The Fry Box: Spud's Reviews

I'm hopping on the review chain. I've had reviews here and there, but no solid thread dedicated to reviews. So here goes....

Now, a little back story on these two. Found a drive-in in the city last night, and had to go check it out. This being my first drive-in theatre, I wanted to take it in.



Directed by Phil Joanou, Gridiron Gang is the true story about Los Angeles Juvenile Corrections Officer Sean Porter's attempt at putting together a football team out of juvenile criminals.

The film stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Xzibit, Leon Rippy, and Kevin Dunn.

All in all, I liked this movie. It wasn't the greatest movie ever, but it was a good story. Of course, this isn't the first film "based on a true story".

Enough about that though, I could break this movie down a lot, but you aren't here for that, so continuing on...

The film has a lot of lull points in which the movie almost does a dead stop and could make one momentarily lose interest. These are few and far between, however.

I recommned this film to those who likes films like Remember the Titans or Hardball, Gridiron Gang might be up your alley.

Gridiron Gang is rated for scenes of violence, and language.

My rating, 4/5


Moving on, here is the next film at the drive-in double feature.



Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

I'm not going to go into much detail with this. I thought this movie sucked, to put it bluntly. It didn't do much for the beginning it claimed to be providing in its title.

Most of the so called beginning was delivered in the opening credits. After that, the film just seemed to do a downward spiral and mimic most of the remake of 2003. Granted, the remake left some to be desired, but it was more intense. This one, well other than the sound effects of a chainsaw cutting through bones, doesn't leave much to the imagination.

If you're looking for a horror film to get your date to jump and hold onto you tighter, this would be one of those, but keep in mind, while this one isn't as good as the remake, it's far more detailed in how the Hewitt's butcher and prepare their meals.

for well everything you could expect to be in a horror film.

My rating, 2/5

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

So... which film did you review second?

Not seeing a title here...

Is it called The Fry Box?

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Sorry, the second movie was Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Ghost Rider (2007)

While Mark Steven Johnson's last attempt at a comic book adaption flopped, he managed to turn Ghost Rider into a fun two-hour ride.

Now, I'm not saying that the film was great, but it wasn't a waste of time. Nicolas Cage is comical as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, but at times, the comedy seems forced. Eva Mendes, well, all she turns out to be is something nice to look at. Peter Fonda and Wes Bentley star as Mephisto and Blackheart respectively. Peter Fonda seems out of place in his role as Mephisto who took Johnny's soul when he was younger so that Johnny's dad would not die of cancer. Sam Elliott, next to Cage, had a great part.

Now while the lines were at times thin, the visual effects were amazing, including Johnny's first transformation to the Ghost Rider.

All in all, the movie had dull parts, as I expected, but it also had parts that were packed with action. The love story aspect of Ghost Rider is there, but it's not a big portion of the film.

My score 6.5/10

Shooter (2007)




Mini summary:
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, Shooter revolves around Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) a U.S. Army Sniper, who after a mission goes awry retreats to a self-imposed exile. He is lured out by Colonel Issac Fitzsimmons Johnson (Danny Glover) to plan a presidential assasination as if he were going to execute it in an attempt to find an alleged sniper aiming to end the president's life. Swagger eventually finds out he's the butt of the joke and that he's being framed for the would-be assasination.

My take:
Going into this with respect for anyone who has the patience to lay in uncomfortable positions staring through a scope for hours, I had every intention on enjoying it and I wasn't let down. The story is nothing suprisingly new, someone wants to kill the president, but they don't want to take the fall for it, so they bring someone in under the illusion that they will be providing technical advice, and they end up being the prime suspect.

I found it funny that at times when Danny Glover's character is in the car, he talks as if he's got something in his mouth that is not allowing him to talk right, but when he's out of the car, he talks fine with no hinderence whatsoever.

Along for the ride is Michael Pena (World Trade Center) as FBI Agent Nick Memphis who suspects from the get-go that Swagger is innocent, but is scorned by his superiors for suggesting such things.

The action is slow at first, but gets going shortly after the shots are fired in the direction of the president. While one thing is apparent throughout, there's never really a reason why this group of individuals, including a US Senator, want the president dead. Some of the segments are a bit unbelieveable not so much from an action standpoint, but normal everyday life.

Is it a sure bet you'll get enough action out of this to satisfy your craving? Of course, there's explosions, sniper rifles, and MORE! And if you act right now, we'll also through in a mild romantic sidebar to the story.

Is it worth renting? Yes. Is it worth buying? Eh, watch it first.

My rating:
7 out of 10

Disturbia (2007)



Ok, so today I watched Disturbia for the second time, and I love it just as much as the first time.

