Director Todd Phillips is really enjoying himself on the director’s A-list, and he has ever right to be there. His three films have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and become staples of college life. Road Trip introduced to us a break from the standard college teen comedy; Old School put us back into a college setting in our mid-thirties, and now Starsky & Hutch re-envisions the 1970’s television show for a new generation full of campy stunts and great personality.

Starsky & Hutch (TV) ran for 88 episodes in the 1970s in a decade that was known for putting out some zany television shows. The pairing of a by-the-book cop and one who takes things now quite as seriously isn’t a new concept in Hollywood, in fact, you could say the idea has been beaten into the ground more times than you can count, but for Starsky & Hutch the formula is fresh with an excellent screenplay and enough jokes to get you through the films 90 minute running time.

David Starsky (Ben Stiller) is the aforementioned by-the-book kind of guy who is out to catch the bad guys, shows up to work on time, and never does errands while on city time. Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson (Owen Wilson) is the exact polar opposite of Starsky, so it is only natural that they would become partners in this wacky world of fighting crime. Along for the ride is Snoop Dogg’s wondrous portrayal of Huggy Bear, one of Hutch’s most valuable informants. To say that Snoop steals the movie would be an understatement. He steals every scene that he is in, which is refreshing after such disappointments as Bones.

The antagonist this time around is Old School alumni Vince Vaughn playing Reese Feldman and arrogant drug cartel kingpin who has a short temper and a ditsy mistress (Juliette Lewis). Starsky and Hutch soon learn of Feldman’s goal in selling cocaine that cannot be detected by dogs, and tastes strangely like sugar, as one of the film’s funnier moment’s points out. After the disappointment of Club Dread, Starsky & Hutch was a welcomed change.

Phillips doesn’t want this film to be a parody or a spoof of the original series, rather a re-envisioning of the show and that is precisely what it is, but we aren’t to forget the film’s roots. The film is shot in a distinctive 70s style with wide angle shots from across the street that zoom in on a pair having a conversation to the way some of the scenes are cut together. Even the stunts scream 1970s with flying cars and big shoot outs in the streets of Bay City. The retro feel to the film only stimulates the nostalgia felt throughout, even for non-fans of the series. I’m willing to bet an equal number of patrons bought tickets to see this film based on Phillips name attached to it as those that bought tickets based on the franchise name. Also the headlining pair of Stiller and Wilson couldn’t have hurt.

The film is not without some problems. There is a general lack of story throughout, and what is present is laced relatively thin. The screenplay is very strong, and as mentioned before, the direction is top notch by Phillips. The 1970s overacting by Stiller and Wilson is just what you would expect from the duo, which could be a problem in itself. The dynamic pair virtually play the very same characters they play in every film, and now Wilson has been paired up with just about everyone in the industry, there aren’t too many people left besides Chris Tucker who has mysteriously disappeared since Rush Hour 2. Still, even with the basic plot and devices to progress it along, Starsky and Hutch is a fun and enjoyable film that rightfully opens the door for a franchise to bloom.

Let me preface this review by saying that I have never seen Get Shorty in any form, edited or not, so my experiences with Be Cool are holding it up to the light as a stand alone film. Be Cool, from The Italian Job directory F. Gary Gray, is a tricky film to review in its own right. The film, hosting a cast of characters only second to Ocean’s Twelve, can be confusing at times, funny at others, and still rather boring through its runtime. Like a giant wheel, each scene could land on any one of the three, and that’s why you’ll, more than likely be disappointed in the end.

The film reintroduces us to Chili Palmer (John Travolta), the hit man turned movie producer is looking for a new business to get in to. When his friend, Tommy (James Woods), is gunned down by a toupee wearing Russian, Chili steps in to help Tommy’s wife run her record label. Fortunately for us, Tommy’s wife, Edie, is played by the beautiful Uma Thurman. Through the course of the movie we’ll meet an eclectic cast of misfits including Sin (Cedric The Entertainer), Raji (Vince Vaughn), and the scene-stealing Elliot (The Rock).

