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I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Academy Awards. It was like watching the Oscars with my grandparents: a throwback to the 1950s. The jokes were funny, if mostly safe.The acceptance speeches were mostly sweet and not challenging. The outfits were beautiful as were the presenters.

I can’t even say I was surprised by the awards. I didn’t catch any real politics or a travesty of justice. I must say I didn’t really find myself blown away by any of the nominees either. This year was rather a yawn for movies and the Oscars.

Billy Crystal, I thought, was a great choice to recover some of the charm of the Oscars but hardly a stretch or look to the future. Though I shudder to think what would happen if they pass the mantle to Will Ferrell or Zach Galifianakis.

I don’t have much else to say this year except: thank you Cirque du Soleil for adding a touch wonder.

In this episode Doug and Craig descend in to the darkness of the movie mind. As they discuss their Favorite Psychological Thrillers. We would love to hear your top 10! So leave a comment or you can also comment on our new Facebook page

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In the new Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Nicholas Cage, stars once again as Johnny Blaze, former daredevil and current emissary of revenge for hell. His mission: to save the son of Satan (Ciarán Hinds) from his devilish father. Danny (Fergus Riordon), Satan’s son and soon to be Anti-Christ according to the Ghost Rider, is joined by his mother Nadya (Violante Placido) in attempting to escape his demonically abusive father. Satan wants to use the boy’s body as a vessel for his evil majesty, because a normal human body is nearly powerless.

Aiding his fiery-ness in capturing and holding Danny is Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth), a particularly lame villain. He’s a second rate character and hardly threatening. Satan eventually grants Ray immense (if ridiculous) power: the ability to cause the degradation of all things except Twinkies. For a 3D film the power is just as underwhelming as it sounds, in fact the entire film is unnecessarily underwhelming for 3D.  The bulk of the film is a long chase scene with the expected crashes and explosions. I personally found the chase scenes uninspired, the crashes unremarkable and the explosions mundane.

What’s puzzling is why Blaze, as Ghost Rider, is fighting with his boss, Satan. It’s never clear in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance how the Rider has the freedom. After all, the evil one has control of his soul. It’s also puzzling how Cage could be involved with such a dismal and uninspired project.

A grim reminder of how bad a movie can be, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance manages to disappointment at every level. There is almost no humor, the action seems artificial and contrived and the CGI is lame and inconsistent. In the original film the Ghost Rider’s flaming bike left a streak of burning asphalt down the highway, in this film there’s not even a trail. There are maybe three lame jokes in the film and they’re so weak it’s impossible to remember them. Even the action is like that in a bad biker movie. Fight scenes are derivative and predictable.

I don’t understand the direction either. In the first confrontation scene the Rider drives into the middle of Carrigan’s gang and stands, and stands and stands. He looks ominous, sure, but never attacks. He could have killed the entire gang in a few seconds. I understand, artistically, why the director had Ghost Rider stand interminably (unfortunately, had he acted, the Rider could have killed Carrigan’s gang, rescued the boy and saved the day). The movie, thankfully, would have been over in 20 minutes and I wouldn’t have had to suffer for the full hour and a half.

One more thing…how in the “blazes” can Ray Carrigan pull out his gun fill Ghost Rider full of holes and have Johnny Blaze end up in the hospital. Ghost Rider has always been able to take immense punishment with impunity. Later the Rider takes direct hits from shoulder fired rockets and shakes them off. This type of inconsistency is small compared to the rest of this mess of a film but it is a distraction. I would never recommend Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance even to the most hardcore movie maniac.

Rating 0.5 out of 5.

Doug, Craig and Tom took a chance and saw the new Ghost Rider. Were the rewarded with a 3D thrill ride or burned out of their hard earned money. Listen to their review.  You can leave your review in the comments or on our new Facebook page!  Click the link in the sidebar We’d love to hear from you!

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How can a movie called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter not be great. Well, I said the same thing about Van Helsing. The trailer looks awesome and how bad can it really be, well pretty bad, but let’s hope!

“Beyond sanity, beyond control” and beyond freaky is the new trailer for Beyond the Black Rainbow. Not sure whether I’d ever see it but at least it’s a trailer to freak out on. The movie is out June 1st, 2012.

In Honor of Valentines day Doug and Craig and new co-host Tom take on the tough task of picking their favorite Romantic Comedies. Did your pick make the list? Leave a comment or send an email and let us know.

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Join Doug and Craig and new co-host Tom as they review Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and Safe House.  Also Doug chimes in on seeing Chronicle. Do these three movies deserve your hard earned cash? Listen in and find out! If you’ve seen these leave a comment or send us an email.

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Gritty, dark and depressing, Safe House manages to thoroughly underwhelm. With Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington in the lead I was expecting Safe House to be filled with excellent dialogue, thrilling chase scenes and real chemistry. Instead I found myself in a predictable repeat: rogue agent, disenchanted, dispirited and turned against the establishment. Denzel Washington is the traitor,Tobin Frost, an ex-agent that the CIA wants desperately.They finally have him.

Hunted by unknown enemies Frost turns himself in at the American Consulate, South Africa. Guess what, the CIA has a “safe house” in South Africa manned by Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), a bored to tears “housekeeper” waiting for his chance at adventure. Weston gets it in torrents when Frost’s enemies break in, kill the guards and destroy the safe house. Only barely do Weston and Frost escape and manage to contact the agency. Frost, a particularly annoying manipulator, manages to infuriate Weston by constant chatter, violent attempts to escape and general uncooperativeness.

The bulk of the film is about Frost’s attempts to get free and Weston’s attempts to hold him and, once Tobin gets loose, recapture him. Unfortunately Safe House never really works. Frost and Weston don’t relate well, Frost does not garner sympathy until way to late and there is never a connection between Frost and Weston. There is plenty of action in the film, lots of good fight scenes and some great chase scenes but Safe House is not as much sheer fun as the Bourne or Transporter series, though it is more believable.

Sadly, Safe House is predictable, pedantic and derivative. The idea of safe houses available for questioning (including water boarding) placed strategically around the world is the only intriguing element to the film. Everything else has been done. Even the Safe House idea is underused in favor of the action sequences. I would have loved to see Reynolds and the CIA staff interacting more in the “house.”

Expectedly, the film has the seemingly compulsory political statement embedded: the CIA is a villainous organization that expeditiously uses its operatives then destroys them without a second thought. I think that’s part of what ruins the film…the message is forced. Oh, and also, the leadership of the agency is more than ready to torture, abuse and break all the rules, even killing each other with not a second thought. This is Bourne Identity only without the heart.

I don’t recommend Safe House. Perhaps if you’re stranded on a desert island with only a generator, TV, DVD player and Safe House it might be worth watching, otherwise it’s a great miss.

Rating 2 out of 5

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In honor of the upcoming romantic holiday (I will be home alone crying my eyes out) I wanted to know what other people think are the best romantic comedies for me to watch on this most depressing of all celebrations, “sigh.”

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