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J. E. hoover movie review

Clint Eastwood directs a powerful biopic in J. Edgar. In a little over two hours the director takes us through the complicated life of J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of The FBI. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays the man who held the position until his death at age 72. It is an amazing portrayal. (DiCaprio underwent six hours of make up transformation to play the elderly J. Edgar Hoover.) Between the talented director and lead actor they manage to paint the tormented Hoover as a sympathetic character. And that wasn’t easy to do because the man was despicable! In J. Edgar, Hoover was a ruthless and cruel FBI director with little regard for the civil rights of the people he classified as “subversive” or “criminal”. He was also a man with some real “momma issues” which conflicted with his latent homosexuality. Oh, he was a complicated man! Judi Dench plays Hoover’s mother in the film. Her performance reminded me of some of the characters Betty Davis often played in some of the horror...

Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy's Tower heist

Tower Heist would be well received at any “Occupy Event” currently happening in NYC or anywhere else in the country. It’s a caper film about working folks who are bilked in a ponzi scheme by a Wall Street investor (Alan Alda). The working class clients, who are robbed of all their life savings, plot a scheme of their own to get back the money that was stolen from them. Ben Stiller plays Josh Kovacks, the manager of the opulent hotel tower housing the Bernie Madoff wanna be. Eddie Murphy is Slide, a petty thief who trains Josh’s team to “storm the castle” and rob the impenetrable penthouse apartment. Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick and Michael Pena round out the rest of Josh’s crew. All turn in fine supporting roles that keep the movie rolling. Gabby Sidibe (“Precious”) is also part of the ensemble cast. She plays a Jamaican maid who joins the team when they need a specialist to assist with the robbery. The Chemistry between the cast is terrific. Especially the teaming of Still...

The Hunger Games

The hunger games Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss, a 16-year-old living in the post-apocalyptic country of Panem. Every year, one girl and one boy is chosen from each of Panem's 12 districts to fight each other to the death. The Hunger Games is written and directed by Oscar nominated filmmaker Gary Ross, director of Seabiscuit, but also writer of Big, Mr. Baseball, Dave, Lassie, Pleasantville and Seabiscuit. This mpvie was adapted from Suzanne Collins' popular series of novels, first published back in 2008. Lionsgate is bringing The Hunger Games to theaters everywhere starting March 23rd, 2012 I think it will be a good movie? Lastnite during the MTV's VMAs Lionsgate finally unveiled a first glimpse at The Hunger Games, the anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins' series of books, in the form of a 60-second teaser trailer. So of course, MTV now has an online version of it, which includes a brief intro from Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss Everdeen, as ...

Movie Review for The Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds is the Green Lantern and Martin Campbell, who directed the James Bond movies Golden Eye and Casino Royale, is in charge of this huge special effects budget film. Director Campbell throws every dollar up there on the screen and the special effects are amazing. As a matter of fact the effects ARE the film. They are so heavy handed they overpower the story. The summer of comic book movies continues with the release of the DC Comics superhero Green Lantern on the big screen. People really get caught up in this comic book stuff. I guess it’s because of their fond childhood memories of following their favorite superhero in the pages of a comic book. They know all of the background info on their guy and things like the oath he has to take to become Green Lantern (“In Brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight”). It’s a trip! I fall on the other end of the spectrum. Sure, I’d heard of Green Lantern, but I wasn’t aware that the Green Lanterns were a bro...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The boy who lived, come to die." Warner Bros has debuted the official theatrical trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in high def on Apple after its world premiere during the ABC Family presentation of Happy Gilmore on TV tonight. We all know where this is headed, we've all seen the first half of the end, now get an incredible glimpse at the true finale coming up this summer. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Harry Potter, Ralph Fiennes as his nemesis Voldemort, and a fantastic cast full of so many other great actors. Get ready to hold your breath for the full two minutes it takes to watch this phenomenal new trailer. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is again directed by British filmmaker David Yates, of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince previously. The script was also written again by Steve Kloves, of Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and also Half-Blood Prince, but not Order of the Phoenix. Th...

Movie Review For Hanna

In Hanna high brow Oscar winning director, Joe Wright, (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) seems to be trying to prove that he can get down with an action film for the masses. The end result is a very stylized suspense thriller and, while it’s heavy on the action, it’s more of a character study of a sixteen year old girl who was raised with only one objective; to be the perfect killer. Hanna, the daughter of a murdered C.I.A. operative, is raised in the isolated woods of Finland. The movie’s tagline is “Adapt or Die” and that’s exactly what we see Hanna doing in the movie’s opening minutes. She kills a huge deer with a bow and arrow (and drags it home), speaks several languages and, while “training” with her dad, the student gets the best of the teacher and almost snaps his neck. This is one bad little girl. Saoirse Ronan plays Hanna. Eric Bana is her dad and Cate Blanchett is the C.I.A. agent who wants to kill them both. Music from The Chemical Brothers adds a driving beat to th...

