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Director: Morgan Spurlock

Starring: Morgan Spurlock

The documentary genius of Morgan Spurlock returns! In his first effort since the brilliant look at fast food, Super Size Me, Spurlock is about to become a dad, and decides he has to make the world safe for his offspring. The best way to do this, he determines, is to track down western public enemy #1, Osama Bin Laden. This premise is handled quite lightly, though this feature has less appeal than Spurlock eating MacDonald’s ninety times. Still it is another wonderful film that eases us into an uncomfortable subject and then offers an engaging introspective view of it. The film clocks in at less than 90 minutes and offers enough animation and cheesy CGI, that the whole thing looks just a little cheap, but is still entertaining and compelling.

Finding the most wanted man in the world, seems like it could be a tricky goal, but undaunted, Mr. Spurlock sets out on his task. His plan is simple. Just visit countries where he may be and ask people if they’ve seen him. Hmmm, why hasn’t western intelligence thought of that? Anyway, Morgan visits several Muslim and middle-eastern countries, and talks to people. Some are people of power and influence, while most are average citizens. Besides the inquiry into Bin Laden’s whereabouts, he asks them what they think of the terrorist leader, the United States and of their own circumstances. The results are interesting and range from chilling to amusing.

“Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?” plays like ‘political science light’ and will should make the rounds of grade twelve classrooms for the next few years. It is light enough to be fun and serious enough to offer a little insight, but with a feature like this, its best to keep in mind that its not difficult to give the viewer any message that the filmmaker wants to give.

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Starring: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Kristen Hager, Chris Pratt

Well, the summer action season is here, and along with it, the promise of three months of high octane, low-intel action explosions that plug their gaping plot holes with expensive CGI and Dolby surround sound. Wanted made its way to the big screen as a comic book series, which explains the nonsensical plot and overdone action sequences which are becoming the all too typical style of today’s action features, and the end result is a yawning formula film.

James McAvoy’s character, Wesley starts out as a discontented office worker - aka Ed Norton’s Fight Club character, but his life takes a turn to the exciting when he is thrust into the midst of a violent war within a secret thousand year old fraternity of assassins, to which it turns out he was born to be part of. His sexy, but unconvincingly scrawny guide into this world is Fox, played by Angelina Jolie, who mostly just poses for the camera between comic book battles. Morgan Freeman is Sloan, the fraternity leader who monitors Wesley’s progress to determine when he is ready for his very special mission. The story strains credibility, but does manage a couple of decent surprises.

The action scenes of Wanted will remind viewers of pictures like Jumper mixed with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jumper at least had an original premise but the ancient secret society of assassins is not original enough to carry this feature, but it should still pack enough punches and bullets to keep the action crowd happy for a couple of hours.

Director: Tom Vaughan

Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz, Rob Corddry, Lake Bell, Jason Sudeikis, Queen Latifah, Dennis Farina

What Happens in Vegas is a mediocre formula film with a predictable formula story, stock characters right out of the screenwriters’ handbook, and ending that you see from two hours away and an over reliance on not-so comical fight scenes between men and women.

Ashton Kutcher is Jack, a fun, but aimless guy who can’t even hold a job when his father is the boss and Cameron Diaz is Joy, an successful, but uptight stock trader who can’t hold on to her man, even though she is a successful stock trader who looks like Cameron Diaz. Go figure. Anyway, these two both decide that the solution to their problems lies in a wild weekend trip with their friends, Hater (Rob Corddry) and Tipper (Lake Bell). The pairs are drawn together by fate and while Hater and Tipper zinging each other with insults, Jack and Joy have an alcohol-fueled evening of debauchery and marriage. Yup, they awake in Holy Matrimony and are all set to pursue an annulment when a 3 million dollar jackpot gets in the way. Now a fed up judge sentences then to ‘six months hard marriage’ and the story is off and limping.

What Happens in Vegas is funny in some spots and blandly interesting in others, but it is really too silly and predictable to stand out from the crowd, leaving it as the default choice for couples who can‘t agree on what they really want to see and teenagers who are young to know what they really want to see.

Director: Rob Reiner

Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Bruno Kirby, Carrie Fisher

Rob Reiner gave us this romantic comedy classic that has set the standard for the entire genre. Nora Ephron’s stellar screenplay has well-formed characters exchanging fabulous dialog that will remind new viewers of Seinfeld. Crystal gives his usual appealing neurotic, but laid back, portrayal, while Ryan shines in the leading role, including the unforgettable restaurant orgasm scene. This hit would make her the go-to gal for rom-coms for the next decade. The story is gentle, patient and authentic and, aided by talented and charismatic performers and makes this film a wonderfully pleasing experience.

