CLTV

By Matt Brunson

Sunshine Cleaning's ads trumpet that it's "from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine," and like that Oscar-winning hit, it often belies its cheery title by exploring the darkness that descends on the lives of decent, ordinary people just trying to get ahead. Yet while it may not be as sharply written as its predecessor, it contains enough fine moments -- to say nothing of a strong central performance by Amy Adams -- to make it a worthwhile endeavor.

Adams stars as Rose Lorkowski, once a popular high school cheerleader with a quarterback boyfriend, now a struggling maid-for-hire with a troublesome son (Jason Spevack). When her married lover Mac (Steve Zahn), the former QB who's now a police detective, suggests that more money can be made by providing cleanup services at crime scenes, she jumps at the suggestion, convincing her reluctant sister Norah (Emily Blunt) to join her in this new endeavor. Obtaining the proper license proves to be almost as challenging as the actual cleanup duties (which often include removing body parts and swarming insects and always include mopping up copious amounts of blood), but Rose is determined to carve out a better existence for herself and her family.

Read the rest of Matt's review here.

Watch the movie trailer here:

By Matt Brunson

Observe and Report, N.C. writer-director Jody Hill's sophomore effort following the no-budget, no-laughs farce The Foot Fist Way, valiantly tries to combine the twisted trappings of a black comedy with the more accepted slapstick shenanigans of a mainstream outing. It's extremely difficult to synchronize these approaches into one fluid viewing experience -- Terry Zwigoff largely pulled it off with Bad Santa, but Hill never locates the proper balance that would make this more than just a hit-and-miss curio.

Seth Rogen, no stranger to controversial comedies, stars as Paul Blart -- excuse me, Ronnie Barnhardt, a schlub who takes great pride in his work as the head of security at a popular mall. Unlike the congenial Blart, however, Ronnie is a disturbed individual, required to remain on his medication lest his destructive tendencies and delusions of grandeur take over. But Ronnie is largely oblivious to his own inner demons -- he's too busy lusting after a makeup counter tart (Anna Faris), cluelessly overlooking a sweet fast-food employee (Collette Wolfe), attempting to apprehend a flasher who's been terrorizing the mall, and engaging in a war of words with a real detective (Ray Liotta).

Read the rest of Matt's review here.

Watch the trailer here:

By Matt Brunson

The best part of Fast & Furious is its tagline -- "New Model. Original Parts." -- which means that the studio wonk who created it deserves the big bucks more than anybody who actually appears in the film. It's a catchy line because it advertises the fact that all four stars of 2001's The Fast and the Furious -- Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster -- have reunited for this fourth entry in the series (only Walker appeared in 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, and all were AWOL for 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift). Unfortunately, this is one star vehicle that seems permanently stuck in "reverse."

The best performer of the quartet, Rodriguez, disappears from the proceedings fairly early, as director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan apparently decided to make this even more of a Toys for Boys romp than its predecessors -- Brewster's character is, as before, an utter stiff, while the other women (occasionally seen making out with each other) are merely decorative props. That leaves more time for Diesel (as outlaw hot-rodder Dominic Toretto) and Walker (as lawman hot-rodder Brian O'Conner) to engage in competitive bouts of piston envy, each trying to prove to the other that only he has a crankshaft large enough to take down the drug kingpin responsible for the murder of a close friend.

Read the rest of Matt's review here.

Watch the trailer here:

By Matt Brunson

Our multiplexes need another period coming-of-age flick about as much as the nation needs another banking industry bailout, yet Adventureland proves to be a nice surprise. For that, thank the efforts of a talented ensemble and a screenplay that mostly steers clear of the usual gross-out gags that have come to define this sub-genre in modern times.

Jesse Eisenberg, who appears to be a Michael Cera wannabe until you remember that he's been around as long as the Juno actor (and more prominently in the early years, thanks to key roles in Roger Dodger and The Squid and the Whale), stars as James, whose best-laid plans to attend grad school are dismantled by a sudden lack of funds. Bummed, he's forced to take a minimum-wage job working the game booths at the Pittsburgh amusement park Adventureland. He spends an exorbitant amount of time smoking pot and goofing around with his co-workers, but what really makes the gig endurable is his burgeoning relationship with a fellow employee, the pretty if often moody Em (Twilight's Kristen Stewart). What James doesn't know, however, is that Em is involved with the park's older, married handyman (Ryan Reynolds), a situation that becomes difficult to manage once James and Em start spending more time together.

Read the rest of Matt's review here.

Watch the movie trailer here:

By Matt Brunson

Duplicity is a jet-setting romp that proves to be as bright as it is brainy. Writer-director Tony Gilroy, flush from his Michael Clayton success, retains that film's examination of corporate malfeasance yet replaces the sense of dread with a sense of style. After all, when a movie showcases a Caribbean hotel where rooms cost $10,000 per night, it's clear that the protagonists won't be cut from the same cloth as us po' folks who have to worry about trifling matters like soaring unemployment rates and obstructionist Republican Congressmen.

Indeed, the leads are played by Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, the sort of high-wattage movie stars so glamorous that it's easy to believe even their bath tissues are Armani-designed. She's former CIA agent Claire Stenwick; he's ex-MI6 operative Ray Koval. Having both left their jobs to take lucrative assignments with rival corporations (the company CEOs are played in amusing fashion by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti), both Claire and Ray end up pooling their talents in order to swindle both companies and steal the formula for a new cosmetic product that will revolutionize the industry. But as they work overtime to ensure they're always one step ahead of their respective companies' key personnel (not a dummy among them), Claire and Ray each wonder whether they can really trust the other person.

Read the rest of Matt's review here.

Watch the movie trailer here:

By Matt Brunson

With a title like Monsters vs. Aliens, the latest animated effort from DreamWorks sounds as if it could match all those Pixar gems in terms of emerging as a toon tale equally likely to entertain the adults as the small fry. After all, what film-lovin' grownup, specifically one weaned on a steady diet of '50s fantasy flicks playing all night on late-night TV, could resist a movie guaranteed to be crammed with more inside jokes than anybody could reasonably hope to absorb during the initial viewing?

Unfortunately, Monsters vs. Aliens doesn't come close to fulfilling what appeared to be its lot in (cinematic) life. Sure, there are plenty of bright colors and wacky characters and slapstick antics to amuse the children, but many adults will, to a degree, be left wanting.

Read the rest of Matt's review here.

Watch the trailer here: