Reviews

I am confused by all the NEGATIVE reviews of this film. Seriously, what gives? Early during the pre-production stage when the cast was announced and Seth Rogen was cast as the lead in a superhero film, I had my doubts. Nevermind that I knew nothing about the Green Hornet's origins in radio or even the sixties television version.

What and who's the Green Hornet? A quick wikipedia search lead me to discover that the character was originally a 1930's radio star. Boring.

After learning this, I wouldn't have given the film a second glance, but a popular online magazine that I frequent attended the Comic Convention a few years ago and featured the Black Beauty as well as an interview with Seth Rogan. It was through the in depth look at the vehicle and comprehensive interview that garnered my attention.

Some months later, the official trailer came out. The first twenty to thirty seconds of the trailer made the film seem insipid: some rich playboy gets control of the newspaper after his father passes away.

Again, BORING. But it was after these first seconds in the trailer that drew me into the film. There were hints of comedy, hints of action, an Asian kicking butt and a really wicked classic Chevy.

I haven't had time to peruse the internet over the film so any and all potential spoilers were intentionally avoided by me. Also, I put away my personal biases of Seth Rogen and went in to watch the film because it seemed interesting to me.

And I'm glad I did. The film was more than interesting. It was SPECTACULAR! Contrary to what some reviewers are saying, this film wasn't good because it was "bad", it was good because it was GOOD!

The humor was clean, the setups and payoffs were properly executed and there was so much going on in the film that it was difficult not to pay attention. I came into the film having no expectations at all and left the theater feeling that this was a throughly enjoyable, very FUN film.

Those who complain that this film doesn't do justice to the source material, the comics, the sixties television version, etc., etc., can go back an re-read and re-watch those versions that are clearly their favorite.

Appreciate the Green Hornet for what it is: a film with a bright and talented cast, some great set props and overall fun action/comedy superhero film. Excellent production values and excellent cast! It was refreshing to watch a film that didn't go down the dark route that almost all superhero films are going these days. 10/10. Because it's just THAT good.

The trailers for this film passed it off as nothing more than a comedy. For those people who say this film had the potential to be so much more, they are grossly mistaken. Right from the beginning, this film knew EXACTLY what it wanted to do and certainly never shy'd away from it.

Before I begin to review this film and it's ideas, I want to encourage Christians, Jews and Muslims to come out and see this film. I should warn you, those of you who aren't secure in your faith might feel a bit uneasy sitting through this picture. Still go see it anyway.

The film is essentially divided into 2 acts: the first being the setup of this world where everyone is bluntly honest (the comical part) and then the second being the invention of lying and then lying regarding religion.

I'm not going to waste space rehashing the plot; you can read that from other reviewers. I will comment on the things that I feel are important, starting with the content and then the problems of the argument of the film. Here are some challenging, thought provoking questions and interesting ideas presented in the film:

a) how do you know the people leading your faith are NOT lying to you? b) What if there is no man in the sky? c) What if this thing called religion is actually corrupted by man and is used to manipulate and control others?

The answer to a) is that in the Christian religion, unfortunately, they are. Read in the New Testament (NT) Matthew 12:39-40. Jesus (peace on him) is calling his followers to see the sign of similarity between him and the Prophet Jonah (peace on him). Jonah (pbuh) went through extreme physical torture (stayed in the stomach of the whale) and LIVED. Jesus (peace on him) went through extreme physical torture and LIVED. It wouldn't have been a miracle if either had DIED.

The answer to question b) is in Numbers 23:19. "God is NOT a man." Therefore, there is no "man in the sky". It is a folly and like Gervais's character said, it is a LIE.

The answer to question c) ties into the answer to question a). Who can deny the fact that in the NT, the gospels are not eyewitnesses, but rather begin with, "the gospel ACCORDING to..."? According to means that these people are not eyewitnesses and have the potential to make error. The worst error is that they say that God has a child, is an equal part of a trinity and demands human blood sacrifice to forgive sin.

This goes against what the 10 Commandments say. And now that you know that Jesus (pbuh) never died, you can eliminate the blood sacrifice aspect from your religion and cease the suggestion of a trinity.

The movie is calling you to see what's wrong with the religion you claim to follow. It's not a personal attack, but attack by the writers to the audience as a means of a wakeup call.

Now I'm going to critique the film criticizing religion. Unfortunately for the writers, their presentation is strong, but the argument itself is weak. They create a fictional world where everyone is brutally honest. No one in the history of mankind up to the point of filming, has ever lied and apparently, everyone in the film is an atheist with no concept of God or the afterlife.

