Theater Review: The Croods

This was honestly a bit of a surprise. I had absolutely no interest in checking out this film, but my parents visited and decided to take my son (and us) to the movie.

The Croods is about a a family of cavemen led by their father Grug (Nicolas Cage). The cavemen have slowly started to become extinct, thanks to disease, carnivorous beasts, and others.

Grug is very overprotective of his family, which they believe is the reason they have survived while others have died. Eep (Emma Stone), Grug's daughter, is not so excited about having to stay in hiding inside their cave all of the time. So, she begins to push the limits.

Ugga (Catherine Keener) - Grug's wife, Gran (Cloris Leachman) - Ugga's mother, Thunk (Clark Duke) - Grug's son, and Sanday - Grug's other daughter, all follow everything that Grug's says. They love their cave and have no plans to ever go out and explore the world.

Eep, however, sees a glow outside the cave during the night and curiosity gets the best of her. She sneaks out of the cave and follows it - which actually turns out to be fire, something she has never seen before. The creator of the fire, though, is Guy (Ryan Reynolds), another caveman who has been out on his own and has adapted to the harsh world.

After an earthquake crushes their cave and opens up a hidden world to the cavemen, the Croods are forced to try and find a new place to hide - and use Guy as their guide. Along the way, the rest of the family begins to feel that Grug's way of life may not be the best.

I have to admit, even after seeing the trailer a handful of times this movie never really excited me. But, I guess you can't judge a movie by its trailer - because the film as actually pretty decent. Not amazing, but definitely worth seeing.

The scenery in the film was outstanding, with at first mostly brown and boring colors - but blossoming into a rainbow world.

The family itself was also pretty fun. But the funniest character had to be Guy's pet sloth, Belt - who had some great scenes, despite not uttering any real words.

Grade:

G-Force

The last new film we watched over the weekend was G-Force. This was the movie that my wife tried to take my son to in the theater. It was his first time ever going to a movie.

He apparently made it through about half of the movie before wanting to leave. But, he was very attentive to the final part of the movie this time around.

G-Force is a secret side project for the FBI led by Ben (Zach Galifianakis). He has managed to train animals to become FBI agents as well as a chip that allows animals and humans to speak to each other.

It was fun trying to figure out who was voicing each of the animals, but unfortunately I was only able to figure out two of them. The main G-Force animals are guinea pigs, Darwin (Sam Rockwell), Juarez (Penelope Cruz) and Blaster (Tracy Morgan), as well as a mole, Speckles (Nicolas Cage). I was only able to pick out Morgan out of that group, I mistook Cruz for Salma Hayek. Along the way the meet up with another guinea pig, Hurley (Jon Favreau) and a hamster, Bucky (Steve Buscemi). Now I was able to pick out Buscemi, that was not too hard.

This was actually a pretty cute film that had a pretty decent premise. I was not too excited about the twist ending, I felt that something else could have been better, but I will take it.

The film had some comedy and loads of action, and kept the family entertained throughout which is always a plus.

Grade:

LWITM: Con Air

I haven't written anything in two days, and for that I am sorry. My life has been pretty busy, and yet I haven't really had anything to write about. The start of the NFL season has gotten me excited for football - but I didn't want to have yet another NFL blog post, so I wrote nothing instead.

So, I thought I had better write something before the weekend - so here is my fourth installment of the LWITM (Look Who's In That Movie).

Fletch over at Blog Cabins is having himself a Cagefest for Nicolas Cage movies. Fletch doesn't hide his hatred for all things Nic Cage, and I respect that. But, I have no ill feelings of the actor - he doesn't bother me, and yet he doesn't get me running out to see a movie either - so I guess "I nothing him" (extra points for what show that comes from).

So, I have decided to 'gel' with his Cagefest and make my fourth LWITM be about Con Air.

The movie obviously stars Nicolas Cage as Cameron Poe, a military man who is tossed in jail for killing a man while protecting his wife.

The movie's premise is simple, Poe is parrolled and on his way home to see his wife and his daughter - who he has never met. To get there, however, he is tossed on a plane that happens to also be transporting every known badass possible.

