Movie Review: Dinner for Schmucks

Jay Roach's new comedy takes its inspiration from the 1998 French film The Dinner Game. The original was a big hit in its native land and I am sorry to say that I had not heard of it before now. I have read that it is a very funny film although it falls a bit to the mean-spirited side. Not that there is anything wrong with that, although that seems to be one of the ways this version differs with the earlier film, where this would appear to be a mean-spirited sort of film it is actually rather sweet-natured on the part of the leads. I am not informed well enough to say, although I do look forward to seeing the original. This movie, no matter how you want to slice it is downright funny. I know my friends and I had a lot of fun with it with frequent outbursts of laughter. Always a good sign.

DVD Pick of the Week: Escape from New York

Welcome back! Well, to some of you, anyway. To the rest of you, glad you decided to stop by and I hope this humble column helps you navigate the stacks of new releases each week. My goal is to point you toward titles of interest and warn you away from those films that seek to do nothing but leech away your time and give you nothing in return.

Box Office Update 7/30-8/1: Inception Continues its Warping of Minds

  Three weekends in a row for the top film. This is not something I have seen for awhile now. The last film to three-peat at the top was Alice in Wonderland back in March. now we have Christopher Nolan's incredible Inception. The straight-forward mind-bender is a crowd pleaser that also has a brain behind it. It is that wonderful combination of visceral thrills backed with an intelligence that you do not see often enough in summer films of recent vintage. How long will it be able to hold on? Probably not much longer, this was likely its last weekend at number one, but I still expect it to carry on for a few more weeks as it adds to its tally. I think it has a shot at reaching $300 million. What say you?

Movie Review: The Kids are All Right

The Kids are All Right is a movie that I debated going to see in the first place. It is a film that I had heard was great. It was also a film I had heard was merely mediocre. Besides an intriguing cast, I can't say the trailers held all that much interest for me. Anyway, after thinking about it a bit longer, and looking for a movie to fill in some time with, I decided to go ahead and see it. Now here I am in the wake of a screening and feeling glad that I did go see it. Not because it is a great film or does things all that different than we have seen before, but because it is a solid relationship drama that deals with its characters in a realistic and more or less believable fashion.

Movie Review: Cats & Dogs - The Revenge of Kitty Galore

Do you want to know what the best part of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is? The end credits so that I could leave. I kid, I kid. I have seen many more worse films, this one was just boring when it should have been breezy, too fast when it should have slowed down a tick, and spoofy when it should have been satirical. I guess that last point is a debatable one, it is a kids film after all and the spoof nature is a simpler way to go, I just think that more could have been done with it. In the end I guess it is entertaining enough for the youngsters, it just doesn't have much meat on its lean bones to welcome much in the way of return visits. On a similar note it is a definite upgrade from last year's G-Force. Now there is a cinematic abomination.