Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell marks Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre for the first time since Army of Darkness in 1992. The movie revolves around a young woman trying for a promotion at the bank she works. The only problem is her boss thinks she can't make tough decisions. To prove him wrong, she has to tell a sickly old woman that the bank will be reposing her house. This does not go according to plan. As it turns out, that sickly old woman is a gypsy and curses her for taking her house. Now she has 3 days to lift the curse before the demon chasing her takes her to hell.




The movie stars Alison Lohman as the young woman named Christine Brown. She is very good at portraying a weak and vulnerable woman. As the film progresses she is able to really reveal the strength deep inside the character. Her boyfriend, Clay, is played by comedic actor Justin Long. Taking him as a straight actor is very difficult to do. Every time he is on screen he takes you out of the movie.



The real star of this movie is director Sam Raimi. To tell you a little bit about me, I love Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy; they are my favorite movies in the horror genre. In a lot of ways Drag Me to Hell reminds of those movies. From the way he uses simple movement of inanimate objects to the way he uses the camera to create fear. It is actually rather refreshing to see a departure from the ultra-gore that has plagued the horror genre over the last couple of years. There are scenes that will gross you out, but are as funny as they are scary.



Drag Me to Hell is a good movie and is enjoyable to watch. It is a little predictable towards the end and Justin Long wasn't the best casting choice, but even with those flaws aside it is still one of the best horror movies of the last year. If you haven't seen it yet and would like to see a good scary movie, check it out.



My rating: 3.5 gypsy cures out of 5

Greenberg

Greenberg tells the story of Roger Greenberg, a man who recently came out of a mental hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown. After 15 years of living in New York, Greenberg agrees to move to L.A. and house sit for his brother for 6 weeks. While there, he hoped to spend his time relaxing and just maybe find meaning once again in his life by reconnecting with the people of his past. The problem with that is that after years apart, those people don't really want to reconnect with him. The only bright spot is the connection he begins to develop with his brother's assistant, Florence.




Ben Stiller is very good as Roger Greenberg. He does a great job showing Greenberg's vulnerability and how he hides his vulnerability by walling himself off from other people. Greta Gerwig also does a good job as Florence, a 26 year old girl who desperately wants a relationship with a man, but because of the relationship with her father doesn't understand how to find it.



Even though this movie was rather bland at times, I rather enjoyed it. Greenberg's quirks are quite entertaining. He is able to find fault with everything. He is unhappy because he is unable to find happiness with the present. He idealizes the past and is constantly trying to recapture it. In the meantime, he ignores the possibilities in front of him.



Greenburg is an interesting film and is worth a viewing. In a lot of ways it reminds of Lost in Translation. Can two people get past their own insecurities and faults and just love one another? This is a problem that a lot of people face. Greenburg is very slow to watch, but worth your time, if you can get past Ben Stiller in a serious role.



My Rating: 2.5 neurotic guys out of 5

Survival of the Dead

Survival of the Dead is the latest zombie movie from the inventor of the modern day zombie, George A. Romero. This time around, the story centers around a group of AWOL soldiers that head to an island off the coast of Delaware to escape the zombie plague. They arrive on the island only to get involved in another conflict between 2 other groups. One group wants to just kill off the zombie menace and be done with it. The other group wants to rehabilitate the dead and turn them in normal people who just happen to be dead.



This is the sixth movie Romero has done on a different aspect of a zombie apocalypse and, I guess, before he dies he wants to cover every aspect of zombie films. Survival of the Dead returns to the idea started in the Land of the Dead; that the undead may not have lost all of what made them human. This film takes it one step further, to examine the idea of whether or not we could coexist with them. However, this idea is never really explored, but used as a way to drive the conflict between the two groups on the island. I wasn't really a fan of the concept of thinking zombies in Land of the Dead and Survival of the Dead hasn't really done much to improve this idea either.



The cast is B movie at best, the lead character, Sarge Crocket, reminds a lot of the lead character from Office Space, the character is so out of place that he just takes you out of the movie. His apathetic approach to dealing with the various conflicts seemed ridiculous. The main thing that bothered me about the cast was that everyone from the island spoke with an Irish accent. I am not even sure why they went that route. I understand they may have existing regional accents, but this doesn't make sense.


Overall, Survival of the Dead isn't the worst zombie movie ever made, but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table either. Romero has created a fairly interesting concept; however it just could have been explored better with more interesting characters.



My Rating: 2 mindless zombies out of 5

Letters to God

Based off a true story, Letters to God tells the inspiring true story of Tyler Doherty. Shortly after the death of his father, 8-year-old Tyler was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. Tyler's way of coping with this difficult time is to write letters to God. Enter the family’s new postman, Brady McDaniels, a man with demons from his past which lead him to alcoholism. As Brady tries to figure out what to do with the letters he gets addressed to God, he is given a path back to the faith that he lost himself.




Now I will start off by saying that this is a religious movie, which you can attach your own preconceived notion of what that means. Tyler Doherty is played by Tanner Maguire. He does a very good job with a difficult role for a child. His mother, played by Robyn Lively, and the postman, played by Jeffery Johnson, are both solid as well. After those performances, the acting goes downhill rather quickly. Specifically, the performance of Michael Bolton (not the singer) who plays the older brother leaves much to be desired. Pun intended, but his performance was mailed in.



Though the acting in this movie for the most part is pretty bad, the story is actually pretty good. The movie has a strong faith based message and ultimately will depend entirely on the viewer’s belief as to whether they will enjoy the movie or not. If you are already a person with faith you will enjoy Letters to God and the message it sends. If not, this film will probably not win you over.



My rating 3 letters out of 5

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

In the far off land of Toronto, young rocker Scott Pilgrim meets the girl of his dreams; literally. He finally convinces her to date him and thinks that she is truly the one. This would be perfect except for one problem; to date Ramona Flowers he must defeat each of her 7 evil exes in a fight to the death.



