• Director: Nacho Vigalondo
• Release Date: 27 June 2008 (Spain)
• Run Time: 92 min | Spain:65 min
• Country: Spain
• Genre: Drama , Mystery , Sci-Fi , Thriller  
• MPAA: Rated R for nudity and language.

“Hector is an ordinary man who’s moving to a new house with his wife. One evening, while he’s looking through his binoculars, he sees a naked girl in the woods. He decides to go there just to find that same girl laying on a rock. Suddenly, a man with a pink bandage covering his face, stabs Hector in his arm with scissors… Written by Javi Aldereguia”

• Director: Larry Fessenden
• Release Date: 24 September 2008 (Italy)
• Writers: Larry Fessenden (writer) Robert Leaver (writer)
• Run Time: 101 min
• Country: USA , Iceland
• Genre: Horror , Thriller  

Tagline: What if mankind only had one season left on Earth?  

Trivia: Arist Brahm Revel illustrated a comic book adaptation of this film. 

“The American oil company KIC Corporation is building an ice road to explore the remote Northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seeking energy independence. Independent environmentalists work together in a drilling base headed by the tough Ed Pollack in a sort of agreement with the government, approving procedures and sending reports of the operation. When one insane team member is found dead naked on the snow, the environmentalist James Hoffman suspects that sour gases may have been accidentally released in the spot provoking hallucinations and insanity in the group. After a second fatal incident, he convinces Ed to travel with the team to a hospital for examination. However, weird events happen trapping the group in the base. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”

• Director: Kim Chapiron
• Release Date: 23 June 2010 (France)
• Writers: Kim Chapiron (writer) Jeremie Delon (writer)
• Run Time: 91 min
• Country: France , Canada , UK
• Genre: Drama

• Director: Gordon Chan
• Release Date: 2010 (USA)
• Writers: Rita Augustine (screenplay) Matthew Ryan Fischer (screenplay)
• Country: Japan , Taiwan , Germany , Canada , USA , UK
• Genre: Action , Sci-Fi  

• Director: Keven McAlester
• Run Time: USA:87 min | Argentina:93 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Documentary , Drama  

Tagline: This is how they roll.

“An evil drow-elf is displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A sanitation worker lures friends into a Sphere of Annihilation. A failed supervillain starts a cable access show involving ninjas, puppets, and a cooking segment. These are the characters, real and imagined, of The Dungeon Masters: Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game’s imaginary triumphs. Soon the true heroic act of each character’s real life emerges, and the film follows each as he or she summons the courage to face it. Along the way, The Dungeon Masters reimagines the tropes of classic heroic cinema, creating an intimate portrait of minor struggles and triumphs writ large. Written by Antidote Films”

• Director: Imran Naqvi
• Release Date: 27 August 2010 (UK)
• Run Time: UK:84 min
• Country: UK
• Genre: Thriller  

Tagline: London Population: 7 Million. Until Today.

• Director: Nicholson Williams
• Writers: Nina Jo Baker (writer) Nicholson Williams (writer)
• Run Time: Czech Republic:98 min (Karlovy Vary Film Festival)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Comedy  

Tagline: A mystical misadventure about two guys named Nick.

“The Beat Nicks are musician Nick Nero and poet Nick Beat, a pair of self-styled truth-seekers who’d better find a gig or they’ll be out on the street. Their luck begins to change when they find a box on the beach, a treasure chest of infinite beats that will set the stage for the ultimate success, a gig at the Monkey Club. But when Nick Nero falls in love with Nica, the club owners captive bride, he learns that they are some truths better left unsought. Hard knocks and a trip to rock bottom reunites the Nicks to preform the gig of a lifetime, and return the box to its source. Written by Anonymous”

• Director: John Oliver
• Run Time: USA:96 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Comedy  

Tagline: Blowing her off can be hard to swallow.

