Abduction (2011)

Starring: Taylor Lautner, Alfred Molina, & Sigourney Weaver
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Well, teen heart-throb, Taylor Lautner, finally has his own feature film, and while the story sounded pretty good, I didn't expect much. To be honest, the only thing I've seen him in were the Twilight films and I fucking hated them! In Abduction, Lautner shows that he's more than just a pretty face. Not only can this kid act, but he's a martial arts expert too! The story is super strong and he is supported by some great veteran character actors, like Sigourney Weaver. The story follows a boy, who while doing a school project, finds a picture of himself on a missing person website. It leads him into an unbelievable story, full of twists and turns. It's unbelievable, yes...but still good! It's an action film, with a very solid background story and some fairly big names. Don't let the big name Teen Idol starring in it, keep you away. If you love a good action film, like I do, this one's a winner!

Return To Sleepaway Camp

Starring: Vincent Pastore, Michael Gibney, & Paul DeAngelo
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

It takes a good actor to play a bad one, and that's really the point of Return To Sleepaway Camp. Many critics have given this movie a terrible review, because they just don't understand it. Back in the 50's and 60's B-Movies were terrible because they had a very small budget. The actors were bad, the effects were ridiculous, and the story was rushed. Today's B-Movies have 100 times the budget of their predecessors. Return To Sleepaway has bad acting and terrible effects, not because they had no budget, but rather to pay homage to the B-Movies of the past. If you look at it in that context, this movie is actually pretty good! The kids are great, there are some really funny lines, and the cheesy effects are hilarious. It's just a simple, funny, old fashion B-Horror movie, that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Reeker

Starring: Devon Gummersall, Tina Illman, & Eric Mabius
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The majority of this film is your typical, basic, B-horror movie formula. That is, lots of gore, good looking people, and very bad acting. For most of this movie, I was unimpressed, thinking that it wasn't bad enough to turn off, but wasn't good enough to ever see again. I decided to finish it and that's when I got hit with one of the best endings I have seen in any horror film ever! I never even had a clue that it was coming. It tied up all the loose ends and weird things that I had just associated with it being a B-movie. Like I said, the acting is nothing special, the story is nothing different, and for the most part this film is "OK", but that ending, I just can't get it out of my mind, it really makes this one worth seeing.

The Help (2011)

Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, & Bryce Dallas Howard
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Yesterday, I had a 3 hour break in-between classes, and a free movie on my AMC Stubbs card, so I went to the movies. Unbelievably the only thing playing at my time was one of the movies I didn't want to see, The Help. Isn't it funny how the movie you never want to see always turns out to be great? The Help is based on a book by the same title, and follows a young writer, in the mid 1960s, looking for an idea. At a party, she notices how horrible people are to the African American help and decides to write their story. Of course it's a scandalous idea that can get them all killed, but Skeeter finds one woman brave enough to tell her story. This movie is funny, heartwarming, and inspirational, not to mention the acting is top notch. Viola Davis deserves an Oscar nomination for her performance, which is one of the strongest I've seen all year. The Help is an amazing story, with a terrific cast, and a big upside. It has a unique and inspiring story that takes us back to a very tumultuous time in American History, and I can't recommend it enough!

American Heart

Starring: Jeff Bridges & Edward Furlong
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Edward Furlong is one of my favorite actors. Jeff Bridges is one of the top actors in Hollywood, and while not on my top 10 list, he's still a brilliant actor. So, American Heart should have been an awesome film! I knew from reading reviews, that it was gonna be strange, but while most people liked it, I did not! The story follows an ex-con trying to restart his life, and his estranged, runaway son, that he just can't get rid of. The background is great, but the film sucks, seriously all you see is these people going about their everyday business! Nothing really happens, you feel no connection to the characters whatsoever, and there is really no reason to care about what is happening!? Just go follow two random people on the street for a couple days and watch them go about their everyday life and you'll know what this awful film was like.

Virtuosity

Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, & Kelly Lynch
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Virtuosity was a big budget 90s film, that despite having a great cast, was a big flop. After I watched the film, it's fairly easy to see why. The premise of the film is that a police training, virtual reality serial killer, programmed with over 200 personalities, gets put into a robotic body and reeks havoc on LA. Having no one else to turn to, they turn to a famous cop, in prison, to catch him. The deal, catch Sid 6.7, get your freedom. It's a pretty cool idea, but after you get all the information in the beginning of the film, it turns into one big chase. That's it, a back and forth hunt, with no real substance, dialogue, or anything more than explosions and gun shots. The cast was excellent and if they had focuses more on the technology and the scientific aspects of it, the film would have been awesome, but instead it's just another plain, boring, shoot out.

The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

Starring: Carlos Larkin
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

We all know there are some really terrible movies, that should have never been made. This documentary attempts to highlight these films and tell you just what was so bad about them. I liked how they told you unknown information about these movies, that made them seem even more ridiculous. What I didn't like was how narrow minded the documentary is. Released in 2004, it mainly focus on Science Fiction and Horror films, made between 1940 and 1980. While ignoring all other genres, as well as the last 30 yrs of film, the documentary also rushes through, ending in just over an hour. Seeing all those old films and learning about how crazy some of the things they did was really interested, but it was simply rushed and narrow minded. Maybe in the future someone will expand the search criteria and give a more accurate picture of what truly bad is.