If I were the creator or the person responsible for a movie titled Full of It starring a kid whose only claim to fame is being Asthon Kutcher’s little buddy from the show Punk’d I would be nervous, nay, quivering at this point. This is the sort of movie that makes it fun to be a film critic. The type of flick that has critics from all over sitting around it like hyenas, cackling and licking their chops. A film so inauspiciously terrible that its only known purpose is to be torn apart at the hands of people like me. With that said, let the massacre begin.

Full of It, coincidentally is only 2 letters away from being the most honestly titled film of the year. It stars Ryan Pinkston (Punk’d) as Sam Leonard, a nerdy little guy who has just moved to a new school and is fighting to fit in. And by fighting to fit in, I am referring to the incessant lies he tells to make himself seem popular. The only problem is that Sam, in his infinite wisdom as a 17 year old falls for the classic teen movie plight of accidentally breaking a mirror and summoning some divine intervention. In this case, divine intervention is not that the movie ends after the first 30 minutes, it is that Sam’s lies begin to come true. All of the sudden he is driving a Porsche instead of his bike, his previously stale parental unit now consists of a Liberal (Vagina drawing) artist mother and a washed up 80s hair metal rocker dad. And as if that wasn’t enough, puberty has also left him with a “fire hose” in his gym shorts. All this to impress the hottest girl in school, Vickie Sanders (Amanda Walsh). Of course, as these things always go Sam’s lies get deeper and his life begins to spin out of control. I smell a moral lesson coming on, don’t you?

Full of It is a terrible knock off of Mean Girls, sprinkled with the concept of Freaky Friday minus a pre-party whore era Lindsay Lohan. But that doesn’t steer some of Hollywood’s more dubious personas from making cameos. Craig Kilborn, most notable for his sleazy performance in Old School, plays a High School guidance counselor with an affection for prescription medication and no useful advice. He does manage to deliver the movie’s only bit of humor though, with an off the cuff comment about wanting to live next to a Xanax factory with no locks. Carmen Electra also shows up in the film as part of one of Sam’s lies, signaling the actual moment when the film goes from just bad to completely irrelevant and annoying. In fact, the only redeeming performance in the whole darn thing comes from a sultry 10 minutes of Terri Polo (Meet the Fockers) as a teacher who, thanks again to Sam’s lying problem, begins to lust after the little guy like she has the disease and he is the antidote.

Ryan Pinkston is also a problem. This kid is some sort of annoying that I have yet to encounter. His inability to down play his naturally smug disposition and transform into an innocent high school loser ruins the film from the start. Add to that the excessive amount of teen movie clichés and taboos that make it into the flick (probably thanks to novice Director Christian Charles), and you have a film that is beyond unlikable, it is unbearable – or even, unnecessary. By my standards, this is the worst movie that I have seen this year (by far) and quite possibly the worst film since last year’s Little Man. But it does go to show however, that a film that includes a sultry Teri Polo will always earn at least 1 star.

Final Grade:

Full of It is in theaters March 2, has a running time of 93 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sexual content, drug references, teen partying and crude humor.

Let’s play a game called “Which one of these doesn’t belong?” I will give you the names of 4 Hollywood actors and you tell me which one doesn’t fit with the others. John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy. If you said Martin Lawrence, then you may be a racist. If you said William H. Macy, then you are still wrong. The answer is all of them. They all don’t belong, especially when it come to making a movie about middle aged men dealing with their mid-life crisis’ by heading off on a cross country motorcycle trip. In fact, prior to making this middle-aged man on bike-a-thon, these four actors had never even met. What they found in their newly acquired kinship may be a movie so laugh out loud funny that it will surprise you; at least, I know it surprised me.

Up to their handle bars in their unfulfilled and clichéd lives, these Wild Hogs decide that it is time to take to the open road where only freedom (and plenty of trouble) lie ahead of them. Doug (Tim Allen) is a dentist whose son has no respect for him because he is “lame”; Bobby (Martin Lawrence) is the classic house husband, bossed around by his wife and ignored by his deviant children; Woody (John Travolta) is a washed up talent agent whose supermodel wife left him to be bankrupt and alone with his Harley; and Dudley (William H. Macy) is a computer programmer whose dating skill set is on par with that of a brick wall.