“A couple of conniving slackers who make their living dumping girlfriends of confrontation challenged guys meet their match when a woman refuses to be jilted and they must resort to increasingly desperate tactics to break up the relationship. Written by Rich Docherty”

• Director: Tyler Maddox-Simms
• Release Date: 13 July 2010 (USA)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Drama

• Release Date: February 1995 (USA)
• Writers: Eric Luke (story) Michael Reaves (screenplay) Michael Reaves (story)
• Run Time: USA:80 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Animation , Action , Crime , Family , Fantasy  

Trivia: This movie is actually the pilot episodes of the TV series that is, “Awakening” parts one through five, edited into one long feature. 

“In 994 A.D., Goliath and the few remaining gargoyles help defend the Scottish castle where they live. In exchange the human occupants protect the gargoyles during the day, since they turn to stone from dawn to dusk. The gargoyles are put under a spell, and they remain in stone form for one thousand years. When they wake up they find that their castle has been moved atop a skyscraper in New York city, thanks to billionaire Xanatos. He wants their help, but the gargoyles are leary of treachery. Meanwhile Goliath forms a friendship with Elisa Maza, a police detective who is investigating Xanatos. Written by Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>”

• Director: Daniel Petrie
• Release Date: 14 November 1976 (USA)
• Writers: Flora Rheta Schreiber (book) Stewart Stern (teleplay)
• Run Time: USA:198 min (original television version) | Finland:133 min (theatrical version) | USA:187 min (DVD version)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Biography , Drama  

Trivia: Joanne Woodward, who plays the Doctor, starred in another famous film about multiple personalities, The Three Faces of Eve (1957) where she starred as the titular Eve. However, unlike Sybil, she had only a trio of personalities. 

Goofs: Continuity: Although Sybil was actually in therapy with Dr. Wilbur for almost ten years or so (a fact mentioned in film), entire movie (except flashbacks) appears to take place in 1976 (year movie with shot) with no one aging, contemporary clothes, fashions, hairstyles, etc. 

• Director: Sylvester Stallone
• Release Date: 11 August 2010 (Russia)
• Run Time: 103 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Action , Adventure , Thriller  
• MPAA: Rated R for strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language.

Tagline: Choose your weapon.  

Trivia: West Coast Customs Street Customs have built 3 customized 1955 Ford F100s for the film. One was built for a crash scene, the second for green-screen, and the third for Stallone to keep. 

Goofs: Crew or equipment visible: In a scene where Sandra and Barney are talking in her truck, a large piece of plywood is seen bouncing in the bed of the truck through the back window. In a shot of the back of the truck as it is driving away, the plywood is gone. 

“Barney Ross leads the “Expendables”, a band of highly skilled mercenaries including knife enthusiast Lee Christmas, martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolitionist Toll Road and loose-cannon sniper Gunner Jensen. When the group is commissioned by the mysterious Mr. Church to assassinate the merciless dictator of a small South American island, Barney and Lee head to the remote locale to scout out their opposition. Once there, they meet with local rebel Sandra and discover the true nature of the conflict engulfing the city. When they escape the island and Sandra stays behind, Ross must choose to either walk away and save his own life – or attempt a suicidal rescue mission that might just save his soul. Written by The Massie Twins”

• Run Time: 101 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Action , Sci-Fi  

Tagline: Every action has a downstream effect.

Trivia: Neil Kinsella was the director from pre-production through the end of principle photography when he was replaced before additional photography due to creative conflicts with the executive producer, Jonathon Trent the star of the film credits him as the most important element in the production. 

“Wes Keller is a young man living in a world where oil has collapsed, the food supply has been wiped out, and cancer rates for women have skyrocketed, depleting the female population. In a barbaric environment where bio fuel, batteries, bullets and people are currency and marauders roam free, Wes tries to escape to a mythical world run on cold fusion “Plutopia”, a place that may only exist in the mind. THE BILL IS DUE. ‘Downstream’ is a view of the not so distant future. We follow a young man (everyone’s son) as he pays the price for society’s decadence. Written by Phil Y Kim”

• Director: Adam McKay
• Release Date: 6 August 2010 (USA)
• Run Time: 107 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Action , Comedy  
• MPAA: Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, violence and some drug material.

