I saw (500) Days of Summer last night with a friend, and here’s my movie review for the film:

The romantic comedy: Boys meets girl. Boy gets in argument with girl. Boy reunites with girl. Movie ends. Every movie is the same, only with different characters and a slightly modified hook. Some are better than others and legitimately entertaining. But in the end, they’re all predictable and unoriginal. So when (500) Days of Summer promises to be something different, you have to be intrigued – and skeptical.

Read the rest of my 500 Days of Summer movie review.

Mischa Barton left The O.C. at the end of season three, perhaps a wise move considering the once-popular television series was fading quickly at that point. But even though she got out just in time, Barton has yet to make a name for herself as anyone but Marissa Cooper. Her latest film, the limited release thriller Homecoming, won’t change that, though the movie itself is surprisingly easy to watch.

Read the rest of the Homecoming movie review.

The time is near, that when the Harry Potter franchise delivers its final whisk of the wand. The tension is starting to build, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth entry in the blockbuster franchise, is a key indicator of how the story of Harry, Ron and Hermione will end. David Yates, who also directed the previous Harry Potter film, is back at the helm – as he will be for the final two movies – but there was no certainty that the franchise would end on a high note. After sitting through two and a half hours of the latest Harry Potter, however, I can say with confidence that I can’t wait for the final chapters to arrive.

Read the rest of the Harry Potter movie review.

It only took two weeks of summer to get to the good stuff, as J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek for non-Trekkies has arrived, and it is quite a spectacle. Exciting action and an entertaining, swift screenplay are capped by stunning visual effects in what can only be described as the first blockbuster Star Trek of the franchise. It isn’t perfect, but it is one of those movies I will be going to see again in theaters- and those don’t come along very often.

As an introduction, I am a Star Trek fan. I am not, however, a Trekkie. I don’t dress up, I don’t know the science behind warp drive and I can’t speak Klingon. I make fun of Trekkies, but I also have enjoyed all of the television series save for “Enterprise” and most of the movies. I watch both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at least twice a year, and I am slugging my way through the original series, of which I haven’t seen every episode.

Read the rest of the Star Trek movie review.

Battlestar Galactica is done, but Caprica is just beginning. Sci-Fi Channel hopes fans acknowledge that transition and stick around because one is just like the other, right? Oh, and for the fact that the channel doesn’t have much else to offer.

Caprica is set 50 years before BSG on Caprica, which in only a few decades will be obliterated by Cylon nuclear weapons. The show, apparently, will focus on political, religious and moral issues through the eyes of two families – led by Daniel Graystone, a super-rich genius who is on the verge of recreating life (read: Cylons) and an outsider with a powerful past, Joseph Adama. Similar to today’s issues, the seemingly bright and shiny civilization of Caprica is cracked with questionable ethics, corporate greed and personal ambition that, as we all know, will eventually lead to their downfall. (more…)

The Shield is gone, leaving the airways devoid of gritty, gray-and-grayer police drama. Michael Chiklis was a complete badass, and over the course of seven amazing seasons, the writers carved an amazingly complex, suspenseful and believable tale of crime, corruption and tragedy. The last season, especially, was a masterstroke.

And only a few months later, A&E’s The Beast has risen from the ashes to take The Shield’s place. Or at least try.

The Beast plays out like a down-and-dirty version of the Chris Cooper movie Breach mixed with a less captivating Training Day; Travis Fimmel stars as Jake, a young, eager cop who has been recruited to partner with Charles Barker (Patrick Swayze). Just as in Training Day, Jake is green around the edges and has a lot to learn when pitted against Charles, who will cross the line to accomplish the mission. SPOILER ALERT: It isn’t long, though, before Jake is confronted with a team of officials who inform him that he has been selected to spy on Charles, given the suspicion that the man is dirty.

Surprisingly, it isn’t Swayze who has the lead but Fimmel; the narrative stays focused on Jake much more than Charles. Nevertheless, Fimmel holds his own and quickly proves that he can carry the show, and one has to wonder, given Swayze’s dire circumstances, that this isn’t completely coincidental. On the flip side, it’s Swayze who will draw audiences in and keep them there, as he delivers his best performance in years – though that isn’t hard, since no one has seen him in years. That fact aside, Swayze growls his way through scene to scene with satisfying brutality, though those expecting Denzel Washington-esque screen chewing should look elsewhere. As good as Trimmel is, this show will live and die with Swayze – and I sincerely hope that doesn’t turn into a literal statement.

