Jeff Beck Reviews: Our Family Wedding

Rick Famuyiwa’s “Our Family Wedding” takes a tired premise and is able to inject it with the much-needed humor it requires in order to keep it from going stale. It’s kind of like a mix of other films, taking a little bit from “Father of the Bride” and combining it with “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and while it doesn’t get to the level of those films, it still provides several good laughs in the process.

Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrera), a . . .

Jeff Beck reviews: She’s Out of My League

Jim Field Smith’s “She’s Out of My League” is another one of those comedies that you’ll be able to tell whether or not you’ll enjoy it from the opening scene. It has the kind of lowbrow humor that you would find in films like Kevin Smith’s most recent work, “Cop Out.” If you’re into that kind of humor, you might enjoy it, but for everyone else, it’s an excruciating ride from beginning to end.

Kirk (Jay Baruchel) has a job with . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Brooklyn’s Finest

Director Antoine Fuqua returns to the underworld of cops who are corrupt and on the edge, where violence is an everyday fact. Fuqua previously explored this world in “Training Day,” except that in his most recent film, “Brooklyn’s Finest,” he has three stories running simultaneously instead of just focusing on one.

The first involves a cop named Sal (Ethan Hawke). From the opening scene, we find out that he is corrupt, stealing drug money for his own purposes, but as . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Crazies

Breck Eisner’s “The Crazies” has been advertised as a kind of horror/thriller, which makes it rather strange that the film is somewhat lacking in both of those areas. There is some horror to the situation in which the characters find themselves, but if you’re looking for horror in terms of something that will scare you, then you’ll probably be a bit disappointed.

The film takes place in a small, seemingly normal, town in which everyone, including the local sheriff, David (Timothy . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Alice in Wonderland

Director Tim Burton, well-known for his dark style of filmmaking (“Sweeney Todd,” “Edward Scissorhands,” and “Batman” to name a few), returns with his take on Lewis Carroll’s classic story, “Alice in Wonderland.” You’ll find many of the elements, characters, and events here from the original Disney version, but knowing Burton’s work, it’s not going to be as simple as all that. He takes this story, which has been adapted multiple times, and adds his own touch to it.

As the film . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Cop Out

It’s rather difficult to have to talk about Kevin Smith in a negative sense. His films tend to be interesting, charming, witty, and character-driven, which is everything that is missing from his latest film, “Cop Out.” He puts those positive characteristics aside for others like dull, painfully-unfunny, poorly-written, and filled to the brim with clichés and plotholes.

The film follows two policemen, Jimmy (Bruce Willis) and Paul (Tracy Morgan), as they try to stop a group of drug dealers. After fumbling . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The White Ribbon

Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” is a film that has already had a lot of buzz about it ever since it won the Golden Palm (the equivalent of Best Picture) at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Now that it’s gotten a limited release it has gathered more positive reviews from critics and even a couple of Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film, but is it worthy of the buzz it’s been receiving?

The story begins with . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: From Paris with Love

Throughout Pierre Morel’s “From Paris with Love,” I was constantly reminded of two films from last year: “Terminator Salvation” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” Now if you’ve seen either of those two films (both of which got dishonorable mentions on my list of worst films of the year), you know that this can’t possibly be a good thing.

As for why I was reminded of those films, take a look at a brief synopsis: James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Crazy Heart

What else can be said about Jeff Bridges’s performance in Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart?” He’s had just about every accolade thrown at him from every conceivable angle, but he’s deserved every bit of it. At the risk of saying what’s already been said, it truly is that good of a portrayal of a character that we’ve seen before, but not quite in this way.

Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed-up country singer who used to be quite big, but is now . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Wolfman

Nearly 70 years after the original film in which Lon Chaney Jr. played the titular character comes a remake of the classic story. Joe Johnston’s version of the film has painstakingly recreated the time period the story takes place in. It has the look, it has the feel, but it is curiously lacking in substance, and not only that. For a thriller, it doesn’t really have any thrills to it.

The story begins as Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) arrives home . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Shutter Island

After finally winning a Best Director Oscar back in 2007 (it only took about 30 years…), Martin Scorsese returns to the thriller genre which he hasn’t done since “Cape Fear.” Most known for his mafia films like “Goodfellas” and “The Departed,” it’s refreshing to see such a famed director try something different once in a while, and with “Shutter Island,” he doesn’t disappoint.

Set in 1954, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are US Marshals who have come . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Here we have yet another film based off of a novel that is supposedly popular with teenagers, but that I had never heard of until the film (like “Harry Potter” or “Twilight”). “Percy Jackson” is like a combination of both Potter and “The Chronicles of Narnia,” but it never quite reaches the level of those films because of a few overarching problems with the story.

