REWIND REVIEW: Exporting Raymond

MOVIE
Exporting Raymond

CAST
Phillip Rosenthal

RATING
PG

RELEASE
May 1, 2011 (LIMITED)

DIRECTOR
Phillip Rosenthal

STUDIO
Samuel Goldwyn Films (Sony)

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 25 minutes






STARS
**1/2









REVIEW:

On a night where I had nothing to do, my father and I decided to go to Redbox and find something to watch.  I had already seen most of the stuff there, so I decided on getting 'Exporting Raymond,' a documentary from Phil Rosenthal, the creator of the hit TV show, 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'  The original TV show, which ended in 2005 still makes me crack up when a rerun is playing on TBS.  The show basically was 'Married with Children' if the Bundy's were more mil-mannered and their neighbors were their family rather than a crazy couple.  The show was so clever and so relatable to modern audiences that it was hard not to laugh at the jokes.  It seemed that families worldwide could relate to Raymond and his messed up family.  But then, Russia called, and they wanted to do 'Raymond' over there. 

As much as I wanted to love this movie, I just couldn't.  Sure it was funny, but I don't think that it was worthy to win the top award from the Austin Film Festival.  I don't find Rosenthal to be unfunny, but I found this movie to be somewhat dull, with some realistic comedy put into it.  Many I think really enjoyed this documentary, but some didn't and I am one of those few.  Honestly, I just wish I watched a few 'Raymond' episodes instead of seeing this.  This is a film for the big 'Raymond' fans, as well as documentary fans.  This is a film that disappointed me, and I wish it could have been better.  Overall, I just found 'Exporting Raymond' to be an okay movie.  The only time to watch it is if you are really bored or are in the mood for something involving your favorite American family sitcom.  Sony and Rosenthal should not have exported Raymond, because the Russians never even got into the Italian American mood at all.

REVIEW: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D

MOVIE
Spy Kids:
All the Time in the World

CAST
Jessica Alba, Joel McHale

RATING
PG

RELEASE
August 19, 2011

DIRECTOR
Robert Rodriguez

STUDIO
Dimension Films,
Troublemaker Studios

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 28 minutes




STARS
**1/4









REVIEW:

Ah, don't we all love 3D?  The 'Spy Kids' franchise literally brought back 3D when the third film, 'Game Over' exploded onto the scene back in 2003.  Ever since then, almost everything out there is in 3D.  Heck, three of this weekend's releases are in 3D, with the other two rated R.  Ever since I was young, I have always been a fan of 'Spy Kids.'  What kid wouldn't want to become secret agents and fight off bad guys to save the world?  After 'Spy Kids 3D,' I thought that the franchise would be over.  But alas, Robert Rodriguez has decided to make another Spy Kids eight years after the last one.  It is highly doubtful that kids would remember 'Spy Kids' unless they've been watching Disney XD for the past couple of months.  To makes things more "extreme," Rodriguez has decided to add one more dimension into the pot: smell.  Surprisingly enough, "Aromascope" as it was advertised as was the least of the film's problems.  The acting is pretty terrible, the 3D is  distracting and not needed, and the script is poorly written.  However, it was nice to see the original 'Spy Kids' (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) back on the big screen, even if their acting sucks.  This fourth installment is better than the third film 'Game Over,' but it's not nearly as good as the original two that put the series on the top.

A year after retiring from the spy division OSS, Marissa Cortez is called back into business after the world is threatened by a man only known as "The Timekeeper."  His threat is to take all  the time in the world so nobody will ever be able to spend it properly.  Without intention, Marissa's step kids Cecil and Rebecca are recruited into the now dead Spy Kids division to help stop The Timekeeper from taking the time from the entire world.  Meanwhile, Rebecca and Cecil's father is a spy hunter, not even thinking that his wife could be a spy, more or less a retired one.  There's also a talking robot dog that's there for jokes that are sometimes funny, believe it or not. 

Have you ever seen a movie in 3D before, where the 3D wasn't even necessary in the first place?  My guess is that you have, which is why I skipped 3D for 'The Smurfs' when I saw it.  However I chose to go 3D for this movie because I wanted the full "4D" effect of this movie.  Unfortunately the 3D was completely pointless, as it added nothing to the experience, and the extra "smell-o-vision" was a very dumb idea.  I have been alive enough to remember seeing 'Rugrats Go Wild' with smell cards back in 2003, and even then I thought it was dumb.  We were supposed to smell baby crap and bleu cheese in some moments, which I actually looked forward to smelling.  As it turned out, every smell smelled like candy of all kinds, which explains the corniness of this movie.  If you go into this movie because you want a fun "4D experience," I can guarantee that you will be coming out very let down.

