2010 September | myPDFscripts

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Town

“The Town” is Ben Affleck’s second feature as director after his intriguing drama “Gone Baby Gone.” He has shown that he has tremendous skills behind the camera and now he brings that talent to another drama, but this time, he’s taking on a film that has a little more action, something that can quickly become difficult for someone not experienced with it. Yet, Affleck shows that he’s more than up to the task. The story is set in the town of Charleston, Massachusetts where a group of bank robbers, including Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) and James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), have carried out numerous jobs. The film opens with them robbing a bank where Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) is the manager.

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Virginity Hit

“The Virginity Hit” is a completely unfunny, mind-numbingly dull experience that focuses on one uninteresting thing and one only: the attempt by some friends to get another friend to lose his virginity. From that brief synopsis, you can probably tell what kind of movie this is going to be and whether or not it is going to be a movie for you. It sounds like it could be an interesting idea, but that all depends on how the filmmakers treat the material. Sadly, after the first few minutes, you realize very early on that they are going to take the lowest road possible. It begins as one of the four friends announces that he has recently lost his virginity, and

Jeff Beck Reviews: Devil

It always makes me apprehensive to see a movie that was not screened for critics in advance. It’s as if the studio is telling us beforehand that they believe the final product will receive terrible reviews, so with them having such little faith in it, there’s usually not much reason for us to have any either. “Devil” looked like it could have been an interesting film, but ironically the lack of faith was justified. It starts off as a suicide occurs in an office building. Not long after this, five strangers, Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), Vince (Geoffrey Arend), and Jane (Jenny O’Hara), get into an elevator on their way to various appointments in the building,

Jeff Beck Reviews: Easy A

Will Gluck’s “Easy A” reminded me a lot of “Dinner for Schmucks,” not in plot, but in my perception of the film before the screening began. Here was another film that had trailers and TV spots making it looks like a ghastly experience devoid of laughs and one that would have me checking my watch every minute or two. Fortunately, what we get is a surprisingly funny film that has some charm to it, which is not something you hear applied to comedies all that often. It tells the story of Olive (Emma Stone), who, at the beginning of the film, is trying to set the record straight about what has happened recently. It all started with an innocent excuse

Jeff Beck Reviews: Resident Evil: Afterlife

Paul W.S. Anderson’s “Resident Evil: Afterlife” is the fourth film in the series based off of the popular video games. It didn’t seem like anyone was particularly demanding yet another sequel, especially after the disastrous second and third installments, but here we have it anyway. It’s loud, bland, gory, and has very little to offer in the way of story. Don’t tell me you were actually expecting something else. It starts off pretty much where the third film left off. Alice (Milla Jovovich) makes her way to a Japanese city and infiltrates a large underground structure where the Umbrella Corporation is still carrying on business as usual. Alice is not alone however. You may recall at the end of the

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Girl Who Played with Fire

The thrilling film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” continue with “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” the second of the series. For those of you who haven’t read or seen the adaptation of the first book, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” it was about a magazine writer, Mikael, facing an upcoming jail sentence who is asked to investigate the disappearance/possible murder of a woman that occurred 40 years earlier. Joining the writer is an expert hacker, Lisbeth, who helps him with researching. The story also tells of how they become good partners on the case. The second film starts not long after the first case is concluded. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is back writing for Millennium magazine while

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Last Exorcism

Daniel Stamm’s “The Last Exorcism” is an attempt to capture the same lighting that films like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity” were able to, and it seems like they were able to by the numbers of this past weekend’s box office, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the quality of the film is going to measure up to the amount of money it makes. “Paranormal Activity” was already proof enough of that. “The Last Exorcism” begins with a reverend, Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), telling us about how he became a preacher. He started at a very young age and eventually became a specialist in exorcisms, something that he tells us he didn’t really believe in, but that sometimes it

Matthew Klekner Reviews: Battleship

Premise: 200 million dollar plus adaptation of the Hasbro game Battleship, where the US Navy defends Hawaii from an alien invasion (sounds just like the game). About: Universal’s adaptation just began filming in Hawaii. Project stars Liam Neeson, Brooklyn Decker, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgaard and Rihanna. It is directed by Peter Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom). This is the first Universal/Hasbro partnership since signing a five picture deal. Genre: Summer Blockbuster
Writers: Jon and Erich Hoeber (of the upcoming RED comic adaptation) with revisions by Paul Gross & John Krizanc and current revision by Peter Berg. Details: May 5th 2010 draft – 114 pages
Plot: Alien Invasion
Theme: Survival
Dialogue: Laughable
Character Development: There is none.
Concept: Worthless

Jeff Beck Reviews: The American

Anton Corbijn’s “The American” is a slow, plodding “thriller” that seeks to be as good as other similar (and better) films, such as, as others have already pointed out, Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samourai.” However, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that it takes more than a brooding assassin to engage the audience for the full runtime of the film. Moreover, if that character isn’t involved in an interesting narrative, they’ll have even less reason to care. “The American” starts off with Jack (or Edward, his true name is never revealed) (George Clooney), as he and a friend are trudging through the snow around a cabin. Suddenly, a pair of hitmen try to kill Jack, but he is able to escape

