Fast cars and scantily dressed women; sounds like a teenage boys dream week at the Movie Spot, but actually the car movie isn’t half bad!
A derelict who is a classicaly trained cellist and a remake of a classic kids adventure story plus the second part of the Che saga round up this weeks releases.

New releases this week:

Fast & Furious

Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiz, Laz Alonso

When a mutual friend is suddenly murdered by a Los Angeles drug cartel, FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and outlaw boy racer Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) separately infiltrate the shady organization in search of revenge, justice and screeching handbrake turns.
First off, is it just me or does anyone else finds it strange that all they did to the title was leaving off the ‘the” from the first of the franchise?
If ’80s remakes like Die Hard 4.0 and Rambo are the movie-star equivalent of Viagra-powered pre-retirement benders, this follow-up to a recent action franchise (with the added “the”) puts stars Paul Walker (who was in The Fast And The Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious) and Vin Diesel (who sat out the first sequel but cameoed in The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift) in the position of 30 year-old guys who bust up their lives and have to move back in with their mums.

Since showing promise in 2001, when the original was a surprise hit, Diesel has gone from contender to pariah via xXx and The Pacifier, while even the most dedicated fact fan might need to check to name any Paul Walker credit beyond his eighth billing in Flags Of Our Fathers .

Obviously, both leads need a jolt of career, and roles for tough, interesting women being as scarce now as in 2001 ; the wholly wonderful and utterly sidelined Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster are back in the harness too, along with a micro-bit for Sung Kang, who starred in Tokyo Drift, to tie together the series’ sprawling over-story.

The mix is as before; superstar illegal drivers strutting with babes hanging off their arms just in case you thought there was anything, well, gay about their twin obsessions with weirdly unattractive muscle cars and each other. The clunking plot finds old friends/foes Brian and Dom competing to get close to a mystery mobster, who apparently needs fast drivers but, as it happens, doesn’t really.

Well this is a DVD, so you can fast forward to the chases, so not having to endure sob-you-were-my-best-friend scenes. Next time get ready for Fast & Furious Vs. The Transporter!


Miss March

Cast: Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Raquel Alessi, Molly Stanton, Holly Hindman, Craig Robinson, Alexis Raben, Tanjareen Martin, Eve Mauro, Holly Weber


The film introduces us to Eugene Bell (Zach Cregger) and Tucker Cleigh (Trevor Moore) as kids, then catches up to them on prom night. Eugene, a staunch advocate of abstinence, is about to lose his virginity to his girlfriend of 30 months, Cindi (Raquel Alessi). He's nervous, drinks too much, falls down a flight of stairs and ends up in a coma for the next four years. When he awakens, he discovers that his father has abandoned him and his girlfriend is a Playboy centerfold. Only Tucker has stuck around. So, to claim Eugene's lost love and escape a scrape with some firemen that Tucker finds himself in, they head west toward the Playboy Mansion.
I’m in two minds about this movie, a laugh or a waste of time?
Now here’s the bad review; Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore (of the TV show The Whitest Kids U Know) are wearing three hats here - directors, writers, and stars - possibly because no one else wanted to be associated with this production. The biggest name in the cast is Hugh Hefner, and this is a sad comedown for him. I know his magazine hasn't been relevant in about a quarter century, but is he so hard-up for publicity that he feels it necessary to lend his support to something like this? I could understand “House Bunny” that was actually enjoyable. For a movie that's purported to be a sex comedy, there's not much in the way of sex or nudity. And, even though the lead actress is supposedly a centerfold, she keeps her clothes on at all times. There's not even a digitally created image of her naked!
The humor is divided into three categories: profanity-related, having to do with bodily fluids and a tedious, often-repeated line about a hip-hop artist whose name is Horsedick.MPEG. It's as if the screenwriters are eight years old and, having just discovered the word "fuck," they want to use it as much as possible and think its mere utterance is hilarious. For variety, they toss in stuff like an explosion of diarrhea in all of its graphic glory and a Playmate savoring the sweet nectar of dog pee. And those are the tasteful bits. OK you figured out I didn’t much care for this movie!
Now for the good review; (ok maybe a bit better)
Taking its R-rating to the extreme, "Miss March" is a subversively humorous romp, one funny sequence involving oral sex, strobe lights and an epileptic seizure, to a scene where the scantily clad Crystal (Tanjareen Martin) accidentally bounces off a tour bus bed and right out the window of the moving vehicle, to the bawdy antics of Trevor's celebrity rapper pal Horsedick.MPEG (Craig Robinson), to a run-in with ludicrously horny lesbian chicks Vonka (Eve Mauro) and Katja (Alexis Raben) Yes the girls are beautiful, after all we are talking Playboy, and one thing this film never takes itself seriously. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood; still this is the unrated version so it’s even raunchier, but I still prefer Zack and Miri make a Porno, now that’s funny!


