Movie Reviews:
"Showtime" and "The Time Machine"

Quite a week here at SP.com - wadE's checking out the socialite Hollywood scene, Wade is waxing intellectual on us... and what am I doing? Reviewing movies. Well, at least one of us has been eating popcorn lately.

First and foremost, however, today I'm unveiling a new rating system for my movie reviews. This one's in honor of my friend Trent, who always takes me to the worst movies. Thus, the more Trents I give a film, the worse it is. For example, "Dracula 2000" (which Trent dragged me to see) is a very strong 4 Trent movie. On the other end of the spectrum, "American History X" (which came recommended from a different friend) is a Zero Trent. Someday I'll give out the dreaded 5 Trent ranking, as well as the vaunted Negative Trent. Someday...

Now, on with the reviews!

The Time Machine

I had low hopes for this movie, despite the presence of one of my favorite actors, Guy Pearce. Add on to that the fact that I couldn't really find a positive review, and the fact that the mighty Trent himself wanted to see it, and I thought we had the makings of a good 3 to 4 Trent movie. How mistaken I was.

I was impressed by how quickly the story moved along... Pearce's character loses his loved one and builds a time machine to see if he can manipulate things to try and get her back. (Wouldn't we all?) Through a mishap while travelling through time he moves forward in time 800,000 years. This is roughly the first half of the movie.

When Pearce awakens from the injury he incurred during his journey, he finds that the human race has evolved into two different races... if you've read the book you'll know that they're called Eloi and Morlock. If you haven't, you might be able to glean that from the film. You might not... The second half of the movie details the struggle between the normal Eloi and the animalistic Morlocks. I won't spoil anything, but the ending of the movie is very abrupt, and definitely seemed like it was the only idea the writers could come up with.

Orlando Jones manages not to be annoying as a computer generated person (and given his potential 5 Trent performance in "Evolution", that's saying something), the movie moves along quickly, and the ending doesn't make you wish you'd stayed home and watched TV. Not a ringing endorsement, but not bad either.

Overall Rating:
 
Two Trents

Showtime

Bounce-Bounce and I took a break from the Men's NCAA Basketball tournament on Saturday to hit the local metroplex and see "Showtime", mostly because B-B wouldn't see "Resident Evil" with me. (Quick Aside: if ever a movie had "4 Trent" written all over it, it's "Resident Evil" - hot girl, action movie, based on a video game... so of course when I mention it to Trent, he shrugs and says "Ehh, it might be a good rental." This from the guy who made me go see "Vertical Limit"! Who knew...)

In any case, "Showtime" is a buddy cop comedy flick starring Eddie Murphy, Robert DeNiro, Rene Russo, and Shatner! The quick and dirty synopsis is that DeNiro is a cop who screws up an assignment, and ends up getting teamed with Murphy, who's a wannabe actor working as a menial cop, in a new 'reality' TV show. Hilarity (in theory) ensues.

DeNiro is funny in his gruff way, Murphy is his over-the-top foil. Shatner absolutely shines as himself, imparting lessons he learned from being "TV hero TJ Hooker" in the 80s. Shatner is at his best when he's being self-depricating, and he's in fine form here. There's even a great out-take of Bill at the end of the film that's worth the price of admission alone.

The movie itself followed a rather predictible plot, but was clever and funny enough to be entertaining. I didn't bust a gut at any point, but neither did I feel particularly bored at any point either. Definitely a good solid investment of your movie money.

Overall Rating:
 
One and a Half Trents