So, of course, the plane is taken over by these mad men - and it's up to Poe to be the vigilante in the sky.

The bad boys are as follows:

• John Malkovich: Plays the leader Cyrus Grissom, who is the brains behind taking over of the plane.
  
• Ving Rhames: Plays Nathan Jones, Crissom's second-hand man.
  
• Nick Chinlund: Plays Billy Bedford, the third major criminal on the plane.
  
• Dave Chappelle: Plays Pinball. A druggy, who gets everything started by setting his seat partner on fire and releasing Cyrus.
  
• Danny Trejo: A rapist known as Johnny 23.
  
• M.C. Gainey: Is picked up in Carson City and is known as Swamp Thing. He takes over as the pilot.
  
• Steve Buscemi: Garland Greene, the most feared of all of the inmates, even the other inmates fear him - but seems to be the most well behaved.
  
• Mykelti Williamson: Mike O'Dell, Poe's best friend in prison who goes into diabetic shock when his insulin isn't administered.

Not bad, and that's just the inmates. The movie also has a few of the good guys, including:

• John Cusack: U.S. Marshall Vince Larkin, who is in charge of the plane before it gets taken over - and becomes an ally on the ground for Poe.
• Colm Meaney: DEA Agent Duncan Malloy. Not a total good guy as he ends up getting one of his men shot on board, and gives Grissom a gun in the process.
• Monica Potter: Plays Tricia Poe, Cameron's wife.

Not a bad hall of well-known actors for a movie. Most of these actors have gotten even bigger since Con Air was filmed. Although for the most part I think you could get most of them together in a single movie again. Chappelle, despite having a small part, might be the most difficult to get on - without a large pay raise.

Grade:

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

This was a very laid back weekend at the Kane household. There was absolutely nothing on the schedule for the weekend, which might be the last time for a good month.

It was nice to spend some time with my wife and my son without anything having to force us out of the house. It was very peaceful.

And, we were able to catch up on some movies.

We watched a trio of movies this weekend (well more than that, but these were three we put into the DVD player). The first of which was National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

I had started watching the first National Treasure film a year or so ago, but the DVD which I was watching it on had a glitch - and I had not finished the film until just a few weeks ago. So, it was pretty fresh in my mind when watching this sequel.

For most people out there, Nicolas Cage is a terrible actor. But, I am not one of those people - while I will admit he is not anywhere close to a great actor, he gets no ill-will from me. I can actually deal with him.

That being said, I really enjoyed National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I thought it flowed very well, and of course a lot of the things that happen are very unbelievable (it is a movie), but it is highly original, which I like. And, it kept me interested throughout.

The whole idea about clues hidden on or in historical documents leading to treasures or more historical documents is amazing. I love treasure hunt movies, and this one was very good.

Things start out as Ben Gates (Cage) and his father Patrick (Jon Voight) are giving a lecture about how Patrick's great-grandfather (or perhaps grandfather) Thomas Gates hid the location of the City of Gold from the Knights of the Golden Circle and John Wilkes Booth.

After the lecture, a man named Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), whose relative was a member for the KGC, shows them a part of Booth's diary with names of the members of the KGC - including the name of Thomas Gates.

So, in order to preserve their family name, Ben and Patrick, along with Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) set out on a second journey, this time to find the City of Gold.

There were a few things I did not like - for instance the oil lamp near the end of the film that just happens to be there, it reminded me a lot of the first movie, which could have been avoided - but, I guess I am just nitpicking.

Grade:

P.S. - In the future, I am hoping to have a certain tie-in to the movies I watch during the weekend - that is, when I am able to watch movies on the weekend. Something like a 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon'-type thing.

Movie Booms I

I must say that the total lack of television on now, thanks to most of the seasons being completed, I have found some extra time to dive into some movies I have been longing to see.

I posted a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Saturday, but I was also able to catch four other movies during this extended weekend.

Things started off on Saturday, when on one of the movie channels I noticed that Next was about to start (I am one of those people that can't watch a movie he has never seen, unless it's from start to finish), so I decided to record it and watch it when Kasey went up for his nap.

