All posts by russell.pinkston

Russell grew up at the movies. His older brother Gary made Super 8 movies in the early 80's and cast Russell as one of his stars. Gary went on to become a background extra, starring in hundreds of movies and tv shows including Russell's alltime favorite movie, Die Hard. Influenced by his brother and his love of movies Russell begin writing movie reviews for his high school newspaper, The Golden Echo. 20 years later Russell returned to his movie reviewing roots when he was cast in Reelz Channel's Movie Mob as one-half of the team of CineManiacs. After the show was cancelled he went on to review movies on youtube. He currently reviews movies for Currents magazine and for thedirectorscutradio.com. He hopes to one day write novels and screenplays.
Russell Pinkston - Middle America Contributor

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

 

Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) is back….this time in Europe where he has gone to get away from his alter ego, Ghost Rider.  But luckily it also happens to be the right place where he is needed to save the world from evil…again.   A secret church sect headed by Methodius (Christopher Lambert) has enlisted his help to save the life of a boy who the devil this time in the form of another human, Roarke (Ciarán Hinds) is looking for.   He is searching for his son so he may have another younger body he can transfer into.  Moreau (Idris Elba) teams up with the Ghost Rider and the boy’s mother (Violante Placido) to save him and all of us from hell on earth. 

Nicolas Cage (National Treasure, Kick-Ass) returns as the lead character Ghost Rider in this sequel to the 2007 film.  He also plays a simular character who running from the devil/escaping from hell in last year’s Drive Angry.   Idris Elba (Takers, Thor) stars as the Ghost Rider’s motorcycle riding sidekick.   Christopher Lambert (Highlander, The Hunted) was added to the cast…maybe because they weren’t able to get Peter Fonda back for this movie.  

This is a paycheck film.  There is absolutely no other reason that any of the actors did this movie…it definitely wasn’t for the exceptional writing.  This is one of the worst movies I have seen in the theater in a long time.   I had to fight the urge to get up and walk out.  It’s that bad.   The directing wasn’t much better than the writing.   There are actually two directors to blame, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor team up again.   They both teamed up for Crank and it’s sequel Crank: High Voltage as well as Gamer (with Movie Mob’s Brit Twins).  They love the slow mo, fast forward style of film using loud abnoxious music to make up for their lack of writing.  It worked for the Crank films…it doesn’t here.  It’s annoying as…well you know.  This movie does not need to be seen EVER and definitely not in the theater and in 3D (3X the dimesion of crappiness) I say Skip This Movie!    Save your soul and save you brain cells!

 

Russell Pinkston - Middle America Contributor

This Means War

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

CIA agents and best friends FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) find out they are both dating the same woman, Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon).  At first they decide they will let the other have the girl but then both compete for her affections.  They employ all the tools of the CIA to track and monitor the other’s progress and to twart each other.

Chris Pine (Star Trek, Unstoppable) and Tom Hardy (Warrior, The Dark Knight Rises) are both suave and funny as competing CIA agents.   Reese Witherspoon (Just Like Heaven, Walk the Line) plays the love interest of both men.  She has done this type of character before and proves she is pretty good at carrying a romantic comedy.    Chelsea Handler (E’s Chelsea Lately) stars as Lauren’s best friend and steals every scene she is in.   She is hilarious.  It’s directed by Joseph McGinty Nichol, better known as McG (Charlie’s Angels, We Are Marshall, Terminator: Salvation and tv’s Chuck pilot).

If you have seen the trailer, you won’t really be surprised by the movie.   I think the trailer shows way too much of the story but even despite that fact I really enjoyed this movie (especially because of Chelsea Handler).   It has action, comedy and romance (what every growing boy needs).   And it’s not your typical Valentine’s Day movie.  It’s actually a valentine movie that most guys probably wouldn’t mind being dragged to, unlike The Vow where guys by the end of the movie are gonna be wishing they were dead.  I say See This Movie!  It’s a fun and funny good time for both sexes.

Russell Pinkston - Middle America Contributor

Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

A group of college students decide to go on a camping trip in the middle of  the West Viginia woods.   While at a gas station they run into a couple of  locals, Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine).   Tucker and Dale are as backwoods and hillbilly as can be and the college kids are frighten off by them.  After all they have seen alot of movies about these types of people who live way out in the woods.  They once again run into the rednecks while camping, where one of the girls, Allison (Katrina Bowden) is abducted by them.   The college kids lead by Chad (Jesse Moss) decide they are not gonna be the victims they have seen in the movies.  They decide they are gonna fight back and rescue their friend Allison.  One by one the body count starts to add up as well as the laughs.  I don’t want to tell you too much about the movie…it’s one of those movies that you have to see (and enjoyed) by yourself.

Tyler Labine (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) and Alan Tudyk (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) are great in this not so typical horror movie.  They are so totally believeable as the backwoods buddies.  Katrina Bowden (Sex Drive, Piranha 3DD) is both sexy and likable as the captured college girl.  This cast for the most part for me are unknown.   But everyone in it are great.   The movie is directed perfectly by Eli Craig.  He had me fooled at first that this was gonna be just another crappy horror movie. 