Mini-summary:
Directed by D.J. Caruso, Disturbia is a modern remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window. Cale (Shia LaBeouf) is on 3 months house arrest for punching his teacher. While sitting around bored to death, Cale decides to spy on his neighbors. He enlists the aide of best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and new neighbor Ashley (Sarah Roemer). Things get interesting when they discover disturbing similarities with their neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse) and a wanted killer.

My take:
Disturbia, although not entirely original, tries to break away from any remake cliche that is out there to stand on it's own. If you ask me, it achieves that. The cast works great with the exception of Morse. He has little screen time and you really don't get a chance to find out more about him. While this ruins a little of the movie, the time he is on screen is wonderful. He can do two things well, play a nice guy (ala The Green Mile) or he can be sadistic (Disturbia). Not saying he's a typecast, but he can certainly play the part well.

The story is great and picks up right from the beginning leaving very few moments where you're checking the time. It quickly becomes a roller coaster that is flying along. Nothing was too far-fetched either. A lot of movies try to make the impossible possible and that certainly isn't the case here. Many of the "gadgets" Cale and his crew come up with are practicle and believable.

Of course there is a mild love story with Cale and Ashley, but that's a small sidebar in the movie.

All in all the whole movie was enjoyable, you can count on funny one-liners from LaBeouf as well as comical moments with the neighborhood. If you haven't seen it yet, put it on your list and/or buy it, you won't be let down.

My rating:
9 out of 10

Live Free or Die Hard

Mini-summary:
Bruce Willis is back as John McClane, the cop who is notoriously in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time, he is called to escort Matthew Farrell (Justin Long), a computer hacker who is wanted by the FBI for questioning after a major crash of their own network. The latest in the Die Hard franchise is directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Underworld: Evolution).

My take:
Well, I really am having a hard time with this. If the title hadn't had the words "Die Hard" in it, they could've easily had a plain 'ole action movie on their hands. It seemed like Willis was forced this time to do, what in previous films, was like second nature. More importantly, in the previous three, Willis was unintentionally funny, or not so much unintentionally, but was trying to strike fear in his adversaries, and it came out rather funny. This time, that didn't happen. The writing was nowhere near what was in the first three. Long's character seems to be the same in every film he's in. Always the wise-cracking, "play it cool" guy. Personally, that didn't bother me, half the time I cracked a smile with his jokes.

If I had to line all four Die Hard films up in order of action-pack-ed-ness, I think they would go somewhat like this:

1. Die Hard
2. Die Hard With a Vengeance
3. Die Hard 2: Die Harder
4. Live Free or Die Hard

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't like this movie, it's just that I when you go into a movie with "Die Hard" in the title, you've come to expect a certain level of action and excitement. This time around, the action was a little scarce and some sequences were not very practicle. I doubt a guy jumping from a hovering helicopter who lands on a non-moving car will just simply stand up afterwards. That's just one instance where I felt the need to say "there's no way", of course not out loud.

Timothy Olyplant is the mastermind behind it all as Thomas Gabriel. His scenes are short and when he is on camera, he constantly gives off that telemarketer talk, which puts him on my s*** list, cause we hate telemarketers.

Anyway, wrapping this all up, I would say for those of you who have grown up watching the trilogy, and you know who McClane is, go watch it. Of course, for those of you who have not seen any of the first Die Hard's, you won't need to watch them first before going into this.

Overall, this is basically what you would expect from an action movie...so you won't be dissapointed in that aspect.

My score:
3.5 out of 5*

*P.S. - I'm changing my ratings from a 10 point scale to a 5 point scale in order to match the site's scale

Zodiac (2007)

Mini-summary:
Zodiac is a film based on the very odd serial killings that took place around the San Francisco area in the late 60's early 70's and had many people living in fear of this masked mystery killer. Cops were clueless as to who the killer could be and have yet to identify the true killer. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, who becomes very intrigued by the killer who calls himself the Zodiac. The film also stars Robert Downey Jr as Paul Avery, the crime writer for the Chronicle. Also starring are Mark Ruffalo as Inspector David Toschi and Anthony Edwards as William Armstrong. The film is Rated R and has a run time of about 2 hrs and 40 mins.

My take:
If you're not familiar with the Zodiac killings of the 60s and 70s, take a few minutes to research it just a little. It's really something to think about how all this transpired back when. Having said that, again this is a movie based on the true story of the Zodiac.

The movie, directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) makes his return to the director's chair for the first time in nearly 5 years, and if I may say so, it was as if he wasn't even gone. He captured the essence of the 60s and 70s perfectly, all the way down to the tiny details.

The cast is superb in portraying their real life counter-parts.

Now for the bad part...
While the movie is rather long, most of the step-by-step occurances of the Zodiac's cryptic messages and tauntings happens within the first half of the film. The second half, we are left with Gyllenhaal's character Graysmith trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together in order to bring the killer down. In real life, he managed to write two books on the Zodiac and is considered to be an expert on the matter, but that's beside the point. IMO, the movie could've been shortened by at least 45 minutes in order to get to the point a little faster.

