After watching the new Street Fighter movie, I am now convinced of three things. One, it makes the 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme turkey look slightly better than it actually was; two, Kristin Kreuk has a ton of potential outside of Smallville, but this movie isn’t that breakthrough. As for that third item? If cinematographer turned director Andrzej Bartkowiak doesn’t watch out, he may wind up dethroning Uwe Boll in video-game to film adaptations.
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I have always enjoyed watching films based on true events, as it automatically makes films appear more authentic and gripping, since you know the characters you’re watching and the events on the screen once really happened, albeit probably with less impressive cinematic dialogue and popcorn pleasing action. Films based on true stories often make people aware of events and people from history, that they may otherwise never of heard of. Defiance certainly brought an unfamilar story from World War Two to my attention.
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The last time audiences seen ‘Jason’, the nearly unstoppable killer in a hockey mask, he was butting knives with Freddy from A Nightmare On Elm Street in Freddy Vs. Jason. We will never know the clear winner of that horror smack down, because Michael Bay’s production company, Platinum Dunes, has saw fit to remake Friday The 13th and reinvent Jason (and they’ll get to Freddy very soon) and I will confess that it is, by far, hands down, the best Friday The 13th movie made to date.

Don’t get your hopes up.
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Thicker Than Water: The Vampire Diaries Part 1 (2008) is one of those movies that is so bad it is almost good. There is certainly a preexisting demographic this movie will appeal to. Unfortunately, I don’t fall into it, and instead I found myself searching the room for a sharp object to stick in my eye to alleviate the pain of sitting through this entire film. While the movie’s website claims its status as an “award winning film”, the only award I find it worthy of is a Rotten Tomato. Now, depending on your personal taste, that might not be a bad thing.
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Let’s get a few things out of the way first. I’m a single guy, I like all kinds of movies. I am open to all kinds of mainstream genres. Nobody will twist my arm to even see a ‘chick flick’. But maybe it’s because I never been married, or maybe it’s just because I’m a dude, that I never will understand a film like Bride Wars. I know I despised last year’s films Made Of Honor (oddly, that film’s overall premise briefly crops up in this movie too as a throwaway side joke that doesn’t really work) and that Sex and City movie as well. But I did enjoy, even though I “wasn’t supposed to”, 27 Dresses. Maybe I was in a good mood that day. I know today I was put in a foul one watching Bride Wars.

And yes, it is foul.

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Clive Owen is one of my favorite actors from recent years, and he lands many lead roles in films that many seem to admire and like, but for some reason those very same pictures not only fail at the box office but also fail to make him stand out. I don’t know what it is, really. It’s like, ‘Clive Owen’, yeah, we like him, we just skip his movies’. Sure enough, The International is no different, having an odd see-saw of having Owen’s character a burned out Interpol agent in one part of the film, super spy in the other.
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Thanks in part to some test screening audiences who did not like some of the plot that remained true to the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, Killshot had sat on the Wienstien Company shelf for nearly two years. Since that time, Johnny Knoxville’s scenes were cut from the film (and not to be seen as DVD extras), and one of the three leads in the film, Mickey Rourke, has had a major comeback with 2008’s The Wrestler. Earlier this year, Killshot was eventually theatrically released briefly with little fanfare, but probably done so to capitalize on Rourke’s recent career boost. The DVD cover also boasts of Leonard previous adapted work, 3:10 To Yuma.
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A romantic comedy based around the story from ’A Christmas Carol’  sounds like a terrible idea and something that shouldn’t have been attempted, but this rom-com was actually quite entertaining. Matthew McConaughey plays the Scrooge character with a difference; a mid 30s bachelor named Connor Mead, who has spent his life womanizing and breaking women’s hearts. Connor is a famous photographer, who has easy access to many models and beautiful women, and clearly makes the most of every opportunity. In an early scene, we witness him break up with three women on a conference call, whilst another woman is in the room with him waiting for him to finish his call.
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There is something that the basic consumer should be reminded of regarding 3-D glasses. The special pairs of glasses that theaters provide are to take advantage of the digital technology; the kind of 3-D glasses one will be offered with the video release are the standby cardboard that is not as effective. I personally find that some films are using the 3-D format more as a marketing gimmick, and therefore have little to no interest in those kinds of films. However, to my surprise, My Bloody Valentine, a remake of the 1981 slasher, used that format to its new improved body count and dismemberment in religious glee. Even in a 2-D format, killer Harry Warden can put Jason and Freddy to shame. The characters and story, however are just as cardboard as the cheap glasses.
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This remake of the 1957 classic Western stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale as the two main protagonists. It is refreshing to see two of today’s most talented actors in a Western, as for years, that genre with the occassional exception, has failed to attract the best actors.  Although the Western has never been able to regain the dominance it had in the 60s and 70s, when stars such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood dominated the screen as cowboys, every now and again, a Western is released that reminds viewers why they were once so popular. 3:10 to Yuma is one of these movies.
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