 see the trailer after the jump Editor: From time to time we hope to have some guest writers featured on notthebees in order to give you, the reader, some variety and expertise. Our first contribution comes from Douglas R. Beam, an attorney in Melbourne, Florida. While at the University of Tennessee College of Law, Mr. Beam served as an Assistant Editor on the Law Review, and upon graduating was admitted to the Bar and became a prosecutor, having filed a brief or made an oral argument at various levels including the United States Supreme Court. In April, Mr. Beam attended an event put on by the Miami Historical Museum, along with Billy Corban, the director and producer of the heralded documentary. The following excerpt comes from our guest blogger's article, of which the full version can be found here.  "He kept a low profile while compiling $24 million in real estate and housing from the profits from the drug trade. The real estate and housing was purchased throughout Florida with cash. Mr. Munday eschewed fancy cars and flashy clothing, knowing that if he looked and acted like a drug trafficker he would be an easy target for law enforcement. This was in sharp contrast to Jon Roberts, a drug trafficker known for his extravagant lifestyle."
Add Comment Piranha 3D 8.20.2010 08/21/2010
 trailer and pictures of Kelly Brook after the jump Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
Upon being stamped with the "summer blockbuster" title, such films typically make a ton of money based on their action, adventure, and star power, but lack any legitimate plot or acting. Think Will Smith in Independance Day, or Brangelina in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The modern summer blockbuster has become a cash cow to be avoided by all discriminating movie-goers. That was until Piranha 3D came out. Never taking itself too seriously, the film blends a perfectly over-the-top mix of blood and babes. Lucky to get an "R" rating, Piranha pushes the envelope with severed legs and naked girls galore. If your stomach can handle the gore, the movie is exactly what one wants in a summer movie. While dialogue is weak (frankly, its horrid) and the camera angles and graphics are elementary (at best) it doesn't seem to matter as viewers are constantly distracted by the hilarious Jerry O'Connell, the gorgeous Kelly Brook, or the gruesome piranhas. In the vein of Snakes on a Plane, the movie mocks itself so perfectly that what would be considered cheesy warrants uproarious laughs and non-stop excitement. There isn't much to herald in Piranha other than it's natural charm. Stocked full of washed-up actors, and Adam Scott (Step Brothers, The Vicious Kind) the acting is blah. The piranhas themselves are bastardized CGI animations that aren't fooling anyone. And with cliches at every turn, the film doesn't progress the horror genre whatsoever. But that is where Piranha 3D wins! It plays as an homage to the fun 3D action flicks of the yesteryear gen-y-ers aren't old enough to remember; and with that comes the new excitement of such an entertaining and fun movie experience. Laughs and gasps fill the 89-minute run time, enough to where audiences should leave smiling. While Inception was this summer's "thinking man's" blockbuster, Piranha 3D is an absolute blast, and this summer's "everyman" blockbuster! 7.5/10 The Other Guys 8.6.2010 08/06/2010
 trailer after the jump Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
In the notthebees summer movie guide The Other Guys was mentioned as being everything that Cop Out was supposed to be. Helmed by Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) and starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, the buddy cop comedy had all the pieces to be the funniest movie of the summer. Unfortunately, that never comes to fruition as stale jokes turn the film into a very average summer comedy a la last year's Ferrell supposed-to-be-hit Land of the Lost. Wahlberg and Ferrell play a team of detectives vying to fill the shoes of two recently deceased super cops. Of course this is no easy task, especially considering the fact that nobody in the department respects the disgraced cop or forensic accountant. But they stay persistent in their efforts to take down a major ponzi scheme headed by a frivolous investor played by Steve Coogan. While Ferrell again plays that giant dope character perfectly, channeling his role in 2006's Stranger than Fiction. Wahlberg on the other hand continues to prove that he can't lower himself to play a normal guy after years of being Hollywood's go-to badass. His performance is reminiscent of his character in The Happening, where his perception of a normal science teacher is a complete doofus. Still though, their interactions are funny at times, starting from