Trivia: The role of Detective Highsmith was originally written with Michael Chiklis in mind. However, when offered the part, he turned it down to avoid typecasting after the series finale of his acclaimed police drama, "The Shield" (2002). 

Goofs: Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Allen and Terry decide to start fresh while walking through the city without shoes, several bystanders can be seen taking pictures and videos of ‘Mark Wahlberg’ and Will Ferrell filming the scene. 

“Terry Hoitz’s past mistakes in the line of duty and Allen Gamble’s reluctance to take risks have landed them the roles of the “Other Guys”, disgraced New York City police detectives relegated to filling out paperwork for cocky hero cops Danson and Highsmith. The mismatched duo must look past their differences when they take on a high-profile investigation of shady capitalist David Ershon and attempt to fill the shoes of the notoriously reckless officers they idolize. Written by The Massie Twins”

• Director: Rob Schneider
• Writers: Boon Collins (writer) Rob Schneider (writer)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Comedy  
• MPAA: Rated PG-13 for crude sexual material, language, mature thematic content and drug references.

“Paul is an ordinary man who is at the end of his rope. He hates his job, his beautiful wife has left him, and his mother and gay, Buddhist-monk brother constantly remind him of his shortcomings. Although Paul doesn’t know it yet, his life is about to change in a big way. Written by Anonymous”

• Director: Shane Thueson
• Release Date: 24 August 2010 (USA)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Crime , Thriller  

“Set entirely in one location, the film follows four strangers who become trapped in the elevator of St. Julian-a decrepit, inner-city building. An assassin, a religious zealot, a mother, and a thief…just moments after being confined, it becomes clear that one of them is mortally wounded. As the minutes tick by, a battle for survival ensues where each of them is forced to examine their sordid ties to St. Julian-the building, as well as the legacy of the religious figure. Written by Anonymous”

• Director: Katsuhito Akiyama
• Release Date: 1985 (UK)
• Run Time: 91 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Animation , Action , Adventure , Family , Fantasy , Sci-Fi  

Trivia: Later split into 5 parts for the TV series. 

“Lion-O is haunted by the recurring nightmares of Thunderians being killed on Thundera while he fled to the safety of Third Earth with Jaga and the other ThunderCats. Jaga later tells Lion-O that 3 more Thundercats have, in fact, survived and are also living on Third Earth. The ThunderCats decide to search for the 3 new Thunderians, but Mumm-Ra has plans as well and takes the new Thunderians as his prisoners to Fire Rock Mountain. Lion-O loses the Sword of Omens in an avalanche while Panthro battles the Fist-Pounder with the ThunderTank as the ThunderCats close in on rescuing the Thunderians from Fire Rock Mountain, but they’ll need supernatural help if they are to pass through the Thundranium gasses to reach them. Written by Michael D.”

• Director: Lawrence Trilling
• Writers: Greg Grunberg (screenplay) Lawrence Trilling (screenplay)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Comedy
• MPAA: Rated R for strong crude sexual dialogue, sexuality, nudity and language throughout.

• Director: Don E. FauntLeRoy
• Release Date: 25 April 2006 (USA)
• Run Time: 91 min
• Country: Aruba , USA , South Africa
• Genre: Action , Drama , Thriller  
• MPAA: Rated R for violence and language.

Tagline: This time, he's not for hire.  

Goofs: Continuity: John Seeger and Maxine Barnol infiltrate the bank by telling a security guard that they are with the Cape Town (South African) police department, but when the real CT police arrive, the guard refers to them as “the Americans” without any further input. 

