The general notion in Hollywood is if you make someone look different than you, it is okay to kill them, or if you make them do bad things, you have all the right to slaughter them uncontrollably. Tears of the Sun plays by both of these rules as the movie starts off on what could be the quickest ending war film in the history of the world, and then takes a trip off the deep end after some “feeling” was interjected into the plot.

The craziest thing about this movie is the enemy. All the director had to do was get a bunch of guys together, slap some berets he undoubtfully bought in bulk at  Monica Lewinsky’s garage sale and gave them guns. Viola, instant, hardcore killing machines chasing our beloved group of refugees and US military personnel through the rain forests of Nigeria.

The movie goes like this. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) leads a group of the elite who are running incursion missions into a mythical ethnic war happening in Nigeria. Since it seems the crazy guys in power don’t like anyone who isn’t of the same faith and/or color as them, an army is sent out around the country to do some ethnic cleansing which leads Waters in to his mission. He is sent in by his Captain (Tom Skerritt) into enemy territory to rescue Dr. Lena Hendricks (Monica Belluci) who spends her free time helping injured people and galloping around in tight fitting tank tops. Through a series of events that will make the viewer cringe in disbelief at just how gullible the United States armed forces can be, Waters agrees to escort a number of refugees to the border with Cameroon even while a large detachment of “evil” beret forces are tailing them.

You really want to go into those movie with high expectations after seeing previous attempts like Behind Enemy Lines and the excellent Black Hawk Down, but you never are able to bring yourself to truly enjoy the movie because it is all based on a stupid decision. If this were the real military, Waters would be discharged so fast the stubble on his face would burn off, but this isn’t the real military, and the entire film sets up for the money shot at the end with a huge explosion you have seen in the trailers.

The biggest hurdle for me was to actually have a sense of conflict. This is the same feeling I had in Black Hawk Down because the enemy is just a faceless group of people who do bad things. The overall conflict is there, and the internal conflict Waters has with himself about his decision just isn’t enough to give the movie any excitement. Truth be told, this is one of the least action packed war movies you will ever see. You may be surprised how many times you check your watch.

It isn’t that I didn’t enjoy the movie, which I did, it just has some glaring problems that bring it to its knees when compared to other movies of the same genre with a much better script and much more developed characters. Of Waters entire team I can remember one persons name, and the rest were just canon fodder.

You find that Hollywood’s attempt to add feeling into a gritty, overly-violent war movie just doesn’t seem to work because of the conflicting emotions. Waters is trying to do a good thing and save people, and members of his team are slitting the throats of Nigerian Rebels. If this is Hollywood’s ideal of feeling the emotional torment our soldiers in uniform have to go through behind enemy lines, then I feel as though I’m going to be sick. See Tears of the Sun to get a glimpse at classic Willis a la Die Hard, but then rent Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down or John Moore’s Behind Enemy Lines and see a war movie done right.

The first half of this movie leaves you wondering what in the bloody hell is going on. Nothing makes sense, things just happen, and little to no explanation as to why they happened are given. In the world of Cradle 2 the Grave, events have no meaning, and no repercussions. The second half doesn’t help much, and it isn’t until a three sentence summary is given while DMX and Jet Li are driving in a car that you finally understand what is going on, and this is with 20 minutes left to go.

Cradle 2 the Grave doesn’t do anything really wrong, it just doesn’t have any substance to back up the kick ass fight sequences and hilarious comedy provided by Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold.

Grave stars DMX and Jet Li as a high tech crook (DMX) and a Taiwanese Secret Agent (Li) who are both looking for a stash of black diamonds that are more then they seem (as always). The movie doesn’t do a good job of setting up any sort of back story for any of the characters until further into the film, and only then it is a slight explanation of why certain characters are where they are. When Tait’s (DMX) crew pulls off a diamond run for an international criminal (who just happens to be a corrupt agent) and then lose the stolen diamonds to a competing group of thugs, they team up with Su (Li) to get them back, and foil a plot to yadda, yadda, yadda. You’ve heard this before.