an exchange early on where Wahlberg refers to the sound of Ferrell's "piss hitting the urinal" as "feminine." The Other Guys is full of gags that are willingly thrown out just to see if they stick. This formula has worked gloriously for McKay in the past, but save for a running bit about mid-90's hip-hop group TLC and a few others, most of the jokes seem like scraps from prior writer's rooms. Shockingly, the movie even stoops so low as to include the over-used "grandmother saying vulgar things" to fish for laughs, which it doesn't get. Still, the director uses the freedom of a comedy to get a little experimental, most notably turning a typical "getting wasted" scene into a very strange, yet refreshing, ultra-stylistic string of stills pulled straight from the opening credits of Zack Snyder's Watchmen. Some of the little things, like Rage Against the Machine playing over the closing credits, or the bad guy wearing a Florida Gators shirt while in prison were nice touches, but all in all the film fails to meet the expectations garnered with Adam McKay in the director's chair. The Other Guys is certainly worth a watch, but not till it hits netflix. 5.5/10 Inception 7.16.2010 07/16/2010
 Trailer after the jump Reviewed By: Riley Beam
The unofficial three word review generator of Christopher Nolan's Inception: (Choose one word from each number) 1.) Fantastic. Extravagant. Illusive. Chimerical. 2.) Mental. Cerebral. Subconscious. Psychical. 3.) Breakdown. Disruption. Disintegration. Psychasthenia. In Inception, dreaming is the only path to reality, but one is often not discernible from the other. It is a mind game with no time frame. The story is best left briefly explained. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief, who works in the subconscious of his victims and steals their ideas. He is offered an opportunity for redemption from a mysterious Asian businessman, Saito (Ken Watanabe), which he quickly agrees to. His mission is not to steal an idea, but to plant one, a task that is "bloody difficult" to accomplish. Cobb gathers a team of mental moles, played by Ellen Page (Juno), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer), Tom Hardy (Bronson) and Dileep Rao (Drag Me To Hell). Each of these team members have a special skill set, much like The Magnificent Seven (or Captain Planet), and one cannot survive without the other. Most of the characters lack depth, but in this rare instance that partly benefits the movie. It adds to the dream-like feel, as many of the characters seemed lifeless and robotic but carried the plot along. If there was more emotion and humanity to the characters, that would inject almost too much reality to the story and take away from the atmosphere of the dream worlds. The mysterious woman (Marion Cotillard) who appears in Cobb's subconscious may be one of the most frightening and unpredictable antagonists since Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight (also a Christopher Nolan film.) The environment of the subconscious takes on its own personality as well, which is really what makes this movie stand out. It is an uncomfortable experience because not only is the story a mystery, but every subsequent scene is entirely unpredictable. It will not let you rest. In a new era of visuals and special effects, Inception has set a new standard. Buildings and entire cities are toppled, warped, flooded, and destroyed; and not once does it feel or look unrealistic. While 3D is on the rise and movies look better than ever, the worlds of Avatar and Toy Story 3 fall short of the vast, imaginative landscapes of Inception, which absolutely must be seen in theaters to be fully appreciated. The uniqueness of this film is not in its plot, characters or dialogue, but in the way the story is told, the atmosphere is built, and its visuals. Inception has everything one looks for in a mental thriller, plus all the eye-candy and sound effects of a summer blockbuster. Christopher Nolan successfully followed up The Dark Knight with an equally impressive and game-changing film and should be noted as perhaps the greatest filmmaker of the last decade. (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and Inception) Don't Sleep on Inception. 9/10 Cyrus 7.14.2010 07/14/2010
 Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