Movie Review For The Source Code

The Source Code is an intelligent Sci-fi adventure from sophomore director Duncan Jones. In Source Code Jake Gyllenhall stars as Captain Colter Stevens, whose last memory was being shot down in his helicopter over Afghanistan. He wakes up in a Chicago bound train and in the body of someone who is not him. The train, filled with commuters, is eight minutes away from being blown up by terrorists and he has to try and stop the plot by finding the identity of the bomber. The eight minute train ride is relived over and over again while he tries to figure out how to change the outcome. Of course, over the course of his “Ground Hog Day” re-dos, he meets a woman on the train and the exercise in quantum physics suddenly becomes very personal to the time traveler. Gyllenhall does a great job playing the good soldier, who is a victim of circumstances, with compassion. Jeffery Wright also stars as the inventor of the Source Code time travel program for the U.S. military. He does a good job ...

Don't Get Sucker Punch By Director Zack Snyder

Sucker Punch is the latest project from director Zack Snyder, who brought the movies 300 and Watchmen to the big screen. Snyder’s description of the film is “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns”. This movie kicks butt! The “wonderland” that Baby Doll, Australian actress Emily Browning, falls into is a mental institution in the 1950’s. She’s sent there by her evil stepfather and is scheduled to be lobotomized in 5 days. In those 5 days she conspires with her fellow inmates to escape the asylum. One of the girls is played by High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens. She’s a real surprise standout in the movie as Blondie, one of Baby Doll’s fellow prison girls. The five females use a fantasy world in their imagination to escape the daily abuse in the asylum and to hatch a plan to get them out of there. It’s in the fantasy world where all of the action happens. This crew of girls fights monsters, dragons, giant ninjas and undead Nazi soldiers. Five hot chicks with swords swinging...

Movie Trailer And Review For Paul.

Paul is ET meets sex, drugs and Rock and Roll! In Paul non stop laughs follow a runaway alien and two British geeks who come to the US for a holiday of trekking to all the famous UFO hotspots. The two super geeks get more than they bargained for when they come to the aid of the victim of a car crash and instead come face to face with the escaped alien. The two Brits are played by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg who were previously paired in the comedies Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. The two actors are fall down funny as the straight men to the huge eyed, ill mannered and often naked alien, Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen). The movie is filled with pop culture references and inside sci-fi jokes like when Paul asks for some Reese’s Pieces when his two travel companions hit the mini mart for snacks or when, in a flash back scene, Steven Spielberg gets tips on making ET from the real extra terrestrial. There are also a few surprise appearances in the movie. This movie is just flat out funn...

The Lincoln Lawyer Movie Review

Coming out this weekend The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey as he plays a lawyer who conducts business from the backseat of his Lincoln town car for high-profile clients in Beverly Hills. As he travels between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers — they're all on Mickey Haller's client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence it's about negotiation and manipulation. So when a Beverly Hills playboy gets arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Mickey to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years It's a defense attorney's dream. And as all the evidence begins to stack up, Mickey comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career. Then things change as someone close to him is murdered and Mickey discovers that his search ...

Mars Needs Moms Movie Review.

Mars Needs Moms uses the latest technology in capture animation. It’s a Disney movie but it was produced by the studio of Robert Zemeckis, who brought us Forrest Gump and Back to the Future. The technology, paired with the 3D animation, blurs the lines between animation and real action on the big screen. It’s an amazing experience. Mars Needs Moms focuses on Milo, a 9 year old boy that thinks his life would be much less complicated if his mom wasn’t in it. His wish comes true when his mom is kidnapped by Martians in the middle of the night. He stows away on the ship and travels to Mars to try and save his mom. On the planet he meets a fellow human who lives in the garbage pit with the rest of the Martian men. The Martian men play and dance all day while the Martian women run the surface of the planet. Likewise, Martian boys are exiled to the dump while each girl Martian is assigned to a nanny to be cared for and nurtured. Mars Needs Moms to program the robot care ...

Red Riding Hood Movie Review

No this movie has nothing in common with the famous fairy tale, although Valerie does have a grandmother (Julie Christie) who lives alone in the woods and whose odd behavior catch the eye of the werewolf hunters. This movie is Set in a medieval village that kinda reminds you of a generic middle age time setting that is haunted by a werewolf. This Renaissance festival like film unfolds in an isolated town that for years has suffered from the depredations of a werewolf. Valerie (Seyfried) is a beautiful young woman torn between two men. She is in love with a outsider, orphaned woodcutter, Peter (Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry the wealthy Henry (Irons). Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter are planning to run away together when they learn that Valerie's older sister has been killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. For years, the people have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast, offer...

Battle Los Angeles Movie Review

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world - Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world's great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It's up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they've ever encountered before. What really works for Battle: Los Angeles is how grounded in reality it is, the entire first minute follows the characters enjoying everyday life until that first scene of the strange “meteors” hitting the battleship. The impact of that hit emanates into the feeling of anxiety watching the events unfold. Even though the film takes place in Los Angeles with a platoon of Marines fighting for survival, but in the background the ...