Rather than having the movie move at the slower pace of director Andrzej Bartkowiak’s previous two movies, Exit Wounds and Romeo Must Die, things pick right up and never let off till the final battle with is eerily very much like Romeo. The action scenes are fast, nicely choreographed and leave you with a sense of awe, especially when Jet Li takes on a group of cage fighters. I do find it hard to believe DMX would be able to walk 20 feet up a wall, but anyone can use wires these days. Luckily the wire work is much less obvious than the horrendous effects done in both Wounds and Romeo.

As mentioned before, the comic duo of Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold are back (returning from Exit Wounds), but, of course, not in the same characters, although they allude to their former selves in the closing credit sequence. Arnold throws out so many one-liners and quips that you hardly notice half of them fail to make their mark, while Anderson’s big-black-man comedy routine is always funny, and this film is no different, I think we can forgive him for Kangaroo Jack.

While the plot is cliché, complete with a “they got my daughter, now I gotta get them” device, the movie does serve as some good fun. Don’t expect a cognitive movie that will make you think, because between the awesome Quad vs. Police chase and the lame-duck dialog you get a movie that could actually make you dumber for two hours while viewing it.

In the end Cradle 2 the Grave plays out like a really long, explosive, high-budget trailer that delivers action, some cool fight scenes and new windows into the spelling to today’s movies.

Old School is just one of those movies that you can pop in the DVD player at any time and watch it because it never takes itself seriously and boils down to stupid, harmless fun. While the movie doesn’t go for the same gross out edge that we have seen in previous teen-college-movies like American Pie and Road Trip, it does feature a great many parts where you will find yourself slurping down the bile in the back of your throat.

After Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) comes home early one evening from a business trip in San Diego he finds his girlfriend engaged in a threesome with another couple. It seems Heidi (Juliette Lewis) has a thing for gang-bangs and Mitch is the last person to know, so he moves out, and buys a house on his old college’s property. Coming along for the ride is Frank (Will Ferrell) who has just recently been married and has been finding couple-hood a bit demanding, and Beanie (Vince Vaughn) a successful business man who is trapped in his marriage.

When the college-comedy-staple “Evil Dean” comes to shut things down at Mitch’s place for not using the college’s property to the benefit of the college, Mitch must band his makeshift fraternity together and pass a series of trials set down by the college committee for houses looking to be formally recognized as frats.

Coming off last weeks mediocre showing for Daredevil, I wasn’t expecting much from Old School, but early reviews had it filled with the humor of American Pie and the charm of, well, let’s just say it had charm. The most interesting character in the entire movie is Will Farrell’s Frank who is absolutely funny throughout the entire film. It is entirely obvious that Saturday Night Live was holding Will back in his creative exploits. Playing a Roxbury Guy can only get you so far in life. While Frank is the funniest, Beanie is a scene stealer. Every frame that features Vince Vaughn is stolen by him with witty comments about marriage and the happenings of the guy’s fraternity.

The movie has it’s fair share of gross out humor. The scene pegged the most would be the KY Jelly wrestling scene in which two girls take on a very old fraternity member and end up killing him in his place. The very thought of wrestling in KY is so gross it just boggles the mind. But not all of the comedy is low-brow, and while a majority of it hangs in the gutter, there is some times when just basic visual jokes and stereotypes come into play. Such as the fat kid, the geeky kid, the Evil Dean, etc.

The producers did try to entangle a love story into the mix, with mixed success. Nicole (Ellen Pompeo) is the girl that Mitch lusted after in school, and how convenient she would turn up just after he broke up with his girlfriend (isn’t it funny how those things tend to happen). Unfortunately she is currently seeing someone else (Craig Kilborn) who has a knack for the knockers of other girls. Through misunderstands and misinterpretations they fight, but them come back together when she learns of her boyfriends cheating ways.

