Reviews by Matt

The things I do for this paper.

Each week I write at least two movie reviews and put them in the paper so that the pages in my section are not blank.

I have been to good movies, bad movies, and some really really bad movies (I’m talking to you “The Invisible”).

I have seen action, drama, comedy, moving performances, slap stick routines, truth, fiction and even ‘based on true events” movies.

Never have I gone to see a romantic comedy.

I did it was for a couple reasons, one was because the previous week I had taken part in the first “Editor Showdown” and had
just watched two sappy romantic comedies.

I also thought the movie in question looked good and different then all the other romantic comedies I had seen and I actually liked just about everyone in the cast.

I saw “Definitely, Maybe” because it was about damn time I reviewed a romantic comedy.



Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) is an advertising executive in New York City. His life is not what he wanted it to be, he is going through a divorce, but the one good thing in his life is his daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin). One night she asks Will to tell her the story of how he met her mother. Will is reluctant at first, but gives in. He changes the name and Maya has to figure out which one his mother is.

The three candidates are Emily (Elizabeth Banks), the girlfriend Will leaves for a chance to work for the Bill Clinton campaign in New York City, April (Isla Fisher), a woman he meets while working at the campaign and Summer (Rachel Weisz), Emily’s former college roommate who Will is told to deliver a package to.

I am not a big fan of romantic comedies. I have gone on the record and in The Record (get it?) proclaiming my distaste for the genre. This movie might have turned that around.

I actually really liked the movie.

Believe me, I am still coming to terms with that.

It was a good story and something not seen in the genre.

The idea of telling a love story this way made it that much better.

It is not a question of when he is going to end up with the girl, it is a question of which of them is Maya’s mother.

That is what I liked. It is, as Maya says, “a love story mystery.”

One of the strengths is Breslin. She may have a small part since the majority of the movie is devoted to the story, but she makes the most of her screen time.

Breslin made her debut in last year’s independent hit “Little Miss Sunshine,” a role that earned her an Oscar nomination.

She may not get a nomination for this, but she is still pretty damn good. She brings a smart attitude to Maya. She is a girl who may be young, but she knows how to deal with her dad.

They play off one another very well and the chemistry between them shows when they are on screen.

I was taken completely by surprise by this movie. It was one of the better films I have seen in a while. Even I was surprised by my reaction to it. I was hoping that this would prove my dislike of romantic comedies was warranted, but sadly I may be mistaken, and that does not happen often

8 our of 10
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, including some frank dialogue, language and smoking.
112 min

Tuesday, Feb. 19 marked the official death of HD DVD. The end of HD also meant the end of the format war that has waged between HD and Blu-ray Disc for two years.

Toshiba announced that they would no longer make the high definition players. They hope to have completely stopped shipments of the players by the end of March.

The format war broke down to one huge difference in the formats, the storage capacity. There was a 10-gigabyte difference in storage capacity. Blu-ray can hold up to 25GB compared to 15GB for HD.

One of the leading causes for the stoppage of production was all but two of the major studios backing Blu-ray. At the end only Universal and Paramount were HD-exclusive.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation in a press release announcing the company’s decision.

"While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality," Nishida said.

The company will continue to manufacture standard DVD players and will maintain collaborative relationships with the companies that joined them in their HD venture including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation.

The end of the high definition war means that consumers will no longer have to choose between formats. Despite the cost of HD players being about $150-$250 lower, Blu-ray has been outselling HD for months.

With HD officially dead, Sony and their Blu-ray players face competition from digital media, and with the writers’ strike over and the demand for payment for the digital media met, this could prove to be a tough task.

Internet downloads from Amazon.com and iTunes are becoming more popular and it is these sites, as well as many others that are going to make for heavy competition for the newly crowned leader in the high definition format.

DVDs ran the movie market for 10 years when it beat out VHS tapes. The same is not expected for Blu-ray discs. It will come down to how Sony deals with this new competition that will determine if Blu-ray will be the format of the future. Until then, consumers can rest easy knowing they will no longer have choose between formats when buying high definition DVD’s and DVD players.

We have all had those days where the world seems to be conspiring against you. Nothing goes your way and events unfold that are working against you. I had one of those days, recently; this past weekend as a matter of fact.

It all started when a friend and I were going to see a movie. His car was in the shop so we had to walk there to pick it up. It should be said that the garage was more than half the distance to the movie theater to begin with. When we finally got there it was 12:40 p.m. and the movie started at 12:30 p.m. So far we were only missing previews and with this invention called the Internet, you can see any trailer you want at your convince.

Things looked good. We could make it in time to catch the last trailer and be there for the opening credits. That was until a few long traffic lights slowed us down.

We got to the theater, I went to get the tickets, and he went to get the snacks. I was hoping this would give us the advantage.

