In The American, Clooney pulls off muted-serious and still creates a screen presence that demands your attention. The rest of the film, however, may not be so effective.
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Dinner for Schmucks is as stupid as its wildly eccentric characters, but it delivers the laugh-out-loud moments missing from a lot of comedies this summer.
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In trying something completely new and different, Edgar Wright has another cult classic in the making here with Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. The movie lives or dies by its over-the-top visual and music style.
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Overall, The Expendables is a nostalgic blast of updated 80's excess. Hollywood doesn't make action movies like this anymore, and probably for the cheesy reasons they are what they are.
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Spielberg and Lucas made Raiders of the Lost Ark as a homage to the Saturday morning adventure serials of the 1930's and 1940's. The look and feel of the finished product is like no other, between the locations, the fashion, and the sets (and the snakes!).
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The Kids Are All Right, if you couldn't tell already, is not your typical summer movie and a great piece of original filmmaking. As aforementioned, where this movie wins is with it's family and love. Beyond the sexual orientation of the parents, their characters are rooted those two qualities, just like any other typical California family.
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Director Adam McKay (in his fourth collaboration with Ferrell) could have made an entire two-hour movie of just watching these two sit at their desks busting each other's balls and it would have been hilarious.
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It's in the all-important element of storytelling that Despicable Me fails to succeed. You kind of need a story that has a point to keep my attention. I'm sure the kids will love it, but this movie doesn't have a story or a point.
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Inception may go down as his masterpiece someday, with its ability to take such a huge, wild, and suspenseful concept and pace it was such a deeply affecting emotional story. The powerful relationship between DiCaprio and Cotillard successfully overcomes the heist action to great effectiveness. Between Inception and his continuing work with Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Shutter Island earlier this year), DiCaprio is building an impressive resume of compelling psychological performances. He hasn't been that teen heartthrob from Growing Pains, Romeo + Juliet, and Titanic for a long time and it's time for people to take notice, because he might be the best young actor working today.
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Predators tries but cannot match the unpredictable, quiet, and stalking suspense with the jungle trees that the original had. I never felt a level of taut suspense while watching it. There are some great action sequences, which earn its stars here, but I never jumped out of my seat in surprise or scooted to the edge of my seat in excitement.
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With The Last Airbender, I thought M. Night was going to break his losing streak. The previews looked promising and didn't emphasize his usual weirdness. I thought by taking on and adapting a name-brand project from a place like Nickelodeon that he would shake off the rust. I thought that doing essentially a kid's film he didn't obscurely write himself would ignore both his signature tendency to drop scary twists for the sake of twists and also the itch to create an R-rated picture like 2008's The Happening. Boy, was I wrong.
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The Karate Kid proved every pessimistic expectation I had from the marketing and production wrong. Even with a long 140 minute running time (right there with Robin Hood), your watch will stop and the time will breeze by. After Toy Story 3, this is the best family film so far this year. Boy, was I wrong and so pleasantly surprised!
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