Old School comes away as a playful romp that doesn’t stick with you very long after you have seen it, but it doesn’t have to. Movies like these are to be enjoyed time and time again because, frankly, you don’t remember the first time you saw it. Just like director Todd Phillip’s Road Trip, Old School has a certain way about it that makes it stand out from the “other” teen movies. I, for one, am glad I can watch this movie and safely go home and consume different kinds of pastry, believing I didn’t see them befouled onscreen like American Pie and Van Wilder.

Something just doesn’t sit right with me when I think about watching Daredevil. Where X-Men and Spider-Man came onto the scene with nice origin stories, especially Spider-Man, Daredevil’s origin is nicely explained, but the other characters just happen. Where did Bullseye (Colin Farrell) come from, what is his origin, where is his back story? He, along with The Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) just seem to be bit characters in a shameless promotion to get another Marvel character on the big screen. Even Elektra (Jennifer Garner) just feels like she was on the set because they wanted her there.

I know bringing years of comic background and information into a 90 or 120 minute running time is a lot for screenwriters to do, but going into Daredevil, and not knowing anything about the character, you leave with the same feeling. The script blatantly options the sequel, in more ways than one, and you are left with the feeling that you just watched a 90 minute trailer for a trilogy of movies. You don’t take anything away with you.

Daredevil stars Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, the man without fear. A childhood accident took Murdock’s sight away but heightened his four remaining senses including his hearing which gives him a sonar-like sense that allows him to “see” the world by using sound. Murdock goes up against the Kingpin after he learns that he is going to kill Matt’s new love interest’s father. Bullseye is brought in to kill that man and becomes obsessed with Daredevil after he makes him miss a shot, something he never does.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie. I liked the fact that they set up the characters in some ways, but then completely removed a relevant back-story to them. Bullseye is the man who never misses. Good. How did he get this way, what is his story, why is he working for bad? Even The Kingpin is glossed over with the cliché “head of crime in the city” no explanation as to why and how he got there. You find yourself grasping for information that isn’t there, and when you aren’t a fan of this particular comic book you may be left behind.

Daredevil does feature some nice fight sequences, especially the much hyped romp in the bar, but the camera is shaking so much in keeping up with the action that you simply can’t see what is going on. And the cutting back and forth between the real setting and Daredevil’s sonar sense just adds to the confusion.

I found myself liking the character much more than Spider-Man and the X-Men in certain ways. I like how the movie was given a much darker tone, and how the main character isn’t afraid to distribute justice. At one point Daredevil lets a man be sawed in half by a subway train after he was falsely acquitted of raping a woman. On the flipside comic relief is adequately spread out by Kevin Smith’s cameo as well as Jon Favreau’s portrayal of Franklin Nelson, Matt Murdock’s law partner.

For bit characters Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell and Michael Clarke Duncan do a reasonable job setting up characters that will undoubtfully return in further sequels.

At the end of the movie we, the Entopia Staff, were discussing how to grade it on our system and many different answers erupted. Anything from an A- to a B- were given and I had originally given the movie a higher score, but then I had time to reflect. I went back and related the movie to other’s I have seen and found that I was somewhat disappointed in this clearly average effort to bring a comic book hero to life. I think Ben Affleck was the right choice for Daredevil, as he does a great job, but I also think the characters could have been developed so much more. By the end of the movie you feel as though nothing has happened, in all actuality, very little has. The movie starts, stuff happens, and it ends, but that stuff in the middle is merely a glazing of an actual story that story is construed with underdeveloped characters and lots of rain.

Papa Roach publicly stated that they wanted the follow-up to their debut album, Infest, to have a much more mature tone, and on that point they rightfully succeeded. By creating a healthy mix of rock and rap-influenced-rock lead singer Jacoby Shaddix (formally Coby Dick) is able to sing more, and rap less, which, depending on your liking of Papa Roach’s music, is good or bad.

