'Inside Man' Review

Inside Man is by far the most accessible work in Spike Lee's storied catalogue. I've always appreciated Lee's volume of work: Malcolm X- pure determination to get the story of a greatly misunderstood Civil Rights figure; Do the Right Thing- Poetic and challenging at the same time; Bamboozled- biting satire of the state of TV and entertainment in general; and the list goes on. This movie is the welcomed return of the Denzel/Spike team that is always important and awe inspiring. Denzel Washington plays a Detective involved in a investigation of a crime busts missing funds. Washington does his usual excellent portrayal of someone we've all met at some point in our lives but never thought of them as someone that was all that special. As soon as they give you the back story you instantly feel like he's one of the good guys who's just trying to do his job. Playing his young, yet insightful partner is another great actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor,who I feel in all honesty could become the next Don Cheadle or hopefully Denzel; a actor that inherently elevates any movie he's in to another level. The movie is actually very funny at parts. I think of it as my generations Dog Day Afternoon, but with more thought towards appealing to a wide audience. In saying that Spike doesn't curtail his integrity and feelings to 'dumb down' the movie. My favorite 'Spike Lee' moments come at seemingly random times and don't seem to hold meaning until you think about them after the movie. Jodi Fosters' amoral character being named 'Ms. White' is great, we all know where Lee was going with that. His feelings on the current feelings on black and youth culture as a whole show itself in a simple scene where Clive Owen is talking to a young hostage who's playing a exceedingly violent video game with the basis of 'street cred' or points comes from killing and selling drugs. He even has the young child mention 50 Cent's favorite mantra, 'Get rich or die trying.' As a whole this movie is very good. I actually am a big fan of this movie, as of now it looks like this might be my favorite movie of the year. Hopefully the rest of the movies I really want to see this year don't get overshadowed by a movie that's come out very close to the beginning of 2006, but I wouldn't be totally devastated if they do.

Be Careful What you Wish For

As a born and raised North Carolinian I've always had the usual instilled pride for my state. But lately people in NC have been going crazy. We just finally got a lottery, but then there are the rape allegations against the Duke Lacrosse team. I always remembered watching the national news outlets and wondering, 'where is North Carolina in all of this?' I guess it's right, be careful what you wish for. I live in Raleigh, the smallest major city I've had the pleasure of going to. It's been growing like crazy...we just got our first Saks a year ago. Durham is a neighboring city somewhat within Raleigh, and they've always been known as the crazy side of town. If you ask what most people think of Durham in NC your likely to get the answer "them dudes is crazy down there." It is though home to three schools that range from well known to less well known; UNC(Chapel Hill) Duke(Durham) and North Carolina Central University. While I'm proud of the things these establishments have accomplished in sports, studies, etc. the lastest things(the crazy drive thru of a group of UNC students and now the crazy situation of the alleged rape by the Duke Lacrosse team on a Central student) just makes it crazy. Well at least Little Brother is from NC, that's one of the positive things we've got going for us.

Everything Is Illuminated-Funny Yet Powerful

'Everything is Illuminated'is a very quirky movie. The movie involves Elijah Wood as a odd child who collects everything...and I do mean everything, from crickets to Ukranian potatoes. He sets out to learn about the woman who saved his grandfather. What happens from that simple premise is a movie that is very funny, but still packs a emotional story. I for one didn't know as much about the Ukranian side of the war, they weren't the pretty side of the war. Watching the visuals in this movie left me wanting to read the book to see if the book was as adept at conveying that sense of scenery. Great movie, but VERY odd. I'm sure that if your looking at this website you may or may not have a appericiation for quirky films that are different but aren't boring. If you do watch this movie, if your favorite movie is XXX or anything with Vin Diesel in it do yourself a favor and skip it.

Charles Critique- Watch it(disclaimer: if you like quirky, visually intriguing movies)

In The Mix- Not Original, But Not Bad

In The Mix isn't a great movie, and it's not a horrible movie either. It hits all the generic "______ meets(or knows) _______ and slowly they fall in love. But _________ tries to keep them apart, yet they still make it through." I really liked the fact that Kevin Hart(Paper Soldiers, Soul Plan-ugh) was in the movie. Hart is a really funny comedian. Usher does the usual singer/actor job of trying their best not to stink up the screen next to "real" actors. The main girl is ridiculous. I've seen her in 'Snow Day' 'Entourage' 'National Lampoons Adam and Eve' etc. She's just beautiful. This movie overall didn't make my stomach turn, but wasn't far from it. Sometimes you want to turn off your brain and just sit back and watch two pretty people get together.

Charles Critique- Rent it

Squid and The Whale:Utterly Forgettable

psuedo intellectual jerk off movie. hides it's horrible script by wrapping it in dialogue that doesn't go anywhere. As a aspiring writer the 1st thing that comes to mind is the fact that this movie got nominated for basically fooling people into thinking this is actually a movie. I guess if Junebug can do it they can too. Show this to anyone you know who rambles off in a fashion to make themselves feel smart and point at them and say : "You see how painful this peice of #$@$ is? This is what it's like to speak to you on a regular basis."

CHARLES CRITIQUE- Pass on it.

Flight Plan or As I like to call it total piece of crap

this is the most plot hole driven movie I've seen in about 5 years. all the hype over the movie is TOTALLY undeserved. Whoever made this must think that the general public is full of idiots, because they got away with the best con of the last 10 years. Get Jodie Foster to come out of hidding and do a crappy,plot hole filled, totally inaccurate movie where she loses her daughter on a plane full of people who are SOOOO self absorbed that they don't notice a little girl. I never had most hope for us as a people, but come on. Who out there hasn't been waiting for a plane and noticed a mother and her child. It's clicks something in everyone's head, I don't care who you are. I've ridden on planes a ton of times and can't say that my senses aren't so hyper alert(your about to get on a huge metal bird people!)that I noticed everyone in the place. It's human nature to be nosy about people your about to spend about a hour up in the air with. But nobody on this plan seems to notice anything about anybody. Jodie what were you thinking, I forgave you for Contact, and even Panic Room(for the most part) but this is just unexceptable. I now have no faith in anything a critic says about a major motion picture EVER again. Give them a huge name to fawn over and they'll praise just about anything. Do yourself a favor and go see RED EYE. It's SOOOOOOO much better than this pumped up piece of trash.

The Charles' Critical Corner

Hello there I'm known(to myself and those who I associate with) as Charles Scales aka The Charles aka Charles Dynamite aka etc. etc. I'm a 22(23 not far away) college student, Blockbuster Employee, Movie Snob, Movie Addict, Aspiring writer and Director. My friends usually think of me as some what of a movie snob, but that's a ugly word. I like to think that I just have a interesting taste in all things movie. I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to movies. I range from The Adventures of The American Rabbit to Finding Neverland. I think that to be a true movie fanatic is to love all movies, even if you think they are tragically flawed or overly simple. Don't get me wrong there are many movies and directors I personally can't stand, yet I'm still more than likely to watch it anyway. I love James Cameron, but HATE HATE HATE Titanic. I love Steven Spielberg but don't really care for Encounters of the 3rd kind. Tim Burton.....can count the movies I like on one hand. Even my muse and damn close movie making idol, Kevin Smith. I have everything he's done on VHS and DVD, but if you ask me about the movie he produced, VULGAR, I'd have to say crapola. My main mission in life is to see as many movies as possible. I'm a bit of a movie addict and I admit it. So if you've found this site your in for a guy who's a critic in every form of way....still don't understand how I even make friends...I would think more people would really not like me.