Clearly, you and I know that the world they project is NOT reality. In fact, such a world that they portray on screen does not exist today. But it's funny that only in this projected world, the thing that man chooses to lie about after self gain is religion. Why? This just shows that in the writers' minds, this is the only way that they can rationalize their atheism. Everyone is honest except the one preaching religion. It's too far fetched but it's what they need to keep on believing what they are going to believe.

Gervais's character is truthful to the audience when he says he's lying about religion. If you walked into the theater as a believer in God and left as a disbeliever, Gervais has successfully transitioned from lying on the big screen to now lying to you personally.

It is a tragic folly not to believe in God or a Day of Judgement. I am NOT an atheist, and thankfully feel very secure and comfortable in my faith and can sit back, watch the film and offer my two cents. I know that I've written much, but this film was very thought provoking and I feel like I got my money's worth.

And before anyone decides to give up on God, I invite you to go to your local Mosque, ask to have a Quran and learn more about Islam (it's free, I checked). Seeing as you've already watched the film on atheism, might as well broaden your horizons and check out other faiths to see what works for you.

The film: 7/10

There are many words to describe this film. Some of the best ones include rubbish, garbage, trash, filth and despicable. The reason I'm writing this review is because I wish someone on IMDb had the courage to accurately let me know what this film really was all about and someone to warn me against seeing it. Therefore, I'm doing something for you that wasn't done for me - consider it a courtesy. I'll start from the top: the trailers (gotta love those guys who make them, they do a great job of generating interest) depict the film as the a story about a super hot girl who starts killing off the boys. The trailers made it seem like this was going to be very entertaining and a real thrill ride. I suppose this is so because those guys are good at their jobs. It turns out that this film is NOTHING like the trailers. I am trying very hard to be nice in this review, but I can't anymore. Here's what's wrong with the film: zero character development, no story, poor plot, Satan worship, meaningless gore & violence, homosexuality, satanic rituals and Satan worship. Too many talking heads and so very little action going on. We're told things as opposed to being shown them, there's too much Voice-over narration, and the story is somewhat told in flashbacks. These problems aren't artistic expressions, they are classic examples of poor and deficient script writing. The reason I gave this film one star is because of JK Simmons and the nice sets/locations. No other stars should be given: the acting was bad, the script sucked and it is a tragic folly to dedicate a film to Satan. And it's worse expecting Megan Fox to carry the film. Everyone who acted in this film now has a dent in their resumes. By the way, the cast was extraordinarily poorly cast. There are so many different things that you can do instead of watching this filth. But if you do go ahead and see it, consider yourself warned. This film is just...bad. (barely) 1 out of 10 stars. Skip it!!!

I am now convinced that all these people who loved this movie must be trolls. This film DOES NOT deserve the high rating. I repeat, it DOES NOT deserve the high rating.

Before you watch the film, you are presented with a short film called Partly Cloudy. At first it starts off pretty innocent, but then delves into some garbage about how storks bring these awfully cute babies to their parents. And then it goes on to show you that the clouds went on to create these babies.

Absolute garbage! Some of us prefer to be upfront, responsible and honest with our children. We would never teach them this! Granted you have to have a suspension of disbelief to reality when watching films, this kind of theological idea is forced on the audience. Worst of all, it was Unnecessary.

Now onto the film. The best thing I can say about this film is the graphics were spectacular! It's east to see how much money was invested in the technologies to make this product. Next I'll say that my favorite characters were the talking dogs and the bird! They were INCREDIBLE! In fact, they could have made a stand alone film and it would have done very well. Bob Peterson is an excellent voice talent choice.

Now onto the bad. For starters, the content is inappropriate for this film. The first 5 minutes are drama laden, saddening and very, very depressing! Right off the bat, the audience falls in love with Mrs. Fredrickson as a child and onward. For some reason, the script writers don't let this couple achieve their dream of traveling together; every time they save up, they have to spend it on something else. Then they also show Mrs. Fredrickson have a miscarriage. And then later, she dies.

Let me remind you that this all happens in the first FIVE minutes of the film! I kept thinking as I watched this film, "gosh, this is depressing! I feel terrible!" Disney films are supposed to leave you feeling like a million bucks! Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people - this is how it should be in the Disney world.

Second, unless you are an annoying, chubby eight year old or a rigid old man, you'll have a hard time relating to these characters. By the time something actually happens to either of them, it's hard to care about them. Countless times, I found myself rooting for the other, no human, good characters or the bad guys.

You can't get me to like you by feeling sorry for you. And that's what this film does to the main character.