I am not a huge fan of the horror genre but this is not your typical Wrong Turn type horror movie.   Unlike most horror movies it’s cleverly written and well acted.  I really like and recommend this movie.  I was laughing out loud and loving almost every minute.  It’s one of my most enjoyable movie experiences of 2012 so far.  I say Rent It NOW!  

Russell Pinkston - Middle America Contributor

The Woman in Black

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a lawyer sent to collect all the papers and documents of a lady who died.  Sounds simple….but the house is way out on an island, in a marsh (the road is covered by the water each evening and is haunted by an evil woman in a black dress).  Arthur discovers strange behavior and suicides of children in the small town nearest to the house especially after someone visits the house.  But he has a child to take care of (his wife and the mother of his child died during childbirth) so he has no choice.   He starts to uncover a mystery that has been buried for years and starts to see strange things while at the house.  He has to solve the mystery fast and get out before he himself is killed by the woman in black.

Daniel Radcliffe stars in only his 3rd non-Harry Potter film (The Tailor of Panama, December Boys) and his first real lead role where he didn’t play a child wizard.  He did pretty good although a couple of times (him on the train) I did think of the  Hogwarts Express train and expected the dementors would appear at any moment.  It’s gonna take a few movies for him to overcome that typecasting but I am rooting for him and I think with the success of this film we will be seeing alot more of Daniel Radcliffe in the future.   

 The film was better than I thought it would be.   It was a pretty decent PG-13 horror film (would of been better as an R rated film…but wouldn’t they all).   This isn’t a movie that has to be seen on the big screen (it didn’t have alot of action and thankfully wasn’t in 3D) so I say Wait to Rent It.   But when you do, watch it with the lights out with someone who scares easy and you will definitely get some enjoyment out of it 🙂

 

Russell Pinkston - Middle America Contributor

Safe House

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

Ex CIA and wanted international criminal Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) walks into the U.S. Embassy in Cape Town, South Africa.  He is quickly moved to a “safe house”  to be  interrogated.   CIA agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is the housesitter and hasn’t seen much action on this detail.  He hopes to move up and get a better assignment in the agency.  The safe house is breached by the men who were trying to kill Frost in order to retrive information he has that they don’t want to be seen.

Denzel Washington once again plays a bad guy…a role he is actually pretty good at playing.   He won an Best Actor Oscar for his bad guy performance in 2001’s Training Day.   Ryan Reynolds redeems himself somewhat from his last two movies (The Change-Up, Green Lantern).  Both Washington and Reynolds have good chemisty together on screen and pretty good writing.   Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, Source Code),  Rubén Blades (Predator 2), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgement Day) and Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff) co-star. 

The movie does get a bit muddled in the middle and it’s definitely not as good as Training Day  (if you haven’t seen it…rent it now) but the directing (Daniel Espinosa) was decent and the acting was pretty good.   It’s not a movie you have to run out and seen in theaters so I say Wait and Rent It.

Russell Pinkston - Middle America Contributor

Reviews of the Week January 29th-Febuary 4th

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review by Russell Pinkston

I seen a few movies this week (thanks to Redbox and my local library)..

First up….the bad.

Shark Night (not in 3D):  I was kind of excited to see this movie every since I won an autographed movie poster on Twitter.  I kindof like Piranha 3D (especially the T&A) so I thought…this can’t be that bad.   Yeah right.   First off…the movie was PG-13 (so no T&A and no gore).   Second and most importantly it was poorly written and acted.  I wanted to like it but the whole time I felt like I was watching a really back Sy Fy Channel movie.   And what the BEEP was that Shark Bite music video at the end of the credits.  I am glad the cast and crew had fun making the movie but I wanted to have fun watching it….and I didn’t.  I say SKIP THIS MOVIE

The Smurfs (again not in 3D):  I loved the Smurfs as a kid and collected many of the figures (some I still have today) but seriously What a SMURFING piece of SMURFING SMURF this movie was!  The live action actors were bad especally Hank Azaria who played Garamole.  Wow…I can’t put into words how bad his acting and the writing for his character was.  This movie makes me seriously reconsider how bad I thought Alvin and the Chipmonks: Chipwrecked was…cause compared to The Smurfs…Alvin is a masterpiece (of what…you can probably imagine).   I say SKIP THIS MOVIE

Rubber:  My daughter and I seen the previews of this movie along time ago.  And Dan of The Director’s Cut Radio Show ranked it in his Top 10 Movies of 2011.  So my daugher was excited to see it.  I was somewhat interested in the concept of a tire that killed people.    I mean it’s a tire…and it rolls around blowing things up including people’s heads.   Cool idea.   But instantly it lost us when it opens up with people watching the tire from a distant in the desert and with the thought…is it real or is it a movie….is it more than a movie….yeah…it’s big pile of rubber crap.   I say SKIP THIS MOVIE

 

and now The Good:

50/50:   Seth Rogen once again brings humor to a film about someone who is dying (Funny People).  This one stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a guy who discovers he has cancer.  His girlfriend bails and he is left with his friend (Rogen) and his therapist (Anna Kendrick).  This movie allows you take a funny look at a not so funny situation.   I like it.  It was a good story and well acted.   I also liked the special features on the making of the movie.   I say SEE THIS MOVIE

Chronicle:   3 high school kids find a mysterious hole in the woods, they go in and make a discovery not of this world….and contact with changes their lives.  They develop telekinetic powers and start off messing with people but one boy takes it too far and decides to use his power for evil and not just for fun.   I like the idea of this movie.  I am not a huge fan of the “found footage” type of filmmaking but it works with this story and the director uses more cameras than just the ones the two characters use in the movie.  I say SEE THIS MOVIE

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The Vow

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

The Vow is about Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum), a young newlywed couple madly in love who are involved in an automobile accident.   Leo is not hurt but Paige is thrown through the windshield and suffers memory loss….basically the loss of all memories of being married, in love and nice.   She turns her back on her husband and friends and turns to her parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange) who she had not talk to for a very long time (and for good reasons).   Leo is undeterred by her newfound disinterest and anger toward him and sets out to make his wife fall back in love with him.    

The Vow  is yet another romantic drama trying to sucker the American female movie going public.   Husbands and boyfriends who are dragged to this movie are truely the ones who will really suffer.  Despite starring two past successful romantic drama leads (Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams) this is not the sappy, make you tear up, love story you might expect.  It’s a water down version and really quite boring and sad.   This movie is loosely based on the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter.  In real life they are happily married with kids despite the fact she has never regained her memory.  In the movie world this movie is poorly written.  The actors read their lines but you don’t feel for them.   They are just playing a role and collecting a paycheck.

Jessica Lange who has recently won awards for her role in FX’s American Horror Story (and will be returning for season 2) just looked old and tired….which is how I felt after sitting through this movie.   Rob Roy, Blue Sky and Everybody’s All-American are far better movies of hers.  

Rachel McAdams is known for her romantic movies especially The Notebook and The Time Traveler’s Wife but I actually like her more in Red Eye, The Family Stone and the Sherlock Holmes movies.

Channing Tatum has been in a couple of decent romantic dramas, Dear John and Step Up.  He was great in The Dilemma.   Earlier this year he co-starred in Haywire and later this year will be starring in 21 Jump Street and GI Joe: Retaliation (with The Rock and Bruce Willis).  

Overall this movie didn’t tug at my heartstrings but instead I fought the urge to sleep.   I say Skip this movie and see their earlier and much better movies again instead.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

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Movie review by Russell Pinkston

Journey 2 wastes no time getting to the “action”. Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) is being pursued by police after he broke into a satellite facility to gain access to a message sent by his grandfather (Michael Caine). He is caught but release into the custody of his step-father Hank (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). They don’t get along at first but then they team up to solve the cryptic message. They head out on a step-father/son bonding trip to Palau where they meet a tour guide, Gabato (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) and they travel via helicopter to where they believe The Mysterious Island to be. A freak storm crashes their helicopter and magically transport them to the island where danger and adventure awaits them.  The film is loosely based on the novel by Jules Verne.  It tries to also include elements from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Islan and Johnathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
Josh Hutcherson is the sole holdover from 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. Brendan Fraser is replaced in this movie by Dwayne Johnson. Last year The Rock brought new life to the Fast and the Furious franchise when he was added to the Fast Five cast. His addition help that film make over $600 million dollars and a place in my Top 10 Films I Seen in 2011. I like almost everything he has been in but he brought nothing to this film. I don’t fault him….the writing was just really bad. I still look forward to what The Rock can bring to GI Joe: Retaliation…the sequel to a movie I didn’t really like.
Josh Hutcherson is ok….I like him in many of his earlier movies (Zathura, Bridge to Terabithia, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant) and I really look forward to him playing Peeta Mellark in next month’s The Hunger Games! But he just wasn’t a very interesting character. In fact most of the character’s were shallow and uninteresting (Kristin Davis).
Vanessa Hudgens provided the eye candy….and believe me, seeing her breasts and ass in 3D was definitely a highlight of the movie , she just doesn’t do much else.
Michael Caine plays Sean’s grandfather and tries to be the worldly adventure traveler but basically comes across as an escape nursing home patient. I felt bad for him that his career had come down to movies like this. I grew up watching his movies (Dressed to Kill, The Island, Victory, Deathtrap and Blame it on Rio) and I loved him in The Cider House Rules (although I still feel Haley Joel Osment should have won that Best Supporting Actor Oscar) Mr. Destiny and Harry Brown but recently including last year’s disappointing Cars 2, his roles haven’t been that good.
The sole highlight and comic relief was from Luis Guzman. If it wasn’t for him I would have hated this movie alot. He stole every scene he was in (that Vanessa’s T&A wasn’t in).
Overall I say say Skip This Movie. It’s nothing special and definitely not worth your $’s seeing it in 3D at the theaters.