“Mercenary John Seeger is one of the best in the business. John and his crew are battling some French soldiers on the French-controlled Galmoral Island in Southern Africa as they’re trying to rescue the French Ambassador — there’s a coup going on. John gets angry when some of his soldiers unload their machine guns into the Ambassador and his family, blowing the mission and getting his best friend Radio Jones killed. John goes back to the U.S.A. and goes to the home of Radio’s wife Shondra, tells her the news, and then promises her that he’ll take care of her and her son Eddie. But shortly after he makes that vow, Shondra and Eddie get kidnapped. They were kidnapped by a CIA faction led by CIA dirty deeds man John Dresham and his boss, CIA Black Ops producer Anthony Chapel, who want to force John into doing a mission for them. Kamal Dasan, the son of prominent gun runner Ahmet Dasan, has been arrested and thrown into the Randveld Prison outside of Cape Town, South Africa, and Chapel tells John that John must go there and break Kamal out of prison if John wants to see Shondra and Eddie alive again. What they don’t tell John is that there’s an ulterior motive at work, and that they intend to use John as a patsy in their plan to rip off a highly secured African bank, and they don’t care who gets killed in the process. And it turns out that the whole thing on Galmoral Island was a screw-job engineered by Dresham and Chapel. After John and his crew break Kamal out and stop the robbery at the bank, John sets out to rescue Shondra and Eddie from Dresham and Chapel. Written by Todd Baldridge”

• Director: Lucy Akhurst
• Run Time: 100 min
• Country: UK
• Genre: Comedy

• Director: John Luessenhop
• Release Date:
• Writers: Peter Allen, Gabriel Casseus, John Luessenhop
• Run Time: 107
• Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Tagline: Whos Taking Who?

Review: “I need a new suit.” Thats what I kept thinking during the movie “Inception” and again during “Takers.” I like that Hollywood is dressing up their leading actors more often these days.

“Takers” is a story about a group of efficient, professional thieves who meticulously plan their robberies a year in an advance. They take their jobs seriously and leave little room for error. There is no one shining star in this crew. The team has great balance between the members played by younger Hollywood such as Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker and Michael Ealy.

The audience is tossed into two different action sequences from the start with no explanation of why we are watching these scenes. Its like waking up in the middle of cage fight then getting punched in the back of the head and the face simultaneously. After the disorientation, your head starts to clear up and things start coming into focus. The moment of clarity arrives and you are in the movie.

After the opening bank robbery we are introduced to the team of Takers. These guys are suave and know how to present themselves. It was like watching a group of “Esquire” magazine models relax after a hard day at the office (if that office specialized in bank robberies). They all wear expensive suits, drink high-end scotch and smoke fine cigars. They each retreat to their own slice of heaven to relax. The director (John Luessenhop, I don know who he is either) spends a lot of time building their image through a slow motion reunion before they go into their own private club. For having only recently done a bank job together they seem to revel in their male bonding and handshaking quite extensively.

This life of the Takers seems too good to be true with very little conflict. That is why we are introduced to Ghost (played by Tip T.I. Harris) an ex-member of the Takers crew who is being released from prison. Seems that back in 2004 these guys did a job where Ghost was shot and sent to prison. Hes not mad about it though, in fact he has one last big score for his old crew.

Meanwhile, the two detectives (Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez) assigned to the Takers bank robbery start gathering the information they need to track this crew down. We turn to the classic “cops and robbers” formula and we have seen it before.

The Takers start getting ready for the heist while more is being revealed about their personal lives. These side stories set the movie apart from the rest of the movies in the genre. In this case it is a close family member that gives Gordon (played by Idris Elba) a reason to accept this heist but it also gives him a lot of problems.

Family is also giving the detectives problems. Jack Welles (Dillon), the detective, is a single dad who is having problems going through his separation. This immediately brings us back into the typical cop drama. Why is it that almost every movie cop in LA is divorced? Seriously, I think Danny Glovers character in “Lethal Weapon” was the last detective who as able to bust bad guys, take hundreds of bullets to the chest and still keep his marriage together.