I was expecting something like the pixar film, "Meet the Robinsons," but this was NOTHING like that.

If anyone's seen the movies in the SAW franchise, they'll know that these films aren't about mindless gore and blood (though this one comes pretty close to it), these films are more thrillers than anything else. The common theme that strings these films together is everyday people who have no regard for human life, are put into situations which make them appreciate their life and those around them.

This film somewhat deviates from this main theme. I won't rehash the plot, but I will say that the film was good. Both the cast and crew managed to do a fantastic job! Visually, the film is stunning and the directing is very crisp.

Some of the best scenes were the flashback scenes with Tobin Bell. It was refreshing to see the alternate viewpoints of various scenes from some of the earlier films (the barb wire trap from SAW and the gun in door trap from SAW II).It was really great to see Betsy Russell (Jill) back on screen reprising her role - she looks amazing! It's interesting how the studio and writers have managed to keep the Saw franchise alive and well considering the main character was killed off in Saw III. This newest installment leaves several questions unanswered.

For starters, what was in the box? Who set the letter on Hoffman's desk that said, "I know who you are"? Clearly it wasn't Strahm because he doesn't know who Hoffman really is until very late into the film. So who knows who Hoffman really is? There are several more, but you'll have to see the film.

And as far as the series is at this point in time, introducing new characters into the game without any character development is simply a mistake. So with zero character development of the new five characters, their game, traps and existence in the film was pretty insignificant. They are merely cattle to be slaughtered in "original, yet meaningless" traps.

Now for a film with the tag line, "you won't believe how it ends", the ending of this film is particularly weak. Be that as it may, my qualms rest with the fact that when Hoffman enters into the glass case, he just stares at a panic stricken Strahm. He should have taunted him, blew kisses at him (haha!), flipped him off or even waved at him. Instead, he does nothing except stare at him and then pass out.

All things considered, the film is good. It definitely leaves you hanging, so hopefully they'll pick up the slack in the next chapter. 7/10.

This film is, by far, one of the best video game adaptations that I've seen in a long time. Like the game, the film is dark, action packed and filled with lots of story.

Mark Walhberg is phenomenal on screen as Max Payne and completely owns the role; the studio execs couldn't have picked a better suited actor! All the rest of the characters are well cast and contribute to making this such a fun film. Also Mila Kunis does a good job playing Mona Sax.

The director did an excellent job of directing all the scenes, but he really earns credit for making several scenes and locations of the film extremely identical to the game.

Those who haven't seen or played the game Max Payne will probably not like, appreciate or even understand this film or it's artistic style; it's dark and very nitty, gritty.

Now normally I have some kind of nitpicking and complaining about just about any film I review, but I am at a loss of negative things to say about this film.

Stunning visuals, great acting, an interesting and dark story all add up to a very well earned and well deserved 10/10. This Max Payne film delivers!

This film is NOT recommended if you're looking for an engaging, fun, entertaining and interesting movie. It's also not recommended if you don't like seeing Muslims. The script itself is paper thin and even though there's tons of action on screen, the script does not follow the traditional Hollywood values.

The reason I gave this four stars as opposed to one is because there are some elements of this film that really shine while the other elements fall flat.

DiCaprio, Crowe and the entire cast give performances that make their characters very believable; who knew DiCaprio could speak such good Arabic? There's lots of exploding objects, guns, foot chases and overall action.

If you're looking for a cinematic movie with a fantastic script, you'll quickly discover that the worst part of this film is the paper thin plot and story. Was something lost in translation from the novel to the script to the big screen? Or maybe the novel is just like this? I don't know.

What remains, however, is the fact that important parts of the film seemed to be incoherent, chopped and rushed. Specificially, when the characters get into the explanation of what went down after the climax of the film, the explanation moves at lightening speed!

The people in the film were quoting the Qur'an, but they missed an essential verse: "Those unto whom We have given the Scripture, who read it with the right reading, those believe in it. And whoso disbelieveth in it, those are they who are the losers." (2:121) Those people in the film who were blowing themselves up and using the Qur'an verses to justify their acts of murder, failed to understand the proper context of those verses which they were quoting, hence not reading it the way it should have been read. The sad thing is this same thing happens today - people fail to understand the context of the verses and then commit atrocities based on their limited understanding of the verse or their own agenda.

And even though DiCaprio's character tried to get them to understand that their terroristic ideals and behaviors were wrong, he failed to bring up this very important verse and so essentially failed to convince them.

But I digress. 4/10

Since there are so many other reviews that have and probably will continue to rehash the plot, I won't.

