The Wanderers

Actors:  Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen, Toni Kallem

Rating:  6 out of 10, this has really not aged well.  I can remember absolutely loving this movie when it first came out – thinking it was so cool.  Maybe it’s sad to see a young Ken Wahl knowing what the depth he sunk to with drugs.  The rest of the cast is fairly forgettable except Karen Allen and Toni Kallem who both shine.  Again, as supposed New York City gangs these guys come across as actors.  You can also see the microphone in several scenes.

MVP:  Toni Kallem as the suffering, fertile girlfriend Despie, funny to think she went on to play the wife of Big Pussy in the Sopranos

X-Men First Class

Actors:  James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Oliver Platt

Rating:  8 out of 10, I wasn’t too excited about this when it first came out but the cast does a fantastic job of selling the story and making you care about the characters.  It was fascinating to see the back stories of the characters from the earlier movies – especially the relationship between McAvoy and Fassbender.  Bacon does evil extremely well.  My only criticism is that the movie tries to do too much and therefore kind of drags at time.  It was as if the editor just did not want to leave anything on the floor.  This was a very entertaining movie.

MVP:  Michael Fassbender as the young Magneto has incredible screen presence – we’ll hear more from him

Your Highness

Actors:  Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Toby Jones, Damian Lewis

Rating:  6 out of 10, this was an interesting choice for Portman following her Oscar win.  This movie just doesn’t work despite its stellar cast.  McBride, a guy I usually like, is not capable of carrying a full length movie and his attempt at an English accent is a disaster.  There are a bunch of interesting double entendres but overall this movie is just not funny enough despite the great talent in the cast.

MVP:  Franco as the kind of gay hero prince

Zombieland

Actors:  Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigale Breslin, Bill Murray

Rating:  7 out of 10, really quirky comedy set against, of all things, a zombie apocalypse.  My daughter recommended this and I laughed through almost the whole thing.  Harrelson is a great psycho, as always and Stone is very impressive as a femme fatale.  The movie is carried though by Eisenberg as the geek narrator and his rules for survival.  Bill Murray is hilarious in a bit part as himself.

MVP:  Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus, the narrator and survivor geek

PHASE 1 COMPLETE!!!!!

Well that was a bit of a pain - going through that entire list.  At the same time it was kind of fun as it was like visiting old friends.  Now I have the task of watching and reviewing the films I have bought since I finished the last of these.  Hopefully my wife doesn't divorce me when she hears I'm starting this up again.  I'll blame my daughter.

2 Days in the Valley

Actors:  Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Eric Stolz, Teri Hatcher, Charlize Theron, James Spader, Glenne Headley

Rating:  7 out of 10, enjoyable, quirky with great characters and a plot that moves right along with numerous plot lines and then all of a sudden they all connect.  You just gotta love the Aiello – Headley match.

MVP:  Aiello is awesome as the golden hearted would be hit man

The 6th Day

Actors:  Arnold Swartzenegger, Wendy Crewson, Robert Duvall, Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rappaport, Michael Rooker

Rating:  6 out of 10, some cool demonstrations of just over the horizon technologies for day to day living with Arnold being Arnold – boy just cannot act but it’s hard to not watch him.  Very strong supporting cast and interesting story – Goldwyn always makes a great villain.

MVP:  The Governator of course, bad girl Talia (Sarah Wynter) was interesting

“10”

Actors:   Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Bo Derek, Robert Webber

Rating:  6 out of 10, great dialogue, outstanding visual effects, Blake Edwards at his best.  Moore is hardly believable as being lovable in any way but Edwards has the ability to make flawed characters actually heroic in their own way. Great line:   “Whenever Mrs Kissel breaks wind, we beat the dog”.

MVP: Julie Andrews - only pro among leads

12 Monkeys

Actors:  Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt, David Morse

Rating:  7 out of 10, great plot with several twists, weirdness from director Terry Gilliam occasionally sidetracks but you can actually sympathize with the tortured quest of Willis and the maniacal Pitt. Overusing the red herring technique as a major plot line.

