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This is a guest review by long time fan and movie reviewer Candice Frederick…check out her movie blog

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Director Quentin Tarantino has done something here that I have never seen him do with any other movie–he made me totally forget I was watching a Quentin Tarantino movie. Inglourious Basterds Sugarhouse film

is a far cry from his previous classics like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs Night Skies video with their big name stars and cool-as-ice swagger. But as different as it may be from other Tarantino flicks, Basterds borrows its ultimate revenge theme from Kill Bill

Pride & Prejudice dvd . But rather than a pissed off bride wreaking havoc on her attempted murders, Basterds follows pissed off Jews wreaking havoc on ruthless Nazis during WWII. You’d think a movie about World War II would make for a tearjerker. But in comes Brad Pitt, the leader of a Jewish anti-Nazi gang whose sole purpose is killing “Nat-zis,” and all seriousness goes right out the window. Pitt, donning a heavy southern drawl and a quick-draw-Mcgraw attitude, show no mercy for the enemy, providing comedic relief in an otherwise somber premise.
The movie is a bit long, well over two hours and probably could have been two hours had the first half of the movie not dragged. But the second half is well worth the build-up.

My rating: B

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Paper Heart starring Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera in this part documentary, part scripted journey to find out if true love exists.  Yi goes across the country with her friend and director Nick, interviewing people on what true love is and their stories behind it.  Yi does not understand or believe in true love and is in a quest to find the answers.  In the process, she develops a relationship with Cera where it grows into something more.  This is a cute, smart little film that is shot differently than most, and should be commended on it’s creativity.  The relationship between Yi and Cera is fake, and essentially Cera is playing the character of himself, the feelings and relationship is scripted.  This is a fun quirky little movie that will leave you with a smile.

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What did you think of Paper Heart?

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500 Days of Summer, the offbeat indie unromantic comedy that will be known as the likeable and most underrated movie of the summer.  Almost in a Garden State mentality, takes a look at mid 20’s relationships in a different fashion.  The ins, outs, and complexities that all of us are have experienced.  Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls for Summer (Zoey Deschanel) although she does not believe in true love, she believes it’s a hoax.  As their relationship continues, she ends it to leave him confused and angry.  With some funny improvised dance sequences and sketch art to take the movie in a more fun artsy direction, this movie will leave you smiling as you leave.

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Check out my video review of 500 Days of Summer and let me know what you thought of the movie. An Angel for May psp

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Public Enemies opened up this week. The film stars Christian Bale and Johnny Depp and is directed by Michael Mann. There was a lot of hype going into this film.  The overall premise is about a 1930’s bank robbing gang and the FBI’s attempt to hunt them down.

Plenty of trailers flooded your television screens for this film, and Depp makes a big return to the screen in a role other than Jack Sparrow.   From the trailer alone the film had a good vibe. I’m sad to tell you that this film was just not good.  Bale is now 0-2 this Summer if you include the bust that was Terminator Salvation A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddys Revenge film .  Mann had this film all over the place. Poorly made and just boring.

I know I said to see it in my July 2009 Lineup

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post, but please don’t. It’s not worth your time or money.

Check out my video review below.

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So the sequel to Transformers is upon us and it’s smashing midweek box office records. On Wednesday alone the film took in over $60 million forcing analysts to reassess their total week estimates for the film. Will the movie top $200 million in its opening week? If so, it will be the first to do so.

Anyways, the film has not been receiving good reviews The Thaw dvd Escape from Alcatraz film from critics. Well I am here to tell you, that they are wrong. This film is very enjoyable and I agree with our guest reviewer Scott

. Not as good as the first one, but definitely an enjoyable Summer hit. Shia Labeouf reprises his role as Sam Witwicky and Megan Fox reprises her role as the super hot girlfriend Mikaela. The movie has pretty much the entire cast from the first one in 2007 except for Jon Voight and Anthony Anderson.

Raise Your Voice video The movie is about an attack on Earth by a higher power than Megatron known as The Fallen, who is looking to annihilate the human race. There are cooler robots, better weapons, more action and a mediocre attempt at the humor card. But some of it is pretty funny. Mikaela ends up taming a small little decepticon as her chiwawa pretty much and their relationship is funny. Also, his parents are back and their lameness adds a couple of extra humorous tidbits.

Look, the movie is an enjoyable Summer movie and definitely worth checking out. You know what to expect.

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See my Video review below for more analysis

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In perhaps the second most anticipated movie of the Summer, second only to Harry Potter, the Transformers sequel, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” opens tonight (6/23/09) at Midnight.  I personally walked by a movie theater in New York City during the day where I saw dozens of people waiting on line. In fact, they had been waiting there since 1pm; or at least that’s what they told me as to when the line started.

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Escape from Alcatraz psp Now if you ask me, this movie looks like a lot of fun and I will definitely see it, but to wait on line 12 hours prior to the midnight showing is a bit much. There are only a couple movies I would do that (wait on line for 12 hours) for, and this is not one of them.  Anyways, that’s not the point here.  I read a couple of reviews on this movie, and surprisingly they are just OK and mostly just not good.  I wanted to share them with you.