The four take on the open road, mostly seen riding through the open spaces of the American Midwest, which is aptly filmed by Director Walt Becker (Van Wilder) and Cinematographer Robbie Greenberg (The Santa Clause 3) and supported by a soundtrack mixed with riding music from the 70s (Foghat’s “Slow Ride”) and the 80s (AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”). It is much of what you would expect from a movie where 50% of the 99 minute run time is watching four guys ride their hogs on a lonely highway.

What you don’t expect is the infectious brand of comedy that this foursome delivers – with the help of some interesting characters of the open road, of course. Among those interesting characters is a brief encounter with a nefariously gay highway patrolman, played by the constantly scene stealing John C. McGinley (Office Space). Also among those interesting characters is Jack (Ray Liotta), a hardcore biker and the leader of a gang called the Del Fuegos. After a quick run-in with the Del Fuegos that results in the blowing up of their biker bar, the “Hogs” find themselves no longer on their way to the free, open roads and more or less on the run.

Of course they seek to find a way out of their mess, bond together and break free of their mundane existences to prove that they are still young at heart. But you don’t care about that, nor will you care about it when you see this movie (and hint, hint: you should see this movie). What you will care about is the fact that this predictably sappy plot yields some surprisingly ruckus comedic moments, all at the hands of its four bikesmen. Travolta is a bit zany, Allen is oblivious, Lawrence is full of attitude and William H. Macy is just unnecessarily geeky. Yet when you combine them all, you pretty much end up laughing your ass off. And you will, in fact, laugh your ass off. And you’ll be glad that the folks who made this one didn’t play that old game of “Which one doesn’t belong?”

Final Grade:

Wild Hogs is in theaters nationwide on March 2, has a running time of 99 minutes and is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and some violence.

Have you ever tried to take a joke that normally takes 5 minutes to tell and try to stretch it to 15 minutes? Aside from seeing it as a very difficult task, you begin to wonder why you are trying to do it in the first place. The same theory should apply to taking a 30 minute television show and stretching it into a 90 minute movie. Yet, for some reason people in Hollywood don’t have that little voice in their head saying, “this is dumb!”

Whether haphazardly stumbling in the footsteps of The Dukes of Hazzard or making an attempt to recreate the magical success that Borat experienced last year, creator Ben Garant has decided to take his famed sitcom Reno 911! to the big screen. In Reno 911!: Miami, the now infamous members of the Reno sheriff’s department descend upon Miami Beach, Florida and the National Police Convention. Upon arrival though, they learn that something has gone wrong with their reservation and they are not allowed in. After a night of boozing (and some lewd sexual conduct), they decide to return on the second day of the convention for another try, only to find out that every policeman in Miami Beach has been trapped inside the convention center at the hands of a biological terror attack. Left with no other viable options, the Department of Homeland Security tasks out the bumbling team of cops from Reno to keep Miami Beach in order and find the antidote before thousands of cops meet their unfortunate end.

Along the way Reno’s finest, lead by the dashing and tight shorts wearing Lt. Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon), meet a host of interested characters, some familiar (Nick Swardson as Terry, the rollerblading male prostitute) and some welcomed surprises (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a badass swat guy who has trouble holding onto his grenades). As with the Comedy Central show upon which the film is based, the most humorous moments are based on interactions with locals, well timed celebrity cameos (Danny DeVito and Paul Rudd, to name a few) and some raunchy innuendo. But instead of just innuendo, the film version takes the liberty to show off its R rating and throw in some language, some direct sexual themes and of course some gratuitous nudity – much of what you would expect from the Reno crew on the big screen. But while the film itself has a very inappropriate feel to it, it pales in comparison to the likes of Borat, which was just the most sinful experience you could possibly have in theaters without going to one of those “Adults Only” establishments.

