Quick Shots 17

Title: Cowboys & Aliens.

Starring: Daniel Craig, Paul Dano, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Clancy Brown, Noah Ringer, Keith Carradine, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford.

Brief Synopsis: A man (Craig) wakes up in the middle of the desert with a strange object on his arm and a little bit of amnesia. He rides his way in to a local town and Ella Swenson (Wilde) becomes enamored with him for some reason. Local sheriff, John Taggart (Carradine), sees that the man is actually Jake Lonergan and is wanted - so he arrests him. Then, the aliens come.

Opinion: When I first saw this trailer I was immediately in. A movie with cowboys and aliens, plus James Bond and Indiana Jones. Of course I am in. But, I did what I tell myself never to do - listen to other people's reviews. I finally ended up watching it - and I actually enjoyed it. The one 'sort of' twist I saw coming a mile away, but the rest of the film was interesting and action packed.

Grade: 

Title: American Reunion.

Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, John Cho, Eugene Levy.

Brief Synopsis: It's been 13 years since the gang graduated from high school, and of course they never planned a reunion. So, a 13-year reunion is planned and they all head back to the hometown to meet up. Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan) are married with a child, but their love life is now lacking. Kevin (Nicholas) is married, but is now a house husband. Oz (Klein) is a well-known sports castor, but not happy with his girlfriend. Stiffler (Scott) is working as an errand boy and still hasn't really grown up, while Finch (Thomas) is apparently living it up all over the world.

Opinion: As I believe I have said before, these are my people. This gang graduated in '99 the same year that I graduated. American Pie was one of the funniest movies I had seen at the time, and I have enjoyed each film since. Here, they get the entire gang back together again and it was hilarious again. Plus, they brought back pretty much everyone - even if they had smaller roles in the movie.

Grade: 

Title: 30 Minutes or Less.

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria, Michael Pena, Fred Ward.

Brief Synopsis: Dwayne (McBride) lives with his father (Ward), who has a bunch of money and Dwayne wants to get his hands on it. He gets an idea to hire someone to kill his father so he can use the money to start an 'adult' tanning salon. To kill his father, he must come up with 100 thousand dollars - so him and his friend Travis (Swardson) strap a bomb to a stoner pizza delivery guy, Nick (Eisenberg) and force him to rob a bank for them.

Opinion: This wasn't as bad as I was expecting. People were saying this was horrible, but I have seen so many films worse than this one. There were some pretty funny parts in the film, and it was sort of interesting as well. Sure, it probably could have been both funnier and more interesting, but it was a decent watch.

Grade: 

Title: X-Men: First Class.

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Nicholas Hoult.

Brief Synopsis: Charles Xavier (McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Fassbender) come together to take down Sebastian Shaw (Bacon), who plans to take over the world. Erik has personal issues with Shaw, as he was once a Nazi and killed his mother. Xavier is first just excited to find more people like him - and wants to keep them and the humans at peace so they can all mix well together.

Opinion: I enjoyed the first X-Men trilogy, so I knew I was going to enjoy this one. It had sort of a Star Trek vibe to it at the start - as we get some background history on both Xavier and Erik (much like Kirk and Spock). McAvoy and Fassbender were perfect as the main duo - and Lawrence is just a talented actress. Plus, I have said we need more Bacon in this world - and we get it here.

Grade: 

Title: Scream 4.

Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Marielle Jaffe, Alison Brie, Marley Shelton, Erik Knudsen, Rory Culkin, Adam Brody, Anthony Anderson.

Brief Synopsis: It's been 10 years since Sidney Prescott (Campbell) has had to deal with the ghostface killer. She has finally picked herself up and is now promoting her book about how she has gotten through her ordeal - and her final stop is Woodsboro. And, just like in the past, Sidney just brings bad luck with her as ghostface returns to stalk the locals - and Sidney, Dewey (Arquette) and Gale (Cox) are at the center of it again.

Opinion: Scream is one of the lone 'horror' franchises that I really got into. Not even sure when I watched the first one, but I have enjoyed them all. And, this was a nice return to the roots - but by adding some of the younger generation. Only thing missing, in my opinion, was the amount of humor that Jamie Kennedy was able to bring to the original three films.

Grade: 

Tuesday's With Movies: 9/6/11

Everything Must Go: Have heard some pretty good things about this film. I have to admit when I first heard about it I wasn't too excited, but with word of mouth and a pretty decent trailer, I am pretty excited to check it out.

Hanna: I really enjoyed Saoirse Ronan in The Lovely Bones so I look forward to checking her out in another role. Plus, it looks pretty bad ass with her as an assassin. Definitely checking this one out.

X-Men: First Class: One of the films that I wanted to check out in the theater, but was unable to. I have seen all of the X-Men films (except the Wolverine feature, but I will) and have enjoyed them - plus this one has been heavily praised by both critics and fans.

Community: Season 2: I don't generally post about new television series coming out on DVD, but for some reason the past two weeks have been TV on DVD heavy. I obviously love Community so I recommend that you watch it - and buy this DVD. On a side note, I am confused by why TV masterminds decide to release their television shows on DVD just a few weeks before the show is set to return. Wouldn't it make more sense to try and get it out sometime during the summer when someone unfamiliar with the show can check it out during the summer months and prep them for the upcoming season? I just felt it should be said seeing as how the last two weeks have had almost every TV show hit DVD.