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Film Reviewer - Classic, Modern, Obscure, Genre... It All Gets Watched

“Sherlock Holmes”, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. John Watson, is interesting at best. While nothing about the movie stands out as bad, there is very little which is attention grabbing. The interesting aspect of “Sherlock Holmes” originates from my fascination with television shows like “Criminal Minds” and “Psych”.

In many ways “Sherlock Holmes” is the predecessor of these shows. “Criminal Minds” is about a group of FBI agents who work together to solve heinous crimes by studying the behavior of criminals. “Psych” is about a fake psychic detective who uses his ability to notice the unnoticeable to convince the Santa Barbara police department he is a psychic who can be an asset to their department. In many ways the characters on “Criminal Minds” and “Psych” are modern day Sherlock Holmes, considering a lot of Sherlock Holmes detective work was based on his observation of human behavior.

Outside of the similarities between Sherlock Holmes and the television characters of today I found “Sherlock Holmes” unmemorable. While I didn’t thoroughly enjoy “Sherlock Holmes” that doesn’t mean you won’t. My suggestion is to wait until you can see “Sherlock Holmes” cheap so you can decide for yourself if the movie is any good.

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Blades of Glory (2007)

January 6th 2010 15:32

“Blades of Glory” tells the story of figure skaters Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder). Both Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy get banned from figure skating after the two disrupt a presentation of medals by getting in a fight. The banned figure skaters encounter misery in their lives after figure skating. Well, at least until an obsessive fan of Jimmy MacElroy discovers a loophole in the ban. The ban, technically, only prohibited the two figure skaters from participating in singles. Therefore, Michaels and MacElroy, quite grudgingly, decide to become the first male-male figure skating pair in the history of the sport, in order to once again feel the ice underneath their skates.

Overall, “Blades of Glory” is a fun movie. Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, and the rest of the cast does a good job in providing humor. The movie’s humor even transcends the script, into casting. For example, Craig T. Nelson, famous for playing a high school football coach on television, plays the ice skating coach of Jimmy MacElroy in the film.

While funny, “Blades of Glory” proves to be nothing exceptional. Don’t feel the need to go out of your way to watch “Blades of Glory”. However, if you stumble upon “Blades of Glory” as you flip through the stations on the tube put down the remote and enjoy a few laughs.

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Invictus (2009)

December 20th 2009 00:14

“Invictus”, a film directed by Clint Eastwood, is based on the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman). Nelson Mandela, a South African, spent time in and out of jail in the 1950s for protesting against racial discrimination happening in South Africa. In 1962 Nelson Mandela was sent to prison for 28 years for illegally leaving the country. In 1993 Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize and a year later made history by becoming the first black president of South Africa.

“Invictus” is about Nelson Mandela’s connection to the country’s most popular sport, rugby. When Nelson Mandela was elected president blacks wanted South Africa’s rugby team- the Springboks, to be abolished because the Springboks symbolized the country’s past racism. Whites feared that Mandela would abolish the Springboks, leading to an increase in racist feelings. Mandela saw this racial powder keg as an opportunity to unite his countrymen. Reaching out to the Springboks’ team captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), Mandela used the pop culture phenomenon of rugby to fight the issue of racism.

Despite taking place in South Africa, “Invictus” is really telling about our society. “Invictus” highlights how significant pop culture, especially professional sports, is to our society. If people took Nelson Mandela’s philosophy of forgiving those who have done harm to us to heart than our entire society would be much better off. Overall, “Invictus” is a film everyone should be able to take a valuable lesson from.

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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The Blind Side (2009)

November 24th 2009 14:57

In the promotion of “The Blind Side” you hear the names Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw most often. However, Quinton Aaron is the true star of “The Blind Side”. “The Blind Side” is the true story of professional football player Michael Oher, who is currently in his rookie year in the NFL. The story of Michael Oher is amazing and inspirational. Oher has gone from being in the shadows of the streets to the spotlight of America’s most popular sport.