Sadly, my friend ordered a drink and the woman behind the counter spilled some on the cup and took the time to wipe it off. It was at this point that I realized, there was no way we were going to get there before the movie started.

When we finally got into the theater we had missed the first few minutes of the movie.


If there was ever a movie that you can miss the first few minutes of it is “Vantage Point.”

Why, you ask.

The answer is simple, because the movie covers one event from eight points of view.

President Ashton (William Hurt) is in Spain at a global summit and is being protected by Secret Service Agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox). Ashton is about to speak when two shots ring out and the president falls.

The movie follows a variety of different people and how they see the event.

Awesome concept. Poor execution. That is really all there is to say about this movie.

The idea of showing one event from varying points of view is different. It is just not done in a way that worked. It became tedious to see the exact same thing over and over even if it was a different version of the same story.

The last “vantage point” was that of the terrorists and that was by far the most interesting. Though it is there that I saw one of the biggest plot holes/weaknesses. Details here would spoil the movie, so you will just have to trust me.

I could not be more disappointed in “Vantage Point.” Maybe they should have focused less on the gimmick and more on making the story better.

5 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
90 min

This past Sunday the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out their highest honor; The Oscar.

The Academy Awards celebration is known for going on for hours and ending after midnight. This year had to be the shortest awards ceremony in history; a mere three hours and 18 minuets. Going on the excessive length of the ceremony, The following is a run down of what happened and when it happened.

8:30; The Oscars started with an opening montage of a truck carrying the statues passing classic scenes and characters from the past 80 years.

8:32; Jon Stewart came out and gave his opening monologue. Most of it focused on the end of the writers strike. He said the Oscars were the make-up sex for the industry. He noted the many of the movies were about psychopathic killers-“Does this town need a hug?”

8:41; Stewart ended his monologue and introduced the first presenter.

8:42; Jennifer Gardner came out to present the first award-Best Costume Design went to “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.”

8:52; Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway came out. They did a bit where Carell seemed to think they were presenting for Best Documentary only to be told they were presenting Best Animated Feature That goes to “Ratatouille.” If “Surf’s Up” had won, I would have run to Hollywood and punched every member of the Academy in the face.

8:55; The world held its breath as “Norbit” was announced as one of the nominees for best make up. There was a collective sigh of relief when Katherine Heigl gave the award to “La Vie En Rose”

8:59; First of five best song performances, Amy Adams sang “Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted”

9:07; The actor formally known as The Rock presented Best Visual Effects. The Oscar went to “The Golden Compass.” Say what you will about the story and dialogue in “Transformers,” but the visual effects in that movie were simply amazing and deserved the win.

9:10; Cate Blanchett presented the art direction Oscar to “Sweeney Todd.”

9:15; Last year’s best supporting actress, Jennifer Hudson, presented the Best Supporting Actor award to Javier Bardem form “No Country for Old Men” Bardem ends his acceptance speech in Spanish. What he said was not covered in my high school Spanish classes, so I could not tell you. He did mention his mother though.

9:23; Stewart showed what would have happened if the strike was still going on with the tributes to binoculars and periscopes in movies and tribute to bad dreams in movies.

9:24; The second of five best song performance was “Raise It Up” from “August Rush” featuring the amazing 11-year-old Jamia Simone Nash.

9:28; Suicide attempt rumors be dammed, Owen Wilson showed up to present the Oscar for Best Live Action Short to “The Mozart of Pickpockets.”

9:31; I did my best to contain my self when they pulled out the old “animated presenter” with the bee from “Bee Movie.” This is a lame gimmick that has to be stopped. Especially when it the movie was not that good. The Oscar for Best Animated Short went to “Peter and the Wolf”

9:35; 2007’s best Supporting Actor winner, Alan Arkin, presented the Best Supporting Actress award to Tilda Swinton who compares her agent to the Oscar, “right down to the bottom” This win was truly a surprise. There were some great choices and there were some better choices in this category, but I am still happy she won.

9:44; A slightly “Preggers” Jessica Alba came out to recap the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards. Even Alba’s looks could not make me care about this little segment.

9:46: Josh Brolin and James MacAvoy presented the Best Adapted Screenplay to “No Country for Old Men”

9:49; We got a look as to how the Oscars are picked. Unfortunately, you have to be invited to join the Academy, so looks like my chances are slim.

9:52; Kristen Chenoweth brought down the house with her performance of the third of five song nominations, “That’s How You Know” form “Enchanted”

10:01 We are lead to believe that Judi Dench and Halle Berry are coming to present and are greeted with Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill who argue over who is more “Halle Berry-like.” They presented best sound editing to “The Bourne Ultimatum” Now I get to say the Oscar-winning “The Bourne Ultimatum”

10:05 Hill and Rogan continue to argue and present best sound mixing to the now multi-Oscar winning movie “The Bourne Ultimatum”

10:09; Last year’s Best Actor, Forrest Whitaker, gave the Best Actress Oscar to Marion Cotillard.

10:18; Stewart plays Wii Tennis with Jamia Simone Nash of August Rush. Colin Ferrell comes out, almost slips and introduces the fourth song nominated, “Falling Slowly” from “Once”

10:22; A video tribute to the past 79 best picture winners.

10:28; Renee Zelwigger gives the editing Oscar to the now three-time Oscar winning film (when you win three Oscars you go from movie to film) “The Bourne Ultimatum.” That was the first and only sweep of the night.

10:31; Nichole Kidman gave an honorary Oscar to Art Director Robert Boyle.

10:42; Penelope Cruz presents Best Foreign Language film to “The Counterfeiters”

10:45; The final song, “So Close,” also from “Enchanted”

10:48; The odds were not in favor of “Enchanted” because Best Song goes to the song from “Once” Only Glen Hansard got to speak, Markéta Irglová got cut off.

10:57 The award for classiest move of the night goes to Jon Stewart who let Markéta Irglová come out and say what she wanted to say.

10:58 Carmon Daiz presented the Best Cinematography Oscar to “There Will Be Blood”

11:01 Hillary Swank introduces the video tribute for all those who died this past year. As was expected Heath Ledger was last and got the loudest applause.

11:08; Amy Adams presented original score to “Atonement”

11:11 Tom Hanks gave the best documentary awards Short subject goes to “Freeheld” Feature went to “Taxi to the Dark Side”

11:22; My first yawn of the night and I started to wonder if I was going to make it to the end.

11:23; Harrison Ford came out to the Indiana Jones theme and presented the Best Original Screenplay to “Juno” At least “Juno” won one Oscar, this was the only one I gave it a chance of winning. Diablo Cody comes up to accept looking like a Flintstones character.

11:30; In the shock of the night (by the way that was dripping with sarcasm) Daniel Day-Lewis won the Best Actor. When he got on stage he got down on one knee and was knighted by presenter, and last year’s Best Actress winner for “The Queen” Helen Mirren

11:42; Scorsese presented Best Director to the Coen Brothers for “No County for Old Men”

11:43; We got some Channel 7 behind the scenes audio piped in where someone says something about “Oscar bullshit” and someone else does not know what “No County for Old Men” was about.

11:44; Denzel Washington presented the pen-ultimate award, Best Picture to “No County for Old Men”

11:48; Three hours and 18 minutes later, it is over.

If you are going to bring your kid to a movie theater, then keep them under control. Do not let them blather on loudly. Do not let them run up and down the aisles with reckless abandon. It is annoying and rude. There are movies to take your kids to and movies not to take your kids to. Any Disney movie is perfect. Take them to that Hanna Montana movie, or some other movie I am not going to see.


Granted I had no right to complain, it is not like I was dying to see “Jumper.” To be honest, it has been a very long time since I have had the chance to rip a movie apart and I was hoping that this would be my chance to have some fun when writing the review. It is easier to trash a movie then it is to praise it. I wanted to hate “Jumper,” but I just could not. That is not to say that it was good, I just did not hate it.

When David Rice (Hayden Christiansen) discovers he has the power to transport himself anywhere he wants his life changes. He leaves his father and lives on his own by robbing banks, but always promises himself that he will pay it back (how

I do not know, all he does is rob banks so he owes a lot of people a lot of money). One day he finds that he is being pursued by an organization sworn to kill him and others like him. Lead by Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) this group stops at nothing to make sure these “jumpers” are stopped and killed before they become dangerous.



As far as plot goes, that is really all that matters. There is some little thing about a girl he likes (Rachel Bilson) who you know is going to become bait/ used against him at some point, otherwise why else is she there?

If you are among the few who find themselves thinking that it was just the bad script/ dialogue that made Christianson’s Anakin Skywalker so boring and bad, let me assure you, it was not just that. He gives the same bad, emotionless performance here that he did in the movies that made him famous.

It is like watching paint dry when he is on screen. He shows the emotional range of a moss-covered rock sitting at the bottom of a muck filled pond. Happy, angry, sad, hungry, tired; it is all the same. Quite frankly it is a mystery why he keeps getting cast in movies. If only someone would put me in charge, I could end the misery that is watching Senior Dull on screen.

I will skip Rachel Bilson because we all know she cannot act and was there purely for the sex appeal.

With the small exception of Samuel L Jackson being a bad ass, but then again when is he not and the other jumper, Jamie Bell, the movie was a waste of time. At it’s best it is only mildly entertaining. The science fiction elements are cool and had potential to be good, but the lackluster acting, first and foremost from Christiansen, makes the thing hard to watch and not worth the short running time.

5 our of 10
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some language and brief sexuality.
90 min