Right off the bat, I have to say this is the single greatest video game movie ever made. Due to the fact that it is not based on a video game, rather just referencing them throughout the movie thru its design. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is set up like a video game; offering vital stats for its characters and the evil exes representing the Bosses at the end of levels. The fights with the evil exes are also extremely well done. Each with expertly drawn Street Fighter esque fights complete with video game sound effects and text.



The cast of this movie is as close to being a perfect match to the characters themselves that I have ever seen. Michael Cera plays Scott Pilgrim and offers a performance with the most emotional range of his career (not that that's a lot). He is great as Scott Pilgrim, but like in Youth in Revolt I just don't like Scott Pilgrim very much. He is extremely selfish, lazy and only seems to care about his own interests. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Ramona Flowers and does a great job in playing the intriguing love interest worth fighting for. There are also stand out performances by Kieran Culkin who steals the screen as Scott Pilgrim's gay roommate and Alison Pill who plays Kim Pine, the emotionless drummer in Scott's band. Chris Evans and Brandon Routh are really great as evil exes. Finally, Jason Schwartzman plays the main villain, Gideon Graves, an evil record executive with the power to control Ramona Flowers.



Director Edgar Wright has crafted an amazing and rich world in this film. Each character, no matter how small the part, still has an amazing amount of depth. Ever line is delivered at the precise moment for the greatest effect. There isn't much about this film that wasn't done well. My only issue is that; although I am a huge fan of the video game aspect of the film, I do dislike the trendy hipster culture. Regardless, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is still one of the best films of the year.



My rating: 4 trendy hipster kids out of 5

The Expendables

After seeing this movie, I honestly believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were out drinking and came up with idea for the worst action movie ever. Then, in his stupor, Arnold Schwarzenegger asked, “How many washed up action heroes could we get to be in this movie?” Sylvester Stallone replied, “11, including us.” Schwarzenegger then asked, “How many A-list (ish) action heroes would it take to turn this B-movie idea into an A-movie?” After watching the Expendables, the answer to that question would be: 0. No matter the cast, there was no saving this film. The plot of the movie is something along the lines this group of Planet Hollywood owners play a team of mercenaries who are offered a job to remove a dictator from power on a tiny island in the Caribbean. There are some other “plot points,” but they aren’t worth my time to write, nor yours to read.




Of the cast of greats that are in this movie, Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham have the most to do. However, they still play generic characters they have both already personified. The rest of the Expendables: Terry Crews, Jet Li, and Randy Couture are just that, expendable. They aren't on the screen long enough for me to gauge their performance and when they are on screen they are just killing off hundreds of generic bad guys. Mickey Rourke actually gives the best overall performance, which makes you want to remind him that his career is on the upswing and should have just stayed out of it. Dolph Lundgren does a really good job of playing a man broken down by the problems of his life and thus, has a pretty bad drug problem to boot. Wait. Sorry. He isn't acting. Steve Austin plays a racist, skinhead jerk. The same type of character he has been playing as of late. Lastly, we have Eric Roberts. If you are really interested in seeing him perform, but can’t make it to the theater; I suggest you watch his other premiere this week: Sharktopus on the Sci-Fi channel.



Now, I will give the movie a tiny shred of credit. Some of the action sequences are so over the top that they are pretty entertaining. As I mentioned before in my review for Greenzone, the problem with over the top action sequences is the camera work. It is called a steady cam. It lets you get nice clean shots of the action so people can actually see the movie. The whole “looks like it was shot with a couple of camcorders they got from a local Best Buy” film technique does not work for me. Also, STOP using digital blood and gore effects. They are never done well and always end up looking ridiculously fake.



This movie has officially taken what was a very below average summer and turned it into the worst I can remember. I am waiting for Sylvester Stallone to go onto national television next week in the style of a presidential address just to tell us all that we have been Punk'd. I can't wait for the sequel... The Expendables 2: Will Blow Sh$% Up For Food.



My Rating: 1 out of 5

Movie You Probably Missed: Serenity

Way back in 2002, there was a very good concept for a television show called Firefly. In Fox's infinite wisdom, they put the show in the time slot were all good science fiction shows go to die; Friday nights at 9pm. The show ran for 12 episodes. It got poor ratings and was cancelled before even running the remaining 2 episodes that were already filmed. That would have been the end of it had it not been for Director Joss Whedon's passion. He convinced Universal Studios to turn the failed television show into a feature film; thus creating the 2005 film, Serenity.




The film is set 500 years in the future, long after people have left earth and colonized in many other planets. It is set after a civil war, in which the outlying colonies fought for independence from the central planets and lost. The crew of Serenity is made up of a group of disgruntled former soldiers who lost the war. They take on board their ship a 17 year old girl who is a telepath and was being experimented on by the Alliance. What the Alliance knows and the crew later learn is that she is much more dangerous than she appears and may hold secrets that could shake the Alliance to its core.



The great thing about Serenity is its layers. It has elements of science fiction, horror, western, action, martial arts, drama, and comedy. The universe Joss Whedon has created is extremely detailed. It is a society which is a melting pot of different cultures and one of the best representations of the future I have ever seen on film. The characters all have just as much depth. Joss Whedon was given the option to replace the actors from the TV series, but he decided to keep the cast he had. This was a double edged sword; on one side you can see on film how much they care about this film and on the other side it leaves the film without any big name celebrities in the film. The latter made Serenity less than successful at the box office. I, on the other hand, prefer this because it helps me get lost in a movie.



Serenity is hands down one of the best science fiction movies of the last decade. You owe it to yourself to find it and give it a chance, you will be glad you did.



My rating: 5 out of 5