It was only a matter of time until Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the writing-directing duo responsible for a parade of genre film parodies from “Date Movie’’ to “Meet the Spartans,’’ turned their attention to the “Twilight’’ franchise. With “Vampires Suck,’’ the film is just as guilty as the vampires.
The plot is more like a series of sketches, loosely based on scenes from the first two “Twilight’’ films, which lend themselves to pratfalls, jokes about Canadians, and awkward dance numbers. We follow Becca (Jenn Proske) as she moves to Sporks, Wash., with her single father (Diedrich Bader), and there meets sparkly vampire Edward Sullen (“90210’’ hunk Matt Lanter) and sweet, shirtless werewolf Jacob (Chris Riggi). Her time is spent fending off ravenous bloodsuckers and one-dimensional classmates in a quest to find a date to her vampire-themed prom.
Read more: 'Vampires Suck' Lives up to It's Title, It Sucks!
A who's who of classic action stars light up the screen for pure combustible entertainment in Sly Stallone's The Expendables, a sort of Dirty Dozen meets Inglourious Basterds--and then some. Though this film has a less-than-plausible storyline that's already been trotted out in various forms earlier this year (The A Team, The Losers), it's filled with literally explosive excitement. This summer flick finds a group of seasoned mercenaries on an unexpected suicide mission to overthrow a corrupt South American dictator.
Step Up 3D is a formula film, yet it is a formula that seems to be working for the movies’ producers. Their third installment in the dance franchise includes a sugary romance and plenty of moves designed to take advantage of the 3D technology. Rushing the screen, thrusting out their arms and throwing team members into the air, the characters push the limits of their dance floor as far as they can.
In the story, Luke (Rick Malambri), a gifted performer and aspiring filmmaker, assembles a group of New York hoofers known as the Pirates from off the streets. He brings them to an old warehouse his parents converted into a practice hall where dancers of all ilks could come together to perfect their art.
Charlie St. Cloud sees dead people. Possibly filing in to watch this movie. Although the storyline of "Charlie St. Cloud" has some nice love-after-death twists, and the imagery — gleaming harbor-town nightscapes and sleek sailboats skudding across the water — has been beautifully rendered, the picture is becalmed by the star performance at its center.
Paul Rudd and Steve Carell make the most of a very light comedy in "Dinner for Schmucks" is as light as a fistful of feathers — as a comedy in the age of Apatow, it's barely there. But the sharp cast is smart enough not to weigh down the airy tale with heavy shtick (which might have been a temptation), and director Jay Roach lays out the story with straightforward simplicity. The movie becomes funnier than you might expect at the beginning; as summer comedies go, it's a small surprise.
Paul Rudd plays Tim, an upwardly mobile finance hotshot at an L.A. investment firm. After he reels in a wealthy new client, an enormously snooty Swiss moneybags named Mueller (David Walliams, of "Little Britain"), Tim's boss (Bruce Greenwood) tantalizes him with the prospect of a big promotion — but on one condition: Tim will have to attend an annual company dinner to which each top executive is expected to bring an idiot — the most pathetic specimen of humanity he can find. The exec with the biggest idiot wins.
Salt, the propulsive new thriller from Phillip Noyce (Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games), has been dubbed “Bourne with boobs,” but that label isn’t entirely accurate. In the role of Evelyn Salt, a CIA staffer hunted by her own agency after a Russian defector fingers her in a plot to murder Russia’s president, Angelina Jolie keeps her two most potent weapons holstered, hidden under pantsuits and trenchcoats and the various other components of a super-spy wardrobe that proudly emphasizes function over flash.
If you know nothing else about Inception, at least know this: it is not a trick. It is ingenious but not crafty, knotty but not duplicitous. It has neither Memento’s method conceit nor the smoke and mirrors of The Prestige. To contrast it with the latter, in particular (fine film though that is), is to appreciate the difference between stage-magic and a real miracle.The director-as-magician analogy feels least tired when applied to Christopher Nolan, given his body of work, its formal and mental layers and precisely engineered reveals. At best, this approach can be exhilarating. At worst — as with the narrative drip-feed of Insomnia, his weakest picture — it is obfuscation masquerading as artistry, aka not half as bloody clever as it thinks it is. Given its setting is largely the subconscious, though, Inception can’t work with a rug-pull denouement.
Getting its inspiration and title from the beloved 10 minute sequence in Walt Disney's 1940 animation classic, Fantasia, this CGI-filled, live-action film pays homage to its predecessor, but at its heart is still a whiz-bang action-fantasy flick that should be spellbinding summer fun for its primary family and kid target audience. With Nicolas Cage toplining as a centuries-old wizard who trains a contemporary 20 year old apprentice to help him battle his main nemesis, this Jerry Bruckheimer production is big and brash with a fantasia of battles and chases thrown in to keep the young ones enthralled for its nearly two-hour running time. The intriguing premise and frenetic pacing should guarantee a healthy box office run followed by a magical afterlife on DVD.
Read more: 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' Pays Homage to a Classic
John McTiernan’s muscular Predator, which pitted Arnold Schwarzenegger against an alien big game hunter, was a popular hit in 1987, but has struggled as a franchise. With Arnie replaced by Danny Glover in an underperforming Predator 2 and a pop culture profile maintained by comic book spin-offs (eg: Batman vs Predator), these also-ran ETs stayed on the star-map only by latching onto a more famous monster in game, comic and movie iterations of the Alien vs Predator concept. Predators can look down on Species, but only just.
"The Last Airbender" is Hollywood's latest attempt to create a franchise based on what a studio hopes is instantly recognizable source material. This is a film apparently lobbied into existence by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, who said he fell in love with the animated Nickelodeon series through the enthusiasm of his daughters. Score points for family values and solidarity, but basing a film on a children's TV cartoon not only plays to a very young demographic -- no boxoffice crime in what passes for American cinema today -- but poses a formidable challenge in re-imagining such a show to appeal to anyone who can vote. In this case, despite every effort by the filmmakers, voters are likely to cast "no" ballots.
Read more: M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Last Airbender' - Review
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