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post remarks that the movie is “squarely aimed at 8-year-old boys and men who never quite matured past that stage.” Lumenick gives the movie 1. 5 stars out of 4.  Click here for a full review.

Jordan Mintzer of Variety praises the special effects and writes, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” takes the franchise to a vastly superior level of artificial intelligence. As for human intelligence, it’s primarily at the service of an enhanced arsenal of special effects, which helmer Michael Bay deploys like a general launching his very own shock-and-awe campaign on the senses.” Click here for a full review.

In other news, Megan Fox just took top prize in sexiest girl alive contest according to FHM magazine.

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Our full Snap Review will come later this week.

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I finally got to see “Sugar” this past weekend. The film is the new Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck movie, the people who brought you Half Nelson.   Boden/Fleck capture a rich display of the human element and the emotional roller coaster of a journey it is to strive for your dreams.  How far would you go?  It is a tale of the arrogance of talent combined with running from the fears of failure.  What would you do if half of your village was expecting a piece of the riches you were going to earn off your curveball? How would you react if your curveball wasn’t hot on some nights? It is not a Disney movie, so don’t go expecting all ice cream and dandilions.  Sugar gives a raw perspective of the struggles of pro athletes.  This movie is a character driven piece more than a sports movie.

The film depicts the life of Miguel “Sugar” Santos, a Dominican pitcher with hopes of making the major leagues one day.  We meet Miguel in the Dominican Republic at an elite baseball camp for top prospects looking to enter the minor league farm system of Major League ball clubs.  Eventually a Dominican born kid, leaving in poverty, gets shipped off to Jesus country in Iowa, where a very nice/warm old couple take him in while he plays for a Pro team’s minor league affiliate.  The culture shock, the language barrier, the unknown, strange people, and the distance from his family puts Sugar in a very uncomfortable position.   The most indearing part of this movie is when we see a waitress at a local diner bring the kid some eggs and explain to him the difference between Sunny side up and scrambled.

Sugar shows the not so glorious parts of being a pro athlete.  I won’t say that my “World Series or bust” attitude for the Yankees every year won’t change, but this movie definitely makes me think.  That attitude is completely rediculous. Booing your own team, players, losing etc. It’s terrible.  I really think it makes me appreciate the talent put out on the field every night.  Forget even the Yankees, let’s say the Pirates.  Maybe baseball’s worst team; the guys they put out on the field are incredible.  As Todd McCarthy, of Variety, writes “Sympathetic, genial and exceedingly wholesome, it’s a film that, once seen, will permanently and favorably influence the way viewers regard the characters’ real-life counterparts.”

This movie did upset me. In fact it kind of pissed me off.  It’s not that I didn’t like it, it’s that I didn’t agree with a lot of Sugar’s decisions.  In that, I realize this film was a very strong piece.  If right now I can sit here and type that this tale was frustrating, then I think Boden/Fleck achieved success.  They made their point and profound it was.

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Algenis Perez Soto makes his acting debut in this film. He portrays the character as good as we can ask. In addition, I did notice that he literally is in every single scene. In days where actors can negotiate everything in contracts from days on set, to lines per day, to scenes in a movie so they don’t feel overworked, Soto delivers a truly passionate performance. Blood, Sweat, and tears. Just like the man he plays.

If you’re into character pieces definitely check it out.  For baseball fans, an absolutle must. But know this, buyer beware.

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So we all saw the 3d preview for Monsters vs Aliens during the Superbowl halftime show.  It looked good in that preview.  I thought it was going to be one of those movies that looks good but kind of just slips by and you never end up seeing it. You know what I mean.  Anyways, this was going to be one of those movies I wasn’t going to see until I got a call Sunday afternoon to meet some friends to check it out. I was like, what the heck, 3d movie, great cast, I like animated films and preview looks good. Game on

Unfortunately, this movie was not good.  It stars the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen (who by the way is in every movie and its kind of getting annoying), Will Arnett, Hugh Laurie, Jack Bauer (aka Kiefer Sutherland), Raine Wilson, and Paul Rudd. Jeeez, what a cast.  How could they screw this up? Well they did.

The movie is about a woman, who on her wedding day, falls victim to being exposed to some unknown substance, turning her into some gigantour women.  She immediately gets taken into custody and placed into a super secret prison where the US stores monsters.  Its there we meet a mad scientist cockaroach, crazy gremlin guy, a blob, and a dinosaur insect.  When an evil alien comes to Earth and threatens civilization, it is up to the monsters to save the day.

I think these films hit their best when they have children goofyness combined with subtle adult humor.  “Shrek” had that, “Ice Age” had that, “The Incredibles” had it, and “Over The Hedge” had it, but this did not.  A lot of the writing seemed forced, almost like they were trying to hard with the adult humor. It just didn’t work.

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It actually had a lot of potential.  There were some parts of the movie I sat back in chair thinking to myself finally this movie is about to take off.  These scenes were short lived.   Rather than paying attention, I found myself checking out the differences of what the screen looked like with my 3d glasses on and without them on.  And yes, without them its super fuzzy on screen.

