The Rite: Wrong in so many ways

When Michael, a Catholic priest in training, begins to question his faith, he is sent to The Vatican in order to attend a special class on exorcism being taught by the church. Once there he is introduce to Father Lucas, a man intent upon showing Michael the true power of the devil.

The "exorcism" film really begins and ends with the classic which started the entire sub-genre, The Exorcist. In that respect, it is hard for any new film which deals with the same subject to match or even surpass what most people consider to be one of the best (and scariest) films of all time. The Rite had a chance to at least match The Exorcist due to its seemingly compelling storyline as well as the acting prowess of its star, Sir Anthony Hopkins, however it falied to be anything more than a substandard by-the-numbers supernatural thriller which did not even thrill. The story of Michael was never interesting enough to follow or take seriously, this was due to the pedestrian acting of Colin O' Donoghue (who played Michael) as well as the second-rate directing by Mikael Hafstrom, who simply recycled all of those ideas and plot points from films like The Exorcist and failed to introduce anything fresh or exciting to the sub-genre. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the movie was the performance of Hopkins for it felt like he channeled Hannibal Lector for half of his time on screen. His act got so tawdry at points that the audience could not help but feel as if the man who made fava beans famous was in the film for nothing more than a nice paycheck.

The Rite was wrong in so many ways that it never came close to being half as good as the movie it was trying to imitate.

Grade: D

The Green Hornet: Bruce Lee would not be pleased

Newspaper heir Britt Reid never really cared for much in life except for partying and having a good time. But after the death of his father he decides to don a disguise and make a difference as the crime fighter The Green Hornet. Along with his trusted sidekick Kato they set out to clean up the streets of Los Angeles.

Based off of the 1960's television series of the same name The Green Hornet had something of a Batman vibe to it given the backstory of the main character (Britt Reid, like Bruce Wayne, is a rich kid who decides to take justice into his own hands after the murder of his father). However with Seth Rogen in the role of Reid, the audience was no doubt expecting quite a few hilarious one-liners  and other comic gems to complement the action expected in a superhero film. While the action was present (most of the said action was supplied by Jay Chou who played Kato), the sloppily scripted story never connected with the audience. Rogen's Reid/Green Hornet failed to be anything other than an unfunny, spolied brat who was completely unbelievable as a good guy, let alone a superhero. Christoph Waltz, as the bad guy Chudnofsky, was whinier than a seventeen year old girl who didn't get asked to prom and never amounted to anything menacing or convincingly evil while Cameron Diaz did nothing more than show up and look hot. Even the directing by Michel Gondry (who has directed visually unique films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep) seemed ordinary and added little to an already underwhelming film.

The bad jokes, shoddy story/plot, poor acting and stagnant directing all combined to make The Green Hornet nothing super at all.

Grade: D

Resident Evil: Afterlife: A sequel with less brains than the zombies that are in it

Alice's quest to destroy the evil Umbrella Corporation continues as she must fight to lead a group of survivors to the safe haven of Arcadia, a place where the T virus infection has not spread to.

There are some films which truly deserve sequels (i.e. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.) because their main characters and storylines are so intriguing, audiences want to see more. However there are some films which do not warrant a single sequel, let alone three of them. Such is the case with the Resident Evil franchise and its latest plodding effort, "Afterlife" which was a silly exercise in hackneyed storytelling and directing. Paul W.S. Anderson (the Director of the film) tried to distinguish this sequel by incorporating 3D action sequences into it but those sequences were so similar to the action seen in the original Matrix (and I mean right down to the bad guy Albert Wesker, whose mannerisms and look smacked of Agent Smith) that it was hard not to roll one's eyes and stare at the nearest clock in the hopes that the film would be over sooner rather than later. The actual storyline was not any better as it suceeded in only giving the audience the bare facts of the how's and why's regarding Alice's quest and left plot holes of epic proportions at every opportunity.

With any luck, Resident Evil: Afterlife will be the last film in a franchise of truly subpar efforts.

Grade: D

Jackass 3D: The usual hilarious carnage

The Jackass crew returns for another round of crazy stunts and other tomfoolery that is bound to either make you laugh or become physically ill.

It seems improbable that, after a number of seasons on MTV as well as two successful films, Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of fellow Jackasses would still be able to find new ways to make an audience bust out laughing while simultaneously making them squirm in their seats as they watched a new series and stunts and other insane gags unfold in front of them but that was exactly what happened in Jackass 3D. From Steve-O's porta potty slingshot fiasco, the "High Five" practical joke, improper use of super glue, to a human duck hunt, it was impossible to not chuckle uncontrollably at the human carnage which happened on screen.