When it comes to romantic comedies there's not much that's commendable. Rarely since Annie Hall broke the fourth wall has a love story taken an original approach beyond the typical set-up. While some indie gems like Garden State have provided romantics with their fill, an influx of major studio garbage (The Proposal, Anything Jennifer Aniston has been in) has diluted the genre. Luckily Fox Searchlight picked up Mark and Jay Duplass' Cyrus. The film centers around John (John C. Reilly) a down-in-the-dumps editor whose luck changes when he meets the beautiful Molly (Marisa Tomei). Things get weird when Molly's grown son Cyrus (Jonah Hill) enters the picture. With problems of his own, most notably his desire to keep his mom's attention, Cyrus creates a hellish situation for John that could compromise the relationship and John's happiness. The Duplass brothers are highly regarded in the indie world as the godfathers of "mumblecore;" a style of film-making that focuses on the relationships of the characters. The aesthetics carry over as Cyrus looks low-budget and the camera work looks like the directors used a hand-held. The plot is bare; in fact the film even gets downright boring at times. The flat-lining story is resuscitated by Jonah Hill's extremely creepy portrayal of the mentally unstable son and John C. Reilly's comically pathetic divorcée; and as usual, Marisa Tomei is a beauty of great proportion. Unfortunately, while the performances help the movie, they're not enough and the Duplass' first foray into mainstream cinema is hindered by a boring storyline. Still though, Cyrus is a thousand times more enjoyable than The Bounty Hunter or Just Wright. If you're with your boys, go see Predators; if you're with a lass, Cyrus is the way to go. 6.5/10 The Last Airbender 7.4.10 07/04/2010
 trailer after the jump Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
In March 2002 a film version of H.G. Wells' classic book The Time Machine was released to widespread negative reviews. Despite my excitement to see the adaptation, I trusted the critics and waited till it was released on DVD to see the movie. That was the day I realized that some 50-something year old critic for my local newspaper has far different sensibilities and interests than me, and that I would no longer allow their opinions to direct my viewing practices. Fast forward 8 years to the release of another adaptation, this time of a popular Nickelodeon TV series: The Last Airbender. M. Night Shyalaman directed the film that follows a gifted young boy's quest to save the world with his special abilities to bend the elements. In the few days since its release, it also has received dis-favorable opinions from reviewers. Once again, they're wrong. Following a string of duds, Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Happening) signed on to direct his first film based on somebody else's story. Know for mysteries that ended with a surprising twist, the director was bound by the material at hand, and any deviation would alienate the masses of fans of the series. With such constraints, M. Night Shyamalan has proven that he can indeed direct a good movie, and his penchant for aesthetics are well warranted. While the script is at times cheesy, and acting over the top, the visuals and epic fight scenes make up for all the film lacks. The movie evoked memories of the mega-hit Lord of the Rings films, adding pretty faces and magical powers, and eliminating the excessive travel scenes. Fight scenes were Matrix-esque whenever the "benders," people with the ability to control the elements, yanked globes of water out of the ocean, sprayed fire, or shot out gusts of wind. The final battle, almost identical to final Lord of the Rings battle at Minas Tirith, is epic and full of action. Despite its similarities, the movie is not Lord of the Rings, and that is due primarily to choppy editing. The movie clocks in at 103 minutes, and it is obvious Shyamalan intended for, and needed, about two and a half hours. What got left was necessary scenes, and what was removed was substantial portions of every characters backstory, and the entirety of many subplots. For example, Jackson Rathbone's (Twilight, S. Darko) character, Sakka, has what seems to be a love story with the Yue, the princess of the northern water benders. But the only way the audience knows is because they kiss at one point, but nothing beforehand alludes to any romance. This occurs often and is made obvious with rapid cuts that end with awkward lines without context. Still, the bad reviews are unwarranted. M. Night Suffers the opposite of the "Pixar Syndrome," in which anything Pixar puts out will be heralded, regardless of its actual quality. Shyamalan has made some bad movies recently, and has become an easy target for negative critics. While over-acting and choppy plot do not make for an incredible film, the story is in no way bad, and the film looks fantastic. There is no way The Last Airbender warrants the title of worst reviewed film of 2010, or anything close. It has more heart than Twilight, more action than Toy Story 3, and isn't Marmaduke. The Last Airbender is a legitimate summer blockbuster and theater-goers shouldn't be detracted by Shyamalan-haters. 7/10 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse 6.30.10 06/30/2010
