The Back-Up Plan (2010)

Jennifer Lopez seems to love the romantic comedy. I think she’s done more of those types of films than any other. Let’s face it; they haven’t really turned out all that great. I will admit, I did take a liking to Angel Eyes, but that wasn’t a romantic comedy, so never mind. Her latest, but not greatest, is The Back-Up Plan.

The premise, although not completely new, is pretty simple. A single woman, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez), is finally ready to have kids. One problem, she doesn’t have the other ingredient needed, that essential part being a man in her life in order to do so. So, she decides to have herself artificially inseminated to try to become pregnant and is completely fine with doing the single mom thing. Enter Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) and a chance meeting between him and Zoe when they accidentally get into the same taxi-cab. He asks her out, sparks fly, they begin to date, yadda yadda yadda. The real plot begins when she discovers her doubtful attempt at pregnancy has ended in success. Now, she has to make a decision: tell him or not to tell him? That is the question…that almost no one has ever had to actually do before in real life.

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Repo Men (2010)

Blood, guts, on-the-spot surgery, blood, action, and oh yeah some more blood. If you like blood, well I mean seeing it on screen and not in real life, then you will love the bloody Miguel Sapochnik directed film, Repo Men. Powered by other aspects other than just blood, such as the creative story line, Repo Men might have the small beginnings of a becoming a cult favorite.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star as the aforementioned repossession specialists, Remy and Jake. After growing up and serving in the military together, the two friends take jobs as repo men for a company known as the Union. A company that provides artificial organs and body parts to the unfortunate who are dying or in need of some kind of transplant in order to stay alive. This, of course, all comes at a price, which can be split into monthly payments at a seemingly low interest rate. If they happen to fall behind on their payments, however, then that’s where Remy and Jake come in. If you see them in your home, then… let’s just say you rather be on the phone arguing with a collections agency.

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The Bounty Hunter (2010)

After seeing the trailer for this run-around romantic comedy, I felt like it had potential. Sure the concept of ex’s being forced to sort of work together has been done numerous times before but I figured pairing these two stars together would shed some unused light on the topic. Sadly, I was wrong. Not completely, The Bounty Hunter does entertain in some sense of the word, but doesn’t quite provide the substance needed to really be a full movie. This might be bad because this type of story really doesn’t need much substance to be considered entertaining.

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Remember Me (2010)

For those of you who have faithfully followed my film critiques, you might be aware of my struggles with un-bias and giving credit where it is due to certain genres and film styles. Styles that in my pre-critic life I would not have taken a liking to. I felt like I was making wonderful progess in this plight after seeing and giving reviews on certain movies with no favoritism whatsoever. Well, if I made it over a hump with those previous films, then this one surely puts me over the mountain. Remember Me easily fits into the romance-drama category. A category that, although I do possess a “hopeless romantic” side, I don’t usually find myself enthralled in a story that fits within this class of film. Somehow, someway I found myself doing just that with this movie.

The story begins in a part of Brooklyn, NY; which I am very proud to say is my hometown, born and raised. However, the story also begins in tragedy. One of our main characters, Ally (Emilie de Ravin), witnesses firsthand the death of her mother at a very young age. This leaves her father, Neil (Chris Cooper), an NYPD police officer, to raise her alone. Fast forwarding to the future, Ally now attends college in New York City and still lives with her very protective father. Unbeknownst to her, she shares a class with Tyler (Robert Pattison), who also has his own family demons.

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Zombieland (2009)

So it seems like the zombie genre might be getting to the point of being run into the ground. There have been countless zombie movies, some good and some bad, that have graced the big screen and either found their way into our hearts or into the realm of forgotten movie lore. I could throw random undead titles out at you but…I’m not. You know which ones you liked and which ones you didn’t so we’ll just leave it at that. Hopefully Zombieland finds its way into the pile that you like.

Taking after such films like Shaun of the Dead, (c’mon, I had to include at least one film reference) Zombieland combines horror and comedy. It takes the meat and potatoes that are used to make scary movies about the wandering undead and dips it into a pastel colored icing and puts a really big exploding candle on top: the funny part. Ok, a disgusting analogy yes, but hopefully you got the point.

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Despicable Me (2010)

We all know there have been many films about orphans and the way they fall into some unsuspecting Joe’s life who has never had children before. We also all know that by the end of the story their usual carefree lifestyle has been significantly changed by the presence of unwanted responsibility and the unexpected rewards that raising children can bring. Usually this change and mentality in our new parent’s life is a positive one and everyone lives happily ever after.


Despicable Me proves to be much more than this. Sure, it follows this basic concept and you can almost guess how everything is going to turn out but what is not predictable about the film is how the characters arrive at the end of the story. Therefore it is not your average bachelor meets orphans fairytale.

Our hero… or villain Gru (Steve Carrell), which is actually what he is in the movie, is seen as a disappointment across the “bad guy world”. Although he has the smarts, the evil scientist/inventor sidekick, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), and around a ka-jillion silly childlike, yellow minions who are just waiting to do his every bidding, he still seems to fall short on the super-villain scale. The new kid in town, Vector (Jason Segel), pulls off one of the greatest diabolical plans in the apparent history of evilness and leaves Gru wondering why he didn’t think of it first.

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Wolfman (2010)

Man learns of brother’s death. Man returns home in search of brother’s killer. Man finds brother’s killer. Man sees full moon and becomes a killer. The man is Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), and he has a less than cordial relationship with his father, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins). He becomes aware that his brother has gone missing and has also left behind a quite beautiful fiancée, Gwen Coliffe (Emily Blunt). He promises her that he will find her late future husbands murderer but in doing so finds much more than he expected. It is believed by the townspeople where his father and brother resides that a monster is on the loose. A monster feared to be a werewolf. During a scuffle with the creature, he is bitten and learns first hand “the legend of the wolf”.


There were a total of three films with the “wolf man” concept before this modern version. This particular remake is based off of the 1941 version of the classic story. The film, directed by Joe Johnston, is laced with some very well done special effects. In fact, the effects are possibly the best aspect of this movie. Having never seen the original story, I cannot make a personal comparison but read that the second half of the film was altered for the remake.

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