And though it gets some laughs the old fashioned way (superfluous masturbation references), Ben Garant’s adaptation does run into a few problems when it realizes that 30 minutes worth of jokes just won’t cut it. Some parts seem trite and unnecessary and some just don’t fit, specifically any time actress Niecy Nash sports a thong – it just didn’t do it for me. Much of the movie feels like useless filler just to get you from one joke to the next, giving the film a very choppy feel.

But despite its gaping holes of humorlessness, Reno 911!: Miami is still funnier than the rest of the schlock you’ll see this early in the year. The raunchy, uncomfortable moments make the film bearable, and while it doesn’t even come close to being this year’s Borat, it is funny enough to keep you around until the final credits.

Final Grade:

Reno 911!: Miami is in theaters now, has a running time of 84 minutes and is rated R for sexual content, nudity, crude humor, language and drug use.

Tuesdays are for DVD’s. That is just part of life. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays we are out painting the town red and visiting our local cineplex’s to see what great new cinematic adventures have landed in theaters, but weekdays don’t normally lend very well to going out. That whole “job” thing always gets in the way, does it not? So why not stop out to your local retailer and pick up a newly released DVD. Maybe you can see something you missed in theaters or maybe you can rediscover a film you had previously enjoyed. Either way, you should always check here every Tuesday as I lay down my “DVD of the Week.”

This week’s pick is one of the more underrated films from both 2006 and the career of Will Ferrell. Stranger than Fiction tells the story of Harold Crick (Ferrell), an IRS auditor whose stale life is consumed with his love for numbers — so much so that he counts his steps to work. The epitome of a loser, Crick finds himself caught in a daily routine that he neither dislikes nor makes any attempts to change. That is, until he begins hearing the voice of author Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who is narrating his entire life. Crick’s routine is broken all apart as he realizes that he is a character in her novel, a character that she wants dead, so he must figure out a way to stop her from killing him off so that he may continue to live — and quite possibly live his life to the fullest.

The film has that usual Will Ferrell charm, but with none of the mindless gags or random acts of college humor. This is Will Ferrell’s movie career all grown up. Aside from a surprising solid performance from Ferrell, the film sports a very apt supporting cast. Emma Thompson is as witty as ever, Dustin Hoffman pops up to lend his own brand of subtle comedy and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Harold’s unexpected love interest, a foul mouthed anti-establishmentist baker named Ana. It all adds up to a film that is genuinely funny (not dumb funny like most of Farrell’s other work), somewhat introspective and ultimately full of heart. Not your quintessential Oscar winner (or even nominee), but a really enjoyable flick that deserves a shot — especially on DVD. I would say give this one a shot, as you will be pleasantly surprised.

Also hitting the shelves of your local retailers this week: Russell Crowe in the painfully boring A Good Year, Jack Black and Kyle Gass in their severely underestimated movie epic Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny and Heart of the Game, a critically acclaimed documentary about a girls’ high school basketball team from Seattle.

Where were you last night?

A completely reasonable question, because if you are reading this site then you are most likely a big movie fan (or lost). And last night was the 79^th Annual Academy Awards, which is one of the biggest nights of the year for anyone who digs movies or scantily clad celebrities walking down a red carpet. If you missed the Oscars, then you missed quite a bit. Ellen Degeneres hosted, and quite well I might add. There were some surprises, some funny moments and then there were some sappy moments. Also, plenty of montages to fill 4 hours of show and plenty of celebrity glitz to go around. So whether you were out partying it up like I was or you were cuddled up on your couch, my hope is that you took in the show last evening, because otherwise the rest of this is going to make little to no sense at all.

You may be asking yourself, “How did the Movie Guy do with his predictions?” It is funny you should ask, because I’d like to think that I did quite well. In fact, I out-picked my fellow COFCA members, which made me feel pretty darn cool. Some of it was blind luck, but most of it was my ability to read between the lines of the entire awards season. Alright, it was all blind luck.

The night started well, with Pan’s Labyrinth winning the first two awards of the night (Achievement in Makeup and Art Direction). But then, as many of the technical awards were announced I began to fall behind. Who knew that Marie Antoinette would win for Best Costume Design? I sure didn’t. I also missed out an all of the short film categories, but those were mostly guesswork anyway.

