There’s something magical about a writer directing his or her own work, provided that writer is good. I think that’s because as a screenwriter, you can’t help but pre-direct the film in your mind as you’re writing. Redbelt is a perfect example of a great writer, taking an excellent story to film, without the vision getting blurred by a separate director. Unfortunately, Redbelt is also a perfect example of why a separate director is sometimes necessary.

This story and film by David Mamet may very well be a Mary Sue allegory for his own career. Redbelt follows Jiu-Jitsu master Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is not only a martial arts expert, but one of those rare people who have conviction and an unshakable moral compass. One night a disturbed woman enters his academy and accidentally discharges a police officer’s sidearm, nearly killing the police officer who is also a student of Mike Terry’s. This random — if not unbelievable — moment sets off a chain of events that has Terry embroiled with seedy fight promoters, actors and Hollywood types. He’s not only forced to protect his training technique as his enemies steal it, but must consider breaking his code of never entering competitions, in order to pay the ever increasing debt heaped on him by those close to him.

Releasing two movies with near-identical plots in the same year is like two girls showing up to the prom wearing the exact same outfit. I’m talking about Deep Impact and Armageddon. These movies are so similar in plot and story that when I saw the trailers aired separately on TV, I thought Deep Impact was a subtitle to Armageddon. Regrettably, Deep Impact is the lesser version of the same story in almost every way.

The plot is simple: A giant meteor is on a course to collide with Earth. The rest is all human drama surrounding several unrelated people. Téa Leoni is a reporter, building her career on the meteor story. Morgan Freeman is the President of the United States who guides the audience in his fatherly way, explaining what’s being done to counter the meteor and precautions in case the attempts fail. Robert Duvall is an astronaut leading a team to land on the meteor, drill into it and plant nuclear warheads inside it. And Elijah Wood is the teenager who first discovers the meteor.

The Day After Tomorrow explores the “global disaster” genre in a refreshing way. Instead of a plague or a meteor or zombies, we have global warming causing global cooling. I won’t go into the movie science that explains it, but just know that three cyclonic storms with centers cold enough to freeze gasoline are creating a new ice age across the entire northern hemisphere of the Earth. What’s nice about this global disaster is that there’s nothing to be done to stop it. No crazy contraptions drilling to the center of the earth. No nuclear warheads being detonated. The characters are just surviving.

Dennis Quaid plays Jack Hall, a climatologist who’s more involved with his work than with his family, which causes a bit of love loss with his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal). Sam and his classmates are competing in New York when the storms strike, stranding him and forcing his father on a rescue mission against impossible odds. The plot is good enough, but being a disaster movie, the film forces the audience to watch tangents that aren’t particularly necessary to flesh out the film.

This straight-to-video remake of George Romero’s Day of the Dead is an oddity among B-movie horror films in that it has more than one recognizable Hollywood actor, looks like it has a decent budget and has pretty good direction and visual effects. The only real downside is the lackluster writing. Still, most zombie movie aficionados will most likely be pleased by this offering provided they make a few concessions.

The tie-in to Romero’s Day of the Dead is very loose here. Most of the story takes place topside instead of underground and it focuses more on the zombie action rather than the human interaction. In this version, a small town has been quarantined by the U.S. military and the townsfolk are suffering from some kind of virus. Those infected turn into flesh-eating zombies and it’s up to a few survivors to get the hell out of dodge. Fans of Bub, the learning zombie from the original, may be disappointed to find Bud, the loving zombie here, but at least it’s something.

Leading the way for the 2008 Summer Blockbusters is Iron Man, a beautifully crafted film based on the Marvel comic book by the same name. The film is well-paced, the actors make the most out of their characters and it’s nice to see a superhero fighting real-world villains and not just outlandish costumed freaks. Also, the PG-13 rating makes Iron Man family-friendly and proves that a film can show real-world death without real-world gore and still be enjoyable.

The story follows wunderkind weapons developer Tony Stark who is a remorseless and flippant war profiteer. When the film begins, he’s ambushed during a weapons demonstration in the Middle East and captured by terrorist insurgents. Stark is forced to create a super weapon out of a cache of armaments that his company designed that have fallen in the hands of America’s enemies. Stark has a change of heart and builds the Iron Man suit to wage a personal war.