The film essentially picks up where the trailers leave off and there are very few scenes in the film that are slow. The script is decent, but what really makes this film shine are all the performances and the directing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Michael Chiklis, Ethan Embry, Billy Bob Thorton and Rosario Davis. While the trailer shows very little of Thorton and the other actors, the film did have more of him in it than expected. The other actors mentioned did an incredible job, even though there wasn't enough of Chiklis in it than I would have liked.

Not surprisingly, the leads Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan, also do an incredible job! LaBeouf shines on screen and shouldn't let his amazing work ethic, acting ability or film success clutter his head and ruin his acting career (just a gentle disclaimer because this kid is fantastic on screen!).

During the action and vehicle chase scenes, the director could have not shaken or blurred the camera as much, but I suppose that's just one of those things with action films.

Anyway, this is a wonderful film with a fantastic ending! 10/10

I just finished watching Marigold today and I'll begin by saying that I found this DVD on the shelves of Blockbuster. While strolling around looking for something new and good to watch, the picture of Ali Larter caught my attention.

After drooling over Ali Larter, I picked up the cover and continued to glance around the cover. From the looks of it, I thought the costumes were a bit over the top. And then I saw the other Indians on the cover and figured this was some kind of spoof film or something like that.

When I flipped over the the synopsis part and saw Salman Khan, I did a double take. Salman Khan in an American film with Ali Larter in a DVD at Blockbuster? Because Salman Khan is to Bollywood films like Mel Gibson is to Hollywood films, I had very high expectations for this film: it HAD to be good! I am very pleased to say that Marigold is a phenomenal film! It far exceeded any and all of my personal expectations!

I suppose a film like this is what happens when you have a decent script, a talented, experienced, knowledgeable and goal oriented director, two incredible actors playing the lead roles and just a very hard working supporting cast and crew! Khan and Larter appear to have really great chemistry together and both shine on the big screen: they look really good together. The musical numbers weren't bad at all, which was surprising, considering how cheesy and long Indian films' musicals are these days. And you'll be happy to know that the Indian costumes are very far from being cheesy as you'll get.

The beginning of the film was kind of slow, the middle was really good, the scenes leading to the climax were pretty dramatic, but the ending was just awesome! I have a few gripes and complaints about the DVD, however. While I loved the widescreen aspect ratio of the DVD, I didn't like the fact that several other things were left out of the DVD. For starters, there are no subtitles. Now English being my first language, it's not a problem. However, when some of the Indian actors and actresses spoke, it was (at times) difficult to understand what they were saying; captioning would have helped.

Another thing that I would have appreciated on the DVD would be a blooper reel or some kind of collection of outtakes. And lastly, how about a menu feature that would allow us to skip right to the musical numbers? Man, some of those songs were really good! On the flip side, I throughly enjoyed watching the making of Marigold.

I have tons more to say regarding the awesomeness of this film and how much I liked it, but I don't have the time nor do I want to keep on writing why I enjoyed it so much. I hope that Salman Khan does more English films in addition to his Hindi films and I certainly hope this Hindi film will not be Ali Larter's last Bollywood film. And I encourage the director to continue making Bollywood film hybrids featuring Salman Khan, Ali Larter and other big name actors - just make sure the scripts are original and good.

10/10 - this is just a great love story film that your entire family can enjoy!

The summary says it all. The start of the film was really slow and boring. I saw right through their paper thin plot and wondered why I bothered spending time and money to watch this. Well, I decided to stick it out and I'm glad I did.

Robert Downy Jr. and Jay Baruchel carried the middle of the film. Downy Jr's impersonation was hilarious as a black man and all the things that he said; he was really convincing as an Australian too. And in the end, Ben Stiller picked up the film and completely rocked it out. The action, intensity and humor was all nicely melded together in the end. That, in my opinion, is what makes the film just awesome!

On a side note, Tom Cruise, Tobey Maguire and Matthew McConaheughy were all spectacular. I was really surprised to see Cruise step out of the box and depart from his normal character roles with this one. However, he managed to pull it off, was hilarious and did an awesome job! I prefer to see him as an action hero instead of some fat, slimy, greedy boss who's every other word is the F word. Hopefully he won't portray this type of character again (one time, for him, is more than enough!).

All in all, the directing was spectacular and the action packed scenes along with the explosions and stuff were really, really good. More plot would have been nice, but I suppose that's something for them to work on, should they make a sequel.

7/10

It takes a certain kind of humor and a certain kind of understanding of satire as well as current pop culture and current films to understand these kinds of films.

