Did It Suck Movie Reviews

Archive for the ‘Drama’ Category

Review:     2.5 Stars     Rated:     R

30 years of walking through the sands of an aftermath is going to make your lips a little chapped.  The Book of Eli takes us on an adventure into a desolate post war future.

Eli (Denzel Washington), is carrying a book that holds great value to the post war survivors.  Most of them can’t read but for those who can, they want this book for reasons of their own; to them its worth more than its weight in water.  Eli is on a mission to take this book west to an unknown destination, but he’ll know it when he gets there.  On his little quest he picks up an unwanted tag-along,  Solara (Mila Kunis), who proves to be somewhat useful along the way.

Incredible post apocalyptic scenery and some cool action sequences; and, thats all I can say I liked about this film. Slow and dragged-out and the story had a lot of loose-ends, so needless to say, I was quite disappointed.  Defiantly Wait For the DVD, but its bordering on almost not worth renting.

- Dan Kersey

Review:     4 Stars     Rated:     R

Up In The Air is a character fueled film with  George Clooney leading the way.  Canadian film director Jason Reitman seems to fly this one home with very little turbulence from critics.  Supporting cast members included: Jason Bateman, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick.

Ryan Bingham (Clooney) flies the globe as a hired terminator, in a matter of speaking, his job is to fire people in the most decent way possible.  Ryan lives his job in somewhat of a religious fashion and loves his self isolation with nothing to weigh him down.  As the story progresses Ryan starts to come out of his isolated life, relationships and family events are things that he has always avoided until he meets a woman that completely captures him, Alex.  He then finds himself  inviting Alex, (Vera Farmiga),  to his sisters wedding.  In the midst of all this, Ryan’s company is making changes in the way they operate, leaving him grounded and more-so with a chip on his shoulder about the new change.

Clooney plays his roll exceptionally well and at the same time is perfect for the character.  As much as I enjoyed this film, even with all the critics raving about it,  it doesn’t meet up to the Did It Suck standers and quite frankly was a little long winded.  Wait For The DVD, but only if theres nothing else to rent.

Review:     3.5 Stars     Rated:     R

Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) plays a roll that I would have never pictured him doing so well in.  At first it was hard to get past that cute and nerdy persona, but, he finds the inner beast that was needed to play an emotionally tormented  man.

Capitan Sam Cahill, a Marine,  leaves for his Afghanistan tour and  gets captured  after his chopper goes down.  His Family;  Wife and daughters, brother and father have been told that Sam has been killed.  A bit of  time passes and Sam’s older brother steps-up and fills his younger brothers place as the man of the house when…. Sam’s wife gets a call, Sam’s alive.

An emotionally driven movie with a simple storyline.  Tobey Maguire pulls off a pretty good post traumatic stress disorder roll in this movie, Brothers.  The movie is quite slow and really never speeds up, a good movie but Wait For The DVD.  I tip my hat to you Maguire, good job.

- Dan Kersey

Review:     3.5 Stars     Rated:     PG-13

A much better movie than I anticipated going in.   It has a good cast playing their parts in a fairly well writing story.

Armored is in-cased around a group of Armored Car Security Workers that have been planing an inside heist for quite some time.  It all goes wrong when a homeless person is caught watching the crew carry out there scheme.

I enjoyed this film due to the fact it didn’t need  anything spectacular to get the job done.  In short, a good movie with a simple plot wrapped up in a half decent story.  The downside is that this movie is more of a renter as it lacks the Big Screen need.

- Dan Kersey

Review:     3 Stars     Rated     PG

Old Dogs is directed by  Walt Becker and starring John Travolta and Robin Williams.

Plot: Charlie Reed (John Travolta) and Dan Rayburn (Robin Williams) are best friends and business partners  who have their lives turned upside down when Dan is unexpectedly charged with the care of his six-year-old twins that he didn’t know he had.

I had a fun time watching  this movie as it had a lot of good funny moments and goofy humor.  For the most part I was disappointed with this comedy but can’t really put my finger on what went wrong.  Sadly this will also be the last film Bernie Mac will appear in as he died in mid 2008.  This movie will be a good renter so Wait For The DVD.  Good-bye Bernie

- Dan Kersey

Review:     3.5 Stars

From the man who loves his CGI, Roland Emmerich, puts on a show for the eye candy enthusiasts that will have them pausing their Blu-ray over and over so they can catch all the amazing work.   A disaster movie like no other takes the earth and and everything on it to its final moments.  2012 is the year that the planets line-up and as we are apparently going to witness some huge changes on earth. (more here).

