Director Katherine Hardwicke’s style affords “Lords of Dogtown” the necessary indie style that will appeal to the target crowd. “Lords of Dogtown” is a lot of fun, and this is due mostly to the energy of the great cast of indie actors like Emile Hirsch, Heath Ledger, Nikki Reed, and America Ferrara to only name a few. Hardwicke inspires entertainment in the teen melodrama and films some truly great skateboarding sequences. Most of all, Ledger is a scene stealer and looks like he’s having a lot of fun as the stoner/slacker/boarder.
Why We Fight (2006)
I never find it necessary to warn readers of my opinions on the worldwide web, but for those of you who can’t take opposite opinions, or come to the site to escape this sort of world events, by all means, turn away now, because you may see more of a man talking of his own personal views within the review of “Why We Fight”. There are many allusions to the documentary of “Why We Fight”, the two of which being that we went to war to help our military weapons industry, and that we basically went to war preying on our lust for vengeance and losses.
Rottweiler (2004)
Why even call this “Rottweiler”? That’s what I’m interested in discovering. What’s the point? I’m confused as to why the director and screenwriter and Lions Gate Films felt it necessary to call this film “Rottweiler” when we only ever see the actual eponymous robo-mutt every so often. Instead of featuring the same old laboratory creature gone wild plot, “Rottweiler” instead focuses on a chain gang that breaks out of a prison. The lone fugitive named Dante is on the run from the robotic Rottweiler which happens to be cannibalistic, vicious and has one objective: to tear the on the lam fugitive a new one.
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Leave it to Judd Apatow to take a simple concept you’d find in basically any sex comedy, and add his own original twist on it. But that’s Apatow for you, he knows how to be original. “The 40 Year Old Virgin” is basically like any other sex comedy; a group of guys are trying to get their friend laid. That’s the whole plot of this, but with this basic mundane sex comedy concept, there’s the original twist. Back when Jim Carrey was still funny, this would have been the exact role he’d have chosen, but that’s why I’m a fan of Steve Carrell, because he has pure comedy down to a skill. Sorry Jim.
The Beast of Bray Road (2005)
At the start of “Beast”, a young bar patron drifts away from her friends after closing hours and is stalked and mauled to death by a werewolf. The beast grabs her, tears her apart, and howls into the sky. I enjoyed that. But, for no other reason I can imagine but to piss me the hell off, director Scott feels that even though we had that good opening signaling grand things, we could have done without it for another thirty or forty minutes, which in common sense land is a large portion of a film that doesn’t even hit the two hour mark, and that makes zero sense.
Kicking & Screaming (2005)
I have found that comedies, even the good ones, have become so utterly predictable, that it’s not even funny. Pun intended. The good comedies are even predictable, and the mediocre ones are so predictable that I’ve discovered I can really lay out what’s going to happen before it happens. “Kicking and Screaming” begins on a truly predictable note. Narration. Instead of leaving our main character to pretty much show the audience how inept or stupid he is the writers feel that the actor and director are so incompetent of explaining through actions what and who they are, that they must explain to us through narration.
The Legend of Zorro (2005)
The creators of “Legend” have decided to take what made the first film so good and turn the sequel and its story into another “Spy Kids” rip off. Well, not so much “Spy Kids”, but a shameless rip off of “The Mummy Returns”. Male adventurer and female damsel both evolve into settled individuals that happen to have a son who is clever, smart mouthed, and both mutter at some point a variation of “My dad is going to kick your ass” to the grizzled villain. The derivations are so damn shameless that I felt bile of sheer disgust starting this film. The fact that the creators felt the need to add a snot nosed little brat who is there simply as one giant walking cliché, to make the film more “exciting” as merely just obvious pandering to a younger crowd, is condescending, since you figure Zorro did much of that already.