Mr. Deeds was a great movie, and there was heated debate on the way out of the theatre if it can top Happy Gilmore as Adam Sandler’s best performance, and best movie, while Mr. Sandler may never win any awards, at the very least he isn’t trying to hard to break from his comedy roots to do drama (cough Jim Carrey cough cough Will Smith cough cough). Man there must be something in the air around here.

Mr. Deeds is a remake of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. The movie features on Sandler’s character, Longfellow Deeds, who inherits $40 Billion dollars from his rich, dead Great Uncle. It seems though the CEO of this company that Deeds’ Great Uncle owns wants to take full control and sell it off in little bits and pieces. While rather predictable (right down to the way Deeds’ reconciles with his love) the movie is enjoyable for a good show, and trying to pick out instances when it looks like Winona Rider is picking Sandler’s pocket.

What works so well with the movie is Adam Sandler himself, he is such a charismatic and great actor, it is no wonder he can come back from a stink-bomb like Little Nicky and still be welcome to take money for our tickets. Any other actor would be scrubbing the crap stains off of the toilets in the restroom rather than starring in a movie playing in one of the biggest theatres in the joint.

And then there was Winona Rider trying to steal things, or we presume.

Oh, yes, Miss Rider whom has had some very troubling conflicts with the law up until this movie does a decent job as Deeds’ love interest, and keeping us on our toes to see what she is stealing from the set, we half expected her to be shown walking off holding all the props she could in one hand while shoving smaller objects in her handbag, and, well other places.

The star of the entire movie falls upon the foot-fetish butler, Emilo, whom has a “sneakiness” way to him and seems to be faster than light when he wants to appear in places. It becomes increasingly funny as the movie goes on to see just how he can move around so much, as well as Winona Rider stealing things (will this ever get old…hmmmm…No).

Mr. Deeds ranks right up there with Sandler’s best performances, but not quite the very best (which still belongs to Happy Gilmore). If you are looking for a good way to waste a couple of hours and don’t want to see Sandler in one of those annoying “accent-driven roles,” go out and see Mr. Deeds, but if you were alive for the original release, be sure to bring extra colostomy bags, because this is one funny movie.

And we get to watch Winona Rider…well you know…

Minority Report features two of Hollywood’s biggest stars looking to grasp back on to the greatness they once held. Steven Spielberg is looking to make up for the horrible A.I. Artificial Intelligence (I don’t care what you all think, it sucked) and Tom Cruise is looking to make up for the god-awful Cameron Crowe soaked Vanilla Sky that stunk up the box office during the holiday season. Luckily for both of them, Minority Report (although having little to do with the actual title) is one of the greatest movies of the year, and while it may never break records like Spider-Man, it is sure to become a classic in it’s own right.

The story of MR is very well developed, and the plot is a fresh blast in the face from the cookie-cutter plot points (and holes) used in a lot of the movies this summer. Tom Cruise is Detective John Anderton, head of Washington D.C.’s Precrime division which can catch murderers and prevent their crime from even happening using the skills of three “people” called the Pre-Cogs. When Anderton is accused of a murder on a man he has never met, he goes on the run and tries to seek his Minority Report which could prove his innocence.

This movie is a  special effects laden broadcast of the greatest proportions. From the cops on jetpacks to the awesome cars of the future, everything about this movie screams style and cinematic eye-candy. Spielberg does a wonderful job bringing the year 2054 to life in a way that could be taken as fact. During the movie Greg Elliott leaned over to me and whispered, “I can totally see this in fifty years.” While I whole-heartily agree with our resident short-person, there are some far-fetched points we may never see in our lifetimes.

Cruise does an excellent job as John Anderton, his character lost his son six years ago, just before the institution of Precrime, and has dedicated his life to the enforcement of the laws to keep what happen to his son from ever happening to anyone again. He is a drug addict, addicted to his work, and is so engrossed that it costs him his wife and a happy life together after the death of their son. Many parallels have been drawn to Johnny Depp’s character in From Hell, but the solving of the crime isn’t necessarily Anderton’s undoing.

Spielberg’s direction shows that the man has the pills to do another sci-fi movie after the A.I. fiasco. Camera angles are very cinematic in nature and bring out the different aspects of the movie very well. From the wide angle shots of the ships dropping cops, to the slightly humorous shots of Anderton having some delicious food from the refrigerator, that is something they won’t show you in the trailers.

All in all, I really, really enjoyed Minority Report, it may not be the biggest blockbuster of the season, but opening up against stiff competition in the way of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch it holds it’s own very well. While the movie’s only shortfall is a very weak, weak ending, it does manage to keep you entertained for it’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime. Go see Minority Report, you won’t be sorry.

