the movieGOOMBA

2 GOOMBAS

When people fall in love with Shia LaBeouf, they just can’t get enough of him. Spielberg cast him in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and he executively produced LaBeouf’s summer blockbuster, Transformers. Now Disturbia director, D.J. Caruso, and star, LaBeouf, team up again for DreamWorks’ new thriller Eagle Eye. Once you go Shia, you can’t go back, but unfortunately for the both of them, Eagle Eye kind of sucked.

LaBeouf stars as a typical, unmotivated young slacker along side the beautiful Michelle Monaghan, who plays an average, over-worked single mother. Both characters are framed as terrorists, and in an attempt to run from a Big Brother-like villian, they cross paths and form an unlikely alliance as they also run from the government and those who framed them. Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton join the cast as a government agent and FBI Detective trailing the pair.

Shia is Hollywood's current, favorite juvenile delinquent, and I could care less. On screen, he's got a certain dorky, underdog charm that makes my heart melt with sympathetic adoration, and though this is a mediocre action packed, suspense thriller at best, he still exudes distinction and quality acting. But his comedic timing and good acting can't save this flick from a lame story and a thoroughly retarded ending. For a very long while, the movie was cheesy, but absolutely fun - as actions movies should be. The multiple chase scenes were intense and absolutely ridiculous, the mammoth explosions were completely blown out of proportion (a plus sign in this genre), and those great one-liners kept the tone upbeat and amusing. And then, they revealed who the terrorists were. But, no worries. It still made it to the 3 GOOMBA level. And then, Big Brother vaporized a guy by chasing him with a broken power line. Still okay. And then, Bill Bob gave Shia his FBI badge and gun just before [highlight to see] exploding himself (which involved a car and an airplane in a Washington DC tunnel) for the greater good. And so Eagle Eye's fate was sealed. A shaming moment in Hollywood history.

Eagle Eyes was a bad cocktail of The Terminator, Enemy of the State, and Die Hard, all of which are far better movies than the one in question. However, I do recommend this movie for the excellent chase scenes or for a Saturday night movie at home with friends.

LaBeouf is currently filming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

2 GOOMBAS

I always wonder what it would be like to see through someone else's eyes. When I'm out driving, I sometimes look out my window at another driver and often ask myself, "What is he thinking about?" "Where is she going?" "Who are they?" The idea of seeing through a different perspective is fascinating, but trespassing on someone else's personal thoughts is only something that happens in books, and sometimes in movies.

Vantage Point takes this concept and films it in a Momento-inspired style. Looping through the same 23 minute period, the viewer is taken into the different perspectives of six characters who witness the same attempted presidential assassination. With each loop, more information on the plot unfolds, and the mystery behind the assault is revealed. The ensemble cast includes screen regulars, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, Dennis Quaid, and Sigourney Weaver.

When the filmmakers pitched this idea to the executive producers, I'm sure it sounded innovative and amazingly creative. However, it yields complete frustration to the viewer. I found myself commenting on how "cool" and "cutting edge" it all seemed during the first 46 minutes - and then, it began to drag on, and on, and on, and on. It was exhausting living through the same 23 minutes six times, and then, only moving, what seemed like half a frame, toward the ending was brutally irritating. It's okay to leave a person in suspense, but not to the point where they'd rather turn the TV off than find out how it ends. This editing gimmick completely backfires.

Then, there are the characters. With the impossible stunt scenarios aside, Howard Lewis (Whitaker) and Tom Barnes' (Quaid) characters were thoroughly lame and unconvincing. An American tourist is not going to run after a terrorist in the middle of a Spanish city after he's just been blown up by a bomb - unless he happened to be Rambo. In that same respect, Barnes, a secret service agent, would not have acted as a vigilante, running through the streets all by his lonesome to find the terrorist regime who bombed the President of the United States. His chase scenes and professional demeanor were so far from reality that I can't even use the "movie magic" plea for him.

The positive things I have to say about this film (which are few) are: 1) it actually has a message, 2) it attempts creativity, and 3) it does produces some interest. However, even with these things said, I still suggest you watch this film from a different vantage point; with your back facing the TV.

3 GOOMBAS

The BA: What's sad is, you really don't want any of those three women to be Maya's mother. However, I pretty much called how it would all play out. Definitely, Maybe is predictable. Its also kind of shallow, but shallow in how High Fidelity is shallow (which may or may not be a bad thing. High Fidelity is a good movie). I found this made Will quite annoying. The only real thing going for him was his cheeky yet sweet daughter and the growth he achieves in the end.

