Cinema Alliance Movie Reviews

The Other Guys pairs up Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as mis-matched partners in a police unit dominated by supercops Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne

I just caught this again recently and wanted to write it up for the blog, so here we go…

Mark Wahlberg plays Izzy, the singer of a local tribute band that covers his favorite band named Steel Dragon. The story is supposed to be roughly based on Judas Priest, who went through a situation similar with their singer (Rob Halford) when he left the band; they filled the vacated slot with a singer from a Judas Priest tribute band. The story of Rock Star follows the same premise.

Once Wahlberg is in the band, the story turns in more of a sex, drugs and rock and roll direction with a behind the scenes view of the women, the tours and the over the top lifestyle so many people have dreamed of through rock and roll. Of course the ultimate destination of this lifestyle doesn’t turn out so well and drama ensues. The relationship between Wahlberg and his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) is put to the test through the process of them dealing with events that are consequence of the formulaic rock star lifestyle.

All-in-all a pretty well told story and entertaining to watch. It’s a bit typical with no surprises but is still worth checking out. The ending is a bit cliche’ but is pulled off well.

The cast does great in their roles and includes Jennifer Aniston as Izzy’s girlfriend, Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew/Wormtail from the Harry Potter films) and the rest of Steel Dragon including: Jason Bonham (son of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham), Jeff Pilson (Dokken, Foreignor), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy, Black Label Society) and Dominic West (300, HBO’s The Wire), the only other actor in the group next to Wahlberg.

The music is a large part of the experience and includes a healthy dose of heavy metal / hard rock some of it even sung by Mark Wahlberg who does a great job with the vocals surprisingly. I say surprisingly because during some of the behind the scenes footage, Wahlberg complains about metal and mentions how much more he’s about hip-hop. Personally I’d take his vocals in Steel Dragon any day over Marky Mark (seriously dude, Marky Mark? Really? Let it go.).

reviewed by Sean McKnight

So this is Jerry Seinfeld’s venture into cg filmmaking. Meh, blah, yadda-yadda. That sums up the way I felt about this one.

The story centers around a bee that’s dissatisfied with his lot in life working in the hive. Eventually, he accidentally ends up in the city & starts a friendship with a woman (he can talk of course). Ok, so this is a bit stupid even for a cg film as the relationship borders on romantic. It soon becomes hard to tell if this movie is geared towards kids or adults or both as the storyline gets a bit ridiculous for adults while being too complicated for kids.

As the story unfolds Jerry’s bee discovers that humans have been selling honey for profit with the bees not getting a cut. So he does what any bee would do – he takes the human race to court. Meh, blah, stupid. It turns out that the bee also has a law background.

Anyway, aside from a lame storyline, the cg is ok but not exactly innovative or even very exciting to watch. It’s very average by today’s standards of cg design & animation.

The cast includes Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Chris Rock, Larry King, John Goodman and Oprah Winfrey among others. Even with the starpower involved, the movie still falls flat as the novelty of these people’s involvement isn’t enough to save it from the poor writing & directing.

Yadda-yadda-yadda…

reviewed by Sean McKnight

So I thought I would go in the opposite direction of what I’ve been reviewing for the month of October, so I went with this one.

I enjoyed the first movie and let’s face it, this movie is just for fun. You’re not really looking for anything profound here but it does have it’s moments such as the underlying themes of family and being accepted for who you are. There’s also some nods to the power of friendship.

Otherwise, it’s our friends from the New York Zoo in the first movie picking up for the next leg of the adventure which leads them to their homeland of Africa where they stumble upon Alex the Lion’s long lost family. Their penguin allies along with their monkey sidekicks are also along for the ride.

It’s great family fare, full of adventure, beautiful computer generated animation and artwork and much fun. Plenty of big name voices in here too including: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin and more.

For me, Pixar films are the be-all end-all of computer generated animated movies, but this one is definitely worth a night with the family and some popcorn.

reviewed by Sean McKnight