It begins with a meeting atop the Empire State Building between Zeus (Sean Bean) and Poseidon . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Valentine’s Day

Couples, if you want to do yourselves a big favor, don’t take your boy/girlfriend to see “Valentine’s Day.” Keeping this one simple rule in mind is one big step towards keeping your relationship going. How could such an innocent movie about romance be THAT bad? Oh, let me count the ways.

There are several stories going on at once, so I’ll just try to give you some of the highlights. The most prominent of the stories involves Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Young Victoria

Here is a romance the way only someone in a position like Queen Victoria’s could experience it. The eyes of the empire are watching her every move with not much being kept private or out of speculation. All of this occurs while the young queen must determine how to run her kingdom and who should be around her to help do so.

The film starts with Victoria (Emily Blunt) expressing how she feels her home is a prison. The film quickly . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: When in Rome

Straight off the romantic-comedy assembly line comes “When in Rome,” a film that is just about as generic as you can get when it comes to the genre. It’s another example of a film that doesn’t try too hard in either area and ends up failing in both because of it. Consequently, it also becomes an example of just about everything that is wrong with most films of the genre today.

Beth (Kristen Bell) is an art curator who arranges art . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Edge of Darkness

Martin Campbell’s “Edge of Darkness” has been rather misleading with its marketing. From the trailers and TV spots, this film is made to look like a revenge thriller along the lines of last year’s surprise hit “Taken.” However, that’s not what we get with this film. Instead, we get a film that plays out more like a procedural cop film with small elements of a thriller.

The story starts with Emma Craven (Bojana Novakovic) visiting her father, Tom (Mel Gibson). She . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Dear John

Here’s a great idea. Let’s take the guy most known for being flat and lifeless in “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and put him in a movie that actually requires emotions to make it work. Lasse Hallström’s “Dear John” proves what happens when you do something silly like miscasting a part with an actor who is not up to the task.

The story is a simple one about a soldier, John Tyree (Channing Tatum), on leave from duty in . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Tooth Fairy

I’ll be one of the few to say that this film is not nearly as bad as you might think, which is saying quite a lot about a film feature Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a pink tutu. It is not without a certain amount of charm that helps carry the film along, but is it recommendable? Well, that’s a different matter.

Johnson plays Derek Thompson, a hockey player in the minor leagues with the nickname “The Tooth Fairy,” given to . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Legion

According to this film, the first time God lost faith in humanity, he caused a flood to destroy them. Now, having lost faith in mankind again, he sends an army of angels to wipe them out. However, the more likely scenario is that he would probably send this film ahead of time to lull everyone to sleep before sending that army to do his bidding.

The story involves a seemingly random group of individuals who gather at a diner in . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Spy Next Door

One has to wonder what Jackie Chan was thinking when he signed onto “The Spy Next Door.” We can assume he at least got to read the screenplay before hand and that he realized it had pretty much zero plot, and was actually just a string of action sequences tied together by some very annoying characters. Yet, he still accepted the role.

Chan plays Bob Ho, a spy on loan to the CIA from Chinese Intelligence. His last assignment before retiring . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Book of Eli

The Hughes’ Brothers “The Book of Eli” is like “The Road” with a pulse. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good film though. In fact, in this case, it wasn’t nearly enough as it falls prey to several of the problems that “The Road” had, and while it wasn’t as big a failure as that film, it’s still a lot of apocalyptic wasteland to get through.

Set in what looks to be a not-too-distant future, the hero of the film, Eli . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: A Single Man

The title pretty much says it all. The film is about a single man, who up until recently had been living happily with someone else. However, it is also the main problem with the film; it is about nothing more than the single titular man. The filmmakers were probably hoping that this would enough to sustain the film, that is, as long as they were able to garner the audience’s sympathy. Unfortunately, this is just not enough.

The single man referred . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Leap Year

At first, it looked like Anand Tucker’s “Leap Year” would be another painfully predictable rom-com that would be as bad as “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” Fortunately, only part of that statement is true. Yes, it’s incredibly predictable, but luckily, it’s not nearly as bad as the previously mentioned film. That being said, the predictability still stands.

Anna (Amy Adams) and her boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) appear to be in a very loving relationship. They have just applied for an . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Lovely Bones

The team behind the brilliant “Lord of the Rings” brings us something completely different with their new project, “The Lovely Bones.” After “King Kong,” it was hoped that director Peter Jackson would return to more imaginative and engaging stories. Unfortunately, what Jackson achieves with “The Lovely Bones” is strike two.

The film starts in 1973 by introducing us to the Salmon family. There’s Jack (Mark Wahlberg), Abigail (Rachel Weisz), and their three kids, Susie (Saoirse Ronan), Lindsey (Rose McIver), and Buckley . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Youth in Revolt

One of these days people are going to realize that Michael Cera is not a good actor, but today is not that day as we have yet another film with him playing the exact same awkward character that he’s played in every single movie he’s been in since he became a star.