 Trailer after the jump Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
Not bad. Not bad at all. The newest installment of The Twilight Saga, Eclipse, is surprisingly not nearly as bad as might be expected. In fact, it's rather good. While the teeny-bopper hype surrounding it could turn off most intelligent theater-goers, this isn't just for the mindless. New-to-the-series director David Slade (the incredible Hard Candy, and 30 Days of Night) disappoints. While his previous work has been lauded for their stylistic beauty and dark themes, minute glimpses of that are seen here. Having not seen the first two installments, I have nothing to compare the 3rd film to, but it is clear that Slade made sure to accentuate the creepiness of the Volturi, and the rawness of vampire on vampire violence. But the director didn't bring along his established penchant for using films over the camera lens to create a hazy fog of color dependent on the mood of the scene. This is possibly a side-effect of dealing with the producers of a mega-money summer blockbuster, but regardless, Slade's more artsy approach could've bunny-hopped the film out of the tween fan base. A major surprise was the acting abilities of 2/3 of the lead actors. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart definitely hold their own, with Pattinson really impressing and showing potential for future roles. As much grief as she gets, Stewart really plays the "afflicted" role well; one that is typically very difficult to convey effectively on-screen. But then Disney dream boat Taylor Lautner comes into frame, and hampers the entire film. As a Hollywood hopeful, I would at times get in front of the mirror and act out scenes from my favorite movies; and everytime, while my recitation of the lines was ok, something was missing: the natural convincingness and ability to take over a different persona. That is exactly how Lautner's entire performance was. Stock expressions carried him through anger and grief. If he was sad, he scrunched up his nose and winced his eyes. Any pondering was preceded by calculated head turns and stares to the sky. While his six-pack is ridiculous for a 17-year old kid, I'd hope that wouldn't be enough for a leading role in a major film series, but apparently thats not the case. The film has a good, fairly complex story that doesn't need viewings of the previous films to catch onto. Aside from the awkward abstinence message, and gratuitious makeout sessions, The Twilight Sage: Eclipse is a pretty good summer flick. 6/10 The A-Team 6.11.10 06/12/2010
 Trailer after the jump Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
Continuing the trend of 80's remakes, The A-Team brings back television's team of Army Rangers who "specialize in the ridiculous" as they complete mission after mission in extravagant fashion. This big budget remake was sculpted from its earliest stages as a summer blockbuster and major money-maker, and in the words of Colonel Hannibal Smith: I love it when a plan comes together! Surprisingly enjoyable, The A-Team makes for a fun action film peppered with the perfect balance of humor and serious plot. While thrilling missions and clever escapes make for a large portion of the films likability, most credit belongs to the terrific casting of the infamous four. Group leader Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith is played perfectly by the always-terrific Liam Neeson (Star Wars: Episode 1, Taken) and his natural cool coincides evenly with the character's reliance on planning and fate. Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Midnight Meat Train) plays Templeton "Faceman" Peck, a tactical expert and dashingly handsome ladies man. "Face" is a typical role for the in-demand Cooper, but it's hard to deny that his charm seeps through in almost every character he plays. Probably most famous aspect of the entire series is Mr. T's " bulky driver, B.A. Baracus, who this time around is portrayed by UFC fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. His earlier roles displayed poor line delivery and really bad timing when it came to choreographed fighting; but while his MMA career is seemingly on the decline, his acting has improved as Jackson is more than sufficient as the sentimental brute. And while those performances were all wonderful, the greatest of them all was that of Sharlto Copley (District 9). The clinically insane, yet extremely gifted pilot is hilariously played by the South African up-and-comer whether he's stitching up B.A. or re-enacting a scene from Braveheart. The only negative is that his character's southern accent seems to be broken up here and there as Colpey reverts to his native South African. Bit players