Short version: While Michael Mann’s Public Enemies is very good, it’s missing the spark that could have pushed it to “great.”

Screen Rant reviews Public Enemies

If you’re looking for a low key alternative to the summer blockbuster movie season, then you’ll welcome the Michael Mann-directed Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. Having said that, don’t expect to be blown away by this surprisingly low-key film.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or if you want more frequent updates follow us on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

Short version: Blood: The Last Vampire is a fun (if forgettable) film with some extremely well choreographed fight sequences. It’s really only for the action fans out there - anyone else may want to skip it.

Screen Rant Reviews 'Blood: The Last Vampire'

Blood: The Last Vampire is one of those action movies whose faults can be overlooked in favor of some entertaining action. There are plenty of problems to be found here: From cheesy dialogue and acting to the sometimes fake-looking CGI. But when the movie is in full-on action mode - that is, a young woman in a schoolgirl outfit hacking up vampires - it’s a lot of fun. And the fact that it stands at a tidy 90 minutes will means it’s easily re-watchable.

Short version: Just like super-sizing a McDonalds meal doesn’t make it taste any better, neither does giving us more of what was in the first film improve Transformers 2.

Screen Rant reviews Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Regular readers here at Screen Rant are familiar with my disdain for the first Tranformers movie. While many agree with me and others disagree vehemently - both sides have been expecting me to skewer Michael Bay’s Tranformers 2. I didn’t go in expecting much, and that may have actually caused me to not judge it quite as harshly as a lot of other reviewers are doing.

Short version: If you’re a fan of Travolta and Denzel you’ll probably like The Taking of Pelham 123.

Screen Rant reviews The Taking of Pelham 123

The Taking of Pelham 123 is a remake of the highly regarded 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which starred old-school actors Walter Matthau, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizando and Earl Hindman. I will confess that it’s probably been at least 20 years since I’ve seen it and don’t remember much about it - but I plan on renting it very soon to watch it again.

Short version: Moon is an interesting, well-acted film that takes what could have been cliched sci-fi conventions and explores them from a fresh angle.

Screen Rant reviews Moon

Moon is the debut feature film by writer/director Duncan Jones. The film stars Sam Rockwell, the voice of Kevin Spacey and… actually just those two, really. The film is set on the lunar base Selene in a future where Helium 3, a gas mined from the moon’s surface, holds the key to reversing Earth’s energy crisis.

Short version: Who would have thought? The Hangover is a crude, crass comedy that manages to be smart at the same time - oh, and funny as hell.

Screen Rant reviews The Hangover

When you start laughing about 30 seconds into a movie, that’s usually a good sign.

The plot of The Hangover is very simple: Three buddies (and one tag-along) head to Las Vegas to celebrate the impending marriage of one of their own with a bachelor party weekend. They get so incredibly blasted on the night of their arrival that they don’t remember a single thing that happened - of course maximum mayhem ensued during the evening, and they must piece together because the groom-to-be has gone missing.

Disclaimer:  This review is about a movie that is a little off the beaten path for Screen Rant.  If you know me, you know I like explosive TV and movies with a lot of carnage.  I was invited to screen this indie movie and after watching it, I politely annoyed asked Vic if I could publish my review of the movie here.  Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Quick Take:

Despite having a standard plot that we may have seen before, Knuckle Draggers comes at us with an undertone that makes it relatable and compelling.  The characters grow throughout the movie and I came away enjoying the ride this movie brought me through.  Knuckle Draggers was entertaining and kept my attention throughout.

Short Version: UP is arguably Pixar’s finest achievement to date, and is surprisingly mature (and moving) in its subject matter. Oh, and the 3D visuals are pretty awesome too.

Screen Rant Reviews Pixar's UP (in digital 3D)

There’s nothing better than an easy review: Pixar’s latest summer offering, UP, is a fantastic film. Simply fantastic. Seriously, if Ratatouille and Wall-E deserved to be in the running for Best Picture of the Year (as many said they did at the times of their releases) then UP certainly does.