To those missing the hard-rock, rap-stunts aspect of Infest, you will find a much older band with much more melody. lovehatetragedy‘s first single, “She Loves Me Not,” is a pop-inspired romp through a troubled relationship which feels somewhat alienated on the CD. The real winning tracks come in the form of “Time and Time Again,” which has been recently featured in Pepsi Blue commercials, and the title track “lovehatetragedy.”

As a prerequisite for most bands in this day and age, Papa Roach decided to feature a cover track of the Pixies “Gouge Away.” As an example of the new emotional tone to Papa Roach, the song “Dark Clouds,” Jacoby proclaims:

“This is making me crazy / These black clouds following me / So I look for signs of light / But rarely I see them.”

You can see that things are much more organized, it almost feels as though the album was designed with a clear mind, instead of the disjointed Infest which stuck with a general tone, but featured ideas all over the place. With lovehatetragedy, things appear more concise with several ongoing themes present in each song including references to skin, depression, and love.

With a more emotional sound album, Papa Roach no longer becomes mixed in the shuffle of “hardcore bands” who scream, whim, and come off with a bad attitude. While the latest addition is not quite punk, it’s not quite nu-metal, and it’s not quite straight rock and roll, it does feature elements from all three of those genres and melds them together in a sometimes melody filled, sometimes beat filled rock session that brings Papa Roach to the surface of MTV wannabe’s and rejects. Not saying that Papa Roach is wanting to be on MTV, it just may be better to remove them from that mindset and let them creatively explore their music rather than think about what some inane VJ thinks.

As a follow-up to Infest, lovehatetragedy proves that the sophomore curse isn’t always as bad as some band’s make it out to be. Even with the more emotion filled music with may drive off longtime, hardcore Papa Roach fans, this CD proves that bands get better with age and maturity.

Over this past weekend (January 24), Entertainmentopia was able to attend a sneak preview screening of Shanghai Knights from Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, and it turned out to be an enjoyable film that lives up to the expectations set down by it’s predecessor and previous buddy-comedy flicks.

Shanghai Knights takes place, for a majority of the movie, in ye ole England where villainous Lord Rathbone (Aiden Gillen) has conspired to steal the Imperial Seal and assassinate every member of the crown in line before him so that he can become King of England. The catch is that the protector of the Imperial Seal is Chon Wang’s (Jackie Chan) father, and when he is killed, Chon must head to England to meet his beautiful sister (Fann Wong) and avenge his father’s death. In order to get to England, Chon must find Ray O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) and get his half of the emperor’s gold they received in the first movie.

The film suffers through a very hackneyed and unoriginal plot for a better part of the movie, but most of the better jokes and amazing fight scenes make up for lame-brained story. Adding to the plus side of things is the amazingly stunning beauty of Fann Wong in the role of Chon Wang’s sister, Chon Lin. She is just not on the screen for eye candy either, she delivers some of the more memorable fight scenes throughout the course of the movie.

The film itself is full of very funny jokes, but some of them seemed very forced, and a noticeable downturn into lower realms of humor may turn off some movie goers who found the first film’s jokes more high-brow and sophisticated. The “potty-humor” is more evident this time around with jokes touching on STDs, erections, and other bodily functions, and while you won’t see any pie-humping, you do see the difference in the jokes.

Acting, for the most part, is as well done as it can be. Jackie Chan just looks tired through a better part of the movie, and Owen Wilson too. Chan may have done too many buddy movies in his lifetime, or he just may be starting to show his age, but he looks as though he is only on the set to get a paycheck and get a workout. Wilson is probably hoping that everyone doesn’t remember his escapades with Eddie Murphy in I-Spy, and plays the same basic character that he plays in every single movie he has been in (Shanghai Noon, Meet the Parents, I-Spy), he never really changes his style. To his credit, he is still very funny delivering sarcastic comments at the right time, and the right way.

The fight scenes are just as amazing as those in Shanghai Noon. The most notable are the ones that place in a London Market and on a barge near the end of the film. The final battle between Wu Yip (Donnie Yen) and Chon Wang is easily one of the coolest you will see on film this year. The experience and finesse of both Chan and Yen shows just how good they really are, and just how underused Yen was in Blade II.

