Mr. Brown Versus

The last time I talked about a film critics and audiences loved over but I couldn't get behind was George Miller's apocalyptic action-thriller Mad Max: Fury Road . In a nutshell, I referred to the film as one overlong, extended chase through the desert which got very repetitive, very quickly, in addition to me dubbing it as the most overrated movie of 2015. Now, in the year of our lord 2016, I must put my foot down on another movie critics are fawning over, but I couldn't fully get into: Disney's Moana . Before, I go any further, let me state for the record my views on calling something "overrated" and what it means to me: When I call a film "overrated", I'm not saying it to stir the pot or to deliberately hold a contrarian point of view (that's Armond White's job!); I'm saying that there are aspects about it I feel other critics have glossed over which have stuck out like a blister from my perspective. When I write reviews like t...

I've said this several times, and I'll repeat myself again: there's not a worse experience at the cinema than sitting through bad comedy. To me, it is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, or getting a filling at the dentists office. It's painful, torturous and near-exhausting to sit in a dark room, unamused by the jokes and hi jinks on-screen, praying to yourself that this movie ends quickly before you just decide to walk out and do something more productive with your time. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is one of those times where bad comedy drives me up the wall and groan incisively thought the 85 minute run time. For those who didn't religiously watch AbFab during its run during the early to mid-90's on BBC, PBS or re-runs on Comedy Central (or when it was revived from 2001-2004), here's the gist of it: two middle-aged women, Edina (Jennifer Saunders, who is also producer and co-creator of the series) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley), spend their days cha...

Perhaps the best aspect about writer-directors Joel & Ethan Coen when it comes to making screwball and dark comedies is that despite the fact some of their characters are hopelessly stupid, the duo never looks down on their poor fools with malice or cruelty, rather, with sympathy and some degree of likability. In Fargo , we don't fully shame Jerry Lundegaard for turning to two professional criminals as a way to make a quick payday - he's desperate to make ends meet, and to show to his asshole father-in-law that he's a mistake her daughter never should have made. How was he to know that Gaear Grimsrud was a sociopathic murderer; that his partner, Carl Showalter, was inept; and that the whole plan of kidnapping his wife to force a ransom of $80,000.00 would go so tits up? In Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? , Ulysses, Pete and Delmar are dim-witted criminals who escape the chain gang, but there's an earnestness to why they're escaping: the leader (Ulysses) is looki...

Despite the title, this series is, at its core, just a list of great and not so great movies I feel like talking about. And despite Halloween being a night to hang out with friends and watching slasher flicks, ghost stories, zombies and creatures & things that go bump in the night (at least for me sometimes), not all movies are like that. Sometimes the best movies to watch on Halloween are the ones that you remember as a kid growing up. Films like The Nightmare Before Christmas , Hocus Pocus and the Halloweentown series are probably some of the most fun flicks I remember seeing during this time of year, before I found Ju-On: The Grudge , The Ring and other creepy movies from Japan - both the original and American counterparts. Today's installment has to do with the man who probably loves the twisted side of life - Tim Burton. To me, Mr. Burton really doesn't need much of an introduction: if you're a child of the 80's or the 90's (like yours truly), then y...

If Avengers: Age of Ultron constantly flirts with falling back on old blockbuster tricks, then Pitch Perfect 2  announces, within seconds of the Universal logo being unveiled, that yes, you have, indeed paid to watch the same movie twice. The Barden Bellas are back, and four years after their triumphant victory in the national a capella competition, the all-female singing squad have become a national hit, as they invited to perform at the birthday gala for President Obama. If you guessed that this performance goes to shit, then congratulations, you saw the first movie! Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) has a wardrobe malfunction in front of Pres-O, and the girls are banned from every a capella showcase across the nation, as well as disbanded by their university as a result. Becca (Anna Kendrick), the group's leader, make a deal with John Smith (John Michael Higgens) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden-Feinberger (Elizabeth Banks), the two a capella commentators to reinstate the Bellas if they win at ...

