Push
Rating: 
Reviewed by:
Eric Alt
Directed by: Paul McGuigan
The Skinny: Since WWII, the U.S. government has been employing a secret unit called "The Division" to capture and experiment on people with psychic powers. When a mysterious woman (Camilla Belle) escapes, it's up to a reluctant telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a teen who can see the future (Dakota Fanning) to figure out W.T.F. is going on.
The Good: Despite being loaded with so many details that "The Skinny" only skims the surface of the movie's plot and character elements,
Push doesn't get too bogged down and delivers a pretty solid sci-fi action flick. Director McGuigan has decided to go grainy rather than overly slick, which makes everything feel fresher—plus, he's layered in enough humor to keep the story from getting too far up its own ass. There are enough twists and turns to make the exposition go down easier, and the characters are all generally likeable or suitably hissable (Djimon Hounsou plays his first, but not last, real villain). The chemistry between Fanning and Evans (who really is an underrated actor) is particularly good.
The Bad: The more you prod the twists and turns, the more cracks begin to show, but none of it is so egregrious that it ruins the fun. One scene kind of suffers for McGuigan's insistance on keeping CGI to a minimum (having Hounsou try and be intimidating while a gun hanging from fishing wire floats near his head evokes chuckles, not tension), but the rest of the movie is a welcome return to actual stunts and real on-set explosions. Again, this isn't a groundbreaking film, but it does its job.
Fan Out: We'll just gloss over the fact that Fanning seems to be avoiding the "awkward years" pretty successfully
(cough) and say that this kid shouldn't let her chops keep her from doing more action/comedy. She's got a way with a mid-action one-liner. Who knew?
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? This is a fun night at the theater, and it's a nice change of pace to see a superpowered sci-fi action movie centered on "real" people and not costumed heroes with code names.
Fanboys
Rating: 
Reviewed by:
Eric Alt
Directed by: Kyle Newman
The Skinny: Set in 1998,
Fanboys tells the story of lifelong
Star Wars obsessives who, upon discovering that one of them is dying of cancer, set out to drive cross country, break into Skywalker Ranch, and steal a rough cut of
Phantom Menace.
The Good: To be brutally honest, this movie kind of limps across the screen with all the energy of a
Star Wars fan still trying to defend
Phantom Menace. Maybe if it had come out before we were all sick to death of everything George Lucas, it might work better. But as it is, it just falls into the white noise of obvious and unoriginal
Star Wars parody alongside
Robot Chicken and
Family Guy. Actually, all the jokes pretty much fall under "head-slappingly obvious."
The Bad: A little background:
Fanboys was actually completed a while back, but sat in the Weinstein Company vaults for eons. During that time, it was re-edited and re-tooled into a Frankenmovie—most famously by the ubiquitous Judd Apatow, whose hand is so visible he might as well pop up in the bottom corner of the screen.
Fanboys seems to be running on an "Apatow Egg Timer": "Whoa, it's been 3 minutes since we've had a cameo from an Apatow regular. Cue Danny McBride! Get Craig Robinson over here!" How bad is it? Seth Rogan plays
TWO CHARACTERS. Also, the movie has no idea if it means to embrace fanboys or ridicule them, so it lands awkwardly in the middle. So…
Star Wars and comic books are "cool" but
Star Trek is geeky?
OK… Ring the Bell: The movie's lone bright spot is the adorable Kristen Bell. Seriously, she can do no wrong. Her scene with McBride? All we can says is: we concur, Danny.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Honestly, the PG-13 level humor won't get lost on TNT. You can wait.
He's Just Not That Into You
Rating: 
Reviewed by:
Eric Alt
Directed by: Ken Kwapis
The Skinny: A group of stereotypes find stereotypical love and experience stereotypical loss in a generic city while working generic jobs that they really don't ever have to go to and yet still make enough money live in ridiculous homes and apartments and hang out in cafes all day. You know, like your life.
The Good: It's almost instantly forgettable.
The Bad: The guys from the cast put together this
cutesy little video telling you not to worry because they have identified ten "chick flick cliches" that are
not in
HJNTIY. Well, guess what, fellas? Here are ten that are:
1. Early on, a character describes her better half as "the perfect husband." Ten minutes later, he cheats on her. Surprise!
2. The guy who pretends to be just friends with the needy, neurotic girl while seemingly enjoying his swinging bachelor life has no idea that true love has been staring him in the face…all…this…time.
3. All men are lying douchebags with commitment issues.
4. All women are clingy, emotionally unstable harpies with the hobbies of a serial killer.
5. Watching football and drinking beer automatically makes you a cold-hearted misogynist.
6. Gay guys hold all the secrets of the universe.
7. The "nice" guy and the "nice" girl? Oh, yeah, they get together at the end, even though their getting togethe requires an entire season of
Lost's worth of coincidence.
8. All wedding receptions or rehearsal dinners require the presence of one obscure family member who will lay bare a character's secret shame in front of everyone and won't have the slightest inkling that what they're saying would be wildly inappropriate at any time, in any place.
9. Any guy who makes out with his mistress in his office…during the middle of the day…with the discretion of a porn star…will have someone walk in on them.
10. A wizened elder (mom, dad, grandmother) will set a character straight with a single-scene, morale-boosting heart-to-heart.
The Sound of One Hand Kwapis: What did we expect, though, from the guy who brought us
License to Wed and
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Has Kwapis ever actually met a real human?
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? If you never see this, you're life won't just be unaffected, it might actually be improved.
