaptainRon19 – 1
Here are the altered/actual posters from last time:

It’s that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It’s The Day New Movies Are Released.
After a two-week holiday break, the eternal favorite returns!
Daybreakers
This movie could have easily had me as an audience member, but it’s really trying not to.
I saw the trailer once. Started off thinking, “Christ on a stick – another damn vampire movie?!?!? I am vampired the eff out.” Then it went along…starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill. Ok, we’re getting somewhere. Then the plot starts to unfold: earth is inhabited almost completely by vampires…very few humans remain. That could make for some good drama and quite the dilemma for the bloodsuckers. An interesting take on the apocalypse film, with the added bonus of it being set in the future (albeit barely – 2017).
Then I see posters like this and completely lose interest. Does it have to be a blood/gorefest merely because it’s a vampire film? (The answer to that is no. See: Let the Right One In.). Booo-ring.
Fletch’s Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 41%
Youth in Revolt
I’ve heard wildly conflicting reports on Revolt at this early stage. Of course, there are those that have already proclaimed that Cera is one again playing Cera (this is apparently the new version of “Manny being Manny”). But then I’m listening to the Row Three podcast and Matt Gamble (of LAMB site Where the Long Tail Ends) proclaims it to be one of his favorite recent flicks and calls it a scathing look at the modern teenager (I may be paraphrasing).
To boot, it has a laundry list of Actors I Like/Love™, from Cera to Steve Buscemi to Justin Long to Fletch vet M. Emmett Walsh to Zach Galfanakis, with Fred Willard to boot.
Color me perplexed. Considering the fact that Mrs. Fletch and I have seen just about everything out that we want to see, I’m adjusting the percentage for this one accordingly.
Fletch’s Chance of Viewing: 63%
Leap Year
The uber-generic title of this rom-com can’t help but remind me of this hilarious faux-trailer that was shared with me recently. I have yet to even see a commercial or trailer for Leap, and I’m guessing it can’t be possibly that bad, but they certainly aren’t doing themselves any favors with that name or that bland poster.
On the bright side, if you were told only the three main leads, you might think this was a flick worth seeing (Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, and Adam Scott). Hell, I’m almost tempted to see it solely for the hilarious Scott (Step Brothers, Party Down). We’ll see…
Fletch’s Chance of Viewing: 28%

(For past installments of this feature, click here.)

The setup: It’s a favorite pastime of mine to come up with sequel names for movies that will either never be made due to performance, critical response, or just because of their subject matter. Apply a healthy dose of massively awesome MS Paint Skillz™ and voila! Anyway, here’s the latest batch:
They couldn’t make up their mind, so I made it up for them.
At some point in the sequel chain, Michael Keaton will begin to get upset.
This is for the two people out there that will get this.
You stay alive! No matter what occurs…I will find you!

46 today – wow! Coincidentally, that’s the same number of projects that Cage has in the works currently. Sadly, I was never aware that this day was Nic’s birthday – he shares this special day with both my father-in-law (birthday) and parents (anniversary). They must feel so honored.

Last Week’s Results: Different week, same result. Jack’s Smirking Revenge win’s his 6th week out of 11 and has 400% more win shares than the next highest player. Jack, it’s almost time for you to present one of these to see how well I do. See the last game’s comments section for the answers.
The concept is overwhelmingly simple; below are 12 movie plots, torn down to their basest base, and invariably involving the words “dude” and/or “stuff.” All you must do is name the film. 1 point per correct answer; he/she with the most points wins. Google to your heart’s content; it will do you no good. Many films might match the plots you see below, but there is only one correct answer, and that’s the one that’s in my head when I write it.
Have fun with this stuff, dudes and dudettes.
1. Dudette does stuff the same way as other dudette.
2. Dudette makes friends with some weird dudes.
3. Dude makes friends with a crazy dude.
4. Dudette makes enemies with a crazu, weird dudette.
5. Dudes do stuff that you can’t even see them doing.
6. Dude and Dudette out-stuff each other.
7. Dudettes learn about life and stuff.
8. Dude and dudette fear stuff.
9. Dude has a sleazy dude for a friend.
10. Dudes did…stuff.
11. Dude does battle with stuff.
12. Dudette goes looking for stuff but never really finds it.
No, that’s not a typo. I have four different movies in mind for numbers 5-8. Don’t worry about the numbers so much, just guess the movies correctly and you’ll get ‘em. One of them you will likely not guess…
As you get them right, I’ll mark them as gotten and stuff. Good luck.
Standings
JacksSmirkingRevenge – 6
Myherobobhope – 1.5
BD79, Fitz – 1
Nic Cage, Jason, Nick – .5
Correct answers so far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

For the latest edition of the LAMBcast, we had hoped to talk about a little film called Avatar, followed by our lists of the Best of ‘09, but it was just too much to handle for one podcast. So we did what needed to be done: split the ginormous episode in two.
In this episode (part one), we strap in and dissect James Cameron’s blockbuster, along with a game of Last Man Standing and the longest edition of Trailer Talk ever to be unleashed. Stay tuned in the coming days for part two, where we rattle off each of our ten best for last year, along with an ultimatum for Nick that will have him second-guessing his decision for years to come (note: that might be an exaggeration). Both episodes are hosted by Mike Mendez of Big Mike’s Movie Blog.
For these episodes, Mike was joined by fellow LAMBs:
* Tom Clift of Plus Trailers,
* Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob,
* Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia,
* and me.
Trailers discussed (there are too many to embed each one; instead, I give you links):
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Death at a Funeral
The Karate Kid
Cop Out
Hot Tub Time Machine
Night and Day
Date Night
Valentine’s Day
Inception
The Bounty Hunter
Repo Men
Kick-Ass (red band)
As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod’s Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.
You can listen by playing it in the widget in the left sidebar; if you’d like to add it to your site (you would), click the “Add to my page” link. Also, you can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for “LAMBcast.” And hey – while you’re on iTunes, who don’t you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It’ll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame…or something like that.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we’d love to hear them.