How far would you go to assuage your guilt?

 
This is the question raised by the film “Seven Pounds”, starring Will Smith, Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson.

 
Consider if you will the words “I am sorry”. While they convey the intent of apology, they fall far short of reparation for a wrong having been committed. There are times in our lives when we must – in order to call ourselves human – do more.

 
Will Smith portrays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a secret, who devotes his time and energy to changing the lives of several strangers in a journey of redemption. During his quest for penance he meets and comes to love a young woman (Rosario Dawson) with a heart condition who reignites his humanity as he brings about changes in her circumstance that allow her to live fully once more.

 
As a morality tale, this movie is just a bit self-indulgent, using a convoluted structure to showcase incidents which eventually thread together in the finale, when all becomes clear. The somber tone does get a bit heavy, but Will Smith is such a likable movie star that we, as an audience, are willing to go along for the dark ride, just to see how it comes together. Melodrama is difficult to do well, and Smith proves in this film that he is in fact a movie star, rather than an actor. Throwing away his goofy, Smith settles for stern and serious.

 
Dawson, for her part, mines the tragic nature of her Poe-like character and comes up with depth and humanity, her bluish cast and dark eyes adding a layer of fragility to her stunning good looks.

 
The conclusion of the film can be seen by some to be maudlin, this reviewer included; however, having waited for the culmination moment, we can hope that instead of seeing a movie star chewing the scenery we see a human in moral and ethical pain. Moreover, we are not disappointed. Despite learning everything you need to know to guess how the movie will end in the first ten minutes or so, this reviewer felt a pounding on my heart at the culmination, and when the final lights went up in the theater, a momentary rest was needed to pull myself together sufficiently to exit the theater. Surprise twist is not the desired effect here; the movie’s magic is all in the execution.

 
Not that it is perfect. Any movie about death and taxes (literally) is likely to be maudlin, and this one is no exception. At times it felt a bit like a secular Hollywood passion play, and the audience is manipulated a bit by the plotline, (see what we did there?) but the resultant payoff leaves little room to doubt that Smith’s character is a man of extraordinary compassion, insight, and self-sacrifice.

I Am Legend is a retelling of the classic Charlton Heston film Omega Man. Well technically, it's a retelling of Omega Man which is a retelling of The Last Man on Earth (with Vincent Price), which is a retelling of the 1954 novel entitled I Am Legend.

This movie tells the tale of US Army Colonel Robert Neville, who is a military genius, scientist and the last man on earth. The key difference between I Am Legend and Charlton Heston is the reason for the worldwide plague. The 1970s Omega Man natural chalks up the cause to nuclear war between China and the Soviet Union. Modern day I Am Legend decided to take a more “don't play God” route and went with a viral strain used to cure cancer that went bad and infected all but 1% of the population of the globe.

So we've got 90% instant mortality rate (these and the following figures occur within the film). Of the remaining 10%, 1% were immune for reasons that are never explained. The other 9% became what are referred to as “Dark Seekers”. Basically a cross-breed of vampires and zombies. The film becomes Neville's journey to develop a cure for the disease to make the Dark Seekers human again. His faithful companion Sam, a dog, is his only company in the destroyed New York City.

Now I'm gonna say it. Will Smith's acting was incredible in this film. But that was it. That was the only redeeming factor of this movie. Something that stuck out to me was when I had seen Neville do a great deal of irrelevant things (i.e. working out, bathing his dog and talking to mannequins) and then suddenly realizing that half of the movie had passed. While I get the need to point out how the lonely life is taking a toll on Neville's brain (particularly for the last twenty minutes of the film), there should be a limit.

They do pepper in a couple of action scenes which look like they were ripped from Day of the Dead, although the zombies in Day of the Dead didn't give me the heebie-jeebies as much as these ones. The first encounter with the Dark Seekers shows them standing around huddled in a corner, not moving a muscle. There probably is nothing scarier than a bad guy who knows you're there but isn't looking at you, not to mention a horde of them.

