Juan Carlos Fresnadillo may not be Danny Boyle. As well, his film 28 Weeks Later may not be to horror fans what Boyle’s 28 Days Later was, but it will sure scare us just as well…

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

That was the tagline for the first Spider-Man film all the way back in 2002. That film, with its cinematic realization of one of the most popular comic book heroes ever recorded, created what has become one of the most successful movie franchises in the history of film. Director Sam Raimi and the folks at Columbia pictures have built a behemoth of a series so powerful that no matter what sort of movie they make, people will come out to see it. That is great power. Power to rule over the millions of moviegoers, to take there hard earned cash on sheer size and spectacle alone. But with that great power also comes a responsibility, a responsibility to stay true to what has brought the Spider-Man franchise to its current position, sitting atop the highest perch of the cinematic world. And what have they done with such great power? Sadly, they have created what could be the more frustrating and disappointing cinematic experience to come out of Hollywood in the last decade.

There is something inherently humorous about movies that come from a production company that is the brain-child of the guy who brought us World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). But to his credit, Vince McMahon has made a science out of pleasing the easily entertained mass populous of America, so why not do it with films? In the last few years this brand of entertainment has delivered such jaw dropping action classics as See No Evil and The Marine. I mean, how can you possibly top those two flicks?

We’ve all had a moment when we’ve been “hooked on a feeling,” shredding away on our own invisible guitar to an old Led Zeppelin track. The complete and utter freedom accompanied by doing something completely uninhibited. And whether it is dancing naked, singing in the shower and yes, even playing the air guitar; it is always an unbelievably uplifting feeling to let the music grab you and move you in ways that you wouldn’t normally move in front of others. But what if you could do that sort of thing in public? What if you could immerse yourself in a persona that is nothing short of insane and achieve rock star status? If you can see yourself in that world, then you are a prime candidate for the US Air Guitar Championships, the driving force behind the ferociously entertaining documentary Air Guitar Nation.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is one hell of an actor. He scared the dickens out of people as Hannibal Lecter, he was on an epic scale in Titus and most recently he delighted us as a sweet old loon in The World’s Fastest Indian. he is quite possibly one of the greatest actors of the most recent generations. Thus, he should have a clause in his contract that states that his talents are not to be misused in any way; then at least schlock like Fracture wouldn’t even get made.

“From the guys who watched every action movie ever made, and brought you Shaun of the Dead.”

That tagline alone is enough to get the cult-like audience who swarmed Shaun of the Dead into a frenzy. In 2004, British director Edgar Wright bursted onto the American scene with his zombie horror spoof, coming out of nowhere and establishing himself as one hell of a comedic presence in Hollywood. This weekend he will attempt to fight off the sophomore slump with his second comedic feature, buddy cop satire Hot Fuzz.

You’ve got to cut Shia LaBeouf a little hit of slack. Yes, he has been in some pretty bad roles (Charlie’s Angels 2, Dumb and Dumberer, etc) where he has placated the former Disney channel star clich©. But he does work hard and every once in a while he comes across a role that makes you go, “Whoa! Is this the same kid that I saw in Holes?”

In Disturbia, LaBeouf plays Kale, a once well-behaved young man who turns into a deviant after the tragic death of his father. This deviance leads him to punching his high school Spanish teacher and getting house arrest for the entire summer.

The profession of acting is very much like the profession of exotic dancing. For one, in order to make a fair amount of money, you have to work hard and work your way up the ladder (or pole.) Additionally, you have to take the good gigs with the bad and everything in between. Halle Berry’s career as an actress is a perfect example of the latter. For every Monster’s Ball there has been a Catwoman, and there have been plenty of those “in between” gigs that pays the bills. And while some of us are publicly waiting for another Monster’s Ball and secretly yearning for another Catwoman, we do get to watch her strut her stuff in Perfect Stranger; easily one of those in-betweeners.

I have a new theory: every movie should begin with a scene involving a scantily clad Rose McGowan and a stripper pole. That would really take the sting off of films like Norbit. Where did this theory come from, you may ask? It came from the fact that I just got back from screening Grindhouse, the homage to 70s and 80s exploitation flicks co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Just think about this concept; two directors with very loyal fanbases making a three hour long double feature packed full of blood, boobs and bad dialog. What about that doesn’t sound like fun?

