Hey guys, thanks for checking out our Step Brothers review! I was uncertain about how this film would fly after the let down that was Semi Pro, so I tried to keep my expectations low. Mixed reviews were also swirling about Comic Con so I was curious on where i would sit within the spectrum. So without further ado, here is my Step Brothers review!

The General Idea

Two spoiled guys become competitive stepbrothers after their single parents get hitched.

The Good

This film was completely outlandish and totally absurd; I welcomed the nonsense with open arms. Will Ferell’s best work has always been when he delves deep into the caves of the ridiculous, and this film gave him an opportunity to excel at what he does best. As a man that loves the absurd, I was laughing loudly throughout the entire film.

Every actor in the film did an outstanding job with their characters. Will and John C. had amazing chemistry and were able to riff off of one another brilliantly. Mary Steenburgen was perfect as a doting mother that was trying to gently encourage the boys into manhood and Richard Jenkins plays a father at wit’s end who has all but given up hope on his adult children. The family works as the “straight man” for much of this film and they do an outstanding job. I want to go into many of the details about their family interaction, but I don’t want to spoil any surprises for anyone.

This film was crass and was better for it. When the mother stared to swear out of sheer frustration it was so damn funny, and there is no way they could have gotten as crazy as they did without the R rating. Letting these comedic mustangs roam free in the plain of Restriction was the correct choice.

The Bad

The film follows a formulaic plot and turns out exactly like you would expect it to. The journey is so ridiculous however, that this never really bothered me at all. In fact it was so outlandish in its delivery that the formula of problem, resolution, problem, solution was itself mocked along with everything else. I didn’t dislike much about his film, so I am reaching here.

Overall

I loved this movie, and am glad this crew made a film that suited their tastes and strengths. This is a movie that may divide people 50/50; and that suits me just fine. I thought Step Brothers was excellent and gladly give it an 8 out of 10. I laughed my ass off non stop for the entire film and look forward to discussing it with all of you! For fans of Will Ferrell’s more bizarre SNL sketches - you will be in for a treat.

The General Idea

Plot Synopsis Via IMDB: In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-and-son duo Rick and Alex O’Connell unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin — a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard centuries ago.

When Mike Mignola’s creation “Hellboy” was brought to the big screen by Guillermo del Toro I was blown away by the results. Having only read a couple of the comics, I wasn’t sure how on earth they could bring this type of a character… this type of a world to the big screen in a way that general audiences would “get it”. Somehow they found a way and made Hellboy probably the most underrated Comic Book movie ever… Hellboy himself is one of the most interesting characters certainly in the entire genre on screen and was perfectly embodied by Ron Perlman. Needless to say I was very excited about the prospects of another Hellboy movies, and last night I had that chance to see it. Was my anticipation rewarded? Yes it was.

THE GENERAL IDEA

The synopsis for Hellboy 2 looks something like this: “The Golden Army begins when an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken; Hell on earth is ready to erupt. Hellboy 2 tells the tale of a ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below, defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Its up to the planets toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red, he may be horned, he may be misunderstood, but when you need the job done right, its time to call in Hellboy (Ron Perlman), and the B.P.R.D.

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) will travel between the surface world and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal, along with his expanding team pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones), and protoplasmic mystic Johann Krauss (James Dodd), the newest member of the BPRD. Hellboy, a creature of two worlds who is accepted by neither, must choose between the life he knows and an unknown destiny that beckons him.

A slip-up results in the F.B.I. being forced to reveal the existence of BPRD to the general public. Brash old Hellboy doesn’t play well with the public, which only increases the instability of his already-turning-rough relationship with Liz. However, fellow paranormal Johann (who is a sort of ectoplasmic spirit held within a very special containment suit) is far better with the public — and with Liz, apparently. But in the end they’ve all got to come together to fight Prince Nuada (son of the Woodland King), who, with his army of ghouls, faerie, and the like, is attempting to resurrect a golden army once controlled by his father.”

THE GOOD

Del Toro does such a magnificent job creating this world in which the “normal” world and the world of the fantastic live together in close proximity. Other projects that have a fantastic world within the same realm of our own often come across as cheesy, but the way Del Toro weaves it all together is amazing.

The character design is just beautiful and very different from the run of the mill, cookie cutter creature design we see in a lot of other flicks. Del Toro designed a lot of the creatures himself and you can completely see the signature look that he also used for some of his creatures in “Pan’s Labyrinth”. All very original… all breathtakingly beautiful.

Good comic book movies need a solid antagonist. And Prince Nuara fits the need very nicely. The role is played by Luke Goss who also appeared in Del Toro’s “Blade 2″ as the main bad guy Nomak. He has a terrific intensity about him that make him something to dread. And this may sound odd… but I find the best “bad guys” are the ones who think they’re being “good”. They have a sense of honor about them. To me this is extra scary.

Perlman once again rules as Hellboy. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing this role as well as he’s done it (although I’m sure I’d be saying the same thing if another guy had done it in the first place too).

The Mythology of the story is incredible. The movie starts with flashback of a young Hellboy going to bed and his father (who died in the first movie) telling him the bedtime story of the Golden Army. It’s a terrific tale with so many classic elements in it. It sets a wonderful framework for the movie as a whole.

I didn’t think I’d like the new character on the team, Johann Kraus, but as it turns out he was one of my favorite characters in the movie. I talked to some people after the screening that thought he sounded silly (strong German accent), but I thought he was hilarious and thought the accent really added to the character.

The visual effects were… WOW… just wow. Especially The Golden Army itself. Some amazing looking stuff.

THE BAD

I was actually pretty happy to hear that Doug Jones (The man who was in Abe’s suit for the first movie, but David Hyde Pierce did the voice) was going to get to do the voice of Abe as well this time around. Doug (for those of you who may not know) was also the body of the Silver Surfer in fantastic Four 2… but didn’t get to do the voice, and the voice of Pan the Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth… but didn’t get to do the voice I don’t think either. Unfortunately, i don’t think Doug’s voice worked for Abe. He did his very best to mimic David Hyde Pierce, but for me it fell short. I found myself constantly expecting to hear the first voice come out… but it never did. Too bad.

The movie isn’t a comedy per se, and I understand that… but the first one was a lot funnier. Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of priceless scenes that had me laughing out loud… but not nearly as many as the first Hellboy movie, and I was expecting a little more of that with the characters you had here.

I can’t really put my finger on it… but Selma Blair (who I really like normally) just didn’t work nearly as well for me as Liz this time around as she did in the last flick. And it wasn’t just the character… it felt to me like Blair was bored or something. In sports terms it felt like she just mailed in her performance and didn’t give much of an effort. She didn’t suck… but she didn’t bring it either… or even tried to… shame.

OVERALL

Hellboy 2 ends up being a fun, beautiful looking fantasy / adventure type movie that manages to be a tiny bit better than the first one. No, it’s not as funny and the lack of David Hyde Pierce was painfully obvious, but other than that it’s a truly fun time at the theaters. Del Toro does it again!

Overall I give Hellboy 2 a 7.5 out of 10.

I’ve said it many times before… for my money, Pixar is not only the best animation film studio in the business… they are the best film studio period. This company simply doesn’t know how to make anything less than excellence. Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Cars… name another studio that is literally 8 for 8? So whenever a new Pixar film is in development, it instantly gets my attention, and Wall-E was no exception to that rule. 2008 has already been a great summer for movies with releases like Iron Man, Wanted, Dark Knight, Prince Caspian and a few others… would Wall-E live up to Pixar standards and keep the summer season moving forward? YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!

THE GENERAL IDEA

The synopsis for Wall-E looks something like this: “Disney and Pixar join forces for this computer-animated tale about a wide-eyed robot who travels to the deepest reaches of outer space in search of a newfound friend. The year is 2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable. For hundreds of years, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been taking out the trash, and collecting precious knick-knacks in order to stave off the boredom of his dreary routine. Little does WALL-E realize that he has recently stumbled onto a secret that could save planet Earth, and once again make the ravaged planet safe for all humankind. When highly advanced search robot EVE makes friends with WALL-E and realizes the value of his remarkable discovery, she excitedly races back to let the humans know that there’s hope for their home planet after all. But after centuries alone in the world, WALL-E can’t stand the thought of losing the only friend he’s ever known, and eagerly follows her into the deepest reaches of space on the adventure of a lifetime. Along the way, the friendly trash-collecting robot who has always known what he was made for gradually begins to understand what he was meant for. Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton returns to the helm for this family-friendly sci-fi adventure featuring the voices of Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, and Ben Burtt.”

THE GOOD

The visual element of Wall-E is just breathtaking in some spots. The earth really does look like its been abandoned for hundreds of years. It is a vast, dreary landscape whose visual style communicates the nature and emotion of the predicament of the earth. It’s not often anymore that an animated film makes you look at some shots with a huge sense of awe… but Wall-E does that.

One of the big questions going into the movie that a lot of people has were “how interesting can this movie be when the main characters don’t actually talk?”. A fair question. When your two main characters (Wall-E and EVE) have about 90% of the screen time, and each basically only ever say “Wall-E” or “Eve”, the burden for storytelling falls onto the shoulders of the character performances (animation) and the art of visual storytelling, and my goodness did they ever hit it out of the park in this regard. Wall-E communicates worlds of information to the audience without ever saying a word just by how perfectly and beautifully he’s animated. His movements, his expression and his very nature are the tools by which this story is told without the use of words (there is dialog in the film from some other characters… but the majority of the movie is told by just watching and experiencing Wall-E himself).