Be Cool manages to bring together the large cast in inventive ways, although the script doesn’t stretch things too far. Everyone has some part in the record business. Raji, who works for record-mogul Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) is a white guy who talks like he’s black, although not really. Vaughn’s performance is commendable, he’s just must more likable when he plays characters more like him (see: Dodgeball and the upcoming Wedding Crashers). For the most part each character is playing someone we’ve seen before, Cedric The Entertainer is Cedric The Entertainer, Uma Thurman is Uma Thurman, etc.

The two stand out performances come from The Rock as the flamboyantly gay bodyguard Elliot and Andre Benjamin (one half of the hip-hop group Outkast) as Dabu. Both are given the majority of this limp-movie’s funny lines and/or bits, and make up for about half the ticket price. It’s just too bad the other half isn’t made up somewhere as well. The Rock succeeds in this film simply because he can play the part and has the charisma and class to not only make fun of his character, but make fun of his real-life self in the process. As the list of film’s the ex-wrestler has been in grows, it becomes more and more apparent just how well he can act, and how well liked he is in Hollywood. While it’s hard to say this about any wrestler, The Rock has made the jump to cinema successfully and is posed to take over the action-star reigns.

Yet, I digress…

While I normally hate to see singers cross over to film, as it usually brings laughable results, Andre 3000 does a decent job in the film, while I’m not going to be buying any Outkast CDs, or waiting for his first top-billed movie, the performers first film outing raises the bar a bit for anyone else looking forward to movie work.

Overall Be Cool is a film of missed opportunities. From the very beginning I had high hopes when Chili and Tommy started taking stabs at the film industry as a whole pointing out the clichés and well-known-facts, but after half of the first act had passed, we loose this funny satire to make way for the cliché. The only memorable moments are when Chili manages to stay cool through it all and pull a fast one on everyone else trying to kill him. If you didn’t know, John Travolta has still got it, and is as cool as ever, when he wants to be. One of the biggest missed opportunities is the dance scene between Thurman and Travolta in which everyone was waiting for a small recreation of the infamous dance scene from Pulp Fiction, instead of throwing the audience any morsel of homage, we get nothing. It’s not every year we get to see Uma and John paired up again and to waste this screen time was annoying.

I found it hard to enjoy parts of the film because it seemed to really drag on with very little of a coherent story to follow. While there are some very entertaining parts, many of them mentioned in this review, there just isn’t enough to bring the entire movie out of the range of mediocrity. Fans of Get Shorty many find something to like, but anyone who hasn’t seen the previous installment is better off waiting for the rental.

I had to buy myself a thesaurus for this review to think of as many different ways to say how disappointed I am with this film: let down, dissatisfied, disenchanted, and saddened. Those should get me by for a little while. Broken Lizard’s Super Troopers wasn’t an all out laugh-fest and it didn’t differ too much from the beaten path of past films, but it had funny moments, a testament to the writing ability of the Broken Lizard troupe. Yet, after watching Club Dread I may be ready to take back all the nice things I said about their first film.

I was eagerly awaiting the release of Club Dread mainly because I enjoyed Super Troopers so very much, and while the film makes an honest effort to spoof the horror genre it can’t compare to mastery works like Scary Movie and Scream. For those who can’t believe I called Scary Movie a mastery work, I just did. Club Dread plays with the clichés that we find in all horror movies, but when old-school films such as Freddy vs. Jason begin to make fun of themselves, do we really need poorly conceived spoof films to make fun of work that is already being parodied by its progenitors?

Club Dread takes place on a tropical island where the drinks flow freely and there are not strings attached. Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton) runs this swanky island paradise with the money he earned making hilarious sounding records referring to many things people would do on brain-altering drugs. When someone begins picking off resort workers (no doubt a throwback to the killing of camp counselors in Friday the 13^th), our fearless crew must stay alive until a boat comes to retrieve them and return them to safety. This isn’t award winning cinema, but it is still dangerously thin to get by with.

The biggest problem with the film is the general lack of laughs. There are only two times that a real gut-buster of a joke is told and when you don’t see them coming, they just aren’t that funny. Surprisingly the film tries to enter the drama realm, something Broken Lizard managed to do in Super Troopers, but stumbles here even with the added incentive that people may get naked and killed.