MVP:  Willis is awesome but Pitt steals every scene he is in

The 13th Warrior

Actors:  Antonio Banderas, Omar Sharif, Vladmir Kulich, Dennis Storhoi

Rating:  8 out of 10, great action movie, well written and moves quickly.  Interesting to watch the evolution of Banderas from a fop to a warrior.  Great look at the Viking empire and warrior ethos that has been ignored to a great extent by history. 

MVP:  Vladmir Kulich as Prince Buliwyf and Dennis Storhoi as Herger as heroic Norsemen

16 Blocks

Actors:  Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse

Rating:  6 out of 10, fair action movie, good chemistry between Willis and Def.  After watching a lot of his movies – you realize Willis really can act and makes a drunk loser cop actually likable.  MVP:  Morse as implacable and relentless bad guy

17 Again

Actors:  Zac Effron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon

Rating: 5 out of 10, only bought it because I thought my son in law’s band was in it –because they were in the preview but this DVD didn’t even have the previews!!! - fail.  Don’t see what the big deal is about Effron – this movie was an affront and Motion City Soundtrack wasn’t even in the DVD.

MVP:  Lennon, the guy from Reno was funny as hell as the nerd friend

27 Dresses

Actors:  Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Ed Burns

Rating:  6 out of 10, real chick flick but entertaining in certain aspects.  Heigl always plays the girl that gets ignored but that is such a hard sell – who would ignore this! 

MVP: Marsden as the cynical writer, finally gets the girl instead of having her stolen as in all his other movies

28 Weeks Later

Actors:  Katherine McCormack, Robert Carlisle, Jeremy Renner

Rating:  6 out of 10, scary but could have been more so if they had milked the suspense a little more.  This was first movie Renner really starts stealing scenes – he’s great in a side part.

MVP:  Renner as SGT Doyle, sniper savior

30 Days of Night

Actors:  Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Mark Boone Jr, Ben Foster

Rating: 6 out of 10, adequately scary but too slow.  Hartnett can’t carry a movie like this – Foster is great as always when playing a creep.  You just don’t end up caring about some of the people.

MVP:  Boone as Bo with his counterattack

48 Hours

Actors:  Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, James Remar, Annette O’Toole, Sonny Ladham

Rating:  7 out of 10, gritty Walter Hill action movie, Nolte and Murphy a great team – who knew.  This held up well and is easy to see why Murphy was thought to have potential before he became so self involved. 

MVP:  Remar as a ferocious bad guy, wonder why he didn’t make more of himself

50 First Dates

Actors:  Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin,

Rating: 8 out of 10, nostalgic look at many places we were in Hawaii, sweet story, Sandler and Barrymore have chemistry – just a lovable story with some great supporting characters.  You end up really caring about these guys.

MVP:  Blake Clark as the father of Lucy, totally believable, honorable mention to both Schneider and Astin as a crazy Hawaiian and a steroid using pipsqueak respectively

300

Actors:  Gerard Butler, Lena Headley, David Wenham

Rating: 9 out of 10, awesome action movie, blood, gore, honor – testosterone gone amuck – great visuals and as long as you don’t take it seriously a great romp.  Butler once again transforms himself and Wenham’s final speech at Plataea is inspiring.

MVP:  Gerard Butler as Leonidas, was anyone else in this movie?

The 300 Spartans

Actors:  Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker

Rating: 7 out of 10, outdated 60s epic but well done, shot on scene at Thermopoli and much more historically accurate if filled with clichés out of control.  Starts really slow.

MVP: Ralph Richardson as Themistocles - out-acts everyone by a mile

2012

Actors:  John Cusack, Woody Harrelsom, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Chiwentel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton

Rating: 9 out of 10, probably best disaster movie ever, the people are central to the story with some just incredible special effects as the world literally falls apart.  This movie just grabs you early on and leaves you breathless at some points. Ejiofor does soulful hero well.

