Friday, September 26, 2008

Eagle Eye… a review

Here’s an axiom that seldom fails when sizing up whether or not you should fork out any money to see a Hollywood movie.

Are there any television stars making appearances in it?

Listen, aside from George Clooney, what was the last great Eva Longoria or David Caruso film that you remember seeing?

Film stars can go to television, but it doesn’t work the other way around. I don’t know why it’s true, but it is.

Naturally, when I saw “Turtle” from “Entourage” in the opening scene of Shia LaBeouf ‘s new film “Eagle Eye” I could feel my sphincter tightening.

Uh oh… then I saw “Vince Mackey” from “The Shield” and that’s when I tore the time space continuum around my anus from the clenching.

As of right now, there is an event horizon orbiting around my genitals.

Forget the CERN particle accelerator, if there was a cameo from one more television star, I would have destroyed all life in the universe.

Ok, but I’m pre-judging the film right?.

Maybe Robert Downey Jr., was supposed to be in the film and he got caught up in traffic.

“What’s the story about?!!” you’re screaming.

Get this…

One day Shia comes home after a boring day at a meaningless job, only to discover that his run-down apartment has been filled with weapons, night vision goggles, and ammonium nitrate (I think he also had a carton of illegal Mohawk cigarettes).

This can’t be good. He didn’t pay any TAX on that contraband.

What would YOU do? (I mean besides pick everything up and fondle it in ways that would make a lab technician weep).

The only thing this idiot didn’t do to further incriminate himself was to post a video of himself on Youtube wearing glasses like Sarah Pallin.

But then…suddenly (it’s always “suddenly” when you find a weapon’s cache beside the cat litter box) the phone rings and a female voice says:

“The FBI will arrive in thirty seconds. Jump out of the window.”

I had a similar phone call from my investment advisor this week.

Naturally Shia doesn’t comply, and before you can say “Mr. Anderson” he’s in custody and being interrogated by Billy Bob Thorton.

Heeeeey….. wasn’t there a very similar scene in “The Matrix”?

All that was missing was the metallic squid burrowing into Shia’s bellybutton.

I love how easy it is to frame someone in the movies.

A UPS driver drops off a large drum of something labeled “poison” in your living room (just in case you thought it was some powdered milk from Bejing) and the next thing you know, you have the feds breaching your cupboards with a SWAT team.

Well except that in the real world you can be growing pot in a corn field outside of a polygamist child raping center in Texas, while running a part time Saudi flight school in Florida and it would STILL take four levels of government plus the consensus of the United Nations Janitorial union before the cops could knock on the door(but Shia gets processed in an afternoon).

Off topic for a second…

Is it just me or does “Shia LaBeouf” sound like a French porn star?

I keep expecting to see some guy carrying a portable boom box and a set of tear away cowboy chaps.

Ahhh as usual, I digress…

Lest you think that Shia is alone, the same thing happens to a soccer mom, an immigrant music store owner, and God knows how many others (they keep popping up whenever a package needs to be delivered).

This is the part of the movie that the director hopes will cause you to say “What the heck is going on?!!”

Personally I was saying “Are you kidding me?!!”

The strange female voice that orders these people around can control cars, trains, cell phones, power lines, traffic lights, ATM machines…

It can do almost anything except make Vista work on your PC.

So why are all of these innocent people being coerced into breaking the law?

I’ll get back to you when I figure it out.

The movie is basically a huge “Rube Goldberg” invention (think of the children’s game “Moustetrap”).

You know the idea. You take a very simple idea and then you make it needlessly complicated.

If you need to toast some bread, it will require a bowling ball, a bucket, an old shoe, forty feet of twine, sixteen ducks, a row of stacked dominos and Phillip’s screwdriver to accomplish the task.

Well, it’s pretty much the same idea here.

The mysterious woman on the phone can snap power lines, take over your car and control construction equipment all over the city.

So what the hell does she need Shia for?

I thought that maybe she was some redneck stuck in the bathroom of her mobile home and couldn’t get up because her ass had bonded to the toilet seat.