It is conceivable that Johnny and the guys are slowing down just a bit as they continue to grow older and are not as spry as they once were as Bam, Ryan and all of the rest seemed to take just a little longer to get up after they fell down and the stunts were not as crazy as they once were (but let's face it, how many shots to the crotch than these guys take before they are forever sterile or having any resemblance of a normal life). This film even felt like something of a proper farewell but here's hoping they can find a way to make at least one more movie before they hang up their helments and tasers.

If you are not a fan of Jackass, then odds are, you are going to want to skip this movie but fans of the series will not be disappointed with this sequel.

Grade: B

Tron Legacy: A visual dynamo...that's about it

Sam Flynn, the son of a virtual world designer, goes looking for his father twenty years after his disappeared. In his quest to find him, he winds up inside the digital world that his father created and must fight to not only save himself, but to also stop the evil overload that now rules the digital domain of The Grid.

The best aspects of Tron Legacy were its production design and visual effects. Sure, the slow motion bullet-time-esque action shots and skin tight bodysuits worn by the main characters reminded one of The Matrix and the look of The Grid had certain Blade Runner aspects to it, but director Joseph Kosinski was able to build upon what Steven Lisberger, the director of the original Tron, created in the original and fashion a slick, innovative and awe inspiring futuristic world of light cycles and planes, stunning architecture and intense action which most sci-fi fans will find hard to pass up. Where the film faltered was in its story and characters. Garrett Hedlund (who played Sam) was no Keanu Reeves (and trust me, that's a bad thing), Jeff Bridges channeled too much of The Dude (his trademark character from The Big Lebowski) to be taken seriously as Kevin, his CGI-aided role as Clu looked a little too fake (and creepy) from time to time while poor Olivia Wilde (who looked amazing in her bodysuit) was never given much to do as Quorra other than look pretty. The whole story of Sam rushing into The Grid to save his father and stop Clu's evil invasion plans was never given any traction. It never developed into something substantial and felt choppy, rushed and tacked on in an effort to fill time between the visually dazzling sequences.

Just sit back and watch all of the amazing visuals in Tron Legacy, those should be entertaining enough to make you forget that there is not much of a story.

Grade: C+

Black Swan: A disturbing masterpiece

Ballet dancer Nina lands the role of the lifetime when she is cast as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. But she soon starts to believe her dreams of stardom will be crushed by her rival Lilly and, as opening night approaches and the pressure builds, her obsesion with being the "perfect" Swan Queen drives her into paranoia and delusion.

The first thing one remembers after turning off Black Swan is the career defining performance given by Natalie Portman. As Nina, she was able to grow character-wise, from the timid and scared girl in the beginning of the film who could only hope to land the part of the Swan Queen to the mature and confident woman who was able to give the performance of her lifetime in that role. Her actions and reactions between those two points were filled with so much emotion, including anger, confusion, despair and desire that it was nearly impossible to tear one's eyes from the screen for Ms. Portman so totally lost herself in the role that it was hard to imagine this was the same woman who played Queen/Senator Amidala in the recent Star Wars prequels. It was almost as if Ms. Portman felt as though her own real life career mirrored that of Nina's and, having grown tired of always playing the good girl, she was looking for a role that would not only break that typecasting mold, but bust it inot a million pieces. As with Nina's transformation this role seems to be Portman's transformative performance.

Beyond Portman's performance, Darren Aronofsky's direction merits attention for he was able to not only bring out stellar performances from his lead actress as well as the rest of the cast, but he also kept the audience on the edge of their seats by playing up the torment Nina was facing. Her decent into a psychological spiral preyed on the minds of the audience, causing them to question whether Nina was truly turning into the mythologial Black Swan or if she was simply loosing her mind. Aronofsky was able to further toy with the audience by including some of Nina's visions, which contained some of the more unnerving images seen on film since movies such as The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby.

A film about a mentally unhinged ballerina does not seem like something many people would be calmoring to watch, however the strong acting and storytelling of Black Swan made it a disturbingly, entertaining thriller that an audience could not help but be enthralled by.

Grade: A

Skyline: Another one where you root for the aliens to win

After a night of partying in Los Angeles Jerrod and his pregnant girlfriend Elaine are awakened by mysterious blue lights. Soon they discover that they are among the few people to have survived an alien invasion and must fight to escape the alien invaders.