MVP:  Cusack as the heroic author sells the role of the desperate father

10,000 BC

Actors:  Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis, Ben Badra

Rating:  6 out of 10, great CGI effects but characters did not grab and the story has too many tangents that go unexplained.  The hero is also somewhat of an idiot.

MVP: Steven Strait as D‘Leh the somewhat confused leader of the Agal

Above the Law

Actors:  Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Sharon Stone, Henry Silva

Rating: 3 out of 10, lame, 80s Seagal action flick - did not age well.  Why did we ever think Seagal was worth going to see – totally un-redeemable as a hero.

MVP:  Henry Silva - best of a poor lot

Absolute Power

Actors:  Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Scott Glen, EG Marshall, Laura Linney

Rating: 8 out of 10, taut, with a great plot with a murder mystery involving president, Eastwood acted and directing along with Harris at the top of their games.  Hackman gets to show his barely contained rage well.

MVP:  Tie between Eastwood and Harris - great chemistry there

The Abyss

Actors:  Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn

Rating: 8 out of 10, great plot, long movie that never lets up, Cameron as director delivers with some truly incredible underwater shots.  The purposely drowning and subsequent rescue and the long descent into the pit by Harris are both remarkable scenes.

MVP:  Ed Harris without a doubt – one of finest actors of this generation

The Addams Family

Actors: Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci

Rating: 7 out of 10, enjoyable faithful rendering of the old TV show which I loved as a kid.  They truly captured the depraved yet somehow totally lovable family members, just a superb cast all the way through.  Great Line:  “Don’t torture yourself Gomez, that’s my job.”

MVP:  Angelica Huston nails Morticia

Aeon Flux

Actors: Charlize Theron, Martin Csokas, Johnny Lee Miller, Pete Postlethwaite, Francis Mcdormand

Rating: 6 out of 10, starts and ends well, middle is slow beyond slow with a muddled explanation of how we got to this point.  Even in CGI Theron is impressive.

MVP:  Theron believable as action hero

After the Sunset

Actors:  Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, Don Cheadle

Rating: 7 out of 10, adequate, well acted jewel thief adventure that keeps you guessing until the very end.  Harrelson is a hard sell as an FBI agent – he should stick to maniacs or idiots.

MVP:  The bodacious Salma – one of my true crushes

A. I. Artificial Intelligence

Actors:  Haley Joe Osment, Jude Law, William Hurt, Frances O’Conner

Rating: 7 out of 10, very enjoyable Spielberg outing, liked it better in subsequent viewings than first time.  Story seems to get sidetracked when Spielberg tries to be too impressive with his effects.  Cast is great except for Osmet who is hard to root for in this.

MVP:  Jude Law as Gigolo Joe steals every scene he is in

Air Force One

Actors:  Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Wendy Crewson, William Macy, Glen Close, Dean Stockwell, Jurgen Prochnow

Rating:  8 out of 10, great action flick, relentless action and plot, fantastic soundtrack.  I wanted to vote to put Ford in White House after seeing this.  Despite not having a great physical presence he is very physical and Oldman always does diabolic well.

MVP:  Ford and Oldman as great adversaries

Airplane

Actors:  Leslie Nielson, Robert Stack, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Hayes

Rating: 6 out of 10, landmark comedy that hasn’t aged well – I can remember not being able to stop laughing when I first saw this but it’s been copied so much over the last few decades that now seems stale. Barbara Billingsley speaks jive with so many other iconic moments still makes this a nice escape.

MVP:  Lloyd Bridges as the wacked out airport manager

Alexander

Actors:  Colin Farrell,Val Kilmer, Anjelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson, Jared Leto

Rating: 3 out of 10, Farrell is terrible – I wouldn’t follow him across the street much less across the world.  Extremely poor telling of the greatest military story of all time.  This could have been so much more - one of the biggest movie disappointments of all time for me.