Harry (Billy Crystal) first meets Sally (Meg Ryan) when both have just finished university in Chicago and are sharing a car ride to NYC. They click like motor oil and mustard and soon forget about one another. Over the years, a couple more chance encounters paves the path to an unlikely friendship between two very different young, single adults. There are charming scenes set in during time passages featuring interviews of older couples talking about how they met. Adding humor and story depth that is stereotypical, but still amusing, are ‘friends’ played here by Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher.

When Harry Met Sally looks a little dated now with its 80’s hair and fashions, but this near-perfect screenplay is still interesting, touching and funny. If you have never seen this before, it’s better than you think. If you have seen it before, it’s better than you remember.

Director: Robert Greenwald

Put down your debit card and watch this documentary that reveals how Wal-Mart has managed to become the retail Godzilla that it is today. The argument is compelling in a Michael Moore kind of way, but forget any concept of balance in the filmmaker‘s viewpoint. Director Robert Greenwald would have been more persuasive if he had offered more comparisons between Wal-Mart and other large retailers, but it should serve to be thought provoking for the unconvinced, as self-righteous confirmation for those of us who have already turned against this monolithic monster.

Greenwald starts out by looking at long time retailers who were crushed by Wal-Mart and goes on to examine the company’s anti-union activities and its exploitation of government resources. He goes on to question the company’s behaviors in several other areas, that will hopefully cause consumers to take a hard look at which companies we support with our dollars.

How far will we allow corporations to go before we stand up to say ‘enough‘? How much does it take for us to say that we will no longer participate in the exploitation of workers both in our hometowns and throughout the world? How much money can a corporation take out of public coffers, before we call our politicians to task to account for allowing this? I don’t know.

Director: Paul Schrader

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Mary Beth Hurt, Lily Tomlin

Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader wrote and direct this slow, dreary blueblood mystery. It sounds like it will be similar to Schrader’s 80’s Richard Gere hit, American Gigolo, but there aren’t that many similarities left by the end. The story here is mildly compelling and is helped along by wonderful performances by the veteran cast, but the end result just isn’t engaging enough to recommend it over other entertaining choices.

Woody Harrelson is Carter Page III, a member of the upper crust Washington society who seems to specialize in being the gay friend of middle-aged rich women. Life is a comfortable blend of parties, cards and gossip until he helps a friend avoid involvement with the police following the death of her secret married lover, and soon Carter finds himself getting in deeper and deeper.

Mystery fans may consider The Walker to be a worthy waste of a couple of hours, but most will be checking their watch half way through. No real flaws, except a story that moves too slowly and characters that are not interesting enough to make us care about the conclusion.

Director: Jay Russell

Starring: Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin, Emily Watson, Priyanka Xi, David Morrissey, Brian Cox

CGI meets the formulaic story of a boy’s relationship with an unusual creature. This has been done with dogs, bears and even killer whales, but has never been done with the Loch Ness Monster until now. The graphics are enjoyable, though the story is a little disjointed and lacks the emotion that these features can deliver (Anyone else seen Old Yeller?). The stock characters are bland, but sufficient, and dialog is standard family film fare.

The story here begins in a modern day Scottish pub with an elderly stranger (Brian Cox) offering the real story behind a famous picture of ‘Nessie’ to a couple of tourists. He tells the story of a serious, water-fearing young boy named Angus (Alex Etel) living with his mother and sister in a country inn along the shores of Loch Ness, while his father is off fighting in WWII. One day while wandering near the Loch, Angus finds a strange egg, that soon hatches into an even stranger little water creature. Angus’ attempt to raise the baby sea monster are complicated by his mother, a regiment of soldiers billeted at the inn and their new handyman, Lewis (Ben Chaplin).

The Water Horse is an ordinary family animal film, where the animal happens to be a mythical creature (Remember Harry and the Hendersons?). If you (or your little ones) enjoyed features like Free Willy, then this is an inoffensive, but ultimately forgettable choice. Nessie fans will probably want to see it, too, and will enjoy the CGI on the creature and the building upon the Loch Ness legend, but for a better choice (for Nessie fans, not family viewing) check out The Incident at Loch Ness.