Quinton Aaron, who plays Michael Oher in the film, does a brilliant job of making Michael Oher’s story come to life on the big screen. Aaron’s nonverbal communications in “The Blind Side” makes you sympathize with his character. The words Oher speak are few and far apart, especially in the beginning of the movie. This is a part of what makes “The Blind Side” and more specifically Quinton Aaron’s acting so good; the Michael Oher character does not need much vocalization

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Review: Nine (2009)

November 10th 2009 16:37

This past weekend I went to go see “Nine” with a few friends. My one friend was really excited to go see the Tim Burton film and I thought “Nine” seemed kind of intriguing. When we left the movie theatre we were all disappointed. “Nine” was a movie lacking a lot of the basic elements. The characters didn’t have names, just numbers. There was very little character growth. The plot was simply to “kill the machine”. The runtime for the movie was only a little over an hour.

With that said “Nine” did have a few rare highlights with one of them being the opening scene. At the beginning there is no dialogue which makes the sounds, such as the wind blowing, that much more important. “Nine” also had the start to what could have been a deep philosophical movie. Conflict exists between Nine and One because Nine questions while One doesn’t. Sadly, this really doesn’t develop much more during the film

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Review: Batman Forever (1995)

November 3rd 2009 18:36

On Halloween night while kids were out trick-or-treating and adults were dressing up to go to Halloween parties I parked myself right on my couch and watched Batman Forever. Batman Forever was released in the summer of 1995 but if you didn’t know that you would have thought Batman Forever was a more recent release. The graphics for the film have done well with standing the test of time.

Batman Forever has a star studded cast including Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Jim Carrey as the Riddler, Van Kilmer as Batman, Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, and Chris O’Donnell as Robin. Out of the five stars I just mentioned Jim Carey shines the most as the Riddler. Jim Carey has always seemed sort of eccentric to me and that quality makes him the perfect person to portray the Riddler. Jim Carey’s performance as the Riddler is reason enough to see Batman Forever
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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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Review: Knocked Up (2007)

October 19th 2009 01:56

Last night I watched Knocked Up on television. I had seen Knocked Up on a couple of previous occasions and liked the movie. However, I always considered the film a typical Seth Rogen movie. I think of a typical Seth Rogen movie as a film that is funny but has no deep message. After watching Knocked Up last night I realized the movie does have a strong message viewers should take with them.

Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen as Ben Stone, a man whose life consists of smoking pot and watching nude scenes in movies. The reality of life begins to set in for Ben Stone after a one night stand winds up making him an expecting father. The movie focuses around the odd couple of Ben Stone and Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and Alison’s sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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"Anvil: the Story of Anvil" (2009)

October 4th 2009 18:57

Over the summer “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” was one of the movies I desired to see but never ended up getting to movie theatres to watch. Therefore when I learned “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” was making its television debut on VH1 Classic I made sure to tune in. “Anvil: the Story of Anvil” is a documentary about the band Anvil.

Anvil is led by guitarist/singer Steven “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner. The two started making music together as teenagers. In the early 1980s Anvil toured alongside big name bands, like Whitesnake and Bon Jovi. After the tour the band plummeted into the land of obscurity. However, Lips and Reiner continued to make music, with hopes of one day becoming huge rock stars. For over two decades Anvil played bar after bar looking to get discovered

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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A Weekend of Sequels

September 21st 2009 22:56

This past weekend Comedy Central showed Major League II and Clerks II. While both are good movies, neither one lives up to the hype of its predecessor. Out of the two, Major League II is the better sequel. Major League II takes the characters from the first Major League and lets them evolve. Most notably, “Wild Thing” Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) evolves from a bad ass to a marketing guppy. He gets away from everything that made him successful in return for overpriced clothes and a life of luxury. This kind of character development is the reason to watch Major League II.

Clerks II, while funny, just doesn’t have the same vibe as its predecessor. Sure, the two main characters are the same, Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson), but everything else is different. The setting is different. The other important characters are unrelated to the first film. Perhaps the biggest difference is Clerks II is in color. The original Clerks is in black and white. I think keeping the series in black and white would have been better

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Review: Patch Adams (1998)

September 13th 2009 17:54

Yesterday morning I caught Patch Adams on the USA Network. I remember going to see Patch Adams as a kid in movie theatres. The film which was released in 1998 brought a smile to my face. I didn’t go see a lot of movies in the movie theatre as a kid so I have a special fondness for those films I did get to see on the big screen.

Patch Adams stars Robin Williams as Hunter “Patch” Adams. After a failed suicide attempt Hunter checks himself into a psych ward. Hunter checks himself out of the psych ward after helping his roommate get over his fear of imaginary squirrels. Helping his roommate gave Hunter a reason to live- to help others

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Posted By: Zachary Fenell - Category: No Category

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