This time he takes on the role of Nick Twisp, a young man who lives with his mother Estelle (Jean Smart) and her current boyfriend, Jerry (Zach Galifianakis). After . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” breathes a new energy into the character made famous in the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Many of the elements of this new vision are still the same: the same old address at 221b Baker Street, the violin, and, of course, a perplexing mystery to challenge the most famous of detectives. However, for those who know the work of Guy Ritchie, you know not to expect an average handling of the character.

The story begins . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

After Heath Ledger’s tragic death in January 2008, it was wondered if director Terry Gilliam would be able to finish his latest project, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. However, after a few well-known actors stepped in to finish the role that Ledger started and after a few rewrites, the project was able to be completed. What Gilliam ended up with is a return to his fantasy roots.

The film begins with a traveling show known as “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Daybreakers

The Spierig Brothers’ “Daybreakers” offers an interesting twist on your standard vampire tale. Instead of it being just one or a few vampires causing havoc, imagine if it were nearly the entire world population infected with a disease causing vampirism. On top of that, imagine that the blood supply is running quite low. How would this population get along without the blood they need to survive?

In order to meet the demand for blood, the last remaining humans are hunted daily, . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: A Serious Man

The Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” has been described as a modern retelling of the Book of Job, a story in which a man has his faith put to the ultimate test when everything in his life is going wrong. The interesting part of this film comes from the fact that its main character is not a man of particularly strong faith. In fact, if one had to choose, the better description would be to say he’s a man of . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Broken Embraces

Director Pedro Almodóvar, who last brought us the bizarre and ghostly “Volver,” now brings us his latest film, “Broken Embraces.” In its own way, it too is quite bizarre in the way that it plays with identity and memory, and how they can have a heavy influence on people. One of its character chooses to change his identity because of his memory with a woman; another woman witnesses this identity change and feels compelled to divulge her memories as part . . .

Jeff Beck Picks: The Best Films of 2009

As I made up this list, there were a couple of films that I haven’t yet gotten to see (A Serious Man and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus) that might have possibly made it, so when I do see those, I will update if necessary.

2009 was a pretty good year for the movies. There were lots of good things to see, some of which only got the smallest of releases whereas others were available everywhere. As always, there were several . . .

Jeff Beck Picks: The Worst Films of 2009

Yep, on the flip side of there being some great films of 2009, there were also some that deserved to be thrown in the dumpster. Again, starting with some honorable, or rather, dishonorable mentions, there were some that just didn’t make the cut of being the ten worst films of the year.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Year One
A painfully unfunny film with as bland a performance as ever from Michael Cera. Jack Black tries to save it, but . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

I remember growing up with the animated “Alvin and the Chipmunks” cartoon show. It wasn’t really all that bad in those small 20-minute increments. Here we are several years later, and now a major studio has tried to take what was once a decent group of characters and expand them into an incredibly painful movie for the second time.

Alvin (Voice of Justin Long) and his brothers Simon (Voice of Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Voice of Jesse McCartney) are three . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Coco Before Chanel

Coco Chanel is probably the most famous name in fashion in the 20th century. Even for someone such as myself, who has practically no knowledge of designer labels, Chanel’s is a name that is very familiar from the fashion world. “Coco Before Chanel” presents, as its title indicates, her life before she started her fashion line.

The film starts with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (Played as an older woman by Audrey Toutou) and her sister, Adrienne (Later played by Marie Gillain) at . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: It’s Complicated

Nancy Meyers’s “It’s Complicated” is not really as complicated as a typical synopsis of it would seem. It’s actually a rather delightful and hilarious comedy with some standout performances from its cast. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a few problems, which it does, but the film makes up for them in unexpected ways.

Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Alec Baldwin) have been divorced for ten years. Jake is now married to Agness (Lake Bell), who has a kid from . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Princess and the Frog

Disney returns to the art of hand-drawn animation with its latest feature “The Princess and the Frog.” It’s quite refreshing to see a film done in this manner once again, the way it used to be done before computer animation became commonplace. Unfortunately, the charm of its look can only take the movie so far.

The film begins with Tiana (Voice of Elizabeth M. Dampier) as a little girl, who lives in New Orleans with her mother, Eudora (Voice of . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Up in the Air

Writer/Director Jason Reitman has done something that very few directors are able to do nowadays. He has given us three outstanding films in a row: “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” and now his latest project, “Up in the Air.” His new film is a smart, edgy comedy/drama that actually has a lot of relevance to today’s economy and the newly unemployed.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a corporate downsizer. When a company doesn’t want the responsibility of firing one of their . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Messenger

They deliver the news that nobody wants to hear, that a loved one won’t be coming back from war. This is the purpose of death notification duty. There’s not exactly an easy way to do it. There’s no way to tell just how someone is going to react to the terrible news. But aside from the people receiving the news, how do the soldiers who have been given this duty feel after having to deliver it day after day?

