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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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With the exception of the title, I have been staring at a blank word document for the last half an hour. In my head, this film has been rated from 1 star to 4 stars and back down to 1 again. Even now, I have no idea how it’s going to end up.

Hancock (Will Smith) is the anti-superhero. When he’s not saving peoples' lives he is passed out drunk on a street corner somewhere or drinking himself into a stupor on his way to being passed out drunk. He is a mess. When he isn’t drunk, he is “helping” to save the city from random low-end thugs. I use the term “helping” loosely because his nonchalant approach to property damage mid-rescue seems to be a source of great displeasure to those he is trying to help. His antics finally become too much of a cross to bear and the city turns against him. It is curious that he doesn’t seem at all fazed by the fact that people in general seem to despise his existence: he just keeps coming to their rescue.

"Every single thing about this movie is lazy. The poster, the characters, the story, the… hold on, yep, I just threw up a little."

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Earlier this week I posted a Top Five list of the Best Movies of 2008… so far. For the most part, people seem to agree with the list (although there are lot of Cloverfield haters out there…) People agreed for a pretty simple reason; there haven’t been a lot of great movies coming out this year. Probably more seasonality than anything, but they have been few and far between. So in the interests of fair and balanced reporting, it’s only right to present the other, uglier side of the coin. I actually had a lot more trouble narrowing down this list to only five. There have been some bad movies so far; some due to failed expectations and some because they were just plain awful. For me, these were the worst of the worst.

tMF Top Five – Worst Movies of 2008… so far
By Jeremy Welsch

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Review by Deana Martin

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Ever since Crash won the Academy Award for Best Picture it seems as though Hollywood screenwriters have been in a race to make the next ensemble drama where everyone's story is woven together into a neat little bow. Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe is just another in the long list of these attempts. This time, the thread holding these characters together is weak, predictable and at times, ludicrous. According to IMDb, the four interweaving stories in this film are supposed to mirror the Chinese proverb claiming that happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love are the most important things in life. But outside of the director telling us before each sketch which emotion the following segment is supposed to represent, you do not really get anything other than depressed, stereotypical characters in ridiculously over the top life and death situations.

Another awesome new trailer has been released for The Dark Knight on a new promotional Domino's Pizza website called The Dark Knight Vault where you can see the new exclusive trailer in the movie extra section, along with chances to also win prizes. The site say's to check back weekly for updates in the movie extra section.

On The Dark Knight Vault website, there are also 3 new photo's shown from The Dark Knight: Production Art and Script Book, that you can purchase on Amazon.com.

The new trailer below has some new dialogue from The Joker and Bruce Wayne!

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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News flash: relationships are hard. They can be very frustrating at times. The way men and women attempt to communicate has always been a source of equal parts fascination and bewilderment to me. Everybody wants to know what the other person is thinking but unlike any other interaction in life, we use these odd methods of approach when dealing with the opposite sex. Rarely do people just come out and say what they think or ask what they actually want to know. Women seem to always want to know what guys are thinking. Men, on the other hand, seem less interested in wanting to know what women are thinking than they are in finding ways to not let on what they are thinking. I think everyone can agree that the whole thing is absurd, yet we still find ourselves doing the same thing again and again. My Blueberry Nights is a character study that dissects this very concept.

"...one of the best superhero movies of the modern age and the most fun you’ll have at the movies this year."

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We are almost exactly halfway through the year and smack in the middle of the summer movie season. Sounds like as good a time as any to take a step back and grade the movie year thus far. This article was written last week in preparation for the end of the month and wouldn’t you just know it! Pixar had to go and ruin the party! Thanks to WALL*E my list is now in complete shambles. I know it is only June but mark my words, six months from now I will still be talking about WALL*E as one of, if not THE best, movies of 2008. It is a masterstroke of filmmaking, and not only as an animated film. I defy you to come up with a more beautifully shot and wildly romantic live action movie in the last few years. With WALL*E resting quietly atop the list as my favorite movie so far, I decided to leave the rest of the list unedited so you can get a look at the top five other best movies of the year.

tMF Top Five – Best Movies of 2008… so far
By Jeremy Welsch

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Review by David DiMichele

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There is a line of dialogue that is as sharp, lethal and beautiful as all of the extreme violence in Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic book-to-movie adaptation Wanted: “He can conduct a symphony orchestra with a pistol.” Russian-born director Timur Bekmambetov does exactly that in stylish fashion to produce a creation that’s the zestiest and sexiest movie of the summer. At the risk of having his movie fall into the fringe of mindless action and pointless shoot-'em-up sequences, he nevertheless weaves a gut-wrenching story where the action scenes double as pristine pieces of adored art work.