Even with lackluster reviews, previous to our own, and opening up against Windtalkers and Scooby Doo and with Spider-Man and Star Wars still at the box office, The Bourne Identity still managed to haul in close to $30 million dollars in it’s opening weekend.

While Identity falls into the cliché following of James Bond and other action spy movies, serious or not, it still manages to make a name for itself for a number of reasons.

The biggest draw to the movie is the fact that it has been a highly successful novel for sometime. Updated for the big screen, Bourne Identity features Matt Damon, sans Ben Affleck, as Jason Bourne a covert-ops agent who has lost most of his memory and is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Europe. The movie focuses on Jason’s employers attempts to capture and subdue what they believe to be a rogue in the system.

While the movie tries to bring Matt Damon into the role of an action hero, leaving behind chose rolls in independent films, he is never really that believable, but it still works for Universal for the women. Besides the off-color attempt to bring Damon into new roles, Bourne doesn’t really fail terrible on any levels. The biggest problem is the fact that the plot is very loose, and seems almost too open ended, like the director and screenwriter want the audience to figure out what is going on, rather than telling you, the problem with this is, they never give you enough information to figure it out on your own.

Two standing achievements shouldn’t be missed, and one is worth the price of admission alone. The fight sequences are some of the very best seen on the big screen, they totally rock. While the sound effects may seem as far fetched as they come, it adds to the atmosphere of the movie.

The second achievement, the one worth admission, is the car chase scene halfway through the movie. Seeing Matt Damon pilot a manual POS through the streets of Paris was amazing. The abuse this car took, corners at 90 degrees, going the wrong way on an express way, it was amazing, it took my breath away, it made the movie for me. Although I have a hard time picturing Julia Stiles as a covert agent, let alone know how to even use a computer.

So in the end, The Bourne Identity managed to steal some of my hard earned money for the weekend, and I’m glad I decided not to give it to Scooby Doo. If you want something to hold you over till Die Another Day, Bourne Identity will surely do.

Bad Company is one of those movies that pleases everyone that sees it, the problem is there are too few to make a real difference in the movie’s box office gross. Bad Company is also one of those movies that was directly affected by the happens of September 11th. The movie was delayed from it’s original release date last fall when it could have made a bigger splash in the box office.

With that said, Bad Company is not a bad movie, in fact, I really enjoyed the two hours in the theatre watching Chris Rock be funny, Anthony Hopkins deliver his deadpan style of acting, and see the problems they managed to escape especially the car chase scene towards the end, although rather cliché, it was still a great ride.

The plot of Bad Company is as basic as it comes, but it seems to work better than some other movies that have tried it. The story centers on Rock’s character of Michael Turner, who is actually Kevin Pope one of two twins separated at birth after the mother died of complications. Pope works for the CIA and has been deep undercover for two years plotting out the sale of a stolen nuclear device. Just when it seems the deal is going to go through, Pope is assassinated by the rival bidder who aims to use the bomb in a major United States’ city. This is where Rock’s other character comes in. Jacob Hayes is the other twin who works as a poor street hustler and makes money off of playing chess and selling tickets. In order for the deal to go down, the CIA needs Hayes, but it will come at a price.

The screen-time between Hopkins’ character Oakes and Rock’s Hayes is the best part of the movie. They seem very charismatic together and able to pull of the buddy-buddy relationship that it seemingly streamed along for most of the movie. Even Rock by himself he gets the job done by bringing in the classic humor that has made him a star today since his beginnings on Saturday Night Live over ten years ago. Hopkins, while getting up there in age, works well in the part of an up-tight CIA agent with no personal ties to the world.

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, I didn’t expect much after what Pearl Harbor turned out to be, but I kept faith even after the three hour fiasco of love in the Pacific. What really got me worried was seeing Joel “I love Batman” Schumacher’s name attached to anything resembling a movie. I mean, the guy totally messed up the Batman franchise for life, and in turn has killed the Black Knight. I am proud to say that it wasn’t as bad as I thought from a directing stand point. There are a few very stylistic shots that I really enjoyed, one where Hopkins is hanging out of the moving car going across the grassy knoll.

In the end, Bad Company didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it would, you can check out my pre-summer predictions right here to see what I thought it would be like. While it wasn’t quite as bad for the audience, Disney may not be too happy with the rather dismal $10.5 million and fourth place opening in it’s first weekend. Although I said it would happen…

Oh how long we have waited. After what seems like forever, Goldfinger has released their newest album to the streets, entitled Open Your Eyes, and it brings the Ska/Punk band back to the day’s of Hang Ups.