Year: 2008 Directed by: Rob Minkoff Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano Written by: John Fusco Jackie Chan and Jet Li both have long and lustrous careers leading some of the best martial arts action movies in the history of cinema. Therefore, it’s not unfair to have a few expectations when you bring these [...]

One of the best fantasy romances to found in cinema, Ladyhawke is a well-rounded movie that strikes a chord that is pitch perfect on many aspects that we look for in a good story. There is friendship, forgiveness, undying love and hate and revenge. Tie in beautiful cinematography and you have a formula that can’t fail. Still, Ladyhawke is not without its flaws.

Matthew Broderick plays Phillipe “The Mouse” Gaston, a thief who converses with God and who is also the first prisoner to escape the un-escapable dungeons of Aquila. While eluding capture, he is befriended by ex-captain of the Aquila guards Etienne Navarre (Rutger Hauer). Navarre is always accompanied by a beautiful hawk. Gaston discovers that Navarre has been cursed by the evil Bishop of Aquila (John Wood) to turn into a wolf at night while the hawk turns back into his beloved Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer). With Gaston’s help, Navarre hopes to kill the Bishop.

Let’s just cut to the chase and let me say what I want to say, because it’s a biggie: In the Name of the King is actually decent.

I love zombie flicks, because you can do so much with them. Zombies are great for monster movies, because zombies are easy to understand, tap into the human fear of being eaten alive and are scary as hell because of their numbers. Zombies are also great for social commentary for two reasons: 1. zombies look like humans, therefore their actions can be attributed to humans metaphorically and 2. zombies always force the human survivors to behave in ways that reveal something about society at large. I enjoy zombie flicks so much that I will wade through low-budget B-movie cesspools to find the pearl in the quagmire. The Mad is definitely not that pearl.

With a low-budget film, every dollar counts, so I’ll understand if the production value is lackluster or if the acting is shoddy in parts. However, one aspect that doesn’t have to cost anything is the script. There’s no reason for a horrible screenplay. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the writers have given us.

It’s no secret that most industry films follow very rigid formulas, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every once in a while, however, a film comes along that does the formula so well that it sets itself a cut above other films. Death Sentence is one of those high-caliber movies.

At its heart, Death Sentence is a story about degeneration, veiled in a vengeance-tale. David Hume, played by the always-a-pleasure-to-watch Kevin Bacon, lives a middle-class life with his wife and two sons. His older son, Brendan, is a promising athlete and the future looks bright for the Hume clan. On the way home from a game, David and Brendan find themselves low on gas in the red light district and are targeted by street thugs as victims of an initiation killing. To find peace, David wages war on the men who killed his son.

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is based on the novel by Laurence Sterne called, aptly: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It was first published in 1759 and, while I haven’t read the book, I’m told that it’s quite humorous and full of that dry wit British comedies are noted for. This film version is, regrettably, light on the laughs.

The conceit here is that Tristram Shandy (the book) is, according to the characters in the movie, “unfilmable.” Nevertheless, a stalwart production team is attempting the impossible, with Steve Coogan playing himself playing the eponymous Tristram. Coogan is supported by Rob Brydon, who plays himself playing Tristram’s uncle, Toby. There’s a bit of a power struggle between Coogan and Brydon, which is actually the only funny aspect to the entire film. The rest is straight drama, for the most part, as we follow Coogan around, doing the things that we expect film actors to do: review rushes (or “dailies” here in the States), deal with tabloids, manage personal romances with girlfriends and coworkers, etc.

I generally find cutesy titles distasteful, but I’ll let it slide here, because the film itself is actually quite good. Shattered Glass is based on the true story of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), a young, hot-shot writer for The New Republic in Washington D.C. He rose to fame quickly over his three years with the publication by partially or completely concocting his stories. Everything goes relatively without a hitch, until another publication starts researching one of Glass’ stories. The film covers Glass’ desperate attempts to keep from being found out.

