Red

Summit Entertainment
and DC Entertainment

Rated PG-13

Running time: 111 minutes



Click below to watch the Red trailer.


Lonely suburbanite Bruce Willis is wooing his government case worker agent Mary-Louise Parker for his government checks. Soon - a professional hit squad tries to kill Willis in his home. Willis is a former CIA agent who has been declared RED - Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Now Willis must gather his fellow RED agents, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren to break into CIA Headquarters to find out who is trying to kill all of them, as well as his girlfriend Parker - who reluctantly gets caught up in the middle of all this mess.

Based on the graphic novel Red, DC Entertainment's Red is a much lighter and more comedic version of the graphic novel from what I hear, although I have not read the graphic novel yet. The mature cast seems to be having a lot of fun in the movie. To see Willis as a tough CIA agent developing a relationship with the young Parker and finally letting someone into his secret agent life is rather touching. Having The Queen of drama, Oscar winner Helen Mirren - wearing an evening gown and firing a machine gun - in an action film was one of the reasons why I wanted to see this movie in the first place and Mirren does not disappoint. As Mirren tells Parker, "I kill people, dear." Even if Mirren does kill people, Mirren is still very much a lady. Malkovich is over the top playing an agent who was given LSD for 11 years. Freeman is not given as much to do in the movie, but he does have his moments.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time 111 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

The Social Network

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 121 minutes



Click below to watch The Social Network trailer.



Columbia Pictures The Social Network is about the creation of the website Facebook and the legal problems Harvard computer undergrad creator Mark Zuckerberg had as a result of the website's creation.

With flashbacks between the creation of Facebook and the legal problems Zuckerberg goes through, and a script by Aaron Sorkin, there is twice as much dialog in this film than in a normal film which can be exhausting if you are not used to that much dialog. This is evidenced by the first five minutes of the film of an intense dialog with Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, and his then girlfriend who are sitting in a bar before the opening credits roll. That was supposed to be eight pages of dialog crammed into five minutes of film - where normally it is a minute's worth of dialog per page. Although there is a lot of dialog, with David Fincher's direction, this is not a talking-heads movie. The dialog basically shows what an intense jerk Zuckerberg is in the movie and you can imagine how his personality could lead him into trouble as he goes about creating what was then known as The Facebook, a social networking site allowing people to stay connected with each other which was originally created for Harvard. When Zuckerberg gets involved with Justin Timberlake, as Napster creator Sean Parker, the business potential for Facebook grows into the billions - where most of the legal troubles begins.

Watching the movie initially brought back memories of college for me, both with the intense academic life and the sorority life. It is interesting that while the Facebook website was originally created for college students, a lot of the movie-going audience that I saw the movie with was of an older crowd. While it is said that a lot of the material was created for the movie, and is not real, the movie gave me an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of such a big business.

Another aspect of the movie deals with the twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, with Armie Hammer playing both parts. The Winklevoss twins - Hammer - got Zuckerberg involved in creating a Harvard social networking website for themselves. One interesting thing about the Winklevoss twins, aside from their legal actions against Zukerberg for stealing their idea, is that the Winklevoss twins were part of Harvard's Crew Team. As a videographer who spent a season videotaping the Orange Coast College's Crew Team - who are known as "The Giant Killers" for defeating well-known crew teams such as Harvard, it was a delight for me to get a glimpse of this sport again as it is rare that I get to see crew in a movie. It was also a delight to see Disney Channel star Brenda Song in an adult role for once as the girlfriend of Zuckerberg's friend and co-creator of Facebook Eduardo Saverin, Andrew Garfield.

There is talk of an Oscar and I could see an Oscar for this film.

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, language, and drug use. Running time 121 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

You Again

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 105 minutes





























Click below to watch the You Again trailer.



Touchstone Pictures You Again is a cute film of new Public Relations Vice President Kristen Bell who, when Bell returns home, finds out that her brother is going to marry Odette Yustman - the hot woman who had bullied Bell all through high school. Bell then is on a quest to prove to her family of Yustman's sinister true character.

This is a film where just about every character has a history with every other character from their high school days, usually from dating jealousies - like Bell's mom Jamie Lee Curtis and Yustman's aunt Sigourney Weaver. It was almost over the top for me with everyone connected like that and I think the movie would have probably either played better with less character history, or have every character having a history with a high school rival. Seeing Bell's ugly duckling look in high school and going to poised, matured Vice President is an incredible transformation - and it is painful to watch Bell revert back to her high school looks due to painful circumstances that were not of her own making. I was expecting Bell to use her talents as a Public Relations person on exposing Yustman, but there was very little Public Relations as Bell lets her emotions get away from her as she tries to prove Yustman's meanness. Bell's older brother James Wolk, who is going to be married, is too good to be true. Wolk makes me want to strangle him, or have him get run over by a car as he jogs. Having the talents of Event Planner Kristin Chenoweth coaching the wedding party in song and dance almost makes this movie seem like a High School Musical. Betty White continues her long comedic career, this time as the cute grandmother.

It was great to see the rock duo Hall & Oates at the end of the movie as they basically do a video with all the characters in the movie during the end credits.

Rated PG for language. Running time 105 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews