2 Guns

Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington team up in this preposterous, yet fun heist/buddy movie.

It’s chock full of unbelievable and outright silly plot points, yet the charisma and camaraderie on display make it an enjoyable effort.

The 2013 Summer Movie Preview – Part 2

Ok, everyone, here we go! The second half of the Summer slate for 2013! There’s plenty of big movies in store, and of course, a handful of DOAs.

Click through to check out the second half of this Summer!

Pain & Gain

Based on an unbelieveable, appalling true story, “Pain & Gain” is a tale of three meat-headed bodybuilders who kidnap and torture a local businessman until he agrees to sign over all of his assets. Even more shockingly, they almost get away with it.

In Bay’s hands, it becomes an indictment of the American dream, especially the obsession with strength, size, status and success. He’s the perfect director to make a bigger, stronger, dumber movie about big, strong, dumb men who want it all and are willing to go to any lengths to get it.

The 2013 Spring Movie Season Preview

YES! We made it through the Winter Movie Season, where Hollywood unloads their junk on us, and now we’re headed into the Spring!

Spring is a time for mini-blockbusters, and movies that Hollywood hopes will have decent runs. Last year, “The Hunger Games” was released in March, for example, and we all saw how well that did!

Click through to see all the movies that this Spring Season has to offer!

Broken City

Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe square off as a fallen ex-cop and a corrupt mayor in this tale of political intrigue, suspense and conspiracy.

Except without the political intrigue, suspense and conspiracy.

The 2013 Winter Movie Season Preview

Ok, boys and girls. The Holiday Season is over… and the Spring Season, full of mini Blockbusters, is still months away.

Between now and then lies Hollywood’s dumping ground. The Hollywood fields lie fallow in the winter, bearing little quality product. It’s the two months of the year we need to “Get through”. While January typically offers some limited releases from the prior year going wide, there’s typically little else to get excited over.

Will this year be different? Are there any movies to get excited about these next two months? Let’s take a look at the release slate and see what we’ve got!

Ted

When a young boy who’s lonely for a friend makes a wish that his teddy bear was really alive, his wish magically comes true. And while that’s a magical, sweet, incredible thing for a young boy… no one anticipated how things would be a couple of decades down the road. Ted would wind up being an unemployed, middle-aged foul-mouthed teddy bear with substance abuse problems. Which is bad enough in and of itself, but it’s also causing issues for the now grown-up boy.

An attachment to a teddy bear has a way of holding a man back in life.  

“Ted” is vulgar, fun, and funny. The central “joke” of a foul-mouthed living Teddy Bear may wear a little thin by the end of the film, but it still has a lot of very funny moments and filth to spare. Easy to recommend for fans of partying humor everywhere.

Contraband

Hollywood Mysteries: M Night Shyamalan (Part III: Still Falling)

(You can find Part I here and Part II here)

By 2008, I had completely soured on M Night. “The Lady in the Water” was that bad. I honestly had no expectations of him any more, and no anticipation of his future projects. If he was atop my favorite working directors list in 2002, he was nowhere near it in 2008.

Which is why I was surprised when trailers for his next film, “The Happening” were intriguing. It was apocalyptic looking and moody, and features that great shot he got of bodies falling through the air.

What if “The Lady in the Water” were an aberration? I mean, you take that movie out, and the guy’s filmography was awesome. Three great flicks and one ok one. So maybe he just had one wild idea and he whiffed on it. I mean, even if it sucked, it was still…. unique. What if now he was pissed off over being called a hack, and this movie was his return to form? With a vengeance?

Oh my God no. No, no, no. LOL.

Hollywood Mysteries: M Night Shyamalan (Part II: The Fall)

(If you missed Part I: The Rise, it’s here.)

In the summer of 2004, M Night Shyamalan was the hottest Director in the World. His name was selling tickets to the extent where the promo poster for that summer’s “The Village” has essentially NOTHING on it except his name. “M Night Shyamalan’s The Village”, some wooden planks, a stripe of paint. In those days, that was all his movies would need. It opened with a $50 million dollar weekend.

A funny thing happened though.

It wasn’t any good.