It’s that good.

Short version: Sam Raimi returns to the format that put him on the map with Drag Me to Hell - and you won’t be disappointed.

Screen Rant reviews Drag Me to Hell

If you’re a REAL Sam Raimi fan, you’ve heard of him long before he ever sat in the director’s chair for the first Spider-Man movie. His claim to fame came with a little trilogy of films known as the Evil Dead series.

The first film was made on a shoestring budget and launched Bruce Campbell into the B-movie limelight. Evil Dead 2 was essentially a remake of the first film but with a bigger budget. While many people think that film is the best of the series, to me the crown jewel is the third film: Army of Darkness.

Short version: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a mildly funny and harmless family film about on par with the first movie.

Screen Rant reviews Night at the Museum 2

What’s there to say about the the sequel to the first Night at the Museum? It’s a bit of fluff, something to take the kids to where you might be mildly entertained without having to worry about anything offensive where your kids are involved.

Short version: Terminator Salvation is great for the don’t-expect-much-except-action-out-of-a-summer-movie crowd, not so great if you’re looking for a worthy successor to the first two films.

Screen Rant reviews Terminator Salvation

For the record, I am not a McG hater, nor am I holding Christian Bale’s set meltdown against him. I realize that McG will be forever haunted by the fact he directed Charlies Angels - but I had really high hopes for Terminator Salvation… I wanted it to be great.

Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Short version: Angels & Demons is better than The Da Vinci Code and if you’re a fan of the books you’ll probably enjoy it - otherwise… I suppose there are worse ways to kill a couple of hours.

Screen Rant reviews Angels and Demons

I was not a fan of The Da Vinci Code.

Just thought I should get that out there right of the bat. I found that film incredibly boring and dull, and Tom Hanks just didn’t work for me in the role.

Having said that, Angels & Demons is an improvement over the previous film.

Short version: While hard core Trekkies may have some problems with it, this long time classic Star Trek fan found this reboot fun, fresh & exciting.

Screen Rant reviews Star Trek

Where to start? (This is going to be a long one, folks. If you want to skip the preamble and get right to the review itself click here.)

Some people are Star Wars fanatics, others go nuts over Transformers or X-Men. While I’m a huge Iron Man fan, Star Trek is my true love going back well over 30 years. My favorite of all the shows? The Original Series (aka TOS). You may look at it now and think it looks cheesy (however I highly recommend you check out the digitally remastered version with brand new visual effects on DVD or Blu-ray), but remember the original Star Trek is over 40 years old.

Short version: State of Play is a classy, old fashioned newspaper movie with strong performances and no CGI.

Screen Rant’s Niall Browne reviews State of Play

State of Play is a classy piece of Hollywood filmmaking that delivers an entertaining two hours in the cinema and features enjoyable star performances from Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams.

The film which is based on the British BBC series of the same name (which first aired in 2003) unfolds in the tradition of other newspaper films such as All The Presidents Men and even His Girl Friday. State of Play is an old fashioned thriller that deals with political conspiracy, journalistic values and as a running theme - how the internet has changed the written word.

Short version: While not exactly great, Wolverine is better than X-Men 3 and is a decent start to the 2009 Summer movie season.

Screen Rant reviews X-Men Origins: Wolverine

So it’s finally here… The next X-Men movie, Wolverine. There’s been MUCH controversy surrounding this film (at least to fans of the comic book titles) - certain characters injected into the film that shouldn’t be there (a young Cyclops, for example), the height difference between Wolverine and Sabretooth (silly, in my opinion), whether Gambit would have an appropriate Cajun accent, and the biggie: The depiction of “Deadpool” (played by Ryan Reynolds).

This week we’re trying something different - regular Screen Rant reader “Walwus” felt so strongly about Observe & Report that he felt compelled to send us his quite extensive thoughts on the film. It was so thoughtful and complete that I decided to post it as a guest review.