MVP:  Anthony Hopkins as narrator, best of a poor lot

Alien

Actors:  Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Tom Skerrit, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartright

Rating: 7 out of 10, starts slowly but the last hour is prime suspense – great texture to this and the flashes of the alien are much more effective than seeing him whole.  Superb cast and you can tell Weaver was headed for bigger things.

MVP:  Sigourney of course, as Ripley

Aliens

Actors:  Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henrickson, Bill Paxton, Carrie Henn

Rating: 9 out of 10, awesome, relentless action flick, director James Cameron at his best.  The attention to detail on the military culture rang true to me and it just keeps going and going without losing any steam.  Both Paxton and Biehn are great in smaller but central parts.  This is by far the best of the Alien anthology.

MVP:  Sigourney again, Ripley rocks

Alien 3

Actors:  Sigourney Weaver, Charles Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann

Rating: 5 out of 10, plodding melodrama instead of action, huge disappointment following #2 – Weaver seems to take herself too seriously and then kills Ripley – one of the great characters in movie history.

MVP:  Sigourney not as great but edges out Dutton

Alien Resurrection

Actors: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dan Hedaya

Rating: 7 out of 10, better the second time watching, Josh Wheedon script - great action.  You can see the aspects of the Serenity crew in the mercenary bunch.  Weaver does a good job at resurrecting Ripley with some great new talents.  Great line, Ripley, “Who do I have to f--k to get off this boat?”  Perlman responds, “I can get you off, maybe not the boat”

MVP:  Perlman as the grizzled merc - real scene stealer

Alien Versus Predator

Actors:  Lance Henrickson, Sanaa Lathan, Ewen Bremner

Rating: 5 out of 10, too short but great last 45 minutes.  They could have spent some time setting up the crew but many are killed off before you can begin to care about them.

MVP:  Sanaa Lathan as Alexa Woods - cute and tough

Alien versus Predator, Requiem

Actors:  Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, Johnny Lewis, Ariel Glade

Rating:  7 out of 10, great action once the predator and aliens start in on each other but it takes a little too long to get to that point and the movie can’t seem to make up its mind if it wants you to care about the humans or not.

MVP:  Aylesworth as the female national guard soldier (24 tribute)

All the Right Moves

Actors:  Tom Cruise, Craig T Nelson, Lea Thompson

Rating: 7 out of 10, insightful look at Pennsylvania high school football and Cruise is very belieable as the hero.  He and Thompson make a great on screen couple and what I really liked was that everything wasn’t black and white – some real believable edges to the story.

MVP:  Thompson as the beautiful girlfriend Lisa captures high school innocence beautifully

American Gangster

Actors:  Denzell Washington, Russell Crowe, Cuba Gooding

Rating: 7 out of 10, workman like effort from a great cast but no one in the movie was likable enough to root for even the supposed good guys.

MVP: Washington as the sociopath drug kingpin

American Graffiti

Actors:  Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Lemat, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford

Rating: 7 out of 10, has not aged well but awesome cast and great story.  Tough to call because I loved this movie so much when I was young but it has just lost its edge.  Howard made the right call in transferring to directing instead of acting.

MVP:  Lemat as the ultimate cool guy, always thought he would do more

American Pie

Actors:  Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Seann Scott,  Eugene Levy

Rating: 7 out of 10, has its comic moments, Jim and Dad scenes are great.  Really strong young cast – most of them headed to obscurity but you end up caring about most of them and Stifler is the guy we all hated in high school – Eddie Haskell reborn.  Shannon Elizabeth is a knockout.

MVP:  Jason Biggs as the hapless Jim

American Pie II

Actors:  Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Seann Scott, Eugene Levy

Rating: 6 out of 10, funny moments but not up to #1.  The cast is still likable at this point although their act is wearing thin – Reid lets us know she’s headed for obscurity and why.  Funniest moments are reserved for Jim and his misadventures.

