Review: Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi may be the best tongue and cheek director of all time. The whimsical, goofy and American as apple pie tone he put on all three of the Spider-Man and the ridiculousness of his Evil Dead franchise are perfect examples of the mastery Raimi has over his movies. With “Drag Me to Hell”, Raimi does it again, this time by perfectly fusing together a straight-faced horror movie with the tongue and cheek that he is known for.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman, “Big Fish”) is young, gorgeous and on her way to living a full and happy life. All of this comes to a screeching halt when she crosses the disturbingly disfigured Mrs. Ganush, who tries to get an extension on her loan for her house at Christine’s work. Christine’s boss lets her make the decision and, thinking about how her kindhearted nature could hold her back from a promotion, denies the loan, prompting the elder Ganush to place a curse on our heroine, but not before an extensive and hilarious battle in a parking garage.

The bulk of the movie’s humor comes in the torment of Christine, which more often than not involves vomiting directly in the young loan officer’s mouth. Seriously, it happens over and over again, and it never gets old. The other crutch for the humor comes from Christine’s willingness to remove the curse, including the sacrifice of a small animal after she tells her spiritual adviser in the movie, psychic Rham Jas, that she is a vegetarian.  As the curse wears on her psyche, the lengths she’s willing to go get more extreme, but also funnier.

Possibly the most surprising aspect of the movie is how despite the shots of humor, “Drag Me to Hell” is still very much a horror movie. There are a handful of scary moments in the movie and plenty of tense scenes where Raimi lets the tension of the scene build, working slowly and methodically. The balance between these scenes is flawless, delivering both experiences simultaneously and without feeling like two separate movies.

The cast, headed by Lohman and Justin Long (who plays Christine’s boyfriend), works out well and deliver in their respective roles. Lohman, who must have always had a truck load of breath mints nearby for the vomiting scenes, transforms through the movie from a young and kind-hearted girl to one willing to hand off the curse to one of her nemeses, cursing them to eternal torment in hell. Her tormentors also are great and have to have spent hours in getting makeup applied to look the way they did, because they all look terrifying if they were to be put directly in front of you like they are to Christine.

“Drag Me to Hell” is a perfect example of how to do a great horror movie. Not too serious, not too tongue and cheek, but just the right balance. The PG-13 rating doesn’t hinder the movie, but instead lets a younger generation get a taste of how the horror genre should be done from Sam Raimi.

Review: Terminator Salvation

After conquering his fear of flying in “We Are Marshall”, Joeseph Nichol, better known as McG, decided to take on James Cameron’s epic Terminator franchise. Much like “Star Trek”, “Terminator Salvation” looks to reboot the once great franchise by staying in the future instead of sending robots back in time.

“Salvation” focuses on former inmate Marcus Wright (Australian actor Sam Worthington) who was executed decades before Judgement Day, when the military computer Skynet took over via nuclear holocaust. Wright stumbles upon franchise stalwart Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, “Star Trek”) and helps him get to the human resistance’s base where franchise savior John Connor (Christian Bale) is helping to coordinate the defense against the machines and understand the advice of his mother in the form of audio tapes.

It sounds confusing, but it’s all compacted nice and easily and doesn’t get in the way of what the franchise is known for: its action. The first third of the movie roars onto the screen and doesn’t let up for a good 40 minutes. Car chases, gigantic robots, warlike battle sequences and plenty of airships willing to play along make this section one of the best sequences on screen in years.

Another highlight is the sound, which is loud and gritty. Every gun screams and each explosion sounds brilliant., perfectly mirroring the desert wasteland and metallic prisons the resistance live in. Perhaps the setting is a bit over the top, but what else would you expect a post-apocalyptic future to look like?

Unfortunately, the movie cools down and runs away from the roads in favor of conflicts on foot. These aren’t bad by any means, they just aren’t nearly as spectacular as the encounters at the beginning of the movie.

Not helping things are some of the gaping “plot holes”, if that’s what they could be called. For example, Skynet’s base in San Francisco apparently only has one robot guarding it. There’s also a character caught by Skynet that isn’t killed immediately despite his importance to the framework of the plot against the machines which they know about.

Despite these somewhat gigantic holes, “Terminator Salvation” is still a trip worth taking. The plot will only work to satisfy die-hard Terminator fans, but be enough for casual movie-goers to set the table for the explosive action that can only be expected of the time traveling franchise.

Review: Star Trek

All you need to know about the new “Star Trek” is that it’s the best pilot director J.J. Abrams has ever done.

The guy who helped launch “Lost”, “Fringe”, “Alias” and a host of less successful television series has made “Star Trek” fun and exciting for a generation stuck watching poorly translated remake and reimagination.

The shoots back to a time when James T. Kirk and his Vulcan counterpart, Spock, were just starting out in Starfleet. But instead of heading down the road already traveled by nearly a dozen Star Trek movies and handful of television series, the new “Trek” takes a turn in a new direction thanks to time-traveling bad guy Nero, who is looking to destroy the entire Starfleet and the planets they reside on.

What “Star Trek” does so well is telling its own story. There are plenty of call-backs and nostalgia trips for dedicated Trek fans (“I’m giving her all she’s got, captain,” for one), but takes all of the overly complicated jargon and story lines out of the equation. The word “phaser” makes only one appearance and a ship is a ship, a gun is a gun and a torpedo is a torpedo. There’s no pointless renaming of everything. It’s just what it is.

Abrams carries the franchise to new heights by making the action spectacular and candy colored, but within reason, unlike last year’s “Speed Racer.” Abrams also manages to tell an origin story without making it feel like the movie is stalling to introduce each character. Chekov, Sulu, McCoy and Scotty are introduced in due time and without an overabundance of fanfare. Unlike last week’s “Wolverine”, “Trek” gives each character a proper amount of screen time and will endear them to you quickly and seemingly without trying.

Abrams’ career in television really shines through with the casting of “Star Trek.” He bands together a group of relative unknowns that gel together well. Chris Pine is perfect as the daredevil captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise who goes all out all of the time. He handles the comedic and dramatic scenes of the movie without a problem.

Also fitting in nicely is the new Spock, Zachary Quinto. Pulled from his sinister role on “Heroes”, Quinto pulls a full 180 to the not-so-quiet and calculated Spock. While he is more often than not citing logic and crunching numbers in his head, Quinto adds some weight to the lines making sure it’s clear that he’s not a true, emotionless Vulcan.

It’s not easy launching a franchise, especially one with so much history behind it, but J.J. Abrams did it and made it look easy. “Star Trek” will undoubtably get comparisons to the original “Star Wars” trilogy for its mix of action, drama and comedy. Don’t knock the comparison, because it’s more than fitting. But unlike the “Star Wars” movies, we won’t be waiting three years for the next one. The sequel has already been green lighted and is set to be released in 2011.