Summer Movie Season Begins - Mini Reviews

Star Trek - An early summer film and so far my favorite. You most definitely do not need to be a Trekkie in order to enjoy Star Trek. The film follows the young, cocky Captain Kirk (major hottie Chris Pine) as he follows in his deceased dad's footsteps and joins Starfleet. After cheating on a test, conning his way on board the ship, he finds himself in the middle of a major battle with Romulan bad guy Nero (Eric Bana). On Kirk's side, the un-emotional Spock (a superb and perfectly cast Zachary Quinto), hilarious Scotty (Simon Pegg), sexy Uhura (Zoe Saldana), doctor Bones (Karl Urban), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho). The action begins pretty immediately and it doesn't really let up though the well-paced script also leaves plenty of time for character development (which is nice for people who are not well-versed in Star Trek lore). The movie is very well cast and everyone does a stand up job with Pine and Quinto clearly the stars. J.J. Abrahms does this really annoying camera flare thing that just grates on your nerves after a while. Overall, the film is a fun, action filled ride and the best of the summer so far.
Grade: B

Angels and Demons - At 2 hours plus, the movie is about an hour and 40 minutes of exposition. It's Man of Science (Tom Hanks) vs. Man of God (Ewan McGregor). But really it's just a whole lot of boredom. Hanks is Professor Langdon again and he's in Rome tracking down the trail of the Illuminati, an ancient cult that hid clues around Rome. For being so damn smart, he makes a lot of mistakes before he finally finds the truth. Although I guess we wouldn't have a movie if he didn't. It's a movie that is predictable at best. You can see the outcome a mile away. Angels and Demons is just a huge waste of time.
Grade: D

Terminator Salvation - Where oh where to begin? First of all, shame on McG for ruining a series that James Cameron made pretty damn perfectly. I wouldn't have let McG anywhere near this series. (And, for the record, I'm one of the few who actually enjoyed Terminator 3). The action is just a huge mess; you can hardly tell what's going on most of the time. Christian Bale's acting is so over the top it's hard to believe he was once a promising actor. It's actually a shame to be Bale right now. First he was out-acted by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, now Sam Worthington in Terminator. Worthington is the only thing worth raving about. His character is completely riveting and his performance is pretty damn great. Anton Yelchin, as young Kyle Reese, is worhty of praise as well. There's a horrible "Arnold" cameo and the last 10 minutes are just so completely laughable. Terminator is just a pretty huge mess. Also, note to those behind Salvation - if you are trying to reboot a franchise, it's probably best NOT to kill your only interesting character in the first film.
Grade: D

Drag Me To Hell - I think I would rather go to hell than sit through this mess of a movie. "The return of true horror?" Really, Sam Raimi? If this is your return to horror than you can just go back to making crappy Spider-Man movies. I understand that his horror films have always been a little on the silly / gross side. I'm a fan of the Evil Dead trilogy, for sure. But the difference between the Evil Dead trilogy and Drag Me To Hell is this: the Evil Dead movies were actually good! Anything worth seeing in Drag Me to Hell is in the trailer. The rest of the film is predictable, ridiculous and just plain NOT SCARY. I couldn't possibly have been more disappointed in this film if I tried. Two words for you: talking goat.
Grade: F

Coming Soon - Reviews of The Hangover and Land of the Lost!