Movie Reviews #3: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, I Robot, and The Village

Ok, so this week there are three movies I need to review and I don’t want to take up a lot of time reviewing them, so I will try move fast quickly.

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle
This movie follows the life-changing (and mind-altering) journey of Korean-American investment banker Harold (John Cho) and Indian-American medical-school candidate Kumar (Kal Penn). Both underdogs, Harold and Kumar get high, then get hungry and then decide to spend what would have been an otherwise uneventful Friday night satisfying their intense urge for White Castle hamburgers. However, finding a White Castle proves a difficult task, and the two friends wind up on a road trip of (not so) deep thoughts, deeper inhaling, and enough half-baked, politically incorrect philosophizing to outweigh a White Castle value meal. Are some parts dumb? Yes of course, but there are some funny spots too and in the long run the funny outweighs the dumb.

If you are looking for a thoughtful, insightful, and touching movie, this is not it. This movie is much like the National Lampoon movies of old with Chevy Chase, but it’s not quite as funny as those movies, but there are some laugh-out-loud moments.

Final Verdict: This movie is much funnier than either Dodge Ball, or Napoleon Dynamite. Rent if you don’t want a few good laughs and you don’t want to think for 90 or so minutes. 3.5 out of 5


I Robot
In the future presented in the film, humans have become exceedingly dependent on robots in their everyday lives. Robots have become more and more advanced, but each one is preprogrammed to always obey humans and to, under no circumstances, ever harm a human. So, when a scientist turns up dead and a humanoid robot is the main suspect, the world is left to wonder if they are as safe around their electronic servants as previously thought. Will Smith stars as Del Spooner, the robot-hating Chicago cop assigned to the murder investigation.

The movie is visually very well done, and I know what that comment means . . . that it’s not that good of a movie, but I do like I Robot. I think the movie is one of those cool futuristic movies. There is action and the movie makes you think a little because it is a kind of who done it? There just is something about the movie that is amiss. I am not sure what it is. Something is missing that just makes your interest fall off of for a few, maybe it’s the length of the story. It really could have taken 30 minutes off of this movie and you wouldn’t have missed it.

Final Verdict: Good Action sci-fi, but not amazing. 3 out of 5

The Village
The village of Covington is a small town in rural Pennsylvania that is home to 60 people. The citizens of Covington lead a quiet and peaceful life, but not without an unusual caveat -- terrible creatures lurk just outside the borders of the village, and the people of Covington have reached an agreement of sorts with the beasts, in which they are allowed to go about their business as long as they never cross the village's boundaries. However, this precarious balance is upset when a headstrong young man, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), decides to find out what lies outside Covington, and then invites the wrath of the creatures upon the town.

Ok, I can’t go into this movie too deep it is written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who also wrote The Sixth Sense and Signs. So you know there is a twist at the end, and for me, the twist was a true surprise. I hadn’t heard or read anything about the ending, so I was genuinely surprised with the ending. The story is a good one and well put together.

Final Verdict: Rent if you get the chance and you know nothing about the movie. You will enjoy. 4 out of 5.