Movie Review: Catch and Release by ME

Title: Catch And Release
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Sam Jaeger, Kevin Smith, Fiona Shaw
Directed By: Susannah Grant
Produced By: Casey Grant, Ryan Kavanaugh, Lynwood Spinks
Genre: Comedy, Drama and Romance
Release Date: January 26th, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, language and some drug use.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing

A woman must deal with the untimely death of her fiance and the revelation of secrets he kept from her. -Yahoo! Movies

Yep, its just about as boring as the synopsis. Maybe boring isn't quite the right word. I would use lackluster. Yep, that's a better word. Basically this is a movie that doesn't try quite hard enough to be really appealing. There are places where more character development would have been nice. There are some slight twists involving an underdeveloped love triangle, and the relationship that does develop makes no sense. Fritz (Timothy Olyphant), one of Gray's (Jennifer Garner) dead fiance's friends starts off as a prick and then all of a sudden he's a nice guy. Nothing really happens to cause this change of character, it just happens.

The only thing that made this movie interesting was Kevin Smith as Sam, another of Grady's (the dead fiance) friends. If you are a fan of Smith and have watched any of the special features of any of his movies, you will notice that Mr Smith isn't acting in this. He's just being himself and it's great to hear him say more than one sentence per movie. Jennifer Garner is cute and you do get the feel of what she's going through as each revelation is made, but there is a lack of cohesiveness to the film. Timothy Olyphant is the victim of poor writing and/or directing here. He comes off pretty unlikable for the first part of the film and then does the aforementioned about face. Although to give him credit, he does pull off both sides well, there just isn't anything in between to show how he got to be a nice guy. Oh and there is of course, the mandatory character, Dennis (Sam Jaeger), who is in love with Gray, but she loves somebody else. Lastly, but not leastly, you have Juliette Lewis who is just as spacey and freaky as she is in just about everything else. Her and Mr. Smith do make the movie watchable but just barely.

Final thoughts – If you are a Kevin Smith fan I'd give this one a whirl when it is released on DVD. Otherwise, I'd probably skip it.

Until Elektra 2: Elektra Boogaloo,
keep reading.

Mitch Emerson
mitchemerson@hotmail.com

Best Line:

Fritz: I owe you an apology.
Gray: Just one?
Fritz: For the funeral.
Gray: Yeah, if it hadn't been for you, that would've been one great day.

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth by ME

Title: Pan's Labyrinth
Starring: Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez (II), Ariadna Gil, Alex Angulo
Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
Produced By: Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, Bertha Navarro (II)
Genre: Art/Foreign, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Thriller
Release Date: January 19^th, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for graphic violence and some language.
Distributors: Picturehouse

Set in 1940s Spain against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain, a fairy tale that centers on Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a lonely and dreamy child living with her mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) and adoptive father, Vidal (Sergi Lopez), a military officer tasked with 'ridding the area' of rebels. In her loneliness, Ofelia creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and secret destinies. With Fascism at its height, Ofelia must come to terms with her world through a fable of her own creation. -Yahoo! Movies

Featuring stunning visuals, great performances and a story full of imagination and sadness, Pan's Labyrinth is another movie that has hit the ball right out of the park. Guillermo del Toro has created what many are touting "an adult fairy tale" and they would be right. This is not a kids movie, no matter how deceptive the trailers may be. There are a few really graphic scenes of violence that even made me shudder. That's the first warning. The second is that this movie is completely subtitled, which can make some movies difficult for some viewers to watch (my wife hates them). That being said we can move on.

The heart of this movie is Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero. She is confronted with the brutal realities of life during a time of war and is also dealing with fantastical creatures and scary monsters and plays both sides with the same determination and innocence. Sergi Lopez's Captain Vidal is one of the most uncaring "villain" that I have seen in a while. He cares nothing of Ofelia and her mother, all he wants is the son she is carrying inside her. In one of the sub plots, Mercedes, played with heart and gusto by Maribel Verdu, is a servant who is also helping the rebels and she seems to be the conscience of the film. The stand out performance has got to be Doug Jones as The Pale Man and Pan. He has a way with body language that is unbelievable. You have to see these two characters to know what I am talking about. If you have seen Hellboy, another of del Toro's films, Jones played Abe Sapien with fluid grace. On a side note, Jones has been tapped to play the Silver Surfer in the upcoming Fantastic Four sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer. So keep your eyes open for that. The last cast member I want to mention is the voice actor for Pan. I read in an interview with Jones that his voice was dubbed by someone else and I can't find any mention or credit anywhere. Whoever he was he did a damn fine job.

Now I have to mention the effects. The bad thing is that I can't go into too much detail without giving away some plot point and surprises. Let's just say that the fantasy elements are realized beautifully, blending in with reality where needed almost seamlessly. The graphic violence I mentioned earlier? Just brutal and in your face. Not glorified or over the top, just shown as straight forward and realistic as possible.

Final thoughts – Leave the kids at home, grab your Spanish speaking cousin and head to the theater for an adult fairy tale that will take you down the rabbit hole, mess with your mind and toss you back up into the brutal sunshine all before dinner.

Until Doug Jones and Andy Serkis makes a film together,
keep reading.

Mitch E.
mitchemerson@hotmail.com

Best Lines:

Ofelia: My name is Ofelia. Who are you?
Pan: Me? I've had so many names... Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am... I am a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness.

Captain Vidal: You could have obeyed me!
Doctor Ferreiro: [his last words] But captain, obey for obeys sake... That's something only people like you do.

C'mon Show Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl some love!

I recently watched Clerks 2 and want to show Kevin Smith some love. He always says how much people hated Jersey Girl and I want to prove him wrong. So, there is a poll on my profile front page. Answer and tell all of your friends about it and I will try to get Mr. Smiths attention so he can see how many fans he really has.

Here is the addy-
http://www.myspace.com/dr_strangef8

Here it is encoded (if you can just copy and paste)-
MySpace profile

Tell your friends, post bulletins, post topics in forums and groups. Post this shit everywhere!

If you can't view the profile email me at mitchemerson@hotmail.com and let me know.

Movie Review: Alpha Dog by ME

Title: Alpha Dog
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Emile Hirsch
Directed By: Nick Cassevetes
Produced By: Steven Markoff, Robert Geringer, Avram Kaplan
Genre: Drama and Crime/Gangster
Release Date: January 12^th, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive drug use and language. Strong violence, sexuality and nudity
Distributors: Universal Pictures Distribution

Johnny is a Los Angeles drug dealer. He comes from a good family, owns his home, several cars and enjoys partying with his friends. Johnny is 19. When his friend Jake welshes on a debt, Johnny and his boys kidnap Jake's 15-year-old brother Butch and hold him as a marker. Even though Butch has numerous chances to escape, he doesn't. He's enjoying partying with them, losing his virginity and having a good time - until something goes horribly wrong. - Yahoo! Movies

From the first strains of “Over the Rainbow” in the opening credits to the not-a-surprise-ending that you hoped wouldn't happen, Alpha Dog is a movie that is more entertaining than it should be. With a cast including Emile Hirsch, Bruce Willis, Shawn Hatosy, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster and Harry Dean Stanton and based on the life of the youngest man to ever be on the F.B.I.'s Most Wanted list, you have the makings of a great flick. Where I think it goes wrong is the film is too funny for it's own good. If you are looking for a balls out gang drama look somewhere else. What you do get is a funny movie with an ending that seems all wrong for the tone that has been set. This movie portrays the dealer lifestyle as being almost all fun and games. Even the kidnapped kid is having a ball. Until...

Justin Timberlake can act. There, I said it. I don't think he will win any awards or anything but once I got past all the fake tattoos (more later), he was just a character in the film. Now I'm not pointing him out because he was any better than anybody else in the movie, it's because he exceeded my expectations. Another stand out is Ben Foster. Having seen him in movies like Marvel Comics The Punisher and X3, it's refreshing to see him in a slightly larger role. He has an insane quality that just freaked me out. Onto the rest. There really isn't any single star in Alpha Dog, it seems that everybody gets at least one good scene in which to shine. Now Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone are little more than glorified cameos but watch for a true cameo by non other than Alan Thicke. Yep, Growing Pains' Alan Thicke.

The only issues I have with the movie are the fact that it's funnier than it should be, the tattoos all look way too new and bright to be real, and some of the split scene work was a little extemporaneous. You know, I never thought I would ever use that word in my life.

Final thoughts. I really feel that I should have more to say about Alpha Dog but either A) It's not worth that many words or B) I'm losing my touch. But if I had to sum it up I would say that if Alpha Dog took itself a little more seriously you would have an excellent film. As it stands, it's worth a rental just to see Justin Timberlake grow as an actor and a really over the top (in a good way) performance from Ben Foster.

Keep on rolling with your homies and keep peepin my reviews,

Mitch Emerson
mitchemerson@hotmail.com

Welcome to Reviews From The Couch II

Well, what can I say? I have decided to add yet another place to post my movie reviews. MySpace is great as well as all the wonderful websites that post my reviews, but I wanted a place that I could call my own without all the extras that MySpace has.

So, without any fanfare at all, I welcome you to Reviews From The Couch II.