The movie 2012 takes you for a ride from one disaster to another which was done quite tastefully as the gore factor was quite low.   Other than the fantastic disaster scenes this movie was pretty plain, although  still entertaining through the 2.5 hrs, even amongst the slow portions of the film.

If you’re looking to see a great movie, don’t see 2012.  If your looking for an amazing disaster movie, than 2012 is your ticket to the end of the world done in CGI art form.  Worth a Ticket is my final say on this movie, I will probably rent it once it comes out on DVD to watch all the cool effects again in slow motion.

-Dan Kersey

Review:     4 Stars

A refreshing film from the norm and retro perfect.  The Coen brothers do an amazing job on this film but No Country For Old Men is still my Fav’.  Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is an average working man in the 60′s with a wife, two kids, a simple house and a neighbour he finds annoying.  His life starts to fall apart around him and gets kicked, a few times, while he’s down.  Not really a LMAO comedy but it does have its moments.

Little warring:  Quite a few ‘F’ Bombs in this movie, mainly done by the kid actors as part of their rebellious characters.  This being said,  the fowl mouth kids have some of the funniest parts in the movie.

If your a Coen brothers fan then you won’t want to miss this movie while its in theaters;  for the rest,  It’s a a great movie but, Wait For The DVD.

Recommend The Informant as a better pick for your money.

-Dan Kersey

Review:     3 Stars

Right from the start you know that David Harris (The Killer) starring Dylan Walsh is not a man to be trusted or even shake hands with.  As the movie gets deeper you come to realize that David is not just a killer but also suffers from various mental issues.  The Stepfather is a remake of the original 1987 film which stared Terry O’ Quinn.

Much smarter than I expected but lacked suspense and had very few ‘Jump’ scenes.  The characters were portrayed as (mostly) true to life,  smart and good realistic thinking when trying to rationalize their suspicions around David.  As a thriller it’s a bit on the dull side, I did however love the ending of this movie, it’s not what you’d expect.

Despite the great ending, the movie desperately needed some good scare scenes and the suspenses was like riding a roller-coaster at 1/2 speed. It was an OK film but  defiantly a renter.

-Dan Kersey

Review:     4 Stars

As an anticipated movie, Law Abiding Citizen got the job done without the letdown.  Gerard Butler who recently stared in Gamer, has a much better movie roll in this drama/thriller. Gerard’s character, (Clyde Shelton), is a man that has lost his family to murder only to watch the killers make a deal with the Judicial system that didn’t meet up with Clyde’s expectations of real justice; heads roll from there.

Smart and well thought through movie,  unfortunately the trailers give a lot of the suspense away to the anticipation of Clyde’s next move.  Never-the-less,  this movie has its wow and ‘OMG’ moments.

Final thoughts … It was a tough decision on this review because there wasn’t much that I didn’t like in this film and I didn’t feel too bad paying to see this movie, but even with ‘all’ the ‘excellentness‘ this film has to offer, there’s really nothing anyone’s going to miss on a smaller screen if they wait for the DVD.

-Dan Kersey

Review:     4.5 Stars

This movie is really out there in a good way, a strange bizarre fun ride.  The ride never lets up,  it twists and turns leaving you guessing and anticipating to what comes next.  Funny and brilliant, goofy and classy.  The game show type music, the bad hair and clothing fit the look and feel of the movie perfectly.

Matt Damon is great in this film as he plays one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in quite some time; and he does it beautifully.  I believe its best not to elaborate on his character do to the fact that it really needs to be discovered  for yourself.  Definitely worth a ticket to see this one.  I will probably rent it once its out on DVD just to see it again.

-Dan Kersey

Review:    4 Stars     Rated:     R

Don’t touch that dial, you might blown up!   The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal.

The Hurt Locker, Staring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty as members of a U.S. Army EOD unit in Iraq . We follow their tour together as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them. -wiki

For the most part the camera work in this movie was filmed in a style called Cinéma vérité, aka Shaky-Cam.  Even with this style of camera work I found the movie quite tolerable to watch.  The film was not overly gory or violent, but the realism in some scenes definitely called for the ‘R’ rating.  This is a must see movie in or out of the theatre.  It’s intense, well acted, and has a good solid pace so it’s Worth a Ticket in my book.

- Dan Kersey