The Blog of JR Tschopp

Adventureland - A “dramedy” about a kid who graduates college but has to work at a theme park in order to pay for an apartment in New York the following fall. I thought the movie did a pretty decent job at capturing the feeling of that time when one first falls in love and idealizes the other person, overlooking their flaws, and then also when the rude awakening happens and one realizes that their partner isn’t quite what they’ve built them up to be in their mind and how to handle it. Also, good performances from a strong cast; when it’s funny, it’s pretty funny. When it’s not, it’s still worth watching.

Angels & Demons - The best National Treasure flick ever made, A&D perfects that other franchise’s formula of following clues and using information that the characters already know but which they don’t find out over the course of the movie to lead them on to the next clue. Better than it’s predecessor, but still so/so. Tom Hanks is just kind of there and the casting of Ewan MacGregor still has me scratching my head a bit (c’mon, man - I’ve seen Trainspotting. You’re better than this!). A decent rental.

Outlander - New to DVD, it’s a competant sci-fi/fantasy flick about an alien who teams up with vikings to hunt down dragons. There’s nothing amazingly earth-shattering about it other than it’s a high concept flick that is well put-together and effective in a time when too often bigger tentpole flicks forget the basics and fall apart (see my Terminator: Salvation review). A breath of fresh air amidst too many MTV-editing-style soulless wastes of celluloid.

Fanboys - Speaking of wastes of celluloid, this flick about a group of friends trying to break into Skywalker Ranch in 1998 isn’t quite one, but if you aren’t a Star Wars fan watching it while drinking with other Star Wars fans or you aren’t wanting to sit through an hour and a half of almost funny jokes and cameos just to see Kristen Bell in a Princess Leia gold bikini (which is pretty nice), then it’s probably not for you as the whole seems more like a group of gags that were written and strung along a loose plot, as opposed to developing a movie and writing the jokes around them.

Taken - Ever wonder what a foreign, fifty-something-year-old Jason Bourne would do if his daughter were kidnapped for the European sex market? Look no further! This movie is another competent action flick, nothing that will completely knock your socks off, but good enough to make you root for Liam Neeson as he kicks ass across Paris.

Drag Me to Hell - I never thought I’d see another Sam Raimi Evil Dead movie, but somewhere in this flick’s fantastic seance sequence, I realized that was exactly what I was watching. And I loved it. I’m not a fan of the torture porn horror flicks of late. I like to be scared, surprised, and shocked in my movies, but I’m not a big fan of being disturbed by them, which is what I think the likes of Saw and Hostel are going for. Luckily, DMTH manages to shock, surprise, and scare without ever sinking to the levels of disturbing that so many “scary” movies go for these days. And, the flick was actually funny on top of all of that. Some of the shocks and scares are done in such a way that I was laughing in glee as the main character (portrayed by Alison Lohman) was tortured by the demon sent to torment her. Of course, anyone that has seen Raimi’s brilliant Evil Dead Trilogy (particularly Army of Darkness), would be expecting just that, and man, does Mr. Raimi deliver. Frankly, I think it’s Raimi’s best work since at least before the first Spider-Man movie, and it really makes me wish he’d drop the webhead and come up with more flicks like this. Perfect for a drive-in (if it shows up at one near you) and if it’s out on DVD by Halloween, pick it up and watch it with a group of friends. Well done, Mr. Raimi. Well done indeed.