Splice

A chilling, thoughtful horror thriller where the science fiction aspects sort of get pushed to the side for the horror to take it in different directions. The leads give convincing performances and keep the train rolling even when things go a little wacky. The most enthralling aspect of the story for me was Dren's relationship with the two main characters. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the movie because you can see how deadly Dren is, but lovable all the same. Is she going to embrace them, or destroy them? It was compelling and made the movie for me. The special effects aren't as good as they could be, but they aren't terrible. Creature designs are still quite good and production as a whole is solid. I loved the lighting in the labs. I know a bunch of people who didn't like the horror aspects of this film and were hoping for more out of the science fiction side, but I thought they matched them well and I was satisfied.

Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex is instantly forgettable and over before it begins. It's messy, undeveloped plot and cheesy CGI make me believe that something went wrong in the editing department. It's only 82 minutes long (minus credits, so actually about 75-80) which isn't much time to get things accomplished. Josh Brolin doesn't have much to work with, but he's still the best part of the movie by far. This is definitely one of the worth comic book/graphic novel movies I've ever seen. It isn't the least bit fun and rushes through the motions of a movie based on a popular graphic novel. Don't waste your time thinking it will be a guilty pleasure or one of those movies that's so bad it's good. It's just bad.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Shallow, lightweight entertainment, but sometimes that's all something aims for and Prince of Persia's aspirations are certainly to entertain more than anything else. For me, it succeeded. This was a fast watch that flew by with almost 2 hours feeling like minutes. Jake Gyllenhaal does a nice job as the charming prince with funny one liners sprinkled throughout, most aimed at the princess played by Gemma Arterton. They have nice rapport among them and have enough chemistry to make you believe they fall in love by the end. The story is certainly all over the place and people have complained about that, but if you are familiar with the source material at all it's easily understandable. There's plenty of enjoyable actors playing smaller parts too, from Ben Kingsley to Alfred Molina. If all you want to do is watch good looking people bounce around in an admittedly preposterous film, there's certainly much worse things you could watch than Prince of Persia. It's a fun little movie and I look forward to a hopeful sequel to quench my next shallow entertainment craving.

Robin Hood

A simplistic, but well rounded action epic full of great battles and wonderful scenery to make up for the lack of character development and drama. It still has some good performances and the characters are worth rooting for, making it an entertaining watch. It's 2 and a half hours long, but it didn't feel like it at all. I usually don't like movies that long because they seem to drag, but this one kept my attention the entire time. It's a little rushed story wise at points, but that's ok. We all know how it ends anyway (if you are familiar with Robin Hood, anyway). Those looking for an entertaining action epic with great production values and strong performances can pick this one up for sure.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Not being a massive fan of the original (I still think it's a good film, but far from amazing) I was fine with a remake having another actor getting the chance to play a horror icon. Jackie Earle Haley is fine in the movie (although his voice isn't scary at all in this, a shame), but everything around him is the problem. The visual effects department decided Freddy needed to look more realistic and used CGI and it just doesn't look scary like it used to. Freddy's physical appearance was part of the scares of the original, but it just looks off in this movie. The visual effects other than that are quite good and Samuel Bayer clearly spent time getting everything right in regards to that, but he doesn't do anything else noteworthy. Story is retread material instead of a re-imagining including several sequences lifted straight from the original. Never a good way to do a remake, in my opinion. The premise is still genuinely terrifying, but Craven took it further and did better things with it than Bayer did in this one.

The Haunted Airman

An amateurishly made film with bland performances. It is most definitely a slow burner that likes to think its slow pace makes it look somewhat poetic in nature, but all it does is wear the viewer down until they give up and turn it off or just stop paying attention. This happened to me numerous times. There's not really any horror in the movie nor any compelling drama, just tiresome cliches about the psychology of a war veteran and the toll it takes on them. Don't be fooled into thinking this is worthy of your time just because known actors are in it. It most certainly is not, and even at a slim 70 minutes the movie is still too long. This would have been an alright 30 minute tv movie to show on Halloween, but stretched beyond all measure it simply doesn't make the cut

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Following in the footsteps of the superb Nolan films, Under the Red Hood is a mature and sophisticated animated film with plenty of exciting moments packed into its slim 75 minute runtime. The voice cast isn't quite as good as The Batman Animated Series (I haven't kept up on who's been doing these voices, but Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill were almost perfect and reprised their roles in the video game Arkham Asylum last year, which means they are still interested in the franchise and willing to do it), but the cast is decent and does a respectable job filling in. John Di Maggio has the biggest shoes to fill since Hamill's Joker is almost legendary. Di Maggio has the laugh down, although he doesn't have as many quirks as Hamill did with the character. I missed Hamill, but at the same time I wasn't constantly thinking about it. The story is more in line with the comics than the films, with Ra's Al Ghuul being immortal and all the somewhat silly stuff thrown in. I prefer the more realistic approach seeing as Ra's plays an integral part of the story, as well as his way of staying immortal. Minor complaint though, as this was definitely one of the best Batman stories I've seen so far. It would have been a good live action film too, and that is saying something. Hopefully WB keeps the quality of the animated movies this good. I'd be thrilled.

Date Night

Tina Fey and Steve Carell lift up material that doesn't give them the quality of writing and directing they deserve. There really isn't anything more to be said about the movie. It's too long for the material and gets incredibly repetitive but coasts along just barely on the charms of the lead performers. This easily would have been a direct to DVD release had it not featured so many stars with box office power. I'm not saying it doesn't have a few enjoyable moments sprinkled in, but there's so much mediocre writing/ gags that they drag down the movie. I'm sort of getting sick of all these action romantic comedies that Hollywood keeps throwing out. They are of consistently mediocre quality

The Ghost Writer

A deliberately paced and well rounded political thriller with strong performances and gorgeous cinematography. I found myself staring into the background and taking in the scenery quite a bit during the scenes. This isn't one of those thrillers were someone is on the run the whole time, though. Ewan McGregor is a newly hired ghost writer for a former British Prime Minister who took the place of the last one that was really close to the family when he showed up on the shore of the beach dead. Everyone thought it was just an accident, but was it? As he continues to dig into the past and present of the former British Prime Minister, he discovers shocking secrets that threaten his and the entire nations safety. The Ghost Writer does a good job of keeping things hidden and revealing them little by little to keep your interest during many scenes consisting of nothing but two characters interacting through dialogue. The writing is very good, which helps. There's a few spots where it drags, but nothing bad and it still managed to hold interest throughout. If you are one of those people who likes your thrillers with a little less adrenaline and a healthy does of dialogue and political intrigue, this one is right up your alley.