Naked and killed you say? For a comedy piece there is a surprising amount of gore and bloodshed with gruesome deaths being suffered by almost every member of the principle cast including stomachs sliced open, decapitations, and machetes impaled through the chest. While not containing the body count or gore of Freddy vs. Jason, it certainly raises the bar a bit for the comedy genre. As for the nudity, the film has an ample amount of both male and female, depending on where your interests lie. Most notable of the birthday-suit baring is that of Cabin Fever‘s Jordan Ladd who shows us here gymnastic abilities in the comfort of a hotel room.

Without any laughs you are forced to look at the drama components of the film, but when the killer is finally revealed, and when the reason for his killing is explained the whole thing is suppose to be funny, yet it isn’t, which can be said for a majority of the film. There just isn’t that much that compels you to keep watching. You aren’t going to laugh, the film offers little to no suspense, and it isn’t the most heartwarming piece of cinema ever, so why keep watching? The only reason I can give you is the funniest moment of the film which lies at the very end. Aside form this parody of returning killers only the outtakes during the ending credits present you with any real laughs.

Unfortunately Club Dread was the first big disappointment of the new year, aside from the lackluster and completely average Along Came Polly. Those expecting the comedic timing and laughs of Super Troopers will be the most disappointed as we are forced to sit through nearly two hours of jokes that miss their mark and gags that don’t quite instill the uproarious laughter we were expecting. Here’s one more for the road: thwarted.

Since the debut of American Pie in 1999 the teenage-sex comedy has made a resounding comeback on movie screens, but the overflow of sequels, copy-cats, and parodies has left the genre in the same stagnate punch it was in at the end of the 1980s when such films were a dime a dozen. Now, 5 years since the original American Pie, and nearly 8 months after its successful, final, chapter FOX launches its latest entry into the crowded market in the form of The Girl Next Door, which may very well be the genre’s second wind.

The film is something different than the standard lose-your-virginity-on-prom-night-caper which has been so prevalent in the industry since we had our first slice of Pie. National Lampoon came back to life and delivered the uproarious Van Wilder, Sony decided to make fun of 20 years of these films with the mildly amusing Not Another Teen Movie, and DreamWorks put thirty-year-olds into the mix with the wholly original and entertaining, Old School.

Matthew (Emile Hursh) is the perfect student in school. He never ditches, he never misses class. While the football team is getting “service” from the cheerleaders he sits in his boring classes thinking about getting into Georgetown and working on the speech that will get him there. Everything is going fine for Matt until Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) moves in next door, and everything changes. Danielle, you see, is a “retired” porn actress who is trying to escape the life. Before Matt knows about Danielle’s previous life she opens up new doors for him, getting him to take risks, but after he knows about her past their relationships falls apart. When Kelly (Timothy Olyphant), Danielle’s producer returns to take her back to her old ways, she sees no reason to stay in suburbia.

The film does some things amazingly well, and others not so much. There are a few moments during the movie when events happen, but they really don’t. It would seem that Matt has a very overactive imagination and plays out events in his mind, then when the action takes a screwball left turn, everything flashes back to show it was only in his imagination. The old saying, “Fool me once, fool me twice…” comes into play here. The film also suffers from somewhat of an identity crisis throughout. There are times when it is a straight up comedy, others where it blends the line between humor and drama, and still others where the needle is completely on the drama side of the spectrum.

Still, all of those aspects don’t detract from the fact that the parts that are suppose to be funny are, and the parts that are suppose to be heartwarming are as well. Even with a film that feels like it has three different endings, you are still rewarded with an excellent film that, while not radically different from everything else out there, delivers a unique experience that you haven’t seen in a good many years. The originality of portions of the script is keenly evident by the dead-on performances from the cast, including Matt’s two friends Eli (Chris Marquette) and Klitz (Paul Dano) who bring some of the movie’s funniest jokes alive.

