Movies This Week (6/29)

I forgot to write a "Movies This Week" last week, so I'm writing for the last two weeks. This fortnight I watched Deja Vu (3.5/5), Ghost Rider (1.5/5), The Last Kiss (2.5/5), Evan Almighty (4/5), and Flags of Our Fathers (4/5). Here are my impressions.

Deja Vu (DVD) - Denzel Washington provides a strong performance as an investigator for the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) who joins a special task force that can "look" back in time by three and a half days. Their mission is to capture the individual(s) that caused the terrorist explosion of a ferry that killed over two hundred people. The movie is great until Denzel discovers that he might be able to do more than simply look back in time. After this point, the movie is still pretty good, but plot holes begin to form that require the viewer to make more and more excuses for the movie to be plausible. 3.5/5

Ghost Rider (DVD) - Based on the Marvel Comic of the same name, Ghost Rider covers the origins of Satan's bounty hunter. Nicholas Cage plays the title character who makes a deal with the devil to save his father from cancer. A demon (the son of Satan) comes to Earth and tries to acquire thousands of souls that a previous Ghost Rider had picked up a contract for and then ran away because he had a sudden moral attack. Apparently, Satan was incapable of getting the contract from him for a couple hundred years, but his son has no problem acquiring them. For some reason, Satan has no power over his son on Earth, so he sends his new Ghost Rider after him. Mediocre computer graphics and an uninteresting love interest highlight the rest of the movie. 1.5/5

The Last Kiss (DVD) - A movie about what drives people to have affairs. Zach Braff is scared out of his mind that he's having a baby with his girlfriend that he seeks some normalcy and escapism with a beautiful college student (Rachel Bilson). Meanwhile, Zach's girlfriend's mother reveals that she had an affair three years ago because her husband was distant and unspontaneous. I found the movie fairly predictable and was a bit bored by the whole affair. 2.5/5

Evan Almighty (DVD) - Although not as funny as Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty was more fun and entertaining to watch. As a family movie this year, I can't image it could be beat by anything except Ratatouille. In this film, Steve Carrell plays Evan, who prays (out of a little desperation as he is about to begin his career as a congressman) to change the world, and finds himself as the central character in a modern day Noah's Ark story. Wanda Sykes as Evan's assistant is the funniest part of the movie. 4/5

Flags of Our Fathers (DVD) - A powerful telling of the battle for Iwo Jima and the effects on the three men out of the six photographed raising the famous flag over Mount Suribachi who made it back to the United States alive. The movie follows the stories of the men as they go to rallies to sell war bonds to help fund the U.S. contribution to the Allied victory in WWII as well as their horrific experiences fighting to take the small Japanese island. Although, I didn't feel it was as powerful as Saving Private Ryan, but it was still a great film. 4/5

Movies ratings range from 0 to 5 with 0 being extremely horrible with no redeeming qualities, 2.5 being average, and 5 being one of the best movies I've ever seen.