The Informant!, Pandorum, Whip It, Zombieland

The Informant - The problem with The Informant is NOT Matt Damon's stellar performance. In fact, it just may be the best performance of his career (or second to his subtlety in The Departed). Damon manages to portray the self-obsessed Whitacre with the right amounts of "Hey, I'm a jackass" and "I'm a martyr doing the right thing." No, the problem with The Informant is mostly it's glacial pace. The story is interesting, sure (a man makes $300,000 a year at a company but turns informant instead), and it's true. Still, it takes about 3/4 of the movie until the pace starts to pick up to an enjoyable level. Steven Soderbergh does a great job and The Informant sure is interesting if it's not successful and I'm not sure it is. Also, it's trying to do too many things at once. Is it a wacky, zany comedy? Well, it's not funny enough. Is it a corporate thriller about embezzlement? Well, it's not nearly exciting enough. Damon's performance is enough for me to recommend the film but I wouldn't say it's necessarily good, just average.
Grade: C

Pandorum - Let's get this out of the way - Ben Foster is incredible. Dennis Quaid is incredible. The twist at the end is pretty damn great (you can predict it, but it's still done well enough that I didn't even care). The critics bashed it. Sci-fi fans are heralding it as the best sci-fi movie in a long time. I fall somewhere in the middle. It's an exciting film and it's a little horrifying. Foster and Quaid wake up on a ship that seems abandoned. They are locked in a room on a space ship and they've been in hyper sleep way longer than they should. Foster tries to escape the room through the ventillation system while Quaid guides him. Foster finds help... and some major problems while Quaid meets another young member of the crew who is going off the deep end (played by Twilight hottie Cam Gigandet). My major problem with the film is the crappy camera work. I know it's supposed to be exciting but there's a fine line between hand held exciting camera work and not having any idea what the hell is happening to your characters. Also, at times, it's just a little gross for gross' sake. Being disgusting doesn't further the film in any way. Also, it seems a little convenient that a side effect of hyper sleep is temporary memory loss. However, Foster and Quaid's characters remember just enough when they need to. And while their characters are in different parts of the ship for most of the movie, it allows the screenwriter to fill a ridiculous amount of time with the two trying to contact each other via radio. Basically, the film has its problems but it's also good enough to merit a recommendation. Again, not good, merely average.
Grade: C

Whip It - Whip It is cute. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes, well, not so much. Drew Barrymore makes her directorial debut and any shortcomings this movie has aren't necessarily her fault. She does a pretty good job at directing. Sometimes, it's very basic. Nothing she's doing is groundbreaking. But there are some pretty great scenes, very well directed (especially the pool scene near the end... just beautiful). Whip It follows a reluctant beauty queen named Bliss (Ellen Page) who is basically only doing beauty pageants to appease her mom (the amazing / wonderful / fantastic / goddesss of the world Marcia Gay Harden). On a shopping trip to Austin, Bliss discovers a flyer for roller derby. She and best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat a.k.a. Maeby Funke from the greatest show ever to be on TV Arrested Development) go to the derby exhibition game and Bliss is impressed. Soon, she is lying about her age and trying out for the Hurl Scouts team. She changes her name to Babe Ruthless and joins the team alongside Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) and Smashely Simpson (Barrymore). There are a few things that endear this movie to me. 1. Har Mar Superstar has a little cameo. 2. Tilly and the Wall is on the soundtrack. 3. I was at some of the places they filmed in Austin. Then, of course, there is the predictibility. This script is paint-by-numbers, cliched and totally predictable. That makes parts of it boring. Then there is the cuteness factor. Some of the cute stuff is just that - cute. Some of it (like a showdown with rival Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) that turns into a silly food fight) is just dumb. Also, Jimmy Fallon just needs to stop acting. He needs to stick to late night and he's not even good at that (just not as bad as acting). All in all, Whip It is a little too cutesy at times although Barrymore does a fine job presenting a kick ass girl power story. See it for the great cast and the cool soundtrack, just don't expect too much.
Grade: C+ (B- on a good day... if I'm feeling nice... which I'm not today).

Zombieland - Zombieland is excatly what it needed to be. I was expecting a ridiculous, off beat, fun horror flick and that's exactly what it is. There is no subtle build up to Zombieland. You are dropped right in (it's complete with flashy, great opening credits). First, you meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg who is like Michael Cera although maybe funnier?), a college kid who has a lot of ticks and fears and a lot of rules for surviving Zombieland. Always shoot the zombie twice to make sure it's dead, Beware of bathrooms, Always wear your seatbelt, etc. He is one of five (ha!) surviving humans in Zombieland. Along the way he meets Tallahassee, a totally bad ass Woody Harrelson who just seems to have been born for this role. He's hilarious and bad ass and just all kinds of perfect for this role. All he really wants to do is find a Twinkie and kick zombie ass. They team up and eventually meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), a sister con-artist duo who dupe our heroes before eventually teaming up with them. Their plan is the head west to Pacific Playland, an amusement park outside of Los Angeles which they believe is zombie free. Along the way, they make a pit stop at a Beverly Hills home where there is the most perfect cameo in cameo history. I won't ruin it (although I'm sure you can find out) but it's pretty freaking great. Anyway, of course, they eventually get to their destination and guess what? There are TONS of zombies including a really freaky clown zombie. Overall, Zombieland is a whole lot of fun and that's all I really wanted out of it.
Grade: B