Modern cinema seems to have found in the cinematographic adaptation of well known comics (such as Batman begins, X-men and many others) a new audience for its blockbusters, avid of fast-paced action and eye-catching visuals. Frank Miller’s works (Sin City, and now 300), characterized by very stark visuals and compelling story lines, comes as a perfect source of material for director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead).

I will never be able to escape from the fact that I grew up a Disney kid. No I didn’t watch The Mickey Mouse Club (and it’s a good thing too, otherwise that Britney Spears affair I had would have started at an inappropriate age), but my grandmother did have a collection of hundreds of Disney animated movies on VHS. Remember VHS? It was so cool in it’s heyday.

In The Lookout, Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues his trend of breaking away from being that kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun moving towards being a serious dramatic presence on the silver screen. It is a trend that really began back in 2004 with his stunning performance in Mysterious Skin and continued quite nicely in 2005 with Rian Johnson’s indie sensation, Brick. Levitt is quickly establishing himself as an actor with serious range and a keen eye for great roles in smaller films.

Somewhere it is happening. It is most likely occurring on a college campus somewhere and it involves that guy that we all know. Somewhere that guy is walking up to some random girl and spouting, “I don’t know how to put this but I’m kind of a big deal. People know me. I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.” Why do I know this is happening? Because that is the power of a great Will Ferrell comedy, it stays with you long after you leave the theater. It stays with some longer than others, but the one liners always stick. And as much of a fan as I have been of these movies (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Elf, etc.) I have always been wondering when Will Ferrell is going to cross the line and go from dumb funny to just plain dumb. I had thought Blades of Glory would be it, but as Ron Burgundy would say “You are sadly mistaken, my friend.”

There are a few things that you always need to have if you are going to make a decent American vigilante action movie. You must have a hero, filled to the brim with idealism and armed with a degree in kickin’ ass and taking names. You must also have at least one hot leading lady, and you earn bonus points for tastefully putting her in position to be half naked through most of the film. And finally, without question there must exist plenty of gunfights and explosions to keep the audiences entertained in between the afore mentioned partial nudity. These three elements never fail to give Average Joe Moviegoer his money’s worth.

Chris Rock thinks he loves his wife. To top that, he also has the delusion that he has what it takes to make his fans love him for more than just being a comedian. He is under the impression that he is also a good writer and director, a thought that has him headed for disaster. That potential disaster is a little film called I Think I Love My Wife, which coincidentally was written, directed and stars the iconic comedian as a bored married man who is no longer intimately acquainted with his wife and it is starting to get to him. Rock plays Richard Cooper, a successful financial broker with a wife (Gina Torres), two lovely children and all the problems that every married man is faced with, a monotonous routine and worst of all, no sex. The no sex part is something that Richard was learning to deal with, that is until the day that Nikki (Kerry Washington) popped into his life. The old flame of a close friend, Nikki comes to Richard with the need for a job reference and the penchant for being a home wrecker. She is outgoing, uninhibited and sexy from head to toe. And on top of that she begins to show some interest in Richard, something that is the ultimate fantasy of any bored married man. Nikki’s only problem is that she is a bit over-the-top with her desire for Richard, to the point where you begin to remember that she is [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In Premonition, Sandra Bullock plays an apathetic housewife whose world is turned upside down when she finds out that her husband has been killed in a terrible car accident. To make matters worse, she wakes up the next day to find out that the accident has not yet happened, that it was only a premonition. After seeing this film I believe that I too have had a premonition. What did I see in the future? I saw that this film will draw in a decent audience this weekend at the box office, then proceed to disappoint it. Why is such a good turnout expected? Simply because there are plenty of ladies out there who are either tired of seeing nothing but family comedies (a la Wild Hogs) and blatant guy movies (300) filling their local Cineplex. And when they see that Sandra Bullock is starring, they immediately associate that with a sappy romantic storyline. Sadly they are in for a rude awakening when they discover that the closest this film gets to romance is the near rekindling of flames lost through years of stale married life between Bullock’s Linda and her soon to be dead husband Jim (played by Nip/Tuck‘s Julian McMahon). Now the lack of romanticism in this flick is not quite enough to steer audiences away, as it is being marketed as a psychological thriller about being able to see into the future and make moral decisions based on those future events. The only problem there is the [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Moments prior to screening the film 300 a few days back, only one thing was going through my mind: Please don’t suck! After all of this hype, watching the trailer seemingly thousands of times, writing about the film constantly on various websites and even interviewing Director Zach Snyder, I would be truly disappointed if I were forced to set this one ablaze as I have countless films thus far in 2007. But I was comforted when I remembered the words of Zack Snyder, who said of his film, “I wanted to do a movie that when you walked out you were like ‘Fuck! That was awesome!’ And like, you wanna kick some ass.” Upon seeing the film, I am in total agreement with its director, It was awesome! Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller (Sin City), 300 tells the story of 300 Spartans lead by their King, Leonidas (Gerard Butler) into the face of an insurmountable invasion at the hands of a million-man Persian army. Despite a lack of support from the Spartan council and a group of creepy elders who communicate with the Gods via a half naked teenage girl (in a scene that is alluring and tastefully done), Leonidas decides that rather than allow his nation to be conquered into slavery, he must take his best warriors, the Spartan elite, and do what he can to fend off the impending invasion. From there the film explodes into a highly stylized, intense battle [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