Read on for his not so favorable view of Observe & Report…

Short version: Dragonball: Evolution is a badly written film with horrible dialogue, lackluster action and a sense of fun that’s nowhere to be found.

Screen Rant’s Ross Miller reviews Dragonball: Evolution

When you head to the theater to see a movie called Dragonball: Evolution, you obviously aren’t expecting Shakespeare. From the advertising, the whole thing gives off a feeling of light, campy, action-packed fun that you would hope would allow you to just sit back, relax and turn off your brain for 90 minutes or so.

Yeah, well, that’s why we have words like “hope” as a counterpoint to “guarantee.”

Short Version: It’s The Fast and The Furious franchise we’re talking about here - either you already love it or already hate it for what it is, and Fast & Furious will do little to change your mind either way.

Screen Rant Reviews Fast & Furious

By now you should know exactly what The Fast and the Furious franchise is all about: Candy-colored cars, candy-colored babes, tough guys performing crazy racing sequences and somewhere in all that eye candy, something of a plot. The franchise’s fourth installment, Fast & Furious, tries to show a little growth by injecting a “serious” plotline into the mix, but as is the case with every other installment of the series, that plotline falls way behind the pretty cars, pretty people and pretty crazy car stunts fans have come to love.

Click to continue "Fast & Furious Review"

Short version: Knowing starts out strong, but despite some impressive (and very intense) visual effects, unravels as it goes on.

Screen Rant reviews Knowing

I went into Knowing very neutral - I hadn’t heard much about it and the premise and trailer looked pretty promising. I realize Nicolas Cage hasn’t exactly been hitting it out of the park lately, but call me crazy: I like the guy despite the crazy hair and eccentric acting.

Short Version: Let The Right One In is one of the greatest vampire movies ever made; a worthy Oscar contender for International Film of the Year.

Screen Rant Reviews Let The Right One In

I just had to see  Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the John Ajvide Lindqvist novel, Let The Right One In, as soon as it hit American theaters this past Friday. There had been such fervent buzz about how good this film was that I, as a fanatical follower of the vampire genre, could not ignore the opportunity to see if the film lived up to the hype.

Well, having seen the film and already scheduled a second viewing, I can tell you that Let The Right One In deserves every amount of praise it’s earned: it sets new standards for what a vampire movie should be, and how horror movies should effect us.

Click to continue "Let The Right One In Review"

Short version: Watchmen is an ultra-violent, sexually explicit mystery film (with a few costumed heroes thrown in) that is visually stunning, but uneven.

Screen Rant reviews Watchmen

I’ve really been dreading writing this review because frankly, I’m still not sure how I feel about Zack Snyder’s big screen adaptation of the revered graphic novel (yes, I’m calling it a graphic novel), Watchmen.

There are some films that I really wish I could watch TWICE prior to writing a review: Big, highly-anticipated blockbusters tend to taint my initial viewing with expectations. Ideally there would be one viewing where I’d just let the film wash over me and then a second viewing where I could be more objective and analytical.

Short version: The International starts out with a strong espionage vibe but is weakened when it strays into “action movie” territory.

Screen Rant reviews The International

I really wanted to walk out of The International having loved it, but the best I can manage is that overall I liked it a lot.

It’s the story of Louis Salinger (Clive Owen), and INTERPOL agent working in France and his attempt to implicate a mega-banking firm in arms dealing. I loved how the film opens - the very first frame puts you right into the film with no preamble. Louis and his partner are trying to “turn” a bank executive and get him to provide evidence of the bank’s misdeeds. Things do not go well within a few short minutes.

Short version: This fresh take on the original Friday the 13th actually works.

Screen Rant reviews Friday the 13th

This review of Friday the 13th is for people who are fans of the 1980s style of slasher horror movies.

