My Bloody Valentine 3D comes to DVD this Tuesday, May 19, 2009, and I’ll just say: wait until the new Friday the 13th hits stores. When I saw the movie in theaters, I found it mildly amusing, if only for how bad it was and for the fact that it was in 3D. The movie was, in fact, my first Real3D experience, and the visuals are pretty impressive; impressive enough that they helped me survive through a rather painful and cliche horror movie that thinks it is so much smarter than it actually is.

You can read the My Bloody Valentine 3D movie review here, or read on for my DVD review… (more…)

I am finally venturing into the world of YouTube (the creation side, that is), so check out my first-ever video movie review below… I plan to get some better video editing software than Windows Movie Maker in the near future (am thinking Adobe Premiere, since I already know how to use it) and clearly need to improve some things, but with that in mind, comments welcome – both on my opinions of Star Trek and the video itself. (more…)

The last couple of years have been full of story’s about IMAX’s success. Ever since the theater chain, which was originally dedicated to documentaries filmed with clunky cameras, started showing “real” movies, its revenues have skyrocketed, and for good reason. People pay – and they do pay – a premium of up to $5 (more if you buy online) to go see the latest blockbuster on a massive screen with excellent sound and near-vertical seating.

But Aziz Ansari, one of the stars in the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation,” has unleashed a firestorm against the company for diluting the IMAX brand and robbing him of dollars that were unnecessarily spent. And I have to agree with him… (more…)

Summer hasn’t even officially started yet, but it feels like we’re in the heart of it. The third blockbuster arrives this weekend, but other than that, there aren’t many options for those of you already caught up.

In theaters, there’s Angels & Demons, the sequel/prequel to The Da Vinci Code. To call it anticipated may be a bit of an overstatement, as the first one – also directed by Ron Howard – was just not good. I really liked the book, but the movie was slow, plodding and, worst of all, uninteresting. However, early interviews with Howard and producers indicated that they are aware of what went wrong and have promised to rectify things; while you can never trust these people when in marketing mode, their acknowledgment of the problem is a good sign. (more…)

Celebrity Apprentice is a fun show, full of screaming celebrities and other shenanigans and Donald Trump. Many of the celebrities take the show seriously, or at least somewhat seriously, but some don’t… and that’s why I miss the original Apprentice, where real business people competed for a real job.

After watching the season finale, I realized just how far this show has sank; even though Joan Rivers did better on three of the five tasks in the finale, the reasons for “hiring” the woman – her passion and energy – just doesn’t make sense. The show is about business tasks and about finding the best business people, even if those people are celebrities. Annie Duke, while annoying at times, was shrewd, goal-oriented and an all-around better competitor. (more…)

American Idol’s finalists have been determined, and the early favorite to win is not among them. Of course, the guy was never a favorite of mine.

Danny Gokey will go no further than third place in the popular Fox show, and its good riddance to a man who road the coattails of his wife’s death (through no fault of his own) and the American Idol hype machine for far too long. It was embarassing how the judges, early on in the season, praised the guy like there was no one else to win, even though he turned in week-after-week of boring performances. Sure, Gokey could sing, but hearing boring renditions and watching cringe-inducing dancing (not saying I could do better) is not my definition of a good time, nor do such things equal a performer worthy of the crown. (more…)

Gamer opens on September 4, 2009 and stars Gerard Butler. The movie has a pretty stupid plot (sort of like an online version of Death Race or The Condemned), but who knows…

Here’s the Gamer movie trailer. What do you think? (more…)

Star Trek, the massive box office winner of the weekend, turned out to be an even bigger contender than first imagined. The movie earned an additional $3 million on Sunday than estimated by its studio Paramount, giving the first signs that this movie truly is benefiting from word of mouth.

The final weekend tally, including the Thursday evening numbers, was $79 million. (more…)

Anne Hathaway nearly earned herself an Oscar for her stunning performance in Rachel Getting Married, but she also starred in another 2008 movie, the little-known Passengers. A thriller about a young psychologist who is assigned to deal with the survivors of a jet liner crash only to find that the survivors not only have conflicting stories about the events but that they are apparently being hunted by the government, Passengers had potential… But there’s a reason why no one has heard of this movie.

Passengers barely received a theatrical release and almost no promotion; the trailers were downright terrible. Still, the movie has a strong cast including Hathaway, Patrick Wilson and a few others, so it was worth a chance – though I only watched it because Sony sent me the DVD to review. Unfortunately, Passengers is exactly what I suspected; a forgettable, dull thriller.

Read the rest of the Passengers movie review.

Thank the Gods, Star Trek, the reboot by J.J. Abrams, didn’t implode on itself. This movie was one of the biggest question marks in years in terms of box office potential: it had the look, feel and action of a summer blockbuster, but it was, in the end, Star Trek, a franchise that was considered all but dead just a few years ago after the last film Nemesis failed to break $50 million domestic – as its box office total.

This new Star Trek sailed through that number sometime on Saturday, and will finish out the box office weekend with an estimated $76.5 in box office receipts. Saturday’s numbers were higher than Friday’s, indicating that the picture isn’t completely frontloaded due to a fan boy rush, either – which isn’t all that surprising given the general appeal this picture has. For the first time ever, my casual moviegoing friends, including all of my female friends, want to go see a Star Trek film, and that says something. (more…)