No one will ever fault The Strause Brothers (who directed the film) for their abilities to create dazzling visual effects. The Brothers created the visual effects for films such as 300 and Battle: Los Angeles, so it should come as no surprise that the big battle sequences and those sequences which featured the aliens were among the most captivating and entertaining parts of Skyline. But therein lies the problem because all of those special effects could not mask the insipid story and vapid character within the story which were never developed enough to care about. It seemed like The Strause Brothers envisioned their movie as a sort of Cloverfield meets War of the Worlds mashup but in reality, it almost felt like an episode of The Real World L.A. as the survivors just sat around whining and moaning about everything (pre and post alien invasion). The two main characters the audience was supposed to connect with emotionally, Jerrod and Elaine, were so crippled by dreadful dialogue and a lack of depth that it not only made them hard to connect with, it also made them easy to forget. The story was never given proper direction or focus and tended to wonder aimlessly between those scenes of awesome looking visual effects.

Bad story plus bad dialogue plus cool visuals all added up to make Skyline a wasted opportunity of a sci-fi thriller.

Grade: D 

The Fighter: In this corner, one heck of a good film

Growing up in the shadow of his older brother Dickey, a once talented boxer and small town hero who now battles a drug addiction, Mickey has always struggled to be his own man and makes a name for himself as a professional boxer. Things start to turn around for him in the ring once he begins training with someone other than Dickey and starts dating a woman named Charlene, but will he be able to maintain his newfound success?

A film in the same vein as Raging Bull, though lacking in the same kind of intensity story-wise and visceral viciousness when it came to the actual boxing sequences, The Fighter was an engrossing sports drama which sucked viewers in thanks to the impressive performances of its cast. Mark Wahlberg was steady as Mickey, invoking both strength and vulnerability in his portrayal, making him imminently easy to root for. Melissa Leo’s portrayal as Alice (Mickey and Dickey’s overbearing and unscrupulous mother) was horrifying to behold at points (because of the way she treated Mickey) and therefore solid in its own right but major kudos (and a well deserved Oscar) go to Christian Bale as Dickey. When he is first shown on the screen, it’s hard to imagine that this is the same man who portrays Batman, as Bale has the look, twitches and other believable characteristics of an addict. He was not an easy character to like at first, for Dickey had a number of faults beyond his addiction but Bale was able to breath bits and pieces of humanity into the character until he finally decided to give up drugs and recommit himself to living a clean life and helping Mickey with his boxing career. The parallel lines that both he and Mickey took to their ultimate redemption and/or triumph were difficult to watch at times, but that just made their victories much sweeter. Plus it served the purpose of keeping the audience engaged in the story.

Featuring mature directing from David O. Russell, The Fighter delivered an emotionally satisfying story with captivating performances.

Grade: B-

My Soul to Take: My goodness what a bad film

Fifteen years after the serial killer “The Riverton Ripper” was allegedly killed by police a number of teenager, whose birthdays match that fateful day, begin to go missing. Soon people begin to wonder if The Ripper is back and taking revenge or if his soul is somehow responsible for the disappearances.

Once upon a time when one saw the name Wes Craven attached as the director of a film a shiver no doubt went down their spin. For years Craven has directed some of the better horror films released, including A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series, but his newest film My Soul to Take might mark a new career low for it featured a dreadfully befuddling story and absolutely no terrifying or thrilling parts whatsoever. The main villain of the movie, “The Riverton Ripper,” was rarely seen and hardly developed character-wise, like most of the disposable teen cast, which played their cookie-cutter parts as best they could before being dispatched in disappointingly similar fashions.

Without even a decent supporting character to root for the audience had to contend with the perplexingly tedious story, which never had a hint of intrigue and left them wondering why they had wasted an hour and forty minutes of their lives on a horrible film when they could have been doing something better, like watching paint dry.

Grade: D-

Devil: A wasted opportunity

Five strangers become trapped in an elevator. The situation becomes worse as each of them is murdered in a horrifying fashion and it’s up to a Detective to undercover the how’s and whys before everyone is killed.

Devil had an intriguing/promising premise that could have provided filmgoers with a thought-provoking thriller in that the devil was trapped in an elevator with four other people, looking to collect their souls. And while there were a few tense moments in which the close quarters and sound were effectively utilized to make the audience jump, they were never given a solid rationalization as to why the devil had to catch an elevator to nab those specific people. Somehow the suicide of a person at the beginning of the film triggered the events but aside from that, the audience just got a bunch of “it’s fate” dialogue and explanations and was left to fill in the blanks for themselves.

Add to that a cast of totally obnoxious characters, the banality of the “twist” in the story at the end of the film (a trademark of the film’s writer/producer M. Night Shyamalan's previous stories, and one he should consider giving up as it seems more contrived than creative anymore) and Devil came up short in delivering on its interesting idea.

Grade: D