“G-Force” was released on DVD and Blu-ray Dec. 15, 2009, and while kids older than 10 or 11 might be bored with the talking animals, it’s a cute flick for kids in the 5 to 9 age range.
Read my full review here, but to summarize, it’s a CG-animated movie featuring super-smart animal spies who go head to head with an electronics hot-shot planning to take over the world using home appliances. But things don’t go well, and the FBI department is shut down, landing the animals in various places, including homes and a pet shop.
One thing it …read more

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is an average high school student and comic book nerd who one day decides to don a suit and mask and become a superhero, even though he has no powers, no training, and no meaningful reason to be a superhero.
So goes the plot of “Kick-Ass,” the high-octane movie from director Matthew Vaughn. But even though Kick-Ass (Dave’s new superhero name) has no powers, he inspires a subculture of copy cats, is hunted by assorted violent and unpleasant characters, and meets up with a pair of crazed vigilantes, including an 11-year-old sword-wielding dynamo, Hit Girl (Chloë …read more

Any movie coming out Nov. 20 is probably going to take a hit at the box office. I say that because people will either be flocking to see “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” or they’ll be avoiding the theater altogether because of all those “New Moon” fans.
But I hope non-“Twilight” fans will get out to see “The Blind Side.” It’s a thoughtful, inspiring movie based on the real-life book by Michael Lewis titled “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.”
It’s about a homeless, oversized, uneducated teenager named Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) who’s taken in by a wealthy woman …read more

What would you do if everything was taken away in one brutal act of violence? That’s the question posed in "Law Abiding Citizen," a movie starring Gerard Butler as Clyde Shelton, an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion.
When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a hotshot young Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Over his objections, Nick is forced by his boss to offer one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice.

Fast forward ten years. The man who …read more

“Couples Retreat” hits theaters this Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, and it features both a great cast and a cool storyline. It seems like a can’t-miss movie, but then, you never know until you see it.
It’s a romantic comedy that follows four Midwestern couples who go on a retreat to a tropical island resort. One of the couples is there to work on their marriage; but the other three just wanna have fun, which means jet skiing, relaxing, and swimming. Much to their chagrin, participation in the therapy part of the retreat is NOT optional, which results in some laughs …read more

The release date for “Shutter Island” has been pushed back from Oct. 2, 2009 to Feb. 19, 2010. I guess they’re not going to make that Halloween release date, but that’s ok. We’ll look forward to it next year.
The film teams frequent collaborators director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, who along with Mark Ruffalo plays a U.S. marshal. The partners are summoned to a remote island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like mental hospital. Cripes, there’s something creepy about mental hospitals, in general, but especially those like this one …read more

Remember when movie trailers used to be free? Remember when we saw them in theaters before other movies that we paid for? Whatever happened to those days? And is this the new trend? 
Free tickets are being distributed online for special IMAX showings of a 16-minute trailer for Fox’s upcoming 3D sci-fi flick "Avatar."
Ok, admittedly, this is more than just any old trailer. It’s an extended trailer with an intro by director James Cameron.
Still, I’m sure it’s someone’s way of trying to build buzz for a movie that’s not getting a lot of great pre-press. But who …read more

Movie: G-Force * Trailer * Nic Cage and Tracy Morgan * Official Site
In Theaters: July 24, 2009

Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Hoyt Yeatman; Produced by: Jerry Bruckheimer

MPAA Rating: PG for some mild action and rude humor
Gecko Rating:

With producer Jerry Bruckheimer on the job, I expected “G-Force” to be a high-action flick, even though the main characters are computer-generated guinea pigs. When I interviewed Michael Papajohn, who plays an FBI techie in the movie, he said as much: “It’s a Bruckheimer film, so trust me, there will be action.”
Still, “G-Force” struck me as two movies in one. The first half was …read more

Is it just me, or is there a rash of people-in-peril movies lately? See my preview of "A Perfect Getaway" earlier this week. I can’t say I’m that crazy about them, but someone must be watching them, because they keep making them! Maybe we like seeing people survive against all odds.
"Surviving Crooked Lake" revolves around four teenage girls on a Canadian canoe-and-camping trip with a slightly older male guide (ok, my first thought is – their parents let them go on this trip?!!!). The guide’s younger sister, Steph (who’s afraid of the water), is one of the campers. When …read more

I’m such a sucker for Disney movies with cute talking animals. I hope "G-Force" is as cute as it looks. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer, it’s a 3-D comedy adventure about a covert government program that trains animals for espionage work.
Armed with the latest high-tech spy gear, these highly trained guinea pigs discover that the fate of the world is in their paws! Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan, Penelope Cruz, and Nicolas Cage provide voices. The movie also stars Bill Nighy, Will Arnett, and Steve Buscemi, and hits theaters July 25, 2009.
Watch the trailer here, and check out the official …read more