I thought Date Movie was great, Epic Movie wonderful, Meet the Spartans terrific and I found myself enjoying Disaster movie. While it isn't as funny as some of the earlier films nor is the cast as good as the earlier films, it's still pretty good.

Bear in mind that this is not your average film. You CANNOT treat it as such, have intense expectations, get disappointed, come online and badmouth the film. As I said before, this film is loaded with satire. It's also loaded with slapstick.

There were two instances of the film that I felt kind of dragged on: a)the musical scene where the high school group was singing during the Cloverfield knock off and b)the whole Hannah Montana being crushed under the meteor.

The best part was, in my opinion, when Carmen Electra wrestled Lisa. Just to watch them wrestle was well worth going out to the movies. And I really liked the Enchanced bit where the girl jumps out of the sewer and lands on the black dude's balls (yep, he sings about it).

I found myself constantly laughing and laughing during this film. It's slapstick and satire: the movie plot really doesn't have to make sense. As long as you understand the gist of where each scene is coming from, what message the writers are trying to convey and then watch how they're presenting it, you'll laugh.

One last thing, the chipmunk bit was so wicked! I hope the DVD is loaded with unrated extras that were chopped out of the movie.

Because I can appreciate this kind of a film, 8/10. Not bad, not bad at all!

Pan's Labyrinth was visually stunning, the story was engaging, the directing was fantastic, as were the location of the scenes. The only reason I'm giving this a nine instead of a ten is because the ending leaves so much more to be desired.

As an audience, we get to escape into a surreal magical reality alongside a warring and dark reality and we (the audience) go through all these "tests" and are finally waiting for something extraordinary to happen in the end, and it doesn't. Not having that magical thing happen was a let down: I wanted more. Having more would have allowed me to give this film a ten.

Anyways, this isn't a film for small children and while the grisly violence and gore is nowhere near the shade of some of the other horror films, for the mainstream audience, it deserves the warning.

Overall, this was just a very good film. If they make a sequel, hopefully they'll make it in English (watching the film with subtitles was a bit difficult). 9/10

I'm one of the people who never got a chance to see this film on the big screen. I rented the DVD, watched the unrated version and have to say that this film is fantastic! It's on par with the first one, but dirtier. Penn and Cho do a really good job reprising their roles as Harold and Kumar, and the girl who plays Vanessa is the sugar on top of this masterpiece! I was surprised to see Eddie Kay Thomas in this one, but having him in the film made it better! I would have liked to see the "Extreme" punks return and would have preferred that NPH not been shotgun blasted and left for dead, but there's always room for improvement in the next one.

This film has full frontal female nudity in it which was deliciously sweet and hilarious. The male full frontal nudity, not so much. That particular scene was hilariously disgusting. This one isn't for children, but it is good for laughs.

9/10

Don't listen to anyone who tells you this film isn't good. Sure there are parts of the film (maybe 10%) that clearly show the amateur nature of the director, but everyone starts from somewhere.

Some of the editing was a little jerky and weird, in the beginning and during the climax, but overall it was spot on and made the film fun. There were scenes in which the director built up tension and did an incredible job at doing it.

The dialog was really good and the script wasn't too bad at all. Perhaps I'm jaded and have seen too many horror films, but I wasn't scared by this one at all. One thing you have to remember is that horror films are dark, dark comedies. I saw the humor in this film and laughed.

Credit should go to the director for making this film spunky, fun, sexy (the hot girl who played Mia and main character, her teasing the boyfriend, etc.) and then thrilling and horrific at the same time. These well blended qualities are what's missing from mainstream Hollywood horror films. Anyway, the cast and crew did an amazing job and this is really just a fun, fun film.

To wrap it up, I think the director shows promising talent that can only get better with more films. Don't pass this one up, it's worth the rental price. 7/10

The only reason why I decided to see this movie was because the trailer showed a)Steven Segal in Cockpuncher and b)Sarah McElligott as Melissa Cherry.

Even though both segments were pretty funny and Segal does a great job, the real highlight of the onion movie is Sarah McElligott. She looks stunning on camera in her revealing outfits and in all of her explicit body movements (though she's clothed). The parody songs and her denial of all the sexual innuendo in the music and videos is all too real and just too funny.

I'll admit, there were other times in the film when I chuckled, but found myself finding something offensive after the joke was over. There's enough satire and humor that probably will offend just about everyone and anyone. And then there are times when the filmmakers try too hard to drive a point across.

All in all, this isn't a date movie. This is a movie to watch when you're bored, you want to watch a movie but really don't want to get involved in a movie.

