Maxim's Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3

Review: ?Get Smart? (1995) NR 2hrs 38min
2008-06-06 06:42:00
This is an Emmy-winning follow-up to 1965 spy genre spoof TV series conceived by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. The plot: In the government organization known as CONTROL, Chief Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and his seductive sidekick Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) must outwit the plot to take over the world’s textile industry by the evil corporation/organization known as KAOS. The ...
More About: Comedy , Movies , Review , Get Smart

Harrison Ford would play Jack Ryan again
2008-05-31 09:00:00
As reported by Simon Raynolds, the Entertainment Reporter for DigitalSpy, after the huge buzz around the release of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, Harrison Ford has revealed that he would like to return to the Jack Ryan franchise. Ford starred as Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst character in Patriot Games and Clear And ...
More About: Harrison Ford , Play

Review: ?The King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters? (2007) PG-13 79min
2008-05-30 08:21:00
If you liked "Trekkies", you will probably like this movie too - it's a documentary about a niche in sport - competitive Donkey Kong players and their fans. If you are not watching it in theater where you pay to stay in, it will not be hard to walk away from this documentary if you are watching it on DVD. It probably qualifies as documentary for guys.
More About: Movies , Seattle , Films , Documentary , The King

Hot new DVD and Blu-Ray releases for May 27, 2008
2008-05-27 18:10:00
Rambo IV 2008 R When governments fail to act on behalf of captive missionaries, ex-Green Beret John James Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) sets aside his peaceful existence along the Salween River in a war-torn region of Thailand to take action. Although he’s still haunted by violent memories of his time as a U.S. soldier in Vietnam, Rambo is unable ...

Netflix offers movie streaming via their $100 set-top box
2008-05-20 22:07:00
Netflix, the largest movie rental company, had for years been promising to begin streaming movies straight to TVs, and last year announced plans with LG to build a set-top box that would allow that. Netflix has just announced their new set-top box called Roku. With $8.99/month unlimited subscription, you may be able to queue the movies you ...
More About: Movie , Apple , Home Theater , Netflix , Offers

Review of ?Death at a Funeral? (2007) 90min
2008-05-13 06:47:00
From the animation and the music theme of the opening credits sequence you know you are watching a witty comedy that won director Frank Oz (famous for directing movies like Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Stepford Wives and giving his voice to Yoda in Star Wars and other characters from Muppets to Monsters ...
More About: Comedy , Movies , Drama , Action , Germany

Review of ?Iron Man? (2008) PG-13 122min
2008-05-04 09:06:00
We tried to see this movie on Friday night, but it was sold out. On Saturday night we got in after standing in line for half an hour and watching commercials and trailers for another 25 minutes. Was the movie worth it? The plot: The wealthy military industrialist, a brilliant engineer and a playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), ...
More About: Review , Iron Man , Iron , 2008

Review of Ocean?s Thirteen (2007) PG-13 122min HD-DVD
2008-05-01 22:51:00
The summary: this is definitely a better movie then Ocean 's Twelve, but the 11 was the best one of the trilogy. Good entertainment, in theater and on DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray - whatever you watch it on.
More About: Review , Thirteen

Review: Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) PG-13 113min
2008-04-24 07:33:00
This is the sequel to 1998 Oscar-winning drama “Elizabeth ”, also directed by Shekhar Kapur (The Four Feathers) starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen and Samantha Morton. The plot: The original 1998 movie left us in 1555. The “Golden Age” picks up the story in 1588. A still-young-looking Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) is still childless, and is convinced ...
More About: Review , The Golden Age , Golden Age

New DVD releases (April 16, 2008)
2008-04-15 08:40:00
Juno (2007) Facing an unplanned pregnancy, teenage Juno (Ellen Page) devises a plan to locate the proverbial perfect parents to adopt her baby. But the seemingly ideal couple Juno chooses still has some growing up to do. Now, everyone in Juno’s world must do a little soul-searching. Michael Cera co-stars while Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner ...
More About: April , 2008

Enemy of the State (1998) R 140min
2008-04-15 06:37:00
Ridley Scott’s brother Tony directed this action flick starring Will Smith, Jon Voight, Gene Hackman, Lisa Bonet, Jack Black , Gabriel Byrne, and . He’s also known for producing series Numb3rs and The Company and films like Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford and directing such movies as Tristan & Isolde, In Her Shoes, ...
More About: Movies , Drama , Action , Thrillers