As the night wore on, it was clear to me that my picks in the major categories were going to go well. It started with Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine. Everyone thought that Eddie Murphy was going to walk away with this one, but I had a gut instinct that even a flashy motown singer couldn’t overcome the drawer power of a flagrant, heroin addicted perve grandfather figure.

Then there were the obvious choices, as if we thought anyone else was going to win. Helen Mirren took home the Best Actress Award for her performance in The Queen, Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland and Jennifer Hudson, America’s rags to riches story, took home the Best Supporting Actress award for Dreamgirls, all as expected.

I was also happy to see that I correctly predicted both screenwriting awards. William Monohan’s Best Adapted Screenplay award for writing The Departed was well deserved, as that story (and the movie for that matter) was as suspenseful and intelligently crafted as any film I have seen in a long time. Also, Michael Arndt’s win for Best Original Screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine just goes to prove what I have been saying since last summer — that Little Miss Sunshine was the most honest, original and heartwarming story of 2006.

But my excitement was subdued a bit when it came down to the final two awards. At first, when Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas came on stage to present the Best Director Award, we all knew what was up. It was a somber and heartwarming moment to see Martin Scorsese finally get to take the stage and grasp an Oscar for himself. The man is truly one of the great American directors, and this year was just his year to win it. Then shortly after Marty got his Oscar, his film was graced with another great achievement: the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. Personally, I would have liked to see Little Miss Sunshine walk away with Best Picture as opposed to The Departed, but I can’t complain. By that time I had picked 15 of the 24 categories correctly, and if your pick is going to lose it might as well lose to a great film. And The Departed was, without a doubt, a great film.

In the end when I look back at last night’s Oscar show, I have to say that I am pleased. There is no reason to run out into the streets shouting about how great the show was, but it was good enough to keep me interested and I agreed with most of the winners. If you watched the entire show, you can probably relate to the fact that it did drag on, but when doesn’t it drag on. You have to go into the Oscar telecast understanding that someone will make a painfully long acceptance speech (i.e. Ennio Morricone accepting his Honorary Oscar with Clint Eastwood translating from Italian to English) and that there are going to be one too many montages about seemingly irrelevant topics (like the Foreign Cinema montage). But there were some funny moments courtesy of host Ellen Degeneres, whose attempt to get Steven Spielberg to take a picture of herself and Clint Eastwood for MySpace was pretty darn funny. There was also a very funny musical number by Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly about taking Helen Mirren home with them.

On a whole, the show was pretty good. Not amazing, but good. I would have been more satisfied had Little Miss Sunshine been the last movie called…

For more Oscar coverage, stay locked on my Oscar Beat column, as I will be recapping who won, who didn’t and who should have all week long!

I am really a sucker for a good giveaway, so I have partnered this blog up with my other love, Film School Rejects, in order to bring you the giveaway of the year! Are you excited about the movie 300? If you aren’t, then you should be. If you are, then you will be interested to see some of the awesome prizes below:

Prizes

	“Tonight We Dine in Hell” T-Shirts Quantity: 3 Show off your spirit for 300 by wearing one of the films most iconic lines on your back. It is one thing to get chills when Leonidas is yelling out to his men “Tonight We Dine in Hell” and quite another to show it off to the world.
	Black Cap Embroidered with 300 Title Art and Mask Quantity: 3 Redefine cool with this slick black cap. You will feel like the director of the film, just without all of the money and fame.
	2 Regular Edition Soundtrack CDs, 1 Special Edition Soundtrack CD Original Motion Picture Soundtrack featuring the innovative score by Tyler Bates will be released on March 6th as a regular edition CD as well as a Special Edition CD with deluxe artwork including 3 two-sided trading cards and a 16 page full color booklet.) Check out more here.
	Messenger Bag Quantity: 1 A brushed twill & full-grain leather bag debossed with the “300″ Title Art & Metal Shield.
	“Art of the Film” Book Quantity: 1 See how Director Zack Snyder’s cinematic version matches up to the original visionary graphic novel by Frank Miller.
	Cast Autographed Poster Quantity: 1 The original theatrical poster signed by members of the cast.
	300 March to Glory — PSP Game Quantity: 1 Go beyond the movie and lead 300 Spartan warriors in a heroic fight to the death against Xerxes’ massive Persian army! Check out more here.

