Welcome to the Film School Rejects Archive

Live Free or Die Hard had a big challenge. How do you convince people that yet another Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis in it is worth seeing? How do you make a series so closely identified with the action-packed Eighties and Nineties relevant to a tech-savvy, post 9/11 generation? And more important to the [...]

Five years after the release of director Danny Boyle’s science fiction thriller 28 Days Later (2002), the epidemic continues.
28 Weeks Later opened in U.S. theaters on May 11, seemingly just one more addition to this summer’s lengthy list of blockbuster sequels that includes Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Shrek the Third, [...]

Here at FSR we’ve got a feeling that you are going to love Transformers when it hits theaters early next week. How can we be so sure? We’ve seen it and reviewed it, that’s how. We also know that you all like free stuff, especially when it comes to free stuff related to a huge summer blockbuster. So it would be pretty lame of us if we weren’t able to hook you up with some awesome piece of Transformers swag. Never fear though, we’ve got you covered.

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Back in 1993 when I was just a young pup, a movie buff in the making if you will, my mom took me to our local cineplex in mid-June to see what would become the most awesome event movie of its time. It was a film that stretch the realm of my imagination and gave me the belief that filmmakers could make absolutely anything come to life. I was engrossed in it. I wanted to see it again, and again, and again. In that moment, my young life was changed by a cinematic adventure like nothing I had ever seen before. That film was Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Now some 14 years later, as I sit down to review Transformers, another epic summer blockbuster from Director Michael Bay, I cannot help but think, “Wow, this is what summer movies are all about.”

While I couldn’t call him a friend or an esteemed colleague, Joel Siegel is still a man who represents the world of film. Joel died this afternoon, after a ten year battle with cancer. We will remember Joel for his “punny” headlines and his animated reviews. He will be sorely missed by the film community, and his impact on the field of film criticism is immeasurable.

With all the hustle and bustle around Transformers this week, it is strangely reminiscent of the last huge action film of 2007 that blew us all away, Zach Snyder’s 300. Coincidentally, 300 drops on DVD very soon. July 31, to be exact. And to go along with said release, you can now have a chance to win a very cool prize from our friends at WB.

On this week’s show the Fat Guys begin their trek into the world of actual radio. Thanks to the folks at KGAB in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Fat Guys at the Movies now has more than 50 listeners. We have 52. And for all 52 of you we take a look this week at Live Free or Die Hard, gush all over Ratatouille and avoid a fight over Michael Moore’s Sicko. Also, we run down our list of the Top 10 Movie Robots of All Time and talk to MooreWatch.com publisher Jim Kenefick. That may seem like a lot, but that’s how we roll…

For those of you who are like us and are extremely lazy, reading may feel like a bit of a challenge at times. It is difficult to sit down and browse the web to find reviews, then increasingly more painful to actually read through what someone has to say about a movie… Why can’t they just get to the point, right? Well, as both Film School Rejects and Fat Guys at the Movies, we have decided that we can help you get the advice you need without all of that tedious reading…

Welcome to another edition of the Reject Report, and things are really screwed up this week. I gotta say, as a new box office columnist I hate it when movies open up two days early. It screws up my predictions!

An interesting, if not completely successful unlikely romantic comedy, You Kill Me offers up some decent dry laughs in a movie that stretches the ludicrous plot line to the breaking point. It seems like another story within the Matador universe, where hitmen are drunks, meet and make friends with the most unlikely of people, and find a way to keep doing what they’re doing.

Like an old rock band getting together for a reunion tour, Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in “Live Free or Die Hard;” only no one else from the previous three films are anywhere to be found. The first “Die Hard” took place in Los Angeles, the second took place in Washington D.C., and the third took place in New York. The settings from this franchise keep expanding. In the first it was confined to a 40-story building, the second an airport, and the third the entire city of New York. Now we’re expanding through the entire Northeast: New York, D.C. West Virginia and Baltimore. I personally prefer the simple, claustrophobic feeling of the first “Die Hard.”

A common yet unwanted lesson the summer season of movies usually teaches you is to never get your hopes too high and torture yourself with anticipation. But every once in a while a movie like “Ratatouille” comes along that’s as satisfying as a gourmet dinner at a five-star French restaurant. No, it’s better than that because it doesn’t quite satisfy in the sense of you wanting a second helping.

I cannot claim to be a big fan of Michael Moore, not can I claim any great knowledge of the subjects he goes after. Not to say I am completely ignorant, but let us just say that it is not my strong suit. If nothing else, Moore makes entertaining pieces of docu-propaganda that work well [...]

A movie based on a story is always a questionable affair. More often than not, the movie is an underwhelming experience (Dreamcatcher, Lawnmower Man, Sleepwalkers). He has his good adaptations as well (The Shining, Carrie, Misery). So, it was definitely going to be a toss up how this was going to turn. It does have [...]

