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…

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.

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’ve had a good week.  Two sneak previews in two days…  YAY me!  I already sent in a super early Windtalkers review, and this time I’m writing in with a review of Chris Nolan’s new thriller, Insomnia.  This was a pretty interesting deal; the movie was actually simulcast to different universities, with over 30,000 students watching coast-to-coast!  After the movie, we were treated to a LIVE chat with Chris Nolan!  We could call in with questions and if we were lucky we’d actually get to ask Chris a question!

Anyhoo, on with the movie stuff, slight spoilers ahead.  Since the movie was “broadcast” over satellite to one of the lecture halls on campus, we only had one speaker in the front of the hall.  I didn’t get to experience full surround sound and such, but this movie doesn’t rely too heavily on amazing sound.  You guys already know the plot (LA cop comes to middle of nowhere to solve murder, but the murderer is a little too smart and ends up blackmailing him), and know that it is a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film, so I won’t discuss those.  So, on to the dissection…

In this movie, you’ve got the seasoned veteran with some skeletons in his closet, Will Dormer (Al Pacino), the eager rookie Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), and the bad guy Walter Finch (Robin Williams).  Acting wise, this movie has tons of acting talent.  Al Pacino, is of course, amazing.  According to Chris Nolan’s chat afterwards, Pacino is in every scene in the movie but two, and filmed 52 out of 54 days!  As the days go by without Dormer getting any sleep, hence the title, Al Pacino’s voice and body language get more and more gritty and tired.  I wonder if he is one of those actors who will go without sleep for a while in order to play someone who hasn’t slept for days…  Regardless of his methods, Pacino is great.  Hilary Swank has a much smaller role than Pacino or Williams, but she holds her own against them.  Nothing remarkable about her performance, but the girl can definitely act. 

Then we have God.  Or you may know him as Robin Williams.  Robin’s role as a killer in this movie is considerably smaller than Pacino’s; he doesn’t even show up until an hour into the movie, but #$@$ he’s good!  I have to say, I LOVE Robin Williams.  I got the amazing opportunity to see his new stand-up show at Phoenix’s Dodge Theater on April 23^rd, and I laughed for the entire two hours. This man is hilarious.  He is also a great dramatic actor.  I loved The Fisher King, Good Will Hunting, and his recent darker roles in Death To Smoochy and now, Insomnia.  The man has such good presence on stage, and his delivery and facial expressions are flawless.  Even in an evil role like this, I still love watching this man work.  I can’t wait for One Hour Photo…

Cinematography was very interesting in this movie.  It’s hard to compare it to Memento however, because of the nature of Memento as a film.  There are some great opening shots of the Alaskan landscape, and Chris Nolan manages to capture the tired feeling of having insomnia throughout the whole movie.  The entire flick takes place in Alaska, so don’t expect a lot of color.  There are a lot of grays and brown, and it all just adds to the atmosphere of the movie.

Overall, I quite enjoyed Insomnia.  It could be a little slow at times, but what do you expect from a movie titled from a sleep disorder?  Not too predictable, and very interesting.  Not as blow-you-away cool as Memento, but a solid outing by Nolan.

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.

While a heated dispute on the Entertainmentopia Forums over the past few days as to the acting merits of Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) all of those doubts and inhibitions can be put to rest after viewing last weekend’s The Scorpion King, because without The Rock, this just wouldn’t be a good movie. Take what I say with a grain of salt, but The Rock can act, and act very well. While the script of The Scorpion King doesn’t leave much room for a story, or fleshed out lines and character development we are used to seeing in the two previous movies in The Mummy franchise, King uses the amazing screen presence of The Rock, and some over the top action to get the job done.

The Scorpion King tells the story of Mathayus (The Rock), one of three professional assassins left of an ancient race that live in the desert badlands of Egypt before the time of the pharaohs and the pyramids. Mathayus is hired by a coalition of the remaining nomadic clans to seek out the sorceress (Kelly Hu) being held by Memnon, the evil ruler of the land. He uses the sorceresses powers to win every battle, and is slowly conquering the known land. When Mathayus discovers her, he kidnaps the beauty and retreats to the safety of the desert.

