We’ve all said it before, more so after we’ve established a family of our own. God forbid, if somethin were to happen to someone we love, we’d kill the bastards responsible. We’d hunt them down like a prey animal and first do unimaginable things to them for the pain they’ve caused us. Then when their lifeless bodies hung limply from the wall shackles, we’d kill them again, just for good measure. Director, James Wan rummaged into this premise with an updated version of Death Wish, relevantly titled Death Sentence.

It starts when Nick’s oldest son is murdered by a bunch of cartoonish thugs in the middle of a robbery. When I say they’re cartoonish, I really mean it. They drive around in formation, haulin ass in noisy muscle cars with flames painted on the side of them. The gang he’s up against looks like somethin that fell off the back of a bad pulp novel, white guys running around with shaved heads and cheap leather jackets, wieldin machetes in the middle of the city for no other reason that I can think of than that they generate more blood for Wan to splash on his camera.

The murder of his kid pushes Nick over the edge, and he declares war on the gangbangers who did it. Soon his entire family is in jeopardy, and the movie becomes about whether or not he can save him. It’s all of course, utterly ridiculous since five minutes ago Nick was sittin in a glorified cubicle pourin over risk assessments. Now he’s suddenly a badass weapons expert and hand to hand combat specialist. Come on Death Sentence, at least give us one of those idiotic trainin montages.

For most of its running time, the film alternates between overly emotive, poorly delivered speeches and clunky action sequences. The movie’s heavy emotional components never work, because the actors are clueless and don’t ever seem to know what to do with them. The film’s gritty action beats fall flat on their face because they’re clumsily staged and impossible to buy into. For instance in one of the movie’s most tense, big-action moments Kevin Bacon is supposed to climb out the front window of a car right before it falls off a building. Instead of gettin the hell out of there as fast as he can, he hangs out just sort of biding his time, only leaping out of the car right as it gets to the edge, as if he somehow knew there was an audience watchin & it’d make things more excitin if he escaped at the last minute.

On the positive side, John Goodman has a passively enjoyable cameo as a fat, sweaty arms dealer and at least Death Sentence isn’t loaded down with bad cheesy special effects. Wan sticks to practical stunts and does his best to deliver gritty, hard edged action. Safe to say he fails, but at least the guy tried. That’s more than we usually get in the standard, modern revenge flick. While I don’t necessarily think i wouldve ran out or encouraged anyone to run out to the theaters to see this, I do believe it deserves a rental when it shows up in your Netflix queue!

3 Stars - I seen worst!

I know im late wit his film but i had to rent it. My biggest mistake was not watchin it on the big screen. For starters you will root for these guys, you fall over laughin at their insecurities about girls and the desperate and disastrous attempts to impress them, and you feel like you just spent a great nite out with your bros. I LOVE offbeat humor being that im 1 to participate or encourage it in real life.

Sex is important, especially to guys. There, now that's out of the way, the film "Superbad" is like "American Pie" and "Beavis and Butthead", just a shitload of a lot funnier. The character Seth is a chubby high school senior whose gotten his share of BJ's but who has yet to cross into the final frontier. His dorky friend Evan is in the same boat. The two dorks know they have to get laid before college or they'll be losers forever. The opportunity arrives when a girl invites them to her party. They accept and even offer to bring the beer. Their friend Fogell has just scored a fake I.D., only to their dismay, it says he is a 25-year old organ donor from Hawaii named McLovin. Through a freak liquor store robbery, McLovin gets seperated from Seth and Evan, joyridin around all night with two fun-loving dumbass cops looking to reclaim their youth for the evening. Meanwhile, Seth and Evan must go through a series of ordeals to get the beer.

"Superbad" just makes you feel "oh so good". This is a hilarious comedy about what it is to be a teenage boy, a crude supposed wannabe "badass" who also happens to be at the mercy of everyone from liquor store owners, to cops, to chicks. This is a movie you can sit and watch with your friends and identify with every character in it, because in fact, you probably were or still are one of these characters. LOL... i know i can still identify! You root for these guys, you fall over laughin at their insecurities about girls and the desperate and disastrous attempts they make to impress them, and at the end you feel like you just spent a great night out with your bros. Of course everything from menstrual blood to vomit is used to class up the film as well. This is like a chick flick for dudes.

It's honest and it has some really good performances in it by three talented young stars. Jonah Hill, whose been around alot lately in great (Knocked Up) and terrible (Evan Almighty) comedies as a supporting player. Evan is me but i have a lil more mojo..err, I mean perfect as a kid who will do anything to get laid. Michael Cera, from "Arrested Development", works well with him as his shyer, more introverted friend. The two share an interestin dyanamic, both having the same goal but completely different dreams about how they want it to go down. There is also a nice "bros before hos" message that they bring across beautifully. And Christopher Mintz-Plasse (fogell) steals the movie with the look and personality of Woody Allen, but the balls of a George Clooney or James Bond. McLovin will be a character who will live on in the history of comedy for a long time to come! McLovin RAWKS!!!

I Give Super Bad 4.5 Beers!

Ok when this movie came out i did not see it in the theater! Sometimes im a lil shakey wit the movies that come out lately. Oh well, i got to see this film via Netflix, damn i LUV Netflix! Anyway this how it goes down...
Serial killers are people too, with hopes and dreams and loving spouses and kids who drive them crazy. That’s the repulsive theme of this revolting film, which flirts briefly with satire and dark comedy before landing squarely in the realm of made-for-TV melodrama about the challenges and the rewards of balancing career, marriage, parenthood, and a serious avocation for vicious, coldblooded murder. Ugh -- I need to be hosed down. Kevin Costner (The Guardian) is desperately not up to the task of Mr. Brooks, the Portland (Oregon) Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year. He makes boxes, and he’s very successful at it, which is, I think, meant to be a metaphor for how “straight” life -- ie, life in which he denies his serial-killer side thanks to AA -- constrains him. Watch him revel orgasmically in death, though, when his demented alter ego (William Hurt [The Good Shepherd], (like my alter-ego disco avatar) who probably believed this was going to be a satire) eggs him on to taking up their hobby again. And I haven’t even touched on the ludicrousness of Demi Moore’s (Bobby) millionaire cop, or Dane Cook’s (Mystery Men) sickening serial-killer groupie. The sadistic, killer-as-hero crap that has infested horror movies aimed at teenagers has, pardon the pun, bleed over into movies intended for adults, a development to be greatly lamented.

I give this movie 3 dead bodies!

"American Gangster" is one heck of a movie. Based on the true story, Frank Lucas was one larger-than-life son of a blank. For better or worse, his work and his influence have had a tremendous impact on everyone and everythin in some way or another, especially those in Harlem and similar cities that his operation went on in. He was the number one supplier of heroin to countless thousands of junkies and he was a businessman like you wouldnt believe… he makes most corporate CEOs look like little fancypants. He was (and still is) one scary dude.

Denzel Washington was drop dead fantastic in this role and Russell Crowe did an adamant job as well. Seeing the inner working of Lucas' operation and his pure, ruthless business savvy was truly a sight to behold. He was above the law, above the mafia, and above the other drug lords… he became a force of nature to be reckoned with. Denzel's dark, engaging performance was so good I almost 4got it was Denzel. I could see this other person on screen and I was scared to death of him… very kind and caring at times, but ruthless in an instant. Overall, "American Gangster" is an amazin and really brilliantly well-done gangster movie. I highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good crime, gangster, or based on true events type of movie.

I actually give it 4.5 kilos!