Jeff Beck Reviews: Machete

As you may recall, back in 2007 a little film (little in that sadly hardly anyone went to see it) called “Grindhouse” was released into theaters. The two films featured in this double-feature were homages to B-movies, as were the fake trailers for similar looking films. The opening trailer was for a fun-looking action film from Robert Rodriguez called “Machete,” which, fairly soon after making the trailer, was announced as a film that Rodriguez actually intended to make. The story begins with Machete (Danny Trejo), a Mexican police officer, responding to a call for what appears to be a kidnapping, but is actually a setup in which his family is killed by a drug lord, Torrez (Steven Seagal). The film

Jeff Beck Reviews: Piranha 3D

Alexandre Aja’s “Piranha” is an update of Joe Dante’s 1978 film of the same name. Now I’ve never seen the original film, but I imagine it would be almost exactly like this remake with the same vacationers, piranhas, water, and lots of screaming. True, the stories may be a little bit different, but do you really think anyone going to see this movie is going to be overly concerned about the story? This take on the material involves spring breakers partying at Lake Victoria, Arizona. Jake Forester (Steven R. McQueen) has agreed to watch his younger siblings while his mother, Julie (Elisabeth Shue), goes about her job as a local police officer. However, Jake doesn’t want to miss out on

Jeff Beck Reviews: Takers

John Luessenhop’s “Takers” is a heist film like any other, and therein lies its first major problem. This is a movie that most people have already seen, one that has been done in a much better fashion with films like “The Italian Job” and “The Bank Job.” With “Takers,” it appears that the writers thought the essentials of a heist film were a half-baked heist sequence and lots and lots of gunfire. They seem to forget that if there’s not a good story and characters in place to carry those extra elements, none of them will matter. The film starts off strong with a group of criminals, that includes Jesse Attica (Chris Brown), A.J. (Hayden Christensen), and John Rahway (Paul

Nashville Screenwriters Conference: Writing Alone or With a Partner

Pictured left to right: Malcolm Spellman, Jeff Lowell, John Lee Hancock, Rita Hsiao, Phil Hay, and Craig Mazin. Hey all, J.C. again with another article covering the Nashville Screenwriters Conference. This article is about the “Writing Alone or With a Partner: How to Make it Work” panel. It was moderated by Craig Mazin with guests Jeff Lowell, Malcolm Spellman, Phil Hay, Rita Hsiao, and John Lee Hancock. There was a lot of great content during this panel. I tried to hit the main points that would be of interest to young writers that aren’t sure about writing with a partner or not. Mazin was quick to say during introductions that the theRobotard8000© wasn’t getting anything

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Switch

Throughout “The Switch,” I had one question in the back of my mind: “Why did this movie get made?” It’s true that this is a question I ask every time a romantic-comedy comes along that follows the exact same formula as the previous one, but it’s really as though they are just not trying all that hard anymore. This time around, the story revolves around Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) and his best friend, Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston). Kassie feels that now would be the right time to have a baby, and since she doesn’t have a relationship of that type in her life, she decides to get artificially inseminated using donor sperm. Wally continually tries to talk her out of

Jeff Beck Reviews: Nanny McPhee Returns

Emma Thompson is back to reprise her role as the nanny with strict means to teach children, but who’s heart is in the right place. It’s been five years since the release of the original film that had been a surprisingly charming story of rambunctious kids in a desperate family emergency, and now, with “Nanny McPhee Returns,” we have….pretty much the same thing. The story involves a family living on a farm. A wife and mother, Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is trying to run the family farm while waiting for her husband to return home from fighting in World War II. Her kids, Vincent (Oscar Steer), Norman (Asa Butterfield), and Megsie (Lil Woods), are a rowdy bunch, but even more

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Expendables

The hype for “The Expendables” has been building for months now. Many people had been looking forward to seeing all of these big-name action stars come together for what was hoped to be an unforgettable action flick. Sadly, what we end up with is an incomprehensible, overly-long explosion-fest that could have easily been retitled “A.D.D.: The Motion Picture.” The story involves a group of mercenaries that includes Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), and Ying Yang (Jet Li). The beginning of the film has them putting an end to a hostage situation the only way they know how, with massive amounts of gunfire. Their next job, given to them by the mysterious Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), has them

Jeff Beck Reviews: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Edgar Wright’s long-awaited adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s “Scott Pilgrim” graphic novel series is finally here. Being a big fan of the graphic novels and hearing Wright’s name attached to the film gave me some very high hopes for this project, and, like usual, he doesn’t disappoint. He somehow manages to take the insanity of the series and cram it into a 112-minute film while preserving its essence and important sections, which is pretty impressive seeing as how it’s a six-volume series. The story begins as we find out Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), who is in his early 20s, is dating a high-schooler, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). Scott breaks the news during rehearsal with his band, Sex Bob-omb, which his