“Shia… I need you to bring me a bread knife, a bucket of Aloe lotion, a tin of Skoal chewing tobacco and a bag of cotton balls…. oh and a ‘People Magazine’.”

Sigh… no such luck.

The truth is so preposterous and so needlessly complicated that the screenwriter must have used a slide rule and a Powerpoint presentation to simply pitch the idea.

If you can snap power lines and derail a train, I’m pretty sure that you don’t really need the help of a soccer mom.

Make your own explosive rice crispy squares.

1 out of 5.


Open the pod bay door Hal…

Posted by rtheygood at 03:07:38 | Permalink | No Comments »

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ghost Town… a review

“Ghost Town” stars Ricky Gervais as ‘Bertram Pincus’ a self loathing dentist, who dies for seven minutes on an operating table and awakens to find out that he can see dead people.

I guess the best description would be to say it’s the bastard child of “The Sixth Sense” and “As Good as it Gets.”

So let me get this straight…they hired an Englishman to play a dentist in a romantic comedy movie. That’s about as attractive as a nude scene with a colostomy bag.

In case you haven’t seen Ricky’s teeth, let’s put it this way:

He’s only about a handful of Skittles away from being the next lead singer of The Pogues.

Ahhh Hollywood….

Has anyone ever noticed that hot chicks are ALWAYS hooking up with fat, ugly, older men?

All it takes to get Jennifer Anniston to climb into the sack with you is a few awkward meetings in an elevator.

Imagine if real life worked like this? Bars would be empty and elevators would be the size of the produce section in your local grocery store.

Life isn’t like that.

I just bought tube socks at Wal Mart and let me tell you, I didn’t see any fat guys with leggy blondes.

Where are the fat ugly guys with hot chicks?

Look for a Porsche dealership.

Well, at least Bertram is a dentist. Maybe this will work.

Oh wait, we haven’t discussed the “plot”…

Ummmm… well, so much for working.

After Bertram leaves the hospital he runs into the ghost of Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), well… actually he steps ‘around’ him which shocks the hell out of Frank because usually people walk right through him.

All of a sudden every ghost in New York with business left unfinished decides to get Bertram to do a little task for them so that they can rest in peace.

New York city. Wow, how many ghosts do you think would be hanging around?

Surprisingly the number seems to be about one hundred and twenty five.

One hundred and twenty five?!!

Shouldn’t New York be teeming with the undead?

I’ll bet that twice that many people alone died while watching “Cats.”

Well, let’s not get bogged down with logic because even one hundred ghosts in limbo don’t really seem to be all that anxious to get Bertram to set their tortured souls free.

In fact, Bertram seems to be able to give most of them the slip by ducking into an alleyway while they chase him.

How do you outrun someone who never gets tired and can pass through walls? Did I mention that they even know where Bertram lives?

These ghosts aren’t in limbo, they’re retarded.

Here’s where the comic twist comes in.

Usually when a ghost contacts the living for some sort of quest, it involves bringing their murderer to justice, writing some wrong, absolving for their cowardice while alive… you know, SOMETHING that we can relate to.

What doe Frank want? He wants Bertam to break up his widow and her boyfriend.

This quest is right up there with asking Indiana Jones to return a library book for you.

On top of it all, Frank’s wife is dating a nice guy.

Really nice.

Hell, I’d set my wife up with him right now and pay for the hotel room.

Now I’m supposed to root for the unattractive asshole dentist to break up the widow and her human right’s lawyer?!

At what point do I start caring about ANYONE in this film?

In a black comedy, EVERYONE should be an asshole, not just the two main characters.

The girlfriend should be a whore, the boyfriend should be a louse… I want to see Seinfeld but in semi transparent hues.

I want to see voyeuristic lecherous losers hanging around the women’s shower. I want to see ghosts tripping waiters. Where are the ghosts who hide missing socks in the Laundromat?

This isn’t black, it’s Cappuccino.

Mocha at best.

There is NOTHING at stake in this movie.

What’s the worst that going to happen if Bertram doesn’t help Frank? His hot wife marries a great guy.

Hey Indy, I’ve got some dry cleaning for you to drop off.

2 out of 5.

Posted by rtheygood at 02:45:07 | Permalink | No Comments »