Hijinks Inc.

Tag: movie review

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Black Dynamite

    Black Dynamite embodies everything that was great about the blaxploitation 1970’s cinema. However, it also relishes all the flaws of 1970’s cinema, and laughs with us all the way till the end. The film was released on October 16, 2009, in the United States, for only two weeks, and was released on home video on February 16, 2010.

    Michael Jai White wrote and stars in this movie as Black Dynamite (a Vietnam veteran, former CIA agent, and professional bad ass) who vows to clean up the streets after his brother Jimmy is killed by a shady organization. The film’s director, Scott Sanders, describes the movie as “It’s just a little too badass. That’s the tone of the movie. Our humor comes from the fact that the movie is just a little too badass.” It’s one cheesy quote (“Your knowledge of scientific biological transmogrifications is only outmatched by your zest for kung-fu treachery.”) and crazy scene after another in this well done spoof. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Away We Go

    Away We Go was recommended to me by a friend quite awhile ago. I finally got around to watching it recently, heading into it without any expectations, and I came away fairly impressed with it. Starring John Krasinski (as Burt) and Maya Rudolph (as Verona) as young adults in love, Away We Go is a tale about love, friendship, family, and the trials of growing up from a slightly older vantage point than your typical teen comedy. Instead of being in high school or college, these are two people in their early 30’s who are enjoying life and each other, but also have jobs and real life issues to deal with.

    Released in theaters on June 5, 2009, and on DVD and Blu-ray on September 29, 2009, this movie has probably recently been moved off your local Blockbuster’s wall display (does anybody still go to Blockbuster anymore?), and it’s not any sort of ground breaking comedy, so it’s the type of movie that can fall between the cracks. Here’s the quick plot description from IMDB:

    A couple who is expecting their first child travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover “home” on their own terms for the first time. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Invictus

    Whoa! What’s this? 2 movie reviews in 2 days? Sweet googly-moogly! That’s what you get when I am on a holiday weekend and have a bit more time on my hands to watch some extra movies. But enough intro mumbo-jumbo, let’s get into the review.

    Invictus first grabbed my attention because of Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, 2 of my favorite actors. Then again, it’s easy to like guys who are great in everything they appear in. I honestly sat down to watch this flick based on that alone, I hardly knew anything about what the movie was actually about… other than the fact that Nelson Mandela and rugby were somewhere in the storyline. Obviously, what I ended up getting was so much more than that.

    Maybe I’m not cultured enough, but I didn’t know that Invictus is actually the name of a poem, the poem that helped Nelson Mandela through his time in prison, inspiring him to “stand when all he wanted to do was lie down”. The movie, however, is based on a book called Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. Invictus was released in theaters December 11, 2009, and on Blu-ray and DVD May 18, 2010. I’m a Netflix guy though, so it was only available to me this last week. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Toy Story 3

    I’d like to begin this review by saying I actually went to the 3D version of this movie. This was my first experience with the new digital 3D movies and I must say, I don’t see what the big deal was. Maybe this movie just didn’t take full advantage of the 3D (it seems everything is hyping the fact that they are in 3D these days, do we really need this many?), but if this is what a regular 3D experience is like in the theaters, it’s totally not worth the extra money. Yeah, the movie trailers at the beginning were really cool because it was this brand new experience and my eyeballs were all like, “Whoa! I can see things in a whole new way, this is fantastic!”, but as the movie went along it quickly started to look like the regular version. It was at this point that my eyes were like, “Alright, why did I pay the extra money for this? I can hardly remember this thing is in 3D in the first place until I pay attention to the added depth, but then I’m not paying attention to the actual movie anymore, just the novelty of the 3D.” Maybe I just missed it, maybe I’m not evolved enough to truly enjoy the 3D experience, but I digress.

    The movie itself was fantastic, but what I really walked away from the theater with was an appreciation for the short that Pixar included before the movie, as they do with all their flicks. This one was called Day & Night, here’s the official write up for it:

    “When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other’s unique qualities — and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world — the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.”

    At this point, my eyes were still on their visual joyride and I was really digging the 3D experience. It was such a simple little film and I was busy laughing at how these two animated little guys were showing off and trying to one up each other, and next thing I knew I was being hit by this really touching, meaningful story about friendship and overcoming each other’s differences to grow as individuals and work together. It was pretty cool.

    But anyway, on to the actual review of Toy Story 3 after the jump. Possible spoilers included. (more…)

  • Hijinks Movie Reviews: Shutter Island

    Welcome to our first movie review! (Well, technically the 2nd movie we’ve reviewed I guess, but the first from our ‘new look’ Hijinks Inc. And even then, that movie was reviewed twice as you’ll find here and here… and I’ll be wrapping up this rabbit trail right about…. now)

    Shutter Island is based on a book by the same name and was released in theaters February 19, 2010 and on Blu-ray and DVD June 8, 2010. A quick lookup on Wikipedia will give you this blurb:

    Shutter Island is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based on Dennis Lehane‘s 2003 novel of the same name. Production started in March 2008. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels, who is investigating the psychiatric facility on Shutter Island.

    I’ve always had tepid anticipation for pretty much every Leonardo DiCaprio movie because I still kind of hold it against him that a crappy movie like Titanic (the boat sinks people! We all knew that going in and it STILL held the box office record!) sat atop the box office mostly due to little girls repetitively attending and fawning over Leo. However, he’s been in some really good movies lately, The Departed being my favorite, so maybe I need to re-evaluate my opinion of him. The fact that this was another Martin Scorsese film also grabbed my attention, but still, it looked like it was just trying to be the next creepy horror-ish type movie, probably with a twist at the end that nobody was supposed to see coming. I guess, to an extent, this holds true, but it’s done very well. More after the jump, including possible spoilers.

    (more…)