The Girl Next Door may be inadvertently shunned because of its cliché-looking storyline and characters, but once you commit to viewing the film you find it to be a dose of originality in a decaying genre (a phrase I’m overusing way too much). Whether your intentions are to see the beautiful Elisha Cuthbert, or to laugh your ass off for two hours you will find that the movie delivers on these promises, and even more. This film is definitely one of the best comedies of the year so far, and I don’t see that changing any time soon, after all, she is a porn star.

The Butterfly Effect is much like Final Destination and Fight Club in the way that you will always find someone who likes the movie for what it is, maybe because it is a genre film, or maybe because the movie actually makes you think. For what ever the reason, those films stay in your mind as a fond memory of cinema where you could enjoy yourself for 120 minutes and not have to worry about the outside world. They also asked you to leave the theater with a thought in your head, the thought of what could really happen if such a situation presented itself. As with The Butterfly Effect, what if you could go back and change the way things happened? What if everything, and everyone, would have a better life if only one such thing changed?

The Butterfly Effect gets its name for Chaos Theory which states that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world could cause a hurricane on the other. It’s those sorts of things that really make you think. Just like Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park, as he describes the theory, what expect to happen, actually never does.

This film centers on Evan (Ashton Kutcher) a college student with a seemingly normal life after a childhood filled with hardship. Through the first part of the film we are introduced to Evan and his friends Kayleigh (Amy Smart), Tommy (William Lee Scott), and Lenny (Elden Henson). Tommy is an abused, possibly molested, sibling to Kayleigh and very protective of his sister. As a child Evan experiences blackouts that inhibit him from remember the actions that led up to an event, and his actions after the fact. When his memories start to unfold in college he seeks his friends out to help him fill in the gaps. After talking with Kayleigh, and upsetting her, she kills herself and Evan vows to save her. Using his journals as guides he focuses in on the blackouts of a certain event and is transposed back in time to alter the event, but like Homer Simpson stepping on a bug in the past, these time travel exploits have vast repercussions on the future.

The film has more than one thing going for it. First off the story is not grade-A-quality, but it really makes you think at times, and intrigues you with the surprising results that Evan’s little changes make. At times you think his life has gotten better, in one instance he is a member of the frat he despises in the “real” world, but that life puts him in prison after brutally beating Tommy. The conflicts between the characters are portrayed excellently, with a special shout out to young rising star, Amy Smart.

The biggest story in the post-release press for The Butterfly Effect was the quality of Ashton Kutcher’s acting, and I, personally, don’t think he did a bad job in the film. Its hard to see him in any other role that a stoner (Dude, Where’s My Car?) or the dim-witted Kelso (That 70’s Show), but if you set aside any predetermining factors about the man, and his tabloid inspired news, you can actually see a young actor that, with some training, can become a worthy drama actor. His portrayal as the older Evan in this film isn’t worthy of any awards, but it shouldn’t dog him later in his career. It’s nice to see him branching out.

The special effects in the film are done fairly well. Most notable is the “time-warping” sequence that the audience sees whenever Evan travels in time. On part, towards the end of the film, may not look as good as a similar sequence in Forest Gump, but it does earn a passable rating.

The Butterfly Effect is sure to become a cult favorite, if not a mild box office hit. The film has all the makings of something great, but comes up a bit short in the story and directing departments. Luckily the story doesn’t leave any room open for a sequel, as that would defeat the purpose of such a film as this. Now if we could only go back in time and stop the Wachowski Brothers from ruining The Matrix franchise, everything would be hunky-dory.

The Offspring have had a somewhat rocky past, but when you look at the rest of the music industry, with bands coming and going as fast as their first track hits the radio, its nice to see something consistent over all these years. And what better band to keep consistent that my absolute favorite band ever?

After jumping the indie label ship that is Epitaph for the corporate seeding of Sony, The Offspring released Ixnay on the Hombre, an album many, wrongfully deducted, as horrible only because of the hard feelings they had against the band for “selling-out.” Still Ixnay, and the next two albums to follow, Americana and Conspiracy of One showed a progression of the type of music the band was producing. Americana was filled with catchy riffs, even catchier tunes, including the old-but-still-good “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)” and “Why Don’t You Get A Job.” The Offspring are back now with the album formerly known as Chinese Democracy, Splinter.

