Hit - Starring Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Mario Cantone

Surf’s Up focuses on a penguin mockumentary that takes the audience behind the scenes of competitive penguin surfing. The mockumentary crew introduces the audience to a wannabe surfing star named Cody who dreams of winning the Big Z Memorial Penguin World Surfing Championship.

Currently, Surf’s Up is in the running for the best film of the summer. This movie combines two favorite things - penguins and surfing. Let me just say that although Happy Feet is also a penguin movie, it is not nearly as enjoyable as this film which plays on the idea of a little penguin with big dreams. One of the best parts of this movie is that the animation is simply incredible. The water animation is the best part of this film because it looks very true to life.

Bottom Line: Surf is up, and you should catch the wave!

Animation

Rated PG for mild language and some rude humor.

Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Miss - Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Thomas Haden Church
, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons

New villains arrive in New York City and start to cause problems for Spider-man.

I kept this synopsis short because this movie sucks hard-core.

Bottom Line: Even the actors in this movie hated this film, that should tell you enough.

Action

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence.

Running Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

A reluctant Hit- Starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy

From IMDB.Com ***Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treachery and betrayal, and make their final alliances for one last decisive battle.***

I had to use the plot summary from IMDB.com because I had absolutely no idea what this movie was about. The pirate movies have gotten more complicated as the movies progress. The first one was rather simple and fun. The second movie got a little more complicated but I was still able to follow the plot line. This movie was increasingly more confusing and I found myself trying to forget what the plot was and just enjoy the scenery and action of the film.

That being said, I can say that the art direction of this film is simply fabulous. It is beautiful from start to finish. The writing of this film needed more fine tuning. Keep it simple, stupid! This audience is children and adult heavy so we need to keep things simple for everyone.

Bottom Line: Not as interesting as the first two but still enjoyable to watch.

Action

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action/adventure violence and some frightening images.

Running Time: 2 hours 48 minutes (not including previews)

Miss- Starring Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry

A troubled married couple become stranded at an isolated motel where they find hidden video cameras in their room. The couple then realizes that they need to escape from the motel or they will be the next victims of a snuff film.

“Oh how I love cliche, let me count the ways…” Only, I don’t love cliche. In fact this whole movie was just one giant montage of cliche. Let’s count down the ways of the cliche:

1. Car breaks down for no apparent reason
2. Cell phone out of range (hello- get Verizon- the most “reliable” network)
3. Troubled relationship due to the death of a young child
4. No way out
5. Killers in masks and jumpsuits
6. Gratuitous Boobs
7. Being stranded
8. Getting help from a killer
9. Creepy hotel with no other guests
10. Candy glass shattering windows (there’s no way that guy could “dive” through the sunroof of the car- I would have liked it if he just cracked his head open from being an idiot and trying to dive through the sunroof)
11. Liberal fear of hicks
12. Bumbling county sheriff gets killed and co-workers don’t seem to notice

The list goes on, but the movie does not. This movie is just as good as the recent remake “House of Wax.” And that is saying that this movie bites the big one.

Bottom Line: The theaters for this movie should remain vacant.

Horror

Rated R for brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language.

Running Time: 1 hour 20 minutes