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Buddy “Aces” Israel, Vegas magician & with big time mob ties, is holed up in Reno trying trying to live the high life while waiting for his attorney to broker a deal with him for the FBI that will allow him to squeal on his mob partners without doing time. FBI agents Carruthers & Messner have been sent to get Israel upon hearing that mob boss Primo Sparzza has put out a hit on him and are racing against time to get there before assassins and hit men from across the country converge on Reno to collect on Sparazza’s reward.

Going into Smokin’ Aces I really didn’t expect a thing, but I came out loving this movie. Joe Carnahan may not have made a crime classic like The Untouchables but what he did make was an engaging, unique action movie full of eclectic characters that keeps you entertained and guessing straight through to the end of the movie. This movie is a heck of a ride to go on, and is greatly enjoyed on repeated viewings.

The Tremor brothers in Smokin’ Aces are part of what makes the movie so memorable for me and are a great addition to the pantheon of cinematic siblings along with the Hanson brothers. The Tremor’s are audacious, insane, disturbing, deadly and oh so much fun. These characters are so demented in their behavior and appearance that I honestly was not aware Chris Pine was one of the Tremor’s until it was pointed out to me. Watch the movie and you’ll see what I mean.
The Tremor’s also have quite an interaction with the character Ben Affleck plays, and in my opinion it’s one of the most memorable scenes in the film. Affleck plays Jack Dupree, a bail bondsman whose team is hired to bring Israel in on a warrant, and while they prep his team meets the Tremor brothers. The scene is over the top, crazy and unexpected but somehow downright hysterical.

I really love Smokin’ Aces. I think it is a stylish film with more than just a sense of style behind it.

Director & Writer: Joe Carnahan
Richard Messner: Ryan Reynolds
Donald Carruthers: Ray Liotta
Buddy Israel: Jeremy Piven
Jack Dupree: Ben Affleck
Pete Deeks: Peter Berg
Stanley Locke: Andy Garcia
Georgia: Alicia Keys
Sharics: Taraji P. Henson
Darwin Tremor: Chris Pine
Jeeves Tremor: Kevin Durand
Lester Tremor: Maury Sterling

Carruthers: You've got to be careful when doing your stakeouts. I did one for... I was on one for six months. I gained, like, 20, 25 pounds. You keep eating this crap...
Messner: Well, that's not my problem, though. I don't gain weight. I tried.
Carruthers: That's 'cause your 12 years old.

Margaret is an executive at a high powered publishing company and is known for being ruthless. Andrew is her handsome, adorable assistant that she tortures daily while he waits patiently for a promotion to editor and possibly a chance to have his manuscript published. However, Margaret is Canadian and unexpectedly she has her visa revoked and is told she will be removed from her job while in Canada reapplying for her visa. In desperation Margaret tells the partners that she and Andrew are engaged and the two being to engage in deceiving an immigration officer in the hopes that Margaret and Andrew can marry long enough for her to be granted citizenship. What Margaret doesn’t count on is meeting Andrew’s family in Alaska and what that will change in her grand plans.

The Proposal was a cute movie; it wasn’t worth buying, or seeing twice, but it also didn’t bore me – that’s actually pretty good for a romantic comedy. I laughed when I was supposed to laugh, and fell a little in love with the characters, the only thing I never really saw was the relationship. Most of the time this would be a killer for a review of a romantic comedy, but Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds brought a lot of chemistry and were incredibly personable characters, and this is what made the film work, even though I did not see the romance in their relationship.

I have to say that the more I see him in the more I adore Ryan Reynolds. The man has a personality, charisma and humor that radiates from any character he plays and somehow doesn’t detract from his portrayal. The closest thing I can equate him to is a classic star like Clark Gable – you watch him perform and you are aware you are watching an actor, but you still see the mastery of the role.

As a date movie, or a distraction The Proposal is a movie to see. I don’t know if it will have much in the way of legs on DVD, but it’s definitely worth seeing at least once.

Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Pete Chiarelli
Margaret Tate: Sandra bullock
Andrew Paxton: Ryan Reynolds
Grace Paxton: Mary Steenburgen
Joe Paxton: Craig T. Nelson
Grandma Annie: Betty White
Gertrude: Malin Akerman

Margaret Tate: What am I allergic to?
Andrew Paxton: Pine nuts, and the full spectrum of human emotion.

Any X-Men junkie knows the basic origins of Wolverine. Logan was born decades ago and his mutant healing powers make is so that he does not age; he’s lived through numerous wars and along the line begins to work for an elite unit of the government with Striker. Finally, Wolverine volunteers to be part of a medical experiment and have adamantium grafted with his skeletal structure and becomes pretty much indestructible. Logan also loses his memory and is hunted by Striker without ever knowing why. This is pretty much the story in X-Men Origins: Wolverine but it is not clearly or concisely told. What could have been a very high energy, dramatic origins story was instead badly written and sloppily directed.

The best way to describe the direction of this movie is leading; Gavin Hood seems to be afraid to try anything atmospheric or to let the audience notice what is in his shots. Instead, he inserts coverage for everything he wants to make sure you see, and all of the shots are the basic master, double, close-up for each scene. However, even this would be forgivable if the writing weren’t so lazy.