If you are not into movies whose sole purpose is to display gore, a variety of ways to kill people (who you probably wouldn’t mind seeing come to a grisly end), sex and nudity via thinly developed characters, then move along folks - nothing to see here.

If however you’re looking for an R-rated horror thrill on the big screen, read on.

Short version: Push has an interesting premise, but it just doesn’t manage to translate it into a great movie.

Screen Rant reviews Push

I really thought I was going to enjoy Push more than I did. But much like the God-awful Jumper, Push has an interesting premise that it just can’t translate into a great movie.

Just like Jumper, Push has an extensive backstory… While the former film established it via an in-depth document sent out to movie sites cataloging the history of the good guys and the bad guys, this film did it with a comic book mini-series. Having read four of the issues (which I found pretty intriguing) I had hoped that I would find the film more meaningful through understanding the deep background of “Division.”

Sadly, that didn’t turn out to be the case.

Short version: While parts of it are a stretch, overall Liam Neeson makes Taken an extremely satisfying action flick.

Screen Rant reviews Taken

My opinion of Taken may be skewed - I have a daughter. So a movie that shows a father’s daughter being kidnapped and the father going after the perpetrators with a vengeance most definitely speaks to me.

Another factor in favor of the film is casting an older actor as a kick ass action hero: Liam Neeson. Of course the flip side is that having a 56 year old “regular guy” kicking major amounts of butt does strain credulity just a bit.

Short version: It’s really very simple: If you’re a Clint Eastwood fan going way back, you’re going to LOVE Gran Torino.

Screen Rant reviews Gran Torino

You know I’m getting pretty used to taking heat for my movie reviews, and I have no doubt that it’ll happen again for this review of the Clint Eastwood written and directed film, Gran Torino. But you know what? I don’t care, and I don’t apologize for my reviews. You may be entitled to your opinion, but you know what? So am I - like it or not. So… onward.

Gran Torino is the story of Walt Kowalski, an old veteran of the Korean War. As the film opens we see that his wife has just died, and within seconds of his appearance we know exactly what sort of character Walt is: a cranky, grizzled (and racist) old timer who despises what’s become of the people in the world around him.

Short Version: While Valkyrie offers a few thrills, the rest is just OK.

Screen Rant reviews Valkyrie

Valkyrie is director Bryan Singer’s WWII true-life ensemble film about a cabal of Nazi officers who conspired  to kill Adolf Hitler during the later days of the war. Overshadowing all of that is, of course, Tom Cruise, who stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who hatches the plan to overthrow Hitler, codenamed Valkyrie.

Click to continue "Valkyrie Review"

Short Version: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a technical masterpiece that plays like a dream in motion - but it’s a dream that drags on just a bit too long.

Screen Rant Reviews The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a film adapted from the 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, about a man who is born old and proceeds to age in reverse until his death. The film adaptation takes this interesting premise and stretches it out (way, way, out) into a lengthy meditation on the nature of life, death, and everything human that is crammed in between.

Click to continue "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Review"

Short version: The Spirit is two hours of your life that you’ll never get back.

Screen Rant reviews The Spirit

Wow.

That’s the first word that comes to mind as I think about The Spirit. It’s an example of a movie that just leaves me plain dumbfounded. It’s so awful that I’m completely in the dark as to how a movie like this can ever actually get funded, produced and make it into movie theaters.

Short version: If you’re looking for an intense, character-driven movie, Revolutionary Road delivers big time.

Screen Rant reviews Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road is an obvious Oscar contender on many levels - Acting (lead and supporting), direction, screenplay… you name it. As the film begins, I started to feel like this was a Titanic reunion, putting Leonardo DiCaprio opposite Kate Winslet once again, with Kathy Bates thrown in for good measure.

The film opens with a younger (and single) Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) meeting at a party or club and instantly hitting it off. The movie then jumps forward to April at the end of a very small stage production which is not exactly knocking over the audience with its quality.