If I were the creator or the person responsible for a movie titled Full of It starring a kid whose only claim to fame is being Asthon Kutcher’s little buddy from the show Punk’d I would be nervous, nay, quivering at this point. This is the sort of movie that makes it fun to be a film critic. The type of flick that has critics from all over sitting around it like hyenas, cackling and licking their chops. A film so inauspiciously terrible that its only known purpose is to be torn apart at the hands of people like me. With that said, let the massacre begin. Full of It, coincidentally is only 2 letters away from being the most honestly titled film of the year. It stars Ryan Pinkston (Punk’d) as Sam Leonard, a nerdy little guy who has just moved to a new school and is fighting to fit in. And by fighting to fit in, I am referring to the incessant lies he tells to make himself seem popular. The only problem is that Sam, in his infinite wisdom as a 17 year old falls for the classic teen movie plight of accidentally breaking a mirror and summoning some divine intervention. In this case, divine intervention is not that the movie ends after the first 30 minutes, it is that Sam’s lies begin to come true. All of the sudden he is driving a Porsche instead of his bike, his previously stale parental unit now consists of [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Director David Fincher has delivered some of the more intensely dramatic movies of the last 10 years. Se7en, The Game, Fight Club and Panic Room all come to mind. This fact alone would be enough to lead us to believe that his latest serial flick, like Se7en before it, would be a rollercoaster of twists and turns leading up to a shocker of an ending. It turns out that Zodiac, based on the real life killer that plagued San Francisco in the 1970s, is anything but a shocker. In fact, we already know how it is going to end, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t want to watch it anyway. Zodiac stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) as Robert Graysmith, the San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who would eventually go on to write a few best selling books about the infamous Zodiac killer. The story follows Graysmith’s journey from looking over the shoulder of crime beat reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) to working with Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) years later as he worked to uncover the true identity of elusive Zodiac. The elusiveness of the Zodiac was only heightened by the fact that he would taunt the public of the Bay area by writing letters to the papers or calling into television talk shows to profess his love for murder. The spectacle was enough to put the entire city of San Francisco into a state of terror for over a decade, its denizens cautiously awaiting the next sign of [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Let’s play a game called “Which one of these doesn’t belong?” I will give you the names of 4 Hollywood actors and you tell me which one doesn’t fit with the others. John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. If you said Martin Lawrence, then you may be a racist. If you said William H. Macy, then you are still wrong. The answer is all of them. They all don’t belong, especially when it come to making a movie about middle aged men dealing with their mid-life crisis’ by heading off on a cross country motorcycle trip. In fact, prior to making this middle-aged man on bike-a-thon, these four actors had never even met. What they found in their newly acquired kinship may be a movie so laugh out loud funny that it will surprise you; at least, I know it surprised me. Up to their handle bars in their unfulfilled and clich©d lives, these Wild Hogs decide that it is time to take to the open road where only freedom (and plenty of trouble) lie ahead of them. Doug (Tim Allen) is a dentist whose son has no respect for him because he is “lame”; Bobby (Martin Lawrence) is the classic house husband, bossed around by his wife and ignored by his deviant children; Woody (John Travolta) is a washed up talent agent whose supermodel wife left him to be bankrupt and alone with his Harley; and Dudley (William H. Macy) is a computer programmer whose [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]