Dragonball Evolution

Cast: Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung, Chow Yun-Fat, Joon Park, Randall Duk Kim, Eriko Tamura, Ernie Hudson, Texas Battle
Here’s the storyline: Goku, an awkward teenager living with his grandfather in an unnamed American town, wishes for a lot of things. He wishes he were normal. He wishes he were allowed to fight the school bullies. He wishes the beautiful Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) would notice him. Despite the old man's insistence that he needs to have faith in himself, he wishes he were someone else.
The demon Piccolo wishes for only one thing - to unleash the destroyer and wreak his revenge upon the Earth. To make his wish come true, he needs the aid of a mighty dragon which can only be summoned when the blood moon eclipses the sun, by the person who controls all seven of the legendary dragonballs. With me so far? You would be if you were 12 years old and have been watching this Japanese Manga (animation to you) TV show most of your young life!
Director James Wong perfectly captures the cheesy, fast-paced style of the source material and the script is smart enough to cover a few crowd-pleasing teen movie bases before the action really gets going, most notably a superb sequence where Goku trounces a gang of bullies without actually touching any of them.

In addition, Chatwin makes an extremely likeable lead and there's strong support from Chung (feistier than the usual love interest), and a scene-stealing Chow Yun-Fat.
The genesis of Dragonball goes all the way back to a simple, Japanese, manga-series of 1984, which has since evolved into a mega-franchise including: several animated series, trading card games, and video games. Actually, this movie is the second, live-action movie, but it's 1989 predecessor, Dragonball The magic begins, was a Taiwanese production that saw no theatrical release outside of China. This DVD will undoubtedly appeal to the generation who is familiar with the series; nevertheless it’s an enjoyable, fast paced action adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously!



Race To Witch Mountain

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Anna Sophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Carla Gugino, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Everett Scott, Christopher Marquette, Billy Brown, Garry Marshall, Kim Richards

For someone who started his movie career under a pseudonym, it’s perhaps unsurprising that The Rock’s career to date has seen him endure something of an identity crisis, flitting from genre to genre like an indecisive customer in Blockbuster.
Of course, The Rock is dead now ; long live Dwayne Johnson. As ever, Johnson excels when he’s required to punch and kick people and, unusually for a Disney, there’s plenty of that, particularly when the alien assassin, the Siphon, shows up. But he also displays a fine comic touch, notably in scenes where he’s creeped out, or holds a conversation with an overfriendly, semi-telepathic dog. As you might expect with a remake, (originally made in 1975) even a loose one like this, there’s nothing particularly original here. But it’s an unexpectedly entertaining mixture of good, clean Disney fun with some rather more modern action scenes, lent charm by Johnson’s natural swagger. One of the better family films in a while.



The Soloist

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander, Lisa Gay Hamilton

This is not a story with a fairy tale ending; similar in part to the wonderful movie “Shine” this true story is a showcase to two extraordinary talents.
Acting titans Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx make for an impressive twosome, taking on the real-life roles of Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez and schizophrenic, Juilliard-trained cellist Nathaniel Ayers.
The Soloist recounts the interaction between Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) and a homeless man by the name of Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx). When Steve is first drawn to Nathaniel, it's because of music being played by the latter on a violin with only two strings. After Steve learns that Nathaniel was once enrolled in Julliard, a column is born. The two spend time together and Steve becomes obsessed with providing a better life for Nathaniel , obtaining a new instrument for him, getting him off the street and into a shelter, providing him with a music teacher (Tom Hollander), and arranging a recital. The problem is that Nathaniel is afflicted with schizophrenia and his moments of lucidity come and go. At times, he can hold conversations with Steve. On other occasions, he becomes withdrawn and sometimes violent.
The Soloist's screenplay is based on Lopez's book, subtitled A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.
It's testament to Downey's portrayal of the columnist that this doesn't come off as a pampered writer trying to "get" a story. Perhaps it's because the actor's infamous substance-abuse history makes him appear not so far removed from mental illness himself, whether playing a comic-book superhero in Iron Man or a Method actor gone haywire in Tropic Thunder.
Sometimes a little drawn out and often more a documentary on the homeless in Los Angeles, this nevertheless is a movie you will want to watch for a second time.