When?

The contest runs from February 26 through March 12.

How do I sign up?

Just email the following information to contests@filmschoolrejects.com with “300 — Contest Entry” in the Subject Line:

Your Name
Your Mailing Address (Street, City, State, Zip)
Your Birthdate
Your Email Address

Also, those who subscribe to the Columbus Movie Guy’s Daily Updates are automatically entered! Just fill in the form below and be automatically entered in this and any future contests, courtesy of The Columbus Movie Guy!

For more news, reviews and features about the film 300, check out the Film School Rejects Official 300 Preview!

Is there any fine print?

Yes. The contest is open to legal residents of the US and Canada. One entry per email address, please. Winners will be contacted shortly after the close of the contest to be notified of their prize and prizes will be shipped shortly after that. This contest is presented by The Columbus Movie Guy in partnership with Film School Rejects.

For more information about the Film School Rejects Privacy Policy, please click here.

Related Reading

• The Anti-300 Debate?
• Interview: Director Zach Snyder talks 300 and more…
• Are you Ready to Dine in Hell?
• Film School Rejects Official 300 Preview

The Last time Jim Carrey and Joel Shumacher teamed up to make a movie, we got Batman Forever – the film that began the downward spiral of an entire franchise. That is, until the franchise was later reinvented by Christopher Nolan. The last time Jim Carrey ventured away from his trademarked brand of comedy, we saw brilliance in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So what would happen when Shumacher and Carrey team up again, this time to make a drama about a man’s plunge into obsession and paranoia. Well, you get a film that is more on the Eternal Sunshine side of the spectrum, at least momentarily.

The film starts out as the harmless tale of Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey), an arid middle aged family man whose greatest source of adventure is tracking down animals as a member of the local pest control office. Happily married with a wife (Virginia Madsen) and a son (Logan Lerman), Walter has as little reason for stress as he does adventure. That is, until one night when he comes across a book titled The Number 23. The book tells the story of Fingerling (also played by Carrey), a rogue detective whose world is turned upside down by the coincidental nature of the number 23, a nature that has brought murder and suicide to anyone it plagues. As Walter reads the book, he realizes that he and Fingerling are not unlike each other, but are eerily similar in many ways. He begins to draw parallels between what should seem like a fictional world and his own reality, sliding him deep into a state of paranoia.

That state of paranoia is what drives the film to a level of creepy that will make your skin crawl. A well cast Jim Carrey takes his character from homely to homicidal in mere moments as Walter’s world begins to corrode at the hands of a number. Carrey’s usual brand of theatrics are missing as he honkers down and aptly shows us a character whose thoughts are twisted and who is losing his grip on reality. Virginia Madsen plays his wife, who goes almost blindly along with the paranoia as Walter begins to think that the murders happening in the book may have happened in real life.

As it turns out, the murders did happen in real life, just not quite as Walter would initially figure. The whole thing is just one big twist and turn away from being an utter shock-fest. The only problem is that the film never takes that last step and The Number 23 falls victim to the fact that it must explain its own twisted logic. Joel Shumacher, showing us what he does best and then showing us why we hate half of his movies, shows no restraint in the story telling, allowing the film to drone on about how the number 23 is a mark of evil and that its coincidental nature will drive someone to murder.

In the end, we get a film that draws us in for the first 80 minutes only to let us down in the last 15. We are sucked into a terrifying and intense story then we are given an ending that just doesn’t fit. Think about the most suspenseful flick you have ever seen, and then picture it with a docile, chipper ending. That is what you get if you see The Number 23. Had the director pushed the razor sharp edge of the film all the way to the end, we would be interested. Unfortunately for us, he didn’t. My recommendation – go see this one in theaters, just leave with 15 minutes to go.

Final Grade:

The Number 23 has a running time of 95 minutes and is rated R for violence, disturbing images, sexuality and language. It is currently showing at the Arena Grand, click here for showtimes.