Let's be honest about the film-version of Entourage , the hit HBO comedy series about a rising movie star and his three friends who've followed him from Queens to Tinsel Town: It's the 100th episode of the premium cable's most popular show since Sex and the City , which both works in favor of the film and to it's detriment. While it's great to see Vince (Adrian Grenier) and his pals Eric "E" Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny "Drama" Chase (Kevin Dillon), along with lovable douchebag super agent-now head honcho of a studio company Ari Gold (the reliable Jeremy Piven) back traversing Hollywood and the spoils of fame, those who disliked the show's eight-year run or those who got tied of the same shtick past season 5 will feel vindicated in their continued frustration as the film does feel like one huge circle jerk of A-list actors making fun of the hand that feeds them, along with having athletes making cameo appeara...

I was looking forward to watching the James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy The Interview  on Christmas Day, even more so than Angelina Jolie's WWII drama Unbroken , or Rob Marshall's Into the Woods . I like what the writing and directing duo of Rogen and his pal Evan Goldberg have done with comedies like Superbad , Pineapple Express and their debut feature, This Is the End . In light of Sony being hacked (which now appears to be North Korea's doing) and threats of attacking theaters that carry the comedy, three things happened today: 1.) Every major theater chain - AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Arclight, etc, had decided to pull out from showing The Interview  on its scheduled release date. 2.)  This prompted Sony Pictures to basically cancel the release date of the film amid threats of blowing up theaters. 3.)  Both Sony and the theater chains basically caved into the demands of cyber terrorism from North Korea. Are you fucking kidding me? We just caved into terr...

I love summer movies just as much as the next person. Hell, this season's crop of popcorn escapism are actually better and more satisfying than last year's disappointing slate of blockbusters. But there's only so many big-budget, effects-driven extravaganzas I can watch before I burn myself out. In that instance, a break from blockbuster fare is sorely needed, and i'm reviewing two movies that help cleanse the pallet, and one that...doesn't . Yep, you can even find bad movies at an art-house theater. But that's beside the point. These movies, regardless of your opinions coming out, are good to experience because these are filmmakers who aren't beholden to the studio's bottom line of making a profit. They're doing smaller work, but nonetheless engaging. Most of the time. Belle - Remember the name Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She's the best thing in an English drama that has so much right going for it. First, it's superbly directed by Amma Asante, wh...

Now that I have that piece of crap out of the way, It's time to make good on my promise and play catch-up on all the movies I meant to review, but didn't because of culinary class and laziness. About Last Night  - Again, I love seeing a predominately black cast, and I wish there were a bit more of that in theaters. Last year's The Butler  (which I loved)   and The Best Man Holiday  (which I didn't like) proved a cast of African-Americans can be a draw, as both films made over $100 million and $70 million in the states respectively. Unfortunately, unlike Best Man Holiday , where its saving grace was Terrence Howard's excellent comedic performance, there isn't much I can say positively for this battle of the sexes comedy. Danny (Michael Early) and Bernie (Kevin Hart) are two bachelors in present-day Los Angles. Danny's looking to rebound from a relationship which ended in disaster, whereas Bernie is a party-hard guy looking to score on a nightly basis. ...

New Year's Eve is a time for looking back on the moments which made the previous year great or challenging, etc, and the promise of a new year being better and more fulfilling than the last. New Year's Eve will make you regret watching this dull and vapid piece of crap, no matter when you saw it during the year. So many subplots....so don't care. From Gary Marshall, the man behind Pretty Woman and A League of Their Own , this already forgotten star-studded turkey from 2011 follows the same formula from 2010's Valentine's Day: a series of vignettes which either serve as comedic set pieces, or dramatic ones, depending on the script. Some characters are looking for love. Some are looking for second chances. Some of these stories connect and collide with one another. Some are just purely stand alones. Here are just a few of the stories from this film: Hillary Swank plays the VP of the Times Square Alliance, a group dedicated to the planning of the big ball d...

A film about corruption and searing social commentary about what we'll do to chase the American dream? Made by the guy who made of the best anti-war pictures of the last several years ( Three Kings ) and one of the best sports dramas since Miracle  ( The Fighter )? And it combines Christian Bale & Amy Adams from The Fighter  and Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings Playbook ? This has to be a sure-fire Oscar heavyweight! Man, director and co-writer David O'Russell is swinging for the fences here! He's going to make this next period piece his Goodfellas , and hell, if you're going to draw inspiration from any crime drama, that's the way to go! I'm going to see this tonight! 2+ hours later......... Well, two out of three ain't bad. American Hustle is a good movie. A damn good one. O'Russell nails the period of the 70's perfectly. The lavish clothes, the attitude that this gravy train of decadence will never...

