It's rude and it's crude but I'll be damned if there aren't a handful of pretty good laughs in this dumb raunch fest The storyline is a little absurd so don't go into this expecting anything resembling reality. Dane Cook's character, Chuck, gets cursed as a boy when he refuses to show a girl his penis while playing 7 minutes in heaven. Now as an adult, every woman he sleeps with goes on to find the love of their lives in the next person they date. This seems like an ideal situation for Chuck till he falls in love with Jessica Alba's character. Dane Cook is funny for the most part and Alba actually has some good comic timing. Doesn't come anywhere near this years best comedies but as long as bad taste and misogyny don't bother you then this might be worth checking out..
I'm not sure what people see in this film and David Cronenberg's last film A History of Violence that make them masterpieces. I think they are a tad bit overrated. This is a step up from Violence but is by no means a great film. The film has to do with the London mob's interest in the diary of a prostitute who dies during childbirth at the films opening. Naomi Watts plays the nurse that comes into possession of the diary. The film is about the connection between what is in the diary to the mob and the role of Nikolai (Viggo Mortenson), the mob's chaffuer, in retrieving it. Mortenson does give a good low-key performance, but nothing award-worthy. There are a few good moments in the film, especially the shower fight scene, but the film lags too much in the middle to give it a solid recommendation.
You can't deny that Jodie Foster is one badass chick. I mean think of all the films where she has gone on an ass-kicking rampage to save the day: Panic Room, Flightplan, Silence of the Lambs. And here is another film where some villains take a beating at the hands of Foster. It is a compelling film. Foster and her soon to be husband get beaten by thugs one night in NYC. She makes it out alive, but her fiance is not so fortunate. Emotionally scarred by the incident she takes the law into her own hands and takes on the role of a vigilante of the streets of New York at night. Foster is very good and Terrence Howard does good supporting work as a cop hot on her trail. For awhile the film does a great job of not taking sides on the issue of taking justice into our own hands. But in the end the film almost seems to be promoting it. Still a very interesting movie.
Hot Fuzz is definitely above average for a comedy. It is similar to Shaun of the Dead , not only for the reteaming of stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright but for the type of Monty Python-ish comedy they use. The story serves the gags well here instead of the other way around. The plot is an action spoof with Pegg playing a cop that has a record so good that he is making other London police officers look bad. So he is transferred to a small town where the crime rate is low, mainly because the police don't care. Then the townsfolk begin to die at the hands of what appears to be a homicidal maniac. Overall Hot Fuzz is an amusing film with lots of good chuckles but very few piss your pants laughs.
3:10 to Yuma is the return to the western that film fans have hoped for. The western genre is a strange one because it seems hard for filmmakers to make a good one. Even the most acclaimed such as Unforgiven and High Noon are quite overrated. But director James Mangold and stars Christian Bale and Russell Crowe bring us this gunslinger with a darker edge. The setup is fairly simple as it was in the original (this is a remake): Dan (Christian Bale) is in desparate need of money to provide food and shelter for his family so he takes on a dangerous job to make some. He offers to help escort criminal Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to a 3:10 train that will take him to the Yuma prison. This isn't easy as Wades gang is close behind every step of the way. There are some good shoot outs and action scenes that you would expect from a western but what really makes this stand out is the complex relationship between Ben and Dan. And having two of the best actors in the business with Bale and Crowe doesn't hurt. This one is exciting and suspenseful and has one hell of a finish.