Wolverine is the classic example of a screenplay where A leads to B which leads to C without any motivation or means of tying incidents together. Characters do not have motivation for anything, and relationships are very forced. Perhaps the best example of sloppy writing was the first time Wolverine is called “Logan”; it comes in the last act of the film and no one has ever called him that before – it seems like a character just makes the name up. There is also the issue of inaccuricies with the comic book; perhaps the biggest in this film is what happens to Deadpool’s character in the last act of the film. Not only does this break with the actual character of Deadpool but it’s just stupid.

What was great about this movie was for fantastic actors: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds & Taylor Kitsch. As Wolverine Jackman was phenomenal as usual and you could tell he put his all into this film. Schreiber is perhaps the best embodiment of Sabertooh that I could imagine and he is well paired with Jackman. Somehow he just exhudes an animal nature in a way I didn’t know he could. I have always loved Ryan Reynolds and the wise-crackign nature of Deadpool fits him perfectly; I was very upset that Reynolds wasn’t utilized further. Finally, Taylor Kitsch was chosen to portray the most anticipated character of the series so far as Gambit. Not only was he perfect as the souther-boy card shark, but he was the wonderful charismatic character I always remember Gambit being. I was glad that with all the films other fault we did get a sizeable portion of Gambit.

Wolverine is the kind of film that you’ll probably watch and enjoy once, but I doubt it will be a film that the real fanboys want to analyze and watch repeatedly. The ladies will love the man-candy that is all over this film too.

Director: Gavin Hood
Writers: David Benioff & Skip Woods
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
Sabertooth: Liev Schreiber
Stryker: Danny Huston
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch
Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds

Victor Creed: Do you even know how to kill me?
Logan: I'm gonna cut your God damn head off. See if that works.

James graduates from college like anyone, full of head-knowledge and with little grasp on the real world; Mom & Dad have always provided everything for him so he assumes that this won’t change as he plans to enter grad school at Columbia in the fall and spend the summer touring Europe. However, his plans come crashing down around him when his parents announce they’ve hit a roadblock and James will have to give up Europe, and get a job to pay for his apartment and school if he still wants to go. Depressed, James gets a job at Adventureland the local amusement park where he is subjected to the worst summer job he could imagine, but like any bad job he meets the people that begin to redefine who he is and for the first time James must make real decisions about his life.

This movie was marketed horribly; when I watched the trailers all that was brought to the forefront was the comedy and the fact that Greg Mottola directed Superbad - a movie that I thought was super bad. Instead, this movie is a poignant, dramedy about a boy that for the first time in his life has to deal with his choices and the choices the people around him make. James has to take responsibility for his life for the first time and become an adult.

I have to say that I hated Twilight with a fiery passion and thought most of the cast gave horrific performances, but in Adventureland Kristin Stewart actually does an amazing job playing a subtle, nuanced, flawed young woman. I am not yet sure she has the prowess or charisma needed to maintain her star status.

Though there were no bad characters in this movie, and Jesse Eisenberg was great as the lead I have to say my single favorite character is Bobby the manager of Adventureland. Bobby is such an awkward, quirky character that exists so much in his own world you can’t help but to love him. Kristen Wiig was perfect to play his wife Paulette.

Adventureland is a highly underrated movie and shouldn’t get ignored as we roll into summer movie season.

Director & Writer: Greg Mottola
James Brennan: Jesse Eisenberg
Mrs. Brennan: Wendie Malick
Frigo: Matt Bush
Paulette: Kristen Wiig
Bobby: Bill Hader
Joel: Martin Starr
Em: Kristen Stewart
Mike Connell: Ryan Reynolds

David is afraid of committing to his girlfriend of 5 years by marrying her; she goes to New York for work and he is left with the ultimatum of figuring out if he wants to get married or break up. This leads David onto his search for his soul mate – or at least figuring out if the soul mate concept exists.

I definitely watched this movie because it was a game of remote roulette. I was bored, I have many, many movie channels, and I had never heard of this movie – and it had Ryan Reynolds. So I stopped, started working on something else and watched Buying the Cow in the background. This is definitely a movie that should be viewed on TV – the commercial breaks and feeling glad that you didn’t pay for this movie definitely improves it.

The single best thing about this movie, and probably the reason I left it on is Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds is an actor that definitely deserves a lot more work and acclaim that he has gotten and watching movies like this definitely underscores this; in Buying the Cow Reynolds is a side character, but he definitely steals the show. Other than Reynolds, the movie is completely unmemorable.

Director: Walt Becker
Writers: Walt Becker & Peter W. Nelson
David: Jerry O’Connell
Sarah: Bridgette Wilson
Mike: Ryan Reynolds
Jonesy: Bill Bellamy
Amy: Alyssa Milano
Tyler: Ron Livingston

David Collins: You're the only people I've ever told.
Mike Hanson: Yeah, can you keep it that way? It makes you seem kind of creepy.