Let me say this right now: I love seeing movies with predominately African-American casts. There aren't enough movies out there which center on the black community and our struggles. I wish more studios took a chance on making more films based around black families because it can make bank at the box office (See: Lee Daniels' The Butler ). Having said that, The Best Man Holiday is one of the year's worst movies, and of all the films that will end up on my list (which is coming next month), this one is probably the hardest for me to put on there. I honestly wanted to like this movie, but this sequel to the 1999 hit, The Best Man had everything that drives me insane about comedy-dramas: poor screenwriting, characters making implausible and dumb decisions because the plot demands it, cliché after tired, predictable cliché, and the religious themes that contain all the subtly of a brick to the face. It's not the anti-comedy that is the contemptible and vile  Movie 43 ...

In 2005, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson stared in Wedding Crashers , a movie where two scheming Lotharios crash a high-end wedding for a politico's daughter, only to have Wilson's character, John, break several rules of the crashers' code, including falling in love with one of the bridesmaids, Clarie (Rachel McAdams) , whilst Jeremy, Vaughn's character, deals with a "stage five clinger" in Gloria (Isla Fisher). That movie was was a huge hit, both with critics and with audiences , as the film went on gross over $200 million domestically, becoming the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time, up until 2009 where The Hangover took over the coveted title. In 2013, the pair reunited for the first time since Wedding Crashers with The Internship , a movie which Vaughn himself wrote and produced. For the first five minutes, it looked like the comedic charisma between Vaughn and Wilson would be as solid as ever, with some funny jokes about Nick (Wilson) ...

LOL  is shit. Just absolute, moronic, irritating shit. I talked about this movie in January back when I was reviewing my 10 worst list, but I really haven't gone into full detail about why this piece of shit landed the no.3 spot on my list of the most infuriatingly bad movies of the past year. By the way, you are reading the title correctly, that's the name of the movie. I fear that LMFAO, OMG!, and WTF?! aren't that far behind, as it goes to naming movies. It isn't just the name that I think is a lazy name for a movie title, it's everything else about this shallow, vacuous, obnoxious and pretentious coming of age teen drama that managed to piss me off, but i'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Before I talk about this movie, I have to mention that LOL  (God, that's annoying to say) is actually a remake of the 2008 French comedy called.... LOL (Laughing Out Loud) . I don't know anything else about that movie, but on IMDB, the film holds a fairly decent ...

Hello again, Michael Bay. Hollywood's biggest hack has returned, and this time, we're not being treated to robot-on-robot CGI carnage, robot testicles, dog humping, or a dude stuffing an animal cracker down a woman's pants. This time, he's making a smaller, low-budget character piece that's borrowing from Quentin Tarantino and Joel & Ethan Coen flicks. No, really. That's what Pain and Gain looks like, and it's what Bay was aiming for: an unholy union of Tarantino's lurid and hypnotic dialogue, the Coen Brothers' idiosyncratic characters, and Bay's own directorial traits of fast editing cuts, slow-motion shots of sunrises and sunsets, and Bay's camera lusting over beautiful women in bikinis, skimpy outfits, ass shots, etc. The only thin missing is his signature trademark of racial stereotypes being trotted out for cheap laughs, though I'm certain it'll be in the finished product. Anywho, here's the red-band trailer for...

Well, that' it: I thought I could do it but honestly, i've run out of sentences, adjectives, verbs, putdowns, and grievances to finish reviewing the last of the Twilight movies, Breaking Dawn - Part I and the newly released Part II . That, and i've been busy with classes and work to actually post anything - a review, thoughts about the circle jerk that is Awards season and upcoming movies i'm just damn excited to watch in 2013. In the last month though, i've seen a bunch of movies: some that are the best of the year and deserve to be serious contenders come Oscar time and one that I still can't wrap my head around. Flight - I've long been a fan of Denzel Washington's body of work, but for the lat several years he's been resigned to easily marketable action fare like Unstoppable (the last collaboration between him and director Tony Scott, who went on to commit suicide in August), The Taking of Pelham 123 , Out of Time , Deja Vu , Man on F...