Director: Philip G. Atwell

Starring: Jason Statham, Jet Li, John Lone, Devon Aoki, Luis Guzman, Saul Rubinek, Ryo Ishibashi, Sung Kang, Terry Chen,

War is a BS action flick, just like a thousand before it, and worst than most them. The job of taking this poorly written script that was probably written on the back of a cocktail napkin long after happy hour had vanished into an alcoholic haze. Seriously, the dialog is embarrassingly bad and the characters are cardboard cutouts that you’ve see in most of those previous 1,000 action movies and even the character actors blow lines like coke addicts at a Hollywood house party. Some of the action scenes are good, but there isn’t even enough of that to keep your mind off how bad the rest of this flick is.

Jason Statham is FBI agent, Jack Crawford, whose partner, Tom (John Lone) is killed by the mysterious assassin with the comic book name, Rogue (Jet Li). Jack’s life becomes consumed by his thirst for revenge. What a clever and original opening! Soon he is the middle of a gang war between the Yakuza and the Triads, most of whom seem unable to lay their hands on guns and fight randomly with clubs, like its 10,000 bc., or something. There is a pretty good sword fight and some other decent action, but not enough to make this one worth it. There isn’t much to say about the ending except that even most action fans hated it.

War is a waste of time for all but the most die hard (speaking of great action movies) Jet Li and action fans. Li has made a lot of better films than this and Jason Statham continues to be typecast in junky slo-mo action orgies after his promising start in Snatch. This like Face Off meets Black Rain, and if you liked those films (both of which were at least a little better than this), then this might be worth renting, but only if Shoot ‘em Up is not on the shelf.

Director: Jake Kasdan

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Raymond J. Barry, Margo Martindale, Kristen Wigg, David Krumholtz,

Comedy hit master, Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin, etc) is back at is as producer/co-writer of this send up of musical bio pics. Co-writer/Director, Jake Kasdan (Lawrence Kasdan’s son) gets a crack at the big time, here and with the help of a great performance by John C. Reilly in the title role, of a very good screenplay, Kasdan comes out looking good. Things get silly, from time to time, as you would expect, and the surprising amount of male nudity comes off like a joke on the audience (Ha Ha, we got you to pay to look at more dicks than ladies night). This is a funny film, however.

John C. Reilly is Dewey Cox, a country boy who makes it big in the music biz, fast. And I mean really fast! His first single is at #1, 35 minutes after he recorded it. He manages all this with no sense of smell and painful memories of killing his brother with a machete, as a child. Yup, there are lots of spoofs of scenes and situations from Walk The Line and Ray. Along the way, he takes a child bride (You know, like Dennis Quaid did as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire), played by Kristen Wiggwho is actually 34. That’s ok, though, because Reilly is 42 and plays himself as a 14 yr old, so it all works. This is all in the first half hour, so it’s safe to say that this film moves along pretty fast.

This is a good comedy that will send the Apatow fan brigade into spasms of laughter. Those who enjoyed Walk The Line and Ray, and feel like a good laugh, will probably enjoy it, as well. I also want to say that it is about damn time that the Partridge Family theme found its way into a major motion picture.

Director: Adrienne Shelly

Starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, Adrienne Shelly, Andy Griffith

Waitress is one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. Adrienne Shelly skillfully wrote, and directed, this clever and funny screenplay about regret and restlessness with the choices we make in our lives and what we do about them. Shelly, who still had some spare time it seems, also got in front of the camera to take on one of the supporting roles, as well. There is a basic story, but the characters are great and there’s lots of subtly amusing dialog and the whole package is hlped by some very good writing.

Keri Russell is Jenna, a pie-genius waitress in a small-town diner in the deep south who hates her controlling and self-absorbed husband (Jeremy Sisto)and is a just a little less than thrilled to discover that she is pregnant, as well. Jenna finds release through her friends and co-workers, Becky and Dawn (Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelly) and through her creative creation of ‘unearthly and sensual’ pies, while plotting her escape to a life more livable. Her preganancy throws a hitch into those plans, but when a new doctor appears in town, another kind of escape possibility begins to emerge.

Waitress is a dark, but gentle, comedy with a bland title that makes it easy to miss. That’s a shame because it is the best chick flick of 2007, and one of the year’s best movies. It is reminiscent of Fried Green Tomatoes in its setting and characters, but is better and funnier . It is a good movie, but most, unfortunately, will miss it. Now, you don’t have to, though.