Entertainment Wrap #8

New in theaters this week are: Race to Witch Mountain, The Last House on the Left, and Miss March.  Race to Witch Mountain is a modern re-imagining of the Disney’s classic Witch Mountain series which follows the adventures of a brother and sister from another planet who happen to be gifted with paranormal powers.  The siblings are on the run from an evil organization who intends to use their powers for..well evil I guess. They struggle to return to Witch Mountain, which is a top secret testing facility that also happens to be the crash site for others from their planet. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars as a cab driver who winds up helping the kids escape their pursuers and reach their destination. The movie looks to offer good clean laughs and some mildly intense Disney style action. Fans of the original series, fans of the Rock, and anyone in general looking for a exciting and positive movie experience will want to check this one out.

Last House on the Left is a remake of a remake based on the 1975 film of the same title which was an update of an old Ingmar Bergman film. The movie is about a group of prison escapees who rape and brutalize two young girls in the woods. Seeking a place to hide, the escapees unknowingly wind up at the vacation home of the family of one of their victims. The victim’s family then exacts their revenge on the escapees for what they did to their daughter. The cast is composed of relative unknowns, however as remakes seem to be all the rage lately this one could be hit or miss.

Finally, we have Miss March. this film is a comedy with an interesting premise about a guy who, right before losing his virginity to his prom date, falls down a flight of steps and winds up in a coma for the next four years. He awakens to find that his once virtuous girlfriend is now Playboy’s Miss March.  He then sets out with his best friend on a road trip to the Playboy mansion to try to reunite with his former girlfriend. Just about every sex comedy cliche can be found in this movie, yet strangely it looks like it may have potential for some big laughs.  Personally I’d rather roll the dice on this one at the video store than at the theaters though.

DVD

New on video this week are: Milk, Transporter 3, and Rachel Getting Married. Milk is a movie about gay rights activist Harvey Milk and it follows his struggles to promote equality by becoming California’s first openly gay politician.  The film features an all star cast led by the always intense Sean Penn. Reviews for the movie are excellent and it should be well worth checking out.

Transporter 3 is…well another Transporter movie. I watched this fim a few weeks ago and felt that it fell a bit short of the previous two installments. This time around, Frank is teamed up with a fiery red headed Ukrainian, but unfortunately she does more to irritate than to add to the quality of the film. The direction is also a bit choppy, as the camera work is often disjointed and does a bad job of keeping up with Statham’s lighting quick movements.  There is always a moment in each of these films where one of the most ludicrous stunts ever is performed (although most likely it is CGI- think Part 2 where the Audi flies into the air and flips over to let a crane knock off the explosive device right before detonation) and you wonder whether Statham is sitting somewhere grinning that he can include such a scene simply because “he can.”

Rachel Getting Married is a movie starring Anne Hathaway as a recovering addict who gets out of rehab just in time to serve as her sister, Rachel’s, maid of honor. While Hathaway has received great reviews for her work in this movie, I found the film as a whole to be a bit incoherent and hard to follow.  For those who love pain or love wedding movies (it can be argued that they are the same thing)  watch this one at your own risk.

GAMING

This week, the excellent Resident Evil 5 was released for the PS3 and Xbox360. The game is awesome and since I picked it up I haven’t been able to stop playing it. Capcom really outdid themselves with this latest iteration and I should have a review of this one up in the very near future. For those who can’t wait for a review but are on the fence about this game- definitely pick it up, especially if you enjoyed Resident Evil 4.  This one is just oozing with quality production value and it also features an amazing co-op mode that works surprisingly well, allowing you and a buddy to tackle the latest monstrosities that Umbrella Corp has lurking in the shadows.

Out for Wii, is a relatively mature title for the normally kid friendly console. From some of the creators of the game ‘No More Heroes’ comes ‘Mad World’, an ultra violent but meticulously styled game.  The game is an eye popper, while the graphics are primarily black and white, the only color that really shows up is red- blood red to be exact as it is liberally sprayed everywhere from the numerous dismemberments that take place in the game.  For those looking for a unique, more adult oriented experience that utilizes the motion capabilities of the Wii, look no further.

MMA

Not so much of an event as it is the cancellation or postponement of one is the news that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will no longer be fighting Rashad Evans for the light heavyweight title. At least not until he gets much needed jaw surgery, which would also require quite a bit of time to recover from. Taking his place, however is the undefeated and highly unorthodox Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. Machida is not only a worthy opponent for Evans, he is also a much deserving one. Being undefeated and having fought his way to the top of the light heavyweight heap, Machida has more than earned his title shot, many believe more so than Jackson. Machida has an unconventional style that many fighters have extreme difficulty matching up with. The elusive Machida may be just the man to bring down the undefeated LHW champ.  Regardless of who winds up with the belt, one thing for sure is that Rampage definitely has his work cut out for him in his quest to “get HIS belt back”.

That’s the week in entertainment and that’s a wrap!