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  • The Guilt Trip (**½)

    Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand's chemistry manage to keep things pleasant...

    December 19, 2012

    guilt_tripI’m sure I’m hardly the only one who never expected to see Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand share the silver screen, but that’s just what they do in ‘The Guilt Trip’, a harmless comedy that mostly works due to the chemistry of the pair. There’s not a whole lot to love here, but more often than not there’s something to smile at. The script by Dan Fogelman has the ingredients to be successful, and the team of Rogen and Streisand do their best, but the direction of Anne Fletcher bungles the tone. She really struggles with the transitions from comedy to drama, leading to a vague sense of dissatisfaction with the end product. I’m sure that it’s going to have a decent amount of fans now that it’s in theaters;  a bit earlier than original scheduled, but one will have to keep their expectations low. I was hoping for a bit more than what I got, but those eager to just watch Rogen or Streisand do their thing (with the former more toned down than usual) will likely enjoy.

    Read more on The Guilt Trip (**½)…

    Red Dawn (**½)

    Early review of the unanticipated remake...

    May 4, 2012

    Was anyone especially clamoring for a remake of ‘Red Dawn’? I didn’t think so, but hey…here we have one nonetheless. It doesn’t come out until November, so this is a VERY early review of the film (I was lucky enough to be invited to take a look, along with a rather small audience), but the flick has been done for quite some time (it got caught up in the MGM bankruptcy after going before cameras in 2009, just like ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ did…you can see by the expected release date on the poster to the left just how long this has been shelved) now, so what I saw should be the same thing that you wind up seeing later this year. Now, is this new ‘Red Dawn’ any good? It’s actually a surprisingly entertaining, if clearly flawed, action movie with an interesting enough take on the original 1984 film. The basic story is the same, but a lot of details have been tinkered with, making for a similar yet different flick. This is the type of movie where you can sort of decide if it’s going to be for you before you even see it. Do you like action? Are you a fan of the original movie? Does incredibly shaky camerawork bother you? Are you a stickler for character development? Can you root for characters who essentially are terrorists? As long as those questions don’t immediately turn you off, you’re likely in for a good enough time here. For my part, I found parts of it to be rather good, with other parts annoying enough to keep me from fully embracing and completely recommending it with no caveats. It’s an above average action flick, but that’s somewhat damning the film with faint praise, now isn’t it?

    Read more on Red Dawn (**½)…

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