Plot holes may also detract for the overall experience. During the course of the movie, O’Bannon, Lin, and Wang are put into a number of precarious positions where they are able to escape, but for some reason only Roy and Chon are shown, and Lin has vanished into the shadows. This is most noticeable when they escape from the burning barn about halfway through the movie. We know Lin mad it to the roof, but then we don’t see her till the next day. Where the hell did she go?

Overall I was very surprised how well Shanghai Knights turned out. I knew it would be a great follow-up to Shanghai Noon, but I wasn’t sure what kind of follow-up it would be. Would it rip off jokes from the first movie and just switch them around (a la Men in Black II) or would it try to invent new ways to make us laugh while keeping us watching (a la American Pie 2)? Thankfully Knights came out as one of the movies that tries new things and, for the most part, succeeds.

Narc is just one of those movies that stands out for a number of reasons. The first being the acting, and the second being the sense of style the director chose to give his creation.

The film focuses on the murder of an undercover cop infiltrating a ring of drugs and drug dealers, this is the overall plot device, but there are several little side-stories going on at the same time that sometimes keep you guessing as to whose side everyone is on, and what their motives are. Detective Sgt. Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) has been off the force for 18 months when he is called in to assist in the investigation into the aforementioned cop’s murder. The movie opens 18 months prior to present day with Tellis chasing down a suspect into a playground and opening fire, killing the assailant, but also hitting a pregnant women and causing her to lose her child. No Tellis has a family of his own and wants nothing to do with the Police investigation, but he is talked into doing so by his longtime friend and captain (Chi McBride).

To proceed through the investigation, Tellis is teamed up with the murdered cops close friend Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), who had been thrown off the case for being too close to the victim. Together they being to piece together the puzzle of Calvess’ (Alan Van Sprang) murder and the events that lead up to it.

As I mentioned before, Narc stands above the crowd because of acting and style. The acting is nothing of a surprise with Ray Liotta and Jason Patric headlining. Liotta comes off perfectly as a brutal cop bent on discovering the circumstances behind his friend’s murder. As the movie progresses, you will learn more about why he is so close to the family. Patric plays the troubled, family man Nick Tellis wonderfully. Through the course of the movie he begins to put the pieces together and gets so caught up in the investigation that he puts his home life at risk. The movie is able to stand on these two actors, but a wide, talented, supporting cast coasts the movie along through it’s 105 minute run time. Ray Liotta should not be overlooked for a possible supporting-actor Oscar nomination later this year, his performance is excellent.

The cinematographer used a handheld camera during a few chase scenes, specifically the one near the beginning when Tellis is chasing down a suspect into the playground, and the come off amazing. Just the blurring movement of the camera brings up the intensity of the scene ten-fold, as you can’t see what is going on until the running stops and a split second decision has to be made. The style is similar to genre favorites Se7en and Traffic in the way the movie is shot and filmed. The movie also picks up a sense of individuality by the lack of color throughout. The print is composed of dark blues, grays, and blacks and it gives the movie a distinctly gritty, corrupt feel.

For the faint of heart, you must be warned. The movie is brutal in some of it’s violence. At one point Oak beats a suspect with a billard ball in a sock, and the amount of blood in the scene in which the pregnant women get shot is shocking.

No movie is without it’s problems, and Narc is no exception. Unfortunately, even with great acting and cool camera effects, the movie can’t escape it’s 2D plot and hackneyed way of getting from point to point. I won’t fill this review with spoilers but sometimes the obvious isn’t always true. The movie is entirely enjoyable, even with the lamebrain plot, but it would have been nice to see some more originally infused.

Narc is an excellent film, it’s style, acting, and direction will make you appreciate movies for movies again and not countless strings of cars blowing up like some studios want to feed you these days. If you get a chance to see it in the theatre, jump on it, but we can hopefully expected a feature packed DVD this summer.

