 Vampire films are now a dime a dozen. So, how do you take a campy classic from the ‘80s and turn it into something fresh and modern? Actually, I’m not so sure, as I’ve never seen the original Fright Night. Feel free to chuck your tomatoes at me now. The remake has decided that everything new and improved must have eye-popping 3D, like everything else these days, but this is one of the few films where gimmicky shit flying at your face actually works. With the addition of some stellar performances by Colin Farrell and David Tennant (more on that in a bit) and great moments of humor, Fright Night is a great vampire flick that even this weenie (and ardent horror movie hater) enjoyed. Read more after the jump! Add Comment  In a summer where the blockbusters have been wildly varied--I'm talking about a scale from Pirates of the Caribbean to Super 8--Cowboys & Aliens is slightly on the higher end...but not by much. The Jon Favreau-directed flick isn't anywhere near as good as it should be, especially with the Iron Man director, Steven Spielberg producing, and the addition of both Indiana Jones and James Bond, but it's just not. It's not terrible, mind you, but it's just merely meh. Which is almost as disappointing as a truly awful movie since I actually had fairly high hopes for Cowboys & Aliens. I mean, with the formula I just described above, how could it go wrong? Read more about the jump!  As someone who started off as a fan of Harry Potter from reading the books many, many years ago, I've had a hard time staying a fan throughout the decade of films. It's difficult to stay steadfast when something you truly enjoyed continually gets worse and worse with each film. It's no secret that I openly hated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One. It was merely PART of a movie with no real start or finish. So I walked into Part Two with dismal hopes for the culmination of the wizarding franchise. But, color me surprised when I was actually engaged at every turn during Part Two. It was suspenseful and fulfilling with every plot device finally having some actual weight to each circumstance. Read more after the jump! "Horrible Bosses" surprisingly not horrible 07/08/2011
 It's safe to say that I had extremely low expectations of Horrible Bosses going into the theater. All three of the lead actors in the film, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day, have been in some horrible films in recent years despite being fairly likable actors. Bateman was in the god-awful The Switch, Sudeikis had the whole Hall Pass incident, and Day was the second banana is a Drew Barrymore rom-com. So, I feel like I was fairly astute in my low expectations of this buddy comedy about three stressed out dudes wanting to murder their bosses. I am actually fairly shocked about how funny this film turned out. Horrible Bosses is not only surprisingly not horrible but actually pretty hilarious. READ MORE!  Do you like Michael Bay movies? Not just merely tolerate Michael Bay, but LOVE him? Like you went to see Pearl Harbor, you can recite every line from Bad Boys 2, and the jive-talking robots in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen didn’t bother you THAT much? Did you watch his Victoria’s Secret commercial on repeat? These are the only questions you need to answer going into Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Because if you said ‘yes’ to any of the above, you will totally heart Dark of the Moon, a movie in which Bay confuses Shia LeBeouf’s fast-talking and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s lip pouting for character development and over-bloated Transformer history for a plot. If you said ‘no’ to any of the above, well…the last hour of Dark of the Moon is still nonstop action and a pretty awesome spectacle, but mustering through the previous hour-and-a-half will be a long fought battle for you. Read more after the jump!  Super 8 may have a marketing problem. While it seems to be sold as a Jaws or Cloverfield type film—one with a big bad monster lurking around—the film borrows more from E.T. and The Goonies than your typical scary, monster movie. But don’t worry, folks, there’s still plenty of action, and there are definitely tense moments, but Super 8 reminds us all that awesome special effects and great action are worthless without a really great, compelling story with emotional weight and well-developed characters. Luckily, J.J. Abrams gives us all of the above. Read more after the jump! "Kung Fu Panda 2:" a roundhouse kick of fun 05/26/2011
 After the whole Shrek franchise started sucking horribly—around the second or third films—I wrote off DreamWorks animated films. That is, until Kung Fu Panda came around. Normally I find Jack Black cloying and obnoxious, but Kung Fu Panda was the perfect vehicle for his over-the-top comedy, and the film was incredibly infectious, funny, and adorable. While Kung Fu Panda 2 isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, the film is just as loose and fun as the original with pitch-perfect voiceover work from Dustin Hoffman and Gary Oldman. Kung Fu Panda 2 starts with Po (Black) and the Furious Five, Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), and Mantis (Seth Rogen), keeping the…uh…peace in the Valley of Peace. Little do they know that Lord Shen (Oldman), the albino son of the Peacock Emperors of China is slowly building an army of wolves to defeat the kung fu masters and rule all of China by harnessing the power of gunpowder. Po must master inner peace from his old Master Shifu (Hoffman) by tapping into his past and learning about his family before he can defeat the evil Lord Shen. The sequel might not be treading new territory: the first film was all about fitting in and discovering your destiny, and the sequel follows the same themes. But Kung Fu Panda 2 is just as delightful as the first film and offers innovative fight choreography you wouldn’t expect from family friendly fare. It’s also one of the first movies this summer that I would recommend upgrading to 3D for—the animation was beautiful and dynamic and truly added to the film. Kung Fu Panda 2 left me with a smile on my face and is a sequel that lives up to its predecessor in a summer where sequels are being churned out like Big Macs. Don’t let the Shrek franchise keep you from flocking to Kung Fu Panda 2—it’s definitely worth visiting the Dragon Warrior again. --Darcie Duttweiler  Have you ever sat down to the exact same meal you’ve previously loved and realized that it just does NOT measure up? That’s The Hangover Part II. Sometimes two of the same thing is great, like two whiskeys or two kittens, but apparently two of the EXACT SAME movie is not-so great. Part II is the exact same movie as its predecessor but shifted to a different location. It’s not sorta similar or has the same elements and themes—it’s the exact same movie, but, much like that meal redux I described above, it’s just not the same the second go-round. It’s less funny, more strained, and almost even boring. Go figure that two Hangovers aren’t better than one. Read more after the jump. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Boring Tides" 05/19/2011
 What does it mean when something is better than something else that sucks major ass? That’s how I would describe Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It’s infinitely better than the third film, a movie I couldn’t even follow plot-wise, but it still lacks the excitement and adventure of The Curse of the Black Pearl and the fun and wacky fight scenes of Dead Man’s Chest (remember the water wheel fight scene?!). So, what do you call something that didn’t make you want to claw your eyes out, but doesn’t engage you in any way (meaningful or otherwise)? I’d call it On Stranger Tides. Read more after the jump. “Hesher:” chaos without much substance 05/12/2011
 Much like the heavy metal and flames that seem to surround Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the eponymous character, the film itself is basically a punch in the face without any emotional follow-through. Hesher is about a young boy whose mother recently died in a horrible car crash and his deadbeat dad (Rainn Wilson) who can’t seem to get his shit together for his young son. So, when a transient bad boy named Hesher ends up crashing on their couch, the two grieving men have their tragic lives shaken up. Gordon-Levitt is a talented actor, but, as Hesher, he is slightly show-offy and one-note, even if he’s trying desperately to succeed in a role no one would have most likely cast him in. Natalie Portman pops up as a local grocery cash register in a brief role. Wilson does a decent job of playing depressed well. Hesher is worth a look if you’re trying to get artier films in before the blockbuster smorgasbord that is the next couple of months, but don’t expect it to get all deep and profound on you—it really is about a dude who loves porn, beer, Metallica, and lighting shit on fire. --Darcie Duttweiler | Archives
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