Here is a compilation of some awesome new video clips, behind the scenes footage, and new images from The Dark Knight for you to enjoy while you are anxiously counting down the days for the films release on July 18th.

IESB has 8 minutes of behind the scenes video footage from THE DARK KNIGHT. Check out the video's below:

THE DARK KNIGHT Behind the Scenes Footage Part 1

THE DARK KNIGHT Behind the Scenes Footage Part 2

IESB also gives a first look at 12 film clips from The Dark Knight! IESB went to an early screening, and shares some thoughts about the film:

"I went to an early screening of THE DARK KNIGHT in Los Angeles yesterday. I can't say much because we are embargoed until the week the film opens, but let me just say this, THE DARK KNIGHT delivers on ALL levels.

In the film Heath Ledger's JOKER says that Gotham deserves a "better class of criminal" what Hollywood got was a "better class of actor." Ledger's performance is nothing short of amazing.

If he doesn't win the OSCAR for his portrayal of the maniacal villain, then it really is true that the Academy will never take any film that involves a superhero seriously."

Click on the video's below, to watch 12 film clips from THE DARK KNIGHT and be sure to check out clips 8 and 12 that star the JOKER!

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Review by David DiMichele

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The bewilderment and wonder that characterized stories involving toys, fish, cars and rats isn’t as powerfully conceived in this story about robots. But that isn't to say that Wall*E falls flat on its face, either. There is truth to be told in a post-apocalyptic animated film that equates to a kid's version of An Inconvenient Truth. Yet, even as the egos begin to swell at the Pixar studios, they should realize that conquering space is much more arduous than conquering a boy’s bedroom, a French restaurant, a run-down Route 66 and the Atlantic Ocean.

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I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what's comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger: his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell. To the clown prince of crime, a knife is preferable to a gun, the better to "savor the moment."

How's that Mr. Nicholson?!?!?

Not all Jews are diamond merchants, my God! [laughs] And you can quote me on that. So, basically, it’s a small drama. It’s kind of like Mean Streets but it’s kind of like Jew Streets. It’s like myself and one of my favorite young actors, Jesse Eisenberg, are the two guys in the movie and, if you look at Mean Streets, he’s kind of like Harvey Keitel and I’m kind of like the Johnny Boy character where I’m already kind of into that world of drugs and I bring him into it.

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"It's funny," he continues. "Everyone asks me, 'Do you regret what you did?' And the answer is, fuck no. I mean, I think of myself as an entrepreneur, and I went about some of that the wrong way. But I've done more at twenty-two than most people do their whole lives. I partied my ass off. There were so many women. I smoked so much weed. Anyone says they regret that, they're full of shit. They're saying that to please other people. I don't care. I had a blast."

That's Scuz talking to Rolling Stone.

Nate Norman is just a 19-year-old small town kid from Idaho who came up with the idea of setting up a marijuana smuggling ring to transport drugs from Canada into the US—a business enterprise that would transform him into a $38 million drug lord. His story is about to become a film, entitled Kid Cannabis and it stars two awesome young actors: Chris Marquette who'll play Nate, and Cam Gigandet, who'll play his partner, Topher.

Chris Marquette is definitely ready for that elusive leading role. He's been giving such great performances in his recent films: The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, The Invisible, and The Education of Charlie Banks among others. But in all of these films, he played supporting roles. It's about time he gets to play the star in a cool movie, and I think this might be it!

You should always speak your mind. I’m not interested in being one of those petulant, fuck you, eat the birds, punk rock, Avril Lavigne kids. I don’t have angst or anger, I don’t have any defense. It’s almost an intellectual attack on perception.

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