Che Part 2 The Guerilla

Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Santiago Cabrera, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Julia Ormond, Lou Diamond Phillips, Franka Potente, Edgar Ramirez, Victor Rasuk, Rodrigo Santoro

Given Che Part One ended with the revolutionary leader telling his troops, “The revolution begins now,” you’d think that Che Part Two might show Guevara’s part in that victory. But, Part Two is the melancholic one, where our heroes find themselves trudging through grim locales, under clouds of impending doom.
Del Toro is, if anything, more impressive than in Part One, quiet and magisterial, even in sickness and defeat. The scene where he quietly persuades a Bolivian guard to release him is almost frightening in its quiet power.

The film ends in blur, silence and dust, as if we’re watching the world fade through Guevara’s own eyes. Moments before his death we learn he’s left five children behind in Cuba. It’s a fragment of personal detail, but after what we’ve been through it’s overwhelming. We might still be in the dark as to his politics, but after nearly five hours in his company we’re in no doubt we’ve lost a great man. Maybe that was all director Soderbergh and Del Toro wanted, after all.




A Classic Movie You Must See, or See Again

Casino

Cast: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollak, L.Q. Jones, Dick Smothers, Frank Vincent

‘You beat him with fists; he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife; he comes back with a gun. If you beat him with a gun, you’d better kill him because he’ll keep coming back and back until one of you is dead.’
Sam Ace Rothstein, (De Niro) the consummate bookie who can change the odds merely by placing a bet, has risen through the ranks of the Midwestern mob to be picked by the bosses to front their entree into Vegas. Ace lives and breathes the odds. He eventually doubles the mob's take and changes the rules of how the casinos are run. But he can't control the odds when it comes to Ginger McKenna, (Sharon Stone) the chip-hustling vamp who charms Ace and becomes his wife. His infatuation with Ginger turns to obsession as she rises with him to the upper crust of society then turns to the bottle and pills for consolation in her gilded cage. The third member of this triangle of greed and obsession is Nicky Santoro, (Joe Pesci) Ace's best friend and fellow graduate of the city streets. Together, they run the perfect operation, with Ace in charge and Nicky providing the muscle. But as Nicky expands his interests and each man gains power, their lives become entangled in a story of hot tempers, obstinacy, money, love and deception.
It is said that director Martin Scorsese made the ultimate gangster movie in “GoodFellas”, that is probably true, but this movie has to be the second jewel in Scorsese’s crown. Casino is a tour-de-force of acting and directing, both of which are spectacular in the Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi vision of Las Vegas. Three hours long and not a bad performance, uncompelling scene or misguided directorial style in the mix. Casino is a very dark and violent film, but there are moments of humor to liven up the mood and some fascinating subplots that tie in to the main theme beautifully.
The cast is of course perfect, with De Niro headlining and on top form as Ace. Although less confrontational and aggressive than some of his other on-screen personas, Ace is still a conflicted, complicated person for De Niro to get to grips with and he does so with the skill and strength you only expect but still marvel at from one of the greatest actors ever. Partnering him up with long-term collaborator Joe Pesci was a clever move because you know exactly what to expect when you put these two together. Here he plays the same character that Pesci has been typecast as ever since GoodFellas; an extremely short-tempered violent psychopath but with the added twist that he is more ostensibly an out-and-out bad-guy. Although starting out as Ace’s best friend Nicky, just like he was De Niro’s character’s best friend in GoodFellas, he soon descends into drugs and greed and general excess to the point where he is endangering the lives of everybody he knows.
This is a movie to own, but if you need to see it before making up your mind, run don’t walk to the kiosks and pick it up, simply put, this is one of the best films of all time.