Next stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. Cage is Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who just might be the real thing. Johnson has this ability to see into the future - but only two minutes ahead and only things involving himself.

The only occurrence of him seeing further into the future involves Liz Cooper (Biel), whom Johnson believes is part of his destiny.

The FBI, however, led by Callie Ferris (Moore) is trying to lure Johnson into helping them find and stop a group of bombers. Johnson, though, just wants to remain normal and resists - until Cooper is kidnapped by the bombers.

I was actually pretty interested in the film, Cage is always hit or miss with me, and he was pretty tolerable here - I was not too impressed with Moore as the FBI agent, however. The movie flowed pretty well - that is until the ending, which I felt ended much too soon. It was a pretty interesting play of events, but I was looking for me.

I would have to give this movie a 3/5 thanks to the disappointing ending.

Sunday night I managed to finally watch a movie I had been interested in seeing since it was in theaters.

The Kingdom revolves around a single incident in Saudi Arabia that involves two U.S. government agents. The agents, who had been stationed at a Saudi Arabian base, were killed when a bomb went off.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper. Foxx plays Ronald Fleury, who without permission, sneaks himself and three other members of his team into Saudi Arabia to help track down the culprits behind the bombing.

Once there, however, the crew is not allowed to touch anything or go anywhere without supervision - until Fleury gets permission from one of the local princes.

It's hard to explain this movie without truly giving something away, so I will just say that the movie has a lot of action - a few squeamish scenes - and the acting is pretty top-notch. Bateman plays Adam Leavitt, and his character gives some much needed comedy to a very dramatic situation. I give the film a 4/5.

The third movie of the weekend was more of a television movie. I had actually heard that this movie was going to be on during an interview on The Mike O'Meara Show and thought it might be worth a look.

Recount premiered on HBO during the weekend. It stars Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Denis Leary and Laura Dern.

The film is about the 2000 presidential election year between Al Gore and George W. Bush. I have never been a very political person, but this proved to be a very interesting movie.

The entire movie is focused on the state of Florida during the election, a state that proved to give the election - and the presidency - to Bush. Spacey stars as Ron Klain, an attorney for the Gore campaign, who trying everything in his power to find out the correct results of the election.

For those who might not remember, the state of Florida had a series of issues when it came to it's election. A handful of people, believing they were voting for Gore, accidentally voted for Pat Buchanon. Other votes were cast, with what is called a hanging chad (or a punch that didn't go all the way through).

Thanks to this, many votes for Gore were uncounted and thus gave Bush the presidency. There were so many twists and turns to this situation - which basically all came down to the decision of Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris (Dern), who decided not to count those that were uncounted. Harris is a Republican - perhaps that had something to do with it.

Like I said I am not too political, but this movie certainly had me enthralled. Imagine what could have been? Would we be in the situation we are now if Gore would have won? Very interesting. My lone complaint is I was hoping the filmmakers would have interviewed the actual lawyers and participants on the two campaigns. I was very interested to hear what say James Baker (Wilkinson) had to say about Bush now - eight year later. Nevertheless, I still give this movie a 4/5.

The final movie I was able to watch this weekend was Breach starring Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper. Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysburt.

Phillippe is Eric O'Neill, an upstart in the FBI, who is given his first real assignment as an agent. He is to work for, and investigate, Robert Hanssen (Cooper), an intense, religious, computer intelligence officer.

Hanssen has supposedly been selling off American secrets to the Russians for years, and before his retirement in two months, the FBI is looking to bust him. Phillippe is forced to outwit one of the most intelligent officers he has ever met - and actually begins to like him.

This movie was based on a true story. Hanssen is reportedly the worst spy in the history of the United States. The capturing of Hanssen was the one and only assignment for O'Neill, as he decided to pursue law after the long ordeal.

Breach was an interesting movie which kept me involved, but it didn't have much action - and the 'spy games' used in it weren't as involved as I would have liked. However, it was a good watch so I give it a 3/5.

There you have it - hopefully there will be more of these Movie Booms throughout the summer - as I try to get caught up on the many movies I want to see.