The story progresses at a good pace until the big action fueled bank heist. There was a little too much of the shaky camera syndrome. Note to Hollywood – we know what you are doing, stop it. The shaky camera action sequences don work every time. Slow it down and try something else; its giving us a headache.

Warning, you have seen the heist scene before in a previous film, I won say which one but this time they didn use Mini Coopers for the action sequence. Instead there was an elongated foot chase that seemed to last for hours. Another note to Hollywood – most Olympic athletes can fall from a tall building, be hit by a bus and then sprint for a 1/4 mile while dodging bullets so don try making us believe that Chris Brown can pull it off and still look good doing it.

Should you see this movie? Yes, it will keep your attention and most of the action is believable. There is genuine balance and chemistry amongst the characters. The director did try something different by putting a twist in the middle of the movie instead of at the end. He gets points for that. He also gets points for the elaborate shoot out scene; I applaud his choice of string instrument background music and lack of loud gun noises to give it a huge impact. Now if you will excuse me, I am off to shop for a new suit.

• Director: Imran Naqvi
• Release Date:
• Writers: John Stanley
• Run Time: 84
• Genre: Thriller

Tagline: London Population: 7 Million. Until Today.

Review: the titles cut through religious imagery, C.O.D. inspired soldiers, and Danny dyer having fun with fake blood all blended together with stills of bomb making and after effects made by a talented fringe fan who needs better kit.

we pause on a carefully chosen “simon carter of London watch” on the wrist of our blacked out protagonist William Blake (drawing in the poetry fans now, arn we). cut to b-rolls of 28 days later while Blake pulls himself together, beginning his search for characters to interact with and recover his memories of the night before and why was he running about with a gun.

im being a bit harsh with the 28 stuff, they are really effective in making the city feel empty all the way through the film and gives it its mood.

after a bit of a wonder our guys understandably getting a bit frustrated with his search for dialogue and smashes up a perfectly good set along the way giving up Blake sets off to the nearest roof top and his opportunity to leave the narrative.

but Blake is drawn back in with the introduction of the cast. the fowl mouthed cloie (with the usual confusing casting of a 20 something to play a teen), sergeant jack the cockney soldier (who makes an entreating stereo-type), the comic relief henry Chambers MP, the knife welding by-lingual beauty Isabelle, the creepy Isaac and captain Robert Kendrick who leads them through the broken narratives of the various characters memories.

the narratives are combines with skillful editing and some really clever transitions and layering of shots from different timeliness together. this gives the film a very fragile reality from where even Danny dyer can creep out credibly as the angel of death with another reference to 28 days to scare us with.

all in all the last act and prologue are very satisfying and worth the slight disorientation along the way. if you watched the anime angel beats this spring youll probably enjoy seeing how a western writer deals with the similar scenario.

• Director: Gordon Chan
• Release Date:
• Writers: Rita Augustine, Matthew Ryan Fischer
• Run Time: 132
• Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Review: If theres one video game that I suck at big time, it will be The King of Fighters. Already I was struggling back then with mastering all the Street Fighter character moves, then this game came along, where one has to master 3 characters as a group and face them off either with some artificial intelligence (now programmed to be smarter at your neighbourhood video game store), or with another human challenger who finds it easy to cream me with one character in full energy left to spare.

Things have been relatively low key for the film version of the video game, and perhaps rightly so since its not automatic that films from Japanese video games, manga and animation make that dignified live-action leap onto the silver screen, most falling short in the process – last years disastrous Dragon Ball Evolution and the lacklustre Street Fighter Legend of Chun Li being very recent examples of the bad aftertaste left at the box office. Audience these days demand a lot more, and the in-built fan base no longer representing a ready market, but a base of high expectations that are difficult to meet even as they are aware some tweaks to characters and story lines are necessary for the change of medium. This Gordon Chan directed effort however, is expected to fall short given the extremely flimsy, cookie cutter storyline that reeks, and for an action film, the cardinal sin of having limited action, almost all of which are left to the last 30 minutes.