Review: Smart People (2008) 95min
2008-04-13 08:24:00
“Smart People ” is a comedy and drama based on novel by Mark Poirier and directed by Noam Murro, an award winning director [of commercials]. Correct me if I’m wrong, but “Smart People” appears to be the first feature film he directed. I went to the theater with very low hopes. This movies was made at the ...
More About: Review , 2008

Review: Sami Swoi (1967) UR 80min
2008-04-07 08:05:00
“Our Folks” is a classic Polish comedy. The plot: Two quarreling families were expatriated from Eastern Poland (now Belarus) to Western part of Poland that used to be German before the WWII. By accident they end up being settling on neighboring farms again. The good: This film thrives on exploiting stereotypes, taking it to extreme: two neighboring farmers almost ...
More About: Comedy , Review , Sami , Black and White

Maxim?s Movie Blog upgraded to WordPress 2.5
2008-04-05 23:23:00
Apologies if you had any trouble accessing the website today, Saturday morning, April 5, 2008. We’ve been upgrading to the latest version of WordPress, 2.5. Also, there was an intermittent issue with our RSS feeds, but they appear to be resolved now. Let us know if you experience any problems with the site. Thanks, Maxim If you liked this post, ...
More About: Wordpress , Movie , Blog

Review: Leatherheads (2008) PG-13 114min
2008-04-05 08:30:00
George Clooney, fresh from directing “Michael Clayton”, delivers another great movie - this time a romantic sports comedy. The plot: 1925. Jimmy “Dodge” Connolly (George Clooney) is a charming, middle-aged [American] football player for Bulldogs in the struggling 1925 football league, who wants to bring his team into the world of professional football - the world of ...
More About: Review , Leatherheads , 2008

Blades Of Glory (2007) PG-13 93min HD-DVD
2008-04-03 07:26:00
Yet another sport farce comedy with Will Ferrel and Jon Heder. Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck. The plot: Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite and The Benchwarmers, he also did a lot of voice overs, such as in Monster House, Robot Chicken, Surf’s Up) was a child ice-skating prodigy adopted from the orphanage by a ...
More About: Comedy , Movies , Action , Romance , Blades

Snakes On The Plane (2006) R 105min
2008-03-21 06:37:00
The plot: An FBI agent (Samuel L . Jackson) brings a murder witness on an airplane. During the flight, snakes come out out of everywhere. The good: ehm… nothing. The bad: you can tell you are going to see a bad movie from the opening sequence - the acting is going to be horrible. The plot is ...
More About: Movies , Snakes , Adventure , Disaster

Jumper (2008) PG-13 90min
2008-03-21 05:14:00
From the director of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Supremacy Doug Liman comes this action movie based on novel by Steven Gould. The plot: David Rice (Hayden Christinsen, earlier Max Thieriot) discovers that he has a power to teleport himself anywhere on Earth. After having some fun with his power, he realises he can ...
More About: Jumper , 2008

The Covenant (2006) PG-13 97min
2008-03-19 07:23:00
The plot: Four high-school boys who inherited superpowers from their parents uncover that there’s a fifth powerful person who was thought to be long dead. Their powers come a the cost: each time they are used, the body of the warlock ages and they become more addicted. Now that the four warlocks are about to ...
More About: Movies , Horror , Action , Adventure , Supernatural

Things We Lost In The Fire (2007) R 119min
2008-03-15 05:18:00
The plot: After her husband (David Duchovny) died in a tragic accident, Audrey, his wife (Halle Berry) is trying to piece her life together and take care of her two kids. The house is falling apart without a man in it, and she turns for help to her husband’s childhood friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), ...
More About: Family , Lost , Drama , Fire , Things

The Bank Job (2008) R 1h 50min
2008-03-08 08:58:00
This is an excellent heist movie based on real events. Directed by Roger Donaldson (The World’s Fastest Indian, The Recruit, Thirteen Days, Dante’s Peak, Species etc.). Written by Dick Clement (Across the Universe, Flushed Away) and Ian La Frenais (also worked on the latter two movies). Starring Jason Statham. Lionsgate Films. The plot: Based on actual events of ...
More About: Movies , Drama , Crime , Gangster , Thrillers

10,000 B.C. (2008) PG-13 109min
2008-03-08 02:26:00
The plot: Narrator (Omar Sharif) talks about a legend about a blue-eyes child. It’s a girl who was discovered by tribal hunters in the mountains clinched to the body of her dead mother. Her mother and their clan were killed or enslaved by the “four-legged demons”. The girl, Evolet (Camilla Belle), is adopted by the mountain hunters tribe ...
More About: Movies , Drama , Action , Adventure , Fantasy