4 GOOMBAS

Pow! Bam! Wham! The sequel to the most recent Batman redo, The Dark Knight revisits our Caped Crusader as he gears up to fight Gotham's current villain, The Joker. In the same winning, realistic style as Begins, Knight manages to hold the audiences attention and wow the crowd with bad-ass flair.

1.5 GOOMBAS

Morgan Freeman began his acting career in the late 1970's, and he's had steady acting gigs ever since then; averaging 2 movies a year since 1980. His kind eyes, winning narrative voice, and grandfather-ish naivety easily find him work. And Morgan Freeman will eternally be an old man. After all, he didn't start his acting career until his mid 50's. So after being a chauffeur, a convicted felon, the President, God, and a detective (multiple times over), he basically plays himself, an old man, in his latest flick called The Bucket List, which also stars former psychiatric patient and psychopath, but equally old, man, Jack Nicholson.

Aside from being old, Carter Chambers and Edward Cole are sick. They both have cancer, and it doesn't look hopeful. So, while they're in the hospital, they develop a bucket list, a list of all the things they want to do before they die. With the help of Edward's wealth, and each other, both set out to do things they would have never done given other circumstances.

A potentially great movie on friendship, The Bucket List can kick the bucket for all I care. Though both actors are supposedly playing characters, its hard to see a difference between themselves and the real man. They play who you'd pretty much think they'd be in real life - Morgan Freeman, the reserved, but kind grandfather and Jack Nicholson, a dirty old man. And their friendship was just about as believable as the CG. I felt no long lasting bond between them, no closeness or camaraderie, and they might as well have had a moving backdrop.

Meant to be sentimental but instead, ending in mediocre cheese, The Bucket List should have had the word "RV" plastered over its title because The Bucket List is about that bad. Save your Netflix queue for something a little less sob story, but even if you were looking for something like that, the only tears you'd see would be from pity - pity for yourself for watching this flick.

3 GOOMBAS

I first noticed The Golden Compass at the 2007 Comic Con, and what first struck me was the exquisite use of color and the softness of each still. After a few months, I started hearing the controversy surrounding the religious (or should I say, "non-religious") themes apparent in the story. It turns out that the author of The Golden Compass novel, from which this film is based, was atheist. GASP! Oh the horror! His children's fantasy novel must be filled with immoralities, immodesties, and most importantly, anti-Christian tendencies. We have to boycott! ::rolls eyes:: After watching this film, these are definitely over-reactions to a analytically atheistic story, and this movie's influence is no worse than High School Musical with its promotion of popular teens possessing ridiculously, unattainable beauty.

Lyra is a young girl who lives in a dimension where there are three species; humans, polar bears, and witches. Humans each have a deamon which takes the the shape of an animal and is essentially a manifestation of the human's soul. There's also a thing called Dust - I still don't know what it is. I'm guessing it has something to do with corrupting mankind. Lyra is left behind by her uncle when he goes on a trip, and while he's gone, she finds herself in the middle of an adventure; traveling on a flying ship, befriending an exiled polar bear, and rescuing her best friend from deamon separation all with the aide of a alethiometer.

Visually dazzling, The Golden Compass is compelling and filled with youthful wonder and black and white morality, but its dark and sinister tones created complexities and intrigue. Dakota Blue Richards brings feistiness and courage to Lyra's character, and the world that Philip Pullman created is shared with a generation that may not have known it. However, though an adequate adaption to the novel, the film does not stand on its own. The ending is left open, (presumably for a sequel) with many, many question unanswered, but as of today, there have been no plans to complete the film trilogy. So what will happen to Lyra? What is Dust? This flick felt like the second movie in a series rather than the first, and because of this cinematic choice to tell the story in this way, it becomes a mediocre flick. There's really no excuse to leave so many plot holes.

Its always great to watch a children's fantasy film. It's imaginative, innocent, and usually filled with not-too-bloody action scenes. Yet in this particular instance, I was left unsatiated. Bring on the next installment, and I'll revisit.

2 GOOMBAS

SYNOPSIS: Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal star in this politically charged film, Rendition. Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi is an American woman with a son and another on the way. As her Egyptian-born husband flies home from a business trip, he's kidnapped, taken to another country, and tortured by the American CIA for information on a middle-eastern terrorist group. This act is known as extraordinary rendition.

The GOOM: Insightful, Rendition is another example of filmmakers and actors voicing their political opinions through film. Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal turned in great performances, and the film tellingly portrays the upholding of American idealism and how it can be demolished.

The BA: It was sort of hard to follow. It reminded me And it's a movie about terrorists and America exerting its dominance by using unprincipled means. It's typical. It's boring. It's un-extraodinary rendition.