DVD: Step Brothers

Basics for "Step Brothers"
Stars: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R

Synopsis: Brennan (Will Ferrell) and Dale (John C. Reilly) are two 40-year-old kids. They live at home with single parents -- single parents who meet, fall in love and get married. That thrusts the two man-children together. The two initially despise one another and go through a series of painful (yet hilarious) altercations. But somewhere along the way, that hate gets worked out and Brennan and Dale team up to form one wickedly stupid duo.

He Said: Loved it. Come on, the movie stars Ferrell. What did you expect? Has the man done anything in his career that wasn't comedy gold? Put him together with Reilly and they could make "Schindler's List" hilarious. (I'm gonna try a couple more: They could make the end of "Old Yeller" funny. They could make "Tropic Thunder" funny.) Yes, it's mostly crude, immature humor, such as when Brennan "deflowers"(for lack of a better term) Dale's drum set. Or when Brennan is forced to lick ... well, let's just say it's not very appetizing. It's not great comedy and it's certainly not high art, but "Step Brothers" is funny. And that was the goal, I believe.

She Said: OK, normally, I would be here ridiculing Josh for this nonsense. Ferrell has lost me on several occasions with his brand of humor and I generally don't care for his films. In fact, I absolutely loathe many of them. But for some reason -- and I know I'm going to regret this -- I found myself mildly entertained by this. I actually laughed a couple of times. I think it had more to do with Dale's father (Richard Jenkins) and Brennan's mother (Mary Steenburgen) perfectly portraying the parents of these morons. Anyway, it wasn't awful. It wasn't good, mind you. But it wasn't horrible either.

Ratings:
Josh: 3
Kim: 2

DVD: The Dark Knight

Basics for "The Dark Knight"
Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: R

Synopsis: I really can't imagine you need us to give you a synopsis of this. I mean, there aren't many Afghan warlords who don't have at least some idea about "The Dark Knight." So, I'll be brief. It's the next installment of director Christopher Nolan's "Batman" films. In it, the Dark Knight (Christian Bale) must square off against his most ruthless nemesis -- The Joker (Heath Ledger). And just for kicks, another villain joins the fun. As usual, the fate of a girl and the city hang in the balance.

He Said: Absolutely freakin' fantastic. Seriously, I don't know that I've seen a movie that's better than this. I can think of a handful of films that come close and a few that even achieve this level. But I honestly can't say that there's a film that surpasses it. It's that good. Here's the kicker: I'm not a big Batman fan. In fact, I'm not much into the whole superhero genre. (Superman aside.) But this wasn't a "superhero movie." This was a very, very good film. Good story. And great acting, especially from Ledger. I was skeptical of all the talk about his portrayal of the Joker being Oscar worthy, figuring that most of that talk started after his death. I'm sold now. Honestly, I can't think of a bad thing to say about this movie. And that never happens.

She Said: OK, here's the thing. Josh and I rarely agree on movies, but it does happen. In fact, it has happened enough now that it isn't out of the ordinary. But what never happens is this: We never agree on a movie being absolutely awesome. In fact, I don't think it has ever happened. Until now. Everything Josh said was right, as far as I'm concerned. I don't like action movies with a bunch of stuff exploding. I generally don't care much for superhero flicks. I don't care much for Christian Bale. And yet, despite all of those things working against this movie from the start, I really, really liked it. It was put together so well. There's an actual story to it that grabs even the uninterested viewer. There are interesting characters -- not just superficial, easy-to-understand comic book heroes and villains. And there is actual acting -- not just a bunch of CGI-created flying around. My only complaint -- and it's a minor one -- is Christian Bale's voice when he portrays Batman. It's distracting and annoying. Stop it. Other than that, top notch.

Ratings:
Josh:4 (out of 4)
Kim: 4

DVD: Hancock

Basics for "Hancock"
Stars: Will Smith, Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron.
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-2-08

Synopsis: Hancock (Will Smith) is an obnoxious, lazy, rude and all-around unlikeable superhero. He has all the makings of a comic book good guy -- the super strength, the flying, the ability to fight bad guys -- but manages to alienate everyone. Then he saves the life of PR exec Ray Embrey. And Embrey is determined to turn this failure into the superhero he can be. Embrey doesn't realize, however, the effect Hancock will have on his life. Especially when it comes to his wife (Charlize Theron).

He Said: Eh. "Hancock" was OK. It was watchable and humorous in parts. But it never achieved what it could, I don't think. I mean, the story was told sort of backward and there were never really good explanations for a lot of things. Like, why was the guy a drunk? Yeah, it said life was rough and he was the only one of his kind and yada, yada, yada. But there was never one real incident, like the death of someone or some horrible injustice he couldn't stop. And then there was the connection between Hancock and Embrey's wife, Mary. Just pure coincidence? Nobody's buying that. Not with their history. Had a few little kinks been worked out with the story, this thing could've been really good. As it was, just ... eh.

She Said: Oh, it was a little better than that. Josh always likes to have everything tied up nice and neat for him and he can never let a good coincidence go. Like strange things don't happen in real life. Anyway, this was a movie. If you're making a movie about a group of people, there should be a strange coincidence involved in some way. The acting in this was good. The storyline was interesting. Outside of a few dull moments, I didn't have many problems.

Ratings:
Josh: 2
Kim: 3

And We're Baaaaaaack!

So, um, here we are -- again. Did you miss us?

You know you did.

OK, here's the deal. Kim and I are back at this movie reviewing thing. The Advertiser has a snazzy new Entertainment website and they needed a snazzy blog to spruce things up. And there we were just sitting there on the shelf, waiting for a call.

They called. I put Kim up to designing this place (fantastic job, don't you think?). And we're ready to roll again with all the he said-she said movie talk you'd ever want.

We have to admit that we weren't exactly devoted movie watchers during our time away. We recently moved far away from the Rave Theatre and our movie consumption has dwindled. But never fear, we're gonna get back on top of things. In fact, we started a couple of weeks back by grabbing several new-release DVDs. Our thinking: It's gonna be cold for a few days and we'll give people some ideas on what to watch while sitting around the house. And what do ya know, it's gonna be like 8 degrees this weekend. (Maybe we should do a Moons on Weather blog, too.)

So, without any further ado, let's get this thing started. I'm gonna rattle off everything we've viewed over the past couple of weeks. Most of these you can find in the "New Release" section of your local video rental shop/Netflix or through your cable/dish pay-per-view provider.

Moons on Movies

Moons on Movies is coming back! Stay tuned!
Josh & Kim Moon