This is defiantly one of the hardest movie reviews I have ever had to write. Is it hard because I really wanted to enjoy this movie and I found myself disappointed? No. Hard because I really didn’t want to see it and found myself uplifted in spirit? Wrong, again. This review is hard to write because Bowling for Columbine is such a masterpiece of a documentary, so hard hitting, so very true that words cannot describe just how good it is. This documentary should be viewed by all, it should be a prerequisite in junior high, high school, and college classrooms. Every student, adult, and every American should see this documentary because it really puts things into perspective on just what kind of culture we have going in this country and of the countless people interviewed by Michael Moore over the course of two hours, ever single one had a different reason on why we choose to shoot each other with guns.

Bowling for Columbine, written, produced, and directed by Michael Moore is about as blatant to the gun problem in America as you can get. The movie begins with Michael Moore strolling into a bank and asking for the account that “gives you the free gun.” You read that right. There are banks around the country that have nearly 500 firearms locked in their vault and give you a free gun with the opening of a checking account. In fact, these banks are licenses gun sellers and can run your background check on the premises. What all of this means is you can walk into a bank, open an account, get a background check, and walk out with a gun 60 minutes later.

The movie never lets you go for the 120 minute run time. You are grabbed by Moore’s ease of obtaining a gun in the beginning and are haunted by the ending conversation with Charlton Heston who walks out on the interview when questioned if he would like to apologize to the parents of a six year old school shooting victim. As an added plus you get to see just what kind of a dick Dick Clark actually is. Celebrities need a big reality check.

As the name states, Bowling for Columbine devotes an ample amount of time talking about the mass-murder shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. One of my favorite quotes from the movie comes from Moore when talking to South Park creator Matt Stone. He states that Stone and South Park co-creator Trey Parker turned their hatred “…instead of carnage, into a cartoon.” Again, as the name of the movie implies, the two murderers from Columbine reportedly bowled two games before heading off to school and killing a dozen of their classmates and one teacher. The most chilling part of the movie involves a four-way section of the screen equally divided among four different security camera tapes inside Columbine on the day of the shooting. Moore in no way glorifies the actions of the two teenagers but shows the audience what it must have been like to be inside of that school on April 20, 1999. The tapes themselves aren’t the chilling part, the 911 phone call in the background of a scared teacher under a desk in the library sends shivers down your spine.

Moore could be called anti-gun by his statements throughout the film, but he clearly recognizes the other side of the argument by analyzing just why people need guns in America. Let it be known that people in Canada don’t even lock their doors, and this is best seen when Moore travels through an up-scale Canadian neighborhood and simply walks up to doors and opens them, no knocking, no way in telling the home’s inhabitants that he is coming, he just opens the door. Why is this though? Mainly because, as Moore explains, is the American news media has a majority of the populations scared, scared of what ever is out there, so scared that they feel they need a gun to protect themselves and when demand is high, supply is equally as high and then the gun falls into the wrong hands.

There are so many things that stand out about this movie that it is impossible to name just a single part that really is the best, it is a movie that needs to be seen and enjoyed to fully understand where I am coming from. Interviews with Marilyn Manson and Charlton Heston really provide insight into what these people are actually thinking in an unadulterated, un-planned interview. Both sides of the issue are fully examined by the “gun-nuts” arguments usually shoot themselves in the foot on how ludicrous they are and amazingly stupid they look on film. Notable parts include Moore taking two kids shot at Columbine to K-Mart Headquarters and showing them what the bullets they sold did to these kids (one is paralyzed for life). This single act, and media attention caused K-Mart to discontinue selling handgun ammunition in it’s stores.

Bowling for Columbine is an amazing documentary (or film as you can use either term). Parts will have you at the edge of your seat in horror, other times you are laughing at the arguments by certain “experts” and why they keep loaded guns all around the house. Powerful, informative, and as unbiased as you can be, Bowling for Columbine is one of the best films I have ever seen in my life.