Ken's Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Force Is Strong In This One

While I wouldn't call myself a Star Wars fanatic, I am a big fan of the films and mythology Lucas has created. Somehow the existance of any previous animated Star Wars shows escaped me, and I thought this was the first. Luckly a friend of mine brought me up to speed and let me borrow the animated shows, that first aired back in 2003, on DVD. After watching those and loving them, I got really excited to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars on the big screen. Thankfully my excitement was not left entirely unrewarded.

This film roughly fits in between Episode's II and III of the live-action films, in theory. As we come into the story, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are immersed in battle fighting with the Republic to fend off the onslaught of Separatist droid troops.

Ken's Review: Tropic Thunder - Falls A Bit Short of Expectations

More than any other film genre, comedies are all about opinion. If you watch a comedy that isn't your type of humor, you're just not going to like it. Other factors can sometimes include who you see it with or the attitude of the audience in the theater. There have been times where I have seen a comedy, like Mystery Men, that didn't seem funny the first time but then when I went again with different friends, I thought it was hilarious. Last week I had a similar experience when I saw Tropic Thunder. While I did think it had some really clever and funny parts, overall it just didn't do that much for me.

Ken's Review: Pineapple Express - The Best Stoner Comedy… Ever?

Ever wonder what you would get if you took an 80's buddy cop movie and replaced the cops with stoners, then took Half Baked and made it clever instead of cheesy, and mixed the two together? What you would get is pretty close to what Pineapple Express turned out to be. I don't know if that sounds good or not, but I loved it. I was already excited for it, but didn't expect it to be near as action-packed or as smart as it was.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a 25-year-old process server who loves smoking weed. His typical day is made up of smoking, handing out subpoenas and hanging out with his 18-year-old high school girlfriend.

Ken's Review: Hancock - Loses Its Power in the Second Half

It isn't very often that I'm completely split over a movie, but Hancock has managed to put me in that exact position. Usually a film is just good, just bad or average with good and bad scenes mixed together throughout the movie. What completely separates Hancock from other movies is that the first half is great and quite enjoyable; I liked just about every part. Then it passes the midway point and goes crashing down into a muddled, confusing and illogical mess. I can't think of the last movie that I could literally split down the middle and really enjoy one part while totally hating the other. Not exactly the 4th of July weekend movie I was hoping for.

Ken's Review: Wall-E - The First Perfect Movie of 2008!

Movies have the ability to make us feel every possible emotion. There are times we cry, times we laugh, times we love and times that we are scared out of our wits. With all the different feelings that I experience during the many films I watch, it wasn't until after seeing Wall-E that I realized there is one emotion that movies so rarely make me feel. The emotion that I'm talking about is joy. To be honest, Wall-E has so consumed my thoughts that I can't even bring another movie to mind that has made me feel the pure joy that I felt during or after seeing Pixar's Wall-E.

Ken's Review: Get Smart - Nothing Smart About It

When it comes to TV shows being made into films, they usually don't turn out very well. The list of bad adaptations far outweighs the good. Movies like The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Starsky & Hutch, Wild Wild West, and Dukes of Hazard cast a constant shadow on the TV-to-film adaptations. Sure there are a few that turned out great, like The Untouchables, Mission Impossible and The Fugitive, but those can't make up for a string of trainwrecks. Get Smart is Hollywood's newest attempt at resurrecting an old show, and while it definitely isn't worthy of much praise, I'll admit I was definitely entertained.

Ken's Review: The Incredible Hulk - The One and Only Hulk Movie!

It's quite funny how this summer is turning out. I was really looking forward to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian but ended up not liking it too much. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was good but not great. Iron Man was high on my most anticipated list but I never expected it to blow me away as much as it did, not to mention Kung Fu Panda, which I have already seen twice and loved even more during the second viewing. Then last Monday I had the pleasure of watching The Incredible Hulk. Like in the text I sent my friends after watching it, all I can say is, Hulk Smash Good!

Ken's Review: Kung Fu Panda - Pixar Better Watch Their Back!

So maybe it's a little too soon to tell Pixar to watch their back, especially with Wall-E looking amazing, but it looks like DreamWorks Animation is stepping up their game. Honestly I haven't been that impressed with the films DreamWorks has produced over the years. Sure they had that one film a long time ago called Shrek that was great. Then they had that other one named Shrek 2 which was really good too, but besides those two, there just haven't been any others from DreamWorks that I walked away from being very excited. That is until I watched Kung Fu Panda just the other night and was totally blown away.

Ken's Review: The Strangers - Your Typical Horror Film

I'm a sucker for horror/slasher movies. That doesn't mean that I like very many of them, it just means that I'll give just about any of them a chance. Usually the trailers turn out to be better then the actual film because, let's be honest, most of them turn out to be total crap. The biggest problem I have is getting someone to go watch them with me. Even The Strangers, which I thought had a pretty intriguing trailer, was a hard sell with my friends. It took me an hour just to talk my brother-in-law into going to see it with me. Unfortunately, it turns out that as intriguing as it looked, it didn't really bring anything new to the horror genre.

Ken's Review: The Fall - Much More Than Eye Candy

When I first saw a trailer for The Fall, I'm sure everyone thought the same as I did. I thought it was going to be another movie by director/writer Tarsem Singh that looks amazing, but has a crappy story. The only reason I finished watching The Cell was because of all of the great visuals, which still barely kept me from turning it off. Even so, I decided to give The Fall a chance, mostly because it looked beautifully shot, but fully expected a repeat of my experience viewing The Cell. Instead, I was blown away by not only the cinematography, which far exceeded my expectations, but also by the well-rounded and unique story that Tarsem presents. This is a fantastic film!