There’s a lot to like here. The writing is rock solid. Billy Ray – who also directed the feature – does an elegant job of misleading the audience and keeping them on the fence as to whether or not Glass actually did fabricate his stories (that is, if you aren’t already familiar with the real story). Only once does Ray play dirty, using an “it was all a dream” convention, but, given the character of Glass, it works out. Also, a sufficient amount of the film is dedicated to the journalism process, giving the movie a believable authority and adding quite a bit of depth to the plot as a whole. As a writer, it was also nice to see the bits where writers fought for bylines or asked for criticisms. All in all, the script is highly nuanced.

There’s a resurgence of old Hollywood legacies lately and our old Vietnam veteran, Medal of Honor-winner, John Rambo follows suit with the fourth installment of the Rambo series, simply titled Rambo. No gimmicky taglines added this time, at least not in the States, anyway. When last we saw our friend John (Sylvester Stallone), he was rescuing his mentor Colonel Trautman from Afghanistan. In part four, Rambo finds his solace as a boatman and part-time snake handler just beyond the border of war torn Burma. For a guy who’s gone Buddhist, he sure likes to stay close to unmitigated conflict.

One day, a group of American philanthropic Christians, from Colorado no less, seek out Rambo to ferry them up the river so that they can deliver much needed medical supplies and attention to the hapless villagers suffering at the hands of the local military. Against his better judgment, Rambo allows himself to be persuaded by some faulty logic and brings the group of doctors into Burma. They, of course, get captured and it’s up to Rambo to save the day.

Daniel Day Lewis is one of the finest actors of our time, without a doubt. Watching him play oil prospector cum tycoon Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood is one of any film reviewer’s rare pleasures. The character is so ingrained into Lewis’ acting it’s as near to being as acting can get. This performance will be studied for years to come in acting workshops around the world. Still, there’s something to be said about making a movie that’s just plain entertaining. There Will Be Blood is not that movie.

From the get-go, the movie smacks of pretentiousness. As the screen fades in for the opening scene, we’re assaulted by the blaring soundtrack for no apparent reason. Then we’re forced to experience the daily toil of an oil prospector in the early 1900′s, watching Plainview swing his pick and dynamite walls for uncomfortably too long. Sure, it’s interesting to see what an oil prospector went through back in the day, but the interest wears thin when you have to watch it in real time. What’s worse is that there is no dialogue – or inner monologue, for that matter – to complement the scenes. There’s just silent observation. It’s an interesting directorial choice at first, but then becomes silly when there are multiple characters on screen for extended periods, working with each other in complete silence. Even when there’s immediate danger, no one yells, “Look out!” or utters, “Uh oh.” Nothing. Just sweet, serene silence as someone dies. Style over substance. Style over entertainment, too.

Hitman is yet another example revealing that Hollywood has no idea of what video gamers want out of a film adaptation. It’s no secret that movies based on video games are typically hollow and nonsensical, especially with the likes of Uwe Boll running around, but sometimes, it just boggles the mind. I wish directors and producers would take a step back and ask themselves, “If this were just an original movie based on nothing, would it still make sense and would it still be enjoyable?” The answer here is “no.” Regrettably, even if you’re familiar with the source material, the answer is still “no.”

Let’s forget about the video game for a moment and try to tackle Hitman the movie. The protagonist is a super assassin codenamed Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant). He’s part of a mysterious group called the Organization that breeds a bunch of bald-headed super assassins, easily identified by the barcode on the back of their skulls. There appears to be some religious ties as well, but beyond the quick childhood shots in the beginning, we don’t get much background on our hero. He gets his orders through his laptop, but why he does what he does or what the motives of his Organization are is a mystery. 47 is pursued by Interpol Agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott) who’s been chasing him for several years. Everything’s going fine for 47 until one of his marks amazingly comes back from the dead and the Organization starts hunting 47.

Film marketing groups really need to re-examine their methods, especially when it comes to a film like Balls of Fury. Whole scenes can be constructed around punch lines and it’s a real shame when the marketing side doesn’t have enough faith in the film and reveals those gags to draw audiences. Such is the case here; so anyone who’s seen the previews will feel cheated several times throughout the movie.