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One thing this genre of movies is trying to do is create exciting action scenes.  I think they are getting closer to making them good as this movie did had some, but there is still something missing. Until Hollywood fines what is missing in CGI action scenes, these type of movies will often leave audiences disappointed.  However, in The Incredibles there were some awesome action scenes. Brad Bird really needs to make a sequel to that movie. Perhaps the best of the genre.

Anyways, the movie was pretty boring.  In other news, Pixar’s UP looks awesome. Hopefully that will be better.

While I did not like this movie very much, themovieblog.com tells us that it was enjoyable

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.  So I say, to each his own. If you saw it let us know what you think.

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The genre of Action films has been defined by many.  We at TheMovieBanter would like to offer a different perspective.   I have had this discussion with many people, but action films are just that – plain old action.

Here are some of our criteria:  over the top fighting, guns blazing, bombs exploding, clever premise, excessive watchability and most importantly set in real life/reality as we know it.  By adding this element of the real life setting we eliminate many movies from the action genre.  Included in this would be The Matrix (and alike), Indiana Jones, Independence Day, Terminator…pretty much science ficion/adventure movies that have an element of action.  They are merely science fiction or adventure movies, not action movies.  Comic movies are also not included in this as they would be simply comic book movies.  Is it fair to compare action in Spiderman to action from Commando? No, two completely different settings. Thus, we cannot compare them.  That takes out all comic book movies.

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In addition, we would like to stress the importance of a cool plot.   For example, Rambo 4 is full of action, but is an unoriginal remake of every straight forward action war movie.  We want corruption, twists, bad guys we love to hate, good guys we want to see win, awesome one liners, and out of control characters we love to watch on screen.

Honorable Mention:  Bad Boys, Face Off, Under Siege, Lethal Weapon, Mr and Mrs Smith, Rambo, Taken, Bourne Series

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5 – Speed – Despite The Matrix not being defined as an action film in our definition, Keanu Reeves does make this list.  Speed has a very original plot; a cop has to keep a bus above 60mph or it’s going to blow up.  Great one liners, a bad ass bad guy in Dennis Hopper, a bus jumping a 100 foot gap in a bridge, plot twists, great music, a Keanu Reeves action hero coming out party, and explosions all over the place.  “Yeah, well I’m taller”….This is definitely a must watch.

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4 – District B13 – the coolest action film to hit theaters in a long time and it came out of the French film industry. This one has it all. Awesome fight scenes, crazy twists, lots of guns and witty characters.   I can honestly say this has some of the best fight scenes I have ever scene in a movie.  These guys bounce around like monkeys.  A real life version of the Matrix.  Definitely a movie to check out. Will leave you speechless when its done.

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3 – Con Air -  Nick Cage makes this list (but is he done) with Con Air. Con Air had an incredible cast just to start. Nick Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Monica Potter, and many others.  We had a bunch of guys we didn’t like and felt bad for a guy who was getting out of prison for committing manslaughter while defending his wife. Think about this, this guy was hitching a ride home on Con Air. hah. How did they not see things would go wrong. Cyrus The Virus was a goner from the start. Great script, great fighting and cool movie.

2 – Die Hard Striking Distance ipod – Can anyone deny John Maclane a spot on this list. Perhaps the greatest American action character ever created. That is one cop I would never want to mess with.  You can’t kill him and he laughs when you try to. He also doesn’t feel pain; anyone see his bloody beat up feet in this movie while he continues to walk on glass.   Pretty much Jack Bauer on screen but much funnier.  Hans Gruber never had a chance.

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– an action movie that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. You can watch this movie every time it is on TV.   It has a great plot, hilarious characters, incredible music, and a clever script.  To this day, I still say “Losers go home and cry about their best, winners go home and F*ck the prom queen…Carla was the prom queen.”    These guys broke INTO Alcatraz..Yes, into the prison.  Man is that ironic.  Lesson number 1 – Don’t mess with VX Poison gas.  The Rock is an all timer.  Stanley Goodspeed reigns supreme.   Perhaps Michael Bay’s best.

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So I’ve been curious about this movie for a long time now. The previews looked pretty good and I’m typically a sucker for period pieces. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed from this movie. Based on the book by Ron Hansen

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, this movie is very slow and way too long. I understand this movie is a based on a book, but that doesn’t mean there needs to be a narrator that is practically reading the book to us throughout the entire movie. The story is too choppy and tough to follow.  The length of the movie title is as equally long and pretty much a mouthful to say.

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Starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell and Mary Louise Parker, this film is not worth spending 3 hours watching. Brad Pitt plays a paranoid Jesse James trying to plot his final bank robbery with a bunch of untrustworthy amateurs.  Casey Affleck steals the show with his portrayal of Bob Ford

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but it is not enough to make this a film worth watching.    On a side note, Casey Affleck is slowly becoming a leading man in Hollywood especially with his recent hit Gone Baby Gone.  It’s too bad because I really expected big things from this movie.  Check out my review.