Of everything bad about this movie, the worst thing about this film is the acting from the film's horrible casting.  This movie might have been lucky enough to score such comedic talents as Joel McHale, Ricky Gervais, and Jeremy Piven, but it doesn't even matter because their natural comedic abilities are executed poorly, with barely any funny jokes coming from these funny comedians.  Actually, Ricky Gervais, who played the robot dog Argonaut, did make me chuckle a few times, but that was it.  No voice can overcome the mediocrity of this kids flick.  The sexy Jessica Alba for some reason is the big name on the poster, yet that is all she is in this movie: a name.  Her acting is some of the worst acting that I've seen all year, with even making the actors from those terrible spoof movies jealous.  I've seen many cardboard ads of this movie, and Alba's acting is as thin and shallow as those ads.  Kids don't care about acting unlike critics and parents, but parents might as well buy tickets for their kids and walk into something much much better than this movie.

Since the original Spy Kids are all grown up now, it's time to cast new kids to fill their spots.  The kids who were chosen to fill their spots are named Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook.  While it was nice to have new, young kids to fill the spots originated from Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara, they don't have the bickering charm that the original kids had.  Sure, they fought, pulled pranks, and had personal contests between each other, these new kids didn't have that charisma that pulled us into Vega and Sabara a decade ago.  Speaking of the original kids, they came back to the series to help out a bit in this new film.  It's amazing how much puberty can change your acting abilities over the course of a decade.  They weren't as bad as the adult actors, but their acting and devotion to this series proves that it's hard to get work in Hollywood if they can only remember you as "the 'Spy Kids' kid."  I hope that they get work in the near future, but for now, kids, just leave the series that started your career, as it will only add more disappointment onto your poor résumé.

'Spy Kids 4' may have "all the time in the world," but the only bit of time it has is the time where it wasted my time.  It might have been nice to have seen the original kids that brought this franchise to life, and have Ricky Gervais playing an amusing robot dog, but the film suffers from horrible acting, a lousy script, and the imagination of a 6 year old in a mental asylum.  The added gimmicks of 3D and 4D get old very quickly, almost as if the cardboard characters can only say "what's that smell" or stick something out at the audience every 15 seconds.  Kids may think that this is a great movie, but that's only because they are kids: they love everything they see.  Parents will possibly regret taking their kids to see this movie, as there is no entertainment value for any parents at all.  Heck, not even the 'Hangover' boys can survive scratching, sniffing, and watching this 88 minute long film. 

Word of advice to Robert Rodriguez: stop taking movie advice from your kids.  No offense to them, but they are ruining your career.  They have made us suffer through such awful films like 'The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl,' as well as the better but still bad 'Shorts.'  Yeah I know, I enjoyed the movie two years ago, but I was 12 when I first saw that movie, and I enjoyed most things back then.  Overall, 'Spy Kids 4' isn't as disastrous as the third film in the franchise, but with the over use of gimmicks, weak script, and terrible acting, 'All the Time in the World' is a mess.  Families, do yourself a huge favor and go see family movies that are really worth the ticket price, let alone the 3D price.




PREVIEWS YOU MAY SEE:

I Don't Know How She Does It


Johnny English Reborn


Dolphin Tale


Puss in Boots


The Iron Lady

REWIND REVIEW: The Fighter

MOVIE

The Fighter

CAST

Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale

RATING

R

RELEASE

December 17, 2010

DIRECTOR
David O. Russell

STUDIO(S)
Paramount Pictures,
Relativity Media

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 56 minutes



STARS
***1/2

REVIEW:

Out of the blue, I am all of the sudden allowed to see R rated movies.  The first one that I saw won't be coming out until late September, so I won't talk about that yet.  However, I can talk about a movie that my parents recently got out of Redbox: 'The Fighter.'  'The Fighter' has been getting all sorts of praise ever since it went to theaters back in December, especially for its supporting cast, including Amy Adams and Christian Bale.  I'm glad my parents allowed me to see this movie, because under all of the drugs and foul language there is a cool inspiration story.  Markey-Mark isn't a stranger to inspiration stories, having played Vince Papale in the 2006 Disney football film 'Invincible.'  It may seem thatr Wahlberg is just playing the Papale role all over again, but he's added real emotion to the character of Ward.  It's not because of Wahlberg that this movie succeeds, despite his powerful performance.  It's because of the fantastic supporting cast and the emotion of Ward's family life that makes 'The Fighter' quite a great movie.  If you haven't seen it yet, by all means go out and rent it or watch it on Netflix Instant when you get the cehance.

