MTSBM: Ridin' in My Car

Oh . . . too soon.

One thing's for sure:
it will involve these sunglasses.

As far as the ultimate movie goes, many have posited several theories for what it would look like. Some envision it as the ultimate action movie (of course, after The Expendables, that’s pretty much shot), while others see it as a romantic comedy involving their favorite actors (again, depending on which actors this is, it probably already exists). The critic types imagine it as the ultimate meaningful psychological drama that finally reveals the depths of the human psyche once and for all. Some maintain that the ultimate movie either already exists or can never exist. While I do admittedly find myself among the latter camp, I have a vision for a movie that would probably be my favorite of all time. I would watch this movie multiple times in theaters, buy it when it came out on DVD (possibly also multiple times) and force my friends to watch it so many times that, despite its glory, they would inevitably groan as soon I gleefully pulled it out and forced it into the player before they could rip it from my hands. This movie goes something like this:

Box Office Brawl

Box office numbers can let one know many things. Money is powerful, and it has the ability to make or break careers. Directors, producers, actors, or whatever else; they're all impacted by whether or not their product ends up being successful commercially. Interesting to consider is what and who makes a film commercially successful.

Over the weekend a contest occurred between three competing films to see which would rake in the most dough. Coming in first with $35 million was The Expendables, an action flick containing a lot of old recognizable names such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, and several others. Eat, Pray, Love, an adaption of a woman’s memoir in which she embarks on a spiritual journey across several countries, grabbed $23.7 million. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, placed third out of the new movies (5th overall, behind The Other Guys and Inception) at a meager $10.5 million (and that’s quite bad considering the film cost $60 million to make). That final picture was by far the biggest surprise, and the performance of these three movies reflects an interesting cultural fact.

Not as Cool as Scott Pilgrim: A Review of Kick Ass

Like Scott Pilgrim, but with guns and stuff. Actually,
it's nothing like Scott Pilgrim. 

So was Kick Ass bad ass or as the titular character is once called, “ass kicked?” Questions similar seem have to hit the media community hard and the answers have been quite varied. Some such as The Guardian newspaper’s Peter Bradshaw praised it as “outrageous” and “very funny,” while others were not so kind. Roger Ebert, one of America’s most prominent critics, gave the film one star out of four calling Kick Ass “morally reprehensible.” Personally, I find myself standing in between these two sides and can understand both points of view. Director Matthew Vaughn has brought forth something that most will either love or hate, something that is enjoyable enough to watch but not particularly substantial.

Upcoming Movie: Your Highness

Watching this movie will make you almost as cool as these guys.

As a self-professed Zooey Deschanel stalker, all of her upcoming movies are sources of great excitement for me, but Your Highness should be a genuinely entertaining movie. Everything about this movie promises laughs aplenty, from the irreverent premise to the actors to the writer. The writer I’m referring to is Danny McBride, who also wrote the ludicrously silly Hot Rod, a favorite here at YAMB which stars Andy Samberg in a ridiculous coming-of-age role. Danny McBride also stars in Your Highness, as a slacker younger prince who must man up to save the kingdom from darkness and evil.

MTSBM: The White Death

*Sniff*... If only...

Welcome to Movies That Should Be Made (MTSBM), a new series of opinion articles meant to make you feel like today’s movie selection is ridiculously inadequate (shouldn't be hard). We’ll talk about films that, obviously, we feel should be made. They could be based on a true story, a spin-off of another film, a sequel that never happened, or a totally original idea. So, without further ado, I present our first installment: The White Death.

Open Thread (feat. Disqus)

Oh, and go see this movie.

Whew, another week. Another Open Thread. 

I’m sure all of you were riveted last night, enduring the suspense, as the 2010 MLB Draft Signing Deadline unfolded, and you anxiously and nervously waited for the dust to clear so you could check if your team signed its top draft choice. Okay... no one? Only me? Rats. 

Anyway, like I said before, use this Open Thread to share with YAMB your ideas on what we should review, what you would like to see on this blog, etc. 

Introduce yourself to let us get to know you better! We are really interested in what our viewers are like. Pretty much the same stuff I said on the last Open Thread, but alas, all those comments were destroyed once we switched our commenting software to Disqus. Whoops. Oh well, we start over.

So... comment away! (Be sure to head the Rules and Regulations of commenting. Thank you.)

Guest Writer Review: Salt

In case you were confused.

This action-thriller starring Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt has its ups and downs . . . but mostly downs. Salt works for the CIA, but after confronting a Russian defector she is accused of being a Russian spy who will soon assassinate the Russian President. Salt runs for her life, convincing her teammates and the CIA that she has become a threat to the United States. Her escape rapidly degenerates from flight into a battle between Russia and the United States. An all out war, if you will, started and continued by, you guessed it, Angelina Jol- I mean, Evelyn Salt.