Review of Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007) by Julie G — 01 Oct 2008

[b]Righteous Kill [/b]reunites two acting greats, Al Pacino ("Ocean's Thirteen") and Robert De Niro ("Stardust"). I was intrigued enough to get to the theater, but really the film is just a glorified made-for-TV cop drama. It's very predictable. Neither De Niro or Pacino really bring anything new to their roles of cops tracking a serial killer who is probably one of their own. I did enjoy seeing De Niro play the more angry role. Just wait for this to come on cable.

With funnywomen Tina Fey ("30 Rock") and Amy Poehler ("Saturday Night Live") in the leads, [b]Baby Mama[/b] should have been a big basket of funny. But, alas, it was not. Fey wants a baby, but is unable to conceive, so she hires Poehler to be her surrogate. Poehler is white-trash. Fey is upscale business. I guess writer/director Michael McCullers ("Thunderbirds," Baby Mama is his directorial debut) thought hijinks would ensue. However, the only funny bits were Poehler peeing in the sink and everything involving the doorman, Romany Malco ("The Love Guru"), who I couldn't get enough of. Also, Fey and love interest Greg Kinnear ("Ghost Town") have zero chemistry. Just skip it.

[b]The Getaway[/b] stars the ever cool Steve McQueen ("The Hunter") as a thief just released from jail. His wife, Ali MacGraw ("Glam"), has to do some shady stuff to get him an early release, and McQueen must pull off a heist for the corrupt warden once he's on the outside. The film is directed by Sam Peckinpah ("The Osterman Weekend") so there's loads of violence, slow motion and female issues. It also takes it's time getting where it's going. But McQueen is awesome, the shots are amazing. It's worth the time.

[b]Jules and Jim[/b] is a famous French movie from director Francios Truffaut ("Confidentially Yours"). Jules and Jim are great friends who fall for the same woman. Then there's lots of voiceover and ridiculous philosophizing. The girl will do anything to get attention and the men will put up with her shenanigans. I didn't really care for it. I couldn't get behind any of the characters. In fact, most of the time they made me really mad. And this distracted me from any other goodness the film may hold. Maybe I was in the wrong mood, but I didn't get why this is so great.

Usually, with my love of bad horror movies, I can find something good to say about them, but I'm at a loss with[b] Return to House on Haunted Hill[/b]. Even the ghosts weren't very creepy. Someone was drawn and quartered, so that was kind of neat. But bad acting, dialogue and plot just wiped that all out.