After a series of action-filled battles, and one very cool outing in a cave during a sand storm, the movie makes its way to the final battle at the city of Gomorrah where some of the movies’ best action sequences take place.

The Scorpion King is like a low-budget Mummy because of it’s small $60 million dollar value. The special effects are notably toned down when compared to the two previous movies in the series, and the movie is also notably shorter. On the plus side, Universal, the studio releasing this movie, should not have any trouble making the movie into a very nice cash cow.

The acting from most of the supporting characters is on par with the cheese flavored acting of the first two movies, nothing should be taken very seriously for the fact that it isn’t meant to be. The movie rides on the cheese-factor to give it the edge to stand out from all of the other movies set in ancient Egypt. While the movie theatre I saw this in had the volume way to low for such an action fest, it still was a great show.

The only thing that really bugs you about it is you know what happens to the character in the later movie. Wanting him to win and become king makes you feel like you are going for the bad guy, which is almost sad because I like the character more as a good guy than anything else, but that is just me, and I have been told I am a nut-case sometimes.

You will have to look beyond some of the major inconsistencies in the character between the early scenes in The Mummy Returns and the entire Scorpion King movie, but what you get in the end is an enjoyable movie experience that you can get a tub-o-butter a Cherry Pepsi and enjoy one and a half hours of guilty entertainment.

Closing Note: The Scorpion King was number one on opening weekend with an estimated $36.2 million dollars.

I guess the saying “better late than never” comes into play when talking about Big Trouble. Originally to be released on September 21st of last year, the movie was delayed because of the cowardly terrorist attacks on the United States. It would seem to be taboo to show a movie that involves the passing around of a nuclear weapon that eventually ends up on an airplane that is high jacked by two dim-witted criminals.

Big Trouble finally made release last week, and I can honestly say, the movie is everything I would have expected. Big Trouble is based on a novel by humor columnist Dave Barry, who writes for the Miami Herald. The movie is about self-proclaimed loser Eliot Arnold (Tim Allen) who is recently divorced, owns a struggling advertising firm, and just bought a Geo.

The movie features a high caliber ensemble of actors who all lend the movie their respective talent. The greatest part of the movie is it resembles Guy Ritchie’s Snatch by allowing all the characters to overlap once and again. As stated before the movie uses the plot vehicle of a nuclear weapon (that resembles a garbage disposal) to bring the cast together. Eliot and his son Matt interact with Arthur and Anna Herk (Stanley Tucci and Rene Russo) after Matt is playing a school game called “killer” and is forced to soak their daughter Jenny (Zooey Deschanel). Puggy (Jason Lee in an awesome role) is a drifter who finds himself in love with Arthur’s housemaid Nina after she mistakes him for Jesus.

Along the way the main characters run into two cops Monica Romero (Janeane Garofolo) and Walter Kramitz (Patrick Warburton), two FBI agents Pat Greer (Omar Epps) and Alan Seitz (Heavy D), and two really stupid criminals Eddie (Johnny Knoxville) and Snake (Tom Sizemore). While the bomb will eventually bring the entire cast together at the airport, the movie really shines on the humor of the script.

The movie has some generally funny moments especially when introducing the characters for the first time. No one would have though Arthur Herk had such an amazing foot-fetish. And a surprising cameo by Martha Stewart just brings down the house when coupled with the psychedelic toad.

Really shinning out in this movie is notably Jason Lee, Tim Allen, and Dennis Farina who plays a hitman contracted to take out Herk. Farina’s character seems taken directly from Snatch while being just as funny as ever. While Lee is beloved by all for his roles in Kevin Smith’s cult classics, Allen has had limited success on the big screen. Allen as Eliot Arnold seemed like a perfect choice because of the similarities between Allen and Dave Barry. While he doesn’t get top billing, he is first in alphabetical order, so in a sense this is a Tim Allen movie.

Coming out of the theatre on Saturday Night completed a perfect night. The movie offers laughs by the dozens and manages to keep the humor level up for the entire movie (notably, once again, by Andy Richter’s security guard characters). Big Trouble, bombed at the box office this weekend. While not the funniest comedy this year, it sure wasn’t the worst, or anything close to average. If you are looking for a funny movie with a great cast and a super script look no further than Big Trouble.