The discs opening two shots “Going Home” and “Spokesman” are a good inclusion into the discs seemingly non-stop Ska explosion that engulfs the listener. The real winner is the CDs title song, “Open Your Eyes” which states:

“Open your eyes / To the millions of lies / That they tell you everyday / Open your mind / To the clever disguise / That the advertisements say / How do they know / What’s good for you?”

The song fits in with the entire albums portrayal that everyone is their own person. In “Spokesman” the band talks about wanting to hear what you have to say, not what we are told to believe by representatives and people paid to say things.

The rest of the CD flows great and when you get to “Woodchuck” this Disturbed meets a kindergarten class explosion is one of the funniest moments in music in my opinion. The band rocks out to the old tongue twister and nails it dead on, I would like to see practice recordings of that song, it could prove to be hilarious.

For fans there was a song on an old Maxi single entitled “Ted Nugent” which poked some serious fun at the old rock singer. The song returns on Open Your Eyes with good old Ted getting torn up, but instead of our favorite Charlie’s Angel getting the second blow, Jennifer Lopez gets taken to town when punished about her dress, and packing on the pounds. It proves for great hilarity.

Topping out the rest of the CD is two bonus tracks. One is a recording of several prank phone calls the band recorded and performed, not quite Jerky Boys quality, but close, and the last is a standard Goldfinger track.

Besides “Open Your Eyes” my favorite song would have to be “Radio,” which seems to just jump out at you off of the record.

The only major problem with this CD is actually finding it, it took a number of stores and phone calls to find a Best Buy in the greater Phoenix area that actually carried the CD in stock, most were sold out, or had never received any. If you can find one, definitely worth picking up.

Undercover Brother may be the funniest movie of the year, or the second funniest considering we have Austin Powers waiting in the wings, but for the first part of summer, Undercover Brother is the funniest movie of the year.

The film’s plot, while approaching the line of ludicrous and offensive, centers around a secret conspiracy in the world to undermine the influence of African-American culture. The group headed by “The Man” is out to tame the farthest reaches of black culture in order to keep things the way there are in the world. Out to stop them is the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. (don’t even ask me what it stands for) a group of freedom fighters looking to take out “The Man.” Even for a comedy the plot is paper thin (I call them Kate Moss Plots!). The Brotherhood recruits Undercover Brother to help infiltrate “The Man’s” business practices and uncover the dirt that is going down.

It seems that a prominent African-American general may be running for President and that is the last thing “The Man” wants to see, so they use a mind controlling substance to take over the general’s thoughts and make him open a chain of Fried Chicken Restaurants (get it Colonel, General, see it’s poking fun at KFC!). The Conspirators plan is to use the Fried Chicken to spread the substance to every African-American citizen of the US and successfully purge the political and cultural influences from the United States in whole.

Eddie Griffin stars as Undercover Brother with a great supporting cast in the form of Denise Richards as White She Devil and Chris Kattan as Mr. Feather who, himself, seems to have an overdoes of influence from the hip-hop community. Richards excels as her character and looks as hot as ever in her tight little….uh…err Kattan, who is expected to leave SNL soon after the departure of Will Ferrell, is utterly hilarious as Mr. Feather and shows that even though he doesn’t get lots of screen time on Saturday Night Live, Chris sure is a funny guy.

The movie is funny, there is no doubt about that one. With the playful humor on the differences between the different races, and the types of stereotypically characters portrayed. While everyone in the movie has their moments no one is funnier than Dave Chappelle, he steals the show as Conspiracy Brother and rightfully so, the man is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.

While never winning any awards for originality, acting, plot, or anything those stuck-up blue-hairs at the Academy look for, the movie is funnier than anything else to come out in a long time, and should only be outshined by New Line’s upcoming entry into the Austin Power’s franchise.

I’m one of the hugest Spider-man fans. Over 1,000+ comics in my collection I would say 90% of them are Spider-Man. Heck, I trying to get job so I can draw for it one day. I’ve waited 4 long years for the arrival of this film and it was worth it. While the making of the film was in many court battles and was handed to many directors. (Such as James Cameron, director of The Terminator, Aliens, and Titanic.) I believe Sam Raimi, (Evil Dead Series), was the best choice though. If you see a movie this summer see Spider-Man and here’s why.

