[Yellow Jacket]

The Family Stone- 4/5

I never thought I was going to give a movie with Sarah Jessica Parker in it a positive review. Then again, I never thought I would enjoy House of the Dead 2. So, there's always a possibility in my book. Anyway, I wasn't looking forward to my viewing of The Family Stone. When I say this, people always ask me why I do this, and my answer is always because I'm a MovieFreak. Hell, I like to call myself "The MovieFreak". Sure, there are more knowledgeable people out there when it comes to movies, but there aren't any around here, I don't see that many (though I haven't looked hard enough, nor do I have to). And, like I mentioned before, I've been pleasently surprised with movies before. And now I can add The Family Stone to that list! I'll admit, I was very skeptical when I first started it. First off, Dermot Mulroney was in it (he seems to be in a lot of chick flicks nowadays), and I feel that he is the next Steven Seagal. What I mean by that is that he can only play one role. No emotional change or anything. To make it easier to understand, he's no Philip Seymour Hoffman. Secondly, Sarah Jessica Parker and her big-ass nose is in this. Hell, she's dating Mulroney in the film. There are two bad actors (well, actress in Parker's book) rolled into one. They're the one's with the most screen-time and the most on their shoulders (mainly trying to impress Diane Keaton). Lastly, I thought the movie started off lackluster. The character's seemed bland and uninventive, and the story seemed weak and had that deja vu feeling to it (though I haven't seen Junebug, so, unlike Roger Ebert (who I can't stand), I didn't have to feel the repitition of seeing the same movie except with a big cast (for the record, he did like The Family Stone also). But, shortly into the movie, I felt myslef glued to the screen. The characters were starting to develop, emotion was showing like tits at a night club (Dermot Mulroney aside), and the story was shifting away from the usual (bringing in Claire Danes as Parker's sister in a little helpful reinforcement was a nice touch). Also, Luke Wilson as the comic relief was a great cast pick, and he should've gotten a little bit more screen time, as he lightened the mood of the film in a good way. And I have to hand it to the rest of the cast (except for Mulroney) for playing their roles to the finest and doing very well aroud Diane Keaton (I heard that Rachel McAdams was very nervous around here). This movie could've been perfect if they would've gotten Dermot Mulroney's ass out of there and if the beginning of the film would've played out more smoothly. But, that's just me.

Swarmed- 1/5

There's not much to say about this direct-to-video flick than that it could've been entertaining. But,a s you can see by my rating, it was not. The buzzing of the yellow jackets annoyed the hell out of me (and this is coming from Yellow Jacket himself), the movie felt like it was dragging on (it only lasted 89 minutes), and the stupidity of the character's was bad, even for B-movie fare. Here's a good example: A bug exterminator runs out of bug repellent (spelling?), so here goes to a friend of his (played my Michael Shanks of Stargate fame), who happens to be a bug expert and scientist. He tells him to use the clear bottles, as for the red bottle is still in testing, and is very strong and dangerous (it makes the bees more invulnerable). So, what does the dumbass do? He uses the red bottle. Now, the city is in danger of killer yellow jackets and their annoying little buzzes. Honestly, there could've been a helluva lot better way to unleash the bees than this. I mean, we did have a bee keeper/bee expert in the mix. She could've brought her yellow jackets over to the scientist to examine, only to accidently let them free, in which then they get into the testing tubes of death a.k.a. the red bottles. But no, Miguel Tejada-Flores (the writer of the film) had to go down the path of the Leprechaun (if you've seen Leprechaun, then you;ll know what I mean). The only decent thing about this was that the acting was sub-par, which is unusual for these types of movies.