Fanboys (2009)

Wow, did this movie fall flat on its face. I had such high hopes for this and I was thoroughly disappointed. It had a terrific premise and a good young cast of actors, but it forgot the golden rule for a comedy; humor.

Taking place in 1999, the story is about 4 friends from high school reuniting after sort of drifting apart after college. The one thing they all have in common is that they are eagerly awaiting the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Being that they are still four months away, they know they must wait. When it's revealed that one of the friends has cancer and may not make it that long, the 4 decide to drive cross country, break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of the film. Not without a few slip-ups along the way.

I gave it 2.5 stars mostly for the Star Wars nerd inside me, but this supposed comedy just didn't make me laugh more than twice. There were a few geek-friendly moments in the movie, but I really wouldn't waste my time on this again.

JCVD (2008)

This movie was a very big and nice surprise. Never did I expect to say that Jean-Claude Van Damme gave a great acting performance, but he definitely did.

The story centers around Van Damme, playing himself, as an actor struggling to juggle debt, a freshly dismissed custody battle and lack of acting work. He loses a key role to Steven Seagal. While trying to get a loan for his payments, Van Damme walks into a bank that is getting robbed. Of course, Van Damme is the only person they see so they assume he is the robber. This draws media and lookyloos to the scene. Van Damme must now figure out how to use both his wits and his celebrity to get out of the situation.

I heard a lot of great things before I saw this, but I still had my doubts. I mean, it's Jean-Claude Van Damme. I could not have been happier with the movie in the end. I recommend this to anyone who likes movies.

The Rocker (2008)

I'm very shocked this was as funny as it was. I just watched it on a whim and I thought it was pretty good. Rainn Wilson was great in the lead role and the rest of the cast was great in this, too.

Wilson plays Fish, the original drummer of the band Vesuvius, who was unceremoniously booted right as the band was about to blow up. By the way, the rest of the band was made up of Fred Armison, Will Arnett and Bradley Cooper. Comedy gold right there. Twenty years later, Fish is living in his sister's attic, Vesuvius is now bigger than ever and Fish's nephew needs him to drum in his band. Through a bunch of random happenstances, the band gets signed and goes on tour. That's when the movie takes the always inspirational phase of it.

The movie made me laugh a lot more than I thought it would and I was very happy for that. It's basically School of Rock-lite, but not as good of a movie. I still laughed and enjoyed the movie.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

It's not the best plot for a Kevin Smith movie (Chasing Amy), or the most entertaining one (Mallrats) but this one is still very good. So good in fact that it almost didn't feel like a Smith movie at all.

Seth Rogen's Zack and Elizabeth Banks' Miri are high school friends that still live together and never had any sort of sexual tension between them. Until now. They are totally broke and they decide, as any normal person would, to make a porn. That old story. They hire a few people to help make and act in the film, and soon they are on the way. Things go wrong, and things go oh so right as well.

Really funny and, in one scene in particular, really disgusting. The supporting cast was funny, too. Craig Robinson is always funny. Katie Morgan, an actual porn star, was surprisingly good in her role. And it was nice seeing Jason Mewes do something other than Jay. If you like Kevin Smith movies, this is for you.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

This movie was one of those movie where the performances drove it more than the actual story. There have been a rash of those lately, but this one had two very powerful performances in it. One got Anne Hathaway an Oscar nomination, and the other was by her estranged mother, played by Debra Winger (yes, that Debra Winger).

The story is simple. A dysfunctional family comes together for a wedding. Some things go awry, but the wedding happens in the end. Hope I didn't ruin it for you. Anne Hathaway's Kym is a former model who's fresh out of rehab to attend Rachel's wedding. Everything snowballs with not-so-great consequences, all culminating in one very powerful scene between Kym and her mother.

The problem I had with the movie was how it was shot. It was made to look like it could have been a documentary, and while that works sometimes, it did not work for me here. The performances were so good though, that I did forget about it at times, enough to get a good time out of watching the movie.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

I know I am being very generous by giving this movie 3 stars, but I have my reasons. A) I love the X-Men B) I like action and C) I like Liev Schreiber. Don't get me wrong, this movie had its problems, but I still had a reasonable amount of fun.

It's obviously the origin of Wolverine and Sabretooth. It goes through their lives and how they age slower than normal men. The montage of the wars they've been in was pretty cool. Eventually, Wolverine has had enough and Sabretooth has gone a little mad. Cut to present day, Sabretooth is out for revenge and soon Wolverine will be, too. With a little help from Deadpool, Gambit (!!!) and Wraith, amongst others, the other mutants in the movie get their due time.

The movie moved WAY to fast, hard to keep up with a lot if you are not knowledgeable in the origins of some X-Men. The CGI, in parts, is awful. Just awful. One scene in particular is just excruitaiting and the weird part is, it's not that important a scene. Also, I understand it was a Wolverine movie, but I would have loved more Gambit. Taylor Kitsch played him great.