Arena

David Lord finds himself forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.-- IMDb Plot: Arena (2011) 
Arena starring Samuel L. Jaackson, Kellan Lutz and Johnny Messner. Who, what, where, when and why? Before I go any further, your probably thinking, either a) never heard of this movie, b) why do I even care or c) hey, that could be interesting. This straight to video movie (they did that for a reason), is a large piece of garbage. And not that, one man's trash is another man's treasure garbage, but just plain crap, no dumpster diver would even look twice at this. The plot is totally been there done that, if you've seen or heard of Gladiators or any other movie that has people killing for other people's entertainment. Then you already know too much about this craptacular movie. Crappy is an understatement, but when you see Samuel's name, you probably think this movie can't be that bad, Samuel has been in some great movies in his time. Well this is not one of them. I'm not sure how he ended up here, I hope he got a whole bunch of money, or whatever else they said to him to convince him to do this, paid off. The movie starts with a fight to the death by two guys, and it cuts out and shows people watching it. Well here lies my first problem, throughout the movie you'll only see about 3 different settings of people watching this thing. First is an oriental man watching on his phone and computer while at work (not very productive), second is some college kids who alway happen to have these two girls who watch in disgust at the games but always continue to watch until one guy is dead. Lastly for the last big match they showed a large group watching it in a bar. This is problem for me because somehow Samuel's character is racking in the dough, but I've only seen maybe 3 subscribers, and they don't look like they have that much money so this thing must be very cheap. secondly, who the hell is Kellan Lutz? Oh I know who he is, Rosalie's boyfriend in Twilight, but there he's a brunette. Hair color isn't a big thing, but he looks crazy with blode hair. Also, he just sucked. There's no more to be said about him, he sucked and that's it. This idiotic movie didn't lack in blood, aerial blood spray, swords, weapons and above all death. It seemed ironic to me, that the girl who got Kellan into the mess he was in, would also happen to be quiet the bed warmer, meaning they got it in. Which doesn't bother me. But it was jut so stupid, like she abducted him, and is forcing him to kill to survive, and then helps him tend a wound, and now she a saint. I don't think there is much more I can say about how dumb the movie is. Since its a gladiator type thing, and people die, its obviously illegal, so to protect the identity of the whole organization. The fights take place in a green room, but they change the back drop for every fight, but it looks horrible, not even a bit real. If I were a subscriber I'd stop watching because I looks soo bad. It seems like I'm rambling so I'll end here, don't, I mean DON'T waste your time with this thing. I won't even call it a movie because movie's have certain qualities that this didn't have.
I give this movie a negative 10 out of 5, its that bad, I'll never get back the time I wasted watching it.
Ps Nina Dobrev was in it for 15 minutes but they put her name in the title sequence. I expected to see something from her, and I didn't. I like her, and I'm not sure why she wasted her time on this stupid thing.