Segal gets one star and Sarah McElligott gets the other two. If it was more of her and all her sexual innuendos, then my rating of this film (among other things) would have gone up.

I'll be honest, I hated the first Hellboy film. But I believe in giving second chances and, from the trailers, HBII seemed remotely interesting.

I am glad that I gave this film a second chance! Not only was the story and plot original, interesting and good, but the visual effects, acting, script, cinematography and direction were all top notch. Together, everything made this film remarkably spectacular and just a blast to watch.

One of the things that I really enjoyed was the beginning of the film, seeing the father reprise his role and having him tell his story to the young Hellboy and then relate it in CGI - that was brilliant! And then the way the entire film unfolded as it did was just remarkable; almost adventuresome.

There was something very dark and mystical about the film - almost like a darker, more involved version of Harry Potter without any of the magic. The script was complete, all the questions were answered and there was depth into the story characters and all the conflicts within the film.

The sets, CGI along with everyone else, looked great on camera. Recognition should go to Selma Blair who looked amazingly hot on screen. Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, as well as all the others looked good too.

HBII is nothing short of eye candy and pure entertainment. It's got the violence, the humor, the love story, the action and an overall totally wicked personality that just makes this film, unlike the first, a complete blast to watch.

I hope they make more HB films, retain the cast and include Jeffrey Tambor - he's a talented actor and his character is great comic element in the Hellboy films. I give this film a 10/10, but don't take any young children to go see the film.

I'll start off by saying that am a huge fan of the X-files; not so much the later season episodes where Mulder is missing and beyond those, but really the earlier season episodes where Scully and Mulder actually investigate the paranormal.

With that in mind, this movie falls right in place with the earlier seasons. Scully and Mulder, now no longer affiliated with the FBI or the X-files, are called in by the FBI to help locate a missing female FBI agent. That's all I'll say about the story and plot without giving away the entire film, but I will say that this new film falls right in line with the theme and context of the earliest X-files episodes.

It's as if literally, no time has passed since the last X-files episode to this movie, even though it's actually been five years. It's normal to assume that within five year's time, things change. Not so with the X-files. And the result is spectacular: the acting was good, the humor was nice and everyone looks great! Carter, Anderson and Duchovany jump right in and pick up where they left off. The entire cast and crew did an amazing job and it was also a wonderful surprise to see the man who played B.F. Skinner reprise his role again. Unfortunately, there is no Robert Patrick in this one (I know, he's from the later episodes), but there's plenty of Mulder and Scully action to keep all the fans interested.

There were only two things that stopped me from giving this a ten: a) I could have done without repeatedly seeing decapitated animals and humans, even if they were fake and b)Scully and Mulder don't rejoin the FBI.

For anyone who's a fan of the series, this movie throughly satisfies. I hope Carter and his cast make more X-files films.

There are films out there that when you see the trailer, you've pretty much seen the movie. Thankfully, such is not the case with this film.

All the acting is spectacular, the story is very dark and is closer to the 1995 animated series Batman. This cartoon is different than today's "The Batman" cartoon series.

There's not much that I can say without giving away the film, so I'll keep my comments short. Christopher Nolan did an amazing job on this film and it's so much better than the first.

I do have a two minor gripes, that if fixed, would have made this film a 10 instead of a nine. For starters, when Bale appears as Batman, he still talks in this sort of "sexy" voice. What the? Why? It was hard for me not laugh when Bale spoke as Batman.

Next, what's the deal with his costume? In the early 90's, there was a Batman action figure in which you could take off Batman's costume and replace it with a tuxedo. The rubber was very soft and flexible and honestly, really reminded me of this Batman's costume; it looked cheap and flimsy on screen. Sorry. Michael Keaton's Batman suit was the real deal.

My gripes aside, the story was refreshingly new and really entertaining to watch. As I said before, all the actors did an amazing job, especially Eckhart and Ledger. I was pleasantly surprised to see Anthony Michael Hall have a few scenes; he, too, was excellent.

There was one scene in which the Joker is being interrogated and takes a merciless pounding from Batman. When I watched it, I couldn't but help feel sad, sorry and pity for Ledger. What better a film for Ledger to be remembered by, giving such a fantastic performance than in the Dark Knight? Anyway, the Dark Knight lives up to all the hype and is definitely worth watching.

Who are all these people who are giving this film poor ratings? What gives? First of all, if you were suckered or tricked into seeing the 300 (of which Meet the Spartans is heavily based on) and you didn't like it, then Meet the Spartans is totally for you.