With three . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Men Who Stare At Goats

Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare At Goats” is one of those stories that begins with a statement of its truthfulness. If this story were true, that would probably be the most interesting thing about the film. We get an interesting premise, some colorful characters, but combined, we get a film that doesn’t really know how to tell its story.

It begins with reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) interviewing a man who claims to have been part of a special military . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Did You Hear About the Morgans?

I think we have heard about the Morgans, many, many times before. Not necessarily the Morgans themselves, but couples stuck in other really bad romantic-comedies. Yet here we have “Did You Hear About the Morgans?,” a film that is predictable to the letter and is composed of endless clichés that keep the audience waiting until it’s finally over.

Paul (Hugh Grant) and Meryl Morgan (Sarah Jessica Parker) are a recently separated, yet still legally married, couple. He is a lawyer. She . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Where the Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze has brought us some unique film-going experiences in the last decade, including “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation.” Now comes another fascinating entry in his filmography, “Where the Wild Things Are,” based on the childrens’ book by Maurice Sendak. While it’s not as bizarre as “Malkovich,” it still manages to find a strange tone all its own.

Max (Max Records) lives with his mom (Catherine Keener) and sister, Claire (Pepita Emmerichs). Max is a wild kid, chasing his dog, making . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Brothers

Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers” is a sharp, effective drama that mixes together several different elements such as family, guilt, war, and forgiveness to tell an increasingly intense story. It starts off slow, but slowly builds up to a climax that could go in any number of directions. This is a story about what effects war can have on a normal family.

Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is a Marine about to be shipped overseas to Afghanistan, leaving behind his wife, Grace (Natalie . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Avatar

It has been the most talked about movie of the year. James Cameron, Academy-Award-winning director of “Titanic,” has been working on “Avatar” for several years, incorporating new technologies that claim to be an evolution in movie-making. So after all the talk, does it live up to the hype? Well, as far as the visuals go, it certainly does.

The film is set in the year 2154. A military mission is sent to a small world known as Pandora because they have . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Armored

Nimród Antal’s “Armored” looked like just another heist-gone-wrong film, and in many ways it is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be suspenseful, devious, and full of tension. It sets up a situation that does just that and leaves you in suspense as to how everything will play out, and even though some people may find it predictable, it’s how it gets there that counts.

The film centers on a group of security guards for a company called Eagle Shield. . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Invictus

Whenever director Clint Eastwood makes another movie, it’s a pretty fair bet to say that it’s going to be Oscar bait, not because they look the part, but because they usually are just that good. His previous film was “Gran Torino,” a masterpiece that ended up getting snubbed come awards time. Now he brings us his latest bid for Oscar gold with “Invictus.”

The film tells the story of the early rule of Nelson Mendella (Morgan Freeman) when he wins a . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: The Blind Side

Most sports films tend to have too much of a concentration on the sport played in the film. However, every once in a while, a sports film comes along that is brave enough to center on the people and the emotion involved while slightly sidelining the sport itself in favor of these more important elements. “Remember the Titans” is such a film from recent memory, and now we can add John Lee Hancock’s “The Blind Side” to the list.

This is . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Thirst

It was hoped that Chan-wook Park’s “Thirst” would be the anti-”Twilight,” a film that would put the much needed bite back into the vampire genre. Unfortunately, what we get is a film that broods almost as much and isn’t even as entertaining in the “so-bad-it’s-funny” department.

“Thirst” tells the story of a priest, Sang-hyeon (Kang-ho Song) who wants to do good for mankind by volunteering for a dangerous medical experiment which involves being injected with a vaccine for a disease. . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans

If there’s one good thing to be said of Werner Herzog, it’s that his films at least have some interesting elements to them. However, in his case, the elements never tend to add up to very much, or at least not enough to sustain an entire film. “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans,” aside from going for longest title of the year, is another such entry in his filmography.

Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) is one of the most corrupt . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Everybody’s Fine

Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) is man who doesn’t have that much left in his life, other than his four grown children who are now dispersed across the country. He is now retired and is also a recent widower having lost his wife eight months earlier from a cause that is never explained. Now comes the big day when his four children are scheduled to visit him at the old house where they can once again be together around the . . .

Jeff Beck Reviews: Ninja Assassin

Director James McTeigue and the Wachowski Brothers team up once again in an attempt to make another memorable film experience like “The Matrix” or “V For Vendetta.” So what happens when they team up to make a film filled to the brim with ninjas? You get a completely bloody mess of a film that ends up having little to no coherence.

The film opens as Mika (Naomie Harris) is trying to explain to her boss that she thinks ninjas are responsible . . .


Page 1 of 3123