As I've previously mentioned, Jeri and I got a chance to see the new Hairspray coming out next week (Review up sometime this next week) and quickly fell in love. This week we picked up the soundtrack and have been listening to it almost non-stop since, and looking forward to seeing it again next weekend.
The other day we found a copy of the original 1988 movie Hairspray on which the musical that the new movie musical is based on is based on (got that?) and picked it up for $7, since Jeri was a fan and used to rent it non-stop as a kid. I had never seen it and looked forward to popping it in and seeing where it all started. Another movie Jeri used to watch all the time was Crybaby (1989), a movie I used to catch on TBS late at night, but had never seen the whole thing. We decided since these were both directed by John Waters we would pick Cry Baby up as well and have a double feature.

Tonight on this Friday the 13th, we had our double feature. First up Hairspray:
Hairspray is the story of Tracy Turnblad, a fat girl from 1960's Baltimore who loves to dance, and her quest to get a spot on "the counsel" on a local access dance show. The movie focuses on the acceptance of those who are different both in size, and in color, as Traci and her friends fight to make the Corny Collins show integrated.
The movie didn't stand up to Jeri's memory, and truly is laughable, but it was cool to see where a lot of the songs from the musical came from. The acting is bad and the movie at as a whole is a bit of a mess, but it was good to see it once.

Cry Baby was definitely the better of the two movies. As corny as Hairspray, but it treats itself as such, which makes it so much more enjoyable. While Hairspray is a dance movie it's not really a musical, but here Waters makes his musical.
The movie is about Cry Baby (Johnny Depp) a Drape (Juvenile Delinquent) who falls for a Square girl (Think punks and preps today) His love leads him to more trouble than he's ever been in, eventually landing him in jail. The movie jumps around a lot and really is quite strange, but its quirky and the music is fun, even if it's not really Depp singing.

Overall both of these movies are very strange, but in the end the one that was a musical to begin with was the better of the two. There's talk of a Cry Baby Broadway Musical version, and as much of an improvement as the new Hairspray is over the original, I can't wait to see what happens to this one.

Labels: Cry Baby, Hairspray

1408
Stephen King adaptations are a mixed bag. Some are wonderful, like The Shawshank Redemption or Misery, while others are heaping piles of garbage, like Dreamcather, or Maximum Overdrive.
Luckily 1408 is one of the good ones.
The movie has a good story focusing on an author played by John Cusack who writes books about staying in haunted places with gripping titles like, 10 Nights in 10 Hotels. The author doesn't believe in the supernatural and has yet to see an proof. But on this one night things are about to change. The author checks in to a haunted hotel room, where numerous recorded accidental deaths, natural deaths, and suicides have taken place. What happens is the whole plot of the movie. Honestly, there's not much to the plot it's simple and it works.
The movie had me on the edge of my seat, there is a lot of build up, but there was no real big scare moment, but it's a great tense, character piece.
Overall, a good movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat, with some good jumpy scares but nothing so scary that will make you pee your pants.

Evan Almighty
For some reason this movies not getting good reviews, and honestly I don't understand it. The movie follows the bit character of Evan Baxter (Steve Carrel) from Bruce Almighty as he moves from reporter to US Senator. His campaign motto was "Change the world" and now he's asked God for help to make this come true. God comes to him and tells him to build an ark and comedy ensues.
While Bruce Almighty was funny, it was somewhat dirty and inappropriate for the kids. Here that's no problem. Evan Almighty is at it's heart a funny family film with a good message, something which hasn't been seen in theaters in a long time.
Overall if your looking for a good, funny movie to take your family to this is the one. The movie will make you and your kids laugh and it will leave you feeling like your kids might have learned a good lesson.

Labels: 1408, Evan Almighty, mini-reviews, Review

Last week two Giant, Popcorn, Effects-A-Palooza Blockbuster films opened within a week of each other. Each film involved an 80s franchise which meant a lot to tons of people. One was a sequel to series of beloved action films, the first of which many claim is the best Action Film of all time. The other was based on a series of classic cartoons and toys, beloved by many and remembered by even more.
I am of course talking about Live Free or Die Hard and Transformers. Being the Cinemaniac that I am, I of course saw both of them. One was better than I expected and one was somewhat of a let down. But should you spend your money to see either in theaters?