The plot doesn't really twist or deviate and is more obvious than predicting that the New York Jets will lose a football game. But still I can't really blame the film since it's only following after its big brother and in the end remakes of classic films just never work out.

And speaking of time-filling, what is the relevance of us being forced to watch two minutes of Shrek with Will Smith lip syncing all the dialogue? I mean at that point the director must have just given up and said “now how can we fuck up this film more?” And then we get Bob Marley's backstory which is apparently the point of the film, but it just seemed like I had accidentally turned on the director's commentary.

However despite all this I do recommend viewing it. After all, it's like your five-year old kid's spring play. You know its gonna be bad, but you love your kid and that makes it good… sort of.

So, the final verdict… you should rent this film. (6 out of 10)

After, the promoter tells Hancock to go to jail for his “crimes”, he breaks a lot of things while “saving” the day. In jail, crimes in public go up by 30% and the chief of police needs his help in a robber. Later he finds out that the promoters wife is his actually “wife” and is also a superhero. After a while, Hancock goes to buy some liquor and encounters a robbery and goes to save the day, however he gets shot and must go to the hospital. He has super powers but in the movie it says that when Hancock and his “wife” are together they lose their powers and they were together in the promoter's house. He is rushed to hospital and his wife comes and then a bad guy who wants revenge on Hancock (remember Hancock is a super hero) and tries to kill him but shots his wife and later on Hancock get shot. And as you already know, they are together again and they both lose their powers and about to die. Then Hancock gets up and “flies” away saving both of them. This is basically the whole entire story, but is a little confusing. I would rate the movie a one and a half out of four.

Death Race (Sept. 26, 2008)

“An update of the cult classic Death Race 2000, in the not-so-distant future, a prisoner (Jason Statham) is forced to compete in a no-holds-barred car race.”

If Jason Statham is going to be in it than I already know it is going to be BA. I look forward to Jason using his Transporter style acting in another movie.

Land Of The Lost (July 17, 2009)

“Paleontologist Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) finds himself teleported to another world that is ruled by dinosaurs and reptilian creatures known as Sleestaks. Based on the beloved Saturday morning children's show by Sid and Marty Krofft.”

Yes, Will Ferrell you get lost in that land and do what you do. You could probably make a movie about Will Ferrell being a mute and playing chess and it would still be funny. This was an amazing TV show back in the day, so I look forward to seeing this movie!

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (Aug. 8, 2008)

“In 1946, Rick OConnell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) have just finished a tour of duty as spies for the British army and are looking for an exciting new adventure to go on. Their new assignment - to transport an historical artifact to Shanghai, China - seems easy enough, but trouble brews when they meet up with their son Alex (Luke Ford), who has just discovered the secluded resting place of the Dragon Emperor. When the ancient ruler (Jet Li) is re-awakened, the O'Connell family must stop him from also bringing back his terra cotta army with which he wants to reconquer all of China.”

JET LI!! That is seriously going to be amazing! Why did this movie take so long? Well I bet its going to be the best yet. Anyways have you guys ever been on The Mummy ride in universal? If you haven't you need to, may have been one of the best indoor roller coasters ever!

Punisher: War Zone (Sept. 12, 2008)

“Continuing his war against the world of organized crime, Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) attacks and viciously disfigures mob boss Billy Russoti, who changes his name to Jigsaw (Dominic West) and raises an even bigger of ruthless gangsters.”

I feel like the first Punisher didn't get as much credit as it should have. The movie was truly incredible; it's a movie I can watch over and over. I am excited to see how they are going to continue the story. Rent the Punisher if you haven't seen it, it's worth it.

Yes Man (Dec. 19, 2008)

”Carl Allen (Jim Carrey) is living a very unhappy life. In order to acquire a more upbeat outlook, he swears to live an entire year by saying "yes" to everything. While his new philosophy has an initially positive effect on his daily existence, being 100% agreeable eventually starts wearing him down.”

Can anyone say Liar Liar 2? Is the pen blue “yes”, is the pen black “yes”. Well which is it black or blue “yes”?