Film

The FBI: Screwing up the X-files since 1993.One question was burning in my mind as I strolled out of a screening of The X-Files: I Want to Believe: Why was it made? Was it the product of marketing research - a sufficient amount of X-Files fans loyal enough to see this film no matter what? Did director Chris Carter (X-Files creator) get together with the two main stars (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) and say, "Let's do another movie and see how long and drawn out and boring we can make it?"

This is one huge lesson in vapidity. Now, don't get me wrong, I wanted to like it. I was never a big fan of the series, but I have caught some decently clever and fairly warped episodes in re-runs. Based on that fact alone, I thought I might be more sympathetic to this movie. Even blending in body parts, a pedophile psychic priest, a love interest, missing agents, with a twist on the Frankenstein legend turns out to be a big waste of time. Want to Believe is at the bottom rung of mediocre.
The story unfolds as Mulder (Duchovny) is drawn out of hiding by Scully (Anderson) to assist the FBI in finding a missing agent. They are following a lead from a questionable source: visions of an ex-priest Father Joe (Billy Connolly). Some quasi-intrigue is mixed in with the underlying themes of God versus science versus instinct versus what the FBI says. There's chance for a believable love story between Scully and Mulder (they're now an item) but it's screwed up with tortuous soap opera dialogue. The convoluted clues are not presented well, so we, the audience, have a hard time figuring out why they are even giving them to us in the first place. The incompetence of the FBI in figuring things out is annoying. It was like a "guess how many mistakes are on this page" kid's book exercise.

Hells angel. "Gonzo journalism" is the self-coined phrase that Hunter S. Thompson used to describe his writing because it seemed so far out of control it defied normal terminology. And it was a word he liked. Over time he became all things "Gonzo." Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson expands on this theme… or tries to.

There have been several films focused on Thompson and I was hoping this was going to be the definitive movie. It holds your attention at the beginning with a Natural Born Killers feel and follows with great interviews and archival footage, but ultimately the story is conveyed a hell of a lot better in Tom Thurman's 2006 film Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride.

Gonzo follows Thompson's writing years, detailing his journalistic Fear and Loathing books and articles, his reporting on political campaign trails and drug and alcohol experimentation. The movie begins in Thompson's home of Woody Creek, Colo. showing him firing guns to an exhilarating choice of music, Bob Dylan and the Band's live version of "All Along the Watch Tower." Narrated whimsically by a sometimes on-screen Johnny Depp, it includes interviews with Jimmy Carter and George McGovern. Jan Wenner from Rolling Stone magazine is prominently figured as is a surprisingly reverent (to Thompson) Pat Buchanan.

one more time, kids. Who stole my damn wig?After a record breaking weekend at the box office the question is: Does the Dark Knight live up to the hype? The answer is yes and no.

In the latest and best installment of the long-running serial, writer/director Christopher Nolan plunges ever deeper into the realm of madness and self-doubt, adding more evil and more complexity to the story. The result is a film so dark, at least by the series' standards, that not even the director can find his way through to a consistently coherent plot.

When a triumvirate of crime-fighters-Batman (Christian Bale), Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, who also plays Two-Face)-believe that they've finally mopped up a notorious mob crime-ring, a demonic Joker returns to spread chaos throughout the city. From then on, the challenges of betrayal, corruption, and sadism, combine to generate a relentlessly nerve-wracking sense of dread.

Eddie Murphy is obviously trying to hurt the world on purpose. Why else would he inflict this "movie" on the masses? (I say "movie" with quotation marks because stringing together one poop joke after another is not what I'd call a movie. I'd call that sixth grade.)
 
Remember Raw-era Eddie Murphy? The Eddie Murphy who shit-talked Bill Cosby and wore the tightest leather pants in the universe? Or remember Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop? Yeah, well, forget about that Eddie Murphy. All we have now is an Eddie Murphy who lazily fulfills contractual studio obligations by making stupid comedies about spacemen who poop money. I'm not kidding. This actually happens in his new movie. And it happens inside an Old Navy.

nuthin’, waddya you doin’?What is it this year with the superheroes? Bringing to life more comic book superhero blockbuster razzle-dazzle, we now enter the monster-dwelling realm of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The original showed Hellboy (Ron Perlman) as the demon-turned-super-hero battling present-day Nazis and inter-dimensional monsters, and the sequel continues pulling out all the stops.
 
The movie begins with a sickeningly cute Hellboy (as a boy) brushing his teeth, excited for his bedtime story. And the story is? Yep, the saga of the Golden Army, and told in wooden puppet form, it looks pretty cool. Cut to: the present-the bedtime story is now a reality. An evil prince has to assemble three scattered pieces of a golden crown to raise the evil Golden Army from its dormancy to unleash Hell on earth…here's where Hellboy excels. He likes to kick monster butt.
Hellboy resides in a paranormal research center that is actually the home of a bunch of human oddities that would fare well in a freak sideshow. Oh, and they fight crime. Everyone's back, including sidekick fish-boy Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), but without David Hyde-Pierce's voice. Stepping into the webs-flipper-gills, Jones brings some credibility. Hellboy's girlfriend, Liz the Fire-Girl (Selma Blair) returns as does their totally lame love story. Manning (Jeffery Tambor) is once again the head of the government funded super-freak hideaway.

