What happened to Kevin Smith?  There was a time when his name was synonymous with intelligent humor and storytelling.  He hasn’t always had the sharpest visual style, but you could at least count on finding some good performances and witty dialogue in every one of his films.  The years have not been kind to Smith, with films like Jersey Girl and Zack and Miri Make A Porno cluttering up his resume.  But now, with Cop Out Smith has outdone himself.  Not only is this the worst film he’s ever made, it’s one of the worst films the buddy-cop genre has seen in years.

To be fair, this is his first time directing a film that he didn’t write.  That being said, he still read the script and made the decision that this was a film that he wanted to make.  I can’t fathom what appeal this story held for him.  There is not a single original idea to be found in the story of two mismatched cops trying to recover a stolen baseball card.  Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play the two cops, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pair of actors with less chemistry.  It’s the director’s job to bring out the best in their actors, and Smith blew it this time.

In watching Willis’ performance, I couldn’t believe this was the same actor who played John McClane in Die Hard.  He had an energy and charisma in that performance.  Here, he looked bored and miserable.  Tracy Morgan took the exact opposite approach.  For some reason, he thought it would be funny to shout all of his lines and to be as over-the-top as possible.  I love Morgan in 30 Rock, and even though he was playing a variation on the same character, it came across obnoxious here.

Ironically enough, the only actor who came out with some dignity was the one actor I normally can’t stand, Sean William Scott.  He wasn’t funny, per se, but it felt like he was trying.  Morgan didn’t trust the material given, and shouted his lines to compensate.  Scott seemed to appreciate his character, and tried to let the material provide the laughs instead of forcing them through his performance.  Don’t get me wrong, his character wasn’t actually funny.  I just appreciate that Scott tried to incorporate a little more subtlety, and seemed to be having a good time.

Overall, this was just a waste for all involved.  I don’t know if the film was supposed to be an homage or a spoof of the buddy-cop genre.  What I do know is that the original films this was referencing were vastly superior in every way.  This was just a cheap recreation, all the way down to the synthesized soundtrack.  Smith’s shooting was as bland as ever, and the story was pretty much non-existant.

Having said all that, I was kind of impressed with the Blu-Ray release of the film.  Presented in “Maximum Comedy Mode,” this is an elaboration of the standard audio commentaries.  Basically, Smith takes control of the film, and provides whatever insight he feels like whenever he feels like it.  He occasionally pauses the movie, fast forwards it, etc.  Sometimes, he’s providing audio commentary, and at other times, he’s actually on screen explaining things to you.  He also periodically cuts away to deleted scenes or raw footage, none of which is all that interesting.  In this format, the film runs about 2 hours, and 55 minutes, but it’s vastly more entertaining.  Smith genuinely seems excited to be presenting the film this way.  Perhaps he’s just a good showman, but at times, I started to believe that he actually likes the movie and had fun making it.

The other extras on the set are also presented in this “Maximum Comedy Mode,” but they aren’t part of the actual film presentation.  You press enter when given the cue, and that takes you out of the movie and into those features.  These segments are divided into two categories, “Focus Points” and “Wisdom from the S**t Bandit.”  The Focus Points are just little asides from other people involved in the production on various topics.  Some are interesting, and most aren’t.  The “Wisdom from the S**t Bandit” features are basically rip-offs of the classic Jack Handy segments from Saturday Night Live, only nowhere as funny.  You can watch all of these features independently from the film as well.

I wish this was a better movie.  I was excited at the prospect of a cop movie featuring Willis and Morgan, and directed by Smith.  There were so many ways this could have gone right.  Unfortunately, a buddy-cop film lives and dies with the chemistry of its leads, and this film is dead on arrival.

Before the release of Insomnia, I never would have imagined a film successfully pairing Robin Williams with Al Pacino.  With Pacino’s reputation for intensity and Williams’ image as the funny man, these two would seem very unlikely costars.  Yet director Christopher Nolan saw something in Williams; a subtle and unnerving calm hidden under the surface.  Deciding to cast Williams against type as the killer squaring off against Pacino ended up being a brilliant casting move, and one that elevates Insomnia to a level beyond other films of its kind.

Based on a film from 1997, Insomnia is your standard cat-and-mouse cop thriller, but with a twist.  This one takes place in the fictional town of Nightmute, Alaska, where for a brief period every year, the sun never sets.  As Nolan himself describes it, this leads to “a very dark film with everpresent light.”  Arriving in this town to investigate the murder of a local high school girl, famed detective Will Dormer (Pacino) is immediately caught off guard by the constant light, believing it to be 10 in the morning when it is actually 10 at night.
This sets the tone for his psychological reaction to being in this new type of location.  Finding it impossible to sleep, he goes deeper and deeper into his investigation while falling further and further into a state of sleep-deprived insanity.  As the days without sleep continue to add up, his mental state becomes a critical aspect of the story being told.  It is as he is slowly losing grip on his sanity that Robin Williams comes into the picture, and this is where things really pick up.

Williams’ character of Walter Finch is a local mystery author, and somebody who has experienced the same insomnia that is plaguing Dormer.  He knows what tricks his mind is playing, and he knows how to manipulate him to his benefit.  Having seen Dormer accidentally kill his partner in a chase sequence through the fog, he begins to plant seeds of doubt as to whether the shooting was even an accident.