In Balls of Fury we follow ping pong virtuoso and Olympic hopeful Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) from his auspicious beginnings to his ignominious downfall and then through his trek toward redemption. This classic Bildungsroman journey is weaved into a screwball spoof of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. Randy is recruited by FBI Agent Ernie Rodriguez (George Lopez) to infiltrate the mysterious Feng’s compound and see what bad things he’s up to. Along the way, Randy teams up with ping pong master Wong (James Hong) and his equally talented niece Maggie (Maggie Q).

The Sentinel is your classic frame-up story where the hero is part of some group or elite taskforce and is mistakenly considered a bad guy. The hero must now elude capture by his/her old colleagues in order to clear his/her name. Think The Negotiator or Minority Report or any other film that fits the bill. In this case, we have Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas), an aged Secret Service Agent who took a bullet for President Reagan in his younger years. When we meet him in his current older state, he’s still protecting the current President, but the First Lady seems to have added sexual favors to his job description. We find this out, of course, on the heels of hearing Garrison’s close friend tell him that he has something important to disclose, but will wait until later. Note to Self: Whenever someone tells you that they “have something important to tell you,” make them tell you whatever it is right then and there. Nine times out of ten, that person will end up dead before they can tell it to you. Such is the case here. Alas.

Fortunately for Garrison, an informant tips him off to an internal assassination plot on the President by a rogue Secret Service Agent. Things turn for the worse, however, when someone blackmails Garrison into suspicious behavior, using photographs of him and the First Lady as leverage. This causes super-agent David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) and his new partner (Eva Longoria) to bring Garrison in, who, of course, runs. From there, Garrison must elude authorities, prove his innocence, smoke out the rogue agent and save the President’s life all in what’s left of the 108 minutes of the movie.

First, let me just admit that I didn’t read the original epic poem, so I won’t make any opinions about how true Beowulf the movie is to the source material. Secondly, I was fortunate enough to catch the 3-D version, so if over-ooh and ahh about the visuals, just know that they were literally popping off the screen for me, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Beowulf is based on the Old English epic poem dating as far back as around the eighth century. In the movie, Beowulf is a monster-killer and he and his stalwart band of fearless Geats arrive in Danish lands to rid a small village of their local monster, Grendel, voiced marvelously by Crispin Glover. Unfortunately, Beowulf (Ray Winstone) must also deal with Grendel’s mother, voiced by and modeled after the inimitable Angelina Jolie, and then later fight a dragon. Despite these numerous foes, the real opposition for Beowulf is himself. He must overcome the fallacies of his nature to truly be the hero everyone, including himself, believes he is.

It’s hard to know how to review a film from another culture sometimes. Can I really say that any one way of filmmaking is the “right” way? I don’t think so. Well, let’s just say that I enjoy martial arts films, but also enjoy the economy of scenes in Western films. With that in mind, I can confidently say that I had a good time watching this movie, but it got gratuitous and mired itself down with too much development.

As near as I can figure, the plot goes a little something like this: An important witness is being transported under heavy guard so that he can testify safely. A young team of hot shot cops is assembled to protect him during transit. An old team of hot shot bad guys assembles to liberate the witness. The old team beats the young team and they make off with the witness, but not to rescue him. Instead, the witness is used as ransom by the old team bad guys to lure out the witness’ brother who happens to be a different bad guy. And the reason they want that bad guy is because he got Michael Biehn’s brother killed. Actually, every character on both the good and bad teams has a beef to sort out with someone else on the other side. And that’s precisely the reason why the film breaks down.

Just because something follows form doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dissatisfying. When Ferrari makes a car we don’t say that it’s just like the Hyundai in the garage. It’s how you build upon the form that separates the boring from entertaining, Benz’ from Volkswagons and Employee of the Month from most romantic comedies.

Slacker Zack Bradley (Dane Cook) is a box boy at Super Club, a warehouse superstore like Costco. As the lowest man on the totem pole in Super Club hierarchy, Zack’s arch-nemesis is none other than the number one cashier, Vince Downey (Dax Shepard), who is not only the fastest Super Club cashier, but also the employee of the month for 17 straight months. Zack has no intention of dethroning Vince until Amy (Jessica Simpson) transfers in and is rumored to sleep with the employee of the month. With such a great reward (including a newish Chevy Malibu), Zack and Vince pull no punches as they fight for the coveted title.