The best thing to compliment from this movie is the supporting cast.  I am not kidding with you, they are what make the movie.  I was skeptic of Melissa Leo winning the supporting actress Oscar this past year, because I found Hailee Steinfeld's performance in 'True Grit' to be spectacular.  However then, I had not seen Leo's performance for myself.  It turns out that the Academy made the right decision giving the statue to Ms. Leo.  As much as I loved Steinfeld's performance, Leo was cruel, evil, potty-mouthed, and single minded.  Her performance was absolutely astounding, especially after seeing her acceptance speech, where she seemed to be very happy and excited, especially when she swore on national TV.  Her portrayel of Micky's mother shows how far an actor or actress can go to change their persona.  However as good as Leo is, Christian Bale is the best thing from this movie.

Christian Bale plays Dicky Eklund, Micky's older, drug addicted half-brother.  Bale is a foul-mouthed, sick minded brother who somewhat only cares about how he won a fight between him and Sugar Ray Leonard back in the late 70s.  He kind of reminded me of a drug-addicted, foul mouthed version of Uncle Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite.  This movie isn't a comedy at all, but the characters are oddly similar because of their obsessions of the past.  Plus, seeing him in movies like 'Newsies' and 'The Dark Knight,' Bale gives a breakthrough performance that could be compared to his late co-star Heath Ledger's performance in 'The Dark Knight.'  The performances are completely opposite from one another, but the comparison that bonds them together is that both roles are very diverse for the actors, showing how wide actors can go to make a solid performance.  Christian Bale IS the best thing about this movie.  The rest of the cast, including Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams were great for the roles they played, but nothing compared to the crazy mother/son duo of Leo and Bale. 

Overall, 'The Fighter' is one of the best inspiration films that I've seen in a while.  It has sublime acting, pure heart, and a lot of f-bombs.  This is the first time in my life where the cursing in this movie actually helps keep the pace going.  Without the constant swearing, this movie wouldn't be as powerful as it currently is, plus the movie wouldn't be that good.  Sure, the acting and story would still be there, but it wouldn't feel like the story was being told in the correct light.  The acting will captivate, and make you believe that Bale and Leo won the supporting role awards earlier this year.  The story can be very emotional and heartbreaking, especially Dicky's side story.  I can guarantee that you will fall in love with this movie as many others in the world already have.  If you have the means, I would totally recommend you seeing 'The Fighter.'  For the dreamer and the person down on their luck in all of us, this movie will inspire you to overcome your fears and live your life the way you want to.  Don't be afraid to let out the fighter in yourself.  Live your life the way you want to, and see this fantastic movie. 

REWIND REVIEW: The Switch

MOVIE
The Switch

CAST
Jennifer Aniston,
Jason Bateman

RATING
PG-13

RELEASE
August 20, 2010

DIRECTOR(S)
Josh Gordon, Will Speck

STUDIO
Miramax Films (Lionsgate)

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 41 minutes







STARS
***








REVIEW:

So what do we have here?  A movie about sperm doners starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, as well as being created by the directors of 'Blades of Glory?'  I'm in.  'The Switch' isn't just about sperm doners and pregnancy hijacks.  It's also a sweet father/son story that will leave your heart throbbing throughout the screen presence of both Jason Bateman and his young son, played by newcomer Thomas Robinson.  Despite the predictable ending that I saw coming from even the trailer, this is a sweet comedy that had more heart than raunch.  It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, but 'The Switch' is definitely worth a rental if you have the means.

Wally and Kassie have been best friends for a very long time, so it comes to a surprise to Wally when Kassie wants to get a sperm doner to have a kid.  After a drunken night at her pregnancy party, Kassie and Wally don't see each other for seven years.  Now Cassie comes back to New York with Sebastian, a strange little six year old who seems oddly familiar to Wally.  Similarities between Wally and Sebastian start to be exposed, which gives Wally one particular thought: what happened on that drunken night seven years previous?  Wally then realizes that he switched Kassie's doner Roland's sperm ingredient with his own, hijacking the pregnancy.  How will Wally tell Kassie?

Despite being headlined as a Jennifer Aniston movie, the real star of the movie is Jason Bateman.  Jennifer Aniston is only the victim of the hijacked pregnancy, and she acts snooty and motherly throughout.  Don't get me wrong, she had her moments in this movie, but she wasn't the real star of the film.  She was only the biggest one.  Jason Bateman knows when to be an awkward, nerdy man who clearly has relation and mental problems.  He is a very funny man, and I'm glad to have seen him get into much bigger movies this year, like 'The Change-Up' and 'Horrible Bosses.'  Though Bateman and Aniston are the big stars of this movie, the best performance comes from the newcomer playing young Sebastian, Thomas Robinson. 