Even kids love old timey. Is stealing ever okay? How about if it's from a rich banker in order to save the home of an out-of-work family, or committed by those suffering in hunger and despair, as in the Great Depression? In the new film, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, based on the American Girl book series, Kit and her pals delve into that and other tricky moral quandaries, as they exit the safety of their tree-fort to embark upon various feats beyond their years. It turns out that Kit learns the most about survival, ingenuity, honesty and grace just by looking around her hometown.
 
Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) is the perfect choice for the role of Kit. She is confident, poised and assertive, with an earnest innocence. As Kit, Breslin also illustrates that she knows well how to register a look of shock or surprise, keeping a young audience enthralled with the film's exploits and misadventure.
The 30's-era tale chronicles the adventures of an aspiring young journalist who helps solve a mystery that threatens her family's home, as well as her entire Cincinnati neighborhood. When all signs of guilt point to the "hobo jungle" on the city's fringe-where Kit's new friends Will and Countee live alongside other jobless, hungry victims of the Depression-Kit convinces her friends to ferret out the truth.

nothing to see here. Just keep raking. It's been quite the summer for super heroes-Iron Man, Hulk, and now Hancock, who comes in the form of a drunken lout of a super hero.
 
The premise is clever: a super hero with a drinking problem doesn't know who he is or where he comes from. Carrying a truckload of problems, he doesn't really enjoy saving people's lives. He just does it because either he can and/or he's the only one who can. He makes a sloppy exercise out of saving the day, chucking a beached whale out to sea only to hit a sailboat….skewering a car of bad guys on the Capitol Records building… you get the point. Hancock is pretty much despised for all the chaos he causes - the exception being Ray Embry (Jason Bateman), a PR exec that Hancock saves from getting pulverized by a train. In return, Ray befriends the hero and attempts a marketing strategy makeover. Ray brings Hancock home for counseling and to meet his wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), who is busy with her own life and doesn't approve.
Will Smith is a charismatic actor, bringing life to what would normally be a spoof-oriented role. He also plays a believable drunk with some genuine talent. With Theron, though, I wondered for the longest time why she was even in this movie, but she does manage to prove her worth. Bateman is an entertaining guy in a smarmy and witty kind of way, although fairly one-dimensional.

Jolie in a shot from the new Whitesnake videoYou are going to have to set aside common sense to enjoy this movie. It'll be no fun if you question the logistics of Wanted, with its dopey dialogue and ridiculous plot. Better to sit back and enjoy the ride while this flick delivers a ton of exhilarating, jaw-dropping action scenes.
The plot unfolds with a quick voice-over narrative biography explaining the lame existence of one Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), a stressed out accountant, stagnating in his measly meek life. People abuse and take advantage of him on a daily basis. Oh, if only he could grow a pair… Enter Fox (a tattooed ultra sleek Angelina Jolie) who literally whisks Gibson away to employ his unknown talents for an underground assassin club called the Fraternity. Sound farfetched so far? You betcha. But who cares? Right when you think the film will get long and uninteresting, Wanted pumps in the adrenaline-beginning with some Matrix-effect flying bullets.

The wrath of KhanAs Kazakstan's first entry into the Academy Awards (2008 nominee for Best Foreign Language Film), the epic historical drama, Mongol, will enthrall horse devotees, history aficionados (who can argue afterwards about its authenticity), or anyone else interested in a visually incredible depiction of life on the steppes of 12th century Central Asia.

Who gave the Rock a gun?Get Smart attempts a big-screen adaptation of a small-screen show, trying hard to stay somewhat reverent to the original. The film was the brainchild of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks, (credited as consultants) but this remake somehow lost the duo's slapstick wit and brainy innuendoes. In fact, the entire movie smacks of lackluster performances and tedious plot-fillers. What was once wacky spy stuff alongside the goofiness of Mad magazine, is now an almost risk-free and gutless remake.
 
The opening music wanders in schmaltz land until the credits arrive at the credits with the familiar multiple doors closing shut to the sound of the original TV theme song. The simplistic plot is that KAOS (the evil organization) wants to wreak havoc on the planet by bombing select cities starting with Los Angeles. CONTROL (the good guys) has to stop them.
Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, takes on the Don Adams role in a weirdly subtle performance. Carell is a really good choice, but whereas Don Adams had this kind of pestering suave bravado, Carell comes off as more of a wimp with surprises. The original 86, due to his boasting and know-it-all attitude, brought everything on himself and he got what he deserved. In 2008, we get a pathetic 86 begging you to feel sorry for him-it's just not right. On the other hand, Anne Hathaway is extremely sexy, replacing Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. And that's no small feat. Who didn't have a crush on Feldon's 99? Max's rapport with 99, however, is only sometimes bearable.