Maggie Q marquees this film as Mai Shianui, working undercover for Terry Bogard (David Leitch) of the CIA (I hear yawns already) to hook up with Iori Yagami (Will Yun Lee) who teaches her the background myth of having a necklace and a mirror combined to open a door to another dimension. Theres a sword in the picture as well belonging to the Kusanagi clan, but one rumored to be lost, and required by chief villain Rugal Bernstein (Ray Park) in order to reign supreme in the King of Fighters MMORPG since hes stolen the other two items and tweaked the system so that his rules apply in the virtual world and is working to combine all dimensions and realms into one. Thats basically it, with the heroes trying to convince the Kusanagi clan heir Kyo (Sean Faris who plays a half-Japanese, that explains his Caucasian looks) to cough out the legendary sword, and stop Rugal from destroying civilization.

Whats neat is how Rita Augustine and Matthew Ryan Fischer managed to fuse the fantastical elements of the fights that nods at the Matrix experience, with combatants jacked in through bluetooth-like earpieces in order to fight in the virtual MMORPG dimension complete with superhuman powers from the game, though the fights during the first hour had just a very little glimpse of what the finale would promise. The King of Fighters then is a tournament where combatants rise in the ranks through each victory, though with the compromise now by Rugal, death in the dimension also means death in the real world.

What didn work, happens to be a lot of things. For starters, we have the usual cardboard characters (OK, so this is based on a video game) with CIA agents, hokey Japanese philosophy talk, and just about every situation, setting and background of the characters being extremely contrived. As mentioned the first hour of the film is talk, talk and more talk on the usual genre themes like responsibility and destiny, Then you have heroes who are reluctant and blur, and how one gets transformed from zero to hero is absolutely baffling based on pep talks from memory. The quest for the Kusunagi sword also happens in the most roundabout fashion just to bloat the films runtime, and amongst all the characters, Terry Bogard happens to be the most carelessly designed on screen with that out of place jacket and baseball cap (keeping to the game I know), with a really obnoxious, ignorant attitude, and a CIA dimwit a-hole to boot.

The fight sequences happened to be a mixed bag, though Hong Kong influences are very heavy in the way the fisticuffs are designed. Special effects inspired by the game are also limited, which is most unfortunate as the game is famed for the various combo-moves that the characters can execute, which is all but lost in the film version. Even then, whatever effects all seemed to be reserved for the extended battle sequence at the finale for an all-out duke out, and audiences will have to be patient with all the talk for the first hour before things start to get remotely interesting since all the money shots get concentrated toward the end.

Naturally movies of this nature will have an ending primed for sequels to continue where it left off especially when the box office response is positive, but my moneys on the “Nay” list. If I have to compare, then this is ahead of Dragonball and The Legend of Chun Li, but only just.

• Director: Simone Bartesaghi, Philip Kim
• Release Date:
• Writers: Philip Kim
• Run Time: 101
• Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Tagline: Every action has a downstream effect.

Review: I am assuming this is a low budget film, and it is pretty good compare to other low budget film. Good acting from all of the actors. Especially the end really surprise me, and I never expect that, and I really appreciate the guy who wrote it, at least it is real.

I used to watch a lot of TV from sci-fi TV channel while working, and most of them are crap amount other crap even with much higher budget. Most of the plots in this film make sense and doesn seem to be stupid compare to other low budget film. I can even compare its storyline with resident evil film series and Fallout video game. Of course, just my opinion. I give this 9 out of 10. It doesn have big action, but the atmosphere and the story really worth to watch if you like after end of world scene. And it is 10 times better than those “sex-and-the-city” and other crap.

Hope they make more of this kind of film, with small budget. The other with lots of explosion and gun fights with very boring and predictable films are just boring.