For being a six year old, this kid can really be funny.  He might as well be compared to a young Gary Coleman on 'Different Strokes' if Coleman was white and was playing a character who was socially awkward and liked strange things rather than a smart mouth kid who always said "What you talkin' about, Willis?"  I cannot wait to see this young kid in  more movies, because he is incredibly talented.  A great supporting cast member in this movie is Jeff Goldblum as Bateman's friend.  Goldblum is funny in everything, and this is no exception.  The other main supporting character is Patrick Wilson as the sperm doner Roland.  He wasn't a good character and was highly unneeded.  That's all I have to say about that.

The story is original, but predictable.  The cast is likable, but sometimes annoying.  'The Switch' could've been a disaster of a film, but it somehow works.  It's a sweet dramedy with light hearted moments and some funny characters.  I wouldn't say go rush out and rent this movie at all costs, (it's actually on Showtime as we speak, so there is an idea) but you won't regret renting it if you do so.  I honestly didn't laugh much in this movie, but I did see some funny things in the movie, and the sweet chemistry between Wally and his accidental son is quite charming and watchable.  I found Aniston's Kassie to be a bit annoying and quite similar to a more light hearted and less strict Katherine Heigl in any of her recent movies. ('Life As We Know It,' 'Knocked Up,' etc.)  Aniston may be a bit annoying in this movie, but she still has her moments, showing what kind of comedian she is.  You won't regret watching 'The Switch,' but I can assure you that it will not be your first choice when renting something at a Redbox or scrolling through your Netflix selections.  'The Switch' is a dumb, predictable romantic comedy.  However, the chemistry by the father/son team, sexual/pregnancy jokes, and Jeff Goldblum role help make it a recommendable movie.

REWIND REVIEW: Soul Surfer

MOVIE
Soul Surfer

CAST
AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt

RATING
PG

RELEASE
April 8, 2011

DIRECTOR
Sean McNamara

STUDIO(S)
TriStar Pictures (Sony)
FilmDistrict

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 46 minutes



STARS
**3/4








REVIEW:

Aw just what we need: another true story/inspiration story brought to the big screen.  I have nothing against the old inspiration story, but they've been popping them out of Hollywood ever since 'The Blind Side' exploded onto the scene.  Even next month we're getting the story of Winter the Dolphin in the 3D feature 'Dolphin Tale.'  We're not here to talk about a tale-less dolphin, though.  We're here to talk about Bethany Hamilton, who's story of recovering after losing her arm in a shark attack has been made into a movie starring child star AnnaSophia Robb and Dennis Quaid.  While I did like 'Soul Surfer,' I felt that it should've been more heartwarming, showing more of Hamilton's training for her surfing competition before the big 20 minute finale.  It's not a movie for everyone, but 'Soul Surfer' is a sweet movie that will inspire many little girls out there to keep following their dreams.  I will keep the production team some recognition, since Hamilton's stump in the movie looks remarkably real, expect for one small sequence towards the end of the film.

The best thing to compliment is the acting in this movie.  AnnaSophia Robb, best known for her child roles in such films as 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Bridge to Terabithia' (a personal favorite of mine) is great as the young Hamilton.  You see her motivation and confidence after she loses her arm, and even if you know what to expect in the end, Hamilton is still someone to root for throughout the picture.  I also praise Robb for being able to use one arm for 85% of the movie, as that is something very hard for an actor to do.  I'm not including Gary Sinise's performance in 'Forrest Gump' in the context though, because anyone can sit in a chair and act pissed all of the time.  The supporting cast includes a strong first performance from award winning singer Carrie Underwood, Academy Award winning Helen Hunt, and Dennis Quaid, who gives one of his better performances in recent years.  The acting is good, not great.  Nothing award winning, but acceptable for the inspiration bipoic that this is.

This movie was trying to be 'The Blind Side' for surfing.  In some ways, it is, with a female lead, a tragic story, and a family with a deep christian background.  However the difference between the two films is that 'The Blind Side' was a better film.  It had pure comedic moments, a sublime cast, and some tear-jerking moments.  This movie wants you to feel bad and root for Hamilton, which you do in some parts.  I found the film to be too typical for what it was.  It seems that aside from sequels and remakes, today's audiences are getting inspiration stories.  Some for adults, like 'The Fighter,' and some for families, like 'The Blind Side.'  This movie is nothing outstanding or remarkable, but it's an acceptable drama that will inspire little girls to follow their dreams.  Plus the added effect of Robb with one arm looked quite real.  There is some soul in this surfing film, but less than what I expected.  Overall, just an okay-slightly good film.