Many American horror film filmmakers have cited him as an inspiration. Eli Roth gave him a cameo in the original Hostel. (Miike was the guy who said, “You could spend… all your money… in there.”) Odds are, you’ve never heard of him. He is far better known in his native Japan than he is here in the States.

It is that time of year again, you know, when Pixar unleashes their latest creation upon an unsuspecting public. It is the time of year when some speculators begin to wonder if this will be the first failure to come from the animation house that can seemingly do now wrong, or if this will be [...]

Awful title aside (I prefer the working title of Die Hard 4.0), this fourth installment of the McClane saga actually delivers some hard hitting action. You can count me as one of those that was worried about a Die Hard movie saddled with a PG-13 rating, and for those interviews where Willis said they shot the script and aimed for an R, only to get a PG-13? I do not buy that for a second. There were plenty of opportunities where this could have been made a hard R, but that was not the route they took. It doesn’t matter, in the end, this is a solid explosive summer action movie that does not suffer from the lack of blood and language, it is nore than made up for in the explosive action and with Bruce back in the driver seat of the character that made him a movie star.

On this week’s Sunday show the Fat Guys set out to offend everyone. And by everyone, we mean everyone. Kevin stinks up the Magical Studio in the Sky and recaps his weekend of competitive eating, Neil offends everyone on the planet with his box office recap and the guys dish out their “8 Simple Rules for Not Being a Douchebag in a Movie Theater.” Prepare to take some notes…

If the odds aren’t good for a movie based video games, the odds are even lower for a good video game based movie. We’ll be honest, you’ve got a better chance of getting struck by lightning in your homemade Mario costume while you’re getting it on with Angelina Jolie in her full Lara Croft outfit.

“Oh my God!” That’s what the deeply-religious people at Universal have to be saying after Evan Almighty’s ungodly, purgatory-worthy performance this weekend. Sure it finished first. But the take is only $32,000,000 in the USA, and that’s well below what everyone was predicting or even hoping for.

Michael Moore is back with another documentary that is sure to get the country involved in another debate, which, even if you vehemently disagree with his point of view, is much better than the usual passive experience of movies. Sicko will make you think, make you learn, and hopefully make you act.

If you asked my friends and family, then you’d know that I have all but sworn off watching any more clips from Michael Bay’s upcoming blockbuster Transformers. So you can imagine the instant inner battle that took place when I noticed that our good friends over at /Film had posted 8 new clips from the film. One deep breath later I was throwing self control out the window and enjoying more Robot infested action… It is like crack, only for some reason I don’t seem to be losing any weight.

On-line rental companies now offer democratized, unprecedented access to the annals of film history, but the copious selection can be a bit daunting and counterproductive: what, exactly, should you watch? This column hopes to help steer you towards good film and away from the bad.
As Ninotchka was billed as, “Garbo Talks!”, Only Angels Have Wings [...]

They’re so bad you can’t make it to the end. I’m talking about walking out of the theater–not merely ejecting the DVD or changing the channel. Or, in some cases, a movie is so boring it inspires nothing more than a very relaxing nap. (I do not find movie theaters overly-comfortable, so I have to be pretty damned bored to nap for long.) What follows is a list of films that were so god awful or unendurable, I had to leave the theater (either physically or in my dreams) long before seeing the end credits.

Why is the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy the coolest action fantasy franchise since Star Wars? Because the POTC team learned from the best. They’re not plagiarists per se, but they sure borrowed a lot of winning elements from Lucas’ creation.

There used to be a time when comic books were considered objects of corruption by our mothers and the rest of the adult world. Seduction of the Innocent? The Comics Code? Those were the days. Kids were almost hiding the new MAD inside porn mags. That made comics an even greater pleasure. A boy’s first symbolic revolution against something he couldn’t define yet. Then, those boys became it… but with a friendlier face. Geeky new age parents that understand their children and share their interests. How cool… not.

Classic Media continues their release of Godzilla films on DVD with Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. It was the fifth in the series, premiering in Japan in 1964 and in the U.S. in 1965. This was the last Godzilla film that received major edits before crossing the Pacific, eight minutes were cut and scenes were altered. [...]

A Mighty Heart is a tough movie to go into. We know how this story ends, since everyone that is going into this movie knows how it is going to end the filmmakers need to rely on something other than plot. The story has to be elevated somehow, the emotional quotient has to be amped up, and the performances have to carry all of the dramatic weight to make the movie have some sort of substance.

How could it go wrong? A follow up to the hugely popular Bruce Almighty. Starring Steve Carell, star of: a hit TV show (The Office), a hit movie (The 40 Year-Old Virgin), and a hit indie film (Little Miss Sunshine). A supporting cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes, Jonah Hill, and Molly Shannon. This is one comedy that looks sure-fire on paper. One problem though, they forgot to make Evan Almighty funny.

After seeing “1408″ I have to admit I am a little spooked at the moment. That alone would render it a passable horror film but it’s not the only positive characteristic the film has. It’s much better than average. As someone who doesn’t have much taste for the horror genre, I would classify “1408″ as a first rate thriller.