Manuel on Movies #7

Here we go with some more movie reviews for you. Enjoy and hopefully, something interests you, or convinces you not to see it... oh and sorry about the weird margins/spaces between movies. I can't seem to fix them.



Meet Bill is a recent release on video that I don't got a wide release in the theaters. Well, if it did, I didn't hear anything about it. This was one of those cutesy dark comedy, find youself, midlife crisis type of movies. Sounds pretty specific, but there are a lot of these lately it seems. Eckhart plays Bill, a guy with some low self esteem who is dealing with finding out his wife is cheating on him. He has to find himself and find what makes him happy and he does this with the help of a high school boy that he is mentoring through some program at the bank he works at. It's a cute movie and I was entertained, but I was never super emotionally involved with the characters. Eckhart is very good in it though. 6.5 out of 10.










This is the third(and proably not last) in the Resident Evil movie series. I enjoyed the first installment, but was rather disappointed with the sequel. I gave this one a shot simply because I am willing to give any zombie movie a chance. The movie, while not deep by any means, did its job. It entertained me. I got exactly what I wanted which was great action scenes, people getting torn apart by zombies, and acting that wasn't TOO terrible. I mean, it is a movie about freakin' zombies, what do you expect? I would have to rewatch the first one to see if I liked it more than that one, but it sure topped the second. Plus, Milla Jovovich is hot... 7 out of 10


















Wow, this was a bad movie. Here is your plot, a girl and her man are taking a trip and stop at a rest stop. She uses the restroom and when she exits, she finds her man missing. She is attacked by some psychopath in a truck who forces her back into the restroom. The rest of the movie is her in the restroom talking to herself, venturing out, seeing the psychopath, running back in, talking to ghosts of the people he has killed(WTF?!?!?), repeat, repeat. There is one scene where she escapes on some families RV and they turn out to be plain weirdos, al la, the Texas Chainsaw family. They yell at her and boot her out and this becomes the most worthless scene in cinematic history. This was just flat out terrible.... 1 out of 10

















I don't really care for Jack Black and don't think he is that funny. Despite my attempts at not liking him, I actually do like a lot of Ben Stiller films even though he himself may not be that funny. Downey Jr. was of course the wild card as I haven't seen him that much in a straight out comedy. It worked. This was a damn funny movie. There were some scenes that were just ho hum and standard comedy stuff that don't really make me laugh. However, there were some scenes that were some laugh out loud, make a fool of yourself, funny that they mae up for the non funny scenes. In case you don't know the plot, they are movie stars who are filming a Vietnam type war movie. Filming on location puts them in danger as drug makers in the jungle discover them and take one hostage. Hilarity ensues of course. Jack Black is still Jack Black and he only has one funny scene, but that scene is one of the best of the movie. Ben Stiller is his usual self and actually pretty forgetable. Downey Jr. is wonderful though and has some very funny scenes. He is only matches by Tom Cruise who is also very hysterical as a slightly overweight, foul mouthed movie executive. He steals every scene he is in. Matthew McConaughey is also fairly amusing as Stiller's agent. Overall, this was a very funny movie and I found myself wantitng to see it again only a couple of days later. I'll wait til DVD, but I am anxious. 8 out of 10.


I saw this while looking for a mystery/thriller to watch on Netflix instant view while I work. It is a foreign film, but can't remember what movie produced it. It follows a British mystery writer who uses the French vacation house of her agent to write her new book. She expects quiet, but her time there is turned upside down when her agent's young promiscious daughter comes to use the house as well. At first they don't get along at all because of being so different. They learn to deal with it eventually and in the last third, hell, maybe last quarter of the movie, a mystery finally develops. Then it is resolved. Then someting happens near the end which totally confuses me and makes me wonder what the hell just happened and if I understood the movie at all. I went online after and literally found 50 different people interpreting how they think the movie was meant to be taken. Foreign films.... 6 out of 10






We just saw Death Sentence last night and wat a movie it was. Kevin Bacon is a father and his oldest son is killed at the beginning of the film in some sort of gang initiation. Not satisfied with the legal system, he decides to become a vigilante. He becomes the hunter, but then the role is revesed when the gang realizes and starts coming after him. Bacon then has to protect the rest of his family. This is a very violent film and not really one you want to watch if you are having a bad day. It really is not a feel good movie at all and it sticks with you after. It is dark, grim, and overall, just a downer. Still, I loved it. It is one of those movies that really makes you think, "What would I do if I were in that situation?" Not for the faint of heart, this movie comes highly recommended. 9 out of 10.