This is not only a great animated movie… this is truly one of the greatest Science Fiction films I’ve seen since E.T. Great Sci-Fi doesn’t just give us giant robots and flashy space ships… but also observations about the human condition. Great science fiction acts as a looking glass on our reality from the perspective of the fantastic or the other worldly. Throughout the film, Wall-E makes serious observations about us as a society, and all done in such a way that none of it seems unrealistic. 700 years from now all humans are fat beyond reason, almost without the ability to walk at all. They are so connected into their technology that they become oblivious to simple observations about the world around them in which they live. They engorge themselves in their modern conveniences while destroying themselves at the same time. It’s difficult to go into too much without crossing into spoiler territory, but for now I’ll just leave it at that.

Ok… we all knew this movie was going to be “cute”, as in the “awwwww” factor of it. But wow, it really is cute and endearing. I just fell in love with Wall-E and EVE as they go along on their little adventure. And I’m man enough to admit that near the end of the film I even felt some tears welling up in my eyes that I had to wipe away. Just so beautiful. Lots of fantastic humor too (which we’ve come to expect from Pixar) that kept you grinning or laughing almost the entire time.

Not really “Wall-E” related… but the Pixar animated short film “Presto” that plays just before Wall-E is one of the best they’ve ever done too and added to my overall enjoyment of the evening.

THE BAD

I’ve got nothing to add here

OVERALL

This is the best film of 2008 so far, and if Wall-E doesn’t get nominated for Best Picture (not just the cheap cop-out Best Animated Picture) then I’m going to throw a total fit. This is a beautiful, smart, touching, hilarious and damn cute movie that I’m going to see at least 4 more times in the theater. It is the best film Pixar has ever made in my opinion… and the most complete one too. I loved this movie. Overall I give Wall-E a 9.5 out of 10.

From the first moment that I heard about this flick I was interested… and then after I saw the first trailer a few months back I was completely stoked for it. Not many people have been giving Wanted much love, but I said that it, along with the Hulk (which most people were also saying was going to totally suck) would be the 2 surprise films of the summer (in the sense of quality, not box office… because let’s face it, no matter how good Wanted turns out, it’s going to get totally bitch slapped around at the box office by that little Pixar robot Wall-e). Well, the Hulk did indeed end up surprising a lot of people and turned out to be a pretty good flick. So did Wanted also live up to that? HELL YES!!!!!

THE GENERAL IDEA

The synopsis for Wanted looks something like this: “Based upon Mark Millar’s explosive graphic novel series and helmed by stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov — creator of the most successful Russian film franchise in history, the ‘Night Watch’ series — ‘Wanted’ tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. In 2008, the world will be introduced to a hero for a new generation: Wesley Gibson.

25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie). After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code”

THE GOOD

First and foremost is the performance of James McAvoy was just fantastic. His character, Wesley, goes through a major transformation… a cheesy one… and yet McAvoy pulls it off in such a way that it not only DOESN’T come off as cheesy, but hilarious and believable at the same time. Going into the movie I thought one of the elements I was going to have a hard time with was buying McAvoy as an action star… well screw that because he pulls it off with no problems whatsoever. Jolie may get all the sexy shots in the trailers, but make no mistake about it, James McAvoy carries this film.

The underlying mythology of the movie regarding the history of this secret society of assassins called “The Fraternity” and how they get their instructions for who to kill was awesome. **MINOR SPOILER** you learn in the film that the ancient order of assassins was first formed by a group of weavers 1000 years ago. These weavers actually learned how to interpret secret messages from “fate” in the threads of fabric. The threads spell out who the Fraternity must kill in order to make the world a safer place. It sounds silly on the surface… but trust me, it totally works **END OF MINOR SPOILER**

This movie promises action in the marketing… and it delivers! There’s not just a lot of action… the action in the film is all top notch. The set pieces are carried out on a grand scale (wait till you see the train scene), the gun fights are cheer worthy and throughout the movie there a little “moments” of action. You know what I mean… not full out action scenes, but regular scenes with an element of action thrown in. It was all great, I loved it.

The visual effects were surprisingly good and always seemed to fit right in with what was going on. There were one or two spots where I thought to myself “THAT was clearly fake”, but other than that, it seemed to work.

Oh, and as a side note, I also laughed a lot in the movie. There are at least 6 or 7 moments in the movie that I laughed out loud.

The story in the movie is a solid one too. With a summer brainless action flick I sort of expected it to be… well… brainless. However, the plot is great… a compelling antagonist… a good little twist or two… it all just comes together well.

THE BAD

Ok, I’ll say this much. Some of the action sequences are so over the top that once or twice in the movie it pulls you out of the film. That’s about all I can come up with.

OVERALL

I just frigging LOVED this movie… much more than I was expecting. The action is terrific, McAvoy carries the film, Angelina Jolie is hot, seductive and pure deadly, it’s funny, great mythology and a good solid plot to boot. Aside from Iron Man this may be my favorite film of the summer so far. Overall I give Wanted a 9 out of 10