Continuing the nauseating trend of pointless intro tracks, The Offspring give us “Neocon” which, at the very least, gets us ready for the rest of the album, unlike bands like Linkin Park or Limp Bizkit who basically waste away the entire first track. The highlight of the album is the Goldfinger-like ska “The Worst Hangover Ever” which also keeps The Offspring’s humor alive previously seen on every single one of their albums, beginning with “Bad Habit” on Smash. “Da Hui” and “The Noose” both bring back memories of the harder punk styling of the band seen on their self titled release and Ignition. The radio friendly, pop-inspired “Hit That” provides a good door way for future fans to discover the band.

Dexter and the guys really shine when it comes to making memorable songs and infusing humor into their music, never, aside from a few instances, taking anything too seriously that you can’t crack a smile. Rounding out the album the laugh riot, “When You’re in Prison” which has a distinct 1950s tone and sound to it and gives you ample advice on how to handle yourself in the joint. Sure it isn’t a song, but is surely worth placement on the CD.

The biggest disappointment I have with the CD, and is becoming a repeating trend among CDs these days, is the overall length. The disc only has 10 actual tracks minus the intro and not-quite-a-song ending track. This sort of thing could lead a man to piracy. What that leaves you with is a disc that can almost be listened to in moderate journey around town. I will never know the amount of work that goes into making a CD, but with three years of development time, I think we were all hoping for just a little bit more on the return. Still, any Offspring fan will be overjoyed with the bands journey back to their punk roots as well as the “splinter” into the type of music they began to dabble in on Conspiracy of One.

You can usually spot a Tim Burton film by analyzing two easy to find aspects. One, is the film incredibly dark, and, two, is the film so twisted with its imagery that it looks as though the entire set creation team was on crack? With past films like Sleepy Hollow and A Nightmare Before Christmas, Burton has created wonderfully twisted worlds complete with their dark happenings and beautiful eye candy to boot. He even managed to bring the caped crusader to the big screen in glorious form before that franchise hit a stumbling block by the name of Joel Schumacher.

Tim Burton returns to the big screen with his latest twisted adventure by the name of Big Fish, and if it wasn’t for the resounding shadow being cast by Return of the King this holiday season, the film would be the year’s best, hands down.

Could this movie have succeeded without the unique style of Tim Burton? That’s unknown, but his vision and the entire casts acting bring together a convincing story that makes you wonder if the stories being told are real or not. Several of the tall tales you may have heard before (such as the one about the milkman dying on your step), but they are still pleasant enough to be realized as part of this distinctive film.

Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom (Albert Finney/Ewan McGregor), a father with so many stories to tell it begins to drive his son, William (Billy Crudup), away when he finally is old enough to realize his father is nothing more than a crafty liar. When Edward is diagnosed with cancer, William returns home to finally get the true story of the many events his father relayed to him over the years. Without ruining too much of the story, the film is told in the present looking back on the events of the past as Edward leaves his small town for the big city and details some of his glorious adventures along the way. In true Burton fashion, everything in the film is visually stunning which only adds to the fact the story is extremely well written and the acting is beautifully performed.

Big Fish is more than your average “son-returns-home-to-dying-father-for-redemption” type film that we have seen done over and over again. The movie is something more because of the way the stories are told. The film holds a comedic tone throughout, but still manages to portray the hardship that the Bloom family is going through with Edward dying. At times the movie feels like a clip from Monty Python and at others more like a serious drama.

Through the stories told by Edward we learn about his first encounter with the witch of the swamp, the meeting of giant, his employment at a circus, for Danny DeVito nonetheless, and how he met his blushing bride. The beauty of these stories is they don’t last too long, and aren’t complicated in any way, or shown in a Tarantino-out-of-order-style, which makes the movie easy to follow.

Big Fish is an exceptional film with the visual prowess of Tim Burton leading the way among the contenders for best picture of the year. The story never becomes overly hard to follow, and the film has the least amount of “check your watch” moments that I have seen over the last few months. Not since Return of the King last week and 28 Days Later in June have I enjoyed a movie so much that I’m at a loss as to what to say. For those who love the work of Tim Burton, you won’t find any overtly dark imagery in this film, but you will find an amazing story, careful direction, and great acting. Don’t miss this one.

There is really no way to describe just how amazing the Lord of the Rings series has turned out in the past two years. Here comes a trilogy of movies, budgeted at $270 million dollars with a rather unknown director and the critical eye of millions upon millions of Tolken fans waiting for them to screw up another book. Much can be said for New Line Cinema for giving Peter Jackson the freedom and creative outlet to create these movies with the passion of a true Tolken fan, and while we had to sit and wallow through animated crap for a number of years, we finally get to see the world of Middle Earth with our own eyes, and it leaves them watering with delight.

The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers is the second in the three part trilogy that includes The Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King. These three parts combined create the book, The Lord of the Rings, and contrary to popular belief, there is only one book, with three separate parts.

The Two Towers really is just the next part of the series as it opens with no recap, no retelling of the events that unfolded in the first movie, aside from Frodo’s (Elijah Wood) dream sequence of Gandalf’s (Ian McKellen) death, you have no way in knowing what happened in the first movie if you missed it.

The movie plays out similar to the critically acclaimed TV show “24” as multiple storylines are unfolding before your eyes, but it is never confusing or overwhelming. Picking up where The Fellowship of the Ring left off, we find Sam (Sean Astin) and Frodo setting out for Mount Doom in Mordor to destroy the Ring of Power which has been entrusted to Frodo. Similarly, we find Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John-Rhys-Davies) tracking down the band of Orcs who kidnapped Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) in the first movie. The Orcs move into the Plains of Rohan where they are slaughtered and the Hobbits are feared dead, but actually have fled into the forest and met up with Tree-Beard.

Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the newly reincarnated Gandalf the White make their way to see King Théoden (Bernard Hill) who has been corrupted by Saruman the White (Christopher Lee) via Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif). After freeing Théoden from the control of Saruman they make haste to Helm’s Deep, an impenetrable fortress, where the people of Rohan will be able to seek refuge from the impending attack by Saruman and his Orcish Horde. At Helm’s Deep one of the greatest battles of all time takes place, you will never see anything like it on the big screen, it kept me in awe for the entire sequence which is a good chuck of the movie.

The way that this movie succeeds is not totally based on the fan-boys and die hard fans that don’t shower or eat. People love to see a good movie that features a variety of characters and situations to keep things fresh. On the surface Two Towers is filled with physical conflicts and battles, but below the surface, and beautifully portrayed by the actors, is the internal conflict that each of them faces. Aragorn is plagued by his forbidden love of Arwen, and Elf, whom will live forever. Frodo Baggins, wonderfully portrayed by Elijah Wood, has the ring bearing down on him each and every step of the way to Mordor as it destroys his hope. Each character is notably handed conflict in either a physical or mental form that they must contend with, and with so much going on it never is confusing, and it is always interesting.

The highlight of the movie, besides the amazing battle of Helm’s Deep, was the character of Gollum and the amazing special effects that brought the character to life. Gollum, in my opinion, is one of the best characters portrayed in the movie because of the problems that he must progress through. Suffering from a split personality that gives him contradicting opinions on any situation, this CG character is what makes movies better in the long run, but makes actors fear the future when they will no longer be needed. Gollum was motion captured then later animated (look for an extensive feature on the forthcoming DVD release). The beauty of the animation is it is nearly seamless to the rest of the movie. There are only a few instances where you can tell that CG is being used, but through a bigger part of the movie, you forget that a computer is outputting the image on the screen, he looks, and movies so lifelike that it tricks your mind.

This movie has it all. The comic relief from Gimli to the nobility of Tree-Beard, you would be hard pressed to find a movie that gives you so much and ask so little (that being sitting on your numb butt for over three hours). The Two Towers is an amazing cinematic achievement that is everything we hoped for, and more. The Fellowship of the Ring was awesome, The Two Towers is spectacular, and I think we can assume that Return of the King will complete the trilogy to end all trilogies. Star What?…