Abduction

A thriller centered on a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.-- IMDb Plot: Abduction (2011)
Abduction starring Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins and Alfred Molina was very, typical. It was the typical action, thriller, with a main guy, who happens to have been with a girl when something goes down, so now she's involved in a race to save their lives. That basically sums up 106mins in a run on sentence. Let me start with Taylor. Taylor Launter couldn't act his way out of a papper bag, but once he take his shirt off, or you see a glimmer of abbs, Ocars nominee for sure, (at least I think so). Since he's still young, he hasn't been given a chance to really show the potential that he has lying beneath his sexy good looks. But for Abduction, he was alright, there wasn't really anything hard to do in this movie, and the hardest part, crying over your so called "dead parents", wasn't that convincing to me. Lily Collins, to be completely honest, she wasn't really needed, ever. At one point in the movie, some one told Taylor's character to leave Lily behind and he said "No" like some big saviour. Well if I was him, I would have left her because she was more harm than good. I enjoyed her face, she's very cute, but she was just excess bagage weighing him down. The whole plot of him being some missing kid, who finds his picture on a missing persons website was cool and all, but what transpired after was totally unrealistic. I know action thrillers aren't always suppose to be realistic. But the whole movie takes place in less than a week. Taylor goes from being drunken, angry, high school wrestler, to guy on the run by the CIA and random Russians. On top of that, it seems like nobody cared about the girl with him. Her parents happened to be in Italy when this big adventure happened, but none of her other family members even put out a call to the police to say she was missing. If that wasn't enough, these two kids happened to out think, run and wit trained CIA and Russians operatives who have been doing these types of things for decades. As well, it always happens that its something stupid, which happens to be the reason why everything is happening, well Abduction was just like that. Something stupid, I won't say what (data on a cellphone) are the reason why everyone was after Taylor. The last thing I found to be very ridiculous was how in every action movie including this one, the prospect of being killed always happens to put people in the mood for love. So like any other movie Taylor and Lily had some steamy times, but it felt awkward to watch because they're just in high school and that's just weird.  
I would give this movie 2.5 out of 5. 
P.s obviously his idiot parents would keep the shirt he was wearing in the picture on the missing persons website which was what he was wearing when he was last seen, who does that.

Super 8

In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth - something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined. -- IMDb Plot: Super 8 (2011)

Super 8 which sorta rhymes with great, is a lot less than that. I'm currently watching it, and writing this because it's boring. The production company released trailers which tried to make the movie look like the next big thing. But to me it just sorta fails. I'm not sure who the main characters were. Either the kids or the adults, I would have rather seen the adults take the front wheel, while the kids stayed at the back as secondary characters. Elle Fanning seems way older than all the other kids, but girls usually are more mature. Despite that, she was too sad, always brooding around unhappily. Yes your life sucks, but put on a happy face your on camera. The boys are really annoying. There voices are too high, and there always doing stupid boy stuff, the fat kid was okay though. Something about him was cool. The whole story of filming a movie in a movie was cool, but having the kids be the ones doing it was dumb. And those kids were just too damn curious, those melting kids got in the way of too much. The back story of the accident, and the feuding fathers who didn't want there kids too hang was also stupid and over done. However the whole story was really flat and moves very slowly. They also waited too long before they showed the alien. Without seeing it, the movie became another one those movies where you don't see anything until the very last few minutes. It really tried hard to be something it's not. I would give it 1 out of 5.
This was a short review, but the movie was just that awful.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

At the story's heart is Caesar (Andy Serkis), a chimpanzee who gains human-like intelligence and emotions from an experimental drug. Raised like a child by the drug's creator, Will Rodman (James Franco) and a primatologist Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto), Caesar ultimately finds himself taken from the humans he loves and imprisoned in an ape sanctuary in San Bruno. Seeking justice for his fellow inmates, Caesar gives the fellow apes the same drug that he inherited. He then assembles a simian army and escapes the sanctuary - putting man and ape on a collision course that could change the planet forever. -- IMDb Plot: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Rise of the planet of the apes, is a good movie. I'm speaking from lack of experience with the other movies of the franchise Planet of the Apes, though. I found this movie to be very interesting, but also a bit challenging. Not challenging mentally, like Inception, but challenging in a humanitarian way. James Franco did an all right job as the lead character, he sometimes had this look on his face like he didn't know what was going on, or like he didn't want to be there. Frieda Pinto, she was well needed eye candy, but she didn't play an intergal role in the plot, I feel like her character could have been a more important being a primatologist (one who studies primates). The main chimpanzee Caesar played by Andy Serkis didn't really look like him to me, and also I felt if your gonna have an actor like andy Serkis play the lead monkey you should be able to tell. The use of cgi for all the apes was outstanding, I even questioned whether they used really animals since some of them looked so real. Some parts of the movie I didn't enjoy would be the moments dealing with Will's sick father, it was hard to see someone be affected like he was. The movie was all around very good. However I always feel, after watching something similar to this, that humans should stop trying to play god, and dealing with things beyond there control. They always get what they deserve in the end.
I would give this movie a 4 out of 5.
P.s. the way they ended the movie, set them up real well for a sequel, so look out for that in the new year, or years too come.