Movie Review For the Hall Pass

My review for Hall Pass was almost the shortest review in the history of movie reviews. My first reaction was to simply write a three letter review, “O.M.G.”! However, I felt it was my responsibility to explain a bit more about why this is such an “O.M.G.” movie! First, it’s not a good “O.M.G.” as in “wow, look at that beautiful cinematography” or “gosh, that is such a poignant scene”. It was more like, “O.M.G., what in the world am I watching?” The movie trailer tells the entire story. A couple of guys, Owen Wilson and , grow bored with married life and both receive “Hall Passes”, a week off from marriage, from their wives. Both wives think the men will act like freed house cats and immediately return to the safety of their homes. Oh, but instead the men spread their wings and try to hook up with all of the hot young honeys that they’ve been denied. Instead of comedy, vulgarity follows the men for the rest of the movie. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the ex...

Movie Review For Depp's Rango

Imagine the kind of dreamy marvel that might emerge if Salvador Dali and Sergio Leone teamed to remake "Chinatown" with a cast comprised entirely of lizards, snakes and other desert creatures. Cue a Greek Mariachi chorus to moves from a Gonzo playbook, fueled by visual effects to rival "Avatar," and you've got some idea as to the surreal storytelling delight that is Gore Verbinksi's latest. "Rango" is, through and a through, a great piece of filmmaking, arriving in a final form that doesn't begin to feel in any way watered down or a retread of what's worked in the past. Maybe that's because it wears its references on its sleeve and unapologetically asks the audience to embrace whatever clichés and archetypes the film may offer with loving arms or be left – near literally – in the dust. After finding himself lost and alone in on the edge of a highway in the middle of a desert, a chameleon (Depp) with acting aspirations finds the pe...

'The King's Speech' is Best Picture 2011 Academy Awards

Each year, Hollywood’s schedule more or less culminates with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handing out Oscars for the year’s best films and Sunday, for the 83rd straight time, it happens again. Hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway helped some of the most famous actors and actresses in the world hand out the hardware for the best of 2010 it was telecast live from the historic Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Franco and Hathaway kicked off the show by making their way through several Best Picture nominees like Inception with special guests like Alec Baldwin, one of last year's hosts. I thought this year's ceremony went rather smoothly since the idea behind Hathaway and Franco's hosting duties was to bring a sense of youth to the show i think they did a great job. Read on for the complete list of nominees and winners. Be sure to let us know what you think of the results! Winners are highlighted in BOLD below. PICTURE: Black Swan The Fighter Incepti...

Drive Crazy 3D starring Nicholas Cage

He broke out of hell... to make things right. C'mon, really, that's the voiceover they're using in this? Summit has debuted the theatrical trailer on Yahoo for Patrick Lussier's Drive Angry 3D starring a nasty Nicolas Cage and sexy Amber Heard and it's pretty much a must watch, for better or worse. This actually doesn't look that bad, pretty much just a crazy, explosive revenge flick with a lot of guns, fast cars, sexy babes, huge explosions, supernatural fight scenes, and apparently the devil, too. It really does get better when William Fichtner shows up. I really want to hear everyone's opinion on this, it's totally frickin' crazy, so fire it up! Cage stars as Milton, a hardened felon who has broken out of hell for one last chance at redemption. Intent on stopping a vicious cult who murdered his daughter, he has 3 days to find them before they kill her baby. Drive Angry 3D is directed by former editor Patrick Lussier, who has also previous...

Marion Cotillard My Get A Role In Nolan's Dark Knight Rises

So it looks like it's pretty much confirmed. Over the weekend I found some old fan-art made after TDK for the next "sequel" that had Anne Hathaway playing Batgirl - lo and behold that sort of turned out to be true. One of the other names listed in the fictional credits was Marion Cotillard, the lovely French actress who plays Cobb's crazy wife in Inception (and won an Oscar for La Vie en Rose). Over this past weekend, French newspaper Le Figaro reported that Cotillard had been cast in The Dark Knight Rises, quite big news. But we wanted to wait for extra confirmation and THR now has it. Her reps confirm she that is "in discussions." The original French article basically said that Cotillard, now pregnant with French actor Guillaume Canet's baby, was only going to shoot one movie this year and decided that it would be Dark Knight Rises for Chris Nolan. THR confirms that she's "discussing scheduling issues" but, of course, I'm sure s...

My Oscar Predictions

Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 25th. So, just so I can say “I told you so” later, I’m releasing my Oscar picks a few weeks early. No offense meant to my movie critic brethren, but generally speaking most movie critics are kinda nerdy and go for the obvious high brow choices at Oscar time. So, I’ll give you two picks in the major categories. One will be the obvious Oscar choice and the other will be my personal choice. Let’s begin with best movie. My Choice: The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg. A great true story about a boxer seeking redemption. The fight scenes are the most realistic I’ve ever seen in a boxing movie. Oscar goes to: The Social Network. The before mentioned nerds will go for this true “geek tragedy”. It’s about a college genius who starts the largest and most successful social network in the world just so he can meet a girl. Best Actor: My Choice: James Franco in 127 Hours. Franco plays a hiker who has to choose between dying trapped in a cave o...