Alien Vs. Predator - 5/10
It is not so bad. It is paced rapidly and is over before you know it. It has some nifty slime and alien/predator gore. It is entirely forgettable once finished. Sadly, the classic creatures are most interesting characters on screen. Sanaa Lathan is pretty bad at the beginning but is fine as "standard action chick." The only two other recognizable faces in the cast are genre icon Lance Henrickson and Under the Tuscan Sun's Raol Bova. Everyone else is there purely for red herring purposes. Well, let's just call them off-screen red herrings thanks to the film's infamous PG-13 rating. In all honesty, it gets away with quite a bit of violence for a PG-13 film and more gore would only be for blood-and-guts horror fans. I liked one of the lines repeated in the film: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." That leads to Lathan teaming up with the predator to help kill the alien. I was expecting Lathan to go back to the predator's planet where she will be impregnated with a predator baby and live happily ever after. Well, it felt like that was where the film was going.
Garden State - 8/10
Scrubs' Zach Braff is a pretty talented guy. Writing, directing and starring (take that Shyamalan!) in this indie, which starts out kind of annoying but gets a lot better as it goes. Throw in some expected unexpected humor and Braff's endevour is a huge success. Natalie Portman, in her first great performance in nearly eight years, shines as the love interest, the kind of character that exists only in the movies. Check out Beautiful Girls if you haven't and if you're not retarded. Her character here is like a grown up though less mature version of her character in that one. Once she shows up, the film becomes alive much the way Sam makes Andy alive again. I liked the film's message of the way society is now being raised on prescription meds that they say will make you what you are suppose to be, but are only making matters worse. Numerous memorable scenes and the talents of the above mentioned people, as well as Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm in slightly underwritten roles, make the trip to Garden State a very worthy one. It was also nice to see a film that didn't rely on Jersey stereotypes.
SIDENOTE: Someone plese tell Peter Sarsgaard and girlfriend Maggie Gyllenhaal to drop some of the dual letters from their names before they have kids.
Ned Kelly - 3/10
I saw this about three weeks ago, but have held off writing anything about it. Resist being drawn in by the pretty cast - Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom and extended cameos by Naomi Watts and Rachel Griffiths - because there's nothing to learn about the title character. It provides a basic outline of the Australian/Irish outlaw's life, but never lets us see anything more. Ledger has almost no charisma here coming off very abhorrent, and no one else leaves an impression. The fact that the film has a great score and lush cinematography only makes the rest of it look even worse. After finishing it, I had no idea how it filled its 110 minute running time. All of it is very uninvolving.
The Prince and Me - 5/10
There's one really great scene in the latest "I'm a princess!" film: Julia Stiles and Luke Mably have just affirmed their affections and are using their hands to flirt quietly in a library. Though the two have chemistry throughout the film, it is at its pinacle in this scene and made me smile. The rest of it is a passable film. I think Stiles looks her very best here and I need to apologize for the previous "large forehead" comments. Turns out its not her forehead, but rather her entire head. It is very oddly shaped and detracts from a pretty smile and her devilish eyes. Normally able to play an understandable bitch with ease, it is a nice change to see her play the romantic lead. Mably or Malby or whatever is fine, but the role could have been played by an random young actor. Miranda Richardson (your aunt's a very lucky woman anjelica...) also stars as the prince's slightly caricatured mother. This is also one of those films where someone shows up at the end, says three sentences and the other person falls in love with them all over again and everything is okay. I'm sorry. I just ruined the ending. Actually, the rest of the film did a pretty good job of that, too.
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