Live Free or Die Hard
If you've seen a Die Hard movie before you know the basic premise, Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) fights a group of terrorists for some reason or another. This time the plot centers on a group of terrorists trying to cause a "Fire-Sale" which involves taking out all computer-run systems, including national defense, power, gas, etc. Basically "Everything Must Go!" ala a Fire-sale.
When the FBI gets wind of something going down they ask the NYPD to send an officer to pick up a young hacker (Justin Long) for questioning. When McClane gets there, a group of assassins try to kill the hacker and McClane must keep him safe and get him to the FBI. Along the way they meet up with a uber-hacker played by Kevin Smith (who does a great job, essentially playing himself) and the terrorists kidnap McClane's daughter Lucy.
The movie has a serious of amazing action sequences and with the exception of one involving a 18-Wheeler that goes disastrously over the top, the action is fantastic. And all and all it feels like a Die Hard movie. If you like the Die Hard series you'll enjoy this film. I'd place it as 2nd in the series in terms of level of enjoyability coming in only behind the first in the series. A lot of the reason this film works rests on the shoulders of Justin Long, who adds a wonderful amount of humor to the film.
All in all it's everything a blockbuster action film should be, fun over-the-top action, humor, and a good plot line. Definitely worth the price of admission.

Transformers
Directed by Micheal Bay and Produced by Steven Spielberg, this one is definitely Micheal Bay's baby and his fingerprints are all over it. The movie follows Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf, in his third movie of the year) the descendant of a man who led a crew to the antarctic and discovered a "Snow Monster". Sam is trying to hock some of his Grandfather's things in order to save money to purchase a car. As he and his father go to buy a car they find a 70s Camaro which looks as if it could use a little work. It turns out that Sam's new car is really an Autobot named Bumblebee.
Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots, including their leader Optimus Prime, have come to Earth in search of "The Cube" or the "All Spark" a life giving item that caused a civil war that destroyed their planet. The Autobots must find it, and it needed destroy it, in order to keep it out of the hands of their dreaded enemies, the Decepticons, led by the evil Megatron, who fell to Earth decades ago. The two teams of Transformers come together in a battle near the Hover Dam, for several reasons I won't go into here, fighting until the bitter end.
The movie also contains several other subplots involving the military, and the government as they deal with the discovery of these intelligent robots. But really they were mainly a distraction for me, and some of them could have been left out entirely (see below).
The movie has some great things going for it, The effects are top notch and really do set a bar as far a special effects go. The transformers look amazing, and any one who grew up with there guys will be amazed seeing their childhood imaginings up on the screen in full live action glory. And LaBeouf once again steals the show, proving that he just might be on his way to being the next Tom Hanks (who he's said more than once he'd like to have the genre-spanning career of)
But the movie also has some big problems. The biggest problem is a very "Bayian" problem that many of Bay's movies suffer from, it's just too dang long. Clocking in at 144 minutes, the movie goes on for about 30 minutes too long. Had Bay gone with a tighter edit of the film he would have had a much better movie, and a more profitable movie, because if he cuts 30min of the film it could have been played about once more per screen per day, which would equal more money (not that the movie needs any help in that area.) Don't get me wrong I love long movies, I'd rather get 2.5 hours for my $10 than 1.5 or 2 hours, but the movie must warrant that amount of time and quite simply this one doesn't. In fact there is an entire sub-plot starring Anthony Anderson which takes up about 15 min of the movie which could have been dropped completely. Leaving out the sub-plot means losing a few jokes, which weren't that funny, and not much else, the one place where the character was needed, it could have been one of several other characters already in the movie and no one would have noticed.
There are two other problems I had with the movie, first Soundwave. As a kid Soundwave was one of my favorite Transformers, a boombox, with a cassette tape the came out and becomes a bird. But this movie turns him into some kind of mentally handicapped robot. He runs around making strange noises and ultimately reminded me of the moronic, simpleton of a mogwai, Daffy from Gremlins Two (you know the one who looks like Gizmo, but has loopy eyes and acts like he's mentally handicap) and he's annoying as all get out.
The other problem involves the ending and how it suddenly just works out to end, but there's not any real explanation, and it was confusing.
Overall Transformers was fun, but it went a little long, and left me feeling confused and didn't quite live up to my hopes for the movie. So if you're a fan it may be worth your money, if not you can always wait for DVD.

Labels: Die Hard, reviews, Transformers