Sam Raimi’s vision of how comics books work is amazing. The camera angles and everything this man thinks of for this film really make you feel like you’re reading a comic. The fantastic cast helps. Tobey Maguire, (Cider House Rules) plays Peter Parker and Spider-Man great. Both Tobey and Peter seem to be shy guys you seem to go for. William Dafoe (Platoon), was an awesome choice for Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin. If the two egos to don’t function well as one character, then it fails, Dafoe made sure that it didn’t fail. Kristen Dunst, (Bring It On) plays Mary Jane Watson, “The Girl Next Door”, right from the start she is why Peter gets stuck being the hero. She plays Mary Jane well, better than I could have imagined. She seems to be somewhat a tease for Peter but hey what girl isn’t?

Right from the beginning of the film, you see the geeky Peter Parker’s many attempts to fit in but, alas our poor hero is an outcast but with the exception of Mary Jane and Harry Osborn (James Franco). Mary Jane eventually learns to be Peter’s friend. I guess taking pictures make any girl fall for you, eh? Anyway, Peter is bitten by a genetically altered spider which leaves him sick and unconscious through out the night.. You then learn that Osborn’s Company, OSCORP, seem to be in financial problems and the only way to recover is to sell an experimental super soldier formula and accompanying glider. This leads him to test the formula on himself and causes him transform into two personas (Osborn and the Green Goblin).

Peter awakens to find the next morning, but he’s different than his normal self. He learns of his abilities, the same as a spider, and tests them out. Raimi’s humor is shown as Peter tries shoot his webbing. Peter then tries to raise money to find the affection of Mary Jane. Peter fights Bone-saw! (Macho-Man Randy Savage) in order to collect his prize money for a car. By the way, if you see Bone-saw and watch wrestling, you can tell Randy has gotten huge! Seems Peter is duped and then Peter’s uncle is killed by the same robber that he let get away at the wrestling match. It’s kind of like a cross road what if he did get that crook? Would he have become Spider-Man? Who knows? Peter learn that “With great power, comes greater responsibility.”

Then the movie changes setting, which is New York City. Peter becomes Spider-Man, and helps the city out. The Daily Bugle tries to make him look like bad guy. Mostly because of J. Johann Jameson. (J K Simmons), the creator of the paper. The Green Goblin starts to cause trouble in town and tries to get Spider-Man to join forces or die. Of course, ol’ Spidey won’t let this happen. So they duke it out in many great battles. Raimi loves to show intensity in these battles to which is greatly received. The ending is great and I don’t wanna give to much of the final setting away but lets just say it’s superb.

Is Jason back? He most certainly is, but not in the form we have grown to know and love in the past editions of the Friday the 13th series of movies. Jason X is the first re-visit to the series in nearly ten years, and with that long bench warming plan, it seems as though the writers and producers of this series intend to take the movie, and the forth-coming series, into a new domain.

Jason X starts out in the near future. Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) is finally capture and brought to a scientific research facility on his old stomping grounds of Crystal Lake. Jason is being studied for his highly elevated regenerative capabilities that allow for him to take a beaten, and keep on coming. Through a minor mishap while prepping Jason for transport, he escapes lays ruin to several marines and doctors, and then is frozen in a cryogenic unit, that also freezes his lead researcher Rowan.

Flash forward 455 years in the future when a team of student finds the old facility while charting around on Old Earth, see us humans with our beer, pot, and pre-marital sex have destroyed the planet to the point where no one can even inhabit it. I’m glad I’m doing my part. The team finds the frozen Jason and Rowan and manages to revive her with their vast medical techniques.

The problem with Jason X is the story, and technology don’t seem to stay constant through the entire movie. In the beginning they are able to repair a severed arm and a stab wound to Rowan, but when one of them gets something as simple as scratch or flesh wound they are totally unable to help, or heal. Before Jason becomes Uber-Jason near the end of the film, he is literally blasted to pieces by the nipple-removable android, but manages to come back. Several marines are merely stabbed, yet seem to be beyond repair, the consistency is laughable at best.

Which, in some aspects, is what the writers appear to be going for. There are several times during the movie when there are some down-right funny lines delivered, and some funny moments, “He’s screwed,” just being one example. Sure it doesn’t appear to be funny now, but when you see how this guy died, it is laughable. The classic moment from the film happens almost at the end on a “holo-deck” of sorts where two women proposition Jason with some favorite 1980’s past times. The ensuing “death-sequence” is the funniest and most memorable part of the movie, hell I’m still thinking about it.

While Jason X isn’t anything new or exciting, it does bring the serial killer to a new and uncharted domain for him, and anything but Aliens and Predators. While rumors are circulating of two more in this mini-series of Jason, it remains to be seen. I found it both funny, and relieving, that writer/director Jim Isaac makes fun of the older movies in the series. This one was okay because if they actually expected us to take this seriously the whole way thought, they have another thing coming…like maybe a machete.