I found myself losing interest after the Zodiac stops contacting the Chronicle and the police. Even though the film is based on the book which is based on the true story, I think certain aspects of the book could've been left out in order to fit in more pertinent facts relating to the unsolved case.

All in all, I enjoyed it. Of course, for some reason, I get into the true crime stories, something about them just gets me interested. I suggest renting it if you want to brush up on some of the most terrifying years for San Fran folks.

My score:
4 out of 5

Sorry it has taken me so long to pop in here and read your reviews… but great job … I really disliked Ghostrider… but have added The Shooter and Disturbia to my "to see" list… thanks for sharing…

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So, it's been a while since I've put a review on here. This time, I'm not really doing a review, but more of a "what did you think" session.

This will be over the film Choke (2008).



I won't go into any details, but I will say this. I wasn't really surprised, nor was I let down with what I saw. It had almost the same feel to it as did Fight Club, which was written by the same author, Chuck Palahniuk.

The ending left me a little surprised as I knew there was going to be a twist, I just didn't expect the twist I saw.

Anyone else happen to see this? If so, your thoughts?

Here's what meaty and I thought. I'd be happy to get more into it after you added some more.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Kudos man, did a search on it, but didn't think to do one on posts vice threads.

Monsters Vs. Aliens

Directed by:Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland, Paul Rudd

Synopsis: When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. The military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of Monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, the President is persuaded to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamw...stersvsaliens/



First off, I will say that this was my first ever 3-D movie experience. However, the simple fact that it was 3-D doesn't change anything.

I think back to when Toy Story was released and the impressive work the Pixar guys did on it. Dreamworks really hit the nail on the head, story wise, with Shrek and while I don't believe that M vs A was as good as Shrek or even Shrek 2, it wasn't as bad as say Space Chimps.

There were a few things that had me chuckling, but I didn't find there to be "gut-busting" laughs throughout. Naturally, any scene with B.O.B. present was a hoot because of the simple fact that Seth Rogen, regardless of whether or not you see him, can just make the dumbest comment funny. The conversation he has with a JELL-O mold certainly guarantees a few laughs. Of course, one thing I couldn't help but get over was how much I couldn't get used to Hugh Laurie talking without sounding like House. That didn't take anything away from my experience, I just tend to forget that he's not originally from America.

I mentioned the 3-D factor earlier and like I said, I didn't feel it really made the movie any better, nor did it take anything away. In fact, I'm more blown away with the entire concept of 3-D movies. More on my thoughts regarding 3-D films can be found here.

Overall, it wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't a big achievement for Dreamworks either. Great voice cast and the first attempt at making "contact" will have you laughing.

Final score:

Oh why not, I'll add another review today...

My Best Friend's Girl (2008)

I'll make this one quick, because the movie was anything but. I for one, was a fan of Dane Cook when he first hit the mainstream. Now, he's cramming himself down our throats with the different comedy specials on HBO, the crappy movies a la Good Luck Chuck and Employee of the Month. The only movie where I enjoyed his performance was in Mr. Brooks...at the end.

Let me move onto Jason Biggs. Not too much to say about this guy. I tend to not take you seriously once you've crossed that imaginary line and get freaky with an apple pie. Of course, who took him seriously back then?

Kate Hudson...I think the best movie she has been in was Almost Famous and I'm excluding a majority of her scenes.

This film got me in a rant because I just didn't like it at all. It wasn't funny, big surprise, they under-utlized the raw talent of Alec Baldwin and did I mention that it was long (for that type of movie anyway)!?

Long story short, if you see this movie on the shelf, skip it. It was something my wife wanted to watch, so I humored her. I fell asleep a couple times, but I humored nonetheless.

I don't even want to go into any details about this film, other than to tell you to avoid it.

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The Freedom Roads

Spud I have loved reading your reviews they are very insightfull keep um coming dude

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~In the event of a Zombie Uprising, remember to sever the head or destroy the brain!~

As you can see, for some reason or another I don't post too many reviews, but I watch a ton of movies. I'll start posting some more though.

Its the same here mate TBH I watch loads of movies but hardly review any, I really need to get back into reviewing I dont think I am the best reviewer but its cool that people can see what you thought of the movie. I do enjoy reviewing and reading reviews but I never read reviews on new movies I really want to see.

I won't read the entire review, but I do see what kind of grade a movie's getting. Most of the time, that doesn't sway my decision of whether or not I'll see it, but sometimes it gives me a better idea of what I'm expecting.

I can't believe he's still around... but then again, I'm glad, cause he's cute. He also makes me feel young because as long as he's still making movies, my Millenium generation is still around.

Unlike the 1980's generation -- where are Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall?

On another note, this is the only review thread that makes me hungry.