Theater Review: Turbo

I am so far behind on my reviews again. I had to at least sit down and get this theater review out - especially since the film is dropping on DVD next week.

Anyway, I definitely was not expecting anything when I went to see Turbo. My parents came up to visit and took my son to see it - and I tagged along.

But, I really came away surprised - I really enjoyed it.

Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) is a snail that has the need for speed. He stays up at night watching videos of his favorite race car driver, Guy Gagne (Bill Hader) and dreaming of being a racer himself. For a snail, he might actually be one of the faster ones - but he is still a snail.

During the day, he works in a tomato garden with a lot of other snails, including his brother Chet (Paul Giamatti), who is sort of in charge of the garden crew. On his breaks, instead of eating, Turbo pretends to be fast - and it is beginning to wear on his brother, who wants him to grow up.

Turbo leaves the tomato garden for a walk one night and wishes on a 'star' to be fast, and he gets sucked up into a super charged car - and he gets soaked in nitrous oxide that gets sucked into his DNA. And, you guessed it - Turbo becomes super fast.

So, he goes to show off for the garden crew - and manages to crush most of the garden, which gets himself and his brother fired. As they fought, Chet is scooped up by a crow - and Turbo heads off to rescue him.

Both of them are soon picked up by Tito (Michael Pena) and taken back to a forgotten strip mall where he works with his brother Angelo (Luis Guzman) at a taco stand. Tito likes to race snails, and uses some souped up shells to make the snails faster - however, everyone is blown away but what Turbo can do.

Tito soon comes up with an idea to rescue the taco stand - and the strip mall. He decides to enter Turbo in a race with actual race cars - including racing against his ideal Gagne.

As I said, I went into this not really expecting much - but I found myself pretty entertained. No, it isn't the greatest animated film, heck it probably isn't even the best of the year. But, I was definitely entertained throughout, so it gets my vote of approval.

The interaction between the brothers, both Tito and Angelo, and Chet and Turbo is pretty good. The strip mall crew: Paz (Michelle Rodriguez), Bobby (Richard Jenkins) and Kim-Ly (Ken Jeong) were also pretty fun to watch. Then there were the other snails that get raced: Whiplash (Samuel L. Jackson), Burn (Maya Rudolph), Smoove Move (Snoop Dogg), Skidmark (Ben Schwartz) and White Shadow (Michael Bell) - a lot of laughs during their scenes.

Again, not breaking new ground here with this film - but for a film that I really didn't even think about seeing, I really enjoyed it.

Grade:

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:

7/50x2: Smokin' Aces

I first wanted to see this film when it was in theaters. There was just something about the trailer that drew me in, perhaps it was that it starred a bunch of well-known actors, or because it looked like an action film on steroids. Either way, I wasn't able to check it out in the theaters. Then, I waited patiently for it to come via Netflix - and the disc wouldn't play in my player.

So, almost five years later I finally got see Smokin' Aces. And although it was a decent flick, it wasn't something I needed to wait five years to see.

Buddy 'Aces' Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a magician in Vegas, but also has his webs inside the mob somehow - which has made him filthy rich.

Well, in order to save his own ass he has agreed to turn over evidence against the mob - which makes him the No. 1 target for Primo Sparazza - so the FBI, believing Sparazza will go after Israel - use him to bring the entire operation down.

But, there is a huge hit out on Israel and every hit man (and woman) in the Vegas area are out to collect on the hit and take down Israel.

So, here is a bit of a rundown of those targeting Israel. Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), a master of disguise. Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson) and Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys), a team of hitwomen, Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) a torture expert, and the Tremor brothers, Darwin (Chris Pine), Jeeves (Kevin Durand) and Lester (Maury Sterling).

Oh, and a trio of bail bondsman, Jack (Ben Affleck), Pete (Peter Berg) and Hollis (Martin Henderson), who have been hired to bring Israel back into custody.

And finally, he is being protected by the FBI team of Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia), Richard (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald (Ray Liotta).

Talk about a bunch of heavy-hitters. And not to ruin anything, but a lot of the names above have a brief cameo or very little screen time at all.

The best part of this film has to be the Tremor brothers. They are insane and truly funny. Plus, I liked the relationship between Reynolds and Liotta, very father, son like.

There was at on of action, which I liked - but it wasn't an amazing film. It was just a decent, fun watch.

Grade:

5/50x2: Buried

I am so very surprised that not much about this movie was spoiled to me.

I knew a few of the minuscule moments going in, but that is it.

Buried stars Ryan Reynolds as Paul Conroy, a truck driver from the United States working in the hostile territory of Iraq.

That is pretty much the only person in this movie. Sure, you hear others, but Reynolds is the only actor you actually see during the entire film. 95 minutes of Reynolds and the occasional black screen.

I have to admit, when it first started I thought there is no way they can stay with Reynolds in this tiny spot for the entire film and still hold my interest. How would that be possible? Well, they did it.

Without giving too much away, Conroy awakens at the beginning of the film inside a buried, wooden coffin somewhere in the Iraqi desert. His truck driving convoy has been ambushed, as we are told in the story, but never see. Apparently everyone else was killed and he was buried alive.

Inside his coffin he is given a lighter, a cell phone (in Arabic), glow sticks, a flask, a pencil, a knife and a flashlight. He tries to contact his family and his employer, to no avail. He does manage to get in contact with the U.S. Embassy and tells them his predicament.

He is also contacted by a man named, Jabir (Jose Luis Garcia Perez), the leader of those who attacked his convoy, and is ordered to send a ransom message for his life for $5 million (which is eventually lowered to $1 million).

During this time, Conroy is also talking to Dan Brenner (Robert Paterson), a hostage rescue group leader, who now appears to be Conroy's lone chance at being rescued.

Like I said, hard to believe I could be so fascinated with a film that stays inside a wooden box throughout its entire run. I loved Cast Away, but even that film was off the island for at least 1/3 of the film - and, with no disrespect to Reynolds, but Hanks has the clout to carry a film alone.

Well, apparently Reynolds does as well. At least for me.

I adored this film, and truly began to felt for Conroy during my brief time with him. Reynolds did an amazing job at allowing that to happen. You could feel his pain and you could feel his pessimistic attitude.

Only a few things stuck out to me that I either felt was a useless moment or didn't really work for me. Other than that, I truly found myself engulfed in this film.

Grade:

22/50: The Nines

Um, I am not really sure what to think of this movie. I am sort of lost. I also feel like I was a little bit cheated by the ending.

Nevertheless, I checked out The Nines starring Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds plays three separate characters in the film, as the film is actually separated into three different parts - it makes sense at he conclusion.

Things sort of feel out of place for Reynolds' characters, as he senses that things are happening around him that really aren't happening.

Honestly, I don't really know how to rate this movie. It was very odd and I was really hoping to like it - and I thought it was building to something that would really pay off. But, it really didn't.

The oddness of the film intrigued me, but the pay off was annoying to me. So, if this film ended in a different manner I would have really enjoyed this movie. That being said, I can't give it a horrible grade or an excellent grade - so I will just stay in the middle. I didn't hate it, but due to a bad ending (my opinion) I didn't really love it either.

Grade: