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The 100 Cheesiest Movie Quotes of All Time

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Lincoln Trailer

Well it's finally here. The trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. The movie has been hyped up for months and I can see why. Daniel Day Lewis, who plays the title character, in a Spielberg movie is so amazing. I never thought it would happen. So the trailer came out last week and I must say I am a little underwhelmed. It's not because of Daniel Day Lewis. From what I've seen so far, he looks just like the 16th President of the United States. Basically Lewis is Lincoln. Aside from that it just looks average to me. It's a shame because if it was any other director I would be more thrilled. However, it's Steven Spielberg. Probably the most iconic director ever. Ask anyone on the street and chances are they'll known who he is. Anyway, Spielberg has set the bar so high that the trailer probably doesn't do the film justice. I had the same problem with War Horse, but I ended up loving that movie. Of course, I am still interested in the movie and it could be another Oscar win for Lewis and Spielberg. Lincoln will open in limited release on November 9th and nationwide on November 16th.

To Rome With Love Trailer

The trailer for Woody Allen's next film, To Rome With Love. The previous titles of the movie were The Bop Decameron and Nero Fiddled. I had no idea what any of those meant, but To Rome With Love sounds great to me. It looks promising and it has a great cast, but that's not always a good thing. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger had an excellent cast, but everyone knows how that turned out. It probably won't be as popular as Midnight in Paris, but it should still be good. To Rome With Love comes out on June 22nd.

Don't Be Lured by The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside is another one of the those faux horror documentaries. It's just like Paranormal Activity and The Last Exorcism, except those movies are interesting. The film follows a young woman named Isabella (Fermanda Andrade) who is trying to help her possessed mother (Susan Crowley). In 1989 her mother slaughtered three people performing an exorcism on her, and she is now in an asylum in Rome, Italy. The Catholic Church is unwilling to help her mother so Isabella finds two renegade Priests (Simonquarterman, Evan Helmuth) who try to save her mother. All while being filmed by a documentarian (Iount Grama).

This movie recycles the plot of all of the other movies based on exorcisms, and it fails miserably. Thanks to the bland script and flat characters, the movie made me feel nothing for the plight of the main characters. Since this is a horror movie entirely made up of found-footage it means that there is plenty of shaky camera footage throughout the whole film. I do not like this technique and I never will. The technique is intriguing at first, but after so many horror films using shaky camerawork it gets old fast.

However, I do mildly commend the directors, William Brent Bell and Joaquin Perea, for the exorcism scenes. During these scenes there is a haunting vibe from the women screaming in agonizing pain as the devil is raging through their body trying to take it over. At times it can be tortuous to watch. Seeing the possessed victims bend like contortionists is always creepy, but these moments are too far in between to keep your attention. Thanks to the script from Bell and Matthew Peterman, this incoherent film is filled with poor acting and banal dialogue. Basically, we have seen everything else before and there are much better horror films out there. Plus this film has one of the worst endings I have ever seen in a horror movie. There is so much build up in the film and it just suddenly ends. I'm being dead serious. The film just ends without a climax or a resolution. Now that's what I call storytelling.

Someday I hope these types of found-footage movies will be extinct, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon.

The Devil Inside - 1/4

21 Jump Steet Review

21 Jump Street is the latest TV series from the 80’s to be adapted for the big screen. The original 21 Jump Street was gritty crime drama in which baby-faced cops go undercover in high school, and it helped launch the career of Johnny Depp. However, instead of following this format, the filmmakers made the new version an action comedy film. It’s sort of the same thing that was done with Starsky and Hutch and The Green Hornet. However, this didn’t turn out to be a bad idea.

21 Jump Street follows two immature police officers Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) as two immature cops who are sent to 21 Jump Street, which is a revived police unit. The two have to go undercover as siblings attending a local high school to find the supplier and distributor of a new dangerous party drug that makes ecstasy look tame.

However, the two officers weren’t exactly best friends back in high school. Schmidt was a nerd donning fashion cues from Eminem, which gave him the nickname Not-So-Slim Shady, and Tatum was a cool, but clueless jock. Naturally, there is conflict between the two as Schmidt is trying to find popularity and Jenko is struggling with the fact on how much high school has changed. For example, Eco-friendly kids are now cool and no one wears their backpack with just one strap anymore.

All of the performances are very good. Hill is as funny as ever, whether he’s thin or fat. Channing Tatum is surprisingly hilarious in the film. We are used to seeing him in a plethora of dull romance movies and mindless action films that we hardly see his comedic side. Here’s hoping that he’ll play in more comedic roles like this. Plus Hill and Tatum have amazing chemistry together as they play off of each other so well that I wouldn’t mind seeing them in other movie together. The script, written by Michael Becall, is filled with raunchy humor and gross out gags, but that’s to be expected since he wrote the outrageous party movie Project X, which came out a few weeks ago. Becall also co-wrote the script for the underrated comedy, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. So if you’ve seen Scott Pilgrim you can see where 21 Jump Street gets some of its quirky humor from.

The film is more of a spoof of the gritty drama series instead of an accurate portrayal of the series. Fans of the original TV show probably won’t like that, but the film still works in its own way. Plus some viewers probably can’t get over the fact that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are supposed to be in high school. It’s definitely stretching the premise thin as Hill is 28 and Tatum is 31, but there are some clever lines in the script that address this situation. In addition, some of the action scenes are clunky and the standard car chases are just plain routine, but there are a few twists in the scenes to make them enjoyable. Also the third act isn’t as strong as I hoped it would be. Nevertheless, there is a surprise cameo in the film that should excite everyone.

21 Jump Street is a fresh and entertaining 1980’s reboot which pays off most of the time. If you can get past some of the ridiculous elements of the film then you’ll enjoy it.

21 Jump Street - 3/4

Green Lantern Review

Green Lantern is a very popular comic character, but for some reason the character has not been adapted into a movie until now. I was expecting to hate this film, but I enjoyed this somewhat. However, it could have been much better.

The movie is full of exposition so you better pay attention or you might miss a couple of things. The main plot is about a test pilot named Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) who is accepted into a group called the Green Lantern Corps. It is made up of a brotherhood of warriors who have sworn to keep intergalactic order. Each Green Lantern wears a ring that gives them superpowers based on their strength of will. However, a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the Green Lantern Corps and only Jordan can defeat him, despite never harnessing the infinite powers of the ring before.

The visual effects save this film from being a complete failure. The rings the Green Lanterns wear give them the ability to create anything based on how fearless and willful they are. Jordan wears the power ring and is able to generate many effects that are great to look at. I just wish we got a good story to back up the visuals.

The main problem with this film is that it is just too formulaic. It is a typical origin story, but it did not have the spark to make it an exceptional origin story like Iron Man or Batman Begins. Ryan Reynolds is okay, but I felt they could have gotten someone better for the role. I like that the film does not take itself too seriously. Nevertheless, I really never felt a real danger in the film. To be honest I really did not care what happened to any of the characters as none of them were really engaging. It is probably because most of them are thinly written. I will admit that Sinestro (Mark Strong), who is a Green Lantern who later betrays the Green Lantern Corp, does well with the limited material he is presented with.

Green Lantern is a decent superhero, but I do not know how faithful it stays to its source material. I am sure some fans are finally happy to see a Green Lantern, but judging from its box office I say that they were disappointed also. I am sure there are better stories in the comics to adapt than the one we got.