There were several reasons that I didn't like the 300. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Frank Miller and respect his artistic expression. This is, of course, one of the reasons that I went to go see the 300 in the first place. However, I was expecting to see a comic book adaptation (of which the 300 was), but wasn't expecting to see all the seriousness and homo erotica references that the movie had or at least was leaning towards.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who felt the same way. Apparently the writers of Meet the Spartans felt the same and managed to come up with a script that pokes fun (pun intended) of the 300 and all it's homo eroticism, as well as modern day pop culture.

The jokes were on cue, really funny and not over the top or even forced. Whereas the 300 alluded to homosexuality, Meet the Spartans throws it in your face in a very witty, nonsexual and funny way.

You'll laugh, cringe, laugh some more and then think, "they aren't going to go there." And then they do. Go see it, it's hilarious!

Don't believe these "reviews" that dissect the film into "acts" and critique and analyze the film. People who do so probably haven't seen the film because what they say isn't relevant to the film.

There's really not much to say about the film without giving it away. And I'm sure that there are plenty of other reviews on here that rehash the plot, so I won't.

If you're a fan of Will Smith (I am) and his roles in action, sci-fi, comedy or a blend of all three, go see this film. Smith is fantastic in his role of Hancock and I doubt anyone else could have pulled off this role better or more entertaining than he did. And hey, Hancock isn't really your typical Hollywood hero, so cut Smith a break: he performed well! All of the cast and crew had great chemistry together and the film was fun to watch. Charlize looks really good in this film and Bateman was pretty impressive himself. The shaky camera could have been used less, but it's no where near as intrusive as in Cloverfield or Blair Witch Project.

Overall, I give the film 7/10 stars. The cast and crew did a fantastic job.

I won't rehash the plot: it is safe to say that it's been done several times already. I will say that the same fun and adventure from the previous Indiana Jones films continues with this one, albeit in a more modern fashion. And, although I found myself chuckling a couple of times during various parts of the film that weren't supposed to be funny, the overall film was surprisingly good.

The cast and crew were terrific and did an amazing job. The on screen chemistry between Ford and LaBeouf was excellent - both actors are fantastic to watch.

I was surprised at how Lucas and Spielberg managed to tie in aliens to the mix. Years ago, if someone had mentioned Indiana Jones encountering aliens, I probably would have laughed, called you insane and never would have thought twice about it.

But when you think about Spielberg and Lucas and their amount of influence on this picture, the idea no longer seems laughable, but makes sense. I think it's safe to say that they were walking on very dangerous territory with all the fans of the franchise, but managed to successfully pull off aliens in Indy 4 while retaining the elements that make the film fun to watch.

So far all the excitement, adventure, eye candy, thrill and a revisit to the past, I rate this film 9/10 stars. Excellent job cast and crew!!

This film has NO story and no plot. And it's a shame too. The CGI work, directing and acting is all top notch. The film starts off with a small back story (which is fantastic and entertaining), then gets really slow in the middle of the film and then at the very end, becomes tripped, rushed and falls on its face.

Parts of the film just didn't make sense. Some examples: why was it important at the ending to acknowledge that Hellboy had a choice, when throughout the film, this concept was NEVER brought up? Why did HB go into a trance when, again, this was never brought up earlier? What were HB's redeeming characteristics? Too early in the film HB is joking around and making wisecracks like he knows us and we love him and will accept him and what he does. No!!! He needed to do something besides taking candy bars from the father and gobbling them up, to prove himself as likable.

Not everyone knows the Hellboy back story and not everyone read the comic (I didn't even know such a thing existed). As such, I NEEDED this information. Withholding it was detrimental to the story.

The hidden premise of the film is that Hellboy is needed to open a portal to release a bunch of demons into the world so that they can take it over. That's the only reason for the film. Everything else is vague and loosely tied in. Nothing, after the beginning flashback is congruent or makes any form of sense.

So after the initial action scenes in the beginning, the middle is filled with slow and boring scenes that really contribute nothing to the story, and then comes the climax. And then BOOM and the film is over.

Throw this film in the same bucket as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This film sucked! Three stars for everyone in this project except the writers and their horrible script.

The only "things" in Get Smart that identify it with the series are pretty much the items in the mueseum, the opening/closing entering/exiting sequences, a few familiar catch phrases, the GET SMART intro theme score and the familiar character names.

If you're looking for anything "Get Smart" related things beyond those mentioned, forget about it. The buck stops there.

That is not to say that this film is a bad one or anything else. In light or in comparasion to the television series, this film falls flat on it's face. There are so many deviations from the original source, that the nature of the entire film is so completely changed from what it sets out to be.