Our Idiot Brother

Ned lived a happy life growing organic vegetables on a farm with his hippie girlfriend and his dog named Willie Nelson, but an unadvised incident with marijuana at a farmer's market lands him in jail. When he gets out of jail, he is off to live with his sisters. While Ned is still happy, his sisters are much less so after he manages to screw up one marriage, one job opportunity, one budding relationship and one domestic partnership. He sees those problems as breakdowns in communication, but his sisters see him as an idiot. -- IMDb Plot: Our Idiot Brother (2011)
This movie starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer was very funny and touching. Paul was very funny as Ned, and the character made you laugh, feel sad but also wish that everyone else could be just like him. The ladies were convincing, not much could have been done to change them. This movie sorta slipped under the radar. But I would recommend it, if you need something funny, light and fuzzy. Its a solid 3 out of 5.

In Time

Twentieth Century Fox Welcome to a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there's a catch: you're genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich "earn" decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo's love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system. -- IMDb Plot: In Time (2011)

In time starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, was an interesting take on things. It was quite the social commentary about the rich and poor and the ever so large gap in between the two. Justin Timberlake; boy band turned soloist turned actor, was just okay as the lead character. The title role could have been given to anyone, so JT didn't really add anything to him. Amanda Seyfried was cute, she's always cute, but she didn't add anything to her character that another actress couldn't have done. Another note, the premise of only living till your 25 and then needing to work to stay alive was interesting, but weird. When someone's mom is 50 but stuck in a 25 year old body and her son is 28 and looks 25. Things can turn odd, JT and his mother looked like a couple, so I couldn't take them seriously. Also like the case of JT, Amanda and her family were all 25 and it was just weird. I felt like Alex Pettyfer's character should have been more important, he should up did something mean and then left for half hour and then kept showing up. Lastly, Cillian Murphy, I think he over acted a tad bit. He was just too much, a bit over the top compared to every one else.
But over all the movie was good, a solid 3 out of 5.

Conan the Barbarian

A quest that begins as a personal vendetta for the fierce Cimmerian warrior soon turns into an epic battle against hulking rivals, horrific monsters, and impossible odds, as Conan realizes he is the only hope of saving the great nations of Hyboria from an encroaching reign of supernatural evil. -- IMDb Plot: Conan the Barbarian (2011)
What can I say about Conan? This movie came out August 19, 2011.It was typical of this sort of action/adventure movie set in an ancient time. I'd never seen the first Conan so I had nothing to base its story on. First lets talk characters, Jason Momoa as Conan was a good choice only for the fact that he looked like a big, strong, buff and barbarian, (although he should watch out, he might start to get type casted). Aside from the physical, he brought nothing to the character. The script they wrote for him, Conan barely says antyhing, what he does say is either something related to battle, or rude and demanding. Ron Perliman was for some reason a bigg nme for the movie, with his name appearing in many of the posters, but he was only in it for 20 mintues tops. Everyone else in it was nobody importnt to me, meaning I'd never seen, or noticed them before this movie, and probably won't after. Secondly, the story/plot wasvery perditable, as I said, it was typical and like basically everything I've ever seen. Thirdly, the look of the movie, the scenary was okay. I enjoyed when they were on the boat in the ocean the water was very blue and peaceful. Also, the action and blood, this movie wasn't short on fight scenes and blood. But It got to be a bit over the top, and boring after the first battle scene when Conan was born. When fighting, Conan didn't do anything spectacular, it was just swords hitting bodies and obsevie amounts of blood. It actually looked like they were bleeding too much, more than the wounds would bleed in normal life. All in all it wasn't a great movie. I wouldn't waste my time. So I give it 1.5 out of 5.