Fighting (2009)

 

We've seen this movie before. Many times. Still we watch for the butt-kicking and to forget about our crappy day. Mission accomplished. 

Rating: C

Biker Boyz (2003)

 

Mindless fluff. Impressive cast considering. 

Rating: C

Showdown At The Grand (2023)

The best things this film has going for it are the title and the concept. The execution was abysmal. Hard to tell which parts were meant to be purposefully bad. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Sucked from start to finish. 

Rating: F

St. Vincent (2014)

Terrific performance from Bill Murray. The plot is your typical About-A-Boy style dysfunctional pairing between a flawed adult and mature beyond his years boy. Despite often being clichéd, it’s still witty and sometimes heartwarming.

Rating: C+

The Brave One (2007)

Not Jodie's finest moment. Maybe her bloodiest? She looks terrible in this film—I think it's the hair. Her revenge killings aren't as rewarding as I hoped they'd be. Perhaps because they are too random. This film didn't jive well for me. I need to see Panic Room again. A much much better film.

Rating: C

Iron Man (2008)

Great job on the back story and build-up. Less entertaining when the evil Iron Man comes into the picture, as we are forced to endure another formulaic super hero vs. villain throw-down. The best parts are when Robert Downey Jr. is saying something. Anything. He made the whole movie.

Rating: C+

Four Brothers (2005)

Caught this one in the theater opening weekend. I liked the acting and direction, but I felt the story was a bit weak. Seemed like a lot of effort to fabricate a reason to kill some old lady so that a revenge plot could kick in. Still, it was a good dose of entertaining violence.

Rating: C+

On The Road (2012)

Pretentious and full of annoying characters. It tries way too hard to be hip and cool without succeeding at either. Rambling on without a destination.

Rating: D-

Crash (2004)

Great mixture of mini race-related stories and characters that provoke much needed thought and introspection on the subject. The link between these stories is highly improbable, but that won't prevent you from enjoying the film.

Reminded me a lot of Magnolia in it's style and direction. Magnolia was a much better film however.

Rating: B-

Hustle & Flow (2005)

More credible and entertaining than 8 Mile, with much better acting. Flow is the perfect word, since that's exactly what the film does: flow. The best scenes are when they construct a song together, from start to finish. They did an awesome job of showing the music making process without losing the audience along the way. Terrance is amazing as the pimp rapper.

Rating: B+

Ray (2004)

I don't see how any other leading male performer can outdo what Jamie Foxx did in this role. He deserved to win the Oscar. That said, the film itself does not, nor does the director. It's a good movie and I enjoyed it, but I think it could have been much better.

The story focuses too much on Ray's drug addiction and whoring around. While this may be factual stuff, I think the audience would have gotten the picture with half as many scenes devoted to it. Instead, they could have spent more time on Ray's earlier years. I would have liked to see more about how he became such a fantastic piano player. All we got was a 2 minute sketch of him dinking around at the age of 5.

Terrific performance, pretty good movie.

Rating: C+