Theatrical Releases: Endless Love & RoboCop

February 14, 2014 / Leave a Comment

ROBOCOP || February 14th, 2014

	As with most of Kevin Hart’s romantic comedies, I’m placing “About Last Night” on the ‘Maybe’ list. Michael Ealy has been performing great as a humanistic robot on “Almost Human” but I still just can’t picture enjoying him in a romantic comedy, especially one starring an entire black cast with a been-there done-that mentality. Seeing as this is a remake, that’s not too far from the truth. But truth be told, this brand of comedy and relationship turmoil is just not my cup of romantic comedy tea. There are enough recognizable faces, however, that if this film lands in my lap, I will probably check it out.	25% MAYBE
	The trailer for “Endless Love” is laughable, making the entire thing seem like a horror trailer rather than a hard, romantic drama like that of which Nicholas Sparks produces. I’ve seen this trailer over a dozen times in theaters now and every time the first card hits to the horror drum, I cannot help but laugh. That and Gabrielle Wilde professing her love for sex, I just do not see how this film could be very good. Now after reading the reviews, it is being said that the PG-13 rating is palpable throughout the film. Wilde is gorgeous, however, and I’ll seen most films for a pretty face.	50% PROBABLY
	During the TV spot production of the “RoboCop” remake, I saw an early cut of the film and was fairly impressed but as always, I refuse to rate a film until I’ve either seen it in theaters and it’s supposed to be seen or on home video, with a final mix. “RoboCop” is one I’d like to see in theaters to experience the immense theatrical sound design. As far as the story, do not expect too much depth, but on the acting front, my love for Gary Oldman grows with every film he does, good or bad, and I cannot help but compare this to the other Paul Verhoeven remake “Total Recall” which was not amazing but could have been a lot worse considering.	THEATER
	Like “Endless Love”, I’ve seen the trailer for “Winter’s Tale” over a dozen times in theaters. Colin Farrell is a bankable actor, who seems to fit right into this role as thief turned lover. The main thing holding the film back isn’t Russell Crowe’s similar performance to that of “Les Miserables” but of the fantasy aspect of the film that is far too apparent in the trailer, with magical fairy dust and unexplained time bending. Which is just too bad because Jennifer Connelly and Jessica Brown are gorgeous and deserve better and paired with Farrell, will likely be the only reason I see this film.	50% PROBABLY

	Next year, we’ll see Dakota Johnson in “Fifty Shades of Grey”, but this year she’s in the little independent comedy titled “Date and Switch” where a guy comes out to his best friend but still doesn’t like the idea of him dating one of his ex-girlfriends, played by Johnson. You’ve recently seen Nicholas Braun in “The Watch” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” but for once he plays a likable character and that interests me. Also, Dakota is becoming this enigma that I was never very fond of but now want to keep giving second chances just to see if she can surprise me. There’s a reason she’s heading one of the biggest novel adaptations of recent and I want to know why.	25% MAYBE
	Banking off Joel Kinnaman’s blockbuster “RoboCop” coming out this weekend as well, “Easy Money” and its titles irony cannot be lost on you. With a trailer consisting of almost wall-to-wall voice-over narration, what I got from the synopsis is that Joel plays an ex-con who gets out of jail and aligns himself with the bad guys. From that point on, I’m not exactly sure what’s supposed to be happening, but “Easy Money: Hard To Kill” looks horrible and I hope Kinnaman will find much better roles now that “RoboCop” will garner him at least some attention.	PASS
	American romantic comedies are a guilty pleasure of mine. I never quite love them, but they’re often filled with eye candy and themes of love. Foreign romantic comedies, however, are a different story, as their themes are often lost on me and the genre as a whole feels like a knock off of something American. I’m not saying that it is only an American genre, because that is completely, I’m simply saying I personally do not enjoy foreign romantic comedies. So the appeal of “Girl On A Bicycle” is lost on me. With multiple love triangles, I can do without the foreign melodrama.	PASS
	Benicio Del Toro is a fantastic actor and I love him in most things, but “Jimmy P” looks to be a little bit too much of a hard drama to be enjoyed. Depicting the true story of a Native American and WWII veteran named Jimmy who has headaches and strange dreams and is labeled schizophrenic, the film is about French anthropologist and Native American researcher Georges Devereux coming to visit and diagnose him and their encounters that follow. Elya Baskin (Peter Parker’s landlord in “Spider-Man 2”) can also be seen playing a serious role for once, but none of this makes me want to see the film.	PASS
	All things considered, “Lucky Bastard” could be so much worse. Not really a horror film, but banking on the found footage, shaky camera style that was made famous by it, the film is a fake documentary about an adult website that invites one of its biggest fans to spend a day with their leading pornstar. However, the guy ends up being psychotic and all hell breaks loose. The performances are somewhat laughable as is the dialogue, but if I’m assuming correctly, that’s the point. There’s no way this film will be astounding but it might be somewhat entertaining and with an NC-17 rating, there is definitely some sort of entertainment going on.	50% PROBABLY
	“The Returned” takes an interesting spin on the zombie genre, introducing a serum that keeps infected humans from turning into zombies as long as they take the medicine every single day. But with an activist group working against the doctors and infected people not getting their medicine, the tide starts to turn. Sadly, the production quality of the film is quite low as is the performance level, making this film feel too stale and dead in the water. But hopefully the zombie genre can continue to experience changes like this one to keep it alive and fresh for much longer.	PASS
	Tyler Labine will someday find the perfect project that will launch him to new comedic heights. But until then he’ll continue to do small films like “Someone Marry Barry”, playing the inappropriate friend that meets the perfectly inappropriate girlfriend, by means of his conniving group of friends, including the hilarious Damon Wayans Jr. and Hayes MacArthur, who has been showing up in just about everything. Although the humor of this film is not entirely on par with their previous work, it’s still nice to see all of these actors working.	50% PROBABLY