RENTAL MANIA!

Okay, I have been sick and it has been effen cold which means a lot of movies. Here is a brief rundown of what sucks, what semi-sucks and what is not so sucky at all.

The Change-Up: I wanted to see  this because I wanted to see Bateman and Reynolds impersonate each other. What I got were some not believable poop-jokes, and gratuitous cursing.  Normally I like poop jokes and cursing but in this movie it was like they put their hands in a hat full of gross-out clichés just so they could make “Rated R Freaky Friday.” This movie went on WAY too long. It truly felt like Titanic except the only thing sinking was Jason Bateman’s ability to play anything different than unhappy young executive. RATING: Sucks

The Devil’s Double: I think Dominic Cooper is a fantastic young talent and I can’t wait to see him in more movies. Here he plays two characters, Uday Hussein and his Body double Latif Yahia. I was very fascinated by the premise of this movie and not just that it was based on a true story. I thought Cooper did an amazing job and the content/events of the movie were mostly true based Yahia's book of the same name. However the movie ended abruptly and without a badass ending, something  I would expect to be the product of a generally  bad ass movie. The film also suffered consistency problems with regard to the “horribleness” of Uday. If you are going to call him the worst human being ever, than beef up the horrible. This was mostly due to the fault of Cooper, he certainly did portray him as a manic sociopath but it was perhaps a little too giddy for my tastes, still and excellent job on his part thought. RATING: Semi-sucks.

Friends with Benefits: This unfortunately came out after No Strings Attached, you know “That other movie about being jaded and single.”  Honestly I wish I could tell you that one is better than the other. The premise is exactly the same but in Friends with Benefits I like that the dialogue was a bit wittier and funny but I hated that the main characters' jobs were working at a magazine in New York City, the most played out young professionals role in romantic comedy history ( 13 going on 30, Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses blah blah blah etc…) Kunis and Timberlake took a while to find their chemistry but overall I like Timberlake better as a person than Ashton Kutcher. This film was good for zoning out and being doped up on cold meds. RATING: Semi-sucks.

Red State: In case none of you know this, Kevin Smith (you know Clerks? Mallrats?) made a horror movie. It is another social commentary on religion like Dogma. However rather than take aim at one religion ( you know Christianity) as he did in Dogma this movie takes aim at the Westboro Baptist Church (you know those assholes that picket dead soldiers funerals?). It is actually rather slow and the dialogue not as snappy and funny as you would expect. In fact this movie watched more like a Tarantino flick than a Smith flick. This is not to say I did not like it. I was very engrossed the whole time and enjoyed how the move and character focus shifted. Great performance from John Goodman. RATING: Not so sucky at all.

Cowboys and Aliens:  I have not decided if I am cool with genre mixing at such a high extreme yet. I hate that this movie thinks it is the only one to mix a Western with Sci-Fi, please see West World circa 1970’s for awesomeness of this breed. Cowboys and Aliens started out as a good western and it probably should have just stayed a western. The aliens were not as cheesy CGI as they could have been and  I appreciate Jon Favreau as a director and his want to preserves some aspects of classic film making. However toward the end it just got to be too much. The Indians were comically stereotyped, Harrison Ford did his usually “grumpy looking actor face” and Olivia Wilde’s character was thrown in just to have a hot chick around, the film could have done fine without her. I really did enjoy Daniel Craig and Sam Rockwell, their opposite characters and how they interacted with the supporting cast was a nice backdrop to all the unnecessary explosions. I guess I can’t bitch too much, what would one expect from a movie simply called Cowboys and Aliens? RATING:  Semi-Sucks.