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Movies I've seen recently...

Jennifer's Body (2009) B

Going into a movie written by Diablo Cody, it's to be expected that "Jennifer's Body" is going to have dialouge that's very stylized, with many pop culture references and made up slang words. While some might argue against this, I actually thought that the dialouge here is the greatest strength the movie has, with many quotable lines and witty remarks. The movie itself, as directed by Karyn Kusama, is a hybrid teen horror comedy about a popular pretty high school girl who gets possessed by a demon, and her mousy best friend who gets to the bottom of this unusual situation. Teenage relationships, plus some scary situations, and a sense of humor that's both dark and very light at times, this movie is simply a lot of fun. The film is a mix of conventional situations to the genre, like people who do stupid things because it seems like they've never seen a scary movie before, plus actual unconventional ideas to how several of the plot plays out, which kept me guessing at times (it was uniquely humorous as to why Jennifer got possessed by a demon). While Amanda Seyfried as Anita "Needy" Lesnicky is really the main protagonist to the story, most people will probably pay more attention to Megan Fox as Jennifer Check who is in super seductive mode in this movie. Both actresses are really good here, and their odd friendship is the driving force and heart to this movie. While still a flawed film, I thought "Jennifer's Body" turned out much better than I originally expected, and it was very entertaining to watch.

The Informant! (2009) A-

Director Steven Soderbergh once again releases a thought provoking, intriguing, and entertaining film with "The Informant!" A movie based on a true story, this film proves that sometimes fact is definitely stranger than fiction. Filled with plot twists over plot twists, and details in the story that almost requires a flow chart to really understand what's going on, this movie should keep you glued to the screen, making sure you don't miss anything. Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre starts off as just another wealthy company man who now wants to do the right thing, by telling the FBI that his company has been a part of a global price fixing scheme. Scott Bakula and Joel McHale are his FBI contacts who eventually notices that Whitacre seems unbelievably inept at keeping his involvement in this a secret. It turns out that the plot about the price fixing isn't the main story to follow, it's Mark Whitacre, who is definitely more than meets the eye. This character is quite an enigma and Matt Damon's performance as him is absolutely superb; complete with voice over narration on his nonsensical thoughts. "The Informant!" is an incredibly fascinating movie to see, with Matt Damon carrying the whole movie quite successfully.

9 (2009) C+

It's very very easy to say that the CGI animation quality in "9" is really great, because it really is. There's a dark beauty to it's "stitch-punk" art direction, based in a post-apocalyptic world, with terrifying machine monsters (that might be too scary for kids), and inventive little gadgets made entirely of craft work materials. Story teller / Director Shane Acker thrusts us directly into the middle of a bleak situation, when the living rag doll named 9; as voiced by Elijah Wood, wakes up confused about the world and who he is. Soon he meets others who are like him; from voice actors John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Connelly, and learns what his purpose in life is. The movie is really imaginative, with an epic scope to it, but it's actually rather flawed. The story would have benefited from more exposition scenes as it feels like all the events happen in a span of a few hours, when it really should be longer than that. It also doesn't help that while the other characters seem to have decent character developments, the main character himself is rather bland and uninteresting. The way the movie ends, also felt forced and disappointing. I enjoyed "9" more or less, but I couldn't help but feel like it could have been much better.

The Final Destination (2009) C-

Known primarily for having death itself as the killer and very inventive Rube Goldberg type death scenes, the Final Destination series isn't necessarily what's typically considered quality films, but they are really fun to watch. Unfortunately "The Final Destination" however is rather disappointing over all. It's hard to care about the characters in this story, which I suppose only makes us look forward to the death scenes more. Even that however is disappointing, as it seems like the movie didn't try hard to be remotely creative about the death scenes at all. At least this movie is shown in 3D and that adds a little more entertainment value to the experience right? Nope, the 3D wasn't that spectacular really, and it felt like it missed a great opportunity to take advantage of it. "The Final Destination" simply felt thrown together with not much effort in trying to make this a good film, that I wished they didn't even bother. Stick with the previous films, because this was just some mild entertainment.