At this point, the screenplay by Hillary Seitz is juggling multiple threads.  There’s the actual murder investigation, the insomnia itself, and Dormer’s coverup of his partner’s killing.  In theory, this should be too much going on at once, but the script very cleverly integrates all of these different aspects to create a very tight story, in which the integration of all these elements feels very natural.

Christopher Nolan’s directing is brilliant.  He manages to convey the darkness behind the constant light, while putting the audience into the slowly disintegrating mindset of Dormer.  Using several camera tricks, he manages to recreate the disorientation and altered state of someone who hasn’t slept in days.  At times, it can be unsettling to watch and this is exactly what he is going for.

Having said all that, a gread deal of the credit for the success of this film has to go to Nolan’s Director of Photography, Wally Pfister.  He always does brilliant work, but he really outdoes himself here.  He is able to convey so much with the way the light plays off a scene.  Early in the film, there is a chase through the fog.  In less capable hands, this scene could have been a disaster, but Pfister manages to light the scene in such a way that the audience always knows what is going on while simultaneously being as lost as the characters.  There is also a chase sequence across rows of floating logs, and as the camera leaps with the characters across these logs, eventually plunging into the freezing water below, the audience is forced to experience the claustrophobia and discomfort of being trapped in the water.

Nolan has proven himself a master director several times, beginning with Memento, and most recently with Inception.  Insomnia won’t go into the record books as his greatest film, but it’s a really good one.  The actual murder case itself is a little generic, but it’s all of the other aspects of the story that make it that much more compelling.  As mentioned above, Robin Williams is actually capable of being really scary, and him and Pacino end up a great team.

The recently released Blu-Ray has a decent set of extras, but nothing that really stands out.  Unfortunately, it’s all older footage as well.  The first is a feature where Nolan interviews Pacino for about 17 minutes.  While I usually love this sort of thing, I found this to be really dull.  It turns out that Pacino and Nolan are both very soft-spoken, and I found the conversation very dry.  There is also a making of feature called “Day for Night: The Making of Insomnia.”  This only runs a little under eight minutes, but it is pretty interesting material.  There is a lot of footage of Williams talking about his techniques, and it’s really interesting to see him discussing this dark character but with the trademark Williams humor.

Next up is “In the Fog,” a montage of behind-the-scenes footage from the fog chase mentioned above.  They have the footage twice, one with Pfister doing a commentary and the other with Director of Photography Nathan Crowley.  I really enjoyed getting these two perspectives on the same sequence.  The scene isn’t that long, but it’s pivotal, and I found it fascinating to see how much work goes into creating a singular moment in a film like this.

There’s also a very short deleted scene, a trailer, a commentary from Nolan as well as scene-specific commentaries from several people involved in the film, and a still gallery.  The only other extra is a documentary on insomnia (the condition, not the film), called “Eyes Wide Open.”

While not the most memorable movie Nolan’s made, this is still a really entertaining and unsettling film.  It’s rare that a filmmaker can bring an audience into an unsettling psychological state with a character, but he pulls it off. For this reason, and for Robin Williams performance, I would highly recommend this film.

We all go through a little trouble in the love department every now and then in our lives. What if you always have trouble? Your about to meet a New Yorker who either doesn’t have time or hooks up with the wrong men. Until she lets luck play a little, in the fountain of love.

“When in Rome” is a fun romantic comedy directed by Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider, Daredevil) who has stepped away from the comic genre to take a spin down a different path, love. Writing along the way is David Diamond and David Weissman (Old Dogs. Evolution), hitting the spot on some dating don’ts. The cast is pretty well put together with Kristen Bell (Couples Retreat, Forgeting Sarah Marshall) as Beth, the wayward lost love soul and Josh Duhamel (Transformers 1 & 2) as Nick, the once top football player in the country who was sidelined with an injury and now writes about sports, as the leads of this nonstop, who’s going to do what next, comedy that reminds me of a classic Italian comedia show. (What comedy shows use to be, on stage in the 1500’s.)

Beth (Bell) is the quintessential New Yorker, working for a museum that is counting on her to come thru for a big event. She is not that great when it comes to finding love, of any kind. So when her sister calls and tells her she needs to fly out to Rome, Italy. Why you ask? Because her sister is getting married to a man she has only been with a couple weeks. Reluctantly she goes and meets Nick (Duhamel) who is the best man. For once Beth seems truly interested and she feels he is too. Wait for it….yep, she sees him kissing another woman. Beth gets ripping drunk and splashes in the “Fonte D’Amore” (Fountain of Love) and decides to take coins from the fountain for all her loss of luck. At that moment four suitors instantly fall in love with her in accordance to a curse.