The Wicker Man (2006) PG-13 102min
2008-03-07 21:51:00
This is a remake of 1973 British horror movie with the same title written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Nicolas Cage. The plot: a motorcycle cop Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage), traumatized by the road-side death of the occupants of the car he had stopped, receives a letter from his ex-fiance Willow informing him that ...
More About: Movies , Drama , Horror , Thrillers

Over The Hedge (2006) PG 83min
2008-03-06 03:03:00
This DreamWorks studio’s animated adventure directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick won several awards, such as Best Family Film at Indianapolis International Film Festival and Best Animated Film at Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards. Some well-known actors have gave their voices to the characters. The plot: A garbage-stealing raccoon RJ (Bruce Willis) is in debt with ...
More About: Comedy , Movies , Animation , Cat , Adventure

Click (2006) PG-13 107min
2008-03-05 07:43:00
Not a big fan of Adam Sandler, who always plays the same character: a good-hearted childish idiot. I’d never pay $10 for the movie ticket to see Adam Sandler, but I thought if I rent a DVD for less then a $1 he’d go well with my evening cup of tea. The plot: Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a workaholic architect who through his great work is about to be promoted to the senior partner at his construction firm. He has a wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale of Pearl Harbor, Underworld, The Aviator etc.) and two kids, a boy and a girl. He is overwhelmed by the work, and he can’t even get his head around all the remote controls in his house, so he goes out and buys a universal remote control from a strange employee of Bed, Bath & Beyond (Christopher Walken). With this new remote he can actually control his universe: rewind and fast-forward through unpleasant parts of his routine life. He loves his new remote, but soon the remote gets a mind of its own and fast-forwards th...
More About: Click

My first photos of Saturn
2008-02-26 07:55:00
Well today the sky finally cleared up, and I could get to the telescope early enough after work. The moon is rising 3 hours after Saturn does today. Saturn is very far, and it looks like a tiny star to the naked eye. Even in my telescope it looks tiny. When the image if focused, ...
More About: Photos

Lady in the Water (2006) PG-13 110min
2008-02-20 19:50:00
M. Knight Shyamalan, the creator of “The Sixth Sense”, wrote, directed and starred in this fantasy movie based on the book he wrote for his own daughter. The plot: an apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a woman from the swimming pool he maintains. She turns out to be not a regular woman, but a ...
More About: Movies , Supernatural , Fantasy , Lady , Water

The death of HD-DVD: Toshiba abandons HD-DVD.
2008-02-17 06:44:00
It has become known on Saturday that Toshiba will abandon its HD-DVD format, resulting in the complete victory for Blu-Ray by companies like Sony , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hitachi and Sharp. The format war has been going on since 2003. HD-DVD format has many advantages over Blu-Ray, but Sony and its partners had managed to attract movie studios, one ...
More About: Hardware , Play , Home Theater , Death

Becoming Jane (2007) PG 120min
2008-02-14 08:19:00
Director: Julian Jarold Writers: Kevin Hood, Sarah Williams Producers: Jeff Abberley, Robert Bernstein, Julia Blackman, Graham Broadbent, Noëlette Buckley, Nicole Finnan, James Flynn, Tim Haslam, Morgan O’Sullivan, Douglas Rae, James Saynor Original Music: Adrian Johnston Cinematography: Eigil Bryld Winner of American People’s Choice Award (Best Independent Film) The plot: this is a biographical movie about Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway - The Princess Diaries, Hoodwinked!, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada etc.) covering a period before she became famous. He family is trying to arrange a benifitial marriage to Mr. Wisley (Laurence Fox - Gosford Park, BBC’s Foyle’s War series) for her, but she likes a young poor Irish apprentice lawyer Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy - Foyle’s War, Bollywood Queen, Wimbledon, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Last King of Scotland, and most recently Atonement) and dreams of making a ...

Martian Child (2007) PG 108min
2008-02-13 08:10:00
This is a feel-good drama starring Hollywood sweethearts John Cusack and Amanda Pete based on a novel “Martian Child ” by David Gerrold. The plot: a widowed science fiction writer, who writes about Mars, decides to adopt a child. He picks a 6-year old who claims he’s from Mars. A series of events happen that make the ...
More About: Drama