• Director: Josh Gordon, Will Speck
• Release Date:
• Writers: Allan Loeb, Jeffrey Eugenides
• Run Time: 101
• Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Tagline: The most unexpected comedy ever conceived.

Review: This movie is a sweet romantic comedy, but its not about the romantic love between a man and a woman. Its about the paternal love of a father for his son and when it focuses on that, its rather pleasant and fairly funny. When it weakly tries to drag itself through standard rom-com clichés, its an indifferent and uninspired effort.

Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) is one of those dark but funny New York neurotics with all the social graces of a hedgehog. His longtime friend Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston) announces at lunch one day that she wants to have a baby and is sick and tired of waiting for find the right guy, so shes going to use artificial insemination. Wally thinks its a bad idea, largely because hes still harboring faint hopes of he and Kassie eventually ending up together, but she won be dissuaded. She finds a willing sperm donor (Patrick Wilson) and even throws a party on the night shes to be knocked up. Wally shows up at the party, gets drunk off his ass, accidentally destroys the donated sperm and substitute his own seed.

Wally, however, was too drunk to remember what he did and Kassie moves back home to Minnesota to raise her son, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson). 7 years later, Kassie and Sebastian move back to New York and back into Wallys life. Sebastian is like a tiny and even more intense version of Wally and the unknowing father and son develop and instant affinity for each other. Kassie also starts to reconsider keeping Wally in the “friend zone”, but she also reconnects with the intended sperm donor and starts dating him.

You won be surprised that the donor is the polar opposite of Wally or that Wally eventually remembers what he did but never finds the right time to tell Kassie until its the worst possible moment or…well, you won be surprised by anything in The Switch.

When this film is about the relationship between Wally and Sebastian and, to lesser extents, the relationships between Wally and Kassie and Wally and his boss (Jeff Goldblum), its quite charming and amusing. There aren a lot of great jokes but the interactions of the characters are wonderfully awkward and human. Unfortunately, the story these characters are in is kind of pathetic. It never makes any sense why Kassie and Wally aren together in the first place, it doesn make any sense why they don get together as the story goes along and then when they finally do get together, that doesn make any sense either. The hurried ending to The Switch is essentially Kassie saying “Im so mad at you, Wally! Oh, wait. Im not.”

What saves the Switch is that these filmmakers seem to understand and accept how lame their plot is and spend surprisingly little effort at disguising it. Or maybe they were oblivious to how nonsensical much of it is. Whatever the reason, they just breeze right through every scene where the characters behave like idiots, saying and doing things normal people would never say or do, and jump right over any gaps in logic or plausibility. And because they don labor on such things, the viewer doesn have to pay them much heed either.

For example, the movie never really gives much justification to Kassie and Wally being “just friends” even though they clearly share a connection. But that actually works because making more of an effort would have only emphasized how contrived and artificial their platonic status is. And at every other rom-com cliché that makes you roll your eyes, this movie takes it all as given and moves on, sparing the indulgent viewer a lot of aggravation.

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston and Thomas Robinson all do very good jobs. They create people you enjoy spending time watching. It would have been nice to watch them doing more intelligent things, but you can have everything in life. The Switch is better than average fare for rom-com fans, but its nothing anyone needs to rush out and see.

• Director: Erik White
• Release Date:
• Writers: Abdul Williams, Erik White
• Run Time: 99
• Genre: Comedy

Tagline: Winning is just the beginning. Surviving is another story.

Review: The 1995 hit Friday signaled a profound change in Ice Cube’s life, career, and image, as the scowling provocateur of NWA and Amerikkka’s Most Wanted became an unlikely straight man who anchored slice-of-life comedies like the Friday sequels and Barbershop movies with his agreeably gruff persona. The winning new comedy-drama Lottery Ticket, from Cube’s production company Cube Vision, echoes Friday and Barbershop in its leisurely pacing and colorful tale of a neighborhood that develops money fever when one of its own gains possession of a winning lottery ticket worth $370 million. Only this time, charming young upstart Bow Wow inhabits the Ice Cube role of the straight man reacting to a world of larger-than-life characters and free-floating mayhem, and Cube takes a character role as a mysterious hermit.

Bow Wow leads a sprawling, oversized cast of ringers as a sweet young man who dreams of escaping his desperately poor neighborhood by starting his own shoe company. His life changes for the better when he buys the ticket, but with mo’ money comes mo’ problems. Soon, he’s the subject of attention both wanted (a hood vixen suddenly gets dollar signs in her eyes when she looks at him) and unwanted (his rising fortune puts him on the radar of the neighborhood’s crime kingpin and bully).

Like Barbershop, The Lottery Ticket is about a community as much as it is about a lucky young man who gets in over his head. Late in the film, a heavy dramatic scene between Bow Wow and best friend Brandon T. Jackson should stop the film dead and feel jarring tonally, but the filmmakers have done such a fine job of establishing an undercurrent of lower-class despair and desperation that the scene proves unexpectedly poignant, even amid a lot of lowbrow wackiness and flashy turns from scene-stealers like Terry Crews as Bow Wow’s driver/bodyguard, the ubiquitous Loretta Devine as his God-fearing mother, Charlie Murphy as the neighborhood gossip, and even a surprisingly hilarious T-Pain as the man who sells Bow Wow his golden ticket. Lottery Ticket gets far on the strength of its star’s charisma and a likeable tone that falters only during Bow Wow’s sordid encounter with an opportunistic would-be conquest. Even in a hangout movie this affable, alas, gold-diggers still get no love.

• Director: David Flores
• Release Date: 17 January 2009 (USA)
• Country: Bulgaria , USA
• Genre: Adventure  

“”1592. Four years after England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada, tensions still run deep, especially between Sir Francis Drake, “The Queen’s Pirate”, and his lifelong nemesis, Captain Don Sandovate. An encounter with a mysterious Syrian sultan, however, finds the two men and their crews engaged in a daring race against time, each embarking upon a desperate quest to exotic foreign lands where they face perilous obstacles and untold dangers at every turn.” Written by Svetlio Svilenov”

• Director: Sandra Mohr
• Writers: Liz Bolwell (writer) Sandra Mohr (writer)
• Run Time: USA:72 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Documentary  

Tagline: The Short Selling of the American Dream

Trivia: In the interest of getting this story to the public, Stock Shock crews visited 6 different states, digitized footage, licensed music, designed websites and DVD cover art, and edited the entire feature length movie for distribution in only 3 months. 

“Buckle up and hold on to your wallet as we follow the wild ups and downs of the American stock market through the eyes of stunned Sirius investors. Sirius Satellite Radio’s commercial free music and blockbuster talent seemed to make it a sure-fire investment. After buying out their only competition in 2008 the stock was poised to go through the roof, but something went horribly wrong. Was it the bad economy? Mismanagement? Or something even more sinister? Written by DVD Cover”

• Release Date: 3 July 2009 (USA)
• Writers: Ben Addelman (writer) Samir Mallal (writer)
• Run Time: USA:74 min | Canada:74 min
• Country: Canada
• Genre: Documentary  

“Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, is the third-largest in the world–an unstoppable economic and cultural force that has taken the continent by storm and is now bursting beyond the borders of Africa. “Nollywood Babylon” is a feature documentary detailing the industry’s phenomenal success. Propelled by a booming 1970s soundtrack of African underground music, the movie presents an electric vision of a modern African metropolis and a revealing look at the powerhouse that is Nigerian cinema. Written by Anonymous”

• Release Date: 15 August 2010 (USA)
• Writers: Josh Comers (writer) Jesse Joyce (contributing writer) Corinne Marshall (writer)  
• Run Time: 90 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Comedy