Ken's Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - A Welcome Addition to the Indiana Jones Saga

I can't believe it's here! After months of anticipation, news, trailers, pictures and an Indiana Jones marathon, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has finally arrived! So much of the success of this film rides on how well it compares to and compliments the previous Indy movies. Is Harrison Ford able to resurrect Indiana and play him again after all these years? Does it have an awesome opening, amazing chase scenes, fantastic tomb raiding, and fight sequences that only Indiana Jones can provide? Well, I have all the answers because I have seen it, and I'm happy to report that while perhaps it wasn't as perfect as I had hoped, it still delivers and doesn't bring any shame to the Indiana Jones universe.

Ken's Nostalgic Indiana Jones Adventure - Part 2!

During my Indiana Jones marathon last Saturday, I noticed more about these three films than I ever had before. I really started to break each one down and piece together why it is that I love them so much. After watching them all again, I realized that I don't have an individual favorite. I enjoy each one for the originality they bring, while also being able to sustain the integrity of the original concept for the character. This can be attributed to the genius directing of Steven Spielberg, the incredible writing of George Lucas, and the ability of Harrison Ford to own this character. But what else makes these films so great? Let's take a brief look back at three of my all time favorite films.

Ken's Nostalgic Indiana Jones Adventure - Part 1!

I think I can speak for all of us here at FS.net when I say that we love movies. No wait, that is an understatement. We really, really LOVE movies! We aren't like some critics who have the most fun when they are tearing apart a film. Nor do we dread going to watch a movie after having already seen six others over the last couple of weeks. We still get excited and giddy over news of some upcoming film or someone being cast in a certain role. For me personally, I'm not interested in wordy writing or hyper-critical articles and reviews. We will always bring our love of film to everything we do while still telling it like it is.

To show you exactly what I mean, I decided to document the journey I undertook through the first three Indiana Jones films last Saturday evening.

Ken's Review: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Fails to Impress

A few weeks ago Alex listed out his most highly anticipated summer films. In the comments I responded with a list of my own most anticipated summer films in order of most to least excited. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was fourth on my list, beating The Incredible Hulk, Get Smart and Pineapple Express. I bring this up to point out how excited I was to finally see this movie. The trailers presented a darker, more intense film then we had seen in the first Narnia installment. Sadly, I must report that I did not come out of the theater with a huge smile on my face. Instead I found myself walking to my car disheartened and perplexed.

Ken's Review: Speed Racer - A Wonderful Experience of Visual Overload

When I first heard that the Wachowski Brothers were directing Speed Racer, I was extremely disappointed. Unlike most people, I loved all of the Matrix films and I desperately wanted to see them make more movies along those same lines. The best way to describe it is like when your favorite band releases the most amazing album, then after waiting a year to hear their next one, hoping it will be even better, they decide to totally change their sound and it sucks. That is what I thought would happen with Speed Racer. Thankfully the Wachowskis didn't exactly change their style and their newest work turned out to be quite good.

Five Movies to Get You in the Mood for (More) GTA IV!

Grand Theft Auto IV is finally here! Today officially marks the release of one of the most highly anticipated video games of the year. Where are you on this historic occasion? Are you at work counting the hours until you are released to race home and spend the next 12 hours glued to the tube, basking in the glow of GTA IV? Perhaps you are one of the millions of employees who used a precious vacation day so that you could be there at midnight to buy it, take it home and play non-stop for the next 24+ hours? Or are you one of the unfortunate ones who can't afford it yet and are going to have to hear from your friends about all of the enormous amounts of fun they're having? No matter who you are, we here at FS.net want to give you a little gift to help you survive this landmark in video game history.

Ken's Review: Baby Mama - Don't Be Scared Guys, It's Actually Funny

There are some movies that just don't appeal to guys at first. Movies like Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, 13 Going On 30, and Ever After are a few examples of those types of films. I'll admit that after a few forced viewings by my wife, I can actually enjoy watching Pride and Prejudice. However, I despise 13 Going on 30 because I just don't get it. It was a film made with girl humor in mind, which we men completely don't understand. This was the exact type of film that I thought Baby Mama was going to be. Now after seeing it, I must proclaim to every man that was dreading being dragged to it by their significant other, it was actually funny and within our realm of understanding.

Ken's Review: The Forbidden Kingdom - A Remake of Last Action Hero?

After a 45 minute drive through a snow storm to make it to a screening of The Forbidden Kingdom, the last thing I expected was to be transported back to 1993. Nevertheless, there I was, sitting in a theater with the overwhelming feeling that I had already seen this movie a long time ago… then it hit me. I had seen this film already back in 1993 but it had a different name - Last Action Hero. I know it's a bit of a jump to relate the two films, but that was the overwhelming feeling I got while I watched it. If Last Action Hero is the movie I thought of while watching Forbidden Kingdom, you probably have a good idea where this review is going. And, well, you're probably right.

R-Rated Movies: How Young Is Too Young?

There is something very wrong going on at our local theaters across the nation. However, the theater is where this problem is cultivated and not where it begins. The origin of this atrocity starts in our homes, the moment a decision to go see a certain film is made; when parents make the choice to see an R-rated movie in the theater and bring their underage child. Over the last two years I have seen a major increase of underage children in R-rated films and I can't keep quiet any longer. This issue must be addressed.

Ken's Review: Smart People - One of the Best Films of the Year

There are some movies that take me a bit to really think about and ponder over. That was the case with There Will Be Blood. It wasn't until the morning after that it had really sunk in and made its impact. Then there are the films that grab me and excite me the second the credits start rolling. That's my favorite feeling. The feeling of loving a film so much the moment it is over that you want to stay for the next showing because you don't want the feeling to end. I felt that once already this year after watching In Bruges. Thankfully I didn't have to wait too long to feel it again - this time with Smart People.