Genre: Action Fantasy
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Staring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino
Released: March 25, 2011

THE GENERAL IDEA

Sucker Punch is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, but her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary…with potentially tragic consequences.

District 9 is a rip snorting, sci-fi oddity that starts promisingly on uncharted grounds, but halfway through decides to travel down the road of overblown action spectacle.

Director Neill Blomkamp, with the financing of Peter Jackson, builds his debut on the subtext of apartheid and segregation.

And though he advances steadily over half the running time, the originality loses steam, and District 9 devolves into cliché, gore splattered free-for-all.

Early on in the film Adam Sandler drives back to his lavish mansion with tears welling in his red eyes. He’s just been diagnosed with leukemia, and been informed of his slim chances for survival. The scene, perfectly acted and expertly shot, looks like a shot from Crash, much less any other comedy. The drama is potent and effective. Despite this, a couple to my right exits the theater.

Be warned dear readers: If you go in expecting Bruno, a film which went purely for laughs and no emotional connection, you’ll leave disappointed. Funny People packs an emotional wallop to go with its biting humor. Fortunately Apatow balances both aspects brilliantly.

Sometimes a trailer is released for a film that is absolutely spellbinding. The most recent one was for the remake of Wes Craven’s 1972 cult classic, The Last House on the Left. Bearing the same title the film was proud to boast that it was both sadistic and cruel. The talk of a small scale horror masterpiece began. Directed by Dennis Iliadis – who also helmed a lesser known 2004 Greek film entitled Hardcore – so to American audiences, it was nothing more than another horror remake. If anyone here has ever had the chance of seeing Iliadis’ Hardcore, then you would be in agreement that the film was going to be nothing like the typical horror remake. What my primary concern with the film was is that Iliadis might butcher the original content like Marcus Nispel did with his The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. The original Tobe Hooper film (of the same title) was a perfect exercise in raw brutality and sadism. The scene at the dinner table is one of the most chilling to ever grace the silver screen. What Nispel wound up doing could be labeled as “raping the source.” Not only did he get rid of some of the original’s pivotal moments, but he even altered some of the scenes to be more pleasing to the modern day audience. The original was clearly fine as it was if someone felt the need to re-invent it, so why bother messing with it? Iliadis took the hint and unlike Nispel, embraced the source material.

A few years ago, the comedic genre was dead. The only brands of humor that you would normally see were the spoof films and the conventional crude and perverted teenager flick. In 2005, a man named Judd Apatow made a film entitled The 40-Year Old Virgin and changed the way that comedy was to be perceived in the future. One of the main aspects that made 40-Year Old Virgin excel than most of the other typical Hollywood crap is that it had a story to go along with the humor. Something to make you sympathize with Carell’s virginal character. Within the film, two other powerhouses emerged: Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen. Rudd with his dry witty comedic one liners and Rogen with his deep stoner laugh and childish charm.

These two men had the comedic world in the palm of their hands. Since The 40-Year Old Virgin, there has been Role Models, Pineapple Express, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marhsall and a lesser known indie comedy, The Foot Fist Way. Directed and written by Jody Hill and starring (of Pineapple Express fame) Danny McBride, it was one of the darkest and foulest comedies to grace the film since the comedy has been re-defined. With Hill’s brand of dark humor and Rogen’s comedic charm, what could go wrong with collaboration between the two?