MVP:  Jason Biggs again

American Wedding (American Pie 3)

Actors:  Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann Scott, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard

Rating: 6 out of 10, some laugh out loud moments and definitely better than #2.  Stifler is a riot and Willard is perfect as the future father in law.  Jim’s misadventures are again center stage and hilarious.  Levy is so funny.

MVP:  Eugene Levy as Jim’s Dad

American Pie - Band Camp

Actors:  Eugene Levy, Tad Hilgenbrinck, Arielle Kebbel, Jason Earles

Rating: 1 out of 10, possibly worst movie ever made – what the hell was I thinking – should have known when it went straight to DVD.  This is the absolute worst movie I have seen in ages – terrible with no redeeming qualities.

MVP: No one, all should be arrested

American President

Actors:  Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Michael J Fox, Richard Dreyfus, Martin Sheen

Rating: 8 out of 10, great writing, score and fantastic cast at the top of their game.  Douglas is extremely likable and sympathetic as the president and single dad and Bening is her usual sexy but intelligent.  The rest of the cast is hugely supportive – especially Sheen and Fox

MVP:  Michael J Fox as Louis the idealistic aide

Armageddon

Actors:  Bruce Willis, Billie Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck,  Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Michael Clark Duncan

Rating: 9 out of 10, great action flick, superb cast and great score.  I loved this movie – even though is a straight popcorn thriller type – couldn’t help myself – just enjoyed every clichéd minute of it.  Willis at his peak and truly carries the movie even in face of very strong cast.

Great line, “The fate of the world is in the hands of a bunch of retards I wouldn’t trust with a potato gun.”

MVP:  Willis as Harry Stamper, perfect part for him

Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Actors:  Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Vince Vaughn

Rating: 7 out of 10, great comedy, lots of cameos and the perfect vehicle for Ferrell’s weird sense of humor.  If you get him, you won’t stop laughing.  Carrell is totally perfect as the idiotic weather man – very enjoyable.

MVP:  Steve Carrell steals every scene he’s in as the clueless weather man

Animal House

Actors:  John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Thomas Hulce, Bruce McGill, Peter Rieger, Karen Allen, Stephen Furst, Martha Smith, Mary Louise Weller

Rating: 9 out of 10, classic comedy, one great moment after another.  This movie still holds up despite the time and countless attempts at copying.  Every character in it, even if on the screen for only a few seconds perfectly capture the moment.  Even has Kevin Bacon in a real bit part.  Just funny as hell from start to finish.  This was even nostalgic for me because parts rang true of my own senior year living in a frat house.

MVP:  Belushi as the Bluto, the part that made him an icon

Another 48 Hours

Actors:  Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, Brion James, Kevin Tighe, Bernie Casey

Rating: 8 out of 10, great follow up to original with relentless action.  Eddie still hasn’t sold out and Nolte sets a perfect tone as a grizzled police veteran.  Plot moves right along and you’re rooting for Nolte the whole time.

MVP:  Nolte carries movie as Jack Cates

Apocalypto

Actors:  Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Raul Trujillo

Rating: 8 out of 10, beautifully shot, great story of an epic struggle of a family to survive in the crumbling Mayan world just before the Europeans show up.  An interesting, never before explored, look at the descent of Mayan civilization (One of world’s great mysteries) and you end up forgetting the subtitles and just caring for the heroes and despising the villains.

MVP: Raul Trujillo as the relentless Mayan bad guy warrior chief

Army of Darkness

Actors:  Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Richard Grove

Rating: 8 out of 10, great tongue in cheek send up, Campbell is so funny as the hero and delivers his classic lines with gusto.  While this has aged a little bit it is still a great romp and totally weird – lovable dribble.

MVP:  Campbell as Ash, awesome, awesome, awesome, Hail to the King Baby!