Neither the pilot episode or Episode 2, titled Two Choices, blew me away; as intense as Swayze is, that intensity doesn’t always resonate through the show itself. Again, one can’t help but compare The Beast to The Shield, and having grown to love that show over seven seasons, it’s hard to see the same quality here. Nevertheless, only two episodes have passed and both are good enough to give it a few more chances.

In other words, it has potential.

Interestingly, one of the most intriguing aspects of the show is the relationship between Jake and his neighbor Rose, played by the beautiful Lindsay Pulsipher. The relationship serves as a good antithesis to the rest of the show, and I liked the prospect of the issues the couple is going to face in the future. Still, I think the writers jumped the gun by removing much of their conflict by the second episode.

The Beast, which premieres Thursday, January 15th at 10pm ET/PT on A&E hasn’t won me over, but it’s intriguing enough to give it a little time. It’s sad to think that this may be Patrick Swayze’s final hurrah, but if it is, it is a commendable way to go out. The show maybe similar to bigger and better things, but Swayze’s performance is top notch.

It’s been a couple weeks since Sex and the City made its way to theaters, raking in a whole ton of money. I got invited to see the movie opening night, but opted not to stay up to 3am with a bunch of weeping, screaming women. Part of the reason, I’ll admit, is that I didn’t want to be ridiculed by my guy friends for going to see a midnight showing of Sex and the City. Another reason: I am not that huge of a fan to sacrifice my beauty sleep for a picture like this.

Nevertheless, I finally made my way to see the Sex and the City movie, and it was pretty good. In fact, I thought it stayed extremely loyal to the TV show (it probably helps that the writer/director/executive producer of the show is also the writer and director of the movie) and managed to be just as funny as any individual episode.

And, to be blunt, I am straight and single. I didn’t go see Sex and the City because my girlfriend dragged me to it, and I didn’t see it because of my sexual orientation. Yes, I was one of the few single straight guys in the audience – perhaps the only one.

Read my full Sex and the City movie review.

I’ve posted a movie review for the 2008 remake Funny Games, starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Michael Pitt. The movie is directed by Michael Haneke, who also directed the original Austrian version ten years earlier. Anyone know why he decided to remake his own movie? I don’t know. Even worse, the movie is a shot-by-shot remake, meaning if you’ve seen one you’ve seen the other, save some subtitles (assuming the original is indeed subtitled).

I haven’t seen the original Funny Games, so thankfully I was able to enjoy this one a lot. It is depraved, disturbing and shocking – read my Funny Games movie review here.

It had been almost ten years since I watched The Red Violin, a touching and engaging drama where the main character is… a violin. No, it’s not just any violin, but an extremely rare violin fashioned to perfection, painted red and a survivor of several centuries worth of owners.

The movie, directed and co-written by François Girard, is a sweeping, movie drama that spans the violin’s creation centuries ago to a modern day auction where the violin is expected to fetch millions of dollars. The violin survives burials, gunshots, affairs, gypsies, communist China and more and tells the stories of its various owners, from the woman who finds that her husband is more fascinated by the unique properties of the violin than by her to the blind nationalism in China that distrusts the West, including Western music.

Having watched the film for a second time – and having built the movie up in my head for nearly ten years – The Red Violin isn’t quite as captivating as I remember it, but it’s still a very good drama with an incredible score and great acting, highlighted by Samuel L. Jackson.

Lionsgate is re-releasing the film on DVD, this time as the first entry in The Meridian Collection. Along with another film, Diva, The Meridian Collection is set to showcase Lionsgate’s top films in their library. As one might expect, The Meridian Collection is just an excuse to resell DVDs with minimal effort – and to make money, nothing more.

The Red Violin DVD comes equipped with a couple of special features, including:

• An audio commentary with Girard and co-writer Don McKellar
• “The Oscar-Winning Chaconne” – This is an examination of how composer John Corigiliano went about scoring the film. Unlike most films, where the score is added at the end, the score had to built into the screenplay from the beginning as the film often shows complicated finger movements on screen. This is a pretty interesting feature.
• “The Auction Block,” which explains the fascination with Stradivarius violins and includes interviews with the woman who currently owns and plays the violin that the film is based upon.

And that’s it. The Meridian Collection doesn’t offer a lot of new bonus features – all it does is get a Lionsgate product back in front of audience’s eyes. Of course, when the film is something like The Red Violin, a quality picture that few people have seen, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I just got back from a Thursday-night showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it is not everything I wanted and more. I liked it – it was entertaining enough – but there are some moments in the movie that really push your acceptance as an Indy fan.

Read my full Indiana Jones 4 review here.