Reviews

Although I'm a budding (18 year old) journalist, I'm not an uptight critic. I would much prefer watching a mindless action flick like Transformers then sitting through an Oscar nominated film, any day. So when I walked into the theatre for GI:Joe that's exactly what I was expecting.I mindless action flick with lots of explosions and awesome stunts to entertain me and overcompensate for the lack-lustre script.

Unfortunately what I saw was EMPHASIS on the mindless.

The script is extremely incoherent and riddled with so many plot holes that it seems the screenwriters just gave u half way through and rushed to finish. The dialogue is also very heavy-handed and filled with clichés, taking the little realism left out of the film.

Two soldiers are ambushed by an evil elite corporation while trying to deliver warheads and end up recruited by the GI:Joe's to get them back. Seems simple enough, unfortunately the writers make it much more difficult and convoluted then it needs to be. Each character has a deep history with one of the bad guys, histories that must be displayed through tiresome flashbacks that halt the action and entertainment.

Sienna Miller also is not intimidating at all playing the Evil Leader as she doesn't do anything that evil. I guess to the writers standing around in black leather cat-suits, a painfully fake wig, and making little quips equals evil genius. The big reveal of who the "real" evil genius is also contradicts everything we've seen until that point as it raises countless questions to why Sienna Miller is even there.

The acting is also atrocious with Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols providing some of the only half-decent performances.

I'm sure a lot of you are expecting these to be the negative aspects, but at least the special effects are great, right? WRONG! The special effects are incredibly unimpressive, most of it looking like something out of a video game circa 2002. Some scenes are entirely CGI, which look particularly fake.

While all-in-all my low expectations for this film were highly lowered. I've seen worse films. It's the type of film you're not going to enjoy and want to see again, but your not going to absolutely despise either. That said, if you're looking for an action flick, go for Transformers. At least the special effects in that film are good.

I recently attended the Toronto premier of Hancock and I have to say I was disappointed. When I saw that both Will Smith and Charlize Theron were in a film with a very entertaining plot I have to admit my hope were high. The film starts off very strong with Smith playing the comedicly lazy and un-phased, Hancock who is seldom seen without a bottle of alcohol in hand. Hancock's careless attempts at rescuing people in need have created a cornucopia of property damage, damage that the government is forced to pay for causing the public to unanimously hate him. When public relations rep, Ray (Jason Bateman) is saved from on on-coming train by the unconventional superhero, he makes it his mission to clear up the less then appealing reputation of Hancock despite pleas not to by his CNN addicted wife, Mary (Charlize Theron) who has a deep rooted hatred for the hero. It looks like Ray has his work cut out for him until he hatches up a plan for Hancock to go to jail and give the city of Los Angeles a chance to realize how much they need Hancock to save the day. This begins 20 minutes of Hancock being taught single handedly by Ray on how to be a respectful, presentable superhero, including putting on an X-Men inspired leather jumpsuit. When the Los Angeles Police Department finally realize they need the superhero, Hancock responds showing he can be a superhero LA can be proud of as he properly rescues a group of people strapped to explosives from a bank robber. And here we come to where the film goes up in flames as everything up to this point has been thoroughly enjoyable, because now we find out Ray's wife Mary also has powers and that Hancock isn't the only superhero on the planet. But it doesn't stop there. According to this film, superheros are created in pairs as Hancock and Mary are actually husband and wife. However thats not the craziest part. As it turns out whenever Mary and Hancock are together for an extended period of time (I guess a decade in the same city doesn't count) they begin to lose their powers and become mortal. This leads to many strange action sequences with natural disasters. With Hancock vulnerable, his enemies attempt to kill him as well as Mary, almost succeeding but lest we forget, this is a Superhero movie. With a little help from Ray, Hancock is able to fend off his attackers before leaving LA for good and relocating to New York. In conclusion, if you are looking for a funny enjoyable film, leave an hour into it. But if you are looking for a film more obsessed with explaining the origin of Superheros, stick around and watch a perfectly good film turn into a train wreck.

Joey is a wonderfully entertaining sit com featuring everybody's favorite Friends character, Joey Tribbiani. The show centers around Joey's big move from New York City to Los Angeles in order to further his acting career. On the way he reunites with his surprisingly similar sister, Gina. Her brilliant adult son, Michael as well as his stereotypically white neighbor, Alex and his quirky, outrageous agent, Bobbie. While the show may be considerably different from Friends it makes up for it with it's considerable entertainment value. And while Matt Le Blanc may have been Friend's consistent comic relief, the gears have changed, giving characters like Gina and Bobbie the spotlight in that category while Joey becomes more of an adviser to the characters (not that Joey doesn't need advice himself every now and again). While the ensemble cast is extraordinary, it is the female cast members that truly make the show special. Cast members like Drea De Matteo (Gina), Andrea Anders (Alex) and Jennifer Coolidge (Bobbie) that use their unique comedic styles to keep audience members laughing from beginning to end. In conclusion, Joey is an endearing comedy, enjoyable for all viewers.

First of all I'd just like to say that this isn't the greatest movie of all time but it is an entertaining movie, especially for a Canadian movie. But I'm not here to review it. I just read jellyneckr 's review and felt the need to respond. Maybe it's a Canadian/American thing but there must have been a few differences between the movie there and here. First of all in Canada, Going the Distance was released in theaters so it's not a straight to DVD movie. And I don't know if it was just the only way the movie could be released in America or what but it's not a true National Lampoon movie. In fact in the movie's Canadian release on DVD it doesn't even have the National Lampoon banner on it. Maybe there were too many Canadian jokes or something but I actually found this movie to be quite entertaining. I guess the humor was lost on Americans.