Had they not put anything Get Smart related in the film, it would have been a great spy film. In fact, you could actually watch this film and ignore the fat that they're trying to make a film using the "Get Smart" trademark, and you'd be surprised at how funny and entertaining it is to watch.

Anne Hathaway, although she looks good, is too young for someone as old as Steve Carrell. Carrell is a pretty darn funny person and he does a great job of being funny. However, he just tries too hard to be himself and acts less and less like Don Adams.

Nevertheless, the film was a pretty good spy film to watch. 5/10

There's not much to say about this film without spoiling it, so I'll keep my commentary brief. There will be some spoilers, but nothing that will spoil or reduce your movie viewing pleasure.

I'll start by saying that this film had so much potential to flop, but thankfully, it didn't!

The script writers and director did an overall fantastic job on this film. I really enjoyed the fact that they avoided the typical Hollywood route of brandishing all Middle Eastern people as terrorists. I was shocked to see them show innocent refuges and speak very compassionately about them during the television newscast. That in itself is rare, and when Ironman saved the refuges, nearly everyone in the audience cheered and clapped. Wow.

I found it humorous that they mixed Arabic, Farci and Urdu together in the same sentences. Most of the audience was probably clueless about this, but those of us who speak these languages picked up on it. And being able to understand Urdu and Arabic, I knew that something else was up when Stark was being videotaped by the "terrorists" in the beginning of the film. Being able to understand the other languages made it a little more fun to watch.

Robert Downey Jr. really redeems himself in this film; his portrayal of Tony Stark/Ironman is top notch and he fits the bill perfectly! The director did an incredible job of filming the entire film, especially the action scenes. All too often in other films, the camera moves too quickly, and we end up missing out on the action taking place. This certainly is not the case in this film. Not only is the action easy to watch, but it's well balanced as well.

The CGI is very believable and subtly adds (as opposed to taking away) to the film without being overbearing. In my opinion, some of the coolest scenes were Tony Stark getting into the Ironman suit.

The script is entertaining and enjoyable, and the cast and crew (on and off screen) all did an amazing job on this film. The last scene after the end credits lets us know that some kind of sequel will take place. I can only hope it will be something new, yet still as enjoyable as this one.

9/10 - go see it!

Let me begin by saying this film had some seriously tremendous potential. The premise is fantastic and very interesting: a strange monster invades NYC and the entire footage is captured by a group of young people. This idea is rock solid. Unfortunately, it's the execution of the premise and the poor choices made by the director that make this film, once promising, now literally vomit inducing.

For starters, shooting the entire film on hand-held camera is an INCREDIBLE mistake. Yes, there are instances where this approach works well, but for the majority of the film where the characters are running or moving quickly, it just doesn't work. Anytime there's some kind of action, all we see is nothing but blur.

Films are supposed to entertain. What is entertaining about blurs and streaks of blurs in motion on the big screen? Nothing. It's vomit inducing. It's okay for characters to run, so why didn't the crew switch to a production camera during those moments where the cast is scurrying away? We needed to see them running away, but from a third person perspective, not a first person (hand held camera) perspective. It's not like the crew couldn't afford it - especially since they did a spectacular job on all the other aspects of the film (the CGI monster). Failure of the director to recognize this exemplifies his poor integrity skills.

Any kind of sequel to this film is going to be lame. I was glad the characters died or were attacked. Because when they were, that awful camera was stationary and it didn't hurt to look at the screen.

Lots of people on here claim that Cloverfield shakes less than the Blair Witch Project. Utter nonsense. As you get into the middle and end of the film, the shaking is SO bad that the film becomes one for your ears and not your eyes. Roughly 20 people (young and old) left the theater and did not return. The man sitting behind me vomited.

Another reason why I dislike this film is because there's nothing invested in the story. We want answers to what is this monster, where did it come from, what does it want and how do we get rid of it? These questions are NEVER answered.

Again, another instance in which the director is to blame for failure to do his job properly. The shaky camera and unfinished script RUINED the film.

At the end of the day, after all is said and done, this film might make gobs of money. But at what price? At the price of the audience HATING the director as well as the studio? Is all that money worth it to be blacklisted by those you seek to entertain?

Do yourself a favor, skip this film. In fact, if you want, you can grab your own hand-held camera, record yourself shaking it vigorously while you and your friends scream in the background about a monster. Then put it in your DVD player and watch it. If you do, you'll pretty much get the gist of watching Cloverfield, but I'd bet yours is even better than Cloverfield. Why? Because you are an amateur whereas these guys (are supposed to be) professionals. But to me, the quality of work is the same.

And it cost you practically nothing.