Jessica Biel (The Illusionist, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry) and Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Watchmen) don't add anything special to the film. A late appearance by Jon Hamm (Don Draper in Mad Men) hopefully alludes to his taking over as the villain in subsequent sequels. Aesthetically, the film looks pretty good, but suffers from Transformers-Syndrome in which fight scenes are shot too close and audiences can't tell what is going on. Plot-wise, the most exciting part of the movie is the first half in which viewers are introduced to the team and all their traits, but once the main story kicks in around the 2nd act everything slows down considerably. Other than those flaws, the film is what it sought out to be, something other filmmakers often fail at producing (see: G.I. Joe): a fun and exciting summer action flick. 6.5/10 Get Him to the Greek 6.5.10 06/05/2010
 Trailer after the jump Reviewed By: Emanuel Caros
It's an interesting thing the spin-off; while it sometimes works on television (Cheers -> Frasier) the concept is very hit or miss. In this case, director Nicholas Stoller takes the out of control rock-and-roller from his hit directorial debut, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and puts him in a film in which Aldous Snow has broken his sobriety following a public meltdown. Russell Brand reprises his role as the British rock superstar, though the character seems to have changed between Sarah Marshall and this film. In his original incarnation Brand plays Aldous Snow, a famous frontman with a history of drug abuse and a penchant for the ladies. In Get Him to the Greek, the character has been tweaked to seem more interested in the idea of a rockstar than the actual vices themselves. This time around Jonah Hill plays, Aaron Green, a record company intern (unrelated to his mega-fan in Sarah Marshall) who is in charge of bringing Snow from London to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in time for a huge 10-year anniversary concert. This feat is complicated by Snow's desire to party and refusal to cooperate with Green's attempts to keep on schedule. Hijinx ensues when Aaron, fresh off a break up, indulges in the rockstar lifestyle alongside Aldous. The movie's first hour is filled with absinthe-infused nightclubbery and jokes at the expense of the absolutely wasted intern. All this comes to a screeching halt in the 3rd act when the emotions come flooding in and things get weird. The last 30 minutes are crammed with a failed threesome, a suicide attempt, and a mega-joint. And while those three things sound crazy together in writing, they're even more absurd on the screen. While written by Stoller, the film was produced by Judd Apatow (Superbad, The 40 Year old Virgin) and it's obvious by his trademark sentimental turn toward the end. The film has very little plot, but that's excusable. What makes this film lesser than Apatow's previous successes is that it lacks the charm that shines through all of the hilariously vulgar gags. Jonah Hill's character, though drunk and high throughout most of the movie, does have a certain endearing personality that keeps you rooting for him, but its not enough to save the movie as a whole. Brand, who is often garish and annoying, tones it down just a bit and puts in an ok performance. The movie really failed to take advantage of the bounty of cameos and bit parts played by such hilarious up-and-comers as Nick Kroll, Aziz Ansari, and T.J. Miller. It would have been beneficial to give them more lines, whereas most of them seem to have been used only in the trailer, or left for the blooper reel. One performance that DOES stand out is that of the business-minded record executive Sergio Roma, played surprisingly well by Sean "Diddy" Combs. His character clearly had the best writing and Combs delivered the lines perfectly! Though it's probably a bad idea, a spin-off movie starring Diddy's character would actually pretty interesting to see. Nothing about Get Him to the Greek really stands out, but it is still a fun and entertaining comedy to fill an afternoon with. 6/10  we're envious of his mustache. By: Emanuel Caros The summer is prime time for getting in some good movies. Whether you're a student and out of school, or one of those unfortunate souls who has to work a job in the real world, the months that run from May to September are the best time to take in a movie because studios release their big-time films. Typically (and hopefully) that is because they think those movies are really good. The following is a breakdown of what we at notthebees.com are excited for THIS summer: Click "Read More" to see all the movies we're looking forward to! |  Past Reviews:
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