Johnson does a great job bringing out Bell and Duhamel as the star crossed lovers. Bell delivers a fun performance as the ‘always looking for the bad in everything’ woman that questions everything she does and everything her mate does. Duhamel is great as the ‘what do I do with this’ guy who has just found what he has been looking for. Joining them in the ‘fountain of love’ is Will Arnet (30 Rock, The Rocker) as the artist, Jon Heder (Blades of Glory, Napoleon Dynamite) as the magician, Dax Shepard (Old Dogs, Baby Mama) as the model, and Danny DeVito (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Be Cool) as Al the business owner. All four create the third character, Beth’s ideals of a man, artistic, mysterious, looks and successful. Arnet, Heder, Shepard and DeVito work great off one another in creating a symbiotic character that pops up whenever you least expect it, providing that uncanny hilarity that helps drive the film.

For this BluRay edition you are treated to a slew of additional fun filled antics, bloopers, and extras you would expect when you have such an energetic and comedic cast. An added bonus is the alternate opening and closing sequence. I found the alternate opening a little too heavy on the earlier mention of how unlucky Beth is. It was scripted well, just a little over the top. The alternate ending was just; well, creepy, funny in its intention but still creepy in the overall aspect of the storyline. The disc also includes deleted scenes that were understandably cut. One of my favorite extras is the ‘Art Show Exhibit’. In these three scenes Arnet, Heder, and Shepard interrupt the art exhibit by putting themselves in the art, showing their true selves as the artist, mysterious, and good looks characters they play respectfully.

When I first saw this film it was in the theater I went with an open mind as all critics should. You cannot think,” Here is another romantic comedy with just new players and different situations like any other romantic comedy”. That’s where some critics fail. “When in Rome” takes a bit of the old romantic comedies of the 40’s and 50’s and adds a little modern day twist with a splash of theater comedy. You never know what the ‘muses’ are going to do to win the heart of the fair Beth. It is for that reason I truly enjoyed the film. And I wasn’t even on a date. I went on my own accord. The film shows you that life is always going to be filled with the unexpected. Sometimes it will be true, sometimes it will be just because. And that’s it, just because with no real reason or answer. Life is challenging that way in being able to pick yourself up form all the ‘unlucky’ things that happen to you and see thru to the true happiness that life has to offer. So go get your significant other and pick up a copy and enjoy some quality time with each other.

“StarStruck” is geared toward the same audience that goes for “Hannah Montana,” “iCarly,” “Sonny with a Chance” and other sitcoms aimed at tweens and their younger siblings, so I didn’t expect there’d be much here besides formula pap. To an extent, that’s true. But the formula, surprisingly, is the adult romantic comedy.

Sara is obsessed with pop star Christopher Wilde (Sterling Knight, Sonny with a Chance) and hopes to track him down while in California, but Jessica could care less about the stuck-up star and would rather go sightseeing. When the sisters arrive in L.A. Sara takes Jessica on a hunt to find Christopher and a chance meeting with the star sets off a series of comic adventures that feature many of L.A.’s landmark locations. As the sisters sightsee and spend time together, Jessica gets to know the real Christopher and soon their friendship grows. Ultimately Christopher must decide what is more important — being himself or becoming a movie star. Disney Channel stars Brandon Mychal Smith (Sonny With a Chance) and Chelsea Staub (JONAS) also star as Christopher’s loyal best friend and fame- hungry girlfriend, respectively.

Knight plays the same kind of slightly conceited, spoiled rich kid he does on “Sonny with a Chance,” and here manages to make the transition to likable–not an easy feat when you have a face and a past screen history of being the smarmy guy. New to Disney is Campbell, who previously appeared in four episodes of “Prison Break.” She hits the antagonism and resentment button a little too hard and a little too often, but the overall effect is one that the target audience will buy. Parents who watch this with their kids will find it more enjoyable than they expected, and for that we probably have to thank writers Barbara Johns and Annie DeYoung (“Princess Protection Program”), who keep the over-the-top characters and scenes to a minimum. And veteran TV director Michael Grossman (“Dirty Sexy Money,” “Zoey 101,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) keeps things moving, honing in on the developing relationship and leaving everything else out.

Still, for a made-for-TV movie, “StarStruck” is more enjoyable than most, and the adult romantic comedy formula transposed onto a ‘tween template makes it more palatable for parents to watch with their children.

It has a similar charm to other previous Disney original films, fun in terms of storyline with the quirky situations (and of course, some situations are a bit farfetched) but I was entertained.  Sterling Knight is definitely showing his versatility as an actor and also as a vocalist.  I didn’t know he could sing but he did a solid job and definitely an up-and-coming Disney star who definitely has the potential to becoming a much bigger star.

If anything, the film is a fun teen and children’s film and parents looking for a safe, music-driven Disney film will definitely find “StarStruck – The Extended Edition” to be a solid release with the DVD movie and the music soundtrack included.  Granted, for parents wanting to know if it’s “really safe”, well, you don’t want your daughters walking through Hollywood especially alone at an alley late at night (which is how the two main characters meet) but despite that one scene (well, there is one other scene in which the two drive a car into quicksand but I doubt any teenagers will have to worry about that), the film is quite safe and really, there is nothing to worry about in terms of content.

The ‘out of this world’ bonuses featured on the StarStruck: Extended Edition DVD include:
    •    Extended version of the movie – only available on DVD
    •    More Music with eight Rock-Along tracks to sing-along with!
    •    Three Hot Music Videos